Have fun with this one... :D

Chapter Nine: "Charcoal For Breakfast"

"GOOOOD MORNING EVERYONE!" Yuki had more energy than usual, since she was the only one that was not groggy.

"Aughh, it's only 10:30…" Hirosaki groaned from his slumber. He was lying on his side, scrunched up in the fetal position and buried under a huge pillow that he absent-mindedly found in the middle of the night.

"10:30? You think it's 10:30? Fool, it's nearly two o'clock and you've been dead asleep ever since you passed out!" Yuki yelled.

"Noooo, I need my sleep… My head hurts… I'm in paiiiin!" Ichigo rolled over to his stomach and started hugging the carpet-covered floor, as if he could get rid of the earthquake in his head by doing so.

"What did you expect? It's called a hangover! It'll go by faster if you're active, not fast asleep."

Saki squinted pitifully at his sister, "Is there no cure for this torture?"

Hirosaki's immouto sighed, "Jeez, you guys really are weak… Fine, I'll go make something. In the meantime, just go wash up…"

If they ever make it up the stairs… She thought. It was truly a sad sight watching Hirosaki, Ichigo and Rukia crawl up the steps, clinging for their dear lives onto the rails. It looked as if they were climbing Mt. Everest.

She then strode over to the kitchen to create a remedy, not even noticing that Ishida, Mizuiro and Keigo mysteriously vanished. Actually, Ishida somehow managed to snuggle up beside the TV, Keigo lay in the middle of the hallway, and Mizuiro found a little corner two rooms away.

"Alright, a smidgen of salt, two limes, ten scoops of sugar..." Yuki mumbled to herself in the kitchen. It seemed as if she were making limeade, and well, it was exactly that. It looked perfectly normal until she reached into her cargo pants' pocket and fished out a durable plastic vile containing 2 ml. of mysterious cerulean fluid. Carelessly dumping the blue solution into the limeade pitcher, she started stirring until the drink became murky blue-green.

"It's perfect!" she marveled at her instant Anti-Hangover drink mix.

Thirty minutes later...

Everyone gathered in the kitchen when Yuki called them in. She then poured the Anti-Hangover juice and passed it around to everyone.

"Is this... drinkable?" Ishida had a look of uncertainty. Well of course you'd ask that if someone gave you a mysterious liquid with the color of foggy ocean water...

"Do you want me to take it back?"

"No... I'll drink it." he gulped it down slowly. Everyone else followed suit.

Like Dragon Ball Z characters turning Super Saiyan, that suddenly felt rejuvenated and a powerful aura emitted from all six of them.

"UWAHH! I feel great!" Ichigo clenched his hands into fists. (Add veins popping, the ground cracking, and their hair becoming spiky and yellow for more effect... :D)

Soon, everyone felt the miracle of the steroid-like Anti-Hangover beverage. After gawking at the immediate effects, they all looked over at Yuki, who was standing beside the counter.

"What's for breakfast?" Mizuiro suddenly asked.

She raised an eyebrow, "It's 2:30! And do I look like an effing cook to you?"

"That reminds me... No one in here knows how to cook!" Ichigo sighed.

"Well, what about Ishida?"

Ishida Uryuu pushed up his glasses, "I don't cook."

"Of course you don't cook, you only know how to kill Hollows and sew!" Ichigo teased.

"What? You're mistaken, Kurosaki. On the other hand, you only kill Hollows and... and..." an evil grin spread across his lips.

The orange-haired boy's eyes widened and his gaping mouth uttered a single, breathless word, "No..."

"You only kill Hollows and GAWK AT SWIMSUIT MODELS IN YOUR PRECIOUS 12-MONTH MAGAZINE!" He emphasized that last part.

Ichigo looked distraught, "You swore you'd never tell!"

"I never swore. I just said I might forget about it..."

"You know what? You like to play with cuddly rabbits at the pet store!" Ichigo planned on getting revenge.

"You spend hours writing angsty fanfiction!"

"...So do you..." Ichigo smirked, "Oh, yeah... Remember that time you shot an arrow at a 12-foot wide unmoving object and missed?"

"Well, you used Wite-Out as nail polish in class!"

"You cross-dressed and ran around my neighborhood on the night of a full moon! And my eyes still burn from that image...!"

"It's not like I did that on purpose, you idiot! You once thought hand sanitizer was edible!"

"You don't want contacts because yo momma thought glasses made you look more sophisticated!"

"Are you talking about my mother, Kurosaki? Well, your mom was so...- oh wait... Sorry, I forgot..."

Ichigo ran off sobbing hysterically.

"He never wins at yo momma jokes because he doesn't have one..." Ishida looked a little guilty, "But he'll get over it in one minute, thirty-four seconds."

The other five spectators were replaying that odd conversation.

Keigo finally caught up to that one insult on Ishida, "Wait, you cross-dress? ZOMG, MY EYES!"

A vein popped on his forehead, "Shut up!"

"Well, that was... interesting..." Yuki blinked.

Twenty seconds of uncomfortable silence...

"...So... What's for breakfast?" Mizuiro asked yet again.

"Go get some flippin Apple Jacks or something!"

The group marched off to the kitchen pantry brimming with all varieties of cereal.

"I claim Fruit Loops!"

"Give me the Lucky Charms!"

A heap of people were squished around the tiny closet door trying to get their favorite fruity cereal.

"Dude, l'eggo my eggo!" Mizuiro and Keigo were fighting for the last strawberry pastry that just popped out of the toaster.

Breakfast at 2:30 PM became a mess when Keigo and Rukia attempted to cook using Ichigo's new stovetop... And this is when the chaos started...
"Let's make ham and eggs!" Rukia exclaimed, over-enthusiastic about using Ichigo's spacious kitchen. (She was banned from ever laying a hand on it again after that incident when she made flaming macaroni and cheese that took months to scrape off of the pan.)

"Yeah, let's do that!" Keigo replied happily. Not like he was a better chef than Rukia.

Rukia twisted the black knob to a surreally high setting and pulled out a skillet.

"Hey, watch this. I saw it on Iron Chef!" Rukia grinned like a fool and cracked a pearly white egg on the pan after adding a humongous spoonful of oil to it. The white and yellow egg sizzled as it instantly fried in the burning hot oil. With a flick of her wrist, she flipped the egg into the air and tried to catch it with the pan again. However, since she wasn't the most coordinated cooker, the worst happened.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Keigo watched dumbly as the egg targeted him. He didn't realize the intensity of the heat until it plopped flat on his hand.

"Oh FRIGGIN' snap! It BURNS! Get it off me!" Keigo ran around in circles like an idiot until the egg flew off and coincidentally landed back on the red-hot pan.

"Hey, it does work!" Rukia was in awe, completely ignorant of what just happened before.

After 27 life-threatening tries, Rukia and Keigo actually managed to make eggs and ham, to say the least... The only problem was that it was completely charcoal-black and you couldn't even tell what it was, or what it had been before...

"We're finished!"

"Oh yay, eggs!" Mizuiro was the first to run up to Rukia carrying the tray of what was supposed to be food.

He stopped short and stared at the black objects questioningly, "Er... What's that supposed to be?"

Rukia blinked, "Can't you tell they're eggs shaped like Chappy?"

Eh... Nope, not at all... Mizuiro thought. On the outside, he laughed, "Hahah, yep... I can definitely see that. I'll just have a piece of this..." With much force, he pried out a chunk of crusty, black crap and brought it to his plate.

"It's really good!" Keigo encouraged.

Mizuiro grinned half-heartedly but was weeping on the inside, Am I really going to eat this?

The two greenhorn chefs kept their steady gaze on Test Subject A, waiting for him to try out their specialty.

Mizuiro slowly forked the crispy chunk and chewed it thoughtfully. His face immediately turned pale.

"Good, isn't it?" Rukia asked, bubbling over with pride.

Mizuiro nodded his head up and down feverishly and in the next second, he already disappeared to the bathroom.

"I think he likes it," Keigo nodded, "We should make more!"

Each victim who ate Rukia and Keigo's infamous Chappy Eggs had a sudden urge to rush to the toilet... And unfortunately, everyone in Ichigo's house had a taste of the murderous venom.

"Y-Yuki... Make an antidote for... this poison..." Hirosaki gagged.

Yuki was the one that was infected the least. Not even Rukia and Keigo could endure their own horrid creation.

Yuki staggered to the kitchen to make a miracle drink that was strong enough to save her friends. Two minutes later, she appeared to the mass of subconscious bodies with half a pitcher of Anti-Poison.

"I've created the antidote!" Yuki cried.

Putting the illness aside, all six of them fought like wild animals to receive the Anti-Poison first.

"You're a life saver..." Ishida coughed after downing the juice.

Everyone was finally cured thanks to Yuki's quick antidote-making skills.

"That didn't go too well... How about we make a better batch to make up for this one?" Keigo and Rukia suggested.

"STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN!"

TBC...

If this happened all in the afternoon, what will they do for the rest of the day? Find out in the next chappie!

Rukia: Did you say Chappy? (-fangirl squeal-)

No, go back to the Bleach World!

Rukia: Jeez, don't be so mean. You made me bipolar in the last chapter and now I'm a horrible cook. So now I'm a bipolar chef?

Hn. You'll be something else in the next chapter... kukuku

R&R, por favor! -domo!- :)
Message:::

I've revised just about every chapter, 1-9! Some changes are minor, such as spelling mistakes that get looked over the first time reading through, and some are major, i.e. chapter 5 and others, where I changed the dialogue, paragraph cut-offs, etc.

There is no way I will be able to update any time soon. As I'm editing this part in, it's currently 11/20/06. The last time I updated was the end of September. Can you say major hiatus?? Check out my profile for more info on this...

I'm not dropping the story, I just need some time over Thanksgiving break and possibly winter break and beyond that, too... I should be able to close up the story within a few more chapters, depending on the way things turn out...

And above where it says Rukia might be something else in the next chapter, well, that plan made a u-turn and completely flopped... So now my next chapter is completely blank, empty, chicken scratch, bits of duct tape, whatever you want to call it. So Rukia may have a crazy role in the next chapter or she might not. It all depends on my oh-so-cruel writer's block and school... But like I said, I'm not dropping this story... yet...

-SP-