The Most N Usual House Guest

Chapter 1: Crashing At Crash's Place

The night air, cool and crisp, was permeated by the sound of waves splashing against the rocks that lined the shores of N. Sanity Island. A few seagulls cawed softly in the distance, most of them having taken refuge in their nests for the evening, sheltering in burrows up high in the cliff face where the tides could not reach them. A refreshing salty tang carried on the wind, invigorating the senses of the lone figure who was crouched upon the mast of the lopsided shipwreck that rested on one side of the sandy beach. She certainly didn't feel invigorated, however. To the contrary, quite a number of conflicting thoughts and emotions were swirling around inside her, making her stomach tighten, her mouth thin and her fists clench, the latter doing so with a faint creaking sound.

The figure raised her right hand, taking careful aim at a higher point on the mast, which creaked and swayed in the strong ocean breeze. Quite suddenly, her fist sprang forward, detaching from her wrist and rocketing forward on a spring-loaded chain. Fingers of thick steel wrapped around the mast and clenched it tightly, acting as a grappling hook. The figure then leapt from her crouched position, swinging through the air to land on the beach below. The moment her boots touched the ground, she retracted the chain, pulling her metal hand back towards her. It clicked into place on the girl's wrist and she gazed towards the shade of the nearby palm trees that bordered the island's tropical jungle, exhaling deeply through the nose.

"Guess I really don't have a choice," she muttered to herself. She took a hesitant step forward, her left black combat boot leaving a footprint in the white sand. Another step. Another. The girl's feet carried her from the coarse sand to the lush grass that awaited her as she stepped out of the moonlight and into the gloom. Bathed in shadow, the girl's wary blue eyes could see light in the distance.

The lights of a house.

A house that, by rights, she had no business being anywhere near at the best of times, let alone in the dead of night.

And it was to this house, this round, deceptively small-looking house coloured not unlike the sands that were little more than a hundred metres from its front door, that the girl's feet guided her in a brisk yet cautious trudge. It was to this house, the house of 'those losers', as she had so often dismissed them, that the girl stepped up to the wooden front door of, raising her cold, hard, virtually indestructible fist to knock… only to lower it with a melancholic sigh.

"Ah, who am I kidding?" she whispered to herself. "What am I even doing here? I mean, it's not like they'd actually…" She sighed again. "Sometimes I almost forget just how rotten it is being a Cortex. Almost." On that note, she turned to leave, not going three paces before she heard approaching footsteps from inside the house.

The girl hesitated once again, and for the first time that night, she had no idea why. It was as though something had stirred inside her. Something that she had thought to be lost to her years ago. It was… hope? Hope for what? And why had it only just stirred now?

A lock clicked, the sound making the girl's stomach tighten worse than ever. Every instinct she had told her to run, to book it into the shadows and not look back, but that hope, that tiny, almost indistinguishable shred of inexplicable hope, made her stay where she stood, glancing over her shoulder in time to see the front door of the house swing open.

And there she stood. Of all the individuals who called that house home, of all the ones who could've been standing there in the doorway, it had to be her.

Not the musclebound beefcake obsessed with physical fitness.

Not the shirtless, brainless goofball who loved to spin like a top.

Hell, not even the feathered magical mask that interacted with the group on a regular basis.

No, it was HER.

The one with whom the girl with the metal hands shared the strongest rivalry, the fiercest mutual dislike. Even with her blonde hair hanging down around her shoulders rather than tied back in her usual ponytail, even in those silly orange and black striped tiger-themed pyjamas with matching slippers, there was no mistaking her.

"Nina?" Coco Bandicoot said, staring out into the gloom with surprise in her green eyes and mild uncertainty on her orange-furred visage, a piping hot mug of her namesake in her hand as she stood there. "What're you doing here?"

She didn't sound angry, but there were definitely hints of wariness and suspicion in her tone, and it didn't escape Nina's notice. Clenching her metal fists tensely, Nina forced herself to turn and face her arch-rival. She hadn't thought of what she would actually say should she get this far.

"I… I'm… Uh… What's it to you?" she demanded nervously, trying to sound cold and defiant. "W-Why shouldn't I be here? A girl can go for a walk in the tropics if she wants. It's a free country," she said, folding her arms and averting her eyes in that actively anti-social way of hers. "Why are you here?"

Coco sighed, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Really, Nina? That's the angle you're gonna go with? I'm younger than you and even I can be more mature on my worst days."

"Yeah? Well, I'll bet your worst days are all those that end in Y," Nina retorted cheekily, forcing a chuckle, letting out pig-like snorts in between her laughs.

This time, Coco did roll her eyes. "Nina, I'm not in the mood for this," she stated flatly, pausing to take a sip from her mug of hot chocolate. "If you've got nothing important to tell me, then move along and take your snarky attitude with you. I'm going to sleep." With that, the bandicoot girl started to pull the door shut.

"Uncle Neo kicked me out."

Nina looked surprised at herself. Her mouth had just blurted those words out before her mind could stop it from happening. Coco hesitated, the door still partially open, the anthropomorphic marsupial watching the bionic goth girl carefully. With a heavy sigh, Nina continued:

"We had an argument, okay? The details of it are none of your business. One thing led to another and I stormed out, with him yelling after me that I better not come back until I 'change my attitude' or whatever. I'd rather have an attitude than be a spineless scientist sucking up to some grumpy old magic mask with bones up his metaphorical backside in addition to those dangling from his ears…" She trailed off in a string of bitter muttering. Coco watched Nina mutter to herself for several seconds, and then the bandicoot girl cleared her throat. Nina's head jerked up at the sound. The pair stared at each other for a long moment, an awkward silence settling in.

"Nina, I think we both know what you're doing here," Coco said, breaking the silence at last, "And if you want it, you're going to have to ask for it. Nicely. I'm not just going to bend over backwards for you apropos of nothing. You need to do your part, too."

Nina bit her lip, looking uncomfortable. "I…" she began slowly. "I was wondering…" She cleared her throat. "That is, could you…?" She cleared her throat again. "If you would be so… Would you consider…? I mean, if you're cool with it…" She let out a frustrated growl. "Why is this so damn hard?!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in exasperation.

Coco covered her mouth with her free hand to stifle a mildly amused chuckle. "Nina, what exactly are you trying to say?" she asked knowingly, the sly smirk she was hiding present in her voice.

"I… I want… I need… Will you let me stay at your place tonight, yes or no?!" She babbled very fast, as though the words pained her and she wanted to get them out as quickly as possible.

Coco raised an eyebrow, casually taking another sip of her drink.

"Please…" Nina added in the tiniest of whispers.

"Sorry? I didn't catch that last bit," Coco said as nonchalantly as she could manage, trying desperately not to laugh at Nina's unwarranted - and very apparent - discomfort.

"Please," Nina repeated in an irritated mutter, the word sounding like a growl.

"One more time?"

"PLEASE!" Nina screeched, her cry startling a tropical bird from its perch atop a nearby palm tree. It flew away into the night, squawking indignantly. That did it. Coco let a laugh escape her.

"Oh, that was just…!" She trailed off, grinning. "Okay, give me a sec," she went on, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly to quell her mirth. "Alright, look," she said more seriously, "If you wanna stay here, even just for tonight, you need to promise that you won't cause any trouble for me or Crash or any of us. Basically, you need to keep your metal hands to yourself and reel in your snarky mouth as best you can. Can you do that?"

"Yes, fine, whatever! I… I'll try, okay? Just give me a break, alright? I'd had enough crap for one night!"

"That makes two of us," Coco muttered to herself. "Alright, come on in," she said, gesturing with her free hand.

"Thank you," Nina said, not sounding thankful at all as she stepped inside.

"You have a way of saying 'thank you' that makes it sound like 'drop dead'," Coco commented as she closed the door, locking up for the night.

"It's a gift," Nina responded, her tone dripping with snark.

"There's that snark again," Coco said, waggling a finger at her unlikely guest. "Remember what we just agreed on?"

"Yeah, alright, whatever," Nina said dismissively, waving Coco's words away with a metal hand.

"You know, you can't just say 'Yeah, alright, whatever' to everything and have the subject be closed."

"Yeah, alright, whatever!" Nina repeated aggressively, shaking a metallic fist at Coco. "Just let it go, alright? I'm cranky right now, in case you didn't notice."

"Oh, I noticed," Coco stated. "I'm pretty sure half the island has noticed by now, you're giving off that much hostility. Maybe a hot drink will calm you down a bit," she said, sipping at the contents of her mug once more. "Want some cocoa?"

"Not if you've been drinking it," Nina declared rudely, turning away, her arms folded, "And I don't even wanna think about how that question can be taken out of context."

As Coco made to gulp down the remainder of her beverage, the warm chocolatey milk ended up spurting out of her nostrils. "Okay, that's disgusting!" she exclaimed. "That was not being implied at all! Why, I've got half a mind to not make you a hot drink now!"

"Oh, woe is me," Nina jeered very sarcastically. "How will I ever make it through the night without my fill of cheap imitation chocolate powder mixed with hot milk? You gonna put pink sprinkles on the top of it too, just because I'm a girl?"

"Alright, that's it!" Coco snapped, her voice rising. "Either do something about your attitude or you can go sleep out under the stars!" she cried, pointing at the front door. "I am NOT putting up with this all night, especially since—!"

A soft growl caught the pair's attention and they turned in time to see, much to Nina's wide-eyed horror, a fully grown tiger slink into the room. Like Coco, it had luminous green eyes and looked tired and annoyed, its striped tail arched.

It was all Nina could do not to scream.

"T-T-T…" she stammered, her short, spiky black hair standing on end as she took a fearful step back. Coco, on her part, let out a heavy sigh and, to Nina's surprise and bewilderment, reached down to gently scratch the fearsome feline under the chin.

"It's alright, Pura. Our guest and I were just having... well, a heated discussion of sorts," she said gently, moving her hand to caress the tiger's cheek. "We didn't mean to wake you."

Nina's bewilderment increased two-fold. "It's… a pet?" she managed to say. "You brought home a wild, feral, man-eating tiger… as your pet?!"

"He's not just a pet," Coco stated, holding the now empty drinking mug at a tilted angle so the tiger, Pura, could lick at the traces of chocolatey froth within. "He's my friend, and a fiercely loyal one at that. Wild at heart, he's a gentle giant so long as nothing provokes him, and because he's loyal to me, any attack on my person will most definitely provoke him. That's one reason why I told you not to start something while you're under this roof."

Pura finished licking the mug and glanced up at Nina, locking eyes with her. The goth girl felt her heart skip a beat. It didn't help when the tiger started to advance slowly towards her, prompting the niece (arguably daughter) of Dr. Cortex to back away until she was pressed up against the front door. Pura sniffed at her metal wrist, giving a low growl. He didn't like her artificial appendages, and he didn't particularly care for the girl's decidedly skanky cologne, either.

"Easy, Pura. She's with me, okay?" Coco told the striped beast. "This is Nina. Nina. She's going to be staying with us tonight. She won't be a problem. Right, Nina?"

Nina felt a lump form in her throat. "If... If it's all the same to you, Coco," she managed in a tiny voice, her mouth dry, "I'll... I'll have that drink now."