Title: Security Blanket
Rating: K
Characters: Kayo, Alan
Summary: Kayo can't sleep without her version of a Security Blanket
Notes: I see Kayo as a very complex person, under the tough girl front, and not many people have fully seen the person behind it. Kyrano and Grandma Tracy have – being her father for the former and the only real mother figure she's really known for the latter. Alan is only one of the Tracy Brothers that has come close to it – there are still a few barriers between them – as they see each other as equals, unlike the other brothers who see her as a little sister that must be protected at all costs.
Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds.

Security Blanket

Tanusha 'Kayo' Kyrano woke up panting in a cold sweat.

She looked down at her pillow, reached under it and pulled out the device that was hidden under there, after a brief inspection she cursed – it had stopped working.

After quick check of the batteries, she came to the conclusion that the problem was with device itself.

She looked at the clock 1 am – a bit too early to get up for the day, considering she went to bed only two hours ago.

Now she faced a problem: She could try and sleep without as she had tried in the past – which never turned out real well. The last time she had tried (I'm a teenager, why do I still need this babyish thing), she had Virgil, Gordon and Alan (Scott and John had left for collage, lucky for them) running for cover and the whole household in turmoil.

To make things worse, Gordon had found her spare* the other week and used it in a prank against Virgil, who ended up deep sixing it in the pool, much to her horror.

Thankfully, she still had one option left to her - there were only four people that knew of her need for her version of a security blanket, two of which currently lived on island, but she wasn't about to ask Grandma Tracy for help with this one.

As she walked into the bedroom of the other person who knew, she found him sleeping on the floor as usual.

Kayo rolled her eyes as she pulled back the covers on his bed. Then she walked over to the person who should have been asleep in that bed, bent down and yanked off his shoes before gently picking him up and dumping him on his bed.

"Wha? Kayo!?" Alan muttered, drowsily. "Can't sleep?"

"Damn thing broke, again." Kayo replied.

"Oh, right." Alan rolled over and made room for her in the bed, then fell asleep again.

Kayo crawled into the bed beside him and pulled the covers over both of them, snuggling up to Alan and placing her head on his chest, as she did so.

A real heartbeat is always better than a puppy comforter anyway. Kayo thought, as she drifted back to sleep.

*Alan and Gordon are known to buy random odds and ends (like the squeaky duck Kayo used in 36 hours), for pranks and other things, so she asks Alan to buy her spare comforters, so the other brothers don't ask her why she needs one. How Gordon got hold of her spare is simple, Alan keeps the spares with the rest of his odds and ends and Gordon sometimes 'borrows' stuff out Alans boxes. Alan knows not to use them – Gordon doesn't.

Notes: Kayo has trouble sleeping without hearing a heartbeat, when she was little her mother would put a puppy comforter in her favourite toy (A pillow pet of some description) to help her sleep. When her mother was murdered, when she was six, she lost her modified pillow pet with the comforter, and while Kyrano replaced the pillow pet, he didn't realize Kayo still used the comforter to get to sleep until after they moved in with the Tracy's, six months later, when he found her curled around a five year old Alan – her head on his chest – having the first peaceful sleep she had in months.

It's always bamboozled the rest of Tracy brothers, especially Scott, that Kayo would always go to Alan on the rare occasions when she would have a 'really bad nightmare' (9 times out of 10, it's because the comforter failed, but when it really is a really bad nightmare – Alan doesn't get much sleep ether), but they don't usually bat an eye, because they know it's all innocent (At moment anyway).

(Kyrano, Grandma Tracy, Alan and Jeff are the only people that know about Kayo's sleep issues)