"Rise and shine, Jack. I know how much you hate oversleeping." Corona reached the top of the stairs and found the door to their bedroom open. A guy with a camera mounted on his shoulder -- a new guy, since Eddie had today off -- stood in the hallway, aiming it into the room.

Someone inside the bedroom snickered, and Corona arched a brow ridge and bared her teeth.

"Hey, what's going on?"

The guy with the camera whipped his head around toward her. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth as if to speak, but didn't actually say anything.

"Okay, get ready!" Loud whisper, not Jack's voice.

Corona rushed over to the door. Her muzzle fell open at the sight that greeted her: Jack, still asleep, with Dale leaning over the bed and one of his dipshit friends on the other side, pants down, bare ass hovering in front of Jack's face.

What the hell? Before she could regain her composure enough to demand an explanation, Dale drew his right hand back, slapped Jack's face, and burst out laughing.

"Shit!" Jack's eyes snapped open and his arms flailed. "What the fuck?" He turned to the right and found the bare ass inches from his face.

The guy ripped a long fart directly into Jack's face. Jack screamed and lurched backward while Dale's partner in crime pulled his pants up and ran for the door, laughing hysterically.

Jack released an enraged bellow and launched off the bed.

Corona stared at Dale and his buddy as they stumbled to a stop in front of her. Their laughter cut off abruptly and the color drained from their faces. The stench of beer wafting from their mouths almost staggered her.

What the hell did I just see? She shook her head slowly. Did that really happen?

"Motherfuckers!" Jack roared.

Both of them bolted in a blind panic and the camera guy backed away. Corona clamped her hands onto their shoulders as they tried to squeeze past her and applied just enough pressure to leave long-lasting bruises.

"You're not going anywhere," she snarled over their screams of pain.

"It was just a joke!" Dale howled, dropping to his knees and trying to pry her hands loose.

Jack plowed into the other guy and Corona released her grip on him. Jack slammed him into the wall, lifted a knee into his crotch, and threw him to the floor.

Corona returned her attention to Dale and bared her fangs. "You think assaulting a sleeping, defenseless person is funny? Are you really that stupid?"

"Hey, take it easy, it was just a …"

Jack punched him in the face. "Don't you ever do anything like that ever again. Have I made myself clear?"

Dale threw his arms over his face. "Okay! Okay! Jesus!"

Corona let go of him. "Don't let me catch you or any of your friends in our bedroom again. If I ever find any of you in there, you'd be better off jumping out the window and taking your chances than letting me get my hands on you. Understood?"

He nodded. His face paled a bit more and his eyes looked wide enough to fall out of his skull.

"Good. Now, get the hell away from us."

He kept nodding spastically and bolted, leaving his cohort curled up on the floor.

Jack shook his head and rubbed his face. "Assholes." He whirled abruptly and jabbed a finger at the camera guy. "And you -- point that camera into our bedroom again and I'll shove it up your ass sideways."

The guy flinched and took a step back. "Okay, dude, relax."

Jack speared him with one last contemptuous glare before turning back to Corona. "I'll be downstairs as soon as I shower." He headed back into their bedroom.

"'Kay." She glared at the guy on the floor, who had finally pushed himself upright and leaned against the wall, and turned back to the camera guy. She grabbed his camera, ripped it off his shoulder mount, held it in front of his face, and snapped it in half.

The guy jerked away from her.

"Next time it'll be your skull." She shook her head, dropped the shattered camera, and strode off to the staircase, hoping that Jack's rude awakening hadn't set the tone for the whole day. Jack's phone rang. Corona stopped, sighed, and turned back to the bedroom.

I hope it's not work-related. Especially if it's about all the mechs we shot up on the way out of the ADS building.

She returned to their room and opened the door, shooting the camera guy a look that made him throw up his hands and scurry down the stairs. She leaned against the doorway and watched Jack pick his phone up off the dresser.

"Hello?" His mouth dropped open slightly and his eyebrows raised. "Oh. Uh, hi, Mom."

Corona glanced at Dale's buddy, just now picking himself up and crawling away, groaning. She chuckled, crossed her arms over her chest, and smiled at Jack.

"Um, yeah, I'm doing okay. How're you and Dad? Ah, good." He sat on the edge of the bed. "Sorry about that. I've just been -- well, you know how it is, just hanging in there from day to day. No, I …" He ran his free hand through his hair and hung his head.

Holding in a giggle, Corona eased onto the bed, sat behind him, and put her arms and wings around him. "Hi, Jack's mom!"

He grinned. "That was Corona, Mom. She's … well, she's my … oh. How'd you know?"

Corrie raised a brow ridge. "Has she been watching the stream?"

He glanced at her and nodded. "She and Dad found it a few days ago." He returned his attention to the phone. "So you saw what happened with Inbred Jed and the Peckerwood Posse?" He laughed and turned back to Corona for a moment. "She said I should've beat the fucking shit out of both of those guys."

Corona giggled. "She's right!"

"I will if they do it again, Mom. So, you know about me and Corona? Oh. And Taura, too?" He glanced at Corrie again. "They've been binging the show over the past few days."

"Ah. That means they've seen almost as much of me as you have."

Jack listened for a moment. "Uh, yeah." Another quick look at her. "No, they've seen it all. I've just done more with it." Back to the phone. "Well, she doesn't like wearing clothes. Not much I could do about that even if I wanted to."

Corona grinned and nuzzled his cheek. "From what I've seen on the show's message boards, a considerable portion of the audience definitely has no problem with it."

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, Mom, a few people have said the same thing. Others have objected more strongly, too. Well, they're the reason she started doing it more. She heard some of the complaints after the first time she appeared naked on-camera, so she kept it up just to annoy them." He shrugged. "She's not normally a spiteful person, but I think I'm a bad influence on her."

Corona giggled and licked his cheek.

Jack smiled. After listening silently for a few seconds, he nodded. "Yeah. I love her." His face turned red. "Yeah, Taura, too. Yeah, I know it's weird. But lately, weird has become the new normal for me. I mean, you saw what just happened." He sighed. "It took Taura almost dying and then nearly losing her mind for me to realize it, but I love her as much as I love Corrie."

Corona nodded, gave him a thumbs-up, and cuddled him again. He smiled and leaned back against her chest.

"Well, it's a long story." He blushed again. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I wasn't sure how you'd react to me and Corrie, much less me and Corrie and Taura. Yeah, I know, this was a hell of a way to find out."

Corrie ran her hands slowly over his chest and nuzzled him again.

"Hey, Mom, breakfast will be ready soon, so … Yeah, I'll tell you all about it as soon as I can. I promise. Well, after breakfast, we have to go to work, but tonight I'll call you and explain the whole thing. Yeah, I promise. I love you, too. Okay, bye." He ended the call and dropped the phone onto the bed.

"So," Corona said with a chuckle, "you didn't tell your parents about us?"

"I hadn't talked to them in almost a year. Kept planning to, but things always came up."

"Well, I'm sure your next conversation with them will be interesting."

"Oh, definitely." He gave her a kiss, stood, and walked over to his dresser. "Interesting and long."