If Atem Lived in my Head

Bed Stretches

      I sit on my bed and hunch over my laptop and tapped at the keys typing in the code that would hopefully make this site work. I can hear Atem drawing in the sketch book I just bought for him, he just about filled up all the pages in mine.

I feel his back press against mine when he stretches. His presence seems to get stronger every day. I swear I can almost feel heat coming off him. I tap at my keyboard when I feel him brush against my back again. A second passes, I can feel him staring at me and then I really feel him. His back arches over me pushing my face into the bed.

"Atem!" I shout trying to push back but I have no leverage.

"Nuni." I can hear the smile in his voice.

"Atem!" I snap at him "get off."

"I'm just stretching." Atem's got a smile in his voice.

"No, you're interrupting me." I growl half-heartedly at him.

"Just give me another moment." Atem yawns and presses me down further into the bed "it's a good thing you're so flexible." He smirks as he straightens up.

"Maybe I should take a break and I can show you some real stretching." an evil smile crawls across my lips as his vanishes.

"No, thank you." Atem scotches away from me.

"Nope." I grab his arm and pull him off the bed. "you broke my concentration, now you get to stretch with me."

"Please, Nuni, No." Sweat trails down the side of his face. "it's not human to bend the way you do."

"Good thing you're a spirit." I tell wink at him and yank him off the bed.

"Nuni!" He exclaims.

"Come on," I say placing him beside me "easy stuff."

"Your version of easy and my version of easy are very different." He mumbles but he follows me anyway as I raise my arms up. I most certainly do not look at the muscles trailing from his shoulders and up his arms.

"Doesn't that feel nice?" I ask him giving myself a shake.

"So far." He admits.

"Now bend forward and touch the ground." I instruct, he obeys with little problem.

"Your hamstrings are still tight." I tell him.

"You'll have to help me then." He smiles at me, but I can hear the strain in his voice.

"Here." I walk behind him and push him forward.

"Ouch, Nuni!" He yells as I apply pressure to his head.

"Breathe through it, Pharaoh." I tell him.

"This was funnier when I did it to you." he grunts through the strain.

"I'm sorry I can't hear you over the Karma pressing against you." I chuckle, he can't move because that would cause more pain.

"This isn't fair, Nuni!" He exclaims "you are used to bending yourself into strange shapes."

"Life isn't fair, Pharaoh." I laugh but I do ease up a bit. The sketchbook sits on the bed I tiptoe a bit to get a better vantage point and see it's a sketch of me. I recognize the look on my face because it's not one I consciously do. There's the lightest of sketches of a book on my lap and I've draped myself across the armchair. My smile is soft, my eyes gentle and I'm completely relaxed. I'm only ever that relaxed early in the morning and only when I'm completely immersed in a book. I let him go without thinking. I can feel my face turning pink.

"Oh!" he gasps and snatches the book off the bed, he hides it against his chest. "you um... you weren't supposed to see that yet."

"Sorry..." I don't know what else to say. I don't understand Atem, no one pays this much attention to me, no one ever sees me like that because no one is ever awake that early accept for Atem.

"What are you sorry for?" He asks a slight smile on his face.

I shrug "I don't know... I just... I just don't know how to react to you when you do things like this." I admit. "I'm also not very good at lying to you so... it makes it harder to figure out what to say to you."

Atem squeezes the book to him, his cheeks are tinted the subtlest shade of pink under his dark tan.

"That makes two of us." He smiles at me and we stand there in silence until a smile crawls across my lips. He looks at me and he smiles at me. I slide back onto my bed and pull my laptop to me. Atem sits behind me and I can hear the pencil scratching lightly against the paper. The pencil stops for too long. I slide a look behind me and his back arches over me again.

"Atem!" I yell at him, he laughs a deep hearty laugh as he pushes me into the bed.