Fruitcakes and Basket-cases
Chapter: Seven
"Do you seriously expect us to believe that your family is cursed?" he asked, eyeing them steadily as they blinked in surprise at the question.
"What makes you question it?" Kyo hissed, his gaze becoming a sharp glare, "It's no more ridiculous than yours," he spat.
"We've shown you proof," Ichigo countered, "All we've seen are a cat and a boy, and our memories of the supposed incident connecting the two are hazy at best," The older teen blinked in disbelief, his cheeks reddening slightly as his gaze caught Orihime's matching expression.
"I'm a willing volunteer!" Shigure chimed, to which Kyo snapped and tossed his cup at the man's head.
"How lewd can you be?!" he yelled, "Don't you have any shame?!"
"I'm a lonely old man," the other whimpered, "it gets expensive paying for it all the time,"
"That's a little too much information Shigure," a more mature voice said in exasperation, "besides, it's a criminal offence for a man of your age to be preying upon young girls,"
"Who're you?" Ichigo asked, fixing the new arrival with a wary gaze. The man returned the look with an indifferent expression, 'Do you always greet people you just met like that?' he thought.
"Hatori," Yuki said in surprise, "why're you here?"
"I called him," Shigure explained, then turned his attention to his friend, "why must your timing always be off, it's like you're tuned in to always ruin my fun," he huffed, "besides, she's eye-candy at best,"
"An even more disturbing thought," the man sighed, rolling his eyes, "I'm assuming that these two," he indicated the new arrivals, "are the ones you called me over to treat?"
"'Treat?'" Ichigo echoed, "What do you mean? We didn't hurt ourselves," Hatori looked at the boy and sat before him.
"I was told that you had hit your head upon arrival," he explained, as he began his examination, "while I only take family members, Shigure insisted…you seem fine though," he said, moving onto Orihime, "where are you from?"
"Why do you ask?" the young teen asked warily.
"I don't recognise your uniforms, so I thought I'd ask in case you needed help getting home," the man replied, eyeing the two in curiosity.
"Checking out high-school kids?" Shigure chimed playfully, "You are a beast," he swallowed when the doctor sent him a withering glare, "Haha, just kidding, but yes, our guests are from out of town," he answered, then continued as he made up the rest, "the story we're going to go with is that they're exchange students whose partners are having domestic problems and Yuki, being the Student Council President, opted to have them stay with us,"
"Why me?" the teen asked in surprise.
"Did you not hear me, dear Yuki?" the writer asked in return, "Because you are the Student Council President, and thus you are obligated to be an upstanding, model student to the rest of the Student Body,"
"But what would Akito say about it?" the other mused, testing how far his older cousin had thought it out.
"That's why Hatori's here," he chimed, "he can easily relay the message and make it sound like you had no real choice in the matter,"
"There's no way that'll fly," Kyo snorted.
"Only if you don't stick to it with real conviction," Shigure said matter-of-factly and then looked at his best friend, who had been listening in silence, "Well, Hatori, will you help us with this?"
