Notes: Happy Christmas, every one! I had intended this part to be finished on Friday, but, well...It wasn't. It is now though and I hope you all like it!

As always, questions, comments and reviews are love.

Clumsy had never been to Hefty's house before, Lazy realized as Hefty opened the door and let them in.

Not for any mean or unfriendly reason, but likely because Hefty was subconsciously afraid that the awkward Smurf would somehow manage to hurt himself on a piece of exercise equipment and had thusly never invited him over.

Which was not a crazy assumption to make; the main room was indeed full of barbells of varying weights and sizes and other things that Clumsy could -and would- easily trip over. But Lazy was willing to take that risk, if it meant Clumsy wouldn't be moping around his own house, and he had used all of his sleepy charm to convince Hefty it was a good idea as well.

As Hefty shut the door behind them and Lazy helped himself to a towel from a cabinet near the stairs, Clumsy glanced around, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. "Golly…" He sounded awed, eyes wide beneath his soggy cap, "You sure do have lots of exercise stuff in here, Hefty!" His own mushroom was full of boxes and boxes and boxes of rocks he'd collected, nothing as organized and interesting as this. Clumsy found himself wondering how heavy the barbells were and how strong Hefty must have been, to be able to lift them all.

"Of course I do!" Hefty grinned, flexing a muscle, "I wouldn't be able to keep in top shape without all of my equipment. I smurf a good workout every day, you know." Giving Clumsy another smug smile, he turned, rooting through the cabinet Lazy had taken the towel from and grabbing one for Clumsy. "Here, smurf yourself off."

"Thanks." Clumsy took the offered towel, wiping himself down and knocking his hat off in the process. He bent to retrieve it, suddenly noticing…

Hefty had a…nest in his house.

Well, not really a nest, but a big pillow with a pile of blankets on it. Lazy, already dried off, had wrapped his own towel around himself like a blanket, yawning widely and flopping down on the oversized pillow Clumsy had only just noticed in the corner. The drowsy Smurf curled up, snuggly in the fluffy towel, and sighed happily, quickly dropping off to sleep.

Clumsy –curious- glanced up at Hefty, who shrugged. "He likes to visit…But you know he can't keep himself awake." He half-explained, "So I smurfed a spot for him to sleep." Hefty's gaze followed Clumsy's back to the sleeping Smurf in the corner, and he smiled, watching as Lazy pulled his 'blanket' up further, murmuring at in his sleep.

"…You don't smurf if he just sleeps, Hefty?" Clumsy straightened and plopped his hat back on his head, a thoughtful look crossing his face, "Don't you ever wish he'd wake up and exercise with you or something?" Brainy's words were still swimming through his mind, still haunting him, and he found himself wondering if others thought their friends should be different as well.

Maybe it was just him…Maybe it was just that he was so hopelessly hopeless that he needed to change.

"No." Hefty took the damp towel Clumsy had been using, then crossed the room to where Lazy lay sleeping. He gently removed the wet towel from around his friend, tucking him under one of the blankets instead. "Why would I mind?" He cocked his head, brows knit, "Lazy's always sleeping."

"Well…Gee, Hefty." Clumsy frowned, shoulders slumping, "I'm always clumsy and Brainy still thinks I should be something else."

Hefty looked over at him, watching as the usually cheerful Smurf seemed to fold in on himself sadly. To Hefty, he looked as grey and cloudy as the sky outside, a look that was all wrong for Clumsy. It was weird, the same kind of weird it had been the time Lazy had been having all those nightmares and forced himself to stay awake. Every Smurf, Hefty knew, had certain characteristics that made them themselves, from Greedy and his insatiable appetite to Weepy's inability to stop crying, and it was always queer to see some Smurf acting unlike their usual self.

"What really happened last night, Clumsy?" Hefty asked, curiosity finally getting the better of him, "Lazy told me about it…But sometimes I'm not sure if I smurf the whole story with him, since he tires himself out talking." He set aside the damp towels, and indicated that Clumsy should sit, plopping down on the floor in favor of letting the other Smurf sit in his chair.

Clumsy slumped into the chair, staring down at his feet. "I was helping Brainy with the dishes and I broke one…He got all annoyed with me and told me I should ask Papa to…to…" Clumsy's voice wobbled and he wrapped his arms around himself, looking a little bit like he was trying to hold himself together, "…to fix me."

"Whaddya mean, 'fix you'?" Hefty asked, scowling, "There's nothing wrong with you!" It was no secret that the village's strongest Smurf was not overly fond of the village's self-proclaimed genius; that Hefty thought Brainy was a know-it-all loudmouth and that almost everything that came out of his mouth was wrong.

"Brainy thinks so." Clumsy replied morosely, drawing his feet up beneath him on the chair and curling up smaller, "He thinks I should be different…Better." That word again…Clumsy was beginning to hate the word "better." He didn't want to be better…He just wanted to be himself and be happy again. He wanted to be sitting at Brainy's table and listening to the rain on the roof instead of Brainy reading from Quotations of Brainy Smurf, which is exactly what he normally would have done on a rainy day.

He wanted his life to be his life again.

Hefty watched, shifting uncomfortably, as Clumsy broke down and cried. This wasn't something he really knew how to handle and he felt stupid for just sitting there, but he really had no idea what to do. Give him a physical problem to solve –something needed lifting or moving or pushing- and he was all over it. But emotional messes…Well, that was more Smurfette's thing.

Clumsy curled up smaller in the chair, legs drawn up to his chest, face buried in his arms as he sobbed. Once he'd started, he knew he would never be able to stop, not until he cried himself dry. Not until he stopped hurting.

But here he was, in some one else's house, crying like a baby, and that made him feel even more miserable. Hefty and Lazy had invited him over to cheer him up, Clumsy was well aware of that. But instead of feeling better and being grateful for their friendship, he felt worse, wishing to be the one place he didn't think he'd be welcome any longer.

"Clumsy!" And, suddenly, there was Lazy hugging him, patting his shoulder, still wrapped in the fuzzy blanket Hefty had tucked around him. "Why are you crying?" Lazy glanced over his shoulder at Hefty, a small frown crossing his face, "What did you say?"

Hefty shrugged, helpless, sheepish. "I just smurfed him what happened…" He shuffled to his feet, pacing a few steps, then paused to pick up a nearby weight. Here in his own home, Hefty felt awkward and uncertain and wondering just how a relaxing, rainy day had turned in to this. Sometimes, he hated Lazy and his sleepy charms, the way he could talk Hefty in to just about anything with a soft smile and a few muzzy words.

…No he didn't.

He loved Lazy, and that was why Clumsy was sitting in his living room, crying.

"Gosh, Lazy," Clumsy hiccupped, sniffled, and curled against the aforementioned Smurf, gladly returning the hug, "It's not Hefty's fault, so don't be mad at him. I just…" Here, his voice wobbled and his eyes welled with fresh tears, "I feel awful…Brainy means so much to me and…and he doesn't even like me." The last part came out on a whisper as Clumsy lowered his head, wiping at his eyes with his hand.

"Brainy just says things without smurfing about it first." Lazy said softly, seating himself on the armrest of the chair and pulling the blanket a little tighter around his shoulders, "He usually doesn't mean them. And he usually changes his mind pretty quickly."

Hefty nodded in agreement, curling the small barbell in his hand towards his shoulder. He had to do something; Clumsy's distress was making him anxious and exercising was the only way he knew how to burn off nervous energy. "Yeah, he says Lazy is worthless all the time."

Lazy shot him a look and Hefty wilted under the glare. "…Until Lazy does something smurfy for every one, of course." Hefty smiled sheepishly at his friend, wishing he had a better way with words. He was always smurfing his foot in his mouth! "And Lazy does do stuff. There was that time that…Or no, that one night…Or maybe…"

An amused smile flitted across the sleepy Smurf's face as Hefty fumbled for something to say, and Lazy turned back to Clumsy. "I know I'm not worthless. No one needs to tell me I'm not for me to believe it, because if I was, would I have a place in the village and friends like Hefty? Brainy can smurf what he wants about me, because he…he doesn't…" Lazy paused, yawning widely, and Clumsy glanced up at him, a questioning look crossing his face. "He doesn't really know me at all."

"But he knows me, Lazy…" Clumsy sighed, slumping down in his seat, "Sometimes, I think he knows me better than I do."

"Nuh-uh." Lazy shook his head, picking at a fuzzy on his blanket. He had learned, through his own experiences, that sometimes, the people who thought they knew you best knew very little about you. There was always more to some one than what you saw on the surface, no matter what implications their name may have had. "If he knew you that well, Brainy would know that you have a big heart and that he shouldn't take your friendship for granted. Every one else knows that even if your feet get mixed up and go the wrong way, your heart is going the right way."

Clumsy stared at him, eyes bright and shiny with fresh tears. Lazy closed his own eyes, leaning back against the chair.

Hefty just watched silently, the weight cold and heavy in his hand. Lazy knew all this, because his life sometimes went the same way. In the beginning, he had been seen as a lay-about, good for little other than annoying others by sleeping in strange places. But as the days and years went by, they had all started to see other, smaller parts of Lazy, parts that were heroic and brave, or kind and caring.

In the beginning, Hefty had been the one to complain most about Lazy. The other Smurf was, after all, the complete antithesis of everything Hefty stood for. He was slothful while Hefty was hard-working, and Hefty couldn't stand to see him idle when there was work to be done – And there was always work to be done in the village. But as Lazy seemed to come more to life…During the Howlibird's attack and the war he waged on Morphio…Hefty had come to admire and respect him greatly.

And besides all that…Lazy was just kind. He had great appreciation for every one else and all the hard work they did to make up for his own idleness. He couldn't help being lazy, and he never rubbed it in that he got to lay around while everybody else was busy.

And he had a way with words, when he was awake enough to use them.

The room had gone silent, save for the steady sound of rain on the roof. Lazy seemed to be nodding off again, and Clumsy was wavering between misery and contemplation. Hefty looked at the two of them, so similar in some ways, but vastly different in others, and wondered for the millionth time how Clumsy had even wound up with Brainy for a best friend to begin with.