Hood Ornaments

They woke in the morning with their bodies entwined and the sheets woven within any bit of negative space. Michael was the first to wake. His eyes opening to see Tori breathing softly into his collarbone. The vision caused his whole face to beam. He stared at her for what seemed like hours, but in reality it was only a few seconds. Very gently he leaned to kiss her on her eyelids. She smiled but did not open her eyes. Michael took that as a sign to pull her even closer to him. Tori nuzzled deeper into the nook and relaxed.

“Good Morning, Michael.” She whispered eyes still shut.

He kissed the nape of her neck, “Good Morning, Gorgeous. Did you rest well?”

“I did, but I could still use some more sleep.”

Michael chuckled, “I’m sure you insatiable mutant.”

Tori was too tired to react as she normally would, so she just giggled and replied, “That wasn’t me.”

“Yeah okay. You hungry?” Michael asked.

“I am, but I’d rather just lie here all wrapped up in you until my stomach can’t take it anymore.” With that she pressed her back against him. Sensing his arousal, she then tilted her head so that she was able to kiss him. He returned her morning kisses but whispered. “Do not wake him up, again. He needs to recuperate.”

The soft quiet of the morning was broken by a burst of laughter, “He seems wide awake to me.”

Michael jolted up playfully, gently took Tori’s wrists and softly turned her onto her back. He then held her arms over her head and gently kissed down her neck, between her breasts, down past her navel where her softly kissed her until she moaned with pleasure and fell back to sleep.

Tori jolted awake to the sound of her cellphone vibrating. This time Michael didn’t suck his teeth or snarl; he simply kissed her neck, crawled out of her embrace and found the phone laying under the desk. He handed it to Tori who rubbed his forearm lovingly before pressing the button to shut off the buzzing. Tori scrambled up and began looking for a sweat suit to put on. Michael appeared confused but said nothing until she knelt on the floor next to him.

“Stay here; I’ll be right back.”

He smiled, “Are you going to get us lunch?”

Inwardly Tori let out a sigh of relief as Michael just provided her with the perfect cover, “Was I that obvious?” She said giggling. She kissed and bit his bottom lip before rushing out the door. According to the time on the cell she had less than four minutes to find a payphone to call Dell. Luckily, when she left the dorm room towards the elevator, she saw what she could only assume was one of the last remaining payphones in Chicago. She dialed the number to get the cost of the call and rummaged through her pockets for the exact change. With thirty seconds to spare, the phone where Dell was lingering around rang,

“Damn you’re punctual as hell.”

“Well I would have been early, but I wasn’t sure I could find a payphone.”

Dell’s brows joined together in a frown, “You didn’t have to be on a payphone,”

“Oh,” Tori said slightly defeated.

“But it shows your soldier skills. FYI they found the casualties in condo basement. Stand down until further notice.”

With that he hung up the phone. Tori did the same, and then she went to look for Jamaican take out for lunch. She found a place and just upon opening the door and inhaling of the aroma of the cuisine, her stomach growled. She was happy the place was only a few blocks from campus because it was cold and she couldn’t wait to eat. She grabbed her order and walked out the door to bump right into someone. Normally she would just say excuse me and keep it moving, but that day she looked up.

“Damn shorti, you in a hurry?”

She froze in place. The face that smirking back at her morphed into the flat platypus face of Robert Hunter. She started shaking and the guy kind of chuckled as he walked away calling her a weird bitch under his breath. Tori shook her head and picked up her gait. She wasn’t ready for that face. Shit she wasn’t ready to face anything. She put it behind her, so she thought. Buried it. Like the bodies in building.

What else did they find?

What else was going to be found out?

Would Michael find out?

Tori didn’t have any answers. All she had were the instructions given to her by Dell.

Stand down.

Well that she had to do. But as she reached the dorm, she smiled for Michael was there.

So while she was standing down, she was determined to keep her head up.