Ariana calmed down a little, knowing her friend was serious but also trying
to lighten the mood. She smiled in return, then laughed when she realized
what comedy must have occurred before they had gotten there.
"So Liz," she snickered, "how exactly did you come to fall on them?"
Liz turned bright red, then mumbled something incoherently.
"What was that?" Ariana questioned innocently, with the tone of mocking playfulness in her voice.
"I said I don't know." Liz mumbled again, only this time loud enough for others to hear.
Ariana gave her a puzzled look, and then demanded,
"What do you mean you don't know!?!"
"I mean I don't know!!" Liz growled back.
"She just kinda fell on us." Ken shrugged.
"She just kinda fell on you!?! What do you mean, as in falling like tripping?" Ariana declared.
"No, more as in she fell on us." groaned the poor boy, who was still on the ground, and had now finished throwing up his internal organs.
"Well where did she fall from!?!" Duo exclaimed wildly.
"Probably the roof." Trowa reasoned.
Everyone turned to stare at him, surprise written across their faces. First off the idea of her falling off the roof was ridiculous, and secondly, this was the first time the girls or anyone else for that matter, had heard him say anything. Trowa just stared back, unmoved.
"BUT what was she could she have possibly been doing on the roof!?!" Ariana and Duo cried out in unison.
Accordingly, everyone then turned to a furiously blushing Liz. She blinked at them angrily, then shouted,
"What!?!"
"What were you doing on the roof?" Heero calmly repeated.
Liz blinked, blushed, then pouted.
"I didn't know I was on the roof." she whispered sheepishly.
"What do you mean, you didn't know you were on the roof!?!" Wufei cried huffily.
"In other words, HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW YOU WERE ON THE ROOF!?!" Ariana followed, with an even huffier sounding cry.
Everybody looked at a flustered Liz expectantly; while she just blinked back, at a loss for words.
Quatre cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention, then spoke without taking his eyes off Liz.
"When you're not sure of where you're going, or what's on the other side of the door."
That got Quatre a lot of funny puzzled looks, or imperceivable stares (*coughcough* Aya, Marron, Heero, and Trowa).
"What's that supposed to mean!?!" Duo shouted.
"Well, lets just say Liz has an amazing sense of adventure, and bring that poor boy inside to one of the bathrooms."
Within the next half an hour, they all managed to carry the sick boy inside, only to watch him start puking again once they reached the nearest bathroom; and with all the running around trying to find some Pepto-Bismol, ice packs, towels, and some breath-mints, the time had flown by. In the end, they had put him in one of the guestrooms on the second floor, to rest and recuperate. Quatre had given him some Advil, then shooed everyone out of the room, asking them to all go to the living room to wait for him. He and the sick boy had been in the room talking for the last 10 minutes. Which was fortunate for everyone else, as they found the living room a complete chaotic mess left by Duo, and were ordered to clean it up by a grouchy maid. Once they had finished and all settled in to the scattered couches and chairs, Quatre had returned from his chat. He looked at the group of people, minus a drugged Relena and an ill cousin, who were spending the next week or so with him on vacation, studying each one individually. He smiled reassuringly at the three new men who stood off to the side.
"Omi should be all right. He said he gets motion sickness occasionally, and that he's still recovering from a cold, but he should be fine by tomorrow morning."
Ken muttered a small thank you, while Marron nodded in acknowledgement, and Aya just sat there, glaring around the room. Quatre looked a little surprised at the redhead's hostility, but decided he was no worse than Heero. He continued.
"Sorry, that the chance has not arisen for me to properly introduce myself and my friends. My name is Quatre Rebarbra Winner and this is my home. As my guests, I welcome you to my home." he gestured toward the three boys on one side of the room sitting around an arrangement of chairs, and then to the two girls who sat on the couch with Duo and Heero, while Trowa and Wufei stood around it. It seemed as though Ariana's friend had demanded that she not sit next to Heero and was actually so close to the opposite end of the couch, she looked as though she was about to take another fall. This would have been unfortunate, for the tumble would have thrown her right into Trowa, who was currently leaning against the arm of the couch, adding to her record of people she had crashed into today.
"Now that you know my name, I would be delighted to get to know…"
"LET'S PLAY THE NAME GAME!!" Duo shouted with way too much enthusiasm. Before, anyone could protest, Duo ran around the room shooing everyone into a circle around the center of the room.
"OK!! I'll start!!… wait… does everyone know how to play?" all Duo received was silence and blank stares.
"Ok… well, first you say your name, and then you have to say a word that describes you and starts with the first letter of your name." He sighed, and continued, "Ok, see, it's fun. I'll start."
Everyone settled into their seats, figuring that the annoying braided boy wouldn't give up on his idea of fun with names. So they got comfortable, and waited for him to begin.
"I'm Duo, and, I… um… DEATH!!!"
The three older boys blinked at his bold statement, while the two girls began scanning the room frantically for a quick route of escape.
"Duo…" Heero growled.
"What!?!" Duo blinked innocently, "I am the great Shinigami, God of DEATH, so death was the perfect word!"
The gundams, minus an idiotic Duo, sweatdropped, as the others looked at Duo dubiously.
Quatre, who sat to the right of Duo, looked around, before asking, "Should I go next?"
"Nah, man!" Duo replied enthusiastically, "Everybody already knows your name, you don't have to go again!"
Quatre let out a relieve sigh, then both he and Duo looked to his right for the next person to go, Heero. Heero just blinked back. Both boys prepared to fight him on the subject of participation, but surprisingly Heero gave in before they could, and began talking, though it was short.
"Heero. Hacker." He had obviously put a lot of thought into that comment.
"Well that was unexpected." Duo replied sarcastically. Heero just glared at him.
Next in the circle, was Ariana, who didn't seem very happy to be sitting next to Heero anymore. She had thought he was kinda cute, even though Liz had claimed he was psychotic and brutal, but now she wasn't so sure.
"I'm, um, Ariana, and" she continued with growing confidence, "I'm amazing." She looked around proudly.
A mumbled "more like absent-minded" comment came from Liz's side of the circle.
Ariana blushed furiously, "What was that!?!" she all but yelled at Liz, who was too busy rolling around on the floor, to respond.
Enraged, Ariana pointed to the helplessly laughing girl across the circle, and stated, "That's Liz," she growled, "and she's a lame, lazy lutz!!"
"Is lutz a word?" Duo looked around questioningly. Everyone just shrugged.
Liz was too occupied holding her aching ribs and trying to get her breath back, which turned out that it would have been better if she hadn't used it.
"Asexual" was all she said, but it had the curious effect of turning Ariana's cheeks bright red, and causing her to turn on her teasing friend. Liz didn't seem too bothered by the fact that Ariana was beating her wrathfully with one of the pillows from the couch, as she continued to roll around on the floor in a fit of giggles.
All the boys were either laughing openly at the sight the pair made, or trying to hide smiles, or to desperately not smile at all.
After thoroughly beating Liz with the cushion, Ariana sat back down in her seat, placed the pillow in her lap, hugging it while pouting, and then glared at the person to her right, as if demanding they continue. Across the circle, Liz had calmed down a little, but was too dazed from the pain of her ribs to really notice who went next, or when Ariana threw pouting glares at her. They both failed to notice everyone else's amused smiles, or almost smiles.
Trowa cleared his throat, then resumed the game. "Trowa……taciturn."
"Uh, what does that mean?" Duo whispered to Wufei, who responded, "Trowa". The braided pilot gave him a confused glance, and was promptly turning to ask Quatre, when Wufei hit him with a pillow. Duo whirled around, nearly decapitating both Wufei and Quatre with his braid. But before he could open his big mouth, Wufei stopped him. "Shut up, let's finish the game." Duo gave him a pouty hurt look, but was quiet.
Aya just glared daggers at everyone when they turned to him expectedly. Ken gave him a small nudge to get him going, but he just turned and glared at him instead. After a comment from Heero on the fact that his participation wouldn't kill anyone, including him, Aya seemed to reluctantly agree. (Everything with him is 'seemingly' because with impassive guys like him you just never know!)
"Aya," he snarled, "Abyssian." He seemed to be proud to have thought of that. No one could guess why.
"You do know that that is a cat, you know?" Duo added curiously.
If Aya had been the type to sweatdrop and facevault, he would have, but instead he just glared at the unknowing Duo. Duo blinked back innocently, obviously waiting for an answer, and just as obviously, Aya didn't give one. The rest of group exchanged confused looks, but decided that it was better to just continue, and not induce his wrath.
"My name is, uh, Ken and I guess my word would be kind." Ken smiled shyly.
"Or klutz." Aya muttered under his breath. Ken ignored him. The others snickered a little, and Ariana looked accusingly at Liz, who just smiled and shrugged her shoulders at her still fuming companion.
"Shall I continue?" The longhaired man to Ken's right.
"YES! Please." Ariana smiled at the gorgeous bishounen across the circle. Liz gave her a startled glance.
He just smiled back at Ariana and continued the Name Game.
"You may call me Marron, and the word to describe me appropriately would be… Mage."
Everyone just kind of blinked at him.
"Now what's THAT supposed to mean!?!" Duo cried, thoroughly lost. Nobody answered him.
'Ok… so he's hot and a little insane,' Ariana thought, the smile slowly draining from her face.
"So do I get a turn?" Liz perked.
"Um…" Duo scratched his head. "Ariana kind of already said something for you, but…"
"NO! She does not get a turn!!" Ariana fumed.
Quatre tried to reason that Liz hadn't gotten to speak for herself. Ariana fought back that she didn't deserve a turn. Duo just shrugged when they both turned to him for the rules.
"Isn't this YOUR game, Maxwell!?!" Wufei growled at Duo's shrug of proper knowledge.
Duo blanched, then shot back, "Uh, yea this is my game but that doesn't mean I know everything!"
"IT SHOULD!" Wufei was more than a little upset he was forced to play such a ridiculous game.
"FINE! Since this is MY game, I say Liz gets to take her turn and speak for herself!" Duo finished with a *hmph*. Ariana glared. Quatre beamed good- naturedly. Wufei scowled. Liz smiled.
"Well I guess you kinda already know my name, but my word would be lithe."
"GREAT! WHY CAN'T YOU PEOPLE USE SIMPLE ENGLISH!?!" Duo cried.
"Not everyone speaks 'simpleton' like you, Duo." Heero growled.
"WHAT!? I AM NOT A SIMPLETON!" Duo yelled back.
"Well you definitely talk and act like one." Heero barked.
"Wufei. Warrior." The Chinese boy added quickly.
"WHAT!? WELL YOU SPEAK THE SAME WAY, MR. HACKER!!"
"Well game's over. Bye." Wufei quickly got up and ran from the room. As he left, he shouted at the still fuming braided baka. "Shut up, Duo."
"WAIT!! WUFEI!!" but Wufei was gone. Probably went off to meditate somewhere.
Duo pouted. "But he didn't play!"
"Uh, yea. His word was 'warrior'." Ariana pointed out.
"But you were too busy screaming everyone deaf to have noticed." Heero grunted.
"SHUT UP!"
"You're one to talk."
Duo and Heero promptly went into a glaring contest. It was scary how you could actually see the sparks in the air. Trowa stood up to leave.
"Where are you going?" Quatre asked quietly.
"To the gym." he shrugged.
"OO! I'll go too!" Liz shot up out of her seat. Ariana rolled her eyes. Trowa blinked.
"Oh, but I have to change first." She gave Quatre a questioning glance.
"I told the servants to put your stuff in one of the second floor bed rooms. I think it's in the third room on the right, in the left corridor." Quatre smiled.
"Thanks Quatre." she replied. "Ok. So lets go, Taciturn Trowa."
Trowa just blinked at her again, and followed her out of the room. He ended up having to grab her and drag her in the direction of the stairs, since she was going to get lost again. As the two of them passed by the living room again, she sniffed, "Is something burning?"
Both Quatre and Ariana paled, and ran out of the room in the direction of kitchen.
"So Liz," she snickered, "how exactly did you come to fall on them?"
Liz turned bright red, then mumbled something incoherently.
"What was that?" Ariana questioned innocently, with the tone of mocking playfulness in her voice.
"I said I don't know." Liz mumbled again, only this time loud enough for others to hear.
Ariana gave her a puzzled look, and then demanded,
"What do you mean you don't know!?!"
"I mean I don't know!!" Liz growled back.
"She just kinda fell on us." Ken shrugged.
"She just kinda fell on you!?! What do you mean, as in falling like tripping?" Ariana declared.
"No, more as in she fell on us." groaned the poor boy, who was still on the ground, and had now finished throwing up his internal organs.
"Well where did she fall from!?!" Duo exclaimed wildly.
"Probably the roof." Trowa reasoned.
Everyone turned to stare at him, surprise written across their faces. First off the idea of her falling off the roof was ridiculous, and secondly, this was the first time the girls or anyone else for that matter, had heard him say anything. Trowa just stared back, unmoved.
"BUT what was she could she have possibly been doing on the roof!?!" Ariana and Duo cried out in unison.
Accordingly, everyone then turned to a furiously blushing Liz. She blinked at them angrily, then shouted,
"What!?!"
"What were you doing on the roof?" Heero calmly repeated.
Liz blinked, blushed, then pouted.
"I didn't know I was on the roof." she whispered sheepishly.
"What do you mean, you didn't know you were on the roof!?!" Wufei cried huffily.
"In other words, HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW YOU WERE ON THE ROOF!?!" Ariana followed, with an even huffier sounding cry.
Everybody looked at a flustered Liz expectantly; while she just blinked back, at a loss for words.
Quatre cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention, then spoke without taking his eyes off Liz.
"When you're not sure of where you're going, or what's on the other side of the door."
That got Quatre a lot of funny puzzled looks, or imperceivable stares (*coughcough* Aya, Marron, Heero, and Trowa).
"What's that supposed to mean!?!" Duo shouted.
"Well, lets just say Liz has an amazing sense of adventure, and bring that poor boy inside to one of the bathrooms."
Within the next half an hour, they all managed to carry the sick boy inside, only to watch him start puking again once they reached the nearest bathroom; and with all the running around trying to find some Pepto-Bismol, ice packs, towels, and some breath-mints, the time had flown by. In the end, they had put him in one of the guestrooms on the second floor, to rest and recuperate. Quatre had given him some Advil, then shooed everyone out of the room, asking them to all go to the living room to wait for him. He and the sick boy had been in the room talking for the last 10 minutes. Which was fortunate for everyone else, as they found the living room a complete chaotic mess left by Duo, and were ordered to clean it up by a grouchy maid. Once they had finished and all settled in to the scattered couches and chairs, Quatre had returned from his chat. He looked at the group of people, minus a drugged Relena and an ill cousin, who were spending the next week or so with him on vacation, studying each one individually. He smiled reassuringly at the three new men who stood off to the side.
"Omi should be all right. He said he gets motion sickness occasionally, and that he's still recovering from a cold, but he should be fine by tomorrow morning."
Ken muttered a small thank you, while Marron nodded in acknowledgement, and Aya just sat there, glaring around the room. Quatre looked a little surprised at the redhead's hostility, but decided he was no worse than Heero. He continued.
"Sorry, that the chance has not arisen for me to properly introduce myself and my friends. My name is Quatre Rebarbra Winner and this is my home. As my guests, I welcome you to my home." he gestured toward the three boys on one side of the room sitting around an arrangement of chairs, and then to the two girls who sat on the couch with Duo and Heero, while Trowa and Wufei stood around it. It seemed as though Ariana's friend had demanded that she not sit next to Heero and was actually so close to the opposite end of the couch, she looked as though she was about to take another fall. This would have been unfortunate, for the tumble would have thrown her right into Trowa, who was currently leaning against the arm of the couch, adding to her record of people she had crashed into today.
"Now that you know my name, I would be delighted to get to know…"
"LET'S PLAY THE NAME GAME!!" Duo shouted with way too much enthusiasm. Before, anyone could protest, Duo ran around the room shooing everyone into a circle around the center of the room.
"OK!! I'll start!!… wait… does everyone know how to play?" all Duo received was silence and blank stares.
"Ok… well, first you say your name, and then you have to say a word that describes you and starts with the first letter of your name." He sighed, and continued, "Ok, see, it's fun. I'll start."
Everyone settled into their seats, figuring that the annoying braided boy wouldn't give up on his idea of fun with names. So they got comfortable, and waited for him to begin.
"I'm Duo, and, I… um… DEATH!!!"
The three older boys blinked at his bold statement, while the two girls began scanning the room frantically for a quick route of escape.
"Duo…" Heero growled.
"What!?!" Duo blinked innocently, "I am the great Shinigami, God of DEATH, so death was the perfect word!"
The gundams, minus an idiotic Duo, sweatdropped, as the others looked at Duo dubiously.
Quatre, who sat to the right of Duo, looked around, before asking, "Should I go next?"
"Nah, man!" Duo replied enthusiastically, "Everybody already knows your name, you don't have to go again!"
Quatre let out a relieve sigh, then both he and Duo looked to his right for the next person to go, Heero. Heero just blinked back. Both boys prepared to fight him on the subject of participation, but surprisingly Heero gave in before they could, and began talking, though it was short.
"Heero. Hacker." He had obviously put a lot of thought into that comment.
"Well that was unexpected." Duo replied sarcastically. Heero just glared at him.
Next in the circle, was Ariana, who didn't seem very happy to be sitting next to Heero anymore. She had thought he was kinda cute, even though Liz had claimed he was psychotic and brutal, but now she wasn't so sure.
"I'm, um, Ariana, and" she continued with growing confidence, "I'm amazing." She looked around proudly.
A mumbled "more like absent-minded" comment came from Liz's side of the circle.
Ariana blushed furiously, "What was that!?!" she all but yelled at Liz, who was too busy rolling around on the floor, to respond.
Enraged, Ariana pointed to the helplessly laughing girl across the circle, and stated, "That's Liz," she growled, "and she's a lame, lazy lutz!!"
"Is lutz a word?" Duo looked around questioningly. Everyone just shrugged.
Liz was too occupied holding her aching ribs and trying to get her breath back, which turned out that it would have been better if she hadn't used it.
"Asexual" was all she said, but it had the curious effect of turning Ariana's cheeks bright red, and causing her to turn on her teasing friend. Liz didn't seem too bothered by the fact that Ariana was beating her wrathfully with one of the pillows from the couch, as she continued to roll around on the floor in a fit of giggles.
All the boys were either laughing openly at the sight the pair made, or trying to hide smiles, or to desperately not smile at all.
After thoroughly beating Liz with the cushion, Ariana sat back down in her seat, placed the pillow in her lap, hugging it while pouting, and then glared at the person to her right, as if demanding they continue. Across the circle, Liz had calmed down a little, but was too dazed from the pain of her ribs to really notice who went next, or when Ariana threw pouting glares at her. They both failed to notice everyone else's amused smiles, or almost smiles.
Trowa cleared his throat, then resumed the game. "Trowa……taciturn."
"Uh, what does that mean?" Duo whispered to Wufei, who responded, "Trowa". The braided pilot gave him a confused glance, and was promptly turning to ask Quatre, when Wufei hit him with a pillow. Duo whirled around, nearly decapitating both Wufei and Quatre with his braid. But before he could open his big mouth, Wufei stopped him. "Shut up, let's finish the game." Duo gave him a pouty hurt look, but was quiet.
Aya just glared daggers at everyone when they turned to him expectedly. Ken gave him a small nudge to get him going, but he just turned and glared at him instead. After a comment from Heero on the fact that his participation wouldn't kill anyone, including him, Aya seemed to reluctantly agree. (Everything with him is 'seemingly' because with impassive guys like him you just never know!)
"Aya," he snarled, "Abyssian." He seemed to be proud to have thought of that. No one could guess why.
"You do know that that is a cat, you know?" Duo added curiously.
If Aya had been the type to sweatdrop and facevault, he would have, but instead he just glared at the unknowing Duo. Duo blinked back innocently, obviously waiting for an answer, and just as obviously, Aya didn't give one. The rest of group exchanged confused looks, but decided that it was better to just continue, and not induce his wrath.
"My name is, uh, Ken and I guess my word would be kind." Ken smiled shyly.
"Or klutz." Aya muttered under his breath. Ken ignored him. The others snickered a little, and Ariana looked accusingly at Liz, who just smiled and shrugged her shoulders at her still fuming companion.
"Shall I continue?" The longhaired man to Ken's right.
"YES! Please." Ariana smiled at the gorgeous bishounen across the circle. Liz gave her a startled glance.
He just smiled back at Ariana and continued the Name Game.
"You may call me Marron, and the word to describe me appropriately would be… Mage."
Everyone just kind of blinked at him.
"Now what's THAT supposed to mean!?!" Duo cried, thoroughly lost. Nobody answered him.
'Ok… so he's hot and a little insane,' Ariana thought, the smile slowly draining from her face.
"So do I get a turn?" Liz perked.
"Um…" Duo scratched his head. "Ariana kind of already said something for you, but…"
"NO! She does not get a turn!!" Ariana fumed.
Quatre tried to reason that Liz hadn't gotten to speak for herself. Ariana fought back that she didn't deserve a turn. Duo just shrugged when they both turned to him for the rules.
"Isn't this YOUR game, Maxwell!?!" Wufei growled at Duo's shrug of proper knowledge.
Duo blanched, then shot back, "Uh, yea this is my game but that doesn't mean I know everything!"
"IT SHOULD!" Wufei was more than a little upset he was forced to play such a ridiculous game.
"FINE! Since this is MY game, I say Liz gets to take her turn and speak for herself!" Duo finished with a *hmph*. Ariana glared. Quatre beamed good- naturedly. Wufei scowled. Liz smiled.
"Well I guess you kinda already know my name, but my word would be lithe."
"GREAT! WHY CAN'T YOU PEOPLE USE SIMPLE ENGLISH!?!" Duo cried.
"Not everyone speaks 'simpleton' like you, Duo." Heero growled.
"WHAT!? I AM NOT A SIMPLETON!" Duo yelled back.
"Well you definitely talk and act like one." Heero barked.
"Wufei. Warrior." The Chinese boy added quickly.
"WHAT!? WELL YOU SPEAK THE SAME WAY, MR. HACKER!!"
"Well game's over. Bye." Wufei quickly got up and ran from the room. As he left, he shouted at the still fuming braided baka. "Shut up, Duo."
"WAIT!! WUFEI!!" but Wufei was gone. Probably went off to meditate somewhere.
Duo pouted. "But he didn't play!"
"Uh, yea. His word was 'warrior'." Ariana pointed out.
"But you were too busy screaming everyone deaf to have noticed." Heero grunted.
"SHUT UP!"
"You're one to talk."
Duo and Heero promptly went into a glaring contest. It was scary how you could actually see the sparks in the air. Trowa stood up to leave.
"Where are you going?" Quatre asked quietly.
"To the gym." he shrugged.
"OO! I'll go too!" Liz shot up out of her seat. Ariana rolled her eyes. Trowa blinked.
"Oh, but I have to change first." She gave Quatre a questioning glance.
"I told the servants to put your stuff in one of the second floor bed rooms. I think it's in the third room on the right, in the left corridor." Quatre smiled.
"Thanks Quatre." she replied. "Ok. So lets go, Taciturn Trowa."
Trowa just blinked at her again, and followed her out of the room. He ended up having to grab her and drag her in the direction of the stairs, since she was going to get lost again. As the two of them passed by the living room again, she sniffed, "Is something burning?"
Both Quatre and Ariana paled, and ran out of the room in the direction of kitchen.