Beta read by TeenyTinyIrishPerson.
After a prompt from otpprompts on tumblr
I woke up in the middle of the night. Or at least I thought it was somewhere in the middle of the night. The room was dimly lit in pale yellow by a mixture of light coming in from street lamps below and a bright moon standing high on the clear night sky. I took a deep breath inhaling cool winter air and pulled the blanket closer to me. It wasn't as warm in my bed as it should be. That's when I noticed that my favourite source of warmth was missing.
I rolled over and frowned at the empty space next to me. Curiosity about what Sam was doing eventually dragged me out of my bed; I wasn't handling uncertainty well anymore. Blanket wrapped around me, I waddled towards the door and carefully opened it. The living room was dark, but I noticed faint light coming from the kitchen and went to investigate.
The light was off; the only source of illumination was the opened fridge. Sam was slouching in front of it, scratching the back of her neck and making vague sounds of consideration. My eyes fell on two open yoghurt pots and an empty glass standing on the kitchen table. I sneaked up to Sam from behind and - without warning – quickly put my arms around her and said: "Good morning." Sam jumped and shrieked in shock. Solely the fact that I had my arms wrapped around her, pinning hers against her body, kept her from spreading half of our fridge's content in the kitchen.
"Shit, Lara, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she asked aloud a moment later after calming down a bit. She sounded grumpy.
"I- I'm sorry." I freed her from my squeeze and stepped back a bit. Sam sank down into a crouch and put her head into her hands taking audible breathes. "Are you okay?" I asked tentatively and carefully put a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, everything is fucking rosy," she murmured; I didn't know what to say to that. Then Sam sighed and shrugged briefly. "Just a bit stressed because of the documentary. Actually, scratch 'a bit'."
"That's why the nightly comfort eating, I see."
"Nope, I just love eating in the dark so that I don't know what I chow; home-made surprise meal."
I watched her for a moment of deliberation. "Do you- Do you want to talk about it?"
"Please, God, no. Not now." She waved her hand dismissively at me.
Our door bell rang.
"What the..." Sam murmured and we looked at each other puzzled. I shrugged briefly and put the blanket around her shoulders.
"Well, if you keep going like that, you can add 'dress size' to your problems," I told her tauntingly pointing at the table and went to open the door. Something hit my back on the way out of the kitchen, and when I looked down it was one of the empty yoghurt pots.
I looked through the spyhole and blinked a few times at the light coming through. Our landlord who lived in the neighbouring flat was standing in the corridor in pyjamas and slippers, rubbing his weary eyes. I groaned audibly before reluctantly opening the door.
"Good morning, Mr. Spender." I tried to fake a smile.
He took a brief look at his watch and raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so," he said po-faced. "Is everything all right? I heard a scream."
"Yes, everything is fine. We're sorry for bothering you." I was about to close the door into his face when he put a hand against it.
"Are you sure? Where's your... room mate?" he asked in a weird tone and looked past me into our flat.
I rolled my eyes and slumped down a bit. Sam came scurrying over and nonchalantly wrapped her arms around me from behind. She pressed her cheek against mine and said faux-friendly: "Good mooorning, Mr. Spender. I'm fine. Thank you very much for your concern. If you don't mind, we would like to go back to bed now... together." She smooched my cheek, and when our neighbour removed his hand from the door in response and stepped back with a disgusted look, Sam gave the door a kick and it closed with a bang.
"Sam..." I said, half amused half accusing.
She just murmured a "meh" and buried her face in my neck. "We should invite Kaz back into our flat and have a stormy three-some until he throws us out."
"You wish..." I rolled my eyes.
"Not as much as Kaz. I'm pretty sure she has a crush on you." Sam gave my neck a quick kiss. "Can't you dip into your inheritance and we buy a nice house somewhere?" She took my ponytail and tickled my nose with it.
I sniffed because of the hair and pushed her hand away. "Can't you kill your father and dip into your inheritance?"
Sam snorted. "Yeah... But seriously. One day I'm gonna punch this nosy, homophobic prick of a landlord and then you can bail me out of jail."
"No way. I'm going to enjoy the peace and quiet," I said exhaling soundly and stretched my arms.
Sam grunted and gave me a shove. She put her hands onto my waist and I instantly regretted once more the day she found out I was ticklish.
"Don't you dar-" She didn't let me finish and dug into my sides. The effect was immediate; I couldn't prevent myself from laughing loudly as I frantically tried to pull her arms away. I had no idea how she found this sudden burst of strength in situations like these.
"Sam!" I shrieked between laughters. "He's going to come back."
"He. Can. Watch." She said through clenched teeth and showed no mercy while I squirmed between her hands and laughed.
When I finally got a hold of her arms, I stepped away from her. I turned around and shook my finger at her while trying to catch my breath.
Sam grinned like a maniac and raised her arms, moving her fingers threateningly.
"Don't," I told her still smiling and backed away as she came closer. When she jumped at me, I dodged to the side and tried running away.
We made a few laps around the table in the living room giggling like little girls before she finally got a hold of my T-shirt and spun me around. Her hands were instantly back on my waist and she tickled me without pity. I burst out laughing and tried pulling away from her by jumping backwards. Sam's eyebrows shot up and she opened her mouth to say something but it was too late. I hit the couch, fell backwards and flipped over the backrest. Trying to hold onto something, I had grabbed Sam's arms and pulled her with me. I came to a halt hitting the floor behind the couch, legs stretched out up against its backside; Sam was hanging over the backrest, our hands still intertwined.
We stared at each other for a few seconds and then started laughing simultaneously. I gave her arms a forceful tug and she came sliding down, her head hitting my chest. Her position looked really uncomfortable, bent backwards against the couch like that.
"Oh my god," she said breathlessly. She tried to push herself up but I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pinned her against me.
"Lara!" She mumbled into my chest. When she gave up, she put her hands back to my sides and tickled me again.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I yield!" I removed my arms from around her, but Sam kept going. I was shaking under her and my stomach muscles started to ache from laughing. She only stopped when Mr. Spender started hammering against the wall.
I kept lying on the floor wheezing and panting while Sam tried to stand up from her awkward position. Her attempts looked so clumsy that I had to giggle between gasps. When she finally managed to stand, she gave me a quick shove with her foot. "Pff," she said with a faux-scowl but had to smirk despite herself.
"I can't believe I'm saying that but... Thank God for Mr. Spender. I think I was close to peeing over both of us," I told her and put an arm over my eyes.
Sam snorted and grabbed my hand to help me up. She pulled me into a hug and murmured: "We should go back to bed. It's like 4 AM or something."
"Agreed," I breathed. I made a quick pit-stop in the bathroom, and when I came back into my room, Sam was already lying in the bed. She smiled at me and held up the blanket - she must have retrieved from the kitchen – at one side. This looked so unbelievably inviting that I darted over to her and slipped into the bed within 2 seconds. We wound our arms around each other and rested our heads on our big pillow. We smiled at each other for a while and then simultaneously craned our necks to kiss. When our lips met, Sam wrapped her arms tighter around me and pulled me closer.
After our mouths parted a few minutes later, Sam relaxed back into the mattress and sighed contentedly. I nuzzled up against her and rested my head on her chest. Sam planted a kiss on top of my head while slowly stroking my back.
"I love you," I mumbled into her shirt.
"I know," she said with a grin and ruffled my hair.