"Waking up beside you I'm a loaded gun."
– One Direction, No Control
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When you were fast asleep, your soul made up scenarios in your head that you wished would happen, or your mind simply processed the incidents of the day.
While your brain was still working, your body was at ease, completely relaxing. However, relaxing was easier if you were actually comfortable.
These last few days, I had spent the nights on rough and craggy grounds, with the sounds of nature disturbing my dreams. I ended up feeling a little exhausted, even though I didn't need the rest.
The beautiful girl lying in my arms had made it bearable, lifting up my mood at the crack of dawn.
But I just couldn't deny the fact that sleeping with Elaine lying half on top of me on a warm, comfortable bed made everything better.
Her soft puffs of air fanned my bare chest, her hair falling all around her head like a halo. In her sleep, she looked completely at ease, and with all the makeup gone from her face, I could admire her natural beauty even better.
My fingertips traced her forehead, soft trails following down the length of her hair. She was so painfully beautiful, every little inch of her reflecting her perfection. I yet had to find any faults.
I had woken up next to a girl more often than once, now rather forgetting every memory. Not a single one could even come close to the feeling rushing through my body when my eyes slowly blinked open to face another day.
We were still in Milan, resting on the king-sized bed in a hostel Elaine had found somewhere along the way, and rays of sunshine were warming my face.
Confused and dazed, I looked around in surprise. I had slept longer than I had intended to, never feeling any better than the moment we had arrived in this room. Every minute was engraved into my brain forever, every second providing happiness and bliss.
One moment I was watching Elaine sleep, the next I was gone off to dreamland as well. How Elaine was still asleep seemed to be incomprehensible, but it just gave me another opportunity to study her features.
Elaine shifted in her sleep, dragging her body more on top of me. Completely unaware of what she was doing, her left knee brushed my crotch. Although the friction was soft and didn't hurt me at all, it made my skin tingle all over.
I closed my eyes and groaned, feeling the blood rush in one particular direction.
I might be dead, but I was pretty damn sure that Elaine was killing me all over again.
The way the fabric of my shirt had ridden up while she was sleeping and exposed a bit of her stomach that I could feel against my hips made it even harder for me to stay still.
Counting sheep in my head, I tried to pass some time, but not even that could take my mind off the uneasiness settling over me.
I shuffled and shifted carefully, trying to jostle her off me, but I failed miserably.
Still fast asleep, Elaine turned around once again, this time ending up on the mattress with only her head still on my chest.
I took a deep breath, relieved to finally be able to hop out of the bed. Still trying my best not to wake her up, I made a beeline for the shower, once again turning the knob as cold as possible.
Right after I had wrapped a new towel around my waist, the door flung open. "Do you think they have bacon in t- oh my gosh, sorry!" Elaine squealed, covering her eyes with her hands.
I laughed and walked over to where she was awkwardly waiting in passing, and took her much smaller hands in mine. "Good morning, gorgeous."
My eyes took in the way her lips went up in a smile, but the view was cut off as I placed my lips on top of her, relishing the way she reacted immediately.
After only a short moment, and far too quickly, Elaine pulled away. "I really could do this all day long but now that I have already started thinking about bacon, I really want some."
"If they don't have it down there somewhere, I promise we'll still get some," I ensured her on the spot.
Beaming up at me, she nodded enthusiastically. "Well, get dressed. Or actually, don't. We can run around like this without worrying."
A cheeky grin crept up my lips. "What if we accidentally run into a lost soul?"
She shrugged nonchalantly. "No risk, no fun."
"Naughty girl," I teased her, my lips close to her ear. I felt her shuddering against me, and with just one peak, I could see the goosebumps on her skin.
Satisfied with the reaction I received, I pulled back and picked up my boxers, winking at Elaine and walking out of the bathroom.
As I was waiting in only my boxers for Elaine to come out of the bathroom, my eyes fell on her black bra beside her side of the bed, neatly on top of her other clothes, accompanied by my jeans.
I bit my lip, my fingers itching to feel the fabric. Deciding it would be better for my health and sanity to simply ignore it, I turned around and called her name.
"Coming!" She called back, being the tease she was – without knowing it.
"Hm," I hummed, briefly wondering if it was a good idea to run around half-naked. We had no idea what we were going to do after breakfast, and we couldn't just cross over to Shimmerland and walk home without our clothes.
But that was for later to worry.
Elaine slipped out of the bathroom, my shirt now falling to her mid-thigh once again. I was studying her so closely that I didn't even notice the little smirk she had on her face when she caught me staring.
"Let's go," I mumbled. Here I was thinking I was the one affecting her, but it was honestly the other way around.
Maybe this was my personal hell after all.
Elaine ran down the stairs, two at once, leaving me breathless in fear of her tumbling down. I already had the images of broken bones in my mind.
"Be careful," I begged, hurrying along to keep up with her quick steps.
"Can you smell that?" Elaine asked solemnly.
I paused for a moment and sniffed, trying to smell what she did. "Bacon?" I guessed in concentration, but I was pretty sure it was bacon.
"Yes," she cheered, spinning around at the bottom of the stairs.
"Nice," I commented and caught up with her, letting our noses direct us to the kitchen.
"I really hope we still have some more days off. Can you believe that we barely have been to Shimmerland these past few days?" Elaine asked while tiptoeing around a cook who was stirring scrambled eggs in a pan.
"Out of all the things that have happened to us so far, I don't think this is the most outstanding one," I pointed out, snatching a slice of bacon from a plate.
Elaine watched me with wide eyes, still mesmerized by the way we just transformed it into objects of our world. Or maybe she was just eyeing the bacon, I wasn't quite sure.
"Hmm," I hummed in approval. After swallowing, I added, "breakfast's gonna be good."
Elaine's soft laugh reached my ears and her eyes twinkled with humour before she finally started picking up her own food.
At first she had some trouble to eat the scrambled eggs, complaining how she didn't want to touch it with her fingers. I pointed at a fork and raised an eyebrow, it took her a minute to catch on.
"Riiiight, that never happened," she grumbled, grabbing the fork and watching closely how she suddenly held it in her hand while it remained on the counter where we had seen it the whole time. "Awesome."
We ate a whole mountain of food, both of us feeling pretty sleepy afterwards. I sighed, dreading the way up. "If we somehow make it back to our room, would you fancy sleeping some more? I don't think I can run around now."
"I always fancy sleeping," Elaine replied, already running out of the kitchen, her long brown hair flying behind her.
I laughed to myself, already looking forward to having a lazy day. I couldn't help but have the feeling that the Council would be calling us soon, there was no way I could shake the nagging thoughts off.
"First one to reach the room wins!" Elaine called back from ahead, already running upstairs.
Breaking out into a sprint, I took two steps at a time and quickly caught up with Elaine until I was able to fully grin at her. "Hope you're not a sore loser," I winked and brushed past her, my longer legs providing a huge advantage.
"Cheater!" She yelled, accidentally running through a woman that emerged out from nowhere. Probably unconsciously, she apologised.
Only a few meters away from the room, I slowed down until I was just walking, letting Elaine fall into step with me. "Already giving up?" She asked teasingly.
"I'm trying to be a gentleman, letting you win and all," I waved my hands around, raising an eyebrow.
"I think this is the most ridiculous and carefree thing I have ever done in my life," she said, a sad smile on her face.
"What, you've never done a race before?" I felt like I wasn't quite getting what she was talking about.
"I mean this whole trip, going to another country with someone I barely know and running around in a hotel in only underwear," she let me know, her eyes quickly flickering over my bare chest.
"You haven't tried skinny dipping yet," I laughed, but immediately became serious. Actually, thinking about it... It was a pretty good idea.
"If you can get me to a hot place... Let's say... Hm, Egypt?" She looked up at the ceiling in concentration before reconnecting our gazes. "Egypt, yes. Well, if we go there, we can do it. At night, though, you never know who might be watching."
I burst out laughing. "Sure, whatever you say."
Now, actually rethinking the idea, I wasn't so sure if it was the right thing to do. After what happened yesterday, it was more than obvious that Elaine wasn't ready for any intimidate action and going skinny dipping with her, at night for that matter, would just test my patience even more.
However, there was no going back now.
"Let's spend the day in bed, watch a bit TV and," I paused for a moment, actually thinking about it. "Oh my gosh, I haven't watched TV in ages. Think we can get it to work although it's basically in our dead world when we touch it?"
"Dunno, we should give it a try."
"Good, alright. Yeah, anyway, let's do that and then go to Egypt tonight," I suggested, somehow guessing those 8-10 hours would give me enough time to come up with a good plan B.
One that didn't include a hard-on and an internal battle.
We rushed through the closed door to our room, seeing that everything was just how we left it. Without another comment, we both plopped down backwards on the bed, our legs hanging over the edge.
It only took us a few minutes to safely return to our old position under the blanket, Elaine once again half on top of me.
Out of nowhere, I decided to ask her a question. "If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?"
"What?" She laughed, looking up at me to see if I was serious.
"I want to get to know you better. So, what meal would it be?"
She pondered over the question for a little bit before coming to a conclusion. "Chicken stuffed with mozzarella cheese, wrapped in Parma ham with a side of homemade mashed potatoes."
I replayed her words in my head, trying to recall if I ever had that meal. "Sounds good."
"What would it be for you?" Elaine fired the question back at me.
"Probably burgers and French fries," I replied with a laugh. "Yeah, I could live with that."
"What's the longest you've gone without sleep and why?" Elaine asked after a moment of thinking about a good question to ask.
"Easy. Colour Festival last year, I think I didn't sleep in three days. We were drinking a lot and just stayed awake all night. I slept for a few days straight afterwards, though," I told her, thinking back to the festival.
"I always need a little sleep or I'm completely useless. I once fell asleep in class because I stayed awake the whole night watching TV shows," Elaine explained with a smile.
"Which show?" I asked, genuinely interested.
"Devious Maids. Man, that show is addictive." Her eyes sparkled with excitement, thinking back to that show.
Looking down at her, I realised that we had never gone on a proper date. "We're gonna leave this room in one hour."
"Why?"
Not wanting to tell her the reason just yet, I smiled mysteriously at her. I was smiling a lot around Elaine lately. "You'll see."
The next two hours were spent dozing off every now and then, causing for a little delay in our departure. But, nearly two and a half hours later, we were finally dressed and ready to go where I would lead her.
Crossing the bridge, I thought of that small ice skating place in Cheshire, not far away from home. Gemma and I used to go there a lot, all around the year. We were just baby steps away from an ice skating career.
What I hadn't intended to happen was ending up in the middle of the ice surface. Unknowingly taking a step ahead, my feet slipped under me and I landed on my bum, letting go of Elaine's hand in the process.
She stared at me for a moment, utterly dumbfounded, but burst out laughing within seconds. Her eyes were closed and her fists clutching her stomach, until she calmed down to ask me, "Are you okay?"
The cold was slowly creeping through my jeans, but I ignored it. Nodding sharply, I had some trouble to get up, but managed to do it somehow. I carefully walked over the ice, seeing Elaine following me just as carefully over my shoulder, until we exited the ice and stepped on the concrete.
"So, why are we here?" I could tell that Elaine had trouble to keep a neutral face, the humour still evident in her eyes, but at least her tone was somewhat normal.
"I just wanted to take you out on a, kind of, normal date," I explained, leading her over to the skates that some older woman was handing out. "Look for your size behind that counter." I pointed at the racks of skates and walked to a line that had my size.
Quickly stepping into them and placing my shoes on a stool where I wouldn't forget them, I walked over to where Elaine was still tying her skates.
"Well, at least we're not going to freeze to death," she laughed, shaking her head to get her hair out of her eyes. When she failed, I collected her long hair in my hands and held it until she finished. "Thanks."
I leaned forward, quickly pecking her on the lips. "We're going to Egypt after this, remember?"
"True." Elaine stood up and took a few shaky steps forward, getting used to the skates on her feet.
"Have you ever been ice skating before?" I asked, biting my lip to keep from laughing.
"No. Gosh, is it that obvious?" She panicked, holding on to my hands tightly.
This time, I couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'm basically a pro."
"Great, that means you'll skate a round with me and then you'll leave me hanging because I'm boring you," she sighed, stopping in front of the entrance to the ice surface.
"I would never do that," I assured her, still laughing. "But if you're falling, I'm gonna let go because I don't want to fall, too. It hurts, ya know?"
"What a gentleman," she mumbled under her breath and rolled her eyes. "You're fucking gonna catch me if I fall."
"You wish," I teased, knowing deep down that I would immediately steady her. There was no way I would let her hurt herself with her clumsiness.
"Have you ever hurt yourself while skating?" Elaine suddenly asked with a panicked expression.
"Just broke a leg, once or twice, why?" I joked, immediately grinning at her to make her see that I wasn't serious. "No, not really. I mean, it kinda hurts when you fall, but the pain dies down."
"Just wondering," she let me know, taking a hesitant step forward.
With one foot on the ice and the other firmly planted on the steady concrete, she looked up at me with fear in her eyes. "Don't let me go."
Instead of teasing her, I stepped on the ices in front of her, taking both her hands from the railing. Completely sincere, I squeezed her hands once, and said, "I won't."
I had no idea how much she trusted me, but apparently it was enough for her to let go. Elaine got scared for a moment, when a kid, no older than ten, skated right through us, but she quickly recovered.
This time with both feet on the ice, she looked up at me. "It's better not to look down, right?"
I genuinely had no idea, but I guessed that looking at me instead at her feet would keep her from thinking too much about it. So, to assure both her and me, I nodded.
Taking baby steps, she was making fast progress. After only a few minutes, I felt like she was safe enough to go on her own.
Her eyes widened in horror when she felt me withdraw my hands. Before she had a chance to react, I skated away.
"Harry!" She called after me, slightly breathless. "You promised you wouldn't let me go."
Shit. I really had promised that.
Sighing, I skated back to the spot I had left her. "Sorry, kinda forgot. Forgive me?" I pouted slightly, hoping she wouldn't be mad.
To my relief, she wasn't. "You're an idiot, I hope you know that."
"Definitely," I laughed, taking her cold hands in my equally cold ones and spending at least an hour on the ice, not caring about the cold.
Soon enough, we were both getting a bit tired. "If you want to go skinny dipping with me tonight, you have to let me rest a bit now," Elaine informed me, taking off to the exit on her own.
I proudly watched her skate away, mesmerized by the way she moved across the ice as if she had always been doing it.
Shaking my head, I followed her to where she was already sitting on the ground to remove the skates. A slight headache was creeping up on me, probably from the cold.
"Let's get something warm to eat," I suggested, knowing it would be too early to take off to Egypt just now. We still had a lot of time left before the sun would set.
I massaged my temples, the headache getting worse as the seconds ticked by. I really need some food now.
"Harry?" Elaine caught my attention, waiting for me to answer a question that I had missed.
"Sorry, what did you say?" I removed my skates and tried to listen to her this time.
"I asked if it were okay to just grab something to eat over there." Looking up at her, I saw her pointing at some kind of fish restaurant.
"Sure," I said through gritted teeth, my head really starting to annoy me.
"Are you alright?" Elaine asked, concern lacing her voice.
"Just a headache," I mumbled and stood of, taking a few steps into the direction of the restaurant until I noticed that Elaine wasn't following. "Are you coming?"
"Uh, Harry?" She bit her lip, clearly nervous.
"What's wrong?" I asked, her tone worrying me.
"When did your headache start?" I couldn't read the look in her eyes.
"Just a few minutes ago, it'll go away." I waved my hand to underline that I was, in fact, alright. A headache wouldn't kill me – no pun intended.
"If it started a few minutes ago, out of nowhere," Elaine paused for a second, "it might be the Council calling."
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