Red-Handed

I'm back from my month of NaNoWriMo, writing 50 000 words in a month is hard! I only managed 25 000 words, but I'm still proud of myself. So I'm back to writing FanFiction, and since Christmas Vacay is in 2 days, there's a lot more on the way! Also a huge thank you to my amazing Beta Little Miss Illusional! Enjoy!

Note: For the purpose of this drabble, the location of everyone's room are : Odie and Herry in the basement, Archie, Theresa and Atlanta on the second floor and Jay and Neil on the top.

I looked at the alarm clock on my bedside table, it read 4:30am. I sighed in annoyance. I'd been trying, with no luck, to fall asleep since midnight. Nothing seemed to be working. I tried every trick in the book in a desperate attempt to catch some shut eye, but not even counting sheep or some decaffeinated tea could put me to sleep. I sat up in my bed and looked out my window; it was a nice, clear sky tonight. Both the moon and the stars were out, the perfect condition for a run. I could run till the point of exhaustion then hopefully, I would fall asleep. It was decided, I would do it.

I slowly got out of bed and changed into my running clothes; a pair of gray sweatpants and a dark green t-shirt. I quietly walked to the other side of my room to look for my PMR. Odie had recently rigged it so it would play radio stations on top of television channels. It was a necessity for whenever I went running. Unless Archie was there with me, then we would talk the whole time.

After a while of searching through the mess on my desk, I decided to give up. I would probably have to tear the room apart to find it. Yet, I knew better than to leave the Brownstone without it; a rule Jay insisted on. If we left the house alone, without telling anyone where we were going, we had to have it on us incase of an emergency. Jay was such a worrywort. I sighed in defeat, I didn't know what to do. If I tried to find it in the mess that was my room, I would surely wake up everyone in the building. However, there was another possible answer. If I asked Archie to come along with me, he would have his PMR and Jay wouldn't be mad that I didn't have one. The plus side of this was that I'd have Archie to talk with. But would he be willing to come with me? Afterall, it was 4:40 in the morning. Well, it was worth a shot!

I slowly opened the door to my bedroom, trying not to make any noise, then tiptoed across the hallway to his room. I paused before entering. Should I knock or just walk in? If I knocked, I risked waking Theresa and that couldn't possibly end well. But if I just barged in... Well, I didn't know how Archie slept. Did he wear pajamas or not? My hand lingered over the handle, trying to decided what fate was worse, an angry psychic or the chance that Arch liked to sleep nude? I shrugged and placed my hand on the handle, but the door opened before I had a chance to do it myself. Archie was standing, fully clothed, staring at me.

"I was going to knock!" I exclaimed surprised. "Did I wake you?"

"Nah. I couldn't sleep so I was reading some poetry to fall asleep, but it's not really helping." He smiled bashfully. He rarely talked about his passion for poetry, even to me. I smiled back at him, reassuring him that it wasn't anything to be ashamed of.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked.

"I heard your door open, I was going to check on you." He replied.

"Check on me? What do you think happened?"

"I don't know!" He admitted, blushing some more. "Friends check up on each other okay?"

How, I thought to myself, he was so cute when he blushed... Wait what was I saying? Archie just said we were friends and friends don't find each other cute. I shook my head, trying to clear my that thought.

"Anyways," I said. "I couldn't sleep either and I was wondering if you wanted to come on a run with me. Maybe it will cure our insomnia." I suggested.

"Sure!" He exclaimed. "Just let me grab my PMR." He said before dashing into his room. IN a matter of seconds we were both making our way downstairs. Before stepping outside, I grabbed a spare key off the key rack in the entrance. Athena had personalised all of our keys in hopes that it would help us remember to take it with us when we left. She hated when we rang the doorbell non-stop whenever we forgot our keys. She had started ignore us and letting us stand outside until another teammate let us in. My key had a picture of the canadian flag on it and Archie's had a quote on it; he never left it on the key rack like the others. I think he's ashamed of whatever's written on it. Archie stepped in front of me, and opened the door, like a gentleman.

"After you," he said, bowing down to me.

"Thanks, you big dork," I replied, laughing.

We both stepped outside into the warm summer night. I locked the door behind me and walked down the front steps.

"It's such a beautiful night," Archie said, looking up at the stars.

"Yeah, perfect for a run!" I replied. "So, any where specific you want to go?" I asked him as I started stretching my legs.

"We could go for a run in the park?" He suggested.

"Nah, we often go there. I think we should go to the docks. We never go there."

"Well, there's a pretty good reason why!" Archie defended, while starting to stretch himself. "How about a compromise?"

"Fine, what is it?" I asked.

"How about we go running near the lake. We have to pass through the park to get there, and then there's water." He smiled at me, hopefully.

"Sure!" I exclaimed excitedly. I was surprised by his will to go near water. Once we were both finished stretching, we started towards the lake. As we ran, we talked about every possible subject; Cronus, school, snowboarding, donuts and finally our teammates.

"Is it just me, or has Jay been acting strangely lately?" Archie asked me as we now made our way back to the Brownstone.

"I don't know. I haven't noticed, I don't really spend much time with him." I admitted. "But, I have notices that Theresa has been acting more quiet and secretive than usual."

"The same with Jay!" He exclaimed. "He just doesn't... seem all there. Like his mind is somewhere else."

"Theresa rarely hangs out with me anymore. Not that I don't mind, but it's just weird." I told him.

Archie stopped running and I followed his lead. We were about a block away from the Brownstone.

"Do you think..." He started.

"That the two finally clued in about each others feelings for one and other and are secretly dating?" I finished for him.

"Yeah! Exactly."

We smiled at each other. It seemed that everybody in the Brownstone, even Athena, knew about Jay's love for Theresa and vice versa. Everybody except themselves.

"It's about time. Now we just have to get them to open up and it to the rest of us," I said to Archie before continuing to walk home.

"Challenge accepted!" He teased. "Race you back!" He yelled to me as he took off towards the house.

"I took off after him, pushing myself to my limits to beat him. And I did. As I passed him, I stuck my tongue out in his direction. When I arrived at the front door, I sat at the steps and waited for his arrival. He arrived a couple of seconds after me.

"Took you a while!" I teased, punching him playfully on the shoulder.

"One day, I'll beat you. Just wait and see." He told me. "You won't be laughing then."

"In your dreams!" I pulled my key out of my pocket and opened the door, letting myself in before him. I put the key back on the rack and took off my running shoes. I proceeded to then make my way into the kitchen. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 5:30 now.

"Hungry?" I whispered to Archie as I opened the fridge. It was a Saturday morning and the gang usually slept in till 10:00. I didn't want to wake them, so I made sure to keep quiet.

"Starving! What's for breakfast?" He asked, leaning over me to peer into the fridge.

"How about some waffles?"

"Sounds delicious!"

Suddenly a loud BANG was heard from upstairs.

"What was that?" I asked, grabbing my bolos from my pockets. I always kept them on me in case of danger.

"I don't know. Let's go check it out." He replied, making his way towards the stairs.

Together we climbed the stairs two by two. There wasn't a sign as to if the noise had woken up any of our friends. Except... I heard some movements from behind one of the doors. I motioned Archie to head over to Theresa's room. I could hear some noise from within her room. We tiptoed up to the door and were about to enter when Jay stepped out. He was shirtless and only wearing his pajama bottoms. Jay quickly turned beat red as he tried to cover his chest. Archie quickly grabbed me into a bear hug and clamped his hands over my eyes.

"Don't look Lanta, it's not PG-13." He said. I laughed and wiggled out of his grip.

"Jay" I managed to whisper between fits of laughter. "What are you doing in Theresa's room?"

"I heard some noise not to long ago and went to investigate." He whispered back, stammering a bit. "But there's nothing here, so let's go and let Theresa sleep." He ushered us away. We reached the end of the hall when suddenly Theresa stepped out of her room.

"Jay, you forgot your..." She started whispering before quickly blushing and trying to run back into her room. But I was quick and managed to run behind her and grab the item in question. A pulled from her hand a pair of mens underwear...

"Eww!" I screamed in disgust, tossing the boxers to Archie.

"I don't want them!" He said before throwing them to Jay. "Here you go buddy, next time try not to forget them." He told Jay, laughing hysterically.

"Yeah..." Jay replied, blushing some more.

"Come Lanta, let's leave these two lovebirds to each other. We have a breakfast to make." Archie said, leading me down the stairs.

So that's that! If I don't post before Christmas, I wish you all a merry Christmas!