From The Smoke (Marvel)

Chapter 25

Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.

Chapter 25– The Morning After.

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Ahh, I don't want to open my eyes.

I am just so comfortable, surprisingly. I am very lucid as well, not like I was yesterday. At least, I think that was yesterday. I am feeling so good and refreshed that I think I might have slept for an entire week. Where the last time I awoke, I felt like shit and hurt like hell, right now, I am so relaxed, and I feel like I am resting in the middle of a light, fluffy cloud.

Unfortunately, I am wide awake, even if I have not opened my eyes yet. Still, I want to just sit back and relish in the feeling of bliss I have awakened to. In fact, wanting to go back to sleep but knowing that I could not do so in this position, I try and move to face the bed so as to sink into and smother myself to sleep once more. Except, I can't.

As soon as I try to move, I gain full awareness of my body and all my extremities. And I realise that they are all a bit heavier than they are supposed to be and that there is actually something on top of me pressing down on me, and yet I am not frustrated by this weight. On the contrary, whatever is on top of me is soft and feels excellent pressed against me, and with a quick sniff, I discover it smells great as well. But as I move my head, I feel strands of something moving across my face and moving across the front of my nose, and I realise that is where the smell of strawberries is coming from.

Opening my eyes, my vision is full of white. Or, to be more accurate, platinum blonde. Looking down, I see the top of Felecia's head, an ocean of gorgeous hair filling my vision as she is resting with her head atop my chest. My movement must have irritated her in her sleep a bit since she began to move, and I held my breath, not knowing what to do, but then she settled, her hair now out of my face giving me a fantastic view of her sleeping, peaceful face.

I am confused. Not that I am complaining, because obviously, this is a wonderful situation to wake up in, especially after nearly dying. But just how has it come to this. I find it very hard to try and figure out the sequence that could have led to me waking up recovering from a near-death experience to then waking up the next day with Felecia sleeping on top of me in what looks to be my own bed.

Not to mention the fact that this is Felecia, a woman that I have a very weird relationship with. She is a woman that I really have mixed feelings about, and to make things worse, those feelings are each extreme. On the one hand, she is a manipulative woman that uses her feminine wiles to get what she wants and initially approached me to use me to help her increase her riches or get some sort of amusement out of it.

Then on the other, this woman gave me some direction when I was left out in the cold with nowhere to go. So even if it was done with ulterior motives, the result remains the same. And then, even if it started off somewhat sinister, nothing ever came of it, and we slowly settled into a rhythm of helping one another, having fun and being there for one another. I would have wanted and tried for more, but I couldn't bring myself to open up and try with her. I was too cautious, and all I wanted to do was leave this city and live a calm life somewhere.