Worse. Week. Ever.

First, on the 25th, my cat was put down at almost 10 at night. Then a power surge almost fried the Wii. Luckily, it was a simple AC adapter reset, but still. Then finals were a thing, and that sucked the life out of me. God, this week will just keep getting better and better, huh?!

The cat thing is probably what has caused the nighttime portion of this. A slight sense of sadness from death. Otherwise, I would have included that much later on.

Chapter 38

(30th) (Saturday)

Yu spent until about 4 o'clock ensuring that they had everything they needed (AKA things to ensure the house won't burn down the next day). Rise was the first to arrive, holding a bag that contained a couple things that she told him was to add some spice to her omelette. Yu hoped to God that it wasn't literally spice. Though he didn't quite trust a supermodel in the kitchen, he didn't get rid of the ingredients.

Chie and Yukiko came next, prepared with their own 'enhancing' ingredients. Yu threw them away the first second they weren't looking, to ensure no deaths, or comas occurred the next morning. Or the roof was blown off the house. That was one of Dojima's rules, after all.

After everyone was there but Naoto, Yu left Nanako in charge until he got back from picking her up. It wasn't a worry that they would destroy the house so long as Nanako was there. Just her presence was like a spell to the teens.

Before he could walk out the door, Meinu came bounding over, begging to allow her to come along. Yu couldn't resist the puppy-dog stare the dog gave him, so he sighed and slipped on her collar and leash. She didn't complain at how she hated the feeling of the collar this time. Though she hadn't been told what was going on in the slightest, she knew where they were going, and was super excited.

At the hospital, when Yu arrived, he found Naoto sitting on the edge of the bed, doing something. What exactly, he wasn't sure. Though he assumed that she was doing something along the lines of putting on shoes, as she was crouching over, messing around with something around her foot.

She took notice of their presence, but didn't look up from what she was doing, when Meinu yipped at the boy holding her in place, struggling to get him to release her leash. Finally, he let go, and the dog bolted forward, jumped up and unintentionally smacking her owner in the face with her cranium. Meinu whined at the sudden headache she had.

Naoto slowly put a hand over her hand. "Ow." She muttered. "Dog, whatever made you think that was a good idea?" Meinu whined in an apology. With the hand that wasn't currently covering her face, she reached over and lightly stroked the dog's head.

"You seem ready to get out of here." Yu commented.

Naoto lifted her head out of her hand and looked up at him with a smile, her beautiful blue eyes possessing a particular sparkle to them. "But of course. You think I'm going to stay any longer than I have to?"

"Well then, how about we get out of here!" Yu said, walking over to stand in front of her.

Naoto pushed herself off the bed. Her legs weren't prepared for the sudden weight though, and she fell forward. Yu caught her.

"Not doing anything for a couple days is finally taking its toll, huh?" He smiled.

"Shut up." Naoto commanded.

Yu did what she wanted. He gave her a minute to get her bearing, though Meinu was jumping around so much that it was making things really difficult. Finally, she was able to move with little difficulty, so they went along their way.

Back at the Dojima residence, everyone greeted the two (Plus the dog) happily. For reasons unknown, Rie immediately started to bombard Naoto with questions on how many times she thought she was going to go crazy.

Said girl nimbly dodged answering the questions by asking what Yu had planned.

Yu met the question with a black stare. "I honestly can't answer that. While I did think a party would be a good idea, I've never been a part of a small group party like this. However, I have been a part of some of those major rich kid parties because I knew someone connected to the host."

"So what you're saying here is that you organized a party, but you only thought of one thing that we'll be doing, and that's in the morning? And Rise was the one to come up with it in the first place?" Naoto asked.

"That sounds about right." Yu laughed at himself.

Everyone sighed, except Nanako and Rie, who seemed confused.

"You had a whole days worth, and you didn't manage anything?" Chie complained.

"I was making sure we had all the food we needed, and also, everything that could be considered a precautionary on the likely chance you two blow the roof off this place!" Yu yelled, directing the insult at Chie and Yukiko.

"Oh, this is our fault now?!" Chie yelled, standing up from the couch she had been sitting on. Yukiko got up as well, looking annoyed.

Everyone that wasn't a part of the argument that was now occurring started talking causally about what they should do, considering Yu didn't plan. With nothing interesting to do, they settled on watching a movie. Nanako got out the small variety of DVDs the family had. Yosuke immediately spotted Dumminator 1 and 2, and demanded that they watch that. When asked why the family had the two, Nanako told them her Big Bro had bought them. He hadn't seen the first one when Yosuke asked him to pay for him that day of the 11th. It then clicked in Yosuke's mind that they never did go see that.

"Hey Alpha?" He called out to his leader.

Yu looked around Chie, who still seemed to be steamed. "What is it?"

"We never ended up going to see Dumminator 2 in the theater."

"Yeah, I realized that a while ago. I saw it in Junes so I figured I'd buy it. I figured I had to see it and the prequel too, so I bought them."

"I saw that. I can't believe I forgot about it."

"I can't believe you let me forget about it."

Yosuke instantly started to demand that they watch the movies. Yu was tempted to object for Nanako's sake, but she seemed to be just as pumped as Yosuke to watch it. With no one else raising any sort of objection, Nanako popped the DVD in the player while Yu made three bowls of popcorn for them.

Yosuke settled himself as close to the screen as he could get without blocking everyone else's view. Yu took the couch, and Rise took the opportunity to snuggle up by him. He didn't complain, as Teddie was doing that for him. The pretty blond boy eventually gave up with a huff when Yosuke yelled at him to shut it, throwing popcorn at him.

At around 9, the end of the second movie came about, and Yosuke looked too excited to sleep. Yu quickly ushered Nanako to bed, for fear that Dojima might suddenly come home and see that his daughter was watching a slightly gory movie at around 9 o'clock. Rie followed close behind, looking like she was about to fall asleep, as though the movie bored her that much.

While Yu was doing that, and gathering up all the blankets and pillows that they would need at midnight and beyond, Rise started talking. "So, now that Nanako's asleep or at least in bed, what do we do?" Slowly, everyone gathered around the short table.

"Aren't you usually the one to come up with the random things we do?" Yosuke asked.

"Valid point, Yosuke-senpai. I guess I'm the entertainer all the way!" Rise smiled.

"Is it really smart to let her come up with our topics?" Yukiko asked. "I mean, after that talk we had a couple weeks ago in the TV…"

"Ah, looks like that's our topic. Thank you, Yukiko-senpai."

Yukiko stared at the idol. "Wha…?" She was dumbstruck. She had clearly wanted to avoid such a conversation.

Yu overheard what was going on. "Hey Rise-chan," He called out to her. "While we're on the topic of awkward conversations that involve relationships, how'd your date go with Teddie?"

All eyes were suddenly on Rise. "You actually went on a date with him?" Chie asked.

"He wasn't going to stop bugging me if I didn't. Blame Yu-senpai, he told me too!" Rise screeched.

Everyone snickered. "Don't you always say that you love Yu-kun though?" Chie asked. "Why would you even consider going out with Teddie then? I don't care if Yu-kun told you too."

Teddie jumped in. "Just admit it, Rise-queen! You love me!" He jumped forward, attempting to hug her. He got an elbow to the face instead. The poor boy comically fell to the ground, and let out a groan of pain.

"I only did it because you said, 'just one date, that's all!'" Rise badly mimicked Teddie's voice.

"You still went on a date with him though." Yukiko reminded her. "What did you do?"

"Shopping." Rise answered sourly.

"Just shopping?" Kanji asked.

"He considered it good enough for a date. I wasn't going to complain." Rise shrugged.

"I had to carry all 20 or so of her bags!" Teddie proclaimed happily.

"20 bags?" Naoto questioned, wondering how it was possible if they were even somewhat small.

"Teddie can be actually really talented when he wants to be. I'm just as surprised, and I watched him." Rise herself seemed to be questioning the logic behind the bear-boy's abilities. "Um, can we just move on from the date I had to go through yesterday?"

"I vote we steer clear of relationships in general." Yosuke held up his hand. Multiple others joined his.

"It's not a party without it though!" Rise pouted. "Besides, there's someone I haven't questioned yet!"

"We all know how it would go if we did engage in such a conversation though." Yu pointed out as he took a seat. "Everyone would refuse to discuss it, except Teddie, and then he would try to hug you; you'd kick him in the gut and say you love me, at which point you'd almost knock me over trying to hug me."

A silence fell over the group. "That… sounded all too accurate." Yosuke said finally.

"Then let's break that accuracy into little pieces and stomp on its remains!" Rise yelled. Everyone quickly scooted away from her. "What? I didn't mean that literally. You guys think I was going to break you into pieces and stomp on your broken bodies?"

No one responded, only staring at the star in concern.

"If you come back, I'll stop talking about relationships." Rise bribed.

Everyone found that to be a fair enough bargain, and moved back to their spots.

A new silence came about. "So, what do we talk about?" Yukiko asked.

"I think we've been in Rise-chan's cocoon too long." Kanji muttered.

"I guess… we just let Rise-chan have her way then?" Chie asked awkwardly.

Rise squealed in glee. "Ok, this time, our first victim will be…" She raised her right hand to the air, pointer finger out. She swung the arm down, and pointed at Naoto, who didn't seem to want to be a part of this. "Naoto-kun!" Naoto stared blankly at her. "So…" Rise leaned forward. "Who do you like?"

Naoto leaned back as Rise leaned forward, almost falling over. She looked at Yu. "Is this really all you can come up with to talk about?"

Yu shrugged. "You got a better suggestion?"

Naoto shook her head in disbelief. Rise pressed for details. "No one." She answered.

"Everyone likes someone." Rise pried. "Come on, who is it?"

"I told you. No one." Naoto growled.

Rise clicked her tongue. "You're a tough nut."

Yu sighed. "Give her some slack, Rise-chan. First day officially on the team, and you're already asking her personal questions?"

Rise sighed. "Fine." She turned her attention to Yosuke with a sudden grin. "So, what about you, Yosuke-senpai?"

Yosuke shifted nervously at his spot. "That's for me to know, and for you to never find out."

Rise sighed and moved onto her next target, Chie, only to get essentially the same response. She moved around the table, but never got any real answer. Expect for Teddie, but does that even count at this point?

In any case, Yu eventually told everyone to go to bed. It was 10 o'clock, but they weren't getting anywhere with this pointless conversation, and the only thing that they were managing was probably waking Nanako, and the floating dead person that also seemed to sleep.

Rise was reluctant to cut the conversation short, but everyone else quickly grabbed a blanket and pillow and curled up in their own little corner.

Yu threw Rise her stuff, and gathered his own, occupying the center of the room. Rise sighed heavily and lied down.

(Time: Almost midnight…)

Yu was awoken by a somewhat soft light, and someone faintly whispering, counting down from 60. He cracked his eyes open, moving them to the side from which the light came from.

Naoto was sitting there, slightly leaning against the couch. She was at 30 when Yu sat up, looking at her questionably. She saw him and quickly flipped the phone closed.

"What are you doing?" He whispered to her.

"Nothing." Naoto lied, quite obviously.

"That only makes me concerned." Yu said.

"You shouldn't be. I was just checking the time since I happened to wake. It's nearly midnight." She explained.

"Why were you counting down then like it was some important event?" Yu pried.

"It isn't. I just wanted to see how close I could be to my phone's clock."

"OK, now I know you're lying." Yu said. "I don't care what made you think I would buy that, but I'm not."

Naoto snapped her fingers, muttering sarcastically, "Darn."

Yu scooted closer to her. "Now then, what were you doing? I won't judge you. Unless it is just that ridiculous. At which point, I will laugh." For the most part, he was completely serious about that.

Naoto slowly drew her knees in closer, embracing them. "I'm 16 this year." Yu gazed at her questionably. "This makes it 10 years." She seemed to be holding back a sob.

"10 years…?" Yu didn't figure he knew enough to really know what she meant.

"Since that day. The day my parents left this world." She choked up.

Yu gasped slightly. "Oh," was all he could get out.

A silence fell upon them. It was broken a minute later when Meinu wandered up to them. "Can you keep it down?" She requested drowsily. "I know you're technically being quiet, but I'm a dog, you know." The two stared at the dog as she walked back into the darkness, back to her warm space and curled back up.

"Um… We probably should move this." Yu muttered awkwardly.

"It's fine." Naoto whispered to him. "Go back to sleep."

"No, it really isn't." Yu replied nonchalantly. "I know you well enough by this point to guess that you won't be sleeping anytime soon."

"That's probably true, but nothing you do will change that." Naoto hissed at him, seeming to be getting annoyed.

In the corner, Meinu growled at them. Yu sighed; this wasn't going to end soon. He whispered an apology to the dog and got up, pulling Naoto with him. He led her upstairs, where they would not disturb the dog. "Step… step… step…" He whispered to her at each step.

"I get it. There's stairs. You don't need to point it-"

Naoto was interrupted as Yu said, "No step."

"Wha-" Was all Naoto could get out before she stumbled, as there wasn't a step where she had expected one. After she recovered her balance, she glared at him. "You did that just so you could distract me and make me stumble, didn't you?"

"No, that was just a hilarious byproduct of me telling you where to expect a step." Yu laughed.

"Why are you dragging me up here anyway? Instead of disturbing the dog, you plan on waking your uncle?"

Yu sighed as he ushered his friend into his room, not that she really seemed to want to. "Even if he is home, I highly doubt he'll awaken if there is a wall or two between us, and we don't cause too many loud noises." He took a seat on the couch.

"If you just went back to bed, we wouldn't even have to worry about this!" Naoto refrained from yelling, but she clearly wanted to. She joined him on the couch regardless.

"You're irritable today." Yu pointed out, not that it was really necessary.

"If you just went back to bed…"

"I wouldn't have had to deal with this." Yu finished her sentence. "Well, guess what? I've dragged myself into this, regardless of the fact that I fear I might end up regretting it." Naoto snarled at him. He sighed. "You know, I'm not the best with how people react to things like the anniversary of a death, but I figured that most would be crying right about now."

"Well, sorry for not meeting your expectations." Naoto snapped. "If you would just bother to drop it…"

"Yes, I'm aware of what would happen if we both just went back downstairs and pretended nothing happened. But you know what…?" He paused, trying to come up with the most elegant way of putting it. "Fuck that. I can pretty much guarantee, as soon as you're sure I'm asleep, that tough, uncaring facade is going to disappear."

"Whoever said it was a facade?" Naoto countered.

"Back downstairs, you choked back a sob, multiple times." Yu reminded her.

Naoto didn't reply, just adverted her gaze, directing it to the floor.

"What is with the tough act anyway? It's not like I'm judging. Nor would the others." There was no response. Worried he may have broken his friend, he put a hand on her shoulder and shook her a little. "Oh come on now. Will you say something?" Slowly, he moved her head so she would look at him. He found she was desperately trying to hold back tears. He immediately regretted even attempting to break through the wall she had put up.

Suddenly feeling incredibly jerky, he muttered an apology to her and pulled her into a hug. After a minute, he started wondering how it even got to this point. Another minute passed. Naoto had fallen asleep.

Yu stared at her for a second. She looked so peaceful, and he didn't want to risk waking her, but sleeping upright was probably bad for the back. He at least wanted to put a blanket over her, but the only one nearby was on his futon, which was out of his reach.

As luck would have it, the door opened. Yu looked up. It was his uncle. "Morning." Yu greeted nervously.

Dojima sighed. "Maybe I should have addressed this in my rules."

"OK, no." Yu whispered. "Long story, but basically, sad death anniversary, and now she's asleep. Help?"

Dojima chuckled. "I'm assuming you're requesting help because you don't want to wake her?" Yu nodded. The uncle was trying to suppress his laughter. "Looks like you're stuck then."

Yu sighed. "Fine. At least get my futon's blanket and pillow then."

Dojima complied, laughing to himself all the way. Yu slowly moved into a half lying down position and called it good. He bid his uncle goodnight and rested his head on the pillow and tried to get as comfortable as possible. Once that was achieved, he started to drift off into sleep. The last thought that ran through his mind was, 'Why did my uncle come into the room?'

(31st) (Sunday) (Though it technically was at midnight)

Yu woke to the smell of something burning. He almost jumped up and ran down there, but he found he couldn't. Naoto was using his chest as a pillow. The burnt smell got stronger, and she stirred. She lifted herself off of him and took a second to figure out was going on. The burning was what was the immediate threat on both their minds.

"Something's burning." Yu pointed out.

The two looked at each other, before both bolting over to the door and rushing downstairs.

Chie's omelette was the one burning, and none of the females were noticing. Yu quickly turned off the burner and dumped the blacken mess of food into the garbage. Someone whacked him upside the head.

"What the hell?!" Chie yelled at him in anger.

"Your omelette was black and smelled horrible." Yu told her. "Yosuke, Kanji, Nanako, Teddie, surely you guys noticed."

"Oh, we did." Yosuke groaned. "She wouldn't believe us though and so we shut up and agreed that we would only jump in if it caught on fire."

Chie growled at them angrily and started over. Yu sighed. So much for a peaceful morning, not that he really expected one.

Regardless, he started on his own omelette. After about 5 minutes or so, all the omelettes were done. The gang gathered around the table. Rise's omelette was a red color, Chie's was just as black as the first one, Yuikiko's looked… all too normal, and Yu's, well, looked like the most normal one without being 'Yukiko' normal.

Everyone stared at the omelettes. "Mine first!" Rise yelled.

Not knowing what to expect from Rise as a cook, everyone took a small piece of the red omelette and stuck it in their mouths. Pretty much simultaneously, they all almost puked it out. Except Nanako, who was strong and swallowed it. The omelette was basically hot lava in a bit more of an edible form. A second passed and then Yukiko fainted. Kanji, being smart for once, checked to see if she had swallowed it. She hadn't, so he got her to puke it up onto the plate that held the remains of Rise's attempt at cooking. He passed the plate to Chie, who spit out hers.

Yu took the plate from her and spit his portion out. He passed it to Yosuke who did the same, passing it to Teddie, and the cycle continued. Yu quickly got up and poured everyone glasses of milk. He didn't even bother bringing them over to the table, as everyone came to him, gulping their glass down. After they had all recovered, Yu refilled the glasses and returned to his spot, as did everyone else; clutching their glasses, slightly frightened at what would come next.

Rise looked hurt, but Nanako, who somehow knew how to make the older female feel better, told her that it was really good. Rise was instantaneously happy again, and everyone knew right away that she wasn't really all that hurt by them downing milk because of her. OK, it probably hurt a lot, but that doesn't matter now.

Anyway, they decided Yukiko's looked safer than Chie's, and since they wouldn't have to face her criticism if it was horrible, hers was the next best bet.

After the nightmare that was Rise's omelette, everyone was hesitant at eating food from someone they knew was so much worse with the curry accident in their minds. Nanako once again took it like a champ and shoved the food in her food, clearly fearing the worst. She stopped, fork still in her mouth.

"N-Nana-chan?" Teddie asked.

Nanako removed the fork. "Um… It's… um." She couldn't seem to describe it, but it didn't seem like it was deadly, unless it was a slow moving poison.

Kanji was the next to shove the food into his mouth. "Um… boneless." Was all he said.

Yu decided that he should brave it next. It was indeed 'boneless'. "That is the best way to describe it all right. It's like eating air."

"That's… not possible." Chie pointed out.

"Well, somehow Yukiko managed it." Yosuke said after swallowing his piece.

"Let's just move on." Rise suggested.

Everyone agreed with her and tried to figure out if it was safe to eat Chie's blackened mess.

Yu yelled, "I'm going to burn my dread and try it, even if it kills me!" He reached forward while everyone yelled at him how stupid he was. Purposely, he then knocked over the plate. Everyone pretended they were sad that they didn't get to try it, but the truth was obvious. They hadn't been looking forward to it at all.

They quickly ate Yu's omelette, which was by far the best of the bunch. Yu was declared the winner of the cook-off. "I told you I would kick your ass." Yu said to Rise.

Rise stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"So, what's my prize?" Yu asked her with a slightly smug smile.

"Prize?" Rise asked. "I don't remember agreeing to any sort of 'prize.'"

"I'm the winner though. Shouldn't I get a prize?"

Rise beckoned Chie and Yukiko (Who had woken while everyone was munching on Yu's omelette) over to her, whispering to back and forth. Finally, they both looked over at him. "Your prize, Yu Narukami, is you have to go the festival on the 20th with us and buy whatever we want." Rise smiled evilly.

"Hell no, fuck that." Yu backed down; he wasn't going to do that.

"Why don't we all go?" Yosuke suggested.

"Will the girls wear yukatas?!" Teddie yelled excitedly.

"Not if you act like that." Chie told him.

"It doesn't sound like a horrible idea though." Rise said. "I've wanted to wear one for a while now. I haven't worn one since I was a little kid."

"I guess it's settled then. We're going to the festival." Yosuke said happily.

"Yay!" Chie yelled.

"OK, now that that's over and done with…" Rise moved the subject along. "What were you two doing last night?" She indicated to Yu and Naoto. "I swear I heard you whispering at, like, what, midnight? And then you were upstairs this morning."

All eyes were on them. Yu had to stop and think for a second, as he had completely forgotten about that. Then it clicked. "Oh, that." He looked at Naoto. "Should I?"

"Depends on how much trouble it would save." She sighed.

"Alright, long story short, saddening death anniversary, alright?" Yu told them.

"Who died?" Teddie asked coldly, though he didn't seem to notice how insensitive he was being. Yosuke thwacked him over the head.

"Can we not specify?" Naoto asked sadly.

"Yeah sure." Chie said. "We at least know enough to not get the wrong idea. I hope."

With that thought fresh in their minds, Yu quickly forced them out of his house. He spent the rest of the day just trying to clean the kitchen, never mind the rest of the house. In the end, though, he figured it was worth all the cleaning for the fun that happened, even if it was a little on the strange side.

That took a little longer to make then I had hoped. Ah, you can guess the poor cat had something to do with it. Seriously, I don't even think our poor dog even realizes that she's gone, and won't be coming back. The poor mutt.

Anyway, I kind of had to force this out of my brain a little, so I have no fucking clue when the next one will be out. I have to let my creative juices or whatever come back to life. I think I stole too much from the stream, or some other strange metaphor that you can think of. In other words, I'm burned out.