(Extra Drug) Chapter Seven: Lighting up July

"Haha! This year is going to be the best!" Kazahaya shouted as he burst through the door of the Green Drugstore carrying three large brown bags. Rikuo, Saiga, and Kakei shortly joined him; all of them carrying bags as well. He stopped at the counter and tipped every bag over at once. What came rolling out was a vast number of firecrackers too many to count. There were different kinds that some Kazahaya had never seen nor heard of.

"Stop being so childish." Rikuo groaned as he struggled to the counter. He was carrying the largest and most expensive of the fireworks. He managed to set them down with much effort.

"Oh, lighten up. This should be fun." Kakei said as he and Saiga neared the pile of fireworks. They sat down their own bags then sighed in relief, happy that their arms could take a rest.

"I'm already excited." Saiga laughed happily. Not only was he already excited but he was already picking stuff out as well. He pulled a tiny round white ball that was not even the size of his thumb out of a little box. "Dance rent boy!" He threw one down at Kazahaya's feet and the moment it hit the ground, it sparked and made a loud popping noise. Kazahaya jumped nearly two feet in the air. He never expected Saiga to actually do this kind of stuff inside.

"Two can play at that game!" Kazahaya shouted. This was his declaration of war. He pulled one of the sparklers from the set and quickly found his lighter in his pocket.

"Bring it on short stuff!" Saiga immediately agreed to his proposal to fight fire with fire. He grabbed himself a lighter and his own sparkler as well.

"Please, take this outside…" Kakei spoke up. He was afraid of what they might do with two sparklers. They could set things on fire or even worse…burn down the entire store.

Kazahaya and Saiga moved out of the store at the speed of light. In no time, their sparklers were lit and they were both having a sword fight with them.

"You're going down, sucker!" Saiga barked. He waved it around a bit to try and get Kazahaya side tracked by the light. Eventually, he was pushed back by Kudo and forced against a tree.

"Look who's got the upper hand now." Kazahaya's cocky grin soon faded as he quickly found out that his sparkler was a dud. The spark began to flicker around the middle of the stick then suddenly quit on him. "Uh…"

"Looks like you loose." Rikuo laughed. He had brought the rest of the fireworks out and set them on the ground where he hoped none of them would reach. He watched Saiga mess around with Kazahaya using his sparkler for his own amusement. He shifted through the pile of ammo for a roman candle and finally found one within the large variety of firecrackers. "Hey, Kazahaya…" he warned him as he lit the stick. "Better run…"

"Wait…what?" he didn't understand what Rikuo was trying to tell him until he turned around to look for himself. It was too late. A little blue orb was flying straight for him. Before he could duck, that little blue orb got bigger and hit him hard on the chest. It knocked him back down to the ground. The others flew over him. Kazahaya looked dazed as he saw the colorful balls fly above him. Red, green, and the rest of them flew by one after the other.

"HA! I think you freaked the little guy out!" Saiga couldn't help but hoot a laugh. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and plucked one from the few that remained. As he lit it, he scooted over to the fireworks so that he could keep Kazahaya from getting his revenge on Rikuo. There was no telling what he would do if he got his grubby little hands on a big one.

"You all right there, Kazahaya?" Rikuo asked. He was trying to hold in laughter and anybody could hear it in his voice.

"Shut up, you." The empath hissed. He moved on his stomach and slithered over to the pile so that he could pick out some new artillery, unaware that Kakei had lit a little army tank. It wheeled its way over to him. It was stopped by Kazahaya's leg but continued to roll. "What the Hell…?" he asked as he turned his head to look at the thing that was nuzzling his leg. Before he could move over, the two little black cats inside of it exploded. It shocked him greatly and caused him to roll over right onto Saiga's feet.

"Woah! Watch out kid!" Saiga cried. He tried to pick up his feet but ended up tumbling over Kazahaya's limp body. He fell inches away from the fireworks with the cig still in his mouth. "I think I just saved everybody's asses…" he said in respite.

"Keep on talkin' big guy." Kudo murmured. He used Saiga's head as support to try and sit up. He found that this was a big mistake. The head tried to sit up but lost to the weight of Kazahaya's hand. The cigarette stumbled from his lips and landed right next to the many firecrackers.

"Mmmf!" Saiga cried. In translation, his words would probably be a signal to get up and run. Out of human instinct, he quickly stood back up and grabbed Kazahaya.

Rikuo stopped laughing after he saw what was going on. The small flame from the cigarette had caught a few of the fuses. He began to scream as they all stumbled behind a bush. Loud squeals and booms could be heard from the patch of grass that contained all the ammunition.

"Kazahaya, you dumbass!" Rikuo yelled at him. He crouched down underneath the bush and hoped that none of the flamed fireworks would light the bush on fire.

"It's not my fault! Kakei's the one who friggin shot the tank at me!" Kudo protested. He used Rikuo as a shield because he sat in front of him. They all looked at Kakei who was scratching his head innocently.

"Look at that cute face! It couldn't have been him!" Saiga said after a long moment of an awkward silence. He quickly pulled Kakei into his arms and blocked him from the two boy's sight.

"Well…" Kakei said. He kept his innocent voice on and looked over his shoulder. "Let's get the water hose…"

Thanks to Kakei, they had a Fourth of July much different from the rest.

End Drug

This one turned out a little more…interesting (for lack of better word) than it was originally planed. It wasn't going to be set on a boat but back in Tokyo. Thanks to an odd boat dream I had the night before I started to write this, this is how is was. I really liked this one better than it was supposed to be! For all you Leon haters, I leave your minds as to what happened after he fell. Maybe his brains fell out of his nose on contact or he was a lunch for the sharks…-sigh- and something I found out HALF way through my fanfic was that I misspelled a word in my summary. It was 'diamond'. XD Did any of you notice that? Once again, thank you to all my readers and I send much love to my reviewers!

I would kill a million roses just to thank you.

Saint Cross