A/N: Huzzah! An update!! Credit to this chapter, however, does not go to me, as I did not write this. Mary, the one I told you about, did. This was because I had extreme writer's block, and had no idea what to write. So Mary wrote it, and I'm typing it up, and it shall be the next chapter.
For all of you who requested a fluffier chapter, here it is. Enjoy it while it lasts, because you probably won't see one for a long time to come. You'll know why after the next few chapters.
It was a beautiful morning. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the endless blue seemed to travel miles across until it reached the roofs of the houses in a happy, magical place called Suburbia.
There was just one problem in that paradise.
That blasted sun.
Specifically, the sun's ascent into the sky.
Roshaun groaned and blocked his eyes with a hand and wondered briefly if he should have fixed the dang thing. He saves the Earth from disaster, and this is how it repays him?
He followed his morning ritual. With the groaning and the eye-blocking done, it was time to commence with the rolling over and attempting to hide under Dairine.
He rolled over, but there was something missing.
His wife.
There was no comfy wife to block the sun and cuddle up with!
He wondered what was going on. Usually, it was him that was forced to sleep on the couch. Roshaun felt a brief moment of pride in himself. For once, it was he who got to stay in the rather comfortable bed.
He sighed. It wasn't worth it to stay in the bed. He wanted his morning cuddle. By moving, Dairine had messed up his morning routine, and that needed to be corrected.
Somehow, he managed to drag himself out of the bed and toss on a shirt over his bare torso and PJ pants with what Dairine had called a 'Spongebob.' he didn't know what a Spongebob was, but the pants were comfy, and he would rather admit to being wrong than give them up.
That's how comfy they were.
He plodded down the stairs, trying to hold his poor, tired, uncuddled eyes open as he turned into the kitchen. He smiled when he saw his wife, looking just as bad as he probably did. She had her feet curled up under her as she drank her morning coffee, too tired to hold her caffeine-deprived eyes open. He took a step into the kitchen, and her eyes snapped open.
Maybe she wasn't so tired then.
Roshaun made his morning cup of coffee, much more alert than usual. He poured the contents of the pot into his mug and went to the table, sitting in his chair.
Dairine stared at him as he picked out a lollipop with care, decided on an orange one, and began to stir his drink with it. She calmly waited for her husband to finish before confronting him.
Roshaun took a sip of his coffee that was not orange-flavored. To each his own.
"Well," said Dairine calmly while examining her fingernails. The dramatics weren't necessary, but it was fun to make the proud man look as if he were about to wet his pants. "We need to talk."
Roshaun watched his wife pick her nails with something akin to fear in his gut. He knew it was nothing; she was being overdramatic. But hey! The woman was scary and could probably hurt him severely if she tried. Still, those three words were not the ones one wanted to hear when they had just woken up, and wanted their cuddle time.
"What about?" he asked casually. 'Stay calm. She can smell your fear!'
"Oh," she answered calmly. "Nothing much."
Something much, and they both knew it.
Dairine studied him as he hid behind his long, blonde hair, which she had chopped up to his shoulders as of late. He wouldn't allow it to go any shorter; he called it 'Improper.' At least it wasn't in weird little curly spikes that looked like fishhooks, like a kid she knew back in high school.
She waited for it…
"What about?" Roshaun asked, so pathetically it could almost be called cute.
Almost.
"Well, as you may have noticed, the two of us live in this house correct?" He nodded his head cautiously.
"Yes." he answered in a weak, little voice.
He was not cute.
Not a bit.
In fact, she had no idea where these thoughts had stemmed from. He was still in his PJ's for pete's sake! Though, Spongebob was a good look for him…
"And you have noticed that it costs money to keep it, right?" Dairine asked, looking at him mildly. He looked at her with wide, green eyes.
"Yes." he squeaked in a please-don't-hurt-me sort of manner. She supposed it was just the cuddle withdraw she was suffering from, because that's the only reason she could think of that would make her be so uninterested in tormenting him.
"Here's where we hit a small problem." she said. "My pay just got cut, so we're going to have sp trouble keeping this nice house that you love so much."
Roshaun's head jerked up, and the puppy eyes were replaced with worried ones.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" The grin that lit up his wife's face was quite possibly the scariest thing he had ever seen in his life. He knew there was a reason he fell in love with her, yet he couldn't recall what.
"Why yes." she answered innocently. So innocently, in fact, that Roshaun noticed that he had just strolled headlong into a trap.
See what lack of cuddles could do to a person? Totally threw off his day, this lack of quality cuddle time.
"And just what would that be?" he asked. 'Do your worst, woman. I can take anything you throw at me.'
"Well," she appeared to be thinking. "You could try getting a job."
Anything but that.
"What?!"
Dairine took a lollipop for herself (grape) and stuck it in her mouth.
"You need to get a job. Really! It's not hard at all! All you have to do is fill out an application." Roshaun couldn't do anything but stare, open-mouthed, in shock.
"Me, a King, work?" he spluttered.
"Um, hate to break it to you honey, but you gave that up so you could be with me, remember?"
"Yes."
"Well, seeing as you're NOT a king, and we are dirt-poor college students, you need to get a job." Roshaun opened his mouth to protest, but Dairine gave him a look. His mouth shut instantly, and Dairine allowed herself a small smile.
"Now, I was thinking of possible jobs, and I came up with a list of ten that you could choose from." she handed over a piece of paper that she had been holding up until recently.
Possible Jobs for Roshaun
Great, she made him sound like a four-year-old who was being a chore list.
1) Drive-Through Worker.
He had a sudden mental image of himself dressed in the red-and-yellow attire of a McDonald's worker, asking some fat lady and her six kids if they wanted fries with that.
No.
2) Garbage Truck Driver.
He had another mental image of himself, this time as a good little trash man, only to slip on a banana peel and fall into the back of the truck where all the reject drivers go: The Compressor.
He winced.
No.
After saying no to a scuba diver, a mailman, pizza delivery man, plumber, and truck driver, he eventually found a job that looked Semi-interesting.
A Librarian. He cocked his head.
He didn't know why, but he had always found books fascinating. From picture books to fantasy books to TV manuals, words were his friend. His father said it had something to do with his wizardry.
Still, a mere librarian! He could obviously do better than that, and he told his wife so.
"Yes Roshaun, you CAN do better than that, once you get out of school. Until then, it is the law that all of us lowly college students take the reject jobs so we can afford to pay our bills, and the only money we shall have left to buy are Ramen noodles and pancake mix.
"But I like Ramen!" Roshaun protested. Dairine allowed her head to fall into her hands with a soft 'plop.'
"Not my point!"
"Then what IS your point?"
"If you want to be able to eat your Ramen and keep this house, you have to get a job!" Dairine sighed as she said this. She didn't really want to make Roshaun feel bad about having to get a job, and she didn't want to feel bad about forcing him to give up his dignity and get one when she usually had no problem doing just that.
It must be cuddle withdraw.
That, and the way his hair hung in his eyes as he thought and the way he sucked so seductively on his lollipop.
He had to be doing that on purpose.
He returned the lollipop to his coffee.
"Fine."
Dairine grinned, leapt from her chair and flung her arms around his neck. He laughed and wrapped his own arms around her.
"Thank you." she murmured into his chest. His very muscular chest.
"Welcome." he answered, his chin resting atop her messy hair. Her very nice-smelling messy hair.
"Are you still tired?" he asked suddenly. Dairine shook her head.
"Not in the slightest." she laughed.
"Good." Roshaun took her arm and dragged her upstairs for some quality cuddle time.
Xxxx
'Right.' thought Dairine as she lay in bed, her head resting on his shoulder. 'Maybe we'll be able to think straight now.'
He bent down to kiss her on her head, but she turned her head up at the last second, causing their lips to collide.
'I hate him.' she thought. He moved to get up, but she took his arm and dragged him back down. 'I really do.'
A/N: There you go. Flufiness. I hope you enjoyed it, because Mary thinks I'm going to slaughter her now, for reasons explained in the Author's note at the end of the first chapter. This is only if you think of it as me and… what did I call him… Bob? Oh well. Even I have to admit, it is a good chapter. I promise I'll try and update sooner.