Kaeloo turned the small device over in her hands, carefully examining it in her hands. This was it. This little contact lens-like gadget, known as the feel-o-meter, was designed to let the user know the emotional state of the people around them. Kaeloo thought back to the time when she unwittingly made everyone upset with her brutally honest words and didn't even notice until Mr. Cat pointed it out, shuddering at the memory. To a person like her, the idea of hurting a someone's feelings was one of the worst things in the world, and to find out that she'd accidentally been doing that to everyone she loved had truly been horrifying - so horrifying that she was willing to give up honesty, one of her most important principles, to ensure the happiness of her loved ones. It was only natural that she would want to prevent such a thing from ever happening again.

But it was okay now! Thanks to the feel-o-meter, she would be able to notice if she'd hurt someone by accident and would be able to rectify the situation immediately. And even if someone was hurting for a different reason, she'd know something was wrong and could do something to cheer them up.

There's no way this plan could go wrong, she thought to herself. She inserted the lens into her left eye. After she got over the mildly irritating, itchy sensation, she happily stepped out of her room to drink a nice cup of chamomile tea to calm herself before bed. She should have looked where she was going, though, because she collided head-on with Stumpy, who was coming down the hallway from the opposite direction. As she picked herself up from the floor, she happened to look at him. Instantly, a diagnosis of his emotions popped up next to his face. Kaeloo knew the device was supposed to do this, and yet, she felt a sense of wonder and amazement. However, it quickly drained once she paid attention to what showed up. His self-esteem level was rather low and sadness and irritation were higher than average.

"Are you okay, Stumpy?" Kaeloo demanded to know, concerned.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he said in an annoyed tone of voice as he continued down the hallway, barely even glancing at her.

Kaeloo didn't even feel like yelling at him to be more polite. What was going on? Was he having problems in life? And more importantly, why wouldn't he tell her what the problem was? Sure, they argued sometimes, but as far as she knew, she had always been like a big sister to him, and he shouldn't have felt like he had to hide anything from her… Kaeloo sighed to herself.

As her tea brewed, Kaeloo pondered what Stumpy's problem could be. Maybe he was feeling bad about his looks? Kaeloo knew Stumpy was a good person at heart, but his physical appearance was… unusual, to say the least. Yes, that had to be it. She dearly wished she could help him out somehow, but unless he came up to her directly and asked her, she couldn't really do anything about it. Hopefully, Stumpy had someone else to talk to about his problems and wasn't just bottling them up inside himself. It was no secret that Stumpy idolized Mr. Cat, so it was possible that he'd been able to ask him for advice. Or maybe he'd been venting to Quack Quack - after all, the two were practically inseparable. But there was no way to be certain, and if Kaeloo couldn't help him directly, she would help him from behind the scenes. There was no way she was going to just sit around doing nothing while her friend suffered in silence.

What can I do to assure him that he looks just fine? she pondered to herself. Then it hit her. She slipped into the storage room - the apartment the main four lived in didn't have an attic - and pulled out a box of old photos from several years ago. Rummaging around in the box, she found a photo of herself, Stumpy, and Quack Quack as toddlers. Normally, when looking at old photos of herself with friends, she would smile fondly at the memory, but this was so long ago she could barely remember anything from that time. In fact, it was so long ago that Mr. Cat hadn't even shown up in Smileyland yet. However, it would serve its intended purpose - the three of them looked absolutely adorable in that picture, and it would remind Stumpy of that fact. She slipped the photo into an old frame lying nearby, looked it over to see if it was decent-looking, and decided that it would do. She went back to the kitchen to drink her tea.

By the time Kaeloo had finished her cup of tea, the others were all in their rooms. Stumpy and Quack Quack were fast asleep, and Mr. Cat was hard at work on an essay he had to write for English class. Kaeloo and Mr. Cat usually hung out together after the others went to bed, and it was true that a part of her wished he could join her tonight, but she was also quite happy that he was putting effort into doing his schoolwork - and deep down, she really admired his ability to perform difficult tasks such as learning a foreign language. Besides, it was for the best that he wasn't around, because it would probably be rather difficult to explain what she was doing. Kaeloo went back to the storage room, grabbed a stepstool, and headed to the dining room. She stepped onto the stool, removed the old painting of a bouquet of flowers which was hanging on the wall, and replaced it with the photo from the storage room. After making sure it was level, she took the stepstool and the old painting and back to the storage room. Now that her work was finished, Kaeloo gave a satisfied yawn. She contemplated saying good night to Mr. Cat, but decided against it. The last thing she wanted was to accidentally disturb her friend when he was supposed to be concentrating on something important. Besides, they'd still be able to talk to each other in the morning - one of the perks of having your best friend for a roommate. As she walked to her bedroom, Kaeloo smiled to herself, thinking of how much happier everyone would be tomorrow. Everything was going to be great.

Author's Notes:

1. The main four are still animals and this takes place in the same continuity as the show, not an AU. To combat continuity issues, I made it so that they all live together in one of those cardboard apartments.

2. The main four speak French, even though the fic is written in English, which is why Mr. Cat is taking English as a foreign language in school.

3. I've kind of hit a writer's block for "Insensitivity Training" but that doesn't mean I'm abandoning the fic, I'll finish it up someday.

4. Thanks to Randomness Unlimited for beta reading!