I really felt compelled to write a chapter dedicated to Saizo today, so I did. Though in truth, he really has a tough time on his part keeping Yukimura-san happy, he's really fun to write about. You're so cute, Saizo!
(Saizo: You really don't have to...)
Saizo slowly pushed his shopping cart down the aisle of the Asian Supermarket. (That was actually the name of the store.) Ramen, nori, wasabi, rice, soba, shiro miso, aka miso, bean curd...
Sake. With trembling fingers he reached out and picked up the cold bottle. And another. And another. He put the whole box in the cart and mentally totaled up the price.
Ten bottles at two dollars each; twenty bucks. Saizo reached into his sock and counted out some change for the tax.
"Having a nice evening?" asked the lovely young Asian girl behind the counter. Saizo was still young; he was only twenty-two, for crying out loud! Saizo gave a deep sigh.
"Yes, of course." He replied, averting his eyes. He handed her the money and he felt her warm soft hand brush his.
"Have a good night's sleep, sir." She said. "You'll really need it!" she dropped the cold change, along with the receipt into his own calloused hand.
Saizo nodded, but his head throbbed with the beginnings of a headache. He slowly pushed the cart outside and out to their car. He'd get his sleep, all right, but only when Yukimura-sama was contented. He'd never, ever think about refusing to perform his duty for Yukimura. And nothing would get in the way of his duty. Kyo got in the way, a lot. And he liked to say rude things to Yukimura, and degrade him with his so-called 'humor'. Saizo grumbled under his breath and carefully set the box of sake in the back seat.
Yukimura greeted Saizo at the door as he came in carrying the box of sake.
"Saizo!! Thank you so much! I don't know what I'd do without you...! Lemme lighten that up for you." He took only one bottle from the box and opened it, chugged it down, and reached for another. He was halfway through his third bottle when Sasuke emerged from the bedroom, holding up a sheet of paper: the permission slip for the field trip.
"Can't you remember to sign anything around here?" Sasuke grumbled. He spotted Saizo standing by the door. "Oh, you're back. That box looks heavy." He peered into it. "Grr, sake again. How many times do I have to tell you, I don't drink the damn stuff!?"
"Yukimura-sama asked me to..."
"Yeah, whatever. You can put the box down now." Sasuke waved the paper in front of Yukki's face. "Hello, it's me, 'Saa-chan'." He rolled his eyes and sighed. "I was wondering when you were going to sign this. Ano sensei no yaroo told me I could get punished again if I don't, but he was bluffing..."
Yukimura was dead drunk, and he veered in the direction of the couch, but missed and plowed into Saizo's lucky bamboo plant (named Ikki) and snapped it in half. He lay there for ten seconds and dragged himself to the couch like he had two broken legs.
"Oh, now look what you did; Saizo's gonna cry now..." Sasuke hardly cared what Saizo felt, but Saizo was crying, and he was going unnoticed as usual. He set the box by the door and went to Ikki with open arms, who turned out to be very unlucky indeed.
"Gimme a pen...whereza pen at?" Yukimura slurred. He managed to sign his name rather shakily, but it was legible. Sasuke prayed he wouldn't volunteer as a chaperone but he did, much to his disbelief.
"You're gonna do what?" he whispered loudly. "No way are you gonna come; I swear I'll kill you!!" Sasuke ripped the paper out of Yukki's hand, but Yukimura's word was law, drunk or sober. Sasuke went to the wall and put his forehead on it, braced himself with both hands...
BAM ("You) BAM (are) BAM (ruining) BAM (my) BAM (life!") BAM
Yukimura might've changed his mind when Sasuke pounded his head like that, but unfortunately he passed out just as the kid started. He slopped sake all over the couch and his face was pressed into the pillow. Saizo had to roll him over to keep him from suffocating. Sasuke cursed loudly and stormed outside, only to return five minutes later because he found the fan-girls watching him from a bedroom window across the street. Hell, they even stayed at each other's house for this purpose alone. Sasuke remembered his kendama and made a mental note to take it on the class trip. He went into his room to search for it. Nai. He went to the bathroom. Nai. He searched under and around Yukimura and the couch. Nai. He sat in a corner and probed his memories.
"Thank...God!!" Saizo breathed, and put the new twin brothers back into the jar of water. Ikki number one and Ikki number two.
"Hey Saizo, remember the time that I threw my kendama at you?" Sasuke broached.
Saizo's eyes narrowed with reproach. "Yes." He winced slightly, remembering the intense pain and the giant lump on his forehead that formed right after he woke up.
"Where did you put it?"
"..." Saizo turned his back around and ignored him, picking dry leaves off of Ikki number two. "I said, where is it?" Sasuke's voice dwindled to a deadly tone. He was about to slap him upside the head when Saizo turned back around and threw the kendama in his face. Sasuke barely caught it.
"Be more careful next time." Saizo murmured harshly. "You need to work on that aim of yours. Either that or your eyes must be crooked from holding back all that laughter when Yukimura-sama punishes y..."
"SHUT UP!!" Sasuke bellowed and knocked both Ikkis to the floor with the wooden ball. The carpet soaked up all the water. Yukimura fell off the couch and cracked his head open like an egg.
"Yukimura (sama)!" they both yelled, and ran to him. Or they tried, because Saizo slipped on Ikki number one and Sasuke got tangled up in the string from his kendama. They bumped heads and both tripped over Yukimura, falling on the hard floor.
"You ass!" Sasuke shouted. "Can't you do anything right? I just broke my damn finger..." he straightened it out with a loud crack and smacked Saizo in the back of the head using his foot; his kendama was all over the place.
"Of course I can!" Saizo cried, holding his head and sweat dropping as Yukimura hopelessly tried to sit up. "I just can't do anything right when somebody like you is around trying to mess everything up!!"
"Me?! Why you...!" he stopped to watch the partially filled bottle of sake roll slowly off the couch. It fell on Yukimura's out stretched hand; he yelped and stubbed his toe on the corner of the couch.
"Itai itai itai...!" he tried to get up again.
Sleepy, drunk, with body aches and a fractured skull, Yukimura only managed to move around in a rather retarded sort of way. He gave up and sprawled out in the middle of the living room. Sasuke crawled over to him and pulled open one of his eyes, which rolled creepily around in its socket. "Are you dead? Hello? Yukimura!" He slapped him a couple of times. Saizo shoved his hand away.
"Don't be so rough with him!" he snarled. "How would you like it if I did it to you?"
"Then I'd hit you back." Sasuke said, totally dissing him. He left the room to take care of his injured hand.
"Smart ass." Saizo muttered, and went to get a blanket and an icepack for Yukki's head.
"Mizu...hoshii..." Yukimura murmured. He was all alone in the living room. "Kimi...ga...inai...boku ga...inai...atama...ita...i..." he mumbled in a daze.
Yukimura didn't fracture his skull, fortunately, but Saizo lost Ikki number one in the tragedy and Sasuke pulverized his middle finger. What a rough week they were having!! But at least Sasuke got his kendama back and Yukimura got his sake, but what about poor ol'Saizo? (A new Ikki, but he died not twenty minutes later; poor guy.)
I think they'll be going on a field trip in the next chapter, I don't know yet, because I have so much fun writing, I tend to put extra stuff in it, an by the time it's finished it's long enough to be a chapter. By the way, Ikki's the lucky bamboo plant that Yukimura got Saizo for his birthday nearly three years before, so Saizo really cares deeply for it, almost like a child. Obviously, Sasuke knows...!