It took nearly an entire day to clean the house with the state Domino 2 left it in. Getting rid of all the webs, moving any misplaced furniture... it was a lot of work. Thankfully, the incident itself seemed to somehow fly under the radar, nobody in town suspecting a thing.
...Anne wondered how Domino 2 was doing now. Was she okay? Did she perhaps find the love of her life out there? Anne had absolutely no idea, only having the photos and videos of the huge moth-like creature to remember her by. Well, if she didn't count the dreams she had about Domino 2 for a few nights. Sweet, sweet memories...
The best decision was to take it easy after that disaster, several days passing by without much of note happening. It wouldn't be the same on one morning in particular, though.
Unaware of what was going on right next to her, Anne slept soundly in her bed, snoring. Meanwhile, Vi, Kabbu, and Leif were doing something completely different. Vi was stacking up a random assortment of objects she got from around the house on her bed, trying to make as tall of a stack as she could.
"You're almost there, Vi." Leif cheered her on, he and Kabbu watching the bee. "Just a bit more..." He handed Vi another object, to which she was almost on her tippy-toes trying to put it on the stack, almost straining herself.
"Vi, be careful!" Kabbu called out to her. He stepped back a little bit, noticing the tower of objects wobbling slightly. "Make sure to keep it steady! And don't-"
"Oi, I got it! Just let me focus!" Vi yelled, shutting Kabbu up. This was the last object to put on the stack before the tower would be complete. Just one more... "Come on..." Vi knew it would be so much easier if she just used her wings, but she didn't like doing that unless absolutely necessary.
She stretched her arm up just a bit more, almost able to reach the top of the stack... Vi paused, sniffing a few times. Uh oh. She was about to- "ACHOO!" Vi wasn't able to stop herself from letting out a mighty sneeze, causing her to stumble back, falling onto the bed.
This led to a chain reaction; the bed mattress bounced, making to the tower of objects Vi stacked to wobble. Kabbu and Leif gasped; Vi stood up to try and re-adjust the large stack, only for her haphazard movements to make it wobble more, until...
It slowly tipped over...
Falling directly onto Anne's bed.
One moment, the human girl was sleeping. The next, she was assaulted by dozens of objects falling onto her in rapid succession, immediately waking her up and causing her to scream. The objects spilled onto the bed and ground, but Anne hardly had any idea of what was going on, sitting up in a rush.
"What's going on?!" Anne yelled, on the verge of freaking out. Seriously? One moment she was having a dream about eating ube ice cream, and the next she'd been abruptly woken up... like this? Anne turned, seeing the others not far from her. Vi froze up in fear, and Leif was doubled over in laughter, unable to contain himself.
"Anne, are you alright?" Kabbu asked in concern.
She was still waking up, so Anne wasn't too sure of what was going on. However, using context clues, it wouldn't be hard to figure out. "Yeah, I'm fine." Anne replied, sarcasm laced in her tone. "I just didn't expect to be the victim to a catastrophe like this!" She gestured to the mess on her bed and the floor, Anne pushing some of the stuff off her bed. She didn't make the mess, she wasn't gonna clean it.
"...Sorry. I didn't think that could hurt you." Vi apologized. Well, it did sting a little, but it would go away soon enough. "I just wanted to participate in what the guys were doing!"
"What were you even doing?!" Anne questioned, still in the dark about all this. She stood up off her bed, crossing her arms expectantly.
"Er... I'll admit, I might've started it." Kabbu said, fidgeting with his hands a little. Oh great. "There was a bit of a mess in the house, so I was stacking it on the shelves to put it away, and then Leif wanted to see how much he could stack and then Vi joined in and... yeah."
And now, Anne had a clear timeline of events. She scoffed, rolling her eyes at the absurdity of it all. "And just when I thought guys couldn't get any stupider, I was proven wrong." Maybe she was a bit irritable from the rude awakening she'd gotten, but she didn't care. Kabbu and Leif started it and then roped Vi into it, which is the only reason it escalated that far.
Kabbu and Leif both gasped in shock at Anne's comment, while Vi just looked confused.
"I'm not stupid!" Kabbu argued, sounding offended.
"We agree." Leif said with a nod. "In fact, that statement in of itself is stupid." He then high-fived Kabbu.
"Then WHY were you stacking stuff on Vi's bed..." Anne gestured to the bed in question. "Right next to ME..." More exasperated and exaggerated than before, Anne gestured to her bed. "While I was SLEEPING!" The absurdity of this almost made Anne want to pull her hair out. Almost.
"It's a guy thing, you wouldn't understand." Leif shook his head. Anne groaned loudly, tempted to throw a pillow at Leif for how stupid that was.
"Stacking all that stuff was fun, though!" Vi gave her input. She smiled; oh, poor poor Vi... Anne shook her head; the bee was so innocent in all this, wasn't she?
"Perhaps next time we should do it with a bit more... care?" Kabbu suggested, even if he didn't sound so sure. "For example, a less precarious place where someone might not be in its path if it falls..." Kabbu trailed off, unsure of how to continue.
Seriously? Anne knew exactly what was going on here, and she was gonna put a stop to it. "Kabbu, Leif, I can't believe you're exposing Vi to all this... this boy stuff!" Back home, Anne's best friends Sasha and Marcy were girls, just like her. This gave her all she needed to know the vast differences between boys and girls, clearly.
"Really?" Leif raised an eyebrow. "You do realize this is all extremely tame compared to what we could do, right?"
"I don't want to find out." Anne said, not wanting to think about the implications of that.
"That's what we thought." Leif said before turning to Kabbu. "So..."
As the moth started to talk to Kabbu, Anne squinted her eyes, analyzing the following conversation as the gears began to turn in her head. "Wait a second..." She paid attention to less what they said, and more their actions as the two spoke to each other.
When Kabbu replied to what Leif said, the beetle subconsciously scratched his side, causing Anne's face to scrunch up in disgust. Then, Anne had to stop herself from gagging when Leif got crust out from the corner of his eye before flicking it off to the side. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Anne happened to glance over at Vi for a moment, only to be unable to take her eyes off the bee, gasping in horror at seeing Vi using her beemerang to scratch her back.
Everything fell into place. Anne had an inkling of it before, but now she fully understood why Vi acted the way she did. Not just today, but for a while now. Anne put a hand over her mouth, trying to stifle a gasp. "Oh no..." The others turned to her, all attention now focused at her.
"It all makes sense now!" Anne took her hand off her mouth. "Vi, you've been hanging around boys too much!" It explained everything; why Vi was so rude and abrasive (boys were like that), why she was so lazy (boys were lazy), why Vi was so... ungirly. (side-effect of being around boys)
Anne stuck her tongue out in disgust, wondering just how much boys have influenced Vi. They've been together as a group for about a month now, and the ratio of girls to boys Vi could talk in the group to was 1 to 2. Therefore, boys had the clear advantage, able to influence Vi much more, all right under Anne's nose. But Anne wouldn't give up so easily. After all the media she watched; seeing how lazy and gross the guys were portrayed in various shows, and that now was being echoed here...
"It's not too late, I can fix this!" Anne declared as she pumped her fists, her mind already made up. This would be her mission for today. "You need girl time!" Anne pointed at Vi, not letting her or anyone else get a word in edge-wise. "She needs girl time!" Anne then pointed at Kabbu and Leif.
Hopefully they'd stay out of the way; Anne's mission was of the upmost importance. Anne grabbed her backpack, putting it on in a matter of seconds. Vi looked a bit taken aback while Kabbu and Leif were just confused, but that didn't matter.
"Come on!" In a rush, Anne grabbed Vi's arm, trying to pull the bee along.
"Where are we goi-" Vi couldn't finish her sentence, yelping as Anne yanked on her arm, pulling her out of the house before she could protest. Anne had to do this quickly before anything worse could happen; this would be for the best after all.
After Anne practically dragged Vi out of the house, she slammed the door behind the two of them...
…
...Leaving Kabbu and Leif alone in the house.
"What just happened?" Kabbu asked several seconds after the door shut, completely lost. What was Anne even going on about? It happened too fast for him to process; he couldn't understand it.
"It looks like Anne and Vi are gonna have some... girl time, whatever that is." Leif answered. Ah, yeah. Anne did say that multiple times... but at the same time, she never said what 'girl time' was, instead just repeating it like everyone knew what it was.
"I hope they don't get into too much trouble..." Kabbu said, frowning. He didn't feel the need to chase after them; something like 'girl time' couldn't be nearly as bad the Domino 2 incident, right? Plus, Anne rarely got to spend time with Vi on her own, now that Kabbu thought about it. He could recall only one other major time Anne and Vi hung out together.
"Eh, they'll be fine." Leif shrugged. "Although, now that we think about it..." The moth put a hand on his chin in thought, turning to Kabbu. "If they're spending some girl time together... would you want to spend guy time together with us?"
"Uh-uh oh!" Kabbu stammered, tripping over his own words. He did not expect that. Leif tilted his head slightly, a little confused at Kabbu's response. ...Now that Kabbu thought about it, Leif's question was more innocuous than Kabbu made it out to be, and now Kabbu was embarrassed. Oops.
"What's wrong?" Leif asked, sounding genuinely confused.
"Er, nothing." Kabbu quickly replied, trying to brush it aside. The way Leif asked it almost reminded him of- "Leif, what would 'guy time' entail?"
"Good question. We didn't think this far ahead." Leif admitted. Well, that was anti-climactic.
Kabbu looked around the house; it was a bit dirty... and there was that giant mess near Anne's bed... "I think I have something in mind."
After getting Leif to help him clean the house, the two bugs spent a bit tidying up, putting everything back where it should be. The house was mostly clean anyway, the main chore was just putting all those objects away. It didn't even take a half an hour; the two were done in no time.
"Vi's gonna be happy she didn't have to clean that." Leif commented as he and Kabbu admired their handiwork. Yep, the house was spotless.
"Okay, we've gotten that done..." Kabbu said. At least the cleaning was out of the way early in the morning today. "What should we do now?" Kabbu asked. He had no idea what 'guy time' would be about, except that he was spending it with... another guy. Huh.
"Perhaps get some fresh air? The house feels a bit stuffy right now, to be honest." Leif suggested. That was true; it was just a little too hot right now. Outside would be a much-needed change of pace.
"Sure!" Kabbu agreed. "To tell the truth, I had been wanting to spend some time just with you, but I never really got the chance to until now." Now that he said it out loud, it actually sounded a bit stupid-
Leif chuckled a little. "That's cute."
Kabbu resisted the urge to call Leif out on that.
(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)
Before Vi even realized it, Anne was dragging the bee through Ant City, a determined look on Anne's face. Vi was utterly confused, having absolutely no clue what Anne was doing or why Anne was doing this. Sure, there was the accident with stacking objects that morning, but... Everything was just how it always was, right?
"Girl time! It's time for girl time!" Anne chanted, repeating her mantra that she'd been saying for the past few minutes.
Okay, that was it. Vi firmly planted her feet onto the ground, stopping Anne in her tracks as Vi wrenched her arm out of Anne's grasp. The human girl turned to Vi, confusion written on her face. Nevertheless, Vi needed answers. "Oi, what the heck's going on?! ...And what's girl time?!"
"Look, hanging out too much with Kabbu and Leif is dangerous for both of us!" Anne explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "If we aren't careful, we could wake up tomorrow trying to do extremely insane stunts without showering and getting filthy and-"
"ANNE!" Vi yelled before the girl in question could go on an extremely long tangent. Anne's whole speech only made Vi more confused; where was all that coming from? Vi just didn't understand any of it.
"Vi, we need a day to reset." Anne continued. "A day that's ladies only."
But why did it matter if Vi hung out with guys? It was impossible not to, literally half her team was guys! Although... it was true that Vi only got the idea to try and make a huge stack of objects on her bed after seeing Kabbu and Leif doing it. Could Anne be right? Would guys really be that much of a bad influence on her?
No, of course she wasn't right. Vi always liked going against the grain, even being a little reckless sometimes for the sake of adventure. But she always had self-preservation in mind, now that she thought about it. When Vi constantly made excuses to leave the house several days back to get away from Domino 2, it echoed how she nearly left everyone for dead back in Snakemouth Den when she ran from the spider.
Running away... Vi did a lot of that, huh. There were (sometimes) very good reasons for that, though. She'd been tired of being forced to fit in; that all she was good for was one specific thing... Vi hated conformity. She didn't want to think about it anymore.
And yet, despite running away from Anne in Snakemouth Den, the two had eventually made up. So... could Vi trust Anne's judgement on this? Anne's sentiments from way early on hung in Vi's head, even if Anne herself told the others not to listen to that anymore. Now Anne wanted to help, but...
"I, uh... I'm unsure." Vi frowned. Thinking about all this stuff made her feel weird and gross, she didn't like it in the slightest. "I'm fine the way I am." She just wanted to continue exploring and finding treasure; was that so bad? This was her life now; she didn't want it to change. Sure, Anne was her friend, but Vi knew herself best.
Anne shook her head, outright ignoring Vi's request as she strung an arm around Vi's shoulder, pulling the bee close to her. "Vi, by the time I'm finished with you, you're gonna feel like a new bee! Trust me." Anne smiled, hoping Vi would accept her offer now.
Now Vi felt guilty; Anne had gone out of her way to try to help her. If Vi rejected her now, she'd just feel like a jerk, and those weird and icky feelings would return. Nevertheless, they were there regardless, and Vi swallowed them down the best she could.
...In spite of all this, Vi tried to look on the bright side. This couldn't be that bad, right? Vi let out a sigh, hoping her judgement wouldn't lead her astray. "Okay, what are we gonna be doing?" She asked.
All sorts of scenarios began popping up in Vi's head, her imagination going wild. The number of adventures two girls could go on together were endless! "Taking on quests?" Vi asked, imagining the two of them taking on a few requests from the board. "Finding treasure?" After the rush of actually being able to find the first artifact, Vi so badly wanted to search for another one. "Learning the hidden secrets of a forgotten, underground city!?"
"Even better." Anne said, stepping back a bit to give herself some room. She set her backpack on the ground, kneeling down and zipping it open before fishing through her backpack. Vi waited in anticipation, until... Anne pulled out some makeup supplies, a wide and eager smile on the human girl's face.
Vi's face immediately formed into a frown. "I don't like where this is going."
Several agonizing minutes passed, where Anne switched between applying makeup to Vi's face before applying some of it to her own, using her phone camera as a mirror. Anne claimed that she learned how to do all this from "makeup tutorials", but it still felt so weird.
"Hold still just a little longer..." Anne said, concentrating as she was putting the finishing touches on Vi's face. The sensation of the makeup products was an assault on her face, wishing she could rub it off. But if she did, Vi knew that Anne would just re-apply it.
"Aaaand finished!" Anne stepped back, examining her work. "Hmm..." There was a quizzical look on her face, the human girl setting a hand on her chin. "Maybe if I-"
"I don't think you need to do anymore!" Vi abruptly said, stepping back before Anne could spend another several minutes adjusting one tiny thing.
"Fair enough. Don't wanna use up all of it in one day." Anne shrugged, haphazardly dumping the makeup products back into her backpack. She pulled her phone back out, using the camera app as a mirror yet again as she stood next to Vi. And now, Vi finally got to see what exactly Anne did to her face. Anne explained what she was doing before, but Vi didn't really understand it until now.
Anne had applied copious amounts of eyeliner, mascara, and blue eyeshadow to Vi's eyes, making them appear a bit bigger and giving her visible, defined eyelashes. Bright-pink lipstick was applied as well, and it tasted pretty weird. Vi didn't like it. Anne used a bit of highlighter and blush on Vi's face as well, making her overall appearance pop. Anne used similar products on her own face, but spent a bit more time on Vi's face overall.
"So? How does it look?" Anne asked, unable to wipe the grin off her face.
Vi's face crinkled a bit; she was perfectly fine without all this weird makeup stuff. Did girls really wear this all the time? That was gross. But it could be washed off. It all left a tingly feeling on her face, one that wasn't too pleasant. But...
For Anne's sake, Vi forced a smile. "It looks nice." She said, even if she didn't agree at all. Hopefully this would be it.
"Yes!" Anne said, pumping her fist. "And dad said those makeup tutorials were a waste of time! They were cutting into my schoolwork but whatever!"
"Uh, Anne?" Vi asked. "What is this even... for?" It just occurred to Vi that Anne never explained why girls wore this stuff all the time. ...Plus, neither Anne nor her friends wore that stuff in any photos that Anne showed her from when she was back home, now that Vi thought about it.
"It's okay if you're still confused. By the time we're finished, you'll understand everything." Anne promised. Everything? That sounded like a stretch. "Now we're on step two of girl time," Anne began, holding up two fingers. "We need fancy, pretty, and fashionable clothes! I'm pretty sure I've been wearing this same school outfit for a month now."
Ignoring how disgusting that was, Vi groaned, dreading the prospect of going to random stores to find clothes. "That sounds so boring!" Vi got her beemerang out, having a much better idea as to what to do next. "I'd rather hit bad guys with my beemerang until they cry!"
Anne gasped in shock, putting her hands over her mouth. "No beemerang!" Before Vi could react, Anne snatched the weapon from Vi's hands, immediately stuffing it into her backpack and zipping it up all in a matter of moments.
"Oi, give that back!" Vi yelled, reaching for the backpack. Anne lightly pushed Vi away with one hand while she held her backpack up out of reach with the other hand, preventing Vi from getting anywhere close to it. "What was that for?" It didn't occur to Vi to use her wings to simply fly up to the backpack and reclaim her weapon.
"Vi, physical weapons like that are barbaric and belong in the stone age!" Anne exclaimed. "Girls aren't supposed to have anything like that!" So Anne didn't care about it before, but suddenly now she does?
Vi groaned again, this time even more exasperated than before. Whatever. She didn't try to argue, knowing that it wouldn't do anything. Vi forced a smile on her face, hoping that girl time would be over quickly.
(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)
Nothing much of note happened as Kabbu and Leif took a stroll out and about the residential area of Ant City. It wasn't too hot today; the clouds in the sky incredibly sparse.
The two bugs didn't say much to each other as they walked around, although Kabbu did wave to a few bugs he knew. As expected, Leif didn't know any of them. Kabbu felt bad for the moth; sometime Kabbu would have to introduce him to the bugs here! Leif just idly walked around, not appearing too concerned.
Hm... walking around was nice, but... "Leif, are you bored?" Kabbu asked.
"Yes." Leif answered. Well, that was blunt.
No, Kabbu couldn't leave things like this! Especially after what happened with Domino 2, the last thing Kabbu wanted was for Leif to be stewing in his own thoughts... "Would you like to go somewhere? There's a few places here I really think you'd-"
"Let's spar." Leif interrupted.
Kabbu stopped in his tracks, not expecting that at all. "What?" Where was this coming from?
Leif stopped walking right after Kabbu did, turning to face the beetle. "Ever since we beat up that spider, we've been itching to fight again." Leif explained. "...And no, Domino 2 doesn't count." The moth took on a fighting stance, although he wasn't summoning his ice magic.
That made enough sense. Kabbu couldn't deny the thrill and adrenaline when one was engaged in combat... it was intense. Although... "And you want to fight... me?" Kabbu asked for clarification, pointing at himself.
Discounting any fighting he's done ever since he met his current friends, Kabbu... did spar a number of times before. In the north. In the north... Kabbu stood still; it was almost like he was back there all over again, forced to face the hardships that came with-
"Are you okay?" Leif asked, snapping Kabbu out of his memories before anything deeper could be dug up. "You looked really out of it, Kabbu."
Kabbu shook his head, trying to push those memories away. This was supposed to be a fun day! "It's nothing, I'm okay! Er, thank you for checking. But also, I don't think it's a good idea to fight in such an open area!" Kabbu looked around; they weren't in a particularly busy area, but there still were some bugs nearby, and Kabbu didn't want them to get the wrong idea.
"What, are you scared?" Leif raised an eyebrow. The moth was obviously egging him on, but some sort of burning passion arose from within Kabbu at hearing this, his eye narrowing in determination.
"I'm not scared!" Kabbu declared. "In fact, I'll spar with you right now, while also making sure that we both know not to hurt each other too badly!" The beetle took a few steps back, getting into his own fighting stance. He was so fired up; he missed this feeling!
Leif chuckled a little. "Understood." He didn't say anything else; he didn't need to. The two bugs stared at each other for several seconds before...
Kabbu moved first. Making sure not to put his full force into it, Kabbu charged forward at Leif, the moth easily sidestepping to the left. Kabbu tried to turn to face Leif directly, but Leif swiftly kicked Kabbu on his side; an attack he didn't see coming thanks to his limited depth perception. Stupid one eye...
Even if Kabbu faltered a little, he straightened back up, facing Leif once again before delivering a few punches to the moth. Leif blocked all of them; something Kabbu intentionally wanted to happen, as now that Leif was distracted, Kabbu low-kicked Leif, sweeping the moth off his legs. Leif's eyes widened in surprise as he fell to the ground. Ha-ha! Once again, Kabbu would triu-
Kabbu didn't even see it coming. He was too focused on his victory to see Leif raising his arm, summoning his magic to make the grass below Kabbu freeze into an ice block. Kabbu yelped as he suddenly slipped, his legs flying forward as he fell to the ground, landing on his butt. This put Leif into a laughing fit, the moth unable to contain himself.
"Oh, that's it!" Kabbu declared, a bit of a playful tone in his voice. After getting off the ice, he stood up, seeing that Leif was still laughing. With no hesitation, he picked Leif up, easily holding him up high over his head.
"Whoa!" Leif yelled in surprise. Kabbu let out a chuckle of his own; his mighty beetle strength proved to be the victor once again! But for the briefest of moments, he lost his balance, trying to shift his weight back a bit. Kabbu stepped back to re-adjust himself and make sure he didn't accidently drop Leif, but the inevitable disaster was already in motion.
Kabbu's weight already shifted too much; he took a few more steps back, trying to prevent both himself and Leif from falling. As if things weren't bad enough already, Kabbu stepped onto the ice Leif made a few minutes ago, and Kabbu's eye nearly bulged out of his head as he practically flew backward now, and-
CRASH!
From one moment to the next, Kabbu was barely aware of himself crashing through a wall, dropping Leif in the process. "Urgh..." It thankfully didn't hurt too much, but... wait, how did this even happen? Leif helped Kabbu stand up, the beetle not even aware it was actually happening until he was already standing.
"Are you alright?" Leif asked as he walked Kabbu a bit away from the wreck they both caused. Kabbu nodded, groaning.
"Yeah... what..." Kabbu turned to see what'd happened, and clarity returned to him near-instantaneously. Oh... oh no.
From the looks of it, Kabbu smashed right through the wall of a house. It was one of the most expensive houses in the neighborhood; much more high-end than his own house. The house used bricks for its structure; just how were the bugs inside able to afford it? Thankfully the damage wasn't as bad as Kabbu thought; it was right next to the front door, but still. All the fallen bricks from the catastrophe were scattered about on the ground, most of them broken. Kabbu gulped; cursing himself for letting things get this far.
And before Kabbu could say anything, the front door slammed open, a termite with a bunch of clothing on ran outside. You could barely see the termite's features under that clothing; why was he wearing so much? "What's going on, what was that crash-"
The termite's eyes landed on Kabbu and Leif, the termite desperate for answers. Kabbu stammered to try to come up with some sort of explanation as Leif cringed, unable to say anything himself. The termite hurriedly glanced around, freezing in place when he saw the damage.
"MY WALL!" The termite screamed, gripping his antennae
Kabbu repeatedly apologized as he ran over to the termite, Leif following behind him. Leif did lag behind a bit, flinching at the termite's screams. Kabbu gulped; just how could he have done this to an innocent bug? "I'm so sorry! U-Uh, Mr uh..."
"ROBERT!"
"Yes, Robert!" It didn't occur to Kabbu that he hadn't seen this bug around before. "Right, Robert, we'll uh..." Kabbu turned to Leif for help, the moth appearing to try to walk away and skirt his responsibility. Kabbu shook his head as Leif nodded, which lead to Kabbu more forcefully shaking his head. Leif sighed and gave in.
"Sorry. We'll fix your house." Leif finished.
Kabbu sweatdropped a bit; he just wanted to have a fun and relaxing day! Not do this! ...He hoped that Anne and Vi were having a bit of a better time.
(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)
Before Vi could stop her, Anne was already dragging Vi to the nearest clothing store; not like there were many in Ant City in the first place. This one was more of a high-end place, having two separate floors and fancy clothes that surely costed a lot of berries. Plus, not all bugs wore clothes in the first place; Vi didn't need any of this!
Nevertheless, Anne excitedly ran into the store, pulling Vi by the arm. Well, whatever. Maybe Vi could get something she'd end up liking! Lo and behold, there was a section off to the side with casual t-shirts, shorts, and other assorted clothing! This was perfect!
"Whoa, where are you going?" Anne asked, raising an eyebrow. "We're going over here!" Anne turned Vi around, gesturing the other side of the store. Vi wanted to puke at seeing all the sparkling and overly designed dresses; who approved any of this?
"But-but-but-" Vi said, unable to finish her thought as Anne brought her over to the section with the dresses.
Before long, Anne had already grabbed over a dozen dresses she was interested in, running into a changing room to try them on. She made Vi stand nearby, the bee already getting unbearably bored. Every few minutes, Anne would walk out of the changing room in a new dress, asking Vi what she thought of it. Vi would give an indifferent answer, wanting to be done with this as fast as possible.
"Oh yeah, try this on!" Anne said, practically shoving a dress on a hanger in Vi's face before running back into the changing room.
Vi's face twisted into a look of disgust at seeing the dress. She didn't think it was possible for orange to look so ugly, but here it was. Although... no, she hated the dress. There was something else she was interested in. "Hmm..." Devious thoughts forming, Vi took the dress off the hanger, tossing the dress aside.
The changing room door swung open once again. "Okay, I think this one is perfect, I'm definitely gonna-VI!" Anne screamed in horror, watching the scene before her.
Vi swung the hanger like her beemerang. If she couldn't have her actual weapon, then she'd have to make do. Several of the customers screamed and cowered as the hanger spun throughout the store, Vi laughing in the wake of it all. Several of the dresses were knocked off the shelves and the hanger ended up hitting a berry register, causing it get knocked over and have berries fly out of it, going everywhere. What a thrill! This was so fun!
"Stop! Put down that hanger at once!" One of the employees yelled.
"I don't have to listen to you!" Vi yelled back. "Nobody tells me to-" The employee distracted her; she didn't see it coming. The hanger swung back at her, hitting her on the side of her head. Vi yelled in pain, and the employees took their chance, running at Vi and tackling her to the ground before she could escape.
Several minutes later, Vi grumbled as she walked out of the store, forced to wear the awful orange dress. It was way too puffy and big, she could hardly turn her head and she could barely move her arms! Thankfully there was a space for her wings and abdomen, otherwise she would really freak out.
Anne walked out behind her, the human girl wearing a green dress, along with a new pair of shoes. She spun around once, the dress fitting her perfectly. After the disaster in the store, Anne offered to pay for everything, explaining 'girl time' and what she was doing. The employees and customers decided that they'd waive the charges if Vi wore the dress, and Vi struggled every second they were putting it on her.
Yeah, it was official. Vi didn't like 'girl time.' But before Vi could voice her displeasure, Anne already was dragging her to "Step 3 of girl time!" As it was apparently called.
Within minutes, they were at a salon, Vi's dread growing further as Anne practically pushed her inside. No! The absolute last thing Vi needed was someone touching her face and fur and... well everywhere! As Anne set up the appointment at the front desk, Vi saw some of the bottles and sprays the stylists used, more devious ideas forming in the bee's mind.
Vi snuck away as Anne walked over to her chair, sitting down with a relaxed sigh as the stylist began to work on her hair just the way she described. Anne's eyes closed, letting the stylist do her work as she told a story about the guy she was interested in. There was no way Vi would subject herself to that.
Anne opened her eyes and glanced over to the chair next to her. "Huh?" Before she could get too confused as to why Vi wasn't there, she heard multiple bugs coughing, both her and the stylist glancing over to see what was going on.
"Don't take another step closer!" On the other side of the small salon, Vi nabbed a few hair products, spraying them at the employees whenever they tried to get close to her.
It was a bit difficult due to the dress inhibiting her movements, but she still managed to fend off the invading employees. Her face and body had already been tampered with enough, she would not let anyone mess with her fuzz and fluff. Once she got an opening, Vi would-
-Yelp as she was tackled from behind, an employee somehow sneaking around where she couldn't see them. The other employees were upon her in seconds, fear gripping Vi's heart as she knew what came next.
...Almost twenty minutes later, Vi's fuzz was all done up and stylized, the hair stylist turning Vi's chair and letting her see how it looked. Anne gasped, amazed.
"That looks so good!" Anne cheered, reaching over to look at it. The human girl's hair was much cleaner than before, the curly hair laid back over Anne's shoulders.
Vi wished she could just reach up and undo all of what the stylist did to her, which she'd be able to if this stupid dress wasn't in the way! The stylist kept making comments about how 'messy' and 'tangled up' her fuzz was, but who cared? That's how it always was, it never bothered her! When the stylist tried to touch her fluff, Vi hissed at her, and that was the end of it.
Anne walked out of the salon, making sure Vi followed her. Please, let this be the last- "It's time for step four!" Anne held up four fingers. Oh no. Just how much worse could this get?
Before Vi even knew it, the two of them were walking up to a fancy diner, Anne going to a few other places before deciding that they weren't 'good enough' for girl time. To be honest, Vi was getting hungry. It was the late afternoon, around the time she'd normally eat lunch. Finally, something she wouldn't hate!
...Is what she'd say if the menu weren't absolutely awful. "What...?" Vi said to herself, the two of them now sitting down at a table and looking over the menu. By now, Vi felt like she was just going through the motions, everything speeding by as she was just a bystander to her own life. Just like the H-
Vi shook her head. No, this was different. She hardly paid attention as Anne rattled off what she wanted to the waiter, and Anne ordered for Vi as well, the waiter leaving shortly after.
This was different, she was with someone she cared about, and sure she hated all this, but... Anne was her friend! Anne said she wanted to help Vi out, but... to be frank, this wasn't helping at all. Wasn't that similar to what everyone claimed, back when Vi wanted to become an explorer? That nobody thought she could, that nobody-
"Eat your food before it gets cold!" Anne said, snapping Vi out of her thoughts. "And be sure to use proper table manners!" What? Vi didn't even know what those were.
Vi looked down at the table, where there were two plates of food. Wow, already? There... didn't appear to be too much, though. And it was something she'd never eaten before; it looked like some tomato and leaf mix with some sauce sprinkled on it.
Anne grabbed a napkin that had some utensils wrapped up in it, carefully unrolling it before setting the utensils down next to her plate. She then held the napkin on two of its ends, guiding her hands to the back of her neck before tying the two ends carefully, Anne using the napkin as a makeshift bib. Geez, overly fancy much?
"Can't let my dress get dirty." Anne commented, before grabbing her fork and knife, meticulously cutting part of the food with the knife before stabbing into the food with her fork, picking it up and elegantly guiding it to her mouth.
Vi groaned, was she really expected to do all that? There was a rolled-up napkin with utensils next to her own plate, so Vi callously grabbed the napkin, shaking it so it'd come loose and the utensils would go clattering onto the table. Meh. Before Anne could scold her, Vi grabbed the fork, stabbing it into the food before tasting it.
It took all of three seconds for Vi to decide that she hated it, spitting it back out onto the plate, overdramatically coughing afterward. That's it.
"Vi wait, don't-" Anne reached over to Vi, trying to prevent what would happen next. But she couldn't.
"Anne, the food here sucks!" Vi yelled, Anne pulling her hand back a bit as the bee attracted the attention of several customers and employees, one of them dropping the plate of food they were holding. "It costs like twenty berries but it smells weird and tastes terrible!"
Vi loudly groaned, rolling her eyes. She should've known this would be a bust. And she was still hungry. Vi reached into her fluff, pulling a out blue mushroom with some honey on it. It was a good a time as any, after all. Without a care in the world, she took a large bite out of it, finally starting to satiate her hunger.
Her mouth agape and eyes wide, Anne watched this display. "Vi...? How long has that been in there?" Anne said, cringing back a bit.
Vi shrugged, still chewing on the bite she took. It was so good... much better than anything this place had to offer. Did Anne really need to get so worked up about it?
Anne was at a loss for words, blinking several times before suddenly standing up out of her chair. "Excuse me, I need to powder my nose." She walked in the direction of the restroom, although turned around for a moment when she was halfway there. "Oh if you didn't know, powder my nose means I have to-"
"I get it!" Vi yelled, Anne cringing back a bit before walking into the restroom, slamming the door shut.
Leaving Vi alone.
At the table.
Without Anne.
It took half a minute for it to click that Anne was gone, Vi debating on what she would do. On one hand, there couldn't be much left of 'girl time', right? But on the other hand, she already hated every second of it so far. If she had to go into another store, she might...
Vi made her decision. She stood up and rushed out of the fancy diner as fast as physically possible, not caring that she knocked her chair over or that she nearly crashed into someone.
All she wanted was to be away from the reminders of what her life used to be like as soon as possible.
(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)
Anne took a long, deep breath as she stood there in the small, cramped bathroom, shaking. She lied about the reason she went in there, but Vi didn't need to know that.
"Don't panic Anne, you can do this." Anne said to herself as she began pacing throughout the room. "Girl time isn't over yet, there's still plenty of time to fix Vi!" She grimaced as she remembered the chaos Vi caused so far, first the clothing store, then the salon, and now the restaurant...
"It'll be fiiiine!" Anne continued. Those actions weren't too dissimilar to stuff Vi had done before, which meant that Anne had her work cut out for herself. "I won't let Vi be ruined by boys, no matter how long it takes!" There was still so much for Vi to unlearn, and yet so little time.
Anne just had to keep at it. She could always extend her girl time itinerary; there was so many things Anne could think of off the top of her head. Yeah, that was it. Even if it took all day, Anne wouldn't stop until Vi was fixed!
With her new resolve, Anne opened the door and stormed out of the restroom. "Let's go Vi, next we're gonna-" Anne stopped in the middle of her sentence, her heart dropping all the way down to her feet. No...
Vi was gone.
(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)
Once Vi put enough distance between herself and that restaurant she couldn't remember the name of, her run slowed to a walk, the bee practically boiling with frustration and anger. Today just had to turn out like this, didn't it?
Being dragged around everywhere, forced to do stuff that made her feel weird and icky all over... Vi was nearly at her breaking point. She could still taste that awful food in her mouth even after swallowing down that mushroom with honey on it. Just another reminder of what she didn't want to be doing, like how back home, everyone-
That was it. Vi couldn't take it anymore.
Vi took off the dress as fast as she could, grunting and groaning in her efforts. She didn't care that it was expensive, or that it ripped when she pulled it too much, or that it got dirty when she threw it to the ground. It was so cathartic.
"I appreciate what Anne was trying to do..." Vi said through gritted teeth as she wiped the copious amount of makeup off her face, some of it getting smudged on her hands and arms. Whatever, she could clean it better later. "But this isn't me!" Vi wildly ran her hands through her fuzz, undoing whatever the stylist did to 'fix' it, not that Vi wanted it like that anyway.
"None of that was me!" Vi yelled into thin air. She took multiple deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.
Well... taking all that stuff off her did help her feel a little better. But she was still angry that it happened in the first place. Anne didn't have bad intentions, but it was still a nightmare that Vi had to suffer through. Maybe tossing the ol' beemerang around to take her mind off-
Oh yeah, Anne took the beemerang. ...Maybe Vi should just go back to the house; where was she? She didn't really pay attention where she was going when she ran from the restaurant, all she wanted to do was get away.
Looking around, Vi quickly realized that she was in the residential area, judging by the houses nearby. It was quiet, although- hang on... did she hear something? It sounded like...
"I'm trying, okay! I'm sorry mister, just let me..." Was that Kabbu?
A few moments later, there was a second voice. "With all due respect, if you keep SHOUTING at us then we can't focus!" That was Leif!
But wait, Vi was confused. What were Kabbu and Leif doing, weren't they at the house when she left? ...But to be fair, that was hours ago; it's not like they had to be confined to the house all day.
"Well hurry up, I'll have you know I'm BUSY today and I..." A third voice, louder than any of the others. Vi didn't recognize that one, but it sounded shrill and demanding.
...Should she check out what was going on? Or should she go back to the house and take a nap? ...The former sounded much more interesting, and it would distract her from the current problem she's facing. It didn't take long for Vi to find where it was happening, just a few houses down. And the sight before her was certainly... interesting.
Kabbu and Leif were in front of a house, desperately trying to fix what looked like a huge hole in the wall next to the front door. A termite with way too much clothing on stood next to them, his arms crossed as he impatiently tapped his foot, his entire aura visibly angry. Vi looked at this incredulously; what the heck led to this?
"Oi! Kabbu, Leif, what's going on?" Vi asked, getting their attention.
Kabbu jumped a little, turning around. "O-Oh, it's just you, Vi." What?
"We were fooling around and wrecked this guy's house." Leif explained without missing a beat, carefully trying to put one of the bricks back on. "And now we have to fix it."
"Really?" Vi questioned, finding it hard to believe any of this.
"...Yes, really." Kabbu said with a defeated sigh. "By the way, how's 'girl time' going with Anne?"
Terrible, is what Vi wanted to say. She opened her mouth but then closed it again, unsure of how to put it. It wasn't like she hated spending time with Anne, just the opposite actually. She just... absolutely despised what happened today, because-
"STOP TALKING!" The termite yelled, shaking his fist at Kabbu and Leif. Oi, no wonder Kabbu was so jumpy.
Kabbu yelped, nodding his head several times. "Y-Yes Robert, sorry!" Kabbu said. Oh, the termite's name was Robert. Kabbu turned back to the partially-rebuilt wall, hurriedly trying to put part of a brick on correctly to make up for lost time. Unfortunately, this just led to him placing it incorrectly, causing the whole thing to go tumbling over.
"Oops." Leif dully said. Robert screamed in response.
As much fun as watching this was, Vi did feel just a little bad that Kabbu and Leif were forced into this for probably a few hours by now. After all, she'd just managed to get away from something she hated doing, and seeing two of her friends in a similar situation bummed her out. "Ugh, you guys are useless." Vi groaned, crossing her arms. How had they not fixed this by now?
Vi ran over to them, pushing Kabbu aside. "Here, I'll help-"
"There you are!"
Freezing up for just a moment, Vi immediately turned to see Anne storming over to her. She didn't look angry per-se, but still miffed and disappointed. How did Anne find her so fast? Kabbu and Leif turned to see what was going on, and even Robert did as well, but he was probably just annoyed at all the interruptions.
"Vi, I can't believe you ditched me at the-" Anne stopped herself, her eyes widening. She stopping walking several feet away from the others, letting out a gasp at the scene before her. "Did you do all this?" Anne questioned, gesturing with both her arms toward the destroyed part of the wall.
"Wait a second, no I didn't!" Vi shook her head, vehemently denying the accusations she knew were false. Sure, she may have wrecked that clothing store... and sure, she may have sprayed salon employees with hair products... But this was completely different! "Just ask Kabbu or Leif, either one of them will-"
"What the heck, dude?!" Anne interrupted, sounding angrier than before. "You took off all our girl time stuff! The makeup I carefully put on for you! The dress I picked out for you and paid for! And the way they did your fuzz at the salon, it's all completely ruined!"
So what if it was? "Anne, just listen to me for a second!" Vi said, trying to get a word in edgewise. This was getting extremely frustrating. "The wall was all broken like this when I got here, and I-"
Anne let out a loud groan, not letting Vi finish her sentence for about the thousandth time. "See, this is exactly why you shouldn't hang around boys so much!" Anne exclaimed, earning incredulous looks from Kabbu, Leif, and even Robert.
Vi's eye twitched, opening her mouth to speak up again- but Anne kept talking. "They always rope you into their dumb schemes which always lead to destruction and-"
"JUST STOP, OKAY!" Before Vi knew what she was doing, she screamed at the top of her lungs, causing everyone to stop. Anne stepped back a bit; Kabbu yelped in fear, and Leif dropped the brick he was holding.
Everything was silent as Vi took several deep breaths, trying but failing to calm herself down. It was almost an echo of the 'leadership' incident a while ago in Snakemouth Den, and Vi had long moved past that. But it was eerily similar, how nobody listened to her or took her seriously until she took action. Sure, back then she'd gotten the others to change their minds, but it was for important stuff like the mission.
"Why can't you just let me be who I want to be?" It was almost ironic; throughout Vi's entire life she felt ignored; other bugs only listened to her when she had a huge outburst like this. "I'm tired of trying to be forced into some kind of box!" Just like how it always was with her, it seemed. Being told that she had to do this and that, that's just how she was supposed to be.
"I want to be free to express and figure myself out however I want to!" Vi continued, airing out all her frustrations for the world to hear. "I'm fine the way I am, and nobody can change that! I appreciate that you were trying to help but that's not what I need! I'm a part of Team Snakemouth now, I want to be a new bee in my OWN way, and-"
"Excuse me, did I hear you correctly?"
As if it wasn't bad enough that Anne interrupted her several times, now Robert had something to say as well. Everyone turned their attention to the overly-clothed termite, who for some reason now spoke normally. "You, did you say you were from Team... Snakemouth?" Robert asked, pointing a finger at Vi.
"Uh, yes." Vi answered. There was no reason for her not to give up the information, it wasn't a secret.
"And would that mean... you're all from Team Snakemouth?" Robert asked, trying to confirm it. The others either casually nodded or said some form of yes, all of them in agreement.
Robert stood there for a few seconds, silent. And then... he chuckled. And again, before bursting out into some kind of maniacal laugher, throwing his head back a bit. It was incredibly off-putting to anyone watching, especially to Vi. Just what was going on anymore?
"Yep. He's lost it." Leif stated. Next to him, Kabbu stood there, a bit taken aback.
"Uhhh... is that guy okay?" Anne said, raising an eyebrow, both confused and concerned.
Nearly a minute passed before Robert abruptly stopped laughing, straightening his stance again as he cleared his throat. "Forgive that. Perhaps it's time I introduce myself."
"Er... what?" Kabbu asked, confused. "But sir, we already know who-"
"A-HEM!" Robert cleared his throat again, making it clear that nobody should interrupt him. Without missing a beat, he grabbed the overabundance of clothing he wore, tugging on them for a few seconds before he pulled, yanking them off... revealing...
Underneath was an entirely new outfit. A fancy black tuxedo with a dark-blue tie, and matching pants. It sparkled; Team Snakemouth only able to watch in awe and confusion. Robert took out a silver cane from seemingly nowhere, as well as a matching monocle that he put on his right eye. Even from just looking at him for a few seconds, his aura reeked of self-importance, his expression giving him away completely.
"I am... Robertius." The termite said, his voice now in a much more refined and elegant tone. He walked around casually, obviously not needing the silver cane at all. It was just for show. "In any other circumstance, it would be the most honorable of honors to meet the esteemed Team Snakemouth, but I am afraid today isn't one of those days." He took out a towel from nowhere, wiping off a dirty spot on his cane.
"What is this?" Leif asked, equally as confused as the others. "When you first came out of the house, you weren't... like this. And what do you mean 'circumstances'?"
Robertius chortled, as if Leif told him a joke. "It's really simple, my boy. It's much easier for me to interact with these... oh how should I put it..." Robertius tapped his cane against the ground a few times. "Ah yes, ordinary bugs. It's much easier to interact if they think you're just like them, no?"
"Well, I suppose that logic tracks..." Kabbu asked as Robertius walked in his direction.
"I would hope it does." Robertius said, scowling. "But now, to the crux of the matter. I can't keep the esteemed Team Snakemouth held hostage here all day, can I? This will be quick." With each sentence he spoke, Vi only became more and more confused... and worried. A small part of her remembered how Anne said that girls were supposed to be the pretty and fancy ones, but this was hardly the time for that.
Without warning, Robertius spun his cane several times before pointing it at Kabbu, the object just inches from Kabbu's belly. The beetle yelped, stepping back a bit.
"For intentionally destroying my property and your refusal to fix it, upon which you spent the time allotted mingling with your peers instead..." Robertius said, Vi dreading what might come next. He slammed his cane on the ground, making an indent in the dirt. "Team Snakemouth, I will sue for everything you've got!"
Aaaand there it was. Vi, Anne, Kabbu, and Leif all let out mixed cries of shock and alarm, clearly upset by this. Vi was already imagining the course of events that would follow this.
First, they'd lose the house, probably needing to live on the dirt somewhere. Next, Team Snakemouth wouldn't be an officially sanctioned team anymore, which meant Vi wouldn't get to go on any more quests! Also, Queen Elizant might suspend the music box research, leaving Anne to fend for herself on how to get home. Home... with nowhere else to go, Vi would have no choice but to go back to the Hive, where- No. That couldn't happen.
"Wait wait wait, I can still fix it!" Kabbu yelled, waving his arms in a panic as he tried to get through to Robertius.
"My dear, I'm afraid I've already made up my mind." Robertius declined, shaking his head. "Although..." Robertius put a hand on his monocle, attempting to adjust it a bit. "If you can fix it in one minute, I will consider reconsidering." There was a click, and then ticking, as his monocle transformed into a makeshift clock, counting down the time.
60... "Is running an option?" Anne asked, glancing nervously to the others. Vi shook her head, no matter how far they ran, they couldn't escape the consequences. ...As it'd been proved time and time again, running couldn't fix all your problems. Just like when Vi ran away when the spider initially attacked-
"Could we try to win the legal battle?" Leif asked, offering another solution.
"No, we can't!" Anne exclaimed. 57... "Everyone knows that rich people somehow always have perfect lawyers!" Despite Vi not knowing much about legal stuff, that made some sort of weird sense.
"The minute has already started, you know." Robertius said, as if this didn't matter to him at all.
"What?!" Anne exclaimed, turning to the broken wall. She kneeled, wasting absolutely no time whatsoever before attempting to place several bricks on the wall, not caring if they were in the correct place or not. 53... However, this only served to make things worse, all the bricks toppling over, carrying even more that were originally still intact with them.
"Anne stop, you're making it worse!" Leif yelled, grabbing her shoulder
"I know that! You think I don't know that?! I know what I'm doing!" Anne yelled back. Despite how much she prettied herself up earlier, Anne's hair became a bit disheveled, and her dress had some bits of debris from the fallen bricks on it.
50... The time was ticking down fast, and Vi had absolutely no idea what to do. Despite shutting the idea down a few moments ago, running away now didn't sound so bad... Vi froze up. Time and time again, an easy solution always presented itself.
Run away. But that wasn't a solution, was it? As was proven with the spider, Domino 2, girl time, and many other previous instances, running away would only lead to your problems becoming worse in the long run. But things were out of her control this time! So... what was Vi supposed to do?
"E-Everyone, I'm sure if we work together, we can all... uh..." Kabbu said, trying to come up with one of his usual motivational speeches.
"Oh come on!" Vi yelled. 46... "Just how are we supposed to stack all these bricks in one minute?!" It was way too many of them, and they'd already wasted so much time bickering with each other.
Anne's eyes lit up in recognition. "That's it!" 44... "Guys, remember how this morning you all were stacking stuff up and then it crashed onto my bed and woke me up? ...Forget that last part but do that same thing here! The insane stacking you were doing but... faster! Hurry!"
Could that really work? Anne's rushed speech didn't make too much sense, but it was better than anything Vi could come up with. The bee looked at Kabbu and Leif, both of them giving Anne a nod, now inspired. Vi nodded as well, but... much more hesitantly.
Despite Vi saying that she wanted to be her own bee; how she declared that so proudly earlier... 39... When something is hammered into your head over and over and over again... it tended to stick. Confusing thoughts and emotions swirled around and all over Vi's head; what... was she supposed to be? Who was Vi?
She caused trouble and mayhem; was that who she wanted to be? Bleh, this was really icky to think about. Focusing on trying to rebuild this before her entire life fell apart sounded like a good distraction.
Kabbu and Leif moved like a whirlwind, placing bricks in the right places and connecting other bricks that were broken into pieces. 35... Vi kept up with them the best she could; the seconds ticking down so slowly and yet at lightning speed at the same time.
Before long, they'd already gotten a portion of the wall rebuilt. They also had to make sure that they didn't ruin any of the progress they'd made, otherwise they'd really have no chance at this. Anne watched on, her teeth clattering as she sweated a bit. 30... They were making good progress, but weren't even halfway finished yet. Unless they had a miracle, then...
Anne took a deep breath. "Alright, Anne. You've been training your whole life for this. It's time..." Anne cracked her knuckles. "To put your skills from Slacker Stackers to the test." Vi remembered seeing Anne play a game like that on her phone a few times.
26... Anne made room for herself, squeezing in-between Vi and Leif. At seemingly lightning speed, Anne began moving bricks into place, getting an entire row down within seconds. Anne worked tirelessly, working together with Kabbu and Leif to get the bricks down as efficiently as possible.
Vi watched this, some sort of spark lighting up inside her. Anne, who earlier said that stuff like this wasn't for girls, was now joining them without a second thought. 20... And if Anne was willing to do this, then... Vi narrowed her eyes in determination, once again joining the others. They could do this, they would do this!
Over halfway finished... 15... Leif connected two broken halfs of a brick together, sliding it in at an awkward angle that only that brick could go. 12... The group was having a bit more difficulty now, due to how big and tall the hole was. That didn't stop them in the slightest, Kabbu just needing to go on his tippy-toes to reach the empty space. 10...
Almost there. 9... Anne wiped off sweat from her brow as she effortlessly slotted several bricks in, 8... Followed by another bunch. 7... For a brief, scary moment, the nearly-rebuilt wall almost toppled over... 6... but it stayed intact. Phew. 5...
Just a few more rows. 4... Vi tried to fit in one particular brick that was being troublesome, but it just wasn't working. 3... The rest of the spots were getting filled up... 2... Vi gulped, seeing an opening... 1... Vi slotted the brick into the last spot-
"Time's up!" 0. Everything came to a screeching halt. Everyone looked at Robertius, dropping what they were holding. "Oh, it seems you attempted it after all." Wait, was he not even paying attention this whole time?
"Look dude, we fixed your wall." Anne said in-between breaths, gesturing to the wall. "Can we go now?"
Robertius shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I still need to inspect it, so move aside, if you will." Robertius shooed them away as he walked over to the wall, Team Snakemouth stepping back to give him room. "Hmm..."
Now that Vi took another look at the wall, she grew a bit nervous. She didn't realize it at first, but... yikes, even with what they fixed, the wall still didn't look that great. Sure, there were bricks on it like how it was supposed to be, but anyone could tell it was a rush job... well it literally was one. Some of the bricks fit a bit awkwardly, and there were still some bricks on the ground, even though the wall was completely filled.
It was an understatement to say that Team Snakemouth was nervous as Robertius did his inspection. The rich termite tapped the wall a few times, even knocking against it with his silver cane. "I see..." He said. Vi gulped, shaking. The wait was pure agony. Anne had her fingers crossed; Kabbu fidgeted with his hands, and Leif took in some deep breaths.
Eventually... Robertius stepped away from the newly-fixed wall, in deep thought. "It's...passable. Very well, carry on."
...Really? Just like that? It was as if a thousand weights were lifted from Vi's chest; that little confirmation seemingly washed away all her anxieties concerning this. The others didn't know what to say either, only watching as Robertius quickly re-entered his house, slamming the door and locking it behind him. Despite how much he hid it, it was clear that guy was fuming.
And once it registered that they were in the clear, the four of them cheered, Kabbu letting out a hearty laugh as Anne literally jumped up and down. "We're not gonna get sued!" She exclaimed. Vi took a moment to relax, trying to slow her racing heart.
Despite how happy Anne was, as the cheering died out, so did her smile, guilt written all over her face. "Vi, I'm really sorry." Anne apologized. "I shouldn't have tried to change you, you're perfect the way you are. You can't force someone to change, no matter what anyone else says."
Vi listened to Anne's words; they were honest and true. But could Vi be sure that Anne wouldn't make a similar mistake again? ...Oh who was she kidding, Vi herself had already made the same mistake multiple times. "Thanks, Anne." Vi said with a nod. "It's fine."
Even with everything bad that happened today, there had to be a silver lining to it all. "I do appreciate that you tried to spend more time with me." Vi couldn't remember the last time someone wanted to go out of their way to do something with her. Sure, even if it ended up being something she hated, it wasn't with malicious intent... though very misguided.
"Plus, that outfit looks great on you." Vi added. Maybe if she had time to pick it out herself, Vi would've found something she liked wearing...? Perhaps another time.
"Aw, thank you." Anne said, blushing a little as she readjusted her hair.
"Yeah." Vi smiled a little. "It's too bad girl time was a bust." Even though it just happened, it was easy to look back on this and laugh.
"We suppose guy time didn't work out too well either..." Leif said, cringing a little.
"Don't worry about it." Anne said, waving them off. "Also, the more I think about it, the whole idea of 'girl time' is pretty weird. Who's to say that boys don't like hair salons or fancy diners?"
Leif gasped, appalled. "You mean to tell us that you went to that new diner... without us?" he questioned, crossing his arms in disappointment.
"I love that place!" Kabbu whined, also upset that Vi and Anne went without him. "Did you get that sweet honey dish I like?"
"Nope." Anne shook her head. "But I will be sure to get that next time!"
"Let's go. Right now." Leif said, his mind already made up.
"Wait, now now?" Vi asked, unsure of going back so soon after everything that'd happened.
"Yes! We're famished." Leif answered.
"I suppose that wouldn't be a bad idea!" Kabbu agreed.
"Then it's decided!" Anne clapped her hands together. "Though... I'm not sure how I'm gonna explain what happened when Vi and I went there." She grimaced a bit.
Vi shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, I'm sure we'll figure something out." Never before had she said a truer statement. No matter what happened, she or someone else was always able to figure it out.
The group shared a brief bout of laughter at Vi's comment before they headed off to the diner, Vi feeling rejuvenated in knowing who she was. Even if she was still figuring herself out, she'd never let anyone try and tell her what she had to be ever again. That was something she'd figure out all on her own.
...Even if she always knew that sooner or later, she'd have to face the first thing she ran away from.