Title: Good Morning

Warnings: Nope, nope, just ignorant, blissful fluff.

Words: 1,685

Summary: "Why, hello there, Princess!" At 1:45 in the morning, Courtney let out loud groan and turned with a grimace to the one thing that could ruin the small ray of hope she had found in aisle twelve.

It was 1:24 in the morning when Duncan's mother asked him to buy some Kleenex. She had been sniffing constantly and making small, animalistic sneezing noises from the bedroom for almost half an hour before she had felt the need to call for backup. "Duncan…" She had yelped down the hallway, pushing her blonde hair away from her face, "Duncan… c'mere…"

At 1:22 in the morning, Duncan jerked in his sleep and groaned at the voice echoing down the hallway. In exactly two minutes, he was in her room, boxers hanging lowly on his hips, wife beater askew and blue eyes cracking with red sleepless streaks. His Mohawk was loosely hanging off in different directions as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, mumbling at his mother and asking what she wanted. She asked for one simple thing- "I just need some Kleenex, dear."

He had agreed that he would be fine to go get her some tissues, but then his mother had coughed into her hand and lifted a list to his face. "Oh yeah, and could you, um, maybe get this too, Duncan, dear, if it's not much trouble?..." He had sighed; telling her it was no problem, as the paper unraveled into two, three- four times its original size as his mother let it hang down to touch the floor. "Thank you, sweetheart, it's been so hard being sick, and your father has to work overtime, you're such a good boy…"

"Yeah, yeah," He had mumbled, half asleep and tired as hell as he grabbed the list and slumped out of the room. He grabbed his dad's car keys just to spite him and slipped on some basketball shorts, a pair of old sneakers and shrugged on a light jacket as he slid out of the door. The car was cold, so he had to wait for it to get some heat before he could go to the store. Where was he going to go, anyways? What the hell was open at this time?

He was surprised as he headed out to the main road. Apparently, everything was open at this time of night. A few weird guys were walking around with their hoods over their faces and some teenage kids were running in a pack looking more than a little bit shady. Duncan grunted and took a deep breath, trying to wake up. Pulling into the parking lot of the local market, he grabbed the spare cash his dad kept in the glove box and headed out.

The faint sound of a dog barking and cars making the usual car noises faded in the background of his ears. When Duncan was younger, he had been so much better about staying up late into the night. Something about reaching the age of eighteen and entering his senior year had caused the whole concept of sleeping to seem so much lovelier than it had before.

It was 1:41 when Duncan walked into the local market and grabbed a cart, straining his eyes to adjust to the florescent lights and bright colors than didn't seem as annoying in the day as they did now. He decided to go for the first thing on the list- Kleenex. Thank god it was a Saturday tomorrow, now he wouldn't have to deal with remembering to skip school.

He had really been thinking that the night couldn't get any worse when he saw a ray of hope in the small store. It was 1:45 in the morning when Duncan turned into aisle twelve and a smirk appeared upon his lips.

"Why, hello there, Princess!"

It was 1:28 in the morning when Courtney sat abruptly upright in bed and groaned. She had the worst cramp of her life, and automatically she knew what it must mean. She walked into the bathroom to find her worst fear had come true. Looking underneath the sink, she made a small mewling noise of pain- only one pad for now. No tampons, no nothing. "Fuck!"

At 1:36, she ran downstairs and snatched the keys off of the coffee table, throwing on a sweat shirt and not bothering to change out of her small night shorts for the time being. As she was driving twenty over the limit, Courtney mentally face palmed herself. Didn't she need to buy poster board for the debate team tomorrow, and hadn't she promised the tennis team she would buy them all new towels and water bottles in exchange for their vote for student council president?

Banging her head on the steering wheel, she realized this was going to be more than a ten minute outing.

Courtney didn't even bother grabbing a cart as she ran straight to aisle twelve. At 1:44, she sighed in relief as she sifted over the different brands. The purple pack looked pretty, but the green ones had wings… What to get, what to-

"Why, hello there, Princess!" At 1:45 in the morning, Courtney let out loud groan and turned with a grimace to the one thing that could ruin the small ray of hope she had found in aisle twelve.

"Duncan, what the hell are you doing here?" She stood up from her previous crouching position to find that she still had to look up to meet his eyes. It made her angry that Duncan was so much taller than her- if anything, it should be the other way around. She obviously topped Duncan! "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

He raised a brow, dragging his cart down the aisle to stop next to her. "Shouldn't I be asking you the same question… though I'm pretty sure I can figure it out." Courtney blushed bright red, realizing it was too late to hide the pack of tampons behind her back. Gosh, how lame could she be? In front of Duncan, no less… she could have lied to herself and said that she didn't care, but she was past that by now. It was obvious to herself that she held some sort of feelings for Duncan- even if she couldn't seem to conjure a reason behind these feelings (or that she just didn't want there to be one in the first place), they were there.

Duncan could apparently tell by the look on her face that she was embarrassed, but what he really saw was that she was about to push him away. Duncan hated the way that Courtney wouldn't let him touch her, like it was going to burn her skin or something. He softened and strolled his cart down the aisle, taking the box of tampons out of her hands and throwing it in the basket. "C'mon. It's no fun shopping alone, am I right?"

Courtney brought up a hand to protest, but then felt a yawn concur her need to scold. It was too early in the morning to get worked up over little things, and Duncan was offering to cart around her things for her. Who was she to deny some nice help? She walked over to him and let out a long sigh, not catching the huge winning grin that spread across Duncan's face.

They walked in silence for the first fifteen minutes, simply checking things off their list and not questioning the other, stealing glances from time to time. The store only contained a few other people around, all of them looking just as tired as they both did, and the peace and serenity of it all was actually comforting. If it wasn't for the unknown 80's music playing lightly from the store speakers, Duncan would probably call this a perfect moment.

Throwing some pop-tarts into the cart, Courtney blinked her eyes sleepily. "I'm done." She said, clicking her tongue. Duncan nodded in agreement as they headed toward the front of the store, her hand brushing against his. "So…" She started, and he looked over at her in surprise, "What are you doing here so late at night?"

Duncan sighed, rubbing at one of his eyes with the knuckled on his hand. "My ma's sick… she asked me to go get her some Kleenex and somehow I ended up with a whole weeks' worth of shopping on my hands." They entered the express aisle as Duncan began to scan a few items. "What are you doing out here, other than buying womanly products?" He shot her a grin.

She ignored his vulgar comment about her monthly cycle and answered the question stiffly. "None of your business, pig. I just forgot to pick up a few things yesterday, and I just remembered them tonight…" She saw him pick up the tampon box and scan it. "No, Duncan, that goes with my bags."

He shrugged. "I'll pay for 'em, it's fine." Courtney felt her whole heart light up at the kind gesture, wow, Duncan really knew how to be a gentleman when he wanted to… "It's not my money, so no skin off my back."

Gentleman. Yeah right.

Courtney rolled her eyes but didn't ask him anymore questions as they finished bagging their stuff and separated them into different bags. They exited the store and were about to go their separate ways when Courtney clutched to his wrist. He looked to her with surprise, and she turned her face away to try and hide her blush. "Thank you… not just for paying for um, helping me get the shopping done."

She was surprised when she felt soft lips press against her cheek, a voice whispering in her ear, "Anytime, Princess…" She hadn't realized he was already walking back to his car until she opened her eyes about ten seconds later. "See you tomorrow!" He winked at her, and she tried her best to look angry and not absolutely stunned like she really was.

At 2:03 in the morning, Duncan kissed Courtney's cheek.

And at 2:04, Courtney chased back after him and kissed him back, not on the cheek, but on his rough lips, and murmured, "We should go shopping again sometime." Blushes stained both of their cheeks as they were silent for a moment.

"Yeah." Duncan mused.

2:05-

"We really should."

Authors Note:

Who knows why, but this one-shot took a lot to get out! For some reason, it just would not write itself. :P I hate that, so I hold a grudge against this fic. *growls*

Also, I am super bored right now… so if anyone has any ideas for a story, please! Feel free to let me hear. The plot bunnies are being total bitches right now, they just won't come out of hiding…

But anyways, hoped you liked it and thanks for reading!

First Draft Finished: 1/19/2011
Final Draft Finished: 1/26/2011
Published: 1/26/2011
Fandom: Total Drama series
Disclaimer: Total Drama Island and all its characters are property of their respective owners.
©2011 Cereal-Killa