Chapter 2 – The Old Meet and Greet
Cravat shifted as he sensed the sunlight through the window. Even with his eyes closed, he knew it was morning already. He knew it was morning already because all the moaning and groaning that came from the room opposite his came to a halt a few hours ago. He knew it was morning already because all the horrific mind scarring images he kept thinking of stopped. He was happy that he still knew what morning was. Thanks to his liking to games, anime and whatnot, he had one vivid and hyperactive imagination, a trait that he was usually thankful for but not when it caused him great discomfort. He was now deeply contemplating how the hell would he face someone when he knew what their voice was when they… there's his imagination again. Might as well wake up already.
He never got back to sleep, and more importantly, he will never be able to wipe that mental image from his mind. He didn't have the sharpest hearing, but he could tell the owner of that room had at least three or more partners while they did the nasty. This was probably what that Reverend meant 'if he could survive the night', if he could go on without all of the noises of sex driving him batshit insane. If it was going to be like this from now on, he would have to toughen up his mental barrier. Reluctantly, he started to sit upright, stretching his arms as he did. To his right he spied the sleeping figure of the Angel named Stocking, covered in all the sheets of her bed. Because it was morning, he could finally see around her room and its contents. She seemed to be what other people call a 'goth'. Dark colors everywhere, and what he thought were cute stuffed toys last night, although having a sort of charm to them, still carried this sense of… ominousness. That wasn't even a real word. But that was the only way to describe it.
He got up quietly so he wouldn't disturb her. He noticed now that her hair was a dark bluish-violet color, almost black even, but having a slight tint to it. Her pink highlights were even more defined by the now rising sun, but her face was still under her blanket though. In a corner he spied her closet which was half opened. Glancing quickly at the sleeping girl, he scurried quickly and opened it. Yep, Gothic Lolita attire in a variety of colors. Not surprising, given her room. Deciding he would take a bath already, Cravat exited the room and went for his luggage. Habit was already there, probably looking to take a bath as well. Their suitcases were piled like a pyramid, and most of them actually belonged to Habit. They were all filled with her knives, blades, hatchets, and the like. He on the other hand only had three suitcases, given they were the quite large, one for his coats, another for his pants, boxers and home attire, and the last for his consoles and games. He always streamed his anime and read his manga online, so all he needed was space for his gaming equipment. Remembering what he came here for, he went up and patted Habit on the head.
"Did you have a good night's sleep?" He asked her, hauling two of his suitcases from the top of the pile. She might have been kept up by the noise too.
"Yeah actually, I slept like a rock after you dropped me on my bed," she said cheerfully. Good for you, Cravat thought. She was spared. He got his towel and toiletries and headed for the bathroom. Habit gave out a cry. "Can I take that bathroom? I really have to go…" she said, already jogging in place for emphasis. Cravat smiled and let her walk in first. "Yay!" she rushed in quickly and locked the door.
"Time to find another one I guess," he said, swinging his towel over his shoulder. Sure enough there was a bathroom downstairs. A nice warm shower cleared his head up a bit, and he dressed up quickly afterwards, putting on a white, long-sleeved dress-shirt which he rolled up until half of his forearm, and white, formal looking pants. His coat, which he buttoned up and tucked his two pseudo-neckties in, was sleeveless, black, and army-like with two long, flowing, rectangular 'tails' at the back that were up to his ankles. Finally he put on his socks and his black driving shoes with white stitches. As he went through the door he bumped into a young woman with blonde hair with nothing but her blanket on, scrambling forward to get inside. He stepped to his right to let her pass, and he realized she must've been the other one. The sex crazed Angel one. The one that kept him up all night, no innuendo intended.
"Ah, you're Panty right?" he asked, a little intimidated by the sight of her. She was tall for a girl, and was up to at least his eyes in height, considering he was wearing shoes right now. Her hair spiked and flared in a lot of directions, and fell past her waist. She had light blue, seductive, cat-like eyes that addressed him, her emotions unreadable. Actually, they weren't unreadable, it looked like she was bored. More of uninterested actually.
"You must be that transfer guy, yeah?" she asked, her tone indifferent. Cravat merely nodded. She noticed he looked like he hadn't slept that much. "Like what you heard last night?" she asked with a smirk.
"Erm, well, I wouldn't put it that way…" he said. She laughed somewhat, but it had a 'now I'm bored' ring to it. With a look that said 'okay you can go now' plastered on her face she slammed the door shut. Oh she seems like a ray of sunshine, Cravat sarcastically thought to himself. A ray of horny sunshine is more like it. He barely spotted a guy scurrying across the bridge while another that was visible through a window rappelled down the tower. A third one came scrambling down the corridor trying to buckle his belt and put his shirt on.
"… Okaaaay," he said to himself. Cravat deposited his towel in the dirty pile next to their luggage, which he would probably need to organize later on. Habit just got out of the shower, only dressed with a towel wrapped around her while another towel was wrapped around her hair. He never got how women did that. "Have a nice shower?" Cravat asked. Habit had a smile on her face.
"Yep, water was nice and warm," she gleefully replied. He watched as little droplets of water slowly went around the curves on the exposed parts of her body. He's seen her like this many times already, it really wasn't anything new.
"You should get dressed," he said passing her a suitcase. "Don't want to catch a cold now do you?"
"Alrighty then," Habit said over her shoulder as she rummaged through her suitcase. It was filled with nothing but her modified uniforms. She went into her room and locked the door to change. Cravat was about to head to the sweet smell of breakfast cooking downstairs when he heard another door open. This time he saw his roommate Stocking step out, still rubbing her eyes from the drowsiness. He got a good look at her face now, and she could be described as the cuter of the two sisters. Her green eyes were a little droopy and her default expression seemed to be a half-way pout. The only similarity she had with Panty was her height. These girls were tall. Stocking noticed Cravat looking at her and turned to face him. There was a moment of silence when they exchanged ever the indifferent glances.
"So," she was the first one to talk. "You must be Cravat," she finished. Like with Panty, he just nodded. She looked at him from head to toe, kind of like scanning him. Cravat imagined a horizontal red laser line going up and down his body and a screen would show up somewhere to showing the world what he was thinking right now. "A few ground rules you'll have to follow while sleeping in my room," she started, and Cravat stood at attention. Oh here we go, girl rules.
"One: Don't touch my bed. Two: Don't touch my stuff. Three: Don't touch anything that's mine, and Four: Don't mess with my sweets. If I find you violating any of these rules I will cut your nuts off," she stated. Never mind, he thought, both of the sisters were just as intimidating. Cut his nuts off with what though? He analyzed her name. Her stockings must've turned into something sharp.
"I'm guessing you use your stockings as a weapon which you can use to castrate other males, yes?" he asked. Stocking just gazed at him with a 'not amused' expression on. Yep, they were definitely sisters.
"Two points for Otaku Boy," she said nonchalantly. Otaku Boy? That was new.
"Where'd that come from?" he asked. She pointed to one of his suitcases. One of them had popped open when it fell from the top of the pile. It was his gaming supplies, containing two next generation consoles, four controllers each, with a pile of about ten or so games for each laid sideways to make space for the add-ons and extras. Along with that were his DVD and Blu-Ray box sets of anime he really took a liking to and wanted to buy even after streaming them all online. Oh, he thought, Otaku. That term for an anime and gaming addict. At least he wasn't as bad as the ones living in their parents' basement with life-size pillows of female anime characters or worse, dutch wives. He just enjoyed them for their entertainment. Ah well. She probably expected him to have costumes and the like among his other bags, which he did. Oh, she's good.
"You may have a cute face but everything else about you just screams 'no-lifer'," she finally answered. Did he hear that right?
"Did you just call me cute?"
"That was a test, and you seem to match my expectations," she started again. "Flustered by simple female praise. You're obviously not around the opposite gender that much. They're all probably too scared or too disgusted of you. That other girl here must be some sort of desperate floozy to have been shacking it up with you."
Wow, she's brutal. The old axiom was right. It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for. Her sister Panty showed outright her distaste at things. However at first glance you don't get that with Stocking. You think she's harmless. He could feel now, that she had a dark side to her. But you mess with Habit and you're going to get what's coming to you.
"While I may have only been around one girl for the entirety of my stay here, it's because it's my choice who I want to be around," He started to say firmly, his voice slowly rising. "Now I'm going to be staying in that room of yours for a while, and I get it. You don't seem to like me. I'll follow your rules, whatever it may be, out of the concept that I think you're a good person despite being a judgmental asshole. But you don't know me or her enough to go running your mouth. Say that about her again and maybe I'll stick something up your snatch to shut you the hell up," he was almost shouting. That last bit came out of spite. He had an extremely forgiving disposition. But bark up the wrong subject and I'll bite back, bitch, he thought to himself. Stocking was, to say the least, quite stunned.
"Wow," she said slowly. She could tell he was ticked. "Alright then. I'm sorry, I'm kind of cranky in the morning. I couldn't sleep because of my damn sister. I just felt like I had to vent or something. Well, that and I haven't had my morning dose of sweets yet," she finished, letting out a big yawn for effect. Now it was Cravat's turn to be shocked. Oh great, now he felt bad. Women. God knows he'll never get them. With a sympathetic expression on his face he started to scratch the back of his head.
"I uh, didn't really mean that about your snatch," he said, trying to laugh a little to lighten the mood. Stocking giggled a little. Fuck, he thought, she's adorable, of course different from Habit's kind of adorable. But just like Habit she can be brutal if she wanted to. "If it's any consolation I'm still recovering from the mind scarring myself."
"You'll get used to it, but sometimes they're just too loud," Stocking said, rolling her eyes. With a little wave she entered the bathroom door. Cravat sighed. He waited for Habit outside her room.
"Habit, want to go get breakfast? I'll open up that new batch of cookies you've been wanting-" a door suddenly swung violently open and slammed into his face.
"Ffffff-!" he never finished the word. He was too busy garbling other nonsensical sounding swear words, that and holding a handkerchief to his nose to absorb the small amount of blood flowing out.
"Breakfast cookies~ Ah, Ravvy! What are you doing there?" Habit asked as she stared at him crouching and hunched over. Cravat quickly wiped the blood away from under his nose and stood up straight. This used to be a daily occurrence whenever he called her to breakfast. After talking with Stocking he forgot her tendency to open a door with reckless abandon, or smash and mow down anything in her path to travel in a straight line towards her round little snacks. You know, straight line, fastest way to anything? That or pull a Schrödinger's Cat, which neither of them could do. Straight line through anything it is then.
"Oh nothing. So, breakfast?" he asked through a pained expression. Habit merely replied with a cheerful shout. Cravat retrieved the said cookies from Habit's special 'Mah Stash' labeled suitcase and went with her down the stairs. As they got down they noticed a peculiar looking animal sleeping at the bottom of the stairs, which they carefully stepped over. Garterbelt was already setting the table.
"Erm, Mr. Garter?" Habit called out. The big man turned his head to face her while still setting utensils down. "What's this?" she asked, pointing to the green… thing. They could hear it snoring loudly, or something like it. It just repeated Chack, with the 'a' elongated, which was kind of like snoring.
"Is it… is it a Pokemon or something?" Cravat asked. He heard the sound of metal hitting the floor.
"Oh that? That would be Chuck," he called out from under the table, retrieving a fork that was dropped. "He's the zipper dog. Well, he's more of a mailbox for Heaven than anything else," at hearing his name, Chuck immediately awoke and began prancing around saying its name over and over again. It sat down calmly next to its food bowl, which Garterbelt filled with… something. It looked like some sort of liver pate mutated by radiation. Chuck devoured it thankfully though. The good Reverend then proceeded to get a megaphone. With a click, it was on.
"YOU WHORES GET DOWN HERE NOW THE FOOD IS READY!" Garterbelt shouted, his features taking on a crazed expression, then reverting back to being calm and collected. He sat down at one of the center ends of a nice, rectangular wooden table. Cravat and Habit sat down on the two chairs to Garterbelt's left, and after a few minutes of silence, save for Chuck's gorging, the two sisters walked down the stairs. Panty was wearing a red dress that was ever a few inches above her knee, and Stocking wore a black Lolita-esque with a big blue bow near the collar. Her hair also had a matching bow on it, and she carried around a little stuffed cat. The two of them sat down opposite of Cravat and Habit, with Stocking in front of Cravat and Panty in front of Habit.
"*ahem* I think you've all met each other already," Garterbelt started. Habit slowly raised her hand a little.
"Um, I haven't met the two of them yet…"
"Ah, if that's the case," Garterbelt turned to Panty and Stocking. "Go on, introduce yourselves. This will be the start of a wonderful partnership between the four of you."
Panty spoke first. "Name's Panty. If you think I turn my panties into a gun, then you'd be right. Two points for you," She said almost absent-mindedly while reaching for some spicy chicken wings. Another thing she liked, other than sex, was spicy food. Stocking on the other hand hated the stuff.
"I'm Stocking. Like I've told Otakun over there, I turn my stockings into swords. Can I have some of that chocolate cornet now?" she asked pointing to an entire plate of it. Cravat noticed she added an 'n' at the end of Otaku now. How interesting.
"Thank you for the meal," Cravat said, reaching over for a plate of hot bread. He managed to get some butter, which he spread on one loaf. He got another loaf and spread peanut-butter on it, and sandwiched the two sides into one. He took a big chomp out of it, relishing the taste.
"I second that," Habit said, reaching for a stack of pancakes. She got two and generously slobbered it with Maple syrup, and crushing a few pieces of cookies on top of it and adding whipped cream. She looked like she was in Heaven already. After they'd all eaten their fill, they left the dishes on the table. Panty and Stocking started to walk towards the door.
"Where are you guys going?" Cravat asked. Panty turned around to answer.
"Daten High. We go there every day to scout for ghosts and get information. That and to bully geek boy." She said with a sadistic smile. Whoever this geek boy was Cravat already had sympathy for him. Daten High… he thought he saw a High-School while scouting at the top of the mall roof. He guessed that's where they were going.
"You'll be going with them you know," Garterbelt said over his shoulder while gathering up the plates. Cravat looked at Habit. She simply smiled.
"Think of it as our first day on the job," she said, lightly jabbing Cravat on the shoulder and hurrying after the other two Angels. Cravat scratched his head and followed all three of them. They got to the underground Garage, and he spied what he guessed was the Angels' ride, pink, roofless, Hummer H1. Cravat spied Lash-Out right next to it. As he climbed on his bike, Habit looked like she'd seen a ghost. Cravat wondered for a bit what she was doing, then realized. He laughed at the thought.
"You can go ride with them. It doesn't take a genius to know you hate being my passenger."
"OH DEAR LORD THANK YOU RAVVY!" Habit ecstatically shouted, and got in the backseat of the Hummer. Stocking was already at the wheel and Panty was riding shotgun. She looked to Cravat and had a little game in mind.
"Hey, Otakun," she called out. Cravat turned his head. "I bet your dingy little bicycle can't beat See-Through in a race," she finished, starting See-Through up. Habit snapped her attention to Stocking. Oh this can't be good.
"Really now…?" Cravat answered back, revving Lash-Out up. The exit door to the surface slowly opened and sunlight broke through. "A little race then?" he asked, revving Lash-Out even louder. The sounds echoed through the almost empty garage space. Panty looked at Cravat with interest.
"Well well, looks like we have a challenger," she said, putting on a pair of black sunglasses. Stocking did the same with her own dark blue ones. They looked at each other.
"Stocking," Panty called out with a glint in her eye her sister could see behind the sunglasses.
"Panty," Stocking replied. Sibling telepathy, perhaps?
"Let's show this Otaku the 'ride' of his life," Panty said, licking her lips.
"Oh yes, let's," Stocking said eagerly, her hand on the throttle. "Do you even know the way there Otakun?" she asked. Cravat gave them a sly little smirk of his own.
"Oh I'll think of something," he said, about to flip up the stand on Lash-Out. Habit already latched herself in with a seatbelt. She held on to her plush cookie for comfort.
"I like you already, Otaku Boy," Panty shouted out over all the revving. "Alright," she started the countdown. "Three."
"Two," Stocking continued, her hand already gripping the E-Brake.
"One!" Cravat shouted, flipping the stand of Lash-Out up. The tires screeched as they revved in place, the friction of rubber to concrete making white smoke form. Stocking slammed the E-Brake down and switched to first gear, the tires of See-Through also creating a curtain of white smokescreen.
"Here we go again," Habit finished, holding her cookie pillow in a vice-grip. Cravat let out a cry of anticipation.
"LET'S GET IT ON YOU TWO!"
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Author's notes: Nothing much happening here, just some plot. I originally planned to make the Christmas Chapter land on, well, Christmas, but seeing as it's only Chapter two I guess it'll have to occur off-date. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's 1AM here, so off to bed I go XD.