Studying Is Important

Set when Ayano is almost eighteen and thinking about what courses to take in university.

It was early morning in the Kannagi household and the members of the head family were sat eating breakfast in the main room with servers politely working, serving them tea.

"He's late," Ayano mumbled, eating rice with her chopsticks.

"Nii-sama doesn't like early mornings," Ren said, placatingly.

"Understatement," Ayano said, shaking her head with a fond smile.

"He's as rude as ever," Genma said.

"It is a little early. But, Kazuma said that he'll be here, so he will," Jugo said, calmly.

A few moments later, the shoji door opened and Kazuma was stood there, holding a take- out coffee cup in his hand.

"You're late," Ayano remarked, dryly.

"Morning, nii-sama!" Ren beamed happily at his bother.

"How are you so happy this early?" his older brother shook his head, bemused at him.

Kazuma sat down in the empty space between his little brother and Ayano which was slowly becoming 'his' space, though he was loathe to admit it. Ren shuffled immediately closer to him, cheerfully.

"I'm just happy to see you," Ren declared.

"You just saw me yesterday."

"And now I'm happy to see you again," Ren smiled

"And good morning to you too, Princess I didn't realise I was on the clock. It was busy at the coffee shop today," Kazuma said to Ayano.

Ayano looked unimpressed as he took a sip from his cup.

"What? You don't have coffee here. I hate mornings. I need more than tea and rice to wake me up in a morning," he explained. "Some of us aren't fuelled by tea," he added with a sly glance towards Jūgo, who was, as always, drinking tea. The man smiled at the comment, but it didn't stop him from enjoying his drink.

"Mo," Ayano sighed.

"You should just be thankful I quit smoking. It's really easy to go through a bunch of 'em before you realise you're even awake," he drawled.

"You smoked?!"

"Yup," Kazuma shrugged.

"That's really bad for you, nii-sama," Ren remarked, concerned.

"I've done a heck of a lot of things that are 'bad for you'. Besides, I quit. Eventually. Anyway, who needs cigarettes when I've got coffee," he held up his coffee cup for emphasis with a greedy smile.

"So you replaced one addiction with another," Ayano raised an eyebrow.

"Says the woman who devours cake like some kind of cake monster. I think your blood must be all sugar by now. That's probably worse for you than smoking," Kazuma retorted.

"Oi!" Ayano exclaimed and he chuckled at her.

While they'd been talking, Kazuma's food had been silently served for him and he set down his cup, then replaced it with chopsticks.

"And since you disapprove of addictions so much, I guess you won't want this then," he said, taking a paper bag from his jacket pocket. "I jumped the queue at your favourite bakery for this y'know? People must've been killing me in their minds 'cause I got the last one," he held it in front of her as though taunting her.

"Is that…" she started at the bag with greedy eyes.

"Your favourite… the famous dorayaki," he grinned.

"You got the last one?! They're always sold out by the time I get there!"

"I know."

"Gimme!" Ayano exclaimed.

"What's the magic word?" Kazuma taunted her.

"Please! Please, please, please!" she yelled.

"Nee-sama," Ren blanched. "Maybe this is an addiction too," he muttered.

"You ever seen her sulk when she's gone all the way across town for one of these and they're sold out?" Kazuma asked his brother.

"…Yeah," Ren admitted.

"Funny, huh?" Kazuma chuckled.

"I…don't know about that."

"Mmmmm…smells so sweet," Kazuma said, taunting Ayano further as he held the bag.

"Ahhhhh! Why are you being so mean?!"

"Well, maybe if you'd been nicer to me when I got here, I wouldn't be so mean now," he shrugged.

"That's kinda petty, nii-sama."

"Yeah, so what?"

"…Nothing," Ren sighed and continued to eat his breakfast.

"Fine, fine, I'm sorry, can I please have that dorayaki now?!" Ayano groaned.

"Sure thing," Kazuma chuckled and handed it to her.

She grinned happily and took a bite out of the pancake, tossing aside the bag. "Mmmmm…it's delicious!" she declared.

"Makes my nicotine addiction look tame in comparison, huh?" Kazuma remarked. "I mean my former nicotine addiction. Former," he corrected himself when Ren turned to stare at him. He held up his hands placatingly with a smile.

Ren jokingly kept staring at his brother as though scolding him. "You're gonna watch me like a hawk now, aren't you?" Kazuma asked.

"Mmmm," Ren nodded, sternly.

"Don't trust me?"

"Of course he doesn't," Ayano said, still happily eating the pancake.

"Pair of mother hens, both of you," Kazuma sighed.

"That's right," Ren said a little haughtily.

"I really should stop telling you guys things," he rubbed the back of his neck and turned his attention back to his bowl of rice. "Well, it's fine. It's not like there's any photos or proof of what happened that time at Mardi Gras, anyway," he muttered.

"Mardi Gras? What's that?" Ren asked.

"Never you mind, you mother hen of a little brother," Kazuma rudely pointed his chopsticks.

"What'd you do?" Ayano asked.

"Nothin'," he drawled quickly. "Shouldn't you be studying anyway? I thought you had to pass some tests or something," Kazuma said to her and she bit her lip.

"Yeah…I do…"

"Oya? You're goofing off, aren't you?"

"I'm not! I'm just having breakfast! I'll get back to studying after," she insisted.

Ayano was just beginning to choose her courses for university applications. She'd settled on International Relations, Communication Studies and English. All of which, she thought would be of use to her as the next Soushu. Unfortunately, she was woefully behind in passing the exam for her English language abilities even with the odd lesson that Kazuma had already given her.

"It's hard," Ayano admitted with a blush.

"It's not supposed to be easy," Genma remarked, unimpressed.

"At least she doesn't have to fight anything to get in," Kazuma drawled.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You'd have thrown her to the wolves years ago if she did."

"Erm…Kazuma…" Ayano interrupted them, desperately before they could start fighting again. "Maybe…maybe you can help me! Yeah! You speak English. I need some more help," she said.

"So what if I do? I'm your boyfriend, not your tutor," he replied.

"What? So you'd let your girlfriend fail her exams and not get into university? That's mean," Ayano said.

"That is kinda mean, nii-sama," Ren remarked.

"Che…not you too," Kazuma rolled his eyes at his brother.

Ayano smirked in victory and quickly snatched up Kazuma's coffee cup.

"Oi, that's my coffee."

"And now it's mine," she smiled, sweetly and then then took a sip from the cup.

"You'd better not make a habit of stealing my coffee. I'm serious. I need it," Kazuma said, with a very serious tone of voice.

"And I need to pass this test."

"Then you should study. And not stay up all night with your boyfriend forcing him to watch bad tv shows," Kazuma drawled as he continued to eat his breakfast.

"For the last time, it's not a 'bad' show!"

"It really is," Ren whispered.

"Oh, I heard that," Kazuma grinned.

"One day I'll convince you to appreciate such a good show," Ayano said with a sigh.

"Not bloody likely," Kazuma muttered in perfect English and Ren laughed, having understood him.

"What'd you say?" Ayano demanded.

"See, that's why you should be studying, not goofing off in here with us," Kazuma said.

"Nii-sama, is having breakfast really 'goofing off'?" Ren asked and his older brother glared back at him.

"At least she and Ren will be attending university," Genma said calmly.

"Sure he will, Ren's a genius," Kazuma shrugged.

"Erm…I don't know about that…" Ren blushed.

"And I'm sure Ayano will get by," Kazuma grinned.

"Oi," she growled at him.

"I probably would have gone too. But it's not like I had a choice, was it, old man?" Kazuma then turned to his father with a scowl. Genma had banished Kazuma when he was sixteen; he hadn't even a chance to even consider what university subjects to choose.

"…You could still study, if you wanted to," Ayano said, sadly at his comment.

"Why?" he laughed. "I can speak English and Mandarin just fine. I don't have any problems getting work. People pay really well when they need a tracker or a youma hunting down and killed. Or I could go back and work for the palace again in England. They pay really well. No one gives a damn about your education as long as you get the job done, so why waste my time?"

"…I guess," Ayano muttered.

"But you were always good at studying, nii-sama," Ren said.

"Maybe. But it's not like I had a choice in that either," Kazuma replied with a shrug.

"Are you trying to blame me for your problems again?" Genma said.

"Well, it is your fault. You were the one pushing me to get better grades and punishing me if I didn't," Kazuma retorted.

"Ayano is right though, Kazuma, if it was something that you wanted to do, then…" Jugo began in a calm placating manner before anything else could be said.

"I don't," Kazuma snapped.

"As long as you're sure," Jugo nodded.

"I'm damn sure."

"Go to university or don't. That's up to you. But either way, stop swearing," Genma scolded.

"Make me," Kazuma retorted, childishly.

"Nii-sama and I can help nee-sama with her English, right?" Ren asked loudly.

"G…good idea!" Ayano nodded.

"Fine, whatever," Kazuma shrugged, reluctantly pulling his attention from his father to them. It did wonders in terms of calming him down. "But you better study real hard. You're gonna have to study even in your sleep, got it?" he asked her in English.

"Erm…sure…I guess…" Ayano muttered, only half understanding what he'd said.

"This is gonna be tough," he sighed.

"What did I just agree to?" Ayano whispered to Ren.

"Oh boy," Kazuma sighed again. "Am I getting paid for this?" he asked Jugo.

Ayano, unimpressed, then lightly smacked him upside the head. "Ow!" he grumbled. "I guess not," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head much to Jugo's amusement.

"Can I practice my English too, nii-sama?" Ren asked in lightly accented, shy English.

"Sure," Kazuma smiled.

"What?" Ayano asked.

"You really do need practice, don't you?" Kazuma turned to her.

"I know some English!" Ayano declared defensively.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Well…I know some, anyway," she blushed.

"Uh-huh."

Ayano let out an embarrassed huff and then, after a smug little flash in her eyes, she took out her phone from her pocket and began typing.

"What are you doing?" Kazuma asked.

"Just wait…" Ayano muttered. The she held out her phone showing a translator from Japanese to English with the words 'shut up' on it.

"Wow…you actually just did that," Kazuma drawled after reading the screen. "And you're not even embarrassed about it, are you? You're really proud of that, aren't you?" he scrubbed a hand over his face in exasperation.

"Heh," she grinned, happily.

Kazuma, however, wasn't quite so impressed. He finished off his bowl of rice, set down the empty bowl and his chopsticks and turned to her with a serious expression.

"Alright, that does it. We are hitting the books and you're not gonna stop for anything. I don't care if the apocalypse starts, you are gonna study your ass off and there's no cake, chocolate, dorayaki or anything sweet until you can at least curse me properly in English because of it," he declared.

"Eh?!" she blanched.

"Ren, I'm gonna need backup on this," he said to his little brother.

"Backup?" Ren blinked, confused as to why Kazuma was suddenly acting as though they were going into battle.

"This is serious! Look what she just did!" Kazuma pointed to Ayano's phone. "It's embarrassing!" he grumbled.

"Well…yeah, I saw…okay, nii-sama! I'll be your backup!" he said, excitedly.

"Good."

"You're not serious about not having cake though, right?" Ayano asked, a little warily.

"I'm absolutely serious," Kazuma told her.

"Why?!"

"No girlfriend of mine is gonna use a phone translator to tell me to tell me to 'shut up' in English," he rolled his eyes. "You are gonna be fluent if it's the last thing I do," he told her.

"What if I wanna tell you to 'shut up' in another language…like…French," she pondered. Then both she and Ren stared in confusion as he told them to do just that in French. "Now you're just showing off," she said, sheepishly. "And does that even mean 'shut up?' How do we know you didn't just make something up?"

"Look it up then," he shrugged.

She did so on her phone for a moment and then bit her lip.

"Was he right, nee-sama?" Ren asked.

"Yeah," she muttered.

"Phrases such as that are not going to be of much use to her for an International Studies course," Genma remarked.

"That's probably true, despite it being amusing," Jugo said.

"It's a conversion starter," Kazuma said, innocently.

"It's a conversation ender," Ayano retorted.

"Spoilsport," he said.

"Regardless, learning English would be a useful endeavour," Jugo said to his daughter happily. "We could perhaps use it to foster relations abroad with other powerful families," he said.

"You mean I could travel to other countries?" Ayano asked excitedly.

"If you work hard at your studies. Then yes, perhaps so," he replied.

"I will. I definitely will!" she promised.

"Maybe we could go to America and meet Catherine's family. Wouldn't that be fun?" Kazuma muttered to her with a grin.

Her expression instantly darkened and she turned to glare at him, which made him laugh at the jealousy he saw on her face. "Just a suggestion," he placated her.

"I think that's a 'no', nii-sama," Ren told him.

"Gee, y'think?" Kazuma chuckled.

"You'd better get started soon. It takes a long time to properly learn a language," Gemma said.

"Hey, I'm the tutor, don't tell me how to do my job, old man," Kazuma drawled.

"And I'm the assistant tutor, right, nii-sama?" Ren asked happily.

"Right," he nodded. "You've got some books for learning English right?" Kazuma asked Ayano.

"Yeah…"

"Well go and get them all. If you had plans, cancel them…"

"I didn't actually it's the weekend. I don't have school today," she muttered.

"Good. 'Cause you're gonna be busy," Kazuma declared.

"I'm gonna regret this, aren't I?" Ayano sighed.

"Probably."