//------------------------------// // I Don't Care // Story: Putting the Fun in Dysfunctional // by Nova Quill //------------------------------// "Hahaha! You fell for it, I build off of your carelessly placed tiles, with the remainder of mine I get oxyphenbutazone! Suck. It!" Aria crowed and danced in her seat. " I am the Scrabble queen! BOW before my linguistic might, peon!" The coffee table in the living room was an uncharacteristic mess with various snacks, drinks and game pieces strewn haphazardly around. "That can't be a word." Adagio grumbled around her pretzel, absentmindedly flipping through the dictionary at her hip. "There is no way that's a word, much less one that you know." "It is a word, I looked up all the instant winners online before I challenged you." Was the smug reply. "Apparently it's a drug or something, I don't really care that much." Aria shrugged carelessly and smirked in turn. "And at 1,778 points with that word, that means that I win and you have to do the dishes. Hah!" "Oh my naive and simple minded follower." Adagio's voice dipped to smoke coated honey, predatory in nature and rife with smug victory. "I don't do dishes, I entrance the local idiots and have them do it for me. Failing that, I simply throw the current ones out and buy more." Before Aria could sputter about how that wasn't the agreement the front door opened with a crash, a bang and a crunch of yet another trinket or device meeting an unfortunate Sonata-themed end. The blue haired menace herself followed soon after brandishing a box over her head and a manic grin. Before she could kill her momentum, she tripped over and upended the low coffee table and promptly went arse over tea kettle with all the grace, aplomb and dexterity of a wounded water buffalo. The box went for a brief flight before landing relatively gently beside an unfazed Adagio on the couch. Aria was not quite so fortunate, and wound up with a lap full of gangly limbs and an inadvertent headbutt to the nose. Game pieces, chips, dip, pretzels and pop went everywhere. A glob of garlic dip ended up on the ceiling where it remained for years, unnoticed until a baffled Sunset Shimmer had to drag a disproportionately drunk Adagio Dazzle home and had to crash on the couch. "SON-OF-A-" Aria's shriek was cut off mid way by Sonata's gleeful exclamation. "Girls! I got a thing!" "Please tell me you didn't bring home another nearly dead bird." Adagio asked with no small amount of disdain as she lifted the box to check that it didn't bleed over her upholstery. Again. She wasn't surprised when the box shook in her grasp, but she was surprised that there were no fluids leaking out of the bottom. "What-?" The box mewed. Adagio had a horrible feeling that she knew where this was going. "It's a kitten! We're keeping him!" Sonata burst out, clamoring out of a still irate and huffing Aria's lap and crab walking to Adagio. "What?" "I'm gonna name him Zim, and he shall be mine, and I'm gonna feed him bacon, and waffles and burritos and -" Adagio muffled the monologue with one hand while she opened the small box with the other. Bright red eyes stared back at her, surrounded by what appeared to be a black cotton ball. It was hissing. Cotton balls shouldn't be black. Or hiss. It sounded like air being let out of a very small tire. She didn't know why she found it so endearing. Of course, none of this changed the fact that it wasn't staying, but the seething ball of hatred was oddly cute. Aria rallied from her pain at the mention of 'kitten' with surprising speed and chimed in with a sudden burst of anger. "No. No freaking way. We are not sharing our house with a stupid cat. They're lazy, they're territorial, they're unapologetic assholes, they break crap all the time, and there is no way that that airhead" She punctuated the vehement outburst with a jerk of her arm at an entirely unapologetic but rapidly indignant Sonata. "Is going to remember to take care of it, you won't" This gesture, no less rude, but certainly more irate, was aimed toward Adagio. "So that means that it's gonna fall to me to feed the unwanted trollop and clean up cat shit. No! Get it out of here." Her ending point made at a bellow loud enough to rattle the windows, Aria got up and stomped toward her bedroom, muttering curses. Sonata sniffed sullenly and picked the kitten up out of the box. Surprisingly, he didn't resist. Adagio wasn't sure whether to be impressed at its guts or worried at its apparent lack of self preservation instinct. After taking a sip of her drink, she spoke with surprising gentleness to the youngest member. "She has a point you know. I won't take care of him, and you only just got to the point where you don't nearly burn the house down any time you cook. I personally don't give a damn if he dies, but if you want him, it should and will be up to you to clean up after him and feed him. Plus what ever other crap cats need for maintenance." She murmured with a flippant wave of her hand. "But-" whatever excuse Sonata was about to blurt out was rapidly gagged by the sharp glance Adagio sent her way before the eldest siren continued on as if it never happened, her voice still calm and quiet, but very, very stern. "No. No 'buts' here. We look after each other because we're all we have, bringing an outsider in without at least giving us a heads up before hand so we could think about it was reckless. I don't care if he stays, I don't care if you want to keep him outdoors and just leave food out. But you will not foist this on either of us. If you don't think you can, if you have even an inkling of an idea that you will get bored of him in a month, bring him back to wherever you got him now. Because you will not like what Aria or I choose to do if it's left in our hands." Adagio stood up and started to make for the door, then paused at the threshold. "You can think about it for tonight, but tomorrow I want you to sit down with Aria and hash out what your plan is so that she's not left holding the bag, and neither am I." Once again, the leader of the group paused to take a deep breath before continuing in a kinder tone. "There's some canned salmon in the kitchen, give it to him for tonight and it should tide him over until the morning." Her piece said and point made, the curly haired blonde made her way to her own room to rest and give her charge some time to herself. They'd clean up the mess tomorrow, she suddenly felt very tired. The kitten had been lulled by Adagio's quiet voice, and had since settled into her lap to begin purring in his sleep. Sonata leaned back into the couch while absently stroking his long, soft fur and did something that she wasn't much accustomed to doing for long periods of time. She thought.