Title: The Chronic Argonauts

Author: AtradiesHikari a.k.a. Sanura Dayshaun, Atradies, or even Moopies, depending on where you're reading this.

Rating: PG-13 for mild swearing.

Chapter: 5- 'A Perfect Little Airheaded Angel'

Date Chapter Started/Finished: I don't even know anymore.

Word Count: not counting opening and closing notes. 1,762.

A/N: I'm sorry this took so long…. I'm also sorry that I seem to say that every time. I've been busy making my "rest of my life" plans and what not, but I'm good now… Until October 9th… I ship out for basic training then… And I'll be gone for about seven weeks. But that's not really much of a difference from my normal schedule, now is it/cry

Emmett sighed, he was bored. He had been watching Minnie and Jr. run around trying to find him for nearly twenty minutes. Boring. At the moment they were in some bookstore, much larger and commercialized than the one he had been in. He chuckled inwardly at the way they were crouched and peeking around bookshelves, expecting him to be hiding behind each and every shelf.

She must know I'm purposely avoiding them and hiding… She knows I'd never go near a store like that. Emmett thought sleepily. He had started to doze when he heard Jr.'s talking to Minnie.

"I still think he went back to the first store."

"If we go look will you stop saying that?"

"Yes."

Emmett glanced down at his wrist to check the time and was confused when he saw that his watch was not on his wrist. Shrugging it off, he stood from his crouching position, stretching the cramps out of his legs. He quickly scanned the area for his friends, not seeing them he set off in search, singing in his head.

The is no earthy way of knowing… which direction I am going… He continued on humming the modified song in his head as he searched. He quickly became distracted though, as he wondered who was slower: Him or Them.

At one point he had been walking directly behind them, purposely humming the tune to a song that wouldn't even be written for another seven years. When they hadn't noticed that, he switched to another song, hoping Jr. at least would recognize it, as it was Jr.'s father that had written it, but there was still no reaction.

Eventually though, he got bored with following them around and his throat had gone dry from humming so loudly. And now, bored and knowing where they were headed, he slipped passed them, keeping low, which proved rather difficult at his six feet of height.

He managed to duck onto the escalator before they spotted him, but had to remain ducked down to keep hidden. Reaching the bottom he quickly slouched away from the odd looks of the other mall-goers and made his way back to the game/book/movie/novelty/specialty store, and hid behind a large cardboard-cutout of a werewolf that stood behind a display of several B-rate monster movies no one wanted. He sighed, content, he had had his fun and neither his sister nor friend were any the wiser that he had actually left the store, his hair covered the only evidence grandly.

Minnie frowned, just as she and Jr. had stepped off the escalator she had seen a distinctive mop of dirty blonde hair crouching through the crowds towards the store they were headed to. Nudging Jr. and picking up the pace, she saw him diving behind a hideously fake looking monster displaying several reject movies. He had had his fun, but she had grown bored.

Thinking back, she realized now what he had been doing. It was an old trick that they had both pulled countless times when their older brothers had been left to watch them. It still amazed her how high-stung they had both turned out… Not even she was that bad, Jr. and Emmett wouldn't allow it. She giggled to herself, had they been here Verne would have had no less than four heart-attacks and Jules would have would have wrangled them down and forced them home, not even two seconds after arriving. She twitched slightly, normal people from the city were not that good at working lassos.

She leaned slightly to her right and nudged Jr. nodding at the display with her finger over her lips. He glanced over and nodded, he was quite familiar with the game as well.

"Well, I don't see him anywhere… Guess we're going to have to just leave him."

"Guess so."

Em rolled his eyes, he knew exactly what they were doing… Unfortunately…

"Nice try guys, that's not gonna… Damnit!" he had a brief lapse in judgment.

Jr. and Minnie stepped around the display and looked down at Emmett, who was crouched down on the floor, looking like a runner waiting for the gun. He blinked owlishly up at them. Minnie blinked back.

"Were you really that bored?"

"What?"

"What?

"What'd I do?" To his credit Emmett sounded genuinely confused. He smiled inwardly, his practice was paying off.

"You ran off!" Minnie squealed, causing the dormant throb in Em's head to stir up again. He had almost forgotten about the cut and the pain that came with it

"I did not." He replied absently, resisting the urge to rub the cut on his head.

"You did so!" He groaned. There was no point continuing on, her voice would only heighten in pitch the longer he argued and resisted, and his head did not like the idea of that.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I? Sorry."

"You okay Em?" She sounded worried.

"Sure. Why?"

"You're sure?" That was Jr. and Emmett groaned, the questioning was almost as bad as the arguing.

"Yes, guys, I'm fine."

They both blinked, and Minnie narrowed her eyes at Emmett, seeing a trickle of what looked to be blood running from underneath his hair, and then she dove at him and wrestled him into a headlock.

"What's this?" She questioned as she pulled back his bangs to reveal the cut on his forehead. He winced and whined pitifully as she prodded it.

"How the hell did you manage that? You were only gone forty-five minutes!"

He stared at her, trying to decide if he wanted to whine about her being loud or if he wanted to answer her question.

"…A bookshelf fell on me." He answered after a moment's thought.

"…Really?" She asked, trying her hardest not to laugh at him. Jr. wasn't doing so well at hiding his laughter. Emmett looked from his sister to his friend and pouted slightly.

"S'not funny."

"Yeah it is, were they sci-fi books?" Jr. piped up

Emmett turned and glared vaguely at him. "No, they were books on religion, thankyouverymuch." He snipped back.

He turned back to Minnie who seemed to find that revelation completely hilarious.

"I guess the bat at the bookstore was right, you are a little hell-spawn."

"Crazy old woman probably pushed them over on me herself." He pouted again. "And it's still not funny." He said, scratching at the cut, which made both of them laugh at his short attention span.

"I'mma leave again, kay?" He muttered, turning to leave.

"No, don't. We're sorry-" Minnie started.

"-ish." Jr. finished.

Emmett coughed. "Shouldn't we be going anyway. I'm bored."

"Yeah. I think we've caused enough damage here." Jr. said, shifting his eyes from Em to Minnie.

"What he said. We shouldn't leave the car alone too long. All the add-ons are sure to have attracted attention."

3:10 PM

Emmett sighed, and tilted his head slightly to the side. There was a couple sitting on the back of a bench across the street trying unsuccessfully to kiss. He felt rather awkward staring at them like that, but he knew that he had seen them before, but couldn't place where. He sighed again as his stomach growled. Minnie and Jr. had left nearly ten minutes before in search of food, and he was getting a little bored. He went back to staring at the couple to keep himself from wandering off due to his boredom.

Minnie and Jr. approached the car and handed off a pizza slice and a soda can to Emmett who was sitting on the hood and staring blankly across the street at the courthouse, or rather at a bench in front of it.

"What's so interesting?" Jr. asked, trying to figure out how to open his own can.

"Those two on the bench look familiar, and I can't figure out where I've seen them." Em responded, taking the can from Jr. and opening it, before handing it back. Minnie looked up to see what he was talking about and nearly choked on the pizza she had been about to swallow.

"Stop watching your friend's parents try to make out, you perv." She said, looking away and snickering.

"What?" He asked blankly, not quite making the connection. He looked over at Jr. who had just made the connection and had nearly inhaled his Pepsi in his attempt to look away and drink at the same time. Emmett slowly looked from Jr. over to the one person on the bench, who was watching his companion walk across the street to some odd hearse like vehicle. A voice in the back of his mind supplied him with the title "station wagon".

"Oh… Ew." He said, before taking a bite of his pizza slice that was held in one hand, as he cracked open his soda can one handed.

"Hurry up you two. We should be heading back.. We can't risk brushing any closer to anyone we may know." Minnie stated, apparently already done with her lunch. "Not to mention we just missed the first day of school."

"Not necessarily," Emmett said, attempting to shoot his balled up napkin into the trash can a few feet down the sidewalk from the car. He frowned a little as he missed… horribly and continued, "We can always just set the time to right after we left, and still go to school." He smirked a little as he heard Jr. groan next to him on the hood of the car.

"You had to say that didn't you? She's gonna make us go now."

"Yeah, I know." Em was still smirking as he slid off the hood and opened the driver's side door and plopped down in the driver's seat. Jr. sighed, and slipped off the hood as well, walking around to the passenger's side and got in, and grunted slightly as Minnie sat on him. She glared at him.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing." Jr. averted his gaze, hoping to avoid her wrath. She really wasn't that heavy.

"Guys, we may have a little problem…"

"What?" Minnie turned her head to stare at her brother.

"Well, you know, this car is really old… and-"

"Emmett…"

"I thought that maybe after it cooled down it would-"

"Emmett."

"It still won't start."

Minnie sighed. "Well, let's see if we can find what's wrong."

Emmett nodded as he got out and walked around to pop the hood. After a few moments, he came back around, scratching the back of his neck.

"It's nothing serious, easily fixable… With the right tools."

Minnie frowned. "And where do you plan on getting the 'right tools'?" She asked, sensing something being plotted.

Emmett smiled brightly at her.

"Dad, of course."

A/N: I think this is the last of the editing chapters, new content to come, rejoice my like... two sort of fans!