HOT HAWAIIAN NIGHTS

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Chapter 2 – The Council of Three

"What are you doing here?"

"Is that the kind of greeting I get from a friend?" Shigure whined as he stood in the doorway of the doctor's house. "It's quite important – and I think you might agree to this plan of mine."

"And when have I ever agreed to one of your calculating schemes?" the doctor sighed and let his cousin through. Ever since he'd known Shigure, the man kept coming up with plans with his partner in crime, Ayame Sohma. The trouble was, their plans didn't often work out, so he had to go and bail everyone out. Yep, that was he – Hatori Sohma, the go-to man and the solver of all problems.

"Is everything alright?" Hatori led the way into his spacious living room. "You seem... distracted. Not an emotion I get from you often."

"Well, I was hoping Aaya would be here as well----"

"Speak no further, dear cousin!"

Shigure turned around to see a tall figure standing in the doorway leading to the kitchen. "Gure—san!" the man cried happily, his black coat swishing in rhythm to his stride. "I haven't seen you in ages! How's my partner in crime?"

"Doing well," Shigure smirked and sat at the square wooden table with Hatori on his left and Aaya on his right.

Hatori motioned for his maid to get refreshments and turned his attention to Shigure.

"So Gure-san, what brings you here?" Aaya asked curiously. "Is something wrong with Yuki?"

"No, no, nothing's wrong," Shigure said quickly. "Well, you see----"

He was interrupted by Hatori's maid, who set down three cups of hot tea and a plate of tea cakes. After the maid left, Shigure took a sip of his tea and continued, "Well you see, my new novel is coming out and I'm going to have to go to Hawaii to promote it."

"Hawaii? I've never been to Hawaii!" Aaya exclaimed excitedly as Hatori raised an eyebrow. "Are you planning on....?" He started.

Shigure nodded his head. "I had an idea of having certain Sohma family members come with me. I think it would be a good chance for Yuki and Kyo to let loose and have some fun. I also wanted Tohru-kun, Hatsuharu-san, and Momiji-kun to come as well. "And of course you two," he added thoughtfully. "The problem is the expenses. Mii-chan, my editor said she could pay for me, but not for other family members. We might have to come up with some idea on how to raise more money."

"Sounds good to me," Aaya announced, stuffing a tea -cake delicately into his mouth. "What do you think, Tori-san?"

"It does sound good," Hatori agreed. "I'm just worried that if things don't work out they way you hoped, the rift between Yuki and Kyo might only get larger."

"It's a possibility." Shigure shrugged his shoulders. Taking another sip of his now lukewarm tea, he glanced at the clock hanging above the glass cabinet. "Oh! Tohru-kun's expecting us for dinner! We'd better make haste!"

"Expecting... us?" Hatori gave the eye to Shigure. "Really, it's getting harder and harder for you to lie with a straight face."

Shigure laughed and stood up. "I just thought that if you two joined us for dinner, we could all tell Yuki and the others about our plan. How does that sound? Even if you don't agree, Haa-san, free food is always a good thing."

"Sounds good, Gure-san!" Ayame had walked to the hallway and had grabbed his coat off the coat rack with a flourish. "Come, Tori-san, to Gure-san's house!"

"Who's driving?" Shigure stepped out of the hall into the cool night breeze. The streetlights shone with a dull yellow light and the large trees in neighbor's yards swayed in the wind.

"I'll drive," Hatori muttered, fishing his keys out of his pocket. "I don't trust either of you to drive, let alone the both of you together."

"Tori-san, we passed our driver's test, didn't we Gure-san?" Ayame said indignantly. "I'm pretty responsible if I do say so myself."

Hatori looked at Shigure and then back at Ayame. "Okay, only one person answered, which doesn't count anyway. You lose, I drive."

Shigure rolled his eyes as his two friends took swipes at each other. "Break it up, ladies," he grinned and patted both on the back. "I hope Tohru-kun made something good for dinner – I'm starving!"

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Viror: Ahh... chapter 3 will be up soon!