The Million Dollar Bet

Day Five

"Yaya's bored!" exclaimed said guardian. Everyone was sitting, once again, in the downstairs living room, doing practically nothing. It was just after lunch, and the charas were working on their project outside, although Kiseki refused to tell the humans what it was. "Yaya wants to play a game."

"Like what?" Amu asked, shoving Ikuto away for the umpteenth time. He kept sliding closer to her and poking her in an obnoxious manner.

"Hmm... Yaya wants to play the 'would you rather' game!" she declaired.

"What's that?" asked Nagihiko. It hadn't gone unnoticed that he hadn't been speaking much at all lately. Neither had Rima, for that matter, and both of them seemed to be avoiding each other more than usual. Everyone but Yaya, Tadase and Utau was wondering what was up. Yaya and Tadase because they hadn't caught on, and Utau because she already knew.

"We take turns asking questions that have an either-or answer. And you have to pick one or the other, you can't say 'neither' or 'both'. So like, I could say: 'Tadase, would you rather have a big nose or big ears?', and he would have to pick one."

"Sound like fun. I'll go first," Ikuto said, already thinking of how to take advantage of the silly game. "Amu, would you rather have a cat or a dog?"

"Uhh... I d-don't know! C-cat," she said. Ikuto smirked and shot a triumphant look in Tadase's direction. He didn't seem to have figured out the metaphor, however, and was unfazed.

"Your turn, Amu-chii," Yaya prompted.

"Uh... Utau, would you rather have horse hooves or pig hooves?"

"What the heck? Uh... horse hooves, I guess," Utau answered. "Rima, would you rather marry Nagihiko or Tadase?" She grinned evilly. Rima began to blush and looked away to hide it.

"Neither."

"You have to pick one!" Yaya shouted. There was a long silence, in which Rima seemed to be weighing the results of either answer.

"N-Nagihiko," she finally said, then quickly moved on, "Yaya, would you rather eat chocolate or vanilla cake?"

"Chocolate! No, vanilla! No! Wait! That's no fair! YAYA WANTS BOTH!!!" Yaya began to pout, then finally made up her mind, "Chocolate. But I like vanilla just as much! Tadase, would you rather have a unicorn or a dragon?"

Tadase thought it over for a minute, before deciding, "Unicorn." He sat in silence for a while, and finally said, "Nagihiko, would you rather be a desk or a pencil?"

"Well, pecils get sharpened, and that has to hurt. So I guess I'd rather be a desk." Nagi answered. Tadase nodded in a greement, and the game continued. "Kukai, would you rather have green or purple skin?"

"Uhh..." he scratched his head, then shrugged. "Green, I guess. Ikuto, would you rather be a golden retreiver, or a labrador?"

For the sake of the dignity of those involved, we will cut the scene here.

~Later that day~

"We should have predicted how that game would have turned out," Utau said, rubbing hydrogen peroxide onto the deep cat scratchs on Kukai's face. He flinched each time the cotton ball came in contact with the wound, but tried his best to stay put.

"It wasn't Yaya's fault!" Yaya wailed. The three of them were in the kitchen. Utau sent her a glare.

"Then whose was it?"

"Uhh... Ikuto's!" Yaya exclaimed.

"It was not Ikuto's fault," insisted said catboy's little sister.

"It was probably my fault for asking the question to start with," Kukai said sheepishly.

"No, it wasn't," Utau insisted. "Yaya was the one who started the dumb game, and you're supposed to ask questions that are hard to answer. It wasn't your faut, Kukai. And you were the victim, so you're out of the discussion, anyway."

"Where's Ikuto now, anyway?" Yaya asked.

"Probably on the roof," Amu said, sitting down on a barstool at the island counter. She had entered the room a few moments ago, and heard the second half of their conversation.

"Why don't you go get him?" Utau asked, still trying to clean out the scratch on Kukai's face. "Just tough this out, will you?" She said to him, aggrivated.

"No way!" Amu said in response to her first question. "The last time I went up on that roof..." she trailed off, mumbling. Utau finally slapped a bandaid across the cut and turned to Amu.

"What?" she asked, interested.

"He..." mumble, mumble, mumble.

"Say that again?"

"He was... being pervy!" Amu exclaimed.

"Ah, normal Ikuto for ya," Utau turned back to Kukai and choked back a snort.

"What?"

"You look pretty funny with a bandaid across your face like that!"

"Yaya, remind us never to play that game again," Kukai told the candy-lover. She just nodded.

"I'm gonna go find Rima," Amu said, "She's been acting kinda strange lately. I don't suppose any of you know what's up with her?" Everyone shook their heads. Utau smirked.

"Not a thing," she said, then added so quietly only she could hear, "yet."

"Okay," Amu walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She looked in the girls bedroom, and saw a round shape on the balcony off of their room. Heading that way, she opened the sliding glass door and stepped outside, to find Rima curled into a perfect ball.

"It's going to rain," Rima commented. Amu looked at the sky. Indeed, it was dark and cloudy, and had a rather rainy look about it.

"Yeah, maybe we'll even have a thunderstorm," she added, sitting next to her friend. "So what's up?" Rima looked upward.

"Rain," she replied.

"Don't be smart. I can tell something's bothering you. Why don't you tell me about it?"

"I'm fine," Rima said.

"Rima-chan, I'm your best friend. Don't you trust me?"

"Yes, I trust you, Amu-chan."

"Then why don't you tell me? It will probably make you feel better. Maybe I can help," she offered. Rima shook her head.

"I don't really know what's wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"It's this feeling, and I don't know what it is," Rima began. Splat. A tiny raindrop fell onto the concrete floor of the balcony in front of their feet. She hugged herself even more tightly, curling into a ball again.

"Maybe if you describe it I can point it out," Amu suggested. Rima sighed. She wanted Amu to help her, but with how messed up the pink-haired girls own ambhitions and emotions were, sehd din't think it would do much. Plop. Another drop of rain landed on Amu's nose. Somewhere far off, a crash could be heard that sounded an awful lot like thunder.

She stood up, pulling Rima along with her. Looking toward the roof, she yelled, "Ikuto! Get inside now! There's a thunderstorm coming and you shouldn't be up there!" The sound of Ikuto descending from his pertch could be heard, and he landed on the larger balcony that was only about 10 feet away from the edge of the one the girls were standing on. They went inside.

A/N: I'm really sorry this is so short! I wanted it to be longer, but I've been really busy lately. I have a biology test coming up and some other things like that. I ordered a sailor uniform off the internet and it came in yesterday! I'm so happy! It's really cute.

Anyway, I have an idea, but I'm not sure if you guys will like it or not. So I need you to review or PM me and tell me what you think. Should I or shouldn't I do it? Here's the idea:

Yaya and Rima are looking through all the junk in the attic and find that a lot of it isn't junk. They find a working video camera with all the other stuff they need, and decide to make a movie. Ikuto directs. It's a parody off the Phantom of the Opera, called the "Phantom of the Op'ry". (This is actually a play, but they could edit it and make a movie). So they decide to make a homemade movie, and I won't be writing it out scene by scene, but I thought it might be something fun for them to do. Because I'm running out of ideas fast. So I need your guy's help.

Tell me what you think. Like it? Is it an awful idea? Have any better ones? I sure hope you do! I would have to edit a LOT in that to make it work with only 8 actors/actresses. At least Nagi can play both girl and guy parts!

Arigato!