She grinned one more time at the bot helping her out, although truth be told, it was more the other way around at this point. Loth was the one, after all, who'd taken on the task of assigning chores in the kitchen to her own sweet Sully and T and T.

Fortunately, those responsibilities were finished. Everything was mixed and prepared, carefully arranged on platters in the refridgerator. Well, everything except the bowl of candy Turmoil had put together, because that looked like a big bad chaotic mess, but still... she smiled happily at the Dru-bot and nodded. "It's lovely, sweets. Really. And... you can go play now. All of you."

A huge grin split her face as Sully dashed over and kissed her hard, and that smile only grew larger as he raced from the room and for the backyard.

The sudden loud splash and shrieks of her bot's name didn't phaze her even slightly-- mostly because she'd been very careful to bring changes of clothes for both him and herself.

One tight hug for Loth, and she stepped back. "Thanks again, honey. Even if you DO enjoy cooking. I'd hate to have had to do all this myself." A light blush coloured her cheeks when he kissed her softly and promised not to mention her outfit, regardless of how NOT her it was. Not that that would stop the REST of Deli's boys, but she appreciated Loth's restraint.

"Come on. Time to have some fun." And with that, the brunette in the scarily short skirt and the bleached Spike left the kitchen and headed for the yard to take part in the festivities.
******************************************************************************************************************************

Seth eyed everything that Angeline had packed, "Umm...luv...dare I ask..."

Angeline rested her chin on his shoulder, "Do you really want to hear?"

Seth thought about that for a minute before shaking his head.

They slipped into the car, and were already heading down the driveway, when Angeline caught Seth's arm, with a little dismayed gasp, causing him to slam on
the brakes.

"Bloody hell Lin! What now?"

Angeline ignored the swearing that came out of her normally placid bot, as she hoped out of the car and dashed back into the house.

Seth let his head drop to the steering wheel, as he waited. When he heard the door click shut again, he looked up, his eyes widening.

Beside Angeline strode a tall man... no bot - his dark hair falling into pitch black eyes. He snarled at Seth as he passed, slipping into the car. Seth glared at him through the mirror. He didn't take his eyes off the black eyes as Angeline slid in beside him.

"Grimjack I presume?"

The Rackbot didn't answer him as he settled into the seat, making Seth roll his eyes.

"Chatty bloke isn't he Lin?"

Angeline snickered, as Grimjack glowered at Seth.

He sighed, "Fun trip this will be..."

***********

They finally arrived at Deli's, Seth attempting to talk to Grimjack, who ignored him for the most part.

Angeline bounced out of the car, heading straight for the door, which had been left open. She beckoned to Grimjack to follow her as she peeked through room
after room. She heard Seth calling out to Loth and the answering laugh from Loth. She headed out to the back and the pool and spotted who she had been looking for.
She took Grimjack, by the arm, and was about to point out Tis, but Grimjack moved smoothly forward, heading straight for Tis.

She smiled as she watched them, but before Grimjack reached Tis' side, her arm was wrenched around, and she found herself staring into deep blue eyes.

"Hey Fangy."
****************************************************************************************************************************
"Well? How do I look?" I asked Rem twirling around. I took his impression of a fish to mean that he liked it.

Rem cleared his throat a few times & pulled me into his arms. "I esp like the side lace up pants."

I laughed "I thought you might. Can you and Morph put your stuff in the car? I need to have a talk with the with your cohorts about the Incident."

"Sure." Rem said kissing me gently. "Morph! We're leaving in 5."

I headed downstairs to have that stern talking to my other four had earned. After much groveling and pleading on their part, I relented on their punishment and only made them watch 2 episodes of Urkel.

"Ok, Zack, i'm leaving you in charge. Try not to do anything illegal. If you do, don't get caught 'cos I'm not bailing you out. We'll be back in tomorrow. I'm taking the cell in case you need anything. Bye, guys!" I hugged each of them good bye.

With Rem's driving, we arrived at Deli's pretty quickly. We walked in through the open front door and followed the laughing out to the pool deck. A blur ran past us, I looked at Morph "Was that Toga?"

****************************************************************************************************************************

Sarah and James slowly approach Deli's house, and slip around the corner before they're seen.

"What's the matter, love? I'm a bot, you're my mistress, let's go in."

"Well..." Sarah twisted her fingers together nervously. "I know, I know...but we're new and all. We didn't even technically get an invtie. I haven't even SEEN the invite. What if this is a special party or something? I've had you all of one day, and who wants to be branded as the official party crasher of the list?"

James rolled his eyes and quickly grabbed Sarah's hand, dragging her up to the front door.

"We're just as welcome here as anyone else, pet. And if we're not..." He smiled brightly. "Let's just say no one's going to turn you away from their party on my watch. Invited or not." With a wink, James swung open the front door, waltzing in as if he owned the place.

"You could have at least knocked..." Sarah grumbled, tentaively following him in.

"Um...guys? I'm Sarah...also known as Naked. And I'd like you to meet James...."

****************************************************************************************************************************

"Um, baby?" he purred into her ear as his left hand slipped around her waist from behind.

"Yeah?"

"Your shirt's on inside out." He nibbled her right earlobe gently.

They were walking up to Deli's door, Py carrying a big stack of Little Caesars pizzas, and 'Gelus carrying shopping bag full of Crazy Bread™, Cinnamon Stix™ and, of course, Py's small case of Smirnoff Ice.

She stopped in her tracks, a slight blush rising to her cheeks. "You couldn't have told me that in the car when I put it back on?" she whispered.

"I just wanted to see you scramble to fix it," he replied with a shrug. "Can you blame me?"

"Yep," she said, loading the pizzas into his arms and setting the shopping bag on top of the boxes. "I can blame you for a lot of things, but you'd either: A) deny them, or B) beg to be punished for them. I figure I'm saving time by letting them slide."

She ducked behind a bush and in a flash she was back, her snake-pattern tank top adjusted properly. As he handed her back the pizzas, he leaned down to kiss her, but she leaned away from him, her eyes on his pants, smirking. "Your fly's open."

As if he had just been zapped, he jumped into action, attempting to pull up his zipper, only to find it wasn't open at all. He looked up at his mistress to see a devious grin on her face as she reached a hand up and ruffled his hair like she always did when she teased him.

He growled half-playfully, half-angrily in response. "Do you know how long it took me to get my hair just right? Those stupid work hats do nothing for my style."

"What style? I practically have to dress you." she teased.

"Do not!" he spat back, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Okay, okay, so you've got good taste when it comes to your own clothes, but I swear, some of the things you buy me are just hideous."

"What about the last dress I bought you? That was nice."

"You call *that* a dress?"

"What would *you* call it?"

"Floss. Strategically tied together to barely cover me."

"You're exaggerating...again," he growled. "It looked *great* on you."

"For all of the five seconds before you tore it off, you mean? What's the point in even buying me clothes any more?" She grinned before heading to the door.

A grin spread across his face to match hers and he fell in step with her. "Should we knock?" she asked, her hands full.

He pushed the door slightly. "Well it's already open. I guess we should just..." He quickly pushed the door open and sauntered in, leaving Py on the front step.

"'Gelus..." she sighed, shaking her head. Sometimes that bot was just too much for her.

He peeked his head around the doorframe and flashed her a smile, taking the pizzas from her. "You coming?" he asked. "Or are you just gonna stand there all night thinking how I'm too much for you?"

She grinned at him and followed him into the house.

~Nah,~ she thought to herself. ~He's just enough.~

****************************************************************************************************************************

"We're finally here!" She exclaimed happily. "Looks like everyones here already luv."

"We wouldn't be late if you didn't have to stop for fireworks Peirce." Shelby hopped out of the Explorer quickly, her bots in tow. Aries looked about curiously. "So this is Deli's place." He chuckled at the 'No Reily's' sign. " I think I like this place already."

Peirce grabbed up their bags and strolled beside Shelby. "Seems like forever since we've been here." Shelby nodded and giggled. "I hear water! C'mon you two hurry up!" Quickly Shelby yanked off her shorts and top revealing a light violet bikini. "I'm not wasting any time. I'm getting in the water!"

"She seems a bit excited." Aries remarked. Peirce rolled his eyes. "That she does mate. We best follow 'er." Shelby glanced back at her boys. "You. Are. Both. Getting. In. With. Me." Peirce opened his mouth to protest. "But luv, I wanted to...."

"Go.Change.Now." She replied. Both bots nodded that they understood and headed straight for the changing rooms. "So punishment for this would be...?" Aries asked. Peirce grinned. "Oh we'll get her. When she's not looking of course."

Comming around the side of the pool Shelby noticed Jess and Damean sleeping soundly. An evil giggle wanted to burst, instead it stayed buried until a splash of water on the couple made her erupt into giggles and run away from the crime scene. Quickly she ran over to Loth at the bar, hopped up on the stool.

She was still trying to stifle giggles when Loth approached.

"Any reason why you think I'll hide you over here?" His eyes were so adorably blue she thought, but he was teasing, surley he'd hide her. They went way back. Sort of.

"Because we're friends and you owe me one?"

"I owe you one? For what?"

"I don't remember, but you do." She insisted.

Loth shook his head. "I'm sure I would remember if I owed you one pet. How about you owe me one and I'll think about it?" Excitedly she shook her head.

"Agreed. I'll owe you one." Peirce and Aries came out of the pool room just then, Aries wearing navy blue swimming trunks and Peirce wearing black trunks. Shelby bounded off the seat and ran over to her bots.

"I did say I'd think about it pet, and we never shook on it. Gonna have to teach that one how to make a deal with a Spikealike." Loth said to himself.

********************************************

"AH!!" Jess shouted.

"Bleedign helll!!" Damean cursed some more.

"Who in the hell did that!" Jess shouted getting up fromt he chair, she saw there was now more people there, she looked at those around, "ok who was it?" she said.

"Best speak up.....now!" Damean added not liking being wet while he was still in his clothes.

"Not bloody likely pet." Aries pointed towards a shouting Damean. "Is that the one she splashed?"

"I didn't do it." Shelby insisted. "It was a little bird."

She strolled up to the pair, offering a towel. "Your all wet? How come?" Hiding a snicker in her smile was not easy.

Jess started laughing as she dried herself.

Damean just grinned.

"Love you too pet!" She teased. "It's about time you wake up. It's a party! You didn't think I'd let you both sleep did you?" Shelby climed out of the pool and gave Jess a hug.

"I'm hungry, wanna go scare us up some food?"

Damean looked around "so pet, where did you put your bags? So I can put our away," Damean asked Shelby.

"Well I think Toga's here with Will. And I thought I saw Seth for a moment. That is until I saw you two sleeping, it completely made me change my course of direction." She giggled

Peirce pointed towards the house. "In there on Deli's bed. Somehow we managed to only bring three bags this time." Peirce stared at his lady teasingly. "She always packs heavy."

Suddenly Tis and Sully came through a set of doors. "Hey! Tis was cooking I know, she'll know where the food is!"

Damean picked up the bags, and took them to Deli's room leaving Jess outside.

Jess looked around, "so whats on the itinerary?"

****************************************************************************************************************************

I can only imagine what sort of picture we must make as we speed down Deli's street. I assume these people have seen just about everything at this point
but still. You imagine it, one Spikebot, a guitar, a violin, a computer case, a cooler and a trashy catholic school reject all strapped to the back of a Harley. Yup quite the image we present.

The bike screeches to a halt in front of the house barely missing the back fender of Shelbys beloved TA and I shudder both because I know what would happen to us if we touched that car and the sudden stop jarred me forward pressing me even more tightly against Charley's back. If that's possible. I snuggle in for a moment, inhaling his scent and wrapping my arms arm him. He's been MIA for weeks now, even if he has only been in his new music room, working on his 'opus' and I'm content right where I am.

With a growl he turns and kisses me knotting his hands in my hair and I realize that there is content and there is content. Vaugely I wonder what sort of picture we present to the world. I mean we really are an odd pair. He's got this great tourtured James Dean thing going on, the misunderstood artist in tight jeans, deep red silk shirt over my favorite black tee, blonde tipped hair strategically mussed. Good Lord I could eat him with a spoon, lick him up like ice cream right here on Deli's front lawn. I half wonder if her neighbors have seen that yet.

The kiss is too short and he hops off the bike with the same frenetic energy that he imbues everything with swinging me up and to the ground in a flurry
of red, blue and black plaid. He unhooks the violin and caresses the case almost tenderly. A stab of jealously spears through me and I both mentally berate myself and wonder at how much he's rubbed off on me, three months ago I wouldn't have been the least bit jealous of anything that gave him pleasure, let alone an inanimate piece of wood.

Our offerings are unloaded and we head straight back to where I can hear the party. With a quick peck to my lips that I know is more a show of ownership than anything else Charley makes a beeline for the deck area where Deli has set up her keyboard. With a sigh I drop the cooler with my special choclate mousse, a batch of my SSG and three kinds of juice off at the food table, grab a soda and with a smile at Loth wander off to sit quietly by the pool where I can watch Charley as he sets up his stuff.

Three months, almost to the day. I wonder if he even remembers when Fangy and Seth dropped him off at my house, goodness I was nervous. Then I opened the door and he was there. Mine. That was the first thing he said to me and I didn't have to worry about anything because I was. From that first moment I was his, anytime, anyplace, any way. I sigh again just as Toga bounds towards me and I shake away my reflective mood and smile as she approaches.

Three months. He probably doesn't even remember.