"Mr. Klein!"

The short brunette shook his head and glared at the bright blond haired Oak. He hated when his friend did that, but it seemed the only way to get him to stop spacing out.

"Oh cut him some slack," his pink friend scolded their tutor, hitting him lightly with their packet their teacher had given them. From the glimpse he managed to catch of it, she also had yet to get far in their work. It wasn't all that surprising though. Math wasn't particularly her favorite, even if she was really good at it.

Teito rubbed his temples as Hakuren explained their assignment again, "Got it. But hey, where is Mikage?"

Ouka glanced around the shop. Few people were there since most of them came in and left nearly as quick, but a few remained. Of those, they could recognize some faces from their school as the uniform gave them away. Button up shirts and ankle length pants in black with gold rims on each. There was also the same shirt only with a knee length skirt for those who rather wear those over the pants, as Ouka herself wore.

Aside from them, they could see a few college students stopping by with quick paced chatter. Though what caught Oukas' attention was a familiar mischievous gleaming eyed boy who just walked in waving.

"Mikage," she exclaimed and hopped up to greet him, staring at the tall blond with him, "Who's your friend?" She tilted her head and smiled, holding out a hand to shake the mans hand even though he was about two heads taller than she.

Teito glanced over scowling at Mikage, "You're late. Again."

The boy sheepishly shrugged and Frau reached pass him to take Ouka's hand, kissing it while winking to her, "Frau. Pleasure to meet you miss."

"O-oh," she blushed and retracted her had quickly, "I'm Ouka. That brunette over there is Teito and the long hair one is Hakuren." She scuttled back to them and whispered something to Hakuren who in turn blushed. Coughing to clear his throat he waved Mikage over and motioned him to sit.

The two split ways and Mikage sat beside Teito who watched Frau walk to the other side of the shop, intense judging burning in his gaze. Frau seemed to not notice as he was too busy getting hit with a book by a man in glasses while the lavender haired person beside them giggled, nudging the other with what seemed to be a brief chastising for their behaviors in public.

Mikage seemed to argue with Hakuren over just copying his work to which he was reminded last time they did that they had immediately been caught and given triple homework for it. After a couple more protest the boy sat down with a dramatic sigh, "Fine fine. Let's get on with it then."

A couple hours passed and Hakuren had managed to get them all on the same page, though Teito soon got ahead again and finished first.

"Woooooow! You work fast!"

"Not everyone tries to get sidetracked," said boy remarked with a scoff and turned the page of his history book.

Mikage pouted for a few moments, but eventually perked back up with gaze locked behind Teito. Naturally the curiosity made the grouchy brunette look that way too.

Sure enough there was Frau leaning on the wall beside them, "High school sucks doesn't it," cocky wide grin making him seem more irritating than when Teito first saw him, "But you're probably gonna be out soon. 'Cept maybe that brat, pretty sure he looks like a freshman." Blatantly gesturing his hand at Teito, who moved to bite it off, before pulling away.

"He's actually in the same grade as us," responded Hakuren as he flipped a page of their work, "You got that wrong Mikage."

"Really," he hovered and stared, "I swear I copied that off your page."

Frau chuckled at that, "What'd I tell you kid? Don't let them catch y-OW!"

"Stop teaching others bad habits."

Teito scooted a little to see pass Frau and noticed the two he had been speaking to earlier had come up beside him. The man with glasses smiled a creepy closed eye smile to the group now staring at the three elder men curiously, "I apologies for that. Don't listen to this idiot, he doesn't realize the value of hard work."

"Castor," the soft voice beside him chimed in and said man looked to him, "What did I say about behaving in public? Two wrongs don't make a right."

"Ah-" Castor started but immediately seemed to go breathless, "Right. Sorry Lab."

Now it was Frau's turn to chuckle, "Man he's got you whipped!" Castor's hand shook against the urge to hit him again until the one named Lab wrapped a hand around his arm which seemed to snap the other out of his irritated trance.

"Aw come on Lab," Frau pouted now as purple stared intensely into the blue until he saw a flicker of guilt, "Sorry Cas," he grumbled and moved to walk away. Castor following him and reaching the door where both left and disappeared around a corner.

Lab remained for a moment and readjusted his loose t-shirt with a tree in the center, "I'm sorry about them. They can't seem to stop arguing for two seconds."

"That's okay," Hakuren nodded and glanced at the door, "Are they going to be alright alone?"

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine," Lab smiled gently and nodded his head slightly, "I'm Labrador by the way. You must be students at Barsburg High, right?"

Ouka giggled, "Yes, my dad is the principal there."

Labrador seemed slightly shocked by this but immediately chuckled a little himself, "I see. We went there too in high school. Frau and Castor graduated the other year and I did a year before them. If you ever need some help just let us know, Mikage there has Frau's number."

"Thank you sir! Oh! I'm Ouka, that is Hakuren, and he is Teito."

"Ah, I see. Well it was nice to meet you all, but I have to catch up with them now so goodbye," he waved and headed for the door, quickly hurrying off in the direction the other two had gone.

Teito watched as he too disappeared and turned to Mikage with a raised brow of wonder. His childhood friend twirled his pencil and shrugged, "I met Frau in a gym class," he explained and resumed fixing the answer that Hakuren had gotten wrong.

The group remained like that for a little while until the shop was getting ready to close. The four waved to each other and headed off separate ways. Teito kept his stare fixated on the ground until he reached home and pushed open the door of the small apartment, "I'm back Mom."

She instantly poked her head out from the kitchen and smiled, "How was school?"

"Fine," he responded and hurried into the kitchen, leading his mother to a seat, "You shouldn't overwork yourself." He quickly went to finish the dinner she had begun and brought them each a plate, setting them down and nibbling his own.

"It's okay dear, I feel fine. You know, you're as sweet as your father. He would always worry about me and insist on taking care of everything even though he worked so hard at his job everyday." She smiled slightly and wiped away the tears forming, hoping Teito wouldn't see but he did and wished there was something he could do to bring back that man they loved so much.

He finished eating after she did and took the dishes, cleaning everything up and making sure she wasn't going to start coughing. She had gotten severely ill before his father had passed so the two made sure she didn't overwork herself, but after he was gone she had begun to work even harder to take care of her son and often became ill from the stress and previous illness having weakened her body.

There was not much he could do except try his best to make sure she didn't overdo it. Soon he would be out of high school though and then he could get a job to help his mother out...

Teito woke up earlier than normal the next day and headed to school, it was only Wednesday and he couldn't wait for the week to end already. Oddly enough Hakuren wasn't in the library that morning, so he proceeded to wait out the morning until class re-reading the history lesson for the previous day. It crossed his mind when the math work fell out of his book.

"That guy was an ass..."

"You mean Frau?"

"HOLY SH-" Teito jumped and glared around at Hakuren, "What-"

"I always come here, remember? Later than usual today since turned out Mikage needed a ride since he overslept and Shuri refused to wait for him. But yes, Mikage has an interesting choice of friends."

Teito fixed his eyes on Hakuren who ignored him and sat across the table, pulling a book from his bag. Teito sighed and slumped at the table, flicking through his own book until they had to part ways for class. Yet another dull morning it seemed.