Hawk, Bear; Samurai

 Lachlan gazed at the clock on the blank white wall, arm rested over one raised knee, his helmet hanging from his fingertips, other foot dangling over the short hop to the floor below. Eight o'clock. Drake would probably be back by now. Should be working on practicing his kanji, himself.

He flexed his left hand against the sharp knives digging into it, and sighed.

Two sets of footsteps came through the doorway, and one halted. "...Gaijin?"

He looked over to see Ariake with Hirano, the latter appraising him coolly. In for some friendly sparring, were they? A crooked smile pulled the corner of his mouth. "Takanashi, Hirano. Fancy seeing you here."

"So you do train, gaijin," Hirano commented.

"Ah, because all gaijin are lazy." He cocked an eyebrow. "Kites with weak arms tugging their strings."

Everyone's senpai only smiled, turning for the training mats on the other side of the room. "Don't tire yourself too much, gaijin."

It's gaijin against gaijin out here. He could get under everyone else's skin but this kid's, apparently. Slipping off the core, he thumped to the ground and headed on his way out, stepping past Ariake with a shoulder pat that probably earned him a scorching glare. "Have fun. Don't let him win."

"...Right."

The feel of eyes on his back followed him out the door.

_________________

Come to think of it, it was funny how Ariake didn't hop on the "gaijin liability" bandwagon. His first week here, Eden and Ariake had just about agreed on everything. When it came to him, at least.

Maybe the teen had finally realised he was stuck with them.

After all, as he'd said, he wanted to come at the top of the class. Couldn't do that on his own. Samurai worked in fours, after all. It was learn to get along with this motley crew or wash out completely, and the latter wasn't an option, no matter how he felt about them.

Though why Lachlan didn't know. Drake didn't seem to have much of a stake in whether they achieved top marks or not, and Eden seemed stuck in his own pride, but Ariake....

Ariake did want it.

"Gaijin, if you nearly shoot me one more time—" The lad's Samurai twitched as another shot neatly sniped the little flying oni about to sting his back. "You keep talking about working together and watching each other's backs! Stop trying to shoot me!"

He just also hated Lachlan. Probably because he'd strolled in here and immediately offended the teen's senpai. Which also extended to everyone else. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot.

"I'm not trying to shoot you. Just trust me, alright?" He backhanded another with a pistol shot, Ariake leaping forward again and swiping aggressively at the legs of the big oni they were stuck dancing around.

"Trust the gaijin who nearly killed himself," the lad grumbled. "Right."

"I'm also the one whose plan to take out that onikaiju got us up past team Twelve." He distracted the oni with a shot to the eye. "I think I've earned some faith."

"If you were watching your back, or had any discipline whatsoever, you wouldn't need anyone to shoot so close," Eden said, cold as ice. "If his terrible aim hits you, then it's your own fault."

And then there was Eden's attitude.

"Hey, I'd like a minute." Lachlan strode after him as they left their Samurai in the hangar, using his longer stride to his advantage, despite the shorter's impressive efforts to power-walk away. "Nokami—"

"I'm not interested in whatever your foolish gaijin mind thinks I need to be told in order to 'get along'."

He puffed out a sigh. "Have a feeling if I did you'd only get worse at 'getting along', somehow. But this isn't about getting along. This is about you deciding everyone needs a piece of your mind. Are you still holding this much of a grudge over what I said?"

"Takanashi is too hot-headed, and that will get him killed. Would you rather I say nothing and let him?"

"No, I wouldn't. If you meant it that way, which you didn't."

Eden abruptly halted in the corridor, Lachlan's stride carrying him a belated further forward before he stopped as well, facing the full-force of the white-haired Nihonjin's frosty scowl. "Do you have any idea what being a Samurai master means, gaijin? We are training to fight oni, not bedtime stories—the monsters that for generations have destroyed homes, lives; entire civilisations. Perhaps in peaceful, lazy Wilind you've forgotten what they can do, but we never will. And none of you are good enough to face them."

Maybe he did want it, in his own way. Lachlan narrowed his own eyes. "That's why we're training. The point is for us to learn to be good enough."

A glint sparked off Eden's glasses as he tilted his chin. "We'll see."

Was it any wonder, with all the judgementalism going around, that he found Ariake in the training room after he failed to show for the afternoon's assignment? The lad didn't turn from his series of katas, the fancy glimmer sword in his hands carving wickedly sparking trails in the air, his face set hard enough to crack a walnut on.

Lachlan leaned on the little rope fence closing it off and cleared his throat. "I don't think doing katas is going to help. Unless you aim that at Nokami."

The lad jumped, his focus crashing like a runaway train and coming to a sloppy end as he whirled. For a moment he just stared, still breathing heavily. "What?"

"You were really in the zone, eh?" He smiled lopsidedly. "Planning on making us walk into Edo without you?"

The teen grunt-mumbled something, turning away and swiping at his forehead, the sword vanishing. "I'll be there in five minutes."

Lachlan watched him pick up a waterbottle, drinking half and pouring the other half over his head. "Not that I don't understand, but skipping lunch and running through the training montage isn't going to make you anything but tired."

A snort without the usual heat to it answered him. "No, you don't understand."

"Alright then, tell me."

A half-glare turned on him.

He opened his hands. "Haven't got anywhere else to be, unless you gave me the keys to your car."

"Not a chance, gaijin," Ariake practically spat, and he had to hide away a smile, waiting until the lad finally tipped back his head and sighed at the ceiling, fixing him with a mulish look. "I don't know if it's worse coming from Goudon-san or you."

Hirano? He raised an eyebrow. "What's Hirano been saying?"

Ariake went over and picked up his jacket, wiping his face with it. "He was an arrogant bastard when I first met him." The lad paused, and then said, like it was a tooth being pulled out of his gum, "And I was, too. I hated him. I was the top candidate before he came along. I was going to be the head student, but he turned out to be better."

He hummed, not quite sure where this was going. "You seem to respect him now."

"He's a good person." Ariake tossed his jacket around his neck and half-turned, side-eyeing him. "I thought he was just an arrogant jerk who'd put everyone else under him, but he cares about people."

Interesting. Everyone except for gaijin like Lachlan, at least. "So he's been telling you to loosen up, too."

"Mph." Ariake grunted, heading to the rope fence. "He doesn't think I need to train harder. He's wrong."

"Keep digging in one spot and all you'll get is a hole." He watched him lift the rope to go under. All this talk about Hirano and he still hadn't really told him anything. "Call me curious, but why do you want to win, Takanashi?"

"Who doesn't want to?" Ariake tossed him a look. "Why do you want to, gaijin? You don't come from here, you didn't go through the academy. Why does it matter to you if you go to Kaijan or stay here?"

He tilted his head with a lazy smile. "Personal reasons."

"I thought so." Ariake nodded to himself, walking for the door. "And so are mine."

Well, touche. Couldn't say much to that, really.