Adrift

Chapter 5

I awoke to a dark room with music coming from somewhere and realized it was the tv once my momentary disorientation cleared. Movie credits were scrolling by as a symphony played a dramatic soundtrack. Still half asleep, I tried to move but felt weighed down. I pushed the big blanket off and then realized why I couldn't move. On my left shoulder, Koro's head was perched as she slept silently. Aki was similarly perched on my right shoulder. Koro began to stir once the blanket fell to the floor, sitting up straight and rubbing her eyes. She looked over at me and smiled when she saw Aki on my shoulder still asleep. I gave a stern look back in response to try to keep Koro from getting too excited. While remaining calm on the surface, my heartbeat started increasing. Having Aki asleep on my shoulder was exciting. I doubted it was intentional but couldn't say for sure since I fell asleep first.

As if he had heard my thoughts, Aki began to stir next to me. He suddenly sat upright, backing away from my shoulder as though it had burned him. "Sorry, Ryou, didn't mean to sleep on you." Aki had a slightly frightened look on his face as he apologized to Ryou. "Hope I didn't drool on you." I looked at my shoulder, saw that it was dry and responded to Aki.

"No drool, so don't worry about it." I reached both arms up in the air and stretched my body. It was a little stiff from the nap. Koro stood up in front of the couch and stretched, as well. The room was getting increasingly darker since the sun had set and only the barest amount of light was still visible. I walked across the room and turned the light on. Once the light was on and the whole room was visible again, I could see the mess we had made. Half eaten cookies littered the floor in front of the couch along with a surprising amount of crumbs. Koro was folding up the blanket as more crumbs fell to the floor. I looked at Aki who was having a hard time waking up. "Stand up and stretch, Aki. You will feel better."

Aki looked over at me and nodded lazily as he slowly stood. His sleepy face was so cute. As he stretched a little, I walked into the hall to the closet. I wanted to vacuum up the mess before my Mom walked in and saw it.

I returned to the room to find Aki helping Koro fold the giant purple blanket. "Thanks, guys, but you didn't have to do that." I turned on the cordless vacuum and quickly made the mess disappear. All the half-eaten cookies from the floor were already on a plate on the coffee table. I wonder who cleaned up the cookies? I set the vacuum aside in case it was needed again later.

"It's not that late, want to watch another movie?" Koro paused to think for a second as Aki set the folded blanket on a chair. As I watched Aki put the blanket down, I suddenly remembered my great idea that came to me on the walk home earlier but kept a secret. "I have an awesome idea!" I announced to the room. I waited for Koro and Aki to look my way before continuing. "Since we have that big blanket, let's make a blanket fort to hang out in and either watch another movie or play a game." Koro's face lit up with excitement and even Aki was smiling at the idea.

"What sort of fort building supplies do you have?" Aki asked. I thought about it for a moment before responding.

"Well, there are chairs in here and in the kitchen we can use. We also have some clips in the pantry we could use to help attach the blanket to the chairs. Koro, go grab the clips while Aki and I bring in more chairs." Koro set off on her assignment and I walked toward the kitchen for the chairs with Aki right behind me to help.

Five minutes later, the coffee table was moved out of the way and six chairs stood in the room with three on each side facing outward. "Koro, have Aki help you put the blanket over top and attach the clips while I go grab some things to add to the fort." Koro pulled Aki by the arm behind her toward the blanket as I left the room and went down the hall to my bedroom. I have some cool fairy lights we can decorate the fort with and some pillows to sit or lay on. Maybe I will grab some extras from the closet, too. I grabbed the lights from a drawer in my desk, and began gathering all the pillows from my bed. I have a lot of pillows. It's a bit ridiculous. I brought them all to the living room and placed them in the fort then returned to the hall to check the closet for more pillows.