11

Hana: So after uploading yesterday's door, can we now go on with our special idea for today?

Ichigo: Sure, we have to catch up quite a bit.

Hana: Okay. Would you like to introduce today's idea a bit closer?

Ichigo: Of course. This time, we will be a bit more active than usual. We will not simply write, but interact as well. Our first victims are… *stares into the distance*

Hana: Do you want to spill it all or not? You shouldn't just - oh… *stares into the distance*

Ichigo: Now you finally recognized our guests, come on Hana. *tugs at her sleeve* I want to say hello to Ash and Robin.

Hana: Alright. Just one second. *turns back around* We do not own Puck and Ash. If we did, we wouldn't be discussing this, we would simply let them pull it off. Furthermore the two girls in this shot aren't exactly us. It's a coincidence that they have the same names as us.

Ichigo: Yeah right, what a coincidence *cough*

Hana: It is! We would never dare to catch a prince, right?

Ichigo: *nods* We are sweet and innocent…

Hana: Of course. So would you like to add the part of the riddles today?

Ichigo: With pleasure: Do not forget to solve our riddle at the end. If you know the answer, send us your solution as a PM, so nobody can cheat.

Hana: So on with the story, have fun ^^

Preparations

The room was covered in darkness. One couldn't even see past the tip of your nose. A single spotlight lit a lone figure tied to a chair. His dark hair hid his face from view. Not one muscle in his trained body moved, as the man patiently waited for his fate to be fulfilled. Deliberately he lifted his head, his shoulder length hair fanning across his handsome face and uncovering his silver eyes.

Suddenly a second spotlight illuminated a table at which two human females sat. One of them had chocolate brown eyes and dark brown hair, while the other female had grey eyes and lighter brown hair. Both of them were grinning at their prisoner. "Hi Ash", both said in unison. "Nice to finally meet you." The prisoner growled: "What do you want from me?"

"Oh, nothing really", one claimed, while swirling a strand of her light brown hair around her finger. "Just a little request…"

"Who are you?"

The other one gave him a sweet smile. "How very impolite of us. I am Ichigo and this is my dear friend Hana."

"These aren't your real names.", it was more a statement than a question and both women nodded in agreement. "And we have invited another special guest to our little party – a friend of yours to say so."

A third spotlight sprang to life, revealing a mischievously grinning red haired man with pointed ears. Ash groaned to himself. Not yet again… "Hello your royal Iciness", the other male greeted, absentmindedly playing with one of his daggers. "I really missed you in the past moths. No fun without you trying to kill me."

"Why did you bring him here?!", Ash asked the humans, completely ignoring the fake pout Robin Goodfellow gave him. "To lighten up the atmosphere.", Ichigo told him. "And to make sure our heads stay where they belong.", Hana added grinning. Puck's chest popped up in pride. "It is an honour to guard such beautiful ladies from the icy monster and his frost daggers. I'm a pro in that department."

"What do you pay him?"

"They don't have to pay me anything Ice Boy. Seeing you tied up to a chair by two innocent human girls is payment enough." Ash glared at his, well, not exactly best friend but not enemy any longer. His eyes were as cold as the ice he commanded. Puck caught on to this, causing him to grin even wider at the other faery. "And if anything goes wrong – if they turn out to be the bad ones", he shrugged casually, "I can always tell Meg I tried to save you, but unfortunately failed miserably against the sheer numbers of enemies I had to face."

"We never intended to do anything evil", Ichigo hurried to add. "However, if you oppose us – dare to attack us – it would be our only option to return the favour.", her friend continued.

"But Hana, I thought we agreed to not sell him out to Puck!"

"You requested it and I didn't immediately say anything against it…"

Puck looked from Ichigo to Hana and back. "Are you trying to play good cop bad cop with us?", he raised an eyebrow. "We would never ever dare", Ichigo innocently batted her eyelashes, while Hana had to visibly fight back a giggle. Puck smirked at the two of them. "So what's your plan?", Ash demanded. Impatiently the mighty Sidhe ripped at the ropes around his wrists, tried to freeze them and break free. "That won't work!", Hana chanted, while setting her chin onto her right fist. "We improved the ropes with antifreeze."

Puck nearly toppled over in laughter, as he saw Ash's doubting expression. "Never thought your ice could be overpowered by such simple things, huh?", Robin Goodfellow turned towards the girls. "Could you lend me some for a rainy day?"

"Of course Robin, anything you want!", Ichigo beamed at him. "Do you want a big bottle for big problems", Hana pulled out two different sized bottles, "or a small one for… well… smaller problems?"

"Now we're speaking the same language!", Puck smiled broadly. "I think both would be the best option."

Ash cleared his throat: "Anything you want from me or am I just privileged to have a front row seat to this spectacle of Goodfellow collecting new allies?" The girls turned back towards their prisoner with equally scary happy smiles plastered onto their lips. "Finally getting to the interesting part, aren't we?", Hana leaned back in her chair. "We have a trade to offer you"

"No."

"What a shame", Hana pouted. "The payment would have been extraordinary – even compared to your usual kinds of payments…" Ichigo nodded in agreement: "We can't force him into such an awesome deal. But it can't be helped. Robin, you shall get Ash's payment instead in acknowledgement for all the bother you had to face to join us today."

Instantly both men were highly alerted. Ash lifted an eyebrow in question. He couldn't quiet picture anything worth a trade he didn't know the conditions of yet. Puck on the other hand always had a thing for adventures and didn't care, if it brought him into trouble or not. So he hopped over to the table of the girls, staring right into their fake innocent faces. "So ladies, what is the payment you speak so highly of? You see, the Ice Prince is getting nervous as well…"

And indeed Ash shifted uncomfortably on his chair, not really able to move far due to the ropes tying his arms down. However after a short struggle he calmed down, sitting completely still there. His mind worked overtime to find a solution. Either an escape route or a way to gain information about this so called 'payment'. If the humans and Goodfellow were harmed on the way out – even better! Having lived through several kidnappings Ash decided to do a rather classical move, if your legs weren't tied down to the legs of the chair. The winter prince stood to his feet and hobbled away from his kidnappers into the darkness beyond his spotlight.

Hana looked over to the place they last had seen their prisoner. Only, there was none. "Ichigo did you tie down his legs?"

"Um… Ups?"

There was a loud crash somewhere in the back of the room and cursing could be heard. "I did lock the door as I came in", Puck said casually. "Was that right?"

"I am going to kill you Goodfellow", a voice growled.

"Is that a promise? Well, then you have to catch me first."

"Or you could both sit down and listen to us", Ichigo suggested. "We're all reasonable people, aren't we?"

"I doubt that, but let's pretend for once it was that way.", Hana told them. Without asking for permission, Puck set off and dragged the chair with an angered looking winter prince back to the table into the light. "Okay now, let's get down to business. We've got a proposition to make you."

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Because it concerns your beloved wife, the mighty Queen of the Iron realm.", Hana matter-of-factly answered. "It could be of interest, although of course I have no idea what you deem interesting information"

"Spit it out already!", Ash snarled at her. "It concerns Meghan?", Puck tilted his head to the side. "Well, if that doesn't sound interesting…" Ichigo smiled reassuringly at the furious dark haired male in front of her. "Of course we would never dare to hurt her in any way.", she promised. Silver eyes narrowed until they were nothing more than deadly slits. If one wasn't sure the four of them were in a closed room, one might think thunder clashed somewhere in the distance, as Ash put all his power into three little words: "I hope so."

"Is that a wooden table? I thought you humans had already banned everything natural from your lives?", he knocked onto the desk. "Oh my goodness! It's real wood!" Slowly a little branch grew from the lifeless surface towards the lamp somewhere overhead. "It's alive, it's alive!"

"Great job Master Frankenstein…", Hana clapped her hands. "And now please stop babbling nonsense and focus on the task at hand."

"Yes sir."

"We're women."

"Yes ma'am!", he gave them a mock salute, causing both females to giggle. As soon as they started to calm down, Ichigo attempted to speak. However she failed, as a new fit of giggles hit her. "We wanted to tell you our plan", she told the fearies between laughter. "And after keeping it from you for so long-"

"We want you to rap.", Hana interrupted impatiently. The two men stared at them with eyes as big as saucers. Puck broke into laughter, nearly falling off his chair, while Ash's eyes slowly disappeared behind his hair. The girls stared on without moving a single muscle. Slowly the booming laughter died down, as Puck noticed nobody was laughing with him. "Against each other?", he pointed between himself and Ash. "No, against yourself.", Hana sarcastically commented. "What was the payment again?", Ash wanted to know. "Do you really really want to know?", Ichigo asked with an innocent voice.

"Yes!"

"Well, in this case, Hana, do you want to enlighten them?" Said girl grinned in response. "Sure. Why not.", she turned around to the waiting men, still giving them a fake smile. "We know something that could prove unbelievably useful to you."

"Come on Hana, you let them suffer too much."

"Okay, okay.", Hana paused for a second. "We know Meghan's true name. We might tell you, if you do as we say." She glanced at her friend beside her. "Happy now Ichigo?"

"Absolutely"

The room fell into complete silence after that. The wheels in Puck's head where turning to find out about all the possibilities to use this kind of information. Ash on the other hand stared Puck down, daring him to do anything with this information. Only the king of pranks didn't catch on to that. He was too wrapped up in his own mind. Ichigo cleared her throat. Although the friends enjoyed watching the former best friends across the table, they needed to move on to finally reach their goal. "So what about the deal?", Ichigo wanted to know, batting her eyelashes. Hana had leaned back in her chair and played seemingly absentminded with her hair. "You can bet on me!", Puck exclaimed. The prince turned his silver eyes slowly towards the females in front of him. "Only on one condition."

"Which condition?", Hana still played with her hair, only her arched brows indicating she was actually listening to the conversation. "I want you to only tell me Meghan's true name. Goodfellow has to skip that part."

"But-"

"You said seeing me tied to a chair was payment enough, didn't you?"

"But-"

"No buts Puck. Butts are for sitting only.", one of the girls simply said. "And would you now please be so kind and not listen to our conversation?"

Puck pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. Hana sighed: "Robin Goodfellow. You will not listen to this." She straightened her back, staring at Puck. "Please Robin", Ichigo cut in. "It would be beneficial for all of us."

"Fine!", Puck threw his hands into the air in irritation. "Whatever" He stood and left he light, slamming the door on his way out. "We probably should go looking for him as soon as we're done here.", Hana mumbled to herself. Ichigo nodded her head in agreement, however already concentrating on the other male they had to take care of yet. "So what is her true name?", Ash wanted to know. The friends looked at each other, choosing to speak in unison: "Her true name is-"

Riddle: Mary's father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini and Nono. What's the fifth daughter's name?

Please solve the riddle via a PM so no one can cheat.

Also check out the other short stories we have uploaded so far. In order:

1 The Lord of the kitchen

2 The tale of the handsome commander

3 Miroku's wish list

4 Dream beaches

5 How to not freeze to death

6 Surpirse surprise

7 I'm going into town, Tomoe

8 No one ever calls me to simply drink coffee

9 Tigers and Badminton

10 Geography with Myoga