The day had arrived. Yuki Sohma and Tohru Honda were going to be married.
There were two hours left until the ceremony was scheduled to begin. Tohru and her half of the wedding party were getting ready at the apartment she and Yuki had recently moved into, while Yuki was occupying Shigure's house. Also there were Kyo, Haru, and obviously Shigure, who had all been asked by Yuki to be ushers for the occasion, and accepted. Kyo and Yuki still weren't exactly what could be called friends, but in an effort to forget the curse (which had been broken at this point), and to separate each other from the legendary cat and rat identities, each had thought about it and agreed to at least acknowledge each other on this special day. A tiny bit of persuading from Tohru hadn't hurt, either.
Arisa Uotani, one of the bridesmaids, had taken it upon herself to videotape the wedding preparations. In Yuki and Tohru's apartment, she hovered over a blushing Tohru, who was sitting in the living room wearing her gown, helping and being helped by the other bridesmaids: Hana, Kagura, and Kisa. Eventually Uo decided to take a drive over to where the men were and get more pre-wedding footage. Promising to return soon so they could all go over together to the public garden where the wedding would be held, she took the camera and drove off to Shigure's.
Yuki felt he had everything under control. That is, despite the feeling of something cold clenching and unclenching inside his stomach whenever he imagined something going wrong. He had just changed into his tuxedo and was making sure all the little details were accounted for, while Haru wandered around looking for his tie, which had somehow walked off, and Kyo supposedly got ready for the event. Shigure was on the phone downstairs.
Haru answered the door when Uo knocked. The tall blonde woman greeted him cheerfully, and then began walking around the house, filming and saying hello to everyone. The camera captured Yuki's smile and wave, as well as Haru, who was continuing his search. In his old room Kyo was finally getting around to putting on his suit. When Uo walked in, he only had on the starched white shirt, his boxer shorts, and socks.
"Hi, Kyon! Don't you look snazzy," Uo remarked. She and Kyo had been a couple for almost two years now, and of course it was still fun to tease him every now and again.
"Oh, hey," Kyo looked over and gave a small smile. Noticing the camera she was holding up, he asked, "Come on, can't you wait 'til I have my pants on before you point that thing at me?"
Uo laughed as she swung the camera towards the futon where the remainder of Kyo's outfit was laid. "You should be ready by now. But then again, this is you we're talking about."
"Hey, it's been crazy busy around here today," Kyo replied from off-screen, while the camera caught his hand lifting the pants off the bed. "The ra – Yuki's been nervous even though he tries not to show it – he keeps reviewing stuff with us over and over; Shigure is just being a pain" – there was a pause. "What the hell?"
Uo took her eye away from the viewfinder and looked at Kyo. "What is it?"
"These pants." Kyo sounded utterly bewildered. "There's something wrong with these pants! They're too big!"
"What?" Uo asked, confused. Kyo used his fingers to stretch out the waistband, showing her how oversized the dress pants were.
"Look at this!" he exclaimed. "These can't be the right ones!" Uo zoomed in on him as he slipped out of the trousers that were at least two sizes too big.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, slightly amused.
"Damn, I don't know!" Kyo's moment of bewilderment was over, and had been replaced by anger and growing panic. "What is this, a joke?" he nearly yelled.
"Okay, wait a minute," Uo attempted to calm him down, looking up again from videotaping. "The right ones probably got misplaced. They're around here; they've gotta be." She glanced toward the door. "Maybe they got switched with Shigure-san's or something," she suggested.
"He's already wearing his," Kyo said, his voice growing louder with every word. "So is Haru, and Yuki!" He scrunched up the oversized pants and tossed them on the futon angrily.
"Why are you yelling, Kyo?" Yuki, poked his head into the room, clearly annoyed. "I have enough to worry about without people hollering!" he scolded. "And why aren't you dressed yet?"
Kyo glared at him. "Don't you start with me! I'm not dressed because the pants for this suit are too big!"
Yuki stared at him with an unreadable expression. "Hold them up with a belt," he finally said.
"It won't work! They'll just look puffy! Everyone will notice!" Kyo began storming around the room.
"Hey." Haru's voice entered the scene. The former ox of the zodiac looked inside the room from next to Yuki. "I found my tie," he informed everyone.
"Well, that's great for you," Kyo spat, turning around to face him. "At least your pants fit!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Haru, adjusting his tie and making a face.
"The pants that came with Kyo's suit are too big," explained Uo, who was filming again and giggling.
"Well, somebody has to find the right ones!" said Yuki, beginning to get upset. "I didn't pay all that money to rent any defective tuxedos!"
"I know what's going on!" Kyo suddenly exclaimed, stopping his pacing. "Ayame did something! HE did this 'cause he thinks it's some kind of great joke!" Ayame's role in the wedding was tailor of all the wedding party's clothes, insisting that he help contribute to his little brother's special day in that way. Yuki had reviewed all the designs and strictly warned his brother not to make any "fashionable" changes. To Yuki, the only upside to having Ayame and his assistant make the clothes was that Ayame had promised a family discount.
"I don't know," Yuki pondered. "I told him not to do anything stupid, and I know he wants to keep me happy. Even he can see how important this is."
"Let's see those pants," said Haru, reaching out a hand. "We can probably fix them somehow."
"No!" shouted Kyo. "Forget about them! You know what – " He grabbed the trousers, marched over to the open window, and flung them outside. Everyone simply stared for a moment; then Uo exploded in laughter. The young men by the bedroom door looked dumbfounded.
"I can't believe you just did that," Yuki said, hanging his head. Then he looked up and sighed. "Well, maybe I can. But that was not necessary!"
Haru looked mad. "We could have figured something out! Why did you do that?" he yelled at Kyo. Kyo glared at Haru and Yuki before going into a stomping rage once more. Still laughing, Uo stood by the window, sticking the camera out and pointing it downwards to capture the pants, which had landed in a patch of bushes below.
"Hello." A stoic voice was heard. Everyone turned around to see Hatori standing in the doorway, with Shigure behind him. The room went quiet.
"Hi. We're sort of in the middle of a crisis right now," Uo informed them. Off to the side, Kyo was silently fuming, still mostly convinced that the situation was Ayame's fault, but also at a loss as to what to do now. Haru had suddenly mellowed out and had a hand on Yuki's shoulder, while the groom himself stood with a dismal cloud of hopelessness over his head.
Hatori surveyed them all briefly. "Well, if it has to do with suit trousers I might be able to help," he said, and held up some folded black fabric. "The ones I received with my tuxedo are too small for me. I called Ayame, and he said to check over here, in case there was a mix-up." He glanced again at Kyo, who was still standing there with no pants on. "Ayame will hate to admit that he made a mistake."
The cloud over Yuki promptly evaporated. "Thank you, Hatori," he said in relief. "Those are Kyo's. And if you'll wait a few minutes, we'll return yours to you."
Kyo stepped forward and Hatori handed him his rightful pants. "Thanks," Kyo said, a bit embarrassed.
"So you got Ha'ri's, then?" asked Shigure, amused. "I was wondering what all the screaming was about." He glanced at the bed where Kyo's tie, belt, jacket, and shoes were lying, but didn't see the other pair of pants. "So where are they?"
"Oh, yeah," replied Kyo, suddenly even more embarrassed. "They're...outside, actually…" he started to explain.
A few minutes later, Hatori was sitting on the porch picking twigs and leaves off of his trousers. Nearby, holding the video camera, Uo smiled. One day we'll all watch this tape and laugh…maybe even Kyo...
/
Thanks for checking out this story. Sorry if anybody is out-of-character in any way; this is my first time writing about any of these characters. Since I've only read the first seven volumes (and seen the anime), I left out some characters I don't know much about yet. I got the idea from something I saw on America's Funniest Home Videos a long time ago, but I think it actually happened to the groom instead of one of the ushers. The guy really did throw the pants out the window, though, and I could easily imagine Kyo doing the same.