Pre-ARC warning: potty mouth Hanamichi.
"This is the living room."
"…"
"This is the den."
"…"
"This is mom's solarium."
"…"
"This leads to the garden."
"…"
"That's the library."
"…"
"That's the music room."
"…"
"That's dad's private study."
"…"
"That's mom's private study."
"…"
"That's dad's private library."
"…"
"Let's go upstairs. Oi, stupid, you look even more stupid with your mouth open like that."
Kaede stopped at the bottom of the left flight of the grand staircase and cocked an eyebrow at his unusually silent redhead partner who immediately snapped his mouth close.
"Jeez! Rukawa! You're rich!"
Hanamichi cringed a little at what he had said. Words just escaped him as the reality of Kaede's fortune struck him.
"I'm not rich," Kaede stated turning back to go upstairs. "I don't own this. My parents do. I'm just their child."
Hanamichi spluttered as he followed his partner.
"But isn't that supposed to mean you kind of own all these stuff too?"
"No," Kaede answered.
"But why? You're their kid so it just means that—woah! How many rooms do you have here?"
"I don't know," Kaede shrugged. "I usually just stay on my side of the house."
He led Hanamichi through a hall and turned right.
"This is my wing," he said as entered a new hall.
"Uhm…how many room do you have here?" the redhead asked looking right and left at the many closed doors.
"Ten."
"Woah! Really? What the heck do you need ten rooms for?"
"I don't use all of them," Kaede said as he opened the last door to the right. "They're just there. Anyway, here's the computer. It's new. Try not to destroy it."
"Hey! I've never destroyed Mina's computer!"
"Yeah, but she was always there to stop you from doing anything stupid. She's not here now."
"Well who told you to buy a new computer anyway? We could've used her computer until the end of the year. She was okay with it."
"You're really stupid," Kaede sighed as he plopped down on a chair.
"Dammit Rukawa stop calling me stupid!" Hanamichi growled as he stalked towards the set up computer. "You're the one who's stupid! You buy a computer you can't even use!"
"At least I'm not a parasite who likes to feed off other people's kindness."
"What do you mean by that?" Hanamichi yelled, stalking instead towards his partner.
"See, you can't even figure out some simple logic."
"Damn you Rukawa! I know what you meant! And I don't leech off my friends' kindness. Jeez, you're a real typical spoiled brat who thinks he can buy everything! I've got news for you fox, friends help each other. We do stuff for each other. That's what friends are for!"
"But there is such a thing taking too much advantage," Kaede stubbornly countered, standing up and facing Hanamichi head on.
"Of what? Friends don't keep count of where or when they help their friends out! They just do! But of course you wouldn't know that 'cause you've never had any friends huh?"
The two glared at each other. They were about to resort to a punching match when they heard a knock on the door.
"Young master, we have the snack that you wanted," a voice said from the other side.
Hanamichi was instantly opening the door and letting the servants in who entered loaded with several trays filled with fruits, drinks, and various sandwiches and pastries.
"Oi," Kaede called out at the drooling redhead. "You're not eating anything until you start our work first."
"But I'm hungry. I need energy to type!" Hanamichi said snatching a piece of pastry from a tray.
He was about to pop it into his mouth when it was snatched back from him. He glared at the servant who smiled back at him.
"If the young master says you are not to eat anything yet, then you will not be rude as to disobey him," the man said.
Hanamichi growled out a curse and was about to throttle the man when Kaede's hand grabbed his.
"Just start the damn project you idiot," Kaede said, dragging Hanamichi towards the computer. "The sooner you start, the sooner you'll be able to eat. Besides," his voice dropped considerably, "it's never good to argue with Mr. Benibana. He looks harmless but he's really tough."
The last comment startled Hanamichi enough that Kaede was able to settle him on the new ergonomic chair he bought with the computer set. The redhead looked from his partner to the old man and back. He grumbled something under his breath and booted up the computer.
Kaede went back to his bag and retrieved his notes. He motioned the servants to leave but Mr. Benibana stubbornly stayed. Kaede sighed in defeat and just gave his notes to his partner.
Hanamichi took off the dust covering off the keyboard and swore loudly.
"What the heck did you get Rukawa!"
Kaede frowned at him then at the equipment.
"What?" he asked. "I asked for the latest model and this is what they gave me. Is it broken?"
"Look at this!" Hanamichi yelled, shoving the keyboard towards the other boy's face.
"It's the thing that you use to type," Kaede said.
"Yeah, but look! Look! I don't even know half of the keys that are here! This isn't like Mina's keyboard!"
"That's not my problem," Kaede said, turning around.
"What?" Hanamichi shrieked. "This is your problem too! How can I start our report when I can't even handle the keyboard?"
Kaede looked at the redhead over his shoulder.
"I thought you said you're a genius with computers? How can you call yourself that when you can't even use an ordinary keyboard?"
Hanamichi sputtered.
"Of course I'm a genius! There is no computer thingy that I can't handle! You just wait and see!"
With that declared Hanamichi turned back to the now challenging piece of equipment with a bright gleam in his eyes. He was going to conquer the damn machinery even if he didn't get a snack for the next hours! He would win!
Several minutes later he finally figured out which keys were familiar. He was curious about the other keys but he didn't want to try them out just then. It took him nearly a quarter of an hour to figure out the much more advanced software installed in the new computer. He was mentally exhausted when he was finally able to open up a new document with Word.
When that was done and he was able to encode some preliminary notes, he took a deep breath and readied his gloating speech on Kaede. Before he could utter anything, however, a small plate of assorted snacks and a glass of juice was placed on the table near him. He looked up to see Kaede blankly staring at him.
"I said you just needed to start the thing before you could eat," Kaede stated before turning back to the long table of snacks. "I'll start drawing the baby."
Hanamichi frowned at Kaede's back before deflating a little. He had been deprived of a good rant but food was calling so he supposed that he could forego his speech just that once.
But he certainly didn't forego the small mindless chatter as he ate his snack.
"Wow! These are good!" "What's in this?"
"Hey, can your cook give my mom the recipe to this?"
"I can eat ten of these!"
"Hey, fox, why do you like blue so much? Even the computer's blue and the chair!"
Kaede looked up from his drawing.
"I like it," he said before going back to his task.
Hanamichi looked at him, startled that Kaede actually answered one of his inane questions.
"Hmp! I think red is a better color!" he finally declared, turning back to his own task.
There was relative silence for several hours punctuated by Hanamichi's grumblings about evil machines not working properly and making his life hard and eviler partners who didn't know anything about computers.
The redhead was finishing the last part of their schedule grid when it happened. The lights went out.
There was several seconds of silence before Hanamichi anguished scream came in time with the power coming back on.
The boy just stared at the now restarting machine. He was silent for so long that Kaede walked over to him and poked his arm with a pencil.
"Oi, moron, why are you just staring at that thing? It's already okay."
Hanamichi slowly looked at him with wide, teary eyes. Kaede's eyes widened at his partner's expression.
"I didn't save it," Hanamichi whispered.
"What?"
Hanamichi suddenly shot up from his chair and gripped Kaede's shoulders.
"I DIDN'T SAVE THE LAST PART! I DIDN'T SAVE! I WANTED TO SAVE EVERYTHING AT THE END! NOW IT'S ALL GONE! GONE! EVERYTHING I WORKED ON FOR THE PAST HOUR IS ALL GONE!"
The redhead slumped back into his chair, pulling out his hair. Kaede gazed around the room in equal frustration. They froze in that tableau until Mr. Benibana cleared his throat. Both boys ignored him until he spoke up.
"If I may make a suggestion young master, perhaps you could call one of your classmates who might be able to help solve your predicament?"
The two boys gaped at him then Hanamichi snorted.
"What the heck are you saying? I told you the stuff is gone," he said. "Eh? Fox what the heck are you doing?"
Kaede ignored him as he strolled towards a phone and dialed a number.
"Hello….May please speak with Mina?….This is her classmate Rukawa, Kaede Rukawa…Thank you."
Hanamichi jumped up from his chair and rushed towards Kaede. He tried to grab the phone but Kaede held on to it.
"Give it to me fox!"
"You'll just babble on some nonsense! You always do when you overreact!"
"I DO NOT OVERREACT!"
They stopped their fight when they finally heard someone on the other line. The two boys held on to the piece of the phone they had their hands on.
Mr. Benibana coughed.
"Perhaps it would be advisable to just share the phone…?"
The two boys glared at each other then complied. Between them they managed to tell Mina what had happened.
"Oh! Have you tried opening up the program again?" Mina asked.
"No," Hanamichi answered.
"Why don't you try it," Mina said. "There's an autosave function built into each program. It might have saved most of what you've encoded."
The two rushed towards the computer still holding on to the thankfully cordless phone. Hanamichi opened up Word again and almost fainted when he found his table intact. He let go of the phone as he sat down again.
Kaede snorted at him and thanked Mina, saying that everything was fine. He pressed the off button and walked towards his nearly complete portrait of Ken, their baby doll.
"I told you that you always overreact," he whispered as he ambled towards his own desk. He looked back for a second and saw Hanamichi's ears as red as his hair.
— 0 —
"So we now know that taking care of babies is hard but they're okay if you really like babies and you can take care of them and feed them and everything else," Hanamichi concluded pointing to the picture of Ken.
The whole class clapped, for once agreeing with the loudmouth.
"Nice work," Ms. Tanada praised. "Any questions for these two?"
Several hands immediately shot up.
"Any relevant questions that will not raise any sessions of bidding over the paraphernalia of the reporters, which, by the way, are to be submitted to me," she clarified.
All the raised hands went down. A new lone hand went up. The teacher nodded at the student.
"How did you create your schedule? Did you flip a coin or something?"
The two boys in front briefly looked at each other.
"We started with that," Hanamichi answered. "Then we kind of talked about it and my mom helped so…"
The bell rang.
Ms. Tanada told them some reminders as Hanamichi and Rukawa got down their visuals.
"Hey," Rukawa muttered as he watched Hanamichi pull down their oversize schedule.
Hanamichi frowned at him.
"I just got a new scanner," Kaede said. "You can look at it early so you can use it properly when we need it. You can also bring Seishirou and Mito if you want…or if they want."
He shrugged and pulled down his Ken drawing. He was startled to feel Hanamichi's hand on his forehead. He irritably slapped it away.
"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed.
"I was just checking if you had a fever," Hanamichi explained. "You're actually being nice and friendly."
"I am not being nice or friendly," Kaede denied. "I won't care if you come or not or if you bring your friends or not. I just don't want you overreacting again if something goes wrong."
Hanamichi grinned at him. Kaede's eyes narrowed at the expression.
"What are you grinning at you moron?" he growled.
Hanamichi just grinned at him before turning around to the nearly deserted room.
"Hey Youhei, Rukawa's inviting us to his house to chill out!" the redhead hollered.
Kaede turned to deny what his partner said but found himself face to face with all three of his invitees. Apparently Hanamichi worked fast at spreading news. Mina bowed to him.
"We'd be glad to help you out with your new scanner Rukawa," she said.
Kaede mumbled something incoherent, caught Hanamichi's still grinning face, muttered something, and then bowed back at Mina.
"I'd be honored to have you as a guest," he said.
Youhei and Hanamichi grinned at each other. The Sakuragi gang was a package deal. Invite one and you invite all. They supposed Rukawa wouldn't mind the extra people who would help out. Of course, they wouldn't really tell the boy until they reached his house.
-TBC-
A/N:
1. The final phase has started. Sorry it took so long. As always, reviews are much appreciated! And many thanks to those who've reviewed the story so far. ^___^
2. I'm going by the much-accepted rumor that Rukawa is rich and an only child with a very dysfunctional family.
3. I live in a very small house so I making up all those rooms.
4. A benibana looks like a sunflower.