Wow, okay, so I didn't expect positive reviews so soon so thanks! I'm going to try and not forget about this fanfic and actually try and finish it, or at least make sure there's enough chapters of the short stories so it's worth reading.

From the sabre's den, Diego could see his two young cubs bouncing around and giggling with Crash and Eddie. He wasn't the biggest fan of this friendship Eliza and Toby had found - after all, it was Crash and Eddie. They spent most of their time pranking everyone or cracking jokes.

"Oh, no, this friendship can't be happening. Sure, it's all fun and games now but how long before they start copying Dumb and Dumber and start pulling pranks on everyone?"

Shira came up next to Diego and chuckled, "They're fine, they're having fun. We can't keep them away from Crash and Eddie when we're all a family."

"No, we can't keep them away completely," Diego agreed, "but we can definitely teach them /first/ to not pay attention to them."

"I'd like to think they're smarter than that. When they get older and gain more friends, they'll be fine." Shira reassured him, which seemed to work because Diego gave up on the idea of stopping them from playing with Crash and Eddie.

Down in the clearing, the sabre cubs were running around excitedly with Crash and Eddie. They had a good friendship with the twin opossums and whether this was due to them always making the cubs laugh or because the cubs didn't have many friends other than the cougar cubs at the moment, they loved spending their days playing with Crash and Eddie.

"Who do you think is faster? Us," Eddie said, using his tail to point at him and Crash. "Or you two sabre kittens?"

"Definitely us!" Toby said confidently. "We may be small, but we can almost catch mice now!"

"What about a challenge?" Crash asked enthusiastically, "Last one down to the beach is a loser and has to… Kiss SId!"

"Ew!" Both cubs and even Eddie exclaimed.

"If you don't want to do it, then just don't lose!" Crash grinned, getting ready to run. Eddie and the cubs both followed. "Ready..."

"Steady…" Eddie followed on.

Before anyone could get to saying 'go', the opossum twins went flying off.

Eliza and Toby glanced at each other for one small second before they quickly followed, "Crash and Eddie!" Eliza shrieked, "That wasn't fair!"

They went charging through the forest, in the direction of the beach. There were obstacles in the way - boulders, tree branches and different turnings but this wasn't a problem for the opossums or the sabre cubs. All of them managed to easily jump on and off the branches and boulders. That was until they came to a fallen branch that had a hole in it and Crash thought it would be cool to jump through it.

"Bro, watch this!" Crash shouted, diving straight into the hole. Instead of just popping out through the other side, he ended up stuck. He tried to push himself forward and wriggle himself out, but it was no luck - he was stuck. "I don't want to kiss Sid!" He cried.

"I've got you, bro!" Eddie jumped in front of his brother and grabbed hold of his paws, trying to pull him out. He inhaled deeply and puffed his chest out, trying one more time to pull Crash out of the hole in the tree - instead of succeeding, Eddie lost his grip and fell backwards.

As soon as he did, Eliza jumped over the fallen branch, shortly followed by her brother. "You guys didn't say 'go!' Wait, why have we stopped?"

Eddie simply pointed to his brother who was still stuck; Crash just smiled and waved.

"So… If we run down to the beach now, we win and we don't have to kiss Sid!" Toby realised, ready to run off again.

"No, wait! I can't be stuck here forever, something might try and eat me!" Crash panicked. "I'm too young to die!"

The sabre cubs looked at each first for each other's approval before they both looked back at Crash and Eddie. "Do you promise to say 'go' this next time?" Toby asked.

"Yes, yes, I promise! Just pull me out!"

Eliza jumped on top of the branch, trying to assess the situation and decide which way would be the easiest and quickest to get Crash out of the gap. "What if we use a vine? Eddie, you can tie it around Crash and then we can all pull on it and pull him out!" She suggested, jumping back down.

Eddie nodded and ran to find some vine that they could use; it didn't take him long, he came back with some long vine and tied it under Crash's arms. He grabbed the bit of vine that was closest to his brother and both cubs took some in between their mouths; fortunately their teeth weren't as sharp as a grown sabre's yet, so it wouldn't snap straight away.

"Ready?" Eddie said, "Go!"

With that, they all started pulling on the vine whilst Crash kept trying to wriggle his way out. He began to slowly move forward,

"Guys, it's working!" Crash exclaimed excitedly.

They all started to pull harder on the vine and just as Crash managed to squeeze out, the vine snapped causing them to all fall back on one another.

"I'm free!" Crash screamed happily, jumping up and down.

"Ouch!" Eliza squealed, "Crash! Stop jumping my head!"

Eddie hugged his brother happily, joining in with the jumping. Toby managed to push the two off Eliza, which they didn't even seem to notice. Eliza got back up and brushed herself up, frowning at the two opossums. She noticed how distracted they were jumping around happily, then glanced over at her brother who was distracted by a butterfly.

She decided to take her chance and RUN.

"Last one at the beach has to kiss Sid!" She shouted back at them.

Toby immediately pulled out of his daydream and ran after her, charging past Crash and Eddie. The two opossums looked in shock before screaming, running down to the beach.

Eliza got there first, having taken a shortcut by climbing and jumping down various rocks. She was laid out on the beach relaxing and looking at her claws, waiting for the other to catch her up. Hearing footsteps running up behind her, she glanced to see Toby running up to her. Once he got close enough, she stuck her paw out in front of him and sure enough he tripped and fell face first into the sand.

"Hey! Eliza, that was mean!" Toby complained, jumping up.

"At least you didn't lose," she pointed out to him.

Soon enough, Crash and Eddie came running down to the beach, Eddie managing to get there just before Crash did - mainly because he pushed Crash out the way to get there before him.

Crash just stared at the three who were there before him in shock - he really didn't think /he/ was going to lose, which is why he suggested the loser having to give Sid a kiss in the first place. He just knelt down in defeat, "NOOO!" He screamed, which just made the others laugh.

"Come on, guys. Let's go home and find Sid," Toby laughed. "I'll race you all there!" He said, running off again. Eliza quickly jumped up and followed after him, both of them having the same energy as they did before.

"Where does all that energy come from? HEY, GUYS! Wait up!" Eddie shouted after them, grabbing the still defeated Crash as he ran after them. Again.

When they all arrived home, all of the herd were gathered around as Sid was making a fire. Eddie was already laughing, holding Crash to make sure he wouldn't run away.

"Hey, Uncle Sid!" Eliza shouted, getting Sid's attention enough that he turned around.

"Crash needs to kiss you!"