Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama

It was one in the morning and Duncan couldn't sleep. It was too damn hot in the house, especially with it being in the middle of August. The entire room seemed all too suffocating. He felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck, and in a fit of frustration Duncan kicked the blanket that was constricting him off. It brought nearly no relief to the man. He wasn't quite sure as to how long this heat wave was supposed to last, but it was beginning to feel like forever. All of these sleepless, hot nights were beginning to add up and take their toll. Duncan was starting to regret not listening to his girlfriend and fixing the air conditioner like she had asked. He wasn't quite sure how the heat wasn't affecting her. In fact, Zoey was sound asleep, snuggled right up next to Duncan.

Her head was pressed against his body, with her warm breath beating down against his skin. It was maddening. He lifted her off of his chest slowly, trying not to awake her. When Zoey was off of him, the man sat up on the edge of the bed and chugged the half-drank water bottle that was sitting on his nightstand. Duncan cursed to himself when the water had done nothing to help, and flopped back down on the bed, feeling uncomfortable as his back pressed against the already too hot mattress. He flipped over his pillow and tossed around a bit, as if trying to find a spot to help him relax. It wasn't working.

From his left, he heard Zoey stir a bit. She was typically light sleeper, so all of Duncan's fidgeting might have woken her. He felt like a prick now.

"Duncan, are you alright?" she had asked him, still sounding not fully awake, as if she would doze again off any second now.

"Yeah, Zoey, I'm fine. It's just hot in here. Go back to sleep," he whispered to his girlfriend, while trying to do the same. To his surprise, she sat up on her end of the bed and flicked the floor lamp that stood a couple of feet away on.

"Do you want to talk? I can't really sleep either, it's a little hot in the room…" she suggested to him. Duncan rolled over so that he was facing his girlfriend.

"What do you want to talk about, Red?"

"Hmmm… I don't know, maybe you could tell me a story?"

"A story? About what? How badass I am?" He half-heartedly joked.

"Aw, Duncan, you're not a bad guy!"

"What? Yes I am. I went to juvie and prison, babe. Remember?" Duncan protested. Zoey let out a small chuckle at how defensive he could be about his image at times.

"Hey, Duncan…"

"Yeah?"

"Why exactly did you go to juvie?" She asked, softly. It was something that Zoey had always been curious about, but she never really tried to pry it out of her boyfriend as she knew that he didn't like to talk about it. Now, however, in the quiet of their room, it seemed like the perfect place for him to open up to her if he was ever going to.

Duncan let out a long sigh. He had been expecting this question for quite some time now, as going to juvie was a big part of his life. He just didn't know if he was ready. Apart from his family no one actually knew the reason that the delinquent had gone to juvie. He just didn't really want people to see him that way.

"You don't have to, if you don't want to. Just know that I'm here for you," she said, throwing off the extra blanket that was on the bed (no wonder it was so hot) and getting ready to turn off the light. Fuck. She could be too nice sometimes.

"Nah, babe...I can tell you, just don't think of me any differently, okay?"

"Duncan, what happened in the past, stays in the past, alright? I'll still love you even if you robbed a bank or something." This is part of the reason that Duncan liked her so much. She could just be so understanding.

"Well, it was when I was around fifteen, right?" Zoey nodded her head waiting for him to continue. "My ma's birthday was coming up and I didn't really have any cash or anything to get her a present. You know that I love my ma, Red-"

"Aw, Duncan that's so sweet!"

"I'm not sweet! Anyways, I tried asking my dad for some money but he was being a real dick about it, telling me to 'get off of my ass and get a job' and things like that. I was pissed." He paused to look at the expression on Zoey's face, but she didn't really seem too surprised by anything that he had said so far. The feud with his father was something that she has dealt with many times before.

"Anyways, I just really wanted to get my ma something, and make her day special, because I was always making it harder on her than I should have; pickin' fights with my dad, skipping school, the usual."

"So...what did you do?"
"I went to that fuckin' diamond store- you know, the one with all the dumb proposal commercials?"

"And…"

"I took this gold necklace thing and ran. I wasn't too smart about it, though. My dad fucking arrested me that night. And, you know, it wasn't really my first arrest. They just threw me in juvie without even thinkin' about it."

"Aw, Duncan that's so...adorable," Zoey couldn't help but to gush over her boyfriend's deed. "You're a nice guy."

"What? That's not adorable! I'm not nice! I'm a criminal! I'm bad, Zoey. I stole...pfff...I went to juvie!"

"Aw, yes Duncan, but you stole for your mom! To make her happy!" She said, rubbing her eyes a bit, and then leaning closer to the ex-criminal. "I like that side of you," Zoey whispered to him before giving him a kiss on the cheek and turning off the lamp.

If anyone else called him nice, he would be sure to make them regret it, because Duncan was not nice. He was only kind of nice. Okay, maybe he was a nice guy, but he be damned if he had to admit aloud.

He took one last look over at Zoey, who was slowly starting to fall asleep, and he felt like the luckiest guy in the world. He would definitely be more of a 'sweetheart' or whatever if it meant that he got to wake up next to her everyday in this hot, hot room.

Author's Note:

Hi, guys! I've actually been putting publishing this off for a while now, because writing terrifies me for some reason.

This wasn't so much about Zoey though, as it was about Duncan. After watching TDAS, I kind of had it in my head that Duncan went to juvie for doing something super nice... And that is why he didn't want anyone on TDI to know why, because he wanted to keep his punk image.

I really wanted to write something about Duncan's um...softer side however, and Zoey seems to bring it out!

Anyways, Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed it ^^

Jen-