"Achoo!" was the first sound to resonate through the silent, sleeping house. Everyone in the house was jolted from their peaceful slumber.
"Sorry." Raya whispered quietly in a stuffy voice. She got up and shuffled to the bathroom to blow her nose.
"Achoo! Damn it!" She fell against the wall, missing her bedroom doorway by two-feet.
"Are you okay?" Izzy asked groggily, coming out of her room.
"Damn Koenma made me sick with his damn cold office. Damn." She staggered back into her room and fell onto the bed as she sneezed again, "Damn."
"It's five-freaking-o'clock! What's your problem? Don't you people ever sleep?" Yusuke put his hands behind his head as he walked into the room, not realizing where he was going. He opened his eyes to find himself standing in Raya's room with all five girls on the bed in a wide array of nightclothes.
"What if I said that we don't sleep? And, because you're staying with us, you can't sleep either?" Rayanna's caustic remark was given a look utter oblivion. She sighed, "Yusuke, I'm sick. I can't train you today. Go back to bed before I make you regret ever coming back to life." With this, Raya waved him out of the room, and then placed her index finger on her temple in a vain attempt to ward off a pending headache. He returned obediently to his temporary bed on the couch. He was almost back to sleep, when the doorbell rang. He hesitantly got up and opened the door.
"Good morning, Yusuke. I wasn't anticipating you being up. I'm here to speak to Rayanna; do you know where she is?"
"Get out of my house!" Raya growled from the base of the stairs. "I hate you with the passion of a thousand flaming hells and hope you burn in everyone of them."
"Ouch." Yusuke murmured at the severity of her statement.
"Come now, Rayanna! I'm only here to see how you are going to train them." He shot her an impish glance that said he was up to no good.
"Well, I would be training them, but your cold office made me sick, so I will be out for a while. Achoo! So now, I'm basically useless until Achoo! I get well. I hope you Achoo! Die a slow and painful death! Now leave! Before I tell father on you."
About the time Raya was finishing her statement, the rest of the house was awake and sitting on various pieces of furniture.
"Like he would do anything!" Koenma was now, officially, acting like the small child he resembled.
"I don't know what you're smoking, but I want some! If it's good enough to delude you into thinking that you won't get in trouble for making me sick, obviously it can do anything!" Rayanna stared evilly at her little, big brother.
"Fine, I'll leave." He began to reach for the doorknob.
"And one more thing, the Jr. on your forehead makes you look like a dork." She fell over on the couch, pointing and laughing.
"Rayanna, are you drunk?" Koenma looked at her suspiciously.
She grinned and shook her head, trying to look serious, but failing miserably.
"Ummmm." Kurama spoke up, "actually, I gave her some cold medicine. I found it in the cabinet and thought it might help." He sounded apologetic.
Raya could no longer contain her laughter and rolled off the couch falling to the floor with a small thud.
"Well crap!" Hikaru slapped her palm against her head.
"What? Is that bad?" Now Yusuke was curious.
"Not unless you like her acting drunk for the next 36 hours." Hikaru retorted and left to go upstairs.
"Hee hee!" Raya rolled on the floor.
"I'm sorry." Kurama hung his head; truly sorry for the trouble he had started.
"Well," Amaya began, standing and walking over to Kurama, "since you made her like this, you get to take care of her." She patted his shoulder as she walked out of the room.
He turned to ask her what she meant, but she had already vanished.
A voice burst out laughing behind him, "Ha! You're stuck on babysitting duty! Wait! What about school?" he teased, then pondered.
"He will simply have to skip." Akira huffed and ran quietly up the stairs to get dressed for school.
A few minutes later, everyone was dressed and ready for school. They all gathered by the front door as the girls laid down their rules for watching their sister.
"Number 1: Don't let her go outside. AT ALL!" Hikaru held up one finger as she spoke.
"Two: DO NOT let her use any kitchen appliances!" Izzy held up two.
"Number three: Do Not let her be around more than 3 inches of water when you are more than five feet away." Amaya looked up sternly at him as she held up three fingers.
"And four: However drunk she may be acting, she is still a lady and will be treated as such." Akira glared at Kurama as she held up four fingers. Her glare made him feel uneasy, even though he wasn't planning on trying anything.
The group filed out of the house, leaving Kurama and Rayanna alone in the house.
"Well," he began, "I suppose now we should…" he was interrupted by Izzy flinging the door open again.
"Have fun!" she winked and shut the door.
"As I was saying, we should…" the door opened once more.
"But not too much fun!" she winked again.
"GO AWAY!" Raya gave her a very evil look, "You'll be late for school." She added with a very motherly tone.
"Okay!" she chimed and skipped toward the others.
Raya stood in the doorway and waved goodbye. Once they were out of sight, she closed the door and looked at her 'babysitter'.
Suddenly, Rayanna took off. She made it across the living room and half way down the hallway before she was caught.
"Freeze!" Kurama said in a very commanding voice.
She froze. As he rounded the corner, Kurama saw her slowly raise both of her hands. She then proceeded to turn and place her palms on the wall and hang her head in embarrassment. This act really did surprise him.
"What are you doing?"
"You said 'Freeze!', so I froze." She said, easily rationalizing the behavior that was so foreign to him. "After you freeze, the next logical step is to put up your hands, then place them on the wall."
He walked over to her and took one of her hands from the wall. "You know, you really are strange." He led her out of the hall and into the living room, where he sat her down on the couch. "So, what do you want to do?"
"I don't know. What do you want to do?"
Kurama closed his eyes and shook his head, not trying to hide his frustration. "That's not how this normally works. Your sisters would never let me baby-sit again if they knew that I made you do what I wanted to do."
"Okay. Then let's watch a movie." She smiled as she stood up. "But first…Popcorn! And chocolate!"
"Okay." He laughed back, "but only if I get to make it. Your sisters would never forgive me if I let you use the microwave."
Ten minutes later, they were back on the couch with an unknown movie beginning to play and a bowl of chocolate covered popcorn to share.
"What are we watching?" Kurama asked, looking over at Raya.
"You'll see. Shhhh! It's starting."
It did not take long for him to realize that it was, indeed, a romance movie. It took even less time for him to realize that Rayanna was ever so slowly, getting closer to him.
Before the movie was half-way through, her head was on his shoulder, her legs over his, and their fingers intertwined. It was about this time, that they heard someone outside. The noise didn't actually bother them, so they ignored it. At least, that is, until someone opened the door.
"Raya!" A voice shouted from the doorway.
"Noooooooo!" Rayanna cried. "I thought we had finally gotten rid of you."
A/N: DunDunDuhhh!! Cliffhanger!! Now you must simply wait for another post to see who it is!! (But since I'm notoriously bad at waiting….that shouldn't be long!)