Re: Miki and Taro: Rat Race
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:16 am
by DanjaDoom
Before I leave on a fourteen hour road trip, enjoy this fun little chapter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Molly, I’m just going to tell you that your tits look great no matter what you put on. You may as well just give up.”
Sigh and eye roll, followed by a toss of her undergarments into a pile. I have her down pat. Inviting your girlfriend to your place and helping her choose bras may sound like a blast at first, but it can become tiring quickly if you aren’t careful. The key thing is to find a way to make it fun.
“Fine. Just ignore me and look right at the bra. Which one do you think is cuter? Turquoise or magenta?”
“The one that has your tits in it.’
“I am going to smack you, I swear to--”
Knock Knock.
We both shoot our eyes towards the door.
“Who is that?” Molly mouths to me. Suddenly I remember what transpired a short while after our gym session the other day.
“OK, don’t freak out,” I whisper to her. “But I maaay have invited Taro and Aaron up here to hang out.”
“You what?!” she whispers back harshly.
“Hey, it’s my dorm room! Besides, we need to start building camaraderie!”
“Miki, I’m half-naked! Build it some other time!”
“I can’t just turn them away, they brought pizza! Go change in the closet!”
Molly hurriedly grabs her clothing from the floor and rushes into the closet, cursing under her breath the entire way. Meanwhile, I quickly gussy myself up, straighten out my Wu-Tang Clan shirt, and answer the door.
“You got the stuff?” I ask. Aaron drops his backpack at my feet, grunting as his shoulder blades pop back into place.
“PS3, Killlzone 3, Metal Gear Rising, all 49 episodes of Kamen Rider W on a flash drive, and two medium supreme thick crusts. How’s that for a haul?”
It take alot to make me do a girly squeal, but that should about do it.
“Aaahh, I love you two! Plug that bitch in while I take care of the package.”
“It arrived today?” Taro asks, setting the pizza down onto the counter.
“Hell yes it did! Paid a fortune in shipping, but I’ll be damned if it ain’t worth it.”
Moving over to my bedside, I produce a hastily torn cardboard box, half-popped bubble wrap surrounding it like the corpses of fallen enemies. Inside is the object I’ve been pining for for the past year. A controller, specially built for people who have lost use of one of their hands, manufactured independently by a small company in the United Kingdom. The design is pretty simple; sticks, shape buttons, and shoulder buttons on the front of it, and directional pads on either side. I’m sure it’ll take some getting used to, but I’m not about to let that dampen my good mood.
“Now, I probably won’t have much money for food in the next few weeks, so you guys won’t mind if I take the lion's share of the pizza, right?”
“Sure, I don’t mind,” says Taro, ever the polite gentleman. Aaron, however, is no such thing.
“How do I know you’re not trying to trick us out of some delicious pizza? Taro, avert your eyes, that’s how she hypnotizes you!”
“Aaron, that’s very hurtful! I can’t believe you’d accuse me of such a thing!”
Shit, how’d he find out?
Taro comes to my defense. “That is a little harsh, don’t you think? Maybe we should let her have a few extra slices.”
“Fine,” Aaron sighs in defeat.
I smile sweetly at the two of them, and we begin to set up for our day of well deserved relaxation. Not a few seconds later does Molly emerge from my closet, looking a little less upbeat, though still pretty miffed at having to wait in said closet for about five minutes.
“Good afternoon,” she says to the surprised duo. Her tone of forced civility is evident.
“I like your outfit,” Taro compliments. It looks like he’s trying to brighten the mood up a bit, bless his heart.
Molly smiles at him and glances down at the Red Sox hoodie she has on. “Thank you Taro, but it’s really just something I yanked out of the closet. Literally, seeing as how I was just in the closet.”
“Yeah, what were you doing in there by the way?” Aaron asks.
I’m more than happy to intervene.
“Taro, if you hadn’t have knocked, you would have seen something that made you become a man!”
In between dodging Molly’s wimpy slap attacks, I see Aaron shaking his head and Taro blushing profusely. An agent of chaos, I am.
“Molly, would you like a slice of pizza?”
“Oh, no thank you! I’m not a big fan of mushrooms.”
We all stare at her like the mutant that she is and continue to down the cheesey meal.
“Why are you all eating pizza anyway? I thought this was the health club?”
“Oh boy, here comes Molly the Fun Ruiner!”
Molly gives me her angry toy poodle look as Taro offers an explanation.
“Miki said that it’s ok to have a free day where I can eat what I want.”
Molly sticks her tongue to the side of her mouth in disapproval, hoping to find some fault in Taro’s logic. She finds none, and concedes defeat.
“I guess that makes sense...”
“Damn right it does! Like I said, Mols, you just have to let me do my thing. Exercise is totally my thing!”
My girlfriend sighs and does something I really wasn’t expecting from her; she takes a seat and grabs a slice.
“You’re going to join us?” Aaron asks in mild surprise.
“Well, yes... I do like to have fun, guys! I’m not some giant prude like you all seem to think I am.”
“I don’t think you’re─”
“I know, Taro, I know...”
Flustered, Taro silently offers Molly a slice of pizza, picking off a mushroom for her. What a sweetheart.
“So, what shall we do first?” I ask the now-foursome excitedly.
“How about some Metal Gear?” Aaron suggests. “I have a mighty urge to cut things now, for some reason.”
“That’s... great! I agree! Let’s get to cutting! Cut, cut, cut!”
Molly is a terrible faker. Which sort of boosts my confidence, since I know that she couldn’t have been making up those noises the other night.
“Are you sure about watching us play this one, Molly? It’s pretty violent.”
“Pssh! I’m an adult! I’ll be perfectly fine!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“OHHHH, OH MY GOD! DID YOU JUST CUT HIM THROUGH HIS TESTICLES?! THIS IS A TERRIBLE GAME!”
“Miki, please keep your girl quiet while I chop these cyborgs, it’s hurting my flow!”
“Molly, you’re hurting his flow!”
Grimacing and wincing at various intervals, Molly nonetheless keep her brown eyes glued to the screen as she watches Aaron slice cyborg soldiers to fun-size bits. Secretly, I think she may have some secret fetish for violence. It’s pretty hot, if you ask me. I’ll have to sneak into her room later this week and see if she has any whips or leather products hidden from view.
“You want a turn, Taro?”
Taro, a little surprised at this display of fairness, accepts with some hesitation. I can only imagine the number of insecurities Taro has developed over the years. I can’t really blame him for not being used to acts of random kindness, even ones as small as offering him a turn in a video game.
“Y-yeah, I’m... down.”
He looks at me sidelong, waiting for my confirmation that his lingo is cool. I smile and nod at him, which bolsters his confidence. Taking the controller from Aaron, Taro takes a breath and unpauses the game. Lots of wild swinging and panicked cries of “shit” ensue as Taro quickly begins to get overwhelmed by waves of cybernetic soldiers. As we begin to lose hope, he bounces back with a few well timed maneuvers to level the playing field. The rest of the level passes by fairly smoothly.
“Very nice, Taro! Have you played this before?” I ask.
“Uhh, no, not really. My first time, actually.”
“Impressive!”
He chuckles nervously, eventually offering up a turn to Molly. I guess the pressure of having all eyes on him is too much.
Molly sucks at killing things with a sword, as expected. Or maybe she’s just pretending so she doesn’t arouse suspicion? Whips and leather, mmm...
“Miki! This game sucks! Let’s play something else!”
“Aww, Molly, are you frustrated? That’s too cute!”
“Shut up! Your game copy’s defective! Get a refund! SEE, I PRESSED X AND IT DIDN’T EVEN LISTEN!”
“Molly, just admit that you’re bad at the game and we can--”
“AARON, DON’T START WITH ME!”
Wisely, Aaron, scoots back towards Taro. To go near Molly’s controller right now would mean suicide. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to wait long, as Raiden collapses unceremoniously minutes later. All because of the faulty x button, of course.
Crossing her arms and puffing out her lips, Molly drops the controller onto the carpet.
“You up for some co-op, Miki?” Taro asks, picking up the discarded controller. Aaron’s broken off from the rest of the group to take a call.
“You bet your ass I am!”
Patience sucks. If it was socially acceptable to just beat everyone up and take their turn by force, I would have done it a long time ago. However, as a woman of class and dignity, I must sit on my hands and patiently await my turn. Then start whoopin’ on tricks.
Aaron rejoins us a few seconds later as we scour for any decent games to play.
“That was Suzu,” he explains, waiting out the exaggerated “ooohhh” I’m making. “I was worried she might feel left out, so I invited her up here. That alright with you, Miki?”
“Duh! I’ve known her longer than you, she’s welcome down here anytime.”
Nodding, Aaron takes a seat to watch Taro and I suck at co-op and blame the bad internet connection that Yamaku has. Unfortunately for us, Yamaku actually has a pretty good connection, so we’ll just have to deal with the fact that we suck at video games.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hey guys, I brought some microwave taquitos, if anyone─oh, was I interrupting something?”
Suzu lingers in the doorway, confused at the sight of Taro and I wallowing in self-pity after having died for the fifth time in Borderlands 2, and Molly still looking pretty pissed at her earlier failure. Aaron’s just sort of there, like he usually is.
“Did I come at a bad time?” I hear her whisper to him.
“Nah, they’ll get over in a little bit. Hey, can I get a taquito?”
Suzu pulls a foil-wrapped stick out of her jacket pocket. How very Suzu. Aaron munches on it indiscriminately, the pangs of hunger too strong to ignore. Which reminds me.
“Hey, did we bring any other snacks? I mean, besides pizza?”
“Uhh, I think we left the rest of the stuff behind when we got the pizza. Too much stuff to carry,” Taro answers.
Contemplating the logistics of making a trip to pick snacks up at Taro’s dorm, I come to the conclusion that doing so would be really annoying and cut into valuable leisure time. But, in the long run, it’d be worth it.
“Taro, you got snacks at your place?”
“Yeah. I could run down there and get them, if you want.”
“That’d be nice! I’ll go with you, so you won’t be lonely.”
Taro smiles and opens the front door for me.
“Such a gentleman!” Molly compliments, bringing some redness to Taro’s face.
“You guys don’t have too much fun without us, ok?... I mean, it, I’ll kick you all out if you do!”
Leaving behind Molly, Aaron, and Suzu, we make our way down the stair and out the front door of the dorms, sunlight assaulting us on the way out. Glancing sideways at Taro when I’m confident he’s not looking, I’m impressed by what I see. Overall, he appears much more confident than when he first burst into my dorm room almost a week ago. The fact that I’ve played a role in that perks me up quite a bit.
“What?” he asks, eyebrow raised.
“What what?”
“You were giggling just now.”
“Was I?”
He snickers himself. “Yeah, it was kind of cute. You should do it more often.”
I snort with laughter, and he begins to stammer after catching what he just said.
“Damn, Taro, you really know how to talk to a lady! Give it a few months, and I’ll teach you everything that you need to know.”
“That’d be nice, I guess.”
“Do you not want a girlfriend?”
He shrugs. “I guess it just never came up as an option. I figured no one would really pay much attention to me, so why try?”
I nod solemnly as we enter the boys dorm.
“Well, it’s time to shake things up a bit. This isn’t just a physical process, you know.”
“Yeah, I know... Hey, Miki?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for inviting me today. I really feel like one of the group.”
I smile as he begins fumbling for his keys.
“You are part of the group, Taro.”
He stops and smiles back at me. I think I’m really starting to like that smile.
.
.