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 Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:18 pm
Serenade had watched, bemused, as Elke stared at the thermostat on the wall. This was mostly because she pressed herself to the wall, palms flat, her green eyes fixed on the tiny digital readout as she mouthed s'il vous plait s'il vous plait. It had crept up the numbers as the day progressed, and topped out at a blessed seventy-one degrees Fahrenheit. Serenade was made aware of this when Elke jumped up and did a dance on her toes that seemed made to express her joy at this unprecedented warmth.
"C'est chaud," she announced, performing a fairly well-formed leap to her half of the closet to pull down some clothes for the day. What was the significance of it being a hot day? Well! Andeon had promised, on his mother's honor, that they would get ice cream the first day the thermostat tipped over seventy degrees. This had caused some confusion until he clarified 'fahrenheit', and then she had said oh.
She picked up her purse and waved to Serenade, then hurried out the door. By now, she was an expert at getting to Andeon and Mackenzie's apartment by subway. She even looked forward to the trip, because there was an old man accordion player on the station on State. It was nice to listen to while she waited for the train to get there.
It was nearing noon when she knocked on the door to Andeon's apartment, and with her ear pressed to the door she could hear someone moving around. He opened the door and she announced, loudly, "You promised ice cream when the thermostat said more than seventy degrees Fahrenheit and it is seventy-one degrees so let's go get ice cream, yes?"
She was wearing one of his shirts.
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 6:12 am
Andeon had awoken early, a rare occurrence that happened only when Mackenzie wasn't home and thus he couldn't sleep for s**t without her slumbering form stealing the blankets and kicking him in her sleep. He'd spent the night tossing and turning, tangling himself in their Spongebob sheets until he resigned to stare longingly at the spackled ceiling and pick out shapes until the light coming in through the half-open blinds turned from blue to pink to white and forced him out of bed. He pulled on the same ratty jeans he'd worn for the past three days, the ones Mackenzie spilt paint on when they had agreed to paint the bedroom pink.
It was blue now, the type of slightly purplish blue that suggested a thin veil of robin's egg over cotton candy pink. It never stayed one color for long, because within a matter of weeks one of them always lost a bet to the other to paint it back.
Unsurprisingly, the pink was Andeon's choice.
He picked out one of Mackenzie's black t-shirts, one slightly to large for her slender frame but perfect for his. It read “b***h” across the front and had a hole in the back of the neck where he'd torn out the tag. Just above it was the bruise Mackenzie had left when she'd bitten the back of his neck for ripping out said tag. Mackenzie, Mackenzie, Mackenzie. He missed the girl horribly in the rare moments she was out of town, and couldn't escape some reminder of her everywhere he turned. Her toothbrush was sitting on the edge of the sink and he used it to brush his teeth and jammed it upside down into the cup where it belonged.
She never put her toothbrush where it belonged. With a sigh, Andeon pulled it out and set it back on the edge of the sink, just as she'd left it.
He was lounging on the couch, eating a bowl of Lucky Charms by the time Elke had arrived. His spoon navigated its way around the marshmallows, saving the soggy, sugary mess for last as he picked off the cereal bits one by one. When he heard the knock on the door his milk was a murky shade of green, and it sloshed over the edge and pooled on the coffee table when he set it down. He opened the door, and there was Elke, pretty and smiling in seventy-one degrees and sunlight. Snuzzles screeled from the bedroom and skittered along the floor at the sound of her voice. The little youma made it to Elke before Andeon did, climbing up her leg and taking up residence on her head.
“I don't know,” he smiled, looking at his bare wrist, “My watch says seventy degrees.”
Elke was frowning, and that was all it took. Andeon slipped his feet into his sandals, scooped Elke up in both arms, and carried her bridal-style down the concrete path.
“If you eat all of the peanut butter cups out of my Moose Tracks this time, it's dishonor on your entire family.”
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 12:26 pm
It sounded like he was moving. Or maybe it was Mackenzie, but Mackenzie was not her designated Ice Cream Buddy. The bond between Gemini Alpha and Virgo was made entirely of ice cream and the mutual adoration of it and of course the Zodiac bond but the ice cream bond was also important. It was important because nobody else would put up with her stealing all the peanut butter cups out of his moose track ice cream. She was about to knock again--ice cream was important enough to be rude--but the door opened up and Snuzzles was climbing up on top of her head. "Hello, mon ami," she said to the little youma, reaching up to pat its hard shell. The carapace was reassuringly cool and smooth against her hand.
"Andeon," she said, dragging out the last syllable to a ridiculous length and pouting. It was seventy-one degrees and he wasn't even wearing a watch! And while Andeon was a lot of things, he was not a human thermostat--or was he? Elke gave him a critical look as he put on his shoes, arms akimbo. Where would Andeon even keep a thermostat? She beamed when he took her up, squeaking a little, because even though he did it every time she never actually learned to expect it.
She pouted again about the peanut butter cups. Always with the dishonor on her entire family, always. "You said I could have some," she reminded him. And it was true! He had said some, and she had rounded up to 'all'. One vague number was as good as another, wasn't it? It was! True facts were true and happy-making. She thumped the side of her head against Andeon's shoulder. "I missed you," the bluenette moped, happily wrapping her arms around the tall senshi's neck.
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 4:05 pm
“You know what I miss?” Andeon said as he, at Snuzzles insistent clicking, set Elke down on her feet and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Their preferred ice cream spot was only a few blocks away, so he walked right past the car that Mackenzie intelligently didn't let him have a set of keys to. “Firefly. Sure, the made Serenity-” Andeon still got a bit nostalgic every time a lunar senshi mentioned their princess by name, but hardly for the same reasons, “-but it's just not the same. I blame the conservative media, but you can't-” Elke was giving him that look, and Andeon shut up with a wide grin. He pulled her in close and gave her a gentle noogie.
“Of course I missed you too, stupidface.”
Andeon had strange taste in pet names, but there was no doubting the affection behind it.
“We're signing a contract this time. You get rights to fifty percent of my peanut butter cups, but only if I get rights to sixty-nine percent of all rainbow sprinkles on your sundae. Also the cherry. I get the cherry.”
This was a terribly unfair trade, and Snuzzles seemed to know it. He burrowed beneath a layer of Elke's hair and clicked up at Andeon. His front two legs worked to untangle a knot in the meantime.
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Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 6:16 pm
She gave Andeon a look through her bangs. Whatever this Firefly show was, she didn't like it much, especially since it seemed to be robbing her of Andeontime. He couldn't pay as much attention to her if he was thinking about how much he was saddened by the loss of the show! So she held him under the look until he smiled.
"I am not a stupidface," she protested, but she was smiling too, and there was no rancor in her words. She knew that Andeon meant that in the Best Way Possible, so she took it in the Best Way Possible. The protest was just for show.
As for ice cream topping negotiations, Elke pulled a face. She had grown up in France, haggling was in her blood! "I get fifty percent of your peanut butter cups and you get a third of my rainbow sprinkles and my cherry. Or you may have fifty percent of my sprinkles and no cherry." The bluenette gave Andeon a very deadpan look. It was a serious face for a serious discussion. She winced when Snuzzles pulled a little too hard on a strand of hair, but reached up to pat the little facehugger anyway.
Snuzzles was attracting some weird looks. Elke did not notice.
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Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 10:22 pm
“I hardly think that a cherry is equivalent to only sixteen point six six six six six six six-” by the time Andeon stopped saying 'six', he had summoned the Devil a dozen times, “repeating percent. If I don't get a cherry I get at least sixty-five percent of your sprinkles.” Andeon whistled once, and Snuzzles clicked disagreeably. For a moment the little youma hugged Elke's head tightly, but a sharp look from the Gemini and another whistle had him scuttling down from Elke's head and heading back towards the apartment. Reckless as Andeon often was, Mackenzie would kill him if she had to superglue Snuzzles' shell back together again after some frightened old lady beat him with her purse.
People just didn't understand Snuzzles. Snuzzles, of course, didn't really understand people. That was probably why he insisted on hugging their faces tightly and screaming back at them when they disagreed. Andeon had tried to show the little headcrab the Alien movies so that he might understand their terror, but it had only ended in heartbreak. Andeon still shed a tear from time to time when he caught Snuzzles pawing longingly at the DVD case, chasing a love that could never be. It was tough being in love with a fictional character, Andeon knew. It was the same longing stare he had frequently given to his Star Wars boxed set,
Oh, Leia.
“I will also consider ten of your gummi bears as a suitable cherry replacement.”
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 8:51 pm
She considered this for a long time. It was true that a cherry was definitely worth more than sixteen point six continuous. Sixty-five percent of her sprinkles would definitely be fairer. But if she gave Andeon that, he might demand something even more. And that would be against the spirit of haggling! Her thoughts were drawn from the amount of sprinkles she could safely offer when Snuzzles returned home, and she waved a little after the little youma.
"Five gummi bears," she said, "and fifty-five percent of my sprinkles for fifty percent of your peanut butter cups."
Elke hooked both arms around one of Andeon's, her cheek against his bicep as she wrinkled her nose. Andeon didn't quite smell like Andeon today. Maybe he smelled more like Mackenzie? That happened sometimes. It was understandable but she didn't quite like it. Then again, they were Gemini. It was bound to happen. "This is my final offer." Her expression was just as serious as before, if not more so.
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