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At first, Tempest was lost in the oblivion of her terrors and possessive sleep. Axel's initial touch was like stoking the fire to her nightmares, feeling the pressure of his hands, his weight. She thrashed and struggled against him, whimpering and crying out for it all to stop. Still entangled in the duvet but now curled into his lap, the comforting embrace as his scent and voice ebbed through the clutches of sleep. It seeped through the fingers clutching her in the well of darkness and formed a light at the top, an anchor to reality that coaxed her to consciousness. Tears streamed down her cheeks even in her sleep, wetting her lashes and making them stick together, her whole body trembling like a chihuahua in his arms. "No... no, no, no..." She whimpered, turning her head from side to side but grew quieter the more he talked to her. At first, it was a distant sound but pulled her closer until her eyes flew open with a sharp and shuttering intake of breath that choked out into a sob. <br/>
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The face that haunted her dreams wasn't the face she woke up to, looking up to him with eyes too wide and riddled with fear; they were bloodshot and glistening from the tears shed and welling up again. She was still too consumed by fear to feel the shame that would come later for him to see her in such a way. "Axel..." She choked out in an overemotional quake of breath, relief evident in her voice and expression that it was him and not the boogeyman. As much as she tried to hold it back, her eyes squeezed shut and forced more tears to streak from the corners of her eyes as she clutched to his shirt for leverage and scrambled up from her lax cradle, shoving away the duvet that betrayed her in her sleep for a more comforting source of his arms. Her own wrapped around his shoulders in a tight lock of limbs before she buried her face in his chest, the floodgates opening as she couldn't hold it back. "I'm... s-sorry..." She croaked out, her shoulders shaking as she probably soaked his shirt with her tears. "I didn't... want you.. to see this," she shook her head as the dream was slowly fading away in her memories and replaced with shame, embarrassment and overwhelming emotion from lingering fear and anxiety, on top of sheer exhaustion from it all.<br/>
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For all the times she distanced herself from him, tried to push him away and refused to allow herself to get close to him... she clung to him now like he was her sole lifeline. Her Knight in Tainted Armor that had saved her from the dragon, both in the past and now in the present. He was comfort, safety, the one she could trust to hold her without evil intent and motive. Even as her shame stoked coals and built a pit in her stomach, she was grateful he was still there and not just now. She thought he was foolish investing in such a lost cause and didn't know what in the hell he saw in her to make him stay. But in the end... it all came down to the fact he'd stayed. Even as she rubbed her face against his shirt and probably soaked it with her emotions, the firm and warm frame of his body didn't make her want to run away. <br/>
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Realizing what had just happened a moment later by the evidence of tangled sheets and blankets, the way he held her firm, her head slowly rose as she found it hard to look him in the face. "... I didn't... I didn't hit you did I?" She muttered her question, worried that she'd lashed out and hit him in her fitful sleep. "God, I'm a fucking mess," she groaned, her forehead thumping to his shoulder. She was calming down slowly, the trembling of her body slowing to shivering as the cold sweats that had broken out in her sleep cooled and dried on her skin. Any other time, she might've pulled herself away from him, but she was too tired and too worn out to push him away. Instead, she curled her legs more around him and simply let him hold her... perhaps stealing his warmth, too. </span></span>