Later that evening, only five sat in the once largely occupied house - those five were Ayame, Rowen, Kia, Sage, and Natsuki. Kia was in the laundry room, secretly trying to get the stain out of the white bed sheet that she was washing, Natsuki was sitting in the family room, watching a TV show, and Ayame was put to bed, but not to sleep.

Rowen stalked around the house, finally finding Sage in the den, reading a magazine. He slowly approached him, wanting this to start off the right way.

"Sage," Rowen started, hesitating to meet Sage's eye.

"What is it, Ro?" Sage replied bleakly, keeping his eyes in his magazine.

"Umm... well, I want to say that... well; I've really thought about what happened today. And what I really want to know is... Sage... uh,"

"Spit it out already."

"Are we still friends?"

Sage immediately looked away from his magazine and met eyes with Rowen. "What do you mean 'are we'?"

"Are we still friends?" Rowen replied again, this time more quicker and full of more confidence.

Sage tried not to smile, "Of course! I mean, I hope we are."

Rowen exhaled all of the air that was in his lungs, grabbing his chest from the loss of oxygen. He rubbed his face with his other hand, bringing it down over his mouth and muffling his laugh. "You don't know how relieved I am to hear you say that, Sage."

"Well, good! So am I." Sage put his magazine on the table that lay before him and stood up. He reached his hand out and firmly grabbed onto Rowen's shaking it harshly. "Thanks for understanding, Ro."

Rowen smiled, and eventually laughed.

But their conversation was ended short.

Kia came into the room, carrying with her an empty box of laundry bleach. "Hey, Sage. Do we have any more..." she paused to look up. "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't know. I'll leave-"

"No, that's okay, Kia." Rowen ushered her in the room with a wave of his hand; "we were just clearing up a little confusion."

Kia set the box on the table in front of her while she sat down in the couch in-between Sage and Rowen. "So you guys aren't mad at each other or me anymore?"she asked hopefully.

Both of them shook their heads, "We're fine now. No more fighting between us," Sage reassured her, smiling brightly.

Kia laughed, "Is that so!? In that case, we should lock the door and have some real fun!"

Sage and Rowen immediately stopped laughing and gave her bewildered expressions. Almost in unison, they both replied, "Wha-what!? You don't mean-"

Kia was laughing so hard, she had to use the table in front of her to support herself. "You guys actually believed me?!" she started laughing again. "You... and you," she paused to point to Rowen and Sage, "and me... now that'll be the day!" she burst into another fit of laughter.

Rowen and Sage started to laugh uneasily, Rowen running a hand through his hair and Sage rolling his eyes. But when he and Rowen both met eye contact, Sage could almost exactly tell what was going through Rowen's mind. A maniacal smile came across his features, identical to Rowen's.

Sage looked down to Kia, who was still using the table for support. Playing his air, he began to laugh even louder than he was before, Rowen not far behind. Then as swift as the north wind, Sage grabbed Kia's waist and pulled her back on top of his chest, locking his hands underneath her bosom as he leaned to the side of the couch. Rowen followed after Sage, getting partially on top of Kia, while running his hands along the sides of her legs. For the most part, at the bottom was Sage, then Kia, and on top was Rowen.

Kia was speechless, "What! I wasn't serious-" she got cut off as Rowen kissed her lips and Sage kissed her neck. For the few moments that Rowen and Sage were kissing her, Kia's body temperature rose to a new level, and one of her secret desires came that much closer to becoming reality. But when they broke away, Kia was left again, speechless.

Rowen couldn't help but smile when he got a glimpse at the look of Kia's shocked face. It was like he had slapped her again, but this time with a totally different emotion. "Do you want us to keep going?" he asked, he voice suddenly low and very seductive.

Kia blinked, "I... ah-umm..."

Sage laughed, "We know what you're thinking. We've know you for too long to not know what you want, Kia-chan," his chuckle was deep, sending an icy chill through Kia's spine as he traced his tongue along the back of Kia's neck.

"It's really up to you, Kia," Rowen let his hands fall to the buckle of her pants. He moved his hands back down to the couch when Sage brushed his hands up Kia's shirt, going only far enough to tease her.

Kia wished she could've lost her voice then and there, so that she wouldn't be able to say yes or no. But Kia squeezed her eyes shut, knowing her body's desires will want to kill her soul's conscience for what she was about to say, "No-"

"What in hell are you three doing?!" Natsuki stood in the doorway, glaring at them.

Rowen's eyes bulged, "Nothing!" He coughed and immediately pulled himself up off of Kia. "We were just-"

"Doing what? I have eyes you know!" Natsuki yelled, bringing herself into the room.

"We were just joking around, Suki!" Sage replied, swinging his one leg back down in front of him as he sat upright. "It was all a joke!"

"It sure as hell didn't look like a joke to me!"

"Well, it was. We just wanted to see Kia's reaction to it." Rowen paused, quickly moving his hand over his chest, "I swear to the gods that it was joke."

Kia looked crushed. But going along with Sage and Rowen, she hunched her shoulders and heaved a sigh, "Yeah, it was all one... big... weird joke."

At that, Sage turned his head to look at her, smiling brightly when he caught the expression on Kia's face, "We won't do it again, Natsuki," he started, glancing back to his wife in the doorway. "We promise."

"Who's we?" Kia asked.

Rowen and Sage both laughed out-loud. "You seriously thought that we were going to do that to you?" Rowen asked, looking incredulously at Kia. When she didn't respond, he flicked his eyes back to Sage and started laughing again.

"It had better be only a joke," Natsuki started, crossing her arms. "Anyways, what do you guys want for dinner? I'm going to call-"

"I don't care as long as you get me French fries."

Rowen finished the order, "And add some ice cream to that list. Vanilla ice cream."

Natsuki cocked her head to the side, "Vanilla ice cream and French fries? How about vegetables or fruit in your diet?"

"French fries are made out of potatoes... isn't that a veggie?" Sage tried, desperately trying not to laugh.

"And ice cream has eggs in it-"

Natsuki cut Rowen off, laughing, "Eggs aren't fruit!"

"Then get strawberry or peach ice cream. I don't really care as long as it's ice cream."

Sage and Rowen laughed softly when Natsuki finally leaved the room, giving up all hope with a long sigh. "All right, fries and strawberry ice cream it is then."

"Where are you going to pick it up?" Rowen called.

Natsuki stopped in the door, "We don't have those things here?" she stopped, watching Rowen shake his head. "Well... then should I go to the store?"

Sage nodded, "I can't eat dinner without my fries!"

"Yeah, there is a twenty in my wallet if you need money. Just go to the nearest fast food place, I'm sure they have fries and ice cream," Rowen assured her, waving her off with a movement of his hand.

Natsuki looked unsure about all of this, "I don't know. I don't like driving at night by myself."

"Then bring Ayame with you. She's not asleep, I'll tell you that." Sage waited for a reply, but nothing came. "Just go. We'll all be here when you get back. We're hungry and you are going to save us from our starvation... now go!"

Natsuki chuckled, "Fine, fine. But I better get something in return." She left the room, with or without the reply from Sage and Rowen.

Kia unbelievably looked to Sage and Rowen, who were both laughing. "Just like that, she's gone? No bitch slaps or threats for me?"

Sage shook his head. "Guess not."

"I think I talked something into her," Rowen spoke up, and giving a sigh that stopped his laughter. He coughed softly and stood from his seat. Giving Kia a single glance of his deep aqua blue eyes, he started to walk towards the door. But instead of walking out of it, he closed the door, locked it, and turned himself so that he was facing the two who sat on the couch. "Ready?"