It was early. Reese knew it was much earlier than she normally woke because when she peeked out from beneath the covers, the sun was only just beginning to crest over the horizon, the buildings of the city, to illuminate her open loft.

It was highly uncommon for her to be awake at this hour, but there would be no going back to sleep, either. As odd as it was for her eyes to be open this early in the morning, it was just as odd for her to be this awake.

Her mind was already fresh, though her body had yet to shed all of its lethargy and instead of receding completely beneath the covers again, Reese curled into Beckett's side, her cheek resting on his chest so she could hear the steady beat of his heart.

His face was turned towards her and she studied his features for a long time. She wondered sometimes why he was even with her, why he stayed at her loft, why ... why he stayed with her at all.

She was broken and fading and useless, even to herself most times. He didn't want her like Lukas had, he didn't want her like he did the other girls she'd watched him take in school, other women she knew he'd been with now, and from what she could see, there wasn't anything at all he wanted of her.

When Beckett shifted in his sleep, turning his head so she couldn't see his face anymore, Reese dropped her gaze to where her hand rested on his chest. She hoped he found what he was looking for someday, even if he didn't know what that was right now. She couldn't paint very much right now, but she could still see the colors and she'd always been able to see Beckett's very clearly.

His night sky and his stars - the moon would rise someday and illuminate it all, balance it all out, or so she hoped. Beckett was one of few people who had ever given her time and she hoped, for him, that he could be happy someday - find his moon, full and bright. He'd never have a sunshine inside himself, but there was a light to him anyways, more than the stars, and ... hopefully he'd find it.

She'd have liked to paint it, but Reese was unsure she'd ever have the chance. A little sigh slipped her lips and she turned just enough to press a kiss to his skin before continuing to trace aimless patterns with her index finger.

Twitching slightly, a groggy grunt of annoyance escaping him, Beckett clapped a heavy hand over Reese's where she was playing with his chest. "Hold still or use more fingers," he grumbled, petting her hand with decidedly less coordination than usual, "that tickles."

He cracked an eye open, finding the sun and screwing up his face at Reese. "What the hell are you doing awake, anyway?" he muttered, scrubbing a hand over his eyes. "It's barely daylight. Go back to sleep."

When Beckett's hand came down over hers, Reese stilled. Eyes just a little wide a she looked from him to his hand over hers, her voice was just a breath of a whisper as she said, "okay. I'm sorry," even as she forced her lids to flutter shut.

Beckett sighed, pulling Reese higher to lay against his shoulder, wrapping his arms around her and stroking his hand down her back. "It was a suggestion, not an order," he amended, attempting to think past the muzzy grumpiness that characterized his first half-hour of consciousness of the day. He didn't think Reese had woken before him any of the mornings since he'd started staying with her, meaning she wasn't used to him before caffeine induced coherency and a semblance of civility.

"If you want to get up, go ahead, just... give me a few minutes..." he requested, letting his head thunk back into his pillow, squeezing his eyes closed against the intrusion of sunlight.

"I wasn't getting up," Reese said, the spell of tense stillness broken when Beckett had begun to pet her. "I just wasn't asleep anymore."

Wiggling on him, from beneath his arms, until she could peer down at his face, Reese reached out to trace his brow, down the bridge of his nose. "You're a bit like a dragon waking," she added then, burrowing even closer to him as the cool air hit her bare shoulders.

"Yes," Beckett groused, pushing Reese's fingers gently away from his face, "I'm a dragon, and I swear by Merlin's grey-bearded bollocks that if you don't stop prodding me for a minute, I'm going to eat you for breakfast." There was no heat behind the words, and he added in a mutter, "I won't even cook you first. Raw kitten." He stretched as far as he could, fingertips down to toes, groaning appreciatively as his back and shoulders gave several satisfying cracks in the process.

Listening to Beckett's grumbles, a little crooked smile pulled at Reese's lips, and as he stretched she slid off his chest, light, tinkling laughter slipping her lips as she heaped to the side. Bracing her hands against him again, she lifted herself enough to see his face, though his eyes had yet to open again. "Are they really grey-bearded?"

"How the bloody fuck should I know?" he grunted, snatching Reese's pillow from the other side of the bed and stuffing his head underneath it. This was why he didn't interact with people before coffee in the morning; it just wasn't pretty. "Probably. I assume everything goes grey, but it's not like I've checked," came the eventual, highly-muffled consideration, and Beckett mashed the pillow tighter around his face for having even thought about the question.

Crawling back on his chest, until she was properly draped, Reese wiggled until she had her cheek resting against his skin near the pillow that blocked him from view. "Are you really going to eat me for breakfast?" she asked, using all her fingers this time to trace back and forth where the pillow stopped and his skin began. Her eyes were bright, body just a little tense from anticipation; besides the initial surprise of him waking, Beckett was fun in the morning.

"Raw," Beckett answered in the affirmative, rolling to the side so that Reese was trapped half-beneath him, his arm wrapped across her like a gangly blonde teddy bear. "Starting with your feet since you won't leave me alone. Might as well listen to you yell for a good purpose." He wanted a cigarette. And a pot of coffee, come to think of it, but only one was a viable option without leaving the loft. Note to self. He was pretty sure Reese couldn't burn the loft down with a French press.

Another light peal of laughter followed as Beckett all but pinned her still, and Reese wiggled to be free a moment before she changed her mind and set about crawling up his body despite his weight and grip.

"But you're the one holding me," she pointed out, smiling, words just a little breathless with the laughter lurking in her eyes and countenance and she nuzzled her nose beneath his jaw, fingers dancing across his skin as she kept trying to wiggle up in his grasp.

"And you're wiggling," Beckett countered, finally grabbing both her hands and winding the end of the blanket around her, separating her bare skin from his as he rolled her into a tight cocoon, her laughing face and wild hair the only things visible when he was done. "There," he grunted in triumph, flinging himself back onto the pillows and draping his arm over his eyes.

"Wiggling makes me more appetizing for eatings?" she asked with a grin, struggling to get out of the blankets - and getting thoroughly tangled in not only the blankets, but the sheets too. After a bit of a tussle, Reese just laid still on her back, breath a little fast, and tried to blow her hair out of her face.

Opening one eye, Beckett noticed Reese's plight and stuck a hand out to rake her hair out of her face. "Something like that, Nine," he granted, yawning hugely and letting his eyes fall closed again to try to give his brain a chance to catch up. It was an obscene hour for him to be awake when he didn't even have an office visit or meeting scheduled, and he contemplated nicking the sheet and going back to sleep.

Heartbeat settling to something more normal, Reese struggled again fruitlessly before glancing over at Beckett - who had been awfully still the last few minutes. "Can I come out now?" she asked, whispering just in case he was asleep again.

Beckett heaved a long-suffering sigh and turned his head to glance at Reese, a smile finally breaking his crotchety demeanor as he caught sight of her peeking at him from the blankets. "I suppose so," he mumbled, taking hold of the top edge of the duvet and giving it a good yank, so that she rolled out of the mass of covers and into his side. "So long as you hold still for a bit. All that wiggling around is-... just lie there, 'kay?"

Reese didn't move, but for tipping her head back to look up at him. "Can I wiggle just a little to snuggle, and then be still?"

Resolving to acquire the means for morning coffee that day, Beckett nodded and shifted his arm around Reese, giving her space to 'snuggle'. It might almost be a better idea just to get up; at least that way he could smoke, but Reese was in a surprisingly good mood, and he didn't want to deflate her. If she'd just stop squirming, he could handle having her pressed against him in nothing but her brightly colored little knickers.

Scooting closer and molding herself to his side, Reese laid her cheek over his heart, just as she'd started before he'd woken. Her hand slipped onto his chest and she watched his muscles twitch under her light touch and stilled, just letting her hand rest lightly where it lay. "Beckett?"

"What, Nine?" Beckett breathed, his hand falling to her hip as she settled against him, mentally perusing the merits of some kind of charm that would let him smoke in bed without fouling the air for Reese.

"Are you really going to eat me like a raw kitten, feet first, for breakfast?" she asked, tipping her head up to look at him though his eyes were closed again.

Growling in exasperation, Beckett raised his hand and wrapped his fingers across Reese's mouth, attempting to scowl properly down at her and mostly failing. "Yes. With steak sauce. Hush."

Reese's eyes widened just a smidge, darkening, even as a little shiver went down her spine as Beckett firmly covered her mouth with his hand. Blinking that moment's haziness away, she grinned a few beats later against his palm and nodded.

"Good girl." Releasing Reese's mouth, Beckett lay his hand on the small of her back, rubbing little circles against her skin. Her reaction to his demand had not escaped him, and he stopped the idea of provoking it again before the idea had run very far. That wasn't a game he played with her.

A little sigh escaped Reese in a puff of air against Beckett's skin and her lids fluttered shut as she relaxed, his touch lulling her. "I can be a good girl," she agreed, voice soft though a smile still touched just at the corners of her lips.

"You are good," Beckett soothed, not ceasing his petting. "Except when you're being a demon kitten first thing in the morning..." He'd likely have tossed anyone else out of bed without ceremony, but Reese didn't really know better yet, and although totally misguided in her attempts to be affectionate, she got a pass.

Still moving as little as possible as Beckett had told her, Reese just smiled, fingers clenching against his chest a moment before she relaxed again. "Demon kittens and dragons in my bed. 'S kind of like an adventure."

"Hmph. Fucking safari." Yawning again, Beckett brought his hand up to stroke Reese's messy hair out of her face and off of his neck, gathering the blonde strands into a tail and twisting it around lightly in the hopes of it staying put. "I need a smoke," he observed idly, cravings for caffeine and nicotine warring for dominance now that he was starting to wake up.

"Okay," Reese replied, lids blinking open even as she hesitated in moving. He'd told her to be still, but she was sure he didn't want her near anymore. Hesitating a moment longer, Reese wriggled from her spot next to him and curled into a ball on the tangled duvet next to them.

Facing contorting in mild confusion as Reese squirmed away from him, Beckett snaked an arm out and pulled her back as he shifted to his side, wrapping himself around her. "I didn't mean right this second," he elaborated, keeping his hand splayed carefully across her stomach.

Burrowing back into him, Reese turned enough to nuzzle his shoulder where her head rested beneath his chin. "I didn't know, is all," she said, lids fluttering shut again; she wasn't sleepy so much as very warm and comfortable. "And I like it here right this second much better."

Beckett chuckled, agreeing, "That was kind of the idea, Nine."


SUMMARY: Beckett and Reese have some much needed carefree time together.