endlessdel | (no subject)

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442... 443... 3.141592... 84... 64... how many sheeps could a sheep chuck sheep if a sheep sheep could chuck sheep...

There were times when sleep evaded Delirium of the Endless. She would wait staring at the ceiling, at her pillow, at a collection of freckles on Robb's skin... waiting until her brother would let her eyes fall shut and allow her entrance into his realm. Sometimes it would take minutes and she would sleep, curled up in a small ball beside Robb Stark and other times it would take hours and she would count sheep or ships or sometimes just the freckles on his body. Tonight, she was counting sheep.

999 fluffy little nightmares with razor sharp teeth and their baa-ing... 474... 1,000,001...

Robb was asleep, his eyes closed, beside her. He was different when he slept; younger, more relaxed, beautiful instead of handsome, hers. He felt like hers when he was asleep. Sometimes she could curl up against him, her hand on his shoulder and her head pressed against his chest. Safe. She doesn't feel scared then, she feels safe and whole lying there with him. She hasn't told him that, Helen says she should.

22... 1/8... 9... 723... where is Big Puppy in sheep clothing...

He doesn't stir when she brushes her cold toes against his legs or slides her hand up his chest. Del waits before leaning in close, Safesafesafe, and whispers four words into his ear. Pulling back, she looks at him with wide mismatched eyes before letting out a soft eeeep. Rolling over she hides behind her hair, burying herself beneath the blankets where he cannot see her.

678... 85,498... 1...

The four words, the words she had whispered, were a simple I love you Robb.

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Robb is beginning to think that counting things in his head is not a bad idea, though it's not sleep he's looking for. Well, eventually, it probably is.

"I'm glad to make you happy," he says lightly, "but I still think human bodies need sleep." Amongst other things his particular human body thinks it needs, which he is fiercely ignoring. "Even ones that weren't human before. Maybe especially those."

Sliding her hands through Robb's hair, Del traced her hands down his neck before spreading her fingers out against his back. Pressing her fingertips against his spine, Del slid her hands down his back and up again. Sighing a little at the contact, Del mmm'd against his neck before listening to him.

"Brother will let me in eventually but for now he must be in a mood with me because I'm not sleepy. I'm not tired at all," Del said, she felt the exact opposite. Like every part of her was entirely aware of Robb and the warmth of his body and how her hands felt on his skin, on his body, on him. "What do you do when you cannot sleep?"

Robb is certain there are things he does when he can't sleep, it's just that he can't think of them at the moment. Only part of that is because it doesn't happen very often.

"Can't sleep?" he teases in mock surprise, brushing a finger across her cheek. "I'm the father of a three-year-old. I can't remember when last that happened."

Arching her back as she stretched against Robb, Del exhaled as she rolled her shoulders back and dragged her hands down his back. Tracing gentle swirls with her fingertips against his skin in the hollow of his back, Del looked at Robb before scrunching her face up at the tease.

"You are teasing me Robb," Del replied, turning her head to press a kiss to his finger then to the palm of his hand. Brushing her lips against his wrist, Del leaned her head against his chest and smiled. "Clearly I should come and keep you up all night more often then."

"Me? Teasing?" For someone often accused of being too serious, Robb is really very good at the Very Innocent Face. But then, he's been practising it since long before he was serious. "Surely not."

Del let out a soft laugh at Robb Stark's entirely innocent face and stretched up to kiss the innocence off his face. Sliding her hand around his side, Del walked her fingers up his chest before pressing his shoulders back onto the bed so that Robb was lying on his back. Sliding her legs over his, Del straddled Robb's waist sitting up for a moment before she lay down on top of him and stretched out against him.

Oh, that was 392 times more peachier keen.

"Surely yes." Del replied, wriggling as she tried to make herself comfortable on Robb. "I should not forgive you for such things but I will..." Del paused before adding with a cheeky grin. "... if you kiss me. Okies?"

All this wriggling is going to drive Robb completely round the bend in short order, and there's a part of his brain that's wondering why he's still resisting so hard anyway.

"Del." His answering laugh is soft, breathless, his body very still. "What are you trying to do to me?"

"Oh, is it not obvious?" Del asked, looking down at Robb with a slightly mischievious smile on her lips. Hair spilling down over her shoulders and in front of her face as she leaned down over Robb. "I am trying to sleep. You do not make a very good mattress Robb but that is okay, I will love you anyway."

Del grinned, brushing her lips against Robb's. Her intent clearly anything but sleeping. Del finally murmured soft words against his lips. "I am trying to love you Robb."

When it comes down to it, Robb has never actually been courted before in his life, and certainly not with the slow persistence of a stream wearing down a canyon. The pressures of war and intense teenage love don't really allow for such, and beyond that, it's just not something that's done in Westeros. Or for that matter that often on the island, either.

And Robb, already hurt and so attached to duty, has been so guarded for so long that it's become a habit. So it's a strange thought indeed, when he looks at the entrancing mismatched eyes of the woman above him and realises that even if it all ends up going completely to hell in some way he trusts her.

Which is a big deal, by Robb Stark standards.

"I'm sorry," he says, still smiling a little, reaching up to brush a hand down the back of her hair. "That's not an easy challenge for anyone to take on."

Inhaling as she shifted, Del pressed her body tightly against Robb's as she stretched and made herself comfortable. Smiling as Robb ran his hand down her hair, Del brushed a kiss against the corner of his lips and then the side of his face.

"Silly Robb Stark, I'm not just anyone." Delirium murmured, her voice soft in his ear. Her hands pressed against his shoulders and slid down his arms. "And loving you is a very easy thing to do, telling you is the harder part and showing you. But loving you is very easy? And I can be patient, endlessly patient, for you."

He feels like he's had some kind of revelation; he just isn't sure what to make of it. "You're definitely not just anyone," he agrees, still holding her, though not so close as she's already pressed herself against him.

Del smiled, resting her head on his shoulder. She could feel his pulse, his heart beating between her chest and his. Her hand resting comfortably there as she wriggled a little more before finally going as still (or as still as Delirium would ever get.)

"No, I'm not. You are so noisy Robb, it's terrible. There are people here trying to sleep." Del teased with a smile, tracing her brother's sigil against Robb's chest to protect him when he slept. "I lost count of my sheep. I suppose I will have to start counting again. Unless you would like to distract me more?"

All that wriggling around is making it really hard to concentrate long enough to form a sentence. "And I suppose if I fall back asleep before you get through all those sheep, you're just going to wake me up again?"

For a moment, she was quiet and still and at peace. But that moment didn't last long and Del looked up at Robb with a teasing, amused smile. Her hips moving, squirming in place as she tried to make herself as comfortable as possible on Robb. He was not very comfy but he was very warm and it was nice to be pressed up against him like that.

"Of course," Del replied with a bright smile. "But then I could tell you lots of interesting secrets whilst you are asleep. So maybe not."

"Del," Robb says, lightly, his arms around her back, just to see if such a thing is even possible, "Hold still."

Sliding her hands up his chest to his shoulder, Del curled her fingers around his shoulder and traced soft circles with her thumb. Robb wrapped his arms around her back, holding her and making her feel warm and content and delighted. Looking up at Robb curiously, Del made a soft noise before tilting her head.

"Why?" Del asked looking at Robb with wide, innocent mismatched eyes.

"Because," Robb answers, kissing her on the nose, "it's very hard to get comfortable when you're moving all over. Also because I want to know if you even can."

Del sighed, her breath steady and calm as she exhaled. Del wriggled once more, stretching her toes out along the bed before settling her head on Robb's shoulder. Lips brushing against his skin, Del scrunched up her nose before lying still. Or as still as Del ever really got.

"Maybe I want to make you uncomfortable in a good way," Del murmured, trying to remain still in Robb's arms. "I can if I really, really want to. Sissy said I can do anything if I want to, if I put my mind and heart to it."

Robb has a bit of trouble, for a moment, following which part it is that she can put her mind to, the holding still or the making him uncomfortable, because she's definitely managing the latter.

"Is that what you're trying to do, then?" he asks, pretty sure he already knows the answer.

"Maybe," Del replied, her lips spreading into a wider smile against his skin. Turning her head up to him Del pressed a kiss against his lips before exhaling slowly. She tried to remain still or as still as possible as she shifted her body sliding it against his so she could kiss him again. "Do I make you uncomfortable in a good way?"

Robb is also trying to hold himself very still. He's a little better at it than she is, but it's still an effort.

"Del, you've got to know you do." Surely she should at least be able to tell.

Del knew but there was a difference between knowing a thing and having it told to you especially by someone you elohveeee. Her heart fluttered, all tight and happy and far too awake in her chest as she smiled at Robb. Sitting up a little, Del arched her back as she bent forward to kiss Robb, her lips parted as she kissed him deeper, that giddy little smile still present on her lips.

"Knowing and saying are two different things. It is nice to hear it all the same, bodies are one things but minds are another. Do you mind? Does it bother you?" Del asked her smile faltering for a second as she looked at Robb with wide eyes.

The brief second when her smile falters does something to him he can't put a name to. "No," he promises, kissing her lips softly. "I don't mind. Despair of getting any sleep, maybe," he adds with a teasing smile, "but not mind."

She let out a breath she had not realised she had been holding as he promised her the world in one simple word no. She heard the word all the time from Abby but it sounded different on Robb's lips, the context was different and it meant so much more to her. All the good things, All The Good Things In Capitals.

"Oh, okies then." Del said softly, the hesitation slipping away as she smiled and kissed Robb again and again. Enjoying the way he would let her just touch him now, kiss him and love him. "You have come up with no ideas as to how we should fall asleep."

"That," Robb teases her, "is because I don't normally need a strategy for it. I just do it. Poof! Asleep. Until," he adds, tapping her on the nose, "someone starts climbing all over me."