A/N: Hey, minna! I really don't have much to say. My little sister got her hair cut just like Tadase's. I'm back from vacation now, and have run out of sitcoms to watch, so I'm writing. I've been having a writer's block, so this might not be that great. Also, I'm sorry if the characters seem OOC in this chapter. I haven't written in so long it's really hard.

If you haven't already, please vote on my poll so I know what to write next. As of now, Rima Enchanted is winning.

Thank you, Shadow Host, for ideas! I used one of them in this chapter.

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Alex Rider. Anthony Horowitz does.

The Million Dollar Bet

Day Ten, Part 2

"Maybe Yaya's frog will turn into a prince when Yaya kisses it!" exclaimed the hyper girl, not even thinking about her choice of words.

"HAHAHA! NO, I am KING! Not a prince!" Tadase began as he chara-changed. Kukai ran to get a bucket while Yaya scanned the pond for frogs. Most of them had been scared off by Tadase's ranting, and by the time he'd calmed down, there were none in sight.

"Yaya can't find one!"

"Look in the cattails," said Utau. Yaya parted the long, grassy plants and looked around the muddy ground under them. There were no frogs.

"What about pollywogs? Would that count?" Nagihiko asked. Utau shrugged.

"Sure," she said. Yaya bent and peered into the murky water. It wasn't long before she spotted something and her hands dashed in to grab it.

When they emerged, a fat pollywog the size of a full-grown mouse was in her hands. Its slippery swampy-green skin shone in the sunlight while its tiny sides moved in and out as it gasped for air. The tail was pretty small, and its back legs were developed enough that it could move them in a jumping motion in the air, although it did little good. Yaya had a firm grip on the poor creature.

Yaya held the pollywog up to her face and kissed it, then promptly tossed the premature bullfrog back into the pond. It landed with a plop, sending ripples in all directions, and swam away with a frightened look. Yaya spit onto the ground, then wiped her mouth, making disgusted noises.

"Yuck! Yaya is going to brush her teeth now," she ran to the house, while everyone else watched in amusement or laughter.

~Later, on top of the house~

Ikuto was annoyed, irritated, and slightly jealous. Of course, only slightly. It was, after all, only Kiddy-King that all these unpleasant things were directed toward.

Tadase and Amu were walking through the garden behind the house, and they were far too close. Both had blushes of scarlet on their faces, and from where he was watching them on the roof, Ikuto could occasionally hear what they were saying. Tadase was being a sap.

The next thing Ikuto knew, they were holding hands while he sat there watching them. Tadase stopped walking, and Amu followed suit. After exchanging quite a few words, the two seemed to be getting closer and closer until…

Ikuto couldn't take it anymore. He saw where this was headed and jumped off the roof, trying his best to be clamorous. Walking toward them, he smirked in satisfaction at having interrupted their moment.

"Hello, my little strawberry, and Kiddy-King," he said. Tadase looked as if he were about to explode from anger, and Amu's blush deepened.

"Ikuto!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, that is my name," said Ikuto.

"What do you want?" snapped Tadase. Ikuto looked at him with a bored expression, and turned to walk back to the house.

"It's time for lunch," he stated.

Amu and Tadase followed him into the house, and Ikuto was slightly relieved to see that he was right about lunch. Rima was setting the table, while Yaya stood by her side, telling her how horrible the frog had tasted.

Ikuto decided that he would simply steal Amu after lunch and take her onto the roof with him. However, this didn't happen. As soon as the girls were done eating, Amu said something very quietly to Rima and both girls retreated upstairs.

~In the girl's bedroom~

"Why are we here?" Rima asked as they walked onto the balcony.

"Well, several reasons," stated Amu. "First, don't you think it would be fun to have a party on the last night here?"

"…yeah, that would be fun. But what kind of a party?"

"Like a semi-formal party, I guess. Remember all those dresses Yaya found in the attic? Maybe there are some less-formal ones."

"I didn't think you liked to get dressed up," Rima reminded her. Amu flushed slightly.

"Well, it wasn't my idea. It was Tadase's," she replied.

"Yaya would probably love to have a party like that," mused Rima, "And I doubt Utau has any objections."

"Great. We can start planning it at dinner," said Amu.

"What was the other thing? You said there were several reasons you wanted to talk to me," Rima said.

"Oh, yeah," she sat on the ground, and Rima did the same, sitting next to her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Rima asked, although she had a pretty good idea what her best friend was talking about.

"About you and Nagihiko," Amu crossed her arms. "I thought you trusted me."

"I do," said the short blond, rolling her eyes. "And you found out, anyway."

"But why did you keep it a secret? You could have at least told me."

"It wasn't a complete secret," Rima reminded, "Utau knew."

"How did she find out?"

"Well… remember that day when you were playing hide-and-seek? She was hiding in a tree near the bridge, where I was sitting. And she saw Nagihiko and I talking. And she got a picture of us on her cell phone," she explained. Amu raised an eyebrow.

"How did she know you weren't arguing?"

"Ah... well, she took the picture when I…" Blushing, Rima trailed off and hid her face in her knees.

"When you what?" prodded Amu.

"When I kissed him," she mumbled. There was a short silence before the pinkette giggled. "What's funny about it?" Rima asked, her head shooting up, a glare appearing on her face.

"It's just cute," Amu said. "I think you two were made for each other." A short silence occurred. "But there's something else I still want to ask."

"What's that?" Rima's blush was fading now.

"How did he confess? And when?" she looked really curious. As her blush came back, darker than before, Rima buried her face again.

"I did," she muttered.

"What?" Amu asked, not being able to hear Rima's muffled voice very well. Rima lifted her head and faced Amu again.

"I confessed first. Remember the night when I stayed up a lot later than the rest of you?"

"Yes."

"Well, that was when I realized it. So I crept out of the room and woke Nagi and I told him," she explained. Her friend just stared at her, almost disbelieving. "We agreed to keep it a secret," Rima added, as if that would convince her.

"You just walked right into his bedroom, woke him up, and proclaimed your love?" Amu asked, looking amazed.

"No," Rima corrected, "I snuck in, woke him up, dragged him outside, gave an explanation, and then confessed." She paused for a moment, and then added, "And I managed to not wake anyone else up in the process."

"But why didn't you tell me? I was really… shocked when they found you this morning. What if—"

"Nagi's not a pervert," she interrupted. "I trust him. He wouldn't do anything like that."

"He probably wouldn't, but it still scared me," said Amu, crossing her arms.

"I wanted to talk to you about something, too," Rima changed the subject. "Do you really like Tadase?"

"I… I'm n-not sure. Sort of," the pink-haired girl blushed and looked away.

"Do you love him?"

"…N-no. At least, not the way you love Nagi," she replied. Now both girls had red faces, each in different shades.

"What about Ikuto? Do you like him?"

"I d-don't know. He's annoying, b-but I guess I k-kind of like him."

"Which do you like better?"

"I don't know th-that, either. B-but the feelings are d-different," stuttered Amu. There was a thumping noise, and both girls turned their heads to see Ikuto had landed on the balcony, presumably from the roof. Before any protests could be made, he picked Amu up princess-style and leapt back onto the top of the house. Rima smiled and walked inside, sliding the door to the balcony shut behind her.

Not really having anything to do, Rima went in search of Nagihiko. She found him in the upstairs living room, sprawled on the couch, reading a book. He seemed very absorbed in it and didn't notice her come into the room.

Looking over his shoulder, she caught a few words on random spots across the page, which included: Alex, explosive, the, and MI6.

"What's MI6?" Rima asked, startling Nagihiko.

"Oh, hi, Rima," he sat up and turned to face her, "MI6 is the British special operations." She raised an eyebrow.

"What are you reading?"

"Alex Rider," Nagi said, "It's really good."

"What's it about?"

"A fourteen-year-old spy."

"Is it funny?" Rima sat on the couch, resting her chin on her fist as she gazed at Nagihiko.

"No, not really. Occasionally."

"Sounds boring," she said.

"It's not. Here, let me read some to you," he began to read aloud. Rima watched his pretty face as he spoke, his voice filling the room, sometimes pausing for affect. She loved the sound of that voice, and was very content to just sit there staring at him, listening to him read. After a while, he stopped. "What do you think?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, it's… fine," Rima replied absently. Nagihiko sighed.

"You weren't listening to any of that, were you?"

"Nope," she smiled. Her eyes hadn't moved from his face the entire time.

"You'd probably think it was boring, anyway," he said, shutting the book and setting it on the floor. "I'm going to make some chocolate pudding-cake, want to help me?"

"Sure," Rima said in a bored tone. "But didn't Yaya already make cookies?"

"Yes, but frankly, I don't trust them."

~15 minutes later~

"Stir this for a moment while I find some vanilla-extract for the cake," Nagihiko said, handing a large metal spoon to Rima. She dragged a stool to the stove and stood on it so that she could easily stir the pudding without burning herself. The spoon was already warm, and it was getting warmer every moment.

Nagihiko disappeared into the pantry in search of vanilla, and Rima wrapped the handle of the spoon in a dishrag so it wouldn't be too hot. For a moment or so, that worked, but the heat rising from the stove was burning her hand. She switched hands to give the one she'd been using a break.

"Isn't it thick enough yet?" she called.

"Not if the timer hasn't beeped yet," Nagihiko hollered back from inside the pantry. Grimacing, Rima held onto the spoon and kept stirring. Finally, the timer beeped and she turned the stove off.

"I found the vanilla," said Nagihiko, coming out of the pantry holding a bottle of a dark liquid.

"That doesn't look like vanilla," stated Rima.

"Yes it does," he said, looking somewhat confused.

"Isn't vanilla usually light-colored?" she asked. He sighed.

"No, Rima-chan. That's just the flavor used in ice cream and such. This is vanilla extract. Here, smell it," he took the lid off the bottle and held it to her nose.

"Mmm," she said, "That smells really good! Can I taste it?"

"Uh," Nagihiko sweat-dropped. "I don't think you want to."

"Why not?"

"Well…" he began, "I guess you can if you really want to." He took out a spoon, poured a tiny bit of the dark liquid onto it, and handed it to Rima. She put it in her mouth and immediately her face changed from delighted to disgust.

"Yuck! You're going to put that in the cake?" she exclaimed.

"Yes," Nagihiko replied, "It's a basic ingredient in a lot of sweets. And it doesn't take much."

"Are you sure?" Rima still looked skeptical. "It might ruin the cake."

"It won't," he assured her, pouring it into a teaspoon and dumping it into a mixture of other ingredients. "Is the pudding done?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I've got to get some more flour out of the pantry," he went back into the large pantry and headed towards the back of it, where there were stored several large bags of flour. Gripping the edges of one firmly, he began to pull it out. In doing so, much flour rose into the air from both the bag he was dragging and its comrades.

He coughed as it thickened the air, and there was a sliding noise as the other bags shifted out of their positions in the neat stack they had been in and sprawled themselves across the floor.

When the flour in the air cleared, Nagihiko once again had clear vision of the whole pantry. But something was different. Now that the bags of flour were no longer stacked against the wall, what was behind them could be seen.

It was a door.

"Rima!" Nagihiko's voice echoed out of the pantry. Rima looked up from the confusing recipe and jumped off the barstool she'd been sitting on.

"What is it?" she asked as she walked in. The first thing she noticed was flour all over the place, including an almost completely-white Nagi. The next thing that her eyes drew attention to was the door on the back wall. It was short; everyone else would have had to duck to get through, but she could probably manage to go right through it without bonking her head. "When did that get there?"

"The stack of flour fell over, and it was behind it."

"That explains why you're covered in flour," mused Rima, smiling.

"What?" Nagihiko asked.

"You look funny like that," she replied, almost laughing. He frowned, and Rima's smile grew. "But in a cute way," she added, wrapping her arms around him. He hugged her back, and after a moment, she pulled away. "What's behind the door?"

"I don't know. Let's see," Nagihiko opened it, and ducked as he walked through. Rima followed him. A flight of steps led the two of them down into a basement-like room that was very large, with cement walls. The distinct scent of chlorine was in the air, and a bit of light was streaming through some small, high-up windows.

Nagihiko found a light switch, and flipped it. Suddenly, the room was bright, and in the middle of the cement floor could be seen a giant, clear swimming pool.

"A swimming pool?" Rima asked, although in truth, she wasn't really surprised. She had learned to expect this kind of thing after the past week-and-a-half. She was also somewhat disappointed, having been hoping it was some sort of dungeon or a room filled with treasure. Oh, well.

"Did anybody even bring their swimsuits?" Nagihiko wondered.

"I didn't," said Rima. There was a short silence. "Yaya will be excited, anyway."

~On the roof~

"Ikuto!" cried Amu, "Let me down!"

"We've only been up here for about thirty minutes," Ikuto replied. "You want to go down already?"

"I wanted to get down when we first got up here!" exclaimed Amu.

"Sorry, I can't let you down yet," he said.

"Then when will you let me down?" she growled.

"Were you telling Shorty the truth?"

"Rima?"

"Yeah."

"The truth about what?" Amu crossed her arms.

"Do you like me or Tadase better?" questioned Ikuto.

"If I say I like you better, will you get me off this roof?"

"Maybe," he replied.

"Okay, I like you better," Amu said. Ikuto shook his head.

"You don't mean that, though, do you?"

"Yes, I do! How do you know if I do or not?"

"Exactly. How do I know you're telling the truth?" he smirked. Amu looked agitated, then a bit queasy.

"Will you take my word for it?"

"Nope," his smirk grew wider. Amu pecked him on the cheek.

"Okay, now will you take me down?"

"No."

"Erg! What do I have to do?" she threw her arms in the air.

"I'm not going to tell you," Ikuto said.

"Please take me down?"

"Okay," he picked her up princess-style again, and jumped onto the largest balcony. "You should be polite more often."

"Baka! You're never polite!"

"So? That doesn't mean you shouldn't be. And I am polite, sometimes," Ikuto carried her into the house.

"Will you please set me down?" Amu asked. Ikuto smirked again.

"Manners got you off the roof, but that's not going to help you here," he began to walk down the stairs, Amu still in his arms.

"Baka-hentai-cosplay-neko! Set me down before…" she stopped herself, looking somewhat sheepish.

"Before what? Tadase sees you?" Ikuto said. A blush grew on Amu's face. As they entered the kitchen, Tadase, Yaya, and Kukai came in the side door. Tadase looked ready to explode, and Yaya looked slightly surprised.

Making sure Tadase was watching, Ikuto kissed Amu on her mouth, and afterward, set her down. Having witnessed this, Tadase chara-changed.

At that moment, Rima and Nagihiko came back from their adventure to Narnia, and Utau also entered the kitchen. Amu was yelling at Ikuto, Tadase was laughing his evil laugh, and Yaya was searching for a bucket. The whole scene was chaotic, and not helped by the fact that Nagihiko was still covered in flower (some if it was on Rima, too), and the ingredients from the cake that had yet to be finished were covering the countertops.

Half an hour later, Tadase was his normal self, Amu was not speaking to Ikuto, Nagihiko had rid himself of the flour, the kitchen was clean, the cake was in the oven, and Rima and Nagi were showing everyone else the door in the back of the pantry. As Rima had predicted, Yaya was very excited about the swimming pool, although no one had brought swimsuits.

They were all standing in the basement at the edge of the pool, discussing various things, when there was a loud splash, and all heads turned to see a very surprised Ikuto scrambling to get out of the pool.

"That's what happens when you kidnap me," Amu said, crossing her arms and assuming her 'cool&spicy' act. As he rose from the water, dripping wet, Ikuto smirked. She didn't say anything about the kiss.

~After dinner~

Despite the fact that no one had brought swimsuits, everyone was in the pool, swimming in their clothes. Well, everyone except for Ikuto, who refused to get anywhere near the water, and Rima, who was just dangling her feet in, since swimming was simply too much effort. Kukai and Utau were racing across the pool.

"Rima-chii, get in the water!" Yaya urged. Rima shook her head.

"No way," she replied.

"Why not?" Nagihiko asked.

"I don't like swimming," Rima said, turning up her nose. She didn't bother to add that she wasn't particularly good at it, either.

"It would be nice if you joined us, Mashiro-san," Tadase smiled.

"The water's really shallow here," Amu added. She was right. Rima could have easily stood in it without getting her head wet.

"I already washed my hair today, and I don't want to get chlorine in it," she said. "Besides, it's always a pain to comb out afterward."

"Please come in, Rima-chan?" said Nagihiko, giving her a pleading look. She turned her head in the other direction, trying to erase the image before it influenced her.

"Absolutely not," Rima said firmly. Nagihiko's hand gripped hers, and he tugged gently.

"Please?"

"I said I wa—eek!" There was a rather loud splash, and Rima found herself in the pool. "Fujisaki!" Rima yelled, trying to hit him, but failing miserably as the water slowed her movement. Nagihiko pulled her into hug.

"Please don't call me that, Rima," his voice was half teasing and half serious. Then he tilted her chin upward and kissed her. Rima found herself happily wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back, despite the fact that he had just pulled her into the water against her will.

After that, Yaya would not stop bugging them for quite some time.

To make up for pulling her into the swimming pool, Nagihiko combed Rima's very-tangled hair afterward.

I was planning on ending this chapter sooner, but I put that last scene in there because I just felt that it needed a bit more Rimahiko. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it! Sorry for the late update…

Please review, and vote on my poll if you haven't already: it will decide what story I write next.