smoke in the night.

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TANGLED in soft sheets and a thick comforter, Casey twitched as his mind began to shift from a dream state to reality. Bits of early morning sunlight began to spill into the large room through two half draped windows, spreading out along the wooden floor and creating a triangle shape in the center. When the sunlight finally made its way to the bed, the warmth tickling Casey’s nose, he murmured a few incoherent words and noises before his eyes began to crack open.      HIS lids still felt heavy with sleep, but he managed to blink a few times in order to take in his surroundings. It took him no more than two seconds to realize he was clearly not in his own room, or even his own two bedroom apartment. He lazily glanced around more, noticing the simplicity of the decorating but the femininity to it as well. It wasn’t overpowering, which spoke a great deal about the woman who lived in here, and was appropriately in this very bed... curled up in his arms - something she had once told him she'd never do. By now he was pretty sure his left arm she had rolled onto was numb, but he didn't want to wake her. Not yet. It wasn’t often that he got to look at her in this state. Raw and beautiful. In fact, this was the very first time.      HE must have twitched again because she finally stirred, brown locks falling over her face, full pink lips separating a bit for air, and then squishing against his chest. A faint smile rested upon his lips as he watched her quietly, drinking every inch of her in. It was funny how the brunette could drive him completely up the wall, and yet tug at his heart strings a little all the same. It was even funnier to know that in actuality, their coupling would make no sense. She never acted as if she wanted anything serious, and though he often portrayed the same attitude, it wasn’t necessarily the complete truth. A part of him missed having one woman to himself, one he could call his. So it really made no sense why he was here right now, or even why they had both decided to cross this line. He knew how complicated everything would become. And yet, here they were. Eden really shouldn’t have ever been on his mind, but she often was. And it was never just her beauty that caused Casey to pause.      SHE was a mystery, and Casey loved his puzzles. He knew she wasn’t going to be an easy one to crack, and knowing that drew him to her more. She often had an air of self-assurance to her, even sometimes arrogantly so, that made her all the more attractive to him. She never seemed completely fragile either, and it was something he admired in a woman, for it meant she could handle her own. Her biting words could certainly sting sometimes, but Casey often rolled his eyes and took most of them as her deflecting in order to hide her real feelings. She wasn’t a wear your heart on your sleeve type, and she certainly wanted a guy to work for her attention. She wasn’t incompetent either. In fact, he was sure she could challenge him intellectually if she wanted to.      AS labeling went, they were friends. At least that was how Casey normally defined their relationship. So their day had never really started like this. It normally started with them in someone else’s bed or their own, groggily checking their phones for some stupid drunk text they sent each other the night before about how hideous or ridiculous their chosen companions for the night were. They were always trying to one up each other on the teasing and insults. It was a pastime they both seemed to enjoy immensely. At least until the jealousy started settling in. Casey couldn’t tell when that had started, but when it did, the insults got worse. She never backed down either, and a part of him smugly hoped it was because she was jealous it was never her.      AND now he wondered if this would be the day all truths would finally come to light. Their night had been a long one, his hunger for her had almost driven him mad. It kind of caught him off guard when she first returned it with equal fervor, and he could still feel the crescent nail marks in his back and the soreness he was developing all over. For a guy who was supposed to be in great shape, she sure made him feel like he hadn’t nearly worked out hard enough. He finally leaned over and carefully brushed some of her hair from her face, then shoulder and placed his lips softly against her bare skin. The kiss to her shoulder was swift, but it seemed to draw her awake, at least enough for their eyes to meet briefly. "Mornin.." he drawled quietly, his Southern accent he often suppressed, seeming to spill out. He cleared his throat after a minute then rested his head more against the center of his pillow. "You aren't planning on sleeping all day are you? I mean, I know I wore you out, but you really can't miss breakfast," he said with a teasing grin.    TAGGED @eden    NOTES idk how i feel about this. but tada!

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GENERALLY speaking, Casey wasn't the kind of guy Eden kept around. Not for long, anyway. He was the kind of guy she liked to sleep with once and crush his ego, burn into the ground with words because she so easily turned people off that way, made them doubt themselves -- he was the the kind of guy she liked to play with, then laugh when they finally realized that yes, truly, nothing was ever going to happen. Somewhere in the rejection and scathing comments, he hadn't gone up in flames the way she expected and an odd friendship had formed. Somehow he had managed to keep her responding to his instant messages and texts and kept her coming out whenever he needed a wingman. She should have stopped a long time ago, but he seemed to have latched on like a vice grip and wasn't going anywhere, despite her crass nature.       NOT that he was the first to get under her skin, despite her best efforts to repel them. Look at her friendship with Atlas or Dane -- both of them managed to weasel their ways into her heart and despite fights and temporary "break-up's" she always went back. She forgave and forget, even when she shouldn't have because somewhere underneath it all, she cared. Not that she would willingly admit the fact to anyone. She preferred to keep the title of Ice Queen for as long as humanly possible. Three most certainly had to be her limit, though. That was a nice, safe number and since she was on the out's with Dane and she hadn't quite given up on pushing Casey at arms length, maybe she could recover her "only one real friend" status again and revoke whatever she feared he had been bestowed by letting him get this far.       MAYBE that plan would work a lot better if she didn't wake up in his arms the morning after they slept together. It would be much easier to make a point if anything she had said to him came to pass. She was rough -- that wasn't a lie -- but it was nearly the only thing that she managed to stay true to. She had let him stay the night, somehow managed to roll into his arms while sleeping, and stayed there for who knows how long? Now she was laying there, desperately trying to ignore the sunlight filtering into the room and trying to pretend that he wasn't actually speaking to her. Maybe if she closed her eyes again and pretended she fell back asleep, he would simply make his way out of the apartment and she wouldn't have to face him. Maybe this would all blow over and she wouldn't have to acknowledge that anything out of the ordinary happened last night.       OF course, her plans to try to feign sleep aren't allowed to come to fruition. He's caught her and isn't letting her wrangle her way out of it. She sighs rolling away from him to burrow her face into her pillow and tug the comforter as high up as it can possibly go. In the darkness of the  blanket cocoon she formed, she was able to hide from him and the fact that he wanted to make breakfast. God, that was such a domestic thing to do, she was positive that the grumbling in her stomach wasn't from hunger but offense that he thinks he can feed her. "Go away." Her 'not-remotely-a-morning-person' side was showing when she says the two simple words, using her foot to nudge him. Though on second thought, maybe she should kick him. Hard. She doesn't, but she really, really thinks about it. Chalk it up to being too tired to make the effort.      STILL hidden beneath the blanket, she turns her head slightly so she can speak without the pillow muffling her voice. Not that he deserves it, she thinks, which just amplifies how childish she's behaving. If it had been anyone else but Casey, she would have happily kicked him out before dawn without a single concern for the cold or how they were getting home. She wasn't a kind one-night stand.  "I must be in a nightmare if you're plaguing me by being here in the light of day," she's not wholly serious, but she groans, wiggling closer to the edge of the bed. Cuddling -- gross, she was definitely not risking that again. "Atlas is probably still sleeping, you can't wake her up by clanking around the kitchen." Always so considerate of her best friend. "I can't believe you woke me up this early." Not that she had a single clue what time it was, but any time before she was ready was too early for her. NOTES ur awesome this sucked bye

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HE watched as she groaned, rolling away before he could catch her again, and pulling the white comforter over her head. A faint smirk rested upon his lips before he rolled over on to his back, stretched his arms back, intertwining his fingers and cupping the back of his head. Casey had always been a morning person. As a boy he’d be the first awake in the house, tip toeing down the spiral staircase and pulling out the sweets from the sweets jar his mother kept on a high shelf in the kitchen, or drinking the orange juice from the carton and then laying upside down on his mother’s plush and often off limits cream colored couch in the living room to watch Recess or play Super Nintendo. His parents thought he’d grow out of it, but as time passed, it only continued. He became the guy who was up early and taking a jog through Central Park, rain or shine. And the guy who was in line for coffee at 5:30 am even though he didn’t need to be on campus until 9 am. The only time he ever really slept in was if he had been supremely high or had been drinking all night, and then he’d sleep like a rock until the afternoon.      BUT of course, Eden was the opposite. Casey glanced in her direction and watched as the white lump moved a little. When he felt her cold foot push against his calf, and a “go away” was muttered soon after, he chuckled. "What, no morning kiss baby?" he teased, with another smirk following. He then twisted his torso to the right and looked along the wooden floor below for his boxers. Blue eyes squinting, he gave up after a few moments and then made a grab for his spilled pack of Marlboros that must have fallen from his jacket pocket at some point last night. Slipping one behind his ear, he sat up against his pillow and ran a hand through his messy hair. He listened to her slightly annoyed voice once more and sighed dramatically. "It’s only 7 am Eden, hardly that early," he said.      IT didn't take long before another groan escaped her. Teasing her could be so easy, and right now he felt the urge to do more. So much more. "I’m sure she’ll come around when she starts to smell it, it’ll be fine." He then slipped out of the bed, his naked body moving quietly across the floor as he casually started pulling the comforter with him over his right shoulder. He pulled it until there was hardly anything cover her anymore. When he saw a glimpse of her rear, a small smile appeared before he dropped the comforter completely, leaving half of it on the ground. He then stretched up high, arms twisting over his head, before he went down to his feet, taking deep breaths as he touched his toes. When he finally rose, he flexed a little, then after yawning obnoxiously loud, he slipped the cigarette into his mouth. Just having it in his mouth, the taste, made him ache for a smoke, but he wasn’t about to light up in here. That'd probably be a sure way to get himself kicked out. So he put it back behind his ear, and then without looking back over at her, started for the door.      ONCE he reached it, hand on the knob and twisting it open, he looked back at her. "I mean, i'm going to go make us food. Unless you want to snuggle? It’s really your choice," he said with a shrug of the shoulders. But before she could even give him a retort, he pulled the door open and disappeared. He casually made his way down the dimly lit hallway, and when he finally reached the kitchen, he scanned the space briefly before starting to open the cabinets. While looking for the proper cooking items, he started counting in his head, wondering how long it would take her before the panic set in and she rushed out of the room after him.    NOTES it only took a million years. sorry!