Takeru had been returning Hikari's history notes and Ken had shown up to return the cat toy that had somehow found its way into his backpack last week before the group went to the haunted house when the storm hit.

"Oh wow," Hikari said, stunned, as the thunder made the whole room vibrate and the power went off.

"Hikari, do you have any flashlights around here?" Takeru asked, starting to search the desk near the door. She started to answer, but another flash of light followed by a huge, rolling boom drowned out anything anyone might have said.

"Mind if we stay awhile?" Ken asked, smiling ruefully. Hikari shook her head, smiling back, and went into her room to search for the flashlight she kept near her bed for when she wanted to read at night and Taichi was already asleep, snoring fit to bring down the apartment complex.

It wasn't under her pillow, where she usually put it, so she started to push her blankets out of the way when another huge rumble of thunder caught her off guard and made her jump.

It apparently caught the boys off guard, too, because Hikari thought she heard a muffled squeak just after the boom died down into a threatening mumble, nothing like it had been at first, when it had sounded like the sky was cracking open.

"You guys all right?" she called, but got no answer. Well, they probably didn't hear her. The door was almost shut, after all. Hikari went back to searching for the flashlight.

There was another room-shaking rumble and this time Hikari definitely heard something from the living room- it sounded like someone falling over and thumping on the floor. She jumped up to see what was wrong and hit her head on the underside of the bunk for her trouble. "Ouch!"

The only answer to that was another crack of thunder, but this one was quieter and seemed to be coming from farther away. The storm would go on for a while longer, but it would soon reach the point where people would dare to venture outside again. Maybe the power would come back on, too.

Rubbing her head and wincing at the pain, Hikari turned to look one last time for the flashlight and stepped on the stupid thing, managing to send herself crashing to the floor. The flashlight, meanwhile, was kicked deep under the bed where she certainly wasn't going to bother reaching for it any time soon.

"Stupid piece of crap!" she hissed at it, extremely annoyed. Not only was she aching, but no one had bothered to ask if she was all right. What the heck were Ken and Takeru doing out there, anyway?

Standing up with a dark expression and the start of a really good lecture being scripted out in her mind, Hikari marched to the door and opened it just in time for one last, bright flash of lightning and a perfect view of exactly what kind of heck Ken and Takeru were busily engaged in.

"What are you doing?!" she shrieked at the boys sprawled in the middle of the floor, hands up each other's shirts and kissing like there was no tomorrow. "Don't you have any shame?!"

Takeru practically launched himself off of Ken and looked up at Hikari with a rather sickly smile. "Uh, hi, Hikari."

Ken sat up, straightening his shirt and, despite the flushed cheeks and heavy breathing, managed to keep his expression pleasant and mild. "Shame? What for?"

Hikari sputtered. "You- he- the floor! On the floor! And I- right over there-"

"You know, it was kind of rude to just, well," Takeru blushed, "On the floor, while-"

Hikari threw her hands up in the air in a gesture of pure exasperation and defeat and turned towards the kitchen. "I'm getting a soda. Do you guys want one, or would you rather I hid out in there for a few hours while you enjoy yourselves?"

Their hurried, whispered conversation nearly drove her to running into the kitchen, grabbing a few pots and pans, and hurling them at the boys until they ran out of the apartment, but Hikari was cool. Hikari was calm. Hikari was damn annoyed that she didn't know where her camera was.

"What kind of soda do you have?" Takeru asked, his voice sheepish and rather shy, and when Hikari peeked out of the kitchen and saw the two of them huddled together on the floor, watching her with big eyes, she had to smile.

Though she was going to find out if anyone knew about this little turn of events before her, and if someone did, then there would be trouble.

Dragonflie: A lot more fluffy than the other chapters, but oh well. ^_^ It's done.

Miyako: Good thing, 'cause I think I hear footsteps...

Ken: What are you writing?

Daisuke: Why are you trying to block the screen?

Dragonflie: Eheheheh. ^^;; Review, please?