(Been almost a year since my last chapter and I hope this one lives up to the other ones. In any case, I wrote this in July and only got around to typing it tonight and it's going to have at least two more parts. YAY FOR PLOTLINES! Also, Lloyd is going to be at the heart of this little plot line thingy. YAY FOR LLOYDNESS! Anyway, read, review, and enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE LEGEND OF DRAGOON IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM. I think that I do own the idea of an insanely rich Lloyd. I could be wrong about that, though.)
Chapter 4: Christmas in July Pt. 1: The Request
Lloyd was sunbathing on his tiled patio next to his Olympic sized, in ground, filled with salt water pool when his phone rang. With a sigh, he picked himself up from his towel and went inside his palatial house. He finally found one of his three cordless phones in his home movie theater. "Hello," he said into the phone. "Lloyd speaking. Who is this?"
"It's Dart."
'Oh, hell,' thought Lloyd. "Who gave you this number?" he asked Dart.
"Huh?" asked Dart, obviously very confused.
"Oh, never mind," Lloyd sighed. "What do you want?"
"Well, you know what time of year it is, don't you?" asked Dart.
Lloyd thought about it for a moment and drew a blank. "No, Dart," said Lloyd, trying very hard to hide his growing impatience. "I haven't a clue about what time of year it is. Please enlighten me."
"Hold on a minute," said Dart.
Lloyd sat down in one of the plush red velvet theater chairs and thought, 'Remember, Dart is like an extremely temperamental five year old child.'
Lloyd was torn away from his thoughts when he heard Dart yell, "Shana, what does 'enlighten' mean?"
"I don't know," said Shana. "Why don't you look it up?"
"Why can't you do it?" whined Dart.
"I'm busy making brownies."
"BROWNIES?!" Dart screamed, causing Lloyd to jump and hold the phone farther away from his ear. "Sorry about that," Dart said into the phone in a normal voice. Lloyd hesitantly brought the phone back to his ear as Dart said, "Anyway, we were wondering if we could hold the First Annual Christmas in July Barbecue at your place. Rose more or less wrecked Christmas in December, what with her cookies and all, so we're hoping that this can make up for it."
"And why at my house? I'm not even a Dragoon," asked Lloyd skeptically.
"Because you're our friend, Lloyd," said Dart in a voice that sounded awfully rehearsed to Lloyd's ears.
"And?" prompted Lloyd.
"Your house is biggest," Dart said quickly and quietly. "You didn't hear that from me, though."
"Why should I let you all come here after what happened the last time I played host to one of your little parties?"
FLASHBACK
Kongol runs towards Lloyd's pool. "CANNONBALL!" he yells, jumping in and causing a huge splash. Kongol sits in the bottom of the now empty pool as Shana stands at the edge glaring in at him. Her arms are crossed and she is tapping her foot angrily. The immense amount of water has caused her hair to poof out into an afro. Miranda and Haschel stand under an umbrella, perfectly dry, and laugh their asses off at her. "What?" Shana says. "Are either of you anything without your straightening iron?"
Meanwhile, Meru and Dart are playing DDR in Lloyd's basement arcade. Meru is on Heavy mode and getting all Perfects while Dart is on Beginner mode and failing miserably. "Stupid game!" he yells. "Why won't you let me win?" The song ends and Meru winds up with a AAA rating. Dart gets a D.
"D for Dart!" Meru chirps cheerfully as she scrolls through the song selection screen. Dart gets off the dance platform and puts his fist into the game's screen.
"Stupid game!" he yells again, before stomping off.
"I guess I don't get to play the winner, then?" asks Albert. Meru shakes her head and leads him over to a House of the Dead game.
Lloyd sneaks down a hallway and slips through the door to his library. "No one'll come here. I don't even think that any of them can read, besides Albert." A whip cracks and Lloyd jumps up about a foot in the air. He turns around to see Rose standing between him and the only way out decked out in full dominatrix gear and a look of horror and fear plants itself on his face.
"Hello, Lloyd darling," Rose says seductively as she cracks the whip again. Meru and Haschel are lurking outside the library doors, listening to what's going on inside. The sound of Lloyd screaming is heard followed by the sound of something ripping. At that very moment, Albert comes up the stairs followed by a very depressed looking Dart.
"Hey," Albert says, "do any of you know where Lloyd is?"
Someone screams from inside the library. "Hey! Wait! That doesn't bend that way!" Dart's face brightens up almost instantly and he turns back to the stairs.
"I gotta go get the others. They have got to hear this." He returns with Shana, Miranda, and Kongol just in time to hear the whip crack from behind the door.
"Thank you, mistress. May I have another?" CRACK "Thank you, mistress. May I have another?" CRACK
END FLASHBACK
"And you know, Lloyd," Dart was saying when Lloyd returned from his life scarring flashback, "you don't even have to worry about feeding us. We were thinking we'd do a potluck kind of thing. And we'll stay outside. And Kongol won't go in the pool. And we'll make sure that Rose doesn't have her dominatrix stuff before we come to your house. And I promise --"
Lloyd cut Dart off. "Okay! Okay!" he said, feeling the beginnings of a headache. "Cease your incessant babbling. You can have your goddamn party here. But I will definitely have to lay down some rules and guidelines."
"WOO-HOO!" screamed Dart, causing Lloyd to once again move the phone away from his ear. "Thanks a lot, Lloyd! Hey, Shana! What does 'incessant' mean?"
Lloyd hung up the phone and activated the recliner feature of his chair. "What have I just done?" he moaned. "I can feel the bruises on my ass already."
(You know you loved it so now tell me why!)