Chapter 17
A/N: …I think I might be reaching the end of this fic soon…I dunno…I wonder…I should actually plan out the rest…try to make it somewhat good at least…help…seriously, heeeeelllllp meeeeeeee…
CloneGirl: Oh, Maskerado-kun! Say the disclaimer for me, dearest!
Masquerade: …I knew you were going to try this again…and I don't even have any bricks this time…damn. I don't want to say it.
CloneGirl: Aw, come on! You just have to say a few words…
Masquerade: Really? Like what kind of words?
CloneGirl: Oh, you know, silly! All you have to say is that I don't own any rights to Bakugan whatsoever…wait…
Masquerade: *smirks*
CloneGirl: …Oh, nice, nice. You tricked me…you're good…
Hydranoid silently watched his master, the tight lines around his mouth, the fidgeting of his fingers as he fiddled with the mouse. Occasionally, the face and name of the random brawler would appear on the colossal screen around them, but quickly disappeared with a discontented sound from the blonde boy. The Darkus Bakugan knew that it had been a while since his master had seen a good challenge, and that he was slowly growing edgy with the lack of a challenge.
He tried to recall exactly when his master had started to become dissatisfied with his prey; he had the strangest feeling that it had been around the time that he stopped visiting the Brawler girl…damn. He had to act now…
But how should he go about doing it? Obviously, he had to be sneaky…surreptitious…very careful…
"You should hate the Brawler girl." Subtlety wasn't his strongest point, to say the least.
Surprised to find the silence broken by such a brazen and random statement, Masquerade turned to the Bakugan. "You think so? Why?" His voice was still cold and distant, tinged with restlessness.
…Hydranoid should have been prepared to answer this beforehand, he really should have. "Because…she…also talked about you in her sleep."
For the first time in a while, interest actually creeped into his young master's voice. "Really? What…kinds of things was she saying?"
…Crap. This might require a bit of imagination, yet another weak point of his. "Er…she was calling you a…a creep! And…insulting your…hair. And calling you ugly. All in her sleep. Yeah." That sounded lame, even to Hydranoid's own ears. Apparently his master thought so too.
"What are you trying to convince me of, Hydranoid? Do you realize how weak that sounded?"
Yes, yes he did. But saying that out loud would just enforce the theory that Hydranoid was trying to pull a fast one on Masquerade even further. There was no way that he would let that stuck-up Haos Bakugan win this… "Whatever do you mean, master? I just think that you…should know about the insults directed to you by the Brawler girl…and therefore hate her for it."
Masquerade stared at him for a moment longer, still so obviously skeptical. Finally, he just sighed and turned back to the screen, not wanting to know anymore about his Bakugan's strange behaviour than was necessary. Hydranoid still had one last thing to say though, something that just occurred to him, something that he knew would give him a reaction.
"I think she also might have said something about Dan being a superior Brawler."
That did the trick.
"What?!" Masquerade whipped around to face his Bakugan again, hissing through gritted teeth. "Is that what she thinks?"
"That was what I heard her say." Finally, he was getting somewhere. Hydranoid could practically taste his upcoming victory. And it tasted like…strawberries, for the oddest reason. Huh…what do you know…
"Oh really?" His voice had dropped again, hard and quietly furious. "What a fool. To believe that that idiot is superior to me…hmph."
"It's a true disgrace to your ability." Pure loathing, that was what was coming off of the blonde boy in waves. Ah, how sweet victory tasted… (A/N: …I don't think people normally speak that much in their sleep…oh well.)
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Man, we were swamped today, weren't we?" Runo mumbled in complaint, pulling her apron off over her head with a loud yawn. Alice followed suit, minus the yawn.
"It was fairly busy…" Alice sighed as she laid her apron on the edge of her bed, watching Runo from the corner of her eye. She had been cheerful all day, a huge improvement from the way she had been acting after the incident…but Alice couldn't help but remember the half-word on the piece of paper, still hidden safely among her belongings, and the scene she and Dan had walked in on. "Runo…"
"Hm?" The bluette half-turned her head, turning her attention away from the drawer she was rummaging through. "Yeah, Alice?"
"Runo…if…if there's anything you ever want to talk to me about…"
"What do you mean?" Runo turned around fully and leaned against the chest of drawers, looking at Alice somewhat suspiciously.
"Well…you know…" Alice sat down on her futon hesitantly, keeping her eyes pointed towards the ground. "About…Masquerade…"
"I told you, I don't like him!" Frustrated that she was still being suspected, Runo stalked over to her bed and plopped down on it heavily, crossing her arms. "I don't see why you're still going on about it, it was weeks ago…let's just forget it, okay?"
Alice nearly agreed to go with that, the easy way out. But she stopped herself, and took a deep breath. Standing up again, she walked over to the drawer that Runo had emptied out when she had first come here to stay, just for her and opened it. After a moment of shifting around some of her clothes, she pulled out the piece of paper.
With another would-be reassuring deep breath, Alice turned around and handed the little ball to Runo, shamefacedly. The other girl's eyes widened as she took it from her, her hand shaking. Carefully, Runo opened it up and smoothed it out, staring at the girly little script. God, she couldn't believe that she actually…
After a minute or two of silence, Runo looked back up, her face devoid of emotion. "You…you found this?"
Alice nodded, unable to bring her head up and meet her friend's eyes. "I…I don't know, what does this mean, Runo? Why…?"
"I was really frustrated, okay? And he just happened to be there, bugging me…I wasn't really focusing. You gotta believe me…I really don't like him…"
Alice didn't answer her, didn't offer her any assurance that she believed her feeble words. She simply went back to her drawer and silently pulled out her pajama's.
Tigrerra watched this exchange from her dollhouse, disturbed. Perhaps…she hadn't been as convincing as she thought she was…
* * * * * * * * * * *
Darn it. Sleep had been coming so blissfully easily the last few nights, but now after her confrontation with Alice…the world must hate her. It really must.
She tried turning over onto her right, careful not to ruin the paper still clutched in her hand even further. Now that she had it back, that she could see the proof of what her subconscious had tricked her into writing (stupid subconscious), it was impossible to let go. In fact, it had taken all of her willpower not to complete the word. God, maybe she was spending too much time around Julie…
At least she couldn't actually see it, not in this light. The girliness of it disgusted her…the feminine script innocently mocked her from its safe place on the crinkled paper that she couldn't bring herself to destroy…she was pretty sure it was going to give her a paper-cut eventually, just out of spite…and the fact that this was all over something related to him just made everything worse.
All of these feelings, over a piece of paper. Damn, she was pathetic.
Sighing, Runo turned back onto her left, facing towards Alice. She hesitated for a moment; what could she say? Continue to try and convince the orange-haired girl that she had no feelings over that jerk, only to sound even more pathetic than she already was? Or maybe…talk things out, get her help to sort out all of these strange feelings…
Not that there were any feelings. Of course not. Not over that creep…in that way…crap.
Again she turned onto her right side, only to go back to her left. This was stupid…there wasn't even anything to talk about…
"Alice?" But of course, it didn't hurt to be on the safe side.
The redhead didn't even stir, too deep in her sleep. Runo sighed, and nearly decided to just forget it…it was too stupid anyways. But…still…she felt that she was going to go crazy with this hanging over her and having no one to talk it out with. Curse the human mind…it simply couldn't be nice to her for once…
"Alice? Come on, wake up…" Still nothing. Starting to get annoyed, Runo reached over as long as her arms could allow and poke her friend in the shoulder. "Alice! I need to talk to you…"
Finally, a reaction. She watched as Alice mumbled something sleepily, yawning and slowly sitting up, rubbing her eyes. "Ru…Runo? What is it?" Her words were slurred and slow with the drowsiness, but Runo knew instinctively that Alice was ready to listen. When wasn't she?
"Uh…well…" How to word this? Yeah, Alice, do you think I might possibly…well…feel for a certain creep? Can you tell me that I'm being stupid, something I already know? There was absolutely no way she was going with something as blatant and stupid as that. "It's…it's kinda about earlier…"
Alice sat up straighter, her mind instantly cleared and ready to churn out some sort of advice that would magically clear everything up for the bluette. "Okay…"
Runo sat up and drew her legs close to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She closed her eyes and rested her chin on the top of her knees, trying to organize her thoughts. "Well…god, I don't even know…it's just…Masquerade's a jerk. This is all his fault."
"Runo…did he…hurt you in some way?" It was only too clear to both of them what the hidden question in her words were.
"No, nothing like that. I mean…when you and Dan…walked in, that really was an accident. But…it's just like…" It was official, Runo sucked when it came to 'organizing her thoughts'. Taking in a deep breath, she blurted out the first thing that seemed to work. "I haven't seen him since! I mean, that happened and then he just ran off, left me to deal with all of this…he didn't even return to apologize! I mean…Tig thinks that he meant for this all to happen, that he was messing with us…how could he be such a jerk?!"
So much for miracle advice. Without knowing more about the reasons for her feelings… "Runo…what exactly happened between you two?"
~…~
She blabbed. She had told Alice everything, every single little detail about Masquerade's visits, details that were somehow sharpened in her memory since they had actually happened.
She told her about when he first approached her with the offer of tutorage, their conversation then and after, during all of their meetings, as well as she could remember them, all of their interactions. His teasing comments, that now occurred to her to be somewhat…flirty, a word that disgusted her and made her blush at the same time. When he had done her homework for her, how she had made him a sandwich and he delivered her breakfast. His awkward condition in exchange for information, how she had managed to get a kick in before he so very wisely left. Her anger over the changes made to gym class and how she had partially took it out on him, and then later her begging him to help her, and then unintentionally hugging him when he agreed. Then the events all leading up to that 'fateful kiss'. God, what a terrible way to put it…
And of course she talked about the feelings…oh, how she now hated that word…the butterflies she would occasionally get in her stomach at his presence, butterflies that now seemed to be more like evil carnivorous leeches. The few times he had gotten sour and put out, sourness that made her think of jealousy. His strange friendliness and familiarity, his reluctance to leave most of the time. She spoke in such detail she didn't even know if it was real or just her imagination telling her what had happened.
Finally she managed to shut her mouth, red in the face. Why the hell did she just blurt out everything? It wouldn't have hurt to keep just a few things to herself at least…not like it was a big deal anyways…
Alice was silent, a contemplative and worried look on her face. Like almost any other human being she had watched copious amounts of TV, if only to pass the time. And she had watched enough dramas and other such shows to know recognize what this kind of situation this was. Of course, TV couldn't always be counted as a reliable source…but it was better than nothing. (A/N: You know it's sad when your understanding of the human psyche is based off of television.) "Runo…are you sure that you don't, well…lik…"
"NO!" Runo shook her head furiously. "I told you, I don't li…li…that word him!" So many evil words, so little replacements that didn't sound as stupid as 'that word'… "He's just evil and he's messing with me!"
"Runo, are you sure?" Alice drew her blanket around herself closer and stared at her friend, a strange, intense look in her eyes. A look that wanted to help her find out the truth…and wanted to deny it at the same time. "It really seems to me…well, do you think that…Masquerade has…?"
"…" She blinked, trying to comprehend Alice's unasked question. "Wha…oh…NO! He totally doesn't…he was probably just acting…do you think he does? I mean…uh…" A curse on awkward situations such as these. Why, why in the world did this have to be so confusing? "I mean, this is Masquerade we're talking about. I don't think he could have…feelings…like those…" Of course, she also hadn't thought about how Masquerade lived, the kind of food he ate…how often he ate…
Alice closed her eyes, trying to think of something else to say that might find her better results…
"Of course…there is something else…"
She reopened her eyes, to see Runo burying her head against her legs, the tips of her ears turning red in embarrassment. Alice could just understand the muffled words that Runo continued to speak.
"I used to have this…dream…it was really stupid…"
"The Dan dream?"
Runo raised her head to stare at her apologetic friend, aggravated. Couldn't she just shut her big mouth when sleeping for once? Groaning, she let her head fall again. "Yeah. I used to dream that all the time…and it was always the same. It was so annoying…but…well, the dream began to change a bit…in it, I just kinda…stopped getting so into it…and then Dan…well, not the real Dan obviously, just the dream one…well, he started asking…'which one?'"
What other kind of meaning could Alice get from it? It was only too blatantly obvious…but if she tried to point this out, Runo would just repeat what she said before, stubbornly deny it all.
"Alice?"
The redhead watched as Runo curled herself into a tighter ball, as her ears went redder. "Runo…"
"Alice…I think…I think that…that I might actually…" She kept halting, spewed out the hateful words jerkily. She could have been a machine, it's programming all messed up because some jerk decided to fool around with it. "Actually…like…"
A/N: …I'll just stop it there for now…and go off to actually plan what happens next…god, I hate myself.
Just as a warning, either the next chappie or the chappie after that…and maybe all the ones after those ones…might take awhile. One reason: planning issues, which I think I might have already mentioned. Second reason: I might take a bit of a break from this fic, get all my ideas in order. But never fear; I have no intention of completely abandoning this fic, for all of those who like it. I would throttle myself before abandoning it. Heh…just so you all know…
But hey, seventeen chappies! I never expected I'd get this far...I thought that I'd forget this story within a week...but all you peoples kept me going. I LOVE YOU!!!!! I'M SORRY IF I'M FAILING YOU NOW!!!!! *breaks down in tears* I seriously adore you all. Everyone who's reviewed, favorited, alerted, or even just read this fic...I will get out of my writers block, all for you peoples. Though I'm still sure that some of you are actually dancing in joy...can't blame you...heh...LOVE YALLS!