Two can be as bad as one / Its the loneliest number since the number one

[dogbitesman]

William did not immediately note anything amiss upon waking; he woke, as he usually did, before dawn, and since even the earliest riser is not at their best at an hour so early sundials aren't working yet, he didn't note that he was closer to the middle of the bed than usual, Maladicta having rolled further to the side

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[dishabille_mal]

Maladicta instinctively did not get up, because the backs of her eyelids were not the right color to warrant it. This made sense if you were sleeping. Instinctively, she did lean back to press against her sleeping fiance because she always noticed when the both of them were up and out, even sleeping, and she hadn't felt the bed shift that much

[dogbitesman]

"Maladicta," William said, speaking very carefully, because speaking at all was requiring an active effort of will, "Did you notice Sacharissa leave this morning?"

There, and now she'd say she had woken up at the disturbance, gone back to sleep, and everything was fine.

Only if that's the case, why did she just go from relief to blankness?

[dishabille_mal]

Shenlong whined. She only noticed it in a distant way. There was the touch of cold that was a nose at her wrist, before he got up to go to William. Maladicta didn't move. This was for many reasons, not the least of which that her greatest desire, in that moment, was to look him in the eye and lie. She wanted to look him in the eye and say Yes. I must have been mostly asleep. But I just now remembered, I did wake up, just for a moment, when she went.

She hadn't, though.

Maladicta swallowed, carefully, and carefully, voice sounding slightly muzzy with sleep but actually being so from the silent strain it had just gone through, said, "No."

[dogbitesman]

"Right," William said, the word tight, having been forced through a throat that didn't want to let anything past. "Well, you could have slept through it. That's a possibility."

He wasn't going to voice the other possibilities. Not just yet. He'd hold off on that. Forever, preferably, although that might not be an option. Please, let it be an option.