Title: A Nice Surprise
Summary: Thanksgiving is here, and that means lots of food and lots of time to spend with the family! Although, that doesn't seem to be the case for the youngest of the group now is it… The others are going to include him as much as possible in their own Thanksgiving holidays, but it's just not the same as having his own parents here with him. The thing is… what can they do about it?
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. The anime and its canon characters belong to their rightful owners.
"Okay, so the stove's here of course along with the oven and fridge. You can use the dining table either here in the kitchen or the one you saw in the living room. You can stash any decorations in this closet, and anything else you want to keep hidden for a while here as well. Oh! Don't forget to put these away, or else I'm going to be miffed when I come back. Also-"
"Calm down Hanako!" Ryoma snapped, covering her mouth with his hand.
Hanako chuckled behind the hand, scratching the back of her head. "Sorry," she mumbled, watching the four males in front of her sigh. When Ryoma released her, she gave them a large smile. "I just want to make sure you know where everything is. You sure did surprise me when you asked me if my house was big enough for you four to bring your families and spend Thanksgiving together."
"We all thought it would be a great idea if our families got to know each other, considering we have been dating each other for at nearly a year now, more than that for some of us," Fuji chuckled, happy with the female's attitude toward the entire idea.
"Thank you for letting us use your house for the Thanksgiving holidays," Tezuka said for the nth time that visit.
"How many times are you going to say that? You know that I'm more than happy to help my favorite people," Hanako smiled, waving off his thanks with a happy laugh.
"You are going to go home and spend some time with your own family right?" Sanada questioned, narrowing his eyes at her as if daring her to say otherwise.
Seeing the look, Hanako gulped and chuckled sheepishly. "Sheesh, don't look at me like that. You're gonna give me the creeps with that stare. No wonder your old teammates were scared of you…"
Sanada didn't seem to like the way she side-stepped the question and narrowed his eyes even further.
"Eek!" she yelped, seeing the look and dashing behind Ryoma to hide. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I'm going home to spend the holidays with my folks and the rest of my relatives. Sheesh! Stop looking at me as if I killed your puppy!"
Ryoma just smirked as the others chuckled at her response.
"We just wanted to make sure considering how much time you spend away from them in the first place."
"I know that, but you don't have to get on my case about it."
"Says the girl who gets on our cases every time we can't solve something in under an hour?"
"Hey! You are in a relationship! Fights like the ones you've gotten me involved in shouldn't even happen like that," Hanako whined, pouting from over Ryoma's shoulder.
"Don't you have packing to do?" Ryoma questioned, smirking as he flicked the girl on the nose.
"Ah! That's right!" Hanako yelped, hopping away with Ryoma with a panicked look on her face. "Feel free to look around the house, but don't wreck anything! I'll see you later!" With that said, she rushed up the stairs toward what the others thought was her room.
"O… kay then," Fuji commented, blinking his eyes a few times at how fast the girl had left them. "Shall we look around? See what we should and shouldn't use for the Thanksgiving event we have planned?"
"We should," Tezuka agreed with a nod, already starting to walk around the house and check out the areas.
Hanako left that same day after giving each of the four a key to her house so that they would be able to go inside on the day of the Thanksgiving dinner between all four families.
Although, she was quite upset when she realized that the only family missing would be Ryoma's family because his parents had left for America. She was practically bawling when she finally realized that, and Fuji, Tezuka, and Sanada took a good ten minutes to finally pry the sobbing girl off of their distressed boyfriend.
Who knew the girl could cling like that when she was crying so hard?
"Put it… over there. No! Over there!" Fuji exclaimed happily, smiling as he pointed in the direction he was talking about. "No, no, no, wait a minute. Over there would be better!"
"Make up your mind," Ryoma grumbled under his breath, carrying a large decoration that was quite heavy in his opinion. "I can't hold this thing forever you know," he growled, eye twitching as he was tempted to just let the thing drop onto the ground and possibly shatter.
"Sorry about that Ryo-chan," Fuji chuckled, practically sweatdropping at the venom laced in Ryoma's voice. "Let me help you with that now," Fuji said, walking over to his younger boyfriend and lifting up the other side of the object and helping Ryoma carry it over.
"How's the food coming along?" Ryoma called back to the kitchen once the two had placed the object down.
"It's… okay considering we don't normally cook," the other two boyfriends called back a bit hesitantly.
"What do you mean by that?" Fuji questioned, glancing at Ryoma who shrugged at him. Shrugging in reply, the two walked into the kitchen to see what the two were up to.
"Are you sure that goes in with this?" Sanada questioned, picking up a bottle of something from one of Hanako's cabinets and handing it over to Tezuka who popped it open and poured a bit of it into the pan.
"I'm pretty sure. I've watched my mother plenty of times to know this is how she prepares it," Tezuka said, moving the pan around and flicking some of the food to turn it over.
"What are you making?"
"I honestly have no clue," Tezuka admitted, shaking his head. "My mother never told us what it was. Only that it was a family recipe that we wouldn't learn the name of until we had our own families to take care of, or something of the sort."
"Weird tradition, but okay," Ryoma stated, looking over Tezuka's arm to see what was in the pan only to jump back as Tezuka flipped the food up and back down into the pan, causing a little fire to spring up for a second.
"Whoa there, watch the fire," Ryoma yelped, backing into Fuji because of the sudden scare.
"Sorry about that," Tezuka chuckled, a sheepish look on his face. "A habit of my mother's that, apparently, I picked up on. Every time a neighbor or friend tried to peek at what the food was, she would do this. She only let family members see it, and told us that if we learned how to make it, the tradition would stay."
Everyone chuckled at the explanation, shrugging their shoulders.
"I hope she considers us family soon then because I, for one, would like to know what we happen to be eating later," Sanada teased, knowing that Tezuka wouldn't intentionally feed them something bad.
"Don't you have to finish the decorations," Tezuka teased back, using his elbow to jab the other in the ribs.
"Alright, alright," Sanada chuckled, pulling Ryoma and Fuji out of the room to help them finish up the rest of the house along with the guest rooms that Hanako said they were allowed to use if they really did stay as late as she thought.
A few hours later, and the four males were patiently waiting for the Fuji, Tezuka, and Sanada family to show up at Hanako's front door.
As soon as the door rang, Ryoma looked out the window and stated," Syuusuke! Your folks are here!"
"I'll get it then," Fuji smiled, standing up from his chair and walking over to the front door to greet his family and pull them inside to wait for the rest.
"It's good to see your Ryoma-kun, Tezuka-kun," Yumiko greeted, earning a nod from the captain with a quick wave from the younger.
"Hey there Yuuta," Ryoma greeted, popping his head out further from behind his former captain and finally catching a glimpse of the youngest Fuji sibling.
"Hey. It's good to see you after a while," Yuuta replied, smiling a bit. "Hey, do you happen to have the new-"
"I knew I forgot something," Ryoma interrupted, groaning as he rolled his eyes. "I'll bring the newest game out when I come over next or the next time you come over to my house."
"You've visited each other before?" Fuji questioned, blinking his eyes before turning to his parents.
"Quite often actually," Yoshiko giggled. "When you're away for high school or your clubs there, these two will often walk home together after their own club activities. You won't believe how often Ryoma-kun has stayed over for at least a few hours or Yuuta will spend the night over at his house."
"And we thought you were going to be lonely without us," Fuji mock-pouted, earning an eye-roll from Ryoma and a chaste kiss to the lips from the boy.
Before they could say anything further, the doorbell rang yet again along with a bit of an argument outside the door.
"I'm thinking that both of your families are here Mitsu, Gen," Ryoma stated, recognizing one voice but not the other.
"We'll get it then and try to calm them down," both Tezuka and Sanada muttered, knowing how their grandparents could get when around each other for too long.
Opening the door, the two males immediately pulled their grandparents apart as respectfully as they possibly could and ushered the rest of their families inside to meet the others.
"Good evening Ryoma-kun, Syuusuke-kun," Ayana greeted, smiling happily even though she was glancing at Kunikazu, hoping that he wouldn't start another argument with Sanada's grandfather again.
"Evening," Fuji greeted politely as Ryoma waved again.
"Ryoma-kun!" a new voice greeted, shocking the three families as a dark-blue haired male with dark-colored eyes shot forward from behind Gen'emon, Sanada's grandfather, over to Ryoma, tackling him into the couch. "You haven't visited in so long!"
"Hey Sasuke," Ryoma chuckled, patting the boy's back before gently trying to pry the younger off of his stomach.
"You know my nephew?" Sanada questioned as his older brother and sister-in-law asked, "You know our son?"
"I didn't know he was related to you," Ryoma chuckled, finally prying the younger boy off and setting him down on the couch next to him. "I was visiting Kanagawa to try and find Gen-chan's family to finally introduce myself and-"
"You got lost," Fuji, Tezuka, and Sanada deadpanned all at the same time, receiving a light pink blush from their youngest boyfriend. Chuckling or laughing, the three leaned over to peck Ryoma on the lips.
"So are your parents already here then?" Sanada's mother questioned, looking around the house. "This is your house, no?"
"Not really actually," Ryoma and Fuji both answered, making the three families turn.
"This is one of our friend's houses. We asked her to let us borrow it for the day and night in order to house everyone properly for the dinner," Tezuka explained for everyone who wasn't involved in the planning.
"So when are your parents coming then Ryoma-kun?" Kuniharu questioned, asking the one thing that was on practically everyone's mind.
"Um…" Ryoma hesitated for a few seconds, not really knowing what to answer. "I don't… I don't think they're actually coming," he answered, his eyes dropping slightly as he bowed his head toward the floor.
"Excuse me?" Ayana questioned, blinking her eyes several times. "It's Thanksgiving right? Why aren't they coming?"
"They… aren't in Japan at the moment," Ryoma replied, not really wanting to answer because he didn't want to hear a bad reaction like Hanako's.
"What?" the three mothers in the room yelled. "What do you mean 'they aren't in Japan'!"
"Ryoma's parents moved back to America, letting him stay in Japan on his own in order to allow him to stay with us," Fuji explained, walking over and wrapping his arms around his youngest boyfriend's neck. "Ryoma's been a bit lonely, but it seems with the visits to Yuuta, Sasuke, and the practically daily visits from Hanako," Ryoma nudged him in the side for that last comment, "it doesn't seem like he minds it too much."
"Well, that's too bad," Kunikazu mentioned, shaking his head. "Your parents should still be here with you."
"Its fine," Ryoma sighed out, leaning back into Fuji's chest. "I can understand they're busy, so I shouldn't ask too much. They're still paying all the bills for the house while I'm in there instead of selling it, so they're already doing a lot for me."
"Why don't we go ahead and have some dinner then?" Sanada questioned, trying to move onto a different topic that wasn't about Ryoma's family.
"That sounds wonderful," Yoshiko stated, smiling warmly at the entire group. "Shall we?"
As everyone headed inside, a sound rung throughout the entire house.
"What is that?"
"I think that's my cell phone," Ryoma answered, already turning around to go back to the living room to grab the device and walk balk. "Sorry, I forgot to turn it off during all the preparation for this."
"It's fine. Just ask them to call you back later if it's not too important," Fuji reassured him, already pulling the younger down into a seat next to him.
Tezuka sat on Fuji's other side with Sanada on Ryoma's other side. The three families were spread out along the remaining three sides of the large dining table.
Looking at the caller ID, Ryoma frowned.
"What is it Ryo-kun?" Fuji questioned, already scooping out some food off the dishes onto plates for himself and Ryoma as the others did the same.
"It's Hanako. But why would she be calling? She called earlier to make sure all the preparations were going okay…" Ryoma mused, tilting his head slightly as he scratched the back of his head.
"Do you want to answer the call?"
"She usually doesn't call unless it's important, or if I'm the one calling her… but…" Ryoma glanced up at the three families who glanced over, a bit curious as to what was going on.
"Hanako?" Yuuta questioned, looking up and tapping his chin as he tried to think. "Ah! You mean the girl that helps you out more often than not?"
"The very one," Ryoma said, placing the phone on the table, not really sure whether to answer it or not as it was still ringing.
"Go ahead and answer the girl Ryoma-kun. After all, you all consider her family. Don't you?" Ayana questioned knowingly with a smile on her face.
Ryoma nodded with a small smile before putting the phone on speaker and answering the call. "Hello Hanako, and before you state anything, how are you and your family?"
"We're doing wonder – do not throw your food at me!" she replied, being interrupted in the middle of it. "Sorry, little relatives decided to play food fight in the middle of dinner," she giggled. "How about you and your dinner? Going okay?"
"It's going great so far," Ryoma said, letting everyone else state their own opinions.
"Ah, alright, you got me on speaker. Anyway, I wanted to tell you something. I've got a little surprise for you~," she drawled, the others practically seeing the cat grin on her face.
"Oh yeah? Am I gonna like it?" Ryoma questioned right back.
"I hope so. Should be showing up in three… two… one…"
Within her last word, the doorbell rang, shocking everyone slightly.
"What in the…"
"Open the door Ryoma-kun," Hanako chuckled.
"Alright then." Ryoma shrugged at the others, standing up from his seat and moving to the front door.
Everyone stood up, Fuji taking the phone with him, as they all followed Ryoma out of the dining room and over to the front door to see him open it.
"Oh… my… Kami…" Ryoma whispered along with his three boyfriends as they took in exactly who was in front of the door.
"Surprise!" Hanako yelled, loud enough for everyone to hear her.
"Okaa-san! Otou-san!" Ryoma yelled in surprise, smiling as he jumped at them and hugged them tightly. "What are you doing here?"
"Let's just say your surrogate sister helped out," Rinko stated, smiling with tears in her eyes as she hugged her son.
"So are these the people related to your boyfriends Seishounen?" Nanjiroh asked, ruffling his son's hair as he smiled at the rest of the group. "Nice to meet you all. I'm this boy's father, and you can tell she's the mom."
"Oh this is wonderful," the other mothers chimed, smiling brightly and cooing at Ryoma who still hadn't let go of his mom.
"Have fun!" Hanako said last before hanging up the phone.
"This was certainly a nice surprise," Fuji said, smiling at Ryoma's parents.
"Come on," Ryoma practically whined, tugging on both his parents' hands as he pulled them inside and into the dining room to sit down. "How's America?"
"Why don't we talk about you first dear?" Rinko suggested, wanting to know everything that had been going on with her little one since they had left.
They spent the next two hours catching up and introducing everyone from the different families before Rinko suddenly gasped.
"Okaa-san?"
"I just remembered something," Rinko said, digging in her purse and pulling out a box. "This is for you four," she said, smiling as she passed the box to the four boyfriends.
"You didn't have-"
"I didn't," Rinko interrupted Tezuka. "Two other boys gave me the present to give to you," she smiled, "They seem like very sweet boys, and they seem to like you."
"Who could it be?" Fuji questioned, watching as Sanada took the present and opened it to reveal a set of four necklaces.
The necklaces were on silver chains with jeweled letters forming their given names, the colors happening to match the four's favorite colors.
"You're not going to tell us… are you okaa-san?" Ryoma asked, smiling lightly as he placed the necklace around his neck as the others did the same.
"You'll just have to figure it out yourself," Rinko promised with a smile.
"Oh boy, here we go again," Fuji chuckled.