Oh good.

Ember is content to continue like this until Muvaki wakes up.

Her second set of nightmares are not so easy to tame.

Poor Muvaki :(

- and then her eyes snap open and she sits up, gasping, looking around wide-eyed!

"Are you okay? You looked like you were having a bad dream."

"I - " am too freaked out to do more than stare in confusion and fear! 

She turns her palms face-up and keeps them where Muvaki can see them.

"It's okay, no one here is going to hurt you."

(it's - it's just Ember. She's not -)

Muvaki slumps forward, still breathing rather quickly.

"...yeah. Bad dream."

"Do you want to try to sleep some more, or are you all done?"

"I - I'm not sure." She hugs herself. (She looks scared.)

...Gentle, careful, slow hug?

In what may now becoming a familiar pattern to Ember, Muvaki freezes up at the initial contact - 

- and then leans into it, letting herself fall into Ember's arms.

(The contact makes it easier to notice how much she's shaking, though it's getting a bit better, now.)

Ember is gentle and warm and happy to let Muvaki lean on her.

"Do you want me to wake you up if you have more bad dreams? I wasn't sure..."

Muvaki shakes her head slowly. "It happens a lot," she whispers. "I'm - I'm used to it." The throat-slitting one was new, though.

"Oh... I'm sorry."

Muvaki doesn't know what to do with that. She doesn't think she wants it to stop, though

"...was a bit different from usual, at least," she mumbles. She lets her arms go slack, because it feels awkward to have them clinging to her sides with Ember hugging her. 

...and then, because she actually is stupid, and weak, and so so desperately lonely, she gingerly reaches out, like she doesn't know what she's doing and doesn't trust that it won't make everything explode, attempts to... put them around Ember???

Ember smiles at her!

Okay well if this is okay, Muvaki is just going to cling to Ember and listen to half her brain screaming at her that she's needed this her entire life and that she has to be very very careful to not upset Ember and the other half screaming at the first half that this isn't safe to need and they need to be responsible and not stupid and assume it's a fluke and not get used to the idea. 

It's a lot! And apparently she's feels so vulnerable weak that she has to try not to cry about it?

...try not to cry much about it?

...try not to audibly sob about it.... 

Ember does not seem to be getting upset with her about this!

She squeezes her a little tighter.

Aaaaand now she's clinging desperately to Ember and sobbing like - 

well, like she hasn't been hugged since she was four years old.

Hughughug. "It's okay, I'm not going to go away—"

Muvaki is going to have a hard time believing that! (It's probably good for her to hear anyways.)

...it's hard, physically, to sob for extended periods of time, especially when the muscles involved are already struggling. She'll settle down, in time, though she's still clinging to Ember like she's afraid none of this is real.

Ember still has some water and rolls left from earlier; she'll offer some to Muvaki once she's started to calm down.

Muvaki is not hung- 

(Okay, no, that's not true, she is kind of very hungry?) But she -

- she's afraid to let go of Ember. (She shakes her head tightly - using words seems too hard and scary.)

(it wasn't long after she learned to talk that her mom stopped hugging her, after all.)