It was nighttime, maybe around three am from Brody's guess, when said girl woke up. She realized she woke up because she didn't feel the arms of her girlfriend, Clementine, around her. She turns around to snuggle back in, only to see her thrashing about and mumbling something. The frown and sweat on her face indicates that Clem is currently having a nightmare.
Brody leans over to try and shake the brunette awake. But it seemed that no matter how hard she tried to shake her, Clem just wouldn't wake up. In fact, it seemed like the nightmare just got worse. Brody sits up in the bed, frowning. She has seen Clementine go through nightmares before, but it seems this one is more intense than the others.
“No….please don't die…..no please, Lee!”
Ah. So that's why it's more intense. It's about Lee. Clem seldom talks about him, but when she does it's always bittersweet. Brody knows that the man took care of Clem in the beginning and that she had to kill him when he started to succumb to his bite. Nightmares about him were always the worst. But even then, shaking Clem usually woke her up. Brody knows that she has to do something, but she doesn't know what. She places a hand on Clementine's shoulder, which causes the brunette to stop shaking for a moment before going right back to it.
This causes an idea to spark inside Brody's mind. She shifts around a bit, getting behind Clementine before wrapping her arms around Clem's waist, essentially trapping the girl. The brunette still squirms about, but after a few moments, she slowly settles down before fully relaxing into the bed and Brody’s arms. Clementine murmurs something under her breath, about pancakes, Brody thinks, before quieting for the rest of the night. Brody, even though she is still tired, stays awake to make sure Clem doesn’t have anymore nightmares.
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Brody’s eyes were about to slip shut when she was jolted awake by Clementine shifting around. She thought it was another nightmare until she heard the brunette yawn. The brunette goes to stretch but pauses. Brody can feel Clem shift to turn around and face her. The auburn-haired girl smiles at her girlfriend, using all the energy she could muster. Based on the frown that clem gave her, Brody can tell she looked terrible.
“Are you ok? Did you sleep OK?”
“I’m fine. Just trouble getting to sleep, is all. Don’t worry.” Brody lies. She is definitely not telling Clem she essentially stayed up all night to make sure she didn’t have any more bad dreams. Clem would feel bad.
But Clementine knows Brody by now and knows that her girlfriend isn’t telling her something. She’ll let it go for now, however. “Sure. I’ll believe you for now. Quick question, though.”
Brody gives a small nod, indicating she was listening. “Go for it, Peaches.”
Clementine blushes a bit at the nickname. “Um, why are you holding me? Usually I’m the one holding you when we wake up.”
Brody sighs. “You weren't waking up from your nightmare. It was the only way to calm you. Especially because of what it was about, you.. You said his name.”
Clementine freezes up a bit at hearing about what she has done in her sleep. She tries to roll over, out of Brody’s arms, but she just holds on tighter, not letting her go. Even though she was tired, Brody was still, somehow, a tiny bit stronger, so Clem gave up. She turned her head, trying to minimize eye contact. Brody, however, places her hands on Clem’s cheeks to keep her from looking away.
“Hey, it’s alright. You don’t need to talk ‘bout it. I know it ain’t easy for you to do. I just want to help you, is all. You can tell me as much or as little as you want, Peaches.”
The brunette melts into Brody’s hands, placing her own on top. Clementine sighs. “Are you sure? It’s got to be annoying to have to deal with my baggage without me explaining.”
“I ain’t ‘dealing’ with anythin’. I’m just trying to help someone I care about. Ain’t nothing to deal with.”
Clementine can’t help but smile. “You’re too good to me. I lo- appreciate you, so much.”
Brody smiles back. She knows that the brunette isn’t ready to say that four-letter word yet. They talked about it after Brody said it to her one day. Clem still has it in her head that if she gets too close to someone, they’ll disappear somehow, someday. So they came up with an alternative, saying they appreciate each other. “I appreciate you too, Clem.”
They lay in bed, cuddling for a few more moments before Clementine pulls away and sits up, stretching. “I hate to cut this short, but we gotta get up so we can eat and you can get to hunting on time.”
Brody groans, trying to pull the brunette back down. “Why can’t we just stay and cuddle. And maybe kiss.”
“As much as I would love that, I like having breakfast.” Clementine was able to get out of Brody’s grip, leaning over to grab her crutches, and standing up. “Besides, I need to start mapping some things to add to the school.”
“I hate that you’re right,” Brody sits up herself, stretching a bit. “I guess we best get goin’ before AJ barges in again.”
“That would be ideal. He almost broke the door last time. Don’t know how he did that, he’s still tiny.”
“You’re tiny.”
“You are barely two inches taller than me, you can’t be talking right now!”
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Brody yawns as she and the rest of the hunting crew walk back through the gates. She’s surprised she was able to stay awake, let alone spot and kill a deer for dinner, but she did. She watched as Aasim and Willy dropped off said deer to Omar so he could skin and cook it before walking up the steps inside the school and towards hers and Clem’s room. She deserves at least a twenty-minute nap.
The auburn-haired girl makes it to the room and immediately hops into the bed, not even bothering to take off her shoes. It seemed as if the second her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light. She slept for more than twenty minutes; in fact, she slept all through dinner. Clementine made sure no one disturbed her, remembering how tired she looked that morning.
Speaking of Clem, the brunette makes her way inside the room to go to sleep herself. She sits on the bed, setting her crutches down nearby, and takes off her boot. She finally was able to feel comfortable enough at the school to do that, to feel like she no longer had to run at a moment's notice. After taking off her boot, she leans over to take off Brody’s shoes to make her more comfortable. Clem set then down on the floor, thinking about how she should ask for a better pair of shoes for Brody to have the next time a group goes out scavenging. Converse can’t be the best pair of shoes in the apocalypse.
After getting settled, Clem lays back, closes her eyes and tries to sleep. Keyword, tries. Something feels missing, and it’s keeping her awake. She sighs, opening her eyes and turning over to watch her sleeping girlfriend. She remembers that morning, how it felt to wake up in Brody’s arms. How, for just a moment, she felt some semblance of peace. She wants to feel that again. That’s what was missing.
Clementine did want to wake Brody just to ask her to hold her, so Clem decided to try and wrap the auburn-haired girl’s arm around her without waking her. The brunette was almost successful, until she freaking sneezed causing her to bump her head against Brody’s instantly waking her up.
“H-huh? Wha? What’s going on?”
Clementine cringes, one, because she woke her girlfriend up, and two, because that bump actually kind of hurt. “Heeeeey Brody. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“No, no, it’s fine. Was it another nightmare?” Brody became aware that her arm was currently being lifted in the air by the brunette. “And what are you doing with my hand? Is this some weird dream ritual?”
“Um, no nightmare, just got to bed. And um, I was trying not to wake you, but that didn’t work. I was trying to cuddle again, like how we were this morning. I think it helps with the nightmares.”
It takes a moment for Brody to fully understand what Clementine was asking of her, sleep still surrounding her brain. But once she did, the auburn-haired girl let out a smile and a slight snort. “You ain’t need to sneak and do that, Peaches, you can always ask me. Like I said, I wanna help anyway I can.”
Brody wraps her arms around Clementine, pulling her close. She steals a kiss before snuggling back into the bed. Clem sighs in relief, at being back in her girlfriend’s arms and for not being made fun of. She kisses Brody back.
“You can go back to sleep. You don’t gotta stay up until I go down.”
“I’m alright. I’d stay up for a thousand days if it meant you got a good night’s rest.”
And Clem could do nothing, but melt into a puddle. She snuggles into Brody’s arms, closing her eyes and letting sleep wash over her, knowing that, at least for that moment, she was safe from the horrors of her mind.