“Lover and Hater of Tower of Hate and Love” (65.2) (Zeta)

"Do you have it?" Arlit asked.

"Obviously," Pandora pulled out her necklace, which had a miniature tower on it.

But it wasn't just any tower. It was the Tower of Hate and Love, which can take the form of any tower in any dimension. In Season 7B of the third reboot, the Tower turned miniature so the cast could bring it along to stop an intergalactic empire.

"You always know what I'm thinking, don't you?" Arlit smiled. And for a brief, beautiful moment, Arlit and Pandora stared at each other, and both leaned in slightly.

"C'monnnn," I said. Even though I knew they wouldn't, I always held out hope each time I watched that they'd finally kiss this time.

"Well, we better get back to our boyfriends," Pandora said.

"Dang it," I said.

"Zeta!" Stella said.

My older sister was standing on the stairwell down to my basement den, looking none too pleased.

"What?"

"I've been calling down for like twenty minutes!" Stella said.

"Sorry, I was really focused on this," I said. "This is the one where Arlit and Pandora really start building their chemistry. They almost kiss, I swear!"

"You've seen this episode at least fifteen times," Stella said.

"At least!" I said. "Your point being?"

"Your friends are going to be here in about two hours," Stella said, hopping down the stairs so she could poke at an empty chip bag on the ground with her foot. “If you’re going to have friends over, you have to actually clean up!”

“I’m only here like a day a week, how am I supposed to keep it clean?” I asked.

I don't know why I went to argument mode right away, but in hindsight I think my intrinsic duty as a younger sister kicked in.

“If you’re only here a day or two a week, how is it this messy?” Stella said, finding empty boxes, some wrappers, empty cans. It was a mess, I didn't really have an excuse.

"Well, maybe you should be...er..." That attempt at a comeback was immediately parried by Stella.

"Don't you dare try to turn this back on me," Stella said. "I would be perfectly fine telling your friends no at the door if you won't clean."

"No! They'd be so mad!"

Dr. Diast crept down the stairs, hearing the heated argument between me and my sister and probably wanting to be the mediator.

"Dr. Diast, back me up?" I asked with a hopeful point.

"Zeta, as your guardian, I'm gonna give you the advice to maybe just do what Stella's telling you, this is a losing battle," Dr. Diast said.

"Stella, Dr. Diast is who you should be telling to clean," I said, turning back to my sister. "Her office is so messy."

"Wow, thanks for the instantaneous betrayal," Diast said.

"Evy actually cleans her messy rooms up now, don't try to turn this to her either," Stella said.

"Drat," I said. "Well! My friends probably won't even notice."

"I'm not leaving until you start cleaning," Stella said. "I would have helped you if you weren't in brat mode, but now you can clean it all up by yourself. And if you're not done by the time they get here, you have to tell them they can't come in until it's clean."

I grumbled, flopping off the couch and starting to pick up my trash.

Originally, this was just going to be me hanging out with Roux. Stella had it in her head that we needed to have a one on one hangout after Roux found out more about their identity. Then Marmalade, Roux, and I formed a pseudo club to talk about our gender business. Then this hangout turned into a meeting for our kind-of-club, but Kalei found out and didn't want Roux to get to hang out with me without her coming along.

Then it became a watch party for Tower of Hate and Love when I stumbled upon an auction for one of the rare Tower made-for-TV movies on DVD that I politely asked Stella to get for me.

I found out the devils watched it in their lab that they lived in and invited them (well, some of the cool ones, I wouldn't have Caeda or Chickadee over), so Myles, Ash, and Sai were coming to my place for the first time.

I did manage to clean up in time, mostly all by myself too (Stella took pity on me in spite of me being a brat and helped me get ready in the home stretch before anyone arrived).

The devils arrived first. It hit me too late that Mom might drive them, which would be a mess, but a woman I didn't recognize was driving the van that brought them over.

"Ground rules," Stella said before I could even say hello, blocking the doorway. "I don't mean to single you three out, but you did beat up the principal, so. Anything remotely like that and you'll regret it."

"Understandable," Ash said.

"These three didn't even want to!" I said. "They're cool."

"Well, Esther and Charmaine didn't want to much either," Myles said. "They would've come with, but they wanted to check out the ping pong club today."

"I'm still trying not to think about how the school could do that whole physically aggressive firing to me at any point," Dr. Diast said.

"I think it was a special case," Ash said. "At least, that's the vibe I got when I talked to that Benta dude."

"Well, if that's the vibe you got..." Diast said.

Kalei and Roux arrived next, apparently getting a ride from Kalei's mom.

“This is gonna be the greatest day of my life,” Kalei said, practically vibrating with excitement.

"Ground rule for you in particular," Diast said. "Just like chill a bit, please?"

"I'll ensure Koridia stays in line," Roux said. "She'll die by my blade otherwise."

"Alright, well, don't murder her, just like," Diast sucked her teeth. "Really never thought I'd be having you at my house."

"Hence this being the greatest day of my life," Kalei said.

Kalei dodged Diast, Stella, and I and rushed inside, running through the kitchen to the living room, right to the shelves where Stella and Diast kept their movies.

“Nice figures, Diast,” Kalei said.

Diast sighed as Kalei snickered at all the anime figures on the shelves.

“I’m showing great confidence in how my home looks to let you visit,” Diast said. "And remarkable restraint in not kicking you out already. And seriously, don't touch any of my figures. Mosey on downstairs."

"But I have more observations to make!" Kalei said. "Let me see your room!"

"No," Diast said.