#the only one with a silhouette as harsh as hers is katherine of aragon who decides to go to a NUNNERY. who spends her song equally angry | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lailaliquorice · 5 years

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sleepwalking since I was thirteen

no prompt for this one because I have a permit that says I can do what I want ;) nah I just found the title from a song lyric and changed the age to thirteen because it fits kat’s history better.

as much as it doesn’t look like it from the preview, this is actually very soft fluff rather than angst. you don’t really see aragon and kat’s relationship talked about as much as jane’s and kat’s which I think is a real shame because these two have so much potential. is there hinted aramour here? maybe. you decide <3

Kat’s nightmares were a long-accepted fact of life in the queens’ house. They had been serious in the first couple of months, recurring almost every night and leaving Kat so drained that some days could be just as much of a struggle too. But a long time of therapy and counselling had made them a lot more infrequent and a lot less traumatic when they did happen, so the other queens were no longer on high alert for any noises from Kat’s room whenever they woke up during the night. It was a weight lifted from everyone’s shoulders, most of all Jane’s and Anne’s.

But there were still some nights where the dark figures crept back into her dreams. She didn’t always scream anymore but she would still wake up drenched in cold sweat with harsh breaths catching in her throat, hands trembling as she rubbed tears away from her eyes and wondered why this had to happen to her again.

Like always she was scared to just try and fall straight back to sleep after waking up, the shadows lurking in her room feeling just as scary as she silhouettes looming behind her eyes. So she threw back the tangled duvet and stood up on shaking legs, pulling her dressing gown around her before silently opening her bedroom door and heading down the stairs.

To her surprise there was still a light on in the living room when she arrived downstairs; a glance towards Anna’s room told her it wasn’t her since her door was closed, meaning it had to be someone else still awake. Not wanting to talk to anyone just yet she went into the kitchen first, flicking the kettle on and rummaging around the cupboard for Jane’s box of peppermint tea bags.

She was leaning against the counter, cradling her steaming mug with her dressing gown pulled over her hands, when there was a light knock at the kitchen door to gently catch her attention.

Kat jumped at the sound, a few drops of tea spilling over the rim of the mug to soak into the soft fabric of her dressing down. “Sorry,” she said on instinct, steadying her mug before looking up towards the door to see who had been in the living room.

“Don’t be sorry, that was my fault for making you jump,” Aragon said. She too was wrapped up in her dressing gown though hers was heather grey rather than pink like Kat’s, and the sleepy rasp to her voice suggested she’d accidentally fallen asleep where she was rather than stayed up for any particular reason.

Shrugging slightly, Kat looked her in the eye nervously for a second before dropping her gaze again. “S’alright,” she muttered, then asked “How come you’re awake? Didn’t think anyone’d still be up.”

A slight smirk appeared on Aragon’s face. “I fell asleep reading. Don’t tell Jane,” she said with a wink, stifling a yawn with one hair as she ran her hand through her sleep-mussed curls with the other. It wasn’t often that Kat got to see her looking so human when she was so much more uptight during the day, and as she returned the smile shyly she thought of how nice it was.

“Don’t tell Jane I’m here either,” Kat said, her voice dropping closer to a whisper as her mind took her back to the reason why she was downstairs in the first place.

Aragon frowned at the pained expression on Kat’s face, crossing the kitchen to give her a concerned look from close up. There was silence for a few seconds as Kat tried to not drop Aragon’s lingering gaze and shy away like she so desperately wanted to, but she managed not to until Aragon said softly “Nightmares, love?”

Kat gave a tiny sniffle as she bowed her head at last.

Hesitant fingertips brushed Kat’s shoulder for a moment, waiting to see if she would react before a hand was rubbing her arm soothingly. “Let’s go and sit down,” Aragon said, leading Kat into the living room where the dim lamplight cast a comforting glow over the room. Aragon sat down first on the sofa and Kat instinctively leaned into her side, keeping a careful hold of her mug as she tucked her legs underneath herself and rested her head on the soft material of Aragon’s dressing gown.

“It wasn’t as bad as they used to be,” Kat murmured after a minute’s comfortable silence, feeling comfortable enough to talk now that she could never be vulnerable with Aragon sat next to her. She sat up and took a sip of her tea as she added “But I still don’t like going back to sleep afterwards.”

“That’s understandable,” Aragon said with a nod. Kat was immediately reminded of why Anne said she often preferred to go to Aragon when something was wrong rather than Jane. Whereas Jane was amazing at offering comforts and sympathies and making her feel like everything was going to be ok, Aragon’s more logical style of comfort made her feel like she could say anything at all and there would never be a hint of judgement in her kind eyes.

Aragon falling quiet again was a clear prompt for Kat to continue, so she cleared her throat before speaking again. “I don’t get them often anymore and they’re never as scary because I know I can stand my ground now. I know better now – I know it wasn’t my fault so my dreams can’t guilt me anymore, and I know I’m safe when I wake up. I knew I was dreaming so I just had to get myself to wake up and then they couldn’t hurt me anymore.”

There was a warm smile on Aragon’s face when Kat turned to look at her as her words ran out. “You’ve done so very well,” she said, the fondness in her voice bringing a tiny smile to Kat’s own lips. “You were always stronger than those who hurt you, and I’m so glad you can see that now. We’re all so proud of you, Katherine.”

This time it was tears of happiness that pricked in Kat’s eyes, and she willingly obliged when Aragon tightened the arm around Kat’s shoulders to pull her into a tight embrace.

Kat didn’t stay smiling for long though, as the question she’d woken up with continued to play on her mind until she couldn’t keep it inside any longer. “Why do they have to come back though?” she asked quietly, her expression falling flat and her voice void of emotion.

Aragon sighed as she released the arms that encircled Kat’s back. “I wish I could tell you,” she said, and the honesty in her tone meant more to Kat than any false promises would have been. “All I can say is that they are already lessening, and they’ll continue to do so until you rarely see them again. Because that’s how time heals.” She gave Kat a knowing look as she finished; one that said that even though the demons they faced weren’t the same, she still knew somewhat what she was going through.

“Yeah, I know. Thanks,” Kat said, shrugging one shoulder a little helplessly.

They were quiet for a moment before Kat yawned, mumbling out a muffled apology as Aragon chuckled. “Would you like to stay in my room for the rest of the night?” Aragon asked. “A change of scenery and someone there with you might help you sleep easier.”

She smiled, shyly. “I’d really like that.”

After draining what little tea she had left, Kat rinsed her mug out in the kitchen while Aragon turned out all the lights before the two of them went back upstairs. As always she found herself hesitant to go more than a few steps into Aragon’s bedroom before Aragon prompted her to sit down on the bed; despite how much she loved all the queens, with the exception of Jane and Anne she always felt like she was invading their spaces by going into their bedrooms uninvited.

“Come on,” Aragon repeated with a hint of laughter to his tone, waiting for Kat to take off her dressing gown and lie down comfortably before she turned the light off to leave them bathed in lamplight once again.

Kat watched through tired eyes as Aragon finished getting ready for bed, braiding her hair quickly and hanging up her dressing gown, before she got into bed beside Kat. Her hand hovered over the switch of her bedside lamp for a second but then she turned to her and said “Can I ask something? Why did you tell me not to tell Jane?”

There was a moment where Kat shifted uncomfortably just thinking of the right words before she responded. “I don’t know,” she started reluctantly, “I guess… I love her but I don’t want her to think that I’m struggling all the time. I get worried she thinks that I only use her when I’m upset.”

“She would never think that about you, you know? She loves you a lot,” Aragon said, the dim light illuminating the slightly exasperated smile on her face as she met Kat’s gaze. “She just wants to be there for you through all this, and outside it too. Because we stay by each other through the good as much as the bad, and she knows that.”

“I know, I know,” Kat nodded. She paused for a few seconds after that, sighing deeply, before she looked at Aragon with a hint of a cheeky smile. “That means you should tell Jane you fell asleep earlier too. She cares about you just as much,” she pointed out.

Aragon’s smile widened and grew a little sheepish at that. “I suppose you’re right,” she said. She turned over to turn the lamp off and plunge them into a comfortable darkness, and through the sound of her shifting to lie down properly Kat heard her add “We can both tell her about our midnight venture tomorrow, how about that.”

“Yeah,” Kat whispered, closing her eyes and hoping that as sleep came it didn’t bring any more dreams.

The next morning Jane would notice neither Kat or Aragon awake by the time they were normally up and go to check on them, first looking around Kat’s open door before knocking lightly on Aragon’s. The sight of the pair still fast asleep next to each other in Aragon’s bed brought a happy smile to her face, touched and grateful to Catherine for looking after Kat in her absence. As she headed back downstairs with the intention of making breakfast in bed for them, she thought of how lucky she was that the two of them had each other and that she could call them both her family.

#six the musical #six the musical fanfiction #six the musical fanfic #katherine howard #catherine of aragon #laila's writing

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