A/N: Gyah! I always forget to thank my reviewers! Baka me! Baka, baka, baka! So thank yous to AnimeGirlInyasha and Bluesakuramon. And about your earlier question, Bluesakuramon, I'm not sure about the pairing. Bad thing, beacuse I really fancy Kyoru-pairing. But I'm not sure (but you won't stop reading the fic if it does end up as Kyoru?). But, enjoy the 7th chapter, and remember to review! There's a major cliffhanger in the end, and major angst in the next chapter.
Itadakimasu - I humbly accept (you say this before you eat, it's like saying grace with christians)
baka ushi - stupid cow
Oyasumi - Good night
))(("Hi! Welcome, minna-san!"
"Wow! It's so pretty!" Jelora exclaimed as the sisters entered Shigure's house. The whole place was decorated with blooming sakura sprays. Tohru smiled:
"Yeah, isn't it? And the scent is wonderful, too! But come on in! You can leave you things there, and your shoes there.. Oh, and did you remember the clothes peg?"
Marande fetched her own from her pocket and showed it to Tohru.
"Yeah, we did. But what's the point with these things?" Tohru just kept smiling and collected the pegs from the girls.
"Nah, don't worry about it. You'll find it out later."
The sisters put down their coats and walked to the living room with Tohru. They recognized Uo, Hana, Yuki, Hatsuharu, Kyou and Momiji, but the three other persons in the room were unknown to them. Tohru led the girls to a person with long white hair.
"This is Ayame-kun. Ayame-kun, these are the Karameru sisters." The sisters nodded and greeted the man, who smiled widely to them.
"Oh, what a pleasure to meet you! Tohru-kun has told a lot about you!" Next to them Tohru muttered: "Well actually I haven't but oh well.." She cleared her throat.
"And this is Kagura-san", she said, motioning at a young girl with brown hair. The girl had a firm grip from Kyou's shirt's collar, and Kyou himself didn't seem to enjoy his time that well.
"Oh, hello!" the girl said happily. The sisters waved at her a little nervously.
"Ano.." Jirohino asked quietly from Tohru, "Why is she hanging all over Kyou-san?"
Ah, you see, Kagura-san is madly in love with Kyou-kun, though Kyou-kun doesn't seem to respond her affection", Tohru explained happily. The sisters nodded.
".. I see.." they muttered. Tohru moved along and the sisters noticed they were staring eye-to-eye a young little girl.
"And this is Kisa-san!" Tohru said smiling. The girl smiled back to them and asked shyly:
"Are you Sissy's friends?" The sisters were a bit nonplussed.
"Sissy?"
"Oh, that's me", Tohru said. Jelora looked at her.
"So is she your sister or..?"
"Oh, no! It's just a nickname."
"I see..", the sisters muttered again. They looked around and Tohru hurried around pointing their seats to them. Just when they had sat down they heard low growling. Marande inclined her head a bit.
"Sounds like a car to me", she said.
"Oh, it must be more guests!" Tohru exclaimed and ran to the door. They heard car doors slamming and quiet murmuring. They also heard Tohru's voice but they couldn't find out what she was saying. The voices came closer and soon Tohru returned to the living room with Hatori, a young boy and an person who's gender the sisters couldn't find out. She chatted with them for a moment and then headed back to the sisters.
"Well, you know Hatori-san already, that one's Hiro-san", she said pointing at the young boy, who had walked straightly to Kisa-chan and sat down next to her,
"And that's Ritsu-san", she pointed at the androgyn figure, who apparently was male, since he was furiously apologizing for slightly nudging Kagura-san while getting to his seat. Hatsuharu knocked Ritsu to the head and shouted him to shut up. Marande sweatdropped.
"Eh.. don't they like each others or..?" Jirohino asked hesitantly and Tohru shook her head smiling.
"No! They are friends and all, but Hatsuharu-kun just has found out that is the best way to get Ritsu-san quiet when he starts apologizing." Tohru let out a quiet squeal and ran to Hatori who was still standing up.
"Hatori-san, you can sit there-"
"No, no, Honda-san. I'm afraid I still can't stay", Hatori said, trying to get an sorry tone to his voice. Tohru's smile faded a bit.
"But.. can't you stay only for a little while..?"
"I'd really love to, but... to leave Akito-san alone, without anyone to look after him.. I cannot relax if I'm not there. Please excuse me", Hatori bowed to Tohru, who nodded to him.
"Merry sakura-season, to you still, Hatori-san!" she wished him when he left. Then she came back to the living room.
"Oh well, everybody who informed to come is here, so let's start the party! I have some really fun games for us to play! Did everybody bring the clothes peg?"
A common murmur of assent. Tohru smiled widely.
"Great! Then we can start. Everyone stand up, I'll give you all one peg... Everyone has one? Great! Now, clip it on your clothes, just somewhere not too difficult to catch.."
"You know, I'm starting to have a bad feeling about this..", Jelora whispered when she fastened the peg on her shirt's sleeve. After Tohru had clipped on her own peg and everyone else seemed ready as well, she grinned:
"Now, the idea of the game is to try to catch the pegs from others and try not to loose your own. If you loose your peg or pegs completely, you're out of the game and you go aside from others and sit down. The last one left wins."
There was various expressions in the room. Persons like Momiji and Kisa were bouncing slightly of joy, persons like Kyou and Hiro were looking very unbelieving. And perv- cough persons like Shigure and Ayame were grinning cunningly. Arameda let out a quiet whistle:
"Well.. this is going to be interesting.."
"Game starts - now!"
))(("Ha!" Jelora let out a shriek of glee when she managed to snatch Marande's peg. Her sisters stuck out her tongue and grinned:
"Nee! I still have one left!"
The game was funnier than they first knew. Marande made a quick duck when Kagura tried to attach her and managed to avoid loosing her last peg. She got a brief glimpse of Ritsu, shouting and bowing to a gaping Jirohino.
"GOMENNASAI! I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO TAKEN YOUR LAST PEG! I'M NOT WORTHY OF IT, I'M SO SOR-!" Whack! Hatsuharu knocked Ritsu on the head again and snatched his pegs.
"Shut up. And you're out. Both of you."
Marande grinned again and hastily escaped from Momiji. She dived forwards Uo-chan and extended her hand..
Clip! She looked surprised and then realised where the peg in Uo's hand came from. She snorted.
"Seems like I have something to improve", Marande said. Uo-chan nodded and stepped backward putting the peg in her sleeve. And then she slipped. And started to fall right against Yuki, who was standing behind her.
Marande let out a silent gasp and tried to grasp Uo's flailing hand. Kuso! Why did he have to stand there right now..? Marande felt her hand meeting someone else's and tightly grasped it. Uo-chan stopped falling and Yuki managed to make improvised withdrawing.
Marande pulled Uo back to her feet and then she realized the whole room had suddenly gone quiet. She glanced around and saw every member of the Souma family staring at them, eyes as round as full moon. Then they all let out a sigh of relief and returned to the game. Marande smiled at Uo and Yuki and moved aside from them, sitting next to Jirohino. Her sister smirked at her and said:
"That was close."
"Really close."
))((When they had played three rows of the peg-game, they played hide and seek, then blindman's bluff. When everyone was rather exhausted of running around, they finallt sat down around the table and Tohru carried the food in. Yuki and Kyou helped her, not forgetting to glare fiercely at each other. Tohru nervously laughed at the two boys' quarrel.
"Itadakimasu", they all said, clapping their hands together. The food was, probably needless to mention, delicious. All ate in pleasure.
"Ah, Tohru-kun", Ayame said, "You're such a good chef. Would you mind to give me some private lesso-OUCH!" He was cut off by his shout. Yuki continued eating only slightly swaying when kicking Ayame under the table. Ayame whined silently:
"That was truly unnecessary, little brother.."
"Urusai, you ecchi. There's no way I'll leave you alone in the kitchen with Honda-san."
"How can you be so cold to your own brother?"
"Say 'brother' one more time and I'll shove a sakura branch where the sun doesn't shine."
Deep silence entered the room. There was only quiet jangling from the chopsticks hitting the foodcups. Riiight, what was that all about? Arameda thought to herself.
))(("Aw, are you sure you can't stay over?" Tohru asked when Uo-chan and Hanajima prepared themself to leave. Uo-chan sighed:
"I'd love to, Tohru-chan, but my mom really needs me tomorrow to help in her works."
"Neither you, Hana-chan?"
"Gomen, Tohru-kun. I promised to ... help Megumi with his ... works."
Everyone in the room seemed to think what actually was this help with the works. And everyone in the room seemed to be hoping they wouldn't have thought about it. Tohru smiled a bit sadly.
"Well, sayonara Uo-chan, Hana-chan! Nice sakura-season to you!" she wished, waving to them as they left. She closed the door and turned to the others. Her eyes seemed to lighten up a little bit when she looked at the Karameru sisters.
"But you'll be staying over, won't you?"
"Hai, we will", Arameda said.
"Of course, if that surely isn't a trouble for you", Jelora hurried to add. Tohru's smile widened and she shook her head.
"Not at all! I'm happy to have guests in here!"
"Yeah, we also have to leave at some point", Hatsuharu said in a calm voice behind them. Momiji was still very joyous, but seemed a bit drowsy. Tohru thought for a moment.
"I know!" she said, "Before you leave, why won't we take a game of Dai Hin Min!"
"Certainly, I'm in!" Arameda said and Marande nodded,
"Me too."
"Weell.. it has been a while since I've played. What the heck, count me in, too." Kyou said, stretching himself. He glared at Yuki.
"Well? I guess you're going to participate as well, kuso nezumi."
Yuki glared back and shook his head yawning.
"No.. I think I'll just watch from the side."
"Then I'm going to play, just to beat Kyou!", Hatsuharu said, a small smirk sneaking it's way on his lips.
"You wish, baka ushi. There's no way you could beat me."
"Let's see, shall we?"
"Tohru-san, would you mind shuffling and dealing the cards?" Arameda asked, while sitting at the table. All others sat down as well, Kyou and Hatsuharu glaring at each other in "I'm-going-to-win-you-self-content-bastard" style. Tohru dealt the cards and played the first two cards.
))(("Now just what the heck was that?! There's no way that kind of hand could beat mine!"
"Yeah, when did you last time check the rules? You're just a bad loser."
"Kyou-kun, Haru-kun..", Tohru tried to calm them down, but:
"Wait 'till the game's over, you idiot! Then we'll see who's the loser!"
"You are calling me a loser?!"
Kyou shut up his mouth when he completely grasped the fact of Haru's changed voice tone.
"Oh shit."
"Yeah, right thing to say. As you are one piece of it!"
Tohru was now extremely nervous-looking. Aramed a and Marande looked frowning at the two quarreling bishounen. Or more like, one totally pissed off madman and one half-wit trying to think quickly. Hatsuharu leaned forwards and grasped Kyou by his shirt collar.
"WELL? ARENT YOU GOING TO SAY ANYTHING, YOU-!"
"Stop it! Let go of him!"
Everyone looked surprised at the source of the voice. Marande had stood up and was looking rather stricktly at Hatsuharu. The boy let go of Kyou who stumbled backwards, and stepped forwards to Marande.
"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it? Whine, whine, whine.. you little bitches can't do anything than just whine all the -fucking- time!"
Marande took a deep breath.
"Everyone, move out of the way", she said, and nobody needed a second warning. Marande smirked really unusually and said in a low tone:
"Come on, big guy. Show what you're made of."
"Marande-san, I really think you shouldn't.." Tohru started, but was again cut off by others. Haru clenched his fists and dashed towards Marande. At the same moment Marande took another deep breath, brought her other hand close to her lips and raised other in front of her chest.
Hatsuharu swinged his arm backwards, ready to strike.
Marande closed her eyes, whispered something to herself, opened her eyes again and extended the arm from her chest.
Suddenly the whole room seemed completely quiet. There was a low humming you could hear in the bottom of the sea. A small flare of blueish aura flashed in Marande's hand - and then nothing.
Everyone stared blankly at her for a moment. Then they started to glance around the room, seemingly sensing something was different. Then Tohru gasped and pointed at Hatsuharu.
"What is it, Honda-san?" Yuki asked, and fell silent when he noticed Haru.
A silence. Broken by Kyou.
"He's inside a friggin' bubble! You'll drown him!"
"No I won't", Marande said, her teeth gritted, "He'll just have some time to cool off a bit." Everyone returned to stare at Hatsuharu, who's face had returned to the usual calm expression. Marande smirked again.
"I guess I could let him out now."
She slowly clenched her fist and the bubble around Hatsuharu somehow peeled off starting from the inside. When the last watery film had disappeared he stood blinking in the middle of the room, his clothes still dry. Marande gave a great yawn.
"Right, I think I'm going to pass the whole game now. What if we just say Kyou-kun won?"
"He did? Well, better luck for me next time", Hatsuharu said.
"Haru-kun.." Momiji whined, "I'm tired, I want to go home.." He swayed a bit on the sofa he was sitting on and then slumped against Jirohino's side. The girl looked at the sleeping boy slightly surprised, but smiled warmly.
"Yes, I think it's better for you to take off. This little fellow is ready for bed."
Hatsuharu shrugged his shoulders and gently picked Momiji onto his arms.
"I'll get you your coats and shoes!" Tohru hurried to the entrace-hall.
))((After the last guests left, Tohru, Yuki, Kyou and the sisters stood in silence for a moment. Then Jelora cleared her throat.
"Yeah, um.. where are we going to sleep?" Tohru thought about this for a moment and then said:
"Well, Shigure-san's room is empty, since he went off to sleep at Ayame's place. So you four could match uo in there.. we just need to make the beds.."
"I'll help you", Kyou hurried to say and stepped closer to Tohru. After a moment he stepped back and turned around so they couldn't see his face. Jirohino somehow guessed he was furiously blushing. Tohru seemed a bit uneasy herself as well.
"Ano.. so we'll go make you your beds."
))(("Are you guys sleeping yet?"
"No."
"No."
"Arameda?"
Silence.
"Arameda?"
"She's sleeping already, dummy."
"Oh."
A loud yawn.
"Eh, I think I'm trying to officially get some sleep. Oyasumi."
"Oyasumi."
))((Obscure figures swarming across her eyes. She saw a girl, then it was gone. Strange whispers in her head, and she was there again.
"Hello sister, having sweet dreams? Don't worry I'll take care your 'friends'. Sweet dreams..."
And then screaming. It didn't stop. Lightnings and crackling and then darkness.
A wind through the forest. Withered flowers on the ground.
Jirohino snapped awake from the nightmare and sprang up. She breathed hard, she felt swirling coldness inside herself.
"She's coming..", she whispered to herself, "..my god, she's coming.."
Jirohino glanced wildly around the dark room.
"I have to get out."
))((Yuki couldn't get a wink of sleep. Funny, usually he was dreaming calmly after a few minutes. He rolled on his other side, trying to get sleep. His throat felt dry, he groaned and crambled up from his bed. After managing to open the room's door on the third try, he stumbled down the stairs and to the kitchen. He reached for a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water.
He took few sips when he noticed something weird in the living room. Someone strange in the living room. Jirohino.
What is she doing here..? he wondered. The girl was covering in the floor, her arms winded around herself.
Yuki put the glass down on a table and approached the lonely girl. He finally got to her and sat down next to her.
"Jirohino-san?" he asked curiously, "What are you doing down here?"
The girl turned to face him. She smiled:
"Nothing, Yuki-kun."
Her black eyes were gleaming in the darkness.
"Nothing at all."