9pm

Thwonk.

An unceremoniously loud sound can be heard, coming from the living room. Ryuuji pulls his gaze away from the trigonometry homework on the table, to the extremely large, pink plastic bag now sitting beside him. A few more seconds of intense staring proved to be of no explanation, so he looked up to Aisaka, equally unceremoniously standing beside the bag, her cheeks slightly flushed from the run.

"Let's start our preparation now."

Ryuuji, completely lost as to what preparation there was to be done, simply raised an eyebrow.

"Don't give me that look, you stupid dog. Put this in the player," Aisaka said, as she thrust a DVD at his face.

Clueless (and out of habit), Ryuuji took the disk, and walked over to the DVD player, attached to the small television in the living room. As he crawled over, he noticed the small wordings printed on the cover.

The Day The Seaweed Demon Came After Us

"... Couldn't you have picked a better movie to watc-"

Smack.

Ryuuji rubbed the spot on his head where his own pencil case had been thrown at him.

"Hey, it was just a-"

"Shut up and put it in! Or do you really want what happened in that dream to come true?!"

It was then, that he remembered. Remembered the dream from the previous night, which Taiga (rather coincidentally) also had. Remembered the badminton batch he had won, on a complete fluke and stroke of luck, and remembered Taiga's proclamation of her support for his new, hopefully-blossoming relationship with Minori, to be further developed on this trip to the beach.

Actually... Would that dream be as bad as I thought it up to be...?

Yes, it would.

Ryuuji clicked the player shut, and shuffled back to his table, where Taiga was now sitting.

The opening credits rolled.

"Fast forward it. We have a lot more to get through."

Picking up the remote, Ryuuji closed his exercise book. He didn't think anything would be accomplished tonight.

--

10.23pm

Another DVD was stuck into his face.

Death Of The Unavenged

She really needs to pick better shows.

He stuck the CD in without another word, and pressed the fast-forward button without being asked. Ryuuji reached out for the popcorn bowl.

This is going to be a long night.

11.56pm

No CD cover was shoved into his face this time, but he reached across the table, to the bag, and pulled another plastic cover out.

The Sewage System

Ryuuji raised an eyebrow at the now half-asleep Aisaka.

She shrugged, and he stuck it in.

--

2.01am

Ryuuji looked to his left, where Taiga was splayed out onto the table, her chin resting on its surface, her arms laid in front, eyes closed.

He rubbed his eyes, and eyed the bag, which didn't really seem any smaller than it had, when they first started.

"Do you still want to wat-"

"Pmmt mm thuu smary mm..."

He honestly had no idea what she just said, but by her feeble gestures towards the bag, he supposed it was a yes. Ryuuji rubbed his eyes. Sleep looked pretty good right now.

"You don't look like you could watch another one, you kn-"

"Just put it in, you lazy dog."

Well. That, he could understand.

Bloody Screams of The Night

He sighed, somewhat resigned.

--

4.18am

Yasuko came in through the door, as she always did; Drunk and giggling.

She did the same things as she always did.

Take off her stilettos, throw her coat onto the tatami, trip over the bodies of Ryuuji and Taiga.

Oops. Not the last one. Not usually, at least.

Still in a vague stupor, she pulled herself up to a kneeling position, giggling to herself at her "two children".

The movie marathon had been abandoned, though perhaps not intentionally. The table was no longer used to hold chins, or support splayed hands, for now the tatami was doing a decent job of it. Ryuuji was flat out on the floor, one hand half-folded onto his abdomen, the other outstretched to his left, which Taiga was comfortably using as a pillow for her own head. She herself, was in a semi-curled ball, her head buried into Ryuuji's side.

Yasuko giggled more, and shuffled off to the next room, which she came out of, an over-sized blanket in her arms.

Throwing said blanket over the two, she crawled over to Ryuuji's other side, and cuddled up under the covers.

Heehee... I love my family...

8.14am

Prying his sleep-crusted eyes open, Ryuuji was greeted by the sight of a sleeping Taiga, curled up nicely in his arms.

This is just another bad dream...

He tried to turn over to the other side, where his mother was curled up in his other arm, her own arm securing the three of them together.

A very weird, bad dream...

A/N:

I always associated peppermint ice cream with late nights and horror movies. 'Cause its so green and... Stuff.

As always, comments, suggestions and criticism appreciated! Thank you for the two reviews!