Chapter 28 : Late Afternoon
Anton hummed quietly to himself as he ran the metal bristles of the cleaning brush across the barbecue's grates.
After their second excursion in the dungeon, he and the dark elves had all taken a bit of a long breather before getting themselves cleaned up and finally coming back upstairs.
Refreshed and hungry now, Anton was busy with preparing to grill up another batch of chicken to go with the pasta and green bean casserole he had baking in the oven. All of which had been requested by the dark elves.
This trait of theirs with wanting to eat the same things over and over again was a habit he did plan to break them of, but he would worry about that later. For now, chicken sounded fine to him as well.
Just off to the side of him, Kianna was sitting with a happy, satisfied look on her face, even as her bottom was conspicuously resting on a large, soft pillow.
Dressed in short shorts and a low cut tank top, she was gleefully showcasing the risque markings that encircled not only her arms and legs, but the base each of her breasts as well. These titillating imprints were the undeniable evidence that had been left behind by the tight, rope bindings that had only just recently been wrapped around her limbs and bosom.
The brazen dark elf had positioned one of the long, lounge style pool chairs in such a way that she could easily watch Anton as he cooked their dinner while also absently beginning to read one of the books on Infernals she had picked up from a bookstore at the mall they had just visited.
Fiona, who was feeling far more energetic than her sister was at the moment, was out in the grass with Mica and was trying her best to mimic the poses of the stretching exercises that the kiochi was attempting to teach her.
As for her part, Mica had been enjoying the light buzz she had developed from the energy she had been gathering secondhand off of her housemates activities, but not wanting her judgement to be overtaken by them, or to end up in a full blown drunken stupor, she had retreated outside when the tantric energies had started to become too thick and intoxicating for her to handle.
"Stop trying to twist so far back." said Mica as she shifted from one pose to another and ended up standing on one foot with her other leg pointed straight up into the air "You're just starting out, so you're not going to be that bendable yet."
"...Yeah." mumbled Fiona as she raised herself back upright and gazed at Mica's perfectly straight form "...I don't know if I'll ever be that bendable, honestly. At least not bendable enough to do flips."
"You will. It just takes practice." said Mica as she looped her tail around herself in a stylish manner.
Letting her leg fall forward, the kiochi used its momentum to throw herself into a curled up form and preformed a midair frontal somersault before landing back on her feet again, just in front of Fiona.
"Flips are easy once you get the hang of them." she said as she grinned "Like I said, just takes practice. Which to get started, first you need to loosen yourself up more. Then you gotta learn how to maintain your balance properly."
"Oh yeah, great advice. Just loosen my body up more..." grumbled Fiona as she gave the showboating kiochi an annoyed look "Easy for you to say..."
"Hey, if you wanna be doing flips, then that's what it's gonna take." said Mica with a shrug "Be loose, and find your balance. Though really, balance is the most important thing. Being loose is as easy as just letting yourself go."
To illustrate her point, Mica went limp, planted her coiled tail against the ground and used said tail to toss herself up into the air where she closed her eyes and sailed backwards into a graceful, effortless looking back-flip. Landing on her feet now nearly ten feet away but still facing Fiona, she smiled smugly as she opened her eyes.
"See, all you really need is balance, and then it's easy." she said as she put her hands on her hips.
"...Well yeah, and I bet it's super easy to find your balance when you've got a tail like yours that you can use to throw yourself around like that!" exclaimed Fiona as she planted her hands on her own hips and began to sway them from side to side "In case you haven't noticed though, I'm sort of lacking in one of those particular appendages!"
"Excuses, excuses..." said Mica as she waved both her hand and tail dismissively "I've known plenty of people without tails who could still do flips just fine. It's really not that big a deal."
"It still helps." mumbled Fiona as she crossed her arms over her chest "There's no way it doesn't."
"Sure, but knowing that doesn't do you any good." said Mica with another shrug "Not unless you plan on growing a tail of your own."
"...Hm, I guess I could do that. Just get a body mod charm or something." mused Fiona as her expression became thoughtful "...Nah, I'm not going to do that. I don't think I would look right with a tail."
"Then you'll just have to learn to work without one." said Mica "Which means loosen up and find your balance!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I heard you before, I gotta dig deep and "Find my balance" I get it, I get it..." grumbled Fiona as she fell back into doing the yoga-like stretches that Mica had shown her before "Stupid, lucky, long tailed little shit..."
"I heard that." said Mica.
"Good!" said Fiona.
Chuckling, Anton shook his head as he began to lay out pieces of chicken across the grill. Once he had them all laid out and seasoned, he gave them a last look over before nodding his head in approval.
Giving them a minute to stop sizzling against the new heat, he pulled out his phone to check his messages. As he did this he again noticed Leopold's email and this got him thinking about their upcoming meeting.
Taking up a pair of tongs, he began to absently reposition a few of the pieces as he let his thoughts percolate a bit.
"...Mica." he called suddenly as looked over at her "Can you come over here for a second. I need to ask you some questions real quick."
Turning to him, Mica creased her brow in suspicion before making her way closer to the grill.
"What's up?" she asked as her eyes landed on the cooking chicken.
"I was just wondering..." said Anton as he turned to her "Does Nokko still live with your parents as well?"
"Yeah, she does." answered Mica as both Fiona and Kianna began to blatantly listen in on their conversation.
"I see..." nodded Anton "Do you know if she has a job, or maybe classes, or anything that might be keeping her away from the house during the day?"
"Uh... Yeah, she has both, actually." answered Mica "She's almost never at home during the day. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I was just thinking about the meeting I'm going to have with your parents, and it occurred to me that this might be a good opportunity for us..." grinned Anton as he began to flip over each piece of chicken "We'll know exactly where two out of the three of your family members are, which isn't bad. And we'll get a pretty good window of time too..."
"Uh oh! What are you planning over there!?" smiled Fiona as she dropped out of her pose and came over to stand next to Mica.
"Well, possibly... A heist." said Anton as he turned to them and playfully raised his eyebrows in a dramatic manner.
"What!? Are you planning to rob Mica's family!?" exclaimed Fiona as she pointed her ears straight upwards in intrigue.
"Something like that. Though, more accurately, this could be called a repossession mission." chuckled Anton "Basically, this could be a chance for us to sneak in and collect Mica's clothes as well as all of her other things."
"Oh? Oh, okay, yeah!" cried Mica as her expression filled with excitement "We can steal all my stuff!"
"Exactly. We need to plan this out thoroughly first though." said Anton as he turned back to the cooking chicken "Do you know what kinds of security measures your parents have around your home? Any wards or barriers of any kind?"
"...No? I don't think so? I know there's a few cameras. But they're only in certain rooms. Like in my parents office." explained Mica "We live in an apartment building. So most of the security is handled by the complex itself."
"Ah, I see... Okay, so hopefully you'll still have clearance through the complex and can still get in without any problems..." said Anton "I'd like to give that a try beforehand and make sure you can, but at the same time I don't want to alert them that we're up to something... Might be best just to wait and do this live..."
"Yeah, probably... Really don't want them to know we're coming... Or, I guess that I'm coming..." mused Mica as her expression became thoughtful "You guys are planning to have lunch, right? So I should have at least an hour or so, right?"
"Probably at least that." nodded Anton "Do you think that's enough time for you to get all of your things together?"
"...I think so. It should be. If I'm just grabbing everything and running....I won't be able to get any of my big stuff though. Like my desk." reasoned Mica "That'll just have to stay behind. Which sucks. I like my desk. But it'll be too hard to move it on my own. And since you guys will have to stay with my parents the whole time, there's no one to really help me move it."
"I mean, there's no reason I can't help you." offered Fiona "If we work together we'll be able to get all of your shit out of there faster too."
"That's a good idea. The two of you will be able to watch each others backs as well." agreed Anton "And Kianna can come with me to act as our communicator. It'll be easier for her to get messages back and forth without seeming suspicious... I think this will be or plan then, or at least the basics of it."
"Sounds good to me!" nodded Kianna in excitement as she playfully flopped her book up and down against her thighs "This is so cool! It's like our first mission as a team!"
"...Yeah, I guess it is!" chuckled Anton.
"What are you reading over there, Kianna?" asked Mica.
Looking up at her, Kianna folded her book closed and held it up so Mica could see the cover.
"...The Beginners Guide to Keeping Cubi for Fun and Profit. Vol 1..." read Mica before her expression soured and she glared at the dark elf "Really!? Are you serious!?"
"...What? What's wrong?" questioned Kianna in genuine surprise.
"What's wrong is that book!" exclaimed Mica "Why are you even reading that!?"
"It, it was the highest rated book on cubi I could find... A lot of people said it was a good one?" explained Kianna "Why are you so mad? What's wrong with it?"
"For starters it shouldn't even exist!" cried Mica as her tail whipped itself angrily back and forth behind her "It's just offensive!"
