Some Things Just Can't Be Understood

Pheobie left him to his work. She ran her hand along the walls as she walked, changing the colors. She could feel the pull on her stamina as she worked. Normally, it didn't take much energy since she only changed the color of little things. Since this was a bigger job, it took more energy. She only managed to get half of her job done before she fell over, asleep on the floor.

Maple waited for a couple more rings before he decided to finally answer. He plugged in headphones so the conversation could only be heard by him. The cat watched the GS blink on and off with a twitching tail.

"Hello! Maple here...ah, hello boss, how are...well, beside the world falling apa...Well, couldn't stay around since all the choir was turning to chaos and I have no wish to team up with ol' Chief just yet...place was already a mess by the time I got there, couldn't do much of...a couple of months ago. Everything had been fine, but...Why was I there? Well, I thought...er, I thought there was something suspicious there while I was ah, passing by...Now why would I lie? You think I would...you think this is my fault? I told you, it was already screwed up when I got there!...Certainly you have more faith in me than that...Apparently not."

He swiftly cut the connection, leaned back in his chair, and groaned. How he hated superiors.

It was a good thing that Maple had cleaned up the glass earlier, since Pheobie had fallen asleep in the kitchen. The sticky floor was another matter entirely. The sticky mess was getting on her clothes, her skin, her hair, and essentially anything else making contact with the floor.

Maple glared at his GS, knowing full well that it was only a messenger and not responsible for the opinions of his bosses. Did they honestly think we would purposefully destroy a world? Or that he would screw up bad enough to undo a dimension? There had been some close calls, but-

The cat meowed loudly, causing Maple to jump.

"You cats are lucky. You don't have bosses."

Pheobie rolled over and curled up against the front of the fridge. She was definitely an odd one, sleeping so easily on the floor. She would probably sleep a while longer too.

"Wonder if Pheobie's still changing colors," Maple mused, not wanting to think about bosses anymore. He walked through the very red hallway and into the half-green kitchen where Pheobie was.

"You alright, dear?" he asked, a little concerned.

Pheobie was sleeping peacefully on the floor. She was curled into a ball, breathing deeply and evenly. She was just exhausted.

I guess I should have specified 'bed' earlier Maple thought with a mix of humor and sadness. He sighed and bent down to pick her up. Now which room was it that she was staying in...?

Pheobie curled against him with a sigh. She was sticky from being on the floor.

Maple felt his face blush red. He wasn't used to this kind of thing.

He wandered around for a while before he finally found her room (how could he get lost on his own ship?). He put her into bed and tucked her underneath the covers.

Pheobe caught his hand as he started to pull away. "Mmm Don't go..." She mumbled in her sleepy stupor. "Stay...with......me......"

Maple froze in surprise, his cheeks again turning red. Then, as his body relaxed, he realized that he had no chair to sit in. He was short in the strangest of things sometimes. After a while he decided that he was tall and lanky enough to sit on the floor and did so. The cat waltzed in, looking amused by the sight.

"I suppose you haven't had this kind of predicament with your lady kitties," Maple remarked. The cat just yawned.

Maple laid his head and free arm on the bed, and eventually went to sleep himself.

Pheobie woke a small while later. Her head was stuck to the pillow and when she tried to move, it bumped Maple in the head. She blushed when she noticed him.

Maple half-awoke, noticed where he was, and abruptly fell backward.

"Ah, I-I just found you in the kitchen, and the kitchen is not a nice place to sleep in, so I brought you here and...apparently fell asleep myself," he rambled, rubbing the back of his head and looking away. "...Why is your hair sticking to the pillow like that?"

"The kitchen floor was sticky. You never mopped." Pheobie mumbled. "Sorry about that." She yanked the pillow from her head. "I thought I could finish and make it back here. Thank you Maple"

"Hmm...it was in the food storage that I broke stuff, but I do think I spilled something in the kitchen a little ways back," Maple mused, now noticing the stickiness on himself as well. "Either way, mopping needs to be done! I'll take care of that, while you rest here for as long as you need. Oh, and you're welcome!"

"That's okay, I want to help. I should be fine as long as I don't do anymore color changing today" Pheobie smiled "I like helping you, you're nice"

"Nice? That's a new one," he said half-jokingly, deciding not to mention what other things he had been called by various people. "Well let's see...I guess if you really wanted to you could try organizing the stuff in the main storage. It'll take days if not weeks to properly sort it all as I said, so rest whenever needed. In here. In bed."

Pheobie giggled. "Alright. If I need to rest, I'll do it in bed. I didn't mean to pass out on the floor anyway." She smiled.

"I know dear. I'm just saying to be more careful than one of those bears that gets turned into a rug. They weren't too careful if they ended up in that state, did they?" Maple replied, starting to walk away. "Now, to the mop! Wherever I put it..."

"I believe I saw it in the storage room" Pheobie called after him. She hopped up and followed after him quickly. "After I clean is there anywhere I can clean myself? Like a bath?" She asked quietly.

"Oh yes, there should be a bathroom connected to your room," explained Maple, gesturing back to where they had just came from. "Because sharing bathrooms with guests gets awkward, I made sure that each bedroom had their own nearby. Got charged a lot for it, but I've seen the unpleasantness of people waiting their turn on other ships and feel it worth it."

Pheobie smiled. "Okay. I'll take your word for it." She giggled. "We'll both go clean. Would you like me to cook you something for supper after my bath?"

"Sounds good. Cleaning makes me hungry," Maple answered. "Well, just about anything makes me hungry. I'd be fat if I didn't have the metabolism of a jumping shrew...or is that jumping rat? Eh, whatever. By the way, there should be some cookbooks in the right-hand drawers if you're interested. Can't guarantee we'll have the ingredients, but you can check."

He turned around to go to the storage room, where his mop may or may not have been.

"Cookbooks? Don't you know how to cook?" Pheobie asked, still following him. "Do you have to follow directions?"