A Bad Hand, Ch2: Second Player, Play Low

"Come on Rin, get up already!"

The boy in question raised his head, to see an impatient Asa, who was already half way through getting dressed. She was currently trying to pull on a t-shirt and tie her hair at the same time. All she had managed was to tie herself to the t-shirt. Rin sighed, but knew better than to try to help, she always wanted to do things by herself as much as possible, even to destruction, although Rin generally stepped in before things got too bad.

Rin groaned as he sat up. They had been sleeping in Asa's old room. Well, sleeping was most emphatically not the only thing that they had been doing. Rin grinned at the thought. Then he turned to his girlfriend again, who had managed, in addition to her t-shirt and ribbon, to entangle her bra as well. 'Oh dear,' Rin thought, getting out of the bed to help her.

After having untangled Asa, and having got dressed, they made their way down for a good full breakfast, or so Rin thought.

"Ah, you're up, do you want me to make some breakfast?"

"Thanks Mum, but we're going to go out soon, so we'll only have time for toast."

"What?" Rin was greatly distressed by this news, he had hoped to have a decent breakfast at a leisurely pace, instead of the usual mad and panicked breakfast before running out the door still adjusting one's tie.

"We have to go see the other's as soon as possible you know!"

"Asa, it's only 9 o'clock, most sane people would still be in bed."

"Then we can go see Kaede, she'll be up."

'Damn, she thinks of everything.' Rin never beat his girlfriend in an argument, but he still fought valiantly, "Yes but, she'll be making her own and Rimu's breakfast, we shouldn't disturb them so soon."

Asa thought for a minute, while Rin mentally chanted 'Please, Please, Please!' Then Asa looked up at him, "I suppose," then she turned to her mother, "I guess we'll take you up on your offer then."

'This is a day I shall never forget,' Rin thought, 'I finally won an argument with Asa, for once she didn't use the puppy-dog-eyes trick when she was close to losing, I won!'

"Oh but Rin, in that case you can take the trash out can't you?" Asa said.

'Talk about raining on my parade...' but Rin silently did as ordered.

-----

Words of wisdom, hearts: Cat-girls are sexy, evidence: Primula's maid costume.

-----

Fenrir growled somewhere in the back of his throat, this game was going nowhere. Every round, one of the other three were playing, but they always bid too high, and failed to make any way. All it did was put Fenrir in a huge lead. 'But if I can't play a round, I'm not likely to win, eventually one of these guys is going to make a bid, and then of course eventually one of them will make a game, then a rubber. This is tedious.'

He played his last card, stopping Wodin from making his bid. The God sighed, "That's the seventh round, and you're the only one to make your bid Fenrir, how did you do it?"

"I just did, now can we please move on."

"Okay, okay," Loki said, as the cards mysteriously shuffled and dealt themselves, "We get it, you're bored, even playing with fates isn't exciting enough for you it seems."

"It's because it's with fates that this tedium is even more annoying." Fenrir silently wondered why Loki ever played, he was dire at bridge. Nerine did not stand a chance with Rin. 'As they say, second player play low, but who're first, third and fourth to try?'

"How so?" Ask questioned as the cards were dealt.

"To be bored just shows how shallow this really is, and I hate it."

"Well do you want to give up then?"

"No, there is a girl's fate on my shoulders, I won't disgrace myself by stopping, but you are the ones who should concede, or else things may go out of hand."

"Oh really?" Wodin asked, taking his hand, "Well it's you to bid Fenrir."

Hardly glancing at his cards, Fenrir said "Four Spades."

-----

As Rin finished up his breakfast, Asa was pulling her shoes on. 'She's still as energetic as ever, which is sometimes good but mostly just tires me out.' Rin stood up as he finished, walking over to Asa as she leaped up, ready to go.

"Come on Rin. You are the slowest guy ever."

"Well you are the most energetic girl ever."

"I'm not a girl, I'm a woman," she said, fluttering eyelashes at about 1000 fpm (flutters per minute).

"Well you don't need to use your womanly ways on me, I'm already completely helpless when you're concerned," Rin replied, as he stood from putting his own shoes on. Then he wrapped his arms around Asa and pulled her in for a kiss.

"Awww... Rin, you're so sweet."

"It's all for you Asa."

Ama put her head round the door, "Are you two going to stand there all day, or have you got friends to see?"

"Good point, bye Mum, let's go Rin," Asa said, pulling a slightly reluctant Rin after her.

Ama laughed at her daughter's antics, and at Rin's face as he was suddenly pulled out the door. 'My, my, how does he survive? He seems to just follow whatever she tells him, it's easy to see who 'wears the trousers' in their relationship.' This conjured up an image of Rin in a skirt, which kept Ama laughing for quite some time.

-----

"You made it again Fenrir, how I have no idea," Wodin stated, as Fenrir played his last card, the queen of spades, winning the last trick he needed.

"It's just a nack, now can we get on with this, I only have a finite amount of patience you know."

"Sure, sure, you don't need to feel so rushed though, we still have quite a few rounds, we can take our time," said Loki.

"That's just prolonging the inevitable, trust me on that one," Fenrir replied calmly, as the cards shuffled and dealt themselves again.

"What is so inevitable?" Ask queried.

"You'll see," was all Fenrir divulged, before picking up his hand again.

-----

Kaede, Primula, Sia and Nerine were all sitting round Kaede's kitchen table, with a game board in front of them, and cards in hand.

Sia gave a glare to each of them, as she rolled her dice, then moved her red model to the centre square. "I accuse... Professor Plum, in the kitchen, with the lead piping." She checked the cards, she was right. "I win again."

Nerine sighed, "You always win at this, let's play something different." As she said this, they heard the doorbell ring.

"Who could that be?" Kaede said as she stood to answer the door, while the other three squabbled over what game to play. She reached the door and opened it, to reveal two smiling faces, one with green hair, and the other with brown. Kaede blinked then smiled as Asa jumped to give her a hug. "Asa, Rin, it's been ages."

"Yeah, it's good to see you again Kaede," Rin said, somewhat calmer than his girlfriend.

The other three girls had come out of the kitchen after having heard the slight commotion. Primula stood still and smiled, Nerine walked forward to greet the newcomers, and Sia jumped forward shouting "RIN!" and promptly throwing her arms around him.

Rin collapsed under Sia. He groaned, "Sia, it's nice to see you too, but did you really have to jump me?"

Sia's eyes and attitude changed, "What? Don't you like having young ladies jumping at you and you ending up underneath them?"

"Um," Rin saw the fire that had suddenly appeared in Asa's eyes as she watched the scene. "Well I don't need girls to jump at me... I already have a girlfriend," he said, grinning stupidly.

"Oh~, I just wanted to give my old friend a hug, is there something wrong with that?" Sia was back to her 'normal' self in a second. She climbed off Rin and helped him up.

'That damn Kikyou will be the death of me one of these days,' Rin mentally grumbled as he got up.

"So you two," Kaede started, leading them into the kitchen, "How've you been these last months?"

"Not bad, well, Rin's as bad a morning person as ever, but you wouldn't expect him to improve that much, he's far too lazy," Asa said, giggling a little.

"Just because you have more energy than a hyperactive four-year old the whole time, it does NOT give you the right to call others lazy," Rin complained, glaring a little at Asa.

"Huh? Well I was just telling the truth, you are pretty damn lazy most of the time."

"Be that as it may, you don't need to tell everyone."

"True, everyone already knows."

Rin could not argue back at this, and so tried to salvage some pride by maintaining a stern silence. He took the chance to have a look around the kitchen. Not much had changed, a new toaster was all he could find that was different from his last visit. 'Same old house,' he looked at his friends, who were now holding a private inquisition for Asa about her life for the past few months, making Rin smile, 'Same old people.'

Everything seemed just the same as it had been four years ago...

-Flashback-

"So this is our last day..." Rin said, walking down the street with Asa, hand-in-hand.

"Yeah... it seems like not so very long ago, things were so different..."

"Well it's not been all that long since I didn't have a beautiful girl dating me, but that's beside the point," Rin said as they turned into the school.

"RIN TSUCHIMI!" Rin and Asa looked for the speaker, and saw about 50 boys standing together, glaring at Rin. "We are the AAA, and we demand..."

"The AA? Like the car repair people?" Rin asked.

"NO! The AAA. The Agents of Angelic Asa, and we demand you stop monopolising Miss Asa!" the leader said.

"Seems like some things never change," Asa said quietly.

"Oh really?" Rin said, then turned to the 'AAA,' "What'll happen if I don't comply?"

"We will hunt you down like the dog you are, Tsuchimi," The whole group answered.

"Really? Evidently you didn't expect one thing..." a group of girls appeared from nowhere and surrounded the group.

"Wh-what's this?"

The girl all cried shouted, "We're the RAF, the RinXAsa Fangirls!"

Rin started laughing, "Now, feel the wrath of my FANGIRLS!"

Soon thereafter the 'AAA' were incapable, and unwilling to bother Rin again.

-End-Flashback-

Rin let out a little laugh. 'Okay, maybe things do change now and then...'

-----

Words of Wisdom, hearts 2: Fangirls are bloody scary, evidence: you don't need it.

-----

Another round

Has come and gone,

Our best guess

May still be wrong.

'Interesting, Ask actually made his bid... this could be less boring than I thought.'

Ask smiled, "Well things are going a little better now I think."

Wodin sighed, "You lucky guy, that was very close."

"So were both of Fenrir's," Ask pointed out.

"That's because I predicted well, you were indeed lucky," Fenrir stated, 'Yes, lucky that Wodin failed to see what you were trying to do, the idiot.'

"You just say that Fenrir, but regardless, nobody's won yet." Ask smiled as the cards reshuffled.

'Hmmm... for him to win, that means that Miss Fuyou is making some kind of move... or it may be circumstantial... I can't tell yet.' Fenrir glanced at his watch, and willed the face to show him Rin and Asa. 'Interesting... they are at Kaede's house, this could change things very quickly...'

-----

A/N: Okay, the flashback was a bit random. Thanks to Elias Pedro for the one review I got. Anyone else, please review!

Bis Bald

BW