A/N: To all of you who probably feel that I've been slacking off lately (which I have), here's my treat to you. An extra long chapter compared to the usual length of my chapters.

The week moved forwards like any other week would, and before they knew it, weekend had come. Ryuuji had already planned on getting up early on Saturday so that he could go to the grocery store and buy things for their sleepover, so that he didn't have to do that after the meeting at the café.

Ryuuji had never really had trouble getting up in the morning, but it didn't really take him long to start realizing how enjoyable it was to wake up next to the person he loved every morning, and how comfortable it could be to just snuggle close to her and stay there. But he was determined to get up, just like he had managed to do the entire week. He couldn't be too late for school, after all.

And so it was that he did his best to get up early on Saturday. His eyes flickered open as the alarm clock went off, and he reached his arm out to turn it off, though it proved difficult seeing as how Taiga was sleeping on the arm closest to the alarm. He tried stretching his other arm over himself and Taiga, but had to give up pretty soon. Eventually, he ended up etching his arm out from underneath the little girl, careful enough not to wake her up. He managed to turn the alarm off and get up to his knees.

"Geez," he mumbled, scratching his blue hair tiredly. "Who knew I could become such a lazy kid, huh?" He asked himself, looking down at Taiga. "It's all your fault, isn't it?" He asked, even though he knew she was deeply asleep. He smiled softly and leaned down, pushing his lips softly against the girl's forehead. "I swear, the next time we have the chance to sleep in, I'll just hold you until it feels like we've been asleep forever… that would be nice." He chuckled and stood up after making sure the blankets were properly splayed out over Taiga.

He got dressed and combed his hair with some water to make it look a little less wild after just getting up. He checked himself over in the mirror before sighing heavily. "Who cares this early in the morning anyways?" He mumbled and left the bathroom, grabbing his wallet before leaving the house and walking the distance down to the convenience store.

He entered the store and grabbed a shopping basket before he started walking up and down the aisles. He started by getting everything they'd need for dinner both Saturday and Sunday. He decided he wanted to make something nice considering they were having a sleepover – even though he didn't really have a say in the whole sleepover business – so he put some nice meat and vegetables into the basket before finding a package of egg noodles. After that, he went on to find something he could use to make the wok sauce.

After getting everything they needed for dinner, he started thinking about snacks. He didn't really enjoy the thought of eating too unhealthy, but wasn't that the point of sleepovers? He nodded to himself and gathered some chips and sweets, that he was sure would be enough to satisfy them all for the night. Grabbing some soda and some milk too, he went to the register to check out.

…

Taiga woke up after she tried reaching for Ryuuji, but noticed the he was missing. She figured he'd gotten up early again, because she could literally feel that it wasn't time for her to get up yet. But upon waking up, she also noticed the unpleasant feeling in her stomach. Almost like her muscles were retracting.

"Ugh," she groaned and stumbled to her feet that were quite wobbly. She put a hand to her stomach and started patting her feet along the floor to get to the bathroom. She still couldn't understand how Ryuuji was able to get up so early on the weekends, considering she almost passed out just from standing up so early. But Ryuuji was so determined… and always so dependable. Taiga smiled softly to herself, but was stopped once again by the unpleasant feeling in her stomach.

She got into the bathroom and stood on her toes to get a look at herself in the mirror. Her hair was messy, and she kind of looked like she'd been asleep for a hundred years. She sighed heavily and walked over to the toilet. She figured she was just experiencing a normal stomach ache, but as soon as she pulled down her pajama pants and got a look at her white underwear, her breathing stopped completely. Her face went pale, and her lips quivered in terror.

Yasuko woke up that morning by hearing the terrified yelp from the bathroom, and she first wondered if it was a little puppy.

"EEEEEEEK!"

Yasuko got to her feet and ignored the throbbing pain in her head from the alcohol the night before, and stumbled to where the sound came from. She knocked on the bathroom door. "My, my, is something wrong?" She asked in a calm voice, sounding just like a mother. After a few moments, the door opened slowly, and Taiga stood there with a pale face.

"Yacchan," she murmured, sounding like a little child who had just seen something terrifying. "I think something is terribly… terribly wrong…" She breathed, trying to keep herself composed.

"What is it, Taiga?" Yasuko asked calmly, crouching down a little to be on level with Taiga's face, her smile soft and soothing. Her hand was gently rubbing at Taiga's shoulder, trying to take away some of her tension.

"I-I don't know if I dare to show you," Taiga yelped, seeming quite embarrassed. "But it doesn't look good… am I going to die, Yacchan?" She asked, tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"No, darling, you're not going to die," Yasuko said, patting Taiga's head. "Just tell me what's wrong. Nothing is too embarrassing for me, okay? I've raised a child, remember?"

"M-Mh…" Taiga mumbled. She kicked at the ground and looked to her side, puffing out her cheeks in embarrassment as she slowly pulled her pajama pants downwards a little.

It was quiet for a while before Taiga could hear a little giggle from Yasuko. "Oh my," she laughed, making Taiga blush in surprise.

"W-What is it?" Taiga uttered, looking at Yasuko with big eyes.

"It's definitely nothing to worry about, Taiga."

…

Ryuuji unlocked the door quietly and walked inside after setting his shoes away in the hallway. He knew that he had to be careful not to wake either his mother or Taiga. He tiptoed into the kitchen with several plastic bags in his hands that he set down on the floor. He turned around to see something unexpected – Taiga and Yasuko sitting by the table in the living room. Taiga had a blanket draped over her shoulders, and Yasuko was gently patting at her head while Taiga pouted at the table.

"R-Ryuuji," she sobbed as she noticed him, and he immediately started walking towards her with worry on his face.

"Taiga, are you okay?" He asked hurriedly, and she held up her hands as if trying to keep him away.

"Don't get close to me! Don't… touch me…" She mumbled, making Yasuko laugh once again.

"Don't worry, Ryuu-chan… Taiga is just… going through some late changes, is all." She smiled softly, continuing to pat Taiga's head.

"D-Don't make fun of it being so late!" Taiga exclaimed, lowering her head even more in embarrassment.

Ryuuji stopped dead in his tracks, cocking his head slightly to the side. "Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?" He asked Yasuko, frowning slightly. Yasuko nodded carefully as if wanting to assure him completely that it was in fact true. Ryuuji nodded back sternly. "Mom, you take care of getting the groceries into the fridge, okay?" He asked, suddenly sounding a bit rushed. "I'll go back to the store and get pads."

Just as Ryuuji had rushed out of the house, Taiga started blushing extremely. "W-W-Wait, Ryuuji, that's too embarrassing!" She yelped, burying her face in her hands.

"It's okay, Taiga, he always gets them for me." Yasuko smiled reassuringly.

After Ryuuji had returned merely ten minutes later with heavy breath and another bag in his hand, Taiga had gone to the bathroom with a look of absolute shamefulness on her face, whilst Yasuko was attempting to convince her that it was okay.

"How do you feel? We'll get going to meet up with the others pretty soon," Ryuuji said from the kitchen as he made breakfast for Yasuko who had been strong enough to get up so early for Taiga.

"I-I can't meet with other people!" Taiga exclaimed, blushing furiously. "T-They'll notice, for sure!"

She stood outside of the bathroom door now, looking down at the floor with a flat expression on her face. She heard the sound of feet shuffling carefully towards her, and then she saw Ryuuji's shadow tower above her.

"Taiga," he said with a soft sigh, placing his hand on top of her head. "Don't worry about it, okay? No one's going to notice. And what you're going through now, it's completely normal, after all. It's going to be fine."

Taiga looked up at Ryuuji and pursed her lips tightly for a second before she nodded her head in acknowledgement, slumping her shoulders in defeat. "Fine, I'll come," she mumbled as she fidgeted a little, and tried not to seem to embarrassed about the whole situation, even though it was slightly too late for that.

…

Yusaku Kitamura stretched his arms and yawned loudly before putting his hand on the door and pushed it open, the sound of a bell ringing welcoming him into the café. He pulled his bag a bit further up on his shoulder and started looking around the café. It was too early for anyone to really be there, but it didn't take long before he heard someone calling for him.

"Yo, Yusaku!" A male voice exclaimed, and upon taking a further look, Kitamura could see a hand waving from one of the tables in the section by the other end of the café. He smiled brightly and waved back, making his way down to the table where his seniors were seated. Kitamura figured the section they were sat in was placed there for the sole purpose of large gatherings of friends or family who would come there to eat together. All the tables were placed fairly closed to each other, and the sofa-like seats with red leather pulled over them could fit quite a lot of people by each of the tables. It was perfect for their purpose, obviously.

Kitamura sat down in a chair at the end of the table, nodding at the people in the other seats with a smile.

There were four people sitting there, excluding Kitamura. Two boys, and two girls, all with their respective manuscripts and other papers fluttered out on the table in front of them.

Closest to Kitamura on his right side sat Tamura, last name Harayoki. He was a boy with a slender face and bright, bright green eyes. His hair was short and messy, with a light brown colour to it. He wore a plain, red t-shirt and shorts. He was the liveliest one of the bunch. He was, to Kitamura's observation, practically always smiling. He always wanted things to move, and advance, so that nothing ever stood still. That was just too boring. He was the kind of hyped up that often could make people annoyed, but Kitamura had never met anyone who could do a better job at getting people motivated and cheered up. He was definitely a good piece to have in the project, and had over the years become a close friend of Kitamura, one whom he treasured dearly.

"Yo, Yusaku!" Tamura exclaimed with a toothy grin. His eyes were lit up as usual, and his voice was quite high pitched. He raised his fist to bump with Kitamura, something which Kitamura returned with a little less motivation. That wasn't the kind of greeting he'd gotten used to yet.

"Good morning, Harayoki-san." He said with a smile, making Tamura chuckled out loud.

"Wow, Yusaku, I've told you already! Just call me Tamura, yeah? You know it makes me uncomfortable when people treat me all politely." He laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"Do you even know what it means to be polite?" The voice next to him mumbled with what sounded like a slight accent. Kitamura leaned to his side a little to look at the boy next to Tamura. The boy there had a buzzcut on each side of his head, and longer hair on the top of his head. It was dyed light blonde, and he'd cut some sort of trails in it on one side. He had white jewelry hanging from his earlobe and a black earbud in his helix.

His name was Julian Robinson. He was originally from America, but moved to Japan several years earlier. He spoke Japanese that was pretty much fluent, but his dialect was accented a little bit by his native language. His style was quite controversial in comparison to the basic Japanese High School student. He wore a black button-up shirt with a popped collar and sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He had a black wrist-cuff on his left wrist, and several necklaces hanging around his neck. His gaze was fixed on the papers on the table in front of him. He flipped his pen around between his fingers while taking tiny sips from his coffee with his other hand.

"Of course I know what it means to be polite!" Tamura chuckled brightly, making Julian scoff incredulously.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." He mumbled, rolling his eyes before circling a few words in the manuscript in front of him.

"You're always so grumpy in the mornings, Julian," one of the girls by the other side of the table sighed. Her name was Torya Mamuri. She had black hair with a straight fringe covering her forehead, and the length of her hair was gathered in a big braid hanging over her right shoulder, reaching down to her chest. She was wearing a light green t-shirt and a black and white skirt that reached just above her knees. Her legs were pulled up into the seat, and she hugged her knees closely as she puckered her lips in boredom. Torya was a pretty special person who could say the weirdest of things, but she was creative and mostly calm, and could often bring joy and calm to those around her. She also preferred to be called Toryun, or even Yunyun, which were names she had managed to convince most of her friends to refer to her by.

Next to her sat Yukuri Haruno. She had the brightest blue eyes in the room, and her hair was dyed a beautiful blonde. She was one of the people that many juniors in school looked up to as a beautiful senpai, but in reality she was just as much as a nerd as everyone else in the movie club. She was usually calm and composed, but could be quite sly and deceiving if it was deemed necessary, and she could have her freak-outs if the situation asked for it properly.

And that made up the movie club. They were only five people, but they were compassionate about making films, and that made it fun for them to be in the club. And they were absolutely looking forward to working with the second graders on their next project.

Yukuri finished her first cup of tea that morning and looked at Kitamura with a tilted head. "Say… when were the others supposed to be here?"

"They'll probably be here soon. I know that at least some of them are good at getting up more than early enough," Kitamura chuckled, assuring her that they wouldn't have to wait much longer. And sure enough, after a few minutes, they could hear the sound of the bell by the door signaling that someone else had entered the café. Tamura, who was in one of the seats that were facing the door, hoisted himself up a little to see if he could see who had entered. After all, the backs of the seats were too high for them to see straight over them.

"Okay, uh… One person just came in," Tamura said, perching an eyebrow. "Dark blue hair, pretty tall guy."

"Call them over," Kitamura said idly as he jotted something down in his papers, pressing the tip of his pencil against his chin.

"Them? You mean 'him', don't you? Oh well," he mumbled, waving his arm as high up as possible. "Ooooy! Over here!"

Tamura sat back down and sighed, rubbing his eyes a little. It didn't take long before the tall boy found his way over to their table, and that's when Tamura noticed the little girl right next to him.

"Ah, there really were two of them," he said, cocking his head a little. Everyone turned to look at them, even Julian, and they were all a bit confused. There was this really tall, scary looking guy with dark blue hair, and a really tiny girl standing next to him, nervously clinging onto his arm. The boy was wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, whilst the girl wore a peach coloured tank-top and shorts that barely reached down to the middle of her thighs, and white whole-leg stockings underneath. They were all staring pretty blatantly, making the girl blush even more and cling closer to the boy. Luckily for her, none of them realized why she was so nervous.

Ryuuji looked at them for a few seconds, quite surprised by the less normal appearance of the blonde boy. He bowed lightly and introduced himself with both names, and also introducing them to Taiga. She seemed to be muted for the time being. They all took turns to introduce themselves, and Tamura and Julian scooted further in on the seats to make place for Ryuuji to sit, though to their surprise, Taiga sat down right next to him on, still clinging to his arm. She looked so embarrassed they thought she might actually die of too much blood going to her face.

But at the same time, Ryuuji noticed how the girl who had introduced herself as Yukuri was blushing really deeply, staring at Ryuuji and Taiga. Ryuuji cocked his head to the side and frowned a little.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, making her blush even more.

"Ah… aaah…" She yelped, trying to calm herself down to no avail.

"Oh, god," Julian mumbled, looking up at her. "Are you having one of your moments again? What, which one of them is it this time?" He asked, almost as if this was normal procedure for them.

"O-Okinawa," Yukuri stuttered, pointing at Ryuuji and Taiga with big eyes.

"W-What?" Ryuuji stuttered, and Taiga looked quite distraught too.

"I have a friend who lives in Okinawa… she filmed something on the beach, u-uhm…" Yukuri reached into her purse and pulled out a phone. She started typing away at it until she found what she was looking for. She smiled nervously and handed the phone to Ryuuji, who turned it to himself and pressed the play button. Taiga leaned against him to get a better view of it too.

Ryuuji and Taiga widened their eyes in surprise as they saw what was on the video. There was Taiga, sitting on top of Ryuuji, pounding away at his chest in a desperate manner to get him back to life. Ryuuji was more than just a little shocked. He didn't remember that part, after all. Once the video was done, his eyes flickered between Taiga and Yukuri. Taiga was blushing deeply again, and so was Yukuri. Ryuuji hesitantly handed the phone back to Yukuri.

"My friend sent me this, and since then I've… I've wondered what happened afterwards. I never realized… that it was someone in our school," she uttered, swallowing heavily. She suddenly started chuckling under her breath.

"H-Hey, what's wrong?" Ryuuji stuttered, and he could hear Julian pound his head into the table next to them.

"T-They must be the perfect couple," Yukuri mumbled, sounding almost like a crazy person where she sat. "I've finally found them… they are truly- ouch!" She exclaimed as Torya punched her in the arm to calm her down. "Toryun, what was that for?!" She wailed, making Torya scoff as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Hmpf. You were starting to go all crazy again." She said, puffing out her cheeks in exasperation.

They all settled down again, and just chatted a bit as they waited for the others. After a while, Taiga pulled Ryuuji's face down to her level to whisper something into his ear. This, too, was enough to make Yukuri almost freak out again.

"W-What if someone notices?" Taiga asked nervously, and Ryuuji sighed as he moved to place his lips against her ear instead.

"Don't worry. I told you, if you wear clothes that look confident, no one will suspect a thing."

"B-But I'm wearing white stockings," Taiga whispered back, her face growing redder just from having Ryuuji whisper in her ear.

"The pads are extremely absorbing… seriously, it's going to be fine," Ryuuji reassured her. She nodded hesitantly and moved to sit normally again, fidgeting with her fingers in her lap. She felt so utterly awkward.

But, before long, the rest of the people they waited for filed into the café. Minori, Noto, Haruta, Maya and Nanako all introduced themselves to the new people there before sitting down around the table. They all talked for a while and ordered some drinks and something to eat before they got started on the manuscripts. Kitamura had specifically pointed out that they needed to have the energy before they started.

"What are we going to do about roles, and all that stuff?" Noto asked as they ate, taking a bite out of his sandwich. He looked around, waiting for an answer, which he hurriedly got from Julian.

"That depends, obviously," He said with his slight accent, his gaze still fixed on the papers in front of him as he circled and jotted down notes on the side of the paper. "We have to discuss if we're all happy about the script, and some scenes might not be suiting for certain people but rather for other people, so obviously… we'll need to make sure everyone finds a role they're comfortable with."

"Y-Yeah," Noto stuttered, swallowing heavily. "Yeah, of course."

"Hey, don't worry!" Tamura exclaimed with a huge smile, holding his thumbs up towards Noto. "It might sound like a lot of work, but it's gonna be fine! We'll push through with guts, yo!"

"Yeah, something like that," Julian mumbled, earning a laugh from Torya.

After finishing their food not long after, they all sat quietly and read through some paragraphs in the manuscripts before Kitamura cleared his throat. "So," he started, smiling at everyone. "Should we get started?" He asked. Everyone nodded firmly, except from Taiga and Julian, who nodded in a more meek manner. "Very well, then. First of all, what do you all think of the manuscript? The credit for this mostly goes to the seniors here." He said, pointing towards the four seniors.

"It was awesome!" Haruta exclaimed happily, pumping his fist into the air.

"I agree!" Minori exclaimed in a high pitched voice, a determined ring to her voice. "It had so many nice aspects to it, and it's also very unlike anything I've ever read. It's so creative, but also sort of in an abstract kind of way, know what I mean?" She uttered, speaking in quite a rush. Kitamura laughed.

"Exactly. That's what we were aiming for." He chuckled, and the seniors nodded in agreement.

Nanako raised her hand gingerly until Kitamura signaled for her to speak. "U-Uh… I noticed that some roles here have some pretty… uh… special styles. Do we use the people who have the most similar style, or…?"

"Oh, don't worry, we have a lot of costumes," Torya grinned. "And me and Yukuri are pretty good with make-up."

Nanako nodded, and they all discussed further about things like visual effects, budgets, cameras and so on. After a while, they had pretty much all the information they needed, and then it was time for the big question.

"So," Kitamura said, stacking his papers with quite the serious look. "What do you all say? You up for this?" He asked, his eyes flickering between everyone that sat at the table. Julian flipped his pen into the air and caught it between his teeth.

"Definitely," He said in a slightly muffled voice due to the pen. The others nodded in consent and uttered their own "Yes" under their breaths. They were all pretty hyped up for it, but no one really wanted to show it. They probably figured it would be embarrassing. Well, some people didn't have any trouble showing it.

"HELL YEAH!" Tamura exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air. Minorin stood and extended her fist to Tamura, and they both giggled loudly as they bumped fists in extreme determination, determination that was almost powerful enough to knock the others out of their seats from the sheer surprise.

"Then it's time to pick roles, right?" Julian mumbled, flicking his pen down on his books before rubbing his hands together and clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "I'm going to do some preliminary stuff… I will give you all your roles. If you're happy with it, you get it, unless someone else wants to fight you over it. If you're not happy with it, you're up for another round of picking." He said. The juniors looked a bit confused, but Yukuri calmed them down.

"Trust me," she said, grinning lightly. "He knows his stuff."

Julian grinned to himself, leaning back in his seat, resting the heel of one foot on top of his knee. They were all a bit surprised to see him smile like that. He looked at them all once more before blinking with his eyes. "Let's get started then, shall we?"