U~

[Kleee]

"Ryou~ Could you come here? There's something else I need you to do~"

Ryou was sick of following orders.

It wasn't as if his stepmother hadn't used him as her personal servant in the past or anything, but her being pregnant only made everything a million times worse. Her ridiculous slavedriving carried on all day and all night. Worse yet, he couldn't rebel, because his father had claimed that Ryou wouldn't recieve his allowance unless he did his stepmother's bidding. Sure, he had learned that money couldn't buy happiness. But as they said, it sure made misery a hell of alot more enjoyable.

And thanks to what had happened on the mission, he had nothing right now. So he was naturally pretty miserable.

To be perfectly honest, a part of Ryou still wished that he was lost out in the middle of nowhere with Kei and Toya still. But contrary to what had been said when they had parted ways, neither of his teammates had called nor kicked down any doors. They simply hadn't recieved any missions since that day, and as a result, they hadn't seen each other. Once or twice, Ryou had considered just going and visiting his teammates at their homes (Anywhere was better than hanging around at his own, after all), but the aftertastes of the guilt and discomfort that had come about as a result of the tragedy that occured on the mission still lingered. It was alright when it was the three of them together, but he knew he would just feel awkward if he went to visit just one. And not only that, he wasn't used to the whole "taking the initiative to bring the team together" thing. He still wasn't up to visiting them without an excuse.

"What is it?! What do you want this time?" Ryou muttered, temporarily casting aside any thoughts about his team to enter the living room and find out what his stepmother's bizarre craving was going to be this time. He found her lying on the couch watching what looked like a catwalk ladden with penguin sheets galore on television once again, "Can't you go yourself? I'm tired,"

"Don't give me that attitude. You know quite well I'm not up to traversing in this cold in my condition,"

Ryou looked away from her the moment he caught sight of her. What she was saying perhaps had point; the baby was only a month or so away from being born. It was just a pity that she still didn't know how to dress decently.

"You don't have to buy me food this time though, Ryou. Just go and get me an autograph. Now that's not much effort, is it?"

He wasn't exactly sure what to say; he just let her fake sweet voice play in his ears as he tried to make sense of it. Alright, maybe food was a neccessity or something, but autographs?

Why was she sending him to get autographs? She was the supermodel with all the contacts. Whose autograph was she expected him to get?

"You said that you knew the address of the acclaimed fashion designer Hayari Esemono, didn't you, Ryou? The woman who designed these fabulous pieces of haute couture," she said, indicating the models prancing around on the television screen.

"Oh, you mean K-"

Ryou stopped himself mid-sentence. He wasn't exactly sure how anybody could make references to both Kei and High Fashion in the same sentence, but it didn't matter. Going and getting his stepmother's stupid autograph would give him the perfect excuse to both visit her and get out of here.

"Oh yeah, I do. She lives pretty close by actually, why? You want me to get her to sign something?" Ryou said, trying his best to hide his obvious change in attitude.

"Yep, I want her to sign my penguin sheets; could you get her to do that for me? I left them on a package in the kitchen, along with some sugarless cake that you can take to her,"

"Why sugarless?" Ryou asked as he made his way to kitchen, not exactly sure if he was to be amused by the sudden picture that had formed in his mind of Kei's horror at finding that somebody had decided to take the sugar out of the glory that was cake.

"She's a designer, isn't she? See, us in the fashion industry don't like to get fat. Sugar is the work of the devil,"

"You'd be surprised," Ryou chuckled under his breath as he picked up the parcel and set off to leave.

----

Even though he hadn't seen her for so long, Kei's house was indeed fairly close to Ryou's, a couple of streets away. Unfortunately, this was a part of town where his own expensive clothing and grooming seemed to turn too many heads. Since Ryou had come home from his "adventure" with his teammates, he had cleaned himself up, trimmed his hair back to it's usual tidy length and replaced the rags he had ended up wearing with his usual posh garments. Nobody could tell at all that he had spent so much time out in the wilderness. He just had his ways of looking spoilt without even trying. Unfortunately, this ended up earning him several dirty looks from the people he passed. It was with relief that he finally arrived at the entrance of Kei's house.

As the circumstances with which he had come to visit her the previous time were a bit, well, rushed he had never really managed to catch a proper glimpse of her home before. It was a larger home than some in this area, but it was clear that it had undergone numerous extensions, most likely as a result of Kei's numerous siblings. It was also a bit on the shabby side - the various parts of the home painted different random colors and planks of wood sticking out here and there.

Well, at least he knew he had come to the right place.
This home had the word Kei scribbled over it.

Throwing open the gate, Ryou made his way towards the house. He caught a glimpse of what looked like a washing line, and suddenly felt very out of place in his perfectly matched clothes. Force of habit kicked in, causing him to push back his stray hairs so that he would look presentable - something he had been taught to do whenever he visited somebody. Opening his bag, Ryou took out the cake and package to be signed, both wrapped in silver paper as well as the golden pen his stepmother had asked that the clothes be signed with. Finally, he reached out with one of his silk glove clad hands.

Knock, knock

[Kleee]

It wasn't often that someone showed up at the Murasaki residence in silk gloves and expensive clothes.

In fact, it wasn't all that often that anyone showed up at the Murasaki residence at all. So when Ryou arrived, silver package in hand, to say that it came as a surprise was an understatement.

"Akio~! There's some weird guy at the door with a shiny package, I think he's lost~"

"Then go give him directions to wherever he needs to be and stop bothering me about it. I'm studying."

"He's got cake though."

"Must be one of Kei's friends."

"...Kei has friends?"

With a sigh of exasperation, Akio Murasaki slapped his stack of medical notes down on the kitchen table and rose from his seat, heading over to the door. It seemed that, once again, he wouldn't be getting any work done tonight. He really needed to start camping out in the library or something--this house was never quiet.

Not usually, at least.

In Kei's absence, all the usual life and chaos that once filled the house had disappeared. The others had made a few futile attempts to bring things back to normal, but it just hadn't been the same, not when there was a chance that there youngest and only sister was out there by herself somewhere, lost, or worse.

And now that she was back?

Nothing had changed.

The house still felt empty, as though they were still missing something important. Kei wasn't the same person she'd been when she had disappeared. It was disconcerting to Akio; after all the time he'd spent uselessly trying to convince his sister to grow up, shut up, and act mature for once, he'd been starting to believe that it was impossible, that Kei would always be Kei and that was that. But now, things were different. Ever since her return, she'd been quieter, more withdrawn from the family. All she ever wanted to do was hang out the other genin she called 'teammates' the ones who had gotten her lost in the first place, and... get this: sign up for more missions. After the first one had nearly killed her, leaving her hurt and miles away from home? Absolutely not, Akio had told her. Kei had shut herself in her room after that conversation, and she'd been there ever since. Sulking.

Sulking had never really been Kei's thing, to Akio she had always seemed more the type to go out and fix (or more likely, fail at fixing) her own problems, rather than wallow in them. The whole wallowing in angst thing had to be yet another side-effect of whatever trauma she'd experienced on the mission, Akio assumed. But if she wanted to sulk, let her sulk -- nothing she could say or do would convince him to let her out on yet another dangerous mission, and he knew their father would back him up on this. Even Katsuro, the oldest of the boys at 19, and normally reckless and an extremely bad influence on Kei and the other two, had to agree with Akio that letting Kei out of their sight anytime soon was not the best idea.

Because for all their worries about her getting lost and hurting herself again, there were also much more dangerous possibilities lurking in the background.

No matter how many times Akio asked, he never seemed to get the same story from Kei about how she'd gotten hurt. At first, it was something about assassins... but as soon as her father had questioned why assassins would even bother with a few unskilled genin and, more importantly, how those genin had even managed to survive an encounter with assassins, Kei had quickly fallen silent. Now she was insisting that the wounds had all been caused by an accidental fall from a tree.

She was hiding something.

But Kei never hid anything, especially not from her family. The only explanation had to be that she was protecting someone--her little 'teammates', no doubt. He didn't know how yet, or why, but they were the ones that had hurt her, that much Akio was sure of. All he needed was proof.

And it looked like that proof had just showed up at his door all by itself.

Akio passed his younger brother and opened the door, finding himself face to face with silver-haired young man dressed in fashionable, clearly expensive clothes. He couldn't have looked more out of place, standing next to the shabby exterior of the Murasakis' home. Mitsuo had been right; this guy was weird.

Akio got straight to the point.

"Who are you, and what are you doing at my house? If you're lost, you'd better leave--you won't find whatever you're looking for here."

[Kleee]

Ryou spent the few minutes he had before the door was swung open contemplating exactly how Kei was going to act when she appeared. He hoped that he would see the Kei that he knew; the bright explosion of mismatched neon hurtling towards the door, failing to register that she had opened it, and then falling headfirst onto the porch.

But the chances of it being that Kei that came to greet him were slim, and he was only being stupid hoping for it. The fact that Kei hadn't rang yet only proved that the changes that she had undergone as a result of the events that had occurred were a tad more on the permanent side.

He knew perfectly well how to act around the old Kei. Just stand there, watch her pick herself up and taunt her for falling over in the first place; just be a jerk in general. But he didn't know what to do with the new girl that had replaced her.

Except turn around and go home.

What Ryou hadn’t counted on ever more however, was having to deal with somebody that wasn't Kei answering the door. He had kinda thought of her as just... ever present, and always the hyper energy ball that would come to answer the door regardless of whether she knew who was on the other side. So naturally it came as a bit of a surprise when Ryou found himself face to face with an older boy with sour look on his face that could not possibly be related to Kei.

It took Ryou a couple of seconds to register this guy's appearance. He just... radiated boring. What he wore was not at all gaudy; cheap, but arranged so neatly that it made him look incredibly dorky. His awfully plain colors caused him to look almost like a ghost in contrast with the neon house behind him. An angry haunting ghost that had been awoken from his sleep, more like, judging from the look on his face.

Fortunately, Ryou's rude staring seemed to go unnoticed, because the boy in front of him took even longer to take in Ryou's own appearance. Only his face tightened even more with each passing second; he was behaving much like Ryou’s stepmother did whenever a beggar showed up at their place asking for money. Just this time their situations had been reversed.

Perhaps he was a Murasaki after all, Ryou thought, judging from the way the boy was glaring as though Ryou was an alien. He looked too young to be Kei's father; perhaps he was one of her brothers? He cast his memories back to the time he had gone to Kei's home in the past; he recalled seeing a family picture, but his mind remained a blank. Kei's color blindness had diverted all eyes from anything else.

"Who are you, and what are you doing at my house? If you're lost, you'd better leave--you won't find whatever you're looking for here."

It turned out the guy had decided to break his silence and speak finally, confirming to Ryou that he was indeed a resident of the house. For a second, Ryou considered that he may have accidentally knocked on the wrong door. But another glance at the house itself ruled that virtually impossible.

He’d come to Kei’s house alright, and some idiot wasn’t going to stand in between him and his teammate.

“My name’s Ryou. Ryou Yutaka,” he snarled, looking away from his continuously reddening face, placing particular emphasis on his surname, wondering if the boy would recognize it and respect him some more, “And I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware that this was your house. It’s Kei I’m after. My stepmother wants her autograph and I’m Kei’s teammate, so I came by to collect just that and pay her a visit. So is she home?” he waved the pen he was holding in the air, miming somebody signing something, “….And who are you by the way? I take it you’re Kei’s brother?”

[Kleee]

Mitsuo had never really been one to eavesdrop, but then again, people with the name 'Yutaka' weren't exactly ones to be seen hanging around the Murasakis' house. This conversation was an exception.

...Well, okay, maybe eavesdropping was kind of a routine for Mitsuo. Usually, though, Akio would throw him out of the room and give him some annoying chore to do as soon as the older boy noticed his brother listening in on the 'adult conversations' or whatever they were called. But right now, even though Mitsuo was standing conveniently close to the doorway, visibly leaning towards it in an effort to catch a glimpse of the daimyo's kid, Akio hadn't noticed. In fact, the older boy hadn't glanced Mitsuo's way even once. He was much too busy glaring daggers at the boy standing in the doorway.

Mitsuo had to hand it to him; most people would be running scared after so much as one angry look from Akio. But from the sound of things, this kid was even more of a prick than Akio. And that was saying a lot.

Not that Akio was about to let himself be out done or anything, though. Mitsuo winced, bracing himself for the storm.

"It doesn't make a difference who you are," Akio seethed, choosing to ignore the fact that he'd been the one who'd asked for Ryou's name in the first place. "You won't be getting any... autographs today. In fact, you might as well go home right now, because as far as I'm concerned, my sister is no longer part of any team. Even if she were home--which she isn't, by the way--she wouldn't be seeing you. But as I said, she's not home right now so--"

...And there it was. Akio went on to rant about boring things like the importance of politeness when a guest at another's house, and how a famous name didn't mean much if the person using it wasn't civilized enough to bear it well. In short, he was giving this Ryou guy an earful of the annoying crap Mitsuo had to hear all the time. And while Mitsuo wasn't so sure he even liked Ryou and his girly silk gloves, he wasn't so sure he liked the way Akio had been acting lately, either.

Mitsuo decided to spare Ryou the torture and get the inevitable over with already.

"Kei! Some weird dude wants your autograph~!"

"...Ryou!"

Apparently, Mitsuo wasn't the only one who immediately saw 'Ryou' as synonomous with 'weird dude'. He almost felt bad for the guy, but just then Kei came bounding down the stairs and Mitsuo realized that Akio's wrath had now been re-directed... towards him. He should probably be pitying himself instead right about now... an angry Akio was never fun to deal with, even if it was fun to watch. Mitsuo darted off into the next room to escape, Akio close behind him.

Now Kei would actually have a chance to talk to her teammate in private--not that that had been Mitsuo's goal from the start or anything. Nooo, it was all just one big coincidence.

Really.

Kei took one glance at the retreating backs of her brothers and grabbed Ryou's arm, dragging him upstairs before Akio managed to figure out what Mitsuo had done and came after them instead. After shoving Ryou inside, she shut her bedroom door securely behind them both, then turned to face her teammate.

For once, Kei's bedroom was not the mess it had been the last time Ryou had seen it. In fact, it was actually... neat. There was still no order or logical reason to the randomly colored pieces of furniture placed in odd locations around the small room, but at least the floor was no longer buried in blindingly colorful clothing. Instead, there was a single travel bag propped up in a corner, stuffed fit to burst and overflowing with the rainbow colors that made up Kei's wardrobe. Apparently, that was where the mess had gone. Kei decided against drawing any attention to that, however, not while Ryou was here. And she certainly wasn't going to say anything about Akio, or why she hadn't seen Ryou in weeks... so she focused instead on what was, clearly, the most important and pressing topic of the day:

"...What's this about an autograph~?"

[Kleee]

Ryou took hardly any notice of the most of Kei's boring brother's rant. He was so used to getting told off by various people for all sorts of stupid reasons that things like this just seemed to pass through him, leaving behind neither meaning nor moral. Well, they mostly seemed to pass through, anyway.

But one part of this guy's tirade managed to catch Ryou's attention.

"What do you mean she's no longer a part of any team... as far as you're concerned?"

It was pretty much a rhetorical question. Kei's brother's tone of voice had changed so much after he had uttered those words too; he made it incredibly clear that everything he had said about Kei not being home was pure lies. It was clear that this guy, for whatever reason, was trying to prevent Kei from socializing with her team - and Ryou wasn't going to let him.

"Just what say do you have in Kei's life anyway? Did you just make the decisions for her without asking her about-"

Ryou froze. A bizarre thought had just hit him. What if he had just interpreted everything wrong. What if it had indeed been Kei herself who had made the choice to seperate herself from them. Could it have been the aftermath of what had happened in the woods that day? Could Kei's massive change in behaviour have really amount to this? No... that wasn't possible. There was no way she could just do that after what she had said the last time he had seen her. Still, the possibility loomed...

"RYOU!"

Actually no, scrap that.

Kei came bounding down the stairs behind her brother so fast, that Ryou lacked the mental capacity to process what exactly happened before or after. The only things he managed to register were a look of incredible fury on the boy he had just been talking too's face and what looked like the most bizarre cross between that guy and Kei herself standing the in hall, a sheepish grin on his face. Before Ryou managed to register anything else, Kei had a firm grip on him and was dragging him up the stairs, the new boy he had just seen - who could only be another brother, and in this case the person who had been responsible for Kei's sudden appearance - being chased into another room by his menacing sibling.

Next thing he knew, there was a door slam and he was standing in Kei's familiar bedroom.
Or at least, he had expected it to be familiar.

Thankfully, there weren't any bras on the floor this time. But to be perfectly honest, there weren't any clothes whatsoever; Ryou could actually tell what color the floor was. Had this been the room of any other person the usually tidy Ryou knew, then this would have been a good thing. But with Kei, it was just a little bit unnerving.

"So, what's this about an autograph?"

Naturally, Ryou was relieved to see that Kei herself hadn't appeared to have changed. She was just as blindingly multicolored and full of energy as ever, a grin embedded on her face. Maybe he was just overreacting; perhaps she had just learned to clean her room.

"Oh right," said Ryou, snapping out of his temporary daze, he handed her the pen and wrapped penguin sheet, "My stepmother's a model, y'know. Well, she kinda idolizes your penguin designs for some reason. She sent me here to get your autograph. Oh! I almost forgot..."

He searched his bag, pulling out the decent lump of cake, wrapped in the same golden paper as the packaged penguin sheet. "Here - she made you some cake too... be careful, it's sugarless,"

Ryou tossed the cake at Kei, leaning over, he managed to catch a glimpse of exactly where all of Kei's clothes had gone - the neon bag sitting in the corner of the room by the window. The bag was positively bulging - almost like Kei was planning on moving house or...

"...Uh, Kei... what's up with that bag? Are you going somewhere.....?"

Suddenly some things clicked. What if Kei wasn't moving because she wanted to - what if it was because she had to...?

"What was your brother saying about you not being a part of our team anymore? Please tell me he was joking..."

[Artemis]

"Your stepmom has awesome taste in fashion," Kei declared proudly, accepting the pen and penguin sheet from Ryou.

Inwardly, she breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been worried that Akio had said something dumb as usual, but Ryou was acting normal. Maybe nothing had happened downstairs after all. No, there was nothing to worry about, Kei decided, taking a closer look at the pen Ryou had just handed her. Black. Too boring. Kei promptly tossed the thing over her shoulder. She'd use her own markers instead.

"Here - she made you some cake too..." Ryou added, just as Kei was breaking out the stash of neon rainbow-colored highlighters from underneath her bed. She looked up just in time to catch the cake... and to hear Ryou's warning. "...be careful, it's sugarless."

"...I guess her taste in cake isn't so great though," Kei complained, glaring down at the cake imposter in her hands. Even no cake at all would be better than this, she thought, toying with the idea of throwing straight back at Ryou's head. Kei'd had sugarless cake only once before. Never again. Sugarless cake might look just like any other harmless, delicious cake on the outside, but inside, something was wrong. Very wrong.

Cake without sugar was cake without a SOUL.

...Just the sort of thing Akio would like, Kei realized with a smirk. She could try using it to bribe him to let her out of the house later... not that she wanted to think about that right now, not with Ryou here.

Opting to spare her teammate the humiliation of getting cake'd in the head after all (as awesome as that would have been), Kei simply placed the soulless fraud of a pastry on the floor beside her, shiny golden wrapping and all. Instead, she went straight back to decorating her signature with multicolored snowflakes and polka dots. So far everything had been going surprisingly well; now if only she could just finish this autograph before Akio came upstairs, or worse, Ryou started asking her questions about --

"...Uh, Kei..."

Great.

"What's up with that bag? Are you going somewhere.....?"

"Oh, that thing." Kei glanced over at the bag herself, uncharacteristically tearing herself away from the rainbow penguin poncho for a moment. "Actually, I was just going... uh, I was gonna go to the place with the... um." Where had she been thinking of going? Kei didn't even know at this point, she'd been too busy worrying about the whole 'getting out of a house filled with three experienced ANBU and an almost-competent chuunin' part to think about the where. Ryou's house? Toya's? No, they'd been out of the question. She'd have had to find somewhere else to stay, because the reason why she was leaving was definitely not something she wanted them to know.

But it looked like it was too late for Kei to hide it, from Ryou at least.

"What was your brother saying about you not being a part of our team anymore? Please tell me he was joking..."

"That jerk doesn't know the meaning of the word 'joke'," Kei admitted sourly. "He's trying to ruin everything." She hesitated, uncertain of whether or not to add more. It was humiliating, having to admit that her stupid brothers were trying to control her life and worst of all, succeeding, but there wasn't much she could do about it on her own.

"I had to tell him everything about the mission. Everything," she blurted finally. "...Well, minus the part about Toya, obviously, but... I think he knows that something bad happened, he just doesn't know what yet. But when Akio wants to know something..." She trailed off, not wanting to dwell on the inevitable any longer than she had to. Because when Akio wanted to know something, there was nothing that could get in his way. "Anyways, I think he told my dad and my oldest brother, and now I'm in trouble. I can't even leave the house unless one of them are with me, and they won't let me do missions or train or anything. It sucks. And, and-- if they find out about what happened, then you and Toya will be in trouble too..." Kei frowned. "All this, after I said I was going to fix everything... I hate it."

Kei paused.

“So then… I decided I was going to move out and live by myself!”

It sounded better and much less pathetic than ‘running away’, but in the end running away was exactly what she’d been planning on doing, and Kei knew it. But what else was there? She was sick of giving up, but it seemed like lately, she’d been constantly running into dead ends, ones that she just couldn’t face head-on. Once again, Kei was stuck.

“…or something,” she added sheepishly. Kei had almost forgotten Ryou was even there for a moment, she'd been so busy spilling her problems. She'd never really done this before, Kei realized, not in front of her teammates, at least. Complaining was supposed to be Ryou's job. Kei was supposed to be the one doing things. Toya was usually stuck fixing whatever they messed up.

But while the roles were still reversed, Kei decided she'd take a chance and see just how good Ryou was at fixing things.

"...What would you do?"

[Kleee]

"Oh, that thing. Actually, I was just going... uh, I was gonna go to the place with the... um."

Ryou was skeptical from square one. She was going to the place with the... what? Why was she, in the singular tense, going anywhere anyway? Judging from the fact that it was only her, it wasn't like she was moving house. So why had she packed the whole contents of her room into that bag...? Wasn't she the one who had tiraded him for doing just that when they had set off on their mission? And look at where that gotten him. What was Kei up to?

Something was a miss. Ryou narrowed his eyes.

"...Uh, Kei... is there something you're not telling me..?"

He needn't have asked. His previous question had already caused Kei to sna

"That jerk doesn't know the meaning of the word 'joke. He's trying to ruin everything."

It was a side of Kei that Ryou had never, in all his time of knowing her, seen before. She spoke every word with a hate and frustration she had never used in the past, even when she had been referring to Toya in his crazy state. Or those wretched bandits. Or even her fictitious evil overlord.

"I had to tell him everything about the mission. Everything... Well, minus the part about Toya, obviously, but... I think he knows that something bad happened, he just doesn't know what yet. But when Akio wants to know something... Anyways, I think he told my dad and my oldest brother, and now I'm in trouble. I can't even leave the house unless one of them are with me, and they won't let me do missions or train or anything. It sucks. And, and-- if they find out about what happened, then you and Toya will be in trouble too... All this, after I said I was going to fix everything... I hate it."

...Or so he had thought. Only now it looked like that evil overlord had taken a real life form. Kei's brother, Akio.

For somebody who had a reputation of usually not understanding nor caring for the problems of others, Ryou suddenly felt incredibly sorry for his teammate. About everything. Everything from his extortion of the horrible truth of Kei, his untrue judgements, misunderstandings, his harsh rules and just everything he did to make his sister's life a living hell.

And then there was something else that made Ryou feel even worse about it all. The power behind Kei's words only made apparent what her brother had been going against. Ryou's assumptions had been wrong. Kei hadn't backed out of her promises to keep the team together. She'd been trying so hard; trying to defy her family and everything else just to keep those promises. She was so determined to keep the team going.

“So then… I decided I was going to move out and live by myself!”

...and she was prepared to do anything to get that.

Ryou blinked. He couldn't picture... that. Unless some miracle had occured since the last time he had been here, Kei couldn't even bake a mere cake - let alone look after a whole house on her own. And not only that, he couldn't even fathom how Kei would somehow be able to find enough money to purchase a house of her own. Maybe he would have assisted her, but thanks to what had happened on the course of the mission, he couldn't.

"...What would you do?"

Ryou froze.
Now that he thought about it. He couldn't do anything for her.

He didn't know how. Since he was small, he'd pretty much been able to do whatever he wanted. And it wasn't just his parents who were lenient on him, not particularly caring what he got up to. It was the law too. He had pretty much been allowed to do whatever he wanted to in the village, he wasn't a particularly mischievous boy, but he had all the right to break all the rules. His father had made them up.

Only he didn't know how to act in a sitatuion like this. A situation where there were rules he couldn't break without fear.

Unless of course, it was possible to bring Kei into the same lawless world as him.

...

Hang on.

"...Piece of cake!"

Ryou turned his head around, to face the windows in Kei's room. The unlocked, unboarded windows. Well, it looked there was one or two things he was going to have to "bend". A smile came to his face as he turned to look back at Kei.

"Just as I thought ...Your brother isn't just a jerk. He's an idiotic jerk, isn't he?"

He didn't wait for her to react, or say anything for that matter. He wasn't going to give her the chance to push her ideals that the whole thing was her responsibility. That he wasn't supposed to help her. That she could handle it all by herself.

He wanted to help her. The only way he could.

Ryou strode up to the window, and promptly pushed it open. It didn't even require half his strength. Kind of made him wonder why Kei was still there.

"...Ha! Idiot didn't even think of boarding these up. Honestly. Psh, Kei. I notice he didn't disconnect your phone, either. Why didn't you ring one of us...? We'd have gotten you out in no time. Well at any rate,"

Without so much as even checking whether the drop was safe or not, Ryou grabbed onto the handrail. He wasn't entirely sure why he was being so enthusiastic actually. A couple of months ago, his plan was probably his worst fear.

Maybe he really did miss his team after all.

"C'mon Kei. Grab your stuff. You can come and live at my place. I think I've got some ten rooms spare,"

With that he swung himself over the rail, and out of the window, scared for a second, but then landing quite softly on Kei's lawn, awaiting and wondering if Kei was going to accept his offer. Or if she really was stupider than he had thought.

[Artemis]

"Piece of cake!"

Ryou was smiling.

Not smirking, not making fun of anyone, genuinely smiling. That wasn't something Kei saw very often. At least, not before.

...Things had been getting pretty weird though, lately. This whole nice!Ryou thing was probably just another weird side effect of everything they'd been through. Maybe he'd gotten whacked in the head a little too hard by a bandit or something.

"Just as I thought ...Your brother isn't just a jerk. He's an idiotic jerk, isn't he?"

Oh look, Ryou's back. Kei rolled her eyes. Still, she had to know what about her situation was such a 'piece of cake' to Ryou. And... well, Akio had always been kinda idiotic, Kei knew that much already. But since when had Ryou been any smarter?

"What're you saying...?"

As if in response, Ryou simply pushed the window open.

"...Ha! Idiot didn't even think of boarding these up. Honestly. Psh, Kei. I notice he didn't disconnect your phone, either. Why didn't you ring one of us...? We'd have gotten you out in no time. Well at any rate, c'mon Kei. Grab your stuff. You can come and live at my place. I think I've got some ten rooms spare."

Was Kei imagining things or had Ryou just offered to actually let her live with him? Wasn't he worried about his cake or his house or his sanity or anything...? Wow, Kei thought, he must be really bored by himself.

But then she looked at her teammate once more, genuine smile and all, and Kei couldn't help but think again. Maybe, after all her rants about the importance of being a team, after all they'd seen and done and been through, something had finally clicked in Ryou. He had this whole 'team' thing figured out much better than she ever did, Kei realized slowly. He was right, she should've called them, and she should've known better than to try and figure something out herself. Because no matter what Akio or anyone else said, they were still a team.

Mosly, though, Kei should've known better than to think that this whole 'new and improved Ryou 2.0' thing was just a weird phase. He'd blown up all his money for the sake of the team, and if THAT wasn't genuine, nothing was.

Kei hoped that he was being genuine, at least. She couldn't help but like this weird version of Ryou.

...Speaking of weird, why did he have his hand on the window sill like that...? And why was he---hey! Kei stared.

Ryou had kinda just jumped out her window.

Blowing stuff up and jumping out of windows... yeah, Kei definitely liked this new Ryou.

But maybe none of this was really new at all--after all, blowing stuff up and jumping out of windows was a pretty big change from someone who'd supposedly only been capable of hiding in a corner and complaining about everything weeks before. Maybe, in reality, this 'new Ryou' had existed all along.

He'd just needed a little help to start showing it.

Without thinking any further, Kei grabbed her bag and promptly tossed it out the window vaulting herself over the windowsill and onto the ground beside it. Too easy. Akio really was an idiot!

There were a lot of things Kei could have said to Ryou right then. Not too long ago it would have been something like:

Quit being so nice, it's creepy!

or

You don't have to do anything, I'll fix it!

and before that, before the mission, it would have been:

You'd better have a lot of cake at your house~

or

Wow, I wouldn't have expected this from you.

But for once, Kei decided to settle for the phrase that fit her feelings best. One word was all she needed:

"Thanks."

[Kleee]

Ryou was half amused, half relieved to see Kei throw her belongings out of the window and following them out a moment later without so much as a word. He could have sworn he had caught a look of disbelief there on her face for a second. Maybe it was just the shock of how she had overlooked Akio's negligence...? Yeah, that had to be it.

As far as Ryou was concerned, nothing that was happening was particularly weird.

"Thanks."

Or maybe not.

"Uh..."

Ryou just stared at her; he wasn't entirely sure as to what to say to that. There had been instances in the past where he had been wanting a thanks for something or other, but this wasn't it. He'd only made this offer to Kei because it was like his... duty as a teammate or something, hadn't he? He hadn't expected her to be so flattered.

Maybe her brother had been treating her worse than he had thought.

"Don't mention it Kei," he said sheepishly, waving a hand, "...You've helped me out in the past, I'm sure," he looked away, unfortunately unable to think of any examples, "...That's what teammate are for, ri-"

Ryou froze. Maybe it was just him being paranoid, but he could have sworn he had heard some kind of shuffling coming from the house. Crap, Ryou thought. It was probably Akio. He'd finally finished lecturing the other brother and now...

"...Come on,"

Taking a second to be sure that Kei was coming with him, Ryou turned on the spot and bolted from the snow covered lawn, dashing swiftly until he had left the vicinity of the house.

"That was close," he muttered, coming to a slow with Kei behind him, before turning into the side street that would lead to his estate, "...lets go!"



Despite Ryou's forced enthusiasm, the walk to his home was a bit uneventful. He didn't exactly know what was going on in Kei's mind, but he hated what was going on in his own. He hadn't exactly thought this far ahead; what on earth were his parents going to think when he brought Kei back? His father wasn't even home half the time, so Ryou was pretty confident that he wouldn't notice anything, but as for the matter of his stepmother - well, maybe she would have let Kei in for some cake in the past, but when she was in her bitchy mood - which, now thanks to her pregnancy was all the time - people like Kei just weren't allowed anywhere near the premises. Heck, Ryou himself had been kicked out a couple of times already.

Unless of course, Ryou noted mentally, he played a little bit more pretend.

"Alright Kei," he said, breaking their long silence as they came to the fence of his mansion, "Dust down your clothes..."

He pushed the gate open, walking up the entrance stairs, Kei behind him.

"...Famous designers aren't dirty,"

knock, knock.

Right on cue, Ryou's stepmother's angry grumbling came echoing from the other side of the door.

"...Damnit Ryou, why didn't you take your own house key? Making me walk to answer the door in my state, can't you be responsible for on-"

She opened the door. Ryou was happy to note that for once she was actually wearing something - even if it was just a simple pink lingerie dress. It was better than her usual garb, at least. Her frustrated snarl was directed at Ryou for a split second, and then her face automatically drifted to Kei. And her mouth shot open in pure excitement as she caught a glimpse of Kei's blinding garments.

"...Oh. My. God. Ryou, when I told you to go and get Hayari-Sama's autograph I didn't ask you to bring her home with you - oh wow, Ryou, this is, this is... it's such an honor to meet you, Hayari-Sama!"

She held out her hand to Kei, awaiting a shake from the obviously flustered genin. With a flush of horror, Ryou suddenly noticed her eyes narrow.

"...Have we met before...?"

Not going to mess this up for the world, Ryou cut in abdruptly.

"...No, no, you haven't. This is Hayari well actually her real name is Kei see Hayari is just a designer name it sounds more flattering than Kei see and and well some renovations and things are going on at Kei or if you'd like Hayari's house and she doesn't have a place to live right now so I thought I'd ask her if she wanted to come live with us for a while and and about your autograph well I accidentally left it at her place because I was so excited and uh I can't go back and get it because the house is all dangerous and-"

Ryou spoke rashly, shooting out any excuse or cover up that came to mind. He spoke quickly too - not wanting to give Kei's "slow" brain the chance to contradict him. Thankfully, it looked like it had had the right effect.

"Woah, woah, woah Ryou," his stepmother said, taking a while to catch exactly what he had been saying, "Slow down. See, I told you sugar was a bad thing, and not just for your weight. Anyway, who cares about a stupid autograph. Hayari herself living in my house until her renovations are complete? Heck, that's so much better,"

She smiled at him, something that was incredibly rare for her - heh, wow, he had done the right thing, after all, and then she turned to Kei, beaming with admiration.

"Nice to meet you, Hayari-Sama, once again, the honor is all mine. Ryou said to call you Kei? May I please call you that? Otherwise I might get confused! See, I was considering calling the baby Hayari in your honor~ Anyway, You may or may not have heard of me, I'm Yutaka Saori, I'm an underwear model, but your designs, they're so amazing, they made me cross over to the mainstream, please, I'd be happy to have you as my guest, come in, come in... sit down, I'll get some more cake out, then you can go shower or whatever; also I notice you've brought your things, but please feel free to take anything out of my wardrobe if you run out..."

Ryou tried very hard to supress his hand from connecting with his forhead as his stepmother led them into the living room.

"...About that cake; Kei likes it with sugar,"

His stepmother turned around sharply, looking as though somebody had just spoken utter heresy. And then her face softened. She nodded kindly.

"Oh, of course. I guess some people are unique. My, I must try cake with sugar some time,"

She turned around and left. Sighing with relief, Ryou collapsed on a lounge room couch.

"....Phew. Now that's something you can thank me for"

[Artemis]

Luckily, Kei was much too busy staring at the inside of Ryou's house to even pay attention to half of what he was rambling about to his stepmom.

She'd been here before and all, but... this place was just so darn shiny, it was impossible not to stare.

When Ryou's stepmother finally turned to face her, though, Kei paid attention. Or tried to, at least; there was just so much going on at once. Ryou's stepmom--no, Saori-san--was being so nice to her... almost as though they were meeting for the first time all over again. She'd even offered to let Kei borrow her clothes, and--had she just mentioned cake?

...Oh wait, it was probably imposter cake again, Kei realized, pouting. But no; just then, Ryou spoke up.

"...About that cake; Kei likes it with sugar,"

And she hadn't even needed to tell him! It looked like her cake was saved, thanks to Ryou.

And more than that--in a way, he'd saved her too. Not too long ago the very thought of being stuck with Ryou the jerk for an extended period of time was just torture. Still, she'd given him and his complaining a chance, because that's what teams were for. And right about now, Kei was glad she had; not only did she now have somewhere to go when Akio was being Akio, but also, at very moment, Saori-san was re-entering the living room bearing a tray of amazing, wonderful, sugary cake.

"I knew you'd be useful for something eventually," Kei teased, glancing at Ryou.

Somehow, she didn't think she was going to mind being stuck here with her teammate. No, she wasn't going to mind this at all, Kei concluded, darting off in the direction of the cake.

---

"She's gone."

Mitsuo always had been one to state the obvious.

"What are you going to do?"

Akio clenched his fist and stared straight ahead, straight into the empty bedroom.

This wasn't solely his problem anymore. He'd tried, he'd tried to make his sister understand that her safety was more important than any stupid mission or any worthless team, but after all that, what had she done? She'd up and run away. No, Akio wasn't going to deal with this anymore.

Not by himself, at least.

"I'm not going to do anything," the older boy hissed, turning sharply and heading down the stairs. If this didn't make the other two realize that those genin boys needed to pay, nothing would.

"Father is."

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