Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / X/1999 Fan Fiction / Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Then came an angel ❯ Strange Goings-On in the Bakura Residence ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9

By Sapadu

"A-no-o-o-o... Bakura-san... where's this brother of yours who I'm gonna beat into the ground?" Samantha asked, cracking her knuckles as she quite effectively broke down the door to the Bakura residence. Bakura cringed and looked away.

"Um..." He mumbled. Think fast, think of something....

"He must not be home yet... and he DOES have to work tonight... he probably won't be home until very late..." Bakura finally managed to spit out, almost biting his tongue: he tended to talk in a very choked manner when he lied.

Samantha tapped her foot, thinking. She was also giving Bakura a very strange look. It was a kind of look that made Bakura feel as though Samantha was looking right through him...

Dear God! Please don't let her know I'm lying!

"So... does this brother guy get drunk while he's out and then come home and beat you up?" Sammy asked, narrowing her eyes. Bakura shifted from one foot to the other.

"I... I'm not sure... but I'd guess so..." He mumbled, latching onto the excuse like a leech. Anything to keep the spirit of the ring from coming out: he was getting quite a kick out of Bakura's discomfort and as long as he was amused, he'd remain dormant.

"Y'know, Bakura-SAN... I'm starting to think you're not telling me even CLOSE to the truth... You're nervous..." Sammy pouted, mustering a stubborn glare: the worst she could give Bakura without feeling bad about it.

'You could just tell her, you know. She might not leave. I'd be QUITE amused by how she reacts...'

-You'd send her to the Shadow Realm, anyway. I know you...- Bakura shuddered. It would be just like the Ring to do something like that. He didn't care about human lives, except for the amusement they could offer.

'You brought this on yourself, you know... If you'd been a good boy and done as I'd told you that one time, I wouldn't have to do this...'

-I wasn't going to let you hurt my friends. I'm not going to let you do that this time, either.-

'Almost as though you think you can stop me...' The ring chuckled.

Neither of the two saw Samantha throw her fuda until one landed on Bakura's chest.

"You're possessed, Bakura-san." She announced. Bakura felt himself freeze, both with panic and as the spirit of the millennium ring began to grow angry. It was ready to lash out.

"So, whatever demon possesses Bakura-san, come out and face me like a man. If you dare..." She let the taunt hang in the air.

'Very well then, foolish girl.' And Bakura felt his soul being pulled away from his consciousness, back into the recesses of his mind where he couldn't see, nor hear, nor do anything to stop the Millennium Ring.

-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!- Bakura threw his hands up, only to be met with a wall, blocking him from his proper place in his body. The room was dark, blood was on the floor.

He was trapped.

****************

"So we finally meet. I was getting tired of waiting." Samantha said, in a rather conversational tone. The Millennium Ring smirked, either not knowing or not caring that Samantha wasn't scared of him.

"Heh. Indeed... always a pleasure to meet one of Bakura's so-called 'friends'..." He agreed, giving Samantha a quick once-over. It was quite obvious that he found her... attractive. Samantha ignored the look itself but kept it in mind to kick his ass doubly hard for it.

"'So-called'? How, exactly, do you think I'm a 'so-called' friend?" Samantha snarled. Actually, the Ring was impressed- that was the closest noise to an animal growling he'd ever heard human vocal cords make.

"Because you're planning on walking right out the front door as soon as you've beaten me." He replied, but then smiled again, "Of course, I don't think you WILL be."

"Why? Aside from the fact that I'm NOT planning on walking out the door?" She challenged, giving the Ring her best glare while trying to smile, simultaneously. His eyes lit up in a way that had Samantha quite sure he wasn't right in the head.

"Because you won't defeat me." The Ring replied. Samantha had to stop herself from laughing. OF COURSE. She'd seen that coming a mile away.

"You shouldn't write a check that you can't cash." She warned, raising her right hand and making four, loud, succeeding cracking noises, "HEY! I CRACKED MY KNUCKLES THREATENINGLY! I CAN ONLY DO THAT ONCE A DAY!" She said, with glee. The Millennium Ring made such a strange face, Samantha was quite certain Bakura-san would have laughed at seeing it. The Ring decided to give up on being a polite enemy and charged at her, looking quite murderous.

A barrier stopped him. Samantha shifted her gaze, half scowling, half amused.

"Now, now, Bakura-kun... that's no way to treat your guest." Samantha chided, but in such a light tone, the Millennium Ring couldn't help but feel... frightened. It was a menacing, chilling tone, even more so than his own.

"And doing damage to your host only damages yourself. I should have thought you were smarter than that... Now... I should say you'll find my way of dealing with things quite unpleasant..."

The Ring backed away from her, looking terrified out of his mind. She walked closer until she'd quite effectively pinned him against the wall.

"I'll punish you for your stupidity, and SHE will punish you out of some stupid sense of morals: because you'd hurt someone 'innocent'." And with that, the Ring felt itself being pushed back, caught in a magical maelstrom of power, being sucked back into the ring, itself, unable to stop, out of control, seeing only the cruel smirk of two amethyst eyes.

A mirror hanging on the wall shattered. The young woman in the room looked at one of the fragments of glass, and sneered at what she saw, running her forefinger along her own jawline.

"Pretty wretch..."

**********************

Samantha turned her gaze onto the crumpled body on the floor. Her eyes widened at the blood on the floor, some of it soaked into the white shirt of Bakura's uniform, a few drops splattered in his hair, but the most of it, on the points of a golden pendant that lay a few feet away.

"Bakura-san! Bakura-san!" She pulled Bakura's heavy body away from the wall and let his head drop into her lap. His body had a kind of dead weight to it, but she could hear breath, even though it sounded like Bakura was breathing at a great pain.

Not dead then- just unconscious.

There were five holes pierced deep into his chest, in a semi-circle, all fortunately below his ribcage and thus couldn't have hurt anything that would be a serious, immediate threat to his life.

The real problem was that Samantha had used up her healing spell. Besides, the rock had become useless until she blessed it under a crescent moon- she had to wait until night at least, but tonight was a half moon- she wouldn't be able to bless the stone until tomorrow night.

Well... she did have one spell she could use... she just hoped to whatever gods there may be that Bakura didn't wake up while she was casting it and mistook her for molesting him...

Samantha, being as pathetic as she was, had a hard time dragging Bakura over to the sofa and propping him up on it. She managed, but more blood had leaked from the puncture wounds on his chest as she had to hold his body at such an awkward angle.

No time to question or pray. Just do the spell and risk it if Bakura found out later.

Sammy parted the already undone uniform blouse and traced a circle around each one of the wounds with her fingers, chanting softly under her breath.

"O môr henion i dhû: Ely siriar, êl síla Ai! Aníron Undómiel Tiro! Êl eria môr I lîr en êl luitha uren. Ai! Aníron..."

Not giving herself a chance to back out, she lowered her lips to Bakura's chest and placed a kiss upon each puncture, her tongue flicking out to seal the wounds and lap up any extra blood that was coming out. When each puncture was sealed, Samantha sat up as quickly as she could, pulling one of her own hairs out of her head and one of Bakura's hairs off of his scalp. She twined them together before lifting Bakura's right hand and tying his index finger to her left hand index. As soon as she tightened the knot, she could feel her own energy being sapped out of her, running into Bakura's body, giving him an extra boost to heal quickly. In thirty seconds, Samantha saw the marks on Bakura's chest blur and in another thirty, she was sure they were gone, and not just her sudden lack of energy getting the best of her. She cut the strands of hair with her teeth and collapsed, panting.

Bakura's chest was very warm, she couldn't help but notice. There was a dull, comforting thump of his heart pressed to her ear and, for some reason, his skin almost seemed... soft... in a way. Samantha vaguely poked at Bakura's chest, confirming her suspicions that his muscles were not very well toned- they were so soft, it almost felt like Bakura had cotton stuffing under the skin on his chest instead of muscle and sinew tissue. Sammy took a deep breath and found herself taking in a scent which seemed like a cross between her grandmother, rosewater, and citrus herbal tea. Almost like a church, but she felt like it was also partly the same scent of her own home...

It was, thus, very tempting for Samantha to take a nap, curled up right where she was, except, she remembered that it probably wouldn't help Bakura's injuries. He'd have to stay here, on the couch, for at least a day to give his muscles a chance to resettle...

Samantha forced herself to stand up, out of the comfy position she'd been in, telling herself 'Go get sugar. Need sugar.' Not caffeine, though. Caffeine made her horny, and seeing as the healing spell she'd just used on Bakura had been rather... erotic... she would be REALLY tempting fate to try anything with caffeine in it.

"Oh, he has cookies. Thank God!" She swore, grabbing a box of store bought cookies she found in the first cabinet in the kitchen and stuffing a liberal- and probably exactly- twenty cookies into her mouth at once, chewing vigorously. They tasted stale- she checked the box and, indeed, they were a month past the expiration date. She didn't care- stale or not, sugar was sugar, and they still had chocolate chips in them. The sugar rush revived her, and a good thing too, because the sun hadn't even STARTED to go down- it was only five in the afternoon.

Samantha found a phone in Bakura's living room and dialed a number to Tatsumi's office. He picked up on the first ring.

"Tatsumi Seiichirou." Formal as always.

"Hai, Tatsumi-san, I was wondering... there's this friend of mine and he's kinda living on his own, but..."

"Sapadu-san, please cut to the point." He said, in an annoyed tone.

"Ah-hah... Well, the point is, I need to stay with him tomorrow: He got hurt, kinda because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I was around, but he needs someone to take care of him so... if I'm not needed tomorrow... I didn't want to call in sick and lie, you see..." Samantha explained quickly, praying to the powers that be that Tatsumi wouldn't come hunting her down to send her on to kingdom come. Tatsumi sighed.

"It's better than Tsuzuki-san: he calls in, lies about being sick, just to get out of work so he can go to a pastry convention. Fine, but I expect you in on your day off to make up."

"Sankyuu, Tatsumi!" Samantha chirped and then hung up. She made a quick pop up to her apartment and back to Bakura's house for a change of clothes. Within seconds, she'd changed out of the red, shapeless dress she'd been wearing and was now standing in a puffy, exaggerated maid uniform, and away to cleaning up the bloody mess over Bakura's house, she went. She even put the Millennium Ring into a bowl of alcohol to soak until the blood came out.

"Just you wait 'till Bakura-san wakes up. You are in SO much trouble, Ring-san." Sammy scolded, adding vinegar to the mixture. The Millennium Ring snarled something incoherent and Egyptian at her. Probably a curse, but Samantha didn't care, secure in the knowledge that she'd kicked his ass once and she could do it again. Finally, cleaning done, and some soup on the stove, Samantha carried the dried Ring back into the living room to sit and watch Bakura until he woke up. He finally did at what Samantha thought would be a suitable dinner time.

"Bakura-san! You're awake!" Samantha perked up. Was it just Bakura's imagination, or did he see lights going on in that face?

"Um... yeah..." Bakura mumbled, rubbing his eyes against the bright lights of the lamps.

"¡Doy mi agradecimiento a los Dios!" Samantha cheered and upon seeing Bakura's confused look, she explained, "That means 'I give my thanks to God.'"

Apparently, the Ring found that to be amusing because Samantha suddenly whipped out a heavy wooden mallet and slammed it down on the Millennium Ring. Bakura was amazed that it wasn't ruined when Samantha lifted her mallet, and, incredibly, his table survived the blow.

"You know, Ring-KUN, I was just thinking of this one quote I'd heard somewhere... or did I read it from a book? I'm pretty sure I heard it from a television show, but it would have to be really old... 'Cheers', perhaps? Or was it a movie? I forget, but do you want to know what the quote was?" Bakura looked between Sammy and his ring, much like a spectator at a tennis match. This time, he heard the Ring reply with a definite 'NO!'

"Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway: The quote was 'We can put man on the moon, but we still can't put METAL in a MICROWAVE.' Now, do you know WHY we can't put METAL in a MICROWAVE?" Bakura could've sworn he'd heard his ring whimper at that point. He wasn't so sure he didn't concur.

"It's because, if the metal didn't melt, the molecules in the metal would move around so much, the metal would EXPLODE..." Sammy paused, as though waiting for this to sink in, "Bakura-san, you have a microwave- in top condition, too, I might add- so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o... Bakura-san... waddya think we should do with this one?" Samantha finally picked up the Ring and let it dangle from her fingertips. Bakura blinked, hearing the Millennium Ring, for once, begging him to stop her. It unnerved Bakura, to have the typically stronger, more aggressive spirit pleading for help instead of just taking control and stopping her himself, but maybe that's why he found it so funny- it was so wildly impossible, Bakura couldn't help but laugh at the idea that he was actually awake and this wasn't a dream. Either that, or he had lost his mind.

"Bakura... san?" Sammy bent over and peered very closely at Bakura, "Daijoubuda?"

"I'm sorry... this is just... it's not possible... so, I can't help but laugh..." Bakura explained, catching his breath. Sammy blinked.

"Do you really think you're asleep, Bakura-san? Because if you were, then you wouldn't be conscious of the possibility..." Samantha explained, as Bakura's face went poleaxed.

"Oh... I guess I never thought about it like that..."

'I'm doomed...' The Ring wailed. And he was, especially when Bakura's brain was only half functioning.

"You shut up and stay out of this." Samantha snapped, bringing her mallet down again. Bakura could've sworn he heard the Ring go 'Meep!'

*******************

"So, no Sappi-chan, today?" Keiichi asked, blinking at Kamui as he ate his lunch. Kamui frowned.

"'Sappi-chan?'" Kamui asked.

"You know: that maid girl- I've seen her every day since she started working. She's actually really nice- and a LOT of fun to talk to- do you talk with her at all, when she comes over, Shirou-kun? But either way, the day that Sapadu-chan doesn't come in to clean dorms- when she first started working, she said she had a cold- she was sneezing a whole lot- so she wouldn't take a day off just because she was sick- maybe something really bad happened! We should ask Imonoyama-san- I'm sure HE'D know..." Keiichi continued to ramble. Kamui blinked.

"You'd ASK, just because some girl who usually cleans the dorms wasn't here today?" He asked, incredulously. Keiichi grinned.

"Well, I don't have a dorm mate, so it gets kind of lonely in my dormitory. Sapadu-chan comes in every day and ALWAYS has something to talk about- she's really kind of a friend, ya know? In a way, she reminds me of my mom... I guess that's why I'm so worried." Keiichi explained. Kamui blinked, again.

"That does make sense." He conceded.

"So-o-o-o-o-o... will you come with me, Shirou-kun?" Keiichi bounced, smiling that damned, ever present smile of his. Kamui shrank away, something akin to 'Please don't eat me!' running through his head.

"S-sure." Kamui said, and as Keiichi cheered, Kamui reflected that he hadn't even heard the question.

***************

Yugi, Joey, Tristen, and Tea raced for the over cover on Bakura's porch. It was pouring rain and didn't look likely to let up any time soon. Joey shook off the water clinging to him, much like a dog would, while the other three tried to back away to avoid being sprayed. That's when they saw two other young men under an umbrella.

"Ne, Shirou-kun, this is the address!" The blond one exclaimed, dragging a shorter, brown-haired boy over to the porch. Yugi blinked and stared at the other boy- something about those bright, lavender eyes seemed very familiar...

"Yugi? Are you okay?" Tea asked. Yugi blinked and shook his head.

"Fine..." Yugi replied, distractedly. Joey, meanwhile, had knocked on the door and it opened wide to reveal a purple-haired girl in a frilly, poofy maid's uniform. The skirt was about two feet away from Samantha's legs, the material itself not being the traditional black, but instead, bright pink with white polka-dots. Lace peeked out from under the skirt and a lacy apron was around her waist, a bright red heart on the top part of the apron, along with about eighteen ruffles on the collar and puffy sleeves. Samantha's currently purple hair was topped by a pink hat that had a lace brim and a pair of white feathered wings sticking out of it. The coral bow on the back of the dress looked heavy enough to make her fall over.

Everyone stood on the doorstep, staring at her.

"O-HAY-O!" Samantha sang, completely ignoring the fact that it was afternoon. Everyone continued to blink.

"Oooh! Keiichi-chan! You came to visit Bakura-san, ne, ne? So nice to have visitors for the invalid! Well, come in, come in! Tea? Yes? Good: I've got a whole kettle, ready!" Samantha seized Yugi's hand and dragged him in through the door, bouncing up and down until Kamui could swear her head was touching the ceiling.

"Shiro-kun? What's wrong? You don't look like you feel well..." Keiichi muttered, blinking at the Savior-of-Mankind.

"She's just like you..." Kamui muttered, looking quite shell-shocked. Keiichi blinked between his friend and the pink back of Samantha's dress.

"...Bakura?" Joey asked, looking around, as a soft, British voice called them in from the living room couch.

"In here!" Everyone peered through the doorway to see Bakura laying down across the couch, a blanket pulled to his waist, and a pillow propping him up. He also looked like he didn't WANT to be there, but wasn't going to protest against Samantha. Speaking of Samantha, her hair had turned bright pink and she was quickly ushering everyone to take seats around the living room before scuttling off to the kitchen to get tea.

Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Tea looked from the doorway, where Sammy had been standing, to Bakura on the couch.

"She gave me a heart attack too, when I woke up and saw her in that outfit." Bakura confirmed their thoughts, looking remorseful and long-suffering. Tea cast a sidelong glance at the doorway, looking disturbed beyond all reason. Samantha came back into the room, balancing a tower of teacups, saucers and a kettle. Bakura looked almost like he was going to die, if not from shock, then from worry that a cup would drop and break.

Fortunately, Samantha managed to set everything down on the table without incident, before somehow or another, juggling the teacups while she poured tea, dropped sugar cubes, and put the cups on their saucers without spilling a drop, finally tossing the cups directly into the hands of each person in the room, almost like she was throwing a Frisbee. Everyone looked ready to have a heart attack at seeing china cups of tea come hurtling at them, but, again, not a drop was spilled.

"So... been reading Alice in Wonderland?" Keiichi offered, hesitantly, somehow managing to grin. Samantha returned his grin with a haunting smile, eerily similar to that of a Cheshire Cat's (1)

"So... Bakura, why weren't you in school today?" Tea asked, hoping to keep everyone from running away, possibly screaming.

"Yeah, and come to think of it, wad happened to dat bruise 'at was on yer face yesterday, Bakura?" Joey added. Bakura blinked, having completely forgotten about that.

"Um... well, Samantha met up with me after school yesterday, and she saw the bruise and... well... healed it... as you can tell, she's not exactly..." Bakura gestured vaguely at Samantha, whose legs were folded up beneath her as she floated in midair, using telekinesis to stir the spoon in her hot chocolate while she read from a HUGE magic volume. Yugi was reminded of the Dark Magician Girl reading the Book of the Forbidden Arts (2)

"Scientifically explainable?" Keiichi supplied. Bakura blinked, and then nodded.

"Something along those lines." He agreed. Everyone nodded, but Tristan mentioned that Bakura had STILL failed to explain his absence today.

"Bakura-san had a few rather nasty puncture wounds on his chest, yesterday. Oh, don't worry: I took care of them and everything, but I didn't want him moving anytime soon after that, just in case he strained his muscles or something, so I made him stay home, and here on the couch, and I was here because I didn't want him moving for ANYTHING- not food, not water... NOTHING, so I had do that FOR him." Samantha explained, before whipping out a mallet and bringing down with a distinctive THUD next to the Millennium Ring on the table, yet somehow not breaking anything else, "And we don't need any comments from YOU, Ring-san, seeing as how you're the CAUSE of those nasty marks." Yugi, Tristan, Joey, and Tea's eyes all bugged out at the sight of someone ELSE threatening the Millennium Ring- a feat not even Pegasus had been capable of.

"WAIT! Are you telling us that the Millennium Ring was beating Bakura up, AGAIN?" Tristan asked, rising from his chair. Samantha glared at him.

"Again? You mean this has happened before?" Samantha demanded, in a dangerously low voice through perfectly clenched teeth. Tristan opened his mouth to speak, just as Tea leaned over and whispered into his ear.

"Be careful, Tristan: When a woman speaks through perfectly clenched teeth like that, think of it like a rattlesnake's rattle sound." She advised, and Tristan's mouth shut.

"You mean to tell me, that this is not the first occurrence in which Bakura-san was injured at the doings of Ring-san, and you did NOTHING about it?" Samantha's voice got louder. Tristan started to shrink back into his chair. Without warning, Samantha outstretched her hand and a long sword sprouted from the flesh of her palm, reminding Kamui very eerily of Arashi. Sammy jabbed the point of the sword into the middle of the Millennium Ring, holding the ancient artifact up to her eye level with a glare.

"Strike three, Ring-san. This means the MICROWAVE!" Samantha hissed, carrying a wailing Millennium Item out of the room, into the kitchen, passing a dripping wet Subaru, who'd just appeared in the hall, "Oh, hello, Sumeragi-san. Have a seat." And she breezed into the kitchen, presumably to put the Millennium Ring in the microwave.

"The... microwave..." Tea said, slowly, comprehending this.

"Yug, just a thought, but you might wanna keep yer puzzle away from 'er." Joey agreed, while Yugi clutched at his Millennium Puzzle, looking terrified.

"Actually, I was here looking for Kamui." Subaru said, bowing briefly before turning his gaze on Kamui, who shifted his weight, knowing what THAT had to mean.

"Hinoto can wait, Subaru-kun. Here, why don't you have some tea?" Samantha came back into the room, holding another of her seemingly endless supply of teacups. Subaru blinked at her, before attempting to politely decline. Samantha's hair stood on end and she seemed to grow to twice her size, somehow managing to tower over Subaru, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him close to her face.

"Sit down and drink the tea, you skinny, malnourished, freak of omnyouji nature." She growled, her eyes burning and her fangs starting to gnash against her other teeth. Subaru's eyes bugged out, before he sat in the chair with a mumbled 'Yes'm.'

Samantha's freaky look was quickly replaced with a sweet smile.

"Good. I'll go check- cookies should be ready!" Samantha bounced, almost crashing into the next newcomer, whose response was,

"COOKIES?!" Tsuzuki asked, puppy ears, paws, and tail all sprouting in a second. Samantha glared at him.

"Doesn't anyone KNOCK anymore?" She asked the ceiling. As the ceiling couldn't answer, Tsuzuki did.

"But the door is open..." Tsuzuki protested, and Samantha groaned.

"Then, CLOSE IT, DAMMITALL!" Samantha yelled, slamming the door, completely ignoring the person who had just stepped onto the doormat. They waited all of five seconds before knocking.

Everyone watched as Sammy stood still in the doorway, glowering, taking a deep breath, holding it for five seconds, then letting it out, before turning on her heel and opening the door. There stood Kurosaki Hisoka, resembling a wet cat.

"Thank you, Sapadu-san, for slamming the door in my face as I was about to come in out of the rain." He said, calmly and sarcastically. Samantha smiled back, sweetly, if a bit nastily so.

"You're welcome, and thank you, Kurosaki-kun, for knocking on the door five seconds after I'd shut it and then delivering a witty, sarcastic thank you to your gracious hostess who could drop kick you off of this doorstep if she so chose right now. Please, come in and make yourself, and Tsuzuki-san, as uncomfortable as humanly possible." Samantha turned and stomped into the kitchen to beat another serving of tea out of it, leaving everyone staring after her.

"Well... Sammy is... very... um..." Tea fumbled for words, before Yugi supplied for her.

"Samantha is very many things." And everyone agreed, except Hisoka, who just stared at Yugi with a truly bizarre expression on his face.

"You sound like Tsuzuki when he whines." He finally said, making Tsuzuki face-fault and everyone else in the room's jaws hit the floor. Samantha, ever keen of hearing, marched back in with a skillet and thwapped Hisoka upside the head with it.

"'Soka, that was mean. Say you're sorry." Hisoka did NOT say he was sorry, but that could mostly be explained because he was on the floor, trying to nurse the not so rapidly healing lump on the back of his head. When he regained consciousness, Hisoka stood up to stare at Samantha incredulously, before she seized his shirt, very reminiscent of how she'd done the same to Subaru just moments ago.

"Say you're sorry, you miserable, prepubescent, little ingrate!" Samantha hissed, snakes twisting themselves out of her hair. Hisoka, not wanting to push his luck, immediately apologized to a bug-eyed Yugi, who just nodded as Samantha went to get her cookies from the oven.

Finally, everything set, Samantha served more tea to everyone and introductions went around the room. Kamui and Yugi seemed to hit it off pretty well- neither of them knew why, but it just HAPPENED- while Subaru and Hisoka had a small, civil, formal discussion on overbearing females with a certain affinity to female relations, and Joey, Tristan, and Keiichi seemed to automatically find common ground in, surprisingly, video games and extra-curricular activities. Tsuzuki and Bakura talked very little, but ate a good deal more than two-thirds the cookies together. It was only when Tea finally brought it up that anyone asked,

"Sammy... that outfit, where'd you find it?" Sammy blinked up at her fellow brunette, before finally answering.

"A shop run by Sohma Ayame. He makes a lot of stuff like this- all custom made, too." Samantha added, picking lint off of the pristine white apron. With the topic on hand, Keiichi added in,

"And WHY are you wearing it in the first place? Special occasion or..." Sammy giggled.

"Oh, no, silly! I'm just wearing it 'cuz I like it- isn't it the cutest thing?" She asked, doing a cutesy- cutesy pirouette. Keiichi and Tea smiled and agreed (though Tea maybe just to humor Sammy above all else) while all the other guys in the room made faces.

"Cute, she calls it..." Hisoka muttered, his eyes blank.

"And, why not? Almost everything Ayame-san makes is top of the line adorable and fashionable. And it is indeed the perfect place to shop for clothes- would have been rude of me to go there and never wear any of the outfits suggested to me by one Sumeragi Hokuto!" Samantha continued, though she was cut off by a loud choking noise suddenly coming from Subaru's direction. The Sumeragi had, in fact, spat his tea out, though a bit of it had come through his nose. Sammy stared at the brown mark on the carpet.

"Sumeragi-san, if that tea stains, YOU'RE cleaning it out." She reminded him, sharply, then added, "Ooh... did tea come out your nose? You didn't try to plug your nose, did you?" Subaru nodded, "Don't do that, dear- did you know that if you plug your nose when tea decides it wants to come out that route, it'll go the next best place? Did you also know that crying tea hurts like a bitch?" Samantha said this all in such a conversational tone. Then, the doorbell rang. Samantha looked like she was going to kill someone.

"I'll get it." Tea offered, standing up and managing to navigate her way through the room.

"Thank you dear." Sammy called, continuing to wipe the tea off Subaru's face. Everyone heard the door open, and apparently, Tea didn't recognize the people on the doorstep, because she called,

"Sammy? Do you know these people?" Samantha blinked, frowned and then stood up to go see the people at the door, to be met with an overly excited Sohma Momiji, the ever complacent Hatsuharu, and, of course, Honda Tohru.

"Oh... hi, what're you doing here?" Samantha asked, blinking.

"Well, you weren't in school today, Sapadu-chan, so I was worried, and Momiji-kun was worried too, so we thought we'd come and make sure you're okay, and..." Tohru started to babble, when Hatsuharu interrupted her.

"Oh, and we brought you your homework, too." He mentioned, his quiet voice somehow overtaking Tohru's.

"School? You're still in school?" Joey asked, almost knocking over his tea as he scrambled to get out of his seat.

"Only for one more semester! And even then, I've still got work to do- as much as I need to get my high school diploma, it's not more important than my work." Sammy clarified, waving the detail away like a fly. Keiichi frowned.

"Work? I didn't know Imonoyama-san was THAT desperate for cleaning maids?" He muttered, looking confused (A/N: Almost like how Subaru sometimes looked in Tokyo Babylon when HE was confused.)

"Oh, I'm only working that as a part time job because I'm going to school, but I don't live with my parents, so the school board kinda made me take a job to pay for tuition . I meant my real job, working for the Summons Section in the Juohchou Bureau." Samantha explained, either ignoring or not seeing the combination of shocked and confused faces that met her statement.

Altogether, only Tohru and Subaru understood what she said without being shocked that she said it. Hisoka smacked his head.

"You know, you don't SEEM to be stupid enough to put your foot in your mouth, and yet..." Hisoka trailed off. Tsuzuki looked like he was going to die- yes, yet again- of mortification. Sammy blinked.

"Come again?" Tristan asked, obviously not understanding a syllable that had just come out of her mouth.

"Juohchou... ya know... the Ministry of Hades, Land of the Dead, Netherworld... not exactly heaven, but not exactly hell, either... it's really more of purgatory, actually, except it's not... well, hellish. And you can come down to Earth whenever the hell you want, especially if they've got a sale on cream puffs at a bakery! I mean, hell, your JOB is to come to Earth, pick up souls, kick the ass of a few demons, and maybe kill someone or another who just doesn't want to die, dammit, but aside from that, afterlife is pretty good!" Samantha explained, with the air of someone explaining to a two year old why two plus two equals four. She was only met with a mass of blank looks, aside from Tohru, Subaru, now Hatsuharu, Kamui, and, surprisingly, Bakura.

"You're... dead?" Kamui managed to choke out, praying to God that he was wrong and that Samantha was just fucking with them. Everyone who hadn't gotten it looked from Kamui to Sammy, who smiled a sharp-toothed smile. Literally every tooth in her mouth was pointed like a fang and stuck out of her mouth as though they were gravitated to the prey in the room.

Joey and Tristan jumped out of their chairs and picked them up, holding the legs in defensive stance, as though they would try to impale Sammy on the legs if she made one wrong move.

"Stay back. Back!" Joey shouted, looking quite reasonably spooked. Samantha rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Go ahead. I dare you. But I highly suspect that Bakura-san would be MOST annoyed by you dismantling two of his chairs to spear the woman who had saved him from pain, torture, possibly death, and has been taking care of him all day, and we all know what BAD manners it is to stake someone who's been a gracious hostess in serving you tea and making cookies that will burn if you attempt to send her on to Kingdom Come." Samantha challenged. Joey blinked. Tristan put his chair down.

"Touché, wench." Tristan replied, visibly calming. A small ding sounded from the other room.

"OOH! Cookies are done!" Samantha left the living room and went to check on her cookies, leaving everyone who didn't know the Sohmas and Tohru in an awkward silence with the people who did. Momiji, with all his energy and lack of shyness was the first to break the silence.

"Ne, you're all friends of Sappi-chan, ne, ne?" He asked, pointing at Tea, who blinked a few times before answering.

"Well... we'd like to THINK we're friends..." She said slowly, still in shock over Samantha's revelation of her state of... living.

"And you all aren't freaked out by weird stuff like her being dead or anything, ne?" Momiji asked, though nobody could see where this was heading.

"Actually, Tohru-chan already knew I was dead. She's got two friends, Hana-chan and Uo-chan and Hana-chan can read auras and stuff, so she knew right off the bat that I was a shinigami. Then, there's Subaru-kun, and he works with stuff like spirits being an omnyouji and everything, so HE could tell. 'Soka-chan and Tsu-chan already knew, I mean, they're dead themselves, so they knew I HAD to be dead when I showed up at the bureau. Then, Kamui-kun and the other Dragons of Heaven, and the few Dragons of Earth I've met know that I'm dead, too... I'm guessing that's just because of all the spiritual powers and shit like that. Then... oh, who else have I met who knows I'm dead? Oh, yeah: Sei-chan!" Samantha was interrupted by the sound of Subaru choking on his tea, again.

"Sumeragi-san, if that tea stains the carpet, YOU'RE getting it out." She called, putting another tray into the oven and starting to peel the cookies off the sheet.

"So, you guys aren't freaked out by weird stuff like that? So you wouldn't mind the whole zodiac thing, ne, ne?" Momiji asked, and when everyone blinked, he cheered and jumped on Tea, giving her a big hug around the waist, while Tohru tried to stop him and Hatsuharu stood by and watched calmly.

POOF!

Everyone in the room stared. Tohru's hand grasped at empty air where Momiji had been a few moments ago, looking shocked. Samantha poked her head in from the room, walked over the the remaining cloud of smoke, and stuck her hand into it.

"Getting into trouble, are we, Usagi-kun?" She asked, pulling a little yellow bunny out from the cloud.

*****************

Ken's ears pricked up. He'd thought he'd heard something.

"Ken? What is it?" Triclops asked from his position across from his son at the table. Ken blinked and frowned for a few moments, just in case he heard something, again.

"I thought I heard something... like a person screaming or something like that." Ken muttered, quite puzzled by the fact he'd HEARD something, but hadn't felt anything through the Force.

"Ah, that... here I was thinking my old ears were playing tricks on me." Triclops muttered, though Ken knew it was a load of crap that his father's ears were 'old'. Luke came in from the kitchen, carrying three mugs, two tea, one hot chocolate milk with Irish cream. The chocolate mug was for Triclops because of his ulcer.

"I'd thought I'd heard something, but I hadn't felt anything through the Force, so I thought I was just hearing things, too. " He reported, handing a grateful Ken his tea.

"Weird..." Ken muttered. Luke changed the subject by taking out a deck of cards.

"Anyone want to learn how to play sabacc?" He asked. Ken raised his hand, eagerly.

 

A/N: Whoo... done.

The spell for healing that Sammy used... yes, I got the words from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.

(1) Anyone who's seen the Disney version of Alice and Wonderland, you know how creepy the Cheshire cat's smile was.

(2) Is that what that magic card is called?