Greetings programs! I'm updating during the summer, isn't that an interesting change?
So, some news. You'll probably be a little disappointed in this, but I actually have chapters for The War completed and approved, I'm just withholding them until the summer's over and I return home. Hey, I need some kind of buffer ready for when I spend a month writing out the battle that you all know is coming soon.
Anywho...
Disclaimer: (Shire strokes his chin, which is now devoid of a beard due to needing it shaved off by orders of his boss' boss and because his cosplay for Anime-a-thon won't allow it, and drops what he would have written for the disclaimer it in the middle of a field in the gopher capital of Alberta) "The gophers can have this thing."
-A-D-
Garden of Snow and Ice
Hockey
"Can I play?"
The question was simple, easy to understand, and relatively easy to answer…if it was someone of the same sex asking the question, or someone who didn't look quite as peculiar. The nine boys looked around at each other before looking back at the girl. She stood at average height, roughly five-foot seven; had lovely indigo eyes; was wearing a raspberry beret overtop a head of shoulder-length auburn hair; and was wearing a winter jacket of white, fuchsia, and grey; white snow pants and boots; and black mittens. In addition, the left arm of her jacket was empty and there was a small yellow…blob sitting on her right shoulder and a tiny dragon that looked to be made completely out of fire on her left.
The breath of the nine boys came out in hot steaming clouds as they looked at the girl, each one of them clutching a straight wooden stick that held a curved flat piece on the end. All of them were dressed in simple sweaters with either hats, earmuffs, or nothing on their heads and pairs of blue jeans on their legs overtop of running shoes. Over the boys' sweaters were jerseys, mostly of the same purple and silver colour with the head of a bearded man wearing a golden crown on the front and a number and name on the back. One of the boys had pads strapped to his legs and a cloth breastplate tied over his chest and another pad on his right arm; his stick was a little different it was shorter than the others, but it was also wider nearer the base and completely straight as well.
"C'mon Jeff," one of the boys said to the one in front of the others, a boy who looked around seventeen with short jet-black hair that just slightly peeked out from under a red and blue hat, "we need another goalie."
"Curtis," the boy in front, Jeff, said as he glanced back to his right, "can't you play net?"
"I don't do net man," said the one whom Jeff had addressed. "You know that. I suck."
"Shit," Jeff muttered under his breath. The girl gave him a look as she waited, though she was chewing her bottom lip. "Why'd my stupid brother Tyson have to up and ditch us like that?"
"Who called him anyway?" another boy, this one named Mike, asked.
Jeff gave him a confused and slightly surprised look as he said exasperatedly, "I don't know! He wouldn't tell me! But he left all his stuff here and told me to just find someone to play net!"
"It's 'cause we were kicking his ass," laughed another one of the nine, a light-blue haired one named Jessie. "He was letting goals in left, right, and centre."
Jeff grumbled, then looked at the girl again. He would admit that he really didn't have much of a choice. No one besides his brother and Ed could play net, and they needed another goalie if they wanted to keep playing. Doubt was etched into his face as he looked at her, since she'd have to replace his brother, but then again, Tyson had been playing really poorly today; his mind had to be somewhere else completely. Why else would he have looked so relieved when his cell had started to ring and he'd rushed away, leaving his pads and stick behind?
"Just let her play," Ed whispered.
Nodding slowly, Jeff addressed the girl. "You any good in net?" he asked, jerking his head at one of the two white-netted and red-posted nets that they had standing in the middle of the street.
She smiled and shrugged. "Dunno, never played before," she answered. He groaned, and it looked like she felt compelled to continue as she came onto the street from the sidewalk, where she'd been watching their game for the last couple of minutes before Tyson had left. In fact, it had actually galvanized him and his friends into playing harder; better, now that they had had a pretty girl watching them play. "But," she added, "I have played keeper for my friends for years as they practiced, so it shouldn't be too much different."
"Keeper?" asked Ed. "What do you mean Keeper?"
"That's the person who defends the net in blitzball," she answered. "I'm from Destiny Islands," she added at the confused looks they gave her.
"Destiny Islands?" Jeff asked. Something tweaked in his memory as he looked at the girl, and he figured that it was something pretty important. "What's your name again?"
"Samantha," she answered quickly. The blob and tiny fire dragon thing looked at her, and the dragon started to hiss. She looked back at it and made a rasping noise. Truthfully, Jeff was more than a little bit spooked by that, but he shook his head as she looked back at them with a satisfied smile. The girl was very pretty after all.
"Close enough Sam," he said, "can we call you Sam?" She nodded her head. "You know, you look a lot like Prince—"
"I get that a lot," she said tiredly, though she still had a humourous smile on her face. Nodding back, Jeff signalled.
"Ed, go help her get into Tyson's pads."
"Sure," said the other goalie. "C'mon Sam, this way."
"You're going to want to take that jacket and those snow pants off," said Brian, the left defenseman on Jeff's team. "You'll roast otherwise." A cool wind started to blow, sending a bit of the snow that was piled up on lawns beside the sidewalk and road into the road. The sun was shining brightly, but even it couldn't warm the cold stone up much.
"But I'm cold now!" Sam protested.
"Well you're going to sweat a lot, even if you are just standing around in net," Ed told her. "You've got to keep moving, always searching for that damn ball so that you can block it. Don't take this the wrong way, but would you like help getting the jacket off?"
She grinned. "Moving a little quick there Ed? My boyfriend certainly won't like it if he hears another guy was undressing me." The other goalie blushed and backed off while all the others chortled. "No, it's okay, I can get my jacket off myself." She brought her right hand up to the zipper and pulled it down. Immediately she started to shiver as the sweater gave way to her thick red sweater underneath, and the blob hopped off of her shoulder and she wrapped the blob up in the jacket.
"There you are Minyamon," she said softly, "nice and cozy."
The blob chirped, "Minyamon!" and Samantha smiled and carried the jacket and blob over to the sidewalk she had just vacated. She looked towards the little dragon made of flame that was fluttering in the air close to her left shoulder, and rasped something. The dragon nodded its head and flew up to her raspberry beret and settled down right in the middle of it. Samantha turned back towards the group of boys and started heading for Ed at the nearest net again.
Jeff couldn't help but stare. He could see that her left arm was in a cast underneath her sweater, and her arm was held in a sling. She could command some strange fire creature and had a little glowing yellow blob for a pet, and she was injured and thought that she could play as a goalie? What was this crazy girl from Destiny Islands going to do next? Reveal that underneath her snow pants she was wearing a skirt?
Fortunately she was wearing jeans under her snow pants, but her teeth were already chattering from the wind and cold air. She really mustn't be used to this weather at all, because Jeff knew that even though it was a little chilly, it wasn't bad, and they'd warm right up again as soon as they started playing. Neil and Devon, better known as 'Twitch' or 'Twitchy' to his friends, were already passing the orange ball they substituted as a puck back and forth.
"Are you sure you want to play net Sam?" Ed asked as she knelt down into the pads. Her face twitched in disgust and winced at the cold as her jeans pressed against the now slightly icy backside, since some of Tyson's sweat had gotten into them. "I mean, you won't be able to use your glove with you arm broken like that."
"Hm? My arm?" Samantha asked. She laughed. "Don't worry about my arm. It's healed." She raised the limb up above her head in its hidden cast, and then slammed it onto the frozen road.
They almost weren't able to tell what had shattered, the cast or the road?
Sam gave them the answer when she raised her arm up and straightened it. She stretched the cuff of her sweater with a finger from her right hand and then shook the broken pieces of the pink cast out from underneath. Jeff and most of the others looked at each other in astonishment. She'd just shattered a cast that had kept her broken arm immobilized in a single hit against the road! And she didn't seem to be in any pain and was now moving her arm around in a few exercises to make sure that it was completely healed!
She smiled, rotating it around. "Yeah, this feels nice. Good thing I switched out my regular potion for a Hi-potion this morning and then cast another cure spell while no one was looking. It might not have healed until tomorrow otherwise."
And she drank potions and used magic? Desire to know this badass beauty better and find out just who the lucky guy who'd gotten her first was filled all nine of the boys. And maybe, just maybe, she'd have some hot friends who were single.
Samantha shivered as she fitted her catcher's glove onto her left hand and then put the blocker over her right forearm, in the same place as Ed's. "Is this right?" she asked.
He nodded. "Perfect. Now we're just going to put that chest protector on you and you'll look the part." He smirked. "Hope you're good though, Alex and Twitchy were tearing Tyson apart earlier."
"We'll see," Samantha answered with a smile. She stood up, a little awkwardly since she obviously wasn't used to the added weight of the pads on her legs, and grabbed Jeff's AWOL brother's stick. "Alright boys, let's see what you've got!"
"Let's go!" Neil yelled, tightening his grip on his stick and rushing back to the centre, his stick already reaching for the orange ball.
"Hey hold up!" Ed shouted as he started hobbling. "I'm not back in my net yet!"
"Your loss!" Neil laughed. He got the ball on his stick and started rushing up the road with it with a large grin on his face. He took the shot, the orange ball quickly arcing into the white netting at the back. "GOAL!" he yelled, raising his stick to the sky and sauntering around. "That's five to two gentlemen, we're having a comeback."
Jeff laughed while Todd scoffed, "Doesn't count. There wasn't a faceoff!"
"So says the D who wasn't quick enough to stop me," Neil mocked.
"I ain't no Bobby Ore."
Samantha laughed in net while Ed got back into his and fished the ball out with his stick. "Okay guys, can we start for real now?"
A few laughed and nodded and Jeff quickly went by her. "Just remember Sam, keep the ball out of the net, and I don't want any sissy shrieking or running away because they're shooting at you."
Samantha raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm going to run away like a pansy?"
Wisely realizing that with the look Sam was giving him anything he said would be a mark against him, Jeff just humbly smiled and said, "We've had a few girls before who stopped playing net after the first two shots because they didn't like having a frozen ball whacked at them."
"Don't worry," Samantha assured him, "I'm not running." Nodding, Jeff went off to his place at Neil's left side.
"We all ready?" Jessie asked, standing across from Neil as his own team's centre. The ball was now between them. When all the nods came back, he said, "Go!"
The scuffle started right off the bat, Neil and Jessie fighting over the ball for a tense second before Jessie was able to shove Neil aside and push out past him. Brian and Mike converged on him from their defensive positions in front of their net, and Jessie flicked the ball back and to his left. Alex picked it up easily on his stick and stopped for a second. At the moment, he had a clear shot for Sam's net, Mike just too far out of way to deflect the ball away. Alex wound up, and fired.
Samantha cleanly saw it coming, her eyes having followed the ball the whole way there from the faceoff. Her right arm was quick as she raised it to the proper height, and she felt the slight blunt impact of the frozen ball hitting her blocker. It dropped back to the cold road, and Sam lowered her stick and quickly shot it off, down the road and towards Jeff on the left side.
He smiled under his hat as the ball reached him. The first test for their new goalie, and she'd passed it perfectly. Maybe she really did know what she was doing. He got the ball on his stick and ran forward, seeing George coming up in front of him and Jessie moving to intercept on his right side. He shouted and made a pass across the road to Curtis, but it struck Jessie's shoe and bounced off. Jessie grabbed it up with his stick and reversed direction, sending the ball to Alex. It just made it past Neil and Alex was able to get a stick on it even as its speed outstripped his own. He put on a burst of speed and reached the ball, just getting control of it as he dodged Mike and went behind Sam's net. Brian was in the way to Twitchy, so he quickly passed it off to his centre.
Jessie met the ball with a one-timer the instant before Neil could get there, shooting through the slight screen that Brian and Jeff were making. Jeff gulped. Jessie's one-timers had always been trouble for Tyson, and when they hit Tyson would always be sporting a bruise for the rest of the week. Jeff barely saw the ball moving at all.
Samantha's glove came up and snatched it right out of the air before it could even think of entering the top left corner of the net. The nine boys all reacted in excited awe, Twitchy even going, "Whoa!" and laughing.
Samantha then made a mock swear and waved her gloved hand up and down. "Yow! That one stung," she said, smiling and letting out a faint peal of laughter.
Several smiles went her way, as well as Jeff's. "Hey Jeff," Neil told him, "I think you'll have to tell your brother he's been replaced." Sam dropped the ball and hit it with her stick. Neil and Jeff moved quick to get it, but Curtis beat them to it and rushed down the road towards Ed's net. He stopped short, finding himself being blocked by Todd, and passed it backwards to Neil. He got the ball easily, and gave it to Jeff. Jeff passed it back, and Neil fired before any of the other forwards could get in front.
Ed dropped down, blocking the five-hole with his pads, and the ball bounced off. Unfortunately for him, it bounced off to Curtis on the side, and he sent the ball up and over Ed's shoulder to hit the inside of the crossbar and bounce into the net.
"GOAL!" he shouted, crowing while the other five people on his team cheered.
-A-D-
They continued playing for another hour, and by the time they were done their cheeks were ruby red and their fingers and toes were frozen stiff, and Samantha was shuddering with cold. She'd only let in one goal, even going so far as to block one frozen shot with her face, and Neil's squad had rallied around their new goaltender and put three more in the net behind Ed after Curtis'. They lost by one, but all of them agreed that if Sam had been in net since the start that it would have been a rout for Jessie's side.
"Thanks Plato," Samantha said as the little flaming dragon up in her beret shot puffs of fire from its mouth to warm their fingers and ears. The dragon rasped something at her in a mild hiss, and she started to stroke its head with a finger. It began to croon, and Sam put her jacket back on and hugged the yellow blob close while slinging her snow pants over her shoulder. "Hey, thanks for the game guys. It was really fun."
"Oh no problem," Alex said. "Be sure to come by again; we'll kick Tyson out of net for you any day."
"Actually, could I get you phone numbers?" Sam asked.
Jeff's face instantly brightened. Forget that she said she had a boyfriend, she wanted his number! "Sure!" he said, giving it to her along with the others. Samantha wrote them all down, and then checked the time.
"Oh crap!" she exclaimed. "I've gotta run! See you all later!"
"Bye Sam!" they chorused, watching as she ran down the road. "She totally digs me," said Curtis.
"In your dreams asshat," said Twitchy. "She's so going to call me up tonight and hook me up with one of her friends."
"Why you?" Ed asked, "Because you were the only one to score on her?"
"Of course," Twitchy replied. "I've got mad skills, that's why it went between her legs."
"That's what she said," Jeff quipped.
"Lol," Jessie said without a laugh. "Let's just get this stuff packed away."
-A-D-
A few hours later when it was getting close to five in the afternoon and the sun had nearly set, Jeff heard his house phone ring. Not even looking up from his bed, he let it ring and heard his mother downstairs moving to answer it. Her voice drifted up into his room, but he couldn't really make it out. Then he was able to hear her words as she called up to him. "Jeff! It's for you!"
Not bothering to hide his surprise, Jeff hopped off of his bed and put down the book he'd been looking at. "Who is it?" he asked as he came to his doorway.
His mother's voice conveyed her shrug and smile. "I don't know, but it's a girl."
A girl? He thought quickly, heat rising to his cheeks as he saw the look on his mother's face. He rushed past her, feeling her watching his every movement. Grabbing the phone, he sat down on a chair and gave his mother a look. She left the room. "Hello?" he asked, placing the phone to his ear.
"Hi Jeff. It's Sam."
His eyes widened. "Oh, Sam! Hi! I didn't think that you were going to call, like, tonight."
"Yeah," she answered, "but I found out that my family has a reserved box for Kings home games and since there's a game tonight I was wondering if you and your brother would like to come. I've already called about half of the other guys we were playing with and they've all said yes, as well as a few other friends of mine. Well, they had to get permission, but that was a minor issue."
This was almost too good. The pretty girl who was good in net was inviting him to see the Kings' game tonight, and when they were playing against the Ravens too! Oh, how he hated the Banora Ravens!
"Uh, just a sec," he said. Placing a hand over the mouthpiece, he called his mother. "Mom!"
"Yes Jeff?"
"Can Tyson and I go to the Kings' game tonight? The girl we got to replace Ty in net after he ditched us has a box and has invited me, Ty, and the guys," he explained.
"I don't know," his mother asked, appearing in the doorway. "Is she cute?"
"Yeah she's cute, but she says she's got a boyfriend," Jeff answered. "But who cares? Her family's got a box and the Kings are playing Banora tonight!"
"What time does she want you two there?"
"Uh…" he put his mouth to the phone again, "what time do you want me and Tyson to be there?"
"Well, they say that the puck is supposed to drop at seven, so I suppose if you all could meet up at a quarter after sixish outside of the rink that'd be good."
He looked to his mom again. "Around a quarter after six." She looked at the clock.
"It's five-o-one," she said. "You two had better get going if you want to get there in time. I'll give you some money for food."
"Thanks Mom," Jeff said. "We'll be there," he told Sam.
"Great!" her voice chirped. "See you then!" She hung up.
Putting the phone down, Jeff hollered into the house. "Hey Tyson!"
"Yeah?"
"Get your jacket! We're going to the Kings game!"
Thundering up from the basement came his older brother by a year, his own black hair askew a little. "You got tickets?"
"Better," Jeff returned. "The girl we got to replace you after you ran away has a box and invited us all."
Tyson frowned. "You replaced me with a chick?"
"She blocked a shot with her face and didn't complain, beyond the usual 'OW THAT HURTS!'"
Tyson nodded, impressed. "Some girl."
-A-D-
When they arrived it was to see that nearly everybody else had already gathered in front of a lamppost close to the doors. "Who are we waiting for?" Jeff asked, looking around while Tyson tossed a paper bag containing the empty wrappers of their supper into a garbage can.
"Ed…"
"…Todd…"
"…and Curtis," said Neil, George, and Brian.
"And Sam," added Twitchy. Jeff nodded, and he and Tyson joined in on the small talk while they waited for the four missing persons to arrive. Within ten minutes, the three absent males arrived, and they all started to check their watches apprehensively. It was almost six-fifteen, and Sam hadn't shown up yet.
Six-fifteen came, and six-fifteen went. By six-twenty they were starting to get both worried and frustrated. "She's late!" Alex said. "If she doesn't show soon, we won't get anything!"
"We'll be in a box," Twitchy reminded him. "We won't have to go into the concourse to get anything. It'll all be brought to us piping hot."
"Or cold," said the only one of them who was the legal drinking age of eighteen.
"Shut up Tyson. Mom told you not to drink tonight."
"Dang," he laughed.
Three people walked up to them, "Excuse me," one of the men said, "but are you all… Samantha's… friends?" The ten looked at the man who had spoken, trying to size him up and then thinking better of it when they saw that he was over six feet and had the look of a strong fighter about him. The man standing next to him was just shorter, but he carried an air of authority within his eyes of amethyst. The third wasn't even a man at all, but an anthropomorphic mouse with a mischievous look on his face, as if he knew something that the boys didn't.
"Yes…" Jessie said hesitantly. "Why…?"
"Welp, then it looks like you're coming with us," said the mouse. He turned around, and waved a hand over his shoulders. "C'mon." Glancing at one another, and then at the two tall men and the mouse, and then at each other once more, they moved forward.
"Wait," Ed said slowly as they walked, led by the three newcomers, "we don't have our tickets. How are we going to get—"
"Just come with us," said the large man who had first addressed us. "Do that, and you won't have any problems." Looking at each other again, this time more than nervous, the ten continued to comply. Whispers went between them as to just what was going on.
Nobody even tried to stop them or ask them any questions as they approached and went through the front gates, and the ten boys followed the three through the concourse, weaving in and out of the crowd and doing their very best not to get separated from one another or their guides. The smells and sounds of the booths of food and the vendors calling, "Beer here," "50-50," and "Pizza," were all around them. Finally, they reached a door numbered '21', and their guides stopped at the door. The ten boys looked at it with surprise. There were four guards outside of the door, two flanking each side, dressed up in steel breastplates with chainmail beneath. Bright helms were on their heads, spears in their hands and swords sheathed to their hips. On each breastplate was painted a white dragon in front of flames in front of a purplish-pink full moon all surrounded by roses, and red capes were on their backs.
The guards didn't even move as the mouse opened the door. He stood by it, waiting patiently. Jeff glanced around, not one of them seemed like they were ready to go into the booth. "Well?" the mouse asked. "Aren't you going to go in?"
Somebody pushed Alex, who had been standing in front, and he moved in first, rubbing his shoulder slightly and scowling behind him. The rest followed. Jeff stopped and looked around with wider eyes as soon as he entered. The inner room in this booth was massive, almost twice as big as his living room. In it stood a sixty-two inch spherevision set, a badass stereo system, an air hockey table, three maroon couches, a bar with a grill and oven, and even a full coatroom! There was a bartender behind the bar, currently pulling a fresh pizza out of the oven, and there were two people playing air hockey while a few others were watching the pregame show on the SV from the couches. A couple more could be seen out through the sliding glass door already sitting in their beyond comfortable seats at the neutral zone. The small yellow blob that they'd seen with Samantha when she'd been watching them was also sitting on the countertop of the bar, nibbling on something that looked like a breaded mozzarella cheese stick.
"Yeah!" crowed a blond who was playing air hockey as the sliding green puck plunked into his opponent's goal. "Suck it!"
"Shut up Hayner!" his opponent growled intensely. "I'll get you for that!"
"Sam?" Jeff asked, staring at the blond's opponent. Both the blond and the one across from him looked up, and the auburn-haired girl wearing a red sweater and blue jeans with a raspberry beret carrying a tiny flaming dragon on her hat turned around.
She smiled. "Hey guys," she said brightly. "Come in, have some pizza. Welcome to my family's boo—Rikku!" she wheeled around. "What did they just say about the Furies!"
"Huh?" asked a blonde girl sitting on the couch. "Oh, they just said that they beat the Stormbringers last night."
"Yes!" Sam cheered, pumping her fist. "Furies rule!"
"Uh, Sam?" questioned Twitchy as the door closed behind them, the two men and the mouse coming through the door last and slowly moving their way through the group of ten boys. "What's going on?"
She didn't answer him and instead turned to the men and mouse. "Thanks for fetching them King Mickey, Master Garda, Ovan."
The mouse laughed even as Jeff's eyes went even wider. "Aw, no problem."
"Hey, what's up with them?" asked the blond Sam had been playing air hockey against. "Why are they acting so freaked out?"
Sam smiled at him. "Oh, that's because I haven't told them yet." The blond's eyes narrowed.
"Told them what?" he asked.
"If you could tell us Sam," Jeff started, "we'd really like it."
She giggled slightly. "Okay, so it's like this," she said, leaning back against her side of the air hockey table and running a hand through her hair. She turned her head slightly, finding the puck digging into her back, and extracted it. "So, I didn't really tell you the truth when I said that my name was Samantha. I didn't want you thinking that I'd be a delicate flower or something, or that I was crazy for wanting to play a sport I didn't know, or that you'd all get in a load of trouble for something like this," she pointed to the bruise that was forming on her right cheek from where she'd taken a shot to the face.
The lights went on in Jeff's head. "Oh Light…" he muttered, and he wasn't the only one. Her resemblance, taking potions, the magic reference, guards outside of the door, comfortably addressing the King of Disney Castle and the Marquess of Ramius…
She looked up at them from the yellow-green puck she'd been examining. "My name's not Samantha. It's actually Lady Kairi Keila Talerith, the Legendary Crown Star Wielder of Light, Dragon Knight and Princess Royal of Radiant Garden."
They were all silent for at least ten seconds before Ed spoke up. "Well, no wonder you were so badass earlier."
She laughed, and the tension broke. All of her friends that they didn't know began to laugh as well, and soon they were engaging in slightly awkward small talk. "So if you're really Princess Kairi," Jeff said to 'Sam', "then that would make your boyfriend…?"
"Sora, yeah," she laughed, smiling at the mention of his name. She sighed. "Wish he was here right now."
"I guess that means I can give up entertaining any thoughts of stealing you away from him then," Jeff added.
Kairi grinned at him. "Well, you can try… if you have a death wish that is." She laughed again at the look on his face and turned around, swiftly placing the puck on the table. BANG!
"Whoa!" Hayner shouted, trying to get his pad onto the table in time and failing, the puck going into his goal with a plunk. "Hey—Kairi! Not cool!" She pointed at the score, showing that it was now five-three in favour of Hayner.
"Told you I'd get you for that one," she reminded him.
"I'm going to brave sounding like an idiot," Twitchy called, "but is any girl in here single?" Paine and Rikku raised their hands, along with a girl with shoulder-length golden-brown hair named Kia.
Kairi looked up. "Selphie, Yuna, you two are single! C'mon! These boys need people they can date!"
"It's complicated," Selphie and Yuna returned simultaneously. Selphie glared at Yuna while the mocha-haired Gullwing simply cast her eyes downward in a slightly submissive gesture. The brunette from Destiny Islands looked surprised at Yuna's lack of open hostility. Considering that the last time they had confronted each other about Tidus both of them had drawn weapons, Yuna had screamed 'Time to die bitch!' in Al Bhed, and had even fired a shot that Selphie's shield had fortunately caught before Sora had stepped in and stopped them, Yuna's meek behaviour was quite the reversal. Selphie glanced at Tidus, and he grabbed a slice of pizza quickly and wisely left to go outside with Wakka and Pence.
"Hmph," Hayner smirked. "Tidus is lucky, he's got two girls lusting for him."
Olette poked him in the side. "Hey! Am I not enough?" Olette asked in a teasing tone.
"Mm, depends," Hayner replied, "can you rub my shoulders for a second? We moved a lot of stuff today."
"Oh, poor baby," Olette replied, and she started rubbing. Then she stopped. "Done."
"Wha—? Olette!"
"Hey, you asked for a second, so I gave you a second. If you wanted it to be longer, you should have specified, Sergeant Garneky."
"Fine then. PFC Forrest, please give me a longer shoulder massage."
"Hm…" Olette began. "Should I wait until after you and Kairi finish your game, or should I start now?"
"Uh… you can wait," Hayner told her.
"No, do it now Olette!" Kairi said. She swung her pad at the puck and set it bouncing against the boards. Olette obeyed the order of her sex and began massaging Hayner's shoulders, and the distraction seemed to be working well.
Jeff laughed and shook his head before going out with some pizza to start trying to get to know that Tidus person. Even though she was his princess, she was still that teenager he'd met earlier.
-A-D-
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk