No Ticket, No Laundry
~kitsune*moon~
Author's note:
I want to correct a mistake in the previous chapter. Tamahome and Miaka live in 2-5, not 2-4. 2-4 would be Chiriko's apartment. Sorry about the typo! ^_^o
Chapter 2
"Sugoi! We can actually LIVE here now!" exclaimed Kitsune happily, hugging Chiriko, who she had kind of adopted.
Three days had passed since we last encountered our two heroines, Rainbow Butterfly and Kitsune Moon. The two stood in the middle of their apartment, along with Tomo, Tasuki, Chiriko, Tamahome, and Miaka.
"I know," smiled Butterfly, "it's actually clean!"
She was right, mostly. Between the seven of them, they had managed to unpack everything and put it all away. The entertainment system was hooked up (courtesy of Chiriko), and so was the computer. But there was still a huge pile of flattened cardboard boxes leaning against the wall.
"Don't worry," said Tamahome, "Tasuki and I will take care of those later."
Tasuki (who had recovered from his hot chocolate episode) turned to Butterfly and Kitsune.
"Ya know, if I were you, I'd throw a party to break in your new place," he suggested.
The two girls' eyes met, and sly smiles spread across their faces.
"I shudder to think what you've brought down upon us," Tomo said to Tasuki.
*****
"Party!!" shouted Raurenu.
"Party!!" echoed Hakumei.
The two grinned maniacally at each other, each clutching a Hello Kitty adorned envelope. They had met each other at the entrance to the "Happy Chinese Restaurant." After they had each received an invitation from Butterfly and Kitsune, they decided to have lunch together, then go out to get house warming gifts for our heroines.
When the girls were seated, a hostess came by to ask for their drink orders.
"Pepsi!" they both answered.
"Iced tea?" the hostess asked, smiling.
"No, Pepsi," repeated Hakumei.
"Pep-si," reiterated Raurenu.
"Yes, okay," smiled the hostess, bowing her head.
A few minutes later, another hostess stopped at the table.
"Your order?" she asked.
"BUFFET!!" Raurenu and Hakumei both shouted, tossing their menus over their shoulders.
Hostess number two backed away slowly, then quickly slipped into the kitchens, afraid.
The two worked their way around the buffet table, piling their plates high with everything.
"Crab Rangoon!" shouted Raurenu.
"Egg Roll!" shouted Hakumei.
"SHUT UP!!" shouted the rest of the people in the restaurant.
Hakumei and Raurenu meekly took their plates and sat down, very quietly.
"So, Hakumei-chan," whispered Raurenu, "what does your invitation say?"
Hakumei swallowed her fried rice and took a swallow of her Pepsi. She opened her invitation. It looked like this:
You Are Cordially Invited
(If you don't come we'll hunt you down and eat your first born.)
To
A Housewarming Party
Tomorrow
6:00 PM in apartment 2-8
BYOB
(Bring your own bishonen.)
Bring Presents!!!
Luv,
Kitsune and Butterfly
"I'm so excited!" smiled Raurenu.
"Who are you going to bring, Raurenu-chan?" asked Hakumei.
"It's a surprise," grinned Raurenu.
"Okay, but then I'm not telling you who I'm bringing," shrugged Hakumei.
"My person will be better," Raurenu said softly, looking slyly up at Hakumei.
"Nuh-uh," Hakumei smiled.
"Uh-huh."
"Nuh-uh."
"Uh-huh."
"SHUT UP!!" shouted the other customers.
*****
"Kitsune-mama, calm down!" Chiriko said, tugging on Kitsune's hand.
"I'm so excited!" squealed Kitsune, her other hand tightly clutching Tasuki.
"Please spare me," Tomo said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh Tomo-chan, we're going to have fun!" smiled Butterfly, keeping a strict hold on Tomo's trailing feathers.
"If you say so," he said.
Suddenly, the Gundam Wing theme song began to play. Someone was at the door. Nobody moved until the song had ended. Then, Kitsune pulled open the door.
"Miaka! Tamahome! Thanks for coming!" she ushered them in.
"Thanks Kitsune. We would have had a gift, but due to circumstances beyond my control," he gave Miaka a look, "I'm empty handed."
"That's okay Tamahome," Kitsune said, "I'll just put it on your tab."
"I'm just kidding," she assured him as he gave her a confused glance.
Before she could shut the door, she heard a shout from down the hallway. She poked her head out of the doorway.
"Kitsune-chaaaaan!" called Hakumei.
She skipped down the hallway, followed by Chichiri, who was skipping also.
"This is fun, no da." he said.
Kitsune let the two in, then laid Hakumei's gift on the kitchen table.
"Chichiri! You got suckered into this too?" asked Tasuki, unbelieving.
"Hey!" Kitsune gave him a soft whack on his shoulder.
"Hakumei is cool, no da. And I wanted to come to the party," he informed Tasuki.
"Suck up," whispered Tasuki, miffed.
Hakumei, Kitsune, and Butterfly did a little fangirl dance just to remember the good old days.
"Kitsune, Butterfly! I missed you guys!" Hakumei said, glomping each of them.
"Hakumei! Where did you meet Chichiri?"
Hakumei smiled. "Well, first there was this big spork and I decided to use it to rule over the world and then Panama was blocking my view of Venezuela so I blew it up and then the Prime Minister-president guy of Canada wouldn't give me rulership of his country and he wouldn't even give me a Mountie so I found a catalogue and wanted a monk and I promised to feed him and water him and pet him every day and I sent in the order form and then I got a big box in the mail which I got stuck in later but anyway I opened the box and Chichiri came out with a big No Da and that's my story!"
She took a huge breath, her face returning to its original color.
"Know what? The same thing happened to me last week," Butterfly said.
"How come you don't have a Chichiri, then?" asked Hakumei.
"My order got lost in the mail. Stupid faulty postal system," muttered Butterfly.
"I got stuck in a box," Kitsune raised her hand.
"How did you get out?" asked Tasuki.
"I don't know..." she looked thoughtful.
However, Kitsune's thinking was interrupted when the doorbell rang again.
"It must be Raurenu!" smiled Butterfly.
She opened the door then promptly screamed and fell over backwards. She scrambled to her feet and ran behind Tomo.
"N-N-Nakago!!" Miaka stammered.
"Are you suprised?" asked Raurenu, peeking out from behind Nakago.
She gave him a shove through the door, as he seemed rather unwilling to enter. Already he was glaring at Tamahome, who returned the glare with equal ferocity. Tomo's mouth was hanging open, admiration plainly visible by the blush on his face, visible through his make-up. Butterfly noticed this and covered his eyes with her hands.
"May I ask WHY you brought Nakago?" Butterfly asked.
Raurenu smiled innocently, "To each her own! I'm not asking why YOU brought the gay man in clown make-up."
"Its Chinese OPERA!" he shouted.
"Yah, I guess you're right," Butterfly conceded.
She uncovered Tomo's eyes, but not before she set some strict guidelines for him.
"Do not get within three feet of Nakago. Do not touch Nakago. Do not look at Nakago. Do not THINK of Nakago. And while you're at it, don't use that strawberry lip balm anymore," she said to him.
Tomo sulked.
Raurenu turned to Kitsune. "Here's your gift! Open it now before I tell you what it is!"
"Okay okay!
Kitsune began to meticulously unwrap the paper, making sure not to rip it. Her movements were slow, measured, and precise. Little by little the wrapping paper was eased away from the gift. Raurenu tapped her foot impatiently. She couldn't stand it.
"Oh let me do it!" she exclaimed, grabbing the gift and shredding the paper.
"Uh, Raurenu? Exactly HOW much caffeine have you had today?" Kitsune asked tentatively.
"Not enough!" Raurenu smiled, and handed the gift back to Kitsune.
A gigantic sweatdrop threatened to drown everyone. But, if that happened, the story would end. Depending on how you look at it, that could be good or bad. But, our heroines aren't really in danger.
Kitsune looked down into her hands.
"Oh my goddess! It's the entire series of Weiss Kruez!" she exclaimed.
"Yay!" screamed the girls.
"God, no!" screamed the boys.
Butterfly and Kitsune hugged Raurenu in thanks. "Hakumei, should we open your gift as well?" asked Butterfly.
"Go ahead! I spent a lot of time picking it out," she said.
"I would know, no da, I was dragged along too," Chichiri interjected, "I'm still trying to forget the lingerie section Hakumei-chan pulled me through."
Butterfly and Kitsune exchanged glances. "Is that...our gift?" Butterfly asked nervously.
"Open it and find out!" Hakumei said.
Gingerly, Butterfly opened the box lid, Kitsune peeking from behind. They looked into the box and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh, it's Dance Dance Revolution for our crappy Playstation! Yay!" she squealed.
"Hey Butterfly! Now we can play RPGs with the dance mat! It'll be fun!" Kitsune pointed out!
"These anime nerds are scary," Tasuki whispered to Nakago, who answered with a death stare.
"Uh....yeah...." Tasuki murmured, and moved away from the blonde psycho (Nakago, not Raurenu).
*****
After a rousing dose of DDR, it was soon known that the girls could get along pretty well, Tamahome wasn't too bad, Chiriko's legs were too short to be of much use, Nakago was surprisingly good (after being forced onto the mat), Tomo couldn't care less, and Tasuki just sucked.
"Well, now what should we do?" asked Hakumei.
A moment of silence followed as everyone tried to think of something that wouldn't involve twister, cross-dressing, pie, or poker of any kind.
"I know!" shouted Raurenu, "How about we play Truth or Dare?"
"AAAAHHHHHH!" the FY boys screamed in pure terror.
Kitsune and Butterfly were on their feet in distress. They cornered Raurenu.
"What are you thinking, child?" Butterfly asked, feeling for Raurenu's temperature.
"Do you want to send this story straight to fanfiction hell!?" Kitsune put in.
"I thought I was already there," Nakago said as he stood in a dark corner.
Tomo nodded agreement.
"Yeah! Do you know how many crappy FY Truth or Dare fics there are!?" Miaka asked.
"I should know, I've been in almost all of them," Nakago said, shuddering.
Tomo nodded again, along with the rest of the FY boys and Miaka.
"You might as well sell your soul to satan than to write another one!"
"Done that," Nakago said raising his hand.
Tomo nodded yet again.
"SHUT UP!" shouted Kitsune and Butterfly in unison.
Nakago shrugged his shoulders, but remained quiet. Our heroines returned their attention to the poor, misguided Raurenu. After a lengthy lecture on the evils of crappy fics, Raurenu broke.
"I'm sorry! I'll never write a crappy fanfic! I'll never use Truth or Dare as a plot line EVER! Thank you, my friends, for showing me the light!" she sobbed.
"You have learned well, my child," Butterfly said gravely.
"I think it would be kind of fun," Hakumei commented.
"NANI!?" everyone shouted.
Numerous wounds were caused by the unexplained falling over in ironic moments. Fortunately, no one was hurt severely.
"I could use a giant mallet right now..." sighed Kitsune.
End Chapter 2
Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me about the progress of "No Ticket, No Laundry!" This is slow but steady work for me. If you have anything to see, please feel free to email me at chinamoonrise@cephiro.com.