Okay it was three am and I couldn t sleep so neither can DG. She goes to find her mother and ends up going to someone else and... it got kinda fluffy......don t try to make sense of the math. Like I said it was three Am I was sleep deprived and I m not good at math at the best of times oh and the plot bunnies were feeling somewhat poetically rhetorical. Thats why there are phrases like 'high velocity bout' and 'Clumsy but graceful, an off kilter cadence that was a rhythm all its own.'

I dont own this stuff you should know this


For the most part, it was quiet. There was the occasional rustle from the night breeze. The wind in the trees shaking the foliage so they laughed with secret whispers. Rarely, heavy boot-clad feet marched crisply past as a night guard patrolled the castle. Large loud boots that sounded so like those of the longcoats and -but no. No the witch was gone. The longcoats had surrendered during the eclipse last week. Peace was restored to the realms just last week as DG was restored to her family, just before Ahamo had left for the realm of the unwanted. Had chosen his life with Airofday over her and her mother and sister because she had let the witch out. She had abandoned her sister and now her father had abandoned her.

Dg threw down her blankets with an annoyed grunt. After 15 years in that tiny attic room, the palace seemed huge. DG felt alone and scared.

She could go to her mother. She saw it once on TV. A small child had gotten scared and crawled in bed with his parents.

Except DG didn t know where her mothers room was. She tried to remember if anyone offered to show her where the Lavender eyed monarchs quarters were.
DG padded quietly down the hall. Maybe she could find it. Or maybe she could ask a guard.
Someone might stop her and she could ask.

Yeah right. "Do pardon me; I m looking for my mothers room. You see I got scared and I wanted to sleep with her tonight." No thanks.

DG was ready to turn around and stick it out in her own bed, when she realized she had stopped walking and stood in front of a door. Muscle memory had brought her to some long forgotten sanctuary.

Curious as to who she might have visited so often that the path was still ingrained in a blocked away memory, DG knocked.

Footsteps approached. Clumsy but graceful, an off kilter cadence that was a rhythm all its own.

DG grinned even before the door opened to reveal her first and best friend.

"Glitch!" she smiled, hiding her surprise as best she could.

"Hi DG" Glitch smiled back, surprise and delight written all over his pale angular face. Come in." He practically dragged her into the room. It was rather messy and disorganized. Not what she barely remembered.

"I m still putting it all back together." Glitch said proudly, noticing her eyes rove about. DG nodded mutely.

"What with putting the realms back together, everyone s been really busy" he gave a small chortle that might be mistaken for imagined. "So some things got pushed to the wayside."

Like his brain

"But that hardly matters" Glitch bubbled on, ever the optimist. He stopped and smiled at her. Cheerful and childlike, but skirting vacant. As though he realized something important was just beyond his memory, floating in green goo and whispering in his ear.

"Oh!" His entire face lit up as the memory settled back down snuggly into his noggin, just under the zippered crown between his knotted curls. "A seat! Come on in and sit right over Oh...oh dear." All the chairs held large, heavy boxes. Inventions and equipment, blueprints and test tubes. Things that had no doubt belonged to Ambrose before the witch destroyed everything.

DG stood in mute wonder as Glitch, always the gentleman, tried to find a way to move the boxes around so DG could sit comfortably, chatting amicably the entire time.

DG walked forward and gently folded herself on the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest.
After a minute Glitch looked around and noticed she found a seat. He came and sat beside her. It was really more of a plop, crossing his long legs in front of him like they mad DG sit in kindergarten. Glitch watched her patiently and awaited an explanation as to her intrusion at such a late hour. She looked about the room. He had been reading. Something big and dusty, leather-bound and yellow with age. He wore reading glasses. They were thick and black and kind of square.

She looked at him, feeling small and childish. And rather silly. Just before she stood to go, Glitch shot out a hand. "DG?"

"Can I stay with you tonight?" It just fell right out and hung in the air between them, growing stale and cold. Anyone else would have laughed. But not Glitch. He just surveyed her with his warm eyes and half cocked smile.

DG looked around again as a memory bubbled to the surface. "I was here before, wasn t I?"

She had sat on this very bed, and Ambrose, with his immaculate curls but that same half cocked mischievous grin would tell her the most fascinating stories. There would be small life lessons incorporated in them. He showed great enthusiasm and much praise when she picked up on them.

It was here that she came, he that she came to with heartache or fears. Or just when she needed someone who understood her.

Or at least who could make a good cup of cocoa.

"Many times. When you were small."

"I ve been here before." she repeated more to herself.

He would bring her such wonderful toys. Toys he had made himself. Toys for Christmas or her birthday or just because. He had made toys For Azkadellia too, but she hadn t cared so much for them. Az had been practical minded, focused on her studies and learning her magic.
DG, though, she wanted to play. To have fun. And so the windup Ballerina had been for her and the doll house that lit up was wonderful. More wonderful still had been the smile. The smile that lit up his face and warmed his brown eyes until they shined. The smile Ambrose wore when DG exclaimed in delight at the new treasure he made for her.

More wonderful still was the man himself.

"You. I came here to see you!"

Way to state the obvious

But again Glitch didn t laugh.

"You did so much for me. Gave so much of your time and energy and yourself . And I never had anything to give you"

"Your secrets. Your dreams. Hopes and fears" Glitch answered quietly. You shared them all with me."

DG blushed. "I wanted to catch up to you. Be the same age as you-"

"Hey you did it! Wow you ll have to rub that in Azka-ds face she said you couldn t-"

"Wait, Glitch slow down." DG laughed. "You were 22 when I left the Outer Zone and that was 15 years ago."

"Annuals." Glitch corrected. "15 annuals and I don t know how I survived them." He blushed as though he said something embarrassing.

But DG didn t laugh. Something Glitch had always liked about her was she never laughed at him, even if he did have a zipper where half his brain ought to be.

"Time flows differently here than the other side." Glitch continued. "Since we have two suns, our years are shorter.10 years make one annual, and we only age every 10 annuals. But I guess since you were there you aged every annual. I know I look a lot older but I m only 23" Glitch thought for a minute "And a half."

DG stared. "I-you-I-what?"

"DG? Are you okay?" Glitch held her lightly by the shoulders. DG nodded numbly. "Yeah just a bit-"She smiled. "I m fine Glitch" She had looked to him as a father figure and now she was practically the same age.

"Hi DG" Glitch smiled looking slightly disoriented, and Dg knew he must have glitched. "What brings you here?"

"The palace is big and I guess I got scared." DG shrugged. She didn t feel silly for coming to him now.

Glitch gave her a muted smile and pulled her into a hug. "You ve been here before DG."

"I know but that was a really long time ago."

"Well there s nothing to be scared of if-" Glitch broke off as a loud gust of wind whistled through the tree right outside. He dove under the covers, trembling from head to toe.

Dg pulled the covers up and looked down at him. Glitch grinned sheepishly.

"Nothing to be afraid of hunh?" she teased.

"I was cold" Glitch stated primly.

DG smiled and pushed the blanket back. "You sounded like who you used to be just then."

Glitch sat up eagerly "Do you remember him?"

"A little bit." Admitted DG "I like who you are now, Glitch."

Glitch smiled wistfully willing to pretend to believe her if it meant she'd stay and- oh yeas that had been the point yes

"Yes" he said so suddenly it startled them both.

"Yes what?" DG asked bewildered.

"You can stay. I'd like you to stay."

She wondered if that meant what it sounded like. Or maybe it was wishful thinking.

"If you re scared I mean" Glitch amended. "You can stay if you re scared but you don t have to. Only if you want to. I'm not scared."

"LIAR!" DG laughed and hit him with a pillow so Glitch fell off the bed. He jumped back up and grabbed another pillow. "You ll pay for that!" he cried, hitting her gently.

Dg jumped up and took another swing laughing and soon the pillow fight descended into chaos, with feathers flying everywhere.

"What in the name of samhell are you two doing?" Cain asked from the doorway. Jeb was a short distance behind.

"I'm protecting my honor" Glitch replied with Dignity. DG batted her eyes innocently.

"You two are the last straw. Cain sighed. "I can put up with a lot of stuff. Shot out a window, fine. Bitten by Pahpay, alright. Jumping off a cliff, sure. But you two are going to be the end of me and-why are you looking at me like that?"
Simultaneously Dg and Glitch leapt off the bed and began pummeling the tin man with pillows.

"No! Get off me" Cain growled. Jeb recovered quickly and grabbed some throw pillows off the nearest chair. Cain s protests of childish games were drown out by DGs giggles and cry of 'tag team.'

After 10 minutes in a high velocity bout, the Cain s were able to retreat to the door.

Dg resorted back to her original target, Glitch. In retaliation, he pulled the covers off the bed and threw them over her, tackling DG to the floor.

"Are you kicking me out for that?"

"No" Glitch pulled the blanket aside so he could see her face.

"I already promised you could stay, if you were scared." Glitch furrowed his brow and tried to remember. "That is why you wanted to stay isn t it?"

Dg wriggled out of the blanket so their faces were millimeters apart. He didn t pull away.

"One reason" she blushed and kissed him.
Again, Glitch didn t pull away, but returned the kiss.

"Then you can stay as long as you want."

"Woo hoo!" DG hugged Glitch softly.

"A princess does not 'woo-who'"
Glitch said stiffly and scooped DG up, placing her tenderly on the bed.

She stuck her tongue out at him, but he just laughed and kissed her.

For the most part it was quiet. There was the occasional rustle of a restless leg whispering against the sheet. A small whimper from the sleeping man as that of a dreaming dog. More frequently a contented sigh from the blue-eyed princess. But mostly it was quiet. And Dg was comfortable in the safest place in all the realms; her beloveds arms