Hey all! This is my first oneshot…I'm hoping it will turn out okay…
"And then he…" Karma trailed off, giving Lani a lopsided smile that communicated more than ten thousand words.
Lani's eyes widened. "No! Did he…?"
Karma nodded, the edges of her mouth curving into a smile. "Yes. Then he…"
Lani erupted in a fit of giggles. "Really! Why?"
"Because…" Karma gave her a 'look'. Lani shrieked with laughter.
"No way!"
"Yes," Karma laughed. "And then he wouldn't stop talking about it…"
Lani was on the verge of hysteria. However, all five men sitting around the table thought it was anything but funny. For the past half hour they had listened to the two women go on like this, losing track of which 'he' and 'him' they were talking about. To them it seemed they were speaking in a language that consisted only of pro-nouns. There were at least twenty types 'it' and adding to their facial expressions and hand gestures, the men were sure the women were speaking in some sort of code, unknown to their kind.
"So what did he do?" Lani asked pulling herself together.
"He…" Karma smirked and raised her eyebrows causing Lani to blow all composure she'd regained.
Kurt sighed heavily while Wylde groaned, in the chair next to him. It had been about a month since they had brought Vert back from the Silencerz headquarters, and the Teku and Metal Maniacs had remained in touch. They saw each other on an almost daily basis and went to races together fortnightly. Nothing much had changed since the Acceledome, except for the threat of the drones and having to race in the realms. Today they were celebrating Easter with a barbecue at Doctor Tezla's home. The two teams and Lani were all outdoors enjoying the warm weather. Karma, Lani, Nolo, Kurt, Vert, Wylde and Taro were situated around a large, circular picnic table. Pork Chop, Monkey and Sparky were standing around the barbecue talking to Tork who was barbecuing their lunch. The Doc was inside finishing some research. He would join them for lunch later.
"Anyway," Karma continued. "What were you saying about him?"
"Remember what I told you before?" Lani replied.
Karma nodded.
"Well it turns out he never even knew!"
"Seriously!" Karma gasped.
Both women's eyes darted over to a certain Metal Maniac, who stared steadily back, eyebrows knitted together in a frown. He was sitting with his feet on the table and his arms crossed, leaning back in his chair. Taro thought- no, he knew they were talking about him. As he made eye contact, the women hastily broke off, while Lani laughed once more and Karma attempted to cover her smile with her hand. He was tempted to ask what was so funny, but knew it would only fuel their excessive giggling. This thoroughly infuriated him, though of course he wouldn't show it. The others weren't having such luck.
"Jesus! I can't take this any longer!" Wylde finally threw his hands up in defeat. Karma and Lani stared at him, then erupted into another fit of laughter.
"Oh for gods sake," muttered Nolo.
Taro rolled his eyes in agreement. Vert seemed to be restraining (with great difficulty) from hitting his head against the table. It was becoming unbearable. They needed to get out. Now.
As if on cue, the arrival of Shirako and his heart pounding music provided an escape route.
"Oh, Shirako's here!" Vert grinned in an overly bright voice. "I have to go…see if he's got…that…thing I let him borrow."
"I'll come with you!" Nolo said, moving to his feet.
"Yeah me too!" Kurt exclaimed.
"Oh, okay," Lani vaguely waved a hand at them.
'Take us with you!' Wylde mouthed desperately.
Taro didn't say anything, though the look on his face said plenty. Vert and Nolo mouthed 'we'll come back', but the grins on their faces wiped away any real conviction they had. Luckily Kurt took pity on them.
"Hey, I think I hear Tork calling you two…"
Wylde and Taro immediately jumped up.
"Better not keep him waiting," Taro said briskly, moving to follow Wylde who was already sprinting to the barbecue, faster than Seabiscuit.
Grinning from ear to ear, Kurt, Vert and Nolo followed. They could already see Shirako greeting the Metal Maniacs and raced over to join them.
"Yo!" Shirako nodded.
Tork chuckled as he saw them approaching. "Taro told us how you were 'escaping' Karma and Lani. Come on. They aren't that bad!"
"No," Wylde grimaced. "They're worse."
"They were talking in that…that code of theirs," Vert shuddered.
"We couldn't understand anything they were saying!" Nolo added.
"They were talking about me," muttered Taro incoherently.
"You said you couldn't tell what they were saying," Monkey pointed out.
"They kept looking at me and laughing!" he responded.
"Oh."
Their conversation was interrupted by another outburst of laughter from the women. All heads turned to see them chortling like mad.
"There they go again!" Kurt groaned.
"We need to find out what they're talking about," Taro announced.
The men stared at him.
"Are you insane?!?!" Wylde demanded, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"We barely survived last time!" exclaimed Vert, incredulously.
"They make it sound like a suicide mission," Pork Chop whispered to Monkey who laughed.
"Maybe this could help," Shirako spoke up. "I have a pair of walkie talkies in Bassline. We could drop one nearby and listen in. That way, if they say something interesting we'll know."
Kurt snorted. "Presuming we can decipher it."
Monkey was staring gob-smacked at Shirako. "That's the longest I've ever heard you talk at once!"
"Why do I have to do it?" whined Wylde.
Kurt sighed exasperatedly. He was getting tired of explaining it. "We drew straws. You got the short one. You have to place the walkie talkie."
"I'm not doing it!" Wylde stubbornly. "It's not gonna happen. Nope. No way."
"Yes way," Tork firmly placed a hand on the youngest Metal Maniac's shoulder. "I want to hear for myself what the horrors that are Karma and Lani."
Wylde argued all he dared, but in the end he was no much for the combined efforts of the Teku and Metal Maniacs. It was times like this he hated teamwork.
"I hate you all," Wylde grumbled, then looking as though he was about to plunge into ice-cold water, he walked over to the danger zone. Aka: picnic table.
"Hey!" he grinned nervously at Lani and Karma. "Um…have you seen…my…uh…sunglasses?!"
"Sunglasses?" repeated Karma.
"Sunglasses," confirmed Wylde.
"You're wearing them," Lani raised an eyebrow.
"Oh," Wylde said, realizing they were indeed on his head. "Yeah, well, my other ones!"
'Other ones? Smooth move, Mark,' he mentally chided himself.
"Your other ones?" Lani asked, raising both her eyebrows at Karma, who smirked back.
"Yeah," Wylde answered, awkwardly. As stealthily as he could, he placed walkie-talkie on an empty chair. "It's not here, so, uh, I'll just be going…" he broke off, and sprinted back.
"What was that all about?" Lani asked.
A small smile formed on Karma's face, as she pointed to an object on a picnic chair.
"Well?" asked Kurt as his younger brother arrived at base.
"I can't believe you made me go back there!" was the answer he got.
"Don't be such a drama queen," Nolo rolled his eyes.
"You're a man ain't ya?" Pork Chop growled, clapping him on the back.
Wylde snarled, but Vert cut in. "Sure. But they're women."
"Yes, well let's hear it," Tork chuckled, as the men gathered around the walkie-talkie, beers in hand.
"-you think is hottest?" they heard Lani finish her sentence.
"I think Kurt and Taro are very hot," Karma answered.
Taro smirked while Kurt's face grew red. Monkey, Tork, and Pork Chop looked like they were trying to hold back laughter.
"Yeah," sighed Lani. "It's too bad they're walking the crooked path."
Taro choked on the beer he was chugging down, while everyone looked at him and Kurt, astonished at the sudden apocalypse.
"You two are gay?" Nolo asked in an incredulous whisper.
"No!" Kurt hissed back, his face, if possible, going redder.
"We aren't!" Taro coughed.
"Getting a bit defensive aren't we?" Vert grinned.
The others were still in shock.
"You have to believe us! We aren't gay!" Kurt attempted to convince them.
"Look, if you are it's okay with us," Monkey said seriously. "Right guys?"
"We're not homophobes or anything," said Pork Chop gruffly.
"It's totally okay with us if you're gay," Nolo added though he still looked a bit freaked out.
Tork frowned. "You could have told us though. We are your team mates after all!"
"We're not gay!" Taro spluttered. "At least I'm not!"
"Thanks Taro," Kurt said sarcastically.
"Sh!" Vert suddenly exclaimed. "Listen!"
The men quietened down to hear what Vert was listening to.
"You know who's really hot?" Lani asked.
"Who?" Karma replied. They heard a giggle.
"Oh," Karma laughed. "Him. Yeah, Wylde is gorgeous."
Wylde tried to ignore the blood rushing to his face and Taro's glare, which was boring holes through the back of his skull. Despite the sheer embarrassment he felt, there was still a glimmer of smugness. Lani and Karma thought he was hot.
"I would so ask him out if he wasn't so young," Lani said.
"What?" mouthed a crestfallen Monkey.
Nolo gritted his teeth and joined Taro. If looks could kill, Wylde would be beyond dead.
"Hm," Karma agreed. "Too bad."
A moment's silence, then, "A while ago, back when Wylde, Vert and I were on the Wave Rippers working for Doctor Tezla, I walked in on Vert listening to a song on the radio. He was dancing and singing along to it. It was so funny!"
"What song was it?" Karma asked.
They could hear the smirk in Lani's voice. "Dancing Queen."
They couldn't hear Karma's reply to this because they all burst out in laughter.
"Dancing Queen?" Monkey managed to choke out. "Dancing Queen?!"
"It's got a catchy tune okay!" Vert blushed angrily.
"Dude, it's actually true!" Wylde exclaimed, laughing hysterically.
The laughter died down and Karma's voice could be heard once again.
"That's nothing compared to this thing Nolo once did," she said. "Tone and I were in eleventh grade and Nolo and Shirako were in ninth grade."
'Oh no,' Nolo mouthed, closing his eyes. 'Please no!'
"This is gonna be good," Shirako told them.
"Shirako!" snarled Nolo.
Shirako gave him an innocent look.
"It was a Saturday and we were all at Shirako's place for dinner, as usual," Karma began. "I leave my backpack in the living room to go help Shirako's grandmother with dinner. I come back two minutes later and find the contents of my bag completely tipped upside down and Nolo wearing my blue eye-shadow and lipstick."
"Oh my god!" shrieked Lani, as everyone listening to the walkie-talkie roared with laughter. Everyone except Nolo.
"Eye-shadow?" laughed Vert. "I'm not sure blue is your colour!"
"Shut up Dancing Queen! It wasn't on purpose!" said Nolo furiously. "Shirako dared me too!"
"Did I?" Shirako grinned slyly. "I don't recall."
"Shirako, I am going to kil-" Nolo began, but was cut off by Doctor Tezla.
"Hello," he said walking to the barbecue. "Is lunch ready yet?"
"Almost," replied Tork, without taking his eyes away from the walkie-talkie.
Tezla looked at the object that had captured everyone's interest.
"Is that a walkie-talkie? I believe I saw Karma and Lani speaking in to one very similar to that on my way here."
Everyone's heads snapped up.
"What do you mean?" demanded Nolo.
Doctor Tezla frowned. "They were in the kitchen, talking into one of those."
"What?!" Wylde exclaimed disbelievingly. His head turned to the picnic table.
Sure enough Karma and Lani were no longer sitting there.
"Where are they?" Taro asked, jumping to his feet.
"The kitchen," Doctor Tezla repeated, sounding a bit annoyed.
"You said they were speaking into it?" Kurt asked.
"Yes," Doctor Tezla said firmly. It wasn't really all that complicated.
"Hey guys," Monkey said thoughtfully. "You know if we could hear them…do you think they could hear us?"
Silence. Then Nolo turned to Shirako, who was grinning like a madman. "You knew! And you didn't tell us!"
Shirako feigned a look of mock hurt. "Nolo, I'm shocked you could accuse me of such a thing!"
Nolo made an angry sort of noise, much like the sound a cat makes when it gets wet. "This is not funny!"
"I beg to differ," was Shirako's reply.
"Come on!" Taro urged, moving swiftly towards the kitchen.
Everyone followed, his lead.
In the kitchen Lani and Karma were sitting at the breakfast bar enjoying a nice cup of tea, and taking it in turns to speak into the walkie-talkie.
"Oops," giggled Lani, catching sight of the men. "Looks as though we've been busted!"
"Well it was fun while it lasted," Karma chuckled. "No hard feelings boys?"
"Karma!" Nolo began incredulously. "I can't believe you- how could you-why would-Karma!"
"Yes Nolo?" she asked innocently. "Oh and FYI Wylde. You need to work on the whole stealth thing."
Wylde glared at her. "Thanks. I'll remember that."
Karma and Lani looked at each other and burst out laughing. "I'm getting hungry. Let's go have lunch," Lani said.
"Yeah." The women exited the kitchen chatting animatedly leaving the men staring forlornly after them.
"Maybe it's something women do," Kurt finally said.
"Do you think we'll ever fully understand them?" asked Monkey.
They looked at each other then simultaneously cracked up laughing.
"Nah, I didn't think so," Monkey said.
Well??? Was it good? Bad? Tell me!!! XD