Kevin & Cammie | Wednesday Night

[x-wither.livejournal.com]

With nightmares interrupting her sleep, Cammie decides to relocate to Kevin's bed instead.

It was one of those nights. It was hard to explain to someone who had never been through what she had, but there were nights where she just couldn't sleep because the memories were just too close to the surface and invaded any chance to sleep. It was hard to sleep when you closed your eyes and heard screaming.

Where she got the idea, she wasn't exactly sure but she made sure her braid was tight, and when she switched out her clothes for Kevin's once she 'broke' into his room, she made sure to remember gloves. When you had a hard time touching people yourself you had an inherent respect for other people who couldn't.

Sneaking in bed with him was a fine art. Hopefully she wouldn't manage to wake him up - and give him a heart attack.

When he slept alone Kevin was a fairly heavy sleeper. He'd gotten better at feeling the depression in the mattress when someone came into bed with him, but that was usually a small kitty body not a fully grown human one. As such, Kevin cracked an eye open when he felt the mattress dip down beside him. He then promptly jumped when he saw it was a person-sized person.

It took a few moments of slowly-passing time for Kevin's pulse to slow and his eyes to adjust so he could see who it was. Cammie looked like hell. "Cammie?" His voice was thick and rough with sleep and his accent was thicker than usual. "What're you- are you ok?"

"Bad night," she said, as if that explained everything. In a way it almost did, "I'm going to hang out here for awhile. That okay?"

"Ah, uh," Kevin trailed off into incoherent mumbling. He was, clearly, the king of coherence when he was half-asleep. "Why? Ah mean, you can, but why here?"

"Because the other person I'd do this to is gone and this seemed as good a place as any to steal a bed," she said. That and sneaking into bed with Manny had always led to sex. Which was something she really didn't want tonight.

Kevin nodded slowly, understanding a little but sure he wasn't grasping it all in his sleep addled state. "Alright, just, y'know...well, you know what not to do." He raised an arm and lifted the covers up. "You comin' over here or stayin' over there? 'Cause you can come over if you wanna. Little spoon, remember."

"I remember," she said, managing to fumble her way under the blankets. "Uh, thanks. I'll try not to keep you awake with snoring or anything."

"It's okay, Ah'm a light sleeper but Ah'll manage." He was articulating better but still mumbling. Kevin figured it wasn't that important what he was saying anyway. After making sure the hood on his shirt Cammie was wearing was up all the way Kevin hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her back until her back pressed against his chest.

Kevin let them settle like that and let the night's silence creep into the room before whispering, "What kinda bad was it?"

“The screaming nightmare kind,” Cammie said settling in, “Too much of a screaming nightmare kind for my taste.”

He had those sometimes. He hated them and then he wouldn't fall back asleep until the next night. "You wanna talk 'bout it or want me to shut up?"

"What's there to talk about? Someone dies, and everyone starts screaming," Cammie returned. Ah, the dance from hell.

One shoulder shrugged behind her. "Ah dunno, but talkin' helps some people. Keeps the nightmares away some. Figured Ah should offer. Who died?"

“Only person who really mattered at the time,” Cammie said after a long moment.

"Who was that?" She didn't want to talk about it, but she was still answering so Kevin figured it was better to mumble his quiet questions and give her the option to close down rather than assume she already had.

“My boyfriend,” she returned simply, quietly.

"You'd just manifested?"

Cammie shrugged, “It’s hard to explain. I should have seen it coming.”

"How come?" Kevin thought with a mutation like his own that there should have been indications so he could have seen it coming. His dad might be alive if that were the case, but it wasn't how things had gone.

"Because I had been eating crap no one could eat and live for almost a year and a half. You should have seen my closet."

"Oh." She sort of had a point there, didn't she? "But why would you know that'd turn into poison arm? Weird stuff's one thing but deadly stuff ain't always where it goes. Sometimes stuff's just weird, like Miss. Frost's mutation."

"Yeah," Cammie muttered, "Still, weeks before it happened, my arm felt really weird, and if I had known what I was..." she trialed off, "Stupid thoughts, you know?"

"S'a lotta ifs, though. If you knew. If you figured it out. If you kept people safe." He shrugged, or tried to, but with one shoulder trapped under his body and his other arm firmly wrapped around his friend the range of motion was limited at best. "Y'can't do nothin' 'bout what happened. And you can't go blamin' yourself for what you didn't know might happen." It was hypocritical of him, very pot calling the kettle black, but Kevin knew it was true. Even if he couldn't always stop himself from blaming himself about his dad he still knew he had no real control over it happening.

"Sure I can," she returned, "People do it all the time." It wasn't like there was a god. Or fate. Or anything else that people used to weasel out of personal responsibility.

"Ah'll kick you outta bed," Kevin threatened. It was an empty threat, of course, as evidenced by the tightness of his hold on her. It wasn't enough to be uncomfortable but it was firm enough that she wouldn't be falling off the bed or wriggling very far unless he let her.

"Fine, for tonight, it's not my fault. For tomorrow, it's back to business."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Kevin muttered, burying his nose in the back of her hood-covered neck. "Such a pain in the ass, y'know."

"It's why you love me," Cammie yawned.

"That why?" His words were running together and losing letters. The yawn was stifled but the fact that he was falling asleep again was obvious from his voice.

"Has to be something," Cammie said, yawning herself. Something she wasn't immune to, "Go to sleep before I pass out and you hear me snoring like a moron."

"Mmkay." More words followed, but they were increasingly inaudible as his voice trailed off. Volume came back with a muttered, "Night." Kevin's face re-situated itself buried in Cammie's cloth-covered neck and his arm tightened its hold on her before it relaxed completely. Obviously he didn't have a problem sleeping with someone new in his bed.

"Yeah, yeah," she managed, "night..."