Slang.

I.

Kaori stared.

One. Two. Three.

Mac stared.

Four. Five. Six.

Mac puffed like a blowfish.

Kaori exhaled in wild laughter, holding her stomach and tipping to one side of the chair.

"HAH!" Mac exclaimed triumphantly, slapping his hands down on the table and tipping his head back so far Kaori could see the inside of his nose, "I win!"

"No fair, Ma-chan! You made funny faces!"

"All's fair in war." He said, sounding very majestic indeed. Then he added, "Sore loser."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

She stuck her tongue out.

He returned the gesture.

Then she paused.

"What is…sore loser?"

Mac blinked. Then he, in wild laughter, tipped so far to one side he tumbled out of his chair. It was Kaori, this time, who puffed like a blowfish.

"Don't laugh!" Mac tried to speak but found that his voice, amidst his chortling, would not make sense. Meanwhile, Kaori's cheeks grew so big they began to turn blue. Then she exhaled in one big breath, causing a new wave of laughter in her companion.

Once his laughing had finally died down, he said,

"They don't teach no slang in English school. Too bad."

"Then…" She leaned forward, furrowing her eyebrows, "you teach me, Ma-chan."

Somewhere, someone felt honored and proud for such a request.

Mac was not such a someone. He said nothing, and blinked. And remained silent. And blinked again.

Kaori waved her hands in front of his face.

"Ma-chan?"

She knocked on his head.

"Ma-chan?"

She crossed her arms and settled back in her chair with a huff. Finally, Mac coughed and shook his head, refocusing his gaze on her cutely offended face.

"Me? Teach you?"

"It's not so strange."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes!"

Mac smiled oddly.

"Alright."

"Wai! Ma-chan-sensei! Teach bad English!"

He straightened his sweatshirt and sat up, clearing his throat authoritatively. He wet his mouth, took a deep breath and furrowed his brow in a serious expression. Kaori's shoulders quivered with giggles at the sight of it, but she kept her mouth shut and waited.

"Well…" He paused, "Uh…"

"Uh…"

"No, not that!" He waved his hands.

"No, not thatu!" She waved her hands quickly. Mac put his elbows on the table and glared at her.

Kaori repeated the gesture.

"Ahem." He said.

"What is 'ahem'?"

"It's just…I don't know, it's just a sound English makes."

"Oh." She quickly returned to her glare, "Ahem."

Mac sighed.

"This isn't gonna work."

"It's because," Kaori's expression had changed to one of tragedy, "I'm stupid?"

"What are you saying?" He gripped, knocking on her head, "Don't say stuff like that."

"Then teaaaccchhhh meeeeeee…" She whined. Mac rolled his eyes, "Please do your best, Ma-chan!"

He stared at her.

"Fine, fine."

"Yatta!" Then she made her face serious, "I mean…sick."

Mac burst out laughing.

"What?" Kaori asked.

II.

"I gots da skillz to pay da billz."

"I gotsu da skiilz to pay da billuz."

"I pity da foo."

"I pretty da foo."

"Pity."

"Pity."

"I pity da foo."

"What's foo?"

Mac blinked.

"Huh?"

"Foo? What's foo?"

"Oh." He scratched his head, "It's really supposed to be 'fool', I guess. But 'foo' is slang."

"Kung foo!" Kaori thrust her fists into the air. Mac blinked again.

"Lame." He said.

"Lame." She repeated, "What's lame?"

"Oh you know," Mac's thoughts drifted to Moby, "Old people and stuff."

Kaori pouted.

"That's not very nice."

"It's not supposed to be. You gotta have attitude to use slang. Just go with it, you know?"

Kaori leaned back in her chair and looked around the room. All of the sudden, she stood up and pointed,

"LAME!" She shouted. Mac followed the direction of her gaze directly to an elderly man leaning on a cane.

Mac grabbed her hand and dragged her away, muttering loudly,

"Hey, what did I tell you about those brownies?" and dragged her to another area of the room.

III.

Mac watched Kaori as she bobbed up and down enthusiastically, his massive headphones almost wedging her little face in place. He could hear the music blasting through "unpredictable it was my mistake to stay here on the go and it's way too late to play I need a girl that I can train".

She wet her small pink mouth. Mac found himself blushing a little bit.

When the song ended, she took the headphones off.

"Okay." She said.

"Okay." He studied the quiz he had been working on for her, and read his writing as if he were reading a script for the first time. "Hey…Kaori."

"Waz up, homes?" She answered with her chipper voice. Mac strangled down a laugh, "Uh, not much. How…about you?"

"Just playing, playa."

She clapped her hands excitedly. Mac covered his mouth, then started to read again,

"Oh. That is cool. Can I tell you a…secret?"

"Sure. Whataup, doggy?"

Mac looked up.

"It's just 'dog'."

Kaori pouted.

"But doggy is so much cuter…"

Mac sighed,

"Anyway…" He cleared his throat, "I will tell it…to you now."

Mac leaned over and whispered 'booger' in her ear. Kaori covered her mouth and started giggling wildly.

"Okay so, can you keep it quiet?"

Kaori cleared her throat and suppressed her laughter saying, in a serious voice,

"Word-u. It's on the DL, G."

"Cool. So anyway, I'm gonna go. I will see…you later."

"Peace, mai brutha." She kissed her two fingers and held them up above her head. Except it looked more like she had blown him a kiss. Mac fell out of his chair laughing. Kaori leaned over him, excited and confused.

"Did I do it okay?"

"Perfect." He strangled out. Kaori squealed with delight and flopped on the floor with him, giving Mac the first on-the-floor hug he had ever seen or received.

"Thank you, Ma-chan!"

"Yeah, whatever." He grinned, "Get offa me."

"Oh, but you're so comfy."

They looked steadily into each others eyes, each one feeling like they had something to say but, at that particular moment, they couldn't remember exactly what. Mac could feel her warm breath on his nose, her hair, tied in pigtails, brushing across his cheek. Somewhere in his mind he noticed that his arm had encircled her waist, keeping her from getting up despite what he had said. And he noticed how close they were, how very close…

And then it just sort of happened.

He got an erection.

Mac sprang up (Kaori went flying off of him) and turned around, heading briskly for the elevator without a second thought, trying to think calming thoughts.

Grandmas. Broccoli. Celine Dion. Oh, not Celine Dion. Uh…Yanni. Michael Bolton.

"Itaii…" Kaori rubbed her head, despite that she had fallen on her side, "Oh, Ma-chan. Is the lesson over?"

"Uh yeah…I hafta practice and stuff for the run tomorrow, you know." He couldn't bear to look at her.

"Oh! Oh!" She raised her hand, as if to be called on, "I'll practice with you!"

"No, I mean…nah, I'm cool. I can't let you see all my, uh, secret moves."

The elevator arrived and Mac sprang in without facing her, waving.

"Well, see ya!" And the door slid shut quickly behind him.

Kaori sat on the floor, confused and feeling slightly hurt.

When Mac got to his room, he didn't practice. He sat in bed and wondered what had just happened.

Well, he knew what had happened but he had to figure out why.

On he one hand, he was fifteen. Hormones and what not, he didn't really want to think about it. Not to mention, Kaori was pretty hot.

That brought up another question: was Kaori hot? Did he like Kaori?

Mac put his hand on his face and sighed.

Yep, he did.

Someone knocked on the door. He hesitated. If it was Kaori, he would have to play it cool.

He took a few deep breaths then got up, stood by the door and asked,

"Who is it?"

No one answered.

Finally, Mac opened the door and spied, on the floor, a disgustingly cute stuffed animal with a note, in perfect handwriting, reading: Ma-chan. Thank you for the mad slang lesson today. I hope practice went well. Do your best tomorrow! Love, Kaori.

When he read 'love', he blushed a little bit and closed the door, throwing the stuffed animal on his bed and flopping beside it.

IV.

Mac raced.

Turn, jump, trick, turn.

Kaori raced.

Trick, trick, turn, jump.

Kaori raced through the finish line.

Mac raced in right after her.

"FIRST PLACE KAORI NISHIDAKE!" The crowd thundered with applause as the other racers pulled into the lot. A reporter ran through the boarders, dragging a camera crew behind him, and thrust the microphone in her face.

"This is your first win in a while, Tricky." He said enthusiastically, "What have you got to say to all your fans?"

"Just playin' playa! Keep it real, G!" Then she did her victory dance.

All eyes turned to Mac.

He shrugged.

Disclaimer: I don't own SSX.

Aw, how sweet. Mac has hormones. Anyway, yeah.