The Four of Us

Cezille07

A/N # 1: Oh yeah, this'll be boring as hell. We got Zick/Elena, Zick/Lay, and Teddy/Lay. Not much slash despite the amount of extreme slash I've been reading. xD

A/N # 2: Believe it or not, this whole thing is a kind of parody. Now unless anyone likes this "fic" at all, it's not getting continued--and will remain a journal entry. I'm breaking my promise that I finish all my stories...but this one's in your hands.

Disclaimer: For cryin' out loud, none of the MA characters are mine! The Armory isn't either! As are the five Dom powers! And everything that comes with the Monster Allergy package! I just write these fics because I get depressed, okay? I just write because I'm depressed....

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[Introduction]

Lay. Looking at Zick and Elena at the next table, she sighed to herself, half-ignoring Teddy's enthusiastic offers to buy her drinks every few minutes. She sighed...because there was nothing else to do.

They're still so sweet.

"Hey, Lay, are you listening to me?" Teddy's voice came ringing in her ears. She shifted her glance to him and found how close his face was to hers.

"Er, yes. You were talking about...something," she mumbled half-heartedly.

He rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Lay. I feel like you're not interested in me. Are you feeling alright? Is there anything you need?" he asked, not the getting the hint her damped focus was anywhere but on him.

It was on the other people rediscovering the secrets, the hidden tunnels, the old rooms, of the Armory. It was on the rickety tables and shabby-looking chairs set up in an irregular circle, and the earth-colored balloons floating a few feet above them, held in place by a thin length of string. It was on the flowing gin and orange juice combo down the far end of the Hall--for a moment she wanted to stride down and order five glasses all to herself....

Mostly, it was on the next table.

Zick lowered his hand below the table cloth so she lost view of it, but the angle at which Elena's arm was hanging let her know the two hands were intertwined from behind that cloth. She tore her look away and interrupted Teddy's speech on Foulers in Rome:

"Teddy, I am not interested! Get the fuck away from me!" she managed to yell, just loud enough to garner the nearby Tutors' attention.

Glasses clinked in the distance.

"Attention, dear, former students of the Ancient Armory!" Jeremy's oddly loud voice rang. All heads turned to the brown cat standing atop two stacked tables in the middle of the Grand Hall. Sniffing came at the word "former". "It has been a long while since our last class meeting. And though years have passed since we last called on all of you as a group, the time has come again for us to join together, not to replenish our dying stash of Canned monsters with a bounty hunt for Magnacat, but to celebrate the Armory's fifteenth year of re-opening!"

Applause. She took the chance to cast the couple at the next table another quick glance.

Zick was standing too close to Elena. Lay could almost smell his excitement at being able to touch her again, looking into those warm, accepting eyes despite the years they had spent loving each other through distant messaging: apart, utterly unsure where the other was. And yet in love all the same.

Darn it, she could still read him so easily.

Zob and Greta all over again.

Another time, so far back she couldn't remember when--she would have come over to give them a too-casual 'hi'--

"Lay, how do you like this tentative design I made for a Universal Dombox--"

"Teddy, fuck off!" she cried. For the first time, even Zick and Elena looked at them (but without the disapproving air as the other Tamers carried) and smiled at the same time.

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She wished she could stay in her own bed that night. Not to bawl, really. Just to find her center again and feel familiar. She didn't know those feelings would come back. After all this time. She lost track. She threw away old planners, burned off the last of the postcards anyone from Bibbur-si or -ska sent her. After she left for Asia to bury herself in a hole of no return, she didn't expect to see Teddy himself--that proud, self-important character who was merely a single fragment of her broken memory--appear in his very worn Teleskates to personally invite her as his date to the reunion.

But damn, she was old enough not to have listened. If she had known it was going to last two days to make them come back, have fun, and relearn the art of Taming with the old bunch, she would have refused. The only thing that did appeal to her was that barely anyone was coming (which she proved wrong earlier), and that Jeremy, retired and rotting away, had to get away from the home care program and actually enjoy the rest of his measured life, even though it entailed forgetting how he lost Marylis a few years back to a stupid mechanical malfunction in the Tutors' Pod. Whatever that meant.

The larger fragments comprising her memory consisted of the good days. Good days, the first few days. Meeting up to Can stupid monsters making stupid pranks for other stupid monsters. Laughing for the fun of it. Maybe boasting a little. Playing with Zick and Teddy a little. Befriending Elena. But for most part, it was befriending Elena.

A flawless effort. The feisty chick turned into a sweet, thoughtful Keeper student who cared a lot about everything monster-related. Especially Zick....

But they were just that: fragments. Little shards of a now incomprehensible glass structure, struck down with an accidental, irreversible hand gesture--or a Dom Energy ray.

That image of Zick and Elena won't leave her mind. She could imagine the hands under the table.

What happened to her dream...with him?

Gone. Elena didn't even need to open up to her about the crush. It was obvious--or maybe that was simply projection. But she did notice. Noticed too much. Felt afraid, even. How do you act friendly to a pair of people acting sweet? You don't. You edge away feeling awkward, sweating and waving them to continue where they were before the interruption. She had to choose: the fighter or the friendly version of the potato-nosed character?

It was alright, though. There were other things. Teddy was always there. In the background, at least in her opinion. A waste of time. Always trying hard, but that's the farthest he ever made--a try. And yet always there nevertheless.

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Hot sunlight was dribbling through the half-frosted windows and illuminating the rest of the hotel room she left unordered, when she woke up. She turned right to reach for her cellphone and check the time. Seven in the morning. Good. Hang on, there was a message.

"Hey. There's a fun Tamers-only task this afternoon hosted by Timothy. It'll be like the Amazing Race, only we get to run around in Bibbur-si! Interested?"

Damn you, Thaur boy. You're distracting me, she thought, closing her eyes.

What was that dream she had last night? A sort of faded Youtube video stuck at one minute, forty-three seconds. Zick lowering his hand below the table, Elena lowering hers for Zick to reach. NO, she wasn't jealous. She was never jealous. Not in that way. Her good friend Elena, her former interest Zick. Both of them the same in her eyes now, just friends. Or so they should be.

She was lightheaded from that endless playback.

And--if the game were a serious event, some poor, hypnotized animal would plop in through her window with a telegram--

The window broke. "Transmitting message from Stellar Tutor Timothy Moth: We are having a race today at Bibbur-si! Come join us and have the chance to win a free, special Dombox with a prized monster inside! Interested players must register in the Armory then proceed to the top of what used to by Pyramid Inc.'s old building! End transmission."

The exhausted grey pigeon took a few, unsteady steps before finally falling, nearly unconscious, into the room. Its beak was open, gasping for air, or for words--maybe it couldn't believe it was capable of speech--but in a moment, its dazed eyes regained focus, it reassumed its regular stance, and, with a few wing beats, was out of the room once more.

Hmm. From the "Tamers-only" definition, that means if Zick wanted to join, he couldn't take Elena as his partner. NO, what was the point? He shouldn't ask her out. She was older than him, far, far older than him. He never had to go through the stress and the eyebags she had run through to get where she was. Oh no. He won't.

But was Teddy asking? In the very sense of the text message, the whole thing sounded like another date. She quickly typed, "Not really" in the reply screen, but rewrote the message to say, "Sign up for me; I'll see you in Bibbur-si" before hitting the Send key.

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Of course Elena would be there. She was the one who approached Lay, sulking by the window of the stuffy Pod for contestants.

"I didn't know you were joining. You weren't at the Armory for registration," the Keeper asked.

Lay shrugged. Her hair was almost fully saturated with sweat. She fanned herself with her hand, then spotted a piece of cardboard lying by her feet. Fanning both of them, she replied, "Might be fun. So I asked Teddy to sign up for both of us."

Elena smiled. "Looks like you and Teddy are getting along really well."

Lay mimicked the voice, "Looks like you and Zick are getting along really well."

But Elena simply laughed. "We're still very good friends."

Just very good friends? Lay wanted to press, but felt it was out of her business. Anyway, it wasn't like fifteen years of doubt wasn't enough to guess the answer to that. She sighed. "I'm happy for you," she said. Elena seemed satisfied, and went about her way. Lay dropped the fan and her head. I suck at lying. I was happy because she's happy. I've let go of Zick. But where's my own lovelife?

At that moment, Teddy appeared, looking as if he had run all the way from the Armory to the top floor of the Pyramid. "Here's your number sticker," he said, thrusting a large, glossy paper with boldface numbers in her hand. "Put it on your clothes. Good luck, Lay. You'd better win. I'm too fucking tired to join."

"You can't not come with me! Who'll be my partner, then?!" she lashed out.

Teddy seemed to shrink in her presence, but instead of edging away, he pulled the nearest passing Tamer and yelled, "Take this one! I don't care who, you'd just better damn win!"

Zick was startled by the sudden yank. He looked first at Teddy, then at Lay. "W-what's going on?"

"Nothing, Zick. Get lost," she answered, avoiding his eyes. That's Elena's property. She watched him run to the contestants' Pod calling Elena's name. Turning to Teddy, "Why don't we both just quit?" she fired.

Teddy was silent. He turned back and prepared a dignified walk back to wherever he was staying.

"Oh no you don't!" Lay called; she ran to catch him, and blocked his path. "You can't back out on me like this! I was expecting you to do all the work! Don't tell me were just playing with me all this time. You wanted me to say yes to anything you say, don't you? Well I've had it--"

"I wanted to spend time with you, that's all!" Teddy cut her short. He stared at her, and she let him. "I...I missed you," he added. "Lay, I missed you. Fifteen years, Lay. For a while we were always with each other. The fifteen years I wondered where you are, how you look like, if you still act the same, I thought this would make up for it. And now we're here again all I seem to you is a distraction."

"Sheesh, there's tons of way to love a girl! We don't really care how, we just care that you do," she blurted out. She stepped back, turned, and headed for the contestants' Pod again. What a stupid remark to turn off a guy; no wonder I'm still single. People must be afraid of me. And then they'll find out I'm a Tamer....

She looked back for a moment, but Teddy was gone. Teleskates. Carefully, she treaded the walkways until she found the one Pod she could come to for a bit of comfort. The Pod's name had faulty neon lighting and the windows were partly boarded, but the "Open" sign bid her welcome into the Den of Pleasures.

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"Bim-Bombak at your service, pretty Tamer," said the bulky, pink monster that approached her. "How may I help you?"

"Hi Bim," Lay said blankly, not even looking at the Bombak. "I need a spa. A day-long spa. With unlimited supply of Baribott's milk."

"Spoiling yourself today, ma'am? We have what you require in the next room, if you please follow me," he said, bowing as he led the way past the front desk into a large, steamy room with about a dozen more monsters getting full-body massages, bubbling baths, and the minty milk.

A Hah ran up to Bim-Bombak and whispered something in his ear. "Uh huh, yes Bobbahu," said Bim in response to the report. "You don't say! Oh, no." He looked at Lay, and she felt a clumsy excuse coming her way. "Dear Tamer, we ran out of cucumbers and pickles for the spa. May we suggest onions for your pretty eyes?"

"No, thank you." Whew, like what? Onions? That'll happen...after Elena and Zick get married. Which will, like, never happen. At the pace they're coming out with their feelings for each other, three generations of millenia-aged Tutors will be replaced before they think of admitting.

Or they'd never admit. They could live peacefully, blissfully, under each other's caring eyes and never have to stress over a serious relationship. Either way, they both seem perfectly happy with each other anyway.

Two hours into getting drunk with euphoria over the Baribott's milk, her glazed eyes spotted a particular redhead coming into the room. She looked tired and occupied, and barely took note of Bim-Bombak's fair attempts at good service.

"No, sir, I'm not a Tamer. I'm a Keeper," she stressed to the Bombak.

"But...our business is for monsters...."

"I can pay."

"Deal. The water pool is this way. That way to the mud pool. We're out of cucumbers and spa pickles, we're left with onions--"

"It's alright. I just need a big break. My feet are killing me! Like, who knew a Tamers' Race would be so tiring? If only the other contestants didn't drop out, I wouldn't have had to join. Ugh, my feet are officially dead...."

After retrieving a bathrobe and a bowl of onions she would only throw off into the corner, she submerged herself into the warm baths with other vain, relaxing Gingis and Snyakutzes. Lay heard a snigger from some of the monsters, and from Elena she heard the thought, "I wish Lay and Teddy didn't quit. Bibbur-si is such a big place to get lost in? The only good thing is that Zick found that Dombox...."

Lay grunted. She reached for her own bowl of onion slices, topped both her eyes with the item, and felt like yelling for a reason other than the stinging onion sensation.

[End of Introduction]

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