Chapter Six - Being Blankets

Teddy was a pile of blankets. She had become one with the warmth. The covers and her were the same entity.

From deep within the shadows cast by the blankets over her head, two brown eyes that were half-closed with sleepiness were following the nervous movements of a girl that should have gone to bed a long time ago.

The sun had gone down already. It was past seven!

Teddy closed her book--she couldn’t understand most of it anyway--mumbled into her blankets and shifted just a little bit. She wanted to sleep, but Emily’s stomping was keeping her awake. The Boss was worried about something that she’d seen and it was making Teddy worried too.

Not too worried, but a little worried.

She wasn’t sure what to do herself. Her job was easy, at least, she thought it was at first. Teddy would do what Boss told her. If that meant eating people or beating people up, then that was no problem. She could even help by protecting the Boss from no-good Capitalists and Heroes.

Now she wasn't too sure. Boss wanted to do ‘hero things’ and that didn’t exactly fit into what Teddy understood. It was probably part of a big ploy that Boss wasn’t telling her about yet. Teddy knew that the Boss was really clever. She went to school and everything.

Teddy’s job was to hurt things for the Boss, but maybe the Boss didn’t need that right then and there. Which meant that Teddy was free to eat and sleep all day.

Except she wasn’t sleeping or eating, she was watching Boss be worried.

It was all very confusing and Teddy didn’t like it.

“Hey, Boss?” Teddy asked.

Emily paused in her pacing. “Oh, um, yes?”

Teddy tugged the blanket above her head back a bit so that she could see the Boss’ face. “What’s wrong?”

She watched the Boss’s hands wiggle through the air like salmon leaping out of a river. “Everything,” Emily finally said.

Teddy nodded. She had a solution for that. Raising the end of her blankets up with one hand, she tapped the bed with the other. “Come sleep.”

Sleeping fixed everything.

“I can’t,” Emily said. “Just... so many things have gone wrong.”

Teddy grumbled. If sleeping wouldn’t fix it... “Did you try eating something?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Do you need to poop?” Teddy tried next. “Sometimes you need to push hard for it to come out.”

“T-Teddy!” Emily squeaked. “Don’t say that kind of thing.”

That was probably a no. “Well I don’t know what’s wrong then,” Teddy said.

Emily crossed her arms over her tummy, like a sort of self-hug. Teddy shook her head, if it’s hugs she wanted then she could just slip into the blankets and Teddy would give her plenty. She was an expert at bearhugs.

“I... I got powers,” Emily said at last.

“Yeah,” Teddy agreed.

“And now I’m a villain.”

“Yeah.”

“And now my life is ruined.”

Teddy blinked. “Yeah, I don’t follow.”

Emily sniffled. “If I go to the police they’ll arrest me, put me, put us behind bars.”

“Well yeah, we’re villains,” Teddy said. Hiding from the police was pretty much half the job of being a villain.

Emily unhugged herself and started with the arm-waving again. “I don’t want to be a villain.”

Teddy didn’t get it. “But being a villain is great,” she said. “We can do whatever we want. Eat whatever, and go to sleep whenever. I mean, sure, we need to fight heroes and capitalists, but that’s all.”

“I don’t want to fight heroes or... capitalists?”

Teddy blinked slowly. “Well then, don’t, I guess. If being a villain means doing whatever and there’s a thing you don’t want to do, then don’t do it.”

Emily paused. “I know that,” she said. “I won’t fight the heroes.”

“Okay,” Teddy said. It was probably for the best. For all that the Boss was clever and such, she was still pretty normal strength-wise. Not like Teddy who was strong.

“Okay,” the Boss agreed. “Right. And... and I’m going to work hard to make us become... not villains.”

“Alright?” Teddy asked. Maybe the Boss wanted to be a rogue instead? That was alright too.

“And then, uh, we’ll talk to the administration, and we’ll tell them about you, and we’ll sort things out.”

“Okay.”

“And we can find a school for you, and... it’ll be like, like being a teen mom. Which, uh, oh that will complicate things. But I can do it.”

“Okay?” Teddy said. She wasn’t too sure about that school thing. She was very not sure, but it sounded like it was a ways off.

Emily started pacing again. Teddy thought she was done with that. “And tomorrow, we’re going to go see that Stranger person, and we’ll show them that we’re not a-afraid.”

Were they going to go see another villain? That could be dangerous. Villains could be territorial. “Well, okay,” Teddy said. “I’ll be there to keep you safe either way.”

The pacing stopped again. This time, Emily balled her fists around the front of her pyjama pants. “Thank you,” she said. “Um. I don’t... just thank you.”

“Sure thing Boss,” Teddy said. “Now come on, you’re keeping me awake.” She raised the blankets again.

Emily’s face scrunched up bizarrely. “I could get another blanket. I... ah, actually, I don’t know if I have another.”

Teddy wiggled her arm.

“I’m not, um, comfortable sleeping in the same bed as someone else,” Emily said.

Teddy tilted her head so that one of her ears poked out of the blankets. “That’s weird, but okay.” The things she would do for her Boss. Teddy really was the best henchbear. With a grunt of effort, she slid off the side of the bed, blankets and all and rolled herself up into a bear burrito.

A bearito.

“Now you can sleep on the bed,” she said.

“Um. Are you comfortable on the floor?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Teddy said.

“Oh, well, thank you. I guess... we’ll buy a mattress tomorrow. And more blankets.”

“Yeah, okay,” Teddy agreed. She snaked a hand up onto the bed, tapped around, and found her book. She set it next to her in case she wanted to read on waking up the next day’s afternoon. “Turn off the lights Boss.”

The Boss searched through some of her boxes until she found a small blanket. Soon, the lights were off and the Boss was crawling onto her bed. “Good night, Teddy.”

“G’night Boss,” Teddy said. At last, sleep.

“Why do you call me Boss?”

Teddy opened her eyes again. The room wasn’t entirely dark, not with the occasional shifting light from the cars outside. “‘Cause you’re the Boss,” she said.

“I don’t feel like a Boss,” Emily said.

“That’s okay,” Teddy said. “I’m sure you’ll grow into a big strong Boss in time. Just got to eat lots and sleep lots and, uh.” Teddy knew there was more to being a good Boss. “And you need to put the needs of the proletariat before your own.”

That sounded good.

“R-right. I... I know I’m not cut out to be a mask, so I hope you’re not sad that I’m your summoner.”

“Why would I be sad?” Teddy asked. She got a warm place to sleep, some nice blankets, and honey-glazed doughnuts.

She heard the bed shift. “Because you could have been part of someone else’s power, I guess. Someone better than me.”

“Yeah, but I’m not. So you’ll just have to be good enough.”

Emily snorted. “That’s, nice, I guess. I don’t think I’ve ever been good at anything before. It’ll be different.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Teddy said. “Now stop talking, it’s late.”

“Alright. Good night Teddy.”

***