"Yo." Stella giggled the moment Yuuki had opened her eyes. "Sup sexy?"
"What?" Yuuki took a moment to realize that Stella was straddling her stomach with that tell-tale glint in her eyes that Yuuki knew so damn well. "How'd you get in here?"
"Front door. Rize let me in." Stella replied. "Got a little problem that needs your help."
"And what's that?"
"You are hereby under arrest, and will be escorted for processing." With fluid movements and a sudden ratcheting of handcuffs, Stella had Yuuki's hands bound and hauled her to her feet, keeping a firm grip on her upper arm. "On the charges of being of legal age for sexual consent, excessive sex appeal, and sleeping in on your birthday."
"I'm innocent of all those charges." Yuuki challenged, smirking at Stella behind her, but well aware that the cuffs were made of Titanium. Sneaky little shit thought ahead and knew she'd need to put some effort into breaking them.
"That's what they all say~!" Stella replied, already leading Yuuki out into the hall, just as Rachael rolled over on their bed to catch a glimpse of the cheeky roleplay that had woken her up.
She laughed very slightly, but let out a sigh and knew she wouldn't be going back to sleep after that. She got up and grabbed her phone to check the time, just as she received a text from Zen.
Happy birthday babe, did you sleep well?
Just got up. Stella dragged Yuuki out of our room in handcuffs and woke me up.
Handcuffs?
Stella's a former member of Public Security Section 9 back in Japan. Basically a type of cop.
Ah, that makes a bit more sense now. Do you have any plans for what to do for today? I'm almost at your house, just grabbing you a coffee at the moment.
Since Yuuki's off being arrested, I wouldn't mind spending it with you. I'll see you when you get here, I'll let my parents know you're coming. You can just walk it, don't worry about knocking.
Thanks, I'll be there in a few minutes. Love you.
Love you too.
With that, Rachael leaned out into the hall and asked aloud. "Mom? Dad? You here?"
"Just mom! What's up Rachael?" Rize called from her office down the hall.
"Zen's coming to pick me up in a few minutes, since somebody got caught being sexy in front of two cybercops." Rachael replied cheekily.
"Alright, you two have fun. Don't forget that we're going to be celebrating your birthday after you both get home." Rize came out of her office with a pen tucked behind her ear, giving her daughter a hug. "Happy birthday, your father's the one that came up with that whole game for Stella and Motoko to 'arrest' Yuuki like that. So I should apologize for waking you up like that, I did let her in, after all."
"S'alright, Zen's text would've woken me up anyway." Rachael returned the hug, well aware that Rize had throttled her Pyrokinesis a lot just to make the hug feel comfortably warm, plus not dehydrate her either.
Zen arrived just as Rachael finished getting dressed, connecting the last few hook & eye clasps for her corset as he knocked on her door and pushed it open. He had a coffee cup in each hand, but one was also cheekily adorned by a red ribbon tied around it in a bow, making her smile at the gesture.
"Guten morgen." He greeted her by flashing his precious little smile, reserved just for her, as she accepted the coffee and gave him a kiss.
"Ohay..." Rachael began, only to realize that Zen hadn't come alone. "Oh."
"If I told you how difficult it was to get here, you wouldn't believe me." Zenith's own smile was just as precious as Zen's was, and it was in full view as Rachael's jaw dropped at the sight of another, bigger, red bow that was sticking to Zenith's forehead, more than likely from Zen on the way here. "Happy birthday, Rachael."
"So you're Zenith." Tobias held out his hand for the older looking of the two young men standing in from of him. "How'd you get this past your mother and father?"
"Another clone." Zenith accepted the friendly handshake, knowing that Tobias' BSAA uniform was simply because he'd come directly from the base when Rize called him back home after he'd greeted Rize himself. "Clone and I arranged for a car accident to happen, but ironically he and my mother were driving together and actually got hit by a drunk driver. She survived, he didn't."
"How recent was this?" Tobias raised an eyebrow.
"Four days ago. She's still in the hospital, and to my knowledge my father heard about it from her by phone. He's been off doing Syndicate crap in Russia for the past week."
"Isn't your mom prosthetic like Motoko?" Rachael asked as she sipped her coffee, the red bow from Zenith's forehead was now tied into her hair, and her cup still had the ribbon firmly in place.
"Not completely, she's only 35%." Zen shook his head. "Neither of us have cyberbrains, we're pure squishy, as Stella would say."
"So, Zenith... How do you plan to account for Syndicate recon centered on everyone in our Family?" Tobias put his hands on his hips.
"If I told you I have a plan for that, would you believe me?" Zenith asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'd ask what that plan is, actually."
"Firstly, I plan to dye my hair. Second, a visit to Serenity, third, a new wardrobe. And lastly, dropping my surname in favour of the one Zen here uses. Stein."
"And what about your first name?"
"Not bothering. You're not the only one that wants to see those two Weskers taken down. It took me too long to realize they were the ones in the wrong, you've been right since before Raccoon City."
"I appreciate that, but I haven't been right about everything." Tobias smirked, then held out his hand again. "I have to get back to the base, but you're one of us now... Welcome to the Family." They shook hands again. "And as for you..." Tobias turned his gaze towards Rachael with a sudden smirk as she was dragged towards him through the air into a one armed hug. "Happy birthday, Rachael, my Princess."
Rachael went back to Zen's apartment with the brothers, where a duffel bag laying on the couch gave away that Zenith came here. But, another bag - a shopping bag - caught her eye and she tilted her head slightly and noticed that it had the hair dye that Zenith mentioned.
"How old are you again, Zenith?" Rachael picked up the box of dye with a small snicker.
"Twenty four." Zenith replied, watching her examining the box of dye with a smirk on her face.
"And did you think to get the proper dye to deal with your own hair colour?"
"I'm beginning to think I made a mistake with that dye..." Zenith chuckled slightly.
"You did." Rachael turned back to him, running her hand through his very blonde hair. "Your hair is like, super blonde. Worthy of blonde jokes, actually. This hair dye's way too dark for you. Trust me, I've helped Stella with her hair, and Touka a couple times. Let's head back to the store for a different shade, alright? Then we'll have some fun with this hair of yours."
"Why do I sense an ulterior motive?" Zen smirked from behind them, shaking his head slightly.
"I had an idea recently about me and Yuuki." Rachael nodded. "See, back when Yuuki just had the T-Virus in her, she tried more than once to dye her hair black, but it failed every time. Our hair, Dad's and Val's all have this thing that just rejects hair dye. Mom's hair, funnily enough, was dyed when she got her T-Virus, so it adapted her hair from her natural dark brunette to what it is now, which is y'know. Purple. And Uncle Kaneki's hair used to be black when he was my age, but he was tortured and suffered Marie Antoinette Syndrome, so his hair turned white and his nails are jet black. That's not nail polish, believe it or not."
"So... the C-Virus..." Zenith nodded in understanding.
"Exactly. Me and Yuuki can eat anything we want now, so that made me think that our hair won't reject hair dye anymore. And if it does, then fuck it, we tried. We'll have our Senpai Sparkles forever."
"Senpai Sparkles?" Both brothers hadn't heard that one before.
"Oh, right..." Rachael realized that the old joke was new to them. "Well, in anime there's this trope that any Senpai character, which is the Japanese honourific for 'upperclassman', has these... sparkles all around them when other characters look at them. Here, gimme a sec to show you." She pulled out her phone and started searching for a video she'd saved specifically for that very thing. "Here, see how he's all sexy and fabulous? Those are what I'm talking about."
"I think I understand now." Zen laughed at the short clip of Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club. "So what colour do you want to try?"
"I also want Yuuki in on this, so I'm gonna grab pink and cyan for us to work with." Rachael put her phone back into her pocket. "Let's get going."
"Can you get your face out of Stella's cooch for like, five seconds so I can talk to you? Fuck, Yuuki!" Rachael grumbled in Japanese to her sister over the phone, annoyed by her obvious level of distraction.
"Motoko's cock, actually. So what's this about hair dye?" Yuuki countered, giggling at some sort of tickling coming from Stella.
"I had an idea, you're my lab rat before I try it on myself." Rachael replied, moving a few paces in the store lineup with the brothers comparing the boxes of dye that she'd selected for them.
"You do know our hair rejects dye, right? Dad and Val too."
"They don't have the C-Virus." Rachael replied pointedly. And Yuuki was silent for a a full four seconds, clearly catching onto the theory.
"So what colour are you sticking on my head?"
"Which one do you want? I got pink and cyan."
"Y'wanna do our eyes, or our outfit colours?"
"Got any coins?" Rachael knew she was being cheeky with the question.
"You called me when I was in the middle of deepthroating Motoko, you fuckin' smartass. If I had any coins it'd be even weirder sex than we're used to."
"So I'll just hang onto it and throw one at you when I get home, sound good?" Rachael laughed.
"A literal 'fuck it, just chuck it'? Fine by me. Now if you don't mind, I have some cyborgs that need to satisfy me. You enjoy banging your Germans, alright?"
"I believe I shall. Have fun~!" Rachael hung up and chuckled at her sister's antics. The brothers easily picked up on the playful tone, despite the language barrier, and both smirked at her as she slid her phone back into her pocket. "She's enjoying herself... and the Kusanagi's." She explained as they moved up in line again.
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Zen nodded knowingly. And of course, Zenith chuckled.
"So since your sister is clearly having a good time, why the bloody hell are you running errands on your birthday?" Zenith asked when they were walking back into the brothers' apartment.
"Because I had an idea and needed a ride." Rachael smiled as she dropped her jacket on a chair at the small table. "Now then... I know I stashed it here, Zen, shall we at least get ourselves a drink before I go run off with another science experiment idea?"
"I like the idea of sitting still for a few seconds, but what the hell was stashed here that I don't know about?" Zenith raised an eyebrow after glancing at his brother's smug expression.
"Rachael stashed a bottle of Jaegermeister and some blood here. Apparently it's really good, but hey, I'm just going by hers and Yuuki's word on the combination." Zen shrugged. "It's still in the freezer, on the right side." He pointed at the nearby fridge, since Rachael was the closest anyway.
"Trust me, best description is 'liquid sex'." Rachael explained as she opened the freezer door and produced the bottle of booze and a full blood bag in each hand. "Yuuki came up with it as a joke, but it tasted fucking glorious, so we named it just that. Liquid Sex."
"And how does it taste for non-Ghouls?" Zenith asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Like blood and Jaegermeister." Rachael shrugged. "It's just something we came up with since we're able to enjoy both the booze and the blood."
"I'd try a shot to see for myself." Zen shrugged. "Won't kill me, since it's medical blood after all."
"Fifty bucks a bag from the blood bank across the city." Rachael set out three shot glasses on the counter. And the smoothness of her actions easily gave away her job as a bartender, pouring the three shots of the booze, then added the blood to two of them. "You sure you want it straight? Whole bag of blood."
"I'll have my first one straight." Zenith shook his head slightly.
"Alright, fair enough. It's pretty simple to mix: Half and half." Rachael shrugged, wisely putting the entire bag worth into a spare pitcher that was set aside on the counter. "Here y'go, boys!" She smoothly slid the respective glasses to the boys, then held up her own with a grin as they accepted their drinks, even awkwardly attempting to repeat her 'Itadakimasu!', which earned a giggle for the efforts. "You two are so cute..." She shook her head slightly before downing the shot with a throaty moan of satisfaction. "And I am going to have to get a bigger glass... Them's the good shit!" She did just that, pouring herself a more generous glass of Liquid Sex as the Zen finished cringing at his.
"That's definitely an acquired taste." Zen coughed once, blinking several times as Zenith chuckled beside him.
"A promise is a promise." Zenith smirked, pouring his first shot of Liquid Sex as Rachael sat on the couch to let the alcohol set in. He downed it, cringing just like Zen had done. "Shit..." He coughed, growling slightly to clear his throat.
"Heh heh heh... More for me~!" Rachael laughed to herself, holding her glass with just the pads of her fingers as she used her other hand to turn on the TV, which just so happened to be the start of the Ghost In The Shell movie from two years earlier, when Yuuki first met Motoko and Stella at the premier. "Oh, fuckin' sweet, I haven't actually seen this for myself, what with the way Stella and Yuuki make so many damn references to it."
"I haven't seen it either, as hard as that may be to believe." Zenith seemed to be interested in watching the apparently familiar movie to her, so they sat on either side of her with their drinks refilled sans blood.
"You two are in for quite a surprise." Rachael grinned knowingly, since she had the genetic memories from when Yuuki saw it with Jake.