Robbie humped downward into the bear. So many things in the echidna’s life were pointy, requiring care to handle. The proof of that lay on the floor around the bed, every bit of clothing or furniture either built to avoid or full of the quills that grew out of his back. The pointy-nosed cub had lived his whole life sleeping on his front or sides, the blankets around him being covered in a layer of tough plastics. So much of his time was taken up grooming them, pulling off leaves or the things the other children would throw at him to see if they could get stuck on him.

	But his teddy bear, Bearnard, had such very soft fur. He was firm, too, stuffed in a manner that had kept the teddy upright for Robbie’s whole life. He’d been there to watch the cub grow from his earliest memories to the bright young lad who would be starting the first grade today. His oldest, softest friend was almost half his size, but Robbie had had a near-religious devotion in keeping him away from the quills that covered his back, or any sort of damage at all. Even while he ground between the teddy bear’s legs in an emulation of something he’d caught his parents doing he was careful to avoid letting the tips of the long claws that had often scratched his own face get anywhere near the bear.

	Suddenly, and inexplicably, a giggle drifts from the cub’s mouth. Something uncontrolled and joyous, it hastened the cub’s movements against the toy. He rubbed as hard as he could in between Bearnard’s fuzzy legs. His claws scratched against the tiles on either side of Bearnard’s head while he did, the scraping noise far from a consideration for either.

	It’s a voice that ends Robbie’s heated motions, one quite familiar to him, “Robbie, your clothes are out of the dryer. Get your butt down here!” It’s a rough voice, harsh to the ears, but it does it’s job. The excited cub pushes himself up, and just as quickly rushes downstairs to where his mom would be waiting with his uniform.

	Bearnard watches him go and notes where a loose quill falls. It wouldn’t do to make the cub think he’d hurt his special friend. 

	It’s only seconds until a plastic stegosaurus lets out a loud, “He’s downstairs!” from atop Robbie’s dresser. The rest of the dinosaur gang waddles their way to the edge, ready to make the dangerous journey to the floor to converse with the rest of the toys. One by one, they started pulling their way free of a chest in the corner. 

	Bearnard himself, however, lays where he is. Wrestling with Robbie was new for him. Dangerous, too. If he got too excited, the cub could easily split one of his seams. That would pull him away for at least a night while Mrs. Kidna patched him up. It had happened the first few nights after the cub had started growing his quills. Robbie had been so scared, he could hear the cub wailing for him down the hall. He couldn’t even run to him for fear that his parents might think he snuck out of his room. It took everything he had not to crawl his way down the hall. Unwanted laughter interrupts his thoughts, high pitched and haughty. 

	The source of it is none other than Magical Dream Champion Yuki-chan. The figurine struts forward, joints moving far easier than simple plastic should allow. She looked in every way a prepubescent cat save for the pupils that were in the shape of stars. Her pink dress flounced even while her little plastic shoes failed to make a noise on the tile for her size. Out of habit more than anything she moves to bat back her own ear. It had been broken free ages ago, exposing the white plastic underneath.

	“My, my, my, you certainly had a good time, didn’t you?” the magical girls says, looking straight at the stuffed bear. Her voice is cheerful but something in her sparkling eyes seems almost malicious.

	“Yeah, Robbie really likes cuddling.”

	“Oh, that wasn’t just cuddling, sweety,” she says with a smile. The accent she carried was Southern, in spite of her initial insistence the character was from somewhere called Osaka. “I think the boy might just be a little in love with you.”

	The words fill Bearnard with a warm glow. His eyes light up when he says, “I love him too.” It was true, he never wanted to be apart.

	“Not that kind of love, hon. The kind between a Ma and Pa,” she says, the words not quite making sense to the bear. His quizzical expression obvious on his innocent face, the figurine continues, “I mean that you’re a very special toy to him. The kind he wants to get good and sticky.”

	“Sticky?” the bear asks, horrified. Sticky meant a lot of things. First and foremost among them was trips to the wash. He’d been to the wash only a handful of times before and he’d never quite recovered. Each time he’d felt his body give a little more. His weight would shift and the cloth that gave him shape would get a little softer. The last one had even seen him start to sag, but thankfully propping himself up was no huge effort. Robbie didn’t need to see him that way. “Yup, but don’t worry. It dries quickly. You ever been left in the shower after a bath?”

	He hadn’t. Almost all his life had been spent in this room. She had to know that.

	“Well, Mr. Kidna makes a lot of cum. That’s the sticky stuff. The Dinos saw it last time they were there,” she says and prances over to where the dinosaurs were joining the conversation. In fact, all the rest of the plastic toys were converging around them. They formed a natural semi-circle around the pair. Yuki-chan’s stops just in front of the stegosaurus and theatrically places an arm around his neck, nearly falling over to do so, “Didn’t it get crusty really quickly?”

	Crusty?

	“Yeah,” he says, voice deep and slow, “It got real hard. The towel crunched when I stepped on it.”

	Crunched?

	“No, Robbie would never do that,” the teddy bear says, panicked. “He likes how soft I am.”

	“Oh, no,” she says, still smiling her broad, playful smile. “No man can resist cumming once they’ve found their special friend. It’s just their nature. Why, I remember when my last owner would cum on me every night. He said it was the best part of his day. Then he’d just wipe me clean. Of course, I’m not all covered in fuzz like you.”

	“But he didn’t do that this time. We were just wrestling!” Bearnard protests. That little warmth inside him quickly sucked itself back in, leaving a hollow cold everywhere it had touched.

	It didn’t seem to matter to the girl, who rises and wheels herself around. She starts strutting her way back toward the chest, apparently. Still, she looks over her shoulder in a way only an anime character could manage to shout back, “This time, but one day you’ll be as hard as any of us. And then he’ll just hide you under the bed until he needs you again.”

	The crowd that had gathered to watch the little discourse turns back to each other at that. The murmered whispering is far from lost on the bear, who decides that maybe it was best to head over to the bed. It was his favorite spot in the whole room, the whole house even. It was where he felt the cub breathing against his side while the pair had slept side-by-side, where the blanket wrapped over his body would make Robbie his whole world. Being there, for some reason, only made the cold spread through him faster. It was stupid to trust Yuki-chan alone, but the dinosaurs agreed and they were known for their honesty. He huffs to himself, little felt tongue feeling awkward in his mouth. Was Robbie really going to turn his only soft toy into a crusty mess? Maybe being washed out wouldn’t be so bad. Being flimsy was kind of like being soft. 

	In spite of this self-consolation, the coldness in him can only grip harder.

	“Hey,” the word is gentle, but it pulls him again from his thoughts. The firmness in it let’s the teddy bear know exactly who it belongs to. Aquila stands tall and proud when he looks over his shoulder at her. Golden wings frame her resplendent body armor. She wasn’t one of the superheroes, thought it was a mistake he’d made on first meeting her. The eagle approaches slowly and takes a seat by his side, feat dangling over the side while he looked at the foot. “Don’t let what Yuki said get you down. You’ll be fine.”

	“Was she telling the truth?” he can feel the question send a crack through the cold inside him. No heat or light escaped from it. He couldn’t think of a reason she’d be lying. Somewhere in his future, he’d crack too.

	“Maybe,” says the oldest toy Bearnard knew. She’d been Mr. Kidna’s when he was young and had belonged to all three of his sons. Even without looking at one another, the wisdom in her voice carried with it an immense weight. One of her smooth plastic hands rubs the bears arm, reaching past the soft fur that covered everywhere but his little plastic eyes. “But you’ve got a few years left before you worry about that.”

	“What?”

	“I’ve spent all my life watching over boys. It just means they’re growing up, and he’s not there yet,” she pulls the cub around, her arm seeming to match the strength of the character for the barest second. He lets her. Together they look over the toys milling about on the floor and playing games of their own. “He’s just playing right now.”

	“I’m… Does he have to?” Bearnard asks.

	“Have to what? Molest you?”

	“Grow up,” the words used to be something he looked forward to seeing. It had been amazing watching the echidna go from someone who could only pull him close, thin arms wrapping around his neck, to someone who would encompass him in warmth every night. The cub had started out simply babbling as Mr. and Mrs. Kidna danced him around on a blanket, his toothless grin all Bearnard had ever wanted to see. Now, he was a warrior or a medical patient and even sometimes a villain reigning over the other toys. He liked it when Robbie would kick him across the room and let him slide across the smooth floor. But, some day, Robbie was going to destroy him. Leave him crusty or stretched thin and falling apart, abandoning him to someplace under the bed. Or worse.

	“Yes. It’s what people do,” Aquila says. But she pulls him close when she does. “But, if you want, we could move you. Not always, just if he gets too handsy. So you can get some longevity. He might even hand you down to his kid someday.”

	And that thought was worse. Robbie was everything. Even those rare nights that Robbie spent at someone else’s place without bringing him were worse. “No,” he says. “Maybe he’ll change his mind.”

	“Maybe. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to that.”

	“Okay,” Bearnard says. He falls back onto the thick plastic bedding. He could stand to watch Robbie for a few more years. The cub would get bigger, as big as his brothers at least. And he’d learn to read chapter books and their adventures would grow with that. He’d let the cub warm him up when they went to bed tonight, like had happened every night. The thought clears out some of the cold, filling it in with just a little bit of the warm fluff he hoped would always be inside him.