MAKING MERRY
Chapter 1 - Let's Celebrate!
"Let's have a Christmas Party!"
"Eh?!" three males exclaimed in simultaneous surprise.
They all paused in the act of eating their dinner, a combination of rice, fish and vegetables, as they stared at the excited figure before them, Honda Tohru. To Yuki, Kyou, and Shigure, it was patently obvious that the girl was extremely eager to act upon whatever was occupying her thoughts. Her body was practically vibrating with visible animation while her eyes were on the verge of shining as bright as the sparkling of sunshine reflecting off diamonds.
"A Christmas party," Tohru repeated. "I know you don't really celebrate it, but it would be fun for everyone to get together."
"But wouldn't that be a lot of work?" asked Yuki who looked at Tohru in concern. "Honda-san already has so much to do."
"No!" Tohru exclaimed quickly, shaking her head. "It'll be no trouble at all. Really!"
"Well," Shigure said thoughtfully, "a party might be nice. But where did this idea come from?" he asked curiously.
To the best of his recollection, Tohru had never made any mention of a party, or even Christmas, last winter so this suggestion of hers seemed a little out of the blue. Especially since none of the Soumas had ever paid much attention to this particular holiday in the first place, the members of the family being raised to preoccupy themselves mainly with the New Years' event preparations around this time of the year. Compared to this, all other occasions paled in comparison. To the Souma family, Christmas was just another day of the year without any special meaning attached to it. But looking at Tohru, Shigure was sure no one would refuse her request. No doubt, it was an important holiday for her and she'd avoided bringing it up last year because of the painful association it had with her deceased mother. If she was ready to put aside those memories in favor of celebrating anew this year, he knew it wasn't likely that anyone would refuse her request.
"Well, Hana-chan and Uo-chan thought it would be a good idea," she answered happily. "They wanted to have a chance to meet everyone that I've been talking about."
The boys started to sweat as similar thoughts went crossed their minds. This party wasn't just Tohru and the Jyunnishi? Tohru inviting people who didn't know about the curse? That could make things even more difficult, to have female guests who didn't know about the curse around Jyunnishi males.
"The yankee and denpa are coming, too?" growled a scowling Kyou, thinking of all the potential disasters that could occur.
Tohru's smile faded. She bit her lip in worry and bowed her head as her shoulders slumped. "If that's a problem."
"I didn't say that!" Kyou shouted, eyes wide in panic at the thought of putting that look on her face.
"Hmph. Some people have no tact." Yuki glanced at Kyou in disgust.
"Shut up!" Kyou shot Yuki an angry glare.
Sensing another fight brewing between the two and horrified that she had been the cause of it, Tohru was anxious to put a stop to it. "I'm sorry!" she cried, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "It's my fault for making everyone so upset!" If Mother was watching, she'd be so disappointed, Tohru frantically thought. "I should have known-"
"Now, now," Shigure soothed. "Calm down."
"I should have asked all of you first. Even if Momiji-kun and Hatsuharu- san said it was alright."
"Momiji and Haru knew?" an aghast Yuki asked. Then again, he should have known those two would agree. They loved to cause excitement no matter how troublesome it was to others.
"Ah, well.we were all talking together in the hallway and Momiji-kun suggested that it would be great if we had a Christmas party to get everyone together. Hatsuharu-san agreed that it would be nice if there were lots of good food to eat. And then Hana-chan and Uo-chan said we should all go ahead with it and have one. So Momiji-kun and Hatsuharu-san said that I should ask all of you, too. "
"Haru and Momiji started it!" Kyou was beyond irritated at the mess those two had started. They had agreed even though they had known that there would be females around who didn't know about the curse.
"I'm sorry," Tohru apologized again, making Kyou regret his words. "I just wanted to spend some time together with everyone. I was being selfish."
"NO!" Kyou turned red at the loudness of his outburst. He had to look away from the penetrating gazes of Yuki and Shigure. Especially that Shigure who was grinning in such an annoying, knowing way. "It's not that I thought that it was a bad idea. It just surprised me. That's all."
"Then Kyou-kun thinks it's okay?" She looked at him hopefully.
"Y-yeah," he stammered out. How could he refuse when she was looking at him like that? The sparkling expression that spread across her features made up for any misgivings he had. He felt his face heat up even more and had to look away, turning around until his back was all they could see of him.
Yuki sighed in annoyance at being witness to the little bonding moment between the two and concentrated his attention on Tohru. It was much preferable than thinking of that stupid cat. "It'll be fine," he reassured her, giving her a gentle smile. "A party will be a nice break." And they would just have to be careful, he finished mentally.
"That's right," Shigure agreed. "If it's just Saki-chan and Arisa-chan, it won't matter that much." If they only had to worry about the transformation of the male Jyunnishi, it wouldn't be that much of a problem.
"Hmm." Tohru tilted her head thoughtfully. "Megumi-san will probably come, too."
"Megumi?" Yuki questioned.
"Hana-chan's little brother," she said brightly.
"Hanajima-san has a brother?" Yuki asked surprised, never having really given it any thought.
"Yes! He could talk to Hiro-san and Kisa-san since they're around the same age!"
Yuki exchanged glances with Shigure. Now everyone would have to be on their guard if there was the potential for all the Jyunnishi members to transform. Then a thought occurred to him. "Honda-san, what's Hanajima- san's brother like? Is he like his sister?" Horrible visions of a male denpa danced through his head.
"Megumi-san is very nice! Although Hana-chan often says they're not alike, I think they're very similar!" Noticing the gloomy aura that seemed to overtake the males, Tohru faltered again. "Is there something wrong?"
Shigure straightened. "No, no, not at all." He recalled his earlier musings. "After all, if Christmas is so important to you, then it's important to us, too."
"Important to me?" Tohru frowned in confusion.
"Well, of course. Tohru-kun, Christmas must be very special to you, right?"
The puzzled expression remained as she shook her head. "Not really."
Now Shigure was confused. "Didn't you usually celebrate Christmas?" He took great pains to avoid mentioning her mother directly.
Tohru shook her head again. "No, not really. Sometimes Mother and I would throw a party with Uo-chan and Hana-chan." She paused, thinking. "But we seem to have had lots of little parties throughout the year so I don't think of Christmas as anything especially different. Why does Shigure-san ask?"
Shigure sweated as he realized how far off the mark he had been. "Ah, no reason."
A sound from Yuki's direction had them all looking towards him. He was staring with seemingly deep concentration at his folded hands resting on top of the table. At the intensity of their gazes, Yuki looked up with a slight frown.
"Yuki-kun, is something wrong?" Tohru asked.
Yuki sighed. "Honda-san, people usually give out presents on Christmas, don't they?"
This time it was Tohru who flinched under the weight of several pairs of eyes. "Ah, yes," she said in a small voice.
"Hey," Kyou started. "You're not thinking of getting gifts for everyone are you?" He remembered how awful everyone had felt when they had found out how she'd spent all the money she had earned from her part-time job in order to buy Valentine's Day chocolates for them all and hadn't been able to pay her installment for the class trip on time. He, for one, did not want a repeat episode.
"That's right." Shigure was speaking. "It really wouldn't do at all to buy gifts for everyone when you're organizing everything."
"But-"
"Honda-san," Yuki interrupted her, "will no doubt be doing most of the work so we think it's unfair to buy presents, too."
Tohru blinked. "That's just what Hana-chan and Uo-chan said!"
"What?"
"I was trying to tell everyone earlier that Hana-chan and Uo-chan made me promise not to get gifts for anyone. They said that since I'll be doing most of the cooking and cleaning and decorating, that everyone thinks that that'll be my Christmas present to them! Oh, Momiji-kun and Hatsuharu-san said the same thing, too!"
Silence reigned as the Souma males' unvoiced plan to gang up on her until she agreed not to buy presents deflated. All that effort and getting worked up for nothing. At the continued quiet, Tohru started getting nervous.
"Is that a bad thing? Should I get presents after all? Hana-chan, Uo- chan, Momiji-kun, and Hatsuharu-san said not to but-"
"No, no," Shigure hastened to interject when he realized where Tohru's panic at their silence was leading. "They were right. Tohru-kun, you're already doing so much for us that buying gifts would make us feel bad." He thought about what would happen if they got gifts for her since it was custom to exchange them and knew how guilty she'd feel if she received them, and how much she'd protest. Plus, the more excitement the event generated, the more likely Akito was to catch wind of it so keeping it low- key was best. "In fact, we should keep this closer to a friendly gathering so no one will be exchange gifts. Is that okay?"
Tohru relaxed at his words. "Yes! Don't worry! I'll handle everything so no one has to bother." She beamed at them. "Everything will be fine!"
The three males smiled weakly back.
"Let's have a Christmas Party!"
"Eh?!" three males exclaimed in simultaneous surprise.
They all paused in the act of eating their dinner, a combination of rice, fish and vegetables, as they stared at the excited figure before them, Honda Tohru. To Yuki, Kyou, and Shigure, it was patently obvious that the girl was extremely eager to act upon whatever was occupying her thoughts. Her body was practically vibrating with visible animation while her eyes were on the verge of shining as bright as the sparkling of sunshine reflecting off diamonds.
"A Christmas party," Tohru repeated. "I know you don't really celebrate it, but it would be fun for everyone to get together."
"But wouldn't that be a lot of work?" asked Yuki who looked at Tohru in concern. "Honda-san already has so much to do."
"No!" Tohru exclaimed quickly, shaking her head. "It'll be no trouble at all. Really!"
"Well," Shigure said thoughtfully, "a party might be nice. But where did this idea come from?" he asked curiously.
To the best of his recollection, Tohru had never made any mention of a party, or even Christmas, last winter so this suggestion of hers seemed a little out of the blue. Especially since none of the Soumas had ever paid much attention to this particular holiday in the first place, the members of the family being raised to preoccupy themselves mainly with the New Years' event preparations around this time of the year. Compared to this, all other occasions paled in comparison. To the Souma family, Christmas was just another day of the year without any special meaning attached to it. But looking at Tohru, Shigure was sure no one would refuse her request. No doubt, it was an important holiday for her and she'd avoided bringing it up last year because of the painful association it had with her deceased mother. If she was ready to put aside those memories in favor of celebrating anew this year, he knew it wasn't likely that anyone would refuse her request.
"Well, Hana-chan and Uo-chan thought it would be a good idea," she answered happily. "They wanted to have a chance to meet everyone that I've been talking about."
The boys started to sweat as similar thoughts went crossed their minds. This party wasn't just Tohru and the Jyunnishi? Tohru inviting people who didn't know about the curse? That could make things even more difficult, to have female guests who didn't know about the curse around Jyunnishi males.
"The yankee and denpa are coming, too?" growled a scowling Kyou, thinking of all the potential disasters that could occur.
Tohru's smile faded. She bit her lip in worry and bowed her head as her shoulders slumped. "If that's a problem."
"I didn't say that!" Kyou shouted, eyes wide in panic at the thought of putting that look on her face.
"Hmph. Some people have no tact." Yuki glanced at Kyou in disgust.
"Shut up!" Kyou shot Yuki an angry glare.
Sensing another fight brewing between the two and horrified that she had been the cause of it, Tohru was anxious to put a stop to it. "I'm sorry!" she cried, bringing everyone's attention back to her. "It's my fault for making everyone so upset!" If Mother was watching, she'd be so disappointed, Tohru frantically thought. "I should have known-"
"Now, now," Shigure soothed. "Calm down."
"I should have asked all of you first. Even if Momiji-kun and Hatsuharu- san said it was alright."
"Momiji and Haru knew?" an aghast Yuki asked. Then again, he should have known those two would agree. They loved to cause excitement no matter how troublesome it was to others.
"Ah, well.we were all talking together in the hallway and Momiji-kun suggested that it would be great if we had a Christmas party to get everyone together. Hatsuharu-san agreed that it would be nice if there were lots of good food to eat. And then Hana-chan and Uo-chan said we should all go ahead with it and have one. So Momiji-kun and Hatsuharu-san said that I should ask all of you, too. "
"Haru and Momiji started it!" Kyou was beyond irritated at the mess those two had started. They had agreed even though they had known that there would be females around who didn't know about the curse.
"I'm sorry," Tohru apologized again, making Kyou regret his words. "I just wanted to spend some time together with everyone. I was being selfish."
"NO!" Kyou turned red at the loudness of his outburst. He had to look away from the penetrating gazes of Yuki and Shigure. Especially that Shigure who was grinning in such an annoying, knowing way. "It's not that I thought that it was a bad idea. It just surprised me. That's all."
"Then Kyou-kun thinks it's okay?" She looked at him hopefully.
"Y-yeah," he stammered out. How could he refuse when she was looking at him like that? The sparkling expression that spread across her features made up for any misgivings he had. He felt his face heat up even more and had to look away, turning around until his back was all they could see of him.
Yuki sighed in annoyance at being witness to the little bonding moment between the two and concentrated his attention on Tohru. It was much preferable than thinking of that stupid cat. "It'll be fine," he reassured her, giving her a gentle smile. "A party will be a nice break." And they would just have to be careful, he finished mentally.
"That's right," Shigure agreed. "If it's just Saki-chan and Arisa-chan, it won't matter that much." If they only had to worry about the transformation of the male Jyunnishi, it wouldn't be that much of a problem.
"Hmm." Tohru tilted her head thoughtfully. "Megumi-san will probably come, too."
"Megumi?" Yuki questioned.
"Hana-chan's little brother," she said brightly.
"Hanajima-san has a brother?" Yuki asked surprised, never having really given it any thought.
"Yes! He could talk to Hiro-san and Kisa-san since they're around the same age!"
Yuki exchanged glances with Shigure. Now everyone would have to be on their guard if there was the potential for all the Jyunnishi members to transform. Then a thought occurred to him. "Honda-san, what's Hanajima- san's brother like? Is he like his sister?" Horrible visions of a male denpa danced through his head.
"Megumi-san is very nice! Although Hana-chan often says they're not alike, I think they're very similar!" Noticing the gloomy aura that seemed to overtake the males, Tohru faltered again. "Is there something wrong?"
Shigure straightened. "No, no, not at all." He recalled his earlier musings. "After all, if Christmas is so important to you, then it's important to us, too."
"Important to me?" Tohru frowned in confusion.
"Well, of course. Tohru-kun, Christmas must be very special to you, right?"
The puzzled expression remained as she shook her head. "Not really."
Now Shigure was confused. "Didn't you usually celebrate Christmas?" He took great pains to avoid mentioning her mother directly.
Tohru shook her head again. "No, not really. Sometimes Mother and I would throw a party with Uo-chan and Hana-chan." She paused, thinking. "But we seem to have had lots of little parties throughout the year so I don't think of Christmas as anything especially different. Why does Shigure-san ask?"
Shigure sweated as he realized how far off the mark he had been. "Ah, no reason."
A sound from Yuki's direction had them all looking towards him. He was staring with seemingly deep concentration at his folded hands resting on top of the table. At the intensity of their gazes, Yuki looked up with a slight frown.
"Yuki-kun, is something wrong?" Tohru asked.
Yuki sighed. "Honda-san, people usually give out presents on Christmas, don't they?"
This time it was Tohru who flinched under the weight of several pairs of eyes. "Ah, yes," she said in a small voice.
"Hey," Kyou started. "You're not thinking of getting gifts for everyone are you?" He remembered how awful everyone had felt when they had found out how she'd spent all the money she had earned from her part-time job in order to buy Valentine's Day chocolates for them all and hadn't been able to pay her installment for the class trip on time. He, for one, did not want a repeat episode.
"That's right." Shigure was speaking. "It really wouldn't do at all to buy gifts for everyone when you're organizing everything."
"But-"
"Honda-san," Yuki interrupted her, "will no doubt be doing most of the work so we think it's unfair to buy presents, too."
Tohru blinked. "That's just what Hana-chan and Uo-chan said!"
"What?"
"I was trying to tell everyone earlier that Hana-chan and Uo-chan made me promise not to get gifts for anyone. They said that since I'll be doing most of the cooking and cleaning and decorating, that everyone thinks that that'll be my Christmas present to them! Oh, Momiji-kun and Hatsuharu-san said the same thing, too!"
Silence reigned as the Souma males' unvoiced plan to gang up on her until she agreed not to buy presents deflated. All that effort and getting worked up for nothing. At the continued quiet, Tohru started getting nervous.
"Is that a bad thing? Should I get presents after all? Hana-chan, Uo- chan, Momiji-kun, and Hatsuharu-san said not to but-"
"No, no," Shigure hastened to interject when he realized where Tohru's panic at their silence was leading. "They were right. Tohru-kun, you're already doing so much for us that buying gifts would make us feel bad." He thought about what would happen if they got gifts for her since it was custom to exchange them and knew how guilty she'd feel if she received them, and how much she'd protest. Plus, the more excitement the event generated, the more likely Akito was to catch wind of it so keeping it low- key was best. "In fact, we should keep this closer to a friendly gathering so no one will be exchange gifts. Is that okay?"
Tohru relaxed at his words. "Yes! Don't worry! I'll handle everything so no one has to bother." She beamed at them. "Everything will be fine!"
The three males smiled weakly back.