Thunderstorms

4) Night Shift

   After quite a bit of Pinterest and Tumblr and Netflix, with a few fanfictions in between if I'm honest, I was starting to get tired. The sun streaming into my eyes had me realising how late, or early, it was. A glance at the corner of my screen showed that it was well into the day, 11 am. I closed my laptop and set it on the nightstand as I got up and headed downstairs and to the living room. I found Icarus stretched out of the couch with his back and wings to the rest of the room and his face nestled between the back cushions and the arm of the couch, blanket kicked to the ground.

   I went over to him and gently shook his arm "hey, wake up, we need to talk".

   He woke with a start, flailing and hitting my with a wing as words tumbled out "sorry I just needed a place to sleep, I'll leave immediately, I-".

   "Whoa, hey relax" I cut him off "it's me".

   He fixed sleepy eyes on me "oh... sorry". He sat up more gently, swinging his feet to the ground and rubbing his eyes.

   I sat beside him, angled to face him with one leg bent and up on the couch "you alright now". He nodded but didn't verbally answer, probably too asleep still judging from how he leaned on the back of the couch. I nodded "good, we need to talk".

   He looked at me, frowning "ok... about what".

   I leaned my shoulder on the back of the couch "I have to work tonight and I work night shift at the club, I told you about that I think". He nodded and I continued "well I need to get to bed but I wanted to make sure you're ok with staying here alone".

   He thought about it for a few minutes, though I think half of that was him falling asleep and waking back up. Eventually he nodded "yeah, I'm fine with that".

   I smiled "great, then I'm going to bed and I'm gonna get up at eight thirty".

   He sank further against the couch, mumbling "alright, goodnight" before falling back asleep. I laughed quietly at him before going upstairs again. I shut the blinds, I had gotten heavy ones to block out bright sun, and climbed happily into bed. I set the alarm on my phone and turned the lamp off and sank into the pillow, falling almost instantly asleep.

~~~~~{+}~~~~~

   I groaned as my alarm blaring woke me up, screeching into my ear. I grabbed my phone and hazily turned the alarm off before dropping my head back onto the pillow with a quiet whimper as I prayed for my manager to call me and say I didn't have to come in for a year and I was getting paid a million dollars. The thought had be laughing hard enough it woke me up. I sighed and stretched before getting up.

   I took a quick shower and dried, doing my hair up in a bun after blow drying it. I got changed into black jeans and a suit shirt and jacket, going without the tie today. I grabbed my wallet and badge and put them in my shoulder bag, an old black and gray thing I had had for years and didn't feel like replacing. I tugged my sensible yet sleek black sneakers on, no one could tell they weren't dress shoes until I had to kick them in the face.

   Going through a mental checklist I figured I had everything so I went downstairs, going to check on my guest. I almost collided with him as I stepped into the living room, in fact I would have if he hadn't jumped back with a yelp.

   His yelp made me jump more than the close run in "whoa, dude, you have to calm down".

   He let out a puff of air "stop surprising me".

   I chuckled "sorry, I'll try to fall down the stairs next time, it should be loud enough for you to hear, I'm heading out".

   He looked ready to push me down my stairs for the sarcasm but held back "ok, see you".