Work Text:
It was a quarter past two in the morning when you stirred awake to a half-empty bed. Your girlfriend’s side was dead cold. Your balcony door, however, was cracked. So Sevika had come home, probably wanted to unwind first before she joined and embraced you.
Against your better judgment, you crawled out of bed and padded to the balcony. You poked your head out, slowly.
Sevika sat relaxed in one chair with her head tilted back and her eyes closed, clad in a loose muscle shirt and her boxer briefs. Soft amber fire ignited from the blunt between her fingers as she took a slow drag, her face illuminated against the sickly grey-green of upper Zaun. Smoke dribbled from her mouth into her nostrils. Held there. Then expelled through the nose. She was quiet, calm, lost in her own little world of bliss.
You regretted coming to bother her.
As you aimed to close the door, you misjudged where the handle was, knocking it with your wrist bone. Any swear you conjured up was stamped down with sheer force of will alone.
Sevika’s eyes flew open and she sat upright immediately, attention turned towards you. She snuffed the blunt in her ashtray on the table. “You okay, sweetheart? Did I wake you?”
Funny. Here you were disturbing her few moments of peace and she was concerned with having disturbed yours.
“No, just… wondering where you were. Gonna head back to bed now.”
“Wait,” she called out. She beckoned you closer with a jerk of her head. Patted her left thigh. “Sit with me?”
Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t hesitate. Now? You felt like an intruder, disrupting a sacred space only rivaled by the warm embrace of an afterlife. You had already crossed the forbidden threshold, disturbed the peace, and now you were being asked to embrace it? You didn’t feel worthy.
But it was far, far too late to spiral into reasons why you shouldn’t. And you were much too tired to debate your inner thoughts.
You accepted. Curled yourself into Sevika’s warm lap. Rested your head against her collar. Let the lingering aroma of smoke and spice lull you back into slumber.