It's Hard to Breathe

Penance

"are so dead." Gisela finished ominously.

To Alvar's shock, Ruy let out a loud groan. 

"Two people trying to kill me in one day? What is this, a murder novel? Should I pretend to be petrified out of my skin now? Or is that part later? Gisela, I feel like you need to sit up a little straighter, and look more evil."

"Ruy, what the heck are you doing?" Alvar hissed, feeling like he was watching a train wreck, with Ruy tied to the tracks.

"I've got this. Chill and leave everything to me." The male whispered back.

"No, you don't 'got this'." Gisela snapped.

Ruy paled. "T-that's not what I said." He stammered.

"Oh? Then what did you say?" Gisela wanted to know.

"I said, um, .... ' imma hot mess'." Ruy offered, relieved that he came up with something that made sense.

Alvar slapped a palm on his forehead.

"If you say so." The blonde female allowed, still giving them an imperious glare.

Behind her, both Gethen and Trix questioningly arched an eyebrow, perfectly in sync. It was seriously creepy.

"Now, would you like to explain why I was called upon by six acquaintances, all demanding that you will pay for what you did?"

"I-uh-we.." Ruy trailed off.

Alvar let out a sigh. "We're sorry for playing pranks on you guys. Mine was unplanned, but clearly Ruy's wasn't. We won't do it again unless at least two of you know about it."

Ruy nodded. "What Alvar said."

"All right, then. I think you two boys have earned yourselves a morning of cleaning." Gisela said, glancing around at everyone else in the room. They all nodded, still giving the boys unpleased looks.

"Wait a minute! Didn't we alrea-mmph!" Alvar slapped a hand over Ruy's mouth, grinning falsely at everyone.

"Was there something else?" Gisela's eyebrow raise and arched tone screamed, This girl is scary and not to be messed with.

"No." Alvar told her, trying to pour honesty into his words.

"You have until noon to clean up the entire first floor. I suggest you get started." She still looked skeptical, but said nothing else as she and everyone else struck up conversation.

Alvar huffed a sigh of relief, then grabbed Ruy's arm and yanked him out of the room before they got a death sentence or something.

As soon as they were in the hall, and the door was shut, Alvar turned on him. "Ruy, what the heck were you thinking?!"

"That she would buy it?" Ruy offered meekly.

"Oh, wait, you weren't thinking." Alvar hissed, rapping Ruy on the temple, finally removing his crushing grip from Ruy's poor arm.

He winced and pulled away. "So we messed up-"

"You messed up. You, not me. There's no 'we'." Alvar snapped.

"Okay, fine. I messed up. We're stuck doing more dirty work because of me." Ruy admitted, sulking.

"Yeah, your fault. Let's go." Alvar agreed, literally dragging Ruy down the hallway.

"Wait, we could get out of cleaning by destroying the house, right?" Alvar stopped short when he heard the thoughts of the other male being voiced out loud.

"Are you psychotic?!" Alvar barked, hounding Ruy down the hallway and out into the backyard.

"What?" Ruy asked innocently, his features betraying him as a gleeful smirk stole across his face.

"We are NOT destroying this beautiful work of construction mastery!" Alvar ordered, almost screaming as he slapped Ruy upside the head.

"Whatever." Ruy grumbled, rubbing his head with a glare.

Alvar snatched his slowly-turning-red arm again, then shoved the two of them in the shadows. 

"Listen, we can't do anything else to get on Gisela's bad side, understand? Hear me clearly: if we do one more stupid thing, we're done for. Got it?"

Ruy nodded balefully, now rubbing the red spot wen Alvar had grasped his arm. "I think you left a bruise."

"Are you kidding me? We have a whole two hours to clean a whole floor of a mansion, and all you can think about is the fact that you might get a bruise?" 

"Gotcha." Ruy winked, then strode off for the mop.

Alvar rolled his eyes and followed, wondering just what kind of mischief Ruy would get himself into.

An hour later, the boys were over halfway done. Surprisingly, Ruy worked as much as he talked, so all Alvar had to do was scrub the floor and endure Ruy's nonstop prattle about this and that.

When his cleaning partner started telling jokes Alvar shut him down fast, distracting him with the huge History exam coming up that would count for ten percent of their grade.

When Ruy began a never-ending stream of nonsense questions, Alvar hit him with the broom handle.

Ruy rubbed his starting-to-ache shoulder, giving Alvar a rueful glance. "Would you quit using me as your punching bag?"

"Why? You got us into this mess. I'm simply putting my opinion out there by actions not words." Alvar told him, shutting the broom in the hall closet.

"Do what you want how you want, and I'll do the same." Ruy grumbled, crossing his arms with a scowl.

"I will. Are we done yet?" Alvar wanted to know.

"Almost. We just have to do the kitchen and patio." Ruy told him, sounded tired all of a sudden.

"Now is not the time to slack off." Alvar reprimanded him, shoving Ruy to the kitchen.

While they were cleaning the patio, Alvar paused for a short, ten-second break, leaning against the grill.

"Now is not the time for slacking off." Ruy sneered from where he was fixing the chair cushions.

"Oh, quit mocking me. I've had more than enough of your nonsense." Alvar returned, slumping down to the ground in a heap.

"We're almost done. We just gotta polish the grill, and sweep out the corners." Ruy told him, grabbing a broom as he ignored Alvar's jab.

Alvar sighed, then finished polishing the grill. They were done with twenty minutes to spare, so they went to Gisela, told her they were done, then collapsed on the metal recliners on the deck, exhausted.

Gisela inspected their job, then pronounced that she was satisfied and they were done.

"Good job. And let this be a lesson to you: don't do stupid things for the fun of stupid things. You'll never get away with it."

They simply nodded, too tired to argue.

"And, " She added, turning around. "You're lucky you finished in time, and did a good job. Otherwise you would be cleaning the whole house."

Both boys groaned, neither seeing Gisela's smirk as she went back inside, satisfied.