Disclaimer: Tekken = Bandai Namco
3: Full House
"Let's see…Is this the place?" A young woman asked herself as she sat in her car, looking at a piece of paper with an address on it. She looked out to the matte-black numbers that were attached to the large brick column that marked the entrance to the driveway of the home she was stopped in front of. "364...That's the one!"
She smiled and put her car in drive so that she could pull into the driveway. After parking in the empty space in front of the garage, she turned her engine off and walked out. The young woman opened the trunk of her small sports car and pulled out several bags. Placing them on the ground, she shut the door and glanced up at the two story building.
"Wow. They've got a gorgeous house," she stated as she stared at the arctic white home that had windows adorned with dark blue shutters. The yard was impeccable and the front porch had a rather elegant but simple look with pots of small but very aromatic flowers. "I hope there's someone home. I don't see a car in the driveway," she laughed, "Hmmm, then again, maybe they're oddballs and actually use their garage to park the cars in instead of using it as a storage unit like everyone else."
She picked up the bags and walked up the small pathway to the front door. Setting down the bags in her right hand, she reached for the door bell and pushed the small button. From inside she heard movement and within the minute the lock on the door was undone and the door swung open.
"Verity!" The woman who opened the door gasped. Her golden-brown eyes opened wide.
"Jules!" Verity said back with a wide smile. She set down the other bags and the two good friends embraced each other.
"Verity! Oh my gosh! I thought you were flying in next week!" Julia said with astonishment as they separated.
"I was, but my flight was cancelled for some reason, I forget what it was exactly, and instead the airport asked if I would be willing to come in on the next flight free of charge," she grinned, "and I said why not? If I could save myself the fortune it takes to get to Tokyo why would I deny the offer?"
Julia smiled, "But why didn't you call? I could've sent someone to pick you up from the airport and fixed up one of the spare bedrooms for you!"
Verity laughed, "I was going to but I decided to surprise you instead. For a second there I was worried though. There were no cars in the driveway and I was afraid I would come knocking and there'd be no one here."
Julia laughed along with Verity, "Verity. The garage has a purpose: to keep the cars. And that's why the driveway is empty."
"Yeah, I figured that much. Guess you guys are the strange ones since it seems that everyone else keeps their cars out of the garage."
"That's only because they have nowhere else to put extra vehicles," Julia smiled, "And why are we talking about why my driveway is vacant? Come in already!"
Verity grabbed the bags off the porch and handed them to Julia, "Here, I brought you guys some gifts."
Julia reached for the bags, "Oh! Thank you Ver. Come on in," she moved away from the doorway, "Make yourself at home. Do you want anything to eat or drink?"
"Nah, I'm good. I had something to eat at the airport right before coming here," Verity said as she walked into the living room. "Holy…sheesh Jules! This is one hell of a house! You weren't lying when you said it was big!" She did a complete 360-degree turn as she took in the inside of Julia's home. Her jaw dropped as she saw how elegant yet simple all of the furnishings seemed.
"Yeah well…" she laughed at Verity's astonished expression.
"How many rooms are there?" Verity walked up to the staircase and glanced upstairs.
"Seven total," Julia said sheepishly while Verity turned to her slowly, "Five upstairs and two down here."
"Seven?" she said in disbelief, "I thought the whole reason you guys moved out of the mansion was because it was too big. And now you've gone and moved into a slightly smaller big-house."
"Guess so," Julia chuckled. After a few moments spent admiring Julia's house, Verity turned around to face her once again.
"Hey. Where're your kids?" Verity had noticed that it seemed awfully quiet for there to be a pair of one-year-old twins in the house.
"They're taking their nap right now," Julia answered with a pleasant smile.
"Damn. I guess that means I can't see them, eh?" she said in disappointment.
"You can see them if you want. They just won't be awake to see you."
"Hmm. I think I'll wait till they wake up," Verity looked up at Julia. "Well. Since you've got so many freaking rooms do you mind if I take my pick of them?"
"Not at all. Do you want upstairs or down?" Julia couldn't resist but letting out the bout of laughter that her best friend always seemed to provoke.
"Upstairs of course!"
"Right this way, ma'am," Julia waved her hand out to motion Verity to head upstairs. "Just try to keep quiet so the boys don't wake up. The last thing I need is for both of them to get all fussy."
The two women couldn't help but laugh as quietly as possible as they ascended the staircase and headed upstairs.
a/n: Woohoo! Verity returns to Japan for a visit!
I hope it doesn't seem as if I'm going too slow with the story. I'll do my best to keep up the 1-chapter-a-week plan. Review!