This chapter certainly is an interesting one, sheds light on a bit of the lives at home that our two favourite ninjas (although not in this story!) have, and it ain't all pretty, either. There is more of a blow-up with Hayate and his dad, as well as Ryu and HIS dad later, but for now they're playing it nice. And a little more insight on Irene too…

*

He pursed his lips angrily, scanning through the maths book. This was all over his head. And the lecture that he had received hadn't done anything to make him feel better, either. Luckily Ryu had gone out of the room for it, otherwise the last of his pride would be severely dented. Not that it wasn't already, though. Asking for tutoring from your best friend? You had to be a special sort of stupid, or a big sort of desperate to ask for that.

"Then it just comes back to the parabola rule, remember?" His best friend was patient, he had to give him that. Even still, two hours of maths was daunting.

"Can we have a break?" he asked. Ryu nodded. "Might as well. You're doing well,"

He couldn't stop the inelegant snort. "Hardly. If I was doing well, I wouldn't need help in the first place," he sighed. "Father went angry in a big way. It's not anything bad, like physical. Just the words are so horrible. You know, the whole 'do you want to fail and bring shame to the family' thing, and all that. It makes me feel…" he paused, not having any idea how the tutoring session had somehow turned into a therapy session but not really caring. "…so useless. Like they're expecting me to fail. So I don't want to, but…"

"Don't worry about it," Ryu's voice was gentle and reassuring. "Worrying will only make things worse and make you feel worse about everything in the long run,"

"You sound like you're speaking from experience,"

There was a short sigh. "Perhaps. But I don't take my own advice. You should know that by now,"

"How do you like Ayane, just to randomly change the subject?" he asked suddenly. You would have had to have been blind to not notice the sudden little 'clicking' between his half-sister and best friend.

"She is a nice girl. But…" sudden pause. "I don't think that I will go head-long into any relationship with her just yet, before you try to set anybody up,"

"You were thinking that too? You did seem to get on with her well,"

"Wait until Irene's been dead a little longer?"

Ryu's voice sounded almost pained, and that was when he realised he had over-trodden the lines just a little.
"You know I can't apologise any more then I have already. She was a great girl,"

"You would probably know better then I,"

He laughed, and he could tell that it was bitter. "Probably. But she didn't seem to go for the average type of guy. She liked people that were more then just your fair average quality. Yes, I told you that it was fine when she asked you out, but even still…" he trailed off. He did still have feelings for Irene. Even though they weren't reciprocated. That hurt most of all, but was one of the things that he would never share.

"I didn't go out with her for a while, because I assumed that it would be like re-opening a wound. But obviously it still hasn't healed, even with her untimely demise. I shouldn't have,"

"No, it wasn't that. I don't mind that she liked you more then me. Just the way she implied that got to me a little. You two were closer then we ever were. Don't let it get to you,"

"Have Kasumi and Ayane always been that hostile towards each other?"

He paused, thinking. "Well, the hostility comes from Ayane, mostly. Kasumi fuels it without meaning to. You know what she's like. All innocent and 'blink-blink-blink' and Ayane gets driven crazy by it. She's more of a tough chick then Kasumi. She still relies on the cuteness factor. Ayane wouldn't be seen dead with it,"

"I find it hard to comprehend the fact that we have known each other for years and I have never met her before. Where was she?"

"To be honest, I have no idea. Maybe she was just out when you came over or something. Either way, it does seem odd when you put it like that,"

More silence. Unlike most people, however, he felt comfortable with his and Ryu's silences. It didn't mean anything other then he had stopped to take a breath, really.

"Hey, Ryu…" he paused, not knowing how to word his statement. "As oldest, I have to keep the family name going. Tradition sort of thing, you know? Ayane and Kasumi don't know much about it, but lately Mother and Father keep on dropping all these hints about it. And as annoying as it can be, I don't want to fail them, you know?"

"Not really," came the unexpected answer. "Sometimes I would like to fail for Father. Just to show that his word isn't law and he can't control my life. Unfortunately, the consequences would be far from enjoyable, so I prefer to suffer in silence,"

"You're joking, right?" Somehow, 'suffer in silence' didn't sound all that promising, no matter how serious or not his friend was being.

"I suppose so,"

"Why don't I believe you?"

His friend put an arm on the chair, and it was then that he noticed the bruises adorning it for the first time. "Hey," he started, poking one of them. "What happened here? I don't remember you getting hit in the fight in your arms,"

"Uh…" for the first time that he could remember, Ryu sounded extremely uncertain and hesitant. "Blocking…?"

"I would have believed that if you didn't sound so unsure of yourself whilst saying it,"

"Don't worry about it," The statement was short and finalising. "Why do you always have to change the subject?"

"Huh?" he was amazed at his friend's hypocrisy. "You just did!"

"That was because you did. And you changed the subject before me," Ryu withdrew the arm in previous discussion, sighing. "Anyway. Quadratic questions…"

"Hang on a minute. I'll talk, then you talk. Deal?" Without waiting for a response, he started. Someone had to know. For the first time he could remember, he wanted to open up. "I'm just worried that I'll fail them. Sure, I got the lecture before, which you probably heard. But it wasn't that that was so… bad. The looks. The disappointment. The 'try harder for the sake of the family, Hayate'. That was what did it,"

"The looks. I understand that, at least," Emerald eyes were staring at him thoughtfully. "If you want me to, I can keep on helping you. Don't think of it as tutoring, just as… mathematical indoctrinating,"

"Very funny," he rolled his eyes. "Stop pulling out the long words. It doesn't make this any easier, or any less tutoring,"

"I apologise," For a brief second, the look that he got was much older then his friend. Or perhaps he had just imagined it. When he blinked it had gone.

He brushed some stray hairs away from his face. There seemed to be more of them, now that his hair was bordering shoulder length. Just that he couldn't be bothered to cut it, the lazy person he was. "Your turn,"

"I didn't agree to that," Ryu was looking rather… what was the word? Stubborn. Very stubborn. Hayate sighed. They both had the tendency to be rather closed most of the time. However, he felt that there was a certain stage in the friendship where he could open up. Ryu obviously didn't. In all the years they had known each other, there wasn't much of the friendship based on 'fact'.

"Humour me. Stops me from doing this torture for a little longer, at least. For god's sake, the question was bound to come from somebody. It looks like you ran arms first into a wall or something. And the fact you didn't wear long sleeved anything is likely to make anyone wonder,"

"I appreciate your concern," The sarcasm was evident. No problems with opening up with that. "Didn't I come around to assist you with math, not to be given twenty questions about something completely irrelevant in the scheme of things?" he glanced at his watch. "I should probably be getting going, anyway. Father won't be impressed if I get home late again,"

"Suit yourself," Ryu certainly was an enigmatic person at times, although he probably didn't mean to be. "I'll just chug along here, wondering while being tortured by quadratic questions. Not that I mind. I'll just wonder…"

"Father wasn't happy with me being late," Ryu shot him a wry smile, rather ironic in the scheme of things. "Good night, Hayate,"

*

She cursed angrily. It wasn't fair. Who did those teachers think they were, giving them a literal stack of homework? And just to make things even worse, most of it was math homework, and she had nobody to do it for her!

She heard footsteps and voices. She glanced up.

"Thanks again," Her brother, sounding humble? He must have had to work hard at it. "It was a great help, even though this subject sucks," He noticed her. "Hey, Ayane. Doing math homework too? Having fun?"

"Oh, yeah," she grumbled. "Just fine and dandy. Stupid snob school, giving snobby stacks of smelly homework,"

"It was no problem," Hayabusa was looking rather tired by this stage, although that could have been just the way she interpreted it.