Momiji sat quietly as Tohru poured tea for him.
"So do you have a problem you need my help with?" Tohru asked. She picked up her cup and looked expectantly at Momiji.
"It's not so much a problem…as an opinion," Momiji felt slightly uncomfortable (a sensation that did not occur often.)
"Okay," Tohru answered. She could tell this might need some finesse. Thankfully she had plenty of experience loosing information that people wanted to say but wouldn't just get out. "I'll bet it's very important."
"…I guess." Momiji shrugged. "It's just that…I was wondering what your thoughts were…on Akito."
Tohru nearly dropped her teacup. "Akito? I think you would know more about him that I do… I've only met him a few times."
"Well, I think you're good at judging people accurately."
"But, why do you want my opinion on Akito?"
"Well, I saw him today and something made me really sad. I didn't talk to him or anything, he was just staring at the gardens, like he does a lot. Akito is such a terrible person to the people I care about, but I never really thought about how lonely he is. He is kinda going through the same stuff that the rest of us go through…only worse maybe and I like helping people, especially when I think there is something to fix."
"That certainly is a good cause," Tohru said uncertainly. "From the few times I've met Akito, I can tell he's very angry. He's angry because he was chosen to bear the Sohma curse…though I don't know quite what that means." Tohru thought for a second. "That's really all I can say. I don't know him at all."
"Is that really all?" Momiji asked disappointed not to get some more information to make his evaluation of Akito. Tohru looked at the teacup she set on the table.
"Well…I know that…I'm afraid of him. Not of him but the kind of power he has over the Sohma family and how he chooses to use it against you." She looked up and smiled. "But it's not really my business to stick my nose in all the Sohma family's problems."
"Don't be silly Tohru! You're practically part of this family!"
"Thank you Momiji, that means so much to me." Tohru looked around. "Well I better clean this up, I'll be right back." Tohru got ready to stand up.
"Wait Tohru, one more thing."
"Yes?" Tohru turned to Momiji. Before she could stop him, he had his arms around her neck and….BLOMPH! A yellow rabbit sat in her lap with what could be construed as a smile on his face.
***
Kyo typed furiously on his calculator.
"So, one thousand times two point five plus nine point eight times fifty six… Dammit, why isn't this working?!" Kyo stared at the answer space. Hatsuharu checked the back of the book (which had the answers for all of the odd numbered problems.)
"It says here the answer is six hundred and eighty eight point eight Newtons." Haru closed the book. "Maybe we should give up. We've tried it six different ways."
"There is no way in hell I'm not solving this." Kyo busily scrawled some numbers in a scrap piece of paper. Haru continued to try to solve the problem as well.
"Hey I think I got it," he said and looked up at Kyo.
"What? How?"
"We don't need the mass of the elevator, just the mass of the monkey." He held up his calculator to show that he had gotten the answer. Kyo just sighed and looked at the massive amount of formulas and numbers on his scratch pad.
"Physics sucks. No wonder I hate it." Kyo looked up and smirked. "Guess you didn't need my help after all. You're really good at this stuff."
A startled Hatsuharu looked at Kyo. Was this a compliment from Kyo? Kyo never gave himself credit for anything and he certainly never gave credit to anyone else.
"Well thanks. I guess you can start seeing me for help with math."
"Shut up! You're not a goddamn rocket scientist or anything…"Kyo was silenced as Hatsuharu put a finger over his mouth.
"It was a joke," He said. Haru finished gathering his books and got up to leave.
"Well, the part about helping with math…" Haru whispered to Kyo as he walked past him.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean??" Kyo yelled after a second. Haru was already going down the stairs.
"Whatever you want," he yelled back.