"I WAAAAANT YOUUUUUU TO WANT ME! I NEEEEEEEED YOUUUUUU TO NEED ME! I'D LOOOOVE YOOOUUU TO LOVE ME! I'M BEEEEEEEGGING YOU TO BEG ME!"

'Keep that up, and you'll be begging for something all right'. To be annoyed this badly at the crack of dawn was criminal. Yet, Leann was subject to it every morning. And afternoon. And come to think about it, just about every night too. Kou was the patron of insanity, put on this Earth to tick everyone else off. Why oh why couldn't she have had a nice, normal, CALM partner?

"I'M LOOKIN' FOR SOME HOT STUFF BABY THIS EVENING! I NEED SOME HOT STUFF BABY TONIGHT!"

And the singing. Sweet crackers the singing. Leann couldn't even remember what peace and quiet felt like anymore. She was very tempted to go in there and flush the toilet to see if a blast of cold water would cut out his unholy vocalizations. But that would mean going in and catching a glimpse of him through that blasted see-through shower curtain. The thought alone nearly made Leann's breakfast come back up.Okay, so maybe he wasn't COMPLETELY unattractive. Maybe.

"SECRET AAAAAGENT MAN! SECRET AAAAGENT MAN!"

Where was a gun when you needed one? Or a hand grenade? With a heavy sigh, Leann hoisted herself from the uncomfortable piece of crap that was her chair and snapped her laptop shut. There was just no way she could work with all this noise.

"EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!"

Leann rolled her eyes and headed for the kitchen. The usual stack of dishes greeted her from the sink, and their was a distinct odor of something sour coming from the direction of the trash can. Heaven only knows what was growing in there. Leann eyed it suspiciously as she made her way to the fridge, hoping nothing would leap out and attack her. One glance inside the fridge told her there was nothing edible in there. Who had time to shop? L.U.K.I.S. employees never had time to do anything except work. Or, maybe that was just her problem because of Kou. Yes, everything was Kou's fault. Glaring at a bar of moldy cheese, Leann slammed the door shut and got a glass of water from the tap that whined when she turned it on. She didn't really trust that the water was safe enough to drink, but that which didn't kill her would only make her stronger.

"I'M A BARBIE GIRL! IN A BARBIE WORLD!"

"DON'T YOU EVER SHUT UP!"

"...LEANN? YOU SAY SOMETHIN'?"

'No, I was talking to the carpet.' Her face still set in a glare, Leann made her way to her living room, which was also her bedroom/office. She managed to get to the ratty looking couch without tripping over anything. Stupid, cheap, crappy furniture. As she plopped down she surveyed the small dust cloud that rose around her. How long had it been since she'd last cleaned? A week? Might have been a month... Who kept track of such trivial things? Maybe as punishment for having to put up with Kou, she'd make him clean or get out of her apartment. Yeah, that sounded good. After digging the remote out of the cushions, she turned on the TV and watched the nightly news. These sorts of things were so mundane that they often put Leann into a stupor. She must have been in one because she didn't notice Kou until he walked over and started waving his hand in front of her face.

"Leann? Helloooooo! Earth to Leann!"

With a shake of her head, Leann looked up and glared.

"What."

With a grin, Kou pulled a rather wild looking bouquet of flowers from, seemingly, out of the back of his pants.

"Happy four years of partnership, Leann!"

Leann blinked several times, and then sighed. Kou. Kou, Kou, Kou. Stupid, stupid Kou. For every dumb, annoying, utterly insane thing he did, he went and did something not so annoying, not really dumb, only partly annoying, and just slightly insane. Leann took the flowers and patted the couch beside her. Kou plopped down, still wearing the same cheesy grin. Had it really been four years ago when they first met? It seemed like at least a hundred. And, knowing her luck, she'd probably spend the rest of her life working for L.U.K.I.S., living in this crappy apartment, and listening to Kou sing badly, and loudly, in the shower. But at times like this, Leann almost considered herself lucky to be stuck in this life, with a partner like Kou. ...Almost.