The sun shone brightly down upon the Souma-ke that day; Kyo was out jogging, while Shigure was in his study, 'working' on his novels, with his poor abused editor standing by. Yuki was working in his garden, which explained why there was peace in the house at the moment. Tohru made her way through the rooms of the house, making sure each one was cleaned and tidy, then made her way to the kitchen to prepare dinner.  Halfway there, the phone began to ring. Pivoting on one foot, she dashed back through the main room to the hallway, wondering who the caller might be.

     "Hello, Souma residence desu!"  She piped cheerfully.

     The familiar voice of her yankee friend Uotani Arisa was heard, crisp and clear, over the phone. "Ah, Toh-chan, just the person I wanted to talk with. Listen, are Carrot Top and the Prince around?"

     Tohru shook her head, even though Arisa wouldn't be able to see. "Ah, no.. Souma-kun is working in his garden, and Kyo-kun is out jogging desu.."

     "Well that's all right. Listen, Hanajima's over here, and she just brought up a great idea for that school project we're all to do next week. Mind if we come over to discuss it?"

     Tohru beamed happily, and while Uotani couldn't see the smile, she could certainly hear it. "Of course I don't mind! Ah – but I should ask Shigure-san to make sure it's okay desu. Can I call you back desu?"

With agreement from Uotani, Tohru hung up the phone and walked back to the main room, knocking on the door. "Shigure-san?"

From within, Tohru could hear Mit-chan wailing, "Senseeeeeeei! This isn't the manuscript you were supposed to give me!"

"Now now, Mit-chan, don't get yourself so worked up." Shigure's voice chuckled, as he opened the door. Looking over his shoulder, he added, "I'll be right back."

Mit-chan looked up from bawling over the sack of blank pages that Shigure had given her, eyes narrowed, "SWEAR IT!"

Shigure laughed, waving a hand dismissively to the girl, "Of course, of course." Shutting the door, he looked at Tohru, "Now Tohru-chan, what can I do for you?"

Even though these sort of antics were normal by now, Tohru still found herself lost within the chaos that existed in the Souma household; particularly when some of the more excitable visitors were visiting. "Ah.. Oh! I'm sorry to disturb you-" she began.

Shigure waved a hand, resting an arm around her shoulders as he started to walk with her across the room. "Maa, never mind that. I was going to take a short break myself anyway."

Tohru let out a small sigh of relief, "Well, I was on the phone with Uo-chan just now, and she wanted to come over and discuss a school project with me over here. I wanted to make sure it would be okay first desu."

Shigure rubbed his chin with his free hand, now guiding Tohru back into the hallway. "Well, I don't see where that would be a problem. Where are Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun?"

"Er… ah.. they're out desu..Yuki-kun is at his garden, and Kyo-kun.."

Before she could even finish that statement, the door was slid open, admitting one self-satisfied Jyunishi by the name of Souma Kyo. Spying Shigure and Tohru in the hallway – particularly the fact that the former had his arm around Tohru, Kyo narrowed his eyes slightly and grunted a greeting. "Oi."

Oblivious as ever, Tohru smiled happily, "Welcome back Kyo-kun! Did you have fun jogging?"

Seeing his chance to get Kyo irritated, the eternally-mischievous Shigure leaned in close to Tohru, careful not to trigger his transformation as he addressed Kyo in turn. "o/~ Welcome Hooome, Kyo-kuuuuun~! ~/o"

Three things happened: One, Tohru looked towards Shigure, and began to turn a bright red. Two, Kyo looked at Shigure, his fists clenching as the anger-meter began to rise. Three, Shigure added insult to injury when he turned to Tohru and added, "Ne ne, Kyo-kun had so much fun, why don't we go have some fun too?"

Tohru sputtered, "Eh?" ..

..to the air, as Kyo's punch knocked Shigure away from Tohru and through the wall. "Che!" Kyo growled, "Damned pervert."

Tohru clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes widening as she traced the arc Shigure's body flew in until the 'poor' novelist crashed onto the floor – though he didn't seem that hurt. "A..ah.. Shigure-san!! Are you okay desu!?" Tohru called.

Shigure sat up, rubbing his head, "Oow.. Kyo-kun hurt me Tohru-chan.. I think I need someone to come nurse me back to health.."

Kyo took a step forward, pushing Tohru behind him, "Don't you ever give up!"

"What's all the racket about, Kyo." Said another voice from behind the pair.

Kyo whirled to find himself staring right at the face of his eternal enemy, Yuki. "..None of your business, damnit!" Kyo snarled, turning and storming up the stairs to his room.

Tohru blinked anxiously after him, "A…. Kyo-kun!?"

"Leave him, Honda-san." Yuki sighed the sigh of the long-suffering. "Here. I saw these growing near the garden, and thought you might like them."

Tohru turned to accept the offering from Yuki, her eyes widening in surprise and pleasure, "Aah! They're beautiful Souma-kun!" A slight blush touched her cheeks. "These are.."

"Tulips." Yuki supplied. "It's not anything special, but.. I saw them and .. well.." Yuki glanced away, coughing into his hand.

Tohru shook her head with delight, "No no, they're wonderful desu! Thank you so much Souma-kun!" She gushed, tilting the flowers to her face and sniffing lightly, "Mmm.. they smell wonderful desu!"

Yuki glanced back at her with a soft smile, "I'm glad you like them, Honda-san."

Tohru looked at the flowers, "Saa, I'd better put these in some water." Turning again, she hurried back to the kitchen; it took her a moment to realize Shigure was nowhere to be seen. She had at first thought him to be back in his study, but a few minutes later, she heard Mit-chan screaming and carrying on outside. Obviously Shigure snuck out again.

"Can I help you with anything, Honda-san?"

Tohru looked over her shoulder as she adjusted one of the flowers in the vase, "Mm, I have to call Uo-chan back, and after that I'm going to make a big dinner for everyone desu!"

Yuki smiled, placing his hands behind his back, "Ah, so Uotani-san is coming over to join us?"

"Yes, and Hana-chan too!"  Was it her imagination or did Yuki just pale slightly?

"Ah.." The prince said, a bit more weakly, "Then…" He gamely recovered his composure, "What will we be having?"

Tohru turned around, putting a finger to her chin in thought, "Etou… I was thinking of preparing some nato miso shiru, onigiri, and as a main dish, vegetable and chicken tempura desu."

Yuki whistled in admiration, "That's quite a lot to prepare Honda-san. I'd like to help if I may."

I'd like to help if I may, was a death sentence, considering Yuki's rather infamous lack of cooking skills. Still, that he offered to help her was an honor to Tohru, and she couldn't – wouldn't say no. She'd just have to make sure he didn't do any actual cooking. "Well, the soup and the rice needs preparing.." She ventured timidly.

Yuki smiled, "Say no more, Honda-san. I'll take care of that, and you can call Uotani-san and..Hanajima-san."

Tohru smiled gratefully, and made her way out of the room. It may have just been her imagination, but she'd  -swear- Yuki twitched whenever he mentioned Hanajima.

     Two hours later, without incident no less, everyone was seated around the small table in the main room, finishing up the masterpiece that was Tohru's cooking. Mit-chan had fruitlessly tried to get Shigure to get up and return to his manuscript, and somehow managed to get convinced to sit down and eat – she'd even forgotten about the manuscript, lost in the chatter of the other teenagers around her. For all of the grief Shigure gave her, she enjoyed being around the others, particularly since Tohru was living in this place. She made everything seem much..brighter, much more cheerful whenever she was around. Yuki certainly was smiling more, now that she thought about it.

     "Ne ne, Tohru-chan!" Shigure piped up after a moment, and drawing the attention of everyone at the table, (which was the idea) "Did you, Arisa-chan and Saki-chan have a chance to discuss this project you were going to do for school?"

     That also got the attention of Kyo and Yuki; the former glanced at Tohru out of the corner of his eye, feigning disinterest, while Yuki gave Tohru his full attention. "Project?" Yuki echoed, thinking back.

     "Mm." Uotani nodded at Yuki, alternating her attention from him to Tohru, "Hanajima and I were talking about it a few hours ago, and we think we have a good idea.. but we need more people to pull it off."

     "Quite a bit more. Of course we thought of you, Tohru-chan." The gloomy girl beside Uotani said, before taking a sip of her tea.

     Tohru smiled happily, "What's the idea then?"

     Silence fell, as all eyes turned to Hanajima Saki, who simply sipped at her cup of tea as if she had all the time in the world. Time slowed, as she gracefully lowered the cup to its saucer, with a tiny, almost inaudible 'clink'. Such a noise would never have been heard, if everyone hadn't been staring at Hanajima in suspense, holding their breath.

     Hanajima looked up to regard those surrounding her, and then turned her head to look at Tohru, "…a radio play." She uttered.

     There was a loud whoosh of air as everyone exhaled in response to this revelation. Uotani chuckled, rubbing behind her head as she elaborated on Hanajima's response. "Not so much as a radio play.. more like.. being radio DJ's for a day. It could be a lot of fun."

     Tohru, of course, was all for it. "That's a fantastic idea, Uo-chan, Hana-chan!" She beamed..and paused, "But.. we don't have that kind of equipment or anything.."

     "The A/V club said that they would help." Hanajima put in quietly.

     Uotani smirked, "After we .. convinced them, of course. Otherwise they'd have been helping the Prince's fanclub with whatever project they were working on." She added, jerking a thumb at poor Yuki.

     "Still, we three are not enough to successfully run this project." Hanajima said, taking a bite of her riceball.

     Uotani slumped her shoulders, "Ah, you're right.." She glanced at Yuki and Kyo, "How about you two?"

     Yuki smiled, "I think that I would enjoy something like that."

     Kyo snorted, turning away, "Keh! Forget it, I have better things to do than work on some stupid radio station. Especially with that damn Yuki!" Grumbling, he added, "I'll figure something out on my own."

     Uotani raised her hand and slammed it against the table, "OI! What is your problem with Yuki anyway Carrot Top? And you're supposed to be Tohru's friend, AREN'T YOU? Well she could use your help with this too you know!"

     Hanajima fixed Kyo with one of her patented pre-denpa stares, "A friend should be there to help each other when they're in a fix, don't you agree?" There was a definite threat in those last three words.

     Tohru interrupted her two friends however, waving her hands quickly, "It's okay it's okay! I know some other people I can ask desu – I don't want Kyo-kun to feel like he's being pressured into this." She smiled sweetly at Kyo, "Really it's okay Kyo-kun, I understand if you don't want to join our group desu. I wish you the best of luck with your own project though!"

     Kyo eyed Tohru briefly, and then turned away with a grumble that no one could quite interpret. Yuki, obviously, couldn't care less. In his opinion, he wouldn't have to fight with Kyo over Tohru-time. Er. That is, Kyo wouldn't be around to mess things up.

     Uotani scowled after Kyo, until Hanajima set down her empty teacup with finality. "Then it's settled. We start tomorrow."

To Be Continued..