A Bond Set in Blood
Chapter Four
"Kuroigure? Kurama?" I shout as I sit up in bed. My head aches and I'm still very groggy. By the looks of things out the window, it's about midnight.
"Aneue! You're awake!" Kuroigure smiles at me as he rushes into the room and hugs me. "We saved you a piece of pizza."
"Go get Kurama for me will you, kiddo?" I ask, already plotting to hurt Kurama for drugging me.
"I can't. He's busy fixing the hole in the kitchen wall and removing the ojegi that accidentally grew in the sink," Kuroigure shakes his head.
"Then I'll just have to go to him so I can slug him, won't I?"
"You're gonna hit him!? But why!?"
"HE DRUGGED ME!" I scream in reply.
"Ah, I hear angry screeching; Alicia must be awake," Kurama laughed as he entered the room. "Good morning, Sleeping Beauty."
"WHY THE HELL'D YOU DRUG ME!?"
"Well if I hadn't, then we couldn't have cleaned up our mess ourselves, now could we have?" Kurama insisted.
"Did you have to use alcohol?" I growl.
"Sorry, it's the only thing I know of that puts you out with minimal doses. You've become immune to all of my plants with sedative effects."
"You can't take alcohol, Aneue?" Kuroigure blinks. "That's just sad."
"See? This is why you don't use alcohol! It's bad enough that I know the kid can drink me under the table but know he knows too!" I glare. A sharp pain rushes through my head. "Ah! Headache…"
"You want some coffee, Aneue? Or maybe a cold shower? I heard eating a lot of bread and drinking plenty of milk help hangovers too, though I'm not sure how…," Kuroigure trails off with about 500 different methods of "curing" hangovers.
"Kuroigure, it's high time you learn something about all this. All methods of 'sobering up' are a bunch of BS. Not a single one does it. The only true cure is to take some pain killers and wait for it all to pass," I say.
"I'll go get you some aspirin then, ok?" Kuroigure insists.
"NO! ASPIRIN IS IBUPROFEN!! NO IBUPROFEN!!!" I scream.
"What's wrong with ibuprofen?" Kuroigure looks to Kurama.
"She's horribly allergic. I believe she explains what it does to her as, 'it feels as if I volunteered to be part of a knife throwing act with a no-talent blind knife thrower.' Sounds very painful, doesn't it?"
"Damn straight it's painful," I murmur. "Kurama, get me some Tylenol, will you?"
"Right away, Alicia," Kurama nods and then quickly exits.
"I'll go help!" Kuroigure takes flight and follows Kurama downstairs.
"How can he help Kurama get a tiny package off the kitchen counter?" I wonder.
Kuroigure and Kurama return shortly. Kurama hands me the Tylenol capsules and Kuroigure hands me a cup of tea.
"Don't worry," Kuroigure smiles, "I watched Kurama make it and there's nothing in there but tea."
"Thanks," I mumble as I toss the capsules in my mouth and swallow them with a swift chug of the glass of tepid tea.
"Oh wait, he did put something in there," Kuroigure recalled with a goofy grin.
"What did you put in there this time!? A date-rape drug?!"
"It was just a bit of lemon juice, just as you like it," Kurama insists with a nervous chuckle.
"It's true, Aneue."
"Besides, heaven forbid I use a date-rape drug on Hiei's woman. I wouldn't dare. He'd set his Dragon of the Darkness Flame on me, he would. Then he'd find some way to cause pain to my deceased soul," Kurama laughed softly.
"Damn straight," I growl, "and you'd be lucky if he got you first."
Then, we all laugh. This night is like old times again. Instead of sleeping in my bed, I agreed to sleep on the floor, sitting propped up against the corner beside Kurama. Kuroigure is spread across our laps, snoring lightly. I can't help remembering when Kurama and Kuronue used to sleep sitting up in the corner of our hideout with me in their laps. Yes, those were the good old days, and I can tell… these… are the good new days…
Shigure: (strange, uncaused tears) You called him kiddo again! Just like Kuronue used to call you!
Alicia: Shut the hell up!
Ayame: I can't believe you used such language in front of a child. Talk of date-rape drugs, "damn straight", "those methods are a bunch of BS", "Why the hell'd you drug me?"…
Alicia: He's Kuronue's kid. He probably has fouler language at his age than I do now.
Ayame: If you say so, Alicia dear.
Alicia: Ayame-san, I've told you not to call me that!
Ayame: I'm sorry. I can't resist. It's just the way I talk.
Alicia: Fine…
Shigure: REVIEWS! REVIEWS FOR THE POOR BEGGAR GIRL!!!
Alicia: Shigure! Not again! Gr… (shoves a piece of steak in her mouth)
Shigure: Alicia! (gasp) Eating at the computer!? Shame, shame, shame, what did your computer teachers teach you?
Alicia: My first one taught me NOTHING. My second one taught me that it is possible to be a hard-ass and yet likeable at the same time. Oh and my last one taught me that if you're absent for about a week and a half, only computer teachers will forgive your missed work, which she did. She excused me from all of it.
Kyo: Your computer teachers sucked, you know that?
Alicia: Sure did. So did most of my other teachers. I only liked about 20 of my teachers, and I'm being pretty generous there.
Ayame: How many teachers have you had?
Alicia: Nearly 60 by now, I think.