Her name is Nepeta Leijon, and she has just been woken up by a horrible nightmare. Fire, all over a beautiful city, a terrible demon with a sword causing destruction and mayhem, and the deaths of all of her friends. She searches frantically over the covers until her fingers meet the warm skin of the man beside her. There he sleeps untroubled by her sudden awakening, Equius Zahhak.

She runs her fingers through her sleep- matted hair and looks at him. It's been hot these past couple of months in the desert, and he normally can't sleep well in the heat. Tonight, however, he sleeps like a baby, hardly tossing and turning at all. He is pressed against the wall like he normally does when he's sleeping, and it makes her smile. He always looks so peaceful, almost helpless while sleeping.

Nepeta climbs out of bed and stretches, padding silently over to the door to avoid waking up her boys. The tabby on their dresser twitches an ear in his sleep, perhaps dreaming about a hunt, and Equius rolls over, muttering under his breath. She again smiles. Her life might not be the very best, but she loves what she has. She has a home, and someone who loves her.

As she walks towards the kitchen in the dim dawn light she thinks about making Equius a surprise milkshake. He loves his milkshakes. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, he could care less. It's still way too early for him to wake up though, and he hasn't been sleeping well. She opens up the fridge and pulling out the bacon he'd bought the other day, grabbing a carton of eggs and then flour out of the pantry.

'I'm going to make Equius eggs and bacon and homemade biscuits,' she thinks to herself as she brings down a bowl to begin making dough for her biscuits, 'and then a protein milkshake before he leaves for work so he can stay strong.'

Nepeta goes outside and sits on her porch swing. Equius built it for her and she painted it olive and indigo colors, she still doesn't know why these colors strike her to be so beautiful together. She just knows that it's always nice to sit out here and watch the sunrise. As she kneads the dough on the table, her mind lapses into thoughts about herself. At twenty years old, she's a small 5' 2", and is very thin. Her dark complexion and springy black curls are from a mixture of black and some other race. She keeps her hair short because of how thick and unmanageable it can be at times. She loves the color green, and also adores cats, hence the fact that she and Equius have a one as a pet. She also loves Equius to death, pampering him, papping and shooshing whenever he gets angry at work or around town. She once loved someone else, but it was always unrequited and although she sometimes dreams of a couple similar to them, she doesn't really understand how it works. The feelings are different, almost alien. In any case she couldn't be happier than she is now.

With the dough set to rise she walks back into the peaceful house. The cat meets her at the door, and she scoops him up and pads quietly back towards the bedroom. She takes a peek from the cracked door and sees him still sleeping. Seeing that it's only 6:30 in the morning still she settles down on the floor beside the bed, petting her cat thoughtfully. After a half hour of sitting like that she hears a sound above her head. Peaking up over the edge of the bed brings her nose to nose with one half awake Equius.

"I was about to check and see what was making G purr so loud," he murmured, "I should have figured it was you petting him."

"He only purrs this loud when I'm petting him or if you're feeding him, so what did you expect?"

"I don't know really. Maybe that he suddenly had a girlfriend or something."

"Like that would actually ever happen, G hates other cats!"

"That's the joke dear, steeped in ironies unknown," he remarked as he threw the covers off and rolled out of bed, "I need to take a shower, I think I sweat up a storm in my sleep."

"Gross Equius, did you soak up the sheets again? I'll have to add laundry to my list of things to do then."

"I'm sorry Nepeta, I'll do the wash when I get home from work I promise," he called from the bathroom, "and then I'll cook us up some steak or something."

"Equius Zahhak is that a hint that I haven't been feeding you enough meat lately?"

"We all know strong men love their steak."

Chuckling as she walks into the kitchen to put the biscuits in the oven and to start the bacon, she thinks about how these sort of teasing arguments were a norm in their lives. It was one of the things that keep them happy. That and the fact that they each have their special role in their relationship, an unspoken truce they have had for as long as they can remember. She keeps him calm and relaxed, and he insures her protection.

Hearing the sound of the shower turning on reminds her not to use the sink for a while, which means not getting her hands dirty with the rest of the biscuits. He likes his showers strong, and with the usage of another faucet the stream would become weak.

She was just about to put the biscuits in the oven when she heard a knock at the door.

'A visitor at this hour?' she thinks, 'it's hardly past seven o' clock.'

Answering that door could have been one of the worst things she could ever have done in her entire life.

"Hello little one, long time no see," a familiar and dreaded voice murmured above her head, "look what the cat just let out of the bag."

"G-Gamzee?"