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Some Things Never Change By Amber Michelle K. "Gaaaaaaaah!" Hikaru tossed his backpack into the corner and flopped down on his bed. "This /sucks/. We need an air conditioner!" Sai bit back his question - what /was/ an air conditioner, and why did the air need conditioning? - and sat down a few feet from the bed. He'd learned very quickly that pestering his host when he was in a mood like this would only get him into trouble. Hikaru liked to throw things, and Sai didn't relish the idea of feeling a pillow fly through his chest. "Some things never change," he said musingly. "Summer was always terrible at the capitol. Even fanning was no relief." "'Course not." The boy's voice muffled when he turned onto his stomach, arm flung over the side. "Just makes it worse, moving your arm like that." "Oh, we didn't fan /ourselves/--" Sai stopped, thinking better of finishing when Hikaru opened an eye to glare balefully at him. "You're not even hot, are you?" Sai clutched his fan to his chest, watching his charge warily. "... No." Hikaru kicked a shoe his way and he flinched back, but it landed several feet away, badly aimed. "Stupid ghost," he muttered. "That's really not fair, Hikaru." He ducked the other shoe, much closer to its mark, and it thumped to the floor somewhere behind him. "It isn't my fault I can't..." He trailed off, biting his lip. No, he supposed it was his fault, even though it was true he hadn't planned to continue as a ghost. As it turned out, the disasters that used to plague the capitol at times couldn't possibly be inspired by ghostly ire. Sai recalled trying to work himself into an indignant rage in Akitada's garden one evening, hoping to flatten it and give the weasel a good scare, but no storms had come to do his bidding. Luckily, Hikaru didn't appear to care what he was saying. The glare quickly lost heat. The gleam in his eye that replaced it made Sai swallow nervously. "Hey..." Sai spread his fan and wished he could hide behind it. "Yes?" Hikaru sat up and grinned. "Can you, maybe... walk through me?" "Walk /through/ you?" Sai lowered his fan a little, narrowing his eyes. He knew exactly where this was going. If only he could materialize long enough to smack the little upstart with his fan! "No." "Aw, come on-!" "/No,/" he said more firmly, twisting around to face the other way. But he couldn't resist adding, over his shoulder, "And if you ask again, I'll show you no mercy next time we play." Hikaru snorted, and the creak of the bedsprings indicated that he decided to lie down again. "You don't show mercy /anyway/." He didn't ask again, though, and after a long pause he muttered, "I wasn't really /serious/..." Sai sniffed and kept his back to the boy, spreading and closing his fan idly. He knew he could affect the air around him, at the least, so if Hikaru continued to whine... well, he'd played servant before for others he cared for. But he shook his head, snapping the fan closed, and remained where he was. He'd take everything Hikaru could throw at him, literally, before he let the boy expect that kind of special treatment. |