Priestess Aishisu: Four reviews. Could have been worse.
Jay Man: Well I'm not sure if I like the speech patterns that you've put in but they might grow on me. This story has a much better chance in my opinion. The pairings make more sense so it might be easier to establish the plot. Good luck on this. Don't neglect your other stories please.
Priestess Aishisu: Neglect my other…::Stares:: All but of my Kids Next Door stories are either complete or on hiatus! How can I neglect them? And you don't read my fanfiction on the other sites…I think…
#7: what's this doing in the CTCD section?
Priestess Aishisu: Sorry…See, Courage: The Cowardly Dog is right underneath Codename: Kids Next Door and I accidentally clicked it instead. I've already changed it, anyway.
Kimi 13: It is most transcendent. But it is also very pensive. Please may you continue with the story!
1&3 FOREVUR!
Priestess Aishisu: ::Blinks:: Huh? What's so transcendent about it? I guess you could consider it pensive, though not compared to some of my other works. Anyway, thanks!
Possessed Angel: this is really good. please update soon.
Priestess Aishisu: Thanks. And this seems pretty soon to me.
This chapter is pretty much just to give you a clear picture of how what occurred in Chapter One is affecting the team in general. Each member has a few paragraphs about how they're feeling at this point, and then a little clip-thing. It's in numerical order rather than sequential.
«§ψ§»
Nigel thought he would go mad. This was so…so frustrating. He and Kuki were officially going out after over a year of shameless flirting and months of subtler flirting before that, and it was easily the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him. On the other hand, it seemed as if the team would fall apart.
At least four times the mission was screwed up because Kuki and Wally weren't speaking and seemed to be trying to avoid each other at all costs. Twice one of them had nearly died. It was excruciating.
One of those times Wally had nearly ended up in the hospital for over a week, because Kuki had left him alone to fight a giant…something or another. Abigail had completely blown up over that—Nigel had never seen her so angry. Kuki was crying for hours after Abigail yelled at her.
He knew Wally would be mad, but he expected no more than a little sulking and/or shouting. But he would never have thought this would happen! This glaring, avoiding, screaming…
To make matters worse, Kuki seemed just as mad, if not more. He hadn't realized dating a friend's crush would have such unbearable consequences, or he would have taken Abigail's advice.
«§ψ§»
"That Numbuh Four is such a jerk," Kuki complained for the twentieth or so time, even as she cuddled the pink heart-eyed teddy bear Nigel had won for her at the carnival. (After nineteen failed tries)
"He's just upset," Nigel replied, feeling a pit in his stomach. This wasn't the conversation he wanted. "Give him time. Now, can we please talk about something else?"
Kuki seemed to consider this. She tilted her head, making the tiny gems in the butterfly earrings he had bought last year for her birthday glitter in the sun. Then a wide, dazzling grin spread over her lips and her lovely eyes seemed to blaze with delight. "You're right!" she announced. "I have much more important things to think about than that big meanie! Come on, let's go on the Ferris Wheel!"
He was so glad she had dropped the issue, at least temporarily, that he let her drag him to the excruciatingly long line without even mentioning that he hated Ferris Wheels.
«§ψ§»
Contrary to popular (at least from what I can tell) belief, Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr. is not dumb. Not really. So, naturally, he knew something was going on. Even the world's biggest idiot would have realized it, and just because he's big (well, he is!) didn't mean he's an idiot.
Let's tick it off, shall we?
Nigel and Kuki were either going out or…Yeah, that was the only explanation. The cuddles, the looks, the hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours they spent talking…Which might explain the next two.
Kuki and Wally were ignoring each other, except for venomous glares and soft growls whenever they brushed past each other. He was forever afraid one of them might blow up and kill the other. He had never seen them so upset, not even when a guy called Wally a 'shrimp.'
Wally was in an awful mood. Whenever Hoagie tried speaking to him, he would snap in reply. Oh, and his hand was wrapped in bandages. But the most confusing was the last thing:
Wally and Abigail seemed to be avoiding each other. It was nothing like with Wally and Kuki, but they weren't speaking much. When they did, it was a simple thing that didn't merit more than one word as a reply, if any words were needed at all, ("pass the blah-blah-blah" and "you're late for lunch" and stuff like that) and they were speaking in unusually quiet voices, never making eye contact. And when one looked at the other their expression was sad.
This was more disturbing than the other three put together. It sometimes looked like they had a bad relationship—Wally always being troublesome, Abigail always mocking his intelligence (though not so much as she mocked Hoagie's sense of humor.)
But, if you asked anyone who knew them, or if you just looked for more than three minutes, you could tell they were probably closer than anyone else in the team. They never seemed to stay mad at each other for more than five minutes, though Hoagie had lost track of the amount of times Abigail had grabbed the shorter operative by the front of his shirt and thrown him (though he managed to balance himself a third of the time) within a month of knowing them. In spite of frequent verbal sparring, they usually had remarkable patience with one another, and seemed to watch out for each other as much as Wally watched out for Kuki. Never in four years—and Hoagie was certain they had known each other longer than that, because they lived very close to each other and had already seemed friends when they joined the team—had they ever had a lasting fight or seemed uncomfortable around each other.
Now they did.
Even during missions, the change was fairly evident: Nigel rescuing Kuki in a point where Wally usually would, Kuki and Wally keeping as far away from each other as possible even when the five of them were stuck in a closet that would momentarily be on fire.
This weirdnesses had been going on for nearly a month by now, and he still had no idea what in the universe was happening.
«§ψ§»
"Numbuh Two," said Wally, seeming to draw out his words. He was glaring pointedly at Numbuh Three. "Could you please pass the ketchup?"
Hoagie blinked. "Umm…Numbuh Three's closer, why doesn't she—"
"Pass the stinkin' ketchup!" Wally yelled.
"All right, all right," he muttered, unnerved, leaning past Kuki to give him the ketchup. Wally dumped it furiously on his plate, creating a thick ruby ocean. Nigel and Hoagie stared at him. Abigail kept her eyes on her food, though she would usually have been the one to stop him by now. Kuki continued glaring. "Umm…Are you feeling all right, Numbuh Four?"
"Nah, I'm fine!" he hissed, still pumping out ketchup as if he were either strangling something. He was still glaring at Kuki, so it can be assumed that he was substituting the bottle for her neck. "Just peachy!"
"Numbuh Four," said Abigail in a low voice—uncharacteristically so, for all that she was the quiet one—still not raising her eyes to look at Wally. "You're getting ketchup on your jeans."
"Huh?" He glanced down at his jeans, and it was true. Ketchup was smeared all over the blue denim. "Oops." He took a napkin and tried to wipe it off. Kuki snickered meanly, but Wally didn't seem to notice. He glanced at Abigail. Her head was still bent over, and she wasn't looking at him.
Hoagie squinted, trying to get a better view of her face. It was somewhere between sad and thoughtful, and her eyes were shining.
«§ψ§»
Anger. Rage. Fury. Wrath. Hatred. Resentment. Bitterness. Malice. Loathing. Abhorrence. Ire. Vehemence. Hostility. Enmity. Acrimony. Indignation. Umbrage. (My vocabulary is too big…I didn't even need a thesaurus to make this.) Only a few words to describe the emotions Kuki Sanban was feeling.
At the core of it all, she was hurt and distressed. But at this point, I don't think even she knew that.
How dare he? How dare he be mad at her just because she liked another? It wasn't as if he owned her! Anyway, how was she to have realized that he had felt that way about her?
It was not as if it were her fault that she didn't feel the same way. For it was not him but Nigel that she was madly in love with, Nigel she was happy with, Nigel who had always had her heart in his hands and always would. And Wally would just have to deal with it.
…Right?
«§ψ§»
Kuki skipped happily into the room, beaming. She had just been on a wonderful date with Nigel, and if felt as if she had no worries in the world. It didn't last, though.
Her eyes narrowed when she noticed Wally leaning against a doorway, arms crossed. His emerald eyes blazed menacingly, and his animosity was palpable.
Kuki lifted her chin stubbornly and placed a flirtatious hand on her hip, her eyes dangerous. Just to prove she wasn't going to let him bring her down, she flashed a beautiful smile—but the threat in it was clear.
She wasn't afraid of him.
«§ψ§»
Wally couldn't bear it.
The only person he had ever loved hated him and it was his fault, one of his best friends was dating her, and the only person who had tried to help he had chased away.
He had always been a brash, impulsive fighter. He had always been thoughtless. But he had never gotten himself into such a terrible mess, not even when he was being attacked by a giant Rainbow Monkey.
Which, come to think of it, also wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Kuki.
And the Kuki issue he could deal with, no matter how much it hurt. He just did what he usually did when he was hurt—be a bitter, fuming jerk. She was certainly making it easy enough.
It was the Abigail thing he really couldn't stand. He had tried the anger thing, and it hadn't helped. It also didn't help that she wouldn't look him in the eye, or that her voice and face was so pensive and sad when she spoke to or even glanced at him.
It didn't help, it hurt.
«§ψ§»
"Numbuh Five, watch out!" shrieked Wally, dashing forward and using his S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R to pummel one of Father's minions who had been sneaking up on her. They were in a room in the Delightful Children's mansion, surrounded by robots and warriors, and the feud that had been going on between him and Kuki really wasn't helping the situation.
Abigail blinked. Why hadn't she noticed that? She supposed she had been too caught up in thinking about everything that was going on (and fighting the mechanical snake.) "Thanks Numbuh Four," she said softly, still not meeting his eyes—a fact that didn't get past the reckless operative.
Inwardly, he sighed sadly. I guess she's still mad at me…not that I can blame her…
Outwardly, he forced himself to smile. "No problem," he replied with obviously faked brightness. He turned and ran back to the battle, running quicker than necessary—well, actually, it was necessary if he didn't want her to see the uninvited tears falling from his eyes.
«§ψ§»
Abigail wasn't sure what to do. She had promised herself she would forget she had ever had feelings about Nigel, and seemed to be at least half-succeeding. Wally and Kuki, however, seemed to be in an all-out war and she felt caught in the middle. She was sure Nigel did too—mostly because he had said so himself.
She no longer knew how she felt. Her feelings were in a turmoil: She felt sorry for everyone, angry at everyone, guilty about everyone, and a few other feelings in between.
She felt sorry for Nigel, being caught in the middle, angry because she felt it was his fault, and guilty because she was so angry she had actually yelled at him.
She felt sorry for Hoagie, who obviously knew something was going on but had no idea what it was, angry because he should have figured it out by now, and guilty both because she had no right to be angry and because she could have told him but didn't.
She felt sorry for Kuki because it wasn't her fault Wally was mad, angry because she was so mad at Wally, and guilty because Kuki had every right to be mad but she was still angry.
She felt sorry for Wally for obvious reasons, angry because he was being a jerk, guilty because she knew he must be sorry about how he had acted she was still mad, and worried because he had given himself those injuries on his hand and might have injured himself in other places too—when his shirt got ripped in one battle, she noticed scars on his arm too deliberate-looking to have been given to him by someone else.
She didn't even know how she felt about herself! The best thing to do was do her best to avoid speaking to…well, just about everyone. Even Wally.
Especially Wally.
«§ψ§»
"You were right."
Abigail blinked and lifted her head to see Nigel. "Huh?"
"You were right," he repeated. "Things seem to be getting out of hand. Strike that, things are out of hand. You know, I really thought Wally would be able to get over it."
Abigail stared at him, and felt heat rushing to her face as a hundred images of Wally suddenly filled her mind. She remembered the rage and pain in Wally's eyes, his harsh words, his hurt words, the blood streaming from his hand…Suddenly irrepressible fury filled her, and she seemed to stand six feet tall.
"Get over it?" she repeated, rage weighing down every word. Her voice rose to a shout. "Get over it?! He's loved Numbuh Three for years! Do you realize that he finally admitted it less than an hour after you two got together? Numbuh Five told you this would happen! She told you twice!"
Then she whirled around and stormed away.