A/N: Suggested by flamelily274, "Aichi being bullied and Leon and Ren scaring the crap out of the bullies". I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Maybe because by LJ he seemed to have grown out of it?

Set in the same timeline as Role-Playing, because that's the most convenient point in time for non-"Through the Water" plots.

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Wow, it's been a while since this happened.

Honestly, Aichi was a little shocked.

Before him stood two rather tall, well-built boys, around high school age. Probably on a sports team, and foreigners at that, judging by their poor pronunciation. They blocked his way to the stadium entrance, where his name was to be called any minute now.

He had a strong feeling he'd seen this somewhere, but before he could amuse himself trying to remember, one of the boys grabbed his shoulder.

He decided he didn't like international tournaments as much as he wanted to.

"Listen kid, we don't wanna hurt you." He said, though his smirk said otherwise. "We just wanted you to know that your opponent is a good friend of ours, and we've bet a lot of money on him."

There was a betting pool going on? For his match? He made a mental note to ask Ren why he wasn't let in on this.

"Simply put - we want you to lose the match." He had a fleeting thought of I wonder if they even know who I am but quickly shoved it aside in order to answer.

"So... you're threatening me." He said flatly, reaching up and pulling the hand off his shoulder. "Sorry, but I can't do that. That's not how you play Vanguard."

He bit the inside of his cheek, suppressing a grin when he saw the other boy's lip twitch into an angry scowl. He stepped forward, shoving his companion out of the way and grabbing the front of Aichi's jacket.

"Listen squirt-" Really? He knew he hadn't grown much since graduation, but he wasn't that short. "We're risking a lot coming in here to ask you nicely to lose. So why don't you shut up and-"

"Well, this does look interesting, but we kinda need our teammate back."

Aichi calmly turned his head to look over his shoulder, while the boy holding him snarled angrily at the interruption before paling considerably.

Of course he would recognize Ren. Looking past the red-head, he could see Leon approaching as well. The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously? I thought you got over this years ago." He said exasperatedly, shoulders slumping. "Get out of the way, idiots. We're in a rush."

His deadpan insults seemed to snap the boys out of their shock and fear, their faces changing from ghost white to red with anger. Aichi was released from his hold, but didn't attempt to stop the boy from charging at his friend. He was at least smarter than them.

Leon caught the first boy's arm by the writ, tripped the other one. When the first attempted to get himself free, the blonde responded by tightening his grip.

There was a soft crack, and he released the high schooler, who cradled his now broken wrist and ran down the hall, tripping over his friend when he tried to stand up. Ren chuckled.

"I was just going to play with them a little, but that works too." He said with a wide smile. Leon rolled his eyes.

"That would have taken too long." He turned to Aichi. "You need to defend yourself a little more. I'm getting tired of always bailing you out." Aichi pouted slightly, something that should have been out of place on the young adult.

"It's not always. Only when you catch it or no one else is around to chase them away." Leon crossed his arms.

"My point still stands." His expression changed from condescending to quizzical. "But honestly, how out of touch do you have to be with society to not know who you are... at the very least."

"I don't want to hear that from you. Also, that last part was unnecessary."

While Leon rolled his eyes again, Ren placed a hand on his shoulder, turning him towards the exit.

"I hate to be the responsible one here-" Leon snorted, and he gave him a light smack to the back of the head. "-but I believe we have a match to win. By a large margin, preferably."

As if on cue, the screech of the mic sounded in the hall, forcing the three to slap their hands over their ears.

"And next up, the much anticipated dream team - PSY 3!"

Leon and Aichi exchanged a look before turning to the oldest male.

"We're never letting you name us again."

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A/N: Not quite what the prompt meant, probably, but I figured that by high school Aichi's classmates have realized not to fuck with him and he kinda has an ensemble of friends at his beck and call, so it would be a stupid idea anyway. The only way I could make it work was for an idiot or two from somewhere else and have them be... idiots.

The title of this chapter can go both ways - people trying to bully Aichi, and Leon bullying them in return. Of course, he actually got a hit in.