Kora's POV:

"LISTEN, I DIDN'T PUT SCUMMER ALL OVER YOUR DOG UNIFORM! IT WAS PROBABLY THOSE SARDEN PIDGEONS AGAIN!"

I clutched my pillow tighter to my head, trying to ignore yet another of Beka and Rosto's silly arguments. For some reason, ever since Rosto kissed her a few weeks ago, they've at each other's throats. More so.

"DON'T YOU DARE BLAME THE PIDGEONS, ROSTO!"

"AND BESIDES, WHAT WOULD THE ROGUE GAIN FROM SPREADING SCUMMER ON YOUR UNIFORM! ONLY A SCUT WOULD DO THAT!"

"BECAU—"

"MAYBE YOU COULD YELL A LITTLE LOUDER!" I grinned at hearing Aniki's voice. She never was very tolerant of extremely loud voices in the morning. "I DON'T THINK THEY HEARD YOU AT THE PALACE!"

Groaning, I rolled out of bed. Obviously I had some more laundry to do before tonight. Blearily I trudged towards the door, opening it. When I reached the stairs, I stopped.

Beka was standing outside her door, hands on her hips, her eyes like ice. She was glaring at Rosto, who stood at the top of the stairs and returned her glare with equal ferocity. Between them stood Aniki, red faced and fingering the hilt of her sword.

"Ummm…," I began. All heads whipped to face me. Drawing myself up to my full height, (which wasn't very impressive, I admit) I said, "Rosto, go get some more bread for breakfast." He glared at me, so I let a bit of my gift swirl around my hand warningly. "Now."

He scoffed, muttering something along the lines of, "Woman." When the door slammed shut behind him, I turned to Aniki, who was still fuming.

"Wait here for a second," I muttered to her as I passed her. "I need to talk to you after I talk to Terrier over here."

I walked over to Beka, who had turned and stalked into her room. "Beka? Do you want me to wash your uniform today?"

She sighed, saying, "Please. I'm sorry about that. It's just, Rosto's so—so—"

"Ruggedly handsome?" I said, smirking. Beka turned beet red, glaring at me. I laughed, saying, "Relax, Beka, I was just pulling your tail."

She smiled slightly, handing me her uniform. "Thanks, Kora." She said sincerely.

I just grinned, waving it off. Walking to the spot where Aniki still leaned against the wall, I grinned at her. "Took you long enough," she muttered, but didn't look that mad anymore.

I lead her back to my room. When we got there, I shut the door behind us, throwing Beka's uniform over the back of a chair.

"We can't keep getting woken up every morning like this," I started.

Aniki nodded, taking a seat on my bed. "I'm tired of it," she said. "If they keep screaming at each other every morning, I'm going to become a cracknob!"

"Well," I said, smiling. "I have an idea. How about we try to get them together? I mean, Beka obviously likes him but hides it, and Rosto's already proved he likes her. So, because I don't want one of my friends to be a cracknob, what do you say…?"

Aniki smiled evilly. "Let's do it.

Beka's POV:

I was walking down stairs that afternoon, still fuming. Kora and Aniki kept glancing at each other slyly at breakfast, and Rosto was as infuriating as usual. I huffed, walking towards the broom cupboard downstairs. Kora said she'd meet me here, and had something important to say. Why in front of the broom cupboard, I don't know.

Since my head was down, I didn't see anyone until I ran right into them. Scowling, I looked up to see Rosto.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed.

"Me? What are you doing here?"

Before either of us could say anything else, the door to the broom cupboard flew open and both of us were shoved inside. The door hastily shut, and I heard the unmistakable sound of a lock clicking. I launched myself at the door, pounding on it furiously. "Who's there? Let us out!"

"No!" I heard a muffled voice say. "Not until you work out what's bothering both of you!"

"Aniki?" asked Rosto, stepping towards the door as well. His voice sounded strangely dangerous. "Why are we—"

"She already said!" said another voice. Kora. I groaned. "Now, talk and figure out what the problem is now!"

I sighed, taking a couple steps from the door, as did Rosto. It was then that I noticed how small this broom cupboard was. We were practically pressed together.

I blushed, trying to push myself farther into the wall, and avoiding eye contact. Finally, Rosto spoke.

"Beka?"

Sighing, I looked up, meeting his eyes. "Yeah?" I asked, not even knowing why we were talking so softly.

"What's wrong? You've been shouting at me at every opportunity these past few weeks. Why?"

I felt my cheeks burn, and looked at my shoes. I really had to get to the Kennel, and working this out seemed to be the only way to do that. Just wait until I saw Aniki and Kora next. "You've been bugging me!"

Rosto raised an eyebrow, still watching me. I sighed, knowing he wasn't buying it. After all, this was the King of Thieves, and I'm not a very good liar anyway.

"Because—because—I think I like you, and that's the loobiest thing, because you already have about six mots, and you're a rusher and I'm a Puppy. So, I thought, if I yelled all the time you'd back off but you didn't! Well, happy now?" I said. My face flushed, if it was possible, even darker. Did I seriously just say that to Rosto? All those training sessions with Ahuda must have gone to my head.

I finally looked up, and to my surprise, saw that he was smiling. "Well, if that's all you got, I'm sorry but I can't accept that."

"What?" I spluttered.

"Well," he said. "Those are the sorriest reasons I've ever heard of. Come on! You know if you finally agreed to be my mot I wouldn't be with anyone else, and the whole "rusher and Puppy" thing has been overdone. Who cares?"

I looked at him in shock, now getting slightly angry. Everything that had been driving me mad for the past few weeks, just brushed off!

Rosto saw my expression and grinned. "So, Puppy Cooper, what do you say? Want to get out of this cupboard?"

"Fine," I sighed, but felt myself smile widely. Maybe this wasn't as bad as I thought. Before I could say anything else, though, Rosto leaned down and kissed me.

I felt warm tingles all down my spine, and, hesitantly, wrapped my arms around his neck. He smiled against my mouth, pulling me closer.

"I told you!" shrieked Kora as she threw open the door. I pulled away from Rosto, looking at the triumphant pair. We tumbled out of the broom cupboard, and dusted myself off.

"I knew I was irresistible!" cried Rosto, smiling.

I lightly punched his shoulder, saying, "Don't push it."

He just grinned, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I sighed, but couldn't stop a smile forming on my lips. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Yay! I'm back!!! This idea just suddenly popped in my head, and I'm sorry if some of the characters aren't in character, but I haven't actually read the book in months. Hehe.

I hope you enjoyed it, it really was fun to write! And thanks for reading, please review!

Padfoot