Foudroyant

One-shot 2: Batteries

"Only you can love me this way"

Day 1

"Yuki? What's wrong?" hearing a hard thing collide with another made Takenaga hurriedly go out of the kitchen to check on what the fuss was all about. He then saw Yukinojo, slamming the television remote control again and again to the oak table, irritation painted on his face.

"This!" the youngest of the four hotties pointed to the remote, the poor contraption sitting idly on the oak table, battered and probably broken on the inside after being slammed so many times against a hard object. Yuki heaved his breath and turned to Takenaga.

"You remember yesterday, right? When I told you guys I already bought a new set of batteries for our remote control to save us five seconds of walking back and forth to change the channel?" seeing that Takenaga nodded, Yuki continued, "Well, it's all gone! I don't know how or where it magically went, but hell, the person should've asked me in the first place so I could just buy a new one!" the blonde walked towards the TiVo and harshly pressed the button for it to change the channel. Takenaga then sat down, huffing as he did so.

Who wouldn't do such if some blonde child suddenly wails in desperation after losing some batteries early in the morning, thereby ruining his peaceful start with some bacon and coffee? It was indeed an important battery alright, but anyone could buy one just by dropping by to a department store! Slowly, he realized how hard it was for them to buy things in the market alone, considering their appearances and how girls throw themselves to them. Yes, they do get some discounts or even free goods, but having some peculiar girls with nosebleed following them isn't exactly a good breakfast at this time. So he just clicked his tongue and proceeded on making himself some toasted bread, readying the plates on the table just in case anyone of the others decide to have something to fill their stomachs with.

However, meeting Nakahara Sunako this early wasn't exactly what he expected. Everyone in the house knows how much of a deep sleeper she is, and they just decided on having her cook for lunch instead of some heavy breakfast—as Takenaga already volunteered to do some services in the form of preparing a light breakfast for them. But then, Sunako was miraculously up early today, seemingly oblivious to the questioning eye of Takenaga, she chopped some carrots on the countertop and sliding them off to the pan.

"What are you doing?" Takenaga couldn't bring himself to just stare any longer. This is way too amazing to happen in real life. It's just 7:30, and Sunako usually doesn't wake up until 10. She then turned to him, clutching the knife in a murderous manner and then smirked.

"Cooking," she muttered, the creepy aura still not leaving her. He swallowed hard, preparing himself to ask another one, until she continued, "Hiroshi woke me up, and asked me to cook some fried shrimps for him. Since he doesn't eat much, and considering the rare chance of him doing so, I've decided to wake up early and devote all my time for this," she them explained happily, chopping vegetables as she did so. This puzzled Takenaga to no end. How could a model of the human body talk? 'That'simpossible.Sunakomust'vehitherheadorhallucinatedlastnightagain,'he thought, feeling the goosebumps involuntarily poking out of his skin.

"Oh," was all he could say. He then sat on the high chair, watching her smoothly move in the kitchen with such grace. He was slowly beginning to smell the aroma when a grumpy Kyouhei walked in, hair sticking out from all angles. The latter sat near Sunako and smirked as he watched her cook.

"So, you finally realized cooking at lunch is no good?" he mumbled.

"Hiroshi asked me to cook for him," Sunako stated in a matter-of-fact. Takenaga clicked his tongue and shook his head.

"You know, you shouldn't—" but Kyouhei cut him off with his mind-boggling reply, "I know."

"You know?" Takenaga spluttered incoherently as Sunako turned to face Kyouhei in a murderous manner.

"No, no, I-I-I mean…" Kyouhei stuttered, "I mean I know Hiroshi would do that because he…likes me?" now it was Sunako's turn to chortle.

"We all know Hiroshi never liked any of you four!" she guffawed more, "He only wants to hang out with me," she pointed out.

That was when they all kept quiet, waiting for her to finish cooking.

Day 23

Ranmaru tossed and turned as he breathed out a huge, stifled moan, feeling the blankets conform to his body. He yawned and looked at the time, hoping it's just 6AM, but alas! Today isn't probably his best day. He immediately got out of bed in a flash as he realized it's already 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

"#$%^*^#% ! I still have a date at 3:30! How could I oversleep?" he cussed under his breath as he skipped all over the room, trying to wear his pants while pulling his shirt up. He ran to the kitchen only to find it empty, devoid of edible food whatsoever. He kicked the chair and decided to make himself some sandwich as he put on his shoes. He then dashed off, the clock above him silently celebrating for another marathon it just won.

4:01

"Where did you get that, Sunako?" Yuki was staring at the emotional girl as she was holding a single stalk of rose while dreamily walking to the kitchen. Takenaga looked up from the book he was reading and looked over his shoulder to witness another peculiar scenario unfold before him. 'Don't tell me it's that human anatomy model again,' he thought.

"It's a rose, of course! Hiroshi gave me one, and he even told me he loves me!" she marveled on the rose with a scary aura she always emits. The two looked at her with weird expressions painted on their faces. Kyouhei, on the other hand, acted like nothing happened, twirling his pen every so often as he tried to answer his assignment, thereby puzzling Takenaga to no end.

'Something is up with Sunako and Kyouhei's reaction,' he thought as he watched Kyouhei stand up and walk away to the direction of the rooms.

As they went back to their own businesses, the door suddenly slammed with a disheveled Ranmaru behind it. He stomped his way to the table and slammed the mails on it. He sat for a while on the sofa and was raking his red glory every so often.

"What happened to you?" Yuki dropped a query, watching him with a cautious gaze.

"WHAT HAPPENED? My date just ditched me because I was late! That damned alarm clock isn't working anymore! Whoever got the batteries from it shall pay!" he then turned dangerously to Yuki, who was pretty oblivious to the happening.

"DID YOU GET THE BATTERIES OFF MY ALARM CLOCK?" he pointed a slender finger to him, anger etched on every contours of his face. Yukinojo brought his hand up innocently as he shook his head.

"Why would I do that? The remote control still doesn't have any batteries on it at all! Don't just accuse me!" he shrieked and ran away.

'What's with batteries now?'

"Sunako, your letter from Aunt just came," Takenaga knocked on the wallflower's door, hoping she'd open it after a while. He waited, but then some strange noise came out of the room, startling him to no end and made him hide on the nearest corner. He peeked and, to his utter surprise, saw Kyouhei close the door as he got out of the room. He tossed two small, cylindrical things and immediately pocketed them as he rounded to the opposite corner of where Takenaga was. The latter then proceeded to Sunako's room, in an attempt to just place the letter on her bed, but as he went inside, something by the corner intrigued him.

Hiroshi. Wearing clothes.

'Is it just me or Hiroshi got extremely taller than usual?'he stood in front of the human anatomy model and looked at him in the eye. He looked down and was shocked to see him standing on toy cars—one on each foot. He touched his back and felt a small, rectangular thing with antenna behind him, and then he lifted the shirt he was mysteriously wearing and was greeted by a walkie talkie.

He sat on the bed and silently thought about it, but then a sound woke him from his reverie, and, looking around, he got out of the room as fast as possible.

Takenaga's POV

What do those things mean? The batteries, the toy cars, walkie talkie, it all made some kind of connection, but I don't know which part. Four batteries were lost in the past month, which somehow makes sense as the walkie talkie needed two batteries, and maybe the toy cars were the recent addition to Kyouhei's experiment. The toy cars needed a battery each, which explains why Ranmaru's alarm clock never worked because Kyouhei sneaked in and got the two batteries on it. What's the use of the walkie talkie, then? Oh, I get it! The time when Sunako woke up early because Hiroshi somehow asked her to make some fried shrimps was probably the work of Kyouhei! He could easily deliver a message via Hiroshi's walkie talkie because he has the other part of the contraption! Also, the rose was already there, and Hiroshi moved to give it to Sunako with the use of the toy car! Of course! How dumb could I get for not thinking of such?

But a question remains though, why, exactly, would Kyouhei do it?

Oh, I got it. He has some weird way of showing some affection.

That boy needs to learn…

"I already bought you guys the batteries you needed," Takenaga mumbled as he propped a mashed potato in his mouth. Yukinojo and Ranmaru's eyes met and were having some idle glaring contest, while Kyouhei was too busy devouring some fried shrimps to even care.

"That's good!" Sunako stated as she sliced a beef and propped on her mouth. Takenaga nodded while drinking.

"Say, Sunako, do you think anyone of us here could have harbored some affection for you?" This made Kyouhei cough out his food and laughed hysterically. Sunako eyed Takenaga with a questioning gaze as she ate more of what she cooked.

"No way, man! That's stupid! Who here would fall in love with Sunako?" Kyouhei let out a snort and a stifled laughter as he ate again. Takenaga smirked at him.

"You know, someone with a really weird way of showing it? Let's say for example—just an example, mind you—someone who uses inanimate objects and batteries to profess their love to someone?"

Kyouhei just knew he should shut his mouth at that. He shot Takenaga a murderous, clandestine look, to which the latter only shrugged his shoulders in an effort to be as innocent as possible. Sunako, on the other hand, was too oblivious to even witness the two. She then shrugged and continued eating.

"I bet its Hiroshi you're talking about, right?" then she beamed at them with a murderous aura, making Takenaga and Kyouhei spit out the food they've been chewing.

"Seriously, guys, what the hell is wrong with you spitting out food?" Yuki pointed out, flailing his arms.

End

Please enjoy this revised version! XD

Ria, 110811