Disclaimer: They aren't mine. I'll put them back when I'm done.
Comments: Hehe. This is my personal favorite Unfortunate Event of all time. Did I say that about number two? Eeeeh. Well if I did disregard it. This is it, my fave. It's just so cute and funny and weird and… well clever in some ways. At least I thought it was, but that's me being full of myself isn't it? Ah well. I just like this chapter. Anyway, I hope everyone else likes it too. Gets all nice and waffy at the end there. Hehe. Good stuff that. So enjoy!
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Stepping out of my pants I unceremoniously kick them halfway to my closet and do a little kick step on my way to my bed. It's time for sleepy time, it's time for sleepy time. And man am I ever tired. We were on a roll this week… three missions in one week. Unheard of! All of them all-nighters. Ugh and then work. Plants to water, pots to move, boy crazed girls to fend off with large sticks… yeah I wish we could use sticks. Unfortunately the largest weapon we have in our arsenal is Aya and his frosty 'If you aren't going to buy anything… get out.' Oooh, scary. Usually the girls then just squeal and giggle.
"Ooh, Aya is so scary!" *giggle giggle* Barf.
But right now none of that matters, because in a matter of moments I will be tucked beneath my blankets and blissfully lost in dreams with the knowledge that tomorrow is Sunday. Which means I can sleep as late as I want to! Hallelujah!
I take a running jump and dive onto my bed, burying my face in the pillows. They are so nice and cool and soft. Yeah I am so going to get some sleep tonight. Like a log. A mother fuckin' log.
My body seems to ooze into the contours of the mattress, all my muscles simultaneously relaxing. I pull the sheets up to my chin and tuck myself in for a nice long nap. The temperature is perfect too, not quite too hot, just perfect. Beautiful.
I close my eyes and my weariness fades. I can hear the small sounds of the house around me. The water running in the bathroom, the faintest trace of Omi's music playing through my wall, the creaking sounds of the foundation settling around me. They lull me into slumber.
Time passes. Silence falls. Night comes deep and heavy. I sleep on.
Then all of a sudden something happens and my bed sags, groaning in protest. I begin to stir and my face is covered with something thick and heavy. I can't breath! Ahhhh! Web goo! Killer spiders are going to eat me! I begin to flail around and try to tear whatever it is off my face. I yell frantically, and just as I rip the offending something away from my body I manage to flip myself out of my own bed. I land hard on my back and I find my pants, the ones I kicked to the door falling after me, landing in my lap. I stare at them accusingly and then look up at my bed. Two indigo eyes framed by dark red hair stare back at me passively.
"You left them by the door. I almost tripped over them on the way in. You should be more careful, I could have broken my neck."
I raise an eyebrow and stare at him disbelievingly. "Aya…?" I sigh in exasperation. I pick up my pants and toss them to the floor beside me.
He smiles at me slowly and then I hear the bed creak again as he lies down, stretching out lazily. I get to my feet, pulling myself up with the side of the bed. Ugh, I'm not fully awake enough for this. And my muscles hurt from the three missions.
My arms fall limply at my sides as I stare peevishly down at my koibito. He looks back at me with hooded, come hither eyes. I groan. I don't have time for this. I massage my temples and blink with fatigue. "Why are you here, koi?" I ask flatly.
He smiles a little bit and reaches up with one hand off the bed. "I just came to be with you," he says simply. "Is that ok?" There's just the slightest hint of challenge in his voice.
Now I really don't have time for that. I suppress a grumble and nod. "Of course. I'm just really tired, so… no funny business."
He swallows a grin, I can tell. "Of course not, aité. I just wanted to see you."
I eye him warily.
Yeah right.
I nod and then begin to crawl back under my covers. Hopefully he'll go away soon and then we can both get some
sleep. I do not need to be grumpy Ken
for the rest of the weekend.
See here's the thing. Aya and I run on almost completely different amorous schedules. I'm pretty normal as far as I'm concerned. Snuggle on the couch, cuddle on the bed at a decent hour, sex every few nights. It's all good. Keep it routine. Sure he turns me on… like –all- the time, but I'm easily satisfied with a touch or a kiss or whatever. Not Aya. He's so weird sometimes. With him it's like… stakeout, takeout, make out. I swear he just waits around for the oddest times to bushwhack me out of nowhere. I'm trying to take a shower… bam, Aya! Cooking up some breakfast on the stove… bam, Aya! Just about to fall asleep… bam, Aya! Glued his glasses to my hand… bam, Aya! Fall on my ass for no apparent reason… bam, Aya! Late night trip to the bathroom… bam, Aya! All of a sudden he's all over me and there is nothing I can do to stop it. Usually I don't even want to stop it cause, let's face it, how can I possibly resist a six foot tall, redheaded, totally intense come on like that? The spontaneity is nice… most of the time.
But not right now. Not tonight. I'm too tired. I'd probably fall asleep. And that would just be way too sad to mention.
As I settle into bed I turn onto my side so that I can face him. He smiles at me softly and touches my face. "I love you, Ken."
And he gets all sappy too. I smile back as best I can. I really never tire of hearing him say it, but right about now I'd rather hear it either followed by or beginning with "good night."
He leans closer to me and I close my eyes automatically. I feel his soft, amazing lips press against mine. He tastes like sugar and heaven… and seaweed… and soy sauce… guess I know what his midnight snack was. Mmm, California rolls. But still I love the way he kisses me. This is nice. Just our lips touching sweetly, moving against each other, his fingers brushing along my cheek… grabbing my face, his tongue in my mouth, swapping spit, going for the gold…! Ahhh! My eyes snap open as Aya leads off first, stealing second, going for third….
I push his shoulders away sharply, putting a rather jarring end to that kiss. "Ran!" I shout.
He blinks and looks at me rather worriedly. "What?"
I grumble as he tries to pull me closer again. "Grrr. I told you, I'm tired! Now would you just quit? I want to go to sleep."
He looks a little hurt and runs his fingers along my cheek, my jaw, down my neck. "Sorry, aité. Sometimes I just can't help myself. The things you do to me…," he hisses coming closer, beginning to kiss my neck.
"Argh! Cut it out!" I cry, pushing him back. "This is what I'm talking about. Look, Aya, I don't want to sound like a jerk here, but I mean it. I don't want to fool around with you right now, ok? I want to go to sleep. I'm tired. So stop sucking my face and neck, get your hand out of my boxers and let me get some rest, ok?"
He furrows his brows and scowls a bit, pulling his hands away from my body. "Ok. Fine. If you want to sleep. We'll sleep."
"Thank you, koi. I'm sorry, but I'm just not in any kind of mood for this right now," I say apologetically. He nods and brushes the hair from my eyes.
"It's ok."
I smile. "Thanks for not being angry. Good night, Aya-kun."
"Night, aité." He leans in for another kiss and I scowl at him. He chuckles and steals a quick peck anyway. I don't really mind that much. I smile and close my eyes, turning over and burrowing down into my blankets. The bed creaks unhappily as he moves and stands up. I lie in there waiting for him to pad softly across my room and out into the hallway. I feel cold air rush into the bed as the blankets are lifted aside. I feel Aya slip beneath them and settle in beside me. The bead groans, so do I.
Great. Just great. I didn't think that saying I wanted to sleep was going to induce him to sleep with me. I hate… hate sharing a bed. I mean, after sex is one thing. That's different. You've just done this terribly, wonderfully, amazingly intimate thing with a person and really the last thing you want is to be away from that person in the afterglow. Sleeping in Aya's arms after we make love is perfect bliss… except when he does that 'I can't shut-up' thing he's prone to. He doesn't do it so much anymore, mostly because I think he's exhausted his supply of inane information with me, but there are still those nights…. Fortunately for me I learned how to appreciate it long ago. But this… sleeping with someone just for the sake of sleeping in the same bed, breathing the same air, sharing the same space, body heat, body odor, sweat, etc… that's another matter. On my best nights I dislike it, but on a night like this… it's all I can do to keep from screaming.
He whimpers softly and snuggles up against my body, snuffling against the back of my neck, wrapping his arms around me, tracing lazy swirls on my chest, pressing his icy feet against my legs.
"Argh! Aya, what are you doing?" I grumble, halfway turning over, fixing him with narrow eyes.
"Spooning," he says flatly.
"You never said anything about sleeping with me," I snap, not really meaning to.
His eyebrows shoot up and then quickly come back down as he also narrows his eyes. I can tell he's hurt. I'm just on a big old rejection roll tonight. His arms loosen around me and he pulls back slightly. "I didn't know I had to ask permission to want to spend the night with you," he grates.
I sigh. He's right, I'm being really selfish here, but… I just want to sleep. My eyes soften a bit. "Aya… it's not that I don't want to be close to you. It's just way too hot in here for this right now. And I really want to get some sleep tonight… this week has been heinous. I'm tired, I'm grumpy, all I want is to get some sleep by myself in my own bed.
The last thing I need right now is you sleeping all over me while I'm trying to recover from three consecutive missions!"
Something changes in his face. He looks away, pulling his arms in close to his body. He rolls over onto his back. He looks almost pained. "Ken… I'm sorry, I know that I'm being selfish tonight. I'll open the window, I'll sleep outside the covers, whatever you want… but," he sits up and reaches over, touching my face, caressing my cheek gently, "I really need to be with you right now."
I gape at him. Words like that, from his lips, are all it takes for me to forget my aggravation and weariness. Something is bothering him, something is hurting inside of my love. My heart is beating so fast. I sit up as well and put my hand over his. "Is something wrong, koibito?"
He looks at me for a moment and then shakes his head, smiling sadly. "Just like you said, this week has been heinous. You want to be alone to recuperate, but… all I can think about is being with you. Everything was push, push, push for the past few days, and now when it's over…. I guess that it's only –after- missions that I realize the danger we've been in. I think about… losing you, even though the danger is already past."
I reach out and put my hand on his cheek, bringing our faces together. He touches me so deeply. I kiss him gently, breathing in the scent of his skin. I move into his arms as I break the kiss and nestle my head in the crook of his shoulder, just where it fits perfectly. "Oh, koi. Why on earth would you think about those things now? And why didn't you tell me all this earlier?"
He chuckles half-heartedly against me and pulls me a little tighter. "You never pushed me away before."
This is either a really good excuse or a terrible one and I can't quite tell which. So instead of making a decision I just exhale deeply into his neck and then sit back, staring into his eyes.
"Fine," I say yawning, "stay, but open the window, and don't spoon with me. I can't sleep when I get overheated."
He smiles just slightly. "Fair enough." He climbs out of bed and crosses to my window, throwing it open. I sigh and go back to making myself comfortable deep within my pillows.
When Aya climbs back into bed he kisses me once on the back of the neck and then settles back, one hand resting on my hip. "I love you, aité. Thank you."
Hm… this is nice. I don't mind this. His rhythmic breathing calms my nerves as I slowly drift off towards slumber once again.
Unfortunately for me Aya makes it there first and the next thing I know he's hogging the blankets and coming dangerously close to doing something I could describe only as… snoring. It's not quite snoring. It's more like rasping, the air getting stuck halfway through his nasal passages. I don't even want to look at the clock.
That's it. I can't sleep like this!
But as I roll over intent on shoving my ne'er-do-well boyfriend out into the cold, the streetlight from the open window catches on his face just so. He looks like an angel, a peaceful, helpless, sleeping angel. Rarely have I seen Aya's face so free of care and pain. His eyelids flutter gently as he dreams and his lips work silently on unspoken words. My heart melts, my entire body feels weak and I almost feel like crying for some odd reason. And I realize, once again, that I truly do love Aya. It's not just some passing fancy or a sick experiment I roped myself into. I'm in love with him, and every rasping little breath he takes only confirms this to my heart.
A smile tugs at the corners of my mouth and my eyes soften with the adoration I feel for him. The soft ache in my chest is the sweetest torture I could ever feel. I settle down beside him on the bed once again, happy that I can make him happy like this. And as I gently pull a bit of blanket from him and cover myself as best I can I decide that I really do overheat when I sleep anyway. And when I rest my head next to his, our faces only inches apart I realize something else.
To make him stop snoring all I have to do is pinch his nose closed. And smiling wickedly… I do.
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