Chapter 11

This is… really awkward…

The Ijuuin kitchen was dead silent. Time had flown since Tanabata, and now Japan was nearing the New Year season. New Year's was supposed to be a happy time, where the old year could be remembered with fondness and the new year could be welcomed with open arms…

So… why is there such a stony silence in here…?

Miho and Eiji had gotten the glorious plan of a great get-together in order to get in the New Year spirit, and had proposed a group feast. 'We'll eat the fruits of our labor,' Eiji had explained, looking exciting. 'We'll pick a house, and then spend the afternoon having a good time and making food! Then we'll hold a great sleepover and go to temple tomorrow morning together!'

Obviously… it didn't matter to Eiji that there would be representatives of both genders at this function of his.

And of all the houses, it had to be my house, Asa thought, sighing softly as she cut into a potato with her knife. Couldn't we have picked a bigger one? Mine is about to explode with all of these people in here…

Her parents had nearly died of heart attacks when everyone had showed up with their overnight gear at her front door no more than two hours ago, and she had had to go through the ultimately embarrassing talk that nothing was going to happen at night, that Miho and her were going to camp out in her room while the boys took the bottom floor, and that she would train Seika in the next six hours to claw and maim anyone who tried to molest either her or Miho or the twins in the middle of the night (to which Miho had volunteered Oshitari to run home and grab Mi-chan to assist with that plan, much to Oshitari's annoyance). Kurumi had squealed in delight at the sight of Fuji, pounced on him, and then proceeded to cling to him for the rest of the time, consequently making him pretty much useless except to just sit somewhere and… let Kurumi cling to him and squeal. Narumi had simply glanced at her older sister, raised an eyebrow in pity, and shook her head, wishing her the best of luck.

The atmosphere had been tolerable when the twins were in the house. They had circulated around the place (Narumi had, at least), maneuvering expertly through the cramped house, chatting happily with the guests. But now that Kurumi and Narumi were out playing tennis on the street courts, a stony silence had set in. Asa was painfully aware of Fuji's blue eyes boring into her back, almost as if Fuji wanted to see straight to her soul. He was radiating an indefinable aura, one that everyone was wary of, and so they were silent, watching from the sidelines nervously in case Fuji suddenly exploded on them like a volcano.

To say the least, this whole thing was beginning to freak her out…

And why is no one helping me in the kitchen? Whose idea was this in the first place…? She could feel a rare tick mark beginning to form at the unfairness of all of this.

"Um… what are we supposed to do, now?" Choutarou asked nervously, feeling the tense atmosphere around him. Apparently, Eiji and Miho had managed to get the younger players to come, including Echizen (although the rookie was sulking and not looking too thrilled).

Asa turned around, a dark aura around her that matched Fuji's silent one in intensity and scariness. "How about you guys doing some work instead of taking up space on the floor?" she said pleasantly, although her voice was dripping with venom. They squeaked and scrambled to obey, and Asa sighed again. Honestly… this was strange on so many levels…

The kettle sounded on the stove, and she made her way over to it, turning off the stove and pouring out many cups of tea (nineteen in total. Asa was surprised that there was even nineteen teacups in the first place). "Tea, anyone?" she asked, all traces of her previous rage gone ('She's like a tropical storm that comes and goes in a flash,' Gakuto muttered to Momo). "It's just green tea; we don't have anything fancy," she apologized with Atobe took a cup.

Blue-gray eyes stared lazily up at her's before Atobe shrugged. "Doesn't matter," he drawled, sipping regally from his cup.

Asa twitched, feeling the need to become a 'tropical storm' once again. For some reason or another, her patience was limited that day.

However, on the plus side, at least the tense atmosphere had dispersed and was replaced with a lighter one.

"Don't mind Atobe," Oshitari said evenly, taking a cup of tea for himself and one for Oishi (the two had struck up a conversation about something or another and had turned it into an animated debate). "Atobe probably feels like he's humbled himself by coming over to take part in this event. I don't think anyone imagined spending New Year's like this."

"Ah… you're right," Asa murmured. She, for one, would never have predicted that this was what would happen to her over New Year's. "Jiroh-kun, please don't sleep in the kitchen while the stove is on and something's cooking in the pot on top of it!" she squeaked, shoving the tray of teacups and teapot over to Kaidoh before scrambling to rescue her kitchen before something went into flames or was burnt. "Mattaku, Jiroh-kun, there's a couch if you really want to sleep. Just please don't fall asleep in the kitchen anymore," she begged the sleeping Jiroh as she started dragging him, with difficulty, out of the kitchen. Kabaji helped her, depositing Jiroh on the couch while Asa scampered off to find a blanket.

Miho glanced over the edge of her teacup as her friend vanished into the closet and started rummaging around in it. "Maa, maa… Asa-chan tries so hard," she piped up cheerily. "She needs to relax! It's New Year's!"

"Relaxing in this sort of situation is easier said than done," Echizen grumbled, frowning at his tea. He was promptly glomped upon by Eiji, and general chaos ensued as Echizen tried in vain to pry the happy redhead off of him, only to be joined by a suddenly awakened Jiroh who was all of a sudden super energetic.

Asa reappeared from the closet with the blanket, her blue eyes sweeping over the chaos that was her living room, supposedly, and she sighed, deciding that it wasn't worth risking her life to set foot into the room. "They're so energetic," she said, smiling slightly as she slipped back into the kitchen, where Choutarou and Taka were making dinner. "Gomen, Kawamura-kun, Choutarou-kun. I'll do it and you two can join everyone else." She set the blanket on the back of a chair and moved to help, but was stopped by two sets of hands.

"Don't worry about it!" Choutarou said brightly. "It's much quieter in here than out there; one can actually think." The junior high senior smiled as he returned to the carrot he was cutting. "Although… we would get a lot more work done in a shorter amount of time if there were more people helping," he mused, looking thoughtful. "Maybe if we…"

He was abruptly cut off when Shishido, Echizen, Atobe, and Tezuka shoved unceremoniously into the kitchen by the rest of the members. "Um… hi…" the three already in the kitchen mumbled, looking puzzled. "Did you need something?"

Shishido pushed himself up, throwing a dirty glare at the people who were still in the living room. "We're supposed to help with making dinner," he grumbled. No way was he going to admit that he had minimum experience with home economics. Not in front of Choutarou…

However, even without him blurting out his new life-secret, the silver haired boy seemed to understand his culinary inabilities. "Ijuuin-san… will this work out alright?" Choutarou asked worriedly.

If Asa could sweatdrop like the characters in an anime could, she would have a long, long time ago… because somehow, she had a bad feeling about letting them into the kitchen…

I hope everything works out somehow…

***

Fuji was flipping idly through the channels on the TV, lounging on the couch, watching the shows with a bored expression on his usually smiling face and listening half-heartedly to the arguments going on in the kitchen ('Ore-sama cannot be bothered with such trivial actions like cooking!' 'Probably 'cause you can't even turn on the stove.' 'Don't let your guard down!' 'Mada mada dane.').

He yawned, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand as he passed the remote to Momo, who promptly switched the channel to one that showed how to cook real and edible food. Thus his junior was occupied for the next half hour.

If anything that came out of that kitchen actually looked like food, than it would be a miracle, Fuji decided, watching with slight bemusement as Taka, Choutarou, and Asa tried to regain control of the kitchen (they had recruited Eiji, Oshitari, and Miho to their cause, since those three could actually cook). He chuckled faintly, and a rather uneventful hour passed before the doorbell rang, waking him up from where he had sat and dozed off.

He stood, bouncing up energetically and blinking the last of sleep out of his eyes. "I'll get it!" he chirped and then trotted over to the door, stepping over Hiyoshi and Kaidoh, who had unearthed and were playing a board game, to make it to the front door. "Hi! Can I help you?" he asked, pulling the door open to reveal an old lady. Her silver hair was collected at the back of her head in a neat bun, and a pair of half-rimmed spectacles was perched on her nose, allowing bright sea-colored eyes to stare up at him. She was dressed in the traditional yukata (which struck Fuji as rather strange since most people didn't where yukatas outside of festivals and onsens) with a heavy coat over it and held a rather large duffel bag in her hand.

"My…" she murmured, staring up at him, eyes twinkling with excitement, "if it isn't a boy."

"Ah… hai…" mumbled Fuji. This is a… strange lady, he thought, feeling self-conscious as she scrutinized him from head to toe with a critical eye.

"I didn't know this was her taste," she muttered, and Fuji could only wonder what on earth she was talking about. "In any case, would you mind getting Ijuuin Asa-chan for me, young man? That would be a great help."

"Are you sure you wouldn't just like to come inside?" Fuji asked automatically, although he regretted it the moment the words left his mouth. The poor old lady would probably die of shock from seeing all of the people they had managed to pack into the house, not to mention the sorry state that the kitchen was in (and this time Fuji could proudly say that he had had no part in its destruction whatsoever).

"Fuji-kun, you'll catch a fever if you stand in the open doorway with no coat. It's not summer anymore, you know." Fuji jumped, turning around to find Asa with a bowl of salad (a rather large bowl, he noted with a slight quirk of his lips). "Besides, heating doesn't come cheap these days, you know," she teased, smiling brightly.

"Hai…" Fuji mumbled, feeling his cheeks start to warm up despite his best efforts. Stop smiling, Aa-chan!

"Ah! Asa!" Suddenly, Fuji was elbowed roughly to the side as the old lady shoved past him. Man… she's surprisingly strong, he thought ruefully. If he had been surprised then, though, he was much more surprised with Asa's reaction. The girl had literally frozen up and was gaping as the old lady marched towards her, disregarding all other people in the house.

"O-o-obaa-sama!" she finally squeaked out as the old lady launched herself forward, glomping her tightly. Her squeaking increased as the salad bowl was forcefully ejected from her arms upon impact. Fuji gasped, lounging forward, somehow managing to grab the bowl and keep all of its contents in it without spilling as much as a single leaf and without tripping over anyone in the process. Fuji was quite proud of himself, actually. "Obaa-sama… you're crushing my ribs…" Honestly, being spry at such an age was a good thing, but why was her grandmother so energetic?

"Gomen, gomen, Asa," her grandmother said cheerily, letting go of her (much to Asa's relief). "Hmm? You have a lot of boys over."

Asa flushed bright red. "They're friends. Only friends," she said hurriedly. "Get those thoughts out of your head, Obaa-sama." There was a dangerous gleam in those mischievous eyes of her grandmother's, and she didn't quite like it.

"Well, the very essence of a boyfriend is to have a friend that's a boy," teased the older woman. Asa suddenly looked like she would have loved to strangle her relative.

"We finished!" came a gasp from the kitchen, and then the four boys forced on kitchen duty straggled out of the kitchen, looking utterly exhausted. "And everything looks safe to eat! It's all good!" There was chuckling heard throughout the house, and they looked indignant.

"Oh, we have a guest?" Oshitari asked, shedding the apron he had been forced to wear. "It's rude to not introduce a guest to the other guests. Keeping them just to yourself is cruel of you, Asa-chan."

"I've never heard of that before," Asa grumbled, sighing as Oshitari got everyone's attention. "Obaa-sama, meet the Regulars of the Hyotei and Seigaku tennis teams," she said, turning to her grandmother. "Guys, this is my grandmother, Ijuuin Sakura."

"Hello!" they said dutifully, although Oshitari and Atobe looked thoughtful.

"You would be the Ijuuin Sakura that started the company that the Ijuuin family and Oshitari family jointly run, am I correct?" Atobe asked, earning a small laugh from the lady in agreement. The Hyotei members froze.

"Eh? No way! You never told us that your grandmother was a business tycoon!"

"She's not anymore! She's retired!"

"But still…! To withhold such crucial information… how could you be so cruel?"

"Yuushi's right! Stop acting like the idiots from Seigaku!"

"What did you call us? Do you want to pick a fight?"

"We're guests, you guys… please refrain from acts of extreme violence…"

"My, my… it's not often to see Asa with so many friends." Fuji glanced down at the old lady from where they stood at the edge of the fray, confusion written on his face. She smiled up at him. "Asa was never able to make friends, see," she explained patiently to him. "As a family, we weren't sure whether it was her background or her illness, but she tended to hang out on her own for the majority of the time. But people are by nature pack animals and so function the best with the presence of others. Thank you for looking after her as a friend and I hope that you will continue to do so." Her smile widened, and it struck Fuji that it was the same smile Asa wore on her face most of the time. She must have inherited it from her grandmother.

Eiji was on him before he could open his mouth to answer, startling Fuji enough for him to open his eyes and show off the clear blue color. "Don't worry, don't worry, nya!" Eiji said happily, clamping his hands over Fuji's mouth to ensure that the boy uttered not a peep. "We look after Aa-chan and she looks after the rest of us! That's how it goes!"

"Is not," Asa and Miho muttered as one in a quiet corner of the house, but no one listened to them, and so the two girls heaved sighs.

"Ne… Miho-chan…"

"What's wrong?"

"We're doing this at your house next year if we're ever doing this again… you actually have chefs who know what they're doing at your house. My kitchen looks like a tornado, a hurricane, and an earthquake ripped through it."

There was a moment of silence as Miho considered what her friend said. "You forgot tsunami," Miho finally reminded her, smiling cheerfully, and Asa wondered why she had even bothered bringing up the topic or let these people invite themselves over.

***

Asa glanced down at her sheet of paper, onto which she and Miho had scribbled down a set of rules that would be reinforced (or so she hoped) that night. "So, the rules of the house are these," she announced, glancing at the assembled boys in front of her.

"One: no breaking the furniture, no matter how little it is."

In the back of the room, there was a crashing sound as a sleeping Jiroh fell off of his chair, bumping into a lamp and sending it flying. Eiji and Gakuto dove for the lamp, their heads coming together to make a dangerous sounding 'crack.' A startled Oishi turned around only to have the lamp land on his stomach, sending him tumbling backwards and setting off a domino effect throughout the rest of the boys sitting on the ground. Although the lamp survived, Asa highly doubted that many of the boys did.

"Um… two: the first aid kit is in the first cabinet left of the sink in the kitchen."

Choutarou, being the kind and gentle soul that he was, left immediately to get the first aid kit for his ailing teammates and upperclassmen. As soon as he stepping into the kitchen, however, he promptly slipped on egg yolk that was on the floor, careened into an intimidating stack of clean pots and pans (that had taken Miho and Eiji more than an hour of scrubbing and stacking), and came to a crashing halt at the counter, sending the clean dishes that were drying into the sink, making them dirty again (miraculously, none of them broke). There was then his panicked shout of "Oh, I'm so sorry!" and Shishido hurried to help him, ultimately meeting the same fate as Choutarou did.

Asa drooped. She knew she should have cleaned that kitchen by herself, instead of letting Eiji and Miho do it…

She also knew that if she hadn't let Shishido, Echizen, Atobe, and Tezuka into the kitchen in the first place earlier that evening, she wouldn't be having this problem, now.

"Three," she sighed, "just try to stay alive." I give up.

It wasn't until well past midnight when Asa crept back into the kitchen, getting onto her hands and knees and then proceeding to diligently scrub her kitchen, intent on making it shine in all of its former glory. Thankfully, her parents hadn't blown up in her face when they found the kitchen in its messy state (perhaps it was the fact that her grandmother was there and telling them that being angry had no place in a sleepover function, or it was because she had stuffed food into their mouths and forcibly shut them up… she wasn't quite sure). If I work quickly and quietly, everyone can still be asleep by the time I'm done, she thought, shooting a glance in the direction of the living room, where the soft sounds of snoring reached her ears and her eyes could pick out the dark rises from the ground as the sleeping forms of her guests in their futons (Miho was bunking with her in her own room, watched over by the ever-attentive Seika, who was a little, snoring, white ball of fluff on her pillow).

Maa… who knew that the living room was so large if all of the furniture was removed? It had been frighteningly easy to fit everyone's futons onto the living room floor when they moved the coffee table to the dining room and pushed the couches to the wall. I suppose it's a good thing, she thought, smiling slightly to herself as she scrubbed.

"Aa-chan, what are you doing?" came a sleepy mumble from the doorway to the kitchen as she was finishing up. Asa jumped, turning around to see Fuji. He was still half-asleep, seeming to straddle the land of his dreams and the land of reality, rubbing his eyes tiredly with the back of his hand. They were open, showing the sleep-clouded blue orbs, and his hair stuck out in odd directions. He actually looked quite funny and… adorable, she guessed? "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Fuji asked, a huge yawn nearly cutting off the last of his sentence as he plopped himself down in a chair.

"Shouldn't you be?" she asked back, wringing out her cloth in water and then giving one final wipe with clear water on her now clean floor. Oh… she dearly loved clean kitchens. "Do you want anything? I could get you something to drink."

He shook his head stubbornly, blinking the last bits of sleep away from his eyes. "No thanks," he sighed.

Asa stopped, looking up at him worriedly. "Oh. Is there something else you wanted, then? I could get you an extra blanket if you're cold…"

He smiled slightly. "Not cold, but thanks again. My futon's nice and warm."

"Then why are you up?"

"Eh… that's a really good question." The truth of the matter was that he had been sleeping peacefully until he had been forcibly pounced upon and shaken awake. The next thing he had known, he was standing at the kitchen doorway, his sleep-fogged mind not quite comprehending what had just happened to him. And now he was having a one-on-one talk with Asa after having avoided her and making himself scarce in her presence for the last few months, although the fact that both of them were wearing their pajamas downgraded the seriousness of the situation. All of a sudden, all of the things he had wanted to say to her that he had brainstormed fled his brain, and he was left with staring stupidly off into space while she wrung out her cloth, setting it aside to dry and washing her hands.

And they call me a genius, Fuji sighed to himself, planting his chin in his hands. Geniuses didn't act all flustered because of a single person. He made for a pretty stupid genius.

"Getting enough sleep is important for growing children," Asa remarked, casting a quick glance around the kitchen, hands planted on her hips.

"I'm not a child anymore," Fuji argued sulkily, standing up. A thought had suddenly crossed his mind, and he was currently deciding whether or not he should carry through with it or bury it away somewhere at the edge of his consciousness. "Ne, Aa-chan… could you…" he trailed off, looking embarrassed.

"Could I what?"

"Well… since it's the first day of the new year, could you grant a selfish desire of mine? It shouldn't take more than a minute… two at most."

She was thoroughly puzzled, but nodded her head. "Sure. What is it?" she asked, curious in spite of herself as he walked toward her.

"Hush. It's just a selfish desire of mine, nothing more," he said softly, leaning forward so that he could speak straight into her ear, his bangs leaving his eyes in shadow. She frowned, feeling a shiver pass through her spine. In the next instant, she was being hugged, tightly, while Fuji's mouth was covering her own. So surprised was she that she didn't quite manage to close her mouth before Fuji's tongue slipping in there, exploring. His kiss was hungry and so desperate that it surprised her that this was actually Fuji, and not someone else.

I should have known something like this would happen, she grumbled to herself, resigning herself to the fact that prying Fuji off of her was going to be impossible. This was Fuji, after all, and Fuji was the boy who stole her first kiss, gave her her first confession, and was the first boy she had really opened up to. She should have been able to see that something of this sort would come up sooner or later.

Since I'm stuck here I might as well enjoy it, she thought to herself, closing her eyes before opening them again. She had caught some movement behind Fuji, near the doorway, and peering through the wisps of his soft hair, she could just make out little heads peeking into the kitchen.

Oh… it's just everyone else… she thought, relaxing, before frowning. Wait a minute…

This must have been the first time in her life in which she was glad that she had a small build; a smaller build meant that she was more easily shielded from view in… embarrassing situations like this. Except then Fuji was pulling away from her, probably because he needed air (Asa had to say that her oxygen supply had been running low, too, and she was faintly relieved that he chose to break the kiss when he did), although the next thing she felt was little butterfly touches on the edge of her jaw, moving steadily towards her neck.

The little heads in the doorway adopted scandalized looks, and any glasses there were gleamed dangerously. Asa gulped, her face turning a furious red color. "Um…" she uttered out, setting her brain to action. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? She was starting to panic. "Fuji-kun…"

She got no reaction and her panic was starting to escalate. Mou… if 'Fuji-kun' doesn't work I can always use 'Syusuke,' can't I? Maybe he'll respond if I use his given name, she theorized, clenching her jaws tightly together to prevent any of 'unwanted' sounds from escaping. He had just reached her neck when she squeaked out a faint "Stop it, Syusuke-kun."

The first thing that came to mind was: I sound really pathetic.

However, it served its purpose, so she supposed all was good. Fuji jumped and nearly leaped away from her, wide-eyed and cheeks a brilliant shade of cherry red (it was her first time seeing him like that, she noted). At that point, he looked much more panicked than she had been feeling just before. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, looking lost and dejected. "Uh… well… oyasuminasai," he said hastily before bolting. The heads vanished away from view as Fuji rounded the corner and there was a huge crash, followed by:

"Oi, Fuji! What on earth were you thinking?! Were you even thinking at all?!"

"Fujiko~~! We didn't know you were like that, nya!"

"Ii data…"

"And here Ore-sama was thinking you'd make a civilized attempt at talking…"

"Mada mada dane, Fuji-sempai."

"Fuji, five hundred laps around the neighborhood when dawn breaks."

Asa sighed, exasperated. What were they? Five? But a hand fell gently on her shoulder when she tried to move forward. She turned around and nearly had the scare of her life when she saw her grandmother standing there, smiling softly at her. "Leave them be," she coaxed gently. "Boys will be boys, no matter how old they are."

"I suppose," Asa mumbled, glancing out of the kitchen where Fuji's interrogation was still going on in full-swing. "Honestly, though… who knew that that was their motive in the first place?"

She blinked suddenly, turning back to her grandmother, who was now smiling impishly at her. "How'd you get down here in the first place, Obaa-sama?" she asked skeptically.

That impish grin grew wider. "Kim-it-su~~!" she sang out happily. For an instant, Asa imagined horns appearing on her grandmother's head.

I need sleep. Sleep is good for the soul.

"Oyasuminasai, Obaa-sama," she said hastily and made her escape, leaving a smiling grandmother behind her, who dropped her smile the moment Asa was out of sight. Instead, she looked worried, and so very, very old. She had seen and understood the situation almost immediately, quite by accident. She hadn't intended on spying on her granddaughter, having simply woken up and wanted a cup of tea.

Fuji Syusuke, was it? And he seemed like such a nice boy… The old lady made herself her tea and sipped it quietly, eyes troubled. I can see why that son of mine wanted me to come to Tokyo so badly, now, I believe. She blew into her tea, watching the wisps of steam curl off of its top before sipping. Tomorrow morning… I imagine that I'd like a nice chat with this Fuji Syusuke boy.

She smiled sadly in the direction of the living room, where the boys had finally settled down and were going back to sleep. I'd hate to break up such a promising friendship, but if I need to be, I will become a devil. Because that's what grandmothers do, isn't it? She finished off her tea and headed back to bed, casting one last glance at the living room. A grandmother needs to protect her grandchildren, just like a mother does. There is no other explanation to it.

I will get rid of anything that can and will hurt Asa, so that her smile will never be burdoned down with pain.

A/N: You know... I always wanted to write something like that. XD You know... bring in a grandmother character that is all sweet and innocent (and a bit spontaneous and possibly senile) on the outside but on the inside is driven to protect those she loves, no matter what the cost. Eh... basically a female Fuji. ^_^ If you don't like her, she'll be gone by the end of the next chapter and you'll never see her again! I think this is the affect of too many chocolate bars...

Review, please! Thank you!

Oyasuminasai = good-night
Kimitsu = secrecy / secret