[paku]
IN THE DARKNESS
by meitachi
Before
"Where the hell is my flashlight?" Shindou demanded, digging through the closet. "I swear it was right here!" He glared at the mess both in the closet and now on the ground. "Oh, damn," he muttered. Maybe his mother was right about this whole..."cleaning" thing. It would figure he wouldn't be able to find his flashlight the only time he ever needed it to fish out the go stones that had scattered under his dresser and bed after the game he'd had with Touya that afternoon. Evidently, they were going to have to find a new room where they could critique each other's techniques-and throw go stones in fits of anger.
"Stupid Touya," he muttered and, extracting himself from the closet, stomped off to look in the kitchen drawers.
After That
Shindou was eating cake when he had an epiphany. It was night and the moonlight made a silver fringe in his blond bangs as he stared through the darkness in his apartment and out the window by the table, letting the fork dangle idly from his fingers. He looked away and, with a sweeping movement, suddenly leaned forward.
"Touya," he whispered, shaking the arm of the boy who'd fallen asleep across the table, "Wake up!"
A muffled groan came from the black form slumped across table, and one arm waved unenthusiastically at him in a sort of disembodied way.
"Touya," Shindou hissed, "This is important!"
Touya raised his head, blinked vaguely in the direction Shindou was pointing, and looked out. "What are you going on about?" he asked sleepily, his bangs ruffled and sticking out in various directions.
Shindou raised an eyebrow. "What are you, blind? I think we're being stalked."
Touya stared. "What?"
"That man! With the binoculars! Here, blow out that candle!"
Still blinking away his drowsiness, Touya watched in bemusement as Shindou leaned over and blew out the candle that they'd lit when the power had gone out two hours before. "What man?" he asked, turning to stare out the window. "I don't see anything at all, Shindou. Are you sure you're not just hallucinating?"
"Idiot, there he is, with the black sweater and the biker's gloves!" Irritated, Shindou grabbed the curtains and flung them closed. He stood up, dragging the other boy with him and, furtively, they looked through the slit opening that the curtains didn't manage to cover. Touya's eyes widened.
"Shindou," he hissed urgently, "there's a man on a roof spying on us with his binoculars!"
Shindou rolled his eyes and looked exasperated. "I know," he said. "That's what I just said."
"We have to call the police! I can't believe you closed the curtains! He probably knows we're on to him now. Idiot!"
"What, were we suppose to give him a show? You don't know him, do you?"
Touya looked at him in disbelief.
Shindou shrugged. "You always seem to know really sketchy people."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Touya demanded.
"Well, Ogata-san, for instance," Shindou supplied readily. He flinched at the glare the other boy shot his way and put his hands up in surrender. "Look, I'm not saying that he's just... C'mon, Touya. Even you have to admit the way he's always touching you is kinda creepy, you know?" He backed away from the window to sit back down at the table and poked listlessly at his unfinished piece of cake.
"I like to call it a misguided affection," Touya replied stiffly. "A manly misguided affection of one man for another...like a way of showing respect. Manly respect." Flustered, Touya snatched the fork from Shindou's hand and began to eat, so focused on putting the cake into his mouth that he forgot to swallow.
He choked and Shindou reached over blindly to slap him on the back. "Touya, god, be careful, man. Can't die before I win that Kisei title from you." He missed the disgruntled look the other boy shot at him, glancing back at the window. "Do you really think we should call the police?"
"No," said Touya decidedly, after a moment. "I'm afraid he'll just slip away."
"What, you want to kill him? Well, I guess we could do it. It's not like we're twenty yet so we'd get off pretty easily..."
Touya stared at him. "You're actually insane, aren't you? I always thought that you were some sort of eccentric genius with your suicidal moves during vital matches-maybe you could've been temperamental-but now I honestly think you're just insane."
"Oh, shut up," said Shindou, hitting him one last time on the back a little harder than necessary. "I'm just saying that if you don't want him to get away, and you want to catch him, I'll be there with you. Okay?" He crossed his arms and glared even though he was pretty sure Touya couldn't see much of his expression in the darkness. "Just a show of support, god! Anyway," he continued, just to be obstinate, "you're the one who just decided not to call the police and go catch him on our own. Isn't that what most people would consider insane? We don't know if he has weapons or not. He's a creepy stalker, after all. They tend to have creepy stalker equipment type things. Like...binoculars."
There was a pause.
"...Because he could bludgeon us to death with them? Right." Touya sat back down and crossed his legs. Then his eyes softened for a brief instant. "Thanks."
They both sat there in the strangely pleasant warmth between them.
"...He's still out there, isn't he?" Shindou said after a moment.
"Yeah."
"We could just ignore him and hope he goes away and leaves us alone," Shindou offered. He got up and made his way to the window and peered out of the crack between the curtains again.
Touya followed him and stumbled over a chair. "Are you sure you don't know where your flashlight is?" he asked, wincing and rubbing at his shin. "Because with the curtains drawn and candle blown and the power out, there's no light. As in...rather dark. I can't see a thing, Shindou. This is stupid. We'll walk into things!"
"Only you've walked into things," Shindou retorted. "I told you, a burglar broke into my apartment and stole my flashlight. I had one day and the next day, it was gone!"
"How poor are you? The only thing you had that had any value was a flashlight?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
Touya sighed at Shindou's sulking tone. "Fine, what we'll do is this: we take cardboard and we cut it like so," and he demonstrated by tracing Shindou's fork through the leftover frosting into a vague outline.
Shindou frowned. "Like mutated cows?"
"No! They're going to be us, slumped over the table! We'll light more candles and he'll think we're in here when we sneak out!"
Shindou stared doubtfully at him. He stared at the squiggly lines in the frosting. He frowned. "Um, Touya, do you think that maybe this plan might not be the greatest idea?"
Touya's mouth tightened. "What?" he asked, in a rather huffy tone. "You just can't admit that I'm a far better strategist than you? I knew you had to be jealous of my title! Just looking at your games, even an amateur can tell--you make the stupidest moves, Shindou."
"And I beat you half the time!"
"But it's clear that a well-planned system of attack and defense would be far more sensible."
"My suicidal moves that turn into a brilliant hand later in the game are what make me the eccentric, precocious genius," Shindou said in a cross voice. He no longer looked so concerned about the man loitering on the roof one building over, or his potentially life-threatening binoculars. He glared at Touya again, though he was still sure the other boy couldn't see him. It only made him more aggravated. "While you're just a run-of-the-mill pro with a title."
Touya scoffed. "Like that makes any sense at all! The fact that I have the Kisei title and you don't obviously means that I'm better than you." He frowned and caught his next words. Thought about them a moment and then swallowed them down, looking disgruntled. "Now stop being such a child and help me find some cardboard. We have a stalker to foil."
"And I'm supposed to be well-stocked in cardboard?"
"You're poor, right?"
Shindou punched at the shadow in front of him and caught Touya in the shoulder.
Touya yelped, but then suddenly brightened suspiciously. "Just go get it. From your linen closet or something. You have linens, right?"
"Of course I do! It's not like my mom would let me live without them..." Shindou trailed off into a mumble. Then he shook his head sharply and said, "But that's not the point!"
"Then what is the point? And if you don't mind hurrying, we do have a stalker to catch."
"Touya!" Shindou flailed a bit in front of him and caught Touya's shoulder again. He gripped him hard and made a valiant effort of staring into Touya's eyes. "Look, Touya. Your plan is crazy. First of all, I don't have that much cardboard just lying around. Second of all, what makes you think we can cut it to resemble...whatever it was you drew...in the dark? Third, it's-just stupid and crazy! How do you plan on getting to the other roof anyway?"
"Well I don't know what you had in mind," Touya said in a very patient voice, "but I was planning on going into the other building and using the stairs." He looked at Shindou as if he had no earthly idea how someone as stupid as him could have made four-dan.
"...That's it?" Disappointment. "How boring. So you're saying the idea of shooting a clamp attached to string over and hang gliding our way to the other side never crossed your mind?"
"I feel," said Touya slowly, "that you are the kind of person who panics in extremes. Also, how subtle, exactly, is blowing a hole into the side of that building and swooping down like giant bats onto the roof on metal cords?"
"...I think I still have the boxes I used for moving," said Shindou in resignation.
A few minutes later, after a makeshift sort of scribbling in the dark, Shindou cautiously asked, "Touya...is that me?"
Touya hummed complacently, (a little piece from an old Japanese opera), cutting carefully into the marked cardboard sheet.
"Touya, you old grandmother, why do I have things sticking out of my head?"
"Eh?" Touya said absentmindedly, sucking on the pen. "Antennas..."
Shindou opened his mouth to ask-and then closed it again. He really didn't want to know. And from a distance and with the curtain, their good friend Stalker-san wouldn't notice. Hopefully.
Leaving Touya with his pieces of cardboard, Shindou felt his way into the kitchen, where he rummaged in some drawers until he found the extra candles. One of them was blueberry scented and made him crave pie after he lit it, the scent wafting gently throughout the apartment. The other two candles were votive: short, plain, and utterly boring. Just like Touya, Shindou thought uncharitably. Except maybe saner and better dressed. He lit those too and returned to the living room.
"I have a sudden craving for chrysanthemum tea," Touya announced as he finished cutting out the last bit of the cardboard Shindou. "We always had chrysanthemum tea when we ate fresh blueberries," he explained defensively when the real Shindou gave him a strange look. He looked down at his lap for a moment, reflective, and the candlelight cast soft shadows on his face.
Touya really was quite pretty in this light, with the cast of the glow from the newly lit candles on him and his pupils dark and glassy and the darkness all around his profile. He looked almost like a girl, Shindou thought as he worked on his own cardboard piece. Then he glanced down at the mangled shape he had cut out. It would have looked like Touya, maybe, if Touya had been run over a bit by a mad rickshaw.
"Oops," said Shindou sheepishly and Touya did that glaring thing again.
They propped their replicas in cardboard onto the chairs and peeked out again at the figure of the man with binoculars, still trained fixedly on their window. Shindou subtly gave the man the finger but Touya jabbed an elbow at him disapprovingly. Sometimes, Shindou thought grouchily, Touya could think of things like making cardboard replicas of themselves but still managed to somehow be an incredible prude.
They assessed the contents of Shindou's house for weapons and Shindou severely regretted, as he had never before, not having at least a few shuriken handy just in case. He had definitely watched enough Naruto to have mastered them and they were far more effective than throwing go stones at would-be attackers. But Waya had laughed at him and even Isumi had worn an amused, tolerant expression on his face and so Shindou had groused that he had just been kidding, couldn't they take a joke?
If they went to catch the stalker and were beaten to death because they had nothing but their goban and goke as weapons, Shindou would definitely come back and haunt his stupid friends and make sure they knew just exactly who was responsible for his condition.
In the meantime, however, he dredged up a baseball bat from when he'd played for about three months in elementary school, and he was pretty sure that chopsticks, if used properly, could be quite painful.
Touya, in any case, took a pair and made a threateningly jab at Shindou when he joked about using them to put up Touya's hair.
Only Shindou had a metal bat and Touya didn't like to encourage people with emerging homicidal tendencies, and so it was only a little jab.
On the way out, Shindou grabbed the ski mask he'd left on the shelf by the door months ago (was winter over already, really?) and drew it over his head. Ski masks, he hoped, were very threatening. Enough to persuade their good friend to cease his voyeuristic hobby.
They crossed the street with careful steps, Touya taking care that Shindou didn't get too into his role and start swaggering in a manner more obscene than threatening that he'd somehow learned from TV. It would be rather unfortunate if a passing car mistook him for someone else and offered 10,000 yen for the night. Or reported them to the police as potential muggers.
The building next door was full of empty apartments. It was technically part of the complex Shindou's building was in, but the place had been closed up for reconstruction last year, forcing a dozen families to relocate. Shindou and Touya made their way easily enough through the unguarded door with cautionary tape strung in front. They crept up the stairs as quietly as possible to the rooftop where Stalker-san awaited them, oblivious.
At last, in front of them was the door to the roof, an ominous existence between them and their goal.
"Shindou, don't overdo it," Touya suddenly pleaded, voice low. "I'm not ready to escape the authorities and hide out in the mountains. I'm-I'm delicate."
"This was your plan!" Shindou hissed, adjusting his grip on the bat. His voice was muffled by the ski mask.
"Well, clearly, I've been spending too much time around you. Why did you encourage something like this? We're going to get arrested! We'll be expelled from the pro go world! Shindou, we'll be fugitives!" Touya's eyes were wide and he clutched at the chopsticks in his hands. "What kind of idiocy is this? Did you drug me with that cake?"
Shindou heaved a long sigh, his shoulders slumping. What a time to be having second thoughts.
"Touya," he said in his best long-suffering voice. "We might as well, after we made those replicas of ourselves and after we came all the way over here and up all those flights of stairs. I promise not to, like, beat him into a pulp, okay? We'll just-sort of stand around threateningly and give him menacing looks until he tells us who he is and promises never to do it again and goes away. Or something."
"Make him tell us who he is and promise never to do it again? And then will we make tea and braid each other's hair? The world is a dark, dark place, Shindou! It's really excessively-excessively dark!"
"I don't know, Touya, you've got really nice hair," Shindou said dryly.
Touya paused in his minor hysterics. "...Really?"
Shindou sighed and rested the bat against the floor. "It's really nice and long and it's always silky when I accidentally brush against it."
Touya ducked his head and fiddled with the chopsticks shyly. "Well, I do treat it wi-"
The door opened.
A man, his face in the shadows, stepped through.
"AUGH," screamed Shindou and Touya in tandem, leaping back. Shindou's bat went up again, defensively.
Touya ducked behind Shindou-not because he was frightened, of course, but because he wanted to get out of the way of the bat should Shindou have a need to swing it-very dangerous things, metal bats were-to defend them from the man, who was most evidently Stalker-san. Touya took in his dark attire and the binoculars in his hands and then his eyes trailed up and he did a double take.
"Ogata-san?" he exclaimed, shocked at the very familiar face under the brim of the black cap.
"Pedophile!" Shindou shouted, swinging his bat to point it directly at the older man's chest.
"Good evening, boys," Ogata said with a pinched expression. He looked like he had a headache. "I don't suppose either of you would have a cigarette? I need a smoke or a fuck or a gun to shoot someone. This has not been a pleasant night."
"Oh my God, Touya, did you hear him? He needs a fuck! He's a pervert! A pervert!" Shindou's eyes flashed as he swung the bat hysterically-but in a manly hysterical way, he thought. Unlike when Touya had hysterics.
The bat connected with Ogata's shins and caused him to stumble backwards.
"Fuck!"
"Shindou! Shindou! That's Ogata-san-he's not dangerous! Stop with the bat-ow, Shindou!" Touya scrambled to stop Shindou from swinging by the expedient of wrapping his arms around the other boy from behind, trapping his arms to his sides.
Shindou growled and fought in the hold. "Let go, Touya, that man is a pedophile! I've seen the way he puts his hand on your shoulders and that's innocent now, sure, but who knows what it'll lead to-perverted, dirty things, like, like-"
Ogata reached out a hand and grasped the end of the bat firmly, stopping it in its savage path to his skull. He used his other hand to push up his glasses and stared at them through the classy, expensive lenses.
"Tell me, do all teenage boys paste shapeless things to their table and then go and attack their colleague and rival, who, by the way, is in his thirties and is damn good looking, and is searching for more satisfaction than either of you sexually-retarded children could possibly give," he said. Then, thoughtfully, added, "...?"
"Stop talking about sex, you pervert!" Shindou shouted. He tore off his ski mask because it was too difficult to yell at dirty old men with it on. "Why were you on the roo--" He froze and then whipped around to stare at Touya, exchanging a panicked look before turning his eyes back to the man before them. "What do you mean 'pasting shapeless things to their tables'?" he asked in a slightly worried tone of voice.
Ogata gave him a cold look. "What do you think I mean? Those ridiculous-I'll assume they're cardboard-things you propped up in the window before making your way in here. Did you really think it wasn't obvious? You two are about as subtle as a flashing neon sign with carnival music." He rubbed his forehead and looked tired again. "I'm too old to be dealing with this."
"What were you doing, Ogata-san?" Touya wanted to know. He looked upset and worried but mostly rather relieved that they wouldn't actually have to risk their lives to beat up a crazy stalker.
Shindou still looked like he wanted to hit Ogata a few times, but the bat had been firmly removed from his grip. He settled for a scowl instead, glowering. "You'd better have a damned good explanation."
"A cigarette," Ogata mused wistfully. "I could really use a cigarette." He twisted his lip into a sneer as he looked at Touya and Shindou's expectant faces. "I'm here because I am worried about you boys."
Touya's disbelieving face said volumes.
"It was Ashiwara's fault," Ogata tacked on in a mutter.
Touya blinked. "Oh," he said at last. "That explains a lot." He dropped his gaze and looked awkwardly at the floor, which seemed infinitely more interesting than it had mere seconds ago. He nervously twirled the chopsticks in his hands.
"Care to share?" Shindou asked, looking annoyed. "What does Ashiwara-san have to do with anything?"
Ogata cleared his throat. "Ashiwara thinks that you two are being distracted by your relationship," he announced with all the enthusiasm of a man being led to the gallows. "He's concerned that your focus has lessened and been directed to inappropriate things for your age. We preferred your rivalry from before. You know, when you tried to kill each other. Young boys need a healthy element of murderous intent in their lives."
"...then why are you here?"
"We drew lots and we switch off and on to watch you guys." He raised an eyebrow, "I was willing to excuse a lot for you guys on the grounds that teenage boys are a cesspool for raging hormones. Unfortunately-or perhaps, most fortunately," he said with slow, biting mockery in his voice, "the entire thing seemed to be a miserable waste of time. You brats carry on like a virgin's touch would scare you out of your skin."
Both Touya and Shindou flushed bright red and avoided looking at each other. "What is that supposed to mean?" Shindou demanded, still firmly entrenched deeply in denial because it was warm and comfortable there and high time for a cup of tea, just as Touya blurted out, looking mortified,
"Ogata-san! How long has this been going on?"
"A couple of weeks." Ogata looked bored. "Every time you boys tried anything inappropriate, we were supposed to come up with distractions. Of course, that came to a total of twice, and I'm fairly sure both incidents were due to unintentional clumsiness."
Shindou narrowed his eyes, brows drawn together, as he watched Ogata finger the bat he held loosely in his hand, his black biker gloves dark against the stark grey metal. Ogata continued leveling them with a bored look while Touya still looked horrified at the prospect that he and Shindou had been watched when they'd accidentally collided in front of Shindou's apartment complex three days ago. Witnesses!
Shindou, however, had something else in mind. "You're lying," he said at last, staring hard at the older man.
A faint smirk curled the corners of Ogata's mouth. "What makes you think that, Shindou?"
"You'd never care enough about our potential love lives to do something as ridiculously stupid as this," Shindou retorted. "Look at your get-up! All black! And crawling around on rooftops at stupidly late hours of the night? What do you think you are, Ogata-san-a ninja?"
The infuriatingly amused look remained.
"Shindou," pleaded Touya, desperately hanging on to Shindou's arm as the other boy got more and more riled. He turned to the man before them, still lounging casually against the wall on the landing despite his clothing and his various instruments of questionable intent. "Ogata-san," Touya asked in a strained voice, "Are you saying that the person who threw the brick into our window was you? And the firecrackers in the toilet?"
"What?" screeched Shindou, outraged. "You said we were indecent maybe-two times! I thought my house had a poltergeist! I hired a Shinto priest to exorcise it! I didn't feel safe for a month! What the hell were you doing, you crazy bastard?"
Ogata was chuckling now and Shindou really wanted to stop that, preferably with his fist to Ogata's face, but Touya was clinging on to him in a rather spectacular display of affection-for that crazy bastard who'd just admitted to the inexplicable events that had plagued them for the past month.
"I understand that you're missing a flashlight. Ashiwara will return it to you eventually," said Ogata smoothly, looking entirely unruffled. "He left in too much of a hurry to remember to put it back."
"Ogata-san!" Touya exclaimed reproachfully, waving his chopsticks in agitation.
"I'm going to kill you," Shindou snarled.
"Why don't you run along home and make sure your cardboard lumps haven't caught on fire?" suggested Ogata, adjusting his glasses. "I'll just be on my way home, then. I'll explain to Ashiwara that his fine plan has come to a regretful end. Pity," he added in a voice implying quite the contrary. Calmly shouldering Shindou's bat, he moved past the two boys and disappeared into the darkness down the stairs.
Two agitated forms were left staring after him.
"I am so taking that Meijin title away from him," Shindou said at last.
Touya blinked. He let his hands drop from Shindou's arm. Then he said, "No, you won't! I will!"
"What are you talking about? He's played you since you were, like, two months old! He knows all of your tricks and strategies. Now, me-"
"You would lose within an hour with the way you play!"
"You wouldn't even get five minutes!"
"Oh! I don't even know why I like you at all, Shindou Hikaru!"
"...I bet it's the cake."
There was a pause, and then there was laughter: relieved and awkward and shyly affectionate.
Now, Elsewhere
In one of those rare instances when the universe was cosmically aligned according to some mysterious but clearly significant pattern known only to the gods, Shindou had actually been right about Ogata's story. It was complete and utter bull and covered up what he felt was a far more undignified truth (and one that gave him less opportunity to mock his favorite bratlings): he'd made a bet with Ashiwara and had-humiliatingly, shockingly-lost.
Ogata wasn't usually one to make wagers if he wasn't at least 90% sure of the outcome because he didn't gamble for the thrill of risk; he gambled for the opportunity for mockery. He liked his hobby of being better than other people and letting them know it.
And he'd actually been 95% sure that Ashiwara, sweet young naive thing that he was, would have never compromised his morals to steal. He was too pure for his own good, Ogata thought uncharitably with a bitterness stemming from too many nights of forced celibacy. Somehow, however, defying every expectation Ogata had ever had for him (except the one where he was on his knees and his pretty mouth was red and swollen and wet, and that was more fantasy than expectation), Ashiwara had cheerfully dropped in on Shindou at his apartment and had proceeded to liberate a flashlight while there.
"A flashlight?" had been Ogata's dry response after he'd recovered from his incredulity at Ashiwara's thievery.
"I wouldn't want to inconvenience Shindou-kun," Ashiwara explained, an earnest expression on his face. "He probably needs his lamps and books and kitchen utensils," and here Ogata had snorted and Ashiwara had amended, "well, maybe not the utensils, but I took this flashlight in the end!"
So Ashiwara had won the bet and Ogata had been left to follow through on the consequences of losing.
He'd found himself dressed like-what had Shindou said?-a ninja. On a roof. Late at night. With binoculars. He could've been arrested.
If Ashiwara didn't sometimes do that soft panting thing with flushed cheeks and glazed expression, every time Ogata managed to steal a kiss, Ogata would've long since abandoned this clearly insane scheme. (Well, the brick and firecrackers had been fun. Though, to tell the truth, they had been his idea entirely and had been more to bother Shindou than for anything concerning the bet. Still, it had been a good excuse.) Evidently, he found insanity attractive. Very attractive, he mused, and realized he was distracted again when the Ashiwara in his head started moaning his name in ways that were probably illegal in most of the civilized world.
That sappy, sentimental fool had suspected Shindou and Touya of being tentatively (disgustingly) interested in each other and, oh, wasn't it so cute (revolting)? Ashiwara was nothing if not a romantic at heart and he'd been taken it upon himself to champion the two younger players' relationship. Ogata's nighttime excursion was the final part in extensive "research."
He'd resisted making a comment about having Ashiwara "research" Ogata's body. Barely.
Then Ashiwara had beamed at him in that happy, eager way of his, those eyes so bright and pure in the way he could believe nothing but the best of everyone around him. And Ogata, as sickening as it was even to himself, couldn't bear to disappoint.
He had to admit, however, that the reward for following through was incentive enough to-to tighten his grip on Ashiwara's hips and tug him closer, sliding his tongue further into that hot, sweet mouth.
--
by meitachi
Before
"Where the hell is my flashlight?" Shindou demanded, digging through the closet. "I swear it was right here!" He glared at the mess both in the closet and now on the ground. "Oh, damn," he muttered. Maybe his mother was right about this whole..."cleaning" thing. It would figure he wouldn't be able to find his flashlight the only time he ever needed it to fish out the go stones that had scattered under his dresser and bed after the game he'd had with Touya that afternoon. Evidently, they were going to have to find a new room where they could critique each other's techniques-and throw go stones in fits of anger.
"Stupid Touya," he muttered and, extracting himself from the closet, stomped off to look in the kitchen drawers.
After That
Shindou was eating cake when he had an epiphany. It was night and the moonlight made a silver fringe in his blond bangs as he stared through the darkness in his apartment and out the window by the table, letting the fork dangle idly from his fingers. He looked away and, with a sweeping movement, suddenly leaned forward.
"Touya," he whispered, shaking the arm of the boy who'd fallen asleep across the table, "Wake up!"
A muffled groan came from the black form slumped across table, and one arm waved unenthusiastically at him in a sort of disembodied way.
"Touya," Shindou hissed, "This is important!"
Touya raised his head, blinked vaguely in the direction Shindou was pointing, and looked out. "What are you going on about?" he asked sleepily, his bangs ruffled and sticking out in various directions.
Shindou raised an eyebrow. "What are you, blind? I think we're being stalked."
Touya stared. "What?"
"That man! With the binoculars! Here, blow out that candle!"
Still blinking away his drowsiness, Touya watched in bemusement as Shindou leaned over and blew out the candle that they'd lit when the power had gone out two hours before. "What man?" he asked, turning to stare out the window. "I don't see anything at all, Shindou. Are you sure you're not just hallucinating?"
"Idiot, there he is, with the black sweater and the biker's gloves!" Irritated, Shindou grabbed the curtains and flung them closed. He stood up, dragging the other boy with him and, furtively, they looked through the slit opening that the curtains didn't manage to cover. Touya's eyes widened.
"Shindou," he hissed urgently, "there's a man on a roof spying on us with his binoculars!"
Shindou rolled his eyes and looked exasperated. "I know," he said. "That's what I just said."
"We have to call the police! I can't believe you closed the curtains! He probably knows we're on to him now. Idiot!"
"What, were we suppose to give him a show? You don't know him, do you?"
Touya looked at him in disbelief.
Shindou shrugged. "You always seem to know really sketchy people."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Touya demanded.
"Well, Ogata-san, for instance," Shindou supplied readily. He flinched at the glare the other boy shot his way and put his hands up in surrender. "Look, I'm not saying that he's just... C'mon, Touya. Even you have to admit the way he's always touching you is kinda creepy, you know?" He backed away from the window to sit back down at the table and poked listlessly at his unfinished piece of cake.
"I like to call it a misguided affection," Touya replied stiffly. "A manly misguided affection of one man for another...like a way of showing respect. Manly respect." Flustered, Touya snatched the fork from Shindou's hand and began to eat, so focused on putting the cake into his mouth that he forgot to swallow.
He choked and Shindou reached over blindly to slap him on the back. "Touya, god, be careful, man. Can't die before I win that Kisei title from you." He missed the disgruntled look the other boy shot at him, glancing back at the window. "Do you really think we should call the police?"
"No," said Touya decidedly, after a moment. "I'm afraid he'll just slip away."
"What, you want to kill him? Well, I guess we could do it. It's not like we're twenty yet so we'd get off pretty easily..."
Touya stared at him. "You're actually insane, aren't you? I always thought that you were some sort of eccentric genius with your suicidal moves during vital matches-maybe you could've been temperamental-but now I honestly think you're just insane."
"Oh, shut up," said Shindou, hitting him one last time on the back a little harder than necessary. "I'm just saying that if you don't want him to get away, and you want to catch him, I'll be there with you. Okay?" He crossed his arms and glared even though he was pretty sure Touya couldn't see much of his expression in the darkness. "Just a show of support, god! Anyway," he continued, just to be obstinate, "you're the one who just decided not to call the police and go catch him on our own. Isn't that what most people would consider insane? We don't know if he has weapons or not. He's a creepy stalker, after all. They tend to have creepy stalker equipment type things. Like...binoculars."
There was a pause.
"...Because he could bludgeon us to death with them? Right." Touya sat back down and crossed his legs. Then his eyes softened for a brief instant. "Thanks."
They both sat there in the strangely pleasant warmth between them.
"...He's still out there, isn't he?" Shindou said after a moment.
"Yeah."
"We could just ignore him and hope he goes away and leaves us alone," Shindou offered. He got up and made his way to the window and peered out of the crack between the curtains again.
Touya followed him and stumbled over a chair. "Are you sure you don't know where your flashlight is?" he asked, wincing and rubbing at his shin. "Because with the curtains drawn and candle blown and the power out, there's no light. As in...rather dark. I can't see a thing, Shindou. This is stupid. We'll walk into things!"
"Only you've walked into things," Shindou retorted. "I told you, a burglar broke into my apartment and stole my flashlight. I had one day and the next day, it was gone!"
"How poor are you? The only thing you had that had any value was a flashlight?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
Touya sighed at Shindou's sulking tone. "Fine, what we'll do is this: we take cardboard and we cut it like so," and he demonstrated by tracing Shindou's fork through the leftover frosting into a vague outline.
Shindou frowned. "Like mutated cows?"
"No! They're going to be us, slumped over the table! We'll light more candles and he'll think we're in here when we sneak out!"
Shindou stared doubtfully at him. He stared at the squiggly lines in the frosting. He frowned. "Um, Touya, do you think that maybe this plan might not be the greatest idea?"
Touya's mouth tightened. "What?" he asked, in a rather huffy tone. "You just can't admit that I'm a far better strategist than you? I knew you had to be jealous of my title! Just looking at your games, even an amateur can tell--you make the stupidest moves, Shindou."
"And I beat you half the time!"
"But it's clear that a well-planned system of attack and defense would be far more sensible."
"My suicidal moves that turn into a brilliant hand later in the game are what make me the eccentric, precocious genius," Shindou said in a cross voice. He no longer looked so concerned about the man loitering on the roof one building over, or his potentially life-threatening binoculars. He glared at Touya again, though he was still sure the other boy couldn't see him. It only made him more aggravated. "While you're just a run-of-the-mill pro with a title."
Touya scoffed. "Like that makes any sense at all! The fact that I have the Kisei title and you don't obviously means that I'm better than you." He frowned and caught his next words. Thought about them a moment and then swallowed them down, looking disgruntled. "Now stop being such a child and help me find some cardboard. We have a stalker to foil."
"And I'm supposed to be well-stocked in cardboard?"
"You're poor, right?"
Shindou punched at the shadow in front of him and caught Touya in the shoulder.
Touya yelped, but then suddenly brightened suspiciously. "Just go get it. From your linen closet or something. You have linens, right?"
"Of course I do! It's not like my mom would let me live without them..." Shindou trailed off into a mumble. Then he shook his head sharply and said, "But that's not the point!"
"Then what is the point? And if you don't mind hurrying, we do have a stalker to catch."
"Touya!" Shindou flailed a bit in front of him and caught Touya's shoulder again. He gripped him hard and made a valiant effort of staring into Touya's eyes. "Look, Touya. Your plan is crazy. First of all, I don't have that much cardboard just lying around. Second of all, what makes you think we can cut it to resemble...whatever it was you drew...in the dark? Third, it's-just stupid and crazy! How do you plan on getting to the other roof anyway?"
"Well I don't know what you had in mind," Touya said in a very patient voice, "but I was planning on going into the other building and using the stairs." He looked at Shindou as if he had no earthly idea how someone as stupid as him could have made four-dan.
"...That's it?" Disappointment. "How boring. So you're saying the idea of shooting a clamp attached to string over and hang gliding our way to the other side never crossed your mind?"
"I feel," said Touya slowly, "that you are the kind of person who panics in extremes. Also, how subtle, exactly, is blowing a hole into the side of that building and swooping down like giant bats onto the roof on metal cords?"
"...I think I still have the boxes I used for moving," said Shindou in resignation.
A few minutes later, after a makeshift sort of scribbling in the dark, Shindou cautiously asked, "Touya...is that me?"
Touya hummed complacently, (a little piece from an old Japanese opera), cutting carefully into the marked cardboard sheet.
"Touya, you old grandmother, why do I have things sticking out of my head?"
"Eh?" Touya said absentmindedly, sucking on the pen. "Antennas..."
Shindou opened his mouth to ask-and then closed it again. He really didn't want to know. And from a distance and with the curtain, their good friend Stalker-san wouldn't notice. Hopefully.
Leaving Touya with his pieces of cardboard, Shindou felt his way into the kitchen, where he rummaged in some drawers until he found the extra candles. One of them was blueberry scented and made him crave pie after he lit it, the scent wafting gently throughout the apartment. The other two candles were votive: short, plain, and utterly boring. Just like Touya, Shindou thought uncharitably. Except maybe saner and better dressed. He lit those too and returned to the living room.
"I have a sudden craving for chrysanthemum tea," Touya announced as he finished cutting out the last bit of the cardboard Shindou. "We always had chrysanthemum tea when we ate fresh blueberries," he explained defensively when the real Shindou gave him a strange look. He looked down at his lap for a moment, reflective, and the candlelight cast soft shadows on his face.
Touya really was quite pretty in this light, with the cast of the glow from the newly lit candles on him and his pupils dark and glassy and the darkness all around his profile. He looked almost like a girl, Shindou thought as he worked on his own cardboard piece. Then he glanced down at the mangled shape he had cut out. It would have looked like Touya, maybe, if Touya had been run over a bit by a mad rickshaw.
"Oops," said Shindou sheepishly and Touya did that glaring thing again.
They propped their replicas in cardboard onto the chairs and peeked out again at the figure of the man with binoculars, still trained fixedly on their window. Shindou subtly gave the man the finger but Touya jabbed an elbow at him disapprovingly. Sometimes, Shindou thought grouchily, Touya could think of things like making cardboard replicas of themselves but still managed to somehow be an incredible prude.
They assessed the contents of Shindou's house for weapons and Shindou severely regretted, as he had never before, not having at least a few shuriken handy just in case. He had definitely watched enough Naruto to have mastered them and they were far more effective than throwing go stones at would-be attackers. But Waya had laughed at him and even Isumi had worn an amused, tolerant expression on his face and so Shindou had groused that he had just been kidding, couldn't they take a joke?
If they went to catch the stalker and were beaten to death because they had nothing but their goban and goke as weapons, Shindou would definitely come back and haunt his stupid friends and make sure they knew just exactly who was responsible for his condition.
In the meantime, however, he dredged up a baseball bat from when he'd played for about three months in elementary school, and he was pretty sure that chopsticks, if used properly, could be quite painful.
Touya, in any case, took a pair and made a threateningly jab at Shindou when he joked about using them to put up Touya's hair.
Only Shindou had a metal bat and Touya didn't like to encourage people with emerging homicidal tendencies, and so it was only a little jab.
On the way out, Shindou grabbed the ski mask he'd left on the shelf by the door months ago (was winter over already, really?) and drew it over his head. Ski masks, he hoped, were very threatening. Enough to persuade their good friend to cease his voyeuristic hobby.
They crossed the street with careful steps, Touya taking care that Shindou didn't get too into his role and start swaggering in a manner more obscene than threatening that he'd somehow learned from TV. It would be rather unfortunate if a passing car mistook him for someone else and offered 10,000 yen for the night. Or reported them to the police as potential muggers.
The building next door was full of empty apartments. It was technically part of the complex Shindou's building was in, but the place had been closed up for reconstruction last year, forcing a dozen families to relocate. Shindou and Touya made their way easily enough through the unguarded door with cautionary tape strung in front. They crept up the stairs as quietly as possible to the rooftop where Stalker-san awaited them, oblivious.
At last, in front of them was the door to the roof, an ominous existence between them and their goal.
"Shindou, don't overdo it," Touya suddenly pleaded, voice low. "I'm not ready to escape the authorities and hide out in the mountains. I'm-I'm delicate."
"This was your plan!" Shindou hissed, adjusting his grip on the bat. His voice was muffled by the ski mask.
"Well, clearly, I've been spending too much time around you. Why did you encourage something like this? We're going to get arrested! We'll be expelled from the pro go world! Shindou, we'll be fugitives!" Touya's eyes were wide and he clutched at the chopsticks in his hands. "What kind of idiocy is this? Did you drug me with that cake?"
Shindou heaved a long sigh, his shoulders slumping. What a time to be having second thoughts.
"Touya," he said in his best long-suffering voice. "We might as well, after we made those replicas of ourselves and after we came all the way over here and up all those flights of stairs. I promise not to, like, beat him into a pulp, okay? We'll just-sort of stand around threateningly and give him menacing looks until he tells us who he is and promises never to do it again and goes away. Or something."
"Make him tell us who he is and promise never to do it again? And then will we make tea and braid each other's hair? The world is a dark, dark place, Shindou! It's really excessively-excessively dark!"
"I don't know, Touya, you've got really nice hair," Shindou said dryly.
Touya paused in his minor hysterics. "...Really?"
Shindou sighed and rested the bat against the floor. "It's really nice and long and it's always silky when I accidentally brush against it."
Touya ducked his head and fiddled with the chopsticks shyly. "Well, I do treat it wi-"
The door opened.
A man, his face in the shadows, stepped through.
"AUGH," screamed Shindou and Touya in tandem, leaping back. Shindou's bat went up again, defensively.
Touya ducked behind Shindou-not because he was frightened, of course, but because he wanted to get out of the way of the bat should Shindou have a need to swing it-very dangerous things, metal bats were-to defend them from the man, who was most evidently Stalker-san. Touya took in his dark attire and the binoculars in his hands and then his eyes trailed up and he did a double take.
"Ogata-san?" he exclaimed, shocked at the very familiar face under the brim of the black cap.
"Pedophile!" Shindou shouted, swinging his bat to point it directly at the older man's chest.
"Good evening, boys," Ogata said with a pinched expression. He looked like he had a headache. "I don't suppose either of you would have a cigarette? I need a smoke or a fuck or a gun to shoot someone. This has not been a pleasant night."
"Oh my God, Touya, did you hear him? He needs a fuck! He's a pervert! A pervert!" Shindou's eyes flashed as he swung the bat hysterically-but in a manly hysterical way, he thought. Unlike when Touya had hysterics.
The bat connected with Ogata's shins and caused him to stumble backwards.
"Fuck!"
"Shindou! Shindou! That's Ogata-san-he's not dangerous! Stop with the bat-ow, Shindou!" Touya scrambled to stop Shindou from swinging by the expedient of wrapping his arms around the other boy from behind, trapping his arms to his sides.
Shindou growled and fought in the hold. "Let go, Touya, that man is a pedophile! I've seen the way he puts his hand on your shoulders and that's innocent now, sure, but who knows what it'll lead to-perverted, dirty things, like, like-"
Ogata reached out a hand and grasped the end of the bat firmly, stopping it in its savage path to his skull. He used his other hand to push up his glasses and stared at them through the classy, expensive lenses.
"Tell me, do all teenage boys paste shapeless things to their table and then go and attack their colleague and rival, who, by the way, is in his thirties and is damn good looking, and is searching for more satisfaction than either of you sexually-retarded children could possibly give," he said. Then, thoughtfully, added, "...?"
"Stop talking about sex, you pervert!" Shindou shouted. He tore off his ski mask because it was too difficult to yell at dirty old men with it on. "Why were you on the roo--" He froze and then whipped around to stare at Touya, exchanging a panicked look before turning his eyes back to the man before them. "What do you mean 'pasting shapeless things to their tables'?" he asked in a slightly worried tone of voice.
Ogata gave him a cold look. "What do you think I mean? Those ridiculous-I'll assume they're cardboard-things you propped up in the window before making your way in here. Did you really think it wasn't obvious? You two are about as subtle as a flashing neon sign with carnival music." He rubbed his forehead and looked tired again. "I'm too old to be dealing with this."
"What were you doing, Ogata-san?" Touya wanted to know. He looked upset and worried but mostly rather relieved that they wouldn't actually have to risk their lives to beat up a crazy stalker.
Shindou still looked like he wanted to hit Ogata a few times, but the bat had been firmly removed from his grip. He settled for a scowl instead, glowering. "You'd better have a damned good explanation."
"A cigarette," Ogata mused wistfully. "I could really use a cigarette." He twisted his lip into a sneer as he looked at Touya and Shindou's expectant faces. "I'm here because I am worried about you boys."
Touya's disbelieving face said volumes.
"It was Ashiwara's fault," Ogata tacked on in a mutter.
Touya blinked. "Oh," he said at last. "That explains a lot." He dropped his gaze and looked awkwardly at the floor, which seemed infinitely more interesting than it had mere seconds ago. He nervously twirled the chopsticks in his hands.
"Care to share?" Shindou asked, looking annoyed. "What does Ashiwara-san have to do with anything?"
Ogata cleared his throat. "Ashiwara thinks that you two are being distracted by your relationship," he announced with all the enthusiasm of a man being led to the gallows. "He's concerned that your focus has lessened and been directed to inappropriate things for your age. We preferred your rivalry from before. You know, when you tried to kill each other. Young boys need a healthy element of murderous intent in their lives."
"...then why are you here?"
"We drew lots and we switch off and on to watch you guys." He raised an eyebrow, "I was willing to excuse a lot for you guys on the grounds that teenage boys are a cesspool for raging hormones. Unfortunately-or perhaps, most fortunately," he said with slow, biting mockery in his voice, "the entire thing seemed to be a miserable waste of time. You brats carry on like a virgin's touch would scare you out of your skin."
Both Touya and Shindou flushed bright red and avoided looking at each other. "What is that supposed to mean?" Shindou demanded, still firmly entrenched deeply in denial because it was warm and comfortable there and high time for a cup of tea, just as Touya blurted out, looking mortified,
"Ogata-san! How long has this been going on?"
"A couple of weeks." Ogata looked bored. "Every time you boys tried anything inappropriate, we were supposed to come up with distractions. Of course, that came to a total of twice, and I'm fairly sure both incidents were due to unintentional clumsiness."
Shindou narrowed his eyes, brows drawn together, as he watched Ogata finger the bat he held loosely in his hand, his black biker gloves dark against the stark grey metal. Ogata continued leveling them with a bored look while Touya still looked horrified at the prospect that he and Shindou had been watched when they'd accidentally collided in front of Shindou's apartment complex three days ago. Witnesses!
Shindou, however, had something else in mind. "You're lying," he said at last, staring hard at the older man.
A faint smirk curled the corners of Ogata's mouth. "What makes you think that, Shindou?"
"You'd never care enough about our potential love lives to do something as ridiculously stupid as this," Shindou retorted. "Look at your get-up! All black! And crawling around on rooftops at stupidly late hours of the night? What do you think you are, Ogata-san-a ninja?"
The infuriatingly amused look remained.
"Shindou," pleaded Touya, desperately hanging on to Shindou's arm as the other boy got more and more riled. He turned to the man before them, still lounging casually against the wall on the landing despite his clothing and his various instruments of questionable intent. "Ogata-san," Touya asked in a strained voice, "Are you saying that the person who threw the brick into our window was you? And the firecrackers in the toilet?"
"What?" screeched Shindou, outraged. "You said we were indecent maybe-two times! I thought my house had a poltergeist! I hired a Shinto priest to exorcise it! I didn't feel safe for a month! What the hell were you doing, you crazy bastard?"
Ogata was chuckling now and Shindou really wanted to stop that, preferably with his fist to Ogata's face, but Touya was clinging on to him in a rather spectacular display of affection-for that crazy bastard who'd just admitted to the inexplicable events that had plagued them for the past month.
"I understand that you're missing a flashlight. Ashiwara will return it to you eventually," said Ogata smoothly, looking entirely unruffled. "He left in too much of a hurry to remember to put it back."
"Ogata-san!" Touya exclaimed reproachfully, waving his chopsticks in agitation.
"I'm going to kill you," Shindou snarled.
"Why don't you run along home and make sure your cardboard lumps haven't caught on fire?" suggested Ogata, adjusting his glasses. "I'll just be on my way home, then. I'll explain to Ashiwara that his fine plan has come to a regretful end. Pity," he added in a voice implying quite the contrary. Calmly shouldering Shindou's bat, he moved past the two boys and disappeared into the darkness down the stairs.
Two agitated forms were left staring after him.
"I am so taking that Meijin title away from him," Shindou said at last.
Touya blinked. He let his hands drop from Shindou's arm. Then he said, "No, you won't! I will!"
"What are you talking about? He's played you since you were, like, two months old! He knows all of your tricks and strategies. Now, me-"
"You would lose within an hour with the way you play!"
"You wouldn't even get five minutes!"
"Oh! I don't even know why I like you at all, Shindou Hikaru!"
"...I bet it's the cake."
There was a pause, and then there was laughter: relieved and awkward and shyly affectionate.
Now, Elsewhere
In one of those rare instances when the universe was cosmically aligned according to some mysterious but clearly significant pattern known only to the gods, Shindou had actually been right about Ogata's story. It was complete and utter bull and covered up what he felt was a far more undignified truth (and one that gave him less opportunity to mock his favorite bratlings): he'd made a bet with Ashiwara and had-humiliatingly, shockingly-lost.
Ogata wasn't usually one to make wagers if he wasn't at least 90% sure of the outcome because he didn't gamble for the thrill of risk; he gambled for the opportunity for mockery. He liked his hobby of being better than other people and letting them know it.
And he'd actually been 95% sure that Ashiwara, sweet young naive thing that he was, would have never compromised his morals to steal. He was too pure for his own good, Ogata thought uncharitably with a bitterness stemming from too many nights of forced celibacy. Somehow, however, defying every expectation Ogata had ever had for him (except the one where he was on his knees and his pretty mouth was red and swollen and wet, and that was more fantasy than expectation), Ashiwara had cheerfully dropped in on Shindou at his apartment and had proceeded to liberate a flashlight while there.
"A flashlight?" had been Ogata's dry response after he'd recovered from his incredulity at Ashiwara's thievery.
"I wouldn't want to inconvenience Shindou-kun," Ashiwara explained, an earnest expression on his face. "He probably needs his lamps and books and kitchen utensils," and here Ogata had snorted and Ashiwara had amended, "well, maybe not the utensils, but I took this flashlight in the end!"
So Ashiwara had won the bet and Ogata had been left to follow through on the consequences of losing.
He'd found himself dressed like-what had Shindou said?-a ninja. On a roof. Late at night. With binoculars. He could've been arrested.
If Ashiwara didn't sometimes do that soft panting thing with flushed cheeks and glazed expression, every time Ogata managed to steal a kiss, Ogata would've long since abandoned this clearly insane scheme. (Well, the brick and firecrackers had been fun. Though, to tell the truth, they had been his idea entirely and had been more to bother Shindou than for anything concerning the bet. Still, it had been a good excuse.) Evidently, he found insanity attractive. Very attractive, he mused, and realized he was distracted again when the Ashiwara in his head started moaning his name in ways that were probably illegal in most of the civilized world.
That sappy, sentimental fool had suspected Shindou and Touya of being tentatively (disgustingly) interested in each other and, oh, wasn't it so cute (revolting)? Ashiwara was nothing if not a romantic at heart and he'd been taken it upon himself to champion the two younger players' relationship. Ogata's nighttime excursion was the final part in extensive "research."
He'd resisted making a comment about having Ashiwara "research" Ogata's body. Barely.
Then Ashiwara had beamed at him in that happy, eager way of his, those eyes so bright and pure in the way he could believe nothing but the best of everyone around him. And Ogata, as sickening as it was even to himself, couldn't bear to disappoint.
He had to admit, however, that the reward for following through was incentive enough to-to tighten his grip on Ashiwara's hips and tug him closer, sliding his tongue further into that hot, sweet mouth.
--