A random decision to go through my files in search of unfinished fanfiction I wanted to look over in the hopes of curing my writer's block turned up this completed, never posted chapter four of Triangle… oops? I believe this was read and critiqued by KowaretaTsubasa, but I don't remember if I ever edited it. (Not surprising, when I never remembered to post it, either…)

Don't count on seeing part 5 anytime soon (if ever), but hopefully you'll enjoy this last little bit.

I apologize for my chronic inability to finish chapter fics. Please enjoy my one-chapter, completed fics instead. I do feel the art of the short story is sadly unappreciated, personally.

The Right Triangle, part 4

Kirishima cast a furtive glance around as he spotted Keiko and Yusuke leaving the apartment building. He clicked on his walkie-talkie and reported, "Boss, this is Fighter. Over."

Kuwabara responded instantly. "Roger, Fighter, I read you loud and clear. Over."

"Princess and Gun Bunny have left the building. They're heading towards the library and Big Man. Over."

"Ten-four," Kuwabara replied. "I'll tell Big Man. Good job, soldier, go on home and watch some cartoons. Or better yet, you could even study for that stupid Geometry test."

Kirishima laughed. "Yeah, right, man. Just because you're obsessed with school now doesn't mean I have to be. Over and out, Boss. Later."

Kuwabara, already waiting in the Non-Fiction Section of the library, shook his head. Sometimes his friends… "Big Man, this is Boss. Over."

"What's up, Kuwabara?" answered Okubo a moment later.

"Okubo!" Kuwabara exclaimed, hoping that the library patrons would ignore him. "You can't use my real name, you have to use my codename! Otherwise, if Princess and Gun Bunny hear you, they'll know what we're up to!"

"If Keiko and Urameshi hear me, they won't care what I'm up to. They'll just beat me up and go along their merry way," replied the patient teen. "Anyway. What's up, Boss?"

"Fighter says Princess and Gun Bunny are heading your way," said the "boss."

"I got 'em in sight," Okubo responded, parting the branches of the tree he was hiding in. "Princess is pulling Gun Bunny by the ear," he added, knowing the mental image would amuse Kuwabara.

Sure enough, back in the library, a college girl was staring at him oddly as he tried his best not to laugh hysterically. She shook her head and wondered if she ought to get the librarian. That big school kid that looked suspiciously like that Kuwabara punk from Sarayashiki was annoying the other library patrons.

Only suspiciously like Kuwabara, because the teen had disguised himself. His long sleeved shirts and trench coats had been traded for slacks, a thick sweatshirt, sunglasses, a baseball cap and a big woolen scarf he'd stolen from his sister. Luckily, however, libraries are usually freezing, and this one was particularly icy. Kuwabara swore he saw icicles on a cookbook...

Okubo called back, saying that "Princess" and "Gun Bunny" were about to intercept "Buzzcut" (Sawamura) and "Glasses Girl" (Keiko's friend Natsuko) and signed off. He had babysitting duties that day. Soon, "Glasses Girl" informed him that she followed the targets all the way to the library, once Sawamura had left to run a few errands.

"They're on the front steps now, Boss," she said. "And you better know what you're doing, I still don't think it's safe for Princess to spend so much time with Urameshi."

Kuwabara rolled his eyes, and edged out toward the front of the library. Explaining the real Urameshi to Natsuko took more time than he wanted to spend on it. "Roger that, Glasses Girl. Thanks for your help. Over."

"No problem," Natsuko replied. "I'm hanging around anyway, my mom teaches a flower arranging class next door. Over and out."

Kuwabara stuck his walkie-talkie into his backpack, sitting alone on a table. Using his sneaking skills, a useful lesson from Kurama's Pre-Tournament He—Training, he slid behind a bookshelf rather close to the door and prepared to listen in as Keiko and Yusuke entered.

Sure enough, he knew exactly when they did. Miss Keiko had apparently not let go of Yusuke's ear ever since Okubo reported she had grabbed it, and every step Yusuke took was punctuated by an annoyed 'ouch!' or 'leggo a-me!'

Finally, once they were inside, Keiko released him in order to rub her arms, already covered in goose bumps. "It's freezing," she tossed out, wondering what Yusuke would respond.

"It's the library," he snapped back. "Can we go now?"

"Oh, no," answered the girl grimly. "You sit down, and get out your pencil. I have the book. We're going to start now, and we aren't going to stop until you can pass that test, by God."

If she keeps to that, they just might skip the test, Kuwabara thought. Sure, he had all the faith in the world in Keiko's stubbornness and Urameshi's intelligence, but it was Saturday. The test was on Monday. That was a lot of cramming. Even he had a week until the science test that decided Okubo's fate.

Not to mention he had the motivation of his friend's well-being spurring him along. All Yusuke had was a nagging childhood companion that doubled as an 'I'm-Not-Gonna-Say-So-And-I-May-Kill-You-If-You-Do' girlfriend.

The problem with Keiko just then: she was stubborn. And she could never tell Yusuke that she only cared for his happiness, and she thought that good school marks would make that happiness more real. If she said it in those terms, Yusuke would try, just so she would never worry. But Keiko could never just say that she loved him. Which made absolutely no sense to heart-on-his-sleeve, keeping-it-real Kuwabara. He loved Yukina, he told her so, and they were well on their way to happily ever after. Problem solved.

But Keiko nagged to get her results. And she didn't stop. Her strategy seemed merely to annoy him into getting what she wanted: his well being. But if she would just be herself and tell a certain someone what he didn't even really know he wanted to hear…

Right now, she was turning her book to the chapter the test was on. Keiko pulled a compass out of her purse and immediately set to drawing perfect circles on a piece of notebook paper. And once she finished with those, she began drawing lines in and around them.

To Yusuke, it looked more like spell circles than homework. And those were just as boring. One of those random errands Koenma had him go on last month had involved a sorcerer from the spirit realm who specialized in mind control. By sheer luck of the draw, Hiei had been fascinated by mind control for most of his life and read up extensively on the subject. Koenma had bribed the demon to teach Yusuke all about mind control and the spell circles one used for it, but Yusuke had been so bored by Hiei's deep, monotonous voice and the dry subject matter that he nodded off. When he woke up, he found a note Hiei wrote for him, stating simply that he washed his hands of Yusuke. But Yusuke had been pleased to find out in the heat of battle (he had gone alone, not even with Botan, since the more companions he had, the more people could be turned against him) that, in a rare fit of sympathy and an even rarer fit of patience, Hiei had continued to lecture him while he slept. And Yusuke was much more observant in his sleep than in his waking life: he retained the information perfectly.

He told the story to Keiko, in the hope that she would follow Hiei's example, but she'd coldly reminded him that Hiei was pretty good with mind tricks himself. How did he know that Hiei kept lecturing, and not just planted the information into his brain? Yusuke had no answer. No way of knowing, except his hunch that Hiei believed defeating the sorcerer was up to him. Planting the information ensured victory. To Hiei, that was bad. But continuing to lecture meant it was up to Yusuke whether or not he could recall the information. Hiei was just twisted enough to waste his precious time on Yusuke if it meant teaching him a lesson—whether or not the lesson killed him was a moot point.

Anyway, that was when she grabbed his ear and moved to drag him to the library. And the ear was still sore.

Finally, Keiko laid down her pencil and, after briefly admiring her work, handed it to Yusuke. "Look at the first circle," she instructed. "Now, identify the tangent."

"…The what?"

"The tangent," she repeated.

"I heard you, I just have no idea what the heck you're talking about," responded Yusuke.

Keiko sighed. "For goodness sakes, Yusuke, Mr. Iwamoto just reviewed it yesterday!"

"Well, I was busy yesterday!"

"What, you mean the paper airplane wouldn't crash into Kuwabara's head by itself?" Keiko retorted.

Behind the bookshelf, Kuwabara scowled and cracked his knuckles. And here he'd been thinking Shin Suzuki threw that airplane. Stupid Urameshi.

Before Yusuke could respond to Keiko's sarcasm, though, she got out her compass and drew another circle on a new piece of paper, drew in the little senseless lines, and began labeling them. Finally, she pointed to one and said, "This is the tangent."

"It's a line."

"It's a certain kind of line, called a tangent," she said patiently. Don't screw up, don't get angry… "See? This line is tangent to the circle."

Yusuke stared at the diagram. Unblinking. Not understanding.

Keiko groaned. "Look." She pointed to the line. "It runs along the side of the circle. See this line here that starts in the center and stops at the circle's edge? That's the radius. The tangent line and the radius line here make a right angle. That's how you know that a line is a tangent, if it makes a right angle with a radius."

Yusuke blinked. "You lost me at 'see.'"

"Just look at the first diagram and tell me which is the tangent and which is the radius," she snapped.

Yusuke picked up the paper. He frowned pensively, thinking. Both Kuwabara and Keiko would have dearly loved to ask him if it hurt, but Kuwabara was still trying to spy on them quietly and Keiko felt she had already been too mean today.

Finally, Yusuke pointed to the line that seemed to form one side of a box around the circle. "That's the tangerine, right?"

"Tangent," Keiko corrected. "Yes. Good boy."

"I'm not your pet," he snapped.

"I'd never have such a rotten pet anyway," she retorted automatically, and then tried not to cringe. Arguments were just too routine by now. "Find the dang radius."

"This one?" He pointed to a line that split the circle in half.

"That's the diameter," Keiko told him. "Close, though. The length of the radius is half the length of the diameter."

"So it's like two radiuses?"

"Radii."

"Who?"

"Ray-dee-eye," Keiko enunciated. "It's the plural of radius."

"Why? Radiuses makes more sense," Yusuke objected.

And on and on and on... It was beginning to run together for Kuwabara, and he was aching to go off and find a book... Listening to Keiko explain the stuff he had been going over in school, during homework and any other moment he could lately was more soporific than that stupid study of Australian plants Kurama had wanted for his last birthday...

Kuwabara yawned just thinking about it.

But hey... Speaking of Kurama... weren't Urameshi and I supposed to...?

"...I think I've been stood up..."