There was a noise. A very annoying noise. And that noise was slowly dragging Lee’s tired mind back to consciousness.

But Lee couldn’t smell coffee. Her brows scrunched together as she closed her eyes tighter. If she couldn’t smell her coffee, that meant it wasn’t time to get up. And if it wasn’t time to get up yet. But the noise was still there, growing more annoying and insistent the closer to fully conscious she got.

Groaning, Lee rolled toward the sound, her body basically just flopping onto her back as a hand reached out toward where the noise was coming from. Her eyes still weren’t open. There was still no smell of coffee. If she could stop the noise, that meant she could then go back to sleep. Her hand flopping and groping beside her looking for her loudly buzzing, vibrating phone.

Oh good, she was waking up. She was waking up and going to see that Tarin had been staring at her. That was awkward. He panicked a little, trying to decide if he should try to act like he was still asleep or if he should just roll with it.

It didn’t matter though, because Lee wasn’t exactly awake, she was just kind of flailing around and trying to get ahold of her phone.

”Uh…Lee…” he chanced, not reaching out or touching her, but propping up on his elbow and scooting just a little further away in case there was more flailing.

Lee had felt a vibration on her arm as her hand was searching for the offending noise, but she couldn’t seem to get a hold of it.

”Uh…Lee…”

It was only then, as the energy got slightly further away, that Lee realized that she was siphoning. From someone much closer than the next room.

A confused expression crossed her face as memories from the previous night started to slowly slide back into place. She had gone to Tarin’s room. That would explain the lack of coffee she was smelling.

Forcing her eyes open, Lee looked over, the opposite direction as her alarm, and saw Tarin lying there beside her, propped up on his elbow as he looked at her.

Smiling, Lee let her searching hand fall to her side for the moment. Tarin was so much more important than an alarm. ”Hi…”

Oh good. She was awake.

Lee turned towards him and Tarin couldn’t help but grin as her eyes opened and took a minute to focus

She had apparently forgotten about the alarm though, and it was loud.

”Good morning.” he said, ”Sleep well?”

The alarm was still yelling, ”You might want to get that.” He said, squinting his eyes slightly and reaching out the hand he wasn’t leaning on. Maybe she could multitask this early. Maybe not.

Lee shrugged when Tarin asked how she’d slept. It had been sleep, that’s about as good as it got for Lee. But she had woken up to see Tarin, so that was pretty darn good.

Before she was able to say anything about that, she felt Tarin’s hand on hers as he asked if she was going to get that. It took a moment for her to realize that he was talking about her alarm. Which was still going off. Right.

Only after she had managed to grab a hold of Tarin’s hand in order to keep contact, did Lee turn to get her phone.

It was remarkably easier to do with her eyes open, and soon she had her phone actually in her hand. Lee flipped it over and turned the alarm off. ”Sorry, my alarm kind of needs to be loud,” aplogized as she turned to look at Tarin again.

”I figured.” Tarin said, still grinning as Lee apologized for the volume of her phone alarm.

And now they were holding hands. Now that everyone was awake, it was okay to touch.

It was also quiet in his room now, ”I guess the experiment worked.” Tarin said happily. It was easy to be chipper in this situation, he decided. ”Not a bad way to start a Monday.”

Lee smiled as she woke up, as the energy she was getting just by holding Tarin’s hand while laying in bed helped her to wake up even faster. No caffeine needed.

”So it did,” Lee said, her smile growing as she looked over at Tarin. ”I’m glad. I was expecting it to take at least a few tries before it worked, so this is a great way to start a Monday.”

Speaking of great ways to start the day, Lee glanced at her phone to check the time now that she was awake enough to figure it out. ”You know what?” Lee asked as she turned back to Tarin with an even wider smile. ”I’ve got 15, maybe 20 minutes before I need to get up and moving…”

Lee’s sleeping capabilities had exceeded even her expectations and that was excellent. It also meant that this was likely to be a thing they did more often. That silly smile just didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Neither was Lee, for at least 15 minutes it seemed.

The smile on Tarin’s face got a little bit less silly and a little bit more something else entirely and he tugged on Lee’s hand to try to pull her closer.

”The benefits of this arrangement are beginning to feel endless.” he said.

Lee was not too tired still to miss the change in Tarin’s smile, and his eyes as he looked at her, when she mentioned she didn’t have to get out of bed for 15 minutes.

And she scooted closer to Tarin, a grin on her own face, when she felt him tugging on her hand. ”Is that so?” Lee asked, her free hand moving to Tarin’s side and slipping under the hem of his shirt. Lee then leaned in to kiss Tarin as her fingers slowly slid further up. ”One day, all this clothing won’t be necessary, either,” she murmured against his lips.

Was that so?

”Mmhm.” he intoned as Lee moved closer and that hand of hers made its way up and under his shirt.

Oh yeah, definitely so, Tarin thought goosebumps followed Lee’s hand wherever it went.

”One day, all this clothing won’t be necessary, either.”

Definitely a good thing, as was the kissing, and Tarin couldn’t help but smile about how this really was an excellent way to wake up. Definitely something he’d like to do as often as possible

”We’d better start practicing then.”

Were those goosebumps that Lee felt under her fingers as her hand moved along Tarin’s side. Lee grinned into the kiss. Even if this wasn’t what they ended up doing every morning, Lee really would prefer to wake up here, with Tarin, every morning.

Then Tarin mentioned that they should start practicing, and Lee couldn’t stop the slight giggle that escaped. ”That definitely sounds like a good plan,” Lee said as she released Tarin’s hand she was still holding, bringing it up to the side of his face as she leaned in for another, deeper kiss. This was definitely a good way to start the day.

Fade to black