My wrist just cracked. Poor me.

Onto more useful notes. Thanks, Uselesspawn for saying that I was dedicated, posting two chapters in one day… actually, to me it was two days *sheepish grin* I forgot about the time difference… silly me.

Oh, with this chapter. I'm not sure if I spelt Raidou right! Tell me if I haven't… actually, I could just check myself. *Slaps self on wrist* Kurmoi, you lazy bitch, you. But this means I have to MAKE it to Raidou… oh well, unlimited health for a reason, ya? *Evil grin* Yes, I did spell it correctly. Who's a legend? You're looking at her! (Well, her typing…)

Oh, and I don't like Raidou. Made evident later on.

*

A car pulling up in the driveway alerted him to the fact that his father was home, and he, to put it in the vernacular, would be screwed over if his father found him on the roof. Backing up to where the roof overshadowed the backyard, he deftly sprung off, landing on the grass with the delicacy of a cat.

Opening the back door and entering the house, he soon realised that he and his father were not the only people in the house, judging by the voices. Who could they be? He walked into the kitchen and stared, surprised, at his father, plus two other males who looked surprised at his entry, before they started leering at him. Drinking friends, judging by the smell of alcohol. God knows how inebriated Father is this time…

"Hey, this kid's a looker," One of the men came up, driving him back into the wall, tilting his chin up to stare into his eyes. "Wouldn't mind a piece of him, eh?"

Before he could react, his father had come up behind the man and swatted his hand away.

"Piss off. That's my son, you dirty bastard,"

"Yeah, Raidou," the other man laughed. "You freaking paedophile,"

'Raidou' turned around for a moment, before returning his gaze to Ryu. With a frightening realisation, the teenager realised that the thoughts going on in Raidou's head were rather… explicit, to say the least. The fact that those explicit thoughts were about him was not lost on him, either. He attempted to push away from the wall, but Raidou's bulk and at least five inches on him proved that a difficult feat.

"Hey, Raidou, piss off, you lunatic. Go find someone closer your age, you dirty old man,"

"But I like this one!" Raidou whined. Ryu coughed lightly, having received an unpleasant blast of alcohol-breath, and the older man turned back to him. "Screw it," he pushed the teenager away. "Maybe later,"

"Maybe not," he muttered, escaping out of the kitchen before Raidou sobered enough to notice his insolent retort. It had happened enough before for him to know what to do. Whenever his father brought his friends back after drinking, it made him wonder how they managed to make it back without crashing, they were that inebriated. Inebriation beyond merely tipsy, into the stage of drunken stupidity. Then again, if he didn't get out of there quickly enough, Raidou would follow him, something which could be painful if he didn't watch himself. The day was already bad enough without getting his head pounded in.

"Where'd that little shit go?" He heard Raidou's voice from the next room.

There was a snort from his father. "Who gives a damn? Shut the hell up, you stupid bastard. Find someone else's kid to screw. Or that slut woman you had all those years ago. What happened to her, huh? She get a sore arse from you screwing her so much? Did you even go back to her after you heard she had a kid? No, you stupid, dirty old man. That's what you're supposed to do, dickhead,"

What? I don't think I even want to know. He turned to go up the stairs, then stopped as a hand ominously touched his shoulder.

"Come to think of it, Raidou is right,"

It was the other man who had somehow excused himself from his father and Raidou's argument. Looking rather evil, actually. Must be the alcohol.

"Don't even think about it," he hissed before he could think to keep his temper in, pushing off the other man's hand. "Why don't you go out into the city streets? I'm sure you'll find someone there who'll have you,"

"You're a little smart arse," With that, a hand grabbed him by the shirt front. Forgetting about self control, he lashed out with his right elbow, catching the taller man in the stomach. The man staggered, his grip weakening, and Ryu took that opportunity to run up the stairs, into his room and lock the door. 

They're disgusting. Fools, only pleasure they have is getting inebriated beyond sanity.

He could almost imagine Hayate's response if he were here. A casual, laid back smile.

"Geez, you guys really need to go and get laid,"

He sighed, turning to his desk, festooned with papers from various assignments. I suppose I should start on those. A history assignment beckoned at him, two thousand-word essay. He ignored it, instead pulling out his guitar from behind the desk. An old acoustic guitar, but still had extremely good sound quality.

Strumming it gently, he began playing through several minor chords. He was in the middle of playing a sad blues tune when there was a loud pounding on the door.

"Hey, kid. Some chick's at the door for you,"

What? Why? Who, more specifically? Is she still intact? You haven't put dirty, drunken hands all over her? He opened the door, dodging Raidou, who was grinning all the while, and went down to the door. Seeing orange hair more then a person's face, he gasped at the realisation. "Kasumi? What are you doing here?"

She raised her head, bright amber eyes staring intently at him. "I needed to talk to you. I… I'm sorry if this was a bad time or anything,"

He glanced behind him, where his father's friends were standing, talking amongst themselves in the doorway, occasionally turning to stare at him. "No, of course not. But perhaps we should step outside," Without waiting for a response, he gently hustled her out of the door, to the front yard. Finally, he spoke.

"What's wrong? I thought you were going,"

She gulped, he could hear her swallow. "I was. But I… I couldn't do it without speaking to you first. I really needed to speak to you, is all. You don't mind, do you?"

He shook his head mutely, and she nodded, and started speaking in a rush.

"Hayabusa, I… I'm sorry. To put you on the spot and everything like this, I shouldn't have come here, really, but…"

"Wait," he instructed her gently but firmly. "What is wrong?"

"Well… I wanted to go to the dance with you, you know it's fairly soon, right? But… I forgot about Irene. I mean- I didn't forget about Irene like that… god… what must you think of me? No, I didn't mean forgot about her like that, I meant, you know… no you probably don't… don't worry, Hayabusa, I'll go now-"

He put a hand gently on the younger girl's shoulder which made her start, since he was renowned for avoiding physical contact whenever possible. "Don't worry about it. I would be honoured to go to the dance with you as my partner, Kasumi,"

"No, I shouldn't have- what?" Amber eyes stared up innocently into emerald green. "You would really do that for me?"

"Of course. There's no problem," Truth be told, a dance wasn't on his list of 'must-dos' but if that was what she wanted, then who was he to refuse her? Besides, I'm sure that's what Irene would want. She always was so selfless. If I couldn't go with her, then Irene would want me to go with Kasumi… even though I…

His thoughts were interrupted by mocking coos coming from inside. He glared in Raidou's direction, slamming the door shut with enough force to make the house shake before realising his mistake. Not a good thing, either. I have now approximately a minute before Father comes out and hits me from here to next year.

Sure enough, ominous footsteps sounded inside the house. He turned hurriedly to Kasumi.

"You have to go, Kasumi. Please. Meet me tomorrow morning down at the CD shop in town, because I need to speak to you briefly. But you have to go now,"

"But why-" she broke off as the door suddenly got thrown open.

Poor door. It's going to be splinters by the end of the day. Not the first door on this house that ended up that way. "Go. Hurry!"

She did as instructed; not daring to look back as she deftly jumped the fence and ran down the street. It wasn't until she had nearly rounded the corner that she heard sounds that could only be… could only be…

No… it couldn't be… I must be imagining it.