Warnings: Yes, more Tasuki-language.

Notes: Is this story really going anywhere? Well, kinda… Thanks again to Kaze-chan for reading the first section and liking it. ^_^ Oooh, guess what???!!! I ordered a wallscroll!!! YES!! Animecastle.com is the best!!! It’s with the picture of Nuriko with the spear thingy from the box of Video #10. **dances happily** Hmm, okay, well…on with the story…

Doukun picked me up at 6:30 for the party. He had a really old blue Camry with a twisted steering wheel left over from a run-in with an errant left-hand passer, which he’d been meaning to get fixed for about three months. But ever since school started, he’d had his nose buried so deeply in a history textbook that he couldn’t even tear himself away to walk down three flights of stairs to the cafeteria for lunch, let alone drive out to the auto shop. The fact that I’d actually convinced him to come out to the party earned me another notch for my belt.

He gave me a grin as I jumped into the front seat. "Hi!"

"Whazzup?" I replied, smiling back. "Look! I’m wearing my Halloween socks!"

With a laugh, he started off down the street. "Very nice. I’m gonna stop at The Mansion on the way so I can get a costume; is that all right with you?"

"NO! You must convey me directly to the party," I said imperially, pointing straight ahead and lifting my nose in the air."

"Good, I didn’t think you’d mind," he nodded. "Do you need to get anything?"

"Nope. I’m wearing my costume. Well, most of it."

Risking a glimpse in my direction, Doukun raised an eyebrow. "You are?"

"Sure." Apart from my spiffy socks, I was wearing my oldest, dirtiest red T-shirt, my oldest, dirtiest pair of jeans, a Mardi Gras necklace, and had brushed my hair out so it was kinda messy and stuck up in parts.

"What are you? A street punk? A homeless person?" he asked intelligently.

I burst out laughing. "Not quite!"

"Then what are you?"

"Here," I said, still laughing, and reached in my bag for the finishing touch: a pair of vampire fangs they’d been handing out for free in the Student Union. Putting them in my mouth, I mumbled around them, "Ow an oo ess?"

He gave me a look that plainly said he thought I was completely nuts.

I removed my plastic dental implants, since they made it awfully hard for me to talk. "I’m Genrou!!!" I exclaimed. "Duh!!"

Now it was his turn to laugh. "Oh, my God…that’s terrific!"

"I couldn’t think of anything to be, but when I saw they were giving these things away…" I tossed the fangs back into my bag. "It would be better if I could dye my hair orange, but I don’t have enough money for that kind of thing."

"I think it would be far too disturbing to see you with orange hair."

"True. So what’re ya gonna buy at The Mansion?"

"Oh, just cat ears, or something akin to that," he said. (The Mansion was a seasonal store set up at a local drug store, selling Halloween costumes and stuff but just for the month of October. That kind of thing. I think every town must have one.) "I don’t have much to spend, either. But Kaen would be flustered if I didn’t wear something."

"Are you g…." I bit my tongue. I was going to ask him if he was going to Taka’s after Kaen’s, but remembered what Miaka had said about not inviting anyone else. Although I was pretty sure Doukun would’ve been invited, I didn’t want to risk the small chance that he might not have been, and wind up hurting his feelings.

"Sorry?" he said.

"Are you gonna pull in, or what?" I amended, nodding toward the driveway to the store. "It’s right there; you’re gonna miss it."

Doukun took a very sharp right turn into the parking lot—made sharper because of the twisted steering wheel—and skidded into an empty place. I jerked back and forth in my seat as we stopped abruptly, rolling my eyes. The guy was, surprisingly, kind of a daredevil when it came to driving; we’d chalked it up to the fact that he was in such a rush to get from one place to another and do something productive, that he couldn’t help but speed from time to time. But in any event, I shouldn’t complain; compared to Genrou, Doukun drove like a ninety-year-old lady. Genrou would eat sandwiches and read the lyrics to the songs on his CDs while driving, and not infrequently, both his hands were occupied with other things besides the wheel. Driving with Genrou made one into a complete nervous wreck. Unfortunately, since he had a car and I did not, I wound up his passenger more often than I would have liked.

My friend picked out a cat ears-plus-tail set, and we were off again, arriving at the party fashionably late. But, as it turned out, we were the first people there.

"Welcome to the Grand Bash," said Kaen in a monotone as she ushered us through the door. She was dressed as a vampire, with a flowing, Gothic black dress and cape, pasty white makeup on her face, and red around her eyes. "Please. Don’t get crushed in the crowd."

Doulin was sitting on the sofa in front of the TV in a knight’s costume, looking bored. "Is that the pizza guy?" she asked, glued to the screen.

"Nahh, not as exciting," Kaen teased.

"Oh, thanks," I exlaimed, swatting her; but I knew she was kidding.

"Well, sit down and have some snacks," our hostess invited us. "Hopefully others should be arriving shortly…"

"Aaaaaaaaand who’s this?" came a voice at my shoulder.

Slightly startled, I turned and blinked at a guy with longish, spiky white hair.

"You one of Kaen’s friends?" he said suavely. "Why haven’t I ever seen you before? I swear, she never brings the pretty ones home…"

"That’s Ryuuen, dear," called Doulin from the couch. "He’s male."

The man looked at me blankly for a moment.

I gave him a closed-mouthed smile and raised my eyebrows.

"Excuse me," he muttered, and headed off down the hall toward the bedrooms.

Kaen laughed. "Sorry about that; Lanva’ll go after anything with eyelashes. It’s not the first time it’s happened."

"I should never have taken him to the Union Drag Show," Doulin lamented. "I should’ve known he wouldn’t get it."

"Goodness," commented Doukun. "Tremendous idea for a joke, though."

She tossed mini candy bars at us. "Eat something. Lots of something. We didn’t get a single trick-or-treater this year. It really stinks living in an apartment on Halloween."

"And how come you two aren’t dressed up?" Kaen said dangerously, placing her hands on her hips.

Quickly, Doukun donned his ears and I stuck my fangs in my mouth, and we both spread our arms.

"Taa-daaaaaaa," we both announced.

The tall girl shook her head at us. "Weak. Very weak. Come on, Doukun; a cat? You of all people, I would’ve thought, could come up with something more creative. And Ryuu-chan, really. That’s just pathetic."

I spat my teeth out. "But I’m Genrou!" I defended myself. "I’m Genrou!! See?" Replacing the fangs, I started trying to mutter nasty words around them.

Her expression changed. "Ah, jeez…you are too cute!!"

"Wait till you see his socks," Doukun put in.

~*~

The next to arrive were Myojuan and Shouka. Myojuan was one of Doukun’s good friends; a big, quiet guy with black hair, pre-med. Shouka, his girlfriend, was one of the nicest girls I knew. She didn’t tease, like Kaen and Doulin—not that I minded when they did—but Shouka was just…sweet. She and Myojuan had been together longer than Taka and Miaka, which was saying something. After them came a bunch of people I didn’t know.

Doulin and I played video games and ate oddly-flavored Doritos (what was up with all these funky new kinds, anyway? Aren’t Nacho Cheese and Ranch enough, for God’s sake?!) while the others talked and drank. Personally, I never drank much. I didn’t really like the taste. I’d never been drunk, but knew for a fact that I’d have an incredibly low tolerance because I was smaller than most guys…lots of girls, too, come to think of it. And someone had to stay alert enough to help people to the bathroom if they had to throw up. Besides, watching drunk people was funny. At Kouji’s twenty-first birthday party, he and Genrou had had so much to drink that they’d started singing the greatest hits of Britney Spears. Miaka and I had gotten lots of nice blackmail photos of that particular event.

Miaka got there (with Taka) around 8:30, and I abandoned the Play Station to run up and hug her.

"Ryuu-chan!" she cried in delight, and we clasped hands and started jumping up and down.

"Miaka-chan!"

"I’m so glad to see you!!"

"I’ve missed you, I’m so happy you came!"

"Yaaaaay!!!!"
"Dammit, yer blockin the fuckin door!" growled Gen-chan’s voice.

Miaka whirled around and jumped on him. "Gen-chan!! I’ve missed you, toooooo!!!"

His face flushed.

"Hi, you guys!" cried Kaen, hustling to the door. "Glad you finally decided to come!"

"Sorry, I don’t have a costume," said Miaka apologetically. "We came right over as soon as I got here."

"That’s okay, I’ve given up," our hostess replied with a defeated look. "Honestly; no one ever gets into the spirit of Halloween anymore."

"Genrou and I are in perfect costumes," Kouji protested. "We’re college students."

"I’m ignoring you," said Kaen, and headed to the kitchen.

"Fuckin touchy," muttered Genrou.

"Oh! I almost forgot," Miaka said, grabbing a blue-haired guy standing beside her by the arm. (I hadn’t even noticed him in my excitement upon seeing Miaka again.) "This is Houjun! He goes to school at Perry with me!"

The man wore a kind smile; he was taller than I was (which didn’t take much), and stuck out his hand for me to shake.

"Nice to meet you! I’m Ryuuen. How’d you get your bangs to stick up like that?"

He grinned. "It just kinda does it naturally, I guess."

"It’s not just for Halloween, then?"

"Unfortunately not."

I turned back to Miaka, remembering something suddenly. "Wasn’t Yui-chan supposed to come with you, too?"

"Well, Tetsuya didn’t have to go to his thing after all, so she decided to stay with him," Miaka explained. "Which is fine, I guess. They haven’t had a chance to be together for the longest time. And I don’t blame them for not wanting to drive all the way over here…Hey! Is that that new flavor of Doritos over there?…"

~*~

We stayed at Kaen’s until the food was gone: about half an hour more, with Miaka there and hungry. I guess I was kinda glad to leave early, since the party looked like it might be taking a turn for the rowdy sometime in the near future; Doulin assured me she’d keep things in control, though, and I believed her. She came off as innocent and girly, but she was a pretty tough girl underneath all the hair. From what I’d seen of Lanva, she probably had to be.

Genrou had come in Kouji’s car, and since Kouji had expressed a desire to stay, our red-headed friend hopped into the car with me and Doukun, sulking in the back seat when I called shotgun before him.

"Will you stop being such a baby?" I called back to him.

"Fuckin cheap," he muttered. "Doukun always liked you better."

"I don’t discriminate," Doukun corrected. "You’re just mad because Ryuuen gets to work the radio."

With an evil grin, I remembered a cassette I had in my bag, fumbled to find it, and popped it in the tape deck. Presently, Doukun and I were singing along to ‘The Lion King’ while Genrou glowered.

"Cheer up, Gen-chan; ‘Caaaan’t you feeeeeel the loooooove toniiiiiiiiight???’" I sang dramatically, twisting in my seat to direct the musical question at him.

"Fuckin cartoon," he growled.

"Hey, look! There are some of your tough and macho friends!" I lied, but pointed at the street nonetheless. Rolling my window down, I turned up the volume on the radio until the car almost vibrated from the force of the music and lyrics of Elton John and Tim Rice. Doukun cracked up in the driver’s seat. Genrou narrowed his eyes and sank down in his own seat to hide himself from passers-by.

After only a few seconds, I turned the tape off and laughed. "Okay, okay…sorry, Gen-chan. But you set yourself up for it; it’s just so easy."

No response.

"Gen-chan?"

"….."

"Oh, come on, you’re not talking to me now?" I turned again, worried that, for some reason, he might really be mad. I hated it when people were mad at me for real; it always made me panicky. But the words of apology died on my lips as Genrou reached forward and calmly smooshed a cupcake against my forehead.

I blinked.

"Gotcha. Heh," he said with a satisfied little smile.

"Gen-channnnnn!" I exclaimed, mildly astounded and nearly laughing, as I peeled the thing from my face and wound up with a fistful of orange frosting. "Where the heck did you even get this??"

"Well, I took it from the fuckin party, genius," he said. "Stowed it away so Miaka couldn’t fuckin eat it. I was gonna save it for later, but this was just too fuckin great an opportunity."

"Excuse me," said Doukun sternly, "what have I told you guys about having food in my car? My dad will massacre me if it’s defiled."

"Ya know, it’s a goddamn car, not a fuckin church," Genrou said. "Ya can’t fuckin ‘defile’ a car…ya ‘junk it up’, ‘crap it up’, ‘spill shit in it’…"

"Only you could employ ‘fucking’ and ‘church’ in the same sentence," Doukun replied, shaking his head. "Ryuuen, please be careful not to get any food on the seat, okay?"

"Of course," I agreed, and smacked my frosting-covered hand gently down on his nose.

"Ryuuen!!" he cried in shock as Genrou died laughing in the back seat. "What did I just say?"

"I didn’t get it on the seat!" I defended myself innocently.

"I’m driving, you know!"

"Really? You’re kidding."

"And I can’t wipe it off, because…I’d get it all over the wheel…" he giggled. "Oh, good lord, you two…it’s like having four-year-old children sometimes…" The nasal tone he used, due to the fact that he was trying to avoid inhaling the sugary substance that coated his nose, made us laugh even harder.

When we got to Taka’s (to which Doukun had been invited, as I’d thought), I deposited the actual cake part of the cupcake down the back of Genrou’s shirt and patted him hard on the back.

He stared at me and cocked an eyebrow.

"Hi," I said cheerfully.

"Fuck you," he replied, and went to change shirts.

After the three of us had cleaned up a bit (I actually had to wash my hair in the bathtub to get the frosting out), we went to sit and talk with Miaka, Taka, and Houjun.

"Well, almost everyone’s here," said Miaka happily. "Myojuan’s coming a little late, since he wanted to spend a little more time with Shouka before heading over."

"Who else did you invite?" Doukun asked.

"Just another friend of mine," said Taka. "I dunno if you guys know him or not. He’s Myojuan’s age; he’s really cool. Doesn’t know a lot of people, though, so I thought I’d introduce him to some of my friends."

"Good, so I won’t be the only stranger here," Houjun joked with a smile.

"Ohhhhh, you’re not a stranger!" Miaka insisted, hugging him around the neck. "You’ll get to know everyone, don’t worry!"

A gentle knock on the door announced the arrival of a guest.

"That’s probably him," said Taka, and went to let whoever it was in.

"You see how normal people knock?" I said to Genrou. "I know it’s a difficult approach, but I can teach y…"

When Taka’s friend followed him into the little den, I trailed off in surprise.

"Guys, this is Saihitei," Taka introduced the familiar tall, dark-haired man. "Saihitei, this is Genrou, Doukun, Ryuuen, and Houjun. Have you met Miaka? That’s Miaka."

Saihitei greeted us politely, and his smile widened the slightest bit when his eyes fell upon me. I’m sure I must have gone red to my roots.

"Yo," muttered Genrou, elbowing me sharply in the side. "You can pick yer fuckin jaw off the floor now…"

TBC…

^_^

Chapter Five