Clack clack...
Two pairs of chopsticks hit each other as they had simultaneously reached out to the last piece of meat on the plate. Their owners stopped, different colors eyes glared up.
No word came out.
Instantly two pairs of chopsticks danced together, trying to grab the meat until it ended up being clamped between them.
"Hey, didn't tok Aba say a big brother should offer everything to his younger siblings?" Blaze smirked, pulling the meat toward him.
"Hahaha, I only do this for your own good." Cyclone grinned, but his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. He tugged the meat back. "I've noticed you got chubby recently. Eat less or you will roll around instead of walking."
"WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING HUH?!!"
And today's Civil war began.
Cyclone and Blaze stood up on the chairs with one leg placed on the edge of the table. The boys used all their determination, and chopsticks skill, to yank back the last piece of meat.
Yaya sweatdropped at the scene before her. She sighed and chuckled, only her family would have this kind of noisy dinner.
Tok Aba had traveled to the hot spring with their neighbors for two weeks. Ochobot also accompanied him since the siblings had asked him to look after their grandpa. It was only their excuse to make the small power sphere get some breaks, he had done so much for them.
Therefore, only the siblings had dinner together tonight.
Clearing her throat, Yaya tried to call her the attention of her brothers. "Guys, I have something to say."
However, no one seemed to hear. They all focused on the comedy on the table.
Ice calmly ate his meal, bored icy blue eyes looking at the chopstick match going on. Different from him, his younger brother, Thorn, was so immersed to the point of forgetting to eat.
Solar was paying it no mind, but his eyes were fixed on the phone screen. His left hand furiously swiped it while the right one put food to his mouth.
At the head of the table, Earthquake tried to scold two naughty boys to sit down and quit playing with food. Of course, he was ignored. Thunderstorm merely drank his soup, the ruby eyes twitching slightly. He grumbled under his breath something like "Two idiots" and "Noisy".
Yaya had to resist the urge to facepalm. She should have known things wouldn't be easy. Lower her chopsticks down, Yaya let out a long breath before inhaling.
BAM!
Two palms slammed hard on the table, causing the bowls, chopsticks, cups, and dishes placed on the surface rattled.
The whole room fell silent. The boys in an instant stopped whatever they were doing, including Earthquake who was about to stand up to hit his mischievous brothers. They all turned to the end of the table.
The brunette girl raised her head, hands still placed on the table. She glared daggers at them, unintentionally made some of them gulped.
Satisfied with the reaction, Yaya sat down.
"I'm going out with Vanny this weekend. You guys don't need to wait for me." She announced with a bright smile. But in contrast to her happiness, the expression of her brothers couldn't be described as the most delightful.
Cyclone and Blaze's mouth hung open, the piece of meat fell back to the plate without a single care.
Ice's eyes widened, the chopsticks in his hands dropped, tinkling on the table.
Thorn choked on his water. The poor boy turned to Solar, who currently froze in shock, and sprayed everything inside his mouth straight to the face of his brother.
Thunderstorm accidentally swallowed a mouthful of his soup. The hot liquids burn down his throat made him cough. He pounded his chest in the hope it would stop.
Earthquake stood upright, pushed his chair fell back in the process. His golden eyes gaped at the girl across from him with disbelief.
"What did you just say Yaya?!"
"I'm going to have dinner with Vanny this weekend. He invited me." Yaya repeated, as if nothing happened. "So you guys don't need to wait for me."
"Ishh! He didn't mean that." Cyclone scowled and waved a hand around. "Why did-"
"WHY DID YOU AGREE TO GO OUT WITH THAT THING?!!!" Blaze cried out. God above please let this was merely a joke.
Yaya eyed at her brothers with a questioning look. Did they forget she and Vanny had been official last week?
"His name is Vanny, not 'that thing' or 'this thing'." She corrected. Blaze just pouted and mumbled a 'whatever' and slumped to the chair.
"And he is my boyfriend. It isn't that strange if he asked me out." Yaya sighed.
<<Boyfriend>>. The word still left a bitter taste inside their mouths. The septuplets hadn't yet accepted the fact that their younger sister, who only knows about her big brothers, now turned all the attention to a strange boy.
"I ... don't ... g ... ree ... agree ...!" Thunderstorm, though coughing and choking all over, tried to speak up. However, with his hand continuously thumping chest and teary eyes, he could hardly make other people take him seriously.
Everyone on the table sweatdropped. Earthquake sighed, stroking his younger brother's back to help him ease his coughs. Fifteen minutes later, the coughs finally stopped, Thunderstorm wearily leaned against the chair.
Who knew that choke soup can be so scary?
Ignoring the embarrassing moment just now, he frowned at his sister. "I indeed agreed (by mistake) to let you dated, but that doesn't mean I agreed that you can go out with him. Alone."
Ice nodded in agreement. "He is right. It's dangerous for you to be alone with a boy."
"Especially with that bastard ..." He mumbled. His head lowered so that his hat covered the expression on his face. The temperature around Ice suddenly dropped, all objects near him were slowly covered by ice.
Blaze's face went pale. He moved closer to Thunderstorm, much for the older's annoyance. It was still safer to stick to the most hot-blooded brother in the house right now than his younger brother. Still, Blaze could not avoid too long because less than 10 seconds later, Thunderstorm had reached his limit and pushed Blaze's head, which almost against his face. He didn't forget to give a warning glare to the poor boy.
As a result, Blaze sat trembling in the middle of a living iceberg and a living ticking bomb.
Earthquake shook his head, feeling déjà vu as the atmosphere gradually became tense. He cleared his throat caught everyone's attention.
"At least let one of us go with you." Gempa proposed and looked at Yaya. The sister grimaced.
"No, no, and no. Nobody comes with me. I need the private for my date." Yaya refused. She also had to shift her chair to avoid being frozen when Ice was in a bad mood.
"Besides, you guys are the ones who had been going too far here." Yaya glared at the boys in front of her.
"Eh, we didn't do anything!" Cyclone exclaimed. The sister narrowed her eyes, clearly displeasure.
"Right..."
---Flashback---
The brown-haired boy, also known as Vanny, was currently wondering whether he should cry or laugh.
He had succeeded in confessing to Yaya - the dream girl of so many male students in the school. Vanny should have jumped in joy and fully take advantage of this golden opportunity. But sadly, he couldn't.
Why?
The black jacket with the red lightning highlight that his lovely girlfriend was wearing seemed to be giving off a terrifying killing intent.
Since when a jacket alone could bring such a scary feeling? Vanny had a hunch that if he got closer to Yaya more than 1m, it would be the last moment he saw the world.
And to add insult to injury, she just had to wear that damn jacket every single day. As discomfort as he was, Vanny didn't dare protest. He feared a certain ruby-eyed boy would knock his door if he had said anything.
With a long sigh, Vanny gave up. If they could not act like normal couples, like hugging or kissing, then he hoped holding hands was fine. It wasn't too intimate and enough for now.
Looking at the girl walking side by side with him, Vanny suddenly felt nervous. Closing his eyes, he put all of his courage and reached out to those small hands.
A startling sound came from Yaya, and at the same time, Vanny felt the warmth flowing into his hand.
The feeling of her hand intertwined with his was so refreshing. Vanny has held hands with so many other girls before, but no one gave him many impressions like Yaya.
Her hand was hard and rough, completely different from its dedicated look. If he had to be honest, it was like a boy's hand...
Wait a minute...
Vanny's eyes snapped open. He hastily turned to the side ...
... And met a sea of sky blue was staring right back at him.
Cyclone, Yaya's older brother, had somehow inserted himself between him and Yaya. His left hand was holding Vanny's hand while the other held Yaya's hand.
"Hey~ what are the two of you talking about? Let me join too!" Cyclone chimed without any shame.
Vanny was about to open his mouth to protest, a pain coming from his hand shot straight to his brain in an instant. The culprit in the dinosaur hat slowly turned to him. A smile was on his handsome face, but it held no friendliness.
"You didn't mind, did you, V-a-n-n-y?" Cyclone said in singing song tone.
And it creeped Vanny out. He gulped and nodded furiously, his hair standing on end. His reaction seemed to please Cyclone since the boy turned to his sister and started chatting happily.
Vanny bit his lip to keep the tears from falling because his right hand was being squeezed without any mercy.
-------
Yaya raised her eyebrows at the blue-eyed brother sitting beside Earthquake. Cyclone turned away and whistled innocently.
Thunderstorm had to smack a hand to his mouth to stop his laughter from coming out, unlike Blaze, who just openly burst out.
"Awesome." The younger boy raised his thumb.
Yaya shook her head at the behaviors of her brothers.
"You are not the one laughing here, Blaze. Don't think I have no idea about what you did..." She pointed at him, effectively making the boy shut his mouth.
---Flashback---
"Hey you, let's play football!"
Vanny blinked and looked at the boy wearing a red dinosaur hat in front of him.
Class 8B and 8D, his class and Yaya's older brother's class, have the same gym time so Papa Zola asked his students of both classes to divide into football or volleyball teams. Before he could understand what was going on, Vanny was dragged to the football field.
Except he didn't want to play football, he had been thinking to enter the volleyball team!
The brown-haired boy stood blankly in the middle of the yard, confused why he was here. Suddenly a ball hit his leg, along with a fierce shout.
"OVER HERE YOU IMBECILE!!!"
Alarmed, Vanny kicked the ball to the source in reflex, without realizing he had passed it on to the opponent team.
Blaze caught the ball with his chest with ease, then sent it straight into the goal of Vanny's team.
"Nice pass, buddy!" He grinned and delivered a hard pat to Vanny's back before returning to the other side, leaving the boy to suffer the hatred looks from his teammates.
The brunet gulped, sensing killing intent radiating towards him.
How bad could the day be?
"VANNY! WATCH OUT!"
Thud!!
Before Vanny knew, his face was tingling with a burning sensation. He fell backward and his head pounded painfully on the grass. The ball bounced on the ground, some flickers of fire following its track.
Vanny groaned in pain. He took back his words, this gymnastic time could be worse.
------
"It was just a normal accident in football!" Blaze puffed out his cheeks, his arms folded across his chest like a child.
Cute, but unfortunately, Yaya had been immune to her brother's efforts to look adorable.
"There is no accident in football that the ball randomly caught fire, brother." She shook her head.
Solar chuckled quite and took some rice into his mouth. "Served that moron right."
Hearing that, Yaya knitted her brows.
"Said the one who had messed up Vanny's liquid during chemistry test, causing it to explode as soon as he took it." She scowled. "And I believe those shocking statements and embarrassing photos on his account were also yours, right? Vanny had told me."
Solar shrugged and turned away, refusing to acknowledge. "Freaking telltale bastard." He murmured.
Yaya frowned but said nothing. Noting that she would talk about this later, she turned to Ice, who was covering his mouth to yawn with boredom.
"Even brother Ice is no exception."
The icy blue eyes boy just looked at her and slowly blinked.
---Flashback---
Dilemma. One word that accurately describes what Vanny was feeling.
And the reason?
Currently was the lunchtime, when he was supposed to have some time alone with Yaya. Though, his lovely girlfriend's focus was sucked on a lazy creature on her lap.
As know as her big brother, Ice.
They had agreed to meet up at the school's backyard, but somehow when Vanny arrived, Yaya, and Ice, had already been there, with the later rested his head on his girlfriend's lap while she sat on a bench.
What made Vanny ever more awkward was Yaya rubbed her brother's hair in unconscious as she chatted with him, and Ice just closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation. They were so natural, to the point if anyone saw, they would think Yaya and Ice were a couple being lovey-dovey, and he was some kind of a third wheel.
Vanny sighed and reluctantly open the bento box. Yaya's lap supposed to be his rightful place, but the cold icy blue-eyed glared straight at him under the hat's shadow forced him to shut up.
The boy sighed the second time and picked up the chopsticks.
At least he still could enjoy the lunch box prepared by Yaya herself ...
Click, click!
Vanny's mouth hung open, and he kept poking his lunch box with the chopsticks, couldn't believe his own eyes.
For some divine reason, his food had been was frozen, despite the current outdoor temperature was around twenty-seven. Vanny peeped at the other two, at the present were discussing something with one another in a quiet voice, then back at the frozen lunchbox.
What should he do now? He didn't want to complain to Yaya in front of her brother. It wasn't good for his image, or his life. Died because of hypothermia wasn't a pleasant way to end one's life.
Vanny swore, for a moment, he saw the corner of Ice's lips had lifted triumphantly before the boy's face returned its emotionless.
-------
"Eh, but doesn't freeze the food will help them stay fresh? I don't see what's strange here?" Thorn asked with curiosity.
"Because we only freeze the food when we want to stock it, brother. And even that, we don't freeze it to the point it becomes solid like that. " Yaya pinched the bridge of her nose. "And you aren't innocent either."
The green-eyed boy who was humming startled. He looked around in bewilderment then pointing at himself. "Who? Me!?"
Yaya nodded.
---Flashback---
"Hello, is Yaya home-"
"Valak! Yaya is still meeting at school, she won't be back until evening. But you're here! Good timing because Thorn is in desperate need of help! Blaze and Cyclone have run away!"
Vanny had no time to comprehend what had been said, or corrected his name before he was dragged inside the house. And the next thing, he saw himself in the green-eyed boy's room on the second floor.
Today he was about to ask Yaya to go to the movie, but seemed like it ended up with getting close to her family.
Form what Vanny knew, the boy wearing a green dinosaur hat always behaved like a kid. So he was probably not as scary as other brothers and would be easier to please. He watched as Thorn tugged him to his plant collection.
He didn't appear to be smart either, Vanny smiled in his mind.
"This is Lily, Rosalia, and Bella ..." The boy introduced, pointing at his flower pots.
Vanny blinked.
What in the world did someone actually name their plan?
Bored, he looked around. Besides the piles of flowers and weeds, there was nothing special in the room. Vanny silently wished Yaya's brother just hurry up and tell him whatever he needed his help, so he could get out of this place. His face was ached from smiling too much...
Suddenly, Vanny felt something wet dropped on his head. He looked up in reflex.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!"
Vanny screamed in terror. Hearing the shrieking, Thorn turned around to see the brunette scrambled on the floor in front of two drooling cannibal plants. One of them licked its mouth, as if craving for food.
An alarming look flashed on his face, Thorn immediately rushed to Vanny's place. The brunette busted into tears when he caught the sight of the boy, he was going to be saved.
However, the boy ran past him and, much to Vanny's confusion and horror, happily hugged the fang growing fruits.
"Ah! Forget to introduce, they are Tuly and Tula. I found these two cuties on a TAPOPS field trip." Thorn fondly patted the two carnivorous plants as if they were some kind of domestic pets.
Strange enough, the plants rubbed their heads into his body and purred. Vanny shakily stopped up, he yelled when the plants abruptly turned to him and bare their fangs.
"Weird, normally these two are very friendly." Thorn wondered out loud, shushing the plants with his hands. "They only act like this when it comes to the bad people, such as a fake guy preferring to seduce the good girls..."
He turned to look at Vanny. If Thorn's previous line was not terrifying enough, then emerald green eyes seeming glowing in the dark made his blood run cold. They watched him closely, like a predator to its prey, challenging him to make one small mistake and he could say bye-bye to his life.
"Mr. Valak here is probably not that kind of person, is he?"
The air became thicker and thicker. Vanny trembled as his legs turned to jelly. He nodded furiously, not want to risk his life.
Vanny had been so wrong. Among the septuplets, the boy, or a creature looking like a boy standing in front of him was the most scared.
But as quickly as it came, the pressure vanished as soon as Thorn showed a very innocent smile.
"Good. Now Thorn needs your help. C'mon!" Without waiting for an answer, the boy took his hand and pulled Vanny out of the room to the yard.
Taken back by his cheerfulness, Vanny questioned whether or not the eerie atmosphere just now had been an only his delusion ...
... Until he saw what was waiting for him.
"Ta-da ~ Those are the new itchy leaf blades Thorn just made. All Mr. Valak has to do is stand there and leave the rest to Thorn~" Thorn smiled sweetly, swinging a green blaze in his hand and forth.
"Only two or three stabs, and don't worry, Thorn guarantee it won't hurt, just a little itchy. Now stay still~" He sang out.
God helped Vanny survived today ...
-------
"Hehe ... Oops?" Thorn scratched his cheek. "Thorn only asked Valak to check my weapons... but he agreed!"
"Name is Vanny, Thorn. And no, you clearly forced him." Earthquake shook his head at his younger brother, who pouted. He folded his hands and placed them on the table. "You boys are handfuls... How about I go with you, Yaya? I also want to meet this Vanny-"
"No. Hadn't you greeted Vanny by threatening to bury him alive yesterday?" Yaya interrupted.
Earthquake winced. He smiled wryly and scratched behind his head as the rest siblings give him the look.
The younger sister sighed. Older brothers and their overprotectiveness.
"Fortunately, Vanny's kind enough to let things slide. But wrong is still wrong, what you guys did is still an exaggeration." She put up a finger, cut off Thunderstorm when he was about to open his mouth. "I had worn brother Thunderstorm's jacket as you requested, yet you guys continued to bother Vanny."
"Please leave my boyfriend alone and don't you dare to follow me on my date." She stated firmly, leaving no door for argument. "If you do, don't call me a younger sister anymore. I will tell father and tok Aba about this."
Yaya stood up. She collected the dirty chopsticks and bowls and placed them into the sink.
"Please excuse me, I'm a bit tired. I will go rest first." She said, climbing up the stairs.
The seven boys were left at the table. They looked at each other and pondered about what their sister had spoken.