Just hold me || Shadow and Bone || The grishaverse

Chapter nine

Notes:

Aleksander is cute, Alina searches his mind and has a lot of thought.

This is the emotional one and it feels pretty personal, idk why 🤷🏻‍♀️. It took some time to write, and I feel a bit proud of it. I expressed what I wanted to express and I hope you enjoy it!!

-Flora

Aleksander finished his business late that night. It was past midnight and he still had to go through some reports. In the end, it was almost three in the morning when he went to her room. He was exhausted.

The door was unlocked, something that he knew she had started to do not so long ago.

He opened the door and entered the dark room leaving a little slot between the doors so there was just enough light to see.

Alina was asleep in her bed. She was on her left side with her hands sprawled in front of her.

He had left his room in his nightwear but with his kefta on top so he could walk through Little Palace and still look presentable. He just took that off, the same for his boots and socks, and got between the sheets behind her.

He then moved near her and put his arms around her. Slowly he closed the doors with a tentacle of his shadow.

"Good night, milaya," he whispered to her, distress in his voice.

Alina shifted in his arms and turned to face him; half asleep he heard her say: "...sander..."

Aleksander's smile was pained, his eyes already closed.

He instantly relaxed; her breath was warm on his collarbone; one of his hands glided to her hip, his chin on top of her head.

"...sander..." she said again in her sleep.

"Alina," he found himself answering her call.

That was when sleep took him. Aleksander had the strange sensation that the reason he was falling asleep so quickly wasn't his exhaustion; but rather the woman whispering his name in her sleep.

When she woke up, it was still strangely dark. She usually woke up with light or because of nightmares.

She felt warmth under her and, unsurprised, she discovered she was lying half on top of Aleksander who was deeply asleep.

She knew he was a light sleeper so she stared at him for a moment and tried not to move.

The few times they had slept together, Alina never woke up before him. He would have already left or was waiting for her to wake up.

While Alina was watching him, she started to caress the hairs on his chest which leaked out of his nightgown. A black nightgown, obviously.

He had a relaxed expression on his incredibly handsome face. It was rare to see it. His lips were slightly parted.

Was he dreaming? What was he dreaming?

Alina found herself incapable of thinking of him having dreams. Not desires but actual dreams, irrational dreams, those where you are one moment yourself and the moment after in a body that isn't yours. Those dreams that seem so simple when you have them and when you wake up you think to yourself that you are crazy.

Maybe...

Maybe she could see in his mind even when he was dreaming...

At that moment his mind was calm. She couldn't feel anything coming from him. But when she concentrated a little she was in his mind again. She could see everything she wanted to see, she saw him walking towards her bed, saw herself in the bed, sleeping.