Want to buy a duck?
"Come on, Blues!" Rockman pleaded as he tugged his brother into the Light household's front room. "Is it too much to ask for you to spend some time with your family once in a while?"
"I suppose not…" Blues sighed as he wrenched his arm away from his brother and continued walking by himself.
"But why were you so anxious about tonight?" He asked as the two walked into the living room, where Roll was waiting. Her eyes lit up at the sight of her two brothers, and she waved hello to the scarf-wearing one.
"Dr. Light's away at a convention, so it's just us robots. So that means…" Here Rock paused for dramatic effect, then he and Roll threw their hands in the air and yelled happily,
"Game night!"
Blues chuckled slightly. He gave a quick greeting to his sister, then scanned the room. Indeed, despite their lower level of sentience, all of the Light's pets were there, with no human in sight… then Blues spied two figures that shouldn't have been there. Blues blinked.
"Rock, why is Forte here? And why isn't he attacking?"
Forte was sitting in the farthest corner of the room, arms crossed and pouting, Treble curled up next to him.
Rock giggled. "We just thought it'd be fun to invite him and see what he's like when he's not trying to kill us."
"And… he agreed to that?" Blues asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow beneath his visor.
"He'll do anything Roll asks him to." Rock grinned.
Forte raised his head slowly and glared daggers at the young hero.
"Heh heh, looks like someone's in denial…" Rock laughed nervously, raising his hands in surrender and backing off.
"Whatever." Forte snapped as he stood up.
"Like you said, it's only for the girl's sake I'm here, so shouldn't we get this over with?"
"Forte!" Roll exclaimed. "This is supposed to be fun, not an obligation!" She approached the black-garbed warrior and placed a hand on his arm, then cocked her head and stared up at him with a pleading expression on her face.
"Can't you try to let your guard down and enjoy yourself, just this once?"
Forte could think up a million retorts, like 'I'm enjoying my sulking' and 'Wily will be annoyed enough as it is with me running off without telling him', but he couldn't bring himself to say any of them. His mouth opened and closed noiselessly a few times as he tried to search for something to say, when he gave up and sighed.
"Fine. But just for tonight."
"Come on, Blues! Me and Roll got together a whole bunch of games earlier. Help me bring them in here." Rock enthused, heading towards a connecting room hurriedly.
Blues let out a quiet chuckle and followed after his kid brother at a leisurely pace. He grabbed a handful of card games and let Rock take care of the board games.
"You really approve of the idea of your sister and your arch rival together, huh?"
"Well, yeah," Rock laughed sheepishly. "I mean, I know Roll likes him and he seems to like her back. Besides, maybe this could warm Forte up to me a bit and we could be friends."
Blues shook his head. He knew it wouldn't be as easy as his brother hoped, but he kept his mouth shut.
"So, what should we play first?" Rock asked eagerly as the three Light-bots sat down around the round table. "We have dominoes, Dutch Blitz, Monopoly, Candyland, Clue…"
"I'm fine with that as long as I get to be the murderer." Forte drawled as he sank into the last chair. Fortunately all three other humanoid robots realized it would be a bad idea to seat Forte next to Rock, and he was flanked by Blues and Roll.
"You can't choose who the murderer is, Forte."
"You can if you cheat."
Roll shook her head. "We're not going to cheat, Forte. And that we includes you."
"No sulking, no cheating and no pounding the blue dweeb into a pulp. And you expect me to have fun? I don't care for boring games, anyway."
"You mean board games, Forte." Rock explained with a sigh.
"That's what I said."
"Well, we don't have to play a board game. There's this one game Kalinka taught me… although it's meant for more players, we could play it with just the four of us." Blues suggested. His two siblings leaned in, eager to learn about this new game, while Forte seemed much more preoccupied with petting Treble.
"What is it?" Roll asked, her tone displaying her and her brother's curiosity.
"Well… it'd be easier to demonstrate." Blues turned to Rock, who was seated at his right.
"Want to buy a duck?"
"Huh…?"
"How the game goes is I ask you "Want to buy a duck?". You respond with "A what?", then I reply "A duck.", you ask "Does it quack?" and I say "Of course it quacks.", then you ask Roll if she wants to buy a duck. She asks "A what?", then you ask me "A what?" and I say "A duck.", and things continue like that."
At the blank stares he received, Blues sighed and summed up with,
"You'll get the hang of it, I promise. So, Rock… want to buy a duck?"
"A what?"
"A duck."
"Does it quack?"
"Of course it quacks."
"Want to buy a duck?" Rock queried as he turned to his sister.
"A what?"
"A du—"
"No, Rock, you ask me the question. I always answer the questions, you just pass the different messages along."
"Oh, I get it!" Roll exclaimed.
"Oh, okay. A what?" Rock asked his older brother.
"A duck."
"A duck."
"Does it quack?"
"Does it quack?"
"Of course it quacks."
"Of course it quacks."
The female robot turned to Forte, eyes shining as she started to get into the inane game.
"Forte, want to buy a duck?" Roll asked eagerly.
Forte raised his head from where he had been playing with Treble, a bewildered expression on his face. Then…
"Why on earth would I want a duck?"
End
Author's notes: I have a feeling I mangled Forte's character… I'm so sorry if I did! And I bet you can tell where his title for Rock came from. -sweatdrop- I've been watching that show way too much lately… (And now I find it very hard to write "robot" instead of "bot"…)
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this fic!
