The Morning After The Years Before [for gunslingerqueen]

[toweredingly]

He came awake with a barely-stifled groan, tears still wet on his face and his arms empty, the song still ringing in his ears. The fire had burnt down to ash, and there was a grey caste to the sky, the not-yet-dawn of a day he was going to have to drag himself up into. Roland closed his eyes, weary and heartsick in every way, and listened to the morning, slowing his breathing down to almost nothing.

There was Nathan's breathing, a warm huffing close against his ears. Further off, he could hear Kaine toss and turn, and Alain's low, steady snoring. It all seemed too loud, too much, especially set against the other sounds of the camp. Somewhere, a throcken yelped, a disconcertingly human sound. Bert moaned quietly in his sleep, something that might have been a name or might just have been a cry. Roland closed his eyes more tightly, then, giving up abruptly, sat up.

There was a shape nearby that hadn't been there before. Even before he'd fully registered that, let alone recognised Nariko in the dim half-light, his gun had leapt into his hand like a live thing, and he was wide awake. Then he did recognise her, and the weapon fell out of his suddenly nerveless hand.

"...Nariko?"

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[gunslingerqueen]

Her not-there mind had thought the groaning was Nathan, who had wound up into a little ball, pressed into a space where he could simultaneously catch her heartbeat and feel her skin. When her automatic, still not entirely conscious soothing didn't work it registered as off and she began to wake up. And then there was the dropping of a gun, more shifting and that was enough to snap her eyes open for good.

But it was only Roland, who looked like he was staring at a ghost.

"Hey," With practiced ease she unworked herself from her younger sibling's grip and pulled his blanket up to cover him while she sat up properly. "... Let's not wake him yet, okay?" Or anyone else. She wasn't ready to deal with them anymore than she was prepared for Roland, who she watched cautiously, expecting the world's most painful reprimanding or maybe a new shouting match. She would deserve it in spades but that didn't meant Nariko was going to enjoy it, and on barely two hours of sleep she could hardly think do much else but wing it. Not the most comforting strategy with Roland.