Mend Heart Bear sat in their room, the light of the midday sun beaming through the window, giving them a clear view of the tactical map they had in front of them. Despite this however, the map wasn’t giving the viridian furred bear the same joy they usually got from it, their mind was stuck elsewhere.

As they took another look, one of the figures on the map continued to distract them, an azure model, matching the bear it represented. “Grumpy”, Mend said to themselves wistfully, what was it about that blue bear? For whatever reason, the figure of him had become a distraction in general lately, not exactly ideal when he’s such a prominent member of the Care Bear Family, and a common choice for missions, meaning his figure saw plenty of use.

But it wasn’t just the figure, Mend couldn’t deny it, the actual Grumpy Bear was also a distraction when outside of the house too, and the viridian bear couldn’t discern why. Maybe they needed some time away from the maps, it was around lunchtime anyway. They carefully removed the figures and placed them back into the box, and furled up the map, putting it in a chest, making sure it was tied with a green ribbon to remind themselves it was their current focus when they got back.

In the kitchen was Mend’s roommate, Thief Heart Cat. The pair were a long time pair of vagabonds, until very recently when they found Care-a-Lot at just the right time to help stop a crisis. Their efforts in helping the Care Bear Family during that time allowed them to be fully accepted, and as such, Care-a-Lot was now their permanent home. The two weren’t alone though, as Mend was quickly reminded of by the sight of their nephew, Thief’s adoptive son, Light Heart Dragon, who was currently talking with Thief on what to have for lunch.

“Well, you know how we are with the oven”, Thief chuckled to himself. He wasn’t wrong, him and Mend were completely inept with cooking, it was a minor miracle the house was still standing after the two made some attempts, though one of the cupboards was still exposed, the door having to be removed after one incident.

Light Heart nodded, a bit disappointed since he was in the mood for nuggets, but already knew asking Thief or Mend for them was a disaster just waiting to happen, but he at least had a second option in mind, “Well, for lack of anything else, I at least know you can get a sandwich kinda right.”

“Kinda?”, Thief laughed a bit at the cheeky comment, “Well, it’s the usual, right?”, referring to Light’s preference for PB&J, to which the light-blue scaled dragon nodded again. Before he could get to starting, he noticed his longtime friend had entered, “Oh, finished playing with the maps for today?”

Mend shook their head, “Not the whole of the day, I just stopped for lunchtime, was planning to head out”, they explained to the grey furred cat.

Thief smiled as he went to get the bread, “You have fun out there, guessing where you go serves something better than here”, he laughed as he waved to his friend heading out.

Mend took in the spring air as they stepped out of the house. There was an open air cafe, the Share Shack, they were thinking of heading to, it was within walking distance and had a nice atmosphere. As much as they liked to see Grumpy, they hoped he didn’t pop up for the time being, the distraction might get inconvenient.

After a few minutes walking, they heard a familiar engine sound, and looked around to make sure the incoming Cloud Car wouldn’t hit them. Thankfully, it was still a good distance away, and slowing down as well. It came to a stop, and Mend saw Friend Bear was driving, with Funshine Bear getting out of the passenger seat.

“Thanks for that”, Funshine smiled as he threw Friend a couple of coins, “Oh, hey Mend, were you going somewhere?”, he noticed the other bear on the scene.

“Yeah, was going out to get some lunch”, the viridian bear replied, before turning to Friend, “Took up a taxi job?”, they inquired.

Friend shook her head, “No, I was just helping Funshine, as he was coming this way. I have a little volunteer work down on the surface.”

“Volunteer work?”, Mend was now curious.

“Yeah, I was off to help at a Planned Parenthood clinic”, the orange bear answered, “There’s a girl who could do with a bit of help coming in today.”

“Planned Parenthood, huh? Didn’t see us as getting involved in birth control”, Mend chuckled at the thought.

“Oh, she isn’t going for that specifically”, the yellow bear cut in, “They also help guys and girls like me, if you know what I mean.”

Mend nodded, one of the first things they learned in Care-a-Lot was Funshine being a trans boy, “So they help people with the meds and such for transitions, pretty good of them.”

Funshine blushed a bit, “Well, the procedures can affect fertility, so I guess it kinda is a form of birth control in a way.” The three laughed a bit at the comment, Funshine wasn’t exactly worried about fertility either way, especially with the Care Bear Family situation in mind.

Friend was the first to stop laughing, “Well, I should get going, today could get busy.” She wasn’t fully trans herself, but she knew very well that gender wasn’t the same as biological sex, and could even be flexible. She put her foot on the accelerator again, and was soon off into the distance.

“Well, I should get on my own way, Good Luck wanted to show me something.” Funshine smiled as he began to walk in his own direction, “Catch you another time, Mend.”

Mend nodded, and then continued towards the Share Shack. The path was surprisingly clear for the time of day, there was usually a bit more activity in town at around this time, particularly with how the kids would usually be active, not that Mend was going to complain, they needed a bit of quiet around now anyway.

A few minutes later, their destination came into view, and Mend sped up their walk a bit, eager to get something now. They soon arrived, and went to the counter, where to their surprise, Lotsa Heart Elephant was behind the desk. “Oh, Lottie? You’re in charge for once?”, they were quick to ask.

“Share ran out of ingredients, and needed to gather some more. She wanted to do it herself, so she could duplicate them on the spot, and that’s the truth”, the pink elephant explained, “But don’t worry, there’s plenty of finished items still available”, she assured the bear.

Mend nodded, “Good to hear that, what’s the special today?”, they inquired.

“You’re just in time, there’s only a few of that left at the moment. It’s a salad of fruits from the Valley where Perfect and Polite live”, she smiled as she slid the bowl across the counter, “And a smoothie of those fruits as well”, she slid a full glass down, being gentle with it so as to not spill any of the drink.

“Sounds like a good deal to me”, Mend smiled as they picked up the glass, “I’ll come back for the salad”, they didn’t feel confident carrying both items, to which Lotsa nodded, silently promising to hold the bowl for them.

Shortly after, Mend took their seat with both items on the table. They thought about Grumpy for a bit, wondering why he was such an intrusive thought as of late. Sure, he was a close friend, but so were plenty of others. There just seemed to be something about Grumpy in particular, and his azure fur with matching eyes, alongside his intellect and skill with machines. Mend could understand the interest with the latter two, but why were his physical features also a focus here?

As Mend thought, they passively looked around, and eventually found their gaze stopping at another table, seeing a certain pair of jackets, one red and the other orange, the distinctive attire of Champ Bear and Bright Heart Raccoon. The two were there on a date, and while Mend didn’t know this for certain, they easily guessed as such, it was pretty well known by now that the two were boyfriends.

Suddenly, a burst of giggling broke their focus on the distraction, “You know you have a perfectly good lunch in front of you? It’s the exact same as the one those two are having.”, Mend turned to the direction of the laughter and comment, of course it was Treat Heart Pig, she laughed at everything after all.

“Ah, sorry, my mind was elsewhere”, Mend quickly got their focus back to the food, while Treat Heart set her own down, inviting herself to share the table, not that the strategist was against that.

“Your mind was elsewhere? Where did it go? Anywhere nice like the beach?” Treat Heart burst out quickly, laughing at herself as she did. Mend did give a token chuckle, they weren’t that amused by the joke, but they didn’t want to leave an awkward silence.

“Well, I’ve just had some intrusive thoughts, a bit of a personal thing, you know.”, Mend explained, wanting to at least see if they could get any help without saying too much...Why were they so worried about keeping the exact topic a secret? It’s not like they didn’t trust Treat, they knew the entire Care Bear Family was trustworthy. In fact, as they thought that, they realised they hadn’t even considered asking Thief about it, and now something felt weird about asking him, even though he was the one person they’d trust the most out of anyone.

Treat took a mouthful of her lunch, looking at Mend’s oddly worried expression, and after swallowing, she went ahead and asked “Intrusive thoughts? I don’t mean to pry too hard, but you seem particularly bothered by it.”, she slowed down as she said the second part, she didn’t want to come off as rude, she’s had enough misunderstandings of that nature for a lifetime.

Mend took their own mouthful, and thought for a bit as they chewed, it was quite a sweet selection of fruits, and pretty juicy as well. Once they swallowed, they explained, “Well, it has messed up my work with the maps. I just can’t concentrate with these thoughts on my mind.”

Treat nodded as she listened, “If it’s messing with your passion, that’s pretty bad news. Did something happen?”

Mend shook their head, “It’s not an event that’s bothering me. I’m not really sure how to explain it without getting too deep into personal stuff.”

Treat’s eyes widened, “Personal stuff? That’s on your end, right? Nobody’s upset you or such?” she blurted out quickly, barely even thinking about what she was saying.

Mend flinched a bit from the pig’s fast questions, before taking a sip of the drink, the flavours mixed surprisingly well. After getting it down, they answered “No, I’m not upset at anyone. It’s...a tricky thing to deal with, and I don’t really understand it myself.”

Treat nodded again, not sure how to respond, as the lack of information wasn’t exactly helpful. “Are you sure you can’t go into any further detail? A bit more information makes it easier to give some thoughts.”

Mend gave that a bit of thought. As they did, their gaze began to drift towards the other table again, why were those two so curious to them all of a sudden? They watched as Champ gave his boyfriend an affectionate cheek rub, no doubt calling him ‘Little Buddy’ or ‘Sports Fan’ in the process. Bright gave a small blush and smile, obviously liking it.

Treat struggled not to burst into laughter again, “Come on, they already finished eating, you still have about half your plate left.” she pointed at the plate as she said this, flustering the viridian bear even more.

“Oh, it wasn’t the food”, Mend blurted out as they grabbed a handful of fruit and put it in their mouth. They thought to themselves as they chewed, still wondering why they were now so focused on those two and their date.

Treat got very curious, what was it about those two then? She went into thought for a bit, pondering what might have gotten Mend so flustered.

“Is something wrong, sports fans?”, the pair were thrown out of their thoughts at the sound of Champ’s voice, “You two seemed to be bothered by something, I hope you haven’t upset each other or anything.”

Mend nearly knocked over their plate, but recovered it before anything fell, “No, we haven’t. I have been bothered by some intrusive thoughts, and Treat’s been trying to help. We’ve kinda hit a snag in the whole thing though.”

Treat giggled a bit about the suddenness of the interruption, “They did seem to get distracted by you a bit too.”

Bright, who was standing next to Champ, got curious, “Huh, what’s so distracting about us? It can’t have been our meal, it looks like you’re having the same.”

Mend blushed a bit, “Well, I guess the way you two seemed to be getting along so well was a nice sight.”

Champ laughed a bit, “Was our date really that interesting to a spectator, sports fan?”

Treat burst out laughing at the comment, “Were you trying to see if they’d distract each other on missions for the sake of tactics?”

Mend was very flustered at this, and couldn’t even think of something to say, so they just grabbed the rest of their food and began to eat it to dodge the question. Bright chuckled a bit as well, “Maybe it’s something they want to keep to themselves, Treat. Try not to pry too deep, just in case.”

Treat nodded, “They were letting me ask, so I felt it was best to try and help, but yeah, I think we might have gone in too much.”

Champ nodded, “Well, my little buddy has something he wants to show me”, putting an arm around the raccoon, “Catch you another time, sports fans.”, the couple then departed.

Mend had now swallowed the remaining fruit, and was finishing up their drink, “Yeah, that didn’t go as well as we’d expected.”, they commented once their mouth was empty, still a bit shook by the unexpected conversation.

“Yeah”, Treat replied, “Sorry if that was in bad taste”, her voice was a bit flatter now, the pig never felt right at the possibility she might have upset someone.

Mend shook their head, “Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you or anything”, they began to get up, “It was good to have a chance to talk with someone.”

Treat’s smile returned, “I hope we helped out in some way.”

Mend nodded as they lifted up the plate and glass, “I think this might make for something worth thinking on.”, they told their friend, hoping that something from here might give them an idea.

“That’s good, I’ll see you later then?”, the pig cheerfully replied.

“Yeah, hopefully soon”, Mend closed the conversation as they headed back to the counter, placing the items down, something Lotsa appreciated.

As Mend began to walk home, they thought about the situation they just faced. Why did they get so distracted by Champ and Bright’s date? And why was Champ’s question lingering so hard too? And then it clicked!

Mend stopped in their tracks as they realised something about a certain word, ‘date’! They thought over the term, as it was the one they kept getting stuck on. Why was that word bothering them so much, especially in conjunction with the intrusive thoughts they already had?

“Um, you okay, Mend?” a certain voice chimed in, one that gave the viridian bear a shock. Their mind snapped back to reality, greeted by that familiar azure fur. Grumpy was standing right there, and Mend quickly found themselves feeling a bit flustered again.

“Oh, uh, hey there, Grumpy”, the tactician answered, hoping they didn’t sound too awkward, “Was just...thinking on a plan, and was...trying to predict how the enemy might move.”, they hoped their excuse wouldn’t be seen through.

“Is it Beastly or Shreeky you’re trying to predict?”, Grumpy clearly took the excuse at face value, “If the former, he’ll usually take the most basic response to something, he isn’t that smart, after all. Shreeky is much more impulsive, if she gets provoked, she’ll focus on that usually.”

Mend nodded, “I’ll keep those in mind, thanks for that.”, they pulled out a map they already had on them to keep up the appearance.

Grumpy smiled, a smile Mend found themselves very happy to see for some reason, “Well, if that’s all, I have some work to do myself, so I’ll talk to you another time.”, the azure bear replied, and took his own leave.

Mend watched Grumpy leave, he was always just so cute...They nearly dropped their map as they thought that. Wait! Was that it? Mend rushed on back home so they could think more clearly.

Thief was caught off-guard, as Mend pushed open the door much more quickly than usual, “Woah, did something happen out there?” Thief asked, a bit concerned by the suddenness of Mend’s entrance.

Mend explained “Yeah, nothing bad, but I do need to think it over.” they ran back to their room, trying to be less forceful with their door so as to not cause more concern.

Light gazed at the door for a second, “Is Ancle Mend really alright? They sounded a bit panicked.”, he questioned, before feeling his dad’s paw on his head.

“Don’t worry too much, bud, Mend’s a smart bear, they probably know what they’re doing.” Thief smiled as he gave his son the assurance he seemed to need.

In Mend’s own room, they had gotten out the azure model from earlier, and started to put the pieces together, quietly talking to the model on the table as if it were Grumpy. “So I got distracted by that date. I get hung up on the word date. Then just back there, I got focused on your smile and called you cute. I think it’s all starting to make sense.”

The strategist got up, and went to grab their notebook. They opened it to the pages where they had wrote about the others, and looked through the names. They soon found Grumpy’s name in the listing, and the notes about him. ‘Skilled inventor, most likely to see through deception’ was there, written in Mend’s not-so-stellar handwriting. Thankfully, there was still space, so Mend decided to add, in smaller writing, ‘Possible crush?’.

Mend nodded at the added note, something just felt right about getting it into words. They closed the book and put it back, before deciding to lie back on their bed. They couldn’t see any other way about it, a crush on Grumpy seemed to be the only logical conclusion. Even so, it was a bit of a scary prospect. If they told Grumpy, what would he think? They didn’t think Grumpy would dislike them even if he didn’t reciprocate, but even then, they weren’t exactly going to laugh at the chance of rejection.

This wasn’t the first time Mend had such feelings for someone, but that wasn’t a comforting thought. The one they loved before...they weren’t exactly happy to be thinking about that. Part of why helping others deal with heartbreak was such a major deal for the viridian strategist was the fact that they’d been on the receiving end before. It took them a few days to even begin recovering back then.

It must have been at least 20 minutes they lay there, if not even more, running their mind through all the thoughts. They eventually reached a conclusion, which was that they’d keep the crush a secret, at least for now. It would be best to wait until a time where they were more prepared and confident before truly beginning to work on it. It was just one little secret, surely nobody would actually notice. At the very least, they hoped Grumpy wouldn’t notice anything.

With the decision made, they began to sit back up, the rest of the day was waiting. They climbed off the bed, and returned to the table, with their mind more clear, they could finally make some progress on their current plan.