Graduation Beyond Naiveté

Dom was trying to keep it casual, spare Declan the embarrassment and shame while reducing Anette's fear and uncertainty. With as little as they knew about the poor girl, Dom did not want to add to her  troubles by implying that she could not even be safe here. As dangerous as his sleep walking had been, Dom was still somehow convinced that Declan would never harm them, not even in his sleep. And staying with them had to be safer than being left to the elements, so Dom would continue to insist that the girl was safer with them.

No, she was much more worried right now about whether or not Declan was safe from himself.

Declan spoke soothingly to Anette and Dom took the opportunity while his back was turned to mouth to Anette the words 'I'll watch him.' Declan turned, seemingly none the wiser to her discrete reassurances, and she let him guide her back to the room, even if he might have been the one who needed guidance. Still, she could not imagine how out of control he must have felt, so she allowed him this.

The door closed behind them and Dom turned, reaching up to catch his arms in her hands, looking at him with serious eyes. "Are you okay?" she asked softly.

Dom took his arms before he could begin wandering aimlessly around his bedroom. In a strange way, it was sort of their bedroom, but tonight it felt like it was nobody's space at all because he felt so lost. It was as if someone had dropped him onto the carpeted floor and made Dom take hold of him. None of it felt real. But it had to be, because she sounded like his Dom and he needed this to be the awake part because the asleep part was too scary for everybody, it seemed.

"I don't know," he answered after a pause that was a touch too long.

Declan looked down at his hands, trying to discern how they could have betrayed him thusly. How could he be okay when, despite having so much to protect, he caused pain instead? His fingers curled into his palms before he stepped back and away from her. Then he let himself sit down on the bed again, this time lifting the sheets to pull them over himself.

"I wasn't kidding," he said. A lie, actually, because he had, in fact, been joking earlier, "when I said that you should put wards around the bed. I think you ought to."

And he wasn't laying down, but rather leaning against the headboard. Even if she conceded and joined him, wards in place, he would only shift down to the pillows and gaze up at the ceiling. He knew before she even responded that the request was one he didn't have to make.

Exhausted or not, he couldn't afford to fall asleep with the girls there.

So, from the bed, he radiated confusion and made no attempt to hide how tired he was. Declan just wanted her to be able to get some sleep. It was impossible, of course, to hide the shame he felt. But that was inevitable and something he didn't expect her to linger on, as it made a great deal of sense. Even so, he tilted his head back and made note of the textured ceiling and the places where the paint was lumpy, rather than allowing himself to be guilted into saying more. Not by Dom, mind you, but by his own conscience.

He moved away from her quickly, pacing to show his immediate distress. Dom watched him with worried eyes, wishing he would just stopped, wishing he had remained in her grasp. She knew Declan well. Well, she knew him well enough to know he was going to torturing himself about this. He was going to take all of this on himself, internalize it, and it was going to make it worse. That was the part he didn't understand - things would get worse the longer he let it marinate.

"I wasn't kidding when I said that you should put wards around the bed. I think you ought to."

"Declan," came her soft voice, tilting her head as she looked at him with something nearing disappointment. Did he really not trust himself that much? Did he really think that was necessary? He settled against the bed but she just stared at him, looking at the exhaustion building under his eyes, the worry tugging at his lips.

She took a steadying breath. "Declan, even in your sleep, your first instinct was to cook." She tried to lift her lips into a smile. "You reverted to something normal, something almost mundane. I don't think you're dangerous. The less you sleep, the less you take care of yourself, the worse you'll be."

She paused, glancing around. "Here." She crossed to Declan's closet and rifled through, pulling out a tie and crossing over to the bed, crawling on it towards him. She patted the bed next to her, giving him that classic Weasley Do-What-I-Say look. She looped one end of the tie around her wrist and then reached over to tie the other end onto his. "Not my attempt to spice things up, promise," she said, glancing up at him with a grin. "But, if you get out of bed, you'll drag me out too. But, I bet we're going to get a good... morning's sleep."

She stared at him for a moment, before her other hand reached up to touch his face. "We'll have breakfast, take care of Ant, and then visit Teddy or Khaat. And we'll do it all together."

Her words brought a very vague, very confused thought to the front of his mind: Did she like carrot cake?

Unsure where the question had come from, he just listened to her passively. He couldn't bring himself to agree with her, even as he wanted to. He tried to. But what if Dom had approached more quickly and surprised him? What if Ant hadn't gone to Dom and had woken him sharply? There was nothing safe or mundane about a knife in the hands of a frightened man.

She was right about the health benefits of sleeping properly, though. So he let his head dip to one side to show that he agreed. Of course, his concession to her point did not make it easier when she began digging around and approached with the last thing he could have expected.

His eyebrows lifted - both of them, not even ironically - although he undoubtedly would have made a sarcastic comment about it under any other circumstances. As it were, Declan was both exhausted as well as desperate to understand.

Besides, Declan wasn't exactly what you'd call 'kinky.' At least, not as far as he knew.

He merely watched as she tied the pair of them together, hoping that she really did have this all figured out. The more she spoke, the more it seemed like she was right about everything. When he finally found words with which to respond, his voice was quiet even though his mouth lifted into a strangely contented smile.

"You see, Dom? This is why I love you." He lifted their tied hands in front of her face. "And so is this."

A quiet laugh. Hands dropped back into their laps.

"I knew from the beginning." He sat forward to seek out a brief kiss, then pulled back the covers for her. "Come on, then. I owe you a lie in come dawn."

And once the sun began to rise, Declan wouldn't wake. Rather, he would be sleeping soundly, and much more deeply than he had on previous evenings. He had shifted down the bed - as far as the tie would allow, of course - and was pressed up against her. He'd fixed the temperature in the flat first, of course. Not enough to bother Ant, but plenty enough to make him subconsciously seek out her warmth.

And so one arm was draped low across her waist, and his forehead had managed to wedge itself against both the mattress and the side of Dom's upper arm, with his nose tucked in between. Somehow, he was breathing just fine. After all, he had burrowed into the sheets just enough to be touching her besides the contact around her middle, and just too little to surprise either of them into waking because of it. Lucky, that. Because it afforded him a few much needed hours of rest, and ensured that he didn't wake her unceremoniously. Again.

It was Ant who woke first, between herself and Declan, and who had quietly turned on the telly to watch whatever was on. Unsurprisingly, it was a match between a couple of Irish teams, and the commentator's accent was so unusual that it had her smiling broadly each time something was announced. And she didn't even mind waiting for breakfast, giving her inability to cook and her general lack of knowledge about Declan's flat. If they were still quiet and no knives were being waved about, she was content.

He didn't fight her, for which she was thankful. It was already a weird enough gesture as it was, but if he put up a fight, it could end up being downright incriminating. When she had made sure her end was loose enough to not cut off her circulation but tight enough that she couldn't slip loose, she looked up to see him smiling at her. A smile blossomed beneath his praise and she recalled the moments before the sleep that would turn so nefarious - reassurances of love and caring. That's how this night had ended originally, and she didn't want a bout of sleepwalking to change that.

She leaned forward to meet his kiss and said, "It took me awhile to figure it out, but I won't forget anytime soon." She slipped beneath the covers and curled closer to him, desperate to convey how secure she felt with him, regardless of the night's events.

Dom wasn't sure why she woke first. Typically, she was the one to sleep in, but maybe it was a sense of duty, a sense of keeping the peace, that made her stir first. Declan was tucked neatly against her, causing a small smile to unfold on her lips, which she brushed against his forehead before she yawned, letting her limbs stretch out, though one was restrained. She paused, deliberating for a moment, before she reached down to loosen the tie and slip out of bed.

He needed his sleep. But she would bet Ant needed blueberry pancakes.

She crossed the room as soundlessly as she could and slipped through the door to find the sound of the telly on. Dom yawned as she made her way into the living room, making her presence known to the little girl.

"Think you could help me make some blueberry pancakes? I have a craving."

When Dom's request was voiced, Anette turned around and shrugged good-naturedly before reaching over to shut off the telly. It would be easier for her to focus on the directions Dom gave if she had fewer things distracting her. So she got up and pattered her way into the kitchen behind the blonde.

Declan woke to a screech of surprise, followed by loud, embarrassed laughter. Frowning, he stretched and sat up as he looked around the room. So much for letting Dom sleep in, eh? Still, waking was easier than it had been in recent weeks, clearly due to his surprisingly deep rest.

"Sorry," Ant was still saying as Declan made it too the doorway and leaned around to find them.

"Merlin," he gaped at her, honestly unsure for a moment if he'd even had that much flour in the kitchen. It had somehow managed to cover the counter as well as Anette's hair, face and shoulders. "Annie," he added, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Sorry!" She repeated, laughing a bit despite his shock. "I knocked it over." She pointed at the bowl.

Declan ran a hand over half of his face in an attempt to wake up as well as to temper his surprised expression. Then, without even thinking about it, he called his wand to him and cleaned up the mess before properly approaching. Anette watched, mouth open in awe as the flour tidied itself up. While her expression was slightly odd, in his opinion, Declan didn't linger on it because he was more intent upon walking around to Dom's other side.

Leaning against the counter, he smirked slightly as he ran his hand over the opposite wrist. Apparently he had shifted enough to leave the imprint of the tie's fabric on one side, and in any other circumstance - well, nearly any - it would have been vastly embarrassing and laughable. Instead, his expression was one of muted gratitude. But he did hope it wouldn't become a nightly occurrence.

Rather than saying anything specifically about their arrangement, he asked instead, "Got enough sleep, I hope?"

It didn't take long for them to make a mess of the kitchen. Dom had pulled out all they needed and got the flour poured and was rummaging through the fridge to find the fresh blueberries, asking Ant to add the eggs when she realized, a second later, that asking a little girl to handle a heavy bowl full of flour might not have been the cleverest decision. Dom really didn't have lots of kid experience, besides dealing with her cousins. There wasn't quite enough of an age gap for her to have ever been deemed babysitter; even if there had, she doubted she would ever be the first choice, not with Victoire and Teddy around to be the golden children.

Pft. They weren't as cool as they thought they were.

Dom had enough experience with her own butter fingers to know exactly how to react as the bowl clanged to the ground and flour rose in a powdery mushroom cloud.

She burst into laughter.

Ant was laughing too, but she was obviously embarrassed. Dom waved a hand, clutching her sides as she laughed. "I once... dropped... an entire lasagna... on my cooking instructor." Their laughter doubled, Dom having forgotten all about their mission - to silently make breakfast to have it waiting for-

And there he was.

"Declan!" Dom said, a hand fluttering to her lips to stifle her laughter. "Sorry for waking you up, love. We just... got a little overenthusiastic." She shot a smirk over to her young assistant. Declan quickly cleaned up the mess and Dom retrieved the blueberries, setting them aside. Declan reached her side and she smiled, rubbing her hand reassuringly over his arm. "Definitely. Ant and I thought blueberry pancakes might be a nice surprise. We went a bit far with the surprising part." Again, a burble of laughter. "And you?"

Anette lifted a hand, wiping at the corner of her eye with her forefinger as her laughter spilled over into tears. At least she was no longer covered in flour. It brought a fully-fledged smile back to Declan's face, though, and for a few moments he forgot about the terror of their three a.m. incident.

It was not lost on him, of course, that she had taken his typical endearment and turned it back on him. That alone was enough to make his day right out of the gate.

"It's fine," he assured them. "The thought is plenty enough for me. But I wouldn't complain about having some breakfast. Can I help?"

Ant quickly stepped around Dom, pulling at the hem of his shirt. "No. We're doing it, so you should go- like, get dressed or shower or something."

Declan's eyebrow lifted, and his gaze drifted briefly to Dom but he shrugged a little and leaned over to kiss Dom on the cheek before wandering back into the bedroom. Anette waved a hand at him when he paused and looked back, clearly impatient for him to get going. His forehead creased but he closed the door behind him nonetheless.

Pleased though rather serious, Ant spun back to Dom. "So. I guess we need more flour?"

[ooc: this is heading somewhere, I promise XD]

((Haha no worries. I'm enjoying it.))

Declan asked to help with breakfast and Dom opened her mouth, always glad to have an excuse to order him around, but Anette stole the opportunity from her. Dom shot Ant a curious look, turning her face towards Declan to give him a way look, eyes widening with a satisfaction that, while she didn't know what that was about, somehow felt vindicated in it. She turned her head to give him better access to her cheek, reaching out to squeeze his hand, before watching him go off, fondness in her eyes.

Ant was all business the second Declan was gone, and Dom straightened up, also taking up a serious expression. "Yes. Back on the horse." She took out another bag and measured out the flour. "Why don't you pick out the blueberries and wash them?"

As Dom began to whisk the eggs into the flour, she tilted her head. "You slept well, I hope?"

She wasn't going to push anything. Everything would be better if she let Ant take her own time opening up.

Although Anette immediately got to work on what Dom asked of her, carrying the bowl and the container over to the sink and lifting up on her toes to turn on the tap, she sort of stopped listening. Even though Declan was acting kind of normal - or, normal for how Ant knew him - she didn't trust it. Both of them had implied that he was much changed from before the summer stuff at the other school, so surely none of this was normal, actually?

So why wasn't Dom more upset about it?

When the question Declan had asked was directed at her instead, Ant ignored it. In fact, she turned to Dom, dropping the berries in the bowl on her way around, and just frowned for a moment. Then she laid it down:

"Are you going to fix him? Last night was bad, so you kind of have to."