Remix based on crazyfaucet's fic "Leap of Faith"
Title: Bad
Rating: PG
Group/Pairing: Nakamaru/Koki (more friendship than anything, though)
Warnings: Mild violence?
Notes: I hope you enjoy this, crazyfaucet :Dv I like the pairing and I was intrigued as to Koki's reasons for wanting to hang out with Nakamaru. I didn't really buy his excuses myself, so I decided to come up with his side of the story with some continuation. Thank you to the various cheerleaders and support I had to get this finished. <33
Link to Original Story: Leap of Faith
Link to Original Writer: crazyfaucet
Koki hadn't always been bad.
Actually, if he was to talk about himself, he wouldn't say he was 'bad' at all. He cared for his family, especially his siblings, did his share of chores around the house and bought flowers from his mom on regular occasions. He just also happened to be a high school dropout who liked smoking and hanging out on the streets and generally causing trouble with his friends, too. If people wanted to think that he was bad though, he was quite happy to play up to that.
"Hey, Tanaka-san, do you have a lighter?" a voice spoke from beside him, and Koki turned to see his friend Akanishi with an unlit cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips. He nodded, and fumbled around in his pocket, and then tossed a lighter in his friend's direction. A short moment later, the smell of cigarette smoke wafted past his nose, and now tempted, he took one out himself and lit up. He leaned backwards on the wall he was seated on, leaning on one arm as he blew a cloud of smoke up into the air.
It was the time of day when most of the university students left, and he was so happy to think that he didn't have to force his way through that hoard. Even if it did make people think he was 'bad', he told himself.
"Awesome, here they come," a third voice spoke. Yamashita Tomohisa was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, hands on his hips, watching as a huge group of people emerged from behind the gates of the school. Yamashita had a cigarette between his lips too, and his lips were curved in an expectant smile, as if this was his favourite time of the day.
Akanishi leaped down from the wall and joined their other friend, but Koki let out a loud sigh and readjusted his position so he was lying down on his back on the wall, one leg spread out flat, the other bent at the knee. He turned his head to one side, giving the pair a funny look. "You guys are so lame," he muttered as he watched another cloud of smoke rising into the air.
Yamashita kept his place in the middle of the sidewalk, and an amused smile crossed his lips as he saw students crossing the street a few metres in front of him so they didn't have to pass the dropout gang, as people liked to call them.
"Yamapi," Koki warned, giving him a look that told him not to push it too far. Koki didn't think Yamashita had actually hurt anyone in his life, but people were scared of them all the same. He preferred not to join in with their intimidation. He just didn't see the point, and besides, his brother would be going to that place eventually, and asses would be kicked if anyone started picking on him.
The crowds began to thin out, and as they did, Koki spotted someone wandering a little behind the others, his head in a book Koki didn't even understand the title of. He saw that expression appearing on Yamashita's face again, and sat up straight again, swinging his legs over the side of the wall. "Leave him."
"Why?" Akanishi butted in curiously.
"He's my neighbour."
"Oh that guy," Yamashita huffed, staring at the student as he began to get closer to the group. He was so engrossed in his book that he didn't even notice where he was heading. Yamashita remembered him now. Back when they'd attended high school, he and Akanishi had fun teasing him at every opportunity.
He took a glance at Koki, and decided it wasn't worth annoying their group's leader, and stepped back against the wall as Nakamaru Yuichi passed them by.
"Hi, Yu-kun," Koki spoke to the boy as he passed, and it took a moment for Nakamaru to even realise anyone was speaking to him. As his gaze finally turned away from the book and his eyes met the other's, he gave him a polite nod, and returned his greeting before lowering his gaze once again. There had been a time when he had been scared of the two guys who hung around with his neighbour, but he had learned that for some reason, Koki wouldn't allow them to hurt him so long as he was around.
Yamashita snorted. "What a freak," he commented, and Koki rolled his eyes and flopped back down on his back.
In the evening, after his whole family was asleep and the street was in darkness, Koki sneaked out of of the house and sneaked in to Nakamaru's house for the first time.
That night, lying on the grass with his new friend staring at the stars in the sky, Koki made a wish to himself that he didn't even say out loud.
It was almost a week after their first night together that the pair once again found themselves lying on that grass hill staring up at the sky, and for the second time in front of their eyes, stars began to shoot across the sky.
"Last week," Nakamaru commented, as he pointed up at the sky to turn Koki's attention to the shooting stars. "You told me to make a wish. But did you make one too?"
Koki shook his head, a lie, but he had to keep up some kind of tough exterior, and people like him didn't really make wishes. "I don't really have any," he told him.
"Liar," Nakamaru huffed, and sat up, crossing his arms across his chest.
"You know, it's not too late in our friendship for me to kick your ass," Koki replied, reaching out and slapping Nakamaru lightly across the head.
"Well, you say that but if you do have one, you better say it now because who knows when we'll next see one."
"You're far too persistent."
"Well?"
Koki sighed, and gave Nakamaru a glare that would scare him if it were anyone but Koki. "Well, I guess I do have one wish," he admitted, and wondered if he would ever be able to live this down. Somehow it was different with Nakamaru, though. He felt like he could be himself.
Nakamaru simply looked at him expectantly, one eye on the shooting stars in the sky that were beginning to fade.
"I wish that I wasn't a bad guy," Koki said in a genuinely serious tone, and then frowned a little, and gave Nakamaru another slap around the head. "Are you happy now, eh? Now stop with the stupid shooting star crap before I -"
"I don't think you're a bad guy, Tanaka-kun," Nakamaru said softly, interrupting Koki mid-sentence and turning his head to one side to look at the other.
Koki turned his head too, meeting the other's eyes. His shoulders shrugged a little. "Well, I am, so obviously you don't know me too well," he told him, and yet Nakamaru's comment made him feel a little awkward, and almost a bit relieved.
The shooting stars faded from the sky, and with it, Koki's desire to lie here any longer faded too.
"Lets go," he decided, and climbed to his feet.
"Why me?" Nakamaru asked Koki as they spent a rare evening in Nakamaru's bedroom. His parents were away for the night so he didn't have to worry about the noise, and the rain outside had made making their usual walks an unappealing prospect. Koki playing video games while Nakamaru did his best to study with all the noise the other was making.
"Hm?"
"I know, I asked you this before. I don't buy it, just so you know." Nakamaru put his book down, giving up for now, and gave the other a serious look.
"Well that's your problem," Koki huffed, and turned back to his video game.
"Did you think that hanging out with the guy who everyone picked on would make you less bad?"
Koki pretended to ignore the comment, instead choosing to yell at some monster in his video game who had just taken a swipe again, but Nakamaru noticed his shoulders slumping in defeat, even if he didn't say anything.
"It's okay," Nakamaru assured him, setting his book down on the bed beside him and standing up, taking a seat beside Koki on the ground to watch him play. "You're not really bad, anyway, you know. If you're worried about being bad, that means you aren't."
"Whatever," Koki decided was the only appropriate response, and that was the end of that.
"Is that a bruise?" Koki asked Nakamaru as they sneaked out of his house a few days later, and he wasn't sure how he had missed it even for the few minutes they had been in each other's presence already, because it was huge and purple and spreading all of the way across one of Nakamaru's eyes.
"Yeah, I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and crashed into the door," Nakamaru told him with an awkward laugh.
"Yuichi, those are knuckles," Koki commented, lightly poking a few darker marks in the centre of the bruise. He had been in enough fights to know what it looked like when someone punched you in the face, and it looked like that. "Who did that?" he asked, and he was suddenly very angry, causing Nakamaru to flinch a little even though the anger clearly wasn't aimed at him.
Nakamaru's head bowed, and he muttered the words so quietly that Koki barely heard at all. Nakamaru was almost hoping he wouldn't. "Yamashita-kun," he told him eventually.
Koki stopped dead in the middle of the street, and turned to face Nakamaru, putting one hand on each of his shoulders. "Why did he do that?" he asked, shaking a little with anger.
"He saw us together and he asked me about it," Nakamaru explained.
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing, that's why he -"
"That idiot," Koki growled. "I told him not to touch you. And you're an idiot too. Why did you keep quiet to protect me of all people."
"I told you, you're not a bad guy. You deserve to be protected just like anyone else."
Koki took hold of Nakamaru's arm, and began to practically drag him down the street, not caring any more that it was late and Yamashita would probably already be in bed sleeping. Right now, he had very little regard for what his friend might get annoyed at him for.
Nakamaru protested, but Koki's mind was set. "You wished you had friends like me, right?" he said as he pulled Nakamaru down the streets, and Nakamaru's resistance became less and less. "Well, you got me, and it got you hurt. See what I mean? I'm a bad guy. Badness, it follows me around, or something like that."
"It wasn't your fault."
But Koki wasn't listening to reasoning now, as they now walked more calmly, but quickly through the streets, Nakamaru following Koki through the maze of streets and houses to where he assumed Yamashita lived.
After what felt like hours to Nakamaru, they finally stopped in front of a house, and after peering around on the ground for a moment, Koki grabbed a small pebble and launched it at one of the windows of the building. It caused a loud clatter as it hit and fell back to the ground, and after a minute or so, the window opened and Yamashita, clearly having just woken up, stared down at them. "Tanaka-san, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked, and then gave Nakamaru a curious glance, concentrating on the bruise blemishing his face.
"Yamapi, get down here," Koki ordered, and Yamashita questioned nothing. His face disappeared from the window, and Koki waited impatiently as the other made his way from his bedroom to the outside of the house. Nakamaru hovered uncomfortably somewhere near the border of the property.
Yamashita had barely gotten away from the front door before Koki stepped right up to him and launched his already formed fist at the other's face. His friend, who had certainly not been expecting an attack like that, didn't have chance to react or move, and as it made contact with his cheek, he stumbled backwards, crashing back against the door.
"What was that for?!" Yamashita's hand flew to his cheek, blood beginning to trickle from the corner of his mouth.
Koki stepped back, and grabbed hold of Nakamaru's hand, pulling him back into the other's vision. "That was for my friend."
The pair walked arm in arm as they headed back towards Nakamaru's apartment. Nakamaru was beginning to get very tired, a combination of being injured and having studied all day and of course, it being 4am in the morning, although he thought his body had been beginning to get used to these late night outings with Tanaka Koki.
Koki's other hand was red and sore at the knuckles, and pounding. It had been a long time since he had punched anyone, and he'd forgotten how much it hurt. Raising his hand, he glanced at it, wondering if something was perhaps broken. And then he held it in front of Nakamaru's face. "See, this is what a bad guy's hand looks like," he commented.
Then, he watched as Nakamaru took hold of it and seemingly studied it for a moment. It was his fault that Koki's hand was hurting like this, his friend had done it as revenge for what had happened to him. He wondered if, in that case, it could be considered bad at all. "Perhaps sometimes, it's okay to be a little bad," he decided after a moment.
Up above them, shooting stars began to appear once again, and as they continued to walk, arms linked, they both decided that there was nothing more either of them needed to wish for.
Rating: PG
Group/Pairing: Nakamaru/Koki (more friendship than anything, though)
Warnings: Mild violence?
Notes: I hope you enjoy this, crazyfaucet :Dv I like the pairing and I was intrigued as to Koki's reasons for wanting to hang out with Nakamaru. I didn't really buy his excuses myself, so I decided to come up with his side of the story with some continuation. Thank you to the various cheerleaders and support I had to get this finished. <33
Link to Original Story: Leap of Faith
Link to Original Writer: crazyfaucet
Koki hadn't always been bad.
Actually, if he was to talk about himself, he wouldn't say he was 'bad' at all. He cared for his family, especially his siblings, did his share of chores around the house and bought flowers from his mom on regular occasions. He just also happened to be a high school dropout who liked smoking and hanging out on the streets and generally causing trouble with his friends, too. If people wanted to think that he was bad though, he was quite happy to play up to that.
"Hey, Tanaka-san, do you have a lighter?" a voice spoke from beside him, and Koki turned to see his friend Akanishi with an unlit cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips. He nodded, and fumbled around in his pocket, and then tossed a lighter in his friend's direction. A short moment later, the smell of cigarette smoke wafted past his nose, and now tempted, he took one out himself and lit up. He leaned backwards on the wall he was seated on, leaning on one arm as he blew a cloud of smoke up into the air.
It was the time of day when most of the university students left, and he was so happy to think that he didn't have to force his way through that hoard. Even if it did make people think he was 'bad', he told himself.
"Awesome, here they come," a third voice spoke. Yamashita Tomohisa was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, hands on his hips, watching as a huge group of people emerged from behind the gates of the school. Yamashita had a cigarette between his lips too, and his lips were curved in an expectant smile, as if this was his favourite time of the day.
Akanishi leaped down from the wall and joined their other friend, but Koki let out a loud sigh and readjusted his position so he was lying down on his back on the wall, one leg spread out flat, the other bent at the knee. He turned his head to one side, giving the pair a funny look. "You guys are so lame," he muttered as he watched another cloud of smoke rising into the air.
Yamashita kept his place in the middle of the sidewalk, and an amused smile crossed his lips as he saw students crossing the street a few metres in front of him so they didn't have to pass the dropout gang, as people liked to call them.
"Yamapi," Koki warned, giving him a look that told him not to push it too far. Koki didn't think Yamashita had actually hurt anyone in his life, but people were scared of them all the same. He preferred not to join in with their intimidation. He just didn't see the point, and besides, his brother would be going to that place eventually, and asses would be kicked if anyone started picking on him.
The crowds began to thin out, and as they did, Koki spotted someone wandering a little behind the others, his head in a book Koki didn't even understand the title of. He saw that expression appearing on Yamashita's face again, and sat up straight again, swinging his legs over the side of the wall. "Leave him."
"Why?" Akanishi butted in curiously.
"He's my neighbour."
"Oh that guy," Yamashita huffed, staring at the student as he began to get closer to the group. He was so engrossed in his book that he didn't even notice where he was heading. Yamashita remembered him now. Back when they'd attended high school, he and Akanishi had fun teasing him at every opportunity.
He took a glance at Koki, and decided it wasn't worth annoying their group's leader, and stepped back against the wall as Nakamaru Yuichi passed them by.
"Hi, Yu-kun," Koki spoke to the boy as he passed, and it took a moment for Nakamaru to even realise anyone was speaking to him. As his gaze finally turned away from the book and his eyes met the other's, he gave him a polite nod, and returned his greeting before lowering his gaze once again. There had been a time when he had been scared of the two guys who hung around with his neighbour, but he had learned that for some reason, Koki wouldn't allow them to hurt him so long as he was around.
Yamashita snorted. "What a freak," he commented, and Koki rolled his eyes and flopped back down on his back.
In the evening, after his whole family was asleep and the street was in darkness, Koki sneaked out of of the house and sneaked in to Nakamaru's house for the first time.
That night, lying on the grass with his new friend staring at the stars in the sky, Koki made a wish to himself that he didn't even say out loud.
It was almost a week after their first night together that the pair once again found themselves lying on that grass hill staring up at the sky, and for the second time in front of their eyes, stars began to shoot across the sky.
"Last week," Nakamaru commented, as he pointed up at the sky to turn Koki's attention to the shooting stars. "You told me to make a wish. But did you make one too?"
Koki shook his head, a lie, but he had to keep up some kind of tough exterior, and people like him didn't really make wishes. "I don't really have any," he told him.
"Liar," Nakamaru huffed, and sat up, crossing his arms across his chest.
"You know, it's not too late in our friendship for me to kick your ass," Koki replied, reaching out and slapping Nakamaru lightly across the head.
"Well, you say that but if you do have one, you better say it now because who knows when we'll next see one."
"You're far too persistent."
"Well?"
Koki sighed, and gave Nakamaru a glare that would scare him if it were anyone but Koki. "Well, I guess I do have one wish," he admitted, and wondered if he would ever be able to live this down. Somehow it was different with Nakamaru, though. He felt like he could be himself.
Nakamaru simply looked at him expectantly, one eye on the shooting stars in the sky that were beginning to fade.
"I wish that I wasn't a bad guy," Koki said in a genuinely serious tone, and then frowned a little, and gave Nakamaru another slap around the head. "Are you happy now, eh? Now stop with the stupid shooting star crap before I -"
"I don't think you're a bad guy, Tanaka-kun," Nakamaru said softly, interrupting Koki mid-sentence and turning his head to one side to look at the other.
Koki turned his head too, meeting the other's eyes. His shoulders shrugged a little. "Well, I am, so obviously you don't know me too well," he told him, and yet Nakamaru's comment made him feel a little awkward, and almost a bit relieved.
The shooting stars faded from the sky, and with it, Koki's desire to lie here any longer faded too.
"Lets go," he decided, and climbed to his feet.
"Why me?" Nakamaru asked Koki as they spent a rare evening in Nakamaru's bedroom. His parents were away for the night so he didn't have to worry about the noise, and the rain outside had made making their usual walks an unappealing prospect. Koki playing video games while Nakamaru did his best to study with all the noise the other was making.
"Hm?"
"I know, I asked you this before. I don't buy it, just so you know." Nakamaru put his book down, giving up for now, and gave the other a serious look.
"Well that's your problem," Koki huffed, and turned back to his video game.
"Did you think that hanging out with the guy who everyone picked on would make you less bad?"
Koki pretended to ignore the comment, instead choosing to yell at some monster in his video game who had just taken a swipe again, but Nakamaru noticed his shoulders slumping in defeat, even if he didn't say anything.
"It's okay," Nakamaru assured him, setting his book down on the bed beside him and standing up, taking a seat beside Koki on the ground to watch him play. "You're not really bad, anyway, you know. If you're worried about being bad, that means you aren't."
"Whatever," Koki decided was the only appropriate response, and that was the end of that.
"Is that a bruise?" Koki asked Nakamaru as they sneaked out of his house a few days later, and he wasn't sure how he had missed it even for the few minutes they had been in each other's presence already, because it was huge and purple and spreading all of the way across one of Nakamaru's eyes.
"Yeah, I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and crashed into the door," Nakamaru told him with an awkward laugh.
"Yuichi, those are knuckles," Koki commented, lightly poking a few darker marks in the centre of the bruise. He had been in enough fights to know what it looked like when someone punched you in the face, and it looked like that. "Who did that?" he asked, and he was suddenly very angry, causing Nakamaru to flinch a little even though the anger clearly wasn't aimed at him.
Nakamaru's head bowed, and he muttered the words so quietly that Koki barely heard at all. Nakamaru was almost hoping he wouldn't. "Yamashita-kun," he told him eventually.
Koki stopped dead in the middle of the street, and turned to face Nakamaru, putting one hand on each of his shoulders. "Why did he do that?" he asked, shaking a little with anger.
"He saw us together and he asked me about it," Nakamaru explained.
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing, that's why he -"
"That idiot," Koki growled. "I told him not to touch you. And you're an idiot too. Why did you keep quiet to protect me of all people."
"I told you, you're not a bad guy. You deserve to be protected just like anyone else."
Koki took hold of Nakamaru's arm, and began to practically drag him down the street, not caring any more that it was late and Yamashita would probably already be in bed sleeping. Right now, he had very little regard for what his friend might get annoyed at him for.
Nakamaru protested, but Koki's mind was set. "You wished you had friends like me, right?" he said as he pulled Nakamaru down the streets, and Nakamaru's resistance became less and less. "Well, you got me, and it got you hurt. See what I mean? I'm a bad guy. Badness, it follows me around, or something like that."
"It wasn't your fault."
But Koki wasn't listening to reasoning now, as they now walked more calmly, but quickly through the streets, Nakamaru following Koki through the maze of streets and houses to where he assumed Yamashita lived.
After what felt like hours to Nakamaru, they finally stopped in front of a house, and after peering around on the ground for a moment, Koki grabbed a small pebble and launched it at one of the windows of the building. It caused a loud clatter as it hit and fell back to the ground, and after a minute or so, the window opened and Yamashita, clearly having just woken up, stared down at them. "Tanaka-san, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked, and then gave Nakamaru a curious glance, concentrating on the bruise blemishing his face.
"Yamapi, get down here," Koki ordered, and Yamashita questioned nothing. His face disappeared from the window, and Koki waited impatiently as the other made his way from his bedroom to the outside of the house. Nakamaru hovered uncomfortably somewhere near the border of the property.
Yamashita had barely gotten away from the front door before Koki stepped right up to him and launched his already formed fist at the other's face. His friend, who had certainly not been expecting an attack like that, didn't have chance to react or move, and as it made contact with his cheek, he stumbled backwards, crashing back against the door.
"What was that for?!" Yamashita's hand flew to his cheek, blood beginning to trickle from the corner of his mouth.
Koki stepped back, and grabbed hold of Nakamaru's hand, pulling him back into the other's vision. "That was for my friend."
The pair walked arm in arm as they headed back towards Nakamaru's apartment. Nakamaru was beginning to get very tired, a combination of being injured and having studied all day and of course, it being 4am in the morning, although he thought his body had been beginning to get used to these late night outings with Tanaka Koki.
Koki's other hand was red and sore at the knuckles, and pounding. It had been a long time since he had punched anyone, and he'd forgotten how much it hurt. Raising his hand, he glanced at it, wondering if something was perhaps broken. And then he held it in front of Nakamaru's face. "See, this is what a bad guy's hand looks like," he commented.
Then, he watched as Nakamaru took hold of it and seemingly studied it for a moment. It was his fault that Koki's hand was hurting like this, his friend had done it as revenge for what had happened to him. He wondered if, in that case, it could be considered bad at all. "Perhaps sometimes, it's okay to be a little bad," he decided after a moment.
Up above them, shooting stars began to appear once again, and as they continued to walk, arms linked, they both decided that there was nothing more either of them needed to wish for.