By JockoMegane
A fusion of Bob Clark's film of Jean Shepheard's "A Christmas Story."
Rated R for some minor language and sexual implications involving those who are married and adults.
E-mail all comments to
DISCLAIMER:
Tenchi and the gang belong to Pioneer LDC, AIC, and now Funimation too. I am not making a profit from this, this is a purely a fan-produced effort at making me and some of my friend's smile. Please don't sue me. "A Christmas Story" is a trademark of its respective copyright holders, all rights reserved and with great admiration.
NOTES:
This is an Alternate Universe where Japanese immigration to the United States through the 19th century and early 20th century was much, much more than what it actually was in our timeline. As a result of numerous other events, the fascists never seize power in Japan and the Asian member of the Axis Powers is actually somewhat less Communistic, but more expansionist China. I am sure many amatuer historians will fault me for this, but I don't care. This is just a nice big fat plot contrivance.
The character Warren Hudson is my own. He has appeared in "Negative Genesis" and "Tenchi Masaki: Repo Man." His appearence in this story is more consistent with his personality in "Negative Genesis," though all three Warren's have their distinguishing characteristics and experiences.
While this part is definitely skating the edge of PG-13, there WILL be lemony and lime portions later on. That is, more so than in the first chapter. Links will be posted on when this occurs.
The genesis of this story comes from my good friend kyokki. She once upon a time in the #TenchiFF IRC chatroom on aniverse tosses me an Ayeka plushie as the mother from "A Christmas Story." kyokki also loves the film, and has knowledge of the area the film takes place in. This fic is dedicated to her, and would not have been possible without her help.
But that is not the whole story. After the initial "hey that'd be kind of cool!" fanboy thought in me, I promptly forgot about it for several months. Until Hurricane Frances was knocking on my door, and I began to wish for the end of Hurricane season and the beginning of the holiday season. That was when I started pounding the old keyboard in this foolhardy adventure.
Other people I wish to mention are Nugar, Negative-Z, Kthardin, and my girlfriend who has the sweetest laugh when I go off on one of my weird fanfic ideas. I could have done it without any of their help.
I guess the title was somewhat inspired by the History Channel's "Christmas unWrapped" special.
And I'm going to need all the help and encouragement I can get. This is only the first chapter in another long, slow fic crusade for me. If an idea is worth doing at all, it is worth doing right. Behold, the first continuing and evolving Tenchi Christmas fic! For good or ill!
I wanted to at least get the first chapter up by Christmas, and so here it is. Warts and all. I'll probably revise it later.
Enjoy.
" " denotes spoken dialog.
' ' denotes thoughts.
denotes the narration of adult Billy.
000 November 29th, 1957:
A comfortable two-land residential avenue with well hewn sidewalks and proud street lamps where every so often a waste basket or neighborhood dog finds a place to do his or her business in the frosty whiteness of the new fine powder covering from the previous night. It is a Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and the neighborhood kids are running up the sidewalk and in between the infrequent cars that trundle up the street.
Cleveland Street...oh how I remember that old place. It's still there now, very much the same as it was then. The corner of Cleveland/Oakfield where Kiyone and Mihoshi's newsstand stood and the other end where the creek and Simpson road began which took you right up to school. Of course, we never went that way. Who could when Hammond had the greatest private transportation system known to man? It's name, you ask? The Northern Indiana Edison Electric Company access alleys.
The kids, mostly boys from the tenor of their voices and their run, have just damn near tripped Ben Dears, the local milkman into dropping the Hohman's milk delivery on the crunching dark grey slush of where the road met the sidewalk. Two boys in particular stand out, their features speaking of them being brothers. A slightly taller and older one with brown hair, and the shorter and younger one, with violet hair.
"Darn kids," Dears growled at them, shaking his head in dismay as the various multi-colored and multi-layered dressed children trodded past him down Cleveland Street.
"Sorry, Mr. Dears!" one of them spared a moment to shout back at the harried milkman.
Dears shifted his load into another hand, then pointed his caloused finger at the boy who had apologized in his continuing haste. "I know your father, Patrick McDaniel!"
Hey, it's Patrick! Old Pat McDaniel!
The boy in question, Patrick McDaniel's face fell at the accusatory finger and shout from the local milkman. "Awh damn..." he swore.
One of his compatriots, another boy near his age with tousled purple hair, snickered at his friend. "Pat's in trouble!"
"Am not," Pat took a playful mock swipe at his friend.
"Am too," his smirking pal shot back.
"Shut up, Billy Hudson!" Pat matched Billy's smirk.
Pat only just laughed loudly, as was his habit.
Holy Geez, it's me! Still wearing that old sweater from my first day in Kindergarten, and still with that same old haircut Mom always insisted on. Ah, how I remember those days of school, homework, cleaning, and the other ordinary drudgeries of life. Our only moments of freedom when we were running usually away from someone, but just the same, it seemed the one thing that was ours. Now I look back and see that maybe I had it right all along...or that I was still dead wrong.
The sparing between friends continued, back and forth as they ambled their way up the street, occasionally colliding and otherwise disturbing the carefully packed mounds of white powder that the Hammond Municipal plow corps and the neighborhood men had worked so hard on just this morning.
"You still can't outrun a blind Rhino, Billy!"
Billy and Pat continued in roughly equal strides as they side-stepped a sixty-six year old pensioner named George Lowell carefully salting his well-maintained side-walk. George Lowell only glanced at the passing boys, and gave a small smile at the joys of youth...until three more boys whizzed past him.
"Hey! Watch it!"
The other two boys, Tommy Ward and Bobby Schwartz both yelled back "Sorry" to Lowell; who was about to return to his careful salting operation when a younger boy hopped on top of a small white hill beside him. He was bundled up head to toe in a snow suit that seemed more suited for a midget ski champion than a boy, and he worked at the part covering his mouth, struggling to speak: "Hi Mr. Lowell!" the boy smiled wide and waved happily up at him. The small hill placing the boy at roughly George's shoulder level.
"Good morning, Arthur," Lowell nodded to the boy, "why aren't you or Billy in school today?" George's tone was as dry as the air around them was cold, but he was clearly a man who did not see children as a nuisance as many did; even if they were his own.
"Thanksgiving break!" Arthur proudly beamed.
Arthur always was the soul of tact, but always the victim of circumstance.
Arthur's heavy boot-clad feet dug in a bit more, crumbling the flakes into fine dust a bit more under his feet. Packed firmness gave way to crunching and soon a soft sliding beside George Lowell this crisp late November morning; thus upsetting the delicate balance of crystallized moisture beside Lowell, and causing several large clumps of icy coolness to bury Lowell up to the top of his combat boots.
Arthur, blinked, instinctively jumping down from the bank and looking up at Mr. Lowell, who's normally seamed and good-natured face was set in a small frown.
"Um...sorry," Arthur looked down.
Lowell's head dropped just a bit, a long and unhappy sigh escaping him. Arthur seemed to instinctively to take a step back, putting on the proper look of contrition and also well trained as he is to be off in a hurry.
But he always seem to know the right thing to do when the chips were down.
"Arthur?" Lowell asked calmly.
"Yeah?"
"Get off my sidewalk."
Not wasting a second, Arthur took off after the other boys. Arthur soon catches up to his brother and their friends as they run off around the corner of Cleveland and Oakfield, and on towards Mihoshi and Kiyone's news stand.
The new comic books would be out, and the other sundry joys of our young lives. Serialized anthologies, Mom's Look magazine would be out, and perhaps Dad's Analog would be there. But this was all in the back corner of our minds today. The first good, cold weather of the year had moved in just as we were eating Thanksgiving dinner, blanketing all of Hammond in majestic snow and less auspicious gray slush because Christmas was here. Glorious, beautiful Christmas. The glittering prize that the entire kid year...the entire childhood existence revolved around.
Mihoshi and Kiyone's News and Books was a corner shop couched next to Roy Hapscombe's Butcher shop and a small Sears and Roebuck catalog order store. The easy-going blonde smiled as she breathed in the morning air, stretching a bit in her overalls and coat. "Ah what a beautiful morning, isn't it, Kiyone?" she glanced back at the open door to the establishment she ran with her best friend.
Kiyone, shivering a bit as she rolled up the covers from the windows, she sighed with a small smile. "Yeah it is, Mihoshi, now help me before those kids get here...I want all the new comic books out, front and center."
"Righto!" Mihoshi giggled as she set about helping her friend.
They barely had time to properly open before the store was filled with boys, girls, and the men who would buy newspapers or an occasional magazine their wives would disapprove of silently as they tossed them in the wastebasket while their husbands and sons were at work or school.
"Billy, get a gander at this!" Pat poked Billy in the shoulder as he was busily flipping through the latest Galaxy Police Adventures.
It was the latest issue of Mighty Mouse, but it wasn't the comic book that Pat was so enthused about. It was the advertisement on the back.
"Cripes!" Billy exclaimed, his eyes pouring over the ad. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was a Prince Valiant sword...but not just any sword he had ever seen before. No, this was special. No, special did not even begin to describe the splendor of this finely crafted piece of adventure wear. The blade was almost the size of Billy's arm outstretched, and the bold words and promises of adventure and damsels in distress.
"Wow...oh man oh man," Billy shook his head, his eyes seeming pulled to the implement of heroism. Without any prompting, irrespective of who was within earshot, Billy read: "Slay Dragons and Save the Kingdom with the Prince Valiant Excalibur Sword!"
Pat followed Billy's eyes, reading down the list of features that were emblazened right next to Prince Valiant getting ready to really show the big bad dragon who's boss. "Painstakingly handcrafted, only the finest materials; molded leather handle, jeweled insets, dual-shock absorption for the toughest foe. Elongated blade, and silver finish so fine you can see yourself in it!" And yes, Prince Valiant could see himself in that blade as he spilled the entrails of a foul beast all over the rocks of Ye Olde English countryside.
"Golly Gee!" Billy beamed, "my Dad could probably shave with that sword," his eyes looked up at the mirrors that lined the newstand as his mind wandered...and plotted. Somehow, he vowed, he would have that piece of stainless steel beauty under the tree this year. And no bandits, goblins, demons, or other riff-raff would cower before him. Billy Hudson would be the King of Cleveland Street!
"I can just see it now, Pat."
This was going to be a great Christmas.
000
A holiday Friday turns hazily into a holiday Saturday the way some people catch a cat nap in their favorite easy chair on warm afternoon. But now, the warm afternoons were gone, replaced by briskly held cups of hot chocolate and oven-warmed socks as household appliances either excelled...or too often failed. Sometimes a car would freeze, sometimes another's driver would curse a blue streak when they found thiers buried under newly piled mounds of the packed glory that was thrilling the kid in everyone. Or aggravating the clutch of the bones of old age, and whispering the siren melody of a place called Florida, God forbid.
Billy and Arthur Hudson spent those two days doing much the same they would any other four-day weekend. Chores, goofing off, dreaming, occasional mischief as all boys do at their age. Except for this weekend, this weekend was dedicated to dreaming and delighting at all things Christmas. Ads in the newspapers and magazines, decorations, programs on the radio, everything. And lists, too. Extensive, exhaustive lists of everything and anything possible for them to receive on that magic 25th of December.
But they could not avoid church that Sunday. Woe to any Hudson who tried....
...And that is where all four members of the Hudson clan were on that crisp Sunday morning at the Darrow Street Presbyterian Church, under the watchful guidance of Pastor Tenchi Masaki and his wife, Ryoko.
Tenchi smiled, the pulpit cool and familiar underneath his palms as his favorite Bible lay open along with a sheet of paper he used for notes and other references to guide his sermon along. He nodded with calm grace as the various members of his flock filed in and found their usual or semi-usual seats in the pews. Somewhere, up above and to the left he could hear the soft rattle of the old-style vents as the old boiler downstairs rat-ratted more just-tolerable heat into the lingering chill of the chapel. Tenchi shifted in his prefered vestments; a black coat and slacks with a blue shirt underneath. Soft chatter before services always made him happy, and it also allowed him time to mentally focus and run through the prepared sermon. He removed his reading glasses from his robes, putting them on. Last chance to make it stick, as he sometimes joked to his wife. He glanced back, smiling at her, splendidly dressed in a dress with a proper narrow skirt of earthen brown tones with a matching hat just covering her cyan hair. Her jacket was of a light gray that was probably keeping her a good deal warmer than Tenchi thought his pastoral clothes were.
'Ah well, the sermon will warm me up,' Tenchi nodded hello to George Pulaski and his family.
Usually, this is the point where me and Arthur are ushered in after my folks have had a nice word with Mrs. Hakubi who hands out the church bulletin and the programs.
Outside the church, the Hudson family; Ayeka, Warren, Billy and Arthur have shut the doors on Warren's 1950 Ford four-door sedan. Warren and Ayeka share a quiet smile at another clear Sunday morning with their family. "I get to ride on the other side on the way home!" Arthur yelled.
Billy scowled, on the way home they would pass all the various downtown joy and speciality shops, the department stores, and also that hobby store on Vicks and 7th Avenue. "Darn," Billy shook his head, but what could one do when you don't call shotgun?
Arthur always had the quick-draw down when it came to declaring something 'his turn' or 'mine' ever since he was three.
"Arthur," his father Warren chided, "it's much the same wherever you sit."
"Dad! You don't get it! Dorsey's, Gottliebs, Nakamura and Takashiro's Toy Store!" Arthur babbled on excitedly.
"You already saw it on the way here!" Billy shot back as they family carefully found their footing on the freshly shoveled icy sidewalk as Warren took Billy's hand while Arthur took Ayeka's. Warren and Ayeka's hands found an easy and time-worn clasp as the family took up the entire sidewalk. A steady column of families and some other individuals were filing into the large double oak doors where Washu Hakubi was greeting the worshippers and handing out this
week's literature. Warren gritted his teeth, nodding hello to various regulars and loudly shhhhing his sons.
"Now Billy," Ayeka stated calmly but with hidden reserves of parental steel, "your brother did follow the rules by stating he wished to ride on the other side of the car on the way back--."
"Yeah!" Arthur beamed proudly, taking a few quick steps forward to stick his tongue out at Billy.
"And one more stunt like that, young man, and you'll be riding up front with your father and I!" Ayeka shot her youngest the right look. They locked gaze for about a moment, then looked down with a "humph!"
Ayeka's high-heeled shoes caught a patch of ice, nearly slided, but Warren's arm held his wife up with ease. "You okay, honey?" Warren asked.
"Yes, ice," she cursed.
Warren smiled as they stood in the informal line at the church's front door. The gentle crush and file of people as they ambled up to the doorstep and were greeted by Mrs. Washu Hakubi, the church caretaker/organ player and also the mother-in-law of the Pastor.
"Yes, yes," Washu chuckled as she finished conversing with the parishiners ahead of the Hudson family. "I'm sure Ricky will do quite well working at the loading docks...hope you enjoy the service today, Mrs. Peters." The Peters family shuffled into the church.
Washu's eyes lit up as she favored each Hudson with a smile and a nod. Ayeka first, then Warren, and another to Billy and Arthur. "Well, well, well," Washu chuckled, "it seems the Hudson family makes it just in the nick of time again. Any later and we would have had to send the cabbit-sled team out to get you.""
Ayeka gave a short bow amid a scowl only Warren detected, she chuckled politely, "Oh you know how it is, Mrs. Hakubi herding cats."
Warren smiled, "yeah, the boys sometimes need to be told twice to get out of bed."
Arthur snuck a look around his father and his mother's skirt to Billy, who just shook his head with a "don't ask" look.
"Oh?" Washu nodded slowly, then stooped down a bit to put her face to face with the young Hudson boys and chuckling to herself at the soft blush that did appear on Warren's cheeks when he caught a glimpse down her dress. "Does your Daddy really need to ask you twice?"
Arthur nodded excitingly, "yeah, this one time he needed to ask Billy a whole three times after he spent all night reading comic books!"
In the midst of this, Ayeka gave Warren a look, and skillfully jabbed his side a bit. He shaped up, well trained.
Billy tried to shoot his little brother his patented Prince Valiant Dagger-Stare of Death but felt his hand tightened minutely by his mother, and her surprisingly strong arm as she peered down at him. "Awh, Mom..."
"What have we told you about that, young man?" Ayeka asked.
Billy sighed, glancing away from his mother's gaze, "'no reading after lights out,'" he quoted.
Arthur was about to take the initiative to make a face at his big brother when his father gently jerked him back and looked down at him.
Arthur always used to fear Dad's long-winded speeches on honor, fair-play and responsiblity.
"Son," Warren started, "nobody likes a tattle-tail, a sore winner, or a sore loser."
"Um...okay," Arthur gazed up into his father's eyes.
Arthur liked it less when Dad was brief and to the point.
Ayeka smiled a bit at Warren's statement to Arthur, turned her attention back to her eldest son. "If this occurs again, we will take away the comic books William, understood?"
"Yes, mother," Billy replied aimlessly.
Washu leaned back up, clasping her hands, "ah, boys will be boys."
"They certainly will, Mrs. Hakubi," Ayeka said dryly.
Warren, Billy, and Arthur shuffled uncomfortably in their boots.
Washu chuckled again, that same 'I know something you don't know' chuckle. "Well Mrs. Hudson," she eyed Ayeka's Sunday clothes over, "you look great, where'd you get that overcoat"
"Oh," Ayeka smiled, gently touching the light blue well-made wool overcoat, "it's just a little something Warren found," her eyes glittered as they caught a proud blush from her husband.
Washu smiled, "it suits you, as always, Mrs. Hudson."
The two women both shared a nice polite chuckle at that. Washu ushered them inside.
"Hey Tenchi" Ryoko nodded over to the front of the church as Tenchi was carefully marking off his sermon notes.
"Hmm?"
"Looks like Mrs. Hudson has a new dress. Early Christmas present, I suspect," she chuckled. "Mr. Hudson must be doing well at Kagato's Department store." The woman in question carefully guided her boys and husband to their favorite pew. Her light-brown overcoat had been left in the coat closet, allowing her narrow blue skirt and dress with lighter jacket over the bodice. The thing that struck Ryoko the most was the buttons. 'Obviously gold there,' she thought. Another thing that caught Ryoko's eye was the light, fine and lacey ruffles. A matching gray hat with a matching blue bow adorned Ayeka's head as well.
"Is that so?" Tenchi looked up from the altar before looking down again to his notes, adjusting his glasses. "Not as pretty as yours, dearest."
Ryoko was standing very close to him and just to his rear. So she was able to lightly nudge her hip against Tenchi's rear just so. "Why thank you, Pastor."
Tenchi blushed, clearing his throat.
The parishoners slowly filed to their pews and sat down. Tenchi heard the front door close and his mother-in-law Washu smiled as she smiled to everyone as she walked up and took her place at the church organ behind him...dragging her daughter along with her.
Tenchi smirked as he listened to Washu softly nagging her daughter to not hang so close to him during a sermon, to hand her the sheet music in between hymns, and to give her husband subtle encouragement.
'Especially in that dress,' Washu snickered inwardly as she prepared the sheet music. Her Little Ryoko oftentimes skated the edge with how much leg or cleavage could be(respectfully) shown in a Sunday dress.
The chatter softly died down amongst the pews, Tenchi glanced over his reading glasses across his flock...and smiled.
"Good morning," Tenchi intoned, his voice coasting easily around his church. "I hope everyone had a good and bountiful Thanksgiving. And on this beautiful morning, let us give our Lord thanks," he bowed his head a bit as he looked at the specific scripture. He had grown accustomed to the scattered coughs and the collective movements of people's heads as they bowed and clasped their hands. His wife and mother-in-law did the same as well.
Billy and Arthur were busily looking straight ahead as was their mother's careful training. Arthur was stealing glances at his and Billy's friends around the pews, while Billy's mind was off somewhere else.
There's a magic moment in every boy's life, I think, between eight and nine when they learn that there are much better uses for church than just merely listening or praying. Though, those still did happen.
'God, please give me my Prince Valiant Excalibur Sword,' Billy, sitting next to his father mentally recited over and over as he gazed up at the large wooden cross hanging above the organ where Washu and Ryoko were sharing a quick whisper and chuckle behind Tenchi's back.
The Kadinsky family, Bob Mildred, and Roy were fighting sleep as they sat in the front row. Mildred was contemplating a new quilt for the holidays, Roy was thinking about what he wanted to tell the Hudson boys about the wonders of television (the Hudsons still did not have television), and Bob was grousing about shovelling snow.
Arthur Hudson, sitting next to his mother, was trying to keep his mind occupied. Try as Pastor Tenchi might, church just wasn't fun until Sunday School in Billy's opinions. Mrs. Hakubi was a great teacher, with a penchant for puppet shows and other creative methods. His gaze panned lower...lower...where the cyan-haired girl his age was sitting--and right into eye contact with golden eyes similar to the Pastor's wife. Minagi Masaki was smirking right at him from about ten pews down and to the right.
'Oh no!' he tried to act like he hadn't meant to look over there, but Minagi was on him like a duck on a junebug. She waved slowly, totally undetected as if they were the only two in the entire chapel. Arthur sweated a bit, something about the way the Masaki twins looked at him and Billy always made them (and especially him) apprehensive. It also did not help that they went to the same school, lived right next to each other, and had room window's directly opposite the other.
Billy smiled and nodded along with what he predicted was another comment from Pastor Tenchi worthy of a nod, as his mind continued to float on a pleasing current of the sea of possibilities when he opened that Prince Valiant Excalibur sword on Christmas Day.
...a heavy thud landed against the big stain-glass window. The congregation looked up from Pastor Tenchi, their Bibles, or those who were sleeping or daydreaming were awake and alert now. A hushed breath reverberated throughout the church as everyone looked at each other...
Another heavy thud!
"What's that?" Warren said as he hugged his wife and youngest son close. Billy's eyes were instantly drawn to the tall stain-glass window where the sounds had issued from. No, it couldn't be!
Pastor Tenchi looked from his wife and his mother-in-law out to his congregation. He seemed pale with fright!
A third heavy thud at the window, and then a fourth! Finally...
CRASH! A hail of stained glass streamed across the room as the frightened families screamed and ran behind the altar and in the little rooms off to the side.
Warren and Ayeka crouched behind the pew ahead of them, fearing for their lives...but Billy peeked over the polished oak of the pew, his eyes watching the window as the chill and bright Sunday air wafted in.
Footsteps...large ones...
A figure, a very large shadow falling across the church interior as some parishioners cried, others fainted...and little Alan Curliss wet his pants.
The massive shadowed figure tap-tapped with his hooves as he vast snout-dominated face surveyed the cowering church. His massive, eight foot stature was headed by a cranion of horns, stinking flesh, beady eyes and a flesh-tearing beak.
"Gorglioth!" Billy's hushed whisper was not heard by anyone other than him.
The monster flexed his massive talooned claws as his unholy eyes surveryed this holy place. A coarse, sickening slurping and sniffing followed that as Gorglioth's huge feet grinded the broken glass into dust as he grinned and smelled the fear of this weak little church on Darrow street. He grinned (as near as he was able to), his quarry was close at hand!
" SIR EXCALIBUR! SHOW YOURSELF!" Gorglioth's voiced shattered the remaining stained glass windows and caused half of the congregation's women to faint.
Warren and Ayeka both thought to conceal their oldest boy under them...but when Ayeka moved to jerk her son arm first under her grip of maternal power...all she found was his empty suit jacket.
"Ayeka! Where's Billy?" Warren hissed.
"He's gone!"
"Where could he have gone?!" Warren eye's danced around so much an outside observer would have thought they would have rolled out of his eye sockets at any time.
Almost in answer came a high-pitched, "nghhhh!" from some great distance.
"What was that?" Mayuka asked.
"It sounded like a horse!"
Gorglioth laughed! The vocal vibrations shook the entire church. "NO ONE CAN STAND AGAINST ME! NO ARMY, NO CAVALRY, NOT EVEN SIR EXCALIBUR!"
"Lord save us!" Pastor Tenchi wailed on the floor.
Another "nghhh!" seemed to answer. Closer now.
Gorglioth roared again, some sandings of dry wall dusted the heads of the cowering worshippers. The monster looked over at the pew closest to him. The pew where the Masaki sisters sat. His eyes fell on Mayuka. Gorglioth grinned, drooling on the carpet causing it to rot slightly. His stench seemed to draw the life out of the entire church.
Pastor Tenchi continued to cower on the ground, begging the Lord for help.
Yet another "nghhh!" coming from the front of the church, right at the double-doors as something large gave a couple of well-paced kicks and knocked the doors wipe open.
"Now what?!" Washu looked over her daughter's shoulder from where they hid under the organ.
"Somebody save us!" Ayeka wailed.
The sun seemed to keep the occupant of the doorway just concealed from the eyes of the worshippers.
Gorglioth glared, "SHOW YOURSELF!"
Almost by command, the sun seemed to dim just enough for the one in the doorway to be seen.
A brilliant white stallion neighed proudly in full armor as it galloped down the center aisle as even more shocked parishoners scrambled out of the way. The horse wore full battle armor, as did its rider with visor drawn down.
"...SIR...EXCALIBUR..." the monster ground out.
The proud stallion neighed again as it proudly galloped up to the front of altar, the horse kicked its front legs high and threatening.
Gorglioth roared again, breaking Pastor Tenchi's reading glasses.
The stallion's hooves clattered on the carpet again, his rider drawing his sword slowly from its sheath. The blade gleamed with its purity, reflecting light proudly throughout the church. Its blade was long, pointed, perfect, sharp, and righteous with its gleaming jeweled inset along the perfect, molded leather hilt. Justice issued from this blade, this Exalibur that was so revered and feared throughout all of Hammond's east side.
So feared by some in fact, that Gorglioth bellowed ever louder as the light slightly blinded and burned him.
"Who can it be?!" Judith Pearce shrieked.
"Who is that armored knight?" Warren shouted.
"Can it be a true hero?!" Bob Kadinsky cried.
"Perhaps someone like Beowulf?" Ayeka gasped.
"Or as strong as Hercules?" Arthur's teeth chattered as he hid behind Warren's arm.
"No..." Ryoko said, she hesitantly pointed at the armored knight, "it's..."
"Sir William Hudson, or Sir Excalibur to my foes!" Billy said as he threw back his visor. He flashed a perfect smile to Mayuka Masaki.
"My hero!" Mayuka beamed.
"I'll have this unpleasant curr dispatched in but a moment's time!" Billy proudly declared.
"If there's anyone who can save us it's you!" Tenchi cheered from behind the altar.
"Just leave it all to me!" Billy turned his attention, again, to Gorglioth.
" YOU. DIE!" Gorglioth reached behind his back, retrieving a large iron hammer which he swung above his head with loud swooshes before brandishing it in front of him.
"Onward, SnowFax!" Billy held Excalibur high, it's gleaming blade throwing rays of illumination everywhere.
Gorglioth screamed in rage as the light blinded him, he swung the hammer even more, his vast, stinking legs working and shaking the whole church as he broke into a quick charge at Sir Billy.
He raised the righteous Excalibur blade high in the air as his trusty stead reared up again...and charged-- This is the part where Mom elbowed me in the ribs.
Billy gasped silently, his eyes slamming open at his mother's stern glare. Ayeka's elbow was well trained. He blinked, trying again to refocus his attention on Pastor Tenchi's sermon after his dream. To his well-concealed relief, a significant portion of time had elapsed during his heroic dream. Tenchi had gotten through three or four anecdotes and at least five direct references to scriptures.
For Minagi's part, she just enjoyed watching Arthur's purple brows sweat. She nudged her twin sister Mayuka, her delicately framed coal-black hair framed under her new white hat with its prominent blue bow on the top. Mayuka looked over as her sister whispered something. They both looked back at Arthur...and then Billy, and silently snickered.
'We're doomed,' Arthur thought miserably.
George Salasky, owner and manager of Salasky's Tavern on 11th and Eastman Street and his wife Keiko were having competing thoughts. Keiko was thinking about the indoor greenhouse she lovingly (and expensively maintained) in their basement. George put up with it mainly because his wife loved it so much and made sure he knew it and he himself liked flowers too. That, and the Tavern was doing exceptionally well.
Tenchi closed his eyes and listened to the silence and the soft breathing of his flock, feeling the power of the Lord seeming to throb through the modest church on Cleveland Street. This was one of the favorite moments of his week...made all the better, and all the more pressing for him as he recalled the night that had preceeded it. He allowed a blush to work its way up his collar again, always amazed with his wife and how she always made sure they got to sleep by 10:00 p.m.
Ryoko grinned at her husband's back as she silently said her own prayers to the Lord for her Tenchi...and her daughters who seemed a bit distracted this morning.
Many other husbands and wives were thinking similar thoughts too.
Ayeka and Warren Hudson relaxed in the pews, their hands still firmly clasped as they too thanked God for their love and family. Soft blushes were on their cheeks as they too recalled a very satisfactory Saturday night.
After the prayer was concluded, Tenchi smiled as he carefully gauged his congregation's reaction. Only a quarter still or near-asleep. Good.
"Now, all rise for our first hymn," Tenchi raised his arms just so and watched with a degree of satisfaction at how giving a sermon was a lot like conducting music at times. Washu worked the organ keys to magnificent, majestic life as she grinned to her daughter. Ryoko stifled a giggle as Washu was imitating something they had seen in a bad horror movie.
The hymn tied into a the theme that Tenchi had decided on some days ago over Thanksgiving dinner as he listened to his daughters talk about Christmas. It troubled Tenchi greatly that there was nary a thought of "celebrate Christ" or even anything related to giving. It was all just one-long list of naked avarice; so much so that it even made Ryoko give him a look of surprise. Is this what the spirit of Christ's birthday had come down to in the America of today? Tenchi had shaken his head as he read his Bible and various theological journals in his den over the week. It was so different from the values his parents Nobuyuki and Achika raised him with in rural South Indiana during the Depression. Something would have to be done, not just with his family, but also his flock as well. Enter his choice of hymn, and the lesson for this week.
Everyone was sitting down again, and Tenchi calmly surveyed them. He had their undivided attention now, even Earl Squires nursing his hangover in the very last pew on the back left next to the church bulletin board.
"We live in a blessed land," Tenchi smiled, "and we have enjoyed years of great abundance and aplenty. A home, an automobile, everything can be had by almost anyone working a decent job...and with a little help from the Good Lord," he chuckled easily. "But it has come to my attention lately that some of us have forgotten the basic source of our blessings...and all the material wealth we have. Sadly, this has happened right when we should be thinking the most about the true meanings; namely this holiday season. Some of us...no, all of us have lost sight of these things sometimes. Like when there are people still out there who need to be lifted up, some who don't have very much or not enough just to get through the day. Indeed, there are many forms of need, not all of them material and just as many needs are not filled by material goods."
The congregation's undivided attention was still on Tenchi, but some were wondering just where was he going with this. Tenchi, after years of experience, knew this and mentally shifted some points around. His daughter's shifted uncomfortably, knowing they had helped in the formation of this sermon.
'Go get 'em, tiger,' Ryoko thought with a grin as she watched her husband preach.
"I'm talking about the twin sins of greed and covetousness," Tenchi raised his pitch just enough to cut off any whispered murmurs. "The true meaning of Christmas is not what you receive, how many you receive, or how much it costs...it's what it does for the soul of the giver and the receiver. I ask you, does it matter if you shower your children or wife or husband with expensive gifts if you do not sit and spend time with them...and tell them you love them, and show this love to them?"
The words began their work on the congregation, as all good sermons did. In the back, Earl Squires snickered underneath his breath and the Salasky's listened with polite disinterest.
"And what of the poor, and those who are hurting? What do they need this year? Another pointless knick-knack that'll break by June, or warm food, a hug, a shoulder to cry on...perhaps the guidance of the Good Book?" Tenchi smiled. "Remember, our Lord was born in a manger to earthly parents of very modest means...and for a long time Christmas was not this way. No, it was not like this garish, gaudy display that turns children into feuding and scheming boys and girls arguing who got the most, or the most expensive 'best' toy...."
Mayuka and Minagi looked down, a bit shamefaced.
Billy nodded along enthusiastically. Yeah, Pastor Tenchi was hitting the nail right on the head this Sunday. Everyone else wanted meaningless garbage and too much of it when he really had the only truly worthy Christmas present in mind; the Prince Valiant Excalibur sword. He inwardly hummed "Onward Christian Soldier" as Tenchi waved his arms for more emphasis.
"We must not forget, not ever," Tenchi continued, "the true meaning of Christmas. I hope you will consider participating in one of the many charitable and community action activities that will be happening this month. Mrs. Hakubi will be organizing the meals for the poor on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day..."
Spontaneous applause erupted as Washu stepped up from the organ, giving a short bow. Some more courageous males whistled at her. She only just laughed that usual laugh, and sat back down.
"...Mrs. Ayeka Hudson will be in charge of Toys and Assistance for Needy Families and Children..."
Ayeka stood up, blushing softly and bowing at the renewed applause. The only whistling came from Ryoko behind the altar. Ayeka would have had a choice dagger-stare of sweetness for her friend Ryoko, but the soft lips of her husband found their way to a favorite place on her hand. She blushed more.
Finally, Tenchi smiled again as the congregation settled down. "And last, but definitely not least...my dear wife Ryoko will be working with troubled young women..."
'Oh. Thrilling,' Ayeka thought as she recalled Ryoko's history.
Tenchi's grin was big and infectious now. "I almost forgot to mention the Christmas Pageant and Fair, organized by the Presbyterian Women's Association," he cleared his throat, grinning broadly, "headed by Ryoko Masaki and Ayeka Hudson."
Applause for both women at this rumbled through the church.
"And..." Tenchi blushed a bit, "a special event for couples as well. Christmas is not just for the kids, or hoarding gifts...it is about hope and love too. Two important parts of salvation that our Lord intends for us here on Earth. Please, think on this in the week ahead as we head full-swing into the Christmas season." He smiled again, "because I shall be working more with this lesson."
There was a subtle sense of sagging throughout the congregation. As Washu expertly played the organ again, everyone rose and sung another hymn...this time about Christmas itself. Tenchi took another opportunity to gauge the reaction of his congregation. There were some skeptics and holdouts, yes, but overall he was quite happy with the reaction. Ryoko joined him at the altar, squeezing his hand as he put his arm around her. It was going to be a good Christmas.
Down, half-way deep in the pews going towards the front Billy Hudson was singing away with his family. 'Prince Valiant Excalibur sword, Prince Valiant Excalibur sword...'
'God, please keep Minagi away from me," Arthur prayed miserably as he caught another mischevious glint from Minagi Masaki's eye.
000
A key sank into the lock of the Hudson family's front door with a snick, a slight fumbling and grinding sound and the door swung open. Warm, furnace toasted air wafted out into the chill December air.
Warren stepped through, stretching and yawning. "Have a nice day at church, kids?"
Billy and Arthur nodded dully as their mother shepherded them inside and pulled the door closed behind them. "Now upstairs with the both of you and change," she admonished gently.
The boys were too tired (or too occupied to complain much) and slowly tramped up the stairs after putting their coats and boots away in the laundry room's coat closet.
Warren breathed and stretched again in the foyer of his house. He helped Ayeka delicately slide out of her overcoat with a peck on the cheek.
"Thank you," Ayeka smiled.
"You're welcome," Warren grinned back as he carefully took Ayeka's coat to the closet.
She watched him as she gracefully reached down and removed her high-heels. Without a word she handed them to Warren just as he had finished hanging up her coat. Once that was done, Warren hung his own coat and boots, and in silent harmony went with his wife into the kitchen to prepare for lunch.
000
Upstairs, Billy and Arthur were reading comic books in their everyday "house clothes" as their mother termed them; sweaters and proper slacks and socks.
"Billy?" Arthur asked as he peeked out of their window, concealed safely behind the curtain.
"Yeah?" Billy asked as he delicately cut the ads for the Prince Valiant Excalibur Sword from a half-dozen comic books he had acquired for just this express purpose over the weekend. That, and Captain Cronos looked especially action-packed this week since the Red Pig was attempting to subvert the capitalistic values of America's young boys into becoming communists. 'Damn them!' Billy thought daringly, just like his father said out loud in the basement when he thought Mom couldn't hear.
Arthur nodded out the window, "I think Mayuka and Minagi are planning something."
"Don't be stupid," Billy shook his head as he continued cutting out the ads for his polished stainless steel beauty. "What could they be planning? They're girls," he chuckled.
Unbidden, memories of Arthur being locked in the school bathroom, his lunch being pilfered for the last of Aunt Sasami's sweet rolls (darn, they were good, Mayuka and Minagi had agreed as well), and that missing basketball incident from last year. "I don't know about that, Billy. They're so...scary for girls."
"Stop being such a 'fraidy cat, I'm trying to think here," Billy said as, centimeter by centimeter, he worked the scissors across the back of the comic book. This was the last ad. Implementation of Phase One of William Hudson's Master Plan to stack Parent's Shopping List was about to get underway.
Arthur had skillfully concealed himself between his desk, the wastebasket in his favorite spot for spying out the window. One eye peered out between the part where the curtains did not quite touch the wall. He could see directly between the side-yard that separated the Hudson and Masaki houses, and the window at the other side. The curtains were closed casually, as many other windows in the neighborhood were to keep the increasingly precious heat inside, but he could see inside.
Arthur waited as Billy continued his slow surgery on the comic books.
There. Yes, there it was. Movement. A shape...hands reaching around the curtains...
Mayuka Masaki's eyes now lazily glanced around the chill outside world. Arthur held still, knowing it was his only chance to avoid detection.
"Art, where did you put the glue?" Billy wondered if the cutting job on the last copy of the ad was too jagged. Oh well. No turning back now.
"Art?"
"......" Arthur's breath could be heard, but not much else.
"Hey deaf and dumb!" Billy looked up from his work.
"...can't move, she'll spot me..."
"What? Who the heck you talkin' about?" Billy got off the bed.
"No. Stay there, Billy," Arthur whisper/shouted.
Billy sighed, reluctantly taking a step back and quickly stepping out of the "line of fire" from the window. Billy shook his head. While he didn't seem as mortally afraid of the Masaki sisters as his little brother was, he certainly had no wish to needlessly antagonize them. What had his little pip-squeak of a purple-haired brother done now, he wondered.
For his part, Arthur had thought he head escaped the hang-man's noose (or eye, as it were) as Mayuka was about to close the curtain again and go back to whatever she was doing on this fine, cold Sunday afternoon when Arthur felt a tudden tick and tingle at his nose.
Arthur sneezed. In fact, Arthur sneezed loudly. So loudly that Billy was a bit startled, eventhough he would never admit it. The curtain billowed softly, just enough for Mayuka to see Arthur standing there.
After the younger Hudson boy recovered, the first thing he saw was Mayuka and Minagi's curtain again. 'Thank God,' Arthur thought, 'she didn't see me!'
The entire curtain was rolled back swiftly, and there stood Mayuka, Minagi, and Ryoko Masaki. All grins and waving, knocking on the chill pane of glass.
Arthur's face contorted in mortification. Sweatdrops began to bead on his forehead eventhough the room and the pit of his stomach seemed cold as ice. Lips trembled, and fingers worked a bit.
"Art?" Billy asked, concerned.
No reaction.
"Art?!" Billy stepped forward right next to the window and shook his brother's shoulder. The action caused the curtain to ripple and flutter again.
"Oh God..." Billy realized he was too late, they were now both standing in plain sight of the Masaki girls as they silently pointed at them and made faces.
'And they're the Pastor's kids and wife...' Billy thought as Ryoko Masaki did a very convincing vampire impression.
Both Billy and Arthur mentally began working on ways to survive any potential fallout from this incident.
There are times to run and hide, and there are times to somehow fake your way out of a bad situation. Unfortunately, for boys and nine and eight the most common reaction is just to freeze and hope you can somehow blend into the decor.
And frozen there they remained.
000
"Hey Ayeka, your boys were snooping in my daughter's window again," Ryoko stated with a bouncy emphasis on 'your boys' and 'snooping' as she casually pulled the slightly frozen mailbox lid down.
Ayeka took this calmly outwardly save for a small eye-twitch. "Is that so, Ryoko?" she watched as her friend and neighbor reached deep into the mailbox.
"Yeah, your little Arthur was hiding and peeking through the curtains at my precious Mayuka and Minagi."
Ayeka nodded, "I see. I will have a talk with him."
"You better, you wouldn't want a sweet young boy like Arthur growing up like his father, would you?" Ryoko chuckled as she pulled out a bundle of mail in her black-leather glove clad hand.
Ayeka did not show any reaction as she opened and retrieved her own mail. A pillow catalog and some other innocuous letters were crushed tightly underneath her knit snowflake patterned mittens. After a fraction of a second, Ayeka quickly spun back to face Ryoko who was still gloating. Dainty lips unleashed a smile of utmost, saccharine sweetness.
"Is that so, Mrs. Masaki? I certainly would hope that you would not set such an example for Mayuka and Minagi as joining and encouraging in the ridicule of my sons," Ayeka's voice continued with its sweetness. Sweet like freezer-burned ice cream.
Ryoko's own gleeful smile vanished too quickly for her to think of brazening her way out of this one. "Ah...oh...how'd you know?" she chuckled nervously.
Ayeka smiled triumphantly, "the dining room window, which I was cleaning, happens to be directly under Mayuka and Minagi's window. If you stand close and look directly above...you can see."
"Wait, wait," Ryoko sighed, "how did you know to look up, Ayeka? You been snooping at my house too?" she smirked at the end of the question.
Only that saccahrine smile again, though not as cold. "My dear Mrs. Masaki, your daughters and you tap and make such a racket that even my husband who was in his den asked if a bunch of late-season squirrels or stray cats were fighting on the roof again."
"Grr," Ryoko clenched her fists ever so slightly, finally she sighed. "All right, you got me, Ayeka."
"Good, do not let it happen again, and I will take measures with my own boys," Ayeka bowed her head to her friend and neighbor.
Ayeka strode back down the salted sidewalk and up the freshly shoveled stone and rock-lined path that led to her front porch. She stopped midway. "Oh, Ryoko..."
"Yeah?" Ryoko looked over. She and Ayeka were standing directly across from each other in the middle of each other's respective lawns.
"Do not cast stones at other women's husbands when your own has the moniker of the 'Absentminded, Befuddled, Bumpkin Bomber Pilot Pastor,'" Ayeka winked.
Ryoko grumbled as both she and Ayeka strode into their respective houses and out of the mid-day chill.
000
"Well," Tenchi put the plates on the dinner table, asking, "why didn't you have the girls stop, Ryoko?"
"Teeenchiiii, you had to have been there! It was so priceless how those boys froze in their tracks!" Ryoko giggled as she finished setting the plates and silverwear.
Tenchi shook his head, but he did smile a bit. "I think I remember the feeling," he kissed Ryoko on the cheek. "But remember, 'do onto others what you would have done onto you.'"
"Yeah, yeah," Ryoko blushed as Tenchi kissed her. "It's just those boys are so much fun."
"I know," Tenchi said, "Mayuka and Minagi have told me. Many times."
Ryoko chuckled, "I think they might have crushes on them."
"I think that's exactly what Arthur and Billy are afraid of," he laughed.
"That's a good thing in a man," Ryoko patted his hand. He blushed, looking down at the spaghetti and meatballs Ryoko had worked so hard on. He kissed her on the cheek, "Speaking of whom, I'll go call the girls now."
Tenchi ambled his way out of the dining room into the hard-wood floored hallway past all the various goofy photos that his father had sent to him over the years from his yearly fishing vacations. Yosemite...British Columbia...Yellow Stone...Florida Keys...even Alaska and Newfoundland. He sighed, there were at least a dozen photos of each trip with accompanying fish or with Nobuyuki's head in a stuffed moose's jaw, or even that one with him standing right next to Old Faithful. Of course, that one had four subsequent photos of him being carried away by the Park Rangers and one of him being bailed out of jail by Tenchi's mother.
He passed the closed basement stair-well door, shivering at the draft that no matter what they did always was there.
Tenchi knocked on the wood panel that marked the beginning of the other side of the house. "Girls, dinner."
No answer, the girl's attention seemed drawn to something. "Mayuka? Minagi?" he walked in.
And saw the most obscene thing he had ever seen outside of Chicago!
The girls screamed in joy. Elvis Presley was on television. Mayuka and Minagi were jumping up and down, screaming, and doing more screaming and more jumping and holding each other as they seemed to communicate in a language all their own. Tenchi shook his head, not understanding this newfangled Rock 'N Roll thing at all.
"Girls..."
They kept screaming as the TV displayed similar scenes of older girls and even young women acting in much the same way as Mayuka and Minagi were. Tenchi gaped, the females on TV seemed positively in a frenzy over that boy from Memphis.
"Mayuka..."
"Did you see him move, Mayuka?" Minagi babbled excitedly.
"Yeah! Yeah! Did you see his...?" Mayuka blushed.
"Girls!" Tenchi casted a stern gaze on them. "Just what is this racket?!"
The girls turned their attention to their father. "Dad! Did you see it?! Did you see it?!"
"See what?" Tenchi grumbled, walking between his daughters, "I just saw some bumpkin from down south doing stuff he really should not be doing in front of everyone like that."
"But...but...but..." Minagi stammered, stars still in her eyes, "it's 'Blue Suede Shoes'!"
Tenchi frowned, thinking. "Hasn't that record been out for a while?"
"But Dad! Elvis is soooo....sooo...." Mayuka seemed about to faint.
"Gorgeous!" Minagi jumped up and down.
Sighing, Tenchi reached down and shut the television off. "DAD NO!!!!"
"Dinner!" Tenchi shouted, and pointed in the vague direction of the dining room, "now!"
000
"So..." Ryoko favored both of her daughters with a smile, "were you two screaming at the television for something good to come on? Like a crime drama?"
"Mom," Mayuka rolled her eyes and shook her head, "you and your crime dramas."
"This was Elvis!" Minagi nodded enthusiastically.
"Oh," Ryoko pondered for a moment before taking another bite of spaghetti.
"I don't understand this new music," Tenchi said to his daughters. "It seems...well, improper to me. I wonder if God truly holds it in esteem."
"Dad, he's soooooo cute!" Minagi cooed.
"That's what I mean," he pointed his fork at Minagi, "that's not a proper reaction for a young lady."
Ryoko could be heard giggling around another mouthful of spaghetti, she slurped down a stray noodle. "Oh honey, it's just like when I was a girl listening to Frank Sinatra," her eyes seemed to light up with a million sparkles at the name.
Tenchi groaned ever so slightly. "That Memphis boy is not Frank Sinatra. And I don't want you girls reacting in an unladylike manner when you listen to him..."
"So..." Minagi ventured cautiously, "we can listen to his music?"
"And watch him on television?" Mayuka's eyes lit up.
"...yeah"
Mayuka and Minagi jumped up from their chairs and ran around the sides of the table, immediately clobbering their father with crushing hugs from both sides.
"Hey!" Tenchi was used to the tactics of his daughters (they did take after their mother and grandmother, after all) and right away dropped his eating utensils and gathered them up into a loving hug.
Ryoko only smiled broadly at Tenchi as he was thoroughly squeezed by two pairs of arms as they expressed their gratitude by attempting to make their father lose half his dinner. And maybe his lunch too.
But Tenchi, proud papa that he was, could not care less in that moment. No, here he was, Tenchi Masaki, Pastor of the Darrow Street Presbyterian Church, and he was the best Daddy on the block. Why? Because his little girls were telling him so in that moment, that's why. He laughed and laughed, "okay, okay girls...I love you too."
"Oh Mayuka and Minagi," Ryoko sang, "your dinners are getting cold."
Things settled quickly enough, and dinner continued. Mayuka, Minagi and Tenchi contented themselves with the rather simple meal. Ryoko played footsie with Tenchi under the table as he tried to keep a straight face. There was one more piece of unfinished business on Tenchi's mind, however.
Tenchi cleared his throat, his eyes confirming that Mayuka and Minagi's attention was on him. "But for Heaven's sake control yourselves, please," Tenchi took a sip of his milk. "Those Hudson boys don't behave anything like that..."
Ryoko, Minagi, and Mayuka shared a coy look. "Oh no," Ryoko grinned, "not at all."
Minagi and Mayuka smiled gum-drop innocent smiles along with their mother. Tenchi groaned.
000
Ryoko laughed again as she drew back the covers on their bed, stifling a slight yawn. "Yeah, you should have seen those boys, Tenchi," Ryoko stretched luciously, her shapely body thrust out, displaying every curve and soft yet hard detail.
She was, after all, naked.
A fact that was not lost on her husband as he blushed upon leaving the bathroom, clad in his rather non-descript white and blue striped pattern silk pajamas. Tenchi stopped and blushed. Eventhough this has been going on since the beginning of their almost twelve year marriage, it still made him say a quick prayer and make sure all the curtains and shutters were closed. Redundant, perhaps, with December right around the corner. In fact, he could hear the wind rattling the tree branches against the bathroom window pane.
"I still think you three shouldn't have done that, Ryoko," Tenchi shook his head. "It's just not...neighborly."
"Heh, and the Hudson boys looking in our daughter's bedroom is?"
"No," he chuckled, "and you said Mrs. Hudson said she'd take care of it "
"Yeah, but Billy and Arthur were just standing there frozen! I wish I had had a camera. You know what? How about we get Mayuka and Minagi cameras for Christmas so they can save these precious memories," Ryoko erupted again in another gale of laughter.
Tenchi sighed, smiling ruefully. "Just remember we're all friends."
"Yup, I'm sure Ayeka is already thinking up a way to get back at me for that dig at Warren," Ryoko gleefully cavorted over to the closet, giving Tenchi a splendid and very obvious view of her backside and its progress around their bedroom. She stopped and admired her hair, briefly considering tying the spikey cyan mane up for the night, before shaking her head slightly, enjoying the rustle of her hair as a few stray strands touched her shoulder and down her breasts. Funny, they always just seemed to coyly hide her nipples.
"Ah...yeah," Tenchi scratched the back of his head. "Remember the Memorial Day barbeque?"
Ryoko laughed, "do I ever!"
"You and Ayeka probably made what? Fifty plates? All together?" Tenchi tried to remember.
"Twenty-six for me, Ayeka had twenty-four. I won," Ryoko merrily recalled the past triumph of her neighbor and friend.
"Yeah, you did win, honey...but we didn't sell all of the plates," Tenchi remembered now. Oh yeah, oh how did he remember. If it wasn't gambling, he would have wagered Mayuka and Minagi would remember too.
Ryoko put her finger to her lips. "Oh yeah. We had to take a bunch of them home with us. I wonder why...oh well it all worked out for us, we got barbeque for dinner for a month afterward."
Tenchi sighed, "Ryoko, Warren said he couldn't look at barbeque chicken for three months afterwards."
Ryoko only laughed, "yeah, what a wimp!" she wiggled her rear in the mirror, satisfied.
"Oh no he isn't," Tenchi found it hard to keep his eyes on task as he set the alarm clock on the nightstand for 7:30 a.m. His blush deepened. "Warren ate...what? A day less of barbeque than you, dear?"
Ryoko pat-patted her flat abdomen with a grin. "I still beat both Hudsons!"
"Yeah, and I bet you'll never let them forget it, either Ryoko," Tenchi sighed, "there's such a thing as being a good winner as well as a good loser."
"Yeah, Ayeka and Warren are good at losing," Ryoko chuckled as she continued to examine her nude self in the mirror. She opened the closet door now, finding an excuse to bend over a bit as she did it.
Yet more, Tenchi blushed. Was she teasing him on the Lord's day? Of course not!
Ryoko went about causually getting things ready for tomorrow morning, breasts jiggling in the way only Tenchi's eyes could see. Eventhough the heating vents kept their house fairly warm in the cold months, there were still slight drafts. Tenchi noted this effect time after time on Ryoko's well-shaped fruits as she proudly walked around their chambers. She opened the closet, picking through clothes until picking out her favorite blue and yellow housedress. For Tenchi, she picked out brown trousers and a white dress shirt. She set both outfits out of hangers, ready for the iron tomorrow morning. Ryoko smiled, examining both sets of clothing, her hand flicking off a stray piece of lint.
Warm arms enfolded her from behind.
"Oh Tenchi..." she smiled, kissing the hand that rested on her shoulder.
"Thank for helping me with my sermon today," he kissed the back of her neck, just below her erring.
"But I didn't help any, Tenchi darling..." she blushed, her skin warming to the touch in the drafty bedroom.
"Oh you did, honey. You did," he chuckled, smelling her hair.
Ryoko smiled coyly, "marital inspiration?"
"Heaven sent, marital inspiration..." Ryoko shuddered as Tenchi's arms stroked her shoulders, and slowly quested downward in their way.
"Mmmm..." Ryoko closed her eyes, luxiourating as Tenchi applied more warmth and chased the cold away. He kissed her ear, in the way she liked since their first times together. Ryoko turned around in his arms, her own hands running up and down Tenchi's back, manipulating the silk of his pajamas over his skin. They stayed like this for a moment, their scents clinging to each other, and soft smiles and glittering looks turned more determined.
They kissed, their tongues touching and playing as hands kneaded, cupped, and grasped for each other. Tenchi's fingers found their favorite course down Ryoko's spine, digits fluttering as Ryoko breathed more hotly against him. Ryoko grinned, chuckling into the last flickers and suckles of the kiss as she hitched up her husband's pajama top. Soon, the kiss ended, and they again stood there for a while, very close to each other. With a kind look from Tenchi, Ryoko mischeviously relieved the Pastor of the top portion of his sleep wear, and made short work of the bottom. As per Ryoko's preferences, nothing was below that. Free from any constraints, they embraced again. Tenchi led Ryoko to their marriage bed.
Sure, it was the Lord's day, but if it were not for this act, would there be a flock anywhere to lead to salvation?
000
Ayeka Hudson sat at her vanity desk, slowly and luxiouriously combing her violet tresses as she hummed softly to herself. It had been a nice Sunday, all things considered. Church was inspirational, family so lovely, and only one major crisis of the day to work out. She smiled a bit, cocking her head just so to hear her husband lecture their boys a bit more about peeking in the Masaki girls' window...and freezing in place instead of cutting your losses, ducking, or profuse apologies amidst kneeling. The doors stood open between the two rooms unto the narrow hallway.
She smiled, nodding. Yes, that was the proper way. Ayeka carefully looked down at the alarm clock sitting next to her make-up and perfumes. She made sure the proper alarm time was set and she turned the key on the back a few times. Early on in their marriage they had discovered that putting the alarm clock a distance away from the bed cut down on one hitting the alarm while half-asleep, silencing it, and then falling asleep again and waking up late. Waking up late meant possibly being late for work or for one's appointments.
That was bad. Punctuality was very important to the Hudsons, so all alarm clocks in the house were set across the room from the sleeping occupants. Ayeka smiled, done with that preparation for the night.
Ayeka wore a soft pink silk nightgown around a matching quilted bathrobe; the former a present from Warren on the occasion of their tenth wedding anniversary last June, and the latter a birthday present from her sister this last September. She finished working out the small knots that had worked their way into her hair since last night, and she set the tortoise shell comb aside. She stretched a bit, this evening's shower having met with great approval--though she had wished Warren had been able to join her. As is so often the case, some work kept her man occupied in the den where he would set down with a beer and quietly work through the paperwork of his employment--occasionally stopping to help Billy and Arthur with a particularly troublesome homework assignment or to swear quietely at the radio whenever something particularly annoying was read over the airwaves.
Words drifted down the hall of the Hudson house. Three voices travelled back to her.
"But Dad!" Arthur retorted, "those girl's were just waitin'! They're planning something!"
"It's Arthur's fault," Ayeka immediately could picture her first-born's pout as he groused. "I was minding my business reading a comic book when he was snoopin' out the window!"
"You weren't reading!" Arthur replied. "You were cutting and pasting again!"
In two different rooms, two parents' sighed.
"I don't want to hear it," Warren pointed at both of them. "Just don't do it again! Arthur, next time Minagi looks at you...look away if it's that much of a problem! Same thing with Mayuka. That goes for you too, Billy. If the Masaki girls keep on trying to drag you into trouble--" Ayeka could hear the gears turning over rustily in Warren's head. Finally: "Politely walk away!"
"All right, Dad," both boys hung their heads now.
Ayeka began to file her nails, silently remarking to herself the need for a proper nail job and pedicure sometime soon. She waited.
"You know," Warren pondered out loud, "I wonder if Santa Claus saw your little stunt today. Or one of his elves."
Ayeka smirked, imagining despite herself the looks of alarm on her sons' faces.
"Boys, me and your mother pray very hard to the Lord and to Santa Claus hoping for a good Christmas," his voice softened, "but we can't do it alone. Please, behave?"
Ayeka put the nail file down, clasping her hands in her lap as she turned expectantly to the open door.
"All right, Dad," Billy and Arthur repeated.
"Good," Warren said, "good night, boys. Sleep tight." The door to the boy's room shut and gentle footsteps padded down the hall. "Hello handsome," Ayeka greeted Warren with a smile as he shut the door to their room, and locking it.
Warren blushed amid a grin, "Hi beautiful," he kissed her forehead, enveloping her in his arms. "Sorry I was late..."
"It is all right," Ayeka's arms worked around his back, rubbing the fabric of his white dress shirt around his back.
"I guess I better get out of these clothes," he said guiltily. He had been wearing them since early this morning, and they were beginning to chafe as well as smell of all the odd errands and household duties of the day.
"That would be correct, dear." She smiled into his soft blue-gray eyes. "They are ripe for the laundry, and you for bed," she giggled against his chest. "But first, a shower for you."
Warren nodded in silence, blushing ever redder. He reluctantly took a few steps back from his wife. His hands were unbuckling his belt when he caught a flash from Ayeka's eye.
"Are you not forgetting something?" she tap-tapped the desk right next to her jewelry box.
"Yes." He stood straighter, then: "Yes, I am."
She waited.
"Yes Princess."
Ayeka smiled. "You may proceed, farm boy."
And proceed Warren did, swiftly divesting himself of his pants, shirt, and undergarments. He soon stood naked before his wife, waiting. She could see the slow working effects of cold on his body, but he admirably withstood the slight drafts and the cool of the carpeting at his feet. Ayeka sat there for a bit, admiring her husband for a while. She had made sure to adjust the thermostat in anticipation of this. She rose from her chair, gracefully removing the bathrobe and setting it aside on the chair.
Ayeka grinned, also slipping out of her slippers and stepping barefoot onto the carpet. "Ah-ah-ah! It is cold, is it not?"
"It is, Princess." Warren's eyes danced at the places in his wife's gown where form and slim curves gathered and hid.
She crossed the short distance between them. Ayeka took her place in his arms, her warmth chasing away the cold for him. Warren breathed softly, his lips innocently kissing the smooth flesh between her jawline and her ear. His hands worked the silk across her back, enjoying the fabric and enjoying the gentle effect he was having on the flesh concealed beneath the gown even more.
"Ohh..." she breathed softly against his hair and stubble. "My lovely, obedient farm boy..."
Warren smiled, this time his lips lightly touched hers which were still open in a small 'o.' A soft nibble, a slight whisper, the mere suggestion of a gentle lick, and soon Ayeka and Warren were locked in a passionate embrace. Both were engaged, and neither would want to be the one to end it first. One pair of hands moved over silk, and the other pair moved over bare skin and firm muscles. Each one knew the exactly spots that pleased the other. Of course, Ayeka knew Warren's were a bit more accessible.
"Ahhh!" Warren moaned against her hair as she finally broke the kiss, clutching her close to him, his naked and straining body rubbing against her nightgown. Ayeka grinned, pat-patting his backside, silently reveling in the sensations Warren's hands and more involuntary reactions were causing her. The nightgown itself seemed to itch, and crave removal.
"Farm boy," Ayeka commanded.
"Yes, Princess?"
"Undress me."
That familiar slow, creeping blush that began at the neck colored Warren's face and other features in the way Ayeka loved. "Y-yes, Princess."
The nightgown was one that tied in a knot just under the breasts. Not something pulled over the head, or anything. Just a knot that tied the two flowing, silky parts of the gown together and preserved Ayeka Hudson's modesty. Warren's fingers shook a bit as he delicately tested, and allowed his fingers to find the weak spots of the knot. It took a while. Ayeka liked tying good knots. He kneeled right in front of her, the scent of his wife quite unnerving and so enticing as he tried to concentrate on this task before him. Ayeka's fingers played aimlessly through his short hair, touching and twirling with an occassional pat on the shoulder to show the love the Princess held for the farm boy.
Soon enough, the nearly perfect knot was sundered, and was undone. Warren's hands met flesh as he stood up, running his hands against Ayeka's milky skin under the silk, removing the offending clothing. The gown fell to Ayeka's feet in a pile behind her. They met again in a deep kiss. His burly, bare chest meeting her modest, but proud and bountiful bosom as they held each other, almost seeming to meld into one. But as Warren's eyes and the insistent part from his lower half was telling him; Ayeka was not naked yet.
She hummed softly as she pat-patted his backside again, nodding for him to look down. Warren did.
"Prin--cess!" his cheeks colored even more.
"Does my sweet farm boy like them?"
Ayeka got an enthusiastic nod in response.
"Take a closer look."
Warren did, taking a step back from their embrace to admire Ayeka in a new pair of pink, silk panties with a matching pink bow at the top and slight, lacey white trim that framed the edges. Warren stood twice as rigid as he had before. His eyes blinking and a big, huge stupid grin on his face.
Ayeka smiled in triumph. Mission accomplished. She again crossed the small distance between them, her index finger tracing a pattern on the hair of his chest. "I may have to acquire something a bit more seasonal, if a certain farm boy will behave for his Princess," she pouted.
"He will behave, you have my word!" he hugged her close to him, perhaps a bit out of turn. Not that Ayeka minded, not with what was rubbing against her and where.
With great effort she disengaged herself from her husband's heated embrace again, stepping back. She put her hands on the top of the panties, intentially torturing Warren. She did nothing for a moment, then: "I believe I will keep this on a while longer."
Warren gulped, his fingers scratching his lips absently. "O...okay," he said in a dry throat.
She took his hand in hers. "Come farm boy, since you have missed the opportunity to bathe me, then I will observe you as you bathe yourself. Too not dawdle now, hot water is not cheap, and you have to be up early in the morning. For the purposes of your Princess' warmth, I will join you in the shower."
"Yes Princess," he breathelessly followed her into the master bathroom.
"Good farm boys listen to their Princesses, take care of themselves and their children, and are amply rewarded," she winked to him as she shut the bathroom door.
000
As his parents played the games adults play, Billy was gazing up at the generic dry-wall pattern of his ceiling wondering just how to get the ball rolling on his plan to implant the notion of getting him a Prince Valiant Excalibur Sword into his parent's subconciousness. The magazine idea was a good start, but much, much more needed to be done.
That's a special time in a boy's life, nine years old. Nothing else matters. Not finding out the mysteries of adulthood, or the occassional fears of the school yard...not even if that girl who lives next door really does want to hold hands. It all comes and goes like the wind when the crisis of the moment passes, leaving only THE GOAL and the way to ACHIEVE said GOAL.
Billy sighed, shifting position in bed. His mind with varied machinations and the gears turning that he had inherited from his father.
"Snnnnnngggghhoooafff," snored from the twin bed beside him. Arthur shifted in the throes of dreamland, Minagi's plots for him already forgotten for another day.
'Except that,' Billy thought. He remembered earlier this year ago impoliticly complaining to his grandmother's, Misaki and Funaho, about little Arthur's snoring habit. They had giggled in their usual manner. Funaho smiled enigmatically, and Misaki (amidst hugging the stuffing out of him--constantly) explained that grandfather Azusa did the exact same thing. The exact same snores.
"What can I do, Grandmother Misaki?!" he managed in her vice-like grip.
"Earmuffs," Misaki replied.
"Discipline dear boy," Funaho interjected, "for you are descended from the Princes and Kings of the Midwest."
Oh how his eyes had lit up and dazzled at that! Princes and Kings! Of the Midwest! Just like what he was going to do with the Prince Valiant Excalibur Sword when he got it! He was going to start as the King of Cleveland Street and work his way up! Wow, he may even become more than Azusa Jurai, the head of the Jurai Finance group, affiliated companies, subsidiaries and the unofficial boss of the Indiana Republican Party.
"Yeah, that's how it's gonna be! Just you wait!" he said to the darkness and his unchanging, familiar ceiling.
Another snore, interrupted by a longer snort, then a shorter one. Then a rustling of blankets, "Billy, shut up."
"You shut up and go back to sleep," Billy shot back.
Yes, all must be brushed aside in pursuit of the GOAL.
000
Directly across the alley on that cold night, the Masaki girls were sleeping peacefully as their mother and father also played the games adults play. Mayuka was clutching her favorite cabbit plushie with care, and Minagi was grinning broadly at a dream that had to do with a certain purple-haired little boy giving her his lunch all just so he could hold her hand.
"Oh, Arthur..." she giggled demurely in her slumber.
End chapter 1.