You roll over in the bed and curse the lamp that’s shining directly in your eyes.  How did that get left on?  You wonder sleepily as you reach over to turn it off.  As you do so you feel your arm brush against something warm and the realization comes to you that you left the lamp on because your Trowa wanted to read for a little while longer after you went to sleep.  Of course, there was no way you could have refused him, you never could and he must have fallen asleep with the lamp still on.  This was nothing to him, after all he had slept in worse situations than you could even dream of and still had to get a good nights sleep for a battle the next morning.  Praise the Lord that was all over now.

You reach further over him and flick the switch for the off button and the light blinks out leaving you in complete darkness.  You don’t mind this, not one bit, and you loop your arm round his shoulders as you pull it back.  Resting your head against his shoulder you listen to his quiet breathing and smile contentedly.  When you first captured him as your own he would never sleep his soundly, always waiting for something bad to happen or having nightmares that he could never seem to escape from even when he woke.  Now he slept soundly most nights, occasionally waking with a start from some fading memory and having to calm himself before he lay back down, but not often.

You run your fingers down the length of one of his arms and feel the strength that lies there.  He doesn’t look all that strong, at five foot five inches and with his wiry frame he isn’t the biggest of men, but you are well aware of the strength that lies in that frame and know you’re safe when you’re in those arms.  The play of muscle and sinew under his skin is almost delicate and you continue to run your fingers over his arm as you think. 

You can feel his chest rise and fall under the arm you have looped across it and feel his heart beating against his breastbone, a heart that belongs to you as yours does to him.  It’s unlike him to show large amounts of affection but that doesn’t matter to you, you know how much he loves you and that’s all that matters.  You turn your head and kiss his neck lightly, smiling at the slight movement of his head that this causes.  Somewhere in his dream he must be aware of you, aware as he always is, of everything around him.  The fact that he is aware you are there holding him and hasn’t woken is an admittance of his love to you as you are well aware he is a very light sleeper and will wake at the slightest provocation. 

You rub your nose against his jawbone and run your fingers lightly down one of his sides.  His fingers twitch at this, you can see them under the quilt, but that is all the response you get.  Lovingly you rub his side with the palm of your hand, if you could just get back to sleep you would leave him be, you don’t want to wake him from a sound sleep as he doesn’t have all that many, but your body seems to have its own ideas.  You aren’t tired anymore and your hands, moving with a will of their own, are stroking his chest and side as if you will never get to touch him again after tonight.  One of your hands comes up to run through his fringe, something which he will let no one but you do, and you can feel how soft it is, slipping between your fingers as if it were made of silk.

Your other hand seems to have found its way down his side to stroke along the outside of his thigh and you feel the power there as you do this, his hips twitching slightly as it is stroked.  If you continue the way you are you will definitely wake him.  You suddenly have an almost overwhelming urge to reach between his legs and touch that secret part of him but you resist.  You know how wary he is of anything like that because of something that happened to him in the past, something so bad he will only hint at it and never say it outright, and you don’t want to scare him.  Fun is one thing but to scare him would set you back months as far as your relationship was concerned and you love him far too much to want to hurt him in any way. 

Opting instead to stroke your way back up to his stomach and run your finger around the ring of his navel you giggle slightly as he flinches away from your touch.  You must have found a ticklish spot, for he does the same thing when you do it again.  Your other hand, still up in his fringe is caught suddenly as you run your finger for the third time.  You jump and pull back sharply until you realise it is just him having woken up.  You feel a wave of guilt wash over you for waking him, but when you look up you can see he is smiling, your eyes having adjusted to the light by now.

“Did you enjoy tickling me love?” he asks, his voice low and unobtrusive as it always is, it seems to fit well in the darkened bedroom.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” you say as way of apology, “the lamp woke me and I just couldn’t keep my hands from wandering.”

“That’s all right,” he smiles lovingly down at you and cups your cheek in one hand, “a moment spent awake with you is much more preferable to me than a lifetime of pleasant dreams.”

You feel a wave of love wash over you as you hear him say this and throw your arms around his neck, bringing your face to rest against hi shoulder and feel his arms come up to circle around you.

“I love you,” you say to him, feeling your voce almost crack and hearing a slight catch in it.

“And I love you,” he whispers back, his arms tightening around you ever so slightly, possessively, as he says it.

You close your eyes and stay against him like this, almost laughing aloud from how happy he makes you feel.  Your body suddenly seems very languid sharing his heat like this and you feel yourself slipping back into sleep.  You wonder briefly if he is going to be able to get back to sleep now but as soon as you think this you realise his grip on you has slipped a little and he has already gone back to his dream.  You smile happily and snuggle against him as you feel sleep come up to take you and wonder if you can possibly share the same dream with him.