Flaky hummed as her baby girl fussed in her arms. She had been trying to get her to sleep for nearly an hour, but to no avail. The baby knew she was tired, that's why she was crying after all, but she was so stubborn. Maybe that was the one trait she inherited from...

Flaky shook her head, pausing her humming for a moment. Millie, the baby, cried harder. The poor, tired mother hushed her child and she managed to get her to quiet down enough to finally hear her quiet singing. It calmed Millie significantly then, and she was able to yawn and close her eyes. Once she baby seemed to be asleep, Flaky exhaled silently.

'Finally...' She thought, looking down at Millie. She smiled.

Then the front door slammed, harder than Flaky was willing to tolerate. She could only assume Flippy was home, because he was the only other person she knew that had a key to the house. Of course, it had originally been just HIS house, but, well, with the baby, he felt like they needed to live together. His house just happened to be bigger with a conveniently sized guest room. But now wasn't the time to be dwelling on things like that, because Millie had begun to scream again as she was startled awake.

Flaky wanted to punch right through the wall, or throw Flippy into a rushing waterfall. Either way, she suddenly felt violently angry. That anger, of course, depleted once she heard a deep, growling voice grunt in curiosity. She wondered for a split second just how she heard it, what with Millie screaming as though her arm was being twisted into a pretzel knot, but all of her thoughts muddled together once she saw Fliqpy in the doorway of the nursery (or, in other words, the remodeled guest room mentioned before).

Flaky's first instinct was to grab Millie and run, but as she inspected the room as quickly as possible, she didn't see any way out besides the doorway. She didn't dare move away from her spot, which was now in front of the crib, her back to Millie and her front to Fliqpy. She wasn't going to let him come near the baby, not when she was so unsure of what happens when a baby this young dies in their cursed town.

She entered a defensive mode, and she willed back her violent nature from before, preparing to fight against the soldier. He looked her over, an eyebrow raising. For the first time in a very long time, he seemed to be evaluating his situation. He was confused about what happened to the room from the last time he saw it, and he was wondering why Flaky was suddenly getting ready to fight against him. She seemed to be guarding something that was making a lot of loud noise, but he couldn't see what. It was in what looked like a crib, but he couldn't think of why Flippy would need a crib, or why Flaky would be defending it.

...oh.

"Move," he said, his voice low and rough.

Flaky knew by then that he had figured it out. It wasn't too hard to tell, what with his eyes widening and now his demand for her to move from her spot. She didn't budge. He growled loud enough for her to hear over Millie's continued screaming. She didn't budge. He took a step forward, daring her to stay put. She shifted into a more defensive position.

She knew she wasn't strong, and she didn't know any of Fliqpy's weaknesses, if he had any. But she didn't care. She was going to fight him even if it meant to the death.

He isn't getting near Millie, she thought bitterly, her expression twisting into one of hate.

He raised a brow and walked forward until he was right in front of her. She gave a warning look, and he laughed. She threw a fist towards his stomach, planning to make him double over so she could properly reach his head. He caught it easily. She threw her other fist, he caught it. Her legs started thrashing, kicking at his knees and trying to get him to be weak enough to let go.

He didn't budge, more than capable of taking her weak hits. She needed to work out more and be stronger if she thought she could take him, but he didn't bother saying this. Instead, he used his grip on her hands to move her to the side. He didn't know why he wanted to see the baby Flippy and Flaky made, but he did. He always kinda liked babies, but he didn't know why. He knew he liked Cub, so he figured all babies were fine with him too

He wasn't wrong. The baby in the crib was crying and screaming to the point of coughing and wishing for air, and her face was red, but she was adorable. Her fur (the part that wasn't as red from her crying) was a soft yellow-green, and her practically pastel red hair looked just like Flaky's but softer. As Flaky screeched and kicked harder, he quickly shoved the hand he was holding that was closer to the crib to his other hand.

With his free hand, he leaned down towards the baby. Just the movement alone was enough to make Flaky thrash and fight even more, which was making it difficult for Fliqpy to move any more without falling on the baby. He gave Flaky a strong shake that jarred her for a second or two, and stared at her hard.

"What's her name?" He asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

Flaky glared at him, but reluctantly answered anyways. "Millie."

His eyebrow raised, as if to ask why.

"It's short for military. Flippy thought it would be clever."

Fliqpy snorted, though not in actual amusement. Flippy was an idiot, but the name somehow seemed to fit. He turned back to Millie, leaning down and inspecting her closely, his free hand carefully touching her hair. He was right, it was soft. There wasn't a sign that she was born from a porcupine.

"Millie," he muttered. The baby stopped crying to take a breath just in time. She calmed herself again and looked at Fliqpy, her eyes wide and her face slowly returning to its original color.

He smiled, his teeth bared by instinct. This scared the baby and she started crying again. He slid his hand under her tiny body, her small form fitting quite well in his hand, and lifted her up with ease. Flaky started thrashing, then remembered that he only had a hand grip on Millie, and she stopped. She could only watch in terror and paranoia as she waited for Fliqpy to do something to her daughter.

The baby, at the feeling of suddenly being lifted and held, stopped crying yet again. She still whimpered, but even that was covered up by a long yawn. Fliqpy let go of Flaky knowing that she wouldn't risk him dropping Millie, and used his once again free arm to help him maneuver the baby into a more comfortable holding position.

"She looks like him," he said, the two adults knowing exactly who he meant while the child was blissfully ignorant. "But she got your hair."

Flaky stared, unsure of how to handle the situation. Fliqpy wasn't killing her or Millie. While she was thankful for that, she couldn't help but to wonder what was happening. Not to mention his tenderness towards Millie. He was holding her like a, well, a baby. It would have been sweet if it weren't so strange. The silence wasn't making the situation any less eerie, either.

He put his finger down towards Millie's face, and she gripped it weakly. The killer smiled again, this time trying to expose less of his teeth. The baby responded by making small noises and gripping his finger as hard as she could. He didn't understand why he would probably never be able to bring himself to kill something so small and seemingly insignificant, but he knew he couldn't. The quiet noises coming from Millie were the only source of noise, and somehow, that was the only thing that comforted Flaky in this moment. Fliqpy wasn't laughing maniacally, and Millie wasn't crying or screaming for whatever reason.

The room's settled from very tense to only slightly tense. Then Millie sneezed, and Flippy was back. He looked at Millie, and realized that he was about to drop her. His grip tightened. Flaky stood up, feeling safe again, and edged towards him, gently taking the baby from his arms. He let her do this.

"Did he hurt either of you?" Flippy immediately asked, figuring out what had happened, at least the basic idea. Then he answered himself as he looked them over. "Wait...he didn't...?"

Flaky shook her head. "I'm just as confused as you are. He just came in, noticed we had a baby, moved me so he could look at her, picked her up, and got really quiet. She sneezed and you came back."

Flippy looked in the mirror on the vanity next to the door. There was a glint of Fliqpy, but it wasn't dangerous or threatening like it usually was. It seemed tame. Flippy sat down, and looked at his hands. There was dried blood on them, and as he looked further down there was blood on his clothes, too. Disgust overwhelmed his confusion.

"I'm...I'm gonna take a shower..." He said, getting up and kissing Flaky on the forehead.

"Alright," the porcupine said, completely understanding. This wasn't the first time he excused himself to be rid of blood, after all.

Thankfully, Millie was drifting off again, and once Flaky knew she was asleep, she gently set her back in her crib, still thinking about the most recent events. As she looked around, she couldn't help but to notice a lack of anything damaged. Everything seemed as pristine as it had been before Fliqpy showed up. There was no sign of a murderer, because, for a short while, Fliqpy wasn't a murderer. As much as she hated to admit it, he actually seemed more like a...

...father.

~End of Story~