Archive of Our Own ^beta

Agustín and his best friend differed in many ways. Opposites attract as the saying went, and it was probably the reason they got along so well.

Pepa was wild and loud, and Agustín was quieter and more reserved. 

Pepa did most of the talking, and Agustín listened. 

He was happy with that, and as far as he knew, Pepa loved him the way he was also. 

There was one difference, however, that could be frustrating for Agustín at times.

He was a morning person, up with the sun and eager to start the day. 

Pepa was the complete opposite. She despised early mornings, and would sleep until the early afternoon if she could. 

And when she did finally wake up, she was grumpy for at least an hour as she woke up and processed her surroundings properly. 

It was annoying when he wanted to spend time with his best friend, but she was sprawled out in her bed, and he would have to entertain himself for several hours. 

It was boring and lonely without Pepa.

The two of them had arranged to spend time together today. They wanted to go out to lunch, just the two of them, and then return home to their spouses, and meet back up in the evening to go to the pub.

However, Agustín hadn’t seen Pepa all morning.

She hadn’t appeared at breakfast, and Félix had told them that his wife had hissed like an angry cat when he tried to wake her up.

With it being late morning now, Agustín worried that their lunch date would have to be cancelled if his lazy best friend didn’t wake up soon. 

Taking matters into his own hands, he knocked on Pepa’s door. 

No answer. He didn’t expect one. 

Pepa could sleep through a hurricane, so knocks on the door wouldn’t even rouse her a little bit. 

When he entered her room, he found exactly what he expected to find. 

Pepa fast asleep, sprawled out on her stomach, with her alpaca plushie trapped under her body, and drooling heavily on Félix’s pillow.

How Félix thought that was cute was beyond Agustín, but Félix found everything that Pepa did adorable. 

“Pep. It’s eleven in the morning.” He raised his voice, almost yelling. 

Nothing happened.

If he couldn’t clearly see that Pepa was breathing, he’d think she was dead. 

It was absolutely no use. 

She’d never wake up in time for lunch at this rate. 

He’d been half way out of her room when an idea struck him. 

A genius idea. 

Something that would keep him amused for a couple of hours, and then a good laugh when Pepa woke up and saw what he’d done. 

All he needed was water, mousetraps, and a lot of plastic cups. 

This elaborate prank would be time consuming, require a lot of patience and be potentially painful if he slipped up.

But would it be worth it?

He hoped so.

He had managed to gather hundreds of plastic cups and mousetraps. 

He planned to surround Pepa’s bed with the mousetraps, and fill in the gaps with cups and cups of water.

Since Pepa’s floor was hardwood, it would be very slippery if the water spilled, and she’d never escape the mousetraps on her bare toes. 

The thought of how much that would hurt almost made him back out on his plan.

Almost, but not quite. 

He got to work, setting the traps (one of them snapped back and caught Agustín right in the finger. The pain was an intense, stinging and then burning sensation spreading throughout his entire hand. He bit back several curses and whimpered, all while Pepa peacefully slept on) and then used Pepa’s handy waterfall to fill up the cups. 

It took him well over an hour to block any exit routes. 

He made sure to spread them far enough so Pepa couldn’t jump over the cups and get him. 

He was by her door at this point, sniggering when he saw what he’d done. 

There was no way that Pepa would be able to get out of that bed.

Served her right for thinking she could sleep in when they’d made plans. 

The waiting was mental torture.

He waited and waited. 

Whenever he thought that Pepa was finally beginning to stir, she would simply roll over and her breathing would even out once more. 

Occasionally, she would frown in her sleep and a cloud would appear, and then disappear again a few seconds later. 

She’s dreaming, Agustín thought. 

When he thought his best friend would never wake up, the magical moment finally arrived. 

A grin spread across his face when Pepa’s green eyes opened at last, and she stretched and yawned.

It was always hard not to laugh when watching Pepa wake up; she always looked so out of it and confused as she came to. 

The sound of his chuckle alerted her and she looked over, still struggling to wake up properly. 

“What are you doing here? What time is it? Why are you laughing at me?” She wiped the last of the drool from her chin and sat up in bed.

“Lunch, remember? Get up and get ready. We’re going to be late.”

“Oh yeah. Lunch.” She was still clearly half asleep. “Okay. I’m coming.” When she almost placed her foot directly on top of one of the traps, she awoke fully and finally saw what had transpired whilst she was in dreamland. 

“What have you done!?”

The man wheezed with laughter as a cloud grew above Pepa’s head and thundered.

“Come on, Pep! We’re so late! I’m ready. You don’t look ready. Don’t you need to get dressed and brush your teeth and things?”

Pepa wasn’t laughing, she looked a mixture of utterly confused and furious, and the conflicting facial expressions made Agustín laugh even more. 

“You are so dead when I get over there! Do you hear me!? Dead!” 

“Come on then. Come here.”

Pepa stared down at the floor, incredulously. 

“Are these mousetraps!?”

“I didn’t have enough of them, so I filled the holes with water. Pretty good, right?”

Pepa did not agree.

His smile grew when he saw Pepa’s brain working overtime as she tried to plan the most painless looking route.

He’d planted the traps in such places that there wasn’t a good option. 

There was no avoiding sliding into one. 

Yes, he was an utter genius. 

With a frightened whimper, Pepa placed her foot down to move a few of the cups aside, immediately spilling water all over the floor. 

“I’ll move them aside with my foot.” She said out loud, more to herself than Agustín.

As he’d predicted though, the floor was as slippery as ice as soon as it got wet, and although she remained on her feet, Pepa disturbed three mouse traps at once.

They immediately caught several of her toes. 

The rain pouring from her cloud was making everything look ten times more painful and messy, to be honest.

“AH! FUCK! OW!”

Agustín would feel sorry for her if he wasn’t laughing so hard. 

Pepa couldn’t even escape back to her bed; she was too far away now and the floor was a safety hazard. 

She would have to go forward. 

After taking two more steps, she slipped again, this time falling right onto her face.

Snap snap snap, as seven or eight of the traps were triggered and pinched at Pepa’s arms, legs and toes.

“AAAAH!” She screamed, glaring up at her friend, who was almost wetting his pants with laughter. 

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” She shrieked at him, her dark cloud thundering once more. 

Was she furious? Yes.

Would she actually kill him when she finally got to him? Most likely.

Was it worth it? Absolutely.