Rude Awakening

I just wanted to share a favorite excerpt from my fanfic, Defiant Vengeance. It's a fic from the World of Warcraft game, but you don't really need to know anything about it to enjoy this scene.

Just to fill in some background to this scene...
Adam and Maggie are agents assigned to protect Kristie from a mad woman. Kristie and Adam had known each other before he was assigned to protect her. Kristie suffered from occasional nightmares because she had killed someone in order to save herself and some other hostages (up to that point, she considered herself a pacifist). Adam and Maggie were taking turns staying up to make sure no one came into her hotel room while she slept. Adam had the first watch and had helped Kristie fall asleep by sitting with her until she fell asleep. Um, I think that's all that needs explaining to understand this fun scene.

[HR][/HR]

Kristie was in that blissful state of just coming to consciousness where she was still asleep enough to be very relaxed, but awake enough to begin making coherent thoughts. And her thoughts were first and foremost of Adam and their conversation last night. She recalled going to sleep against his chest and was surprised at how simple a motion such as stroking her hair had relaxed her so easily. She made a mental note to ask him sometime where he had learned that...or if it was just something that came naturally.

She slowly opened her eyes to see Maggie watching her with an amused smirk on her face. Kristie blinked and immediately wondered why the woman was so amused. She was starting to get to know the agent well enough that when she had that look on her face, it meant that something was up.

Kristie took in a deep breath and let it out to get her blood pumping and as a result wake herself up some more. She was on her side so she rolled to her back to stretch, but came up against something hard. At the same time, she realized there was something heavy on her stomach. She looked down and nearly gasped at the site of an arm draped across her mid-section. Her head immediately turned to see the arm was attached to a tanned and muscular back.

Kristie's eyes grew wide. Had Adam been sleeping there all night? No. He had at least gotten up and removed his leather vest and tunic...not to mention he was on the other side of her now than he was last night. A quiet snicker across the room told her that she now knew why Maggie had been so amused. Kristie threw her a glare as she tried to gently move Adam's arm from around her without waking him, only to find it automatically tighten. Now what?

Kristie decided to try and squirm her way out from under his arm. Her efforts were met with a muffled, "I'm trying to sleep, woman."

"Then remove your arm so I can get up then you can sleep all you want!" She snapped back. The reply was muffled in the pillow so she couldn't understand what he said, but it was obvious the answer was no because his arm remained firmly where it was. Maggie burst out laughing and Kristie turned to snap at her now. "You could help, you know!"

"Oh but this is much too amusing!" Maggie's green eyes sparkled.

Kristie fumed. Now this was totally unfair, two against one. Adam's torso began to shake in the telltale sign of silent laughter now. She glanced around her and spied the pitcher of fresh water on the side table. With a wicked grin, she reached out, grabbed it, then dumped the cold water onto Adam's bare back. He let out a yelp and jumped up in shock and Kristie took advantage of the opportunity to escape. She jumped up and was across the room in a flash.

"Oh, you want to play it that way, do you?" Adam had a feral grin, with an amused look in his eyes as he slowly climbed out of the bed, revealing some tan trousers and bare feet.

Kristie quickly jumped behind Maggie who protested. "Hey! I'm not a shield!"

"You're supposed to be protecting me." Kristie was starting to laugh herself now.

"Yeah... from bad guys, not a rudely awoken rogue." Maggie deftly danced away from Kristie just as Adam dashed forward, grabbing Kristie and tickling her sides. Kristie squealed and struggled to get away from him, but he was clearly able to keep her #easily trapped.

Finally, she had to relent and cried out "Uncle! Uncle!" She laughed again. "Please stop." He did as asked and the three had to take few minutes to catch their breaths from all the laughter. Finally, Kristie stood up straighter, rubbing her sides. "Now, why were you sleeping next to me instead of your own bed in the other room?"

Maggie answered for him. "Because I asked him to."

Surprised, Kristie glanced over at the female rogue. "Why?"

"You were having some more nightmares. And since I knew he had calmed you before, I got him up and suggested he sleep next to you. It helped. Almost as soon as he lay down next to you, you seemed to calm down and had stopped thrashing about." Maggie grinned. "And before you make any protests, remember that I've been standing here the whole time. I wouldn't let anything happen other than sleep."

"And all I got for my honorable effort was a cold splash of water, denying me the extra sleep I need...and the loss of something warm and comfortable I could snuggle up with."

Kristie felt contrite until he made his last comment. She couldn't help herself for making one last gibe at him. "You needed a shower anyhow."

Adam raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?" He started towards her again only to stop a few paces away, sniff the air, and then say, "I'm not the only one." He then dodged the pillow she threw at him and laughed. "Since I was denied my beauty sleep, I get the bath first." He disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door.