Spy School Goes North (fanfiction)

Chapter 6: A Pleasent Sort of Confusion

June 13th

7:30 am/ 0730 hours

Ben's POV:

I woke up completely surrounded by warmth, the scent of lilacs, a softer scent of gunpowder, with my arms wrapped around something and my neck being steadily breathed on. The room was dark and I was extremely confused. I blinked twice and thought about what had happened last night.

I remembered Erica and I making it official that we were dating, that I could now call her my girlfriend without a shadow of doubt. I remembered Erica and I kissing,  how her hand had felt against my chest, though my thin shirt, and the feel of my hands around her slim waist, I remembered how Erica had thrown her arms around my neck with a wide smile as we fell backward into the soft pillows of the couch.

But I couldn't remember anything else. 

I became more aware of my surroundings, my vision adjusted to the lack of light and I realized that my arms were still around her thin waist, it was her head buried in my neck. The comforting warmth was her body heat and mine trapped underneath the thick blanket that had fallen on top of us during our hug. Based on all the evidence I came to the conclusion that the exhaustion from the past 2 days, had meant that we had fallen asleep together.

Erica's hand was once again flat against my chest, her other loosely wrapped around my middle. I gently ran a hand through her silky soft hair that was spread out over both of us, she stirred slightly at my touch, and buried her face deeper into my neck.  It was all very comfortable and I heavily considered going back to sleep until a rather large toy mouse flew straight into the back of my head, a second one flying into Erica's back. 

Her head immediately jerked up, followed by her body after she realized what position we were in, taking the blanket with her as she sat against the other side of the U shaped sofa. A lamp flickered on in response to her movement, basking the room in a soft yellow glow.

Erica's eyes searched for the source of the mice, and landed on an all black cat with the bright blue eyes of a Hale. The cat was perched on top of the shelf right below the TV, already with another mouse hooked around its claw. It was a fairly large cat, but slender enough to rest comfortably on the shelf,.

It was a very cute cat, until it threw the mouse straight at my eye.

Erica immediately, leapt off of the couch and ran over to the cat. She scooped the cat up like a baby and proceeded to stroke and scratch it affectionately, while talking to it in a sweet, high, very un-Erica voice.

By now I was even more confused. Erica hated baby talk, she also never told me she had a cat. However she also hadn't told me she had an older sister, in fact she specifically told me she didn't, so maybe that logic doesn't hold up, but still.

I realized Erica was walking back over toward me, still cradling the cat, "Lyra this is Ben, Ben this is Lyra, my cat." I just nodded unsure of what to say.

Erica set Lyra down on the couch pillow, "I'll leave you 2 two to get antiquated." She walked over to the bathroom and shut the door.

I glanced at Lyra nervously. She glared back and licked a raised paw. I did not know cats could be this intimidating. The cat continued its stare licking combo and I carefully started examining the mouse that had been thrown at me. I glanced up at Lyra, she had paused all previous activities and was now looking at me curiously with a cocked head, foot back on the pillow. I gently squeezed the mouse around its round middle. It made a shrill squeaking noise and Lyra pounced. She landed in my lap and promptly snatched the mouse out of my hand, with her mouth.

By the time Erica came back from the bathroom, Lyra had abandoned any previous misgivings about me and was curled up in my lap, allowing me to gently stroke her back with one hand, while I leaned against the other, as she gleefully squeaked her mouse. Erica smiled at the 2 of us almost admiringly and sat down cross legged on my right. Lyra immediately leapt up again, this time into Erica's lap, taking the mouse with her.

I gazed at her for a moment glancing back and forth between her eyes and her lips briefly before Erica's hand found my cheek and we were kissing.

It was like a repeat of last night, Erica placed her other hand on my shoulder. I encircled one hand around her neck to support her head, my other hand finding the slim of her waist, her smaller top allowed my hand to feel the soft skin of both her small waist and the flat of her belly as my thumb traced it. I could feel the butterflies flourishing in my stomach as our lips met. 

After a long while Erica pulled away and pressed her forward against mine, grinning, "Do you wanna go downstairs and get breakfast?"

"Yeah, that sounds great. I'm just going to use the bathroom first," I replied. I pulled away completely and walked back to my room and into my bathroom.

When I came back Erica was cradling Lyra in one hand and I was slightly surprised to see that she hadn't changed.  I walked over to her and intertwined our fingers together, she leaned into my shoulder briefly and led me out of her room back towards the stairwell. Lyra eventually got tired of being cradled and meowed loudly. Erica loosened her hold on Lyra, who moved over so she was draped over Erica's front, with her head twisted so she could look forward, right next to Erica's neck.

I was led all the way back down to the ground floor and through an arch that was behind the stairwell, which I now realized was in the center of the room instead of at the very back. The arch opened into the living room was on the center with an even larger U shaped couch that was facing an even larger flat-screen TV, on top of the fireplace.

The dining table was to the right, made of the same wood as the table in the plane, with push grey and white chairs.

 The kitchen was at the back mainly on the left but the cabinets almost reached the dining table, before ending right next to a line of sliding glass down facing a wrap around porch and, a lake.

Erica walked straight into the kitchen and glanced up at me, "You can have whatever you want as long as you can make or find it." She gently squeezed my hand, put Lyra down on the marble counter and made her way over to the fridge.

I looked around feeling very overwhelmed, usually I would just have whatever was available in the cafeteria at school, but I got the feeling having a bagel would make me look uncultured. I walked over to the fridge and opened the right side, it was completely organized, like extremely organized. Different fruits and vegetables that each had their own plastic compartments, the dairy was all carefully organized and there was even a spot for leftovers. After much consideration and casual (or so I hoped) examination of what was in the numerous cabinets,  I decided on a couple pop tarts and some Lucky Charms with milk.

"Wow", Mike's voice came from the entrance to the kitchen, his arm was around Trixie's shoulders and Zoe stood next to looking  slightly uncomfortable, "nice place." I looked over at him from next to the fridge where I was grabbing milk for my cereal, Erica had just finished blending some healthy shake thing and was now mixing some plain yogurt with assorted fruits and nuts. I noticed him and Zoe were looking at Erica in badly hidden surprise at her lack of spy clothing, Erica glanced up at them briefly, she repeated what she had said to me before in monotone, before looking back down at her yogurt. 

They all just ended up having Lucky Charms with me, it wasn't like there were many other choices. I mean there was plenty of food, but most of it seemed very specialized towards individual family members and some of it even had death threats on the container.

"So what's the deal with the cat?" Mike asked, while waiting for the milk. Zoe and I had already poured it and we were currently waiting for him and Trixie to be done. To be fair it was a good question, and if I hadn't already been introduced I would have had questions too. Lyra was back to doing the lick/glare thing with her paw, from the bottom right corner of the island right next to where Erica was standing, now sprinkling blue berries on her  yogurt. Lyra shifted her glare to look at Mike straight in the eye, "That's Lyra," Erica said flatly. "Her cat," I whispered to them. "Erica has a cat?" Zoe looked surprised.  I just nodded in response. 

Eventually Mike finished pouring his milk, Erica finished putting together her breakfast, a yogurt bowl and some sort of healthy shake, and the rest of us had all had bowls of Lucky Charms with milk we were able to exit the kitchen and follow her to the breakfast nook.