A/N: I'm back! Just gonna say a few words before you can get on with the story. First of all, if you haven't read my story "And it happened on a christmas night", there's a chance you might not understand everything going on here. This is in the same universe, but a year after that story ended. This is going to be only a few chapters long, I'm thinking maybe three or four. Originally it was going to be only one chapter, but I realized that it would be one really, way too long chapter, so I'm splitting it up a little. I know that some of my previous readers aren't too big fans of sexual content in Toradora stories, and while this story will in no way be erotic, it will hint to some pretty big changes having happened with certain people over the one year since the original story. Let's just say people grow up. They have sex. Which means there are mentions of sex in the story, though no actual sex actually happening, so don't worry about that. Also this story will probably be more comedy than it will be romance. Okay, sorry for this long note, let's get on with the story!


Senior year of high school was exhausting. It was like having all the responsibilities in the world dumped in your lap, and then there was this random person telling you to sort through all of it and make sure all of it was perfect. So when summer vacation rolled through again, and it was time for the seniors to take a little break before starting up again with the hard work, everyone was relieved. Just one more day.

"I can't wait for this day to be over," Taiga groaned as they entered the school building, the morning sun making the cool air a little less cool, but Taiga was honestly too tired to even care about that.

"Taiga, school hasn't even started yet." Ryuuji said at her as he started removing his shoes in front of his shoe locker.

"My point exactly," Taiga nodded, as if Ryuuji had made a statement which totally agreed to what Taiga had said. The girl removed her shoes and replaced them with the inside shoes that she started putting on. But, right before she got the left one onto her foot, she noticed something inside of it. "What's this?" She mumbled, pulling out a little paper slip that was lying at the bottom of her shoe.

"What?" Ryuuji asked, trotting over to her with a curious look on his face. After a quick glance, he saw that what Taiga was holding was a note. "No way," he gasped, reeling a few steps back in pure shock. "A love letter?!"

"Shut up!" Taiga hissed, looking around as if trying to find out if the culprit was anywhere close. After making sure the coast was clear, she opened the little note, instantly being hit with a wave of confusion. "Come?" She uttered, cocking her head sideways. Ryuuji raised an eyebrow and went over to her again, only to see that the little note did in fact only say that one word. Come. Not even any punctuation or anything.

"I bet someone were about to write you a love letter," Ryuuji started, holding a finger up as if having a great idea. His voice was quite monotone though. "And they were like, 'ah, yes, I shall ask of this lady to come meet me behind the school at lunch, and henceforth I shalt confess my love', but then like, after writing the first word he remembered me and probably realized I'd kick his ass if he as much as tried, so he didn't finish the letter but he put it there anyway." He finished his monologue and nodded curtly as if agreeing with himself.

"You sure know how to fantasize, Ryuuji," Taiga sighed, and Ryuuji looked slightly baffled at that.

"What? Fantasize?" He piped up, following Taiga up the stairs with a nervous look on his face. "I'm being serious, Taiga. I scare people. It's the truth."

"Yes, but we already went through this, Ryuuji. You don't kick people's asses. You know what happens if you do."

"Yeah, you're right, I did promise not to do that again." Ryuuji sighed and scratched at the back of his head. As they entered the classroom on the third floor, they both went and found their seats. The original plan formed by the teachers was to separate the entire gang – you know which one we're talking about – and put them in different classes so they wouldn't cause any more unneeded ruckus, like for example an American boy bursting into their classroom, crying because his imaginary friend had been in a car accident. But the job of separating Ryuuji and Taiga and putting them in different classes had been landed on Yuri-sensei, who was going to do it with complete bravado, and then she had approached Ryuuji and opened her mouth and the boy had given her that glare and she had just screamed and taken off down the hallway, still not having learned that Ryuuji wasn't actually dangerous.

So Ryuuji and Taiga were in the same class, whereas the others had been scattered around a little. As Ryuuji sat down at his desk on that particular day, there was a note on his desk. It looked quite similar to the one Taiga had gotten, only the handwriting looked sort of different. Not to mention it had been written in glossy, pink color. "Home." He mumbled, scratching at his cheek. He turned around and lifted the note so that Taiga could see it and they both shrugged their shoulders at each other to show that none of them knew what it meant. Except they both had sort of trouble seeing what the other was doing so they just kinda kept shrugging really intensely at each other for a little while.

Classes were especially painful now that everyone knew they'd have vacation in only a few hours, but Taiga and Ryuuji did their very best to pull through. Once lunch came around, the door to the classroom flew open and Kushieda Minori came marching into the room with a huge grin on her face, whilst Kawashima Ami and Yusaku Kitamura followed suit. This was like routine, so no one as much as raised an eyebrow once the odd gang entered the room. They went up to Taiga and Ryuuji and they all gathered around a table and had lunch together.

"Y'know, vacation's going to be awesome!" Minori sang just before stuffing some rice in her face. Taiga nodded furiously in agreement.

"We should… we should… go swimming, or something!" Taiga exclaimed, and then she stopped, looked at Ryuuji, and shook her head. "I take it back."

"That was one time, Taiga, you don't have to keep worrying about it." Ryuuji groaned, and Kitamura and Ami almost choked on their food from laughing too much.

"One time of you dying, yeah." Taiga mumbled, gently shoving her face against Ryuuji's arm. "Never again, I tell you."

"What? Why is there a note at the bottom of my lunch box?" Ami uttered, looking completely and utterly confused. "If this is a love letter, how did they even get it in there?!"

"Huh, that's weird, I found a note this morning too." Minori hummed. "It only had one word, though. Maybe it's some kinda secret code."

"Wait, you all got notes?" Taiga asked, both her and Ryuuji looking at the others, suddenly way more curious than they had been to begin with. "What about you, Kitamura?"

"Yeah, I found one on my chair." He said, pulling the little note out of his pocket. Ryuuji and Taiga gave each other a wondering glance before pushing aside some of the lunch boxes on the table to clear enough space for the notes. They all put their notes down and started finding the proper order for them to be in, until they finally had a complete sentence written on notes with completely different handwritings and colors.

COME TO MY VACATION HOME

"Uhh… is this an invitation?" Ryuuji asked, tilting his head with his brows completely furrowed.

"Looks like it. Question is, from whom?" Kitamura asked, trying to figure out whomever it could be who had come up with something this weird. Before anyone could reply, the classroom went completely silent, and everyone were looking at the door. Right there stood a girl who looked completely terrified, her face awash with red color. She was in the first grade, and had a reputation for being one of the most timid and cute girls in the entire school.

"U-U-Uhm!" She practically shouted, her voice shaky and scared. "W-W-Where is… Ka-Ka-Ka-Kawa…shima…" She mumbled, looking down at her feet.

"Uh… here?" Ami reached a hand into the air and looked more confused than ever. How did that girl even know her name? Oh no. A fan? The girl silently trotted over to their table, a piece of paper tightly clasped between the thumbs and index fingers on both her hands. She stopped in front of the table and slowly put the note down, and then she yelped and ran back out of the room.

"What was that all about?" Ryuuji asked, still looking at the door that the girl had disappeared out of.

"I don't know, but she was so cute…" Minori sighed, a blissful look on her face.

"I knew it!" Ami shouted, standing up and stomping her feet in the ground. Some of the people in the classroom looked at her a bit oddly, but they were used to this kinda thing so they just looked away again. "I frickin' knew it!" Ami repeated, and at first she looked really pissed off but then everyone suddenly realized she was actually grinning like crazy, her cheeks a warm color.

They all looked down at the note on the table, at the note that was there, which read "Love, Buttercup", with a little heart drawn next to it.

"Who's… buttercup?" Taiga asked, giving Ami an inquisitive look. Ami stopped stomping and looked back at Taiga, her grin still there.

"It's my nickname for Yukuri." She mused, doing a little spin out of sheer joy.

"That's so sweet, I might just throw up." Taiga joked, poking her tongue out at Ami who poked her tongue out in return, but then Taiga realized what she'd said. "Wait, Yukuri? We're going to Yukuri's place?!"

"Looks like it." Ami smiled, flashing two fingers in a peace sign.

"Yay!" Minori and Taiga exclaimed at the same time, whereas Ryuuji and Kitamura bumped fists and nodded in what looked like some sort of victory.

"Nice." Ryuuji said. "That actually sounds pretty fun." As they all celebrated in their own way the fact that they were going to see their friend Yukuri again, Ami pulled out her phone and started dialing a number.

"Kawashima…" Kitamura said, laughing nervously. "Phones are not allowed in school."

"Shut up, Kitty." Ami said without really paying attention to him as she put the phone to her ear. Kitamura died on the inside as he started to realize that the nickname 'Kitty' was totally becoming a thing that people called him. They could all see that Ami was trying to look stern, but as soon as someone apparently answered their phone, Ami was smiling like crazy. "So," she sang, biting playfully at her bottom lip. "Mind telling me what this is all about?"

The entire gang inched closer to Ami to hear what was actually being said by Yukuri who was obviously on the other end. "I'm not gonna give you the satisfaction just yet. I will be brief about it, but do give me praise for successfully blackmailing a bunch of first graders into giving you those notes, though. I mean, that makes me pretty awesome."

"God, I should have known…" Ami groaned. "Continue?"

"Be at the train station tomorrow at 9 am. There will be someone there to tell you where to go. Everyone's gotta make sure to bring enough clothes to last them a week. Oh, and bring swimsuits. Especially you. I wanna get a good view of those-" Ami suddenly coughed violently, a stark red blush on her face. The cough made Yukuri stop. "The others are listening, aren't they?" Yukuri asked, suddenly sounding nervous.

"Yup," Ami chuckled with an undertone that reeked of killing intent and sleepless nights filled with nightmares of a blue-haired girl with a pair of pliers clutched tightly in her hands. "Yup, they are."

"I messed up so bad," Yukuri yelped, and right before she hung up, she repeated herself. "So, remember! Station! 9 am! Tomorrow! Clothes! Swimwear! Yay!"

And then silence. And then everyone was laughing their ass off whilst Ami fumed in a corner. She was still happy about the fact that she was going to see Yukuri again, though, considering she hadn't actually seen her for over two months because of school. But that didn't mean she wasn't gonna kick her girlfriend's ass for embarrassing her in front of her friends.

The day went on like normal after that, and at last the relief of summer vacation was over them once more. As the friends, and all the other students, started filing out of the school building, something came over Ami. "On the other hand, though," she started, getting the attention of the others. "I do actually wanna look good for Yukuri, so I think I should head off and buy a new swimsuit."

"I think I should do the same," Taiga mumbled, looking down at her chest with her lips in an unsatisfied pout.

"Yeah, maybe you gotta find something in the kids department." Ami said with an evil grin splayed over her face, and Taiga had to restrain herself from punching the girl in her stupid face.

"I don't think that's what she means." Ryuuji chimed in, probably not even realizing he'd said it. Yeah, this was definitely going to cause an awkward conversation if they didn't defuse it as soon as possible. "Because, uh!" He suddenly added, and everyone looked at him like he was completely insane. "The other one! Yes! The other one tore! Because, uh… Inko-chan! Yes! Inko-chan got out of his cage and he took the swimsuit and tore it apart!"

"That is one scary bird." Minori gasped, looking like she truly believed the story Ryuuji had just told them. Kitamura chuckled softly to himself, and Ami looked suspiciously at the couple before shrugging her shoulders.

"Sure, let's go together, then. You guys wanna join too?"

"I don't really have anything better to do." Kitamura said, which Minori seemed to agree with, so they all went together. As they got to the clothing store, Ami was all over the hottest looking bikinis and swimsuits, all seemingly made for mature women.

"Ami is such a busty woman, isn't she?" Taiga mumbled, looking pretty displeased with the entire situation. Ryuuji sighed in what seemed like some sort of agreement. "Look, you gotta help me out with this. This is new to me. I don't even know how I'm supposed to handle it."

"Shouldn't it technically be easier than before, though? Just find one in the right size. At least we won't have to make you any pads this ti-"

"Shut up!" Taiga hissed and elbowed Ryuuji's side, which made him hunch over and groan in pain. "I don't want everyone to know, either!" She whispered harshly.

"They're all gonna see it eventually either way, aren't they?" Ryuuji asked, not looking very happy about the elbow that was still jammed into his ribs. "Look… I'm just gonna go ask for something to measure with, and we'll take care of it, okay?"

"Fine… I'll go to the fitting room and just… chill out." Taiga sighed, and she disappeared. Ryuuji headed over to the register and asked and employee for some measuring band, and once he'd gotten it he returned to the fitting rooms. He made sure none of the others were paying too much attention, which was quite easy considering Minori and Kitamura were both trying to help Ami decide on her swimwear, and then he slipped into the fitting room that Taiga had gone into. Taiga had already taken off her shirt and her bra, and she was pretty much just staring at herself in the mirror.

"Again, huh?" Ryuuji sighed, trying not to stare too much. He knew it'd unnerve Taiga.

"Yeah." Taiga mumbled, and then, as if having waited to do it a long time, Taiga smiled and jumped at Ryuuji, who caught her by the legs and held her up whilst she put her arms around the back of his neck. "They grew again!" Taiga beamed. She kissed Ryuuji quickly before she jumped back down.

"You seem quite happy about that." Ryuuji chuckled, raising an eyebrow. "Though I can't say I'm any different."

"It's all thanks to you, you know." Taiga said simply as she turned back to the mirror and poked at her breasts that were, in fact, distinguishably larger than they had used to be. Not enough for anyone to notice through her clothes, though, so her and Ryuuji were the only one who knew. But the difference was obvious and visible, and Taiga liked it a lot. She just wasn't very used to it.

"How is it thanks to me?" Ryuuji asked, frowning deeply in question.

"Well, you know, they say that if someone massages them eno-"

"That's just an urban legend!" Ryuuji exclaimed, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. "Look, you're just maturing. It happens."

"Yeah, I guess," Taiga mumbled, turning her hips a little to look at herself in the mirror. "Looks like my behind is getting bigger, too."

"I see." Ryuuji said, but by then his face was completely red, and a satisfied grin started creeping up on his face.

"Stop being perverted and just measure me already." Taiga deadpanned, and Ryuuji did. After measuring her bust and her waist, they found a flowery two-piece for her, and they finished pretty much at the same time as Ami, who had in fact bought three different swimsuits and bikinis. It didn't really surprise anyone.

The day after was a day of excitement for everyone. Ryuuji and Taiga left the house at 8:15, and Ryuuji almost felt weird about not having cooked any food for his mom so she would survive the week without him. But, after having survived cancer, she had insisted that he teach her some basic recipes, so now she could actually take care of making food for herself without any issues. Ryuuji wasn't really complaining.

It didn't take them long to get to the train station, and to their surprise, everyone was there already. Ryuuji was used to being the one who most liked to be on time, but apparently everyone was too excited about meeting Yukuri to wait. It wouldn't make the train come any faster, so their logic was kind of impaired, but they didn't care.

"Hey, guys!" Kitamura smiled as Taiga and Ryuuji approached them. Ami and Minori waved happily.

"Yo." Ryuuji said, and the two of them stopped right in front of their friends. "So, I guess we just wait, then."

"Yeah… I'm almost expecting some other sick surprise from buttercup, to be honest. She's probably blackmailed the train company into giving us free tickets." Ami sighed, and then they heard a voice behind them.

"Yo, you're here already." The voice said, and everyone turned around to see a blonde boy with a buzz-cut and pierced ears approach them. They were all silent for a while before literally all of them burst into action.

"OH MY GOD!" Taiga yelled, jumping up and down on her feet, whilst Ryuuji dashed forwards and embraced the boy. No one really knew why, but Ryuuji had grown a good connection with the boy. They didn't know why, because they hadn't been with the two of them on the day Taiga had run off.

"No way!" Ryuuji exclaimed as he held onto the boy and patted him strongly on the back. He took a step back afterwards, but kept smiling ever so brightly.

"Never knew you were so compassionate, Ryuuji." Julian Robinson chuckled, a bag hanging over his shoulder. "If you keep that up I might just fall for you, you know."

"I'm so happy to see you that I don't even care if you start flirting with me, dude." Ryuuji huffed, but Taiga grabbed his arm and huddled up close to him.

"I'd care though, so don't even try it. Nice to see you, Julian." She said with a smile.

"Nice to see you too. All of you. I came here to visit some friends before I headed over to Yukuri's place. She told me to surprise you guys here, so I did."

"Did she blackmail you?" Ami asked with a smile as she approached the boy together with Minori, who was bubbling with joy.

"Yukuri? Nah, she ain't got shit on me." Julian scoffed. "I did it completely willingly." He said, and though they did believe that he was willing to do it, they did not believe that Yukuri didn't have anything she could use to blackmail him with. They'd known each other for years. She'd probably seen a lot. "I got all your tickets here, by the way."

After a while, the train arrived, and the train ride that was quite long didn't feel very long, considering all the catching up they all had to do with Julian. They spoke from the train started moving until the train arrived at their destination. It was a nice, rural town, and it was warm just like summers were supposed to be. From the station they caught a bus, and the bus-ride took them about 30 minutes. From there on, they had to walk for a little while until they approached a house that was three times the size of Ryuuji's house. They all knew it was Yukuri's just by looking at it.

"Woaaah, it's so big." Minori gasped, looking at the house with wonder in her eyes. It was very nice and modern looking, and it had a big grass lawn in front of it. They didn't even dare imagine what was behind it. Probably a gigantic pool or something. The property was pretty secluded, without another house in line of sight. It was like a cabin in the middle of the woods, just not as small as a cabin and not exactly in the middle of the woods either. There were some woods to the left side of it, but that was about it.

"Haruno-chan's family is really great, aren't they? Are they going to be here too?" Kitamura asked as he let his eyes wander about the exterior of the vacation house.

"Nah, they're on a trip to Europe, I think." Julian said, his eyes trained on the house. "Oh, yup, look who's here." He said delightedly. From the main door, coming onto the porch, they saw a blonde girl jogging out, her arms waving wildly at the group of friends. She was running towards them, but she didn't get very far before Ami had sprinted towards her, met her on the middle, and tackled her to the ground. They figured they'd let them have their reunion before they interrupted, and they just stood and watched as Ami and Yukuri literally rolled around on the grass, kissing and squealing and hugging like crazy, as if they hadn't seen each other for years. It probably felt to them like they hadn't. Seeing the look on Ami's face made them all smile. They had never seen her so happy, and it made them happy in return.

"Wow, gay," Julian scoffed, rolling his eyes as he started walking towards the two love-birds. "Let's say hi, and then get inside so we can drop off all our stuff."

"Right," Ryuuji said, and they all followed suit. Once they came close to Ami and Yukuri, Ami let Yukuri go for a moment so she could go say hello to her other friends. She stood up, straightened out her clothes and brushed some grass off of her, and then she ran over to them.

"Hey, everyone!" She beamed, taking turns to hug every single one of them. "Man, I'm so happy you could make it!"

"We were kinda scared of what you'd do if we didn't." Taiga said, a playful smile on her lips. "We've already seen the extent of your influence over people."

"Pfff, I'd never do that to friends." Yukuri laughed, waving her off like it was nothing. "Come on, let's get inside so we can relieve you of all those bags." She said, waving them along. They all nodded and started walking towards the house, chatting and laughing, finally together once again. Yukuri slowed down after a while so that she walked beside Taiga and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I felt it when I hugged you, you know," she grinned, and Taiga's face turned stark red. "I hope you're enjoying this new change." She said to Ryuuji, and then it was his turn to blush. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone." She winked, and they both knew she now had something to blackmail the two of them with.

Once they got inside the house, they were strictly told to not go on a discovery trip just yet. They were not allowed to open any doors unless told to do so, and everyone was kind of afraid of what Yukuri could possibly be hiding in that house. They were divided into single rooms and couple rooms. Not as in rooms for one and rooms for two, but as in rooms for those who were single and rooms for those who were not. Ryuuji and Taiga in one room, Yukuri and Ami in one room. The last room was for Julian, Kitamura and Minori.

As soon as they had dropped of their bags in their rooms, they all gathered in the living room. It sure as hell was one very large living room. "Okay," Yukuri said, clapping her hands together. "Now that we're all here, it's time to reveal the most important room for this little vacation of ours." She grinned widely as she approached a door and flung it open. They all peeked inside, and noticed that the room was literally stacked to the brim with booze, booze, and more booze.

"God, we are going to get so hammered, aren't we?" Ryuuji groaned, and Taiga nodded with a sigh.

"Looks like it." She mumbled. They were all prepared to close the door and pretend as if they hadn't just seen the largest amount of alcohol in one place they'd ever seen before, but before they could do that they learned that alcohol wasn't the only thing that room had. It had two other things, too. Because behind a couple of boxes that probably contained even more alcohol, something similar to a war cry sounded, and two figures leapt up and charged at the group of friends, flinging into them like a rocket. A big group hug happened before anyone could even realize it was happening.

"Guuuuys!" The boy shouted, making sure to hug absolutely everyone as much as humanly possible.

"Guuuuuuuuuys!" The girl added, doing exactly the same thing that the boy was doing.

"Tamura! Torya!" Taiga exclaimed, and so did everyone else, and the friends were shouting with happiness once again. There was a lot of that going on, it seemed.

"Y'all didn't think we'd miss a good party, did ya?" Torya grinned, flashing a thumbs up.

"A week long party, for that matter!" Tamura added, an even bigger grin on his face. "We got together with Yukuri and planned out the whole week. It's gonna be amazing."

"And not only filled with booze. Don't worry. We won't be drunk all the time." Torya laughed, and the group couldn't help but sigh in relief.

"For real, though," Julian suddenly said, making his way into the middle of the group that had practically formed a circle. "Y'all better hold onto your gosh darned horses." He announced, looking at all of them before releasing some straight-up knowledge. "Because this is going to be a summer vacation you're gonna wish you could remember all of. But you won't, because a lot of it will just be hazy, drunken glimpses. But that's not my point! My point is that you have all gotta prepare yourself. You have all gotta get ready… for the sickest god damned week of your lives."