Author's Note: Okay, since I totally forgot about it the last time (I think, it could have been a different story), I am going to start by putting up a disclaimer. IN NO WAY DO THE RONIN WARRIORS OR ANYTHING RELATED TO THEM OR THE SHOW BELONG TO ME! I got all PHS's, by the way. All right. Since I posted the first chapter of this I have written a Dragonlance fic and a Stargate SG-1 fic. They're humorous, so if you need to cheer up, be my guest to run along and read them! Enjoy this chapter. Also, since this is AU, I'm making up anything that I need to make this idea possible. Don't depend on this fic as a good source of information regarding either of the two boys. This is now co-authored with Ceo Shinji. The c sounds like a k, like in Celeborn, for the LotR fans out there. SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!!! I have massive writers block, which is why I called in Ceo Shinji. Go check out her stories please.

Chapter 2: Tricks

Rowen saw Sage when he left the doors to the building and decided to catch up to him. He started running down the stairs at the front of the building. Very bad idea, that. He tripped and went rolling down to the bottom. He sat up once he had stopped. "Itai....."

Sage continued walking until he heard the sound of someone falling down stairs. Deciding to look back, he saw the blue haired boy that he had come to know in his English class that day sitting on the ground rubbing his head like he was hurt.

Rowen sighed and stood up, then dusted himself off. He realized that his bag had opened again and that he needed to pick up his stuff. He knelt down to once again gather papers, sure he couldn't catch Sage now.

Sage saw him leaning over to pick up his papers for the third time that day and took pity on him. He walked over to Rowen and bent over to pick up a piece of paper, then realized he had caught Rowen's attention.

Rowen glanced up when he saw the pale hand come into his view. He was mildly surprised to find Sage helping him out. "Thanks. You just saved me the trouble of catching up to you. This must be annoying by now. Gomen ne." He stuffed the last paper into his bag again.
"You're welcome." 'Why do I keep helping him?' "You're really klutzy, you know that?" Sage said with laughter in his voice.

Rowen smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I've heard. Ano, Sage, I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my house. I could help you out with that English, and I have nothing better to do." He shifted his bag so that it was more comfortable.

Sage looked at Rowen suspiciously before sighing. "Sure. I could really use the help," Sage finally said, still a little suspicious of Rowen.

Rowen shifted. "Don't give me that look. I get bored easily. Plus, I'm having a very klutzy day. I might injure myself so badly that I can't reach the phone and then I'll end up bleeding to death in my own apartment." Then Sage's words sank in. "Oh, okay then. I live in the apartments a few blocks east of here." He waited for Sage to join him at the curb so that they could cross.
Sage was at first hesitant to follow the klutzy blue headed boy, but he did need help in his English, and the boy was klutzy enough that day that he could get himself killed. He became less hesitant and joined Rowen on the curb to follow him to his apartment.

Rowen was extra careful crossing the street. Once they were across he looked back at Sage. "So, where do you live? I haven't seen you before, and I'd probably remember your hair." He smirked.

"Oh...I live in a Dojo." Sage replied to the question, grateful that they crossed the street safely. He continued to follow Rowen.

"A dojo? You mean the Date Dojo?" He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I didn't know they had a son about my age. Oh well." He shrugged. "My place is just around the corner there. I'll have to check on my dad in his lab first. He probably forgot to eat today. Our apartment is room 213. Inside, up to the second floor, seventh on the left." He went towards a basement once they reached the building.
"Um...Ok," Sage said, going towards the stairs. He climbed them to the second floor and searched for the apartment number, hoping that he didn't get lost in the apartment complex.

Rowen sighed and knocked on the door to the lab. He heard a mumbled answer and walked in. "Konnichiwa, Tou-san. Have you eaten today?" The blue head on the opposite side of the room looked up. "No, not yet. I'm about to make a break through on this! If I can get this last equation, it'll be perfect." Rowen nodded. "I'll bring some dinner down for you." He turned and went to 213.

Sage luckily found the room number and was leaning against the brick wall by the door waiting for Rowen to return to go into the apartment. He was looking at the scenery around him when he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the door. He turned to face his companion.

Rowen dropped his bag by the door and took out his keys. He unlocked the door and stepped through. He pointed to a bookcase. "You'll find several English dictionaries over there. Could you grab two? Just leave your stuff by the door. I have to go take some food to my dad." He walked into the kitchen and turned on the lights. He heated some leftovers from the night before and headed back to the lab. "I'll be right back. Make yourself at home."
"Hn..." was all Sage said as he put his bags on the floor and took his shoes off. He put them beside the doorframe before entering the apartment to look at the bookcase. 'There are a lot of books in here. I wonder what they're all for,' Sage thought, looking over each book. His eyes landed on a Webster English Dictionary and one other dictionary he couldn't make out the name of.

Rowen dropped off his father's food and headed back up the stairs. He hadn't really thought about it at the time, but they had a lot of American books. He sighed and shrugged. Oh well. He came to the apartment and entered, removing his shoes and heading to the bookcase, where he saw Sage looking at the books.

Sage continued to look at all the books with curiosity. He was wondering what all the books were for when he felt that he was being watched. He turned to see Rowen standing by the bookcase next to him. "Um...Nice collection of books," he pointed out, feeling stupid for being so nervous.

"I forgot that we had so many in English. Gomen nasai." He grabbed two off of the shelf and carefully walked around the rug in the middle of the floor. "You can have the Webster's." He sat down. "What do you need the most help with?"

"Um...pronouncing and speaking the words," Sage said, sitting directly across from Rowen.

"Oh...um...Thanks for the dictionary." Sage gave a slight seated bow to Rowen.

Rowen sighed and nodded back. "Do you know your alphabet?" he asked.
"A little, not a whole lot, though," Sage said as he moved one hand through his blonde hair with a sigh. He looked back at Rowen with an undistinguishable look in his eyes.

"All right. Reel off what you know so far. I'll teach you the alphabet and what else I can tonight. That teacher was brutal." Rowen grimaced slightly.
"A..B..C...D...E...F...um...guh?" Sage tried.

"Ok," Rowen said patiently. "You got a b c d e and f right. The next one is g." He waited for Sage to repeat it.

"G...G," Sage repeated twice, making sure he understood how to pronounce the letter correctly.

Rowen nodded. "Run back through what you know so far and see if you can remember the next one."

Sage nodded as he started to rattle off what he knew so far. "A, B, C, D, E, F, guh...no, G, um...h...H, er...I, jah." Sage sighed at the second attempt. Not as embarrassing as the first, but still enough for him to feel slightly disappointed.

"J," Rowen corrected. "You could be worse. My dad married an American woman and still doesn't speak English. J."

Sage chuckled when he heard that piece of information. "J...and then comes K, right?" Sage asked, a little more confident in himself.

"Yup. Excellent. After that?"
"Lmno, P." Sage said kind of quickly.

"You need help?" Rowen asked. "Congrats on the l. That's a tough one."

"Thank you! Not really, just wanted to hang out with you," Sage admitted, looking away from Rowen, unable to face his blue haired friend after the trick he pulled.

Rowen stared for a moment dumbfounded. Then he wiggled his fingers in his ears to make sure they weren't stopped up. "Sorry. I think I misheard you. Everyone's scared I'm going to accidentally break their necks, and you wanted to hang out with me?" He laughed. "That's new."

Sage laughed with Rowen, "I think you are more than capable of breaking your own neck because of how clumsy you more than breaking someone else's neck because of it," Sage said calmly, holding back his laughter.

"Ah, but what would happen if I climbed a tree, and you walked under it and I leaned over to say hi and accidentally fell on you? Then I might break your neck."

Sage chuckled, "I highly doubt you would break my neck. Maybe give me a few bumps and bruises, but not anything quite that drastic."

Rowen shrugged. "Then I'll try again. Say that I was practicing my archery, and I accidentally shot my arrow in the wrong direction? What would happen if it hit your neck and cracked it because of the force of the blow?"

Sage looked at Rowen with slightly fierce lavender eyes, "Then I would have to haunt you for the rest of your nature life."

Rowen laughed and waved a hand. "Sorry, I don't believe in ghosts. That would be a waste of time on your part. I mean, you could spend your time practicing kendo in the afterlife."

Sage laughed. "Kendo would be fun but trying to scare the living daylights out of someone would be pretty fun also." Sage laughed at the thought of people in the afterlife playing practical jokes on everyone.

Rowen got the same picture. "I can just see you dumping green goop on my head. Like from that Ghostbusters movie."

Sage laughed, "That would be interesting. Need to try that someday, or pouring a sticky liquid of some sort like melted candy on someone."

Rowen covered his face with his hand. "What have I done? I've unleashed a monster." Suddenly he straightened and stuck a finger in the air. "My Tou-san would be proud!" He burst out laughing.

Sage looked confused for a moment before he started laughing with Rowen at the thought he had unleashed a monster.

Rowen realized that Sage didn't get his joke. "Remember how I said that I had to check on my Tou-san in the lab? He's a scientist. Thus, he would be proud. A Frankenstein thing."

"Oh..." Sage started snickering. "Wish we could do something like that to that dumb old English teacher," Sage said, leaning back on his hands and looking at Rowen.

Rowen slowly smiled and pulled out his keys. "Guess what I have? Being the smartest kid in school has a special privilege." He held up the key to their classroom and the school.

"Oh...hm..." Sage leaned over to see the keys, then a mischievous smile came across his face. "We would get into a lot of trouble if we were caught, but it would also be the talk of the school if done right."

Rowen looked innocent. "Who would suspect the new polite boy and the school genius? I mean really, that would ruin their whole image!" He grinned. "So, when are we going to do it, and what's the trick going to be?"

Sage leaned back on his hands once more, looking at the ceiling and trying to think of an idea. "We're going to do it, all right, but let's see... What should we do to her?" Sage continued to think.

"Hmmm. Well, my dad has a lab. I can make goo that's the same color as the ceiling, and will fall at a certain time, depending on when we apply it to the ceiling. My question is, how could we get it up there?"

"Hm...Good question. A ladder would be the obvious choice."

"Add in a paint roller and we're set. I should have the goo ready by tomorrow. We should put it on the ceiling at around midnight if we want it to fall during English." Rowen rubbed his hands together. "I think this is the beginning of a mischievous friendship."

Sage chuckled. "Mischievous friendships are the best ones, especially when you both have a teacher you don't like."

Rowen laughed and then stood up. "Are you hungry? We've got plenty of food and plenty of English homework."

Sage groaned at the thought of English homework. 'Mrs. Gibson, beware, the evil bunnies of doom are out to get you.' "Yeah, I am kind of hungry, if you don't mind me staying over to eat."

"Eh, it gets kind of annoying to cook just for myself most of the time. I'll have to go get the tray I took to Tou-san earlier anyway." He went to the pantry and opened it. "Well, we have ten different kinds of curry and we have ramen. What would you like?"

"Um...Ramen sounds good."

Rowen plucked two pots from a cabinet and boiled the ramen. Five minutes later... "There you go. Let's work on homework for a while, and then we can plot even more."

"I'm ready to plot something even worse looking at the homework she gave us."

Rowen glanced over it. "Different perspective. Just wait until you get all of the homework from all of the teachers. This will look like heaven on earth."

"True, it could be a lot worse. A full days load of homework would have really made a terrible day." Sage said pulling out the English homework assignment for the evening.

Rowen decided to make him feel better and work on it slowly. Eventually he came really close to finishing and stared off into the distance, daydreaming.

Sage worked on it slowly, surprised that Rowen wasn't finished quickly, but he had the feeling that Rowen went slow for him. It made him feel a little better because English went through his head like molasses comes out of a jar: extremely slowly. He munched on the ramen and looked up at Rowen. Noticing he was staring off into space, Sage reached over to shake his blue haired friend's shoulder to bring him to reality.

Rowen jumped and went sideways off his chair, along with his empty ramen bowl. He landed on his side, and the ramen bowl clanged onto his head. "ITAI!!!!"

Sage snickered at the scene. "See, what did I tell you, you are more likely to break your own neck before breaking someone else's, klutzoid." Sage got up from his seat, reaching out a pale hand to help Rowen off the floor.

Rowen took the hand and pulled himself up. "Dameyo, baka," he muttered. He picked up the bowl and carried it to the kitchen. He sat down and got his revenge by finishing his English in about thirty seconds. "I'm going to get that tray now. Be right back." He walked back to the lab.
"Ok..." Sage looked again at the English homework, trying to get it finished before Rowen got back from picking up the tray, but it didn't look very likely that that was going to happen.

Rowen found the tray only half eaten. "Mou, Tou-san, do you think that you could eat some more?" His father called over his shoulder, "Not right now, Rowen! I'm so close!" Rowen called back as he left, "It will be in the fridge when you come up to bed." He ran back up the stairs two at a time. When he opened the door he found Sage working on the homework.

Sage was concentrating so hard on the piece of homework that his mind insisted on wandering away from that he hadn't realized that Rowen had come back into the apartment with the tray.

Rowen put the tray down silently and easily crept up to Sage since he hadn't put his shoes on before going downstairs. He waited until he was about a foot away from him, and then grabbed his shoulders and shouted, "BOO!" He jumped back and let go immediately after he had done it.

"AH..." Sage shouted as he jumped out of the chair. He rubbed his shoulders as though someone had hurt his shoulders, then looked back at Rowen fiercely.

Rowen tilted his head and looked at him in puzzlement. "What's wrong? I know I didn't grab you that hard..."

Sage looked at him confused for a moment then laughed. "It's nothing, just the tingling after effect of being scared out of your pants."

"No it's not. I would know. How did your shoulders get hurt?" Rowen became serious and crossed his arms, stubbornly awaiting an answer.

Sage just looked at Rowen, a little confused. "It is just the tingling after effect, I swear."

Rowen smiled dryly. "Riiiiight," he said, then rushed forward and grabbed Sage's left shoulder.

"Ack...Rowen." Sage started trying to claw Rowen off his shoulder

"See?" Rowen grinned triumphantly. "I told you." He let go.

Sage sighed and chuckled a little. "All right, all right, you're right, they do hurt a little."

"So, what happened?" he persisted.

"They just tend to hurt after writing or too much pulling on the muscle, but they will be alright after they relax." Sage explained

"Ok, I'll accept that." He grinned and sat down at the table again. "Too much kendo?"

"Yeah," he chuckled, "I guess so," Sage smiled and sat back down at the table, still seeing more than a page of English homework left to do.

Rowen looked at Sage's work. "Want any help with that?"
"Erm...Yes, I think I do." Sage looked up at Rowen.

Rowen grinned and grabbed the paper. "Well, it's just vocabulary. Use your dictionary."

"Duh." Sage smacked himself in the face for his stupidity and laughed.

Rowen laughed with him before grabbing his book again. "Well, I'll read while you're doing that. Have fun."

"Ok, this should go by faster than I thought." Sage pulled out the little dictionary and started to look up the words.

"You can borrow one and sneak it into class tomorrow. She'll think you're a genius."

Sage laughed at the thought. "That would be funny and awesome, especially since we are going to do something really, really cruel to her."

"Well, I wouldn't say cruel, exactly." He chuckled, but froze when the doorknob started rattling. "That must be my Tou-san." He relaxed, stood, and opened the door. His dad walked in and waved. "Hey. I'm going to bed. See you later." With that, he disappeared into the bedroom.

Sage just kind of blinked as Rowen's Tou-san walked right past him. "Must be really tired not to notice company."

"Yup. I think he stayed up all night. He's been working on this weird project for months now, and he figured most of it out last night." He went and closed the door. "Normally he would be surprised that someone is over."

"Ah...So, is it hard not having him around a lot?" Sage asked, not really knowing if he should have just minded his own business,

"Oh, normally I go down and watch. It's not really all that hard. I'm used to it." Rowen shrugged and put up his dictionary.

"Oh...That's neat. That you go down there and watch, that is," Sage said, finally finished with the English homework in front of him

"Finally finished?" Rowen checked his watch. "It's getting late. You should be getting home." He grabbed a light jacket. " I'll walk with you. I want to where the dojo is exactly."

Sage looked at his watch. "Ack, you're right." He got up and grabbed his stuff. "Thanks."

Rowen stuck his hands in the pockets of his jacket and led Sage down the stairs. It was already dark out.

Sage looked at the night sky, where not very many stars were showing because of all the lights on. "Nice night, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I plan on being an astronomer one of these days."

"That is a neat career goal. Stars are kind of fascinating, but just to look at instead of studying for me," Sage said, looking ahead of him

"I've loved them, ever since I was little." Rowen shrugged. "Plus, I get to look through big telescopes."

"Yeah, and get to see all the stars and the planets. That is always interesting." Sage smiled at the thought of looking at the planets. "So, when are we going to put the goo in Mrs. Gibson's room?"

"Tomorrow night. We can meet in front of the school at midnight."

"Ok, I'll meet you there. Oh, here's my stop," Sage said, pointing to the dojo.

"All right. See you later." Rowen waved and turned back the way he came. No accidents so far. Maybe nothing would happen on the way back.

"See you tomorrow, and try not to get yourself killed, Rowen," Sage said, going towards the dojo.

Rowen grinned and walked off. He made it back to the apartment in one piece, but when he reached the top of the first flight of stairs he tripped over his shoelace and fell down the stairs. "Itai....." His arm throbbed terribly. He poked at it, and finally figured that he had broken it. "Terrific." He headed up the stairs to wake his Tou-san.

That's the end. Whew. I can't believe it took me this long. Sorry. I really didn't mean to leave it.

Japanese words: Dameyo: shut up Baka: stupid, fool Gomen ne: sorry Gomen nasai: sorry Itai: Ow Tou-san: Father Mou: kind of like umm Ano: see Mou

If Sage is a little OOC, please excuse it. Ceo hasn't seen this show, nor has she read any of the fan fiction. She did all of Sage's parts. Thank you for reading! Please review.

Mischa Kitsune and Ceo Shinji