Kivrin fumed up in her room, idly toying with her favorite revolver. If anyone else in the house had read Gunsmith Cats, her favorite manga, they would've known that she was trying to spin the chamber and time the spin so she could stop the chamber one notch past the only round in the chamber (which was currently only an empty casing; no loaded guns in the house).

She wasn't paying particular attention to it at the moment, however, so therefore she was doing rather poorly...which only increased her bad mood. Both of them. At the same time. I mean...I understand that guys like going out and having some drinks together. Okay, fine. Drinking is one thing. But both Touma AND Inazuma coming home HAMMERED like that is simply...intolerable. And Inazuma honestly thinks I'll let him just snuggle up to me while he sleeps it off?? She snorted. In a pig's eye. Very little turns me off more than the smell of alcohol on the breath. It reminds me too much of...

Flashes of memory, sight, sound, and smell, and her dark mood increased.

And the Colt's chamber whirred as it spun.

For a long time there was no noise in the room but that. Whiiirrrrrr click! Whiiirrrrrrr click!

Finally, Kivrin decided she needed to get out of the house. She jumped down from her loft bed and went to change clothes.

Touma brought Inazuma another cup of green tea. Their mutual hangovers were almost entirely gone, but both still had lingering headaches. Not from the alcohol; from Kivrin's loud, angry rant at the two of them.

Inazuma accepted the warm cup with a grateful look at his descendent. Touma sat down next to him, his own teacup in his hands. Both of them popped two ibuprofen tablets and washed them down with the tea, then took a deep, relaxing breath.

"Do you think she's still upset?" Inazuma asked a tad fearfully. He hadn't really ever been on the business end of Kivrin upset before; whether she was like Yukiko or not in this aspect was something he was unsure of.

Touma shrugged. "Normally I'd say no. Most of the time, she'll cool down pretty quickly. But...I think we somehow hit a major nerve last night. I can't say for sure."

Inazuma nodded and sipped his tea. Yep. Sounds like my Yukiko. "Where is she, anyway? I haven't seen her in hours."

Touma shrugged again and tried the bond, but found it firmly shut on her end....still. He didn't think it a wise decision to open it right now. "I don't know. She's still not...talking to me," he explained, tapping his temple. Inazuma nodded sympathetically. He couldn't find her that way either. "She's probably still in her room." Sip.

"I think I should....make it up to her somehow," the ancient man in the not-so-ancient body decided.

"Flowers are a good way to start," Touma nodded. "She likes roses and lillies especially. My suggestion would be not to go overboard and start buying fancy jewelry. Kivrin doesn't like that."

"She doesn't?"

Touma shook his head. "No. She'll think you're trying to bribe her out of being mad. She DOES like jewelry, just...not now."

Inazuma nodded at the younger man's wisdom. "Right. What about chocolates?"

"Oh yes. Have to have those too. Milk chocolate truffles would be good. She LOVES those."

"Right," Hashiba the Elder noted. He stood and walked to the phone, intending to order the flowers.

"Do you know the number of a florist?" Touma asked sensibly. Sip.

"Urr...not really, no."

"Do you also realize that most of the florist shops are closed by now? It's getting late, after all."

"Oh. Hadn't thought about that."

"Call tomorrow. By that time she may have cooled off a bit more anyway."

Suddenly there was a loud SLAM! Touma and Inazuma both jumped a little, and Touma wound up spilling tea on his shirt and pants. Good thing it'd cooled off a bit.

He stood and spun towards the noise. Inazuma looked in that direction also. Kivrin came in, smiling widely, perhaps a bit Too widely. Kamisama help us...this may not be good... Touma sent to his ancestor. Inazuma swallowed thickly and waited.

Kivrin sauntered up to Touma, threw her arms around his neck (standing on tiptoe to do so), and planted a large, sloppy kiss on his cheek. " 'Ello, Nii-Schan. 'Ow're you doin'? Still hungo'er?" she said with a slight slur.

Touma blinked incredulously. "Are you....?" She WOULDN'T be drunk after the verbal thrashing she gave us last night!!! But the smell of alcohol was unmistakable.

"NO!" she yelled, about deafening the poor man. Anger actually made her voice a little clearer. "I am NOT drunk. I HAVE had a little to drink, yesh, but I am NOT so shtupid as YOU TWO are, to go out and get completely WASTED."

"Kivrin," Inazuma stepped toward her, using a calm, rational voice, "why did you....why did you decide to...."

"Hit the bar?" she finished for him as she turned to look at him. "Because I thought, 'Hey, it's a Tenku TRADITION, damnit', right? Might as well JOIN IN. And because I needed something."

"You needed something alcoholic??" Touma just couldn't believe this. Kiv'd been known to have a wine cooler or two from time to time but he'd never seen her even so much as tipsy. He shook his head. "C'mon, I'm going to put you to bed, Mouto-Chan."

Kivrin ripped herself from his grasp. "Ohhhhhhh I see how 't is. I shee. It's okay for TOUMA and INAZUMA to go get drunk, but it's not okay for me to have a couple of drinks, is that it?"

"I never said that," Touma responded.

"You didn't need to."

"Kivrin..." in his best "You're being unreasonable" tone.

"It's okay for the big, tough, strong men to go out and get sloshed, but if poor, weak, widdle ol' KIVRIN tries it, it's not?? What're you trynna protect me from, Touma? You trynna protect your sweet, innocent widdle sister? Well I've news for you, buddy boy. I was never all that sweet, and not all that innocent either. Oh yeah, sure, physically, right, I mean, there's Ina-Chan here to vouch for that, right?" she asked, swinging her gaze back on Inazuma, who was just as shocked as Touma was. "Wasn't I? Right? You remember that. So anyway, yeah, that way I was, but mentally...feh. I'm not some little ANGEL you need to PROTECT from the real freakin' world, Nii-Chan..."

"Kivrin, you need..."

"I need you to stop treatin' me like I'm GLASS. BOTH of you. And while you're at it, take me wiv you the next time you decide to go out and hit the bars, 'cause then maybe you won't get so trashed. I'll help keep you two in line."

"In line? What's so wrong with getting drunk once in awhile? It's not like it's every night!" Touma protested.

Kivrin's eyes, despite being a tad watery, suddenly glared red hot. "What's wrong with it? What's wrong is that 'every once in awhile' becomes 'every so often' becomes 'once a week' becomes 'once a day' becomes 'once a FREAKIN' hour', OKAY!??! I watched my..." and now hot acidic tears welled up and bubbled over onto her cheeks and down to her chin, "own....father....slide down that well...and I will NOT, I WILL NOT watch you two go down as well." She hung her head and choked back a sob. "I care about both of you too much to let you do that to yourselves....I just..."

Touma hugged Kivrin as Inazuma walked over and kissed the top of her head reassuringly. "We would never do that, Kiv-Chan," Inazuma told her softly. "It was just a stupid guy stunt..."

"VERY stupid," Kivrin agreed against her adopted brother's shirt.

"And while I can't honestly promise we'll never get drunk again....we won't do it often. Right, Touma?"

Touma nodded and gave Kivrin a squeeze. "Sonotori. Yakusoku."

"Yakusoku," Inazuma repeated, offering his promise up with Touma's.

"Arigato," Kiv managed weakly.

"You sound tired. Why don't you get to bed, hmm? Can you make it by yourself?"

Kivrin nodded and pushed herself away from Touma, who was reluctant to let her go. "I can walk jus' fine. And...I....I'm sorry I was such a bitch to you guys last night. I was just...I suppose I was venting on both of you the way I never could on my dad. Gomennasai."

"Daijoubu da. Shinpai ja nai yo, Kiv-Chan."

She smiled, exhausted, gave Touma another, less messy, kiss on the cheek, and a brief kiss on the lips for Inazuma, then took herself upstairs.

They watched her go for a bit before Touma added, "She might have trouble getting into that loft bed..."

Inazuma nodded. "I'll help her." When his descendent arched an eyebrow at him, he blushed and added, "HELP her into bed. I'm not staying with her!"

Touma nodded as though that met with his approval (as if his approval was needed) and went to the kitchen to see how much green tea was left. Kivrin might want some in the morning.