Two months later and life hadn't gotten any better for the brunette nor were they worse. School was going alright, work too. His friends were more or less the same as before his roommate moved in, saw his girlfriend on the weekends before or after work, and his dreams weren't any worse. Sure he was still being mauled, chased, and occasionally found himself trapped in the white room but nothing worse. Only really weird thing going on now he swore were tricks his eyes were playing on him. They did that a lot, result of not sleeping much. Still he thought he caught little side glances from the redhead who now took it upon herself to get up and make breakfast for both of them. She'd denied it the few time he mentioned it, saying she just made too much or wasn't as hungry as she thought she was. For the sake of her ego he stopped saying anything about it.

As for the glances, he ignored them. Probably nothing anyway, it wasn't like she cared. What he didn't ignore were the attempts to make conversation some mornings, those were weird. Nice wasn't something she should ever do because it was…wrong. It'd be like the sun rising in the west. Didn't stop her from trying, asking about school, why he put up with Tootie, tips on how to deal with her, and lately she was asking how he slept. Most people asked why there were always dark circles under his eyes and after learning people think there's something very wrong with you having nightmares all the time, his excuse was insomnia. A normal enough reason that made them stop asking. His roommate was another story. She wasn't buying the insomnia, not when she knew he was setting alarms to wake him up 2-3 hours after lying down to sleep and saw his bedroom light on most of the night.

While she never came right out and asked why he wouldn't let himself sleep, she knew something was up and was waiting for him to talk. It was funny, seeing her try to be patient when he insisted it was insomnia or studying for school. His friends stopped trying to get him to talk, his girlfriend didn't bring it up, his fairies left it alone, yet here was someone who was known for being unfeeling, cold, and took joy in the suffering of others, trying to get him to open up. They were both stubborn, eventually one of them would give in and he hoped it wouldn't be him.

Now October he'd come home after work last week to find his friends decorating his house for the upcoming holiday as they'd done for the last two years. You could tell what props came from whose house; dollar store pumpkin streamers and fluorescent spiders from Chester, anatomically correct bats, skeletons, and tarantulas from AJ, the girls painted and carved pumpkins, skulls from Francis, and Tootie told everyone where to put everything. Not the most cohesive looking house on the block but definitely the most heavily decorated. Oh and Tootie decided to cover her sister's car in fake spider webbing and glitter which was a breach of the agreement she made with Timmy but he was more worried about making her leave with as little fuss as possible to clean up the mess before the older woman came home to find her car a mess. Mr. Turner had had to take her into town to buy another part to keep it going although he had a suspicion it would be magically fixed before they got back. Chester was the only one who helped him clean the car, the others took the opportunity of the raven haired tyrant being gone to place the props she didn't want put out in the yard.

Halloween was during the week day so his neighborhood decided to have trick or treat night the Saturday before which was fine with him since he, Chester, and AJ were planning to celebrate Hope's birthday that weekend anyway. It was also the only time his godparents could be out in the open with no fear of their wings and such being an issue. See since Poof and Hope liked each other so much, once in a while Timmy 'babysat' the purple haired child so the kids could play together. On Halloween he took them both out to trick or treat, even though Wanda thought that was a terrible idea that would only encourage Poof's bad habit of being too comfortable around humans. So the adult fairies would 'come over' about noon Saturday for to celebrate the two year old's birthday and then leave their son with his godbrother for the evening. Last year it worked out well enough so this year shouldn't be too much of a problem…he hoped.

Inside the house were a few colorful streamers, a makeshift ball pit courtesy of the blonde (a bigger kiddy pool filled with 'borrowed' balls from the local pizza joint's ball pit), and a couple gifts safely tucked out of reach. Technically her birthday wasn't until Monday but it wasn't like she was old enough to know the difference. His mom was bringing her over after she was done with work with Chester there to take care of her until Timmy's shift was over. However that wasn't how things worked out Friday, no she brought the toddler over at four in the morning and left her on the doorstep without so much as a knock to let anyone know what she'd done. If the teen hadn't been woken up by his latest night terror there was no telling what would have happened to the child. Judging by her red eyes and runny nose the child had been crying, their mother finally having enough of it and bringing her over…or her boyfriend wouldn't be the first time one of them got sick of the crying and drove Hope over without telling his mother.

An hour later the redhead started to come down the stairs, in nothing but her underwear and a tank top, saw the teenager sitting on the couch holding the sleeping toddler, and went back to her room. Moments later she came back down dressed in her typically weekend attire, baggy green and black stripped pajama bottoms and a tank top, looking annoyed at having her daily morning alone time disrupted.

"Sorry."

"What's Twerpette doing here so early?"

He frowned, "can you call her by her name?"

"Twerp and Twerpette are easier to remember. Answer the question."

"Someone dropped her off an hour ago, got tired of her crying I guess."

"Such great parents you have." She went into the kitchen, "I take that back, your dad's not too bad."

"Guess not."

"Don't have to work today, want me to babysit?"

Much as he hated to admit it, he didn't mind letting her babysit and in a way preferred it. Hope wasn't afraid of the redhead, hell she loved Vicky. Half the time she was there in August the woman watched her, it was a good way to show her not all females were bad, and Mrs. Dinkleberg was away on some self indulgent week long retreat. Leaving her with his ex-babysitter would be a lot easier than finding someone else, his only backup sitter was his best friend's dad who was a hit or miss on if he'd watch her.

"Be nice when Chester comes over."

"Are you implying I haven't been nice over the past three months?" Walking back into the living room she sat on the coffee table with a mug full of coffee.

"More like borderline civil."

Stone faced she put the mug on the table, "for me that's nice."

"Remind me to show you the definition of the word along with several examples."

That smile was scary, "well since what I've been doing lately isn't nice then I see no point in continuing." Without another word she took her coffee upstairs to her room and didn't come out until he had to leave for school.

All day he had to put up with his friend freaking out about sharing babysitting duties with the older woman. The agreement between the roommates was still in place so the blonde was a bit courageous when interacting with her in the house. Speaking his mind more than he should have, but he also knew there was only so far he could go before receiving retaliation. With his friend not there well it was extremely intimidating, what would stop her from using old tricks and threats to get away with something when the brunette wasn't there? Chester wasn't as quick to believe she'd hold up her end so he worried. It wasn't until they were about to leave school that he finally swallowed his fear to go watch Hope.

But by the time Timmy was done with work and being driven home by Mr. Dinkleberg since his dad was working late, he'd received nearly three dozen text messages from his best friend.

'Since when does Hope like her more than me?!'

'Your roommate won't share´

'Duuuude she made me clean the kitchen!'

'Bitch is bossing me around'

'Your boyfriend got on my nerves'

That last one was from Vicky, sent to him moments after he clocked out for the day.

Once home he found the most bizarre scene he had ever come home to and yes that does include anything magic/fairy related too. One, the house wasn't a mess like normal when Chester was there without supervision. Two, there were now orange and black streamers alongside the bright colored ones with small toy bats, spiders, ravens, black cats, and a lone shark hanging from the living room ceiling. A trio of blood red candles now occupied the coffee table alongside a skull with painted flowers and little designs on it. Very real looking cobwebs on the railing and half of the ball pit's contents were scattered throughout the house.

His friend sat tied to the legs of a kitchen chair in a corner of the living room, the chair secured to the wall with a generous amount of marine life patterned and green duct tape. He was covered in stickers, fish, starfish, clams, cartoon characters, plain colorful dots, there was a surgical mask over his mouth that did little to hide the duct tape beneath, the mask was scribbled on with marker that in places ran off onto the blonde's face, and he was wearing what looked like the emergency-musical-lab-partner wig. Makeup was smeared all over his face and he looked anything but amused.

On the couch trying to look like little angels who had no idea how any of this had come about were his sister and her second babysitter. Neither with so much as a speck of color or part of a sticker on them to suggest that they'd had any part in what happened to Chester. And the child seemed to know that what she'd had a part in was bad but it was also fun, how had Vicky managed to corrupt a two year old?!

Timmy spent a moment opening his mouth as if to speak, closing it to think, and repeating the process before throwing his hands up to show defeat. "Okay, I want a calm explanation from both of you but first you-" he pointed to the older woman holding the sleepy toddler, "please put her to bed and I'm going to cut him loose."

No fuss over being given orders she went upstairs to do as she was asked looking very pleased with herself while the teen went to untie his friend from the chair after making it clear the blonde was not to start shouting once he was able to do so. Surprisingly his friend did hold his tongue once he was freed, going to the kitchen to wash his face off and then sitting in the armchair picking stickers off while they waited for Vicky to come down. Timmy had tried freeing the chair from the wall, thought better of it, decided against doing anything to clean up the mess that was made, and leaned against the wall wondering if he should go get aspirin for the headache coming on. But the woman chose that moment to coming back and took a seat on the couch. Neither said a word, waiting for the brunette to speak first.

He looked at his roommate, "you put up your own decorations." She nodded so he turned to his friend, "how long were you tied up for?"

"All night."

Vicky scoffed. "Don't be a drama queen, it was maybe forty minutes."

"Why did you tie him up?"

"Where do I start? Blondie comes in and starts whining because Twerpette's takin' a shine to me but somehow we manage to get along for an hour. Then he decides to be a smartass –"

"All I did was repeat what Tootie's been sayin'!" the teen hissed rather than shouted.

Ignoring the interruption she went right on with her version of events. "Asked him to clean up since I was making dinner and found it in my cold, black heart to make enough for him too but your boyfriend decides to get pissy about it. Got even more pissed off when I told him to stop leaving the house looking like a wreck and we might have exchanged words and started throwing things at each other."

"Dude she was throwing them at me!"

"Calmed down cause Twerpette turned on the water works and made nice."

"Nice?" The brunette asked.

"She gave Hope stickers then some of that play makeup so when I said no to being a doll she tied me to the chair."

Chester's temper was lighting up again, the redhead was indifferent to the situation now, but before either could tell the rest of the story which he already had a good idea of he held up his hands to get them to hush. Children, he'd left a pair of children to watch a two year old. His friend was acting on years of repressed anger and hate, letting it take over in the absence of a peace keeper. To him it didn't make sense for all of that to happen in the few hours he was away but stranger things have happened in his life. As for Vicky she was simply being herself, the more 'people friendly' version, so all in all it wasn't the worst outcome yet he wished they could have behaved better.

Taking a deep breath he looked from one to the other, "apologize to each other."

"Uh, no."

"Why should I apologize to that?"

"Because I cannot have my best friend and roommate holding grudges against each other. Like it or not you'll be spending time together, both of you are idiots for this and you're both at fault. I have enough shit going on without adding your pissing contest into the mix. Learn to tolerate one another at least in my house, is that really too much for me to ask for? All you had to do was watch my sister for a while and instead you both decide to recreate what she deals with at out mother's house. It's bad enough she deals with it there so don't you two ever make her go through this again or I will kick both of your asses." A rare, sincere threat, one that would have rivaled the redhead's back in the day. Both looked ashamed, alright fine the woman not so much but she did look as close to sorry as she could. They muttered apologies, considering their history he'd have to be satisfied with it.

"Two more things then you're both going to clean the mess you made and if you can't get along tomorrow then you," pointing to his friend, "don't bother coming," now at Vicky, "and you disappear for the day." He waited for them to nod before continuing, "Chester hard as it is I need you to tolerate being around her, not repeating the bullshit that comes out of Tootie's mouth, and not pushing her buttons all the time. Vicky get over yourself. You were a shitty person, want people to believe you've changed some? Prove it, be the better person for once. Now I'm done dealing with you both, clean up and decide what you're going to do tomorrow."

The next day went well enough considering events of the night before, having a four year old fairy running around, throwing a party for a two year old that so far is afraid of nearly every female she's met, and having his fairies interact with a group of teens. Tootie hadn't come, technically she'd been invited, though Timmy made no attempt to conceal his hope that she wouldn't. Most of his friends didn't stay long, they were going to a costume party later that they needed to change for, they stayed for cake and presents but that was it. AJ didn't stay much longer since he didn't care for children, especially the purple haired boy running around. His fairies 'left' after the boy genius, turning themselves into the candy bags that they'd take out trick or treating later.

Poof immediately gravitated towards the redhead once his parents were gone (he put a butterfly net over them and shoved them in the space between the couch and wall, Timmy didn't even realized it until the next morning). It was funny really. He's shyly walk up to her, make eye contact, and run to hide behind Timmy or a piece of furniture, giggling when she made faces at him. Why did the only two kids not scared of her have to be his siblings? What could he have possibly done to deserve this punishment? The raven haired girl was happy to follow the redhead around, hold her arms up to be picked up, or pout when she didn't get her way. something she hadn't done until after the first time Vicky watched her. Eventually she was stuck sitting by the makeshift ball pit while the two played while the remaining teens tidied up.

There was a little over an hour before the trick or treating started. They'd leave a few big bowls of candy, supplied by Veronica and Trixie, out for anyone that might come by. So Timmy figured it was as good a time as any to get the kids into their costumes; Poof insisted on being a clam and Trixie picked out a starfish for Hope. Now AJ has never been one to let a prime opportunity to educate his friends on something that they could happily have gone through never knowing. According to him starfish are actually very brutal creatures that latch onto clams, pry them open, and keep separating the two shells halves until the poor mollusk is split in half so they many devour its corpse…made the marine animal costumes a hell of a lot less cutesy.

But kids are impatient, as are most adults, so now instead of two small children playing in the living room there was a bright purple clam…and a shark…a shark holding a demon-voodoo doll hybrid teddy bear.

So many questions but he was in no mood to ask and quite frankly wasn't interested in the answers. It wasn't like they'd make sense anyway, that was if he got a straight answer. He was so done with his roommate it wasn't even funny.

A/N: Hey Guys sorry I don't update here all that often. Always post on my dA first (HatedArtista13) and it takes a while to get around to decoding what I write for dA so I put it off.

Story is on hiatus, I need to figure out something in the next chapter before I write it otherwise it'll be a mess.