A/N: Sorry, guys. It's really hard for me to keep Ikuto in character. But here's the next chapter!
The Million Dollar Bet
Day Two, Part Two
After dinner…
"Uhh…" Yaya began, staring at the pile of dishes that needed to be washed. "Ikuto? How do you wash the dishes?"
"What?" Ikuto asked, alarmed. "You mean you've never done them before?" Yaya shook her head.
"I don't know how," she confirmed.
"Well this is great," he said sarcastically, "Neither of us have washed a single dish in our lives. But I've seen it done."
"I think we just put them all in the dish washer," Yaya stated, picking one of the plates off the stack.
"We have to rinse them off, first, I'm pretty sure," Ikuto said, holding some utensils under a stream of water. He placed them in the dishwasher. Yaya put the plate she was holding under the faucet, and then put it, too, in the dishwasher. It didn't take long for the whole thing to be full, and all the dishes in it.
"Now what?"
"Put soap in the dishwasher, and start it up," Ikuto instructed. Yaya looked in the cabinet under the sink, and pulled out a bottle labeled "dish soap". She poured it into the little bowl that's meant to hold soap, shut it, and closed the dishwasher. She located a button on the front that said "start" and pushed it. A whirring sound began, and both Yaya and Ikuto felt very accomplished as they left the kitchen.
In the downstairs living room, everyone was gathering to do… whatever. Nagi, Tadase, Kukai, and Utau were playing a card game that looked very intense. Amu and Rima were having a conversation, while watching their friends play. Ikuto and Yaya walked in from doing the dishes, and seated themselves. Ikuto sat right next to Amu, a bit too close for her comfort level. She pushed him away. This started a tiny argument that no one else was paying much attention to.
When the card game was finished, those playing somehow managed to convince those who were not playing to play.
"What game are we playing?" asked Amu.
"Cheat," replied Utau.
"What's that?" Yaya asked. Nagi explained the game and they played a practice round. Some recognized it, though they had called it by a different name in the past.
"Okay, who has to two of hearts?" asked Nagi. Everyone looked through their cards.
"Yaya does!"
"Then you start," Yaya put down the card.
"Rima-tan's turn," she stated. Rima placed down two cards.
"Two threes," she said, glaring. No one dared to call "cheat" on her. In the end, Nagi won. Yaya had the largest stack of cards. In fact, she had practically the whole deck.
"Let's play the 'what if' game," Nagi suggested. Rima brightened. This could get very amusing. She was about to nod happily, when she realized that her arch enemy had suggested it, and refrained.
"What's that?" was the question coming from everyone's lips. Nagi was going to explain, but Amu interrupted.
"I'm gonna go get some snacks," she said, and walked towards the kitchen.
"Hey, has anyone seen the charas? I haven't seen them in a while," Kukai said. No one had, but they brushed it off. Kiseki was probably ordering them around somewhere upstairs.
Suddenly, a surprised yelp came from the kitchen. Everyone turned their heads. "Amu probably tripped over something," stated Ikuto. Amu came back into the living room.
"Yaya! What did you do to the dishwasher?" she exclaimed. Yaya shrugged innocently. Curious, everyone got up and walked into the kitchen. Half of the tile floor was swamped in yellow foam, and it was coming from the dishwasher. Nagi spotted the bottle of soap on the counter, and stepped through the bubbles to get it.
"Is this the soap you used, Yaya?" he asked. She nodded. Nagihiko did a face-palm. "I guess someone should have told you."
"Told Yaya what?" she asked, staring at the mess.
"You should never put liquid soap in the dishwasher!" Most of them contributed to cleaning the mess up, and had it done pretty quickly. They seated themselves in the living room again, and Nagi started to explain the "what if game".
"So what we do is everyone writes a question that starts with 'what if'," Nagihiko began. "It can be anything, preferably about someone in the room, and something not too mean. For example 'what if Kukai's nose was purple?' Leave room for an answer. Then we'll all put the pieces of paper in the middle, and pass them back out again, and make sure no one has their own. Then everyone will write an answer to the question they have. I'll tell you what to do from there." They had torn sheets of paper into small pieces that were just the right size for a question and an answer. Nagi suggested this game with Rima in mind. She would love it. Some of these could turn out really funny. He began to write his question. They placed all of the questions in the middle and redistributed them.
What if the whole world turned into a song? What kind of a question was that? Well, he was pretty sure who wrote it. He scribbled down his answer. It wasn't a particularly clever answer, but I might get a few laughs.
"Is everyone ready?" he asked, when all eyes seemed to be off their papers. "Good, now here's how it goes: I'm going to read the question I have, then Tadase, who's to my left, will read the answer that he wrote to his question. Then he'll read his question, and Amu, who's to his left, will read her answer, then her question, and so forth, moving to the left in a circle. Okay, here it goes: What if the whole world turned into a song?"
Tadase read his answer, "Then Amu would leave!" This produced a few giggles, but it wasn't much more than simply amusing. "What if the Guardians had to wear capes year round?" Amu crinkled her nose.
"I wouldn't like that," she read aloud. It made sense, but wasn't very funny. "What if Amu and Tadase were worst enemies?" She seamed to cringe at the words.
"Amu and Ikuto would be twins!" Rima replied. More giggles. It didn't have anything to do with the question. "What if Ikuto's hair was pink?"
"Then Amu-chii wouldn't have a boyfriend! She'd have a candy-loving sister!" Yaya said. This got several 'what the heck' faces.
"But Yaya, I don't have a boyfriend."
"So?" Yaya asked, and continued. "What if Tadase decided to wear skirts all the time?" A guffaw came from Kukai and Nagi, and a blush from Tadase.
"Yaya, you're question didn't have anything to do with your answer," Amu pointed out.
"It doesn't matter," Kukai, who was next, said "Let's keep going." Yaya read her question again to get the right effect, and Kukai read his answer.
"What if Tadase wore skirts all the time?"
"We would all be in danger of a very hyper Yaya," said Kukai, "What if a giant lollipop swooped down and took over the entire galaxy and turned everything into sugar?"
"Then everyone would have to endure Yaya's complaints," Utau replied. Okay, even Rima laughed at that one. It took a minute for everyone to recover before Utau continued. "What if Yaya hated candy?"
"Who would care?" Ikuto said.
"Yaya would care!" Yaya yelled. Ikuto ignored her.
"What if Nagihiko's face was frozen in a constipated dog's expression?" Nagi cringed, knowing who wrote it. Did she really hate him that much? Well, this was the 'what if game', and things could be mean. None of this should be taken seriously, he told himself.
"Everyone would dance all the time," Nagihiko said slowly. Rima wasn't laughing, or smiling. She didn't even have an evil look on her face. She looked… guilty.
"Wanna play again?" Yaya asked. "Yaya likes this game!"
"Did you even notice that most of the questions were about you?" Rima asked. Yaya didn't care. She wanted to play again. No one else had objections, which was slightly surprising. So they repeated the process, and their results were as follows:
"What if the charas decided to dig a whole to America?" Nagi read. If only they knew.
"We'd all be drowning in soap suds (No offense, Yaya)," Tadase replied. "What if Amu hadn't gone to get snacks and seen the foam mess?"
"That could be dangerous," said Amu, "What if Yaya had all the candy she wanted?"
"His digestive system would protest in a most unpleasant way, I'm sure," Rima said, "What if Tadase ate nothing but chili dogs and prune juice for a week?"
"Then I could have lots of candy!" Yaya exclaimed happily. Laughter. Nagihiko watched Rima laughing, and was sure he didn't regret introducing this game. "What if this whole trip was just a fanfiction?"
"She would be rich," stated Kukai, "What if Rima won the lottery?"
"They are kinda cute together," Utau said, "What if Rima married Nagi?" Rima was enraged. She had a dark aura coming from her, but didn't say anything.
"Tadase would regret it," Ikuto growled, making everyone wonder what his question was, "What if… Amu-chan married… Tadase?" Nagihiko was almost afraid to read his answer, lest the wrath of Ikuto be inflicted upon him.
"Uhh… I wouldn't be surprised," he managed nervously. No one laughed. Ikuto was glaring at Nagi, who sweat-dropped. Tadase was blushing. Amu looked worried.
Outside…
"I'm hungry ~dechu!" whined Peppe. All the charas were.
"We've been digging for hours, can't we go in?" Kusukusu asked.
"Okay! Everyone go inside and get something to eat! I command you!" Kiseki roared. They all dropped their spoons and floated wearily away from the 6 inch hole they had dug.
"I can't open the door!" Ran exclaimed, "Help me!" They all tried to turn the knob on the door, but they were too small.
"We can go around to the front and ring the doorbell," suggested Miki. They floated to the front, but there was no doorbell. The charas split up and searched around the house to see if any of the windows were open. They watched their owners inside, laughing and playing some game with little pieces of paper. It was dark. Some of them were scared.
"What now ~nya?"
"We're stuck outside ~desu!"
"We must be brave, loyal subjects! We will use our survival skills!" Kiseki began shouting out orders, while they made their way to the giant balcony.
"We could sleep under here," suggested Rhythm, pointing to the barbeque grill, which had a cover over it.
In the girl's room…
"I haven't seen the charas in a while," Amu mused, flopping onto her stomach on her bed. In doing so, her nose came quite close to the crack between the bed and the wall. "Hey, look! My journal!" she snatched the little book up, and began leafing through it, making sure it was okay. The charas were forgotten, as Amu grabbed a pen and began scribbling down the events of the day. She didn't want to forget a single detail of this whole adventure, so writing it down was very important.
Rima was reading some gag-Manga, and Utau had shut herself in the bathroom. Yaya was bored, and found some candy in her suitcase. She began to munch on it, completely oblivious to the time. The best way to conclude what happened was that all of the girls were especially cranky the next day, besides the candy-loving Yaya.
A/N: I actually had more intended for this chapter, but it just kind of… stopped. And besides, I need to spread my ideas out to make them last for two whole weeks. That's quite a while. Thanks for the reviews, minna-san! I'm REALLY busy this time of year, so I don't get to write all too much, and when I do, I SHOULD be working on my publishable writing. I got my nonfiction article back from my mentor today! HURRAY! She said it was worth publishing! So maybe someday I will. But I'm gonna try really hard to keep getting these chapters out. Maybe… one chapter a week, though sometimes I won't get to it.
Oh, and the what if game is REALLY fun in real life, and it's a great party game. You just have to be careful with little kids because they take everything seriously and are easily offended. I've played it at parties... sometimes younger ones end up in tears. But I highly reccomend this game! You can play it with as little as three people.
Remember, the more reviews, the faster the next chapter comes! Arigato!