A/N: Happy Friday! And happy eight year anniversary of the day I finished Angel Beats (and subsequently Naoi's HC-verse birthday because I'm sentimental). Truth or Dare Squared got way too long so I'm cutting it in half. Expect the second part for Christmas Eve or New Years. I think I'm having too much fun with this.

Thanks to ZainR for the review! I held on to that Grinch joke since February of this year, so if it had you dying as hard as I was, then as Shiruba said, "IT WAS WORTH IT!" xD Also if Ami combined her palmistry predictions with Kanade's alleged clairvoyance, I think they could rule the world! And ooh, yeah, I guess I foreshadowed pretty hard with that god of death part, huh? ;) I wasn't even thinking of Yuri's testing scene but you're absolutely right! I guess when it comes to Yuri's mischievous leadership, some things never change. As for Masuda, I guess he's so used to keeping his friends' secrets, it's starting to have an effect on him! I wonder how he feels about that...

(Edit: Removed the disclaimer here. I'm a fool. The vine reference is the next chapter. That's what I get for cutting stuff in half!)

Enjoy!

[Chapter 41]: Truth or Dare Squared (Part I)

"What were you guys laughing about just now?" Shiruba asked.

"Yeah, we like to laugh," Takada chimed in.

Ami, still in a good mood and not quite out of her giggle fit, directed her smile at Shiruba. "Oh, nothing," she said, trying to let her laughter die down. "Just a little game of truth or dare."

"Truth or dare, huh?" Nezumi echoed. "Sweet. Mind if we join you?"

"Uh, yes/kind of!" Yuri and Hejjiguchi said in unison, both staring at Hisakawa and Nezumi respectively.

Ami looked from her friends to Nezumi and Hisakawa, and then to Shiruba, visibly wanting to be friendly but torn by loyalty. "Oh, I dunno…"

Nezumi wasn't deterred. "Nah, c'mon, it'll be fun!" he said cheerily, rounding the half-circle of chairs and heading for the curved bench section.

His friends followed suit, Shiruba sitting down on the end that was closest to Ami's seat (though Kurimu sat between them). To Yuri's dismay, Hisakawa sat right across the fire from her. Yuri decisively looked to Takada instead, who sat on Hisakawa's other side and was, for whatever reason, prone to wearing sunglasses indoors.

"Wicked nails, bro," Nezumi said, slowing as he passed Hejjiguchi. "They match your fierce winged eyeliner."

"Whatever, dude, you've got a scrunchie stuck in your hair," said Hejjiguchi.

Making a face, Nezumi reached behind his head as he sat down and pulled out the offending accessory. "Ugh, so we were in the recreation building, checking out the stuff in the music room? And this purple-haired chick kept looking at me 'cause I was whaling away at the drums and she wanted to play. And her crazy yellow-haired friend comes up and tries to kick me off, and I'm like 'no way, I was here first,' so Goldie apparently takes that to mean 'please raise hell and attack my head with drumsticks until I leave.'" He twisted the sky blue scrunchie in his fingers thoughtfully. "Would've admired her pranking skills if she wasn't so batty." With that, he flicked it into the distance.

"Hey!" Hisakawa protested. "That was pretty."

"Well, I hope you saw where it landed," Fujimoto joked.

"So, what'd we miss?" Nezumi asked, kicking up his legs with a sigh and making himself comfortable.

The others looked skeptical, but Ayato had no real tiff with the guy. In fact, he found him oddly endearing. "Yuri danced on a tabletop and Kurimu yelled a swear," he answered casually.

Fujimoto gaped in shock, his eyes lighting up. "That was you?" he asked Kurimu, impressed.

"Please, it's not like it's her first curse," Nezumi said. "She's had a sailor mouth since she was three."

"I have not!" Kurimu protested.

"Oh, come on," Nezumi coaxed. "I know it was a long time ago, but don't you remember how mad your mom got when she heard you saying it?"

"I bet I know who taught it to her," Ami said snidely.

Nezumi held up his hands in self-defense. "I learned it from my gramps!"

Hejjiguchi got a strange look on his face as he glanced between Kurimu and Nezumi. "You guys have known each other for that long?"

"Oh," Nezumi gasped softly, putting a hand to his mouth. "Look at me, giving away all the good stuff before we've even started. Whose turn is it?"

"Hold it!" Hisakawa interjected before Masuda could speak up. "Now, I know how boys' minds work during truth-or-dare games, so let me just name one rule right off the bat. No daring any of us to kiss."

"Thank you!" Hirohashi said, while Saki shot her friend a look of baffled betrayal.

"And no daring anyone to streak," Hejjiguchi added.

Nezumi rolled his eyes. "Hejj, can you name a single person in this room who would want to see you naked?" After a beat, he grinned and raised his eyebrows promptingly. "Can you?"

Hejjiguchi and Kurimu both blushed, the latter looking resolutely at the floor.

"Well, I guess, since it's my turn," Masuda said, his eyes scanning the other side of the fire. "Nezumi. Truth or dare?"

Nezumi looked intrigued at him, and only slightly suspicious. "If I choose dare, are you gonna dare me to leave?"

"Nope," Masuda replied.

"Alright," he said, satisfied. "Then dare."

Masuda sent a grin across the row of chairs at Hejjiguchi before turning to his other side. "Saki, do you have your music player on you?" he asked. When she nodded and pulled it out of her bag, Masuda looked back at Nezumi. "I dare you to sing the first song that pops up when Saki hits shuffle."

Yuri and Hisakawa both gave a cry of knowing delight. When Ayato glanced at Yuri questioningly, her face cleared and she whispered, "Saki's taste in music is notoriously dance, techno, or bubblegum pop."

Sure enough, when Saki shuffled her music, "Toxic" by Britney Spears emanated from the speaker. Nezumi's eyes brightened with interest while a roar of "YESSSS" rose up from his group.

"So am I singing this acapella, or… how are we doin' this?" he asked.

"I think I can pull up the karaoke version real quick," Yuri said, happy to help.

"Neat," said Nezumi. "Does anyone have a fake microphone I can sing into?"

Hisakawa handed him her hairbrush, Yuri started up the karaoke version, and Nezumi strutted up the platform stairs to give himself more room. Ayato should have known then that this was going to be a whole performance.

"Baby, can't you see I'm calling? A guy like you should wear a warning…" He pointed out into his audience, then put a hand to his forehead and feigned a swoon. "It's dangerous, I'm falling…"

Immediate cheering and catcalling from Fujimoto and Takada. A knowing Hirohashi and Shiruba laughed and shook their heads. Hisakawa, Ami, and Yuri were practically screaming, while Saki and Kurimu simply watched in elated fascination. But Ayato was mostly caught off-guard. The guy spoke so lazily, he hadn't really expected him to harbor passion or talent in his voice. But he had both in spades, and was clearly having fun with it.

"There's no escape, I can't wait
I need a hit, baby, give me it
You're dangerous, I'm loving it

Too high, can't come down
Losing my head, spinnin' 'round and 'round
Do you feel me now?"

In fact, he seemed to get a little too frisky with the hairbrush. Ayato wondered if Hisakawa would really want that back. Apparently he was the type of singer to nearly make out with his microphone. (He was also the hip-swiveling type, but that seemed to be a crowd pleaser.)

Running back down the steps to the beat, Nezumi came back to dance around the group, intent on serenading them all.

"With a taste of your lips, I'm on a ride
You're toxic, I'm slippin' under
With a taste of a poison paradise
I'm addicted to you
Don't you know that you're toxic?"

He played with Hisakawa's hair, flicked Ami's nose, gave Shiruba's chin a little tilt and tickle before the latter batted him away.

"And I love what you do
Don't you know that you're toxic?"

Throwing an arm around Hejjiguchi, he glanced over in Ayato and Yuri's direction and winked. Then he ran back up the platform steps to drag the poor bartender into it.

"It's getting late to give you up

I took a sip from my devil's cup

Slowly, it's taking over me…"

Eventually he wrapped it up and was met with thunderous applause from his group. Ami and Masuda, apparently good sports, Kurimu (earnest and polite), Yuri, and Ayato paid kudos as well. But Hejjiguchi's hands were occupied by his phone. After the song and applause completely died out, a beep was heard.

"And that," Hejjiguchi said proudly, "is something that will live on forever."

Nezumi heaved a sigh of relief and flopped back down on the cushioned bench. "Well, thank God," he said. "I was hoping someone recorded it." Once everyone was back in their seats, he cast a lazy glance across the fire. "Yo, Yuri, truth or dare?"

"Oh, we're back to me?" Yuri asked, surprised. "I actually just went three turns ago—"

"Yuri, truth or dare," Nezumi repeated.

She looked at Ayato with raised eyebrows, and he shared her confusion with a shrug. "If you insist," she said to Nezumi. "Dare."

It appeared this was the right answer. A gigantic grin spread across his lips. "I dare you… to give Chitose a big ol' hug," he singsonged happily.

"What?! NO!" Yuri cried, leaping to her feet as if he'd sent an electric shock to her chair. There were a few scandalized gasps, some from the dare and some from the 'no,' while Fujimoto, Takada, and Hejjiguchi were all whooping and bubbling with 'ho-ho-hoooo's of surprised laughter. Hisakawa had looked blindsided at first and thwacked Nezumi's arm, but he was undeterred and his cackling was contagious. She stood with a smirk and opened her arms invitingly.

Again, Yuri looked to Ayato for help, and again he shrugged. "You have to, it's a dare," he reminded her helpfully.

"Just do it," Nezumi said in a prodding, silly half-whisper. "You're already up, just do it. Nice big squeezy hug. It's nothing you haven't done before…"

Yuri puffed out an irritated sigh, marched around the fireplace, and stiffly held her arms out as Hisakawa met her in the middle. Being taller, Hisakawa bent slightly so Yuri's arms could wrap around her shoulders, then she pulled Yuri in for a tight embrace. An endearing aww rose from both sides of their audience.

"See, this is nice," Hisakawa said soothingly, as if talking to a feral cat. She stroked Yuri's back for effect. "Warm hugs. Healing hugs. We should've done this a long time ag—"

Suddenly her eyes widened and she cut herself off with a tiny choked "ulp!"

"Yuri, it's a little too tight," she said with a desperate, nervous laugh. Yuri only squeezed harder, turning her laugh into a rasp. "Seriously, Yuri, too tight – breathing – becoming an issue—" Another squeeze. Ayato thought he heard a crack. "Yuri, my ribs, let go!"

Yuri released her triumphantly and Hisakawa stumbled away. "He said 'big squeezy hug,'" Yuri pointed out, smiling. "It was a dare, I had to do it."

They both returned to their seats, Hisakawa tenderly holding her sides as she sat down next to Nezumi.

"There now, wasn't that nice?" he asked.

She threw him a baleful glare. "I think she broke a rib."

He nodded pensively. "She is very strong…"

Ayato tended to feel sympathy for Hisakawa in some regards; however, seeing Yuri glow with venomous joy was one of his favorite things. He admired her as she sat down, preening, her evil grin stirring a not entirely unpleasant twinge in his gut.

"Okay!" Yuri clapped her hands together, invigorated, startling Ayato out of his trance. "Fujimoto, truth or dare?"

Fujimoto gestured at himself as if to say, me? Yuri nodded. "Hm…" he said, twisting his lips in thought. "Were you the one who made Kurimu swear?"

"I dared her to yell something random, the thing we picked happened to include a swear, so yes," Yuri said proudly.

"I thought so." Fujimoto rubbed his chin. "Truth. You're lethal."

"I am lethal," Yuri agreed cheekily, making Ayato bite his lip in anticipation. "That's why you're still in danger. So tell us, why did you pull out Rumi's chair and make her fall on her ass in first grade?"

Takada, Nezumi, and Shiruba hooted excitedly. Hirohashi (and Hisakawa, despite her injuries) flashed Yuri a huge grin of approval, while Fujimoto buried his face in his hands and groaned, "Oh, noooo…"

"Just tell the truth, doofus," said Takada, adjusting his sunglasses. "You should've ripped off that band-aid years ago."

Fujimoto sighed deeply. "Fine," he said into his hands, before unearthing his red face. "Okay, I was young and stupid, right?"

"Right," much of the group chorused. (Someone quickly added, "You still are.")

"Rhetorical question, thanks, guys," Fujimoto quipped, pushing his glasses down to rub at the bridge of his nose. "So I'd always heard my mom say, you know, if you like a girl, you should do something nice for her. And my dad always said it's proper manners to pull out a chair for your lady," he continued with a helpless shrug. "I saw Dad do it for Mom all the time – but my mom always expected it, that's the thing. I'd never tried it for myself because I'd never met a girl I liked that much, so I didn't know what I was really supposed to do.

"So in first grade, I finally see this cute girl and she's wanting to sit down at her desk…" he paused, slapping a hand to his forehead, before going on in a voice that had risen in pitch, "and I think, oh, I should pull out her chair for her!"

By now, everyone could see where this was going and was howling or crying with laughter. Nezumi and Takada were both pink in the face and gasping for air, even though presumably they'd known the longest.

"So I go over and pull out her chair," Fujimoto managed, before his voice cracked with a squeaky laughing sob, "and she falls! She actually crashes to the ground!"

"Oh, no!" Hisakawa practically sobbed herself, clapping one hand over her mouth and holding her side with the other.

Ayato struggled for breath, cackling with a mix of secondhand embarrassment and sadistic pleasure. Yuri was shrieking into her hands. Kurimu, in genuine tears of laughter, was trying to hide them in the cushion of her chair.

"And she looks up at me, and I'm startled but I'm smiling at her like a total idiot," Fujimoto lamented, "so naturally she thinks I'm a huge jerk and she hates me forever!"

"Oh my God, I can't believe you had a crush on Rumi!" Saki exclaimed.

Takada scoffed. "'Had'?"

"Really, that's the one thing you can't believe," Hirohashi said, still laughing.

"Wait, why did Takada scoff at the word 'had'?" Yuri asked.

"Don't know, not part of your truth question, I think it's my turn now," Fujimoto said hastily. Composing himself, he fixed his too-friendly gaze on Ayato. "Naoi… truth, or dare?"

Ayato frowned, hugely suspicious of the syrupy way he said 'truth' just now. "Dare," he said with finality. (And then, knowing this particular friend group, he regretted it immediately.)

Fujimoto smiled, as if impressed with his bravery. "Mmm… I dare you," he said, drawing it out,"to have a staring contest with Yuri."

"Huh?" Yuri said, stunned.

"Ooh… already blinking, Yuri," Hisakawa said. "Off to a bad start."

"A staring contest?" Ayato echoed in confusion. He had honestly been expecting something much worse.

Fujimoto shook his head at him. "Well, good grief, man, you already look at her lovingly like 95% of the time," he said incredulously. "She might as well be looking back."

Even Ami, Kurimu, and Masuda burst out laughing at this, the traitors. "I do not look at her lovingly," Ayato shot back, his cheeks flaring up again.

"Lovingly, longingly, lustfully, let's not split hairs," Fujimoto said. He snapped his fingers at them. "Get to it, you two. You know the rules. Gaze deep into one another's eyes, and first one to blink or break eye contact loses."

Obediently Ayato turned to face Yuri, just as she did to him. She looked just as bemused and nervous as he was, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. He decided to avert his gaze for the time being. Just to rest his eyes in preparation, of course.

"And no telling the other person they have beautiful eyes to get them to look away all embarrassed and stuff," Nezumi added. "Because that's cheating."

Shiruba smirked. "You are such a sore loser."

"You play dirty," Nezumi complained. "You know I'm a sucker for flattery."

Fujimoto shushed them. "No distractions," he said. "Hey, Kawata, you got a stopwatch ready?"

Ami tapped a button. "All set!"

"Cool," said Fujimoto. "Don't be coy, you two, let's see some eye contact." Reluctantly Ayato brought his gaze back to Yuri. "In three, two, one, go!"

There was a beep, and they locked eyes. The competition faintly reminded Ayato of their arm-wrestling match in the club room last spring. Except back then he could focus mainly on her arm and pushing it down towards the table. This was different. His only task was to keep his eyes open – and keep them on hers.

Which initially wasn't the most terrible of tasks. Her eyes had always been intriguing. Captivating, even. A vivid shade of green, like emeralds or grass or parts of the ocean. It depended on the light. They often crinkled in amusement and sharpened when she was agitated or on high alert, and could make the person on the receiving end feel like somehow her eyes were a knife pressed against their throat. Other times they flashed as if a layer of protective glass was the only thing keeping a burst of merciless green fire from shooting out at you.

Ayato was lucky he had not seen that look too many times in his life, but he was still young.

He also hadn't looked her in the eyes for quite this long before. Not very many times, at least, not without saying a word. In the silence, he couldn't help but sense something he knew he'd felt before. Maybe that first moment in the pottery shop when they met. A familiarity that didn't make a whole lot of sense to him. It seemed so much louder in his head when there were no words to overshadow it. He searched her eyes, and could see her searching his, as if she was feeling the exact same thing.

It was the strangest sensation, like he'd known those eyes a lot longer than he thought. Which didn't seem possible. Except he supposed it was possible, considering they'd lived in the same town since birth. Despite never sharing a class with her before, maybe they could've seen each other in the halls or at grocery stores, in passing somewhere. But surely he would've remembered meeting her eyes for the first ti—

Alright, his eyes were killing him now.

Rebelling against the dryness, he did his best to widen them instead, and Yuri giggled. "Getting tired?" she prodded.

"You wish," he replied. "I've been told I have exceptional eye strength. Don't you wear reading glasses?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Yuri said loftily. But now he could see her eyes starting to strain.

He grinned. Perhaps there was victory in store for him yet. Her eyelid twitched, and she growled in frustration, biting at her lip. And then…

"OH!" Nezumi, Hejjiguchi, and Fujimoto hollered. "She blinked! Yuri blinked! Naoi wins!"

"But Naoi looked away first!" Hirohashi and Saki jumped in.

"No, he didn't!" Shiruba protested.

"Yes, he did," said Masuda.

"He totally did!" Ami was quick to agree. "He looked at her mouth!"

Ayato blushed horribly. "I did no such thing!"

"Yeah-huh!" she argued. "I hit the stopwatch as soon as I saw!"

"Okay, seriously, who lost?" Yuri demanded.

This was a point of argument amongst the group for probably five minutes, though it felt even longer as they all debated whether Ayato actually looked down and whether it was before or after Yuri blinked. Soon it was clear that the group was almost evenly split, with Masuda, Kurimu, Ami, Hirohashi, and Saki saying Yuri won, while Hejjiguchi, Nezumi, Fujimoto, Takada, and Shiruba insisted that Ayato did.

"Hisakawa, you're the tie-breaker," Hirohashi said. "What do you think happened?"

Hisakawa glanced back and forth between Ayato and Yuri, placing a hand on her hip. "I don't know," she said after a beat. "I think it was a tie. Or it looked kinda close. Naoi might've have looked down, but Yuri didn't notice since she blinked at the same time."

"Can we just move on already?" Ayato asked. Then, remembering it was his turn, he gladly switched the spotlight to someone else who hadn't been a victim yet. "Ami – truth or dare?"

Ami blinked in surprise. "Well, we've had a lot of dares so far, so… truth."

Hm. Truths were hard. Ami was very upfront and he didn't know what secrets he needed to pull from her. But after a moment's thought, a juicy and potentially chaos-inducing question came to him. "Out of everyone here right now, who do you think is the best kisser?"

A chorus of appreciative oohs and laughs rippled through the group. Mostly from Nezumi's group, save for Shiruba, who leaned forward in interest.

Her brow creasing in thought, Ami took a moment to consider before looking at him again. "Wait, boy or girl?"

More oohing laughter and cheers, especially from Nezumi and Fujimoto. Shiruba looked ten times more intrigued.

"One from each, I suppose," Ayato allowed.

Ami nodded, resting her chin on her tented fingers. "Okay, so there's this thing where you can tell how good a kisser someone is by watching them eat an apple. And from what I've seen… objectively, Yuri is probably the best kisser out of the girls, and Masuda is the best kisser out of all the guys." Blushing, she looked apologetically at Hejjiguchi. "Sorry, Souma-kun."

Hejjiguchi silently held his hands in the air and fell back in his seat like he was staying the hell out of that one. He covertly snuck a glance behind her at Kurimu and shot her a little smile, as if to tell her he knew the real answer.

"So if Masuda and Yuri kiss, it'd be like, the most amazing kiss ever," Takada suggested.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa—" Masuda and Ami protested in unison, while Yuri silently looked perturbed. Ayato had a sudden and compelling urge to find out if he could burn through sunglasses with his supposed eye strength. (What? Laser beam eyes would be cool.)

"You don't just need kissing prowess, you also need chemistry," said Ami.

Shiruba was barely listening. "Can somebody get me an apple? Ami, I swear I can redeem myself…"

"Hold off on that apple, mister!" Ami said playfully. "Shiruba, truth or dare?"

Preview:

"How times have changed."

"'They're identical twins!'"

"Oh God, he's been possessed by his cousin."

"I would feel terrible to hurt my loved ones like that."

"The important thing is that they can come back from it."

"FREE HUGS!"

"Who's your friend?"

"I was agreeing with you, don't take that for granted!"

"My brother was always the rebellious one."

[Chapter 42]: Truth or Dare Squared (Part II).