Disclaimer: AMG isn't mine.
Ah! My Goddess!
Haloes
Chapter 21
Promises, Promises
Belldandy tied the apron around her and took a look at the task before her. Keiichi had woken early, it seemed, eaten a simple breakfast and left before either herself or her sister had risen from bed. He wasn't a complete slob, but had left a few dishes in the sink.
If he had simply roused her, she would have gladly made breakfast for him...
But why didn't Neesan do it? She was his wife, yes? Wasn't it her role to do such things for him?
She picked up a small bowl from the sink and reached out to turn on the water, her hand freezing to a stop an inch from the nozzle.
Stop, a voice in her head ordered. It's not your place to do this.
Her outstretched fingers curled into an annoyed fist before completing their task and turning on the water. She reached for a sponge and got to work.
Taking care of Keiichi san will always be my place, she told the voice bitterly.
The exchange brought last night's thoughts to her mind. Of course she couldn't try to break up Keiichi and her sister. It was a horrible thought to begin with made worse by the knowledge that she would never succeed. Keiichi was not the kind of man to abandon his pregnant wife. Even if he loved Belldandy with all his heart, his stubborn nobility would never allow him to simply abandon Urd. She felt dirty just thinking of the attempt.
She looked up as her sister walked into the kitchen. The elder goddess saw what Belldandy was doing and stepped forward. "Belldandy, you don't have to do that stuff..."
"I'm happy to," Belldandy told her, turning back to her task.
Urd let her work and started a kettle of tea. As she worked, Belldandy turned toward her.
"Are you feeling better?" Belldandy asked her.
"Huh?" her sister replied.
The younger goddess turned back to the dishes. "I could hear you tossing and turning all night from my room," she said. Urd went ashen as she continued. "Were you having a nightmare about something happening to Keiichi san? I heard you calling his name all night..."
Urd coughed sheepishly.
Great, I guess I really am loud, she thought. Good thing Keiichi's not here. I'd never live this one down...
"Yeah, I'm feeling much better," she said instead. "How did you sleep?"
"I have a lot to think about," Belldandy told her simply.
The answer unsettled Urd, though she couldn't figure out why. She sat at the table and watched Belldandy as she did the dishes. "So," she said uncertainly. "Where did we leave off?"
"Megumi san's engagement," Belldandy told her in a businesslike fashion.
"Right," Urd said, leaning back. "Well, a few days later Megumi and Toshio had their engagement party at Megumi's place. The next morning was... interesting..."
Seven years ago...
The shock of the impact dazed him, and he spent precious seconds blinking the stars out of his eyes. When they finally opened, he found himself in darkness, the only light coming from the Shinden's displays in front of him. Looking up through the canopy, he could see only darkness.
Then he felt something, a frigid burning at his ankles as ice-cold water splashed over the top of his boots, the water rising up his legs. He looked up again, and this time, in the light of the displays, he could make out something moving outside the canopy...
Bubbles.
He was under water.
The boy started to panic as the ice water lapped at his ankles. Reaching up, he pressed against the canopy, struggling to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He beat against it with his hands as the water rose to his chest, immersing the instrument panels which flickered and died.
He was in total darkness... beating at the canopy while screaming in fear. His only way of knowing about his environment came by the feeling of the water rising.
He took one last deep breath as the water rose above his head and silenced his screaming...
When Keiichi Morisato's eyes opened and the white light from outside the window stabbed into his hung-over brain, he realized that he was lying on a strange futon, definitely not in the Shinden. The second thing he realized was that there was something warm tucked into the crook of his right arm.
He felt the feminine warmth from the body of the goddess snuggled up to him and deduced that at some point last night, they had passed out on a futon in Megumi's guest room. Presented with an uncomfortable situation in a hung-over state, Keiichi froze, not sure what to do.
The goddess stirred and looked up at him. "Bonjour, mon amour," Peorth said with a smile.
Keiichi turned red and looked from side to side, searching for someone else or a possible escape route.
Peorth sat up and stretched, her top rising over her navel as she reached for the roof.
"Um... hi," he squeaked. She responded by turning her head and smiling at him as she rubbed the kinks out of the back of her neck.
She must have noticed the distinct shade of red that covered his face because she took pity on him a moment later. "You can relax, cheri," she whispered. "If you'll notice, your pants are still on."
He did, indeed, look down at the point as if to double check. "Right," he coughed. "So..."
"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," she said, turning her body toward him. "I stumbled in here last night and passed out on the futon. I didn't know you were here."
The lie couldn't have been more blatant if she was an American politician. She hadn't even drunk that much at the party. But it was yet another opportunity to accomplish a first and be the first to wake up in the boy's arms.
"It's okay," he said quickly. "I just haven't drunk that much in awhile."
"Well..." she continued. "Merci."
"For what?" he asked, puzzled.
"Keiichi, do you know how long it's been since I slept next to the warmth of a kind man?"
That distinct shade of red returned to his face. "I thought we... um... didn't..."
"I said 'slept,' Keiichi," she told him. She took his hand and smiled. "Haven't you ever just fallen asleep next to a girl before?"
"I have, actually," he said, breaking her grip and rising to his feet.
"And?" she pushed. She knew he had slept next to Belldandy, what she didn't know was that he had also done so with Urd, although he was knocked unconscious at the time.
"And what?" he asked, a little perturbed and exasperated by the questioning.
"Does it not comfort your rest?" she asked, content to remain seated as he looked down at her. "It comforts mine."
"If you must know, I didn't sleep very well," he told her irritably.
"Desole," she apologized.
"It's not your fault," he said, feeling bad for being irritated. He stepped into the hallway and started for the living room, finding a few sleeping partygoers as he went, draped over furniture or just lying where they passed out.
The only person he found awake was Urd, who was standing at the kitchen counter, microwaving a cup of water to make coffee.
"'Morning," he grumbled, coming up next to her.
She didn't look at him. "'Morning," she said in reply. "Coffee?"
"Sure," he rasped painfully. Some coffee sounded like just what the doctor ordered. He hadn't drunk that much since... well... he still didn't like to think about those days. But some coffee and some time to decompress would...
"So did you fuck Peorth?"
Oh, God, here we go... his brain warned.
"What?" he asked wearily, trying to pretend he didn't hear the accusatory question.
"I was just curious," Urd said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I mean, after all, she followed you into the guest room right after you went in there and neither of you came out again. Makes sense..."
His head was pounding, and he wasn't sure where this was going. All he knew was that he was in no mood for games this morning.
"Don't mince words, Urd," he said sarcastically, rubbing his temples. "Tell me what you really think."
She shrugged again, but refused to face him.
"Look, whether or not I slept with Peorth is none of your business," he told her pointedly. She turned her fiery jade eyes on him and glared.
"It's my business when you playing around with someone can bring down the System Force," she argued.
"Oh, come on," he shot back as the microwave beeped. He watched the goddess pull the door open and pull out a cup of steaming water. "That has been thoroughly debunked. Even if I did do something with Peorth, why do you care? I mean you practically gave me roofies to give to Kiyoshi!"
"I care because I'm your goddess, dammit!" Urd hotly fired back. "And it's my job to speak up when I see you about to make a mistake with a scheming, manipulative slut..."
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he cried, amazed at what he was hearing. "The first time she came here she did everything she possibly could to break me and Belldandy up, and you did nothing!" Urd puffed up like an angry cobra at the accusation, but Keiichi went on. "And now that all that is over with and she's actually being downright pleasant, all of a sudden you have a problem with her?!"
Urd started scooping instant coffee into her cup, one after another after another, oblivious to it in her anger. "Fine!" she hissed. "Fine! Just go and fuck whoever you want!"
"I'm not fucking anyone!" he cried, exasperated.
"THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP!" every other person trying to sleep in the living room shouted at them.
The two were silent for several moments after that, both seething in embarrassment.
She shoved the cup of coffee, now little more than brown sludge, into his hands. "Well, then I guess we're all content." The goddess stormed off and out the front door.
Keiichi stood there, dumbfounded. "Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on!?"
Megumi yawned as she walked past him. "If you have to ask, Kei chan, you'll never know."
888
At first, he just assumed Urd was still mad at him. It made sense. After all, he walked through the door and immediately had to duck in order to avoid a dinner plate hurled in his direction.
The plate hit the doorframe and shattered. "What the..."
"Get out!" he heard a woman shriek. "Get out of here!"
He looked up and found the owner of the voice, who wasn't directing her command toward him, but toward a well-dressed man nearby. Sayoko held another plate up, ready to hurl it at a moment's notice.
"Come on, Cousin!" the man replied unctuously. "It was a sincere offer."
"I bet it was, you bombastic simpleton!" Sayoko returned. "Now get out!"
The man turned, and Keiichi suddenly found himself face to face with Toshiyuki Aoshima. The man was brought up short by the sight of his one-time romantic rival.
"Ah... Morisato," he said, straightening his tie.
"Aoshima," he returned quietly. "There a problem here?"
"No problem," Aoshima told him. "I was just visiting my cousin..."
"This little urchin just offered me a job, Keiichi," Sayoko told him snidely.
"Well, that was nice of him," Keiichi said neutrally, aware that there was guaranteed to be more to this story.
"As his maid," Sayoko bit out in conclusion.
"Wow," Keiichi noted. "You came all this way to insult your cousin. That's outstanding..."
"It would get you into the mansion," Aoshima told her. "After a few months, I'm sure Uncle Kane would be so embarrassed that he would..."
Sayoko screamed and reached back to hurl the dinner plate at him.
Keiichi chose this moment to intervene. He snagged Aoshima's earlobe and started dragging the man toward the door. "Okay, I've heard enough," he said.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Aoshima cried as he was dragged outside.
Sayoko lowered the plate as Keiichi launched the man out the door.
"I was only trying to help!" Aoshima shouted, dusting himself off. "It's not my fault the little slut got herself knocked up!"
Keiichi pointed a finger at him. After the morning he'd had, Keiichi knew Aoshima was in a dangerous place.
"You shut your face, Aoshima!" he hissed. "You shut it and you get off this property right now!"
"This is family business, Morisato!" Aoshima growled at him.
"Yeah, and she's not your family anymore, remember?" Keiichi snapped back. "Now get out of here! If I see you here again, I'll let Urd have her fun with you." He saw Aoshima come up short and pressed the threat. "She still has that whip your little henchmen 'gave' her," he told him.
Aoshima glared, but didn't speak as he marched toward the torii gate. Keiichi took a breath and turned to go back into the house. When he got there, he found Sayoko pacing back and forth in the center of the living room, a thoroughly pissed off look on her face.
Keiichi approached her warily, the plate she still clutched in her hand prominently on his mind. "Are you okay?" he asked.
She shook her head as she stalked back and forth like a caged tiger. "That... That... Can you believe him?! The idea that I would work as his family's maid! The idea that it would shame my father into taking me back! Shame him into... into... letting me be his daughter again!"
Keiichi didn't say anything, understanding the dilemma Sayoko was in. She loved her father and didn't want to bring anymore shame to him than she already had. The idea of him taking her back into the family out of a sense of embarrassment made her feel even lower than she already did.
"I'm sure it will work out," he told her softly, realizing how utterly hollow the words sounded.
She stopped pacing and looked at the floor, gritting her teeth. "No, it's not," she said. "Not the way I'd like it to. I'm on my own now, Keiichi. No family but the one I have on the way."
"Sayoko," he said quietly. "That's not true." She looked up and saw him smiling. "We're your family now. And you'll always have a home here."
She sighed. "Keiichi," she said, shaking her head. "You've got to learn to be more cold-blooded, or you're not going to get anywhere in life."
The woman left the stunned boy blinking in the living room as she walked to her bedroom, too oblivious to realize she had just insulted the only man on Earth willing to really help her and too depressed to care even if she wasn't.
888
"Well, don't you look angry, Cheri?"
Urd froze in her tracks and turned, finding the one goddess she didn't want to see standing on the sidewalk behind her.
The Norn folded her arms over her chest and grit her teeth. This wasn't how she wanted to spend her morning sulking. All she wanted to do was go for a walk and try to forget that Peorth even existed.
It wasn't that she was necessarily jealous of Peorth. After all, Peorth didn't even really love Keiichi, she was just pretending for Belldandy's sake. It was the way Peorth could so cooly toy with the boy's heart that pissed her off. Perhaps she was being unfair, but she couldn't stand the idea that the other love goddess might be able to successfully seduce Keiichi while Urd was powerless to stop it.
"What do you want, Peorth?"
Peorth waited until she had caught up to the other goddess before beginning. "In light of your little hissy-fit back there, I wanted to impress upon you again... you should leave."
Urd swung on her, enraged by her pique. "I will leave when Keiichi is happily engaged to a kind, beautiful woman... who is one hundred percent not you!"
"I understand you're hurt by all this," Peorth told her sympathetically.
"This doesn't hurt half as much as I'll hurt you if you continue toying with him like this," Urd bit out. "Don't push me, Peorth. Belldandy was always too lady-like to give you the ass-kicking you deserve. Do not make the mistake of believing our family resemblance extends that far."
"Don't you dare threaten me, Urd," Peorth hissed. "Remember, I'm the one trying to do the right thing here."
Urd opened her mouth to reply, but something caught her eye and arrested her retort. She blinked and squinted, trying to make sure she actually saw what she saw.
"Quoi?" Peorth asked, suddenly self conscious by the examination.
"You have a blue zit."
"EH?!"
"On your forehead," Urd elaborated. She watched Peorth's hand shoot to her forehead to check.
"Mon Dieu!" she cried. She saw Urd's almost triumphant smile... and something just above it. "You have them too!"
Urd's hand went to her face, checking her skin and finding several blemishes. "Crap!"
"Well," Peorth huffed. "Doesn't this just complicate things?"
The Norn didn't reply.
"We'll have to go back to Heaven," Peorth continued. "Find a goddess willing to..."
"We can't," Urd cut her off. "One of us has to remain near Keiichi, and if we both have it..."
"So what do we do?" Peorth asked. "We only have a few hours to find suitable hosts."
Urd thought on it for a moment, their previous argument out of her thoughts. "Okay... you go back to Heaven. I'll stay here..."
"And what?" Peorth asked with a skeptical eyebrow raised. "You need a goddess for shelter..."
"No," Urd replied evasively. "There is someone who could do the job."
"Well, perhaps they'll shelter Gorgeous Rose as well," Peorth told her, getting the gist of what Urd was trying to do.
With Peorth in tow, Urd grumbled all the way home.
888
Keiichi cracked an egg and dumped the yolk into a coffee cup before reaching for the pepper, the first ingredients of his hangover cure.
As he was measuring the pepper out, Urd and Peorth walked into the kitchen, neither looking happy. He sighed and turned.
"Okay," he began with a sigh. "What now?" He crossed his arms over his chest, fully expecting some childish bitch-fest. What met him instead was a rare moment of an Urd-Peorth united front.
"Keiichi, we're sick," Urd told him straight out.
He blinked, the annoyed look wiped from his face in a moment. "Wait... What? Sick? How sick?"
"It's... a little embarrassing, actually," Peorth said sheepishly.
"It's Griffin Pox," Urd explained. "One of us probably picked it up somewhere and gave it to the other. It's not that big a deal. It runs its course in a day or so."
Keiichi, remembering when Belldandy was sick and how close she came to death, breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, so you're going to eat some chicken soup and rest?"
"Sort of," Urd told him. "It's not a big deal for us... but the virus can do lasting damage to angels."
"So..." Keiichi prompted.
Peorth came in and explained the rest. "We need someone to hold our angels for us until this blows over."
Keiichi looked from one goddess to the other. "You can do that?" he asked skeptically.
"It's... not unheard of," Urd relented.
"We need you to provide a safe harbor for our angels, Keiichi," Peorth went on. "While you hold them, we'll sleep until our bodies fight off the infection. Tomorrow, you give us back our angels and everything goes back to normal."
"Um... so... I'll have two angels..."
"Kinda sorta," Urd said, holding her hand up. "You won't have them the way we have them. They won't know your thoughts and you won't know theirs and..." She suddenly went quiet as if she were in danger of saying too much.
Keiichi caught it. "And?" he asked firmly.
Urd cleared her throat. "Well... just that... you um... wouldn't be able to order them around the way we do."
The boy's eyes narrowed. "So... basically... I'd have reflections of the two of you... in a confined space... and no way to control them..."
"Oui!" Peorth said, seemingly glad that Keiichi was getting it.
"Okay, what on Earth makes either of you think for a moment that this is a good idea?" Keiichi demanded.
"Look," Urd said. "There's no other option, okay? Either we do this, or we both have to go back to Heaven to find someone else who will."
Keiichi nodded. "Okay. What do I have to do?"
888
"Okay, look, you're going to be on your own for awhile, all right?"
World of Elegance smiled mischievously at the statement, causing her mistress to sigh.
Urd pursed her lips. She wanted a moment alone with her angel before she gave her to Keiichi.
"Behave yourself," Urd warned her. "And don't go saying anything you know you shouldn't."
The angel gave her a "Who? Me?" look and fanned herself with her hand at the accusation.
888
"Don't say anything I wouldn't want you to say," Peorth told Gorgeous Rose in the other room. "But if you see an opportunity to raise our esteem in his eyes, then do what you feel is best."
Floating before her, Gorgeous Rose smiled and held up her fingers in the "Scout's Honor" pledge.
Peorth bit her lip. "Also... try to present yourself properly. Remember that you represent me."
The angel cocked her head as if to say, "Whatever do you mean?"
The goddess sighed.
888
Keiichi's eyes opened for the second time that day, and he once again took a deep, cleansing breath. He wasn't sure what to expect. The last thing he remembered was Urd assuring him that it would only take a moment. Then he closed his eyes and woke up in his room.
Turning his head, he saw Peorth lying next to him, not for the first time that day. This time, however, she remained peacefully asleep. He turned his head and found Urd lying on the other side of him.
He sat up and scratched the back of his head. Of the goddess's angels, there was no sign. Standing up, he checked over the goddesses, making sure they looked comfortable. Aside from the blue zits that dotted each of their faces, they appeared to be doing nothing more than napping.
Urd had told him that when the zits disappeared, he could bring the angels back in the room, and they would return to their mistresses. Until then, he was on his own.
So far, however, it didn't seem like a big deal. The angels would probably just hang out in his soul and wait things out.
He walked to the kitchen and started to root around in the fridge for lunch. Emerging from the refrigerator with a leftover bento, he stood up and nearly jumped out of his skin.
Floating in front of him was Urd's angel.
The pilot had seen World of Elegance before, granted not quite this close up. The first thing he noticed, and wondered how he had never noticed before, was how her skin was both black and white, as if she were covered in tattoos. Black or white, however, her body seemed infused with a soft light she gently shed as she floated. She gave him a warm smile, resting her chin in her hand.
"Um... hi," he said, not expecting an answer. He had never heard Holy Bell or any other angel speak before. It made him wonder how the goddesses communicated with them. "I'm Keiichi," he told her.
World of Elegance nodded.
"And you're World of Elegance, right?" he asked stupidly. At her smiling nod, he went on. "Wow... that's a mouthful."
Her eyes dropped down to his midsection for a moment, and for a second, Keiichi felt like blushing.
He cleared his throat, and her blue eyes caught him again. "So... do you go by 'World?' Or... 'Double-you-Oh-Ee?'"
The boy sighed, realizing how stupid he sounded. He sat down at the table. The angel floated next to him and bent down until her lips were at his ear.
"You can call me 'Elegance,' if you like," she breathed into his ear.
Keiichi turned red at the sound of the voice. It wasn't that he was embarrassed or that she had said something lewd, but the voice, so much like Urd's yet with a deeper octave and a more seductive, silky timbre, suddenly made him feel...
The angel seemed to know what effect her voice had on him. She floated to the other side of him, her fingers grazing over his shoulder and back as she went.
He cleared his throat and shivered as she floated to the seat next to him. "You seemed surprised," she purred.
"I...um... didn't know you could... talk," he said. He blinked as he realized something else. Despite her speech, her lips weren't moving.
"That's because I'm not," she replied. "We're connected on a spiritual level now, which means you can understand me in the fashion that is easiest for you."
"Oh," he said. He quickly shoved a riceball into his mouth in an attempt to keep from saying something stupid. It was probably the wrong time to realize that the angel was technically naked, covered only by strategically-placed wisps of cloud.
She leaned toward him. "Does the sound of my soul's voice... displease you?"
Aside from the fact that her voice seemed to be crafted from pure seduction and oozed sensuality in every decibel... no, it didn't displease him. The fact that it seemed patterned on Urd's voice only made it more complicated.
He swallowed as she watched him. "Where's your friend?" he asked, desperate to change the subject.
"Gorgeous Rose?" Elegance asked with a wink. "Probably taking a nap in your heart. But I wanted to introduce myself since we're destined to get to know one another much better..."
God, please make her stop, he begged silently.
"Oh?" he asked aloud.
The angel floated around him and rested her hands on her shoulders. "My mistress has offered me to you," she purred. "That makes you my new... master..."
He suddenly fell out of his chair. Elegance looked down at him with an evil grin on her face. She floated down to him and grabbed his hand.
"Master," she breathed seductively. "Are you all right?"
"I'm good!" he cried, jumping to his feet. "I'm good! I'm fine!"
"Are you certain?" she asked, starting toward him. "Do you require... tending?"
"No! No... tending... needed! I'm just going to go watch TV!"
The angel watched him practically run into the living room and tried to hold back laughter.
888
Keiichi's head was in no condition for this, but it had to be done, and Megumi's party had delayed it. So even though the sound of the hammer slamming into the roof as he nailed another tile in place bounced from wall to wall to wall in his skull, he grit his teeth and bore it as best he could.
At least it was quiet up here. Despite his fears, World of Elegance had not followed him into the living room, and with the goddesses asleep and Sayoko reading her baby books on her day off, it was actually peaceful in the temple today.
His encounter with Urd's angel shook him, though he couldn't figure out why. He knew that, as her angel, Elegance was a reflection of Urd, in a way the inner-most thoughts and feelings the goddess possessed given form. To know Elegance was to know Urd and vice versa.
He had known Urd for years, and World of Elegance had still blown him away. He wondered briefly as he nailed another tile to the roof what Gorgeous Rose would be like. Knowing Peorth as he did, he could only deduce that her angel would be Peorth taken to an n'th degree. This troubled him just a bit. Peorth could be difficult to deal with to begin with. The boy liked Peorth, their past troubles aside. But at the same time he knew the goddess could be haughty, arrogant and more than a little snobbish. He wondered if her angel would even deign to speak to him.
Keiichi placed another tile and raised the hammer to bring it down...
"Hey, there, hot stuff!"
He saw a flash of gold in front of him and stumbled, falling backward...
Right off the roof.
It was a small miracle that he didn't hear any bones break. He landed on a thick patch of grass rather than the stone walkway right next to it. As he stared up at the blue sky, he took a breath and thanked the Almighty that it wasn't worse.
But how did he get down here to begi...
"Oh no!" he heard in a mix of valley girl and American trailer trash. A mop of blonde hair atop a blue-eyed woman appeared before him, green, thorn-laden vines covering over her more interesting parts while her hands covered her mouth in shocked horror. "Your back's all broke and junk! Oh, did I do that?"
He blinked. No... there is no way that's what Peorth's angel sounded like.... It defied logic...
Gorgeous Rose straightened and started looking down her vine-bra. "Let me get out my cellular," she sighed. "Call you an ambulance."
Keiichi raised an arm to tell her it wasn't necessary, but the angel cut him off.
"Oh, wait," she suddenly said, her finger going to her lip. "I ain't got no phone!" She blinked down at him, and seeing the puzzled look on his face, must have assumed a question. "Because I'm an angel," she explained in her quasi-southern drawl.
The boy just stared at her. The angel seemed rather uncomfortable.
"Soooooooooo...." she drawled out. "'Kay! Bye!"
She disappeared in a puff of smoke. Keiichi groaned.
It was going to be a very long day.
888
"Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?" Sayoko asked as she helped Keiichi into the living room.
"Yeah," he said, wincing. "I'm fine. Nothing's broken... I don't think."
"Falling off the roof," Sayoko muttered, shaking her head. "I thought you were supposed to be handy."
"Usually I am," he said with a groan. "I just have really bad luck on that roof."
Sayoko helped him sit down and rose to her full height. She gave him an uncharacteristic sympathetic look. "Do you need anything? Will you be okay?"
"I'm fine," he said with a pained smile. "I'm just going to sit down for a few minutes."
"You sure?"
"Yeah," he said. "Thanks, Sayoko."
She smiled softly and walked down the hall toward her room. Keiichi sighed and picked up the remote, turning on the TV and resolving not to do anything else this weekend that didn't involve relaxing...
"You know what comes on in two minutes?" he heard gently breathed into his right ear. He jumped and turned, seeing Urd's angel floating next to him. "Winter Storm: The Movie Part Four - Storming Toward Dawn. There's a scene where Akio finally tells Kimiko how he feels about her, and they... express themselves..." She emphasized this point by wrapping her arms around his and pressing her ethereal body into his.
He opened his mouth to reply but before he could, a second voice chimed in its opinion.
"NASCAR! NASCAR! NASCAR!"
Turning to his left, he saw Gorgeous Rose floating there, practically bouncing up and down in glee.
"Oh, please, Keiichi!" the blonde angel begged. "I don't ever get to watch racing anymore! Pretty please! With shugah on top?!"
Elegance arched an eyebrow, looking past Keiichi at her counterpart. "You're joking, right?"
"Joking, my ethereal and mystical ass!" Gorgeous Rose shot back.
"It's not even a real sport," Elegance said with an upraised finger.
"Woah!" both Keiichi and Gorgeous Rose replied in unison, turning toward the suddenly outnumbered angel.
"Let's not say things we can't take back," Keiichi suggested meaningfully.
"Just because it's not in the 'Lympics don't mean it ain't a sport," the blonde angel added. "NASCAR is godly... and wreck'n is awesome! And that Kyle Busch... WOOO-EE!"
"You can't be serious," Elegance told them both, irritation creeping into her seductive voice. "NASCAR?"
"It's not the greatest sport," Keiichi relented. "But it's up there."
"A bunch of people driving in circles for three hours?"
"You go back to the start of time," Gorgeous Rose told her pointedly. "One cave guy was fighting another cave guy because his club was bigger than his or his woman had longer hair. That's competition!" She nodded sagely. "Dale Earnhardt."
"That doesn't even make any sense!" Elegance cried.
"Then it's decided!" Keiichi declared. "NASCAR it is!"
He turned the TV to Channel 2 just in time for the race to start.
"This is such bullsh..."
"SHHHH!" Gorgeous Rose hushed her as she bounced excitedly. "We'll miss something!"
"Ugh," Elegance replied, rolling her eyes.
Keiichi watched the blonde angel as she studied the TV screen intently. She seemed to catch sight of his gaze and turned to him. "What?"
"I'm just having a hard time reconciling the fact that you're Peorth's angel," he said.
"Why?" she asked, blinking in innocent puzzlement.
"Well... because Peorth is... and you're... and she's..."
"She's what?" Gorgeous Rose asked.
"A snobbish, manipulative tramp," World of Elegance supplied helpfully. "Whose haughtiness is rivaled only by her immense arrogance."
"Well that doesn't sound like Peorth at all," Gorgeous Rose replied.
"You don't interact with her very often, do you?" Elegance asked.
"I do so!" Rose shot back. "Like when we go to the renaissance fair every year! And when we watch the Indianapolis Colts play! And... Why are you laughing!?"
Elegance was doubled over in laughter. "I get it!" she cried. She pointed at the other angel. "You're where she buries her guilty pleasures!"
"Huh?" Keiichi asked.
Urd's angel grinned at him. "Goddesses, like mortals, present the sides of themselves they choose, but as reflections, we can't hide what we really are."
"So what about you?" Keiichi asked.
Elegance grinned and leaned close to Keiichi. "My mistress feels no guilt from her pleasures," she breathed. "She revels in them."
The sound of the phone ringing saved him.
He leapt to his feet and grabbed the phone off the cradle. "Hello!"
"Jinx! It's Cake!"
"Hey, what's up?" he asked.
"It's the Shinden," she replied. "Jiroo says you need to come down right away."
He sighed. "Yeah, okay."
Keiichi turned to the angels to tell them they were going out. He found World of Elegance watching Gorgeous Rose floating three feet in the air, a cowboy hat atop her head and both fists in the air.
"WOOO!" she screamed at the TV.
"Great," Elegance sighed. "She's a woo-girl. That's just what this arrangement needed."
888
"Okay, let's make this quick," Keiichi said as Jiroo joined him at the hangar door.
"It's weird, Jinx," the mechanic told him. "It's not like we've been doing anything different or anything."
"The point, Jiroo, please," Keiichi begged. "I'm hung over and have..."
"It's like when we first met," he explained.
Keiichi paused. "You mean she's being deliberately difficult?"
"Well, as a mechanic that just sounds stupid," Jiroo told him. "But it sure seems that way sometimes."
Keiichi didn't say anything, his attention now fully on Jiroo.
"She's red-lined on five start-ups, we can't get green across the board no matter what we do. As soon as we fix one thing, something else goes red." The boy paused. "You think... I don't know... she wants a new paint job or something?"
The pilot walked over to the airplane and climbed the maintenance stand so he could climb inside. Once in the pilot's seat, he closed the canopy so he could have some privacy.
"Hey," he said.
Hey.
"You okay?" he asked. He waited for several moments before deciding he wasn't going to get a reply. "Jiroo says you don't want to fly."
Again, nothing.
"I can't help if you don't talk to me," he told her pointedly.
I'm tired of flying.
The statement floored him. "What?"
I said I don't want to fly anymore.
"That doesn't sound like you," he replied. "What's wrong? Where's this coming from?"
I'm alone, Keiichi. I'm alone, and I feel it. I'm not supposed to be here.
"You are," the man told her. "You're doing great things. You're helping people..."
I'm supposed to be out there, she said. He looked up, saw her nose pointing at the waterline. At the bottom. With my brothers and sisters. I had a dream that I went there. I belong there, Keiichi. Now I'm just fighting it.
"Shinden," he said.
If I keep going out there, she said. One day, I'm going to stay out there. I don't want you to be there when I do. I don't want to do this anymore, Keiichi.
Unsure of how to comfort a machine, he reached out and patted the heads-up-display. "It's okay," he said. "If you don't want to fly... you don't have to." He bit his lip. "If you change your mind, just tell me, okay? If you want to do something different, just let me know. We'll figure it out, all right?"
The plane didn't answer. He popped the canopy and descended the ladder where Jiroo was waiting for him.
"Well?" he asked.
Keiichi gathered his thoughts. "Cancel the upcoming demos," he said.
"What?!" Jiroo cried. "It'll cost us thousands!"
"I know," Keiichi told him quietly. "Do it anyway. And take her off the SAR roster. We'll fly those missions with Cessnas."
"Jinx!"
"Do it," Keiichi growled, his tone softening a moment later. "She doesn't want to fly, she doesn't fly."
He walked off, leaving a stunned ground crew behind him.
888
"A suicidal airplane?" World of Elegance asked as Keiichi closed the medicine cabinet, revealing the ethereal presence in the mirror.
Keiichi sighed. "It's survivor's guilt," he said. "Guess it's been coming for awhile."
The sun had gone down an hour ago, and the headache from Keiichi's hangover was finally starting to go away. He took a couple of aspirin and chased them with a glass of water.
"Maybe she just needs a change of scenery!" Gorgeous Rose suggested, appearing over his other shoulder. "You know, like a new pair of shoes or a boyfriend!"
"Nah, I think this goes a little deeper," he confessed.
"Who are you talking to?"
Keiichi's head twisted to the right, his gaze locking onto a puzzled Sayoko.
"Sayoko!" he cried, reflexively looking around to see the reactions on the angels' faces, but both had disappeared. "No one!" he said. "Just... talking to myself..."
"Huh," she said in reply, weighing his answer. "Something on your mind?"
"Got some bad news about a friend of mine," he said.
"Oh," she said hesitantly. "Anyone I know?"
"It's not Belldandy," he said with a smile.
"I didn't mean it like that," she said quickly. "I just..." She sighed. "I just meant if I could help... I'd like to."
He smiled at the sentiment. "Thanks, Sayoko, but I don't think you can help with this."
"Oh," she said, a little put off. "Sorry."
Keiichi arched an eyebrow. "Actually... you might be able to help me with something else."
"Oh yeah?" she asked, suddenly interested again.
"You know how to dance?" he asked her.
"Dance?"
"Yeah, dance," he repeated. "I don't mean like club dance... more like... um... ballroom stuff..."
She crossed her arms over her chest and grinned. "And why would it matter if I knew how to dance like that?"
"I just assumed with your upbringing, that you would know..."
"Oh, I know," she assured him. "Why do you want to know?"
"I need lessons," he told her.
She grinned like a cat that stumbled upon a particularly interesting cat toy. "Why?"
He sighed. "It's... private. Can you teach me?"
Sayoko bit her lip and pretended to think it over. "Well... you have been nice to me..." She smiled. "You have been nice to me. Okay. I'll teach you. And I won't even demand to know why."
"Not here, though," he said.
"My lunch hour then," she said. "I don't use all of it anyway."
"Awesome. Thanks, Sayoko."
She sighed. "Now I'm off to try to sleep," she said. "When is that carnival going to move on anyway? It's been here ever since I moved in."
"Forever," Keiichi told her deadpan.
"Ugh," she groaned. "Great."
Keiichi watched her walk away and smiled. That was done. All he had to do now was keep it from Ur...
"So, who are the lessons for?" World of Elegance whispered into his ear.
He jumped and hit the wall. "Jeez! You gotta do that every time?!" he demanded.
She grinned at him. "Don't dodge the question."
"It's none of your business," he hissed.
"Oh, contraree," Gorgeous Rose supplied from his left. "If it's not Sayoko then who is it? Hmm? Who? Who? Who?"
"No one," he grumbled.
"Keiichi has a girl-friend! Keiichi has a girl-friend!" the angels sang in unison.
"I do not!" he bit out as he stormed away.
"Is it Urd?" Elegance asked, floating up to his right. "You know, she does like to dance..."
"My mistress can cut a mean rug," Gorgeous Rose supplied from his left. "This one time, we were clubbing in Paris, and she had these glow sticks on the ends of strings and she was whirling 'em 'round like WOOOO!"
"Okay, seriously, just stop," Elegance told her. "This is important, ground-breaking stuff here."
"Nothing ground-breaking about it," he said, biting his lip. He tried to think of a good tactic, something that would throw them off. Something that Urd would do...
He decided to lie his ass off.
"I got invited to a wedding," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.
The two angels looked to each other. "Ohhhh," they said in unison.
"See? Just need to know how to dance for the wedding," he told them. He started down the hall, smugly basking in his victory.
"So who you gonna take?" Gorgeous Rose asked to his back.
He froze.
"Nice one," Elegance told her.
Keiichi grinned and turned. "Megumi," he told them.
"Lame," Gorgeous Rose answered.
"It's her wedding, I have to be able to dance with the bride."
Before they could answer, he dashed off into the kitchen.
"Nice dodge," Elegance noted.
"Totally."
888
He peeked in on Urd and Peorth, finding them both sound asleep and still covered in blue zits. After making sure they were comfortable, he silently shut the door and went to his room. He'd had an unusually long day and he just wanted to sleep and hope for better for the next day.
After flopping down on the futon and pulling the covers over himself, she closed his eyes and tried to dream of anything other than water...
"So," he heard from his left. He opened his eyes and sighed as the voice went on. "Who is it?"
He turned his head and found World of Elegance floating next to him, awfully close for two people lying together in the same futon.
The man blushed and looked up at the ceiling. "Where's your best friend?" he asked.
Elegance grinned. "I told her racing was coming on Channel 24 right after the news," she said. "She's in the living room."
Keiichi blinked. "Channel 24 is CNN," he noted.
"I know," Elegance purred. "It doesn't seem fair, does it? I thought about waving a laser pointer back and forth on the carpet so she can chase it, but that just seems mean..."
He rolled away from the angel and closed his eyes. "So who is it?" she asked again.
"Who?" he asked, just trying to go to sleep.
"You don't just take dancing lessons for anyone," Elegance breathed. "You're planning something."
"I'm not planning anything," he said. "I told you..."
"You're a liar, Keiichi Morisato," Elegance replied with gentle mirth. "But not a good one." Before he could reply, Elegance suddenly moved over him, her arms on his shoulders as if straddling him. "And I know you're not learning for Peorth's benefit."
"Oh?" he squeaked. "How do you guess that?"
"Because," she whispered. "Her angel doesn't make you blush..." She leaned down toward him until their noses were only an inch apart. "Ne?"
He cleared his throat. "It's a surprise."
"Is it really?" she asked.
"Yes," he told her firmly. "So you can't tell her."
"Why would I tell her?" she whispered.
"Because you're her angel," he replied. "So you can't tell her."
"Mmm," she purred. "But I am her angel," she noted. "I must obey the commands of my mistress. What makes you think I have a choice?"
"You mean like that order to never come out again?" he asked. He saw her eyes widen a little. "Yeah, you are her reflection. That tells me you follow the rules as much as she does, which means only as much as you care to."
"I see," she whispered. "And if I keep your little secret, what do I get?"
"The satisfaction of knowing your mistress will have a nice surprise," he told her.
"Funny," she whispered. "I was going to use the word 'satisfaction' too... granted not in that way..."
"You're a tease," he said. "You're just like her."
"Am I?" she asked him. She smiled. "Perhaps I am. I tell you what," she went on. "A secret for a secret."
"I don't want..."
"I will answer any five questions about my mistress," Elegance went on, "... that call for a 'yes' or a 'no.'"
Keiichi rolled his eyes. "Elegance..."
"My mistress believes strongly in fair play," she whispered. "Otherwise, I won't feel good about keeping your little secret..."
"Fine," he relented. He thought for a moment. "Is blue Urd's favorite color?"
"No, and give me something hard here," she replied quickly. She grinned a moment later. "So to speak..."
He groaned at the awful joke and gave his next question more thought, something useful. "Does Urd like to dance?"
"Yes."
"Did she ever dance with Troubadour?" he asked slowly, not sure himself where he wanted to go here or why.
"Yes," the angel replied.
"Is she... still in love with Troubadour?"
She grinned down at him. "No," she replied breathlessly.
A sudden thought struck him, and he kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. Here it was, the answer to a question he had asked Urd before, had been wondering about for a year with no result. Now...
He looked up at the angel. "Does Urd think Belldandy's coming back?"
Elegance arched an eyebrow. "No."
"Why?!"
"Sorry, you're all out of questions," Elegance replied. "And even if you weren't, that's not a yes or no..."
She started to float away, and Keiichi reached out to grab her arm, watching in amazement as his hand went right through her as if she were nothing but light and shadow. The angel smiled down at him.
"Now, now," she said. "Just as you ask me to keep your secrets, I am bound to keep those of my mistress. You would not begrudge her her secrets even as you fashion your own, would you?"
"This is different," he gasped.
She shook her head. "It's no different. We all keep our secrets for reasons we believe best. She keeps this one for her own reasons." She saw the look on his face and her smile fell. "Oh, don't be like that. She doesn't keep secrets out of malice. If anything, it's the opposite."
"And that makes it okay?" he asked.
The angel shrugged. "Does it make it wrong?"
He thought on this as Elegance moved downward, brushing her fingers against his face. He nearly flinched at the touch, the feeling of a warm breeze crossing his skin. "You trust my mistress. That trust has paid off before, has it not?"
"You have no idea how much," he replied, shuddering as memories of Kobura Island floated to the surface.
"My mistress will never betray you, Keiichi," she whispered. "And neither will I." She floated downward and disappeared within him as she remerged with his soul.
He took a breath. "Dammit," he whispered.
888
Peorth opened her eyes and blinked up at the face of the man whose gaze met her.
"Bonjour," she said with a smile and a yawn. She sat up and stretched before checking her face with her fingers, sighing in relief at finding absolutely nothing there.
"Yep," Keiichi confirmed. "You're clean."
"Are you sure?" she asked, offering a sly grin. "Did you check everywhere?"
"Everywhere I didn't have to undress," he confirmed deadpan.
She hopped to her feet and turned to him. "I trust Gorgeous Rose was not too demanding of your time?"
"Oh," Keiichi said, holding a hand up. "She was a perfect lady."
"Of course she was," Peorth told him. She started for the door. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'd like to read the paper and have a little breakfast."
Keiichi watched her go and grinned before calling out. "Kyle Busch won."
"Oh, Dieu merci," she gasped before catching herself and turning to him. "Oh... um... who?"
He turned and suddenly his grin fell from his face. Urd was standing behind him, World of Elegance floating next to her, her hand covering her lips as she whispered into her mistress's ear.
The goddess grinned evilly as Elegance spoke. "Oh, really?" Urd asked.
"What?" Keiichi asked, suddenly alarmed. "What, really?"
Urd met his gaze, her smile practically exploding. "Well, well, well..."
The man swallowed nervously. Did it really take all of five seconds for Elegance to betray him? Really? Five seconds? That was the best he could have hoped for?
"Keiichi," Urd said with a grin as she walked toward him. She put her hands on his shoulders and squeezed as she shook her head, her eyes alight with mirth. "Peorth's into NASCAR? Seriously?! Do you have any idea how much fun I'm going to have with that?!"
"Um... yeah," Keiichi replied. "I thought you'd like that."
Elegance whispered something else into her ear, and the goddess covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. "And she's a woo-girl?! Absolutely fabulous!"
She walked past him toward the door. Keiichi followed her with his eyes and watched World of Elegance blow him a kiss and wink at him before disappearing.
He smiled and chuckled to himself before starting for the kitchen himself.
Author's Notes:
Gorgeous Rose was inspired by a Geico commercial, and her initial scene is taken directly from one.