Okay... sorry it's been so long since I posted an update, I'm trying to work on chapter 19 at the moment but I'm just a little stuck. Working through it and hopefully will be able to get it done soon.

Until then, have part 2 of 3 of Kiryu's visit to the Fudo household! :3

Chapter 10: The Stubborn Ox, Part 2

Hikaru played with the lollipop dangling from her lips with her tongue, and asked, "Hey, you two. Do you ever wonder why the hell we have to learn the Quadratic Formula?"

"Sometimes." Jack replied, leafing through his History text book.

"It's like, when the hell am I going to need to know this?" Hikaru asked. "What is even the point of it? If I'm going to grow up to be a famous musician, do I need the Quadratic Formula to write a song?"

"Onee-chan, we get it. You don't like Math." Yusei said, zipping through his own Math homework like no tomorrow.

"I'm not saying I hate it; I'm saying I don't see the point to some of the shit they teach us." Hikaru replied.

"I really like solving the problems, actually." Yusei said. "Math and me go together like mashed potatoes and gravy."

"And you and History go together like chocolate and vinegar." Hikaru retorted.

"I'll be done with the homework in a bit, Yusei, so you can use my text book." Jack said.

"Thanks, Jack," Yusei responded with a smile. "I can't believe I forgot my book in my desk..."

"Eh, things happen. You had a momentary lapse. I have them all the time." Jack said.

"Like how, for example?" Hikaru asked, looking across the table at the blonde.

"Well, this one time, I was on the phone with Carly, and I realized, 'Hey, where did I leave my cell phone?' So while I was talking to her, I was looking around for it in all of the places I usually put it down in, and then just when I was about to tell Carly I needed to hang up, I realized I was talking to her on it. I'd thought it was the house phone and I didn't even realize that I'd been using it all along."

With a snort and a chuckle, Hikaru said, "Man, you really are sumthin' special, Assless."

Eyebrows twitching in confusion, Jack said, "Thanks, I think?" He picked up his text book, and just before he could close it, a folded piece of paper came out. "Oh, must've left notes in here again." he said, closing the book and setting it down before he picked up the paper and unfolded it. He blinked and said, "Oh..."

"Hm?" Yusei laid his eyes on the paper, and when he saw what was on it he asked, "Is that a form to participate in the cultural festival?"

Hikaru blinked. "Oh shit, right. I forgot that was coming up!"

"You'd forget your birthday if it weren't the same as mine." Yusei retorted. He then turned his attention to Jack and asked, "What were you thinking about doing?"

"I was thinking I'd sing something for the student performance part." Jack replied. "I'm not half bad, if I say so myself. My mother taught me a lot about music. She used to perform when she was in middle school, high school and college. She said I inherited her musical genes. She taught me how to play the guitar."

"You play guitar?" Yusei asked.

"Yeah; and the banjo and piano." Jack replied.

"Wow. You get around, don't you?" Hikaru asked.

"I suppose."

"What were you thinking about performing?" Yusei inquired.

Jack looked down at the form, which had been half-filled-out already. "I was thinking of something that Mama used to sing with me. There were a lot of songs we'd sing together, but this one's been sticking out in my head for a while. Mama loved music, so she passed everything she knew onto me. Like her mother did to her."

Yusei smiled. "I think it's a sweet idea to sing a song for your mother at the festival."

"Twinny-chan and I can play with ya, if you need help." Hikaru said. "Any excuse to be on stage, I take it."

"It's true, she does." Yusei said with a nod. "Especially if she can make an ass or a fool out of herself."

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt." Jack replied. "So long as we don't bump into each other..."

"Yeah, that'd be bad." Hikaru said with a flick of her hair.

From the kitchen, they then heard Kiryu call, "Dinner will be done in half an hour!"

"'Kay, Ki-san!" Hikaru shouted back.

With the table cleared of text books, notebooks and backpacks, Kiryu announced, "Dinner is served!" as he began to set down the food among the table. He hummed "Be Our Guest" as he did so, which earned a grin, a compliment and a thumbs-up from his female cousin.

In unison, the four were soon sitting down and recited, "Itadakimasu!" in unison before Kiryu began serving.

"Wow, this all smells great." Jack said, feeling his mouth water a little, and hearing his stomach growling at the scent of the heavenly Italian food.

"Thank you very much," Kiryu said, pouring sauce over spaghetti before he placed a piece of chicken Parmesan atop of it. He passed it to Hikaru, who wasted no time in digging in. "My maternal grandmother has been teaching me how to cook since I was just a little thing." He chuckled and added, "She used to freak out every time she hugged me by accident in the kitchen. She'd always say, 'Kiryu, don't you dare get any fur in the food!'"

"What a woman she must be." Jack said with a chuckle.

"That she is." Kiryu replied with a smile. "She's really been so wonderful the past few years..."

"How's your sister doing?" Yusei asked as he passed the plate handed to him off to Jack.

"She's alright," Kiryu replied. "Every day is a little better."

"What's the matter with your sister?" Jack asked, simply placing his plate down as he gave his full attention to Kiryu.

"Our parents died a few years ago," Kiryu said. "She was only eleven. It hasn't been easy for her... especially since every time I try to comfort her, I end up transforming into a cow."

Jack blinked. "But... weren't you talking about your mother just a little while ago?..."

"He was talking about Martha." Yusei said, locking his gaze with Jack's. "Our family is so big, and sometimes when someone passes away and they leave behind a child, their immediate family can't always take care of them, especially if they're of the Zodiac. So Martha takes in the orphaned kids, and raises them as her own."

"She gives us all a second chance." Kiryu said. "I'm lucky to have her. She's a godsend for Nobu and I."

With a soft sigh, Jack landed his eyes on his plate, for lack of better things to do. "My mother passed away in May. I know what you must be going through."

Kiryu's eyebrows unwrinkled, and he stared at Jack with his shimmering gold eyes. "I'm sorry to hear that. Were you an only child?"

A moment later, Jack nodded. "Yeah."

"Guys, if you don't eat soon, I won't leave any leftovers." Hikaru said, giving the two respective men a glare with a piece of chicken and the ends of spaghetti sticking out of her mouth.

Kiryu gave a light-hearted chuckle with a sweat-drop. "Karu, polite girls don't chew with their mouths open." he said as if he were scolding or reprimanding a small child.

"Since when was she polite?" Jack asked.

The chirping of crickets and buzzing of cicadas serenaded the outside world as Jack laid on his back on the outside porch with an arm over his engorged stomach. "A full stomach has never felt this wonderful before..."

With a chuckle and a smirk, Kiryu flicked on his lighter, sitting on the porch a few feet away from Jack's head. "That's just about the best compliment from a teenage boy that a chef can receive." He lit the cigarette in his mouth, shut his lighter, and leaned back as he took in a long drag.

Jack rolled his eyes upward in order to lay them on Kiryu. "I'm not that much younger than you are. You're still a teenager yourself, aren't you?"

Kiryu exhaled an impressively neat smoke stream from his lips and leaned his head back against the sliding door. "I'm a lot more grown-up than even I realize sometimes. It's just one of the things you have to do when you're someone like me." He chuckled through his nose. "I'm pretty damn pathetic."

Jack watched as the end of the bluenette's cigarette brightened when he took another inhale. "Say, Kiryu? Have we ever met before?"

Quirking an eyebrow, Kiryu exhaled the smoke from his mouth again. "Whaddaya mean, tiger?"

'Tiger...' Jack pondered the word for a moment before he said, "When I looked you in the eye earlier in the woods, there was just something about you that seemed so familiar. Like we'd met somewhere before."

With his eyes locked onto the light of the moon, Kiryu asked, "Is that so?"

With uncertainty in his voice and even his mind, Jack asked, "You don't think that I had my memory erased when I was younger, do you?"

Kiryu shrugged. "It's hard to say. Word only ever really spreads that someone's had their memory erased... when they've known for a long time. So if I seem familiar and I can't place you either, perhaps that isn't the case." He placed his cigarette to his lips again. "I can't blame you for thinking that, though. All of this curse stuff is pretty big. Especially to an outsider." He took in a few short puffs, and exhaled them justly. "I can't remember the last time an outsider was allowed to keep their memory. Even I hadn't been born yet when it happened." With a chuckle. "Hell, I don't even think the current head of the family had been born yet when it happened, if that shows how long ago it was."

With a bit of guilt on his conscience, Jack's thoughts lingered on the mysterious head of the family for a few moments. How Yusei hesitated to talk about him, and how Hikaru had been attacked by him for merely "speaking out of term". For the sake of knowing, Jack asked, "What's he like?"

"What's who like?" Kiryu asked, cigarette hanging from his lips.

"You know..." Jack went on. "The head of the family."

Kiryu flinched very slightly at that.

"The day that Hikaru went to ask him if my memory needed to be erased, she got into a fight with him for talking when she wasn't allowed to." Jack slipped his eyes closed half-way. "Ever since that day, I keep wondering how on Earth the Fudo family allows someone as cruel as that to be the head of the family. Someone like that... shouldn't be allowed to abuse his power like that. Is it really that important of a position?"

"I'm afraid I can't really answer that in a way that will satisfy you, Jack." Kiryu replied. "Unfortunately, there's just nothing that can be done about him. It's simply his birthright."

"But how can that be it?" Jack asked.

Kiryu let out a final stream of smoke before he took the cigarette from his mouth, and with what appeared to be a small smile on his face, replied with, "All in due time, child." He stubbed it out on the ground with his foot. "All in due time."

Jack, turning onto his side and staring out towards the woods and the flowers, which were closed up for the night, wondered, 'What is it with my elders always referring to me as a child...' as his eye slipped closed.

"Say, Jack?"

The blonde opened his eyes and arched his neck to lay his eyes on Kiryu, whose light, silvery blue hair was caught in a late-evening breeze and fluttered in the moonlight.

"Could I ask something of you?" Kiryu inquired. Jack didn't respond, though he continued to speak. "I want you to do your best to look after Yusei. Can you do that for me?"

Jack blinked, and asked, "What for?"

Kiryu smiled. "I can tell already that he thinks highly of you. He may not show it sometimes, but he can be pretty afraid. When I heard that he was the one who requested you don't lose your memories... I knew there had to be a reason why." He sighed and closed his eyes. "Some cousin I am. I love him like nothing else in this world, and yet I can't even protect him. Not even from him." He wrapped his arm around his knee. "Nobody can do that." He then managed to smile. "But if there's anything that can make him even a little bit happy, the least that can be done is to support it and make sure it can't disappear." Kiryu opened his eyes and looked up at the sky again. "That's why... I'm asking you to do this for me. Just do whatever you can to look after him; to help him, to cheer him up when he's glum..." With a soft breath out of his nose, he said, "Because God knows how dense his own sister can be sometimes. Even she doesn't notice when he begins to struggle."

Jack's eyebrows rose up in question. "Struggle?"

Kiryu turned his head to Jack. "Don't worry. He isn't struggling with anything right now. Just... keep an eye out for changes in his behaviour. I know that because of the distance between him and I now, he doesn't really have an outside party to notice that he's having trouble with something. With how close the two of you seem to be already, I'm sure it won't be any problem for you to tell when something is wrong with him in the future."

Jack had no idea what is was he should say then and there. But managed a smile as he said, "You're like a true big brother."

"What can I say? That part just comes naturally to me." Kiryu replied, rolling his head back to look at the sky again. A breeze blew again, and his eyes closed. "It's all I really have right now."

A comfortable silence passed them by. Right before...

"Kiryu Kyosuke, Jack Atlas! You get back inside and close that door before you catch your death!"

Hikaru's voice startled the two boys from their shared time, with Kiryu waving a hand at her and saying, "Yeah, yeah," as he stood up and walked back inside.

Jack, as he rolled over and stood up, even went as far as beginning to say, "Who are you, my moth-" before he realized what he was saying. His eyes widened and he stared down at the floor in realization.

"Hm?" Kiryu turned back to the two after he had shut the door. "What's up?" Sakaki then rubbed up against his legs and meowed, so he leaned down to pick her up, letting her settle down against his shoulder.

Jack lifted his hand to his mouth, laying his right index finger knuckle at the corner. "Wow... I haven't said that in months. Not since before..." He let a breath out of his nose. "Usually I'd say that to Carly."

Kiryu blinked, having caught on to the subject in a second. He opened his mouth, but just before he could speak, the sound of running footsteps were heard from the stairs, along with the call of, "Jack! Hey, Jack!"

With a blink, all three of them soon laid their eyes on Yusei as he came into the dining room holding a soft black guitar case in his arms. He approached Jack, and the blonde quirked his eyebrows and asked, "What is it?"

"Well, I..." Yusei began, holding up the guitar case. "I just found my acoustic guitar. I was wondering if you'd play something for me. I'd really like to hear you play."

"I want you to do your best to look after Yusei... If there's anything that can make him even a little bit happy, the least that can be done is to support it and make sure it can't disappear."

With a soft smile, Jack nodded and said, "Sure thing." He noted the happy look in Yusei's eyes and the smile on his face as he took the offered guitar case. "Any requests?"

"Surprise me!" Yusei replied.

To Be Continued...

And there we have it! I know it's short compared to the last chapter, but I wanted to post something since it's been a while since I last updated.

Thanks as always for reading, and tune in for the next chapter hopefully sooner then last time!