After one knock, there was no answer. Two knocks yielded the same result. And when three knocks came around, there was still no answer. Under his breath, quiet enough so that neither Senri nor Nana could hear him, Husky proceeded to insult Igneous in the most colorful and profane ways he could imagine. In any other circumstance, he would've happily given up and left without so much as stopping; why, on the one occasion he actually wanted the man he hated to be there, was he not?! Perhaps he'd finally gotten his wish and was out of Igneous' life altogether – what a twist of fate that would turn out to be.
"Come on, come on, just answer…." Husky muttered as he reached out to once again knock on the door.
When he was about to, however, the door stirred. It slid open as Husky fist made its way, in a rather blunt and hard manner, towards the wood. It took a great deal of power on the boy's part to stop himself as a woman appeared in the doorway.
She wasn't positively radiant, but Husky had to admit she was pretty. Long blond hair fell from her head to her shoulders; dark brown eyes fell upon the three children at her doorstep. One lithe arm fell across her stomach, which was bulging out a small bit, and her pianist's fingers stretched out across the bulge's surface. Her tired eyes blinked and a smile formed on her face; Husky's face went red from embarrassment. Rose had misled him! This definitely wasn't Igneous. Last the blue-haired boy checked, Igneous was not that pretty (not that he had ever been pretty. Alright Husky, push that thought out of your head this instant!), nor was he that fat…nor was he a woman.
"May I help you?" she asked in a bit of a scratchy, motherly voice. Rubbing the arm of her light blue, sleeved dress, she continued to smile. And she was awaiting an answer, and Husky was positively melting in embarrassment.
"Uh…um…Well, you see," he managed to spit out, "I think we got the wrong address. We're looking for a man named Igneous, and…."
"Igneous?" the woman asked, her eyes lighting up. "You're looking for him?" Husky nodded in response. The woman turned into the house and called, "Iggy, it's for you!"
"How many times have I asked you to not call me that!" came from within the house in a frenzied shout. Husky could hear the shuffling of feet, and the grumbling of someone, though he couldn't make out what was being said. Not that he particularly wanted to know, but…. But that couldn't be Captain Igneous. He would never let himself be caught in the company of a –
However, it was indeed Captain Igneous who entered the fish +Anima's line of sight, bowl-cut dirty blond hair and all. He stared at the woman in annoyance before turning his attention to the door; when he did, the look on his face disappeared and he became absolutely flustered. Husky couldn't blame him – neither of them wanted this meeting to happen. Igneous' eyes darted around the vicinity, his mouth hanging open as if it were off its hinge. "Um…uh…I'm…I'm not here right now!" he said quickly, moving to slam the door shut.
As he did, the woman sighed and placed her foot between the door and its jamb. The wood collided with her heel, causing her to cringe and for Igneous to nearly yelp. Once the few moments of pain had passed, though, the woman resumed smiling. Turning to the Captain, she sweetly asked him, "Iggy, dear, aren't you going to ask them why they're here?"
Husky didn't need to be able to lip-read to figure out the word that Igneous muttered inaudibly. Those four letters were definitely not pleasant, even when he just imagined them. But Igneous stepped forward, complete with a rueful grimace on his face, and forced himself to say something. "What do you want?" he choked out, his mouth slowly rippling into a fake, toothy smile that forced stretch lines to pop up all over his face and neck.
Through clenched teeth, Husky replied, "Nothing at all if you don't want to hear it." Just as much animosity came through him as it did Igneous.
The Captain answered the boy with a strained, "All the better," all while retaining his horror movie smile.
As lightning sizzled between their eyes, Nana slapped a hand over her face and shook her head. "Men…." She groaned. Stepping up, she stamped her foot down. "Ahem." Nothing between Husky and Igneous changed. So, going to Plan B, she walked up to the front door and pushed Husky out of the way, which (while sending an icy chill up Nana's spine) did nothing to remedy the situation – Igneous seemed to dislike the girl even more than the blue-haired boy. Unlike the fish +Anima, though, she could make her demands known.
"We need to talk," she said quite bluntly, staring Igneous in the face.
"If you don't already know, I'd rather not listen."
Nana did already know; she was also, incidentally, offended by this rudeness on the Captain's part. So, pulling up a sleeve of her blouse she did what she was amazed the older woman hadn't done long ago.
There was a resounding echo and a shockwave sent flying as the bat +Anima slapped Igneous on the cheek. He fell against the door and tumbled to the floor, his arms shooting to the five-fingered red spot on his sore face. Puffing her chest out confidently, Nana continued. "This is about our friend Cooro."
Still rubbing his wound profusely, Igneous asked her, "And why should I care about your little friend?"
"Because," Husky said, reappearing on the steps, "it doesn't just concern Cooro. Our little problem also happens to involve a couple of no good +Anima and some shady business. Things I'm sure you're against." He crossed his arms and stared at the Captain.
The Captain grumbled, then looked to the older woman, and finally gave in. Sighing, but still making sure he reeked of annoyance, he told the three +Anima, "Fine. Come in. I'll listen to what you have to say." Struggling to his feet, and wiping himself clean of dust, he moved over to allow the older woman to withdraw into the house and the three children to enter.
As they did so, Husky put his hand in front of his mouth and whispered to Nana, "That blond woman's kinda fat, isn't she?" For the second time in five minutes, a large shockwave was sent blasting through the capital city. Husky held his cheek, which was throbbing; Nana wiped her hands and grinned smugly.
Senri bent down and put a hand on Husky's shoulder – the fish +Anima turned around to see the Kim-Un-Kur's other hand pointing to the woman. "Baby," he whispered.
"What?"
Huffing indignantly, Nana nearly exploded. Instead, she answered the ignorant boy in a heated whisper. "Husky, are you really that dense. She's pregnant."
"Pregnant?" Husky asked, blinking. "But if she's pregnant, then…" At last, all the pieces clicked together. "Oh…" And he couldn't stop a childish smile from spreading across his face – it was all he could do to stop himself from breaking down into a fit of laughter. He'd just never expected Igneous to be that sort of person.
The three +Anima were led into a living room of sorts, though it contained only a couch, a chair, and a small oak table. A small pitcher of water sat on the table. The woman and Igneous sat down on the small couch, the woman placing her hands in her lap and Igneous crossing his arms and slouching back. Husky, Nana, and Senri found their places as spots on a threadbare carpet that barely covered a wood floor; Husky immediately decided that he'd been in much better places than this.
The five stayed there, in an awkward silence, for a few minutes before Igneous grunted. "So…?" he inquired. "Why did you come here in the first place?"
"There's no need to be rude, Iggy," the woman told him.
Brow twitching, Igneous turned to her and replied, "No I'm not, Al! And stop calling me Iggy!"
"Al?" Nana asked.
The woman seemed to stop mid-motion when Nana spoke. Eyes widening, she whipped around in the couch so that she faced the three +Anima – her smile had retuned, though, as they all noticed. "How impolite of me," she laughed, setting her fingers on her chin. "I didn't even introduce myself! My name's Alice – I'm Iggy's fian-"
"She's just a friend!" Igneous protested, holding up his hands, the color of embarrassment all over his face.
Alice huffed, but couldn't help smirking. "Yes. A friend that you dated and then proposed to. Not to mention…" She rubbed her stomach. "…giving me the best thing a woman could ask for."
Nana's interest was, for the moment, piqued. "How long have you been carrying the baby?" she asked, her eyes alight with wonder. At this fascination, Alice couldn't help but smile and giggle.
"Not too long," she answered. "Only about three months is all…." Her sentence trailed off as the sound of feet tapping entered her ears. Turning to Igneous, she saw the baleful frown on his face and that his crossed arms were squeezing against one another. His foot was quickly tapping on the floor, gaining speed every other second it seemed.
"I assume you didn't come here to have idle conversation with my fiancée," he said, barely keeping his composure. "What 'problems' were you going on about?"
Husky sighed; talking to Igneous was never fun. Where else could he begin but the beginning? So, starting with their travels to Fly's memorial, he relayed the situation as up to that point as quickly as he could (which encompassed 'accidentally' leaving out the part that every other night he was having strange, slightly erotic dreams about his best friend), up to the point where they knocked upon the Captain's door.
Igneous digested the information slowly, taking into account everything he'd just been told. "Well…" he mused after processing the tale he'd just been told, "I'd say that your little friend has found a new crowd to travel with." With a harsh laugh, he continued by saying, "I can't say I'm surprised, though. I know I'd be itching to get away from you guys." And he took pleasure in the hurt expressions of the three +Anima – if he had to endure this, he might as well have some fun with it, right?
Alice begged to differ. She shot him a reproachful look, which caused the Captain to abruptly clear his throat. "Anyway, it's nothing to worry about. This is your friend Curry's-"
"Cooro."
"Whatever. It's his issue, let him deal with it. As for this Zeke person, I can't tell you he isn't a suspicious character. But he hasn't done anything directly related to any goings-on, so I think it would best to ignore it for now." And, feeling successful, he reclined once again.
Husky, on the other hand, wasn't quite as happy with that explanation. "You can't be serious!" he said loudly, getting to his feet. His eyes tried to bore into Igneous'. "Zeke is a huge threat! I don't what he can do, but we have to stop him!"
"I don't care," Igneous replied calmly. "He's not my problem, so why should I deal with it?"
But before anyone could argue any further, furious rapping sounded at the door. "Captain! Captain Igneous! It's an emergency!" And this was all the prompting the Captain needed to spring from his seat and push past the +Anima in a rush to open the front door. In a few long strides, he was in the entryway, throwing the door open to reveal a soldier who was huffing and visibly out of breath.
"What is it?!" Igneous demanded. "What's going on?!"
Breathing heavily, the soldier replied, "S-someone's infiltrated the castle, sir."
"What?!"
"T-they broke into the treasure vault, and…."
"And what?! What did they steal?!"
"N-no money. Just a map…"
Igneous was at his breaking point. He wanted answers. "What map?! Tell me what they stole!"
"T-the map of the entire castle, sir. W-we tried to stop the thief, but couldn't stop them. F-forgive me, sir…."
Igneous muttered profanities under his breath as he ran into another room. He reappeared a minute later with a sword and shield tightly in his grasp.
"Iggy, what's going on?!" Alice called out to him, worry heavy in her voice.
"Nothing! You stay here, I need to go to the castle!"
"I'm going with you, then."
"No! You stay here, and don't, under any circumstances, leave!" With that, he raced out the front and began in the direction of the castle. He couldn't help feeling that things were about to get a lot more complicated and dangerous – it started with the +Anima he despised asking him for help, to someone breaking into the castle that was supposed to be the most well-protected place in Astaria. Nothing added up, which scared him. What was going on?