Foxy, meanwhile, had booked it up to her bedroom, and swiftly shut her door, heading for the car wash in her bathroom. She knew how to use them, luckily, and grabbed the citrus-smelling shampoo as she jumped in.
She began singing, but didn't realize how her voice carried.
Sheriff looked up at the ceiling, his hood tilted to the left slightly. "Ya hear that?" He turned to Luigi, who nodded. "Wonder what she's doin' up there that she's singin'?"
Luigi shrugged, and lined up his shot for his turn. He had just discovered the game of pool, and already he loved it. "Guido, we-a need to get one of these, I insist!"
Sheriff chuckled, and watching as Luigi took the shot, still pondering what Foxy was doing. He glanced back up at the ceiling, then began rolling out of the room and towards the ramp to go upstairs, intent on finding Foxy. "I'll be back, Luigi. Guido, ya shoot for me." He began rolling up the ramps, and paused when he got to Foxy's mostly-closed door. Her voice carried out from the roughly-an-inch-wide gap, and he chuckled as he recognized the song she was singing as an Irish sea shanty.
"Shave his belly with a rusty razor, shave his belly with a rusty razor, shave his belly with a rusty razor earl-ay in the mornin'! Way hay an' up she rises, way hay an' up she rises, way hay an' up she rises earl-ay in the mornin'! Put him in a long boat 'till he's sober, put him in a long boat 'till he's sober, put him in a long boat 'till he's sober earl-ay in the mornin'! Way hay an' up she rises, way hay an' up she rises, way hay an' up she rises, earl-ay in the mornin'!"
She didn't notice that her bedroom door's shadow was creeping across the curtain for the car washing machine, or that there hadn't even been a shadow before, while it was shut. As she hummed the melody, at the music break, Sheriff took the opportunity to creep closer to her bathroom door, which she had foolishly left open. She turned around, still humming the melody, and through the distorted shower curtain (which had colorful, beachy prints on it), thought she saw a shadow, although she couldn't really tell. She peered closer, her eyes narrowing slightly, then she shut them and winced as the shampoo got in her eyes. "Oh, that shampoo is so stingy!" She complained, completely cutting off her humming to scrub at her eyes with her hands. She shut the water off, then began reaching blindly through the crack between the shower curtain and the wall for a towel, which she was sure that she had left sitting on the counter.
Sheriff chuckled quietly, and unfortunately, Foxy heard it. He watched as her hand froze, and her fingers shook.
"Wh-Who's there?" She asked warily, but this time Sheriff didn't make a sound. She returned to searching for her towel, and Sheriff pushed it closer to her hand. She continued to reach around blindly, and her hand brushed his tire. There was a gasp, then her hand withdrew like lightning, the towel in her grasp. Her head poked around the shower curtain, and her jaw dropped.
Sheriff just looked at her, a smile forming on his bumper.
"I….." Her lips tried to form words, but nothing made it out of her mouth. She was completely floored to find Sheriff parked on the other side of the shower curtain, and try as she might, she couldn't seem to usher a scream from her throat. Instead, she just shut her mouth, and ducked behind the shower curtain again, only to return in about a minute. "H-Hand me another towel, Sheriff."
He chuckled, and tossed a towel over the shower curtain, earning a small yelp of surprise from Foxy.
"I said hand it to me, not toss it up so it hits me in the head!"
He just laughed, and she shoved the shower curtain aside, a towel wrapped around her hair and middle, knotted at the top and the bottom. "Now, you decided to barge in… why?"
"We could hear ya singin' from all the way downstairs."
"Was I really that loud?" She asked, taking her hair out of the towel she had wrapped it in so she could dry it.
"Yep."
"I'll be out in five minutes, all right?"
He took that as his cue to leave, but stopped on the other side of the door.
She came out later, dressed in a pair of baggy jeans, a long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows, and carrying a pair of cobalt blue socks.
"That was only four minutes."
"Oh shut up, it took me another minute to get out here." She shoved him in the side playfully, and yelped as he swatted a tire at her bare ankles. "C'mon, knock it off!" She squealed, bolting for the ramp to go down.
He just laughed and chased after her, all the way down to the bottom floor, where Luigi and Guido were still playing pool.
She leaped over the back of a couch, and hid on the cushions, hissing frantically at Luigi and Guido to not tell Sheriff. They nodded, and he rolled in seconds later, looking from one side of the room to the other.
"Where'd she go?"
At that moment, Foxy slid off the couch, and yelped in surprise, loudly.
"Found ya!"
"Ohh, no!" She shrieked and he pinned her to the ground, wrapping his tires around her legs.
"Luigi, get her arms! Let's throw 'er in the pool!"
"NOOOO!" Foxy squealed, and began thrashing. "No, don'tthrowmeinthepool,don'tthrowmeinthepool,don'tthrowmeinthepool!" She exclaimed frantically, and Sheriff laughed, setting her on the couch. "Sheriff, you are such a-a- rowdy teenager! Why?!"
He just laughed again and went to finish his game with Luigi; the winner of their match was going to play Guido.
She sighed, then got more comfortable on the couch, rotating the way she was facing so she could watch them play. It wasn't long before she pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and snuggled underneath it, her legs curled up and leaning against the cushion that made up the back of the seat.
The three just kept playing, with the occasional amused glance in her direction.
As the excitement began winding down for Foxy, she felt herself beginning to doze. She thought nothing of it, just rolled onto her left side, curled her legs up, pulled the blanket up over her shoulders, and laid her head on the pillow.
Guido looked over at her from his seat, a 'director' chair that was in the room by the foosball table. He tried to get Luigi's attention quietly, but Luigi was too entertained by the fact that there was a game where you could shoot spheres labeled with numbers and colors into six pockets with nothing but a stick and a cream-colored sphere. Guido sighed, and gave up on that for the moment, since it was his turn.
And so the three played on, and Lightning didn't even notice when he came back from the beach.
In fact, the only time anyone noticed that she wasn't in her room was for dinner. They each went to look on a separate floor, Lightning thinking that she was playing hide-and-seek.
Sheriff volunteered to search the bottom floor, and faintly wondered if she had somehow slipped past them and gone to the beach again. He left the game room through the sliding glass doors, heading for the beach that was nearly in their backyard. He parked on the dune that separated the house from the water, and his gaze swept from left to right, looking for red and yellow anything.
He kept looking for fifteen minutes, then sighed and went back to the house, figuring that one of the others had found her. It was an extremely large surprise to him when he noticed her sleeping on the couch, facing the pool table. He rolled over to the couch, and nudged the hand that she had dangling limply off the couch. "Foxy. Foxy, c'mon. It's time to wake up." He chuckled as she mumbled and rolled over, then picked her up and set her on his hood gently.
She just curled up and slept on, and he took her up the two ramps to her room. He rolled into her room, and gently rolled her off his hood, onto the bunk bed mattress she had chosen for her own. He nudged her away from the edge, then rolled out of her room quietly, shutting the door after he was out. "Found 'er."
"Where?"
"She was on the couch downstairs, sleepin'."
"She was asleep?"
Sheriff nodded, and Lightning snickered.
"That sounds like Foxy, all right."
Lightning and Sheriff rounded up Luigi and Guido, and the group headed back upstairs to the main room, to read a book, watch television, and drink some fuel.
It wasn't long before they heard the sound of Foxy's sleepy footsteps, making their way up the ramp. Lightning and Sheriff chuckled, and looked over at the ramp, waiting for her to appear.
When she reached the top, she blinked sleepily and yawned, and they laughed.
"Have a nice nap, Foxy?"
"What day is it…?"
"Awww, she's so confused. C'mere, Foxy." Lightning replied with a fond laugh.
She made her way over, but tripped over the low table, and ended up in a heap on his hood.
He set her on the couch at his side, and she curled up and snuggled against his fender. He draped a tire around her in a hug.
"How long was I asleep for?" She asked with a yawn.
"'Bout three, four hours at least."
"Okay." She yawned again, and made herself more comfortable, resting her head against Lightning's fender.
He glanced down at her with a smile, and let her pull his tire around her shoulders more, letting her use it as a sort of blanket. He glanced out the wall of sliding glass doors, and took notice that it was nighttime, the moon shining brightly on the part of the ocean that he could see over the railing from his position. He returned his attention to Foxy as she shifted her position, and he smiled as he noticed that she had fallen asleep again. "She's so tired, she can barely keep herself awake." He remarked quietly, and the others looked over to see her curled up, long waves of red flowing off the cushions.
"You wanna leave 'er there for the night?"
"Nah, I'll take her down." Using the same tire that she had pulled over her shoulders, Lightning gently scooped her up, and cradled her against his fender so he wouldn't drop her. He rolled down the ramp and into her room, then pulled the covers down on the mattress she had claimed. He slid her underneath them, then pulled them back up over her.
I really like this chapter, just because it starts out being really awkward, then ends up being really cute and full of fluff. :3 Soo... guess who was up until four thirty last night typing? XD If you said moi, you would be correct! I honestly have no idea what I was thinking, although I've stayed up all night before. XD
I don't own the Irish sea shanty Foxy was singing, the Irish Rovers do. :) If anyone's interested in looking for it, it's called 'What Do We Do With A Drunken Sailor'. :)