“Hey. Hey you. Stop sleeping.”
“I’m not sleeping, I’m just closing my eyes.”
“Liar, you snore.” She laughs, her head thrown back, nerves still fizzing from her earlier coffee venture.
“No, no I was just… was just… breathing…” His eyes close slowly, fighting the pull of sleep once before shutting completely.
“Breathing my ass. Wake up!”
“Okay! Okay okay okay.” He sits up and shakes his head like a dog flinging off water. “I’m up.”
“Good.” She smiles at him, satisfaction written on every inch of her face.
He extends an arm and pulls gently on her, bringing her down to settle in next to him.
“Not fair.” She pouts.
“Totally fair” He flashes that ridiculously corny smile and kisses her on the forehead. Why does he have to use that trick? There’s no coming back from that one.
“I love you.” She says softly, “Even if you can’t stay awake… Ever.”
He chuckles, looking down into her brown eyes with his bright blue-grey ones. “You stay up enough for both of us, and I did pretty well last week, I’m just tired. I can’t just stay up until 6am with some girl.”
She elbows him with a sleepy half-smile, “I know for a fact you can.”
“Oh, really?” He curls more tightly around her. “And how do you know that?”
“Not telling.” She yawns.
“Jerk.” He lays his head down and puts his arm over her side, feeling his arm rise and fall more slowly with her breathing.
“You’re the… the jerk…” She tries once to keep her head up before letting it fall, asleep before she settles the pillow. Her last conscious thought is, I could do this every night.