Shadow On Your Wall

Fuel to fire

It was around 4am when Norma woke up, opening her eyes a bit to see if the room was still filled with darkness. As her body came back to senses from the deep sleep, she tensed at the feeling of weight around her slim waist. Something that was radiating the warmth to her bare flesh where her shirt was rolled up. Slow and steady, his breathing tickled the back of her neck, sending waves of goosebumps down her whole body. She quickly realised that the weight was from Alex's arm, wrapped around her waist from behind with her back cradled against his chest. She placed her palm on top of his hand where it was resting against the naked skin of her belly, rising and falling along with her every breath. Relaxing into the touch, she closed her eyes, sinking back into sleep again.

Alex was woken up by something tickling his nose. Blinking a few times, a small ray of sunshine coming through the window and making it hard for him to fully open his eyes, he finally made out the blonde curls that were just mere inches away from his face. He shifted a bit, feeling his other hand brushing against something soft and warm, his body tensing when he finally realised what it was. Norma moved a bit in her sleep, pressing her back against him even more. Pushing her body closer to his. Carefully, without waking her up, he removed his hand from around her, finally exhaling the breath he had been holding it. He lied there for a few more minutes, just watching her sleep, white sheets wrapped around her pale skin that was now glowing in the morning sun.

Rising from the bed quietly, not wanting to wake her up yet, he went into the kitchen. Turning on the coffee machine and setting two cups on the table, he glanced at the clock on the wall, not believing his eyes. 11:43am. He never slept that long. Well, at least he hadn't for a long time and without the help of sleeping pills. He felt well rested, he could actually feel his muscles feeling completely relaxed. It was usual for him to wake up when it was still dark. Not that he was ever well rested, but simply because waking up every hour was even more tiring and felt like a waste of time.

Caught up in his thoughts he didn't hear Norma walking into the kitchen. Wrapped in a sky blue satin robe, a wild mess of blond curls around her face, one hand rubbing her heavy, sleepy eyes.

"Good morning." she yawned, as a graceful cat stretching her body in a doorway.

"Oh, hey, you're up." he smiled at her, "Well, it's only what... almost 12pm?"

"Oh my... I never sleep that long. Ever. I always get up around 7am no matter if I have any work at the motel that day or not." she tried to defend herself, "It must be something about this place. Good sleeping aura that you have here, Sheriff." she chuckled.

"Yeah, probably." he said with a smile, taking one of the cups from the table. "The coffee is ready, if you want some?" he asked her, as if he hadn't already made it ready for two cups for both of them.

"Yes, sure. Thank you." she replied, walking to sit at the table.

He walked to the fridge, opening it, "Milk?"

"Would be great." she could not drink coffee without milk, period.

"And I'm afraid this milk is actually all we have left in this fridge." Alex said, shaking a half empty carton box of milk in his hand.

"Yeah, there's definitely some grocery shopping that needs to be done or we will starve to death otherwise." she raised her eyebrow at him. Norma Bates was not used to an empty fridge in her adult days and she was not gonna start having one now.

He settled a cup of coffee in front of her, pouring himself some. "Or we always can live on those delicious pre-cooked meals that I have in my freezer..." he teased, knowing how exactly Norma felt when it came to his choice of food. She wasn't a fan.

"I don't know what's worse, starving to death or eating that crap." she scoffed, giving him a look. "Have you ever walked in the mall except from the frozen foods section? Like, you would be amazed what people have there, there are these things called vegetables, that you can..."