The third story for A Perfect World, yay! :)

This is just a kind of random idea. Hope you guys like it!

Fawful shivered as a cold November wind blew in his face the moment he walked out the main doors out Toad Town High.

In the sky above him the clouds were a dark shade of gray.

"Think it'll snow soon?" he asked his friend Dimentio.

The older boy shrugged as he looked up to the sky. "Perhaps. I heard it's going to be a cold winter this year."

Fawful laughed. "Isn't winter supposed to be cold?"

Dimentio rolled his eyes. "Fine then; colder than usual. Now that I think about it, you don't get much snow in the Beanbean Kingdom, do you?"

"Not really." Fawful laughed again. "Back in my old hometown, people would joke that we have spring, summer, and a really long autumn."

This time Dimentio laughed with him. "Nice. Are we still going to the library to study?"

"Nah, not today. By the time we'd be done it'll be dark already. I don't like the idea of waiting for a bus in the dark."

"Hmm, I guess you're right. It'll be colder, too."

So instead of going to the Toad Town library, the two boys got on the bus to Dark City.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Dimentio mused. "Toad Town is actually bigger than Dark City. Of course, Dark City isn't really a city. It's more of a town than Toad Town is."

"That is interesting. Maybe someone meant for Dark City to be a city when it started out."

"They didn't do a good job of making that happen, did they?"

Fawful chuckled. "No, not really."

The bus arrived at Dark City and all the kids got off.

"Hey, where's Mimi?" Fawful asked. "I didn't see her on the bus and I didn't see her get off."

"Oh, I think she's doing something with Dawn and Star back in Toad Town," Dimentio said with a shrug.

"Oh."

They started walking.

Dimentio stopped suddenly causing Fawful to bump in to him.

"Why did you stop?"

"Shh, I saw something in that bush move." He floated closer to the bush to see what was there.

"It was probably just the wind," Fawful suggested.

"No, it wasn't the wind…"

To their surprise, a little creature that looked like a green boot hopped out from the bush.

"What is that thing?" Fawful wondered out loud.

Dimentio sat down next to it, ignoring the fact that the ground was cold.

"I've seen these creatures before, but I can't remember what they're called…"

Fawful also sat down. "It looks like a little boot. Or maybe a sock."

"Sockop!"

Fawful looked confused. "What…?

"They're called Sockops," Dimentio explained. "I appreciate you reminding me."

"Oh. Well, you're welcome then. It won't hurt us, will it?"

"I don't know much about Sockop other then their name, but I don't think it will. It looks pretty harmless, doesn't it?"

"I don't know; I have a bad feeling about this little guy…"

The older boy petted the Sockop and smiled. "There, see? He's rather friendly."

"I guess." Fawful still felt uneasy. Sure, the Sockop looked cute and friendly, but something just didn't seem right… "Er, is it…drooling?"

From the hole on the top of the Sockop, there seemed to be something dripping out and onto Dimentio's gloved hand. He brought it close to his face and sniffed it.

"It smells sweet…like honey. It kind of looks like honey, too."

Fawful chuckled. "If it tastes like honey, it'll pass the honey test," he joked.

Taking the Beanish somewhat serious, Dimentio started licking the honey-like substance off of his grove. "Yep, tastes like honey." Fawful gave him a look of shock.

"Dude! I was just kidding!"

"Well, I didn't particularly want it to dry on my grove!"

"You don't even know if it's safe to eat!" Fawful did a facepalm.

Dimentio stood up. "I'm sure it's fine. This little Sockop seems friendly enough; why would it let me eat its honey if it wasn't safe?"

Fawful had to admit he had no answer to that.

"Alright then. Now, let's go home before our families start to worry about us."

The two boys said their good byes and went their separate ways.

"Ugh," Dimentio awoke with a quiet groan. He opened his mismatched colored eyes to check the time.

4:15AM

With another groan, he rolled over to face the wall and began wondering what had woken him up.

It was Friday; a school day, but it wasn't time to get up yet.

Maybe a sound woke me up?

He listened carefully, but the only thing he heard was the wind blowing outside.

Sighing, he closed his eyes. He could still get a few more hours of sleep before he had get up and get ready for school. He felt a minor pain in his stomach, but assumed it was hunger.

Even though he was tried, Dimentio couldn't seem to fall asleep again.

Finally, he managed to doze off only to be awoken two hours later by his sister Nastasia.

"Come on, Dimentio," she said softly, gently shaking his shoulder. "It's time to get up."

Groaning, he opened his eyes. Nastasia gave him a worried look.

"You look tired," she commented.

"I didn't sleep too well," he replied as he sat up.

"Your face is pale, too." Then, realizing his face was always pale because he always hid it behind his mask, she added, "A rather sickly pale. Do you feel alright?"

Dimentio shook his head. No, he didn't feel alright.

His body felt cold but his head felt really warm and he had a slight headache.

Also, he felt really weak, like just getting out of bed would take an effort.

But most of all his stomach hurt a lot. It definitely wasn't hunger pains. And yet, it didn't ache like he ate too much. He just felt ready to puke any minute.

"I think I caught a stomach bug," he moaned. "Or possibly the flu."

Nastasia placed a hand on his forehead. It felt nice and cool.

"You certainly caught something. You have a fever." She sounded concerned. "Lie back down, Dim. You should probably stay home today."

Dimentio was only happy to lie down again. He found just sitting up to be hard work.

With a sigh, Nastasia said, "I better go tell Dad. You just close your eyes and go to sleep; I'll be right back."

If only it were that easy, Dimentio thought, knowing he would probably have a hard time falling asleep.

Nastasia calling Count Bleck "Dad". Hmm, a little weird, isn't it? XD

Things to be Explained:
The whole thing with Beanbean not having much for winters I just made up because it seems like they would have a lot of nice weather. I don't know; just a random thought. :P

I think that's all, but as always, if you don't understand something in APW, ask away! :)

~Dawn