Foosha: The votes are in! And there are ties all around. Here are the ties for each girl.
Vash- Pein, Kisame, and Kakuzu.
Nicky- Deidara, Kisame, Zetsu, and Sasori.
So help me out people! D: Also, thanks for the reviews Chillybean, Miko Hayashi, Yuti-Chan, Hex Aether, riptocs, and DeeaE!:D And thanks for the favorites everyone else! You guys are awesome!
Vash: Well aren't you popular Nicky.
Nicky: Ah no way! More people voted for me, that's all.
Vash: Sure sure. Foosha doesn't own Naruto or any other random references.
Nicky: Wesnegdid.
Vash: Like that one. Foosha doesn't own that reference.
Nicky: Why didn't the world explode?
Vash: Sigh.
Foosha: Sorry if you find any tense confusions! I'm trying to pick them all out so if you spot one let me know!
The next morning I woke up normally, blinking the sun out of my eyes before pulling the covers over my face. Vash would be here this morning. She decided to take the day off so she could help me watch the "children" and make sure they didn't destroy anything. I groaned out loud remembering that we didn't have kittens anymore. All my life all I've ever wanted was a pet that I could keep from its baby form, up until it died. It looks like that'll never happen at this rate. Sigh. I turned over on my right side, only to come face-to-face with an orange mask.
"Good morning girly! Tobi saw Nicky-chan looking cold so Tobi thought that even if Tobi isn't kitty, Tobi could still keep girly warm!" And it hugged me. HUGGED ME! WHAT IS THIS THING!
"GET OFF OF ME YOU SLEEP GOBLIN!" I immediately sat up and reached to my left, grabbing my obese Tyrannosaurus stuffed animal, and chucking it at the creature. Of course the creature easily caught Chompy (T-rex's name) but, it instantly released him and jumped off of the bed, hopping up and down while pointing at the discarded plush.
"What is that?" And before I could escape to cry to Vash, the goblin ran out of the room screeching about "a fat green bomb".What the hay? Hay is for horses. Yes I know, thank you for stating the obvious inner-self. You're welcome outer-self.
After putting on my slippers, I plodded to the living room, still unsure if what just happened was a dream or not.
Vash's POV
I woke up to the sound of yelling coming from the other room. I'm trying to sleep! What's up with all the screaming? I felt around for my phone, finding it on the ground next to me and pulling it close to read the time: 9:36 am. Hold on, the ground? Groggily I pushed myself up and looked around with blurry vision to see that I was indeed on the floor near my bed. What? I've never rolled off the bed before! Still slightly unstable from sleep, I shakily climbed to my knees and peeked over the fold-out mattress to see a familiar head of orange-ish/red hair. I narrowed my eyes before snatching my glasses from the arm rest and setting them on my nose. Sure enough, Pein was in my bed. Bastard!
I stood up and, after stepping over the bodies of the remaining sleeping members, walked into the laundry room. I grabbed the cleaning bucket and dumped all of the cleaning supplies out. Heading into the kitchen to fill it up with cold water, I only paused to dump some ice into it, making sure it would be really cold. Casually, I walked back over to my bed, noticing that Konan was also sleeping in it. Pfft, and I actually liked her too. This should teach them. Not caring in the slightest that my bed would be drenched, I stopped at the side closest to Pein, and abruptly dumped the cold water over both of their heads. I tossed the bucket to the side and began to rapidly strangle/shake the Bastard. I grinned as his eyes shot open in shock, before glaring at me and grabbing my wrists in a tight hold. He shut his eyes and seemed to pull himself together before addressing me.
"What are you doing disturbing my sleep, girl?" I ignored his question and just glared at him a bit before glancing over at Konan. By this time she was awake and less than pleased to discover her drenched form. The hold on my wrists tightened, demanding my attention.
"You'd better be gone by the time I'm finished with my shower, Bastard." I said, my voice deceptively calm. Wrenching my hands out of his grip, which he allowed, I stormed off to the bathroom and slammed the door.
Nicky's POV
I ran into Vash as she entered the bathroom, looking seriously irritated.
"Uh…"
"My bed! That Bastard and his girlfriend actually thought…my bed! They put me on the freaking ground! How the hell did I sleep though that?" She looked over and seemed to notice me for the first time. "Oh hey, I renamed Pein. He shall now only be known as Bastard. I'm taking a shower. If I ever catch either of them like that again…"
"Okay then! I'll talk to you over pancakes!" Without another word, I dashed through the bathroom door and shut it behind me, leaving a mumbling Vash to her thoughts.
"Good, you're awake. Make us food." I turned around and came face-to-face with none other than Leader himself. I gave a small pout and folded my arms.
"No "good morning" huh? That's kinda rude. Fine I'll try to make pancakes for you. I can at least make those without messing up the taste." He nodded his head and gestured to the kitchen. That's when I noticed they were all in similar pajamas consisting of different colors of t-shirts and long cotton plaid pants. I snorted and clapped a hand over my mouth to try to hide it but, someone noticed.
"What's so funny?" Fishy asked standing up and stretching (what he could at least), donned in a deep blue version of the outfit. It appeared that the rest of them had also just woken up, groggily rubbing their eyes and sitting on their beds of mismatched blankets.
"Ah… nothin'. You guys are just wearing the same outfit but different colors. What's up with that?" He shrugged and walked over to the couch bed and took a seat.
"I'm not the one who went shopping…" he muttered, but shut up almost instantly when Izaya gave him a pointed glare. Suddenly the orange goblin jumped out from behind some of the group members and shook me fiercely.
"Girly didn't explode! Tobi thought that bomb would kill you!" My eyes widened and I pushed him away unsuccessfully. That's when I noticed that he wasn't a sleep goblin, but Ghast as a person. Well… I think he's a person. Unless he really is a goblin under that mask. Is there even such thing as a goblin ninja? Even though I was quite shy around unfamiliar people, curiosity always made ask weird things.
"Why do you wear a mask?" He stopped talking for a second and just looked at me, I'm assuming in a confused way because I really couldn't tell with only one eye hole.
"Tobi likes his mask." I shrugged. Good enough for me. I like feeling things that look like they have weird textures and I don't really have a good reason for that either. Speaking of that strange trait of mine…
"Can I touch it? I mean… I don't wanna take it, just feel it." I reached out with my hand towards his face and he violently pushed me on the ground and ran off screaming.
"No! It's Tobi's mask!" There was a loud thump and I realized that Foofy had tripped him. I sat up, rubbing my head that I bumped on the ground. Owie…
"What's this about a bomb, yeah? Are you guys holding out on us, hm?" He looked to me with a raised eyebrow and I swallowed, shaking my head back and forth rapidly, while picking myself up from the floor.
"Nonono! I would never have a bomb! And neither would Vash! That would be totally illegal and dangerous and knowing me I'd probably make it explode on myself and die! I always do that in video games," I squeaked nervously, picking at my fingers and not meeting anyone's eyes. It's much easier to talk to someone who is wearing a mask, not someone whose eyes you can see.
"Relax, un. We've been living with you for almost a month now. We already know how weird you are, yeah." True dat.
"Yeah I know. I just have a hard time talking to other people… sorry. I'll make some pancakes now." I stepped over the mess of blankets and weaved between the standing ninja who chatted amongst themselves, somewhat ignoring me as I walked by. Except for one.
"Hey bitch! Make some food I'm fucking starving!" If this was anyone else besides Marshmallow, I'd probably be running away crying right now. Since it was him though, all I could do start laughing, even though I was pretty terrified of him, I knew he would catch me no matter what. He glared menacingly at me and I waved my arms in front of myself as I backed up towards the kitchen.
"I-I'm sorry! W-when I'm nervous or scared sometimes I just start l-laughing! I'm making breakfast right now so h-hang on!" I turned and ran away from him into the safety of the kitchen, though the area between the kitchen and living room is completely open so he could still see me. In order to ignore him, I busied myself with making enough pancakes for all of them. There was a movement on my right and I looked to see Lila staring at me.
"I'll help you. If you can make these pancakes it can't be too hard," she offered politely, though I did hear an insult in there. I gave a small smile and nodded, asking her to take the pancakes I had already made and placing them in the toaster oven to stay warm. There was a dripping sound and my eyes slid away from watching the pancakes cook to Lila, whom I just noticed was completely wet.
"Uh… why are you all wet?" She sighed and continued her task, tucking some dripping hair behind her ear.
"Your friend dumped water on me for sleeping in her bed."
"You took her bed? Hahaha! No wonder she was mad!" I laughed lightly and flipped a pancake, realizing it was burned a bit.She doesn't seem so bad. Like a calmer Vash. Probably because she's used to being around all these guys all the time. We continued our light banter as we finished up the last of the pancakes, setting them out on the table before hearing an angry sound come from the living room.
Vash's POV
"Who the hell made this mess?" I shrieked from the doorway. I stared around the living room in shock. It was trashed! Every square inch of the carpet was covered by various items from all over the house. There were blankets piled atop each other in a messy heap and clothing strewn about in abandon! I took a few minutes to breathe and calm down before snapping a glare on the few members that had frozen in the center of the chaos at my exclamation. "I thought we agreed that cleaning up after yourself was a rule! How can you ignore something this…messy! Now, the blankets I understand, but where the hell did you dig up all of this other junk? Were you going through our stuff? You can't just touch and move other people's stuff without their permission! Now put all of this shit back before I kick you all out on your asses! And I mean NOW!" I doubled over and drew in gasping breaths, trying to regain my breathing. Damn these guys piss me off. I haven't had a freak out that badly since Nicky had that freaking painting project! I shuddered at the memory. There had been paint everywhere! I snapped out of my daze to see that the guy with the stitches had started to fold the blankets, Redhead and Sharkface started to clean as well. I nodded in approval and began to navigate my way through the mess on my way to the kitchen. I huffed in annoyance when I saw a few books on the floor, then paused when I recognized one in particular. Oh crap. I picked it up. "Nicky…."
"Hm?" She piped up from the kitchen. I walked into the room to find her serving pancakes to the members at the kitchen island, which included MaskBoy, Bastard, FlowerGirl, RedEyes, and Ponytail. I held up her journal and watched her freeze, her eye twitching and her face bright red. She rushed over to me and tore the book from my hands, cradling it to her form.
"W-who read this!" She cried, waving the item in the air for everyone to see. RedHead answered from behind me.
"We all did." Nicky paled and completely shut down, slumping over in her pajama/apron outfit. She dragged her feet as she walked past me, stopping ever so often to pick up other things that belonged to her along the way until she reached the bathroom/bedroom, closing the door quietly behind her. My anger flared back up as I turned to the Akatsuki and crossed my arms.
"Great job, guys… Now listen up! I didn't think I needed to bring this up, but apparently you guys know nothing about common courtesy. So, new rule! No going through our stuff or you'll be living in the shed for the rest of your time here. That journal was personal to Nicky! So keep your damn noses out of stuff that isn't yours! If you absolutely have to know what something is, or want to touch it, or need to find something, just ask. But wait for permission. This is not your house. It is ours." I narrowed my eyes at Pein, "And don't take other people's beds! We'll figure out a better sleeping arrangement tonight. You guys can go get some more blankets and pillows today while I go grocery shopping. If some of you come with me, you'll have a chance to see what's there and make a list, then go steal it later. Nicky and I will keep buying our own food, but anything you want you'll have to get yourself." Bastard took the last bite of his pancakes and pushed his empty plate away.
"Fine. Konan, Deidara, Sasori, Itachi and myself will accompany you." I nodded in acceptance. Oh joy…
"Alright, that'll work. You guys are the most normal looking anyway. Go get dressed and clean up your mess, then we'll leave." The members nodded, and after cleaning up left for their bags of clothes, pulling out casual jeans, shorts, plain t-shirts, socks and shoes. I left the group to go find Nicky, already wearing my usual "SUU" shirt and jeans.
Nicky's POV
"Argh… I'll die of embarrassment before anything else at this rate. Stupid stupid stupid! Hang on… their criminals so it shouldn't matter! It's not like I'll ever see them again when they leave… So stop thinking about it! Just ignore them! Yeah that's right. Hmm hmm! Ah too much Regular Show." Ever since I made it to the sanctuary of my room, I had been trying to calm myself down and try to think more rationally about the situation. "Besides, it's only a girl's journal. There's no way they'd ever remember stuff from it, much less care about it. Yeah!"
"Are you done?" I looked up from Fluffy (my stuffed dog) to see Vash leaning against the door frame, arms folded.
"Yeah I'm done. What's up?"
"Well I'm going to the store to get some food and I'm taking some of them with me so they can get a feel for what they might need. So you'll be stuck here with the rest." She walked in the room and put a hand on my shoulder. "And don't worry about that stuff. Who cares anyway?" I smiled and nodded, standing up.
"Yeah I know. You're right. So who do I get stuck with?"
"Well…"
Living Room After Vash Leaves
I sat on the leather couch, perched between Fishy and Tobi (whose name I finally remembered), a frown on my features replaying the situation in my mind.
"We'll be back in a few hours, don't kill each other!" Vash called before shutting the door. I stood dumbstruck in the living room, next to Cal (whom I didn't know was Cal until recently), Fishy, Tobi, Professor Layton and Marshmallow.
"You can't leave me with them! I'll die!"
I sighed out loud and turned the television on to SpongeBob, handing the remote to Tobi, who happily accepted it pressing buttons at his pleasure. No one talked for a bit. Even Marshmallow was silent, brooding in a corner of the room, mumbling something about Jashin.This is very uncomfortable. Find something to talk about Nicky, you can do it! Remember, don't care what they think! They won't be around forever! My vision drifted over to my left to Fishy, who sat in a relaxed manner with a leg propped up, still wearing his pj's. His skin is blue…
"Why is your skin blue?" He turned his head and blinked, before giving a large grin.
"It's a secret," he replied and winked. I was taken aback by his friendliness and directed my attention back towards the TV, trying to ignore the feeling of eyes on me. I could not stop my curiosity though, so I turned back to look at him.
"What about those slits on your face? Are they like gills? Can you breathe under water? Or are they just for looks? Can I touch them?" I covered my mouth. Whoops. Word vomit. He just chuckled and ruffled my hair. I blushed slightly. I'm not a child! Don't treat me as such!
"Sure, kiddo." I frowned but put one of my hands on his face anyway, cautiously at first, but once I felt the strange texture of his skin, I continued to his "gill-like" features.
"Whoa! They are like gills! Cool!" I gushed, excitedly waving my arms around when I spotted Cal. Still in my relatively hyper/excited state, I ignored the nervousness I held earlier and pointed at him. "Hey! I want to touch you too! Is that a real plant? Does it grow on you? Or is the bottom half of you a plant? If that's true, what kind of plant are you? I've never seen a venus flytrap like that before!" As I talked, I had made my way to the computer chair he had been sitting in. I'm pretty into science stuff, and these guys are just awesome! He looked at me questionably.
"I don't know I've always been like this. I don't mind if you touch it. Just be careful and don't break something, stupid girl!" My eyes lit up at the two different voices.
"Are you guy's different personalities too? Wow! I don't even know how to describe how strange and awesome you guys are! It's just amazing! And your eyes are yellow too! Neato! Can you see in the dark? Though I'm not sure what that would have to do with your eyes being yellow, but maybe it does!" I felt the plant part of him as I babbled, feeling the texture of a large plant instead of skin. "Wow! It really is a plant! How odd!" Before he could speak again, I saw Professor Layton sitting at the kitchen table, looking at a book of mine. I wonder what's under his mask? Discovery! I skipped over to him and knelt down so I was peeking over the side of the table watching him carefully. He glanced down at me wearily.
"What is it you want?" I beamed at him and gestured to his mask.
"Take off your mask! I wanna see what you look like too! I mean, you have strange colored eyes and those strange lumps on your back under your shirt! I mean not that it's weird, it's just that I'm interested in seeing what you look like!" He glared at me slightly before closing the book that I recognized to be the Dictionary. Why would he read that?
"That depends. How much will you pay me?" My face fell and my brows furrowed.
"What? If anything you should owe me money! Vash and I have been paying for your welfare for the past few weeks! Come on, please?" He looked at me again and sighed.
"Okay. You can't scream or I'll sew your mouth closed." I nodded and shivered at the thought of having my mouth sewn shut. He removed his face mask and I gasped at the stitches he revealed etched on either side of his mouth. I then also noticed the stitches on his arms.
"Whoa! What happened? Are you okay?" Professor Layton gave me a flat look, moving some of his brown hair away from his face. Wow. Even the weird ones don't actually look that bad.
"I'm fine, obviously. I'm a ninja. I can take care of myself, unlike you child, who is always getting hurt." A pout covered my face and I stood up.
"Why does everyone keep calling me child? How old are you guys anyways? You don't seem that much older." He chuckled softly.
"Be weary girl. Some of us are older than we appear."
"Prove it."
"How old do you think I am?"
"Hm… in your early thirties."
"Wrong."
"Well at least tell me!"
"What do I get?" I slapped a hand to my forehead.
"Fine. I'll give you five dollars. That's all the money I have in my wallet right now. The rest I gave to Vash for groceries." He frowned but agreed.
"I guess that will do for now. I'm 91. Now give me your money." At first I was shocked, but then I started grumbling as I grabbed my wallet from the counter, taking out the five and giving it to him.
"You liar. How do I know you're really 91?" Without answering, he lifted up his shirt uncovering four masks, and even more stitches, evenly spaced on his back. "Why do you have masks on your back? In case you lose your other one?"
"I have five hearts that I can replace. I could potentially live forever and eventually become a billionaire. It would be incredibly easy to do that in this world also. Come to think of it…" Suddenly he got a mischievous look on his face. "I'm going out for a while." He slipped his mask on and walked over to the bathroom, exiting in record time with dark jeans and a black shirt. His mask was off again but, he still looked creepy with the obvious stitches.
"Hey wait a minute! I'm supposed to be watching you guys! If you're going out don't get caught! I won't help you out!" Again he laughed at me before disappearing in a thing of smoke. I stood up and stomped my foot in frustration. "Well great! I hope he doesn't screw things up!" Fishy let out another laugh from his spot on the couch, while Tobi just continued watching a fuzzy screen and Cal was talking to himself in the computer chair. "Where's stupid head?"
Alarmed, I searched around the living room finding no trace, so I walked into the bedroom to find him sitting on my bed, the husk of my once obese dinosaur in his hands. Stuffed animal fluff filled the room, along with the skins of my other toys laying ripped to pieces scattered about the floor. My heart stopped. The evil man looked up from what he was doing to see my wide-eyed face. He smirked and continued to cut up my dinosaur.
"This is what you get bitch, for making me sacrifice fucking rats for Jashin-sama. And since I can't fucking hurt you, I'll murder all your shitty stuffed toys."
At that moment, I think my soul escaped my body, because for once in my life, I fainted and my vision turned to darkness as I hit the carpet of fluff and fur.
Vash's POV
"That's a banana and that's a star fruit. Now, can we finish shopping? You guys can come here another time with Nicky and she'll be happy to tell you all about the foods. I need to get this shopping done and get home. I'm worried about leaving her with those guys…" In the past two hours I've been stopped time and time again by the group of alleged ninja. They kept asking me about the different foods they saw and what they tasted like. Or where the food came from and what type of food group they belonged to and other things. Even Bastard asked questions once in a while, well… more like demanding statements. I really should take the time to answer their questions…but I'm too worried about Nicky right now.
Our group of mismatched people received quite a few stares, though not as many as we could have had if the plant man had been with us. So I was grateful for that. With a sigh I picked up a container of Nesquik, the last item on my shopping list.
"Alright. I've got everything now. Are you guys finished with your lists?" They nodded. "Then let's get back home and save Nicky."
"Yeah, un. I bet Tobi has been driving her crazy, yeah," Deidara commented as they all followed me in line. I chuckled nervously.
"Yeah well… he's not the one I'm worried about."
Nicky's POV
I awoke to the face of Cal looking at me.
"Oh look she isn't dead. Damn." I sat up fast and held my spinning head, realizing that I was now in the living room on the floor. Looking around I noticed Fishy, Tobi, and Cal watching me.
"What happened? Did I actually faint?" Tobi nodded vigorously.
"Nicky-chan fainted after seeing Hidan with all her animal friends!" Oh yeah… my babies… I stood up and dashed back into my room to see an unconscious Hidan knocked into the wall, Professor Layton standing amongst the mess. He looked over at me when I walked in.
"I'm sorry about my partner's incompetence. I'll fix this."
"How are you going to fix this! Look what he did to them! They're ruined!" I sniffled and rubbed my eyes, unable to stop myself from crying. "Y-you have to pay for this! That T-rex was 45 dollars! And that mechanical Totoro was 60 dollars! I hope you stole enough money to cover that!" Though it would never be the same if he just paid me back. I'd probably never be able to find most of these older stuffed animals ever again. At that thought a few tears came down my cheeks. Professor Layton coughed from where he was standing and mumbled something under his breath.
"I… I can fix them but, I'm not paying you back for them. Deal?" I blinked and soon a smile came over my features.
"Really? You can do that?" He shook his head.
"Of course I can. I'll let you know when I finish. Just… don't tell the short one. She'd probably make me pay you back regardless from what I've read in your journal..." I nodded my head, smiling, ignoring the part about the journal.
"Okay! Uh… thanks Layton. It means a lot. I'll be in the living room."I guess even for criminals, they still have a soul. Or maybe it's just because Vash would most definitely make him pay me back. Either way, I'll be glad to have them fixed. I gave a small wave before retreating to the couch to see the rest of the guys bored as usual. Well… I guess I could figure out something for them to do. "Hey, you guys wanna play a game?"
Vash's POV
We finally got back to the house around two. I walked through the front door to see Nicky laughing maniacally while playing Super Monkey Ball 2 with the SharkFace, PlantMan, and MaskBoy. The other two were yet to be seen. Oh, thank you. The house is in one piece!
"Damnit! I keep falling off at that turn! This game looks cute but it's kind of hard." SharkFace commented to Nicky, rubbing the back of his head. She nodded to him.
"I know right? Keep practicing though! You're doing better than you were earlier. And besides, I don't think any of us are going to catch up to Tobi. He's like a genius at this stuff for some weird reason."
"If black would quit arguing. Perhaps we could win one too. It's not my fault you keep choosing the wrong way!"
"Tobi likes this game! Tobi is good at it!"
"Yeah you are! High five! Oh… hey Vash. When did you get home?" I chuckled at her and continued to the kitchen. As I started putting away the groceries the ninjas that had accompanied me disappeared in a swirl of smoke. They must be leaving to go do their 'shopping' now. Geez, they should have waited until later, not right after we got back!
"Just now. It took forever because some people had to ask at least one question every other second. You guys look like you've been having fun. Any problems?" Nicky laughed nervously.
"Uh… nope! Everything has been fixed so don't worry about it!"
"Ah… okay. I'll worry about it later then." Nicky handed her controller off to the plant man, who gladly accepted it, before walking over to me.
"Ya know, I think we should play a game with all of them tonight. Like a twenty questions type of thing! That way we can get to know them and figure out what they do! I have to work tomorrow, so I won't be able to see them that much. What do you think? And maybe we can watch a movie too?" I weighed the options in my head.
"I guess that could be a way to keep them calm for a while. Okay, let's do that and afterwards we can have dinner and figure out better sleeping arrangements. Speaking of food, have they had any lunch yet? I'm worried about PlantMan."
"Oh… uh no. I guess we should do that first. Then bonding time, here we come!"
Foosha: Notice how Vash has become more emotionally verbal since she's had to deal with these grown children? I think I would snap too.
Vash: You have no idea! How could someone be okay with just stealing my bed?
Nicky: You will always be sore about that, won't ya?
Vash: *grumbles* Yes...
Foosha: I drew some interesting pictures of the beginning of this chapter! If you're interested, they're on my deviantart account as always. I feel like watching Kiki's Delivery Service. So I'll see you guy's next chapter! *runs away*