Finally, I write something that pairs Giovanni with Delia... jubilations.
Yes, I've written Diamondshipping, as promised. It's a semi-sequel, of sorts, to Letter, since Azurill requested one on my LJ.
I've also got two more Nekou ones, since all you seem to enjoy those.
24. Learning
It was an unexpected request.
Flash back about 30 years. We were assigned a project on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in Literature class. Just me, Giovanni, and some exchange student named Delia. This was in the dark ages, before students had Internet to help them get information. It was a bad time.
If you were single, however, and a shameless flirt, it was a very, very good time.
I should have known the minute the teacher chose us as a group (strictly by the merit of the fact we were sitting together in the front row). Gio was grinning like crazy the moment he realized he'd now have an excuse to hang around the girl sitting next to him without seeming like a perv (which he essentially was). I tried to ignore the blatant flirting during our research sessions in the library until it just got completely pathetic one day.
"Why don't you just make a move on her and get it over with?" I asked him before we headed to the library, even though I knew his mother would never approve of her.
"Sebastian, it's not really that easy, you know. You've had a girlfriend. What would you do?"
"A girlfriend."
"That's one more than I've ever had."
"Look... just talk to her about things you're interested in, okay? That's all the advice I can give you. Maybe she'll see you more as a person then, instead of some weird guy who keeps making googly eyes in her general direction."
"So, like Persian, you mean? Girls like cats, right?"
I sighed. The opposite sex was a mystery to pretty much all men. But to him, it must have been like some divine revelation, never to be seen by mortal eyes.
"Yes, Giovanni. Girls like cats." Seriously, he was hopeless back then. I couldn't really blame him- his mother had sheltered him quite a bit, and he hadn't really gotten out much. Up until high school, he'd pretty much been home schooled. Once in the library, the two of them sat down as I went to get some books on the Bard.
Upon my return, I couldn't help but notice he was finally making his move on her. He was smiling, trying to be as friendly as possible... Here it came.
"Hey Delia?"
"Um... yeah?"
"Did you know Persian shed three times a year?"
She gave him the blankest stare. So did I. I had no idea this is what he meant by talking to her about Persian.
"Uh.. that's nice," she said, politely, then shot me a desperate glance that seemed to say "Help me."
After Delia had left, I knew it was time to intervene before he shot down any other chances at a relationship.
"That's not what I meant," I told him, mortified. "You know, you've got a lot of learning about women to do."
"You said talk about stuff I'm interested in. I just thought that fact would be, you know, fascinating."
This was clearly going to take a while.
~
Bashou and Buson stared at Sebastian, speechless.
"...That's a nice story," Bashou finally said, feeling very awkward.
"Yeah, um... very... romantic. Ish. Like something out of a chick flick, or something," Buson added. "But we didn't come in here for stories of your past."
Sebastian blinked. "You didn't? Oh, that's right, you wanted the results of that experiment, didn't you? I'm sorry."
Taking one final, nostalgic look at his old yearbook, Sebastian tucked the dusty old volume away in his desk drawer. "I guess I just got a little... carried away with myself... memories, you know."
How he loved those days. He almost wished he could invent a time machine and return to them...
But no. He was stuck here now, in the present, and Delia had all but disappeared. He knew Giovanni sometimes continued to keep in touch with her, if only to find out how his son was doing, but that was about it.
Once Bashou and Buson had left, Sebastian picked up his phone. Who said the old gang couldn't get back together, anyway? Not him, that was for sure. He smiled. It was time to schedule his own class reunion.
25. Copy
"See if he can do that."
Nekou was busy helping Mondo teach his Ditto how to Transform. He'd been having problems with the pink Pokemon, and Nekou gladly volunteered to help him train the squishy thing. She had to admit, it was pretty sad the thing didn't know its one and only attack, but she didn't judge. He was just a kid after all.
"Ditto... Transform!" The Ditto squished itself in all directions trying to create a perfect double of Nekou's Sneasel, Kali. Nekou watched, with a look of amusement on her face, as the thing changed.
"How'd I do, Miss Nekou? Is that good?"
Nekou stared at the... thing. The tailfeathers were black, instead of pink, and the claws were half the size they should be. Still, it was an improvement from yesterday, when the best Ditto could do was turn black.
"It's better, Mondo," she said.
"You really think so?" Mondo asked. To Nekou, it looked as though he was about to faint. She knew why. It didn't take a genius to see Mondo harbored a serious crush on her. To be paid a compliment by his brown haired goddess, was, to Mondo, the greatest thing to happen to him for a long time.
"But it's still going to take some work. Ditto can't copy attacks to their full potential unless they can perfectly copy the enemy. Why don't you give it one more shot and we can pick up here tomorrow?"
"Okay, Miss Nekou..." Mondo said, blushing madly. As Nekou went to throw some random papers away, Mondo again told Ditto to change.
"...Transform!"
Nekou looked up to see the fruits of little Mondo's command. She couldn't believe it when she saw a doppelganger of Kali standing in front of him, identical in every way except for Ditto's tiny, beady eyes, which remained on Ditto at all times.
"Mondo... how'd you do that?"
"Is something wrong, Miss Nekou?"
"...No," Nekou replied. "It's perfect."
Nekou nearly wasn't there to catch him in time when Mondo began to fall to the floor in a faint.
26. Drop
Cassidy was not happy.
"Explain why Namba wants the Electrode again," she said, disinterested, her arms full of buzzing Electrode.
"He wants to build some kind of bomb with them. He says for every Electrode you have, the potential explosion of all of them is multiplied by that number."
Cassidy stared at Butch. "What?"
"Yeah, fascinating, I know," Butch replied. "I wonder how that works."
There was a silence. She couldn't believe how much of an idiot Butch was. "Oh, silly me. And all this time I thought if a bunch of Electrode self-destructed together, they'd be equivalent to one Electrode self-destruct."
"What, Cassidy?"
"Unfortunately for us, the good doctor has a tendency to point out the obvious in everything," she replied, rolling her eyes."Besides, what's Namba want a bomb for? I thought after the Charmander incident, Professor Sebastian told him he wasn't supposed to mess around with explosives." There were quite a few important pieces of equipment burned to oblivion in the fiasco Cassidy referred to, and Sebastian wasn't happy when he learned of it, to say the least.
"Pyrotechnics, technically. Electrode are electricity based, and don't use fire at all. So he's fine. I asked him the exact same thing when he gave me the assignment. And I think he told me one more thing, but I can't seem to recall it, for the life of me..."
"Must not have been important, then. Whatever. I think I'll take a rest here." Cassidy leaned against a wall, relaxing her arms a bit.
"Aack! Cassidy! No! I just remembered what he'd said..." But Butch's warning was too late. As Cassidy let the Electrode fall to the ground, they blew up, one by one, sending the two Rockets flying.
"He told us not to drop them!" Butch said.
"Oh, yeah, now you remember," said Cassidy, glaring at him. Why was it he always mentioned these things AFTER the fact anyway?
27. Paper
Nekou was sleepily tapping away at her laptop that morning.
It was her typical activity, her job being, among other things, to find potential entrances in buildings where there were planned break-ins or invasions. It was a dull job, but... it got things done, however under-appreciated it was. She was bored, and having a bad day.
"Miss Nekou!"
Her bad day cleared up when she heard a familiar voice outside her door. It was Mondo, running his typical errands. He held some papers in his hand.
"Oh. Hey, Mondie," she said, tired yet perked up slightly. It was impossible to be unhappy around Mondo. He just radiated happiness and innocence.
"I brought you over some maps that the Professor wants you to check again."
"What?" Nekou asked, confused. "I thought I'd got everything on those. All the ducts and everything. Just like he asked."
"There's a note on them, I guess, Miss Nekou. Maybe you should read that."
As Nekou read Sebastian's complaint that it "didn't seem complete," she couldn't help but notice Mondo didn't look too well.
"Mondo? Are you shivering?"
"The heater's broken in the mail room. I'm a bit cold, still..." It was the middle of January, and things did tend to get chilly.
"Why don't you come in? I'll go fix you some tea. Unless you have other things to do right now."
Mondo blushed. Was the brown-haired goddess inviting him for tea? He had time, yes, yes...
"No, no, Miss Nekou, it's completely fine! Totally! Um, you don't have to put in sugar, or anything..."
"Okay," Nekou said, as she heated the water. As he waited, Mondo began to daydream...
He saw Nekou in a field, the skies completely clear... she was wearing one of the cute Lolita dresses she always made in her spare time, and she was staring out into the blue... then she turned, and smiled at him....
"Here's your tea, Mondo. It's kinda hot." Mondo looked up at Nekou. Nekou couldn't help but notice he was blushing even redder now.
"What's on your mind, Mondo?" she asked him, curious.
"Oh, nothing, Miss Nekou. Just... nothing," he stammered.
He really had to stop reading so much shoujo manga.
(Illustration...)
I've also got two more Nekou ones, since all you seem to enjoy those.
24. Learning
It was an unexpected request.
Flash back about 30 years. We were assigned a project on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in Literature class. Just me, Giovanni, and some exchange student named Delia. This was in the dark ages, before students had Internet to help them get information. It was a bad time.
If you were single, however, and a shameless flirt, it was a very, very good time.
I should have known the minute the teacher chose us as a group (strictly by the merit of the fact we were sitting together in the front row). Gio was grinning like crazy the moment he realized he'd now have an excuse to hang around the girl sitting next to him without seeming like a perv (which he essentially was). I tried to ignore the blatant flirting during our research sessions in the library until it just got completely pathetic one day.
"Why don't you just make a move on her and get it over with?" I asked him before we headed to the library, even though I knew his mother would never approve of her.
"Sebastian, it's not really that easy, you know. You've had a girlfriend. What would you do?"
"A girlfriend."
"That's one more than I've ever had."
"Look... just talk to her about things you're interested in, okay? That's all the advice I can give you. Maybe she'll see you more as a person then, instead of some weird guy who keeps making googly eyes in her general direction."
"So, like Persian, you mean? Girls like cats, right?"
I sighed. The opposite sex was a mystery to pretty much all men. But to him, it must have been like some divine revelation, never to be seen by mortal eyes.
"Yes, Giovanni. Girls like cats." Seriously, he was hopeless back then. I couldn't really blame him- his mother had sheltered him quite a bit, and he hadn't really gotten out much. Up until high school, he'd pretty much been home schooled. Once in the library, the two of them sat down as I went to get some books on the Bard.
Upon my return, I couldn't help but notice he was finally making his move on her. He was smiling, trying to be as friendly as possible... Here it came.
"Hey Delia?"
"Um... yeah?"
"Did you know Persian shed three times a year?"
She gave him the blankest stare. So did I. I had no idea this is what he meant by talking to her about Persian.
"Uh.. that's nice," she said, politely, then shot me a desperate glance that seemed to say "Help me."
After Delia had left, I knew it was time to intervene before he shot down any other chances at a relationship.
"That's not what I meant," I told him, mortified. "You know, you've got a lot of learning about women to do."
"You said talk about stuff I'm interested in. I just thought that fact would be, you know, fascinating."
This was clearly going to take a while.
~
Bashou and Buson stared at Sebastian, speechless.
"...That's a nice story," Bashou finally said, feeling very awkward.
"Yeah, um... very... romantic. Ish. Like something out of a chick flick, or something," Buson added. "But we didn't come in here for stories of your past."
Sebastian blinked. "You didn't? Oh, that's right, you wanted the results of that experiment, didn't you? I'm sorry."
Taking one final, nostalgic look at his old yearbook, Sebastian tucked the dusty old volume away in his desk drawer. "I guess I just got a little... carried away with myself... memories, you know."
How he loved those days. He almost wished he could invent a time machine and return to them...
But no. He was stuck here now, in the present, and Delia had all but disappeared. He knew Giovanni sometimes continued to keep in touch with her, if only to find out how his son was doing, but that was about it.
Once Bashou and Buson had left, Sebastian picked up his phone. Who said the old gang couldn't get back together, anyway? Not him, that was for sure. He smiled. It was time to schedule his own class reunion.
25. Copy
"See if he can do that."
Nekou was busy helping Mondo teach his Ditto how to Transform. He'd been having problems with the pink Pokemon, and Nekou gladly volunteered to help him train the squishy thing. She had to admit, it was pretty sad the thing didn't know its one and only attack, but she didn't judge. He was just a kid after all.
"Ditto... Transform!" The Ditto squished itself in all directions trying to create a perfect double of Nekou's Sneasel, Kali. Nekou watched, with a look of amusement on her face, as the thing changed.
"How'd I do, Miss Nekou? Is that good?"
Nekou stared at the... thing. The tailfeathers were black, instead of pink, and the claws were half the size they should be. Still, it was an improvement from yesterday, when the best Ditto could do was turn black.
"It's better, Mondo," she said.
"You really think so?" Mondo asked. To Nekou, it looked as though he was about to faint. She knew why. It didn't take a genius to see Mondo harbored a serious crush on her. To be paid a compliment by his brown haired goddess, was, to Mondo, the greatest thing to happen to him for a long time.
"But it's still going to take some work. Ditto can't copy attacks to their full potential unless they can perfectly copy the enemy. Why don't you give it one more shot and we can pick up here tomorrow?"
"Okay, Miss Nekou..." Mondo said, blushing madly. As Nekou went to throw some random papers away, Mondo again told Ditto to change.
"...Transform!"
Nekou looked up to see the fruits of little Mondo's command. She couldn't believe it when she saw a doppelganger of Kali standing in front of him, identical in every way except for Ditto's tiny, beady eyes, which remained on Ditto at all times.
"Mondo... how'd you do that?"
"Is something wrong, Miss Nekou?"
"...No," Nekou replied. "It's perfect."
Nekou nearly wasn't there to catch him in time when Mondo began to fall to the floor in a faint.
26. Drop
Cassidy was not happy.
"Explain why Namba wants the Electrode again," she said, disinterested, her arms full of buzzing Electrode.
"He wants to build some kind of bomb with them. He says for every Electrode you have, the potential explosion of all of them is multiplied by that number."
Cassidy stared at Butch. "What?"
"Yeah, fascinating, I know," Butch replied. "I wonder how that works."
There was a silence. She couldn't believe how much of an idiot Butch was. "Oh, silly me. And all this time I thought if a bunch of Electrode self-destructed together, they'd be equivalent to one Electrode self-destruct."
"What, Cassidy?"
"Unfortunately for us, the good doctor has a tendency to point out the obvious in everything," she replied, rolling her eyes."Besides, what's Namba want a bomb for? I thought after the Charmander incident, Professor Sebastian told him he wasn't supposed to mess around with explosives." There were quite a few important pieces of equipment burned to oblivion in the fiasco Cassidy referred to, and Sebastian wasn't happy when he learned of it, to say the least.
"Pyrotechnics, technically. Electrode are electricity based, and don't use fire at all. So he's fine. I asked him the exact same thing when he gave me the assignment. And I think he told me one more thing, but I can't seem to recall it, for the life of me..."
"Must not have been important, then. Whatever. I think I'll take a rest here." Cassidy leaned against a wall, relaxing her arms a bit.
"Aack! Cassidy! No! I just remembered what he'd said..." But Butch's warning was too late. As Cassidy let the Electrode fall to the ground, they blew up, one by one, sending the two Rockets flying.
"He told us not to drop them!" Butch said.
"Oh, yeah, now you remember," said Cassidy, glaring at him. Why was it he always mentioned these things AFTER the fact anyway?
27. Paper
Nekou was sleepily tapping away at her laptop that morning.
It was her typical activity, her job being, among other things, to find potential entrances in buildings where there were planned break-ins or invasions. It was a dull job, but... it got things done, however under-appreciated it was. She was bored, and having a bad day.
"Miss Nekou!"
Her bad day cleared up when she heard a familiar voice outside her door. It was Mondo, running his typical errands. He held some papers in his hand.
"Oh. Hey, Mondie," she said, tired yet perked up slightly. It was impossible to be unhappy around Mondo. He just radiated happiness and innocence.
"I brought you over some maps that the Professor wants you to check again."
"What?" Nekou asked, confused. "I thought I'd got everything on those. All the ducts and everything. Just like he asked."
"There's a note on them, I guess, Miss Nekou. Maybe you should read that."
As Nekou read Sebastian's complaint that it "didn't seem complete," she couldn't help but notice Mondo didn't look too well.
"Mondo? Are you shivering?"
"The heater's broken in the mail room. I'm a bit cold, still..." It was the middle of January, and things did tend to get chilly.
"Why don't you come in? I'll go fix you some tea. Unless you have other things to do right now."
Mondo blushed. Was the brown-haired goddess inviting him for tea? He had time, yes, yes...
"No, no, Miss Nekou, it's completely fine! Totally! Um, you don't have to put in sugar, or anything..."
"Okay," Nekou said, as she heated the water. As he waited, Mondo began to daydream...
He saw Nekou in a field, the skies completely clear... she was wearing one of the cute Lolita dresses she always made in her spare time, and she was staring out into the blue... then she turned, and smiled at him....
"Here's your tea, Mondo. It's kinda hot." Mondo looked up at Nekou. Nekou couldn't help but notice he was blushing even redder now.
"What's on your mind, Mondo?" she asked him, curious.
"Oh, nothing, Miss Nekou. Just... nothing," he stammered.
He really had to stop reading so much shoujo manga.
(Illustration...)
