Drinking
(Theme: Sake)
Time: Roughly 30 min
Yoh looked down at his cup of sake and sighed for the umpteenth time that hour. It was almost three in the morning and all of his friends were in bed, tired out from all the partying, it was Yoh's 21st birthday, after all, which meant he was now legally able to drink.
He had already drunken sake before this, but it was mostly for ceremonial reasons for some festival or other that he didn't care to think about now.
He was glad that all his friends had managed to come to Japan for his birthday, even Lyserg and Jeanne had made it. But they were all asleep now, and he was not. He finished the rest of his drink in one swing and stood up, bringing the bottle of sake with him.
Quietly, so as not to wake everyone, he wobbled, the drink was beginning to affect him, towards the Inns back room, where only he and Anna were allowed in and slipped inside. In the room was a personal shrine dedicated to close friends and relatives that had passed away and passed on, each with a stick on incense burning on a small plate as an offering. The bottle felt cold in his hands.
He looked at the picture of his grandparents, and offered a prayer to them in heaven, next was a picture of Faust and Eliza, he offered them a prayer too, and hoped that wherever they were, they were together. Last, was a picture of a nekomata, Matamune, a spirit that had been part of the family until only recently, when he had sacrificed his manna-created body so that Yoh could save Anna, but that was a story for another time.
Yoh removed one of the tatami mats in front of the shrine to reveal a secret compartment that only he knew about, and possibly Anna. It was almost impossible to keep things secret from her for long, but if she did, he was glad that she kept silent about it.
Inside the compartment, there was only a single black-framed picture. Carefully, Yoh picked it up and slowly wiped the dust of it with his sleeve and placed it beside the picture of Matamune, somehow it seemed to fit there.
Slowly, he grabbed the bottle of Sake he had brought with him and poured it into two cups. He placed one in front of the picture and held the other one in his hands.
"Happy birthday, brother."
He brought the cup to his lips and slowly drank it all. He thought he might have felt a hand squeeze his shoulder, but he was pretty sure it was the drink.
A/N: Since I'm having a writers block with my SK fic, I decided to start a series of drabbles. Themes are welcome; this one came from my friend Okami. It's not polished, so I hope you can forgive me any errors (it's also 3AM, I'm TIRED DAMMIT!). If you see any, please tell me, I'll get around to fixing it, eventually.
