I knew I should've closed that stupid window last night. Now there's a chilly breeze blowing through the room and the covers are down by my legs so I gotta reach all the way down there to pull them u-

...or not.

Because it seems that a pair of slender arms are firmly locked around my abdomen, holding me in place so that their owner can continue to bury her face in my chest.

Now, I would be kind of annoyed by this. But, well... she's warm. Really warm.

So instead of getting mad, I think I'll just kind of kick the comforter up a little to cover my legs some more and slide my arms around to take advantage of this natural heater that's affixed herself to my body.

Yeah.

This is nice.

Nice and comfy.

".........bwuh?"

Somehow, I'm now lying flat on my back, arms out to the sides and snugly tucked into the bed in a way that is most definitely physically impossible to have done myself.

It's also warm and comfy as all get-out, but for some reason I feel kind of... disappointed?

Is that the right word? I dunno...

"Meh, whatever..."

As much of a shame as it is to ruin this neatly-made bed with me in it, I am more-or-less awake now. As such, I reach around on the nightstand for my glasses and fumble them onto my face before pushing myself upright.

click

Just in time for the bathroom door to open and fill the suite proper with a massive amount of steam.

step

step

From within the cloud of water vapor emerges a lithe figure, clad solely in a towel that's tightly wrapped around her midsection.

"......"

And suddenly my glasses are all fogged up.

"Ah-..." A hesitant voice calls out to me while I'm wiping the lenses off. "Good morning."

"G'mornin'," I reply in more of a croak than an actual human voice.

When I finally get my glasses back on, I'm more than a little bit surprised to find that she's already standing just outside arm's reach, maybe two steps away from the nightstand.

And despite my trash eyesight(even with glasses on), she's close enough for me to clearly see the lingering drops of water trailing down her neck and tracing along her collarbones before finally getting absorbed into the fibers of the towel that's covering her ever-so-slightly-raised che-

AHEM.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

What the hell am I even doing.

Stop that, me.

"I considered waking you up when I did," Yahanaseara says, "but you did not sleep the night prior so I felt it best to let you finally get some proper rest..."

"So you tucked me in," I reply.

"Er-" she looks away.

Which causes me to notice that in addition to wearing a towel, she's also in the process of using another one to dry the massive amount of white floof that rests atop her pretty little head.

...seriously, me.

Stop staring.

"That was... the best way I could think of to make up for interfering with your ability to get a proper night's sleep."

"Psh, interfering with my sleep?" I scoff. "There was this one time when my middle sister snuck into my bed because she had a nightmare. And then I guess she had another one after she fell back asleep, because I got woken up by a kick to the face. That interfered with my sleep."

"Oh my," she grimaces.

"Ended up with a black eye from that shit, too..." I sigh. "...so yeah. Compared to that, getting used as a hug pillow is nothing."

"Wha-" Yahahaseara's jaw drops. "You-"

Ohoh, so she is aware of her transgressions.

"I apologize," she mumbles. "I genuinely believed that I would be fine this time, and I even managed to successfully go to sleep while staying on my side of the bed. But then..."

"Nightmare?"

"Yes," she nods. "It destroyed whatever courage I had managed to build up, and then you were right there, so..."

"No need to explain," I shake my head, "I get it. And like I was saying, you didn't interfere with my sleep at all."

To be honest, it was actually kind of nice in its own way.

...though I could do without the whole "burying her face in my miserable excuse for a chest" thing.

"Thank you for your understanding," she bows. "I will strive to do better in the future."

"Hey, baby steps," I shrug. "You've only been free for what, three days now? I'm not so unreasonable as to expect you to have already gotten over what you went through."

"Eheh..."

An adorable smile.

"...you are far better than I deserve."

"Eh, I try."

With a little grunt of effort, I finally pull myself free from Yahanaseara's masterful tucking-into-bed technique and plant my feet on the floor for the first time today.

And then I step behind the lovely lightning girl and place my hands atop the towel she's using to dry off her hair.

"Gweh-!?" Yahanaseara flinches.

"Put your hands down, I've got this," I say. "Eighteen years of experience in helping to dry long hair, first with my mother and then my sisters."

"Er-..."

A voice filled with hesitation.

"...thank you?"

"Don't worry about it," I reply. "Is there any reason why you're drying it manually instead of just zapping the water out or whatever, though?"

"I would simply rather not risk it," she replies.

"Risk?"

What, is it like how laundry spells damage hair by drying it out?

"By flowing through it, lightning separates water into its two component gases," Yahanaseara explains.

Wha? I did know that bubbles form when you run lightning through it, but I had no idea-

"The problem is that both of those gases are flammable," she continues. "It would be no issue if it was only slightly damp, but doing so with my hair as waterlogged as it is would cause it to be completely saturated with those gases... which would then ignite with even the slightest spark."

"...oh."

My hands stop.

"And you're basically made of sparks."

"Exactly."

Yeah, there'd be no way for her to avoid that.

"And drying my own hair is something that I am more than accustomed to doing, so there is no need for you to go out of your-"

"I like drying long hair," I interject. "Always have, it calms my nerves."

"I- I see," she stammers. "Well if you enjoy it, then by all means..."

Man, it feels like forever since the last time I got to do this. My own hair's too short for me to derive any actual enjoyment out of it, but Yahanaseara's almost goes down to her knees! And it's so damned SOFT, too!

First I take my time getting it all nice and dry, then I have her sit down on a chair while I go into Nighttime Bag#5 to retrieve the proper equipment for the next task at hand...

...a brush!

Because at long last, I get to brush some hair that's got some actual length to it!

Lots of actual length to it!

dammit I'm so jealous I wish mine was even half this length

It's long and silky and somehow has no tangles in it whatsoever despite how messy it is and it even smells really nice since she obviously used my shampoo and wow she's being so patient and cooperative I could keep this up all day-

"Ooooookay, that's enough of that."

"Hm?"

Yahanaseara leans back in the chair to look directly up at me.

"You are finished?"

"Y- yup, all done..."

Yeah, I am definitely homesick.