Bubble Talk

Nick Kelly rather liked the soothing sensation of a bubble bath. He couldn't really understand why, but he felt very relaxed whenever he had a bubble bath.

This past year was no exception, as Nick needed a lot of relaxation, considering how many evil fruit loops he and his sister Yuki Shinoya had taken it upon themselves to thwart.

This month in particular had been particularly stressful for the two siblings. With a new bad guy showing up just about every night this month, Nick and Yuki hadn't had any time to rest in between each butt-kicking they'd administered to the fruit loops.

So, to Nick, this respite from battling dark creatures and bad guys was indeed very welcome.

Nick perked up at hearing a knock on the bathroom door. The two siblings had long since left the Through the Night Hotel and returned to their home, which only occupied the two of them. It had been that way ever since their mother had been killed by the Delegates of Darkness and the two siblings had defeated their father, who had turned out to be the leader of the Delegates of Darkness.

Momoko had graciously agreed to help out with this transition. She was an angel, Nick though.

Nick was snapped out of his train of thought when the knocking returned.

"Come on in," Nick stated. "I'm decent."

With that, the door swung open and Yuki stepped in, decked out in the cute one-piece floral-print swimsuit that Nick himself had bought for her not too long ago.

"Mind if I join you?" Yuki asked.

"Go ahead," Nick responded. "At this rate, there won't be much room left."

Yuki took this as her cue, jumping into the bubble bath and rather quickly relaxing.

"Uuuuuuu... I haven't had a bubble bath in what feels like forever," Yuki stated quite contently.

"Mom and dad always used to let us have bubble baths together when we were young," Nick responded. "Those are the days I miss."

"Me, too," Yuki giggled, letting her head rest on Nick's shoulder. Nick responded to this by draping his arm around Yuki's shoulder.

They stayed like that for a while, Yuki occasionally twirling some of the bathtub's bubbles around.

"Nick-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"What exactly are we fighting for?"

That question surprised Nick a bit. He turned back to his sister, wondering what exactly she meant by that. Before he could vocalize it, however, she beat him to the punch.

"All the bad guys we fight every night. Why do we do it? I'm sure there's a reason we do it, aside from the fact that it's the right thing to do," Yuki explained. "But what I want to know is why did the two of US take it upon ourselves to teach these fruit loops a lesson? That's something I've never understood..."

Nick put his hand to his chin as he thought about what his sister was implying.

"You know, I've never actually thought about that," Nick pondered.

"Nick-kun? Remember last week?" Yuki asked, flicking another bubble off of her fingertips.

"Um, what about last... Oh, when we fought that Emperor Tachyon loser?" Nick answered. "God, was he a royal pain in the keester..."

"If you hadn't woken up when you did, Nick-kun, I probably would have lost myself to my dark power," Yuki continued.

"NICK-KUN!!!!" Yuki exclaimed. Nick had just been knocked unconscious by a rather powerful shot from Tachyon's blaster arm.

"He was in my way," Tachyon proclaimed. "A mistake he did not live to repeat."

Little did Tachyon realize what he'd done by attacking Nick so viciously. The other-dimensional evil emperor could only stare in horror as the dark aura surrounding Yuki grew fiercer by the second.

"You... stupid... little... chauvinistic SON OF A BITCH!!!!" Yuki screamed, her dark aura flaring to a rather scary magnitude.

"Ow... that smarts..."

Yuki instantly spun around and noticed that Nick was standing up, clutching his wounded shoulder but otherwise okay. At this sight, her aura receded to a level that wasn't as scary as before.

"If you hadn't woken up when you did, I don't know what I would have done to him," Yuki stated. "It's incidents like that... those kinds of things that make me wonder why we're doing this, Nick-kun. It's not just because of bad guys. There are times when I worry my head off about you. You're the one who's supposed to be worrying, not me."

Nick blushed, knowing full well which incident his sister was referring to now.

"Trust me, Yuki-chan, if I'd had any idea that some sicko was going to shut off my magic and trap me in Hyuponia, I definitely would have let you know..."

Yuki turned so she was facing her big brother.

"It's things like that... that's exactly why I worry about you, Nick-kun. After everything you and I have been through, I always wake up worried that I'm going to lose you... or WORSE. I don't think I could take that..."

After a couple seconds of thinking, Nick suddenly had a moment of clarity. He draped his free arm around Yuki as he said what came to his mind.

"I think I know why."

"Really?"

"It's for us."

A few seconds of silence followed before Nick started to clarify his answer. "We fight these freakoids so we can enjoy our lives. Not just because it's the right thing to do, but because we do it for us. And for our friends. Everyone here wants to live a peaceful life, and that's the reason we fight these fruit loops."

Yuki ran those words through her head. "I never really thought of it like that."

"There you go."

Yuki broke out with a rather loud yawn the next second. "I never thought a bubble bath could make me so tired..."

"Trust me, Yuki-chan, we need the rest. Those fruit loops haven't given us a chance to rest at all this month."

Yuki just smiled. "Nick-kun?"

"Yeah?"

Yuki leaned forward to kiss her brother on the forehead. "I'm glad we had this talk."

Nick couldn't help but smile back at his sister. "I guess we'll have to take bubble baths more often, huh?"