Put Your Dreams in the Skyline...

“What happened to ‘I’ll be home just after four’, huh?” Petie mumbles as I drag myself through the door, dropping my work bag onto the floor by my feet, keys following, hitting the linoleum floor with a noisy clash.

“The same bratty six year old spilt orange juice on his bed sheets, five times! Five! Give the kid a sippy cup, for fuck sake!” I can’t help the word vomit as my temper tips over the edge and I pretty much explode, “You’d have thought they’d have learnt by the second time, but no...” I drag out, throwing myself down next to Petie at the dining room table, head going straight down onto the wood.

“Stressful day?” He offers patting me on the back. I just growl quietly in reply, “Sorry. Do you want some dinner?”

I shrug, “What can you make?”

“Uh.” He hesitates for at least a minute, “Pasta?”

I can’t help but roll my eyes, “I’ll make a stir fry. Go put my shit in my room.”

“Fuck you, Rae. I’m not your man servant!” He laughs, hitting me around the back of the head as he stands and leaves the kitchen area, just to throw himself down on the couch in front of TV a few feet away, “Put your own stuff away, lazy twit.”

“I won’t bother making you any stir fry then.” I smirk through my weary smile.

I leave the threat to sink in while I do take my own bag into my room, setting about changing out of the stiff, monotone uniform I was required to wear at work and into some joggers and a band shirt, thanking the high heavens that I was working tomorrow night and that it’s a pretty easy shift.

“I’ll cook my own dinner!” He bellows just as I’m stepping back out in the lounge, and I raise my eyebrows as looks he at me wide eyed, like I’m about to tell him off.

“Of course you will, Princess Petie.”

--------

My night terrors never really have taken any form. It’s just a lot of flickering lines and flashing lights and then I usually wake up either in tears or just a little breathless, with Justin either already by my side, or rushing into the room to check on me.
This time though, when I jolt awake, Petie is looking practically terrified, leaning over me from his place perched on the very edge of my bed.

“Fuck Rae, are you alright?” He gently wipes the tears from my cheeks with the heel of his hands and swipes my bangs away from my face, “That what happens when you have a night terror?”

I nod, gulping down the water from the glass on my nightstand, “Now do you see why Justin needed a break?”

“It’s a bit alarming.” He chuckles dryly, tugging his hand through his own hair, “You’re OK though, right?

“I’m fine; it just shakes me a little. Don’t worry.” I pat his hand, “You know what time it is?”

“I think it’s just after three.” He groans, falling face forward onto my bed, splaying himself horizontally across the bottom, “I’m so tired.”

“Get back to bed then.” I laugh, shoving him away as he tries to clamber to lie next to me, “Petie! Get off my bed and out of my room, fuck!”

“No...” He drags out, face already buried in the other set of pillows on my bed, “Sleeping here. Then if you have another terror, I’m already by your side.”

“I don’t think I will, but whatever. Just don’t shuffle, at all, or get up before like nine.” I cuddle back into my pillow, “I want breakfast too, seeing as I cooked you dinner...”

“Pancakes it is then.”

Petie stays silent after that, and still, lying on top of my covers in only his boxers while I feel the cold even under the comforter.
It’s weird to see Petie, sort of vulnerable like this. He’s always so hyper, happy and fast witted that when you get a calm moment like this with him, it almost shocks you.
It’s calming to watch his chest rise and fall as I turn to face him, smiling as he does, whether in his sleep or not, I don’t really know, or care.

-------

“So let me get this straight, I cook you pancakes, and now you’re going to leave me, basically all day, to go to the gym, shopping and then to work?”

I laugh, “You make everything so dramatic!” I pet his head condescendingly, “I’m going to the gym with Courtnet at midday, it’s just before eleven now. I’ll only be a few hours there and shopping, so I’ll be back for about four. Then you can spend all the time you like in my company until midnight, that’s when I go to work, OK?”

He frowns, “I thought ‘baby-sitting’ you would be fun! Not me just fending for myself...”

“No wonder they call you Princess...” I fade off, grinning at him as he playfully glares, taking a threatening step toward me, “Bye!”

I’m quick to hop down out of the slightly raised kitchenette, and scramble for the bathroom door as he lunges after me, laughing in the most evil way as he chases me through the bungalow and into the garage instead.

“Are you really trying to escape the inevitable, Rae? There’s not been one instance where I haven’t caught you for a tickle fight.” He smirks from the other side of my Prius, “Give up now and I’ll only give you a noogie.”

“I’m not thirteen anymore, Petie. This is no longer cute.”

“I could say the same about you.” He smirks, “Now, stop hiding behind your car and come face this like a man!”

“I’m more of a man than you’ll ever be, Pizarro!”

It’s all a bit of a jumble as I try to escape his grasp, but instead we end up in a heap on the floor, half in the house, half in the garage, laughing as Petie’s hands set to work at torturing me in the most humane way.

“You know, in a movie, this’d be part where you guys kiss...” I can’t help but snort through my laughter, as Petie’s hand pull away quickly at the sound of Courtney’s voice suddenly in the room, “Well, I sure know how to make things awkward, huh? Rae, I’ll be in the car.”