Like A Family

'Installment Two'

-Ryoma, Ryoga, and Rinko -

"Do we have to wait 'till Chibisuke wakes up?"

"He'll be awake soon enough. Can't you hear the shower running upstairs?"

Ryoga grumbled something under his breath and stared at his bowl of cereal. This was why he hated the ritual of waiting until everyone was at the table to eat. His breakfast was beckoning him, his stomach rumbled, and the cereal was getting soggy – but no, he had to wait for the insolent little brat to awake. His father had already left early, so Ryoga didn't see why he had to eat with Ryoma when Nanjiroh didn't.

"Kaa-san, the cereal's getting soggy," Ryoga complained. "And you know how Chibisuke is. He takes like two hours in the shower."

Rinko smiled from her place by the sink. "Just wait, dear. And I know Ryoma has a habit of taking too long in the shower. I'll talk to him about it when he comes downstairs."

"Hmph." Ryoga poked his spoon around the bowl. "You shouldn't just talk to him about it, you should seriously punish him. I'm not joking. I've heard you and Oyaji complaining about the water bills."

Rinko laughed heartily. "I should punish Ryoma for taking too long in the shower?"

"He's wasting water, the environment, and our money!"

Before Rinko could reply, the conversation was intercepted by none other than Ryoma himself. "Good morning." He yawned, walking in dressed in a shirt and black shorts, his hair damp from the shower. He pulled out his chair and slid into his seat beside Ryoga, eyes drooping tiredly. He simply wasn't a morning person.

"Good morning," Ryoga mimicked in a high-pitched voice. He growled, "How dare you sound so innocent when you've just made me starve for the past hour-"

"You were not starving," Rinko gently cut in.

"I was." Ryoga shot back, still glaring at Ryoma.

Ryoma looked at him wearily. "What did I do?"

"Did you just not hear what I said?!"

"No. Now shut up, you're too loud for the morning."

"Morning," Ryoga sneered. "Try afternoon."

Rinko rolled her eyes as her sons bickered amongst each other. She truly didn't understand the point of arguing about such pointless things, but apparently they found it sensible. And, of course, Ryoga usually started the fight, which was a little sad because Ryoma was years younger than him yet acted more mature. Then again, Ryoma did provoke Ryoga quite a bit. That reminds me, the water bills are a little too high lately.

"Ryoma," Rinko said as she placed his bowl of cereal down in front of him. "Ryoga actually has a point."

Ryoma looked up lazily. "It's the weekend. You can't expect me to wake up early."

"No, not about waking up. But your showers. You spend hours doing who knows what in there."

A loud cackle emitted from Ryoga who was laughing in triumph. "Yeah, what do you do in there?"

Ryoma blinked at both his mother and his idiotic brother. "I shower," he said slowly, as if speaking to five-year olds.

"For too long," Ryoga countered.

Rinko nodded. "I'm afraid Ryoga's right on this one."

Ryoma just frowned and averted his eyes to the window. It was just the worst way to start off his day – with Ryoga and his mother complaining about the fact that he took too long in the shower. His precious showers. He loved them – the hot water felt so good after waking up in the morning, and the smell of shampoo and soap was so enticing. Not to mention, he could stand there and let the water run over him for hours while thinking of ways to beat his father in tennis.

This was seriously unfair.

"I don't care," Ryoma scoffed. "I can take as long as I want."

Rinko sighed as Ryoma's stubborn streak took over. There wasn't any point in arguing with him at the moment. She would just have to turn on the laundry at the same time Ryoma was in the shower so he got hit with cold water instead of warm water. He would surely end his shower quicker then. As Rinko went to turn on the sink again, she noticed two envelopes sitting on the counter. Her eyes lit up in recognition.

"Oh, that's right!" She said, taking the two envelopes in between her fingers. She smiled widely at her two boys. "Report cards for semester one came in the mail last night."

There was a moment of silence, in which Ryoga went pale. Well, shit, he thought. I'm screwed. He glanced hesitantly beside him where Ryoma was smirking, suddenly in a startlingly brighter mood. The gold in his pupils danced with amusement and his frown had disappeared. Gaah, lucky Chibisuke. He always gets such good marks.

"Wait- so have you already looked at the report cards?" Ryoga asked sheepishly.

"Of course not," Rinko shook her head. "You know we always wait until you two are here when we open them. Too bad your father already left to do who knows what, so we'll just open them without him."

"But, we – we shouldn't do that," Ryoga sputtered. "We should totally wait for Oyaji to come. Let's postpone this, shall we? How 'bout next week?"

Rinko sighed. "No, Ryoga, we'll be opening them today."

Ryoma smirked at his brother. "Yeah, nii-san, why wait?"

"Why you little-"

"Okay!" Rinko cut in before they could continue arguing. She looked at the first envelope which had Ryoga's name spelled on the front. "Let's start with the oldest, hmm? Ryoga?"

Ryoga slumped in his chair and resigned to his fate of death. He knew it was partially his fault – he understood the work, he just never bothered to really try. He had better things to do, like tennis and playing his guitar and eating oranges. He didn't need to master the art of essays if he was going to be a tennis player, rock star, or work on an orange farm. In Ryoga's opinion, report cards were pointless. All they did was make Ryoma even more cockier than he already was.

"Alright," Rinko said as she unfolded the papers. "I'll just read the percent written on the sides, okay? We can go over the written part and subjects and whatnot after."

"Go ahead," Ryoga sighed. Here goes nothing.

"So," Rinko cleared her throat. "An 85-" she paused, scanned the list, widened her eyes, and then re-cleared her throat. "Sorry. An 85, 96, 98, 88…"

Ryoma choked on his cereal.

Ryoga nearly choked too, but from happiness. This is…how? I didn't even hand in one of my big assignment that was like worth so much….

"…97, 86…"

It must have been my charm and handsome looks that made the teachers give me good marks. Yup, that must be it. Thank god for good genes.

Recovering from his shock, Ryoga grinned at his little brother who looked like he'd lost his appetite to eat. "See that, Chibisuke? I bet you won't do better than me this year."

Ryoma frowned uncertainly. "I get good marks too…"

After finishing reading off the marks, Rinko put down the envelope with exhilaration. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled with joy. "I'm so glad," she said, "You finally decided to work hard your senior year and pull up those marks. These grades are incredible Ryoga. We'll definitely give you a little treat, afterwards."

"Thanks, kaa-san." Ryoga beamed.

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Tch."

"Now, for Ryoma," Rinko opened up the second envelope. She didn't sound worried at all this time. "I know you always do well, so this shouldn't be a problem…"

She smiled and started to read, and her voice got less and less pleased as she did so. "60, 55, 71, 66, 64…"

The colour drained from Ryoma's face, and he quickly became panicky. How is this possible? I aced every single test. There's no way – unless…they can't take off marks because I sleep in class, can they? No, they shouldn't be allowed! I just get sleepy!

"42, 69…"

Ryoga was in bliss. He threw streamers (Ryoma had no idea how he had steamers in the first place), and sprinkled them all over the table. "Miracles do happen," he sang to himself, throwing more colourful streamers all over the place. "This is the best day of my life, to surpass Chibisuke in academics…Miracles…"

Ryoma felt sick. This didn't make sense.

"55…67…." Rinko closed the paper. "I'm sorry, I can't read this anymore."

"Kaa-san-" Ryoma started.

She frowned at him, her eyes disappointed. "I would have never expected this from you. Ryoga worked hard and decided to pull his grades up for the better, and you decided to slack off and get such horrid marks. This is unacceptable. It must be the tennis getting to your head."

Ryoma's eyes widened. "You wouldn't."

Rinko should her head sadly. "No tennis for a month, Ryoma."

"This is so awesome." Ryoga cried. He whipped his head towards his little brother. "Now you shall suffer like I did with long days of no tennis." He patted Ryoma's back. "Don't worry, I don't feel sorry for you at all."

Ryoma looked like he was actually going to die. Or throw a tantrum. "No." he said. He stood up and marched over to his mother, snatched the report card from her hands. "Let me see this," he murmured, glancing over at the sheet.

As he surveyed it, a smile of relief spread across his face, a smug grin accompanying it.

"Kaa-san," he said innocently. "I think you misread. See the very top of the report card where our names are? This one, with all the really bad marks…it says Ryoga."

Ryoga stopped throwing streamers. "Huh?"

Rinko stared at her twelve-year old son. She grabbed the report card and read the top. Her eyes widened. "You're right…" she murmured. She glanced at the one with the high grades and saw Ryoma's name in fine print at the very top. "And your grades are the high ones, Ryoma…"

"No…that can't be…" Ryoga said, eyes wide.

"It can." Ryoma smirked haughtily.

"But you said it was mine." Ryoga protested.

Rinko nodded absentmindedly, still staring at the report cards in her hands. "It did say Ryoga's name on the front of Ryoma's envelope, but they must have mixed up the names. After all, both of you have similar first names, so it is plausible. Besides, this all makes much more sense."

"Much more sense," Ryoma agreed.

"Hey!" Ryoga said.

Rinko sighed and placed the two report cards back on the table. On one hand, she was upset that Ryoga had once again decided to slack off and get bad grades. It wasn't that Ryoga wasn't capable of getting good grades; he just didn't bother to put in any effort. However, she was beyond relieved that Ryoma was still keeping up his excellent performance.

"So, Ryoga, unfortunately for you," Rinko shrugged sympathetically. "No tennis for a month."

Ryoga's face fell and he slumped in his chair. "This is so unfair."

"It's perfectly fair." Ryoma said. "Have fun with your tennis-less month, nii-san."

"Ugh, Chibisuke, sometimes I just want to-"

Rinko interrupted them. "Hold on. Ryoma's not getting off that easy. This morning, I got a phone call from your English teacher stating that you've been sleeping through his classes every day of the week."

Ryoma froze.

"This is unacceptable. No tennis for a month for you as well."

And Ryoga started to throw streamers again. "Miracles do happen!"

I swear, I don't even know what that was. This is like…my fail attempt at humour or something. It's based on a scenario I daydreamed, which is why the banner throwing makes no sense. Because my daydreams make no sense. But you know, it was modified to make it more…postable. Anyway, feel free to leave a review!