From Salem's POV

A shorter one today...from Salem's POV...and, of course, I left out the whole point of this thing, but that would totally and utterly ruin the whole thing, so I shan't put it in. You could probably guess anyway, but it does take a while for him to say. *sigh* Anyways, onward!

My eyes snapped open, though I didn’t dare move. I continued to try and keep my breathing slow and steady, as if I hadn’t just woke up. I glanced over at my watch, which said about two in the morning. I tilted my head back down and took a deep breath.

I had woken up because I had felt a sudden weight on my stomach, so I cautiously peered down my body, only to find an arm. Not just any arm, of course, but Cinni’s arm. I sighed in relief. She had probably just rolled over and her arm had fallen on top of me. I turned over a little, hoping to gently move it off of me while still not waking her up.

And it would have worked too, except that she whimpered slightly as I was half rolled over and whispered something unintelligible, so I froze instantly. Before I knew what happening, she had scooched closer to me, slid her other arm under my side, and curled her arms around me, in a hug fashion, her arms crossing right above my hipbones. I didn’t dare move at all now.

She snuggled even closer to me, and buried her face in my back, tangling her legs with mine. She whispered something else and then sighed contentedly, relaxing her position, her breathing slowing back down to a sleeping pace.

I relaxed slightly too, my muscles hurting from holding my tense position as long as it took for her to sleepily make herself comfortable pressed up against me. My breath hitched at her proximity and I shivered as her warmth began to spread through my cold body.

I realized then, that I was stuck. I didn’t want to move because I might wake her up and freak her out even more than I usually did, and also because, well, I did not want to move. But, I wanted to move because this wasn’t right. I felt like I was taking advantage of her in some way, as she wasn’t aware of her sleep-induced actions and therefore had no idea what she was doing. That and I was beginning to think those thoughts that I wasn’t supposed to be thinking again.

I struggled a little, but carefully, trying to see if there was any way that I could slip away without her waking up and knowing that this had ever happened. Sadly, (or not, I wasn’t quite sure,) there was absolutely no way I could escape her tight hold on my waist without disturbing her slumber.

I glanced up at the sky through the tent. At least it wasn’t one of those nights, or she would be waking up one way or another. It could be worse, I decided. Actually, it couldn’t be better, if I allowed myself to say so. She was bound to roll back over, and away from me eventually, I thought to myself, relaxing now as I comforted myself with the bright side of things. Why was I so worried about it? She would never know or care.

Still, I felt guilty. I felt guilty because it felt so much different for me than it ever would for her. Her warm embrace had a bittersweet aftertaste for me. For her, it was just another hug between friends. Her light, soft hair tickled my neck slightly and I fought to keep from jerking away, cursing my tickle-ish-ness. There wasn’t anything I could do about it though.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t escape. (Heck, I didn’t want to escape.) I couldn’t stop myself from thinking of this the way I did. It was too late for me, as I had already fallen.

She’ll roll over, I thought, as my eyes slipped closed, feeling suddenly sleepy from the sudden heat source that was Cinni’s body. Then, you’ll just forget the whole thing…

I woke up three hours later. She had rolled over, and was back on her own side of the tent, snoring slightly with her hand across her forehead. She wouldn’t remember a thing. Of course, that was before she had started to thrash and scream in her sleep.

And yet, I could still feel where her arms were wrapped around me, could still feel where she had buried her face between her my shoulder blades and where her hands had rested. And, I might not have known what exactly was wrong with me when I was younger, but I knew all too well now.