Miriella shook her head, "It was surreal, Rina. She's absolutely nothing like I assumed her to be." She was talking to Rina. It was early the next morning, and the two friends were sitting in the living room of the small apartment, watching the snow through the open curtains of the window.
"You mean she wasn't a psycho deranged egomaniac?" Rina asked, quoting Miriella exactly.
Miriella sighed, "Ree, I'm serious here. She seemed… bored."
"Bored?" Rina echoed, turning to look at Miriella, "What do you mean?"
"Have you ever read a book or a comic or watched a movie where a villain started doing evil things out of boredom? They were so bored they just started to do evil things to make something happen? It was sort of like that, except that I can't say for sure that Jeredeau only started her schemes because of boredom. I don't know, maybe it's one of those 'you had to be there' things."
Rina turned back to the window, "Either way, it doesn't look like the snowstorm's stopping any time soon, huh?"
"No." Miriella shook her head, "I don't think so."
XXXX
Lexia sighed. She'd come back to the apartment after her chat with Avira, only to find Aryl unconscious and Kiri and Luchia looking worried. Kiri had locked herself in the kitchen to cook something (which, for her, was a sign that something was troubling her, and for everyone else, meant a good meal once she came to her senses again), and Luchia had gone to get Hanon, the mermaids agreeing it was time she was filled in, no matter how many questions she'd end up asking. With no task to fulfill, Lexia had plopped herself down on the couch that Aryl wasn't unconscious on and had spent the last ten minutes staring a weird black mark on the wall in front of her.
Making a mental note to ask Kiri what the hell the mark was, Lexia stood up and headed towards the kitchen. "Kiri, you done yet?" she called out.
She got no answer, so she tried to open the door, but it was firmly locked. Taking a moment to wonder how Kiri had locked the supposedly un-lockable kitchen doors, Lexia glanced to the door. Just in time, too, as it opened and a man she barely recognized walked in.
He took his coat off and hung it up. It was only AFTER he had hung his coat up that he noticed Lexia.
"Who are you?" the man asked, looking as if he sort of recognized Lexia, but not enough to be able to immediately associate her name with her face.
"A friend of Kiri's." Lexia answered, smoothly, "And you are?"
"Kiri's boyfriend." He answered.
"Elik?" Lexia asked, surprised. The man had been absent for so long that Lexia had almost forgotten he existed.
"Mmm." Elik nodded. He looked tired.
"I'm sorry." Lexia said, "I'm Lexia." She said, bounding over to shake Elik's hand.
"Where is Kiri?" Elik asked.
"Locked herself in the kitchen." Lexia gestured to the kitchen doors.
"Locked?" Elik echoed, "Well, we're eating good tonight." He muttered, walking over to the doors and knocking. "Kiri, it's Elik. Unlock the doors?"
XXXX
Inside the kitchen, Kiri dropped the bowl of cake mix she was working on, the mixture splattering all over the floor. Her mind had lost all will to cook, and was currently somewhere along the track of "Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit."
For almost the entire time that they'd been in California, she'd almost forgotten about Elik, and they hadn't been back very long yet. Since her realization that she didn't really like Elik as much as she'd thought she did, Kiri hadn't really thought about him.
But now he was back at the apartment.
Thinking quickly, Kiri called out, "Just a minute, hon!" and scrambled over to the broom closet to find some kind of mop to clean up the cake mix mess. Finding what looked like a mop, she pulled it out. "Damn, this doesn't look like it was used in years." She muttered, "Do we ever clean this place?" she shook the mop a bit to release the dust, only to end up coughing as the dust formed a cloud. "Kiri, you really need to start thinking more." She muttered to herself through coughs.
"You alright?" Elik called from behind the doors, obviously hearing the coughing.
"Fine!" Kiri called back, "Dust!" she said. She groaned and threw the mop back in the closet, shutting the door quickly and grabbing a rag and a sponge, neither of which was dusty. She picked up the bowl off the floor and tossed it in the sink, throwing the rag and sponge down to the floor before plopping down herself.
"Is everything okay?" Elik asked. He'd clearly heard the crashes from the mop and bowl as well.
"Yeah!" Kiri replied, "I made a bit of a mess!" she explained.
"That's alright. I haven't seen you in awhile, I'd like to see you." Elik said.
Kiri shut her eyes, 'Damn it. I'd feel so bad if I broke it off now.' She thought to herself. "J-just a minute, hon." She said again, finishing up cleaning up her mess and standing up. Tossing the sponge and rag in the sink with the bowl, she turned to face the doors. In order to 'lock' them, she'd piled all of the chairs from the counter in front of the two doors. Sighing, she set to work removing every single one of them. Once they were back under the counter, she took a deep breath and opened the door. Elik was standing there, smiling.
"Hey." Kiri said, hugging him.
Lexia glanced at Kiri from behind Elik. The look on her face screamed, 'HELP.' Lexia shrugged and shook her head, a pained look on her face.
"How?" she mouthed.
"He doesn't know I'm a mermaid." Kiri mouthed back once more before breaking the hug and letting Elik kiss her.
Lexia's eyes widened, and she quickly escaped the room to figure out a plan.
"So, what did you make?" Elik asked, glancing in the kitchen.
Kiri pulled him away, walking fully out of the kitchen and shutting the doors. "That's a surprise." She said. "I've still got a lot more to make."
"Planning something?" Elik asked.
Kiri shook her head, "I have a lot of friends over right now." She said.
"Not just Lexia?" Elik asked, surprised.
"Lexia and Aryl are snowed out of their college, Caren was visiting Aryl and so she's staying here too, Moiyu's in the process of finding an apartment, so she, Jay, and their sort-of-adopted daughter Rilene are staying here too. Madison's injured, so I'm letting her stick around for awhile, and Luchia and Hanon come and go." Kiri explained.
Elik's eyes widened, "Where are they all staying?" he asked.
"Moiyu, Jay and Rilene are in the guest bedroom and Lexia, Caren, Madison and Aryl are in the living room." Kiri said. "It's been working out okay so far, though I think the girls are plotting to get Lexia to sleep somewhere else." She muttered.
Elik chuckled.
"Things lighten up at work?" Kiri asked.
"Not really." Elik said, "But that game I was working on is going through testing right now, so I've got a little bit of a break. I'll have to take off again once the testing's over."
"And that will be?" Kiri asked.
"Couple'a days." Elik shrugged. "Why, want to get rid of me again?" he joked.
"Of course not!" Kiri shouted, "I was just wondering."
'We'll have to work our plans around this little Elik visit…' Kiri told herself mentally.
XXXX
Lexia knocked on the door to the guest bedroom.
"Yeah?" Rilene called out. The young girl was sitting in the chair by the window, flipping through a magazine.
Lexia hurried in and shut the door behind her. "You don't have a human form do you?" she asked the young water demon.
Rilene shook her head, "No. Why?"
"Kiri's boyfriend, who doesn't know about the existence of mermaids or water demons, much less that there a group of them living in his apartment, is back for a couple days." Lexia explained.
"Oh." Rilene muttered.
"Yeah, oh." Lexia said, "Keep a hat on for now, okay? The horns are the only non-human looking thing on your body, right?"
"I've got scales on my legs." Rilene said.
"Wear long pants." Lexia said.
Rilene nodded. It was cold out; she wouldn't wear shorts or a skirt anyway.
"Alright, do you know where Moiyu and Jay went?" Lexia asked.
Rilene shook her head again, "I split off from them at the beach; they're probably swimming or something."
"Damn it." Lexia muttered, "Well, if they come back, let them know, okay? I have to go find Madison and Caren."
Rilene nodded again, and Lexia left the room. "Much ado about nothing, if you ask me." Rilene muttered, turning back to her magazine.
XXXX
"Hanon?" Luchia peeked around doorways and behind staircases, looking for the aqua idol princess, but so far was having no luck finding her. The girl was clearly not in the Pearl Piari, though Luchia was resilient in her search.
Nikora walked out of the kitchen, brushing her hands on her apron lightly, "Is something wrong?" she asked Luchia.
"Ah! Nikora! Have you seen Hanon anywhere?" Luchia asked, hurrying over to her 'sister.'
Nikora shook her head, "Hanon never came back from school. I assumed she was with you, or something."
Luchia sighed, "No, I haven't seen her. It's kind of important that I find her."
"Well, check at the mall. Hanon likes shopping, right?" Nikora asked.
Luchia's face lit up, "That's it! Thank you, Nikora!" She ran out the front doors before Nikora could say another word.
XXXX
Lycoris walked along the least populated section of the beach, keeping an eye out in the waters for something. She'd sent a message to Anayis shortly after running away from Noel and the girl she'd been with. She was waiting for the reply that she knew would be coming any second now.
The last thing Lycoris expected, however, was Anayis herself coming to Japan.
"Anayis?" Lycoris asked as the blond mermaid stuck her head out of the water.
"Hello, Lycoris." Anayis smiled.
Yes, this was not the reply Lycoris had expected.
XXXX
Sara stared at the phone in her hand. She'd been staring at the phone, not dialing for almost an hour now. Finally gathering courage, she dialed the number she'd never forgotten and hit the "talk" button. She held the phone to her ear just in time to hear someone answer.
"Hello?" The female on the other side of the line answered the phone.
"Um, hi." Sara said, "Is Tadewi there?" she asked.
"Speaking. May I ask who this is?" Tadewi replied.
"This is Sara." Sara said, relaxing once she knew she wasn't talking to a complete stranger.
"S-SARA?! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! ARE YOU OKAY?! ESEN AND I WERE SO WORRIED WHEN YOU DISAPPEARED!!" Tadewi shouted.
Sara held the phone a few inches away from her ear to save her hearing until Tadewi calmed down a bit. Once the yelling stopped, Sara let out a giggle and moved the phone back to her ear. "I'm fine. I've been in the human world- in Japan, hiding." Sara said, "I'm sorry for worrying you, but I need to talk to you."
"Go ahead." Tadewi said, noticing the urgency in Sara's voice.
"In person." Sara clarified.
"Oh." Tadewi said, "That wouldn't be a problem, except I'm on my way to Kyoto for a meeting of sorts. The meeting shouldn't be long. Can this wait until tomorrow? If it's really urgent, I'll call Avira and let her know I can't make it…"
Sara cut Tadewi off, "No, it's alright. It can wait until tomorrow. Give me a call after the meeting, alright?"
"I've already saved the number." Sara could sense Tadewi grinning.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Not everything I wanted to put in this chapter, but I changed one thing slightly, and everything changed with it. Elik's back. Heehee. Things are about to get interesting for our mermaids. The stuff about Coco will be discussed next chapter and Hanon's random disappearance and all that stuff I didn't get done. I ended up listening to no one and making Elik have a bigger part. I put the poll on my LJ too, and though the votes were for Avira, Jay, Lycoris and Edur, I chose Elik. But, I'm keeping the poll up in my profile, so vote and let me know.
Oh, and I really do like reviews. They motivate me to work faster. Hinthint. Hee.
And if my lovely reviewers could choose Avira, Edur, Jay or Lycoris for next chapter, that'd be great. I'm still having trouble deciding between those four.
Okay, well, off to post this. Hope you liked it. Reviews make me happy!