CHAPTER 2
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Summary: Kaiji's gang is looking for trouble. Sahara wants to keep his senpai out of it, but does his reckless actions aid Kaiji or do they further complicate the situation?
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2 737
Warning: Violence & stronger language.
Music recommendations: Cousin Kevin - Weapon Sheath & AIR - High School Lover [download] There are notes (♪) in the text that you can click on, at the appropriate time, for when the song is supposed to be played.
Echoes of Kaiji's footsteps bounced between the walls of houses lining the road as he was jogging towards the school where the fight was supposed to take place. It was the neighboring school's gang that wanted to settle some territory business.
The streets were almost completely empty at this time of the night. Bugs were swarming around the streetlights that cast their yellow light onto the concrete; it was quite an eerie atmosphere.
It wasn't that late, but on a normal weekday people had little reason to wander out of their homes at this hour. Kaiji's mom and sister were no different, and were already asleep in their beds. In preparation of what was to come, Kaiji had slipped on his school's tracksuit as it was easy to move in and softened falls. He'd been in a few fights before; the scar decorating his cheekbone was proof of this. He'd been mentally preparing himself for the clash since he got the news, but there was still anxiousness within him.
Not that far away from the street Kaiji was currently on, and a bit closer to the school grounds, Sahara was crossing the street.
He had gone home after band practice and changed into casual clothing. Thursdays were usually reserved for karaoke at a small local place, and today some of the seniors from his club had come with, so it had gotten pretty late. He had called his parents, and although they weren't happy having him stay out 'til late on a weekday Sahara had gotten off light by saying that he had to go to Akagi's place after karaoke to finish some schoolwork. Just a little white lie, of the kind that Sahara was quite apt at.
Shoving his hands deeper into the pockets of his jeans he trudged on in silence.
Kaiji woke up from his thoughts as he heard footsteps, and looked up to face his allies.
"Ya ready Kaiji?" His senpai asked, a grin spreading on his face "Let's take out those mofos and show them who's boss!"
Another member of the group cheered and took a swing at the air in front of him demonstratively.
"Fuck yeah," Kaiji agreed as they proceeded with climbing over the school gates to face the rival group. As predicted, they were there waiting already. Kaiji and his gang approached them, everyone making noise, throwing insults and threats. It wasn't at all a discreet confrontation, and Kaiji could tell that the other group had brought some reinforcements even though they looked a bit weak.
The leaders were the ones who cast the initial spark of the fight, lunging out on each other with everyone following suit. Soon enough the confrontation had turned into a full-fledged fight, fists being thrown to the left and right, some of them reaching their assigned targets and some not. Kaiji had already suffered a blow to the side as he placed his first hit between the eyes of his opponent who recoiled as blood started gushing out of his nostrils. Kaiji took the chance to kick him in the ribs but suddenly received a punch right over the cheekbone, sending him staggering to the side. His team members were still fighting vigorously; it was hard to tell which group had the advantage of the fight.
On the other side of the schoolyard fence was Sahara, who had decided on taking the shortcut along the school perimeters on his way home. As he approached the street where he was supposed to branch off he heard distant shouts coming from the schoolyard.
"That's weird, I'm pretty sure even the janitor would be gone by now" he said aloud, mostly to himself. But curiosity took over and he backtracked to the front of the school gates. There he leaned onto the broad metal bars to get a better look.
The schoolyard was dark, with the exception of a couple of streetlights casting dim lights, and Sahara had to strain his eyes to see. There was movement in the dark a little further down the path towards the school, and as Sahara's eyes got accustomed to the darkness ahead, he realized that what he saw was actually a brawl. The numbers seemed uneven but the fight less so.
There were a couple of more shouts, and Sahara gasped suddenly.
Kaiji was there.
And from the looks of it he had just taken quite the ugly hit. At least from the way he was swaying and staggering. But his body-language wasn't showing any of the signs of a man ready to back down.
'But that's suicide!' Sahara thought shocked. 'Or at least just plain stupid' (♪)
Without further thought, and afterwards not really knowing why he did it, Sahara slung his backpack over the stone wall and scaled the gate. He once again looked over to where Kaiji and the others were busy with their fighting. Kaiji was now taking what looked like a severe beating, fists plummeting in his general direction. Without further thought, mostly overcome by pure rage, Sahara left his backpack discarded were it had landed. He dashed, a flurry of limbs and screaming at the top of his lungs, towards the crowd. Before anyone had time to react, he crashed his body full-throttle into the guy fighting with Kaiji.
"Don't touch Itou-senpaaaaaai!!"
Kaiji froze in shock as his attacker and Sahara dove down to the ground before him. The first element of shock was the opponent suddenly disappearing before him; the second was that the first-year, Sahara, was the one that caused it. A snarl brought Kaiji back to reality and he dodged a swing aimed at him to collide his fist with the stomach of the new attacker.
Then in one swift moment, he grabbed the backside of Sahara's collar and pulled him away from the guy on the ground, screaming at his kouhai to get the hell away from there while he landed a good kick in the ribs of the guy on the ground, only to get another nasty punch over the eyebrow.
Sahara was mostly flailing limbs at that moment, screaming some mostly incoherent threats in the random direction of the people that had now encircled him and Kaiji. Wedging himself free from Kaiji's grasp he swung wildly as someone came up in front of him, his fist connecting with a jaw primarily out of luck.
Kaiji was somewhat knocked out of sync by the last punch and was beginning to feel a bit dizzy, but he was still keeping the steam up and fending off the offensives. Turning around, he was met with the image of Sahara knocking one of his friends over. "SAHARA YOU IDIOT" He managed to growl. He was trying not to care too much about Sahara being there, but how could he not as he was fighting not only the enemies, but the allies as well. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HERE" Kaiji roared, landing a kick in the knee of a guy in front of him, and staggering back as he received one himself.
"No way!" was Sahara's only response. No two seconds later he scrambled to the side as a fist had connected with his chin. He was down on hands and knees, scraping them painfully on the gravel. But a kick in his abdomen had him wheezing for some air, any thoughts of skinned knees momentarily forgotten. Forcing air painfully back into his lungs, Sahara staggered back onto his feet, bringing his fists up as a guard in front of his face this time.
The sounds that escaped Sahara's throat as he was chipping for air worked as a trigger, if not a wakeup call for Kaiji. If he'd been angry with Sahara before, it was nothing compared to how furious he was with the one who hurt him. Instantly turning 180 degrees, Kaiji's clenched fist connected with the nasal bone of Sahara's attacker, making it crack.
Only a few moments afterwards, he realized he'd punched one of his own.
Sahara could only watch in shock and amazement as Kaiji displayed such brute force. Sure, Sahara had figured that someone like Kaiji could pack a punch, but breaking someone's nose with such ease. He shuddered.
Apparently he wasn't the only one, because the group of people that had surrounded them were slowly retreating, backpedalling but with angry snarls and their gazes fixed firmly on Kaiji.
'Wow, senpai is really cool!'
As the others backed off, Kaiji came to his senses-- realizing what he'd done. The victim of his rage was whining in pain, clutching his nose awkwardly.
"That's enough!!" The gang leader of the Kaiji's group snarled, "what the hell is wrong with you assholes?! You're fucking everything up!!" One of the members of the team helped the one with the broken nose as the leader turned to the enemy group. "We'll settle this another day." He spat. The other leader was pissed, but agreed. Kaiji received several glares, mostly from his own crew, who all started to pull themselves together from the turmoil, realizing the fight was over for now.
"You fucked up, Kaiji." He was told, as his friends turned their backs to leave.
Kaiji stared blankly after them as the distance grew. Suddenly his sense of pain revived as the adrenaline faded away. His face was swollen from the hits he'd taken and he could feel his heartbeat through the bruised skin. "Fuck..." He murmured, before looking over his shoulder at Sahara.
When their gazes locked, Sahara was suddenly struck with worry. Kaiji didn't look half as pleased as Sahara had expected, with the two of them taking down the offenders singlehandedly. Well it had mostly been Kaiji's doing, acting all intimidating.
Then something clicked in Sahara's mind.
The offenders; they had known Kaiji's name. Not only that, but had said it casually, like talking to someone you know. Well. And Kaiji hadn't acted affronted at the familiarity.
'Shit.' (♪)
Eyes widening and teeth biting his lower lip in apprehension Sahara tried to find the words that would put things back in place. Put things into perspective. But none forth came; he had royally fucked up, and probably humiliated the one person he had wanted to impress. 'Way to go Makoto'
Kaiji stared at Sahara for a while, before opening his mouth. "Are you ok?" he asked in a somewhat mechanical voice. He was devastated from the result of the fight, but also kind of.... relieved that Sahara didn't get seriously hurt.
Running a hand experimentally along his now bruising chin, gingerly touching the sore skin, Sahara nodded forcefully. A little too forcefully really. He would have preferred to just avoid Kaiji's stare, but he made himself finally meet it, giving the dark-haired boy a sheepish grin.
"How about you? You took a pretty nasty blow earlier, right?" He stepped closer to Kaiji now, hand reaching up towards Kaiji's face as if to brush his fingers along Kaiji's bruised jaw. Only to stop inches away and dropping limply to Sahara's side. Who was he kidding, trying to act so familiar with an upperclassman after screwing up like that?
Kaiji followed Sahara's hands with his gaze and would have flinched if they touched him, but instead he snapped his head to the side and stared out in the dark. Sahara was right though, the more he thought about it, the more his face hurt. "I'm fine." He murmured, answering Sahara's question. Noticing Sahara's hand dropping, he turned his head back to watch the blonde.
"I kind of messed up, didn't I?" Sahara finally said.
"Just don't do it again." He answered the second question, hesitantly placing his palm on top of Sahara's fuzzy head before retracting it again.
Here Sahara flushed, his cheeks growing hot. And he was suddenly thankful for the darkness, and even the bruising, that helped hide it. Kaiji was really a lot kinder than first glance would suggest.
"Do you do this sort of thing a lot?" Sahara changed to subject, afraid of the implications of Kaiji's prior statement. Yet he didn't budge or move away from Kaiji's personal space.
"From time to time." Kaiji said, feeling Sahara was a bit too close. He barely noticed the blush. "I should get home and so do you," He turned around and did a quick check to see if he'd forgotten something, (whatever that might have been) and took a few steps towards the gate, stroking his sore jaw before stopping in his tracks and looking over his shoulder. "Is your house far from here?"
He received a shrug in response.
"Not too far" Sahara trailed after Kaiji, a couple of paces behind the older boy.
Kaiji climbed over the wall and landed on the other side. He paused and waited for the blonde to show up on the wall but instead his gaze locked onto the stars. It was a really clear night, and he hadn't realized it until now.
Sahara watched Kaiji through the gates, peering at the stars. Taking a moment to look up himself he was greeted by the vision of a multitude of stars twinkling above. It was visually stunning and Sahara, who usually didn't spend any time looking up, settled that this was possibly the most beautiful the sky had ever looked. It made the happenings down on earth seem insignificant and small. Like they didn't really matter.
Breaking his gaze away, Sahara looked around for his backpack. Locating it next to some shrubbery he bent down to pick it up. The content of it spilled onto the ground and he cursed under his breath. 'I could have sworn I had closed it before flinging it over the wall' he thought while collecting the discarded books, guitar pick, wallet... which he realized, was missing.
"Shit!" this time he did say it out loud. There was the distinct possibility some of the people from before had found his bag and helped themselves to its content. Looking through the rest of the stuff in a restraint sort of panic he found his walkman stuffed into a towel and his cellphone lay dented on the ground where it had fallen from his backpack.
Hastily looking around, Sahara finally located his wallet halfway under the gate. Breathing out a sigh of relief he picked it up. After looking through it he realized that they had indeed helped themselves to most of his money, but that the rest of the stuff seemed intact.
Lastly putting the wallet into its proper place, in his back-pocket, Sahara climbed over the gate, surprised to find Kaiji still standing there.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting...?" he offered, "had to grab my stuff."
Kaiji kept staring at the stars until Sahara finally addressed him. He jumped slightly and then stared down onto the concrete instead. Why wasn't he on his way home already? He wanted to get home, shower and sleep. But... he didn't have the heart to just walk away from Sahara after what had happened. He was still a bit lost, himself. From the moment he'd broken that guy's nose for Sahara's sake, he'd been completely intent on not letting anything harm the blonde. Why?
"Un.." Kaiji mumbled. "What were you doing out this late anyway?"
"Just out with some friends," Sahara shrugged. The memory seemed bleak in comparison to the rush of what the both of them had just gone through "...karaoke and stuff you know."
"Oh.." Kaiji responded. "...Y'know, it's probably not a good idea to walk home alone right now... In which direction is your house?" he asked hesitantly.
"Hey, it's alright. Really!" Sahara assured, sending a dazzling yet reassuring smile in Kaiji's direction. "I'm a guy, and besides, I've caused you enough trouble as it is already..." he said this with emphasis, though not intended in a dismissive manner, some regret still evident in his voice.
Kaiji nodded understandingly, looking into Sahara's eyes for a short moment. He knew Sahara would respond like that, maybe it was stupid to have asked. "Be careful." He murmured before turning around in the direction of his own home and started making his way. As he did so, he made a quick wave over his shoulder.
"Hey, so I'll see you around at school then!!" Sahara called after the other boy, as he departed.
When Kaiji was well out of earshot he added "...and thanks for sticking up for me."
Teaser next chapter: After the fight Kaiji and Sahara begin spending more time together. But will Sahara's familiarity hamper their budding relationship?
.
Summary: Kaiji's gang is looking for trouble. Sahara wants to keep his senpai out of it, but does his reckless actions aid Kaiji or do they further complicate the situation?
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2 737
Warning: Violence & stronger language.
Music recommendations: Cousin Kevin - Weapon Sheath & AIR - High School Lover [download] There are notes (♪) in the text that you can click on, at the appropriate time, for when the song is supposed to be played.
Echoes of Kaiji's footsteps bounced between the walls of houses lining the road as he was jogging towards the school where the fight was supposed to take place. It was the neighboring school's gang that wanted to settle some territory business.
The streets were almost completely empty at this time of the night. Bugs were swarming around the streetlights that cast their yellow light onto the concrete; it was quite an eerie atmosphere.
It wasn't that late, but on a normal weekday people had little reason to wander out of their homes at this hour. Kaiji's mom and sister were no different, and were already asleep in their beds. In preparation of what was to come, Kaiji had slipped on his school's tracksuit as it was easy to move in and softened falls. He'd been in a few fights before; the scar decorating his cheekbone was proof of this. He'd been mentally preparing himself for the clash since he got the news, but there was still anxiousness within him.
Not that far away from the street Kaiji was currently on, and a bit closer to the school grounds, Sahara was crossing the street.
He had gone home after band practice and changed into casual clothing. Thursdays were usually reserved for karaoke at a small local place, and today some of the seniors from his club had come with, so it had gotten pretty late. He had called his parents, and although they weren't happy having him stay out 'til late on a weekday Sahara had gotten off light by saying that he had to go to Akagi's place after karaoke to finish some schoolwork. Just a little white lie, of the kind that Sahara was quite apt at.
Shoving his hands deeper into the pockets of his jeans he trudged on in silence.
Kaiji woke up from his thoughts as he heard footsteps, and looked up to face his allies.
"Ya ready Kaiji?" His senpai asked, a grin spreading on his face "Let's take out those mofos and show them who's boss!"
Another member of the group cheered and took a swing at the air in front of him demonstratively.
"Fuck yeah," Kaiji agreed as they proceeded with climbing over the school gates to face the rival group. As predicted, they were there waiting already. Kaiji and his gang approached them, everyone making noise, throwing insults and threats. It wasn't at all a discreet confrontation, and Kaiji could tell that the other group had brought some reinforcements even though they looked a bit weak.
The leaders were the ones who cast the initial spark of the fight, lunging out on each other with everyone following suit. Soon enough the confrontation had turned into a full-fledged fight, fists being thrown to the left and right, some of them reaching their assigned targets and some not. Kaiji had already suffered a blow to the side as he placed his first hit between the eyes of his opponent who recoiled as blood started gushing out of his nostrils. Kaiji took the chance to kick him in the ribs but suddenly received a punch right over the cheekbone, sending him staggering to the side. His team members were still fighting vigorously; it was hard to tell which group had the advantage of the fight.
On the other side of the schoolyard fence was Sahara, who had decided on taking the shortcut along the school perimeters on his way home. As he approached the street where he was supposed to branch off he heard distant shouts coming from the schoolyard.
"That's weird, I'm pretty sure even the janitor would be gone by now" he said aloud, mostly to himself. But curiosity took over and he backtracked to the front of the school gates. There he leaned onto the broad metal bars to get a better look.
The schoolyard was dark, with the exception of a couple of streetlights casting dim lights, and Sahara had to strain his eyes to see. There was movement in the dark a little further down the path towards the school, and as Sahara's eyes got accustomed to the darkness ahead, he realized that what he saw was actually a brawl. The numbers seemed uneven but the fight less so.
There were a couple of more shouts, and Sahara gasped suddenly.
Kaiji was there.
And from the looks of it he had just taken quite the ugly hit. At least from the way he was swaying and staggering. But his body-language wasn't showing any of the signs of a man ready to back down.
'But that's suicide!' Sahara thought shocked. 'Or at least just plain stupid' (♪)
Without further thought, and afterwards not really knowing why he did it, Sahara slung his backpack over the stone wall and scaled the gate. He once again looked over to where Kaiji and the others were busy with their fighting. Kaiji was now taking what looked like a severe beating, fists plummeting in his general direction. Without further thought, mostly overcome by pure rage, Sahara left his backpack discarded were it had landed. He dashed, a flurry of limbs and screaming at the top of his lungs, towards the crowd. Before anyone had time to react, he crashed his body full-throttle into the guy fighting with Kaiji.
"Don't touch Itou-senpaaaaaai!!"
Kaiji froze in shock as his attacker and Sahara dove down to the ground before him. The first element of shock was the opponent suddenly disappearing before him; the second was that the first-year, Sahara, was the one that caused it. A snarl brought Kaiji back to reality and he dodged a swing aimed at him to collide his fist with the stomach of the new attacker.
Then in one swift moment, he grabbed the backside of Sahara's collar and pulled him away from the guy on the ground, screaming at his kouhai to get the hell away from there while he landed a good kick in the ribs of the guy on the ground, only to get another nasty punch over the eyebrow.
Sahara was mostly flailing limbs at that moment, screaming some mostly incoherent threats in the random direction of the people that had now encircled him and Kaiji. Wedging himself free from Kaiji's grasp he swung wildly as someone came up in front of him, his fist connecting with a jaw primarily out of luck.
Kaiji was somewhat knocked out of sync by the last punch and was beginning to feel a bit dizzy, but he was still keeping the steam up and fending off the offensives. Turning around, he was met with the image of Sahara knocking one of his friends over. "SAHARA YOU IDIOT" He managed to growl. He was trying not to care too much about Sahara being there, but how could he not as he was fighting not only the enemies, but the allies as well. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HERE" Kaiji roared, landing a kick in the knee of a guy in front of him, and staggering back as he received one himself.
"No way!" was Sahara's only response. No two seconds later he scrambled to the side as a fist had connected with his chin. He was down on hands and knees, scraping them painfully on the gravel. But a kick in his abdomen had him wheezing for some air, any thoughts of skinned knees momentarily forgotten. Forcing air painfully back into his lungs, Sahara staggered back onto his feet, bringing his fists up as a guard in front of his face this time.
The sounds that escaped Sahara's throat as he was chipping for air worked as a trigger, if not a wakeup call for Kaiji. If he'd been angry with Sahara before, it was nothing compared to how furious he was with the one who hurt him. Instantly turning 180 degrees, Kaiji's clenched fist connected with the nasal bone of Sahara's attacker, making it crack.
Only a few moments afterwards, he realized he'd punched one of his own.
Sahara could only watch in shock and amazement as Kaiji displayed such brute force. Sure, Sahara had figured that someone like Kaiji could pack a punch, but breaking someone's nose with such ease. He shuddered.
Apparently he wasn't the only one, because the group of people that had surrounded them were slowly retreating, backpedalling but with angry snarls and their gazes fixed firmly on Kaiji.
'Wow, senpai is really cool!'
As the others backed off, Kaiji came to his senses-- realizing what he'd done. The victim of his rage was whining in pain, clutching his nose awkwardly.
"That's enough!!" The gang leader of the Kaiji's group snarled, "what the hell is wrong with you assholes?! You're fucking everything up!!" One of the members of the team helped the one with the broken nose as the leader turned to the enemy group. "We'll settle this another day." He spat. The other leader was pissed, but agreed. Kaiji received several glares, mostly from his own crew, who all started to pull themselves together from the turmoil, realizing the fight was over for now.
"You fucked up, Kaiji." He was told, as his friends turned their backs to leave.
Kaiji stared blankly after them as the distance grew. Suddenly his sense of pain revived as the adrenaline faded away. His face was swollen from the hits he'd taken and he could feel his heartbeat through the bruised skin. "Fuck..." He murmured, before looking over his shoulder at Sahara.
When their gazes locked, Sahara was suddenly struck with worry. Kaiji didn't look half as pleased as Sahara had expected, with the two of them taking down the offenders singlehandedly. Well it had mostly been Kaiji's doing, acting all intimidating.
Then something clicked in Sahara's mind.
The offenders; they had known Kaiji's name. Not only that, but had said it casually, like talking to someone you know. Well. And Kaiji hadn't acted affronted at the familiarity.
'Shit.' (♪)
Eyes widening and teeth biting his lower lip in apprehension Sahara tried to find the words that would put things back in place. Put things into perspective. But none forth came; he had royally fucked up, and probably humiliated the one person he had wanted to impress. 'Way to go Makoto'
Kaiji stared at Sahara for a while, before opening his mouth. "Are you ok?" he asked in a somewhat mechanical voice. He was devastated from the result of the fight, but also kind of.... relieved that Sahara didn't get seriously hurt.
Running a hand experimentally along his now bruising chin, gingerly touching the sore skin, Sahara nodded forcefully. A little too forcefully really. He would have preferred to just avoid Kaiji's stare, but he made himself finally meet it, giving the dark-haired boy a sheepish grin.
"How about you? You took a pretty nasty blow earlier, right?" He stepped closer to Kaiji now, hand reaching up towards Kaiji's face as if to brush his fingers along Kaiji's bruised jaw. Only to stop inches away and dropping limply to Sahara's side. Who was he kidding, trying to act so familiar with an upperclassman after screwing up like that?
Kaiji followed Sahara's hands with his gaze and would have flinched if they touched him, but instead he snapped his head to the side and stared out in the dark. Sahara was right though, the more he thought about it, the more his face hurt. "I'm fine." He murmured, answering Sahara's question. Noticing Sahara's hand dropping, he turned his head back to watch the blonde.
"I kind of messed up, didn't I?" Sahara finally said.
"Just don't do it again." He answered the second question, hesitantly placing his palm on top of Sahara's fuzzy head before retracting it again.
Here Sahara flushed, his cheeks growing hot. And he was suddenly thankful for the darkness, and even the bruising, that helped hide it. Kaiji was really a lot kinder than first glance would suggest.
"Do you do this sort of thing a lot?" Sahara changed to subject, afraid of the implications of Kaiji's prior statement. Yet he didn't budge or move away from Kaiji's personal space.
"From time to time." Kaiji said, feeling Sahara was a bit too close. He barely noticed the blush. "I should get home and so do you," He turned around and did a quick check to see if he'd forgotten something, (whatever that might have been) and took a few steps towards the gate, stroking his sore jaw before stopping in his tracks and looking over his shoulder. "Is your house far from here?"
He received a shrug in response.
"Not too far" Sahara trailed after Kaiji, a couple of paces behind the older boy.
Kaiji climbed over the wall and landed on the other side. He paused and waited for the blonde to show up on the wall but instead his gaze locked onto the stars. It was a really clear night, and he hadn't realized it until now.
Sahara watched Kaiji through the gates, peering at the stars. Taking a moment to look up himself he was greeted by the vision of a multitude of stars twinkling above. It was visually stunning and Sahara, who usually didn't spend any time looking up, settled that this was possibly the most beautiful the sky had ever looked. It made the happenings down on earth seem insignificant and small. Like they didn't really matter.
Breaking his gaze away, Sahara looked around for his backpack. Locating it next to some shrubbery he bent down to pick it up. The content of it spilled onto the ground and he cursed under his breath. 'I could have sworn I had closed it before flinging it over the wall' he thought while collecting the discarded books, guitar pick, wallet... which he realized, was missing.
"Shit!" this time he did say it out loud. There was the distinct possibility some of the people from before had found his bag and helped themselves to its content. Looking through the rest of the stuff in a restraint sort of panic he found his walkman stuffed into a towel and his cellphone lay dented on the ground where it had fallen from his backpack.
Hastily looking around, Sahara finally located his wallet halfway under the gate. Breathing out a sigh of relief he picked it up. After looking through it he realized that they had indeed helped themselves to most of his money, but that the rest of the stuff seemed intact.
Lastly putting the wallet into its proper place, in his back-pocket, Sahara climbed over the gate, surprised to find Kaiji still standing there.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting...?" he offered, "had to grab my stuff."
Kaiji kept staring at the stars until Sahara finally addressed him. He jumped slightly and then stared down onto the concrete instead. Why wasn't he on his way home already? He wanted to get home, shower and sleep. But... he didn't have the heart to just walk away from Sahara after what had happened. He was still a bit lost, himself. From the moment he'd broken that guy's nose for Sahara's sake, he'd been completely intent on not letting anything harm the blonde. Why?
"Un.." Kaiji mumbled. "What were you doing out this late anyway?"
"Just out with some friends," Sahara shrugged. The memory seemed bleak in comparison to the rush of what the both of them had just gone through "...karaoke and stuff you know."
"Oh.." Kaiji responded. "...Y'know, it's probably not a good idea to walk home alone right now... In which direction is your house?" he asked hesitantly.
"Hey, it's alright. Really!" Sahara assured, sending a dazzling yet reassuring smile in Kaiji's direction. "I'm a guy, and besides, I've caused you enough trouble as it is already..." he said this with emphasis, though not intended in a dismissive manner, some regret still evident in his voice.
Kaiji nodded understandingly, looking into Sahara's eyes for a short moment. He knew Sahara would respond like that, maybe it was stupid to have asked. "Be careful." He murmured before turning around in the direction of his own home and started making his way. As he did so, he made a quick wave over his shoulder.
"Hey, so I'll see you around at school then!!" Sahara called after the other boy, as he departed.
When Kaiji was well out of earshot he added "...and thanks for sticking up for me."
Teaser next chapter: After the fight Kaiji and Sahara begin spending more time together. But will Sahara's familiarity hamper their budding relationship?
.