Day 4: Napping together
Sera's lying on her belly in the window seat, legs kicking idly in the air as she scrawls in one of her notebooks. It's Pip's favourite place in Skyhold, her own quarters included - it reminds her in some way of the inside of an aravel, but she wouldn't tell Sera that. Brighter, though, full of colour and life. Full of Sera.
Cross-legged on the floor, Pip can't help but watch her: the scrunch of her nose when the words won't flow right, the way silent laughter shakes her body at some private joke. Sun streaming through the glass behind her makes Pip squint, and from there it becomes a battle to keep her eyes open.
"Oi," she hears, and snaps her head up. "Shiny. You falling asleep on me?"
"Sorry." She scrubs the back of a hand across her eyes. She can't shake the feeling that she should be doing something, anything - but with her advisors and most of her forces still returning from the Arbor Wilds, there's precious little to be done.
"Don't be daft." Sera sits up and pats the seat next to her. "Now's good a time as any to take a rest. But if you are going to fall asleep on me, you should fall asleep on me. Gettit?"
"I need to…" What, she doesn't know. The threat seems so immediate, but she's not a strategist. Just a skinny elf who stumbled into leadership and survived through blind luck.
But not just luck, she thinks, climbing up and sinking her head into Sera's lap. Support. Friendship. Love.
Sera grumbles a little about bony frigging elves and pointy shoulders, shuffling around until she's half-leaning on Pip, the two of them curled in a little pile.
"Before," Sera says, the words spilling out of her the way they do when she's uncertain or embarrassed, "when I told you about my dream, and I said all that bollocks about the temple, and the Dalish and whatever -"
"Didn't we say we'd forget about it?" She's too sleepy to even look up, fingers curling around Sera's knee to show no harm done.
"Yeah, well I say a lot of shite, if you hadn't noticed." Sera's fingers cover Pip's own. "And you never treat me like I'm stupid."
"Because you're not."
"Well I know that. Doesn't stop some others though, does it? But sometimes I can be stupid. Because I'm pissed off, or…scared, I s'pose. You'd have been right to tell me to fuck off."
"I wouldn't have been right," she murmurs, "and I don't want you to fuck off." There's more she wants to say: she understands, she does. But when she struggles up Sera pushes her gently back down.
"Nap time, Shiny. Sera's orders."
"Are you still?" she manages to ask.
"Still stupid? Off and on."
"Scared."
"Course I frigging am. Can't love you and not be scared, can I? You're all mixed up in everything."
"Me too," she confesses. "Scared shitless, all the time."
Sera strokes her hair and yawns. "I won't tell if you don't."
"We fit, though, don't we?"
"Much as a couple of skinny bloody elves can, yeah."
Pip lets out a small huff of laughter. "Clickety-clack?" She lifts a hand to Sera's face, feeling her smile.
"Clickety-clack, Shiny."
