Hey everyone, sorry for the long wait. Was gone for three weeks. This is more just a filler chapter, I guess. Not a whole lot goin on really but I hope you like it. Please review and tell me what you thought.
Chapter 11:
I sit up and stretch. There's really no point in trying to sleep any longer. I swear the sandman has it in for me. I smile to myself. Everything is funny to me when I'm tired. It's Sunday morning. No doubt about it. Slow, quiet, and not particularly exciting.
I head toward the staircase. When I get there, I stop and listen. All I hear is light, regular breathing. Naraku's still asleep. Perfect, this is my chance to cook. My special feast is in order! The one I like to make on slow days.
Down in the kitchen, I turn on the stove and take out the electric griddle. Naraku's not going to know what hit him. I'll cook slow so that it's not too cold by the time Naraku wakes up.
About a half an hour later, with the entire mess cleaned up, I have it laid out perfectly on the table. Footsteps sound on the staircase. Perfect timing Naraku.
"Alicia?" drawls his tired voice. "Alicia, what smells so good?" I smile to myself as he walks around the corner and stops dead in his tracks. His eyes rest upon the table for several moments before looking up at me. "Wow. Did you do this?"
"Nope," I say sarcastically. "It was the Easter bunny." He smiles. "What are you waiting for? Dig in." His smile grows and he sits down in the chair closest to the counter.
"Look at it all. Scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, hash browns, toast. It all looks so good."
"You should have let me cook for you sooner." I tease as I begin to fill my plate. He laughs.
"We're not gonna be able to eat all this are we?"
"Probably not…we'll just invite Miroku over later," I wink. "He'll eat everything we leave behind."
"Yeah, no kiddin," he laughs through a mouth full of food. I stare at him, trying to look disgusted. This only makes him laugh harder, evidently spraying egg back onto his plate. Now there's no denying, we both break down into hysterics.
After breakfast, we don't even bother with the dishes. You know how it goes, 'On the seventh day He rested' and so did we. I cuddle up next to him on the couch as he begins channel surfing. It's the perfect morning. After what seems like an eternity I finally speak up, "Naraku, what exactly are you looking for?"
"I dunno," he grunts. I nuzzle closer.
"Are there any cartoons on? I'm in desperate need of something unrealistic." He doesn't say anything but stops as soon as he sees Bugs Bunny.
"How's that?"
"Perfect." Naraku gives me a light squeeze and kisses the top of my head, as we watch Bugs Bunny escape Elmer's gun, yet again.
"Did you sleep okay last night?" he asks, absent mindedly playing with my long hair.
"Mmmm, better than the night before. How about you? Get your beauty rest?"
"Mmmm hmmm."
We sit cuddled together for almost an hour before Naraku stands up and stretches. "I'm gonna go get dressed."
"'Kay." I yawn and stretch out fully on the couch. As his soft footsteps grow fainter and fainter, my eyelids slowly grow heavier and heavier. As I sleep, I'm vaguely aware of Bugs and Daffy arguing. I hardly hear a thing. I didn't even hear Naraku come back downstairs, but I recognize the touch of his lips to my forehead, and his thumb caressing my cheek. Then I drop off completely into a comfortable sleep.
When I awake again, Bugs Bunny is no longer arguing with Daffy. Naraku is no longer next to me, comforting me without knowing it. Instead, sirens are roaring on the television set and Naraku is sitting in the armchair. He doesn't seem to notice I'm awake. So I lay there watching him as his eyes are transfixed on the TV. I breathe in deeply and let it out, almost like a sigh. I do that a lot, especially when I'm tired. The corners of Naraku's mouth twitch slightly into a sweet smile before he looks over at me. "Oh, you're awake." I smile and nod. "You looked so peaceful, I didn't dare take you to your bed." I just look at him and smile. His eyes are so gentle, yet the were cold and icy when I first met him. He watches me watching him for awhile before he grins again. "Something wrong?"
"No. What time is it?"
"Going on 2:30."
"Whoa. I slept that long?"
He smiles. "Like I said, I didn't wanna wake you up. Are you hungry? We still have half that stuff you made for breakfast,"
"What happened to the other half?" I ask, pretending to be skeptical.
"We ate it, remember?" I laugh at him. He said it like I was in a coma for a month. "You want any of it? I can go heat some up." He starts to boost himself out of the chair.
"No, no. I'm not hungry." He looks at me.
"You sure?" he asks. I nod and he sits back down.
"Watchya watchin' anyways?" I look back at the TV.
"No clue. I think it's supposed to be some police chase show."
"Oh. Well that would explain why cops are chasing random cars." We both laugh. I stand up and head for the stairs.
"Going back to bed?"
"Shower," I answer simply. I lean over the arm of the chair and give him a quick peck on the lips before leaving the room.
I turn on the taps to let the water heat up then head to my room for clean 'clothes'. I take my time in the shower, letting the warm water sprinkle over me and create beads on my skin. Very relaxing.
I hop back down the stairs, into the kitchen, then back to the living room where I drop a can of Root Beer into Naraku's lap and plop down on the couch with my own. "Thank you," he says as he pulls on the metal tab. He takes a drink, then looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "Don't plan on getting dressed today?"
"Nope." He chuckles. I'm still in pajamas. Just a different pair. Well, it's more like a pair of pajama bottoms with cards and the words 'Texas Hold 'Em' splattered all over them and a red t-shirt that says 'A little hard work never hurt anyone…But why take a chance'.
"Sesshomaru's comin over. He called when you were in the shower. His brother's annoying him and he wants to get out somewhere."
I nod. We sit in silence until Sesshomaru walks in. "Your parents never taught you to knock?" I say. He knows I'm joking and smiles.
"Hey. What're you watching?"
"Don't know. We lost the remote so we just wait for the porn to come on." Sesshomaru looks at me wide-eyed for a minute then laughs when I cross my eyes at him.
"…You were joking right?"
"No," I wait a moment then answer honestly. "Yes."
"So what do you guys wanna do?" Naraku asks. I shrug lazily. We all sit there looking at each other before Sesshomaru suggests a game of Monopoly. A classic game, yes? But it's still fun.
We gathered around the table, with the board in front of us. Naraku decides to be in charge of both the money and the real-estate. Sesshomaru is the dog, Naraku's the car, and I'm the top hat.
It's been pretty quiet so far. Like none of us are talking, we just want to concentrate and make sure no one else is landing on our property. Well that's the way it seems. I don't think Naraku is really paying any attention because me and Sesshomaru keep landing on his property and he never seems to notice. Each time we look at each other and fight back the laughter. Naraku just looks at us like we're idiots. Luckily for me, I got Boardwalk and Park Place. With a house on each. But the best part is Naraku lands on one almost every time he goes around the board. Sesshomaru isn't doing too bad I guess, he rarely lands on anyone's property but he goes to jail a lot. Naraku keeps giving me funny looks, like he's sarcastically trying to be seductive. Sesshomaru doesn't notice and I pretend to like the 'sexy' looks.
The game's finally over. I won due to Naraku landing on my property so much, his not paying attention to his own property and Sesshomaru having to constantly bail himself out of prison.
It's 6:00pm. We just finished cleaning up from our game and my stomach finally growls. Sesshomaru walks into the living room and turns on the stereo. Naraku always has a CD full of relaxing, dance music or just chill stuff. I'm standing in front of the fridge, door open staring at the contents, deciding what I should have for supper. Naraku's wrapped his arms around me, leaned down a bit to rest his chin on my shoulder, peering into the fridge as well, and is swaying our hips together. "Hey," he says and kisses my neck. "I have an idea."
I close the fridge door, spin around and wrap my arms around his neck. "Really? Better mark that on the calendar and call the press. This is history in the making." We smile at each other and I kiss him. "So, Mister Genius, what's your idea?"
He kisses my lips, my cheek, my neck and my shoulder then answers. "Why don't we invite Miroku over and order a couple pizzas?" He continues alternating his kisses between my neck and my shoulder.
"Is the pizza place open on Sundays?"
"Mmmm, only for delivery." More kisses. "Should we?"
"Mm, sounds good to me." He slips his hand up my shirt and strokes my lower back, making me somehow dizzy. He kisses a trail under my chin and over to the other side of my neck. I return the favor and pull his T-shirt aside a bit to gain access to his bare shoulder.
"Hey Nara-" Sesshomaru walks into the kitchen and stops. We look at him dumbly. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. I'll leave you two alone," he smirks. We stare at his back as he leaves the room, then blink at each other and crack up. Naraku gives me another quick kiss and walks into the living room. I pour myself a glass of milk and follow. He's on the phone to Miroku. Sesshomaru looks up from the magazine he's reading as he hears Naraku speaking.
"Miroku, hey. What's up? Really." He laughs. "Listen Sesshomaru's here and-" he's cut off by Sesshomaru.
"God Naraku don't tell him that!" We all share a laugh.
"Miroku says he heard that. Anyway, Miroku, we were gonna order some pizzas if you wanna come over." He stops as Miroku talks on the other end.
"Hey, is there anywhere to get a tub of ice cream on Sundays?" I ask.
"The corner store," Naraku answers. "Miroku, on your way over, do the lady a favor and get a tub of ice cream would ya?" He turns to me. "What flavor?"
"I don't really care…as long as it's ice cream. You guys decide."
"Sesshomaru? What's your preferred?"
"Vanilla." He answers simply. Old fashioned guy.
"Sounds good to me," Naraku says. "Miroku?...I guess it's vanilla then. Alright. See ya." He hangs up. Naraku flops down in the armchair and I take a pew next to Sesshomaru who seems deeply interested in an article.
"What are you reading? Playboy?" I ask.
He doesn't even look up from the page and answers with no expression. "Motocross Medallion." A minute later he drops the magazine back on the coffee table and goes to the stereo. He turns it off and searches for a new CD.
"Guys," Naraku says thoughtfully. "What was it you kept laughing at when we were playing Monopoly?"
Sesshomaru and I exchanged comical glances. "We kept landing on your property and you never seemed to notice." I told him. He looked at me blankly. Then his eyes switched from curiosity to a playful, mischievous tone.
"You owed me money and you never told me?" He said pretending to sound angry. Then he tackled me on the couch and started tickling me. Sesshomaru looked as though he wanted to smack us up side the head. I tried to push Naraku off, but he was too strong for me. I felt my face turning red as I fought for a gasp of air between the laughter. The door bell rang. Sesshomaru went to the door and let Miroku in. Miroku looked at us with a smile, mixed with an expression that closely resembled Sesshomaru's.
"Naraku!" I gasp. "Please! Stop!" The laughter is uncontrollable.
"Why should I?"
"Please! You're gonna make me piss myself! And I can't breathe!" Naraku stopped tickling me, locked his hands around my wrists and held them above my head.
"You have to pay a toll. It'll cost you kiss."
I looked at for a minute. "Ewwww." His eyebrows raised.
"Fine," and he let go of my wrists to tickle me again. I screamed.
"Okay! I give!" Naraku smiled and kissed me.
"I knew you'd see things my way." Then he left and took the ice cream from Miroku and went to the kitchen. Miroku stared at me and Sesshomaru went back to the stereo and CD's. I stood at the end of the couch.
"So I see you and Naraku aren't against affection in front of others." Miroku said.
"That's nothin'," Sesshomaru chipped in. "You shoulda seen what I caught them doing in the kitchen awhile ago. They were half way into doing something they shouldn't, especially in a kitchen. It's not sanitary."
Miroku's jaw dropped to the floor. I reached over and slapped Sesshomaru's with the back of my hand. "We were not you liar."
"Accuse me of lying all you want, Alicia, I know what my eyes saw." He turned away from me slightly to hide his grin. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Naraku came back.
"So, what kind of pizza should we get?" he asked.
"No anchovies," I said. Miroku stuck out his tongue, sickened by the thought of tiny fish on his pizza.
"You don't like mushrooms or olives either though," Naraku noted.
"No olives, but I don't mind mushrooms on pizza. So the rest is up to you guys…just hurry. I'm starving." I added as my stomach growled again.
Naraku was on the phone and ordered two extra large pizzas.
The rest of the night was quiet; the silence only broken by the occasional joke and fit of laughter. Miroku and Sesshomaru slowly stopped getting grossed out by me and Naraku cuddling. Naraku and I often grew oblivious to the world around us and grew lost in each others eyes until Miroku would pull us back to reality by flinging ice cream at us.
I'm not sure what it was about tonight-maybe the nightmare I had a few nights ago, the change in environment with the music or just the factor of adoration- but Naraku and I seem to have grown much closer and want to be near each other constantly. This must be what love feels like. This must be love.