Chapter Text
Little Miss Sane stood in front of the house she was staying in that night; even in the indigo of the evening sky, the house shone brightly with yellow light pouring out of the inside of the house and onto it's light green walls. It would be an immensely comforting sight for a weary traveler, but Miss Sane wasn't comfortable herself that night...
When Miss Sane was first moving to Dillydale she'd occasionally stay with a few of the residents while her arrangement for being Little Miss Comical's roommate was being ironed out. Staying with Miss Sunshine, for example, was pretty peaceful and she had no complaints there. Mr. Quiet's place, likewise, was nice and relaxing. Even Miss Scary was bearable when she got past the haunted house and realized a massive try-hard lived there.
Needless to say, some of her temporary living arrangements were less than ideal...
The wooden door in front of her opened up, and Miss Sane felt a pit in her stomach. In front of her stood the person she liked the least among everyone in Dillydale; a circular orange Mr. Man. His warm, welcoming smile was enough to make her blood ran cold. If anything at all was a relief, the Mr. Man's arms were currently unextended, but Miss Sane knew better than to assume it was going to stay that way for the whole night.
"Glad you made, Miss Sane!"
"Wish I could say the same myself, Mr. Tickle..." Miss Sane cynically greeted.
The yellow Little Miss carefully adjusted the duffle bag on her shoulder, and paused for a moment. Miss Sane turned her head around to look outside, trying to figure out an exit route out of the house. Unfortunately for her, the way the neighborhoods in Dillydale are set up doesn't allow for easy escapes, considering how far apart the houses are and how wide the nearby road is. (It certainly wouldn't take Mr. Tickle very long to find and get her if she did.)
Little Miss Sane began to head inside, silently glaring daggers at Mr. Tickle as she entered his house and walked straight past him. The silence between the two was already starting to get awkward, and neither of them liked that the other wasn't saying anything. Miss Sane knew that Mr. Tickle being as silent as he is now means he is plotting something, and she also knew that he especially liked to target those who were unhappy; And with unhappy targets, tickling soon follows. After all, Mr. Grumpy was one of his favorites for a reason, and Miss Sane knew she wasn't far behind on that list.
For most of the night, Mr. Tickle and Little Miss Sane barely talked to each-other. Aside from directions to the guest room, not much interaction happened. While this seemingly peaceful night would come off as relaxing for someone less acquainted with Mr. Tickle, Miss Sane had to spend the whole night on over-watch; he's the unpredictable type and she know when he'd strike. While his distance towards the cynical and closed off Miss Sane would come off as a form of emotional awareness to the untrained eye -and perhaps, it might actually be the case-, but she had no reason to believe that was the case.
"Since when does Mr. Tickle actually care about how people feel?" Miss Sane thought as she put her navy blue hairband in the duffle bag in preparation for a good night's rest.
"He says that he tickles people to make them happy, but does he really? Every time I've encountered him, he's just doing it for the sake of mischief; if anything, he's just aggravating everyone further..." Miss Sane muttered to herself as she adjusted the similarly-blue sleeping mask that now took her headband's place. "What I need isn't a tickle; What I need is for someone to go kick his face in!"
The night's peace wouldn't last for much longer, as Miss Sane zipped up her bag for the night. She could hear the faintest sound of laughing. Miss Sane stopped what she was doing, and paused in the middle of the guest bedroom; nobody else was in there currently, but she knew that she'd be an easy target for Mr. Tickle if she remained there.
Little Miss Sane opened the guest room's door, and began to head out into the hallway. Very few, if any lights were on, but this didn't deter her in the slightest. She brought a flashlight with her for situations like this (although that only started because of an incident at Miss Scary's place involving the darkness of her house and a ton of bats), and was mentally prepared for anything that count happen.
Or at least, she thought she was mentally prepared...
She was only out for a couple of seconds when her flashlight was picking up a familiar wiggly orange pattern. Unfortunately for Miss Sane, she knew what -or more specifically who- that belonged to.
Mr. Tickle.
As the orange arms began to approach her, Miss Sane began to sprint in the opposite direction they were coming from. However, she's aware she couldn't run forever; sooner or later, she was going to end up cornered and she was really not looking forward to being tickled! Even if the chase seemed endless now, she was aware it wasn't going to end that easily.
But before Miss Sane could begin to panic, a surprisingly helpful memory came to her mind.
"Miss Sane, look what I can do!"
A young Little Miss Sane watched in awe as her cousin, Little Miss Energy bounced around in the grass. Miss Energy could barely be made out, as her movement was so fast Miss Sane could only see a turquoise and yellow blur in her place! That day wasn't anything too special, as Miss Energy's parents would come by often and let Miss Energy do that exact thing in her cousin's backyard; however, Miss Sane would be always be in awe whenever she saw the zappy Little Miss show off her abilities.
While it's confusing that someone as normal as Little Miss Sane would be related to an extraordinary speedster like Little Miss Energy, the family resemblance was always there; after all, both of them were yellow circles with light blue noses. The main difference between the two was that Miss Energy looked as bright as she acted, with short cyan hair in a lightning-shaped ponytail, while Miss Sane's burgundy hair was more down to earth with it's only movement being its long subtle waves.
"Isn't it great!" Miss Energy exclaimed cheerfully as she finally came to a stop, landing on the grass as if she just finished an aerial kick.
"Pffft.. Show-off," Miss Sane teased, having seen Miss Energy's talents many times before.
"Yeah, but I'm getting better and better at it," Miss Energy replied back, "Hey Miss Sane, how! How about you try it!"
"M-me?" Miss Sane stammered. She had never been asked to do something so extraordinary before; while it comes naturally to someone like her cousin, Miss Sane had always preferred to stay low to the ground and never had the desire to even do cartwheels!
"Yeah! It'll be fun!" Little Miss Energy gushed excitedly.
Looking back on it, Little Miss Sane could never clearly remember the instructions Miss Energy told her, especially considering that the memory was from a really long time ago, but she could remember one thing in particular.
All Miss Sane could feel was her face slamming itself into the grass and dirt below her.
Clearly "the zappy thing", as Miss Energy called it, wasn't working out for her. Little Miss Sane slowly looked up from the ground, embarrassed, in pain, and immensely disappointed. It took a few moments for her vision to focus on the concerned expression of the yellow and turquoise blur in front of her; except, that blur was staying still and Miss Energy could be slowly made out from it.
"Are you okay, cuz?" Miss Energy asked, looking down at the Little Miss laying in front of her.
"I'm... Fine..." Miss Sane sputtered out as she weakly got herself up. As soon as Miss Sane stood up again, Miss Energy wasted no time wiping the dirt and stuff off of her cousin's face. What couldn't be wiped off, however, was the disillusionment on Miss Sane's face.
"I just couldn't do it..." Miss Sane mumbled, her voice unenergetic and somber. She was clearly defeated, as her eyelids were beginning to fall over themselves like her body did earlier.
"Don't say that just yet!" Miss Energy insisted; although she's as disappointed as Miss Sane is, her optimistic outlook on everything wasn't going to let her cousin give up. "I used to fall on my face all the time when I first started doing the zappy thing, but within time and determination, you'll get there yourself eventually."
"...Really?" Miss Sane replied, some light finally returning to her eyes.
"Yeah! Keep training with me, and I'll get you there eventually!"
However, time to think was in short supply, as Mr. Tickle's arms were quickly approaching her; even running normally wouldn't give her enough time to escape!
Throwing hesitation into the wind, Miss Sane jumped off of the ground as quickly as she could! To her surprise however, she wasn't landing face first this time, but soaring above the now confused Mr. Tickle. In fact, she felt like she was flying off the ground.
"Wait, I didn't know you could do that!" Mr. Tickle's high-pitched voice exclaimed as Miss Sane was quickly making her way out of his grasping reach.
"I could?" Miss Sane gasped; shock from even performing the zappy-thing aside, she was also getting really close to hitting a wall. But there was no time to think now!
Miss Sane landed against the wall with one leg, and quickly bounced off it. In fact, with how tight the hallway was, she took the opportunity to ricochet across the walls as part of her escape. Mr. Tickle could barely even keep track of the yellow, illuminated (due to the flashlight) blur zig zagging in front of him, let alone try to tickle it!
The experience of truly being airborne was amazing to Little Miss Sane; not only was it exciting as Miss Energy made it look, but being able to use it in such a tight situation too? No wonder why she always wanted to learn it! (Although it never occurred her that she'd be using it that way...)
"If only Little Miss Energy could see me now!" Miss Sane proudly thought to herself, outpacing Mr. Tickle behind her.
In front of her, Miss Sane could see an open window; she finally found an escape! Miss Sane, with all of her might, zig-zagged off of the walls and into the outside world. However, with nothing to keep up momentum, Miss Sane crashed her way into Mr. Tickle's backyard.
Landing face-first into dirt and grass brought Miss Sane back to her childhood memory of failing to perform the zappy-thing, but she didn't care; she finally succeeded!
Miss Sane stumbled her way back up and tried to get a view of her current surroundings; the wall facing the backyard she was in had lights illuminating it against the darkness of the night, bringing her attention to the palm trees. However, as Miss Sane turned around to look behind her, a familiar pair of arms were catching up with her quickly. Once again, Miss Sane couldn't stay for long and admire her surroundings!
Miss Sane quickly took off from the ground again, and bounced off of the closest palm tree she could find. Now that she was airborne, she took advantage of her newfound route by landing on top of Mr. Tickle's roof.
"That... Was amazing!" Little Miss Sane shouted to herself in excitement, "I bet he'd never find me from up here!"
"Or could I?"
Miss Sane looked down in disappointment to see that Mr. Tickle had also made his way outside. Surprisingly, the orange Mr. Man had retracted his arms back to a normal size, smugly posing them against his hips. Miss Sane squinted suspiciously, as it looked like he was clearly enjoying the chase Miss Sane was unintentionally giving him.
"Did you really think that I'd give up as soon as you left?" Mr. Tickle asked in a teasing manner. He winked playfully at the roof-bound Little Miss above him. All Miss Sane could do was shudder in a mix of disgust and fear.
"Of course I didn't," Miss Sane answered, "You're way too predictable; if that weren't the case, I would've just used the door!"
"Good!" Mr. Tickle replied back, "That just means it's more satisfying for me once I actually get to tickle you!"
Miss Sane shook her head in disappointment, before resuming her escape; she quickly made a run for it and dashed across the tops of the palm trees, with Mr. Tickle following closely behind her.
As the night continued on, the other residents of Dillydale would catch glimpses outside their window as Mr. Tickle and Little Miss Sane passed by their places. Usually, this would result in a nearby Mr. Man or Little Miss waking up due to the noise, deciding to peak out the window and see what was happening, and then going back to sleep when they decided that those two were just messing around and weren't worth paying attention to. (Not to mention, the others couldn't tell that the yellow blur outside of their window was even Miss Sane; the similarly-colored Miss Daredevil zips around town all of the time at similar speeds.)
Unknown to both Miss Sane and Mr. Tickle, however, someone else was following both of them! A light tan motor scooter trailed behind them, with it's notably small driver and larger passenger observing the action happening in front of them. While the scooter wasn't going very quick, it was making up for it's lack of speed by driving in a very precise manner. (After all, that's how you get the best views!)
"Gee, Mr. Small!" Mr. Nosey exclaimed, "This chase we're on is one of the most entertaining nights we've had in awhile!"
"The chase we're on?" Mr. Small laughed, "It isn't our chase, Nose; we just enjoy chasing chases!"
Mr. Nosey and Mr. Small were natural night owls and enjoyed seeing what happens in Dillydale during the town's most quiet hours. While they found silence in and of itself was boring, they always knew that if it got too silent something exciting would happen soon. Luckily for the duo, they knew tonight was going to be one of those nights!
"But indeed, it is fun," Mr. Small reassured. "How often do you get to see Mr. Tickle run amok through Dillydale in pursuit of only one person, much less at night?"
"Not often," Mr. Nosey replied back, "But that makes me wonder..."
Mr. Nosey didn't follow up with a question but instead pulled out a handheld telescope, trying to make out who the distant yellow blur was supposed to be.
"It's Miss Sane!" Mr. Nosey exclaimed in excitement. "I didn't know she could go that fast!"
"Really?" Mr. Small asked. He stopped driving as Mr. Nosey handed him the telescope; looking through it, Mr. Small could confirm that it was, in fact, Little Miss Sane.
"Great Mcgillicuddy! It is her!" Mr. Small exclaimed. "This is quite an interesting development!"
"Whaddya mean, Mr. Small?"
"You see, given how normal Little Miss Sane is, I never would've thought she was capable of any unusual abilities such as immense speed," Mr. Small explained, "At first, I thought it was Miss Daredevil. After all, she's the one that enjoys going that fast, and they look similar if you're not looking at them very closely. They're both yellow, they're both redheads, etcetera... But Miss Sane? She never seemed like the type who had any interest in going that fast to begin with!"
"But what's Miss Sane doing up this late?" Mr. Nosey asked, now having more questions than answers. "And why is she going through all this effort to avoid Mr. Tickle? I know she doesn't like him, but she's not usually this energetic either. Are we sure there isn't something deeper going on here? Maybe even between them? Besides, doesn't Miss Sane usually goes to bed early?"
"We'll have to ask her those questions sometime," Mr. Small answered, unsure of what was happening himself. "But either way, let's enjoy the show while it lasts!"
"Great idea, buddy boy! Now let's get going before we lose track of them!"
Needless to say, nobody got any sleep that night.