Yes, well welcome back folks! It's exciting. I ate, I have Dr. Pepper, and now I have chapter four. Whoo!!
Ruth: You know me so well! Of course you have to wait and see! Heehehehehehehe.
Joanna: I swear it's eventually explained.
Teresa: You're the silliest onee-chan I have. Love ya!
Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. iwantthepillowcase. I think I'm developing a cold...
Warning: Language, innuendos, and....poker?
Boys Before.........The High Seas???
Chapter Four
"Name of the game gentlemen is poker, five card draw." Soujirou announced as he dealt everyone cards in the Captain's Room.
"Um, I'm not a man!" Tsukushi exclaimed. They had played a few hands already and Tsukushi had won almost every hand so far. According to the others, Soujirou won all the time at poker.
"I'm sure Doumyouji could confirm that." Akira exclaimed.
"If they've gotten anywhere, I'll eat my violin." Rui looked serious. Tsukushi did not doubt that he would somehow. It was almost something you could half expect from him.
"Would you guys shut up?" Doumyouji asked in exasperation.
"Doumyouji is the man, therefore, he should be the one trying to engage Tsukushi in said activities." Soujirou said in a very scientific voice.
"That's it! I'm going to take a bath." Doumyouji threw his hand down and stomped out of the room. Soujirou reached over and flipped the cards. A royal flush.
"In spades! Not bad, he would have won." Akira commented, nodding appreciatively.
"What was he so upset about?" Tsukushi asked them. All three boys looked at her as if she was incredibly stupid.
Soujirou cleared his throat. "It also helps if Tsukushi isn't an idiot."
"Hey!" Tsukushi stood up angrily.
"She should go join Doumyouji in his bath!" Akira suggested excitedly.
"Or maybe waiting in their room, laid out on the bed." Surprisingly that suggestion came from Rui.
Tsukushi clenched her fists. "You guys are so...so...arghhhh! Stop saying those things!" She was blushing though.
"She's a virgin." Akira snorted. Tsukushi threw her cards at the rest of the players. She went out onto the deck. It was night time and the stars were winking at her. She smiled as she recognized some of the constellations her dad had pointed out to her when she was young. She thought back to the others. They were probably still discussing their lewd suggestions over their cards.
Tsukushi shivered slightly. The night air was cold. She should go back inside for a coat but she was enjoying looking at the night sky. The water seemed to be black as if they were sailing through the stars themselves. I bet it's nicer up in the lookout post, but I won't try going up there. Tsukushi sighed slightly. Suddenly a sweater dropped on top of her head. She whirled around grabbing it with her hands. It smelled like Doumyouji. In fact, Doumyouji was standing right there with a small teasing smile. Tsukushi blinked before putting on the sweater. It was too big but she didn't mind. Doumyouji had looked different.
"Your hair!" Tsukushi exclaimed when it dawned on her that Doumyouji's curly locks were straight.
"It does this when it gets wet." Doumyouji said, his tone hinting at defense. Tsukushi reached up and pushed some strands out of his eyes.
"I like it." Tsukushi said truthfully. "It makes you look..." Her face went red when she realized she almost said something else. "It makes you look kind." Doumyouji caught her small hand in his large one.
"Do you really like it?" Doumyouji's voice was going deeper again. He was way closer then he had been. Or had she moved? Tsukushi felt her breath catch.
"You two," The voice paused. "are lame." Tsukushi and Doumyouji looked up to see Rui dangling upside down from his knees, about twenty feet up the ladder rungs to the lookout post from the ground.
"Dammit Rui!" Doumyouji shook a fist at the reddish-brown haired boy. "I thought you said you wouldn't do that anymore! Do you want to kill yourself?"
"No." Rui swung himself up so his hands were on rungs too before climbing into the lookout post.
"Let's go to bed." Doumyouji suggested and Tsukushi nodded her head. As they walked into the room, Tsukushi realized that Doumyouji had been holding her hand the whole time.
* * *
Tsukushi felt like she was watching a play. There were woods. Those look just like the woods behind my house, she thought excitedly. She laughed with delight when she realized that they were the same woods. There was a stream that ran through on it's way to the ocean. And there she was. She had to be about six or seven. Her hair was put up in pigtails and her skirt pulled up by her hands as she waded in the stream.
"What are you doing?" A boy's voice asked. Tsukushi vaguely remembered this actually happening. The young Tsukushi was surprised. No one ever was back there. The boy might have been a year or two older then. He had dark curly hair. Just like...but Tsukushi wasn't sure who she was thinking of.
"Catching frogs." The younger Tsukushi bent down and picked the frog she had been stalking, getting her skirt wet.
"Don't you have any friends?" The boy spoke in a slightly condescending tone.
"Yuuki's sick, besides, she doesn't like frogs." The young Tsukushi explained. Tsukushi smiled fondly, that was true.
"Girls aren't supposed to catch frogs." The boy's air of arrogance was starting to annoy Tsukushi. The younger Tsukushi turned around and put her hands on her hips.
"I bet you can't catch one! Besides you look like a frog!" The younger Tsukushi told him.
"What I can too!" The boy insisted before splashing into the stream with his shoes on. He bent over one of the frogs. It jumped away right as the boy tried to catch it. He fell right into the water. The younger Tsukushi with the older one laughed at the look of agitation on the boy's face.
"Your doing it wrong, silly." The younger Tsukushi helped him up. "Watch." She bent over a frog, carefully and slowly, she cupped her hands around it and held tightly on to it. "See? You have to do it carefully or it will jump away." The boy gave her a strange look.
"Do you think..." The boy trailed off. "You could show me how?" The younger Tsukushi smiled at him.
"Okay! Here put your hands over mine. This is how my dad showed me." The younger Tsukushi instructed. The boy put his hands over hers. Tsukushi was laughing. She remembered instructing people like that, mixing up that she should be the one with her hands over theirs. They carefully scooped up a frog. The boy got a happy look on his face.
"I caught it!" He exclaimed. The younger Tsukushi nodded encouragingly.
"Now you to let it go." The younger Tsukushi told him importantly.
"I want to keep him!" The boy protested.
"Yes, but if you take away frogs, there won't be any more when you come back." The young Tsukushi explained. "I know something you can take with you!"
"What?" The boy followed her out of the stream. The younger Tsukushi reached down and picked a flower. She held it out towards the boy.
"My dad says that if you give someone a flower, it's a promise to come see them again." The younger Tsukushi told the boy. A voice called out and the boy looked a little annoyed. A girl, slightly older then both of them came out from the trees.
"There you are! We have to go now!" The girl told him importantly. The boy took the flower from the younger Tsukushi.
"I'll come back one day. And when I do, I'll take you on a ship." The boy promised her.
"Across the sea?" The younger Tsukushi's eyes were bright with excitement.
"Across the sea and where ever else you want to go." The boy said before running towards the girl.
"I won't forget!" The younger Tsukushi yelled out. Tsukushi saw it all start to fade away. She started to wake up from her dream....
"I won't forget." Tsukushi murmured as she woke up. She cuddled a little closer to the warm body that was holding hers. It felt nice, with those big strong arms wrapped around her. But wait...
Tsukushi realized where she was. In her and Doumyouji's bedroom, in her and Doumyouji's bed. In Doumyouji's arms. She blinked several times as she moved he head enough to look up at his face. He was sleeping peacefully. Tsukushi could think of no way to get out of there without waking him up. She decided she had just better stay put.
"Mmmm..." Doumyouji made a slight noise as he pulled her up a little bit. Tsukushi froze, she did not know what to do.
"Tsukushi..." Tsukushi thought he had woken up but now he was nuzzling her neck. Tsukushi's face went red. What the heck is he dreaming about? She felt a hand on her the upper part of her leg and she gulped, hoping that his dream would end. Otherwise, she would be forced to kill him. It stopped though and Tsukushi closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, wondering if Doumyouji had almost as strange as dreams as her.
Doumyouji opened one of his eyes and peered at the sleeping girl. He had been awake and felt pretty triumphant when Tsukushi didn't scream or start hitting him repeatedly over the head with some sort of object. Did I hear her say I won't forget? Does she remember....
* * *
Tsukushi yawned as she walked down the hallway to the Captain's Room. She bumped right into Rui, who looked less awake then she did. She was thinking about her dream. The little boy had looked so familiar...
"Frogs?" Rui mumbled at her. Tsukushi's eyes went as wide as dinner plates.
"What?" She asked him, now fully awake.
"I don't know, I thought of frogs for some reason." Rui shrugged his shoulders.
Tsukushi didn't say anything else before Rui went into the Captain's Room before her. She followed him in. Was it Rui? He would be strange like that wouldn't he? Tsukushi saw Doumyouji at the table and as soon as their eyes met Tsukushi went bright red in the face.
"Oh, did someone take our advice last night?" Akira inquired. Him and Soujirou slapped a high five over the table.
"Doumyouji will definitely be a lot more laid back now that he's been laid." Soujirou nodded his head in agreement with his own statement.
Rui shook his head. "I hope they didn't." Tsukushi blinked at him in surprise. What does he mean by that? I thought him and Shizuka...What am I thinking?
"We didn't do anything!" Tsukushi told them. "You two might need some work to get your minds out of the gutters!"
"No we don't!" Akira protested immediately.
"Won't mention it again, Captain Tsukushi!" Soujirou received a cold look from Doumyouji for the way in which he had addressed Tsukushi.
"Okay then and Doumyouji, if you don't stop glaring at him, your going to be calling me Your Highness." Tsukushi shook her finger at the curly haired boy. Maybe he didn't know about last night, but she did!
"That sounds like the kind of thing Doumyouji would like." Akira whispered to Soujirou. Soujirou started laughing immediately.
"I heard that!" Tsukushi roared. Soujirou and Akira looked rather sheepish.
Soujirou cleared his throat. "Sorry, erm, Captain, but we have to go now." Soujirou grabbed Akira who was starting to protest and ran out the door.
"Finally I can eat my breakfast in peace." Tsukushi muttered.
"So you guys didn't do anything?" Rui asked. Tsukushi and Doumyouji both glared at him. "Okay then."
* * *
Tsukushi looked up at the lookout post. She looked around the deck. No one there. She wanted to prove to herself she could climb the thing up and down without falling. Surely those times had been flukes...She put her hand on the first rung.
"Don't even think about it." Doumyouji called, sticking his head out the window of their room. Tsukushi glared at him before stomping over to the window.
"Are you watching me?" Tsukushi asked.
"Are you trying to get yourself hurt?" Doumyouji fired back. "You should still be thanking me for the last time you fell."
"I thanked you. Why do you have to-" Tsukushi felt a hand on her back, shove her through the window. She landed right on top of Doumyouji. He blinked a few times.
"Your pretty forward with your gratitude." Doumyouji joked. Tsukushi got up, hitting him in the arm. She peered out the window. There was Rui, scrambling up the ladder rungs. Very funny Rui. When she turned around, Doumyouji was standing almost right over her trying to look out the window too. He looked down at her. Wait a second...didn't that boy in my dream have curly hair? And didn't that Captain's log say...
"Frogs." Tsukushi murmured.
"Huh, frogs?" Doumyouji's face scrunched up in confusion.
"I just thought of frogs." Tsukushi shrugged realizing that this was just like what Rui had said to her.
"Why?" Doumyouji inquired.
"Cause you look like one." Tsukushi said an annoyance before walking past him out the door. Doumyouji stood there dumbfounded.
"There was definitely a double meaning to that." Doumyouji said outloud to himself with a slightly goofy grin.
* * *
Yum...Dr. Pepper...
Will Tsukushi figure out who the person was? Will she figure out the wrong person? Will Doumyouji tell her who it was? Will people stop talking about frogs? Why the hell was Rui talking about frogs? Will Rui even have the answer to that last one? Will Rui stop pulling pranks? Will Akira and Soujirou get Tsukushi and Doumyouji in bed? Will they be able to have one conversation where they don't bring it up? Will Kazuya make an appearance in the next chapter? What happened to Sako? He's only come in twice! Will we ever find out exactly what kind of poetry Rui and Shizuka have in that book? Will Rui and Shizuka be reunited soon? Not to mention Makiko! Stay tuned. ^_^!