Chapter 3: ...That The Men Are Always Hotter Than You Expect
"I'll do it."
The unexpected pronouncement caught the two non-ninjas by surprise, and Victoria and Samantha whipped around. The formerly empty doorway at their backs was now a graceful, wooden frame encasing a tall, lean figure. The distinctive navy blue bodysuit and sage green tactical vest instantly identified the man as one of the skillful Jonin of the Hidden Leaf village, as did his forehead protector, tilted at a rakish angle over the man's left eye.
His broad shoulders leaned casually against one edge of his chosen frame. One hand braced loosely against his hip while the other casually twirled a dagger-like shuriken around the first knuckle of his index finger.
Suddenly weak at the knees in a way that couldn't be fully blamed upon the stairs, Victoria gripped Samantha's arm tightly. She didn't need Sam's mental pokedex of characters to recognize this man: Kakashi Hatake. Her heart pounded fiercely in her chest as instinct shouted to her that being around such an attractive creature clearly put her in more danger than anything else they'd experienced thus far. You should run away. Really fast. He's hot. He's way too hot.
Almost as though he could hear her thoughts, the bright silver of Kakashi's right eye suddenly shot up to the two of them, piercing a figurative arrow right through Victoria's heart and pinning her in place. In the same moment, the shuriken came to a breath-taking stop in the palm of his hand. The skin about his eyes crinkled in amusement and he gave them a cheeky two-finger wave over the hilt of his dagger.
"Yo."
"Hng," was all Tori could manage.
The moment the man spoke his first sentence, Samantha had spun on her heels, not quite sure if she heard correctly. That sounds like…! As soon as Sam saw his face, her jaw nearly dropped to the ground, her eyes way too big from the shock. The man was dashing to the highest extreme and she had to keep herself steady from the vice-like grip Victoria had claimed on Sam's arm: she nearly tripped from the strength of it, but managed to succeed in keeping both of them both from falling. The anime did not do him justice.
His well-toned form leaned lazily against the doorframe, observing the two friends. Samantha twitched under his gaze, unsure how to react apart from her current jaw dropping and blinking. He certainly seemed amused by them, that was for certain.
"Ah, Kakashi," Hiruzen spoke up, "Nice of you to drop in."
"Lord Hokage," Kakashi acknowledged, his eyes finally moving past the two women to his leader. Victoria's shoulders sagged in unmistakable relief to be out of the direct line of that gaze. "Promised I'd be back by Monday." He gave a nod to Might Guy and Rock Lee who still stood attentively near the Hokage's impressive desk. The differences between the three men were most tangible in the overwhelming presence of them. Might Guy was a bright, white flame: endlessly spewing energy and vigor at his helpless targets. The Hokage had prickled with deadly authority that felt like cactus barbs warning emotions away. But Kakashi could only be described as the seductive menace of a jaguar. His aura promised that despite the lazy way he leaned against the door frame, he could be at any of their throats between one breath and the next, his gleaming shuriken pressing gently against their pulse.
"That you did. I assume you're preparing for next week?" Though the Third Hokage commented as if he were expecting an answer, he continued onward, "I'm surprised you want guard duty."
Samantha watched for Kakashi's reaction. First, wondering why, in the first place, he wanted to be on guard duty, and second, feeling awkward waiting for their assessment.
He gave a slow shrug that pushed him up and away from the door. "Until I get my new team assignment, I'm planning to catch up on my reading." He gave a slight nod to the side to indicate the two women. "I could handle this too. Call it multitasking."
Might Guy seemed to swell a little before the objection growing inside him barked out. "Kakashi, it is an unwise jonin that makes light of any threat against his village."
Victoria knew she should have been listening to the conversation, but her attention was caught up in the way Kakashi-Sensei's silvery hair gently bounced with each nod of his head as he walked. Earthly gravity should have promised that his hair would be stiff and sticky from too much hairspray, but somehow the gleaming strands appeared to have achieved their flight naturally: a divine combination of length and volumizing dissheavel. It was like Heaven itself had run its fingers through his hair. Heaven or a lover. Victoria's ears burned at the thought.
Pausing in his very slow jaunt, Kakashi bent forward at the hips to peer at Sam and Tori as though they were a ramen menu-board. Beneath the cover of his mask, his mouth moved in what was likely a smirk. "These two? You think they could really be a threat? Look at them. They couldn't even handle the stairs."
"Hey! I'll have you know we've been doing a lot of walking today. It makes you tired and sweaty!" Samantha replied with a pout. After all, it wasn't every day you met a ridiculously hot guy who could see just how un-physically fit you were. (Especially when you tried to delude yourself into believing you weren't that out of shape. She was a purple belt after all. A high purple belt!)
The skin about Kakashi's one exposed eye crinkled in an obvious smile as he laughed brightly. The sound seemed to break the spell of silence on Victoria who gasped softly. "Sam," she breathed. "I just realized something terrible. We have to walk down those stairs…" Kakashi laughed harder.
Samantha's heart swayed at Kakashi's laugh. He never seemed like the type to laugh, but then, this was real life. So it made sense. The thought of going back down the stairs, though, was exhausting. Still, Samantha grabbed onto Victoria's arm. "Don't worry, I gotchu!" Looking at Kakashi, Samantha had determined set eyes, ready for the next step they had to endure.
"Well, I leave it to you, then, Kakashi." Lord Third Hokage responded, watching their tiny group thoughtfully. Rock Lee stared at them, his eyes trying to convey… excitement? Desire to follow? To be in the know? Samantha wasn't quite sure. What she did know was that she was ready for a nap. And perhaps a bath. She was gross smelling. Samantha scrunched her nose in disgust. Hopefully it was only she who noticed. Well, she and Victoria anyway.
Kakashi's laughter finally trickled off, and he straightened up and jerked a thumb over one shoulder. "Okay, then. Let's go, Samantha-Chan. Tori-Chan." He spun on his heels and started to march with the expectation they would follow. After a second of stunned silence, they did.
"How did - "
Victoria didn't get a chance to finish her question, because the jounin anticipated it. "Listened from the door," he said easily. He crossed his arms behind the back of his head in an easy, comfortable way. "Did you eat?" At their mumbled assurance, he started to bound down the stairs… very slowly, they were only too happy to notice. "Cool."
Tori looked over at Samantha. They could hardly speak to each other, now knowing how well they were over-heard, but after fifteen years of friendship, they were pretty good at reading each other's expressions. "Oh my heck, it's Kakashi!" Victoria's wide eyes seemed to shout. "And he's totally hot and totally taking us somewhere? What are we gonna do?"
Chan? Samantha repeated to herself, That's very… informal. Does he do this with every woman he meets? To Victoria, Samantha shrugged, "We follow, I suppose." I doubt we'd be able to get very far, anyway. Samantha smirked at her thought, tugging Victoria along to follow Kakashi. It was definitely questionable how he knew their names, not to mention why he was on the other side of the door in the first place, but either way, Samantha was ready.
"Where..are we going?" Victoria called down after they had trotted down the second staircase. "If you don't mind our asking, um, Kakashi, sir." It felt a little wrong to call someone so close to their own age "sir" but her inner feminist was totally cool to point out that she was giving him a 'sir' not at all because of his gender and one hundred percent because of the fact he was their jailer of sorts.
Rather than turning about, Kakashi simply tipped his head clear back to look at them. With him being several steps below, he had a perfect view of their reaction without the effort of turning around. For Tori and Sam, though, it was a little disconcerting, even if it did give them a rather lovely view of his jaw. "My place," he said, smirking as Victoria and Sam stumbled in shock.
"Your place?" Samantha nearly stuttered.
He abruptly corrected his posture and absolutely nothing seemed to explain the clear flirtatiousness of the moment before. The back of his head was all seriousness. "You two seem like you could use some rest and cleaning up."
Samantha looked at Victoria, a teasing grin upon Sam's face as she noticed how red her friend was. And Samantha was sure it wasn't due to being exhausted. Well… not all of it, anyway. If Sam was a little excited to see Kakashi's place, she could only imagine what Victoria was feeling...the man was absolutely smoldering. But a bath sure sounded nice! Samantha just hoped that his place didn't take long to get to. The two of them were already limping as it was, needing to give their feet a long break.
Luckily, Sam's wishes were granted by the universe and within just a short walk of the Hokage's tower, was Kakashi's neatly kept apartment. He seemed way too cool with giving the two strange women the "official apartment tour." He then casually declared he was going to be back in a minute and sauntered out the door. A sharp-eyed Victoria noticed that the strange jonin had slapped a seal against the apartment's main door on his way out. There was no chance of them escaping, if they for some reason wanted to. Victoria gratefully flopped onto the room's long and totally nap-worthy sofa. "Forgive me," she mumbled before kicking off her shoes and socks. The sigh of relief was so, so worth the smell of sweaty socks. "But I think my feet are literally about to die."
"Tell me about it!" Samantha agreed, joining her friend. She, in turn, kicked off her shoes before curling up onto the edge of the couch. "I'm so exhausted. I feel like I could sleep for days! My legs feel kinda like jello." Leaning her head against the back of the couch, Samantha yawned. "Is it time for bed yet? Wait, no. I desperately need a shower!" Even just lying there, Samantha knew that was a task she had to complete before the next day arrived.
Victoria gave a breathless laugh. "Saaaaammmmeeee," she agreed. Samantha giggled. Victoria made a vague attempt to push herself over a little to give Sam more room on the couch. It ended with her face collapsed against the edge of the middle cushion. "Ugh. Who thought ninjas could be such taskmasters?" she quipped sarcastically. "It's like they expect everyone can just run everywhere all the time."
In feigned innocence, Samantha slowly raised her hand. "I did." She replied, not quite looking Tori in the eyes.
"You're so facetious," Tori accused under her breath.
Then Samantha smiled facetiously. "Or maybe it's just these particular ninja that expect that? I mean… It's Kakashi. He was jounin at thirteen."
"That doesn't mean anything to me," Victoria reminded her lightly. Her knowledge of this universe was patchy at best, and moth-eaten after a good twelve year hiatus from the fandom.
Samantha laughed good and hard. Seriously. Tori was just the best. "Basically, he became an Anbu Black Ops member - you know, like the secret service, and so is used to strenuous activity. All that jazz."
"Oh right. But, he wasn't the one I blame for my aching tootsers. He was like, at least somewhat of a human, no I blame that Mighty Guy dude. Like, where's the fire? It's in my feet."
"Tootsers?" Samantha snorted. Honestly, her friend came up with the strangest phrases! Well, not that Sam was one to talk, but… you know. "Might Guy did make us walk to the Hokage tower, I suppose. But at least it was entertaining! Rock Lee gave us much to observe. Could you believe that he actually climbed that wall? How do you think he did it?" Samantha paused, thinking back on that strange moment. "I mean… I know that in the anime they use chakra to make their feet stick." She giggled. "Kinda like a spider's feet! Claws?" Samantha snickered to herself again, "Could you imagine if the ninja walked on all fours! That would be super hilarious."
"You mean super terrifying," Victoria corrected. "Like those youtube videos of people being the girl from The Ring." She almost had the strength to shudder playfully, but decided to save it for the eventual moment when she'd have to crawl her way to a bathroom. "And..I think he probably could do it cuz he's a ninja."
"Ew, why would you bring up The Ring? That's legit terrifying." Sam's eyes bugged out at the thought, "And yeah, they may be 'ninja'," she used finger quotes for emphasis, "But there's just no way this is real. My bet is harnesses. That this is just some elaborate ploy to get us to believe we're in Konoha for real." Samantha deliberately emphasized the word "elaborate," her voice not shy about her disbelief.
Victoria shook her head slightly. "Sammie-Sam..I think we gotta own up to the fact that this is as real as it is."
"Oh no, they've gotten to you," Samantha dreaded.
"No," Tori interrupted firmly, but softly. "They didn't." She fiddled with the ends of her hair. "I've been praying like crazy since we ended up on that mountain that it would be something that we could explain away, but..honestly, at this point, I think it's more unbelievable that anyone is orchestrating this. And..well, what would make you believe it? What could make you agree that it was real?"
"Good question," Samantha contemplated, "I'm not sure there is anything that would make me believe. Maybe it's the whole 'believing is seeing' thing. Gotta believe it's real before I actually believe what I'm seeing…" Samantha sat there for a moment, wondering what could possibly convince her this was real.
"Kakashi-Sensei-"
"He's not your sensei you know…" Samantha drawled, "you'd not actually call him that,"
"Fine. Not-Quite-So-Pervy-Sage slapped a seal on the door before he left. But no keys in the lock. Why don't you go just try to open the door, ya doubting Thomas?" Victoria was feeling a little prickly. She wasn't totally down with all the darn names and titles, and she already felt like she was down to only three working brain cells. Sam's correction had hurt her feelings a little.
"A seal." Samantha repeated, too engrossed in the conversation to have realized her mishap towards Tori. "On the door." She glanced at the door. It looked normal, not unlike a door you'd find where they were from. With another glance at Victoria's frowning face, Sam sighed and stood up, "I guess I can give it a try to see what happens."
Walking over to the dark wooded door, Samantha placed her hand on the silver knob and turned, mildly surprised when the knob twisted but nothing happened. She tried pulling the door open but, nothing. She tried pushing the door open. Still, nothing. Sam gave up hope and turned back towards Tori, "This proves nothing," she proclaimed.
"But can you prove anything not being real?" Tori countered back. "Have you seen anything that'd be out of place? A single cell-phone? Non-period clothing? Boom mikes sticking out of windows?"
"You and your period clothing," Samantha muttered before saying louder, "Currently? Well, no. But that doesn't mean they're not there." Samantha replied, "I suppose I'd have to see an actual jutsu. Like…. A rasengan, or Kakashi's chidori. Something like that. There's no way they'd be able to CGI something like that in real life."
Victoria snorted a little. "CGI is an after effect," she pointed out. "Nobody but Rock Lee runs around in green unitards. And..rasengan's an eye thing, right? Probably hard to swing that, but what about like a substitution jutsu? Or Naruto's shadow clones?"
"Exactly! To see a rasengan would be pretty impressive and definitely proof. There'd be no way they - whoever they are, could produce something like that in real life. But you're right," Samantha then agreed, "to see a substitution jutsu or Naruto's shadow clones would also be something they could never produce without special effects." She conceded.
"'Kay, so then if we convince Not-so-Pervy to let us go watch training grounds tomorrow and anything not-humanly-possible happens, then, you, Samantha T. Winters, agree to agree that we are actually in an alternate universe where Konoha is real and all your crazy fan-girl dreams can come true?" Tori pointed her index finger meaningfully at the too-chill, too-deep-in-denial Samantha. "And you won't be greedy and demand a rasengan to be convinced?"
"Okay okay, fine, Victoria G. Lexington." Samantha pouted, "But why can't I demand a rasengan? It's so freaking awesome!"
"Cuz if someone is throwing a rasengan around it means we're probably about to die?" Victoria pointed out with a clear attitude of "we probably shouldn't wish to die" in her voice.
"You worry too much," Samantha stuck her tongue out in her pouting acceptance of the terms. "But one day, I will totally get to see a rasengan."
"Well, if you want me to not worry so much, just bring the hot guy back," Victoria drawled self-deprecatingly. "Pretty sure my whole brain melts right outta my head."
Samantha laughed loudly. Granted, she wasn't sure how to laugh softly, so it was pretty normal.
"Seriously. I've never met someone that actually attractive in real life. Only tv people are supposed to be that hot. It's like..a crime against humanity, or something."
With another snort, Sam replied, "I wouldn't say that! I mean… my ex was pretty friggin' hot."
"No he wasn't," Victoria corrected instantly. "Really never got what you saw in him."
"Pfft, just because you never got to meet him." Samantha argued. "But I totally agree… Kakashi… whew!" She fanned herself.
"Well, and, I mean, before Kakeshi came in the room and just devastated the entire planet with the gorgeousness of his face, Might Guy is not too bad looking either. I'd probably like him it weren't for his hair. And eyebrows. And general personality.."
"Touché," Sam smirked, "And that's saying a lot considering we can only see Kakashi's eyeball."
"Good Golly Great Peaches of Atlanta," Victoria murmured solemnly. "We just might die if we saw his whole face, Sam. That's probably why he wears the mask. He doesn't need the sexy jutsu. He is just constantly personifying it." Unable to hold the serious tone any more, she started to giggle. Fairly quickly, both friends turned the light laughter into a frenzied and slightly hysterical laughter - or maniacal cackling… whichever term you prefer. They sounded like the witches from Hocus Pocus but most definitely not as old.
Nearing the end of their contagious laughing, the door opened. One look at the devastating eye-candy, and both Samantha and Victoria burst into another round of laughing.
His long arms full of bags, the jonin stopped just inside the doorway. After a moment of their riotous laughter, he slowly raised one eyebrow. "Hi."
Victoria's laughter reached max mirth: a very high-pitched giggle interspersed with unladylike snorts and tears burning from the corners of her blue eyes. She shoved at Sam's shoulder as though somehow it could stop Samantha and her silent, old-man belly laugh. "Stop," she gasped. "Oh man."
Kakeshi simply nodded at them and serenely made his way to the tiny kitchen where he began to put away his gathered groceries.
"We're terrible people," Tori whispered between helpless giggles.
"Nah, we're not that bad," Samantha's grandpa laugh simmered down, almost to a hiccup. She turned her attention over to their 'caretaker' if you will. Their "host" for all intents and purposes. "So! Whatchu got there?" She intruded, curious as to the contents of the bags.
Kakashi lifted a bagged loaf of sandwich bread from the second bag and pivoted it like a well-trained display model. Victoria, embarrassed now about her bare feet, tried to discreetly kick her smelly socks back into her shoes. Kakashi set down the bread and then proceeded to less dramatically unpack the other groceries. He pointed one finger down at the third brown-paper bag. "I asked a neighbor for some spare clothes for you both. You can use the bathroom whenever you want."
"Oooh, that was a brilliant idea!" Samantha exclaimed, "I like the way you think." She jumped up from the couch, walking on the sides of her feet to try to spare her aching arches any more pain after the ridiculous amount of walking they had done earlier that day. Limping up to the silver-haired man, Samantha snooped at all the groceries he had bought while she gathered the clothing into a big bundle and made her way back to the couch. "Here's yours!" She plopped herself onto the couch, sifting out the items of clothing and handing Tori her share.
Wanting to fully take advantage of the jounin's offer, Samantha made her way to the bathroom, admiring the clothing she'd get to use. It was unsurprising that the man had chosen what were obviously ninja clothes for the two women. She laid out the set as she turned on the shower. Given to her were some knee-length black cargo shorts, a black cargo shirt with an obvious white tank-top to go underneath. And though it took her a minute, Samantha realized the strange black tubes were arm coverings that went from her wrists to just above her elbow. She lifted an eyebrow at the sight. Did Kakashi intend her to get into many fights? That's usually what happened when anime characters wore those kinds of things. Well, that'd be kinda cool. Then I could actually know what it's like to spar! Because, while Samantha had a purple belt in Kenpo, due to her situation with her training, she never had the opportunity to spar. So, with a shrug, Samantha proceeded with her shower.
It wasn't until Samantha was under the shower of warm water that she realized she had totally abandoned Victoria with the man who made her totally tongue-tied.
Tori for her part was somewhat frozen on the couch, meticulously tying and untying the sash that neatly surrounded the pile of her borrowed clothing. For the very life of her, she could think of absolutely nothing to say. Her first instinct was to pull out her phone and proceed to fake texting, but that obviously was not a great social crutch in the shinobi world. Running her tongue over the sharp points of her teeth, she forced herself to think of a possible conversation opener. "Thank you. For taking us in." It wasn't great, but at least her voice sounded normal.
Across the small room, Kakashi gave a single-syllable sound that she interpreted to mean "No problem." He opened the fridge and rearranged the vegetables in there.
"Is..there anything I can do to help?" she asked. It was a safe default: people almost always had something they would let her help with.
He finally glanced over at her then nodded to the left where a large set of bookcases spanned the room. "Grab me a book, Tori-Chan. I like to read when I cook."
It was a weird request, but it was something to do to cover her nerves! Gingerly getting to her feet, she shuffled over to inspect the book collection. It was almost as large as hers. She smiled widely at the realization. Of course, like the ramen shop, everything was in Japanese so she could hardly tell what they were about, but books, any books, always brought comfort. It was like fresh mountain air: just running her fingers along the soft spines refreshed her soul. "You have so many," she declared happily. "Do you read a lot then?" Feeling particularly drawn to a hardcover book bound in green, she pulled it out and ran her fingers over the kanjis embossed into it.
"Almost constantly," he admitted. His deft hands chopped some carrots with a disturbing speed.
Victoria flipped the book open, but sadly the magic that helped her know what he said did not suddenly render the characters legible to her. "What are your favorite kind of stories?" she asked.
His eyes flicked up from the cutting board for just a second. "I like books with….action. Romance. Sometimes a little twisted."
Her nose crinkled up happily. "The good kind, then," she declared, utterly and totally not remembering just what types of books the sensei read that had earned him the moniker of Not Quite So Pervy Sage so long ago. "I love a little dark comedy myself," she admitted. Determining the green novel to be her choice for him, she brought it across the room. "How about this one?"
He blinked at the title and then raised an eyebrow at her. "Sure."
Victoria smiled a little wider, glad to have managed her appointed task. Spotting the potatoes he had left out, she pointed to them. "Do you need those peeled?" At his small nod, she half-skipped over to the knife block, sat at the stool beside his counter, and was well-content to let the silence lapse again as she set about peeling the potatoes. It didn't feel so awkward now that she knew he was as much of a book-nerd as she was. The more human-like qualities she could pin on her mental image of him, the less overwhelming his hotness was. She mentally added "good at cutting carrots" to the board along with "thoughtful enough to bring us clean clothes." She had to be careful though...wouldn't be smart to add so many good things to the list that she forgot the rules.
After admiring her new outfit in the mirror, Samantha did her best to comb out her wet hair as she walked into the living room/kitchen, only to find that Victoria had managed to worm her way over to Kakashi's side. She grinned at the sight, happy to see that Tori had overcome her shyness to sit next to a guy she was attracted to. Something that Samantha struggled with herself. Crushes were so very hard to acknowledge. She plopped herself next to Tori, her smile gracing her lips even wider.
"So, I see you two having oodles of fun," Samantha said, making for conversation. It was kind of impressive to watch Kakashi chop carrots at lightning speed while also reading, but it got pretty boring after a minute. Normally, her boredom could be solved by her finding a piano and pounding its black and white keys with the coolest, fastest songs she had memorized. Sadly, Kakashi's house lacked such an instrument.
Samantha stood awkwardly for a moment, rolling on her heels, unsure of what she should do. The two seemed so comfortable with the silence that Samantha turned around, strolling about Kakashi's room. She, too, noticed the bookshelf and giggled when she saw the famous sannin series that the jounin was notorious for reading. As she browsed, Samantha begun to softly sing the tune of "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. Though she didn't like any other songs from the woman, Sam could concede that this particular song was super fun to sing to and most likely appropriate for the books she noticed on the shelf.
Across the room, Tori picked up on the soft humming and without quite noticing started to sing along with Sam. It was almost impossible for her to resist the urge to be a human jukebox at any opportunity. "Ro-ma Ro-ma-ma. Gaga Oh-la-la! Want your bad romance.." Another naked potato joined its companions: the carrot slivers.
Sam smiled as she heard Victoria sing along, continuing with her observations of the living room. She couldn't help but caress the bookshelf as she browsed the space. Samantha was probably like a little kid in that way. Touching everything she saw. When the song came to the chorus, Samantha turned to Victoria and smiled gleefully as Tori slightly turned her body to face Sam and they both sung the "want your bad romance!" together.
Laughing brightly between the notes, Victoria totally threw herself into their singing. This is what they did. Every car ride between them ever meant super passionate singing with ridiculous faces. Pointing dramatically to Samantha, she let her sing the "Oh-oh-oh-oh-ohh!"s before joining in on the "Caught in a bad romance!"
Samantha, as much as she loved to dance to their joyful songs, was never as animated in her movements as the notorious Victoria who headbanged with reckless abandonment regardless of who may be watching. So in true Victorian fashion, Tori whipped her hair around to the driving beat. Samantha had to work hard to hold in the giggles as an impish idea occurred to her. Luckily, they were coming up on just the right verse. "I want your love, and I want your revenge," both friends sang out. And then Sam stopped, and the unwitting Victoria didn't even notice.
With all her heart, the redhead sang at a volume that surely was being heard by the neighbors: "I want your love! I don't wanna be friennnnddssss..." Belatedly, Tori seemed to notice that at the end of her outstretched arm was not the uncaring rear-view mirror but rather a very amused looking Kakeshi. Only then did Tori realize whom she was looking at and what she was singing.
Kakashi placed a hand over his heart. "Tori-chan. I didn't know you felt that way."
Never in the history of Konoha had anyone turned quite that scarlet quite that quickly. A noise that sounded like "eep" swallowed the rest of Victoria's song. There were a few attempts at explanation, but the sounds were barely comprehensible as human sounds, much less actual language. "I'm gonna shower!" she finally managed and her feet apparently must have felt much better cuz she practically flew across the room and into the sanctuary of the bathing chamber.
"So," Samantha smiled, mischievously, "How 'bout them carrots?"
A/N: Well... I certainly hope you all found this just as funny as we did! Just so you know... RoyalVicTorie is crazy! You see... we're getting this out super early... (which, as a reader myself, is always exciting!)... b/c RoyalVicTorie, for one, loved writing this chapter right along with me. And another... she says "pleeeeeeeeeeease review! We love you!" She says reviews will satiate her desire to get chapters out fast but... I say... it'll encourage her to write more and post a lot. lol Granted... I'm no exception... so... ANYWAY! Thank you for all the readers out there and for those who have liked and followed! We find you amazing.
And I promise.. though this chapter didn't have a crap ton happen in it, it was necessary. Plus... we laughed. A lot.