egg rolls, and zombies, and choutarou
for offcourt because she is made of awesomecakes and wrote me fic with Choutarou expressing his sempai-whipping powers. ♥
Title: Egg Rolls, and Zombies, and Choutarou
Author: ieatchu / shikanashi_kk
Rating: PG-13 or T
Warning/s: BL, kissing
Word Count: 3,141
Pairing: Shishitori
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and all of its characters do not and never will belong to me. AND ALL OF THE EGG ROLLS IN THIS FIC ARE PROPERTIES OF offcourt 'cause she's genius and likes to pick out Shishido's eating habits. The main plot about Shishido eating egg rolls because Choutarou likes them pretty much belongs to her. xD
Summary: The year in-between. As a month passed, Shishido learned that it wasn’t about being attached to a kohai. It was about being attached to Choutarou. Shishido decided that one school year was way too long.
Egg Rolls, and Zombies, and Choutarou
One school year was way too long, Shishido decided.
When they graduated, Shishido had celebrated with the rest of the third years, waving their middle school days goodbye, and saying hello to high school where everyone said everything happened. Two weeks into the school year, Shishido found out that high school was boring.
It was the same routine. You wake up in the morning, realize you’re late, grab some half-eaten bread on the way out, run to the bus stop, and arrive at your classroom just as the teacher greets the class. Afterwards, every class just passes by like some sort of clock, programmed to keep on ticking one second after second after second, and although you’re surrounded by new friends during lunch time, laughing as you get to know them and they you, you realize that it’s not the same, really.
Shishido realized that high school was lame and the excitement that he had during their graduation day about finally being able to say that he was a high school student had long since evaporated along with his curiosity of high school life. He also found out quite abruptly with shock and a flabbergasted expression that he really didn’t care about high school, nor did he want to know more about it if it didn’t include Choutarou.
He wondered how he had managed to become so attached to a kohai that he couldn’t even enjoy his newfound life in secondary school properly.
As a month passed, Shishido learned that it wasn’t about being attached to a kohai. It was about being attached to Choutarou.
Shishido decided that one school year was way too long.
iii
Two months later, as Shishido walked another route home with his classmates from English class, he passed by a jewelry store. He walked passed it, laughing when his friend finished his story about being peed on by a dog when he was eight, saying how totally uncool that was.
One of them asked him if he was going to join the tennis club. Shishido shrugged, and replied negative. When asked why, he merely scratched the back of his neck nonchalantly. “It’s boring.”
Tennis had never been boring for Shishido, but now, realizing that even if he did join the tennis club, it’d probably just feel like a chore. Tennis wasn’t boring. Tennis without Choutarou was.
Two months and two weeks later, Shishido refused his classmates’ invitation to walk home with them again. “Nah. I’ve got something to do.”
He stopped by the jewelry store and got himself a silver cross necklace.
iii
Back in middle school, Shishido found out that his doubles partner was more than meets the eye. For one, Choutarou didn’t look like it, but the boy was fond of horror movies filled with blood and zombies walking the earth with obviously plastic axes. They had gone to the cinemas on one particular sunny Saturday afternoon, where, during that time, Shishido convinced himself that it wasn’t a date and it was obviously just some sort of gimmick between a sempai and a kohai. He did a pretty good job of convincing himself, if he may say so himself, even if there was this sort of thing at the back of his head making him wish that it wasn’t an it’s-not-a-date gimmick.
Choutarou went off to buy the popcorn whilst Shishido stood in line for the tickets. They didn’t really talk about on what movie to watch, although Shishido was all ready to watch that romantic comedy about some peasant girl being accepted into a high-class school because of her grades and ending up punching the lights out of the arrogant heartthrob but ends up falling in love with him anyway. Choutarou just seemed like the romantic comedy type of guy.
He was surprised when Choutarou rushed over to him, a sheepish smile on his face. “Shishido-san, can we watch the one playing in Cinema 3?”
Shishido paused, “That one with the haunted village?”
Choutarou nodded eagerly. Shishido couldn’t really say no to that, so they watched.
He realized, as he winced and grimaced whilst the movie screen unabashedly showed limbs and skin being torn violently off, that horror movies weren’t really his thing.
Shishido marveled at the fact that Choutarou could watch this horrendously bloody movie with both eyes widely open. It sort of hurt his sempai pride, but nearly an hour into the movie, when Choutarou’s hand was feeling so warm inside his, he really couldn’t bring himself to care much about it.
Although he’d still grimace whenever little, bloody children would pop out of nowhere, he always readily agreed whenever Choutarou would ask if he wanted to watch a movie, knowing full well that it would be another movie about murdered souls getting revenge and the fact that he’d probably be having nightmares for weeks to come, if only for the feeling of Choutarou’s hand in his.
Shishido also found out that Choutarou had something for the smell of lavender. Whenever they’d go out, he’d always smell this uplifting aroma around, and it took him a while to figure out that it belonged to his doubles partner, whose cheeks immediately colored when he was asked about it.
Shishido nearly pitied him. “Hey, it’s not a bad thing for a guy, Choutarou.”
“I know that, Shishido-san,” Choutarou smiled sheepishly, “It’s just that lavender relaxes me, although I’m still fidgety about it so I don’t use it in the clubroom.”
The next day, Shishido bought some cologne smelling of lavender. When they had all finished showering and were already on the process of pulling up their pants and putting on their clean shirts, Shishido took the cologne from his bag and pretty much sprayed nearly half of it all over him.
Choutarou had stared at him, mouth agape, as soon as the smell registered in his senses. Shishido raised one eyebrow at him, before walking over and spraying him all over with lavender cologne as well. “Try this, Choutarou. It’s relaxing.”
When some of the second years began sniggering, Shishido sprayed wildly in front of them, not caring in the least when they began sniffing and coughing.
Afterwards, nobody questioned anything whenever Choutarou would spray himself with lavender perfume (yes, perfume.), and some of their teammates even surprised them by asking to borrow it.
The cologne that Shishido had bought and emptied in a day didn’t come cheap, but Choutarou was grinning at him so lopsidedly and that made it okay.
iii
Shishido didn’t like egg rolls. His mom used to keep on putting egg rolls in his lunchbox every day to make him eat it, thus resulting in Shishido not eating the lunchbox at all. Needless to say, he was quite amused when he learned of Choutarou’s thing for the damned egg rolls.
Whenever lunch time would come, they’d sit at the rooftop of the west side of the school building, the one where people rarely ever go to. It was their private little thing, and Shishido reminded himself that having private little things with your kohai did not make you a sissy.
“Sh-shishido-san?!” Choutarou had turned red when he had nonchalantly plucked the egg rolls out of his lunchbox and on top of the rice on Choutarou’s.
His reply to his kohai’s flustered expression was a sloppily said “Don’t like egg rolls.” through a mouthful of rice.
It was hitting three birds with one stone really. He didn’t get to eat egg rolls, he didn’t have to endure the lecture his mother never gets tired of giving him whenever he comes home with the egg rolls still there, and he gets to see Choutarou save the egg rolls for last because ‘Shishido-san gave it to me’.
iii
“Ryou? What are you watching?”
Shishido raised an eyebrow at his older brother, who was pretty much giving him the same look. “A movie.”
His older brother hummed thoughtfully in reply, “With zombies?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought you hated horror movies.”
“I don’t hate them. I just don’t like watching them.”
“Why are you watching them now then?”
“Because this movie has zombies.”
Rolling his eyes, his older brother just snorted and left the living room, heading for the stairs to go to his room and sleep, leaving Shishido alone with only the light of the television screen to accompany him.
Shishido’s fingers flexed, itchy, searching for that familiar warm feeling that Choutarou’s hand always gave him whenever they’d watch horror movies.
iii
Five months into the school year, his classmates started looking at him funny. “Shishido?” One of his friends started as he entered the classroom first thing in the morning, “Is that you with the perfume thing going on?”
Some of his classmates sniggered. “Lavender.”
Shishido wanted so badly to do what he did to those second years back in middle school and spray perfume all over their eyes, but he decided that lavender was too precious to waste on them.
“It’s relaxing.”
iii
Once he entered high school, there were no more lunchboxes prepared for him by his mother, although his allowance did get higher, so that he could just buy some food from the cafeteria. Seven months into the school year, Shishido got some of his female classmates teach him how to cook small stuff, most especially egg rolls.
“Shishido-kun, but I thought you didn’t like egg rolls?”
“I don’t.”
“Oh.” She paused, smile turning just a little bit teasing, “Are you doing this for a girl then?”
Shishido shrugged, “Maybe.”
Except Choutarou wasn’t a girl.
iii
The school year was nearly over, and it merely proved him correct that one school year was way too long, and that if it hadn’t been for the cross, the horror movies, the lavender perfume, the egg rolls and the crumpled papers that Shishido tore off his math notebook because it was full of his scribbles that read “one shot to your soul”, the school year would have been more unbearable than it already was.
Therefore, it’s perfectly normal for Shishido’s jaw to fall and for his bag to drop from his grip when he sees Choutarou standing in front of his house, looking sheepish like he always did when embarrassed. A school year was way too long, but Choutarou still looked pretty much the same, and Shishido had a hard time remembering that Choutarou was a third year in middle school now.
“Shishido-san…”
When they were already inside the warmth of Shishido’s house and sitting on the floor of his room, that was when Shishido asked what brought Choutarou here. His kohai’s reply left him speechless.
“I wanted to make sure it was alright with you first.” Choutarou smiled nervously.
Shishido opened his mouth, thought better of it, then closed. A moment passed, and he opened his mouth again, before closing it. He swallowed, “You have the chance to get into Hyotei’s high school and yet you’re going to go to the same crappy school as me?”
Choutarou protested, “I figured that Hyotei’s high school wouldn’t be fun at all.” He paused, before adding, cheeks turning a bit pink, “Middle school’s already lonely without Shishido-san.”
There was something about that sentence that made Shishido forget how to breathe, despite his efforts to remind himself that it’s just a bunch of related words, but something at the back of his mind told him that those bunch of related words came out of Choutarou’s mouth, thus pretty much proving his efforts to be in vain.
It took him a few seconds to breathe out, before realizing that Choutarou was grinning, and he found himself, on impulse, grinning as well. He punched the other lightly on the shoulder, “Yeah, well. High school isn’t very fun either.”
iii
Choutarou would be graduating soon. Ever since he dropped by Shishido’s house, they’ve been spending a lot of time together, making Shishido wonder why he ever spent those sleepless nights thinking if he should pay Choutarou a visit or not. He should have seen it coming that Choutarou would start to wonder too.
“I…” Shishido started, pausing for a bit, before realizing that he really didn’t have a proper answer to the question being presented to him. He did have an answer, only it was… embarrassing, and lame, and uncool, and so not sempai-like of him. “Well…” he fumbled, “What about you? You just visited me for the first time in months.”
Choutarou flustered, “That’s because… Well… At first I thought that you were busy, getting used to high school and all, and… then… I thought that if I visited, I might just disturb you and… I didn’t want… that.” He finished lamely.
If only Shishido wasn’t feeling so lame himself, he’d have found Choutarou’s sputtering cute. “You could never… bother me…” he started, feeling oddly self-conscious, “Ah, I mean… I look forward to your visits.”
When Choutarou gave him that smile that nearly made him forget that he needed oxygen to live, Shishido figured that it was okay to be a little lame.
iii
Shishido’s freshman year ended sort of blandly. Although he went on some parties that his friends had pretty much forced him to join to celebrate their advance to the second year, it wasn’t really what he was looking forward to.
It wasn’t long before Choutarou graduated, and when he did, Shishido made sure that he was there, smiling like an idiot at the back as the ceremony rolled on. As the whole thing ended, the students reveled in their last few moments of being middle school students. After searching for and greeting Hiyoshi, Kabaji and Taki whilst hiding his amusement at their surprised looks, Shishido went to the back of the auditorium to make his leave quietly.
It was nighttime when Shishido heard the doorbell ring. He nearly bolted out of his bed and dashed downstairs when his mother yelled “Ryou! It’s Ootori-kun!”.
“Really,” Shishido sighed, once they were already in his room, “You should be at home celebrating with your family.”
Choutarou frowned, “Am I disturbing you, Shishido-san?”
Shishido hated himself for being so vulnerable whenever Choutarou would pull that expression. Sometimes, he wondered if Choutarou was doing it on purpose. He quickly shook his head. “No way!” he exclaimed, surprising both himself and Choutarou.
Turning red, he added hastily, “I mean… Don’t you want to spend the day that you graduated with your family?”
Choutarou shook his head, smiling, “But I’m a high school student from now on. I’ll be with Shishido-san again next school year, so I want to spend it with you.”
Shishido was so sure that Choutarou was doing that… that adorable expression on purpose. Looking away in an effort to hide his embarrassment, he coughed, “So, uh, what do you want as a gift?”
“Gift?”
“Gift.” Shishido repeated, looking at him from the corner of his eye with one eyebrow raised, “Of course a sempai’s gotta give his kohai a gift when he graduates.”
To his surprise, Choutarou turned pink there.
“Choutarou?”
Choutarou quickly shook his head, “It’s okay, Shishido-san. I don’t need anything.”
Shishido frowned, “You’re totally thinking of something.”
Choutarou turned even redder. “I don’t mind much about gifts.” He said slowly, as if to convince even himself.
“Liar.” Shishido turned so that he was now sitting face to face with his kohai, crossing his arms and speaking in an I’m-your-sempai tone, “If you want something, then I’ll give it to you. Don’t feel so guilty. I’m your sempai after all.”
Choutarou paused, opening his mouth, before coloring all over again, and he clamped his mouth shut.
“Choutarou.”
He cringed at Shishido’s tone, looking torn. “Ah… Shishido-san…”
Shishido waited, raising an eyebrow expectantly when Choutarou moved to lean forward. It only really sank in that Choutarou had just kissed him when the other had already pulled back. He stared, mouth agape.
Choutarou was looking flustered, eyes darting to the side as he tentatively touched his lips. “That’s…” he mumbled, still not looking at his sempai’s eyes, as he continued with his voice small, “That’s all I want.”
Silence enveloped them, heavy and awkward. Shishido was reaching up to touch his lips, face burning as he contemplated on what just happened. He hadn’t even felt much of the kiss, although he wasn’t entirely sure what a kiss was supposed to feel like, because he’d never really thought of girls back in middle school, and he was too busy thinking of Choutarou to think of them in high school, and… Ah.
If he thought about it, he pretty much spent his freshman year thinking about his doubles partner.
Not that it was a bad thing.
“Choutarou…” he started, turning as red as the other when Choutarou slowly looked up at him, “Could you…” he swallowed, looking thoughtful as his fingers left his lips, and as he leaned forward expectantly in spite of himself, “Could you do that again?”
And Choutarou was looking surprised, and Shishido was feeling surprised too, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care when Choutarou’s face broke out into a relieved expression, and that smile was there again and making butterflies fly around his stomach, but it was a good feeling, especially because after that, Choutarou was leaning forward again, and their breaths were mingling, and Shishido had never wanted to be so close to someone so much in his life.
Shishido decided that kisses were wet and sloppy and awkward, but then he felt Choutarou’s hand in his again, so he figured that kisses weren’t all that bad, as long as they were with Choutarou. Hands were pulling him closer, and he sighed contentedly, letting his arms wrap around Choutarou as well, because it’s been one school year, and it’s been too damned long, and Shishido never wanted to go through that again.
“Shishido-san?” Choutarou pulled back, flustered and breathless and lips just a little swollen, and Shishido felt his heart skip a few beats. There was a question on Choutarou’s face, and Shishido’s eyes traveled to the front of his own shirt, where Choutarou was delicately holding the cross of his necklace that had been hidden inside his shirt just a while ago between his fingers.
Shishido stared, feeling warmness rush to his cheeks yet again, and choosing to rest his head on Choutarou’s shoulder instead to hide his burning face. With a small sigh, he took the hand that had been holding the necklace and entwined their fingers together, before saying the thing that has been on his head pretty much the whole time they had been apart.
“I missed you.”
One school year was way too long, and Shishido felt that he just wasted his freshman year away, but he didn’t really mind, because he still had the next years of high school to look forward to, this time with Choutarou.
e n d
♥ To make things clear, Shishido didn't attend Hyotei's high school, and attended some sort of made-up co-ed school instead, which is why there's a girl. (hahaha totally makes girls sound like aliens. *gets bricked*)
♥ I tried writing Ootori instead of Choutarou. T_T I really did. Obviously, I failed. xD
♥ I'm totally a Meteor Garden fan.
I'm sorry, offcourt. I know I promised you egg rolls and stuff and Choutarou with sempai-whipping powers, but alas. DD: I hope you like it though~ <333
askdhskdhgkk Shishido's a total sap. 8D
Title: Egg Rolls, and Zombies, and Choutarou
Author: ieatchu / shikanashi_kk
Rating: PG-13 or T
Warning/s: BL, kissing
Word Count: 3,141
Pairing: Shishitori
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and all of its characters do not and never will belong to me. AND ALL OF THE EGG ROLLS IN THIS FIC ARE PROPERTIES OF offcourt 'cause she's genius and likes to pick out Shishido's eating habits. The main plot about Shishido eating egg rolls because Choutarou likes them pretty much belongs to her. xD
Summary: The year in-between. As a month passed, Shishido learned that it wasn’t about being attached to a kohai. It was about being attached to Choutarou. Shishido decided that one school year was way too long.
Egg Rolls, and Zombies, and Choutarou
One school year was way too long, Shishido decided.
When they graduated, Shishido had celebrated with the rest of the third years, waving their middle school days goodbye, and saying hello to high school where everyone said everything happened. Two weeks into the school year, Shishido found out that high school was boring.
It was the same routine. You wake up in the morning, realize you’re late, grab some half-eaten bread on the way out, run to the bus stop, and arrive at your classroom just as the teacher greets the class. Afterwards, every class just passes by like some sort of clock, programmed to keep on ticking one second after second after second, and although you’re surrounded by new friends during lunch time, laughing as you get to know them and they you, you realize that it’s not the same, really.
Shishido realized that high school was lame and the excitement that he had during their graduation day about finally being able to say that he was a high school student had long since evaporated along with his curiosity of high school life. He also found out quite abruptly with shock and a flabbergasted expression that he really didn’t care about high school, nor did he want to know more about it if it didn’t include Choutarou.
He wondered how he had managed to become so attached to a kohai that he couldn’t even enjoy his newfound life in secondary school properly.
As a month passed, Shishido learned that it wasn’t about being attached to a kohai. It was about being attached to Choutarou.
Shishido decided that one school year was way too long.
iii
Two months later, as Shishido walked another route home with his classmates from English class, he passed by a jewelry store. He walked passed it, laughing when his friend finished his story about being peed on by a dog when he was eight, saying how totally uncool that was.
One of them asked him if he was going to join the tennis club. Shishido shrugged, and replied negative. When asked why, he merely scratched the back of his neck nonchalantly. “It’s boring.”
Tennis had never been boring for Shishido, but now, realizing that even if he did join the tennis club, it’d probably just feel like a chore. Tennis wasn’t boring. Tennis without Choutarou was.
Two months and two weeks later, Shishido refused his classmates’ invitation to walk home with them again. “Nah. I’ve got something to do.”
He stopped by the jewelry store and got himself a silver cross necklace.
iii
Back in middle school, Shishido found out that his doubles partner was more than meets the eye. For one, Choutarou didn’t look like it, but the boy was fond of horror movies filled with blood and zombies walking the earth with obviously plastic axes. They had gone to the cinemas on one particular sunny Saturday afternoon, where, during that time, Shishido convinced himself that it wasn’t a date and it was obviously just some sort of gimmick between a sempai and a kohai. He did a pretty good job of convincing himself, if he may say so himself, even if there was this sort of thing at the back of his head making him wish that it wasn’t an it’s-not-a-date gimmick.
Choutarou went off to buy the popcorn whilst Shishido stood in line for the tickets. They didn’t really talk about on what movie to watch, although Shishido was all ready to watch that romantic comedy about some peasant girl being accepted into a high-class school because of her grades and ending up punching the lights out of the arrogant heartthrob but ends up falling in love with him anyway. Choutarou just seemed like the romantic comedy type of guy.
He was surprised when Choutarou rushed over to him, a sheepish smile on his face. “Shishido-san, can we watch the one playing in Cinema 3?”
Shishido paused, “That one with the haunted village?”
Choutarou nodded eagerly. Shishido couldn’t really say no to that, so they watched.
He realized, as he winced and grimaced whilst the movie screen unabashedly showed limbs and skin being torn violently off, that horror movies weren’t really his thing.
Shishido marveled at the fact that Choutarou could watch this horrendously bloody movie with both eyes widely open. It sort of hurt his sempai pride, but nearly an hour into the movie, when Choutarou’s hand was feeling so warm inside his, he really couldn’t bring himself to care much about it.
Although he’d still grimace whenever little, bloody children would pop out of nowhere, he always readily agreed whenever Choutarou would ask if he wanted to watch a movie, knowing full well that it would be another movie about murdered souls getting revenge and the fact that he’d probably be having nightmares for weeks to come, if only for the feeling of Choutarou’s hand in his.
Shishido also found out that Choutarou had something for the smell of lavender. Whenever they’d go out, he’d always smell this uplifting aroma around, and it took him a while to figure out that it belonged to his doubles partner, whose cheeks immediately colored when he was asked about it.
Shishido nearly pitied him. “Hey, it’s not a bad thing for a guy, Choutarou.”
“I know that, Shishido-san,” Choutarou smiled sheepishly, “It’s just that lavender relaxes me, although I’m still fidgety about it so I don’t use it in the clubroom.”
The next day, Shishido bought some cologne smelling of lavender. When they had all finished showering and were already on the process of pulling up their pants and putting on their clean shirts, Shishido took the cologne from his bag and pretty much sprayed nearly half of it all over him.
Choutarou had stared at him, mouth agape, as soon as the smell registered in his senses. Shishido raised one eyebrow at him, before walking over and spraying him all over with lavender cologne as well. “Try this, Choutarou. It’s relaxing.”
When some of the second years began sniggering, Shishido sprayed wildly in front of them, not caring in the least when they began sniffing and coughing.
Afterwards, nobody questioned anything whenever Choutarou would spray himself with lavender perfume (yes, perfume.), and some of their teammates even surprised them by asking to borrow it.
The cologne that Shishido had bought and emptied in a day didn’t come cheap, but Choutarou was grinning at him so lopsidedly and that made it okay.
iii
Shishido didn’t like egg rolls. His mom used to keep on putting egg rolls in his lunchbox every day to make him eat it, thus resulting in Shishido not eating the lunchbox at all. Needless to say, he was quite amused when he learned of Choutarou’s thing for the damned egg rolls.
Whenever lunch time would come, they’d sit at the rooftop of the west side of the school building, the one where people rarely ever go to. It was their private little thing, and Shishido reminded himself that having private little things with your kohai did not make you a sissy.
“Sh-shishido-san?!” Choutarou had turned red when he had nonchalantly plucked the egg rolls out of his lunchbox and on top of the rice on Choutarou’s.
His reply to his kohai’s flustered expression was a sloppily said “Don’t like egg rolls.” through a mouthful of rice.
It was hitting three birds with one stone really. He didn’t get to eat egg rolls, he didn’t have to endure the lecture his mother never gets tired of giving him whenever he comes home with the egg rolls still there, and he gets to see Choutarou save the egg rolls for last because ‘Shishido-san gave it to me’.
iii
“Ryou? What are you watching?”
Shishido raised an eyebrow at his older brother, who was pretty much giving him the same look. “A movie.”
His older brother hummed thoughtfully in reply, “With zombies?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought you hated horror movies.”
“I don’t hate them. I just don’t like watching them.”
“Why are you watching them now then?”
“Because this movie has zombies.”
Rolling his eyes, his older brother just snorted and left the living room, heading for the stairs to go to his room and sleep, leaving Shishido alone with only the light of the television screen to accompany him.
Shishido’s fingers flexed, itchy, searching for that familiar warm feeling that Choutarou’s hand always gave him whenever they’d watch horror movies.
iii
Five months into the school year, his classmates started looking at him funny. “Shishido?” One of his friends started as he entered the classroom first thing in the morning, “Is that you with the perfume thing going on?”
Some of his classmates sniggered. “Lavender.”
Shishido wanted so badly to do what he did to those second years back in middle school and spray perfume all over their eyes, but he decided that lavender was too precious to waste on them.
“It’s relaxing.”
iii
Once he entered high school, there were no more lunchboxes prepared for him by his mother, although his allowance did get higher, so that he could just buy some food from the cafeteria. Seven months into the school year, Shishido got some of his female classmates teach him how to cook small stuff, most especially egg rolls.
“Shishido-kun, but I thought you didn’t like egg rolls?”
“I don’t.”
“Oh.” She paused, smile turning just a little bit teasing, “Are you doing this for a girl then?”
Shishido shrugged, “Maybe.”
Except Choutarou wasn’t a girl.
iii
The school year was nearly over, and it merely proved him correct that one school year was way too long, and that if it hadn’t been for the cross, the horror movies, the lavender perfume, the egg rolls and the crumpled papers that Shishido tore off his math notebook because it was full of his scribbles that read “one shot to your soul”, the school year would have been more unbearable than it already was.
Therefore, it’s perfectly normal for Shishido’s jaw to fall and for his bag to drop from his grip when he sees Choutarou standing in front of his house, looking sheepish like he always did when embarrassed. A school year was way too long, but Choutarou still looked pretty much the same, and Shishido had a hard time remembering that Choutarou was a third year in middle school now.
“Shishido-san…”
When they were already inside the warmth of Shishido’s house and sitting on the floor of his room, that was when Shishido asked what brought Choutarou here. His kohai’s reply left him speechless.
“I wanted to make sure it was alright with you first.” Choutarou smiled nervously.
Shishido opened his mouth, thought better of it, then closed. A moment passed, and he opened his mouth again, before closing it. He swallowed, “You have the chance to get into Hyotei’s high school and yet you’re going to go to the same crappy school as me?”
Choutarou protested, “I figured that Hyotei’s high school wouldn’t be fun at all.” He paused, before adding, cheeks turning a bit pink, “Middle school’s already lonely without Shishido-san.”
There was something about that sentence that made Shishido forget how to breathe, despite his efforts to remind himself that it’s just a bunch of related words, but something at the back of his mind told him that those bunch of related words came out of Choutarou’s mouth, thus pretty much proving his efforts to be in vain.
It took him a few seconds to breathe out, before realizing that Choutarou was grinning, and he found himself, on impulse, grinning as well. He punched the other lightly on the shoulder, “Yeah, well. High school isn’t very fun either.”
iii
Choutarou would be graduating soon. Ever since he dropped by Shishido’s house, they’ve been spending a lot of time together, making Shishido wonder why he ever spent those sleepless nights thinking if he should pay Choutarou a visit or not. He should have seen it coming that Choutarou would start to wonder too.
“I…” Shishido started, pausing for a bit, before realizing that he really didn’t have a proper answer to the question being presented to him. He did have an answer, only it was… embarrassing, and lame, and uncool, and so not sempai-like of him. “Well…” he fumbled, “What about you? You just visited me for the first time in months.”
Choutarou flustered, “That’s because… Well… At first I thought that you were busy, getting used to high school and all, and… then… I thought that if I visited, I might just disturb you and… I didn’t want… that.” He finished lamely.
If only Shishido wasn’t feeling so lame himself, he’d have found Choutarou’s sputtering cute. “You could never… bother me…” he started, feeling oddly self-conscious, “Ah, I mean… I look forward to your visits.”
When Choutarou gave him that smile that nearly made him forget that he needed oxygen to live, Shishido figured that it was okay to be a little lame.
iii
Shishido’s freshman year ended sort of blandly. Although he went on some parties that his friends had pretty much forced him to join to celebrate their advance to the second year, it wasn’t really what he was looking forward to.
It wasn’t long before Choutarou graduated, and when he did, Shishido made sure that he was there, smiling like an idiot at the back as the ceremony rolled on. As the whole thing ended, the students reveled in their last few moments of being middle school students. After searching for and greeting Hiyoshi, Kabaji and Taki whilst hiding his amusement at their surprised looks, Shishido went to the back of the auditorium to make his leave quietly.
It was nighttime when Shishido heard the doorbell ring. He nearly bolted out of his bed and dashed downstairs when his mother yelled “Ryou! It’s Ootori-kun!”.
“Really,” Shishido sighed, once they were already in his room, “You should be at home celebrating with your family.”
Choutarou frowned, “Am I disturbing you, Shishido-san?”
Shishido hated himself for being so vulnerable whenever Choutarou would pull that expression. Sometimes, he wondered if Choutarou was doing it on purpose. He quickly shook his head. “No way!” he exclaimed, surprising both himself and Choutarou.
Turning red, he added hastily, “I mean… Don’t you want to spend the day that you graduated with your family?”
Choutarou shook his head, smiling, “But I’m a high school student from now on. I’ll be with Shishido-san again next school year, so I want to spend it with you.”
Shishido was so sure that Choutarou was doing that… that adorable expression on purpose. Looking away in an effort to hide his embarrassment, he coughed, “So, uh, what do you want as a gift?”
“Gift?”
“Gift.” Shishido repeated, looking at him from the corner of his eye with one eyebrow raised, “Of course a sempai’s gotta give his kohai a gift when he graduates.”
To his surprise, Choutarou turned pink there.
“Choutarou?”
Choutarou quickly shook his head, “It’s okay, Shishido-san. I don’t need anything.”
Shishido frowned, “You’re totally thinking of something.”
Choutarou turned even redder. “I don’t mind much about gifts.” He said slowly, as if to convince even himself.
“Liar.” Shishido turned so that he was now sitting face to face with his kohai, crossing his arms and speaking in an I’m-your-sempai tone, “If you want something, then I’ll give it to you. Don’t feel so guilty. I’m your sempai after all.”
Choutarou paused, opening his mouth, before coloring all over again, and he clamped his mouth shut.
“Choutarou.”
He cringed at Shishido’s tone, looking torn. “Ah… Shishido-san…”
Shishido waited, raising an eyebrow expectantly when Choutarou moved to lean forward. It only really sank in that Choutarou had just kissed him when the other had already pulled back. He stared, mouth agape.
Choutarou was looking flustered, eyes darting to the side as he tentatively touched his lips. “That’s…” he mumbled, still not looking at his sempai’s eyes, as he continued with his voice small, “That’s all I want.”
Silence enveloped them, heavy and awkward. Shishido was reaching up to touch his lips, face burning as he contemplated on what just happened. He hadn’t even felt much of the kiss, although he wasn’t entirely sure what a kiss was supposed to feel like, because he’d never really thought of girls back in middle school, and he was too busy thinking of Choutarou to think of them in high school, and… Ah.
If he thought about it, he pretty much spent his freshman year thinking about his doubles partner.
Not that it was a bad thing.
“Choutarou…” he started, turning as red as the other when Choutarou slowly looked up at him, “Could you…” he swallowed, looking thoughtful as his fingers left his lips, and as he leaned forward expectantly in spite of himself, “Could you do that again?”
And Choutarou was looking surprised, and Shishido was feeling surprised too, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care when Choutarou’s face broke out into a relieved expression, and that smile was there again and making butterflies fly around his stomach, but it was a good feeling, especially because after that, Choutarou was leaning forward again, and their breaths were mingling, and Shishido had never wanted to be so close to someone so much in his life.
Shishido decided that kisses were wet and sloppy and awkward, but then he felt Choutarou’s hand in his again, so he figured that kisses weren’t all that bad, as long as they were with Choutarou. Hands were pulling him closer, and he sighed contentedly, letting his arms wrap around Choutarou as well, because it’s been one school year, and it’s been too damned long, and Shishido never wanted to go through that again.
“Shishido-san?” Choutarou pulled back, flustered and breathless and lips just a little swollen, and Shishido felt his heart skip a few beats. There was a question on Choutarou’s face, and Shishido’s eyes traveled to the front of his own shirt, where Choutarou was delicately holding the cross of his necklace that had been hidden inside his shirt just a while ago between his fingers.
Shishido stared, feeling warmness rush to his cheeks yet again, and choosing to rest his head on Choutarou’s shoulder instead to hide his burning face. With a small sigh, he took the hand that had been holding the necklace and entwined their fingers together, before saying the thing that has been on his head pretty much the whole time they had been apart.
“I missed you.”
One school year was way too long, and Shishido felt that he just wasted his freshman year away, but he didn’t really mind, because he still had the next years of high school to look forward to, this time with Choutarou.
e n d
♥ To make things clear, Shishido didn't attend Hyotei's high school, and attended some sort of made-up co-ed school instead, which is why there's a girl. (hahaha totally makes girls sound like aliens. *gets bricked*)
♥ I tried writing Ootori instead of Choutarou. T_T I really did. Obviously, I failed. xD
♥ I'm totally a Meteor Garden fan.
I'm sorry, offcourt. I know I promised you egg rolls and stuff and Choutarou with sempai-whipping powers, but alas. DD: I hope you like it though~ <333
askdhskdhgkk Shishido's a total sap. 8D