HEALTH - for you and me

[Kaito]

Getting the ‘job’ had been a lark, with his connections. It was official investigation, it was police work. And it was personal, but that was nobody’s business but his.

And his brother’s.

The librarian’s assistant was edible, and so were a few of the homeroom teachers. Then there were the kids, some of which he’d already singled out, and one of which—

Kaito was waiting behind the desk when the bell rang and the students began filing in. It would have been nice to land a substitute job for Akito’s homeroom, but the young woman who taught it was too healthy and too...there. Instead, health. The bane of every young person. Health class, when we learn all about ourselves and the wonderful changes our bodies are going through. It was the perfect class for Kaito, and to be honest, it’d been one of his favourites in school. He was balancing pen on his upper lip while he watched the children file in, hands folded, fingers interlocked, over his stomach.

[Agito]

Akito had been looking forward to the day ahead of school. Each class had been just as fun as the next but he loved his language classes more than anything. Health wasn't so bad and he figured it wouldn't be too hard of a subject to pass. When the bell rang he had moved his right foot up to fix his shoe quickly before filing in behind a group of boys. He was focused on getting his shoe properly placed on so it wouldn't feel so uncomfortable that he took his seat in the desk to the right of the class room, near to the back. Moving his shoe up onto his chair he had quickly folded out the tongue of the shoe because setting it back down to turn and sit forward to look at his -

TEACHER!? Akito suddenly grasped the desk for dear life, his chest rising slowly as he stared at Kaito .. what was Kaito doing in his school and .. and being a teacher? He was so frightened that he couldn't even budge and he didn't want to make a scene with the other peers. Maybe he could slip out before any one noticed ..

[Kaito]

“Afternoon, you little spores!” called sensei, before anyone could bolt for the door. Kaito was standing, rising head and shoulders taller than any other teacher currently on staff. He hadn’t even tried to keep his coat on his shoulders. “Come on, come on, get your asses in here. Yeah, you heard me. Pile in, shut the door, we got a lot of information to stuff in your tiny heads and not a lot of time to do it in.” He slammed a book down on the desk as he walked around it, fished around some papers, found a clipboard, and held it up, squinting at it.

“Eeehh...who wants to take attendance for me? Uhh...raise your hands little urchins...ok, sure, you, the creepy little kid with the eyepatch. You do it. Catch.” And without even looking at the names on the list, Kaito sent the clipboard with the attendance list sailing over the heads in the classroom—towards Akito.

[Agito]

Akito was watching Kaito the whole time, monitoring his steps and his movements. At least his brother didn't come over near him, that was all that matters. Now, it was obvious Kaito had authority here if he was cursing at his peers. When Kaito had slammed the book he had sat more up right out of pure habit. Creepy little kid!? Brother you're so mean to me! he thought to himself before he moved his left foot down and moved his right up on the chair to suddenly catch the clipboard, as though he knew it was coming in the first place. Moving his arm down quickly he picked up the pen and checked off all names except one and then he stood there, not wanting to go near Kaito to give the stupid clipboard back.

His peers glanced over at him after awhile and he took his queue to slowly move towards the teacher's desk, setting the clipboard down with his head bowed. Then, he silently stepped back to head for his desk.

[Kaito]

There was no doubt that Kaito stood there the whole time, hands behind him on the desk he was leaning against, watching Akito’s every reaction. He was watching Akito, the girls were watching them both....

“Cheer up, sunshine,” he quipped sharply when Akito turned to walk back to his desk. “Your day will get better, I promise.” Sometimes, when Kaito promised things, it was a little worrying, but maybe he just meant it nicely, for once.

[Agito]

Akito turned his head to glance at Kaito when he had promised him a better day and he simply nodded to show respect to his teacher. While walking back to his desk he glanced at the people around him and then he slowly slipped back into his desk to give out a long sigh. His heart was racing already, meaning that he was already experiencing anxiety with Kaito's presence.

[Kaito]

Kaito’s grin followed Akito all the way back to his desk. He had a good grin, so why not? “Kids!” he announced, raising one hand. Gold on his bracelet caught the light. Yes, bracelet. There were little dangly bits, too. “Worms, parasites, whatever your parents call you! I’m your new substitute teacher since Miss What’shername is out on maternity leave-“ She was probably a whore. “-so I’m sure we’ll get along, and if we don’t I’ll make your lives hell. Questions? Anyone?”

For some reason, no one felt like a smartass. Yet. There were no questions.

“Good job. Okaaaay. I’m supposed to teach you about food. But since you all know how to order take out already, we’re gonna skip that and go straight to the chapter on family units.” Kaito had the ability to pronounce words so that the italics almost wrapped around your throat. He picked up the text book, paged through it aimlessly and absently, and said, “Turn to chapter whateverthatis and skim it. First, let’s talk about the most important issue in family units, which is parents dying. Does...anyone know why your parents are going to die? Anyone?”

[Agito]

Akito stared at his desk the whole time, listening to Kaito's words and he cringed each time his brother had mentioned family units. He seemed to be sinking into his desk, holding on tightly to the side of it to avoid doing something rash and getting himself suspended. Kaito knew how to make his life miserable far too well; Kaito knew how to crush his self-being and freedom. Placing his index finger onto the desk he stared down, feeling weak and out of place. Like all eyes were on him but the eyes were really on Kaito because he was so weird.

Glancing over to his left he noticed a few of the girls whispering about Kaito, but he wasn't close enough to hear what exactly they were saying. PARENTS DYING?! Akito fumed in his head, and felt his heart break. Wow, he never knew Kaito was going to push it this far. No, he didn't want to think about death and especially parents; he didn't want to think about them together. Akito wasn't going to raise his hand and answer this question when he usually liked to participate.

[Kaito]

Kaito didn’t really want to take answers for his question, but he rolled his eyes and called on a couple of understandably timid students who’d had their hands up. “Maybe,” he said to one, “If you’re in a perfect world. Which you’re not. No, maggots, your parents are going to die because they can’t stand to be around you. Yes, that’s right. Old age won’t claim them, you will. You, and your endless, ceaseless prattling and demands. ‘I want a cookie!’ ‘I want to stay up!’ ‘I want a glass of water!’ ‘She bit me!’ They were happier before you were born.”

He paged through the book idly, clearly not reading it nor even trying. “Sometimes, if you’re really impossible, they die very early just to get away from you and the never-ending hell you’ve made their lives. And if that happens, who do you suppose is going to take care of selfish little you? Usually you’re given to the state, and they do whatever the hell with you—probably send you to China, because who wants orphans?” He shrugged in exaggerated sympathy as he said it. “But if you’re lucky someone else in your family will like you enough to take care of you even though you will probably ruin their life too—not that any of you kids would care. These days you only care about what makes you happy and comfortable. You probably learn that shit from TV commercials.”

[Agito]

Akito started to bite down on his teeth, his head dropping with each damn word his brother had said. Now, he had heard this before but last time it was you are selfish, Akito. In reality it was Kaito that was selfish and he knew it, he was sure that if anyone killed his parents it would be Kaito's fault and not his. First born after all. Soon he reached his right hand forward to poke at the pencil that was sitting near the desk, not looking at Kaito, not wanting to acknowledge his presence. Slowly he glanced towards the clock, waiting in anticipation for the hour to end so that he could find Ikki and hide. Looking back towards the pencil he had grasped it in his palm a little too tightly, causing it to literally snap.

The only reason Kaito took him in was to be used as a mere toy and that was it! Unfolding his fingers he looked at the broken pencil sadly, broken in half. Lifting his chin his eye slowly looked towards Kaito blankly, not hinting what his true emotions were at the moment. And if someone wasn't careful something rash could happen at any given second or rate.

[Kaito]

At that very moment, Kaito had looked over at Akito, and for one searing moment, their eyes met. Kaito hesitated, lips parted and one eyebrow arched.

“As long as you’re happy,” he said slowly, after a pause, “I suppose you kids think that’s all that matters, like there aren’t more important things to do. NO, SUZIE-DOT-FACE, I don’t think your question will be worth answering, put your hand down.”

The pages of the book ruffled again, words and pictures flipped beneath Kaito’s gaze. He still had his eyebrow arched. “I don’t know why they bothered to put a family unit in here, anyway. It’s like teaching economics to moths.”

[Agito]

Akito knitted his brows together and looked away, stupid-stupid brother. Moving his palm down on the desk he placed the pieces of the pencil near the top so that he could recline back a little more easily. This was alright so far, Kaito wasn't really harassing him as much as he could've been. But his concentration seemed to be on Kaito and the clock, wanting the clock to beat Kaito surely. And since he was in the back he could literally run out of the room first. "..."

[Kaito]

Kaito’s abusive, wandering speech about family values apparently had a lot of steam behind it, because he had plenty to say. He rifled through the papers on the desk as he talked, and eventually singled out one in particular that was so interesting that it paused his lecture. “It looks like a lot of you maggots haven’t been doing your homework. SOME of you have quizzes you to retake because you couldn’t even answer 5 questions out of 10 right. Let’s see, how the fuck should I do this? I don’t want to hang around tomorrow....everyone who has to retake quizzes can come in Saturday and do it. DON’T whine, you little bastards. I hear that shit again and I’ll find out who’s doing it and make them sorry, got it? As for the homework...”

His eyes skimmed the paper, and then slowly rose over it to fix on Akito’s bowed head. “...everyone on this list for late homework can stay after the bell and clean this room.” Guess whose name was on the list—whether it was supposed to be there or not? Guess.

[Agito]

Akito's eye stared at the ground, rather glad that the lecture was dying down into silence. He wondered why Kaito was being silent though, it didn't happen too often. Glancing over he looked at the clock, minutes left that could feel like hours but oh wait, someone had to stay after. Akito felt his mouth turn dry and he bit on the tip of his tongue to slowly raise his head to see that Kaito was staring straight at him. Ah, his name was on that list, wasn't it?

Akito didn't seem bright and cheery today, well, at least not in Kaito's classroom he wasn't. Carefully he nodded his head at Kaito to show that he had known he had to stay after and while doing so he sat up. Maybe he would just run out of the class room anyways, but no, he'd get expelled or suspended. That wasn't something he could afford. But what if Kaito had a trick up his sleeves? Stuck Akito thought to himself, finally averting his attention back to the girls that were talking about Kaito.

[Kaito]

Instead of making Akito read the listen of names, he passed it to some pretty little thing sitting in the first row. She’d dyed blonde highlights into her hair, and had lips that looked suckable, so he idled near her desk while he exchanged conversation with some of the boys sitting near the front of the room, dropping, for the moment, his teacher act. One of the first things they wanted to know was where he’d gone to college, being naturally suspicious of any substitute that came to work flashing a bellybutton. There was a diamond in it, after all. Kaito shrugged away the question of college and instead alluded to some other, more expensive form of higher education. From then on, the questions got more and more presumptive, but Kaito being Kaito, he didn’t seem offended, though he remained sardonic and chill.

In total, only four names had been on the list, and the girl Kaito’d ask to read off the list stopped to tap at Akito’s shoulder so she could show him the list. Yes, there was his name, shamelessly penned in handwriting vastly different from the neat penmanship that’d written the other three. “Luckyyyyy,” she told Akito, sticking out her tongue, and then wandered quickly away. The other children were still a little afraid of him. They were afraid of him, Itsuki was in another class, Kaito was teaching this one, and worst of all, Kaito knew that Akito could run if he wanted to—and if he wanted to take the consequences for it.

Go on, run when the bell rings. All you have to do is pay the consequences.