A/N: Remember that story with obligatory false babies to take care for and how Suguro and Yukio ended up as a pair? Yeah... I think they got stuck in that weird position of being parents of the group. Suguro is the cool one.

"The Bet"

It was almost an evening and the students of True Academy Cross cram school were still sitting in their gloomy class instead of taking advantage of the really nice weather outside like normal people.

They weren't even doing anything, just getting their tests back and sitting through Yukio's long explanation of every single question. It has reached level so far beyond boring, Rin wasn't sure if there was even a name for what he was feeling now.

He groaned and lied down on his desk. Maybe he could just try to sleep through all this horror, since his brother was so occupied with babbling about stupid stuff?

No such luck.

As soon as he started feeling blissfully sleepy, Yukio smashed a desk with his hand, making Rin jump in surprise, pretty startled with sudden noise.

"Hey!" He protested. "What is your deal?!"

"My deal?!" Yukio growled. "You seriously asked me about that? You completely butchered this test, Rin, you should at least try to pay attention!"

"It's not like I need this!"

"Rin, at least part of it would be on the theoretical exam. If you want to pass, you need to know this stuff."

"It's not my fault I'm only learning good when I move around!" Rin mumbled under his nose.

"This is serious!" Yukio growled.

"Yeah, I know this, you don't need to remind me," he rolled his eyes.

The rest of the lesson was even less comfortable than usually, the atmosphere thick enough to cut it with a knife.

Rin hoped that at least after the lesson people would stop barking at him about his horrendous grades - seriously, he knew how the situation looked like and his memory wasn't that bad to need a reminder every five minutes - but once again, the universe was against him.

As soon as they left, Suguro pretty much jumped him.

"I told you before, I have no friggin' idea what the hell are you even doing in that class!"

"Screw off," Rin growled. He tried to walk away, but Bon quickly crossed the distance between them and once again, he was right in front of Okumura, glaring at him.

"What, afraid of hearing the truth?"

"If I was interested in any of this stuff..."

"Then what?" Suguro snorted. "You would suddenly start passing stuff?"

"You bet I would!" Rin shouted, getting more and more angry with every passing moment. Honestly, if Ryuji will keep that up, he would hit him so much...!

"And I bet," Suguro snarled. "That you just don't have this in you. You couldn't pass an exam even if the questions were straight out of the elementary school!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Suguro grinned nastily. "I'm sooner start to walk around with that dumb Barbie crown on my head that you would get a decent test score!"

"You're on!"

Ryuji blinked. "Huh?"

"The next exam, I'm so going to score at least sixty!"

"I said it has to be decent, I believe," Bon rolled his eyes. "Seventy, and I'm still generous."

xxx

Yukio Okumura returned to his room very late in the evening and he still had his schoolwork to finish.

It was a pretty bad day that started with a minor argue with his brother, that evolved through the day into something that looked more like very serious fight and it was about these horrible grades again. Then, there was rather complicated day at normal school with a lot more practical exercises than usual, teaching at the cram school and the mission he just finished. Yukio felt so tired, he was afraid even the energy drinks won't be able to keep him up for very long.

He expected to find his brother already asleep with Kuro dozing off on top of him, or maybe in the kitchen.

But, to his surprise, Rin was sitting by the desk, doing something that looked like...

"...are you doing your schoolwork?" he whispered, slightly terrified by unusual occurrence. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Can't talk!" Rin mumbled, not even turning back. "Occupied!"

Yukio eyed the books next to his brother, then slowly backed off, trying to be as quiet as possible, a bewilded expression still stuck on his face.

Rin was actually working pretty hard on nothing else than material for the next Magic Circles and Sealing test. He had only two days, since it was on the Friday evening and a lot of backlogs, since he was studying for the first time he joined – or was forced into, to tell the truth – the True Cross Academy.

It was good thing, it was really amazing. But what possibly could motivate Rin enough to sit down and start working, and so hard too?

Yukio decided to give Rin all the space he needed for his studying and tiptoes to the bathroom to take a quick shower. After he was in clean clothes, he stopped by kitchen to eat something and drink some coffee. The demon looked at him in very suggestive way. Probably even murmured under his nose something about too high caffeine intake, but Yukio was ignoring that sort of opinions since very long ago.

When he was back, Rin was still furiously making notes, only stopping for a moment to shake his hand when it went too stiff from writing.

Trying to not break the spell, Yukio carefully sat down by his own desk, finished his homework then looked at the clock.

"Rin," he said with a heavy sigh, truly sad about actually interrupting him. "I think you should stop for today. Tomorrow, with a fresh head it would be way easier to memorize."

"But I don't have much time!" he protested. His tail furiously smashed the air. "I need to show this bastard...!"

"Bastard?" Yukio blinked.

"Suguro!" Rin growled. "I'm so going to show him!"

"Of course you will," Yukio said carefully, then headed to his bed. He had some question to ask, but these could wait till tomorrow. Or till Saturday, since it would be after that test.

xxx

The next two days Rin spend with his nose in the books, mostly by the desk, furiously making notes and fighting with the material he never cared about before.

He didn't stop reading even during dinner and Yukio had the impression that his brother would munch on whatever he and Ukobach put in front of him. And wouldn't be able to tell what he was eating if asked about it.

Not that Yukio actually wanted to ask Rin anything at this moment.

He really, really didn't want to break the spell and stop his brother's sudden working spree. Every minute spend like that was too precious, so Yukio tried to give Rin as much space as possible.

Then, the day of the test come; Yukio was pretty sure that Rin pulled an allnighter, but couldn't prove it. His brother was as full of energy as he always was.

Well, Yukio though scratching his cheek. Considering how much Rin slept on any other day, he definitely had some reserves to work with.

He wanted to ask how the test went, but as soon as Rin returned to their room, he dropped onto bed and fell asleep.

Yukio mumbled a curse under his nose. He really wanted to know how it went, but now he had to wait for the next day. He hoped it was okay, because Rin really worked hard and it would be unfair for him to not receive a good grade for it.

Yukio sighed again, then grabbed his coat. He had a job to go to.

The next day, Rin was grinning like a madman, waving around his sheet of paper.

There was a bright red "95" on it and a congratulations note, so he had a reason to do just that.

"See, see?!" he screamed, showing his test into Suguro's face. "I told you I can do this!"

"Sure," Ryuji leaned back and tried to get out of range before Rin manage to accidentally break his nose. "I'm still better."

"Three percent!" Rin protested. "It's like just one question! One!"

"Yeah, sure!"

"And it's so much more than seventy, so I won anyway!"

"I still think it's the sign of the Apocalypse coming," Izumo murmured from her corner.

"Oh, don't be like that!" Shiemi said. "I'm sure he just worked really hard."

"Of course he did," Kamiki rolled her eyes. "That what scares me."

"Oh."

It was really nice to observe his brother so proud of a good note, but there was still a lesson he had to start, so Yukio sighed deeply and clapped his hands, to get the attention of the whole group. More or less whole, since Rin for the whole hour was squirming and turning around to grin madly at Bon. Who decided to act like he was completely ignoring him, but couldn't quite stop his mouth from curling into a small smile.

Yukio waited for a few moments after his brother left, then he creeped towards Suguro, like he was afraid of being caught in the act.

"What," he asked in hoarse voice, not fully able to keep emotions out of his voice. "Did you do to my brother?"

Suguro managed to not laugh him in the face. Okumura was a teacher, after all, even if at the moment he acted somewhat ridiculous. It had to be a family trait of some sort.

"I tricked him into wanting to study?" he shrugged. It was basic psychology 101 and Ryuji honestly had no idea why Okumura was acting like it was so big deal.

"But how?" Yukio moaned. "I was trying to do that for years!"

"We made a bet," Ryuji shrugged.

"A bet?" he blinked, completely lost. "But I tried that to!"

"I actually bet him that he wouldn't be able to hit seventy percent on that test," Suguro shrugged. "Since he likes to prove people wrong, it worked."

"...you just told him he's too stupid to do that..." Yukio repeated after him.

"And he decided to prove me wrong," Ryuji ran fingers through his hair and slightly moved his headband, so his hair were no longer falling into his eyes. "On the other hand, it could be about that blasted crown..."

"Excuse me?"

"Remember that ridiculous thing he bought me a few weeks ago?"

Yukio nodded, but still seemed to be clueless.

"Well, he bet me back," Suguro grimaced. "If he get more than seventy percent, I'm going to wear that thing the whole day."

He sighed deeply. He agreed to the whole deal just because it was completely ridiculous and he was pretty sure Rin would drop the entire thing after just a few minutes after sitting down with a book, like always. Besides, it got rid of the irritating one of the Okumura twins and at the moment it was exactly the thing he wanted.

"He aced it," Yukio said slowly.

"Yeah, well, guess who's fashioning stupid Barbie crown tomorrow."

"You... are going to do it?" Yukio blinked.

"A promise is a promise," Suguro murmured, looking away, with a slight blush that crept up his cheeks. "Even a dumb one."

"I can talk to him if you want..."

"Nah," Ryuji waved his hand. "It would be like cheating. And I sort of want to prove to him that he will get things if he actually spend time with books. I can deal with looking like an idiot for a day just fine."

"Tomorrow is Sunday," Yukio felt the need to point that out.

"That too," Suguro grinned. "He can't have everything at once, I guess."

"You are going to do that again?" Yukio gasped. He was just starting to think how could he use the newly found information to make his brother study more, but he was unable to come up with the method yet. If he tried this trick, Rin would seen through it right away.

"As long as it works," Ryuji shrugged. "I'm kinda curious how far he can go with some sort of motivation."

"How in the world this is the right motivation?!" Yukio moaned and shook his head. "They literally told him that he just has to pass the exam and he's doing nothing, and here you promises him to walk around in a toy crown and there he is, acing things!"

"Well, it's Rin," Ryuji, tone of his voice suggesting that he was slightly annoyed at the need to state the obvious. "What else were you expecting?"