This is a looooong chapter, so updates will probably be less frequent because it should take you longer to read it :P Expect a small fight-scene, or as much of a fight as you could have at a 'snob school'… and Hayate and Ryu falling asleep in class. Slackers. ^^
Thanks for reviewing, too. And Gouki, you're right, I do it all the time ;)
*
She sighed. Hayate had gone off somewhere, for something or other, Hayabusa had gone earlier, and she was standing in the corridor completely lost. Before she could say anything else, someone came running around the corner and ran into her. Head spinning, she dropped her book bag. Before she could yell abuse at the person, her book bag was shoved into her arms, complete with books, and the person rushed off again.
"Boo," came a soft voice from behind her, startling her, nearly making her drop her books again. "Damn it, Hayate, don't do that!" she exclaimed angrily.
"Your face was funny," he retorted jokingly.
"Who was that that came barrelling around the corner?" she asked, assuming that Hayate had seen the entire incident, which was a fair assumption. He always seemed to see everything, whether he was meant to or not.
"Oh? Jann-Lee, I think. He always seems to be in a hurry,"
They arrived at the history classroom, and Hayate went straight to the back, she following. On the way to the back, however, she stumbled as something tripped her up, causing her to lose her balance but not fall. Or… she thought as she saw a foot sticking out, someone. And I know just who it is, too. And seeing as the teacher's not here yet…
Throwing her books in the direction of the table she was going to sit at, she stormed over to the desk where the virtuous-looking Helena was sitting, next to her two-faced stupid half-sister, she noticed as she angrily pushed the blonde's desk over. Books and stationary went all over the floor.
"What was that for?" Helena stood up furiously. "You can pick those up for that,"
"In your dreams," Ayane retorted. "What did you trip me up for? Unless you want me to wear stilettos and spear your foot next time, I suggest you keep your feet to yourself,"
"Don't you dare speak to me like that!" The blonde stretched out to her full height, several inches taller then Ayane. "My father is very wealthy! How did you manage to get in a school like this, anyway? Pure luck? It certainly wasn't on appearance. Or brains,"
"Good thing it wasn't on appearance, because they might have mistaken you for a cat's bum, with the face you're pulling," she snapped back, ready to give the prissy girl's hair a pull, except she felt somebody pulling her back.
"Sit down, for god's sake," Hayate pushed her into the seat. "Stop making such a fuss,"
"If she wasn't such a curry-faced whore then I wouldn't have to," she shot back, still extremely annoyed. There was a soft chuckle and she looked up to the emerald green eyes of Hayabusa, who was still looking slightly amused.
"I'm sorry," he apologised as he sat next to her. "It's just that I've never heard anybody call anybody else a curry-faced whore before. Especially Helena, of all people,"
"What do you mean 'especially' Helena?" she asked suspiciously. He held up his hands in capitulation.
"Although hardly modest, she was being accurate when she said that her father was prosperous. He owns a multi-million dollar company, or so I've heard. She was originally from France, so I don't know why she's here of all places, but it really isn't my business,"
"French? She seems stuck-up enough to be one of those posh, prissy French hags that drapes furs around her shoulders, chain smokes and wears those frumpy gowns," she muttered into her history textbook. She heard footsteps enter the room and looked up to see an old man clutching a stack of books.
"That's Master Gen-Fu," Hayate whispered to her. "He's Chinese, or something like that, and was probably alive for most of the stuff he's teaching,"
His voice certainly sounded old. "Alright, we'll start on page 56, with the reign of the Tsar in Russia not so long ago…"
"Not so long ago for him, maybe," Hayate whispered as they began to take notes.
"Let's see…" the old man mused out aloud. "Helena?"
"Sir," the blonde responded automatically. Ayane scowled, her dislike growing even further for the girl. What a suck. If she sucked any harder, she'd leave a mark for sure.
"Leon?" the old man called.
"Here," a gruff voice came from the corner of the room. She glanced in that direction to see three guys, all rather solid in stature, sitting there. Not knowing which had spoken, and not really caring that much, she turned back to the old guy.
And so on it went. Although it seemed that both Hayate and Hayabusa were either deeply involved in work, or not listening. Although, she had a feeling she knew which was likely.
"Ryu?" A period of silence. She turned to see him, work completed, (why didn't that surprise her?) basically asleep at the desk. She elbowed him hard under the desk and he started to attention. "Sorry, sir,"
"Not paying attention?" Old guy asked, tapping his roll with the pen he was holding.
"Just waiting for the next lot of work, sir," Hayabusa said tiredly. The old guy shook his head, waving a finger.
"Don't work ahead so much. Then you wouldn't have time to fall asleep in class, would you?"
"No, sir," was the simple response before he put his head on the desk again. Shrugging, she waited for her name, last as always. She had to elbow Hayate as well, for much the same reason as Hayabusa.
"Sorry, sir," Hayate said hastily, recalling how it had worked once before.
"You still have work to do, don't you, Hayate?" the old guy asked. Hayate nodded blankly before putting his head on the desk again. After the roll was called, he gave them questions from the textbook about Russia under the Tsar's leadership. Who really cares? She thought as she wrote the question out. She didn't have a clue.
"Psst," she whispered, poking Hayabusa gently in the arm. "You done these questions?"
A book was pushed across the desk before he resumed sleeping or whatever the hell he was doing. She smiled, and copied the answers directly. The teacher was old and probably half senile, right? So he wouldn't notice if she copied. He didn't seem to care about Hayate and Hayabusa sleeping their way through the class. And they were both prefects, weren't they? If prefects were allowed to sleep through class, then he couldn't complain that she had copied someone else's work. Besides, it was a stupid question on a stupid topic. That gave her the right to copy.
To her surprise, they got an extra recess break about forty-five minutes into the lesson. "Has it on your timetable, see," Hayate pointed out, who had coincidentally woken up for the recess break.
"Do you always sleep through that class?" she asked.
"What else is there to do?" Hayate responded.
"Good point," she conceded.
As they walked out, she saw that guy that Hayate had called Jann-Lee again. He looked at her and was about to say something, but then saw Hayate or Hayabusa, she didn't know which, glared at them both, and walked off again.
"You scared him off," Hayate laughed as they continued walking. Hayabusa rolled his eyes, albeit more 'genteelly' then that. "His problem,"
"Calling him stupid probably wasn't the best thing, even though it was years ago,"
"I didn't say 'stupid," Hayabusa shot back. "I called him 'mentally challenged',"
"Big difference," Hayate scoffed.
"He holds rancour well," Hayabusa observed mildly.
"English translation?" she asked, interrupting their conversation.
"A grudge," Hayabusa told her.
"You're an idiot," Hayate oh-so politely informed his friend.
"You are," was the blunt response.
"You are,"
"You are,"
"You two are both extremely and unconditionally juvenile," she surmised, stopping to stare at them both.
"Yeah, and he's an idiot," Hayate added.
"You are," Hayabusa shot back.
"Well in that case, I'm a better idiot then you," Hayate challenged.
"Oh, no. I'm not falling for that again," That look of amusement which only shined through to the eyes, but lit them up. Hayate smiled. He does that a lot around Hayabusa, doesn't he? She thought to herself. He doesn't smile that much at home…
"A while ago we ended up having an argument over who was the better idiot. I won, of course," Her brother was grinning quite cutely by this stage. "Because I'm so wonderful and everybody loves me, me winning was inevitable,"
"No you didn't, no you aren't, no they don't, and no it wasn't, because you didn't," Hayabusa informed him.
"Shut up," Hayate said, shaking his head, but still smiling.
They were interrupted by a loud whistle. "Ooh, getting serious there, are you?" One of the guys said, winking suggestively. She recognised them as the small group which consisted of that Leon guy and the two sitting with him in history. Leon had closely cropped hair and small narrowed eyes, which for some odd reason reminded her of a squinting pig. The second guy had short black hair and beady black eyes, whilst the other guy had blonde wavy hair and sky-blue eyes. All were standing there looking menacing.
"I hope you're talking about him and Ayane," Hayate said in a low voice. Something, however, told her that they weren't. So it wasn't just me that thought that! At least I'm not going crazy, but… Hayate and Hayabusa don't look too happy…
Leon stepped forward, flexing his muscles. "Nah. You two, always getting all the attention from the ladies. Especially since you got this little slut from who knows where," His voice was gruff.
"Yeah. Where'd she come, the local whorehouse?"
She was going to make a sarcastic comment but before she could, Hayabusa stepped forward.
"Get out of here and leave Ayane out of this," His voice was soft, dangerously so.
"What are you going to do about it, sissy boy?" Leon cracked his knuckles loudly.
There was silence for a moment, before Hayabusa did something that nearly made her crack up laughing there and then. It just tickled her somewhat eccentric sense of humour.
"What's the big deal?" he asked, cracking his knuckles even louder then Leon had. "You can crack your knuckles. Congratulations. Now that we've gone past bravado, you were saying?"
"Ryu, don't worry about it," Hayate stepped forward, only to be stopped by Leon's flunkies, whoever they were.
"He's started it. Let him finish it," One of them said. Hayate rolled his eyes.
"Hello? At least settle this outside school. The teachers will be on us in a second if they catch us fighting. Do it at the park or something,"
"At four," the first flunkey agreed.
"Good idea. There's better turf there," the other one said.
She couldn't resist. "Pah. You make it sound as though you're playing a game of cricket or something," she scoffed.
"What's your problem, whore?" Leon snapped. She immediately became angry.
"That's my insult, dickhead. Take it back or get a kick in the nuts for good measure,"
"You couldn't if you tried," he hissed back. She raised an eyebrow.
"How much do you wanna bet on that, arsehole?"
As always, anything was interrupted by the bell. She glared at Leon and his flunkies.
"See you in the park, sissies. And you better be there. Otherwise I'll have to kick you tomorrow. Twice for good luck,"
The rest of the history lesson went quite quickly. She was waiting for the fight, although not because she was looking forward to it, exactly. She observed that both Hayate and Hayabusa seemed awfully tense about it, and rather terse as well. Glares kept on being exchanged between them and Leon and his flunkies. She added a few herself for good measure.
Soon enough, school finished, and she and Hayate walked home. Kasumi was probably getting a lift with someone, she was told. Yeah, and a root, I bet, stupid slut, she thought angrily. They were going to go back to the park at four.
"Do you think they'll show?" she asked Hayate.
"Don't know," He shook his head. "Ryu's such an idiot sometimes. You wouldn't believe it, but he and Jann-Lee are notorious for getting themselves into fights, but Jann-Lee mostly because he provokes them. Ryu just steps in and plays the Good Samaritan, which gets him into them. He's an idiot. I think the teachers said it was a record, two students fighting in the first half hour of year seven,"
"Will he be okay?" she questioned. Gentlemen usually can't fight, at least from what I've seen. And I don't want the only person that's been nice to me other then my brother bashed to a pulp. You know?
"He'll be fine," Hayate dismissed with a wave of his hand. She wasn't so certain, but didn't say anything.
They got to the park just before four. Hayabusa was sitting there, looking rather relaxed, by all means. They had all changed out of their (snobby) school uniforms into casual clothes.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they don't show," she mused aloud. "They seemed all talk to me,"
"Hey, um, Ryu?" Hayate sounded uncertain. "Say they do show, what happens if some innocent bystanders walk past and see you two beating the hell out of each other?"
"Make sure it doesn't happen," was the reply. Hayate shrugged. "Suit yourself,"
There was a rustling of the bushes as Leon stepped out, accompanied by his flunkies.
"So you turned up, pretty-boy. I have to say I'm surprised,"
"Me too," Hayabusa responded shortly.
"With what?" One of Leon's flunkies asked, looking perplexed.
"That you have words as long as 'surprised' in your vocabulary," Hayabusa brushed some hair out of his face.
She couldn't help laughing at that. What an idiot. But an oh-so funny idiot. Beside her, Hayate dropped his head into his hands to hide the grin on his face.
After a few seconds of contemplation, Leon's eyes narrowed, and he reached out to grab the shorter man. It seemed that the fight had just begun.
With cat-like grace, he ducked and rolled underneath Leon's arms, easily evading the solider man. Within a second he was on his feet again. Leon threw a punch which, if Hayabusa hadn't been blocking it, would have sent him halfway across the park, now fighting arena. Even still, it caused him to become slightly off balance for a second, which Leon pounced on, literally. He shoved the shorter man to the ground, but Hayabusa managed to get out of it, somehow, retaliating with a series of kicks, sending Leon against a tree.
"You little bastard!" Leon spluttered, kicking down hard against Hayabusa's ankles, but he was ready. He caught the kick and delivered a counter blow which sent the larger man to the ground once more.
It certainly was an interesting contrast. Leon, more brute force then anything else, with muscles to match, and Hayabusa, who seemed to rely more on weaker but faster attacks, and graceful as a cat. Suddenly, one of the flunkies shouted something inaudible even to her. Everyone turned to look at the flunkies, including Hayabusa. However, 'everyone' didn't include Leon, who sprung on the diversion. She winced as he grabbed and twisted Hayabusa's arm behind his shoulder, and winced again as there was a loud crack, and Leon threw him to the ground. However, instead of pain, she saw fire burning in those emerald eyes as he jumped back to his feet.
"Two can play at that game," he hissed. Leon kicked out, a blow which would have hit his stomach, but Hayabusa caught the incoming blow, grabbed the taller man's leg, and used his body weight to push it in the opposite direction. She winced again at the cracking noise.
"Damn, why does this end up being so crunchy?"
Hayate shrugged, still absorbed in the fight. "Dunno, but these guys are gonna be in plaster for a while after this,"
"You little…" Leon swiped out with his hand, but couldn't get up. From the cracking noise, she assumed that Hayabusa had broken his leg. The flunkies immediately rushed to his side as she and Hayate went up to Hayabusa.
"You're an idiot," Hayate stated.
"I know," Hayabusa grabbed his left shoulder, and shoved it back into place with a sickening crack, and a small wince. She flinched again at the sound of it.
"Do you mind?"
"You dislike the cracking noise of joints that much?" he asked. She nodded.
"Knuckles and things like that are okay, but when something actually breaks, I don't like the sound of that. Call me crazy,"
"His leg isn't broken. It sounded worse then it actually is,"
"Well, that's okay then," Hayate said sarcastically.
"Oh!" she just remembered something. "Hang on a sec,"
She strode over to Leon and flunkies. "I owe you something, if I remember correctly,"
Perhaps there was fear there. If there was, she couldn't see it. That could be remedied.
She brought her stiletto down. If that couldn't invoke fear, nothing could.