The fifth thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me...five months of bills!
Yuki was the first to notice the sudden silence in the house. With a curious frown, he looked up and pulled out his earbuds. He glanced around and noticed the absence of both his brother, and Shigure.
His eyes swept the area, though he shrugged and returned to sorting through the boxes. He glanced up at the garland he had finally managed to set on the archway. He weighed the berries in his hands, muttering to himself. "Red and red, purple and purple," he muttered to himself. He looked up once more with a frown.
"Okay, you've got this," he muttered, holding up the berries and trying to sort them out once more. He rubbed his hands together before getting up on the step stool. "Red and red, purple and purple," he repeated once again. "Simple, easy. Follow the pattern."
After a minute of watching his shaking hands, Yuki growled to himself and closed his eyes, thrusting his hands out. He stood there, frozen as he peaked his eyes open. To his immense relief, the berry was placed in the green garland, unmoving.
Yuki let out a breath, a small smile on his face. His smile soon vanished when it just occurred to him that he had been afraid of a simple berry.
"Well, no one needs to know," he muttered to himself, placing another berry on the garland.
Outside, Kyo was hammering in another set of lights, his frown turning into a satisfied nod. "Three more to go," he declared. He leaped down from the ladder, only to stop with wide eyes as he noticed Ritsu on the porch, plugging in the lights that were still tangled up.
Ritsu looked up with a hesitant look, his eyes wide. "Kyo! I-"
"What are you doing?" Kyo demanded, staring at the tangled lights there were now shining. "And if you even dare try to apologize," he warned when he saw Ristus open his mouth. "I will string you up with the lights."
Ritsu looked like a gaping fish, eyes flickering to Kyo and the lights in his hands. He took in many deep breaths to try and calm himself down before rushing through his explanation. "I came over here to deliver your scarf since you left it with Airsa when she tried to choke you with it and she was going to burn it but she gave it to me anyway. I don't know why she gave the scarf to me, but she did. Anyway, I came here to deliver your scarf and saw you doing the lights and I wanted to help you and I hope I didn't cause you any trouble and if I did I am so SORRY and I'm rambling aren't I? Oh no! I am rambling! I am SO SORRY FOR CAUSING YOU SO MUCH-"
"Shut up!" Kyo yelled, leaping forward and smacking a hand over Ritsu's mouth. He then blinked before frowning as he tried to make sense of what Ritsu had just said. He shook his head, realizing that it would be pointless. He blinked. "Hey, that's my scarf!"
Ritsu nodded, his mouth still covered by Kyo's hand. "Mmph! M srurf Ris plurrrgh bftds-"
"Did you just lick my hand?" Kyo roared, disgusted as he scrambled away while looking at his hands.
"I-"
"You say 'I'm sorry' one more time, your going to need more than Holiday wishes to keep you safe," Kyo warned.
"Lo siento," Ritsu amended quickly. He then gasped in horror, covering his mouth. "I was sassy! Oh dear heavens!"
"Go inside and bother Yuki if you must," Kyo huffed.
Ritsu nodded quickly, holding a bunch of white envelopes in his hand. "Good idea! I got your mail, so I will set it on the table for you!"
Ritsu rushed into the house in a colorful frenzy. He did, however, stop to look at the inside of the house and admire the garlands decorating the archways and the nice berries that complemented them. "Oh, so pretty!" he stated.
"Thank you," Yuki said as he stepped down from the step stool. "One more archway left, and then I can cook dinner."
Ritsu faltered. Yuki was cooking? Who put him up to that? It was like they were setting him up for failure!
"Anything to help Miss Honda," Yuki continued.
Oh, that made sense.
"What is that?" Yuki asked, gesturing to the mail that Ritsu was holding.
Ritsu blinked. "Oh! This is your mail!" He shoved the mail quickly into Yuki's hands, causing the Rat to blink as he tried to catch the falling envelopes. Ritsu let out a startled shriek and tried to help Yuki in catching the envelopes.
"Ritsu, I've got it. I've got it!" Yuki wound up shouting. He sighed, wanting to pinch the bridge of his nose, yet refrained from doing so as such a movement would have caused him to drop the envelopes. So instead, he watched as Ritsu frantically grabbed the envelopes, making it look like much more work than it required to catch slips of paper.
"Here! I'm sorry!" Ritsu exclaimed, stuffing Yuki's arms with the letters.
Yuki grunted and headed over to a small table before setting them down. He frowned as he picked up the envelop, surveying the letter before opening it. His eyes widened as he stared at what it said.
"Yuki? What is it?" Ritsu asked, noticing his cousin's expression. "If you don't mind me asking!"
"Bills," Yuki muttered, flipping through the envelopes. He sighed. "I'll leave it for Shigure."
"Bills?" Ritsu asked curiously, looking at the letters. "Hm, I would have thought they'd be bigger."
Yuki frowned and glanced at his cousin. "What do you mean?"
"Oh! I'm sorry for my intrusion! But...um...with Christmas coming up, you would be using a lot of lights for the trees, the house, and the decorations. Not to mention the cooking and the presents. Oh! And the deserts and candy along with the gas mileage in the car if you ever drove around from one store to the next." He smiled slowly. "You would have very heavy bills on your hands."
Yuki's eyes widened in horror at the thought.
"But I do not think you need to worry about that," Ritsu continued, oblivious to his cousin's distress. He looked up in shock when Yuki scrambled for a pen and paper. "Yuki? What is wrong?"
"What's wrong is that we cannot fall into debt," Yuki answered, his tone surprisingly calm despite the fact that his mind was running with different possibilities and solutions to their current predicament. "Ritsu," he said quickly. "What is your solution to dealing with these bills?"
Ritsu blinked, surprised that someone was asking him. "Oh! Well, maybe we could speak with Tohru-"
"Miss Honda does not need to know," Yuki said quickly. "This will put a damper on her holiday spirit, and I do not want her to worry any more than she does. She has enough to worry about as it is."
"I'm worried about getting the wrong one," Tohru confessed as she glanced at the two boxes in her hands, torn between the fact that she had to make a decision. She stood in the freezer section with Kisa, Hiro, Momiji and Haru. Kisa was holding onto Haru's hand to prevent him from wandering off and getting lost in the store while Momiji was prancing around with glee. Hiro looked like the typical grouchy child who was leaning up against the wall with a stern frown.
"Which one?" Tohru asked, holding up the two different pies. "I'm already making three homemade pies, but Yuki and Kyo have both convinced me to buy at least one pie for the holiday."
"I like strawberry," Kisa said quietly. "And I know Yuki does too."
"Yuki likes strawberries," Haru commented, echoing the little girl's point.
"But isn't Tohru already making a strawberry pie?" Momiji chirped, skipping to a stop as he rejoined the group. "Why buy a strawberry pie if you are already making one?"
Tohru hummed. "That is true," she confessed, putting the strawberry pie back. "Oh! What about coconut cream?" she asked.
"I hate coconut," Hiro scoffed. "It gets in your teeth."
"But she's not buying it for you!" Momiji protested, turning to look at the shorter boy with his hands on his hips.
"She asked for my opinion, didn't she?" Hiro countered back.
"Don't give her an opinion if it's not nice!"
"She wants an honest opinion, not a false one."
"You want my honest opinion on your opinions? My honest opinion is that you don't know how to be nice!"
"Hiro, Momiji," Kisa said quietly. "You're being a bit loud."
"Um, alright!" Tohru said quickly in an effort to fix the situation. "How about I get a...rutabaga pie?"
Both Momiji and Hiro stopped their arguing while Haru frowned, tilting his head. "Rutabaga?" the Ox inquired couriously.
Tohru nodded. "Yeah! I mean, I've never tried it, but I am sure it'll taste great!" With that, she picked the boxed up frozen pie and placed it in the shopping bag before strolling down the halls with the Sohma's following her.
"Since the food is done," Thoru said happily. "I can focus on the presents!"
Momiji skipped happily. "Do you want me to close my eyes when you but my presents?"
Tohru giggled. "I already got you your present, Momiji," she said, causing the blonde Sohma to brighten up with excitement. "I just need to make some last minute changes and make sure I didn't miss anything. I need to get Shigure this book I know he's been wanting, though I do not know what it is about, to be honest," she confessed.
Both Hiro and Haru raised their eyebrows at the innocence of the young girl before them while Momiji and Kisa were oblivious to the true nature of the Dog's gift.
"And there's this cute cat plushie I want to get Kyo!" she continued. "I know he will love it! And this new gardening book for Yuki, along with these cute little plants that you can hang by hooks on the ceiling. I know Yuki will love-"
She was abruptly cut off when she ran into someone. So lost in her excitement, she had not noticed where she was going. She dropped her basket, and Momiji was quick to gather what had fallen out.
Tohru was quickly apologizing to the woman she had bumped into, who was scowling at the rapidly speaking girl before her. Haru sucked in a deep breath when he realized who it was, his eyes growing icy as he regarded her. But the woman only had eyes for Tohru. Momiji had just noticed who their visitor was, as his eyes grew wide and his mouth parted open slightly.
"Oh boy," Momiji whispered.
"What was it you were saying about my Yuki?" the woman demanded.
"Okay," Yuki sad with determination. "If we can cut out what we eat and fast for three months, that should help with the bills after Christmas and meet the deadline. And if we wear the same clothes for about, maybe three weeks, then the money we saved in the water bill can go towards the electricity bill. Also, we can keep the heat off and hope that the lights from all the decorations will warm us up. Shigure might not like it, but the sacrifice will help him keep his house."
Ritsu nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe then you can reduce the bills to four months instead of five then!"
Yuki frowned. "It's not enough," he added.
"What are you doing?" Kyo asked, coming in and dusting the snow off of his jacket.
"Tring to cut down on our spending to save up for the bills!" Ritsu exclaimed with a wide smile.
Kyo frowned. "Bills? But...aren't we rich?"
Author's Note: "Lo siento" means "I'm sorry," in Spanish. Hence, Ritsu's sass.