Family

Chapter eight: Lesson Learnt

The bell loudly rang, snapping Shu from his trance. He'd been staring at the ground outside Beigoma Academy with dead eyes for the past ten minutes. It'd been more than a week since he last slept, with fear of finding another snake, or itching powder in his bed. 

Lui looked like a zombie, too. His hair was less fiery, and he looked slightly disheveled. He hadn't slept, either, with fear of Shu sneaking into his bathroom again at night. 

Rantaro strolled past the two bladers, stopping dead when he saw how tired they looked. 

"Bros, what happened?"

"Prank...war," Shu mumbled. 

Lui fell flat on his face, snoring quietly. 

Honcho stared at the fourth-ranked blader in the world in disbelief. 

"Why do you look like you haven't slept?"

"Because we haven't."

"I've always wanted to see a prank war between the two of you, but seriously. Stop being so intense."

Lui woke up, rubbing his eyes. 

"Where am I?"

Honcho facepalmed. 

"Just go home. And sleep, for the love of God."

"But there's school today," Lui slurred. 

Honcho looked like he was trying not to laugh. "You sound like you're high or something. Just say you're sick."

But the brothers didn't hear what he said. They had both fallen asleep. 

"Wakiya! GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE!" Honcho yelled. 

The blond ran around the corner, then burst out laughing when he saw Shu and Lui, sleeping like babies. 

"Shut up and help me wake them." Honcho groaned.

Wakiya said nothing, but simply pulled a bottle of water out of his bag-

and dumped it on both of their heads. 

"GAH!" both boys woke up, then stared identical death glares at the rich boy in front of them.

Wakiya laughed even harder. 

"Go home, guys. Seriously." Honcho was amused and exasperated at the same time. 

As the brothers walked home, wringing their hair out, both of them reconsidered their decisions. 

"I think we went a little too far," Shu remarked. 

"Understatement of the century," Lui replied. 

"So...um...truce?" Shu asked tentatively. 

Lui looked at his little brother with dead-looking eyes. 

"Fine."

"Technically, you started it..." Shu said in a singsong voice. 

"If you don't shut up now, I'll let Ripper out again."

Shu raised his hands in an "I surrender" gesture, then held out one hand to shake. 

Lui accepted, and they shook on it. 

The moment they got home, Lui plopped down on the couch and fell asleep the second his head hit the cushion. Shu curled up next to him and fell asleep too, resting his head on his big brother's shoulder. 

Neither of them minded. 

A/N: This was mostly just fluff, but I'll put some real, intense stuff in the future chapters. I need to build up a decent bond between the bros first. As usual, be sure to comment your opinions, and feel free to give feedback.