Prophecy Beta
Disclaimer: Erm…Happy Belated Turkey Day?
"When darkness comes,
And all warriors are down,
Three heroes will come and stand.
With their mighty elemental strengths,
They will banish the enemy once more,
Their second victory of their prophecy…"
Chapter 7 – Love Is Hard
Jennie wiped her brow and stretched. Today was work day and since no one was coming into the flower shop because of the sudden thunder storm, it was only natural to clean the greenhouse-like store. Besides, it was the boss's order whether the workers liked it or not.
Bending down, ready to pounce on the windows with detergent, a voice suddenly hissed at her, making Jennie fall on her face. Turning around angrily, she saw no one there. Then she looked at the plants.
Sometimes a voice came out of nowhere or a bunch voices started talking all at once even if no one was at the aisle. At first, Jennie was scared that maybe ghosts were at the flower shop. However, after some time, she realized that it was the plants talking, which only the braided-hair girl could hear. That still freaked her out. Luckily, running around and doing her work allowed her to get used to the talking greens and, sometimes, Jennie even joined their conversations.
Once or twice, the plants did come in handy. Few examples were that the plants sometimes warned when Toya was sneaking up on her, when there was pickpocket nearby, or when a regular customer to the store like "so-and-so" flower so Jennie could help the person.
But, right now, some plant was trying to speak to her. The cactus, a usually lazy and quiet thing, wriggled in its pot so it could get Jennie's attention. Making sure that no one was around, the female walked over to it.
"What's up?" the braided-haired lass greeted.
The cactus hopped up and down franticly, practically falling off the shelf. Jennie caught it quickly and set it back up.
It cried, "Oh, it's horrible, HORRIBLE!"
"What's horrible?"
"The darkness! The Web! My cousins, daughters, family got trapped inside and I can hear their cries! Oh, the pain and misery!"
Jennie's eyes widened. "What about the darkness? Tell me about it!"
"Everything gets sucked into it and broken down! Nothing can live in there and souls are trapped in that blasted dome, their spirits not being able to pass on! It's a horrible thing and it's getting bigger!"
"Do you know where it is?"
"Of course not! The focus is hard enough to find and the Web coming from it is sucking up everything!"
"How big is it?"
"It's too big to tell!"
Jennie thought furiously and recalled about Jackie's description of the disturbance. He swore it was summoned by a human…. "Was the thing brought into here by a human?"
The cactus froze. "Yes. It was by that blasted human who made all this happen! Jennie, beware of this man! He is the real enemy! What's worse is that you know him! He's—"
Abruptly, the talking object wilted, turning brown and starting to break down into small shards as if it had been shattered like ice. Startled at the sudden change, Jennie backed away. What made the plant suddenly die like that?
Then one of the daisies' voices cried out, "Watch out, Jennie!"
Quickly turning around, the woman hopped over a box of seeds, stumbled over some screaming rose bouquets, and finally started to fall backward down some steps. Closing her eyes and waiting for hard contact, something grabbed at her arms and mid-section. After that, she bumped into some other thing that kept her steady.
Slightly dizzy, Jennie saw ivy vines around her body, straining to stop the girl from falling. Then she looked up and saw that "some other thing" called Toya was staring at her, eyes wary and alert.
As the vines receded timidly, Toya set Jennie onto her feet. Almost growling, Sakura's brother demanded, "You better explain yourself well."
Jennie smiled weakly. What did she get herself into now?
"I'm going out!" Jackie yelled as he put on his shoes near the door.
Erica came out of the kitchen, holding a bowl and ladle. "What! In this weather?"
The hacker-boy nodded. Hopping over to the closet, he got out his jacket and searched for an umbrella. "Yeah. I promised Tomoyo that I would give back her camera today."
"Yeah, but…." the amber-eyed girl said worriedly. "You don't even have glasses and can't walk away two feet without tripping so how do you expect to walk in this blinding, pouring rain?"
"One, I have contact lenses on which you and Jennie nagged me to use, two, I walked in rain, snow, and hail ever since I was eight, and three…urgh…I have an umbrella!" With that, Jackie wrenched out a blue umbrella from the closet and waved it around like a staff. He narrowly missed Erica's head.
Erica lightly smacked the boy on the shoulder for almost hitting her and said, "Okay, fine. You know where you're going, but what if a car slams into you? So much for Mr. Umbrella."
"Bah! Just leave me alone! It's not like I'm really a ten year old."
Silence.
"STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!" Jackie shouted as Erica gave him a skeptical stare. "Now, GOODBYE!"
Jackie slammed the door closed and opened his umbrella. Grumbling that he got no respect whatsoever, he started to go down the sidewalk, holding the completely fixed (and looking new) video camera under his arm.
After several minutes, Jackie looked around to see if he was in the right place. Tomoyo and he had suggested meeting at Penguin King Park by the lake. Checking at his watch, he guessed that he arrived a bit early. Turning around to watch the lake, Jackie started to hum to pass the time.
Jackie blinked. He swore he saw something flicker in the water. Wondering, he picked up a rock and threw it in. The rippled drifted away and nothing really happened. Then, gradually, something like black ink swirled along the whole lake until it completely filled it. The hacker started to back away. The black water rose up, whirled into three columns, and formed three maidens perched on top of a sable rock. They all had black skin, hair and clothes. The only thing different were their ice-blue eyes. Curiously, the women began to sing.
The hacker-boy started to feel sleepy and walked toward the lake edge. Then he shook his head furiously and covered his ears. Glaring at the maidens, who mentioned to come closer, he backed away a few yards quickly. The three women continued to sing, only louder this time.
"What the hell are Sirens doing here?" the boy muttered, stuffing his ears with tissue paper.
Trying to remember what his literary teacher taught him years ago, Jackie recalled the Sirens being beautiful singing women, who, with their voices, hypnotized sailors with boats on water to come to them, sending them to their doom against the sharp rocks at the bay. Another story about the Sirens was that if any sailor lived coming to them, the Sirens would end up eating the man. That definitely proved that they were monsters.
"I'M NOT LISTENING, I'M NOT LISTENING! NYAH, NYAH, MOO, MOO, HEEEEE!" the male bellowed over the music.
The Sirens stopped singing and looked extremely insulted. They started to grow sharp teeth and claws. Slowly, they melted into the back water they were settled on. Jackie took off the napkins from his ears and narrowed his eyes. Unexpectedly, they shot out of the water, sending out torrents of twisters filled with liquid. Quickly, Jackie shot himself backwards, front, and to the side with his wind power. After dodging all of the water rays, Jackie looked up at the maidens.
They had totally changed. Instead of mystical women, he saw fanged wolf-like creatures that snapped at him and floated high up in the air by the stream of a water tornado below them. They still remained black with ice-cold blue eyes.
"Who sent you?" Jackie yelled.
The middle monster hissed out, "We are sent by the Ice Master who has been summoned to this realm. He is the master of time!"
The teen boy all of a sudden remembered the spell he had heard at school…
…A web of space and grime, dead the father time. A king of ice and knave…
Jackie also remembered Tien-Xiang saying something about a web before he disappeared from the T.V. Putting one and one together, he got….
"He is the master of the Time Web!" the three werewolves chorused.
'Of course,' Jackie smirked as he placed the camcorder under a penguin slide.
Again the creatures sent out beams of water at the hacker-boy. However, Jackie easily ran past them and stopped as the dog-things aimed.
"But why attack my siblings and me?" Jackie asked.
The first monster growled, "Because you three have been prophesized to defeat the one who has been summoned."
The hacker-boy spun his hands to make a sphere that was filled with air. Kicking it like a soccer ball, the attack exploded in the middle creature's face, the aftershock knocking the other two werewolves off their water tornados. Jackie started to hop around, holding his painful foot. The air ball almost broke his ankle!
"How DARE you!" the once-women wolves screamed.
Putting his foot down, Jackie taunted, "Well, if you actually want to catch me, you'd better think up of a better attack than that."
One of them hissed and the other two roared. Then they jumped out of the water and chased Jackie on land. Cursing, the hacker-boy ran, running over the playground things as the black creatures simply toppled them.
As Jackie got out of the playground, he turned and almost crashed into a scared stiff Tomoyo. At this time, the boy had ditched his umbrella and now he was soaked and wet from the rain. He also had a bleeding scratch on his cheek for sliding down on one of the plastic rods in the playground. As Jackie stared back at the girl, the boy heard gun shots fly over him and at the monsters that was chasing him. Looking at where the shots came from, he saw three of Tomoyo's female bodyguards at the sides shooting at the werewolves, the bullet shells clinking on the wet ground.
"NO! STOP!" Jackie shouted, but the mistake was already done.
The beasts had their attention on the boy so far, but now they noticed the new humans in their domain. With a snarl, all three of them rushed at still firing bodyguards, temporarily forgetting their objective. Jackie, in order to stop the oncoming slaughter, dived between the two opposing forces and pushed them both away with a gust of wind. While the wolves were able to stay on their feet from the light push, the guards were not so lucky when they collided hard with the car they drove their employer's daughter in, slumping to the ground, unconscious.
'Well, at least that takes care of witnesses,' the small boy thought dismissively. Then he faced the fiends, saying darkly, "You touch anyone else and I swear I'll kill you."
Nevertheless, the wolves thought otherwise when they focused their attentions on the now defenseless Tomoyo, who was still standing there in shock. Again, Jackie was able to reach the girl first with a dash aided by air, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the side as one of the creatures crashed face first into the cement right next to them.
"Jackie…what…what are those?" Tomoyo whispered.
Instead of answering, however, Jackie replied, pulling the lass away from the fight, "You have to get out of here! You'll get kil—"
"Jackie, behind you!" Daidouji warned loudly.
The boy made some lance from thin air and it went through the creeping werewolf. Black blood splattered onto the boy as the monster let out a mournful cry. Then it disappeared into a puddle, the blood, too, melting away.
Enraged that their sister was dead, the other two shadow beings attacked Jackie at the same time. Most of the time, Jackie ran away with Tomoyo or blew the werewolves somewhere else with tornado power, and, as he did so, tried to explain what was happening.
"Tomoyo—" the boy started as he parried a wolf's swipe and wafted another one away, "—let's just saw that Sakura's cards-dammit, GO AWAY!-are this, plus some dramatic fighting movie with good-HYAH!-versus-TAKE THAT, YOU DIRTY PIECE OF-evil. Or, if it's too much of a shock for you seeing me like this and fending off-MONSTERS!-creatures like these with my wind power, then pretend that this is all a-excuse me, Tomoyo-bad nightmare, okay?"
Then Jackie pushed Sakura's best friend to the ground as one of the werewolves jumped at her. Luckily, the hacker-boy had his wind lance ready. Soon, the second monster slid into the knife and went into a puddle.
The last wolf woman backed away, hissing. Jackie simply faced the being with a calm face, holding the lance steady. The Siren flinched as the rain beat down and thunder roared. She saw a brief image, some premonition. She saw, just for a second, his black hair turn light brown and sable eyes transform into a sharp sky-blue as rain slid down his glaring face. Baring her fangs, she jumped back as the lance flew at where she was and dived back into the lake. The inky blackness sucked in itself and vanished, leaving a clean body of water behind.
Letting out a deep breath that Jackie had been holding, he looked around to see if Tomoyo's and his umbrella was still around. Nope, nowhere. Turning around, he saw that the girl had fainted, holding onto his leg.
Smiling, the boy took off his coat (which was wet, but warm and dry inside), set it on to the top of Tomoyo's head so it could cover her from the rain, picked her up on his back, decided to leave the unconscious bodyguards where they were (they were under the shade of a tree, anyway, so they wouldn't get really wet), and walked to her house after getting the camera from under the slide. After all, that was the point of coming to King Penguin Park.
Erica popped the chicken into the stove and contently dropped her mittens onto the counter. After the chicken had finished cooking, she was done making dinner. Yes! But…why was she making dinner? Oh yeah. Jennie couldn't cook for her life and Jackie was just too lazy, not to mention being too short to reach the top of the stove. Speaking about dinner….
The female looked up at the clock and noticed it was an hour and a half since Jackie had left. Jennie was late from work, too. Worried if her best friends had gotten into trouble (or were the trouble), Erica brewed some cocoa and took it to the living room. Walking to the window, she watched the rain fall to calm her nerves.
"This is unusual," the amber-eyed lady said to herself. Thunderstorms never did last very long, but this storm had been raging for the whole day. Thank God, it was Sunday. Erica would've hated walking home from school right now.
Erica, closing her eyes, remembered how it all started. The power had shut down in her house and her mom yelled at her (man, would she liked to hear that yell one more time) to pull the switch back up in the basement. Going down, she had turned on the power, but as soon as she did so, Erica fell into a hole. With that, she ended up in a completely different world, another universe. Jennie, though, was simply walking home until she, too, got sucked into a hole. Jackie, after breaking Erica's cell phone, went the same way. It was so easy to get in, but it was now so hard to get out.
When the three had crashed into the Yu-Gi-Oh world, they were found by Tien-Xiang, Jackie's long lost uncle. The man was their guide, their dear friend, and helped them whenever they needed it. Now, the three were on their own with some of Tien's warnings before he disappeared. Where was he now? Was he still trapped in the Yu-Gi-Oh world? If not, then where? And what did he mean by "Remember: this is a world ruled by magic. Not technology?"
Also, what about home? The real world? If…no…when they beat this strange disturbance and somehow found a portal, would Jennie, Jackie, and herself end up in another dimension? Did they have to do the same thing over and over again? Would they actually get home?
Erica leaned her against the cool window. So many questions and none answered. Would they ever be answered? The girl opened her eyes and a reflection of amber irises met her own.
They looked different. Slowly moving her head from the glass, she saw the mirror image of her face on the wet window. Her face was older and her hair was definitely longer. Her eyes seemed darker, too, as if all this adventuring had made it dim. Remembering Jackie and Jennie, they, too, had changed. Jennie was still her happy let's-kick-some-ass self. Although…she was more serious and cautious of her actions now. Some of her naïve spark had faded. She knew that this was no longer just an adventure. One mistake and it was their lives. Jackie, too, was different. He was outrageously sarcastic and unreasonable at times. Now he seemed quieter and wiser. Kinder was another change and he accepted things more easily than before. Herself, well, she didn't know, of course. All she knew was that ever since this journey had begun, their personalities and their perspectives began to differ. What hadn't changed, fortunately, was the loyalty and friendship that had from the beginning. Erica smiled. She was very happy about that.
Looking out the window again and was about to sip the warm cocoa, she spotted a wet feather on a bush that was being abused to death by the heavy falling rain drops. Opening the panes, Erica took the feather and observed it. It seemed like some kind of bird feather with the color of a silvery-white. The amber-eyes girl stuck her head out, ignoring the rain, and turned to look up.
Above her was a white-haired man sitting on the window perch from upstairs. His large wings covered him from the rain, but it still got through, showering him like pellets. The angel was so wet, his hair drooped down his face and his clothes were partially transparent. The male stared back at Erica, silver-blue eyes covered by his soaked hair.
It took awhile for Erica to recognize the angel, but when she did, all she said was, "YUE, YOU MORON!"
"How much did you see?" Jennie asked as she was on a chair with Toya glaring down at her, using his height to pressure her.
"Enough," the male replied.
The braided-hair girl winced and looked around for a way to escape while trying to think up of a believable answer. Unfortunately, Toya saw the woman's wandering eyes. Sitting down in front of her, Sakura's brother grabbed Jennie's hands so if she tried to run off, he could just pull her back. The braid girl scowled and decided to tell the truth…at least part of it.
"Okay. To be honest, I have special power. For some reason, I'm able to talk to plants, sense strong emotions, and greens react to me as if I was the sun itself plus drugs," Jennie said quickly.
Toya put his face close to the girl. "I know that already! For the past month, I've seen you do that. What I'm confused about is why did that cactus die? Are your siblings like you, too?"
Jennie bit her lip. As long as he didn't ask where she and the others came from, she guessed it was okay to answer the questions. "No, only Jackie has a power sort of like mine. Erica's not showing anything, so I guess she's normal."
"What about the cactus?"
"I was just getting to that. You see, the cactus was telling me about something it was scared about. But, just when it was about to tell me something important, something made it die. I think it was warning me about something…. Something that could that could be very dangerous."
"What is it?"
"That's the problem. We, Jackie, Erica, and me, have been trying to figure it out. We think it's something that could be a real threat."
Toya narrowed his eyes in a curious expression. "Who are you?"
Suddenly, the manager of the shop popped out of nowhere, scaring the lives out of Sakura's brother and Jennie. By trying to turn their heads at the same time, the two bumped foreheads. Hard.
"Oh la, la, la!" the boss chuckled. "Is love blossoming in my shop? Ah! What a perfect scenario, too! Surrounded by flowers representing the symbol of love! And look! You two lovebirds are so close to together, holding hands! SUCH YOUNG LOVE!"
Jennie and Toya looked at each other. Then at their still holding hands. Quickly, the duo let go and turned their backs to each other, blushing bright red.
"Tch! You were just about to kiss, too!" the manager man sighed.
Turning around to the man, Jennie yelled, "What the hell are talking about, you perverted old fart! We weren't even thinking of kissing!"
"Ohhhh, but I see such passion in your hearts!"
"Why I outta—"
Before the rabid girl almost jumped onto the boss, Toya dragged her away, saying to the daydreaming man, "Our work here is done today. We're both going home, right, Jennie?"
The braided-hair girl glared at Toya, but didn't pull away.
"Feh," she answered.
The two walked over to the main entrance and prepared to leave. As they put away their aprons and tried to find their coats, the two avoided looking at each other, still red in the face. There was a long, awkward silence. Finally, the two stood outside the shop, watching the rain fall.
'Dammit! Ever since that sick geezer said that gushy idea, I can't push it out of my head! Freakin'…WHY?' Jennie thought furiously.
Glancing over at Toya, she saw him looking at her. They both turned away, faces heating up again.
"Um…that was really stupid…what the boss said, you know," Jennie started, trying to begin a conversation.
Quietly, Toya said, "It didn't sound that…stupid…I…think."
Jennie turned her head around and up so fast, it cracked. "You didn't?"
"Unless you want to do…that."
"KISS? EW! NO! NEVER!"
"N-NO! I mean-what I mean was-ugh. Nevermind."
As the two became silent again, Jennie closed her eyes tightly, wondering what to do. Finally, she roughly took Toya's hand and held it tightly. The man looked at the woman, completely shocked. He watched Jennie frown at the rain and look down the road. She seemed determined to hide her burning face. Then Toya squeezed back.
Trying to be casual, Sakura's brother asked, "Are you walking home or something?"
Jennie nodded absent-mindedly as she stared at Toya's hand.
"Maybe I could take you back to your house on my motorcycle. It'll be quicker," the man suggested.
Suddenly shy, Jennie inquired, "You sure? That won't be any trouble right?"
"Now when did you ever care about that?" Toya said with mock surprise.
Though they were both bashful at the moment, at least they could be themselves while being embarrassed.
Jennie glared at the man. "What the hell's that supposed to mean! Don't think I could be considerate?"
"No, not really. Most of the time you abuse and ignore me."
"Oh, yeah? You mean like this?" Jennie kicked Toya in the shins just the way Sakura always did.
"Why you…."
Yelling in merriment, the braid girl avoided Toya's noogie and ran off into the rain. Both laughing, Toya chased after the girl. Soon, they both vanished into the droplets of water, changed, but unchanged. In love, but perhaps not so much yet.
Slowly, Tomoyo began to open her eyes. First, she heard soft patterings above her. Then she saw Jackie's head as he hummed a little tune. Startled, Tomoyo lifted her head off his back and looked around. They were in her neighborhood, close to her home…and was having a piggy back ride on the boy.
"So you're awake, eh?" Jackie chuckled.
"Uh, um, I can walk by myself now!" Tomoyo said, for the first time stumbling over her words.
The hacker-boy shook his head. "You just woke up and if you walk around like that, you'll end up tripping and hurting yourself. I'll carry you a little longer."
Tomoyo set her head back down, glad that Jackie couldn't see her blush. She felt something trickle down. It was rain.
"Ah! You're wet!" the little girl cried.
"No worries." Jackie laughed. "I'll dry myself off when I get home."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
A comfortable silence came after that.
Tomoyo tried to remember on what happened before she had fainted. She remembered her bodyguards driving her to the park, waiting for Jackie, and…the black-haired female gasped. She saw dog-like creatures and Jackie was fighting them off with a translucent stick that seemed to constantly change shape. After she saw Jackie run out of the playground, bleeding, she couldn't help but call out. What happened back there? Tomoyo knew that Jackie told her who he really was and what the monsters were. Also what his mission was. It was just so…confusing.
"Jackie?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you…a bad person or a good person?"
The hacker-boy thought. Then he said, "Putting it in those terms are too straight forward and unspecific. I'm not a superhero nor am I a supervillan. I'm just a human being trying to stop a strange force from doing something that's really bad."
"So you don't want to hurt anyone?"
"I don't think anyone with a right mind really does."
Tomoyo said softly, almost inaudibly, "You're really nice, Jackie. You're always trying to help people."
Jackie replied in a harsh laugh. "I'm hardly nice. Most of my friends hated me before we actually got to know each other. What does that tell you?"
"I still think you're nice."
"Yeah, well…thanks. You're a great person, too, Tomoyo."
"Thank you."
After some more steps and a turn, Jackie finally set Tomoyo onto her feet. They had arrived at her house. Gladly, he took back his coat and put it on. The black-haired girl patiently watched the hacker-boy take out something from the pocket of the jacket. Even if Tomoyo was getting wet again from the pouring rain, she couldn't help jumping in joy when Jackie took out her fixed video camera. However, the body was different, though the functions were the same.
"I did some additions here and there." Jackie said, watching Tomoyo look curiously at the camcorder. "For one, it's water-proof now. Try throwing it in the tub and it won't fizz. Tried it myself. Almost died from electrocution on the first test run. Anyway, it's shock-resistant, too, so if you drop it again, nothing'll break. Cool, huh?"
Tomoyo nodded excitedly. Then she dug inside her dress pocket and took out Jackie's fixed glasses. Shocked, the hacker-boy took it from Tomoyo's hand and saw that there were almost unnoticeable flashlights used as screws for the glasses.
"Um…I wanted to thank you for helping me so I sent these to an eyeglass shop and they fixed it right up. They also added in lenses that change into sunglasses in light and flashlights that you can turn on in the dark," the lass explained. She warily watched the boy's expression. He still seemed shocked.
Suddenly, Jackie hugged Tomoyo happily, twirling her around. "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH I NEEDED THESE GLASSES! THANK YOU!"
The lad set the girl down and cheerfully put on his glasses again. He laughed slightly when Tomoyo held onto his arms, still very dizzy.
"But…Jackie?" Tomoyo whispered.
"Yeah?" he said with a smile.
"I think you look much better without those glasses. A lot of girls would start to…um…like you."
Jackie blushed. "Yeah, hmm, I get that a lot."
Tomoyo turned around to buzz the gate doors. They immediately opened, leading up to a large mansion, windows filled with lights.
"Well, see you at school then," Jackie waved.
Tomoyo waved back, but as she walked forward, she ran and quickly kissed him on the cheek. Jackie froze. Face extremely red, Tomoyo bowed and sprinted back to the house. The gates closed and the boy behind them blinked and scratched his head. A teenager turned fifth grader who's crushed on by a girl from the same grade.
Walking back down from where he had come up, he muttered to himself, "A girl just kissed me who's an anime character and friends with Sakura. She's a fifth grader while I'm in eleventh grade…. This…might prove some difficulties…."
"I can't believe this, Yue." Erica sighed as she held a blow dryer on one hand and a towel on the other. She blow dried the angel's wings, while the towel dried his wet hair. Erica was on the sofa while Yue was sitting on the floor. "Why didn't you knock? Didn't I clearly say you can come visit INSIDE THE HOUSE anytime you wanted?"
Yue didn't reply as he leaned against Erica's knees and held the hot chocolate. Even if the amber-eyed woman practically dragged him in from the window, forced him to undress so she could put his wet clothes into the dryer (thus making him wear a huge towel around his body), threatened him to sit down so she could dry his hair and wings, and pushed hot cocoa into his hands, he felt quite comfortable.
"Jesus, I'll never clean all these feathers and your hair. They're even longer than woman's hair!" the female said, distressed. A bell rung in the kitchen and Erica set down the items in her hands. She disappeared into the kitchen in a hurried pace.
Yue looked over with the side of his eyes at the female, who was taking out a tray of chicken wings from the stove. The warm, cooked smell of them floated around the house, making anyone's mouth water. However, Yue wasn't interested in the scent of chicken, but watched Erica walk around instead.
The main reason why didn't come into the house was that it was just good enough for him to watch the amber-eyed girl walk around, doing her chores. Currently, though, Yue was starting to think that staying inside, close to the girl, was even better. Of course, he could dry himself instantly with magic, but Erica doing it was so much better for some odd reason.
Erica came back from the kitchen and sat back on the sofa, taking on the job of drying the angel once again.
Then Erica remembered what Yukito said to her in a flash: "For some reason, some part of me wants to thank you for your kindness."
The girl looked at the angel curiously. "Um…Yue? Do you think of me as a friend?"
Yue blinked. Was it that? Was the tight feelings he had in his chest and floaty feelings that? Friendship? No, it was stronger than simple companionship. He was sure. What was it called, though?
"Er…Yue?" the amber-eyed girl said.
Changing the subject, the man said quietly, still not drinking the hot chocolate, "You and your siblings are from a different world, am I right?"
The blow dryer clattered to the floor. The woman stared wondrously at the man as he turned to meet her gaze.
"I overheard your sister and brother talking about it when I first came here." the angel answered the silence as he watched Erica turn off the blow dryer. "It's surprising, but I will not tell anyone…unless you wish me to."
Erica sat next to the man on the floor and tilted her head back, looking up at the ceiling. "I don't know whether to feel threatened or relieved."
"I would much like it if you were relieved."
Smiling, Amber Eyes chuckled, "Alright, alright. Better off being happy. Oh, speaking of being happy, you okay with being in…well…in only a towel around your body? You do know you're naked under there."
Yue turned slightly pink and shot an icy look at the girl. "Of course, I mind! It's not like I walk around bare all the time!"
"Ew! That would just…ew," Erica shivered with a horrified look.
Tired of continuing to hold his wings up, the man set them down, draping the floor and over Erica like a blanket.
"Waaaah! They're so soft and fluffy!" the girl cooed, petting the silver-white feathers.
Yue fought against the urge to pull away. No one touched his wings like that until now! The man guessed that the girl was an exception.
Erica continued to feel his wings happily and Yue just watched. She didn't seems to notice him doing that, though, just as he didn't really care about Erica touching his feathers.
Then the female stopped and looked suspiciously at Yue. "You have magic, right? So couldn't you have dried yourself instantly?"
Yue felt the girl's temper flare. "Yes."
"Then why the hell didn't you tell me that instead of me laboring over your voluminous amount of hair and fuzzy wings! Do you know how hard it was to dry all that?"
"Because I liked your way better."
Erica stared at the moon guardian. Standing up to walk away, far away, from the man, Yue raised his wing up, blocking the path of escape for the girl.
"What do you want now, you slave driver?" the girl snapped.
"I want you to stay," the man whispered.
Erica's amber eyes flashed dangerously. Taking a step forward, she growled, "So, what? Not everyone likes wasting time on complete, wet strangers when some people should be looking for their friends when they're more than an hour late!"
Yue quickly got up and backed away as Erica advanced toward him, hands itching to inflict pain.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" the woman hissed. "Save your freakin' comments to yourself and don't make others do their work for you! Come back here!"
Yue dodged the female's attempt to choke him and explained, "You took my words the wrong way! I just wanted you to stay because it feels better to have you next to me that me looking at you from a distance!"
"You WHAT! So you're saying that you watched me many times through the windows? OLD LECHER!"
"No! It's just that I—" Yue grabbed one of Erica's wrists, "—I just want to—" he grabbed the other flailing hand, "I just want to say…."
Erica glared viciously up at the man, raising a foot up so she could kick him. Yue knew that only something shocking would stop the girl's rampage. Why did she have such a quick temper whenever she was embarrassed?
"I wanted to say…I LOVE YOU!"
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?"
By mistake, Erica stepped on the trailing towel that Yue was wearing and before the whole thing could completely slip off, he grabbed the end and stepped back. Unfortunately, at the same time, Erica slipped on the towel and crashed into the man. Unable to stop their fall since Yue's hands were full (one on the slipping towel and other still on Erica's wrist), they fell onto the edge of the ledge where the main doorway and all the slipper and shoes were.
Then the door opened.
A thoroughly soaked Jackie walked in with his hand still on the doorknob. Apparently, he didn't care how wet he was or that he was making a puddle on the floor. All he did was stare at Yue whose head was hanging off the ledge, one hand on a towel that was down his lower midriff and another hand on Erica's wrist. She was on top of the man, hair messed up and slightly pink.
"Uh…am I interrupting something?" Jackie asked, eyebrows raised high up and new glasses slipping off his nose.
Before the two people could object, Jennie came in with Toya, both somewhat dryer than Jackie. Toya, too, stared at Erica and Yue on the floor. Jennie still had her attention on closing the open door.
"Jennie, don't look!" Jackie yelled.
"Huh, what? OH MY MOTHER OF GOD, MY EYES! MY EYES!" the braided-hair teen screamed. She ran out into the rain again.
Toya continued to stare in total shock. So did Jackie.
Finally, Toya said, unbelieving, "You're Yue…right?"
Erica and Yue looked at each other. Groaning, the amber-eyed girl slammed her head down into the man's chest, trying to hide her burning face. Yue, however, shouted out, "IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!"
As if it wasn't a long day already, it seemed like it had just gotten much longer. Especially for the moon guardian and Erica.
Well, love is harsh and accidents from it are worse.
A/N: Oh, wow…Sorry for not updating for two months…. Technically, my excuse for not updating in the first place is because I was too lazy to start typing this massive chapter. It took some days to actually finish it and let's just say that I was VERY happy when it was done. Thank my co-author/editor Mushroom-sama for forcing me to get off my ass and continue this story. Also, was being a troublesome, stubborn twerp when I tried to upload this chapter for three days, all at different intervals, until I finally succeeded in updating late in the night. Gah.
Well, thanks to all the reviewers! They are Isis the Sphinx, egyptluvergurl, Valinor's Twilight, HeartBandit23, Mushroom-sama, and Akari Ishtaru! Thanks for reviewing people!
I'll probably update next month so…yeah. As usual, review and review!