The Joys of Hearth and Home

by obsidian dreamer

He thought his family was about average and assumed hers would be the same. He could never have guessed just how wrong he was was going to be. Continuation from A Pair of Second Chances. BigMighty. COMPLETE but TBC...

2. Chapter 2 Cold Ice and Red Faces

Chapter 2 – Cold Ice and Red Faces.

A/N: Been a little while I know but hopefully this offering will be worth it. Still, as always, first words to the reviewers:

Ri2: Wow, lots of questions, but I think I can answer the main ones: Mighty punishes Big because, just after she says people only pull her tail once he goes and does just that; as far as Bill knows, Mighty's job description is industrial landscaper – ergo, she has a gardeners green fingers; no, Espio doesn't eat flies (least of all ones that have been crushed against a wall by Vector in a bad mood)!

HHH – Welcome back; I hope your hiatus was a fruitful one! Your point about personality mirrors is a very valid one, but at the same time I perhaps think the phrase personality clones is slightly more valid. Think about it; you and your friends and family must have things that are similar about you – if you were completely different, with no neutral ground, chances are you wouldn't be friendly. This slight personality overlapping, or mirroring, is believable but only to a certain degree; personality clones, where the characters are all identically alike, is a very bad and non-believable thing – everyone's got to have a few little quirks and flaws, just to make them different. That's what I aim for when looking to cerate and OC; hopefully they all appear like that so far in the story, even the identical twins are slightly different from each other! Anyway, glad to have you back and, if I remember rightly you're a massive Shadow nut; in that case, I suggest you read the conclusion of A Pair of Second Chances!

BC – Fighting huh – never a good thing that, for the simple reason that no matter if you were just defending yourself you always get hammered as much as the guy who started it. Unless you're clever…a little technique I used at school was a little diary, small enough to fit into my pocket; whenever anything was said or someone started insulting me, I'd go off to a quiet corner and note down time, date, and name of the insulter along with what he said. I also kept record of when I went to teachers and suchlike so that, when anything did kick off and they dragged me in front of the head (or in your case, the principle), I could pull out this diary and say something along the lines of 'I was provoked, there's the proof – I told teachers about it, it's still going on, what are you going to do about it?' Hey presto, job's a good'un. Anyway, aside from that, I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far and that, in this chapter, you'll get enough of a laugh to forget about school completely; it is Easter after all!

XXX

All too soon she felt wretched consciousness start slithering up and through her resting body again; she knew her eyelids weighed as much as portcullis doors and equally she knew that she didn't really want to open them anyway, but for some reason they peeled apart all the same, the blurry picture in front of her eyes eventually focussing to allow her groggy mind a chance to give speak to the creature that had stirred her from the depths of her slumber,

"Whugh?" Numbed lips and a tongue that felt as flaccid as a punctured balloon not being conducive to a civilised conversation, Mighty tried to bully her consciousness back to work with a couple of mental right-handers and a couple more systems sparked back into life, "Big?"

"Only from the angle you're at"; no, can't be; the light laughter just about picked up by her ears was enough to let her know that she'd been wrong on that one – the room was dimly lit and she was still trying to wake up properly, so perhaps it was excusable that she'd mistaken the son for the mother. As the Chaotix stretched up and dragged in a massive yawn, belatedly swinging a hand down to cover her mouth, her hostess took a couple of steps backwards, retreating towards the door,

"I'm sorry Mighty, you must still be…"

"No, no", bracing herself for the effort, the armadillo exerted every ounce of power kept locked in her muscular abdominal rack and performed a basic sit up; her vision swam red for a second with the mental force needed to achieve even this goal so soon after waking back up, but eventually her torso reached up the tipping point and she was able to view the tortoiseshell cat from a more agreeable angle, "I'm up, I'm up – what time is it?"

"Early – if you're tired just get your head down for a couple more hours, you look a bit ragged". I feel worse than I look, trust me on that one;

"Always the same on public transport; doesn't matter how far I go I always feel ratty the next morning", sliding one leg out of the air-bed, Mighty felt her foot touch the floor and the resultant jolt of chill helped shock the still-dormant areas of her mind back into line, "luckily I think I can smell the cure from here", she took in another decent sniff, the aroma offering a tempting goal at the end of this brief but torturous path so early on in the day, "is the coffee hot?" Tia grinned before reaching down to scoop up the other Mobian's attire from where they'd lain carefully folded over the chair at the desk of the room,

"Fresh out the pot; here", more grateful than her haggard expression could have let on, the armadillo reached up for her clothes, "just take your time, we've got all day and I mean this, if you need a bit more shut-eye…"

"…I won't wake up until about this time tomorrow", Mighty finished for her, managing to conjure a spark of laughter out of her still-exhausted mind and soul, "thanks for the offer and I do mean that Tia", the intensity of her gaze must have been enough to convince the cat and she bobbed her head in appreciation, "but I know me too well; I can't stop it, I'll just put up with it". Tia looked like she might have argued for a moment but, thankfully from Mighty's point of view, she relented at the last, settling for a last comment spoken with a gentle laugh,

"Armadillo toughness as well as logic hey?" Mighty rolled eyes that felt as stiff and heavy as snooker balls,

"Something like that"; fortunately after nodding once more Tia merely withdrew from the room, allowing her guest time to make her preparations in private; just as well – if she'd have offered me a lie-in one more time I might well have taken it.

With a muffled groan Mighty rubbed her face with her palms; she'd been stupid enough to stay up reading into the small hours so she was going to have to face up to the consequences – the fact that the excess reading had been the lesser of two evils compared to staying up worrying all night scant consolation for the weariness now dragging at her heels. She wanted so much to flop backwards into the air-bed and feel the plastic give under her shell but knew for a fact that if she did she'd be away with the fairies and nothing short of Charmy's most ear-piercing whistle down her ear hole would get her moving again; with a gargantuan mental shove matching her push up off the bed itself, she finally stood up and fumbled for the buttons of her pyjama top with single-minded intent – Big had been looking forwards to his sisters' collective birthday for the better part of two months; there was no way she was going to delay such celebrations for any longer than necessary just because she'd had issues sleeping in the night. Least of all if; the plates of her shell clicked together, a typical armadillo response to sudden cold or fearful circumstance as she recognised her phantom terror even at the same time as logically dismissing it as nonsensical; if me being late could, possibly, jeopardise them all saying yes to what I want to happen around Christmas time.

XXX

"T wasn't telling porkies earlier then"; huh?; blearily trying to collect her bearing, Mighty finally managed to home in on the voice hailing her, Bill's visage swimming into her vision with a look of concern marring his features, "you do look a little rough, no offence".

"None taken; the truth might not sound pretty but it's still the truth", Mighty admitted with a world-weary fatalism, slumping down in her seat as she tried to conserve her energy for when the twins appeared from their room, "anyone else up and about?"

"Not as yet; that is to say they're all up, just none of them have surfaced yet", he raised his mug in a cheeky yet sincere gesture of appreciation, "I wish they had your sense of promptness Mighty, really I do". From her quick scrutiny his look of affront at her sceptical expression passed muster and she eventually gave a reciprocal smile, the cup Tia placed in front of her quickly helping to perk up her mood as the aroma of freshly poured tea splashed up into her nose. She quickly glugged down a generous mouthful, the searing heat on her tongue making her face screw up almost as much as the flavour; for all the many and varied positives Mighty would be more than happy to actively point out about her, Tia just never remembered that she had two sugars in her tea or coffee. Must just be because no-one else in her family takes it – still; quickly beating down the distaste and taking another, more measured sip this time, the armadillo quietly patted the sides of her shell under the table; never hurts to count calories once in a while. That reminds me, wonder how Julie's doing in her diet plan…

The memory of the ex-Dark Legionnaire stayed in her mind for a moment, in fact from that original thought more memories were highlighted to do with one of the newest friends she'd made on Angel Island; though she, and the rest of the Chaotix come to that, had been slightly hesitant about actually meeting one of 'the enemy', even a supposedly reformed one, up close and personal despite Shadow's and the true guardians' good words on her behalf, that afternoon had been a real revelation for all of them. She and the other three Mobians of the Chaotix opposed the Dark Legion as an extension of their pseudo-guardian duties, to say nothing of their personal feelings towards the technocratic factions' twisted idea of basically turning everyone into an immortal tin can in order to prevent them dying, Julie-Su had dispersed their notions of the individual warriors of the Legion pretty much single-handedly; she'd been, for want of a better word, normal enough for them all to get along with. What was it Charmy was afraid she'd be – answering-machine with a superiority complex, something like that; Mighty could and frequently did laugh at such thoughts now but back then, well they'd been a real worry for all the team; just as well she was calm enough to ride it out, even with Espio sticking his oar in. Besides that; once more she saw Rouge's hand tap out a submission after Julie made her sparring match with the guardian perform a complete about-face just after launching the bat skywards in a high-fly effort Mighty would have been proud to call her own; anyone who can give me a run for my money in a game of throw-Rouge is definitely worth a look-in. So it was a good day all round really – we all got to know Julie, I swapped numbers with her in fact, or was that the next time I met her, we all had a couple of decent sparring matches and Charmy got his first completely clean win, though I doubt he'll try that move on a hedgehog ever again…ouch!

XXX

Mighty was helping Bill butter the toast in readiness for the birthday breakfast when the two birthday girls actually arrived; in fact it was only Tia's cry of,

"Oh no, the gruesome twosome have touched down", that made her realise anyone else bar herself and the two parents were actually moving in the building. A squeak of chairs being dragged into position followed as the three cats in the dining room exchanged words the armadillo couldn't hear before there was the sudden bang of cutlery on the table and a bossy shout,

"Come on, hurry up", there was a second rap as Mighty turned her gaze towards her fellow kitchen-slave and enough jaded cynicism passed between them to scour the bottom of a brass dingy clear of limpets, "birthday girl wanting service here".

"Birthday girl about to get her own tail ripped off and fed to her"; my sentiments to a tee; Mighty held that thought for just a split-second before it was washed away by the reality that, yeah, this was the twins' special day, they should be allowed to throw their weight around a little. Just a little, though…

"Okay just coming", dark thoughts banished away by the same realisation that had come to her, Bill hefted the tray of toast he and Mighty had managed to prepare so far and headed towards the kitchen, his voice preceding his arrival, "they've been buttered, put whatever you want on them but save enough for us and your brother". Mighty dipped her hands into the sink, washing of a couple of traces of butter from her hands before wiping them dry on the nearby tea towel; it was as she was slipping her gloves back on that one of the twins asked the question that made her prick her ears,

"Us? You've got…" Moving quickly, Mighty zipped to the kitchen door before the cat girl could finish speaking and nodded as she leaned against the doorframe,

"…A litter helper; yes he has", Chloe and her sister both froze in their seats, one with a slice of toast liberally slathered in marmalade halfway to her mouth, staring at the armadillo in mute amazement; next second they were by her side, each grabbing onto an arm and trying to almost bodily drag her to the table, gabbling all the time,

"Sit down; goodness we didn't know you were up…"

"I'd never have been so bossy; I thought it was just dad…"

"…you're the guest, you shouldn't be working…

"…sorry dad, I shouldn't have been joking around like that anyway really…"

"…especially not on our birthday; it's a treat for everyone".

"…but you definitely shouldn't be slaving away like that". Okay I think I got all that; just about managing to keep in touch with the blizzard of noise assailing her eardrums, Mighty allowed herself to be led to the dining room table and plonked herself down, inwardly chuckling at the sight of the two kittens fussing over her like a pair of identical mother hens – the image made her snigger silently for a second; well I suppose I've got a shell after all…huh, who's…?

Looking over her shoulder at the same time everyone else looked around, Mighty felt a smile assail her emotions as it seemed that even in the case of his own family Big would never be comfortable as the centre of attention; virtually filling the doorway in all dimensions, the last member of the family cleared his throat self-consciously before sidling inside the kitchen, his ears held slightly flat and back in the typical feline posture of regret or apology. Pulling out a seat quietly, he cleared his throat again before speaking, his tone slightly contrite, choking off his words a little,

"Umm, sorry I'm late down, I ah", his upheld hand, itself the size of the dinner plate holding all the toast Mighty and his father had prepared so far quite comfortably, "I just needed to get everything ready before I came down".

"You got us a present", a split-second after making that statement, Sophie actually engaged her brain and realised how cruelly disbelieving that had sounded, "I mean, uh, you actually got a present here, all the way from Station Square?"

"Of course I did", Big replied, somewhat affronted by his sister's apparent lack of belief in him, "carried it here in my rucksack didn't I?" Did you?; caught out by his sudden declaration Mighty wracked her memory trying to recall any mention of this mysterious gift and eventually turned up a blank; first I knew about it – you kept that well hidden. Blinking at the last minute before her boyfriend looked over at her, the armadillo hoped her expression was politely neutral, even slightly optimistic, at such good news; she'd hate to have thought he'd seen her somewhat disconcerted expression about his present-hiding abilities because, quite simply, he'd never forget about it. She kept her vision trained on him until he was sat down next to her, glancing away only as he embraced and kissed his two younger siblings, congratulating them on reaching their milestone in life; it was only when she felt his gloved hand on her shoulder that she allowed herself to feel reasonably confident that she'd slipped that one in under the radar,

"Hi Might", she covered the top of his paw with her own, as much as she was able to, before shying away a little as he peered at her face a little closer, a hint of concern infiltrating his tone as he continued, "are you feeling okay? You look…"

"…Rough as old boots, I know", lifting, she gently returned Big's hand to the side of its owner, adding in a friendly nudge to the ribs while she was at it to ensure in no uncertain terms that it was only tiredness she was feeling, "just had a rough night – public transport and all that, I never sleep well". Big didn't answer for a moment, merely taking a little time out to make sure her statement corroborated with what he could remember and, after reliving the memories of their previous couple of times at his home, nodded,

"True enough – bit of bad planning on our part there; we should have been here yesterday really"; yeah, now you mention it that does make sense – oh well, we'll, or you will at least, remember for next time; "but anyway, before the food gets cold, Chloe, quickly explain to the uninitiated how a birthday works in this house". Mighty had just enough time to realise that Big was actually talking about her before Chloe standing up caught her attention, one of the two birthday girls puffing herself out importantly before delivering her oration,

"Well, the plan of the day is we all eat up this delicious breakfast, which we're both very grateful you helped make Mighty", feeling rather than seeing Big's eyebrow raise in her direction, the armadillo gave a small, smug shrug in answer to his curiosity, "then we get down to the serious business of opening presents, hopefully shouldn't take that long because after that the good stuff starts".

A quiver of barely-contained excitement rippled through the spokesMobian and she broke off for a moment, shaking with delight in concert with her still-seated twin before she managed to clamp a lid on her emotions and speak again, the words flowing out in a torrent now, coherency starting to suffer in the heedless rush to release the maximum amount of information in the shortest possible time,

"Dad gave a choice we couldn't make so we decided to go halves; after presents we're hitting the town for half a day of ice-skating and then half a day at the bowling alley, or half a day bowling then half a day ice-skating, whichever's best preferred – either way it'll be a blast".

"I'll bet"; hopelessly swept away by the undercurrent of excitement, Mighty swiped a couple of the closest pieces of toast as her sluggish lethargy quickly evaporated, "dig in everyone, we ain't got time to hang about".

"I second that notion", Tia quickly helped herself after looking across the table and sending an air-kiss in her husband's direction, "thanks love, this looks gorgeous". Self-consciously fiddling with his whiskers at the gesture, Bill merely grunted at the praise and quickly set about demolishing the toast in front of him, abashed, as most men are, by the display of public affection.

"Dig in everyone; there's seven of us so this shouldn't take too long – then onto the so-called 'good stuff'"; seven?; not quite sure he was counting right, Mighty simultaneously crunched down her latest mouthful of toast at the same time as do a quick head-up on the table at large; no, there's only…oh yeah; she could have slapped her forehead as her mnemonic slip-up became apparent. She'd forgotten everyone in his family always counted Big as two when arranging a meal of any kind – a somewhat untrue kind of calculation as far as Mighty was concerned, though she was too polite to raise it as a point of any kind; as far as she had experience with him Big didn't actually eat all that much. Okay, his portions might have been a little larger than average but, on the other hand, he was a lot larger than average so she guessed the two must have balanced out overall; still, he never complained and thus she let it lie, merely concentrating on making sure her own portion of the divine breakfast spread before her wasn't diminished by a roving cat's paw and trying to snag the marmalade pot whenever it happened to be placed near her sitting space.

XXX

"Okay then girlies", both twins glanced up from their booty as Tia reached behind her back, already looking as pleased as punch at their father's surprise present of a pair of music CDs to share or split between themselves; as Big had explained to her during the journey here, Bill shouldn't have, or perhaps didn't have to was a more accurate statement, brought a present at all as he was mostly funding the rest of the day's activities. Mighty observed the scene before her eagerly, watching as Tia presented her daughters with what looked to be a sealed birthday card each and strangely disconcerted that she didn't have anything to give here. She had offered to contribute something but every time she'd raised it as a point of conversation Big had been politely but insistently adamant that she brought nothing but herself to the party. Strange old system they work to here; though Mighty knew the reason behind such a request and thought highly enough of her partner to grant it, it was such a different rationale of reasoning compared to her own family's history with celebrations that she couldn't quite accept it. As the twins carefully and reverently slit open the tops of their envelopes in tandem, Mighty leaned back a little further on the settee and reminisced back into her own birthdays; if she half-closed her eyes, she could almost be sixteen again herself…

XXX

The presents were heaped in a pile higgledy-piggledy – just the way she liked it; under the gaze of her parents Mighty felt her feet leave the floor as she piled into the mountain, bits of shredded paper cascading to the floor like a blizzard of confetti as the armadillo ran riot through the heaped parcels, weeks of excitement being vented in this frenzied few moments. The sound of wrapping paper parting under her fingertips was the music of the gods, the feel of bunches of it crumbling in her hands sending thrills of excitement and euphoria equally through her soul as more and more seams of beauty were revealed from the mound of garish paper packages. On and on she rampaged like an ancient Viking given form, a warrior of Valhalla set loose one last time to pillage this new bounty, only one single present resisting her attention for the moment, the emperor of gifts sacrificing its minions heedlessly in order to buy itself a couple more moments of life, scant few seconds of priceless freedom in the face of the whirling, present-predator dervish before it. But all its intentions and carefully laid plans were in vain; breathing raggedly but still standing, Mighty reared up and paced towards this last survivor, reaching forwards and seizing its tag, knowing what she would read there even before the words in stark black pen traced over her vision and she smiled, turning to acknowledge the sacrifices made on her behalf by those behind her,

"Thank you dad, and mum of course; this has been the best and I mean the best, birthday ever"; with that and their accepting, pleased nods, she faced her final quarry once more, her fingers reached out, brushed the ribbon on top, she felt the paper beneath her hand and pressed down, the first, faint crinkling noises reaching her ears as it began to give way…

XXX

"Oh wow!" The sudden exclamation catapulted her back into the realms of reality; the many paintings and varied sketches that probably still hung in her parent's front room swirling away and the gentle beige wallpaper of her partner's family home replaced it at the same time her phantom voice from the past was replaced by a younger, slightly more high-pitched voice in the here and now. Mighty blinked and hastily sat up, she'd been on the verge of falling asleep and now urgently scrambled back away from the potential edge for fear of falling into slumber again; it simply wouldn't do to start snoring when the presents were being handed around of all times.

"You are", one of the twins, she'd lost track of who was who in the general melee, paused for just long enough to give her mother a peck on the cheek before carrying on, "the greatest mother that has ever lived". Tia just about managed to bite back a chuckle before replying with a slightly reproachful note in her voice,

"Of course; did you ever doubt it?"

"Well…", was all the other one of the duo was able to say before her grin broke through the veneer of serious thought shrouding it, "...nah, never worried about it for a second".

"Good"; Tia retook her seat as Mighty felt movement from her side; glancing over she glimpsed Big very quietly levering himself up from the arm of the settee as quietly as possibly, the birthday girls immediately began exchanging ideas about what to swap this new bounty for making a fine smokescreen for his intentions,

"Fancy going for a fur-dye?"

"No, never really caught my fancy that one; look at the all the blonde bimbos you get around school".

"Ah good point; mum", Sophie, white-tipped tail flicking back and forth behind her in a gesture of restless apprehension, looked over as Tia flicked her ears at the mention of her name, "what can we use these for?" Seeing the voucher being waved in her direction the larger cat gave a mostly-nonchalant shrug, the fact that she darted a glance at her husband for the very briefest instant the only chink in her armour of unconcern that Mighty was able to pick up on,

"Whatever you want"; just in case her daughters hadn't got the message, or were too shocked and stunned by such an announcement to take it all in at once Tia spelt it out for them, "you're sixteen now, you don't need me watching over your shoulders when you go into a jewellery store. You want something done; piercings, tattoos, that sort of rubbish, you go right on ahead. That'll be enough to make some headway on any sort of prices"; nicely put; seeing the tiny numerals glittering in the corner of one of the gift vouchers Mighty was able to nod at Tia's eloquence, "but if you need anything else that's up to you to pay".

"All right, cool", clutching her voucher like a sailor would a life-raft, both twins grabbed even tighter hold of their tickets and moved onto the much more entertaining topic of deciding what to buy with it, "so, twenty in Accessorize; what's your plan?"

"I dunno really; umm, could try a piercing?"

"Maybe, but definitely not an ear-piercing"; I'd have thought that would've been first choice for you; curiosity aroused by this parting of their logic from her own, Mighty took a little more interest in the scenario before her as Chloe shuddered, "remember what happened to Sarah, or was it Sally; didn't tape it up for sports and…" The ripple spread around the room, all present flinching in shared pain as the cat girl suddenly shifted her hands as though ripping a piece of paper; ouch…just as well I never even thought about…especially with my job…yeow; even with the scant information she'd just heard Mighty could picture the scenario with a crystal clarity and suddenly couldn't stop herself wincing at the mental image.

"Good point; not happening if I can help it, least of all with ears like ours. So, not in the ear…"

"…Or the lip", everyone looked over as Bill's voice came rumbling from the chair he'd been occupying quiescently the whole time, "I know that you're old enough to make your minds up and all that jazz but neither of my daughters is going to be seen anywhere near me looking like she'd just tried to open a beer can with her teeth and got it wrong, and that goes for tongue-studs as well. Enough of the morons I work with have got them; I'm not putting up with them at home as well". Bill shook his head, the distaste on his features as plain as day and unwittingly letting his son slide back into the front room virtually unnoticed, one hand hidden behind his back as Sophie nodded in approval of her father's disapproval,

"Don't worry about us dad, I've never liked the look of them either, have you Chlo?"

"Nah, they certainly don't do anything for me; now that I think about it, actually", knitting her eyebrows, Chloe pursed her lips as her chin sank into her hand, glancing up only to seek confirmation of something from her sister, "don't really know anyone I get on with well who's got many piercings; what about you Sophs?"

"Not really, unless you count Jamie but he's usually got his out most of the time. Well I think that's settled, not going down that road and I've never fancied a tattoo", a shake of her twin's head let the speaking cat girl know she had the support of her other half in that assumption, "so that leaves us with the good old fashioned fall back; we'll figure out what we want when we get there. Do you know anything much about body art Mighty?"

"Umm, not personally", caught out a little by the rapid change of focus from the twins to herself, the armadillo floundered for a second before she was able to recognise that both her last statement was true and she could easily make another one now, "but one of my friends back in Station Square, I know she's got at least one ear done, not sure if she thought about getting a pair sorted out".

"I don't think she ever was", Mighty just stopped short of breathing a sigh of relief as Big chipped in with his two cents worth on her side, "she doesn't even wear her earpiece much anyway, just on the odd occasion when she gets out that little rose Sonic brought her last Christmas".

"That was Sonic? I didn't know he'd brought her that – thought she got it herself?" The fisherMobian's ponderous-looking head rocked from side to side on his thickly-muscled neck, a gruff chuckle reverberating up through his chest as he saw evidently saw the whole scene unfold before him,

"Nah, he passed it to her at Vanillas, right at the end of the night, and under the mistletoe as well; bit of an old romantic is our Sonic underneath all that 'coolness'"; thanks a million Big guy; Mighty's face muscles were in virtual spasm as she tried to see that little scene as clearly as her boyfriend could – somehow though, rather than seeing one of her oldest childhood friends at eye-level with his then-pseudo-girlfriend, she kept imagining the blue hedgehog on bended knee; hmm, not quite right that thought – one for the future maybe. Shaking with silent laughter and internally swearing a blinding oath to herself to make sure she dropped in on the Smurf with that crumb of gossip as soon as she got back into Station Square, Mighty nevertheless managed to maintain enough composure to listen in on the rest of Big's words, the rest of the cats' family lending an ear also as they noticed him fiddling with the item he held behind his back still,

"Well, this is an important day for everyone here really; you two obviously, and eventually, managed to make it to something like maturity", both parents present gave an obvious, disdainful noise that both girls glared at before returning their rapt attention back to their older brother, "we're all pulling together as a family for today and Mighty, sorry but you just had to get dragged along for the ride", wafting a hand dismissively, the armadillo couldn't quite keep a significant smile from stealing over the corner of her mouth as she attempted to discount the backhanded complement as groundless, "but, apart from that, I managed to get a chance to make my own milestone".

Glances around the room were exchanged quite liberally at this point as Big's concealed arm began to move, slowly returning back to the full view of the room and dragging along its new cargo with it, the larger feline talking all the time both to earn himself a little more breathing room but also, more importantly, to set the pair in front of him up for as long as he could possibly manage,

"Mr Trenton always said that the first piece you frame should be an original; he's still got the first picture he did, it's on the top shelf of his store, a bit faded but you can still see it if you look hard enough; well, I've been working on my first piece for a while now and now, well it's finished, and it's yours".

"You, you're first picture?" Sophie sounded like she was trying to speak around a cricket ball lodged in her throat as she stared wide-eyed at the small wooden board in her brother's huge hand, the picture actually concealed fro the moment against his chest fur, "you framed it for us, just for our birthday? Big, you…"

"Hold up, not quite right there"; don't want this to go too far; deciding that if he left it any later to strike the proverbial iron before him would be melted to slag, the budding picture-framer decided to show his hand after setting the record straight, "yes this is my first picture, but it's not for you on your birthday, it's of you on your birthday", of all present it was actually Mighty who was most perturbed by the way Big's smile suddenly deepened, a couple of traces of dark humour seeping up into the edges as he gave a slight snicker and finished before either of the twins could question his subtle shift in mood,

"Your first birthday that is"; with that, he twisted the picture around for them all to see.

A tomboy she might have been but there was no way any woman could have possibly passed up a sight as cute as the one in front of her now without giving a comment; seeing the hand-drawn sketch and one of the two tiny occupants of the frame apparently waving to her, Mighty was simply unable to avoid cocking her head in a coy pose and giving a soppy, smiled greeting,

"Awwwhawwhawww".

XXX

Both kittens, and it was immediately obvious that both the subjects in this picture really were kittens, had been swaddled together in the same blanket, facing towards the camera with all the innocence an age as tender as theirs could muster. One of the two seemed to be almost asleep, her mostly-shut eyes gazing slightly off to the left of centre as her face tilted in the give of the blanket whilst the other kitten, the one who's eyes were fully opened and staring adorably out from the frame, seemed almost to be reaching forwards with one tiny paw, the almost-invisible claws in her fingers stretching forwards in an attempt to playfully bat the artist in front of her even if she could have had no comprehension as to what was actually taking place before her. Alongside her somewhat sleepier sibling, the kitten was in the middle of a plaintive meow that seemed to echo out from the parchment in a testament to the artist's skill; as always when seeing his work on display, Mighty was left in awe as, now the initial shock of seeing a piece of art this fine was receding, more and more minute but important details rose up almost glaringly to become apparent to her. The way the kittens' whiskers overlapped without tangling or blurring, for instance, or the manner in which the blanket covering both infant cats was there in full but in no way obscured the two sets of miniscule feet and two appealingly sinuous tails poking out of the bottom of it. Considering the whole thing had been drawn in either pencil of charcoal, at this range the armadillo couldn't tell which, it was a quite beautiful thing to behold, the plain mahogany border around the parchment only serving to enhance the crisp clarity of the paper it contained. Unfortunately, however, the beauty of the artwork appeared to be somewhat lost on those to whom it had been destined for,

"You git!" Fur fluffed up on end, Chloe managed to recover her scattered wits and hurled herself towards her brother, "gimme that right now! I can not believe you drew, you framed for God's sake something like that!" Mighty flumped over sideways on the settee hugging her stomach, hoping against hope that she'd be able to avoid laughing at the bedlam of the scene in front of her as Sophie joined her sister in the fray, shaking off the shock and desperate to make sure viewing time for Big's newest creation was as short as she could possibly make it. Sadly for the pair of them Big simply lived up to his namesake to deny them their prize; stretching up until his knuckles grazed the ceiling, he held the picture out of their range as he fended them off with his free other hand,

"Sorry but I just couldn't…"

"Yes you could you just bloody didn't", Sophie cut him off, on the verge of spitting tacks as she glared up at the picture above her with dark, dangerous thoughts evidently flashing across her face, "right, that's it – sod the ban; we're not at school now, time to get your claws dirty sis". Chloe gave a vicious nod in answer and clapped her hands together, ready to rip her gloves off at a second's notice before their mother's voice cut across their murderous desires,

"Oi, no, both of you can just calm down, and if you get any blood on this carpet you'll be the ones cleaning it up", Tia stood up and all three of her children backed down, even Big seeming to be reduced in stature as she sauntered across to them before reaching up and extending a hand; not a second later the picture was in it and she glanced down, getting a good look for the first time. Sensing the opportunity, Mighty carefully picked herself up off the settee and quietly tiptoed towards where the purple tortoiseshell was viewing the masterwork, trying to sneak a peek over her shoulder as Tia carefully traced over the glass with a finger, drinking in every detail before slowly pirouetting on the spot and heading towards where her husband still sat; go for it – I'll see it later. Thwarted but not completely put out by being denied a second view, the armadillo stayed where she was and respected the rights of a family as Bill gently took the piece from his other half and surveyed the picture as seriously and intently as he did the buildings he had to inspect structurally every day; after a long, long minute, he stood up, the slight smile on his face gradually widening and deepening until it was a voluminous grin and he gave a shout of laughter as he looked up,

"Aha, perfect; you've excelled yourself my lad"; aww, he's as cute as they are in his own way; Mighty had to hide a sudden flush of affection as it raced across her face – she knew 'cute' would be one of the last words people on the street would use to describe Big but then again that was why she was his girlfriend and they weren't; they'd never know him as well as she did. The sight of a Mobian that could have given even her a run for her money in a straight-up fight reduced to looking down and twiddling his huge thumbs by such moderate praise of his creation was at the same time hilarious and deeply touching to her as she, she alone outside his close-knit family, knew precisely why he shied away from praise as he did. Fortunately, seeing the effects his words had had on his son, Bill reined in his ideas for further acclamations of his son's abilities and focussed instead on his next target, his eyes crackling with mischief as he set his proverbial sights on his daughters even if his eyes never left the picture and he seemed to be talking to Tia alone,

"Well this is a beauty and no mistake; we'll have to clear a space on the wall…" No way – if any of my pals get a sight of that…

"Yeah, the wall in the attic" Sophie furiously demanded, the comment making Mighty's shoulders shake, though Bill didn't seem to see her nor hear his daughter as he carried on with Tia nodding appreciatively, mentally reminding herself of all the times her twins had wound her up and gleefully repaying the favour to them,

"…and we'll need it copied, lots of copies", Mighty had to turn her back; the way both birthday girls looked about ready to explode in indignant rage more than enough to crack right through her funny bone, "the whole family'll want a shot; there's Aunt Margaret and Uncle Ted of course, and their cousins, oh Zak will get such a kick out of this…"

"So will you if you don't shut up!" Chloe's virtual scream of frustration was the only thing able to derail her mother's ticking off of the family names; not done, the usually more docile one of the pair span on the spot and spat her next words at her brother, "and the only one that's going to get a shot out of this is you if you so much as whisper that this drawing ever even existed!"

"As if I would", Big tried and failed to say with a straight face; his affronted younger sibling growled in her throat but refrained from lashing out as one of his dinner-plate paws descended onto the top of her head and started to slowly scratch between her ears, the glower never left her eyes even if her back arched subconsciously in response to the fuss. Seeing this and just recovered the ability to speak without giggling, Mighty caught her partner's attention before nodding at the picture still held in Bill's hand,

"So, where'd that one come from, and don't say your memory" she tacked on at the last minute; been caught out by that one too often. Big put on a puppy-dog pout before giving a chuckle, hearing his sister's disgruntled rumbling start to soften as he carried on relieving her stress through his fingers,

"Old baby photo; it's still in the album somewhere I'm sure".

"All right", seemingly ecstatic with this news the armadillo quickly turned to Bill and Tia, her delight obvious on her face, "you've got this in colour?"

"Don't you start", Sophie quickly rebuffed her birthday guest just before anyone else could pip her to the post, continuing a second later after heaving a long-suffering sigh, "but yes, and I'm sure mum's going to just love dragging out the kitten-flicks later on tonight sometime?"

"Oh you bet I am", Tia assured her daughter with a smug grin; Big started to laugh before he realised his mother's gaze suddenly fixed on him and he quickly swallowed his mirth; uh oh, I know that look; "and you're not getting out of this one buster; yours are on display too". Big flattened his ears, a typical feline reaction to unpleasant news as Sophie giggled, mollified enough by this news to gesture for her father to look at the picture again.

"Hmm", post observation, the marmalade tortoiseshell stroked her chin with her hand importantly and gave a self-satisfied nod, "yes, well it's still never going to see the light of day, but you definitely caught my better side there", twisting her head to the side to catch a look at her reflection from the glass covering the parchment, "even at that age it's obvious I had the looks".

"Shame you had to grow up and lose them"; the riposte made Sophie spin around at her twin, Chloe patting down the fur on her head that had been disturbed by Big's affectionate, if possibly less than completely sincere, apology, "anyone could tell you I'm the cute one now".

"Yeah, if you were pretending to be me that is; you're just jealous…"

"Of what exactly?"

"Girls, that'll do…" Try as she might, however, Tia knew that she'd lost this one and nothing short of a full-on slanging match was going to suffice this time; well, always the old fall back, especially for today; "…we need to get ready to move out now, especially if the car's off-limits; every minute wasted arguing means thirsty seconds off bowling-stroke-ice-skating – it's your treat you're wasting, as well as your breath".

XXX

About fifteen minutes later, when they were all scrubbed up and heading down to the bus stop to catch the number eleven to just outside town, Mighty managed to fall back in line and, leaving Bill to control his family as much as he was able to, edge in a word with Tia,

"Sorry to bother you T", as the matriarchal cat glanced towards her the armadillo didn't give her the opportunity to say that the apology was unnecessary and ploughed on, "what was it you said to get this shower organised, something about it's your day you're losing?"

"Something like that, but always end with 'as well as your breath', very important that is. Why did you want to know?"

"I just thought it'd be useful to have up my sleeve during the team meetings"; translation; keeping up the appearance of a business setting Mighty kept the next thought private; the morning cup of coffee; "they're an alright bunch most of the time but when things break down, boy they break down with a bang".

"How well I can sympathise", the cat beside her chuckled, nodding at the quartet in front of them, Bill just about managing to keep a leash on the potential for sibling rivalry as Chloe and Sophie tried to convince their brother that their choice of entertainment should be the one done first, "and you can't even ground your workmates when they misbehave".

"Ground no, pound into the ground maybe".

"Don't tempt me; anyway", looking around in a casual manner, there was an edge in the tortoiseshell cat's eyes that Mighty was able to easily pick up on, "what was the other thing you wanted to talk about?"

"How'd you…in fact don't answer that, my mum was just the same, still is now that I think about it", giving an embarrassed but still understanding shrug Mighty smiled wryly as Tia tapped her fingertips together in a satisfied manner, raising a tinny clinking noise as the edges of her claws were knocked together,

"Yep, always remember that mother knows best; believe me one of the most gratifying experiences of your life will be when you realise you can tell what the kids around you are thinking, your own especially"; okay, I'll take your word for that; a little uncomfortable on this topic, Mighty attempted to subtly alter the course of the conversation without obviously detracting from the point the cat had made,

"No doubt about that; tell you what, when that life-altering moment hits me I'll give you a call"; okay that'll do; to her own ears it appeared to be a horribly rushed and glaringly abrupt effort to push the conversation back on track but thankfully Tia didn't seem to notice; or if she did; a sudden rush of guilt closed a cold fist around the armadillo's chest, forcing her to pause for a moment to loosen its grip and allow her to breathe again; she's too polite to tell me so – come on, pull yourself together, the only way's forward now; "but you're right – I just, er, well to be honest I felt like a bit of a wet blanket back…"

"Ah, say no more", Mighty obediently fell silent as her boyfriend's mother raised a hand, palm towards her in an accepting manner, "I know Big told you you shouldn't bring a present didn't he? You're wondering why?"

"In a nutshell yeah", Mighty answered candidly after a couple of seconds umming and ahhing, reassured by the manner in which the elder Mobian was allaying her half-formed suspicions; it sounded to her like this wasn't the first time Tia had said the words she spoke next,

"Well, much like the spring coming when the lawn gets cut for the first time, it's one of those little ideas that grew up out next to nothing really; the fact is Mighty", seeing the flicker of guilt that lit up the elder cat's face for a moment, making even the normally grinning Tia seem more haunted than cheerful, the Chaotix tuned in and paid rapt attention to her next words, "when Bill and I were married and moved out of our parents' homes for the first time, well it really wasn't a good time to buy a house; he'd just been promoted at work and was on a slightly better wage than he was when we first met but even so we were living on scraps and charity. And of course Big…"; oh yes, of course Big; gazing across at where the largest cat of the pride had reluctantly deigned to give one of his sisters a piggy-back, Mighty thought she saw the corner of a smile on his cheek and grinned in kind; couldn't forget him even if we tried…sorry, you were saying? Fortunately Tia seemed to have been caught up examining her elder child with motherly affection and the Chaotix realised with relief she hadn't missed anything important,

"…well he was a bit of an unexpected surprise, in fact he was a whole lot of an unexpected surprise", hearing the cat chuckle, the armadillo was more interested in the way one of her hands had cupped her relatively slim belly as though ghosting her touch over a phantom pregnancy bump, "for the first couple of years he was born we really couldn't afford anything except the absolute essentials; I was having to rely on mum and dad and Bill, well he lived with his mum at the time and she never had much but she chipped in what she could. So he never really had a proper birthday, not in the presents-and-jelly sort of sense at least; his grandparents were already helping to put a roof over his head and clothes on his back, Bill and I decided we couldn't ask for anything else of them. What we used to do was have like a big fun-day sort of thing; it'd be a really simple thing that cost nothing, like one year, with the twins this was, we had a tie-dye day, I think they were turning eight or maybe seven; it was really cheap and cheerful because we couldn't afford anything else – we did invite his friends over and managed to lay on a bit of a spread, just nothing too fancy because, well, we didn't have the funds for it. Luckily things started looking up just before the gruesome twosome arrived; Bill was headhunted as a sales manager by the garage he works for now and we could finally make it on our own. But…"

"Say no more; I can tell what you're going to say – hey you're right, that was a good feeling", the armadillo snickered for a second as Tia glanced at her sideways, though as she began her version of events the cats look grew warmer, "it worked for Big, look at how he's turned out"; you had to do that just then didn't you?; her triumphant grin well and truly wiped away by the sight of the aforementioned Mobian mock-garrotting both his sisters by the collars of their shirts with a wicked snarl on his face, Mighty had to try and make the best of it whilst Tia attempted to look sympathetic at the same time as shake with laughter, "well, sort of; anyway regardless, you're still having your fun days these day aren't you? That's what this is right?" Tia nodded and beamed like a new sunrise,

"Yep, still as cheerful, if not quite as cheap as they used to be; funny thing is though we always say the girls can invite friends over like Big could but they never really do – shame really, I'd like to meet a couple and know them a bit more than I do now", Mighty gave a what-can-you-do kind of shrug as Tia continued wryly, "mind you, the grandparents probably more than make up for any errant schoolmates, as does the rest of the pride when we all make the trek down there and see them all. They're not supposed to buy presents but old Dotty, Bill's mum God bless her; regular as clockwork; tomorrow's post, you mark my words – card for each of them with something inside it they'll love". Mighty laughed and swatted the mothers' shoulder lightly, the picture perfect in her head as she projected her vision forwards to tomorrow morning,

"Ah, where's the fun in being old if you can't break the rules you used to make eh?"

"Something like that", broken down by the armadillo's infectious smile, Tia relented in her stern act and sighed, "not like they're not spoilt enough when we go and see everyone; anyone'd think they were royalty they way they get treated. Oh, hang on, this could be trouble; looks like a friendly discussion's about to boil over".

"Mother's instinct huh?" Tia spared the armadillo by her side a last glance before ploughing forwards towards the disturbance, pointing as she did so,

"That and the fact Bill looks like he's about to sort it out if I don't; see you in a minute Mighty"; as the elder Mobian moved off Mighty had a moment's pause, stopping where she was and shooting a long-range glance over at where Big was stood off to the side of what looked like the two twins about to square off against each other; the second she clapped eyes on his broad back and rippling fur her face incinerated and she looked down, Tia's words from earlier refusing to leave her ears; life-changing moment – with the kids of your own especially. Well not right now and that's for sure, at least a few years before I even consider going down that line...maybe, ish?

XXX

It was as the tip of the pleasure dome began to crest in the horizon that Bill called a halt to the march and drew himself up to his full height, Big discreetly moving to the side in order not to confound his father's attempt to look like he was the biggest and therefore in charge,

"Right, all the discussing, arguing and sarcasm from here to Timbuktu isn't going to solve this and, no offence Mighty but even your little pearler from last night won't cut the ice here". The armadillo merely shrugged, moving over to stand at Big's side,

"Oh well, can't win them all"; there was a low bass rumbling from beside her and a second later she heard a distinctively soothing scraping sound, one of his claws gently grating down the back of her shell, the closest he or anyone else could ever really come to rubbing her back. With an inclination of his head towards her followed by a gruff snort in the general direction of his daughter, one of Bills' hands headed towards his wallet and a second later a single shining coin emerged, resting gently on the backs of his fingers. With a deft flick of his wrists the circle of currency danced along his knuckles, shimmering in and out of his fingers in a neat, dexterous dance before being snatched up in the palm of the elder cat's hand. Quickly shifting the penny around to rest on his thumb, Bill launched it skywards; as it fell into his outstretched paw he slapped his hand onto the back of his free paw and, looking at both his daughters, said simply,

"Call".

That was a fatal mistake, he knew it the moment the word had passed his lips; both twins shared just a single glance before turning towards him, smiles as devious as Lucifer's lips smudged all over their face as together they chorused back,

"Tails". Oh Lord, why do you hate me so much?; as everyone else involved in this expedition struggled to hold in their mirth Bill looked up from his grimace and, after taking in a steadying breath, spoke again,

"Okay, let's try that again; Chloe, you call". Unabashed by her earlier conduct, the catgirl repeated her earlier word,

"Tails".

"Right, Soph, you call now, something other than tails this time"; she was tempted to try something smart and just for a second Bill mentally dared her to even think about it, but no, she'd wisely realised the line had been laid down and toed it before the law followed it,

"Alright then, let's go with, I dunno, heads?"

"Good", with that short word of praise Bill lifted his hand, peeking at the result first before exposing the coin to the scrutiny of them all with a short declaration, "tails it is then; skating first". An ecstatic hiss from Chloe drew the attention of the whole party for the second Mighty needed, having located her phone and quickly scrolled through the pictures contained in its memory, to reach the shot she wanted and make an announcement of her own,

"Sorry Bill you got that all wrong"; come on, cut me some slack here; the elder cat was beginning to suspect the worst when even the guest of his family seemed to be turning against his judgement but, thankfully, rather than her version of events, her mobile phone was foisted upon him instead, "that isn't tails, this here's Tails".

"Hmm, what? Oh, I see – very good", scanning the image on the screen in front of him he gave a snort of reluctant laughter, remembering who the armadillo's friends were in the nick of time and subsequently putting name to picture, "he has got two then, I thought that was just the news camera angle".

"Who has – lemme see"; grabbing the appliance out of her fathers hand, Sophie glanced at the screen, her eyebrows virtually disappearing into her hairline as she beheld the picture before her, "whoa, this is really him?"

"Yep, in the proverbial flesh as it were", Mighty nodded proudly; digesting this news and with her twin joining her to peer over her shoulder, Sophie's eyes rolled down to the screen once more with a more calculating gleam held within them this time,

"Hmm, now that I look at him properly", she cocked her head, tilting the phone as though expecting the fox to come tumbling out the edge of the screen, "he's kind of cute; I don't suppose…?"

"He's also taken", Big said firmly but not unkindly, reaching down to prise the phone from his younger siblings' clutches, chuckling at Sophie's rueful shrug as he handed the phone back to Mighty, knowing just by the set of her face the Mobian in her mind was identical to the one in his when it came to the subject of Tails' supposed affections, "sorry, sad but true".

"No real problem; not like it would have worked anyway really – he's supposed to be really smart isn't he, it'd all go sailing over my head. Anyway, come on", she jerked her head insinuatingly towards where the doors of the leisure complex were invitingly open for them all, Chloe already on the doorstep and obviously waiting for them to join her, "the sooner we get on the rink, the sooner we get to leave and get on with the real fun of the day".

"Sounds like a plan – come on dear, I'm sure it won't be as bad as last time".

"Tell my tail that", Bill muttered darkly under his breath as he let his wife lead him onwards; as Big stilled his shaking shoulders and dipped his head to whisper that particular story into Mighty's expectant ear, no-one paid attention to the manner in which the heads of the birthday girls drew together for an instant, nor did they hear the frantic whispering session that began immediately afterwards, the prelude to the hatching of a diabolical revenge scheme.

XXX

Aside from the slight pause that had ensued when the assistant at the counter had pointed out that the only shoes large enough to accommodate Big's feet were already out on the ice but due to come in shortly, Mighty reckoned she'd been on the ice for the better part of two hours and only now did she even dare to dream that she was beginning to understand the bare minimum of what skating actually entailed. Wiping her forehead as the few drips of sweat that had been generated there threatened to freeze over due to the iciness of the air steaming up from the rink, Mighty tentatively pushed one foot out in front of the other, an image of Shadow crystallised in her mind as she attempted to copy the smooth, gliding action she'd seen him use whilst running; her blade slid across the ice and, equally tentatively, she began to move her other foot in a similar motion, her breath held until her lungs began to ache – she dare not breathe in case the rush of air affected her balance. Skating; thinking hard as she pushed on towards her eventual destination, trying to force herself to move towards where Big was standing at ease towards the side of the rink, Mighty grimaced as she wrung the inevitable truth out of her mind; requires grace, poise, balance, delicacy and not a little luck – all talents; she pulled up to an ungainly stop as what looked like a green-red blur whooshed past her nose, almost causing her to topple back onto her tail; with which I am not naturally well-endowed – at least you've got balance. She made to glare over at Big's unresponsive back at the same time as push off to get herself moving again; unfortunately the attempt at multi-tasking failed to achieve anything and, with a low groan as she just about managed to arrest her fall, Mighty found herself nose to nose with the floor again. It was in such a position, completely unaware of the myriad plotting that had been going on in the background behind her as she'd been wrapped up in her struggles to even stand up on the ice, that the trap snapped shut around her.

A slight scraping noise reached her ears and she looked up to see four ice-skates heading her way; even without hearing their voices Mighty knew who's feet were filling those boots,

"Hey Mighty"; oh brilliant timing; looking up acidly, the armadillo managed to get her knees underneath her as first one, then another of the twins slewed to a halt beside but in front of her, stopping on a pair of sixpences with the merest effort, "want a hand?" With a gruff chuckle, the prone Mobian lifted both her hands and felt both cats take one each; unfortunately, as she looked down to make sure her feet were underneath her properly as she stood up, she missed the devilish glance that sent the air between the two other Mobian's eyes crackling,

"I want some extra feet", finally convincing herself that all was as it should be down there, Mighty slowly erected herself to her full height and tried to draw her hands back, "at least then I might be able to get something like balance out here".

"Ah, it's just a knack, you'll pick it up; tell you what, just keep your blades straight and Sophs and I will give you a bit of a tow around, how's that sound?"

"Sounds a lot better than anything I've managed to come up with yet", the armadillo affirmed with a nod and a second later both cats looked away and began heaving; as she felt the frigid air around her start to ripple through her fur again, Mighty looked across the ice and picked out her eventual destination with ease, telling her erstwhile stewards the location when the idea occurred to her, "oh, bear left a second, would you mind; got something to tell you brother".

"Sure, we'll get there"; all right, we're heading in the right direction now…I think…;

"Umm", craning her neck as the large purple spot in the corner of her eye began to fade away, Mighty began to feel uncomfortable shivers running down her spine that were nothing to do with the coolness of the ice underfoot, "might just be me girls but isn't Big over there?"

"Oh he's there all right; like we said, we'll get you there…eventually". Liking what she was hearing less and less each second, especially when the girls pulling her along started giggling at something she'd heard them mutter but not picked up on, Mighty tried to bleed off some of the speed the trio were moving at by leaning back; uh oh, I can't slow…;

"You know sis", pre-occupied with trying to escape the hold around her wrists, the armadillo barely heard what was transpiring between the two infernal coachMobians before her until it was too late to alter their eventual plan, "was it me, or did I hear Mighty laughing at us when the BFG over there flipped that picture round at us?"

"You know sis", the other cat answered and only now did Mighty actually tune in, realising that she was travelling at a much higher speed than anything she'd ever managed under her own steam and, with sweat starting to prickle all the way along her back, itching under her armoured plates, that she was completely in the thrall of the two birthday girls and at the mercy of whatever their eventual scheme might be, "you're entirely right and, it might just be me", Sophie twisted to look over her shoulder and even Mighty's stout heart quailed at the mischief in the sparkling hazel eyes confronting her, "but didn't she say that she wanted to see aforementioned BFG?"

"She did, so I guess we can sort out two problems with one blow, so…"

"What are you two…?" With a final desperate shake of her hands Mighty attempted to throw her tormentors off; her despair when she realise how canny the two had actually been by grabbing her wrists in such a manner that she couldn't twist her hands around to reciprocate the hold was matched only by her outright terror when they both suddenly let go and span to either side, out the way of her now-heedless charge with a finally comment, spoken in stereo,

"…sorry it had to be you Mighty". Had to be me wh…oh no!; glancing up as she tried to think of a way to slow down that wouldn't involved either crashing into someone or going tail-over-nose on the hard ice, Mighty felt her heart jolt even more violently as the unsuspecting mountain she was careening headlong towards swelled in her vision – pure instinct more than anything allowed her to sound a warning of any kind,

"Big", he turned at her frenzied shriek but slowly, far too slowly, "heads up!"

Under normal circumstances, even going at full tilt with all her muscles behind her Mighty would have struggled to make an impression on her boyfriend when he had his feet planted; in terms of strength he wasn't that far behind her anyway and though she'd never actually had him up on any scales of any kind she'd have laid good money that he was at least twice her body mass. Unfortunately for her, and for him as well as she saw the realisation of what was about to happen dawn on his suddenly bloodless face, these circumstances were about as far from normal circumstances as it was possible for them to get – she was going at full pelt and then some, he was just finishing a clumsy pirouette and regaining his balance and to cap it all both of them were on what was essentially a disc of virtually friction-free ice; the result was never in doubt. Mighty threw her arms up in front of her face, just about managing to hold in a couple of choice swearwords as she remembered the family audience present at this particular scene in her life; she felt herself run into something soft that soaked up her helpless charge instead of deflecting her from her course, the impact rather like ploughing into a roll of loft insulating material. This surreal feeling persisted for a split second before the inevitable happened and the recoil of Big's compressed fur and body returning to its normal dimensions pushed her backwards, equal and opposite to her original force of impact. This was more than enough to send her flying onto her back, only the natural durability of her shell keeping the breath in her body before she managed to clear her head and look up; the sight awaiting her was enough to test even her iron will to the absolute limit in keeping the naughty words restrained.

Big hadn't, as might have been hoped for under the circumstance, been knocked back by her hit; he was simply too large to be moved like that – instead, already unsteady from turning at her shout, he'd been rocked and then sprung back in response to it. Time seemed to slow down horribly in front of the armadillo's eyes as with mounting horror she realised he'd sprung back too far; his wind-milling arms appeared to be graceful, slow strokes in the air as his bulk tipped him forwards, forwards, forwards – out of instinct she attempted to curl into a ball as Big unwillingly bore down on her like a lavender landslide. She couldn't quite manage it, she was too old by armadillo standards to form a complete sphere with her shell; instead her arms covered her as much as they were able to as she squeezed her eyes shut, not able to look; what sounded like twin supersonic booms echoed in her ears and by a miracle she was still three-dimensional; she dared open her eyes a crack, squinting upwards at the sight before her.

For a second she was transfixed; the second after that she began to splutter with hopeless laughter as Big's face went even rosier from the strain of keeping himself above her, both his brawny arms on either side of her shoulders on the ice, keeping him suspended and her spared from being crushed. Your face…; she couldn't help herself even at the same time as try to shuffle backwards, her hands and still-shoed feet trying to bite into the ice for some purchase to move with as she started to heave with a fit of the dreaded giggles; …that look is just priceless;

"Ha,hang on", she paused to take another breath before seeking to kick-start her progress again, "I'll get out the way".

"Don't…"; any second now, she's got to be ready or else…; "…move". She might have cocked her head to hear him better but at that second it was immaterial anyway; as he'd always known they would, Big's gloves lost their desperate battle with the ice and as a result their traction; had Mighty kept her arms where they were it might not have been so bad but now, as the cat screwed his face up as much as he was able to and attempted a desperate twist to the side, there was just no way of avoiding how bad this was going to look. And judging by the look on her face he'd snatched just before closing his eyes as tightly as he could, it looked like Mighty had realised that eventuality too.

With both air and dignity crushed out of her, Mighty turned a bright, burning scarlet as Big's arms shot out from under him and, blushing furiously with his nose and eyes crinkled as shut as he could make them, he couldn't help but land a picture-perfect face-plant right into her cleavage.

XXX

"Oh dear"; it was like seeing a train wreck piled up in her front lawn – she knew she should turn her head away from the sight before her but at the same time some mystical force had locked all the muscles in her neck, compelling her to see the form of her brother violently hurl himself to the side, his boiling face picked out in perfect detail through her bulging eyes even as she heard her twin agree with her assessment of the situation,

"Oh dear oh dear", Mighty began to sit up; please be laughing, we can't have made you cry over something like that; her shoulders were heaving though through hysteria or histrionics she couldn't be sure, "you weren't planning that to happen were you?" Now she could move her head; snapping her gaze around Chloe nailed her sister with her most dangerous glare,

"Of course not; I'd never even think…they were just supposed to take a tumble, nothing like that!" Rather than argue, however, Sophie merely nodded meekly, her ears pressed flat against her skull as she dared take another glance at where the Mobian wreckage was now picking itself up off the floor of the ice rink,

"Just checking you agreed with me; what do we do now?"

"Skate like your life depends on it – if either of them catches us…"; she can throw the Big guy around like he's nothing – she gets her hands on us and we'll never make it to sixteen and a day old!; "…we're dead".

"Too right, but, we can't can we?" As her twin gaped, Sophie sucked down a deep, determined breath and forged on with her take on the story ahead of them, "we're supposed to act like adults now; time to walk tall and take it like a Mobian – besides", she leaned forwards, Chloe cocking an ear to listen in as she finished conspiratorially, "if we don't and mum and dad hear about this, or if they tell them about it we're really for the high jump".

"That's a good point", it was one that could swing the force of an argument and, indeed, in this case had; with souls of lead pressing down onto two soles of thin-bladed steel, both girls pushed off towards where a potentially fatal doom was now dusting itself off, unsuspecting of their arrival but quite sure to cotton on to what was happening very quickly when their idea became apparent.

XXX

Big shook his head, his fury outweighed only by his embarrassment as the events of barely even seconds ago were ironed into his brain where they'd never be lost again; for the time being he could barely bring himself to look at his girlfriend whose intimate space he'd so callously invaded, even accidentally. All he could do was offer a hand to the side, keeping his eyes averted and trying to cool his crimson face as he felt pressure on the tips of his fingers; I should, I've got to say something here – sorry, oops, even bloody sarcasm – just anything;

"Are, um", he cleared his throat as the grip moved up his arm, Mighty finally coming to her feet, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm, er", the merest peek from the corner of his eye let him see the armadillo tugging on the bottom of her top and he looked away again as his blush returned, redoubled, "I'm fine, just a little, ah, well how are you?"

"I'll get over it", the huge cat managed to mumble, trying with the whole might of his memory to think of something clever to say before another sound reached his ears; glancing up, he saw his sisters ease to a halt just ahead of him, each of them clocking a good nine point nine on the up-to-no-good-o-metre as both seemed as unable to look at him as he was unable to hold Mighty in his sights,

"Umm, hi guys, er, well we just…"; what have you two been up to?; though the first he'd known that anything had been amiss had been as a frenzied shout assailed his ears and he'd spun around as best as he was able to, faint inklings of suspicion were beginning to spread through Big's mind the same was ink droplets dispersed through water as he carried on observing the general shiftiness of both his sister's behaviour as they stuttered on, mangling the message they were trying to deliver,

"We, well we didn't want, I mean that wasn't…"

"Well it did and you are"; what?; still trying to put the pieces back together, the largest cat around was finally able to look at his partner for the day as she glared daggers at the cat girls before her, "think that was funny do you?"

"No, no", Sophie and Chloe chorused together, waving their paws frantically before them as thought hey could bat the armadillo's words out of the air, "we, you weren't supposed to fall like that…"

"You did that!" It was all Big could do to keep his voice below a rumbling roar, his claws starting to flex themselves in response to his sudden flare of anger; checking himself, the eldest of the family present lowered his head and snarled through gritted teeth, "you pair threw Mighty into me?!"

"Yes but…"

"No buts", he slid one foot forwards, Sophie and Chloe backed up several feet with terror draining the blood from their faces, "you two just about ruined a day out for both of us, not to mention humiliated my girlfriend in front of a whole rink full of strangers – how could you be that bloody stupid? I've got a good mind to take us both home right now…"

"No, no you can't", heedless of any sudden danger the twins threw themselves into their older brother as though their combined weight and pleading might sway his opinion; Big, however, was feeling far too bloody-minded to give into that sort of game and shook them both off contemptuously, "…and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Mighty felt the exact same way; do you Mich? The decision's all yours".

Please, no, don't say it; the same thought ran through the minds of both twins as they turned horror-numbed gazes towards where the armadillo stood with her arms folded across her recently-ruffled chest, expression as hard and featureless as the shell on her back. Virtually brimming with tears, both cat girls crossed their fingers behind their backs as slowly, ever so slowly, Mighty's lips began to move, the words grating and harsh as she spoke them,

"I agree with you Big"; and explain…now; though she had no real intentions of leaving she saw no reasons not to let the twins squirm on the hooks they'd embedded in themselves for as long as possible; only when Chloe in particular looked to be on the verge of breaking down into sobs did the armadillo continue, "but, on the other had, if we do leave now Big, it means I have to miss out on the chance to get back on level pegging with these two clowns".

"Level pegging", rolling the word around like a new and less than pleasant brand of chewing gum, Sophie spoke for both twins when she piped up next, "what's that mean?" Ignoring her, Big answered the Chaotix by the side of him, a softer edge in his voice now as he spoke to her,

"What chance are you on about Might?"

"Well", equally dismissing the two frantically-listening birthday girls in the background, Mighty fingered her chin with a cruel smile hovering just above her lips, "you recall the boast these two made a little while ago?" Come on, you know the one I'm on about; mentally ticking off the seconds, the armadillo saw her boyfriend virtually shut down for a short while, cycling through her immaculate memory banks until the item she was referring to came under the spotlight – as his eyes seemed to flicker back to life and he gave a start, she reckoned he'd got it right,

"Which one?"; ah, not quite then; "they've made a lot of boasts recently, more hollow than not it has to be said".

"True, very true; well, what say we take a couple of axes to one of those boasts that might have actually been true and hew it down to the roots and then some?" His eyebrow raised and she beckoned him forwards; as she leaned up to whisper into his overhanging ear, Mighty caught a glimpse of the two sisters trying desperately to lean in and catch the edge of a word about what she was saying and the sight of their uncomfortable faces made her heart all the gladder as she gave her attention back to Big and spoke directly to him.

A moment later with the sweat in their gloves starting pool up and soak the fabric trapping it, neither of the two twins were reassured when their brother straightened up and looked at them, a switchblade of a smile slitting his lips as Mighty's face became visible, her smile slightly more benign but still packing a considerable amount of malice behind it as Chloe plucked up the courage to ask the question the situation was begging for,

"Umm, so", trying to sound casual and failing miserably, the cat clasped her hands behind her back and attempted to look appealing, "any news on the master plan?"

"Oh believe me"; and the unfortunate thing is; as Big's grin grew ever wider and the tips of his canines began to peek into view from underneath his top lip, Chloe very quickly realised that he was being deadly serious; I believe every word of it; "you'll find out".

XXX

You'll find out; only now with the wreckage of a proudly borne and long-standing record littering the ground around her did Chloe actually realise what had been meant by those three innocuous words. As she beheld the scoreboard flickering above her, the numbers coming up on the screen to indicate the spare she'd managed to win off a fairly forgiving first ball from her sister, a quick count and some light mental maths already told her the worst – they didn't have a prayer of making up the deficit in the three rounds that were left. With a huff she turned on her heel and headed back towards where the others were sitting, still uncomfortably aware of her parent's less than completely sympathetic gazes boring into her as she took her seat and sighed,

"Well it was a good run while it lasted", with a flex of her fingers, the birthday girl looked up to see Big coming to his feet, "unfortunately it looks like it's not going to be lasting much longer".

"You said it", Sophie agreed with her twin as she too took in the screen above her head, "comprehensively trounced. What's the old saying – revenge is best served chilled, something like that?" Mighty grinned,

"Too true and believe me this is coming fresh off the skating pond", a sudden clattering sound distracted her for a second and she looked over in time to see all ten bowling pins lying scattered at the far end of the alley, "right, next round I'm going first; the rate you're knocking those things over my tail's going numb". The returning Mobian held both hands up in front of him apologetically even if anyone with half an eye would have been able to see the grin plastered on his face,

"Sorry, just making a point", he broke off to snarl mockingly at his younger siblings, considering taking a wrecking ball to their joint boast of being the best bowlers in the family and their school combined a fair trade off for the monstrous embarrassment they'd recently heaped upon his head, "and in some style it has to be said".

"Very true lad, very true", Bill acknowledged his son's point as Tia made her way to select a ball from the rack just before their assigned alley, "I hope you pair learned your lesson and are grateful Mighty's got such a sweet nature", luckily he didn't seem to notice as Big had to turn his back and the aforementioned armadillo herself covered her mouth with a hand in a vain effort to stop the smile spreading out into view, "if that had been me and your mother you'd have tried that with we'd be well on our way home by now".

"We said sorry", Sophie told him testily, though she brightened as her twin gave her a slight nudge in the ribs and a tiny nod became visible in the corner of her eye, "and anyway, we're not through saying it yet; after the game we've got one last surprise planned".

"Really? Sorry love, I only managed three, swerved at the last minute", Tia admitted ruefully as she retook her seat, her husband merely shrugging and standing up to take his turn, though his steps were slow and measured in order to catch the tail end of his daughter's unsuspected announcement, "what's this you've been scheming up girls?"

"Well we knew we had to do something special to try and apologise for the ice trick that went wrong", Chloe began to explain, just about able to keep her expression neutral under her mother's suddenly stern look as she continued, "so we had a heads-together before we started up here and we decided to quickly nip into Accessorize and cash in our vouchers; there was nothing there I really wanted and I don't think you saw anything in there did you?"

"Nah, so we brought the cheapest things were could get our hands on and got the rest back in change", Sophie explained, oblivious to the sound of tumbling pins as her father rejoined the gathering as her voice picked up speed in excitement, "so the fact is we're paying, between us, for a quick bite to eat before we all go home; free choice for you of course as the guest Mighty".

The silence greeting this announcement was broken by a very audible and very obvious snort of laughter as Bill sat down, shaking his head at a joke no-one else seemed able to see save Tia, who, after seeing her partner's face for a moment, joined in the mirth; what's set them off?;

"Umm, sorry did we miss something here?"

"No, no, you didn't", the older cat look across at his questioning daughter as she scratched an ear in puzzlement, "I just, I mean you finally got around to acting like adults at long, long last; taking responsibility for your actions, it's a start at least".

"Too true", Mighty chipped in before giving Big a gentle shove, "so go get another strike you; the sooner we finish rolling up here, the sooner we eat and I'm starving". The cat made a disbelieving noise in his throat, one of his hands shooting down to prod her stomach before he quickly stood up,

"Believe me you don't look it"; outright bloody cheek!; he was just quick enough to dodge Mighty's affronted slap as he scooted off towards the bowling alley; having long since given up trying to find a ball with holes large enough to accommodate his fingers, he was simply throwing them down the alley like an undershooting catapult. As he drew back his arms to swing, behind him Mighty tried to disguise her already bruised ego taking another knock before bringing herself back onto the topic in hand,

"Right, well ignoring El Tubbo over there, what's the plan? Where are we eating?"

"Nowhere expensive; we're trying to save up as much as we can in case something we want comes along", Chloe admitted before brightening, "still, there's plenty of good eating to be had in this place I can tell you".

"Good, well I'll leave that decision up to you; I'm a stranger here anyway".

"Nah, you're no stranger, you're just strange", Sophie assured her, deflecting the armadillo's glower with a smile as sweet as she could make it. Settling back, a now-familiar crashing noise assailed the armadillo's ears and she looked over to see a single pin rock for a second before slowly settle back to a vertical base; looks like I'll be clearing up the scraps then – good, I need a bit more time to figure out how I'm going to say; by sheer good fortune she managed to keep the worry churning her guts from making her face drawn until she'd crossed Big's path on the way to pick up her ball; what my idea is – I just hope they've not made any plans for that time of year!

XXX

"Interesting"; that was the best way she could describe the dish before her; she'd eaten pasties before now of course but the specimen she'd selected, one labelled as pork and apple filling, was definitely new to her – tasty but new. Seeing her slight apprehension Big, who had finished first out of all of them by dint of his size, pinched a crumb from the end of her pasty and popped it into his mouth, sucking on the pastry before delivering his own verdict,

"Hmm, a bit heavy for my liking but, overall", he licked his lips, his typically-rasping cat tongue clearing any debris from his whiskers, "not too bad".

"Certainly not; thank you girls, a very nice idea of yours that", Tia praised her daughters as she sat down at the picnic bench set up outside the delicatessen they'd all decided to order from. Virtually glowing from pride, Sophie raised and hand and attempted to act modest,

"Aww don't, it was nothing, except to say sorry", she added with a guilty glance at where Mighty and her brother were sat, their faces growing stern as they were reminded of that particular incident in the very recent past, "I hope it was enough". Big continued to play up his hard-line act until he saw apprehension start to screw itself into his sister's faces before he finally relented a little and gave a grudging smile,

"Fair enough I suppose, though I doubt I'll stop blushing about it this side of Christmas", speaking as he was to his sister opposite him, Big never noticed his partner's ears quiver at the mention of that word, "speaking of which, anyone made any plans about that; is Aunt Margaret visiting again?"

"Probably knowing our luck", Bill sighed in a long-suffering manner, knowing only too well the relationship he had with his wife's sister, "at least this time Ted'll be able to keep her under control; he managed to get his license back you know, so they can drive rather than fly this time".

"That's a bonus", Big agreed, effortlessly recalling the fussiness of his aunt's manner that drove his slightly more easy-going relatives to distraction, "Ted still not conquered his fear of flying yet".

"Nope and I doubt he ever will", Tia shook her head sadly, the vision of her normally stoic smoky-grey brother-in-law cowering in outright terror at the thought of air travel filling her with a great melancholy for his sake, "said it was something to do with him going on a flight as a baby and one of his ears popping; he's never been able to face a 747 since".

"Or answer any question you ask him without having to repeat yourself three or four times – honestly, on the phone he's just impossible to talk to", Sophie informed Mighty, looking across the table towards the armadillo and fully expecting a witty retort or other such comment from the Chaotix; what she didn't expect, however, was to see the armadillo looking distinctly ill at ease, apparently mentally wrestling with a big internal issue that everyone else seemed to have missed up to this point, "Mighty, you all right over there?"

Oh thank you blabbermouth; as the rest of the family suddenly tuned in to see her struggle with the question that had been in her mind the whole trip, Mighty tried to direct a basilisk look towards the cat who had started them all looking; why don't you put up a sign and start a brass band playing while you're at it? Her anger, however, deserted her – after all Sophie was only being conscientious in hoping to solve a problem that had been bugging her about as much as a plateful of cake crumbs under her shell. Instead, after a second of almost painful silence, she finally dredged up enough courage to look up at the concerned cat family and boldly state her new objectives,

"Yes I'm fine thanks you Sophs; the thing is though", she wet her lips at this, the most crucial of times as far as she was concerned, "I have been doing some thinking about Christmas, quite a lot of it actually and, it's a bit of a tradition for my family, the whole of my family that is, to hold a big get-together over Christmas and New Year. I was, ah, just interested in whether you had anything like that in your family, sort of thing?" She's leading up to something; a flick of the eyes to see her husband's thoughts an exact mirror of her own let Tia know that – the question was what was she up to, and why had she asked that particular question? Still, regardless of why, it's a reasonable question so I can't see the harm in answering;

"Er, no not really, not to the extent you're making out at least; it's usually just a couple of the grandparents or aunts and cousins really", Tia answered after a couple of seconds thinking, just prior to voicing the killing query, "why'd you want to know?"

"Because"; go for it – you've gone this far there's nothing left to lose now; "because I just wanted to know if Big would like to come with me over Christmas, that was all".

XXX

"Huh?" Caught out a little by the unexpectedness of Mighty's question, Big wasn't altogether sure he was hearing her idea right, "what do you mean?"

"Just wanted to set the record straight between us; I mean", gesturing to the rest of the table with one hand, the armadillo spelt it out for the benefit of all concerned, "you've been open enough to let me into your family, the least I can do is offer the same chance to you, if it won't get in the way of course".

"Get in the way, oh I see what you mean"; she was worried that we'd be planning something over the festive period; the depth of his admiration for Mighty's thinking of others before herself was marred only by his concern for how much of a toll agonising over this decision must have taken on her; how long had this been weighing on your mind Mighty?; "umm, well like mum said, nothing's ever really planned, especially not at this early stage".

"Early?" Despite everything else Mighty managed a laugh at that, "I've usually got all my presents brought and start looking for the decorations in the loft by now, but that's just me", she tacked on as an afterthought before forcing herself back on topic, "so, the offer's there Big; it'd be an experience, I can promise you that – pretty much the entirety of my clan'll be congregating up there so, in at the deep end I'm afraid". To her relief the cat chuckled,

"Just as long as I've got my life belt I'll be fine. Still though", now more serious, the cat drew one hand to his chin, fishing for some more information, "where's this big barney of your held?"

"Scotland", Mighty answered simply, the succession of almost-shocked gasps from around the table letting her know that her plan of shock value had gone well in this instance, "don't worry, the travel won't cost you a penny; you'd be the guest after all".

"Sounds like a good deal there son", Tia reached over to rub the courser fur on Big's shoulder before finishing with a question directed at Mighty, one that her maternal instincts had registered now she knew for a fact, rather than suspected as she had before, that there was something gnawing at the other Mobian, "was this keeping you up last night?"

"Umm", she couldn't deny it, not even when the rest of the table swapping glances before looking at her as though expecting her to pass out in a dead faint on the spot, "no, mostly it was due to the transport but I'd be lying if I said this had nothing to do with me feeling tired in the morning".

"Well don't you be so bloody stupid again Michelle Armadillo"; yes sir!; the authoritarian snap, so much an echo of an order her own father might have made, was enough to make sure she paid attention to Bill's forceful declaration, "Big my lad, I expect you to go with this young lady throughout the entire holiday period; Mighty, can you get enough time off to see us before you'd have to fly out to Scotland?"

"Yeah, that shouldn't be too much of a problem", with flames of hope starting to lick at her emotions, all the more sweetly searing due to the recent doubts that had been plaguing her, the armadillo remembered to put her answer into a business context at the last minute, "I've been doing a lot of overtime recently, always do in the run-up for this exact reason". Bill nodded, as far as he was concerned the matter being discussed an apparently done deal,

"Good; as long as you, the pair of you that is", he amended, Mighty just about suppressing a blush as he gave a very pointed glance in her direction as he emphasised the word 'pair', "can make it down here some time in December before you fly out there'll be no complaints from anyone in this family. You're a lucky Mobian Big", nodding at the words of his father at the same time as slide an arm around Mighty's shoulders, the armadillo grateful as never before for the feeling of support, "Scotland's supposed to be lovely at that time of the year".

"It is", Chloe broke in on the conversation unexpectedly, explaining eagerly as her bewildered twin began to finally cotton on, "remember the snaps that weird art teacher we had stand in on one of our lesson showed us; he said that was Scotland. It really was a winter white-out; you could have snowball fights for months in some of those stills".

"Oh yeah, been there and done that", the magic was back in her system again, flowing out from her memories like the flow of bubbles from recently-shaken champagne, "some of the times I was there as a nipper; start throwing as soon as the sun came up, have a quick break for dinner and back in for tea, eight, ten hours you'd be lost in a world of white".

"Where is it? I mean, how long's this been going on?"

"Years", Mighty answered without even recognising who'd asked the question, all was blissful for her now as she had the answer she'd needed for months, "as far as I know my family originated in Scotland and we stayed true to our roots as much as we were able to, visiting once a year. We've still got family there; tell you what", seeing the sudden deepening of the armadillo's gaze and the slightly cruel edges hovering around her smile, both birthday cats swapped a glance that quite plainly said 'uh-oh', "I'll let you know all about it whilst perusing though a couple of cute lil' kitten-flicks".

XXX

Later that night, after speaking and laughing until her throat felt hoarse and cracked, Mighty took a glimpse at the title of the book she'd brought with her and, with a shrug, shoved it back into the pocket of her travel bag; not doing to need any help nodding off tonight. That, she recognised as she drew in a massive yawn, was certainly true; a pulse-pounding day coupled with the restless night she'd had prior to today was a combination guaranteed to have her in the land of Nod in very short order. To this end she quickly slid under the bed covers, arranging them atop herself and resting in the soft material beneath her; though her shell was nerveless and that technically meant she wouldn't have really noticed if there had been no blankets present at all, for some reason she always slept better in a bed; must be to do with psychology, or sociology – have to ask Amy about it at some point. As her eyes fell softly shut she puzzled over that idea and concluded that it made a lot of sense – the way the Smurf went on about his girlfriend and how well she was doing in her chosen subject of study, speaking to her about a quirk like that would…she put that thought on hold as there was a gently tap at the door. Peeking an eye open, Mighty decided she was feeling far too lazy to get up and answer the door and instead called out quietly,

"Come in"; the door swung open but very little light from the hallway entered, blocked out by Big's imposing presence as he took a step inside, letting the bedroom door swing shut behind him,

"Hey", Mighty waved a greeting as he padded towards her bed, though some little imp of merry devilment jumped up to add a slight barb to her words, "I hope you've come here with honourable intentions?"

"You know me too well", Big answered chortling; hitching over to the side, the armadillo gave her boyfriend enough room to sit down next to her, though as his large hazel eyes rolled down to her there was the hint of a smirk on his face, "don't tempt me though".

"As if I would", Mighty tried to sound affronted and failed, giggling under the duvet as Big slowly reached over, his hand tracing the brow ridge of her shell and feathering her forehead as he spoke again,

"Just dropped I to make sure you're settled okay; don't want another rough night for you or come tomorrow morning you'll be half-dead".

"Half-dead at best", the armadillo assured him; she'd never coped all that well on anything less than eight hours a night, "don't worry though, I'll be away with the fairies tonight I can assure you".

"Good", his hand withdrew and he smiled at her, the moonlight creeping in through the gap in the curtain dappling his expression, pronouncing the crease in his forehead as his expression changed to one of consternation for a moment, "listen Mighty, and please don't take this as criticism of any kind, but next time you need to ask something of any of us, just ask; I mean, what was the worst thing that could have happened? I'd have been forced to say no".

"That's what I was afraid of", the armadillo admitted, squirming a little now that, with the benefit of hindsight she could quite easily see that had she simply done just that she'd have saved herself a lot of stress. Big nodded to put her at ease before carrying on with his talk,

"Well, even if that had been the case all we'd have had to do would be figure something else out to visit; I mean I'm certainly looking forwards to meeting your clan, as you put it", Mighty chuckled at the tone of his voice before turning serious again, "but we'd have found another way. Don't get so worked up about things".

"I can't help it, it really is a woman thing", she riposted, bringing one of her hands free of the blanket to rub the fur on Big's chest for a second before settling on his knee, "I know I should try and take things in my stride but sometimes, you know how it is when you really, really want something to come off?"

"I know, believe me I never forget that feeling; anyway, you know now and I'm extremely humbled and grateful for the invite; I'll see you tomorrow Mighty". He felt her hand give a gentle squeeze in answer and patted the back of it in kind before heaving himself upright, looking to bunk down himself for the night – halfway to the door, however, he paused at her voice from the bed,

"Hold on, before you go, can I get a look at your nose a second?"

"My nose", the cat repeated in puzzlement, "what on Earth for?"

"Just trust me"; right, and that's supposed to reassure me is it?; still, he nevertheless made his way back to where the armadillo was taking her repose and lowered his face towards her; in kind, she reached up and brushed the tip of his nostrils with the edge of her thumb for a second before giving a chuckle,

"Ah well, only you and I know exactly where it's ended up today".

"Shut up", Big demanded petulantly, face already starting to carbonise again at the reminder as he stood up, "just as well this thing of yours is at Christmas, it'll take me until then to stop going red every time I think of that pratfall".

"I know; tell you what if our faces had been any hotter back then we'd have melted a hole through the ice for us to hide in".

"And believe me I'd have stayed in there", the cat told her as he brought himself up to his full height for the second time, "anyway, if you're quite happy with the inspection…?"

"Yeah that'll do", the armadillo chuckled, gesturing to the door, "go get your head down, we both could use some kip".

"Tell me about it; goodnight Mighty", reaching over the cat covered one of her hands with his own, holding for s brief second before letting it drop once more, "I'll see you in the morning".

"You bet you will", the armadillo assured him, her eyes tracking his every movement as he moved towards the door; the massive cat hesitated for a second as he stood framed in the doorway a second time, then he gently pulled the door to behind him, leaving Mighty alone for the night with sleep and memories to entertain her.

A/N: Bit of a big chapter but hopefully all worth it in the end. So, off to bonnie Scotland over the festive period; what awaits this new couple when they get there, or even before then? Carry on reading to find out!