I'm sorry for taking so long! WAHHH!
Well, this is the sequel! Basically just pointless stuff...just to see Ren in a dress...Heehee!
" This is all your fault." Horohoro huffed, leaning on his mop. He was so tired!
" Me? Who wanted pictures of himself in a dress? You!" Yoh glared, half-heartedly pushing a mop around.
" If you never asked Ren to get the camera!" Horohoro retorted, straightening.
" If you hadn't left the pictures in plain view!" Yoh shot back.
Horohoro took a deep breath, ready to blame his friend some more. But then he thought better of it, and exhaled. He was going to need his strength for all the chores Ren was making them do.
Yoh seemed to have similar thoughts, for he slouched out of his defensive position and grasped his mop again. " What else do we have to do after this?"
Horohoro pulled out a small notebook from his pocket. He opened it, and squinted at the first page. Ren's neat, minuscule writing covered every sheet in the small book.
" Um…3:05, hand wash the Almighty Ren's silk laundry."
Yoh groaned. " But he has tons of silk laundry! When does he expect us to be done?"
Horohoro consulted the book again. " 4:05. Then we have to polish his silverware."
Yoh finished off the bit of floor he had left to mop, and leaned his mop against the wall. " Come on, it's 3:04."
The two exhausted shamans trudged to Ren's room, where two over-flowing baskets of silk awaited them.
" Watch us, following Ren's every whim. Oh, how far we've fallen!" Horohoro whined piteously, picking up a hamper.
" How many clothes does he go through in a week, anyway?" Yoh hefted the other, amazed at how heavy silk could be.
" And we never even got to see Ren in a dress!" Horohoro sighed in regret, following the other boy into the laundry room.
" What?" Yoh stared at his friend as he turned the water on full-blast.
" That was the whole point, remember?" Horohoro shouted above the gushing water, soaking articles of silk clothing with it. He shivered; why did Ren insist they use only ice-cold water?
Yoh was silent as he drenched his load as well; he appeared to be thinking. " I bet a whole week of Ren's chores that I can get him to wear a dress and that I can take pictures of it too!" He finally cried.
" A whole week, eh?" Horohoro mused it over. A whole week, free of evil Ren's work, and with blackmail pictures to boot. It seemed like a win-win situation. Of course, Horohoro never factored in what would happen if he lost. " You're on!"
" Hate to see you lose, my friend." Yoh shook his head in mock-regret, scrubbing a scarlet shirt with peach-scented all-natural soap. The soap was expensive stuff, and he should know. Ren made them buy it out of their own money. " But I hate to see myself lose even more."
-And so…-
" Please, Ren!" Horohoro begged, kneeling before the Chinese shaman. " I'll do anything!"
" Not that I don't enjoy this," Ren began, referring to Horohoro's repetitive bowing, " but I can already make you do anything I want."
Horohoro paused, but only for a second. Ren had a point there.
" Please!" The Ainu started bowing again. It was the best – and only – idea he had to get Ren to wear a dress. " You'll look pretty!"
Ren was silent. An aura of doom started to surround him. " …What?"
" Er…my clothes are real gritty?" Horohoro ended lamely.
" Uh-huh…" Ren said sceptically, the cloud of doom gone. " Whatever. Now go cook my dinner."
" But – " Horohoro tried again.
" GO!" There was a dangerous gleam in Ren's eyes.
" Alright!" Horohoro quickly ducked out of Ren's view.
Yoh had watched the entire scene from the stairs, and with Horohoro gone, he was now making his move.
" You know, you would look pretty in a dress." He remarked casually, safe in the elevation of the stairs.
" Yoh, do you want to die?" Ren replied calmly, stroking his kwan-do, which seemed to come out of nowhere.
" I'm just saying, you'd look better in dress than I do. But," here Yoh gave a dramatic sigh. " You're probably not manly enough to wear a dress."
" What?" Ren squawked. But Yoh ignored him.
" After all, you obviously aren't as assured of your manly manliness as I am, because if you were a manly man, like I am, then you would be comfortable in a dress." Yoh continued, taking no heed of Ren's look of growing disbelief. " Because, if you're a manly man, you would be relaxed about your manliness, which means you could be very manly about your manly man self, so you'd be the epitome of manliness, even though you're wearing a very manly dress. Like I was, thus proving me a more manly man than you!" Yoh finished proudly.
Ren's mouth worked in silence for a few moments as he tried to wrap his mind around Yoh's convoluted logic. Finally, he just decided to go with a frontal attack. " Are you saying you're manlier than me?"
" Yep!" Yoh grinned cheerfully." Of course, you could always prove me wrong…"
" That's exactly what I'm going to do!" Ren snapped, storming up the stairs past Yoh. " I'm going to find the girly-est dress there is, and then we'll see who's manly!"
" Have fun!" Yoh called, going down to the living room to fetch his camera. An uncharacteristically evil smirk formed on his face as he thought of poor Horohoro's face when the Ainu realized he had lost the bet.
Before long, Ren thundered down the stairs. " There!"
Yoh gaped. Ren had managed to squeeze himself into what looked like a fairy godmother dress gone wrong. The dress was hot pink, with dainty white lace, shirrs, frills, flounces, beading, sequins, and ribbons wherever lace, shirring, frills, flounces, beads, sequins and ribbons could possibly be. And then some.
Not only that, but Ren had procured a pair of pink stilettos, and had a plastic tiara jammed on his hair.
Yoh was speechless. His mouth moved, but nothing came out. Finally, he shook his head, and seemed to gather his senses. " I don't even want to know…" He trailed off.
Ren scowled. " A friend of Jun's gave it to her years ago as a gag gift."
" You guys had friends?" Yoh blurted out, surprised.
Ren smacked him. " Of course we did! We were allowed in the village now and then."
" Yeah, okay. Anyway," Yoh changed the subject, although he was still wondering why Ren had the dress. " You still have to pose! Horo and I did that." He smiled slyly.
" Fine! I am more manly than you!" Ren snapped. Then he forced a smile and made a victory sign.
Quick as a flash, Yoh whipped out the camera and took a picture. Amid Ren's squawks of protest he grinned to himself. Who could blackmail whom now?
-Later-
" YOH! What is the meaning of this?" Anna roared at the top of her lungs, waking everyone in the onsen.
As Anna shouted at Yoh, Ren smirked to himself, rolling over in bed. He hadn't bothered to get up to do Yoh's chores, since he knew Anna would find the pictures he had purposely left out for her.
The golden-eyed boy felt positively giddy at the thought of the torture that awaited Yoh.
Yes, no one blackmailed Tao Ren and got away with it!
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