The Pause that Refreshes
Note: I just finished the Marmalade Boy anime last night and watched the "movie" (really a 30 minute prequel) the morning that I started this. If this fanfic seems a little strange, blame my altered emotional state from finishing up such a long and involving series so soon before I wrote this.
Disclaimer: Marmalade Boy anime is owned by Toei Animation and the anime and manga are licensed by TokyoPop in the United States. The original Marmalade Boy manga belongs to Wataru Yoshizumi. Dante, Jay, and Silent Bob are the property of View Askew Productions (yes, you read that correctly).
Spoilers: This fanfic takes place during the middle of the last episode, so unless you've seen all of the series, you've been warned!
WARNING: This piece contains a good bit of cursing (of the f-word variety), marijuana references, actual use of marijuana, sexual innuendo, implied sexual situations, and voyeurism. If you can't handle these things, then what in the world are you doing on the Internet in the first place?
"It had been one of the worst of times, and now the best day of their lives. No blood relation. No facing a world that would shun their love and make them pariahs everywhere they lived. No more sneaking around behind their parents' backs to be a couple, to express their love. No more of the terrible pain and angst of separation and jealousy that nearly ripped their bonds to shreds. It was a new day, a new world that was theirs at last."
Jay couldn't help but snicker and then laugh out loud at the page. He took one of the Harlequin romance novels off of what Dante called the "girl porn" rack in the Quick Stop convenience store and flipped to the end, hoping for something good. But it wasn't porn at all, not the sort of text that grabbed his interest like Penthouse Forum or letters to Screw Magazine.
"No wonder women are a mystery if they're into shit like this," he said to Bob, who was scoping out the Camels and Marlboros above the clerk's desk as Dante was flipping through a car magazine out of boredom. He looked up from an article on the power and torque of the new roadsters coming out that year curious as to what Jay was talking about. He then saw one of those red-and-yellow covered romance books in his hand and gave Jay a cockeyed look. Bob, who was about to point to a box of menthols for Dante to ring up, turned around too.
"The hell are you reading? Only women read that stuff," said Dante, who was surprised to find Jay reading much of anything, moreso a book best read over a dish of chocolates and with an X chromosome. A little more respect for his store's most frequent customer died right about then. Bob had a look about him not unlike a cross between a confused tourist and a disturbed attendee of a freak show that was more entertaining than the surrounding circus.
"Yeah, but it's girl porn, so if it's porn about chicks for chicks, then it should've been even hotter. Like lesbos strokin' each other's clits and shit, but all they're talking about are their feelings and how they look up to some douche of a dude they're scared is gonna leave them." Jay shoved the novel, "Sweet but Bitter", back into the rack. He wasn't growing breasts in Dante or Bob's eyes, just being his usual dumbass self who would never understand or get women. Not without a bottle of Stoli and soda chasers at a party anyway.
Dante shook his head and rang up Bob's cigarettes, this time a box of American Spirits as opposed to the more basic Camel Lights he usually gets. "Feeling a little richer today?" Dante asked.
"We will later today," came back Jay. "We're off to the city for some business. Got a client that needs his stash filled back to the brim. Of course he calls me for the job," he said proudly.
"You mean you're going up the turnpike because someone up there wanted your weed? Did you hit a noob or immigrant who didn't know there were pushers like you from this corner to Broadway who don't need to take the bus to make a sale?" Dante asked incredulously.
Jay gestured in Dante's general direction. "Flip it around; he's been a connoisseur of my special under-the-cedar-plankboard-aged California Gold since we met up in summer camp. He's not looking to get busted, so I'm his sole supplier. Every time I'm done with him, me and my wallet rest easy. Smoochie boochies!" Jay said as he held up a $50 for Dante to make change for the bus fare.
He handed Jay his change. "A fool and his money are soon parted," he commented. "Just don't give him the fucked-up-level-of-THC brand; sounds like he's got some growing up to do if he's going to you."
"Let's just say I'm giving him a seminar course in fine smoking," Jay replied with Bob raising his eye and nodding at the thought. The two headed out for a 2-mile walk to the bus terminal. On the way up the turnpike, Jay fell asleep as Bob looked silently out the window to witness the glories of smelt factories and radio billboards that were reminding morning commuters to tune in for their fix of Howard Stern.
"No Jay…we can't!" said a luxuriously-dressed young woman adorned with a pearl necklace, blue satin dress with frills, white high heels, and reddish-brown hair that had come down from being raised into a exquisite form with sad eyes to match. Jay, wearing a tux with a red bow but also the same scraggly blonde hair and black pull-down cap, stood with the woman, his arms wrapped around her while they stood under a gazebo lit up with candles and bright lights from the garden party that went on beyond the masterfully clipped hedges.
"But we're hot for each other, and we know that it's gotta happen sooner or later. C'mon baby, don't be a cocktease," he said as he looked helplessly in her eyes, which had surprisingly scoured at him after he made his request. "I mean, don't hold out on me. You're the only one for me and all that," he said wistfully as he stroked her cheek. The young woman escaped his embrace and turned away, beginning to sniffle. "We're likely…brother and sister though. How can we? What will become of our love?"
Jay's eyes became wider than the nickels of which his famed bags of merchandise had been named. "Holy shit, you didn't tell me that! I mean I can be a freak in the sheets, but I ain't that freaky. Fuck this, I'm grabbing one of those Sam Adams at the cash bar." He turned around, but the woman had grabbed his right arm and held herself against it. "Just stay with me, Jay! We can't do that, but I want you close to me. Just, hold me," she begged with tears streaming down her eyes.
He was confused. Women just didn't do this sort of thing with him, and he usually found it a bore when some of his male friends were talking about those times that they had to comfort their women. But almost instinctively, save for his hesitation for treading onto unknown territory, he reached back and held her. She at least felt nice, even if his shoulder was starting to get wet. And for the first time in his life, he actually noticed a woman's heartbeat that was close to his own. This wasn't the way siblings were supposed to be, and it made him uneasy. But still another part of himself started to not care.
She looked up at him and, her red and tear-streaked face looking a little bit happier, said, "Just promise me one thing."
"Yeah?"
"Please exit here for service to Central Park West and the Staten Island Ferry," she said calmly.
"Wha?"
"Please exit here for service to Central Park West and the Staten Island Ferry," she said as she faded away, only for Jay to be greeted by a shove to his shoulder from Bob and the loudspeaker of the bus driver as they pulled into the depot. The Manhattan skyline gathered in Jay's coalescing field of vision as he and Bob stepped off the bus. As they waited for their connecting bus to get them to their client's place, Jay tried to make sense of his dream. Was he becoming one of those sickos that actually try and get a glimpse of their sister in the shower? He cursed that romance novel for making him have such a weird dream, even if his lover…sister…whatever was hot and they didn't get to do anything. Good thing I didn't have one of those dreams on the bus anyway, he thought to himself.
After boarding and making damn sure that he himself didn't fall asleep again, Jay and Bob arrived at their point of sale. It was more of a dorm than an actual house, a good prospect if the duo wanted to gain some more business. As they went up to the door, they couldn't help but hear some sort of commotion. It sounded like cheering; someone was even blowing a noisemaker.
"A party! My friend, I think we might be making a good time better," he smilingly said to Bob, who also smiled and nodded. Bob rang the doorbell, and then Jay knocked on the door. Brian Grant, who had to break himself away from the celebrating going on, went to answer the door. But before he answered it, he heard the voices of his guests.
"Hey Brian, open up if you still wanna fill your papers!"
Oh no!
Brian then rushed to the door and confirmed his fears. His heart sank as fast as he turned his head around to see if anyone was behind him. "Not now! Come back in a few hours!" he said with his back teeth clenched and his eyes menaced with anxiety.
"The fuck? No way, you said 3:00, 17 bucks a gram of no seed Cali Gold aged to perfection. We're busy men, Bob and I," Jay replied gesturing to Bob. He nodded with a perturbed expression on his face.
"There's other people here now. They've come all the way from…" Brian continued as a window was opened behind him. Out popped the head of a woman with short black wavy hair, a white business jacket with a blue scarf and…slanted eyes?
"Doko ga, Buraian-kun?" she asked, looking around before finding him. Brian's pulse skipped a beat when he heard Rumi. She then switched over to English when she spotted him. "There you are! Come on, the fun is just getting started in here!" He turned around trying to smile and say that his "friends" had come by to drop off…wait, he thought, I can't say that because they'll wonder what the thing they're dropping off is! "Ahhh, that is," he said with his palm on the back of his head.
"Hey, who's your friends over there. Come on in and join us!" Rumi called out as she waved and smiled. Jay and Bob pointed to themselves and expressions of curiosity, confounded with why this Asian woman would want them inside. Was she here to pick up some grass too?
"No no, they were just going. In fact, they have the wrong house, so off you go, hahaha!" Brian nervously laughed as he went behind them and put both of his hands at their backs to turn them around and get those dealers the hell out of there, but the duo both turned around and grabbed his hands.
"Hey fuck you, Brian, we came a long way and now you wanna bail out on us? Fuck no, you owe us for the grass we brought, and we're not leaving until…" Jay said before hearing another voice, this time at the door. And its source was one of the hottest Asian ladies that he set his red-spotted eyes on. The petite woman wore a green suit jacket, a tight dress of the same color clinging to her thighs, a pink blouse and a white pearl necklace. Her short, straight hair sported brown highlights. And she asked if these men were landscapers.
"Never mind, we're just not leaving," Jay said as he looked in Chiyako's direction.
Chiyako was puzzled. "Will laying down the grass take that long?" she asked.
"Only if it doesn't want to burn when you're lighting it," Jay replied with shrug.
"Isn't it dangerous to set fire to grass in the outdoors?" Chiyako wondered.
"That's why you have to light it inside," smiled Jay, which he saw as his opportunity to enter. By then Bob and Jay had released Brian's hands, one of which was now holding the front of his face. But if Brian heard what he thought he heard, he rushed to make sure that Jay wasn't about to pull out a bag and his rolling papers.
The thought that he could work out a grass-for-love "trade" with this Korean…Chinese…wherever this hottie came from crossed Jay's mind. It quickly dissipated when he walked into the living room and found lots of people. A couple of them he recognized, like that blondie that Brian once showed him a picture of that he was into. He remembered telling Brian to cover his love if he ever got her since she looked like a skank, but Jay quickly backed down when it looked like he was going to get his ass handed to him for saying that back then. Then there was Michael, Brian's younger brother who he had to keep his dope-peddling ass away from according to his customer's short temper. If he wasn't such a prompt and generous man to do business with, Jay would've chucked Brian like a faded comic book a long time ago.
Then there were the others he didn't know. An attractive freckled redhead and some pretty boy with long purple-dyed hair stood with the skank. In the middle amongst the couches were more Asian people, including that woman who called out the window earlier in some kind of moonman language. Two of them were men in suits, and the hottie in green went over to put her arm around one of them (shit!). A girl and a guy were standing around the adults. The girl, dressed in a blue shirt and white overalls cut off at her thighs with short dark hair with more brown highlights, was cute enough, but how the hell could any guy from Hong Kong or wherever be such a pretty boy? Even Bob was trying to figure out this walking oxymoron of a beautiful face belonging to an Asian male. Hollywood and Jackie Chan, it seemed, had misinformed them. In any case, those two kids must have just gotten off the plane because their faces had every earmark of distress and exhaustion on them, which Jay and Bob chalked up to jet lag.
Everyone looked at these two strange-looking Americans in overcoats, long unkempt hair and baseball caps. Satoshi, who neither Jay nor Bob had spotted just yet, wanted to make use of his colloquial English skills. "Hi guys, what is on going?" he asked, but instead of laughing at Satoshi's slip-up, Jay and Bob were stunned to find yet another pretty Asian male face. Was this an Asian Androgynous Pride Day meeting at Brian's place? They guessed not since they saw one more attractive Asian girl, who also had longer wavy hair with a brownish tinge to it. Did most of these women not like having black hair for some reason either?
"Yeah, we're good. So we gonna party, do Kung-Fu fighting, or what?" Jay and Bob went into "Kung-Fu" stances that looked more like a cerebral palsy patient trying to avoid a mouse. Jay broke out of his first. "By the way, I'm Jay, and this is Silent Bob, world-class dirt brokers and comic superheroes," he said, gesturing to themselves as Bob awkwardly broke his own stance.
While the Japanese occupants looked a tad confused, Ginny, Doris, Bill, and the Grant brothers couldn't help but bowl over laughing. Youji got what he thought was some context for what Jay said.
"So you are superheroes of comedy? So are we!" He tapped Jin's arm and nodded to him, both knowing to do their Osaka-style manzai comedy routine. Since they had to tell the jokes so quickly for the full effect, Jin and Youji slipped back into Japanese. After some rapid-fire puns and made-up misunderstandings, Jin smacked Youji upside the head, getting roars of laughter from the Japanese speakers, including Michael who at least got some of it.
The other Americans couldn't help but look at each other and shrug. Jay more forthrightly asked Michael what they were saying. "Forget it, man, you wouldn't understand even if I translated it for you."
Determined to keep the rhythm of gibberish comedy going, Jay then belted out, "Banana-fama-fo-fama, bi-bai-bo-bama, Bob-smacka," and then smacked Bob upside the head. Bob then pushed Jay with a what-the-hell kind of look to his eyes. The two then started shoving each other as if they were back in 7th grade. Was this the way that the Americans did their own manzai-style of comedy, some of the Japanese guests wondered to themselves.
"Knock that crap off!" Brian yelled, using his arms to get between Jay and Bob. The duo calmed down a bit. Just to leave what was apparently a more tense situation when it should have been a fun and joyous one, Rumi suggested that the adults go tour New York a bit while the younger ones could do their own thing. The other adults found this to be a brilliant idea, and told everyone that they would come back the next day. As Miki and Yuu went to go see their parents off, Youji turned around and said quietly to Yuu with a wink, "Don't keep Miki up too long." Yuu, still quite embarrassed from his parents letting on that they knew about his and Miki's relationship after his ordeal of confession and blundering, was very much agitated on the inside. Still, he had regained enough of his composure to just go, "Dad, please!" Youji grinned, and the foursome went outside to hail a taxi.