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It was the cold that woke Sypha up. She was already shivering when she finally opened her eyes. Sleepily, she reached to her side, wondering why the hell Trevor was so cold, and the answer was, obviously, that Trevor wasn’t there. That didn’t worry her exactly, she knew he could handle himself just fine, but she also knew she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep without him, both his presence and his warmth. She was particularly demanding in terms of heat, and she wasn’t used to sleeping alone, after years of traveling with the people she considered her family.
She yawned and stretched, then poked her head out of the wagon, taking the blanked with her — she wasn’t crazy enough to leave without it. The nights were extremely cold. Or perhaps she just had a very low resistance to that, she didn’t quite know.
Sure enough, Trevor was sitting under a tree. She had no idea how he could sleep like that. It looked incredibly uncomfortable, from her perspective, but his eyes were closed, and his breathing seemed to be even.
She jumped from the wagon, grimacing at the feeling of the cold ground under her feet, and quickly ran to him, still holding the blanket around her. She let herself fall heavily next to him, immediately snuggling up to him. He let out a sigh and opened his eyes. For some reason she decided not to dwell on too much, meeting his blue eyes, almost shining under the moonlight, as he was looking at her with that smirk of his, full of affection, had her blushing, and she was grateful he probably couldn’t see it.
“I can’t get rid of you, huh?”
“Nope!” she replied cheerfully, resting her head on his shoulder. “It’s no use trying.”
Also, she didn’t want him to succeed.
He sighed, and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her with ease as he arranged his cloak under her so she wouldn’t be directly on the ground. A surprised squeak left her mouth when she was pressed against his hard chest, and that made Trevor chuckle as he unceremoniously dropped her back down onto the ground, though he didn’t remove his arm.
“Everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” she groaned, smacking his chest, “you just surprised me.”
She proceeded to arrange her blanket to cover the two of them. The warmth was already making her sleepy.
“You’re… going to stay here?” Trevor asked.
“You like sleeping under trees,” she said with a shrug, settling herself comfortably against him. “We can sleep under a tree.”
Trevor swallowed, and tightened his hold around her, just a little. He appreciated that. He knew, had she wanted to, she could have dragged him back to the wagon. Well, more like he’d have let her, but that didn’t change much.
She sighed in content at his presence, and her eyes started to close. Right. She’d been interrupted before.
Trevor couldn’t go back to sleep so easily, though. He was already a very light sleeper, something you kinda had to learn when you traveled alone, without a place to call your own. Between the bandits, the vampires, the wild animals, the thieves who walked into his room the rare times he got one in an inn, and the jealous husbands he’d encountered once or twice, he hadn’t had much choice.
Sypha’s body against him didn’t help exactly. They’d slept side by side all nights since they had left Dracula’s castle, but they’d never been that close. Right now, like this, it would be so easy to move his hand on her thigh, or to tilt her head towards him so he could steal a kiss. He wouldn’t, ‘f course not. He didn’t want to risk it. What if it scared her off? Worse, what if she didn’t feel that way about him? He didn’t think he could take it.
He cleared his throat, and Sypha’s head snapped up briefly before falling back down.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, but she didn’t reply, already back in the arms of Morpheus.
Groaning, he tried to move her a little, otherwise things would probably get real awkward in the morning. As he did, he grabbed her right arm, and he frowned when he felt the asperity under his hand. He traced the scars left by Dracula’s claws. The cauterization she’d used in the battle had been useful, effective, but that also meant she would keep them. He didn’t like it.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she said softly.
She wanted to sleep, she really did, but Trevor’s fingers moving on her skin were proving to be… distracting.
He dropped his hand, and she almost wanted to protest, but she caught herself last minute. That would be ridiculous.
“You don’t mind ‘em?”
Sypha shrugged.
“Not really. We fought Dracula and we survived. That’s why they’re here.”
Trevor chuckled at that. That girl… that girl was a fighter, and he liked that way more than he should. Still, for him, her scars were a constant reminder that he’d failed to protect her. It could have been a lot worse than that.
“I won’t let that happen to you again,” he said. His serious tone surprised her, and she looked up at him. His eyes were sad.
“You don’t need to do that. You have a lot more than I do.”
Yeah. He did, and getting them hadn’t been pleasant. That was exactly what he didn’t want for her. The pain was one thing, but the look in people’s eyes when they really wanted to hurt you… She could probably take it, he didn’t doubt it, he just— he just didn’t want her to have to go through that.
“I shouldn’t have let that happen either,” he mumbled, eyes dropping back onto her arm.
Normally, Sypha would probably have gotten a bit annoyed. She was very capable of defending herself, thank you very much, and she truly didn’t mind the scars. In fact, she wore them rather proudly. She liked the story those scars said.
But maybe, she realized, Trevor didn’t like the story his said as much. Maybe that was what he was trying to tell her.
“Trevor,” she said, cupping his face in her hand. “We were fighting against Dracula. You helped me, remember? We got out of here because we were together.”
The three of them, really, though Alucard wasn’t there for her to include him.
He hummed vaguely as a reply and glanced away from her, avoiding her eyes, but leaned into her hand, just a little.
“You’re right,” he said.
Didn’t mean he didn’t blame himself for it. But she was right.
“Of course I’m right,” she said cockily, and he grinned. “Also, I don’t need protecting. If you try to stop me from going into a fight because you want to protect me, I’ll kick your ass.”
He let out a laugh at that. Again, she was right. He wouldn’t be able to stop her if he wanted to, and, well, he didn’t want it that much, really. He liked that Sypha was a fighter. But it meant that he wouldn’t be able to protect her, and there were some fucked up things in the world. And that meant she wouldn’t be protected from that either.
That sucked. It did. But maybe, if she didn’t let him shield her from that, he could at least help her afterwards. Treat her wounds. Take care of her.
“Didn’t you wanna sleep? What’re you doing talking so much?”
She let out an offended scoff and elbowed him, but it just made him laugh. She mumbled something with an annoyed tone as she leaned against him once again.
It was only a couple of minutes before she fell asleep.
Trevor was still awake. Sure, he couldn’t protect her at all times, but he did have her back. He wouldn’t let her get harmed again if there was any way for him to prevent it, he promised himself. And it started now, with him watching over her while she slept.
He pulled the blanket up a little to cover her neck more, then settled for the night too, closing his eyes. As always, he’d sleep with one eye open. She was safe with him.
Sypha had never doubted it.