It was eight A.M.

"Vicky."

"No..." Vicky whined from beneath the cover of several blankets.

Timmy shrugged. "I guess I can let her sleep in..." Holding a bowl of Timmy-O's, he left their shared bedroom and sat down in front of the TV.

Wanda poofed from her fishtank, Cosmo chose to stay in front of his miniature flat screen. "Morning Timmy."

"Morning." Timmy lazily ate his cereal.

"Something the matter?"

"Nah, just tired."

"Oh, you and Vicky, eh?" Wanda winked at him.

Timmy blushed. "I- I know what you're insinuating! So what?!"

"Nothing, nothing... Can we call the baby... Samantha?"

"How about I wish for you and Cosmo to have a kid? See how that plays out?"

Wanda visibly paled at what he was suggesting. "You wouldn't!"

"Yeah I would. I wish-"

"Alright! I get it! You don't like talking about what goes on behind closed doors!"

"Great. You finally get what I've been saying... You guys like the upgrade?"

"Um... yeah, it was very thoughtful of you, thanks."

"Well, I only wished for it, you guys made it happen..."

"Fair enough, but we can't make it happen without you wishing for it, so it's more of a fifty-fifty kind of thing."

"I can see that. Has there been any word from Tootie or Heather?"

"Nope, not a peep. You think they're okay?"

"I don't see why they wouldn't be, they seemed to get along okay yesterday..."

"I suppose... aren't you two being a little... hard on Tootie?"

"No... she wanted to go with Heather, if they end up in some kind of relationship, then I'm happy for them, I just like seeing her get all flustered after what she used to do to me."

"That's not very nice..."

"Neither is kidnapping me, or trying to molest me, or forcing herself on me." He looked at Wanda now. "Or poking fun at me about embarrassing things, like sleeping with my girlfriend."

"Good point. I'm uh... gonna see what Cosmo is doing, later Timmy!" Wanda poofed away, leaving Timmy on the couch with a now empty cereal bowl.

"Guess I should take a shower..."

Putting the bowl and spoon in the dishwasher, Timmy re-entered the bedroom and poked at the lump of blankets formally as Vicky. "Hey. Ready to get up yet?"

"Time?"

"Nine on the dot."

"Nope. Goodnight." Vicky fake-snored as Timmy rolled his eyes and grabbed a change of clothes.

"I'm going to take a shower..." an idea sprang to the fore-front of Timmy's consciousness. "Care to join me?"

"...Tempting offer... but no."

Timmy shook his head, but smiled nonetheless. "Alright, if you need me, that's where I'll be."

"Mm."

Things were finally looking up, like really looking up. He and Vicky had their own place, Tootie wasn't chasing him anymore and possibly liked girls- "Which is awesome." -Neither of them had anymore enemies to threaten them, it had finally stopped raining, the lazy author was finally writing again. Yep, everything was definitely looking up.

Timmy stepped out of the shower, brushed his teeth, dried off, got dressed and returned to check on Vicky. "You wanna get up-"

Only to be interrupted by a rather firm pillow hitting his face.

"No."

"'Kay! I'm gonna go see what Tootie and Heather are up to, see you later today!" Yep, not even Vicky's apparently foul morning attitude would bother Timmy today.

Descending the stairs to Heather's door, Timmy knocked on it, hoping that at least one of them was awake.

After several seconds, Tootie answered, looking tired and disheveled, yet somewhat happy.

But mostly tired.

"Oh... Hey Timmy." she covered her mouth as she yawned. "What's the occasion?"

"No occasion, just thought I'd come see how you two were doing."

"Was this Vicky's idea?" she gave him an accusing stare.

"No... like I said, just came by for a visit, also, Vicky's really tired after last night, she won't get out of bed."

"So you came by because you were bored?"

"Maybe... but also because we're friends."

"Good thing you said that, I thought I was gonna have to start my day by slapping you..."

"This early? You can't lay a hand on me." Timmy challenged as he quickly moved past her into the apartment.

"Oh really?"

"You're welcome to try... maybe make up for losing the pillow fight?"

"As I recall, we ended that in a truce..."

"Nah, you and Heather lost, fair and square."

"That is not how it went!"

"I dunno, I'm pretty sure it is... Anyway, where- AH!"

Tootie ran forward and tackled Timmy onto the couch. "What was that about not being able to lay a hand on you?" Tootie now had him pinned under her on the couch, though unlike when Vicky did it, she didn't grab his arms.

"Hm..." he looked at the position they were in, at what could possibly be considered a compromising one. "This remind you of anything?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I can think of a few times, back when you were still chasing after me, where we ended up in this sort of position, though I didn't tickle you back then."

"But you're not tickling me-" as soon as Tootie said this, Timmy began doing exactly that, causing her to erupt in a fit of giggles and shift herself off of him. "Stop! -heehee- This is- haha! You're cheating!"

"Me? Cheat? Oh Tootie, perish the thought..." he did not, however, stop and continued tickling her.

It was at this point that Heather decided to awaken and exit her bedroom, then stop and lean on the back of the couch, looking down at the two teenagers. "Am I interrupting something, or...?"

Timmy and Tootie flinched at the sound of her voice and looked up at her. "Um... what's up?" Timmy waved at her sheepishly.

"I could ask you the same, Casanova."

"Just old friends catching up..."

Heather smirked and made for the bathroom. "Right..."

Once Heather had shut the door behind her, Timmy glanced over at Tootie. "Maybe we should act like... not a couple?"

"We don't act like a couple, friends tickle each other, flirt with each other..."

"Friends who wanna jump each others' bones..." Timmy muttered.

"Wha?"

"I just don't want things to be weird between the four of us, that's all..."

"Nothing's gonna be weird, we know our boundaries and where we're all at..."

"I guess..."

"Hey, you started tickling me, remember?"

"That was strictly platonic!"

"Can tickling be platonic?"

"I don't see why not."

Both jumped at Heather's sudden re-appearance.

"Don't do that! What are you? Some kinda frickin' ninja?!"

"Well... only on the weekends... Tootie? You wanna see if we can get you a spare key today?"

"Oh! Right, good thinking!" Tootie leaped off the couch and grabbed some clothes, then headed into the bathroom herself.

"So." Heather began. "What was that a few minutes ago? Thought you and her weren't an item?"

"We aren't."

"Sure seems like you are..."

"Well we aren't. Just some light tickling between friends, Hell, you just said tickling can be platonic!"

"Hey, I'm just making sure, I mean, do you mind if I engage in some 'platonic tickling' with Vicky."

"Hah! I know what you're trying to do. If Vicky is okay with it, I won't stop you, but I wanna set some ground rules; and try not to be too shocked. I don't do threesomes or... foursomes..." Timmy shuddered slightly at the thought. "And we're not gonna 'share' either, what Vicky does with you while I'm away is her business, just like what you and Tootie do is your business, but I'm not entering into any sort of relationship with Tootie other than a platonic one. She's been hurt by me enough, and she's seriously messed things up between us with all her pining. I'm a one woman man, and that woman is Vicky."

"Wow... I'm impressed and disappointed. Impressed at your dedication to Vicky, disappointed at your lack of imagination."

"Trust me, I've already imagined more than enough."

"...Alright, message received. I will do my best to keep things from getting too weird."

"Thanks. On that note... you mind if I tag along with you guys today? Vicky's pretty tired-"

"Ah, you must've really worn her out last night, eh?"

"Sh-shut up..." Timmy's cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "I just need something to do..."

"There's always me or Tootie..." a sly grin stretched across Heather's face.

"Not funny..." Timmy's blush darkened redder.

"Kinda funny. Anyway, sure, if you wanna come along, we're probably gonna stop at the mall after I get the keys..."

"Better than sitting around here..."

"Well alright, it's a date!"

"It's a friendly outing." Timmy corrected.

"Whatever..." Heather rolled her eyes. "Better go tell your girlfriend."

"Probably a good idea." Timmy left the apartment and returned to his own to find that Vicky had still not gotten up, apparently.

Entering the bedroom, Timmy noticed the familiar lump that slowly rose and fell with Vicky's breath.

"Vicky?" the lack of a response made him move closer and poke at the amorphous blob of blankets in which his girlfriend currently resided, eliciting a muffled, half groan, half whine at him.

"Right, so me, Tootie, and Heather are going to the mall, anything you want me to get?"

"Mmph."

"English please."

"Candy."

"What kind?"

"Surprise me."

"Anything else?"

"Nope. Shutting down."

"Vicky?"

He heard soft, steady breathing from beneath the mound of blankets.

"Vicky."

"Ugh... what now?"

"You could at least get up today, it's eleven o' clock."

With a huff, Vicky threw the covers off herself, leaving her in just her underwear. Though after several seconds of deliberation, she grabbed the top-most comforter and wrapped it around herself like a cloak, before leaving the bedroom.

Timmy followed her out, then watched as she walked over to the couch and collapsed onto it. "There, I was 'up'."

Timmy giggled as he walked over and sat on the edge in front of her. "That's the best I'm gonna get, isn't it?"

"Afraid so." Vicky cracked one eye open to look at him.

"Fair enough, I'm leaving Cosmo and Wanda here, I doubt I'll need them, and if you need them, they're here." he leaned down and kissed her on the nose.

Vicky looked at him for several seconds after the kiss. "You're weird."

"And you, are a layabout, but that's okay, I love you anyway. Have a nice nap!"

"Mm-hm, love you too and all that..." "Maybe now I can get some sleep..."

A/N: Yeah, it's not much, but I'm pressed for time today, so I can't write much, rest assured, while nothing much happened in this chapter, someone is going to stir things up in the next one.