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Vin couldn’t stay asleep.
After sprinting on pewter-enhanced legs all the way along the Luth-Davn Canal, then finding the massacre and the remnants of the Skaa army, she should have been exhausted enough to sleep for a week, regardless of the lumpy ground and gnarled tree roots beneath her. And she was- her limbs were weights on her joints, her head throbbed with her heart, her eyes fought to stay alert- but she just couldn’t find sleep. Every time she began to drift off, one of the soldiers would shuffle, or an insect would chirp, or something else would happen that would send Vin’s tin-heightened senses tumbling in a moment of panic and her weary eyes would snap open.
She felt tears pricking at her eyes in frustration as the latest offender, Kelsier himself, mumbled in his sleep. She just needed to let herself sleep. That was all. Just enough to be able to keep moving tomorrow. But every little noise sent her heart racing and her lungs constricting.
Kelsier rolled over, facing her. He was definitely asleep, but who else was? If Kelsier was asleep, Vin should protect him, right?
She shook her head, blinking away unshed tears. No. She just needed to rest. It would be fine after she got some sleep. She stopped burning her tin, trying to force herself to dim the ambient noise. However, the lack of awareness caused her chest to tighten as she instinctively curled in on herself, fear clawing at her throat. She flared tin and gasped as it cleared her head and accentuated her aching muscles.
“Vin?”
Vin turned to look at Kelsier, who had one groggy eye open, watching her. “Kid, what’s wrong?”
She paused for a moment, considering. Could she admit that she just couldn’t sleep? Despite the guards on the perimeter and the pewter exhaustion?
Kelsier just sighed. “You’re gonna be deadweight tomorrow if you don’t get some sleep.”
She regarded him warily. “Can’t sleep,” She admitted. “Everything keeps waking me up.”
Kelsier frowned. “We’ve got the guards tonight. You don’t need to be burning tin.”
“You are.” It was a statement.
“I am,” he acknowledged sheepishly, “but I have much more practice sleeping through tin than you do.”
She wasn’t sure if that was correct. She’d spent countless nights restless like this, burning trace amounts of tin when she’d been on crews she hadn’t trusted, or when Reen had been out.
When Reen was out… Vin considered the thought. When Reen was out, Vin was alone, with no one to protect her. Even if Reen had beaten her, and betrayed her, eventually leaving her indebted to Camon, he had still kept her safe. As safe as she could be, anyway. Maybe that was the problem tonight. She was exhausted and in pain and had no real place to hide and lick her wounds.
Kelsier sighed again, half asleep already. Vin’s eyelids drooped in sympathy, and then her panic forced them wide open. As some kind of last-ditch effort, he lifted up one arm draped with his mistcloak tassels. An invitation.
She thought he was almost as startled as her when she took it. She rolled over a few paces and stopped underneath his arm, the combination of their two mistcloaks hiding her entirely. She felt his chest tense for a moment as she settled against his shoulder. His arm over her was comforting rather than constricting, the darkness welcoming rather than obfuscating.
Apprehensive, Vin turned off her tin, letting the world fall to a near silent whisper. It wasn’t as terrifying as she feared. She could no longer listen to the guard’s breathing patterns hundreds of feet away, but she could hear quiet footsteps. She could hear Kelsier’s breathing from above her. She didn’t feel safe exactly, but she could let her eyes close. Maybe, just maybe, this would be enough to let her sleep.