Hey, remember that chapter I mentioned that was either going to send you into a fit of giggles, or make you want to die of embarrassment (me, it would be both)? Well this is it ^_^ I was thinking that there would be a few more chapters before it, but I made the last one longer than I expected, so yeah. This one will be long, too ^_^ In fact, it's twice as long as chapter 14!!! I'm just so nice to you all :D Now read chapter 17 and don't forget to give me more reviews! And don't mind any mistakes hiding in there… I wanted to get it up sooner so I didn't read it over first. *rubs hands together greedily before typing the chapter…* Oh and sorry this one took so long, but it's got 11,103 words, and that doesn't include my before and after author's notes!
~Sunday~
It was a Sunday morning, exactly one week after the mishap with the train and curse business, and it would have been a great morning for Sen to wake up, had a camel not been chewing on her bangs while they were still attached to her scalp… What the hell? Sen stayed still, waiting for it to go away, and it did after a while… but not quite what she had expected. It just sort of… disappeared into thin air. She decided to go ask Haku if she had been showing any signs of insanity…
When she entered his room from the balcony door though, she found him backed up against the head board of his bead, having a staring contest with a porcupine, which was seated comfortably at the foot of the bed. Seconds later, it disappeared much the same way that the camel had.
Sen was about to ask him a question, when they heard Naomi calling for them from Sen's room. They walked towards her voice to find that she was as confused as they were, as well as a bit ticked off.
"Sen, I woke up and there was a chimp trying on all my clothes!"
"At least it wasn't a camel chewing on your hair…" Sen mumbled.
"Or a porcupine giving you the evil eye," Haku said.
"You got strange wake-up calls, too?"
They nodded.
Then Sen all but bolted towards the door to the hall.
"What is it?" Haku asked, a bit shocked by what she started to do so suddenly.
"I have to make sure Boh is okay!" And she was out the door.
Sen threw the door open to Boh's room, only to be greeted by a turkey that materialized out of thin air and flew into her, knocking her over. Then it continued past her and into the hall, where it strutted for a bit, then disappeared like the rest of the animals.
Sen got up, picked a few feathers out of her hair, and looked towards Boh's bed, where he was intently watching a sea otter bat Dayu around. After Dayu spat a string of what must have been rather harsh profanity to the otter, it vanished.
"How come you didn't tell me there was a petting zoo here?" Boh asked innocently. He obviously didn't think that this was anything out of the ordinary…
"Because there isn't one," Naomi replied, dodging a toad as it hopped between her feet and towards the open door. She fallowed it with her eyes and then noticed Prince Miruto standing in the doorway.
"It's Sunday, the first day of the week, and so the first… er… change, if you can still even call it that anymore, has happened. I just hope that nothing dangerous pops up," the prince said as he looked down the hall from the open door nervously. Apparently he had been trying to lose a herd of goats that seemed to have a for the taste of his pant legs.
"So we're gonna have to avoid animals appearing in our faces all day?" Haku asked with a sigh, not quite liking the idea.
"Yeah, but they go away after a while. And at least it's only for today," he said weakly, trying to point out a good side.
The rest of the day wasn't a very productive one, if you can imagine. They tried to practice with their weapons for a few hours, but they were constantly faced with random animals getting in their way, whether they tripped over them or were forced to try to avoid killing them.
Once they tried locking themselves in their rooms to try and escape the completely random effects of the curse, but the animals would just materialize in their rooms anyway, making it pointless.
At night, when they tried to have a bath, they were faced with the unsettling fact that one couldn't fill a tub with water without also filling it with fish. Unfortunately, they never ate a single bite either, seeing as the chefs couldn't even make a sandwich without spreading mayonnaise over the occasional lizard that happened to find its way on the bread.
But lucky for them, nothing dangerous actually showed up the whole day. There was one incident, however, that included a rather questionable octopus that had attached itself to the end of the table in Sen's room while she tried to sleep; and it remained there, giving her a strange look for all of the few minutes it existed before its disappearance. Needless to say, she had trouble sleeping after that.
Which goes along with the next problem: how were they supposed to sleep when there happened to be distractions all around them that were rather hard to ignore? Don't ask me how, but they managed one way or another… perhaps it was easier since the animals got smaller as the night became darker.
~Monday~
Naomi was peacefully sleeping after a hard day's work of keeping unwelcome company out of her personal space, when something woke her up suddenly. She didn't hear anything out of the ordinary… but then she looked around to see if it had anything to do with the curse. Nothing seemed to be different… she scratched her head. What had woken her up?
She scratched her head again. Then she scratched her arm. And her side. And her leg. And her neck. And soon she was rolling quite uncomfortably in her bed from trying to scratch every space of her itching skin. Damn curse… if all of the effects were this annoying, then she'd… well… she didn't know. But she liked the idea about taking sleeping pill so that she'd be unconscious for the whole thing…
Better go see if she had any of that body lotion she got a few days ago left… if she was going to be scratching all day, she wouldn't want to scratch her skin raw.
"Are they ALL going to be this awkward?!" she heard from Sen's room. She gave up her search from one drawer of her dresser for her lotion to listen. All she could hear were annoyed grunts.
She stepped out of her room and into the hall, where she could see through Sen's open door that Haku was in there with her, and Sen was scratching his back while rubbing her own against the edge of the balcony door. When Sen said it was awkward, that was an understatement; to add onto their already difficult situation, they both seemed to wander towards anything in the room that might relieve them. As a result, Sen had stretched her arm to its full length to scratch Haku's back as she used a chair leg a few feet off to calm the itching on her ankle, and her other hand was furiously scratching at her hip. Haku, with his back to Sen, was also trying to use the door to itch his head as he used one hand to scratch his knee and the other to keep his balance, having only one foot on the ground.
Naomi stared at the sight and dumbly scratched at herself.
This was going to be a long day.
…Especially when they all realized what Boh would be doing the whole time: complaining.
Yup… quite a long day, indeed. They all were very reluctant to do much in their current states, having their hands already full with their new (and only, it seemed) purpose for that day, which was to scratch, in case I haven't made that clear yet. But even if they did want to do anything else, they found it very difficult to.
They didn't even bother with training that day, since they would be constantly distracted much like the day before.
They managed to get in a meal or two, but they weren't very mouth-watering… whoever was cooking this must have been too busy scratching or something, because they seemed to have been distracted and so the food was very heavy on the spices.
The only real advantage from this was that they were abnormally clean after their baths, since they scrubbed harder than usual in futile attempts to stop the itching.
When it came time to sleep though, it was almost hopeless. They spent a few hours shifting uncomfortably in their beds, but then were relieved that the itching was less intense as it grew darker, much like yesterday's alteration of their lives had done.
~Tuesday~
'Maybe it was a fluke…? It was supposed to go on for the whole week… but nothing is different,' the prince thought to himself as he entered his room again; he had taken a short walk down the hall to investigate, but he hadn't found anything. There was always the chance that it had to be set off be something though… he wondered what might need to happen for anyone to find out what had changed over the night.
He got his answer during breakfast in Sen's room. They had already taken seats around the table (he sat next to Naomi, of course), and were just about getting impatient when the door opened and a chef came in, looking very put off. They also noted with some irritation that he was empty-handed.
If they had eaten three decent meals a day for what days had already passed that week, they might not have reacted so badly. But when they found that everything that was digestible in the castle had turned to ketchup, they basically lost their minds. Think about it: you're haven't eaten properly in the past two days, so what's one of the top things on your to-do list? Stuff yourself, that's what. Now imagine that you are finally about to eat something, and all there is that's available to you is… ketchup. Now I don't care how much you like the stuff, because I'm sure that nobody in their right mind would try to make an entire meal out of pure ketchup. It's just not done.
Neither is making a bath out of ketchup. But that, to their dismay, is what happened when they ran the water; everything in the castle that was digestible had been turned to ketchup. Yes, even the water. And water, if you didn't know, happens to be digestible. So they lived through yet another unclean and hungry day in the cursed castle. There was the opportunity to train, but they never got around to it since they didn't have the energy after being deprived of food. They got to sleep alright though; it was easy after griping so relentlessly for the whole day.
~Wednesday~
A fairly bored little ball of soot was lounging about the top of Boh's dresser as he waited for the rest of the party to wake up and gather in Sen's room for breakfast. As he passed the mirror, he found something different about himself, but couldn't quite put his finger on it… He was still black, he had all of his limbs, he was the same size, so what had changed?
He scrutinized his reflection for a bit more, and noticed that he in fact was not the same size. A closer look showed that he was missing something… hey! He wasn't fuzzy anymore! That made him seem slightly smaller, not having any fluff to make him look bigger and 'tougher'.
Dayu looked over to Boh to see if he had gone bald too, but then mentally slapped himself at his own forgetfulness. Boh was always bald.
Two girlish screams from the room to the right told him that he wasn't the only victim.
Those screams had been emitted when Sen had woken up Naomi. Naomi screamed when she saw herself in the mirror, and Sen screamed when she saw Naomi. She hadn't noticed her lack of hair before Naomi had not at all subtly pointed it out to her.
"I'm not leaving this room," Naomi said flatly as she dug for some hats in her closet. One for her and one for Sen, who wasn't leaving either.
But unless they wanted to go another day without a bath or any food, they'd have to open the door sometime. Oh well… it would only be the chef who saw them and anyone they passed on their way to the bathroom, and they had hats, so it wasn't too bad…
A thought suddenly occurred to Sen. "I wonder how the others look," she said to Naomi, who laughed at the thought of a bald Haku and Prince Miruto.
"Hopefully they don't come knocking to try and get us out of here… I'm not letting anyone else see me like this," Naomi said.
"Me neither, but at least there isn't anything in the way of a good meal today."
"Thank heavens for that."
Unfortunately for the girls, their knights-in-shining-scalps did come a-knocking to see them. They spent a large chunk of the day sitting outside of the door, begging for them to come out and do something, but Sen and Naomi disregarded them.
Until one comment sent them into a hysterical condition as they laughed to the point of being silent from neglecting the need to inhale after a while.
It was the prince who said it. "Come on, you have to come out sometime! It's not like you can spend the entire day braiding each other's hair!"
"Is that what you think girls do?" Naomi asked through the door.
"Uh…"
Out in the hall, Haku shook his head and shared a moment of laughter with the girls. That guy could be so clueless at times.
~Thursday~
When Boh emerged from the deep, coma-like sleep he was in, he was confused to see that it was still dark in his room. He glanced out the window and saw that the sun was up, but no light came into his room, leaving it pitch black. He strained his eyes to try and see any of his toys lying haphazardly on the ground, but he couldn't see anything.
His door opened, and then he heard the prince say, "Everyone in the castle is spending the day outside, kid. The curse today is keeping all light from shining in here… including sunlight."
Boh grunted tiredly, having just woken up, and narrowly avoided stepping on his toys as he felt his way to the door with Dayu on his shoulder.
After he had gotten Haku, Boh and Dayu into Sen's room while they waited before leaving the castle, the prince edged along the wall to Naomi's room at last.
He reached her door and opened it after groping for the knob a few moments, and walked up to her bed without needing the wall as a guide; he'd stopped in here to wait for her with a question enough times to know his way there.
From the sound of her breathing, Prince Miruto assumed that she was lying on her side with her back to him, so he felt around for her shoulder. He found it, and shook her until she woke up.
"Hrratsf… nnt mf sshoulrr…" she mumbled.
"Huh?"
Naomi had already been awake for a few seconds before he shook her, and she noticed how dark it was, despite the sun being in the sky. Lucky for the prince, she didn't blame him for missing his target. "I said… that's not my shoulder…"
He stared into darkness for a moment, his hand still lingering on what he had mistaken as something else. "Well then what— oh… Oh!" he said and quickly jumped back and removed his hand. "Sorry," he mumbled with a hint of embarrassment.
"Forget it." After Prince Miruto had been going so long without any trace of his previous ways, Naomi could forgive him more easily for this… she was still a bit embarrassed herself though. "What do you want?"
"Uh… sorry… I came to wake you up because everyone is heading outside where there's actually some light. The others are waiting in Sen's room."
"Okay, let's go then. And stop apologizing. I forgive you."
"Oh okay…" he said. His voice trailed off as he felt Naomi grip his sleeve. It was obvious enough why she did, but he had been distracted by how easily she forgave him… she trusted him more than he thought…
"Are we going or not?"
He snapped back into reality and replied, "Yeah."
"Lead the way then."
The trip outside of the castle was a lot harder than anyone anticipated, mainly because they had to try a few times before pushing the correct button in the elevator. It was very annoying that they could only know they had the wrong floor when they failed to find the exit on the walls of levels 2, 5, and 3. Once they finally had the right button, they got to the first floor, where they could get out into the light.
But when they were getting out of the elevator, Prince Miruto could have sworn that he heard Naomi tell somebody to watch where they put their hands. She'd been completely understanding with him, but now she was obviously a bit offended when somebody brushed her thigh in the dark, not to mention crowded elevator (even though it was an accident, and a far less evocative one than what he had done). He was absolutely thrilled that she was so at ease with him at this point.
Despite the fact that everything in the castle was basically inaccessible, everybody had a very good day, considering how the week had been so far. Their meals were grilled in very festive cook-outs, and there was still a lot to do even though they were condemned outdoors.
Sen and the gang practiced with their weapons, which they thankfully had brought with them, and Prince Miruto was more than happy to watch from the sidelines with Boh and Dayu. The only thing that might have put a damper on their high spirits was the fact that everyone was still in their pajamas. Nobody had bothered to try and change in such dark rooms. However, this only made things better, if anything, because they found that they were a lot more comfortable than if they had bothered to dress.
But nobody was as happy with this as the prince. The fact that Naomi was still in her pj's seemed to inadvertently make her act… cuddly.
One thing that showed this happened while they stood in line to get some of what the chefs had managed to grill for breakfast. He was in the front of the line, fallowed by Naomi, then Sen, Haku, and finally Boh and Dayu. Haku and Sen were talking about something or other when Boh interrupted them by shoving a big, slimy bullfrog between them (not to be rude, of course. He just wanted to show them what he caught). When Sen jumped away, she accidentally bumped into Naomi, who then was knocked into Prince Miruto. Naomi apologized and then backed away, but she may as well have just stayed where she was since she didn't put much space between them at all. And obviously, the prince wasn't much inclined to move either until the rest of the line did.
Another act of cuddliness on Naomi's part was while they were training. They had been going for maybe an hour and a half when Naomi stopped before Sen and Haku and decided to wait for them under the tree with Boh, Dayu and the prince. Prince Miruto had stopped watching them for a while to lie on his back in the grass and hadn't noticed that Naomi was coming until she was lying next to him, and she was close enough for their arms to have made contact if the prince didn't have his behind his head.
"Worn out already?" he asked conversationally.
"No, I just don't feel like working very hard today. I've actually been having a very good day compared to the previous four this week."
"Pff. I say you're just lazy," he joked.
"Yeah, and you say a lot of things that are completely off," she returned with a small laugh. She elbowed him slightly in his side, but too gently to have actually hurt. Then her arm came to rest where it was, still touching Prince Miruto's side. Not that he was complaining.
So the prince was obviously having a good day so far, but one last thing that Naomi did topped it all off.
While they were eating dinner out on the grass, Haku decided to pick off of Sen's plate instead of going back to get more food. She didn't mind it the first few times, but then he just kept picking and picking, and he didn't do a very good job of looking innocent. One thing led to another and somehow they wound up in a tickle fight.
The four of them who weren't occupied with this just looked on with amusement, until Naomi grinned maliciously at the prince. Before he knew it, she had him pinned down on the ground and was tickling him to death.
Yeah, that was fun. And needless to say, they all slept well that night.
~Friday~
"Wake up, sleepy," Haku said quietly to Sen.
Sen opened her eyes and Saw Haku's face only inches away from hers. In his current position, straddled over her stomach, he would have been sitting on her if his forelegs hadn't been flat on the bed and his hands holding him up near her arms. She smiled at him. "Good morning."
"Mhmm," Haku said and lowered his face to her neck so he could make a trail of kisses up to her jaw line.
"Why are you so happy this mo—" Sen began, but was cut off when Haku reached her mouth, and she noticed the he took full advantage of the fact that it was already open.
Then Prince Miruto came into the room. Sen lifted Haku's head away a bit so that she could see what the prince wanted, so Haku decided to snack on her ear until she was finished talking.
"Where's Naomi? She's not in her room," he said from the doorway.
"Maybe she went to wake up Boh," Sen suggested. She was desperately trying not to be distracted by Haku's breath tickling her as he inhaled deeply and then let it out in a contented sigh. "Why?" she asked, hoping that he wouldn't say anything about Haku being on top of her and all.
The prince was staring at the ground with a stupid smile plastered on his face. "Huh? Oh, no reason." Then he left with a very noticeable bounce to his step.
As soon as the door was closed, Haku immediately went back to kissing Sen. "What's gotten into you?" she asked Haku through her mind so that she wouldn't interrupt him. As confused as she was, she couldn't deny that she was enjoying it.
"…Donno," he replied after thinking for a while.
"Well let me get up now. I want to get some breakfast."
Haku didn't comply with what she said at all. The only form of acknowledgement that he gave was that he lowered himself a bit closer to her, pinning her more tightly to her bed. "Don't go."
"But Boh will eventually come in here and see us, and that would be embarrassing, not to mention uncomfortable to explain to Yubaba for corrupting his mind," she reasoned. She wasn't really worried about that though… she was just confused over why Haku was being like this all of the sudden. If it was the curse, then she better go warn Naomi about the prince… he did look suspiciously cheerful; even more so than was normal for him…
"But I don't want you to leave," he complained as he slid his arms underneath her to pull her closer, if that was even possible.
Haku was obviously not going to let her go, so she decided to get him off of her with her own methods. He was, for some reason (the curse, no doubt), very inclined to… uh… be with her, so if she could use that to get him off of her, she'd be good to go. Since he was still kissing her, she decided that the best way to do this would be to return the favor, only with more forwardness than even he was showing. That way she could…
Yes, it worked. He took her action as a sign that she accepted him, and he let his guard down. Now she could get him to roll off of her, which would be easy enough. All she had to do was turn onto her side with her arms around him to make him think that she was staying… and when she did that, she got on her knees and hovered over him, just to be sure that he wasn't aware of what she was doing. So after a few seconds of this, she had an easy time backing away and planting her feet on the ground.
"Hey!" Haku said with a look of confusion.
"I need to go see Naomi," Sen said as she made her way towards the door. "Just try not to think about me… or you might… get that way again."
"Would that be a bad thing?"
"No, but you can't really help it. It's part of the curse… just stay here."
After Sen was out the door, Haku started to feel lonely… so he fallowed her.
Sen couldn't help but notice a few chefs stalking a maid as she walked across the hall… She opened Boh's door and walked in to a very confusing scene.
The prince seemed to have sat himself on a chair in the middle of the room with his hands underneath him for who knows why, and he was arguing with Boh over something. Naomi was standing behind him and Boh was in front of him. Occasionally, Boh would give Naomi a strange look and make his way around the chair towards her, but Naomi also walked around the prince in the chair to avoid the kid. When she did, the prince would look as if he got into a trance as she passed the front of him. Once Boh was back in front of Prince Miruto, he snapped out of it and started arguing with Boh again.
"Stay away from her!" the prince told Boh.
"But I want somebody to play with!"
"Play with the soot ball!"
Speaking of Dayu, he had made his way up Sen's body and was now hugging her arm. Haku got jealous for some reason and picked up Dayu, then tossed him onto Boh's bed.
"Haku, he didn't do anything to deserve that; he does that every morning. And I told you to stay in my room…"
"But I missed you."
"But I told you to stay where you were—"
"—just stay away from her, got it?!"
"No! I'm bored and I want somebody to play cars with me!"
"Again, play with the soot ball!!!"
"But he's no fun—"
"—SHUT UP!" Naomi shouted.
Everyone stopped talking and looked at her.
"What's going on? Prince Miruto, why are you sitting on your hands, why won't you let Boh play with me, why were you looking for me in the first place, and Sen, what is it you came in here for???" she asked from behind the prince's chair.
They all started talking to her at once, and she was already confused enough as it was, so she got a bit more frustrated. "One at a time! Prince Miruto, answer me first. Why are you sitting on your hands?"
"So that I won't lose control, like this kid over here," he said resentfully, tossing his head towards Boh.
"Lose control over what?"
"Myself."
'That didn't make much sense…' "Okay, but now why won't you let him play with me?"
"Because he might lose control."
'What is he talking about?' "Why were you looking for me in the first place?"
"Because I had almost lost control."
'Lose control over what? Maybe today's curse made him lose his mind…' "Sen, why were you looking for me?"
"To warn you that the prince might lose control."
"What are you all talking about?! What would Boh and the prince lose control over, and why would it be so terrible that they have to shout at each other over it?"
"It's because of the curse. All the males in the castle seem to be… possessive… over the women here… and…," Sen answered vaguely.
"And what?"
"Randy," the prince said bluntly, and without any sign that what he just said effected him at all.
"Who's Randy?" Naomi asked, thinking that he just called out somebody's name.
"They are," Sen said and gestured to Haku and the prince.
"Huh?"
The prince made a noise that sounded very close to a growl. "I hate being like this… it's hard to keep from doing anything…"
"What do you mean, 'anything'?"
The prince was silent, so Sen answered for him. "He means anything like… touching you in ways he isn't welcome to do so."
Naomi blinked with mild shock. "How do you know that?"
"Because of the way Haku was acting when I woke up… he almost didn't give me a choice of whether or not to let him… uh… start something," she said, trying to pick her words carefully so as not to sound too suggestive, but still tell the whole truth.
Naomi stared at Sen for a few seconds before turning to Boh with a very unnerved look about her. It'd just hit her that randy was being used as an adjective rather than a name… and maybe it'd be better to avoid Boh today… She looked back to Sen while lifting a finger to point at the prince and asked, "So he's been arguing with Boh over me?"
"I guess so… wait, Boh is acting that way, too?" she asked, alarmed that she may need to avoid him as well. As soon as she said it, Haku scowled at Boh and inched closer to Sen.
"Acting like what?" Boh asked in his usual clueless tone. He didn't seem any different… Haku and the prince were probably just being overly possessive.
"This is going to drive me insane… I can't just sit here all day… but then if I so much as look at Naomi, I might do something that I really don't want to," Prince Miruto said. Then he laughed to himself and mumbled something about liking the fact that Naomi's pajamas fit her form the way they did.
'Does he even have a choice of what to think…?' Naomi thought to herself. "Is it really that hard to just ignore me?"
"Yes."
"Oh…"
"What are we going to do about it? Should we just stay in our own rooms for the day?" Sen asked them all.
"No," Haku said instantly.
"Why not?"
"Because I'd miss you."
Obviously, Sen and Naomi, being the only ones without tainted minds, would have to make the decisions. "I think Naomi and I should just stay away from you all. It'll be easier for everyone."
"Okay," Naomi said and started walking out the door with Sen. "Let's just stay in your room, Sen. It's bigger and has the balcony…" Her voice trailed off as they walked across the hall and into Sen's room. Dayu, Boh, Haku and Prince Miruto all heard Sen lock the door and all were suddenly clueless as to what to do with themselves.
"Boh, just stay in here and ask a servant for anything you need. I'm going to my room," the prince said abruptly. He stood from his chair and walked out the open door, but stopped in his tracks at the sound coming from Sen's room. It was only the two girls talking, but he could hear Naomi and was suddenly very calm. He stood there in the same sort of trance that he had gone into every time Naomi walked in front of him while he was arguing with Boh.
Back inside of Boh's room, Haku panicked somewhat against his will. He didn't normally feel so helpless without Sen… but now that she was out of his reach, he was worried about her and was very, very lonesome. He couldn't just go through the day completely without her… he had to be able to hold her… or see her… or at least hear or smell her… just something that would assure him that she was still there.
An idea formed somewhere in his mind and he bolted out of the room and headed towards his own. Maybe he could sneak into her room through the balcony…
As the prince stood frozen to the spot, comforted by the sound of Naomi's voice, he was distracted by Haku almost running into him as the boy sprinted into his own room. He suddenly couldn't recall what he was doing… oh wait, that's right… he was going to try and put Naomi out of his mind by getting away from her… he didn't want to destroy any trust that she had for him… but he was finding it very hard to walk in any direction other than towards her. Or maybe towards her room… perhaps if he could smell her fragrance on her sheets then he'd feel better.
Crud. They'd already thought to lock the balcony door before Haku could get there. But he could still sit outside the door and listen to Sen… and maybe catch a glimpse of her once in a while without her knowing that he was there. This could work… it wasn't nearly as satisfying as what she allowed him to do earlier, but it was still better than nothing.
Perfect; this is exactly what he had hoped for. The prince was in Naomi's room, lying face-down on her bed. It smelled just like her… and he was perfectly content with the fact that he got even this much.
"I feel really bad for them, in a way," Naomi confessed to Sen.
"I know what you mean… it's not their fault that they feel like that today…," Sen agreed. But maybe we can go see them again before we go to bed… most of the curses have been getting less intense when it gets later in the night."
"Well that's definitely a good thing. Did you see Haku's face when he thought that Boh would be a problem? He looked really angry…"
"So did the prince… he looked very determined not to trouble you or let Boh bother you, though. You're lucky that he's changed so much; I got the impression that he would beat himself if he even looked at you the wrong way."
Naomi was quiet for a moment before saying, "I don't think that I'd be angry if he did anything… it's not like he'd be doing it on his own accord."
"Yeah, I figured you'd feel that way. He's not the only one who's been singing a different tune than when we all arrived here." Sen replied, trying to sound casual, though it was more than apparent that she was very excited to hear Naomi practically admit that she liked the prince's company.
Naomi didn't even blush this time. She just grinned at her friend, who was happily bouncing herself on her bed, and she laughed at how little it took to get more than one point across.
It was about nine o'clock in the evening when Sen (already in her pajamas) went into Haku's room to look for him, but for some reason, he wasn't there. Little known to her was that he was actually out on the balcony, having fallen asleep there, and she had come into his room from the hallway.
"Haku?" she called from the doorway. She didn't hear an answer, so she walked over to the balcony door. "Haku?"
Once again, there was no answer, so she turned back to leave and look somewhere else. Haku had fallen asleep on one side of a rather large potted plant, so Sen didn't see him in front of her own bedroom door. He woke up just in time to see her right leg disappear back into his room, and he became extremely cheerful at the sight of her without a glass door separating them. Naturally, he got up to catch her before she left.
"Chihiro!"
She was just about to pass Haku's bed on her way to leave when he suddenly ran into her with such force she would have fallen, if he had not wrapped his arms around her in a very tight hug.
"Haku," she said as she gasped for breath, "did you miss me?"
"Of course I did! Did you think that I wouldn't be happy to finally be with you after sitting out on the balcony by myself all day?" As he said this he loosened his grip on her and backed up just enough to look at her without letting her go.
"You were
out there all day? What were you doing?"
"Listening to you and
occasionally getting to see you… I missed you." He buried his face in her hair
and continued, "I missed seeing you and hearing your voice… without a door in
the way, that is… and I missed the way you smell, and the way you taste and
feel... I never want to have to live another day without you again. It was
torture." Then Haku went back to squeezing her to death after having a good
look at her.
"Don't worry, I won't have to lock myself away from you anymore," she said while she ran her hands up and down his back for comfort. Haku had his face against the crook of her neck, drinking in everything about her that he possibly could, and Sen could feel him smile against her skin.
He still wasn't back to normal… but at least he was better than he had been that morning. Sen was just glad that he was happy now, and sighed with relief that he wasn't angry with her for avoiding him. As she sighed she began to feel that she was a little drowsy, and she reflexively leaned on Haku to support her groggy self and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Tired?"
"A little. More comfortable than sleepy, though." As she said this, Haku lifted his head, stepped to her side and he picked her up bridal-style, then carried her towards the balcony.
"Where are we going?" Sen asked.
"To your room, so you can sleep," Haku said and looked down at her affectionately. They rounded the potted plant that Haku had slept near and entered her room. Haku walked across and gently set Sen down on her bed, then kneeled down on the floor with his arms on the mattress and his head rested in them.
"Are you going to stay there until I fall asleep?" Sen asked, thinking that it must not be very comfortable, but also being a bit selfish and adding a tone of hopefulness to her voice.
"No, I plan on staying here all night. I missed you far too much to leave you after such a short time of having you back."
"Well… you can't just stay like that all night… come up here and sleep."
Haku looked at her the way Boh looked at the prince when he told him that the candy shop was free. He didn't expect her to want him up there… "You aren't afraid of what I might do?"
"Well it's the only solution that I can think of that wouldn't make me feel mean… if I let you stay there, you'd have a stiff neck in the morning. If I gave you a blanket and pillow and let you sleep on the floor, I'd feel cruel that you'd be sleeping there while I'm on the bed. And if I told you to go back to your own room, I'd feel terrible because I know that you really don't want to be separated from me."
He sighed to let out some of the joy that had suddenly welled up inside him, afraid that he might erupt. "Did I mention earlier that I also missed everything you do for me?"
She smiled at him as he stood up, walked around her bed and took a spot next to her. "No, but you did tell me how you missed my taste… but I'm starting to think that wasn't true, since you still haven't done anything about it," she joked.
As soon as she finished, she found that it in fact was true, since his tongue was now savagely conquering every space in her mouth.
After bringing Dayu to Boh's room, since Sen had left him with her while she searched for Haku, Naomi decided to call it a day and go to bed. When she walked into her room to find the prince on her bed, she wasn't at all surprised, but she was a bit curious as to why he was laying face-down instead of sitting on it like he usually did when he waited for her.
She stood in the doorway for a moment and waited for him to notice that she was there, but he either ignored her of didn't hear the door open. She approached him and took care to make her footsteps louder than was natural to see if he reacted, but he just lied there.
She had no idea why on earth he had stayed on her bed long enough to fall asleep, but she knew that he was in her way.
"Wake up," she said and poked his arm.
He got up from his stomach and into a position where he was sitting on his feet rather abruptly, and took a second to look around to see where he was.
"How come you fell asleep in here?" Naomi asked.
He ignored her question and hastily got off the bed to stand. "Sorry… I…" He was looking everywhere but her and looked very anxious.
"Sorry for what? I don't care that you took a nap on my bed, I'm just a little confused about it… what's wrong?" He was now biting his bottom lip, and he still wouldn't look at her. Did she make him nervous?
"Well… I came in here because I had to stay away from you… so I found the next best thing."
"Oh," she said simply and couldn't help but smile. "Well it's not like you broke anything, so why are you so nervous?"
"Just embarrassed… that's all…"
"Well you shouldn't be; all you did was spend a day in here and fall asleep. And you already come in here all the time as it is," she replied. There was also the fact that when he referred to her room as the next best thing to her, she took it as a compliment, not a sign that he was a fool…
"But all those times I just had something to tell you or ask you…"
Naomi thought for a moment before saying, "Okay, so just pretend that you were waiting here the whole time for me. So what did you want?"
'She's trying to make me feel less uncomfortable by pretending that this is normal… that's so nice of her… she's always nice… and yesterday she didn't mind when I accidentally touched something I shouldn't have… she was so forgiving… she's completely perfect… and so beautiful…'
The fact that Prince Miruto was now looking her up and down didn't alarm her or make her uncomfortable. She understood that he was still not feeling like himself and in all honesty had expected him to do more than just look at her. But she didn't know what to do about it, so she just waited for his answer…
'So… what do I want? Well I want Naomi, that's what… even when I'm in my right mind… but I don't know what she's thinking… I'll just make something up…' "I wanted to know… how your day was." 'Pathetic… but at least she would take that without question… because she's so understanding… and perfect…'
"Oh, it was good," she said with a smile. "It would have been a lot better if it wasn't just me and Sen though. We ran out of things to do, but then we…" Naomi continued to tell him about what she did all day, but he'd stopped listening when she said that it could have been better with somebody besides only Sen.
'What does she mean by that? Did she miss me? Oh… she's still talking… she's acting like this is completely normal… she's so considerate… and she's only doing it so that I'll relax… she actually cares how I feel… wait, she cares?'
"And so I just came here from bringing Dayu to Boh's room," she finished. She knew that he didn't hear most of what she said (since he was staring at the ground in front of him), but at least she had done something right when she started this charade. "So how was your day?" she asked, trying to pull him out of whatever daze he seemed to be in. Naomi was proud of herself since she had made him feel a bit better, but it was a little weird when he had just stood there for the whole time that she was talking, and then even for a longer time when she took the opportunity to look at his reaction.
His blank gaze flicked onto her from where it had been set on the floor, and the glazed look was now an expression of relief. "Well considering everything that I've done today… It was fabulous," he said.
'Huh? He spent the entire day moping on my bed because he wasn't allowed to be in the same room as me… but he didn't sound sarcastic or like he was just saying that to avoid the truth…' "What was the best part to make it so great, then?"
He looked up at her and grinned. "Well I recently woke up from a nap to see a certain person that I spent the whole day thinking about— and that's always a good way to wake up —then she did me a very nice favor and started a conversation with me to avoid a touchy subject. Now when I look at that next to everything else that I did today, it out-weighs the hours I spent moping in here, by far. So it's safe to say that on the whole, I've had a very good day." When he finished speaking, he seemed like his normal self… like the spell had worn off of him earlier than it should have.
Naomi smiled and nodded appreciatively at the fact that he was back to normal so soon— or was at least doing a good job of hiding any impure thoughts he was having. "Well then she must be happy, and not to mention flattered, that you think so highly of her that she can do something so simple to turn your day around so effectively," she said and emphasized the word 'so' when she realized how often she was using it in that long-winded sentence.
"Well good; she should be," he confirmed. "She should also be happy that she's so kind, considerate, beautiful, forgiving, wonderful, faultless, stunning…" and his eyes wandered as he searched for more complimentary adjectives to tick off on his fingers.
Okay… so he wasn't back to normal… better not point it out though; he was at least in a better mood.
"Not to mention caring, selfless, thoughtful, understanding, gorgeous, gentle, helpful, and perfect," he finished with a look of pride at the fact that he had listed off all of Naomi's good qualities in one breath.
"…You done?" Naomi asked as she barely managed to hold back a giggle. It was funny: She wasn't even sure if he knew what he was saying anymore. Not that she minded the compliments.
He sighed with slight disappointment from having run out of words. "Yeah, but I wish there was a better word than perfect…"
Confused and taken aback came to mind, but that was because he didn't think that perfect was the right word for her even after he had just said it… "You don't think she's perfect?" she asked and remembered to refer to herself in the third person like they had both been doing for the whole chat.
"Nope. Perfect isn't good enough to describe you," he said simply.
He got her completely off-guard… she hadn't expected that he could say anything to top off the long list of compliments he had indirectly given her. And she knew that he meant it, too, from the way he was now talking to her instead of about her.
Naomi started to blush slightly and just gave a weak laugh. She would have said something but she just didn't know how to respond to it.
He snorted and saluted her, saying, "I'll see you tomorrow… hopefully nothing can be as bad as what happened today, right?"
Naomi laughed in agreement and opened the door for him, since she was the only thing between him and it. When he was on the other side of it and she was about to close the door, she stuck her tongue out, as was the tradition, and then he was out of sight.
After changing into her pajamas, she flopped onto her bed and looked at the clock on her night table.
'Nine forty-five… he spent at least half an hour in here talking to me, and held back the whole time…' She rolled onto her back and ran a hand through her hair. 'Impressive… especially for him.' She frowned as she grew uncomfortable on her back very soon, and hoped that she wouldn't have trouble sleeping tonight, after so many nights of going through that already. She rolled onto her stomach, which was usually the way she fell asleep anyway, and could already feel herself drifting off. 'My pillow smells nice… different, but nice… I wonder why," was her last complete thought before she fell into dream land.
~Saturday~
When Haku woke up, he was in Sen's bed, of course, and she was clinging tightly to him with her arms around his middle. He sat up and let his feet dangle over the edge of the bed, and noticed that he was wearing particularly feminine looking pants… there were purple flowers all over it and they were all silky… he scratched at his head in bewilderment, and noticed that his hair was softer than usual. Now he was just confused… Haku stood up and examined himself starting at his feet, then up his legs and to his hips, then his torso and…
Since when did he have those?
Crap. This wasn't good. He slowly turned around, dreading what he knew he would see lying on Sen's bed… and his eyes fell on his own body where Sen's should have been.
"Chihiro… wake up."
She grunted in a very un-lady-like fashion. But of course she would, she wasn't a lady anymore. "What is it?"
"Um…" he was about to answer her when Sen looked at him and saw her own body, and he got a shock when he saw how horrified his face could look.
"Please tell me that it only affected you," she said, but when she heard her now deeper voice she groaned and lied back down. "Naomi won't like this, if I know what happened to her."
Sen was right; Naomi didn't like it at all.
When she had first woken up, she noticed the same smell on her pillow that she had sensed before falling asleep last night. When she realized that it was the prince's smell, since he had been napping on her bed, she snorted at how obvious it should have been. But had she gotten a cold? Her snort wasn't as high-pitched as usual.
She opened her eyes and was very confused when she saw a completely different room around her. But she recognized it from the tour of the castle she had gotten… it was the prince's room.
Naomi had begun to form the idea that he brought her there last night after she fell asleep and had very crooked intentions… but then her mind stopped functioning all together before she could complete the thought when she saw her reflection in a mirror hung on the wall.
She stared at the prince's face looking back at her for a good minute or two before comprehending what must have happened to Prince Miruto in exchange. Then she decided that she might want to keep an eye on him… or herself… or whatever.
When she reached her own room, she didn't hesitate to storm right in and wake up the prince, who she found was indeed being held captive in her body. She poked him hard in the ribs, but soon regretted it from fear of having to wake up to a nasty bruise tomorrow.
"I didn't do it…," he mumbled, still half asleep. Naomi couldn't help but laugh at how stupid her own face looked when it was having a confusing dream.
Her laugh woke the prince and he looked blankly up at his face that was still laughing at him.
"Let me guess…," he began, but stopped when he heard Naomi's voice come from his throat. It suddenly hit him that he was in her room, and when he looked at himself he was certainly not in his own body.
He suddenly pulled a very disgruntled face and sighed. "Of all things… if this had to happen, why couldn't I have switched with Haku, or some other male in the castle?"
Naomi was a bit peeved when she first discovered that she would have to go through a day with the prince's body, but after seeing his reaction to it, she was very amused, and she was still laughing.
"Hey, quit that! How can you be laughing at such a… de-masculization?"
That made her laugh harder because first of all, de-masculization isn't a word. Secondly, he was taking the change worse than she was, even when he had a golden opportunity to relieve some of what he had held back yesterday right in front of him. "I thought you would have liked the change," she teased.
Prince Miruto only grumbled.
"Well I'm going to Sen's room to eat. See you later," Naomi said as she started to calm down. But maybe it wasn't a good idea to let the prince/her body get out of her sight… not that she thought he would do anything, it was just weird to still be alive without your own body around.
After this ran through her mind, she stopped at the door and then turned to the prince. "On second thought, I'd rather not be separated from myself. Hurry up and come on."
Before she had even begun to speak, he was already getting out of her bed. "Already am. You think I don't want to stick with myself, too?"
Back in Sen's room, after everyone pointed out who was who, they all took seats at the table to wait for Boh and Dayu as well as their food.
When they arrived, Boh was hiccupping, or so they thought. After a few minutes of him making strange noises they finally realized that Boh had switched bodies with Dayu, who was quite perturbed and worried that Boh would make his body gain a lot of weight.
They were already bent on keeping their eyes on each other for the whole day, but then another problem arose when the food came.
"Aren't you going to eat anything, Hak— I mean, Sen?" Naomi asked her, nearly forgetting about the curse.
"No."
"Why not?" Haku asked.
"Because as much as I love you, Haku, I'd rather not risk seeing anything by having to use the bathroom," she explained while everyone saw Haku's face blush for what must have been the first time. Haku was just that sort of person who never got into a situation where he'd be blushing, and it was enlightening to see different expressions on everyone's faces. And with Sen being in Haku's body, they saw just that.
Everyone else lowered their utensils and stopped eating the moment she finished speaking. They hadn't really thought about that… And even if they did plan to eat, they suddenly weren't hungry anymore. And as another result of Sen's comment, they all remained in their pajamas yet again.
Sometime during the day they discovered that the pairing of people who switched bodies depended on who it was they each saw before they went to sleep. Sen and Haku saw each other last, as with Dayu and Boh. Naomi saw the prince last so there you go. And although Prince Miruto passed other people in the halls on his way to his own room, the fact that he was only thinking of Naomi worked well enough.
They went out to train for a bit, which was very fun under their circumstances. After a few minutes of doing what they usually do, Sen had an idea.
She was doing a few things without using her shield for while, when she stopped in her tracks and grinned from ear to ear.
"Hey, quit hopping from foot to foot like that; you're making me look like a pansy," Haku told her when she started bouncing around with excitement.
She continued despite what Haku said, and asked him, "Do you think I'd be able to turn into a dragon?"
He thought about it for a moment, then said, "I don't see why not. All you really have to do is will yourself to be one. At least that's all I have to do… I wonder if I can still do it in your body…"
That proved to be very easy. As soon as Sen could picture Haku's dragon form in her mind, she changed. She looked at herself for split second before turning her gaze on Haku.
"I'M A DRAGON!!!" he suddenly heard in his (or Sen's, I should say) head. He flinched at the volume of her delighted, telepathic exclamation and then simply nodded at her.
After her little outburst, Sen proceeded to run in happy little circles, fly and do random flips and twirls in the air, and for a while they even tolerated training with her like that (they tolerated it instead of liking it because she was too hyper and a little hard to work with).
After she tired of staying in yet another body, Sen returned to the original form of her body for the day. But then another question came to her mind. "Haku, can you still change in my body?"
He stood for a moment and looked like he was concentrating, then looked at her and said, "No." And nobody needed to know, but that was a lie… once he felt the tingle in his feet that always came before his transformations, he stopped before anyone could notice. He didn't want Sen to see her dragon form… at least not until it was actually hers, and not just Haku switching her form for her. He'd seen her dragon forms many times in his dreams, ever since Zeniiba told him what she would look like. She was beautiful… and he really did want to show her, but the only thing he wanted more than that was to wait until Sen could see it and not feel disappointed when she wouldn't be able to keep it… later, if he waited, she would have it for good… but speaking of Zeniiba, when was she going to help him arrange…
"Haku, are you okay?" Sen asked him. "You looked a little dazed."
"Yeah… I was just reminded of something, and that got me thinking of something else, then I got onto another subject, and you know how those things go…" At least he didn't have to lie to her that time… (But seriously, has that ever happened to you? You're thinking of one thing, then something on that subject brings up a memory of another thing, and it sets off a whole big chain reaction? I don't know about you, but that happens to me a lot.)
Meanwhile, Naomi was having an easier time than usual with dodging things and couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with the fact that she was in Prince Miruto's body. Later, they all found that the reason was because the prince had practiced in martial arts since he was four, and although he trained a lot less these days, he still got in a few hours a week. He would like to get in even more time than that, but since his father had gained enough weight to turn him into a lazy type of king (his father being the one who trained him), it was getting more and more difficult. But even so, just like Sen could turn into a dragon because Haku's abilities had been left in his body, Naomi could do everything that the prince could do.
Overall, the day went fairly well for what it was. The only things that got in the way were no eating, bathing or changing, and the fact that it was a lot harder now to communicate with Boh. Another side effect was that Haku and Prince Miruto's attitudes were quite the opposite of what they were yesterday. It seemed that no matter how self-centered anyone was, they couldn't bring themselves to exchange romantic or complimentary gestures with anyone they loved or had interests in, since they would be looking at themselves the whole time. And I don't even think that Narcissist* would want to make out with his own body. Maybe shower it with compliments, but you never know.
But anyway, there were also advantages to this whole body mix-up. For one thing, they got to know each other a lot better in the sense that they learned new details about their personalities. For example, they never knew until that day that the prince did martial arts. Then there's the fact that they took on each other's habits, such as their posture, behavior and composure during different activities. That may not tell you a lot, but it made them all more aware of each other's lifestyles, which in turn made them feel like they'd been living with each other for a lot longer than just two weeks.
When nighttime finally came, there wasn't much confusion over where to sleep for anyone, that is, except for Naomi and Prince Miruto.
"Uh… should we just go to sleep in our own rooms?" the prince asked her after they were the only ones left standing in the hall; Sen and Haku were in Sen's room for the night so that they both woke up in the same spot as where they fell asleep, and Boh and Dayu were in Boh's room, as always. Everyone else who would be in that particular hallway were in bed as well.
"No, if we did that then I'd wake up in your room again," Naomi reasoned.
"So what, I'll go to sleep in your room and you in mine?"
"I'd rather not do that either, since it would mean leaving my body… and I still don't like the idea of being separated from it while my mind is anywhere other than in the heavens."
"…Are you suggesting that we sleep in the same room?"
"If that's what it takes," she said and walked towards her room.
"There's a surprise…"
"Oh please; you can't tell me that you'd really try to feel up your own body while I'm asleep," she said flatly.
The prince grimaced at the thought… eew.
"And I'm sleeping on the floor while you get the bed," she said as they entered her room and she stole a pillow from her bed.
"Well that's generous of you."
"Actually, I just don't want to be the one with a bad back in the morning," she said with a sly grin at the prince.
"Hey! That's no fair. You take the bed then."
"No."
"Fine… two can play at that game," Prince Miruto said as he walked across the room and sat in a chair. He then slouched and twisted himself (or Naomi's self) as much as he could without falling off and when he finished, his position promised more than just a stiff neck.
Naomi sighed in defeat and tried to compromise. "Okay… how about we both just sleep on the floor?"
"Then we'd both be sore in the morning," he pointed out.
"But it would at least be fair."
"No thanks. Just take the bed and accept that I won."
"Uh, no. Either you sleep in the bed or we both sleep on the floor."
"You know, I could just say the same thing and then we'd have gotten nowhere."
"Or you could try to be reasonable and make a compromise if you can't have your own way."
"Well the only compromise that I can think of and that would be good for me is if we both slept on the bed. But you wouldn't go for that, so I didn't say anything."
Naomi sat there on the carpet for a minute and thought about it. "We could do that. Like I said, it's not like you would make a pass on yourself while I wouldn't be awake to notice."
"But what about in the morning? I don't plan on doing anything, but you aren't still nervous?"
"No, I'm not. I can wake up very early if I fee like it, so that won't be a problem. And besides, you didn't do anything yesterday, so I'm pretty sure that I can trust you by now."
He watched her get up from the floor and onto the bed, when she stacked up some pillows down the middle of it. "Cool. But what's the barrier all about if you trust me the way you claim to?"
"I may trust you, but that doesn't change the fact that I roll around in my sleep a lot," she explained as she ran out of pillows and claimed the right side of the bed.
"Oh," the prince replied with a shrug. Then he plopped down in the other side of the bed and turned off the light.
"He's a dirty little thief! There's nothing good about him."
So there you have it. And the quote… I supposed you could sort of relate it to what Naomi first thought of the prince, but I just randomly picked it off the top of my head. It's two thirty in the morning now, and I think I'm looking at another night without any sleep… I'm not in the least bit tired. But hey, look at that! My split personality is back! *points to the text below*
*Yawn* That had to have been the most boring Sunday that I've read about. I mean, come on. None of the animals were even dangerous. How lame is that?
~Aw, stop it! If there were any animals that were too scary, Boh would retire from the story ^_^ and we don't want that to happen. But hey, Monday was pretty funny to picture, if you ask me.
What are you talking about? They were only itchy. That's all. Nothing else. *Yawn* Tuesday, on the other hand, was a knee-slapper. Wouldn't you hate it if the only thing you could eat was ketchup? And then they had to stay filthy because they couldn't bathe! Ha!
~ ^_^ That is pretty funny, actually. But I have to say that Wednesday was one of my favorites :D Can you imagine Sen being BALD?
Ugh. That must have been horrible. Maybe I can just shave miss sunshine's head over here if she gets too annoying…
~What was that?
Nothing.
~ ^_^
Thursday wasn't all that funny, but it was enlightening. Naomi is getting to be more comfortable with the prince, even though she only showed it as a side effect from being in her pj's. But she still likes the prince when she doesn't show it. How cliché. *Yawn*
~Huh? Gloomy Gracie over here came up with some neutral feed-back on something? Amazing. ^_^
Well look who thinks she's clever Dan! I'm going to ignore your comment and think about everything I have that's better to do than sit here and chat with you. *Yawn*
~Have fun ^_^ And while you do that, I'll talk with the readers about how much all of our faces burned when we read about Friday :D Haku was cute at night when he brought Sen to bed because he knew she was tired ^_^ , but his conduct that morning was unacceptable!
You sound like my mother. And I thought that Friday was good, but it was a little boring since Prince Miruto had everything under control. It would have been funny to see him resemble his old self on that day. Because, I mean, when he wasn't sitting on his hands in a chair, he was napping. Dull. *Yawn*
~Yeah, well, he was trying to be a gentleman for Naomi :D How sweet of him ^_^ Oh and that reminds me of how much I liked Saturday! I can really relate to all of them being in tune with each other's habits. When somebody is coming down the stairs, I can tell who it is by the way they take each step :D Isn't that cool?
Not really. *Yawn* The only thing that I liked about Saturday was the fact that Sen could be a dragon for a while. But I wonder what her OWN dragon form looks like… and talk about foreshadowing, "But speaking of Zeniiba, when is she going to help me arrange…" A complete give-away if I've ever seen one. And that's not the first time, either. Back in chapter nine, when Naomi and Rin were talking about Haku after Sen healed him from being attacked by Kosho, look at what they said:
"Boy, I tell ya: I'm starting to worry about their separation when you guys leave," Rin said to Naomi. "I mean, they look so happy together. They would probably lose the will to live if they could never see each other again."
"I know what you mean. Whenever I see Haku around the building, he looks like he is on top of the world. I can never talk to him though; it's like he's so eager to see Sen all day that he spends all his time running around to work off the excitement."
"Come to think of it, I've noticed that in the past two days that you have been here, he has been coming and going a lot more than he used to."
"You think he could be planning something?"
"It's likely, with him. He is very sneaky."
I'm not going to say anything more, because if you can all put two and two together then you'll see the clues there.
~Okay, but what does the number four have to do with those quotes you just pulled out?
x_x
~Oh well ^_^ Seeing as how my counterpart is unconscious at the moment, I'll have to say g'bye for her ^_^ Bye!
*Narcissist: A Greek god who's completely obsessed with himself. Seriously. In the Disney movie Hercules (which I don't own, by the way… stupid disclaimer…), he even had a button to fasten his cape that said 'ME' on it. And he was making kissy faces to himself in a mirror. And don't mind if I spelled his name wrong, because I really have no clue how to spell it and the spell check doesn't really help.