SALUBRIOUS

SB19

Dakota Smith

3:38 am - November 13th 2023

Dakota tossed and turned, before tossing in the direction of Nas. She knit her eyebrows together as she slowly sat up. "You been up this whole time?" Dakota questioned in disbelief. Nas laid on his back, looking up at the ceiling fan, as if he was in deep thought. His right arm was extended over Dakota's back—until she started tossing and turning. "Yeah." Nas answered, looking over at her.

"Why—is everything okay?" Dakota asked. She sat her hand on his face and used her thumb to gently swipe back and forth against his cheek, in hopes of soothing him. Dakota's tone was full of concern, realizing that he'd laid there restless for about 3 hours straight while she was in a deep slumber made her feel bad. "I'm good." Nas assured as he rubbed her forearm, "I just never sleep when it's my first time anywhere." He added, resulting in Dakota slightly sulking.

"Where'd you adapt that from?" Dakota asked, although she already knew the answer. Nas paused on rubbing Dakota's arm for a second before starting back, only this time he did it much slower. "Prison." Nas answered.

"You was never 'posed to sleep your first night anywhere in there, like if yo' cell got changed or if you got a new cell mate. It was best if you ain't sleep that night, cause you never knew what was gon' happen...Niggas would try to kill you in your sleep. So if you stayed ready, you ain't have to get ready." Nas explained. Dakota reached over and pulled Nas onto her chest, initiating for him to lay down. She softly rubbed his neck while looking at the ceiling.

"You're free, Nas." Dakota spoke while continuing to caress the back of his neck. "And whenever you're around me...it's a safe space. You ain't gotta be on guard all the time..just relax." She added. Nas raised his head up to kiss Dakota's chest before laying down again.  Just as she figured, Nas was such a sweet soul, that had gone through unfortunate events in life. It was sad to see how 5 years of prison molded an infinite amount of defense mechanisms into him.

Dakota's hand traveled from Nas' neck, down to the top of his back. In hopes of comforting him enough for him to doze off, she rubbed his back in a small circular motion. Dakota listened the sound of the AC, slowly but surly putting herself asleep in the process of putting Nas to sleep.

- 6:45 am

Dakota's eyes slowly opened before fluttering a bit, she looked over at the window to see the sun was on its way to rising. She didn't have to look at her phone for the time, because she naturally woke up every morning at the same time, no matter what time she went to sleep. Dakota immediately noticed the weight on her body, which caused her to look down. A smile formed on her face at the sight of a sleeping Nas. She was surprised that they held their position all night. Well, not really due to Nas' grip around her body making sure of that.

"Nas." Dakota whispered, as she tapped his arm. Nas was out cold, meaning he probably didn't even hear her. "Nas." She echoed, now gently shaking his head by holding his chin. Finally, Nas' eyes opened. He sat up and let out a stretch before getting off of the bed and walking over to Dakota's side of the bed. Nas made nice between Dakota's legs that were hanging off of the bed, he kissed her lips before eyeing her.

"How you sleep?" Dakota questioned as she used her thumb to wipe the sleep out of his eye. His little freshly awaken confusion was cute to Dakota, she eyed him with a faint smile on her face. "Good." Nas replied before kissing Dakota's lips. Dakota pulled him in by his shirt, pressing her lips against his while she slowly leaned back onto the bed. Suddenly, Nas frantically broke away from the kiss.

"What time is it?" He questioned, walking over to the other side of the bed. "It's nearing 7." Dakota answered with her eyebrows furrowed, confused as to why he was so frantic.