She knew she wasn't supposed to have one, but it was too tempting. There was a chance she'd get in trouble for taking it once XJ4 realized it, but maybe she wouldn't either. XJ9 didn't know how much her mom had told the woman or if she had given her any rules, she seemed to know it all already, but maybe she didn't. She was riding on a lot of "maybe" s right now,

The morning had started alright for XJ9 as she had slept cozily in her bed until she was woken up. For a moment, the light poking made her think it was her mom, but the voice had alerted her to it being XJ4. She had attempted to ignore the other girl by wrapping the blanket tighter around herself, perhaps she could sleep till her mom got back, but the plan failed. After being lightly prodded out of bed, the sleepy girl didn't have much time to breathe, as seconds later, she was prodded down the hall and into the bathroom.

XJ4 had said something about good morning routines and keeping clean blah blah. She was too busy rubbing her eyes to pay attention. The minute she lowered her hands though and looked up, XJ9's face was met with a spray full of something before a cloth began to scrub away at it rapidly. She had to give the girl credit as even though she was strong and doing her best to squirm away, XJ4 had kept her from running away and cleaned her up nicely. She did hope that this wouldn't become an everyday thing, though.

She had spent the day so far watching XJ4 rush around and clean. She did have her little alphabet book with her and looked at it ever so often, but watching the girl proved more interesting at times. XJ4's rushing around and cleaning has continued from yesterday's living room into the kitchen as she scrubbed it all down. That's when the temptation had actually started.

XJ9 never knew so many things needed to be cleaned, and the fridge was one of these. Part of her wanted to warn XJ4 as she watched her take some stuff out of the refrigerator, but another part didn't. As much as she hated it, some of her wanted things to melt or get hot so that maybe her mom would come back and wouldn't leave her alone with her again. She immediately felt her insides squirm as the guilt washed over her at that thought. After all, the woman had been nothing but pleasant to her so far. Well, she supposed the stranger was a woman based on her voice, but she could always be wrong.

Luckily she didn't seem to have to warn her, as she cleaned the fridge quickly and got everything back in before anything was affected. XJ9 was impressed; however, it was then that things got hard. She watched her start cleaning the freezer, and her eyes landed on the box of familiar popsicles that were now sitting on the counter. She could recall the recent light scolding about keeping everything out till it melted in her head.

Yet, the sudden temptation was overriding it in her mind. Well, she had let everything melt, and that was a problem, but one little thing wouldn't be a big deal, right? Her eyes darted between XJ4 and the box. She quietly got up from her seat at the table and crept over. Reaching carefully while keeping her eyes locked on XJ4, who was deep in the freezer cleaning and grumbling about it, she picked the box up. She wiggled out a little popsicle slowly to keep the wrapper from crinkling and quietly stepped away once she had it. She then crept out of the kitchen before running off to one of the living room corners.

She ripped the plastic wrapper off of it, and that's where she was now. She giddily held the popsicle in her hands, this one was the color green, and the tiny wisps of coldness that came off it made her giggle—tucked away in the corner behind the couch, she slowly watched it drip. Little by little, she stopped paying attention to the scrubbing sounds from the kitchen and entirely took in the popsicle. Something about it was just so entertaining to watch as it melted and dripped, not to mention the strange sticky sensation that covered her hands was fun too.

She could squish the liquid between her fingers and then would be stuck for a second before she pulled them apart. XJ9 watched it all become a puddle in her hands, without realizing it was also becoming one on the floor. By the time she could see most of just the stick leftover, she hadn't realized how quiet it had gotten. Then suddenly, from right behind her,

"What are you doing?"

She almost jumped and hit the ceiling, actually forgetting almost, she did. She slammed the top of her head right into the ceiling before falling hard onto the floor below. Or at least she would have hit the floor if four arms hadn't caught her. She was disoriented for a second as her eyes refocused, and a dull pain seemed to ring through her head.

"Oh my goodness, honey, are you okay?"

XJ9 just shot XJ4 a deadpanned look as she reached up to rub her head.

"Okay, okay, I get it."

Then she remembered her hands were sticky and immediately regretted the action. Something must have shown on her face as XJ4 looked worried and pulled her hand away to look at her head.

"Did you bump it badly? It shouldn't be anything too serious, but still!"

She gently ran her fingers over the area, and a look of confusion spread across her face for a second. At this moment, XJ9 attempted to squirm away but had no luck in doing so like earlier. XJ4 shot her a look that was a silent warning not to try again, and she stopped. She then retook her hand and squeezed her sticky fingers a little. XJ9 looked away as XJ4's eyes stared at her. In a stern tone that far too close to her mom's, she said,

"XJ9, What did you get into?"

All she could do was give her a guilty smile while trying not to look at the lady directly. Maybe she wasn't going to get away with it after all.

Author's Note- Hi, I'm honest going to be surprised if anyone is going to be reading this but I just wanted to get it out here. I've been slacking a lot on this fanfic, I know. Being honest life has been extremely busy for me, and I also don't get much joy from writing this story. I still want to continue with it though, as there are moments that I want to get to and write. So, I'm going to keep pushing on! Thanks for reading, and please leave a review! They really mean a lot to me.