Around four in the morning, Trick's eyes fluttered open. Lucio had stayed to watch all five movies, the last of which had been just over two hours long and everyone who wasn't already asleep fell asleep while watching it. This included Lucio.

Trick carefully manipulated his way out from under Trinket and off of the couch, pulling Trinket up into his arms and carrying her into his bedroom to lay in his bed. He repeated this with Kitten, then carried Glass to his rightful room and put him in bed. Then came the awkward part; what should he do with Lucio? The blond had fallen asleep around the same time that Trick had, with just under an hour left of the fifth movie. He sighed and reserved himself simply to putting a blanket over him, then going about tidying up the apartment. First thing he did was put away the leftovers, followed by cleaning the entire room of any stray food particles. He stopped just short of vacuuming, not wanting to wake the sleeping author.

Opening the blinds just a little, he took his pillow and curled up on the far end of the long couch, leaving plenty of room should Lucio end up moving and lying down in his sleep. Cuddling his pillow, it didn't take him long to fall back to sleep.

Several hours later, green eyes fluttered open as a small amount of natural light began to fill the room. The lights on either side of the couch had been shut off, the television was tuned onto a twenty-four hour news station, and Trick was sound asleep on the other side of the couch. Looking around, it took him a few minutes to realize where he was. A shy feeling immediately crept over him, leaving him to wonder why on earth people younger than him could make him feel this way. Maybe it was the fact that they all recognized him, while most of his readers never paid enough attention to know what he looked like until they met him at a book signing.

Whatever it was, it didn't worry him as much as how he should leave. Should he wake Trick up and tell him that he's leaving? Should he slip out quietly? Wouldn't it be considered rude? He couldn't figure out what to do. His eyes darted toward the hallway as the sound of movement reached his ears. A moment later the form of Glass emerged, making his way to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee.

"Ah, you fell asleep too," he said with a yawn, seeing that Lucio's eyes were open.

"Err, yeah..." He sat up fully, only noticing the blanket as it fell off of him. Looking at the blanket, he looked back up at Glass. "I could've sworn you fell asleep out here..."

"I did. Trick puts everyone to bed whenever he wakes up. I've never figured out why, but he always wakes up before dawn for some reason or another. Sometimes he stays up, sometimes he goes back to sleep. Looks like he went back to sleep this time," Glass said with a slight shrug, pulling a few things out of the fridge.

"Who puts Trick to bed...?"

"No one. He's heavier than we are. Trinket and I tried to once, but we ended up dropping him while trying to carry him down the stairs of his mom's house. Broke his arm. Never tried to move him again. His mom used to do it until he got too heavy for her to when he was about fourteen." He poured coffee into a mug from the coffee maker, taking it over to Lucio and offering it to him.

"Thank you," he said quietly, taking the mug and holding it in his hands, leaning forward a little and glancing over at Trick again. "So he takes care of everyone?" He hated that he was asking personal questions, but he was curious by nature, and the relationship between the four had struck him as interesting.

"Yep. We all take care of each other, really. But he's like a big brother to us." Glass returned to the kitchen and began making himself breakfast. "Is there anything you want to eat?"

"Leftovers are fine," he replied, getting up and walking into the kitchen. "I really hate to pry... But you all seem to have everything worked out so perfectly. Who does what at what times, like last night when everyone worked together, but were doing their own things at the same time... How long have you all been doing this?"

"We've been friends since we were little. Trick's the oldest. He and Trinket grew up on the same street. I moved on to their street when Kitten was only a couple months old. Trick and Trinket knew each other when they were babies. When I moved in Trick became my friend and refused to let me sulk on my own when my parents fought. He was always there for us. We've been together for..." He paused to count on his fingers really fast, unable to remember Kitten's age. "About seventeen years."

Lucio's eyes widened and he coughed a little as he swallowed a mouthful of coffee. "Seventeen years!?" he asked, his eyes watering from the burning feeling in the back of his throat. "But you're just kids!"

"Kitten will be eighteen in a few months, Trinket will be twenty-one a couple months after Kitten turns eighteen, and Trick will be twenty-two in about a month and a half. I turned twenty-one a couple months ago. Yeah, we're young, but we're not really 'kids'." He grabbed some leftovers from the fridge and added a little water to them before reheating them on the stove.

"Trick's older than I thought," Lucio said, glancing over his shoulder at the sleeping boy on the couch. "His energy when we first met felt so young, I figured he wasn't even twenty."

"Most people who meet him think he's older. If he's not hyper, of course. He acts older than he is, always has."

Lucio returned his gaze to Glass. "How long have you all lived here? How could you afford such a big TV, and where on earth did you find a DVD player that can hold five DVDs at once?"

"The TV was what we all used to watch at Trick's house growing up. The DVD player was a birthday gift Trick's mom gave him because she knew we fell asleep on each other while watching movies and wanted us to be able to change movies without having to wake the others up. When Trick and I moved in here, she gave us the TV, and bought us the couch as a house warming gift. She also bought us the fridge."

"Sounds like a nice woman. Why did Trick leave home?"

"He wanted to venture out into the world. But we're only about half an hour from where we used to live. Trick waited for me to turn eighteen, and we moved together." He shrugged a little, starting to dread the questions he might be asked about his own family life. Scooping leftovers onto a plate and into a bowl, he set them down on the counter for Lucio, then went about making himself a couple eggs to eat.

"So Trinket and Kitten don't live here?"

"Not yet. I haven't had a chance to discuss it with Trick, and I haven't talked to the landlord yet. Trick's the main name on the lease, but I don't think he'd care if they moved in."

"Not really. I was going to ask you for help cleaning out the other room. Already talked to Mom, she said we can take the stuff in their room at Mom's place and move it here," Trick said with a loud yawn.

"Trick!" Glass cried, a little startled.

"Took a few minutes to get my wits about me. Dunno why, but I'm still really tired..."

"It's because you slept on the couch," Glass muttered, rolling his eyes a bit and turning around to make sure his food didn't burn.

Lucio smiled to himself, taking a drink of his coffee. "Thanks for the blanket."

"You looked kinda cold," Trick replied with a shrug.

After breakfast, Lucio took his leave from their apartment, and Kitten went over to a friend's house. Trick cleaned the apartment, then went to go speak with the landlord while Glass read and Trinket played video games. Trick went to work after his meeting with their landlord, and didn't return to the apartment until after six in the evening.