Hey guys, I'm not dead!

Oh, and sorry for the delay but uhh…

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Yep, one whole year (and about 20 or so days that I didn't post anything up…) later and we're still in business! (Confetti flies about,)

So yeah, sorry for the delay again and please enjoy!

I own nothing but Clover and somewhat the story.

The next morning was exactly what I had promised myself that night, as I quickly got ready for the day in my home, then shot out into the sky on my rainbow path, making sure that I was doing my job along the way, since I did have the time on me of course. It was during a time that I was tripping a man so that he could bump into what would hopefully later be his best friend in the whole world, when I saw a flash of white, and felt the cold on the smallest tip of my nose. Immediately I ran after it as fast as I could before jumping up onto my rainbow path, tailing that flash of white that I had seen with as much energy in me that I could use.

"Jack!" I called out; hoping he would hear me and slow down, but of course I was not so lucky as the chase went on unabated, and I had to throw myself off the cement and brick outsides of buildings in an effort to gain some kind of speed or thrust so I could catch up to him, as he seemed much too fast for me to keep up at my normal rate. The white light, the feeling of cold on my nose that went with it that I was tailing so desperately led me further and further through the town, and while I found it weird that he was avoiding me, since I knew I had yelled out loud enough for him to certainly hear me, since I remembered him hearing me the last time I had yelled out like that.

But no suspicion ever entered my mind as this went on, mostly because I was just fuelled by my desperation to both catch up to him, and help him out. Though I did start to get an itching feeling of suspicion in the back of my mind when I was starting to chase what I thought was Jack into the forest that was very close to the town boarders, and was leading me in deeper. As time wore on that small itch of suspicion turned into more than a scratch, as I began to decide on whether or not I should turn back and try to find him again later. Just as I was thinking this though, the white spark of cold suddenly disappeared.

Annoyed at myself with the thought that I probably lost him because I wasn't paying attention, I landed on the forest floor. While I was looking about, I noticed the large trunks of bark that were around me suddenly seemed to feel as though they were starting to surround me completely, like the bars of a cage. I shook that off though, thinking that I was just being paranoid in the depths of a forest that I had never been in. Especially since the depths of unknown forests was not the kind of places that I ever liked to be alone, past experiences and memories being good reasons for that fact.

To calm myself, I walked around the forest for a bit, to hopefully move the thought of the cage of tree trunks from my mind. The fading sunlight was mostly blocked by dark colors of leaves above my head and the fact that the sun was setting very quickly, meaning that there was only small, weak rays of light shooting through the branches and lighting a small way for me at least as they seemed to align with the spaces in-between the trees, like a crooked path. That seemed like a hopeful path to take, and I didn't take off into the skies again yet as I did want to take the chance on the fact that Jack might still be here, if he was ever here, and there was that sense of curiosity in me that wanted to explore further, but I ignored that feeling, since that pull to explore had only led me into trouble time and time again.

So I only walked for a time, and to where the rays of light were leading, so I at least could see where I was going. However only a few short steps later, there was a sight that caught my attention, right in the corner of my eye was a completely abandoned bed frame, in the middle of a relatively deep and abandoned forest. A part of me wanted to go take a look, but another part of me that had been through enough already, told me to back out and leave now. I listened to that part of my brain and immediately started to back away from the sight, turning to leave the forest altogether when I heard the smallest whispers through the thick silence, which did cause me to pause and listen despite the better part of my mind telling me to leave, and leave quickly.

Clover?

"Jack?" I whispered just as the voice of the supposedly frost spirit had done, worrying immediately if he was in trouble or had been hurt in some way that he could only whisper for help. I listened again, that other part of my mind waiting for further evidence that what I heard was even real, since it was likely that I had only heard his voice since I wanted to find him so badly. I stood still, listening intently for the voice of my friend again, just in case that had actually happened and I wasn't just fooling myself, or perhaps something else was happening.

Clover…

No, that was definitely his voice, I was sure of it as sure as I knew that I had to go and find him. My boots thudded against the dry, leaf covered ground as I ran past the abandoned bed frame, not giving it a second look as I ran through the trees ahead, away from the fading ray lighted path and away from any way out. But I was worried about that, mostly because I knew that I could get out of here on my rainbow path if anything unexpected happened, but there was also the fact that I just wanted to find Jack and be sure that he was okay.

The voice however, seemed to fade further and further away with the ongoing time that I wasted in not finding him. My heart was pounding in my ears with every fruitless step I took, which wasn't helpful at all as I was trying to hear out for Jack. I was freaking out, my breath hitching and out of order, just like my eyes were out of complete focus as time went on and I was more afraid than anything. Not for myself, but the thought that he was in trouble, that he was hurt and I wasn't there to stop that because I couldn't be there for him.

"Jack?" Memories flooded back to me like a tidal wave, all the way back to the days in Stalingrad, when I had feared, I had thought, he had perished in the collapsing of that tunnel. But with that one fear, more flooded after it, and I only felt closer and closer to just curling up into a ball and just letting myself be lost in this forest for as while the memories came and went like forgotten leaves of the autumn, quick and unnoticeable at best, but in this case they left a big impact behind. I remembered the other times I had felt bad for leaving him behind, the gaps of years that we didn't see each other, but most off all, I remembered that slight fall in his expression when I had to go, the slight loss of the childish happiness in his eyes, and only felt worse.

"Jack!" The voice was gone by this point, and I wondered on whether or not I should turn back to see if I had run past him in my emotional mad dash to nowhere looking for him when all of a sudden something in front of me caused me to crash to the ground, and it must have been a person or something since I heard them fall as well. I propped myself back up on my arms and looked to see who it was, and was a little confused to see that it actually wasn't Jack (as per usual, as that was how we usually managed to run into each other, literally,) but Amor, and not in the pink suit or anything.

"What are you doing here?" We both shouted as I got to my feet first, wiping down any nonexistent dirt from the skirt of my dress, backing away a little as he too got too his feet. As said before, he wasn't wearing his suit, but a pale pink shirt and black skinny jeans, which made him look a lot younger than I originally thought he was, and yet not one bit less good looking. On his back was a quiver full of pink arrows with heart tips, and a darker pink bow in his hands. He looked surprisingly unimpressed and annoyed at me, (and if I were to hazard a guess, I'd figure it would be because I ran right into him, which would annoy anybody.) So I just decided to apologize while I was ahead.

"Erm…Sorry, I didn't see you. Why are you here?"

"I was looking for you actually; I mean I can't find any other reason to be in this dark forest if I tried Red. I mean do you even know what lives here? Spirits usually only come here if they're looking for trouble and I doubt that you'd be interested in something like that." And it was terrible of me to admit, but now I was a little more than curious now on what could be living here that was so bad, that spirits would apparently do their best to avoid coming here. But then that curiosity was also joined by a wonder that if people only came here to look for trouble, what was Jack doing here? Sure he liked to play tricks, but serious trouble like Amor was spelling out just wasn't his style at all. It was while I was wondering this that Amor passed me another question, which took me a minute to answer as I wasn't really listening.

"Say, what were you doing here anyhow?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry. I was looking for Jack Frost; you haven't seen him have you? I did see him come in here." And just like every other spirit, Amor's expression crinkled a little in annoyance at the mention of the younger spirit's name. And I was left to try and remember if me and Jack ever did play one or two of our little pranks on the love spirit, only to find no memories there, so I had to guess that whatever problems this spirit (out of so many others in this world,) had with the winter boy, it must have been something I missed, and something good I hoped at that.

"Why are you interested in finding that annoying snowflake anyway? If he's here then you should take my advice Red, and leave him here. If he's really that foolish to come to this forest, then he can deal with it alone." Amor was looking about the dark trees while he spoke, his hand tightening around the bow he had in his grasp. If I wasn't already worried by the tone in his voice and words that he spoke, that action only made it worse, and so I let the pot in my grasp quickly turn into the sword, holding it tight as well as we both seemed to be waiting for something. A something that Amor apparently knew about, while I was unfortunately unaware of it.

Silence pervaded us both for a few heart stopping moments as we both snapped our heads all over the place, looking anywhere and everywhere for that something that was apparently in these woods. Amor was obviously worried for himself and me, but I was too busy thinking and worrying over Jack, and if he was still here, and had run into this apparent 'something', yet. Just as I was wondering this however, I suddenly felt a hand in mine and looked back to the love spirit, who looked at me seriously as he whispered his next words of caution in my ear, and I wasn't going to lie.

"Run Red," And we did, back through the trees and towards the light, whatever Amor must had seen beforehand making a racket behind us. However, after a while it soon became aware to me that since it was getting darker, we couldn't see where we were going and were more than likely going in circles. So I moved faster, gripping his hand with what strength I have as I suddenly jumped high, a rainbow path creating underneath me as we safely got up into the air. Amor looked scared and surprised at the same time, an expression that amused me greatly as I looked back down to the forest, trees rustling below us as whatever was in there was still running about. Questions ran through my head, and I wanted them answered.

"What is in that forest? What was that?"

"Darkness Red, nothing much more than that. That forest, like I said before, is trouble and dangerous, so don't go back in there, kay?" I was listening to him, but all the same I wasn't exactly heeding his words, all that was on my mind was the fact that whatever that thing was was still down there, with Jack. I moved quickly to go back down there, but Amor gripped my arm and stopped me. Nothing was said by me as I struggled against him, desperate to go back and look for the frost spirit in that apparently dangerous place. However it was pretty difficult to fight against this love spirit, as he was very strong, at least I learned he was then.

"Wait Red you can't go back, haven't you been listening? It's dangerous dammit!"

"I know, I have been listening, which is why I have to go back, Jack is still in there!"

"You don't know that for certain!" That made me stop, and look at him, waiting for him to explain, which he did readily, "This forest, it's known to trick people in Red. They hear things or see glimpses of whatever it is they're looking for and go in, then they never come out. I mean, did you really see him in here? Or was it just something you thought he was?" I stuttered pitifully, knowing full well that he was right, but for some reason wanting to try and justify myself so I could go back in there, and I didn't know why. He understood this though, and didn't let go of my hand, even after I stopped fighting him to go back down there.

"Come on Red, let's get you back to Sandy," He managed to lead me away from the forest at least, until I finally got to get my arm out of his hand, but that mostly only because his grip was slackened and everything. I didn't want to go anywhere just yet; sure I was more than definitely going to stay the hell away from that place, but I still had someone to look for, a job that I wanted to do and wasn't going to be diverted by anything, certainly not this love spirit that I could tell didn't like Jack for one reason or another, and I didn't even know him all that well myself anyhow, so why should I let him drag me off?

"No, I have to go and look for Jack,"

"Again, why do you want to look for him? That brat is nothing but an annoyance, so why undertake that difficulty?" The only thing that was annoying me right now was his attitude, especially the way he was talking about the frost spirit. It seemed that times hadn't changed all that much for me, as I was still defensive over the spirit boy, especially when people like Amor or Bunny were insulting him openly. I was already starting to like this love spirit less and less after that statement, and judging by the way his expression changed when mine went to anger, he realized that himself to.

"Red-"

"-He's a boy, a child."

"I-I know, I just…"

"What? You just what? If you weren't insulting him, what exactly did you mean behind those words if it wasn't just ignorant insults towards a child?"

"He's…"

"A child. And we're supposed to protect children, naughty or nice. I just don't understand how so many spirits can be horrid to him; say such mean things about him, when all he's ever done was play a few small pranks towards them. I mean, who's the real child here? Him, or the immature brats that can't get over a joke?" I aimed the insult just as he had done before, then turned to leave him behind, thinking the entire time that I was talking that I was wasting time, when I should be using it to be out looking for Jack. He tried calling out to me, but I just ignored him. I did feel a little bad though, since it was too bad that someone so good looking had to be such a jerk.

But then again this wasn't the first time; after all, Bunny had said those similar things all those years ago, but all the same I still hadn't fully forgiven him over it. I guess that makes me a little immature as well to still be a little irritated about that, and now over what the love spirit had just said. I mean, I knew that it wasn't fully sensible to be angry at every person that had something bad to say about the frost spirit, but all the same I didn't feel bad about the prospect of it, since I felt that somebody had to be angry about him, for him.

And it looked like I had to be, and was for now going to be, the one to do it.

A few hours had passed since the incident with Amor and that strange forest, and still Clover hadn't found Jack yet. She'd looked through every town that she came across, especially the ones that were having winter at the time. It seemed much harder than she ever remembered it being to find this boy, but then she figured at the time he was also kind of looking for her as well. Now, she had to wonder whether or not the frost spirit was trying not to be found, and why he would be like that, sure he might do that to other spirits, but why hide from her? Sure, there was the possibility that he wasn't actually hiding from everyone, but there was a gut feeling she had that was telling her otherwise, and she had to go with it for what it was worth, and look that much harder for him.

Eventually it became apparent that for the second time today, the luck spirit was going in circles, except this time she didn't have the excuse of a dark forest and at the time not actually a jerk but good looking spirit to gauge her attention somewhat. The reason she hadn't really left the country she was on, was again that intuition telling her to stay here, to keep looking and wait for whatever might happen. Clover was back in the town that was nearby that creepy forest, and while she was defiantly not going to go back into that forest, she couldn't help but not leave this place, instead doing more of her luck work while she waited for something to happen.

And sooner than she thought, something finally did. It was while she was having to get a boy caught for shoplifting some candy and then helping another to get the reward for 'catching him in the act,' that she saw some ice building up over the glass windows across the room. Clover rushed out of the shop, looking up into the sky to see, just for sure, that it really was Jack. And sure enough, there was the spirit in the cold icy flesh soaring over the skies and laughing merrily. Quickly she shot up into the air after him, tailing him as he landed nearby by at a small lake, which at that moment was frozen over, and there were children ice-skating over it. He landed on the ground just at the lake's edge and watched the kids for a while, every so often touching the ice to make it thicker so nothing dangerous would happen to them.

Clover landed next to him and called out to him, and instead of flying off again like she was afraid he would, he actually looked cheerful to see her, but she could see that there was a slight something in his smile, that made it drop a bit. That worried her to no end, but then again she just shook it off for the moment, leaving it to the back of her mind for her to still remember though, as she sat next to him on the cold ground. The children nearby were still skating, laughing and cheering to each other as they had fun, and I wondered if that was what was bothering him.

"Hey Clover, do you wanna build a snowman?" I shook my head a little bit and he seemed a little crestfallen, then added, "It doesn't have to be a snowman," I smiled softly but still shook my head again, instead getting up on my feet and gesturing for him to follow me as I walked a bit aways. He followed after me, curious to find out where I was going and what I wanted. We walked for a bit together, through the snow and trees until we reached the streets and roads of the town once again. It wasn't until we were out on the town again that Clover spoke up at last, thankful for the apparent patience she didn't even know he had in him to deal with that walk of silence, since most kids would express their annoyance much earlier.

"What have you been up to lately Jack?" Clover asked him as they walked past the candy store once again, having to repeat the question again as he was rather taken by the sight of sweets. The frost spirit eventually answered after she managed to get him away from the window that showed the sugary temptations, and his answer was sort of what the luck spirit had expected, though at the same time she was hoping that there would be more for him to tell her. Maybe she hoped that there would be a story that he would tell her of him finding a new friend, possibly even getting a believer or something like that. Clover just wanted to hear that something good had come for him over the few years that she hadn't seen him, but it seemed as though that that wasn't the case.

"Eh, same old. I did play this awesome prank on the Groundhog. See, I poured this bucket of super glue I found, right down his hole and-" Already she was not liking where this was heading, despite how amazingly humorous it really sounded in her opinion. But her 'adult' disapproval of him playing such tricks on the (let's face it) annoying as all hell animal spirit, was not what got her to interrupt him in the middle of his story. In fact what did was when they strolled past a second hand clothes shop, and a light bulb went off in her head, which caused her to look back at the frost spirit behind her as more questions were raised.

Exactly how long had he been wearing that same outfit? Had he ever changed it, since all she ever remembered him wearing was that same attire, in fact it was all she had seen him wear for as long as she knew him. Sure, she wasn't going to get all that room to judge, after all she had worn the same dress for long periods of time as well. But to be fair, when she did it wasn't through her choice, and it did rip and tear so badly she could only save half of it for the dress she had turned it into now. But it looked as though such difficulties hadn't really gone over his clothes, if anything the shirt and cape/jacket just looked old and over worn.

"Jack, come in here with me," She said suddenly, opening the door of the second hand store and gesturing for him to go in first. He looked a little confused, but all the same he did as I asked and went inside, her following him in not a second later. It was nearly altogether empty, which was something that usually she would have found strange, but at the same time it wasn't something she wasn't unfamiliar with, as she herself had gone into these kind of stores recently in the past, looking for other clothing or something else for her Patch House. Jack however, had obviously never been in one of these stores before, which was seen in the expression on his face.

"Why are we here Clover?"

"How long have you been wearing those clothes Jack?" I asked as I walked over to a pile on one table, looking through various articles of clothing for something in particular, she wasn't exactly sure but all the same she looked. The frost spirit was again left confused, but still answered the question anyway like she asked him to. The answer was exactly what she expected, and she didn't even bother to look up as she continued to sort through the clothing, frowning at some but shrugging at others. She felt a little older than her age, (but then again she was 599, nothing to sniff at or anything,) looking through the clothes like she was. To be honest, the luck spirit felt like she was a mother looking through clothes for their child, and got the feeling that when he caught on to what was happening, he would complain like a child in this situation would.

"Erm, always why?" I held up a certain white shirt that Clover was sure he would fit into, and the whining started like she expected. She heard every response in the book that she'd heard a child say to their mother before, that he didn't need new clothes, that the ones he was wearing was fine, that he didn't like any of the clothes in the store anyway, that he didn't want to be here, the whole shebang. But Clover knew his excuses went out of the window when she held up a certain blue hoodie. It was his size, definitely his look, and judging by the sudden quieting of the excuses, he liked it as much as she did.

"So… I'll get this for you, and we can go ice skating and build all the snowmen we can alright? But first you gotta put this on and keep wearing it," Clover held up the blue hoodie one last time before walking off to the front desk, which was also strangely abandoned by the owner of this shop, so I just let a few gold coins on the desk and walked back Jack, throwing the hoodie to him, which he caught easily. I pointed to a changing room purposely, and off he went, leaving out on my own for a few minutes, before he flew back out again in the blue hoodie, looking mighty happier than before. There was still the fact of his pants, and needing to get new ones, but I was pretty sure that no pants in this store would fit those stick legs of his.

"Where are your old clothes?" I asked pointedly, and he handed me back the old shirt and cape thing. She nodded thankfully and looked back at the pot, which at this point was shifted into a kind of shoulder strapped purse. The luck spirit opened it and easily slipped the old clothes into its endless space, closing it afterwards. After Clover was done doing that Jack just about dragged her out of the shop and back outside, as it seemed that he wanted her side of the bargain kept as they went out to a clearing and started building snowmen, snow-animals and even snow versions of themselves. Sure, Clover's attempts to make a snowman on her own weren't as good as the frost spirit's creations, but then again she hadn't spent this much time over such things as he had. In fact, the creations Jack made were very impressive, the detail he put into the snow squirrel's fur and tails was something that made her stop in her attempts and just stand back to watch him work.

"You're great at this Jack," She said excitedly, grinning at him as he looked a little shyer than she remembered him ever being before. Clover wished she had a camera to take a photo of these creations, just so she could look back at these beautiful ice and snow sculptures whenever she wanted, and always see how amazing the frost spirit was in this passion of his, well it had to be a passion, as he had to have done this more and more than just this day. Jack didn't seem to think that he was as great as she was saying, looking back at the snow creations like an artist would, and seeing fault.

"Eh, they're okay I guess, let's go skating now okay?" He grabbed her hand and dragged her off again, back towards the small lake and smiling a little more when he saw that they had plenty of room to skate, since the children seemed to have gone home by this point. Jack paused for a moment, creating instant ice skates, made of literal ice, and hoping on the ice to skate around, looking back at her expectantly but frowning when she realized that she wasn't going to join him. And that was mostly because she had no skates of her own, however the luck spirit did have an idea and held a hand out for him to wait a few moments as she sat in the snow and took her purse off from around her shoulders, took out the clothes and neatly placed them next to her on a tree stump before bringing the metal to her boots, and thinking really hard.

When she opened her eyes again, she found her boots were now covered in the black metal, and had golden skates at the bottom. After carefully getting on her feet, (which did need the assistance of Jack t do so,) they started to skate. Now, just like before, Clover didn't have as much experience in such things as Jack did, so she spent most of the time they spent out on that frozen lake, learning with him on how to skate anyhow. Every so often she would fall, and because she was attached to the poor frost spirit at the time, he would fall with her and laugh, mostly to make her feel better as every fall more than likely added one more bruise to her behind as time went on.

They skated for a few more hours, laughing and just generally having fun together until finally the night came, and it was getting colder with the darkness. After they skated back to the edge of the frozen lake, Clover took off the boots and shifted the black metal back into the pot, placing the old clothes back into her container. Jack watched her tuck the clothes away again and raised an eyebrow, asking a question that he must have asked to himself as soon as he handed the old clothes to her in the store. He eventually did speak up and asked that question, and while it did make sense to her, she was sure that Jack didn't really understand, so she told him anyway.

"Why do you want my old clothes?"

"I want to keep them for you Jack, so if you want them back they will be okay and everything. I'll keep them safe for you okay?" The frost spirit nodded and she smiled genuinely, turning the pot back into the shoulder strap purse. Clover knew more than well enough how important the clothes spirits were born in to them, since she remembered how heartbroken she had been when she realized that she might have to get new clothes and throw the shredded up dress away. Clover wanted to keep these clothes for exactly the reason she had said, since they weren't shredded or ripped so they would be able to keep in good shape. And she knew the exact place to put them to keep them in the good shape they were in now.

"Jack I have to go home now, but can you promise me another thing?" The boy nodded, and she was quite surprised in the fact that he was acting quite the adult in that moment, since she figured that he probably wouldn't like what she was going to ask after him all that much, but all the same she wanted to try. After all, Clover did so want to be able to find him easily, and not worry all the time on where he was and if he was okay in his life. Mostly she didn't want the several years gap to happen again, just like it had so many times in the past, and this time she was going to do this, and fix it by her own actions.

"Can you sort of live here in this town, and make this lake a place where we can meet up? I mean, I want to see you more often Jack, but to do that I need you to stay in one place more often y'know?" He looked a little confused, so she elaborated a little more for him while there was still that gap of silence for her to use, "You don't have to stay just here and here only, I just want somewhere for you to come back to so we can meet up more okay?" There was a moment of silence again, and Clover was worried beyond anything that he was going to say no.

However, luck was shinning down on her that day as he eventually nodded. Sure, he was a little hesitant in the action, but all the same he was nodding, and she felt as though she was going to explode form happiness that she managed to do this and get him some form of a home, or at least a place for him go back to so she knew where he would be. Clover probably could have hugged him like crazy just for nodding, but she knew that he probably wouldn't be comfortable with that, so instead she grinned like crazy and spoke nearly a thousand words per minute on how great this was, how they could hang out more often and build more snowmen and stuff. Her enthusiasm seemed to transpire onto him as he started grinning to, jumping up and down in excitement like she was as well.

Again, quite some time passed before finally Clover realized how much time had really passed, and that she had to go home now. Before taking off though, she promised Jack that she was going to come back here tomorrow afternoon and to please be there when she was. After he promised to she finally left, waiting until she was a decent amount up in the sky before she started yelling out in happiness and shouting from celebration in the fact that she had managed to do it at last, managed to actually help Jack in a way that was actually helpful and not just that, but now she felt much stronger in her confidence.

She felt so confident in fact, that she knew exactly what she could do now.

I ran quickly down to the sandy beaches of the island, as I had decided to take pit stop to Sandy's house to do what I knew full well was right. I moved quickly to the shack, nearly jumping over the steps in my attempts to get there faster, as if I was afraid that my confidence would fade if I went any slower. I opened the door, walked quickly inside and looked nearly all over the house for the man I wanted to talk to. After a while I began to feel afraid as I couldn't find him. He wasn't in the study, the lounge room, the kitchen or dining room. So I quickly moved upstairs, my heart thudding wildly as I began to fear that he wasn't here, and my confidence was going to waste. Eventually though, my fears calmed themselves when I stopped, and heard a familiar whistling kind of snore.

There was a sigh of relief, but at the same time I felt annoyed that of course, now had to be the time in so few chances, that he wanted to sleep by his own accord. Still, I walked into his room and looked down at his bed, seeing him fast asleep. I guessed that he must have definitely been in deep sleep not to hear me running all over his house to find him, but then again I knew how much this man refused to sleep at the worst of times when he needed it, so he was going to drop like a stone when given the chance.

Moving the pale yellow covers back after I placed the pot on his bedside table, I slipped into the bed beside him, and wrapped my arm around Sandy, drawing him close to me. We had both gotten use to sleeping in the same bed together over time, (well really if anything Sandy had to get use to it while I was totally okay with it from the beginning,) and often I would wake in my bed back at the Patch house to find him sleeping next to me when I could swear I went to bed alone. And no, nothing ever really 'happened' during those times. We'd just cuddle up and hug each other in sleep, just like I was doing now.

"Heaven forbid you should want to sleep when it's not completely inconvenient for me," I mumbled quietly, my hand resting on his cheek and stroking tenderly with my thumb. He shifted a little in his sleep, apparently he subconsciously realized I was there as he wrapped an arm around me and held me closer to him. I laughed a little under my breath and kissed his cheek before falling into sleep, but not before I muttered softly to him what I had come here to say in the first place, and was hoping that a usually awake Sandy would hear and hopefully, return.

"I love you by the way, just thought you'd want to know."

Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.