Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters get in.

Important Questions

It occurred to Robert that he was lucky that it was a Tuesday, otherwise he might have had play practice to contend with and that would not have gone well. Currently he felt like a shook up bottle of pop; and just getting through his last classes of the day without popping his top took so much out of him that Robert was fairly exhausted by the time the last bell went off. Hence the fact that he slumped forward in his seat in relief for a minute before packing his stuff up, moving slowly while absently hoping that nothing covered in the last two classes was going to be important comes test time. He didn't have a fucking clue what they'd covered.

Bag in hand Robert knew he deserved it when his teacher gave him a censoring look, the look he gave in turn hopefully conveying the fact that he really was sorry he'd been off in his own little world the whole period. It hadn't been personal; he'd just been stupid to think he should stick around instead of just taking the rest of the day off. Stupid male pride.

Shaking his head over his own stupidity, he was just lucky he hadn't run into Hikaru or Arthur yet, Robert joined the fray out in the halls and prayed that he wouldn't run into the latter until tomorrow. They'd have to talk soon enough, his lunch meeting with his father was probably quite the hot topic in their circles right now so Arthur would definitely find out soon, but Robert wanted to talk to Hikaru about everything first.

And now that he'd dealt with his father on his own terms, please God let this at least be it until after Christmas, Robert knew he was going to, had to, turn his thoughts to his best friend and just what exactly their relationship was and where it was going. That he really didn't want to have to think about that just made his mind obsess about it more.

He knew that Hikaru would be open to them being more than just friends, he'd overheard that conversation between his best friend and Arthur, hadn't he? And he and Hikaru had sort of talked about it too, but the way they'd left it just didn't sit right with Robert, especially since he didn't have his problems with his father to distract him so completely anymore. It was like having a rock in your shoe or something in your teeth. You could ignore it for short lengths of time if you needed to, but once you didn't have something to distract you it was impossible to ignore and just made it all that much worse the longer it was an unresolved issue.

Hikaru was the most important person in the world to him. Even more important than Arthur, his godparents, Mal, or anyone else that he cared about. Way more than he cared about his actual parents, his relationships with them so complicated Robert figured his head really would explode if he tried to think about it too hard. And he'd rather not think about that, so back to the question of why Hikaru was his most important person and whether -

The force of his shoulder connecting hard with someone else's jarring him from his thoughts, Robert automatically apologized to the girl who just smiled at him as she told him no harm done. The way she said it, and the look in her eyes registered as flirty, giving Robert another jolt as he watched her sashay away to merge with the rest of the students rushing to leave.

She'd been in his history class last year, Robert was pretty sure, but he didn't even know her name off the top of his head. Whether she'd sent him similar looks and smiles before he didn't remember, he didn't really pay much attention to that sort of thing because he hadn't been on a date in…Fuck. A really, really long time. A ridiculously long time now that he thought about it. Was he a teenage boy or was he some Tibetan monk?

This was how fucked up his father had made him, Robert marveled, stopping dead in his tracks and not even noticing that his fellow students had to suddenly veer around him so that they didn't all end up in a heap on the floor. Hell, he didn't even notice the dark looks or comments he got either, he was so zoned out as he tried to wrap his mind around the fact that he'd been so obsessed with meeting his father's expectations, he'd put his teenage hormones in total hibernation.

Which was actually kind of impressive now that he thought about it, but horrible too, since it meant he was really behind on being a normal teenager.

He'd been on dates, he wasn`t completely hopelessly there, but as a whole he hadn't been interested in any of the girls he`d asked out all that much. At the time he'd brushed that off, figuring it was just because he`d been limiting himself to girls his father would find appropriate, but now…well hell…

Did he have a type? Did he prefer blondes or brunettes? Tall or short, slim or curvy? Tomboyish or girlie…girl or…guy?

The idea that he could maybe, possibly, like both genders, or just one with that one being in question now, didn't freak Robert out as much as it probably would most teenagers. He'd always had Arthur after all, and his godbrother and godmother had raised him to be very open minded about that sort of thing. So while his father would hate him that much more if he were gay, Robert's mind didn't automatically reject the idea as being a bad thing. Though if he was gay, and hadn't realized it until now…he'd never live down the embarrassment.

Brows furrowing in thought, Robert figured he was going to need to really look into this. Dear God, he didn't even watch porn or have dirty magazines to worry about the maids finding now that he'd been kicked out of his house. That was just sad!

"I'm a failure as a teenage boy."

"Okay. Why is that?"

Blinking in surprise, Robert could feel his face go red as he saw that not only was Hikaru standing right in front of him, and when had he appeared, but the hallway they were in was deserted, which begged the question of how long he'd been standing around like an idiot for.

"You with me now?"

Nodding his head, Robert ducked his head in embarrassment as he asked how long Hikaru had been trying to talk to him.

"Not that long. I was waiting for you at your locker like we planned, and Brad Hanks noticed and said you were here, zoned out like a zombie."

"Great. Just great." With his luck someone had recorded him being an idiot on their phone and was even now seeing to it that it went viral. Crap.

"So do you want to tell me why you're a failure as a teenager, and what's got you so out of it? Or do you want to go to the coffee shop first so that you can get some caffeine hits first?" Hikaru's tone was amused, but Robert could see the worry that overlay the words.

Unaware of how his eyes softened in response, Robert worked up a smile that was almost genuine. "Caffeine first. Definitely." His brain needed to jolt if nothing else. "And one of their brownies. Possibly two."

"Alright, but I'll drive you there and then back to pick up your car. I'm not going to trust you to drive just yet, no offense."

Agreeing that that was for the best, not to mention totaling his car would not be a good thing, Robert nodded and fell into step with his friend, their footsteps echoing through the empty hallways as he distracted Hikaru with questions about how his day had went. Cliché, yes, but it was the best he could do at the moment.

)

By the time they'd arrived at the shop Robert opted to just go with the one brownie, as introducing too much sugar to his already jittery system struck him as a bad idea. So he got his latte with extra expresso, which was hopefully not a bad idea, and insisted on paying for Hikaru's tea latte and cookie as well since he owed the other teenager for putting up with him. Plus he'd already told Hikaru that he'd done something that was going to make him mad at him, so this was him sucking up before the fallout.

And of course as soon as the word sucking had left his mouth he'd started blushing like an idiot again, the girl behind the counter asking him for his order saving him just in time.

So yeah, with his latte and brownie Robert led the way to a booth, aware that Hikaru was watching him like he was an oddity the other teenager couldn't figure out for the life of him. And embarrassed as hell by that fact, especially since really no one knew him better than Hikaru, Robert took a big gulp of his latte as soon as he sat down, cursing like an idiot when he burned his tongue.

"Do you want me to go get you a bottle of water?"

Brushing off Hikaru's concern, God he was such an idiot, Robert shook his head and forced himself to take a much smarter sip before setting the cup down on the table. "Thanks for offering though. Especially since I'm an embarrassment waiting to happen today, apparently."

Chuckling, Hikaru gave him a fond look that made Robert smile back, he couldn't help himself.

"So you ready to tell me what stupid thing you did that I'm going to be angry about?"

Oh, yeah. Crap. He still hadn't told Hikaru about seeing his father earlier. Huh.

Well at least that would overshadow everything else, small silver lining that it was. And what did it say about him, that suddenly his meeting with his father was less difficult to talk about then the epiphany he'd had earlier? Though come to think of it, it probably indicated that his brain had reset itself where his hormones was concerned, which was probably a good thing.

"Robert?"

Annoyed with himself, he'd zoned out again, Robert sighed. "Sorry. It's been…an interesting day."

And on that note Robert basically recounted his entire conversation with his father, the words spoken pretty much engraved on his mind currently. Whether that was a good or bad thing he wasn't sure, but either way he wanted to be honest since the last thing he wanted was to mess this conversation up since he hadn't been kidding when he'd stated that what he'd done was pretty much guaranteed to piss Hikaru off.

That Hikaru didn't look pissed, and calmly sipped his drink and ate his cookie through the whole conversation would have been reassuring, but Robert had a sixth sense when it came to knowing when people with extreme control over their emotions were pissed off. And yeah, Hikaru was pissed off. Big time.

But Hikaru waited until Robert had lapsed into silence before he said anything.

"I am angry." Hikaru agreed, inclining his head for emphasis. "But not at you so quit looking at me like that. I get what you did, and why you did it, but I don't have to like it."

"Huh?"

"In your place I would have had to face him alone too. It is my selfishness that makes me wish I'd been there, that you'd told me what you were going to do so that I could have been there to support you. And I'm not worried about you pointing out to your father that he has bigger things to worry about than what people think about his treatment of you. I have every confidence my father will squash him like a bug, regardless."

It was habit that had Robert opening his mouth to defend his father's chances against Hikaru's, but he swiftly swallowed the words down, especially since in a very roundabout way he supposed he owed Mr. Saito his life. Because of what Hikaru's father had done he was now free of his own father, and therefore free to make his life what he wanted instead of what had been mapped out for him. Not that he intended to thank Mr. Saito for that any time soon of course. The man could be as big an assehole as his old man.

"I hope he does too." It was lame, but it was the best answer Robert could come up with.

A small smile was his reward, though they lapsed into silence for a few minutes as they both stewed over things and tried to hide the fact that they were stewing by eating and drinking their lattes until they didn't have anything left to occupy their mouths but words.

"So out of curiosity…what does your talk with your father have to do with you being a failure as a teenager?"

Glad that he'd finished his snack, he'd have choked on it otherwise, Robert's mind hastily supplied him with the best answer he could come up with on the fly.

"I just meant…I've missed out on a lot, having my world revolve around school and his expectations of me. I have a lot to catch up on."

"What, are you going to start going to wild parties or get a tattoo?" Hikaru's tone was slightly teasing, though his eyes were too cool to really be amused.

"I probably should try and get out more." Though the idea didn't really appeal to him that much. "But a tattoo could be cool -boss." Boss was the more recent version of cool, Robert was pretty sure. He needed to start being more slangy, or whatever the term for that was. Less formal and prissy. But regardless, Renee would probably sign off on a tattoo if he asked her to, or he could get one on his birthday. What would he get though?

Posing the question to Hikaru Robert wasn't sure why his best friend sighed in response, and when he asked Hikaru just waved aside the question as he announced that he was going to get them new drinks. They'd discuss the tattoo options when he got back.

Watching Hikaru get up and go, Robert had the feeling he was missing something here. But he was apparently missing a lot of somethings lately, so that didn't really surprise him.

Oh well, one problem at a time.

)

Beaming as he all but skipped up the stairs, Eames called out for his darling, following the sound of the other man's voice until he found Arthur in his office, his lovely glaring peevishly at his cellphone before tossing it aside to give him his full attention. And since he didn't like seeing his darling upset, which Arthur was far too often these days, Eames put aside his own good mood to sit down on the corner of the other man's desk as he asked what was wrong.

"That was my dad. Apparently Robbie left school this afternoon and ambushed his father at Danny Boy's."

"Danny Boy's?"

"It's a popular restaurant for the city's elite businessmen. You'd like it. And that's not the point. Robbie spoke with him, and I don't even know what was said because apparently he hasn't come home yet and when my dad called him, he was out with Hikaru and Dad didn't want to question him on the phone about it."

"Makes sense, probably for the best really." Holding up his hands defensively, the look Arthur aimed in his direction was killer, Eames gave his most charming smile in response. "Don't kill the messenger, Luv. I just mean that so long as he was letting everyone else fight his battles nothing could really be settled, could it? The old bastard needed to know Robert wasn't going to come crawling back, which was probably what the whole meeting was about."

"He should have at least told me. We could have planned it out together."

Accepting that Arthur wasn't going to be rational about this, Eames didn't even try to argue that that would have rather defeated the purpose of Robert facing his father without support. Instead he walked around the desk and began to rub his lover's shoulders, something he seemed to be doing a lot recently.

"I think you should come watch Christmas movies with me."

"Christmas movies?"

"Yeah. There's bound to be a couple on the telly, this close to the holiday. And you need Christmas something awful, Darling."

Arthur frown lessened a little, his lips curving up just a little. "And you really think watching a kid getting his tongue stuck to a steel pole, or Bruce Willis going head to head with Alan Rickman will make me feel better?"

"Well Alan Rickman does make everything better."

Laughing, he couldn't disagree with that, Arthur tipped back his head to smile at Eames. "So I take that to mean you'd like me to go downstairs with you and watch Die Hard?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Me too. Though I'm taking the phone with me so that when my dad calls, I have it."

"A fair compromise." Eames decided. "Provided you make the popcorn."

Agreeing to that condition, he made better popcorn anyway, Arthur let Eames pull his chair back so that he could get out of it. Pocketing his cellphone before taking the hand offered him, Arthur got to his feet and then let Eames swing their joined hands as they headed out of his office towards the hallway.

Down the stairs they went, stopping to make popcorn and grab some drinks before going to the basement with Buffy, who was apparently a big Bruce Willis fan and got very excited when Arthur informed her that they were going to watch him.

Snuggling up together on the couch, Eames draped an arm over Arthur, cuddling the man against his side as they watched the trailers. "This is way better than worrying, isn't it?"

Nuzzling his face against Eames's throat, because he really did need to stop worrying so much, Arthur agreed that yes, yes this was much better than worrying.

Though he did make Eames pause twenty minutes into the movie when his father called him back, and they never did finish watching the movie that night either. The short conversation put Arthur in the mood to celebrate, and that took precedent over watching Bruce Willis kick some serious European ass.

Eames didn't mind the change in plan in the slightest.