Author's Note:

It's here... fiiiinally... the next chapter! I just have to say... thank you thank you for the PMs! You don't know how much I was struggling with this chapter... and the words and perspectives I was offered helped so very very much. I'm excited, I think I'm over one of the biggest chunks of writer's block I'll have for this story! Cross my fingers.

Anyhow... finally Shuu actually gets to start learning drifting. Next chapter I'm hoping to get over my fear of Seiji accidentally becoming the main character, and finally start really to reveal what's in his head right now.

But please, enjoy this chapter first!

Ok… so the temporary move wasn't going well. He had to be realistic… he hadn't really expected the two of them to just move in all comfortably. That would have been crazy. But Shuu had thought… maybe… it would have worked out better than it had been. As it was, out of the past few days Seiji had been supposedly staying with him and teaching him how to drive, the blond had been driving home at nights and sleeping at his own place over half the time. He'd spent over half the time not staying at Shuu's, and with the days to Shuu's big race dwindling down the big man still hadn't even gotten in a drive in the loaned car! It was pretty hard to learn the tricks of the race when the two were too busy yelling at each other or trying to give each other new bruises.

Just what was it that was making this so hard? Shuu had just sort of assumed that if they'd roomed together as teens under a high pressure situation like fighting Arago, this should be child's play. But, sharing his too small apartment with the blond was way too much… especially without the other guys to act as a buffer. Yes, he'd overlooked just how important the other guys had been in making sure they could all coexist. Five guys, apparently, worked just fine. Two guys… not as much. Or not at all it seemed. They'd had a few nights where they'd mellowed out some, had probably been too tired to fight. But then it'd seem like the very next day everything would annoy them. It was just another reminder that even though they were trying to 'make nice' again, they both still had a long way to go.

Shuu had actually taken to blaming Seiji a bit for their continued failure when it came to getting along. It was obvious and common knowledge that Shuu was not the one out of the two who would know just what the problem was between them. He had his guesses, of course. But even when he tried to sort of talk em over or anything, it just didn't work. He was starting to think that one of these days his own furniture was going to meet the sad fate that the blonde's had. Was Seiji really making that effort he was supposed to be making? Was he being stubborn just for stubborn's sake? Or, had the two really grown so far apart over the years that without a world threatening evil like Arago, they just had no reason to be friends?

He really hoped not. It made the past seem oddly… hollow.

"Are you even trying?" Shuu's nostril's flared as the blonde's voice tore him out of his off topic thoughts, casting his stormy blue eyes up to stare at his teacher. Tonight… finally, Shuu was at least in the car, but he wasn't going anywhere! They were in an empty parking lot, the driver's door open and Seiji bent over glaring at Shuu's feet on the pedals. "You need to turn your foot, keep it on the brake while you press the gas down…"

"I did… I did that ok?"

"No, you didn't, I'm watching you Shuu, and your footwork is sloppy! How many times do I really need to tell you that timing and finesse is important here? Get it through that thick head of yours!"

"This is bullshit, the best way for you to teach me is to let me drive, rather than just sitting here playing DDR in a parked car! I'm running outta time man, let's skip this part!"

"Yes, right, excellent idea Shuu! Let's just get in the car, start speeding, and hope that someone with a lead foot will just instinctively know how to drift and keep control. Brilliant plan from you like always."

"Damn it Seiji!"

"Get out of the car!"

"What?"

"I said get out of the car! Get out and go sit in the passenger's seat."

The pair glared at each other, Shuu staring up from the seat, uncomfortable that the blond was standing over him. Stubbornness was setting in, and suddenly he had the very great impulse to throw the car into gear and peel away from Seiji. He thought he saw the tiniest of twitches in Seiji's fingers, and the idea struck him that the blond was probably just about ready to grab him and try to throw him out of the car. Oh Shuu knew Seiji wouldn't be able to do that. Shuu was too big, and it wasn't easy to actually wrench someone from a car if they were resisting.

"Why?"

"So I can show you what you're doing… and what you're supposed to be doing." Well, Seiji had at least gotten his voice under control, but Shuu wasn't satisfied yet.

"Just because you're teaching me this Seiji, I'm not gonna put up with you barking commands at me. Ok? I'm not some brat at your family's dojo or something, got that? You talk to me with respect!" Seiji seemed a little surprised to hear a statement like that coming out of Shuu's mouth, and he sort of was surprised he'd said it as well truth be told. But until this bet was over… until they worked over whatever issues were still in the way, Shuu was going to keep asserting himself here.

"Alright, I'm sorry. Now please, get in the passenger's seat… you need to see that what you're doing isn't what I'm trying to explain."

Shuu nodded and finally complied, moving around to have a seat, strapping on his seatbelt when he noticed Seiji did the same. The blond also shut the car door, pressed down on the clutch and turned the key in the ignition. 'Finally, the car's at least on!' The blond had to take a moment to adjust the seat of course. While their heights weren't so horrendously different that they couldn't get into the car, apparently Seiji was very particular about things. Shuu's impatience started to grow higher and higher as Seiji made miniscule adjustments to the mirrors. There was absolutely no way his tapping at the edge was actually making a noticeable difference. Still, Shuu tried to keep it inside. He wasn't the volcano.

"Ok, can you see my feet?"

Shuu leaned over and tried to look, having to tug at his seatbelt a bit in an attempt to sort of lean and wedge himself down. He gave a little grunt, contorting his body in a weird leaning slump as he tried to get a good view. "Hey if I'm just watching your feet you should have done this with me out of the car."

"You're going to watch my feet while I'm driving, so get comfortable."

His teeth clenched for a moment listening to the arrogant and condescending tone that'd laced Seiji's last statement, but he just kept shifting his body. "Ok, yeah, I can see."

"Good… now watch me closely. This… is what you were doing with your feet." Seiji paused for just a moment to make sure Shuu was watching, then started to move his feet, hitting the clutch with the left, dealing with both the gas and break with his right. With the ignition on the car revved, but it was left in neutral for the time being, going nowhere. Shuu stared, and from what he watched Seiji do didn't see a problem. It looked pretty much like the instructions the blond had been telling him again and again and again. A blue-amethyst eye moved to look at him, and Shuu just stared back. "Now… this is what I was telling you to do…"

Shuu looked back down at Seiji's feet, and a moment later they moved into action again. He narrowed his eyes as he watched, noticing the very subtle difference in the movements this time around. "Ok, so I was close."

"Close isn't going to be good enough, Shuu. Heel-and-toe shifting isn't even a drifting technique, it's one of the standard racing ones. You need to master and understand this before we even move on to drifting techniques."

"Come on, we don't have time…" But Seiji wasn't paying attention to him it seemed. The blond had started to look out the windows of the car, scanning around the deserted parking lot, craning his head about searching for… something. 'Is he looking out for the police?' Shuu sat up a little straighter and looked about, and was barely ready when Seiji released the parking brake and shoved the car into gear. "Whoa hey man…"

"Watch my feet…" The tone of voice was cold as ever, but Shuu didn't really have time to argue. The car was steadily accelerating, and though at first Shuu wasn't really certain what he was watching for, it finally happened. Seiji started that shift, his feet executing it even faster than he had before, with the meticulous precision and perfection you would have expected out of one of his sword strikes on the battlefield. It was sort of amazing for Shuu, even if this was just very basic shifting for racers. Seiji glanced over at Shuu, the car going too fast to just stare. "You see it? Do you see how easy and automatic that was? I need you to get that way."

"Do I have time?"

"Perhaps."

Seiji started to bring their speed back down, taking a couple wide circuits of the parking lot while doing so. Shuu really really didn't want to go back to sitting in a parked car hitting the pedals with his feet. They were finally going fast, putting this car to use. "Hey, show me more, take us out somewhere and show me other things. You know I'll learn better if I see it."

There was a tiny noise in the back of Seiji's throat that Shuu could barely hear over the powerful engine of the racing car. He watched the other man ponder over the request, debate in that one lone eye. 'Ya know isn't it dangerous to drive with one eye covered?' Well, the guy was still alive so far. But Shuu shook that notion off when he started to notice it. It was very subtle, but maybe it was in the way Seiji's hands held the steering wheel, maybe in the posture of his body. The former possessor of the Kourin armor wanted to go for this drive. "C'mon man… take a page from my book… don't think… do it."

Seiji hesitated for a moment, before a smile pulled across his lips, and he turned the car towards the driveway, taking them out into the streets. Shuu grinned and tried to get more comfortable again, glancing about as the blond silently started to drive them somewhere. No doubt some place where they could go speeding and avoid notice.

"They said I'm not allowed to train you on the course for that night, but I know someplace similar."

"Now you are talking!"

"You're not driving tonight, you're watching."

"Shit."

Still, even though he cursed, Shuu wasn't too mad about that. He meant it, getting to actually watch Seiji driving was going to be a big help to learning what to do. He knew he wouldn't be able to move his bigger feet and heavier legs the way Seiji did for certain, but it wasn't about copying the other. Watching Seiji do it would give him something more tangible to visualize when he needed to do it himself. It'd give him something to shape and mold in his mind that was better than words. Actions over words, always.

The sky around them got darker as buildings and other cars started to drop away. Shuu frowned, was he going to be able to see the blonde's feet at all?

"I think there should be a flashlight in the glove box… take a look…"

Shuu did, and sure enough there was a small emergency flashlight in there. This was good. They were going to be speeding… they didn't need to make it worse by turning the interior lights on in the car. Shuu flicked it on and pointed the flashlight at Seiji's feet, feeling like a silly little kid for a moment. The blond made a couple turns to take them onto another street, and took in a deep breath. Shuu chanced a glance up at the guy's face, and noticed that the blond was smiling; something in his eyes that Shuu actually didn't think he'd seen before. Seiji looked a little… reckless… purposely reckless.

"Here we go…"

The former swordsman's foot pressed down further on the gas, and the engine grew louder as the car started to surge forward. The first two turns they took, Shuu wasn't impressed. The car seemed to handle fine, but Seiji had cut their speeds down. It didn't seem like drifting should have, not that Shuu really knew how it should feel. But he thought it'd feel cooler than the first two turns had. Seiji took another one, and after they' driven straight for a bit and started accelerating Shuu heard the blond mutter something.

"What was that man?"

"I said I've got it… had to learn Bunpei's car… and the effect of your weight on it…"

"Hey!"

"Better watch! Clutch-kick drift…" Seiji's foot floored the clutch, his hand downshifting the car as they hit up the turn, the release of the clutch breaking the traction on the back wheels of the car. Shuu braced himself a bit as the car went through the turn, having watched Seiji's feet like he was supposed to. He hadn't caught the shifting hand motions as well, focused on the feet like he had been, but Seiji repeated the same drift a couple of times for him. "Got it? That's a very very basic technique. If nothing else, you'll stick to that one and maybe a couple of others in your race."

"Ok… so show me more…"

Seiji didn't seem to need to be coerced into driving more, and Shuu could clearly tell that the blond really liked to do this. He probably hadn't just raced as a kid as an act of rebellion… Seiji honestly seemed to really like driving this fast. 'But he's still got that weird look in his eye… doesn't seem right.' They had to double back a couple of times to avoid coming out onto any of the more crowded streets, and occasionally they'd pull over to let some normal traffic snake its way by. Every time Seiji did something he gave Shuu a tiny explanation of it, sometimes just mentioning the primary focus of the technique, other times only the name. He showed him the difference between clutch and brake based moves, and showed him situational ones like jump drifts and dirt-drop drifts. He showed him ones he could initiate starting on the straightaway rather than a turn, and every so often if Shuu remembered to ask he'd say why he was using one technique over another on any given turn.

It honestly seemed like they could have driven all night, but you couldn't push a car like that and not burn through your gas pretty quickly. Seiji let out a slightly annoyed sigh when he noticed the dipping gauge. "That's all for today… we're going to need to take the car to Takeshi, let him do some maintenance on it before we let you drive…"

"Seriously? Just after that?"

"Cars really aren't made for drifting Shuu. Besides, there are some types of races where pit crews keep more than one engine on hand, because it's so common to blow it…"

"What?"

"Mmmhmm… in America… 'funny cars' I think…"

"What a waste."

"I suppose…" There was a little bit of an edge there that told Shuu that Seiji didn't really think it was silly or anything like that. 'Yeah… I'm just not a car racing guy.' But he wasn't going to argue with Seiji on the matter of letting Takeshi look at the car. He really only had one concern.

"Damn, so that means I can't try this stuff out tomorrow night. Too bad."

"Don't be in such a rush. Besides… I want to watch you parked again to see if this really helped."

There was that authoritative tone, and Shuu could understand why Seiji could potentially be a good teacher. His tone didn't really leave you a lot of room to argue with him. Even if you wanted to. They headed for a gas station and filled the tank back up, before heading back to Shuu's again. It was already well into the morning hours of the middle of the night. Shuu was pretty tired, and knew Seiji had to be too. Still, the blond started to head for his car.

"Hey… come on man, there's only like… four hours before we gotta get up for work anyway. Why don't you just crash here tonight? There's no way we can piss each other off."

Seiji hesitated. Yes… they absolutely could still piss each other off in four hours that they were supposed to spend sleeping. But, Seiji seemed to want to pretend that things would be ok, too. He followed him up the stairs, and inside.

-

"Seriously, what the fuck is your deal!"

Ok, so if they stopped shouting at each other right now, they could get two hours of sleep. Maybe. Hell, Shuu didn't know at this point. He'd reached that strange sleep deprived state of the morning where you began to doubt that anything was real. The waking hours seemed to feel like a dream, your mind and body no doubt wishing you were actually sleeping rather than depriving it of the precious recharge time it needed. At least they'd only thrown a couple punches… and Seiji had only done one kick to Shuu. It was shaping up to be one of their more civil arguments, although the things both of them were saying were starting to make less and less sense. They probably both knew somewhere deep inside that just going to sleep would have been the best answer, but when tempers flared judgment flew out the window.

Shuu watched Seiji rake a hand through his hair. Somehow, it seemed like Shuu was on the attacking end of this argument that had started over such a simple question. 'What was with that reckless look you have while driving?' The minute Shuu had asked it, Seiji had started to get defensive, saying he didn't drive recklessly, saying he was in total control of the car. Shuu honestly couldn't argue that since he hadn't been in the car with any other drifters. Seiji's driving had seemed fine to him. But it hadn't been the driving Shuu was talking about… just the look. Apparently, Seiji took great offense to this.

"I don't have a problem, you do! You complain about me always trying to get in your head, and then you start doing it? Just stop Shuu, because you know what, you aren't any good at it."

"I'm just askin' man, why are you getting so mad?"

"I'm not mad."

"Is that why you punched me?" They were just going round and round right now. They were getting nowhere. Both were frustrated… but probably wanted to stop… but they weren't. Maybe it was pride or something. Shuu could only speak for himself, of course, and he didn't have an answer. "Let's just drop it, alright? Sorry I insulted you mister always-in-control-of-everything. Ok? Yeah, I get it. Nothing the great Date Seiji does is ever reckless or uncontrolled or stupid like me. I've got it!"

"Shuu!" Seiji shouted his name, but oddly whatever else the blond wanted to say just didn't come out. Was he tongue tied? If Shuu hadn't been feeling so mad right now he would have found a tongue tied Seiji funny. If he hadn't been so mad he might have noticed the weird look the blond had. But instead Shuu just stomped off into his room. He'd had enough of this. He was going to get at least those two hours of sleep in before he had to go into work. His boss had already talked to him about not letting his personal life interfere with work. Everyone had noticed Shuu was getting new bruises now and then from the fights he was having with Seiji. She he pulled his door shut for now and collapsed down onto his blanket. Why was this so damn hard?

He could actually hear the blond moving about in the other room, and at first he thought the guy was just going to take off, drive away or something. But when he heard occasional mutters coming from the other room, his face turned into a scowl. Was Seiji talking to himself? The guy did that? He listened a bit, but he couldn't really make out too many words. He figured if he got up and moved closer to the wall Seiji would just shut up, so he didn't bother. Besides, if he got up and heard Seiji more clearly… and the blond said something that pissed him off? Then he really wouldn't even get a nap before work. The only conclusion that Shuu's sleep deprived mind really came up with, as he tried to drift off to sleep for those few tiny hours… was that Seiji was seriously slipping up if he did something like talk out loud to himself now. 'I bet he'd just get angry if I mentioned it to him…' Shuu sort of paused that train of thought. Maybe he should ask about that.

If he could remember to next time they were both awake and not exhausted.