This Was Home [h.s.]

| *29. UNDONE * |

Harry's POV

Brin actually fell asleep with her arms still loosely wrapped around me. I think I had nodded off too for a moment, because the next time I opened my eyes, the lighting had shifted. The little peaks of light from the earlier sunset had completely faded away, only leaving the whimsy lamp beside us to brighten our surroundings. Even after waking up, I couldn't will myself to immediately get up. It was so peaceful and quiet, and she was so warm.

I wasn't sure how long I stayed put. It didn't even bother me that my arm had grown completely numb from the weight of her head resting so comfortably on it. I could feel her shallow breaths against my neck as she continued to snooze. I could even feel how clammy my body had grown since the last time we were awake together. I wasn't sure if it was the excess body heat for those hours, or if it had something to do with how my heart had yet to stop beating harder than it normally did.

We had slept in the same bed before, but never like this. It was purely on accident, yet it felt like it was somehow meant to be on purpose. I was meant to have her sleeping heavily on my shoulder as she exhaled breaths against me. I was meant to notice how her bare skin felt against my own. And if it wasn't meant to be this way, how else could it have been meant?

I grew even hotter as my thoughts continued to grow. The more and more I laid there, staring at the ceiling with my senses on high alert, the more the awareness was getting to me. The awareness of her body and the awareness of my body with hers.

I figured out why my heart was pounding so hard now. Which also meant, it was time for me to get up before I allowed those thoughts to progress even further.

Reluctantly, I untucked her arms from my torso, folding them softly into her own body. The quilt rested comfortably underneath her chin, and for a moment I thought I had woken her up as she twitched from the movements. I breathed a sigh of relief when that moment was just her nestling herself tighter into the blanket, falling deeper into sleep.

I would have stared at her sleeping peacefully for longer until I remembered that we never actually checked the manual that we were supposed to read before we accidentally fell asleep. That and I had just realized how hard I had gotten while I was laying there.

Whoops.

I supposed those thoughts were stronger than I originally thought.

"Shit," I mumbled to myself as I prodded my way down the rickety steps. I moved as quickly as I could allow myself without making too much noise. Every little thump of my foot against the old wood made my head shoot back behind me, careful to make sure she hadn't woken up.

That was an awkward conversation I didn't want to have. I didn't have time to question it myself too deeply either. It wasn't like it was the first time. I found it often happened when I thought too long about how close she was to me, even when I was still half asleep.