The bell rang as everyone let out a groan or small cheer. "Alright, class dismiss." As soon as the teacher walked out, the class became noisy. A few immediately rushed out to the canteen for food and some pulled their table together in a group. Ryuuichi ignored all the bustling and stretched, feeling a few bones popping. 

"Oi Shiro!" He twitched when the said teacher popped in again. "Come help me carry some things. Bring a friend or two to help as well." He replied with a long 'Yes' before turning to his brother. Yuuichi pouted a little and nodded. "Can I help too?" Amemori suddenly asked, smiling.

Ryuuichi merely shrugged and made a beeline to the door, following the teacher as Yuuichi informed Tsuna and the others. "Sure~" The three of them followed the teacher to the office, bowing when they passed by a few other teachers. "Here. Take these to the reception room." Sweating a little, they nodded. Simply to say, the files that the teacher wanted them to take was too many, and all of it looked heavy as hell. 

Ryuuichi took the initiative to take the tallest stack and carried it away when Yuuichi protested that he was taking too many. Even Amemori voiced out about it. "It's fine, really. I can manage."

He led the way to the reception room while making small talks with his brother and Amemori. Honestly, he was getting more comfortable with Amemori now. Not like how it was in the past, but it was getting better. Briefly, he wondered if it was because he subconsciously knew that Amemori was Alex. Either that, or he had got used to Amemori's presence. 

"Excuse me." He used his legs to opened the door and slowly pushed it in order to not accidentally slam it. Hibari, who was sitting by his desk, looked up. He was somehow playing with Hibird and Roll, or so it seemed in Ryuuichi's eyes. "What is it?" 

Ryuuichi shrugged. "Koeda-sensei asked us to deliver these." He made way to the coffee table nonchalantly and placed the files on it, huffing. Yuuichi was a beat behind him and did the same. Blinking, he turned to rather blank-faced Amemori, as though he was in a trance. "Hibiki? What's wrong?"

Snapping out of it, Amemori finally trotted towards the coffee table. "Nothing." Ryuuichi raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing more. Instead, his attention was diverted when Hibari suddenly came up to his side and opened one of the files. He took a peek and found out that it was the third year students record. "Uwa.. Did they seriously wrote this down?" He pointed at one of the column that apparently wrote the EQ level. "Shouldn't IQ be enough? Then again, should these kind of things be written down at all?"

"No. The teachers were bored on that year, apparently." Ryuuichi made a face. "And you allowed it?" Hibari smirked.

"Don't you think it's interesting?"

"Well, yes. But I don't think these should be taken account of and placing them in the students record which the students probably need to show to the high school they wanted to get into..? Other than the passing of the entry exam, that is."

Hibari said nothing else other than snorting a little. He ruffled Ryuuichi's hair before placing the file back onto the stack, causing Ryuuichi to yelp.

Amemori and Yuuichi merely stood by the side in silence, watching Ryuuichi yelling at Hibari to stop. Amemori leaned towards Yuuichi's side slightly and whispered. "Are they close? Ah, I mean. The Hibari Kyouya, from what I know, is cold in a sense, so this is kind of surprising for me." He quickly added when Yuuichi gave him a weird out expression.

Yuuichi shrugged. "Somehow. Ryuuichi is probably the one closest to Hibari other than Kusakabe-san." He shoved his hands into his pocket and leaned on one leg. "Actually, it wouldn't be surprising if he suddenly date him or something. We're kind of expecting that, Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Reborn and I. Dino and our parents as well."

Amemori hummed and leaned back. "Ryuu. Let's go? Unless you want to stay here and eat with Hibari." The said teen frowned at his brother. "I'm coming." Hibari took his eyes off Ryuuichi and looked at Amemori, locking eyes with him, narrowing, even. Amemori didn't back down, staring back at Hibari with the same intensity the other had gave him.

Ryuuichi noticed. A small smirk appeared before he quickly covered it up with squinted eyes and lips pulled thin. "Are you guys undressing each other with your eyes?" He made a facade and quickly pulled a guffawing Yuuichi out the room, dodging a tonfa to his head. 

"Opps! See ya Hibari!" 

Amemori tried to swipe him, only to miss by a few inches. He huffed and followed them out, but not before giving Hibari another glance.

Hibari's eyes were sharp, glinting. He felt the immensely huge urge to bite someone to death.

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"Sorry for the wait." Ryuuichi pulled his chair and table over to where Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto was. Usually, they would have lunch on the roof, but it was too cold. He gestured at Amemori, telling him to join them as he sat down. Yuuichi placed his and Ryuuichi's bento down and sat down beside Yamamoto. "What are you guys talking about?" He asked, handing his brother the bento.

"About you guys." Ryuuichi sweated a little. "What?" Yamamoto grinned and turned to Amemori. "Ne, Amemori. What was Ryuuichi like in the past?"

Amemori blinked at the sudden question as he took a bite on the bread. He turned to Ryuuichi, who shrugged and continued eating. "Well, he was similar to you. He, she smiled and laughed a lot, though occasionally silent. She was someone really smart," He ignored the small mumble of 'not really' from Ryuuichi. (Ryuuichi had raised an eyebrow at the pronoun used.) 

"She was really open, too open actually, and a great listener and talker. She always knew what to say, and knew how to read between the lines really well. There was this one time when a friend of ours got really unreasonable and I almost punch him. She immediately stopped us, ya know. By shouting on top of her lungs. I was so shocked. I mean, she never really shout much after we got into primary school. It was really amazing, and nostalgic."

He chuckled softly at the memory of a girl scowling at him and another boy, yelling. "In the end, she lectured the both of us to the point we almost cried."

Ryuuichi scoffed, remembering that. "That because you guys are really at wrong." 

"Yeah. Sorry. Anyways, she was kind as well, too kind that people took advantage of it. And no, don't argue with me on this again. They were taking advantage of your kindness. Actually, I could go on all day about her, but all in all, she was really adorable." Amemori laughed when Ryuuichi spluttered. "Well, he's still adorable and all of the above."

Ryuuichi clicked his tongue. "Do you guys know, Hibiki here used to roll in the mud and there was one time he rolled into a ditch." 

The others laughed as it was Amemori's turn to puff up like a cat. "I did not-!" 

"Oh you definitely did." With a sharp look on both of them, they immediately engaged into a 'dissing each other' competition.

"Well, you cried when your own cousin visited you!"

"In my defence, I was seven and he was 18. He practically looked intimidating! Unlike you, you cried when you lost your bunny!"

"That was a present from you, mind you!"

And it continued. Tsuna laughed at a few of the not so subtle insults. 'They were really close, huh...' He mused. At first, he didn't actually believe it. Amemori and Ryuuichi looked so distant, rather than close. It had made him wonder if they were really childhood friend. Granted, even Yamamoto and the twins weren't that close until recently, so he doesn't have much say in it.

'I guess Ryuuichi needed time to open back up.' He smiled.

"You guys looks like a married old couple somehow." Gokudera commented. (The bomber was more daring in saying things like these now, after Ryuuichi literally pushed him down and hold onto him while they browsed the internet about a lot of things the one time he went to their house.)

"What?!" He was taken aback when they turned to them, yelling in unison. "With this idiot? No way." And they turned back to glare at each other. 'You guys really looked like married couple though.' That was the only thing in all of their mind as they sweated slightly. The two had a small staring contest, invisibly electricity crackling. 

"Pft-!" Ryuuichi suddenly let out a snort before leaning back on his chair, laughing out loud. Amemori soon joined him after a split second. It took them a moment to stop laughing. "I missed you." Amemori breathed out.

Ryuuichi smiled softly. "Yeah."

"Though, Yato. You and Takeshi looked more like a married couple." And chaos ensured. The rest of the classmates in the classroom stared at them uncomfortably.

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Ryuuichi breathed out, small mist forming. He huffed into his cupped hands, rubbing them together. He pulled his sleeves to the point that it covered his whole hands as he stared out of the open window, cold air blowing in. Amemori, who sat on the seat in front of his, looked out as well.

They were both in silence, patiently waiting for the younger twin. Yuuichi had club activities before winter break starts. Since they had, sadly, lost during the second round in Winter Cup, their practice had cut short for all of them to rest. The third years, on the other hand, had retired, so the team decided to have a farewell party sometime around Christmas, they say. Ryuuichi briefly wondered how many party would they have, since this would be the second one. Or was it the third one?

Anyways, Yuuichi and his teammates were discussing of the preparation and such. Seeing that he had nothing much to do, Ryuuichi decided to wait for his brother. Somehow, Amemori stayed as well, not that he minded. 

"Aren't you cold?"

He glanced to the other teen for a while before looking out. "Not really. I like the cold." He really do. He closed his eyes as the wind blew once again. It felt really wonderful.

Amemori shifted his stare to Ryuuichi. An image of a girl smiling at him flashed in his eyes. 'He has really changed..' Ryuuichi could literally feel the stare boring holes on him, so he turned to Amemori.

"What?" Amemori was silent for a moment as he stared right into Ryuuichi's eyes. Those dark brown orbs, the gaze, it never really change, but different that the one he, she held. "Hey. Do you like Hibari?" He took note of the flash of surprise in them, continue to observe. 

Ryuuichi blinked. "Yeah. Why?" 

"Ah, no. I mean, in a romantic sense." He was stunned for a moment to process that and he quickly looked away, trying to stop the blood rushing up. He buried his mouth at the back of his elbow, leaning against the window frame. He looked out as the gears in his mind turned.

"I.. Don't know." He let out a sigh, muffled. "I know I like him, but I'm not sure if it's that kind of like." He never really understood love, nor could he differentiate all the different types. It just felt almost similar to him, but he knew there was something different in each one towards everyone. How it was different, Ryuuichi couldn't figure out. Which is why he never tried to think of it, because he knew he could never know.

It made him wonder if he could know which is which one day.

"Do you want to kiss him?" His head shot towards Amemori, eyes wide. "What?" Amemori wasn't fazed by that. Instead, he asked again. "Do you want to kiss him?"

Ryuuichi scowled. "So what if I said yes? It doesn't justify anything. I don't and won't even know what I feel towards him." And he fully turned to the other side, no longer looking at Amemori signifying that it was the end of the conversation. He wasn't comfortable in discussing this kind of things because it only gives him headaches.

Silence fell once again. Ryuuichi's lips were pulled thin as he immediately overwrite the thoughts of the conversation with other things. He tensed when he felt a warm hand on top of his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Pursing his lips at those soft spoken words, he shot back up, glaring at Amemori.

"Next time you pull any more of these, I'm going to punch you." Amemori merely smiled at the half-hearted threat, chuckling as he retracted his hand. "Sure. I'll let you punch."

Ryuuichi made a face before he really reached out and punched the other on the shoulder. "Masochist." He mumbled, but there was a small smile on his face. Deciding to change the subject, he told Amemori to tell about his life so far in this world.

"I was born into a family of six, excluding me. I'm the second son, and the third of the siblings." 

"That's a big family you got there." 

Amemori laughed, quite fondly, Ryuuichi would say. "I knows, but it's merry. My older sister, the first one, is currently working in Tokyo as a clerk. My older brother is in University, at Osaka. My youngest siblings are currently in Elementary school, in Kyoto. My father works in Kyoto while my mother is a housewife."

Ryuuichi hummed. "Wait, does that mean you're living alone now?" 

"Yep. I was born in Kyoto anyway. I transferred here early this year as a hunch. And I'm really glad I did." He silently watched the other, smiling at some kind nostalgic memory, or so Ryuuichi though it was. He can't read mind after all.

He merely nodded and looked back out, rubbing his hands together again, fiddling with his ring a moment. The metal was surprisingly warm against his cold hand, his bracelet where his three animal partners are, loose on his wrist. Maybe he should really close the window now.

"Ryuu!" He turned around to see a panting Yuuichi by the door. "Did you run?" Yuuichi took a minute to calm his breathing, nodding. "Yeah. Who wouldn't when you have a demon chasing you anyway." He grumbled, leaning against the door frame. "Shall we go? Need to stop by the gift shop though."

Ryuuichi stood up and closed the window. He picked up his back pack from the ground and turned to Amemori. "Let's go?" With a short confirmation, they walked out of the classroom.

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"...-nd, they wanted to buy pies to throw it at the seniors. I'm alright with it, but then our captain got crazy and decided to have a pie throwing competition out of the sudden. I didn't want to participate though. I heard that they will put in tons of disgusting things into the pie. And somehow one of them suggested to use whipping cream instead of pie because pies are expensive or other crap." 

Yuuichi rambled on as the older twin laughed uncontrollably, Amemori chuckling beside him. They were heading to the gift shop by the shopping district. Yuuichi was assigned to buy the gifts for the third years, other than the secret Santa thing they had. It was rather fortunate for him to be assigned with this task, since his other teammates were assigned with decorations, pranks, games and such, which, in Yuuichi's words, . Honestly, Ryuuichi felt that their party would be a bit too extravagant.

Oh well, as long as they have fun.

Ryuuichi coughed a bit to regain control of his laughter, looking out onto the road. There were quite a lot of vehicles around. It's not as much as Tokyo or any other congested areas, but it was still considered a lot in Namimori. 

'It's really peaceful..'

"A penny for your thought, Ryuuichi?" He jolted when Reborn suddenly appeared beside him, walking alongside. He huffed. "Please don't do that again. Wait, never mind. I doubt you will listen anyway." He shook his head.

Reborn was amused. "Where are you guys going?" Ryuuichi slowed down, lingering behind Amemori and Yuuichi as he talked to Reborn, who followed his pace. "A gift shop, apparently. You?"

"Who knows. Perhaps I'm stalking you." The hitman smirked.

"What?"

He almost chuckled evilly at the look from Ryuuichi at his words, but he didn't. Instead, he cocked his head to the side and glanced up at Ryuuichi, dark black eyes glinting. "What do you think of caves?"

Ryuuichi leaned back slightly, away from Reborn. "Caves?" He had a bad feeling about this. It was either the hitman wanted his thoughts on Tsuna's training ground, or that he wanted to drag Ryuuichi to these places along with the brunette. Both thoughts dread him slightly, but he hoped that it was the former one. Sorry, Tsuna. (Though, if it was the latter, he would have no choice but to comply. At least he would learn new things and train. Probably.)

"Yep!" Okay, definitely not good. "Umm, no preference? I've never been into one, and I don't think I want to." He added quickly. 

"Hehhhh~" The glint was still in Reborn's eyes, much to Ryuuichi's chagrin.

He laughed nervously and looked away. He gazed ahead to the road beyond the pedestrian crossing he and the others were passing by, he noticed a truck driving in a rather fast speed. Too fast for his liking. Frowning, he looked to the traffic light, which was red for the pedestrian crosser and was slightly relief. It wouldn't be good if anyone was crossing with that kind of driver on the road.

He jinxed it.

"Wait- Come back!" He snapped his head back to the road at the loud shout and saw a kid, perhaps six, on the road, trotting. And the truck was getting nearer. His eyes widen as his heart leaped. Before his brain could catch up with what was happening, he was already running.

"O-oi! Ryuu?!" 

He pushed aside the crowd by the road side and ran towards the kid. Loud honks from the truck deafened him, but at that moment, it was like a white noise to him. He reached out for the kid and curled around her, shielding her from the incoming impact. He hold onto her, eyes sealed tightly as horrified screams echoed.

And everything turned black.

"RYUUICHI!!"

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A/N= Umm, should I run? I'm sorry!!

Don't worry! He'll survive! Really! Please don't think to much to the point of can't concentrate.

For those who doesn't know, EQ is emotional quotient, or emotional intelligence. It was just a hunch for me to put this in so, yeah.

Emmm, Amemori talked using the pronoun 'She' because, honestly Ryuuichi is much different than his past self. Do. I. Need. To. Emphasize. This. Any. MorE?! <--- Excuse me for being crazy a bit. I confused myself sheit ton of time when I wrote something about Ryuuichi's past and all and .

Okay, about the basketball, I'll explain to those who didn't get the system. For Winter Cup, the first stage is Preliminaries, second; Final league, third; Winter Cup itself which consist of 3 rounds and lastly, the Finals, which consist of quarter-final, semi-final and final itself. 

Preliminaries are held in each prefecture. Only 2 teams can represent a prefectures. Only the top 8 teams from Interhigh (The match before Winter Cup. If I'm not wrong, it's held during the summer.) can participate the preliminaries. Preliminaries is kindda like, choosing the best of four from the determination match. Like, A vs B, C vs D. A wins, advance. C wins, advance. Something like that.

And those team which won, goes into the Final League, also a part of the preliminaries but let's just, separate them. Um, so It's kindda like 4 teams against each other. You know, the Probability table from Math? It's that kind of system? Um, get my drift?

Anyways! The Winter Cup and Finals is similar to the beginning of the preliminaries. Yeah. It's a bit confusing, I know. I'm getting a headache here from all these as well. (Source? Obviously it from the KNB wikia because I'm lazy to search up everything.)

Okay, again. I'm really sorry for the cliffhanger, but I'm not sorry who what I wrote there. *runs*

[I apologize for any grammar, spelling, etc. etc. mistakes]