Busy Weekend
by: Karin-sama
shinigamis_wings@hotmail.com
(from Skippy-chan's Unexpected Discovery)
Disclaimer: Ok, I own nothing described in this story (including the house and all valuables stored therein). The Gundam boys were taken from Gundam Wing and I got the idea from skippy-chan's Unexpected Discovery. (But when I asked for permission to do this, she said ok. . .so I had some fun.) This is where I get my pen-name.
"Skippy-sama?" Chibi-Neko Quatre-chan looked up at her with abandonment in his huge eyes. "You're not really leaving are you?" She knelt down, pulling a Pocky stick out of no where to hand to him, patting him on the head with her free hand.
"It's okay Quatre-chan. I'll only be gone a couple days, and you guys will be just fine."
"But. . ." he brought his hand up to whisper the secret. "She's funny looking." He gave a suspicious glance over his shoulder at his babysitter standing in the doorway of the huge victorian style house. It wasn't that she was funny looking, but she certainly didn't have any of Skippy's childlike cuteness. Her hair was too long for one thing, black and falling below her waist, maybe even longer than Duo-chan's. And her eyes were tilted, almost almond shaped. And her skin was altogether too dark, not anything like Skippy whom the chibi-nekos had grown used to.
"Now Quatre-chan, that would be a statement I'd be expecting from Duo-chan. She's my friend, and she said she'd take good care of you while I'm away. Now get out of the car, NOW!" Pouting, Quatre unfastened the seatbelt of his child's seat and slipped out of Skippy's car. "That's right." Trowa, wide eyed, came to stand next to him as he entered
the group. All the chibi nekos were eyeing their new surroundings warily, blinking at Skippy in confusion and desertment. "Stay here for a minute you guys. I have to talk to Karin-chan." She rose, but Duo-chan grabbed her sleeve on her way up.
"Skippy? Can we play in the yard?" It was an interesting yard, with a fountain and a little pond and fruit trees and what might be a sandbox in a shadowed grape arbor. Duo had been giving it the extreme lookover for a play area. "Pleeeeeease?"
"Well. . . .all right, but you'd better come right to me when I call." Duo gave a maniacal grin and rushed off, grabbing Heero-chan and Wu-chan on the way, apparently heading for the pond. Skippy shook her head, remembering how much Duo enjoyed getting his fellows completely soaked. Oh well, too late to do much about it now.
"Skippy-chan, they're darling!" Karin-chan said in delighted tones. "Where ever did you find them?"
"Far off reaches of. . . .well. . . .er. . . .far away. Anyway," she pulled out a huge bookbag from hyperspace and started rummaging through it. "I've got some catnip and Pocky, you can have some of that too if you want, and they go to bed at nine thirty and not a moment after and don't let Duo too close to anything breakable, or Heero for that matter and don't let them go out in the rain no matter how much they plead and be sure to give them pb&j for lunch because it's their favorite and. . ."
"Skippy-chan, you worry too much. We'll have a lot of fun, promise. You just go to the anime convention and don't forget to bring me back an Operation 3 cd okay?" She bit her lip, cutting off the run on sentence.
"Well, okay. If you're sure you can handle them."
"How hard could it be?" Grinning, Skippy turned around to whistle at the chibis who were scattered in various places around the gigantic yard. They scrambled to line up in front of her on the porch steps. Wufei drenched with pond water, and Duo trying to look as
innocent as possible. Heero smirking and trying to hide it.
"Okay guys, I'm out of here. I want you to be good for Karin-chan. Be nice to her, and I'll be back to pick you up on Sunday." As she spoke she backed away down the steps, and the flowered front walk to her sporty little car, waving fiercely with one hand and blowing kisses with the other. "Good-bye!!" Karin-chan waved back as the car vanished down the driveway and out of sight.
When she turned back, she had to count to make sure she had everyone. One. . .two. . .three. . . .four. . . .wait a minute. Four?
"Shinigami!!!!" Cried a voice from the direction of the stables. The stables!? Oh no!! He'd be trampled! Running an anxious hand through her hair, Karin-chan grabbed the skirt of her dress so she could get there faster without it impeding her motion. The other chibi-nekos gave each other a look and ran after, tails streaming out behind them. Just as they were close, one very frightened Tennessee Walker came rushing out of the open stable door with an even more frightened Chibi-Neko Duo-chan clinging to the mane. Karin-chan just barely grabbed chibi-neko Quatre-chan in time to keep him from getting
run over.
"Aiya!" she cried, getting to her feet and brushing off the chibi-neko in her arms. "He'll kill himself!" Chibi-Neko Heero-chan pulled a pistol from, er, somewhere, and aimed it right at her prize winning horse. "Hold it!" She screamed grabbing the pistol from the surprisingly strong little chibi, and getting splashed with water in the process. A water pistol? Oye. "We'll have to. . "she stopped herself. We? No way. "Ahem, I'll have to get him under control. Wait right here, and stay out of trouble will you?" The chibis blinked at each other, wondering what sort of animal was running around with Duo-chan on its back, and wondering if it were fun to be carried around that way. It sure looked fun. They had no idea why Karin-sama was getting so upset about it.
In another minute, another horse came bursting forth from the stable, with Karin-sama riding astride, a lariot in one hand, the reins in the other. Spurring hard, it didn't take her long to catch up with Duo and toss the rope about its neck to slow it down. The Tennessee Walker was quickly calmed under the hand of his mistress, but Duo was another matter altogether.
"Wheeee!! That was great, Karin-sama. Let's go again!" He shrieked jumping up and down and almost losing his balance in the process.
"Uh, maybe later. After you've had a riding lesson or two. A saddle and bridle wouldn't be a bad idea either." Duo's eyes grew wide.
"What's all that stuff?"
"I'll show you, but do stop jumping up and down like that. In fact, come over here with me so you won't fall off."
"All right." One more spring, and he was safely nestled against his babysitter who held onto him so he would be still while she guided the horses back in the direction of the stable. Sighing in relief, Karin made her way back inside, dismounting and lifting Duo to the ground, hair tousled and eyes bright with mischief. His fellows clustered around him, eager to hear all about his wild adventure on horseback. Duo beamed under all the attention.
"Duo-chan, come here, and if you're quiet I'll show you something." Not only Duo, but all five Gundam boys came into the musty, dim lit stable. She lifted a huge heavy leather thing, bringing it down for them to see.
"This," she instructed in a school teacher voice. "Is a saddle."
"Ooooh."
"You put it on the horse's back, like this," she demonstrated, "and then you can ride without falling off."
"Can I try?"
"Um, well, no, this saddle is way too big for you. These horses are too big for you. You need a little French Miniature."
"Which one is one of those?"
"Um, well, I don't own any."
"Oh." Duo's face fell. "Well then, let's go." He patted his Tennessee Walker on the knee (that was as high as he could reach) and rushed out of the stable, intent on some mischief.
"Is he always like this?" Karin asked in exasperation to the other chibis who nodded solemnly. She passed a weary hand over her eyes. "Oye." And they had only been there for twenty minutes.
"Are you okay, Karin-sama?" came the voice of the little blonde chibi-neko. Um, Quatre-chan, that's it.
"Yes, yes, just very, very tired all of a sudden."
"Maybe you should take a nap." ah, the innocence of it all. To be able to take a nap. It made her snicker to herself. How did Skippy do it? There must be some control she had over them that Karin had yet to master. Well, she had gone to the far reaches of,
er, somewhere to catch them after all.
"Okay, Quatre-chan. A nap isn't a bad idea." She whistled as Skippy had, and surprisingly all the chibi-nekos jumped to stand at attention in front of her, including the mischievious Duo-chan, who eyed everything with a curiosity that made her very wary.
"Okay, guys, we're going to take a nap." That produced the wrong effect.
"But Karin-sama --"
"It's not even --"
"Lunchtime!!" A quick glance at her watch told her that they were very much correct. How could she drawl out the time until lunch? And then how could she drawl out the time until bed? Wait a second, Karin. One chunk at a time will be safer.
"You can't just announce a nap like that, unexpected. It's unjust!"
"But she is in charge," Trowa-chan sided up next to Quatre-chan who was sided up next to Karin. "Remember what Skippy-sama said." His voice, however, was too shy and soft for anyone but Quatre-chan and Karin to hear. She'd better do something quick. Her popularity was going way way down. Heero-chan had his gun out, ready to protest, while Duo-chan stood with his little chibi arms folded.
"C'mon guys," Quatre-chan said. "She's a old lady and needs a nap."
"Oh," Duo-chan squealed. "It's HER that needs the nap. Okay." As the talktative one in the group, he immediately took charge of the situation. With a clamor of motion, the hyperactive little chibi had climbed to sit on Karin's shoulder. "We'll give you a nap, Karin-sama. Right?" His enthusiastic statement was followed by a bunch of
enthusiastic nods.
"That would be Justice." Now this was a much appreciated relief. They were going to behave long enough for her to figure out how she was going to get through the weekend. Five pairs of chibi hands grabbed onto her skirt and dragged her towards the house. . . .where they got sidetracked.
"I didn't know you lived in a museum, Karin-sama." Karin was a hopeless collector of odds and ends, most made of glass and most incredibly expensive and all very very antique.
"Um, well, yes actually I do. And we all know the rule about museums don't we?"
"What's this thing?"
"Hmmm." Heero-chan eyed a table lined with half a dozen identical vases from a chinese ivory set, pulling out his pistol and taking careful aim.
"No. . ." she prompted, giving Heero-chan a worried glance, and grabbing the pistol away with the same motion. Idly, she wondered where he kept pulling these things from. It wasn't like he had access to hammerspace like Skippy did. Oh well. Probably had a whole toy store of super soakers in those tight spandex pants. *sweatdrop*
"Hey! I can see myself."
"...."
"Touching!!" She hadn't meant to say it so sharply, but most of what the chibis were into were quite irreplaceable. At least it brought their attention away from her collectibles and back to what they had meant to do when they had first entered the house, er, museum.
"Yep," Duo-chan stated in a serious tone, as if he had made a very important discovery. "She does need a nap. She's getting grouchy." The way he had his face set, and the way he positioned his body made her immediately think of Skippy. She had probably told him he was grouchy just that way many times before. How darling!
"Gomen nasai, guys," she said in a softer pitch, picking up Quatre-chan who had tears dripping from his huge aqua eyes. "I didn't mean to be nasty, but promise you won't touch anything unless I say it's okay, all right?" A chorus of squeaky chibi voices promised they wouldn't. And a weepy Quatre-chan snuggled against her and purred a little bit at the
apology and cuddling.
****************************************************
"It was the best of times. . . .it was the worst of times," Trowa-chan began reading the first book they had found in Karin's bedroom, as his voice was the least squeaky and he had the longest attention span. They had decided that if she was to take a nap she simply MUST have a bedtime story. And there seemed to be an abundance of reading material in the place. However. . . .it didn't seem to be the right kind.
"What kind of a story is that?" Wu-chan asked from his perch on the lowest level of the bookshelf. Heero-chan was on the next, and Duo-chan above him, poised and ready to toss books down to Trowa-chan who was sitting on the floor with the large book in front of him.
"It doesn't even start with 'once upon a time'," Quatre-chan agreed from his curled up position in the crook of Karin's elbow.
"Lemme see that," Duo-chan jumped off the top shelf, gaining a gasp from his sitter, to shove Trowa-chan out of the way so he could inspect the story for literary content. "Well, no wonder," he muttered after a while. "The title of this book is A Tail of Two Cities, and we all know that cities don't have tails." He gave a backwards glance over his shoulder at his own little neko tail and wiggled it a bit to show it off. "Besides," he thumbed through all the pages. "It'll take us till a hundred years to read it all." Then it was back up to the top shelf to dig through some more ancient tombs of classical literature. The other chibis ran and ducked from the rain of books Duo-chan pulled off the shelf. Karin watched in silence, glad that it was only semi dangerous and much less expensive than if he were throwing vases off the shelf.
"Hmmm," Duo-chan pondered as he elbowed his way through Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. "I've never seen a scarlet letter."
"What?" Karin, who had been drowsing had to ask. She looked up to see Duo-chan gazing at a cover in confusion while the other chibi-nekos foraged through the books on the floor.
"The scarlet letter. They don't deliver those in the mail, or at least Skippy-sama's never gotten one."
"Well, er, oh never mind."
"What kind of a name is Huckleberry?" The comments went on, and the pile on the floor grew. "I wonder if he was a cousin to those grapes of wrath."
"All boys, except one, grow up," came Heero-chan's voice from a shadowed corner where one lone book had fallen. Duo-chan's ears pricked up and he turned from contemplating what exactly were the Great Expectations that the one Dickens fellow was expecting. Karin smiled softly in her half doze, and Quatre-chan snuggled closer hoping that the first sentence would win the approval of Duo-chan.
"Oh yeah? Who?" Heero-chan shrugged.
"Peter Pan, I guess. That's what it says here anyway."
"Call me Ishmael. . . ." Trowa-chan piped up from another part of the room, almost under the bed.
"But you're Trowa-chan," Quatre-chan stated simply from his comfortable spot.
"And we're not talking about Ishmael," Duo-chan added from atop the bookcase. "We're talking about that Peter Pan guy. Go ahead, Heero-chan."
"I don't wanna read it."
"Oh, okay, where's Tro-chan?" Tro-chan was all the way under the bed now, with only his little neko head sticking out, pouring over Moby-Dick.
"And there's all the difference in the world between paying and being paid," Tro-chan read aloud, completely absorbed. "Wu-chan you'd like this." The little chinese chibi blinked his enormous chinese chibi eyes and hunkered down next to Tro-chan under the bed. Duo-chan pursed his lips, feeling his power seeping away from him somehow.
"Karin-sama?" He squeaked out the plea. "Will YOU read it?"
"Sure will. Bring it here." The chibi-nekos hopped up on the bed to crowd in close. This was a new story, and something new and interesting was worth paying full attention to. They did surprisingly well, for chibis, with only minor interruptions on the where abouts of London and a couple shouts of "I can fly!" and the demand that Karin-sama show them the second star to the right the moment it got dark out.
They were just to the part on fairies when a poor dragonfly happened to soar threw the open window into the room. Heero-chan immediately whipped out his gun from . . . .somewhere (it was too fast for Karin to see) and shot the poor insect straight on with a water blast. Quatre-chan burst into tears and hid his little chibi face from the sight. Tro-chan and Wu-chan jumped from where ever they were in Moby-Dick as the dragonfly dropped right on their book.
"You," Duo-chan squawked pointing an accusing finger at Heero-chan. "You killed Tinkerbell!!" Heero-chan sweatdropped and lowered his water pistol. Tro-chan leaped up on the bed to comfort Quatre-chan who was sobbing. Wu-chan also jumped up, carrying the saturated blue and green bug.
"That was hardly fair, Heero-chan," he said straightening the wings. "She never did anything to you." Heero-chan dropped the pistol on the coverlet, putting both hands behind his back and looked very sheepish.
"It's okay, Quatre-chan. Don't cry."
"Where's Peter? If Tinkerbell is here shouldn't he be coming right after? He's going to be really mad when he finds out you killed his fairy Heero-chan." Heero-chan blushed.
"I believe in fairies," Quatre-chan snuffled, wiping his eyes.
"Eh?"
"Karin-sama read that to make a fairy come back to life is to clap your hands and say that you believe in fairies."
"Is that right, Karin-sama?"
"Um, that's what it says. . . . but ---"
"Okay then." Duo-chan began clapping as loud as he could screaming that he believed in fairies at the top of his chibi voice.
"It's not working," Tro-chan pointed out poking the dragonfly, who was still apparently dead.
"It seems only just for Heero-chan to do it 'cuz he's the one that shot her," Wu-chan chimed in. The other chibis nodded, that seemed to make sense.
"WAIT!!" Duo-chan cried. "We need to put her in a jar first. I don't want her to fly away once she wakes up." Karin decided to humor them, even though the bug probably wouldn't wake up ever again. However, it was a waste of a good fifteen minutes so. . . .whatever. She supplied them with an old fish aquarium with a top so the dragonfly, er, fairy, couldn't get out.
"There," she said with satisfaction once the insect was resting in the glass tank. "Much more room than a jar, eh?" They nodded, then turned to Heero-chan.
"Okay Heero-chan, start clapping." He folded his arms and shook his head stubbornly.
"Nope, not gonna do it."
"But. . . .what about Tinkerbell?" He just shook his head all the more. Quatre-chan burst into fresh sobs.
"Don't cry, Quatre-chan. He'll do it." Duo-chan got a mischievious glint in his eye again. Screaming a battlecry, he jumped on Heero-chan, knocking him off the bed. They rolled together on the floor. In a minute Wu-chan joined them, followed by Tro-chan who only wanted to get Quatre-chan to stop crying. Karin just watched, her lips pursed and
her eyebrow raised.
"Clap!!"
"No!!!"
"It's only just."
"Lemme go!"
". . . ."
"Stoppit!"
"Pu . . .puleaze Heero-chan?" Duo-chan snatched Heero-chan's pistol from, um, somewhere and squirted him viciously with water, managing also to soak Wu-chan and Tro-chan.
"Ha! Gotcha!" Heero-chan shook himself off, scowling in the cutest chibi way. "Are you gonna clap now?" He glanced at the other two chibis and listened to the sobs.
"Oh, fine." The clapping began, timidly at first then growing in volume as Duo-chan aimed the pistol again.
"Say it."
"Do I have to?"
"YES!!"
"I believe in fairies."
"I don't think she heard you."
"I believe in fairies!!!" Well, Karin was sure shocked, but the insect twitched in the glass tank.
"Well, what do you know. Look Quatre-chan. She's going to be all right." Apparently, the wings had dried meaning the dragonfly had never really been dead to begin with. Oh well. However it worked, the chibis had a new pet. All the chibis were clapping now as they watched the bright "fairy" fly in its new home.
"Poor Peter," Quatre-chan said. "He'll never see her again."
"Well," Tro-chan said. "Maybe we can let him visit sometimes."
"Then he can teach us to fly," Duo-chan added, his eyes glinting dangerously.
Somewhere a clock chimed in the great house. Karin glanced at her watch. Well, she thought to herself and sighed, I made it to lunch.
by: Karin-sama
shinigamis_wings@hotmail.com
(from Skippy-chan's Unexpected Discovery)
Disclaimer: Ok, I own nothing described in this story (including the house and all valuables stored therein). The Gundam boys were taken from Gundam Wing and I got the idea from skippy-chan's Unexpected Discovery. (But when I asked for permission to do this, she said ok. . .so I had some fun.) This is where I get my pen-name.
"Skippy-sama?" Chibi-Neko Quatre-chan looked up at her with abandonment in his huge eyes. "You're not really leaving are you?" She knelt down, pulling a Pocky stick out of no where to hand to him, patting him on the head with her free hand.
"It's okay Quatre-chan. I'll only be gone a couple days, and you guys will be just fine."
"But. . ." he brought his hand up to whisper the secret. "She's funny looking." He gave a suspicious glance over his shoulder at his babysitter standing in the doorway of the huge victorian style house. It wasn't that she was funny looking, but she certainly didn't have any of Skippy's childlike cuteness. Her hair was too long for one thing, black and falling below her waist, maybe even longer than Duo-chan's. And her eyes were tilted, almost almond shaped. And her skin was altogether too dark, not anything like Skippy whom the chibi-nekos had grown used to.
"Now Quatre-chan, that would be a statement I'd be expecting from Duo-chan. She's my friend, and she said she'd take good care of you while I'm away. Now get out of the car, NOW!" Pouting, Quatre unfastened the seatbelt of his child's seat and slipped out of Skippy's car. "That's right." Trowa, wide eyed, came to stand next to him as he entered
the group. All the chibi nekos were eyeing their new surroundings warily, blinking at Skippy in confusion and desertment. "Stay here for a minute you guys. I have to talk to Karin-chan." She rose, but Duo-chan grabbed her sleeve on her way up.
"Skippy? Can we play in the yard?" It was an interesting yard, with a fountain and a little pond and fruit trees and what might be a sandbox in a shadowed grape arbor. Duo had been giving it the extreme lookover for a play area. "Pleeeeeease?"
"Well. . . .all right, but you'd better come right to me when I call." Duo gave a maniacal grin and rushed off, grabbing Heero-chan and Wu-chan on the way, apparently heading for the pond. Skippy shook her head, remembering how much Duo enjoyed getting his fellows completely soaked. Oh well, too late to do much about it now.
"Skippy-chan, they're darling!" Karin-chan said in delighted tones. "Where ever did you find them?"
"Far off reaches of. . . .well. . . .er. . . .far away. Anyway," she pulled out a huge bookbag from hyperspace and started rummaging through it. "I've got some catnip and Pocky, you can have some of that too if you want, and they go to bed at nine thirty and not a moment after and don't let Duo too close to anything breakable, or Heero for that matter and don't let them go out in the rain no matter how much they plead and be sure to give them pb&j for lunch because it's their favorite and. . ."
"Skippy-chan, you worry too much. We'll have a lot of fun, promise. You just go to the anime convention and don't forget to bring me back an Operation 3 cd okay?" She bit her lip, cutting off the run on sentence.
"Well, okay. If you're sure you can handle them."
"How hard could it be?" Grinning, Skippy turned around to whistle at the chibis who were scattered in various places around the gigantic yard. They scrambled to line up in front of her on the porch steps. Wufei drenched with pond water, and Duo trying to look as
innocent as possible. Heero smirking and trying to hide it.
"Okay guys, I'm out of here. I want you to be good for Karin-chan. Be nice to her, and I'll be back to pick you up on Sunday." As she spoke she backed away down the steps, and the flowered front walk to her sporty little car, waving fiercely with one hand and blowing kisses with the other. "Good-bye!!" Karin-chan waved back as the car vanished down the driveway and out of sight.
When she turned back, she had to count to make sure she had everyone. One. . .two. . .three. . . .four. . . .wait a minute. Four?
"Shinigami!!!!" Cried a voice from the direction of the stables. The stables!? Oh no!! He'd be trampled! Running an anxious hand through her hair, Karin-chan grabbed the skirt of her dress so she could get there faster without it impeding her motion. The other chibi-nekos gave each other a look and ran after, tails streaming out behind them. Just as they were close, one very frightened Tennessee Walker came rushing out of the open stable door with an even more frightened Chibi-Neko Duo-chan clinging to the mane. Karin-chan just barely grabbed chibi-neko Quatre-chan in time to keep him from getting
run over.
"Aiya!" she cried, getting to her feet and brushing off the chibi-neko in her arms. "He'll kill himself!" Chibi-Neko Heero-chan pulled a pistol from, er, somewhere, and aimed it right at her prize winning horse. "Hold it!" She screamed grabbing the pistol from the surprisingly strong little chibi, and getting splashed with water in the process. A water pistol? Oye. "We'll have to. . "she stopped herself. We? No way. "Ahem, I'll have to get him under control. Wait right here, and stay out of trouble will you?" The chibis blinked at each other, wondering what sort of animal was running around with Duo-chan on its back, and wondering if it were fun to be carried around that way. It sure looked fun. They had no idea why Karin-sama was getting so upset about it.
In another minute, another horse came bursting forth from the stable, with Karin-sama riding astride, a lariot in one hand, the reins in the other. Spurring hard, it didn't take her long to catch up with Duo and toss the rope about its neck to slow it down. The Tennessee Walker was quickly calmed under the hand of his mistress, but Duo was another matter altogether.
"Wheeee!! That was great, Karin-sama. Let's go again!" He shrieked jumping up and down and almost losing his balance in the process.
"Uh, maybe later. After you've had a riding lesson or two. A saddle and bridle wouldn't be a bad idea either." Duo's eyes grew wide.
"What's all that stuff?"
"I'll show you, but do stop jumping up and down like that. In fact, come over here with me so you won't fall off."
"All right." One more spring, and he was safely nestled against his babysitter who held onto him so he would be still while she guided the horses back in the direction of the stable. Sighing in relief, Karin made her way back inside, dismounting and lifting Duo to the ground, hair tousled and eyes bright with mischief. His fellows clustered around him, eager to hear all about his wild adventure on horseback. Duo beamed under all the attention.
"Duo-chan, come here, and if you're quiet I'll show you something." Not only Duo, but all five Gundam boys came into the musty, dim lit stable. She lifted a huge heavy leather thing, bringing it down for them to see.
"This," she instructed in a school teacher voice. "Is a saddle."
"Ooooh."
"You put it on the horse's back, like this," she demonstrated, "and then you can ride without falling off."
"Can I try?"
"Um, well, no, this saddle is way too big for you. These horses are too big for you. You need a little French Miniature."
"Which one is one of those?"
"Um, well, I don't own any."
"Oh." Duo's face fell. "Well then, let's go." He patted his Tennessee Walker on the knee (that was as high as he could reach) and rushed out of the stable, intent on some mischief.
"Is he always like this?" Karin asked in exasperation to the other chibis who nodded solemnly. She passed a weary hand over her eyes. "Oye." And they had only been there for twenty minutes.
"Are you okay, Karin-sama?" came the voice of the little blonde chibi-neko. Um, Quatre-chan, that's it.
"Yes, yes, just very, very tired all of a sudden."
"Maybe you should take a nap." ah, the innocence of it all. To be able to take a nap. It made her snicker to herself. How did Skippy do it? There must be some control she had over them that Karin had yet to master. Well, she had gone to the far reaches of,
er, somewhere to catch them after all.
"Okay, Quatre-chan. A nap isn't a bad idea." She whistled as Skippy had, and surprisingly all the chibi-nekos jumped to stand at attention in front of her, including the mischievious Duo-chan, who eyed everything with a curiosity that made her very wary.
"Okay, guys, we're going to take a nap." That produced the wrong effect.
"But Karin-sama --"
"It's not even --"
"Lunchtime!!" A quick glance at her watch told her that they were very much correct. How could she drawl out the time until lunch? And then how could she drawl out the time until bed? Wait a second, Karin. One chunk at a time will be safer.
"You can't just announce a nap like that, unexpected. It's unjust!"
"But she is in charge," Trowa-chan sided up next to Quatre-chan who was sided up next to Karin. "Remember what Skippy-sama said." His voice, however, was too shy and soft for anyone but Quatre-chan and Karin to hear. She'd better do something quick. Her popularity was going way way down. Heero-chan had his gun out, ready to protest, while Duo-chan stood with his little chibi arms folded.
"C'mon guys," Quatre-chan said. "She's a old lady and needs a nap."
"Oh," Duo-chan squealed. "It's HER that needs the nap. Okay." As the talktative one in the group, he immediately took charge of the situation. With a clamor of motion, the hyperactive little chibi had climbed to sit on Karin's shoulder. "We'll give you a nap, Karin-sama. Right?" His enthusiastic statement was followed by a bunch of
enthusiastic nods.
"That would be Justice." Now this was a much appreciated relief. They were going to behave long enough for her to figure out how she was going to get through the weekend. Five pairs of chibi hands grabbed onto her skirt and dragged her towards the house. . . .where they got sidetracked.
"I didn't know you lived in a museum, Karin-sama." Karin was a hopeless collector of odds and ends, most made of glass and most incredibly expensive and all very very antique.
"Um, well, yes actually I do. And we all know the rule about museums don't we?"
"What's this thing?"
"Hmmm." Heero-chan eyed a table lined with half a dozen identical vases from a chinese ivory set, pulling out his pistol and taking careful aim.
"No. . ." she prompted, giving Heero-chan a worried glance, and grabbing the pistol away with the same motion. Idly, she wondered where he kept pulling these things from. It wasn't like he had access to hammerspace like Skippy did. Oh well. Probably had a whole toy store of super soakers in those tight spandex pants. *sweatdrop*
"Hey! I can see myself."
"...."
"Touching!!" She hadn't meant to say it so sharply, but most of what the chibis were into were quite irreplaceable. At least it brought their attention away from her collectibles and back to what they had meant to do when they had first entered the house, er, museum.
"Yep," Duo-chan stated in a serious tone, as if he had made a very important discovery. "She does need a nap. She's getting grouchy." The way he had his face set, and the way he positioned his body made her immediately think of Skippy. She had probably told him he was grouchy just that way many times before. How darling!
"Gomen nasai, guys," she said in a softer pitch, picking up Quatre-chan who had tears dripping from his huge aqua eyes. "I didn't mean to be nasty, but promise you won't touch anything unless I say it's okay, all right?" A chorus of squeaky chibi voices promised they wouldn't. And a weepy Quatre-chan snuggled against her and purred a little bit at the
apology and cuddling.
****************************************************
"It was the best of times. . . .it was the worst of times," Trowa-chan began reading the first book they had found in Karin's bedroom, as his voice was the least squeaky and he had the longest attention span. They had decided that if she was to take a nap she simply MUST have a bedtime story. And there seemed to be an abundance of reading material in the place. However. . . .it didn't seem to be the right kind.
"What kind of a story is that?" Wu-chan asked from his perch on the lowest level of the bookshelf. Heero-chan was on the next, and Duo-chan above him, poised and ready to toss books down to Trowa-chan who was sitting on the floor with the large book in front of him.
"It doesn't even start with 'once upon a time'," Quatre-chan agreed from his curled up position in the crook of Karin's elbow.
"Lemme see that," Duo-chan jumped off the top shelf, gaining a gasp from his sitter, to shove Trowa-chan out of the way so he could inspect the story for literary content. "Well, no wonder," he muttered after a while. "The title of this book is A Tail of Two Cities, and we all know that cities don't have tails." He gave a backwards glance over his shoulder at his own little neko tail and wiggled it a bit to show it off. "Besides," he thumbed through all the pages. "It'll take us till a hundred years to read it all." Then it was back up to the top shelf to dig through some more ancient tombs of classical literature. The other chibis ran and ducked from the rain of books Duo-chan pulled off the shelf. Karin watched in silence, glad that it was only semi dangerous and much less expensive than if he were throwing vases off the shelf.
"Hmmm," Duo-chan pondered as he elbowed his way through Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. "I've never seen a scarlet letter."
"What?" Karin, who had been drowsing had to ask. She looked up to see Duo-chan gazing at a cover in confusion while the other chibi-nekos foraged through the books on the floor.
"The scarlet letter. They don't deliver those in the mail, or at least Skippy-sama's never gotten one."
"Well, er, oh never mind."
"What kind of a name is Huckleberry?" The comments went on, and the pile on the floor grew. "I wonder if he was a cousin to those grapes of wrath."
"All boys, except one, grow up," came Heero-chan's voice from a shadowed corner where one lone book had fallen. Duo-chan's ears pricked up and he turned from contemplating what exactly were the Great Expectations that the one Dickens fellow was expecting. Karin smiled softly in her half doze, and Quatre-chan snuggled closer hoping that the first sentence would win the approval of Duo-chan.
"Oh yeah? Who?" Heero-chan shrugged.
"Peter Pan, I guess. That's what it says here anyway."
"Call me Ishmael. . . ." Trowa-chan piped up from another part of the room, almost under the bed.
"But you're Trowa-chan," Quatre-chan stated simply from his comfortable spot.
"And we're not talking about Ishmael," Duo-chan added from atop the bookcase. "We're talking about that Peter Pan guy. Go ahead, Heero-chan."
"I don't wanna read it."
"Oh, okay, where's Tro-chan?" Tro-chan was all the way under the bed now, with only his little neko head sticking out, pouring over Moby-Dick.
"And there's all the difference in the world between paying and being paid," Tro-chan read aloud, completely absorbed. "Wu-chan you'd like this." The little chinese chibi blinked his enormous chinese chibi eyes and hunkered down next to Tro-chan under the bed. Duo-chan pursed his lips, feeling his power seeping away from him somehow.
"Karin-sama?" He squeaked out the plea. "Will YOU read it?"
"Sure will. Bring it here." The chibi-nekos hopped up on the bed to crowd in close. This was a new story, and something new and interesting was worth paying full attention to. They did surprisingly well, for chibis, with only minor interruptions on the where abouts of London and a couple shouts of "I can fly!" and the demand that Karin-sama show them the second star to the right the moment it got dark out.
They were just to the part on fairies when a poor dragonfly happened to soar threw the open window into the room. Heero-chan immediately whipped out his gun from . . . .somewhere (it was too fast for Karin to see) and shot the poor insect straight on with a water blast. Quatre-chan burst into tears and hid his little chibi face from the sight. Tro-chan and Wu-chan jumped from where ever they were in Moby-Dick as the dragonfly dropped right on their book.
"You," Duo-chan squawked pointing an accusing finger at Heero-chan. "You killed Tinkerbell!!" Heero-chan sweatdropped and lowered his water pistol. Tro-chan leaped up on the bed to comfort Quatre-chan who was sobbing. Wu-chan also jumped up, carrying the saturated blue and green bug.
"That was hardly fair, Heero-chan," he said straightening the wings. "She never did anything to you." Heero-chan dropped the pistol on the coverlet, putting both hands behind his back and looked very sheepish.
"It's okay, Quatre-chan. Don't cry."
"Where's Peter? If Tinkerbell is here shouldn't he be coming right after? He's going to be really mad when he finds out you killed his fairy Heero-chan." Heero-chan blushed.
"I believe in fairies," Quatre-chan snuffled, wiping his eyes.
"Eh?"
"Karin-sama read that to make a fairy come back to life is to clap your hands and say that you believe in fairies."
"Is that right, Karin-sama?"
"Um, that's what it says. . . . but ---"
"Okay then." Duo-chan began clapping as loud as he could screaming that he believed in fairies at the top of his chibi voice.
"It's not working," Tro-chan pointed out poking the dragonfly, who was still apparently dead.
"It seems only just for Heero-chan to do it 'cuz he's the one that shot her," Wu-chan chimed in. The other chibis nodded, that seemed to make sense.
"WAIT!!" Duo-chan cried. "We need to put her in a jar first. I don't want her to fly away once she wakes up." Karin decided to humor them, even though the bug probably wouldn't wake up ever again. However, it was a waste of a good fifteen minutes so. . . .whatever. She supplied them with an old fish aquarium with a top so the dragonfly, er, fairy, couldn't get out.
"There," she said with satisfaction once the insect was resting in the glass tank. "Much more room than a jar, eh?" They nodded, then turned to Heero-chan.
"Okay Heero-chan, start clapping." He folded his arms and shook his head stubbornly.
"Nope, not gonna do it."
"But. . . .what about Tinkerbell?" He just shook his head all the more. Quatre-chan burst into fresh sobs.
"Don't cry, Quatre-chan. He'll do it." Duo-chan got a mischievious glint in his eye again. Screaming a battlecry, he jumped on Heero-chan, knocking him off the bed. They rolled together on the floor. In a minute Wu-chan joined them, followed by Tro-chan who only wanted to get Quatre-chan to stop crying. Karin just watched, her lips pursed and
her eyebrow raised.
"Clap!!"
"No!!!"
"It's only just."
"Lemme go!"
". . . ."
"Stoppit!"
"Pu . . .puleaze Heero-chan?" Duo-chan snatched Heero-chan's pistol from, um, somewhere and squirted him viciously with water, managing also to soak Wu-chan and Tro-chan.
"Ha! Gotcha!" Heero-chan shook himself off, scowling in the cutest chibi way. "Are you gonna clap now?" He glanced at the other two chibis and listened to the sobs.
"Oh, fine." The clapping began, timidly at first then growing in volume as Duo-chan aimed the pistol again.
"Say it."
"Do I have to?"
"YES!!"
"I believe in fairies."
"I don't think she heard you."
"I believe in fairies!!!" Well, Karin was sure shocked, but the insect twitched in the glass tank.
"Well, what do you know. Look Quatre-chan. She's going to be all right." Apparently, the wings had dried meaning the dragonfly had never really been dead to begin with. Oh well. However it worked, the chibis had a new pet. All the chibis were clapping now as they watched the bright "fairy" fly in its new home.
"Poor Peter," Quatre-chan said. "He'll never see her again."
"Well," Tro-chan said. "Maybe we can let him visit sometimes."
"Then he can teach us to fly," Duo-chan added, his eyes glinting dangerously.
Somewhere a clock chimed in the great house. Karin glanced at her watch. Well, she thought to herself and sighed, I made it to lunch.