Picture this, if you will. It was really late last night. I was about to fall asleep. Then, as fate would have it, this random little oneshot popped into my mind, and I just HAD to write it down. Hence, I'm really tired as I type this. :) ANYWAY, this is a oneshot between Diana and Drake. NOT as a couple, by the way, just interaction. Caine is mentioned. It's set the night after they find out that Nurse Temple is Caine's mother. Enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: "Gone" is Michael Grant's!

Blankets And Snoring

Diana's POV

Stupid Caine.

This was all his fault, really.

He was the reason I was stuck, shivering, on a lumpy couch, opposite a sleeping psychopath, with no blanket. If the door to this office had been only a little bigger, then maybe I wouldn't be in this predicament. But no, the doors in Perdido Beach's Town Hall just had to be smaller then average.

Flashback:

"Stupid Caine," Diana muttered as she attempted to push a lumpy-looking couch through the office door. "Stupid FAYZ. Stupid tiny Perdido Beach doors. Stupid--"

"What's going on here?" the all-too-familiar voice of Drake Merwin interrupted from outside the office. "Diana? What the heck?!"

Diana realized she must have looked like a hot mess, hair disheveled and face red from the exertion of pushing the couch. Her easy, breezy, witty reply was, "I'm pushing a couch." Drake raised an eyebrow.

"I can see that. My question is, why?"

Diana rolled her eyes. "Didn't you hear Fearless Leader's new edict? He wants us, as in both of us, to stay here. As in live. In Town Hall. With him." With a sort of vindictive pleasure, she watched Drake's face fall.

"But I already claimed a house and everything! I kicked some sixth-graders out and stole some furniture..."

"Yeah, yeah, you can tell me about your home improvement later. Right now, if you don't help me get this couch out of this room, we're both screwed."

"How?" Drake didn't make a move to help her, just stood there with his arms crossed.

"This is the only room in Town Hall that has sofas in it, and I'd enjoy not sleeping in the same room as you."

"Doesn't Caine's office have two couches in it?" Diana sighed in exasperation.

"Yes. But he locked the door, and when I knocked on it, something was thrown against the wall and he yelled that he was thinking, and that I should leave."

"Ooh. Rejection sucks, doesn't it?"

"You would know. Now, help me move this frickin' sofa!" He rolled his eyes, but all the same his hands reached into the room to grab the arm of the couch. Even with Drake pulling, the sofa obviously wasn't leaving the room. He shook his head.

"Sorry for ya, Ladris. Guess we're roomies for the night... I doubt if Caine'll like the sound of that." He smirked widely.

"Get a life, Merwin," Diana said angrily as she pulled her claimed sofa as far away from the other one as she could manage in the cramped office, and sat on it. It was just as lumpy as she imagined.

Drake left, then came back five minutes later with an armful of blankets. He threw them on his couch, flipped off the light, and the room went completely black. Almost instantly, Diana heard light snoring as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

She hit the sofa cushion under her head a couple of times and twisted around on the couch, attempting to get comfortable. Then, at the worst moment possible, a breeze came from somewhere and tickled her bare feet, then moved up to her bare arms. She shivered.

End Flashback:

Diana's POV

Twenty minutes later, I concluded that sleep wasn't coming until I got warm. I wouldn't be surprised if I turned on the light and saw that my feet were blue and needed to be amputated. It was autumn in California for heaven's sake, why wasn't it warm?

I scowled. First at my lap. Then at the lumpy sofa that was going to make my back ache. Then at Drake, who was asleep, covered in blankets.

Wait a second...

I shot off of my couch, crossed the tiny room in two quick strides, and thumped Merwin right on the forehead. His eyes flew open, and when he saw that it was only me, his scowl rivaled mine.

"What do you want?" he asked with an irritable tone to his already angry-sounding voice.

"A blanket. Give me one, now." I held out my hand in anticipation, my other hand on my hip in an intimidating stance. Obviously, my stance wasn't intimidating enough, as Drake just smirked at me.

"Why?" he asked, acting thoroughly annoying, as per usual. "Are you cold, Ladris?"

"No! Well, not exactly... Maybe just a bit." He raised an eyebrow, cocky even when he looked completely ridiculous, covered in blankets that should be mine. "Okay, okay. I'm freezing. Are you happy now?" His smirk grew wider.

"These're mine. Go get your own." My mouth dropped open as he flipped over and started snoring again. Although this time, I could tell the snores were completely fake.

"Drake! Drake Merwin! At least tell me where you got the blankets!" The snores grew louder, and I realized what I had to do. I firmly grasped the top blanket and pulled.

It didn't go anywhere.

"Are you KIDDING me?!" I yelled. Merwin turned back over, and I swear, the smirk had left his face and was now it's own entity, like the Cheshire Cat. "How can you hold onto all of those blankets at once?"

"Shh," he said quietly, "people are trying to sleep."

I growled, but he didn't look frightened. Just amused. "I hate you, Merwin."

"Hate you, too. Now let me sleep."

"I'll let you sleep when you let me have a blanket," I said, sounding triumphant. "Sounds like a plan to me." He rolled his eyes.

"Why didn't you get your own blanket from one of the empty houses?" he asked. "I heard Caine say that it was going to be cold tonight, and his weather predictions are usually pretty accurate." I scowled again. Yes, Caine had told me, I just hadn't been paying attention. Stupid Sam Temple, distracting me with his cuteness.

"I wasn't listening. I was, er, distracted."

"Distracted by... Fill in the blank."

"None of your business, Merwin." I yawned, but tried to mask the sound. "Now, to the matter at hand. I need a blanket. You won't give me one. What do you want for one?"

"A trade?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Duh."

"Don't get an attitude," he warned, sounding for all the world like a parent before the FAYZ. "Remember. I have the bla-a-a-nkets!" He drew out the last word, taunting me.

"Fine. Yes. A trade. Happy now?"

"Am I ever?"

I had no answer to that, so I continued. "Uh, well, if you give me a blanket, I'll, um, give you... A candy bar." In the semi-darkness I saw the incredulous expression that suddenly appeared on his face.

"A candy bar. You have got to be kidding me, Ladris. Seriously, that's the best thing that you can come up with?" I scowled. I had been doing a lot of that tonight.

"A candy bar. Take it or leave it." He seemed to consider it for a second, and then smirked.

"I'll leave it. But thanks, and I mean that seriously." I sighed, loudly and right in his face. The smirk never wavered once. "You know what you could do..." I looked at him, eyebrows raised.

"What."

"Say please."

I was so taken aback that I laughed out loud. "You want me to say please? Since when has Drake Merwin cared about manners?" He shrugged, all of the blankets moving with him.

"You can't just barge in here, thump me on the head and demand that I give you a blanket. That's not the way it works."

I stared at him, then said, "well, then, can I please have a blanket?" He rolled over, again hiding his face from me. I stomped my foot, not caring if he thought it childish. "You told me to say please!" A snore emanated from the pile of blankets, a fake-sounding snore, again. I almost screamed, but contented myself with storming back over to my couch and sitting huffily on it, glaring at the lump that was Drake Merwin.

I was laying down, mentally preparing myself for a night spent in the cold, when his voice came again.

"The blankets are down the hall, in the closet to your left." Surprised, I sat bolt upright.

"Come again?" I heard the exasperated sigh that I had come to associate with when Caine was having one of his long-winded speeches.

"I won't say it again. Jeez, Ladris, clean out your ears sometime."

Five minutes later, I was happily buried underneath a pile of blankets to rival Merwin's. I was about to fall asleep, when...

"There's still something that needs to be said, Ladris."

"What?"

"If I'm going to actually "care about manners" now, I might as well go all the way. There's a certain thing that you say when someone does something nice for you."

"Make you wait in agonizing cold while they gloat, more like it," I muttered, but still mumbled, "thanks, Merwin."

"What was that? I didn't quite catch that."

"I won't say it again," I said, mocking his earlier words. "You need to clean out your ears or something."

"Touche," he said, and I swear I heard a smile in his voice. Light snores soon followed, and these were real.

There you have it! If you liked it, please review!

Peace, love, FAYZ,

:Hyperactive Lioness: