When Maki opened her eyes, the world had turned blue.

Streaks of light grey crossed a dark, greyish-blue landscape dotted with flecks of green, that shifted and swayed oddly, moving in time with the gentle expansions and contractions of the deep black pupil at its center-

Maki gave a surprised shriek, pushing herself away, just as the similarly startled Bennett jerked his head back up, uttering a cry of pain as he accidently collided with the lamp that hung low over the kitchen table.

He bend over slightly, clutching the back of his head and cursed, while Maki desperately tried to stop herself from having a heart-attack, again feeling herself close to hyperventilation.

'Oh fuck, oh fuck, don't do that' he said, breathing hard.

Maki barked a short, breathless laugh in return.

''You're one- ... to- .. talk! You- ...'', she got out between panting breaths, trying hard to calm herself enough to continue.

Bennett couldn't help staring in wonder at hearing her speak, but the look of awe was soon wiped from his face, as Maki got her breath back and burst out:

'' -Insufferable, giant, bloody oaf!
Nine days!
Nine days you stomp through the house like a bloody lunatic, making noise enough for twelve of you one second - mewling and shouting and getting drunk and falling over things - and creeping about so noislessly the next, that I don't even hear you coming and have you almost bloody step on me, because you're too busy sulking to even look where you're going!''

'Oh god, oh god, what are you doing', a panicked voice inside Maki's head shouted at her, while her mouth just kept on talking.

'He could kill you without so much as a thought and you have nothing better to do than shout at him! Oh god, did I really just call him an insufferable oaf to his face?'

''Nine days you keep me from getting a full nights worth of sleep because you suddenly get it into your stupid giant head, that 2am is the perfect time to shout at thin air-''

'Oh god, no, stop talking you idiot'

''-or fall over that stupid side table yet again, because you're too pissed to remember it's there-''

'no no no shut up shut up shut up'

''even though it's been sitting in the same bloody place for over half a year now, and when I try, try to at least get a few hours of sleep during the day, bloody oaf that you are, you decide it's high time you went on ANOTHER fruitless cleaning frenzy, because, why, the last one must have been ages ago, like a day at least, and it was such a roaring success after all!''

'Oh god he's going to kill you, you know that, right?'

''So, what do you decide to do? Tackle that ENORMOUS pile of dirty dishes? Dust the shelves? Clean the windows?
NO, because that would be BORING, so why not get that bloody awful vacuum-cleaner, you know the one that is loud enough TO ALMOST BURST YOUR EARDRUMS, and start it up half a foot from the place where I'M TRYING TO SLEEP, because that's so much more FUN!

Nine bloody days!

Oh and since you're already keeping me from sleeping more than an hour or two at a time, why not also keep me from being able TO GET FOOD, by constantly stomping about the house and always magically appearing in the kitchen, be it day or night, whenever I try to find something edible, forcing me to run off and hide every single time, just so you can stare at stuff like an idiot and leave again, only to magically reappear whenever I even so much as think about trying again, until I'm so crazed from hunger and sleep deprivation, that I don't even notice a HUGE-ASS SPIDER trying to eat me, until it's literally almost on top of me, and when I run for my life, YOU come along and ALMOST KILL ME, actually making me PASS OUT, and when I come to, your GIANT MUG IS LITERALLY MILLIMETERS FROM MY FACE staring at me, ALMOST KILLING ME AGAIN by giving me a heart-attack, and YOU complain, because I startled you when I screamed?

Well, aren't you funny!

Hasn't anyone ever taught you to be considerate of others?

You've acted like a bloody idiot oaf plenty of times in the two years I've been living here, but this really takes the bisquit!''

''Well, excuse me!'', Bennett shot back, forgetting himself in his outrage, after listening to her rant at him.

''You've been living here for how long?!
I'm sorry but I don't remember asking for a roommate, much less a freeloader nicking my food!
I was rather under the impression I was living here on my own, free to act however I bloody want!
If you want any right to complain, you better start paying rent!''

''Rent?  Well and how much would that be, considering the space I use?
A penny each year?
I can't even count the times I went and kicked that stupid remote of yours from underneath the couch, because seeing you scramble for it, unable to reach but too lazy to get the damn broom is so undignified - there's your rent!
Way I see it, you owe me a good deal of recompensation!
Besides, you make a terrible Landlord!
Have you even ever looked at the dust on some of those shelves?''

They glared at each other for a second, then Bennet gave a sudden short laugh, and shook his head, smiling ruefully.

''Hell, I really am an oaf. Here I am, discovering that a tiny girl, straight from a fairy-tale, has been living in my house for god knows how long, and all I can think of to do when I finally get to talk to her is to argue about rent.''

He laughed again, which made Maki smile aswell.

''I'm sorry.. I'm not really myself at the moment. This whole situation is just far too crazy for me to wrap my head around, plus, I haven't really been able to sleep much recently.''
He paused, then grinned apologetically, ''um, well, but I guess you already knew that..''

''Ya, I noticed.'' Maki returned dryly.

''Well, I still feel, that considering I had no idea you were there, I was perfectly within my rights to act as I did, but, for what it's worth I'm also sorry for terrorizing you''

Maki nodded, already noticing her fatique catching up to her, now that the adrenaline from all that fear and anger was receding.

''Thanks, I guess. Um.. just don't do it again?''

Bennet grinned

''Alright.''

''So, what happens now?'', Maki asked, regarding the Oaf absently. She started to feel light headed, especially after all that shouting.

''I mean,'' she continued, trying hard to keep hold of the last of her quickly diminishing mental capacity, and failing somewhat, now simply blurting out her thoughts as they came to her, 

''I've never been caught by a human before, so I'm not sure what the protocoll here is.
According to my Gran, you're supposed to swallow me whole I think, or do me some other unspeakable harm, but I don't remember too clearly.
Only, and I don't mean to be rude, but can you sort of get a move on and get it over with?
It's just, I'm really, really tired, and hungry, and kinda scared too, and I think I've gone a little insane from it all, so I'd really rather we get this done, so I can catch some sleep and maybe look for a bite to eat, alright?''

Bennet stared down at her, taken aback a little by her sudden rambling for a second, and only then realizing just how worn out the tiny girl was after the whole ordeal.

He doubted she was fully aware of what exactly she was saying at this point.

Unbidden, the insane notion of just picking the tiny thing up, and stuffing her into his mouth, just to see how she'd react popped into his head, but he quickly supressed the image with a shudder.

Hell, he needed to sleep.

She'd probably fit all in, with room to spare, small as she was..

That tiny, helpless, beautiful girl, trapped inside his mouth, struggling and squirming, unable to escape as he explored that amazing body with his tongue..

Fuck.

Get your mind out of the gutter, sicko.

Damnit, how could he even think about stuff like that right now.

He really needed some sleep

''Eh, right..'', he ventured. ''Okay..''

He pondered for a second, noticing that apparently, his thoughts too were starting to become rather harder to put into a sensible order, now that the excitement was over.

''So, um, I'm actually not sure how this is supposed to go either'', he tried, ''I'm not saying I'd be opposed to a bit of a friendly nibble now and again, but I don't think I'd enjoy actually eating people, and I'm not particularly hungry anyway, so.. let's just skip that bit, okay?
And I think I fulfilled my quota of 'unspeakable things' to inflict on you during the past few days, so we're good there too.
To be quite honest I'm feeling kind of light headed myself, and not just a little insane just now, so, why don't I just fix you something to eat, and then we both go sleep for a week or two and take it from there?''

''Mh, sounds good to me. What are you making?''

''What would you like?''

***

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