Awkward awakening.

There were certain times in my life when I hated things about myself. Most frequently that was all about my nature, certain aspects of my character, or, on the rarest of rare occasions, being too handsome for my own good. My humbleness was the best trait I ever had, though, so it is what it is.

The second-best thing about me was, without any doubt, my body. Great tool that saved my shitty self so many times. That helped me to be myself under any circumstances. Whether it was about height, general proportions, myostatin limits and natural hormone levels, metabolism, muscular and bodily symmetry, bone density, joint strength and mobility, or almost inhuman levels of regeneration and adaptability, my body had it all. In short, I truly won a genetic lottery, no question asked.

But, right now, was that once in a blue moon moment, where I greatly despised it. Despite alcohol intake yesterday, coupled with general levels of stress throughout the day, in addition to falling asleep around five in the morning, my body's inner clocks woke me up, since it was time for my daily routine.

Fuck.

Trying not to wake up Olivia, whose peaceful adorable snoring I could hear by my side, I kicked back my blanket, getting ready to stand up. Only for my violence to be refused by said blanket, which actually started to cling to me even harder. Deciding not to play mental games, I opened one eye to get a confirmation of my current best guess.

Of course, it was Claire, whom I forgot about until this moment, sloppily drooling on top of my chest, doing her best impression of a lazy koala.

"Hm, so it's not the closest body that is being chosen as a target. How curious," I muttered under my breath, trying not to wake the girls up.

A few futile attempts to tear the koala girl from my form later, I gave up and decided to chill for a bit longer. My hand found its way to the top of Claire's head, without much cognitive effort from my side. My second hand sneaked its way to Olivia's boobs, only for her to frown in her sleep and roll out of my reach, denying me the access to her body. Damn. A moment of contemplation later, I decided that, since the koala girl was hugging me so shamelessly, it's only fair to return the favor. And, just like that, I hugged her by the waist, comfortably resting my hand somewhere around the small of the back.

I closed my eyes, focusing on the feel of Claire's hair, which was a bit stiff from all the gel used in the styling process, against my hand. The monotone, yet pleasant, action, paired with the overall warm and soft feeling of her body, let me slip into that meditative state I craved so much. Not the worst way to start the day, I guess.

***

About an hour later, my blissful rest was disturbed by the stirrings of a koala girl's waking up. Same as the last time, Claire stilled completely for a moment, only to relax back soon after. So, being hugged by me was within boundaries she deemed as acceptable. Good to know.

"Good morning, Claire," I greeted the girl currently laying on my chest.

"M-mornin…" I got a drowsy reply back.

"How was your sleep?" I continued my speech with a question. "Am I really that comfortable that you crawled from the other side of the bed, and over Olivia as well, just to latch onto me?"

The koala girl cutely tilted her head, seemingly not quite registering my words. Then Claire turned her head to the side, where Olivia was currently sprawled right in the middle of the bed. As the current situation dawned upon the counter girl, the drowsy look in her eyes rapidly vanished, as the wave of blushing slowly creeped all the way to her hairline.

"Hey, sorry to tell you that right when you want to play ostrich, but I am already an hour late to my morning exercise routine," I informed the koala girl, before she could do exactly what I said. "I decided to give you some extra sleep, but can you get off me now? Please."

Which she did, scuttling to the wrong side of the bed, almost falling onto the floor in the process. Thanks to my quick reflexes, I managed to catch her before she made contact with the hard surface. Though, now the situation somehow became even more awkward…

I caught her, falling backwards and headfirst, after her panic roll. And was currently holding her by her waist, with her decidedly oversized t-shirt, under the force of gravity, pulling up and barely hanging on her sizable chest, showing me a lot of her under-boob, her toned midriff and all the way down to the victory panties she still had on.

Ugh. This was a proper piece of lingerie, more lace than fabric, not quite see-through, and small enough to not leave much to the imagination, while still keeping this illusion of mystery. Something I would've expected to see on someone like Bella, and was, in fact, long since used to her wearing similar, if not riskier, things. Definitely not on someone like Claire, even if I couldn't say it didn't suit her. It definitely did, adding a lot of so-called gap Moe to her image.

Overall, the view in front of me was nine parts enticing, one part comical from my perspective. Should I push her boundaries a bit more, perhaps? I shook my head, both in exasperation and to clear my head from dangerous thoughts, and pulled her back onto my chest. The deer-in-headlights look on her face, as I did so, was quite funny.

"Claire, as much as I would like to play with you for much longer," I whispered into her ear, eliciting a cute yelp as a reaction. "But my morning routine is already tired of waiting for me."

I extended my free hand, rolling the still fast asleep Olivia out of the way, and put the frozen solid girl in my arms into the now emptied space. All the while, her wide-open eyes were staring at me.

Deciding that I wasted enough time already, I cut the playtime right there, and stood up. Oh, I actually didn't forget to put on boxers after the shower yesterday. What a surprise. I shrugged off another silly thought, and proceeded into the short mobility routine I usually did before my run. Bathroom visit later, skipping a cold shower for today, I scoured the closet to find my trusty running gear, a different set of sweatpants, and another hoodie.

Then I located my phone on the bedside table. No new messages, by the way. And a pair of earbuds lying nearby. Making sure that both devices had enough battery to last for a run, I put earbuds inside my ears, duh, tapped onto my random daily playlist and threw the smartphone into the pocket of my hoodie. Hall. Putting on my running shoes, double-checking the music volume, and I was ready to go.

An additional moment of consideration, and I decided to take my wallet with me, just in case Olivia would wake up and ask to buy something for breakfast.