Thanks to the following for reading, and reviewing after:
snowwhite4444, capricorn2645, vyravyra, GravitationInnocence, Saint Germain, DarkMetalAngel of Destruction and inufan1369

As promised, part two of the original chapter eight, with extensions.

Disclaimer: No duh.
9th Shadow-It was a lie when they smiled and said you wouldn't feel a thing.

The next few weeks passed without anything catastrophic happening. Rika's father was handed over to the police, but no major decision had been reached. Shuichi was released from the hospital and began his planning frenzy, much to Yuki's apprehension. Shuichi suggested a costume party and sweetly asked Yuki if he still had his Snow White costume. Yuki had uttered language definitely not befitting a fair damsel in distress and Shuichi hastily dropped the idea. Soon, it was the day of the party.

Shit. This is way too soon. Yuki face was eerily similar to a violent thunderstorm.

"Done!" Shuichi stuck the last of the streamers to the wall and looked around the room. He mused, "Maybe I should blow up more balloons…"

Yuki negated his idea immediately, testily pointing out. "If you blow more balloons, we wont even see the floor anymore."

Shuichi argued back, "We can always stick them to the walls!"

Yuki silently glanced at the walls. Following his gaze, Shuichi mumbled, "Oh."

Yuki snapped, "You're overdoing it Shuichi! The last time I checked, my walls were white. What is with all this graffiti?! And snowflakes? It's not bloody Christmas!"

As if on cue, the sparkly pink banner that read 'Happy 7th Birthday Rika!' came loose and floated down to Yuki's head. He snatched it off and retreated to his study, locking the door securely behind him.

Shuichi stared at the empty doorway, bemused. "Yuki?" He called out. "I kind of need that banner – "

The door opened and the banner came flying out before it was shut again.

XXX

Yuki stared at his couch, or rather, the thing on the couch and mentally promised Shuichi torture. Two years worth sounded appropriate. Two minutes ago, Shuichi had gave him a bright, cheery smile before chucking Rika at him and dashed off, chattering about roasting a chicken.

Why couldn't he just leave her in the living room? My study is mine for a reason. Yuki sighed and turned back to face his desk. Rika watched him unblinkingly as he rummaged through his drawer.

"Come here."

She just continued staring at him, giving him a condescending, haughty look.

Yuki gave a long-suffering sigh. "Fine. Please come here."

She slid off the couch, and slowly approached him, eyeing him in a way a mouse would look at a hawk.

"Stop that. I already ate."

Slightly appeased, she moved just a little faster.

"Turn around."

She hesitated, ready to bolt. To be trapped in a room with just the bad-tempered scary man was just a bit too –

"Are you mentally challenged or just blind? The door is wide open."

That changed everything. Easier to run away, she decided. She stiffened when she felt something touching her but relaxed when the touches remained gentle and fleeting.

"A bit too big. Maybe I should have made it shorter – no…you'll grow into it. You can turn around now."

She did so gladly. Her back had felt so exposed – a soft bundle was immediately pressed into her arms. She automatically clutched them when Yuki let go.

Yuki swiveled back to his desk. "That's for you. Now, go entertain yourself. Play something that excludes disturbing or annoying me. Playing dead is an excellent choice."

Rika looked at the dress in her arms. Pale turquoise. Her favorite color. Maybe the bad man wasn't so bad after all. She felt a twinge of regret. It was unfortunate, but she would have to abandon her plan of kicking Yuki.

XXX

Dinner started without blood staining the house.

"Eat up!" Shuichi cheerfully beamed. "The chicken's not done yet so we'll eat the other stuff first."

Yuki raised an eyebrow. "I thought you started with the chicken."

"That was the first chicken."

The eyebrow shot up. "We have a second?"

"It…ah…that…um…" Shuichi gave an innocent smile. "I don't think it was supposed to turn black…haha…ha…"

Yuki gave him a look that quelled his nervous laughter. "Next time, we're going to cater food. Not that it would be a problem, since we won't be having a next time."

Yuki was seated in between Shuichi and K. On Shuichi's other side was Rika, followed by Ryuichi, Tatsuha, Mika, Tohma, Hiro, and back to K. It had been ages since Shuichi saw Hiro and wasted no time interrogating him while stuffing his mouth. In no time, the whole table was filled with laughter and the soft clinking of culinary against plates.

Yuki had no idea how it started.

One moment, he was talking to Mika. Or rather, Mika was talking – something about the baby pressing down on her bladder and how she couldn't see her feet anymore – he was busy ignoring. The next moment, he felt something warm and mushy on his cheek. He swiped it away to find…mashed potato. His eyes gained a dangerous glint as he icily asked, "Who, was that?"

It was a soft question, but commanded attention. He looked at Shuichi, who squeaked out defensively, "Not me!" before his eyes fell on Rika, who balefully looked back at him. Not her then. She was wondering why she hadn't thought of that earlier. The entire table was silent except for a sputtering sound. Yuki zoomed in on Tatsuha. Catching his look, Tatsuha burst out laughing. "Sorry, bro but that look suits you!"

"Tat – su – haaaaaaaaaa –"

Sobering up at that low growl, Tatsuha held his hands up in protest. "It wasn't me!" Then, it happened. Tatsuha's elbow hit his fork, which sent peas pelting at Ryuichi's face.

Ryuichi calmly wiped his face, paying no heed to Tatsuha's apologies. Then he yelled, "Food fight!" while flinging his broccoli at K. K ducked and threw a well-aimed bread stick at Ryuichi, shouting "Counterattack!"

The food fight escalated without Yuki's permission. He got up to leave and was bombarded by a splatter of mashed potato He glared. It was definitely Rika this time. She was a mess. Grains of something were stuck in her hair, her face was painted with gravy and both hands were covered with mashed potato. At least she wasn't wearing the dress he had designed. Still, the look of victory on her face egged him on. He carefully spooned mayonnaise and catapulted it in her direction. Soon, white joined the myriad of colors on her face. "Bull's-eye," he murmured.

It was pandemonium.

It was noisy, it was messy, and it was brought to a screeching halt by a fist slamming down on the table. Everyone stared at Mika, frozen. Tatsuha had been in the midst of pouring juice on K's head. His hand remained in position and the flow slowed to a trickle. K had been wrestling Tatsuha away. He too, remained with his hands locked around Tatsuha's wrist. Mika daintily dabbed her lips. Somehow, Mika had managed to remain at the table as the only food-free person. "Everyone," she calmly announced. "My baby's coming."

The timer in the kitchen went off with a 'ding.' Tatsuha was the first to react. He removed K's slackened hands and distractedly headed to the kitchen, still holding his glass. "Oh, the chicken's ready."

A fork whizzed past him, ricocheted off the wall and fell to the floor with an ominous clang. Heart beating madly, Tatsuha turned around and exclaimed, "What was that for?!"

Mika eyed him dangerously. "Who's more important? Me – Or the chicken?

Without thinking, he promptly answered, "The chicken."

A knife shot towards him and he ducked in the nick of time. He stared. It was embedded into the wall, still slightly vibrating.

"Hey!" Yuki yelled, "My wall!"

Tatsuha glared at him and demanded, "Who's more important? Me – "

"The wall."

With two idiots for brothers, nobody would blame her, Mika reasoned, as she picked up the neared object with a firm grip, which happened to be a bottle of ketchup.

Instantly reminded of the painful combination of ketchup and hormones, Yuki began to panic. "Mika. Put. The. Ketchup. Down. Let's talk this over, okay?"

Mika put the bottle down, but gritted her teeth. "My baby wants to come out. Now. What is there to talk about?!"

Silence. And then Tohma's calm voice reasoned, "But there's still one more month to go." As if that settled everything.

Mika's grip on the bottle tightened as she death-glared her husband. "Did you think," she breathed out before raising her voice, "the baby knows how to read a calendar or even know what a calendar is?! Do something!" She screeched at Tohma and pointed her finger. "It's your fault!"

Tohma blinked stupidly and mouthed 'My fault?' while pointing to himself, giving everyone beseeching looks. Obviously Tohma was confused and does not handle emergency situations very well. Mika grimaced, as the contractions got stronger. "Are you just going to sit there until the baby comes out?!"

That got them into motion. Tohma kindly asked Mika, "What should we do now then?"

Mika's eyes bulged out. She resolved there and then never to get pregnant again. "Call the ambulance or something!"

"Oh right. The ambulance." Tohma smiled at everyone. "The ambulance!" He announced proudly.

Everyone stared back at him. Shuichi whispered to Yuki, "Wow. Seguchi-san seems…different…"

Yuki snatched Tohma's cell phone of the counter and pressed it into his hands. "That's right, " he said firmly. "The ambulance. You have to call it before it comes."

"Of course!" Yuki breathed a sigh of relief as Tohma began screening through his phone book, murmuring, "Fire brigade…no…Gardening services…no… Police…no…" before hitting call.

"Hello? Seguchi Tohma speaking." He listened for a while before addressing the nearest person, which happened to be Hiro. "Do want pepperoni or seafood pizza?"

Hiro just stared stupidly at Tohma, trying to decide if he was serious. Cursing darkly under his breath, Yuki snatched the phone and ended the call. He had overestimated Tohma's intelligence. Tohma was obviously not in the right mind.

Mika screeched in frustration from where she was sitting. With great effort, she threw a shoe at Tohma and missed. "Have you all gone stupid or were you just brainless to begin with?! There are so many cars here! Just drive me to the hospital already!"

Everybody (except Tohma) stared at Mika in awe and simultaneously thought, Wow… she's so…energetic.

"Excellent suggestion, Mika-san!" Tohma exclaimed. He dug through his pockets. An elegant frown appeared. "Mika-san, have you seen my car keys?"

The other shoe came flying at him and hit him square in the forehead. Yuki had to physically restrain his sister as she screamed, "'Have you seen my car keys?!' Come here and I'll give you something to see! I'll bloody kill you if my baby calls me Mika-san! –Let me go!"

Tohma stared at the shoe in bewilderment as Shuichi opened the house door and Tatsuha fished his car keys out. Yuki carried a struggling Mika and deposited her into the car before getting in. Ryuichi joined them. Shuichi hurriedly got into K's car, grabbing Rika along the way and Hiro got in next to K.

The madhouse was suddenly silent and empty save for a lone person. To no one in particular, Tohma protested indignantly, "But this isn't my car keys!"

XXX

Yuki pointedly ignored a bunch of staring visitors as they walked past. As predicted, they burst into laughter once they were out of earshot. Or at least, when they thought they were. He fixed his eyes on Ryuichi and growled in a low voice, "Be glad you're no longer my student, Sakuma…Be very glad…"

A sheepish Ryuichi grinned at him. "I am! Truly, Yuki-sensei!" That earned him an icy glare and Ryuichi quickly decided to look at the walls instead.

It was Ryuichi's fault. People kept staring at them; it started when they burst into the hospital, all panicked and shouting for a doctor. The receptionist had looked at them and started laughing. Belatedly, Yuki had realized they were all covered in food and looked a downright mess. Ryuichi started the food fight; it was therefore his fault people were laughing and it was his fault Yuki wasn't happy.

They were all in the waiting room, and Yuki wondered why Mika had to go into labor in his presence at his house eating his food. After what seemed like forever but in reality was only three hours, a nurse came up to him, beaming, and informed them a baby boy had been born. All Yuki wanted was to go home, but he found himself, along with the others, being ushered into the wardroom where Mika lay with her new baby.

Mika smiled wanly at them. Shuichi immediately started rambling. "How are you? Oh the baby is so cute! Have you thought of a name?"

She carefully eased the baby into Shuichi's clumsy arms. Yuki watched carefully. He didn't want to get sued if Shuichi dropped the baby and spattered his brains on the hospital floor.

Mika sank back against her pillows. "Name…Tohma and I discussed a few but we haven't quite decided yet…" She frowned. "Where is Tohma?"

Everyone froze instantly. Brains they had left behind in their panic caught up to them. "Shit." Was the quiet but clear answer.

Hiro looked at Yuki, stricken. "I thought he was with you!"

"You mean he didn't follow the other car?!"

Everyone exchanged glances, confused. "So," Yuki began," whose car did he follow then?"

"None," a quiet voice answered. "He was left behind."

Hiro turned around. Tohma gave him a benign smile and Hiro backed away immediately, freaked out. There was something very scary and wrong with how friendly the smile looked. "I," Tohma began pleasantly, " followed my own car."

Okay…Seguchi-san seems normal again. Shuichi watched Hiro take two steps back as Tohma took one forward. Yup. He's very normal.

Mika and Yuki were the only ones unaffected by the sub zero-degree aura Tohma projected. Mika found the strength to roll her eyes. "I see you found your car keys. How wonderful."

"Ah yes, I did. I'm sorry to say it wasn't your shoe, though that helped a little." His soft smile actually reached his eyes this time. "How are you feeling, Mika –"

"No!"

"Sorry?"

Mika glared at him. "No more Mika-san. We've been married for seven years! It's been driving me up the wall far longer than that! I hate it!"

"Oh."

For one maddening moment, Mika thought he had reverted back to his out-of-it state. Then Tohma smiled again, and his voice was gentle. "No more then," he agreed. "Mika."

Yuki thought it was high time to leave. Apparently, do did everyone else, if the way they silently inched towards the door was any indication. Shuichi gently laid the baby into the hospital cot and backed away. That got Tohma's attention. He picked up the baby with ease; the movement got Yuki to irritably wonder if Tohma had to be so goddamn good at everything. If he was lucky, the baby might piss on Tohma. That brought a slight smirk on his face, which would be something he would regret for a very long time.

Tohma somehow detected the smirk and the meaning behind it. He gave Yuki a beatific smile and faced the baby in his arms. "Eiri-chan, you're so adorable. Say hello to papa. Kootchie kootchie koo!"

They halted in their track as Yuki's mouth literally dropped open. (Elegantly, of course) Ryuichi and Shuichi fought back a peal of laughter. Mika merely raised an eyebrow at Tohma. "You decided his name already, I see."

Tatsuha wasn't as accommodating; a shout of laughter escaped him as Yuki thundered, "You are bloody not naming him after me!"

Tohma smiled at him. "Of course we aren't Eiri-san," he said in a tone designed to make people feel stupid. It worked. "God spoke to the depths of my heart and told me he was destined to be named Eiri."

Yuki radiated a killer's aura. "You are not naming him Eiri – that is final. And since when did you believe in God?"

Mika scoffed at that. "Please. If you can't behave yourself in a hospital, get out." The baby in Tohma's arms scrunched up his nose and began to cry. Mika held out her arms expectantly. "Tohma, hand him here. I need to breast-feed Eiri-chan."

Tatsuha was on the floor now, gasping as he convulsed with laughter, tears streaming down his face. He wasn't the only one laughing. Ryuichi and Shuichi had joined him, rolling as best as they could on the limited space, occasionally banging on the floor as they did so. Hiro had doubled up with laughter, gasping and wheezing for breath as K patted his back, uncontrollable laugher escaping him as well. Yuki glared at the only one not shaking with mirth and dangerously breathed out, "Not one word from you. Not one." And then he stormed out.

If Rika could speak, her laughter would have been the loudest of them all.

XXX

"It's not that bad."

"It's abominable!" Yuki snapped back at Shuichi. "What was he thinking?!"

"Same as your parents, I guess."

Yuki shot K a dark look. "You're enjoying this too much."

K shrugged. "Ah, but a smart soldier takes any opportunity offered. It ensures survival and advantage against the enemy. No offence intended of course," he grinned lazily, "Mr. Eiri-chan."

Yuki pointedly ignored the jab and warningly glared at Shuichi instead, whose eyes were sparkling with mischief. "And don't you dare," Yuki threatened," to even think of saying 'goo-goo ga-ga' again."

Shuichi was all smiles. "Aw!" he exclaimed, "did you hear that K? Yuki just said goo-goo ga-ga! I never thought I would here it from him! Isn't he just so adorable?"

"You're completely missing the point!"

"Of course not, Eiri-chan."

There was no stopping it. Yuki could tell the teasing was going to go on until they were blue in the face. He buried his face into his hands and groaned. Someone tugged his little finger and Yuki pulled his hands away, waspishly snapping "Now what?!"

Rika backed away immediately, clutching her soft toy. Shuichi gave Yuki a slightly reproachful look. Yuki took a deep breath and tried not to sound like a psycho murderer, even though he had half a mind to be exactly that. His eyes fell on the bunny she was clutching and frowned. "Where did you get that from?"

Shuichi followed his gaze and explained. "Ryuichi got it for her. It's really cool! There's this little side pouch with a zipper! You can keep stuff in it." Rika crouched down and unzipped the bunny. Curious, Shuichi bent over. "Did you keep something in there, Rika?"

Yuki wouldn't have given a damn if he hadn't found himself suddenly staring down the barrel of a gun. He was surprised, to say the least. He hadn't even noticed Rika clambering up on him.

"Whoa!" Shuichi shrieked, "Where did you get that? No wonder Kumagoro-Junior was so heavy! – "

Yuki didn't take his eyes of the gun. "Shuichi, can we focus on the problem here?"

"Oh right!" Shuichi scrambled to his feet. "Rika could you hand that over here? It's dangerous." He half-begged. "K help me!"

Unperturbed, K continued sipping his coffee. "Oh don't worry. It's not dangerous."

Shuichi almost cried in relief. "You gave her a toy gun?"

The deadly click of the safety hatch being released answered Shuichi's question. Instantly panicking again, Shuichi screamed, "Aaaaah! Rika!! Give it here!"

Yuki snatched the gun out of Rika's hands, blatantly ignored her pout and tiredly asked K, "Not dangerous?"

K took another sip. "She has bad aim."

Shuichi went ballistic again. "Is there a bullet stuck in your brain or is there a candid camera crew filming us right now?! K!"

K nonchalantly tossed his now empty cup into the bin. "Neither. It's just training."

This time, both Shuichi and Yuki shouted. "What the hell are you training her for?!"

Wooooooo…Crack. Ah. I missed it so much. Sorry if it went haywire…I'm completely dried of inspiration…please, please drop a review, even if it it's just to tell me of a spelling mistake, or a grammar error. Anything that will help this story improve. Thank you.