Work Text:
Adrian started at Nova, her eyelids closed in sleep.
Asleep. Nova was sleeping. He panicked a little, knowing how she had once told him that she couldn't sleep, even if she wanted to.
So what changed now that she could sleep so peacefully in his arms?
She still had the noise-cancelling headphones on, and her lips were pursed, as if deep in thought, even in her sleep. She looked calm and beautiful.
Adrian set her down among the grass of his forest that he had drawn and looked at her for a little longer, taking her small figure in. In this way, he almost forgot all the fights and hardships she had gone through in her life so far.
He wanted to take a pencil and brush her hair out of her face, then use said pencil to draw Nova in all her brilliance, but then his drawing of her would have come to life and then he would have to explain to the Council why there were 2 Nova's walking around. And that would not have been fun.
He settled for just staring at her. He knew it was creepy because what about starting at someone wasn't creepy? Adrian couldn't help himself though. Her beautiful face shone at him as she slept, and Adrian could feel his own eyes start to droop. He let himself fall into sleep next to Nova.
***
Adrian woke up first. Nova's eyes were still closed, a small expression on her face that suggested she was... happy. Calm.
He looked at her in shock. For someone who could never sleep, she was sleeping so deeply now. Adrian had never seen her like this. It somehow calmed him and made him so worried all at the same time.
Her eyes still closed, Adrian started to walk up the stairs from the basement to his kitchen, where his dads were sitting.
"Hey," he said, walking toward the cabinets holding the mugs. He wanted to get a cup of coffee for Nova, whenever she woke up, if she ever was going to wake up. Oh, God, what if he had killed her? Now he had to worry about something else.
He turned to face his dads. "Do you know where the coffee is?"
"What for?" Simon asked. "You've never drunk coffee before. Is this for Nova?" He looked to the entrance to the kitchen, confused. "Where is she, anyway?"
Adrian took a breath. "Well, here's the thing. She kinda fellasleeponmelastnight."
Hugh raised an eyebrow. "Come again."
"Don't freak out, but Nova fell asleep on me last night," Adrian repeated slowly. He waited for his dads to rush downstairs and shake Nova awake, but it never happened. They just blinked.
Simon spoke first. "Are you sure? I mean, do you think she's just pretending to give you some false security?"
Adrian shook his head. "No, it's... different. She looks so calm and peaceful, like she never has before when she was awake." He looked down. "I don't think you can fake that."
His dads shared a look before turning to face him again. "Coffee's just to your right," Hugh said in the end, gesturing to Adrian's right side.
He smiled at his dads. "Thanks, Dad." He prepared the coffee, with help from his dads, and when it was ready, carefully walked back to where he had left Nova sleeping.
He got one glimpse of her and saw that...
She was still sleeping.
Adrian sighed and walked back up the stairs to keep the mug in the microwave for whenever she did wake up.
Walking back down the stairs after a talk with his dads (in which Adrian was worried that he had broken Nova), he sat on the grass of the forest around him and just stared.
"You're so calm," he whispered to himself, Nova's eyes still closed, her lips still in that small expression that he couldn't place. She looked so beautiful when she was sleeping.
He got up to grab a pencil and paper, drawing the features of her sleeping face, finally having a model who would sit still. Oscar would become restless and twirl his cane, Ruby's legs couldn't stop jittering, and Danna would start turning into butterflies as she got bored.
But Nova. As he drew her lips, he knew that even if she were awake, she'd be a quiet model for Adrian to draw. She wouldn't fidget, or jump, or turn into butterflies, she'd just be Nova. She would sit there quietly, looking beautiful and smiling at Adrian so brightly.
At least, he hoped she would.
He finally got her closed eyes and her pursed lips just right, and he set his paper down to look at his art.
This was probably his greatest work of art yet.
Adrian started to draw one of the animals in the basement, a toucan with a bright orange beak, drawing the shades of its eyes, beak and face. He sighed and leaned against the statue.
He left his sketchbook on the grass, remembering to hang up the picture of Nova in his room later when he wasn't admiring Nova's beauty, when he saw her stir, the birds chirping noisily.
Was she waking up? Had he not broken her? She was okay?
Her eyes opened with a groggy look and all Adrian could say was, "Great skies."
He smiled at her so widely he thought his face would break.