Chapter 9

"Vacation is finally here!" Eiji crowed happily, stretching his arms above his head. Miho laughed at her boyfriend's happy expression. They had only been boyfriend and girlfriend for a day, but anyone looking at them would have assumed that they had been going out for months. They certainly didn't act like a new couple.

"Ne, Miho-chan, how did you end up as Eiji-kun's girlfriend again?" Asa asked, propping her chin on her hands. Today was the last day of school before the blessed two weeks of break. The school day had not yet started, so Asa and her friends were chatting. It was several weeks after the music box incident, and Asa had tried hard not to look at Fuji during any of those six days. Every time she did, she got a pounding feeling in her chest and her face would heat up to about a thousand degrees, so she did the only sensible thing in those situations:

She ran. As far away as possible, which, sadly, usually didn't amount to much of a distance.

She roused herself from her thoughts and turned instead to Eiji and Miho. In truth, she knew full well how they got together. It actually wasn't anything epic, Eiji had simply asked Miho if she wanted to go out with him yesterday before afternoon tennis practice, and Miho had replied 'yes.'

Actually, now that Asa thought about it, most relationships started like that. But still, she supposed the experience was different for everyone. She had nearly suffocated to death when Miho pounced on her at the school gates, her face putting any self-respecting tomato to shame. 'He… he… he…' she had stuttered into her ear, still clinging to her neck while Asa tried in vain to pry her off and make her talk in coherent sentences, wondering if perhaps Miho had indulged herself in too many sweets last period and was now laughing like a madman because she was sugar-high.

'HE ASKED ME OUT!!!' Miho finally shrieked (into Asa's ear, no less…), loud enough for everyone who was within a five-mile radius to hear. This included Eiji, who simply grinned widely while turning another five shades of red. It actually was quite adorable; Asa wished that she had had a video camera in her possession so that she could have recorded it.

When Asa was finally released from her friend's death grip, blue in the face and half deaf, the first thing she did was ask 'who?' although she already knew. The rest of the afternoon was spent congratulating her, trying to get Oshitari to accept the fact that his 'dear baby sister' finally had her first boyfriend, and shopping for an outfit for the date. By the time Asa got home that night, she was exhausted, but quite productive, judging from her shopping bags. When there was a sale, one simply must stop by and check it out.

"Ne, Asa-chan, are you doing anything over summer vacation?" Miho asked, leaning over her desk so that she was half on Asa's. "You can come over to my house before going to the Tanabata Festival. I heard they're holding one near here, but if we want to see a big one we can always take a train to Hiratsuka." She had a hopefully expectant look in her brown eyes.

Asa shook her head. Time passed by quickly… it was already August. Just yesterday it had felt like June. She wondered where all the time went. "I'm not going anywhere over break," she replied, sighing. "I was kind of looking forward to going over to Obaa-sama's house over vacation, but she called earlier and said that she highly advises against it. She said something about her garden being shameful…"

"Well, either way, I'm kind of glad she isn't letting you go over," Miho said happily. "'Cause that means I get to keep you for break!" she said proudly. Eiji sulked, and Miho hurried to assure him that she'd also spend a lot of time with him, as well. Asa chuckled, smiling cheerfully, until the door slid open and their attentions were shifted to the doorway. Atobe stood there, his gray eyes surveying the classroom before marching over to the back corner where Asa, Miho, and Eiji sat. Shishido, who sat in the front row by the window, sighed and offered the three of them a pitying look, almost as if to say: 'Good luck.'

Miho glanced up at Atobe and flashed him a wide smile. "Ne, Atobe-kun, do you want to come, too?" she asked amiably, "We're having a little gathering at my house and then we're going to go as a group for Tanabata. It'll be fun."

"Ore-sama appreciates your kindness, and will reciprocate the honor." Atobe then turned to Asa and raised an eyebrow at her. Asa blinked up at him, puzzled. "Have you seen Fuji today?"

"Fuji-kun? No… I haven't seen him today…" Granted, she hadn't seen a lot of people yet since she had went straight to homeroom that morning, but it didn't seem like he cared.

Instead, Atobe had turned away and was muttering something about "elusive idiots." Asa, Miho, and Eiji gave each other curious glances.

"Fujiko isn't sick, is he?" Eiji asked, looking worried. "I'll text him, nya!" The redhead whipped out his cell phone and began typing in a text message to Fuji.

It didn't take long for his phone to buzz, and the four of them crowded around, staring at the screen. It read: Sick. Fever. Nee-san says I have to stay home. :( (Fuji had never seemed to get the hang of using abbreviations in his texting).

"Mou… poor Fuji-kun," Miho murmured, then brightened up. "We should totally visit him after school today!"

Eiji perked up as well, looking very excited. "Yeah! We can get him a cactus, too!" he chirped happily. "It's decided then! We're visiting Fujiko after school today to cheer him up and make sure he gets well soon!"

He turned his attention back to his phone and hurriedly typed something into it. Moments later, it buzzed in his hand, and he showed it to his friends. It read: Cactus? That sounds nice… I'm looking forward to it.

Any chance for further conversation was cut short with the arrival of the teacher, who called the class to order sternly and told Atobe to get out and go to his own class, which the diva did so. He took his time, though, which obviously infuriated the teacher.

But it was amusing to watch, so the class didn't mind.

***

In Home Economics, Asa was paired up with Miho and the two girls pored over the cookbook, looking for something that would be nice and easy to make, but would taste good. For this assignment, they were required to make something that would cheer someone up, so both girls had instantly turned to sweets and something that tasted sweet. Actually… most of the class had done that.

"What about cookies?" Asa finally asked, pointing to a recipe. "We can add honey to the batter, and fold chocolate into it. If we melt the chocolate beforehand and then add it, I think we could have a good result."

Miho nodded enthusiastically. "Right! And if they turn out to be good, we can bring some over to Fuji-kun's house!" She bounced off to get the chocolate and honey, while Asa started mixing the batter for the cookies.

A half hour later, the end results of the class were put out on the front table for sampling. Asa picked up one of their cookies and bit into it. Miho did the same, and grinned promptly as she bit past the sweet, honeyed cookie into the gooey chocolate. "Ne, Asa-chan, it's really good! Did you do this before… folding chocolate into a cookie, that is?"

Asa swallowed her bite and nodded. "A long time ago, I think." She popped the rest of her cookie into her mouth and then the two girls followed the rest of the class in sampling the other products. There was a chocolate cake, baked a little too hard but otherwise quite delicious. There was a fruit tart, cupcakes, muffins, and other sweet desserts. The class had made quite an array of food, and Miho was more than happy to munch her way through them all.

"Ne, sensei, can I take some of our cookies home?" Asa asked, and when she received a nod, she took a bag and packaged the leftover cookies away, tying the bag with a ribbon that Miho produced from her back pocket. "I have the offering, Miho-chan. We're good to go." Miho grinned.

After tennis practice that afternoon, Miho and Asa followed Eiji to one of the stores he had scouted out to have cactuses for sale, and they spent ten minutes picking out the perfect cactus (Eiji did, at least. Miho and Asa simply tried to come with a name for it). It was five o'clock by the time they made it to Fuji's front door.

Fuji opened it after they rang the doorbell three times. He was a disheveled mess, with flushed cheeks and open eyes that blinked tiredly at them. "Hey," he said, flashing a tired smile to his visitors. "Do you have the cactus?" he asked, stepping aside and letting them come into the house.

Eiji held up the white shopping bag where Sora (that was the name they had settled on for Fuji's newest cactus) was in. "Sora-chan is right here!" Eiji said cheerfully.

Fuji's smile widened. "You even named it! I'll pick a special spot for Sora-chan!" He broke off to cough, his body shaking as he almost bent over double, and Miho dragged Eiji into the kitchen to make tea, leaving Asa along with Fuji in the main hallway.

There was an awkward silence that was only penetrated by Fuji's hacking cough, and Asa sighed, setting her bag on the counter and then taking Fuji's elbow. "Back to bed with you," she said, steering him up the stairs. He tried to protest, but she just continued to push him up the stairs. "Which one is yours?" she asked when they made it to the top. Fuji gestured straight down the hall, and she proceeded to push him gently to the last room.

Fuji sighed happily as he sank back into his bed. He watched Asa quietly as she tucked the blankets around him, muttering a soft "Thank you" when she was finished with that. "I'll make some okayu. Otou-san always said that okayu makes one feel better when they have a fever." Fuji nodded quietly and she slipped away.

"Ne, Miho-chan, Eiji-kun… you two are taking an awfully long time making a couple cups of tea…" Asa mused as she walked into the kitchen. "And how do you expect to make tea without anything tea-related out?" She raised a skeptical eyebrow, and her friends simply grinned at her, not looking in the least bit guilty. Asa sighed. They were probably planning something in their devious little minds and Asa, for one, did not exactly want to find out what they were planning.

She took her mind off of her not-so-innocent friends and opened the cupboard. "You don't think he'll mind the prepackaged kind, do you?" she asked, showing a package of rice porridge, which only required adding water and then heating.

Miho shrugged, finally getting out the tea set. "He looks so sick he'll probably eat anything as long as it's warm," she stated. Eiji nodded as he boiled water in the kettle, and Asa started making the promised okayu. "Ne… I wonder how he got sick in the first place. This is the first time I've ever seen Fuji-kun sick before."

"Mou… maybe he caught one of those 24-hour bugs that's flying around," Asa mused, setting a bowl of the hot rice porridge onto a tray and then heading back upstairs. "Fuji-kun," she called out, opening his bedroom door. The boy was curled up on his side, fast asleep, snuggled deeply into his covers, and Asa chuckled lightly. I'll just leave this on his desk, then, and he can eat it when he wakes up.

Just then, Fuji shifted on his bed and turned to face her, blinking sleepily. "Okayu?" he asked, looking very much like a small child. He pushed himself up to a sitting position, rubbed the last traces of sleep from his eyes, and then climbed out of bed, sitting down at his desk. "Mmm…! Even the prepackaged kind tastes good when someone makes it for you!" he said happily as he ate. Asa watched in amusement as he rolled the pickled plum that she had added in the center around his bowl, seemingly unsure about whether or not he wanted to eat it right at that moment or save it for later.

The phone rang at that point, and Fuji paused in his musings to glance at his cell phone. "Ah? It's Tezuka!" he announced, picking up the phone. "Moshimoshi, Tezuka!" he said cheerfully, his voice much sweeter than usual. Asa decided that her father was right when he said that sick people were weird.

There was silence on the other end, and then Tezuka said, "Fuji, you're sick."

Fuji blinked, looking surprised. "Ah… you know?" he asked, setting the phone on 'speaker phone' and returning to his okayu.

Asa heard a sigh on the other end from Tezuka. "Even if you were planning to play a prank on me or someone else, you'd never sound that cheerful if you were not sick," Tezuka answered Fuji. Fuji pouted, shoveling another spoonful of rice porridge into his mouth.

"Mou… Tezuka…" he whined, and Asa thought that he sounded a lot like Eiji at that exact moment. Being sick certainly changed someone… she wondered if that happened to her when she was sick.

"Anyways, I called about the Tanabata Festival." Fuji perked up, pausing with a spoonful of okayu halfway to his mouth. There was an expectant expression on his face. "We are not, and I repeat, not, going to run a kissing booth. Absolutely not." Fuji drooped, looking sulky, and Asa twitched, deciding that it would be safer not to ask how on earth Fuji got the kissing booth idea.

Tezuka cleared his throat before Fuji could ask a childish, 'Why not?' and spoke again. "We can, however, have ice cream booth. My grandfather taught me how to make mochi, and we can borrow a cooler or two to hold the ice cream in it."

"Oh! That way, the ice cream will be easier to eat and it won't drip on everyone's yukatas!" Asa said brightly, looking excited. "May I help?"

"Ijuuin? You should be careful when Fuji's sick."

"Ah… hai…" Off to the side, Fuji huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Was he really that much of a monster when he was ill? "Maa… maa… Fuji-kun…" Asa offered, trying to appease to her sulking patient.

"In any case, I'll reserve the booth, and whenever you next see Kikumaru ask him for ice cream flavors. Atobe has said that he and his team will help as well, so just go to him with the bill. Ijuuin, stop Fuji if he tries to resurrect the kissing booth idea." There was a click as Tezuka hung up the phone, and Fuji turned his off as well, sighing.

"Saa, Tezuka…" he said sadly, "that was my best idea yet." He sighed; Tezuka really wasn't all that fun. He had been hoping that he could get some good blackmail pictures of the captain and then sell it for profit to his fangirls. "What a disappointment…"

His bedroom door opened and Miho and Eiji popped in, carrying a tray of tea and the bag of cookies. "Sorry it took a while," Miho offered cheerfully when Asa gave her a sullen glare, not looking the least bit sorry. Neither did Eiji. "Fuji-kun, why do you look so sad?" she asked.

"Tezuka-kun won't let Fuji-kun run his kissing booth," Asa explained. Eiji gave a sigh of relief. "We're holding an ice cream booth instead, it seems. Tezuka-kun's grandfather taught him how to make mochi, so we can make mochi ice cream. He said that Atobe-kun and his team are helping, and that they're paying the bills."

Miho smirked. "It's always nice when the rich people contribute," she teased. "What ice cream flavors are we picking?" she asked, looking thoughtful as she poured out a cups of tea for all four of them and opened the cookies.

Fuji picked a cookie and nibbled it, his sulky mood evaporating. "Tezuka said that Eiji gets to pick the flavors."

"Eh? Me? Really, nya?" Eiji looked ready to burst with happiness. "I'll pick the best flavors, then! There's got to be vanilla… and chocolate… and strawberry… and, and…"

"Black cherry?" Asa asked, taking a notepad that Fuji handed to her and digging a pen out of her pocket, scribbling down the flavors of ice cream. "I heard that black cherry tastes nice."

Eiji was all for it, and by the time they had finished their tea and cookies, the list stretched impressively long. Miho suggested that they select ten flavors out of the list. "We can buy the trays that can hold two of the mochi ice creams," she suggested. "Having ten flavors will give the costumers some freedom in choosing what they want." Her friends nodded and Asa scribbled it down in the margin.

"Now… all we need to do is decide on the flavors…"

***

In the end, it turned out that making mochi was more of a disaster than anything else, and Tezuka had resorted in the end to buying prepackaged mochi from the nearest grocery store, leaving the rest of his mochi-making team to clean up the mess in the kitchen in Miho's house (Fuji had not been adequately watched, and had been fiddling with the stove, causing an explosion). Then, with the first gallon of ice cream as their experimenting substance, they had discovered that they failed at folding the ice cream into the mochi, whether prepackaged or not.

"Should we try bean paste?" Asa offered as they cleaned up the melted ice cream (but not before Shishido, Eiji, and Gakuto had proceeded to make themselves ice cream cones and were happily munching on them. Who knew that Shishido had a sweet tooth?). "I think I got the basic idea of folding it in, and red bean paste won't melt like ice cream. It'll be sticky… that's all… I think we can pull it off."

So Tezuka had agreed, and Asa and Fuji were sent on their merry way to buy a few cans of red bean paste. "And powdered sugar," Asa murmured, looking thoughtful as the two of them waited for the bus. "We can sprinkle powdered sugar on top, too, now that I think about it."

Fuji chuckled as the bus came to the stop and they boarded, paying for bother of them. "You're getting excited about this, aren't you?" he asked cheerfully. His fever was gone and he was now brimming with energy. "But I still think that my idea was better," he sighed as he found a spot to sit down. Asa sighed, shaking her head from side to side and not commenting.

In the grocery store, Fuji padded behind her like her second shadow while she found what she wanted to buy. "I'm so excited for Tanabata!" she said happily, finding the red bean paste and placing it in her shopping bag. "Just thinking about everything that has to do with the festival makes me happy!" She grinned, looking like a little kid who was receiving presents. "What about you, Fuji-kun?" she asked, turning to him, still smiling brightly.

Fuji laughed softly, taking the shopping bag from her and continuing down the isle, looking curiously at all of the goods being sold before picking out a few extra snacks and tucking them into the bag. "Because festivals only come once a year, that's why they're so great, ne?" he asked.

"Hmm… I suppose that's right… Fuji-kun! Stop putting so much extra snacks into the bag! We're not going anywhere, so we won't need it! Besides, how on earth are we going to pay for it all?!"

"Maa… maa… snacks are good to munch on, though!" Fuji protested, dashing off through the store with Asa chasing him, trying to stop him from grabbing anything else off of the shelves. "I think we'll be able to pay for this if we pool our money together! Eiji and I will have all of these snacks polished off in record time!"

"You do not mean to tell me that you two are going to stuff these snacks down your throats…"

When they made it back to the Oshitari residence, Fuji had already began happily munching on some of his purchased snacks. Asa simply sighed as she walked behind him, thankful that they had been able to pay for all of that. "Tadaima!" Fuji said happily as he walked into the kitchen. "We got everything! Plus a few extras! Eiji, want some Pocky?"

Eiji was instantly at Fuji's side, taking the proffered Pocky and munching happily on it. The rest of the snacks were divvied up while Tezuka set to work with the bean paste. It took the boys a grand total of five minutes to finish everything. "See?" Fuji asked Asa, popping the last bit of Pocky into his mouth. "I told you the snacks would be gone in record time."

"Thank Kami-sama that growing boys have high metabolism rates," Asa muttered.

"All finished!" Miho said happily when a few hours had passed. "You know, these actually look quite good…" She trailed off as she sprinkled the powdered sugar over their creations. "Oh, speaking of which… why are we running a booth in the first place?" she asked, turning to Tezuka curiously.

Tezuka set the snacks onto their trays and covered them, placing them away for safekeeping. "Ryuuzaki-sensei and Sakaki-sensei asked us to man a stall for the festival. We'll be taking turns, of course, so you won't miss the festival."

"Oh… I see…"

"Saa… it'll be fun… since we couldn't go with my idea," Fuji piped up, throwing a glare at Tezuka. Tezuka twitched, and would have retorted, had Oshitari not poked his head into the kitchen.

"Has anyone seen Mi-chan?" he asked, looking flustered. "I can't find her anywhere!"

Miho huffed. "Your evil little kitty is probably hiding somewhere devising a new plot to conquer the world. Honestly, Nii-san, why couldn't you have gotten a nice kitty, like Asa-chan's Seika? Mi-chan's always out to attack me."

Now it was Oshitari's turn to huff. "Well, maybe if you didn't try to shoo Mi-chan off of the chair when she was napping every single afternoon Mi-chan would like you better!"

Their argument continued, growing quite heated, and neither of them noticed a sleek, black cat stride into the kitchen, moving gracefully towards the counter. The cat glanced around, green eyes wide with curiosity, before trotting over to Asa and leaping into the girl's lap, much to her surprise. "What soft ears you have," she cooed as she played with the cat's ears. The cat snuggled against her and purred.

Thus, the rest of the afternoon passed by rather uneventfully.

***

Fuji loved Tanabata festival. It was his second favorite holiday next to Christmas, which was interesting to him because in Japan Christmas wasn't really a holiday, just a day that people exchanged gifts with each other.

But either way, Christmas and Tanabata were fun festivals, so he was happy.

"So we're the first to man the stall, ne?" Fuji asked cheerfully as he made himself comfortable on a bench they had set up. He leaned casually forward, his chin in his hands, his smiling eyes taking in the sights of the festival and his ears listening to the happy chatterings of the festival-goers. He was dressed in a light blue yukata, thankfully his own, since he had managed to thwart his sister from taking all of his yukatas and stashing them away somewhere and then forcing him to wear one of hers. Although he had to admit that a girl's yukata was much softer than a guy's, he still liked wearing a guy's yukata because, frankly speaking, he was a guy, last he had checked. "As long as there's still food by the time we're done with our shift, I'll be happy."

Asa sat down next to him on the bench and nodded. "Hai! This year I'm going to get one of those goldfish from that goldfish game!" she said determinedly, her blue eyes flashing. "I will I will I will!"

Fuji chuckled, his head tipping gently to the side. Ah, the goldfish game, in which one was given a paper net and a tank of goldfish to catch. "Let me guess, your net keeps breaking?" he teased, before turning his face beck to facing forward, giving his most angelic of smiles to the passersby. His cheeks were tinted with the faintest shade of pink, making him look all the cuter and successfully reining in those unsuspecting costumers.

Girls should be banned from wearing pretty yukatas and putting their hair up in fancy ways, Fuji thought to himself as he sold some of their products to a customer. He was rewarded with a bright smile as the customers, a six-year old child and his father, bit into the snacks they had made and liked them. He chanced a glance at Asa and found her selling diligently. She was wearing a white yukata sprinkled with sakura blossoms and pink obi. Her hair had been put up in a bun with pink hair sticks, although a couple strands escaped her bun and framed her face. Really, though… she looked really pretty for the event…

Shaking his head roughly from side to side, he returned his attention to the current situation, although he didn't miss the puzzled look she gave him. An hour later, when Miho and Eiji showed up to take their turn, Fuji nearly cannoned out of the booth, much to everyone's amusement. "Fuji-kun's acting strange tonight," Asa sighed, getting up and following her friend at a slower pace. Eiji and Miho snickered behind her back before Eiji proceeded to charm everyone with his cute cat-like antics (he made for a better salesperson than one would originally give him credit for).

"Mou… Fuji-kun… what's the big rush?" Asa asked when she finally caught up with Fuji, happy with the fact that she didn't trip in her wooden sandals. He was standing in front of the small bamboo grove, which was already sporting many, many little strips of paper with peoples' wishes on them, holding another sheet of paper and pencil in his hand, looking thoughtful. "Where'd you get the tanzaku?" Asa asked Fuji, gesturing to his piece of paper.

"I got two; you can have one," Fuji said absentmindedly, handing her the paper. "I only have one pencil though… you don't mind waiting?" he asked, frowning thoughtfully up at the bamboo leaves.

Asa shook her head. "Not really. I need to think of my wish first, anyway." Fuji nodded before writing something down on his piece of paper, handing the pencil over to Asa and then stepping forward to hang his paper onto the bamboo.

Armed with the pencil, Asa stared down at her blank paper, brows furrowing as she thought. What did she wish for? I guess… for a better understanding of life? That sounds really cheesy… She sighed, drooping, and Fuji placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry!" he offered gently. "You don't have to think of a wish right now. You have all night to consider!"

She looked up at his face. "Hai!" Tucking away the pencil and the paper, she trotted after Fuji as he weaved his way back into the festival. That's right, right? There's no need to rush into things. Following Fuji and letting him point out areas of interest or particular fun, she let a happy smile cross her face. I shouldn't worry during a festival! That would take all the fun out of it, she decided, skipping forward and latching herself happily onto Fuji's arm, tugging him to the right. "This way, this way!" she said excitedly, pointing towards the goldfish stall. "Play with me?" she pleaded, and Fuji let himself be tugged forward, blushing furiously and thankful that it was such a warm day that he could pass off his pink cheeks to the weather.

Leaning over the fish tank, he eyed the goldfish, paying the man who ran the stall and taking his paper net into his hand. "Alright… which goldfish is going to get a new home?" he asked cheerfully, his hand hovering above the tank before diving downwards, snatching a goldfish and flipping it neatly into the bowl. Next to him, Asa clapped, a big grin spreading over his face as the goldfish was bagged and handed to him.

"My turn to pick a game," Fuji said happily, handing her the goldfish and holding out his hand to help her up. She nodded, accepted the fish, and took his hand, letting him lead her through the festival. In that instance, they were transformed back into wide-eyed children, who wore yukatas that were a bit big for them and who dashed from stall to stall, pointing at products and begging to buy them.

Fuji really, really loved the Tanabata Festival.

A/N: One day... I am going to a real Tanabata Fesitival... one day... ^_^

Tanzaku = small pieces of paper where wishes are written on during Tanabata, often in the form of poetry, and then hung on bamboo.
Obi = a long sash worn over the waist of a yukata or kimono

The Tanabata scene is going to be split into two parts... 'cause it's too long to squish into one. =) And my mom makes really good snacks out of mochi and red bean paste. It's sticky and sweet and delicious and I don't know its English name. ^^; But it's good! And mochi ice cream is good, too...

Please review! Thank you! Mochi ice cream for anyone who does. *holds out tray of mochi ice cream*