"So, what's got you so down?" Minagi asked the good looking black haired woman in the Asian dress. She had a top knot added to her dark mane and most strangely a panther purred softly at her feet. "My latest campaign to earn my true love's heart has failed," Lily confessed with a sigh as she sipped her drink. Even as she drank she kept half an eye on the book in front of her, the latest work by Hisami Hisaishi. "Who's that, Lily?" Nancy Mukahari asked, dressed in her usual one piece black leather combat suit. "Anita King," Lily sighed dreamily. "The kid?" Minagi blinked at the woman in surprise, her long blue hair flowing in a wild looking mane, twin scars on her cheeks. "She is not a kid," Lily protested fiercely, nearly bouncing up out of her seat. "Yes, she is," Nancy forcefully yanked Lily back into her chair. "Ow," Lily yelped in pain as her butt was forced back down onto the seat. "Okay," she conceded, "but I'm willing to wait till she grows up a bit." A dreamy look passed over Lily's face, "Anita's so fierce and true..." "Aren't you on opposite sides?" Nancy noted dryly. Lily hesitated for a moment then she softly said, "I think I'd give up my wicked ways just for her." "Reminds me of me and Yomiko," Nancy conceded after a moment, taking a drink. "True," Ryouko sweapt by on her way to deliver more drinks to a customer up the bar. "Thank you," Wendy Earhart nodded to Ryouko as she took her two drinks. The lovely blonde tried to look serious in her sleek black suit, but a faint smile still tugged at the cute young woman's lips. "You want to go talk to them?" Ryouko nodded significantly towards Lily and Nancy. "You have things in common." "I'd better not, considering our pasts," Wendy answered her a bit sadly. Perking up a bit she worked her way past the kareoke stage over towards the library as she saw a familiar figure and said, "Here you are." Nenene Sumiregawa looked up with a smile, the brown haired author holding up one of her own books. "Looks like I made it here, too," she noted, her overlarge glasses gleaming. She wore casual clothes, including a baggy sweater and jeans. "I'm glad," Wendy chuckled as they sat down together. She offered Nenene a drink as she said, "Congradulations on your latest book, by the way." "Thank you," Nenene took the drink and sipped a bit. "What did you expect to happen, when you showed up at my apartment after Joker's death?" Wendy looked at her curiously, wondering why she was bringing this up now. "I'm not sure what I expected," she admitted, "I had just found myself remembering how good it had felt to talk to you, even when we were enemies." Nenene chuckled softly at that. "You made a good villain," she noted, "but when I looked in your eyes I saw gentleness." "You were always too perceptive," Wendy admitted. A little shake of her head, "You saw right to the root of things at the end, making me really see what we were doing to ourselves." "I'm a writer," Nenene shrugged, "it's what we do." Wendy chuckled, "A little egotistical love?" Nenene grinned back, "Always." Hurrying by May smiled, her maid's uniform swirling around her. Smiling at her boyish girlfriend she asked, "Did you notice we have multiples again?" Keiko nodded, her brown braid bouncing against her black suit jacket. "I counted at least three Nenene's, I think," she said seriously. "Do you think we should try to keep them apart?" "Probably not a bad idea," May conceded, "I'll ask Juri..." Keiko smiled wryly as she interrupted, "You're in charge while Juri's on her honeymoon, remember?" May blushed, "I forgot." "Why don't you tell Nabiki," Keiko offered, "while I get Alpha, Excel and Hyatt to run interference?" "Thanks," May kissed Keiko gently then hurried off through the crowd of women to look for their resident business manager. Meanwhile, out on the dance floor, another Nenene patiently guided a taller woman in the steps of a dance. "I still can't believe you've never learned this," Nenene smiled up at her girlfriend warmly. "Sorry," Maggie Mui said, the tall, black haired woman holding Nenene carefully in her arms as they swayed to the music. "Still," Nenene sighed happily as she let her head rest on Maggie's shoulder, "you do learn fast." Maggie blushed charmingly even as the music sped up a bit, "Thank you." Pulling them apart she carefully let Nenene swing out, spin, then drew her close without tripping this time. "Whew," she sighed. "Nice," Nenene agreed, a bit of red coloring her own cheeks. A sly smile, "It makes me glad I got tired of waiting and just asked you out." "I'm glad you did," Maggie said to her quietly. A slight smile, "I wanted to ask you, but I was too shy." "I know," Nenene reached up to caress Maggie's cheek, "but it's one of your more charming qualities." As Alpha collected a round of drinks the green haired android asked Ryouko, "So, multiple incarnations of the same person can be at the bar at the same time?" Ryouko nodded as she poured a drink for another customer, "It has to do with parallel timelines. Each choice we can make leads to a new world, etc. It's just our good luck that the bar can access those various worlds." "Must be difficult to keep track," Alpha noted. "It can be interesting," Ryouko admitted. She smiled impishly, "Ask Sasami to tell you about the invasion of multiple Juris sometime." "Right," Alpha smiled then hurried off to drop off her drinks. "Here you go," she passed a drink over then hesitated, "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to card you." "Why does this always happen to me?" Anita King complained, the young woman pulling out her wallet and showing it to Alpha. "Because you're so cute?" Nenene asked, her grin wicked. "Thank you," Alpha said once she finished checking the twenty year old's identification. "Is there anything else I can get you?" she asked politely. "No, we're good," Anita smiled. She looked over at Nenene, "Neat place you've chosen for our first official date." "Considering how patient you've been with me, I figured you deserved something nice," Nenene admitted. Anita put her hand over Nenene's and smiled. "I've loved you a long time, you know." A grin, "Even when you were irritating the hell out of me." "Hey, join the club squirt," Nenene shot back, "you were cute even when you were being totally aggravating." "So what took you so long to agree to go out with me?" Anita asked. "I didn't want to get killed by your sisters Michelle or Maggie," Nenene said dryly, getting a snort of laughter from Anita. Softly she added, "And I wanted to be sure it wasn't just you getting over Hisami or me rebounding from Yomiko." Anita sighed as she said, "Yeah, they were hard on both of us. But, I think things worked out for the best." "Me, too," Nenene smiled. To be continued... The Staff: Arisugawa Juri from Utena, May from Hand Maid May, Keiko from Revolutionary Girl Utena, Minagi, Ryouko and Sasami from Tenchi Muyo, Hyatt and Excel are from Excel Saga, Nabiki from Ranma 1/2 and finally Alpha is from Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. Our Cast this Episode: Lily the Reader, Maggie, Michelle and Anita are from Read or Dream, Nancy Mukahari, Yomiko Readman, and Wendy Earhart are from Read or Die and finally Nenene Sumiregawa who is from ROD the TV and ROD the manga. Notes: Lily the Reader is a Dream specific character with a VERY intense interest in Anita. Many of the other pairings come from my imagination along with the entertaining writings of Rhianwen. Go read her stuff on ffnet, it's VERY good.
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