The Call of the Wild

Chapter 4

I do not own James Cameron's Avatar all rights go to its creators!

Not edited.

Rough poking startled me out of sleep the next morning and I bolted upright still thoroughly disoriented after the rude awakening. It took a minute for my mind to sharpen, the haze of sleep still lingering. Norm was standing over me, mouth hung open in shock and I reached forward with a tired groan to push it to shut for him.

He gave a sort of indignant huff at me but I was too busy stretching my stiff muscles to pay too much attention to his childish spat. I looked over to my side and frowned at my friend, incredibly disgruntled that I had been awoken while he was allowed to continue to sleep peacefully.

I turned a deadpanned stare onto Norm, thoroughly unimpressed with his lack of decorum but all I got was a stern frown in return. "What are you doing here? No, better question, how did you even get in here?" It appeared that I'd thrown Norm more than I would have expected so I smiled slightly apologetically up at him.

"Good morning Norm, did you sleep well?" I said softly while trying less than gracefully to get off the bed without waking Jake up.

"Did I sleep well? That is really not the issue here!" He hissed back at me and I frowned gently at his tone.

"I'm sorry Norm, I didn't think it would bother you this much. I have trouble sleeping sometimes and I'm so used to sharing a room with Jake that he was the first person I thought to come to last night." I truly was sorry, although it was more for making Norm uncomfortable than for actually coming to their room. That I would do again in a heartbeat. It's also not like I was going to go find someone else more female in nature, who I had no prior connection to, and ask to spend the night with them because I can't handle being alone. Yeah, that's never going to happen.

He softened slightly at my explanation but still looked thoroughly uncomfortable with my presence in his room. "Look Norm I really didn't mean to bother you. Jake and I have been friends for a long time so this is a pretty normal occurrence but I didn't consider your feelings and I'm sorry about that." I put the most sincere expression I could muster onto my face, I really didn't need to be making an enemy out of Norm when we had only just really met each other.

I got a long sigh in return and I brightened at the slightly resigned look on his face. "Just give me a little warning next time alright. Do you have any idea the kind of heart attack you gave me this morning when I realised there were three people here instead of two?" I giggled slightly at his tone relieved that he wasn't as angry as I initially thought he was.

It was at that moment that Jake decided to wake up and he rolled over groggily stretching his hands up above his head. "G'morning guys," he grumbled out mid-stretch followed by an obnoxious yawn. "Morning sleepy," I crooned back with an amused smile on my face. I reached out ruffling his hair to try and tame the slight bedhead he had acquired over the course of the night.

"You two better get up, it's almost seven and we should eat something before we have to report to work." Norm informed us as he wandered out the door.

I turned over to look at Jake who had flopped back down on to the bed. As a marine, his schedule had always been strict and wakeup times had been part of that regimen. It was one of the things that had stuck with him after he was discharged and so both of us had gotten into a habit of waking up early and then dozing for a half hour or so before getting up. That habit was not appreciated so much now seeing as we had to actually start getting up early in the morning if we wanted to make it to work on time.

A mischievous smirk painted its way onto my face as I watched the peacefully dozing marine beside me. I moved nonchalantly, grabbing the second pillow from my side of the bed and fluffing it out slightly before abruptly swinging it around and smashing it into my friends face.