Hey guys! Here is the next update. For those of you that know me, from now on I'm making it a policy to keep plans for the next chapters undisclosed (except of you can get my tongue to slip, which is pretty easy -- ) And for those of you who don't know me, I'm glad to know you care. (warm fuzzies) Okay, I'll shut up and get to the story already.
--
The next day, Evora decided to have fun with her situation. She planned something she had always dreamed of, something she had been yelled at in Biology for dreaming about, something she thought of to soothe her before going to bed every night: taking her bishounen to an amusement park.
She broke the news to them at breakfast.
"Whatever you want." Axel told her, leaning casually back in his chair.
Riku just gave her a horrified look.
"Okay." said Sephiroth agreeably, scraping the jam jar clean for his toast.
"What's wrong, Riku-kohai?" Axel asked. "Did you want more syrup?"
"I can't believe you guys agreed to go with her!" he yelled.
"Don't be the party pooper." Axel scolded. "You should be happy we're not being hoarded in a basement or cuddled all day or whatever you weird fangirls like to come up with to torture us."
"Hey." growled Evora. "I'm not that bad, am I? Am I, Riku-san?" she asked, secretly dreading his rejection.
"No." the white-haired bishie mumbled. "I'm going to get ready."
When Riku left, Sephy shook his head. "There always has to be a spoilsport. He'll enjoy it, I know it Evora."
Evora hastily smiled
her thanks and took her plate to the sink.
"Axel-sama, it's
your turn." she said evilly.
"No, it's Sephiroth-san's." he told her, wiping some syrup off his chin. "I did them at lunch yesterday."
"No, that was Evora-kun." Sephy argued. "You haven't done the dishes since Monday! You little cheat!"
"Nuh-uh! Just ask Riku-kohai! I traded him yesterday's breakfast for lunch!"
"I'll do them, guys! Don't worry!" Evora interrupted. The oldest bishies stopped arguing to look at her.
"………. I'll do them, Evora-kun." Axel said, getting up from the table.
"Aww, you're so sweet!" Evora squeed.
He pushed Evora away from the sink. "Get out of the way."
--
They fortunately got to the park without anymore problems. It was rather bright spring day, so Sephiroth and Riku wore sunglasses. Evora made Riku take her hand as the four walked around the park.
"This is so awesome!" she said happily.
"Yeah, I guess." Axel sighed, running a hand through his red hair. "What do you do here?"
"Ah, yes. Let's start out simple at the arcade." Evora said, rather like a tour guide. She led them into the nearest arcade and started showing them all the games inside.
"That is a shooting game, that's a basketball thing, skee ball, prize machine, driving thingy, motorcycle thingy, and that is DDR." She dragged them over to the DDR machine, which was impossibly unused.
"Let me show you first." she instructed, getting on the board and selecting the easiest song. The bishies watched with an air of indifference.
"Riku-san, you're next." Evora ordered, getting down and pushing the bishie onto the board. "Choose whatever song you want."
To make a long story short, Riku chose Sandstorm because he liked the music. Not only did he choose it; he also danced to it. Evora fell to her knees in amazement.
"Riku-kun! That was unbelievable! Where did you get those skills?!" he shrugged casually. Axel was next, and he was smart enough to choose an easier song. Sephy went last, but he failed to grasp the concept of dancing and kept trying to get the arrows one-by-one.
"Enough Sephy-sama." Evora told him, dragging him off the board. "I see something I think you would love." Riku stayed to dance some more, as a crowd had gathered to watch him, and the bishie loved the attention. Axel tagged along with Sephy, and eventually the three came to a new game: Whack-A-Mole.
"I don't get it." Sephiroth said, squinting at the instructions again.
"It's simple." Evora instructed. "Just watch me." She put her quarter into the slot and grabbed the mallet. A mole close to her popped up, and she pounded it. "You just hit the moles when they come up."
"But they aren't moles. That would be…. animal abuse."
"Just pretend. It's okay to hate moles."
"If you say so."
There was a yell from the crowd around Riku, so Evora left to investigate.
"Axel-san, help me with this." Sephy asked, giving him the second mallet on the machine and scooting over. Axel took out a quarter.
"Ready?"
"Let's do this."
He put in the quarter and quickly readied himself in a warrior's stance. Along with Sephiroth, who was left-handed, those moles never had a chance. The first one came up, and the bishies whacked it at the same time. One came up on Sephy's side, and he smote the mole before it came completely out of its hole.
"My turn!" yelled Axel, smacking it just as well as Sephy.
"You have earned my respect, Axel-san," Sephy said reverently.
"I am honored."
The two pummeled the remaining moles, and Axel continued their mission by putting more quarters in.
--
An hour later, Evora came back with Riku. The older bishies had gotten very excited by this time, and before Evora had a chance to do anything about it, they solved the mole problem one and for all.
"Begone!" Sephiroth yelled, beheading any mole that came up with his sword.
"No! Sephy-sama! Stop!" Evora yelled, running over and tugging on his arm. "You can't do that!"
"I almost did it, Evora-kun! There were only a few left!" Sephiroth whined.
"That's not the point!" Evora scolded him. "You're only supposed to use the mallets!"
"But that's not effective at all!" Axel disagreed, joining in the argument. "If you just use the rubber mallets, there is no way you could do enough damage to accomplish your goal."
"That's… augh…. you have to….. urgh!" Evora griped. "Grr… that's not the point!"
"But you said to-"
"I know what I said! Let's get out of here before they find us."
--
When they left the arcade, Sephiroth's stomach growled. "Hey, Evora-kun-"
"Don't talk to me. I'm getting hungry. Do you guys have my wallet?"
"Here it is." Axel said nervously, handing it to her. She opened it up and searched through it.
"What did you do with all the money?" Evora asked frighteningly, turning to the oldest bishies slowly.
"Uh… spend it on games?" Axel confessed, dread filtering into his voice.
"Evora! Stay calm!" Riku begged her.
"I'm perfectly calm." she told him, a huge vein popping out on her temple. "So, Axel-sama, what do you propose we do for lunch?"
"Uh…"
"Hey, guys, look at this." Sephy called, giving Evora a flyer. She took it, a vein standing out on her arm.
"A go-kart race?" she continued reading down the flyer. "If you win, you get a free meal for yourself and up to four other people at any restaurant of your choice in the park. This is our only chance."
--
Riku revved his engine, showing Axel which pedal was go and which was stop.
"I think I've got it!" he yelled over to the youngest. Riku just gave him a thumbs-up and waited for the flag to go.
The race started, and Riku tore out of the pit. Axel punched the brake long enough to figure out it was the wrong one, then sped out of the pit with the very last people. Sephiroth was between them, his long hair flying out behind him. He soon passed Riku, but didn't recognize him because of his goggles. Riku 's eyes narrowed, and he changed lanes to get ahead. However, there was on guy in his way. Riku punched the middle of the steering wheel, which happened to not have a horn. The driver in front of him sensed Riku's frustration and turned around to look.
"Cloud-sama!" Riku squeaked. The spiky-haired emo nodded, his custom goggles catching the sunlight. He saluted with two fingers and sped away from Riku.
"Cotton-headed ninnymuggins." Riku growled, and gunned his engine.
Far ahead, Sephiroth sensed a presence. He looked over his shoulder just in time to behold-
"It's been a long time…Sephiroth."
"You just wanted to quote me from the movie!" Sephy yelled, outraged. Cloud said nothing, but maneuvered in front of his adversary. Sephy's lip curled, and he sped off catch up with Cloud.
Meanwhile, Axel was slowly but surely catching up with the rest of the pack. He came up just in time to see Sephiroth race off after Cloud. But from behind him came an anonymous and uncontrollable force: Tifa Lockhart. She was here because Cloud was taking her on a date, but she was Tifa. She had a dastardly plan in her conniving heart and was seconds away from executing it. She caught up with Cloud and Sephiroth and suddenly punched her gas, swerving forward and around in front of Cloud. Cloud's excellent warrior reflexes caught this sudden change in environment. Meanwhile, near them was Riku. He had caught up to his older competitors and was about to own them all by jumping over. But in order to make the revenge sweeter, he had to jump over Sephiroth and Cloud and show them up as pansies. The white-haired bishie crossed over four lanes and pulled up right behind the Tifa conflict. Having complete and irrational self-confidence, in slow motion he threw his weight down and popped a wheelie, gliding over the conflict. By now Cloud had decided it was time to reveal his skills. He opened the sides of his go-kart, revealing its true identity as Cloud's motorcycle. The blonde had a sword in his hand right as Tifa's go-kart rammed into his lovely motorcycle, making it vault into the air. Sensing Riku's impending collision, Cloud jumped off his motorcycle and sliced straight through the flying go-kart. Riku freed himself from the go-kart and flew though the air in a perfect arc. At the top he gracefully pressed the emergency parachute button on his vest and glided gently back to earth. Through all this, Sephiroth had managed to escape by veering off the track and skidding to a stop in the grassy center.
Eventually, Riku and Tifa's go-karts smashed into each other and burst into flame. Cloud heroically rescued Tifa and carried her to the side of the track, never knowing it was her all along. The not-so-accidental accident caused a traffic jam, and who should come puttering out of the smoke but Axel, to cross the finish line as the winner.
--
"We owe you one, Axel-san." Sephiroth said as the group walked out of the track. "You got us all lunch, while I had to evacuate."
"All in a day's work for The Flurry of Dancing Flames." Axel said proudly.
"Riku, are you okay?" Evora asked suddenly. The jock bishie looked pale and a bit ill.
"I think I should… sit down." he groaned.
"We're almost to McDonalds." Sephy told Riku comfortingly. "Did that fiasco make you sick?" Riku nodded miserably.
"Okay." Evora instructed. "I'll stay here with Riku-san. Sephy-san, you go to the nurse's station and get some anti-acids since Axel-san is the one that has to order the food." Sephy agreed and told Axel what he wanted for lunch, then went off to the nurse's station. Axel took the other two party members' orders and trotted off to get their lunch. He whipped out his certificate as soon as he got to the counter.
"I want two Big Macs, one with grilled onion, one with ketchup only, a 10-piece chicken nugget with ranch, a water and a large Dr. Pepper. Got it memorized?"
The guy behind the counter blinked and punched the order into the register.
--
Riku recovered remarkably quick, and to console him for missing the McDonald's lunch the bishounen let him go first at the next game.
He looked up at the lofty heights of the bell, and back down again at the striking surface, and to the hammer in his hand.
"So I just smite it, right? Like the others did at the mole game?"
"Yep. Go ahead and give it a whack."
"If you say so." Riku pulled back and hit the hammer as hard as he could.
"You little baby." Axel laughed. "It only went up to fifteen!"
"Oh yeah? Let's see you do it, you spleeny pigeon egg." Riku growled.
"Maybe I will." Axel snapped back, seizing the hammer and raining a mighty blow on the surface.
"Haha, twenty-five you clack-dish." Sephy teased. "Lemme try." He swatted the square target up to thirty-five.
"Muwaha! I beat you all!" Sephy cheered, striking a pose.
"Shut up." Riku said vainly. "Me and Axel-san put together will prevail." He and Axel took up the hammer and raised it to forty. The winning number was fifty.
"Teamwork, my friends." Evora said wisely. "Let Sephy-san help."
"I'll break the bell for you." Sephy declared.
"Just help, you codpiece."
The three each gripped the handle with one hand. Three arms raised, veins popping out. The bell did indeed ring, but not break.
"Score!" yelled Axel, as tickets were now pouring out of the game.
"Let's blow it all right now!" Riku shouted, collecting them in his arms and running off to the ticket booth.
Riku got a glowy necklace and Axel a mini electric fan. By then, the only thing Sephiroth could get was a huge stuffed bear if he wanted to use all his tickets. The prize guy pushed it on him and closed up shop.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Sephy wailed, holding the toy like a puppy.
"Um, Sephy-san?"
"Yes?" Sephiroth turned to see Evora tugging on his sleeve.
"You can give it to me." the fangirl asked shyly.
"Aw, what the heck." Sephiroth grinned and placed the bear into her waiting arms.
"Thank you!" she squeed, blushing.
"You were right. He is pansy." Axel whispered to Riku.
--
OMG, I am amazed at how much time it's taken to finish this. Curse you, two-story building of stone and glass. I'd like to thank my little sister for being brilliant and coming up with the high point of the story for me. Now just make me come downstairs when you're watching anime, dangit! And of course Stephiroth-sensei for getting me started on this whole caper.