Rating: Cookies and Cream (16+ plz and thank you)
Do you ever think about Leo and how he’s the king of Insomnia?
He knows a little something about what it’s like to be haunted. To have your bones ache with the ghosts of weary exhaustion; a feeling that unfortunately more often than not makes one feel more dead than alive.
He understands the drag of having to pry your eyes open for just another day, plaster on a smile that stopped feeling real years ago and then attempt to go at it with only half energy in your cup.
Leo understands the rolling around feelings of restlessness, like the waves of a dyspeptic ocean, never settling.
Never still enough to ever find peace.
So can you imagine when Leo finds out one way or another (as he so often does, clever turtle that he is) that somehow you are plagued with a similar state of mind?
It may be for various reasons: work, family, life, responsibilities etc etc and despite the variety of it all, he probably would get it more than most. For despite all the differences, there is a startling amount of connection, a unique relateablilty if you will, between the two of you, that unconsciously draws him close. It’s because of this connection that his heart just… sinks. Leo may very well be a swashbuckling charismatic pirate for all these years he’s learned to travail against his insomnia seas. But you…
You are no such experienced sailor.
The waters of sleep are relentless in their cruelty in their attempt to escape you. And ever in lucks favor, and that being none at all, you are found hopelessly drifting, never to find your own serenity amongst the ever agitated waves.
Perhaps it is that fabled connection that draws Leo close to you tonight, or the fact that you were starting to look like a pale, drawn out tired sail, more than Leo ever cared to see.
He had seen enough ghosts in his own mirrored reflections. Your eyes did not need the weight of such horrors. They were last place he ever wanted to see haunted.
So with actions trickling from his own well of compassion, Leo wordlessly sweeps you up into the cradle of his arms, even despite your indignant squawk something reminiscent of a seagull’s cry. Not that he minds or even will admit to ever listening to you as he begins to rock you.
Back and forth. Back and forth. Back. And. Forth.
Despite all his bravado, Leo never truly believed he was ever worthy of the title of hero. He would fight everything and everyone, including himself, to prove it to the world, to prove it to you, if he could.
And yet…there was something empowering about the feeling of you in his hold.
The way your eyelashes fluttered slowly shut, the hitches of your breath steadied and the planes of your face smoothed. Leo didn’t feel the need to take on the world, not anymore, not when his whole entire world was now here resting in the security of his arms. And so, much like a boat resting in the embrace of the calmest waves, Leo rocks you in the simplest of sways, humming the softest of tunes as he holds you close against his plastron. Silently praying that the beat of his heart would be the siren’s call that would set the rhythm for which you could finally fall asleep. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back. And. Forth.
…
Do you ever think about Leo and how he’s the king of Insomnia?