Restless night

Though Laila felt annoyed at his words and his earlier behaviour, she couldn't deny that he was right. With his personality, she could have known that he would react the way he did. She had just not calculated that in when she decided to head to bed. She hadn't thought of anything at that point. She had simply been tired and wanted to go to bed. It wasn't her intention to create a moment alone for Maria and Steve, she didn't think about Noah's protective side, she was only thinking about getting some sleep. But now that the damage was done, they needed to deal with it and Laila felt that she had done a pretty decent job. Despite her excuse not being the best excuse, it was an excuse that wasn't entirely unbelievable. It could very well have been the truth and she had done her best to sell it as such.

Instead of picking a fight with Noah over the matter, Laila decided to let it go and accept that she was partly to blame for how things had gone tonight. She let out a sigh while looking at Noah's stubborn face before answering his question about how Maria was doing. While Laila and Noah were discussing the day's events in their room, Maria was busy thinking about them in hers whereas Steve was trying to keep his mind off them by reading a bit in his room. Like that all four of them were still being affected by the night's events when they had all tried so hard to pretend like nothing had happened at all.

Thirty minutes later all the lights in the house had been turned off and everyone had taken another try at getting some sleep. While Laila and Noah were being successful, Steve and Maria felt themselves tossing and turning a lot more than what would allow a good night's rest. It was close to four in the morning when Maria finally gave up her battle with sandman and accepted there was no more sleep in it for her. She quietly opened her room door and slipped through the hall and headed down the stairs. What Maria hadn't accounted for, were the motion triggered lights that had been installed in the hallway. After a certain time, they would automatically switch from having to be turned on manually to being activated by motion.

In fact they weren't regular motion lights, they were innovative lights from Noah's company that could be triggered by motion, pressure from sensors in the floor and they would even switch to night mode when the brightness-level in the hall dropped underneath a certain level. While Maria hadn't anticipated on the automatic lights, having walked out with the flashlight on her phone turned on, they hadn't stopped her from finishing her walk to the ground floor either.

But while Laila and Noah were too fast asleep to notice the lights in the hall turning on, Steve did. He had always been sensitive to light and being in a different bed than usual, he was sleeping even lighter. So, when Maria walked out of her room and passed his room, the light from the hall seeped in through the gap between the door and the floor, waking him up almost instantly. Though he was still a bit groggy at first but when he realized what he had actually been woken by were the lights from the hallway he became wide awake. Knowing that the one who must have triggered the lights was the the same person who had been the reason for his restless night, he got out of bed and followed her downstairs.

Though only seconds had passed by between the moment Maria had gone downstairs and Steve following her, by the time he had reached the bottom of the stairs, Maria was nowhere in sight. Steve passed through the foyer and looked in the living room, then he headed into the dining room and finally he entered the kitchen. There he found her with her head leaning into the fridge, rummaging to find some food. Though he couldn't imagine having much of an appetite at this time of day, he had learned from their interactions during the day before that women's eating habits and appetites are something no man will probably ever understand. So, he had given hope in ever trying to. Instead he had just decided to accept that this was just how things were and that he shouldn't ask about it as it would help neither of them.

When Maria realized someone had entered the kitchen, she looked up from behind the fridge door with a startled expression on her face. Seeing that it was Steve, she felt relieved before her sense of awkwardness resurfaced. In a collected tone she said, "Oh, it's you." before showing a slightly forced smile. Then she asked a bit shyly, "Couldn't sleep either?"

Steve was happy that Maria didn't ignore him. She didn't seem too upset at him being here either, despite her still avoiding his eyes. As he slowly came closer and took a seat on one of the bar stools he said, "Yeah. Somehow it is different when you aren't sleeping in your own bed, in your own room. So, when I noticed someone going downstairs, I thought that I might as well head downstairs as well. That way I would have at least found some company. I hope you don't mind me being here. If you would rather be alone I would totally understand. I will just go back upstairs and wait till I fall back asleep."