A Cute Little Sneaky Soother - Part 2

When I unlatched the window, it pounced straight on my stomach, making me fall back on my bed. Then it clambered up my body and put its front paws on my chest.

"What are you doing here?" I exclaimed quietly so that no one would hear me. "Did you really come to see me?"

On seeing a few more tears trickle down the side of my eyes, it whined ruefully before licking away the stream of tears. I huffed a laugh and stroked it lovingly.

"You came at the right time," I told it as I gave the back of its ears a little scratch. "You sneaky pup, if anyone found you here, what would you do?"

I hugged it tightly, but it became very uncomfortable. With a sharp and soft bark, it slipped out and went hunting for the food on my plate.

I sat up straight, sighed in disbelief and said to myself, 'It had smelt the food all the way from the ground floor and had only come to my room for the meat. What a mean little creature that cares not for its benefactor.'

It left the food on hearing me and came whining towards me whilst licking the crumbs and gravy off its snout. I lied down again with my legs hanging down the edge of my bed and looked at it advance towards me with sorrow in its eyes.

"I think I will always be falling for those eyes and you would become a very bad pup," I said with another sigh as I watched it try to climb up the bed.

When it couldn't succeed, it came around to my feet and started to climb up my legs.

"Ow, ow," I yelped as its tiny claws sank into my pants and scratched my skin. "You're hurting me. I will have to cut off those claws of yours."

It slept on my lap after its hard climb. I pulled one corner of my lips up in displeasure and pushed it out of there. Then I lied down on my bed and hugged another pillow tightly.

The pup snuck its little head under the pillow, probably not liking the fact that I liked the pillow more than it. I giggled and gave it a 'good boy' pet as it nuzzled my neck.

After a short while, we fell asleep whilst looking at the stars shining happily in the midnight-blue sky.

The next morning, everyone was up and about. I had slept off a little too much due to my anguish. And the pup was still with me, making it a danger sign in case anyone entered through the door without a knock, as they usually did.

"Hamsa!" my brother yelled, barging in through the door.

I jumped up from my bed, where I was reading a story while cuddling the pup. I couldn't send it out the window as it would probably get injured again by falling down the tree. Plus, I would get caught shoving it out the window as it would appear again.

With every step, my heart's rate increased and my hands started to sweat. Having no other choice, I shoved the pup under the bed and threw myself on the floor beside it to act like I was exercising.

"What are you up to?" he asked me with screwed eyes.

"Doing some exercise as you can see," I replied with a pant. "Trying to get the planks right and increase my timing to hold the position."

"You're doing it wrong. You must straighten out your back more and push your bottom down. Here, let me show you exactly how it's done."

He proceeded to kneel on the floor which rang the alarm in my head.

"No, no, I am absolutely fine," I said as my hands turned slippery on the floor. "I will research the correct posture and do it myself."

"I'm trying to teach you," he said with a pout. "Why are you trying to avoid it?"

'Telling you that would be the end of me,' I answered to him in my mind. 'Oh, just why did I not send it off this morning?'

"This is the correct one, right?" I asked nobody in particular as I placed the phone playing a video in front of me to get the position right.

"Oh well, you got that right by yourself," he answered and went to survey the books on my desk.

'Oh dear Lord, when will he leave?'

He picked out a book from my shelf and asked, "Would you like to play chess afterwards? I haven't played it in a long time."

"Not even in college?" I questioned curiously. "Why not?"

"Being youngest and the only one of my age studying at the institution, you don't have many friends. So I used to go and play with the youngsters in the neighbourhood instead."

The sad smile on his face made me wince at the thought that being a genius was not a great thing. I was glad that I was gifted enough and didn't have to face such extremities. Well, until the Winter Academy's course came to my mind.

He sat down with his back to the window and tried to pull me down beside him to read the book with him. I said that I needed to finish the exercises before I could do anything else. He begged me, but I resisted.

"It is only for five minutes," he said with a pout.

"My body will cool down by that time," I stated indignantly. "I can't warm up again. I will read with you later. Now, please go out of the room."

"Then you finish your exercises and I'll read another book in the meantime."

"You're making me very conscious of myself. I don't want you to be barking orders and instructions while I am at it. Now, go out. Let me do it in peace."

I pulled him up but he was too heavy for me. He laughed as I made sounds of irritation and threw a tantrum to let him go out. He was always good at getting me mad.

Still, the main reason I wanted him out was so that he wouldn't see the edge of the bed from where he sat as the pup was hiding right there. I wanted as far away from the corner near the window as possible so that the bed in the right corner wouldn't give me away.

Right then, a sharp, shrill bark echoed in the room. For a millisecond, I panicked thinking about how to dissolve the situation. Then the idea struck me and I covered my mouth in reaction to the sound.

His eyes looked at me, questioning the weird sound through his eyes.

"Ugh, they have started again," I said with a sigh, hoping my act would throw him off.

"What has?" he asked inquisitively.

"My hiccups. That's the whole reason I have been exercising. The cold water didn't work so I thought that perhaps it might work."

"Then how come you are not hiccuping again?"

"It keeps coming and going for some reason. I think some breathing exercise might bring it back to normal. Besides, what did you come for into the room without a considerate knock?"

"To call you down for breakfast. Make sure you're done with your meditation quickly in five."

When he left the room, I heaved out a huge sigh of relief. Then I went around the bed, picked the naughty creature up and tapped its head with my fingers for nearly giving me away.

"You bad boy," I chided the pup. "You got us in good trouble. No meat for you today."

It whined as I took it to the window and placed it outside as a punishment.

"Also," came my brother's voice again as he threw open the door, but stopped when he saw me holding the fluffball.

Now, I was definitely busted.