A Touch of Life

20

Emmie was rudely awoken by a very loud banging that echoed all the way through his flat. His eyes fluttered open and he scowled up at the ceiling for a while, wondering if the banging would stop on its own so that he didn't have to get out of his warm bed.

The banging became increasingly louder, coupled with muffled yelling, and so Emmie sighed and heaved himself out of bed. As Emmie passed Fleur's bed, he heard her groan and turn herself over, pulling her pillow with her so that it covered her ears.

Emmie smiled fondly and headed out to the hallway towards the door, grimacing at the light spilling into the room. He wondered how long he and Fleur had slept, and felt a little disorientated at the warm sunshine that flooded his view.

"Morning sunshine," Seamus answered calmly when Emmie finally swung the door open. Seamus made his way past Emmie and into the house, going straight into the kitchen towards the coffee machine.

"Is there a particular reason you were brutally attacking my door?" Emmie croaked, shutting the door and following Seamus into the kitchen in a daze.

"You were asleep, I wanted you to not be anymore," Seamus replied simply, setting off the coffee machine and heading to the fridge.

Emmie just watched with a scowl, sat on the kitchen table, still half asleep.

Fleur shuffled in then, with only one eye open and her hair sticking up at every angle known to man. She grunted a greeting to each of the boys before sitting on the table along with Emmie. Seamus made a coffee for both Emmie and Fleur, and Emmie decided he hated Seamus a little bit less for that.

"Okay first, Kai sent me. He told me you need to get your butt to work or he's taking over as boss and firing you," said Seamus, leaning against the counter opposite Emmie. Emmie rolled his eyes

"Secondly, we have a new case."

"Already?"

"A detective's work is never done. Neither is the work of his friend who can bring things back to life."

Emmie sighed and rolled his eyes. He still felt like he needed to sleep for at least three more days to catch up, and he definitely wasn't prepared to relive their most recent adventure just yet.

"Don't worry, I made sure that you're not related to any of the people involved, nor did you have a weird online relationship with them at any point. I don't want another repeat of that escapade," said Seamus. Fleur just grinned proudly.

"Details?" asked Emmie. As much as he complained about his risk of heart attacks and his lack of sleep, he enjoyed what he and Seamus did. It was fun and it felt like he was helping people, even if it was in a slightly obscure way.

Seamus gulped down the rest of his coffee, wincing slightly as it burnt his mouth.

"I'll tell you later. Kai is going to kill you if you don't turn up to work in the next fifteen minutes," Seamus said, flashing a grin to the two before he disappeared back out of the door, slamming it behind him.

Emmie and Fleur sat and sipped at their coffees in silence, and Emmie slowly felt himself beginning to wake up as the caffeine took effect.

Fleur turned to Emmie and smiled softly at him.

"Morning," she said. His voice was still croaky, thick with sleep, and had more of a trace of french than normal, but she looked a lot more sprightly than she had been when she walked in.

"Morning," Emmie replied, grinning back. They clunked both of their half empty cups together, and enjoyed their few moments of silence before they had to go and get ready for their day ahead.