2nd Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

[that_oldsaying]

It had happened by accident.

Alluka had bounced into the common room in search of chocolate candy food and had tossed Mr. Bubbles at the couch as she'd gone by so that he could save her a seat despite the fact that no one else had been in the room and when she'd gotten back from peering at the fridge and cupboards (and had discovered chocolate chip cookies, which she'd promptly decreed was better than anything else to eat) (sorry Kathy), Alluka discovered that Mr. Bubbles had fallen off the couch.

This could have been a disaster, but Mr. Bubbles was a clever giraffe and had knocked a cushion down with him and it lay half over him, sheltering him from the pain (never mind that the floor was under him, the details were not important) and Alluka had surveyed this with big eyes before squealing.

"A fort! You're the smartest, Mr. Bubbles!"

And that was how the second floor common room had been turned into a fort. Every chair and couch in the room had been either turned on its side or stripped of cushions (or both) to make this fort. Extra blankets had been spread across the chairs to make rooftops and maze-like little passageways and in the center of it all Alluka had her toys, and her cookies, and it was amazing.

Her bunny and panda were probably wondering where she was. Shh, don't tell them!

[Open!]

Comments

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I think you might be crying 'save me, save me'," Ringo pointed out with a giggle of her own.

[that_oldsaying]

"Oh."

There was a moment of contemplation between her and Mr. Bubbles before Alluka muttered 'but no breaking the fort, Ringo!' as Mr. Bubbles nodded fiercely.

Then she said, in a terrible approximation of a damsel in distress, "Save me! Save me!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo couldn't help it. Her giggles dissolved into outright laughter, doubling her over as she tried to catch her breath.

[that_oldsaying]

"You are the worst hero, Ringo!"

The very worst!

But Alluka was laughing too, so it was okay.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Okay, okay," Ringo gasped. "I'll come save you now!"

After she finished another bout of laughter real quick, anyway.

[that_oldsaying]

"I'm waaaiting!"

Also, she had chocolate chip cookies. She was a well prepared damsel in distress!

[soniaroadsqueen]

Finally catching her breath, Ringo got down on her hands and knees so that she could crawl under a blanket and into the maze of furniture. "I'm coming, princess!"

[that_oldsaying]

"Yay!"

Alluka wriggled happily before realizing that as captive, she might want to try and sound... caught.

...

... Nah.

[soniaroadsqueen]

It's not like it would fool anyone, anyway.

Unlike this maze. "Hey, who designed this thing, anyway?" Ringo asked after a moment, having ended up in the opposite corner of the room from where she'd started.

[that_oldsaying]

There was awkward quiet for a second as Alluka finished her latest cookie and looked at Mr. Bubbles for confirmation.

Yes, yes he was totally the villain of this game.

"Mr. Bubbles!"

There you go, Ringo. You were lost in a fort designed by a stuffed giraffe.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Well, fortunately Ringo had literally inhuman spatial senses, so once she got turned back around she managed to work her way in a mostly consistent manner back toward Alluka's voice.

"He's very devious," Ringo called as she got closer.

[that_oldsaying]

Mr. Bubbles was!

"The most deviouses!"

Alluka, that wasn't wasn't a word.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, I don't know if I'd say the most," Ringo grinned, rounding a sofa and finally spotting Alluka. "Because someone seems to have eaten all the cookies."

[that_oldsaying]

"I didn't!" Alluka said, giggling. "There's still some! And, and a princess couldn't starve, Ringo!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Hmm, that's true," Ringo allowed, pretending to look thoughtful. "Starving is bad." She grinned. "But so is eating so many cookies that you get a tummy ache."

[that_oldsaying]

"I never do!"

Which was terrifyingly true. Alluka did not eat nearly as much chocolate as Killua did, but what she did eat never made her sick.

But she slid the box of them over to Ringo. "But you can have some, since you're my hero."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo laughed. "That's very generous of you!" she exclaimed, reaching out to take a couple of cookies with a grin.

"And once I finish these, I suppose I should do my duty and go defeat the evil villain." She looked around very theatrically. "Wherever he is."

[that_oldsaying]

"He's hiding," Alluka said conspiratorially.

He was not hiding. Mr. Bubbles was flopped over to the left side of Ringo, with half his body stuck under the cushion that had started all of this.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I see," Ringo murmured back. "What does he look like?"

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka giggled.

"Well, he's kinda fuzzy..."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo fought down an amused snort. "Fuzzy, right. What else?"

[that_oldsaying]

"He's usually very nice," Alluka said, since she didn't want to hurt Mr. Bubbles' feelings. "And handsome."

For a stuffed giraffe.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"A nice, handsome villain?" Ringo asked. She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Are you sure?"

[that_oldsaying]

Put that way it sounded sort of silly, it was true.

"He always seemed like that," Alluka said, trying not to giggle again.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"How did you discover that he was really a villain all along?" Sometimes it was hard not to laugh!