Orange Apples

A/N: Just plain randomness. This is just a one-shot, but could turn to more chapters if I ever feel like it and the occasion is right.

This story is my little way to party along with everyone else in my country, for today is 30th of April: Queens Day! 25 years on the throne, that's quite a lot, not? Oh, Queens Day is one of the best days a year. Everywhere party, orange, flags and games to play, so time to bring the YYH gang in!

Those who wonder why the title, it's a little pun. It comes from the combination of the English 'oranges' (the fruit) and the Dutch 'sinaasappel' (same fruit). Appel apple, so yeah… That was about it. X.x

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its characters (bummer…), nor do I own the 30th of April.

Warning: Guaranteed randomness and OOC- ness.

It had been a long night. Kurama rubbed his eyes, still drowsy from his multiple interrupted sleep. The plant he was trying to grow for a biology assignment kept on making funny noises, as if the roof was coming down. 'That was defiantly the last time I used Makain fertilizer on a Ningenkai plant…'

Slowly he turned over on his side, practically rolling out of bed and out of it's protecting shadow. Kurama squeezed his eyes closed and half-blinded by the sun he searched for his clothes, which he had placed on his desk chair the evening before. Fortunately, he knew the way (well, it is his room). He unbuttoned his pajama and let it drop on the floor before grabbing the shirt of the chair. Still with his eyes closed against the sun, he search the neck opening to find the front side. After he had felt the label, he pulled the shirt over his head, messing up his hairdo more than it already was when he came out of bed. He slowly opened his eyes, who were now adapting to the light. After just a few seconds he regained his full eyesight.

"What in the world!" How he wished he didn't…

With big eyes he stared at the shirt he was wearing. It was orange… bright orange and Kurama knew orange wasn't his color… " I don't remember putting that shirt there… I don't even remember owning a shirt like this!" He looked down at the chair, eyeing with fear the other clothing parts still laying there: a sky-bleu set of jeans and red-white striped socks. "This is the worst fashion disaster ever! I can't wear this! As a matter of fact, I don't think anyone could wear this!"

And so Kurama did what any fox-demon in fashion distress would do: he ran for the closet, only to discover that to his horror it had been locked and someone took the key. "You've got to be kidding!" At this moment he didn't remember that he was the most notorious thief in the demon world, because of the immediate drop in IQ because the horrible fashion was attacking his eyes and mind.

There was only 1 other way he could get other, less eye-destroying, pieces of textile: other closets. He gathered all his courage and put on the bright blue pants and the candy-cone socks and quickly combed his long hair. 'It's just for a little while… They will be gone soon.' Kurama opened his room door and started walking down the stairs, vision locked on the ceiling to prevent him from seeing the awful combination he was wearing.

Downstairs he didn't pay any attention to the hallways and immediately rushed to the kitchen. "Shuichi? Shuichi!" No sound of his younger step-brother. 'Where is he? I need to burrow some clothes!' Kurama, being the good boy he is, didn't want to violate the privacy of his brother by entering his room without permission. And besides that had his little brother been very busy lately setting up booby traps in his room, because he was convinced people would enter his room when he wasn't home. 'Why of all times now…?'

Second try. "Toosan?" Still no reply.

"Kaasan?" No, his mother wasn't here either. "Wait… Am I now even calling my mother, wanting to ask her if I can burrow some of her clothes! O my… I think I'm getting desperate." And yes, he was desperate.

Hanging his head, he caught a glimpse of a note, laying on the table. Carefully he picked it up, reading the graceful letters.

Dear Shui-chan,

We are out, visiting grandma. I know it's a bit short-term, but since your friend said you would do other things today, I decided to let you sleep a little more; you looked tiered last night, so you could use some sleep.

Your friend is waiting in the living room (well, now I'm writing this…). Don't make her wait too long, alright my little angel?

We'll be back before 10 pm. If not, you can put yourself to sleep, not?

Well, hope you have fun today with your friend (she looks like a nice girl to me) and Shui-chan… go for it! ;) , but remember, no kissing on the first date!

Hugs,

Shiori

The red-head scratched his head. Friend? Waiting? Other things? She? 'O dear…' He hadn't made any appointment with one of his friends and he had defiantly not made a appointment with a girl. Still, there was a girl waiting, so Kurama decided to take a quick peek into the living room. Head around the door opening, his mouth dropped to the ground, eyes bulging out of his head. 'This isn't happening!'

The couch, the floor, the ceiling, in other way of speaking, mostly everything was decorated with either red-white-blue or orange cloths, plastic flags, paper strings, balloons and everything else you can imagine being a party object. In one of the rooms corner he saw her, the girl that was responsible for it all. He knew this because she was just wrapping more orange paper around the lamp.

Looking at her, he realized she looked even worse than him. She was wearing a red dress with short sleeves and the bottom part just above the knees, having orange outlines on sleeves and skirt and one broader line in the middle. Under that she was wearing a white long-sleeve shirt (again with orange outlines), two tinted blue striped tights and one blue and one orange knee-sock. She had tied back half of her mid-back light blond hair in a ponytail with a orange ribbon with white polka dots.

More wrapping. She turned around so Kurama was able to see her face. She lifted her gray eyes and looked at Kurama's pale and shocked face. "Hey!"

"What… are you doing here!" he pointed at Nyrata. (A/N: Yes, I included myself in this story, because, honestly, have you ever seen some Japanese guys celebrating a Dutch holiday on impulse? I didn't… So I'm helping them a little :D ).

"Decorating… Preparing for the party…"

"Party? What party!"

"Ts-ts" She raised her finger and looked at him strictly. "Today is a very important day. Exactly today our queen has been on the throne for 25 years and besides… it's Queens Day. We celebrate our monarchy."

"But…" Kurama protested, "… we don't have a monarchy. We have an emperor…"

"You may not have a king or queen, but I have!" she said smiling happily. "And I love it!"

"Suuuure….."

"And to celebrate Queens Day (will it still be called that way when we get a king? O.o ), I invited some other guys too and we're going to play games all together!" she squealed. "We'll all have fun and unite in the colors of the flag and nation!"

"Excuse you? Orange is no part of that."

"… Orange is the family name of the royal family… Orange above all!" (normally I detest orange, but 1 day a year I like it :D )

"Damn…"

"I hope the others get here soon! I wonder if they too put on the clothes I made them wear…"

"Excuse you! You did what!"

She turned around facing the wall, eyes closed, making a not-interested gesture. "I replaced the clothes you wanted to wear today by the ones I wanted you to wear. And I hid the key to your closet. I know how kitsunes are…"

"You made me wear this!"

"Yes! Isn't it great!" she smiled.

"No…" Kurama grunted.

"Well, you got off easily, because I'm already making fun of you in another story. Others, however, have not gotten off so easily," she said with an evil grin.

'Oh-oh…' "Uhm… Nyrata… Who did you invite…?"

"Let me see…" She started counting on her fingers. "Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei and Botan. I tried to invite Yukina and Keiko too, but they are with Shizuru and Genkai in Genkai's temple, so they're to far away to get here …"

"Lucky them," he mumbled.

Ding-dong……

"Ah! There are the next participants!" Nyrata hopped to the front door and opened it. "Good that you could come so soon!" She stepped aside and let Kuwabara and Yusuke in. Both had a grumpy expression on there face as they stopped to the living room.

"O my… You look…"

"… awful…" Yusuke finished Kurama's sentence. He was wearing a wide orange pants with blue pockets all over the legs, red-white socks, which looked they were taken right of a clown, a long-sleeve orange shirt and over it a knitted red-white-blue sweater, with sleeves till the elbows. His hair shone with an orange glow, almost as if the gel he had used had been orange too.

"You shouldn't complain, Urameshi! It may be an horrible combo, but at least you look normal. Look at me!" Kuwabara stretched his arms to the side, looking annoyed. "People are laughing at me on the streets!"

Kurama chuckled. He could understand why. Kuwabara was wearing an vertically striped blue-red wide pants, bright orange socks, an orange long-sleeve cotton shirt with a 'Orange Rulez!' print in white. Over that he had a red jack with orange lines and white dots. On his cheeks were 2 little flags painted. Around his forehead a white-orange striped bandana was bound, making his orange hair look… well… more orange.

"Ow, come on, guys! It isn't that bad!" The boys turned around and stood eye to eye with Botan. "I was just a second behind you, so Nyrata let me in right away after you." She was wearing an orange kimono with a white obi around her waist and white socks on her feet. In her hair she had bound a huge orange ribbon.

"He, why isn't she messed up?" Yusuke complained.

"She doesn't need to be. She already has blue hair," Nyrata explained.

"That's not a good reason," Kurama said. "I have red hair."

"That's not the point!" Nyrata said defensively. "And it is a good reason!"

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, it is!"

Ding-dong!

"Oh, that must be Hiei," Nyrata thought out loud.

"I'll open it," Botan offered. She rushed to the door, opening it for the fire demon. "Hi Hiei!"

"One word and you die!" he threatened noticing the ferry girl fighting her laughing-fit. .

Three pair of curious eyes looked as the Koorime entered the room. Kuwabara and Yusuke fell on the ground clutching their stomachs and Kurama was slowly turning red from trying to control his laughter, tears practically flowing down his cheeks.

"Stop your laughing! You over-colored bugs!"

"And what if we don't?" Yusuke was barely able to pronounce.

"Yeah… Will you kill us with your 'sword', shrimp?" Kuwabara shrieked.

Hiei flushed a light shade of red and lowered his eyes growling, trying to control himself. He, unlike the others, still had his basic clothing, black cloth and white bandana. However he had the most reason to be embarrassed. His belts were replaces by orange ones. He was wearing bright-blue socks and the bandages around his arm had both the white as the red and blue color. In his black hair were a couple of blue and orange strokes. But the most attention drawing part of his outfit was the large, bright orange inflatable sword. "Onna! Where did you put my katana! I want it back!"

"Why?" Nyrata questioned naively.

"Because I need to kill someone."

"Ratter not." Nyrata replied with a tone as if she didn't care much what he wanted. "There'll still be plenty of time to do that… tomorrow… But today, it's party time!" she said, starting to jump around like and overactive 6-year-old.

"Oh no…" Kurama sighed.

Nyrata put on the music, which was up-beat and had an awful happy ring to it. "First game!" She pointed at the clothes line hanging on the ceiling. "Biting for cake! (freely translating 'koek happen' here n.n ;; ) The point of the game is trying to get a bite out of the cake, being blindfolded and without using your hands. Once you got a bite, you can have the rest of the cake."

"How childish…" Yusuke complained.

"Don't be so grumpy! It's fun, especially when it's one of the other's turn," Nyrata tried to convince them.

All boys got an evil smirk on their face or something resembling with the idea of their friends (or foes) looking stupid.

"Bring it on, onna!"

"Will do Hiei-kun!"

"NANI!"

"Oh… nothing…" She walked towards the kitchen, shaking her hips to the rhythm of the music.

"Uh, Nyrata? What are you doing?" Kurama asked.

"Getting the cake."

"Yes, I know that, but what is it with…"

"Oh… the..." Shake-shake shaking hips. "I'm doing the conga alone (got this one from my Greek teacher. Crazy woman n.n ;; ). It's a holiday, you know?" And so she walked into the kitchen and back again with the thick slices of ginger cake, still doing the conga solo. After that, she hung the slices with a string of rope onto the line. "There! Who wants to go first?"

"Why don't you go first, you know, being the Dutch person here," Kurama tried.

"OK!" she took her place right under the cake after putting the orange blindfold over her eyes and grabbed her right wrist with her left hand behind her back. Next she tilted her head horizontally and carefully tried to stand on her toes. Her nose touched the ginger cake and as it did, she slowly moved backwards, leading the food over her face and into her mouth and when that happened, she bit down. "Gowt iwt…" she mumbled with a full mouth. She tore down the remaining part of the line with her left hand. "Whow's nes?" she said still chewing.

"I'll go!" Yusuke said. He too went to stand under the cake and tried to copy Nyrata and her strategy, but unfortunately for him it didn't went as well. It took him over 5 minutes to get it, occasionally letting the cake 'dance' over his nose and letting it fall right in his eyes. "Finally…" he sighed. "Who thinks up these stupid games?"

"We do!" Nyrata squeeled happily.

Next was Botan's turn. She too had difficulties getting the cake. "Almost…" She leaned backwards, more and more… and lost her balance, for the 7th time. Boom! "Ah! My butt starts to hurt."

After 5 more tries she finally got it. "Yay! Next!"

Kuwabara had an even more difficult time, since he got lost when he put on the blindfold… and he was scared of the dark. "AH! Get it off! Someone turn the lights back on!"

"If you bite, Kuwa!" Nyrata encouraged him.

In all his stupidity, he started running around in circles, screaming like a little girl. "I'm afraid of the dark!" Running with his mouth open, he accidentally walked into a slice of cake, getting it in his mouth. "Arg! What is this in my mouth! Get it out… Get it out, get it out!

Hiei put him out of his misery by hitting him on the head… hard. "O… look mommy… Pretty stars…"

"Baka…" Hiei growled. He took the blindfold, since it was now his turn. Little Hiei knew exactly where the target was, but there was 1 problem: he was too short to get to it. 'You've got to be kidding…'

The others, of course, were laughing like hyena's, looking at the so dangerous fire-demon who was now so helpless.

"A hand, please!" Hiei growled threatening.

"Sure, Hiei-kun!" Nyrata pulled down the string to eyelevel. "There! Now you should be able to reach it!"

She had barely finished her response when Hiei took a quick bite and pulling the rest off the string. "Stupid game! I can't believe people can do this…"

"Did you know our queen set a world record today? Most times Biting for cake! She does it every Queens Day, and more!"

"Yay… I think she's very proud now…" Yusuke mumbled.

"I believe so too! But now, next game!"

"Please no…."

Meanwhile Hiei had sneaked into the kitchen and stole the remaining ginger cake. "Yum yum… Sweet!"

"Game two! A sack race!

"Excuse you?" Kurama protested. "Not in my living room!"

"It's not yours, but your parents living room, so were still going to do it." Nyrata told him. "OK. The route: from the lamp to the table, around it to the blue chair, then cross the room and then back to the finish line. First two contestants are," she picked up 2 jute sacks, "Yusuke and Botan!"

The two servants of the Reikai took the bags form the over-active and too happy authoress and stepped into it on the start-line.

"Ready?"

Botan nodded, Yusuke just made a noise, informing Nyrata that he too was ready, but didn't like the idea.

"Than GO!"

Hop-hop-hop, they were hopping around the room as fast as they could, trying to get in each others way as much as they could and bumping in to things as much as they could. The next 2 races between Kurama and Nyrata and Hiei and Kuwabara were just the same, only did Hiei try to bump into Kuwabara a lot more than was necessary… and harder than necessary.

The winners of each match were Botan (who hopped past Yusuke as he fell on his face again), Nyrata (being the one who thinks of these games) and Hiei (because his opponent didn't stand up after a while). The final was between them and what a final it was! Nyrata and Botan tried to pile up on top of Hiei, who, of course, scared to death ("Get the crazy women away from me!"), hopped like an idiot to get away from them towards the finish and won the second game.

It was starting to get late in the afternoon. The Tantei was getting more happy by the second and in a better party-mood, partially to thank to the orange and apple juice which Nyrata made with her own original recipe. In other words: with lots of rum added.

"Fill me up, girl!"

"I'm not taking orders from you," Nyrata snapped at Yusuke.

"Kurama, can I turn the music on harder?"

"You go right ahead," he told his orange-haired friend.

"Won't the neighbors get mad," Botan wondered.

"Who cares!" Kurama said non interested. He was far gone…

"Shall we play another game?" Yusuke asked.

"Fine with me," Nyrata said.

And so they played more games:

Twister:

"Kurama…"

"Yes, Hiei?"

"Get your ass off of me!"

Animal sound poker:

"Ha!" Yusuke eyed his card carefully. Who would be the first to respond? He lay down the second 4.

"MOOOEEEEE!"

"MRAAAAAUUUW!"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZ!"

"Sorry kitty and mosquito, but the cow beat you to it!" Yusuke grinned.

Kuwabara looked satisfied as Botan and Nyrata split up the deck of cards laying in the middle of the table with a grumpy look on their faces.

Water fishing:

"How long will he stay in there?" Yusuke wondered.

"Shouldn't we get him out?" Botan asked.

Nyrata looked at Kurama who had his head fully down for 3 minutes in the tile filled with water in which they had tossed a couple of meringues. "Yeah, I think we should…"

Piggyback race:

Hiei raised his inflatable sword. "Ride my loyal companion, ride to the horizon and bring me my victory!"

"Hiei, would you please sit still! I'm trying to walk for the both of us here!" Kurama complained.

"Shut up! Horses don't talk!" He hit Kurama on the head with the orange sword as a sign he had to go faster.

And many many more…

"I am soooooo tired."

"Well, believe me Botan, you're not the only one," Yusuke told her.

"Well, it is almost 9.30 now and we have been busy all day…" Nyrata said sleepy.

"Can we stay here at your place, Kurama? For the night? Please?" Botan begged him.

"Sure, why not?" At this moment, he had forgotten that his parents were still to come home later that night and the place was still a mess, everything covered with red, white, blue and orange and the kitchen was a mess, because of Nyrata and Botan's food 'experiments'…

"Want to see a movie?" Kuwabara suggested.

"Only if you turn that music off," Hiei said. "These happy tunes are giving me a headache."

"That… or all the consumption you had," Yusuke said without knowing what he was saying.

"I had what…?" Hiei asked, looking puzzled.

"Just put the movie on," Botan urged.

"Alright! Action?"

"No, comedy!" Nyrata told.

"Well, I have the remote control," Yusuke grinned.

"It was my idea to throw this party, because it's my queen who has a holiday…"

"You know, she has a point," Kurama agreed.

Yusuke growled but followed along and put on a comedy movie.

11.13 PM :

The key turned in the lock, before the door was gently pushed open.

"Why are the lights still on?" Shuichi asked.

"Oh, Shui-chan must have left them on for us not to come home in the dark," Shiori replied.

"Oh…" The young boy looked to the ground uncomfortable for a moment, before he looked up again. "And why hasn't he turned off the television?"

"I hear it too," Kurama's stepfather said as he laid away his jacket. (I don't know his name O.o )

"I'll go check it out, you two get upstairs and get ready for bed," Shiori told them.

The two men obeyed and walked up the stairs.

Shiori first walked to the kitchen. 'What is this smell? Fruity, but strong. My boy, what have you been doing here?' She put some plates and glasses in the sink before turning out the light.

Next she walked to the living room. Getting there, she got the scare of her life.

With the television still on, all the party animals had fallen asleep. Kuwabara was sitting in a chair, his head hanging backward as he snored loudly with his mouth opened. Yusuke was laying with his legs over a arm of another chair since he had fallen out of it when he fell asleep. Botan had been kneeling on the floor and had laid her head to rest on the table, Hiei laying on the floor rolled up in a ball, hugging his knees. Kurama was half sitting, half laying on the couch head fallen on his right shoulder, almost touching Nyrata's head, who as she fell asleep had fallen to the left onto Kurama.

Shiori couldn't believe what she was seeing. Quietly she whispered with a strict tone: "Minamino Shuichi! I can't believe it! We're going to have a good mother to son conversation tomorrow, because this is unacceptable! I have told you more then once: Keep your feet of the table! But listen… No…"

She turned off the TV and the lights. "From tomorrow things will get as they were and I will teach you some more manners." She looked at her son sleeping with the blond girl half on him and sighed, her mouth slightly turning into a smile. "That's the least you should have now you have girlfriend, not?"

Ow, how had Kurama wished that never happened, but it did and this was just his first encounter with Nyrata's way of celebrating national holidays. For more then a month he tried to convince his mom Nyrata wasn't his girlfriend, just someone he knew. He started praying the day after Queens Day that the next party they would have would be less extreme… and less embarrassing.

A/N: The end:D I admit, I did the last part in a bit of a hurry, because I still wanted it to get posted on the 30th of April (10 minutes left…). I hope you liked the story (I liked writing it) and I wish you all a very pleasant day. Mine was great:D