CRACK! CRASH! PLUMP!

Ash's eyes dropped open the second the loud racketing noise hit her ears.

She sprung up instantly on the spare bed she had been sleeping in, and hurriedly got to her feet, rushing across the hall and ramming open Clay's room where all the chaos was coming from.

This time, her jaw dropped open, when she saw the old lion on a ladder with a huge hammer, whacking the ceiling hard and breaking it apart.

"Cal!" She called, in honest terror, running over to the ladder and trying to climb up it to get him down. When she reached the opposite step from him on the other side of the metal ladder, her eyes widened in shock, as she felt the cold breeze sink into the room from the roof.

"CAL!" She yelled again, as he wasn't stopping the terror on his house's ceiling and finally she grabbed hold of the hammer's wooden end, trying to pull it away from him, finally shouting in desperation, "CLAY!"

He seemed to freeze up the moment he finally heard her loud cry of his name, and he took his eyes off the ceiling, down to the porcupine that was hanging at the edge of his wooden hammer's handle.

"Ash...?" He asked, sounding perturbed and so mightily confused. She gave him a very angry expression as she hung in the air. An incredibly pissed-off face.

"What," He uttered, his voice sounding confused and he finally lowered her back on the opposite metal step of the ladder, "What are you doing..."

"ME?!" She yelled in total disbelief, and she shivered there on that ladder, as a cold breeze blew in from above, "What are YOU doing?!"

Calloway remained silent for a moment, analyzing what his answer should be, before sighing heavily, his chest deflating as he finally replied, "I'm making a sky roof so I can see stars, the moon."

"In the middle of WINTER?!" Ash had to make clear, not understanding this old lion at all.

Calloway, again, remained silent and closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling slowly through his big nose. He didn't want to admit the reason why he was doing this to this young porcupine... but he wasn't a liar. That he never was.

"It's..." He finally proclaimed, his heart aching inside at what he was about to say, "It's what Ruby would've wanted."

"What RUBY would've wanted," Ash began to say back to him, staring him right in the eyes, "Is for you to MOVE on."

Calloway was shocked. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"No, you see-" He started to say, but didn't know how to finish, "She... she would've..."

"Wanted you to be happy."

He stared back into Ash's eyes and he swallowed a hard gulp.

"If Ruby wanted that then SHE should've NEVER DIED!"

Ash wavered back the second Calloway roared this, like a true fierce lion. Like the incredible predator he was.

"But SHE did." Ash finally said back to him, her eyebrows lowering and she looked around the room... the destroyed roof. She had to say it again, even if he didn't want to listen.

"You HAVE to get away from this HOUSE."

He could swear his heart was galloping like a racing horse. He was trembling inside, shaking his fierce old head from side to side in denial. He had been in such denial for so long that the emotion felt real. It felt so real.

Suddenly he felt something wet and cold brush off his muzzle and he slowly turned his eyes upwards, seeing a heavy white cloud was above them, and from that cloud came the sprinkling of snow.

The two of them witnessed it together at once in that moment, the snow drifting through the damaged roof's opening and into his room... the breeze was chilling, almost like a cold knife stabbing at their fur and hands.

Calloway slowly closed his eyes, raising both his arms away from the ladder and letting the snow fall on him... chilling his bones. He looked like he was on a battered crucifix and Ash almost had tears in her eyes at what she was seeing.

He would rather DIE than forget.

So she had to do the one and only thing she could.

Get him out of this prison and back into the world.

She couldn't keep watching him disintegrate.

She couldn't.

So she slowly walked to the top of the ladder and placed her small hand in his open snow-covered one.

He slowly opened back up his sad blue eyes, and looked at her... seeing her worry, and that only worried him back. He wasn't just destroying himself here... he was destroying the girl he loved.

He loved...

He really did love her... and all he saw in her eyes was such heartbreak at the way he was living.

It was like a silent epiphany... it didn't hit him hard, but it was like a lightbulb had lit up in his soul.

"I know..." He finally admitted and looked at his furry arms and his heavy grey mane. He could see the crisp white of snow had covered him nearly completely. He gulped again, suddenly shaking the frosty snow off, and felt a tired lost teardrop roll down his face, "I know I have to let go... but, it's just so h-hard..."

Ash looked at him silently, placing her soft hand on his cheek and directing his old worn eyes to her own.

"The only thing you have to do," Is what she said to him, "Is just take the first step... and keep taking them... till the pain is bearable, and you start to feel happiness, one day... again,"

He wanted to yell at her, I'll never find the happiness I have lost! But he knew, that's not at all what she meant. He knew she meant a different happiness... one that didn't erase the past, but allowed for a future to happen.

He sighed heavily, giving a hard nod of his head, and began to climb down the ladder's stairs, Ash doing the same from the other side.

When their feet hit the ground again, Calloway only gazed up at the open hole in the roof and exhaled out again a tired sigh.

"How am I going to fix this in time for Christmas..?"

"Don't,"

His eyes widened slightly as he dropped his sight down to Ash who was standing there with a weak afraid smile on her lips.

"Come and celebrate Christmas with me. With my family..."

She quickly shut my mouth up the minute the proposition was given, and Calloway only stared at her, his heart beginning to return to a normal rhythm in its beats.

He wanted to say no, to reject her offer... but this girl, she made him feel something again.

She made him feel like he was alive, that he had so much more to live for.

... with her-

STOP THINKING THAT WAY, CLAY! He thought in his head, as she didn't see him the way he saw her, SHE'S A FRIEND! BARELY AN ADULT!

He smirked a little, ignoring his thinking mind, and slowly began to nod his head. His whole body couldn't believe what he was doing. His usual actions were always to flee from life and happiness.

Flee and never fight.

But he wanted to fight now.

"Okay."

Ash was about to say, "-if you don't want to-" But her words caught quickly in her mouth, and she gleamed excitedly as she spat out a completely different sentence to him, "R-really?!"

"Yeah," He replied, before swallowing again, feeling that dangerous heavy fearful lump in his throat once again, "I'd... I'd really like that."

"And you won't sulk and wander off by yourself?"

"Ash," He said, a small chuckle rumbling up his throat now, "I have no where I can go where you won't find me."

"Well," She said with a small laugh herself, and nudged him a little on his upper arm as she proclaimed proudly, "I am your number one fan."

"Don't need to remind me," He said back to her with a soft grin. Ash felt her cheeks up heat up shyly, laughing back at him so he wouldn't see her embarrassed expression.

"Your family," He added on then as they began to walk out the room, but he stopped them just at his open door, "They won't be poking me with their spikey fur a lot? Will they?"

Ash only laughed this off, shaking her head giddily and she left him, getting her stuff and preparing to leave in a few hours.

Calloway stayed at the open door for a few moments more, staring at the snow that floated down into a light pile onto his floor. He slowly turned his gaze back up at the big hole he had created, and shut his eyes hard, clenching them tightly closed so the sad tears wouldn't flow.

"This Christmas, Ruby, I won't be alone..."

He sighed heavily, a heartbreaking smile hurting his lips.

"And maybe for the first time in so long... I won't feel alone either."