[ Cadence feels the vibrations on the bed from Clay’s pats, but keeps herself rigidly faced away from him, eyes closed while she tries to parse out how she’s feeling and comes up empty.
She’s dealt just fine with bad situations and nervous gut feelings before; several lifetimes of betrayal and disappointment have honed her instincts well enough, and the beast-like instincts given to her by her curse have filled most of the remaining gaps in her survival instincts quite well.
She’s never dealt with an active contradiction like this before, at least not in a very long time: the same drive to grab her stuff and call a cab is now fighting against the urge to roll over and pulling him closer, breath him in a little more.
The latter wins out; wordlessly she rolls to face him, trying to make out his features in the darkness. ]
[ It’s going to be a long game if it continues like this: trying to figure her out is harder than Clay ever expected. He fully expected an excuse, she always had one. He fully expected her to lie down with her back to him- he would tentatively put an arm around her to keep it in a semblance of post-second or -third date bedroom pillow talk.
Instead, she stays. She turns. She’s facing him. Clay smells the vague sea washed salt of her scent, and he breathes it gratefully. She lies on his maroon sheets, on his mattress, and puts her arms to him- not without hesitation- but on her own terms, nonetheless.
The glow of the alarm clock is now casting her face into shadow, making a hazy blue follow around her blond hair mussed from sleep and tumbling around.
He cups her face, thumb pushing a loose few hairs to her ear. There’s no expression to find in this lighting, but he imagines through her pauses in decision making: she’s unsure, nervous, and she needed to know she’s holding cards. He knows enough to guess that much, even if he has no idea what’s she’s thinking or going to do next. ]
I’m happy you’re here.
[ A pause and he moves his pillow-propped head toward hers a fraction. ]
[ Most of what Clay envisions is pretty close to the mark; the silhouette of the alarm clock shields Cadence’s facial expressions, sure, but there’s a tension in her posture that’s still visible in the low light. She doesn’t shirk away from Clay’s touch at first, but doesn’t lean into it either, her mind trying to parse together how to her (metaphorical) grounding back.
Clay’s expression doesn’t help the sinking feeling in her gut: while her body blocks some of the light, she can still make out the half-hope in his eyes and it makes her want to break something, anything to get him to stop. ]
If I’m staying, I need to get some rest.
[ The best she can come up with is her tried and true default: let her words form the protective barriers she needs as she shifts back, still facing him but further towards the edge of the bed. She may stay, but it won’t be filled with sweet nothings. It’s just about her trying to get a longer stint of sleep, plain and simple: she tells herself freaking out suggests that there’s more to it, which there isn’t. ]
[ A very small, amused smirk crosses his face in the dark. Clay lifts and repositions the pillow to not draw attention to his backing away to where he was before she lay down. ]
Mmkay. Wake me up if you need anything. I’m usually up by 8.
[ He blearily looks at the clock and back to Cadence. ] ‘Night.
[ Cadence doesn’t like the look of that smile on his face at all, and she accordingly meets him with silence as she adjusts her pillow and closes her eyes.
An early riser, Cadence should be more than capable of getting up and out by the time he says he wakes, and the knowledge calms her slightly as she drifts off again; it’s just a night, she can pump the breaks at any point. ]
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no subject
She’s dealt just fine with bad situations and nervous gut feelings before; several lifetimes of betrayal and disappointment have honed her instincts well enough, and the beast-like instincts given to her by her curse have filled most of the remaining gaps in her survival instincts quite well.
She’s never dealt with an active contradiction like this before, at least not in a very long time: the same drive to grab her stuff and call a cab is now fighting against the urge to roll over and pulling him closer, breath him in a little more.
The latter wins out; wordlessly she rolls to face him, trying to make out his features in the darkness. ]
no subject
Instead, she stays. She turns. She’s facing him. Clay smells the vague sea washed salt of her scent, and he breathes it gratefully. She lies on his maroon sheets, on his mattress, and puts her arms to him- not without hesitation- but on her own terms, nonetheless.
The glow of the alarm clock is now casting her face into shadow, making a hazy blue follow around her blond hair mussed from sleep and tumbling around.
He cups her face, thumb pushing a loose few hairs to her ear. There’s no expression to find in this lighting, but he imagines through her pauses in decision making: she’s unsure, nervous, and she needed to know she’s holding cards. He knows enough to guess that much, even if he has no idea what’s she’s thinking or going to do next. ]
I’m happy you’re here.
[ A pause and he moves his pillow-propped head toward hers a fraction. ]
…I’m glad you stayed.
no subject
Clay’s expression doesn’t help the sinking feeling in her gut: while her body blocks some of the light, she can still make out the half-hope in his eyes and it makes her want to break something, anything to get him to stop. ]
If I’m staying, I need to get some rest.
[ The best she can come up with is her tried and true default: let her words form the protective barriers she needs as she shifts back, still facing him but further towards the edge of the bed. She may stay, but it won’t be filled with sweet nothings. It’s just about her trying to get a longer stint of sleep, plain and simple: she tells herself freaking out suggests that there’s more to it, which there isn’t. ]
no subject
Mmkay. Wake me up if you need anything. I’m usually up by 8.
[ He blearily looks at the clock and back to Cadence. ] ‘Night.
no subject
An early riser, Cadence should be more than capable of getting up and out by the time he says he wakes, and the knowledge calms her slightly as she drifts off again; it’s just a night, she can pump the breaks at any point. ]