"Calculus? Isn't that something you do with your calculator?"
Ryu laughed despite himself. "Not quite. Let me explain. It's a bit difficult, but a lot easier once you get the hang of it…"
He's so patient. I really should be more grateful he's helping me like this. Any sensible person wouldn't. One wonders why he does it.
Obediently, he scribbled down the question from the textbook, resisting the urge to goggle at it like a child who had just experienced their first roller coaster, for example. Yes, his stomach had abandoned him on the first drop.
An hour later, they had made very little progress. He had been biting his lip, digging the point of his pen into his skin, anything to stop from screaming, lashing out at his wall, crying, or anything other then being neutral. Ryu sighed, stretching his legs out underneath the desk.
"What about we leave it there for now, have a bit of a break? It's a difficult topic, don't expect it to work straight away. You're doing well,"
"Hardly. You don't have be nice about the fact that I'm crap, Ryu,"
Ryu eyed him over the top of the maths textbook. "You're not crap. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You weren't in my class until year nine, so you don't know just how bad at maths I was before then. That's probably a good thing, come to think of it,"
"Yeah, what, an A++ average or something?" he asked sarcastically.
"Far from it. In fact the mark you got on your last test would have made my marks in maths look positively appalling in comparison. Of course, they were," Ryu shook his head briefly. "Your mark would have been good for me, or so I would have thought,"
"So, you suddenly just woke up and knew all the answers or something?" he asked, confused. He's probably just trying to make me feel better. "How could you be anything but a perfect student?"
Ryu did a very un-Ryu like thing; he snorted out loud, looking at him sceptically. "Perfect? Far from. Father did the only thing he could do, I suppose. He set an ultimatum. One that made me work and try to get good marks," Ryu's voice trailed off. "Anyway, back to the calculus,"
"What was it?" He started it. It's his fault for telling me if he didn't want the conversation to go further. Although it is my fault that I'm so curious about everything… but it's his fault for being so… closed off, which makes me curious… and then… Ryu sighed, shaking his head.
"Hmm? You want me to set you an ultimatum, like if you don't pass then I have legitimate grounds to smash you into a bloody pulp or something?"
"Was that it?" he raised an eyebrow. "How eloquent,"
"No, no," Ryu was sounding either impatient or apprehensively trying to hurry the conversation along; he couldn't decide which one. "I shouldn't have mentioned it,"
"But you did. Not my fault you have a big mouth,"
Ryu did another very uncharacteristic thing, waved a finger at him condescendingly. "Not fit for human consumption, my friend. You've had enough break for one day. What do you say we either keep on going, or would you prefer to call it off for today?"
"What do you think?" Before Ryu could say 'continue, naturally,' he had packed his books up on the desk, shoved them to one corner of it, and jumped onto his bed. "Enough for one day. Thanks again for your help. Would you like to stay for dinner or something?"
"I…" Ryu hesitated, looking suddenly almost… scared? No way… about what? Our dinners aren't that scary, are they? "I don't know if I can. I'll see,"
Even though it was his room, he felt it the right thing to leave Ryu alone while he was making the phone call to his somewhat volatile father. After a few minutes, the door opened and Ryu smiled. A tired smile, but which told him nothing at all.
"Yes, it's fine,"
"Really? Great," he smiled back, feeling better then he had all day. "What don't you like to eat? I'll make sure we serve up lots of it,"
"Thanks, Hayate. You make me feel so welcome,"
"Déjà vu, Ryu," he waved a finger much like his friend had earlier, in joking mockery. "Hey, that rhymes! Who's smart?"
"It couldn't be you…" Ryu contemplated. "Hmm, let's see… I'm running out of possibilities,"
"You're looking at him!"
"No,"
"Yes,"
"No,"
"Yes,"
There was a pause, before Ryu stood up and put a hand to his cheek theatrically.
"Wait, wait… I think I've heard this one before!"
"Does sound familiar, huh…" he stopped mid-thought. "Wait… I almost forgot. Ultimatum. What was it? You should know better then to mention something then decide you don't want to talk about it any further with me, because I won't drop it,"
"You're like a dog with a bone. You just won't give up, will you?"
"Woof woof. Now tell me. Or…" he trailed off, thinking hard. "I'll… umm… do… something. Yup, something. Something bad,"
"Hayate, three words. Give it up," Ryu ran a hand through his hair, before forcefully pulling out the tie, letting his hair fall over his shoulders, playing carelessly with the tie.
"Come on. You should open up more. Stop being so… so enigmatic,"
Ryu blinked, turning to stare at him. "Rather long word coming from your big mouth,"
He frowned. "Thanks. Seriously,"
"Maybe," Ryu smiled at him faintly, before dropping his head, auburn hair masking his expression. "You're not the first person to tell me that,"
"You don't think… shock horror, that could actually prove something, do you?" he asked sarcastically, brushing his own hair away from his face, having a sudden urge to play with it for lack of anything better to do.
"You're not the first person who doesn't know when to drop something,"
"Very funny," he muttered, before he was suddenly interrupted by his mother's voice.
"Hayate! Ryu! Dinner!"
They went down and sat at the table. He soon noticed the absence at the table. Kasumi wasn't there. Ayane avoided eye contact with them both, and his father remained as stoic as usual. What a change. Welcome to my world, Ryu.
"Hey, where's Kasumi?" he asked. His mother turned around from the stove to face him, smiling as she brought over their plates of food.
"She's gone to stay at a friend's house over the long weekend. She'll be back on Sunday,"
"Oh. Fair enough,"
The meal was relatively quiet, apart from the odd bit of polite conversation here and there, and Ayane shooting him evil looks every so often. That was, until the conversation trod into very unsafe territory, and completely evaporated his good mood within seconds.
"So Hayate, you never told me how that maths test went," his father said jovially, causing Ryu to drop his fork, apologise profusely and duck under the table to retrieve it. Hayate was sorely tempted to try the same escape route, but his father was looking attentively at him.
"Uh… right. Well, we… ah, haven't got the results back yet. Sorry," he stuttered out. Even his dog realised that he was lying, judging by the expression it was wearing.
"Oh?" His father looked surprised. "Odd. Schools are usually so punctual with that sort of thing. So they haven't given you the results either, Ryu?"
Ryu, having retrieved his fork from under the table, just saving it from the dog's slobbery mouth, sat back, after apologising again. "Err, no. We haven't,"
Thankyou. He said mentally. Even though I'm only delaying the inevitable, thankyou.
Soon afterwards, they finished their dinner and went back to his room, he bouncing on the bed half-heartedly, and Ryu perched on the desk-chair.
Silence for a moment, before Ryu spoke up.
"Hayate? Do you have an aspirin or something?"
He sat up. "How come? Your arm?"
Ryu nodded. He went to the bathroom cabinet, pulled out an aspirin, got a glass of water and returned to his room. When he came back, Ryu was spinning around on the desk-chair, reading the maths textbook.
"Geez. You must be bored. I didn't think I left you for that long," He handed the water and aspirin to his friend. "Thanks for helping me out at dinner,"
"No problem. Although you won't be able to do it forever,"
"I know, I know…" he sighed.
"Thankyou again for dinner. I should probably get going, too, because otherwise Father might get angry with me," Ryu stood up.
"Alright. I know that really you can't stand being in my wonderful presence, because it overshadows you. Right?"
"Whatever,"
As he stood up to walk his friend out, Ayane stopped them, blocking the way.
"Hayabusa,"
Ryu looked at her from under auburn hair. "Yes?"
"I want to talk to you tomorrow. Alone, preferably," she crossed her arms, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that she was having trouble digesting some humble pie, so to speak.
"Umm. Okay,"
Hayate shot his friend a look.
"Umm. Says you, the eloquent speaker. Umm,"
"Shut up,"
"No,"
"Yes,"
"No,"
"Both of you, sock a put in it," Ayane shot them both a dark look. "You're making my ears bleed, you bastards,"
Ryu looked at Hayate and shrugged. He shrugged back. "See you tomorrow,"
"Bye,"
Ryu sighed softly. No signs of his father as of yet. That was good. He headed straight up the stairs, to his room, lying down on the bed and shutting his eyes.
I wonder what that was about? Although, I have to admit, Hayate was right. Umm. Spoken like a true idiot. Whether I do like Ayane or not, my 'umm' certainly proves something.
Abruptly, he heard a shrill beep as his phone rang, signifying a message. He glanced at it, and his eyes widened as they glanced over the message, telling him all he had to know.
Hayabusa, you probably won't believe me, but I've gone away for a little. Not really running away, but the general idea. Please tell my family that I'll be okay, and I'll be back by the end of the week. Thanking you in advance, Kas. If you're desperate to contact me, you know my mobile. But try not to… please.
He shook his head, running a hand through his hair, suddenly weary. "What is she playing at?" he asked the wall, half expecting an answer, until he rubbed his eyes and tried to pull himself together a bit more.
Alright. So Kasumi's run off for a while. Why? Something to do with Ayane? Helena? Hayate? Me? No… why would it be me, what am I thinking… probably to see Helena and offer her sympathies… but then again, she shouldn't need to run away to do that… why is she confiding in me about this? Why not her brother? What's going on?
He needed time to think. Without fear of repercussions from his father. Only solution was…
A few minutes later, Ryu Hayabusa could be found on the roof.