-- Chapter One
-------------Stretch.
...too early in the morning. Too late in the afternoon actually, if the light and the noise were anything to go by.
Yawn.
One hand outside the covers, fingers clutching at the faded cloth, scraps of someone else's past stitched into a quilt so huge that just sleeping beneath it made you feel like a small child again.
A foot slipped sneakily into the patch of sunlight that warmed the old oak floor. Five toes, each crowned with a drop of vibrant color, flexed in the expected heat. A moment later, one of the toes was startled to find itself brushing against a rather large and certainly less dainty foot that had shoved its' way out from beneath the pile of bedding.
Pause.
...that's odd, hadn't remembered inviting anyone up to bed. Hm, must have met someone at... where was that, again?
Yawn.
A second hand emerged, reaching tentatively for the pillow that must have been left laying on the other side of the bed; nothing else explained this comforting feeling, warmth and support on both sides of a body that was, for the most part, still asleep.
Reach.
Flex.
Ten fingers spread, five find their way through strands of sun-kissed strawberry blonde hair on one side, five dive deep into the mass of chestnut curls that cascade over two full-size pillows, a throw pillow, a small sleeping cat, and from there find their way to the floor. The fingers pause again, waiting for a long moment, tangled within two beautiful heads of hair.
Two seconds later both owners of the hair that was spread so luciously over and between the sheets were sprawled on the floor, both of them watching as the fingers that had yanked out a good handful of each man's hair were attempting to gather all of the bedding to form a protective shield around the outraged, frantic, and extremely naked black-haired woman who crouched in the middle of the bed.
"You... we... out! Both of you, out out OUT!"
A battered alarm clock shaped like a badger and a rather worse for wear paperback novel were flung at the two offending parties, neither aim nor strength of the throw enough to put the men in danger but certainly enough to make it quite clear that they were not welcome at the moment. It did not take long for both men to find themselves standing outside of a shut and locked bedroom door, both completely naked as their clothing was presumably still lying on the bedroom's hardwood floor, both still somewhat groggy from the rude awakening and the entertainments of the night before, and both painfully aware of the fact that a very large, very angry woman was standing at the far end of the hall with a huge broom held between her tight-clenched fists. --
