Disclaimer: I don't know why I bother with this…
AN: I'm such a lazy bum… As of now, updates will be based on the approximate formula t equals (r-14)squared/13, where r is the number of reviews I get three days after posting, and t is the number of days until the next post. (So I'm bored. Shaddup.) Hehe… I post chapters as soon as I can get them typed, but that can happen in bursts. I'm trying to keep myself on a schedule, and this is the best I could come up with. Pathetic, I know.
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marude subete no koto ga
umaku iiteru ka no you ni
mieru yo ne
hontou wa
futari shika shiranai
it looks like
absolutely everything
is working out perfectly
only the two of them know
the truth
(Appears (Ayumi Hamasaki))
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There was a slight stir in the halls of Meiou High as the latest rankings were posted and students compared results. Even the girls who congratulated him did not notice Minamino Shuuichi breathe a sigh of relief when he saw his name come first once more.
"Neeee Minaminosan, you did it again!"
"Stupid, he's first every time!"
"Almost full points!"
"He's so smart… nobody else can compare."
"I can't believe anyone would even try."
"Hahaha…"
With a tired smile, Shuuichi detached himself from the crowd and walked over to the last name on the wall.
"Yappari…" he said softly.
"Think that's funny, do you?" Hiei leaned against the wall, arms crossed defensively, though with a certain sort of caution due to his wounds, which quite ruined the overall effect. "Come to have a laugh at my scores?"
Shuiichi shook his head vehemently, shocked that anyone would even imply that he would do such a mean-spirited thing. As though finalizing its existence, he gave the name and the score beneath it one last stare before speaking again. "How did you do it? Less than three hundred points…"
He glared. "Oh, I forgot. Perfect Minamino got four hundred ninety-eight. So sorry I don't study for my tests, unlike certain teacher's pets."
"Why not?" Shuuichi asked, cocking his head with an innocently curious expression.
There was silence from the spiky-haired teen as he thought of what a truthful answer to that question would be: that he couldn't have studied because he was being beaten for the sinful act of existing, and that when he wasn't being beaten, he was nursing his wounds. That every day he went home he prayed to any god who would listen to have his father die in some sort of accident, and that every day his pleading went unanswered. That every blow to his frail body was an assault on his self-worth, so much that he didn't even believe in himself enough to let himself open a book.
"There's more to life than studying, Minamino," he snarled finally.
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It was early when Hiei reached his father's apartment, early enough that he stood outside for a while before going in, lest he be accused of skipping school. His memory offered up an image of a possible result if accused, borrowed from an incident two months prior, which involved his back in the mirror and a good deal of blood. Counting down the seconds on his watch, a beat-up specimen of black plastic lifted from a gutter, he began to walk very slowly to the door as though it might have torn his head off.
As it turned out, his wariness was rather useless, as all he found was a messy note in his father's handwriting, a message that brought a warm and fuzzy feeling to his heart.
"Not here. Back in a week. Find your own food."
"Wow," he muttered, shaking his head in disgust. It was just like the man to set off like that, knowing full well that his son had no money. Still, starving was definitely preferable to being beaten, and then there was the meal at Shuuichi's house to keep him alive. Yeah, things were looking up.
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"So… you're coming?" Shuuichi asked with this impossibly wide grin that would have made Hiei want to punch his face in if the teen hadn't been his meal ticket. "That's great; I already told kaasan you'd be there. We're gonna be having pretty simple stuff… hope you don't mind."
Mind? Hiei looked at him as though he were absolutely bonkers.
Taking his partner's gaping expression the wrong way, Shuuichi quickly backtracked. "I mean… if it's a problem, I can tell kaasan to make something else. I'm sure she can find something, you know…"
"It's okay!" Hiei interjected immediately. The less of a pain he was, the more often he could go over, or so the thinking went.
"Oh… all right then…" he said, still unsure. "Umm… then I'll see you then. I have some stuff to finish up, you know. Science project with Itetsusan." Waving rather apologetically, he started to walk in the direction of the building.
"Itetsusan…?"
"Itetsu Yukina," he clarified, turning back around. "Do you know her? She's in our class, actually. Certainly offers Kaitou a good deal of competition."
"But not you?" Hiei asked with anger running in currents under his offhand voice. Sure, he was the only person who knew she was his twin (shhh, don't tell!), but that didn't mean he wasn't honor-bound to defend her intelligence.
He flushed with embarrassment. "I didn't mean it that way…"
Somehow Hiei felt that Shuuichi had meant it that way. Why wouldn't he have? It was so natural for him to be above everyone else that it should not even have occurred to him to acknowledge others' abilities as on his level. It would not have made sense.
"Well, later…"
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"How about I do the odd numbered problems and you do the evens?"
There was a brief shuffling of papers as Hiei flipped around in his book. "But… the answers to the evens aren't in the back. It's just the odds."
Shuuichi's face was an interesting blend of pain and irony. "I know. That's the point. You can't really expect to do well in school if you aren't willing to do any of the work, Takahashisan."
"Maybe I don't want to do well," Hiei pointed out condescendingly.
"I think you do," Shuuichi said, very much like a child. "You're at Meiou, aren't you? It's one of the best high schools around. It's not like you don't know what you're doing. I don't think you're applying yourself."
Perhaps if it had been any other day, Hiei would have let that statement slide with only a death glare or a brief sarcastic remark, but the stress of everything in the past few days hit him all at once, and he couldn't just let it go.
"Some of us can't get ahead just by applying ourselves," he said acidly. "Not everyone can just play around all day, sit back and relax, and just wait for their top results to come out. Not everyone has their whole life handed to them on a silver platter."
The redhead gaped. "Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how much work I have to do just to stay ahead? All the other students can just study enough to pass. I have to get nearly perfect scores on everything or I'll lose the respect of my mom, the teachers, my classmates… Can you think what would happen to my reputation if Kaitou beat me even once? I have to be perfect or I won't be myself. Nobody sees me; they see someone who's supposed to be a genius. I'd rather fail in everything."
Silence as Hiei thought it over.
"I think you're just being selfish," he concluded finally. "You have no idea what other people have to put up with. Look at you. I bet you're your parents' precious golden child."
"Parent. My father died when I was very young."
The shock was there, but Hiei overlooked his own tactlessness amidst what might have been jealousy. What he wouldn't give to live like that… but he knew maybe that wasn't fair.
"And my mom might not…" he trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence lest it become truth. "She's very ill, and the doctors don't know if they can do anything for her. Nobody knows if… You don't care at all, do you?"
Hiei did not answer.
An expression of frustrated annoyance flitted across Shuuichi's face before he collected himself and became once more the calm, understanding, mature student. "Fine. Tell me if you need me to explain any of the even problems. I'm more than happy to help."
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Hiei was in a decidedly good mood as he left Shuuichi's house and began the long trek back home. His conversation with the other teen had been a bit unnerving, but the food had been good, and he was looking forward to a night alone. Perhaps he would even manage to get some studying in. It wasn't like he actually did want to be last every time…
The crisp night air filled suddenly with muffled cursing as Hiei approached his house and saw quite clearly that all the lights were on.
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Cliffhanger? Maybe so…
I thought I knew exactly where this was going, down to the fact that it would be very short, but now I know it's going to be one long ride. Hopefully I can churn out the next chapter according to my fake formula. We'll see…
Random reviewer babble…. A-chan-otaku, I have no earthly clue if they're humans or demons yet. I mean, right now they're human, but if I really need to do it I want to be able to change them to demons on the fly. (Heh…) Oh, and Hiei no Minarai, hi and thanks for pointing out the pi thing. Pi is an ingrained part of my consciousness, so I can't type as fast as I can say it, which is at about ten digits a second, which is really freaky. Hehehehehehe.
Do review, please… it's nice to know who's reading and what they think.
