Okay,s o I know I've got two other stories that I need to update and finish but this just came to me today after watching a scene from a play in my acting class. So, I just took the concept of the play and came up with this. If anybody even likes this AND REVIEWS IT (that would be nice, but no pressure!:P) then I'll update it. If not, then i'll just delete it and redo it after I'm done with my two other Yu Yu Hakusho stories. Ha ha ha - Enjoy!:D
Jigen grumbled as he left the hotel room he was sharing with Goemon and made his way to the elevator. He jabbed at the down button with a finger then shoved his hands into his pockets, waiting impatiently.
Lupin had booked two conjoining rooms in the expensive upstate hotel – one for him and Fujiko, one for Jigen and Goemon – one with one bed, the other with two. It was supposed to be sort of like a vacation.
"Think of it as a mini . . . almost vacation type thing," Lupin had said, grinning as he attempted to snuggle up to Fujiko. "C'mon, you guys, it'll be fun!"
"Fun, my ass." Jigen mumbled as the elevators brass doors opened.
When they had arrived at the hotel hours earlier, the concierge in the lobby informed them that a wedding ceremony had been held in the conference room of the hotel and that the hotel was almost booked up completely, complaining about the reception and giant after party that was supposed to go on for the rest of the weekend.
Lupin had looked at them, that wide grin on his face.
"Isn't this great, you guys?" He asked. "We can party the whole time we're here!"
"By 'we', you mean 'you and Fujiko'." Jigen had mumbled, his eyes hidden under his hat like always.
Lupin had made a face and turned to Fujiko, putting an arm around her as the four checked in.
Jigen had been right; as soon as they were settled into their rooms, Lupin had ditched him and Goemon and had snuck into the wedding reception with Fujiko with a lie about them being distant cousins of the groom. Jigen could hear the drunken whoops, shouts and laughs from the end of the hallway on their floor. Goemon had, like always, made himself at home by sitting cross-legged in the corner of the room in a deep meditation. Not wanting to bother him and not wanting to be completely bored out of his skull, Jigen left to find something – anything- to do.
And here he was now, riding down to the lobby in the glass elevator of the hotel, watching all the happy drunk partying couples and guests from the wedding run, stumble or trip up and down the halls on every floor of the hotel. He let out a disgusted groan as he saw Lupin hanging on Fujiko, pawing at her like always as she giggled and tried to push him away. Jigen quickly stepped out of the elevator and left the hotel, shoving his hands into his pants pockets.
He walked as far away from the hotel as he could, trying to escape the awful sound of disco songs playing and the bright lights of the hotel. He kicked a rock for a while, meandering on. He looked up once to see that he had made it about six and a half miles away from the hotel, their lights shining bright like a beacon in the distance. He turned away from the hotel to see a sparkling lake in a block away from him. He noticed a park bench far off and shrugged, making his way to it.
He plopped himself down and looked around before taking a flask out of the inside pocket of his jacket. He unscrewed the cap and tilted his head back, gulping down most of the flask's contents. He made a face and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He screwed the cap back on then put it away then crossed his arms over his chest.
"Damn it, Lupin." He mumbled angrily, glowering at the lake. "Some fucking vacation."
He blinked, hearing and seeing something splash far off in the lake. Thinking nothing of it, he went back to his frustrated wallowing until a minute later he heard a woman singing from across the lake. He looked up to see a nude woman singing in the lake. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he got to his feet quickly. It was freezing outside and this woman was swimming naked in a disgusting lake full of duck feces and garbage and (possibly) dead bodies?
"Hey!" Jigen called to her. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Get outta there!"
The woman seemed to ignore Jigen, continuing her song and swimming half the length of the lake. She disappeared underwater and didn't resurface. Jigen stared at the spot where the woman had been.
"Stupid drunk bitch, she's gonna drown out there!" He said to himself, kicking his shoes off. "She shoulda just stayed with her stupid friends at that stupid wedding instead of wandering off and going out for a stupid late night swim!"
He took his socks off and angrily shoved them into his shoes. He shrugged his jacket off then rolled his pant legs up as far as they could go then began to slowly wade in the water, trying to get to where the woman had suddenly appeared. He shivered, his teeth chattering.
"What're you doing out here, you crazy bitch?" He shouted at her, stopping to wrap his arms over his body in an attempt to keep warm. "You're gonna get hypothermia and die!"
The woman just laughed and disappeared underwater, splashing up water. Jigen gasped and stared wide-eyed at what he had just seen. He must have drank too much or his eyes were messing with him or he was finally going insane; there was no possible or logical way that what he had seen had been –
"A mermaid." He said softly. "A fucking mermaid."
"That's right!" A cheerful voice from behind said.
Jigen spun around to see the woman who had been swimming and gasped again, seeing her up close. She had long dark reddish hair that fell in her face, pale skin and a dark purple fin. Yes, a fin. Jigen shook his head then rubbed his face as if trying to get rid of the illusion he thought his mind was playing on him. He removed his hands to still see the young woman in front of him, smiling. She giggled.
"Hi." She said, wiggling her fingers in a small wave.
"I never thought I'd ever say this . . . but I've had way too much to drink."
"Why do you say that, silly?" She laughed, swimming around him slowly in a taunting playful way.
"Because I'm imagining a mermaid and mermaids ain't real."
"Oh, yes, we do. You're not imagining anything."
"Okay, Ariel." He joked, making his way out of the lake. "I've had enough of this messed up little game."
"My name's not Ariel." The mermaid said, her voice still cheerful but her smile gone. "It's Raquel."
Jigen couldn't help but let out a condescending laugh.
"Raquel the Mermaid, of course! You must be the famous cousin of Ariel the Little Mermaid! How is she, by the way? Still married to Prince What's-his-face, Eric?"
"I don't know what's worse." Raquel said, putting her arms around her bare chest. "You not taking me seriously or your knowledge of Disney movies."
Jigen stopped and turned back to stare at her. He watched her fin flip absent-mindedly, the smile on her face playfully. She cocked her head to the side, her smiling widening. He couldn't help but blush. He pulled the brim of his hat down lower to keep his eyes covered.
"This girl a friend of mine is screwing has a thing for mermaids." He mumbled, turning away.
"Oh, how lovely!" Raquel exclaimed, floating on her back and flipping her fin. "I would love to meet her, you should bring her by!"
"Bring her by, sure! Yeah, I'll do just that! And I'll her to call the people from the nuthouse and tell them to bring me a nice white straight jacket, extra large!"
"You're a very sarcastic person." She said, sitting up and flipping her long hair behind her shoulders. "I love sarcasm, you're cute."
Jigen fought against blushing, his lips pursing and becoming almost nonexistent. She smiled at him and flicked some water at him, giggling.
"Will you come back tomorrow night? I do like talking to you."
Jigen was silent for a moment. This woman – no, mermaid – seemed so young and naïve and sweet, charming and entrancing and hypnotizing. She was extremely beautiful that he would have felt bad if he had said 'no' to her. No other woman had had that effect on him. He smirked at her from under his hat, pushing it up a little by the brim.
"Sure, I'll be here."
"Good!"
She threw her arms around him in a tight hug that left his shirt damp. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before disappearing underwater and swimming away. Jigen shivered then quickly got out of the water. He bunched his socks up into a tight ball and shoved it into his jacket pocket, shoving his feet into his shoes. He snatched his jacket up from the park bench and pulled it on in a quick jerky movement. He shivered once more from a new cold sensation on his left pectoral. He opened the inside pocket to see that his flask had broken in half, whiskey drenching his jacket.
"Cheep piece of shit." He mumbled.
He looked back at the lake one more time, wondering if he imagined the whole thing and he really had drank too much. He turned back and began his walk back to the hotel.
People stared at him, whispering comments about his wet clothes and the overwhelming smell of Jack Daniels emanating off of him as he made his way to the glass elevator. The ride back up to the room was long and everything seemed to move and spin. He stumbled out of the elevator when the doors opened and clumsily made his way to his room, a hand on the wall to keep him balanced. He took the key from his pocket and slid the card down through the lock. He walked in to see Goemon sitting on the edge of the bed, watching some crappy marathon of a sorry excuse of a reality television show.
"Slap me, whore!" The black woman shouted at the blonde woman right before the blonde woman spit at her.
Goemon quickly changed the channel, noticing Jigen standing there.
"Where have you been?" Goemon asked, turning his attention to him.
"Out." Jigen grunted back, kicking his shoes off again and peeling off his jacket.
Goemon sniffed and made a face before muting the television.
"Have you been drinking?" He asked.
"Not much." Jigen grunted, a smirk on his face as he headed to the bathroom.
"Where did you go?" Goemon asked, picking the remote up to turning the volume back up.
"Did you know that New York got her own show after she was kicked off the second season of Flavor of Love? It was almost as bad of a train wreck as Flavor Flav's show." Jigen stated, the smirk on his face widening as he looked back at Goemon. "Oh, shit. Did I just ruin that for you?"
Goemon closed his eyes, a frustrated look on his face.
"Yes, you did." He said slowly and sternly before opening his eyes again. "Go take your shower, you drunk idiot."
"Oh, love you too, Goemon." Jigen joked, disappearing into the bathroom to take a nice long hot shower.
