Part of the Zoe & Thomas series.
"Thomas? Thomas? Wake up!"
Thomas sat up in bed, trying to clear the fog of sleep from his head. His girlfriend Zoe was shaking his shoulder, staring at him. "What? What is it?" he asked, yawning. "What's wrong?"
"You know the movie we watched last week – the one with the brain surgeon martial artist who does rocket science?"
"…Buckaroo Banzai?" he hazarded. He had a strange feeling that this was not, in fact, an emergency.
"Yeah, I think that's it. Is the cowboy the bad guy from the movie with the swords?"
"Hm?" He tried to follow her train of thought. "…Highlander? Yeah, that's Clancy Brown in both of those roles," Thomas replied, mentally congratulating himself for figuring out what in the world she was talking about.
"OK, great! Thanks!" She smiled.
He looked at her, eyebrows raised. "And you absolutely had to know the answer to that question at…" He glanced at the alarm clock. "One in the morning?"
"I was lying awake, and it was really bugging me!"
"And you didn't think of looking it up on your phone?"
She pouted. "You've told me you don't like it when I use my phone in bed!"
For a few seconds, Thomas wondered whether he should explain to her that he liked being woken up in the middle of the night for a stupid trivia question even less, but he concluded that this was a conversation that could wait until morning. "Well, good night, then." He gave her a gentle kiss and laid his head down on the pillow.
He eventually drifted off, but he found himself being shaken awake again. "Thomas? Thomas!"
"What is it now?" he said, glancing at the clock before looking at her. Two AM. It was certainly possible that THIS time, it was something actually important, but somehow, he doubted it.
"Would you still love me if I was a slug?"
Thomas struggled to remain calm. "Zoe, it's the middle of the night and I have work tomorrow."
She glared at him. "That's not an answer!"
He sighed. "Yes, I would."
"Even if I was all slimy and stuff?"
"Yes, even then. I love you with all my heart." Though admittedly, right at this moment, it wasn't easy to remember why. He leaned in and kissed her again. "And now, we're both going to go to sleep, and you're not going to wake me up for any more silly questions. Because if you do, I'm going to put you over my knee and blister your bottom." To emphasize his words, he flipped her over and delivered two hard swats to each of her panty-clad cheeks. She squealed, rubbing her rear with an offended air as she glared at him, but he'd already rolled over and closed his eyes.