Awkward

We woke up to the sound of people yelling out, saying that they were starting breakfast. I opened my eyes warily and looked around to see that I was curled up in Dexter's arms. We had shifted during the night so that we were in a spooning position, him pressed up against my back. I smiled to myself, liking the feel of our skin touching at all points. I turned around in his arms and found him to still be asleep. He was really cute when he was asleep and found that I couldn't bring myself to wake him suddenly.

I moved my hand up to his face and placed my finger at the bridge of his nose, moving it down, stroking it. He opened his eyes slowly and smiled when he saw me in front of him. "Good morning." I said in my pre-coffee voice which was considerable deeper and more croaky than my normal voice. He hugged me closer to him and our bodies moved closer instinctively as well. I liked being wrapped up in his arms, it made me feel safe.

I moved backwards a bit and kissed him on the cheek. "Good morning." He replied and then realisation washed over his features as he saw that it was in fact morning. I looked up and saw his expression which in turn caused me see the situation we had gotten ourselves into. He couldn't sneak out because whoever was up would have seen his car and known that he had stayed like Valkyrie had, but how were we going to explain him in my bed room? Maybe I could just stay in here with him until everybody left? Nope, it wouldn't work. Ghastly would come looking for me eventually.

I separated myself from Dexter and sat up in bed think about how we were going to get away with this. There was a shop down the street that sold coffee. I could send him out the window to get some and he could just say he left before anyone got up, as he wanted to go for a walk. But we already had coffee down stairs, damn. He followed me up and kissed my shoulder before getting out of bed and began gathering his clothes. "How are we going to explain this to everyone down stairs?" He asked in a calm and collected manner and I inwardly thanked him for being like that. If he wasn't I'm sure I would have started to panic.

I too got up and went to my wardrobe and got out some fresh clothing, not really looking at what I grabbed. I pulled them on, not worrying about a bra, because it was too early in the morning for such monstrosities. "What about I just leave out the window?" he asked and I shook my head. "Your car is out the front and they would have seen it by now." Damn this was annoying. What were we going to do? "I could sneak into my car and just say I slept in it?"
"Not going to work. Why would you sleep out in your car when there is a perfectly good couch inside that had a blanket thrown over the back of it? I'm pretty sure they know you're smarter than that." I paused and sat back down on the bed, totally out of ideas and so was he.

He sat down next to me and took my hand in his. "I could sneak into the bathroom and have a shower then it would look like I had slept in the lounge room and had put everything back to normal before going to the bathroom." Well, that was the best idea we had come up with so far so it would have to do. I nodded and leaned against his shoulder, not wanting him to leave my side. We sat there for a little while before he stood up and walked over to the door. I stood too and walked over to him, reaching up on my toes and kissed him lightly and quickly on the lips. He kissed me back and then winked at me as he went to open the door. He ran out and down the stairs and I heard a door shut which I assumed was him going into the bathroom. He wasn't caught, that was good.

I went to my mirror in my room and looked at myself. I was glowing and a happy smile was permanently plastered to my face. I tried to get rid of it, as I usually wasn't this cheerful in the morning but I couldn't help it. I saw that I had put on baggy boyfriend jeans and a blue patterned silky top that felt really nice against my skin. I realised that other people were here still so I grudgingly put on a bra, but one that was comfortable.

I opened the door of my room and stepped out into the hallway. I saw Valkyrie walking down the stairs and towards Tanith's room, probably to borrow some clothing as she was still in hers from last night. I stifled a laugh as I too followed her down the stairs, her face was hilariously angry. I would be too if I had a hangover like hers. It had to be terrible, but that just reminded me of how she was in hysterics last night over nothing and it made me laugh even harder, so much so that I had to sit down on the stairs to stop from falling over. I heard the bathroom door open and saw Dexter walk out with no clothes on and a towel wrapped low around his waist. He walked past me and winked as he went into the kitchen. I heard him say something to Ghastly and then they both walked out of the kitchen and towards Ghastly and Tanith's room.

Just as they were about to open the door I remembered that Valkyrie went in there a minute ago. I got up and went over to catch them before they went in. I grabbed Ghastly's arm and he turned around, smiling. "Good morning Legacy." He said and then went to open the door. "Valkyrie's in there getting changed into some of Tanith's clothing. Wait till she comes out?" I asked and he looked a little horrified at the thought of walking in on Val while she was getting changed. Dex and I both looked at his face and burst out laughing. We couldn't help it, he was just so embarrassed by the thought that he turned bright red.

Valkyrie heard the noise and opened the door to find tomato resembling Ghastly and Dex and I leaning on the wall trying to stop ourselves from laughing to death. I looked up, gasping for breath after I finally managing to stop laughing to see that Valkyrie was wearing one of Ghastly's tops as a dress of sorts and a pair of leggings from Tanith. She made it look really sexy. Both Ghastly and Dexter froze as they saw her, completely in awe of her good looks. I nudged Dex in the side and he shook his head and looked over at me in a daze. He had a lopsided grin and shrugged his shoulders as if to say "I am a man, what do you expect?"

I shook my head at him; I couldn't really blame him though, she looked stunning, even I had to admit it. Ghastly and Dexter went into the room and Valkyrie and I walked slowly together in the direction of the Kitchen. She took one look at the smile on my face and said "You look altogether much too happy for someone who just woke. You haven't even had coffee yet. Please tell me, what is your secret?" She asked and I laughed along with her. Sex was my secret I guess but I couldn't really say that to her. I winked at her and skipped ahead and into the kitchen where Tanith was watching the bacon while Ghastly was getting Dex some clothes. She wasn't really doing a very good job though as she was just sitting at one of the bar stools and drinking coffee, staring at the frying pan over the top of her mug.

I went over to check on the food to find it was ready to be flipped and did so. I then got out some mugs from the cupboard and placed them on the counter and poured coffee into each. I handed one to Valkyrie and then one to Dexter as he walked into the room. I saw that Ghastly already had one sitting on the bench so I left that alone. I got some sugar and put in four teaspoons and stirred it. I then took a sip and found it to be delicious. I had my coffee black with as much sugar to make it taste less bitter. I looked up to see that everyone but Ghastly was staring at me.

'What?" I asked and they all laughed. I frowned and looked to Tanith for an explanation. "I never got why you have your coffee like that. It's weird." I shook my head at her and took another sip of the coffee and made my way around to sit down next to her. Dexter was standing on the opposite side of the counter, helping Ghastly with the cooking. It reminded me of the night after our first date, with him standing half naked at the stove cooking me food and I blushed as I remembered that, in that moment, I had wanted to kiss him. Well I had done more than that now.

I smiled over my coffee and took a big gulp, to disguise it. Tanith and Valkyrie were talking about something unimportant and then there was a knock on the door. Tan looked up and me and I nodded, getting up to go and answer it, coffee still in hand. I opened the door to find a skeleton staring back at me. I smiled. "Good morning Skulduggery, have you come to check on Valkyrie?" I said and he laughed. I moved aside and he walked in turning back around to face me as I shut the door. "I see that Dexter is still here. Did you enjoy your night Legacy?" he asked and I blushed. If he had a face his eyebrows would be raised right now and his lips curled into a smirk. "Touché." I said and he tilted his head in confusion.

"It's pretty obvious that you like Valkyrie romantically." I stated, finding it funny that I had to explain this to him. He stood up straight and leaned back a bit, which told me that he was surprised but not shocked. So I was right. I loved being right. I smiled and walked past him back into the kitchen, Skulduggery following me. He paused at the door way when he spotted Valkyrie and because I was standing behind her, I raised my eyebrows and he looked over at me, shaking his head in amusement at me and himself. Valkyrie turned around and greeted him. "Hey Skull, what's happening?" She asked, not knowing why he was here as well as I did. I smirked and looked away leaving them to their denial.

After we all had breakfast Skull and Val left in the Bentley, claiming that they had some things to look up for a case and that they would be at the sanctuary. That just left Ghastly, Tanith, Dexter and I. We all made our way into the living room, and I went to sit on the couch. Dex cleared his throat and Ghastly was torn away from his thoughts and went over to talk to his friend and open a beer each. It was a little bit early in the morning (about ten thirty) to be drinking bear but no one called them up on it. After a few minutes, Ghastly came over and sat on an armchair, and Dex sat next to me on the couch, Tanith being already on my left, the only other seat was the one in which Dex sat. I blushed as I was stuck in the middle of these two people one of which I had just had sex with only last night.

Tanith noticed my blush and gave me a shove with her elbow that made me bump Dex, who in turn spilt a bit of bear on his shirt. "Sorry." I mumbled. Dex looked amused and Tanith looked curious, obviously sensing something was going on but Ghastly was oblivious. He shook his head and said "Give me your shirt Dex; I'll go put it in the wash." Dex stood up and stripped off his shirt, but he did it slowly, as if he was teasing me, the bastard. I will get him back for this later. I noticed that he had a huge scratch mark on his back and blushed as I realised that I probably did that to him without realising.

Ghastly noticed this too and I really wished he would've ignored it but he didn't. "Dexter, you do know that you have a really big scratch on your back, right?" He said, and the look on his face said that he was about to start teasing his friend about it. "Ah. No I didn't notice, I wonder how that got there…" He sounded amused by the information. "Was it that lass you've been seeing? Finally get her into bed?" I blushed again and this time so did Dex. I cannot believe that Ghastly said that, even if he didn't know it was about me.

"I guess it could have been, I don't know. I did encounter a rather vicious black cat a week ago that didn't take a shine to me, it might have been that." Ghastly laughed and went to the laundry to put Dexter's shirt in the wash and Tanith chose that moment to go and get another coffee and so we were left alone. Dex sat back down on the couch next to me and I punched him in the arm. "What was that for?" he asked innocently. "I don't know, for not leaving and making things awkward, for taking off your shirt slowly." He kissed me then and it totally caught me by surprise and kind of turned me on because of the danger factor i.e. that we could get caught.

I pulled away and took a shaky breath, trying to compose myself for when the others came back in the room. Then I remembered about the scratch I gave him. "Sit forward would you?" I asked and he did as I said. I looked at his muscular and tanned back and the long scratch that ran down one side. I lightly traced over it with my fingers and heard Dex hiss in pain. I kissed his back and then pushed him back so that he was sitting normally again. "I'm sorry, I didn't know—"He shushed me and looked into my eyes, brushing away my brown hair from in my face that was still curly from last night.

"I like having battle scares; they remind me of the good times. And that was certainly good, especially since it was your first." He said and I smiled, leaning into his hand that was still on the side of my face. We heard Ghastly coming back into the room and pulled apart quickly and sat back on the couch normally. Ghastly handed Dexter another shirt and he stood up and put it on. "I think I had better get going, I have a lot to do today." He said and Ghastly agreed. I stood up and walked him to the door as Ghastly went back into the kitchen to find Tanith.

We walked slowly, and I grabbed his hand in mine. I brought it up to my lips and kissed it gently, then looked up at him. "I had fun last night." I said and he nodded in agreement. 'Me too." He said and blushed a little at the memory. For a guy who was more than three hundred years old, you would think he would be more confident about these things but he still blushed at the thought. It was kind of cute. I smiled at that and then he kissed me. It was brief and chaste but perfect none the less. I stepped closer to him as he pulled away. I didn't really want him to leave, but knew that, since we had told nobody we were dating, we couldn't really be with each other without an excuse.

"When will I see you next?" I asked and he thought about it. "Um… I don't know, but I'll call you later okay?" He said and I smiled, liking the thought. I hugged him quickly and then he left out the door. I watched him walk away and noticed he had a kind of rhythm to the way that he walked. It seemed to bring out more of his personality into his presence. I wondered how I hadn't noticed this before but realised that I had never really just watched him like I was now. He absentmindedly ran his hand through his hair as he got to his car. He opened the door and then looked back at me watching him. I blushed and he winked at me before getting into his car and driving away.