Look for the Green Beetle (Frogs and Pandas Unite) [18+]

[sirFroggerzz]

5505… 5505 Weber St… umm… should be on the right. Ziki chanted the address of the meeting place in his head. It wasn’t uncommon for him to forget the exact location, even after he’d checked the route to get there. He was extremely nervous driving to a location he’d never visited before. He started wiping at the steering wheel; his palms were becoming drenched in sweat and that made him even more nervous. The anxious driver never felt comfortable when there is a layer of sweat between the object in his grasp and his own hand. To Ziki, it was like his grip was loosening and the wheel would slip out of his control. The sweaty hands tightened themselves around the steering wheel.

 

The brunette rarely ever drove; in fact, he seldom ever left his room. He was the kind of guy that huddled in his room all day, all night. The single room he lived in was a suite style dorm, and it even had its own washroom. Not to mention that his parents always sent food and he always kept a hefty stash of instant noodles in stock. After the first year, he started taking all his classes online, just because it was too much of a hassle to go to class or to talk to people. It wasn’t so much that he had a reason to hide inside but rather, it was that he had no reason to leave. He was bad at conversing and therefore had no friends. Even on the Internet, he was that lurking shadow cowering in the corner. The only times he commented was when his limited number of online friends encouraged him with great efforts.

 

Today, he was going to meet one of those online friends. It was going to be their first meeting. They had agreed on his bright green beetle as the distinguishing feature his friend would be looking for. And it was a guy driving. The combo wasn’t that common. But being as nervous as he was, he worried that his beetle wouldn’t stand out enough at a busy location and they’d miss each other.

 

Every couple of seconds, Ziki checked all his windows to make sure he hadn’t passed the address. And soon enough, the introvert caught sight of a tall, full glass high-rise with the number 5499 engraved on its nameplate. Ah, so I was correct. It’s on the right. He let a faint smile stretch across his lips. In his mind, he was twirling in joy, dancing about, and even as far as doing summersaults. He enthusiastically alternated his attention between the road ahead and the front passenger window. 5501, 5503... —huh? Huh? Suddenly, there were no more numbers, no more glass, no more buildings. There was only a tall fence and a beautiful garden behind it.

 

When he finally reached the large black gates that were connected to the fence, the nervous driver spotted the number he was looking for, on a gold nameplate. U– u– uwaaaah! No waaaaay! It’s a super high class hotel. It was the kind that looked like it came out of a Hollywood movie. Ziki stared dumbfounded. There was a long driveway, a grand roundabout, and an astonishing fountain in the center, all leading up to the front entrance. His inner self covered his ears, shook his head as if to rid bad thoughts, and cowered in the corner shaking his head furiously. It was hard to believe he had a friend that could afford to stay at a place such as this.

 

He pulled over as far off to the side as possible. He fidgeted for a bit, then he stepped outside with eyes downcast in an attempt to not attract any more attention. He had been worrying for nothing. His beetle stuck out like a sore thumb. He quivered on the spot, resolve wavering. “5 minutes. If she doesn’t call out to me within 5 minutes, I’m leaving,” the hikikomori decided.

[FatPanda]

Iae stared at his laptop open on the table as he got dressed. Am I really doing this? He zipped his pants and pulled on a dark red shirt. The sun shone through the blinds onto the desk, illuminating the area beside the open laptop. His hand settled in the area as he checked his messages again. Male. Brunette. Driving a green Beetle. He will meet me in front of the hotel; should be easy to find... but the problem is... He ran his hand through his short brown hair, leaned back in the chair, and closed his eyes. I lied about who I was.

 

In half an hour he was going to leave his hotel room to go meet an online friend. He wasn't worried about meeting the man. After all, the other was an introvert who rarely came out and they were meeting in public. The stranger would hardly be a threat; if he looked dangerous, Iae could just walk away and pretend he wasn't the one the guy was waiting for. They met on an online site and had become friends after some time. The other man was a pain to get out of his comfort zone, always online but never interacting with many others. Iae sighed, do I really want to meet this guy? As a joke, he had teased the other to come meet him but somehow or another, it became an official meeting. They were from different parts of the world and so he flew all the way over, considering the fact that the man hardly left his house on a regular day. Here he was now, waiting to be busted.

 

He had told all the people online that he was a small, cute girl with long silky black hair, hazy dark eyes, and bit tits. He was also supposedly a sexy young teacher. Really, he was an older, approaching 40, man who worked as an electrician. Never had be planned on meeting any of his online friends. He was also very careful to connect all his lies so there were no holes and now this was happening. He opened his brown eyes and stared again at the computer screen. It's really happening. He heaved himself up, out of his chair, and closed his laptop. With a jacket in hand, he went down to the hotel's lobby.

 

In the lounge off to the side, he sat by the window and watched the cars come and go. He wasn't going to present himself to some man he didn't really want to meet unless the guy looked interesting. He sat for a while, wondering what the other guy looked like. Just as he was picturing a round plump nerd, he saw the noticeable green Beetle drive into the roundabout. He watched the man step out of his car. The younger man was cute. Iae never really cared what gender his prey were but he never liked guys that were too much younger than him. He frowned, uninterested in ruining his sexy lady reputation. He was about to ignore his friend, pretending he was too busy to make the meeting, when he saw the shy man fidget.

 

He face palmed himself and bore his teeth. He had forgotten about the introvert personality when he decided to joke with the man. He looked closely at the brunette; he felt himself become urked, the idiot was standing next to a fountain. That in itself wasn't a problem but rather the fountain he'd picked was astonishingly embarrassing. The poor soul had, out of all the possible beautiful fountains, picked the one with a naked man "urinating" water from his "spout" to stand next to. And on top of that, his head was aligned with the stream.

 

With a groan, Iae rolled his eyes and turned away from the poor man. He had no intention of embarrassing himself by standing next to that but his friend really didn't look like he noticed where he was. Feeling the blood rush up to his head out of embarrassment for the other man, he didn't walked out the door. He didn't think, just walked. He stomped up to the fidgeting man, grabbed his wrist and shoved him back into his car. He walked round to the other side, got in, and commanded, "Drive, now."

[sirFroggerzz]

Thump. Tick. Thump. Tick. Thump. With his gaze still to the floor, the nervous brunette listened to the rapid pounding of his own heart and the seemingly slow ticking of his watch. He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, and started to rip the skin beside his nails. Whenever he got stressed or nervous, as was this situation, he had a habit of ruining his fingers. Unlike most people who pick at their fingernails, the focus of Ziki’s habit was the surrounding skin, right where one would find a hangnail. His anxiety came to an end as heavy, rapid footsteps approached him.

 

“Uwaaaah!” A strong unknown hand grabbed Ziki’s wrist and swung him back into his car. For a split second, he felt his heart fall out as the sudden action caused him to lose his balance. Not quite fitting in the narrow doorway, the top of his head skimmed the door frame and his elbows smacked into the seat and steering wheel. Once inside, he grabbed at his injured skull, feeling the little throbs of pain. While he’d been rubbing his wounds, the man in the red shirt had settled himself into the passenger seat.

 

Sitting up from his awkward position on his back, the stranger ordered him to drive. Ziki’s eyes widened and a scream tried to make its way out of his open mouth. In the heat of the moment, his mind had gone blank. There was nothing he could think of to refuse the command; and so, trembling slightly, he obediently closed the door, buckled his seatbelt, and did as he was told. He was the kind of person that reacted slowly in awkward, unexpected situations. Somehow he managed a muffled reply, “O-Oo-Okay.”

 

He was screaming and crying on the inside. Ziki’s face glowed a reddish colour; he could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks and ears. The nervous driver was even more nervous now that he had a scary passenger next to him. The stranger was giving off a dark evil aura, a heavy atmosphere. It made the introvert grip the wheel so tight that his shoulders started to ache. But he didn’t dare shift his position; he was too scared of the other male.

 

He also hadn’t a clue where he was supposed to drive to, but didn’t have the courage to ask. Picking a random direction at a random intersection, he made a turn. Then another, and then another. By the time, he’d calmed down a little (just a little), he looked out the Beetle’s round windows. A vast field of green, the blue sky, and the thin strip of brown was all that was in view. The vehicle thumped over the uneven gravel. They were lost. Still not having the courage to say a word, he turned to the only other person. He felt the heat of the tears well up in his eyes and squeaked out an “u— uhhh.”

[FatPanda]

Iae cried internally for how awkward his friend was; it was the kind of awkward that had everyone irritated to no end. There's no wonder he doesn't leave his room. He was so socially impaired that Iae felt uncomfortable being in the car with him. Though he was feeling the strain of the situation, Iae could also tell that the man was nervous. His knuckles turned white at his grip and his eyes darted around. Whether he noticed it or not, he had tell-tale signs of being just as upset by the sudden turn of events. Iae wanted to punch the kid, make him mad, and hopefully get a normal reaction out of the guy. There had to be some way to get him comfortable.

 

The foreigner let him drive wherever he wanted, not having intended to go anywhere except away from the embarrassing scene. He watched as the roads narrowed into side streets and then paved their way through grasslands. He wondered how far out his online friend lived from the city; it looked pretty deserted an uninhabited to him. Just as he'd been thinking it suited the other very well to live out in the rural area he heard something of a cry. It sounded very close to a plead for help and had Iae's heart rushing to pump blood to his brain. Please don't say you're lost in your own town. He swallowed his gut feeling and took a deep breath, "What's the matter? If you have something to say, say it! Just don't tell me we're lost. It's your own goddamn city for heaven's sake! Why're we in the middle of freaking no where then?" He didn't wait for an answer, already knowing it. He ranted about how stupid it was to be lost so easily. His hands went up into the air and fisted the open space before him. Anger flooded in.

 

After a series of irritated grunts, he heaved a loud sigh. The man he'd talked to online didn't seem this clueless. He'd agreed to come all the way out here so that the other didn't have to go to him. He should have known better than to expect the house-bug to know his way around his own home town. Glaring at the tearing boy he declared, "Get out of the car. I'll drive us back to where we came from, hopefully. I've got some good days when my memory picks up a lot of details but don't expect anything." He let out a gruff grunt before getting out of the car. He then noticed he'd totally forgotten to buckle in his seatbelt. My bad. He couldn't give a rat's ass about anything at the moment except to get out of the shit hole his friend had gotten them into. He rounded the car and opened the door to let the man out. "Come on bud, we don't have all day here."