Hello, I have returned. I said I would upload a chapter by the end of the weekend and I did. Again, I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed, they really make my day. Especially the most recent one. (The reviewer called me Author-san and I've been smiling like an idiot since two in the morning on Friday) Yeah, you guys should just refer to me as Author-san now because wow I love that nickname. Anyway, without further ado, here is the next chapter!

Adventures at the grocery store

Seijuro and Shuuzo were dumfounded by the surprise visit of their cousins at the door. Taiga, Tetsuya, Ryouta, Shintarou, Daiki, Satsuki and Atsushi were all standing right in front of them. The redhead finally processed what was just happening and finally began to speak.

"Everyone, what are you doing here?" he said in total shock. Ryouta answered his question.

"I heard from the grapevine that you were sick and so we decided to come and visit!" Daiki huffed from behind him.

"Actually it was more like he gathered us and we decided to come." he added. "But whatever. I only came because Satsuki dragged me along."

"You should have more concern for your own relatives, Dai-chan!" the pink-haired girl exclaimed.

"She's right, Daiki." Taiga added. "Even I came here without being dragged."

"That's false Taiga-kun. It took a while to convince you to come since you heard that Daiki-kun was coming." Tetsuya said as he appeared next to him.

"That's because I can't stand being in the same room as this moron!"

"Who're you calling a moron?!"

"Sei-chin~ are you feeling better?" Atsushi said, completely ignoring their argument. Shuuzo shook his head as he listened quietly to all their banter.

"Honestly, I can't believe all of you came." he muttered. Wait a second, no they didn't. He looked back at the colourful group outside and did a head count. One, two, three, four, five six, seven…seven?

"Oi, where's the other one?"

"The other one?" Tetsuya repeats "Ah, you mean Shōgo-kun."

"He had remedial classes after school," said Shintarou "so he'll be joining us later, nanodayo."

"Hmph! That little punk…"

So, the gang was all here. Standing at the doorway, conversing with one another, laughing, this was a nice setup that made Seijuro smile a little bit. Because of this surprise visit, now he was relieved of his boredom and now he got to spend the day with his cousins, who took the train all the way from Tokyo as well. What a treat indeed.

"I'm very happy that all of you came." Seijuro said to the others. "You should come in before it gets too cold." Everyone nodded and took off their shoes at the entrance, making their way towards the living room.

"Ah, it's about time that we got off that stuffy train." Daiki said as he flopped down on one of the couches. "I guess everyone wanted to go to Kyoto or something 'cause that thing was packed."

"But Dai-chan, there was a space next to Taiga-kun."

"I'd sooner take my chances standing than having to sit next to him of all people."

"Oi! I heard that!"

While the two began arguing again, Shintarou went over to Seijuro and sat down.

"By the way, Seijuro," he said "Sagittarius ranked last today in Oha Asa so I figured I might as well bring this." Behind him, he revealed a rather large suitcase and unzipped it, bringing out a rather large teddy bear that was over half the red head's size. Seijuro looked down at it and blinked.

"Um…this is…"

"Your lucky item of course, nanodayo." Shintarou stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "I didn't want to risk anything so I brought the biggest one I could find on such short notice; I would advise you to hold on to it at all times."

"So then where's your own lucky item?"

"Mine? It's the suitcase I brought it in, nanodayo."

He thrust the ginormous thing into the boy's arms and laid back on the couch once more. Seijuro felt like he was going to suffocate under the large mass of stuffing that was sitting in his lap. Nevertheless, he paid heed to Shintarou's words and held onto the large plush toy, wrapping his arms around the front and relaxing once more. Everyone else stood up and gazed over at their cousin.

"Seijurocchi, Shintaroucchi's not the only one who brought something for you. We brought you things as well-ssu!" Seijuro watched as everyone produced something from their bags and gave them to him one by one.

Tetsuya and Taiga gave him scented candles that relive stress.

Daiki and Satsuki brought teabags for herbal lemon tea.

Ryouta brought packets of hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Atsushi gave him maiubo and pocky.

Seijuro looked at them all in astonishment and then smiled.

"Thank you for the gifts." he said gratefully. "It was very kind of you all to go out of your way for me."

"But of course, Seijuro-kun." Tetsuya remarked. "After all, you rarely ever get sick."

"True." He set the teddy bear down next to him on the sofa so he could accept all the wonderful presents he's been given, looking particularly content.

"Aside from that, I hope Nuisance doesn't scratch up the giant bear with her claws or anything." he muttered to himself. Everyone raised an eyebrow.

"Nuisance?" Satsuki asked. "Who is Nuisance?"

At the sound of her name, the feline stalked into the living room, going over to Seijuro and weaving around his legs as per usual, making him laugh slightly.

"Hey, Nuisance, that tickles." All the GoM stared at the creature in surprise. Seijuro had a pet now?

"Um, Seijurocchi, what's with the cat?" Seijuro patted the space next to him and the cat leaped onto the couch.

"This is my new cat, Nuisance." he said. "She was a stray at first but Chihiro-nii-san let me keep her. She's cute, isn't she?" Nuisance meowed affectionately as she rubbed her head against her master, causing him in turn to pat her on the head. Everyone flocked over to the creature and began petting it.

"Sei-chan she's adorable!" Satsuki squealed. "How long have you had her for?"

"So far, only two days." he said. "She only became part of our family only recently. Although from what I've seen, she probably likes to cause trouble from time to time." Nuisance stepped over Seijuro and went over to the green-haired teenager sitting on his left. Shintarou immediately shrunk back.

"O-Oi Seijuro, keep the cat away from me!" The redhead blinked.

"Why? Is she bothering you?"

"Of course she is, nanodayo!" he cried, stabbing an incriminating finger at the unsuspecting feline "You know I dislike cats already!"

"Oh yes, cats seem to take a liking to scratching Shintarou all the time."

"Not only that, but she's a black cat! That's the equivalent of about five—no, seven years of bad luck!" Nuisance cocked her head to the side and mewled in confusion. Instead of trying to convince the superstitious teenager otherwise, Seijuro just shook his head and carried her away from the Oha Asa addict, setting her on his lap instead.

"Shintarou you'll hurt her feelings."

"Worry about mine first nanodayo!"

"So," Shuuzo began, interrupting the conversation "now that all of you are here, what do you want to do?" Taiga shrugged.

"Dunno, do you have food in the house?"

"Of course all Taiga-kun wants to do is eat instead of interact with other humans."

"Oi it's not like that Tetsuya! It's just that we've been on the train for hours and I might die of starvation." Seijuro looked back at the kitchen and frowned.

"Actually we are running low on food." he said regretfully. "I'm getting quite hungry as well."

"Oooh! I know!" Ryouta exclaimed, the usual excitement evident in his tone of voice "Why don't we go on a shopping trip-ssu?" Everyone looked towards the yellow-haired boy, slightly impressed that he actually came up with a good idea for once.

"A shopping trip? That sounds fun!" said Satsuki "Let's go shopping!"

"I wanna see the maiubo in Kyoto. Maybe they have new flavours~" Atsushi drawled. Shintarou adjusted his glasses.

"If there isn't much to eat here then it would be best to buy groceries." he said. The other put in their words of agreement as well. Seijuro looked over at Shuuzo expectantly. The elder cousin caught his look and stared back.

"Seijuro, you're sick." he said. "It might not be a good idea."

"But Shuuzo-san," the redhead protested "I've been stuck in the house for more than two days. It would be nice to get some fresh air. And the rain has let up today, so the weather isn't as bad."

"Seijuro, I've been told to watch over you, y'know. If anything happens to you, I'm pretty sure your brothers will murder me."

"Then I'll take full responsibility. I'm not a child, Shuuzo-san."

"You're not a child but you are one of the youngest out of everyone in this room."

Seijuro glowered and crossed his arms, glaring daggers at Shuuzo. It wasn't often that the redhead's requests were denied so he wasn't taking it very well. It was difficult to persuade Shuuzo, he was hard-headed, stubborn and was never easily swayed. Although usually, when it comes to those times where he won't budge from his opinion, Seijuro often had to ultimately resort to playing at the older cousin's one weakness. Yeah, that meant he had to stoop pretty low, probably even lower than low, but he was desperate to go outside after being in the house for so long. So, with that thought in mind, he pushed out his lower lip a bit and made his face into a pout as he tugged at Shuuzo's sleeve, gaining his attention.

"You're very stubborn, Shuu-chan."

Shuuzo faltered visibly when he heard that. Did his ears deceive him? If he heard correctly, he just heard Seijuro call him 'Shuu-chan'. And was he pouting as well? Since when did he become that cute? Shuuzo didn't even say anything. He just stared at the boy, mouth completely ajar. Seijuro gazed up at the black-haired teenager with pleading eyes.

"Let me go outside, Shuu-chan. Please?" It took all that Shuuzo had to keep his composure. He thought he was going to explode just listening to Seijuro any longer. It was such a shame that no one was filming that and goddammit why was Seijuro being so freaking cute that was totally unfair. Shuuzo was utterly bewildered as he tried to hide how flustered he was. This kid, he thought, he's such a goddamn cheater.

"I-I don't know, Seijuro" Shuuzo stammered as he turned the other way. Meanwhile the others were watching the little performance with the same exact thought on all of their minds.

It's so low-level!

Knowing that he hasn't won him over just yet, Seijuro put a hand on his older cousin's shoulder maintaining the pout on his face.

"Then let me rephrase, Shuu-chan." he said. "Let me go outside, or I'll tell Reo-nii-san and the others that you're being mean to me." The mention of being tattled on sent shivers down his spine. Considering the fact that Reo was the most protective over the boy, he'd get skinned alive if he heard that his Sei-chan was allegedly being 'bullied'.

"Hmm…" He grabbed the back of his neck and pondered what to do, trying to work out which of the consequences were greater. If he takes them shopping and let's Seijuro have a bit of fresh air, it could be possible that nothing happens, and they can go home without a problem. However, if something happens to him during the outing, he's a dead man for sure. On the contrary, if he doesn't take them shopping and most likely goes by himself, Seijuro could get mad and tell his brothers and Shuuzo, most likely as a result, would get maimed by Reo. Not to mention the fact that Seijuro is pouting. The Seijuro has resorted to pouting. Also 'Shuu-chan'? If Shuuzo could recall correctly, the redhead only calls him that when he's hell-bent on getting his way; not to be childish, but because the boy knows damn well he can't say no to that face. He can already feel himself giving in. Frick. Not good. NOT GOOD. NOT GOOD.

Seijuro inwardly smirked in victory. It seems I've got him, he thought. His prediction was indeed correct, and Shuuzo bit his lip as he stood up from the couch, emitting a rather large sigh, annoyed with himself for being so mentally weak.

"Fine, fine I get it you want to go outside. You can drop the act now." Seijuro tilted his head slightly, his smile deceptively innocent.

"Why Shuuzo-san, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah, yeah put on your goddamn shoes all of you let's just go to the shopping centre already."

~O~

So there it was, Kyoto's shopping centre. It was quite a big building, containing not only an enormous grocery store, but side shops as well, such as stores that sold tabloids and small knick-knacks, bookstores, small clothing stores and there was even a food court; luckily their house was close enough to be walking distance. Before they left the house, Shuuzo left a note on the table explaining their other cousins' visit and their shopping trip, debriefing the brothers (who would read it when they returned, which was probably any minute at that moment) of the current situation at hand. Everyone was slightly taken aback at how big the building the shopping centre was.

"Woah~ it's huge!" Ryouta said in awe. "This is where you go shopping?"

"Yes," Seijuro replied "It's like an everything in one building. Convenient, isn't it?"

Well this was nice. Finally, he got to stretch his legs out a bit. Being in the house for two days straight really made him long for the outside. Seijuro never was the type of person to stay indoors for too long. It often made him fidgety and he'd always want to get up and do something. Which was all the more reason why this little shopping trip was the perfect antidote.

The large group finally reached the building and entered through one of the large automatic sliding doors. Immediately, they were hit with a wave of intermingling sounds; the children running around and playing, the vendors advertising their product, the commercials playing on the televisions in the stores, the announcements heard on the speakers, everything came at them all at once. Although since the weather had been atrocious lately, it wasn't as crowded as it usually was. As soon as they stepped through the entrance, Shuuzo got everyone's attention.

"Okay, listen up all of you." he declared. "During this shopping trip, all of you are going to stay close to me. Don't wander off to any other stores, don't fall behind and definitely do not leave this building. Break any of those rules and I'll kick your asses. Got it?" Everyone nodded vigorously and watched as he gestured them all to the grocery store.

"Let's go."

~O~

"This shopping trip might be more exhausting than I thought."

As if it wasn't bad enough watching a bunch of rainbow basketball kids at home, but it was even more tedious to take them on an outing. The commotion they cause walking into places was amazing. Taiga and Daiki did nothing but argue; Satsuki kept ogling over how cute Tetsuya looked just casually sitting in the shopping cart (the only reason he was sitting there was so he couldn't disappear with his Misdirection); Ryouta just wouldn't stop talking and kept going on and on, words flowing out of his mouth like water from a faucet; Shintarou was quiet, but he insisted on taking that ridiculously large suitcase he called a lucky item and it was starting to get on Shuuzo's nerves; also Atsushi kept crunching the whole time. Who knew a bag of chips could be so obnoxious? Although the one he kept his eye on the most was Seijuro, who was walking alongside him, holding onto the side of the shopping cart as he silently browsed the aisles.

"We should get this." Daiki said as he pulled out a box of sweets from one of the aisles. Shuuzo took the box from him and promptly used it to smack him upside the head before putting it back on the shelf.

"Stop picking out junk food you idiot!" The black-haired teenager growled "Can't you choose anything from this store that won't give you diabetes?" Daiki mumbled something under his breath as Taiga began to laugh at the growing bump on his head. Shuuzo glanced at Seijuro as he continued to push the cart.

"Hey, what do want to get? And don't tell me that you want tofu because I already know." Seijuro stroked his chin in thought.

"Hmm, I'm not sure. There are a lot of possibilities…" Somehow that answer irritated Shuuzo. Like seriously, if you're gonna beg to go on a shopping trip, the least you could do is make up your mind about what you actually want before you leave the house. The older cousin sighed.

"If you don't hurry up and choose, I'm gonna fill this cart with nothing but pickled ginger and seaweed." He couldn't help but smirk slightly as he saw Seijuro wince at the mention of those two foods. If there's anything the redhead finds the most disgusting, it's pickled ginger and seaweed by a landslide.

"Then how about we make a hot-pot?" he suggested hastily. "I think everyone would enjoy that." Shuuzo shrugged.

"I think we can manage that. Let's go to the produce section so we can get some vegetables."

They walked a few aisles down to the vast display of fruits and vegetables. Shuuzo sent everyone across the aisle to get various things such as shiitake mushrooms, lettuce, bok choy and, obviously, tofu. But of course, Daiki and Taiga decided to turn everything into some type of distorted basketball game as usual and made a competition to see who can shoot their vegetables into the cart from the farthest distance. Obviously Shintarou stepped in and destroyed them both, they were naïve to think that they could win such a competition against the number one shooter in the Tokyo middle school division. The only ones who weren't playing were Satsuki, who stayed by the cart, Atsushi, who was busy munching the bag of chips on him, Tetsuya, who was still sitting in the cart (at this point his shooting needed work so he probably wouldn't have participated anyway) and Seijuro, who was standing with the other non-participating miracles, examining a radish to see how ripe it was before putting it in the cart. That was when he got a call on his cell phone. He looked at the caller ID and was mildly surprised to see who was calling. Shuuzo leaned over to check as well.

"Who is it?"

"It's Shōgo."

"Keh!"

He picked up the phone and answered.

"Hello? Shōgo? Are you still coming?"

"Relax, don't get your panties in a knot I'm comin'!" he said through the phone. "My mom made me since 'everyone else was going'. Geez, what a pain in the ass…"

"So where are you?"

"Ugh. If you wanna know that badly I'm near some park."

"A park? Do you know where you are?"

"Like hell I know! I have no idea where I'm going!"

Seijuro was about to respond but then was interrupted by loud noise and shouting on the other line.

"Oi! Which one of you punks threw that basketball at my head?!" Seijuro blinked and tried to talk with the grey-haired boy.

"Shōgo, what's going on over there?" He didn't receive an answer, just more shouting.

"So you think it's funny huh? Wanna fight?" Seijuro grimaced on the other side of the call. He realized exactly what was going on and he intended to put a stop to it.

"Shōgo! Don't you dare start a fight with anyone over there. Are you listening?"

"I'll knock your frickin' teeth out!"

"Hey, Shōgo—"

It was already too late, the line cut off and Seijuro was left to stare at his phone screen. Shuuzo was looking at the redhead in confusion, wondering what was going on.

"What is it?" Seijuro turned to face his cousin, looking about 527% done with Shōgo's useless antics.

"He got into a fight on the phone and now he's somewhere in the area most likely causing trouble."

"He did what now?"

Shuuzo felt at least ten veins pop as he sighed in utmost irritation and gathered all the miracles back to the cart.

"Hey you guys! Hurry up and put those groceries in the cart, we're leaving early. Oi! Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber over there, stop arguing we're going!" Taiga and Daiki shared a look of discontent before rushing over with the groceries they went to retrieve, throwing them in the cart as they trailed behind their older cousin. As if handling eight middle school kids in a shopping centre was bad enough, now he has to go and drag a ninth out of a pointless fight he initiated. Shuuzo gritted his teeth in annoyance.

That kid, he thought, I'm gonna kill him if he tries anything funny.

Okay! That concludes this chapter (I hope you liked the little cliffhanger). Also, in the previous chapter, for the record, I unintentionally left Haizaki out and didn't realize until after my upload, so instead of fixing it, I decided to make a little detour in my storyline and squeeze in some extra chapters for you people because I love you all. Hope you liked that too. I'll try and update soon, but until then...

Read and review please!