Hiyori pulled a thin sweater over her shirt. It was the second day of her stay at Kofuku's place. And it was raining outside. The rain tapped on the window hard. Deep puddles on the sidewalk.
Somebody sure pissed off the rain god.
Perhaps by trashing a fountain that was dedicated to him in the middle of a children's park.
Yato sat on a chair two feet away from her. He sulked. "It wasn't even my fault! I don't know where the ayakashi will burst through!"
Lightning flashed outside the window. Thunder shook the building. Hiyori covered her ears. "That sounds like the center of the storm is just above us..."
Below them, the door swung open and a drenched Yukine walked through the doorway. Hiyori and Yato watched from the top of the stairs as he slowly forced the door closed against the strong wind. As he struggled, water pooled beneath his feet. When he finally snapped the lock in place, there was a good-sized puddle underneath his feet.
Hiyori ran to get the mop, and Yato ran downstairs with three towels. In three seconds, Yukine found himself at the table drinking hot , freshly brewed tea and wrapped in many layers of the biggest towels Yato could get his hands on. Behind him, Hiyori mopped up the puddle and chided Yato for walking around with shoes that he had gotten wet.
Th groceries Yukine had gotten were drenched, and some of them were squashed. Most of the lettuce had been bruised. "I'm sorry about that, Kofuku," Yukine said "I kept on slipping in the puddles on the way home." Kofuku waved her hand. "It's okay, Yukine. We'll just eat them all today!"
Kaikoku looked at all the vegetables drying out on the table. "All of this? Today?"
Kofuku tossed any plastic-wrapped products into the fridge and looked at what was left. "Yeah! We can eat all of them. Let's make salad!"
Hiyori gave Yato the mop. "I'll make vegetable soup!"
Daikoku surveyed the stuff they had out. "Alright, then... First things first... Get the goddess of bad luck out of the kitchen."
Kofuku pouted and left to pour Yukine more tea. The vegetables instantly looked a lot less bruised, and Hiyori suddenly found the pot she was searching for deep in the cupboards.
Yato walked around the kitchen innocently, ditching the mop in a corner. Daikoku immediately turned around and sent him packing. In the end, Yato sat in the corner forlornly peeling potatoes.
Hiyori tied on an apron and began to chop up the carrots.
Daikoku searched through the pile of vegetables, pausing at the awkward selections Yukine had chosen. "Peppers? Eggplant? Leeks? Ramen? Curry powder? Onions? What can we possibly make with all this?"
Hiyori grabbed them and sliced them. "Just boil 'em all together. Ramen-curry-vegetable-soup-with-eggplant... Can't be that bad."
Daikoku shrugged and set the pot on the stove, poured in water, and dumped everything on the chopping board inside. Hiyori glanced over at Yato.
Who was reducing the potatoes to strips.
"Oi! Yato, I think you're peeling too much of the potato... Like, all of it!" Yukine yelled. Yato glanced up, and found himself buried in endless potato wrappings, most of which was not skin. In his hand he held the one last whole potato, which had been peeling correctly.
He stood up sheepishly. Hiyori sighed and tossed out the potato skins and took the strips, chopped them into smaller ones, and tossed them into the pot as well without a care.
As well as the whole potato.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect it to be grand cuisine, but this is just terrible."
Yato shoved Yukine aside. "He's just kidding. I'm absolutely sure that it will taste great! Right, Yukine?"
"We are going to die."
"Ahahaha!" Yato shoved a spoonful of the mysterious brown substance into Yukine's mouth. "He's just joking, of course."
Daikoku spooned out the rest of the soup-noodle-poison into the last medium-sized bowl and tossed the ladle and the pot into the sink. The five of them sat down in front of their respective "broths".
Hiyori spooned the soup and found a giant lump right in the middle of it. It had a squishy, lumpy feel. She poked it suspiciously. "I think I've found Yato's whole potato."
Kaikoku looked at his bowl. He had all the eggplant pieces, even the top, which he was absolutely sure he had chopped off and tossed out. He looked over to Kofuku's bowl, which was still steaming and bubbling despite the chilly air and the fact that it had been cooled for fifteen minutes.
Kofuku's china bowl already had three cracks in it. Her porcelain spoon wasn't doing much better. Five more minutes and she would be eating chips of fake glass and overcooked lentils.
He was sure that he had set the temperature on the stove just right. But for some very unlucky reason, the fire on the stove top just lit and caught on fire, baking the bottom back of the pan to crisp and boiling the soup to muck.
Eating with the goddess of bad luck and the god of catastrophe and calamity in the same kitchen. Why don't they invite the god of rain and storms from his thundering outside as well? He might actually improve the situation.
Yukine was throwing up at the sink from the spoonful he had received from Yato. Hiyori was poking the potato to pieces. Yato gingerly placed a tiny slice of carrot on his tongue.
He chewed and swallowed. "See, that wasn't that bad..."
And then he was at the sink, hurling right next to Yukine.
Yukine and Yato sat shivering on Hiyori's futon. Outside the rain had chilled even further. Any colder and it would become hail.
"M-m-my t-t-t-teeth are ch-chattering." Yukine forced out through his mouth.
Hiyori wrapped her blanket around her shoulders even more tightly. "I thought it was going to be mildly cool today! It said so on the forecast!"
"T-tell that to the god outside." Yato murmured.
"Why are you two on my futon? Go up to your shrine!"
"Are you kidding me? If he's doing this in the human world, where our power is limited, our god's realm must be completely trashed!"
"And besides, the forecast is never correct! Especially when you're sleeping over in the house of the goddess who spread bad luck!"
"How long can he keep this up?" Hiyori asked.
"Until he gets tired or until he forgives us." Yukine muttered.
"When will he get tired?"
"In a few hundred years."
"EEEEH?! ! !" Hiyori squeaked. "Then... When will he forgive us?"
"In a few thousand years."
"... No other options?"
"Well, we could sacrifice Yato. That might appease him."
"Okay, let's go with that."
"OI! I'm right here! Don't joke about sacrificing meee! I can hear you! ! ! It's not funny, goddammit!"
"Who said we were joking?"
The next morning...
Hiyori glanced at her phone screen. As she clicked into history, a long string of missed calls from her parents began loading up. She swallowed hard. "I guess they're back... And they don't know where I am... And I'm grounded."
Yato sat up from the futon and glanced around. Hiyori was picking up her things from the floor and the desk. Outside, the storm continued raging
"How are you gonna get through that?"
"I'll just ask politely."
Yato wilted. "Okay. Bye, then."
Hiyori nodded. "See you soon. Tell Kofuku I had to leave right away since my parents were freaking okay, okay?"
"Okay."
Yato listened to the sound of her footsteps as they faded away. Down the stairs, onto the welcome mat. Shutting the door behind her. Empty clang. Bad memories.
Beside him, Yukine snored softly.
He walked over the window. As he watched, Hiyori called up to the rain and as it cleared, she walked through the narrow space between the still-raining clouds that hung around the house. As soon as she passed through the rain, the clouds closed up again and began to flood the porch in earnest.
Yato sighed. Time to go fix a fountain.
Yato sat down next to the fountain and glued tiny chunks of it together. It was a mellow day. Not many phantoms like days right after a big rain. Today, for example, all of them were shivering in the corner somewhere. When the rain was pouring they had more appearances. Rainy day and you would see a ghost on every corner. Sunny rainbow-material days and you wouldn't find a single on in a square mile.
Yato sat up from his finished statue. He stood and walked a quick circle around, surveying it sharply. Then he lifted his foot and gave it a tiny kick.
It held.
So he lifted his foot backwards even further and kicked it with more strength.
It wobbled a little, but still held.
Yato smeared a little more glue on.
Behind him, someone reached over and tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned around, his hand automatically reaching to call Yukine over.
Hiyori raised an eyebrow. Her tail flicked too and fro behind her. "I'm grounded. My body's stuck to my desk and sleeping."
Yato grinned. "Do ya wanna help me put up some posters-"
"No."
Yato pouted. Yukine looked up from where he sat on a bench, reading a newspaper. "Oi, Yato, are you done fixing the statue or what?"
"Right, the statue. Almost-"
Hiyori sneezed.
The statue crumbled.
"NOOOOO! ! !"
Above the three of them, clouds began to gather.
Yukine sighed and folded up his newspaper. He grabbed the jumbo umbrella that he had hooked on the armrest of the bench. He opened it and walked over to Yato and Hiyori, shielding them from the rain just as it began to pour down.
The ayakashi began to awaken.
"Let's go back to Kofuku."
Without another word, the three of the set off, with Yukine in the middle and holding up the big umbrella as high as his hand could reach.
~THE END~
Random fluffy nonsense writing with no drafting, no editing, no planning.
:p
This is how I wrote this story.
