Oops... FFN did some weird thing to my DocX that's why there was that error and u were only able to see my disclaimer .. im really sorry for that .. plus i should have checked *face palm* Anyways.. i uploaded it again and here you go! I hope you like this chapter.
Disclaimer: I dont own bakugan... if i did, Masky would somehow end up being the main character in all the seasons... :3
Now on with the story!
Later that evening, Alice was bored out of her mind. Runo wouldn't be back from the wedding until tomorrow evening. Daniel was grounded for staying up late, Marucho's mom was throwing a tea party for her friends, Julie was out shopping with her parents and Shun was... well... Shun was being shun. It got so boring that she didn't even find her favourite movie entertaining. A loud yawn escaped her when something suddenly fluttered through the window... a paper?
She marched forward curiously and picked up the wrinkled sheet that had just one word written in blue ink.
Sorry
That instant, she realized whom it was from and all the conflicting, mortifying thoughts from the afternoon swarmed upon her again. Her blood boiled when she thought about it and she crumpled the paper in her fist, before hurling it into the garbage bin.
Apology not accepted.
How dare he even enter this building after what happened?! Next time he dared show his ugly glass-clad face in front of her, she would throw a bucket full of live crabs and shrimps onto him. That ought to teach him some manners. She gritted her teeth furiously. That was when the doorbell rang and the redhead raced forward to open (and send away) a potential customer. The shop had to be closed early.
However, the face that she saw was completely beyond who she expected to be...
"Shun?" She gasped, surprised. The ninja still had his poker face on, but he wasn't quiet. Instead, he grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the stool.
"I need answers. Now" It was the first time Alice hard heard him speak like that. Ever. She gave him a confused look before nodding her head gently.
"When was the first time you saw Ian?" His eyes narrowed in suspicion and Alice bit back a scowl.
"The day before yesterday. Why?"
He chose to ignore her question and proceeded onto his next.
"How did you meet him?"
"You answer my question first."
The male sighed giving up and his shoulders slouched a bit.
"I'm going to be honest with you Alice. Ian doesn't strike me as one of the good guys. In fact, he just seems downright suspicious. Why did he suddenly move into a tiny city like this? Nobody knows where his lives or who his parents are or where they work. Hell they don't even know which school he goes to. When it's all laid out in front of you, it's really hard to not be suspicious."
Alice quirked an eyebrow, confused. What did he mean nobody knows him? And when he put it that way, it kind of did make sense. Besides, Alice realized now that she did not recognize the uniform that Ian wore this morning. Well... in part because she was... ogling at him... rather shamelessly too. She turned pink at the cheeks a bit but thankfully, Shun didn't notice.
"I don't know... i mean ... when i talked to him, he was pretty casual and he told me that he's going to a private school which is pretty far from here and that his parents work in the administrative department in the hospital... about the part where he lives.. well i never asked him about that"
Shun appeared stunned for a minute. He actually was surprised that she'd even know so much about him. He admitted that what he had called 'just getting to know a new friend' was in fact a full spying session that involved stalking Ian for about an hour. It was great that he was a ninja so the blonde was most definitely unaware that a pair of amber eyes was zeroed on him ever since he came up in their line of vision. Unfortunately the said eyes had lost sight of him when an old lady bumped into him from behind and he was forced to help her pick up her fallen groceries plus pay for the broken eggs- it wasn't his fault but he paid just to get that angry little woman away from him.
Now that he realized that none of the members viewed him as a suspect (probably one of Masquerade's cronies) he thought it best to pretend to let it go. He knew deep down that something was fishy, so when the clues would all make sense to him, he would use every one of those to stab at Ian. But for now, he decided that letting the dice roll and seeing what hand it would play into was the best option.
He sighed before replying.
"Maybe... but I'm still not so sure. Anyways I'll get going now. It's uh... getting late..."
The two awkwardly started at each other for a moment, clearly uncomfortable with each other, now that all conversation has been drained out.
"Uh... sure... i ... ah... um... here let me open the door for you." She clambered on to the door and pulled it open.
Before he stepped out, he made sure to get his stoic expression back on and replied a meek 'goodnight' to her.
-x-X-x-
While Alice prepared the bed for the night, her mind was preoccupied with thinking a million reasons about why Shun would bother himself with someone as... well someone like Ian. Was he annoyed at having one more member to cope up with? Was he really telling the truth and being loyal like a true friend?
Or is he Jealous of all the attention Ian is getting?
Alice gasped at that thought, surprised that she'd even think something so inane and impossible. Shun was never the type that even hinted him as an attention seeker. He was always so... bleak and quiet. Physically, the ninja was really good looking and there were quite the number of people who thoughts so too. She remembered hearing the conversation of all those school girls so many days back fawning over the bakugan brawler boys.
"Shun is so so so cool! Can you believe he's only ranked second in the brawler list?!"
"Yeah! I know right! He should totally defeat that creep Masquerade and show him whose boss!"
"I really love his eyes! I wish he'd look at me sometimes!"
So yes, she admitted he was good looking... but so were Ian and Dan and ... and Masquerade. She cringed but decided she won't think of the masked blonde anymore. Ever. Now that she was convinced the ninja was only purely curious about Ian (and not jealous of him!) she decided to let herself sleep. Of course... that was when something tapped at the window and she jumped on the bed, surprised.
The curtains were fully draped so she couldn't see what was making the entire ruckus. The tapping continued intermittently, getting louder and impatient in the process and she slowly tiptoed towards it. On her way, she found a large bottle of body lotion and held it like a weapon
When she pulled the curtains apart there was nothing outside. She decided, it probably must have been a hungry bird pecking at the window pane foolishly and so turned around, breaking a cold sweat.
"Beforeyouplanonthrowingthatthingatmejustpleaselistentome"
For the second time that day, Alice flung herself at the wall in fright. When her eyes refocused and she regained her senses, her brain was greeted with the sight of Masquerade, standing upside-down off the ceiling. She silently noted that he was so tall that even from the ceiling (which was pretty high) his face reached up to her face... exactly in line to her lips. She heaved that tiny thought from the back of her head and frowned at him.
"Get out of my room you pervert! How dare you show your face in here after that!" She seethed, in pure fury.
One second, she was glaring daggers at him and the next, he grabbed her at the waist and spun her effortlessly, like she was some kind of a rag doll, the poor girl screaming all along. As a result of his out-of-the-blue move, she was now standing upside down on the roof, facing him, with his hands being the only thing holding her in place. Her pyjama pants bunched down to her knees and her hair, obeying gravity fell into thick rivulets all around her like a flame. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she was sure it was due to the sudden surge of adrenaline and definitely not their sudden close proximity.
"Put me down! Put me down NOW!" She shrieked but clung onto his collar for dear life. She also subconsciously wrapped her legs around his calf and Masquerade couldn't decide if he liked it or not.
"Just listen to me Alice. Please. Look. I'm really sorry. I really am. I mean... that was absolutely horrible but it wasn't like it was my fault!"
"What do you mean it wasn't your fault!? That was entirely and absolutely your fault. You should have just left when i was screaming at you to leave."
"Ah yes, well... about that... you started screaming and I was shocked because... well let's admit it. You do have a nice body and-" Thwack!
Alice was fuming and red and he noticed that she had that bottle of lotion in her hand, with which she smacked him on his head. She looked like a creepy anime character with all that hair hanging from her head and her murderous expression really helped enhance the effect.
"How dare you, you creep! Ugh put me down! put me down! I don't want to hear your pointless and perverted tirade!"
"Alice, if you don't listen to what i have to say, I'll drop you." He challenged with a nasty smirk.
All colour from her face drained before she narrowed her eyes at him.
"You wouldn't." She stated, her voice still quivering a bit with fear.
"Watch me."
And with that, all air left her lungs when he let go of her waist and she screamed, flailing her limbs as she fell. Just a fraction of a second before her head made impact with the floor, he caught her again and floated upwards.
"Now that you believe that I am pretty serious about my words, listen." He waited for second before continuing in a softer voice.
"I really am sorry Alice... I wish you would know that I wouldn't do that to you on purpose. I was busy since morning... and I came to look for you because I saw the owners of this place and that blue haired weirdo-"
"She has a name. And you will refer to my friends with their names." She glared at him.
He ignored her.
"Whatever. So I realized that you were probably alone."
"And you decided that it was the perfect opportunity to sneak up on me-"
"Will you stop cutting me off?! I'm trying to explain myself here!"
"Yes well, go on." He didn't miss the sarcastic tone
"I thought that you were alone in the house! So i thought that i would offer you company in case you wanted it and I had even thought I'd take you out."
He eyes widened a bit and she turned red. She was upside-down, confused and definitely overwhelmed.
"So you..."
"Yes. It was an accident. And i promise... i won't do it again... until you ask me to do so yourself." She turned scarlet before screaming
"That will never happen, you moron!" But the anger had long dissipated and all that was left was a certain kind of... longing in the air.
Suddenly, the room turned very, very hot and Masquerade's grip on her waist tightened. She was suddenly aware of how close they really were... their bodies were just inches from each other, but that didn't matter anymore when he suddenly pulled her flush against him and crashed his lips on hers. He was fervent... and for some reason so was she. A few minutes into it and she had arms wrapped around his neck while one of his was entangled in her hair and the other around her waist.
When they pulled apart, their foreheads (well basically, the top of his mask and her forehead) were adjoined and they were panting. She once again itched to remove that damned glass mask, but she didn't attempt it. She simply voiced it out once she regained her breath.
"Why do you always wear that silly glass mask?"
Her question had him stunned but he refused to answer her. Instead he simply dragged is hand down the back of her neck, unwillingly and sneakily, placing that stupid Spyr'cod-3XZ on her before positioning his hands back at her waist. She just shivered and he felt a tad bit guilty, but he had to remind himslef that the true reason he was here was to accomplish this. He couldn't deny his ever-growing concious anymore but he suddenly lost the anchor of what dragged him to her always...
that's right... this is all for Naga. He thought meekly.
He finally, finally let them both back to safe grounds and once Alice was sure her feet were no longer defying gravity, she loosened her grip on him a bit. Eventually she let go and stared back at the reflection of her own eyes, where his were supposed to be visible and inwardly sighed.
She hopped onto her bed and pulled the covers, while curling into a ball facing away from him.
Before he disappeared, he kissed her cheeks and muttered "I'll tell you another day". A faint fall of sparkles and he vanished and Alice closed her eyes.
-x-X-x-
Now dont forget to put your thoughts in! As always, constructive critism in always welcome! Thanks to BlackCatNeko999 for pointing out my blunder *bows* or else, i would have never realized that the chapter was posted.
Thank you all! And have an amazing day! :D
