Anyway, the chapter's extra long [ 2,257 words!! ] to make up for our stupidity, and because, we love the reviews so. -pouceglompmolest- Thanks so much for your support, without it this fic would... probably still be posted. o__O Anyway... xD Enjoy!
Warning . Shounen-ai! xD Not like you didn't know that. Horo x Ren goodness!
Disclaimer . You... think we own Shaman King? -laughs hysterically-
-
"Camp Happy Pants"
Chapter Four . Arts and Crafts
-
Troop 69 was dragged out of bed around six thirty a.m. Though this wasn't exactly pleasing, they were grateful that it wasn't four this time.
They pulled on their uniforms as Silva regarded them brightly, being the morning person that most camp people are.
Once they were ready, the normal walk through the forest took place. Twenty minutes after they left the cabin, they were sitting in the Mess Hall, eating their breakfast with more enthusiam than they had been the morning before.
"Hi," a voice behind them spoke up. It was Nichrome and his troop, of course.
"We just finished watching Saturday morning cartoons on our sixty inch television with a satellite dish... in our cabin," Nichrome informed them smugly.
"How could you have watched Saturday morning cartoons two days in a row?" Yoh asked. The other Troop 69'ers -- except for Lyserg, who was glaring daggers at Hao -- nodded in agreement when they realized that he had a point.
Rather than answer, Nichrome frowned and turned to walk away, his troop at his heels. Silva grinned as he watched their retreating backs.
The group ate the rest of their breakfast in silence, ignoring the heavy breathing coming from Lyserg as he continued glaring at Hao.
"Tally ho! Time to go, troop!" Silva exclaimed cheerfully, jumped up as the last of the plates was cleaned.
Everyone stood and headed out, slowly making their way to the art building. The wind picked up conveniently as they arrived, making the small shack sway dangerously. Despite the ominous look, Troop 69 entered without hesitation.
"Welcome!" Yoh's dad greeted, holding up a hand as a sign of hello. Troop 69 mumbled their hellos as they passed by him, dropping down into seats at two tables near each other.
"Welcome to the arts and crafts hour," Yoh's dad continued, undaunted by their lack of enthusiam. "First, your spirits will present you with the gifts they made yesterday. Then, we'll get started with expressional popsicle stick art."
Yoh raised his hand from the table as Amidamaru approached him.
"Yoh-dono, I made these gifts for you," he said, holding up two barely identifiable objects. One was a macaroni necklace. The other was an odd little sword made from popsicle sticks.
As Yoh tried to express a believable thank you, the rest of the spirits presented their masters with their own gifts.
Spirit of Fire gave Hao a little torch made from popsicle sticks. To ass to the presentation, he set it on fire. Tokageroh gave Ryu a small model of a lizard, which, surprisingly, actually looked like a lizard. Kororo had made Horo a little fuki leaf from construction paper, which Horo loved but ended up crushing when he sat on it. Bason gave Ren a popsicle stick version of... Ren, made with extra glitter to make "young master's sparkly smile." Mi brought Chocolove a stick glued to a piece of paper, the most he could do with a set of paws. Yoh's dad handed Manta a construction paper flower, seeing as he didn't have a spirit.
As Lyserg watched the other spirits, he began to worry.
"Where's Morphin?" he asked, looking around for his little winged spirit.
After a moment of silence, Tokageroh began laughing. Near Hao, Spirit of Fire was making an odd 'huh'ing noise. Hao glanced up and smiled.
"I never knew you had such personality, Spirit of Fire," he remarked, listening to his spirit make a sick attempt at a laugh.
"What have you done to my spirit?!" Lyserg shrieked, jumping halfway across the table at Ryu and Tokageroh.
"Well, she got some glue on her wings and things just happened from there..." Tokageroh explained. He pulled something out from behind his back, and Hao broke into fits of laughter.
In Tokageroh's hands was a fan blade... with Morphin stuck to it.
"I can explain," Amidamaru offered, looking at the increasingly angry expression on Lyserg's face. Lyserg looked at him and nodded, allowing Amidamaru to continue. "Morphin had landed in some conveniently placed glue and, while trying to get it off, managed to get stuck to two popsicle sticks. Seeing this, Tokageroh took the opportunity to put some glue on the popsicle sticks. Then, Spirit of Fire picked her up and stuck her to the fan. Tokageroh then turned on the fan and the two of them laughed until Yoh's father turned it off and sent them to the corner."
"I hear that glue is highly flammable," Hao remarked, grinning up at Spirit of Fire. Lyserg glared around the table at everyone before snatching the fan blade from Tokageroh and running out of the art building.
"I guess we don't need this glue remover then," Yoh's dad said, tossing a small bottle over his shoulder. "Now, on to the art fun!"
He walked to another table and returned with a large box. Out of it, he pulled popsicle sticks, bottles of glue, many pairs of scissors, canisters of glitter, constuction paper, toilet paper rolls, pipe cleaners, and egg cartons.
The sevem remaining members of Troop 69 began work on their own crafts. Two hours later, they walked out of the art building, most smiling. Ren, who was scowling, was still trying to pick a pipe cleaner out og his hair. Hao had wound it in earlier after Ren made a snide comment about his reenactment of becoming Shaman King using popsicle stick and pipe cleaner people.
During the long, semi-happy walk back to the cabin, Horo began plotting. He had made a lovely boquet of egg carton flowers in a toilet paper roll vase that he desperately wanted to give to Ren. As they arrived at the cabin, the light popped on in his mind and he grinned maliciously. This was his best plan yt, and he knew exactly how to start it in motion...
-
Once they stepped foot into the cabin, Silva informed them, "We'll spend an hour or two here, go eat lunch, then find something else to do during the afternoon."
Everyone flopped down on their respective beds, glad to have a short amount of time off to rest.
Horo glanced around the cabin slowly, making sure that no one was watching. He quickly shoved his crafts -- the flowers and vase -- under his blanket. After once again checking to see if no one saw it, he took to leaning over one end of his bunk to gaze fondly at Ren's back while he struggled with the pipe cleaner that still was stuck in his hair.
The rest of Troop 69 had found something to do in their break. Yoh was taking a nap; Ryu was wailing about Lyserg, who hadn't been seen since he ran out angrily; Hao was trying to make up for his usual victim not being present by taunting both Manta and Chocolove; and Ren was attempting in vain to remove the wretched pipe cleaner.
"What are you staring at?"
Horo blinked as a voice brought him out of his daze and found himself staring at, rather than his back, Ren's face.
"Er... nothing," Horo replied not looking away.
Ren growled. He was more than a little irate, and the frayed pipe cleaner was still sticking out of his mondo-cowlick.
Horo leaned over a bit more and reached out. "Let me get that," he offered, grabbing the end of the pipe cleaner that was poking out and tugged hard at it.
Startled, Ren made a painful noise and whacked Horo's hand away, shouting, "Kisama!" He turned around again, seething.
With a sigh, the Ainu pulled himself back up onto his bed with a sigh.
-
"Okay, troop, time to go get lunch!" Silva exclaimed joyously, pulling Yoh up out of bed by the arms.
Troop 69 made annoyed noises as they were prodded out of the cabin by their over-exuberant troop leader. A minute later, they grudgingly began to walk back to civilization.
After ten minutes of hiking, they made it to the mess hall. Luckily, lunch wasn't at the same time for all the troops, so they didn't have another run-in with Troop Eight. Once they were filled with crumbly old sandwiches and their choice of juice or milk, Silva told them that they were taking a hike.
"A hike?! Why? Walking from the cabin to the mess hall and back is a hike in itself," Manta groaned, the rest of the group nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, and what about Lyserg? We can't do a group activity without him," Ryu stated, crossing his arms. Silva thought about this for a moment then held up a hand.
"I'll be right back," he said, walking out of the mess hall. Soon after, an extremely odd-looking Lyserg returned.
"Lyserg!" Ryu shouted, running forward and throwing his arms around his young companion's neck. It didn't take him long to realize that something was horribly wrong with Lyserg. He was a bit too tall and... robust to be Lyserg.
"Silva! That isn't funny!" he shrieked. The rest of Troop 69 stood behind Ryu, laughing, as Silva pulled out a wedgie.
"How does he wear his shorts this short?" Silva grumbled, yanking on them to give himself some length.
Once Silva changed, the troop was in a good enough mood to actually attempt his hike. They started off into the woods, heading to the camp boundaries.
"I had no idea the camp had hills on its grounds," Chocolove remarked, holding his chest as the altitude increased even more.
"Oh, we aren't on the camp grounds anymore. About 200 yards back into the woods, the camp boundaries ended. I just didn't feel that we needed to turn back yet," Silva replied, grinning back at his heaving troop.
Ren jumped forward to make an attempt at Silva's life, but Horo held him back.
"No use in killing him. Then we'd be lost in the woods," Yoh commented as Ren clawed at Horo in vain.
They tromped on for another ten minutes before Silva turned and began walking in the direction from which they had come. The seven boys watched him for a minute before deciding not to question it and followed him.
An hour later, Troop 69 emerged from the forest, most clutching their sides and breathing heavily. As they dragged themselves past the mud pit, Hao noticed something.
"Aren't those burny boy's shorts? he noted, pointing to a lone pair of dirty shorts near the mud pit.
Troop 69 gathered around the discarded shorts.
"Where's Lyserg running to without his shorts?" Horo asked curiously, leaning down to pick them up. Silva beat him to it, grabbed them, and stuffed the article of clothing in his pocket.
"If anyone asks where Lyserg is, he's back in the cabin, sick," Silva told them sternly. With a shifty glance, he added, "I'd be in trouble up the whazoo if they found out one of my troop members was missing."
They started at Silva, shocked by his method of handling the problem. Nevertheless, they followed him when he announced it was time to return to the cabin.
-
It was late that night, long after the troop had forced a distraught Ryu to get some sleep then went to bed themselves, when Horo sat up in the dark. He grinned. It was time to set his plan into motion.
Using a piece of string, he sercurely tied the vase and flowers. He leaned over the side of his bunk and began to slowly lower them onto Ren's bed.
Now Ren will finally know how I feel, Horo thought gleefully. That was where things went horribly wrong.
Horo leaned over a bit more to be sure that the crafts landed on Ren's bed. He leaned over a bit too far and ended up flipping over the safety bar. When he grabbed onto it out of pure instinct, it buckled under his weight and, with a loud crack, snapped. Horo was sent sailing onto the bunk beneath his, landing on top of Ren and knocking the breath out of him. All of this happened in a second's time.
There were shifting noises, and the room was suddenly illuminated by the lone light bulb swinging pecariously from the ceiling. Horo found the rest of Troop 69 rubbing at their eyes but stopping once they saw him sprawled across Ren.
"Ooo," Hao squealed as he peered at them from his bunk nearby. "Were you trying to rape 'im or something?" he asked Horo with a smirk.
Before the boy in question could shoot back a reply, Silva spoke up.
"Hao! Stop!" he scolded. Then, turning to survey the damage, he said, "There's no way we're going to be able to repair that anytime soon."
Rather than just the safety bar, the whole bed had snapped, and it was too uneven to sleep on.
"I suppose you and Ren will just have to share a bed for now," Silva concluded. While Horo tried to hide a wide grin and Ren shouted profanities, he clapped his hands. "Okay, back to bed."
Everyone settled down, and the light was turned off.
"'Night, Ren!" Horo chirped brightly.
Ren shifted in the small space he now had and didn't reply.
-
a/n . Gasp! What has become of Lyserg? Will Horo ever make it to first base with Ren? All of these questions and more answered it the next chapter of "Camp Happy Pants"!
... God, I've always wanted to type something like that. ^__^; Anyways, review and motivate us! Whee!