Disclaimer: Bleh, (sticks out tongue) homework doesn't taste nice!
A/N: I'm really sorry for not updating sooner! (Cries) But the mean ol' homework monster loomed forth and grabbed me and wouldn't let me think of anything good!
Thanks to:
Twister91: Ichigo: (blinks and turns to Otto) if you knew how to skate then why did you fall over?
Otto: (puts a hand behind his head) Umm...I forgot? Heh heh... (Sweat drops)
Everyone else: (falls over)
SparxGirl: Sprx: (sitting on a big bag of ice) I would've made it! It's just... the sun was in my eyes! Yeah, otherwise I would've been all over that jump!
Ichigo: (blinks naively) but it was overcast, Sprx! How could- (is muffled by a hand)
Sprx: (muffling Ichigo and sweat drops) Heh such a kidder, ain't she?
Beastfire: Plushie! Plushie! BEASTBOY PLUSHIE! (Jumps on Ivy and plushies and glomps them to near death) yay!
Side note: I will eventually have that picture done! I promise, but it's really a sketch because I can't colour using art programmes. And, I'd love to see a pic of Ivy!
Mahoosive ask for permission to Twister91 and Animefangirl11: I've drawn out the couples on including JetxOtto and SenyaxGibson. I wanna know if it's ok for me to put them up on my site (when it's working)?
A Fan of Romance: Yay! Sweet and short, thanks!
Guy who reads too much fantasy: Sprx: (still on top of the bag of ice) got that right.
Nova: It'll teach you not to be such a show off!
Sprx: Show off! (Jumps off ice, winces and falls over) Ow... (Curls up and whimpers)
Nova: (grins and does peace sign) Works every time!
4Everobotmonkeyfan: Everyone: (watches Gibson's head swell cos someone agreed with him)
Nova: Oh stop! (Mutters) Bighead...
Ichigo: (sweat drops) seriously... (Points at Gibson's head which is too big to fit through the door)
Nova: (rolls around laughing)
Fun at the Zoo
"What's next?" asked Sprx as he walked up to Ichigo, still a little bowlegged and sore. Ichigo pondered his question,
"How about... the zoo?" she asked hesitantly, "Although you guys mightn't find it as fun, because they've got monkeys in cages and they recently got a new female who's a tad cranky apparently..."
"Female!" cried Sprx, who's pain seemed to mysteriously vanish at that, he grabbed Ichigo's hand and would've dragged her along had she not been hovering above the floor, "what're we waiting for? Let's go!" he cried, but suddenly froze and let go of Ichigo,
"Perhaps you should wait until everyone else is here?" Antauri suggested, walking over to drag a still frozen Sprx away from the exit tubes, "and don't drag Ichigo around!" he snapped as he led Sprx into the main room and let go of his telekinetic hold so Sprx, whose body was still in 'run' mode, ran into a wall.
Ichigo tutted slightly at it,
"Honestly, Antauri, sometimes I think you just wait for these chances!" she remarked crossly, Antauri came over and smiled innocently
"Well I never need to wait long. These incidents seem to happen quite frequently" he replied, giving Ichigo a peck on the cheek. She blushed and noticed Antauri's thoughts shift direction,
"Why the zoo?" asked Antauri, raising an eyebrow, Ichigo looked thoughtful again before answering,
"I want to see how it's changed in six years" she answered in a calm, matter of fact voice, Antauri raised an eyebrow and Ichigo's face broke out in a large grin "and I wanna see the baby animals!" she added with a slight squeal to her voice and she beamed at him. He remembered that look from when she first met them, back before Mandarin turned her into a monkey, how she'd squealed happily and run over and petted him. Well, she'd petted all of them, but she petted him first. It was something of a source of pride to Antauri, although he'd never say that out loud. He could still feel her hand covering his cheek and soothingly stroking it, he purred out loud and Ichigo giggled slightly,
"What are you thinking about?" she asked curiously, nearing him and seeing a distant look in his eyes. Antauri shook his head to clear his thoughts and smiled in a lovesick way at Ichigo; before she could ask, Antauri came up to her and hugged her, nuzzling his cheek against hers happily. Ichigo giggled at the feeling and rubbed her nose against his,
"What's all this in aid of?" she asked, Antauri shrugged, with a lovesick look still on his face,
"Just remembering when you petted me for the first time" he answered, Ichigo laughed out loud as she remembered,
"Oh yes! And after that, you kept coming up to my room with various excuses" she said, Antauri blushed and pouted at her,
"They weren't excuses! They were...they were..."
"Excuses" finished Sprx, who'd awoken and seemed to be fine and enjoying this way to torment Antauri. Antauri huffed and countered,
"And you started kissing Nova!" he said defensively, Sprx spluttered and blushed.
"I...I did not!" he stammered, turning away, "you were just... imagining it! Yeah, you're getting old and imagining things!" Antauri looked at him flatly,
"I'm just as old as you" he pointed out, Sprx sweated slightly as he thought.
"Yeah, well you act old! You act like some old wise man! I'm surprised you can still get it on with Ichigo in your old age!" Sprx shut his mouth quickly when he realised he'd gone too far. Ichigo gazed wide-eyed at Sprx in shock, whilst Antauri growled.
"Run" he muttered. Sprx eeped and scrambled to the bedroom, jumped into his bed and hid there.
Antauri turned back to Ichigo, who was now blushing and chewing her lip; he smiled and purred in her ear,
"Looks like Sprx isn't as dense as we thought" he whispered, causing Ichigo to giggle nervously; they were about to go back to their bedroom, when Chiro appeared. They both stared in shock to see Chiro dressed and ready for the day, with a deranged happy smile on his face,
"Chiro... you, uh, look ready. Why are you up so early?" asked Ichigo, floating towards him. Chiro smiled at her in an eager way and started to bounce up and down on the balls of his feet,
"Zoo!" he said, jumping up and down, "zoo zoo zoo zoo zoo zoo zoo!" he repeated, getting louder, until Ichigo backed away and sweat dropped. (This is based on a true story, darn baby sitting!)
"I... take it you heard then?" she asked, watching Chiro nod excitedly, "well, go get everyone else then. And we'll-"
"We're up" came a groggy voice, weighed down with sleep. They turned to see everyone else dragging themselves in and looking rather dishevelled. Antauri blinked then turned back to Chiro,
"Chiro did you..."
"Yep!" he said, butting in, he turned to Ichigo again and starting bouncing towards her, "zoo!" he cried. Ichigo jumped at the sudden shout and flew back over to Antauri,
"Maybe, we should wait until..." she started,
"No" replied Chiro quickly,
"But, we could..."
"No"
"What about if we..."
"No!" he cried, and started muttering to himself and glowering at Ichigo.
"Let's go then" came a frightened reply, causing Chiro to whoop with joy and dragged the monkey team out at lightening speed.
"Aaaaw!" said Ichigo as she cuddled a black, white and tan coloured guinea pig (I gave Twister91's guinea pig a cameo! LOL), petting it gently. "Oh, it's so cute!" Antauri sighed slightly; so far Ichigo had barely acknowledged him since they entered the zoo and she saw the farmyard full of animals. Now, any chance of being romantic had been killed by small, furry, fat rodents, he couldn't believe it!
"How about we go look at something else?" he asked, Ichigo turned back to him and smiled. She placed the guinea pig back in its pen carefully and walked up to him.
"Sure" she said simply, and took his hand, leading him out of the farmyard part and into a large network of paths around cages. Antauri noticed that there were different breeds of monkeys and other primates here; he looked at Ichigo with a confused look on his face.
"Why are we here?" he asked, as the monkeys stopped what they were doing and looked at the pair of robot monkeys on the other side.
"Hey, gorgeous!" yelled one (I really don't know if they can understand other monkeys, but I'm presuming they can) Antauri facevaulted at the monkeys' crude comments towards Ichigo. He looked at her and noticed that she was happily ignoring them,
"Perhaps, we should leave more quickly?" suggested Antauri, nodding his head towards the monkeys that were following on the other side, still making comments and suggestions to Ichigo. Ichigo looked around him at the monkeys, who went nuts and tried to impress her; Ichigo widened her eyes and laughed at them, making Antauri turn to the monkeys and growl at them. For the sake of everyone we'll leave out their response, but let's just say that the last of Antauri's patience seemed to snap at that point.
Chiro was having a blast! He'd seen all kinds of animals and even got some girls' phone numbers, now he was going to see the monkeys. He heard a lot of screeching as he neared and noticed people quickly walking out of the path between the cages. Thinking that Skeleton King might have done something, Chiro sped up and was soon standing in the path, gazing at the sight before him.
There, before him, was Antauri attempting to claw at a monkey on the other side in the cage with Ichigo desperately trying to pull him back. He noticed that Ichigo was trying to convince Antauri to leave them alone, but Antauri seemed beyond convincing. Chiro ran towards them and the monkeys in the cages ran away in fear of the boy, he yanked Antauri off the cage fencing and turned him around to face him.
"What in the name of everything holy are you doing!" he demanded, Ichigo floated up to Antauri's side and looked rather solemn. Antauri, however, was far from that,
"Those arrogant, crude sorry excuses for monkeys were making very disgusting comments about Ichigo and what they'd like to do with her!" he cried, pointing behind him at the monkeys, who were still cowered in fear. Chiro looked up at them, then back at Antauri, and then over to Ichigo,
"This true?" he asked, Ichigo nodded slightly,
"But I wasn't bothered! You should've ignored them, Antauri" she replied, facing Antauri. He humphed indignantly and stuck his nose in the air,
"No one says those kind of things about my girl!" he proclaimed, Ichigo's eyes softened slightly,
"Aw that's sweet" she said shyly, before remembering that she was meant to be angry at him, "but that doesn't excuse the fact that you behaved just as bad as them!"
"I'm nowhere near as primitive and uncouth (I love that word!) As those... those... creatures!" he cried, Ichigo flew close so their noses touched,
"Could've fooled me" she growled, before flying off towards the exit.
Chiro watched her leave and placed Antauri on the ground, who looked at the ground and sighed sadly,
"I'm sorry for that, Chiro" he said humbly, looking back up at Chiro, Chiro smiled warmly,
"It's OK" he said, shrugging, "we've all been a bit tense recently, what with all this training and Ichigo getting hit and Skeleton King being so quiet. I guess we're all getting a little snappy and anxious" Antauri nodded slightly, but he looked troubled. They began walking back,
"It felt slightly different though, like something... primal was let out" he confessed, gesturing slightly, Chiro thought about this,
"Maybe you just need to go be 'one with Nature' or something" suggested Chiro, putting his hands behind his head, "y'know, go out and just relax", Antauri looked very thoughtful about this,
"Perhaps you're right, Chiro" he agreed, "after all, despite all our increased intelligence and cybernetics, we are still monkeys. Maybe that side has been suppressed for too long" they stopped and shielded their eyes from the bright sunlight. When they could see again, they realised they were in a large open play area. Otto was waving to them from a nearby picnic table,
"Hey guys!" he called, "c'mon, I've been saving this table for ages!" Antauri and Chiro ran over to him and sat down.
"Where are the others?" asked Antauri, looking around for the rest of their team, Otto thought about it for a few moments,
"Oh yeah! Nova and Sprx went off to get something to eat, Gibson is attempting to have a 'conversation' with those wallabies over there" he pointed and the others turned to watch Gibson try in vain to get the wallabies to understand the quantum theory, they all sweat dropped, "and Ichigo went into the playground"
"Really?" asked Chiro, surprised that a sixteen year old would want to go play in a play area. He looked at Antauri who was staring at the play area with awe and longing; Chiro felt his mouth curve up in a smile,
"Maybe you could go satisfy those 'primal urges' you've been having?" he suggested to Antauri, who looked back at him and smiled before running off to the play area. Otto raised an eyebrow at this and Chiro turned to him,
"Antauri and I discussed this and believe that it would be best for you all to let out these 'primal longings' or something, so you don't end up going nuts" Otto nodded slightly and scooted off the bench, running after Antauri.
Antauri gazed up at the structure; it was a maze of rope ladders, swings, bridges and slides all woven around a very large oak tree. Children of all ages were running all over it like ants, laughing and playing. He felt something in him pull him towards it and soon he was running around, jumping and swinging on the branches. He laughed and landed on a branch high up before leaping off again, this was exhilarating, this was amazing, and, best of all, this was fun! He reached the very top of the tree and collapsed, laughing quietly to himself at his own child-like glee,
"Antauri?" questioned a soft voice nearby, he rolled over to face the source of the voice and saw Ichigo climbing over to him. She smiled and laid down next to him, she kissed his nose softly,
"I'm sorry about earlier" she said shyly, looking away, "I really did appreciate that you wouldn't let them say things like that and that you'd protect me and all" she snuggled up close to him,
"I'm sorry also" replied Antauri as he rubbed her back, "I believe that my primal instincts got the better of me" he explained, Ichigo sat up slightly and looked at him,
"Primal instincts?" she repeated for clarification, he nodded and Ichigo seemed to be fighting back a grin, "so you went all Tarzan for me?" she asked, trying not to laugh. (If you don't get it, then you're obviously too sane for this fic) Antauri sat up and looked at her oddly,
"Pardon?" he said in confusion, Ichigo giggled quietly and waved away his question, lying back down and dragging Antauri down with her,
"Nothing" she answered, snuggling in again, "my crazy monkey" she added, laughing. Antauri rolled away from her and leaned over her,
"I'll show you 'crazy monkey'!" he growled, Ichigo giggled and squirmed out from under him. She stood up and jumped down through the branches,
"You'll have to catch me first!" she called back, swinging deftly from branch to branch, Antauri caught on quickly and raced after her.
Meanwhile, in a dark lair up in space, a certain bad guy watched the two monkeys weave through the branches. He felt a smirk form on his bony face and swirled a goblet with maggots in it,
"Soon" he muttered, "soon, they will all learn not to let their guard down. Enjoy yourselves while you can monkeys! For soon, you will never see happiness again!"
WF: (proudly shows off her new Form Captain badge)
Ichigo: Will you please leave that thing alone?
WF: (now shining badge) No.
Ichigo: (sighs) Review please!
