#but that day would never come and now the toppats assume it is just another safe with some sort of valuble

[flamingredanon]

Random Henry thoughts from my tired butt.

What if Reginald started hiding a spare gun in his hat after ItA, so that he could never be caught unprepared again (to be fair it's hard to be prepared for a human crow in a giant hamster ball chasing you down)

I saw a post referencing the golden safe that has the teddy bear and what if that bear belonged to Terrence? He does have the fancy picture frame and his portrait is holding that golden gun, so what if the safe was also Terrence's?

And if it is Terry's safe and teddy, why hasn't Reginald or other Toppats gotten rid of it, with what Terry did as leader and all.

Does maybe someone miss a friendship/brothership or more with Terrence and kept the safe or even keeping the teddy bear safe and using the safe as an excuse?

And what if the reason Charles was sorta close to the Wall was because he was looking for Ellie on Galeforce's orders (since he was keeping tabs on her from PP) but the Wall got to her first.

[a-crash-in-time-collection]

Chapter 1: The Crash

She was floating in space. Only it didn't seem like normal space, which she knew all about. It seemed to shine with different colors. She couldn't move much, it was almost as if she was forced into her current position. Voices of old filled her head. Voices she wanted to remember. Voices she never wants to forget. But at the same time, the voices brought back memories of a different time. A different time...

"Us kids should stick together, not stalk one another. I mean, Mafia Town can be a really dangerous place" "If you want it, we'll have to settle it in true Mafia style!" "You Moon Penguins are just gonna write some loud, noisy drivel!" "This last time piece is all for me, darling." "Your contract has expired, sleep now in the fire!" "And do it quickly pup."

Her face formed a smile, before tears started to fall. Wait... why was she...

"Don't leave us!" "Hey kiddo, let's make another contract!" "Don't you dare leave, lass!" "Let's watch our movie, darling!"

That's why... she couldn't have just stayed. She at least needed to try and get home. And her kind weren't keen on creatures from other planets... who knows what would have happened to them? But with the end result, did it even matter-

A large ringing brought her out of the space-like place, finding herself sitting on the soft surface of her bed. Glancing around as she stopped the ringing of the clock, everything was in place. Her relics on their podiums, toys she made based on her time on that planet on the shelves in her room. Most of her badges she bought from the strange badge guy on a pin board beside her bed. Her umbrella was next to her dresser with the mirror.

A glance out the nearby window showed the mostly green and blue planet. It reminded her a lot of the planet that she could now only visit in her dreams. Unlike that planet, there was little if any magic. Talking animal creatures were only heard of in movies. Ghosts were just tall tales. So similar, yet different at the same time...

She got up, yawning as she stretched and walked over to her closet. Opening it, she grabbed a purple blazer and yellow scarf. She paused, looking at them both slightly. The blazer was taller than she used to be, when she first found herself crashed on the planet...

She remembered checking the vault as she passed by, only one time piece was left. She knew that wouldn't be enough to make it home, and she didn't know if she would pass another planet she could survive on in between them. So she grabbed it, and braced for impact. The ship crashed on 'Earth' in the middle of the night, and looking back on it now, she was lucky no big place caught sight of her. She remembered bleeding, maybe having a broken or fractured bone with the sharp pain coming from the left side of her body. She found herself being too hurt to move on her own right away... it was possible that she would have died...

But then two people entered her vision as she picked herself up. Both wore hats like she did, one of them actually had two. Apparently the two hat man, Reginald, had seen the ship pass in front of his airship while it fell from the sky. The two were naturally confused on why she was there, and concerned if she was alright. She remembered them offering to take her to the airship's medbay, but she was more worried about her relics, which were not the only things she had of her time with her old friends. The one with his orange hair in a ponytail that hung over his shoulder, who called himself 'Right Hand Man', offered to do it for her. However, she took liberty and carried them all herself to the airship. Needless to say, the two were surprised by the child's strength.

She now called these two 'Dad' and 'Papa', and they called her their daughter.

She allowed herself to exit her thoughts as she pulled her brown shoes over her purple socks and pants, standing up and walking over to the door of her room. It was a new day.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up." An energetic voice spoke as soon as she opened the door. She was met with a more-humanoid Topbot, with a face that smiled at her, and silver hair that helped make them seem more like a teenager. He wore a blue and orange jacket, with the faintest hint of a green shirt being seen, and dark dull indigo pants that ended in his metal shoes that were literally his feet.

A few years ago, Hat Girl had found herself more lonely. Her dads, while they made time for her, were often busy at work. Most of the younger kids aboard the airship didn't let her play too often, and the teenagers were often on training missions or just plain avoided her. In an attempt to give her someone to hang out with, Reginald took aside a random Topbot, redesign and reprogrammed it to act as a brother to Hat Girl. He spent so long and hard on it that it felt like part of his soul belong to the machine in the end. Which could possibly explained how Platinum wasn't just following an interactive script, but was fully self aware and alive. He did have a small panic attack at first due to the sudden self awareness, but soon after he was able to cause trouble with Hat Kid.

"You ready for today, brother of mine?" Hat Girl asked, a smile forming on her face.

"Uhh, yeah." He said, a smirk forming on his face as well.

"Good, we can get started on our prank plans after breakfast." She stated, passing him and walking down the hall, humming a slight tune as she glanced out at the seemingly-night sky.

"Aww, come on!" Platinum said, racing next to her quickly, rolling his bright orange eyes. "You always have to eat before we can have fun. I don't see what the big deal is."

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Brother." She said, sticking her tongue out playfully. She never fully grew out of her childish phase. "I pity you sometimes, food is great and you're unable to experience it."

"Please. I got my Tanks and Family, that's all I need." Platinum replied, rolling his eyes as the two walked into the cafeteria area, which was currently a bit busy as you would expect from it early in the morning. "I honestly don't see why your body decides you need food. Just seems inconvenient in my option."

Hat Girl shook her head slightly with a chuckle as she walked over to the sideboard, where Burt and Fredrick were talking.

"I'm starting to get concerned over your coffee obsession, Burt." The Cheese wearing Toppat said, arms crossed as he glared at the man in front of him. The man always sounded like his throat was sore, at least to Hat Girl it did. She remembered questioning if he was alright when they first met.

"Coffee is nice, Fredrick." Burt said, the dyed orange part of his black hair covering one of his eyes, as per the usual. He always seemed to act like he had no emotions, and spent most of his days in his office or grabbing himself the drink that was currently the topic of their talk. "The fact that you never tried coffee worries me."

"I'm more of a Hot chocolate person, and besides, the smell alone is enough to turn me off." Fredrick stated, grabbing the lake of floating marshmallows in a cup along with the plate of 'Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Bombs' he liked. "But I know all that coffee isn't healthy for you, I swear you drink more coffee then you eat actual food."

Burt rolled his eyes at the statement, before glancing around the area as he grabbed his coffee and toast. "Fine. I'll eat a little more today." With that, temporarily balancing his plate on his other arm, he grabbed one of the muffin-like items off Fredrick's plate and walked away.

Fredrick was frozen in shock for a few seconds, before huffing and glancing to the side. It was only then he realized the children of the leaders. "Oh, sorry you two, I didn't see you there. Off going to cause some trouble later I assume?"

"Possibly, possibly not." Platinum shrugged as Hat Girl chuckled, before giving her breakfast request to the cook-toppat that came by.

"I'll be taking that as a yes." Fredrick said, shaking his head. "Just uhh, do me a favor and don't go on a spree of spray-painting the inside of the vents, again. Took me and Sammy nearly the whole day to clean it last time."

"Alright, no spray paint in vents..." Platinum said, raising his arms in front of him slightly in defeat. He watched as Frederick left, before turning to his sister. "Want to finally see how many people we can surprise with airhorns tape to their chairs and doors?"

"Oh heck yeah!" Hat Girl said, giving her brother a thumbs up. And the Toppats that heard her shout began to feel a faint feeling of fear among them. They knew then that chaos caused by those two would come later that day.

-------

What they didn't know was on earth, a conversation was happening. About the true chaos.

"You sure this is... safe?" One government person asked another as they glanced at the cannon. Although cannon felt like an understatement. The place where the 'cannonball' would come out of look like it itself was 27 miles long. "For Earth I mean."

"Should be." The other replied, hoping away from the gears they were adjusting. "The material should begin to burn up after it makes contact with the toppat orbital station. The worst we should have to deal with are burning pieces of metal and stuff falling down to earth in the size of normal meteoroids."

"Am I the only one who feels this is a bit... extreme?" The first asked as they hop into the tunnel to the underground control system of the cannon. "I understand they've been a pain to deal with since they got up, but can't we just set up traps for them on earth."

"It's not just about the Toppats alone." The second stated as they followed the first, wanting to be as far away from the cannon before it blew its canon ball. "If other criminal organizations see what the clan has done, they'll likely follow in suit. Soon all crime might be unstoppable because those who caused it are up in space. Is that the world you want to live in?"

"No."

"Then we need to make a statement. And this is the only way. Now let's get to the control room, and get this party started..."

-------

Hat Girl had found herself staring out the cafeteria window as she finished her plate of breakfast, slightly blocking out what Platinum was talking about as he sat in front of her. This was a bit normal for the two, half the time they were inseparable during the day. Especially since the incident where Dad was captured, and Papa had to be turned into a cyborg to live. It was a bit of a struggle for the clan then, and even with Dad back it was a lot of work to make up all the money that had been stolen the night before they were meant to launch their station-

Her train of thought stopped as she faintly spotted something outside the window. She got off her seat and walked over to the window, placing her hand on it faintly as she glanced down at the planet they raided. There was some sort of... gray and slightly green ball thing. At first it was just a speck of dust, but it was getting bigger.. and bigger... it was coming to them, faster and faster.

"Hattie?" Platinum questioned, walking up next to his sister in confusion. "What's going on, you don't just leave a plate of food alone suddenly like that." She was a bit wordless at first, but managed to point to the strange thing. Platinum had to squint his eyes to see it. "That's... just a space rock."

"Coming FROM Earth?" Hat Girl asked, looking at her brother. "As a former space traveler, I have NEVER seen that happen, and I know that's not a normal occurrence for this planet. And not to mention it's perfectly... in the path of.. hitting... Get Dad and Papa and warn them, NOW!"

"Time to act serious for once then." The topbot said, quickly racing away from his sister and the group of toppats.

She glanced at the ball again, seeing it was getting closer and larger with each passing second. She found herself frozen like the poor souls in Vanessa's Manor, or the times she used her ice hat years ago. What was she going to do?

"Dad, Pops!" Platinum called as he reached the Cockpit of the rocket, taking an unneeded breath as he reached the door.

"Platinum?" Reginald asked, turning away from his cyborg husband as he glanced at his Robotic son. "What's going-"

"We need to move, or use Supreme Dominance." Platinum cut him off, with worry in fear shining in his orange eyes. "Now-"

At the very seconds, the 'cannonball' of metal and small bits of trash collided with the orbital station, hitting the middle of the rocket.

Hat Girl fell to her feet as the station twisted and chaos fell around her. Everything outside the window became a blur, as Toppats screamed in panic. She suddenly found her grip from the wall she'd grabbed onto slip, and she was slammed against another wall. Everything went black to her after that.

-------

It took a bit for her mind to process things as she awake, her body aching in places like she had a faint sunburn. She slowly opened her eyes with a groan, scanning the mix of dark and light. She appeared to be where the window of the cafeteria once was. Keyword there being once was because now it was a pile of glass on the grass below her. Some of the glass were close to her arms, and likely was responsible for the small cuts she saw on them. She glanced around as much as she could without getting up.

Chaos was the best word that could describe the current state of the station. Well, other then 'destroyed'. Parts of the orbital station the Toppats called home where broken and scattered across what she could only assume was a forest clearing. The earth was dragged up from a few parts finding themselves lodge into it. She was able to see a few Toppat members getting up or helping others up, while trying to take in what had just happened. Not like she could blame them, she knew exactly what happened, but was still trying to process it herself.

Their home was attacked, and was sent far from earth. Yet, judging by the fact none of them were suffocating, it meant this planet had oxygen or some other air humans could breathe in. Which made sense, they did land in a forest. But that meant they were out of the solar system...

Her train of thought was cut off by a sliver of a blur that entered her field of vision. At first she was a bit spooked out, until her vision adjusted, and she saw the familiar metal hand, only with a few faints scratches. She took the cold hand, although by now she was used to the chill, as Platinum helped her to her feet. "You ok, sis?"

"Y-Yeah." She said, letting go of his hand as she rubbed her arms slightly. She picked up her nearby fallen top hat, and made sure to check the side. She sighed in relief as her hand made badge, one that had the hats of her fathers on it, was still there, and placed that hat back on her head. "Some shards of glass cut me a bit when the window broke."

"Well... considering what just happened, it could have been a lot worse." Platinum looked around. "This is all so unreal..."

"Yeah..." She slowly walked past her brother as she glanced up at the sky, then around at all the greenery around them. Why... was she feeling like she had been here before? Her mind told her it was simply because it looked like earth, but her heart was insisting it was something more.

"Oi. Are ya ok, Reg?" Right Hand Man asked, as he helped the Chief onto his feet, worry in his human and robotic eyes.

"I'm fine. But... the others..." Reginald coughed slightly, before looking around the crash site, as much as he could without moving from his spot anyway.

As the leader of the Toppats, one skill he gained over the years was being somewhat-able to get a rough estimation of how many clan members were in his sight. And after seeing at least 100 Toppats in his vision, he knew others were likely on the other side of the rocket. Assuming at least 88 toppats were on that other side, it meant that a few were still stuck inside, likely injured or, worryingly, dead. Not to mention the children...

"Right Hand Man! Check the rumble for any trapped members!" He ordered, his voice and tone clear that there was no time to waste. He was still not fully used to his lover's cybernetics, watching his legs turn into a booster as he flew into one of the openings near the top. But he loved him all the same. He glanced at a nearby group of Toppats. "See if you can find anything from Medbay, and get it setup for any injured members!" The toppats seemed to be slightly surprised by his tone, but they quickly got to work, scanning the nearby areas.

"Sir." A voice appeared behind him. He turned around to see a man in a black jacket with his white shirt visible. "I know you likely don't want anyone else going into the wreckage, but-"

"Yes Quincy, go find the kids. Just be careful." Reginald answered, the fellow father wasting no time to do so in response, likely worried for his own daughter. The kids were in a pod similar to the leader's pod, it was one of the first things Reginald planned out when he made the blueprints. They would spend most of their days in there, it was the safest for them, especially if the place was to below up, they would already be in a pod and on their way to earth.

Hat Girl found herself walking near the nearby Woodline. That's when she noticed the traces of purple deeper down, and found herself frozen in realization.

Reginald noticed his daughter near the Woodline, and walked up to her. "Are you alright, Hattie?"

"I recognized this place." She said, looking at him. "I been here before."

Reginald's brown and blue eyes showed sudden confusion, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly. "You... what?"

"This was the planet I was on before I crashed onto earth." She responded. She then pointed out where the green of life and calmness turned into the creepy purple and black of dread and the unknown to all but her. "That ghost who's song Papa sings lives there."

"Really, the one with that Mafia, one of which went into space to try and get a toll from you?" Reginald question. He never thought his daughter was lying about the planet, but he figured he never find himself on said planet so he mostly just consider it stories.

"Yeah!" She exclaimed, childlike joy in her voice. She never really outgrew her childish side.

"Well... I suppose that means there's a town nearby, at least We should be able to get resources there." Reginald sighed, turning over his shoulder as Right Hand Man landed behind him. A look over the cyborg's shoulder showed some toppats in a little medbay-like area, some medically skilled Toppats using their skills to help the more injured Toppats, the 3rd in command Sven among them. He looked back at his partner in crime. "Was that everyone... alive in the rumble."

"Got everyone t'at was in t'e rubble." Right Hand Man stated. "Surprisingly, everyone lived."

Reginald was a bit surprised at this, but a smile formed on his face. "That's very relieving."

"So... what's the plan Dad?" Platinum asked, glancing at the Toppat leader slightly. "We can't just stay here with no place to rest, or prepare food." He paused for a second. "Well, you guys can't, at least."

Reginald brought his hand to his chin in thought, before dropping it and walking up a nearby rock. He cleared his throat, before calling out. "Can I have everyone's attention!?"

The clan members stopped whatever they were doing, except the few tending to the hurt Toppats, but he knew they were listening as well.

He took a breath before speaking. "As your Leader, I would be lying to you all if I were to claim I knew how to fix this, or the exact steps we should take next. We are the first of our kind to find ourselves stranded on a planet that can maintain life. But we cannot let this disturb us. It may be a long while, but I promise you, we will find our way home. But for now, survival is our goal, to watch after one-another, as clan and family." He paused briefly as he glanced at them all, lost souls unsure of what to do, before resuming. "Those of you who are well enough, see if you can move the walls detached from the station in order to make a temporary form of shelter. We do not know when a storm will come by, if this planet has storms at all. Look for supplies that fallen outside of the ship, only go in to retrieve items that are necessary for our survival. Go along the Woodline and look for wood for a fire. And trust in one another." With that, he backed up from his position on the rock.

Platinum watched as the clan members took a few seconds to process the orders, and the fact they were on another planet, before most started to look around. He spotted Burt and Fredrick walking up to a broken piece of wall, and seemed to start debating where the best place would go to serve as shelter. He saw Calla Fox, the one who stole the Ruby alongside Sven, slowly walk away from the Swedish man to help others look for supplies. He found himself glancing to where the purple part of the woods were hidden, his curiosity growing.

Reginald began to walk over to the wreckage that a few hours ago was the base of operations for the Toppat clan. "Hopefully we stolen enough we can sell in order to pay for what we need to fix the station..." He placed his head in his hands. "It's going to be so expensive..." He let out a muffle shout, not wishing to distract his clan members.

"Still t'ink ya s'ould 'ave let me 'unt after t'at pink-'aired government-kissin' t'ief." Right Hand Man grumbled, glancing at him. "Especially since we lost two members t'anks ta 'im."

Hat Girl watched her dads walked closer to the broken station, and went to follow them to help, before feeling a chilly hand grabbed her hand. "You said one of your friends lived in the creepy woods, right?"

She turned to look behind her, taking a second to glance at where the woods were before returning to her brother. "Yeah."

"And the creepy woods is in the direction of that purple stuff, riiiight?" Platinum voice showed intent, and seems to show he already knew the answer.

"Yea, The forest is kinda pretty in it's own way though, if memory serves me right-" She suddenly looked at him, processing the grin that appeared on his face. In response, she gave her own smart smirk. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We sneak away from the clan while they take care of the crash rocket mess and chill with your old pals?"

"YES!" She said, high fiving her brother as she bounced in the air slightly. "I been wanting to see them all again, but never thought I actually could until now! I just... hope they aren't still mad at me for sweeping them off of my spaceship."

"Come on, with your cute face as a child, and you still a bit childish face now?" Platinum asked, warping an arm around her shoulder. "They'll forgive you in a heartbeat."

She nodded, a smile on her face as removed her brother's arm around her shoulder. "Catch me if you can then, brother." She said, sticking out her tongue with a 'bleeh" and raced into the woods. She heard a shout from her brother, something about 'cheating' by 'not telling him' and heard his metal feet click ageist the ground to catch up to her. She let out a giggle before shouting once they were a safe distance away from the clan. "Snatcher, here we come!"

[flamingredanon]

Henry’s always wondered why his parents gave him an extra name in front of his real one. “Sir” was often used to greet someone formally so he just assumed that was the reason why, since they both were former Toppat leaders. But the multiple pictures around the house that were covered, the accidental extra meal every now and again at the table, Henry realised there was something his parents hadn’t told him. So he decided to confront them about it, but he didn’t expect both to have a look of grief

Terrence and Randy knew this day would come and sat Henry down, and Randy grabbing a large box and a photo album.

Terrence was already choking back tears as he started speaking "Well Henry, a long time ago, your pappy and I were married to another man, Sir Wilford IV, a wonderful man who would of been your papa."

"You would of been just around two years old at the time, and your papa adored you. I mean we all loved and adored you, we are your dads and all, but Wilford was always the closes with you."

Terrence held Randy's hand before continuing, feeling the grief creeping up "Your papa went on a mission... it should of been an easy mission. But something... but something went wrong and... no one could find him afterwards... just his blood stained shirt and his hats scattered across the battlefield was all... that was left."

Randy took over talking, as Terrence broke down in tears, Henry quickly going over to hug his dad "We searched for years and years, never able to find him. It... took a toll on us and eventually we just left the Toppats so we could focus on raising you and... focus on moving on..."

Henry quickly went to hug Randy as well, switching back and forth with hugs as Terrence finally decided to form one big group hug with everyone.

After awhile, Henry sheepishly asked "So the Sir in my name was from papa?"

Terrence gave Henry a tearful smile "Indeed it is, your papa was a stickler when it came to naming you, wanting to make sure all of our names were included, so we would be with you no matter what."

Randy pulled out the photo album and sat Henry in his lap, while Terrence scooted closer to Randy. And for the next few hours, the two fathers went over various photos of Wilford with Henry, telling stories and giving Henry an idea about what his papa was like.

[mintyfrosty]

Love Without Words

DID I HEAR DETECTIVE AU FLUFF!?! WELL GUESS WHAT YA GOT IT!!!

Hope you enjoy this!

Tick. Tick. Ti-- SMASH

It was a wonder how the Hell Reginald put up with that pocket watch ticking in his pocket all the damn time.

Especially in a time like this; when it was just Reginald and papers. Papers upon Papers upon Papers.

Same old bullshit, he had known.

Of course, every one of them was important, but you learned that your eyes got tired of the same black lettering that came from the typewriter. The same pattern over and over and over. It made his mind go insane. Since, well, this job had a lot of this. Just had a different flavour of spice with every new case you received. Some horrific murders, others manslaughter, others just self-defence. And everyone falling under the bracket he worked under. Homicide.

Well, him and his 'partner.'

It was no secret to The Toppat Detective Agency that the two despised one another. At least, Lieutenant Copperbottom seemed to think so. Detective Right treated him like garbage; the only REAL explanation was that he hated the lieutenant.

And dear God, Reginald wished he shared that sentiment. He didn't.

Letting out a grievous sigh, the lieutenant leaned back in his chair, letting his aching shoulders stretch out from being hunched. Overworking yourself came with many pitfalls, but pained muscles had to be the worse of it. At least in his opinion. Besides, sleepness nights and empty stomachs had become the regular for him. This was homicide they were dealing with; not a joke. He could miss some of that out for his work; this was serious. Deathly so. Yet, his tired bones did make him regret somedays. This was one of those days.

Feeling his eyes look forward, a scoff came to his lips, seeing the lack of his partner across the desk. Must've gotten up when he was deep in thought; obvious because of how scattered the papers were (Reginald wished he would clean up one day). Mumbling to himself, the lieutenant rose out of his seat, neatly tucking it in as the bones in his lanky frame popped. Wasn't long before quiet footsteps echoed through the silent agency leading towards the balcony that had a door half-open. Exactly what he expected to see; Right looking out to the city with a cigar in his hand.

Of course.

"Thought I told you to stop smoking." Grumbled Reginald, having his arms folded, soon being by Right's side within a couple of steps. The detective gave some sort of a grunt for an answer, taking in a long inhale of smoke and blowing it out to the wind.

People did what they could to get by with the stress of the 1920s. Liquor was one of them, which Reginald dabbled in slightly. Smoking was the other; Right seemed to be on that lead.

...

"Want one? A smoke gets yer mind 'f t'ings, ya know."

"Pass, thank you."

...

"Wot's 'at? On yer wrist t' ere?"

Oh.

At the comment, Lieutenant Copperbottom looked down, eyes brushing over the dollar chain bracelet that ran over his gloved wrist. Feeling his heart brighten at the sight, Reginald leaned an elbow against the railing of the balcony, resting his chin in his hand, feeling the wind flow through his hair. A million lights greeted his eyes as they fell to the sea of bustling activity within the streets of the city. Huh. He'd never taken the time to look at the view before. With his gaze out in the distance, the answer formed.

"Oh. Recently, I've been receiving these notes on my desk. Someone's got an attraction towards me in the agency, I believe. Small things, like a cup of coffee and a note wishing I had a good day. Or, oh, finding my papers stacked up neatly, just the way I liked it when I fall asleep at my desk."

Loosely, he jingled the jewellery with a flick of his wrist. "Found this today on my desk with 'from the one who loves you most.' written on a napkin."

Judging by the other's movement, Reginald assumed the other looked down to observe it. 

Right had seen it before, he realised. On one of their first cases, Reginald had spotted the sight of it in the window of a jewellery shop. Immediately, he fell in love, telling himself to save up for it (even though he'd much rather steal it but that didn't look good for his reputation). Yet now, someone had heard of that interest and bought or stole it for him, leaving it anonymously on his desk. Which, to be fair, was flattering. Money didn't come easy nowadays; always a struggle to get by with the growing popularity in Moonshine. The question was; who had the money AND the dedication to Reginald to spend so much on him? Well, his partner had probably spread the word of it around the agency, he concluded; since why the Hell would Right buy such a gift for him and leave it anonymously on his desk? And well, the detective had a distaste for the lieutenant. No way he would do such a thing if he hated him.

"Yeah, right. So someone's got a big ol' crush on ye?" Mumbled the detective, taking another intake of smoke.

Well. Yes. Seemed to point toward that conclusion.

"Suppose you're right. Didn't think you'd have an interest in it." The lieutenant's ears caught the sound of the detective scoffing.

"Don't. Just find it funny someone's got the hots f' ya. Can ya blame me? Who'd wanna go pinning after you?"

... Well. ... Hm.

It...wasn't a secret that Reginald had quite the ego and took a lot of pride in his work. And so, it made a brief amount of sense why Right was so abrasive with his banter. Thought he could take it. And he could! He most certainly could; Reginald always spitting back something to amend to his comments. Curiously, however, the same rule didn't apply to this, the lieutenant's voice feeling dry as he mumbled something underneath his breath, the reflection of the night's lights in his eyes.

Heh. Who WOULD want to go pinning after him? "I don't know. I don't know."

...wasn't expecting his voice to break. Nor the tear that fell from the balcony to clash with the concrete ground after a long fall. A gloved hand brushed by his left eye, straightening himself up from the balcony. The small-dollar, gold bracelet on his arm twinked back at him, the lieutenant letting his voice give out a sigh. "I dunno. Probably an idiot."

"Ye know I'm only jokin', yah?" ...eh?

Curiosity filling his torn spirit, the shorter male turned his eyes up to his partner, who had his gaze somewhere out in the distance. Cigar twisting in his finger, the detective let out a grunt. "'m sure ye gonna find love."

... "...what?"

Well, that was... ...certainly unexpected. Yet welcomely unexpected. Just 2 minutes, Right said something that completely contradicted his statement, yet that was 'joking' as he phrased it. No way he was being genuine about Reginald having someone who was in love with him? That was almost perfect teasing material. Feeling conflicted, the lieutenant raised an eyebrow at hm. "Since when do you...not joke about things like this?"

"'til now, s'ppose." Alright then, be vague. Wasn't like that was the most out of character thing the detective had ever said to him.

Keeping a curious eye on him, Reginald reached down to grab a cigar from the pack that Right had left carelessly on a bench out on the balcony. And whilst he discouraged smoking, it was probably important to take a moment to ground himself, even if that was through Tabacco. Already heard Right scoff out a smile. "Thought ya said smokin''s bad for ya."

"It is. But do as I say, not as I do."

... Sure he was going to find love? Reginald's eyes fell to the pendant along his wrist, letting out a breath of smoke of his own.

If he was a fool, he might've thought that Right was trying to comfort him from the statement he made. Despite being a lieutenant and a master of handling evidence, he hadn't a clue to why he made such a statement when Right was usually coarse with his language. Whatever the reason, it was a mystery to him. The least he could do was to say: "Thank you..."

The other's eyes turned up from the city, body turning in his direction. "F' wot?"

"Figure it out; you're a detective." Without another sigh of smoke, Reginald dropped his cigar to the floor, stamping on it before making a walk back inside. The break was over. Had to return to work.

Blinking curiously at the door, the detective slowly turned himself back to the city, carelessly letting the cigar fall from his fingers down to the bustling city below. Someone else could deal with it. Finding himself to be very much along, Right planted both of elbows against the railing holding his face in both of his hands.

"'I dunno. Prob'bly an idiot.'" Quoted the detective, shaking his head to himself. "Ya know this idiot ain't good with 'is words."

[a-crash-in-time-collection]

Chapter 7: The Return Of An Old Freind

As tough as the clan may be at first sight, worry could spread quickly among them. At first it wasn't anything grand, as Sven would explain the leaders were looking for better shelter. It was when their children and the ghost seemed to leave and failed to come back when everyone allowed themselves to show what they were feeling. And while they were relieved when the family came back, many were confused and worried.

Admintly, Right Hand Man's eyes were the main thing that kept the worry from disappearing. At first, second, and many more glances, it appeared that some sort of blue gem had grown over the robotic side of his face. Like some sort of creature was trying to take from, and using him as a host of sorts. Needless to say, many were shocked to find out it was ice. That was all they needed to hear to understand they weren't getting better shelter anytime soon.

Right Hand Man ended up getting scolded a bit by the head of the medical department, Shelia, why she tried to remove the ice from his eye. Right Hand Man just silently took it all, although since it covered his metal side, he felt she was overreacting. However, it was taking a while for the ice to be removed. After about an hour of trying, it was clear melting it alone wasn't going to do any good.

Reginald at frist objected to the idea of trying to chip it off his eye, for fear of it hitting and breaking the glass. However, he agreed after it was pointed out the ice being there too long could cause issues, whether they broke the glass in the end or not. He just sat beside Right Hand Man, looking away and occasionally flinching at the sound of ice being chipped away. It was almost like waiting out a storm.

Eventually, all the ice was removed, allowing the two to leave and start to find the next step in their plan. By now, evening had come, the area getting darker, but not where it was impossible to see. The sky started to look more like a painting then the bright or dark blue it was usually known by everyone for. Reginald let a small smile from on his face at the sight. Before a blush also formed as a rumble went through the air, him grabbing his stomach slightly.

"'ungery, Are we?" Right Hand Man asked teasingly, chuckling slightly when he got a huff in return. He rubbed where his cybernetic eye was slightly, and nearly jolted back at the sudden chill. Ok, maybe Sheila did have a bit of a point when she was scolding him. Not that he was paying attention. He glanced back at his husband. "'ey, I am too, no need to be worried about it. We'll just grab somet'in' from t'e box again."

"The box was nearly empty this morning, probably is empty now." Reginald sighed, glancing back at Right Hand Man as the two approached where the others were. "I suppose we could see if we can have some of those large cherries from the forest... although I don't trust the colour."

"Out of all t'e t'ings you could possibly not trust in t'at g'ost's woods, it's t'e color of some fruit?" Right Hand Man shook his head in a playful manner, but Reginald just gave him a faint stare. He knew the hidden meaning behind that, and Right Hand Man knew he knew. The cyborg let out a sigh. "Look, I know you say we can trust 'im, and I'll admit, 'e could've just left t'e kids alone in t'at place, but still..."

"You get a bad feeling and think we shouldn't trust him." Reginald finished for him, shaking a head to the side. He rubbed his gloved hand slightly, trying to get rid of some of the cold from earlier. "I know you don't. But please, just give him a chance. I'm sure he means well. Just has his... own way of expressing it.. right Hattie?" Reginald called as she entered his sights.

She glanced over at the two. "If it's about something good with Snatcher, yes." She said, watching Right Hand Man glance to the side and Reginald giving a small grin in response. She rolled her eyes, before letting out a slight yawn. "Weird... I'm not really tried, but I am at the same time." She noted aloud, getting a slight eye roll from Platinum, who would never know the definition of being tried.

"I'm surprised I haven't collapsed into a coma by now." Burt added, getting a slight glare from Sven beside him. "I haven't had any coffee in two days. Two days! I asked Mr. Thicc to just throw a pot over a fire and make some and he said no!"

"Because it would ruin the pot, Burt." The chef explained triedly, having sat down ageist the edge of the orbital station's broken off wall. He knew Burt wasn't trying to be mean, it's just the guy seemed to think if he didn't have coffee, he was going to mess everything up or something. Not that he would ever share those thoughts aloud. "And the last thing we need is pots being ruined. We'll need them for when the kitchen is working again."

"You mean if, at this point." Sven sighed, leaning against Calla triedly. He smiled as he felt her grab his shoulders, most likely to keep him steady even though he could stand fine on his own. He then noticed some of the others staring at him. "What? I hate to say it, but I'm just being honest here. We have no way to properly fix half of the inside alone!"

"We know Sven, trust me, we know." Reginald sighed, glancing down at the ground slightly. He felt Right Hand Man wrap an arm around his shoulder, and while he appreciated his attempt to cheer him up, it wasn't going to do much. Sven glanced down in a bit of shame, glancing at Calla, who for a moment seemed to be in space. "Just don't say that around the others, ok?" Sven nodded, although the look in his eyes said 'not yet'.

"Welp, sucks for you all." Platinum said, shrugging slightly, before getting a slight shove from Hat Girl. He held his hands up in defense, he knew she wasn't going to hurt him, nor meant anything from the shove, but still. "Woah, sorry ok! I was just kidding! Can't a topbot make one joke about how his lack of need for stuff like food is useful?" He asked.

Burt threw his head into his hands, letting out a slight grone. This was the most clear emotion people have seen from Burt in quite a bit. "I blame you for all this, Fredrick." He mumbled, the cheese hat toppat giving a faint glare at him. The others let out faint chuckles, trying to find some humor in this. Burt sighed, crossing his arm as he regained himself. "It's almost like I can still smell food."

"Because I think you do." Calla said, glancing over at him, both him and Sven glancing over to give her a confused look. "I can smell something in the air. And... strangely it smells like it's coming closer. I think?"

Hat Girl took a sniff of the air. "Yeah, I smell it too." Hat Girl said, glancing in the direction it seemed to be the strongest in. It was only then they noticed the bushes at the edge of the woodlands were beginning to shake, like something was inside. Right Hand Man didn't want to take any chances, getting in front of the group and getting his lazer blaster ready. "Papa, wait. They could be harmless!"

Before Right Hand Man had a chance to respond, something gray pushed itself out from the bushes. At first they were a bit startled by the sudden appearance, but then realized it wasn't some sort of creature. It was some sort of serving table with wheels like those in fancy restaurants, only this one was a bit bigger and, as they came to find, longer than those. A strange site, even for a planet like this.

Eventually, it came to a stop, and by now had gotten the attention of some other toppats. Most were questioning how it got here and why. Some seemed to be debating whether or not to quickly garb as much of the silver covered dishes on it as they could.

There was a faint huffing of sorts, faintly able to be heard from the other side. Hat Girl got past Right Hand Man, walking along the tables side to get to the other end. She already had a hunch who it was, she just had questions. After about a minute or two of just walking, she came to the end, and glanced at the figure that was there. She wasn't even surprised when she saw the fur, giving a confused smile. "Cooking Cat?"

"W-Who else?" Cooking Cat asked, trying to catch her breath.

"Are you ok, you look tired." Hat Girl stated, offering the cat a hand. After a moment, the cat took it, and was lifted back onto her feet. She hadn't changed a day, or if she did, it wasn't something visible to the teen girl's eyes. Cooking Cat soon hop onto a empty spot on the table, allowing the two to be more face to face. "What are you even doing out here anyway? I don't take you as the type to get lost."

"Because I'm not lost!" Cooking Cat stated, giving a slight giggle at the confused look she received in response. "I happened to hear about your clan's whole 'crashed on this planet situation' yesterday from two mafia, and I thought I would stop by to help!"

"Hattie?" Reginald called as he walked up to her in confusion, and slight worry. He saw the orange blur appear on the table's side, but didn't know what exactly it was. He knew if Hattie hadn't fallen over by now, it was likely safe, but he had to make sure. He stopped when he noticed the cat in the chef's uniform, a bit surprised at first, but soon the pieces clicked into place. "Oh! Is this one of your friends?"

"Yup!" Hat Girl said, a smile on her face. "This is Cooking Cat! She makes some of the best food on this planet, trust me, I let her use the oven in my ship before! And I guess she brought us this food. How did you know we needed it?" She turned her attention back to the cat.

"Well, I'm not an alien like you all are, but I can assume food isn't a common thing after a ship crashes." She said, shrugging her arms.

Reginald took another glance at the table. The fact she came out here just to give them all this. Sure, most of it likely wouldn't last past a few hours, but they could get what they could save in an icebox or freezer. He smiled, as he turned to the cat. "You have no idea how much this means to us all. I wish we could repay you..."

"There's no need to worry, Mister! As soon as I heard she was back on this planet, I just knew I had to do something for her!" Cooking Cat waved him off, glancing back at Hat Kid with a smile. She then seemed to pause. "You've grown quite a lot these past few years! I mean, I shouldn't be surprised. But I was sorta expecting you would still be your old size.”

"Hey, being an alien doesn't mean I grow any faster or slower than humans." She chuckled slightly, glancing back at Reginald, who gave her a slight smile, before leaving, assuming to start planning how the food would go out. She could faintly see Fredrick holding Burt's shoulder, assumingly to keep him from garbing any and all coffee that could be here. "Oh, while I'm on the topic! How's Mu doing?"

"Why don't cha ask her yourself!" Hat Girl tilted her head to the side at her words. As if on cue, another table of sorts started to come out of the bushes. More stuff was on this one, likely making it slightly heavier. By the time it was all in view, she could see the Mustached Teen appear at the end, wiping her forehead slightly. A small smile formed on Hat Girl's face.

"Mu!" A robotic voice called along with Hat Girl's as the two raced over to the red-hooded girl. Mu spotted them and took a sigh, as if more tried by the sight of them. They soon got by her side, the siblings glancing at each other with a chuckle, before Platinum turned his attention back to the visitor. "Mu! We didn't expect you to show up so soon. We would, well, we would've tried to clean the place up, but uhhh.." He glanced back at the crashed station.

"Wow, that is a lot of cleaning up to do." Mu said after a moment of processing, giving a faint chuckle. "I wasn't planning on coming here today anyway. But Cooking Cat needed some help getting everything here, so I thought I would help. Needed an excuse to the get out of town."

"Well, we're happy to have you here!" She placed a hand on her shoulder. She wanted to give her a hug, but knew Mu wouldn't like that without a warning. Mu rolled her eyes, removing Hat Girl's hand from the shoulder. Platinum wrapped an arm around Hat Girl's shoulder, making her chuckle slightly. She then brought her attention back to Mu. "I'm not sure when exactly we'll get to eat. Most of the members here are probably starving after all."

"Again, one good thing about me being me." Platinum said, watching Hat Girl shake her head and Mu give him a faintly confused look. "Oh! I don't need to eat since I'm a robot. Or drink or the other stuff humans need too. I know, I'm lucky."

"I'm not dumb, I knew that." Mu said, slight offence in her voice. "I was wondering why you think it's so good you're missing out on everything except oil." Platinum's mouth was stuck open in shock, him processing what just happened the best he could. Hat Girl couldn't help it, she let out a laugh that likely drew some attention over to them. Mu tried holding back her own chuckle, but it proved useless in the end.

"Oh my goodness! That was perfect Mu!" Hat Girl said, eventually having to wipe a tear from her eye. As much as she loved her brother, she couldn't help but find it funny when he got like this. "It was so simple, yet so perfect at the same time!" The girls eventually slowed down there laughing and chuckling, and Platinum was able to pull himself out of being a statue, crossing his arms.

"Hattie!" They turned when Reginald's voice was heard, him walking over to the group. By now the smell of food had grown around them, as the food was now exspose to the air. Hat Girl would be lying if she tried to claim her mouth wasn't watering. "Oh, Mu is here too? That's wonderful!" He smiled, before resuming. "It might take a few minutes, but you should get ready to grab your food. And don't steal half the cookies, again, ok?"

She held her hands up in defense at his knowing glare, but couldn't help but let out a giggle. "Don't worry, Dad. It would be bad for me to go for sweets right away anyway." Satisfied with the answer, Reginald gave a nod and walked back to where Right Hand Man was.

A bit of a system was set up so no one tries to rush in for the food. The last thing they needed was it all to go over the ground after all. The younger kids were the first ones, their parents alongside them to help them get it, and so they wouldn't just pick any and all sweets their eyes laid on. The teens would go next, then it was mostly going to go from higher to lower, which everyone seemed alright with.

Hat Girl tried to keep her dish somewhat simple when it came time for her and the other teens to go up. When she walked away, her plate simply had some of the grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn, and a breakfast sausage. She was half tempted to dig in at that very second, but wanted to keep her manor-... politeness.

"You know, going two days without food, I thought you would have gotten some more." Mu noted aloud as she came up to where she was. Mu’s plate simply considend of pork chops, green beans, and mashed potatoes, all of which looked like they were just carelessly placed there. Must not have wanted to spend too long on garbing the food. "Unless you have some sort of longer timeframe you all can go without food.

Hat Girl shrugged. "I just didn't want to take too much. There's many people here after all, and I want to be sure we all get something. Although... I was laying my eyes on some of those chocolate strawberries..."

"Yeah, I noticed" Mu snorted, letting out a chuckle as they got near one of the fire pits. Fredrick blew on the wood he held, finally getting a bit of a flame. He tossed it in the fire, and let out a slight strike as it burst to life so suddenly. Burt caught onto him, rolling his visible eye while Platinum couldn't help but laugh. "I suppose this is your first time lighting one?" Mu comment, to which Fredrick pretended she wasn't there.

"Hey, I could probably help, but Dad doesn't like me messing with stuff that could possibly hurt us. Me being made of metal- '' He stopped when he saw a faint glare enter the girls eyes. "Ok, jeez, no more robo talk."

"Thank you." Hat Girl stated, before taking a bite out of her food. Maybe it was just not having anything besides fruit, bread, and bars for the past two days, but her eyes nearly started watering at the taste. This food had to be at least an hour old if it came all the way from mafia town, but it still tasted fresh out of the oven! Or pots. "Man, I knew I said she makes some of the best food on this planet, but I forgotten how good!"

"I don't care for the food itself mostly. My eye is on all that coffee." Burt felt a slight smack, seeing a glare from Fredrick as he pulled his arm back. "What I do and don't eat is not any of your concern. Besides, you're most likely going after the cheese."

"At least I was planning on getting some soup as well! Or any of the actual food over there!" Fredrick pointed his hand over at the table, where now most of the higher ups were trying to get their food, some more picky than others. In response, Burt just shrugged and walked over to the table, leaving Fredrick to let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm going to find Sammy." He mumbled, walking away.

Reginald happened to come over with Right Hand Man then, giving the toppat a confused look. "Is he alright?" he asked, sitting across from where Hat Girl and Mu were. Right Hand Man gently tosses the two a bottle of water, before sitting besides Reginald. "I don't think I've ever seen him this upset before. Then again, we hardly see him."

"Yeah, he's just a little upset about Burt only wanting the coffee. It's weird, they were having a similar conversion before the station crash." Platinum said, shrugging his shoulders slightly. He glanced at his parents dishes, seeing Reginald had picked out that 'fish and chips' dish along with some steak. RHM had steak as well, as well as some roasted potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. He also had some Strawberry shortcake as well. Guess he must have had a bit of a sweet tooth today.

"So, Mu. If you don't mind me asking." Hat Girl said, getting the blonde to look at her. "You said you needed an excuse to get out of mafia town? How come?" She took another quick bite of food.

"Funny story actually." Mu said, a smirk forming on her face at the thought of it all. "So, I may or might not have found these small pink and purple overalls just laying around. And then sneaked in Mafia HQ. Then waited for Mafia Jar to fall asleep. Then for his guards to leave. Then guled the overalls to the mafia's jar, well, jar." She couldn't help but let out an evil chuckle. "So yeah, pretty sure I have a bounty until those idiots forget about it tomorrow."

The area around the campfire was silent, before Right Hand Man broke out laughing. "T'at's just perfect! 'nd Doin' all t'at at yer age as well!" He felt Reginald garb his shoulder faintly and he calmed down, allowing Platinum's laughter and Hat Girl's giggles to be more clear. "Normally I don't condemn people doin' t'at, but 'e disbursed it."

"How's everyone doing here?" A voice called, the group looking over faintly as the orange cat appeared again. "I figure since everything seems to be going well with the tables, I might as well check on you all!" She glanced at the fire faintly bringing her paws to it for a bit of warmth. "This is really nice. It's a good thing you didn't crash in the desert. Although, you likely have some supper alien tech that could turn sand to fire."

"I'm the only alien of us." Hat Girl said, before pausing a moment. "Well, I guess technically they're aliens too, to this planet at least. But they're just like the humans like Mu on here." She bump a shoulder into that of the red hooded girl. "Besides, even if we had something like that, the sand would become glass."

"Well, that's true I suppose." Cooking Cat shrugged, taking a quick bite out of the fish she brought over. "Say, how did you meet them all anyway? Since they're not your original species and all."

"Her ship crashed on our planet and I happened to see. Thank goodness we got there in time to help her out safely." Reginald looked over at his daughter with a smile, before glancing up slightly, a thought entering his mind. "I wonder if anyone else ever found it. I recall checking the news the first few days and saw nothing about it."

"If anyone's found it by now, MrBeast would have made a 'I Spent 24 Hours In The Mysterious Crashed SpaceShip' video." Platinum comment, getting an eye roll from Right Hand Man.

Mu gave the topbot a confused look. "Who's MrBeast?"

"He's a Youtuber, if you know what that means." Hat Girl said, revising a shrug from Mu in return. "Makes sense, I knew you had a version of Twitter and Ebay here, but wasn't sure about that site. Anyway, he does these crazy challenge videos and a lot of the time puts money on the line. Also gives a lot of it away. Me and Platinum occasionally watch him when we're bored."

"Good guy, then." Mu nodded, seeming pleased with the answer. By now she had finished her plate, and set it off to the side.

"If we ever get a connection to youtube here, we'll be sure to show you!" Platinum said, before gasping. "Maybe we can make some version of Youtube here and use that to get pons! I tried to do the 24 hours on an island challenge once! Only made it to 34 minutes before Pops dragged me back to the airship again."

"I still don't know how you got the drop pod to send you there, those were programmed so anyone under 18 couldn't get themselves in a situation like that!" Reginald let out a tired sigh, leaning against his husband.

"Besides Platinum." Right Hand Man spoke up, rubbing his husband's back slightly. "Makein' videos would be t'e worst way to go around t'e pon situation."

To the cyborg's slight surprised, Platinum didn't try to fight the claim. Instead he just let out a sigh, garbing a nearby log and tossing it into the fire. Reginald just shook his head at the bot, preferring he'd not risk getting burnt but too tired to do anything about it. A frown could be seen on the silver face. "Yeah, Pops. I know..."

The area was slowly getting darker, as evening was slowly turning into night. Only a faint bit of a glowing orange could be seen by the treeline, the sun would be gone within the next hour. By now more camp fires were being lit up, and the glow from metal member's eyes were becoming more noticeable. Small flares would escape from the flame, doing a small dance for the group before burning out and becoming lost to the human eye.

The heat from the fire was becoming more apparent the colder the air around them came. She reached for her neck, losing the scarf slightly to allow it to cool off. She was faintly able to see some member's silhouettes as they got things ready for that night. She was faintly able to see Sven and Calla chatting as the former was grabbing some buckets, while Fredrick worked on setting back up some tents that had fallen earlier that day.

"Cooking Cat, right?" Hat Girl nearly jolted at the sudden voice near the group, turning over to see Mr. Thicc look down at the cat, who nodded with a humm. "I know you must have already gotten this compliment from many others, but I really have to say that your food is amazing. Some of the best I've had in my life."

Cooking Cat gave a smile to the man. "No need for thanks, sir. Cooking for others has always been a passion of mine! Why, that's why I gave myself my name after all!" She gave a small giggle.

"Wait, cooking cat's your rea... You know what. After meeting people named 'Conductor' or 'Mustache Girl' it's too late to ask how names work here." Platinum said, before pausing and looking over at the girls. "Uhh, no offence Mu."

"None taken." Mu shrugged slightly, before pulling her sleeve up as far as it could go.

"'ey, my names Right Hand Man, so I don't 'ave any rig't to start judgein'." Right Hand Man stated as he looked at Mu. "Atltoug' I would be lyin' if I said I didn't find t'e amount of t'ese types of names weird. It's almost like yer all goin' by TV host nicknames."

"Not that I blame you in her case. Cooking Cat does have a show!" Hat Girl piped up.

"Well, it's had now, although you can still stumble upon some episodes on TV." Cooking Cat chime in, letting out a slight giggle as Hat Girl gave her a confused look. "As fun as it was having one, it was starting to get tiring after a while. It did end up giving me enough pons to open a restaurant in Mafia Town!"

"Wow! Now I wished I knew! Would've stop by to say hi yesterday!" Hat Girl said. And it likely would have kept her and Platinum from walking in when they did, ruining the clan's best chance to get pons... A small sigh left her mouth but she kept a smile.

"Bet it took you a while to get your employees to cook as well as you." Mr. Thicc chuckled slightly as he looked down at her.

"Well...." Cooking Cat sighed. "I don't exactly have any employees. Sure I've had many in the past, but none lasted too long and I never had many at a time. Mafia Town isn't the best place to work at if you're not the owner of a place." Mu gave a nod to that statement, despite having no way to know that exact fact. "Had to close the place today just so I could deliver all this."

"I'm so sorry. If we knew you were going to do this for us, we would have found a way to properly pay you for your lost time" Reginald said, a frown forming on his face. "I do have a small bit of gold, but that won't do much on this planet."

"Oh, there's no need to worry mister." Cooking Cat said, shaking her head, voice still with that joyful tone. "Since it's mostly me running the place, I have enough pons to close for a few days and not lose anything if I wanted to! The only real employees I have are my distant cousin from the metro, and a teen from Alpine who comes in on the weekends. And the fromer doesn't show up much." She let out a sigh. "Would be nice to have a few more hands, though."

There was a humm from the toppat chef, before he snapped his fingers, startlingly the toppat who had drifted into the land of his mind. "I got it! I'll need to talk about it with some of the other chefs, but maybe some of us can start working for you."

"What?" Reginald asked, looking over confused. Unless he was planning on sneaking some food back to the clan, how was that going to help.

"Think about it. Even if we do only make a couple pons per shift, that will at least give us a steady source of money we can used to repair the station." Mr. Thicc said, and Reginald was silent for a moment. The answer was so simple, how come he didn't think of it before. "Sure, it may not be the fastest method to get the station fixed, it'll take forever, but it'll be better then nothing!"

"It's... It's perfect!" Reginald said, nearly hopping out of his seat in the joy and relief that willed his being at that very moment. "It's the answer we needed!" He then brought his attention back to the orange cat. "Well... if you're ok with it, that is."

"Well, you'll all have to wake up mighty early in order to get there on time. But I don't see a problem with it!" Cooking Cat said, a smile forming on her face.

"Then it's settled!" Reginald said, clapping his hands slightly. "Mr. Thicc, please go see if any of our other chefs will be interested in working with her?" The man nodded, gray shoes hitting agest the earth as he disappeared. Reginald let out a sigh of relief, leaning against his husband once again.

"Easy Reg, don't want ya passin' out on us." Right Hand Man chuckled, stroking his lover's hair faintly.

"This is probably the most relaxed I've seen Dad." Platinum chuckled, before glancing up at the sky, as everything got the smallest bit darker. "Welp, I should get to my charger. I'll see you all tomorrow." He gave a faint poke in Hat Girl's shoulder as he left, getting a playful glare in return.

"Well, I suppose I should leave." Cooking Cat, standing back up. "It's gonna be a real pain to get back in the dark. Might as well not make it worse."

"Yeah. Well, it was nice seeing you, I suppose." Mu said, giving a slight wave before getting up, getting ready to leave.

"Wait." Reginald called, the two from this planet looking over at him in such confusion. "We... may not have the best condition for guests right now. But please, allow yourselves to stay the night here. It'll be safer for you, and as of right now, it's about the most we can do in return for the kindness you show us tonight."

"Yeah. You two could even sleep in my tent tonight. It normally has enough room for one comfortably but you two should be able to make it work. I can sleep by one of the fires tonight." Hat Girl chimed in. She caught a slight disaproveable of the lack of tent from Reginald's eye, but he didn't say anything.

"Well... I suppose I'll have Mafia Goons outside my place if I return now." Mu sighed, kicking at the ground. "So I suppose I'll take your offer. Although I could also just spend the night in the boat. Would be easier."

"Now, a boat isn't a place for a young girl like yourself to sleep." Cooking Cat said, hoping up and garbing her hand. Hat Girl noticed a faint glare coming from Mu, but made no comment. She was sure she could guess why the glare was there. "Come on, let's find a place to rest." Mu simply nodded, and they disappeared into the dark. The dark of night, lit up with little fires... The dark of space, lit up by night stars...

"Hattie, are you alright?" Reginald asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She shook her head, breaking out of her thoughts, glancing back at him. "You seemed... sad there for a moment."

"Yeah. I'm fine." She looked at him, giving him a soft smile. "I'm just glad we got things figured out. We'll be back home before we know it." She'll be gone before she knows it.