Taylor woke up from a strange dream, a dream that fled her mind the very moment she opened her eyes and felt the first rays of the sun slipping through her window.

Then she felt the warm thing pressed up against her side and came fully awake with a snap.

Arms flailing, Taylor pushed the intruder away and off the bed. She almost screamed when it took all the blankets with it and left her uncovered on the bed.

A few moments later a familiar form popped up as she jumped to her feet. “The heck ya do that for?!” she screamed at Taylor.

Taylor flinched back, then glared. “What were you doing in my bed?” she asked.

The dark skinned girl’s cheeks turned an interesting shade of purple. “The couch wasn’t comfy. So I slept here.”

“I didn’t give you permission to do that,” Taylor said.

“I ain’t need y’er permission for shit.”

“I... fine. Don’t do it again,” Taylor said as she climbed off the bed, picked up the jumbled mess that her sheets had become, and tossed them onto her mattress. She rubbed at her forehead, hoping to knead the headache away. “If you’re really my power, I got the worst power ever,” she said.

The girl’s kick should not have hurt that much. Taylor grit her teeth, jumping on the one leg whose shin wasn’t throbbing in pain.

“Y’er such a little pussy. Whan whan whan, cryin’ all the time! No better than prey, you know?” the girl said. Her eyes were watery with tears the entire time she insulted Taylor.

“Fine, fine, I’m sorry,” Taylor said. She couldn’t help but shoot a glare at the girl who replied with a cheshire-like grin. “You need a name,” Taylor decided.

The girl paused, quickly wiped the back of a hand across her face, and nodded. “Damn right I do.”

Taylor waffled a bit, allowing part of her mind to search for names while the rest of her focused on fixing her bed. She wondered if the girl would help her with household chores. Then she wondered how far down the rabbit hole she had fallen.

“Cheshire.”

“What?” the girl asked.

“Cheshire, like the cat in Alice in Wonderland,” Taylor said. “It appeared out of nowhere. And you have that cat theme going.”

The girl hummed. “I like it, yeah. Cheshire. Like a big kitty. A big predator.”

“Surprised you didn’t call yourself a big pussy,” Taylor muttered.

Cheshire made a low growling sound at the back of her throat. “I ain’t no pussy. You’re the only pussy here.”

“Can, can you stop saying that?”

Cheshire’s grin matched her namesake’s. “Pussy, pussy, puss--”

Taylor reached out and placed a hand on the girl’s head. “Stop,” she said before bringing her hand back. It was stopped when Cheshire, with a speed that didn’t match her frame, grabbed her wrist.

“Do that again,” she demanded.

“Do what again?” Taylor asked. “Ask you to stop? I think I’ll be doing that pretty often.”

“No, the patting, do it again.” Cheshire moved Taylor’s hand over her head, then bopped it down a few times. She scowled as it didn’t have the effect she wanted.

Giving up on understanding anything that was happening in her life, Taylor patted Cheshire on the head.

Cheshire shivered, her grin turning dopey and a giggle escaping her as Taylor continued patting her head. After a dozen pats, her leg started thumping against the floor and Taylor decided that her limit had been reached. “Yeah, no,” she said.

Cheshire snapped back to reality and glared at Taylor. “Y’er the worst big sis ever,” she growled. “Gimme more headpats.”

“No,” Taylor said with barely concealed exasperation. She started pulling out clothes for her to wear to school. A glance at the clock on her nightstand revealed that she was still a little early. “I need to have breakfast, and maybe I’ll have time to do some of my homework,” she said.

“What ‘bout y’er mornin’ exercise?” Cheshire asked. She was still fixated on Taylor’s hands as they tossed jeans onto her bed.

“I don’t do morning exercise.”

Cheshire snorted. “No wonder y’er all flabby then.”

Taylor twitched. “Yeah, whatever,” she said.

“C’mon, we could go runnin’.” She started jogging on the spot, padded, pyjama-clad feet thump-thumping on the floor. “Get ya in shape.”

“I’m perfectly in shape already,” Taylor said through gritted teeth.

Cheshire giggled at her. “Yeah, cause round’s a shape.”

Taylor had the impression that her morning was going to be a long one.

***

Breakfast was a quick affair of cereal and milk and homework next to her bowl. She scribbled down responses to math questions as quickly as she could while Cheshire slurped milk from her bowl and left a huge mustache across her upper lip.

“Alright,” Danny said as he bustled into the room, one hand tying his tie and the other moving his briefcase over to his chair. “I have to get going. Got a meeting this morning. See you this afternoon?” he asked before patting Taylor on the head.

“Yeah, sure,” she said.

“You too,” Danny said before patting Cheshire’s head on the way by. Her eyes widened and her fang poked out in a silly grin at the contact. “Behave you two!” he said on the way out.

Taylor glared at the girl across from her who was humming contentedly at the contact. “Right, I’m off,” she said as she grabbed her completed homework and unceremoniously stuffed it into her backpack. She swallowed the last of her cereal in one gulp and stood up, flinging her back over one shoulder as she did.

“Y’er leavin’?” Cheshire asked. “Not that I care or nothin’.”

“I’m sure you don’t,” Taylor grumped right back. “You’ll be okay staying here?” she asked.

Part of her was leery of leaving a kid alone in her house. Another part figured that she could probably take care of herself. If she was even a real person and not some sort of... projection thing. Ever since she woke up, the thought of heading over to the PRT to fix everything was on her mind, but it wasn’t something she could do before the schoolday was over.

It was one thing to think that she might be a parahuman, it was another to skip school on a hunch.

“I’ll be fine. Never needed ya anyway.”

“Good.”

Taylor slid her other arm through the straps of her backpack, and with one last look at Cheshire to make sure she was behaving, she left.

A moment later the front door clacked shut, leaving the house empty save for one little girl who was left pouting at her empty bowl. “This is bullshit,” Cheshire said.