"Lifty," came Flaky's small whisper.

"Go away," Lifty muttered and pulled the blanket over his head.

"Lifty w-wake up."

"Five more minutes."

"B-but it's already late and . ."

"Bah."

Flaky crossed her arms and looked at the boy who was residing on her couch, the pillow she had given him tossed on the floor and the blanket was too short, barely reaching his ankles. It was almost midmorning, when would he be getting up? She had even pulled open the curtains to let the light fill the room in hopes that it would awaken him. What she needed to do had to affect him, enough so he wouldn't be able to nap away the morning like he was doing.

Thinking, she raised her hand up and brightened, "I got it!" She put her hands on her hips, a warning in her words, "Lifty, if you don't get up r-right now, I'll do something!"

He didn't even raise the blanket off his face, "Something, that sounds horrible. Please do it."

She puffed her cheeks at the blow off and walked around the living room, picking up any pillows she could find. Once she had completed her task, she stood by his feet and raised a pillow. "Lifty get up." She threw one at where he face should've been, but it just bounced off harmlessly.

Lifty shifted under the blanket and laughed, "You think that's gonna do anything? No."

"Get up." Another throw.

"No."

"Up." Third pillow.

"No thanks."

"Move it." Last pillow.

"Ha, no."

Racking her mind for what to do next, Flaky thought of something that was bound to wake him up even if he didn't want to. She climbed on the armrest and stood straight up, growing worried about what would happen if she lost her balance and fell backwards. Gulping at the thought, she set her legs apart and kept her arms out, beginning to quiver. "A-alright Lifty, you asked for this. Get u-up!" She pushed herself forward, her entire bodyweight hitting him.

"Uff!" Lifty chocked on the air he had been breathing in and sat up, causing the red head to tumble to the ground, rubbing his chest. "What the fuck Flaky!? What was that all about?!"

Flaky got back on her feet, smiling shyly, her bangs covering half of her face as she looked at his annoyed expression. "Y-you weren't getting up . . and I w-warned you . . But it made you get up so it worked!"

Lifty snorted, showing that he didn't think it worked as well as she thought it did. "Fine, since you already ruined the chance of me going back to sleep, what the hell. I'll get up." He stood up, prodding the forming bruise on his arm where he elbow had hit him.

Adding to the minor pain, the incoming sunlight was annoying in his opinion, so after he regained some control of his body, he closed the shades. "Don't open these anymore."

"Oh . . okay the sun was . . getting me m-mad too . ." Flaky mumbled before remembering why she had woken him up in the first place. "S-so, Lifty," she examined the ends of her hair, seeming to find it interesting at the moment, "you should know that you're welcomed to stay here until . . ?" They shared a short pause of awkwardness, because, they both knew what the real question was.

Until what? Until Shifty grew tired of his new toy and decided to take him back? Fat chance that would happen. Until Flaky couldn't deal with him as her burden and make him leave so her life stayed normal but his took a turn for the worse? Would she do that?

He licked his lips, his mouth had just gone dry as he thought of what could happen in the near future. "Uh, that's cool of you, okay . ." He had already reached his limits of "thank you"s the night before, so now he had to wait another year to be able to say it again.

"But, in case something does go wrong," her eyes were full of concern, concern for someone who was despised by almost everybody, "I w-want you to be able not to rely on Shifty for anything . . so today . . I'm going to teach you everything I can that will prepare you for the outside world!"

The twin suppressed a chuckle at her enthusiastic proposal, but he began branching out on the idea of not having to beg Shifty to take him back into the house and just . . be on his own. It didn't have to be "Shifty and Lifty: The Greedy, Mischievous Twins Who Nobody Likes", it could just be Shifty with that title and he could be "Lifty: The Twin Who—" Who . . He would have to figure out what came after that.

"I'm listening."

Satisfied that she had caught his attention, Flaky said, "Well, we could start by cleaning up y-your image and reputation." Great, did that mean apologizing to everyone he had ever stolen from? If there was anything he hated more than thanking someone, it was apologizing to them. "And I know someone who would really help us! He's super sweet and one of the nicest people I know!"

He noticed that her face reddened at the thought of whoever she was talking about, and that made him less excited about being dragged to go meet them. Because if he did, she'd probably be making googly eyes at him the entire time and he wouldn't get anything out of it. "Eh, yeah?"

"Yes! And he's just the kindest person ever, you'll really like him!" Eyes shining and a wide smile on her face, she told him to go and get himself cleaned and dressed so they could leave. And based on the speed that her words had spilled out in, he knew that she wanted to leave fast.

Afterwards, when he had changed into his freshly washed and dried clothes, he came out of the bathroom and that's when Flaky rushed him out the door.

"The library's going to open soon! And we have to be there before he's too busy to talk to us!" She shoved him in her car, which was a bit hard since he was taller and her car was small, but they did it; even if his head was nearly hitting the roof.

The whole car ride there, Lifty picked up tiny signs of her nervousness when she talked about the boy. Tapping on the wheel, adjusting her mirrors more times than what was needed, eyes darting from one sign and the road to another. He wondered just how close these two were . . .

"We're here!" Flaky called out and pushed the break down, giving them a sharp jolt. She backed up, parallel parked between two other vehicles, and shot out the door. "Come on, Lifty, the doors are almost going to open!"

His mood darkening, he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out, following her up the steps to the town library. He had never been here before, since there never was a real need for the twins to steal books full of nothing but rubbish. Not to mention that he found reading a waste of time, so he couldn't imagine what kind of loser would work there; it was the most boring place he could think of.

Flaky eagerly hopped up the steps two at a time, her nose pressing up against the clear doors when she made it to the top. She waved Lifty—who was still walking up the steps slowly—over and said she was saw the boy. Tapping loudly on the glass, she said, "Flipppyy! Hey Flips! Open the door!"

Inside, the green haired librarian glanced up and saw Flaky waving to him at the door. He smiled, glad to see his friend, and got up to go unlock the doors so she could come in. As they opened, he pulled her into a hug, his tone laced with pleasure, "Hey! What are you doing here? Aren't you still working on that book from last week?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, but that's not what I'm here for," She looked at the steps. "I'm here because—"

"Fucking God, how many steps are there?" Lifty finally had made it past the last step and was leaning on one of the pillars the library used for decoration. "They should just put a damn ramp or something."

Flippy's hand went to his pocket where he kept his knife at, and he glared at the complaining male. "Why is that rotten thief here? Flaky, what's going on?"

She deflated a little, the word rotten knocking off some of the hope that they would get along. "O-oh, uh, I just wanted to see if you could help him with something . . He's my new friend and—"

Lifty cocked an eyebrow up, they were friends? Right.

"—he's having some family trouble so he's staying with me—"

And at that moment, Flippy and Lifty made eye contact, and it was like everything else besides their glares turned black while the electricity between them hit the dangerous mark.

This was going to be interesting.

Yeaahh slight FlippyxFlaky in this and the next chappie probably, but I can't help it. Flippy's crush on her is too obvious to just push away into nothing. Screw you guys these chapters are going to be short from now on xD