A/N Ok, guys, this is a crazy story to celebrate Halloween 2014! Was only supposed to be a couple of chapters long but my imagination ran away with me and I'm only just finishing it now (at Chapter 15!) This first chapter sets the scene and relationship parameters of my versions of Tim, Daisy and Mike, so doesn't do a lot, plot-wise. It all kicks off in Chapter 2 though, don't worry! Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think :)

Sacrifices

Chapter 1

Rude Awakening

Daisy groaned inwardly, trying to resist the familiar gradual awareness of herself rising into her consciousness. She was waking up, but rather wished she was not. Those first few seconds of bliss as she revelled in her fading dream soon gave way to an abrupt recollection of real life. Her life. Which was not as she would have wished. It was the year 2000 for goodness sake, she should have published her first novel by now and, of course, won a Booker prize. She should not be living in a tiny rented flat, but a house she owned outright, bought with the proceeds from her fabulously successful debut novel. She would still, however, wish to be sharing this fictitious house with her current flatmate, Tim Bisley. She curled up towards the wall against which she had placed her bed and instantly regretted doing so. She could clearly hear the excruciating sound of Tim moaning softly as he masturbated on the other side of the wall. Daisy winced and rolled away, pulling her pillow over her head and squeezing her eyes tight shut again. It was the same almost every morning. Tim clearly possessed a voracious sexual appetite and a distinct lack of another human being to share it with. It wasn't that he did not desperately restrain the loudness every time, because he did. The fact that Daisy could hear him pleasuring himself was instead due to the ridiculously thin partition walls of their flat. Now unable to prevent herself imagining Tim with his hand around his cock, Daisy reluctantly swung her legs out of bed. She shuddered as her bare feet hit the cold wooden floor. It was October 30th, the day before Halloween, and the weather had turned decidedly Autumnal in recent weeks. It was cold, rainy and the light was fading early, exacerbating her general feeling of depression. As she opened the curtains on this particular morning, however, it looked a little brighter than she had expected, a watery sun vaguely visible through a sheen of high cloud. Maybe today would not be such a bad day after all. Daisy pulled on yesterday's jeans and a pink t shirt she knew would not look too tight and headed out into the kitchen. Colin jumped out of his basket and trotted over to her, cocking his head on one side to produce the ever-so-cute expression he felt was necessary in order to get his breakfast.

"Morning, Colin." Daisy got his food out of one of the cupboards. "How did you sleep, then?" She placed his bowl down to be pounced upon and moved on to the next priority. Tea. "Did Tim's little activity wake you up too, hey?" She said to Colin in the sort of tone a mother uses to talk to her baby.

"Nope, you did."

"Huuuh!" Daisy jumped and whirled around in the direction of the voice, her brain, still half-asleep, ready to believe that Colin had finally learned to talk. Mike lay sprawled on their sofa under a blanket, yawning.

"Oh! Jesus Christ, Mike! You scared me, I didn't see you there." Daisy's tone softened through the sentence, her surprise dissipating, and was smiling at Mike by the end. Then she remembered what she had been saying and turned hurriedly back to the kettle to hide a rising blush. Luckily Mike was too sleepy to question her on it any further.

"Cup of tea, Mike?"

"Yes, thank you, Daisy."

"So what are you doing down here, then?"

"Well, yesterday evening Timmy and I were engaged in a rather vigorous session of multi-player Resident Evil 2 when it would appear that I lost consciousness. I couldn't tell you with any certainty what happened after that, Daisy, but suffice to say I woke up here under this blanket."

Daisy's initially horrified expression switched to one of relief as Mike clarified the sort of 'vigorous session' in which he and Tim had been engaged.

"Righto." She turned her back again, to hide a giggle this time at the military precision of Mike's description, and her own fleeting misunderstanding of what he had been doing with Tim.

As Daisy poured boiling water onto teabags in three mugs, Tim emerged from his room, wearing a pair of grey boxer shorts and a batman t-shirt, and scrubbing a hand through his scruffy bed hair.

"Morning, Mike." Tim smiled at his friend whilst simultaneously holding out his hand to receive the tea he was anticipating from Daisy. She handed him the cup, watching his face, waiting for him to greet her. He didn't.

"Morning, Tim. Sorry I fell asleep."

Ignoring Daisy, who stood with her mouth open, poised to speak to him, Tim wandered over to the sofa and perched down beside Mike's feet, smiling at him indulgently as a parent would a child.

"It's alright, mate. You were obviously knackered after the whole Marsha thing. D'you want a tea? Daisy, haven't you offered Mike a tea?"

Tim turned his accusatory glare on Daisy, who huffed indignantly. She grabbed Mike's tea off the kitchen counter and delivered it to him with a sarcastically exaggerated bow.

"Thanks, Daisy." Mike said mildly, oblivious of her grumpiness, his eyes only on Tim.

"Yer welcome." She muttered back, glancing between the two men. When Tim winked and smiled adoringly back at Mike over the rim of his mug, she flounced back over to the kitchen table. Daisy finally took a sip of her own cup of tea, sighing at the comforting warmth sliding down her parched throat. She mentally surveyed the day ahead. Walk Colin (ideally with the boys). Try to write some more of her practically non existent novel. There being nothing else she could conjure up, as she was currently unemployed, she looked over at the sofa again. Tim had his hand on Mike's leg now and he was gently rubbing it absent mindedly through the blanket as they talked.

"That twat from the TA's not giving you any more trouble is he?"

"Nope." Mike grinned. "He can't now I'm a sergeant. He has to take orders from me."

"Good. Wanker. I nearly knocked him out in the park that time."

Mike's eyes suddenly lit up as an idea came to him.

"Hey! How about you and me take Colin out for a walk this morning? We could take him down to the park." Tim smiled at Mike's childlike enthusiasm.

"Yeah, alright. Let me just put some clothes on." Tim gave Mike's leg a final squeeze and headed back into his room, draining the last of his tea. Daisy was watching all of this wondering if she had in fact died and was no longer visible to either of them. Even Colin was ignoring her as, sensing the impending walk, he weaved around excitedly at Mike's feet as he put his boots on. Daisy took one more swig of her tea and Tim, who had added combat trousers, socks and trainers to his outfit at seemingly light speed, re-emerged.

"Come on then, Colin." Mike called pleasantly to the little Schnauzer, waving his lead enticingly. Colin trotted happily out of the door and Mike strode after him, pausing to offer his hand to Tim, as though inviting him to dance. Tim accepted it and allowed Mike to lead him out of the flat, then ducked back quickly to grab his skateboard from just inside the door. They disappeared off down the stairs, hand in hand and chatting away, leaving Daisy staring at the open doorway in disbelief. She grudgingly got up and closed it behind them, trying to overcome the feeling of abandonment. When she flopped back down at the kitchen table though, feeling utterly sorry for herself, her eyes were overflowing and there was nothing she could do to stop it.