A/N: What to say, what to say. I decided to combine the two one-shots since I figured it'd be easier instead of searching for the separate installments. Though I don't know why I didn't do it like this in the first place... Anyway, I deleted the previous author's notes by mistake while editing but apart from that there's nothing too different about this! Well, except for the reviews being jumbled because of my meddling, but that aside, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own BlazBlue, its characters or anything else related to it. Why else would I be writing fanfiction then?
Chapter One: Game On!
Taokaka had a lighthearted spirit. At most times she almost never took things seriously, but that was part of her joyful personality and the fact that she brushed things off without second-thought. The words revenge and payback were not in her mental dictionary— if she even knew what a dictionary was...but that's beside the point. Overall, she was a carefree Kaka who didn't dwell too deeply on matters such as revenge. But there was an exception on one day...
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It all began one ordinary afternoon in Orient Town, where the usual sounds of a bustling crowd and eager merchants making sales mixed in the background noise. Tao was wandering around the streets aimlessly, suffering the dreadful condition known as...boredom.
She didn't feel like finding Rawgnya, because she had looked all over for him already with no luck and was pretty much done for the day. She wanted to ask Scruffy Man to help her, but he was probably off somewhere with the Blow Pops. She never quite understood why guarding the Ronin Gai Pools was such an important task when most of the ladies there were kickass fighters themselves. They kept throwing knives and shurikon in their sleeves! ...Which Tao unfortunately discovered that last time she was appreciating the glorious smell of freshly baked pies that rested on the low windowsills of their homes.
Tao would have shuddered at the memories if not for her current predicament.
"Meowww, Tao's booored..." she sighed hopelessly, slumping down in a lame slouch as she wandered through the masses of people minding their own business and not even offering her a meal, which she would've appreciated greatly because if there was one sure-fire thing that could ease boredom it was eating.
"If only someone could play with Tao, meoww," she mumbled, forlornly. And because coincidence decided to be convenient for a change, Ragna came walking from around the corner wearing his trademark bright red jacket.
Tao's eyes widened in delight when she spotted him. "Good guy!" she called and waved giant paw as she skipped over to him with a broad grin.
Ragna held back a sigh when Tao approached him. "Oh, it's you..." he noted aloud, his tone obviously hinting that he was not that happy to see her.
However, regardless of that, Tao beamed brightly. "Whatcha doing, Good Guy?" she asked almost immediately.
"Nothing much," he shrugged, tactlessly shaking off her presence by choosing to look over his shoulder.
"Good." The cat-girl tugged on the sleeves of his jacket, directing his attention back to her. "Then play with Tao!" she said, almost bouncing on her toes with excitement.
"What?" Ragna managed, looking down on the Kaka girl with his eyebrows raised and doubting if she really did just ask him to play.
"You heard Tao, let's play a game!" she insisted persistently, wondering what was wrong with Good Guy's ears if he couldn't hear the first time.
The white-haired man spared a glance over his shoulder before shoving pass the kaka in a hurry with nothing more than an offhandish wave of apology. "Look, Tao, I don't have time for this right now..." he said hurriedly, walking off.
Tao paused, blinking in what could only be utter confusion. "Meow? But, Good Guy was doing nothing anyway!" she protested, following after him. "Why not play with Tao?"
Ragna let out a half sigh half groan when he noticed that she was skipping next to him. "Because, Tao, I'm not a stupid kid," he explained briskly, walking on and ignoring that she was practically tailing him. "Now get lost."
Tao frowned at his snippy remark. Why was Good Guy being such a meanie all of a sudden?
Just then, an idea occurred. A tried-and-tested idea that had always worked when pestering Miss Litchi for meat buns. This idea was pure genius. And the genius, who would carry it out, was none other than Taokaka!
She immediately brightened up, racing after Ragna who went on without her in a faster pace.
"Play with Tao! Play with Tao! Play with Tao! Meow! Meow!" she chanted, jumping up and down while she followed. Play with Tao! Play with Tao! Play with Tao! Meow! Meow! Play with Tao—"
Ragna's shoulders tensed and he paused in his step. He looked around, seeing that some people were turning around curiously to see who was making the big commotion.
"Play with Tao! Play with Tao! Play with Tao! Meow! Meow! Play with Tao! Play with Tao! Play with Tao! Meow! Meow! Play with Ta—!"
"Shh!" Ragna hissed, trying not to be too noticeable. "Shut up!"
All attention was fixed on the Kaka girl and the one clad in red standing right in front of her and beckoning her to quiet down, and only more attention was attracted when she continued in a louder voice. She inhaled a deep breath and cocked her head back slightly as she chanted with more energy and volume: "PLAY WITH TAO! PLAY WITH TAO! PLAY WITH TAO! MEOW! MEO—Ow!"
"Argh," Ragna groaned and loosely grabbed the Kaka's arm, yanking her forward roughly. "Alright! Alright! ...I'll play with you, now be quiet!" he relented in annoyance, letting out a careless half-grin to a young woman who standing nearby and giving him a funny look.
Tao pulled her arm out of his grasp with a victorious smile. Calming down, she grinned childishly. "Okay!"
Ragna stopped himself from sighing. After being beaten by that Rabbit and being chased halfway around town dodging the bullets fired by that blonde chick, he would officially loose all his dignity and what little pride he had as a man by asking this one question. This one question that he thought he would never ask even once in his lifetime.
"...So what game do you want to play?"
"Hmmmmm." Unaware of his declining pride, Tao cupped paw under her chin, thinking, thinking, thinking. If her attention span allowed her to be capable of thinking for more than half a second, she would have spared Ragna the humiliation instead of slapping a paw to her knee and coming up with a suggestion. "I know! Let's play hide and seek!"
"Hide and..." Ragna trailed off, slapping a hand to his face and dragging it down tiredly. He looked at Tao, disbelievingly and totally speechless. "Are you for real? You gotta be kidding me."
There was no way he would stoop to that level. He'd rather have a tea party with the prissy Rabbit then play a kids game as stupid as that.
"Meow? What's wrong good guy?"
"Nothin'. Never mind, but don't we need more people if we're going with that?"
Just then, Noel Vermillion came running around the bend with her pistols drawn. "Ragna the Bloodedge, show yourself!" she commanded loudly, stirring more commotion in the crowd who had steadily carried on with their own business when nothing dramatic happened to gossip over.
Ragna grunted, "Damn, not her again." Alerted by her presence, he turned to Tao quickly and leaned forward, speaking in a low tone. "Okay Tao, how about we go over there and pla—"
"Hey! Hey! Lacking Lady! Over here!" Tao called out to Noel, flailing her arms and tail to catch the blonde's attention. Noel's eyes widened, noticing them. She ran towards the two.
"Ragna the Bloodedge, turn yourself in!"
"Rawgnya?" Clueless, Tao looked between Ragna and Noel, and then shook her head with a laugh before explaining, "Oh no, this here is Good Guy and he's playing hide-and-seek with Tao!"
After a dumbfounded pause taken to look between the two of them and determine whether or not they could perhaps be accomplices, Noel was about to say something, but Ragna cut her off.
" Yeah, we're playing hide and seek...now if you'll excuse us," he said, slinging an arm around the Kaka girl's shoulders and turning around.
"H-hold it right there!" Noel raced in front of them, halting them from continuing any further. "Now I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play, but—'
"Yes! We're playing hide-and-seek" Tao did the honors of explaining, to Ragna's dissatisfaction because he let out a withered sigh. "Play with us Lacking Lady!" she suggested cheerily.
Noel crossed her arms around her chest, fighting against her blush and making an effort to try to hold a resolute expression. "S-stop calling me that! And anyway..."
"Okay good!" the Kaka interrupted with a final nod. "Tao will hide, you and Good Guy will seek!"
Before anything else could be said after the conclusion, she raced down the road as the two watched after her, completely stunned.
"...What just happened?" Noel muttered, tilting her head slightly toward Ragna, her eyes still looking down the lane.
The white-haired man could only shake his head slowly. "Now unless you want to ruin this game, let's start seeking, he answered quickly, deciding to make use of the opportunity.
"Wh-but-!" Noel flustered, following Ragna with her eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment. "Alright..." she gave in with a refrained sigh before snapping her head up to look at him. "But as soon as this is over, I'm arresting you! Okay?"
Ragna kept his mouth set in a grim line. "Sure you are."
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"Hahahaha! This is the best hiding place ever! They'll never find Tao here!" Tao chuckled to herself, climbing in the mouth of the gaping dragon in the open plaza of the Business District. This was the most obscured spot indeed, and there she patiently waited for the two to come find her.
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"She's not here either," said Ragna, kicking over a barrel and sending it clattering down the slope and colliding straight into a stall. While the shop-keeper fussed around and gaped at the smashed bottles and goods that fell down, Noel turned to the white-haired man.
"How long have we been looking?" she asked, tucking loose strands of blonde hair back into her cap when it came out.
"Two hours," Ragna blankly informed. "Maybe she saw a meat bun and got distracted."
"So you're saying that the game is over?" Noel assumed, getting Bolverk ready.
Ragna glanced at her hands as they tightened around the grip of her pistols. He took a moment to think about that. Noel would obviously start chasing him again if he said yes so... "Mehh, lets give it another hour."
And so they continued walking, unaware of the angry fist being shaken in their direction by an angry shop-keeper who noticed them.
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Tao crouched over, hunched in the confined space. She waited and waited and waited. Maybe they got lost? Nah, they were adults. As far as she knew, adults never got lost! So she remained still, waiting, waiting, waiting.
Her stomach grumbled. "Meow...Tao's hungry," she whined, trying to pat her protesting stomach. While she leaned forward to stretch the cricks in her back, she caught a whiff of delicious smelling foods from the outside. "No...Tao's playing a game."
For the first time, Tao chose something over her stomach. She waited.
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Ragna kicked over another empty crate in frustration. This was getting annoying.
"Any luck?" he asked over his shoulder at Noel who had just closed another barrel with a hopeless expression.
She sighed, wiping her forehead. "This is really tiring. I wonder where she could be hiding."
"Hey...how about we make a deal?" Ragna offered as an afterthought to taking off when she wasn't looking.
Noel blinked at this sudden proposal. She then narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What kind of deal?"
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Deciding to quickly take a stretch, Tao climbed out of the dragon's cramped up mouth. She groaned, drool hanging from her mouth. "Food...meow...Tao needs...foood."
Good Guy and Lacking Lady appeared from an alleyway together and came to a stop in the middle of the street.
"Maybe my hiding place was too hard for them...meow." Tao sulked, holding her growling stomach.
"Tao will pretend to be hiding in that barrel, just so they can find me and I can finally eat!" she decided. Using her Kaka stealth, she slipped through the stalls and made her way to the nearby barrel.
Ducking behind the barrel, unaware of her tail sticking up, Tao could hear what they were saying. She listened in as she waited for them to find her.
"Look, we're both tired after four hours of throwing over crates and barrels and searching for the kid. Why don't we go our separate ways and freshen up." Ragna suggested, casually.
"But, she'll be waiting for us—"
"Overnight? Pretty much," he finished brazenly.
Noel bit her bottom lip momentarily. "That's mean considering that she only wanted to play," she said considerately.
"Well, we could always go back to looking for her. With no break, no warm showers, no meals," Ragna listed, noting the obvious changes taking place in the lieutenant's expression.
"I hate to say this, but I agree..." she concurred weakly, giving a faint nod. Realizing the satisfied look on Ragna's face Noel wasted no time adding, "But tomorrow, I'm resuming my duties as an NOL officer and then I'll arrest you Ragna the Bloodedge!"
Ragna leaned away from her holding his head and flinching at her suddenly raised tone. "Do you always have to yell like that?" he carped, prodding his ear with one finger.
Noel averted her eyes quickly, flushing in embarrasment. After a swift and awkward exchange of goodbyes, the blonde lowered her weapons and trudged the opposite direction of Ragna as he went his own way.
It took a minute —well maybe a little longer— before the words of their conversation made sense to the prying Kaka. Tao's red eyes narrowed into two furious slits and she clutched her grumbling stomach with a sneer.
"Well if that's how they wanna play, then, meow...bring it on!"
A/N: See there... Tao believes that skipping a meal or a snack of any kind is sin! Learn from that, people! ^w^