Night Terrors
He was prowling, silently, around his own house, unable to sleep, unwilling to wake his roomates. He had made an attempt to meditate and clear his mind of her, but to no avail. The problem of his ridiculous and, he felt, unfounded, affection for her could not be solved by pacing and thinking. Talking to her about it wouldn't help either. He knew that, but living in the same house with her was not helping him to wear out his foolish attachment. It simply would not do. He treated her with unmerited hostility and faught with her whenever he had to talk to her at all, but that didn't help either. She was never at a loss for words, and always seemed to have a stinging retort on the tip of her tongue, and he admired her for it.
A shreik interrupted his revery, and he instinctively responded to it, not realizing, until upon the spot, door flying open, that it had come from her. He couldn't go out there in the middle of the night! But it was too late to stop himself, and the chivalrous impulse that would have stopped him from entering died still-born as another scream ripped through the air and he as he practically flew through the door and into the den, and to where she slept on the couch. There he stopped, arrested by the figure she cut, sitting on her legs, curling inward on herself, the blanket cluched to her head in white-knuckled trembling hands. She was shaking violently and uncontrollably, and he lept to her side without a thought, wrapping one arm around her and murmuring soothing nothings into her hair.
"it's alright, I'm here" He whispered, not knowing what he said. "I'll take care of you, you don't have to be scared. No one can hurt you, I'm here. Everything is going to be just fine." He didn't push her to answer, but just continued to hold and comfort her. He was a little shocked when he realized what he was doing, and started to pull away, but was stopped as she snuggled into his arms, putting her own around his neck, clinging tightly to him, she had stopped trembling in terrified silence, her body still shook, though now with sobs as her tears soaked the fur on his chest.
His ear twitched. He had no right to be here, it wasn't right for him to see her so weak, so tiny and vulnerable. He felt like an intruder, an outsider, thrusting himself where he did not belong, but as she hugged him so tightly, like a child afraid that someone is going to take her teddy, he couldn't help but return the desperate embrace, as comfortingly as he could.
"It's okay." he told her again. "I'm here. I won't leave you."