Twenty For A Dozen

12 || Upside Down

12 || Upside Down

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," West said.

Kira mumbled a scathing reply and turned over onto her stomach. Her hand clutched at her sheets and brought them sleepily up to her chin.

"I can't hear you," he said and this time his voice was closer to her ear. So close that she could feel her hair move from his breath.

Her hand came up to swat at him like he was a fly, and his unwelcome, too-cheery-for-early-morning laughter rang in her ears.

She wondered why West was even in her room, or how he had even obtained permission to open her bedroom door. As the fact of his presence sunk in, Kira shot up straight in bed.

"West!"

The man in question sported an amused quirk of his lips. "Kira!" he teased back. Kira's attention was more focused on those lips of his to snap back.

"I made you cereal," he said.

She forced herself to look away from his moving mouth and smile up at him. "No, West. The cow made the milk, and the cereal was in a box."

His chest was puffed out when he responded, "But I made cereal - you know, like putting in the effort of bringing those two ingredients together?"

Her feet slipped into her fuzzy slippers by the side of the bed and Kira stretched as she got up. She was very aware of the way West's gaze dipped to her exposed legs underneath her thigh-length nightie. She fiddled with her hair to cover her flushed neck and ears before grabbing her clothes and passing a bemused West to get to her bathroom.

Before she shut the bathroom door behind her she popped her head out. "Chocolate Cheerios?"

West winked at her. "Chocolate Cheerios," he affirmed. "I'm heading back down," she heard him call through the now closed door. "Make sure your pretty arse doesn't fall asleep in there, or I'll be forced to kick the door down. One doesn't make cereal a lá West wait for long!"

This time, as Kira found out as she sauntered into the kitchen, West hadn't burned her precious cereal.

"It's not even overcooked," he said proudly. Kira didn't want to know how a person even managed to 'cook' cereal.

Monique had once again let herself in and Kira saw her typing away in her seat in the living room. "Good morning!" she said when Kira noticed her.

"She told me she'll be joining us today," West said. "Later, I mean. For the... science-y birthday?"

"Astronomy," Kira corrected. Then she relaxed and smiled. "And yes, she is."

Every once in a while there was a party that both Kira and Monique ended up attending. That day was one of such parties.

"So how does this party work, exactly?" West asked.

Kira held up a finger as she chewed on her cereal. It was flattering that West remembered she liked her milk warm. "I was going to go for contacting someone from NASA or something farfetched like that but Monique said something closer to a Magic School Bus episode would be more in my interests."

"Will you be dressing up as Ms. Frizzle?" West asked. He always showed a genuine interest in her work.

"You know the show?" Kira was honestly surprised.

West snorted. "I lived in boarding school in Europe, not Antarctica."

"Well, Ms. Frizzle has visited the Arctic, so even then I guess you would have known," Kira shot back with a saucy smile. She picked up their breakfast dishes and kissed West's cheek, inhaling his scent. "Thank you for the cereal."