Just as he had promised, Hatter stayed by her side all while she slept with his arms tight around her, almost fearing that if he let her go that he may lose her forever. As she slept he caressed up and down her back, massaged against her spine and her shoulder blades, and every so often gave her light kisses along her neck and face. Perhaps it seemed silly to do but for some reason he couldn't keep himself from doing it. Was this what true happiness felt like?
He had drifted off to sleep himself a few times though he never slept for long as he wanted to be sure that he awake when Azeal awoke. Ever loyal was he. And when she finally did wake he was relieved to see that she seemed to be feeling at least a little better.
"I never break a promise," he said simply, reaching up to run a pale hand through her lovely blue hair and then down the back of her neck.
Though the bed was not the most comfortable thing he had ever slept on he had slept on far worse-- including, but not limited to, the ground, a bathtub, numerous chairs, a wooden bunk in the Queen of Heart's dungeon, an old wooden chest, a metal slab, and the occasionally but rather random times he had slept standing up, and that was no small feat, but for a man that could Futterwacken so ferociously, why, sleeping while standing wasn't so hard at all.
But despite the lack of much comfort that the bed provided he found it much more comfortable with Azeal resting atop of him. Her warm body soothed his muscles, her sweet scent and soft flesh made the bed infinitely more bearable. She was light enough that he had no problem breathing and she caused him no real discomfort, but most of all he simply enjoyed being so close to her.
"Is your body still sore?" he asked and brought his hands back down to rest them on her shoulders, silently offering her another massage, though he wasn't sure how good he was at such a task, he had never really given anyone a massage before-- she was his first.
But wait... Back to the previous point, he was laying in bed with Azeal, she atop of him, and he was embracing her. Now that he thought about it... Wait... It started to sink into his splintered brain now piece by needle-thin piece...
Oh dear.
Usually when a man and woman were in bed together it wasn't usually just for simple hugs and massages, didn't they usually... do that? Hatter had never done that, or he wasn't sure that he had ever done that... maybe... possibly. It was hard to say. He would have to go with a mostly convincing "no" with a very small "maybe"... Anyway, back to the point, in bed a man and a woman did that... Was Azeal and himself now supposed to do that too? He supposed he didn't mind if she didn't, but... Oh, poppycocky, maybe his mind was simply running away with him yet again.
Still, he couldn't rid himself of the thought, and he felt his body slowly beginning to react to it, to warm, his heartbeat to quicken just a bit. "Azeal, p-perhaps... you should get off of me..." he said trying to sound less startled than he really was. "It isn't that I don't enjoy being here with you, it's just that... well..." How was he supposed to say it? It wasn't that he was scared of being intimate with her-- not entirely, anyway-- but he didn't want her to feel his body reacting to her, he didn't want her to feel the bulge below that he was sure was growing, and he didn't want her to feel his warming body. What would she think if she realized that he was becoming-- how should he put it?-- excited with her? Would she think less of him? Would she be disgusted, offended, displeased, angry, annoyed, frustrated, resentful, indignant, irritated, balked, crimped...?
His mind was running away again...