DISCLAIMER I don't own Daa! Daa! Daa!

Touched by an Angel

~By mugen83

CHAPTER 8 A Day With the Queerest Trio

Thus, the five of them began cleaning the temple. They did not need to sweep that much around the surrounding area because there were not many fallen leaves nor trashes, so they immediately proceeded inside. Since the main hall was the largest and hardest to clean, they opted to clean it first. Each of them was either holding a rag or a feather duster as they tried to make the hall spotless.

"Hey Mizuki." Nozomu approached Mizuki who was dusting off the ceremonial things used by Buddhists. "What do you intend to do exactly? You suddenly said that we'd help with the cleaning. Are you plotting something?" he asked him looking curious and interested.

"Nah, of course not. Shouldn't we help our friend in times of need?" Mizuki said. His usual innocent smile remained plastered on his face. Nozomu knew better of course. Mizuki has always worn that smile and no one could ever tell what he was thinking but it did not take a genius to know that he was scheming something.

"Yeah of course, but don't you pity Santa? I mean, look at the poor guy." he pointed at Santa. Mizuki turned to look and saw Santa wiping the floor, crying foolishly and mumbling something incoherent, which they could only guess as regrets about not getting to watch Tofu Man.

"Haha… don't worry about him." Mizuki said cheerily, apparently, he find the sight of Santa crying while wiping the floor kind of funny. He was greatly reminded of Cinderella, and he was glad to know that he was able to play the role of an evil stepsister. "Anyway, you agreed with me a while ago, right? You even said Kanata's father told us to help him when I don't have any recollection about him asking us." He said to Nozomu.

This made Nozomu sigh. He knew that Mizuki would not budge. He had always been the secretive type. It would be pointless if he continued to coax him with some answers which he knew he would never tell, so he decided to let it slip for now thinking that he might learn something about it later.

At last they finally finished cleaning the main hall. They decided to take a little break. It was still only nine o'clock which means it was too early to have lunch. They gathered in the living room and had some tea and snacks as they comfortably sit in the floor, the traditional Japanese way.

"Hey Nozomu." Kanata said to the blond boy seated across him. "I know my old man did not ask you guys to help me right?" he said inquisitively even though he already knew the answer. "And you just told me, when you came, that you wanted to watch a Tofu Man movie."

"Haha, I guess we got caught." Nozomu said rubbing the back of his head.

"Kanata's right! Didn't we decide to watch Tofu Man?" Santa said indignantly, slamming the cup of tea in the table.

"Anyway, aren't you glad that we helped?" Mizuki said as he drank tea, totally ignoring Santa's protest.

Kanata sighed. "Of course I'm glad that you helped me but –

"Then what's the problem? Wouldn't it be easier for the two of you since we've helped? Why bother with the insignificant details?" Mizuki cut him off. Kanata could not help but worry about his true intentions though.

"Anyway, I'm curious about you Miyu-chan." Mizuki looked at Miyu who was looking interestingly at the teacup. "You're Kanata's cousin right? May I ask on what side of the family?" he looked at her, wearing his Cheshire cat grin. Miyu looked confused at his question.

"She's the daughter of my mother's friend." Kanata said quickly.

"If she's the daughter of your mother's friend that means you two aren't related, right? Which means you're not his cousin?"

"Ah no… of course she's my cousin. My mother's friend is also a distant relative of my father so… that's it." Kanata said nervously and with finality. He has a lingering suspicion that Mizuki could somehow penetrate through people and situations and it made him really tense.

"Anyway enough about that, you guys said you wanted to watch Tofu Man, then why exactly would you go here so early on the morning? There's no need for that right?" Kanata said irritably, trying to change the topic of their conversation. Despite his uneasiness towards what Mizuki had in mind, he could not help but feel annoyed by their whimsical decisions that they usually force on him.

Santa suddenly stood up upon hearing the question. They all looked bewilderingly at him except for Mizuki who was currently drinking his tea. He grabbed his bag and turned his back on them as he tried to get something.

"We've come here to watch the whole series and the movies of Tofu Man of course!" Santa said elatedly, suddenly turning around while holding an armful of records then putting them on the table. His expression showed that he was waiting for this chance, to finally be able to remind them of their goal and original intention. "If we're gonna watch these, of course we needed an entire day! That's why we decided to go here early. But these two suddenly…" Santa said finally tearing up.

"Hai, hai. We're sorry." Nozomu said nodding as he patted the crying Santa at the back.

"These look really nice Santa-kun." Miyu suddenly said looking amusingly at the records Santa laid spread on the table.

"Of course, they're nice. Actually they're not just nice, these are great!" Santa said enthusiastically, returning quite fast to his usual excited self, as if he had not cried just now. "Tofu Man is the greatest character of all time." He rattled on. When it was about Tofu Man, he could not help but become over enthusiastic.

Kanata knew that Miyu was referring to the record itself and not about Tofu Man. He let out a huge sigh. He knew Santa's pointless jabbering would continue on forever unless someone interjected.

"We know you wanted to watch it so badly Santa, so why don't you guys go on ahead and watch it? You didn't have to watch here in the first place." He said nonchalantly.

Santa was shocked hearing this. His face seemed like he just heard something unforgivable. "Of course we need to watch it here!" He replied like it was the most obvious thing to do.

"If we watched it here, you'll surely watch it too, of course." Nozomu added grinning mischievously.

"But I guess it was still rude for us to suddenly barge in like that. I think we should really apologize." Mizuki said. "Consider our help as an apology then Kanata. And you didn't mind us helping right Miyu-chan?"

Miyu just smiled at him in response. Kanata knew that there was nothing he could do anyway.

"How about we finish cleaning already so we could watch Tofu Man?" Nozomu suggested.

"You're right! We'd better hurry then." Santa said somehow regaining his spirit and suddenly becoming enthusiastic with the cleaning.

They finished cleaning at around noon. Since it was already time for lunch, they decided to watch the movie while eating. Kanata and Miyu were the ones who were in charge of preparing the lunch while the three set up the things they needed to watch the movie.

"Sorry you had to deal with those three. I didn't know they were coming over today." Kanata said to Miyu apologetically. He was currently slicing some carrots while Miyu was trying to help peel the potatoes.

She smiled at him and said, "I think they're really nice. Kanata-kun is lucky to have interesting friends."

"You think so?" he replied while looking at how she was doing with the potato. It seemed to him that she really did not know what she was doing. "Uhmm… I think I'd peel those for you. You don't have to help me cook, I'm fine so you could just sit and rest." He was worried that she might cut herself. She was not used to this kind of things after all.

"Thank you Kanata-kun. But I think I can handle it." She said, determined to help. Despite her insistence, Kanata took the potatoes and peeled it himself.

"I know you're not used to this kind of stuff. You don't have to force yourself so I'll do it for you."

"You two get along really well." A voice suddenly interrupted their conversation. Kanata stopped what he was doing to see the newcomer. It was Mizuki with his usual smile.

"Miyu-chan why don't you help Santa and Nozomu outside and I'll be the one to help Kanata instead?" He told Miyu. Miyu smiled and nodded at him.

"Thank you very much Mizuki-kun. I'll leave this to you I guess." She left the room and went to help the two.

Kanata glanced at Mizuki. He was trying to decipher what was on his mind but no matter how much he force himself to think he could not come up with something. And he was still really bothered by what he said to Miyu when they came. Was that really just something Nozomu would normally say or was it something else?

"You look like you're good at cooking." Mizuki suddenly said. Kanata suddenly snapped out of his thoughts.

"Not really. It's just that I've the one cooking for me and my old man." he answered. He was debating against himself if he would ask him about it. Finally deciding that there was probably no harm in trying, he asked, "Hey about what you said to Miyu when you guys came."

"Oh, are you jealous about that?"Mizuki asked Kanata suddenly. Kanata felt himself turned red at the sudden response. "No I just –

"Haha… I'm just kidding of course. You really took it seriously huh?" Mizuki said amused at his reaction. "But I didn't say that because I was imitating Nozomu of course."

This made Kanata nervous. Was that a confirmation that his earlier doubts about Mizuki being able to sense unearthly beings true?

"It's because I thought that you would never let a girl stay here and… And I guess it's because her smile is really angelic. So I just randomly blurted out something like that."

Hearing his explanation made him somewhat at ease. At least he was able to confirm that Mizuki has no such power or anything.

After they finished cooking, they started watching Tofu Man immediately. Even though they only watched the movie of Tofu Man and not the entire series, they still finished watching a bit late. The sun was almost about to set until they finally called it a day.

"We'll be going then Kanata, Miyu-san." Santa said cheerily. Watching the Tofu Man movie really brought his spirits back.

"We'll be going now, thank you very much you two." Mizuki said grinning.

"I hope we'll be able to meet again mademoiselle. And see you at school Kanata." Nozomu said to the two.

When the three finally left, Kanata could not help but sigh. For him, this day was one of the most tiring days of his life.

"Kanata-kun has really kind friends." Miyu said to him smiling.

"They're really weird though." He said despairingly. "Anyway, thanks for helping with the chores."

"I'm glad I'm of some help to Kanata-kun."

A/N

Thank you very much for the reviews littlepuppylost and teenage crushers!

Glad to know you liked that chapter : ) Hope you like this too!

(It was already late when I wrote this so it took a bit longer to upload but at least I made it through my daily deadline :) )

Thanks for reading!