'No no no no no!' A frantic red head searches everywhere around her apartment, close to the ground and movement sporadic. She smacks at the carpeted floor with frustration. With a huff, she sits up and wipes at her teary eyes.

She can't believe she lost it!

It. Her livelihood. Her most precious treasure. Their promise. She lets out a long, whiny groan. Her boys will be home soon and if one thing is for sure; Sun and Moon are very observant and will notice it missing from her finger the second they look at her.

With a fumbled panic, Codie takes out her cell and dials up her best friend. "Chrissy!" She doesn't let her return a hello before continuing, "I need your he-he-help!"

"Calm down girly...breathe..." Chrissy can just see the poor girl hyperventilating. "Help with what?"

Codie does what she was instructed, taking her time to gather herself. "I lost my ring...misplaced it or-or something! I can't find it at all and I've been looking for two hours!"

Chrissy sighs and grabs her purse from nearby. She loves her bestie, she does, but that girl can be so scatterbrained! She fears the ring must have fallen in plain sight and Codie's wasted her time freaking out over nothing.

"I'm on my way," she tells her, laughing breathlessly when Codie begins thanking her profusely. The noirette hangs up with a shake of her head and heads out.

Meanwhile, Codie continues her ministrations of cleaning the house. This morning, she started with washing the dishes, then mopped, then took out the trash and that was when she noticed the missing ring.

Since then, she's been frantically tearing the house apart in her search. But, while she waits for Chrissy, she might as well pick it back up. Absentmindedly, Codie can't help but feel like Sunny with how hard and focused she is on scrubbing everything clean.

'Maybe-maybe they'll be so impressed and proud of how clean the place is, they won't notice my lack of a ring!'

She groans, feeling her sanity slip away. A loud knock at the door shoves the ginger out of her deprecating thoughts. Worried it's the boys, she creeps up to the door and listens. No excited babbling from Sun. She backs up and opens it excitedly.

Codie immediately infiltrates Chrissy's personal space and hugs her tightly. "Thank you so much for coming, oh my gosh..."

Chuckling, Chrissy pushes Codie back by her shoulders, smiling at the freckled girl. "No problem-o! We'll find your precious ring lickity split, okay? When do the boys come home?"

Codie chews on her fingernails. "Soon," she says muffled. "Less than an hour, soon." Chrissy whistles, hands on her hips.

"Sheesh, alright-well! Finite space, finite amount of spots it can be! I'll check your room, you try the bathroom first, okay? Do you know how it came off?"

"Must've misplaced it...I took it off to clean...but didn't realize it was missing till way later..." Codie mumbled, eyes searching every which way.

"Right, well I'll start lookin'!" Chrissy shambles off to Codie's room, mumbling about possible locations on the way.

Nervously, Codie begins another sweep of the living room. After 30 minutes, her phone rings. She just about bumps her head from underneath the coffee table in her haste to get up and answer her cell. She hits accept. "Hah-! Hello?"

"Sunflower!" Sun's happy disposition makes Codie smile a little given the circumstances. "Traffic was a little busier than we expected! But! We'll be home in a few minutes! We brought dinner since we know you've been cleaning the place!"

Codie pushes her bangs out of her face. "Ah, won-wonderful, Sunny. See you guys soon, then, love youuu," she drawls before hanging up.

"Love you too-oh!" Sun pulls his cell phone back. "She hung up so quickly!" He hums and shrugs, putting his cell away.

Codie can't dwell on the fact that she cut her poor boyfriend off while she practically throws her phone onto the couch, wincing when it bounces off and aggressively hits the floor.

She groans with a high-pitched whine, turning to see Chrissy exit the bathroom. "No luck in there either...man! Where did you put the dang thing!?" She pats her hands off from dust, having searched under many things.

The ginger hides her face behind her eyes, willing the tears to not fall, and shakes back and forth, "I dunnooooooo..."

Her friend places a comforting hand to Codie's shoulder, a frown on her face. "I'm sorry...I've got to go now and pick up Ame from her friend's."

Codie sighs and looks up, trying to smile a bit for her friend. "Okay...thanks for your help." The girls hug and Codie bids her farewell after walking her out.

'Now what...?' Codie stops and just looks around the spotless apartment.

*Knock knock*

The sound of the door scares the ginger, making her jump and burst into the kitchen to hide behind the wall. 'That was too fast!' She chews on her lip, breaking skin.

She watches as her boys open the door and come in, chatting excitably. "Honey!" Sun calls out, a big smile on his face as he and his brother remove their shoes. "We're home!"

Moon hangs up his coat and scans the place, thoroughly impressed at the squeaky cleanliness of it all. She went all out!

Codie stands up and both pairs of eyes fly to her, gaining smiles. "Hey-uh hey guys. How was it?"

Moon takes note of her uneasiness and narrows his eyes. "Fine... The house looks great." He baits her into talking more before Sun can scoop her up like he can see he's itching to do.

"Yeah...thanks I worked real hard." She avoids eye contact, instead, looking at the takeout Moon holds. "Whatdja guys bring? I'm starving." Sun either ignores or doesn't notice the tense atmosphere and opts to scoop Codie up into a hug, peppering kisses all over her face.

The ginger giggles, being sure to hide her hands into her chest as she keeps balance in Sunny's arms. "We got burgers!" Sun turns to Moon, frowning in confusion at the calculating gaze he holds. "Moonie! Bring it over! Our Starlight is hungry!" Moon sighs but chuckles and does so, putting Codie's strange behavior in the back of his mind.

Throughout the dinner, the former daycare attendants both wonder why their human companion is eating with only one hand. Though not abnormal, per se, the weird thing is her sitting on her left hand. The boys chew their burger while staring, Moon noticing the beads of sweat gathering on the ginger's forehead.

"You," Sun swallows his bite, "okay there, Sunshine?" Codie stares off in the distance, seemingly not even hearing the solar bot's question. "Lovely? Sunbite? Light of my life?" he tries harder with each nickname.

Codie absentmindedly picks up a fry, dips it in ranch, then looks up, almost daze-like. "Huh? I'm sorry, Sunny, what were you saying?" Sun and Moon can only look at each other with concern.

"Is she sick?!" Sun almost yells before quickly scanning her vitals.

Moon lightly nods. "Nah, she's fine. Something's off, though, and I can only assume it has to do with the hand she thinks we don't notice she's hiding."

Codie clears her throat in confusion, gaining their attention. Sun startles but regains his composure, clasping his hands together and smiling brightly. "So! Darling! Moon and I are curious about your hand!" He watches her stiffen up. "Did you hurt it while cleaning?"

Codie thinks about it for a moment, watching their expressions closely. Figuring telling them she hurt it would be a solid plan for the time being, she says, "Uh, yeah! Act-actually I did. But!" She quickly goes to reassure them once they grow worried, eyeing her hand that's slowly growing numb from under her weight. "I'm okay now! It's fine, I think I jammed a finger, is all."

She waves them off and rapidly shovels fries into her mouth. Though not too fast 'cause Sun would reprimand her.

"We can take a look at it for you, Starlight. Just to make sure you're alright." Moon suggests with a smile that looks too conniving to be trustworthy.

Cue awkward laughter, "Heh! No, no, it's okay, no need!"

Sun pouts, pointing down at it. "But why are you sitting on it? Wouldn't that hurt more?" At that, Codie quickly pulls her hand out, placing it on her lap instead. She didn't think they saw that!

Moon almost growls, having grown tired of her dodging the issue she's clearly having. Why won't she tell them what's wrong? Moon puts his hands together and then points them at his girlfriend. "Look, we can tell something's wrong, just show us your hand. You can't hide it forever."

Stubbornly, Codie shakes her head. "Nuh-uh!" she declares, eyes closed. Having her eyes closed in defiance was a bad idea, though, since Sun gets out of his chair and scarily sneaks around to be behind the ginger.

He immediately begins lightly tickling her sides, causing her to squirm, her eyes shooting open. "Ah! No!" she squeal, trying to defend her sides from his onslaught. In doing so, she throws both hands up, allowing Moon to lean over the table and secure each of them in his own.

"Gotcha." He smirks and Sunny stops tickling her. They both inspect her hand, finding nothing wrong physically. Moon notices the empty ring finger, though. "Oh, darling, where's your ring?"

Sun wonders, too, now worried about the embarrassed and guilty look on his Sunshine's heated face. She tries to pry her hands away but Moon doesn't budge, so she looks away. "That's why I didn't want to show you...I didn't want to worry you two! I took it off while cleaning and now-! Now I can't find it!"

The boys blink, ready to speak up but Codie does first, more overwhelmed as she goes on. "My-my promise! My most prized possession and I lost it! I'm so sorry! I-I looked all over multiple times! I had Chrissy come over, I went through the garbage! Twice! And..." Codie runs out of breath, huffing. Unable to wipe her teary eyes, Sun does so for her while Moon places her hands down, still enraptured within his own.

"That's what this is all about?" Sunny asks, rubbing his shoulder. "Sunbite, you only needed to tell us! We can help you look! This place is spotless, it'd only take Moon and I a bit to scan each room for it!"

Moon shakes his head in agreement. "Literally and figuratively," he adds. Codie sniffles.

"Really? You-you guys aren't mad?" When her lunar boyfriend finally releases her hands, not before kissing the one she wears her ring on gently, she rubs her eyes. 

"Of course not," Moon tells her softly. "We know how clumsy and forgetful you can be. It's here somewhere and we'll find it. Promise."

Codie almost feels silly for how she reacted. Of course they'd understand. They're even eager to help right away! "Right...Sor-" 

Sun cuts her off, "None of that, Lovely! You're stressed, tired and had a long, long, long day! Why don't you run yourself a bath and we'll start looking!" The ginger can't argue that a bath sounded divine. 

"Okay..." Codie stands up and begins to walk away when she stops. Confused, the boys stare at her as she walks up to them. She gestures for them to bend down and they do so, totally caught off guard as she quickly kisses  both of them. She scurries off before they could forget what they were doing and scoop her up for cuddles.

Sun gushes about how cute Codie is with both hands on his cheeks while Moon hides his blushing face.

Not long after that, the former daycare attendants began their scan of the living room and kitchen, Moon taking the latter. He turns his back to the sink and scans the counter tops and even the top of the fridge, but finds nothing.

He thinks to himself for a moment before doing the same scan inside the fridge, knowing his favorite little human is weird and he wouldn't be surprised if it fell off in there of all places.

With nothing popping up, he turns and scans the other side of the kitchen, freezing when his scan picks up what he told it to look for.

"Sunny?"

Sun stops what he's doing to turn and look at his brother. He tilts his head at the deadpanned look Moon has. "Yes, Moonie?"

With love, yet exasperation in his voice, Moon says, "We fell in love with a fool."

The ring hangs on the soap dispenser by the sink