In the Vocaloid household, it was common knowledge (common sense, really) that pissing Meiko off was a bad idea. Hell, she'd nailed Kaito in the shoulder the other day for trying to smell some soup! Haku had bought some fish one time, but after Haku accidentally drank Meiko's secret stash of sake, her beautiful fish were fried and thrown in the garbage. Morale of the story: Don't mess with Meiko. Which gives rise to the question, why would Rin wake her up at 6 o'clock in the morning?

Then again, Rin's actions rarely made sense…

Flapping one hand angrily at the irritating finger prodding her ear, Meiko bolted up in bed and aimed a punch at the offending family member. Of course, Rin was used to such reactions, and dodged it easily before hopping onto the bed and staring at Meiko with a rare, serious look on her face. The usual look on her face being, of course, maniacal, devious, twisted, or any other synonym of the word EVIL that you care to use.

"Meiko-nee, I need your help."

---

That day, Len looked around every corner, and treated his sister with the utmost suspicion. If it weren't for the guilt he felt over what happened to Kaito yesterday, he would've made the idiot test all his food for him. Not that Kaito would mind much if he got knocked out by some weird drug, but Len would feel bad, and who knew what Rin would do to an unconscious Kaito?

He shuddered, and started watching Kaito carefully, in case Rin tried to kidnap him. If Kaito got scared by Rin, he would lock himself up in his room for the rest of the night eating ice cream. The last time he did that, Meiko ended up smashing his door in to force vegetables down his throat. Rin wouldn't scare Kaito, though. Not unless she wanted to watch her precious oranges go up in flames.

"Oh no! My oranges!" He pretended to tremble and squealed in a high-pitched voice, then grabbed a banana off the counter and peeled it, taking a tiny bite off of the tip. It was Fend-For-Yourself Night, apparently. Meiko had declared herself "too damn busy to cook for you brats" and shut the door in Len's face. He didn't mind. Bananas were preferable to Meiko's Mystery Meat any night. Miku was out shopping with Haku and Neru, so he was safe from any disgusting leek-infested dishes for the time being. It was best to stick to his banana, though. Just in case Miku had managed to sneak leeks into something.

Sitting at the small kitchen table, he tapped his pencil to the sheet of paper he'd ripped out of a random notebook and groaned.

"I have to write something…"

Clearing his throat, he wrote.

Spring in summer

Red in blue

Time for swimming-

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Len screamed the protest to Meiko, who had picked up him and thrown him neatly over her shoulder. She stuffed a sock in his mouth, and tiptoed up the stairs to her room.

"Len, be quiet, or I'll force feed you nothing but leeks for a month."

Hey, it might not have been the most intimidating threat, but it sure worked.

As Meiko sat him down in a chair and tied him to it, he sent mental curses towards his twin, who was probably enjoying an orange and laughing her sadistic ass off. This wasn't the sort of thing Meiko did, even when she was drunk to the point where a normal person would have died… of course, they had tried to keep her away from that point since last time. Poor Haku had never been the same…

This whole thing was still most certainly Rin's fault. So Len restrained himself, and did not punch Meiko in the face. Which, now that he thought of it, would've been a pretty poor choice of action anyway.

"Listen, Len, you need to write. I don't care how long it takes, but you're not leaving this room until you write a song. If you can't write a song within the hour, I'm going to tickle you into unconsciousness. Got it?"

Len nodded, suddenly very afraid for his life. He hated being tickled. Everyone in his family knew that, which meant that, unless he got something down very, very quickly, his life was going to jump straight down into Hell.

"Alright, alright." He grumbled, though it came out more like " Huh-hmm , hu-hmm."

Putting his pencil to the paper Meiko had placed in front of him, he tapped the page, trying to find some kind of inspiring rhythm. Meiko continued to stare at him threateningly for a few minutes, then shrugged in defeat and took a swig from her can of sake. Stare, drink, repeat.

Eventually, the hour was up, and Meiko grinned at Len, who was flailing his arms around and trying to knock his chair over backwards. What that would accomplish, he wasn't sure, but he could've sworn he'd seen it in a spy movie somewhere.

Still grinning, Meiko left, her fingers twitching slightly. Whether that was from the urge to torture him or a result of her impeding status as drunk, Len didn't know, but either way it was bad for him. So he continued to struggle, rocking side to side and waving his arms, until Meiko returned a few minutes later, carrying a few bottles of sake and no feather.

"Aww, ta' hell wit'it. Wanna drink, Len?" She sat his chair upright, then opened a bottle and thrust it into his face. Her face didn't really offer much room for compromise, so he took the bottle and drank. Surprisingly, it was better than he remembered. The last time he'd had any sake, Miku had tried to "spice it up" with leek juice, and he'd spent the rest of the night puking. He'd avoided the stuff entirely every since. This, however, was pretty good. He shrugged at Meiko, and took another swig. She grinned, opened herself a bottle, and took a long drink. Meiko was always glad to have a drinking buddy.

A couple hours later, Meiko had untied Len from the chair, and they were both quite drunk. They'd managed to get to the living room, where they somehow set up the karaoke machine and stood on the couch, singing. Well, trying to, at least.

"WHAT IS RABU!! Babehh dun hurt mee, dun hurt mee, no moar!"

The two drunks sang together, getting louder and louder as the English song went on. They put their arms around each others' shoulders and swayed, and then attempted to do a dance that, if you squinted and poked both your eyes with a skewer, slightly resembled the waltz.

Whenever they got bored, Meiko would restart the karaoke, so it was the same song over, and over, and over again. Within a few minutes, they were both shouting, and Len was as drunk as Meiko (which was, in itself, an admirable feat).

Suddenly, crushingly, and heartbreakingly, the fun was ended.

"What the F**K are you two DOING?" Standing by the television, the unplugged karaoke cords in one hand and a cell phone in the other, Akita Neru had smoke coming from her ears. She glared at the two, and tackled Len, stealing his sake bottle and microphone so he was forced to sit on the couch looking dejected. She would have hit him, too, but Kaito came stumbling downstairs, his blue eyes wide eyed in his face.

"Don't hurt them, Neru-san! I'll help Len-kun!" His lower lip trembled, and even the mighty Akita Neru, Bitch of the West, fell to the power of Kaito's adorableness.

"Okay, I won't hurt him. You get him to his room, and I'll deal with Meiko." Cracking her knuckles, Neru put aside her cell phone, and launched herself at Meiko.

Kaito grabbed Len's arm, dragging him out of the room before anything really nasty could happen. The younger boy was mumbling the lyrics of the song, clinging to Kaito's arm and attempting to drink from the sake bottle he no longer had.

"Okay Len-kun, let's get you in bed…" Worried at Len's current state and seeming inability to walk properly, Kaito slung him up into his arms, carrying him bridal style up the stairs. Len's breath reeked of sake, and his eyes were bloodshot, but he was still warm, and he fit snugly into Kaito's arms. When Len turned his face up to mumble something at Kaito, Kaito blushed, and forgot to answer.

It seemed like it took an eternity for them to reach the room that Len and Rin were sharing, though Len was too drunk to really understand any passing of time. He just felt someone carry him upstairs and set him on the bed. When he looked over, they seemed to be kneeling next to him. He squinted, and smiled. It was Rin. Of course it was. No one else had that particular shade of blue for hair. What a silly sister he had.

Leaning over, he kissed Rin goodnight, and then fell back onto his pillow, muttering "Thanks, Rin" as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Kaito could only grunt back and flee from the room, his fingers still pressed to his lips.