Chapter 6

Netto was a zombie the next day. He stumbled out of bed and blankly ignored Saito's frantic attempts to help him get dressed. Netto yawned his way through breakfast and with Saito pulling him around Netto could close his eyes and just follow along.

Saito ran out to meet Meiru, pulling Netto along behind him.

"Sorry!" he huffed. He felt hot and his heart was pounding in his chest from the everything he had to do that morning. Maybe he should have just left Netto in bed and gone to school without him.

Meiru waved her hand in front of Netto's face. "Netto?"

Netto yawned a muffled 'morning'.

"What happened?" Meiru said as they started walking towards school.

Saito shrugged. They had stayed up later than usual but that was because Rockman couldn't go online until after dinner when they could go to their rooms and be left alone. "Staying up late isn't good for you," Meiru scolded. "No wonder Netto's so out of it!"

"He'll probably be sent home if he doesn't wake up." What could be done? "I could slap him? That'll probably snap him out of it." By now they were standing outside the school gate. There was no time like the present.

"Saito! No!" Meiru said, grabbing his arm. "That's not how you wake someone up!"

"I've already tried calling his name. He doesn't respond. Maybe I could splash his face with water?" There was a fountain outside the school which he could use as a water source.

"I feel like I should say no to that," Meiru said with a nervous glance in Netto's direction.

"It's better than slapping him," Roll pointed out.

"Netto, wake up or we'll shove you in the fountain~" Saito said in a sing-song tone. Maybe he was a little too enthusiastic but he was tired too!

Netto mumbled something and stumbled as Saito gave him a little shove.

"Saito! You said splash his face, not shove him into the fountain!" Meiru scolded, grabbing Netto's hand and pulling him away.

Netto yawned again, eyes opening and squinting against the light.

"You can't tell me that it's not a good idea!"

Seeing Meiru slapping at his brother's arm, Netto decided he didn't care to know what was going on fully and he made his way inside. He almost tripped over little Yaito as he walked into the classroom.

Completely unfazed by his manner, Yaito said, "good morning, Netto. Where's Meiru?"

"Outside. She and Saito are fighting over something," Netto responded before slipping into his desk. If he was lucky, he could get a couple of minutes sleep before class started. He had just closed his eyes when he name was shouted by two urgent voices.

"Netto!"

He glared. "What?" Saito and Meiru came rushing over to his desk.

"We've been looking all over for you!" Saito said. "I was worried you had walked back home!"

"I wouldn't leave you here. I just need a nap."

Saito covered his mouth, realising how loud he had been. "Sorry. I'll let you sleep." He was feeling slightly guilty since it was for his sake that Netto had stayed up late. Netto could just as easily get a new navi for searching the net, he didn't need Rockman.

Ms Mariko instantly noticed the two Hikari brothers the moment she entered the room. It was hard to miss the identical brown heads resting on desks while the two slept. She let Saito and Netto sleep during morning tasks and woke them up before maths started.

Dekao poked at the twin currently groaning into his desk.

"Are you asleep again, Saito?"

Saito groaned again. "I can't believe I fell asleep."

"I can," Netto responded.

"What time did you two even go to bed?" Meiru asked.

Neither twin wanted to answer that question, giving her all the answer she needed. Whatever time it was, it had been late.

"You still did pretty well in Maths for someone who was half-asleep during the lesson," Yaito pointed out to the depressed twin. "And you could show a little remorse," she said to the slightly too chipper twin.

Netto shrugged. After all, he had tried to get all his sleep in before class. It wasn't his fault that no one woke him up.

Rockman paused as the clock clicked over to the next hour. He looked up at his operator.

"Maybe we should go to bed soon?" he suggested. They both had school the next day and he was certain Ms Mariko wouldn't let him sleep through another set of lessons.

"Technically, you're already in bed."

Rockman had a suspicion that his body wasn't getting as much rest as it would if he wasn't wasting energy running around the net.

"That's all well and good for me," except he had also fallen asleep at school when given the chance, "but you need sleep as well."

"One more battle."

"Fine. One more battle."

About seven battles later, the boys finally decided enough was enough and went to sleep for the night.

They needed a better plan, Saito decided. Ms Mariko had called them aside during break to ask if everything was okay. She was worried about them sleeping during class and that it was a sign of something wrong.

Netto was thinking quick and told her that they had been staying up getting to know each other since they had been apart for so long. It seemed she accepted his made-up excuse. However, it wouldn't work forever and they needed a better idea than making up sleep in classes.

Saito didn't remember much of the walk home. He knew he had done it but in a daze. His body was slow to react to things and skimming over the rest as unimportant.

"I just want to sleep," he grumbled, kicking his shoes off.

"There's an idea," Netto said with a grin. He didn't even bother taking his shoes off before he slipped onto the couch and fell asleep.

Saito stared at him. There was only one couch and it should have been wide enough for the both of them.

"Move over," he grumbled, shoving Netto's feet and pushing his brother into a curled position.

Their mother found them sleeping on opposite sides of the couch, Saito laying with his legs straight over Netto's curled up legs.

"Victory!" Saito cheered as he walked into the classroom, feeling more awake than he had in days.

"Seems they finally had a good night's sleep," Meiru laughed to Yaito.

Yaito huffed, unimpressed. "Boys."

Saito frowned at them. He was allowed to be happy about this. It had taken less than a week to get a routine going of sleeping when they got home so they could stay up late.

"You could be a little less excited about going to school," Netto pointed out, sticking out his tongue in distaste.

"Oi! Netto! How about a netbattle?" Dekao demanded.

"Can't," Netto responded with more grace than Saito was feeling. Saito wondered if Dekao was blind. How else did he miss how the PETs they were carrying had the school logo on them? Netto held it up for Dekao to see. "These are rentals. For schoolwork only."

"Like that stops a real man!" Dekao declared, thumping his hand on his chest. "You've got to have guts!"

"They record what we use them for," Saito added. "If Netto netbattles, the school will know."

"How about you then?" Dekao jammed a finger in Saito's direction.

Saito held up his identical school-issued PET. "I'm in the same boat."

Netto gave him a thoughtful look. "I wonder how you'd do operating in a netbattle?"

Saito thought about it and it just gave him weird vibes. He scrunched up his nose. "You might have to try it one day," Netto said.

"Nope. There's ways around netbattling," Saito pointed out.

Dekao didn't think that was any fun. Aiming to be the number one netbattler was better than trying to get around fighting. He pulled Netto away so they could talk battle chip collections while Saito somehow ended up chatting with Meiru and Yaito.