Husky love.
A story of two people in a relationship.
She heard the door unlock, just as she roused from sleep. Wiping her eyes and stretching her arms, she heard the door shut gently behind the person coming in and relock behind them. She put her bedside light on as she sat up and stretched again, but her whole body this time. She moved her legs over the side of the bed to stand up as the sound of soft paw steps went down the downstairs hallway.
She grinned over the banisters at the shadow of her partner filtered from the kitchen against the wall opposite the bannister. She quietly padded down the stairs, not brushing her hand against the wooden railing as she usually would. Her grin softened to a slight smile as she peeked around the kitchen door at the back of her partner as he lent over the cooker. He sighed slightly as the sound of cutlery against the pan, meaning he was cooking something.
She whistled quietly, and he jumped slightly, but glanced over his shoulder with a tired smile.
_ "Long day, Malachi?" she whispered, tiptoeing over and hugging him from behind. He nodded softly._
_ "Haven't eaten for about seven hours. We had some accidents and emergencies back to back. So, very busy day." He yawned, lifting a paw to his mouth as she felt his stomach rumble._
_ "My sweet husky," she murmured, turning Malachi gently around and caressing his cheek. "go and sit down, I'll finish this off and bring it to you."_
_ "You.... Don't have to..." Malachi yawned and checked his watch. "it's one in the morning, you should be asleep, Alia. I didn't wake you did I?"_
_ "Of course you didn't," Alia replied softly, smiling gently. "I think I just naturally woke up when you came home. Now, come on. Sit down," she took the fork and pan out of his grasp. "and I'll have this ready in a few minutes for you."_
Malachi was about to argue, but knew it wouldn't do any good. So he did as he was told, and sat down on the sofa in the dimly lit living room, trying to keep his eyes open. By the time Alia brought the pasta sauce to him, steaming in a large bowl with the fork used to help cook it, he was struggling not to nod off.
_ "Poor thing..." Alia said quietly, her ears pricked back slightly at how tough a day it'd been for him to be this tired. Her tail flicked slightly as she shuffled in between the coffee table and the sofa to sit beside Malachi on the other side, placing the bowl onto the low table and gently shaking him. As he roused a little, her long fluffy tail moved almost of its own accord to the side as she sat down._
_ "Is it ready?" Malachi mumbled, eyes opening slowly before rubbing them slightly._
_ "It is," she replied, leaning forward to pick up the bowl and cooling the pasta down a little with a few blows of air. "I know you're tired, but best to eat this now before you sleep, and before it gets too cold." Malachi roused himself to straighten up more and went to reach for the bowl. He grabbed it and put it on his legs to balance it, before slowly bringing heaped pasta to his mouth, chewing slowly._
Alia played on her phone whilst Malachi ate, occasionally looking up at him to make sure he did eat. With a few pieces of congealed pasta at the bottom, Malachi put the fork into the bowl, putting the bowl onto the table and leaning back into the sofa whilst patting his stomach.
_ "That was good..." he murmured, his eyes drooping a little. Alia smiled, starting to clean up._
_ "You've got a day off tomorrow right?" Alia asked as she took the items into the kitchen._
_ "Hmm hmm, actually got two of them in a row this time," Malachi said, laughing slightly. He looked over the top of the sofa towards the kitchen. "a colleague needed a swap for something, so it helped me due to having more than one day off in a row and it helps them."_
_ "But wouldn't that mean one of your other days off is taken?" Alia asked in disappointment, turning to face him, her ears flicking back._
_ "It'll mean one of my days will be a double shift of eighteen hours, but it'll be fine."_
_ "You do enough double shifts as it is...." Alia grumbled, walking back into the living room. Malachi gave her a sad smile as he slowly got up from the sofa. "Sorry." Alia said softly, looking down at her feet._
_ "No need to be sorry, it's true," Malachi replied, coming to her and bring her chin up with a hand, looking into her eyes. "I know you'd want me to be around more, and I know I said about possibly going for less hours. But the money's good at the moment, and the more I do now, the less I'll have to put in in a few months when things slow down again."_
_ "I know," Alia said, blushing. She looked in his eyes, almost pleading. "I'm grateful, I am, I just get lonely some times. I'm glad I've got my job to help though, and the extra stuff to hopefully make things easier later on."_
_ "And it means I get great tasting coffee and snacks from it," Malachi grinned, kissing her softly on the lips before taking her by the hand to the stairs. "Any beans for coffee tomorrow?"_
_ "Of course, it was damaged stock, so they put them in a food bag for me. Some doughnuts were also going out of date tonight, so we have doughnuts for snacks tomorrow." Alia replied, following him up the stairs as their hands pulled apart to go up with both hands on the railing._
_ "I'm glad your job allows for that sort of thing." Malachi said gratefully as he slowly went up the stairs._
_ "I'm glad too, coffee and sugar, yum." Alia laughed, licking her lips with a gleeful expression at the mere thought. Malachi laughed too._
_ "Are they the jam filled ones?" Malachi asked as they walked into the bathroom. He started to put toothpaste on the toothbrush._
_ "Yes, I'm surprised they didn't go, but there was three left over, plus a icing one." Alia said from the open door, clapping her hands gently. Malachi gave a quite whoop of glee over the brush in his mouth, and Alia grinned._
_ "Dibs on the icing one!" Malachi said after spitting out the toothpaste and moving a hand up and down a few times. Alia rolled her eyes and nodded._
_ "Like I expected anything else." Alia laughed._
_ "You can't blame me though," Malachi grinned "icing goods from the woman I love, and free, what else can I ask for?" Alia rolled her eyes to the ceiling as he wiped his mouth on the hand towel and then lent over to kiss her cheek. Alia hugged him tightly when he straightened up and he hugged her back._
_ "Time for bed I think." Alia whispered, snuggling into his neck._
_ "Hmmm." Malachi replied, the sound of the word vibrating against her cheek where it rested against his throat. Alia giggled, pulling apart._
_ "Come on then," Alia whispered as she saw his eyes drooping a little again. She guided him to bed as he started to walk a little groggily. She softly sat him down on it as she went to get him his nightwear, and he started to unbutton his shirt. She turned back around "here, I can do that for you."_
Malachi was slow to react when Alia put the nightwear next to him on the bed and started to undo his shirt. He went to grab her wrists to stop her, but she gave a playful tap on one hand to stop him from stopping her, and he just gave her a gentle smile before putting his hands on the bed next to him.
_ "You didn't have to you know." Malachi said._
_ "I know, but I wanted to," Alia smiled back, finally getting to the bottom of the shirt, having to be careful of his long fur against the slightly tight buttons on the new shirt. She slipped it off him and he grabbed his night shirt as she turned to fold it nearly on the bedside dresser. She turned back as he pulled the shirt down over him and gave him a fake scolding look. He pretended to look chastised, but laughed when she pushed his shoulder gently, she joining in the laughter. "fine then."_
Malachi changed into his might trousers whilst Alia got into bed. She pulled the covers on Malachi's side down. He looked at her after folding his trousers and slipped in, and she pulled the covers up for him.
_ "So, how was work for you today? You finished at seven right?" Malachi asked, leaning against the cushioned headboard as she laid down and snuggled into the pillows._
_ "Actually had to stay in for the close."_
_ "Oh right, the free stuff." Malachi clicked his fingers, nodding._
_ "Yeah, so an extra two and a half hours work, plus free stuff," Alia placed a hand on his chest as he too laid down. "but yeah, there was a few grouchy caffeine withdrawn people.... We did have a attempted robbery though."_
_ "WHAT?" Malachi yelled, bolting upright._
_ "I said attempted, my boss stopped whoever it was," Alia said soothingly, sitting upright herself, trying to calm him down. "it wasn't all bad, they tried to get in just before we locked up the last door and my boss was taking the till to the office. But thankfully my other colleague got hold of the till and my boss scared him off. You know how lions are."_
_ "I'm grateful they're headstrong creatures in that sense at least," Malachi grudgingly agreed as he laid stiffly down again. "so no one was hurt? You were fine?"_
_ "Of course," Alia shrugged. "it's made me want to do martial arts though."_
_ "Ooo, what type? Aikido? Karate?" He made a few chopping movements. "Taekwondo?"_
_ "Taekwondo seems good. I was reaching it before I went to bed before you came home. You get to spar and everything, and they allow payment plans for the equipment." Alia replied, starting to feel tired again._
_ "Sounds good, you should do it," Malachi replied, turning on his side and looking at her. She lied back down and turned to look at him too. "I wouldn't want you to be in a position where anything could happen to you."_
_ "And I'm lucky, work was offering extra shifts for the next few weeks, so I can at least start on it."_
_ "And I can help with anything else further." Malachi carried on, caressing Alia's face. Alia smiled._
_ "I know you would, but you work hard enough for what we have as it is. You contribute enough for the mortgage so I'll only need to pay everything else. But even if I have to take a second job, I'd do it." She placed a hand over Malachi's._
_ "So independent." Malachi scoffed, but with a grin as his eyes began to close._
_ "And you know it," Alia laughed. A few seconds later, and she felt his hand soften against her face, and she moved it to the bed as his breathing slowed and his body softened into the bed. "sleep well, my hard working husky."_