A/N -bows frantically fifteen times- SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY. It's NOT "tomorrow or the day after", I know, but GAWD this took me forever! And it's not even THAT long...longer than my one-shots, but stiiiiill. -feels bad- Sorry this took me so long though! I have seveeeeeeeere focus problems...I kept getting distracted. BUT IT'S UP NOW! Now I can work on chapter 2! Check back soon for updates! Check my notes for warnings...though I must say, this one had lots of F-bombs in them. And no, I don't mean "feet."

-Masi

Kazu jerked awake as he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. Blinking the sleep quickly from his eyes, the Jet looked around, mildly startled. His hat was lying in his arms, where his head had been moments before, and Ikki was looking pointedly at him. Kazu looked up at the front of the classroom, and saw Ton-chan looking very flustered as she wrote on the chalkboard; she had dropped the chalk, and was afraid that when she bent over, the boys in the class would take advantage of her.

Kazu sighed, relieved that Ikki has woken him up before the teacher had noticed. He looked behind him for the object that had woken him up, and realized why it had hurt so much. Ikki had thrown a freaking rock. A large, roughly shaped rock, about an inch wide. He shot a glare at the Crow, who was chuckling madly like a little kid.

As soon as the bell rang, Kazu shot out of his desk to the door, racing the other members of Kogarasumaru, all of whom were closer to the door than the blonde. Ikki did a quick flip and landed squarely in front of the door precisely at the same time as Kazu, followed by Akito, Onigiri, and Buccha shortly after. Emiri skated up slowly, still new to AT's and blushing furiously as she saw Kazu.

Ikki smirked, and evil glint in his eyes as the team reached the track. The Jet sighed, knowing he had a new training plan. The team leader was constantly changing the practices, and though the Crow said that he was trying to improve the team as a whole, he never practiced. Whenever any of the other team members pointed this out, he'd just reply with a simple, "I don't need to practice, I'm a god, remember?" Or he simply stated that he was a genius, either one.

Ikki looked at the track, probably calculating just how much he could make the team practice without them passing out before his plan came into action. "Twenty laps for warm up," he stated simply, and Emiri's head fell a little; she still wasn't very good at skating long distances. The rest of the team sighed and nodded, except for Akito, who had his look of pure glee still plastered on his face, as usual. Kazu blinked; that was simple enough.

The team set off on the track, with Ikki in the lead. The Crow was showing off again, pulling off little flips and spinning in the air. As he landed, a little twist on his front wheel, he skated ahead of the rest, eyeing the crowd of girls that always stared at the practicing team on their way home. A few of them clapped, while other's whispered to their friends. Ikki grinned and Kazu sighed again; it was so easy for the Crow to get attention, the boy seemed like a girl magnet…but also a magnet for trouble. Kazu looked warily at his arms, with faint scars showing up on his pale skin as he ran.

With his mind distracted, the Jet went into his form of auto-pilot, and his pace quickened. He ended up right next to Ikki, who jumped a foot when the Jet appeared so abruptly and silently.

"Geez, Kazu, stop fucking doing that!"

"Huh?" The blonde was blinked out of his reverie, distracted by the Crow's accusations.

"Stop sneaking up on me like that!" Ikki said hotly.

Kazu just scowled. "I didn't mean to, I just wasn't really paying attention. And who're YOU to talk?" Kazu shook his head. "You're the one who always just APPEARS in my house, uninvited."

Ikki shrugged at Kazu, who sighed. The blonde gave up and continued skating on silently, thin legs moving smoothly, matching the Crow's pace perfectly. However, as the Jet's mind began to wander again, his legs sped up, moving with more and more powerful strokes against the soft pavement. When the blonde was finally aware of his movements again, he was nearly back to Ikki's position on the track. He blinked. Had he really…?

Ikki spun around, facing the Jet. The annoyed look in his face made Kazu flinch. "Kazu," the Crow said sharply. "Do you EVER pay attention while you skate?"

Kazu nodded, relieved. He had thought Ikki had been mad about something less obvious. "I pay attention when I sprint," he said plainly.

Hit team leader just looked at him with a stumped expression on his face. "You WERE just sprinting."

Kazu shook his head. "No, I wasn't." He stopped skating when he reached the Crow. "You want to see me sprint?"

Ikki frowned. "Fine."

Kazu just found a line on the track and crouched into his track start. The boy inhaled sharply, and pressed down hard on his front leg. The motors in his right AT started moving, and he shifted his weight, leaning forward, bringing his other foot forward. It was all just speed from then on. The blonde pressed down on his AT's, legs moving swiftly, pressing the air out from between his lips, mouth half-closed.

He felt the Crow's skeptical eyes on him during his entire sprint, until his skid to a stop a few feet farther that where Ikki was. Ikki just blinked at him.

"Wait, what?" Ikki had a look of puzzlement on his face. "Kazu, how many laps was that?"

Kazu counted them in his head. "Uh…three. Why?"

Ikki frowned. "I only saw two." The Crow scratched the back of his neck for a moment. Then a look of comprehension crossed his face, followed by a look of pure amazement. Kazu watched the show of faces curiously. Ikki stared at Kazu for a moment, before saying quietly, "I blinked. I missed a lap from a blink!"

Kazu just looked at him blankly. "So what?" the blonde inquired, confused. "It's not that special, I mean…"

Ikki just looked at him, a look of incredulity on his face. Kazu trailed off, puzzled. It wasn't that special, was it? Ikki could go that fast too, if he tried…right?

The Crow answered his question as if he read Kazu's mind. "I don't know about any other riders that could do that, except maybe Iron and Spitfire…" he shook his head at the Jet. "Seriously, Man? 'Not that special'…?"

The other members of Kogarasumaru appeared behind the two suddenly, Agito looking sour, and the others panting slightly. Ikki smiled devilishly when they showed up, the two boys' previous confusion forgotten. The team leader just looked around at the team with a look of glee only a child could posses when presented with a new toy. He grinned and motioned for the others to follow him, skating off school grounds.

The team following grudgingly, they came to a halt in front of a small house, with a large backyard. Emiri blinked several times before looking at Ikki with confusion. "Yayoi's house?"

Ikki nodded fervently. "Her uncle just sent her something, and she said I could borrow it for team practice," he said triumphantly. Kazu shook his head. It must have taken a bribe from the Crow to get Yayoi to cooperate with him. They followed the Crow to the backyard, where an exasperated Yayoi was waiting for them, leaning on a gigantic trampoline.

Ikki's eyes widened when he saw the trampoline, and he jumped up happily, kicking off his skates in the air. Kazu and Onigiri shook their heads; it was like Ikki was a five-year-old again. The Crow bounced around for a moment, then looked at Yayoi. "Hey, Nakayama, how many people did you say can come on here at once?"

"Five."

Ikki grinned. "Good," he looked at them team, and tilted his head for them all to come on. "Hey, wait, Buccha…No offense, but…" The older rider just sighed and nodded at the Crow, and sat down on the grass.

Ikki spun around, his socks moving smoothly on the black weave. He looked around at his team. "You guy's know what a double bounce is?" They all nodded, except for Agito. Ikki grinned cheekily. He knew that the Shark just didn't want to reply, but he felt like making fun of the boy anyway. "It's when people bounce at the same time, but one's off by less than a second, Agito. Then that person goes higher."

Agito just glared at Ikki. "Fuck, I knew that."

Ikki chuckled. Turning his attention back to all of the team, he announced, "If any of you guys get a double bounce, use it to practice was flip or spin. Now, bounce away." The team just looked at Ikki, dumbfounded, and Ikki just looked back at them, face completely serious.

Agito swore. "Just jump? Fuck, that's useless!"

Ikki glared at the shark. "Useless? Fine, I'll show you. Everyone, off the trampoline, except Kazu."

Kazu blinked. "Why me?"

Ikki chuckled. "'Cause you're the least whiney. Now jump."

Kazu huffed and slowly jumped with Ikki's rhythm. Well, I feel like an idiot, he though, exasperated. Why hadn't the Crow just flipped Agito's eye patch over to the right? Akito would obviously have been overjoyed to…

Suddenly, Kazu's feet skipped a beat when the mesh beneath him hardly provided any rebound. The Crow had stolen Kazu's jump and double bounced, and as soon as his feet left the mesh, Ikki had twisted his body to the left and spun his legs up. His torso soon lower than his legs, he spun into a somersault and landed with his feet planted facing Kazu directly.

But as soon as the Crow landed, the blonde's balance on the trampoline caused and incline, and Ikki's landing resulted in another jump; another jump straight at the unsuspecting blonde. Kazu tried to jump to the left, but Ikki accidentally landed on top of the smaller Jet and pinned him down.

Ikki quickly scrambled off of the smaller rider, face looking awkwardly embarrassed. "Sorry, Man, the trampoline just…" he trailed off, looking more embarrassed at not being able to explain his sudden lunge at the blonde.

"Wha- It's fine!" Kazu said hurriedly, face flushing. It's not like Ikki meant to suddenly jump me… Kazu shook is head. "You okay?"

Ikki nodded fervently. "I'm fine, but I wasn't the one who got smashed. You good?"

Kazu nodded, and the two suddenly became aware or Buccha and Onigiri rolling in the grass with laughter, Yayoi giggling, and Emiri looking mildly put off. Kazu hurriedly flipped off trampoline with his left hand on the edge.

The Jet sighed and thought of a quick excuse. "I have to go, my sister's leaving to her friend's house for the week, and I want to make her dinner tonight." Kazu wasn't lieing exactly…His sister actually was going away for a week, and this was a good excuse to get away from everyone laughing. Though, he definitely wasn't making dinner.

Ikki shrugged. "Yeah, whatever." The Crow turned to the rest of the team and threw another rock at the boys. Kazu blinked. Where the hell does he keep getting rocks? Kazu peered at Ikki's pocket on the boy's left side. Of course. It was bulging with what were now obviously rocks. The blonde shook his head and skated quickly home.

Pulling off his sweatshirt, Kazu kicked off his skates and flopped down on the couch with a huff. He didn't know whether it was just him or not, but the day had seemed extremely long. The blonde sighed and closed his eyes, letting his head rest back on the couch. He heard his sister open the door and she sighed heavily.

Kazu opened one eye. "What?"

His sister shook her head and threw Kazu's sweatshirt at him. "Stop throwing your clothes everywhere, please? I don't want to come home to this kind of mess."

Kazu just shut his eyes again and used his shirt as a pillow. It smelled different today…better. Maybe his sister had used a different soap on it, but it didn't smell like soap. It had more of a woodsy smell, like oak and musk. The blonde shrugged to himself and buried his face further into the fabric, letting himself drift off. Either way, his sweatshirt smelled better. The blonde swore loudly when his sister threw both of his AT's at the half-asleep rider.

Eh, sorry if the ending was a bit jerky, I wasn't planning on ending that way, but then I realized that I didn't HAVE an ending...so yeah. And if you don't get the thing with the sweatshirt...then you're weird. Sorry! I couldn't think of another scent, so I ended up using the one in Crimson Vixen's Folly and Sin. If you havne't read it, then what are you doing reading this?? READ FaS NOW, WINGNUT!

-Masi again. ..