Ch. 5: ... What NOW? (Feelings Become Known II)
"Um... What happened to Rhode?" Bak asked, blinking in astonishment. He could have SWORN Rhode was on their heels, about to kill him with Rero... about to KILL him with RERO, which is only really possible when wielded by Rhode.
"I don't know..."
A few feet away, around the corner, Tyki and Rabi had Rhode restrained, a dirty sock stuffed in her mouth so she couldn't bite them. She had already bitten Tyki approximately 587 times in past incidents.
"MMPH-MMPH-MMM-HMMMMMM!!" Rhodes tried to scream.
"Did you hear something?" Rabi asked.
"Nope," Tyki replied.
"Ne, weren't you supposed to have the bar open today?"
"I call this a family emergency, especially since it concerns my poor niece Rhode and yours and my beloved Allen-chan. What about you?"
"Panda-jiji doesn't care. He can't fire me because everyone else is too afraid to work for him, and I'm his grandson, after all."
They looked around the corner, but Allen and Bak had already taken off running, leaving the irreparable bicycle behind. To HELL with the bike. They did NOT want to stick around and wait for Rhode to jump out and kill them or something.
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"What are we doing NOW, Komui?" Reever asked.
Komui was ignoring him again, drinking coffee from a thermos. It was their day off from work, but that never stopped the sadistic man from having his coffee.
"You never tell me anything, dammit!"
"Bak and Allen need help," Komui finally decided to say.
"What? Why do we have to help them?"
"You'll see..."
Bak and Allen kept running and running, until someone blocked their path. He was a man of tall stature, with long, wild, red hair.
"Cross-san," both Allen and Bak said with complete and utter despair in their voices. Bak heard the horrible stories about Cross, who was Allen's former employer.
Cross stood there, smoking a cigarette, and then turned his gaze on Allen, who flinched.
"You. Come."
"Eh?"
It was then that Komui shoved Reever at Cross and RAN LIKE HELL. Reever and Cross fell onto the ground, giving Allen and Bak enough time to escape before Cross could come after them.
"Well, well well, I wondered if you would ever come crawling to me. You would be a more worthy challenge than Allen," Cross said before trying to molest the spiky-haired younger man.
"GAAAH! GODDAMMIT, KOMUI, I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU FOR THIS!"
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They stopped running AGAIN when they got to a park, and rested on a bench facing a strange fountain that looked like a person reaching out from what could be called a "flock" of butterflies.
"It's like all of our luck just got flushed down the toilet," Bak said.
"Not really. We have some good luck in that somehow these people who are after us are being taken out of the way somehow."
"I'd rather not have to see them at all..."
"Heh, yeah... especially Cross-san. I haven't seen him since I quit working for him," Allen said with a smile.
"How can you keep smiling like that? Even after the things you've gone through, how do you do it?"
"I keep living and smiling in hope that there will be a better tomorrow lying ahead for me. My foster father, Mana, always told me to keep walking, to keep moving forward. I do believe that tomorrow will be better, because it starts today."
"That's amazing."
They sat there and watched the fountain for a while until Bak said, "Allen?"
"What is it?"
"I... I like you."
Allen blushed and looked down as he said, "I--I like you, too. I've liked you since we first met, but I was always afraid to tell you." He looked back up at Bak.
"Why?"
"You always seemed to like Lenalee, so I..."
"Let's forget about that. What matters more now is what happens in the present and the future, right?"
"Yeah."
And just when things seemed to be going all sparkles and roses and PINK again, Bak realized that he was still in his work uniform. "Oh no!"
"What?"
"I need to get to work!"
"What about your bike, though?"
"He'll make me deliver food without it!"
"That's horrible... You should try getting another job."
"Yeah... well..."
"How about we hang out sometime later?"
"Um, okay. I guess I'll call you, then?"
Bak REALLY had to go back to the restaurant, so he took off at a very quick sprint, waving goodbye to Allen.
Allen smiled, watching Bak run away. He looked kind of funny in the uniform, but it did show some stuff off. Allen's face turned bright red.
"SO, you finally confessed your feelings to each other!" Rabi spoke, putting an arm around Allen's shoulders.
"I was wondering how long that would take. You'd think they would be quicker about it," Tyki said, putting his arm around Allen's shoulders as well.
The three of them formed an interesting (but devilishly adorable and delicious) Allen sandwich.
"W-where did you two come from?"
"We followed you after we saw you with Bak! You didn't honestly think that Rhode just decided to disappear earlier, did you?"
"What did you do with her?" Allen asked, though he was a little afraid to know.
"She's back home with her daddy dearest," Tyki replied, a relatively unhappy look on his face. He did NOT like dealing with Sherryl very much, considering that the man hit on him every time they met.
"So, you're gonna be hanging out, just the two of you?"
"Maybe..."
"Daddy, our beloved child might lose his flower soon!" Rabi started to cry.
"So I have noticed, Mommy, but he is a big boy and I think he can handle it... but it still makes me so sad."
The two of them squashed Allen in a big, hearty "family hug." Oh, Allen was overjoyed. He was being soaked in Tyki and Rabi's tears... and Rabi's snot.
"T-Tyki-san, shouldn't we be getting to work?" Allen said, looking at his newly-stained shirt in dismay while also trying to breathe while being crushed between the two men.
"Oh? I took care of that. We don't need to work today."
And just as quickly as they appeared at Allen's side, they disappeared like the wind... again.
"Are those two ninjas or something?" Allen asked to himself.
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In another part of town, where Tyki's bar was, The Millennium Earl glared at the childishly-drawn sign on the door.
To all of our customers:
Tyki's Bar is closed for today due to a family emergency. We apologize for the inconvenience!
Tyki Mikk, Bartender
It was drawn with CRAYONS of all things. Well, with the Earl you can't really tell when he's mad, considering that he ALWAYS has that damn toothy grin on his face ALL THE TIME. It wasn't that he was mad about the bar being closed (considering that it WAS a Monday), but the fact that it was closed on a whim, without him being informed. Tyki-tan would be punished for this, though not as horribly as if he were to close the bar on a Friday.
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Thankfully, Bak only had one small delivery to make before his shift was over. His boss did give him hell for taking too long to get back to the restaurant however, and so his payment was decreased.
He returned to his apartment, where Fou was lying on the couch face down, except for her face which was sort of hanging over the edge of the couch. There were a couple of beer cans crunched up on the floor. The TV was playing an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger. He sighed with slight exasperation. Why anyone liked that show, he'd never really understand.
At least one thing was going right with this day, of course. Just remembering that moment with Allen today made his heart feel like it was about to jump out of his chest.
He made his way to his room, but little did he know, as he opened the door... his face turned a BRILLIANT, GLOWING shade of red that you only see when a volcano erupts or when a blacksmith is making a sword and just pulled the blade from the fire.
It was a little later that Fou came too and found Bak lying on the floor in a small pool of blood, his head rather close to turning pure white. His room had been filled to the brim with pictures (and a blanket on the bed, curtains, posters, the mousepad, on the desktop background of his computer, and even a few t-shirts... AND a blow-up doll lying on the bed) of what appeared to be a nude Allen, and Rabi was laughing his ass off at him while trying to stay standing up by holding onto Tyki. They had been hiding in the closet, waiting for Bak to show up to see his reaction.
"Are you two trying to kill him?" Fou asked, though she wasn't actually serious.
"In the funniest way possible, yes," Tyki replied with a PERFECTLY straight face. To him, playing a prank on anyone was always serious business. He usually plays pranks to make his Usagi-chan happy, after all.
"How did you get those pictures of Allen like that?"
"Well... we had to do some photoshopping on them," Rabi said.
"Wait-- THAT looks familiar!" Fou said, pointing at "Allen's" butt. Then she looked at herself in the full-length mirror. "DUDE, WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK!?" she screamed at them.
"Ty-tan, I didn't know you were bi."
"I'm not. Hers just looked the closest to what I'm guessing Allen-chan's looks like, so..."
"DAMMIT, IF YOU'RE GOING TO USE MY ASS IN A PHOTOSHOPPED PICTURE, AT LEAST LET ME KNOW BEFOREHAND! I'll let you guys off easy for now since you did something that was pretty damn funny, but in the future, keep that in mind!"
"Hai, hai, Fou-sama," Tyki replied.
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Okay, so I at LEAST had Cross show up in this chapter and explained what happened to Rhode... but I still haven't answered the more important questions. Well, at least I've left myself some material to work with, ne? So now we just have to find out the truth about Bak's hat and if he and Allen are going to do the nasty yet! 3 It MIGHT come in the near future, unless I wind up really busy again and put it off for a couple weeks! I've never written a story and went through with it as far as this one has... and I've never really written smut at all before... so we're all just gonna have to cross our fingers (or whatever the hell any of us do for good luck) and hope that whatever I throw together works... I guess it's time to dig out the thinking grenades... o.o"
I swear to you, the classical music I've been listening to DOES fuel my brain to write the more fluffy, sweet and sorta serious stuff in this story, but it also has been causing my mind to go flying apart at the seams! If I listen to nothing but classical for a couple days, then become really bored, then I'll have a strong urge to go on a killing spree. u.u"
I have NO freakin' clue why Bak and Allen keep getting knocked out so much in this story! Maybe I just lack the creativity of words and situations to think of much else. Or maybe, in the universe I created in this story, Cross is actually God, but he just comes and lands in that area just to mess with everyone, like the sadistic bastard that he is! MUAHAHAHHRARR-- Cross knocked Aka-kun out with a hammer to shut hir up.