I'm glad that you guys liked the 'other' side to Ryu's personality. Not even the best of us can remain cool and calm forever, right? (Just so no-one misinterprets, that wasn't supposed to be hinting towards me… I'm always insane… moo ha!) But anyway, even Hayabusa loses his cool sometime or other. Tee hee hee!

Well, it was her turn up to bat. She couldn't help but laugh, seeing how Leon had just got his arm broken care of Hayabusa. Kind of funny, really. Even though the odd wild throw that Hayabusa was throwing indicated well and truly that his thoughts were elsewhere, and she could guess just exactly where they were.

Which she didn't like.

She swung the bat around, trying to warm up her arms. Hopefully years of playing softball in primary school did something. And she would get a home run, too. She deserved one, after all. She could do it. Show everyone what she was made of.

Walking up to the plate, she dropped into the batting position and watched as Hayabusa pitched the ball.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed, just jumping out of the way of the ball. "You're supposed to be going for the plate, not me!"

He glared at her, something she had never actually seen before, not containing that much venom, anyway. To some extent, it concerned her.

Hayate threw him the ball back and he nearly dropped it, turning away from her to converse with Kasumi, who was behind him. After a few seconds, Hayabusa turned back to her and threw a perfect ball down the line. And it was damn fast, too. But…

She swung, fully expecting the bat to vibrate as the ball ricocheted into the outfield. However, there was nothing. Just the dull sound of ball against leather as Hayate caught the ball easily.

"Nice pitch, Ryu," Hayate offered from behind her, throwing the ball back.

That was certainly anger-making. She grasped the bat tighter, and watched again as Hayabusa threw another perfect pitch. She swung.

"Fuck!" she cursed as Hayate caught the ball again, tut-tutting at her.

"Ayane, Ayane… your language is abominable. You should be mortified at your own incoherence,"

"At least I speak bloody English!" she retorted, considering whether she should give Hayate a 'lesson in English' with the softball bat.

"Strike two!" Bass yelled from behind, obviously just come back from treating Leon and not caring about the language she had used. "One more! Get ready, first!"

She gritted her teeth. This time she would do it. If that stupid bitch Leifang had done it, she could do it too. Right?

She swung.

"What the bloody fuck?" she swore as Hayate caught the ball easily. For a third time.

Hayate stood up, offering her the ball with both hands in almost mocking salute.

"You have approximately two seconds to get away from me before I pound your head in with this bat. You understand?"

Hayate understood.

As Ryu watched Ayane yelling and cursing at Hayate, he felt a sense of sadness wash through him. I was harsher on her then I was on anybody else. And I don't know why, either. Ayane, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Just… I didn't know what else to do…

I'm such a fool.

"Hayabusa, you arsehole!" Ayane yelled from across the diamond. He raised an eyebrow.

Yes. I know.

"This tastes like shit," Ayane threw the hamburger down. After school, they had decided to have an early dinner. Probably not the best thing to do, especially in fast food restaurants, but it was too late now.

"Probably made of shit, too," Hayate snickered, taking another bite of his own hamburger. It made him grateful that he was eating a salad.

"So…" Hayate started, looking hesitantly over at him. "I meant to ask. How are things at home now?"

"Fine. Why do you ask?"

"Not a lot. Just perhaps, some crazy bastard tying you down and planning to do who-knows what?" Ayane asked sarcastically, having given up on the burger and was now nibbling on some fries.

"The same person who is your father, not mine?" he questioned pointedly. She shot him a glare, but he spoke hurriedly before she could say anything. "That aside for a moment, I meant to ask you. How was the formal? I didn't actually end up being there for much of it,"

"Pretty good. I think Hitomi got a bit confused, but we got the first dance together, so she was happy," Hayate smiled. "I think she went off with Zack, after a while, actually. She and him have seemed to hit it off. At least, they're good friends now,"

"Zack? He's just a man-whore. I thought she would have had more sense then to fall for him," Ayane spat out, stabbing her hamburger with her fork for emphasis. He winced as sauce splattered out with the sheer force she exhibited.

"I seem to remember something about her kicking his backside if he even goes within fifteen feet of another girl. She does karate, you see," Hayate informed them.

"Ah," Ayane continued munching on her fries without saying anything else.

They hadn't spoken a great deal since his confession to her earlier. That was probably his fault. He hadn't been brave enough to initiate conversation, and wasn't likely to have anyway. She wouldn't bother. Normally, he wouldn't either, but for some reason felt as though he should. That made him uncomfortable and even less likely to start talking.

"So I hear that Kasumi's finally given up on you, Ryu," a cocky grin made its way onto his friend's face. "You were too out of her league, were you?"

He shook his head. "We were both trying make the relationship into what we thought was a perfect relationship. Therefore, it wouldn't work, especially with our views on what a perfect relationship was. She was trying to be somebody she wasn't, and I was trying to imagine that she was somebody that she wasn't. We were trying to link things back to Irene too much,"

Ayane raised an eyebrow. "Seems odd that she would do that. She's good enough at being herself… A.K.A a bitch, but…"

"So close," Hayate muttered. "But yet… oh so far,"

"You know, she's not as bad as you make her out to be," he suggested, turning to her.

"Then go and fall in love with her!" she exploded.

Silence fell across the cafeteria. Even people from other tables and some of the waiters and waitresses turned to look at them questioningly.

Hayate was looking from him, to Ayane, then back to him again.

"So… is there… is there something I've missed?" his friend asked tentatively.

He felt a light flush make its way onto his cheeks as he stood up to leave. "Nothing,"

Before Hayate or Ayane could stop him, he went across to the counter to pay, before walking out of the cafeteria. A light breeze caressed his skin, cool enough to make him shiver, unrolling his shirt sleeves to cover his arms. I knew I shouldn't have told her. Of course she would have used it when I wasn't expecting it… throw it back against me…

But that's exactly what I did with Hayate the other day.

He rubbed his arms gently, setting down the street at a faster pace. I don't think I can apologise enough for that… I can tell that he hasn't quite forgiven me, yet.

Hopefully he will… then at least somebody can be civil to me. Or maybe it's just me not being civil to anybody…

He glanced down at his shoes before looking back up and walking into the sunset.

"Right…" Hayate was staring at Ayane intently. "So he's decided he loves you?"

"Something like that," she waved a hand airily. "I don't really know or care much,"

Perhaps I shouldn't have said that to him. Because I was the same person that wanted him to confide more in me… even though I never actually told him in those words. But he seemed to understand. Perhaps the only reason I wanted him to confide in me was so that he didn't confide in Kasumi. It was my chance to win some. But win some, lose some… and I think I've lost his friendship.

Not that that bothers me. Too much, I guess…

Hell, who am I trying to kid. He was the only one that was being nice to me at this stupid hole of a school and I've just thrown it back in his face. Perhaps Hayate was right when he called me a bitch earlier.

It must be a bitch for him, getting to trust people. I mean… getting your arse kicked by your father would make you suspicious of everybody. Well, it would make me suspicious of everybody. And for some reason, I don't think we're really that different, after everything. Just we show anger in different ways. I show it, he doesn't.

But he trusts Hayate a lot, obviously. And if he can trust Hayate, that means he can trust me, right? Or have I screwed that up too much?

I might have. I wouldn't trust me.

Goes to show that the only person you can trust is yourself.

But what if you can't even trust them?

"Ayane?" Hayate was waving his hand in front of her face. "Anyone home?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, I zoned out there for a moment. Well… I'm sick of this food-hole. Let's go,"

Hayate sighed. "You and he hit it off from the moment you met. You weren't automatically a bitch; he wasn't automatically dot-dot-dotty. I should have guessed something was up from the start," for some reason, he looked as though he had visibly drooped, like a flower left out of water for too long.

She stared at him. "You seem… unhappy,"

Hayate smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. "Yeah, perhaps. I'm sick of pretending that everything is one hundred percent with Ryu and I. That comment he made the other day about Irene's death is still bugging me. It shouldn't, I know. Perhaps I'm just being petty. But I'm sick of putting on this happy front to everybody. And there's not a lot of point, anyway,"

She snorted. "Imagine your fan-club if you got depressed, Hayate. They'd be all over you,"

Hayate shook his head. "No. They wouldn't care. They think they like me, but they don't know who I really am. Not really. Sometimes I wonder if I really know me. It's easy to tell that my front isn't working with Ryu. I can tell,"

"How?" she raised an eyebrow. Well, just call me Miss Unobservant, I didn't notice Hayate was putting on a front for anything, and I didn't notice that Hayabusa noticed that Hayate was putting on the front which I didn't notice… arg.

"One of the few things I can tell about him. He's really hard to read. It bothers me to some extent," Hayate ran a hand through his shoulder-length hair, golden with the setting sun rays shining on it. "Anyway, we've been here too long. We should probably head off,"

They paid and set off home, walking down the street. She found a bottle to the side of the road and they took it in turns to kick it down the asphalt.

"He probably hates me now," For some reason, that bothered her a lot more then it should have. "It's like second nature to be all defensive. But with him, it seems… different,"

"I doubt it," Hayate kicked the bottle with enough force to send it into someone's yard and didn't bother to retrieve it. "I think you're softening up, Ayane. Normally you wouldn't give a damn as to how defensive you are to someone and whether they hate you or not,"

I feel a little guilty. But I can't admit that. "Like that stupid bitch Kasumi. She can just go burn in the fires of hell and I would watch and laugh,"

"For instance," Hayate agreed. "But with Ryu, you really do care. It's odd,"

She remained silent for a moment. "Perhaps," she said finally, not wanting to elaborate. Hayate seemed to understand, and they walked the rest of the way down the street in silence, turning down Hayabusa's street.

"Why are we going down here?" she questioned.

"All the time you've been living in our house and you don't know it's the fastest way home?"

"Well… I hated geography," she muttered.

Something seemed to alert Hayate to something and he glanced up. "Ryu? You're on the roof why, may I ask?"

She followed her half-brother's gaze to see… surprisingly enough, Hayabusa on the roof.

Hayabusa glanced down at them from his higher vantage point, but didn't say anything.

"You don't have to be civil if you don't want to!" she chimed in.

To her surprise, Hayabusa shot a glance over his shoulder warily, as if he was expecting somebody to climb on the roof and jump him with her words. It was only then that she noticed one half of his face was bruised and bloodied. "Shit, what'd you do, fall off the roof?"

He turned back to her abruptly, before shaking his head and walking off, disappearing onto a different bit of the roof that they couldn't see him and presumedly, he them.

"Nothing like being antisocial or anything…" she muttered, angry at being snubbed like that. Perhaps I'm so angry because I knew I deserved it.

Meanwhile, beside her, Hayate had tensed slightly, as if he knew what was going on. I'm glad that he damn well does. "Hang on a second, Ayane,"

She suddenly had Hayate's bag lumped on her. She turned to berate him, but he had disappeared.