He flipped sleepily to his right side, and was instantly struck by her scent. Once upon a time, he may have recognized that scent as some specific fruit or flower. But now, it was just her. His eyes opened, and as they adjusted to the still dark room, he found himself staring straight into a sea of dark, wavy hair. He chuckled to himself as he wondered, as he often did, how she managed to deal with all that hair on a daily basis. He'd never ask, of course. He loved her hair. Why put thoughts in her head?
Though he thought he's bottled off his laugh fairly well, it must've been forceful enough to disturb her sleep. He watched as her pale shoulder made its presence known from beneath the mass of hair, shrugging the dark locks aside as she turned to her back. He waited patiently as her eyes squeezed together hard, her chest rising from beneath the white sheet as she took in a great yawn. As her lips closed back together, her eyelashes struggled open, leaving her blue eyes to gaze into the dark room straight above her. Almost immediately those eyes started to search for him, sending a surge of what he could only identify as pride flowing through his entire body.
"Hey you," she said upon finding him, her lips curling into a small smile as she let her eyelids fall back together.
"Hey yourself," he answered.
"I didn't think you'd be up."
"I could say the same to you. After last night…"
"No kidding," she laughed as she turned to face him, slipping her shoulder back under the sheet to his disappointment. "It was… some night."
"Some of my finest work," he answered, unable to keep the smile from his face.
"Shall we…" she started, reaching her hand over and resting it on his bare chest. "… pick up where we left off?"
He froze, somewhat stunned. What she seemed to be proposing wasn't totally unheard of, but it was always something of a grand surprise.
""Well, you know I'm never going to say no to that."
"I had a feeling," she whispered as she gracefully lifted herself to her elbow. "Why don't you just close your eyes? Relax."
He obeyed, although the absolute last thing he wanted to do was close his eyes. He felt her weight shift on the bed as the sheet moved above him. He tried his best to even out his breathing. Regardless of what was about to happen, he wanted to enjoy it as long as he could. The seconds moved like hours, the suspense quickly reaching a point of near agony. After a few more moments of complete silence and stillness in the bed, he began to wonder if she had played a trick on him, perhaps disappearing from the room entirely just to leave him dangling. Just as he was about to open his eyes to peek, he felt her soft movements again, this time near the foot of the bed. He slowly and instinctively moved his legs, freeing his feet from beneath the sheet. He felt her weight shift again before stopping. He felt his heart rate start to increase, the suspense again getting the better of him.
He didn't know what she had in mind, but it didn't really matter. Her caress to absolutely any part of his body was something to look forward to. But her first touch came in a most surprising place, and in a most surprising fashion. As he held his breath, he felt something run across his big toe. And then again. And again. It was with short, brisk movements that something a little wet, and a little rough started crossing his big toe over and over again. Before he had time to ask her what she was doing, the color behind his eyelids took on an unexpected hue of dark red, and his ears filled with the sound of the loudest, wailing siren he had ever heard in his entire life.
Nick bolted upright in his bed, alarmed to discover his own lungs emitting a high, screeching, womanly scream. A scream that every bit matched the whirring siren that was going off in his room. His eyes searched stupidly and frantically for the culprit, oscillating all over the entire room before discovering the source of his discontent. Hovering over him was the grinning face of Winston, his eyes so maniacally wide that they exposed approximately three times the area of white that they normally would. Still confused, Nick's eyes followed Winston's down to the red, flashing light that he held in his hand.
"Ha-Haaaa!" Winston cackled.
"Wu-wha…."
"Yeah! Taste it, sucka!"
"Whaa… how…"
"Yeah, how do you like it, fool!" Winston shouted over the sound of the siren. "Wake me up in the middle of MY sleep on a work day. I'll learn ya. I'll learn ya good."
Nick lay in silence, clutching his chest, making certain his heart didn't burst through his chest and wind up in the bed beside him.
"Win…. Winston!" Nick screamed.
"Doesn't feel so good does it?" Winston said, finally switching the siren off, mercifully calming the din inside of Nick's room.
"What the…. What….what time is it?" Nick pleaded.
"4:21 am. What, is that too early for you? You don't want breakfast in bed?"
"I don't… what… how…"
Winston stood up and strutted towards the door, allowing Nick to realize for the first time that Winston was still in uniform. He turned as he reached Nick's dresser and faced him.
"And let that be a lesson to you. Pay attention when I speak. And don't be waking me up while I'm working on a temporarily adjusted sleep schedule. Ya hear?"
"Loud and painfully clear!" Nick said back, finally feeling his heart rate dip below 4,000.
"Good. Glad we understand each other," Winston said before grabbing something off of Nick's dresser. He turned back to Nick and tossed an empty white bowl and a small, brown cardboard box towards Nick on the bed.
"There's your damn Cocoa Puffs," Winston said as exited the room, slamming the door so hard behind him that it actually shut, bounced out of the jamb, and opened itself again.
Nick sat on the bed, stunned. As he tried to compose himself, he reached his arm out before him to examine his still trembling hand. Just as he found himself approaching something close to homeostasis, he was again distressed by a grey blur near the foot of the bed. Nick instinctively brought his knees to his chest, yanking the sheets up in the process. In doing so, he revealed a very unimpressed looking Furguson, who just stared back at him blankly.
Nick shut his eyes hard and sat perfectly still for a long while. Only when he felt fully confident that the surprises were over for the evening did he dare open them again. And when he did, he found Furguson sitting in the exact same spot as he was before. He looked back at Nick, still unimpressed, and blinked.
"Well," Nick muttered to the cat. "I gotta say. Winston's gotten a hell of a lot better with his pranks."
Furguson blinked again before standing up. He gave his coat a quick shake before deciding he was done with this particular scene. He hopped down off the bed, and gave his front legs a good stretch before meandering through Nick's room to the still slightly opened door. He used his face to coax the door open wide enough to fit his round form through, and disappeared into the hallway.
Once he was alone, Nick collapsed back into his bed. He closed his eyes as his still louder than normal heart pounded out a soothing rhythm. One that had him sound asleep within minutes. He fell asleep quickly and emptily, holding no memory of the dream he was so rudely awakened from. He did not know what he was missing, yet he did not sleep well.
