The scandal continues: see the beginning for all disclaimers.
~ * Part Eight: Blowing Off Some Steam (And Side-Effects Thereof) * ~
An exhausted sigh issued from both Ikki and Metabee as they finally reached the threshold of their home. Although the sun was still riding high in the sky, the day already felt like it had worn on for far too long. Ikki's deepest desire at that moment was to trudge upstairs, collapse into bed, and not move until it was time to go to school tomorrow.
Then, recalling just how much of his current exhaustion was due to what had occurred at school, he amended that wish. He longed to just stay in bed until this whole mess sorted itself out or turned out to be some sort of horrendous nightmare…
His prayers that the latter would be the case were squashed the instant he stepped inside.
So was his ribcage, as Chidori scooped her son up into a tight embrace, crushing his squirming body against hers.
"Oh, my little boy's growing up so fast!" she crooned, sweet voice an odd mixture of pleasure and grief only achievable by a mother.
"Wh-what?" gasped Ikki as he squirmed uncomfortably in the death grip. "What are you talking about?"
Even as he asked, a sinking sensation in the boy's gut forewarned that he likely knew exactly what his mother meant. Just because he thought he understood didn't necessarily mean he wanted to understand, however.
Chidori set her son back down on his feet, loosening her crushing hug to a simple grip on his shoulders. She beamed with maternal pride, smiling down at Ikki with twinkling eyes.
"Oh, you don't have to play ignorant with me, Ikki!" she gushed. "I already know all about your little girlfriend!"
"I don't have a…"
A single finger against his lips killed the boy's protest immediately. Ikki's shoulders slumped with defeat: this would be another hopeless battle no matter how hard he fought. His mother continued to smile brightly – any other expression would have seemed odd on her typically cheerful face, of course, but considering what she believed was going on, it seemed quite unusual. Not many parents would react well to finding out their only child was dating somebody without their knowledge.
Then again, Chidori wasn't exactly your average mother. She didn't quite fit into the stereotypical mold, despite the fact that she obviously doted on her little boy.
"My little boy is growing up," she repeated, folding her hands against her heart and sighing contently. "Why, it seems just yesterday I was changing your diapers and wiping drool off your little mouth."
"Are you sure that wasn't yesterday?" quipped Metabee.
"You stay out of it!" roared a red-faced Ikki, turning on his medabot.
Chidori completely ignored the exchange, and continued to gush about the rapid progress of her darling son from a cooing infant to a charming young man. Ikki only half-listened to her, focusing instead on willing the incredible heat rising in his cheeks to cool down. He was uncomfortably aware of the fact that his face was turning a deep scarlet shade.
"…And to think that one day soon you'll be walking down the aisle with your one true love! Oh, I bet she'll look absolutely ravishing in white!"
That last part caught Ikki's attention. His already cherry-red cheeks practically glowed crimson as he whirled around and windmilled his arms in frantic denial of his mother's daydreams.
"Mom! Now you're the one rushing things! I'm not about to marry Samantha!!"
"But you make such a cute couple!" Chidori gushed, and she whirled around and thrust a picture into Ikki's face. "See?"
Ikki saw all right. The raven-haired boy could hardly believe what was right in front of his nose. All he could do was stare in utter shock.
"What?" Chidori blinked in confusion at her son's obvious discomfort. "Don't you like it? I thought you'd love a memento of your first date…"
Ikki stared at her and babbled incoherently for a few seconds, struggling to find the right words to refute her statement. How could he explain to her the utter wrongness of what she had done.
"…Mom!" he finally wailed the familiar one-word protest of any put-upon and upset child.
Confused, Chidori examined her treasure, trying to figure out just what her precious son was so flustered about. Personally, she had thought it rather wonderful to have a chance to preserve such an important instant in her child's life, and was doubly thankful for the article that had informed her of this momentous event in the first place.
"Do you not like the frame?" she wondered aloud.
Ikki just stared at her, and the picture she had so lovingly cut out of one of her copies of the scandalous newspaper (she had gotten several to help chronicle this event) and placed in a nice wooden frame.
"Oh, I know!" she suddenly declared, smile returning rapidly. "You're worried that it's a bad print! Well, I'm sure that Erika will let me have a few copies of the original if I ask…"
"AUUUGGGHHH!" screamed Ikki, fleeing to the relative sanctity of his room.
Metabee and Chidori stared after him, both surprised by his reaction for very different reasons.
"Oh, it's cute that he's so shy about it," declared his proud mother after a pause, her proud smile never faltering.
"Right…" Metabee drawled, shaking his head.
Suddenly the KBT-type froze, his green eyes flashing with realization and annoyance.
"Gk-gk-gk-gk-gk! That's right! Ikki and I've gotta have a little talk…"
Unfortunately for Metabee's plans – and fortunately for Ikki's health – the door was locked by the time the KBT-type sprinted to his medafighter's bedroom. All Ikki had cared about at that point was getting some sleep, and in his frustrated, exhausted state he'd failed to notice that his loudmouthed medabot wasn't at his side.
Then again, he most likely was quite thankful for that little detail as he immediately passed out, safe in the comfort of his own wonderful bed.
Outside, Metabee pounded on the door in vain, sputtering with rage. The Beetle medabot leveled his guns at the doorknob and almost opened fire, only to stop just in time to avoid ruining the wooden entrance completely.
It wasn't for the sake of the boy snoozing blissfully away inside, however. It was more for the beaming mother back downstairs. Metabee respected Mrs. Tenryou enough to realize that shooting the door would only force her to waste time getting it fixed.
(My problem's with Ikki, not the door.)
That didn't keep Metabee from sulking petulantly as he stomped downstairs. After all, he'd been forced to delay Ikki's punishment before, restraining himself from opening fire right in the Hop Mart or chasing his worn-out medafighter all the way home.
Now that Ikki had taken refuge in his bedroom and wasn't about to let his own partner (true, his mad-as-a-hornet, capable-of-mass-destruction partner, but his partner nonetheless) inside, what was he going to do to blow off some steam?
The KBT-type mentally reviewed his options. He could always watch episodes of his favorite soaps, 'All My Meda-parts', 'One Robattle to Win', and, of course, 'Young and the Rustless'. Recently, he'd learned how to set up so that all of his shows were recorded, helping free up his time considerably – and also allowing him to bug Ikki about not letting him watch his soaps when they weren't even on just for the hell of it.
However, Metabee then recalled that he'd already caught up on all the commercials and the soap operas that came on in-between. Even though he had a burning desire to find out what happened after Chiten confessed his love to the wrong girl – again – and Kugo was framed for the murder of Giusa's precious daughter – little did anyone know that Bichisau had actually run away only to fall under the spell of Maran, who was actually a girl named Narko who was fleeing from her abusive father Menga…
Well, Metabee would just have to wait until the next episode aired to find out what happened next in the grand drama 'Seimei-Konran City'.
(Great, now I'm even more ticked off.)
A steady litany of "Gk-gk-gk-gk-GK!" accentuated each loud stomp as Metabee stormed outside. Small clouds issued from his antennae, indicating clearly that the KBT-type needed to blow off some steam both figuratively and literally.
Once he had left the house, the first thing Metabee's glowing gaze fell upon was an empty soda can lying on the fresh grass. While the can's only crime to speak off was being a piece of litter and detracting from the pretty lawn, Metabee glared at the aluminum drink holder as if it were an unspeakably horrendous sight. His optics flared, twin fiery emeralds reflecting nothing but pure rage.
It ceased to be an innocuous if improperly disposed of soda can.
It was a symbol of all that was wrong with this insane world he had been plunged into.
It was a betrayal of what should be, an exposure of a lie and cover-up.
It had a little raven ponytail.
"SEEKER MISSILES!"
It was dust.
"Not a fan of that particular brand, I see," a female voice remarked dryly from somewhere nearby.
Tiny tendrils of smoke still rising from his antennae/launchers, Metabee whipped around several times before finally thinking to look above. When he did, he was greeted with the sight of a scarlet feline medabot swinging her legs lazily off the edge of the roof nearest to him, periwinkle eyes twinkling down mischievously at him.
"You!" he shouted, only the fact that he had just blown a can to kingdom come with his special attack preventing him from launching a volley at his unexpected and unwelcome visitor.
"Good to see you too," replied Peppercat, cocking her head lightly to one side. Metabee got the distinct impression that had medabots been blessed with a visible mouth, hers would be currently set in a smug 'CAT-type-that-ate-the-CANARY-type' grin.
"What are you doing here?!" demanded the KBT-type. "You looking for a robattle?"
"Just had one, thanks," Peppercat returned coolly, getting to her feet while Metabee fought to hide his surprise at that truthful response. Pacing the edge of the roof, she continued lightly, "Not only did I win a nice pair of legs for myself, I earned a bit of free time as well. So I thought I'd come and check on…"
"Your Boss's boyfriend?" sneered Metabee, glaring warily at the strutting medabot. "Sorry, 'fraid you just missed him. Ikki's up in his room snoring away by now, probably dreaming of his girl…"
"I didn't come to see him."
Metabee double-blinked, once more taken off guard by the CAT-type's blunt statement.
"Come again?"
"I came to see my boyfriend."
"WHAT?!"
"Well, my rumored boyfriend, anyway," Peppercat leaned forward, crystal blue eyes gleaming suggestively at the startled beetle. "I mean, think about it. It's the logical conclusion, isn't it? If our medafighters have been seeing each other in secret…"
"That doesn't mean anything!" roared Metabee. "I didn't even know about Ikki's little meeting with YOUR boss until this afternoon!"
"Please! Do you think anybody's going to buy that?"
Peppercat kept her voice deliberately light and teasing, but allowed a firm edge to enter her tone here. One thing she'd definitely learned from her medafighter was if you put enough effort into it, you could turn nearly any situation to your advantage. While she couldn't think of anything to help Samantha out of her predicament just yet, that didn't mean the CAT-type hadn't figured out a way to possibly profit from this mess herself.
"Ikki's been trying to deny that he's involved with Boss, but does anybody believe him?" she pointed out. "But everybody's already convinced of it. It'll take a lot of hard work to ever get anyone to believe otherwise – if they ever do at all."
"So?"
"So how long do you think it's going to be before others start wondering if he's not the only one with a secret lover? You know what they say, 'Like Medafighter, like medabot'…"
"Gk-gk-gk-gk-gk! What Ikki does DOESN'T have ANY EFFECT on what I do!" screeched the enraged Metabee, steam now pouring out of his antennae. "If some STUPID mistake he made effects MY life…"
"Don't you mean, love-life?" Peppercat interjecting, struggling to keep the rage she felt at hearing her medafighter referred to in such a crude manner in check.
Metabee sputtered wildly in reply. Peppercat noted with a bit of mild alarm that a faint green aura was beginning to coat his trembling body, though part of her wanted to dismiss it as a trick of the sunlight. The CAT-type had no particular desire to see if the KBT-type might actually get so worked up about her suggestion that it triggered the meda-force, so she hastened to the next part of her plan.
"You know, there is one way to disprove it before the rumor starts up," she said quickly.
The ever-so-faint green glow vanished completely, so suddenly that Peppercat wasn't entirely certain it had ever been there. The only trace of green left was the twin orbs that instantly locked on her face.
"Tell me," he insisted, hopefully and forcefully.
"Simple," Peppercat informed him. "All you have to do is help me get a boyfriend of my own."
"WHAT?!"
"If I'm seen going out happily with someone else, that'll effectively kill any rumors that you and I are secret lovers," she explained. "It'll prove once and for all that just because our medafighters might fancy each other, it doesn't have any bearing on who you or I happen to like."
Metabee stared up at her for what seemed a terribly long time, uncharacteristically silent. Peppercat watched carefully, knowing full well that her little scheme hinged entirely on whether or not he bought her little argument. If she hadn't convinced him by now, it was likely the stubborn beetle never would accept her claims. Even worse, the rumor mill could really fixate on them sooner or later, and she'd be no better off than her Boss currently was.
(But if it does pay off…)
The CAT-type was startled out of her thoughts when Metabee abruptly stirred, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Okay," he consented, his tone hinting at his frustration at the entire situation. He might have accepted that he probably needed to do this to save himself embarrassment later, but he certainly didn't have to like it.
That was perfectly okay with Peppercat. Her cerulean eyes lit up with pleasure, and she swung down to land gently beside Metabee. She turned to him, tail lashing slightly, fighting to contain her excitement at having her plan go so well.
(So far, so good.)
"So what am I supposed to do, anyway?" Metabee asked. "Just pick some guy medabot off the street and…"
"Not quite," Peppercat purred, once again giving Metabee the picture of that same smug smile. "I already have the perfect candidate in mind…"