Roller Skating Lessons

Six people pulled up in a rather large limousine in front of a roller skating rink. They all climbed out pushing and shoving in a friendly manner. Once a very beautiful man dismissed the limousine they all gathered together and went inside.

"Okay hotohori," Daine was saying laying her hand on her brother’s shoulder. I have learned in my life here in this world that the richest person must pay for everybody else that is in their party, and since you are the emperor of Konan that makes you the richest." Kourin and Usagi were nodding their hands in agreement while Tasuki looked puzzled but happy at the thought that Hotohori would have to pay for everything.

"That’s a very strange custom" Nuriko said giving Daine a knowing look.

"Yes" she agreed as she came up to him and put her arm through his. "I can’t imagine how it ever originated." They walked up to the door that let them into the rink. She tugged at it. "It’s locked" she complained.

"Hmmm" nuriko thought and then pulled the door open breaking the lock in the process. "Not a very strong lock" he commented as he ushered a shocked Daine into the rink. When she had recovered she gave Nuriko a quick scolding.

"Nuriko in this world you can’t just go around breaking locks."

"But aren’t you glad we got in? I only did it cause I thought that you wanted to get in and skate." He informed making big puppy dog eyes that made him look really hot. Powerless against those eyes she could only smile and nod.

Back in the front room there was a little argument going on. Usagi had accidentally let it slip that Daine had been lying about the whole richest-person-pays thing. Now hotohori refused to pay for Tasuki.

"What do you mean you don’t have enough beeping money to pay for me? You’re the richest person in Konan!"

"I cannot pay for someone who has deceived me" Hotohori said in his most condescending manner.

"But I’m not the one who deceived you. That little ***** Daine’s the one who deceived you!" Tasuki was now screaming and waving his Tessen around threateningly at Hotohori.

"You dare to insult and call my most favored sister names in front of me?" Hotohori growled and stepped closer to the hand Tasuki was holding the tessen in.

This is where Kourin had to step in.

"Tasuki-chan, sweetie, why don’t you be a good boy and give me that weapon?" She wheedled.

"Aghhhh, not you too! This is why I hate women. They always think that they can solve everything and prevent me from using my tessen" he shouted cradling his tessen like a baby.

Kourin sighed and said "tasuki you know I would never do anything like that. I only want to make sure that your tessen will be okay while you fight Hotohori." She lied and everybody was able to see that in the room except for Tasuki and that annoying boy behind the counter.

Tasuki reluctantly handed over the tessen. As soon as he did, Hotohori grabbed it out of Kourin’s hands and shouted "Lekka Shinen" pointing the tessen at Tasuki.

Tasuki started to laugh and point at Hotohori "man for an emporer you sure are stupid. Don’t you know that I’m the only one who can use that thing? Dwahahahahahahaha"

Hotohori was trying to keep his last remnants of pride and was pretending that he had known that the tessen wouldn’t work. Unfortunately his attempt was very bad and the only one who bought his act was the love struck Usagi. Hotohori quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her out into the rink leaving behind a swearing tasuki to pay for everyone.

Nuriko and Daine were now out on the rink trying to get used to the roller skates. Daine had earlier suffered a very painful injury at Nuriko’s hands. She was tying up her skates when she complained about her laces being to loose.

"I’ll help you Daine-chan" nuriko said happily plopping himself down in the ground in front of her and proceeded to tighten her laces for her. Unfortunately in his happiness of being able to do something for his beloved Daine-chan he pulled the laces to tight and cut off the circulation to her foot.

Gasping she said "nuri-chan, do you think that you could loosen the laces a little?" Nuriko looked up at her face, all scrunched up in pain, and then down at her foot where he still held the laces of her roller skate in his hand.

"Oops, sorry Daine-chan, sometimes I forget my own strength." He apologized kidding weakly as he undid the laces.

"That’s okay Nuri-chan, I know that you didn’t mean to do that..." she was interrupted by Nuriko’s kiss.

"That’s for the pain you had to suffer" he whispered.

"Well, in that case I think I’m going to need a couple of more kisses to make up for the pain" Daine said with a innocent smile playing around her lips.

"I think I can handle that" Nuriko answered smiling back at her as he leaned in for another kiss. Daine giggled and met his kiss.

Everyone was now gliding along on the rink. Nuriko and Daine were moving along very slowly. They were still absorbed in each other’s kisses. Hotohori and Usagi were gliding along hand in hand. Tasuki and Kourin were having a little trouble. Neither of them was very good in skates. Especially Tasuki.

"Aghh, Kourin, help me I’m falling." Tasuki was screaming. Kourin giggled and held out a hand for Tasuki to grab.

"Aghhhhhh" they both screamed as they fell together. As they were standing up laughter could be heard coming from the other side of the rink. Hotohori was laughing, glad that Tasuki had made a fool of himself.

"Hey it’s not funny!" Kourin said scowling at Hotohori.

"Yeah, and if you want something to laugh about why don’t you come a bit closer?" Tasuki taunted holding up his tessen and waving it in the air.

"Hmph, you can’t do anything to the Emporer of Konan" Hotohori said smugly.

"Oh Yeah?" Tasuki questioned

"Yeah!" Hotohori replied.

"Go Tasuki!" Kourin yelled after Tasuki as he and Hotohori skated to the center of the rink. Not having yet learned to stop, Tasuki coasted past Hotohori and ran into the wall. Hotohori skated toward him. Leaning over him he said.

"Perhaps you should learn to skate before you issue challenges on the rink" he said smirking. As he skated away Tasuki shouted "Lekka Shinen!"

"Oh no!" Usagi said as she knelt down next to Hotohori. "That was not a very nice thing to do" she scolded.

"Leave me alone you ****ing freak."

"Who’s a freak?" Usagi asked

"You are you little *****"

"Me?" She asked puzzled

"Just forget it" Tasuki muttered as he made his way back to Kourin.

"Okay" Usagi said as she smiled and shrugged her shoulders as Hotohori groaned.

"All right then, It’s time for your skating lessons to begin. If you’ll please say here when I call out your name then we can get started." A lady called out as she skated into the center of the rink, a clipboard held in her hands. Nuriko and Daine had reluctantly stopped kissing each other to listen to what the skating instructor had to say. Usagi had gotten Hotohori onto his feet again. Tasuki and Kourin had finally figured out how to balance on their skates.

"Uh, nur-ik-o? Chow?" She asked unable to pronounce the name.

"Nuriko Chou, here" he responded pronouncing the name for her.

"Right um, hot-oho-ri?"She said unable to pronounce his last name.

"That is Emperor Hotohori to you and I am the most beautiful man in either of the worlds." At these words Daine had snorted and whispered in Nuriko’s ear "My brother is so dilusional." and Usagi had been nodding along gazing at him.

"Tas-u-ki?" The lady called out.

"It’s Tasuki, Tasuki! Get it right you ****ing idiot!" Tasuki had screamed at her "or I’ll have to use my Tessen on you!" He added as an after thought.

The skating lady was now cowering in fear. "w.. Whatever you say" she managed to say, swallowing thickly.

"Daine?" She asked praying that whoever Daine was she was not a crazy lunatic.

"Over here" Daine answered brightly as she waved her arm. The lady simply nodded.

"Us-a-gi?" She asked. Everybody looked over at Usagi but she was busy listening to Hotohori talking about himself. (Once he started he just couldn’t stop)

"Us-a-gi?" The lady called out one more time.

"Oh, that would be me" she said vaguely not bothering to correct the lady.

"Ko-ur-in?" She called out.

"It’s Kourin, Kourin! Get it right! How many times do I have to tell you?" Tasuki had shouted for Kourin mad that his girl’s name had been mangled.

"Okay well everybody’s here. I guess it’s time to start the lesson" the lady said nervously as if expecting another attack from Tasuki. "My name is Lira"

"Lira? What kind of a name is that? Talk about your weird names" Tasuki shouted pleased with the reaction he was getting from Lira. Daine had had enough.

She told Nuriko what to do. He was happy to comply. Pulling Daine along he skated over to where Tasuki was standing. He then proceeded to circle Tasuki coming closer with each circle. Finally Tasuki fell losing his balance.

"Hey" he complained. "You did that on purpose."

"All I’m going to say, Tasuki, is that you had better leave that lady alone and show her some respect. Otherwise I’ll pummel you to the ground." Nuriko threatened. Daine grinned approvingly at Nuriko. They skated off not too far away and gave their attention to Lira.

"Right, Okay then we’ll start with just letting everybody skate so that I can assess where everybody is and what everybody needs to learn, if that’s alright with everybody else?" Lira asked. Nobody said anything against that plan so that’s what they did. Hotohori zoomed around the rink with Usagi in tow. Tasuki and Kourin made their way around the rink slipping and falling. Nuriko and Daine would have been as good as Hotohori except for the fact that they had gone back to their favorite activity and were actually skating slower than Tasuki and Kourin.

After Lira had let them skate for long enough to see where there abilities were, she called them to stop. Hotohori continued to skate around the rink for another two times then halted saying "I decided to stop now" very imperiously. Tasuki and Kourin were grateful that they could now stop. Nuriko and Daine reluctantly stopped kissing and waited for the next instructions.

Nervously, Lira said to Hotohori "You can go do whatever you want. I can see that you are a very good skater. Hotohori nodded approvingly at her. When she didn’t say anything to Usagi, he cleared his throat and looked at Usagi. "Oh yes, Us-a-gi, you may go with Emperor Hotohori." Hotohori smiled approvingly. Lira moved on to Tasuki and Kourin. "I think you two should just continue to skate around until you manage to be able to skate without falling, and with some rythym and grace." Tasuki and Kourin groaned and began to skate again. Tasuki had not said anything about her orders because both Nuriko and Daine had been glaring at him. Lira then turned to Nuriko and Daine. "you two seem to have mastered the basics very well. From what I can tell of your skating you two would be very good in pair skating if you wanted to try it. You seem to be very much in sync.

"Oooh, Nuriko did you here that? We’re in sync. Let’s do it" Daine exclaimed.

"Sure, but it comes as no surprise. Anything done with you would have to be perfect" Nuriko said smiling at Daine. She swooned.

"All right then. We’ll start with some basic moves. Skate around the rink side by side holding hands." Lira commanded.

"That’s it? We just have to hold hands?"Daine asked. "We’ll have no trouble with that, we’re experts at that" she finished as the two soomthly glided into position. They took off with no difficulty at all. When they had finished Lira nodded approvingly. She spent the rest of the lesson teaching them how to become pair skaters. They, of course, managed to do everything perfectly on their first attempts.

As the clock neared six o’clock, people began to filter into the rink. It was now regular skating time at the rink. Tasuki and Kourin still had not yet managed to figure out how to skate and by the end of the lesson they had decided that they really did want to learn how. They were so intent on trying to skate that they did not hear people laughing at their skating. They continued to skate completely oblivious to the skating. The one time they stopped to take a break Kourin asked, "Tasuki-chan, do you hear that laughter?"

"Yeah, do you see Hotohori anywhere?"

"No, why?"

"Because if there’s laughter than Hotohori’s gotta be around somewhere."

"Tasuki!" Kourin said as she pulled him down for a kiss. They started to skate, again completely oblivious to the laughter.

Hotohori and Usagi had gone back to Hotohori’s mansion. Hotohori had become bored when it was obvious that Nuriko and Daine were going to be the center of attention. He waws happy for his sister but in the years that he had been alone he had become quite self-absorbed even though Daine was now trying to make him into his own self again. But before he left he had also heard the laughter. He watched to see what everyone was laughing at. When he saw it, He chuckled and wrote something down on a pad of paper he pulled out of his enormous sleaves. Laughing he handed it to a child standing nearby. "Deliver this to the Red-headed baka in an hour." The child looked scared and ran crying to his mommy.

Nuriko and Daine were giving their own little show on the rink. They had quickly mastered pair skating, and with Nuriko’s strength and Daine’s gymnastic skill, Nuriko was able to throw and catch Daine as she twisted and turned in the air. They made a lot of money that night and were offered many contracts which they refused.

Fifty-five minutes later Nuriko and Daine were changing back into their shoes.

"Have you seen Hotohori?" Daine asked Nuriko as she was tying her shoes.

"Not since the rink opened. I think he went home when he saw everyone was paying attention to us" Nuriko smirked.

"Well, I don’t know about them but I know I wouldn’t be able to resist you" Daine said with an impish grin.

"Really?" Nuriko asked getting into the mood. "Why don’t you show me then?"

"When?" Daine asked promptly.

"Now," replied Nuriko grinning wolfishly as he pulled her close.

"Ah, man don’t you two do anything else?" A voice could be heard saying coming from behind the kissing couple. Tasuki and Kourin had finally stopped skating seeing as how they had finally managed to make it around the rink without falling once.

"Um, why would we want to do anything else?" A puzzled Daine asked as she broke away from the kiss.

Tasuki thought for a second. "Good point" he admitted as a wolfish smile took over his features not unsimilar to the one Nuriko had been wearing. Daine nodded knowingly and went back to kissing Nuriko. Just as Tasuki and Kourin were starting to imitate Nuriko and Daine, a tiny boy knocked on the back of Tasuki’s knee.

"What do you want?" Tasuki screamed as he turned around. He saw nothing, but then he heard a tiny voice sniffling. He looked down and saw a frigtened little boy crying. "He reminds me of me when I was that age" Tasuki whispered to Kourin. "Yes little boy?" Tasuki asked the boy as he kneeled in front of them.

"A man said to give this to you?" the boy said almost inaudibly as he held out the note. He then quickly ran away to his mommy.

Tasuki quickly read the note with Kourin reading over his shoulder.

Dear Tasuki,

I hope that you manage to learn how to skate by the end of the evening. I bet a million dollars, you would. Anyway even if I lose my million it won’t be anything compared to what the laughter will be like then. I have only one question for you. How can you skate with all those people laughing at you?

Your Most Beautiful Emperor,

Hotohori

"Those...Those people were laughing at us?" Kourin asked paling.

"Just because we can’t skate?" Tasuki added. He then began to grow angrier and angrier. "Just because we can’t skate?" He roared. He stomped off in the direction of the people where laughter could still be heard. Kourin followed behind him now almost as mad as he was. "Nobody laughs at Tasuki or his girl!" Tasuki roared "Lekka shinen!" Tasuki set the entire place on fire.

It was one in the morning before the last fire truck left the now burned-down to the ground rink. Tasuki and Kourin had set up a tent and had been camping in front of the fire.

"Nothing like a good blaze," Kourin commented while roasting a marshmellow at the end of a stick.

"Especially when the fire is getting rid of stupid things like roller rinks" added Tasuki. He had twelve marshmellows on his stick. They spent the rest of the night making comments like that and eating marshmellows. They didn’t leave until the last smallest fire went out.

Nuriko and Daine hadn’t left until the fire trucks came. They hadn’t even noticed the fire until then. For some reason it didn’t seem to affect them.

"I wonder why we didn’t get burned?" Daine asked.

"Maybe we’re immune to fire?" Suggested Nuriko.

"Umm I don’t think that’s it" Daine answered.

"Maybe we were too busy to notice and because we didn’t the notice the fire could do nothing to us. You know, like the way cartoon characters don’t fall off cliffs until they notice they’re no longer on the cliff" Nuriko explained.

"Or maybe it was the fact that we were standing under the only fire sprinkler thingy in the entire rink." Daine said pointing to their soggy clothes as she talked.

"Hmmm, I didn’t notice that either. But I don’t mind getting wet" He commented.

"Why not" Daine asked

"Well now your clothes are more clingy" He said trying to keep his face from breaking into a humongous grin.

Daine swatted him as she blushed "Nuriko" she admonished

"What" he asked grinning at her as she covered her chest.

"That was an idiotic thing to say. And you should be paying attention to your driving"

"You never tell me to pay attention to my driving when we’re kissing."

"Well we’re not kissing now are we? So pay attention to the road."

"What if we were kissing?" Nuriko asked

"Then you wouldn’t have to I suppose" She said reluctantly.

"Great" Nuriko said. He leaned in to kiss her when he realized that she was getting out of the car. "Where are you going?" Nuriko asked.

"Baka" Daine laughed. "Can’t you see where we are?"

Nuriko looked at the familiar surroundings. "Oh" he said sheepishly. He got out of the car to walk her to the door.

"Good night, Nuriko" Daine said softly as she made to open the door, but she was stopped with a good night kiss. Which ended up lasting another half an hour. They would have kept on going except that Daine’s father had turned on the porch lights. Blushing Daine stopped kissing Nuriko and opened the front door. "Good night, Nuriko" She repeated.

"Good night Daine-chan. I’ll see you tomorrow" Nuriko answered. She walked into the house and closed the door behind her. Nuriko stayed on the porch for another minute recollecting the evening. As he walked toward his car he muttered to himself "We’ll have to take some more lessons" with another foolish grin on his face.