Hey everybody! So I'm gemire7 and it's my turn to write. hope you all enjoy! :)

Mikan was truly very, very bored.

Being put on house arrest by her best friend had never been exciting, but the inability to move properly made things a whole lot worse. For one, she couldn't go and make herself a snack, meaning that she could only eat what Hotaru had brought for her (and crab cakes had never been her favourite). Two, the TV was in the living room downstairs so all she had for entertainment were the few books and magazines she kept by her bedside and truth be told, she felt like she'd already memorized every single word and picture from reading them over and over.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she turned over with much effort to look out the window.

The wind was blowing gently, making the leaves dance on their branches. As she continued to watch the branches move back and forth, her eyelids slowly slid down until they were fully closed.

She must have been dozing for only a few minutes when she was woken by a tapping sound. Mikan screwed her eyes shut as she willed the annoying noise to go away. When the tapping continued, she opened one eye to see a blue jay at her window with a squirrel sitting on its' haunches right behind.

Mikan sat up quickly and regretted it right away as her head spun along with the protest of her sore muscles. Only when her bout of dizziness had faded away did she slowly get up and open her window.

The blue jay and squirrel flew and jumped, respectively, through the window, but instead of claws and paws hitting the floor, it was two pairs of sneakered feet.

After the twins had landed, Mikan closed the window and turned around with a big cheery smile on her face.

Natsume had his eyes closed as usual, but unlike what most people thought, he wasn't always napping. In reality, he was usually too deep in thought to respond or just too lazy to answer (usually, it was the latter). Currently he was carefully sprawled out on top of his favorite tree and pondering about the recent happenings.

He had realized after a while that the scent he had smelled on Mikan had also been on Yuu, albeit more faintly. That meant the same person was most likely behind both Yuu's loss and Mikan's near death. His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to figure out why they had been targeted. For Mikan, it was most likely because she had tried to go where she shouldn't have. But for Yuu, there was no clear reason.

The sound of light footsteps alerted him of another's presence. Catching a familiar scent, he relaxed once more and waited for the other to climb up beside him.

There was a comfortable silence between the two.; they had never needed words to figure out what the other was thinking about, but it was seemed necessary during times of fun and teasing.

"You're not with Imai? I thought you'd be busy snuggling by now."

Ruka blushed a bright red and shook his head. Natsume smirked at his best friend's antics. No matter how many times he did it, teasing his friend never lost its fun.

"She went to visit Mikan." Ruka replied sheepishly.

'Hn. No wonder he came to visit.' Natsume thought as he settled into a more comfortable position with his hands behind his head.

Ruka swung his legs slightly as he leaned back while holding onto the branch he sat on. It felt nice to be up high with the sun in his face. The breeze rustled the leaves, lulling them both to sleep... His eyes suddenly snapped open from their half closed state as he remembered the other reason for why he was there.

"Hey Natsume."

"Hnn."

Ruka was nervous as to how Natsume would respond to the news he had.

"Your uncle's back together with your cousin." He quickly blurted out.

Closed eyes opened slowly to reveal crimson orbs full of annoyance. Ruka couldn't help but smirk in amusement at Natsume's next words.

"That cross-dressing flamingo freak?"

Mikan was tired, but it was a happy sort of fatigue, not like the ones that made your bones feel brittle as if they would break any second. She watched as the twins scamper around her kitchen like little kids with food being tossed in between themselves.

It had been only an hour since Anna and Nonoko had come to visit. Usually Mikan would be running around right alongside them, but she had tired out a lot faster due to obvious reasons. Even though she had refused with hand motions (remember that she can't talk), they had been adamant about fixing her something to eat. Hence, the reason why they were now in the kitchen. She winced as a loud crash sounded from somewhere in the pantry and wondered if she should go and check what they were up to. Her protesting muscles made her decide against it and she sat back down to wait for them to come back into the kitchen.

The sound of the door opening made her turn around to see who had come in. When she saw her best friend, a wide smile took over her face. Another crash sounded, causing Hotaru to frown with annoyance. "What is going on here?"

Mikan opened her mouth to reply, but closed it again when she remembered that she currently had no voice whatsoever. She looked around for a pencil and paper and her eyes sparkled as she wrote out the current antics of their friends.

An eyebrow raised slightly, Hotaru looked towards the pantry. "Has Nonoko finally overcome her curse of making everything she touches bubble and blow up?"

The only reply she got was a quick shrug of shoulders from the brunette. As Hotaru took a seat beside her friend, a soft sigh could be heard. They sat in comfortable silence with the occasional crash or bang from the pantry.

'Have you eaten?' Mikan wrote on the paper.

Hotaru shook her head in response.

With a cheerful smile, Mikan took hold of the pencil and started writing again. 'Then you can eat with us! I bet Anna can keep Nonoko from making explosives out of the food. :)'

"They'd better. I will not eat anything that is bubbling or making odd noises in any sort of way."

'I think there's some crab cakes left over in the fridge.' Mikan wrote in shaky letters. Her shoulders were shaking from silent laughter at her friends oh so serious reply.

Hotaru was in the process of whacking Mikan in the head when Anna and Nonoko walked in from the pantry. "Hey Hotaru! Why didn't you tell us you're here? We could have gotten you to help us!"

Hotaru didn't even bother replying, but the twins didn't seem to mind. They just went on talking between themselves as they dished out bowls of vegetable soup with some buns. As Mikan took her first sip of her soup, Anna and Nonoko waited in anticipation for her response. Hotaru watched with hidden amusement as she drank from her own bowl.

There were a few minutes of silence as Mikan pretended to ponder about the taste. She closed her eyes and acted as if she was expertly savouring the hot liquid. A frown formed on her face as she opened her eyes to glance at her friends. At the twins' simultaneous intake of breath, she grinned and gave them a thumbs up. The room was then filled with laughter and everyday chatter (excluding both Mikan and Hotaru).

They were cleaning up when the sound of the front door opening could be heard. Hotaru looked up from where she was sitting, tinkering with a toaster Mikan had asked her to fix (for a small fee of course). She saw Mikan's mother standing with a smile in the doorway and stood up to say hello. When she saw a shadow slightly moving behind Auntie Yuka, she raised an eyebrow.

Yuka cleared her throat to get the attention of her daughter and the twins. When they turned around, she smiled widely and moved aside to reveal someone that had been hiding behind her. There stood a small black-haired girl with her head bowed down slightly so that they couldn't see her face clearly. Her jacket hung from her body as if it had been bought to last her a few years. Mikan thought that if there was ever a storm, this girl might be blown away by the wind.

"Girls, meet Aoi. She's going to be your new sister Mikan! Make sure you guys take good care of her!" This was all said with barely held back excitement.

When Aoi continued to remain facing the floor, Mikan took the first step to walk up to her. She stood in front of Aoi and took hold of the younger girl's hands. Her brown eyes were met with familiar crimson ones, but pushing the familiarity out of her mind for the moment, she smiled brightly at her new sister. Aoi hesitantly smiled back and Mikan had to hold herself from hugging her. After a few more seconds, she couldn't help it anymore and simply glomped the younger girl. She let go of her quickly, not wanting to scare her right away from the first day.

'I'm Mikan. So you're the big surprise mom was telling me about! My voice isn't exactly working properly right now due to certain circumstances... But I hope we get to know each other quickly. I've always want a sister!' Mikan wrote this all out as fast as she could and then handed the paper to her new sister.

Aoi's smile turned less hesitant and had more feeling in them as she read through Mikan's hasty scribbling. She looked up and said shyly in a soft voice, "It's nice to meet you too... Mikan."

Narumi was currently in turmoil about what he should wear to meet his nephews. After all, it had been a while since they had last seen each other and he wanted to make sure that they saw him at his best.

The closet was open to show an array of VERY colourful and frilly clothes. Clothes were also strewn all around the room, covering the floor and bed.

He picked up a light pink shirt with frills around the neck and placed it in front of himself as he turned to look at the mirror. With a shake of his head, he tossed it back onto the bed. He was looking through his closet again when his son walked in.

"Hey! You're stepping on my favorite shirt! Put your foot somewhere else. No! Not there! That scarf has to be handled carefully!" Narumi quickly cleared the floor around his son so as not to let his clothes be dirtied any further.

Tono sighed in exasperation at his father. Really, even after living with the man for all his life, he still couldn't believe how long it took for one man to dress. "You need to get dressed quickly. We were supposed to leave an hour ago!"

Pouting like a child, Narumi gave his son the puppy look, but having seen it so many times, Tono wasn't affected at all. Whining with all he's worth, Narumi said, "But, I got to make myself look gooooood. I'm not like you who only takes five minutes to dress and do your hair."

"That's because I always look good. No matter what the clothes. No matter what time it is of the day." Tono boasted.

"You egoistic flirt." Narumi went back to looking for something to wear, leaving his son to smirk.

After much debate and asking his son for his opinion (which he regretted greatly by the way, who in the world doesn't know about the difference between satin and silk!) Narumi was finally ready to step out of the house. He had decided to go for the simple look with a nice cardigan over a collared shirt. It took him another 20 minutes to decide which shoes would go best with his capris and only after Tono had threatened to throw away his favorite collection of romance movies did he step out of the house.

During the car ride, Narumi was squirming with excitement making Tono worry that he was going to crash the car into a tree. He let out a sigh of relief when they finally parked in front of his cousins' house without any trauma causing or bone breaking incidents.

Without waiting for his son to get out of the car, Narumi flew out through the door and right to the front door of his nephews' home. He knocked fervently, impatient to see his cute relatives again.

Youichi had been having a nice day with the house all to himself. It was also a great bonus that no girls had tried to come visit in vain hopes of trying to win over one of the Hyuuga siblings. Really, he had no idea how his eldest brother could stand being in the presence of the other sex all day. All that squealing and obvious attempts to get closer physically...brrr,even the thought was enough to send shivers down his back.

He was just about to settle down on his bed with a magazine on the supernatural when the phone rang. Sighing in annoyance, he got back up to get the cordless house phone from the top of his desk.

"Hel-" the squealing at the other end made him pull the phone away from his ear with a wince. Seriously, whoever came up with the idea of using one's voice in such a high pitch was extremely lucky that they didn't live in the same area or timeline as he did.

Youichi's anger level could be seen rising at a rapid rate as his face turned darker slowly. Unable to take the shrill noise any further he shouted into the phone. "Shut up you moron!"

"Yo-chan, that's not how you say hi to your uncle you haven't seen in a while. You should be greeting me with that cute voice of yours." Narumi scolded in a motherly voice.

All that did was bring about a frown on Youichi's handsome face. "Tch. Whatever you pedophile. Now, whaddaya want."

Narumi sighed. "Really, you sound exactly like Natsume. I swear you could be twins if you tried." he said. Before Youichi could hang up on him, he quickly blurted, "Tono and I'll be coming to visit you guys later today. Bye!"

" beep beep beep "

Youichi stared at the phone in his hand with exasperation.

His uncle had just invited himself over.

His uncle had just hung up on him.

His uncle was coming over and he was all alone.

Youichi threw the phone on his bed in an attempt to relieve himself of frustration then picked it back up to call his siblings. He speed dialled Tsubasa knowing that he had a bigger chance of getting a hold of him than Natsume.

"Hey Youichi. You need something?" Tsubasa shouted over the background noise.

Frowning in annoyance at all the squeals he could hear from his brothers end, he quickly said, "Narumi's coming over with Tono later. Get yourself back home. I am not meeting that man all alone."

"Tono's comi-"

Youichi hung up on his brother before he could start squealing like the girls he was hanging out with. Tsubasa and Tono had been inseparable since their first meeting during their childhood. It had always been Youichi's secret belief that those two were actually twins that had been separated by their parents for the greater good of the world.

He flopped on to his bed with a sigh as he tried to get a hold of his other brother. As usual, the phone continued to ring until it went to voicemail. Tossing the phone aside, he rolled onto his stomach to go back to reading his magazine when the doorbell rang.

Muttering about how he couldn't get even a moment of peace, he went to open the door. His scowl lost some its menace when he saw who it was through the peephole.

Ruka smiled as the door opened to show his friend's younger brother. Wondering slightly about why Youichi looked annoyed, he asked, "Hey. Is Natsume home?"

"No. He went out."

"Oh. Well, I'll go see if I can find him then. See you later Youichi." Ruka turned around with a wave of his hands to go in search of his best friend. Before he went very far though, he stopped to listen to what Youichi had to say.

"Tell my brother that our uncle's back."

Ruka started walking again as he replied, "Sure. I'll tell him when I find him."

Youichi watched from the doorway as the blond disappeared into the forest and hoped that one of his brothers would come back soon. He shivered as he remembered the last time his uncle had caught him alone. He never wanted to go through another round of dress up with Narumi ever again.

Tsubasa was grinning from ear to ear as he opened the door to see his cousin and uncle. He lost his breath as he got squeezed to death by Narumi until Tono finally helped him out of his dad's grip. Tsubasa smiled weakly at his uncle and berated himself for having forgotten about his uncle's vice like grip.

"Tsubasaaaaa! I missed you! You've grown so much!" Narumi crowed at his oldest nephew as they stepped into the house. "Where's Natsume and Youichi? I can't wait to see how much they've grown!"

Tsubasa smiled at him sheepishly while pointing a finger up to the second floor. "Don't tell Youichi I told you, but he's hiding upstairs in his room."

Narumi sped up the stairs leaving Tsubasa and Tono behind. They could hear him opening the door with Youichi shouting at him to get out.

"So where did you guys go this time? Vazil? Aslanti? " Tsubasa asked as he led them into the kitchen. He pulled out two bottles of pop and tossed one to his cousin.

Tono took a swig from his bottle and replied, "Idli. And yes we brought some stuff back, well dad did anyways. It's in the box he left by the front door. Feel free to throw away anything not to your tastes."

"Why do I get the feeling that it's going to be most of the box?" Tsubasa smiled as he lugged the box into the kitchen. Hearing scuffling sounds from upstairs, he looked towards the ceiling. "Should we go save Youichi from Narumi now?"

Tono smirked as he led the way upstairs. "Let's hope your brother hasn't blown a fuse just yet."

The two walked in to see a very unusual sight. Narumi was tied and bound up in a cocoon of Youichi's blankets and the only things visible were his feet. On the other hand, the owner of the room was calmly flipping through a magazine while lying down on his bed.

Youichi looked up to see the older boys and scowled at them. "You just had to send him up to my room. Seriously, who jump-hugs someone else without a word of warning? Actually, people shouldn't be jump-hugging. Period."

As Tsubasa went to help his uncle out of his confinement, Tono sat down on Youichi's bed. "Hey Youichi. How've you been? Still stalked by your fan girls like always?"

"Good and yes. Now take your dad out of my room before I whack some sense into him with a few books." Youichi didn't even bother to look up from his magazine while replying.

Tono faked tears and clutched his shirt around his heart as he said, "Ouch. That's the greeting I get after we haven't seen each other for such a long time? You are a cruel man Youichi."

"It's not going to kill you, you wuss." was all Youichi said with his always present smirk.

Tono shook his head at how similar Youichi and Natsume were now. He pushed his blubbering father out of the room and stepped out with Tsubasa close behind. "See you later You-chan." With a chuckle, he quickly closed the door to block the magazine flying his way.

"Tsubasaaaaa! You're brother wouldn't let me hug him!" Narumi wailed, shedding crocodile tears. "And where's Natsume? Why isn't he here to say hiiiii?"

Before Tsubasa could reply, the front door opened with a loud bang. Rushing down to see what caused the ruckus, they all saw Ruka in his Shifted form. His silver pelt was quickly melting away to reveal him slightly panting with a worried look on his face.

His gaze stayed solely on Tsubasa as he quickly said, "Natsume's tracking Yuu's and Mikan's attacker. He sent me to bring you along. Shift now, we need to get going before he does anything stupid."

Tsubasa stood still for a few seconds, in shock. "I'll be back soon. Ask Youichi what's going on." He told his relatives.

Without further ado, the two ran out of the house, Shifting as they went. Tsubasa's jet black fur and Ruka's silver pelt were soon out of sight, leaving two very confused men standing in the doorway with no answers to their unspoken questions just yet.

After Ruka had told Natsume of his relative's arrival, his desire to return home had slightly increased. After all, there were many ways to poke fun at his uncle and he felt like getting rid of piled up stress with a bit of fun. He jumped off the tree and landed on his feet gracefully, swiftly followed by Ruka. They began the walk back to Natsume's home in silence. One of them thinking about a certain raven haired girl with amethyst eyes while the other thought up plans on how to tort -I mean- prank his uncle.

Suddenly, Natsume came to a stop, letting Ruka walk a few steps ahead. When Ruka finally noticed that he was walking by himself, he turned around looking for his friend only to see Natsume sniffing the air.

"Natsume?"

Ruka was ignored as Natsume continued sniffing. His eyes narrowed as he stared off in a certain direction. His head snapped back towards Ruka. "Go to my house and bring Tsubasa."

"Why Natsume? What's wrong?" Ruka said with worry evident in his voice.

Natsume was staring in the other direction again and Ruka could almost see his hackles rising even if Natsume hadn't Shifted into a leopard yet. "It's the scent of the same person that robbed Yuu and tried to drown polka. I'm going to go and track him. Go and bring Tsubasa!"

Without giving Ruka a chance to refuse, he Shifted into his feline form and ran into the woods. Ruka stood dumbstruck as he watched his friend disappear into the deeper part of the forest, which didn't take very long considering Natsume was now a jet black leopard. Not wanting his friend to be caught alone by a stranger, Ruka Shifted and quickly ran to bring back Tsubasa.

Youichi had come down to see what all the ruckus had been about to find Narumi and Tono staring out of the now broken door. The wooden door hung precariously from a single hinge and swung back and forth.

One of his eyebrows rose at the sight before he decided that it had nothing to do with him and started heading back upstairs. Tono shook himself out of his daze quickly enough to get a hold of Youichi before he left.

"What did Tsubasa mean by Yuu's and Mikan's attacker? What happened while we were gone?" Tono asked, his voice full of obvious curiosity and worry.

Youichi shook him off and continued walking up the stairs with Tono following closely behind. He didn't say anything as he sat down on the edge of his bed, facing his cousin with a blank look.

Tono stared at the younger boy from where he was standing, noticing once again that he couldn't be mistaken as a little kid anymore. "So am I going to have to beg on my knees to get you to tell me what happened or are you going to tell me without complaining?"

Smirking at the image of his cousin begging on his knees, he said "Maybe some other time I'll get you to beg, but for today, I'll tell you for free." Tono's visible show of relief at not having to damage his man pride made Youichi's smirk more prominent, as if that was even possible. Deciding that waiting further would be a waste of his time, Youichi retold what had happened in the last few days, starting from Yuu's loss of his Shift and going on to the attempt at Mikan's life.

Both of them having conveniently forgotten about Narumi's existence downstairs, they stayed up in Youichi's room with Youichi trying to rein in his annoyance at Tono's exclamations about his story. The unspoken words of worry hung heavy in the air for the three boys that had gone to track down whoever it was causing trouble and evoking fear.

A/N: If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask! We'll send back a reply as soon as possible \(6.6)/