| Fan Fiction |
by x.shuang.dao.x
Ashley felt something wet against her face and she opened an eye sleepily. The world slowly came into focus and there was Sam licking her face. She glanced at her alarm clock. It read 0650h. She groaned, she could have slept a little longer if not for Sam. Then she turned to face the other side of the bed.
Monkey was still sound asleep. Obviously no animal had been bothering him. How fortunate.
Sam batted Ashley’s arm to get her attention and Ashley had to tear her eyes from Monkey to look at Sam. “Sam. You pea-brain! It’s only 6.50 and you just HAD to wake me up when I could have slept for a while more,” She groaned, still not getting out of bed. Her eyes closed involuntarily.
Outraged by the lack of attention he was getting, Sam yowled.
Both she and Monkey jerked awake and sat up. Even Luna woke up and was suddenly very alert.
“Holy shit. What’s wrong with you, Sam?” Monkey asked, his voice hoarse and dry. He yawned as he scratched his head absent-mindedly. His hair was sticking out in all directions.
Sam mewed like a little kitten.
Ashley’s eyes widened. “God, what did you do to your hand?”
Monkey noticed what Ashley saw an instant later.
Ashley picked Sam up and headed to the bathroom with Monkey and Luna in tow. Monkey grabbed the first-aid kit and took out a few essential things for Ashley to clean Sam’s wound.
Sam had a scary-looking gash in the middle of his left front limb.
“What did you do when we were all asleep, baby?” Ashley asked.
Monkey had meanwhile gone on a walk around his house. He saw the letter opener on the floor with little red spots and stains on it. He picked it up and took it to Ashley.
“Looks like someone was naughty and was playing with stuff, eh?” Monkey said accusingly.
Sam tried his best to appear innocent.
“Sammy boy, I think you forgot your beloved mistress here is a detective.” Monkey laughed.
“Yes, baby, you know, that sweet face of yours ain’t going to make you any less guilty,” Ashley said as she finished the bandage around his wound and let him off. Sam bounded to the floor and looked at Ashley. “You do this again; I’ll leave you alone at home the next time I come here.”
Luna barked, and Sam ran away miserably to her.
Ashley grinned; Sam had to be the most adorable and thieving cat in the world.
Monkey put his hand around Ashley’s neck and pulled her to him. “Hmm, I wonder who’s more important to you, me or Sam?”
She poked his nose and pushed him away. “Sam is my beloved. You can go away.”
Monkey pouted. “Aw damn, I’ll just have to turn to my Luna, then.”
“Fine, you do that.” Turning away from him, Ashley called for Sam. “Sam baby, stay away from the man’s dog! He’d maul you if you so much so as lay a paw on that dog!”
“Aw geez, don’t be like that.”
Ashley smiled playfully as she gazed at Monkey.
He laughed, then lowered his head to kiss her, his arms winding around her waist as he did so. He lifted her and moved back to his room, where the blinds weren’t drawn yet and the lights were still out, not breaking the kiss at all.
She clung on to him, her legs wrapped around him.
Monkey was still backing into his room when something furry started to pace around his feet. “Oh God, stupid Sam.” He murmured against Ashley’s lips and she chuckled. Their lips separated for a while, but they remained in the same position. “That cat of yours, is a downright mood-spoiler,” Monkey growled.
Sam seemed to understand that, and knocked into Monkey’s legs on purpose.
Monkey wasn’t too well-balanced (it was rather hard to balance when one was bearing the weight of two) so he fell backwards into the softness of his bed and the weight of Ashley on him momentarily immobilized him. He took a second to recover, then both of them looked at Sam, whose back was arched.
Sam glared at Monkey, seemingly pissed that Monkey just called him names.
“He’s being jealous of you again.” Ashley laughed. “Sam, get out.”
Sam hissed but obeyed Ashley’s instructions and slunk out of the room.
“Let me go,” she said to Monkey next.
“I can’t.”
“You have to, baby. Or I’ll be really late.” Ashley said.
“Hmm, okay,” He said, but his hands were still wrapped around Ashley as tightly as ever.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The time was 0930h when Owodog saw Monkey’s black-and-white checkered Mini Cooper S pull up in the station’s ground level open-air car park. That was one and a half hour after the time they were all supposed to report to office; not that anyone would care if there weren’t any big important cases at the time. But Owodog tried to focus on other matters instead. The files were piling up on his desk, so he opted to busy himself with clearing up his office to make it neater.
The first file he picked up belonged to Kale Chou, also nicknamed The Rose. Seething, he shut the file and slotted it into the shelf for closed cases. He would have put it in the unsolved cases shelf but since his heads told him it was closed, then so be it.
Kale Chou was nicknamed The Rose for the rose petal he left behind at every murder scene. That was, if he really was The Rose. Owodog and Ashley were absolutely sure he was. But they really lacked the evidence…
Owodog looked out the glass panel that separated his room from the rest of the office. Ashley had just reached the office and was putting down her stuff on her desk. She looked slightly worn out; but she was radiant. Owodog sighed. Must a woman in love really look so blissful?
Ashley turned towards Owodog’s office, spotted him looking out, and waved to him, smiling and mouthing the words ‘good morning’ but making no mention of any reason as to why she was so late.
But Owodog instantly regained his senses when he realized she was waving to him and snapped back to reality and waved back to her, albeit very unenthusiastically. Much as he tried, there was no way he could muster a smile or even fake one at the moment. Especially not right after his most hated criminal was just let to roam free in the streets again, probably taking up new projects and killing more people just as he was sitting in the office feeling sorry for himself. Owodog wondered if his life could get any worse than this. He thought not. He hoped not.
Well, Fabien had told him to forget about Kale Chou and hope he would get his just desserts. There really wasn’t anything Owodog could do, except to believe in karma. He tried to put confidence in the thought of Kale Chou being done in by his own misdeeds.
Owodog sipped his caramel macchiato absent-mindedly. He had grown addicted to it in the past year and he could never start his day without one anymore. He was becoming a caffeine junkie, in addition to becoming an alcoholic. He was probably going to die a few years early for becoming so reliant on these things. If only he had just stuck with his lollipops.
Ashley stuffed a Peaches & Cream lollipop in her mouth as she went through her files. It was a half-hearted attempt to concentrate on her work, for her mind was still filled with Monkey. She couldn’t hide the smile that was creeping onto her face.
----------------------------------------------------------
He was anxious. He had just found out that she had a boyfriend. Her boyfriend was the Art Director of advertising company Snoop Ads. He was 177 centimetres tall and weighed 68 kilograms. That put him taller than Kale by almost four centimetres.
But Kale wasn’t particularly angry with her or her boyfriend. No, how could he be? It had to be because she didn’t know him first; that had to be the reason. If she had known him first, she wouldn’t be with another man now. Yes, therefore all he had to do now was to show her and convince her that the right man for her is really himself. Not that oh-so-eligible bachelor Art Director; nor the dense detective.
He was the only man she should ever trust in and love, he thought. First he had to make her leave her boyfriend.
-----------------------------------------------------------
That afternoon Ashley received two bouquets of flowers. One was a bouquet of 12 red roses; the other was a bouquet of sunflowers. Ashley became the talk of the office for that.
It was obvious the sunflower bouquet was sent by Monkey. Everyone knew Ashley loved sunflowers. In fact, she always appreciated the bouquets more if they were of sunflowers and Monkey was obviously perfectly aware of that. It was the bunch of roses that made everyone start chattering and most probably gossiping.
Ashley admired the sunflowers for a moment, beaming subconsciously. Monkey seldom sent her flowers, if fortnightly could be considered as seldom. Only sometimes would the bouquets come more frequently. Then Ashley turned her attention to the roses. All 12 of them, deep red and in full bloom. She frowned. Who could have sent them? Looking among the leaves for a card, Ashley finally found one and pulled it out carefully.
‘Dearest Ashley, hope you like the roses and feel my love for you.’
Ashley shuddered. Meanwhile, Owodog had come out of his office. He scorned at the bouquet of roses over Ashley’s shoulder as he peeked at the card. She turned to him. “What, did you send these?” She teased him.
“Are you out of your mind? Why would I send you 12 roses for no reason?” Owodog retorted without even a slight bit of hesitation. Then he muttered to himself, “Even if I were to send you flowers, I’d send sunflowers.”
“Why’re you mumbling?” Ashley narrowed her eyes at him.
“Nothing. Just wondering which dumbo sent you roses.” Owodog replied indignantly.
Ashley shrugged. “Okay then. Seeing as no one who knows me will send me roses for no apparent reason,” she dumped the roses in the trash.
By that, Owodog knew she was referring to him and Fabien. Yeah, she was right, Fabien wouldn’t send her roses either. So who the hell did?
Owodog returned to his office and Ashley was left to ponder over the same question which was bugging him.
The sunflowers were now propped up against the side of the computer monitor, looking very bright, cheery and cheerful. That was what she loved about them. Sunflowers always looked happy, and they never fail to brighten her day. Just like Monkey. Despite having major fights and quarrels, they unfailingly managed to give in to each other the next moment and Monkey would be cracking some joke to make her laugh again.
But the roses. Ashley wasn’t a big fan of roses because she felt that they seemed a little too serious and arrogant-looking. And anyone who had once gave her roses or was interested in her was informed in a thick-skinned manner that roses were not exactly her favourite flower. They would all get it and so Ashley seldom received flowers that weren’t sunflowers. Her brows were furrowed deeply as she wondered whom the roses could be from. She tried to think if there had been anyone who shot her flirtatious looks or whom she had caught staring at her lovingly (or lustfully). They were strange thoughts to have, as Ashley felt she was over-estimating herself and thinking too much into actions that might have been nothing at all.
There was something worse than that, though. It was that no one came to mind. Which meant it would probably be hard to find out where the flowers came from and who they came from, for there was no tell-tale sign on the bouquet or anywhere stating the shop it came from as well. Its sender had to be downright mysterious and secretive or he had something to hide. If it was the latter, then she was going to be in trouble. She hoped the sender was just shy and didn’t want others to know.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, the sender was not as innocent as she had hoped him to be.
In the course of the next five weeks, Ashley received a bouquet everyday, along with a card that bore more cryptic messages as the days passed. Each day, the roses were of different colours too, matched with a spherical lollipop of whatever flavour that had the same-coloured plastic wrapping. Not that Ashley cared. She was too perplexed and worried about the messages on the cards. She wasn’t the only one though; Owodog and Monkey were also convinced there was a psychopathic stalker after her. Either that or there was a guy who owned a rose plantation and was secretly in love with her.
The worst thing was, the cards still held no clue as to who the sender might be and that was extremely exasperating.
Monkey was absolutely sure his phone bill was going to be sky high. He spent almost every waking hour worrying about Ashley and called her around once every alternate minute. Maybe not that often, but that was what he felt he was doing. He couldn’t help it. He just knew that some crazy nut probably had the hots for his girlfriend and obviously ‘crazy’ didn’t exactly put him at much ease.
Ashley was happy that Monkey was being so concerned and sweet but she wished he wouldn’t call her all the time to ensure she was safe. It made her even more afraid and convinced that some deranged man was in love with her.
Yet neither she nor Owodog ever connected the roses she received with ‘The Rose’.
-----------------------------------------------------------
That night Monkey waited for Ashley to finish up her work in the office so they could go home together. He was glad he did.
For when they reached their apartments, there was a gigantic heart drawn in sugar granules on the floor right outside Ashley’s door. With it were a giant spiral lollipop, with Ashley’s name written in black marker ink on the plastic film wrapping, and a single red rose.
“Holy shit.” Monkey cursed under his breath.
Ashley stared at it, shocked speechless.
Monkey tugged on her hand gently, and guided her into his apartment. He sat her on his couch, as Luna trotted to them with her tail wagging and Sam following close behind. Then, hastily, he pulled his camera out from his bag and took a snapshot of the ‘present’ that crazy nut arranged. Whether Ashley agreed or not, he was going to discuss this with Owodog.
He locked the gate and the door behind him and let down all the blinds in his apartment. Luna watched him as he scurried around the house. Sam did not bother; he hopped onto the couch beside Ashley and nuzzled her arm.
Ashley returned to Earth and she sighed, carrying Sam into her arms. “Sammy baby, tell me why this is happening to me.”
Monkey came out of his room and sat beside Ashley, putting a reassuring arm around her shoulders. “Ash, everything will be okay. Trust me.”
She looked up at him as Sam jumped to the floor, trailing Luna to the kitchen.
His intense, dark brown eyes seared deep into her and for a moment Ashley thought she was going to cry. But she didn’t. Instead she flung her arms around him and buried her head in his chest. “Why are lollipops always haunting me?”
“Because you ate too many of them,” Monkey chuckled, stroking her hair.
Ashley smiled at Monkey’s adorableness, then sighed. “Who the hell is this sugar-lollipop-rose crazy?”
-----------------------------------------------------------
->shuang.dao
chapter 2 up! comments please! :D