By Kiila the Spellsinger and Julie
Kiila walked back into her apartment. She was wary of looking around too much, for fear of what she would see. A male voice singing wafted out of the bathroom, so she relaxed a bit, hoping he wouldn't come out anytime soon. She slipped into the bedroom, noticing that Julie was curled up in a little ball on her bed. Harold looked completely dazed, lying on his back hanging off the nightstand.
I don't even want to know. Then she noticed Havoc was no where to be seen. She opened her closet and the armadillo leapt into her arms. "Poor thing," she whispered.
With the armadillo perched on her shoulder, she dug through her closet to find an outfit to wear down to the studio.
"Qui Gon…" Julie moaned in her sleep. Kiila threw some pants and a shirt onto Julie's head. "What?"
"Get up and take some painkillers. Then get that Jedi to the Academy. He is an important Jedi, isn't he?" Kiila glared down at the shaking pile of clothing and linen.
Julie growled as Kiila walked out of the room, and subsequently, out of the apartment.
Down at the studio, Kiila was stretching, when one of her costars walked up to her.
"Hey Kiila," Ryan shook his blonde hair lightly. "Did you hear about that big fuss they had at a restaurant yesterday?"
"No."
"It was at some place called Bobby Fisher's Nightclub."
Kiila choked. "What time of the night was it?"
"I don't know, but apparently some group came in and gave one of the waiters some drug, even though they only found traces of alcohol. 'It had to be a drug' they said," He mimicked some miscellaneous businessman. "Then the group seemed to be having problems with each other, and one of the two girls was just about carried out. So they are trying to find out who they really were to get information about the drug."
"Isn't that interesting?" She said dryly.
"What's interesting is one of them was reported to have brown hair and a red skunk stripe." He looked at her as she turned to stare at him.
"We were at the restaurant, but there were absolutely no drugs involved! Julie was drunk! I drank next to nothing, and the only other one who drank a considerable amount was the stupid Jedi that my friend is newly in love with!"
"Take it easy!"
"How can I when you're practically interrogating me!"
"I wasn't," he backed up a few paces. "I was just wondering."
"Didn't sound like it." She turned away to go to her costume room.
"Hey!"
"What?" She whipped around.
"I was, uh, wondering if you wanted to go to dinner and dancing sometime."
She gave him a joking disbelief look. "Are you asking me out?"
"Yeah."
She gave a slight smirk, and walked up to him. "When were you thinking of?"
"How's tonight?"
"Julie! Where are you? Freak!" Kiila yelled as she dropped her stuff on the couch.
"What?" She put her head out from the kitchen
"I'm going out to tonight." She grinned impishly.
"Me too."
Kiila ignored that. "Aren't you even going to ask me who?"
"Maul, right?"
"No."
Julie sat down on the couch across from Kiila. "Who then?"
"One of the other actors from the show…"
"Who? Oh, wait, I'll guess. Um, the blonde boy, right?"
"You know me too well." Kiila started stroking Havoc, who had made it into her lap by now.
"I know," Julie said in a fake prissy voice. "But then, we have lived through the whole galaxy in a few years, so you got to know who you're with."
"Sure, whatever."
Maul was shocked at what he had just heard. Kiila was going to go out with some one else. How was she able to do that when…?
"MAUL! OPEN THE DOOR!" Sidious yelled.
The door opened only by subconscious mental command, as Maul had still not registered the sound of his master.
"Maul! What are you doing?"
"She's, dumping me."
"What are you talking about?" Sidious caused his apprentice to fly backwards into the couch.
"Kiila, is going, out, with, some one, else."
"Look at me! If you are that upset, which you shouldn't be, go over there and mind whammy her into NOT going out with this person." Sidious plopped down on the couch to wait for his apprentice to come around.
"Yeah." He bolted out the door to go 'talk' to Kiila. He fidgeted for a minute after he rang the doorbell. When Kiila opened the door, he pulled her out into the hall. "I heard what you said. You will not go out with him." On the last sentence, he put all his power into a mind whammy.
"It isn't a good idea. You aren't exactly human." She looked at him very sternly. "Since you aren't human, we can't exactly make a commitment, if you know what I mean."
He looked at the floor, then at the open door to his apartment. "I wouldn't be able to anyway, since I'm a Sith and 'Sith do not make commitments, except to being a Sith.'" He grimaced. "From a real Sith to an actress who plays one, don't become one."
She laughed. "Friends?"
He growled, but then smiled and turned back into his apartment.
"The Force is strong with her, I believe." Sidious turned away from the door. "Not the type for a Sith, though."
Fred the Wonder Dog had finally exceeded the limit for tallness, so someone threw him into the ocean. However, his head and shoulders still stuck out from above the water from the Marianas Trench.
Later that evening, Kiila had slid into a deep purple sleeveless dress that came to just above her knees. A lighter shade scarf draped around her shoulders covered her from the wind. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, and then braided down in many small braids. She stepped out of the bedroom, and twirled around for Julie to approve.
"Where in the galaxy are you going with him anyway?" Julie eyed her friend critically.
"One of the classiest restaurants in this section of the city, Twain's Interplanetary Delicacies."
The doorbell rang, and Kiila ran up, pushed a small piece of hair out of her face, and opened the door.
Ryan stood there in a black suit. "Are you ready?" He said as he offered her his arm.
She took it and shut the door behind her. She could hear faint gagging noises behind her as Julie walked slowly into the bedroom.
Julie packed her PJ's and an extra change of clothes into a bag, along with some soap and bath oils. She was going to Qui Gon's place, and she was going prepared.
Twain's Interplanetary Delicacies was an extremely extravagant restaurant. Tapestries of the landscapes of various other planets hung over all the walls with small plaques next to them with the name of the planet. Ryan and Kiila were seated in front of one that was mostly white with a black sky and stars. The plaque read Hoth. They were seated very close to the large dance floor, too.
The waiter came up them with hard copy menus, instead of computerized ones. There were some exotic dishes from places like Corellia. He left while the two patrons tried to decide.
"I suggest the broiled dialiscav with sautéed jillarion. I've had that elsewhere and it has been excellent." Ryan pointed to one of the menu items.
"What are those? I haven't heard of them, though Julie's probably classified them."
"I don't know, but they're sure tasty. I think I'm going to have it."
"I think I will to, because I've never heard of any of this other stuff either. I'll just take your word for it." She looked further back in the menu at the wine list. Now there were some things she recognized. There was some special Corellian wine she'd had once and thought it was excellent, but then was told that the year displayed in the menu was a better year. When the waiter came back, they ordered their meals and the wine.
Ryan stood up. "Care to dance?"
Maul opened the door with the Force when the doorbell rang. It was Obi.
"Maul, I'm depressed."
"Embrace it. Then you'll feel the way I do."
"I thought Sith only felt anger."
"Shut up." Maul blasted six frogs at once on Frogger: Dementia Strikes. "I'm making an exception."
"I see. Is that why you keep killing the good frogs?"
"So that's why my score keeps going down." He shut the game off. "So, wanna play strip poker?"
Julie squealed as Qui Gon tickled her bare waist. She ran her finger around his navel.
A herd of kangaroos began singing, "Tie me kangaroo down, sport, tie me kangaroo down…"
Ryan escorted Kiila back to her apartment. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at practice."
"Julie won't be home for a while, like until tomorrow. Would you like to stay and talk?" Kiila unlocked the door.
"No, I have to get back. I need to feed my pets." Ryan stepped back and gave her one last look over.
Kiila paused when she noticed him doing this. "What, did I spill something?"
"No. Don't worry about it." He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss, then dodged into the just opened elevator door. He threw her a mock salute as he pressed the button for the ground floor.
She lightly rubbed her cheek where he'd kissed her, and went inside her apartment. She changed out of her dress into her PJ's, poured some milk, and sat down on the couch to ponder what had just occurred.
Bobby Fisher was making quite a profit on his nightclub, now that people had heard his waiters boozed as much as the patrons.
Maul, after kicking Obi out of his apartment the next day, decided life was going back to normal, and he really needed to mess his apartment up again.
He began this task of returning to his previous squalor when music came bursting out of the next apartment. The calmness and sweetness of it almost disgusted him, when he heard Kiila singing.
He almost lost track of his Sith behavior when he caught a grip on reality, ran to the bathroom and grabbed some earplugs, and returned to the task of dumping chips on the floor.
Julie returned from Qui Gon's house later that day, to find Kiila dancing in her usual gymnastic manner (not the way music videos do) to the music that grated the most on Julie's ears.
She ran to the stereo and shut it off, quickly replacing the recording with one that was more pleasing to her, but not quite the kind that Kiila would begin screaming at.
"You're so mean. I wasn't expecting you back until next week." Kiila stretched her leg out above her head one last time before walking to the kitchen for a snack.
"Ha-ha, very funny, Kiila." Julie walked into the bedroom, unpacked her dirty clothes into the laundry basket, hid the other stuff she had, and tucked the bag under her bed.
"By the way, it's your turn to do laundry."
Julie grunted as she flopped down onto the couch. There was the faint sound of a whine coming from next door, sounding vaguely like "Ow, my ears."
Kiila walked out onto the balcony, just in time to see Maul bring out two of the potted plants she'd made him buy. He didn't see her, but he gave the plants funny looks and was about to throw them over, when he seemed to have another thought. He took them back inside and shut the door.
Kiila shrugged and headed back inside. "So why aren't you still at Qui Gon's place?"
Julie mumbled something about an important meeting.
"Oh, really. So what's this meeting for? Oh, I know. He's meeting with another woman who has learned to sigh in the same way you have." Kiila struck a dramatic pose leaning backwards over the couch, and mimicked Julie, "Oh, Qui Gon."
Julie smashed a pillow into Kiila's face. The pillow was immediately back in Julie's face as Kiila pinned her down. "You really need to learn how to fight, you know that?"
Julie growled as Kiila let her up again. The pillow was discarded onto Julie's feet and Kiila left the apartment.
Ryan tapped his foot slightly, as his Jedi character was supposed to be waiting for another character in the show. From the darkened corridor behind him, a shadow slinked toward him. Just as it was about to pull a blaster, he spun to catch its hands and pin it against the wall.
"Why the attack?" He asked the cloaked figure.
"I thought it would make it easier." A slight snarl emitted from the figure's lips as he pushed the hood of the cloak back to reveal Kiila.
He released his grip. "I was not going to attack you."
"I know. Did you bring it?"
"Yes." He reached into his cloak and pulled forth a hydrospanner. She grabbed it with excitement.
"The final piece I need!" She tucked it into her cloak, and started to leave, when he wrapped his arms around her.
"Please, why must you resist! Why can't you just come with me?"
"I am a Sith. I have no reason to come with you and your little Jedi friends." She spat the last words like they were poison she was ridding herself of. "I like being a bad girl, and I think I'll stay that way. Now if you'd just let me go…"
"I think not." He held her tighter and started to head back to the Jedi encampment.
She twisted around in his arms and clubbed him on the head.
As Julie paced around the house, she noticed something was wrong. Harold had been acting strangely, and she felt something was missing. The doorbell rang. It was Obi.
He was carrying a hamster tank set up very nicely for one hamster. And inside of it was Flower.
"Where would you like her? She's started to get kind of, vicious."
She pointed to an empty table. He set it down and got out as quickly as possible.
Now Julie felt better. Much better.
It was now several months since the two girls had moved into the apartment, and Kiila had a feeling that even now, something was wrong. She went out onto the balcony, and noticed that the paint was scuffed. It looked like it had been that way for a while. She turned back to the apartment.
"Julie! There are some spots on the balcony that need repainted! Can you do it sometime soon?"
"Yeah, sure, don't worry. Qui Gon and I will do it later."
"Ok, just don't scuff it up more than it is now." Kii walked back inside and put on some clean Capri pants and a lime green tank top. She grabbed her wallet and stuffed it in her pocket. "I'm going shopping, and I'll see you later."
"Buy a large chicken for roasting, okay?"
"Sure. See you!"
Kiila walked down to the shopping malls. She picked the smallest one, with the least hovercrafts. She walked into The Most Casual Store and turned left. She headed straight toward the rack of…
"Kiila!"
She whipped around to come face to face with Julie. "Um, hi, J."
"Did you really think I would let you go clothes shopping alone?" Julie grabbed her friend's arm and pulled her out of the store. "We are going some where better than that. You need some nice new dresses for going out with that blonde boy."
"His name is Ryan!"
"His name is that blonde boy. Now shut up!" Julie pulled Kii into Bebe.
Qui Gon left his meeting as quickly as he could and hurried over to Julie's apartment. He rang the doorbell, but no one answered. So he went over to Maul's apartment. When he rang the doorbell, Obi answered, wearing only boxers.
Qui Gon moaned. "Oh no."
"Hi Master. What's new?" Obi scratched himself.
"Um, those are new boxers, aren't they?"
"Oh, these? They're Maul's." Obi picked at his braid. "They're kind of itchy, and a little small."
"Uh…" Qui Gon racked his head for something to say.
"Well, if you haven't got anything important to say, I have to go. Maul's teaching me how to cook." Obi shut the door.
Suddenly the elevator opened behind him and Julie and Kiila stepped out into the hallway.
"QUIGEE!!!" Julie leapt into his arms after dumping some bags onto Kiila the walking mound of bags.
Kiila struggled past the make-out scene in the hallway, and, to her amazement, got the door open. She took the bags into the bedroom and dumped them onto her bed. She took the five bags of food into the kitchen and started to unload them when she heard Qui talking to Julie in the living room.
"I have something for you, Julie."
Kiila peeked out into the living room and saw Qui lift something out of his back pocket with the Force. It floated around to the front and opened up. Qui knelt down on the floor.
"Julie Quendlyn, will you marry me?"
Julie's eyes misted up with tears as she took the ring out of its case and slipped it on her finger. "Yes," she whispered. The ring was a silvery metal, Kiila couldn't tell what from the kitchen, with a fair-sized gem from Gallinore set in it.
One thing he's not is cheap. There's hope for Julie yet. Kiila knew that the rainbow gem was extremely expensive, so Qui Gon must have gone to great lengths to find one. She wanted to yell with joy about Julie finally finding a good person (not to mention well off) to settle down with. Instead, she retained her composure and finished unpacking the groceries.
She heard shuffling noises out in the main room, and the apartment door opened and closed. A few moments later she heard Julie start to giggle, then scream in joy.
"I'M GONNA GET MARRIED TO A JEDI MASTER!" Julie ran into the kitchen and hugged Kiila.
Kiila had a stricken look on her face, and she began to smack her friend lightly to get her to let go. "CALM DOWN! Now, for the important stuff; let me see that ring closely. I have to see how cheap he isn't."
The ring definitely was real. The Gallinore gem was real, and a very good example of its kind. There were smaller diamonds set around the main jewel. And the silvery metal was definitely expensive, though she couldn't quite tell what it was. It looked like platinum.
"I'm so proud of you, Julie. You finally found a man who can support you forever." Kiila turned away from Julie and rolled her eyes. She finished unpacking the groceries.
"Kiila, did you hang up your dresses yet?"
"No, why?"
Julie waved her arms around in frustration and went into the bedroom to hang up Kiila's new dresses so they wouldn't wrinkle.
When they were finished with their respective tasks, they plopped down on separate couches in front of the TV to see what was on that day.
"It's time for Those Mystery Security Cameras! Where we go into apartment building security systems to show you what people do on their day off!"
The shot on the screen shifted to a picture of their apartment building.
"Today we are going to visit the forty second floor of this lovely building and see what these people are up to today."
Now they could see themselves, from the back, as they watched TV. Kiila and Julie stood up.
"Hey, you know what?"
"What?"
"I have a really nice ass."
"Me too."
Julie ran to where the camera was and screamed, "I'M GETTING MARRIED!"
The announcer came back on. "That was a little disturbing. We've never tuned into someone who had tuned into us!" Fake laughs. "Now let's tune into the apartment next door."
Kiila and Julie looked at each other in fear. Obi was at Maul's place. They ran for the phone.
The picture on the TV showed the living room in Maul's place, a total mess. Then the bedroom, and the bathroom, and still no sign of them. Then the kitchen, and Julie shrieked. They caught enough of the picture to tell that the two men were both naked and cooking, and then the network cut off the live show with an apology message.
The two girls looked at each other and burst out laughing.
Julie was digging through her closet for all the bridal magazines she'd bought while dating Obi.
Kiila was making dinner.
Nothing else that was less than X rated and happening was worth mentioning.
Bobby Fisher was forced to close down his nightclub because it was too much of a drain on the economy of the planet.
Julie danced out into the hall one sunny afternoon in her pajamas.
Darth Maul watched her from his peephole.
Obi walked into the hall and belched. Julie slapped him.
"Ow! That hurt! Why are you wearing brass knuckles?"
"They aren't brass knuckles! It's my engagement ring." Julie tripped the light fandango.
"So which pimp is it now?"
"It's not a pimp!" She slapped the other side of his face with her other hand. "It's your master. And I'm going to tell him you said that!" She kicked him in the nether region and went back into her apartment.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"
Julie peered in at Flower. "Something's wrong with Flower. She's getting bigger…"
Kiila came over. "What do you mean?" Then she looked closer. "Your hamster is pregnant."
"What? How would that happen?" Julie stood up and banged her head off a shelf. "Oh wait…" She stormed out, went to Obi's apartment, and knocked. No one answered. Then she knocked on Maul's door, screamed, "Put some pants on!" and waited.
"What do you want?" Obi asked as he opened the door.
"Your hamster made my hamster pregnant! It's all your fault!"
"Is that all?" He slammed the door.
"You call yourself a hamster keeper? GET OUT HERE AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACTIONS OF YOUR HAMSTER!"
Julie pouted for a moment in front of the door. Then an arm reached out of her apartment waving a bottle of whiskey around. She followed the Bottle into her apartment and was hit by a tranquilizer.
"She should forget about this by the time she wakes up." Kiila pulled her friend into the bedroom and dropped her onto her bed. Then she grabbed one of her new dresses, and started for the bathroom. She stopped and grabbed some stationary, writing down that fact that she was going out with Ryan tonight. Then she changed and finished putting her hair up just as the bell rang. She ran to the door, composed herself, and answered.
It was Qui Gon.
"I'm sorry, were you expecting someone else?" Qui Gon politely bowed.
"Yes, I was waiting for my date. By the way, Julie's out cold right now. I had to tranq her, she's mad because Flower's pregnant." Kiila pointed to the hamster cage. Then she had a thought. "You know, Julie would probably like some company when she wakes up, and maybe remind her that the paint on the balcony needs patched up, if you know what I mean…" She let that trail off implying that she may not be coming straight home tonight.
"How long will she be out?"
"An hour, maybe. I don't use strong ones, just enough to put her out for a little while."
She looked out into the hall and saw that the elevator was just arriving.
"Hey, see you tomorrow! Say good morning to Julie for me, but tell her it was whiskey, not a tranq. And don't let her at the whiskey, 'cause it does the same thing."
She closed the door, and stepped out to greet the elevator.
She slammed right into Ryan, and was only stopped from falling by the fact that he caught her.
"Hey, are you okay? I didn't think you'd start walking before you turned this way." He straightened her up and let go of her shoulders.
"I didn't think the elevator had opened so we're even." She straightened herself out a little and noticed the other elevator coming up. Then she saw that Ryan was only standing on one foot, using the other to hold the elevator open. She sighed and said, "Hold it open from inside the elevator! You look silly doing that in dress pants!"
She heard a slight snigger from behind her.
"You ready?" He had stepped back inside the elevator.
"Just a second." She reached into her purse and pulled out a small roll of duct tape. She ripped a small piece off and covered the peephole of Maul's apartment door.
When she turned back, she came face to face with Darth Sidious.
"Good evening, young lady."
"Good evening, sir. If I were you I wouldn't go in there."
He looked at her with a puzzled expression and she pointed towards Obi's apartment, then at Maul's door, and shook her head.
He nodded and prepared to get very angry with his apprentice.
Kiila ducked into the elevator, and it closed and made no stops on the way down.
Julie woke up and peered around her. She didn't hear Kiila moving around, but there was someone else in the apartment. It couldn't be Kii, because she'd be moving around. Whoever it was had the TV on and was watching it, and Julie knew there was nothing on tonight that Kiila could stand watching. She peered out into the main room, and leapt, overjoyed, onto the occupier of the couch, and then found herself regretting the sudden motion.
"Qui Gon! When did you get here? And what happened to me?" Julie held her head carefully as Qui Gon put his arms around her waist.
"Kiila said that I was to tell you that you'd had whiskey, but Jedi can't lie, a fact she forgot while playing a Sith. She said she actually used a tranquilizer." He buried his nose in her hair.
She giggled, then noticed something else. "I'm hungry, I think."
"I should hope that you know if you're hungry or not. Good thing I made that stew…" He stood up, and she leaned forward clutching her stomach. "Are you alright?"
"It's not hungry." Julie got up, staggered to the bathroom, and got there in time to let the contents of her stomach into the toilet.
Qui Gon started walking over, then stopped, and looked in the hamster cage. "Flower is pregnant, isn't she?" He heard an affirmative noise from the bathroom, then heard more retching sounds. He got to the bathroom, and looked in at the paler than usual Julie. "Do you think that you might be pregnant, too?"
She looked at him, and replied in one word. "Obi."
Musical Interlude provided by Kiila's Insanity Shop; "You want it, we probably have it, just don't get lost looking for it."
Gackt: If I had the dreams to do it, I'd fly away…
Kiila: If I had the means to find it, I'd find happiness…
Gackt: If this world had something, it would have peace…
Kiila: If a life meant something, it would mean virtue…
Both: If anything was something, there could be pleasure…
If life could live,
there'd be peace of mind…
How is it so that
there are no reasons?
How is it so no
one dreams?
Why do people feel
they have confidence
When they have
nothing at all?
Gackt: How do they find their way?
Kiila: How do they define today?
Both: How does one define anything?
How do you define
what does not exist?
@ What the heck was that anyway, Kii? @
§ Shush. §
Dinner was a disaster. First the waiter spilled water onto Ryan, and then he splattered both of them with the soup. After that, a new waiter had to serve them, while they could hear the old one getting yelled at by the manager. Kiila could have sworn she'd seen the first waiter somewhere else. Their food was burnt, and now the staff was arguing, trying to decide if Ryan's credit card was valid, which he knew it was because he'd just used it that day and proved it.
Now, after all of this, Kiila realized letting Qui Gon into the apartment probably hadn't been a good idea. She was tired, and so was Ryan, and they both wanted to go to separate apartments and rest. With Qui Gon and Julie in there, she couldn't go. And she explained this to Ryan.
"I'm not sure what to say," he whispered to her while the manager yelled something at an alien waiter.
"Is there anyway that I could come to your place and sleep on a couch?" Kiila looked at him with pleading eyes.
"Problem. No couch."
"Chair?"
He shook his head.
"Spare room?"
"I'm sorry, I don't even have an actual bed. The majority of my pay from shows is going to pay debts on education. What I use to pay for meals is several years savings."
Kiila looked at him in shock. She'd had no idea that he was trying to pay off heavy debts. "Well, I'll pay for dinner then."
"No that's…" He tried to stop her but she'd already gotten the waiter and given him her card. He slumped in defeat. It wasn't right for the woman to pay for meals, but obviously, Kiila was far too determined to let him pay.
His card was returned to him, and hers was run through the machine with no questions. She signed for it, and he sighed.
Kiila glanced around the room. She saw the first waiter again, studied his face, and made a mental note of it so she could identify him. Then she stood.
"Let's go."
He followed her out of the restaurant, looking a little more depressed than he should have been. She didn't notice; her mind on other things now.
"Um, Kiila. Where are you planning to go tonight?" Kiila turned to face Ryan, who was trying to look like he was digging around in his pockets for his keys.
"Take me back to my building." She turned back to face the parking lot. "I'm sure I can make arrangements."
He had no idea what she was planning, but he figured if anyone would succeed at it, it would be Kiila.
The elevator let her off at her floor with no stops. She unlocked the door, and called in as she opened it, "I'm home, find a blanket or something to be decent!"
As she looked around, she perked her ears a little. The shower was running, and there was feminine giggling and masculine, umm, noises coming from the bathroom.
She went into the bedroom, grabbed her PJ's and some clean clothes, and looked around for a box. It was a box she hadn't opened for a long time, and she dragged it out of the apartment, locking the door behind her. Then she knocked on Maul's door.
Maul cracked the door open. "What do you want?"
"Is Obi there? Ask him if I can use his apartment for tonight."
The door closed for a few minutes, then reopened, and Maul handed her Obi's keys.
"Have fun, boys," Kiila laughed. Maul grimaced and shut the door.
Kiila entered Obi's apartment. It was very neat. She got into her PJ's, and borrowing a hanger and some closet space, hung her dress up. She tossed tomorrow's clothes on a chair and laid the box on the bed. She sat in front of it and opened it, carefully, as though she wasn't sure she'd like what she'd find…
The music flowed around her as her sister played the song on her computer. Kiila had never heard a style and voice quite the same.
"Who are they, onee-chan?"
"Malice Mizer."
"Who's the singer?"
"Camui Gackt."
Kiila slowly lifted out the magazines, the albums, and the random pictures. They were all in there. She looked at the face very closely; it was one she knew she'd never forget. The CD player was plugged in and the music filled her again, as she was swept away in memory…
Kiila sighed as she turned off the CD player. It was seven in the morning. She put everything back in the box, carefully, and changed into her clothes.
The doorbell rang.
"It's kind of funny ringing a bell to get let into your own apartment." Obi seemed lighthearted. "Do you want breakfast?"
"Mm, food." Kiila was extremely tired even though she had rested all night, it wasn't like sleep.
Obi poured Kiila some cereal and milk and sat her down at the table. Then he pulled her dress out of his closet, folded it, and her PJ's, very carefully, and set them on the box. He got his own breakfast, and sat across from her.
"How do you feel?"
"With my hand." She ate very slowly.
He reached across the table and put his hand on her forehead. She slumped into it.
"How did it go last night?"
"I'm gonna dump him."
"Why?"
"He's not exactly independent yet. He's still paying off debts. He's also too traditional. 'Man must pay for dinner' and all that." She passed out from exhaustion and fell off her chair.
Obi lifted her off the floor and put her on the couch. He sat in the chair next to the couch and turned the weather reports on low, so he wouldn't disturb her.
"Partly cloudy with a high chance of rain, probably thunderstorms…"
Maul sagged in his chair. Thunderstorms, not good for a hangover. Why hadn't he watched the weather yesterday?
A knock came at the door. It was Obi.
"Could you give me a hand with something?"
The two of them went back into Obi's apartment. Obi pointed at the box with clothes lying on top of it. Maul picked it up. Then Obi went to the couch and picked up an unconscious Kiila. Then he walked out the door over to Kiila and Julie's apartment. Maul brought the box.
The doorbell rang again, and a voice shouted, "I'm getting tired of carrying her!"
Julie stumbled out of the bedroom after throwing on a robe and answered the door.
Obi was standing in the hall holding Kiila, who was asleep, and Maul was behind carrying a pile of clothes on top of a box. A box Julie hadn't seen for a long time, and hoped she'd never see again.
Then it hit her.
"What did you do to Kiila?" She accused them.
"Nothing. She was dead tired when I went into my apartment this morning, and she passed out while eating her breakfast!" Obi looked frightened.
"And why was she in your apartment?" Julie remained calm.
"Last night she came to my apartment to ask Obi if she could use his for the night, and he let her." Maul shifted the box around.
"Alright. I won't kill you for that." She took a deep breath. "BUT, I am going to kill you because I'm pregnant with your baby!" She glared at Obi, who attempted to duck past her to put Kiila down somewhere.
He ran into Qui Gon. "Hi, Master…"
"Good Morning, Padawan." Qui Gon lifted Kiila out of Obi's arms and moved her to the couch with the Force.
Maul slid the box into the apartment and ran into his to hide.
Kiila woke up with a splitting headache. She looked around groggily and saw Obi sitting at her feet looking very sheepish and confused. Qui Gon and Julie were on the other couch and were extremely angry for some odd reason.
Kii pulled herself over the back of the couch and slithered to the bathroom. No one noticed.
"How could you do such a thing?" Qui Gon was almost yelling.
"Shut up," Kiila groaned in the bathroom.
"I had no idea…" Obi stammered.
"You were improper in allowing this to happen! Irresponsible…" Qui Gon was cut off by Julie.
"You pervert!" Julie screamed.
Kiila took some painkillers and drank a large glass of water in the silence. She staggered back out of the bathroom. "What the @#$&% is going on?"
"I'm pregnant with Obi's baby!" Julie jumped off the couch and started crying.
"How do you know it's his? You've been with Qui Gon for like, three weeks. And what tells you you're pregnant?"
"Well, Flower is, like you said, and if I'm bonded with her…" Julie scuffed her toe in the carpet.
"So?"
"And I was puking for a while last night."
"You do that a lot after whiskey." Kiila smacked the wall in frustration. Her headache would have no rest.
"Quigee said you used a tranq…"
"Well, you do it after I
tranq you, too!" She took the box into her bedroom, hung her dress
up, stuffed her PJ's under her pillow, and pulled a single picture from
the box. She flopped onto her bed and held the picture to her heart.
"We meet again, Camui Gackt."
Julie walked up to Kiila
and put her hand on Kiila forehead. "Have you been drinking?"
"No." Kiila pushed Julie's hand away. "I'm breaking up with Ryan."
"Good. He was a puppy dog type anyway." Julie plopped onto her bed. "So who'd you find?" Then it hit her. "He's here? That's why you got that box out, isn't it?"
"He was our first waiter at the restaurant last night. He poured water on Ryan, and soup on both of us. He was helping me remember him. I'll bet he also got the cook to burn our food, and convinced the manager that Ryan's card wasn't valid."
Qui Gon and Obi were peering in the door when Kiila looked over.
"Unless one of you knows how to get rid of a killer headache, get out of here. I need to have a little talk with Julie. Alone."
Seeing the glint in her eyes, Obi said to his master, "Race you," and ran for the door. Qui Gon politely bowed and followed with great haste. A few seconds later, he was back, with a bouquet of black roses in his hands. "They were at the door." He handed them to Kiila and ran. Kiila held the bouquet close and sighed.
"I'm, not pregnant." Julie stared at the test in near disbelief.
"Why didn't you go out and buy the tests in the first place before you caused all this fuss?" Kiila threw the box of pregnancy tests at Julie.
"Because, well…"
"You are a pain!" Kiila stalked out of the apartment. "I'm going to the hardware store."
"Why?"
"I'll find something! I don't know what yet, but something I need!" She slammed the door. Two seconds later the doorbell rang, and Julie opened the door for Kiila. Kii got her wallet and keys. As she stuffed them in her pockets, she said, "Call Qui Gon and tell him. Then call Obi and apologize!" Kiila left again.
Julie sat on the couch and began to swear.
Kiila bought a crimping tool at the hardware store. Now she needed something to do with it.
As she walked the aisles of the craft store, looking for something that could be manipulated with the tool. She'd managed to force her way past the bead aisle without entering it. Now she looked at bags of safety pins, and something clicked. She picked up several bags of various sizes and ran back to the bead aisle.
Kiila was strolling down the street feeling pretty good, when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She whipped around, and found herself staring at Gackt.
"Hey. I've been looking for you." He took her arm and turned her around so they kept heading towards Kiila's building.
"It's, umm, been a while, hasn't it?" She wasn't sure what to say to him.
"Would you like something to drink?" He motioned towards the café they were near. She nodded and he gently pulled her in the door. "I take it you got the bouquet…"
Julie sulked on the couch and watched the clock. Kii should have been home by now. It had been three hours, and Julie didn't believe it was possible for Kiila to spend three hours in a hardware store without finding something. Maybe she had to go to other places.
She was about to put on her coat and go look for Kii, when the girl in question waltzed in the door, singing some old, old song.
"I'm in love, I'm in love,
I'm in love with a wonderful man!" She dropped two bags and tried
to get Julie to dance with her. Julie smacked her. Kiila smacked
her back and danced into the bedroom. "He found me!"
Julie sat down and began
swearing, again. Then she sighed and said, "I'm never going to hear
the end of this, am I?"
"You will when you move out after marrying Qui Gon. And then I'm going out tomorrow, with Gackt, of course. I'm breaking up with Ryan tonight."
"How can you keep doing this to me? I can never keep track of your boyfriends! You are worse than me!" Julie screamed in frustration.
"I learned from the best!" Kiila stuck her head back in the main room. "AKA: you!"
"I hate you!" Julie picked up the bags. "Now what did you buy?"
Maul sighed. Kiila had a new boyfriend, and was trashing the one she'd left him for. He was getting closer to the bottom rung on her list.
Well, there was always Obi…
His mind drifted away from his game, and My Apprentice clawed his face and brought him back just in time to be killed by a prissy looking Jedi on his game. He swore and restarted.
"Marry her you can't." Yoda stared straight into Qui Gon. "Training apprentice you are."
"I don't see why that is a problem." Qui Gon didn't flinch.
"Having a wife, particularly that girl, would be a great distraction to yourself and your apprentice." Mace Windu leaned back in his chair. "It's not permissible to purposely add a distraction to your sacred task of training Obi Wan Kenobi."
One of the other council members spoke. "We also have a task for you, Qui Gon Jinn."
"Yes. You and Obi Wan must travel to Naboo, a planet being barricaded by the Trade Federation. The two of you must negotiate a treaty with the leader of the ships there that will either force them to leave the planet alone, or allow supplies to come in and out of the planet's surface." Mace leaned forward again. "We have reason to believe that there is an outside influence on the Trade Federation for their actions, which is why the Chancellor decided two Jedi should be sent instead of normal ambassadors."
"When am I required to leave?" Qui Gon shifted his weight to his toes.
"One week, you have. Then leave you must." Yoda held out a disk. "More information, you will find. Tell Padawan all, you mustn't. Tell friends, you also mustn't."
"You are dismissed." Mace looked away with seeming disinterest.
Qui Gon left with the disk.
When he returned to his house, he popped the disk in a terminal, and scanned the information. Then he had a plan, and he called Julie.
"So you'll come over tomorrow and tell me this great idea?" Julie tried hard to focus on the phone and the beading that she was doing. "Ok, I'll see you tomorrow then. Yes, I love you. Bye-bye."
The two women had clear everything except the tablecloth off the dining room table and had spread what Kiila had bought all over it. They were loading beads onto the safety pins and crimping them shut. Each of them had a different pattern they were using to make their necklaces different, and Julie was complaining that her fingers hurt.
"Take a break if you want."
"But if I stop, I won't be able to force myself to start again. Ever."
"Don't worry, I'll force you to start again."
"Thanks," Julie said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Kiila stood up, got a bowl of ice from the kitchen, and put it in front of Julie. "Stick your fingers in there for a while, and think of what sort of ending design you want. It's either a full circle like this," Kiila held up a necklace, "or a half circle thing like this," she held up a different necklace.
Julie stuck her hands in the ice, and tried to think of the necklace, but her mind was on what her darling Quigee had told her. He had to leave, and the council wasn't going to let him marry her, but he had an idea. He didn't tell her anything, for fear that one of the phone lines was tapped, but he would come tomorrow night while Kiila was out and tell her.
She grimaced at the biting cold of the ice and looked at the two necklaces Kiila laid out. The whole circle looked cooler. She said so to Kiila.
"That's what I've always thought, too. But since you're making a whole circle one, I'll make a half."
"How heavy are these gonna be?"
"Not excessively. The whole circle is heavier, but I'm using heavier beads than you are, so they'll probably be the same."
Julie pulled her hands out of the ice, wiped them on her shirt, and started putting the beads on the pins again. "I think I'll let you crimp them. You're hands are stronger than mine. That's why it hurt."
"You complain too much."
When Gackt came to the apartment the next night, Kiila was waiting for him in a dark blue gown that split in the front to just below her knees, came down in the back to her waist, and the sleeveless halter straps allowed for a fair amount of cleavage.
He took her arm and led her out the door and into the elevator.
"So was he crushed?" Gackt sipped at his wine.
"I'm not sure. I didn't even get dressed for the date last night, and I told him at the door. He just said 'Fine' and left. He had the day off yesterday, too." Kiila picked at her salad. "I have the day off tomorrow, so I won't see him until Friday."
Gackt leaned toward her. "How's Julie?"
"I'm driving her crazy, as usual. And, like a few times before, this time it's your fault."
He laughed. "What's the poor child up to now, besides getting mad at you?"
"She's getting married to a Jedi Master. It was going to be the Padawan, but, well, do you remember the fuss at Bobby Fisher's Nightclub?" He nodded. "Well, that was the group of us. She was drunk, I think before we even got to the restaurant, and she decided that it was a good time to change her mind. This totally crushed Obi, who I had to order to eat, otherwise he would have gone home and wasted a perfectly good meal. Qui Gon had been trying to avoid drinking, but Julie was going on so badly that he ran the tab up fairly high with what he drank. Maul and I made him pay, and Obi was the only one who hadn't had enough to drink that made it bad for him to drive. Well, of the two people who were allowed to drive that vehicle, because it belonged to the Jedi Master. The Padawan is also on the insurance for the vehicle."
"I'll bet that was fun." Gackt played with a crouton.
"It was partly my fault. I had just gotten back from a trip to Kashyyyk, and Maul, who had decided he missed me too much, had come over and taken me to his place immediately. So when I managed to get away, and got back to Julie, I was in bad shape and suggested we all go out drinking. She took me seriously." Kiila sighed. "So how have you been?"
"You've had it easier than I have. At least when you got to this planet you managed to get a good job right away. I came here thinking I had a job all set, but then I couldn't locate the people who had contacted me. I barely had enough money for a few months rent, so I had to get that job as a waiter to keep the apartment while I looked for an acting or singing job. I never found one. You are lucky, having that extra strength and gymnastic ability that you have. Most of the acting jobs required that ability, and there were no singing positions available. When I saw you again at the restaurant…"
"You weren't sure I'd remember you, so you caused extra trouble in hopes that I would look at you and recognize you. I almost didn't." She reached across the table and fiddled with his hair. "I haven't seen you for a few years."
"You have a more distinctive feature than I do, which is why I recognized you immediately." He took her hand. "Though, even if you didn't have skunk hair, I still would have known you anywhere…" His voice trailed off, and Kiila's eyes began to mist up.
"That's your idea?" Julie stared at Qui Gon. "Do you really think it will work?"
"Yes." He pulled her closer to him and wrapped his arms around her.
"But, doesn't being a bounty hunter go against everything a Jedi believes in?"
"Yes, but the Jedi Council will consider me dead. Even if they expect to see me pop up as a blue apparition in various places, if I don't, they'll prefer it." He kissed her forehead, and she melted into him (not literally).
Darth Maul choked. It was disgusting, listening to those two. But, now he knew that he would play a valuable part in their plan, and he knew if he didn't cooperate with it, even though they didn't know he was the most important part, he figured he would get his pants beaten off by Julie.
Obi glared at Cuddles, who shrank backward into the bedding.
"How could you do that? Now Julie is even angrier with me than she was before! They called me irresponsible, and yet it was your doing that caused all this, wasn't it?"
Cuddles looked around, trying to seem innocent, but he knew his master was right. He wiggled his sump of a tail forlornly.
"Humph. Well, at least Julie wasn't pregnant as well." Obi turned to the kitchen and found a vegetarian cookbook. "For your punishment, however…"
Cuddles shuddered. A cooking experiment…
Gackt escorted Kiila back to the apartment, even waiting for her to be safely inside before leaving. He slowly backed away from the closing door, and he heard a scream.
"YOU TWO ARE SO INDECENT!"
He stopped and waited for a minute or so as he heard shuffling around inside the apartment and Kiila came back into the hall, slamming the door behind her.
"Oh, good. You're still here." She lifted a small duffel bag onto her shoulder and took his arm, gently smiling. "You have room for another?"
As Gackt led Kiila back to the elevator, she said, "I spend so few nights in my apartment these days, it's amazing."
Kiila returned in the morning to find the apartment cleaned up, Qui Gon gone (Gon gone, I like it), and Julie watching the weather reports with disinterest.
"So how was your night?" Julie turned and looked at Kiila as she walked into the bedroom.
"It was the first restful night that I've had in a long time. Probably since before we moved here." Kiila unloaded her dress from the bag and hung it in the 'to be cleaned' section of her closet. "Even while I was on vacation, even when I was hurt, I've never slept better."
"Good Grief!" Julie stood behind Kiila now, and startled the skunk-striped girl with her shout. "Will you just marry him already? This has been going on for years, and I have wanted to say this for years, but you always insist on making sure I'm okay and settled down first!" Julie flopped onto her bed. "I feel like I've been ruining a part of your life, but you always insist it's okay. Sometimes, just sometimes, all I want is for you to be happy." She brushed a tear from her eye and hardened up. "But now, I've got Quigee, and you and Gackt can finally do something constructive!"
"But, doesn't Qui Gon need the Council's permission before he can marry you?"
"Not if they think he's dead."
"So that was his brilliant idea. I can see it already." Kiila flopped on her own bed. "Oh, joy…"
Qui Gon and Obi left for Naboo, and Maul was called away by Sidious.
Julie and Kiila were both bored. So they did something they hadn't done for a long time. They pulled out pencils and paper, and drew anything they could think of.
"That is not a hamster, Kii. You drew a hairball with four legs!"
"Yeah, well your people always look square!"
"At least they don't have dumb expressions on their faces."
Kiila stuck her tongue out, and leaned over her drawing. She had drawn some trees and grass, but she couldn't figure out what else to put in there. She leaned back again.
Julie snatched the drawing from Kiila and looked at it. "I know what you could draw in there…" Kiila gave Julie a look that said 'Shut up,' but Julie wasn't looking. "You could draw you and Gackt…"
"SHUT UP!" Kiila took the paper and started drawing something else that looked something like a dead Jedi in the middle.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOO!"
"Stop that, you sound like Obi."
Julie tucked her stuff away and lay down on the couch instead. "Is there anything on TV?"
"No, it's Sunday, why would there be?" Kiila cleared her stuff up and went into the bedroom to sleep.
Julie grumbled and channel-surfed.
Kiila was out with Gackt that night, and Julie began packing her stuff up again. This time she'd be on the move a lot, so she was going to give Kiila some of her things so they wouldn't take up as much room. When she'd told Kiila about the likely hood of little space, Kiila had gone to her closet and pulled out a pair of boxes.
"This," she said, holding out the larger box, "was going to be a wedding present for you and Obi. I held onto it because I figured you'd get settled soon. It's a field generator from Calamari that allows water to hold its place in a globe form to allow fish to swim around in it. If you're not going to have much space, I'd better give you the smaller one. It may not work in space on small ships, I don't know, you'd have to read the directions, but I figure you'll force him to find a planet to stay on eventually. Sadly, the other gift I'd gotten for you probably wouldn't survive another trip through space, especially if he's a bounty hunter. It's a blown glass figurine of some cetaceans from Calamari leaping into the air with an unidentifiable man and woman on their backs. And no, they aren't naked or doing anything dirty."
Julie smiled at the memory and the small argument they'd had afterward. Then she tried again to fit her clothes in around the figurines and memorabilia she had for this world. She wiped a tear from her eye and thought of how much she'd miss Kiila and what she dragged in with her.
Gackt hadn't taken her to a fancy place that night, but had told before so she wouldn't be too dressed up. Kiila and Gackt were now having the time of their lives in a karaoke bar.
After each song and dance they did, the bar filled with applause, and they were prodded to sing more. Few other people bothered to put any requests in, so Kiila figured they had better leave before these people ended up paying for a concert instead of their own singing enjoyment.
As they walked through the park, humming some songs to themselves and each other, Kii leaned on Gackt's shoulder, and he put his arm around her. They were so lost in their own world that they barely even heard the voices behind them, telling them to stop.
"Well, look what we've found here. Two darling and innocent lovebirds out for a walk in the park." The apparent leader stepped toward Kiila, and tried to grab her. He ended up with a face full of her foot.
"Innocent? Hardly. People like you have come after me before; I can deal with you." She ground her boot into his nose as she pushed his skull into the pavement.
One of the other two guys came toward Gackt. "But can you protect him…" The thug's question was cut off as Gackt punched him in the gut, causing him to double over, where his head met with Gackt's knee.
The other thug ran. The leader pushed Kiila off, but as he was standing up, she brought both hands down on his head in a double fist, grabbed Gackt's arm, and they ran in the direction of the parking lot.
Kiila and Gackt were laughing as they came into the apartment.
"Those guys are gonna be feeling that in the morning." Gackt helped Kiila get her jacket off, and then removed his own.
"I'll bet they'll never go near another skunk-haired girl and her date, eh?" Kiila flopped onto the couch and sighed. Gackt sat down next to her, and she put her head in his lap.
"What did you do?" Julie came out holding Havoc and dropped the armadillo on Kiila.
Gackt picked Havoc up again. "Hey, Hav, did you miss me?" The armadillo practically leapt to cuddle at his neck. Kiila giggled at the expression on Gackt's face. Julie went into the kitchen in attempts to avoid their late night hyper-ness.
It quieted down in the living room, and Julie put her ear right to the doorway just in time to hear Gackt proposing to Kiila. "It's about time," she said quietly to herself. "I've been waiting to hear him say that to her for years." As she heard Kiila say yes, she let out a big sigh, knowing that she could leave with a clean conscience. And now she could leave all the wedding magazines for Kiila to look at. A best friend was good, but she would have to make sure she could still make it to their wedding. Hers wasn't going to be big, but she knew Kii would make her own big. That was her style, big, and yet quaint in its own way.
She heard Gackt leave, and she walked out of the kitchen to talk to Kiila. "Well, it took him long enough to do that, didn't it? What's it been, four years?"
Kiila murmured an agreement and looked at her hand. In a platinum ring flashed a gem the same color as Kiila's eyes. It was a fair sized gem surrounded by smaller red and blue gems. "Y'know, I think he's had this for me since we were back home. It looks like it's an emerald set with sapphires and rubies; they have a different, richer quality and color than gems found here."
"You should have been a jeweler." Julie took a look at the ring. "This looks like Earth platinum. It has a different texture than the ring Qui Gon gave me." They held their rings together and the gems flashed in the light.
Kiila had to work the next couple days, so Julie was home by herself again. When she took a break from packing, she went through the magazines and picked out which dresses she thought would look good on Kiila. She also went through all the napkins and flower arrangements that Kiila had said she'd liked when looking for stuff for Julie's wedding. After carefully narrowing everything down to about five choices, she would have Kiila pick her favorite from the choices, while making sure that it would all go together in the overall scheme.
Kiila was grateful that Julie was willing to do this for her, because the wedding never would have been planned otherwise. And every third night they got Gackt over to make sure that everything was okay with him, too. Julie was even beginning to like him, he was sensible and had good taste, and so she was able to put aside the grudge she had with him about the constant breaking up and meeting again with Kiila.
All was prepared for the wedding, and they even had a date set and reservations made with all buildings, caterers, and other people who were needed for the process. Julie had everything arranged so that, even if Qui Gon wasn't there, she would be there for at least a week before the wedding to confirm everything, and at the ceremony to be the maid of honor. Invitations were sent out, including the entire cast and crew of the show, one to the Mon Calamari guide and his family, some members of the Jedi Council, Obi, Qui Gon (so it wouldn't seem like a planned death to the postal service, who knew them well), Maul, Sidious, Mark and Duane, Fred the Wonder Dog, and a few other friends, like Bobby Fisher.
Kiila and Julie were also finishing Julie's packing, as well as trying to make it look like Julie wasn't leaving. This was to stop visitors from thinking it looked like it was planned for Qui Gon to die and Julie run off in sadness (although, Gackt knew the truth).
When news of Qui Gon's death was brought to the Council, the first thing done was to notify Julie, out of courtesy of the engagement, who, a day later, disappeared leaving only a note for Kiila. This note was turned over to the Jedi Council, who, while trying to locate another Sith (who Kiila knew about, but didn't talk of) also tried to locate Julie. Kiila moped about for a few weeks, faking it, and was relieved at that time when and anonymous letter came for her reading, "I can't make you any guarantees, I'm not wearing pants," came to her door. She remembered the old days and the phrase they'd heard oh-so-long ago in a school cafeteria, and all since jokes. Her friend was okay, and probably happily married by now.
The End
Upcoming Epilogue
Kiila: Oh, wow. I thought that was going to go on forever. I finally finished the stupid thing, no thanks to Julie. Any way, Gackt and Ryan are real people. Ryan is an actor from Canada (not Ryan Stiles), and Gackt is a Japanese visual rock artist. We didn't have any good drinks in this chapter, did we? Oh well. One of these days I'll try to draw the rings (maybe) or something (need illustrations).
Julie: