Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm getting there!!!!! scream I just need to decide how best to put things!!!

*Mumbles* Okay, okay, I'll try to get it up tomorrow. Today's Sunday, after all, and I have tons of free time.

It is now.

Note: This chapter is fluff and inter-character relationship building. Or rather... Romance and people talking. xp

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Chapter 005-Afternoon and Evening

Mina was happy. Very happy. This was mostly because the catgirl was having fun on an RPG.
"Life's a game." one of the characters, a gambler, said. "And it's not about whether you win or lose."
"It's not?" the mage of the group asked, perplexed by this unexpected comment from the gambler.
"No, it's about whether I win or lose!" the gambler said, laughing. His teammates joined in, glad for the comic relief in the face of suicidal odds(Which they would, of course, triumph over, it being an RPG game). Mina, too, laughed at the character's lines.
"This guy's funny." the girl said, her tail swishing back and forth. "I hope he stays that way for the rest of the game."
"He will." Rai said. Mina had left the doors open. "I've beaten that one, he's got all sorts of funny things to say."
"Cool!" Mina said, her attention back on the game already. Rai chuckled and turned back to the book he was reading. Several minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Rai said. The door opened, Artemis walked in, and the girl shut the door. "Hello, Artemis."
"H-hello." the girl said, moving to sit on the bed next to Rai. "Um... Can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead." Rai said, turning a page in his book. "Ask me anything, anytime. ...Well, maybe not when I'm sleeping, but otherwise it's okay." the boy added, earning a shy smile from Artemis.
"Well... What would you do if you were torn between two people? The first you'd known most of your life and you liked, and the other you'd known for a little while but you really liked?" Artemis asked.
"Lemme think..." Rai muttered. "Well, I'd probably go with the second. If my intuition gave me an emphatic thumbs-up, as it were, for the second person, I'd trust it. I found out the my intuition, at least, never lies to me. If the first person got angry because I started dating the second person, then they wouldn't be my friend anymore, because they can't accept that I'm not quite as interested in them romantically as I am in somebody else." The boy thought about adding a 'Why?' to the end, but decided against it, figuring it was Artemis' business to tell him or not tell him, whichever she decided.
"Oh... Okay." Artemis said. Then, sort of timidly, she reached out and hugged Rai, tightly.
"...You know, you both look really cute in that position." Mina said, peering out of the closet. Artemis blushed and let go of Rai, causing the boy to grin. "Relax! It's not like you're doing anything wrong!" Mina added, laughing in a purring sort of way. The catgirl then bounded out of the closet and onto her beanbag chair, where she curled up. "Can I take a picture of you two like that?"
"Mina!" Rai said hotly. "That's not funny!"
"Yes it is." Mina said, grinning. Rai glared at her. "What? I can't help it!"
"Suuuuuure." Rai said, rolling his eyes.

A good while later, Dinner rolled around. Rai was the first one to the table, as he was extremely hungry right now.
"Fooooooooooooood..." the boy moaned, sounding not unlike a zombie. "Must... eat... food..."
"Tuna!" Mina said suddenly, rushing to the pantry. "Where's the tuna!?"
"Relax, kids!" Rai's mom said, entering the room. "Rai, your food's almost done. Mina, the tuna's on the counter."
"Yes!" Mina said happily, scurrying over to the counter, heedless of the people she knocked over on the way. None of them made a remark, though one or two looked at her, annoyed. "Tuna!!"
"Here you go, Rai." the boy's mom said, droppin a plate in front of the boy. "Artemis, what'll you be having?"
"A-anything's fine." the girl said nervously. Several moments later a plate was set in front of her, loaded with a nutritious and not overly-large dinner. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, dear. Mina, sit at the table."
"Sorry." Mina muttered, carrying her dish over to the table. After prayer, the house's members began eating. Rai's dad looked stressed, as usual. The boy's mom was cheerful, and it was for reasons unrelated to her husband. Rai himself looked bored. Artemis was just politely clearing her plate. Mina was ignoring everybody and everything except for the Tuna, which was, of course, far more important then anything else. In her opinion, anyways.

Several minutes later...
"Kids, look at the news." Rai's dad said suddenly, turning up the TV. Rai and Artemis did so immediately, and Mina followed suit after Rai poked her several times.
"This is breaking news, folks--" the announcer was saying. "Less then ten minutes ago, an arsonist set fire to the nation's capitol, perhaps in protest to the recent re-election of Lord Aquarius as head of the government's Internal Affairs branch. A political activist group claimed that because so many people had voted for Lord Aquarius, and not their own candidate, Jean Ker, the government must have lied about the results, tilting them in favor of Lord Aquarius. Recent polls have found these claims to be inaccurate.."
"Interesting." Rai said, turning back to his food. "Crazy people. They'll get the building doused soon enough."
"Hey, um, Rai... Are we in any danger here?" Mina asked, looking around nervously.
"No, we're fine." Rai said absentmindedly. "You may not be able to see them, but we've got a whole lot of guards and the world's most advanced indoor sprinkling system to put out fires. We'll be safe."
"Oh." Mina said, her tail starting to go back and forth again. "Oh, right! Tuna!" With that, her attention was once again fully on the tuna in her bowl, and several people chuckled. And that, of course, is where things went wrong.
"Everybody, freeze!" a man yelled, shoving a door open. A machine gun was carried in his hands. "Lord Aquarius, you have lied and cheated to stay in office! I, a member of the--" his words were cut off as the gun fell from his hands. It had done so because Rai had simply thrown a small device which released an electrical shock.
"...That was interesting." the boy said as the intruder fell unconscious. "Wonder how he made it so far."
"Everybody, move! If there's more of them, we'll need to be under cover!" Lord Aquarius ordered. Artemis and Mina quickly moved to Rai's side, and the boy led them directly into his room.

Inside Rai's room...
"We'll be safe here." the boy said, sliding the very large bolt shut. "Grenades can't blow down the door or the walls. Or the windows, come to think of it. Solid, pure diamond stuff for the windows, it'll hold."
"That must've been... Expensive." Artemis said, awed.
"It's worth it for the protection." Rai replied, shrugging. "Question is, what do we do now while the guards go crazy?"
"Play games!" Mina said promptly. "You have a few that can be played by three people, if I remember right."
"Sounds good to me. What about you?" Rai asked, looking at Artemis.
"I-it's fine." the girl said. Rai shrugged and led the way into the closet. The kids were soon immersed in playing a multi-player shooter, the three of them on a team against the game's AI opponents.
"This is pretty hard." Artemis said, frowning as she had her character duck behind a wall.
"Setting's on easy. You're just not used to the controls yet." Rai said, grinning. His character took down two of the AI's a moment later. "Suckers. The computer overlooked the fact that standing together makes them a ripe target for explosives." Mina purred for a moment, then started shooting everywhere. "Um.. What're you doing, Mina?"
"Trying to see if I can hit an enemy by pure chance. I got the laser pistol, it doesn't have ammo." Mina said, grinning. Fate, strange female being she was, twisted things a little. Mina's next three shot hit all three of the enemies, taking them all out.
"...Wow." Both Rai and Artemis said at the same time.
"See? It works!" Mina said.
"And what if you hit us?" Rai asked darkly.
"I apologize really fast." Mina replied. "That shoulda been obvious!"
"Sure. Whatever." Rai said, rolling his eyes. Mina understood that Rai would be annoyed if she accidentally killed his character, so she went back to playing normally. The game continued, and eventually finished, Rai's team having won. Easily.


Much later, it was dark out, and Rai suggested they go to sleep. Artemis couldn't return to her own room, since the door was locked very tightly. So instead Rai just took the blankets from the top bunk of his bed and added them to the bottom so Artemis could sleep there. A little while later, the light went off.
"Hey, Rai." Mina said suddenly. "Aren't you cold?"
"...I'll be fine. It's nothing I can't handle." Rai replied, turning onto his side.
"...But it feels to be about forty degrees, Farenheit." Mina replied.
"Like I said, I'll be fine. I've slept in worse." Rai replied stubbornly. "Just try to get some sleep, Mina, we have school tomorrow."
"But..." the catgirl began. "I-I meant... I just wouldn't feel very good about myself. I'm a guest here, after all. This is your own room, even. I don't mind the cold as much as you, being all human, should."
"Just go to sleep. A little cold's not going to bother me." Rai replied, sighing. "I gave you the blankets so that you wouldn't freeze. I'm made of tougher stuff, it'll take a lot more to bug me."
"Mina's right." Artemis said quietly. "The least I can do, at least, is let you share the blankets." A red color swept across Rai's face for a moment. "I-I mean, w-we are engaged and all. Sharing some blankets for warmth s-shouldn't be a problem or anything. Please..."
"Humph." Rai said. He thought for a few moments. "Okay, okay, you win. As long as you're okay with it, I guess I can't really argue." Artemis was silent as Rai climbed down the side of the bed and slid under the covers. He kept as far away from Artemis as he possibly could, so as not to embarass her in any way.
"Your feet're sticking out." Mina said, smiling. The catgirl jumped onto the bed, carrying some blankets, and positioned herself over the two kids' feet. "There we go."
"That tickles." Artemis said, giggling. "Especially your tail."
"I know." Mina said, purring. The catgirl quickly fell asleep, and Rai closed his eyes, intending to do the same. His conscious dimly registered a small hand grasping his, and a tail flicking against his feet as the boy fell into slumber.


The next morning, Rai's mom walked in fairly early, and found the kids sleeping.
"Hmm... Well, they look happy. And I'm sure Rai didn't do anything he shouldn't have, I trust him." the woman said. "All three of them are smiling. Well, I suppose I had better get some more sheets and some more blankets in here as well so this doesn't happen again." Smiling, the woman took a picture of the three kids and walked off. They didn't need to be woken up for about half an hour, anyways.
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Rednal: Just a note, pervs out there, nothing adult happened. Nor will it happen in this story, ever. stare My personal morals, at least, say that it's not wrong for two people who are engaged to sleep in the same bed. And Mina was acting like I thought a catgirl would.

On another note, tell me if you want more action, more adventure, more fluffy romance, more catgirls, etc. But ONLY if it doesn't violate the Rules of GAIA Online. That's bad, and I will not accept ideas for the story that violate the rules. Shouldn't have to say that, just thought I would just in case.

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yay! more readage! fun fun! nice work

whoa, keep it one the first page at least, its a good story

Mmmfh.

Well, right now, school's going on... And I need to know what type of person at lunch you'd all like to see least. Or what you think the main characters wouldn't like.


WHY!?


Yeah, right, there's no way I'm telling. Guess, and be wrong.

Hmm, I could think of a few people I'd rather see least... I would think some really annoying person that is constantly bitching.

*pokes rednal* I'm back, now I can bug you with my main again. Heh heh heh...