Mamoru Chiba pushes open the upstairs door from the steps outside, and it rings, as it does, but he doesn't enter because he's actually holding it open.
He's holding it open for Usagi Tsukino.
He's in his school uniform and he's got his school case slung over his shoulder and his glasses on, and he's got a slightly impatient look on his face.
"It's not going to kill you. It might not be edible, but it won't kill you," he's telling her. It sounds like whatever they're arguing about has been going on for a while. "Just wait'll we get going, I promise it won't be that bad."
Usagi's feet drag along the side walk and through the door, clutching her bag in front of her. Her shoulders are drooped, and if possible her hair.
She really doesn't want to do this.
"But why why why why would they name a diabolical math thing after something as amazing as pie?"
She harrumphs a bit, wondering if she actually had agreed to this whole study thing, or if he had tricked her into thinking she had.
Before she's to the first game she spins on her heels to face him, walking backwards, as a pout spreads. "This is a sacred place, Mamoru-kun. Something as evil as math does not belong here." Ignore the fact that she's studied (sort of) here before, she is just looking for a way out.
Rei Hino is already here, several books open in front of her and her head is propped up by her arm. Ugh, what is even all of this stuff? She has several pages of homework in front of her and she's trying to correlate the stuff she's written down with what's actually in the books and in her notes.
She seems frustrated. Granted, Rei being frustrated probably isn't news to anyone. Others here might recognize her thinly pursed lips and crunched eyebrows. Well, they would recognize it if they weren't caught up in their own little world.
Rei gets up from her table and approaches Usagi from behind, catching wind of her excuses. Rei immediately doesn't like it. Her voice has already taken on a lecturing tone. "Usagi. If you have time for boys then you have time to study."
"That's why I'm getting you a milkshake first," Mamoru says firmly, then glances up and over at Rei. He gives her a sort of half-wave, half-cursory salute, and he goes over to drop his bag on the table where there's space. And then he says to Rei with a frown, "I'm helping her with her homework. This isn't a 'time for boys' thing."
He gestures at the next chair over, looks pointedly at Usagi-- though there's a twitch upward at the corner of his mouth-- and then starts for the counter. He calls back over his shoulder, "I'll help with yours too if you want it, Rei-san."
Then he's over at the counter, presumably ordering the promised milkshake and his usual black coffee.
What! What what what! Boys!
Her cheeks burn red. In fact, she's spluttering as Mamoru explains, and she's near steaming when he goes to order. She ignores the chair for now.
"Rei!" Her arms flap up and down, and her voice is a low hiss. (Of course, she thinks it's low. The entire place could hear for all she knows.) "He's not a boy, he's Mamoru-kun!" More arm flaps, but now mostly because she doesn't even know what she meant by that. "What! I don't!" She sits in the chair with a huff, arms folding across her chest. "You're so mean, Rei."
'This isn't a time for boys thing'. Yeah Rei doesn't believe that for a second, at least as far as Usagi's intents are concerned, but at least Mamoru is responsible enough to consider her grades. That's to his credit, right?
Rei walks over to the table and starts moving her stuff around so that her stuff doesn't get mixed up with anyone else's. At Usagi's protests Rei just turns towards her and sticks out her tongue. Such a mean Rei!
"I think Usagi-chan needs it more than I do, if her grades are any indication." She tries to act like she's too tough/cool/smart/whatever to ask for help, despite the fact that she might actually need the help later.
Sitting down, she goes right back to her homework... which happened to also be math. "Also: Pi isn't pie. They're completely different things!" Rei starts fussing even more as she looks over her own homework.
Mamoru gives Usagi a LOOK over his shoulder that-- well, you know how sometimes Usagi has hearts for eyes? Mamoru has FIRE IN HIS. She's probably not even looking at him. In fact it's likely done by the time she even looks away from Rei.
Moments later, he comes back to the table with a strawberry milkshake and a black coffee, and puts them down with great precision. "I'm definitely," he says distinctly, "a boy." GLARE.
Then he sits down with extreme dignity, adjusts his glasses, and slides his own case of schoolbooks out of the way to make more room for Usagi's sprawl of stuff, and the storm appears to be over. "Whatever you like, Rei-san. Here, Usagi-chan, open up to today's chapter and let me see for a minute? And open up your notebook."
Usagi sticks her own tongue out at Rei. "Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It sounds like pie, which is false advertising! Pie is delicious and sweet, while pi is...numbers so very not delicous and sweet!"
HAH! Try arguing your way out of that one!
Unlike Rei, who has her stuff in some sort of order, Usagi piles notebook and schoolbook on the table with no discrimination. (It's highly possible her English worksheet doesn't belong with pi.)
When Mamoru sits down and proclaims his status as a member of the male species, her cheeks get even more red and she splutters even more. "It's Rei's fault!"
It's not, not really.
She stealthily reaches over to slide the milkshake toward her, just in case he's changed his mind about giving it to her. "And it's your fault, too. Listening in. Tsk." And there's also a mumbled thanks.
For a moment she stares at her mountain of...stuff. She slides the math book out from between a notebook and a copy of the syllabus for Home Economics before flipping through the pages and handing it over. Then she grabs the notebook, a pencil, and starts doodling bunnies in the margins.
"But pie is spelled with an 'e', and pi doesn't make you go 'eeeee' so it's not the same as pie!" Rei just throws out this bit of logic without thinking about how silly it probably sounds.
"I've seen how much of a boy you are, 'Prince'," says Rei. The word 'prince' is said with a certain degree of sarcasm. She still isn't sure what to think of Mamoru, but she's started to accept that he's going to be a part of their lives whether she cares for it or not.
Rei glances up at Usagi's mountain of mess and just rolls her eyes for a moment before paying attention to her own stuff. She looks up again to see her doodling a bunny.
She glances between Usagi and Mamoru. Well, whatever is up with Mamoru, maybe he'll be a good influence at least?
Or maybe Usagi will be a stronger bad influence, and we'll see Mamoru drawing bunny pictures everywhere.
"What did you even go over in class, Usagi-chan?"
Mamoru looks completely incredulous. "Listening in?!" he hisses. "The whole place heard you. Thanks." Just then, his phone buzzes in his pocket, and he takes it out, scanning over the page of the math book and flipping through the chapter with his free hand. He glances at the display.
Madoka-chan TXT: Hi Mamoru-kun! I won't be able to make it to
the study group tonight; I just ran into my best friend and I
haven't talked to her in years! Um... tell Usagi I'm sorry and
that I'd still like to meet her! My sincerest apologies,
really!
Mamoru texts back really quick, thumbs flying over the touchscreen keyboard, 'Okay! No worries, Mado-chan. Enjoy yourself!'
Then he puts the phone facedown on the table far enough away from the coffee and milkshake that it won't actually get into trouble if anyone (cough*Usagi*cough) gets overexcited.
Then he just stops everything and stares at Rei. "How much of a boy I--"
Mamoru's eyes narrow in suspicion. "Prince? What-- look, what are you talking about? What do you mean how much of a boy I am? We don't go to the same school. Wait..." He scowls. "You're not responsible for the rumors about cameras in the locker rooms at Infinity, are you? No, you know what, I don't even want to know. Stop it, we need to do homework."
Finally, he lets out a short sigh and drinks some of his coffee, then his face smooths out. He actually adopts an entirely different demeanor: calm and patient, with a voice that (yes prince okay) gently commands attention. "All right, Usagi-chan. Pi is actually cute-- no, look at it. It's got pudgy legs and the back one's kicking a little up, like it's dancing, and it's wearing a hat. And it's a symbol for a number that goes on forever, just like outer space does."
He points at the illustration in the book for what pi is, and traces lines with his fingertip. "This is the circumference, which you can remember because it sounds like circle. This is the diameter. Each of them has a measurement. We'll measure in pocky because they're more interesting than centimeters. If the diameter of this circle is one stick of pocky, the circumference is--"
One finger goes around the circle, stopping at 'pocky lengths', while his other finger stays at the point where the tracing finger started. It stops at three pocky lengths, which leaves a gap.
"Three... but there's a gap. That gap is the numbers after the decimal point. So it's not really three, right? It's three and change. It's pi. If the diameter is one, then the circumference is pi." His finger taps the place in the book where it's all like three point one four one five nine two six five three five nine dot dot dot.
Usagi sticks her tongue out at Rei again. "Well it sounds the same so that makes pi even more treacherous because you expect the 'eeeeeee' so there infinity!" Mamoru is Not Pleased that she had no inside voice! "Well, I, we--" She throws up her arms. "I'M SORRY, YOU MOST DEFINITELY ARE A BOY." And this, of course, is shouted.
Rei's reminder of Princely things subdue Usagi, though only a little.
Well, if Mamoru really is, then that's just all the more reason to find the princess, right? Because then, wouldn't he be happier? Not that he wasn't unhappy, or maybe he was, but he wouldn't be as less happy than he was! Or something. (And even though the thought of the princess now made her tummy hurt, she doesn't know why, finding her was still important!)
Mamoru's text tone breaks her from her distracting (and distraughting) thoughts.
Even though she's not supposed to, she just so happens to catch a glance of the message over his shoulder. She tries to be discrete about it. And probably fails.
"Who's Madoka-chan?"
Ooops.
Her eyes widen at Rei. She is scandalized! "Locker room cameras?!"
And then he is talking about evil, vile pie.
Only, even though it doesn't make total sense, it almost makes a little bit of sense. Which is much more than it had before.
Her brows furrow together as she concentrates. "So...it's as if there's four pocky, but I ate most of one?"
Usagi glares at Rei, suddenly sensing a conspiracy and, even though it's in no way Rei's fault, she had been there. "Why haven't I been taught in pocky instead of centimetres before, Reeeeeei?"
"Ew! No! Ugh, you're worse than Usagi! Don't treat me like I'm some kind of pervert like Umino-san." says Rei, glaring fireballs at Mamoru. Usagi's comment doesn't help. "I just mean that I've seen you with the--- you know what? never mind." She refuses and ignores any further comments along those lines. That subject is dropped.
Rei looks up as Mamoru starts to explain the length and meaning of pi. It's as good of an explaination as any. However, the accusation is levied against her, and Rei looks up defensively. "Huh...? What? Ask Ami-chan, I don't know!"
She crosses her arms and sticks her back up straight. "Besides, it doesn't matter if it's pocky or not! It's math! Don't make such a deal about nothing!"
Says the girl who makes a big deal out of so many things.
Rei focuses back on her own homework, doing some problems involving fractions and the multiplication and addition of said fractions.
"Yeah, like you ate most of one. Here, there's another way to do it with half a pocky stick. Except it should bend..." Mamoru looks thoughtful for a second, then digs in his pocket and pulls out most of a snack bag of sour gummi worms. (Shut up.) These, he puts on the table, then reaches over for his case and opens the flap, starting to dig around inside. "Madoka-chan is a friend of mine. She's also a very dear friend of Akemi-san's, and she gets targeted by jerks a lot, but she can't fight 'em off, so I help Akemi-san look out for her sometimes. She reminds me a lot of you, so I thought you two should meet. I think you'd be great friends."
Then he triumphantly produces a compass, and takes out his own notebook and flips to the next open page. A gummi worm gets laid out on the paper, and Mamoru stretches the compass out so that the distance between needle and pencil is the length of the gummi. "I don't know what you've seen, Rei--"
No honorific. His voice is patient, there's no edge to it, but the remonstration is clear in that gap after her name.
"--but it's important to make sure people are interested in the work they need to do. Usagi, you too. I know it's tempting to get into fights, but you're distracting Rei-san from her homework just as much as she's distracting you. So let's focus, okay?"
He waits until he's sure she's looking, then pinches the ends of the gummi to travel with the compass, and as he explains, he draws a circle. "This gummi goes from the dead center of the circle to its edge. It's HALF of a diameter, right? It's a radius. No matter where you're at in the circle, the radius -- the gummi worm -- goes exactly from the center to the edge. That measurement stays the same."
He glances up, eyes way too blue behind the glasses, and makes sure she's paying attention. Then he continues, putting the compass down. He turns the gummi so that the edge is still connected, but the end that'd been in the middle goes straight up next to the circle. Then he draws a box around the circle, lined up with the gummi. "Right. Now. The gummi goes to the very top of the circle, next to it, right? Same distance. Because if you move it over--"
He moves it over.
"--to the center, it's still from the center to the edge."
He moves it back to the side.
"So that's your half-a-diameter. Since it was three-and-change diameters that made up the circumference, it'll be six-and-change radii-- or gummis-- that make it, now, because they're half as long. Watch."
<img src="http://www.nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PiGIF_2.gif">
He bends the gummi worm around the circle, then takes out another, and six times in all -- and it still leaves that gap. "It doesn't go completely all the way around. That last little piece is what makes it pi instead of a NORMAL number. You know what the best part is?"
Mamoru leans in and says conspiratorially, grinning, "They actually legit call pi an irrational number. They ADMIT it doesn't make sense."
Usagi blinks. Yes, she wants to meet Modoka-chan. And also maybe help her from being picked on by jerks!
Rei's comment about deals has her eyes stinging, and she's this close to waterworks! In fact, she's even inhaling for it, but Mamoru's admonishment to them both...deflates it. She even lets herself sulk. "Sorry, Rei." Hmph.
(She wants to steal a gummy worm, so she does.)
She watches him, almost leaning on his arm to do so because of Space Reasons (right...) and though it's still confusing, seeing it in terms of junk food makes an odd sort of almost sense. But it still doesn't, and she opens her mouth to say so!
But then he's being all leany and low voiced and she wonders if she needs a tinfoil hat because she'd just been thinking that.
That doesn't, of course, stop a bright smile spreading across her face. "So pi isn't out to get me, it's just crazy?"
Rei resists the urge to stick her tongue out at Mamoru as he lectures her... without an honorific, no less! She's so irritated! Ugh, Usagi this is your fault! Ugh!
One more jab is on her lips. She's about to say it! She decides not to. Mostly because she recognizes that she's about to push Usagi to the point of crying.
She lets out a long, tired sigh and keeps her opinion on that to herself.
She continues scribbling more and more fractions and factions on top of other fractions and fractions inside fractions multiplied by fractions. Once she's convinced that she hasn't gotten the wrong answer she moves on to the next subject, English, muttering some of the strange and arcane words in front of her.
"Herro. Good to meet you."
Her words are a bit stilted and stiff, but without anyone to listen she can't really check to see if her pronunciation is right. She decides to work more on the spelling and memorization portion of it.
She looks up again, staring her silent disapproval.
The gummy worms and pocky are making her hungry. She stands up and says, "I'm going to get something to eat."
"It's just crazy! It drives me crazy, why can't a circle just be six rads around? Math is supposed to be neat and uncomplicated, not messy and irrational -- but the further you dig into it, the weirder it gets. And that's why the universe is so weird," Mamoru says with a laugh, lifting his hands and waving them around just a little. "So I guess I'm not actually annoyed that there are irrational numbers and imaginary numbers and other ridiculous things in math, because if there weren't, the universe would be really boring."
Then he looks up at Rei and blinks. "Okay. But if you want me to tell you the trick to how you pronounce 'hello' -- I know it's hard--"
How can he possibly know it's hard, it just rolled off his tongue like it was nothing.
"--I can when you get back?"
He is very, very animated about this, and it makes him very, very interesting to watch! He is Hand Wavey and Body Moving! Her smile grows as he just vents about the insanity of numbers that refuse to be rational. Then she's tilting her head. "The universe wouldn't be boring, there'd just be less math." Her eyes narrow and she tilts her head. "Ooooor is that like someone telling me the universe wouldn't be boring, there'd just be less cake?"
Rei says something just then that is probably the only thing that would drag her attention away just then. She scrambles about, pulling out her coin purse. "Can you get me something too, pleeeeeeeeeeeease?" Her eyes widen as she gives Rei Puppy Eyes. Not that Rei isn't immune to them! "Mama gave me some money for french fries. I'll share? ...a few?"
Then she's looking at Mamoru, and she bends almost entirely over the table, trying to look up into his mouth to see if he just sprained his tongue.
It seems that Rei is haughtily ignoring them both. Mamoru's eyebrows lift, then he shrugs it off and looks back to Usagi. "I'll get some next time I get up." Then he starts to give her a slow smile. A faint smile. A troll smile. "But I'll get them with my money. And I'll get them for me. Unless you can finish the first five practice problems before I eat them all. The faster you do them, the less of them I'll eat..."
She looks at him with something akin to horror. "Five?!" She's lucky if she gets that much done in a night! "What if you eat them really, really fast? And are done before I'm done with one?" She is going to start whining, and soon.
She sulkily slurps on her milkshake before she has a devious grin of her own! "I think better with food in my tummy..."