-
awad: sleep – monday.2.18.08.

---

They had slept together in the same bed for two years now, kissing each other into sleep and pressing their bodies together while unconscious. On warm summer nights like this one, their bare legs would wrap around and caress one another's, and they would touch each other in the dark, sublimely close. Sublimely safe. Irana still had the nightmares, but they had begun to come less and less frequently. When she did cry out in her sleep, Niki shook her, gently, into wakefulness and consolation, holding her, stroking her hair. It's okay, she told Irana, and punctuated her statement with the slowest soft kiss. Her partner smiled faintly in the darkness and felt her eyelids fall back in place, curled up against Niki. They were safe. They were happy.