A/N: It's a funny thing about fandoms. One minute you're going about your business then your YouTube recommendations brings up the Lackadaisy trailer. Flash forward to now where you've read all the comic pages, mini-comics and watched the pilot over a dozen times.

The Lackadaisy pilot was absolutely phenomenal and I do hope more than anything that they'll be more in the future. But for now I thought about writing a little love story between my favorite couple.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Lackadaisy. The burning passion for it however I do.

I Belong With You

Calvin 'Freckle' McMurray let out a soft hiss as Ivy placed another cotton ball, coated in iodine, to his forehead.

It had been two hours since he, Ivy and his cousin Rocky had returned to the speakeasy to celebrate their victory. Normally Rocky would've given them a ride back to the university in the car. But they made the unfortunate discovery that despite Ivy's best efforts, the vehicle was in no shape to drive.

After Mitzi practically begged Sable to lend the two cats some money for a cab, and stopped Viktor from strangling Rocky on the spot, Freckle found himself sitting on Ivy's bed as she tended his wound. It was a miracle the bullet simply grazed him. The orange tabby knew that if he poked his head out just a few more inches he would've been dead for sure.

Of course, Freckle knew the night could've ended up much worse in so many ways. He and his cousin could've joined the dead in the cemetery if Ivy hadn't saved them with the car door. They may have been unable to start the car at all after crashing it into the quarry. Or, and the very thought alone caused his breath to hitch; Ivy could've been killed in the shed.

"If anything happened to her," Freckle thought as he wrung his paws together. "I just..."

"Okay," Ivy said as she applied a thick bandage to Freckle's forehead. "That should do it. Just don't pick at it or it'll never heal."

Freckle lightly touched the bandage before he glanced up at Ivy with widened eyes.

"Oh...thank you. Are...are you okay though?"

Ivy set the bottle of iodine on the night table next to her as she sat in the adjacent chair. She had changed out of her dirty and torn clothes and into a soft, light blue nightgown. Freckle found the color looked absolutely radiant on her but chose to keep the thought in his head.

"Uh...yep! Well I'm probably gonna have to buy a new blouse and sweater but otherwise yeah I'm fine, thanks to Rocky."

Freckle couldn't help but chuckle as he lightly shook his head. People could say a lot about his cousin, he knew he certainly could. But he couldn't deny that the brown tabby's unorthodox methods had saved their lives tonight.

"That's too bad though," Freckle said as Ivy raised an eyebrow. "That your clothes got ruined. I mean...they looked nice...on you..."

"What are you doing? Stop talking, stop talking, stop talking," Freckle could hear his brain scold him.

"Oh it's no big deal," Ivy waved a hand as she smiled, which never failed to make Freckle's heart skip a beat. "I had to go shopping anyways. And besides...I never wear my nicest clothes on the job."

Freckle chuckled again as the two of them settled into a comfortable silence. The orange tabby was just about to stand up when Ivy asked him a question that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Freckle what did you mean by that burning hot fire?"

Freckle couldn't help but hiss again. The look of absolute fear that Ivy had given him in the truck, when he exposed his other side, haunted him more than the maniacal laughter that often plagued his dreams.

He hoped out of all the chaos and confusion the night had been, she would simply forget about the whole ordeal and never speak about it again.

But here he was, within this tiny dorm room, without any villains or overheated radiators to distract them. He hoped more than anything he didn't have to dig up and discuss his darker other half to her. But her look of terror cemented the fact that she wouldn't forget it anytime soon.

"She thinks you're a monster now," his mind whispered. "She's only being nice to you out of the goodness of her heart. Once she hears all you have to say she'll never come near you again. Since when should the monster get the girl in the end?"

"Well..." Freckle began as he slowly stood up from the bed and paced around the room. "I-I-I saw smoke coming out of the engine so I thought..."

"Stop it Calvin."

Freckle stopped mid-step and glanced over at Ivy. The brown furred cat was standing now, her hands clenched tightly.

"Stop...what?" Freckle asked as he ran a paw through his head fur. "Talking?"

"STOP LYING TO ME!" Ivy marched across the room and placed a finger into Freckle's chest. "You know you were about to say something else and it had nothing to do with the radiator."

Ivy dropped her finger before she grabbed Freckle's hand. The orange tabby only hoped the blush wouldn't show through his fur.

"I know we work together for the speakeasy but...I'm worried about you. Rocky always said you became an entirely different person when you held a gun. For a long time I thought it was just another one of his crazy stories. But...then when I asked if you were alright...well..."

Freckle hung his head. He didn't have the grace to look her in the face.

"I'm a monster Ivy...that's all there is to it."

"You are not!" Ivy cried. "Do you think that rival gang would've cared if they gunned us down? Do you think they would feel bad about what they've done? This business is full of monsters Freckle! You are not one of them!"

"But the way you looked at me...you were scared."

Ivy opened her mouth to reply with something along the lines of 'I wasn't scared at all'. But it would have been a complete lie.

The feral growl, the golden orbs raised to their absolute limits. In that brief second she didn't see the man she had grown to love. She saw a beast possess his soul, one that would've torn apart the gang outside to confetti and savored their blood like the finest bourbon in the land.

"Yes," Ivy finally sighed. "I was...I've just...never seen that side of you before. But then you calmed down and you looked so scared. I may not know what's going on in your head Freckle. But...I like you." Ivy's heart began to race. This wasn't where she wanted to confide in him her true feelings. Her fantasies always involved a candle lit dinner, some live music, maybe a stroll under the stars.

Standing in her dorm room, with her heart racing out of control was not what she envisioned. But she was here now and she had to keep going.

"I really like you Freckle...I mean...more than just a friend..."

"Me too."

Freckle clamped his hands around his mouth, surprised the words slipped out so easily. He only lowered them when Ivy gently placed a paw on his shoulder.

"And as someone who cares about you, I'd rather not see you fight...whatever this burning hot fire might be alone."

Freckle sighed as he shut his eyes and hung his head. Despite not wanting to dig into his past, he went about it anyway.

"Growing up I felt like everyone around me, my mom especially, wanted me to be absolutely perfect. With Rocky she always figured he would be a burn out, a trouble maker, someone who would go nowhere in life."

Ivy frowned. Rocky was many things but he was still a friend to her. And no one said anything bad about those she cared about.

"But with me she adored me, idolized me and wanted me to stay out of trouble as much as possible." Freckle paused; the high pitched taunting sounds that he thought he had buried with his childhood came flooding back. "I think...because I was so quiet that I became a target for every bully at my school. When Rocky was around he could either fight or scare off anybody that dared to even look at me. But after my mom kicked him out..."

"They...took advantage of you," Ivy added as her eyes began to widen.

"I felt so angry, so powerless. I did absolutely nothing wrong and yet I became everyone's punching bag. But I tried to just remember my mom's words and stay good and true no matter what."

"The burning hot fire?"

Freckle shook his head. "Not a fire, an inferno. I felt it in my chest everyday but I tried to keep it bottled up for so long. Then...when I went to the police academy..."

Ivy gasped. "You didn't..."

"No thankfully it was outside in the shooting range. But the moment I held the revolver...it was like every amount of that inferno coursed through my hands. The fact that I held such a weapon that could destroy everything in its way with ease. I felt...powerful for once. I felt like for once I had control over something. I didn't see paper targets. I saw the faces of everyone who ever bullied me or looked down at me."

Freckle broke free of Ivy's grip and collapsed into the chair. Suddenly he felt much more tired. He hung his head once again.

"So there you have it. I may not be a monster, but I'm a mess. My brain is just a ticking time bomb waiting until somebody else hands me a gun. And even when somebody does I never think to save up any ammo for later."

"You didn't know. There was only so much ammo in the case. And at least there was the pistol in the back seat..."

Freckle jumped to his feet. "Which only had a measly six bullets in it! And even then I couldn't hit that...big assassin guy with anyway! I mean..."

Freckle sat back down on the seat as he held his head in his hands.

"Not since I was a kid did I ever feel so powerless. When he disappeared behind that door I was scared, more scared than I'd ever been in my life. I mean...if anything ever happened to you...I don't know what I'd do."

Silence penetrated the room. It stayed for so long that Freckle almost forgot that he wasn't alone in the room. That was until he felt a smooth set of lips lock against his. Instantly his eyes shot open and found them locking with Ivy's closed ones. Eventually he allowed his eyes to close. He tilted his head and reached his hand towards Ivy's back when she suddenly broke away.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I'm so sorry Freckle! I just got carried away in the moment and..."

Ivy never finished her sentence. She found herself being turned away, a strong arm wrapping around her waist and a set of lips locking onto her own.

The two closed their eyes and allowed the world around them to disappear. They had no clue how long they were under true love's first kiss for. They only stopped when both of them desperately needed air. They opened their eyes and locked onto each other's brightly colored orbs.

"How long..." Freckle began to ask before Ivy cut in.

"I've always had a crush on you Freckle, ever since you and Rocky first came into the Little Daisy Cafe. And throughout all the times we went out together it just grew stronger over time. And...when you went to draw those gangsters away...I was worried that..."

"You'd never get to tell me how you truly felt about me."

Ivy nodded before she placed her head against Freckle's chest. The steady beat of his heart calmed her down immensely.

"I'm sorry I scared you back in the truck," Freckle whispered. "You're irreplaceable to me Ivy. The last thing I'd want is to scare you away with...my other side."

"It's only a small part of you sweetie," Ivy whispered back. "The rest is still the soft-spoken man that loves baseball and is the greatest dancer of all time."

Freckle let out a loud laugh at this. He was surprised at how much it soothed his soul.

"Now you're just trying to make me feel better."

Ivy raised her head and smiled up at Freckle. "Is it working?"

Freckle let out another chuckle as he kissed the top of her head. "Yeah, it is."

The two lovers swayed back and forth in silence, as if they were dancing to a melody that only existed in their imagination.

"Promise you'll never leave me," Ivy whispered, her head back against Freckle's chest as if it belonged there. "I know this isn't your true calling but..."

"Even if this entire business is going to Hell, I'll stay by you Ivy. I belong with you."

Suddenly a large yawn escaped Ivy's lips.

"Come on," Ivy said as she made her way towards her bed. "We've had a long and explosive night. We need as much sleep as we can get."

"Will your roommate mind if I sleep in her bed?"

Ivy lifted her feet and placed them on her bed. "No, considering you'll be in my bed."

Now Freckle was sure the blush was visible on his orange cheeks. He wrung his hands together feverishly.

"I just thought...when two people fall in love there's usually...a first date then maybe a nice dinner...possibly a..."

"Calvin, if two people share a bed and aren't planning on doing anything but sleeping, is it really that scandalous?"

Freckle chuckled as he removed his vest, shirt and slacks before slipping underneath the covers. He allowed his one hand to pull down the lamp cord while the other wrapped around Ivy's waist.

And for once Freckle's drifted off to sleep without the crazed maniacal laughter that often haunted his thoughts. It was too preoccupied by the gentle purring beside him.

Thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoyed!

Peace!