keeper (d. Hale)

birthday.

A tincture, is a concentrated plant extract that is administered directly onto the tongue using a small dropper or other device that can easily control the quantity needed for a proper dosage of the desired medication.

For Delilah this dosage was 3 drops. And Derek it was 5. The instructions were very clear from Noshiko, always 3 and 5. No more and no less.

After the first drop entered his mouth, Derek quickly discovered that Noshiko's defense to keep them safe in their sleeping state by whatever logic she currently possessed, tasted like absolute shit.

Lavender, bluebells and vervain, just a few plants for the dreamless, burned across his tongue each night before he laid down to sleep. But he endured it.

Despite the taste, he would endure anything for her. And he did. Repeatedly.

Delilah laid peacefully next him in their bed. Her curls spilling around her in a chaotic mess as she kept herself tucked in close to his side. Close enough that she might as well be embedded into him. 

As he did every night, Derek thought she looked like an angel as she slept. Content, comfortable and warm. Probably too warm.

That was entirely his fault.

He insisted she wear the pair of thick wool sleeping pants he had brought for her earlier in the week, even though he knew she was more comfortable in one of his large shirts or if she had her way, nothing all. In truth, he loathed the pants but he needed her to stay warm, if just for his own sake.

Derek waited as he stroked her arm gently with the tips of his fingers and inhaled the scent of her violet tinted hair. She was asleep. 

Dreamlessly floating with each slow even breath she expelled.

He waited, awake. It was not yet time for him to follow her as she tumbled through sleep's sweet embrace.

Derek let out a bated breath as he sat with his back against the bed's headboard. Patience was not one of his strong suits. 

He lifted a lock of Delilah's hair and let it cascade through his fingers as he repeated the action, over and over. Until he felt the change. 

He wasn't sure how describe it at first, but it would always began the same. Delilah's head would move a fraction away from the safe hollow of his neck and the breathing that was so reliably even, would stop. 

And it was for only a moment. A single pause in the rising of her chest, before it would start again.

Derek would hold his own before letting out a sigh as he would loosen his hold from her body and she would roll away to the edge of the bed.

He would watch as she stood slowly on her feet. And he would wait as she began to walk.

Derek moved to the other side of the bed and grabbed his own pants from the floor before attempting to follow after her.

It wasn't as if she moved fast, it was just any movement like this had him worried.

Pulling his jeans onto his legs, he stumbled as he kept her in sight.

She was at the top of the stairs and descending.

Noshiko said something like this could possibly happen. Derek hadn't believe her at the time, but after that first night taking the tincture, he had been following Delilah through the house and out the back kitchen door like it was a practiced routine.

By this time, it was.

The kitchen door swung open after she clicked the lock and Derek held the porch blanket over his arm as he waited for her to proceed.