…I'm still resolved that Madoi is cool. So there. But more importantly…I have no idea if the rumoured Hinoken/Madoi relationship is canon or otherwise…people seem to think it's canon but I've learnt long ago not to trust the hyperactive mind of an fan. I mean take me, I'm a calm, focused individual who never squeals over her favourite couplings, just writes obsessive fanfics about them and becomes highly strung over looming exams and so freaks out and buries herself deeper into her fandoms and…

…

Uuuuummmmm…you get the picture. Anyway, there's only a slight overtone of said coupling in here and it's fairly easy to pass over if you so choose…so no problems right? Good.

In. Out. In. Out. And shake it all about.

Washing dishes was an art. Madoi had learnt that through pure bitter experience. It had cost her hours of wrinkled fingers, the inching of soapy bubbles and two bottles more of nail vanish per month. But her work was starting to pay off and now she could get through immense loads of cutlery in half the time it took for her male counterparts. Ah, it gave no small rise of satisfaction to her to see Count Elec staring at her goggle-eyed and slack-jawed from the doorway and hear the slight rustle of Hinoken's shoulders rise up in silent annoyance. Even Mahajorama seemed impressed.

Funny. Months back she would have scorned at her current position, been horrified to see the chipped condition of her once shiny nails. Now it didn't seem important, not when they dug around in left over curry and sloppy suds of washing liquid. She made up for it in excessive amounts of eyeliner.

No one commented. The last time Hinoken had made a snide remark of how similar to a panda she looked, he hadn't been able to eat properly for the next two weeks. Strange how the comments on her appearance had stopped since then.

She hid a smirk behind the bubbles. She was top dog here and she knew it. If her destiny was to haul around dirty dishes and make curry till the end of her days; who was she to argue? There were worse fates.

She heard being in prison didn't pay well.

Slap.

She stared down hard at the glitter of silver through the watery gaps of the white foam at the bottom of the sink, fingers sinking into those cursed bubbles. A bitter smile traced over her lips as she fingered the submerged plate idly around the edges, becoming lost in the vague pinks and greens she could view through the bubbles. Washing dishes was all very well but….but…

She sighed. What came after 'but'? Did it even matter?

She gripped the pale washing-up cloth and commenced with rinsing. If only she could do the same, scrub of all the dirt accumulated from her World Three years. But then again….without World Three she would not have friends, she and Colouredman would not have grown as they had. What was to regret about that?

Besides she was no missionary, no mother Teresa. She was not out to save the world. She was here to make curry and pay the bills. Another person struggling to make ends meet in a world where computer programs had personalities and determined to kill all humans…well some of them did. Yup, nothing above average like that.

Life was good. Regardless of which world you lived in.

She heard a snort accompanied by an irritable sigh. She had only ever come across one man who could pass off that combination successfully.

"If you're not going to wash the dishes, at least pass the job to someone who can."

Yep, it was Mr Fire-head himself.

Hinoken scowled at her as he snatched the cloth from her hands and proceeded to brusquely scrub the brown remnants of order no.32 from the bedraggled plate. She made no move to stop him, merely wandering away from the sink and brushing her hair back with a single hand.

Hinoken froze, watching her warily out of the corner of his eye.

"Why haven't you yelled at me, hit me, or at least broken one of the plates yet."

She looked at him in a bored fashion.

"Too much energy wasted on a man who has heaps."

He frowned, for once not raising to the bait.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Her hand flapped at him in a gesture of being flippant.

"No no, go back to your fascinating dishes, I'm fine."

Unconvinced, he watched her storm out of the kitchen to the front area of the shop, teeth worrying on the bottom of his lip.

"Madoi?"

"Put a sock in it Colouredman", she muttered heatedly.

Colouredman shut up. He knew better than to mess with his operator when she was in a mood.

She sighed, warily glancing around the restaurant to take in the amount of customers they had.

"I'm sorry. I don't even know why I'm mad…I'm just crazy, yeah?"

She spoke softly, not even sure whether her navi could even hear her.

The doorbell jangled again and there was a flash of brown hair. She blinked as an eye-wrenching grin was forced into her eyesight.

"Madoi! Long time, no see! Ah, erm…I think I'll have that and that and that…"

The pink-haired woman sighed as Netto Hikari rattled on, his finger jabbering at various options on the menu at such a speed that she found impossible to keep up with. Suddenly she longed for the therapeutic ooze of water through her hands and over her skin. Her urge was not ignored for she also became aware that Netto's chit-chat had come to a grinding halt and that she was now subjected to a pair of very concerned brown eyes.

"Madoi? What's wrong?"

She grimaced bringing a newly-damaged nail up to her forehead.

"It's nothing. Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

"'Cos it's true. You're missing that…spark, that usual spark you have. It's not here today."

Eyes widening, she glanced down to see Netto had pulled a chair over and that his legs were swinging playfully over the edges in a form of childish rhythm.

"I…I guess I'm a little under the weather."

Netto cocked his head to one side.

"Why?"

Madoi was by now very flustered. This was Netto for God's sake! He was supposed to be hungry, she was to serve him and listen to his cheerful chatter and then he was meant to pay up and leave. That was his primary function. And hers…well, that was the problem.

"I'm tired", she finally admitted, "I'm tired and I'm bored. But most importantly I don't feel wanted. I mean yes, I've done the whole 'leaving' thing before and look how great that turned out! You almost drowned and I was stuck with the company of Count Elec's psycho of a brother for an hour too long."

Netto looked at her with a smug smirk on his face though there was a glint of sympathy in his manner.

"See? That wasn't so hard."

Madoi punched him playfully in the shoulder.

"Oi you, don't get too cocky. I can still knock you senseless any day."

"Yes maam."

Netto gave a mock salute.

Madoi's eyes narrowed.

"Did you call me maam?"

Netto gulped.

It was just as well for him that a wail of despair came echoing out of the kitchen from the hallows of Count Elec's mouth causing the pair to grimace. The young woman rolled her eyes.

"Someone's broken his guitar string again."

She smiled sweetly at her companion.

"We'll finish this another time."

Her hand reached out and shoved a pre-made curry dish out at him from it's hiding place beneath the heater.

Netto gasped.

"But I haven't ordered this."

"It's on the house. Now shut up and eat."

She strolled away from the surprised boy with a hint of her old vigour and back into the kitchen where she saw the rather comical display of two fully-grown men shoving each other violently. Hinoken was attempting to break the Count's jaw by forcing his head back and ramming his own PET down his throat. The lone female caught a glimpse of Elecman's expression as he peeped out of the LCD at her, his facial muscles contorted between worry, anger and sheer terror. Glancing around, she spotted the unmistaken edge of Hino's PET sticking out of the sink and immediately deduced what had happened. Slapping her hands together, she decided to take care of the situation in the most mature manner possible.

"GET A GRIP YOU TWO!"

She yanked Elecman's PET from the dark recess of the Count's yawning teeth-edged mouth, letting it clatter onto the table before slamming both men's head together with a resounding whack.

Elecman cringed.

Madoi screamed at them. The two men tried to respond by shouting back at her so she screamed some more. It was only when they were literally cowed into submission that she made the next move. Her hand dived underwater and gripped on the mantle of Hinoken's PET. She then whisked out the disgruntle image of a shivering Fireman and wiped the item over with a dry towel.

Silence fell.

"I understand that you don't like the idea of Fireman dive-bombing into the sink but is that any reason to make Count Elec cannibalise his own navi?" she asked the red-haired man who was directing a venomous glare towards her.

"He started it", he muttered sullenly.

"It was an accident! You were totally unbelievable!" crowed the Count waving his hands about in an undeniable air of triumph before whisking them behind his back at Madoi's pointed look.

She sighed.

"What am I going to do with you two?"

"Drown them perhaps?"

She spun round to see Mahajorama enter the doorway, a gentle smile coating his face.

"I just got back from my errand, but as usual Madoi, I see you have everything under control."

Hinoken raised a single eyebrow.

"Are you implying that we can't take care of ourselves?"

The spiritual man ignored him as he stepped forwards and handed Madoi a plate with a heavy load of brown mush decorating it.

"I believe you wish to return to your dish-washing duties. And this also happens to be Netto's plate…he doesn't usually leave such a mess does he? Be sure not to waste any."

Madoi blinked in surprise. How did he read her so well?

Mahajorama gave another secretive smile before stepping back into the shadows of the wall and letting his remaining two friends quietly bicker among themselves over their maturity.

Madoi shock her head and turned back to the sink, glancing down at Netto's plate with a stab of disappointment that he had left so soon. Then she stopped. And stared.

For there, smiling back at her, was a smiley face. She blinked but no, the image remained in all it's mucky glory. The boy had painstakely clumped three sets of curry together and set it out to arrange two blobby eyes and a wobbly sausage-like shape for a mouth that was definitely curving upwards. For all her insistence that cleaning dishes was a form of art, Madoi couldn't help but conclude that Netto was probably not going to be any form of hands-on artist when he grew up.

Set in the middle of the plate was the bill with an unhealthy scrawl of loopy handwriting in black biro that could only be the work of a child. She set the plate down and straightened out the cringles in the slightly torn paper.

'Keep smiling Madoi! We never did get to eat curry together did we? We should do, this Saturday okay? See? I think you're important.'

She stared a little more. Then burst out laughing, startling the two men nearby with her honest tones of heart-felt laughter before it tuned in to a giggle. Ah...when was the last time she had laughed so hard?

"What the hell is wrong with you!" exploded Hinoken.

Madoi smirked as she put Netto's plate to one side and started rinsing through the pile of cutlery.

"I've got a 'date' this Saturday."

The hot-tempered man's eyes looked ready to pop out of his head and his face was instantly stained into an interesting shade of puce. In contrast, Count's Elec clasped his hands together and his eyes became shimmering gems of emotion.

"Ah…our little Madoi is growing up so fast! It's so sad to see her go and blossom forth into womanhood!"

Elecman and Fireman exchanged glances at exactly the same moment before slapping their foreheads against the background noise of Colourman's giggling.

Hinoken had adopted a rather strange twitch in his left cheek.

"You've got a date…" he trailed off weakly.

His pink-haired friend grinned.

"Yep! He's a very nice guy, knows how to make me smile. You could learn a thing or two from him."

This time she really did howl with hysterical laughter as the fiery male started to stew in his own jealousy. She couldn't wait for him to see her on Saturday.

Her fingers eased their way through the cooling water. This time she didn't mind how much of her nails they ruined, she would treat herself to a new bag of make-up later on.

'Thank you Netto…for making me smile again…'

The bubbles sparkled in agreement. And right then, at that very moment in time, Madoi wouldn't have traded places with any other woman in the world.