A-N: Woot! I'm back. Thank you to DetroitRockCity, my one reviewer so far, for your review. I loved your stories, too. (I tried to review a few times but my pop up blocker was being a woman, if you know what I mean.) Very odd idea I had while listening to my AMVs. Will explain in the end.
I don't own Fruits Basket and if I did I would mutilate the Japanese voice actor for Yuki and rewrite the ending. I hated it. It wasn't an ending so much as a botched cliffhanger. Death to cliffhangers…..
.:Doink:.
Hatori's answer was only to be expected; no. Ayami looked about ready to burst in to water works as Shigure hung up the phone with a sigh. It really didn't surprise him, Hatori had been over worked and under rested lately and if he didn't know better he would suspect the man hadn't slept in over a week. But diligent as the doctor was, he would not put the health of others that far above his own well being, even Akito's.
"Why is he so mean to me?" Ayami wailed. He didn't really mean it, any one with so much as half a drop of intellect could have seen that as the merriment danced in his eyes. Shigure ignored his melodramatic pose and sorrowful words as he merely shook his head and folded his arms in to his sleeves.
"He's just tired," the writer replied calmly. "We should honor his absence with a viewing of-" he pulled his hands out of his sleeves to reveal several DVDs and some bags of microwavable popcorn, a very Sigure-esque grin consuming his face, "Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist!"
"Yeah!" Ayami cheered with a look not too far off from Shigure's own. Both of them headed upstairs to Shihure's room, where in he pulled a microwave out from beneath his bed.
"Of course I don't do this often," Shigure explained with a mock serious tone. Ayami snickered as he dumped the bedding in a corner. "You know, you're going to boil up if you leave all that on," Shigure said offhand, nodding in indication of Ayami's night wear. "I suspected something like this would happen so I turned up the heat a few hours ago. You still like it at eighty, right Aya?" Ayami glanced over at the thermometer and squealed with glee when he saw the reading of 85.
"You're too good to me, Shigure," he sobbed happily as he peeled off yet another layer of clothing. "How will I ever repay you?" After three sets of pajamas had been discarded he was left in a muscle shirt and boxers. Shigure smiled happily as the pop corn continued to cook in the microwave and headed past his friend to the closet.
"That lovely maid's outfit you made for Tohru on White Day was more than payment enough," he replied. He pulled out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and began to change as his friend idly watched.
"It was nothing," the designer assured. "I only wish I would have known a little more of what to make her. Seeing her I guess the bust was too small?"
"A little," Shigure confessed, straightening the waist band of his pants. "Yuki and Kyo both threatened me with my life if I ever so much as suggested she put it on. Pity, really." Ayami chuckled. He'd known from the second Shigure had asked for the article that his brother wouldn't let the girl wear it, regardless of who the girl was. It didn't matter, though, he had fun making it and Shigure had fun trying to get Tohru in to it. A ding told them the popcorn was done and Shigure quickly swooped in to get it. Ayami turned to the entertainment system and cued up the DVD before moving to plop down on the edge of the bed and wait for Shigure with the snacks. Bending over he opened the small refrigerator at the foot of Shigure's bed and pulled out two sodas.
"Can you tell we don't do this often?" Ayami chided as he handed one of the tin cans to the now seated man beside him. The other man laughed as well as he set the steaming bag of fluffy yellow kernels between them and popped the top of his can. Ayami settled back and hit the play button on the remote, taking a swig from his own can.
As the scene with the kung-fu fighting baby unfurled Shigure gasped between laughs and managed to get out a sentence.
"It's hilarious what Americans come up with!" He nearly cried from merriment. "I mean, who the hell really acts like that in Japan, or China, or anywhere?"
"That's the point," Ayami gasped, holding his sides as the scene moved on to a baby doll rolling down the same patch of mountain repetitiously.
"Yes but the clothing and the attitudes," Shigure continued with amusement. "People really expect us to still be like that some times."
"You are," the other man pointed out, moving his focus from the movie to point at the pile of clothes which had previously been Shigure's garments. On the TV screen a woman was picking up the "baby" and rocking it before throwing it down the other side of the mountain and moving on as the clips returned to the ones from earlier.
"Only at home," Shigure objected. "I would never wear that in public." A pointed look from Ayami made him amend his statement. "Family isn't public, and neither is Mii." Ayami opened his mouth to protest again but stopped when a thudding, clumping, scratching noise sounded from the window. It had been opened slightly to keep the room from getting overly stuffy and now there was a hand stuck under it. If they had been watching a horror movie, this would have been the appropriate time to scream like girls and huddle together in fear. The upper part of a torso appeared, as did another hand which tried to pry the window higher. Finally their senses returned to them.
"Hatori?" Ayami balked. "What are you doing?"
"Reclaiming my youth," the man who was now half way in the window grunted. "What does it look like you idiot? Now a little help here? I'm not 17 anymore." Shigure was the first to the window and he grabbed his comrade's elbow to stable him before pushing the window up all the way. Ayami had grabbed a blanket and thrown it around himself before moving to help the doctor hoist himself into the room.
"Couldn't you have reclaimed your youth through the door or something?" Shigure griped. "You're not as light as you were at 17, that's for sure." Hatori threw one leg over the sill and glared at the dark haired man beside him.
"Why don't we reclaim your youth with a game of Pin the Tail on the Dog," he seethed. Shigure smiled falsely as he lunged the man the rest of the way in to the room.
"Well if we're going that far," he replied, "I have the sake for a lovely rematch of Ride the Horsy." Before things got truly heated they heard Ayami cough.
"As wonderful as all this would be on a screen ten times my size," he said, "I don't feel like changing right now, so would you close the window?" Both of the other men looked at him as if just now seeing him before sheepishly complying with his request. Shigure moved back toward the bed, gesturing vaguely over his shoulder.
"If you want to slip in to something more comfortable," he offered, "you left your clothes last time. They're in the closet." Hatori turned and made quick work of finding them and stripping down to nothing. He could feel eyes on him and knew instinctively they were Ayami's, though it didn't bother him. Ayami watched everyone when they were stripping or dressing; it was just what he did. Regardless, he felt better once he'd pulled on his satin boxers and button up silk shirt which he had left last time. As comfortable as they were they just didn't seem right on him and he always made a point of leaving them at Shigure's or Ayami's; which ever house they had decided to infiltrate this time. He headed over to the bed and grabbed a soda from the mini-fridge before lying down on his stomach next to Ayami. The white haired boy offered him a half empty bag of popcorn which he happily took, much to Shigure's protest. Ayami restarted the movie; they weren't that far in anyways and Hatori hadn't seen this one in a while, he was sure.
The video ended without much consequence; just three good friends watching a movie. It was a hilarious movie, but a movie none the less. Shigure had had many a thing to say about the uni-breasted woman, and all three of them had spent the better part of the princesses scenes trying to decipher the meaning of 'A-wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee-ooo'. Not to mention the many times they had mocked Emperor Betty and made various and sundry comments about karate cows who shoot milk for a special attack. Yes, all in all it was no more than a casual movie viewing shared amongst life-long friends.
"Okay," Ayami exclaimed with a resounding clap, "it's Ha'ri's turn to chose a movie." He laid one hand over his eyes dramatically and turned his face toward the ceiling. "I predict he will choose…" he cracked open one eye to look at Hatori questioningly. Hatori got the point.
"I feel like a mellow movie," he answered to the unspoken question.
"Edward Scissor Hands," Ayami rattled off, reaching under the bed and pulling out a milk crate filled with their favorite videos. They were lined up in three neat rows; Ayami's, Shigure's, and Hatori's.
Hatori chuckled at the look of pure happiness Ayami sent him as he held up the appropriate DVD.
"Am I right?" the white haired man asked. Hatori nodded and gave him an indifferent shrug.
"But it's not as if we do this often," he said. His eyes danced with mirth as Ayami all but bounced over to the DVD player and inserted the video. Shigure watched with equal amounts of amusement and chagrin. Hatori had expected as much. It wasn't that Shigure didn't like the movie; he just always ended up being a little overly emotional in the end. Maybe it was something to do with the fact he was an author himself, they didn't know.
By the end of the movie all three men were sniffling and making wild grabs for the Kleenex box. They didn't even stop the movie when the credits came on, they just kept crying.
"That was so sad," Shigure hiccupped, "Why didn't she stay with him? Why?"
"And he made the snow for the town," Hatori whimpered.
"How could he live with those clothes?" Ayami asked in a wavering voice. "Did he have no pride, no sense of fashion?" Both other men stared at him incredulously. It wasn't something they should really be shocked at, it happened every time. The same way every time they watched Kung Pow: Enter the Fist they spent the next day ending their sentences in 'A-wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee-ooo' or a deranged laugh. Well, Shigure and Ayami did. Hatori found himself doing do in his mind, but would never say it aloud in the presence of anyone other than the occupants of this room. But no, Ayami wasn't that shallow (though he did cry because of the costumes), he just chose not to show the deeper side which was shedding tears for the same reason Hatori and Shigure were.
"Okay," Hatori wasn't sure who said it. It could have been him for all knew. "We need something to lighten the mood." Ayami blew his nose one last time before ducking down and bringing up a different video.
"Funny with fashion," he breathed as he popped it in. Turning he struck a victorious pose as the screen behind him turned green. "Men in Tights!"
.:doink:.
Okay, I'm tired so I'm stopping here. This chapter will be divided in to three chapters once I watch the movies over again. In depth commentary sort of thing, ya know. Sorry for OOCness, but not really. Ain't I great? Um…this was heavily derived from sleepovers with my best friend and muse Kinboshi. If you were wondering about the term 'not like we do this all the time' and it's derivatives then look no further. Me and Kinboshi are very…how shall we say it…..strange. We have the oddest arguments, habits, catch-phrases, nicknames, etc. One of them happens to be the use of the term "But it's not like we do this all the time or anything." For example, just like they all knew exactly where everything was in Shigure's room, I know….just about where everything is in her room (if you've seen her room you understand. It's ground zero, we're just not sure for what) and we always, always, end up trying to find something on the bed. And always, always, we look in this order: Head, left, right, on the bed, foot. Hm…A better example might be when we watch anime or Britcoms together. We quote the shows, act the scenes, laugh hysterically 15 minutes before the scene…you know. When you know the show way too well? Not that we do it all the time ;)
Oh, and I said I would explain about the AMV. It was a Hatori & Kana tribute done to the ending theme for Edward Scissor Hands. I started thinking about ESH and thought about what Aya's response to that nasty outfit he wears would be.
