Good Job (2)

After pulling up outside her parent's home, Aika parked the car and slowly made her way to the door. Based on what she knew of Aria, she expected some sort of surprise and wasn't entirely sure she wanted to open the door but eventually decided she needed to and would deal with whatever it was as it came.

When she opened the door, she was pleasantly surprised. She had expected there to be balloons everywhere or something and get jumped out at, but it turns out she had overestimated what Aria would bother with while sick.

Looking to the couch, she saw that it was empty and the previously removed from consideration dreaded surprise came jumping back to reality. Slowly, she walked around looking for any hints of what to expect but couldn't find any and simply accepted her fate. Walking up stairs, there was still nothing and she felt a small sense of relief and thought maybe she had thought wrong about Aria's reaction.

Sighing, she pushed open her bedroom door so she could change and get more comfortable but when she saw the inside of the room she was staying in, she wished she hadn't. All around the room were balloons and sitting on the bed with a happy and self-satisfied smile was Aria.

Aria had initially been somewhat worried Aika would just wait around downstairs and ruin the surprise, so she was a bit nervous until she had heard footsteps coming up the stairs. On top of her joy that Aika had succeeded in entering the competition, just the look on her face when she saw the surprise was a whole second level of pleasing. Aika's mouth had dropped open in shock and she seemed to be looking all around the room with a face that read 'I-should-of-seen-this-coming'.

Deciding she had let everything sink in long enough, Aria shouted out, "Congratulations!"

Rubbing her forehead, Aika sighed again and spoke weakly. "Thanks... I got in."

Hearing Aika's somewhat disappointed voice, Aria pouted and looked at her best friend for several seconds before speaking hesitantly. "Sorry about the balloons... I couldn't think of anything else quick enough..."

Feeling slightly guilty for turning her nose up at her friend's sincere effort's Aika played with her fingers before replying. "I um... I like it, I'm just surprised."

"Really? You're not lying?"

Seeing Aria's puppy dog eyes and adorable behavior, Aika slowly felt the annoyance at having balloon all over her temporary room and an unwelcome surprise fade away. Even if she doesn't usually like surprises and especially not balloons, they didn't seem so bad when it's from Aria. "I promise. Once I shower, do you wanna watch a movie or something to celebrate?"

Happy that her surprise didn't cause any trouble and was appreciate, Aria nodded and thought about movies. As Aika left the room, a creepy smirk grew on Aria's face and if she had seen it, she would of surely regretted her offer and taken it back immediately. Sadly, she wasn't able to see it and missed the chance.

Nearly an hour later, Aika walked back out of the bathroom in pajamas and climbed onto the bed next to Aria to watch a movie. When she saw the title of the movie and recognized it as a popular horror movie, a shiver ran down her back and she turned slowly to look at Aria who simply smiled back.

"How about... a different movie?"

"But..." Aria fake coughed and moaned weakly, acting as if her fever had acted back up when in truth it had been mostly fine all day.

Staring blankly at Aria's face, Aika just blinked and held her hand out for the remote. After several seconds there was still no movement from the sick girl and so Aika decided to call her bluff. "I know you're faking, you can fool my parents but not me. Actually... I still haven't lectured you for trying to wave away those coughs from before..."

Suddenly, Aria felt as if she was looking at the face of death and felt a deeply rooted regret for trying to mess with this demon. She hadn't expected her being casual about her flu would work on Aika, but she had honestly forgotten about it until now. Now, having pretended to cough and disregarding the actual danger combined with waving it off when she was actually cough, she knew she was going to be lectured for ages.

Slowly, she passed the remote to Aika who smirked and tossed it aside. Aria's attempt at appeasing the devil was valiantly but too little too late. Deciding to try a different tactic, she put on her best apologetic look and called out weakly, "I'm sorry I did that... twice... I know I'm wrong, please forgive me?" Her words were met only with silence.