Flaky frantically searched the dimly lit van until she caught sight of two dark green eyes that seemed to blend in with the similarly colored mask, only the white surrounding the pupil gave away the male's presence. How she knew the person was a male was the deepness his loud breathing gave off.
The rough cloth wrapped around her wrists and head restrained her from asking where they were taking her. The binding was tightly and expertly tied, apparently this man had done this before. Of course he had done this before, how could she have not remembered?
Light poured in through the back door windows as the van passed a streetlight, spilling over the male and showing the Chesire Cat grin that was an almost permanent detail on his face. With the light fading away, the memories from the past few hours came streaming back through her head.
Flaky was walking to the grocery store like any other average day, her ecofriendly bag to carry whatever she decided to purchase slung on her arm. She was humming happily as she passed the alleyway where she knew two of her friends usually liked to hang around. Personally, she didn't see the fun in staying in a dark, smelly place like that, but that was just her.
"La la la la—Ah! H-hey!" A human sized net came down over her head just as she was about to continue down the sidewalk. "W-what's going on?!"
"I got her!" The pole connected to the net was jutting out from behind a tree, a known to her face holding the other end. "Yo, Shifty!"
Shifty strutted out of the shadowing the alley always cast and into the light of the morning sun. "Look what we caught; Flaky. What are you doing around these parts?"
The girl made an annoyed sound, this was obviously another one of their tricks, and once again, she was the one they decided to pick on. "I was on my way to the s-store if you have to know. My car b-broke down so I had to walk. Now if you excuse me." She grabbed the bottom of the net where the rounded metal was and pulled up. "I have to g-go do my shopping."
Lifty kept the net pushed down, "That was a stupid idea, dontcha think? Walking out here by yourself can lead to things happening~"
"Like?" Flaky asked. She was wasting time trying to get away from these two, and it was starting to bug her. Why even bother talking to her in broad daylight? Didn't they do their business during the nighttime when they couldn't be seen?
"Like," Shifty chuckled, "being molested, robbed, anything, even being stolen."
Something about the way he had said stolen told Flaky that it was high time to get out of there. Smiling nervously, she pointed at the sidewalk and pretended to look at the watch on her wrist. "O-oh! Yeah, you two are s-so right. I really should be more careful, maybe I'll buy some pepper spray at the store! Okay, t-thanks for the chat, but I really should be—"
Shifty's entire demeanor changed as he said, "Lifty, gag her."
The younger thief's hand was wrapped around her mouth, pressing the net and creasing her skin, before she could scream for help. His experienced fingers had been able to tie the cloth around her wrists without need for the other hand. And as soon as her mouth was gagged, Shifty had gone to get the van and came back. Together they had picked up the squirming female and slid her into the back of the vehicle, then they got in themselves and drove away with only the sound screeching of the tires and marks left behind on the road.
Now, here she was. Tied up and gagged in the back of the mischievous twins' van with no clue of what they intended to do with her. Sure, they had 'stolen' her before on a few occasions, but none as serious as this. They never had been forced to catch her with a net and toss her in their van . . .
There was a speed bump in the road that shook her out of her troubling thoughts. She wondered what time it was, the previous kidnaps they had committed had only lasted a couple of hours before they dropped her off at her house knowing that they had gotten a scare out of her. The streetlight and blackness outside of the square windows told her that it was night; how long had they been driving.
Flaky shifted her position, legs and arm numb from being still for so long. Her eyes had never left those of the twin across from her as she tried to pry the meaning of all of this from him.
Attaining no information from just staring at him, she mumbled against the binding.
Lifty glanced at the driver's seat and broke the silence, "Hey Shifty, Flaky's awake and I think she wants to say something."
"Go ahead and undo the gag, no one can hear her from all the way out here," The driver replied.
Nodding, Lifty crawled over and reached behind her head to untie the cloth. Once he did, it fell uselessly to the vibrating floor of the van. "Hi, how are you doing?"
It took her over a minute to process the simple question he had asked. And that was the reason why it took so long to understand what he was saying, it was far too simple. Not like she had expected the hardest thing to answer, but she had thought he would ask her something . . . different.
"I-I'm fine . . ." Flaky said slowly.
He nodded again. "That's good, we kinda thought that maybe you'd be in shock or something."
"I think I'm o-okay . . . but I have to ask, why am I here? W-why am I in the back of your van, and why did you t-two throw a net over me, a-and where are we going?" The shakiness in her tone had betrayed her, betrayed how nervous she felt about the situation.
Lifty sat next to her, apparently thinking that it would take a while to explain this to her. "Do you remember when we were kids and no one could tell us apart?"
Flaky could scarcely dig up the memory, but it was there underneath everything else. "Y-yeah . ."
"Do you remember what you told me and Shifty that day under the tree at the old elementary school?"
She shook her head for a no.
"Oh," He seemed somewhat saddened by this as he dropped the conversation in favor for twisting and untwisting her scarf.
She didn't know what to make of this, what was he talking about? She hardly remembered anything from seven years back in elementary, let alone a specific detail like a tree. All she could recall of the twins was that they had kept to themselves and this one time where they had hung her upside down from the monkey bars.
She couldn't linger on the past for long since the van was slowing down to a stop and Shifty got out.
Lifty stood up and pushed the back double doors open. He jumped out onto the gravel covered ground and reached back in to pull her out, ripping off the cloth from her wrist to allow her to grab onto the sides of the vehicle for support. "Easy does it Flakes."
Flaky's legs were still numb and a bit wobbly from sitting for hours upon hours, so she was glad for the help. Feet lightly hitting the ground, she followed Shifty's motioning for her to come along. What else was she to do? In every direction she turned, she saw nothing but tall pine trees and shrubs, who knew what wild animals could be running around in them.
The gravel turned to dirt that was packed down from years of walking. Hm, maybe this was the place that the twins always escaped to when they were in trouble with the law or fleeing from a robbery scene. It would explain why she never saw them around town after a crime.
Crimson eyes grew in curiosity as she saw a cute little cottage made out of white bricks with ivy climbing up the sides of it. With the path leading up to the porch steps and red door made out of wood, it was like it had come out of a child's fairytale book.
Shifty went up the two steps, which creaked quietly under his weight, and went to the door. He pulled out an old looking iron key and stuck it in the keyhole, swinging the door open as it unlocked. "Come on in."
Flaky shuffled inside and soaked in the clean walls, a comfy appearing couch, and a few other pieces of furniture scattered in the front room. There was a hallway which she assumed led to the bathroom and perhaps a bedroom. The kitchen was open and accessible to the room, which could be convenient. To sum it all up, it was cozy. But she doubted that they had brought her here to show her the cottage.
Shutting the door, Shifty looked at her grinning, "Do you know why we brought you here yet?"
"N-no," She answered.
"Boo. I bet you didn't even guess," Lifty teased and led her to the couch to sit down.
She had been right, it was comfy, but she couldn't let herself unstiffen for even a second around those two. "P-please tell me why I'm here."
"Because," Shifty started as he took his seat, "we've been watching you with that war vet. You're always playing around with him even if he is a freak. We've just been wondering when it would be our turn to play with you." He put his chin on her head as Lifty pushed his to her neck.
Together, they murmured to her, "And now, you're all ours."
It was a Wednesday afternoon at Happy Tree Town elementary school. The children were playing and squealing on the playground without a care in the world, except for two.
Lifty and Shifty sat under a peach tree, playing a game of tic-tac-toe between them, using their fingers to draw in the dirt. They always did this, always kept to themselves. Whenever someone tried to get near their tight knitted circle, they pushed them away, because all they needed was each other.
On this day, though, a small red headed girl walked away from the group of children and walked across the grass field to them. She watched them play with her hands behind her back, not interrupting.
As Shifty drew a line horizontally to mark his win, he looked at her. "Yes?"
The girl looked down and kicked her feet into the dirt, stuttering, "H-hi, my name is F-Flaky. I n-noticed you two over here a-alone and I just wanted to ask if you wanted to play with m-me?"
The twins shared a glance before uttering in unison, "Okay. But first you have to tell us apart. If you can do that, we'll make you our friend."
Flaky looked hopelessly between either one of them and mumbled, "I-I don't know which i-is which . . ."
"Then go away." They said and turned back to their game.
"No! W-wait!" She pointed to the one on the left, "That's Lifty," then to the one on the right, "and that's Shifty."
The boys stared at her and asked, "Why do you think that?"
"I-it's just my guess because while I w-was watching your guys' game, I s-saw Shifty take the first turn," She blushed, "and usually the o-oldest goes first . . ."
Shifty and Lifty were silent. Not only had she told them apart, but she knew who was older? They stared at her teary eyed, then got up to take either one of her hands. "Fine, let's go play." And that's what they did. They played with their one and only friend, and she was all theirs.
I feel good about how this turned out. Come on people! ShiftyxFlakyxLifty is a good ship and I've only seen four other fanfics for either or both twins with her! And half of them I can't read even if I am Spanish! -_- Please make this ship more popular! And oh yeah, enjoy and review if you want more :3
