Two of a Kind...Almost
Chapter 2: Abduction
"What!" No Heart's eyes flashed red, and as if in response to this there was a particularly loud thunderclap from outside.
Beastly cringed, but spoke on. "I said she wasn't just getting fat...she...she...I saw them with two new cubs!"
"I heard you the first time!" No Heart snapped, tucking his hands into the sleeves of his robes, and turning his back to consider. He had suspected as much; after all, while the Care Bears' tummies were somewhat round as a general rule, he had yet to see a fat one. It was for this very reason that No Heart had been so interested in keeping Regal and Stellar from marrying in the first place. Already the Care Bear Family had welcomed several new members by way of finding them on Earth, but if they could actually reproduce it could spell disaster for him. Now his suspicions were confirmed. His failure the year before had been more costly than he had first thought, and Regal Heart Lioness had given birth to twins. But when? "How old did they look?"
"Umm, I dunno...I saw 'em out on their front lawn, walking kinda wobbly-like, so I'd guess..." Beastly trailed off; he didn't know.
"They're at the toddler stage already...hmm..." No Heart reached under his cowl, and stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It would be interesting to see exactly how fast they would grow...and how impressionable they are."
"Boss?"
"Go and bring them to me." commanded No Heart.
"Th-the cubs?" Beastly blinked in surprise.
No Heart gave a pained sigh. "Yes, you lop-eared marmoset, the cubs."
"You mean, the new cubs?" pressed Beastly.
No Heart gritted his teeth, and his eyes flared crimson. "Now, Beastly!"
The tiger slept peacefully on the playroom floor, unaware that one of his little striped daughters was sneaking up on him. Contrary Heart, seeing that her watchful mother wasn't trying to stop her, continued her trek towards her slumbering father. She dropped to her hands and knees, crawling slowly, and for a few moments she simply watched him. Then, with a mischievous smile, she extended one finger and just barely touched the white fur that lined the inside of her father's right ear. She stifled a giggle as Stellar Heart's ear flicked in response to the offending sensation, but when he didn't wake up, she reached out again.
Flick, flick, flick.
"Mmmh..." Stellar Heart groaned, his forehead wrinkling as he frowned. He was beginning to wake up.
Connie didn't even try to keep from laughing now as she tickled her father's ear again. "Hee hee, tickie, tickie, tickie!"
Flick, flick, flickflickflick... "I'll give you 'tickie'!" laughed Stellar Heart, his eyes popping open as he grabbed his daughter and administered the tickling of a lifetime. Connie kicked and faught, screeching laughter as her father tickled her under her arms.
"Mommy, help!" she squealed. At least, that's what it sounded like, but she was laughing too hard to be easily understood.
Regal Heart, who had been holding Hope on her lap and laughing, looked down and said, "Shall we tickle Daddy?"
"No!" interjected Stellar, who as luck would have it was very ticklish.
"Yeth." giggled Hope, sliding off her mother's lap and tackling her father down to the playroom floor. He was already sitting down, so it wasn't far to fall. "I de tickle bug!" she yelled, tickling his neck. Stellar Heart soon overcame her, however, and he held both cubs at bay.
"You can't win!" he laughed as he tickled them, "You're only the little tickle bugs. I'm the big tickle bug!"
"Is that a fact?" asked Regal, coming over to join them.
Stellar looked up, his expression half-amused and half-apprehensive. "Hey, whose side are you on?"
"I don't take sides, I just have fun!" And with that, she began to tickle his tummy. She received an unexpected shock when he suddenly stopped tickling the cubs and tickled her instead. He was larger than she was, so he easily overpowered her.
"Let's tickle Mommy!" he told the cubs, who were more than happy to join in and do just that. With Stellar Heart holding her down so that she couldn't escape, the three of them tickled her until she was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. That was when Stellar let her up and pulled the cubs off of her. "Okay, that's enough. I think we got a little carried away."
Regal Heart, still laughing and out of breath, sat up and looked at the clock. "Hey, it's nearly 5:00. These two should have had their baths half an hour ago."
Connie immediately stopped laughing and backed up against the wall, shaking her head. "No bath."
Hope picked up one of her toys, a stuffed bunny, and didn't pay the three of them any mind. She was used to this routine by now, and she knew exactly how it would play out.
"Now, Connie..." said Stellar Heart as Regal went to run the bath water, "you know this happens every night. The sooner we get it over with, the sooner you can go back to playing, okay?"
"No."
"Come on, Connie." he reached out, and she stepped away from him, still shaking her head. "Bathtime. Now. Let's go."
"No!" she screamed, folding her arms and sticking out her lower lip.
"Yes." he said calmly, and reached out to pick her up. Connie hissed loudly, then made a 'ffft' sound as she gave a feline spit. "None of that, come on."
"I won't!" she shot back, and his expression became stern.
"Do we talk to Daddy that way?" he asked.
Contrary Heart didn't move until he reached out to put his paws on her waist in order to lift her, then she lashed out and nipped his thumb.
"Yeowch!" Stellar Heart wrung his smarting paw and said as patiently as possible, "What part of never ever bite your father don't you understand?"
"No bath! No bath! Nonononononono!" shouted Connie as she evaded her father's grasp and sped down the hallway as fast as she could, which was surprisingly fast for how small she was, nearly knocking her sister over as she passed. "I don't wanna!"
Hopeful Heart merely glanced up, then went back to pretending her little stuffed bunny was her 'baby'.
"Contrary Heart Liger, you obey your father this instant!" called Regal from the bathroom, and judging by her tone of voice she meant business. As she intended, the cub faltered in her headlong dash towards the linen closet she planned on hiding in, and turned her head at the sound of her mother's voice. Connie was distracted long enough for her father to catch up with her, and she gave a squeal of defeat as he swept her up and carried her under his arm like a sack of potatoes. He normally held his daughters in a more comfortable grip, but this was to protect himself against further bites.
"To the tub with you!" he announced.
"No! You're mean!" she struggled, but of course she lost the battle and ended up having her bath. During the whole 'ordeal', she sat slumped in the tub with her little arms folded sullenly across her chest.
"You better wipe that look off your face." Regal warned quietly as she scrubbed behind Connie's ears.
"What look?" Connie snapped.
"The dirty one."
Connie sighed and looked down, submitting for the moment to her mother's will. While she was being dried off her father came in, leading Hopeful Heart by the paw. As usual, Hope was just going along with it.
"Kiss-up..." Connie muttered, disgusted.
"Stop that," Regal Heart told her, "you be nice."
Hope watched the exchange with an expression of bewilderment, wondering why her sister was mad at her this time. It wasn't that Hope was a particularly obedient cub; she just happened to enjoy her evening bath. She and her sister were three months old, almost to the day, but for some reason, for them, that translated to a toddler of about two-and-a-half. Both twins spoke extremely well for as young as they were, but they were still babies just the same. And Connie just happened to be going through the 'terrible twos'.
Regal picked up Connie and brought her to the playroom to be dressed in a new pair of pajamas, quite aware that Connie's sense of feline dignity was still smarting from the unwanted drenching. "Don't you think you should apologize for biting your daddy?" she said to the cub as she brought over a new diaper.
Connie took the diaper from her, and declared, "I do it myself."
"Okay, you do it yourself." said Regal, "But Daddy loves you, and it's a bad thing to bite someone who loves you."
Connie looked up, and now she was beginning to look a bit guilty. "I hurt Daddy's feelings?" she asked.
"Yes." Regal said in the same gentle-but-firm tones her human mother had used with her, knowing that Connie was still only a baby, and was frustrated that she couldn't do as much for herself as she wanted to. And though the cub hated not getting her own way, she was otherwise a very pleasant little thing. And now, thankfully, she was beginning to realize that she had made a mistake. Regal helped her fasten the diaper as she continued, and since she had her daughter's attention the cub wasn't objecting to the help she was getting. "But it'll go away if you say you're sorry."
Stellar, who was busy giving Hope her bath, had already forgotten about the bite. In fact, he was more concerned with finding the rubber ducky that Hope was asking for. "Um..." he stuck his head out the bathroom door, keeping one ear cocked towards Hope as the cub took an interest in her own toes. "Honey, where's the rubber ducky?"
Regal Heart raised her voice and replied, "Should be in the linen closet."
There was a moment's silence, then the sound of the linen closet opening. Regal heard Stellar muttering to himself, and Hope giggling as she splashed bath water onto the floor. "Found it!" he called back.
The tiger went back into the bathroom, and too late he noticed the large puddle on the floor. His feet flew out from under him as he slipped, and with a loud "Whoa!", he landed flat on his rear, bumping the back of his head on toilet bowl. Hope immediately began to cry, and Regal Heart, who wasn't thinking, got to her feet and ran to see what happened. Connie's gaze followed her, but the cub stayed put.
"Ahhh..." Stellar groaned, clutching his head and trying to uncross his eyes. He was more stunned than hurt, and he slowly sat up as Regal appeared in the room.
"What happened?" Regal asked, kneeling down to help Stellar sit up.
"Daddy fall down, go boom!" Hope sniffled, pointing.
"Daddy's okay." said Stellar, giving his head one final shake as he got to his feet. There was normally a little rug on the bathroom floor to prevent such mishaps, but at the moment it was in the laundry; the rug's temporary replacement, an old bath towel, had been bunched up in the struggle to get Connie into the tub.
Connie, for once, was behaving herself and playing quietly when she heard a soft tapping sound at the playroom window.
"Huh?" Connie turned to look, and she saw a creature that was about the size of a Care Bear. But he wasn't a Care Bear. He beckoned her over with one clawed finger, and she got to her feet. "Whaddaya want?"
"Open the window." the creature said as loudly as he dared, looking left and right to make sure no one had spotted him.
Contrary Heart, who had not yet absorbed the fact that strangers could be dangerous, unlatched the window with some difficulty before straining to open it. She wasn't strong enough, but he was. He opened the window, and grabbed her before she could let out a peep. He quickly covered her mouth, and carried her towards his favorite mode of transportation, a strange combination of helicopter and bicycle.
"Oh boy, oh boy! No Heart is gonna be so thrilled! I caught one of the cubs! I caught-ow, don't bite!" Beastly shook his bitten paw, and Connie filled her lungs.
"HELP! MOMMY!"
Regal Heart gasped and ran back into the playroom. She stopped short when she saw that the window was open, then rushed towards it to look. There was no sign of Contrary Heart, or of whoever it was that had taken her. "Stellar! Connie's gone!"
Stellar Heart grabbed a towel, and whisked a surprised Hopeful Heart out of the tub. She gave a little squeak of protest, but when she saw the look of panic on his face she kept her own council. Swaddled in the towel and pressed against his chest, she could feel his heart racing as he ran with her to the playroom.
"What happened?" Stellar cried as Regal ran out to meet him.
"She's gone! The...window, and...heard her yell, and...someone took her!" she burst into tears, and he quickly went to comfort her. Putting an arm about her shoulders, he drew her close.
"Did you see anything?" he asked urgently.
"N...no..." she sobbed.
"Don' cry, Mommy!" Hope begged, hugging her as she was pinned between them.
"We'll find her," Stellar Heart told his wife, rubbing her back with his paw. "We'll call Brave Heart, or Noble Heart. They'll know what to do."