Crawling over, Ty put a hand on her good shoulder as the cat curled up on her chest. "You know when I felt the worst?" Ty asked as she finished speaking. "When I didn't have you. You may not understand it, but I like my life alot better when you're in it. We had our differences, sure. Still do, but you did somehow manage to make me feel better when I needed it. So trust me, you don't just make people worse." He settled on top of the covers, lying there looking at the ceiling.

Tses glanced at him, somewhat suspicious, somewhat hopeful. She gave a small smile but there was something else lurking in it. Sadness, curiosity, maybe? "Sure, you say that, but you did spend a while not remembering me... You tried forgetting me. During that time, did you ever move on, find anyone else? Maybe it's not just...me...maybe I was just 'someone'..."

The idea sparked a twinge of sad jealousy through her. What if he had been with someone? What if the answer was yes? There was part of her that wanted to hear the sappy answer of 'no, I only ever liked you, bla bla bla', but that just wasn't realistic. She was a pain in the butt, explosive, temperamental. There had to be someone better. Maybe he liked having her around, but doubt was weighing in on the conversation. They never really talked about stuff that happened when they were apart. She wondered if she should have brought it up at all.

"Yeah, I did try. Not gonna lie there. I thought it was the only way I could move on, but it didn't work." He winced at her questions. They hurt to think about, and as he answered them, his truths left a bad taste in his mouth.

"I didn't have any other girlfriends," he started. "But there were a couple...here and there, I guess you'd say. I was drunk...and it wasn't the same." He bit his lip, looking away.

"I care for you...I do. Even if I royally mess up over and over again..."

Tses listened quietly as he spoke, new feelings mixing and mingling with the old ones. It was good news and bad news, so it was hard to feel fully happy or sad. Sure, he hadn't dated anyone, but he had been with a few people. That was hard, in a way. Maybe because she doubted anyone other than Ty would really give her a second look. Drunk, whatever. She shook off the jealousy again. The sad feelings were still festering inside her. Maybe she'd be jealous later, but now she was just sad.

"Say...say things worked out somehow, that we got a second chance or something... What would you do different, if you could?" She said, looking at him again. Her expressions were hard to read, but she was taking note of each remark.

Ty let the question sink in. "Let's see...This should be an easy question, considering I thought about this every night after we broke up," he said quietly as he lay there staring at the ceiling.

"First thing I'd do is be alot more tolerant. Quicker to accept you for who you are. Last time we had a ton of fights simply because you wouldn't return my affections like I thought you should. I shouldn't have done that, you're your own person." He paused, thinking. "I'd give you the space you need instead of crowding you. And yet...at the same time...I'd treasure you more. You wouldn't be something I just threw away if I got short-tempered. Not again..."

He looked over at her, sincerity in his eyes.

He looked at the ceiling, while Tses looked at him. She wasn't the most perceptive person in the world, but she could still see how honest he was being. Everything he said sounded ideal, but would it work? Could it happen? Broken promises made new words sound hallow. Missed New Years. Missed months... Dates gone bad, disastrous reunions, amnesia, getting shot. She piled up the lists of reasons she shouldn't believe him, shouldn't give it a chance, shouldn't get hypnotized by the idea that things could work out. He wasn't perfect, neither was she. But She found herself leaning her head against his shoulder in response.

"If I had a chance, I would try not to be so afraid. Afraid of trusting, afraid of loosing. Afraid of letting someone close..." The moment would be a lot cuter if she wasn't so ginger with her movements to avoid hitting her shoulder on anything. Cuddling was better when someone didn't knock you off a fire escape the day before...

Ty let his head rest against hers, careful to avoid disturbing her injuries. "Yeah, I understand. Well, I do now. Back then, I should have been more considerate of that. But, what's done is done. The past is over, but we still have the future to look forward to."

He spoke softly, still focused on the ceiling as his hands idly tugged at his gloves. His eyes slowly drifted closed.

Tses didn't get quite that comfortable, brain still buzzing with thought. The future... it was hard to think of a future at this point. She sighed slightly at stared at his gloved hand.

"The future... not really sure what future there is for me at this point. I've got a giant cockroach with a death threat over my head, I ticked off a number of people at that mansion place when I was staying there... sort of got the wrong end of a sewer mutant when we got in a fight... Still don't have a home. She flinched slightly as Mischief stretched and batted at her bandaged arm. Cute, but painful...

"Oh, and you have that whole giving people your memories thing to work with...And I hopefully won't start falling through floors anytime soon or something..." She muttered thoughtfully. She was still drained of energy so wasn't so worried about it yet. But if New Moons were this dramatic, what would happen on a full one?

"Not sure what it has for me, either. But we can make it through this," Ty replied, being somehow painfully optimistic. "Yeah, I do need to get a reign in on that new...writing...thing. Otherwise it could be really bad if the wrong person saw the wrong memory..."

The ginger took a breath. "You know...if you wanted I could probably get your old apartment back. Or another one, if you preferred. I'd offer my room at Sanctuary, but all things considered, that's not the best idea, I think." He let out a sigh as he thought.

Ty was painfully optimistic, but Tses couldn't help but get dragged along with him. Maybe it was the images she got along with the memories he gave to her, but part of her just felt desperate for some type of hope, have something worth dreaming about again. It was easy to feel optimistic when someone you thought you lost forever was sitting right next to you, and was just within reach. But her emotions were still torn. Part of her wanted to just reach out and take his hand in hers, but part of her was worried about letting this get any further.

That little flicker of hope vanished again at the mention of the sanctuary. "That's another problem... I've kinda put both of us in a bad situation... It's easy to say we can make it through this, but even this could end badly..." She pulled back from him slightly, facing him. The warnings rang in her head. She looked at the blankets. "Ty, it always sucked to not have you, and to not be around you, but I still don't want to get you killed because of me..." Mischief bounced back to her lap and purred around her hands. "And the apartment... probably isn't best at this point. I'd probably be in handcuffs within a few days if I went back there."

Ty sighed again. "Maybe. But I'm not letting go of hope. Not now," he replied, his eyes locked on hers. "I got us in this mess too. And you're not going to get me killed. We can do this, we just need to find a way. There's got to be a way..."

He sat up and stretched, joints cracking in the process. "We can find you somewhere. And this whole thing will blow over. Trust me. Before long, Roach won't even remember who you are." There he was, being painfully optimistic again. He just hoped he was right.

Tses nodded, giving up on the twenty questions for now, and laying back in bed. The kitten curled up by her head and she let her hand drift out momentarily to give Ty's a squeeze before shutting her eyes to go back to sleep.

"Guess we'll just have to see. Sorry, I've just been a little out of optimism lately, but that doesn't mean I don't hope you're right."

~ ~ ~ ~

Four days later...

Tses had several awful birthdays in her life. December was never the nicest month for her, and shivering in the snow always seemed to ruin things. She got injured on and off as a kid, the network of scars on her skin proof. Rolling out of bed and hitting her injured shoulder first thing in the morning started it off bad though, and as she flopped onto her back, cussing in pain, she decided she was just cursed to get her ass kicked this week.

Ty had been around, keeping her at least mostly out of trouble. The coffee table only injured her one more time, and she was at least recovering some of her strength. The pain medicine she was stuck on didn't help with her coordination though, and she felt like she was constantly trying to move through a haze. It was hard to let someone help, but she couldn't imagine trying to get food by herself in this shape. She was injuring herself on solid ground. She had no idea what stairs would do.

The kitten on the bed mewed at her and went back to sleep. Cute, but not helpful.

"We'll be fine. Our luck'll turn around," Ty comforted before squeezing her hand and he too fell back asleep.

The next few days were rather uneventful. Aside from stocking up on groceries and making sure the two of them had clean clothes regularly, Ty didn't leave the hotel room much.

Honestly, staying at the room and keeping the place up while taking care of Tses and Mischief wasn't that bad. In fact it was a nice change of pace compared to how his life usually was.

So now, as Tses was lying there, Ty was straightening up a bit while sipping on what had to have been his fourth cup of coffee.

Rolling over onto her stomach, Tses awkwardly pushed herself up to her feet. The medication had warn off while she slept, which took away some of her dizziness, but it also made her slightly grumpier as the pain moved through her shoulder. She glanced at Ty and made a face at his coffee cup. "Still don't know how you drink that stuff. Tastes like crap." She muttered and limped towards the bathroom. Falling out of bed tore open the wound on her shoulder, and she could feel the slight trickle of blood running just under her shirt. She grumbled to herself slightly as she limped. She was impatient with being injured already, but doubted her shoulder would heal anytime soon with her string of bad luck.

Tses didn't ask for help as she grabbed the bandages and went to re-wrap her shoulder, but Mischief casually wandered after her, prancing after the roll of bandages in a playful kitten way. It was cute watching him chase the end of the white cloth...up until one pounce knocked right into Tses' injured leg. A flinch, a yelp, and an accidental explosive later, and the kitten went barreling back into the living room.

The bathroom mirror had probably seen better days. Tses cursed under her breathe as she looked at the busted glass a small marble sized hole just inches above the sink. That was a bill she wasn't quite prepared to deal with today. Ignoring it for the present, she went to grab the bandages to at least finish dealing with her shoulder.

Her arm went right through them... The cursing continued and Tses sat on the floor in irritated defeat. "Hate birthdays..." She grumbled under her breathe as she put her forehead against her knees. At least the light crawling up her arm took away some of the pain temporarily.

Finished with his coffee, Ty stared at the empty cup, then pulled off his glove. He'd ignored Tses's coffee crack. Not out of meanness, he was just trying something. He focused, thinking on test memories instead of focusing on the cup itself. He even picked a unique topic that was easy to focus on: His pickpocketing experiences.

His eyes began to glow as he saw red, the memory writing itself onto the coffee cup. But suddenly--CRASH! The cup hit the floor as there was a yelp, an explosive, and a yowling, running, scared out of wits cat that shimmied up the curtain.

Standing up, he picked up the broken cup and threw it in the trash, going over just in time to hear her mutter that line about birthdays. Wait...that was...oops. Well it'd been a whole year, right?

"You okay?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.