Chapter Three: Family Dinners

Sawada Shou was currently in the bathroom eyeing his figure in the mirror while contemplating the events from this afternoon after he and gone with Kaemon to the park to put his newest plan to practice. Yeah… as one could expect it hadn't turned out that well. "Shou-kun I'm coming in."

At the sound of his mother's voice Shou turned around yet still avoided eye contact even as Kyoko stepped over to give him a new pair of clothes. "There you go, now you can change out of those soaking wet clothes." She told him and even though her tone was sweet it was also obvious she was preparing herself to give her son a lecture. Shou knew that lecture was coming too which was why he was acting sheepish and trying to follow Kaemon's advice of putting on an apologetic expression.

"Now, Shou-kun tell me what you learned today."

Shou sighed a bit risking a look at his mother who still stared down at him, eyebrow slightly arched. He knew what answer to give, meaning the one Kyoko wanted to hear. "No more throwing bombs into lakes to scare the old folks that go there to feed ducks…" he mumbled, looking off again.

Kyoko took a deep breath by this answer and then reached out for a towel and started to dry her son's still wet hair from the splashing the bombs thrown in the lake had made. "Ow…ow…Mom! I can do it myself!" Shou protested, growing progressively more embarrassed by his mother's antics.

Kyoko on the other hand ignored him and continued doing what she was doing. "You and Kaemon need to find something more positive to do on your free time." She began, nodding her head a bit as if to confirm her own words. "It's a shame his mother isn't here right now, but I already talked to your father and Hayato."

"Uh? Talked about what?"

"We're going to find you kids some activities for you free time. So, after tomorrow Yoko-chan will take you both to the gym."

"No mom! I don't want to go to the gym!" Shou whined, already envisioning the whole thing in his head. Yoko would most definitely put them through hell to the point where both he and Kaemon would be wishing for someone to come and put them out of their misery. "Yoko trains like mad! I just know she's going to start acting like an over-demanding drill sergeant!"

Even though Kyoko was trying hard not to laugh, since she was trying to lecture her son she couldn't help but to chuckle at that remark. "It'll do you good. " she said, standing up and handing Shou the towel so that he could finish drying his hair by himself. "Just think about it this way, the other option is spending the day with Hibari-san and have him teach you both all about 'discipline'. If you're lucky he'll even show you how he used to discipline students at Namimori."

"Eeck!"

Both Shou and Kaemon had heard the stories. The stories about the terrifying Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee and the last thing they wanted was to be taught what discipline was by that guy. Indeed, if you were to compare the options he did prefer to go training with Yoko.

"I… alright…I'll go train with Yoko-chan." He ended up mumbling. Having realized that her goal had been accomplished Kyoko allowed herself to smile one of those radiant smiles that had barely changed throughout the years and almost made it look like she was still the same Kyoko from Middle School. "I'm glad we've reached an agreement." She told him, chuckling a bit. She opened the door but before she left turned around and gave her son a small wave. "Now hurry up Shou-kun, before your brother and sister eat everything."

"Hai!"

…

Meanwhile at the Sasagawa Residence, Yoko was currently trying her best not to punch the life out of her brother who kept laughing at her while pointing to the icepack she was holding to her forehead.

"I can't believe it!" he said just as he was starting to control himself after a laughing fit that had last for more than 10 minutes. "You actually got nailed in the head with a baseball bat!" he exclaimed which threw him into yet another laughing fit.

Tired of listening to this Yoko made a move to stand up from her chair but was quickly cut off by Hana's strict tone.

"."

"But he's been laughing at me ever since I got home!"

"Akio stop laughing at your sister."

"But mom—"

"Just stop it Akio." Hana commanded glancing up from her plate just so that she could give him a very convincing glare which did get him to silence himself. However it was Ryohei's time to laugh "Hana they're just having fun to the extreme!"

"Getting hit in the head with a baseball bat isn't funny!" Yoko suddenly exclaimed looking at her father in a disapproving manner and was soon aided by Hana " Can we for once have a peaceful meal?" The older woman began "I work hard all day long so can I at least come home and enjoy a quite peaceful meal?"

Akio was going to speak up to voice his 'very clever' answer when his father decided that indeed Hana deserved some peace. "Alright, alright, let's all be quiet to the extreme!" he said/shouted.

You're the one making the most noise, was the thought echoing through the minds of the other three people sitting at the dinner table while they watched as Ryohei gobbled down his meal while trying to be quiet, 'trying' being the key word in this case.

Soon enough though they all chose to ignore the sounds of Ryohei eating and trying to remain quiet, but said silence was then broken by Akio.

"Being quiet is not my type at all."

"I don't care." Hana stated simply to which Akio made an appalled face "Mom! I have to stay true to myself!"

Yoko rolled her eyes at this, whereas Ryohei seemed to agree "The boy has a point!" Instead of glaring at Akio, Hana chose to glare at Ryohei the moment he spoke up which made the Sun Guardian chuckle nervously as he turned to his younger son. "Well son, you'll understand that sometimes, in order to not get beat up and sent to sleep on the couch by your wife, you have to give up being yourself for a little while."

"Dad, I'm 15. I don't have a wife."

"You will in a couple of years!"

This time was Yoko's time to laugh "Ha! Highly doubt that!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? !"

Hana sighed, shaking her head ever so slightly and officially given up all hopes of having a nice, quiet meal with her family. "Can we please change the subject before you're at each other's throats again?" she questioned, and while none of her kids seemed willing to give up on their current argument they eventually resigned.

"Fine." They muttered in unison.

Ryohei only laughed again and then suddenly blinked his eyes "Oh right, Hana you're going over to Kyoko's tomorrow right?"

Hana nodded her head, thankful that for once it seemed like Ryohei had come across a subject from which it was impossible for her kids to start an argument. "Yes, she's going to need some help with the dinner preparations and all. Haru and I-Pin are also going." She informed and then turned her attention to Yoko "And you're coming too."

Yoko's jaw dropped by this. "What? Why? !"

"Because we need help so every extra pair of hands is needed. Besides, it's about time you learned how to cook or do house chores."

"Why isn't Akio going then? He doesn't know how to cook nor does he ever do any work around here!"

"Well, it's obvious he's not going because he's a guy." Ryohei suddenly blurted out, without even realizing the grave mistake he had just made. In one swift movement Hana yanked his plate, holding it away from him as her whole expression turned into an incredibly scary one. One that even made Yoko and Akio scoot away from them. "Excuse me?"

Now more aware of what he had said Ryohei started laughing nervously "I-I mean, Akio is not going because if he did… he…well he'd obviously break something!" he blurted out again, hoping that was the right answer. "Wrong." Hana deadpanned as she stood up and started collected the dishes. Luckily both Yoko and Akio had already finished by then.

"Hana! I haven't finished yet!"

"Don't care." Hana said, shrugging her shoulders as she made her way into the kitchen. It was truly a shame that Ryohei had forgotten how much of a feminist Hana could get some times and how she loathed the idea of women being the ones in charge of cooking and cleaning. She had sworn she would never become that sort of woman which was why Ryohei had to pitch in as well. If he wanted dinner then he'd better do the groceries and help her cook, if he wanted clean clothes then he better pick up his own clothes and put them in the washer. Indeed, it was a system that worked fine, so it was truly a shame that he had forgotten that tiny detail.

"But love! Honey c'mon let's talk this over!" Ryohei exclaimed as he stood up and followed Hana into the kitchen "You know I love you to the EXTREME!" he said, now within the kitchen.

It never ceased to amaze Yoko and Akio how his father, the Sun Guardian, a powerful boxer turned into jelly when he was around their mother.

Mom is truly amazing, Yoko thought with pride whereas Akio had similar thoughts, only he replaced the word 'amazing' with 'scary as hell'.

"Man, I can't believe dad forgot I had practice tomorrow." Akio commented shaking his head a bit as he stretched "So, explain this to me in a way that I can understand. How did that bat hit you in the head?"

Yoko, who had been busy thinking of all the reasons why her mother was amazing, frowned by her brother's question. "Why does it even matter? I'm not going to tell you just so you can laugh at me again." She stated simply, standing up and getting ready to leave the room. However, Akio really did want to know so he started to follow her. "C'mon I won't laugh!"

"Stop following me! I want to take a shower!"

"You know I won't stop until you tell me."

True. Yoko did know that was true so she took a deep breath and turned around to face her brother. "Fine. But laugh and I'll knock out your teeth and make a necklace out of them!"

"Fine, fine, I won't laugh." Akio assured her, proceeding to fold his arms as he waited to hear the story.

"Alright, so I went to play baseball with Yasuhiko—"

"Really?"

"God, don't interrupt me!"

"Ok, ok…"

"So I went to play baseball with him and he insisted on batting so I was going to pitch." She said and absent mindedly removed the ice pack from her forehead and lightly touched the bruised area. "However, as it turns out, Yasu can't properly hold a bat, because when he tried to hit the ball it actually flew out of his godforsaken hands!" she exclaimed that last bit, recalling the whole thing including Yasu's million apologies while she was lying there close to blanking out.

Akio was torn between laughing his head off and actually feeling sorry for his sister. He knew he couldn't laugh though, or else he was getting a beating so he just slapped a hand over his mouth and turn his back on her to try and contain his laughter. "You're a jerk!" Yoko snapped and stomped off to her room. Some sympathy would have been nice.

Akio on the other hand though decided to text Yasuhiko the simple words of 'You're the man'.

…...

Kaemon had already been informed of his punishment and he was not happy about it at all. However, like Shou, he too agreed that it was better than spending the day with the scary Hibari Kyoya. Right now his and Ayane's mother was out on business and wouldn't be back until the next week which meant that until her return they were stuck with their dad eating half-frozen pizza.

The three sat at table Ayane looking at the pizza with disgust, not even daring to touch it whereas Kaemon was searching for inspiration for his next prank in the slices of pizza. Yes, tomorrow's punishment and the lecture he had received from Gokudera hadn't changed his behavior one bit. Gokudera on the other hand was the only one actually eating it while his eyes scanned the newspaper.

"Dad, when are you going to learn how to cook?" Ayane suddenly questioned which caused Gokudera to almost choke on the pizza.

"We have pizza darling." He said, shrugging it off. However Ayane wasn't ready to let this discussion die yet. "Dad we've spent the last few days eating pizza, it's not healthy!"

"What are you talking about? There's pineapple on this one." He pointed out though his eyes were still glued on the newspaper.

"True." Kaemon said, shrugging his shoulders lightly. He really didn't care if all they ate was pizza, he just wished his father would let it stay in the microwave longer. "Why don't you at least hire someone to do our meals and clean the house?" Ayane suggested which was followed by a long sigh from her father.

"Because your mother doesn't want. She's afraid I'll start ogling the maid."

"Hire a 90 year old granny then!" Kaemon suddenly blurted out. "You know you're mom, she'd still find reasons to be suspicious." Gokudera pointed out and even Kaemon had to agree. "I guess you're right then. Oh well, seven more days of pizza isn't too bad."

Ayane frowned even more with how uncaring both men were being. "People, we can't eat pizza everyday!" she protested "Even ignoring the fact that it's definitely not healthy, you need to remember that I'm a young woman who needs to watch her figure!"

Kaemon snorted which earned him a glare from his older sister. "Think about it this way, dear sister. If you're lucky some of the fat might actually go to your chest. God knows you need all the help you can get."

"Shut up! I'm only 15 ok? ! I'm still growing!"

"Yeah…you keep hoping for a miracle. Yoko is only a year older and the difference is quite visible."

"Dad! Say something!"

"I can't honey. The law doesn't allow me to have this conversation."

Ayane's jaw practically dropped whereas Kaemon was busy not choking on the pizza because of how hard he was laughing. "Unbelievable, you always take his side!"

Gokudera sighed, raising a hand to his forehead as his eyes travelled towards the calendar hanging in the wall. Just one more week… he thought, praying for his wife's return. At least she always knew how to quiet down Ayane, he seemed to lack that ability. "Alright, alright, Kaemon stop teasing your sister."

"Whatever you say dad." He snickered. Anyone would have to admit that no one knew how to annoy Ayane better than Kaemon himself.

"Oh, Ayane and Kaemon you two need to go tomorrow to Kyoko's help out with the preparations." Gokudera suddenly spoke up setting his newspaper aside. Any good mood that Kaemon still had suddenly evaporated.

"I can't dad, I have piano lessons, remember?"

"Oh right, then Kaemon be at Kyoko's as soon as we finish lunch."

"What? ! Why? I don't want to go there!"

"Think of it as additional punishment for scaring old people at the park today." Gokudera said simply, leaning back in his chair. "And you are to be on your best behavior. I don't want to hear anything about you blowing up things tomorrow."

…

Poor Lambo hasn't appeared yet nor has his kid but since the next chapter is about the party I promise he'll make an appearance! And thanks for all the lovely reviews n_n

-Sasagawa Akio (Sasagawa Ryohei and Kurokawa Hana's son) He's a sports fanatic and great friends with Yasuhiko. It's very easy to make him laugh, in fact he spends most of his time going through several laughing fits sometimes triggered by things that aren't really that funny. He's 15 years old.