Ben wasn't entirely right. Rook wasn't the one to escort him to the prison; Grandpa Max fed him some bullshit line about how it would be more convincing for him to be marched in by a pair of strangers.

'Besides,' he had remarked with his arms crossed grimly; though this had been betrayed by the teasing hue of his voice. 'Rook may be a top-notch Plumber, but his acting skills leave a lot to be desired. If I send him in, the prison will be afloat with rumours of an undercover job by dawn.'

Which wasn't entirely accurate, Ben thought; Rook had gotten a lot better at lying than the early days of their partnership would indicate. But he was also a being naturally given to sentiment and Grandpa was right; he probably wouldn't be able to stop himself from smiling at Ben a little when he thought no one would be watching, or flicking his thumb across Ben's pulse line when undoing the cuff. And that wasn't really the treatment they were going for here.

So he was he was bundled in unceremoniously between the shoulders of two suited-up guards, the bulge in their darkly-visored helmets and chests reminding him of Bullfrag. They set up a fast-paced march, dragging him down corridors that had seen too little light and Ben shivered to see the murk and slime hanging off the pipes that threaded through the ceilings. It was definitely a step down from the cells in Plumber's headquarters.

And yet...a lot of other things were similar. The cells possessed that same hexagonal build, retaining that odd gleaming sense of a beehive about them, perhaps because of the way they were clustered together on top of each other in a pyramid scheme. There was even a long solid glide of transparent material covering their openings in the same way honey sap was encouraged to run over the combs inside a real hive. Ben made a face as he realised that he was expected to do his business in public, or at least in full display of the other prisoners; there was such a basic depravity in the lack of privacy that he finally got why Animo had always kicked up such a fuss. He was just thankful that he hadn't eaten too much that time he was mistaken for Albedo in the Plumber's prison.

The thick cuffs clanking round his wrist sounded like the clink of too much cheap jewellery and he was grateful, after he was bustled inside, to have the one on his right ripped off, as well as the resulting chain that arched between them. That surge of gratefulness continued even more when the guards' fingers didn't linger over his skin the way Rook's would have done and he sighed, feeling a little uneasy that he couldn't slam his hand down on the Omntirx if he needed to. He waited until the guards were gone before he stepped over to the gleam of the cell door.

'Sunny?' he whispered, feeling a little too much like a criminal as he pressed his palms against the glass-like structure and tried to peer into one of the cells directly next to him. 'Psst!'

There was a faint stirring in the cell next to him, like someone rustling the bedcovers. Then a soft, grumpy little, 'what?'

Ben breathed a sigh of relief. They had set him up next to her; he probably wouldn't have had much time to chat to her every time they were let out into the exercise yard or whatever.

'I thought that was you! I caught a glimpse of you before those bozos threw me in here,' he lied, praying that those same guards were not watching the security feed that very minute.

There was another snicker of sound, and then a slightly heavier rustle.

'Oh,' she said, sounding very, very bored; Ben could feel her nose wrinkling by the nasally twang in her tone. 'It's you.'

Ben raised an eyebrow. 'Nice to see you too, cuz.'

'Urgh! Don't call me that! We're not cool, not at all. You're on Gwen's side.'

Ben frowned. 'Gwen has nothing to do with this,' he said in a very clipped voice. 'You landed yourself in this prison.'

He could hear her huffing and inwardly, he winced. Way to go Tennyson, he could picture Kevin saying. Get her to close up like a clam. Nice going.

'Sunny? Sunny!'

But no matter what he tried, she wouldn't respond. Not even to share her thoughts on the newest Sumo-Slammer movie, though he have sworn, for a moment, that he heard the faintest mutter of 'Hick trash' passing between the walls that separated them.

He huffed and crashed back against the thin cot that was meant to serve as his bed. The sheets were thin and felt slightly slimy against his waist. Ben made a face. Who was the last prisoner here? And did the guards even bother to clean up after him?

He sighed and kicked the side of the wall. Maybe he would have better luck tomorrow.

'Sooo do you ever practise magic like Gwen does?'

Silence.

'I mean, you're an Anodite, which means you're made of mana so everything you do is supercharged when you do, you know, spells.'

More silence.

Ben idly realised that perhaps encouraging her to take up spell-crafting as a hobby wasn't a good idea, especially given the fact that she had a lot more raw power than Gwen did. She could turn out worse than Charmcaster.

'Err, ya know, on second thought, why would you want to be more like Gwen? She's so...stuffy.'

He hears a responding sniff and gets an idea.

'Yeeeah. She's been that way since were kids. Always has to be right about everything, can't ever take a break...' Getting a little too into it, he starts listing the reasons off the top of his fingers. 'Everything has to be clean like no-dust-on-bookshelves-clean, you can't touch her desk or you're dead, she complains about fingermarks on her laptop, I mean, hello, that always happens no matter what you do, and if you ever bring up the word 'witch' to describe someone, oh boy are you in trouble...'

Sunny gave a rigid little laugh. 'Yeah, sounds like her all right.'

Ben frowned. He didn't really know or understand Sunny: she was a complete stranger to him. Heck, she was a complete stranger to Gwen. The last time they had any real, meaningful interaction with each other, they were three and all they were concerned about were the colour of their dolls' dresses.

But Sunny had been quiet these last few days. Horrendously quiet. Nothing like the valley-girl chick she'd come off as on their first encounter.

'What's up?' he asked finally, eyes glued to the blank wall in front of him, as though it could cut out a window into her cell. 'The last time we saw each other, properly saw each other, you were just interested in having a good time. But...you hurt my partner's sister. Just for some crop. I mean, you've always been a fan of violence, but you could have killed her. That seems excessive, even for you.'

'So?' demanded Sunny irritably. 'It's not like I didn't teleport her to the nearest hospital. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

Ben growled under his breath, trying to keep his temper. He actually liked Shar and not just because she was his boyfriend's sister. She was adventurous and reckless, always quick to leap into action, and quite frankly she reminded him of when he was younger and a little less experienced. And so it had hurt to see a part of that die in that hospital bed, her face appearing quiet and withdrawn, like she was re-thinking things.

'Her name is Shar,' he said, all of him steel in the way he spoke, a cold heavy threat in his voice. 'Rook Shar. And she deserved better than running into someone like you.'

He turned from the wall, suddenly not at all in the mood to talk.

'I just don't get it!' he ranted over the phone to Rook later. Had it been one of those old fashioned phones his mum had been so fond of, the ones with the spiralled cord hanging in a loop from receiver to main body, he would have been busy tangling his fingers into the knobbly curls in his agitation. But it wasn't. 'She's so...guarded! I mean you wouldn't expect it from her of all people, but there you go. I mean, she's worse than Kai! Because you know, Kai actually talks to me.'

It was his turn to use his allotted phone call, one every sixteen hours and instead of queuing up the way you did in human prisoners, there was a small handset built into the wall of each cell, kinda resembling a radio transistor. The mouth-piece was held in place by a magnetised clamp that sprang free whenever a prisoner made a request to the people who brought their meal-carts round. The only downside was that there was no screen built into the body, so he was unable to see Rook's face. But that did nothing to deter the warmth that still spread through him when his boyfriend spoke.

'Really, Ben? Are you sure you did not do anything to spur this lack of cooperation?'

Ben winced and recalled their last conversation.

'Well...'

Rook sighed. It descended through the mouthpiece in a rattle, a slight spark of static causing to it to form into a dense roll of sound, much like the sea falling away from the shore.

'Ignoring that,' he said, his tone dry, 'is it really wise to be discussing this so near her cell?'

Ben waved dismissively despite the fact that Rook couldn't see him.

'It's fine, she's asleep...what, you think I'd be stupid enough to call you when she was awake?'

'But if you cannot see her, how can you be sure?'

'She snores, Rook. Terribly. And no girl would ever pretend to sound like a troll in order to fool people listening. She'd give breathy little sighs instead.' He smirked. 'I should know; I shared an entire summer with Gwen in the back of a camper van. She sucked at it.'

Rook seemed to digest this. 'I suppose...'

Ben grinned. 'Trust me,' he said.

'I suppose I have no choice.'

Ben frowned. 'That's not nice,' he complained. 'Some boyfriend you are. You're supposed to have faith in me. Proper faith. Not the kind of faith where you wait for me to screw up.'

'My apologies,' Rook murmured, though his thoughts sounded far away and caused Ben to scowl even harder. 'But if you will allow me to interject with an idea...'

Ben took the time to breathe long and hard against the mouthpiece and smiled to himself as he heard a slight clutter of noise at the other end; evidence that Rook had jumped away in shock.

'Please do not do that.'

Ben laughed. 'Alright Einstein, what's your idea?'

There was a slight puff at the other end and Ben could imagine the swell of Rook's chest and the pleased smile on his lips at the perceived compliment. And sure enough:

'That is quite a compliment, Ben, considering the historical acclaim humans have given Einstein's intellect,' Rook stated, pride tingeing his voice. 'Alright; you say Sunny is defensive, guarded when she talks to you?'

'Yep.'

'Well,' said Rook slyly, 'I once knew someone very similar to Sunny. They would brush off my attempts to be friendly, and huff and pout when they did not get their way.'

Ben leant against the wall, sliding down slightly so he could cup the full weight of his mouthpiece against his cheek. 'Yeah?' he asked, a slight smile twitching at his lips. 'Wow, what a jerk.'

'He had his good points,' Rook hastily rushed to assure him and Ben coughed to disguise the chuckle racing up through his throat. 'And it was more than worth the effort of breaking through the walls he put up in the end.' There was a faint pause. 'Very worthwhile,' Rook pronounced softly, a faint promise in his voice.

Ben strictly reminded himself that this was not that kind of phone call. 'Is there an actual point to your story?'

'Yes,' Rook said promptly. 'This someone was very lonely. He needed a friend. Just like Sunny does now.'

Ben frowned. 'Rook, what do you think I've been trying to do? I can't exactly offer to take her to a party. Besides, given the way she went on and on about Antonio last time, I think the only relationship she really understands is one from a bad romance novel.'

'I was getting to that! Ben, the only way I got through to the friend in my example was by not exhibiting any sort of defensive behaviour. I put up little to no guard so that in the end he was compelled to lower his own. Remember what I said the last time we met about asking favours and building a rapport? It is just like that.'

'Hmm,' Ben tapped the corner of his lip. 'You know that gives me an idea...'

The prison was never totally dark, not even at night. There were faint tiles in the ceiling, with curved bulges to their seems, one that lit up with an eerie glow the same way that the reflective spheres of glass called 'cat's eyes' on Earth did late at night. Ben stared at them for a while, listening. But there was no sound of snoring.

'Sunny? You awake.'

No answer. But then what had he really expected?

He sighed, let the noise drift out of him, loud and noisy. 'I can't sleep,' he admitted. 'I've had trouble for a while now; it just isn't the same...' he hesitated, nibbling on his lip for a moment. Was he really going to...?

He pictured Shar lying in her bed, her brother beside her, his face creased in worry. And then he blew out an irritable breath.

'I can't sleep without my boyfriend.' There. The words were said, pulled out from between gritted teeth. And yet the world didn't explode and reporters didn't come crashing through the ceiling to assault him. The universe for once, was behaving.

There was a rustle from the cell beside him, the sound of blankets hastily crashing to the floor with a soft thump.

'You,' Sunny said, the word loud and filled with astonishment, 'have a boyfriend?'

Ben winced and pictured her smashing her cheeks up against the glass like she was in a zoo exhibit, desperate to catch sigh of an elusive beast.

'Yeah,' he said, 'small universe, huh?'

'Wow...' Sunny sounded a little too awed in his opinion. 'What's he like?'

'Well, he's...' Ben hesitated again and then let out a little laugh. 'You'd hate him. He's by the book like Gwen, and he talks weird and takes everything way too literally, but...but it's kinda cool how he isn't embarrassed about making mistakes and asking for help. And he's really smart, like human-genius smart, which yeah, I know, might not be impressive by the universe's standards or whatever big social circles you mingle with, but he can do things that it would take me turning into Grey Matter to understand.'

'Grey Matter?'

'A Galvan.'

'Ooooh...'

Ben tried to brush away the surge of irritation he felt that she didn't pay close enough attention to him to know that he gave his alien forms nicknames.

'I guess I just...miss him.' He felt stupid saying it; he had been separated from Rook for far longer than this before. But it wasn't a total lie either. He had gotten too used to Rook's presence now that they were a couple, too accustomed to the space of his body in his bed and the fur on his hands and the way they invaded every part of him that he'd once considered too private to touch.

'I get it,' Sunny sighed. 'Oh, I doooo. The way he holds you and kisses you and calls you 'baby'...god, I miss him.'

'Your boyfriend?' Ben asked, feeling a little amused at how quickly her sympathising with him had turned to her own sadness.

Sunny sighed one of those cast-down, we-is-me sighs, the kind overly dramatic and incredibly hammy actors put on for their performance. 'His name's Fistrick and he's great. He's got this Devil-may-care attitude and unlike my ex he actually cares about what he looks like, you know? He's wonderful and he actually likes to work out with me and give me tips.'

Ben blinked. 'You're an Anodite,' he pointed out. 'A naturally born one. You don't actually need to eat and watch what you weigh the same way we do. You can just build yourself a body whenever you want.'

'I know, I know, but that's what makes it so great!' gushed Sunny enthusiastically. 'Because he does it anyway! He doesn't let anything keep him from his passions! He has the soul of a true man! Not like Antonio who was always in constant need of babying!'

Oh my God, thought Ben. Help. He cleared his throat. 'How'd you two meet anyway?' he asked. 'I mean, you've always thought of us humans as hicks. And Fistrick...definitely a small-town kinda guy.'

Sunny giggled mischievously. 'Oh no, that's because you don't know him like I do. He dreams biiiig.'

Ben swallowed. 'How big?'

There was a pause. And then, with a clear ring of suspicion in her tone, Sunny asked, 'why do you want to know? Aren't you like, with the Plumbers or something?'

Ben snorted. 'Yeah, and look how they treat me! I help arrest you and this is the thanks I get! A crummy cell with no view!'

Sunny giggled, though she didn't sound totally appeased. 'That wicked party you threw probably didn't help either.'

Ben decided to change tacks. 'Still,' he said, trying to make himself sound as airy as possible. 'It's not like this is much better than my boyfriend's place. It's...okay it's not quite as cramped. But it's all Spartan, with all these pale green tones. Don't get me wrong, I love a little green. But it's everywhere, and he doesn't hang up enough pictures to cover it. Makes it seem like an underground bunker or something. I mean, would you want to spend the night there?'

C'mon, he thinks, take the bait, take the bait...

'That's nothing,' Sunny said flippantly. 'My boyfriend lives in an old warehouse for disused spacecraft. There's scrap metal lying all over the floor. Totally wild, but still a bit annoying.'

Yeeeess...

'At least you don't have to worry about cutting your feet on it?' Ben offered up. 'Still, at least my boyfriend's place has got an actual bathroom. I mean, I can't imagine there's something like that lying round a warehouse.'

Sunny snorts. 'Don't be gross! My boyfriend takes his health seriously, remember? He stole part of a car-wash to set up the plumbing, made a huuuge almost swimming-pool-like room for us to bathe in. Heck, he was even smart enough to steal access to the Xtranet from the signals rising off the shop next door from some loser called Mr Baumann.'

Ben's smile unfurled slowly, the corners of it peeking up into a sly set of crinkles.

'Oh, really?' he purred. 'He sure sounds smart, your boyfriend.'

'Mmmhmm,' hummed Sunny happily. 'That's right! The smartest!'

'Earth,' he told Rook later excitedly, as soon as he had slapped his hands together in a begging prayer in front of one the prison staff – and as soon as he could hear the familiar snores of Sunny rising from her cell Sunny. 'Next to Mr Baumann's store, in a warehouse filled with old spacecraft and with a large shower-room place attached, kinda like a swimming pool? They were riding signals of Mr Baumann's store, so they gotta be close by right? And I figure you can do something techy to trace those signals back to their location to make sure...right?'

'Understood,' said Rook with a big smile in his voice. 'Something 'techy?' Yes, I can manage that.'

Notes: Sunny is really, really fun to write, guys. Stupidly fun. Maybe it was for the best that she only ever appeared in once episode, because it gives me a chance to expand her character and I dunno, maybe eventually help her grow? Possibly give her a chance canon probably never will? We'll see.

And no, shit has not hit the fan quite yet.