Ari's House

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari rolled over, turning her back towards Crash. "You are the worst roommate ever."

[Crash Bandicoot]

"Too bad", he mumbled. "Sometimes ya gotta deal with annoying roomates. Look, I'm preparing you, ok? I'm actually doing you a favor so maybe you should be just a little more grateful." Crash turned so he was facing Ari and propped his elbow up, resting his head in his hand.

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari was silent for a minute. She looked at him thoughtfully. "How are you and Kyra doing?"

[Crash Bandicoot]

Crash paused at the question. He couldn't really avoid it by shooting back a 'How are you and Ace doing?' Well he could but he decided not to be an ass...yet. Instead, he shrugged. "We're alright, I guess. Atom's finally calmed down for a while so it's nice to see Kyra get some sleep. I was worried about her for a while, there", he mumbled. "I'm planning on taking her out, y'know? Somewhere nice..."

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari laid her head on her arm, smiling slightly. "She'd like that... when's your anniversary?"

[Crash Bandicoot]

"Couple of weeks", he said and then the realization hit him--hard. He held a hand to his mouth like he was going to puke and just moaned in his hand. "What the hell? What's wrong with me?"

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari, alarmed, moved her hand to Crash's shoulder. "What's wrong?" she asked.

[Crash Bandicoot]

In his anxiousness and...whatever else it was, Crash turned on Ari with a disbelieving glare. "What the shit do you mean 'what's wrong?'?!?! Don't give me that! Time's running out, that's what's wrong!" he snapped, jerking upwards in the bed and dragging his knees to his chest. "If I wanted to plan something nice, I woulda done it eons ago..." he mumbled.

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari sat up abruptly. "Well excuse me for asking," she said, drawing out the u. "Look. If you want to do something nice for her, then get on it. Don't just sit here complaining about what you should have done. Get off your ass and start looking up places on the internet. Get the phone numbers and we'll start calling in the morning," she said, wrapping her arms around her knees.

[Crash Bandicoot]

He had half a mind to start snapping at her again but he literally had to bite his tongue in order for that not to happen again. Crash took a deep breath, letting it out slowly while he lowered his chin on his knees. "You're right", he mumbled and frowned. That definitely hadn't been what he wanted to say. His amber eyes cut to her like fire. "...You ok?" he abruptly asked, trying to recount everything that happened over the course of the days.

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari leaned her head on her knees. "I'm..." she searched for the word, "I'm... functioning. I figure that as long as I don't think about it, I'll be alright."

[Crash Bandicoot]

Crash didn't say anything for a long time but then the silence got to be too much to bear. Leaning over, he gave Ari's cheek a light kiss, then layed on his side and pulled his half of the covers over his shoulder. "Thank you", he mumbled, closing his eyes.

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari was confused. "For what?"

[Crash Bandicoot]

He sighed. "For not leaving when you clearly could have, though I wouldn't have blamed you if you had. The shooting, when I screamed at you during the shooting, dressing you up like a maid, whatever mean thing I said to you about Ace. All those times you could have just said 'screw you' and left but...that hasn't been the case. So thank you...and I'm sorry."

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari was taken aback. A different side of Crash... this was new. Holy crap, Crash had more than an emotional range of a teaspoon!

She smiled a little. "You're welcome. And I'm sorry for dragging you into the middle of the Ace-me thing... that was stupid."

[Crash Bandicoot]

He shrugged. "What's done is done, right? How else are we gonna learn if we don't go through all the mistakes first? But apology accepted." Turning so he was facing her, Crash reached over and lightly flicked her forehead. "Now get some sleep, weirdo", he whispered and closed his eyes. "Or I'll purpously kick you out the bed."

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari smiled. "Alrighty then. See you in the morning." She flipped onto her stomach, resting her arm on her head before closing her eyes.

[Crash Bandicoot]

Crash slowly opened his eyes to look at Ari for a bit. He smiled softly, shook his head, and then went back to sleep, bending his arm on his pillow where he layed his head. "Night", he mumbled.

~Mo'nin!~

Somewhere in the night, Crash had ended up stretching across the width of the bed so he was laying all over Ari. Even though the sun was streaming in through the window, it didn't seem to bother Crash cuz he kept sleeping.

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari woke up, feeling an odd pressure on her legs, stomach, chest, and head. She groggily opened her eyes, wondering what was going on. She saw Crash... not two inches away from her. She head butted him, muttering sleepily. "Crash... I can't... breathe..."

[Crash Bandicoot]

Crash groaned, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance. When he opened his eyes, he stared right into Ari's face. Freezing in place, his heart started to freak out inside his chest. What the fuck? What happened last night?! There's no way in Hell...We didn't...? In one swift motion, he rolled off of her, got up, and ripped the covers from the bed, sighing in relief when he saw that Ari was clothed. "Dear God", he breathed. "Don't scare me like that, Ari."

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari started laughing hysterically. "You... thought... we.. HAHAHAHA..." she gasped in between laughter.

[Crash Bandicoot]

His eyes narrowing at her, Crash slowly sunk down on the edge of the bed. "Well tell me how you really feel", he grumbled sarcastically.

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari sobered up, looking at him seriously. "Not that I don't find you attractive, Crash," she said, before chuckling a little, "but we're not THAT close..." She stuck her tongue out at him.

[Crash Bandicoot]

Reaching over, Crash flicked Ari's tongue as a reflex. "There. How's that for close?" he smirked, getting off the bed as he went to the bathrooom to wash his face. Looking in the mirror, he frowned at his reflection. "Attractive?" he mumbled, running the water in the sink. "I'm fucking hot..." He came out of the bathroom with a towel around his neck and glanced at Ari. "Hey...not that I really care but did your parents know you stayed with me last night? Maybe you should check in with them..."

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari snorted. "My parents? They're gone for most of the year. They're only home for Christmas and my birthday... and then maybe once every three months. They wouldn't care."

[Crash Bandicoot]

Crash opened his mouth, then closed it. He tried again but then just scowled. A moment of silence went by before he spoke again. "Would you just call them?!" he finally snapped. "I don't care if you have to leave a message, just please let them know you're ok."

He grew quiet after that, not believing that he said that. Or that he just said 'please.'

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks for worrying about me, but I'm fine. My parents don't need to know anything... they live in their own little bubbles and that's alright."

[Crash Bandicoot]

His face growing red, Crash blinked and looked away. "Fine", he mumbled, then smirked and looked at her. "So they wouldn't care that you're friends with someone like me, huh?"

[Arianna Rivers]

Ari opened her mouth to say something, then closed it, putting her chin on her hand to make it seem like she was thinking hard about his question. "Well," she started, before closing her mouth again. "Um," she tried again, looking out of the corner of her eye to see his response.

[Crash Bandicoot]

He was glaring at her the whole time and shook his head. Not like he expected any less. Like, really? Ari was all clean and nice and...innocent. Which he definitely was not. "Your dad would probably kick my ass, wouldn't he?" he asked with a smirk.