Characters : Hyoryu Kiri, Ice Blade Joker

Warning : OOC-ness, lame pun is lame, headcanons, OOC-ness (this is important)

A short fic about Kiri and what he's been doing during the Gaen Cup. That kid keeps disappearing, and no one in the anime seemed to care where he is or how he is doing. Everyone (including bushi) is just too preoccupied with Tasuku (that jerk) even though there are other characters who also have problems.
Writing Joker is hard. I'm not good with pun and I feel like Ikutsuki (a character in SMT Persona 3 who's known for his lame jokes).

This might be a multi-chapters/parts but the parts would only be loosely connected to one another.

Thanks for reading :D

"What are you doing?"

It was a hot, humid day, just right around noon when the sun was the harshest. It was also the time of day when kids should be in the classroom, studying. But not your partner, who was sitting in the shade of a tree in the park roasted by the godforsaken sun. He had a book propped on his knees and a pencil on his hand, and another book opened on the ground next to him. Occasionally he would look at that book before resuming writing.

Settled in the safety of the thick leaves, the heat was slightly more bearable, and you could peer down at him and see what he was writing. Numbers here and there, formulas and equation, and you saw tiny number soldiers in a war on paper, alive with him as the god. He answered without looking up.

"Homework."

It dawned on you of the last time he went to school and the last time he sat in the classroom like ordinary students did, and it felt ages ago, only it was merely 2 weeks before.

"You still go to school?"

"Of course," He fished a stubby eraser out of the pencil case and erased his newest formula. "I have to."

"Because your old man said so?" That question was just a decoy, you knew that it wouldn't be the case. But you were itching to know whether or not his father was concerned. Ordinary parents would be worried or at least demand explanation about their kid's absence from school, wouldn't they?

He didn't even pause from his writing. "No, father said as long as I kept my grades stable, he didn't mind me skipping school for several days. He seems to know that I have a problem.

…..Just this once, though."

Screw several days, it was two weeks, and shouldn't school be making the call right then?

"Wouldn't they ask questions? Your school," You carefully lay down on the thick branch which had been your sitting spot, trying to get yourself comfortable. He would stay long here, it seemed, and the heat had zapped the energy out of you. "Like, you know, where you been, why you didn't come to class, etc."

"It seems that Kabbala called them and said I was out for some business with my family, and he told my father that I was with friends," He turned to look at the book on the ground and flipped the page. "And no one cared or had time enough to confirm, so there was no question."

You had expected his voice to slip in the end, like skater across the frozen lake, but it did not. His voice stayed level. You wondered if it was because he couldn't care anymore, or he was trying to shun that weak, whiny part of him, that child part.

"You sure are cool about it," Your inability to perspire in this heat was both a blessing and an inconvenience, because who knows if sweating would also mean melting to you, but at the same time the heat would have no way to get out and it had started getting to your head. "Hey, can't you whip out a Fimbulwinter or something here? It's hot."

"I can't, it would get people into a panic," Now he sounded faintly amused. His head didn't move and you could only see the crown of his hair, but you would bet that he had that glint in his eyes like that time when he declared his final turn in the first battle with that sun kid. You knew that there must be a part of him that was wild enough to consider doing that. He had never truly recovered from the influence of that dark core and neither had you from the mind control, but you guessed it was fine because a too straight world was never fun.

"Oh come on, people would think it's another surprise from that Gaen Kyoya, and don't tell me you don't want to try," He'd been working on those numbers for quite a while now, so you thought the kid would need a break. "It would be coolld!" And now you cackled because of your own pun. The kid barely moved though. He was such an ice block, and that was another good pun. You needed to stop with that, really.

"Not in the public place," But now there was a lift in his tone like ripple on water. It was much better than the flat, uninterested one he'd been speaking in earlier. Flat ice was good for ice-skating, but you never liked it all that much. It was slippery and prone of breaking too. "I don't want to cause a ruckus."

"You'd already caused one, what's the matter with another?" He knew what you were talking about and fell silent again. You knew the reason for it but you didn't take it back or as much as regretted it. You liked ice, heck, you were Ice Blade Joker, but you also liked breaking the ice, watching it shatter into pieces and swung water drops everywhere and created a brilliant iridescence as they caught the light of the sun.

As for the kid, he liked keeping things in the ice, freezing them solid and untouchable so no matter what, people couldn't get close and wouldn't know those feelings trapped inside, the feelings that made him do what he'd done.

Wow, you'd said something pretty poetic.

"But really, do something…." This heat was far from a good condition to have a serious talk. You wouldn't be surprised if you melted right then and there into water and rained down on the kid and his precious homework. "Aren't you- egh, what!?"

There was something on your shoulder, furry and warm and certainly was not appreciated. "What are you doing here, cat?! Shoo! Shoo!"

"Joker?" The kid pulled himself slightly from his spot and looked up at you, sheltering his eyes from the glare of the sun with his hand.

The cat seemed to have taken a liking to you, much to your chagrin. You tried to pry it off without slicing it in half with your hands, but it persisted, looking like it was really enjoying the thrill of being swung around on your shoulder. Your prying turned to flailing that you didn't even notice the kid climbing the tree up to you.

"What are you- oh,"

"Get it off of me!" You didn't almost knock the kid off the tree, and you certainly were not shrieking.

"Stop moving for a sec so I could do something about it!"

Slipping beneath your frozen-in-air (oh, what a pun) hand, he extended his hands and gently pry the cat from its death grip on you and pulled it to his chest. You let yourself breathe a sigh of relief as they settled on the branch in front of you. That little monster was acting all innocent now, purring contentedly as the kid stroked the fur on its head down to its curved back. The kid himself had a very faint smile on his lips, barely noticeable.

"I didn't know you're afraid of cats,"

"Of course not! I'm not scared of them, but I don't like them. They're monsters!" You jumped to your own defense. "I don't like animals in general, but cats are such fearful creatures. They can scratch you and leave hair all over you and cause allergy and still act very innocently about it!" You didn't see why earth people were so charmed by that tiny monster.

"You are scared," His tone was trembling slightly with laughter now and as if responding to it, the cat started purring affectionately. You narrowed your eyes at it, but you were not born with expressive eyes so they went ignored. "Don't worry, it won't scratch you as long as you don't make it angry or feel threatened."

"Don't matter to me," You declared with a tone of finality and tried to ease back to the trunk, the adrenaline slowly leaving you.

Both of you sat like that for a while, without words, and you were still aware of the heat and of the little monster, but also of the way the knots that had been keeping the kid's face taut loosened, and of his bluish fingernails that had taken a healthier shade of red. Also, when you were still like that, you could feel the slight, rare breeze that blew past and maybe you weren't so much in danger of melting anymore.

Then he snapped out of the reverie and swung his legs over so they were dangling on the edge as he released the cat onto another branch.

"I'll get something to drink," He announced and hopped back down onto the ground, the impact blew his hair from his face and showed his other eye momentarily.

"Woo-hoo! A freezing one, I hope!" You descended from the tree as he collected his books and writing tools. "Now that's what I'll call a chilly offer!"

"You never got tired of your pun, do you?" You spotted another hint of a smile, as faint as the one earlier. For some reason, you felt satisfied and oddly victorious. But the kid smiled, hint or not, and that was an achievement.

"I'm Joker, what do you expect?"

"True,"

He kept that ghost of a smile the rest of the way to the vending machine.

I'm still learning about metaphor so please pardon the lameness of them in here, but just in case here are some explanations :

Flat ice was good for ice-skating, but you never liked it all that much. It was slippery and prone of breaking too. : Trying to suppress everything in and acting like they don't matter make someone more fragile without them realizing. They can slip and break anytime, given enough force.

But you also liked breaking the ice, watching it shatter into pieces and swung water drops everywhere and created a brilliant iridescence as they caught the light of the sun. : Breaking means finally being honest, and that's a good thing. I'm quoting a song I know that "It's beautiful to break, let your false flag drift away."