When he returned, it was absolutely silent in the room. Everyone was being utterly quiet and still as if life didn't continue when Ayame wasn't in the room.
"Why's it so quiet in here?!" bellowed Ayame.
"We were enjoying the silence." Said Hatori, looking up from his best selling novel. (He and Shigure were both reading one.)
"Maybe Ayame will watch the timer too." Said Shigure. At that, Ayame looked over at the timer to see all the kids huddled around it.
"What are you looking at?" Kagura whispered to Kyo who was still entranced. There were only six minutes left!! Kyo only hushed her without taking his eyes off the timer. The other ones who were not Kyo shrugged and watched the timer too because they were hoping something exciting would happen.
Ayame TRIED not to look interested as he made his way back over to where the 'adults' were but he didn't really want to read so he didn't belong ANYWHERE!! So he took out a Vogue Magazine and started reading that.
And it was absolutely silent once again for six more minutes when suddenly…
"IT'S READY!!!" yelled Kyo at the exact same time as the dinger on the oven. Everyone who was crowded around him were now surprised and taken aback and they most likely would have had heart attacks and died if they were old people or had a bad family history of heart problems.
So they jumped off the stove as Hatori retrieved his oven mitts and pulled the pizza out of the oven. It was all freezer burned and nasty even though he just bought it but that's what you get for buying cheap frozen pizza!!
"YAY!!!" cheered everyone.
THEN he cut it up into ten pieces and put them on paper plates. They all sat around the table and started eating.
All of a sudden, Tohru started giggling uncontrollably. Everyone tried to ignore her but she just started giggling more loudly as if she were now trying to get everyone to ask her what was so funny.
"Fine, what's so funny?" asked Hatori.
"Oh it's nothing." Said Tohru with another giggle.
"Fine." Said Hatori as he continued eating.
"HEY!!" yelled Kyo, slamming his hand down on the table. "I wanna know what's so funny!!"
"YEAH!!!" cheered all the other people.
"Never mind…" said Tohru.
Everyone stared at each other and then just continued eating. There was absolute silence. All that was heard was the sound of Haru chewing very loudly and slowly with his mouth open like some sort of…I don't know…kinda like a crazy cow. I guess.
"You know what I've been wondering…" started Shigure randomly. "I was thinking about this because Hatori has been so frequently turned into a seahorse and then tossed into some water but…what if you were to toss Hatori into a fishbowl while he was a seahorse and then he turned back?"
"Then he would be a big naked man in a fishbowl." Said Ayame casually.
"EWWW!!!" screamed Tohru and Kagura.
"COOL!!!" screamed all the little boys.
"No." said Hatori plainly.
"I think the fishbowl would break or something." Said Shigure with a shrug.
"Unless it was a heavy duty fishbowl." Ayame pointed out.
"In that case, Hatori would be squashed to death and all of his innards would ooze out of the fishbowl." Shigure said.
"EWWW!!!" Tohru and Kagura yelled again.
"COOL!!!" screamed all the little boys again.
"Can we change the subject?" asked Hatori.
"Well, what do you think on the matter?" asked Shigure.
Hatori sighed. "Well, I suppose I would just be outside the fishbowl magically." He said.
"What if it was just your foot in the fishbowl?" asked Yuki.
"Or his HEAD!!" laughed Kyo.
"THAT would be funny." Said Ayame.
"And the only way to get his head out of the fishbowl would be to turn back into a seahorse." Said Tohru.
"Can we make it so that someone else is stuck in the fishbowl?" asked Hatori.
"But why would anyone else be in a fishbowl in the first place?" asked Shigure.
"Yeah, you're the only one who needs water." Said Ayame.
"I don't need water." Said Hatori.
"Yes you do." Said Ayame.
Hatori stared at Ayame for a moment. "No I don't." he said.
"Why does it matter?" asked Shigure. "It's not like this will ever happen."
"I would prefer it if the children weren't envisioning my head being stuck in a fishbowl." Hatori said plainly. "Or getting any ideas for that matter."
"Fine, say it was the NEXT guy who is the Year of the Seahorse person." Ayame said.
"Year of the DRAGON." Hatori corrected.
"You say dragon, I say seahorse." Said Ayame.
"It's a dragon." Hatori said.
"But YOU'RE a seahorse." Said Ayame.
Hatori didn't look as though he was going to retaliate.
"So what were we talking about?" asked Shigure.
"Hatori getting his head stuck in a fishbowl." Ayame replied.
"Let's put Kyo in the fishbowl." Said Hatori.
"WHY ME?!" demanded Kyo.
"Because you'd fit." Hatori answered.
"Who would put a cat in a fishbowl?!" Kyo yelled. "I hope YOU wouldn't, Hatori!"
"Maybe I do." Said Hatori. "I have a cat at home and he lives in a fishbowl."
Little kids never notice when older people are kidding. "That's really mean." Said Kyo. "I'm going to come over to your house some day and free him." He suddenly looked very surprised. "Wait, does he swim around in the fishbowl? Cats don't like water."
"No, there's no water." Hatori lied. "He just lives in the fishbowl. There's even a cover with little air holes so that he can breath. Sometimes I let him out and I occasionally feed him but only when I'm in a good mood and I don't forget."
The room fell silent for a minute.
"Seriously?" said Ayame finally.
"No." said Hatori. "I don't even have a cat."
"I don't believe you." Said Kyo. "I am freeing your cat someday."
"Good luck." Said Hatori.
It was quiet for another minute.
"Wait, no really, do you actually have a cat in a fishbowl at your house?" asked Shigure. "Is that why you were so sensitive about the fishbowl conversation we were having and wanted to put Kyo into a fishbowl as if that made any sense at all?"
"Forget about the cat in a fishbowl." Said Hatori with a sigh.
"Kyo, you better watch out or Hatori will put you in a fishbowl." Said Yuki with a devious grin.
"He WOULDN'T!!" Kyo yelled, looking right at Hatori.
"I'm not going to put anyone in a fishbowl as long as no one puts me in a fishbowl." Hatori said.
"But you put your cat in a fishbowl!" said Kagura.
"I don't have a cat." Hatori said.
"But you just said you did!!" yelled Momiji.
"It was a JOKE." Hatori replied.
"No wonder I thought you were serious." Said Shigure with a laugh. "You are the last person to tell a joke so I didn't think that it was one. I was pretty sure that you didn't have a cat in a fishbowl since I've been over your house plenty of times and never saw one but then I stopped to think that maybe you hid it in the closet so that I wouldn't think that you were a psycho or anything."
"Oh." Said Hatori.
Then everyone finished their pizza at the same time except for Haru who was still on his first bite and Akito who wasn't even at the dinner table so his plate remained untouched.
"Haru, hurry up!" commanded Kyo since Hatori had previously stated that they would not be leaving the table until everyone was finished.
"What?" asked Haru as he turned his head obliviously.
"Eat faster!!" Kyo yelled.
"Kyo, be quiet." Said Hatori.
"Yeah or else Hatori will put you in a fishbowl." Threatened Ayame.
"NO WAY!!!" yelled Kyo. "I WOULDN'T LET HIM!!"
Hatori sighed and got up, making his way over to the stove.
"You weren't supposed to get up!!" yelled Kyo as Hatori started pressing a few buttons on the timer until it was up to twenty.
"Kyo, when this timer hits zero, something special will happen." Hatori said, sitting back down.
Kyo's eyes lit up. "What?" he asked.
"It's a surprise." Hatori answered.
"Oh." Said Kyo as he turned around and faced the timer and stared at it without blinking.
"Only twenty?" asked Shigure.
"I figure we could work our way up to an hour." Hatori replied. "Any more than that and it would be unhealthy."
So they all continued to sit and wait for Haru to finish. He just kept chewing and chewing and suddenly…HE SWALLOWED!!! Everyone gave a sigh of relief and leaned back in their chairs and were JUST about to get up when he took another bite of his pizza.
"Okay, we can get up." Hatori decided since he didn't want to sit there anymore. Everyone cheered and left Haru alone at the table.
"Maybe we should move Hatori's mattress back upstairs." Said Ayame.
"Why is my mattress down here anyway?" asked Hatori. "I find it a bit strange that all of Ayame's stuff was shredded by Haru…yet Haru decided to throw MY mattress over the edge."
"Um…he didn't know which one was mine?" Ayame suggested but you could just TELL that he had went and switched mattresses with Hatori so he wouldn't have to move his mattress back upstairs.
"Let's all work TOGETHER!!!" Shigure said excitedly for no reason. The three of them lifted the mattress up over their heads and were just about to start to make the difficult climb up the ladder when suddenly, they heard the sound of thunder booming around the house.
"EEEK!!!" screamed Tohru as she latched onto the closest thing to her which just so happened to be Shigure who turned into a dog. Since he obviously could not hold the mattress anymore, he was crushed by it!! OH DEAR!!!
"I'M SO SCARED!!!" Kagura whined as she wandered over to where Kyo was with the timer which stood at fourteen. She looked at him so see that he was not looking at the timer but he was, in fact, sleeping like a widdle baby! Kagura frowned. "WAKE UP!!!" she shrieked and Kyo immediately jerked his head up but still looked a little sleepy. "Comfort me…" she said, hugging him.
"Okay, whatever." Said Kyo, patting her on the head, while lowering his own head back onto the table. Haru just watched, still chewing.
Then lightning flashed, lighting up the entire house before making it dark. THE POWER HAD GONE OUT!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
All the little kids screamed and cried.
"It's all under control!" Ayame declared, whipping out a flashlight.
"Well done, Ayame." Said Hatori, looking almost impressed but also a little envious that Ayame had whipped out HIS flashlight before Hatori could whip out HIS. He couldn't whip it out now because he didn't want to look like he was following one of Ayame's ideas.
"I'm so scared!!" Momiji wailed as he burst out into tears.
"All right, I'll go find some candles or something." Said Hatori as he pulled his flashlight out NOW. "Ayame, you stay here and do nothing like you usually do. Shigure, since you're a dog, just go and look for all the kids and round them up."
"CAN DO!!" said Ayame and Shigure at the same time.
Shigure started looking around for all the children. He stumbled upon Kyo and Kagura who were still sitting at the kitchen table and Haru who was ALSO still sitting at the kitchen table…eating. As if nothing had happened. Tohru and Momiji were hugging each other and crying. (Yes, this means that Momiji IS a rabbit at this time.) Akito was where he had been for the whole vacation. He didn't actually know WHAT Yuki was doing but he did know where he was because his eyes glowed. Yuki could probably see in the dark just as well as he could see in the light. HAW HAW HAW!!!
Ayame was doing nothing. Just like Hatori had told him.
Hatori returned from the closet with some candles. He set them up on the table in the middle of the room and lit them up so it emitted a splendiferous glow.
At that moment, Shigure went POOF and turned back into a human!! YAY!! He quickly located his clothes and put them on in record-breaking time before anyone could see him. All the children crowded around the candles and they all paused for a minute.
Suddenly, there was another crash of thunder and then it immediately started pouring.
"Well…it could be worse." Said Shigure.
"Why did you say that?" asked Hatori as a drip started dripping EXACTLY on his head. He went and fetched a few pots and tried to put them underneath all the drips as everyone just sat and watched him. They COULD have helped. But they didn't feel like it. I mean, Ayame had held the flashlight!
"Let's tell scary stories!!!" said Ayame once Hatori had returned.
"I'm still eating." Said Haru who had brought his plate of pizza over to the table with the candles.
"Isn't that cold by now?" asked Momiji.
"A little." Said Haru. But he didn't do anything about it.
Kyo had brought the timer with him and was hardly able to keep his eyes open while watching it. He NEEDED to stay awake for only TWO MORE MINUTES.
"Must…see…surprise…" Kyo said as he yawned right then and there.
Hatori looked at his watch. "Kyo, it's only seven thirty." He said.
"The rain always makes Kyo tired." Said Kagura as she started stroking his head while saying, 'There, there.' Kyo would have PROBABLY yelled at her if it wasn't raining but instead he only kind of just dropped off right then and there.
"yay," Said everyone as quietly as they could.
And then Kagura took the opportunity to reposition Kyo so that it appeared that he had fallen asleep on her lap. "He fell asleep on me!" she said happily.
"Did he now?" asked Hatori.
At that moment, the timer went 'BING!!' Kyo's eyes opened and he held up the timer to see that it was at zero.
"You missed the surprise, Kyo." Said Shigure.
"Aww…" said Kyo sadly.
"There, there." Said Kagura as she continued stroking him and he was out just a few minutes later. YAY!!
"Maybe we should ALL go to bed!" said Ayame.
"NO!!!" screamed everyone.
"Shhh…" Hatori said, eyeing Kyo.
"Oh, so now we all have to be quiet just because Kyo's asleep?" said Yuki, looking annoyed.
"I'll put him upstairs." Said Hatori as he stood up and was about to take Kyo away from Kagura but she clung onto his head.
"NO!!" she yelled. "He fell asleep on ME!!"
"Kagura, please stop yelling like that." Hatori said.
"If you try and take him away from me then I'll start screaming!" Kagura threatened.
"You're already screaming." Said Hatori.
"Then leave us alone." Said Kagura as if that really made any sense.
Hatori decided to say whatever on this matter. "Whatever." Said Hatori.
"So…" said Ayame. "Like I was saying, let's tell scary stories!! I'll start since I have the flashlight." Ayame cleared his throat and held the flashlight under his chin. "One morning, the extremely handsome and perfect Ayame Souma woke up and looked at himself in the mirror only to see THAT HE SUDDENLY LOOKED LIKE YUKI!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
"There, there," said Kagura when she noticed that Kyo had started to twitch.
"That wasn't scary at all!!" Yuki yelled, slamming his hand down on the table which caused a candle to fall off the table onto the rug. The rug then burst into flames.
"Oh my." Said Shigure as he reached behind his back and pulled out a fire extinguisher. Then he sprayed it a lot more than he needed to and ruined all the candles and sprayed all the people just for fun.
"Shigure, why did you do that?" Hatori asked. "This was my last shirt. And now we have no more candles."
"Oh, no 'Nice job, Shigure!' or 'Thanks for saving our lives, Shigure!' Not even a pat on the back!" said Shigure, looking offended.
"That's not funny…" whined Kyo as he wiped some fire extinguisher juice off his face. Then Kagura told him there there and wiped his face for him.
"We all need to take showers now." Said Hatori who was still stuck on the fact that he didn't have any more shirts. He grabbed the flashlight and went over to the bathroom and opened the door only to discover that…THE SHOWER HAD BEEN STOLEN!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! He paused for a minute and then returned to where everyone else was. "Someone stole our shower. They left a note that said, 'I have your shower now. Bwa ha ha ha ha!' and it's signed with a skull with crossbones."
"Someone stole our shower?" Shigure said with a raised eyebrow.
"Can you even do that?" wondered Ayame.
"That's okay, we can all just go out and stand in the rain!" said Momiji.
"You got my pizza dirty." Said Haru since he probably just noticed.
"You can wash it in the rain too." Said Tohru.
"But then it'll be all wet." Haru complained.
"But it's going to get all wet in your mouth ANYWAY!" Tohru pointed out.
"You can just have Akito's pizza." Said Ayame.
"Let's go stand in the rain!!" said Momiji since no one acknowledged him the first time around.
"I don't think we have any other choice." Said Hatori.
"I'll wait for you in here!" said Shigure with a chuckle. After all, he wasn't covered in fire extinguisher juice.
"Let's all go, I guess." Said Ayame slowly as they all got up.
"Come on, Kyo, we all have to go in the rain to clean off!" said Kagura as she tried to pull him to his feet but they were both all slippery because of the FEJ. (Fire extinguisher juice)
"No way!" Kyo yelled. But Hatori easily just walked over to him and put him under his arm and carried him outside kicking and screaming. (Just to clarify this, Kyo is under Hatori's arm and Kyo is kicking and screaming.)
"Hey, it's my sleeping bag!!" Yuki exclaimed as he ran over to a little pink sleeping bag that was in the mud and then noticed a little backpack. "And my backpack!" And then he saw something that made his day. "MY GRANOLA!!!" He picked it up but it immediately disintegrated in his hands. Yuki then got so sad that he burst into tears.
"I'VE GOT FEJ IN MY EYES!!!" Momiji cried running over to the closest thing to him which was a tree. He ran INTO it, actually.
"Okay, I think we're clean enough." Said Hatori.
"I wish I had some shampoo!" said Ayame. "Oh wait…I do." And then he pulled some shampoo out of his pocket and started cleansing his hair.
"I'm going back inside." Hatori said but then he remembered that Kyo was still crying under his arm. He stopped and wondered why he hadn't noticed that Kyo was there but then he figured that maybe he had just become so accustomed to Kyo's LOUDNESS that he had learned to just block it out. Kagura ran over to Kyo and started stroking his forehead while saying 'Violin' over and over again.
Then Hatori went back inside and everyone followed him except for Ayame who was still washing the shampoo out of his hair.
"Now I'm wet!!" wailed Kyo pathetically as Hatori kind of half dropped him on the floor. "I can't find my clothes…" he complained as he curled up into a little ball.
"I'll help you find them!" said Kagura as she fished through his backpack for his pajamas.
Everyone else decided that they would get their pajamas on as well. Hatori, Ayame and Shigure all went upstairs to the loft to find their pajamas and Hatori hung his wet clothes over the railing along with all his other wet and stiff and dirty clothes.
"I have nothing else to wear besides my pajamas." Hatori said.
"You can wear some of MY clothes!" said Shigure.
"And mine!" Ayame said.
"Um…maybe my stuff will be dry by the morning." Hatori replied. Then the three went downstairs to see that everyone was ALREADY IN THEIR PAJAMAS!!!
"We can't lie out our sleeping bags because there FEJ all over the place." Said Tohru.
"And I'm still hungry." Said Haru.
"And I don't want to sleep in the dark again!!" whined Momiji. "Can we sleep up in the loft with you guys?"
"No." said Ayame.
"Maybe we should let them." Said Hatori. "That way we could not only keep a better eye on them but we could wait until the morning to clean up all this FEJ. Shigure."
"What?" asked Shigure.
"You're cleaning up the FEJ since it's your fault that it's here." Hatori said.
"Excuse me but I'm a HERO." Said Shigure, looking appalled. "I think that in a way to thank me, you should all clean it up for me."
"We'll talk about it in the morning." Hatori said.
"Are we really going to bed now?" Ayame asked, looking at his watch to see that it was only eight o'clock.
"Well, we have nothing else to do." Hatori replied.
Then they all just kind of grabbed their sleeping bags and went upstairs without saying anything else. They all lied out their pink sleeping bags and Kyo's cow sleeping bag and climbed in where they snuggled up for the night! Except not really because there were so many drips and they were really annoying and not to mention the fact that it was only eight o'clock AND it was about a zillion degrees so everyone then had to get OUT of their sleeping bags. And Momiji was whining because it was dark. And there was thunder and lightning. And Kyo would randomly wake up in the middle of the night and start whining for no reason. And then they had to bring Akito upstairs since they had forgotten about him AGAIN. And Haru's stomach was growling all night since all he had to eat for the entire day was about three bites of pizza. And Kagura continuously talking to Kyo and comforting him. And Ayame's snoring. And Yuki wasn't tired at all so he kept getting up and walking around. And Shigure kept yelling at everyone else to be quiet. And Hatori…he was…being NORMAL. He was the one being annoyed by all this. But other than all these reasons, everyone had a VERY peaceful sleep.