Duran-kun and Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater

(featuring the Kuga-Fujino family pets)

It was a cold morning in early spring. The kind of morning where, despite the promise of sun later in the day, a leaden gray sky suggested "April showers" were going to be cold, wet, and not at all inclined to produce rainbows. The kind of day where one wanted to bundle into one's winter coat and the flowers were glad they were still snuggled under the ground instead of growing up into the cold air, air which was chill enough to cause a puff of steam to rise from the mouth at every exhalation.

Or in Kiyohime's case, six puffs of steam.

Despite her reptilian appearance, the purple hydra did not dislike cold weather. She found snow fun to burrow in, and enjoyed the celebration of Christmas, and she was sure that with a little more work at it she could get better at throwing snowballs so that next year, darn it she'd be able to beat Duran in a snow fight. So she did not mind the unseasonal chill in the air.

The young woman taking her for a morning slither around the block, however...

"Argh, stupid leash! I can only keep one hand in my pocket while holding it while the other one freezes!"

Kiyohime's fourth head looked up at Natsuki Kuga and gave an inquiring hiss. It always was the daredevil of the six.

"No, I am not letting you off the leash. Fuuka only lets pets run free in the park or on private property."

Several heads gave her a dubious look at that one. If hydras had eyebrows, Natsuki had a feeling quite a number of them would be raised at her just then.

"What? Just because I don't give a hoot about the stupid laws doesn't mean that I don't follow the ones that make sense. Besides, what if something bad happened? Shizuru would cry and she'd kill me, hopefully in reverse order so I don't have to watch her be sad."

The heads looked at each other and, coming to a consensus, nodded. The second head even gave her a somewhat suggestive look that indicated it had not missed that Natsuki had put seeing her girlfriend in despair as the worse fate than stabby death.

"Don't you start. Teasing is absolutely not allowed when I can't feel my toes."

The hiss was curious this time.

"No, not literally. I'm just crabby."

Kiyohime had not questioned why Natsuki was walking her if it annoyed the biker so much to be out in the cold. The hydra had, after all, been there in the room when Shizuru Fujino had looked up at Natsuki with wide red eyes.

"Would you mind taking Kiyohime for a walk this morning, Natsuki? I'm running really late today, and I have to finish printing and collating a paper to turn in for my first class."

"Can't she just go out in the back yard?" Natsuki had proposed what she'd thought was a reasonable compromise.

"It's not the same. She likes to get out and stretch her scales on these warm spring days."

"There is nothing warm about this day."

Shizuru's pout would have melted the heart of a statue.

"Nice try. I've known you too long."

The pout had vanished then.

"Ikezu. But I would really appreciate it."

It was almost an axiom of relationships that as one's resistance to trickery grows, one's ability to turn down an honest request decreases to jack squat. Ergo, Kiyohime did not have to ask why Natsuki was willing to shiver in the cold to give the hydra a walk that Kiyohime had not even begged Shizuru to give her.

"There ought to be a rule," Natsuki decided. "Once the cherry blossoms fly, Nature is not allowed to backslide and let winter poke its nose back in again. That's just how it should be. Who do I need to talk to about this?"

Kiyohime did not interject a remark, knowing Natsuki's dislike for the cold. While Natsuki's name was actually spelled with hiragana, not the kanji for "summer princess," it might as well have been, she was such a warm-weather girl.

"Still, though, we're almost home, and at least there wasn't any snow." Natsuki glanced at her watch and brightened. "And there'll be coffee by now, so that I can warm up when we get there!"

They turned up the walk leading to the house Natsuki and Shizuru shared, went up the front steps (not always easy without legs; Kiyohime often thought a hydra ramp would have been a nice addition) and into the house.

"Surprise!"

The living room was packed. All eleven of the other HiME were there: Mai, Mikoto, Nao, Yukino, Midori, Yukariko, Akira, Shiho, Akane, Headmistress Fumi, even Alyssa, together with assorted friends, love interests, and androids. Even the CHILDs were there, from Artemis doing its best imitation of a strobe light to St. Vlas riding Gakuten-O so that it could chase Hari around the room to what looked like...

All fourteen of Kiyohime's eyes blinked in surprise. Was Miroku dancing with Diana? The floating, legless oni and the plant's tendrils did seem to be moving in time with the music. At least to the extent one could dance to Beethoven.

The real surprise was the banner, though, held aloft by Yatagarasu and Kagutsuchi, the dragon-phoenix and the crow doing their best hummingbird imitations so that it would stay more or less in one place. Written in giant purple letters was the message, "Happy Birthday Kiyohime."

As a chorus of "Happy Birthday" broke out, led by Mai (who'd take any excuse to sing in public), the tea cart rolled out of the kitchen, pushed by Duran, who held the handle in his mouth. Rather than tea, it held six plates, each with their own slice of birthday cake topped by three lit candles.

"You have to have hats!" Mikoto said, and immediately began to slip conical, glittering paper party hats on whichever head she could reach. It wouldn't have been hard even for someone without Mikoto's abnormal agility to have done, given how utterly dumbfounded the hydra was.

Kiyohime's sixth head looked up at Natsuki and gave her a curious hiss.

"Of course I was in on it," Natsuki grinned. "We figured you'd never suspect anything if I was the one who took you out since we all know how much I love the cold. We figured you'd be too busy snickering at Shizuru's teasing to get suspicious."

It offered another hiss, still obviously in shock.

"What? You don't think I've lived with Shizuru all this time without learning how to be sneaky when I want to be, do you?"

~X X X~

A/N: As my long-time readers have likely already realized, this story is a birthday gift for my very own Natsuki, my wife Tarma Hartley! Happy birthday, sweetie! I'm sorry I can't get you an actual pet hydra again this year. Natsuki's already had two birthday fics in these chibi-CHILD stories, so I thought it was time that someone else got that chance. I have no idea if Kiyohime's "birthday" (which is here treated as her day of first summoning by Shizuru) actually is in the spring, but hey, why not? The "fourteen eyes" line does include the two on the main body (she was really surprised, to get them involved, too!).

(Oh, and why Beethoven at a party, you might ask? It seems that Kiyo-chan is a fan of classical music!)