Bubblegum Crisis: April Fool
The mission had ended about an hour ago. Linna, Priss and Nene had taken
Sylia up on her offer for a drink at her bar. Sylia and Linna both
noticed Priss was drinking way more than she should. Nene was nervously
looking down at the ground.
"Uh, Priss?"
"What do you want?" she snapped at the blond.
"I... I'm really sorry about screwing up back there like that, I..."
"Sorry? You're sorry? Hey, Linna, Sylia, you both hear that? She's sorry
she nearly got me and Linna decapitated by that rogue boomer out there.
Well, I'll agree with you there; you are sorry. You're just about the
sorriest, most useless fighter I've ever met!"
Nene looked down dejected at that.
"Priss," Linna broke in, "There's no call for that. She made a simple
mistake. Everything worked out."
"Linna, you're not the one who's been covering her ass every mission for
the last eight months! I am!" she said, taking another swig of her beer.
Linna knew there were two types of drunks; the silly drunk and the angry
drunk. Linna was getting a look at just what kind Priss was.
"Priss, that's enough!" Sylia broke in. "Nene, don't listen to her,
she's had too much to..."
"No, it's alright." Nene sighed. "She's right. I can't fight."
"Nene..." Linna said, "Please, it's okay. Don't let her get to you."
"Linna, stop standing up for her! She..."
"Shut up, Priss. You're drunk, and you're pissing everyone off." Linna
said, surprising everyone in the room, herself included. They were all
waiting for Priss to take a swing at her, or to at least verbally strike
back. Instead, she just looked down at her drink.
"Sylia," she said in a low voice, "can I stay here tonight. I don't
think I should be trying to go home tonight."
Sylia nodded, "Actually, maybe you should all stay here tonight. Can you
make it to the bedroom down the hall?"
Priss tried to get out of the barstool and nearly fell over.
"I think... I think I'm going to need some help."
Nene, still sulking, looked up to see a calendar on the wall behind
Sylia's mini bar. March thirty-first. That would make tomorrow April
first. April Fools Day. Hmmm...
A dark, evil thought entered Nene then and there. Priss thought she was
so damn great. Nene decided it was high time she got knocked down a peg.
"I'll take her." she offered. "It's the least I can do, after screwing
up so bad."
Before Linna or Sylia could object, she had Priss' arm around her
shoulder and was leading her to a spare room.
Priss passed out the moment she hit the bed. Nene double checked to make
sure she was really out, and then quickly undressed her. She then went
into an adjacent guest room with an alarm clock, set it for seven in the
morning, and smiled to herself as she lay down in the bed.
---The Next Morning---
Nene, having been woke up by her alarm clock a short time earlier, now
slowly crept into Priss room. She knew she'd be out on her own until at
least eleven if not later, what with all the beers she'd consumed. Nene
smiled as she heard Priss snoring loudly. 'This is going to be great!'
she thought, as she began taking off all her clothes. She then slowly
and cautiously slid into bed behind Priss, who was sleeping in a fetal
position on her side. "Yuck, she smells like a brewery." she thought.
She steeled up her courage, kissed Priss on the cheek, then very quickly
lay down, pretending to be asleep.
------
Priss slowly opened her eyes, and immediately regretted it. The
throbbing in her head was terrible. She couldn't remember much about
last night, but she could tell just from the signals her head and
stomach were sending her that she'd had too much to drink. Sleepily, she
felt the silken sheets against her skin and realized Sylia must've let
her crash at her place last night. In fact, now that the thought about
it, she could feel the silken sheets against all of her skin.
"Wait a second," she thought, "where the hell are my clothes?" She was
sleeping on her right side, and as she started to turn around in bed,
she suddenly realized someone's body was lying up against hers.
Frightened, she looked under the covers. Sure enough, there was a
woman's arm draped across her midsection.
That shocked her fully awake. Her mind started racing as she desperately
tried to remember the events of the previous night. She knew of two
people who were actively interested in her. There was Leon, who was open
about it and blunt. But he wasn't at Sylia's get together last night.
Then there was Linna. Linna never came out and said it, but you'd have
to be a moron not to see she had a huge crush on her. Priss looked
again. Definitely a woman's arm. She began to sweat nervously at the
implications. Knowing how shy and, well, mousy Linna could be around
her, that probably would've left Priss the aggressor last night. Linna
was a sensitive, vulnerable girl from the country. No matter what
happened, she knew she had to handle this very, very delicately. Or at
least as delicately as someone whose head felt like it was in a vice and
whose stomach was doing loop-de-loops was capable of being. She
carefully lifted the other person's arm and began to turn around,
quickly trying to work out something to say in her head.
It took a few seconds for what had happened to register.
It wasn't Linna in bed with her.
It was Nene.
Priss' eyes bulged out of her head as she looked in horror at her bunk
mate. She pulled the covers up with trembling hands. Sure enough, she
was in her birthday suit too.
Nene, feeling the rush of cold, smiled, pretending to be just coming out
of a deep sleep. "Morning hon." she said, trying as hard as she could to
keep from laughing. She slowly opened her eyes, to see a very frightened
looking Priss staring back at her. "Last night was wonderful, I... wait
a minute! You're not Mackie! What's going on here?"
Priss lower jaw began to quiver. She tried to say something but the
words wouldn't come out. She quickly started backing away from her
fellow Knight Saber, and fell out of bed. Picking herself up, she
grabbed her clothes and ran for the bathroom.
Nene quickly grabbed a pillow and covered her mouth to keep Priss from
hearing her laughter. This was going better than she could've ever
hoped. Five minutes later Priss, white as a ghost, came in. She saw the
tears in Nene's eyes and, not knowing they were tears of laughter, began
to feel horribly, terribly guilty.
Nene, for her part overjoyed her revenge was working out so well,
decided to play it up just a bit longer before letting her off the hook.
"Why Priss! Taking advantage of a young girl when she's had one too
many. There's a word for that, you know!"
Priss just stood there looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
What had she done? She quickly grabbed her boots and ran out of the
bedroom.
------
"Good morning Linna." Sylia said, sipping her tea and reading the
morning paper Henderson had brought in. "Would you like me to get
Henderson to fix you some breakfast?"
"No, thanks. Do you mind if I hang out until Priss wakes up?"
Sylia gave her a knowing look.
"No, not at all. She drank an awful lot, though. I'd be surprised if she
woke up before ten."
"I know, it's just, well... Look, granted, Nene goofed up. And granted,
it placed me and Priss in danger, but that's still no excuse for her
going off on Nene like that."
"Oh. Is that what you want to talk to her about?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, I just thought..."
"Thought what?"
"Look, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you like her,
Linna. Just ask her out. What's the worst she can say? 'No?'"
Linna just stared at the leader of the Knight Sabers. Before she could
formulate a response, she heard the sound of rapid footsteps coming down
the hall from the guest bedrooms. Both she and Sylia looked to see a
visibly shaken Priss running toward the elevator. She pushed the down
button frantically over and over again, waiting for the door to open.
Both Sylia and Linna worriedly started toward her.
"Priss?" Linna asked, "Priss, what's wrong?"
The elevator door opened and Priss hurriedly rushed in and hit the main
floor button. As the doors were closing, she turned and looked Linna in
the eyes just before burying her face in her hands.
"Oh shit." Linna whispered. Sylia was about to say something, when Nene
bounced out of the same hallway Priss had just run from grinning from
ear to ear.
"April Fools!" she shouted, waving her arms back and forth as she
laughed. She then noticed Priss wasn't in the room, and the other two
Knight Sabers were staring at her.
"Hey, where's Priss?" she asked disappointedly.
Linna slowly started walking toward her.
"She just left, Nene. She looked like she'd just seen a ghost."
Nene got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"You mean, she doesn't know it was a joke?"
"Know _what_ was a joke?" Sylia demanded, as she strode over to where
Nene was standing.
"Well, you see..." Nene timidly began.
------
Priss got on her bike and started the engine. She needed to think.
Nene's words kept running through her head.
_Taking advantage of a girl when she's had too many_
_There's a word for that you know_
"What have I done?" she asked herself. Poor kid. From what she could
remember, she'd been pretty hard on the girl after the mission. Hell,
she hadn't screwed up that bad. It wasn't like she'd never screwed up
before. Besides, her hardsuit hadn't even been designed for one-on-one
fighting. For her to blow up at the little squirt, and then to...
Priss put her hand up to her head as the pounding in her skull
continued. She suddenly realized that, while she had started up her
bike, she'd been so busy thinking about what had happened that she had
yet to pull away or go anywhere. She turned the engine off, put the
kickstand back down and headed for the entrance. Someway, somehow, she
had to rectify the situation. Not for Sylia or her precious Knight
Sabers, but for the little blond haired girl who was eating her
conscience apart.
------
"You what?" Sylia shrieked, shaking with rage.
"I didn't know she'd take it so seriously."
"Didn't know..." Linna was beside herself, "She looked at me, looked
into my eyes before she left, Nene. I've never seen anyone look so
horrible in my life. You've got her convinced she fucking raped you, you
stupid..."
As the elevator door silently opened, Priss looked in to see Linna and
Sylia shouting at Nene. She instantly became enraged.
"I swear," Sylia screamed at the now sobbing young woman, "If this
causes the breakup of the Knight Sabers, I'll..."
"Leave her the fuck alone!" Priss shouted, causing herself to wince at
the pain in her head. She strode into the room and put herself between
Nene and the others.
"Priss," Sylia began, "I..."
"It's my fault, okay? I don't know what she told you, but I'm the one
you should be yelling at, not her!" She then turned to Nene, "Nene,
look, I know I'm probably the last person in the world you want to see
right now, but..."
"Um, Priss..." Nene timidly said, trying to interrupt her.
"Nene, please, this is hard enough for me. I remember saying terrible
things to you last night. I'm sorry. And then, for me to take you, when
you had one too many, and..."
"You didn't." Nene said quickly.
"I... what?"
"Well, you see," Nene began, nervously twiddling her thumbs, "after you
said those mean things to me, I kind of decided to teach you a little,
um, lesson, you see. And today being April first and all, I um... April
Fools." she said, smiling weakly.
Priss just stood there, staring at Nene for what seemed like an
eternity. Then, slowly, her hands began to ball up into fists and her
face turned red.
"April Fools? _April Fools!?!_ I'll give you a fucking April Fools, you
little shit!" she screamed as Nene ran for her life down the hallway.
Linna and Sylia ran after them.
"Priss, wait!" Linna yelled.
"Don't worry; I'll leave enough of her for identification purposes!"
Priss yelled back.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Sylia shouted, "Not in my house!"
Nene ran into one of the guest rooms and locked the door behind her.
"You hear that Nene? Be a good little girl and come out, so I can
strangle you in the parking lot!"
Linna had had enough.
"Priss, knock it off now, damn it!"
Priss looked at her, and quietly wondered when the hell Linna became so
brave.
"Get away from me, Linna."
"It's your own fault!"
Priss now stared angrily at Linna. "What?"
"You treat her like shit. You always do. What, you didn't think she was
ever going to get sick of that? Damn you! You can be one of the most
obnoxious, irritable assholes; do you know that? Obviously not, or else
you'd have more friends than just your stupid rock band. Oh wait, that's
right, they just hang around you because you _pay_ them to!"
"What did you just say?" Priss said, her anger now shifting to the
slightly older girl glaring back at her.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to try to be your friend?"
"Look country girl, I..."
"Fuck you Priscilla S. Asagiri!" she shouted at her. She then turned her
back on her and stormed off.
By the time Priss had recovered her faculties enough to respond, Linna
had already left.
---Three Nights Later---
The boomer they had just taken down was a tough one. Much like last
time, Nene was next to useless out on the battlefield. Just like last
time, Linna and Priss almost got clobbered because of her incompetence.
In fact, almost everything was the same as last time, except Priss. She
said nothing to anyone before the mission, just silently put her skin
suit on, then her hard suit, and entered the launch bay. During the
fighting, other than tactical commands, nothing.
Now, as she was pulling her legs out of her hard suit, she looked over
at Nene, and began to slowly walk toward her. Nene looked over, and
became very nervous. Linna, still in her hard suit, and Sylia likewise
nervously started making their way over, hoping to intercept in case of
trouble.
Priss looked at Nene, and sighed.
"You okay kid?"
Nene blinked. "Uh, yeah, I... I guess so."
Priss began to scratch the back of her neck.
"It wasn't your fault. There was a puddle of oil where you landed.
Anyone would've slipped."
Linna and Sylia were now just as dumbfounded as Nene was.
"Yeah, um, thanks." Nene nervously said.
"Sure. Oh, one more thing."
"Yeah?" here it comes, she thought.
"I know... I know I can be a real asshole sometimes. I don't make
friends easily. Damn, where I grew up, everyone had an ulterior motive
for being nice to somebody." Priss was now standing with her hands on
her hips, looking down at the ground, "But... but I'm willing to try
harder, if you'll let me."
Nene very slowly began to smile.
"Okay." she said.
"It... it's not too late. Maybe you, me and Linna can go out and do
something?"
"I wish I could, Priss. But I have to go to work early tomorrow
morning."
"Okay." She then turned to Linna. "Do you have any plans?"
"_No!_" she said a bit too enthusiastically. Sylia began to chuckle.
"Great. Then get out of your hardsuit and we'll go out or something."
"Sure. Okay." Linna said, suddenly feeling butterflies in her stomach as
Priss used the phrase "go out." She quickly slipped out of her hardsuit
and grabbed her gym bag with her civilian clothes.
"Good. Oh, and Nene."
"Yeah?"
"No more pranks, okay?" Priss said, suddenly taking on a much more
serious tone.
"No more, I promise. Believe me; I swear to God I learned my lesson!"
"Good. Because next time Linna and Sylia might not be around to prevent
me from putting you in traction." she said. She then turned back to
Linna.
"So, where do you want to go?"
"I don't know. Want to go catch a movie?"
Yeah. That sounds good.
As the elevator doors closed on the two of them, Sylia turned to Nene.
"You don't really have to go to work early tomorrow morning, do you?"
"No. But I figured after all the trouble I caused, giving the two of
them a chance to be alone was the least I could do."
Sylia smiled at that, and both she and Nene entered the elevator
together to head for the main floor.
The End.
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