Pet Names/Try, Try Again
Acepilot

AN - No.33 in the Road series. My second double-A sided fanfiction. The two vingettes in this were both written very differently - Pet Names was going to be in Deciduous but it was a. too short, and b. too silly, and it's too short and silly and similar to "Nights of Indigestion" to be it's own fic, so I tacked it on with the also short "Try, Try Again", which was written today sitting in a computer room at school, sheerly because I've got nothing better to do. Enjoy and please review!

Disclaimer - the characters in this fic are property of Klasky Csupo.

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Pet Names (a C/A vingette)

"Chuckie?"

"Hmm?"

"Why don't you have any pet names for me?"

"Pardon?"

"You never call me anything cute."

"I call you Angie."

"That's not a pet name, that's just my name shortened. It's like me calling you Chuck. Why don't you have any proper pet names for me? Like Tommy calls Lil sweetie, and Phil calls Kimi koi, and Dil calls Amanda...something that I can't understand."

"I think it's porpoise for 'love'."

"Whatever. My point is, why don't you have a pet name for me?"

"Uh...well, I didn't know you wanted one."

"That's very insensitive of you."

"Well...you never said anything about it before."

"I shouldn't have had to!"

"Okay! Well...how about...pumpkin?"

"Ew. Do I look fat and orange to you?"

"Of course not..."

"Good. Because if I did...boy..."

"You do not look fat and orange."

"Are you saying I just look fat then?"

"No! You look neither."

"Good.

"What about...pookie?"

"That's the name of a teddy bear in a comic strip."

"So? That implies cuddliness."

"Cuddliness?"

"Comfort. I meant comfort."

"You said I was cuddly. What you mean is -"

"You're not fat, Angelica. Sorry for the poor choice of words."

"I know what a Freudian slip is, you know."

"Let me assure you, that wasn't one. How about...amore'?"

"That's just a fancy way of saying love."

"Yeah, I know."

"I like it. It makes me sound...special."

"You are special, Angie."

"Really?"

"Of course. Would I have married you if you weren't?"

"No, I guess not."

"Good. I always want you to know that."

"You're nuts, Finster."

"I love you too, Angie."

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Try, Try Again (a P/K vingette)

"No! I'm not coming out and I'm not talking to you!"

I lean against the door and blow a puff of air upwards, causing my fringe to jump several centimeters. "I'm sorry, Kimi."

"I don't care!" she announces, very loudly, almost certainly causing half the neighbourhood to gain a new awareness in her indifference to my apology. "I don't want to see you!"

I give up on the leaning and just slump down against the door to our apartment, lacing my fingers together and hoping like hell I can get on her good side before bed time. "I didn't mean to do it," I tell her, "it was an honest mistake."

I wait with bated breath. The main problem here is, of course, that I don't actually know what it is I did, and that could get me into a whole lot of trouble. Dealing with Kimi angry is one thing. Dealing with Kimi angry and forgetting what I did to get her that way is infinitely worse.

"It was not!" she shrieks, causing me to wince.

I run over the events of the day and try to work out excatly what it was that ticked her off.

We went shopping. Did I spend too much money?

"I didn't mean to do it," I repeat, lamely, in the hopes that she'll come out and berated me for whatever it was I did, in great and varied detail.

I can hear her inside storming around the apartment in a manner which makes me very glad all of a sudden that I'm on the wrong side of the door. "Yeah, well that's the problem isn't it!" she bellows.

Ah! We're onto something! This is good, this is great. "I'm sorry for it," I assure her.

"Well, if you'd just think about what you do before you do it, then we wouldn't be in this situation now, would we?"

Light bulbs are starting to click on in my mind. "I didn't think!"

"I'll say you didn't," she informs me.

I didn't think before...what? Doing something? Saying something? That could be it, maybe I said something. Right, so what do we do when we've said something wrong? We apologise, and try to remember what it was.

What was it?

"Can I come in?" I ask, hopefully, looking up at the doorhandle.

"No!"

So much for that idea.

What could I have said.

We went clothes shopping.

Oh, I've got it now.

"You really did look good in that outfit," I tell her through the door, grinning in imminent triumph.

And then suddenly, the door opens, and, due to my position of leaning against it, I fall flat on my back. She appears over me, smiling like some kind of angel, beautiful and...happy.

"You really think so?" she asks.

"One hundred percent," I assure her.

She beams, crouching down, running a hand over my forehead.

Oh yeah, I'm good.

"Phil..."

"Yes, koi?" I ask, suavely.

"You have absolutely no idea what we were arguing about, do you, you moron?"

Her tone of delivery is what makes me run the memory back through my head. She makes the nastiest insults sound like she's whispering sweet nothings.

She drops my head on the floor none too gently, slams the door shut and storms off inside.

Lying in the hallway of our apartment building, staring at the ceiling, I finally feel enlightened. "I know what it was now!"

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