OH MY GOD! I am so SORRY! I didn't update in over 3 weeks. But I have good reasons! This month has been the BUSIEST ever. I usually update on the weekends cause I can NEVER find free time on the weekdays. Yeah, well, this month my weekends are soo friggin busy. First weekend, I had to prepare for our school's science fair. My friends and I worked ALL weekend. ( We won first place in the physics category-YAYNESS!) Next weekend, I had debate ALL-DAY Saturday and on Sunday I had to get 3 tons of homework done. This 3-day weekend...HOMEWORK. I was absent that week so I had to make-up a ton of stuff and then do all the NEW stuff too. AND. AND. I'm trying out for the tennis team. I had to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and PRACTICE. Because I'm not good.(won't know about that till Friday.)PLUS! PLUS! I am in a play which should be performing in April?so I have to get my lines down for that ANDI am techie for another play. I get home at 5 every day now from school. DO YOU KNOW how much that SUCKS? I had to MAKE time today. And you know the worst (or maybe it was a good thing, idk) part? This fanfic was on my mind the ENTIRE time. I had DREAMS about it. AND a bunch of GREAT ideas that won't disappear and I want to write them but I can't because I have to set up for those great ideas (all, well, mostly all, relating to this fic). FRUSTRATION-A-GALORE! right. way too many exclamation and capital words in here. so. on with the chapter.

Chapter 5

After School:

"Bye Tohru!" yelled Momiji.

"Bye Momiji! Bye everybody!" Tohru shouted back as she ran past the school's gates and towards her job.

The entire gang was together, standing near the school's gates. They were all waiting for Yuki who had had a sudden meeting come up with the school's council. It seemed they couldn't decide about which hotel to stay at for when the class would go on the Class Trip. Yuki had said it would take only a few minutes and that if everybody would kindly wait for him, they could all walk to Shigure's house together.

The group was talking animately about Operation-HBT as everyone had taken to calling it. Uo had insisted after all (pain promised to those who didn't). Momiji and Kyou were having a spirited "discussion" about which color streamer Tohru would like more (Momiji favored blue, Kyou-orange). Haru, Uo, and Hana were just looking on with strange expressions on their faces, a mixture of awe (at the amazing level of loudness the two's voices could rise to) and confusion, when suddenly Yuki showed up.

"Baka neko. Don't you ever know when to shut up? What if someone hears you and tells Honda-san? You never think, do you? Baka."

"Well, you think you know too much! Kuso nezumi! Argh…." Kyou shouted at Yuki. Murmering to himself about certain damn rats who thought they knew everything, he followed the group as they headed over to the middle school to pick up Kisa and Hiro: "Hey, wait for me!"

Eventually they managed to get to Shigure's house, all intact but with their patience level wearing thin. Kyou and Momiji had bickered all the way home about the streamer colors again. Kyou had only shut up when he saw Kagura talking to Shigure at home.

His face visibly paled and took on an expression of horror. Stifling a scream, he turned to run but his shirt was caught by someone. He shook with fear, not wanting to turn around and see the person who had grabbed him. He didn't have to.

"KYOU!" Kagura tugged at Kyou's shirt, pulling him into a hug, practically breaking all his ribs in half. Squeezing even harder for a second, and cutting off all air to his lungs, she finally let him go. Everyone else just looked on amused at the boy's distress.

The executors of Operation-HBT all sat around a table. Each had a cup of tea in front of them and there were snacks (riceballs of course) as well. Yuki, taking a sip of his tea, started the meeting.

"Well, as you all know, we are all here to plan a surprise birthday party for Honda-san. I think that today's meeting should be devoted to handing out assignments—deciding who will do what."

Hana spoke. "I agree with Yuki-kun. The better organized we are, the better the party will be."

"There are ten of us. We need one person to be in charge of keeping Honda-san busy on that day while others set up for the party. Another person should be in charge of the cake. I think two people will be needed for food, five for the decorating since that is a really big job, and one person to do the doggy work, such as running to the store to buy something or making snacks while people work, etc." Yuki said. "Any volunteers?"

"Oh! Oh! Me, Yuki-kun! Me! I wanna decorate! I've got some great decorating ideas already!" Momiji exclaimed excitedly.

Other people continued to volunteer until it was decided that Hana and Uo would be in charge of the food for the party. Haru, Kisa, Hiro, Momiji, and Kagura would all decorate Shigure's living room, where they would hold the party. And Shigure himself would keep Tohru busy on that day by taking her to Ayame's shop again.

The only jobs left were that of cake-maker and errand-runner. Yuki and Kyou glared at each other from across the table. Before Kyou could even open his mouth, Yuki volunteered for the position of cake-maker.

Again before Kyou could say anything, Shigure burst out laughing. "You!" He cried pointing to Yuki. "Bake a cake! Are you crazy!" Shigure was having trouble breathing now from all the laughing and pointing he was doing. Finally, finally, and mind you it took a while, he got himself under control. "Yuki. I don't think it is a very good idea that you be in charge of making the cake. Knowing your quote-unquote, amazing, cooking skills, you'll probably burn the house down before you even set foot in the kitchen!"

Yuki glared at the older man. "I'm not that hopeless. And it's either me or the baka neko!"

"I choose Kyou then. I can still remember that leek soup of his. Sigh. It smelled so good. But Tohru-chan needed it more than I did." Shigure replied to Yuki's ultimatum.

Kyou spoke here. Sneering, he said, "No, it's alright. Let the kuso nezumi do it. I don't care. I'll run to the stores." Kyou figured that if Yuki made a really bad cake, Tohru wouldn't like him anymore because he had ruined her birthday with his awful cake. Then he'd have Tohru all to himself. Wait. What was he saying! Why did he want Tohru all to himself? Kyou shook his head silently. It must be the pressure of keeping this a secret from Tohru. He was going crazy already. (A/N: LOL. Don't you just LOVE him?)

Yuki blinked. Shigure blinked. Everyone in the room blinked once so they knew that what they had just seen wasn't a twisted and bizarre mirage or a dream of some sort. It wasn't.

Feeling everyone's eyes on him, staring at him with strange expressions, Kyou got angry. (A/N: Well, what else do you expect from him?) "WHAT ARE YOU ALL STARING AT ME FOR! Jeez! I only wanna do the running 'cause it'll keep me in shape! JEEZ!" Hopefully they'll believe that. Kyou crossed his fingers.

Life was back to normal. Now that Kyou had given a good reason for his strange outburst, everyone turned to Yuki. "Er...er…" Yuki stuttered, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Why was everyone looking at him? What were they waiting for? Suddenly it hit him.

"Okay, then!" Yuki yelled a bit, feeling nervous. He had just realized that he had no hope whatsoever of making a NICE and UNBURNT cake for Tohru. What was he going to do! "Well, now everyone knows what he or she is doing right? Okay. Shigure, you don't have to do anything till the day of the party, so you can relax. Not that I expect anything else from you. Honda-san will have work tomorrow as well, so those of you who need to meet and decide who is doing what, can do so here tomorrow. Kyou will be here to get you anything you need. Just tell him whatever you want and he'll do it or get it for you." Yuki smirked at Kyou, who glared back. "I will also be here so if you need anything from me, just let me know. All right, meeting dismissed."

Everyone yelled, "YAY!" and were about to head out when Uo stopped them. She wanted them to do something she'd seen in some American movie that had been on TV last night. Feeling foolish, everyone made a circle and each of them put a hand in the middle. Then, Uo leading, they shouted, "OPERATION-HBT!", swinging their hands up. Birds within a three-mile radius of the house shot out of their trees so fast, a passerby might have thought that it was raining colorful bullets.

I did the meeting! I did the meeting! Finally this fic is getting somewhere. Don't you love Uo? She's one of my fav characters of Furuba. If I do say so myself, the ending of this chap. was a stroke of genius. LOL. Please review. I know I've been a bad girl but I PROMISE I'll update regularly from now on! Pouts cutely-I got that expression from a fic I read. LOL. here are shout-outs to my WONDERFUL, AMAZING, Rewiers! YAY for you! LOL.

Just call me Blue: Thank you for not being mad about before. Hopefully, you'll be kind again and forgive me this one time too. Please?

Dark knightress: Even though you didn't review for Ch. 4, I wanted to answer your question. Kyou has a big mouth in this fic, because I figure that when people are angry, they don't really know what they are saying. They'll say anything that they're thinking about basically. That's all. And I hope you enjoyed Shigure in this chap.

Chizz-muffinChik: I never knew I had a sense of humor (that other people understood) untilstrangers told me that my story was funny! Thank you SO much. I was really HAPPY. And I hope I didn't disappoint with my short chapter and long waiting period.

Suriana Amaya:Thank you! You're the only person to vote C for #1. Can I ask you why?

koliverkreft: I love Yukiru's tooo! I guess it's kinda obvious that this is going to be a Yukiru. LOL. I can't hide my feelings. Glad you're enjoying it.

Chaan: THANK YOU! I love the Operation-HBT thing too! Hope you enjoyed it in this one. YAYNESS!

eni: THANKS for your permission eni. I reallyappreciate it! LOL.I'll see you in school tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed this.

SaHKi: SUPER HAPPY you're enjoying this fic. I'll think about making Akito a nice guy but I really don't know how I'm going to work that angle yet.

Kea Jaganshi: I'm SORRY! Can you ever forgive me? In the dark corners of your heart that are reserved for me, could there be a shining star of hope? A burning light? LOL. sorry, know I'm crazy. Hope you enjoyed this and HOPEFULLY (fingers crossed) you won't have to keep on waiting forever.

Animefreakkagome: NO ONE voted A for #2. NO ONE. I thought that really complimenting. LOL. Keep on YAYING. crazy physco here

Kazie-chan: Here is your update. Hope you enjoyed it.

All right folks. That's it for today. Till next week. which is my BIRTHDAY! Yup, that's right. My birthday's on Feb. 28 and if any one of you tells me you know someone who was also born on my birthday, I will get sad. I wanna be SPECIAL! LOL. I know tooooo many people who were born on my b-day. TOO many. I've got TWINS and TRIPLETS and QUADRUPLETS and MORE all over the place! LOL. I WILL be updating, don't worry. Hope you enjoyed this. And the results for my survey are:

#1: All Yukiru's except for one C: Both. This fic will be a Yukiru with a Kagura/Kyou match.

#2: It was a mix of either and B's: As it is. It will stay as it is. Update every weekend. Minimum of 2 pages on Word.

THAT'S IT FOR TODAY! REVIEW! I WILL NOT UPDATE if I don't get FIVE reviews! Luv ya'll,

RiceBallPlum