Aoshi was on his way home from work one day when he decided to take a little detour... and came across a vending machine...

His palms began to sweat, the slender 500 yen coin growing slick in his nervous hands. To buy? or not to buy? As his eyes surveyed the machine and its contents, he started getting hotter, feeling his face flush with embarrassment.

He clenched his fists. A decision must be made. Slowly, he raised a shaking arm towards the coin slot...

No -- he was being watched...

He whirled.

"Omae..." the voice growled.

Aoshi shrank backwards, away from the new figure. With a thud, he bumped into the machine behind him. It immediately began piping a jaunty if slightly mechanical and off-pitch little tune about buying panties for health and love.

A new wave of embarrassment quickly smothered Aoshi as he wracked his brain to find some way out of this situation.

"So why are you getting panties, Aoshi? Do you find women attractive now?"

"I al--" his voice cracked. Aoshi cleared his throat, trying again. "I've always found women attractive."

Saitou grinned slyly. "Ah, and that is why you always dressed as one?"

Aoshi's face flared up and he glared at Saitou. "What does it matter to you?! Why are you here anyway? I thought you were done following me around like some prey."

The wolf's leer only widened as he began closing the distance between them. "The hunt is never over..." the older man's eyes swept appraisingly over Aoshi's body. "..until you receive your prize."

A sense of panic mixed with a pinch of fear raced though his mind. Aoshi was trapped like an animal between monoliths of metal and flesh... trapped with no way out. 'Flee... flee...' his mind kept repeating over and over... but his body couldn't respond. Or rather, had he let it, it responded in ways Aoshi really did not care for...

"Come now, Aoshi-kun... why the fear? I thought you were used to this by now. You enjoy it."

"No.." he muttered under his breath. Face turned away, eyes scrunched, Aoshi wanted nothing more than to sink into the machine. Well, on second thought, maybe just the ground. Anything to get out of that situation. "Onegai.. tasukete..."

"No one's going to save you, Aoshi."

"I... I just... I JUST WANT MY PANTIES!!!!" Sobbing, he broke from Saitou's grasp and ran down the street.

"Damn, not again," Saitou sighed.

Erin & AkaiSakura, For the RKML 'Aoshi gets a panty' challenge... O_o

Wait -- I guess Aoshi didn't get a panty... ah well.

I don't know why I wrote this. I know even less why I posted this. Some mysteries just can't be unraveled by mere humans, I suppose.