Disclaimer: Pot doesn't belong to me. Too sad, isn't it?
Rating: T
A/N: English is not my first language; feel free to point out the mistakes I made.
Feel free to review…
DAY 10
The children spent the night at their neighbor's place. Well they were supposed to sleep at home but nobody opened the front door for them. Saruwatari-san thought Sanada was away celebrating his team victory with his friends. She didn't want to let the kids alone in the big house. Had she opened the door with her spare key she would have seen shirts and trousers on the stairs. But she didn't.
Sanada woke up with an unknown body sprawled over his chest. It took him a few seconds to recognize Yukimura's blue hair. Then he remembered the whole evening and the night. A little pang of guilt washed over him when he thought about Sakuno but it was soon replaced by happiness.
He stood up, careful as not to wake his lover and decided it was time to wake up his nephews. He entered their room and saw empty beds. Strange but not unusual. What was stranger was that the beds were done. He went downstairs. No kids in the living room, in the dojo or in the kitchen. He began to panic and called them. Nobody answered. He ran back to his room opened the windows and the curtains to have a better look of the garden. No kids. He woke up Yukimura and asked him to help him to look for the kids. He couldn't imagine what his brother would do if he told him he lost the children because he spent the night with a man.
They searched the whole house twice. Yukimura even decided to go out and look for them in the neighborhood. As for Sanada he decided to go and see his neighbor. Maybe she knew where the kids were. She opened the door and was surprised to see him here.
"I am really sorry to disturb you this early. Do you know where Kuan Ti and Kagami are?"
She looked at him. She seemed to be worried.
"I left a note on your front door telling you that the children were sleeping at my place because you weren't home at 9.30pm. I know I should have made them go to bed earlier but they wanted to show you what they did at school. I drove them at school and told them I would pick them up. I hope you don't mind."
Sanada was relieved.
"Not at all. But I was home. My car was in front of the house. The children must have told you it was not mine. I did not see the note I guess the wind blew it away during the night. I will not leave the house today so you do not have to look after them if you do not want to."
The old lady nodded. Sanada thanked her and went home to meet Yukimura. They shared a good breakfast, picked up their clothes, showered and tidied the bedroom. Yukimura then left to work while Sanada took care of the garden, the fishes and of course of his essays for his law school. After that shopping for food. He needed some baking powder. He wanted to bake a cake to thank his old neighbor.
The afternoon went by quickly. He brought her the cake just before leaving to meet his kendo team. Something unexpected happened and he needed to go and solve the tiny little problem. Saruwatari-san understood and told him to take his time, that she would go to pick the kids up even though Sanada would be at Rikkai to solve his problem.
He was in the principal's office with the captain of the Junior High's kendo team and a student he never saw before. Apparently the captain had threatened to beat the crap out of the poor student if he kept hanging around the dojo with his girlfriend. Sanada was a bit angry. He didn't understand why he had to be here to solve that problem. Come on the principal could do it alone. But he had to be there so he nodded from time to time.
Suddenly the door was opened. An old lady with disheveled grey hair ran inside the office. It was Saruwatari-san. She grabbed poor Sanada by the elbow.
"The children didn't come. I waited for them in front of the gate as usual and they didn't come. Their teacher looked for them all around the kindergarten. I helped her. I even went home to see if they hadn't gone home alone. I'm really sorry I lost them…"
And she went on and on. Sanada didn't know what to do or say. He patted her on the back and led her to the parking lot. Once there he sighed.
"It must be a prank. They want to play with us. You will see. They will be in front of the door when we are home. Needless to say they will be punished. You can go home now. I will look once again for them here and then I will go home. I will phone you if I find them."
The old lady nodded and left. Sanada had to gather all this strength not to punch into a poor wall. He looked for them. Nothing. Went home. Nothing. Looked around the neighborhood. Nothing again. He decided it was time to phone the police and his brother. At that very moment, he heard somebody knocking it was his neighbor. She was out of breath. She couldn't stay home so she looked for them. Suddenly she clutched her heart and collapsed.
Sanada called an ambulance. Not far away from there the brats witnessed the scene. They were hiding in the garden of an empty house. When they saw their neighbor collapse they realized the prank went way too far…
A/N:Sorry for the late update. I was really busy during these holidays. Poor old lady and what nasty brats!!! I didn't mean to have her collapse but it fitted so well with the chapter that I couldn't help making her suffer…