Title: Pieces of Blue - Chapter 4
By Ashley Delfín
Notes: I had fun with this chapter. Amaranth's reaction to Leonard is surprising even for me. Hope you like it!

---

Amaranth was hiding under the covers, trying to get some sleep. The last time he had seen his bedside clock, it had been 9 AM, and there was no way he was getting up before noon after last night's ordeal. Esperanto, however, had gotten up at the crack of dawn and kept on asking Amaranth if he was awake. He had no idea where Matt was, but he didn't precisely care as long as he was not making it impossible for him to sleep.

"One must pull the hairs of a goat, when that goat goes crazy," Esper was informing one of Amaranth's teddy bears, which was listening intently. "But not the beard; beards are not to pulled."

Amaranth grabbed his pillow and hid under it, thinking it would either suffocate him or make listening to Esper impossible. Either way he would rest a little. It was then, however, that some evil person decided to pull his covers off.

"What did you do that for?" he asked, shielding his eyes against the sunlight. He saw Matt in boxers and a tank top, looking at him with a mischievously.

"Nice boxers," Matt said, pointing at Amaranth's black boxers with lots of bright yellow stars, moons, and magic wands.

"Dude, you are not allowed to diss my boxers when yours are puke-green." Amaranth sat up.

"It's military green!" Matt responded, offended.

"So the military pukes a lot?" Esper asked. Amaranth laughed and Esper turned to him, asking "Are you awake yet?"

"Ummm... no," Amaranth replied.

"Awwww..." Esper whined. "I'll see if Amis is up then."

Once Esper had left the room, Amaranth stood up. "So, where were you?"

"I was in the girls' room, having a tickle fight with Cee Cee for the front seat."

"Did you win?"

"No."

"Bummer," Amaranth said, and picked up a gray teddy bear that was asking to be put up on a shelf where three other teddy bears were having a reunion.

"I know, but she had a great idea," Matt replied with a smile. "You see, her seat is not the only one on the front of the car."

"Yes, it..." Something clicked in Amaranth's head and he turned to see Matt already coming towards him with the obvious intention of tackling him. "Get away from me!"

---

"It's not fair, it's my car!" Amaranth complained loudly. The team was now at the kitchen, where Amis and Amaranth's mom was making breakfast. Everyone but Cee Cee had changed out of their pajamas (or put something else on beside pajamas), but Cee Cee's pajamas were a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, so she just looked like she had come from volleyball practice.

"Technically," his mom said taking some bacon out of the pan and scooping it on Matt's plate, "it's my car, and since you began the whole tickle fight tournament with Cee Cee, you should play by those rules."

"But Mom!" Amaranth yelled with disbelief.

"Eat your pancakes, Amy."

"MOM!"

"It's not like he didn't win the tickle fight, right? It's not Matt's fault you lose a tickle fight as soon as your opponent touches you."

"But he just kept on," Amaranth complained. "I was on the floor for a good twenty minutes."

"Twenty-five, don't try to belittle Matt's victory," his mom replied.

"You tell him, Mrs. Alegria," Matt said with a chuckle.

"Thank you, Matt." Mrs. Alegria smiled. She was a short woman and age was beginning to be noticeable in her features. From a distance most people would've said she was African American, but on a closer look some found Native American features in her.

"Where's Dad, Mom?" Amis asked.

"At work, of course. Are the whole wheat pancakes okay, Esperanto? You sure you don't want any bacon or sausages?"

"Everything's perfect, except my knife needs to exercise before a meal."

Mrs. Alegria laughed and Cee Cee rolled her eyes. After breakfast was over, the five of them left Mrs. Alegria, who was about to go out to look after her roses, and decided to lounge a while on the cute little area on the roof. The floor here was made of slippery, light green mosaic tiles. The chairs and tables were plastic, but they looked like rusted bronze. Since there weren't that many trees, it had a great view.

"I love it here," said Cee Cee.

"I can see my house from here!" Matt said.

"We know, you tell us every time we come here," Amis said, half-smiling at him.

"People," Amaranth said. From his tone it was obvious he could use some more sleep. "Can you focus, please? We need to discuss what happened last night."

"Oh, Amis told me all about it last night," Cee Cee said.

"Yeah, and you told us all about it last night," Matt added.

"And I think I'll ask my friend how to make origami bats next time I see him," Esper finished.

After a short pause, Cee Cee asked Esper just what friend he was referring to.

"You know, the blue-"

"Oh yeah." Cee Cee placed a finger on Esper's lips. "I'm suddenly not at all interested. In fact, I didn't even ask the question in the first place. Yes, and I'm beginning to forget what origami is."

"It's when you get a piece of paper and fold it to make animals and stuff," Esper said. "It's very neat. And you should eat fish, it has phosphorus which helps keep your mind sharp!" Esper smiled.

Cee Cee looked at Matt and Amaranth. "You guys were supposed to teach him what sarcasm is."

"We did," said Matt, "didn't we, Esper?"

"Yes!" The boy practically jumped with joy at that word. "It was the same day we got that uber-nifty game where you plant turnips!"

"That reminds me," Amaranth said, "do any of you guys know what Karen likes?"

"Dude! Don't marry Karen! Her 'I love this face' creeps me out!" Matt exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Esper added. "Besides, she's an alcoholic."

"Time out," Cee Cee said, "who the hell is Karen? Why is Amaranth trying to marry her? And what does any of this have to do with planting turnips?"

"It's a long story..." Matt began, tentatively.

"You know what, I'm suddenly interested in what Amaranth had to say in the first place." Cee Cee turned to Amaranth and looked at him questioningly.

"Damn, I wanted to tell you about the cute sheep and cows," Amis said.

Cee Cee glared at Amis, who just laughed. Then they all turned to look at Amaranth.

"Now that I have your attention," Amaranth said, "I realize all of you know what happened last night. The thing is, what are we going to do?"

"I thought unimportant robberies should be left to our honorable police department," Amis said.

"Yes, well, I do not consider robberies committed by obvious non-humans unimportant," Amaranth responded, choosing to ignore the sarcasm. He cleared his throat and went on. "The first question is: what did they want? Whatever it was they obviously did not get it the first time. Amis, I want you to give me a list of everything that was taken, and who donated it to the exhibition.

"Second of all, what were these creatures? Matt, Esper, and I will go through our collection of books on mythology and mythological creatures. Hopefully we will find out.

"Finally, do they want anything else? Cee Cee, I want you to try and predict near-future robberies. Can you find out who was involved, even?"

"Not really," Cee Cee answered. "Specifics always need personal items or blood, and we have none. I'll see if I can find anything fishy with the ones I do predict."

"Can you also write down dates and times of the other ones, to see if we can stop them?" Amis asked, and looked at Amaranth.

Amaranth sighed. "I suppose doing nothing once you know something might happen would be wrong. Yeah, write those down, and if we can do something about it, we will."

A noise startled them all; it was a car honking for one of the guests. Cee Cee looked over the edge. "It's for me," she announced. "Drat, I wanted to stay longer."

"We'll see you Monday," Amis said, hugging her good-bye.

"Yeah, see you guys," Cee Cee gave each of the three guys a peck on the cheek goodbye and ran downstairs. The remaining four saw her get on her parents' car and drive away.

Amaranth sighed and fell silent. Esper began having a serious talk with a ladybug, and Matt lounged on one of the chairs.

Amis suddenly felt annoyed at them. She and Cee Cee never stopped talking, and the way the each of the guys could just go into his own private world even when they were together annoyed her.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" she asked.

"I don't know," Amaranth said, his eyes not coming out of the trance-like state they seemed to be in.

"I don't want to do anything, man. I'm fine here," Matt said.

"Mr. Bug says it angers him most people refer to him as a she," Esper said, standing up and walking towards Amis.

"You guys want to go to the mall?"

---

"Do you really need the same blouse in three different shades of green?" Amaranth asked his sister as he surveyed a nearby purse display.

"I'm deciding which one to take; I'm not taking them all." Amis rolled her eyes at her older brother.

"Is this military green or puke green?" Matt asked, holding out a T-shirt.

"Neither," said Amaranth.

"That's forest green," Amis explained.

"You're kidding me," Matt said.

"Nope. Military green is the color of the boxers you were wearing this morning."

Matt gave Amaranth an annoyed look.

"What?" Amaranth asked. "You trust a guy who wears black and white most of the time to recognize colors, said guy lies to you. It's your own damn fault. Besides, you took my covers away and almost blinded me, you deserve it."

"I'm taking the dark mineral green one, what do you think?" Amis showed the chosen blouse to the two guys.

"I like it," Matt said.

"I think fashion people need better names for their colors." Amaranth looked at his watch. "Are we done here? I need to go to the bookstore."

"I just need to pay," Amis said. "Hold on a sec, I'll get in line. You guys wait for me here."

"Here? Can't we at least move into the guy section?" Matt asked jokingly.

Amis went off to pay, and although the line wasn't that long the cashier was apparently new so she would take a bit of time. Matt placed the dark forest green shirt back in its place.

"Pity Esper's parents said to drive him over instead of letting him come," Matt said.

"I know," Amaranth responded. "He makes having to deal with salespeople less annoying. No, I don't need any help." Amaranth said as he turned to a salesgirl that was about to ask him the annoying question for the sixth time.

"No need to be rude, man. She's just trying to help. 'Sides, she's hot," Matt said not taking his eyes off the salesgirl for a second. Amaranth just rolled his eyes. Amis waved at them from the entrance.

"What's the point in telling us to wait somewhere if she's not going to come get us?" Matt asked as they both walked towards Amis.

"To annoy, we of the Alegria family do that pretty well." Amaranth half-smiled.

They walked to the bookstore, which wasn't far away. In there they split up. Amis instantly gravitated towards the electronics and engineering books. Matt practically ran towards the coffee shop to get some real food before his parents and coach got him back on his training diet. Amaranth walked towards the fiction shelves and grabbed the book he was looking for. He then walked off towards the magazines to browse when someone caught his eye. That someone happened to be a very tall, well-built guy. As the guy turned around Amaranth recognized him. It was the platypus guy, the very cute guy.

Holy rare Australian mammals, it was Leonard.

Leonard waved. Amaranth's brain tried to make Amaranth wave, smile, walk towards Leonard, run away, act sarcastic, and panic at the same time. So, of course Amaranth did what comes naturally when one comes face to face with one's major crush, he made a fool of himself. He tripped over his own foot and landed by the magazines. A pair of kids nearby giggled and Amaranth would've glared at them, but since his left knee had hit the edge of the magazine rack, he had other things on his mind.

"Dude, you okay?" Leonard's deep, sexy voice said. All Amaranth could see was his sneakers and calves. Yes, Leonard was wearing shorts. Amaranth's brain sent a signal to the mouth: "Say something smart."

"I meant to do that." Amaranth's mouth however, completely ignored it.

"Really? Why?" Leonard's voice, for some reason, didn't seem to believe what Amaranth said.

"I was looking for this." Amaranth grabbed the nearest magazine and stood up -which proved to be a bad idea as his left knee began to ache like mad. He faltered and almost fell. The only reason he didn't was because Leonard caught him. Luckily, not many people were staring at them.

"I didn't know you were into knitting," Leonard said.

"I'm not," Amaranth responded, coming out of a trance induced by the fact that Leonard was wearing a sleeveless muscle T-shirt.

"Then why the magazine?" Leonard asked. Amaranth looked at the magazine he was holding and realized he had picked up a copy of "Knitting!" Okay, Amaranth's brain said, just laugh and explain you lied just to keep your pride intact. It'll all be okay.

"It's for my mom," Amaranth's mouth, said. "Bad mouth, no cookie!" Amaranth's brain said. "But I want a cookie!" Amaranth's mouth responded. Leonard looked at him questioningly and Amaranth realized he had just had an Esper moment.

Leonard squeezed Amaranth's shoulders. "I think you hit your head or something, Amaranth."

"No, I'm okay," Amaranth smiled, put pressure on his left leg, and winced. "Okay, so... almost okay."

"Amaranth, are you alright?" Amis appeared out of nowhere. Amaranth couldn't turn to look at her. "Did you fall?"

"No," Leonard said. "He just kneeled down to get a magazine for his mom." Amaranth's brain told him to panic, but it was hard considering most of Amaranth was just staring at Leonard's smile and inhaling his perfume. It had a definite hint of citrus.

"Mom doesn't knit, Amaranth. You know she hates it," Amis said, laughing in disbelief.

Amaranth's brain then came through loud and clear. Actually, it was too loud to think clearly. Panic, it said, now! Do something! Pull away from Leonard. Step, step, left leg still hurts. This was a bad idea. And again Amaranth did not hit the floor because Leonard caught him just in time and pulled him up. Of course to do that he had to hug him, so now Amaranth was now in Leonard's arms.

"Is he usually like this?" Leonard asked Amis.

Amis however, was holding on to Matt so she wouldn't fall over laughing. Since Matt had just arrived, he had no idea what had just happened. He sort of got the idea, and he had to fight real hard not to imitate Amis actions. It was funny, but if they did not help Amaranth, he would probably be hell to deal with for the rest of the week and that was no fun. Besides, he had just bought a brownie and laughing might make him accidentally drop it.

"Hey, dude," Matt said to Leonard. "He okay?" he asked pointing at Amaranth.

"I don't know, he keeps on falling," Leonard said, releasing Amaranth from the hug. Amaranth's eyes seemed to be empty, but he came to life when Matt called him.

"I'm okay," he said, smiling. "I... just... forgot my mom hates knitting." Amaranth threw the magazine over his shoulder. The magazine hit Amis, who stopped laughing just enough to say "ouch" and then kept right on it.

"Did you intend to do that?" Matt asked as he picked up Amis, who was still laughing.

"No," Amaranth said, looking up into Leonard's honey eyes. "Hi!"

"Hi," Leonard said, smiling.

"We have to go now," Amaranth said, his left leg didn't hurt as much and he could walk now.

"Here," Leonard handed Amaranth a book. The book he had come in here to get and dropped when he fell. "Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I like him a lot, too."

"Thanks," Amaranth said, taking the book. Or at least he tried to take it, but since he wouldn't take his eyes away from Leonard's, he kept on missing the book. Leonard finally grabbed Amaranth's hand and guided it to the book. Amaranth smiled sheepishly and whispered a thank you. This sight only made Amis start her laughing fit anew.

"Actually," Leonard said, taking the book from Amaranth. "I have this book, why don't I lend it to you?"

Amaranth's head began saying no, but his mouth said "okay."

"Great, I'll bring it to you Monday," Leonard smiled and placed the book in a nearby shelf.

"Okay. How's Lancelot?"

"Oh, fine. Mall people don't let him in, so he can't come here. But he'll be glad you asked."

"Yeah, well, he's cute, like you. I mean, like, you agree, right?"

"Right." Leonard nodded.

They both stood there for a while: Amaranth staring at Leonard with a sort of sheepish/dreamy smile, Leonard smiling back, Amis laughing her head off and Matt keeping her standing with one hand and holding a brownie in the other.

"So," Leonard said as he scratched the back of his head. "You said you wanted a cookie, maybe we can-"

"We really need to go, my mom wants me to car the wash. I mean, cash the war. I mean wash the car," Amaranth said as his face explored levels of blushing that had never been charted in Verdeazul. "See you Monday."

"See you Monday," Leonard replied, but Amaranth had already turned and was walking away. He grabbed both Matt and Amis, who was still laughing, and did not stop walking at an accelerated rate until they were in the parking lot and just beside Matt's car. Amis and Matt were both smiling at him.

"He followed us," Matt said pointing behind Amaranth. Amaranth eyes widened and he turned to find... no one. Matt and Amis' laughter echoed through the parking lot. Amaranth turned around and glared at both of them.

"Oh, shut up," he whispered, which only made them laugh louder. "Can we just go?"

"Hold on, hold on," Matt said, stopping for breath, "it'll be like half an hour before I stop laughing."

Of course if you take into account they still kept on laughing as Matt drove Amis and Amaranth home, it was more like a whole hour.