Disclaimers: All characters belong to rightful owners.
Story concieved by Lee.


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Kisoku giggled at Sam's nippings. "Well yeah, don't you hate it when guys just sneak up on you like that? Remember the concert where that guy somehow got backstage and then tackled me right in the middle of the set! Geez, was that ever embarrassing!"

A subject change... that was what the trio needed. A full blown subject change that they could easily hide their fears in. No more tension. No more trying to figure out what the heck was going on...

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"Embarrassin'?" Lukas snorted, "As I recollect, you loved it!" Grateful for the subject change - yet another indication that Kiso *did* actually harbor a brain under all that bleached hair - Lukas pursued this new topic with all the perseverence of a pitbull. "Now I come to think on it," he added, grinning slyly, "None of us saw you for a couple days after that little incident..."

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Tesu looked doubtfully from Jeremy to Arvel and back again. "O- okay... if you're sure... I mean... it might be awhile before I can take him... if ever..."

"Oh..." he said, blinking a bit, "I-I'm Tesu... Nice to meet you..."

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"Y'kin come see 'im whene'er y'anna," Arvel offered. "If we're around we'd love to see ya, but we got school durin' the day an' rehearsals durin' the af'ernoon, an' I got dance classes an' Church sundee, so we'll prolly miss each other..."

"I'll tell my dad to let you in, if he's home," Jeremy offered, "I'll bet Stubby'll be glad to see you."

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Alexei and Erik played tic-tac-toe on the place mat...

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"Hey, I saw him--well, so to speak..." Sam piped up cheerfully as he grinned to both of the others. Rather willingly, he let the confusion of what'd happened slip away from him as he fell back to his usual routine of being a braindead ditz.

"On day after school, I came across the two of them in that closet in the backstage area." He grinned further and, sucking rather suggestively at his lolly, he popped this from his mouth with a wet sound. "Don't know if I ever heard sempai hit that register before that day, I'll tell you...."

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"Well, I say embarrasing in retrospect... y'see, that kid just went from being a crazy stalker who was a stranger to being an even scarier stalker that I had slept with..." Kisoku tapped his finger against his chin thoughtfully.

"Now that I think about it... I think I filed for a restaining order or something!"

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"Don't fret about it, Lemy. You don't have to come with us, if you'd rather spend time with Ms. Nonezumi. I'm sure you'd rather spend time with a pretty young lady your own age than an old man like me." He beamed at his poor, shy whore. He would grill Lemy on Sasurai later, after he'd tumbled his new companion.

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"Thanks..." Tesu replied, offering the boys a shy smile. "I'll stop by when I can... I...um... usually have to work nights, though... so it...um... won't be very often..." In the two years he'd been working for Ausar, Tesu couldn't remember *ever* having a night off, but saw no reason to mention that to the two boys. They'd forget about him soon enough - and Stubby would have a good home- that was the important thing.

Glancing back over at Alexei and Erik, he noted that the cactus appeared to be beating the boy at tic-tac-toe. Turning back to Arvel and his friends he said, "Um... I better go... before Erik talks Alexei into biting someone else... See you guys later..." With a small wave, he turned and headed over to their table, slipping into the seat across from Alexei. "Hey..." he murmured quietly, "Um... the pizza should be here in a few minutes..."

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"Y-you aren't an old man, Master Barano!" Lem exclaimed quickly as he glanced to the elder with wide eyes. Still, he rather quickly dropped his glance as he both colored and shook his head. "If... if... if it isn't troublesome or... or if it won't... bother you... would you mind if I just... if I just watch the play with Sasurai? I... I'd... I'd really like to stay... just... just a _little_ longer..."

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"Maybe we should hire him - uh... sorta unofficially" Lukas replied, grinning wickedly. "Then maybe Kiso'd be able to hit the last note of that new song we been workin' on... 'Course... the stagin' might be a bit... er... problematic..."

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"I don't know about that, Lukie..." Sam grinned widely as he shook his head. "Considering our fanbase, they might just get off on that. Hell, I know I wouldn't mind having that going on onstage. I hear he's pretty damn good for a stalker, too..."

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Alexei looked up from his game and nodded absently, "Yes, yes. You are a good one. So are those three," He indicated Arvel and his friends, "Humans are better than Them, whatever Azazel and his friends say. Chachacha... would you care to play tic-tac-toe?" He offered.

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Arvel shrugged, "Aww, well. Here's the address," He scribbled it down on a napkin and handed it to Tesu. "See y'round, Tesu!" And the three left. They noticed the Wingless members sitting nearby, and Estelle and Arvel decided to harrass them more.

"I never got to sit in your lap!!" Estelle exclaimed, seating her winged-self on Sam.

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Tesu shoved the napkin bearing Jeremy's address into his pocket without looking at it as he blinked across the table at Alexei. "...I'm... a good one?" he repeated, puzzled, "...A good... what?" Ever since meeting this strange boy, Tesu had felt rather like Alice must have felt right after she fell on her ass at the bottom of that rabbit hole. All he could do now was follow the trail... and hope he emerged at the other end in one piece. The part about it all turning out to be a dream would be nice - but he wasn't counting on that.

"Um... sure..." he replied, accepting the tic-tac-to challenge with a small shrug. "You... um... got an extra pencil?"

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Sasurai, meanwhile, just watched, silently this time, and hearing the conversation between Lemy and his old... friend, shut off the comment of her being pretty and wondered why on Earth Lemy would rather choose to ask to stay with if there wasn't someone surely more beautiful than herself. She felt her self-esteem grow... if only just a tiny bit.

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"Oh! What a great oversight on my part!" Sam exclaimed happily as he suddenly found someone sitting in his lap. Recognizing the voice as belonging to the groupie girl from the pizza place, he grinned widely as he loosely wrapped an arm about Estelle's waist. "Tell me, can you ever forgive me for this most heinous mistake?"

"Oh! I know how to make it up! I'll just steal sempai's best bit!" His grin sliding into a slow, sensual smile, he leaned in and, brushing a brief kiss to Estelle's cheek, he rooted with one hand in his pocket. Drawing back after a moment, he smiled brightly as he offered the girl--and any of the others who may want--a bit of the candy he'd bought earlier. "Here! Free candy! My treat! Still, not half as sweet as the company, but it'll have to do!"

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Sophia came back with the pizza and milkshake, sliding the boys' slices onto the table, then hesitating for a second. She didn't know them... but then, she hadn't spent the day with practically anyone she'd known so far, and the trend showed no signs of stopping. Plus, upon hearing one of the boys ask for a pencil, she automatically retrieved the one from her bag for him, and that pretty much made up her mind. She pushed the pencil across to him and sat down next to his companion... and cactus.

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Rolling his eyes, Lukas shot Sam a sour glance even though he knew it would have no effect on him - even if his friend could have seen it. Well... he'd wanted for normalcy to be re-established, hadn't he? Well, here it was - and all tied up in a pretty pink bow, and a tag bearing the words, 'careful what you wish for' printed neatly upon it. His lips twisted into a sardonic half-grin, he leaned over a little to speak directly into the girl's ear, his voice pitched low, but loud enough for Sam to hear as well.

"Take my advice an' start runnin' now, petite," he murmured, "When Sammy starts givin' away candy... that's never a good sign, eh?"

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"...Um... hi..." Tesu said inanely, blinking at Sophia as she reappeared with the pizza and slid into a seat next to Alexei. Apparently the girl had decided to join them unasked - not that he minded really, but considering the scene that had just played itself out within the walls of the pizza parlor, he had to wonder if she was, perhaps, as crazy as his cactus-bearing companion. Well, if she was, then so was he, considering that he was still there as well, calmly eating pizza and playing tic-tac-toe as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

He stared down at the pencil she'd shoved across to him as if he'd never seen such a device before. After a long moment, he reached out to take it, glancing back up to offer the girl a shy smile, "Thanks... um... I'm Tesu... that's Alexei," he added, inclining his head toward the other boy, "And... that's... um... Erik..." He gestured over at the cactus before turning his attention back to the placemat, waiting for Alexei to start the game.

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