Fia rubbed her eyes and slowly sat up in bed. The dawn's light was just beginning to peek through the curtains. Deep down, Fia knew that she should try to get more sleep each night if she didn't want her daily classes to completely burn her out. Still, it was her habit to get up early on weekends - call it the curse of the breakfast-bringer. Fia stretched and swung her feet off the bed while letting out a long yawn. She hopped down and shuffled over to check her calendar posted on the wall by her desk.
"September is already coming to an end," she mused quietly to herself. Had it really already been a month since they had moved in and started school? Was it really almost time for the dreaded Parents' Weekend? Checking one last time to make sure that she had nothing to do for the day except homework, Fia made her way to the bathroom to freshen up and change.
Once ready, the Italian girl resolved herself to make a brunch torte while watching a movie. She thought she could handle the drama - as her family was bred from it - but she still ended up feeling completely dejected by the end of the film. Fia felt so terrible that she had to sit down at the counter to think. The girl ran her hand through her hair, thankfully untangled by then, as she thought. While she did know the meaning of loss, she had never thought of what it would be like to watch someone she loved struggle for their life. If only there had been an easier way to deal with the character's symptoms...
Fia sat up and opened the cabinet under the sink, pulling out several heavy-duty containers marked with intense warnings. She hauled her bounty over the living room where she set up her miniature chemistry lab. Fia looked around at her chemicals and felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity. Chemicals were fun; they didn't talk back and she could get exactly the right reaction she was looking for. Swearing to herself, Fia began working on a chemical solution.
It wasn't long before Haven got up too; she had a few things she wanted to work on before the apartment became noisy, as it usually did on weekends. Weekdays were generally peaceful enough and only had the occasional (one-sided) bickering between Fia and Karma, with side interjections from Nagisa. She wished she could say the same about weekends, but they were always significantly more eventful.
Haven brushed her teeth and donned her usual button-up shirt and tie before walking out into the hall. She was actually mildly surprised that she didn't see Fia in the kitchen, but she immediately noticed her roommate in the living room and wasn't surprised in the slightest. Haven had her computer, Fia had her chemicals.
Haven approached Fia and sat down next to her. "What are you doing, Tsu-chan?" she asked.
Fia murmured to herself as she let three drops of a blue liquid fall into a beaker with pink liquid. Satisfied, Fia put down the dropper and removed her goggles. "Morning, Angel. Nothing much - just working on a solution to help combat the accelerated growth of malignant tumors." She paused to make some mental calculations before putting her goggles back on and grabbing a test tube filled with a cherry-red substance.
Haven smiled slightly, understanding Fia's passion, borderline-obsession, that mirrored her own. "What's that-"
"Did you need someth-"
Both girls began to speak and turn towards each other at the same time. What should have been a friendly exchange blew up in their faces - or made the chemicals do so at the very least. The goggle-clad girl got the worst of it as she choked on the colorful cloud coming from the liquid splattered on her person. Haven hadn't escaped the chemical onslaught either, but she was still able to pull Fia to her feet and open the windows in the hope that the room would air out.
"Are you okay, Tsu-chan?" Haven asked with concern.
Fia nodded, still coughing. "Yes, but the experiment was incomplete so I'm not sure what the side effects are-" she managed to cough out before her body began to shake. Alarmed, Haven approached Fia but, by the time she had reached her friend, Haven could no longer find Fia. The only things she could see were the pile of clothes left in Fia's place.
"Tsu-chan?!" Haven called, worried.
"D-down here!"
Haven looked down to see a three-inch-tall girl poking her head out from one of the shirt's sleeves.
"I-I think the shrinking agent took effect!" the shorter version of Fia exclaimed. Haven had to kneel down to hear the girl. "Angel, I sewed some clothes for my little sister's dolls. They're in our room. Can you get them?" Pleading, Fia returned to the confines of the limp shirt. As Haven nodded and turned to leave, Fia added, "And please hurry! It could start affecting you too!"
Haven retrieved the doll clothes from their room and shoved an extra set into her pants pocket just in case the chemicals would start to affect her too. She went to the living room to get Fia. After she let her shrunken roommate change, Haven grabbed her and took her to the kitchen where she placed her in an open thyme container on the counter. "I'll be right back," Haven said as she went to find the one person she thought could help.
Pushing open the door to the guys' room, Haven called, "Nagisa! Are you awake?"
The bluenette looked up from where he was reading on his bed. "Yeah, is everything okay, Haven?" The normally composed girl was wearing a slight air of concern, which concerned him in turn.
Karma groaned and rolled over in his bed. His and Nagisa's profession didn't exactly allow for heavy sleeping. He pushed himself out of bed and made his way to the kitchen. No way in hell was he going to listen to those two drone on in boring conversation when he could just make himself a little bit of breakfast instead.
As Karma grumpily exited the room, Haven turned back to Nagisa. "Fia and I-" she started, but it was too late. Before she knew it, she was enclosed in the dark fabric of her shirt. Well, that was that. She indifferently found her way to her pants pocket and pulled on the clothes that were there.
Alarmed, Nagisa ran over to where the clothes were lying crumpled on the floor. "Haven?!" A few moments later, a miniature Haven emerged from the pile, fixing a miniature pink tie. Nagisa was puzzled by how Haven's miniature clothes were model versions of her normal ones.
Meanwhile, Karma found the living room and kitchen in a worrisome disarray. He ambled into the kitchen first, having had his attention caught by something moving in a jar.
"Fia?" he asked, surprised to see the girl pacing among the herb leaves.
"K-Karma?!" she exclaimed, startled by his sudden appearance. Fia fell over, causing the shredded bits of thyme to fly all around her like autumn leaves.
Nagisa walked into the kitchen with a smaller Haven sitting on his shoulder and hanging onto the collar of his shirt for balance.
"Haven too?" Karma questioned the two who had just walked in.
Nagisa nodded. "Apparently, Fia's experiment caused this," he explained, referencing the two tiny females. Turning to Fia, Nagisa asked "Fia, is there any way to fix this?"
Fia thought for a moment. "Because of the low dosage and the fact that we inhaled the chemicals as opposed to ingesting it as it ought to have been," she hypothesized, "we should go back to being our normal sizes by the end of the day. Would you please clean up, Nagisa?" Fia pleaded. "I know science is your least favorite subject, but I trust you most to handle it."
Nagisa nodded and moved to the living room to sort through the disaster there. Karma waited for Nagisa and Haven to put some distance between themselves and the kitchen before stealthily screwing on the lid of the thyme jar.
"Karma… What are you doing?" Fia paled.
The redhead laughed. "Giving you a 'thyme' out," he said as he began to shake the jar a little. Fia couldn't hold her ground. What was a gentle shake by human standards was most definitely an earthquake by miniaturized-human standards. To make matters worse, the thyme in the jar flew around her like a tornado. By the time Karma had ceased shaking the jar, Fia was in a never-ending sneezing fit. She glowered at him with pink cheeks, watery eyes, and a runny nose.
Nagisa sighed. "Don't hurt her, Karma," he called from the living room as he finished dealing with the chemicals. He returned to the kitchen to wash his hands and free Fia from the confines of her glassy prison.
"Leave Tsu-chan alone!" Haven pouted with crossed arms from Nagisa's shoulder.
Fia rolled out of the jar and landed flat on the marble counter with an "oof!" and an "ouchie…" The little one sat up and rubbed her head. To her dismay, Karma was the first to pick her up.
Karma held her in the palm of one of his hands and smiled as he poked her round cheek with the tip of his finger. She whined and tried to bat his finger away, but her efforts were futile. He experimented on his own, poking at Fia in different places to see how she'd react. She liked having her head pat, got angry when her feet were poked at, and was ticklish almost everywhere else. Fully entertained, Karma laughed as Fia sat down, huffing, with her arms crossed and back turned towards him.
Nagisa sweat-dropped. "What do we do now?" he asked.
"Just wait," Haven replied simply. "That's what we had to do last time… and the time before that… and the time before that."
"It was only twice - and I can't wait!" Fia protested. "I was going to do the groceries today!"
"And I was going to code," the white-haired girl replied.
Karma grinned. "Why does it not surprise me that this has happened before?"
"Sh-shut up! Being fluorescent wasn't that bad!" Fia attempted to defend her experiments.
"Sure it wasn't. Benny wouldn't be seen with us for a week," Haven replied.
"... Well, we were positively glowing! … Hehe… Heh…" Fia sighed and started banging her head on Karma's fingers, as if they were a wall, in frustration. Haven face-palmed.
"I can get the groceries," Nagisa offered, trying to end the small quarrel.
"Do you know what you need to get?" Karma asked through a lazy yawn.
The bluenette sighed. "No, but it wouldn't be hard to make a list."
The redhead smirked. "Does that mean I get to watch the girls?"
"On second thought, why don't you go shopping?" Nagisa may have phrased it as a question, but it was certainly more of a statement than a request.
With that, it was decided that Karma would run errands with Fia to be a voice of reason sitting on his shoulders - more or less literally - and that Nagisa and Haven would stay at the apartment.
Haven began pacing on her desk, sometimes climbing onto various objects.
"I'm bored!" Haven pouted and sat on the edge of her desk.
"We could play a board game," Nagisa suggested from the swivel chair.
"Fine, how about go?" Haven suggested as she began to clear an area of the desk for the two to play on.
A few moves into the game, Haven looked like she was about to collapse.
"The pieces are so heavy!" She complained as she picked up another white stone and wobbled onto the board. Nagisa took it out of her hands.
"Let's play a different game," he suggested and pulled out a set of cards.
"Umm… These things are as tall as I am," Haven stood next to the card box. After that, they tried various other games before finally deciding on chess.
"Pawn to G-4," Haven ordered from atop a white rook. Nagisa moved her piece.
Karma used his straw to place a few droplets of soda in Fia's tiny hands. She hummed and gleefully drank it up from where she was tucked into his shirt's chest pocket. He smiled down at her and pat the girl's head with a finger.
"Where are we headed?" Karma asked as he chugged down the remainder of his soda.
"We're going to the world market!" Fia declared with a triumphant smile. "To conquer the foods of the world!"
"You to buy more Italian ingredients?" Karma gave Fia a skeptical look.
"French, actually. Hon hon hon~" Fia giggled. "Well, you're from Kyoto, right? I was hoping that you might want to make some Japanese dishes," the tiny girl admitted.
Karma was quiet for a few moments, deep in thought. "I guess I could cook up a few things."
Fia's eyes sparkled. "Would you wear-"
"No," Karma poked the girl's rounded cheek. "We're already here anyway." He made his way into the superstore and got a cart. Karma placed Fia inside one of the cart's cupholders and began browsing the aisles, grabbing whatever he thought they would need over the next week or so.
"Karma! Watch where you toss those!" Fia demanded as the corner of a cereal box nearly nicked her forehead on its descent into the cart.
"Sorry," he said. Karma wheeled them over to the fruit stands and searched for ripened fruits.
Fia scrambled out of the cupholder, dangled from the cart handle, and swung her way to the colorful fruits as if she were on monkey bars. It was more difficult to scale the pile of granny apples than she had anticipated. As she attempted to climb the mountain, she slipped and sent a bunch of apples running down towards the floor.
"LANDSLIDE!" she squealed as she attempted to throw herself over and under the falling fruit. Karma turned to see a bunch of apples rolling down the stand next to him. He watched with wide eyes as Fia dodged for dear life. "THIS IS WORSE THAN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL!" she cried. The girl jumped from the apples to the oranges to the tomatoes to the grapes before her foot got tangled in a vine and she fell flat on her face.
Karma sweat dropped as many people stopped to stare at the fruity calamity. He quickly put the fruits back on their respective stands and grabbed the bunch of grapes Fia was tangled in before placing them in the cart and moving to another, less conspicuous area of the store. He stopped at the refrigerated vegetable shelves and peered into the cart. He found Fia taking tiny bites out of the grapes around her.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Trying to eat my way free!" she declared fiercely as she began her vicious attack on the grapes once again. The redhead shook his head and reached over to untangle her, resulting in a happy "I thought I was a goner, thanks!"
Karma placed the girl on one of the vegetable shelf racks under a black nozzle. "You have a little something there - well, everywhere actually," Karma said with an amused tone of voice.
"Eh?" Fia looked down and saw that she was indeed covered in sticky fruit juices. She blushed and pouted. "Well, I can't do anything about that!" she whined. Karma smiled and pointed at the black nozzles. Fia's gaze followed. "What-?" Just as she began to speak, she heard a 'beep' and mist started cascading down from the nozzle.
Fia was startled at first, but she began quickly to scrape off any bits of goo she could find. She looked up and saw that Karma was watching her with slight interest. She blushed profusely and grabbed a baby carrot only to chuck it at his face. "PERV!" she yelled as she hid behind a head of broccoli.
The redhead laughed and turned away to give her a few more minutes, but some happy singing caught his attention. Karma looked over his shoulder and was surprised to find that Fia was thoroughly soaked and singing "Singing in the Rain" very happily as she skipped around and danced with a mushroom. He wasn't sure if he should think that her actions were cute or just outright weird. After a moment or two, he offered Fia his hand. She glanced up at him and then at the hand before fashioning his hand into an ideal dance partner. They spent a few moments like that, laughing and dancing, before the sprinkler stopped and they had to move on.
Fia dried herself off with a napkin as Karma browsed through the poultry, meat, and seafood sections. He got a few things that Fia didn't particular care to notice in her drenched-and-shivering state, but he also bought a few crabs. As Karma began to push the cart to the dairy and frozen food aisles, Fia peered over into the paper bag of crabs. One rubber-banded claw extended towards her and she kicked it away in a panic before scrambling back to the seat of the cart where she could stay out of site of the crustacean creature.
"D-did I get him?" Fia asked Karma in her state of panic.
He laughed. "You sure did. You really showed that crab who's the queen of the cart." Karma picked Fia up and gently set her down next to the eggs. "I'm going to grab the milk and ice cream. You find the uncracked eggs," he instructed as he turned and headed down the aisle.
Fia nodded and began opening the cartons of eggs one-by-one. Being small, she was able to inspect them a lot more closely. She was about to declare that she had found the perfect dozen when she felt herself being hoisted up by the back of her shirt and came face-to-face with two small boys.
"What's that?" asked the smaller, seemingly younger boy as he wiped snot from his nose.
"Dunno," replied the older boy, "maybe it's a defective chicken?"
Fia sweatdropped. They had to be kidding, right? Despite her disbelief, she held in a sigh and refused to move, hoping the boys would think she was a doll and lose interest in her.
"It looks like a doll!" declared the younger boy.
The older kid nodded and made a face of disgust. "Why do girls like these stupid toys anyway?" he questioned as he tossed Fia back onto the carton of eggs. A few of the eggshells cracked and their pointed edges precariously poked at the tiny girl's skin.
"OUCH!" she cried. Fia floundered a little bit and only accomplished becoming more ensnared in the eggs' sticky yolks. "Eeewwww…" she groaned and tried to flail some of the liquid off.
"Woah!" the boys exclaimed as they both rushed in to grab her. Fia was roughly pulled from hand to hand. "It talks!"
One laughed. "And it hurts too!" He yanked on Fia's hair and laughed as she winced.
"How come it talks?" the other asked.
"Who cares?" The older boy turned Fia upside down and started squishing her face into what was left of the broken eggs. She flailed and kicked her legs but an inch and a half of legs wasn't going to free her anytime soon - she knew that. Instead, she tried to keep herself from choking on and, worse, drowning in the yellow slime.
"And what do you two think you're doing?"
The two boys turned around and Fia gasped for air, sputtering, as she was pulled away from the boys. She wiped the slime from her eyes and looked up to see that it was Karma that had come to her rescue. She almost smiled at him, but she noticed that something wasn't quite right about him. She couldn't see his eyes under the shadow hiding his face and she noticed that he was deathly quiet for a man who usually ran his mouth without a filter. Karma placed her gingerly in the cart and turned back towards the boys.
"You know it's not nice to pick on little girls," Karma said coldly. Rage fiercely burned in the one eye that peeked through his red bangs. "Someone should really teach you kids a lesson." Karma took a step towards the boys and they looked absolutely petrified. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. I'll go easy on you if you piss yourselves and run away now, but after all you've put Fia through, I might not want to let you out of this unharmed."
The boys both began to cry and more snot ran down their faces than before. One boy's knees were knocking together and the other was trembling from head to toe.
Karma smiled at the boys, a now cheerful smile gracing his face. "Actually, if you apologize to my friend and promise to never bully anyone again, I might just decide to let you go. Do we have a deal?"
The boys nodded their heads stiffly, obviously slightly paralyzed with fear. "We're sorry!" they both cried in unison.
"Alright, you can go," Karma said softly, "but don't forget how this feels. This is how you made her feel," Karma gestured towards Fia. He kneeled down to be at eye-level with the kids. "This is why we can't bully people. You understand?"
The boys nodded, looked at each other, and then ran as if their lives depended on it.
Karma silently returned to the cart and wrapped Fia in another napkin. He wheeled the cart over to the check-out lines and paid for the items. Slipping Fia onto his shoulder as he exited the grocery store, Karma shifted the weight of the heavy bags in his hands and began the long trek home.
Fia was the first to break the silence. "Karma? I'm really sorry about the egg incident…"
Karma stopped in his tracks and gave Fia a questioning look. "Why are you apologizing for that?"
"Well, m-maybe if I had been more careful - " Fia started to apologize again but she got a finger to her lips… Well, considering how small she was, it was more like a poke to her entire face. She puffed out her pink cheeks and shot Karma a protesting pout.
"Don't worry about it," he said with a sweat drop and a slight smile. "It wasn't your fault." He began walking again and Fia scooted up his shoulder until she could curl up against his neck, much to his surprise. "Hhgn." The noise was involuntary. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, but it wasn't something he was used to either.
"Karma?" Fia started again.
"What is it?" he exhaled slowly. "I already told you not to apologize."
"It's not that…" she murmured. "I just wanted to thank you… for treating those kids so gently at the end. I think they really did learn their lesson," Fia whispered with a smile.
Karma looked down in surprise at the tiny girl on his shoulder. She wasn't thanking him for saving her, but rather for being nice to the people who had put her through hell? Fia noticed his expression.
She blushed immediately and tried to articulate an explanation. "I deal with a lot of… um, difficult children," she said slowly. "I think you really got through to them, and I'm really happy because of that, so… Thank you, Karma" Fia said delightedly.
Karma blushed ever so slightly and he glared off into the distance. "It was a lesson I learned the hard way…" Karma said forcedly. "But Nagisa and I really did have the best teacher." The redhead smiled a little and nudged Fia with his chin. "You're welcome. Ready to go home?"
She nodded and swung her legs a little bit. "Always!" Fia laughed. "But go slowly - the view from up here is nice~!"
As Karma and Fia walked through the door, they heard a shout from the bedroom. Karma set the groceries down in the kitchen and walked over to the room where the shouts were coming from. He and Fia peered inside and found Nagisa and Haven playing chess on the bed.
"Ahhh! Stalemate again!" Haven cried. The chessboard was void of all pieces except a black king and a white king. Haven was situated quite comfortably on top of a white rook on the sidelines.
Nagisa chuckled. "Do you want to play again, Haven?"
"You tied with Nagisa? I'm impressed," Karma called from where he was leaning against the doorframe.
"Oh, welcome back," Nagisa said with a welcoming smile. He turned to Fia. "Karma didn't give you too much trouble, did he?" he expressed his concern freely.
Fia shrugged. "I can't egg-xagerate when I say it was eventful. We hit a few bumps and had walked on shells here and there, but I had an egg-celent time anyway." After a moment more of thought, she added, "And Karma made me queen of the cart!"
He shook his head with a smile. "You're the chatelaine of chickens," Karma said sarcastically. "The stewardess of slime," he added, referencing the fact that she was covered in drying egg yolk.
"E-eheheh…" Fia laughed dryly as Karma carried her off to the bathroom. She watched as he grabbed a change of clothes for her, filled a bowl with warm water and a little bit of soap, and set the said bowl down on the sink.
"I'll be outside if you need anything," Karma called over his shoulder as he exited the room. He made his way back to Nagisa and Haven. "What have you two been up to?" he queried.
"Chess," Haven replied. "We've had two stalemates so far."
Karma whistled. "Must have been two really long games of chess."
Nagisa touched his friend's arm with a sigh. "Karma, you really didn't pick on Fia today?"
The redhead feigned hurt. "I'm insulted, Nagisa! Why would I ever pick on our housemate? We're all just here to get along."
Nagisa face-palmed but he let it go for the moment and turned his attention back to his partner in pink. "What do you want to do now, Haven?"
Karma left the bedroom and returned to the bathroom. He knocked on the door. "Fia?"
"Come in!" she called.
Karma pushed open the door and looked around. He found Fia sitting on a rubber duck as she tried to comb her hair with a proxabrush and tie her hair back with some floss. Smiling, he dumped out the contents of the bowl and began washing Fia's discarded egg-covered clothes.
"You know," Fia said as she finished fashioning a ponytail, "I never thought that my doll-making habit would come in handy. I mean, these fit perfectly!" she laughed as she looked down.
"Dolls?" Karma questioned.
"Yeah, I have a cute little sorellina!" Fia laughed. "She's the spawn of Satan!" The girl shuddered and slid off of the rubber duck just as Karma set the wet clothes to the side to dry. "I don't think I'll be able to help you out with the cooking tonight… but I would love to help clean Ven's cage!"
Karma laughed. "Fair enough." He held his hand out for Fia to climb into. Exiting into the hall, Karma called "Nagisa!"
"Yes, Karma?" Nagisa asked as he walked into the living room, a miniature Haven clinging to his right pigtail.
"I'm going to get started on dinner," Karma said as he handed Fia off to the bluenette. "Would you help her take care of Ven?"
Nagisa nodded and the group split up. As Karma walked into the kitchen, Nagisa made his way to Ven's cage. "What should I do?"
"You need to bring over a trash can, some clean newspapers, and some fresh hay. Can you put us in the cage so we can start moving Ven's furniture?"
Nagisa nodded and gently placed the girls beside Ven before dutifully running off the get the requested items. Fia waved Nagisa off and turned to greet Ven, but she was shocked by what she saw. Being a male white guinea pig without playmates, Ven had taken an extreme liking to the white-haired Haven and had begun to chase her around the cage, making odd squeaking noises. Flustered by the sight, Fia exclaimed and ran after Ven.
"VEN, NO!" she shouted.
Haven managed to scale the guinea pig wheel from behind and found a safe spot atop the highest point of curvature. Fia, who had somehow gotten stuck on Ven's back, squeaked in fear as the furball jumped onto the wheel and began to run. She clung to his fur for dear life but the motion was too erratic for her to hold on. In contrast to Haven who was easily jogging on top of the wheel, Fia fell flat onto her back and began tumbling continuously as Ven ran more. The wheel squeaked loudly as it spun and Nagisa came running back as soon as he heard the commotion.
Nagisa threw open the cage door and gently removed Ven before stopping the wheel and rescuing Haven and Fia. "Are you alright?" he asked tentatively.
Tears welled in Fia's eyes as she nursed the bumps and bruises. "Fine…" she whined.
Haven crawled up Nagisa's arm until she managed to nestle herself atop of his head once again. "Thanks, Gisa!"
Nagisa followed Fia's instructions on how to clean the cage with Haven on his head the entire time. Every time Ven seemed to notice her, she hid behind a blue pigtail. After the cage was clean, Nagisa took Fia and Haven to the kitchen.
"No!" Fia protested from his shoulder. "Haven is not allowed in the kitchen, not even at this size!"
"What harm could I do at this size?" Haven climbed down one of Nagisa's pigtails to talk to her friend. Fia just glared at her.
In the meantime, Karma left the pot on the stove to boil and moved to the freezer. He grabbed a few ice cubes and dropped them into a ziplock bag, which he sealed then smashed against the counter. Musing, he opened the bag and began removing tiny shards of ice, which he wrapped in little pieces of napkins. He brought over the pieces of ice and grabbed the glaring Fia from where she stood on Nagisa's shoulder.
"Hold still," he ordered as he pressed some of the wrapped ice shards against the bumps on her head.
"Owie…" she whined. Being unable to help squirming, she pouted. "That's cold, dammit!"
"That's the point. If you want, I could drop you in the boiling pot instead," he suggested.
"Eep!" Fia held still to the best of her ability and blushed. "I can do that myself…"
Karma shoved a piece of ice in her mouth in response and set her down on the counter. Fia protested with a lot of grumbling, but she resolved herself to just let Karma help her out.
"What's this?" Haven asked as she pulled a container out of one of the many cabinets. She had somehow climbed into the cabinet above the stove.
"Oi! Get down from there!" Fia yelled, spitting out the ice from her mouth. Startled, Haven began to lose her balance and fell with the container towards the pot below.
Nagisa pushed Karma out of his way and ran towards her, arm outstretched to catch her. She landed softly in his palm. The container was not so lucky and fell into the boiling water. Nagisa hissed as the splash hit his hand.
"Oh, Nagisa! Are you okay?" Haven asked worriedly. Nagisa placed her on his shoulder and inspected his hand.
"It's nothing much," he smiled slightly. Haven looked downcast as she nestled herself in the crook of his neck.
Fia flinched back and hid behind Karma's hand, unable to bear the sight of what just happened. "What did I just tell you…?" she muttered.
'Hey, Nagisa," Karma called. "Heads up!" The redhead threw the bluenette the bag of ice. "Should help a little." Karma ran to rescue his beloved stew.
Fia sighed. "Toothpaste helps too…" she mumbled. "Cooling agents and whatnot…" She looked as if the emotions annoyed and worried had become personified and were dueling it out in her mind. "We better not let things like this happen next weekend…"
"What's next weekend?" Nagisa asked curiously as he treated his hand.
The girl paled visibly. "Parents' Weekend."
"Parents' Weekend," Haven repeated with a shudder. She too would have paled if she didn't already look like a ghost.
Karma sighed in relief as he fished out the spice container with a ladle. "So you mean we get to meet the people who spawned you?" he called.
"You're the one who's a demon here!" Fia declared in rebuttal. She groaned and a forlorn string of what sounded like dying Italian rolled off of her tongue. "You don't understand… Parents' Weekend only has one other name!" She paused. "HELL!"
Fia: (stretches) Ah! It's good to be normal-sized again!
Haven: I kind of liked being small.
Karma: (teasingly) I didn't see much of a difference, chemicals or not.
Haven: I'm not that small you know. What exactly did I drop into the soup?
Karma: Chili powder. Hope you can take the heat.
Fia: (staring at Karma) Chu….
Karma: … What…?
Fia: (teary eyes - mutters quietly) I miss being able to sit on your shoulder… (blushes profusely) I-I m-mean I just g-got some p-pepper in my eyes i-is all! H-haha hahaha… (nervous laughter)
Narrator: Right, well before this gets too long, I'll get on with the preview. Two words: Parents' Weekend!
Fia: HELL! One word! ONE WORD!
Haven: (in a dark dark corner, drawing circles with her finger on the ground)
Karma: Can I harvest those mushrooms when you're done? (laughing)
Fia: (goes to sit by Haven, mimicking her actions except for the fact that she's drawing out chemical bonds instead of circles)
Nagisa: It can't be that bad, can it?
