It bothered Sam greatly that Jaik kept having nightmares and couldn't sleep with him every night. He worried that his mate would lose sleep due to not wanting to go back to sleep because of the nightmares. When he was there with him, Jaik would cling to him and hug him until he was brought back to reality and wasn't so scared. But what would do that when he wasn't there?

So he found himself walking into the newsagent (which had been made to look more like a proper one thanks to Jaik's guidance) and picking out a stuffed cat toy. It had ginger fur and green eyes, and because of this similarity to his mate he chose it. He had to make a second stop at the shop that sold mera-specific items to pick up a can of fire-retardant spray (he'd used the last of his last can on his bed) but then he was finally on his way to the cave where Jaik lived with his 'mother' and 'siblings'.

Jaik greeted him at the cave entrance with a hug, his glow changing from yellow to pink in just seconds.
"Hi," Jaik smiled, his glow warming Sam's clothes before the warmth fully enveloped him. It was like the literal "warm fuzzies".
"Hi," Sam replied, nuzzling him and still hiding the stuffed cat behind his back. At times like these, he was glad that Jaik was so short. It made hiding presents much easier.
"Did you come for a special visit or is this just random?" Jaik asked, holding him around the waist and looking up at him. Sam smiled at how cute he was.

"Both," Sam replied, and Jaik broke away so that he could take his hand as they walked to the cave where Jaik slept. Jaik sat on his bed first and Sam sat beside him, wrapping an arm around him after swapping the cat to the other hand.
"How is it both?" Jaik asked.
"The reason for the visit is special but the timing is random," Sam explained. "I guess I'd better give you your present first so I can stop hiding it and hug you properly." He revealed the cat then and Jaik took it happily, holding it near his chest.
"I can see why you got me this one in particular," Jaik laughed, and hugged him. "But why a teddy?"
"Well, you have nightmares pretty much every night and most of the time I'm there for you to cling to until you come back to reality and remember that it was just a dream, but what happens when I'm not there?" Sam asked.

"I have to get up and walk around and then it's hard to get back to sleep because I woke myself up with exercise," Jaik replied.
"So I figured that when I'm not there, you need something else to hug until you calm down and a teddy seems like the best solution," Sam finished.
"You're so thoughtful," Jaik purred, his glow turning purple, and kissed him.
"I can't always be there to hug you back to reality, much as I'd like to be," Sam shrugged, and returned the kiss. It just didn't seem right when Jaik was upset, he was normally such a calm or happy guy.

That night, Sam stood in Jaik's doorway and watched him while he was sleeping. He knew that it was creepy stalker material but there was really no better way to find out if his gift had worked. He watched Jaik go through the motions of a nightmare with all the thrashing and whimpering, and he had to work hard to stop himself from going over there and hugging him. It seemed cruel that he had to suffer like this. Finally, though, Jaik woke up and reached beside him where Sam normally slept. He'd left the cat there before, and when his claws touched the fake fur he pulled it to his chest and hugged it. It took a while because normally Sam hugged him back and kept repeating that it was just a bad dream, but finally Jaik calmed down enough to go back to sleep. With the cat in his arms, he didn't have any more nightmares that night. It made Sam happy and relieved to see.

Watching Jaik all night took its toll, and Sam went back to his cave that he lived in with his father when it was near dawn. It was the time of the day when the air was freezing, and he would've given anything to have Jaik there to warm him up. That thought made him smile: he needed Jaik to warm him up and Jaik needed him to calm him down from nightmares or the odd panic attack that still happened sometimes. As he crawled into bed, he noticed that there were pieces of Jaik's glow scattered through his bed. He didn't see Jaik standing out in the tunnel because he was too busy burrowing under the covers for warmth.

He only found Jaik the next morning in his arms when he woke up. He smiled and hugged him, feeling more of the "warm fuzzies" at the fact that his mate had followed him back to his cave. Maybe he hadn't gone back to sleep after all. But he didn't call him out on it.
"Good morning," he murmured when Jaik started moving around like he did when he was waking up.
"More like afternoon," Jaik replied, turning over to snuggle against Sam's chest. It was only then that Sam saw that he still held the stuffed cat he'd bought him the day before.
"You really have an uncanny knack for knowing the time of day," Sam observed. "How do you do that?"
"The sun," Jaik shrugged. "Remember the window you put in not long after we became serious?"
"Yes," Sam nodded. Of course he'd remember carving out the hole in the wall for the window using his tail- after all, Jaik needed some way to get in and out when he just wanted to surprise Sam or see him.

"The sun's shining in at just the right angle and heat to be early or mid-afternoon," Jaik informed him.
"How do you know?" Sam wondered. It was one skill Jaik had that he didn't.
"Whenever I'd stay up late talking to Alin, I'd wake up when the sun was like that and Hannah told me it was early afternoon or sometimes in the middle of the afternoon," Jaik recalled sleepily.
"Maybe you should learn all the times of day," Sam suggested. "Then you would make an even better King."
"We'll be perfect Kings anyway," Jaik informed him. "I know because your dad's teaching us and he ruled very well alone so he must know what he's talking about."

"You are absolutely perfect," Sam grinned, and trailed his snout down Jaik's to kiss him.
"I love you too," Jaik giggled. "Anyway, we should probably get up soon. We have more learning to do."
"One day I'll be able to just lie in bed with you all day," Sam sighed wistfully.
"Thanks for watching me last night," Jaik added. "It was a good test of whether or not your present would work even if it was creepy."
"It shows how much I care," Sam summed up, and he really did care. He cared a whole lot.