The Modern Queen

smiling

When Alinora woke up, Talitha was smiling. She grimaced and buried her face in the pillow. "Why are you so chipper?" she groused.

Talitha laughed, reaching over to play with the ends of her hair. "You said my name in your sleep," she said.

Alinora grunted. "Did not."

Talitha laughed again. "You did too. You were asleep, Nora, you don't know shit."

"Yeah, which means you could be making shit up. Again. Like when you told Lyr he ordered a hamburger in his sleep."

'To be fair, though, that's absolutely something he would do," Talitha said seriously. "But, Nora, you really did say my name in your sleep. And I wanna know what you were dreaming about." She started repeatedly poking Alinora in the ribs.

Alinora snatched her wrist.

"Ow!"

"Baby. I'm not even holding you that hard," Alinora said, turning to face her again. She was grinning, not a trace of a wince on her face.

Alinora rolled her eyes.

"Seriously. What were you dreaming about?"

Talitha's voice was taking on a distinctly whining tone. Alinora groaned. "I don't remember," she lied. In truth, she did. It was something soft and sweet enough to give her a fucking cavity, and of course Talitha had been involved. She wasn't going to repeat it out loud, though. Talitha would never shut up about it.

"Oh, c'moooooon," Talitha whined. "Stupid dreams." She flopped over Alinora's side, her weight half comforting, half suffocating.

"My thoughts exactly," Alinora said, nudging her halfheartedly. "Get up, so I can make us breakfast."

"Don't wanna." Her voice was muffled where she'd buried her face in the blankets.

"Oh my god. Talitha."

"Alinora."

"Get. Up."

"Let's stay in bed a little longer," Talitha said, whining once more. "Oh, hey, speaking of bed. I had an idea last night."

"Yeah?" She had a feeling she was going to regret asking.

"Let's do away with the bedframe and turn our room into a giant pillow fort," Talitha said. "Canopies and soft things everywhere. Mattress on the floor. It'd be great."

Alinora snorted. "How 'bout we get a smaller bedframe, so that the mattress and box spring are still elevated. And then make a small pillow fort that doesn't cover the whole bedroom?"

Talitha considered that. "Yeah, I guess getting rid of the frame would be a bad idea, wouldn't it?" she said with a pout. "Okay. Fine. We can do that."

"Excellent."

"We're boss at this compromising thing."

"Can we compromise on you letting me out of bed?"

"No."