Thanks for reviewing! All characters and titles belong to Takahashi. Don't sue me, I barely have $101 to my name.
whatever: No, Fairy Babble isn't Hindi, it's Urdu. I suppose those two languages are similar to each other...Thanks for reviewing!
Moonlite Goddess: OMG! You reviewed! Wow! Heh ............. There are as many dots as there are years in your age. Every chapter there will be one less dot.
Sorceress Vanessa: Hello! Yeah, I know, I left chapter three on such an evil cliffy...What are you waiting for? Go on and read the chapter? LOL Thanks for reviewing!
Katire Stardust: Hmmm...I hooked a yaoi fan on a SetoxSerenity fic? I feel slightly proud of myself. And yeah, I know, there really is no evidence for S/S, and I usually despise silentshipping. But when you like a couple, you like a couple...Thanks or reviewing! :)
Court12: Thanks for reviewing! n.n
Kikoken: Thank you! Your review was very kind! LOL
Shiroi senshi: All questions will be answered in good time. Heh Thanks for reviewing!
vendred13: :Gathers pitchforks and torches: Yeah! Let's go kill that fat kid! We'll make him pay for what he did to Seto and Shizuka! Thanks for reviewing!
Yamiko: Dartz's Girl: Seriously, Shizuka did not have a good day, did she? Thanks for your review!
MistressMoonDemon: I know that part about Shizuka's parents sounded like Harry Potter, that's where I got the idea from. Yup, you'll see little HP twists thrown into this fic. [But all characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not me!] Thanks for reviewing!
TinyFlyer02: LOL Thanks for the review!
Sorry about the long chapter....
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"SHIZUKA!!!"
There she was. Laying, like a dead flower.
"A-A--Anzu...Get Kijin, now!!!" Mai seemed to have been immersed by panic for her fair complexion became sweaty and red, as if she were being choked. And her eyes, they were stinging her as if shards of glass had fallen into them. And her hands became shaky, almost afraid to touch the fallen girl. Her breathing became intense, her tears aligning with fear to choke her. "Shizuka, please! Please wake up!...."
It just happened so quickly....She was listening closely to Mai when all of a sudden, she collapsed like a tower of cards. Falling swiftly...If you blink, you would've missed it...
Anzu, who felt frozen, numbly nodded her head.
"HURRY!" Mai shrieked at Anzu, who was moving at a snail's pace. "She's your own cousin! Don't you care?!"
But I suppose Anzu did care for she tried her hardest to get herself up, quickly, and get to the door.
"Shizuka....Hold on...." Shizuka had fallen right into Mai's lap, and Mai breathed relaxing comments to herself to ease the worry.
"What's wrong?" The young Mokuba had extreme confusion written all over his face. He saw Shizuka faint, he was a few feet away from her. But he wondered why she fainted, why did she look so dead?... "What happened to her?"
"It'll all be alright, just wait," Mai whispered as the sounds of Anzu's slippers caused a thundering yet cushioned pitr-patr in the hallway...
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"What's...going...on?......"
Little Seto watched with eyes widened as he saw, through the darkness, Anzu race off.
With barely enough time to blink, he immediately forced himself to get over there, to Shizuka.
There she was...She almost seemed to have been flowing water with the way she was laying there, completely subsided.
But before Seto could do anything about getting over to Shizuka, the lights of the room went on. And as Seto looked to the light switch, he saw Kijin with teary eyes and a complexion that resembled the crimson-tinted petal of a rose. She had her long fingers cupping he mouth, and she was coughing through her tears, like the misery of Shizuka fainting was suffocating her.
Anzu stood at the side of her mother, her bangs darkening her eyes. Her head was bowed somberly, and anyone could've easily heard her snivel gaspingly.
"Seto...."
Someone was talking to him...
"Seto...."
Seto turned his head, annoyed. He wanted to keep an eye on Shizuka, so he put on a frustrated expression when he looked at the counselor on the other side of him.
"Seto, we need to leave the room, and do you need to go to the infirmary?"
Seto couldn't care less about the little slap he received from the fat wonder, so no, he didn't have to go to the infirmary. But...
"Why do we have to leave the room?"
"Well, Shizuka's Aunt requested it. The doctor's on his way right now, so c'mon," She explained. She quickly took a hold of his arm and pulled him straight onto his feet. "Come on."
Seto, finally standing on his two feet, looked around the room and saw that all the children had left, and the only people left in the room were himself, the counselor, another counselor who was checking the Shizuka's pulse, and Kijin, Anzu, and Mai who were forming a circle around the fallen fairy.
"Come on, Seto." The counselor was being pushy with Seto. She practically shoved him to the door of the room, but, before she could completely heave him out, Seto asked:
"What's gonna happen to her?" With his head completely jerked so that he saw the ring of girls surrounding Shizuka.
And the only response he got was that of Anzu lifting her head away from Shizuka for a mere second, and looking sympathetically at Seto. Her eyes still darkened.
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"I don't know what happened," Mokuba explained as he started fidgeting with a wooden toy boat. The two brothers along with the many other children that were once in the room that Shizuka had fainted in, were now occupying the very large sunroom.
Seto looked up to see around him, to see the sunroom. It was nothing but a glass dome whose window panes were supported by thin, metal rods. Seto shook his head, he could have only guessed what would've happened to Shizuka if she were in this room.
"You were sitting right next to her," Seto reminded, "How could you have not seen what happened?"
"The lights went out, remember? It became completely dark, and then the blinds opened, and I looked at the moon. And it was only like two seconds after I saw the moon through the window that I heard Shizuka's cousins screaming."
Seto sighed. It was unbelievable how much he wanted to know what had happened to Shizuka.
The fat marvel said that Shizuka would get nothing more than a rash if she saw the moon, which was already unbelievable to Seto. But, when that tubby tower revealed the moon to Shizuka, she fainted. And Kijin was acting as if Shizuka being exposed to the moon was like Shizuka dying.
Speaking of the chubby cheeseburger...
Seto looked around the room, and he saw no sign of that obese odium. He figured that somebody must've taken him into the main office.
'He deserved it after what he did to her....' Seto shook his head frantically. He was worrying, over a girl. He was wishing that a girl would be alright. He put that girl's safety before his own.
'She's a mystery. A total enigma. She's not like any other girl at this orphanage, or that you've ever met in your entire life. Perhaps that's what you like about her...'
Seto shook his head again. He didn't like anything about any girl. That wasn't who Seto was.
Still, he was incredibly eager for somebody to tell him that she'd be alight...
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"Are you sure?" The counselor asked as she stood up. "You want me to leave? But...But...Her health!"
Kijin stood up to be face-to-face with the nurse. "You just said that her pulse was fine, and the doctor will be arriving shortly. Please, Miss, I need to talk to my nieces. It's extraordinarily important!"
The counselor was a bit surprised. She nodded her head tentatively, and left the room.
As soon as Kijin heard the clear footsteps of the counselor's heels in the hallway, she pointed her wand [Which she had been passing off as a village trademark heirloom] to the door and mumbled, "Securolt!"
Instantly, the lock on the door fastened itself, and four more locks appeared on the door, locking themselves as they emerged.
Kijin held her wand shakily, her face was starting to become red again.
Anzu and Mai...They looked to Kijin with the most fearful and regretful expression... Almost afraid of Kijin and her anger, they looked to Shizuka whom both of them were sitting around. She was laying on a stiff blue mat that the counselor had provided.
"She looks so peaceful," Mai said as she looked at her cousin. "I'm so sorry, Shizuka..."
Anzu, who was absolutely petrified, indicated her agreement by bobbing her head.
"How touching," Kijin snapped at Mai, causing quivers of fear throughout Mai's body. "There's no use in apologizing to her. She's gone now...All efforts to save her have become absolutely futile....."
Mai gulped; even she was getting goosebumps about what Kijin had just explained.
"Aunty Kijin, wha-"
"Mai, while you were apologizing to Shizuka, I took the liberty of contacting your parents."
Mai looked to Kijin with the utmost baffled appearance on. And no, it wasn't because of Kijin had just declared, it was because Kijin looked so enraged.
"Thank you, Aunty Kijin," Mai answered with quite a bit of hesitation. "Aunty, when will they arrive?"
"You tell me. How long does it take to reach you from the window?"
Mai turned her head to look behind her, and sure enough, there were spirals of pastel-colored sprinkles forming a tornado in front of the window.
Kijin seemed to have smirked, Anzu stared, wide-eyed, and Mai just took in a huge gulp.
"Sister, why did you call us here?"
Yup, Mai knew that voice all too well. It was the soft voice of her mother, sister to Kijin.
'Wait,' Mai seemed to have been immediately caught up in a storm of panic, 'Is my daddy coming, too?' Mai felt her cheeks burning, her father was usually the stricter one, and if he ever found out what Mai :and Anzu: had done....
Mai let out an apprehensive squeak as she saw her mother and her father's figure appear through the light sprinkles.
"Sister," Kijin had her back to the two faeries that had just finished budding from the tornado of sprinkles. "do you know what your daughter has done in alliance with my daughter?"
And there she was, rising from the faint coil of rainbow-hued dust. She, Kijin, and Mrs. Wheeler might as well have been called triplets. They looked exactly the same, even though Kijin and Mai's mother were not twins....
She had the same brown, layered hair, accompanied by the exotic green eyes that had the wavering yellow streaks in them. She spoke with the same soft voice, and usually had the same delicate atmosphere around her.
However, Mai's father....A kind fairy, yes, but he did tend to forget his leniency when it came to forgiving and forgetting. He stood a few inches taller than Mai's mother, a solemn look usually on his face. He had these preciously purple eyes that matched his plum colored scepter. His hair was the only thing that looked calm out of his appearance. It was the lighter shade of brown, like a freshly picked walnut on its ripest day.
Mai's mother had her elegant pink and purple wings still attached to her back, and Mai's father obviously didn't have his wings...{Male faeries didn't have wings to begin with!}
"Hello, mother, father," Mai spoke innocently, hoping that her childish charm would distract her parents.
Mai's mother looked at her daughter lovingly as she fully appeared into the room.
"Ahhhhh! Hello, Mai! What are you doing here with Kijin and Anzu and....Oh my..."
"Kijin, what were you saying about----Shizuka?" Mai's father had just fully entered the room when he stopped his question, and actually got a fair idea as to why these faeries were in the human world disguised as humans.
"What...Uhh...what happened to her?" Mai's mother seemed to have been absolutely entranced by this appalling situation. Her eyes went wide with curiosity as she saw the fragile body of Shizuka laying there, practically dead on that mat.
"Kijin," Mai's father cleared his throat as he finally got a sense of control over the amazement that had enraptured him. "Does this have anything to do with the alignment you were talking about?"
'Don't tell them. Don't tell them. Don't tell them. Don't tell them. Don't tell them....!' Mai and Anzu closed their eyes tightly as they prayed.
"Well," Kijin couldn't hide the traces of fury that hung off of every syllable that she elongated, "It all started when, I suppose, Anzu wanted to demonstrate how well she could conjure up a villa..."
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"Oh my! She saw the moon?!"
Mai's parents were both simply baffled to say the least when they heard the last big part of Kijin's story.
Kijin nodded, "And she hasn't woken up since then."
"And you're saying that...err...Mai and Anzu did this?" Mai's father asked, bemused. Mai winced at the glare her father gave her and her cousin.
Kijin nodded her head. "There's nothing we can do about it now, I mean, her spell was enhanced so much, and she inherited her parents' powers..."
Mai's mother gasped...Did this mean....?
"Oh, what's going to happen to her?"
Kijin lowered her head and shook it with deep desolation. "Well, she's a human now...The next time she'll wake-up she won't be able to see you, sister for you and your husband are both fairies...She'll be so confused, she doesn't have anyone in the human world to turn to, unless...."
"There's an 'unless'?" Mai and Anzu asked, mumbling ever so quietly.
"What do you have planned?" Mai's parents drew excited with curiosity.
"Well, before the doctor comes, I want to..."
"Yeah...." Mai and Anzu encouraged.
"Go on...." Mai's parents egged on.
"Before the doctor comes, I want to [gulp] I want to...I want to put her into a human family-"
"Well obviously, sister, you'll have to do something like that. I mean, you can't stay in the human world too long as a fairy, and a fairy can't turn herself into a human intentionally-"
"NO!" Kijin did not need reminding of what she could not do to help Shizuka, "Sister, I want to fully convert her into a human lifestyle. When she wakes up, I want her to wake up to a human family, have a bank full of human, childhood memories. I want her to wake up to a life of nothing but humans, with no knowledge of the human world-"
"But that childhood, those parents, that whole entire lifestyle will be based on nothing but a farce illusion of magic. How are you going to pull that off?"
"Thinking that you're a human being and nothing but is better than living with the thought that your family and friends are all so distant, with the mere hindrance of a wish locking you with these foreign creatures. And, sister, I have chosen a family for her-"
"Already? You found a human family worth this magical prodigy?"
"Yes, it was that woman-that human woman whom Shizuka mistook for me. And is Shizuka confused that human with me, then there must've been some sort of motherly resemblance she found in her, and also, that woman is divorced. She's an independent human woman, who has no real male figure to support her, according to the counselors, and that kind of reminds me of myself. I want Shizuka's human existence to be extremely similar to her fairy life."
"Oh, but she'll be all alone..."
"Not true, Anzu is going with Shizuka."
Anzu, who was interestingly paying attention to this conversation, immediately thought that her human ears weren't picking up good signals...
"Oh," Mai's mother and father spoke, thinking that Azu deserved the punishment.
"What's this?" Mai seemed to have been very interested.
"M-mother...." She spoke shakily, "W--hat d-did you say?"
"Anzu, you heard me! We would never have been in this situation if you didn't decide to create that gaudy villa over my statue!--"
"But, mother!!!" Anzu pleaded with balmy fluid shining her eyes, "You wouldn't do this to me! You can't turn me into a human! There's got to be a law against that or something!"
"There's a law against turning innocent faeries into humans. Deny it all you want, Anzu, but you are the cause of all this misdemeanor! And you won't be human, and you can't stay in the human world as a fairy disguised as a human, so I suppose you'll be a mixture of both: Not entirely a human, but a creature that lives humanly with knowledge of faeries, I suppose."
"So, I have to live with Shizuka and her new family?"
"No. You will get your own family, but will one day meet up with Shizuka. Meanwhile, I'll be searching for a cure, and when the day comes that you've met Shizuka again and I've told you that I have found the cure, you will explain to Shizuka who she really is, so that she can join us faeries again in peace."
"But I don't WANNA!!"
"Kijin," Mai's father had finally spoken up, "It's not fair that only Anzu receives a punishment. I mean, your story explained that both Anzu and Mai sent Shizuka to the human world. I think that all justice will be truly served if Mai also becomes human...."
Mai felt a metallic tang in her mouth. "I don't think all will be justified that way." She spoke quickly, barely being able to breathe.
"I think that it would be fair," Anzu objected her own cousin, "It's not right if I'm the only one who gets punished when clearly Mai helped me commit the crime."
Mai's mother seemed disapproving of the plan. "I don't know. Maybe making them live in the human world is a rather harsh punishment-"
"Yeah, Mom! Tell them that I shouldn't be allowed to go! Tell them that it's not my duty to watch over this little brat!" And with that, Mai pointed her wand with searing indignation to the peacefully sleeping Shizuka. And as a result of that anger, a large bolt sprang from her wand, and it hit Shizuka's right eye.
"Oooh, now you're in for it..." Anzu knew that Mai had just sealed her ticket into the human world.
Kijin put her hand slowly up to her mouth, and she stood aghast, motionless like a black-and-white picture.
"That's it!" Mai's mother had finally seen the light, "You're going!"
"Ugh! Why is everybody getting so pissed at me! It's not like she's gonna get some sort of eye disease!"
Anzu smirked.
"Kijin," Mai's mother spoke, "We're getting late. The doctor could arrive any moment now! We should hurry and cast the spells!"
Kijin, still horrorstruck, nodded her head. "W--we should collect their...w-wands..."
Mai's parents nodded, and with the flick of their wrists, the two wands sprinted out of the two girls' hands. With them screaming in protest and watching helplessly, the wands came forth Mai's parents, and then vanished into thin air with a soft POOF!
"Now then, creatures that look like humans and live like humans, but they have the knowledge of faeries? Ready, dear?" Mai's father prepared his wand for the large magical task.
"I'll miss you, my wonderful daughter." Just the way she said it, Mai could see the regret mingling in her eyes, and the doubt forming hesitation in her usually soft voice.
"You're really and truly serious about this? You really want to send your only child off into a foreign land? This is no lie? You're completely sure about this?" Mai would beg until she felt the magic of her parents ensnare her...
"I know it doesn't seem fair, Mai, but think about what happened to Shizuka. Now that was not fair," Mai's mother said, a few soundless tears falling down her cheeks.
"Father?"
"I'm sorry, my dear, but I agree with your mother on this one."
Mai's mouth fell open. Did her parents really want to give up their only child just because a few ends were not justified?
"Hmmph!" And she proudly stuck her nose in the air, mentally emancipating her parents.
Meanwhile, Anzu watched in disgust as Kijin said her tearful good-byes to Shizuka.
"I'll miss you more than you can ever imagine, my sweet, sweet Shizuka. I wish only the best of luck to you in the human world, and I know that you'll any obstacle that a human throws in your way..."
"Fine, Mother, don't say good-bye to me," Anzu said in a rather loud voice as tears of seclusion filled her blue eyes.
Kijin simply turned her head and barely looked Anzu in the eye as she mumbled something about a farewell. And it was that moment that Mai learned that despite how caring and kind Kijin might have seemed on Shizuka's part, Kijin was nothing less of a witch to Anzu...
"Can we please get on with the re-writing of history? The doctor will be here any second." Anzu's voice cracked with sadness as she spoke.
And that's when it happened. Mai's parents had already been chanting the incantation. Kijin, hesitantly, pointed her wand along with the ones of Mai's parents.
Anzu and Mai instantaneously noticed tornadoes of faint sprinkles starting to form at their feet. Shizuka's body, on the other hand, was starting to be engulfed by a large, pink beam. The beam worked its way up to her head, and it went quickly, for Anzu and Mai heard Kijin's sobbing even before their spirals had reached their torsos.
"Goodbye, Mother, Father." Mai felt the gust of the spiral reach her neck.
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Mother. Perhaps some time away from me will help you acquire somewhat liking for me," Anzu snapped. "Good-bye!"
And that's how it happened. All three girls were put into a new reality.
All three of them woke-up to a new name, a new family, a new home...
A completely new life...
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Seto awoke, a bit frightened at first.
"What happened to her?"
He looked around, it was daytime, obviously, and Mokuba was sitting at the foot of his cot.
"Wow, you slept in, Seto! You almost never sleep in!"
Her face
Her body
Her voice
They were all disappearing too quickly from his mind. He couldn't even remember her name anymore...
"Mokuba, what's the date?"
"The 29th?"
"But, that was yesterday's date..."
"No. Anyway, Seto, wanna know something? That man we saw on TV the other day, the guy who plays chess, well, he's coming to give the orphanage a bunch of money, today! I heard the counselors tell each other..."
"Hmmm...You mean Gozaburo Kaiba?" Seto had nearly forgotten all about the girl, and he had a new focus in mind.
"Yeah...Something like that..."
"Well then, if he'll give all that money to the orphanage, it's only fair if her gets something in return...."
"Seto, I don't like the way you're smiling like that. Quit it! It's creepy..."
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SEVEN YEARS LATER
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"Did she just say that her name was Mai Valentine?" Téa Gardner reached over the boxes she was hiding behind, trying to get a good look at the new blond-haired girl that had decided to talk to her friends, Yugi Mouto and Joey Wheeler.
"Téa! Get down! What if somebody sees us? They're gonna ask us for star chips or something! We're not exactly legal passengers on this ship!" Tristan Taylor, fellow stowaway, grabbed Téa's waist and yanked her down before she got into them both into trouble.
"Tristan! Get off of me!" Téa finally got some control over herself, as she kneeled back down to the freezing part of the ship where she had decided to hide. She was no qualified duelist, so how else was she supposed to get to the island where the Duelist Kingdom tournament was to take place?
'I'll have to talk with her later...' Téa, or the mind of Anzu, thought.
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Mai Valentine angrily opened the door as loud BANGS of knocking were heard at 3:00 am in the morning.
"I didn't order room service--" Mai seemed to have been cut off as soon as she saw whom was the cause of all this commotion.
Mai Valentine smirked. "Well, well, well...Same neatly-cut dark brown hair. Those same, plain blue eyes...A crisp and clean outfit, oh and look! You even still have those buckle shoes. Hmmm, still, I was expecting you to fir the cheerleader stereotype-"
"Mai! It's been like...five years-"
"Actually, it's been seven years, you dimwit-"
"Well, whatever! It's been seven years, and now you decide to show yourself, Mai Valentine!"
"What? Are you making a mockery out of my last name, Téa Gardner? At least I got to keep my first name-"
"Ok, whatever! I saw you on the ship earlier this evening."
"And?"
"And, did you know who that blond boy was who you were talking to?"
"The one who was with Yugi? Yeah, I know him. Anzu, that was Joey Wheeler, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, Mai, and do you know who Joey Wheeler is?"
"He's Shizuka's human brother-"
"You're right about that, Mai, but she's not Shizuka anymore. Her new name is-"
"Serenity! Honestly! What kind of name was that?"
"I don't know, but do you know why he's dueling in this tournament?"
"Joey Wheeler? To help Shiz--Serenity, right?"
"Yeah, because she needs eye surgery." Anzu scowled viciously at Mai. "Do you remember right before we were put into these lives what you did to Shizuka?"
"You mean that spark that hit her eye?"
"It was more than a spark, Mai."
"Oh well. If he doesn't win the money, I'll pay for Shizuka's--ugh--Serenity's operation. My human family's loaded." Téa shook her head. "So tell me, Téa, what brings you to Duelist Kingdom?"
"My friends, not to mention brother of Serenity, a.k.a. Shizuka, are dueling in this tournament. And what about you? Don't tell me that you're actually competing."
And then, Mai's smirk grew wider as she shuffled through the deck that she was holding. Téa hadn't noticed the deck before, but she just realized that Mai had been fidgeting with it all throughout their conversation.
"I actually find the game quite intriguing," Mai explained as she pulled out a card. "It's full of complicated strategies, various monsters, and a single card could change the situation of any duel. A very challenging game. This," Mai pulled out a monster labeled The Cyber Harpy, "is my favorite monster. Its wings resemble the pendant that used to be on my wand, remember?"
"I remember, and I also recall my wand, too." Téa sighed. "So, you got a whole room to yourself? Are you that great of a duelist?"
"Well, I am an extremely skilled duelist, but I won this room over."
"You won it?"
"Yup. Come on in, I'll give you a tour...."
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ONE YEAR LATER
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She awoke, so frightened.
Her pillow was wet with the sultry traces of sweat.
She sat upright in her bed, awoken by a rather disturbing vision in her slumber.
Well, actually, it really wasn't disturbing, just out of place.
The lovely sixteen-year-old Serenity Wheeler checked the clock on her nightstand.
"A few more hours 'til school..."
She sighed, remembering that picture, of him! He of all people was occupying her dreams, and this wasn't the first night that he had come.
But tonight....
It was the first night that something so vivid had happened...
With him
"Joey can't know," She breathed, "Joey can not know."
And nervously, she laid herself back down again.
Hopefully, he would leave her dreams. Just disappear and never come back
But that wouldn't happen anytime soon, as Serenity Wheeler would learn...
She told herself to go to sleep, her tired eyes stinging her.
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Gomen Nasai! I didn't want such a long chapter!
Sorry if it was boring!
R/R if you liked the chapter!
Preview:
"Serenity Wheeler, this is new. No doubt you're in trouble now..."
Tootles,
Celestial Night