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ADVENTURES OF A NINE LEGGED SPIDER
by Onkiu!
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Author's Note: Our blue haired goddess continues to take over the limelight! With a very special someone, of course! There's a slight romantic element to, but since the genre is a humourous action/adventure story, this romantic element won't outweigh the others.
Legal Stuff: I love HxH... but don't own it... boo hoo.
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Onkiu presents:
ADVENTURES OF A NINE LEGGED SPIDER
Chapter Four: The stranger x Machi x Cakes
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The voice! So familiar yet...
Machi couldn't help but stop her scrubbing for a second. She was curious. That voice was one she knew very well. She looked up, and to her surprise and disgust was Hisoka, standing there, smiling his fruity smile. He was wearing the pinstripe suit that suited him so well, and he was looking down at her, the light behind him casting a dark veil over his face. It made his smile, in fact, look rather, shall we say, creepy. Behind he stood a man with sunglasses.
The sudden visit on the part of Hisoka's left Machi rather surprised. Instead of dunking her sponge back into the bucket of detergent, she accidentally put her hand in, and when she realised it, she couldn't help but let out a gasp. She quickly withdrew her hand, and in the process, knocked over the bucket. Machi sighed and stared up at Hisoka in an expression of exasperation and somehow, fear.
"What's wrong, Machi?" he said unctuously. "It's not like you to be so careless :)."
"What... what are you doing here?" she snapped. She certainly was not in a good mood after a day of work, and was even more annoyed by the fact that he managed to add a sideways internet smiley to the end of his sentence. She bent over, retrieved the bucket from the ground, and began wiping up the mess she had created and squeezing it back into the bucket.
"To buy some cakes, obviously," he smiled. "And to ask you out for dinner."
She sighed, and continued wringing the sponge. "You can buy some cakes and then leave. As you can see, I'm very busy right now. As for the dinner, NO."
"Why not?" smirked Hisoka. "Oh, Machi. How many times do I need to ask before you accept?"
"Never for as long as I live. Anyway," she continued, changing the subject. She dropped her sponge back into the bucket, wiped her hands on her apron, and stood behind the counter, ready and waiting with her tongs. "How may I help you? Our selection is rather limited as the shop is about to close. Please make your choice and leave."
"Machi," he said again, as though repeating her name would change her mind. "Is this the attitude you show to all your customers?"
"No. Only to you. My special treatment."
"I want those two fruit tarts, and one slice of that Carrot Cake. And I want you to go out to dinner with me."
She picked up the two fruit tarts, and the slice of Carrot Cake, and placed both in a little paper bag. "Sorry, sir, but there is no such cake as "You to go out to Dinner with Me.' Anything else?"
"No. But it's already the 576th time I asked, so why won't you accept?"
"Simple: I don't want to go out with you. Thank you very much, sir, the total comes to 760 jenis."
Hisoka reached over the counter, and dropped some notes into her hand. Then his hand sidled over to take the bag of cakes from her, but instead of taking the bag, he grabbed her hand instead.
"What are you doing!" snapped Machi icily, trying to pull away. But Hisoka was no mere mortal. Being a former spider, he was within her power range. He squeezed her hand even tighter.
"Machi, I love you, I want you," he said in those fruity tones, his face not imparting any of the love and desire he was professing in the meanwhile. "I want to take you out to dinner, pretty please with a cherry on the top?"
She flung her arm away from him, and stared coolly at him. "How did you know I worked here?"
"Oh," he shrugged. "I followed you here, right from this morning. Hehe," he giggled in a rather creepy way. "Did you know I had to wait until there were no customers here before I could come and ask you out alone?"
"No I didn't, and no, I'm not going out with a stalker," she said flatly.
"Please?"
"NO!"
"With a cherry on the top!"
"Doubly NO!"
Hisoka gave up for that night, and went home a little downtrodden though not defeated. His chauffer followed him, speaking in soft, consoling tones, and occasionally switching to a different tact by berating 'that blue haired girl's' (lack of) taste in men. But he was more persistent than he ever was before. He came everyday, at around the same time - which was when she finished work for the evening. Time and time again, he had used the same lines - "Pretty please with a cherry on the top?" – which, the more he used, the more annoyed she got. He had a hunch that she was annoyed at the cherries, and decided to change it to watermelons instead.
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It had been around two weeks since she started work, and day after day, it was a familiar routine. Get to work, serve some customers, take out some trays of cake, clean the counter, and a visit from Hisoka.
What a familiar routine.
But today was different. Instead of the brilliant, sunny weather that had been blessing York Shin City for those past two weeks, the sky had turned a moody, bleak grey early in the morning. As the day progressed, rain clouds formed over the city. It started to sprinkle a little, then a shower, and evolved to a full torrential rain by afternoon, much to Machi's delight. With rain today, she thought, Hisoka won't be coming to badger me again lest he ruin his funky red hair!
And right she was. At closing time, he still hadn't arrived.
Yes! Home free, at last!
But then, realising her lack of umbrella, her positive, happy thoughts took a slight turn to the negative.
I'll just have to make a run for it home. Maybe get someone to pick me up.
Checking that everything was in place (Machi had been assigned to make sure the shop is properly shut since Blu was back in the Head Office), she flicked the lights off, and locked the glass door. She pulled the metal shutters down, locked them, before shaking them a bit to make sure that they were in place. Machi then stood there, pondering her next action.
Pedestrians carrying umbrellas were walking past as the rain continued to pour. Cars with bright headlights cut through the water, proceeding to splash some onto the pathways. Some unfortunate souls without umbrellas were running haphazardly with a drenched newspaper covering their heads.
Machi sighed. She wished she would at least be like those unfortunate souls, at least HAVE A NEWSPAPER. She waited for a while, but seeing that the rain continued its downpour, she weighed up her options. It was unlikely that the rain would stop or slow anytime soon. It was now or never.
She leapt from her position under the awnings of Bicarbonate Bakeries into the rain. Skidding slightly on the wet footpath, she dashed forward blindly. Machi ran and picked up speed, eventually becoming a blur to those who caught a glimpse of her. Her head bowed, she flew past the other soaking pedestrians, and just as she was about to reach the intersection, she ran head on into someone.
BANG! CRASH!
No, never had it actually occurred to her that there would be someone walking in the OPPOSITE direction. How silly of her. She slipped from the impact, and before her Spider reflexes could kick in and prevent her fall, she fell, landing somewhat safely on her behind. Rubbing her now bruised prosterior, she turned up to apologise (her manners were very well developed by now) to her victim.
Of all the people in York Shin she could bump into, she JUST had to bump into Hisoka. To her disgust, she quickly swallowed her apologies.
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Next Chapter: Poor Machi – how is she going to get away from Hisoka this time?