Early mornings were Seven's favorite.

Now if someone asked her why, she probably couldn't answer that. Maybe it was the warm feeling of the early rays of the sun, slowly washing away the tiredness in her muscles and bones from the night. Maybe it was watching the world waking up from its slumber, the yawns of other people at the breakfast table, hoarse voices that still needed to wake up first, the adorable messy bed hair some didn't bother to tame.

Whatever it was, Seven liked every single minute of it.

And so it was almost like a ritual for her to get up early, catching as many minutes of it as she could. She did it pretty much her whole life, no reason to stop it now.

… Even though the person lying right beside her definitely didn't share her views. At all.

When Seven got up, there was a good chance Sice still slept like a rock. And today was no difference.

The sun rose from the horizon in a faint orange, the first rays breaking through the gray clouds that decorated the morning sky. The darkness of the night made room for the light of the day – and Seven's internal clock made sure that with the first dim light piercing through the vermillion curtains, she would rise, too.

With a twitch of her body her consciousness kicked in, her eyelids briefly clenched together before she sleepily opened them. She stretched herself with a yawn and then sunk back, her gaze immediately falling on the girl beside her.

With the blanket drawn to her shoulders, Sice was turned to her, eyes closed and head tucked low, curled up close to her. A low snoring came from her, quiet and almost not audible, noting having a hint of any irritations from Seven's movements beside her.

Seven didn't expect anything else from her.

Her eyes lingered on her for a while. She took her time with that each morning, watching her beautiful girlfriend in those quiet moments. Her messy hair moved in front of her face with each breath and Seven took the opportunity to tuck a strand away, still not getting a reaction from her.

It seemed like she really was sunken deep in whatever dream she had.

Seven could only smile at the sight. What she saw was adorable, sure, sadly today she couldn't enjoy it as much as she liked to. Today had a busy schedule and waking up early was mandatory for it – early class with preparations for tomorrow's mission required attendance and before that breakfast was on the list. Seven had to get Sice awake in order to follow the plan, because otherwise she wouldn't forgive herself if Sice skipped breakfast. Again.

Time to get to work, Seven said to herself.

Waking up a person was one thing, but waking up Sice without getting to feel her wrath after that was another. With extra finesse and skill she had to do it, slowly and steady, yet with the time sitting in her neck it wasn't as easy as it sounded.

Nevertheless, she tried it. First she shifted closer to her, snuggled and embraced her, feeling the warmth radiating from her. She planted a kiss on her forehead and watched her for a reaction – a tiny stir, more a reaction on instinct than anything else came, but that was it.

She ran her hands up and down the fluffy blanket, over Sice's shoulders and back, watching her carefully while she proceeded to cuddle her. As soft as possible were her touches, gentle strokes she knew Sice liked so much. Seven could see Sice's eyes twitching for a brief moment and maybe she was slowly getting there, but there was still a way to go.

"Sice." Seven hummed in a gentle melody, hoping to reach her that way. "Sice, wake up."

Her voice seemed to stir more reactions in her as Seven felt something moving under the blanket and Sice's face started to get irritated, Maybe finally she would succeed with such a gentle wake up method today, the hope was at least there.

… Yet when Seven expected her to open her eyes, Sice only rolled on her stomach and turned her head around, facing away from her now. Seven withdrew her hand from her, staring at her as if she did something wrong.

Sice continued to sleep.

And here she thought she was so close.

Seven lifted herself up and leaned herself over Sice's sleeping form, angling herself just right to catch a glimpse of her face. And of course Sice remained like she did before, only turned around now, pretty fast asleep.

She sighed. So much for that.

"Sice..." Seven whined now, falling down on top of her and laying her chin on Sice's shoulder, pouting as she watched Sice's sleepy face. "Wake up, for me, please?"

She even tucked her arms close to Sice, embracing her from where she lied, but even that didn't help. A distressed grunt came from Sice and she tucked her head even lower, now almost completely buried under the blanket.

"Oh, come on now." She huffed. "You know we have mission briefings."

Another grunt came and Sice shifted to pull the blanket completely over her face now, only some of her white strands stuck outside, making it for Seven impossible to see her.

Well, looked like that didn't go well.

"You want it the hard way, huh."

If the most gentle way didn't work, then she could use a whole different approach. Gentle was over now, she had no qualms doing it the opposite way either – time didn't stop for her, she had to get going anyways.

With a quick glance around the room she got an idea what to do – and thinking about it formed a grin on her face.

Evil.

She drew the blanket away she still was lying under and set her feet on the ground, briefly stretching herself before she went to work. With quiet steps she walked over to the window, exactly the side Sice was currently turned to and this only made it better for her.

Better for her and worse for Sice's precious sleep.

Right before she took one last look to Sice, she grabbed the curtains that darkened the room and withheld the morning sunlight. She had to admit she did feel a bit bad about doing it in such a horrible way, but if Sice didn't want to listen, then it was her own fault that she got this bad treatment.

It was only for her own good, anyways.

In a single motion she pushed the curtains apart. Light immediately flooded the room, touching everything it could. She didn't stop there though, she reached for the window handle and turned them, opening the windows wide. Fresh air filled the room and together with the incoming light, the sleepy atmosphere vanished and replaced it with a nice feeling of positive energy.

Seven took a deep breath and filled her lungs with the morning air, but had to squint her eyes – the sudden light hurt, but quickly she adapted and could turn around to see if her action had an effect.

Only half way turned around she could hear Sice's noises already – a loud groaning – and Seven was sure she could hear her muffled swearing under the blanket. Sice faced the other direction again, completely curled up under the safe blanket that kept her hidden from the intense light that apparently had a big effect on her.

Seven snickered when she walked over to the bed again, crawling closer to Sice's curled up form. She fell down right beside her and wrapped her arms around her in a laugh, feeling Sice's struggle under it.

"Will you open your eyes for me now?" Seven said between her giggles and struggles of holding Sice close, but Sice really didn't hold still and continued to try to shake Seven off.

"Seven … " This time Sice whined, but she stopped struggling after a while, seeing how her fight led to nowhere. Seven was close to rip the blanket off anyways and she wouldn't allow the last remnant of her comfortableness slip away from her.

She stilled her movements and Seven slowly pushed the blanket away from Sice's face, getting welcomed by a pouting and scowling Sice. She still had her head tucked close, but her tired eyes stared deep into Seven's and Seven couldn't help herself but embrace her even more.

Sice's eyes fell close again when Seven planted a kiss on her forehead, a sigh leaving her at the comfortable closeness.

"Don't you fall asleep on me again." Seven whispered as she ran a hand through Sice's hair.

"Mhmm, no, I won't." Sice murmured in return. "But thanks for that wonderful wake-up call."

"Hey it's not my fault you didn't react the first time, I just did what I had to do. Besides, what should I have done except that to get your attention, huh?"

But Sice only stayed silent, defeated by Seven's words. Seven snickered again at that reaction and kissed her again, this time accompanied by a whisper of "good morning" that drew a small smile from Sice.

"Come on, we have to get going."

"Yeah yeah." Sice stretched herself when Seven let go off her, still feeling the tiredness lingering deep in her bones.

But one thing she knew. She wouldn't let go of what Seven did to her that easily. In her head formed revenge already.

No one disturbed Sice's sleep and got away with it, even if it was her girlfriend.