Hey people! It's Skye! Jupiter apologizes for the delay in the chapter, the plot monkeys in her head were getting over a cold, and they were suffering from writers block. I will also like to add that Jupiter was really really upset that no one reviewed the latest chapter (the one before this one). She would really like a lot of reviews on this story and if you read this story, advertise it. It will really help her because the monkeys would have more motivation to write up the chapters.
Anyway, Jupiter doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh. Please read and review!
"…And tha' is wha' 'appened," Valon finished, taking a bite out of his pasta. The group was currently sitting down for dinner and had been listening to some story Valon had been telling them.
"You should know better than to sneak in through someone's chimney, especially the one at Ember's," Alister pointed out. "It's common sense."
"What were you doing in Ember's chimney anyway?" Raphael questioned.
"I wanted ta see if I could roll out like she does," he replied defensively.
"Have I told you that you're an idiot?" Alister said with a sigh.
Skye was about to take another bite out of her dinner when she looked up and saw Lola sneak through the open window; when Skye shot her a startled look the other girl put a finger to her lips and motioned to Alister, a mischievous smile on her face.
Skye's eyes quickly darted away before any of the bikers noticed and she started listening to what Valon and Alister were arguing about, trying not to look in Lola's direction; Raphael noticed her and would have commented but Skye had elbowed him and subtly shaken her head.
Lola took full advantage of the fact that neither Alister nor Valon had noticed her coming in, silently blowing up a brown paper bag before placing it in the space above the two men's heads and popping it.
Both of them let out startled yelps and leapt out of their seats, but because they'd moved at the same time they ended up colliding into each other and hitting the floor. Skye promptly burst into laughter, while Raphael was torn between laughing and shutting his girlfriend up.
Alister got to his feet and scowled at the Hispanic girl. "What the hell was that for?"
"I wanted to say hi. Also, I'm going to mention—yet again—that a lunatic can enter the house. I just proved that," she said, sitting down in an empty seat and serving herself some pasta. "By the way, nice scream."
"It was a manly yell."
Everyone glanced at one another dubiously before looking back to Alister. "Scream," they said flatly and in unison.
"So what brings you here?" Skye questioned, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you weren't coming over today."
"My house is infested with cucarachas and its being fumigated."
"A cooka-whata?" Valon asked in confusion. "Wha's that?"
"It's pronounced cucarachas," Lola corrected in exasperation. "And they're cockroaches. So since the toxic fumes are going to be polluting the air, I'm crashing here for a while."
"Says who?" Alister questioned.
"Me," Skye replied, grabbing her empty plate and walking into the kitchen. "Besides, I thought you would love to have your girlfriend staying over."
Alister turned pink and muttered something, taking his plate into the kitchen.
Later on that evening
Raphael readjusted his position carefully, making sure Misha was not disturbed before he set his book down; he was currently in his bedroom, doing a bit of late night reading. He had just been about to turn his lamp off and go to sleep (it was almost midnight) when a knock on his door made him pause. "It's open."
Alister slipped into the room quietly, glancing over his shoulder furtively before closing the door.
"What did you do?" Raphael questioned, noticing the smug expression on his friend's face. "You look like the cat that caught the canary."
"Oh come now, Raphael, you can do better than that phrase."
Raphael's eyebrows arched. "Fine. You look like Sylvester after he's just caught Tweety Bird."
"Ha, told you," replied Alister. "You know tomorrow's the thirty-first?"
Deciding that this had something to do with why Alister looked so smug, Raphael said, "New Year's Eve. What's important about that?"
"It's your anniversary with Skyler—please tell me you didn't forget."
"I didn't," Raphael retorted, setting his book on his nightstand. "Why are you so concerned?"
"Valon is planning on doing something to you and Skyler tomorrow on your date," said Alister, sounding pleased. "He made the mistake of talking too loud on his phone and I overheard him."
"What kind of prank?"
The red head shrugged, "I have no idea, but I have at least forewarned you. So, what are you planning to do with her tomorrow? Propose?"
Raphael's cheeks turned into a medium shade of pink. "We've only been together for eleven months. It's too early to think about that."
His last sentence only got a laugh from the red head. "News flash Raphael: you guys have known each other longer than eleven months."
"I meant that she wouldn't want to get married so soon," Raphael defended. "Besides, her father would kill me if I tried doing that so soon after moving in with—wait a minute. I see what you're doing."
"Doing what?" asked Alister, suddenly sounding far too innocent.
"You're fishing for ideas as to what you should do with your anniversary with Lola," he said, grinning when Alister's face turned red.
The other man muttered incoherently under his breath, as he had at dinner, before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
The blond chuckled. "Nice try, though," he said, though no one was in the room.
Skyler's Room
"What's the date tomorrow?" asked Lola abruptly, making Skye jump. They'd been chatting all evening and had only recently turned out the lights to sleep; Skye had thought her friend would have been asleep by now, but clearly she wasn't.
"…December thirty-first. What's so important about that?" she replied groggily.
An affronted gasp. "Chica! It's your eleven month anniversary with Raphael!"
Skye blinked, counting the months in her head. "Oh yeah," she replied, stifling a yawn.
"I wonder what he got you? Oh! Maybe he's taking you out somewhere romantic, or perhaps he's going to surprise you with something spectacular!" Lola said, suddenly awake.
Skye thought about it for a long moment. "He usually is good with these sort of things," she replied five minutes later. "I have to wonder what he's planning."
There was no reply. In the time that she had been thinking it over Lola had gone back to sleep, just as abruptly as she had woken up.
Skye shook her head in amusement and rolled back over trying to go to sleep, wondering what Raphael was up to.
He's a real sweetheart, isn't he? my magician said wryly, materializing and sitting at the end of the bed.
She jumped. It had been quite a while since her Dark Magician had appeared. "Look dude, you have got to stop doing that. You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days," she whispered, glancing at Lola to make sure her friend was asleep.
Don't whine, you big baby. You should be used to it by now.
"What are you doing out of the deck anyway?"
Your anxiety and anticipation over what's happening tomorrow is channeling into the deck. The rest of us monsters are picking up on your emotions and frankly we're trying to sleep.
She felt a spike of interest. "You can sense my emotions?"
It's a gift all of us Duel Monsters have. You ought to see Kaiba's dragons react whenever his younger brother's in trouble.
She looked at the clock and winced. It was almost one thirty—no wonder her monsters were agitated. She reached over to her nightstand and snagged a pair of earplugs.
What are you—?
"I'll go to bed in a second, but if I were you I would go back into the deck," I whispered, putting the earplugs in my ears. Immediately after that, I looked at the clock and started counting down the seconds until the time changed to one thirty.
Alister was about to get his comeuppance.
…Three...two...one.
The sound of heavy metal music turned up to maximum volume flooded through the whole house, but over the din a familiar yell from a certain redhead could be heard. Skye smirked into her pillow.
"Madre de Dios!" Lola was awake again and she scrambled out of bed, looking for the source of the commotion. Skye grinned before getting out of bed as well and pretending that she had just woken up.
"Wha' the 'ell is all tha' noise? Alister! Turn it off!" Valon shouted as he entered the red-haired man's room, his hands over his ears.
"And you think I'm doing a tap dance here? I'm trying! The damn off button is taped down and I can't get it off!"
"Try unpluggin' it!"
"It's battery operated!"
I looked over at Lola, who was covering her ears. "I'm going back to your room! Too loud and I don't want to be deaf like my Uncle!"
Raphael came into the room then, groggy and carrying a baseball bat. She grinned at him. "At least it's not a vacuum attachment!" she shouted over the din.
The blond shrugged sleepily, studied the situation, and then raised the bat and smashed the radio with one decisive swing. "Bed. Now," he said pointedly, already leaving the room.
Skye took that as her cue to leave, stifling a yawn as the bickering continued between Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb.
"I didn' do it, Alister!"
"Don't lie to me."
"C'mon, chum, most o' my pranks involve explosions!"
"You have a streak of evil genius at times. I believe nothing."
"Go to bed before I use the bat on you," growled Raphael from his bedroom, effectively ending the argument and causing the younger biker to scramble out of the room.
Skyler, was that necessary?
She looked over and smiled at her magician when she re-entered her room. Lola's head was burrowed under the pillows, allowing her a safe conversation with the magician. "Hell yeah. That'll teach him to not screw around with my deodorant."
Seriously? This is about the deodorant? The Dark Magician shook his head tiredly. Grow up, little girl.
"Good night to you too," Skye hummed contentedly.
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