Part Three

I woke up the next morning to the sound of Johnny purring loudly and his tail in my face. "Johnny..." I croaked and pushed on his butt to move. He meowed at me and gave me a dirty look. "Don’t give me that look..."I whispered to him and pushed him away from my head as I frantically wiped his fur off of my face.

I sat up slowly and looked around the room wondering when I was going to start feeling better. I grabbed my bottle of antibiotics from my night stand and the bottle of water next to it and took the morning’s dose with a painful swallow. I started to whine and then felt movement in my bed reminding me that AJ was there. He rolled over onto his stomach, his arm slung over a pillow, and Johnny stood up next to him stretching. I smiled and looked at Johnny, "Get Daddy..." I whispered and shooed him with my hand toward AJ.

Johnny obeyed, for once, and used AJ’s bare back as his new sleeping surface sprawling out on his belly across AJ’s back with his head on AJ’s shoulder. I chuckled quietly and looked around for my camera. It wasn’t on its normal spot near my bed because AJ had been snapping pictures the night before, but I found it before either of them moved.

Kneeling on the floor near the bed I looked through the camera and focused on AJ and Johnny sleeping waiting for the perfect moment to snap the picture. The moment presented itself not too long after when they both began to yawn at the exact same time.

Click.

"My Boys..." I smiled whispering the title of the picture to myself. I took a few more shots from assorted angles as Johnny struggled to find a comfortable position on AJ. The light of the morning coming in softly through my sheer curtains was providing the perfect setting for the pictures. I was using my "Black & White" camera too so I could only imagine how great the pictures were going to be. Johnny’s black and white fur, AJ’s dark tattoos on his arms and back, his dark messy hair against the pale yellow pillowcase which in black and white film would be a pale gray... it was perfect. I crawled back onto the bed and sat next to AJ grabbing my light reader and holding it up near AJ’s face.

He smiled and whispered with his eyes closed, "You’re holding that light thing by my head aren’t you?"

I giggled and he opened his eyes as I pulled my hand back, "Sorry..."

"It’s okay," he grinned. "Morning."

"Morning..."

"I heard you clicking... figured you were taking pictures of me again." He rolled carefully onto his back making sure not to knock Johnny to the floor. Johnny meowed and we both laughed. "Oh stop whining..." AJ said quietly and put Johnny on his chest and began petting scratching his "good spot" and looked at me. "You taught him to whine didn’t you?"

"I did not..." I laughed and held up the camera as AJ looked straight into Johnny’s face and placed his nose to Johnny’s small nose.

Click.

"Oh please... no child of mine would whine this much," he smiled.

"Bullshit... your child DOES whine... and it’s all from YOUR side of the family..." I laid on my stomach getting the camera to the same level as AJ and Johnny.

Johnny laid his head down on AJ’s chest and closed his eyes and AJ grinned at me, "He loves his Daddy..."

Click.

"Yeah he does..."

I took a few more pictures, close-ups. I got a few of AJ’s face, of his large hand resting on Johnny’s small body, Johnny’s tiny paw lying across AJ’s "Bone" tattoo... "You almost done?" he whispered to me as I happily clicked away taking pictures.

"Huh? Oh... sorry..." I smiled and put my camera down on the bed between us. He smiled and picked up the camera handing it to me. "I’m done..." I said and pushed it back towards him.

"No you’re not... I can see it in your eyes. I was teasing. Keep clicking until you’re done. You’re the ONLY photographer that I don’t mind taking tons of pictures of me, Kel..."

I smiled and held the camera in my lap running my thumb over the sticker on the back of it. I chuckled looking at the sticker. It was an old Backstreet sticker of AJ’s head from when he was about sixteen years old. I’d been working on a photo shoot at a wedding a few months before and they’d wanted certain pictures in black and white, and others in color. Because my cameras were the same make, and I usually only worked with either all black and white, or all color I needed some way to easily identify which camera around my neck was the right one. I pulled the small Asian trading card from my planner that I used as a bookmark and peeled the AJ sticker off of it and put it onto my camera thus lowering the face value of the card drastically in the process. AJ had practically ripped me in two when I told him I’d used the sticker after having saved it for five years when he’d sent it to me from Europe. He’d lectured me about how much that would have been worth someday if I’d kept it in tact, but I told him that I wasn’t concerned about the value of the card because he was going to support me in my old age anyway. "Did you see the sticker?" I smiled and held the back of the camera to him.

He laughed, "Oh lord that’s not me..."

"Yes it is!" I laughed. "Look how little you look..."

"Wow..." he smiled looking closely at the sticker. "I should still kick your ass for ruining that card..."

"I didn’t ruin it, and you wouldn’t kick my ass because I’m sick and you love me..."

"Mmm hmm..." he smiled.  "How’re you feeling?"

"Like shit..." I shrugged and lay back down. "But you’re here, so it’s okay..."

"Face it, you love having me in your bed..."

I laughed and rolled onto my side to look at him, "Age? You hog the blankets and you have roaming hands... Sure I love having you in my bed..." I groaned.

He grinned a cheesy grin. Click. "Roaming hands?"

"Yup... I can always expect a good grope when you’re around honey..." I laughed.

"I do not grope you in my sleep!"

"Oh yes you do!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!" I laughed and took another picture of him.

"Well at least you’re getting some action then..." he laughed and stuck his tongue out at me.

"Oh you can get out of my bed right now!" I half laughed, half yelled.

"But I’ll disturb the boy..." AJ said holding onto Johnny.

"You can take the boy with you... out of my bed, McLean." I pushed him toward the edge of the bed giggling.

"No... it’s cold!"

"Put some clothes on then! Out!"

"Kelll..." he whined still holding Johnny and fighting to stay on the bed.

"No... you dis my love life and expect me to let your bony ass stay in my bed? I don’t think so..." With one final shove I pushed him off of the bed and he fell to the floor with a thud. I covered my mouth with my hand and held back a chuckle not having meant to succeed in pushing him off the bed. When he didn’t pop back up I crawled to the edge of the bed and laid on my stomach hanging my head over the edge looking down at him. "Age?" I chuckled as he lay on his back looking up at me.

"You pushed me off of the bed..."

"I’m sorry?"

"You pushed me off of the bed..."

"I love you?"

"You PUSHED me... off of the BED..."

I laughed, "I’m highly medicated..."

He chuckled and sat up, "If you weren’t sick you know I’d be torturing your ass right now don’t you?"

"Yup..." I smiled laying my head down on the bed.

"You also know that I’ll be getting you back once you’re well right?"

"Yup..."

"You know I’m gunna make you breakfast now too?"

I smiled, "I was hoping..."

AJ stood on his knees and kissed my cheek, "Stay in bed and rest, I’ll bring it in to you..." He grabbed my camera and aimed it at me as I rolled onto my back and wrapped the blankets around me. "Smile girlie..." I looked up at him making a kissy face and he took the picture.

Click.

"Title?" I asked.

"‘Smart ass who pushes people out of beds,’" he laughed and I stuck my tongue out at him. Click. "Oh and that one... ‘The girl I love... and the tongue I’ve never had...’" He carefully placed the camera in its normal resting spot and grabbed clothes from his bag in the corner of the room putting them on as quickly as possible.

I laughed and yawned as I felt my antibiotic fog taking over again, "You can turn the heat up if you need to, Florida Boy..."

"Plannin’ on it..." he mumbled with a laugh as he zipped up his jeans and put on my cow slippers that were near the bed. I laughed and he shrugged, "They’re too big on you anyway and they’re warm as hell..."

"I will get a picture of that before you go home..." I smiled with droopy eyes.

"Oh I’m sure you will..."