Part Two: The Plan
It's true. It most very definitely is true. In fact, it's so true we're hiding out in one of the further parts of the grounds now, where we theoretically can't hear much from the house. Not that it helps much. Emishi has apparently decided to test his "gift" to our father, at its maximum capacity. Dad can't sing, but frankly, Emishi is no better. The guy doesn't even need liquor.
I seem to be staring a lot today. Right now, it's Ayame's turn. Maybe I'm having a hearing problem when it involves my siblings. The blast of "Jiiiiingle bells! Jiiingle bells!" in the background is not helping very much, either.
Then again, maybe it's a denial-complex-thing.
"Aya," I begin, trying to tread carefully. "You're not serious."
She sighs and tosses her head, peering out at me from under black-brown bangs. "Niichan, do you WANT to hear Otosan sing?"
I firmly believe that when Kaasan and Otosan had Ayame, some severe malfunction caused the level-headedness gene to be lost somewhere. Out of us four, Aya's the most reckless. Heck, Taki and Hige are more careful than she is. Yamato thinks having Ban and Ginji in the house is bad? Try Aya when she's in a really, really mischievous mood.
I mean, who else would suggest sending the animals to cause havoc if Otosan tries to sing?
"Aya, dad might get embarrassed…" Or hurt, I add mentally. Little chance of him getting mad…for all his toughness, the only one who can really piss him off is Ban-san. And it's actually funny to watch.
Laughter from the house—sounds like Ginji-san—a roar that sounds like Ban-san telling Emishi to shut up. Please, Ban-san, make him shut up… and destroy that cursed karaoke while you're at it.
"Kaasan might get mad if the animals break anything," Taki adds. See, told you. Level-headed.
Hitomi shakes her head. "Both of that's true, but honestly. The only adults who can sing are Ban-san, Natsumi-san and…" She shudders. "Akabane-san."
"Hey, he's nice," Ginji protests. The kid is creepy, sometimes; he always sticks up for Dr. Jackal.
"What about your parents, Hitomi-chan?" Teshichan asks.
Keisuke shrugs. "Pretty fair. But the three neechan mentioned are the best."
Yamato was massaging his head. "I want to KILL Emishi."
"Don't. You might get jailed for murder," I say seriously.
"It's self-defense. Preservation. Whatever." He grins. "Besides, you want to, too."
I can't deny it. From the loud exclamations coming from the house, I hope Ban-san and…it sounds like Otosan, are doing a good job of it.
Teshichan sighs and rolls onto her back, looking up at the clear blue sky. "What are we going to do?"
"Hey, hey, wait. We're going to do something?" I'm starting to get a little scared here. There are many things I would like to do…I don't know if they're worth a lecture from Kaasan, or a long, long grounding…
'What's happening, niisan?" Little Midou Michiko tugs at Yamato's arm, eyes wide. I swear, the kid's a carbon copy of her brother. She looks like his face was photocopied, feminized, and stuck on a smaller body.
Yamato sighs. "Put it this way, chibi. Do you want to hear Shido-san sing?"
Michiko's eyes go wide. "Do I have to?"
"Oi, you could lay off my dad a little, you know," I begin, a little irritated.
Hitomi shakes her head. "Satsu, you're the one who told us he can't sing well. You've been telling us since…"
"I know already, I know already." I cut her off hastily.
Ban waves his hand in the air. "What if we get neechan to short-circuit the TV?"
Teshichan groans. "Ban!"
"Your family pays for the damage," Yamato tells him, unperturbed.
Little Reiko, the youngest Amano, seems to be seriously considering the idea. Then she shakes her head. "Neechan can't control her electricity that well."
"I wasn't serious," Ban says loftily.
She glares at him. "Yes you were."
"Ne, just let someone else sing," Yuji speaks up from where he's playing with a snake. Ayame's sitting beside him, just to make sure the snake won't hurt him. Likely it won't…the Midous have a strange affinity with snakes.
"That way, Shido-san never gets the mike," Yuji finishes.
We all stare at him. Then, slowly, a smile breaks over Yamato's face.
"I always knew my brother was brilliant."
I'm starting to get a strange feeling of foreboding, now, because the grin on his face is widening. I've known my friend long enough to recognize his look of pure evil…
"You're an idiot," I state flatly. Yes, when it comes to these nutcases I call my friends…or THIS particular nutcase and friend…I can be very blunt. Especially if he comes up with ideas like the one he just suggested.
Yamato cocks his eyebrow at me, and for an eerie moment he looks a hell lot like Ban-san. "Where's your Christmas spirit?"
I snort. "Christmas spirit my ass, Yamato, what kind of…"
"Satsu said a bad word!" Reiko says, and Teshichan shushes her. I roll my eyes inwardly. You'd think living in the same house as Ban-san and Yamato, those kids would have heard worse. Technically, what I said wasn't so bad…
"What have you guys come up with?" This is Ginji, practically bouncing up and down in front of us.
"Shut it, Yamato, I don't want you putting ideas in their heads," I cut in quickly before my friend can answer his brother.
"Oi, don't tell me you're afraid."
I bristle. "Of course…"
"Ne, guys, later, later." Really, Teshichan is like her dad, always trying to keep peace. "Yamato-kun, you haven't heard Madoka-san scold. I have. I can understand if Satsu-kun's not so keen about it…"
Yamato hesitates and I smirk. I don't know if he's noticed, but he can't say no to her. Heh.
Hitomi's looking at me, though, and I don't like the strange, challenging gleam in her eyes, dancing wickedly all over her face. She can be more of a troublemaker than Ayame, if she wishes to, even if she is Kazuki-san's daughter. Maybe the hereditary inquisitiveness makes it worse. "Come on, Satsu, when was the last time we did something big?"
I think for a while, and it comes. "Three years ago, here, when we got the animals to drink liquor and snuck into the kitchen to steal goodies."
Keisuke's snickering, and Hitomi remembers, a half-groan, half-snicker coming out of her mouth. "Oh God…" Teshichan's smiling, unsuccessfully trying to hide it, and Yamato smirks. "Oyaji1 was just mad we didn't include him in the fun."
Little Ban remembers, to, even if he was only six at that time. "Hey, the candies were good. Too bad Kaasan caught us." Yeah, after that event, we all concluded that Natsumi-san had a mental connection with kitchens.
"Oh yeah, I remember that," Ayame comments, looking up from a conversation with a sparrow. "Maybe that's why the animals aren't so keen on it, this time."
I roll my eyes. "Yeah, maybe, Aya."
She flicks soil at me. "Shut up, niichan. It was you who came up with that."
I feel my face grow hot and Yamato snickers. "See? You're worse."
"Shut up."
Hige's looking at me, confused. "What did you do, niisan?"
"Better you don't know, Hige. Keep your innocence," Taki says. Geez, why does she sound so amused?
"You know," Teshichan says thoughtfully. "Why are we even thinking of pranks? Our parents know how…undesirable Shido-san's singing is…" She sends me an apologetic look, and I wave it away. She's being polite, after all. She continues, "If we don't want Shido-san to sing, we can just ask them not to let him. Let one of the kids ask, maybe, they're innocent enough to make it seem cute…"
Brilliant, Teshichan. Wait, why's Keisuke shaking his head?
"They're all in on it," the Fuuchoin boy says.
We stare. "What do you mean, they're all in on it?"
He tilts his head again, listening. The kid's getting good, his dad can hardly locate his strings now. "From what I can hear…it was planned. They wanted to play a joke on Shido-san and get him drunk, and make him sing, tonight. Well, mainly Shido-san, but I think they're willing to settle for anyone else…"
"Our cruel parents," Hitomi groans. "What have we done to deserve this?"
Yamato turns to me. "That's it, Satsu, you can't disagree with me now. They deserve a prank. A good one."
I'm staring, again. But it's just a little, now, because I can feel myself…tempted to…
"All right, Yamato-kun, what did you come up with?" Taki speaks up. My stare transfers to her, and then I give in. Screw what I said about level-headedness earlier, the adults do deserve something for planning to do this to us.
It feels so good to be planning a trick again.
In the middle of our conversation, Keisuke taps my shoulder. "Oi. Satsu. Listen to this."
I turn. "What?" He's holding a string, and looking quite pleased with something. "Spit it out."
"Our mothers are discussing cooking the food," the kid says. I grimace. I'm glad Natsumi-san, Himiko-san, HEVN-san and Ren-san cook with Okasan during Christmas. I've tasted her solo cooking, once…I'd rather listen to Otosan sing. Maybe.
"You're mean to your Okasan," Keisuke says impishly, and I give him a look that basically means just get on with it. He grins, and says, "They're planning to go back to the Midou and Amano house because most of the ingredients are there. In about an hour. They'll be back in time for the dinner. Duh, it can't start without them…"
"Which means," Yamato puts in excitedly. "We'll have around…three hours to make our dads forget the karaoke. Better yet, to get that thing out of here and into a less dangerous area."
"You really are bored, aren't you?" Taki observes. Oh, now she's being cautious? Too bad, I'm on a roll, and we're dong something outlandish this Christmas, whatever the consequences. Our parents usually laugh at us, since it's Christmas.
Usually.
"Un." Keisuke nods in reply to Yamato's question. "They're planning to take some of the younger kids with them…"
"But I want to stay!" Big interruption from Michiko, Reiko, and Hige here. As they're the youngest from the families, they're the ones classified as "the younger kids".
Yamato leans towards them, his face all conspirational and excited. "No, you go. Listen, here's what you do. You three are going to delay them, in any way you can, so that they don't get here too soon. Got it? But don't get underfoot too often, coz then they'll know something's up."
"Besides, you should have mercy on our mommies," Ban puts in cheekily. I roll my eyes. Like he does.
This cheers up the kids considerably. Hitomi asks, then, when we start putting our plan into action.
Exactly at that moment, the karaoke booms again. Apparently, they weren't able to wrest it away from Emishi…and it sounds like he's trying to get Juubei-san to sing with him. Poor doctor…
"The sooner, the better for humanity," I say solemnly.
To be continued...
1 Oyaji - "Old man". A not-that-formal (or respectful) way to call your father. Hey, it's Ban's kid, what do you expect? :) Yamato does love his father, though.
A/N: Yes, I feel evil. n.n Hopefully I'll push through with this and actually get to the good part...although the grownups won't be so major here. It is so much fun torturing them, though. n.n
Last two or three parts will be up...during the Christmas season. n.n See you later...XD
limelie: Correction: I start MAKING Christmas gifts in May. Shopping comes...well, mid-November or early December. :) Here are Shido-kun's kids. Nyahaha. XD
EffyDurach: Really? You're birthday's on the 24th? COOL! You were born on Christmas Eve! :D
Atropos' Knife: Happy wrapping, Atropos-san... :D I've considered writing, yes, but the original stuff I have are more in line of "Promise", so targets are pre-teens or teens. Oddly, I can only write short stories in fanfiction and not original things...they all tend to be rather long. :) Yap, I have a nice family. I can share, if you like. :) Hehehe.
Thank you, too, to the others who reviewed "Tradition" and the many other stuff I wrote...And yes, I managed to finish wrapping. Now Riyuji's cramming. XD