"Lets do something together," Justin said. "A board game!"

Mary was quick to say, "What board game allows nine people to play all at once?"

"Um," he frowned, thinking some.

"Don't hurt yourself," Kitty said, seeing his look of intense concentration.

"There are a few options I can think of," I added to the mix. "However, they're rather juvenile."

"Let's hear 'em," said Kitty, who perked up.

"Truth or Dare, tag, anagrams, or the Green Glass Door."

"What's the Green Glass Door?" asked Cye.

"It's a word game," I said. "A player who knows the trick tells a new player what does or does not belong inside the green glass door. All the clues have exactly 2 duplicate letters which belong inside it, you'll notice in the name of the game each word has two duplicates. Here's an example: behind the door you may attend classes at school or college but not courses at a university."

"It's a riddle," said Rowen, looking thoughtful. "It is school and college," he said.

I nodded. "Correct."

"Eh, that sounds too much like work," Mary commented.

"I'll play tag!" commented Justin.

"I hate running," I said simply. "But it other people besides him want to play that, we can."

"I'd rather play Truth or Dare," said Ryo. "I don't want to go back out there in the cold."

"Anybody else for Truth or Dare?" I asked. Everybody raised their hand, even Sage who looked like he'd rather be dead. It having been agreed, we moved to sit in a circle, though it was more like a circle that had been sat on because it was definitely lopsided. I went to sit beside Mary and found my spot taken by White Blaze. How fitting, I thought with amusement. So taking in my options, I sat beside Kento and Cye, deciding they were the safest. I was unsurprised to see that Kitty was beside Ryo and Sage. She looked like Christmas had come early.

"So who goes first?" asked Justin.

Mary said, "I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 55. Whoever is the closest goes first." Everybody threw in their numbers, even White Blaze, who tapped his tail on the floor twenty times. "Bah, you're all off, it was twenty-seven!" Mary said, wagging her finger in the air. "There goes the whole psychic warrior thing out the window."

"Jeez, she's sweet," commented Kento.

"I've been known to be worse; ask Monty or Eclipse, who was pummeled the other day. You don't mess with an Italian, capiche?"

"So who goes first?" asked Kitty, looking bright eyes and bushy tailed at the prospect of playing truth or dare with Ryo and Sage. "Ryo?"

I smirked. "This ought to be good."

Ryo thought about it for a minute, still wondering why the outside forces hated him so much to land him in this predicament. He let out a sigh through his nose, "Fine..."

He considered his options and Mary snorted out, "Ry, steam is coming out of your ears, stop thinking so hard."

The Wildfire Ronin glared at her for a minute before turning and looking trying to pick a 'victim.' "All right, Rebekah. Truth or dare."

"I'll be darned," Mary muttered, "He's got more guts than I thought."

I looked at him and decided that I'm not a guy, I haven't got an ego I need to impress, and I don't feel the need to prove anything to these dweebs, so therefore, "Truth," I said.

"Smart girl," Mary praised and Blaze gave a rumble in apparent agreement. Ryo gave her another evil look and she flipped him off. She noticed that Kitty had sidled up closer to Ryo than before, but either Ryo was immensely gifted at ignoring people or he had ADD. Personally, I think he's got ADD.

"Okay, what's the one thing you can't stand about Sage?" He tried not to smirk.

"Moron, what a dumb question," Mary grumbled. "We'll be here for a while."

I sniggered and said, "What do I like about sage?" She thought for a minute and said, "From order of biggest annoyance to least, his constant expression that looks more like a glare than anything else, he never says anything and if he does he's got an attitude, his hair is in his face and it always irks me when people are too cool to get their hair out of their bloody eyes..." I trailed off, realizing that it was becoming more and more like a rant. I noticed with amusement that Kitty had now gravitated over to comfort the murderous looking Sage. "I'll stop there," I smiled sweetly at him. Then I looked around, contemplating who to torture. "Hmm... Eeny meeny miny moe..." I smirked as I selected her prey. "Cye, truth or dare."

Cye gave a wry grin, he'd picked up on a few things and one was that if I was going to give a dare, it would be a doozy. "Dare," he said.

"Stupid Redcoat," grumbled Mary.

I couldn't help the evil smirk that spread across my face. "Time to inflict my pain upon you," I said. "I dare you to listen to everything Justin has to say about Godzilla."

Justin's eyes lit up and Mary groaned loudly. "I have a stipulation to add to that! As long as it takes place on the back fort and far away from ME!"

I laughed. "Fine with me. Justin, you have an hour tops, okay? We'll see how dizzy Cye is when he gets back."

"Aw, not fair," Justin complained. "I need at least two. I guess I'll condense it." Justin beamed and grabbed Cye, then the two left.

"I wonder if the coyotes will get them," Mary mused.

"Aw crap, I didn't realize we'd have to wait an hour for them to get back to keep playing. Oh well, Mary, you do it now."

"Mmm, my victim is..." Mary paused for a dramatic effect. "Twig!" she pointed at Rowen. "Truth or dare?" she chirped.

"...Dare?"

Mary beamed and refrained from emitting a Talpa-esque laugh. I grinned, I'd trained my friend so well. "Okay, I dare you to go out to the field, select a target, and while blindfolded, take a flake of hay in and stand for twenty minutes." She smirked, feeling quite righteous about her dare.

Rowen's eyebrows went up and he stared in bafflement. Going out, we followed him to view in amusement as he selected which horse he would give the hay to. It ended in chaos, of course, as the horses swarmed him and fought over it. He had originally picked the pretty gray one, but we were pretty sure that Monty got the most. Back inside the house, Rowen sat down looking disheveled and rather confused. He picked off bits of hay and swiped at his shirt where Monty had tried to make off with it. Looking around he sighed and said, "Kitty, truth or dare."

Kitty smiled and said, "Truth!"

"Er," Rowen said, as if unsure of what to do now. His IQ didn't do much good when it came to this stuff. "What's... your favorite pastime?" he asked.

Mary let out a groan. "Oh no, he didn't ask that..."

I smirked, "Mary, who assigned you to be the commentator?"

"You don't get it," she groaned again. "That was a bad question."

Kitty smiled again, very sweetly, as she said, "Torturing Ryo and Sage."

Mary put her head in her hands. I couldn't help but laugh at Ryo and Sage's facial expressions. They wouldn't have been more shocked if they'd been slapped in the face with a dead raccoon. Ryo subtley edged away.

"Okay," said Kitty, pretending to think, "Sage, truth or dare."

Sage raised an eyebrow and tilted his head a little, actually revealing both violet eyes for a change. He could not believe this either. Honestly, why hadn't he drowned himself like he had planned? Oh, not enough water, that was right. "Fine," he let out a sigh, "Dare."

Kitty smiled very sweetly, not at all giving away the atrocity she had planned. "I dare you to streak - on the highway."

"WHAT?" Sage sputtered.

Ryo perked up, "Someone tell me they brought the video camera! I want the evidence for blackmail."

Rebekah burst into laughter, falling over backwards unable to breathe. "I am not going to watch this," She said, after she'd gotten enough air. "I got enough of a guy's butt when my brother mooned me. Personally, I don't care to repeat the experience voluntarily."

"I knew you were going to make him do that," Mary said to Kitty, handing over her video camera, "Here ya go, have fun."

Kitty and Sage walked down to the highway, the rest of us stayed behind. Well, we made Ryo stay behind under the threat of thinking he was secretly gay. "But I only wanted to-" he protested, looking genuinly upset, like a toddler denied ice cream.

"No buts," I interrupted firmly. "I don't allow those kind of shenannigans around here."

Mary coughed but it sounded more like "Issues," to me.

When the victim and his torturer returned, Sage red faced and Kitty floating along on own little cloud, we could safely resume. Still fuming silently, Sage resumed his place and said, "Ryo, truth or dare."

"Truth," Ryo commented, knowing that a dare coming from a pissed of blonde swordsman would be a BAD idea.

Damn, thought Sage. "Why did you pick this driveway out of how many others?"

"The voices in my head told me to," Ryo flatly responded, "Also known as listening to you guys bitch for the last twenty miles."

"It was fate, Sage!" I chimed in, with a cheesy smile. "What would be doing right now if it weren't for us?"

"I'm not obligated to answer that," he grumbled, doing an emo-sulk in his corner.

"See, I knew he sulked," Mary declared, picking up her head, "Yay, Justin and Cye are back!"

Ryo paused and refrained from picking. Cye looks totally and completely bemused, "Is it possible for someone to know that much about Godzilla?"

"FG shoulda made you listen to him ramble on about dinosaurs," Mary grumbled.

I grinned, "Next time maybe," I promised Mary.

"YAY!"

Cye grumbled, "See if I'm dumb enough for there to be a next time."

"I'm forfeiting and Cye gets to pick," Ryo announced with a smug grin

Cye looked at him with an unreadable expression, probably considering murdering his leader in his sleep tonight. "Sage, truth or dare."

Sage wasn't dumb enough to go for dare twice in a row, especially after last time. "Truth."

"Why are you sulking?" asked Cye, leaning against the wall, eyebrows raised in interest. Everyone looked at Sage and stifled their laughter. Sage sneered and said, "I'm not sulking!"

"Yeah and I'm engaged to one of the Prince's of England," Mary snorted out

"You are?" both Ryo and Justin ask

Kitty and I started to laugh and I said, "Hey, Justin, Ryo, gullible is written on the ceiling."

"It is?" Ryo looked up.

Justin glowered, "I'm not that gullible, I was being ph--- oh sarcastic." I smirked evilly at Ryo who was glaring at me and high fived Kento.

Sage muttered, "Fine, it's because I was dared to streak on the highway."

"Oh?" Cye perked up. "Wow, I got off easy! Did you film it?" he asked eagerly.

Kitty grinned and held up the video camera. "I've got all the evidence."

Justin made a face, "Girls are sick."

"Just the obsessed ones," Mary mumbled.

"What's your excuse?" Ryo snorted out.

Mary rolled her eyes, "I don't happen to need one. Someone bug Justin already." Obviously Mary was getting bored at this point.

Sage rolled his eyes. "Justin, truth or dare."

"Truth," Justin said with a grin; while he may look naive he's anything but stupid.

"You can only pick one and you absolutely CANNOT say anything more than their name," began Sage, who also was more intelligent than his head of blond hair might have suggested. "Who would win in a fight between Captain Jack Sparrow and Michelangelo?"

"That blonde hair cuts off circulation to your brain," Justin observed, "Mikey hands down, he'd nunchuk the pirate's butt. Cause ninjas are cooler than pirates."

"He doesn't mean you," Mary whapped Ryo who was grinning. I laughed at Sage's miffed expression.

"Okay," Justin grinned and set his eyes on Kento, "Truth or Dare?" Mary has been waiting all this time just for this.

Kento looks excited. "Dare!"

"I dare you to," Justin smirked, "Go without eating for the next hour."

Kento gaped and then glowered. "Fine. Mary, truth or dare."

A bored expression was on Mary's face, "If you can come up with an original dare, dare. Otherwise, truth."

Momentarily put off, Kento thinks, "I dare you to resist petting White Blaze for the next hour."

"Oh please, that's the best you can do?" Mary scoffs and picks up Missy and strokes her instead. "No worries Blaze, you can eat him later too," she adds. I watched as Missy gets out of Mary's arms and latches herself onto Ryo's foot.

Ryo yelps in pain "OWWWW!" Ryo hollers.

Mary scooped up her kitten and lavishes her with praise, "Good kitty kitty; clever girl!" Ryo sulks and Sage sniggers, pleased that someone else was receiving torture besides him.

"Okay, back to me I guess, or are we done?" Mary queried.

"Keep going, I've only been picked once," I complained.

"I almost didn't get picked at all," Mary commented, "Okay, truth or dare FG?" She beamed.

"Dare," I grinned. "If you dare me to touch Sage in any manner I will kill you," she added seriously.

"Oh I wasn't going that way," Mary admitted, "I dare you two spend five minutes alone with each of the Ronin."

I tilted my head and said, "What for? So I can remind them why they never want kids?"

"You'll think of something," Mary winks, adding lowly, "I didn't say you couldn't take sharp pointy objects with you."

I perked up. "Ooo, ok! So long as I'm armed, I don't mind." I grinned and said, "Now, or later?"

"Whenever," Mary chirped

"Later then," I said happily, now looking forward to terrorising each Ronin where he couldn't get help. "This is too much fun. Umm, Ryo, truth or dare?" I decided to get him back for picking me first.

"Dare," Ryo says, obviously at this point he no longer cares about his own well being.

My grin could have split my face. "I dare you to give Mary a hug. A real one. Note that I didn't say Mary had to reciprocate," I added with a wink to my friend.

Mary got up and Ryo blinked, "Where are you going?"

"I need the gelding equipment," she announced.

"WHAT?" Ryo squeaked.

Mary beamed, more than pleased with the reaction she got. "Kidding!"

Ryo nervously hugged Mary, then let out a yelp when she stepped on his foot and then elbowed him in the gut, "Okay I got the violence out of my system!" She took her seat.

Ryo's eyes were twitching, "Rowen, truth or dare?"

Rowen looked at the Ronin of Wildfire and decided that it was suicide to accept dare from him in his current state of mine. "Truth," he said calmly.

"Did you bother to check the van over before we left?" The words came out in a growl.

Rowen sighed and said, "Of course I did, I just can't account for the fact that Kento dumped that popcorn into the fuel tank." His eyes widened. "Oops, I said that out loud."

Rowen turned to Kento and said, "Truth or dare?"

Kento grinned, "Truth."

Rowen nodded and said, "What do you think of this game so far?"

"It's funny as heck," he grinned, obviously enjoying himself. Kento looked over and said, "Hey, Justin, truth or dare?"

"Mm, Dare," Justin was rather bored with it at this point.

"I dare you not to eat for two hours," said Kento, happy to be finally getting his revenge. "And, you can't bring up Godzilla or dinosaurs."

Justin glared, "Fine I'll talk about videogames instead."

Mary let out a groan, "And the world was from then on DOOMED."

Justin ingored his sister and pointed at Sage, "Blondie, truth or dare?"

Sage narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Truth."

I felt that at the moment that it was appropriate to comment, "Wow, they've been pussywhipped. They keep picking truth."

"You noticed? Talpa would have won," Mary dryly commented

Justin smirked, "Why do you act like there is a broom up your butt? And the 'grandfather excuse' won't cut it." Mary cracked up.

Sage's eyes went wide and he sat upright. "Who says I act like I've got a broom up my butt?" he said in astonishment.

"Earth to Sage," I waved a hand in his face. "Everybody, that's who!" Cye and Ryo both nod

He gave me a dirty look and then glared at his teammated for supporting me. "Because that's what I was raised to be," he answered robotically.

"Psst, Kitty," I said. "Sage needs a hug." Her eyes lit up and Sage found himself enveloped by the little woman. I sniggered as his eye twitched.

"Sage needs YEARS of therapy," Mary added.

I nodded in agreement. "That's ok, we can go together, right Sagey-poo?" I asked, teasing him.

He looked like he wanted to throttle me, truly! Instead, he turned to find someone else to tag. Mary, he knew better than to deal with but he ought to be able to handle, right? Kitty, he was from hereon out ignoring entirely, Rebekah was just flat out annoying, and Justin was... strange. So he said at long last, "Mary, truth or dare."

"Let's see what your made of Seiji," she said with a smirk, enjoying when he stared at her for using his ACTUAL name, "Dare me."

He scowled faintly before saying, "I dare you to take the evidence of that horrible thing Kitty made me do and destroy it all."

Mary shrugged, "Whatever, it already played on the news. A little late for that but..." Ryo was howling, Sage's eye twitched and a blood vessel popped in it from his blood pressure skyrocketing. After sitting back down from completing her task, much to Kitty's disappointment, she dared Justin to bring her his padded bokken. Justin blinked but brought it anyway, against his more obvious misgivings. Mary settled into a stance, called out, "Head," and beams Sage in the head with it. She then sat back down indian stye, bokken at her feet. "Okay, I feel better now.

Justin shook his head and said, "Who hasn't gone twice yet?"

"One thing is for certain," said I, "If any poor soul hasn't gone twice they aren't going to volunteer themselves." I smirked as they exchanged looks, obviously agreeing. "I have an idea," I said, earning more wary glances. "How about we just call it a night so I can start torturing Ronins?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes!" Mary praised. "Besides, I have horses to tend." She grabbed Justin, "I need water, come with me."

I laughed as Mary dragged him out of the room and then turned to look at the Ronin who were still watching her with a prey animal's wariness, each trying to be less significant than the others. "Who's up first?" I asked, a little too cheerfully.

"He is!" All point to Cye, who in their opinion made it out the easiest.

"Bloody traitors, the lot of 'em," Cye grumbled.

I sniggered and said, "Aw, poor Cye. Come on then, we've got bonding to do!" I links arms with the miserable looking Ronin dragged him upstairs.

"Poor Cye, we knew him so well," Ryo said mournfully.

"Ah, whatever," Rowen grumbled out. Someone had evidently informed him that Cye thought he'd best be left in outer space.

"Don't be so cheerful," I hollared down, having heard them. "You're next, Ryo!"

"If I commit sepukku now," Ryo mused.

"Don't even think about it," Rowen glared.