A Familiar Face

It had taken Kyoko two hours to paint the bathroom its new color. Pleased with her work and convinced she'd done enough damage for now, she had placed the paint back in the bags. Now she was working on lunch: curry. She knew Zero would be ticked about the bathroom, but Kyoko was actually excited about how he would react.

While she was visualizing how Zero would take the partial redecorating job she had done, the bedroom door opened and Zero stumbled out. Yawning, he made his way to the bathroom and closed the door. Kyoko burst into a fit of silent giggles.

He's really tired. I thought that he would have noticed by now.

She heard the flush of the toilet and water running as he washed his hands.

Wait for. Wait for it. 3...2...1-

"What the HELL?!"

Houston, we have liftoff.

Zero burst out of the bathroom, and however much harder that made her want to laugh, Kyoko put on a straight face.

"Yes?" she said and smiled innocently. "How was your nap?"

"What is this?" demanded Zero, holding up a green hand towel.

"That's a towel, zero," explained Kyoko as if she was talking to a little kid.

"I know that, I mean what is it doing in my bathroom?" he fumed.

"Oh, come on. This place is so bland, Zero. It needs life or I'm gonna go nuts! It's like an asylum in here: all white, no color, no personality."

"You could've at least brought it up with me-"

"You would've shot it down immediately. So I took matters into my own hands." said Kyoko.

Zero sighed, "What are the other other rooms going to be painted?"

"Well," she started, "the kitchen will be peach, headline blues for the hallway, and green oasis in the living room."

"Where on earth did you get those names?"

"Well, I sure as heck didn't come up with them, they were the names on the samples," Kyoko explained, fishing said samples out of her pocket. She handed the cards to Zero who regarded them mournfully.

"Ohm, and by the way, I didn't decide on your room because I think you should pick the color. It is your room after all. But choose wisely, Zero. If you pick black or some other depressing color, I'll paint it pink."

Zero cringed and made a horrified face. They both burst out laughing. Glancing at the curry, Kyoko decided she had enough time to go get the mail from downstairs.

"Here," she said, handing Zero a wooden spoon and setting the timer for ten minutes, "stir this constantly until I get back. If the timer goes off, take the pot off the stove immediately. I'm gonna go get the mail."

Kyoko grabbed the key off of the counter and left. After checking for mail and finding the box empty, she went back upstairs.

When she turned the corner, she saw a man standing outside Zero's apartment. The dark-haired man's wavy hair flowed just past his shoulders. He wore a hat and a long overcoat, strangely out of season.

"Can I help you?" offered Kyoko.

The man turned to face her and she saw that his right eye had a patch over it.

Creepy.

She put her hand on the doorknob and felt his hand close down on her arm.

Perverted old man!

She turned swiftly and kicked him, sending him against the wall. Kyoko beat him to the ground until she heard Zero's apartment door open.

Zero opened the door, after hearing several noises from the hallway. Before him he saw Kyoko beating a guy senseless. The guy was-

"You!"

Haha! Who is this mysterious person? Review!