It was unseasonably cool for August.

With sunset came high winds and cold breezes that sent half of New York City searching for their packed-away coats. Once the sun went down, the people went in. Chilly air caused activity to slow on the streets as those who could retreated to artificial heat. Crime had even decreased slightly. It was amazing how New Yorkers reacted to forty-degree nights after eighty-degree days. According to the weather reports, this was only due to a temperature inversion coupled with a cold front, which was due to pass in a few days. No one believed the weather reports, mostly because no one understood them.

Besides, this had gone on for three weeks without warming up.

As an especially frigid current lifted him higher, a small green gargoyle closed his eyes, welcoming the chill. His mood was so foul and his head so cluttered with conflicting thoughts that the cold almost cleared it. If cool air was all that was needed, however, he would have been fine. But this evening had been way too irritating for a mere temperature change to suffice.

Goliath had unwittingly set it off when sunset came and they were preparing to patrol. Elisa had not been present; she was home in bed with a cold. Captain Chavez had caught her sneezing her head off at the station and had ordered her to stay in bed. So, deprived of his usual partner, Goliath had paired up with Hudson, and Angela had paired with Broadway. Bronx had remained to watch the castle, and that meant that Lex was stuck with Brooklyn for a patrol partner.

Although Brooklyn was usually a blast to be with, tonight had been an exception. Now that Angela had taken up with Broadway, Brooklyn's ego had taken a serious hit--and it showed. Lex had spent the entire night trying to put up with his rookery brother's gloomy mood and constant whining. He had tried to stay positive, but the only time he'd been able to get Brooklyn out of his funk was when they broke up a gang scene near the docks.

But, as their area was concerned, that was it for the crime they encountered. The weather had indirectly played against Lex, and Brooklyn had gone back to feeling sorry for himself. Fed up, Lex had finally exploded at his rookery brother and taken off. It was a few hours until sunrise, and nothing was going on. Brooklyn would be fine.

As the lights of Castle Wyvern came into view, Lex sighed. He didn't really believe that. What if Brooklyn ran off again? That would be just perfect. Maybe this time he'd get caught by John Castaway himself.

Landing on the cobblestones, he wobbled as he discovered that the stone was colder than the wind. Maybe he had been a bit hasty. If he turned around now, perhaps he could catch Brooklyn before he did something stupid.

Turning back towards the horizon, he spotted a shape dipping and weaving far off. He recognized the flight pattern and sighed. Brooklyn had apparently learned his lesson from his last runaway attempt.

Lex folded his arms, trying to protect himself against the cold as best he could with his webbed wings. He often envied the others their ability to cape their wings about them. Shrugging the thought off, he hurried to a nearby door, impatient to leave the cold, empty courtyard.

Opening it, he beheld the lavishly furnished living room, with entertainment center and the Oriental rug that he and Broadway had nearly destroyed a month ago. He grinned at the thought, then frowned as he realized with a start that the television was on. Lex was the last to leave, and clearly remembered turning it off. And he didn't think that Bronx, who was asleep on the rug, had learned to manipulate the remote.

"Hey, close the door, mate!! It's damned cold out there!"

"What?" Lexington jumped in surprise, somehow pulling the door shut with his tail. He blinked at the head protruding from the lumpy blanket on the couch for a moment before it registered. "Sarah? What are you doing here?"

Sarah Adams rubbed her head as she sat up, dislodging hanks of long, pale brown hair from her ponytail as she did so. "Trying t' sleep." She pulled off her hairband, then adjusted her glasses, blinking sleepy blue eyes. "Ugh. I thought it was supposed to be the summer months here." Her tongue was thick from sleep, as was her nasal Australian accent. After having Sarah around for a month, Lex had become used to her presence, yet Fox's new technical assistant continued to surprise him.

"Believe it or not, it is summer," he said as Sarah sat up and scooted over. Looking at the television, he grinned to see a rerun of Mystery Science Theater 3000. "I thought you were staying with that friend of yours."

She rubbed her eyes. "Oh, that. Callie threw me out."

"Again? What is this, the third time this month?" Ever since Sarah had opted to share rent on a nicer apartment with her friend Callista, their squabbles had become legendary. "What did you do now?"

She picked up the remote and hit the mute button. "Absolutely nothing, for once. That idiot Callie was dating just dumped her after I told her to stay away from him. Apparently, he was plenty nasty to her." She leaned over and turned on the table lamp. "I tried to talk sense into her, she screamed at me, end of story."

"Mmmm." This was more serious than usual. "Do you think she'll forget like she always does?"

"By tomorrow? I doubt it." Sarah stood and stretched. "She's a wreck. When it comes to men, Callie has no common sense. Why on earth would she think that she could have a relationship with a guy named after a shop tool?"

Despite himself, Lex burst out laughing.

Sarah looked at him sideways. "While you're so happy, Lex," she said, "mind telling me why you're back so early?"

Lex sobered immediately. Her brother may have been occasionally dense, but Sarah was irritatingly perceptive. "Oh, uh, well," he muttered, "I sort of told Brooklyn off."

Shaking her head, she moved down the hall into the galley, turning on the light. Lex could see her shadow in the light from the open doorway as she rattled around. "That bloke's still bemoaning the loss of Angela? She's a nice sort, but I'd call that overreacting."

"Well, he thinks he's the only one who's got problems," Lex muttered under his breath. Louder, he added, "Hey, where's your boss? I've been expecting her to walk in on us by now."

There was a bit of a clatter before she spoke. "Mr. X is still up in Philly negotiating a merger. Fox decided to go out. I don't ask, she doesn't tell. As for the sprout, Mr. Burnett took him for a 'lesson' or something." Sarah paused and stuck her head out the door briefly. "I never got what that was about. You have any clue?"

"Not really," Lex answered weakly, lying through his teeth. Eventually, someone was going to have to tell Sarah about Owen, but there was no way in hell that it was going to be him.

She shrugged and ducked back into the kitchen. "Whatever. New York is bleedin' odd. Neurotic people, crazy people, taxi drivers--" Pausing, she let out a deep sigh. "At least the java is still fresh."

"Aw, no, not the coffee again!" Lex put a claw over his face as Sarah emerged, a steaming mug in her hand. Despite the efforts of the clan and Xanatos to stop it, Sarah's number-one addiction was coffee. Lex had tried coffee and rather liked it, but not half as much as Sarah did.

"I'll keep it to one cup." She settled back down on the couch.

Another thing registered, and he turned to her. "Homesick?"

"A bit," Sarah admitted. "All the noise, all the people, I just don't fit in. Plus, my best friend isn't speaking to me. It gets to the point where you feel like a nothing, you know?"

Lex thought suddenly of Brooklyn. "I have a pretty good idea. Hell, I'm the runt of the clan."

Setting down her coffee, Sarah sized him up. Although she was pretty tall--five foot eight--Lex had grown some inches since their arrival in Manhattan, putting them at the same height. "You don't look like a runt to me."

"You're not a gargoyle."

"You're not a runt." She pursed her lips. "Y' know, Lex, maybe it's just me, but from what I've seen, you're a lot more mature than Brooklyn."

Lex blinked. "Say again?"

"Think about it." Sarah took another sip of coffee. "Damn, this stuff is good. Anyway, Angela decides on Broadway, after all three of you liked her. Brooklyn runs away, gets caught, comes home and sulks for a couple of weeks. You get a little bitter, complain, but keep on going. He and Broadway make jokes about me and m' coffee. You try to help me cut down--like I ever will," she continued. "Come on, Lex, you have to admit there's maturity there."

"I guess," Lex admitted grudgingly, looking at the door. "He'll probably come stomping in any minute now and I'll have to forgive him."

Sarah shuddered. "Please do. It's cold enough as it is." Picking up the remote, she turned on the sound again as Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow started riffing on Kathy Ireland's acting inability.

"What about you?" Lex had seen "Alien From L.A." too many times to really enjoy it.

It was her turn to be confused. "What about me?"

"You and your roommate."

"She'll come around," Sarah sighed. "Eventually. This business of bad boyfriends is getting too common."

He grinned at that. "I'll bet."

Leaning back, she ran her fingers through her hair. "Just once, I'd like to have an actual relationship so I can be the one to kick her out." Sarah frowned into her coffee. "Doesn't look like that'll be anytime soon, though. No one ever looks twice at me."

"So? This is New York!" Lex exclaimed. "Half the people around here don't even notice other living creatures until they walk right into them. Besides, if they haven't noticed you, they must all be morons."

"Thanks, Lex. It's still a bother to me, though."

"Yeah. It must be a pain in the ass being kicked out every other day."

Sarah grinned and whacked him playfully with a cushion. Grabbing one of the throw pillows, he retaliated viciously as she scrambled to her feet. They were involved in an all-out pillow fight by the time Brooklyn finally opened the door, ready to apologize. As he did so, his sullen face immediately made contact with a flying cushion. "What the?!?!?" he cried, forgetting that he was supposed to be depressed and/or apologetic.

The two culprits, standing there amidst a battleground of blankets and cushions, did not look apologetic in the least. Instead, Lex and Sarah took one look at his surprised face and howled with laughter.

Brooklyn's face suddenly broke out into a wicked grin. "All right, you two--" He moved forward, brandishing a pillow menacingly, then promptly tripped over Bronx and went sprawling. Sarah laughed even harder.

Taking his advantage, Lex smacked her in the legs with a cushion, knocking her down as well. He jumped on top of her, ready to whack her in the face. But Sarah decided to cheat.

She sat up, grabbed his head, and planted a kiss on his cheek. Lex was so surprised that he dropped the pillow. As he did so, Brooklyn clobbered him from behind, knocking him flat on his face. Before he could gloat, the crimson gargoyle tripped yet again and crashed to the floor. In moments, all three of them were down and laughing their heads off.

"Stop....stop.....stop..." Sarah was gasping for breath. "Now this is how you spend a Friday night!"

"Too bad it's Thursday," Brooklyn said, setting them off again.

Lex was the first to recover, staggering to his feet. He stared at the sea of blankets and cushions before him and sighed. "Why does this look familiar?"

"C-net! Coach! C-net! Coach!" Brooklyn mimicked Lex and Broadway's now-infamous wrestling match. Bronx, finally awake, poked his head out from under a sheet and whined at them curiously.

"He's right," Sarah groaned as Lex and Brooklyn pulled her to her feet. "We'd better clean up before Fox sees this and fires me. Some night off."

"Forget Fox," Brooklyn remarked. "You haven't seen Goliath get angry."

Voices suddenly wafted through the half-open door. Familiar voices. "I think I'm going to find out," Sarah said as they scrambled to put things away. "Sorry, Lex."

"It was worth it," Lex murmured to no one in particular.

"Wake up, sleepyhead." Fox Xanatos shook her assistant, who was passed out on the couch. "It's almost sunrise," she explained as Sarah blinked at her in confusion. "You were harassing me about this all day yesterday, remember?"

"Oh!" Sarah was immediately awake, hopping off the couch and snatching up her glasses. Smoothing her hair and clothes, she followed her employer out to the courtyard and up the steps to the tower, where six gargoyles were settling on the terrace against a brightening sky.

Elisa Maza was up there already, looking as tired as Sarah felt, and smiled at her understandingly. Sarah smiled back briefly, then frowned as the detective turned away. How much, she wondered, did they know about last night? Not about Callie or her ejection from their flat, but about her and Lexington? Brooklyn had been there when she'd kissed Lex, and she didn't see him as proficient in keeping secrets.

Well, she could set things straight. "Good morning," she greeted Lex sleepily as she approached his perch.

He turned to face her. "Hey, you came! I was afraid you'd sleep through it."

"Not with m' human alarm clock there." She jerked a thumb at Fox, who was watching from an amused distance. "Lex, about the couch--"

"Oh, yeah." He blushed a little. "I forgot to thank you. It's nice to have someone to talk to who understands. Brook's completely forgotten to be miserable." Lex paused. "What are you going to do?"

Sarah grinned. "Callie called me when Goliath took you and Brooklyn aside to lecture you. She was really sorry, she really wanted me to come back, and she will really never do it again." She bit her lip. "Of course, she and the moron made up."

"Hey, two out of three ain't bad," Lex said. "About the, well, you know--"

She leaned in close. "I cheated. So sue me."

He looked somewhat disappointed, but tried to hide it. "See you tonight," he said as the sun started to peek over the horizon. "Lex?"

As he turned, confused, she kissed him again. The look of surprise on his face froze in gray stone as the first rays of sunlight broke free.

Sarah laughed cheerfully. "Of course, that didn't mean I didn't mean it." She turned to where Fox and Elisa waited as Elisa let out a cough.

"So what's on the breakfast menu?" the detective managed between coughs. "I think I'm going to need something before Matt drags me home."

"Anything with coffee," Sarah said gaily as she jogged ahead, already anticipating sunset.