Disclaimer: Geez…I don't even know why I gotta keep doing this part! Don't own them!!

Warning: I don't think there's anything in here at all! Whoa! It's actually a clean chapter!

Note: The rest of The Party is up, although I think this chapter is kinda pointless…-_-() anyway, ack! More tests!! I hate school!!! For English, I wish we could just read fanfics alllll day…now wouldn't that be nice? Yup yup! …It's so hard to carry a one sided conversation…so I'll just let you read now…'cause isn't that what you're here for? ^_^

Chapter 3

The Party: Part B

What's Miaka and Taka thinking, inviting a kid to a party with alcohol?!

"Chiriko!" Miaka screams, throwing her arms around his tiny body.

"Hi Miaka, Taka!" Turning to me, he smiles, "You must be Ryuen! Pleased to meet you, I'm Doukun. But they," he gestures towards the couple standing next to me, "like to call me Chiriko. You can call me either, I like them both!" He smiles again, but there's something strange about this smile. Like he's hiding something. It's kinda giving me the creeps…

Shrugging it off, I grin back down towards him. Hey, looks like I won't be the shortest one here! "Hey, err…Chiriko," that name fits him better, "wanna play some Super Smash Brothers with me?" It's all I could think of!

"Sure, I've never played it before! Come to think of it, I've never played any video game before…but maybe I'll tr--ouch!" Chiriko had been hit on the head with a flat, fluorescent pink disc. Oh yeah…they're called Frisbees.

"Chiriko! Sorry man! Didn't mean to!"

Tetsuya had come around the hallway corner followed by Keisuke and Yui. "Seriously, Chiriko, didn't mean to! Are you ok?" Tetsuya asks.

"I'm fine, but do you mind me asking, why are you playing Frisbee indoors?" Chiriko replies, lightly massaging his head.

"Nehehe…just for fun I guess! Oh hey Ryuen!" He slaps me on my shoulder, then pushes through us into the living room. A faint "Hey Gen, Kouji! Where's the beer?!" is heard in the background. Yui rolls her eyes at me, giggling; "I don't even know why he's my boyfriend!"

After letting them all in, Taka and I watch warily as Miaka bounces into the kitchen. "Don't worry, I'm not cooking!" she says, laughing at us.

I hear a very loud sigh escape Taka's lips and turn to punch him in the shoulder. "She's your girlfriend, you should have gotten used to it already!"

"It's something impossible to get used to!" he says, "Hey, wanna check out the air hockey table downstairs?"

"You guys have an air hockey table?!" I'm excited as I follow his to the basement.

"Taakkaa!!! I need your help, get up here now!!" Miaka yells in her abnormally loud voice.

Sighing, Taka retraces his steps up towards the living room. "We rented it. Sorry Ryuen, the lady's calling…but I'll get Genrou to come down and play with you!"

~

"Fuck! Ryuen! Yer such a fuckin cheater!" Genrou screams. It seems that he thinks scoring is a synonym for cheating. Hmm, funny, it's not like that in my vocabulary, but I guess Gen-chan's different.

"Ne, Gen-chan, don't be a poor sport! Just because I won doesn't mean it's the end of the world!" I love gloating in Genrou's face.

"Che. Who said I gave a damn? This game is gay!" He tries to be casual. He's not very good at it. "There hasta be better stuff to do round here! I'm gone!"

Blah. Now I don't have anyone to play air-hockey with!

I run up the stairs after Genrou, but I don't intend to talk to him. I wanna play some air-hockey with Taka! "Ne, Tama-chan!!" I call into the kitchen.

Tama-chan? Where'd that come from?

Then I noticed that everything around me has paused; the TV muted, all the laughter dead. Upon looking around, I notice everyone's staring at me. What the hell did I do?!

Laughing nervously, I say, "What? What's wrong?"

"Ryuen? What did you want?"

"Taka? Yeah, I was just wondering if you were up to a game of air-hockey." Everyone was still staring.

"Uhh…we're gonna eat soon so maybe after?"

"Yeah…sure," I say absently, "Guys! Stop looking at me! You're making me nervous…"

They still stare.

"Yeah guys, Ryuen's ok, nothings wrong. I'm just gonna talk to him, ok?" Talk to me? About what? I just wanna play some air-hockey!

But it seems they listen to Taka and go back to their activities. That was a little odd…

~

"Ryuen, come sit with us!!" Miaka calls, bits of food flying from her mouth. Nodding, I squeeze in a chair between Miaka and Genrou. Genrou glares at me for a split second before greeting me with his usual foul banter, "Yooo, Ryu-chan! C'mon man! Eat!"

So I dig into the sushi that Miaka ordered from some sushi fast food place downtown. Not bad, I guess, for a fast food chain.

"Ryuen," Taka says around a mouthful of some sort of Maki, "who won the air hockey game?"

"Oh, me of course!" Genrou scowls at me, then takes another swig of his beer.

"Great! Then I'll beat you after dinner for Gen-chan!"

Laughing, I reply, "Ne, Taka, let's play some Super Smash Brothers instead! Then I'll kick your ass in air-hockey!"

Is it just me, or did Taka's face darken a bit? "Alright, I guess. How'd you know we had a Gamecube anyway?"

"Oh, Miaka and I played a bit before…err…Chiriko and the others came. Hey, she wouldn't tell me what those symbols on it were, do you know what they mean?"

"Uhh…yeah, actually I do."

"Alriiighhtt…could you…y'know…tell me?!"

Laughing (nervously?), he says, "Later. I'll tell you later. But let's go and play now!"

~

"Bwahahahaha!!! Beat you again!! Man, Tama-chan, you suck!" What? There I go again with Tama-chan. What's that mean anyway?!

Taka looks at me with a sort of odd expression, something wistful and regretting, but I don't get more time to analyze it because he slaps me on the back and breaks out a huge grin. "You're just too good, Ryu-chan!"

"I guess I am! Now, Taka, tell me about these symbols! I don't even know why they're bugging me so much…"

Sighing, he brushes his bangs out of his eyes. "Ryuuen, why do you call me Tama-chan?"

"Uhh…I dunno! Seriously, I dunno! It just sorta hit me, y'know? Kinda like, why do you call me Ryu-chan!"

"I call you Ryu-chan because that's your name, idiot."

"Oh, right. Well, I dunno why I call you Tama-chan, then!"

"I do. I know why you call me Tama-chan."

"You do? Cool, then you could tell me. But what does this hafta do with these symbols? Remember? You're supposed to be telling me about them!"

"It has everything to do with these symbols."

Then, Genrou decides to pick this moment to tackle me. "Gahhh!! Gen-chan! What'ya think you're doing?!"

"Just havin' fun, man! So what'yer guys talkin bout?"

"Taka was just gonna tell me about these!" I say, pointing at the Chinese characters on the purple box.

Gen-chan's face suddenly becomes serious, then he looks at Taka and says, "You sure man?"

"I don't know. I really don't know." Taka responds.

"Hello?! Aren't you gonna tell me?! How come Gen-chan knows and I don't?!" I'm actually kinda annoyed.

"Err…yeah, Ryu-chan, we'll tell you! Won't we, Taka?" Genrou looks at Taka questioningly.

"Yeah. We'll tell you. Tomorrow. After the party's over."

A/N: Dun dun duuuuuunnnnnnnnn….ok, yeah I know it wasn't really a cliffhanger! So, shoot me! Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter! I know it's kinda taking a while to actually get to the point, but just bear with me, ok? And to those who reviewed, thanks so much! I hardly ever get reviews for my stuff and I'm really happy that some of you guys actually like this! ^____^ But now I must be off to study for some crazy math test…-_-…