Reminder! This is the 1950's! Carry on.

Disclaimer: I do not own Happy Tree Friends or any of the characters, all rights go to Mondo Media.

I just couldn't get her off my mind. I didn't know why. We've known each other since even before the Happy Tree Curse started. Sure, we were never close, I would never call us friends but we had seen each other and I never felt this way before. I wish I could give more detail about what I was feeling but I can't because I don't even know myself.

And why does this van smell more like blood than it normally does?

I looked around for the source, first checking to make sure that Shifty was still alive, which he was and didn't even have a scratch on him. Finally I spotted some blood on my leg. Feeling around that area though, I didn't find any kind of injury. So, where did the blood come from? I didn't have an explanation but shrugged it off, reminding myself that it's Happy Tree Town. The blood could have come from any number of places or friends.

Still… "Hey Shifty." I wasn't sure I had my twin's attention but decided to move on as if he was. "This may sound random but are you injured? I only ask because there's blood on my leg and it's not mine."

Shifty looked himself over, no longer paying attention to the road, before shrugging and answering. "No, the blood isn't mine." He turned back to the road just in time to swerve out of the way of Mole's car, appearing to think something over before turning to me and suggesting. "Maybe it's Flaky's blood."

Before I had time to respond, the van smashed into a light pole and I splattered against the windshield. I could only assume Shifty did too but I'm going to assume you already know that wasn't the know all, end all for either of us. Not by a long shot.

In fact, at exactly midnight the next morning, a time transition that felt like less than a second to us, I came back to life, in perfect state, sitting on the dashboard of the repaired van. I got down from the dashboard and looked around, wondering where Shifty was and if he might have survived the crash.

That was until I stopped him sitting on the sidewalk, seeming to be looking for me as well. He didn't survive the crash; he was ejected. "I'm here," I told him, opening the car door get his attention.

Shifty looked over and got up from the sidewalk and getting back in the van, leaning the seat back. "Ah, this is a much comfier place to sleep."

I raised an eyebrow at that. Certainly not complaining but still surprised. I leaned my own seat back with a grin. I do enjoy nights we actually get to sleep at the normal time.

Before I fell asleep though, another thought entered my brain, about the blood that was on my leg and Shifty's comment about the blood maybe being Flaky's. She didn't look injured but it's hard to tell against her unique fur.

I also remembered wondering how she rubbed the back of her head without cutting her hand and how her hands were next to her the whole time. It was very possible that she did cut her hand doing that and just didn't flinch because, like almost everyone in town, she was used to much worse pain.

Why do I care so much?

I sighed, having no answer and adjusted my position in the seat, settling down for some real shut eye.

It was still dark when Shifty started shaking me awake. "Lift, wake up!" There he went again using that nickname for me. I opened my eyes to glare at him and he said, more quietly, "I just had an idea for another heist."

I put back up my seat and gave him my attention. "You're ideas never end well, Shifty…" I complained with a groan. If we have to keep stealing, he could at least let me decide where we're robbing every once in a while.

"The ones you come up with never end well either." Okay, so he has let me a few times. "That's because of the curse, not because it's not a good idea." That's debatable. "Besides this is somewhere we've never robbed before."

That caught my attention. I thought there wasn't any place in town we hadn't robbed now that we finally hit Flaky's house… well, everywhere but, "If you say Splendid's fortress, I'm knocking you out and driving off without you." Would I put such an idea beyond him? Absolutely not.

"No, of course not Splendid's fortress. How stupid do you think I am?" Very. "No, I was thinking the liquor store. To sell of course."

I had to admit, that actually was a very good idea. Something I don't admit very often. "That's perfect. This town is full of alcoholics and if we hold onto all of the alcohol until they start experiencing withdrawal." I had no idea how long that would take. "And then we can sell it back to them for basically any amount we want."

"Um… yeah… that's exactly what I was thinking…" Shifty said awkwardly, as he started the car and started to drive. "Luckily, I had spotted the liquor store a few times when we went out."

"And you remember where it is?" I asked, with a raised eyebrow and a slight laugh. It certainly wouldn't be the first time something like that happened with him.

Shifty growled, driving off and answered a mocking tone, elbowing me, though not hard enough to do any actual damage beyond a bruise, "Yes, I remember where it is. I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't remember where it was."

I rolled my eyes at the blatantly false comment and reminded him of something that happened only yesterday. "You mean like how you knew where Flaky's house was when it was your idea to rob her?"

Shifty groaned and, always unwilling to give up on anything, stated, "I didn't say I knew where that was though and I'm saying I know where this is."

"Like you knew where our van was back at the gas station in Canada?" I reminded, still surprised we actually got away with Handy's car instead. "How did you lose it anyways?"

"Hey, it's not that hard to forget where you parked in Canada. There are so many other cars there compared to here in Happy Tree." Shifty reminded in logic that I was surprised to find was difficult to argue against. "At least we still get the van back… somehow." Neither of us knew how we did get the van back but it was outside the apartment when we came back to life the next day. "Besides, that's completely different."

Not long after, he pulled into the back of what I hoped really was the liquor store and turned to me with a mocking smile. "See, I told you I remembered where the liquor store was."

I returned the grin and told him, getting out of the van. "I'll believe it when I see the inside." He got out of the van as well and met me in front of the back entrance. Unfortunately, the store was most likely open at this time so we had to be extra careful. "Do you know who's working it today?" I asked.

Usually we check that in the paper before robbing a business but this time Shifty shook his head. "I had just came up with the idea and the place would be busy if we waited much longer."

"It's still important to…" I sighed and started picking the lock. "I guess we'll have to assume the worst then." I stated with an eye roll, pushing open the back door. "Now remember, don't leave a single bottle."

"Like we ever leave anything behind anyway," Shifty laughed quietly and we headed in, without making a single peep.

The backroom was lined with more merchandise than any other store in town. Not that it should have come as much of a surprise but we'd definitely have to make more than a few trips to get it all. If only we still had that dump truck we stole to get the candy for Nutty.

Once we made it in, Shifty made his way over to the door that connects the back to the front and took a careful look through the small window, probably for the same reason we normally check the paper. He turned to me and put one flat hand against his mouth. Giggles. We had a silent code to mean every friend to use as warnings to each other while robbing a business. So, Giggles is working. That's not the best but definitely not the worst either.

Even with our experience, it took multiple hours to get most of the van-fulls back to the apartment building. Just as the last one of the backroom was loaded up, we ended up having to load some in the front as well. This left me back at the store to wait.

As I waited, I did hear the front door open but reminded myself that, unlike in a house, he won't be coming back here but Giggles might if he needs something that isn't in stock.

Because of that, I hid behind one of the racks that used to be full of liquor but I knew that if she comes back and finds the back empty, she's going to be looking to see if the thief's still there. My only hope was that she didn't come back at all.

Of course, luck never being on our side, the door to the back opened followed by an immediate, "Oh, what the fuck?" Except it wasn't in Giggles voice, it was much meeker and had a slight stammer. I thought she shouldn't even be back here when not working.

"What is it, Flaky?" Giggles voice called from the front of the store but stayed put, probably figuring that almost anything could scare her.

"Um…" I wasn't sure why Flaky was hesitating instead of just telling her that everything was gone. "Nothing of your business." Again, it made no sense. What is she trying to do by not reporting the obvious crime? Whatever her reason, footsteps lead further into the backroom. "I can see you, Lifty," she said in a quiet voice, as if trying not to alert Giggles of my presence. "Come out of hiding."

I was unconvinced she saw me so I didn't come out right away but when I glanced through the rack, I saw her looking patiently right through it. I sighed and came out. "Why?" I asked simply.

Flaky sighed and headed out the backdoor we entered through and motioned me to follow her, which I did, finding it better than the alternative.

Once we were out in the beading summer sun, I turned to Flaky. "Why?" I repeated, desperately. "Why didn't you tell Giggles?"

"Well, first of all, let me go out and say that no matter how much you need to money, robbing the liquor store is taking it way too far." Okay, she was supposed to be answering my question, not making it more confusing. "But, if you just give me a fifth of my whiskey for the normal price of ten dollars and I won't tell anyone I found you in the backroom. Deal?"

I couldn't believe it and that was still a LOT of money. "Wait, what's a fifth mean in this context? Also, which one is your whiskey?" For such a small town, we had quite a few different whiskeys and I couldn't imagine which one could cost ten whole dollars but figured she was asking for more than one bottle.

Flaky laughed a bit and told me, "Here, I'll show you which one. Just lead the way."

She's coming to our apartment? No one else has ever been in our apartment before and it's certainly not something we want to go around showing off but we're not exactly ashamed of it either so I led the way, hearing her footsteps following behind me.

We started off walking until I heard Giggles shout, "My tequila!" Then, without needed any exchange, we both broke into a full on run.

I was surprised that she was able to stay not very far behind me and maintained that speed until we were right in front Shifty and I's apartment door. I grinned seeing that the wood of our door was bare and pushed the door open, almost running into Shifty who was on the way out.

"I thought I told you to wait…" Shifty trailed off his lecture, noticing Flaky standing beside me. "What's she doing here?"

"She wants to buy some whiskey…" I answered, earning a clueless look from Shifty, not that I really expected anything else. "It's a type of alcohol."

"We only sell in the alleyway," Shifty said, leaning against the doorframe and gave a light laugh. "You know that, Lifty. So, what were you thinking bringing her over here? She can wait until we go sell in the alley tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning!" Flaky gasped in surprising horror. "That's the work of a sadist there! You realize withdrawals can start after five hours without a drink! I'm sure you both have experienced that before."

"No, we haven't. We've gone our whole immortalities without a single drink." Shifty answered simply and truthfully. "But if that's true, we'll be in the alley in six hours. So scram."

Flaky sighed and shook her head. "No, I'm not settling for that. I was hoping not to go here but I found Lifty in the empty backroom of the liquor store. I'll provide an eyewitness account for both that and burglarizing my house to Officer Lumpy and have you both thrown in jail, possibly forever, if you don't sell me some of my special whiskey. I'm not even asking for it for free. I'll pay ten dollars for it."

"Ten dollars?" Shifty's eyes widened and he stepped aside to let her in. "Why didn't you just say so? Pick out whichever whiktey you want."

I couldn't help but laugh a little about his mispronunciation as Flaky headed in and I followed her in curiosity, just having to know what kind of and how much alcohol could cost so much money.

When I got inside, I found that almost the whole apartment was covered in liquor bottles. "Umm… Shifty… where are we supposed to sleep?"

"Oh, how cute," Shifty laughed. "You think we're gonna survive to sleep anywhere but the van or some random spot on the street." I guess he did have a very good point there. "Besides, just in case, I did make sure to leave the mattress bare."

"Alright, found my whiskey!" Flaky announced, coming back with, surprisingly, one bottle of whiskey that was probably about a fifth a gallon. She reached into her pocket and procured ten dollar coins, just as promised. "Well, I guess I should be going now."