Noises in the Night

Noises in the Night

Setting: PH's bedroom
Date: December 7th, 2014
Time: 2:12 AM PST
(Point of View: Stompin' Bob)

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I jolted awake suddenly, my eyes meeting the ice ceiling of the dark room I was lying in. I was tightly wrapped in covers, and despite all of PH's and my efforts to get warm, it was still freezing. I love her, but she is the ultimate environmentalist-- which means the heat in her igloo is seldom ever on. Her head was resting against my shoulder and her flippers were around my chest. Long brown hair fanned out across my neck and her back, and her frame rose and fell with slow breaths. She was wearing fuzzy, flannel green pajamas, which warmed me up a little.

While she was fast asleep, I wasn't so lucky. I had no idea what had woken me, so I sighed and put my left flipper in her soft hair. She has to be the world's heaviest sleeper; nothing natural can wake her up but her alarm clock, a puffle, or another penguin.
A faint noise entered my hearing, and I frowned. I couldn't make out exactly what it was, but it sounded like it was coming from outside. It almost resembled the sound an animal makes when it's stuck in a room or wants something.
I glanced at the clock on the nightstand and shook my head. I'm not getting up. It's two in the morning.

For the next few minutes, I absentmindedly stroked PH's flippers, listening to the weird noise outside. I didn’t know what it was or how to stop it. It was probably a wild animal, and I’m not very good with those.
Then the noise got louder. I frowned, shifted my position in bed a bit, and pulled PH a little closer to me. Unfortunately, I had moved too much, and she stirred. I didn’t want her to be awake in the middle of the night, but at the same time, it made me feel a little better because PH is an expert at keeping me distracted from all the things that I usually worry about late at night.
“Bubby?” she mumbled against my chest, then moved her head and looked up. She looked exhausted, and I was suddenly overcome with guilt.
“Hey,” I replied softly. “Sorry I woke you.”
“It’s alright…” She put her head down on the pillow and let out a breath. “What time is it?”
“About two…”
“And may I ask what you’re doin’ up at two in the morning, mate?” she asked as she put one flipper through her brown hair and yawned.
“To be honest, I don’t really know.” I was reluctant to tell her about the noise. She might want to get up and see what it is, and I really didn’t want to move from the bed-- it was cold and I was lethargic.
“Havin’ one of those nights?” She lightly placed her flipper on my cheek.
I shrugged in reply. “I’m sorry. You can go back to sleep.”
“I don’t want ya to stay up all night.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want you to stay up all night either and you’re a lot better at sleeping than I am.” I raised my eyebrows at her.
“True.” She smiled drowsily. “I’m great at sleepin’.”
“You’re the best sleeper I know.”
“Except Pete.” She glanced across the room, where the orange puffle was sound asleep in his bed. His mouth was open and he was drooling, and every few minutes, he would snore softly.
“True.”
She moved her head up to be level with mine. “You need to sleep. You’ve got to go to the studio tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” I blinked a few times. “Hey, do me a favor.”
“Sure thing.”
“Make me tired.” I smiled a little bit.
“I don’t exactly know how to make ya tired.”
“Okay, well…” I pulled her in. “I’ll improvise a little, then.”
She kissed me slowly, and for at least a few minutes, everything was quiet and calm. I wrapped my flippers around her back and closed my eyes. She ran her flipper down the side of my face and to my shoulder. I figured maybe we could just do this all night instead of sleeping; that would have been fine with me.
Of course, as it seems like there always is when PH and I are having a moment, there was an interruption-- the mysterious noise.
She broke away and kept close to my face, glancing around. “Hold on, Stomp… did ya hear that?”
“The whining?” I replied.
“Uh-huh.” She nodded.
“That’s what woke me up in the first place.” I paused, and it was quiet for a few seconds. “I was hoping it’d stop.”
It came again, this time louder and more persistent than before. It was like there were two different sources of similar sounds, and they were close outside.
PH’s eyes lit up in the ambitious way that they always do when she’s thinking. "C'mon, mate, we'll go investigate." As quickly as the moment had started, it ended as she let go of me, got up, and jumped out of bed.
"No, no, it's okay, I'll stay in here..." I replied softly. I had no desire to get up.
"C'mon!" She pulled my flipper and I stumbled out behind her, braving the cold igloo in nothing but my underwear.
"It's cold," I complained.
As an answer, she turned around and pulled a blue, fuzzy, puffle-print blanket off of her bed, then wrapped it around my red shoulders. She giggled to herself, apparently satisfied with my ensemble, then turned again and opened up the bedroom door.
“I look ridiculous.”
“You’re grumpy when it’s late at night.” Her eyes darted from one side of the igloo to the other, then she hurried across the room to the main door.
I followed her, pulling the blanket around me more tightly. “Brrrr.”
She pressed her beak to the window in the door, and her whole face perked up at whatever was outside. “Crikey!”
“Oh, God.” I widened my eyes.
“Come look, mate!” She beckoned for me to come over to her, and I obeyed, putting my face to the window as well and looking down.
Outside the door were five puffles, each looking distinctly different from the other. There was a pink rabbit, a blue deer, an orange raccoon, a white rabbit, and a blue racoon.
“Oh, man.” I knew what would come next.
“We’ve got to let them in.” She turned to the alarm pad on the wall and typed in her code-- 1218.
“PH, it’s two in the morning…”
“Shh!” She whipped her head towards me and narrowed her eyes. “These puffles need a place to sleep!”
“Oh, yeah, because it’s really warm in here,” I said sarcastically.
She smacked my arm, then pulled the door open.
“I’m sorry,” I said as the five puffles eagerly entered the igloo.
“G’day, mates,” she said to them, holding the door open. “Are ya hungry?”
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I didn’t mean it.”
She closed the door. “I’ve got some snacks for ya…”
The orange raccoon puffle hopped up onto her shoulder, and she laughed.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love ya, too. Can you help me get them some food?” She pointed to the part of her igloo where all the puffle stuff is. “O-Berry box should be full.”
“Yeah.” I nodded and waddled to the corner, where I found the purplish pink box and brought it back over to her. She dumped out a few of the berries and scattered them on the floor. The puffles devoured them like they hadn’t eaten in days.
“This is what I get for falling in love with the puffle whisperer,” I murmured, half to myself and half to her.
She shoved me. “Shut up.”
“I love you.” I tried to make my eyes look like puppy-dog eyes.
“You are the biggest idiot I know.” She grabbed me by the front of the blanket, pulled me in, and kissed me hard. For a few seconds, I didn’t know exactly what to do, and just when I was reaching out to kiss her back, she broke away, smiled mischievously, and turned around. “C’mon, mates, let’s go this way.”
It took me longer than it should have to realize she was talking to the puffles. The cluster of fuzzy animals followed her into her bedroom.
I followed, too, and when I got inside, she was sitting on the floor with the five of them around her. Her own brown puffle, JP, had woken up too, and was in her lap. “Alright, so what do y’all need?”
I took a seat next to her and wrapped my arm around her waist.
“Here.” She placed a few more O-Berries on the ground, which were quickly eaten. I put my head on top of hers and sighed softly.
The puffles seemed content, and the room was quiet again.
Then I mumbled, “So what do we do now?”
“We wait for them to fall asleep.”
“And then what?”
“And then we fall asleep.”
“Oh, because that’s easy.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut up.”
“I will not.”
She looked at me and we both smiled.
“I hate ya and I love ya at the same time,” she mumbled.
“Thank you, honestly, that means so much to me.” I mockingly placed my flipper on my chest.
“We’re not very skilled at this talking thing.”
“I don’t think so either.”
She closed her eyes and put her forehead against mine. No words were needed, and we both breathed softly for a minute, taking in the feeling and smiling. I closed my eyes.
“Shall we?”
“Yeah, I like that idea.”
Neither of us had any idea what the idea actually was. I kissed her anyway, because I knew that whatever it was, it would fly with her.

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