Coonie poked her head over the edge of Teddycat’s bed. As she’d expected, he was still asleep, even though it was well past noon. Putting one knee on the bed, she stretched to poke him. Though he grunted in his sleep, he didn’t wake up, and the raccoon frowned at him, reaching to poke him again.

This time, he rolled over, but not before grabbing her by the arm and pulling her with him. Pinned to his chest, she looked around for an escape, but found none. His chin came to rest on the top of her head, and she sighed, defeated. It’s not like it’s a fate worse than death, she convinced herself.

Snuggling against his chest, Coonie made herself comfortable. Behind her, Teddycat smiled in his sleep, readjusting his grip on his pillow. His very warm pillow. His very warm, very squishy pillow… His eyes opened, and he looked down to see the Defender half-asleep in his arms. The Blaster’s eye twitched, and he was about to kick her out, but then she rolled over, her arm sliding around his waist.

“Damn her for feigning cuteness at a time like this,” he muttered. Shrugging, he yawned once, and went back to his surprisingly pleasant dreams.

That lasted all of two more hours, until the alarm on Coonie’s wristwatch went off. Both heroes shot bolt-upright at the sudden interruption.

“Sorry, sorry,” she mumbled, pawing at the thing until it turned off. “I usually eat, by this hour, heh.”

Recovering from his mild heart-attack, Teddycat glared at her. “Why are you in my bed, anyway?” Coonie hesitated, noting the short distance in between them, before giving another of her nervous laughs.

“Oh, er…I forgot.” His eye twitched again. “No, no, wait, no. I remember. I was trying to wake you up for that mission you said you’d go on.”

Resting his head in his hands, he mentally kicked himself. “We can go on it tomorrow, can’t we?”

She looked towards the only clock in the room, which read 6:00 PM. “Nope. It was a timed mission that ended…oh, about three hours ago.”

Damn it! “Sorry there, Coonie.” He kicked himself, again. “Would it help if I made dinner, or something?”

Her face brightened instantly, and he almost regretted offering. “Do you have any cereal?”

Teddycat stared at her blankly for a moment, and then shook himself. “Cereal’s not dinner…pick something else.”

“Hmm…waffles?”

“Nothing in the breakfast-y kind of area…”

“Pancakes?”

This time, his entire body twitched. How she had lived as long as she had…

“Fine…I’ll be right back with your cereal.” Heading over to the desk, he brushed off an entire stack of papers, revealing the center. The desk was older than she’d originally guessed by at least three decades, and covered in runes she could barely discern.

As Coonie craned her neck to get a better look, he placed his hand on the wood, his fingers lining up perfectly with the runes. “Whatcha do—“

There, on the desk where his hand had been, was a bowl of Apple Jacks, which he went on to hand to her. “Don’t ask,” he added, sliding back onto his side of the bed. Poking her spoon into the cereal, she determined that they were okay, despite their questionable origins, and went to town.

“Not bad, as far as Netherworld dinners go,” she offered, after going through an entire bowl in under a minute. Teddycat eyed the raccoon, as if expecting her to be joking. But, of course, she wasn’t.

“Hey Coonie, do you remember that question you asked me yesterday?” He waited as she thought it over, but going by the look on her face… “The one about why I became a hero.”

Finally, something seemed to click. “Ohhh, that one. Yeah, I remember that one.”

“Well, what about you? Why’d you decide to come to Paragon?” She twiddled her thumbs, just a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

“I actually…got lost, heh.” The look on his face, though, was not amused.

“And you were mad at my answer? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard—“

“Ya mean, other than your name?”

The next thing she knew, she was knocked off the bed by a speeding pillow, and Teddycat had that satisfied smirk, again. It was short-lived, however, as a cereal bowl smacked into his head.

Climbing back to her spot, she stuck her tongue out at him. “Now…if you’d let me explain, I would’ve told you the whole story.” He rubbed the side of his head, but didn’t say anything. “Okay then. Ya see, I was put into an orphanage at a young age—“

“Why, what happened?” The Defender paused.

“Car accident. Actually, they were the car accident, but…at any rate…” Teddycat scooted closer to her, so that his shoulder touched hers. “Yeah, so…I was six at the time. I think it was near Christmas, because they had the entire place decorated. I was there for…jeeze, it must’ve been two or three years, before they placed me in a home.”

“Did you like it there?” he asked tentatively, when she paused.

She shook her head, and her ear flopped back into her eye. “Not at all.” Much to her surprise, Teddycat wrapped her into a hug, pressing her against his chest like he had that morning. She nuzzled her cheek against his arm for a moment before sighing.

“And you’ve been here ever since you ran away, I take it?” She nodded, and he smiled. “To think, yesterday all I wanted to do was kill you.”

Her one ear perked up, at that. “You wanted to what?” Once again, he mentally kicked himself.

“Oh, er, nothing. Just talking to myself, nothing important.”

Looking at the still broken window, Coonie took in the flurries. “Ya know, I really should get back to Perez—“

In answer to that, he tightened his grip on her. “Just one more night here, to make up for the mission.”

“I thought you already made up the mission with the food.”

He shrugged. “Fine, then stay for the sake of staying.”

She turned to meet his eyes, and he was smiling again. “Really? You mean that?”

Teddycat nodded. “We’ll go back to hating each other tomorrow, or something.”

With that, she smiled, and settled in for what felt like a long winter’s nap. Coonie was very nearly asleep, when he poked her in the forehead. Mildly irritated, she turned in his arms to stare pointedly at him.

“What was that f—“ However, it was at that moment that she noticed, for the first time all day, his distinct lack of a shirt.

“Coonie? Hey, Coonie, are you okay? You don’t look too good.” She scrambled out of bed, her hand to her nose. Just as he was about to ask her about it, again, he caught the sight of bright red on one of her fingers, and started laughing his ass off.

“It’s not funny, mister!” she chided him, but he didn’t even hear her. He was much too busy laughing; for the first time in his entire life, a girl had gotten a nosebleed at the sight of him shirtless.