Disclaimer : I do not own Ah! My Goddess.
-oOoOoOo-
Keiichi and Urd were watching a movie that involved cheesy romance and motorcycles when a knock at the door got their attention.
"You get it," Urd said.
"I got the last one. You get this one," Keiichi replied.
Urd gave Keiichi a little bit of the stink eye when an idea hit her. With a smirk, she said, "Alright, but I might trip and lose my clothes on the way there. No clue why. Not a single one."
"You wouldn't," Keiichi said as he faced her. As Urd stood up, she wiggled her fingers, causing her top to unbutton itself. He shook his head, "No…"
As she stepped away, one of her socks fell off her feet. So Keiichi leapt up and briskly headed to the door, "Fine, I'll get it!"
Urd chuckled to herself. Not once she ever could recall giving up in the game of Chicken. Sure, she lost a lot, but never gave up.
Keiichi opened the door and was surprised to see Lind standing there, holding a messenger bag. She held up her hand and asked, "Hello, Keiichi. I was… asked to go on vacation for a few weeks. This was the only place I could think of. May I stay here for the time being?"
"I don't have any problems, but we'd have to ask the others," Keiichi answered as he moved out of the way to let her in.
-o-
Later, during an early lunch at the dining table…
Urd and Skuld shrugged.
Urd said, "I don't have any problems. I might ask you to test out a potion or a pill, but I'll have a cure on hand, just in case."
"I might ask you to test out a few works-in-progress, but they'll all be stuff that will be used against Mara and other demons," Skuld added.
Everyone's attention turned towards Belldandy, who was staring at her tea. When she noticed she was the center of attention, she looked up and nervously smiled as she said, "Oh? Oh! Yes, you can stay. There's no problem with Lind staying here."
Keiichi asked, "But you do have a problem with something, Bell?"
Belldandy stopped smiling and held up her tea cup "There's been a tea shortage for a while now. This might be the last tea I'll have for a long time."
Urd raised an eyebrow. "Isn't Japan the land of the Tea Drinkers?"
"I thought that was Britain with the fact they have to temporarily have the power plants put out more power at 9 pm and various big TV events?" Skuld asked.
"I heard that's been really dying out recently," Urd said to Skuld. She looked at Belldandy and asked, "So what about Coffee?"
"Barbarian drink," Belldandy said. When she realized what she said, she covered her mouth, saying "I'm sorry! It just came out!"
Keiichi muttered, "Coffee isn't that bad…"
"So sayeth the Barbarian," Skuld said with a smirk.
Urd also smirked before she said, "Hey, if Keiichi is a barbarian, then he needs to speed up his game to loot, plunder and conquer Belldandy."
Skuld blushed and uttered angry stuff from her gritted teeth. Keiichi blushed and stammered. It took Lind a moment before she smirked a little bit.
Belldandy was too focused on her tea, which made Urd frown. The Elder goddess began to reach for the tea, only for Belldandy to quickly state, "If you spill my tea, I promise that you will be my cleaning assistant until I get more tea."
Urd retracted her hand, muttering, "I was only going to tell you that there was life beyond tea."
-oOo-
Lind had finished unpacking her clothes and frowned. As she looked through her clothes, she muttered, "Perhaps Peorth was right. Maybe I do need…"
She sniffed the air and said, "What is that smell? It smells like burnt tires, rotten eggs, and Midgardian Durians."
Lind walked out of her room, regretfully sniffing the air to its source.
As one would expect, it came from Urd's room. Lind reached for the door, only to hear a cough from the side.
Lind saw that it was Belldandy, who said, "Urd likes to try out new ingredients for her pills and potions. I do apologize for the smell, but we only can put up the magic seals that prevent the smell from sticking to anything inside the temple. We use the smell-blocking seals outside to prevent any problems with the neighbors. Urd uses her sense of smell to help keep track of her progress and to make sure nothing explodes."
Lind pointed at Urd's door and asked, "So the current brewing?"
"I… have no idea. I do hope it's not tea. I really hope it's not tea," Belldandy said before walking off. She paused and appeared she was going to ask Lind something, but something around the corner caught her attention.
Lind looked back and tried to summon her angels for their thoughts. They began to appear, but retreated back into Lind's souls the moment the smell hit them.
Lind looked at the door, raised her hand to knock…
And pondered about the possibility that the smell within would be worse. Not wanting to find out, Lind chose to only knock and keep the door closed.
"Who is it?" Urd's voice called out.
"It is Lind. I want to make sure you aren't doing anything illegal or plan on doing so," Lind answered.
"Oh, It's completely legal. What I'm doing is kinda like making natto, but it's all for some tree spirits," Urd's voice replied.
"Shouldn't you make it in a separate building?" Lind asked.
"No, as I don't want any tree spirits stealing any of it before it's ready. They really go nuts for the stuff," Urd's voice replied. "Wanna inspect it?"
"No thank you. I'll leave you to your… brewing," Lind said before choosing to retreat back to her room.
-oOo-
The next day, a loud boom woke Lind up. She leapt to her feet and summoned her poleaxe. She quickly looked around, trying to sense any threats.
"Eugh. I wonder what caused that? I'm guessing a buildup, but where?" Skuld muttered before her door slammed open. "Lind? What's going on?"
"Are we under attack?" Lind spat as she looked around.
"Attack? No! I'm only allowed to work on anything with explosives when it's during the day. I'm trying to make a rocket pack upgrade for Sigel, but I'm running into issues," Skuld said as Lind quickly marched around her room. "Stupid Keiichi. Who needs sleep anyways?"
Lind paused to say, "I believe your sister's recharge medium is sleeping."
Skuld looked sheepish and said, "Oh. I… kinda thought it was tea for some reason, since Urd's is alcohol and mine is ice cream."
Lind's shoulders slumped as she began to head back to her room. "I… think I understand that one could make that mistake. But I ask if you try to not make anything explode until later on in the day."
"No promises," Skuld said before Lind left.
As Lind passed by Urd's door, she was pleased that she could not smell anything.
Then the faint waft of yesterday's horrid smell began to emit from the door. Lind's eye twitched.
At the breakfast table, Lind looked towards Belldandy, who was sipping from her tea cup. When Belldandy stopped and opened her mouth to answer, Lind smiled.
Only to frown when Belldandy said, "I think I've reused all that I can from my tea bags. I do hope that the shortage is over soon."
"Please forgive me, but I must ask about Skuld's explosions when she's inventing. Is there any way to limit them?" Lind asked.
"We tried and this was from the best attempt. When we tried to put an outright ban on her working with explosives, she nearly made the whole block deaf from a late night experiment. We're not sure if she was sneak-inventing or sleep-inventing, but we learned we can't really stop her, only limit her," Keiichi answered, making Lind jump a little. "Is everything okay?"
"You surprised me. I did not know you were there," Lind replied.
"Lack of sleep?" Keiichi asked.
Lind shook her head. "No. I think that I might not be an early riser when on Midgard. I never was this... inattentive back in Heaven."
"Well, if it will help, I'm willing to share my coffee," Keiichi said, gesturing to the coffee pot.
"Barbarian drink," Belldandy spat. When the others looked at her, she said, "I'm sorry. It's the lack of quality tea."
Lind asked, "There's other nations in this world. What's stopping you from acquiring them elsewhere?"
Belldandy tightened her grip around her tea cup, "I can never be too sure about where I purchase tea until I've spent enough time there. Some places give even the tea an excessive amount of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, not even sparing the unsweetened tea from the grip of greed."
"And that's bad how?" Lind asked.
Belldandy gave Lind a glare. "Unsweetened tea means no sugar, yet some mortals are foolish enough to add some, just to make more money. It's bad, but they still do it and get away with it."
"I apologize, but I wanted to make sure I understood," Lind replied.
Belldandy's expression softened. "It's alright. As some people have said to me, I'm a bit of a tea snob. I guess I should apologize as well."
"It's alright, I understand. After all, I'm particular about what weapons I use," Lind nodded.
Belldandy briefly nodded before she looked embarrassed. "I should apologize for something else."
"What for?" Lind asked.
-o-
The two goddesses were outside. A shocked Lind was slowly growing angry, as Belldandy had used all of Lind's Poleaxes to serve as stands and poles to wind-dry the laundry.
"Why?" Lind asked.
Belldandy looked away as she answered, "I was looking for my usual laundry poles, but Skuld had used them all to help construct some invention of hers. I was going to make some more out of some branches and magic, but for some reason, I thought your poleaxes would work just as well."
Though Lind was still angry, she said, " I forgive you. I guess we can claim it was from a lack of tea. I can help you make the proper tools for the laundry."
Belldandy nodded.
-o-
After putting her poleaxes away, Lind sat down in the living room and watched a Thunderbirds Marathon.
After a few episodes, Lind said, "This is quite enjoyable."
"I'm glad to hear that," Keiichi said, making Lind jump.
"When did you appear?" Lind asked as she was trying to calm down.
"Midway during the first episode. Normally, I'm unable to watch the TV in this room because Urd and Skuld get to it first. I want to think they were being polite and let you have the TV," Keiichi answered. Then he looked back at the TV, "But they weren't when Peorth was here. So either you scared them off when you were mad earlier or they're really focused on their hobbies today."
Lind hugged herself, feeling a little embarrassed. "And you weren't scared?"
"I guess I was a little, but it's Thunderbirds and I know you wouldn't hurt me," Keiichi said with a friendly chuckle.
A brief hint of a smile appeared on Lind's face.
The smile faded a little bit when Dinner time came around, as all of the food was a little bit burnt.
-o-
The next day,.Lind was woken up to the double whammy of Skuld's explosive inventing and the bad smells of Urd's lab.
Keiichi seemed to be a giant blindspot to Lind's awareness. No matter what, he always surprised her.
Both Keiichi and Lind took turns sticking by Belldandy, as the lack of tea made the latter's mind wander more and more.
As for Keiichi, he kept surprising Lind, no matter what methods were taken. Yes, this meant Keichi was made to wear a collar with a bell on it and he still kept surprising her.
-o-
As Keiichi prepared for bed, he heard a knock. He asked, "Who is it?"
Lind's voice asked, "Keiichi, I hate to ask this, but do you know if there is any underground fighting clubs nearby?"
He stared at the door for a few moments before he said, "I'm sorry, but I don't know. I take it you're getting bored?"
"More like explosions, bad smells, and being Belldandy's helper is taking its toll on me," Lind replied. "Do you think any of your friends might know of any?"
"If they do, they never told me," Keiichi answered.
-oOoOoOo-
Notes from HotelKatz- I had fun writing this. I do apologize for it trailling off near the end.
Worldbringer of Joseun gave me the idea of Lind having problems not being able to detect Keiichi because he's so nonthreatening.