Maxwell woke with a start, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.
"Geez, what the hell was that dream?" he muttered, cupping his hands over his face.
"A mouse? Why was there a mouse in my dream? And since when did I start dreaming about Nova!? And why in the hell were there so many dreams about mice? Did I say that before? This is so freaky."
He closed his eyes, taking in the silence around him.
Maxwell was confused but not exactly alarmed. It was a weird dream, yes, but just that. Weird. He sighed tiredly. "Way to start the day. Just what I needed." He felt around the bed for his phone; he had kept it beside him before he slept, so he just had to find it.
But as he searched, his hand suddenly brushed against something. It was very small, hairy and soft. He shivered. "Hope that's not what I'm thinking." He immediately snatched his hand back and kept searching for his phone. When he found it, he picked it up and took a deep breath.
"I'm going to regret turning on this flashlight, aren't I?" But no, he knew he had to do it, and it wasn't something he could bail out on. He took another deep breath and steeled his heart. Then he turned on the flashlight and swung it toward the first thing his hand had touched.
Maxwell's eyes widened at what he saw.
It was a white mouse.
A white mouse wearing a red bow!
What the?! Panicking, he kicked the mouse off the bed.
Thud!
It hit the ground with a loud thud, an impossible sound for a creature that size! It let out a piercing shriek, and Maxwell leapt out of bed. He bolted for the wall lamp and turned it on the moment he reached it. Bright light flooded the room, revealing exactly what had shrieked.
It was Snowy! The snow hawk.
"What the?" Maxwell stopped, confused. He was pretty sure he had seen a mouse just now. The same mouse from his dream! But his confusion quickly gave way to panic, and he ran to Snowy's side.
The snow hawk was still on the ground, squeaking in pain as he slowly pushed himself up.
Maxwell scooped him up, sat on the bed and settled him on his lap, soothing the bird as he apologized and stroked his feathers.
Unexpectedly, Maxwell didn't get the reaction he'd been bracing for from the bird he had just kicked. Snowy didn't glare at him, squeak at him, or even try to scratch him with his claws. He simply stayed docile on Maxwell's lap.
Still, just because Snowy showed no reaction didn't mean Maxwell was off the hook, as he suddenly felt a sharp glare pierce him, followed by a cold, partially groggy voice.
"What happened here?" Nova asked, her voice cold but still carrying traces of sleep. What's with all the racket? Can't someone have a simple sleep in peace?
Maxwell froze the moment he heard her, and he quickly came to regret that momentary lapse as he was fixed with another glare, this one from the bird he had been stroking! It seemed Snowy was not happy that Maxwell had stopped.
"First of all, good morning."
"It's not morning yet," Nova said, her cold gaze still fixed on Maxwell. It was clear she did not appreciate being woken up.
"How do you know it's not morning yet?" Maxwell asked, curious.
"Because I can feel it."
"Feel it?" Maxwell probed.
"Yes. I don't feel as good as I usually do after waking up in the morning. That can only mean I didn't get quality sleep."
Is this ragebait? Maxwell thought. People weren't built to tell time with their bodies! Wasn't that why clocks and alarms were invented in the first place?
"All that aside, what was with all that commotion?"
Maxwell fell silent for a moment, not because he was deep in thought or anything. No, he just had to satisfy his curiosity. He quickly checked the time on his phone. It was exactly 11:43 p.m.! He looked at Nova with a strange expression. "What an odd one."
"Who are you calling an odd one?" Nova said, her voice still cold, though now free of the grogginess that had clouded it earlier.
"I said that out loud, didn't I?" Maxwell sighed. "I wasn't calling you odd or anything. Just thinking out loud," he added with a sheepish smile.
Nova just eyed him without comment.
Seeing that she wasn't pressing him and was, in fact, calmly waiting for an answer, Maxwell finally answered her initial question. "The thing is, I had a strange dream last night. In that dream, you were there." Maxwell paused, watching as a frown slowly crept onto Nova's face. "Ahhh, not that kind of dream!" He quickly waved his hands with an awkward chuckle, earning himself a premium glare from Snowy for stopping. "Rather than the kind of dream you're probably thinking of, it was just a series of strange dreams," Maxwell continued. "The strangest thing about them wasn't even that you were in one. Though, now that I think about it, that's pretty strange too, considering I've never dreamed about you before. Or anything like that. Wait, that came out wrong. What I meant to say was that it was the mice that were strange. Am I even making sense here?" Maxwell shook his head dejectedly, as though he had already given up on making himself understood.
"Mice? What mice?"
Just hearing that question made Maxwell sigh again. Man, had he been sighing a lot lately. Today is going to be a long day, isn't it? Little did Maxwell know, calling it a long day would turn out to be a serious understatement.