"I heard that Sahari and Sparcticus have been going at it like Bunnycombs lately," Maxime said with mischief in her voice. She took a deep swig from the chocolate milkshake in front of her, not even bothering to use the straw.
Leafos made a bit of a face at Maxime's table manners, but she didn't comment on it. What Maxime was telling her was too good to change the subject from! "And who exactly told you this?" Leafos leaned forward and placed her chin upon her hands.
"Who do you think?" Maxime wiped the enormous milkshake mustache off her upper lip with the back of her hand. "Sahari did! I talked to her about it earlier today." Much to Leafos' disgust, Maxime licked the chocolate residue right off of her hand. "She didn't spare any deets, either!"
Leafos and Maxime had run into each other outside of Arfur's and had wound up chatting. The next thing they knew, they were seated across from each other and swapping stories. Leafos had never realized how fun Maxime was to talk to, even if she was more than a bit crude sometimes. She had a great sense of humor, and to make things even better, she shared Leafos' love of gossip!
"'Deets…?'" Leafos repeated as she raised a brow.
"Details!" Maxime actually took a sip through her straw this time, much to Leafos' relief. "She gave me a complete play-by-play. It was awesome. You want me to recount it to ya?"
"T-that won't be necessary!" Leafos reddened and shook her head.
"Your loss," Maxime removed the straw from her drink and licked it. "You hear anything else lately?"
"Well," Leafos huffed. "My little brother got arrested…kind of."
"Really? No way, do tell!"
Leafos and Maxime talked vigorously all through their meal. Once they were done, Maxime gave Leafos a high-five that was way, way too hard.
"Never knew you were so cool, Leafos!" Maxime grinned. "We should totally hang out again!"
"That would be nice," Leafos smiled in spite of the fact that her hand was throbbing inside of her glove from Maxime's high-speed high five. "I'll Alert you soon!"
"Gotcha!" Maxime winked at Leafos. "I'll take care of the bill, don't you worry."
"No, I insist, I'll take care of it…"
After a brief argument, the two wound up splitting the bill and went their separate ways after one final goodbye. Leafos smiled as she headed home through the Village. It was always nice to become friendly with new people!
Leafos looked up at the sky and thought for a moment. It was a lot later than she thought, judging by the position of the sun. She mentally kicked herself, since she had promised to meet Storkos back at the family's old house for an early dinner. She headed into a side street, which would be exactly three minutes faster than taking the main street. She laughed at herself; she really had been living near this village for too long!
Leafos was lost in thoughts of what exactly to prepare for dinner, when suddenly Alejandro stood in her way. Something about the way he was looking at her made her take a step back.
"Oh, hello, Alejandro," said Leafos, biting her lip.
"Leafos," said Alejandro, opening his arms as if for a hug. "I haven't seen you in ages!"
"Yeah, well," Leafos found herself cringing back, "I've been busy with friends!"
"… Is that so," said Alejandro. His eyebrows slowly came down to settle on the top of his eyes, and he straightened up. "I'm a little offended! I thought we were friends!"
"Well, we are," Leafos stepped backwards again, and Alejandro took a step forward to match her. "But you've been so busy with all the other girls so…"
"That was a mistake," said Alejandro, grabbing Leafos suddenly by the waist. Leafos sucked in a breath and scowled up into his mask.
"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, trying to lean out of his grip.
"What I should have done when I first got here," Alejandro nearly purred as he ran his hand down the side of Leafos' mask. "I was so distracted by the other girls that I didn't realize the little treasure hiding in the back. Let me formally apologize to you."
Then Alejandro grabbed the side of his mask and lifted it up. Leafos caught a glimpse of his eerily perfect face. He smiled down at her, and his lips parted just before he leaned down and pressed them to hers.
Leafos thought it was nice for a total of one second, but when Alejandro didn't let up…
She tried to push him away, but he was too frightfully strong. She felt her back hit the wall of a building and-
Suddenly, he was gone.
A little groan came from the ground.
"You bastard!" Storkos yelled as she picked Alejandro up by the collar of his shirt. She shook him around a bit. "What the hell do you think you were doing to my sister?"
Alejandro grunted, a dribble of blood tracing his chin. Storkos brought his uncovered face right up her hers and said:
"If I see you near her again, I will break that other arm and make sure you won't be able to become intimate with a girl, let alone intimate with yourself! Do I make myself clear?"
Alejandro bobbed his head up and down so fast that even more blood oozed out of his nose.
"Run while you still have the chance," Storkos pushed him away. He stumbled a little, bent down to grab his mask, and ran away without a look backwards.
"Leafos!" Storkos pulled her sister into one of her trademark tight hugs. "Are you OK? I waited for you but you took so long! I started to get worried that something happened, so I set off to look for you-"
"Thank you," Leafos said, hugging her sister back.
"… I came at just the right time, huh?" Storkos said.
"You're always good at saving the day," Leafos sighed.
