Title: Brain Storm? Or Just Light Drizzle?
Summary: Fumiko has invited Yoh to study with her on the day before the exams. He's told him to bring someone if he wants. And it just so happens that it's Kazuo that he runs into, so the two of them go study with Fumiko!
Who: Kazuo Yuudai, Fumiko Kohaku, Yoh Yamagatani
Location: Sumaru - Rengedai Ward

When people talk about moving to Sumaru, it his this particular area that they hope to find a home in. Set near the center of the city and right by the river, Rengedai is one of the quieter parts of the big city and a great place to raise a family.
One of the least developed residential areas, Rengedai is full of small homes dotted along the roads. Many of the locals here either attend or have graduated from nearby Seven Sisters High School. The Araya Shrine and humble Mt. Iwato add to the quiet grace of Rengedai, with the Lotus Plaza shopping district a small modern touch. With Honmaru Park under construction to the west, Rengedai may not remain quiet for much longer...
Some who disapprove of the Americanization of nearby Lunarvale have retreated here, staunchly protecting "the national culture." Yet, some take this to an extreme, as seen with an out-of-place pagoda which appears completely alien against the rest of the residences of Rengedai.
It's the day before winter mid-terms start and all good students (along with everyone who wants to pass) have been studying their butts off in order to make sure that the semester's material is covered. Today's the last day to get any significant amount of studying in, and Fumiko intends to make the most of it.

She's called up Yoh and invited him over to study and do some cookie-baking with her. In response to the question of 'is anyone else going to be there,' she would have said that she thought Riki would have surfaced from his lab, and gave Yoh permission to bring along a friend if he wanted - the more the merrier, right?

Water is boiling, almost ready for tea when her guests arrive. A large quantity of cookies are already made, but Fumiko has another batch in the oven and has the ingredients out to start a new batch when Yoh arrives. She's dressed casually (for her), wearing a pink gingham dress with an apron over it to keep her dress from getting messy.

Fumiko had to give Yoh a new address for their meet-up - she and Riki have moved, since the last time he visited. The building she's directed him to is nice - a few notches above what the old building was, and the apartment she's in is bigger; where the old one was suited for a young couple (or a young girl living on her own), the new one is big enough for a family of four.


C-c-coooold... Very.... cold.

Well, about as cold as Japan gets in winter.

Wintertime proper was in full swing, with the trees missing all but the most perseverant leaves, overcast days becoming commonplace, and winter clothing seeing the light of day once more.

Yoh hath been summoned by... someone that he figure he would not hear from again so soon. Fumiko. She had revealed her true allegiance last meeting, and even though she said she would remain friends with him, he figured the friendship would become distanced as it has in every other instance. But this shows it might not have! He should have had more faith in her.

And because of this is his super giddy, even in the cold; something that makes the muscular teen quite grumpy.

What made things even better is that he bumped into an acquaintance of his, Kazuo. The teen, after some idle chatter had pointed out that he was going to go study with a friend of his, and invited the other fellow.

After guiding his newfound traveling companion through Sumaru to a certain home, a gentle rapping on the door can be heard as he knocks. "She is really nice. Smart too, like her boyfriend," the teen states. Well, husband by technicality, but that is for a later date.


Kazuo is pretty well bundled up against the cold, so it's not really bothering him all that much. He had just been out, enjoying the last day of freedom before those infernal exams at school, pleh! Ah well...they'd be over soon enough, and he was pretty confident in his ability. He'd been studying with Naoki as well, and so had Jirou -- fact, that's where the two were now, because Jirou was still not understanding some of the concepts.

He'd run into Yoh, and had been surprised when the other fellow had offered to bring him to study with a friend of his. A /female/ friend, no less! He didn't really know Yoh that well, but he didn't have any reason to be suspicious of him. Besides, if he hung around, that kitten might pop up again, and Kazuo might get a chance to pet it...!

Of course, Kazuo has no idea who this friend is. He has no idea that this friend of Yoh's is...well, Kazuo considers her a friend of his as well. Though he doesn't quite know how she feels about that. He nods when Yoh touts the virtues of this friend of his. "I'm sure she is, if she's invited everyone to study today," he notes. "This is the last day we can do that before exams. Always good to get in as much study time as possible beforehand."

Of course...this from someone who was just lazing around before he ran into Yoh. But at least he still has his books with him, so that's something, anyway....


A few moments pass between when Yoh knocks at the door and when Fumiko opens it. Her hands are clean, although her apron has flour streaked on it, "Hi, Yamagatani-san! It's good to see you, how've you been?" A bright smile is offered to Kazuo, "Hi, Yuudai-san - Yamagatani-san said he might bring a friend, but he didn't say who. Come on in, both of you - I've got tea steeping, and I've got a lot of snacks."

A shoe rack and a coat rack are both available just inside the door, and the apartment smells of baking cookies. Fumiko leads the way inside, through the living room; it hasn't changed much from what Yoh recalls of the previous apartment - it's a bit bigger, and there's a covered table and a flatscreen TV on the wall, but there's plushies and origami frogs carefully arranged throughout the room, and a tank with three koi fish in it.

Textbooks are stacked on the table, but Fumiko heads on through to the kitchen. "Go ahead and get settled in the living room - I'll bring drinks and snacks in, if you want anything. I just need to pull this tray of cookies out first!"


Yoh seems a little chilly; and for those with resonance senses able to tingle, his is now more bolstering than aggressive. A rather big change if one can feel it. Still very, very loud though regardless.

"Ugh, tell me about it," the teen says to Kazuo on the way over. "I can't tell if I will do well or horrible yet." "Heya, Kohaku-san!" the teen says, shaking a little when the door is answered. "This is-- uh." Yoh seems a little perplexed for a moment or two. "I... guess you two know each other then!" he pauses for a moment. "Doing okay. I got a job starting next week." To help pay for stuff, and for damage done to the SEES dorms. Being too strong can be bad.

The teen kindly takes off his leather jacket and places it on the rack as well as the shoes on their rack. Sometimes Yoh wonders if that leather jacket Kasumi got him makes him look like a delinquent again. She says it looks good though, so...

"Oh, um, okay... mmm." Before he can finish he smells food! Some type of dessert! He looks to Kazuo and says quietly, "Man, if I would have known she was making us stuff I would have brought something too..." He purses his lips, and walks over to the table with books in hand.


Kazuo blinks as he realizes who Yoh's friend is. And then he offers a smile as she greets him. "Hi there," he offers. "Yeah, he didn't tell me who his friend was, either." He chuckles, clearly not upset by it at all. "Kinda ironic." He smiles, and enters when allowed to, hanging coat on the coat rank, and shoes on the shoe rack. Can't have nasty shoes inside a clean home, after all.

To the mention of cookies? Kazuo smiles. "I thought I smelled something good." He pauses to tilt his head back, visibly sniffing the air a moment. "Hmm...I can smell ginger, chocolate, and raisins. And...." Another pause, to sniff again, this time audibly. "Lots of other stuff. Muffins?"

And speaking of senses, Kazuo can't really sense or hear Yoh's resonance all that sharply. He can probably smell it, though. He's just been polite enough not to mention it. After all, he doesn't know the circumstances of Fumiko's friendship with Yoh; for all he knows, they don't realize it.

He also nods to Yoh's sentiments. "Yeah...even if it was just soda or something like that," he adds. He follows Yoh into the living room, after noting to Fumiko, "Thanks, that's nice of you to make something for us." He'd figured on grabbing a quick bite from a nearby fast food place at some point during the study session and then getting back. But this is much better! Homemade food is always better than fast food stuff!


A grin at Kazuo, "Well, it's a pleasant surprise." The tray of cookies is retrieved from the oven and set on the stovetop. "I've got soda - orange and Pespi, plus a couple kinds of juices, soy milk, and tea," Fumiko calls from the kitchen.

A soft giggle as Kazuo pegs the type of cookies she's made. "Yep! I just pulled a batch of oatmeal-rasin out of the oven, and I've got some chocolate chip cookies and ginger snaps. Plus, yes, muffins. And I can make something more substantial if the session runs long enough that we want dinner." A shrug that they might not see, "I don't mind - it's fun baking, it's something I do to de-stress."

This may explain why Kazuo can smell so very /many/ batches of cookies and other baked goods. Exams can be stressful, after all!

The sound of water being poured into a teapot can be heard from the kitchen - and Fumiko is easy enough to see in there, from the living room. "I'll have some tea, myself. It's cold out there, after all. You can go hibernate under the kotatsu if you want, Yamagatani-san." The table is covered with a thin blanket and warmth radiates from the tiny electric heater attached to the underside of the table.


Well then, this certainly worked out!

"Accurate smeller you got there," Yoh comments jokingly, yet with truth. He can only tell if it is appetizer, main course, or dessert.

Yoh's resonance scent is heated steel and ozone. A warming aroma of sorts, though the steel's smell is not offputting, just pungent and strong. "Oh, haha, I may take you up on that some other time!" the teen responds to Fumi with. The foodstuffs made sound good that she mentions.

He takes a comfy seat near the covered table. "Wonder what we will be studying today."


"Could I get a Pepsi?" Kazuo inquires. He's not much of a fan of fruit-flavored sodas; they normally have too much sugar, and generally taste fake. At least, in his experience. This might be a different type. But still, he'd prefer his old stand-by. Familiar is comfortable, after all.

At being told exactly what all is coming out of the oven, Kazuo boggles, blinking a moment. "Wow. That /is/ a lot of stuff," he marvels. "I'm glad you can bake. If I tried half of that at home, I'd probably burn my house down." He snickers.

He chuckles a bit when Fumiko mentions the kotatsu. "Cold natured?" he inquires teasingly of Yoh as he sits down on the other side of the table from him. He doesn't seem to be all that cold himself, for whatever reason.

"Thanks," he returns to the compliment on his sense of smell. "Been that way for...a while now." Let Yoh interpret that however he likes. He'll probably understand.


"Sure, Yuudai-san. You want anything, Yamagatani-san?" Fumiko starts putting together a tray of snacks. "Well, I didn't make it all at once - just a couple trays at a time. And...well, I've been baking for a few days now. Oh - I've got the stuff together to make another batch of vanilla cookies if either of you want to help."

Whatever Yoh asks for - if anything - will be on the tray when Fumiko carries it out. There's a pot of tea, a cup for Fumiko, and a cup of Pepsi for Kazuo, as well as a selection of the cookies and muffins Fumiko has been baking. "So, what should we start with, for the study session? I've got chemistry covered - it's probably my best subject - but I could do better in English. What do you guys want to work on?"

The tray is set down and Fumiko sits down at the table, pouring herself a cup of tea and retrieving one of the still-warm oatmeal-raisin cookies and nibbling on it; her apron has been left in the kitchen, where it belongs, since Fumiko isn't actively baking right now.


Yoh can probably seen drooling for a good few moments before catching himself. Hey, food is food is food. "Oh, I just don't fancy the cold. I will be fine!" It just keeps him from going to the beach, working out outside, getting a tan, see chicks in bikinis... theres a nice long list.

Yoh says nothing to Kazuo's last comment. He does understand, haha. He does nod though!

"I will take whatever you offer. Surprise me!" he says with a ginger grin. Baking cookies does sound fun. Yoh lights up some at that. He finds tea awaiting him on the tray! Probably one of Riki's blends, no way he will pass on that.

"Oh gods, English. Do that, please!"


"Thank you," Kazuo replies as Fumiko responds with an affirmative to his request. He puts his books in front of him then, and shuffles them around a little, considering Fumiko's question. He'd brought most of them with him, so he had a range of subjects to suggest they cover.

"Hm..." he muses as he picks up his math book. "I had Naoki helping me most of the year with math." This book is put down, and at Yoh's suggestion, the English book is picked up. "English is pretty tough, since the language is so different," he agrees. "I think the last time I tried to speak it, I said something that would have gotten me slapped if I'd said it to a girl." He smirks, but he's a little red-faced. "So yeah...I could probably use some help there...."


"Okay, English it is," Fumiko agrees. She rummages through her stack of textbooks, pulling out her English text. "So, oral or written?"

Yoh also gets a cup of tea poured for him, and it is one of Riki's blends - a raspberry blend. Fumiko blows lightly on her cup as she waits for their response. "I could use some work on my spoken English, too. So if you want to start there and work on written later? Or just work on that..." A shrug. "Any order works, honestly."

Fumiko sips at her tea and nibbles her cookie, gesturing for Yoh and Kazuo to have their fill. She sits across from them, shrugging a little at Kaz, "I've said some embarrassing things in English, too. I asked onii-sama for a pair of legs, once; I was trying to ask for eggs, I think."

"I heard it is one of the toughest languages to learn," Yoh pipes up with. "I have so much trouble with it..." he seems a little sad as he stares at the english book. Why can't they work on kanji-writing or something in schools that will be somewhat useful? When will he ever meet an english speaker this deep in Japan?

"Uhm... spoken I suppose." He sucked horribly at both, so either worked. The teen takes a small amount of tea and smells it. Ooooh. So good. Sometimes he'd rather just sniff the coffee than drink it. But it was too delicious, so it would never happen anywho.

"Legs? Hehehe!" Yoh is easily amused, so saying anything right can make him laugh. "How are things with you, Kohaku-san? I completely forgot to ask at the door!" he seems slightly embarrassed.


"I'm personally having more trouble with the spoken part," Kazuo replies. "Written's not so hard; my letters look like deflated balloons sometimes, but...." He shrugs. He has to stop there, too, because Fumiko's statement of the error she made makes him laugh. Or actually, he covers his mouth so he doesn't laugh out loud. The laugh is muffled to snickers. And when he can speak again, he agrees, "Yeah, that's a pretty...funny one, I have to admit."

To Yoh? "I've heard that it's hard for an English speaker to learn Japanese, too," he notes. "I think it has something to do with how the language is laid out...English words aren't syllables...or something like that."

Pepsi-sip. He will drink the beverage slowly, since he will probably need the caffiene. English tended to numb his brain....


"Okay," Fumiko says. "Do you want to do the practice stuff in the texts? That's probably best, at least to start with - that way we know what you're trying to say, if it comes out wrong." She sips at her tea, nodding to Kazuo, "Yeah. They break the words up into separate syllables - their words aren't whole ideas, like ours."

A shrug and she opens her textbook, flipping through it to find the section with the verbal exercises. "Plus, I think they look at time differently or something. So that's a factor, too, in how things get phrased." She holds the cookie between her teeth, flipping back to look at the index and then forward several chapters. "Okay, we've got some verbal exercises here that we could try, to start with, if you want?"


"Haha, I hear that!" Yoh chimes in. "And they write left to right, up to down. What is up with that? Vertical is more my style I think. Then again, people who grew up with English probably think Japanese is hella strange." Hey, it is true, right? He pops open the wiriting comprehension book.

"Yeah," the teen says back to Kaz. "First language is probably the easiest no matter what it is. It just comes as second nature to them."

"Practice stuff sounds good," the cheery young man responds with. A look around Fumi's home, and at the fish for a moment distracts him. Pretty fishy. "Sure thing. I will try to follow along as best I can." A small pause. "Oh! How is Riki-san, anyway?"

Damnit Yoh stick with the lesson, two seconds in and you get distracted what is this I don't even.


Kazuo nods, both to Fumiko's observation of the language, and to Yoh's as well. "That's what I'd heard, so it's hard to adapt to another way of thinking when you're so used to your own, right? It's all just a problem of perspectives." A pause. "And too many consonants in a row." He smirks.

Then he looks at the practice exercises in his book. "Hm. I hope they're the same." He looks to Fumiko and Yoh. "We don't all go to the same school, so it might all be different." He'd do what he could, though. Besides, it might be advantageous to learn out of two books!


"Plus, I don't think we're even in the same grades. So you guys might have more difficult practice exercises, which would be helpful for me." Fumiko shrugs, "And if we've all got different practice exercises, we can do more practice than if we only have one set to work with. And we all need the practice."

A sip of tea and Fumiko glances at Yoh before coughing softly, "Um, Riki-kun's doing okay. He's been really focused on some projects he's working on, though. Onii-sama's. Um. ...upset with him, and he's going to set Riki-kun some tests, so Riki-kun is trying to prepare for that. I'll make sure he gets to his exams on time though, don't worry, Yamagatani-san. And he's prepared for them."

Moving past whatever it is Riki's done to make Fumiko's 'onii-sama' angry at him, Fumiko looks down at the textbook, "So which textbook should we start with? Mine, Yamagatani-san's, or Yuudai-san's?"


"Haha yeah, it is easier to read kanji, whereas a symbol stands for an entire word." Yoh is simple like that. What did you expect! "True that. I bet we could glean some help though from combining the textbooks." Well, he can only hope that anyway.

"Oh." Yoh seems a bit perplexed by the sense of 'tests' and such. Man, hope he doesn't get hurt! "Uh..." Yoh looks at his textbook. Second year english. Nothing fancy, but he has a hard time with it. "Hm. Maybe yours? Since you are holding this after all. Would be best if you got the most help out of it."

Would be only right for her to have the best odds of passing!


Kazuo nods. "That's true," he admits. He is quiet as Fumiko mentions a 'Riki'. He doesn't know a Riki, so it's not that he doesn't care. It's just none of his business. He does, however, reply to Fumiko's question of which book they should start with. He looks to Yoh and suggests, "What about working our way up?" Then looking to Fumiko again. "You know...start with the easiest exercises, and then work up to the most difficult?" He looks between the two again. "How does that sound? Who's in the lowest grade? We can start with that book, and then work our way up. I'm second year."


"I know," Fumiko agrees with Yoh. She sips at her tea, answering Kazuo with, "That sounds like a good idea. I'm in middle school, third year." A slightly embarrassed shrug; this makes her the youngest in the room - fifteen, to their sixteen or seventeen. She sips her tea, looking down at her textbook.

"So, my textbook's probably the easiest. We can start there, and then do either your textbook, Yuudai-san, or Yamagatani-san's textbook," Fumiko notes. She sips her tea again, nibbling at her cookie as she reads over the verbal exercise that's in her text.


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