A/N: Hah! Y'all thought I was gone! Haaah... hah. So, I made a bunch of promises, and I didn't hold up on any of them, and that... kinda sucks? I put stuff off all up till the point where I decided I'll just leave it be altogether. But then I felt nostalgic, and I went on here, and I saw some comments, and I felt bad. You guys have put up with the gaps in my updates before, so I hope some of you are still around, and that you will forgive me! Honestly, the love you've shown for my stories still means a lot, and I'm sorry I let that love go to waste. I can't promise punctual updates or anything. I'm done making promises. Apart from this: Imma try! I really wanna please you guys. So, here we go, second chapter. It's obviously been quite a while since I wrote these characters. Also, I've switched to writing in present tense most of the time, which I know doesn't make much sense when the first chapter isn't, but I've just gotten too used to it, so I think I'm gonna stick with it. This chapter isn't super long, I literally wrote it all right now, because I suddenly felt so eager to be back. I hope you will keep being patient with me. Without further ado: The second chapter of "crazy kids do crazy stuff in an expensive house".

They set the vacation house on fire the very same night.

It isn't like they're bad kids. Not really. The fact of the matter is just that certain people put in the same room with a large amount of alcoholic beverages can make quite the dangerous concoction. The nine of them are no exception.

It started out quite calm and easy. They brought some beers, some wine, and some good mood upstairs, onto the balcony on the second floor. It was a huge balcony, with glass railings and a glass table, chairs for the lot of them, and cheese and crackers that Yukuri had set out beforehand. It was time to catch up.

By the time they started talking, it was as if they had never really left each other. That's how they knew they were meant to be friends, from the way time apart didn't make a single dent in their relationships. Time seemed to still as they indulged in joyous chatter.

"-he is by far the craziest science professor I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, though." Torya is laughing as she speaks, obviously reliving a memory. "First lecture we had with him, he had us make flamethrowers. Flamethrowers!"

"Toryun loves him. He brings out the worst in her." Tamura snickers, and Torya punches him lightly in the arm, to which he only starts laughing louder. "You see this? She's abusive! Worst relationship I ever had."

"Only relationship you ever had." Torya retorts.

"Ouch." Julian hisses, before taking a swig from his wine, his eyebrows moving suggestively at the couple who are engaging in their usual, playful banter. "Hope it's all worth it."

"Oh, you have no idea." Torya smiles widely, throwing her arms around her boyfriend. "He is so kind to me, even when I hit him."

"See, she's admitting it!" Tamura yells, but then he too throws his arms around her, a big grin on his face.

"What about you, Kitty?" Yukuri asks, motioning towards Kitamura with her wine glass. "How's your love life coming along?" She keeps looking at him, but there's no reply. He's just looking off into the distance, a soft smile on his face. "Kitty?" She wonders if maybe he's thinking about someone special. "You're thinking of someone right now, aren't you?" She smirks.

"Oh, no, he's just decided he won't respond to that name." Taiga shoots in, a soft chuckle escaping her. With a second glance, Yukuri can see that Kitamura is having a hard time not laughing.

"Come on, Kitty, spill the beans!" Yukuri exclaims, trying to get him to break, and it really doesn't take much, because Kitamura is now laughing his ass off, but still trying to look away as if he's not really part of the conversation

"He usually freezes up at the name, must be the wine." Ryuuji raises his eyebrows a little as he grabs a saltine cracker from the plate on the table and starts chewing on it.

An almost evil smile starts spreading on Yukuri's face, and they can all see that she's about to go ahead and do something most atrocious. Which is exactly what she does. "Nyan nyan, nyan nyan, niha-"

"Okay, okay!" That's what it takes for Kitamura to break completely, wildly shaking his hands in front of him to make Yukuri stop. His face is beet red, which is very unusual for him. "I am single! And proudly so!" He exclaims. "Also, please don't call me Kitty, I am class representative after all. You must offer at least some notion of respe-"

"Nihao nyan, goja-"

"For the love of all that is good!" Kitamura screams, and then he effectively swallows the rest of the wine in his glass. He's about to slam the glass down onto the table, but remembers that wine glasses are thin, and also that it's a glass table, so he decides on setting it down calmly. With a sour face. They all need some time to laugh it out before someone speaks up again.

"Taiga. Ryuuji." Torya says, quite softly this time. "How are you guys doing?"

They both take a moment to look at each other, and it's like a wave of relief washes over everyone when they see the way they smile at one another.

"We're doing great." They both say in unison, gentle but sincere smiles on both their faces.

"Aaaaah!" Yukuri practically bellows, leaning back on her chair and clasping a hand quite tightly onto Ami's shoulder. "I am in love with their love!"

"And your mother, Ryuuji, if it's alright for me to ask?" Julian chimes in, and it's obvious he's trying to be as sensitive as possible about the matter.

"She's doing fine." Ryuuji smiles, nodding a little towards Julian. "The whole thing... kinda changed her, though."

"Wow, that's one way to put it." Taiga scoffs, rolling her eyes, and Ryuuji has to supress a snicker. "Almost dying made her realize she didn't wanna die a hostess."

Ryuuji bites his lip a little before speaking up, "Yeah, she's opened a ba-"

"A bakery!" Minori screams, and she's laughing so hard it looks like she might actually die. And that makes Ryuuji and Taiga break out into laughter as well. "I am so sorry!" Minori cries out, fighting her way through her tears. "It just never stops being funny!"

"Why is that so funny?" There's a puzzled look on Tamura's face when he asks, his eyes shifting between the three laughing kids.

"My mom barely even knows how to cook rice."

"Oh. Then how did she pull off-"

"Ryuuji gave her an intensive course." Taiga says, and she isn't laughing anymore. She's smiling now, as if it's a happy memory. It's happy because it goes to show how much better her new family is.

"And now, I teach her something new every week. She's really starting to get the hang of it."

"And it's nice, because now we get to see her all the time, since she's working while we're at school instead of all night!" Taiga beams.

The night goes on like that. As it starts getting darker, they start getting drunker. And as they start getting drunker, the start getting rowdier.

"-and it's like, does it look like I frickin' care if you find my love for women appaling?" Yukuri is yelling, standing up and flailing her arms around in wild gestures.

"Amen!" Julian retorts, lifting his glass as high as he can. They've all started in on the harder stuff, now, and it's very visible on every single one of them.

"So anyways, I sock the guy in the jaw-"

"You what?!" Torya hollers, and Kitamura gives off a satisfied hum, which surprises just about anyone.

"Out of everyone, Kitamura, you're the last one I thought would stand for violence." Ryuuji says, eyes wide in surprise. Kitamura just shrugs.

"Then you should've seen Ryuuji here throw down, dude." It's with great satisfaction Julian said this, seeing as he was the one who gave Ryuuji the incentive. "Him and Yukuri gave this lowlife piece of shit a real beating."

"You make it sound a lot worse than it was." Ryuuji groans, and Taiga pats his shoulder in sympathy. "It was one punch."

"One from each of us." Yukuri grins.

"True enough." Ryuuji sighs.

And so, it gets a little bit darker, and they get a little bit drunker, and it gets to be a little bit colder. They all move inside at one point, going to sit in the living room downstairs, still going at the drinking. They all know they're going to regret it in the morning. Most of them, anyway.

It's when they're inside things start turning real messy. People are stumbling over their words, slurring like crazy, and falling all over the place. They've got some of Julian's music blaring over the speakers, which is some really hard rap music that no one in the room has heard before. It seems to be making them even more crazy.

It's all fun and games, dancing around, talking loudly, making out on the couch, until someone suddenly screams. People turn around, and there is Yukuri, pointing at a curtain and wailing like a banshee.

There's a spider. Moderately big. Some people are surprised, some are not.

"I thought Yukuri was more tough." Ryuuji yelled into Julian's ear, to make himself heard over the music.

"Oh, she is! As long as it's not spiders."

"For the love of god, murder it!" Yukuri bellows, pointing at it and stamping her feet at the ground, even though the spider is just sitting there, minding its own business. Tamura escapes the room. "God damn it, Tamura!"

"Oh, he's back!" Taiga exclaims excitedly, as Tamura returns to the room only moments later, holding a can of hairspray in one hand, and a lighter in the other. He sets towards the spider.

"Christ, Tamura, no!" Kitamura yells.

"Christ, Tamura, yes!" Torya yells in return, jumping on the couch and cheering him on.

Seconds later, the curtain is on fire. And everyone is panicking. Well, everyone except Torya, who is rolling on the floor, laughing.

To no one's surprise, Ryuuji and Kitamura are the ones who spring into action first. "Haruno-san, where's the fire extinguisher?" Kitamura yelled, eyes fixed on Yukuri who is still freaking out, although less than when the spider was still alive.

"Hallway!"

So the two boys set out to find it, and they manage to put out the fire quite quickly, after a little mishap with Ryuuji stumbling over the AUX-chord, which results in the music turning off and everyone in the room being covered in foam from the fire extinguisher. Luckily, he hit the curtain as well, so the fire dies effectively.

They all just stand there for a while afterwards, looking at each other with jaws open and eyes wide. Ryuuji and Kitamura is completely frozen in place, extinguisher held between the two of them. And then the room erupts into yells and applause, and suddenly they're being lifted up into the air.

"Bring our heroes to the pool!" Yukuri hollers. "They shall be washed like kings!"

And that's how they find out that, yes, there is indeed a huge pool behind the house. It's heated as well, so that's nice. But Kitamura and Ryuuji doesn't get to go willingly. Oh, no. They're thrown in.

They enter the water with a splash, the foam from the extinguisher forming white flowers in the otherwise blue water. It doesn't take long for the others to join in, jumping in to wash themselves up, clothes be damned.

The only one who stays on the edge is Taiga. She's looking down into the water, a somewhat blank look on her face. Ryuuji sees her almost the second he breaks the surface again. He swims over there and grabs onto the edge, and Taiga kneels down as if she knows it's what he wants her to do.

He grabs her hand and strokes it a bit. "You okay?"

"Y-Yeah." She stutters, but she's chewing on the inside of her chin, that much Ryuuji can see.

"Come on. No one's gonna die. That whole fire thing went and sobered us up pretty well, didn't it?"

"I guess." She mumbles, but her eyes can't meet his.

"Hey." He smiles, his finger fiddling with a ring on Taiga's finger, identical to the one he's wearing on his own finger. "I got you."

"For ever?"

"And always."

And Taiga dives in, because that's what life is. That's what love is. Diving in. Knowing he's there to catch her.

For ever and always.