To say Haruichi was nervous was an understatement. He was downright terrified. Everyone there, even if it was a fairly small number, was so much bigger than him. He gripped his mommy's hand tightly, making sure to stay close.

Smiling and picking her baby up, Haruna looked around for her friend. She hadn't talked with her in a while, and was glad to get the chance to catch up. Spotting Rin, she waved slightly to let the other woman know they had arrived. "Are you excited Haru-chan?"

Haruichi clutched the front of his mommy's dress, unsure if he could do this. He turned watery eyes to his mommy. "Scary."

Stroking the child's pink hair, Haruna cooed softly. "Don't worry baby, mommy's friend is really nice." Seeing the trembling lip, Haruna sighed a little. "Do you want mommy to join too? That way I'll be here next to you the whole time." Haruichi nodded, rubbing his eyes. He giggled when Haruna poked his side, squirming in her grasp a little.

"Haruna!" Looking up to see that Rin had finished with her class, she smiled and gave the woman a one armed hug.

"Rin-chan! It's been so long! How have you been?"

"You haven't changed one bit from the last time I saw you! And who's this cutie pie?" Rin smiled at Haruichi, who shrank closer to his mother but managed a little wave.

"This is my baby, Haruichi. He says he wants to get stronger." Haruna gave her old friend a look, causing Rin to nod a little sadly. She'd been bullied when she was younger as well.

Clapping her hands together, Rin gestured for them to come in. "Well he can most definitely get stronger here! Come in, let me show you around!" She waited as they took off their shoes and shuffled them a few feet into the actual dojo. "It's not much, but it gets the job done."

Haruna glanced around. It was moderately sized with thin blue mats covering the ground and more hung along the bottom half of the walls. There was a punching bag hanging in one corner, but other than that is was pretty empty.

"We don't have much, but anyone who is a member here gets a discount at the gym and can use the equipment there if they want. We have changing rooms in the back, but other than that this is pretty much it."

Haruna chuckled as Rin rubbed the back of her head. "It's cute." Ignoring the face the instructor made, Haruna looked down at Haruichi. "What do you think Haru-chan? Do you want to take classes here?"

The toddler bit his lip, looking around and then back up at his mommy. Rin noticed and grinned, sliding up to her friend. "You know," She said, "We do offer discounts for a family package. If, say, you wanted to take some classes here too, then I'm sure Haru-chan would be much more comfortable."

Chuckling at her old friend's bad attempt at sutibility, she nodded. "Oh alright then. Sign us both up."

Pumping her fist in the air, Rin let out a joyful shout. "YES! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get more women interested in taking classes. Not to mention getting kids to actually listen to me for a change. Even my own son can barely sit still for five minutes before wanting to do something else."

Haruna raised her eyebrows. "That's right! I forgot you had a little one of your own. How old is he now? I haven't seen him since he was just a baby!"

Rin grinned. "He's six-nearly seven." Ruffling Haruichi's hair and earning a small pout as the child tried to fix it, she said, "Mi-chan is about your age, and he takes classes here too. He's sick today, so he had to stay home, but I'm sure he'll be really happy that there's finally someone around his age here now."

"Isn't that great Haru-chan? You'll have someone your age to practice with."

Haruichi wasn't too sure. He didn't know this Mi-chan person, and was afraid he would turn out like all the other older kids who picked on him.

Seeing the hesitation, Rin laughed. "Don't worry about it! Mito isn't mean. He may be a little hard to handle at times, but I'm sure you two will get along great!" Brushing her bangs to the side, Rin waved them towards the office. "Let's go get you two signed up, alright?"

/

"Karate?" Ryounosuke asked, propping himself up on his elbow as he blinked at his wife.

"I think it'll be good for him," Haruna said, putting down her book. "Maybe he'll start opening up some more."

"I think so too, but why didn't you ask me before hand? Maybe I wanted to join too." Huffing as he laid back down, he grumbled, "You get to do everything with Haru-chan."

Haruna giggled and curled up next to her husband. "But you have baseball with Ryou-chan." The two stayed like that for a while until Ryounosuke wrapped his arms around his wife, kissing her forehead.

"I was so sure Haruichi was going to go for baseball like his brother."

"So did I, but isn't it a good thing he's finding his own interests? "

"It is, it just seems like a sudden change."

Haruna shook her head, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I don't think it's that sudden. He's five years old Ryounosuke, almost six. He'd bound to change his mind about a lot of things. It's simply the way children are. Don't you remember how Ryou-chan wanted to be a basketball star at first? He was so excited, only to change his mind after you took him to that baseball game."

Ryounosuke chuckled, "I remember that. He would run around and copy what he saw the players doing on TV." Haruna giggled as she remembered.

"Karate?" Haruna shoved her husband playfully.

/

Haruichi was keeping something from him. Ryousuke was sure of it.

These past few days his little brother had basically been attached to their mother's side. He did everything with her. Helped her with the cooking, read with her after dinner, and even went out shopping with her. Or, Ryousuke assumed they were shopping.

He'd even stopped taking baths with Ryousuke and insisted of taking them with her instead! Staring at the bottom of the top bunk, he wondered what had happened. Did Haruichi hate him? What that why? But what had he done? Was it because he'd said he had to stay home that one time?

Crossing his arms and frowning, Ryousuke wasn't sure he liked the change. Yes, he'd wanted Haruichi to stop following him everywhere and copying everything he did, but now it was as though he didn't exist. The youngest Kominato barely said one word to him, sometimes even going as far as to leave the room when his big brother entered.

'If it doesn't end in a few more days, I'll ask Okaa-san and Otou-san.' Nodding at the thought, he turned to face the wall and pulled the blanket up under his chin. But even that thought didn't stop the feeling of being lonely from eating away at him. He wanted his baby brother back.

/

So these are pretty short chapters, but with the way I'm writing it I think it works better. Let me hear your thoughts though!