I'm not actually sure how long this is gonna be anymore. There isn't really a plot but I've got a couple more ideas I wanna add to it. Each chapter will probably be pretty short tho.

The next morning, he was woken by the sound of the TV playing. Groggily, he wandered into the living room to find Benny lounging on his couch, watching early morning cartoons.

"I'm going to nail that window shut," Bad Cop said.

Benny yawned at him. He was in his pajamas, little cartoon spaceships all over his pants, still wearing his helmet.

"I mean it," Bad Cop added.

Benny stretched. "Ah, man, I am so sore," he said, completely ignoring the threat. "I ended up working double. Got a whole new appreciation for construction workers now. Your couch is super comfy, though. I might steal it."

"You wouldn't be able to fit it through the window," Bad Cop replied.

Benny blew a raspberry. "You're right. I'll just have to crash here more often."

"Absolutely not," Bad Cop said.

Benny shot upright as if struck by inspiration. "You know what you should do? I'm working again this afternoon, and you should totally come with me! We could use the extra set of hands."

"No."

"C'mon," Benny whined.

Bad Cop looked away, crossed his arms. "I doubt anyone there would be happy to see me."

"You wanna make amends, right?"

The sudden seriousness in Benny's tone drew Bad Cop up short, and he looked over in surprise.

Benny's expression was stony. He almost looked like an entirely different person. "You told me you wanted me to hate you," he said. "And I told you I don't."

Bad Cop's mouth went dry. He waited for Benny to take it back, to say he actually did. With sickening clarity, Bad Cop realized that was the very last thing he wanted.

"You've done a lot of bad stuff," Benny continued. "I lost a lot of friends to you. It's hard to not hate you, but like I said. I don't."

"Why?" Bad Cop asked hoarsely.

Benny locked eyes with him. "Because I think you've lost a lot, too. I think you're just as broken as the rest of us. And hard as it is to not hate you, that makes it harder to hate you."

There was unexpected steel in Benny's gaze. Bad Cop felt like he'd been punched in the gut.

Then Benny smiled, and it was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. "We're all working on fixing stuff," he said. "You should work with us. Not everyone's gonna trust you, but they trust Emmet, and he's on your side. I'm on your side, too."

It took Bad Cop a minute to get his voice back. "Yeah," he said at last. "Yeah, okay."

Benny whooped and floated a little off the couch. "Aw, yeah!" he said. "This is gonna be great!"

The change was so abrupt it left Bad Cop reeling with the whiplash. Just roll with it, he thought – or was that Good Cop's voice? He felt a sudden surge of hope and scrambled through his mind, trying to track down the source. But there was nothing. "I need alcohol," he said, heading for the kitchen.

Benny looked horrified. "It's 7:30!"

Bad Cop paused and considered this. "Coffee, then," he conceded.

"I made some already," Benny called after him. "Should still be warm."

Sure enough, the coffee was hot in its pot. As he poured himself a mug, he thought of the bedtime stories his mum used to tell him about little fairies who would act as housekeepers. He wondered if Benny was related.

Beverage acquired, he returned to the living room and stood over Benny, who had stretched out over the whole couch. "Budge up, ye lump," he grumbled.

Benny curled his legs up to make room, but the second Bad Cop sat he straightened out again, resting them right across Bad Cop's lap. "Oi," Bad Cop protested, but made no move to shove him off.

They spent the rest of the morning like that.

update: narcissisticcannibalcat made fanart for this chapter and it's too cute i am going to die /post/85581917031