Adventures in Parodyverse - Winners And Losers Part 4 (UT#321 tie-in)

    “Does this mean I’m your girlfriend now?”  Liu Xi Xian asked Joe as she lay curled up next to him under the cover of a blanket.  He was staring at the ceiling quietly, and the two were enjoying that silent awkward moment of the morning before she spoke up.

    Joe turned his head slowly and looked at her.  “Do you want to be?  he asked.

    She shrugged.  “I would, but this happened so quickly...I’m not sure what will happen next.”

    “I don’t know.”  Joe sighed deeply.  “I’m not sure I want a girlfriend right now.  It’s a lot of pressure.”

    Liu Xi sat up partway and stared at him.  “I hope you mean we should take this casually.  You’re not rejecting me...are you?”  That last part sounded sad, almost pitiful.

    “No, no.  I really like you.”  Joe quickly responded.  “But...you know how you noticed I look at Yuki sometimes?  Well what scares me about her is that she’s so strong and aggressive, I guess.”

    “Are you saying I’m strong?”  Liu Xi smiled, and then laughed.  “You’re kidding, right?”

    “No, you really are.”  Joe reached over to play with her hair a bit.  “I guess what I’m saying is...I’d like you to be my girlfriend but I’m not sure I can handle it.  I wouldn’t know what to do with someone as strong and smart as you.  I’d probably screw up and make you angry.”

    “You forget, I have no girlfriend experience at all,”  she said as she lay her head back down.  “I only know when I’m being treated well or badly.”

    Joe nodded and reluctantly said, “Okay.”

    “But we’re also friends,”  Liu Xi noted as she reached for his hand and held it gently.  “So if it’s not working, or you find someone you like better, just tell me.”

    Joe chuckled and turned his head toward her.  “Wouldn’t that be a really bad idea?  In terms of making you angry, I mean.”

    “Angry?  No.”  She shrugged.  “I might be a little hurt, but how much worse would I feel if you didn’t tell me?”

    “That’s a good point.”  Joe stared at the ceiling some more.  “Thing is, I’m not sure I can handle a girlfriend right now either.  I mean, having to deal with losing Knifey and my whole identity.”

    Liu Xi shrugged and sighed.  “We had some fun, I suppose.  If the world isn’t ending we have lots of time to think about it.”  She sat up again and said, “I’m going to my room to get ready.  I’m bored with lying around.”

    Joe laughed at that.  He sat up too, to watch her leave.  She walked halfway across the room and then vanished from sight.  That used to scare him but it didn’t anymore.

---

    “You wanted to talk with me?”  Lara Night entered Hatman’s Lair Legion office and walked over to the desk.  She sat in the chair directly in front of his, neatly crossing her legs.  And then she noticed that he was cleaning out his desk.  “What’s going on?  You’re not quitting are you?”

    “No.  Dream’s right.”  He took a stack of papers and threw them into the wastebasket.  “There’s too much paperwork.”

    Lara smiled at that and leaned back.  “You’re lightening up, are you?”

    Jay briefly chuckled, but then turned his attention to the original topic that prompted him to call her in.  “How did you get away from the Parody Master?  Not that I don’t trust you, I have to make sure you’re not a clone or phantom or something.”

    “Naturally.”  She laughed briefly.  “Nah, nothing weird like that.  I was yanked away because someone back home didn’t want to have to avenge me.”

    “Oh.  I guess that’s reasonable.”

    “The bad part, I guess, is I didn’t get to see him beaten.”  Lara shrugged at that and sighed.  “But I guess as long as he’s beaten it doesn’t really matter.  So how are things with you and Zdenka?”

    “I...haven’t really talked to her,”  he admitted sheepishly.

    Lara’s mouth hung open for a moment.  She then suddenly vacated the chair and moved, sitting on the desk closer to Jay while he emptied the drawers.  “I thought you were lightening up.”

    He stopped and looked up at her.  “What do you mean?”

    “What do you think I mean?”  Lara smirked.  She nearly whispered, “You should be sleeping together by now, Jay.”

    “That’s...not really my style,”  Jay replied distantly.

    “Hmm.”  Lara shifted so she was leaning on one hand.  “Liu Xi told me you were waiting till you get married.  But that’s what you want.  What does she want?”

    Jay sat up on the floor, his back against the desk chair.  “What do you mean?”

    “I mean I can be perceptive sometimes, Jay, and while she probably ‘respects’ what you want--”  She stopped herself mid-sentence and decided to summarize.  “You know as well as I do a relationship is about compromise.  She respects your beliefs, but she also hopes you’ll set them aside...for her.  Because then she’ll feel special.”

    Jay set down the files he was holding and stood, before sitting on the desk next to her.  “I like to stick by my beliefs, Lara.  It’s like a promise--”

    “Do you know why sex outside marriage is supposed to be a sin?”  Lara interrupted him with, speaking softly.  “The original reasons behind it were kind of degrading to women, you know.  Things like a woman being worthless for marriage once she loses her virginity, and even more worthless once she gets pregnant.”  She brushed her hair aside and added, “So, you know, think about that before following blindly.”

    He smiled at that slightly.  “You’d have some interesting talks with Mac,”  he said.  His smile disappeared then.  “I’m not following blindly though.  I did sleep with girlfriends before...and honestly, look where it got me.”

    “Yeah.”  Lara nodded slowly.  “Yeah, there is a lot of baggage with it sometimes.  It’s easy to fall into a habit of believing as long as the sex is good everything’s cool.  Meanwhile the whole relationship can crumble around you.”

    “Sounds like you had that happen before,”  Jay noted.

    She tilted her head and shrugged.  “This guy, I loved him very much...still love him.  He wanted to marry me, and I told him I wasn’t ready.  I thought he was okay with it because we still made love and cuddled, and stuff.  I was caught totally by surprise when he suddenly broke it off because he was serious about marriage and I wasn’t.”  She looked down, seeming lost in thought.

    “So you understand why I don’t want to get involved with that,”  Jay replied.

    “Yes and no.”  Lara looked up again.  “It’s good to be careful, I guess.  But...don’t paint with such a wide brush, is what I’m saying.  Don’t be prepared to let Zdenka leave just because you want to be a good example and keep your pants on.”

    Jay frowned and sighed.  “I...guess it’s something to think about.”  He looked at Lara and quickly added, “Not saying I’ll sleep with her, just that it’s something to think about.”

    Lara slapped her palm gently against his knee, and then she slid off the desk.  “I guess I’ll see you around.  I’m going to wander around a bit and see what’s changed here before I go home again.”

    “You’re going back home?”  Jay asked, sounding a little down.

    She shrugged.  “Yeah, some people there probably miss me by now.  But don’t worry, I know the way here, so I could be here or home in the same day and you wouldn’t even know I was gone for a few hours.”  Lara smiled at him and turned to leave.

    “It was nice talking to you, though,”  Jay quickly added.

    Lara turned around again to face him.  “No problem,”  she said.

    Jay smirked and added, “It’s like talking to Dream about Zdenka only without the ‘did you tap her ass yet?’ every other question.”

    She laughed.  “I try to be a little more subtle.”

    “That guy that broke it off with you?”  Jay said with a smile.  “He must have been nuts.  You’re much too rare to toss aside like that.”

    Lara smiled brightly and quickly moved closer.  She hugged Jay gently.  “Thank you,”  she said.  “That’s one of the sweetest things anyone has said to me.”

    Jay hugged her back, replying with, “I’m glad you’re okay, and that you came back.”

    She let go and glanced at him once more, still smiling, before she left Jay’s office.  He stared at the open doorway for a moment before returning to his desk cleaning.

TO BE CONTINUED?

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2007 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 

--    reprinted without permission.  

-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow

--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin

--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin