Chapter 6 Never Stays Clean

Dove finds Lincoln glaring angrily out of the window one morning. 

"What's up?" she asks hesitantly. 

"It's that mailman. I swear he's mocking us." 

"HEY! MISTER! THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY!" 

The mailman scurries away. Dove sighs. 

She wanders around the house, finding her way to the living room. Ti is playing a soft melody on the piano. 

"Do, rae, mi, fa, so, la, ti, daaaa~" Ti sings off-key, hitting keys almost in tune. 

Dove gets lost in the melody. 

If only everyday could be so pleasant. 

But eventually Dove has to tear herself away. The bathtub is broken- again- and Guy's too busy working to fix it. Dove mops at the perpetually growing puddle. 

"What's taking so long?" Gregory complains behind her. 

"Well, I can't actually fix the leak-," Dove begins to explain, but Tina angrily cuts her off. 

"Maybe it would go faster if you'd put on that stupid mechanic suit you normally wear and pick up a tool box for once in your life!" she fumes at him. 

Gregory taps his foot impatiently. 

"Well...carry on," he says lightly, supervising Dove's progress. 

Tina groans in frustration. 

By the time Guy does get home, he's far too tired to fix the tub. Work is exhausting; even with his partner helping him in the lab, there are always so many things to remember. He's just glad he hasn't caused some kind of chemical explosion. 

Everyone in the house stinks now. Ti turns to the piano for distraction and Lincoln listens quietly, lost in his own thoughts. 

"You know how music can get a girl's heart, or something like that?" Lincoln suddenly breaks the silence. 

Ti nods absently, too focused on her made up song and its discordant notes to actually hear what he's saying. 

"I didn't bother with that. I just....talked to her, I guess? Maybe if I could play an instrument, she'd have stuck around." 

"You think too much," Ti replies breezily, "There isn't any magical formula. Sometimes the world just happens." 

Lincoln wonders if she's quoting a song, but sighs. "Yeah. I guess life's just messed up sometimes." 

Guy wakes up suddenly in the middle of the night and gives up his bed to a grouchy Tina. Tammi then shrieks at him to fix the bath, which he does. Finally, he sleepily makes his way to the kitchen and feeds himself. 

"Thanks for fixing the shower, that was nice of you," Ti says with a kind smile. 

"Aww, look at that Guy, Ti like-likes you!" Gregory laughs. 

Ti doesn't reply to Gregory and keeps staring at her plate, "It's important to remember to thank people. That's what they always told me." 

"Who's they?" 

Ti looks at Guy with a thin smile, "I can't remember." 

"Well, wasn't that vague and a little pointless? Eh, whatever. I'm off to tinker with the science machine! Anyone want to join me?" 

Guy shakes his head and Lincoln just rolls his eyes. Jinenji looks up with a soft smile, "Maybe tomorrow, Greg." 

Gregory shrugs and then strides to the machine. There are important discoveries to be made! 

Guy goes to use the restroom, only to find that the toilet is clogged. 

"Yeah, your shower repair didn't last too long either. What kind of engineer are you?" Tammi huffs. 

"I'm a scientist," Guy mumbles in reply, "Different from an engineer." 

Tammi hmmphs unhappily, "Well whatever they pay you to do, it's obviously too much if you can't keep our plumbing running! Just look at this place- even the sink's broken in here! Can't you do something about it?" 

Guy looks at the toilet, the shower, the sink, and then back at Tammi and shrugs. 

"I'll try my best." 

"What if that's not enough? Did you try your best earlier, too?" Tammi sneers. 

But Guy's already ignoring her and searching for the plunger. The one thing he knows how to fix is machines. 

It takes him most of the night (and several soaked outfits) but by the time Tina is awake and hissing for the bathroom, all that's left to fix is the sink. 

Guy quickly finishes off his repairs and leaves the bathroom to Tina. 

And then it's off to work again. 

Life passes normally in the house. 

Chores are done sporadically. 

Bills are left for Guy to pay. 

The residents sleep wearing whatever, wherever and whenever they can. 

The bathroom never stays clean. 

And arguments are constantly brewing. 

"I'm done putting up with your crazy moodswings!" Dove explodes, having a mood swing herself, "Would it kill you to be nice for like two minutes!?" 

"So, uh, Moonlight Falls has an excellent symphony-," Jinenji desperately ignores the fight next to him. 

"Mood swings? I have no idea what you're talking about," Tammi says indignantly. 

She then proceeds to slap Dove right across the face. 

"How dare you even suggest that!" 

Dove barely flinches. 

"Fine, whatever," she says gruffly. 

As she's turning around to leave, Tammi puts a hand on Dove's shoulder and whirls her around. 

"DON'T YOU DARE WALK AWAY FROM ME!" 

The sound of ensuing slap almost echoes in the now silent room. 

"Byyyyyee!" Dove waves sarcastically. 

"That's right, get out of here! See if I care!" Tammi calls out mockingly. 

Dove spares Tammi a single angry glance before storming out of the room. 

Guy looks at his plants sadly. 

Why can't everyone just get along? 

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AN: Funny outtake 

hehehehe.

In other news, I realized I left this challenge on a very long hiatus. I haven't opened it up again yet, but there are lots of pictures to go through. I forgot how chaotic this save was!