The Birds and the Sneeze [Nat, Kylie]

[WESTLEY KIRKLAND]

Wes crept along down the corridor, keeping pressed to the wall so he could inconspicuously travel between the floors and not worry about being caught by a teacher. They didn't understand at all, and they would only cause him trouble and take him off to the frightening vice principle before dragging him off back to his own bed where he would lie awake miserably. So he had to be smart about it, carefully inch along on the balls of his feet to stealthily ascend the stairs and creep to the door of Kylie's room.

He no longer even had to knock, she had mentioned it before that the door was unlocked and he should come in quietly to not awaken her upperclasswoman roommate. The door creaked slightly as he turned the handle and pushed in just a little, only enough to allow him to step on through and carefully shut it without making much of a racket. Doors were hard to keep quiet, especially the wonderful old kind with rusted hinges and wood marbled with age. Their shed was like that, the loving old thing the host of many games and hiding spots from angry elder brothers. This door though was new, the wood still shining brightly with it's stain and the hinges having hardly made much of a sound. It was a little disappointing, he would have thought there would have been quite a few more obstacles for him to overcome to reach the king.

To make it a little less frightening he had been imagining it all like a story, one with dragons and monsters and fairies like Arthur told. He was the brave queen traveling through the forest back home to his king. Each footstep he had heard was a goblin he had to hide from, each voice the song of a siren trying to beckon him off his path to abandon his noble quest. But somehow he had overcome it all with great ease, and it was hardly a good story in his mind now.

Carefully he climbed up onto the bed beside her and slipped under the blankets, setting the pillow he had brought with him down to lay on so he wouldn't have to share. He had quite the horrible nightmare that spurred him to rush over to his sister's room for her comfort and presence, and though he could hardly remember anything about it other than snails it still clenched his stomach in an iron grip with each little thought, the boy feeling uncomfortable alone in his bed after that. Calmly he curled up to her side and closed his eyes, his hand snaking out to grip hers gently so they could hold hands as they slept. Mum had told him about that, if they held hands they would never be alone in their dreams, and Kylie was always so brave and strong that with her he knew his next one wouldn't be horrible. 

[KYLIE KIRKLAND]

Kylie was so deeply immersed in her dream about Gubal (the mythical serpent who brought water to the land) that she only partially woke up when the door opened and lily-pad feet crept softly across the floor. Even while half asleep she could tell that it was her brother and she shuffled over slightly to make room for him.

Wesley’s feet were chilled from his midnight escapade and that made Kylie awaken properly so she could swat his toes back to his side of the bed. “Wes? Wes you’re shivering! Why didn’t you put some socks on silly.” A small hand reached for hers and Kylie took it, understanding immediately what it meant. “Oh”. Without another word she wrapped her arm around him and pulled the blanket up more snuggly around their shoulders.

If they had been at home Kylie might have told her brother a story, one of the ones that their mum read from a book or perhaps one or the ones that Arthur made up for them when they begged him for long enough. But they were at school now and they had to be quiet, otherwise her roomate might awaken and send Wes back to his room or worse, tell a teacher. They didn’t understand.

Wes needed Kylie when he had bad dreams, how else was he meant to get back to sleep again? Who else would assure him that he was safe and didn’t need to cry? And (if Kylie was being honest with herself) she needed to look after Wes as well. Who else was going to remind her to be brave?

Kylie gave a small contented sigh. Her old toy Bruce was on her pillow and Wes was by her side, his hair tickling her face. Everything was alright.    

[NATALYA ARLOVSKAYA]

Natalya was hardly ever in her room. It was more or less just to sleep or take a shower, otherwise she was either out with er friends, studying in the courtyard or the library, or hanging with her boyfriend. It was weird, the Belorussian had never imagined that she would ever be this busy when she attended school. Her first thought was that she would've been locked up in her room, throw out her roomie and be a lonely hermit. And yet here she was, gotten home quite late after a night of ghost-stories and poker, as usual, and had more or less fallen into bed to sleep.

Life was kinda good, she had to admit.

Yet the woman was a light sleeper, the faintest sound didn't go unnoticed by her. Natalya barely knew her roommate, she had said hi, exchanged the usual information towards each others. She knew that the other was younger than her, came from a very warm country as well, and looked like she was up to something mischievous almost all the time. It didn't bother her, but was more careful of what Kylie was up to most of the time, and told her firmly that their room was like a freezone, never any pranks there, ever.

So when a door opened, followed by tiny footsteps, and whispering words in exchange, she was awake. Someone had sneaked into their room in the middle of the night, and she was not pleased to be awoken by that. One of the voices belonged to her roommate, the other did not, it sounded.. Boyish? But no boys where allowed in the girls dormitory (Like she ever cared about that rule anyway.)

Sitting up, and turning the nightstand lamp on, and looked over at the other bed, and she did indeed notice that two figures where in the bed. Grumbing for herself in Belorussian, as she went to the edge of the bed, yawned, and then stood up, heading over to the other bed to see what was really going on in the middle of the fucking night when they had lessons the day after, all of them.

"What the?" She burst out when she noticed that there was indeed a boy in the bed next to Kylie, who looked like he was in the same age, okay, this was surely awkward.

[WESTLEY KIRKLAND]

Wes nuzzled up into Kylie's side, his cheek pressed to her shoulder as their clasped hands lay over her chest. She always seemed to be so warm, far more than most other people it seemed. Somehow...Kylie was just like the stuffed sheep his mother had bought him when he was ten. The stomach was filled with a removable pouch that he could microwave to keep it warm. His Mum had other uses for it though, her grandmother's home remedy of lavender oil and rosemary sprinkled over the pouch to help his asthma. He missed the thing, his mother seemed to have forgotten to pack it because for the life of him he couldn't seem to find his nighttime friend anywhere. Kylie was a good substitute though, Kylie smelled like Kylie, and that smell was home.

He felt his mind slipping off, the familiar sensation of sleep starting to overtake him as he lay cuddled up to his sister. There was a creaking from the other side of the room, but he wrote it off as the roommate rolling over and just let it pass on by. There was nothing that he could detect as wrong until the odd little feeling that someone was watching him tickled the back of his mind and he curled some more into his sister's chest. The strange sensation stayed though, and he could almost feel another person's gaze on him. He wasn't one to jump to conclusions, but the bathroom did look mighty frightening and he wouldn't doubt that monsters if they did exist would live there.

If.

The simple thought of it worked him up enough to jump at the voice of confusion that came from above them, the Kiwi letting out a soft whimper. His hands flailed, frantically half shaking half slapping Kylie to wake up and fight the mon- girl off. Yet, once he took notice it was just her roommate there was little complaint to lay back down and pull the blankets back around them to try to ignore her and sleep properly.

[KYLIE KIRKLAND]

It was Wes that alerted her to the other presence in the room. He gave a small little noise of fright and started shaking Kylie’s shoulder to get her to open her eyes. But here was the odd thing… By the time she was sitting up and rubbing her eyes he had dived back down and pulled the blanket over his head. It was as if he was pretending that he had never tried to awaken her in the first place. Kylie blinked sleepily at the bedroom and noticed that her roommate was in it, for once. “Lo’ Nat’la” she mumbled “Whacha doin’?”

Kylie really didn’t see much of her roommate and that was fine with her. There was something a little otherworldly about Natalya. Her dainty stature reminded the younger girl of the fairy dolls in the old picture books that her mum kept, her hair was probably made of pixie dust and starlight like fairy's hair was. Not at all like Kylie, who was very ruddy and earth-bound in comparison. She was also a lot older, almost an adult.

At least she wasn’t cryptic. At the beginning of the semester she had told Kylie, in no uncertain terms, what was not allowed in their room. She hadn’t mentioned animals yet but Kylie made sure to keep her bug collection hidden anyways, most people really didn’t like bugs for some reason.

Meanwhile Natalya was still staring at her so Kylie cleared her throat tried again “Is the room to warm again? We could turn the air conditioning down.” Kylie herself didn’t like the cold that much but she could always put on and extra jumper and cuddle Wes more. If her roommate wanted a cooler room temperature then so be it.