A/N: I had fun writing this...
Disclaimer: I don't own the Three Stooges
The Million Dollar Bet
Day Seven, Part One
~Recap~
And then in struck her. This odd feeling that had been plaguing her for the past few days. Everything crashed onto her head like the water pouring from the shower. And three words rang clear in Rima's mind: I'm in love.
~End Recap~
A smile burst onto Rima' face: the smile that had been locked away for the past few days. For some reason, her epiphany didn't seem like a bad thing. She was happy.
Turning the knob of the shower all the way to the right, the torrent of water ceased and she wrapped herself in a towel. She slipped into her clothes as quickly as she could and rubbed the towel over her hair to dry it a little bit. There wasn't time to do anything more. Somehow, Rima felt a need to do something about the realization immediately.
She turned off the light in the bathroom and opened the door. All the other girls were asleep. A nervous excitement filled her stomach, and she noticed the smile was still plastered across her face.
Rima slipped back into the bedroom, crept across it, then turned the doorknob as quietly as she could. Click. The door was open. She walked out, making her way soundlessly across the hall. Inching along the wall, Rima remembered something that presented a flaw in her plan: Ikuto=cat. He'd probably be awake. If he caught her slinking about at night like this... he would probably tell. He had absolutely no reason to keep a secret for Rima.
There wasn't much to be done about it; she would just have to be extra careful. Rima knew what she was going to do—what she needed to do—and she was going to do it, right now.
Determined, she opened the door to the other room just enough for her to slide in—on her hands and knees. Her breathing was uneven and nervous, and she forced herself to calm it.
The only light was coming from the windows on the other side of the room. It was barely enough to see by, but she could make out the four large shadows that were beds. Now she ran into another problem: Which was Nagihiko? And worse yet, one of them was Ikuto, and he'd probably be awake. If she picked the wrong one...
Taking a deep breath, Rima readied herself to take her chances. As quietly as she could, she crept to the bed closest to her. She stood on her knees and peered over. It was too tall to be Nagihiko. Crap, she thought when the figure moved, That's Ikuto. She crept across the room and found the person there far too short to be Nagi, and had blond hair poking out from the top of the covers. Tadase. Two more beds: fifty-percent chance.
Luckily, fate seemed to be on her side at that moment, because she found Nagihiko next. Once again standing on her knees, she shook him in attempt to wake him.
"Wake up, purple head!" she whispered into his ear. He didn't obey her. After several failed attempts, she was beginning to give up hope. "I'm warning you, Fujisaki, if you don't wake up right now..." That did it. His eyes shot open and he blinked a few times when he saw Rima, then muttered something about dreaming.
"No, it's really me! You're not dreaming!"
"I'm not?" he asked. Rima shook her head. Suddenly, he was fully awake.
"Rima! What are you doing in here?"
"Shh! I think Ikuto's awake," Rima warned.
"Oh, sorry," he said.
"Come with me," she whispered urgently.
"What? Why?" Nagihiko asked.
"Just come! I need to tell you something," Rima hissed. He did as he was told, and the two of them crawled out of the room.
"Okay, so what do you want?"
"Not here. We'll wake everyone up with our talking." Rima dragged him to the largest balcony, and shut the door behind them. The lighting was a little bit better there.
"So what did you wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me? And you're hair's all wet! You're going to catch cold out here."
"It's fine. This is important."
"What is it? Is something wrong?"
"Yes. I mean, no! I... had a realization."
"Of what?"
"The thing that's been confusing me for the past few days."
"Yeah," said Nagihiko, "You have been acting weird. So what was it that was confusing you that's so important?"
"This odd... feeling," Rima said. Nagi raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sick?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice.
"That was what I thought at first..." she mumbled. "It's not really like that. But I realized what it was."
"What do you mean?" asked Nagihiko. Rima took a deep breath, and told him the whole thing.
"I've been really confused ever since... ever since you... since you kissed me in the attic. And I wondered why I wasn't mad at you—I should have been, for taking my first kiss. But I wasn't, and it confused me. There was this odd feeling that came with it. And on the bridge the other day, I was running completely on impulse. I want to apologize for messing with you like that. It was cruel." She paused for a moment, and he looked slightly disappointed. Then she continued.
"Then tonight, I couldn't sleep, because of all the thoughts crowding my mind. So I decided to take a shower. And suddenly, it all came to me, and I understood."
"Understood what?"
"Nagihiko, I... realized that... I love you."
~In the Morning~
Achoo! The moment Rima woke, she sneezed. Nagihiko had been right when he'd said she'd catch a cold with her hair wet outside in the middle of the night. She decided to ignore it, and tried to go back to sleep.
Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. Besides the sun streaming in the window, Yaya was yelling in her ear to wake her up. Rima pulled her pillow over her head to block out the obnoxious noise. It didn't help much, and eventually she sat up just to prove to Yaya that she was awake, and that the yelling was unnecessary.
"Hurray! Rima-tan's awake! It's time for breakfast!"
"Yaya..." Rima groaned. Achoo! Yaya looked a little bit surprised at the sound that had erupted from the short blond.
"Is Rima-tan getting sick?"
"Yes! I think I have a cold. I'd better stay in bed," she replied, laying back down.
"Okay, Yaya will bring you your breakfast!" Yaya yelled, and ran out of the room. The silence was nice, and she found herself falling asleep again, which had been her original goal. Just as sleep had nearly taken over, a loud voice came zooming into the room. With it came Yaya, carrying a trey with her breakfast on it.
"Arigato," Rima said quietly, when the candy-loving girl placed the trey on her lap. Sneezing again, she took a look at the contents of the trey. There were a couple of waffles drowning in syrup, with a strawberry on each. A cup of tea accompanied them. She wrinkled her nose.
"Is Rima-tan gonna be okay?" Yaya asked.
"I don't like this kind of tea," she stated.
"Well, Nagi said that you had to drink it, even if you didn't want to," Yaya countered. Rima's heart fluttered at his name, but she had to keep up her act.
"Since when do I take orders from him?" She turned up her nose, but sipped the tea anyway.
"Yaya's going to find something to do, ta-ta!" Yaya said, walking back out of the room. Rima ate her breakfast in silence, sneezing every now and then.
Eventually, Amu came into the room. "Hey, Rima-chan! How are you feeling? Yaya said you were sick... and you slept in really late."
"I'm okay. I just have a cold... I think. Are we filming today?"
"Yeah... we're filming scenes with you in them. Can you act?"
"Maybe. I'm not that sick," she sneezed again.
"If you stay in bed all day, you'll get better really fast," Amu suggested. Rima narrowed her eyes.
"Are you trying to get rid of me for a day?" she asked.
"N-no! Where d-did you get th-that idea?" the pinkette waved her hands in front of her, looking very embarrassed.
"I know," said Rima, giggling. Amu looked at her in a weird way.
"You're in a good mood, aren't you?" she asked. Rima nodded. "Why might that be?"
"I don't know," Rima lied, then changed the subject. "I think Ikuto wants you." She pointed out the window, where Ikuto could be seen on the balcony. He smirked, and Amu yelled at him.
"Ikuto, you hentai! Go away!" he shook his head. Amu stormed onto the balcony where she was instantly abducted to the rooftop by a blue-haired cat-boy. Rima sighed, and sneezed again
The door opened. Glancing in that direction, a wide smile spread across her face. "Nagihiko!" she exclaimed happily.
"Ohayo, Rima-chan!" he smiled back at her. This was enough to make her heart flutter. "So you did catch a cold last night? Are you okay?"
She nodded. He walked over to her bed and sat on the edge of it. Rima's smile dimmed a bit.
"You shouldn't be in here. What if someone walks in..."
"To see me sitting here? Is there anything wrong with that?"
"Well... they might suspect something, and I want to keep it a secret as long as possible," Rima explained with a sneeze. Nagi put a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you going to stay in bed all day?"
"No, I guess not," she said, pulling back the covers and standing up. Nagihiko looked slightly surprised.
"You slept in your clothes?" he asked, already knowing it was true. Rima nodded sheepishly. "Rima, you need to take better care of yourself. You stayed up really late, went outside with wet hair and caught a cold from it, and then slept in your clothes, all in one night."
"My mind was preoccupied," she replied, sneezing again. Nagihiko looked worried, and opened his mouth to speak. "Don't you dare say 'I told you so', Nagi-koi," she said, stressing the honorific in a teasing manner. He shut his mouth, but smirked happily. The next thing Rima knew, she was being pulled into a hug. She wrapped her arms around Nagihiko's waist tightly and rested her head against him, as he placed his chin on top her head, breathing in the scent of her hair.
After a few moments, he lifted her face with his hand and kissed her cheek. She giggled, then pulled back. "You're going to catch my cold if you keep that up," Rima warned. Nagihiko sighed.
"It's amazing how fast things changed. Just yesterday we weren't speaking to each other. Are you sure you want to keep this a secret?" he asked.
Rima nodded, and sneezed again. Nagi's face creased with lines of worry. She changed the subject.
"Amu said Ikuto wants to film today," achoo! "And I don't think it would look right to have a sneezing critic... or Madame Barracuda, for that matter." He smirked.
"Have you read the script?"
"Kind of... just the scenes I appear in."
"It's kind of funny that we have apposing parts. I'm playing the mother of Christine, and you're playing the mother of Carlotta."
"Well that should be fun," Rima said sarcastically, sneezing for the umpteenth time. "But seeing that I'm not doing any acting today, I'm going to see if there's any good comedy movies in this house to watch." She turned toward the door, Nagi following.
~On the roof~
"Ikuto! Let me down right now!" Amu demanded.
"What did you expect when you came out on the balcony? You were setting yourself up. You fell into the trap, and now you have to pay the consequences. I'm going to keep you for as long as I want," replied Ikuto. Amu turned away from him, her nose in the air. A pair of arms wrapped themselves around her waist from behind, and she felt a nip on her ear.
"BAKA HENTAI COSPLAY NEKO!" she yelled, jumping away from him and nearly falling off the roof in the process. If only my charas were here. What is Kiseki making them do, anyway?
"I'll let you down, but it comes with a price," Ikuto said mischeiviously. Amu faced him, hopefully.
"What do you want?" she asked, ready to give almost anything. Unfortunately for her, she didn't notice the look on Ikuto's face that would have warned her what was coming.
"You have to promise you'll give it to me," he said.
"Sure, whatever, just get me down from here!" she replied loudly. Satisfied, Ikuto nodded, and picked Amu up yet again. Holding her 'bridal style', he jumped from the roof and landed on the balcony coming off the girls room. Before she could go anywhere, he kissed her full on the mouth.
Amu freaked out and ran inside, slamming the door behind her and locking Ikuto out.
~Outside~
The charas were still attempting to dig a hole to America. Before it had rained, their hole had nearly been a foot deep. But the rain filled it in, and they'd had to spoon all the water out. Yet with the wet ground, it was easier to dig. It was now nearly a foot-and-a-half deep. Kiseki was very pleased with himself.
~Inside~
Amu was still really freaked out. She had gone into the kitchen, hoping to find Rima, although she had no idea why. What she found instead was a very hyper Yaya, running in circles around the kitchen. Also in the room was a worried-looking Tadase, and a smirking Kukai.
"What happened?" Amu asked, forgetting about Ikuto. Kukai's smirk grew into a grin.
"Yaya discovered coffee," he explained casually.
"Now why would Yaya want to drink coffee?" Utau asked, walking into the room. "She loves sweet things, and coffee is very bitter."
"It had a lot of creamer in it," Tadase said. Amu and Utau had 'oh' faces on.
"Yaya thinks coffee is almost as good as candy!" Yaya yelled more loudly than usual. Everyone sweat-dropped. This was going to be a long day.
"Where are Rima and Nagihiko?" Utau asked.
"Rima's sick. I don't know where Nagi is," Amu replied.
"Well, it's his turn to make lunch," Utau replied, "I'm going to go find him."
"But he made breakfast," Tadase pointed out.
"It was Rima's turn to make breakfast. He did it for her, so it's still his turn to make lunch," Utau said, walking away. She had become very suspicious of both Rima and Nagihiko. And it seemed like there was a battle going on between the two blonds: a blackmail battle. Rima had found her kissing Kukai twice: the first time when she slipped on the wet grass, and the other time when Rima was looking for them and found them in the upstairs living room. It wasn't that the girls disliked each other: they didn't. But both had information about the other that could be a valuable weapon.
Achoo! Utau could hear sounds coming from down the hall. There was also talking, which sounded like it was from an old movie. As she walked further down the hall, she could make out what the voices were saying, and placed them as the three stooges.
"My uncle was an igloo manufacturer,"
"How do you manufacture igloos?"
"You take to igs and you glue 'em together!"
Bonk, clatter, clank!
Yep, that was definitely the three stooges. Utau walked into the upstairs living room to find Rima and Nagihiko watching said old comedy show in black-and-white. They didn't look like they could possible be enemies, sitting there together and laughing. She almost hated to interrupt.
"Nagihiko, you're making lunch today," she said, and they both turned to look at her. Rima paused the show, and Nagi got up, groaning.
"Okay, thanks, Utau-san," he said, walking down the hall towards the stairs. Utau smirked at Rima, who turned the other way to hide a blush.
"Why do I sense that you and Nagihiko don't hate each other as much as you say?" she asked. Rima's answer was a sneeze, after which she got up and followed Utau downstairs.
~Ten Minutes Later~
"Yaya, what are you doing?" Amu asked, peering into the living room from the dining room where she was setting the table. Yaya was jumping on the couch. "Uh—I don't think that's a good idea. Why don't you come in here?"
That didn't turn out to be a good idea, either. Apparently, when Yaya was this hyper, she did things that she wouldn't do when she just normally hyper. After dancing around the kitchen for a few minutes, she skipped over to Kukai and kissed him.
Utau was, put mildly, furious. She began flaming and her eyes gleamed as she walked toward the little girl, ready for revenge. Yaya squeeked and ran outside, where she came face-to-face with Ikuto, who was coming inside for lunch. Turning back inside the house, she was faced with a raging Utau. Now she was stuck.
Everyone else watched the scene before them play out like it was a movie. They were completely silent. Utau started scolding Yaya, who didn't seem to be paying much attention. The younger girl eventually disappeared, unharmed.
A foul odor filled the air, making everyone cough.
"Nagihiko, I think something is burning," Tadase managed. Nagi looked startled, then ran to take something black out of the oven. He sweat-dropped when the disgusting... whatever-it-was let out a stream of black smoke. Taking it outside, the awful smell lessened. It was left out there.
"Now what are we gonna have for lunch?" asked Nagihiko. Utau was already taking care of the situation, however, by punching a few numbers into her cellphone. She spoke into it, then interrupted her conversation.
"Kukai, go see what the address on this house is," she ordered. Kukai ran out the front door and came back in a few moments. He recited some numbers to Utau, and she told them to whoever was on the other end of the phone. After a few more moments, she hung up.
"I ordered pizza. It should be here in less than an hour," she stated.
A/N: This was a fun chapter to write. I managed to put Rimahiko, Amuto and Kutau all in the same chapter! And even some kukaya, for those of you that are fans of that (I prefer kutau).
Okay, so do you guys want more or less fluff? I'm not very good at writing it, I realize, but the more I practice the better I get! Tell me what you think? More? Less? About the same? I want to know!