Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Too Much Birthday ❯ 5 ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Ayame giggled as he tipped a bottle, allowing the intoxicating contents to spill once again into Saki's cup. The girl blinked, looking down at the seemingly bottomless cup. Hair had escaped her braid and gently brushed her red cheeks. She turned to Arisa
in an attempt to get another's opinion about her mysterious cup situation, but the taller girl was concerned with other things.

Arisa leaned back against the kitchen counter. The last she had seen of Tohru, the girl hadn't looked good at all. A half-full cup of liquid made its way to her lips; it was definitely alcoholic, but not as strong as some of what she downed when she was in her biker
gang. Arisa sighed, again feeling regretful for her decision to go into the kitchen. Yuki wanted to keep an eye on the two immature men; after a minute of sitting alone with Ritsu, Saki and Arisa had decided to join him, leaving the monkey to sit by himself. Once the two girls walked into the kitchen, and after Arisa had given them
all a challenging glare, Ayame pounced on the closest victim he could see ¬ Saki. The dark girl had grown a quick liking for the drinks she was given, and while it was amusing for Arisa to witness, she could tell already that later in the night it wouldn't be nearly as amusing.

If Tohru were there, Arisa thought that then she could focus on happier things. When she was surrounded by much-too-serious men and stupidly-giddy men, she needed a friend to make things bearable ½ and the only friend in the room was either drunk or quickly on her way there.

"I wonder when my little Tohru will come back down," Shigure echoed Arisa's thoughts. "I have yet to give her the most spectacular gift ever!" he bewailed as Ayame nodded in sympathy.

"I don't see how her birthday could possibly be complete without it," Ayame agreed. He added to Saki, "Come on now, everyone must drink-drink!" He smiled widely when he saw her eyes were unfocused.

"What are you talking about?" Yuki growled. He was standing in a corner near Hatori looking as if he wanted to start drinking just to block out his brother.

"One of my very own creations, made especially for Tohru," an odd gust of wind made its way into the kitchen and ruffled Ayame's hair dramatically. Yuki already knew he wasn't going to like the present one bit. "A lovely outfit that only Tohru could wear!"

"I could fit into a lot of Tohru's clothes," Saki commented.

Arisa looked her over and added, "I suppose that's true."

"But could you wear," Shigure pulled out a thing of black and white out of no one but Shigure knows where, "*this*?"

Saki nodded gently. "Yes."

Arisa screwed up her face in disgust. "There's not much there to fit into."

Yuki clenched his fist, apparently agreeing with Arisa's disgust at the sexy little french maid's outfit that was presented to them. He glided up to Shigure and snatched the outfit away before the older man knew what was happening. "You're not going to give this to Tohru, Pedophile," he yelled, his face red from having to handle the offensive object.

"My creation..." Ayame whimpered uselessly.

Yuki put one hand to his forehead in frustration. "Don't give such things to young girls! It's indecent!" He made a move to rip the dress apart.

"Wait!" Shigure shouted, effectively stopping Yuki from destroying the maid outfit. "It would be such a terrible waste to destroy Aya's beautiful work."

The mouse growled and ignored Shigure. Arisa, however, leaned over and snatched the dress out of his hands. "It is well made," she said after looking at the frilly thing closely. "Isn't there something we can do with it? ¬ Besides giving it to Tohru," she added, giving
sharp looks to Ayame and Shigure.

"What else can you do with it but wear it?" Yuki shrugged, eyeing the dress with distaste. "And who would wear that thing?"

"Maybe if it were longer..." Saki leaned forward to get a closer look at the maid's outfit. She shook her head as if making up her mind. "Not quite my style."

"That's too bad," Ayame told her in a sugary tone. "Here, drink up." He again filled up her cup, having remembered his previous goal.

"Good idea!" Arisa snapped her fingers, suddenly inspired. "What we need is some more excitement tonight. I propose a bet: whoever loses has to wear that thing until the party's over." She smiled triumphantly.

"Lose at what?" Saki asked dully, looking at a patch of blank wall.

"I dunno," Arisa put a finger to her lips, thinking for a moment. "Cards or something, I suppose."

"Ou! Fun, I want to play!" Ayame clapped his hands excitedly.

Shigure sighed dramatically. "It's not as good as seeing Tohru dressed as my very own sexy maid," he wiped the melancholy look off his face at Yuki's glare, "but I'm always up for a bet."

"Leave me out of this," Yuki scoffed.

"Aw, but you'd look so cute as a maid!" Ayame gushed.

The younger brother's eye twitched, and before anyone could blink the older brother was on the floor sporting a red mark on his cheek. "Shut up," Yuki ground his teeth in annoyance.

"Hatori wants to play," Shigure turned teasingly on his friend.

"Don't drag me into your games," Hatori replied coolly. Tohru wasn't going to be victimized anymore so his responsibility had already ended.

"Alright then," Arisa laughed, feeling slightly giddy from all the alcohol she had, "I'll get the cards½"

She was cut off by the sudden insertion of several thuds and a couple crashes.

"What was that?" Yuki said, alarmed. Yuki, Arisa, and Hatori rushed over to the source of the noise to find Tohru and a monkey.

"Are you alright?" Yuki instantly knelt beside Tohru, who was rubbing her head and back.

"I ¬ I'm okay, I think," she replied with a small smile.

Hatori looked Tohru over for any major injuries. "What happened?" he asked after he had found nothing serious.

"Um, why is there a monkey?" Arisa pointed at what she thought was an obviously odd addition to the scene.

"Monkey?" Tohru looked shell-shocked. Her head shook to and fro until she finally settled on Ritsu in his cursed form.

"Ah! Ayame!" Shigure's laughing voice suddenly came from behind Arisa. "You didn't tell me that you brought your monkey!"

"I didn't ¬ " Ayame stuck his head out of the kitchen, but stopped as soon as he saw Ritsu. "Oh, he must have followed me here! He loves me soooo much, you know."

"You have a monkey?" Arisa raised an eybrow.

"Yes."

"Figures."

"I'll take him upstairs so he's out of the way," Yuki picked up Ritsu and did as he said, forgiving Shigure and his brother for the silly story as long as Arisa didn't ask any more questions.

"So what happened?" Arisa asked again for Hatori.

"Oh! Well, Ritsu wanted to make sure I was okay, so he touched my cheek. But it startled me and I lost my balance and we fell down the stairs..." Tohru trailed off weakly, slightly embarrassed at what had happened.

"Ritsu? Where is he?" Arisa asked, puzzled. "And how did a monkey factor into this?"

Tohru giggled nervously, feeling uneasy about lying to her friend. The silence stretched and she feared that it was help feed Arisa's skepticism. Her still slightly addled mind searched for an answer.