ATTENTION: If you read this story up to four days after this was posted, this chapter will look familiar to you. This is because I accidentally posted this document, which is chapter two, as chapter one. XD Please go back to read the REAL chapter one if this is the case. A thousand pardons for my idiocy and thanks for reading!!! XD

-bows-

-S


"Tyki and his girlfriend sitting in a tree!"

"K-i-s-s-i-n-g! First comes love, then comes marriage, he!"

"Then comes Tyki with a baby carriage!"

"He, he, he!" A chorus of giggles rained down on the object of the chant's stiff back.

"Shut up, you two…"

"Tyki has a girlfriend!"

'Tyki has a girlfriend!"

"He has a giiiiirlfriend!!!"

Stereo was far too much. "I said shut up, twins!" Tyki whirled on the twins who, instead of halting as most stalkers would have, charged him and began indulging in their favorite game: pull-Tyki's-hair-without-getting-smacked, or simply Pull-o! (in honor of the Earl and his habit of adding random vowels to the end of words).

"Twins? We don't know who 'twins' are!"

"Yeah, that's right! We're Jasdebi, he!"

"Jasdebi!"

"Ow! Dammit, twins!" A string of words followed this exclamation that should never be repeated and, as Tyki's foul luck would have it, were caught by the massive ears of Millennium.

"Tyki-pon! Twinsu! What is that ruckus I hear?" The source of the sickeningly familiar voice emerged in all his bath-robed glory, glasses sparkling in an ominous way. "If you need to be noisy, take it outside."

Before the beleaguered victim could open his mouth to explain the situation, Debitto gave a smart salute and shouted militantly, "Yes, Sir, Earl-samma, sir!"

Both he and Jasdero grabbed a fistful of curled, ebony locks and began marching towards the nearest exit with no sympathy for the incidentally tender scalp the hair was attached to.

"And Tyki-pon! Watch your mouth! I would hate for those words to slip out around Road… It always hurts me when I have to punish you children."

Ridiculously outnumbered, Tyki abandoned any plans for escape and put all his steadily draining energy into staggering backwards in a desperate attempt to ease the strain on his hair.


"Girlfriend!"

"Giiiirlfriend!" The intensity of the twins' teasing had significantly waned after a heated chase in the yard. Tyki sat, arms crossed and head plopped with defeat in the resulting nest. The twins were on either side of him, flushed and fading fast under the intense mid-day heat but still continuing to prod the almost lifeless form of Tyki.

"Girl…"

"friend…" In unison Jasdero and Debitto collapsed onto the picnic table, cheeks squishing against the steel, diamond covered surface.

A golden eye snuck over Tyki's crossed arms to analyze the state of his aggressors. Upon confirming that they were no longer capable of making much trouble, he heaved himself up, propping his chin in between his hands. "Hey, Jasdero… Debitto…"

"Whadisit ya squirrelly bastard?"

Tyki dropped his eyes to the one that had spoken, Debitto. "Where'd you hear that I had a girlfriend?"

"Nowhere, he…" he turned his gaze to Jasdero. The blonde's normally wide fish-eyes were halfway closed with fatigue. The stitches on his mouth strained and laxed as he went on. "Sheryl just looked happy so we guessed it was one of three things…"

"He'd won one of those contests under soft drink caps finally…"

"Road had gotten cloned, he…"

"Or you had a g.f.," a spindly finger jammed into his ribs on the Debitto side, "and you looked so miserable at breakfast so we guessed it was the last one."

"I see…"

Tyki looked up, studying the pristine ornamental garden patches that dotted Sheryl's back yard, and every other self-respecting gentleman's back yard for that matter. He imagined that if he were to go peer over the picturesque white fence that sealed them so neatly into their own little world he would find an identical little garden attached to an identical grand house with the little people moving in and out of it being the only difference.

Such were Sheryl's tastes.

Such was Sheryl's life, built all around rules and agendas and propriety.

It was for this reason that he allowed himself to be terrorized by the twins. Without a little danger what was life good for anyways? Where was the fun in playing by the rules?

Tyki bit down pensively on the fleshy part of his thumb. What was it Sheryl expected him to do exactly? Produce a significant other by the end of the week? Or was he expecting Tyki to freak out and promise to actually start looking for real under the pressure of the deadline? His brother played a hard game, that was to be certain, but what could be more entertaining than ensnaring Sheryl in his own little trap?

He glanced down at the seemingly dozing Debitto and weighed his chances. Slim, at best, but not nonexistent. He would play along. There was nothing he liked more than a good gamble.

"Do you know who it is?"

"Nu-uh…"

"Have any guesses?"

"Nope… he…"

"We don't really care anyways, lover boy," one of Debitto's angled eyes slit open and caught Tyki's peripheral glance, "Just as long as you found one that's prettier than you."