Standard Disclaimer Applied.
A/N: Alright, here I go again with my damn redundant apology which I have been using since my first existence in this site.
GOMEN!!!!!--bawls-- I was having some personal problems and it took me a long time to get over it. Please tell me how am I to make up with this very very, I mean, VERY late update!!!Onegai!
--sniffs--
For my wonderful reviewers, u mean so much to me!
Wija: Ahem. Fine, orochimaru's urs!Waaah! No cookies!P
Luvnstuff04: hey I haven't seen you around here. Ur a new reviewer? Omigosh! Thanks for reading and please review again! God bless u too!
Jomai: Lol..was the last chappy funny? Thank you for reviewing!
Yanny!!!!: LOLZ! Don't laugh inside a café! Wha! That's embarrassing indeed…ahahahahah!
Satomika: it's not finish yet..i think there will be more chapters so please continue reading. Thanks!
Malo: my dearest malo!!whaa!! I miss u!!!--glomps--yea, damn the sexy tokiya and his sexy torso!
Mikaro: what maid?! WHA! I wasn't a maid! Meanie!!
Shen: khryzELLLA?ewwwwww….can I have another name?
Chie: heheheh the younger he is, the grumpier he becomes!LOLZ!
9081: here's the update! Please r&R!
Blackrose: yea…wers ur next chappie?i reviewed ur fic last time!:D
Snow charms: awwwww…poor fuuko indeed. Tsk3.
Eirist: first reviewer! My god, do you always stay in front of the computer?LOlz! thanks for the wonderful reviews! Ah!! The 'sexy aren't I' statement was drool-worthy!
CHAPTER 7
A day had passed after the kissing incident and the couple was back to normal. Ahem, normal for them. No one mentioned about the incident and both felt relief because of that.
"I grow younger as the days go by. Typical." Tokiya grumbled, glaring hardly at nothing in particular. "Haven't you guys found anything yet?"
"That's why we're on the way to the Hanabishi's right now to check if they've discovered anything or if the same thing happened to them as well. " Fuuko explained in a tone that says 'duh'.
"You're the one to complain monkey, you're not the one stuck in a body of a two year old!" he said almost hysterically.
"Who said anything about complaining? Oooh, you haven't seen me complain yet little mister!" With a mixture of mischief and slight annoyance, she held Tokiya roughly over a muddy puddle of water, courtesy of last night's rain. The wind goddess deadpanned, "You want me to drop you here?"
"What are you, crazy?! Who knows what kind of microorganisms thrives in there? I'll have germs all over me!" he replied with huge eyes, struggling on holding Fuuko's wrist to prevent himself from falling.
"Then stop your yapping!" Fuuko glared at the child Tokiya so hard that tears actually welled up in his eyes.
He sniffed and that had been her undoing. Tokiya looked so cute with those big watery blue eyes of his that Fuuko felt guilty. "Jeez, I was just kidding okay." She cradled him in her arms as she continued the walk towards Recca's.
The physical change wasn't what was most grueling to Tokiya. He prides himself with his independence, abilities and control over his emotional reactions. So it's very embarrassing for him that he is being overcome by "instincts" he had already grown out of. Just like last night when thunder and lighting came wave after wave, he wasn't able to stop himself from crying for hours. It took Fuuko a long time to calm him down. And now…he couldn't even walk a block without getting tired at once and Fuuko had to carry him. Oh, the humiliation!
"Oi!" A man called up from behind them. Fuuko stopped so that he could catch up with them. "Hey, you're Fuuko-san right?" the man asked cheerfully.
"Yes. You're that nursery teacher, Kudo Hideki-san" The man beamed at her and Tokiya felt his irritation escalate.
"Mind if I walk with you?"
Tokiya's eyebrows rose. "We're going to the Hanabishis's. It might be out of your way." he interjected.
"Oh, it's okay. I always take a short-cut by Azusa Street before going to class." His smile was unwavering. "Say, are you Tokiya's little brother? I haven't seen him in school yesterday." He turned to Fuuko concerned. "Is everything alright?"
"Mi-cha I mean, Tokiya's fine. He's just…erm" Huge sweatdrop. This is the major reason why I hate what's happening right now! ACK! "Errr…he was, well…what I'm saying is…he's," for a moment, she felt she swallowed her tongue and she gingerly looked at the teacher's patient face.
"What she means is that Tokiya nii-san couldn't go to school because he has to go see the dentist." Tokiya filled in for her to Fuuko's relief.
"I see." With that particular concern addressed, Hideki continued the light conversation with Fuuko with Tokiya butting in from time to time, annoyed at being ignored.
"So you don't have school today, Fuuko-san?" the casual conversation was started by Hideki.
"No. It's—"
"It's our school's foundation week so classes are suspended," Tokiya barged in, cutting Fuuko's supposed to be response.
"OUR school?" the handsome mentor arched a thick eyebrow at the boy in Fuuko's arms.
Shit! "Errr, our university has a nursery and kindergarten school inside it. They are enclosed within the university's fences but they're not a part of the school!" Fuuko answered, almost in hysterics. My god…that was the lamest excuse I ever created no thanks to this little whiny ice cube. Fuuko glared at Tokiya who answered her glare with a look as though saying 'monkey, that was the most horrible excuse I've ever heard'.
"A nursery? Isnt he too young to be on a nursery?"
"I'm smart," Tokiya answered with his chin up.
Hideki smiled at him and turned to Fuuko once more. "Arent you from Tokyo U? There wasn't a nursery when I graduated two years ago. Has it just been established?"
"Errr, its just temporary…I guess," she replied abruptly.
"Oh I see," Hideki smiled at her and shuffled Tokiya's hair. Much to the boy's annoyance. "No wonder you two seemed to be too close, you have enough bonding time even in school."
"Yea, like, A LOT. We even got intimate, we even kis—ouch!," Tokiya mumbled and was slapped by Fuuko on his legs while carrying him.
"He is such a talkative child, gomen?" Fuuko said, smiling irritatingly.
"Yea, he talks faster for his age but I think it's great. He'll be a smart kid in the future," the teacher muddled his hair again and he harshly shoved his head away from his hand.
"I already was," Tokiya murmured again.
Fuuko just rolled her eyes and continued walking with Hideki.
TOFUU
' '
"Dammit! This is just too much already!" Except for him, cursing was the rest of the Hokage's job. But right now, Kaoru felt like muttering a string of curses as he glared at the brown mass at porch as if had offended him. Correction…it DID offend him!
"Cursing is a monkey's job." Kaoru's back stiffened at the familiar cold voice. Slowly, he turned around to face the former flame master. Funny how he can still intimidate him sometimes…even in that form of his: the two year old Kurei, currently wearing an Astroboy printed shirt that is twice his size, and wielding a milk bottle in the same manner one would cuddle a beloved stuff toy.
"Well are you just going to stand there until the stench kills us all?" came Kurei.
"B-b-but, but. You can't be serious!" the Golden Boy screeched, horror overtook his entire being. Kurei however just continued to lock gazes with Kaoru, a deadpan expression on his face as he sucked on his milk bottle, that seemed to say 'yeah, I'm dead serious'.
A tumbleweed passed. Whatever hope of salvation Kaoru held was erased when the cold cruel former-flame master sealed his fate with the words, "It's not my fault Recca hogged the restroom all to himself," and stalked off. Poor Kaoru; he really looked as if he's about to cry!
A few moments later…
"It's this entire thing's fault!" For the nth time, Kaoru smashed the unknown madougu against the floor. Generally speaking, a madougu's effects can be reversed since the said device was destroyed but the ominous thing proved to be stranger. No matter how many time he tried to thrash it (smashed with a baseball bat, blew up with gunpowder, ran over by a running vehicle), it was just goddamn indestructible. There wasn't even a scratch!
Kaoru continued battering it though, as if to punish it for having been made to clean up Kurei's shit…literally.
Kaoru raised his hand and was about to slam the orb again when it started to emit a soft glow.
"Niyah!" Fearing that he'd turn into a chibi as well, he instinctively threw the madougu and ran as far as he can into the backyard. He quickly hid behind the bushes and watched how the living room windows seemed to pulse with dim light.
He was so entranced with curiosity that he almost gave a yelp when a finger poked his temple.
"Ne, what are you doing huddled out here?"
"Fuuko onee-chan!" Kaoru gave a sigh of relief and was about to give an account of the madougu when he was violently shoved aside by a very grumpy-looking Tokiya, who stomped his way towards the door.
"Argh! Mikagami-sempai, matte kudasai!" Koganei rushed after Tokiya in the hopes of preventing him from entering the living room. Amazing how fast those two little feet could walk, he commented to himself dryly.
"Sempai?" Hideki asked, obviously perplexed as to why a teenager should call a two year old with an honorific reserved for someone who's older.
Fuuko forced out a laugh. "Don't think about it too much. Kids sometimes play these games. You know…pretend." She said in a manner of explanation while patting Hideki on the arm. Jeez, that didn't sound convincing even to my own ears.
Hideki seemed to accept it though despite the huge sweatdrop on her head and the fact that he still finds it odd.
"I see. Uh, I better get going then, I'm almost late for class. I'm looking forward to seeing you and Tokiya in school tomorrow."
"Uhmm..of course," Fuuko responded tentatively.
Hideki smiled and stood in front of her for a moment, a faint blush showed on his cheeks. "Hope to go out with you sometimes too," with a sheepish smile, he lowered his head and gave Fuuko a gentle peck on her cheek.
And then he was gone, leaving the rest of them with wide saucer eyes. Especially the ice cube. With obvious flaming range, Tokiya marched grudgingly to the front door with curses escaping from his mouth.
After waiving goodbye to Hideko Kudo, Fuuko made a beeline for the Hanabishi front door.
She heard it before seeing it that Tokiya and Kaoru were wrestling. Kaoru had Tokiya in a headlock thereby preventing the latter from going beyond the shoe-changing area. "Please, Mikagami-sempai. Don't be stubborn."
"And since when did that sea-monkey's house became restricted area, HUH?"
Amused, Fuuko watched them for a while. After all, it's not everyday that the great fighter Mikagami is forced into physical submission. But then again…The wind goddess suppressed a smile. "Okay what's going on?"
At the sound of her voice, Tokiya stopped struggling. "Sure took you a long time to get here, didn't you?" he spat out.
He was perfectly fine till this morning and now he warped back into the grumpy boy that he was. But it's never like him to make an issue out of a small thing. Fuuko rolled her eyes. "Jeez, your highness. I was practically at your heels."
"Riiiight. Like you didn't have fun playing with his arm back there."
Fuuko was surprised to hear such venom in his voice until it hit her. She smirked, "Jealous much?"
If looks could kill, she would have been an impaled wind child with the way he glared at her. Before any of them could blink, Tokiya sunk his teeth deeply into Kaoru's arm and made a run for it as soon as the golden boy's grip slackened. Fuuko chased after him screaming that he shouldn't go biting people around.
Kaoru on the other hand was left on the shoe changing area. "Oh why me!" he whimpered miserably as he limply kept up with them.
But it was too late when he got to them. The madougu has already given a blinding flash of light before dying out completely.
And Fuuko, Tokiya, and Kaoru were caught in it.
----TTFF-----
Somewhere…
A voice whispered. Saihaaa…
Hideki looked up but he only had the fluttering breeze for company. He shook his head, "must be my imagination," and went on his way.
Tsuzuku
A/N: Finally, my partner in making this fic has already lent me a hand and I wanna give the credits to OBSSESSED DREAMER for a chapter well-written. This chapter was hers and I only added some things but there were no major editions. I'm so happy!
To OD with love: Dude! Thanks for everything and sorry for being such a dense ditz sometimes. I think what I decided was the right one and I'm glad u were there to guide me. I love you and let's kick asses together!