Ah, thank you so much for all the nice comments.. My social skills have been improving, so I'm a little worried how I should acknowledge them so as to not seem impolite... I hope you guys can bear with me. I'm happy to know my writing style is tolerable, my confidence in it has gone up and down.
Anyways, I've had school+writers block+terrible schedule, but I'll try and continue this. BTW: I do have an end in sight, and maybe an extra chapter or two after that. But I'll do my best to try and make it as EPIC as possible.
Also: Cirno is Cirno, and you'll see her some more.
-----------------------------------
?Oh, OK.? Flandre nods. Koa perks up, happy to finally have that out of the way.
?I'll read you a book, but I don't know many good books for children...?
The rest of the day is spent listening to Koa read her some tragedy that ends happily, with lots of swordfights and dinosaurs. It's actually really nice, living like this, she thinks after Koa pats her head and sends her off to dinner. Sakuya's waiting with the meal, and Remilia is lot nicer now that she's dressed. Even so...
She stares wistfully at the window, where the sun is setting and perhaps one day she'd like to go there, beyond the sky and see if there really are men on the moon, like in that old movie.
Remilia catches her staring, and sighs sadly. Flandre averts her gaze, yes, she knows. She's not allowed, shouldn't even be thinking about flying or going outside for long, and especially not without Sakuya or Meiling. Yet for some reason, Remilia turns her face towards the window, too. Only she's looking towards the sun and has to look away really quickly. Their eyes meet briefly, and Flandre realizes that maybe, just maybe, she's not the only one stuck indoors.
.............................................................
Today, Flandre is alone again.
She's used to being lonely, but being lonely and nobody being home are two completely different things. Right now, there's nobody for her to play with, Remilia, China, and Sakuya are out on business, and Patchouli's not in the mood for spending time with anyone(save Koakuma, who occasionally runs into the kitchen covered in ash, slime, or somekind of dark sludge).
This wouldn't be so bad, usually. There's cookies in the parlor, books on the shelves, and a nice big attic to explore in a worst-case scenario. Sadly, none of this sounds very appealing right now, for some reason. She's gotten some new Pokemon cards, but noone has time to play with her. She'd suggest for someone to play dinosaurs with her, but everyone is grown up and that would feel weird. Even Remilia doesn't seem to wanna play with her these days, and Patchouli can't always be bothered. Koakuma will read her things if she asks, but she's really busy usually and has Patchouli to look after(Last time she left Patchouli alone, she'd returned to find a dark hole in the trash-can, and nobody was very keen on that).
She was usually happy just being able to run and play by herself like this, but it's getting a little boring. Of course, China plays with her whenever, it's just that she's really busy these days- Apparently, there's a person who keeps breaking in. Flandre hasn't seen her yet, but she hopes she can someday. She's never seen a real burglar before! If she waits by the front door, maybe she can catch the criminal?
So she sits down and waits, and waits.
Today is not one of those days, it seems. And waiting isn't very fun, especially not on her own.
If she could maybe leave and go sit with China someday, that would be nice, but she's not allowed to because the sunlight gives her sunburn, and she's not allowed to leave the house without Remilia.
She stands up and is about to leave when someone starts knocking on the door. No, no knocking- Banging would be a more appropriate word. Flandre stares, then does the first logical thing that comes into mind: Open the door.
It's very tempting not to go ?kyuu!? on the lock. Nevertheless, Flandre knows how to open the door. It's really hard, and she's not supposed to know how, really, but Meiling taught her anyway: ?If there's an emergency', an' y'need t' get out, Ah'm sure your sister would rather want y' alive and out 'stead of inside and dead.? After a little fiddling with the lock, the door opens, and Flandre hopes Remilia or someone they know isn't standing there.
She breathes a sigh of relief. No, it's no one from the household. Then her sigh turns into an annoyed growl as she sees exactly who has the very nerve to merely show herself.
A complete nuisance in a blue dress has planted her feet outside the Scarlet mansion's front door. Her head is tilted to the side, and she's tapping her foot impatiently, like she expected someone else to open the door. Flandre is not amused.
?It's you.? She says, glaring at the fairy, who seems just as annoyed as she is.
?What do you want?? The young mistress raises her eyebrow. Didn't she teach this fairy a lesson last time?
Cirno gets straight to the point. ?Hi. I'm bored. Since you're not allowed to blow me up, I wanna rematch.?
Oh. Well, that's tolerable: She'll just have to prove her power again, and hopefully Cirno won't bother her anymore. Except-Oh, yeah- No dueling inside the house.
?No. Not today.? She shakes her head vigorously. ?I'm not pansy or anything, though.?
The fairy smiles triumphantly: ?Aha! You're chicken!?
Flandre, who has no idea of what ?chicken? means in this context, sighs and shrugs and is just about to close the door before she notices a card with yellow borders sticking out of Cirno's pocket.
?Is that Pokemon??