Disclaimer: Weiss ain't mine, 'nuff said.
Why Ken Shouldn't Drink Chu-Hi
Ken looked at his watch.
4:00 am.
He'd been staring at the ceiling for 237 minutes.
He was now aware that it contained 3 cracks, 17 smudges, and 2 dead bugs.
He had also taken note that he was down to his last 2 ½ pairs of clean socks, and that his bedpost had 26 chips in its paint.
On somewhere around the 3914th jump, the sheep demanded overtime wages and went on strike.
This sucked.
Ken sighed and resigned himself to another night without sleep.
This has been happening a lot lately, he thought to himself irritably, although, I'm surprised it didn't start sooner, considering my line of work.
But Ken knew that wasn't the real reason he couldn't sleep. Something was bothering him and he couldn't figure out what. There was a small, inaudible voice at the back of his head that was nagging him.
"Shut up," Ken told his head.
"Mmurumble mmbleh," Said the voice.
"I hate you."
"Mehmmbehmum."
"Ouch." Winced Ken, as he smacked himself in the head.
"Hehheheh." Mocked the voice.
Ken gave up. Maybe a walk would help. Exercise usually made him feel better, even if it didn't help him sleep.
He pulled on his coat and boots and snuck out as quietly as he could
No reason waking up the others and trying to explain to them that he was going out to get away from a voice in his head....
Although he stopped to chuckle over a mental image of the look Aya would give him upon said explanation (Aya's glares usually ranged from disinterested to sub-arctic, but he had a special blank and dumbfounded look he reserved especially for Ken.)
He had barely started out before he found himself standing in front of the convenience store down the street. "Hmmm," Ken muttered to himself, "that's as good a place as any to check out." And without further hesitation he swung through the door. He scanned the fluorescent bathed shelves in front of him. Surely he could find something in here to take his mind off lack of sleep?
Rows of 'Hello Kitty' notebooks and pink stationary stared back at him. He turned around to face the magazine rack. Porn...porn...porn...'Shonen Jump'...porn...'Get Beckham' (ooh! Soccer!)...porn...sigh...he didn't really feel like partaking of reading material (or pictures either) at the moment....
He moved on to the refrigerated isle.
Wow! I never really realized how many brands of tea there are...26..27..28...gah, I need to stop counting things!
Suddenly he was confronted with the liquor section. "Hmmmm..." an idea began to form.
Yohji is always praising the virtues of alcohol for combating insomnia.... Ken mused.
"Eh, what the hell," he shrugged, and made up his mind to try Yohji's theory out.
But what kind to get?
Ken was more of a social drinker--a Sapporo with Yohji, some sake at dinner- -it wasn't typical for him to go out and obtain the stuff himself.
Hmmm....
Beer was sort of boring...he had sake all the time....
He didn't really want any hard stuff at this ungodly hour.....
His eyes fell to rest upon the rows of Chu-hi.
Bright, friendly looking cans adorned with cartoonish writing and pictures of fruit looked back at him enticingly.
"That looks sort of interesting."
But the question of 'what kind to get?' still remained.... there were so many types!
Well, he'd always liked grapefruit...but lemon and lime were almost as good...though he'd never had strawberry alcohol either, and there was also grape, peach, orange, ume, lychee, and hana....
Hana?! Wow, there's flower-flavored drinks?! What the hell does a flower taste like anyway?! Well, in honor of working at a flower shop, that one had to be tried for sure.
But the other kinds all sounded good too... and there were different brands! Suntory or Takara? Merican or Kirin or Asahi? 350 ml or 500?!
In a moment of indecisive compulsion, Ken grabbed a can of each. Then, after a moment's thought, he grabbed a second can of the hana, just for good measure.
He then paused to glance down at his shopping basket full of aluminum cans.
Yipes, I don't want the cashier to think I'm an alcoholic loser...I ought to get something else as well.
He walked over to the snack food isle.
"There we go!" he exclaimed as he picked up a Choco egg. "I definitely look like the type of guy who desperately needs the next installment of...."
He raised an eyebrow at the picture of a smiling poodle on the box,
"...the domestic pet miniature figurine series."
"Not a lame-ass drunk," he reassured himself.
The cashier barely even seemed to notice the fact that Ken had just rung up 3800 yen worth of booze at five O'clock in the morning, nor the apparent wrongness of making such a purchase from a place called 'Family Mart.'
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ken sat sprawled on his bedroom floor, his recent purchases splayed in front of him. He started out with the Choco egg, breaking it in half and pulling out the plastic capsule hidden within. He opened the capsule to reveal a jumble of unidentifiable plastic pieces.
This doesn't look like a 'domestic pet miniature figurine'!
Aw crap! 'Some assembly required.'
After several minutes of accidentally jamming parts into incorrect slots, he finally held up the completed figurine.
It was a cat. A small, ruddy brown cat, which looked exceptionally pissed off.
"Ha ha!" Ken giggled at the expression on the cat's little plastic face. "I'll name you 'Abyssinian.'"
He set the cat gently on the floor, and reached for the nearest can on Chu- hi.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A/N: Chu-hi is a fruit flavored carbonated alcohol, sort of like 'hard lemonade' but in a lot more flavors. It's basically alcoholic soda. I left the original Japanese names of the following flavors (mainly because they didn't sound right to me translated): Ume (plum), Hana (flower).
Ken looked at his watch.
4:00 am.
He'd been staring at the ceiling for 237 minutes.
He was now aware that it contained 3 cracks, 17 smudges, and 2 dead bugs.
He had also taken note that he was down to his last 2 ½ pairs of clean socks, and that his bedpost had 26 chips in its paint.
On somewhere around the 3914th jump, the sheep demanded overtime wages and went on strike.
This sucked.
Ken sighed and resigned himself to another night without sleep.
This has been happening a lot lately, he thought to himself irritably, although, I'm surprised it didn't start sooner, considering my line of work.
But Ken knew that wasn't the real reason he couldn't sleep. Something was bothering him and he couldn't figure out what. There was a small, inaudible voice at the back of his head that was nagging him.
"Shut up," Ken told his head.
"Mmurumble mmbleh," Said the voice.
"I hate you."
"Mehmmbehmum."
"Ouch." Winced Ken, as he smacked himself in the head.
"Hehheheh." Mocked the voice.
Ken gave up. Maybe a walk would help. Exercise usually made him feel better, even if it didn't help him sleep.
He pulled on his coat and boots and snuck out as quietly as he could
No reason waking up the others and trying to explain to them that he was going out to get away from a voice in his head....
Although he stopped to chuckle over a mental image of the look Aya would give him upon said explanation (Aya's glares usually ranged from disinterested to sub-arctic, but he had a special blank and dumbfounded look he reserved especially for Ken.)
He had barely started out before he found himself standing in front of the convenience store down the street. "Hmmm," Ken muttered to himself, "that's as good a place as any to check out." And without further hesitation he swung through the door. He scanned the fluorescent bathed shelves in front of him. Surely he could find something in here to take his mind off lack of sleep?
Rows of 'Hello Kitty' notebooks and pink stationary stared back at him. He turned around to face the magazine rack. Porn...porn...porn...'Shonen Jump'...porn...'Get Beckham' (ooh! Soccer!)...porn...sigh...he didn't really feel like partaking of reading material (or pictures either) at the moment....
He moved on to the refrigerated isle.
Wow! I never really realized how many brands of tea there are...26..27..28...gah, I need to stop counting things!
Suddenly he was confronted with the liquor section. "Hmmmm..." an idea began to form.
Yohji is always praising the virtues of alcohol for combating insomnia.... Ken mused.
"Eh, what the hell," he shrugged, and made up his mind to try Yohji's theory out.
But what kind to get?
Ken was more of a social drinker--a Sapporo with Yohji, some sake at dinner- -it wasn't typical for him to go out and obtain the stuff himself.
Hmmm....
Beer was sort of boring...he had sake all the time....
He didn't really want any hard stuff at this ungodly hour.....
His eyes fell to rest upon the rows of Chu-hi.
Bright, friendly looking cans adorned with cartoonish writing and pictures of fruit looked back at him enticingly.
"That looks sort of interesting."
But the question of 'what kind to get?' still remained.... there were so many types!
Well, he'd always liked grapefruit...but lemon and lime were almost as good...though he'd never had strawberry alcohol either, and there was also grape, peach, orange, ume, lychee, and hana....
Hana?! Wow, there's flower-flavored drinks?! What the hell does a flower taste like anyway?! Well, in honor of working at a flower shop, that one had to be tried for sure.
But the other kinds all sounded good too... and there were different brands! Suntory or Takara? Merican or Kirin or Asahi? 350 ml or 500?!
In a moment of indecisive compulsion, Ken grabbed a can of each. Then, after a moment's thought, he grabbed a second can of the hana, just for good measure.
He then paused to glance down at his shopping basket full of aluminum cans.
Yipes, I don't want the cashier to think I'm an alcoholic loser...I ought to get something else as well.
He walked over to the snack food isle.
"There we go!" he exclaimed as he picked up a Choco egg. "I definitely look like the type of guy who desperately needs the next installment of...."
He raised an eyebrow at the picture of a smiling poodle on the box,
"...the domestic pet miniature figurine series."
"Not a lame-ass drunk," he reassured himself.
The cashier barely even seemed to notice the fact that Ken had just rung up 3800 yen worth of booze at five O'clock in the morning, nor the apparent wrongness of making such a purchase from a place called 'Family Mart.'
Ken sat sprawled on his bedroom floor, his recent purchases splayed in front of him. He started out with the Choco egg, breaking it in half and pulling out the plastic capsule hidden within. He opened the capsule to reveal a jumble of unidentifiable plastic pieces.
This doesn't look like a 'domestic pet miniature figurine'!
Aw crap! 'Some assembly required.'
After several minutes of accidentally jamming parts into incorrect slots, he finally held up the completed figurine.
It was a cat. A small, ruddy brown cat, which looked exceptionally pissed off.
"Ha ha!" Ken giggled at the expression on the cat's little plastic face. "I'll name you 'Abyssinian.'"
He set the cat gently on the floor, and reached for the nearest can on Chu- hi.
A/N: Chu-hi is a fruit flavored carbonated alcohol, sort of like 'hard lemonade' but in a lot more flavors. It's basically alcoholic soda. I left the original Japanese names of the following flavors (mainly because they didn't sound right to me translated): Ume (plum), Hana (flower).