A.N. Sorry it took me forever to update and leaving you all with a cliffie … my muse just decided to take a break from this story for a while, but now it's back!

"Zack, Cody, are you two in there?"

"Uh Oh! It's Maddie! Quick, hide the kitten in our room!

As Zack ran to answer the door, Cody ran to hide Natalie in their bedroom

"How're you doin' sweet thang?"

"Zack, will you PLEASE stop calling me that? Your mom was really worried about you two, and she asked me to come up here when I had a minute to make sure you two are alright."

"I'd be better if I had a kiss from you, sweet thang."

"Oh, man, I hope she doesn't realize that I'm just stalling here, even though I wouldn't say no to a kiss … where is Cody? He was supposed to be back … how long does it take to put a kitten in our bedroom anyway? Apparently a lot longer than I thought it would … I guess it would take him a lot longer than it would take me. I just hope he's happy, because if…"

"Um, Zack, are you sure you're okay? And, where's Cody?

"I'm fine, as for Cody, um … do you want me to go find him?"

"Sure, and just for security purposes, I want the both of you to come out together, so I know that it's really both of you, and not you masquerading as him, okay?"

"Well, I hope he's happy, because if Maddie finds out about Natalie, then we're going to be in BIG trouble!

Zack ran into their bedroom, and sure enough, there was Cody, holding Natalie, hiding behind a bed

"Cody, the point was that you would hide Natalie, then come out of the bedroom, not hiding WITH Natalie. Come on, I think Maddie may be on to us … at the very least she suspects something."

"allright, allright, I'm going!" Cody put a small piece of cheese on the floor to distract Natalie while he and Zack left the room

After Maddie left, Zack and Cody let Maddie out of their room.

"That was close"

"ya think! We have to be more careful than that! But how?" Cody looked around for Natalie, who was crouched behind a shoe, trying to hunt something that Zack and Cody couldn't see.

"Maybe she just needs to run off some energy … maybe we could take her to the park.

"Wouldn't she just run off?"

"I don't think so, not if we kept a close eye on her anyhow."

"Okay, to the park it is … wait a minute – the park we usually play in is across the street! If we go there, Moseby or somebody will see us."

" No, they won't. Not if we go to the park a couple of blocks over.

" Okay, if you say so." Cody picked up Natalie, who protested loudly at being held. Deciding that they had very little chance of actually getting downstairs without Moseby catching them, and that the best way to get Natalie to be quiet was to put her down, Zack and Cody decided to not go to the park. Once that was decided, it was pretty fun playing with the kitten. Natalie had a toy that she particularly loved, and she could amuse herself for hours playing at hunting it.

The telephone rang, and Cody took over playing with Natalie while Zack answered

"Hello?"

"Hello, um … is this Zack or Cody?"

"Zack"

"Cool … this is Tapeworm. Listen, Max and I were going to get together to play some basketball in about half an hour. You and Cody want to come too?

"That sounds awesome!"

"So you and Cody will be there?"

"Absolutely!"

"See you then! And he hung up, turned around and told his brother what was going on.

" Well, as you could probably guess, that was Tapeworm…"

"And"

" Well, he wants up to come to play some basketball in half an hour…"

"And you said we would be there?"

"Yes."

"What about Natalie?"

"What about her?"

"We can't take her to play basketball, we can't even get her out of the suite without being caught! What are we going to do?"

"Leave her here?"

"No! Anyway, not alone, she'd be miserable! She's just a baby kitten, and she needs someone to give her attention and keep her out of trouble" Cody thought a minute, and then continued. "But, basketball really isn't my thing. I can stay here with Natalie today, and then you can stay here next time."

"Fair enough"

And so Zack left to go play basketball, and Cody was in the suite, hoping that Natalie would still be in a playful mood.

But Natalie wasn't feeling playful. She meowed insistently at the door to the twins' bedroom. Cody didn't really know exactly what she meant. So she meowed again.

"Sorry" he told her "you can't go out. Moseby will catch us, and then I'll be in big trouble and you'll be back out in the big world again." Natalie apparently wasn't that great a listener, and meowed yet again! When this didn't get any response, she jumped up on to Cody's bed, but found that it was made, and not to her liking. When she jumped onto Zack's bed, however, she found that it wasn't made, and …

"Natalie, what are you doing?" Cody asked " because if you're…" he picked her up, and sure enough, she was.

"Natalie! What did you do that for! He said, a little ticked off at her, but thinking that it was probably his fault anyhow for not letting her out of the bedroom. Now you're going to get me into trouble with Mom, and then with Moseby … unless … a solution to the dilemma was already presenting itself. He would just have to see in the laundry room was not being used … knowing Muriel, he didn't suspect it would be …

So, after putting Natalie in the bathroom (with her litterbox) he gathered up the dirty sheets, and proceeded to the laundry room. Actually doing the laundry went, for the most part, without any major incidents, and he had folded the sheets (as best he could) and was heading back up to their suite, when he accidentally bumped into London.

"Hi Cody."

"Hi London" suddenly trying not to drop the sheets was getting harder …

"What's with the sheets?" hopeing she wasn't really on to what he was doing, he decided that his best bet was to make up a quick lie.

" Zack and I were hanging out in our room, and I accidentally spilled soda, so I told him I'd clean up – and I did."

"Oh."

He then bowed out of the conversation with London, and proceeded up to the 23rd floor, to their suite, and the bedroom.

Zack was apparently still playing basketball with Max and Tapeworm, so he decided that his best bet was to make the bed.

After that was done, he decided to show Natalie that he wasn't mad at her anymore, and played with her, using her favorite toy.

Later that night, Zack and Cody were staying up, just because they could, talking about much of nothing. Cody was petting Natalie, when she began to make funny noises that sounded weird – something between the sound a chipmunk makes and an unvoiced meow.

"aw, look, she's dreaming"

A/N – well, I hope it wasn't too weird or random … but please do tell me what you think … remember, getting reviews means that I write faster!