LITTLE GIRLS ROOM

She had been laying in bed, staring at her pink ceiling for hours now. She had memorized how many glow in the dark stars she had stuck up there, and then realized she had a crack coming from one of the corners of her room. Her soft blue eyes turned away from the ceiling now as she turned to face the wall, now staring at the soft pink wall of her room. Though now, there were no little glow in the dark stars to keep her entertained for hours. She would hae to be content with counting the soft bumps of the walls and see how far she could make it.

'One...Two...Three...'

THUNK. TUNK. THUNK.

'Four...Five...Six..'

THUNK. TUNK. THUNK.

Letting out a soft sigh, Haleya sat bolt upright now, turning her gaze on the wall her headboard had been laying against. She gave the wall a questioning look as another set of sounds flowed through.

Moan. Moan. Maon.

THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.

Her questioning gaze was soon replaced with utter fear as she pulled the sheets back on her pink bed and jumped out of it, running to the door.

"Mommy!" She screamed out as she ran out of the room and across the hall.

THE NEXT MORNING

"Good morning star shine, the Earth says hello."

It was these words that Antonio had used to wake Zephyr from his slumber. Though unlike all of his other attempts on others, Zephyr had opened his bright green eyes to stare into Antioni's light blue eyes and smiled up at him. It wasn't as though Antonio had been use to this, but he was actually quite glad that Zephyr had waken up in such a good mood. It was with this reasoning that Antonio was content with curling back up under the covers and laying with Zephyr's arm around him for few more minutes, though all the while saying to himself he needed to get up to start his usual cup of coffee.

And it wasn't until a bit later that Antonio finally did get up, only after looking at the clock and seeing that it was already after nine in the morning. He slipped out Zephyr's arms, careful not to awake him and slipped into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt before walking into the kitche, pouring his usual cup of coffee and then walking out to the front porch and grabbing the newspaper.

As he returned, Antonio sat down at the kitchen table, flipping the paper open and sipping at his coffee all the while. He was only starting to read the first section of the newspaper when there was a pounding at the door. This early in the monring? Who would have dared to interrupt him so early?

Letting out a heavy sigh, Antonio neatly and patiently folded his paper, setting it abck down on the table before walking to the door. Though the second he opened the door to find out who was pounding, he wanted to shut it again, but never got the chance.

A blond woman stood there, her arms folded across her chest, her blue eyes glaring at Antonio.

"I'm going to kill you!" she snapped as she forced herself into the house with Haleya following behind her. "What part of silence after ten do you not understand?" she demanded angrily.

At this, Antonio winced inwardly, mentally cursing the women. He dind't want Zephyr to be woken to the sound of screams...

Zephyr couldn’t help but open his eyes at the comical comment made by his lover. He had been laying in bed, pretending to be asleep for about ten minutes now, and nothing but this could have woken him up. Unfortunately for him, Antonio had decided on a bizarre form of waking someone up, but quoting a witty remark made by a character on a movie. The weresnake couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle as he looked into Antonio’s eyes, wanting to hit him for ruining his resistance to wake up.

As Antonio lay back into bed, Zephyr leaned into his arms and laid his head on the other’s chest. He was content now, knowing that they didn’t have to get up just this early, and that Antonio wouldn’t leave him just now. It wasn’t but a few minutes after the other man had gotten into the bed that Zephyr had fallen back to sleep again. He didn’t even notice when Antonio had slipped out of the bed and gotten dressed, and continued to sleep alone in the bed.

When Zephyr did wake, though, it was to the sound of a not-too-distant screeching and ranting. The weresnake sat up in bed and looked around, his eyes still a bit groggy from sleeping for so long. He managed to put on some dark purple pajama pants before the screaming continued again, this time for a few seconds longer than it had before. He knew. Zephyr was counting.

Zephyr opened the door to the bedroom and made his way into their kitchen/entry area. He looked over the breakfast bar and into the living room, but didn’t see Antonio. Once he turned around, though, he saw his lover, a tall blonde woman, and a little girl, holding the woman’s hand. He smiled, not yet comprehending what was happening, and walked over to them. He wrapped his arms around Antonio’s stomach and rested his head on his shoulder, kissing his neck. “Hey, Toni. What’s going on?” he asked hoarsely, not yet having all of the sleep gunk out of his eyes and throat.

As the woman standing across from Antonio glared angrily at him, all Antonio could do was smile politely as he tried to think of a quick witted reply to her. And usually, Antonio was filled with replies such as those. He'd be able to pull some comment at least out of his ass as a comeback, but as of late it was either due to the sleep deprevasion or the wrath of the woman across from him that had prevented him to snap something back to her. And it was on this note that Antonio was relieved when he heard the bedroom door open. Though as the thought of Zephyr entered his minds eye, Antonio could only mentally sigh.

Great...For whatever reason itw as this woman had yelled at him, something about silence after ten and it was most likely that which had caused Zephyr to wake up. Not that Antonio was completely unhappy about this at the present time. It was merely the fact that Zephyr had been awoken by someone other then himself that bothered Antonio at least the slightest bit. But finally feeling his lovers eyes land on his own, Antonio felt a bit more relaxed, however it wasn't until Zephyr wrapped his arms around Antonio and that he heard his soft voice that made Antonio completely relax into Zephyr's grasp.

"What's going on? What's going on?" It hadn't been Antonio's words, but in fact it was from the blond who still looked completely ticked off at the moment and showed no signs of letting up soon. "You know well enough what's going on. Surely Toni told you?" It was the way she had said the name Toni, almost as if the name itself had been poisoned that Antonio felt himself wince, and it was just enough that he knew Zephyr would notice it as well. "I'm only telling you this once, Antonio. Your bed happens be on the opposite side of the wall as Haleya's. And if she comes waking me up in the middle of the night complaining of hearing some kind of noise, I know who to blame."

"Oh..." Now it was all coming back to Antonio, the night before ran through his head almost in fast forward. The first blind date with Zephyr and the two of them found themselves in Antonio's bed for the night. But it wasn't merely that which had bothered the lady and her five-year-old. No, it was the fact that their headboard had been apparentlly against the same wall as Haleya's bed. So that would explain why they were mad at the two lovers. But what else could they do? "I'm...Sorry about that..." Antonio said almost in a whisper. His gazed flocked to Zephyr, and he could only hope above all else the weresnake would be able to say something.

Zephyr was still quite drowsy as the woman in front of the two men started ranting on again. All Zephyr could comprehend was every other word that came out of her mouth. He either needed a coke, or needed to let some light in. Thinking about it, he decided to take both. Smiling, at the woman, he waved her off as if he wasn’t paying any attention in the first place and walked over to the windows that were perpendicular to the television, pulling the drapery open. As the light from the sun spilled in, Zephyr cursed and rubbed his eyes, trying to make them adjust to the light faster than they were.

By the time the weresnake had walked back into the kitchen and grabbed a coke from the box inside the refrigerator, the woman was only halfway through her rant. He rolled his eyes and flicked the tab at the top of the coke, letting the carbonation fizz out so he didn’t get pop all over the front of his chest. It seemed as if this lady was mad about something, but she was talking so loud and so fast that she sounded like a monkey with her ass on fire. Blinking and glancing at Antonio, who seemed to be able to understand all of this, he sighed.

At the time that she said Antonio’s nickname, Zephyr was forming a headache and getting a bit pissed off that this lady had decided to barge into their home and start ranting on about things that Zephyr had no idea was happening. Who was Haleya? What happened to a headboard? And how did Antonio know this chick? “Good lord, shut up!” Zephyr said, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to chase away the headache that was the woman.

It was at this point in time that Zephyr noticed a little girl wearing a pink shirt, jean shorts, and white sandals holding the woman’s hand. He smiled gently and kneeled down in front of her. “Hey, now aren’t you just the cutest little girl I have ever seen in my life,” he said, patting her head. “We have some apple juice in the fridge if you want any, sweetie.”

It didnt' appear as though Zephyr was going to help Antonio win this battle, considering at Antonio turned his gaze on his Lover he seemed a bit preoccupied with other thoughts, and Antonio could only guess it had something to do with lights, or a coke. Or perhaps, again know the weresnake now, both. But whatever he had on his mind seemed a bit more important rather than the woman in front of the pair of them who was shouting her rant about hearing weird noises from the other half of the duplex. Now, this was perhaps the one moment that he wished above all else the Zephyr would come give some kind of hand. But again, it seemed as though Zephyr was too busy.

Busy enough that Antonio watched him walk over to the windows and pull back the curtain to allow some light to slip into the room. At the brightness of the light, and having grown use to the darkness that was of their living room, Antonio momentarily shielded his eyes against the bright light before finally opening them agian and rubbing his eyes as he turned his attention back on the ranting woman. But as quickly as his mind returned to her rant, he lost interest and again watched Zephyr walk across the room and into the kitchn to grab a coke.

"Antonio!"

It was the way the woman had said his name that Antonio finally turned his attention back on her. He forced a sheepish grin, almost in a way trying to apologize to her, but not being able to get the words out of his mouth. There was just something about her that Antonio didn't like. Sure, they were at one point or another married, but that didn't mean anything now, did it? Or was it the simple fact he was actually liking her once again that made him a bit uncomfortable? The thought of this had brought a blush to creep into Antonio's cheeks, and he had to force his eyes down to stare at the carpet for a few moments before finally being able to look up at the woman again.

Howeve,r by the time he managed to bring his gaze back up to the woman, Antonio found his gaze land on Haleya, whom was standing next to Zephyr now.

"Daddy?" Haleya turned her crystal blue gaze onto him and it was at this that Antonio winced, realizing now he hadn't really explained to Zephyr that Haleya was really his daughter. Perhaps though Zephyr wouldn't notice the remark? Right...Maybe he could get lucky.

"It's okay, Leya." Antonio said, using his nickname for the girl. "He's my..." he paused for a moment, searching for the right word. "Friend."