((OOC: Continued from Once Upon A Midnight Baking))

Shin shuffled down the hall, pan of iced German chocolate cake in-hand. It was a good cake, a very good-smelling cake. A tasty cake, he had no doubts. It was a Kealey-cake. A cake for Kealey. And so, despite his hankering for frosting, Shin didn't steal a taste yet (not even a little one while no one was looking). He'd wait to share it with her.

As he stopped in front of her door, a yawn escaped him. With his hands full of Andrew-made-goodies, he wasn't able to stifle it. He smacked his lips sleepily, then looked up and down the hallway. The coast was clear. Nobody would see him standing in front of Kealey's door in the middle of the night. Nor, the middle of the morning. Which was it now? He wasn't certain.

The task at hand now was to figure a way to get in. It was a difficult task for a sleep-addled brain. Could he knock? Why yes, but only if he juggled the pan. Could he kick the door? That might wake others up? Could he sneak in?

Why, that was the talk of madmen!

Slowly, carefully, Shin shifted the pan to one hand. He reached out and knocked gently on the door. One gentle knock, a slightly-louder knock, and a third one, a loud rap. He hummed sleepily to himself, and waited.

Kealey Quinn liked to sleep. She always had, she probably always would. When she thought about it, she could remember her mother laughingly admonishing her for being a slug-a-bed while everyone else was already awake on the rare days both parents were off work. It had also been one of the difficult things about living in the convent after the bombing…the nuns rose early and expected the same of their charge.

The freedom of New York had brought back some old habits, and one of them was sleeping. Pillows, and blankets, and soft beds with plushies that she and Shin had made themselves. Kealey was wrapped in those blankets, surrounded by those pillows, curled up on the bed with plushies surrounding and protecting her as was their duty. She was fast asleep, had been for a few hours. It was almost a miracle that she heard the Shin knocking. Knocking at her chamber door.

At the first soft sound, a blond head shifted on its pillows, a grumpy little sound escaping it, as its owner tried to burrow deeper into the covers. The second, louder, knock produced raised eyebrows and fists that rubbed sleepy eyes. The third, loudest knock pulled those eyes open to glance blearily at the clock on Kealey’s night stand. She’d been having such a lovely dream…

The lights were staying off, she thought, sleepy mind still trying to claw its way to full consciousness as she pulled herself free from the sheets and shivered her way across the room in her shorts and tank top. It was too late/early to worry about finding anything else.

Kealey opened the door and squinted at the bright light as she found herself face to face with the only person she wasn’t angry to see at this time of night/morning.

”Shin….” she yawned with a sleepy smile, rubbing that silly eye again and taking a moment to assess his emotions and make sure nothing was wrong. Her mind was still bleary…but he actually seemed to be in a rather good mood…and…he…had…a…cake.

”Hi…is that a cake?” she said, stepping back into the room to make room for him to enter.

Kealey yawned.

Shin yawned.

She was wearing shorts.

Was it hot in here?

Was that a cake? Why yes, it was. Shin held it out for her with a sheepish smile. "I stole it from Andrew. I mean, he gave it to me. It's for you. A gift from him. I iced it." As she took the cake, he slipped into her room. His eyes swung to the bed, noting the plushie army, out in full force, then jumped back to Kealey. He smiled at her. "Can you cut it? I'm kinda sleepy."

He was sleepy. That was a fact. When had he gotten sleepy? He'd been so awake thinking about bringing her the goodies earlier. Had it been the yawn?

Curse those yawns for being contagious.

Maybe if he lay down, things would be alright. One moment of shut-eye wouldn't hurt things. He wouldn't pass out. He'd be fine, perfectly ready to share the cake with the girl he adored.

While Kealey's back was to him, he plopped down on her bed, amid the plushies of Pokemon, people, and him. He cuddled himself, closing his eyes...

It definitely was a cake. Kealey stared at the cake, then turned her head to look at the clock again. Shin spoke, explained, and Kealey blinked once, twice, her still groggy mind trying to comprehend exactly what her boyfriend was saying.

He’d stolen the cake from Andrew…then iced it….then brought it to her. She dumbly took the proffered confectionary and stood in the doorway for a moment to process things while Shin made his way into her room.

”That was really nice of you guys…I’m glad you get along. He’s nice. You were busy when I brought him back here, so I got him set up with a room.”

She wasn’t irritated about getting woken up, not at all. She was just sleepy still, and her brain was taking a while to process emotions and words as they happened. Eventually everything clicked into place and she turned, shutting her door with her foot and moving to put the cake on top of some sketches that were sitting on her desk. Then she flipped on a light…they had to see to eat.

Shin wanted her to cut the cake, and said he was tired. Kealey really wasn’t all that surprised. He had to be running on fumes 90 percent of the time, with as much as he did. It was a little ridiculous, and something she’d been meaning to talk to him about.

She needed to wake up first, though. Cake would help.

Kealey glanced around the room, wondering exactly what she was supposed to cut the cake with, and how exactly they were supposed to eat it. She spied her fabric cutting shears and made a decision. As long as the cake was cut…eating could be accomplished.

Kealey opened the shears and used them like a knife, cutting two relatively small pieces from the cake. It was awful late for something so sweet. Kealey yawned again, wondering how she was going to get the cake off the plate and over to Shin on the bed. Why was she so sleepy still…she turned to ask exactly how this whole thing was going to work and simply stood for a moment, torn between laughing, and aww’ing out loud.

Shin was sleeping in her bed. Snuggling himself. Well…the plushie of himself. Kealey stood and watched for a moment, not long enough to be creepy, but long enough to shake her head and smile before she put the scissors down.

What now?

She really wasn’t all that hungry…more than anything she was sleepy. She eyed the bed, Shin had stolen the covers. Another chuckle, and Kealey made her way in that direction, flipping off the light as she went. She wasn’t going to wake him up…not when he slept so little, and at such strange hours. She’d just have to live with the fact that she wouldn’t be getting any more blankets for the rest of the night. Oh well. She’d have to find another way to keep warm, wouldn’t she?

It was pink. It beamed with yellow teeth, eyes masked behind shades of flame. Because it smiled, the world was warm. Its smile gave the entire planet life and light. Its brightness shone down on the mountain ranges, on the fields of deep red grass, capped with snow. And in the south, another sun did rise. And the mountains, they shone, their silver-leafed trees like a forest on fire. The sky was burnt orange. Across the fields, Shin ran, and he was warm.

He was warm. Everything was brilliant, vibrant and full of life, and he... was warm. The rocks weren't brown at the foot of the mountain. They were red, brown, purple, and gold. Those pathetic little patches of sludgy snow were shining white. Shining white in the sunlight.

Everything was beautiful, and to reiterate the point, it was warm.

Too warm. He was burning up. Shin clutched the warmth tighter to him in a hug, as if proximity would push the heat away, but it didn't. He opened his eyes...!!

They fell on curly blond hair, on Kealey. He realized he was hugging her, as his mind quickly woke up. He was in her room, surrounded by plushies, and he was hugging her, sitting up in the bed.

Shin blinked. How had this all happened again? He scanned his vision grid for a second, then went back to hugging. Who cared? It wasn't too warm anymore. She actually seemed kind of chilly.

Oh, he had the covers, did he? Well, that explained that.

When she’d crawled into her bed next to Shin, Kealey hadn’t known if she’d be able to fall back asleep. Sometimes that was a difficult thing to do, once she’d been woken up. It was dark in the room, and just a little bit chilly, something that wasn’t going to change any time soon. Shin had been in possession of all the blankets.

She’d managed. Snuggling had ensued, and in far less time than she’d estimated, Kealey had fallen asleep.

She dreamed about Happy Feet.

It had been a long time since she and Shin had watched the movie, but there it was. The penguins were everywhere, singing their heart songs and milling around. The babies were so cute…so fluffy. But it was cold. Kealey shivered, making her way through the penguins and trying to figure out exactly what it was she was supposed to be singing.

A fluffy little baby penguin approached as Kealey danced from foot to foot, trying to warm herself up.

It asked her why she was hopping around like that. She said she was cold. It made sense. The baby followed suit. The movement attracted attention, and slowly but surely more penguins joined in the little dance as Kealey continued to move around the penguin houses, looking for a jacket or blanket and failing miserably.

Finally, she came to a dark but cozy looking cave. An entourage of baby penguins followed as Kealey made her way towards what seemed to be a wall of warmth. It was dark, but when she found it, Kealey laid down in the soft pillowy snow, snuggling close. The babies must have realized she was cold, because they huddled around too, and Kealey sighed happily…

Then there was a small earthquake.

The scene shifted to the familiar blackness of the backs of her eyelids, then the dim interior of her room as her eyes snapped open. She wasn’t in a cave….she was in her bed. Those weren’t baby penguins…those were plushies, and that wall of warmth. Well, it was a wall of warmth, but it was Shin.

He’d brought her cake, and now he was hugging her.

She shifted slightly, eyes finding Shin’s and she smiled sleepily and snuggled closer for warmth. ”Morning?” she said a bit sheepishly, ”You stole my blanket again.”

Shin smiled sleepily at her. "Did I? Well, I... think I did my best to keep you warm anyways."

Hugging was nice. For a minute, he just sat there, cuddling her. He didn't want to let go. You know that thing cats do, where they nuzzle up against other cats heads and it's adorable? Yeah. Shin did that.

If anyone had seen any of this, they'd have needed a blood sugar monitor. Otherwise, they'd have risked insulin shock. It was too sweet.

Snuggling, yeah. That was Shin's favorite. What else did he like, though, beyond the hugging and the cuddling and the being warm beyond belief? Oh yeah. His stomach rumbled quietly. He supposed he liked breakfast. "Mmmm," Shin nuzzled her ear, and whispered. "Do we still have that cake?"

Kealey nodded when Shin suggested that he’d done a pretty good job keeping her warm. Considering the fact that she was only in shorts and a tank top, that was the honest truth.

”You didn’t throw me out of the bed this time either.” she teased, referencing another time they’d woken up this way after Shin had stolen her blankets. Had it been that long ago?

Sleepy morning emotions were sleepy, and Kealey did a whole lot of dreamy return snuggling for the next few moments while she worked on sorting everything out. What day was it? What time was it? Was this something that could go on for the next several days?

A new emotion worked its way into the happy, content slurry of warm that was circulating between them, and Kealey was already grinning when Shin spoke. Squirming slightly at the way his whisper tickled her ear, she nodded her head.

”I didn’t touch it. It’s on my desk. Did you really bring that to me at Three in the morning?” She stopped and thought for a moment, wondering where sleepy memories ended and dreams started, ”And did you say you helped Andrew cook it?”

>> You didn’t throw me out of the bed this time either.”

Kealey said.

Shin smirked. "Nope." And then, they went right back to hugging. Then, hunger. Kealey told him, she hadn't touched the cake. She asked him a question, then another.

"Was it three?" Shin asked thoughtfully. He glanced to the ceiling, focusing on a certain square, an exact point on the grid as he tried to recall. There had been baking, yes. "Andrew did most of the baking, actually." Shin came back down to Kealey, looking her gently in the eyes. "Something he said reminded me of you, so... uh... I guess I just sort of zoned out dreamily for a few minutes. Which reminds me," he gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Did I ever thank you for being so cool that one night, with the drinking, and the platonic sharing of the warmth?"

Shin grinned, Kealey grinned, they grinned. It was generally a pretty darn happy room for the time being, and it didn’t look like anything was going to change that. Not even the memory of when the cake had been delivered, even if it was of slight concern to the blond being cuddled.

Shin verified that it had, in fact, been both him and Andrew who had made the cake. That in and of itself was a little mind boggling…that the two of them would have randomly met in the kitchen and decided to make a cake. She didn’t question it though, just nodded her head at the earlier question of timing.

Shin caught her eyes with his, and Kealey looked back steadily as he spoke, grinning when he admitted to zoning out while they were working. What had he been thinking about? Kealey was just about to ask when Shin kissed her on the cheek and made another comment.

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, still comfortably snuggled, ” I’m not sure if you did or not, but it doesn’t matter. You eventually felt better, and that’s what mattered.”

She thought for a few moments, then laughed at the memory, shaking her head.

”Poor Aurum got the brunt of both our awkwardness over that…and all he was doing was trying to cook breakfast.”

She shook her head again, mind wandering back to the current situation ”What were you and Andrew doing in the kitchen that late? Were you working more on your armor?” she asked curiously, with just a hint of worry in her voice. Shin really didn’t sleep enough, and he was so busy. Cooking at odd hours of the morning was probably not conducive to enough rest.

Aurum had been good, hadn't he? No, wait, he'd been a big assumer, assuming something had happened that hadn't. Silly Aurum. Shin shook his head. "That's actually not the worst memory, now... with the snuggling..." His voice, and his eyes dropped for a second.

They rose again when Kealey asked what he'd been doing up that late? He tilted his head. "I couldn't sleep. I was out for a midnight snack. Andrew was there, baking cinnamon rolls. Really good cinnamon rolls. I stuck around." Like a dog sticks around a family that feeds it well. He looked at her curiously. "I actually was working a little bit on my shard glove last night. How did you know?"

Shin thought more about the night they’d all drank together, and Kealey just stayed quietly where she was. That night had been all about Shin, and helping him work through something. Alcohol wasn’t a good way to solve a problem, and Kealey knew it…but sometimes it sure didn’t hurt.

That time it hadn’t hurt. Not at all. She smiled when Shin said it wasn’t the worst memory. Good, then the mission had really been accomplished.

They moved on.

Shin explained that he hadn’t been able to sleep the night before, and Kealey’s eyebrows drew together in an even more concerned frown. It seemed impossible that with everything he did, Shin could possibly not be tired enough to sleep. She didn’t say anything though, at least not directly. Instead she shook her head and chuckled, ”And after cinnamon rolls you decided to bake a cake?”

The shard glove was interesting too. Kealey loved seeing that particular trick in action, and wondered if any more progress had been made.

”I knew because I know you, and I know that you’ll keep working until you’ve got it down to a science. Even if it means things like not sleeping for much too large periods of time.”

>>”And after cinnamon rolls you decided to bake a cake?”

"Well, Andrew was already planning to bake something for you. I just offered some suggestions. I told him you loved German chocolate cake and cheesecake brownies, hence the mental tangent over to that night." Mental tangents were good. He often got distracted by them. She seemed to be hinting at something. That made him roll off onto a new tangent, too.

"Yup," Shin smiled groggily at her, still not quite getting the hint. "You know me well~"

He went in for another snug.

Ah, Andrew had already been planning to cook something, and Shin had simply joined in the master plan. That made sense.

Wait…no it didn’t. It was still an outrageously strange story. Granted, Kealey thought, it had all turned out well in the end. The fact still remained, that was a really late midnight snack.

She smiled back at Shin’s groggy grin and considered letting her concerned thoughts go and simply snuggling this part of the morning away. It would have been the easy way…but something needed to be said. Something had needed said for a while.

Kealey reached over to mess with Shin’s hair as she talked, wondering if this was going to end up being an easy conversation or a difficult one.

”Have you ever wondered how is it with all the stuff you do, you can’t sleep?" she asked gently, "Do you think maybe you’re trying to do a little too much?”

Rumpled Shin Hair still is Shin Hair. Thus, even in its rumpled state, the Shin hair looked amazing. Shin pouted good-humoredly. "Hey!" He laughed. Teasing? What was she up to--

The chuckle died in his belly at the first sign of gentle nudging. A little too much? Shin eyed her.

"Is this a snugtervention...?" He stopped the snugging, and scooted back on the bed.

She was right. He was doing too much. They'd talked about this, and he needed to cut back. It was hard deciding what to cut down on, though, or what to give up. He'd asked for her help. Shin didn't bristle at the intervention. Well, maybe he felt a tiny bit put-off. She was Kealey, though. It lasted only a second, and was replaced by understanding. He looked at her seriously, but not too seriously.

"You're right. Tell me, Kealey Quinn, what should I cut back on?"