Disclaimer: Too busy downloading mp3s to possibly own Fushigi Yuugi.

Warnings: Ummmmmmmm……..I dunno. Cereal? Shounen ai and cereal. There ya go. Possibly not as sappy as the past few chapters. ^_^

Notes: Everyone who’s reviewed this story, I love you forever!! You guys are so nice. ^_^ Sorry this one took so long (and it’s probably not even worth it ~.~ ), but now that I’m home for winter break, there’s too much to do… **whines** I wish I was back at school, but with no classes! I’d get SO much more done!! Well, anyway…I realize I’ve been cruelly neglecting Fires of Destiny, so I promise, that’s what I’ll work on next! ^_^ Hope everyone’s having a good break, and good luck to everyone who’s still taking finals! Especially chem finals. ^_~

I folded my hands calmly and raised my eyebrows at Saihitei. "You’ve…found other ones besides me?"

"I was going to save that for another day," he explained kindly. "I thought one shock would be enough…"

"Well," I sighed wryly, "you’re a little late for that. After being tackled by Miaka this morning, having my history class infiltrated, seeing you drunk, kissing you, falling in love for the first time in my life, discovering I’m some warrior incarnate, and finding out that two of my oldest friends are also Celebrity Reincarnations of the Ancient World, the shock factor is pretty much lost on me."

"You guys kissed???" Miaka crowed.

I ignored her. "Where are the other four? Have you found all of them? Where are they?"

"Ahhhhhhhhh, well…" Taka rubbed the back of his head with his hand and smiled sheepishly. "Funny story, actually…"

"The other four seishi are named Chichiri, Mitsukake, Tasuki, and Chiriko," Saihitei told me patiently. "And…"

"Chriko looks so great when he’s all grown up!" said Miaka, clasping her hands together. "Doesn’t he?"

Miaka was smarter than she herself thought she was, but sometimes she was just suuuuuuuuuch a bubble-head…and it didn’t help that she hadn’t slept at all the night before. I scooted over to make room for her on the couch, and she bounced happily over and sat down, hugging me around the neck.

"All right," I said, "so now I know their names, and that one of them looks great. What I don’t know is who they are…" A thought suddenly struck me. "Do I…do we know them??!!"

"Uh huh," yawned Miaka.

"Everybody from the party," she continued.

Mildly taken aback, I glanced at Taka and Saihitei for confirmation.

"That’s why she wanted to have the party in the first place," Taka admitted softly with a nod. "It was the first time we’d all been together since…Miaka left the book."

"Book?"

He looked about to explain, but I cut him off. "No, no…shock is one thing, but complete avalanche of stuff is another… Just stick with the warrior guys, and wait, they’re all the people who were at the party last night???"

"There’s no way Gen-chan is a warrior!!" I cried, my eyes wide.

"What makes you say that?" Saihitei looked amused again.

Glad I’m amusing.

"He…he’s Gen-chan!!!" I spluttered. "He’s my best friend!! He’s a slacker, and…he…wears dirty clothes!!"

"Nuriko," Miaka murmured, "shut up and go to sleep…"

"He’s more upset about Tasuki than he is about himself," Taka muttered to Saihitei with a chuckle.

"Stop laughing at me!!" I insisted. "Tasuki??"

Saihitei nodded slowly, almost reluctantly. "Your friend Genrou is Suzaku no Shichiseishi Tasuki."

"He’s all of that?"

He sighed. "It’s too much."

"YEAH it is! I can’t even begin to picture Gen-chan as a mythical warrior!" Can’t picture yourself, either. Or Taka. Or Saihitei. Well, maybe Saihitei…he’s got the whole ‘Noble and Chivalrous’ thing going for him…

"I meant, too much for you to take in," he clarified. "I don’t think we should get into this right now. I think we should sleep, and talk about it tomorrow. We’re all tired."

The moment he said it, I was tired, strangely enough…and hungry. Torn between downright insisting that he told me everything and admitting that he was probably right, my stomach decided for me by grumbling loudly.

Miaka woke up in a flash. "Wasn’t me!"

Taka laughed. "We picked up some ice cream when we were out, if you’d like some. Miaka just had an entire milkshake, but I doubt she’ll object to having something more."

His girlfriend stuck her tongue out at him, but didn’t make any move to deny it. She went to put her pajamas on, and Taka and Saihitei left to "get something out of the car…" I knew they were up to something, but wasn’t gonna let on. So that left me to dish out the ice cream.

You’re nuts. You just found out that reincarnation exists, and what’re ya doing??? SNACKING, I thought absently as I dug half-heartedly at my bowl. Maybe I AM in denial. But, no; I’ve thought about it…rationally. Kind of. So therefore, I must be insane, like I’ve said before.

And it occurred to me then that he couldn’t possibly know, because he would’ve totally freaked out, and I’m sure he would’ve blabbed it to me… And I knew he didn’t remember from the start like Saihitei and Taka, because again, he would’ve blabbed; plus, I recalled, they’d sent him out of the room on purpose before Saihitei explained stuff.

"Hi!" chirped Miaka’s voice, rousing me from my pondering. Now wearing purple flannel pajamas, she shoved something green at me. "Here; put these on."

I blinked at her. "Ummmmm…why? What are they?"

"They’re a pair of Taka’s pajamas." She sat down happily, brandishing a spoon.

"But…"

"I thought you might wanna stay here tonight, since you were sick yesterday. And you live on the fourth floor; you don’t really wanna climb all those stairs, do you?"

"We have an elevator," I said, but took the pajamas anyway, since it sounded fun. "I’ll stay, but we are going to sleep tonight, all right?"

Upon her insistence, I went to change right away; Taka’s PJs were so big on me that the side of the neck kept threatening to fall down my shoulder, but they were comfortable. I sat across the tiny table from Miaka, grinning…until I noticed the dark look on her face.

"Ryuuen," she growled.

What?? What did I do??? I blinked at her.

"Just look!!! You took all the cookie dough balls from the ice cream!!!" she accused.

My mouth fell open. "I…I did not!!!"

"Look how many you have!! And I don’t have any!!"

"Miaka, get a life," I instructed, shoving my bowl at her. "We can switch if you want."

"Okay!" she replied cheerfully, and took my ice cream.

Jeez! I didn’t think she’d really DO it!! I started laughing, and put my head down on the table. Miaka and her food…god, but she’s manic depressive.

"What?" she demanded with her mouth full. "What’s so funny?"

"Nothing," I giggled. "I’m tired."

"Me, too…"

"Gen…Gen-chan’s gonna flip when he find out."

She laughed around her spoon. "I know…poor Tasuki…"

"I say we make Saihitei tell him." An image of a singed and sooty Saihitei was quickly put together in my mind, and I giggled even harder.

Once when we were seven, Gen-chan had set our Boy Scout Master’s shirt on fire in a freak marshmallow accident. Nobody could really explain how it had happened, but the guy’d wound up in intensive care despite our merit-badge-worthy attempts to extinguish him.

But…why would I remember that NOW???

I fell silent, trying to puzzle it out…but one should never try to puzzle things out when one is tired, and my mind kept winking in and out, and the next thing I remember is waking up in bed with Miaka.

After a few minutes of lying there frowning at the back of her head, I rolled over on my back to frown at the ceiling, instead. Falling asleep in one place and waking up in another was always kind of creepy, which I’d learned getting my wisdom teeth pulled in tenth grade, being gassed and coming around four hours later in a room down the hall.

The question soon arose as to exactly how I’d arrived in the bed, the possibilities of which were both exciting and embarrassing at the same time.

"Ryuu-chan," Miaka mumbled, "what’re you smiling at? Look like cat from Alice in Wonderland."

"Sound like girl from jungle tribe," I replied, looking over at her with a grin.

"Mmph," she said. "Zit morning?"

Somewhere beyond the closed door of Taka’s bedroom, the phone rang.

"It’s light outside, which would tend to suggest morning," I said, stretching and climbing out of bed. Normally, I really wasn’t a morning person…but I couldn’t help but wonder if Saihitei had ended up spending the night, as well, and…

"Ahh!" cried Taka in surprise as I bumped into him hard on my way out the door.

"Ahhhhh!! I’m sorry!" I exclaimed.

"It’s okay, it’s okay," he assured me, and held out the portable phone to Miaka. "It’s Keisuke; he says it’s kind of important."

She scrambled to accept the receiver; I would’ve stayed to make sure everything was all right, but Taka herded me into the kitchen. "It’s nothing big," he promised. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"It’s morning, and we’re not tired anymore," I replied happily. "Do you want to tell me the rest about Genrou and Houjun and Doukun and Myojuan? Do any of them know yet? When are you going to tell them?"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," said Taka, putting a frantic finger to his lips, "I don’t know if we’re even gonna have a Thanksgiving…party…so I don’t want to invite anyone just yet…"

"Um…what the heck are you talking about?" I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"I don’t want people to overhear us talking about a party that might not even happen," he continued through teeth that were slightly clenched.

Thanksgiving party?? I had almost resigned myself to the fact that this was another wacky dream, and was about to reaffirm that I was wearing those turkey socks that were somehow so important, when a crown of bluish hair popped up beside us.

"You guys are having a Thanksgiving party?" said Houjun politely.

OH.

"Oh…darn," Taka smiled apologetically, fixing me with a meaningful eye. "We were trying to keep it secret…we don’t even know if it’ll happen or not, it depends on how much time we have…"

I grinned sheepishly and gave him a subdued thumbs up to show that his intention had finally gotten through my thick skull… For some reason, he didn’t want to tell the others yet, and I had almost ruined it. Oops. I headed into the den, eyes to the ground, and was arrested by a large, gentle hand on my arm.

"Good morning."

But my jubilation fell into a panic as he dove in to smooch me and I realized I had the worst morning breath in the history of the world. I widened my eyes and covered my mouth urgently with my hand. "MMMMMM!!!!"

Blinking, he pulled back. "What’s the matter now?"

"MMmmffmmm," I apologized ruefully, and he got it and laughed, shaking his head.

Leaning in again, he gently kissed my forehead, ‘caressing’ (for lack of a better, less Cheap Romantic Novel-esque word) the back of my head with his right hand. "I don’t care, you know," he said. "And one of these days, you’re going to have to let me kiss you properly."

I motioned toward the bathroom with my head, and he smiled again and let me go. Figuring Taka wouldn’t mind if I used some of his mouthwash, I did a thirty-second Listerine cycle and raced back out.

"I’m sorry," I told Saihitei quickly, "I’m sorry…it must seem like I don’t want you to kiss me, but I do." Ahhhh!!! "AHHH, I mean, if you want, I mean…"

"It takes a while to get used to," he said with a nod.

I nodded, too. "I’ll get better." After all, he waited about a hundred lifetimes for me. What if I’m disappointing??? What if he changes his mind???

"Ryuuen." He frowned. "I hope you’ll never change just for my sake. There is no ‘better’ where you are concerned. You are who you are, and I’ll take you that way. You’ll get used to us, and our relationship might get better, but don’t ever believe that such a thing depends on you pretending to be something you’re not."

He motioned for me to come closer, and whispered in my ear. "Taka doesn’t want to tell anyone else about their past lives just yet. He thinks it would be too much to handle. He only agreed to me telling you because it was…well…personal. And I wasn’t about to search for you my whole life, only to lose you because you didn’t remember… how you felt. But seeing how well you took it, I think he might change his mind."

"So until we can come to a mutual decision, we’re going to let it rest."

"How does Miaka feel?" I asked quietly.

"She…" he sighed. "She wants her friends back. With all her heart, she wants everyone to remember what she does. But she sees Taka’s point, as well."

"You know," I said, "I can’t promise that I’ll ever remember everything. I wish I could. I wish someone could cast a spell on me or something so I would. But…even so…" I gave him a smile, "I’m glad you told me. It makes me feel stronger inside, somehow. Just knowing that…that I used to be someone important."

He looked like he was about to say something, frowning slightly yet again, but then Taka interrupted by calling once more that breakfast would be served if people would tell him what the heck they wanted to eat.

"Crêpes Suzette," I ordered snobbishly, "and a brioche, s’il te plaît, garçon."

"Very funny," was his reply. "We have Special K and oatmeal."

"Well, whatever we have, we might want to eat before Miaka comes out," said Houjun congenially.

Warrior warrior warrior warrior!!! my mind insisted on announcing, pointing invisible fingers and bright neon arrows at Houjun, which didn’t really help with the whole subtlety thing. And then, suddenly, another word leapt into my mind:

Whatever reaction I had to this was lost to the others’ eyes as Miaka emerged from the bedroom, looking slightly stunned, but, above all, excited. "Keisuke’s coming to see us tomorrow!" she exclaimed.

Houjun looked pensive. "Keisuke?"

"Oh, I’ve told you about him!" She swatted him lightly, still grinning. "He’s my brother. Or…at least I think I’ve told you about him. I retract the swat if I haven’t."

"Why the sudden visit?" Taka inquired, although he looked pleased. He and Keisuke were already almost like brothers themselves, which was pretty convenient, if you asked me, since older brothers usually have a tendency to beat up anyone their little sister is currently dating.

Miaka took a deep breath and beamed at him, and the sudden flicker in her eyes gave away—at least, to me—that she was hiding something. Given the circumstances, I thought she was probably hiding whatever it was she was hiding from poor Houjun, the Unaware.

"He’s found something," she said, and proceeded to attack the cereal.

TBC…

Notes: I’m sorry, I’m sorry, this chapter was kinda dull… But, as Kaze-chan says, it’s a Transition Chapter. ~.~() And they are doomed to be dull, I suppose. It should get better, though! Honest! And questions/comments are appreciated and encouraged. ^_^

Ryuuen: **narrating** …And the next thing I remember is waking up in bed with Miaka.

Miaka: AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! **clutches sheets**

Ryuuen: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! **falls out of bed**

Miaka: HENTAIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I THOUGHT YOU WERE GAY!!!!!!!!

Ryuuen: I AM!! I AM!!! I SWEAR!!!!!!

Saihitei: **appearing out of nowhere and continuing the narration** Little did everyone realize that the gay thing was really just a ploy to get girls.

Ryuuen: Curses! They found me out.

~.^;;