Chapter 1: Solaris is stressing out! (Solaris Moon)
Some spoilers in this chapter for future fics by me, sorry!
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"Foxglove, dinner will be ready in a few hours. Is it necessary for you to live in the refrigerator until then?" Solaris asked irritably as she wiped off the kitchen island. Foxglove poked her fox-eared head above the door, a pair of chopsticks in her mouth.
"But I'm hungry now..." she whined. Hiei walked in and grabbed a soda from the refrigerator.
"Ah, shut up muse. I'm waiting, and I missed lunch." he said as he popped the soda top.
"Yeah, just a soda. The epitome of waiting." Solaris remarked sarcastically.
"What's with the cleaning? Have you developed a germ phobia in addition to your claustrophobia and arachnophobia?" Hiei asked lazily.
"I'll have you know my claustrophobia is a little better, and I'm cleaning for a party tonight. Or have you two gluttons forgotten that tonight is New Year's eve? And the subsequent party?" Solaris asked.
"Hm? December 31st already? Amazing how time flies." Foxglove said, a look of surprise on her face, green eyes blinking.
"Yeah, it's amazing. You two moved here in May. Okami was left here in June, Joshi came for Solaris in July, Rose came back before school... Lots of stuff..." Hiei mused.
"You forgot the road trip." Solaris said as she scrubbed at a spot on the window between the kitchen and dining room, almost upsetting a poinsettia.
"I wish I could forget the road trip. What'd you do with that picture, anyway? The one of you and Kurama asleep?" Hiei said, getting up to leave. Anytime anyone even mentioned the road trip, he got a headache. Solaris called it separation anxiety, he called it dread that it would happen again. At the present, however, he needed an aspirin.
"I've got it on my desk. And I scanned it and saved a copy to my laptop, so don't get any ideas." Solaris warned as she headed for the living room. "Foxglove, if you aren't going to help, go play games or something." Solaris yelled as her muse resumed her fridge raid.
"I don't wanna, Solaris! Hiei's getting to where he beats me half the time!" Foxglove whined. A lovely stress fueled fire sprung up behind Solaris as she grabbed her muse by the collar of her sweater and hauled her from the kitchen. "Hey, you shouldn't be able to do that! I've been taking kendo!" Foxglove yelped as Solaris carted her down to the basement, still holding her by the collar.
"Yeah, well I'm in kendo and Kurama's been teaching me martial arts! Plus I'm really ticked! And when I'm ticked I've been known to move people twice my size and weight! Now stay out of my way if you won't help!" she yelled as she stormed back upstairs. The phone was ringing. "Moshi Moshi, Moon residence, Solaris speaking."
(A/N: Bold is phone conversations.) Solaris? Great. It's Shuichi. came Kurama's voice.
"Oh! Mitsuo's nearby, huh?" she asked.
No, but there's this massive group of fangirls... he said nervously.
"All righty, you may wanna hold the phone away from your ear." Solaris said, then took a deep breath. "LISTEN UP, FANGIRLS! THIS IS SOLARIS! STOP HARASSING SHUICHI-KUN THIS INSTANT! I HAVE MY WAYS OF FINDING ALL OF YOU, AND IF YOU DON'T CLEAR OUT NOW, I WILL MAKE YOU RUE THE DAY YOU EVEN THOUGHT OF DEFYING ME!" Solaris shouted. At the supermarket, Kurama blinked. He hadn't known that she could yell without pause like that. She sounded stressed. As soon as she paused for breath, he looked to see that the fangirls had scattered.
Solaris, I think they're gone... he laughed.
"Great. I didn't want to yell again, I might have cursed and I don't want to do that. If they bug you again, tell me who they are and I'll get 'em! Anywho, what's up?" she smiled.
Well, I'm having a bit of a problem reading this scrawl at the last. I've got every thing but what you added this morning. he said.
"Ice cream, ramen, cocoa, marshmallows, and eggs. The last few went into the cake I'm baking." Solaris explained. This was soothing her frazzled nerves.
(A/N: [...] is the second line, or when Hiei picks up the phone and starts talking.) [Fox? That you?] came Hiei's voice.
Yes, Hiei. What is it?
[Get some tranquilizers for the foxgirl, she's losing it.]
She'd have lost it long ago if I'd had my way... Kuso! Youko talking! Sorry. Kurama apologized for his darker half.
"It's okay. I'm used to it now." Solaris sighed.
[Say, Solaris, what would you have done if those fangirls hadn't stopped pestering Kurama?] Hiei asked.
"Meep! You were listening to that?" Solaris asked.
[No, you were yelling like a madwoman, I could hear you in that studio of yours. You know you have two copies of The Vampire Lestat?]
"No, I didn't. You can have one if you like. And if those fangirls had stuck around, I'd have gotten Kurama to give me their names and addresses." Solaris smiled.
...Then? came Kurama's reply. He was at a pay phone, his cell phone was charging at Solaris's. She'd even lent him her car, which she herself rarely drove. Part of her worry was about the icy streets, repair bills, and Kurama's safety. But he'd driven it before and it was pretty easy to handle. Whoa, off topic, either way he was at a pay phone and beginning to understand how an ice cube must feel.
"I'd have given them to Kuwabaka and told him that they were his fan club." Solaris replied simply.
[Good one!] Hiei laughed.
...That's not very kind. I'll admit, Kuwabara is a little, uhm, strange, but his heart's in the right place. Kurama sighed.
[No it's not.]
Huh? What do you mean?
"It's not." Solaris agreed.
[It's in his chest. It shouldn't be attached to him at all.] Hiei said seriously.
Huh? Then he'd die.
[My point exactly.] Hiei said as he hung up his phone.
"Sorry, Hiei's got a point there. Oh! It's starting to snow!" Solaris said, looking out the living room window.
I can see that. Not like it hasn't snowed a million times already.
"Sorry, Kurama. I forgot you left your cell phone here. I'll let you go. Bye!" she grinned.
Bye. See you in about 30 minutes. he said and he hung up. Solaris looked at the living room, which was a bit of a mess. Plushies were on their sides, pine needles and glitter littered her carpet, the DVD player and TV had innumerable DVD cases atop them, and books were piled waist high on the coffee table.
"I'll never get this clean in time!" she cried as she began rushing around frantically, putting away plushies and books as she went.
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Meanwhile, Kurama climbed into the soon-to-be-warm car. The little phone interlude hadn't distracted him from the prospect of having Samara and Tiome over. He recalled several incidents in which he had met Tiome. She was a strange little koorime, a bit dingy. Solaris had a tendency to be a bit catty when it came to Tiome; Hiei thought she was jealous. She often remarked that 'if Samara wasn't there, Tiome would be dead'. As he drove, the awful traffic served to distract him from this prospect. Honestly, New Year's had to be one of the worst times to travel. At this rate it'd be 30 minutes before he could reach the next super market. "If I didn't have so many groceries to pick up for Solaris, I'd walk. That and this is her car..." he sighed.
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Solaris was running the vacuum cleaner over the floor. Foxglove thundered upstairs and began yelling.
"SHUT THAT THING OFF, I CAN'T HEAR THE DDR MUSIC!"
"THEN TURN THE SOUND UP, DORK!" Solaris screeched as she ran the vacuum over the glitter and pine needles. Hiei had emerged from his room to get more soda; he was taking the 'stay out of Solaris's way' tactic.
"She's lost it." Foxglove and Hiei remarked.
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Kurama looked at his watch impatiently, he could not get a break. First, a trip that normally took 10 minutes took 20, and now this! Some idiot had maybe 30 items in the 15-items-or-less lane. Good grief, all he wanted was to get this stuff back to Solaris! Over the phone she had sounded really tense. The yelling at the fangirls had soothed her somewhat, but she was still stressed. After all, it was only a week after Christmas and from what he could tell, she wasn't getting any help cleaning. He hadn't wanted to, really, but he had picked up a generic tranquilizer, just in case Hiei was right. Someone was opening the next lane.
"Hey, red, I can get you over here!" the kid yelled. Finally a break! Pretty soon he was on his way to Solaris's, the radio was playing "Every Heart" by BoA, and his spirits were light. Even traffic seemed better!
"Solaris? I'm back!" Kurama yelled as he entered the house through the back door. Hiei and Foxglove ran out to the car. Kurama entered the living room to find Solaris dusting the furniture frantically.
"Gotta clean..." she mumbled. He sighed, took the syringe that Hiei had offered, and put it in his pocket.
"Solaris, the table is clean now. You can take it easy." he said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"No it isn't..." she sighed. He, too, sighed and pulled the syringe from his pocket, flicking it to get rid of air bubbles.
"Hate to do this, Solaris..." he mumbled as he plunged the needle into her arm. The scream she gave could be heard clear across Tokyo and was responsible for several accidents. (But try telling your claims agent that a noise like a girl's scream caused you to hit a hydrant. I guarantee he won't believe you.)
"YOW! Geez, what the heck was that for, Kurama? You know I hate hypodermic needles!" she screamed as she chased him with the empty syringe.
"Solaris, put the needle down!" he said as he ran. "I'll help cook dinner!" he offered. She stopped and tossed the syringe into the kitchen trash.
"I've got it started already, it should be done in a few minutes. You get Hiei and tell him to get ready for the party. I'll get Foxglove." Solaris said. The tranquilizer worked! Kurama made a mental note to use this if his brother ever got too hyper.
Five minutes later, Hiei was downstairs in the living room, sulking on the couch in the black pants and white formal shirt. Kurama was straightening his tie in the mirror over the outside shoes cabinet Solaris had in the front hallway. Foxglove was sulking as well; she hated formal stuff, even cast parties at MAC had annoyed her. Her black slacks and midnight blue blouse looked cute on her, even if she didn't like them, Hiei thought. "What's taking Solaris so long?" Hiei asked angrily.
"Gosh, I can't even take a few minutes to pull my hair back? I can't leave it down all the time you know." came her familiar voice. Kurama looked up to see the girl descending the stairs in a knee length black dress with a short lavender jacket that had elbow-length sleeves over it. Her hair was actually pulled back in lavender colored chopsticks, a change from the waist length sheet it normally was.
"Solaris? Wow... you look nice." Foxglove said.
"Thanks." Solaris laughed and smiled. The doorbell rang before Kurama could say his bit, and Solaris rushed to get it. "Samara! Tiome! Come in!" she cried in joy.
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Come back for more! Next chapter is by Samara!