Horo rubbed his head with a deep sigh and looked around his room again.

Snowboard? No…

Ikupasi? No…

He growled quietly and folded his arms.

Who knew he could get so frustrated over some photography project.

Suddenly remembering plans he had made, he picked up the phone and dialled for Funbari Onsen.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Hey, Yoh. What time were we going again?"

"Eto… about 4:30? I think that's what we decided on, but I'm not totally sure… Check with Ren or Manta or something."

"Sure, I'll call back and let you know." Horo replied, twiddling the phone cord between his fingers.

"Sankyuu. Ja."

"Jaa."

Horo replaced the phone in its holder and started to dial Manta's number, when he remembered that the small shaman was at cram school and wouldn't be home for another half an hour at least.

He sighed as he realised that he had to call Ren during his training hours. The pointy-headed Chinese boy would NOT be best pleased.

Horo lifted the phone from its cradle and paused, unable to recall Ren's number when he realised that he simply hadn't learnt it yet.

Pretty shameful, the only things Horo ever learnt were phone numbers and he couldn't even remember one from his inner circle of friends.

He flipped through his address book, which he didn't even know he had, and managed to find Ren's number, looking as if the person who scrawled it in was either walking, laughing or was getting the book dragged away from them at the time.

"What?"

"Heh. Do you greet all of your callers that way or am I special?" Horo grinned.

Ren 'humph'ed down the phone at Horo, before verbally stabbing him into telling him what he was calling for.

"Well, I couldn't remember what time we were going today… So I called Yoh and he wasn't sure either, so I nearly called Manta, but he's at cram school, so the only other choice was you." Horo shrugged, though Ren obviously couldn't see him.

"We decided 6:30, moron. It's always 6:30. Now can I get back to my training or have you forgotten how to tie your laces?" Ren sneered.

"Bye, Ren." Horo huffed before hanging up.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"What's the difference between Chocolove and a coconut?" Yoh grinned.

The five of them were lying on top of monument hill, watching the stars and listening to the spirits bustling around below them.

"Coconuts are funnier." Horo answered simply, bringing a few chuckles from the others.

"Nope," Yoh replied; "One is thick and hairy, and the other is the coconut."

Silence.

"I liked Horo's one better." Manta laughed.

"I got one, I got one" Horo grinned, "What's the difference between Ren and a pineapple?"

"Definitely NOT the spikes." Hao interrupted, receiving a death glare from the Chinese boy next to him.

"Heh, almost. Pineapples grow." Horo finished.

Ren growled.

"What's the difference between Horo and the Yeti?" Ren asked, soon after giving them the answer of; "The Yeti has a higher IQ."

Yoh and Manta were practically rolling around laughing, while Ren just smirked at Horo, who glared back and turned away with folded arms.

Ren rolled his eyes and put his hands behind his head.

"Useful piece of advice: don't dish it if you can't take it, Horo." Ren mumbled, before closing his eyes and yawning slightly.

Horo, being completely unable to hold a grudge for any amount of time, noticed this and suggested that they call it a night.

Yoh and Manta stopped giggling enough to nod in agreement.

They were all at the entrance to the cemetery, when Horo noticed that they were one man short.

"You guys just go on. I'll get him." Horo smiled, turning back.

Horo found Ren exactly where they had left him, none of them having realised that the youngest shaman had fallen asleep.

Horo smiled down at his sleeping form, before gently shaking him awake.

Ren opened one eye lazily and yawned widely, before mumbling something Chinese-sounding and closing his eye again.

"Ren, don't go back to sleep!" Horo whined, poking Ren in the shoulder.

Horo sighed when he realised that Ren wasn't going to get up any time soon, and lifted the smaller boy onto his back.

"Good thing you're light." Horo muttered.

Ren made a humming noise and tightened his arms around Horo, catching the Ainu off guard.

Horo turned his head, and saw with relief that Ren was still fast asleep. Horo shook his head and smiled slightly, before setting off back home.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ren sat up on his futon, his sleepy and unfocused eyes opening and shutting again. He let out a wide yawn and stretched his arms above his head.

He opened his eyes again, blinking them out of their haze, rubbing the remaining sleep away from them.

In the dim morning light, Ren could make out his dresser on the other side of the room, with a wall height mirror hanging next to it. He saw his uniform hanging up on the door, and as if this all wasn't enough to convince him that this was, in fact, his room, he could see Houraiken on a rack on the wall with his oracle bell resting on top.

Ren kicked the sheets off of himself, making a mental note to right them later. He stood, pulling his yukata tighter around himself for warmth, vaguely remembering Horo waking him to change into it.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, Ren padded out of the bathroom with frustration etched into his face. Running out of lenses meant wearing his glasses, which meant searching around the apartment blindly until he came across them, which wasn't really something anyone would feel like doing at 7 am.

He growled slightly and went into the kitchen, only slightly surprised when he felt something squishy underfoot.

The said underfoot squishy let out a 'mmrpf' of complaint until Ren moved his foot.

Horo stood up, and because he was in Ren's sight range, Ren noticed the sentence 'anihC ni edaM' printed into the Ainu's cheek.

"Dude," Horo complained, "Where did you get those slippers?"

Ren said nothing, but pointed towards what he remembered to be in the general direction of the mirror.

"Made in China." Horo read, grimacing, "Nice."

"Breakfast?" Ren offered after a lengthy roll of the eyes. Taking the blurry shape of Horo's head bobbing up and down as a 'yes', Ren set about making the first meal of the day.

Ren squinted over at the clock, unable to make out what time it was.

"7:10." Horo said, noticing Ren's trouble before chuckling, "I didn't really believe that you wore lenses. I thought you had 20:20 vision."

Ren remained silent, not letting the toast burn in the pan.

"I wouldn't of known if you hadn't mumbled 'lenses' at me last night. Kamui, it was such a pain getting them out… Remind me to wake you up next time." Horo laughed.

Ren allowed a smirk, before giving Horo a slice of toast and munching into his own.

"Want me to look for your glasses?" Horo offered, clearing their plates away.

Ren dived into the fridge for a bottle of milk, before sighing.

"No need." He replied, returning from the fridge with both the milk and his glasses.

Horo raised an eyebrow

"In the fridge?"

Ren nodded, cleaning his glasses on his shirt.

"…I don't even wanna know." Horo decided, going towards Ren's bedroom, "Mind if I use the shower?"

"Whatever." Ren replied, putting the black-framed glasses on, "We have about an hour before school, so that means leaving in about fifteen minutes," he added, after quickly consulting the clock.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"These are too big for me, but you can borrow them for today." Ren said, handing Horo his spare uniform.

Horo, also in a spare yukata, made a face.

"Are you saying I'm fat?" The Ainu asked sceptically.

Ren raised an eyebrow at the ice shaman.

"Do you realise how queer you just sounded?"

Horo glared at Ren, before disappearing back into the bathroom with the uniform.

Ren checked his watch.

"5 minutes, Horo!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wow, chapter 2 took me forever to do X.X

In my defence, huge textiles project due in last week. Being the procrastinator that I am, I only started it like…. Last Friday night.

Please review!!! If I get more reviews, I may be inspired to write quicker winks

Japanese - English

Sankyuu - Thank you

Ja / Jaa - Bye

Futon - japanese beds (on the floor)

Yukata - a kimono usually made out of cotton for things like summer, sleeping in and after being in the shower/hot spring... kinda like a dressing gown / bath robe

Kamui - Ainu language for gods