Kanou and Oda study alone~ in Oda's room

[fork_u_up]

Who: Oda (kansaidburns) and Kanou (fork_u_up)
What: Oda very kindly allows Kanou to come study in his room. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of studying gets done.
Where & When: The night Kanou flips out on Hatake for disturbing his studying, after this email to Oda.
Warnings: Almost-but-not-quite cuddling, plus a little sexual identity crisis. :)



Kanou snapped his laptop shut, grinning widely. Already he was in much better spirits now that he was heading to Oda’s room where he could study in peace without Hatake’s annoying-no infuriating-unconscious tics to distract him. He gathered up his English book and class notebooks then glanced at his pile of clean clothes before deciding he could go in his sleeping shorts and t-shirt. It was only Oda’s dorm, after all.

With just Oda there, no Hiiragi.

“Later, Hatake,” Kanou called to his roommate as he made his way out. “Blast your music, tap your feet, have a party, I don’t care. I’m going to Oda’s.”

Without waiting for a response he left. It didn’t take long for him to make it to Oda’s room; his feet took him there without much thought. Aside from his and Hatake’s own room, the one Oda and Hiiragi shared was the one he visited most.

Shifting the books in his arms, Kanou knocked twice on the door, springing on the balls of his feet and humming a bit as he waited for it to open.

Oda sat in his bed, laptop balanced precariously on his knees as he regarded his e-mail from Kanou with a slight half-smile. His room had felt a bit empty with Hiiragi sneaking off to god-knew-where all the time. And, well, he enjoyed Kanou's company, even if he sincerely doubted they'd be getting as much schoolwork done as Kanou really wanted. Setting the laptop aside, he wandered around the room, straightening things into slightly-less-messy piles and kicking some underwear under his bed. No point in letting Kanou think he was a slob.

When Kanou knocked, he crossed the room in two long strides, steadfastly ignoring the way his heart sped up a bit, and opened the door. "Hi there."

“Hey,” Kanou said, grinning up at Oda. “Thanks for saving me. I was going crazy in there.”

Just seeing Oda’s face made him feel more grounded and less like hurting someone. Now he felt a little silly for having tossed Hatake’s iPod out their window-he’d have to go find it in the morning and apologize again.

Oda smiled and gave a little half-shrug stepping back to let Kanou enter the room. "C'mon in. I was trying to study for the literature test, but I think this stuff is going way over my head. You doin' any better?" He smiled at the stack of books and waved for Kanou to put them down anywhere. The beds, at least, were cleared of stuff.

“I haven’t been able to even think straight the past few hours, so not really,” Kanou said, stepping into the room and setting his pile of books down at the edge of Oda’s bed. He scowled for a moment, thinking of all that wasted time and effort. “Now that I’m here, though, I’ll probably get it okay,” he added, turning a smile on Oda.

“Is it the language that’s giving you trouble? Want me to try putting it in Kansai-ben?” Not that Kanou was particularly good at doing that, but he was always willing to give it a shot.
Oda laughed and shut his laptop. "Nah, I don't think that's the problem." The real problem probably had something to do with idly playing on the computer instead of actually studying the way he should have been. "You gonna be okay? Didn't piss Hatake-kun off too much, didja?" Not that Hatake ever seemed to hold things against Kanou much.

“Well, the offer stands if you ever need it.” Kanou smiled, settling himself at the end of Oda’s bed, legs folded in front of him.

At the mention of Hatake, Kanou sighed and rolled his eyes. He really was trying not to get so pissed off at him so often, but the guy made it kind of hard. “I’m fine. I just… he doesn’t even mean to be irritating, but that doesn’t stop it happening. You know?”

His cheeks pinked a little as he recalled their most recent tiff, yet his eyes still met Oda’s. “And I did piss him off, yeah. He made this ‘aaugh!’ noise as his music flew out the window. It was kind of funny until I saw the look on his face. I said I was sorry. And then it was okay, and he went back to doing that annoying shit again. So now I’m here before I do something really awful.”

Oda's eyebrows arched-- he hadn't been entirely certain Kanou was serious about that "throwing his iPod out the window" thing, but he should have known that Kanou let his impulses get the better of him. "Better here than kicking Hatake in the cup again," he said. He rummaged about to find his literature textbook and settled next to Kanou. Their knees nearly touched, although Oda did his best to curl up and give Kanou more room.

“Yeah… better here,” Kanou agreed. Everything was better with Oda. Especially with him so close now. If he moved his books off the bed, Kanou could probably give Oda enough space to stretch out. But, well, he didn’t want to do that. Not that he wanted Oda to be uncomfortable, not at all. So what if their knees touched?, he thought, heart hammering. So what? It might feel good…

“Do I have cooties or something?” Kanou asked, eyes glittering as he smirked at Oda and glanced at their knees and the way Oda was sitting all curled up.

"Cooties?" Oda repeated, blinking at him. He looked at their legs and shifted a bit-- still not touching Kanou, but moving to get a bit more comfortable. "There's just not much room on the bed is all. Didn't think you'd want to get all cozy with me." He looked away, hoping his cheeks didn't look as warm as they felt.

He leaned over, trying to busy himself with figuring out which textbooks he needed most.

Kanou’s smirk turned a little softer as he considered Oda. It looked like maybe he was blushing when he said that, and that only made Kanou want to push a little further. Getting a rise out of him was… interesting. It made his stomach flutter.

He scooted a little closer to Oda, busy with his books, bridging the small gap between their knees so they were now touching. “I don’t mind.”

Oda jumped a bit, startled to find Kanou so close to him, and smiled. "I'm glad, then. Cause the room's pretty small, and all. If you got claustrophobic easy, I don't know what we'd do." Maybe his cheeks were a bit pink, but it wasn't that noticeable, was it? He sat up, holding a copy of Taketori Monogatari, and started flipping pages.

Kanou smiled back, happy that Oda hadn’t moved away. It did feel nice, their knees pressed against one another, close, warm. He didn’t want to cross any lines, but it was hard to know just where those lines were with Oda. Seriously, sometimes it felt like he was harder to figure out than any of the complex books they read for literature class. “Yeah, good thing I like being near you.”

Taking a cue from Oda, Kanou picked up his own English notebook and tried studying. He wasn’t too worried about the literature test, but the foreign language one-that was making him more nervous. It’d be best if he could just focus and learn the material.

Easier said than done, when he couldn’t keep his mind off the contact he and Oda were sharing.

Oda smiled back. He didn't mean to be confusing, even though he was confusing himself a bit. He wasn't sure quite how to act around Kanou-- protective, or calm, or relaxed... He shifted, knees pressing against Kanou's. "I'm glad to hear that. I think it would be harder to play if our pitcher disliked spending time with me."

Grabbing a pen, he tried to concentrate on the book instead of Kanou's warmth against him, but it was a bit difficult, and he chewed on the end of his writing implement thoughtlessly.

“That’s true. But…” Kanou paused, finger pressed to his notebook in the same spot it’d been for the past few minutes. He stared at the page, words blending together as he tried to think of what exactly he was trying to say. Teamwork was important, yes. That wasn’t what he’d been thinking of when he said he liked being near Oda, though. Not that he really understood what he was thinking. “Not everything’s about baseball.”

"I guess it isn't. I'm sorry, did I say something to annoy you?" Oda leaned forward, checking over Kanou's shoulder, brow furrowing slightly. "You look upset."

“No, you’re fine. I’m fine. I just…” Kanou shook his head, trying to clear it. It wasn’t working though; he was just as muddled as before. He wasn’t used to feeling so confused, and he found he really didn’t like it much. “It’s good spending time with you outside of baseball too. That’s all.”

That wasn’t all, but it was as close as Kanou could get to what he was feeling. He looked up and smiled, shifting to give Oda a bit more space on the bed.

Oda bit back a sigh, missing the pressure of Kanou against him, but he moved too, to give Kanou the space he clearly wanted. "I think I'd be doing worse in class if you weren't helping me. This is more rigorous than my old school." That wasn't all, but Oda really didn't want to mention the way he wanted to lean back against Kanou.

So it was school now, instead of baseball. Kanou was unpleasantly surprised to find that the new topic of conversation sort of irritated him too. Which didn’t make a whole lot of sense. After baseball, school was where he spent the most time with Oda and they mostly studied together when they weren’t practicing baseball-it shouldn’t have rubbed him wrong. So, what did that mean; that he liked it best when he got to hang out with Oda outside both baseball and school? That hardly ever happened.

Anyway, Oda was only trying to smooth things over. And confused as he was, Kanou had to admit he really did like feeling like Oda needed him for something. “I’m glad I could help.” He smiled again, sincerely, and glanced back down at his notebook. “It’s hard for me sometimes too. English especially.”

Right now his emotions felt pretty foreign as well. And his knee was getting cold.

Oda set the novel aside and scooted a little closer to Kanou, hand hesitated near Kanou's shoulder. He dropped it into his lap instead-- Kanou's shoulders seemed pretty tense already, and Oda didn't want to be the one to make him more upset. He decided that discretion was the better part of valor and just peered over Kanou's shoulder at the notebook. He mouthed the words, trying to make the odd English sounds coalesce in his mind. "Hao aa- yu? Ch', English words are strange, ga na." The way Kanou was bristling was also a little strange, but Oda didn't really want to move away, so he just scooted around Kanou to grab his own English notebook and flipped to the section they were on.

"Shit, pardon my language, but do we have a test on Monday?"

Kanou snorted a little laughter at Oda’s English, thinking it sounded as strange from his mouth as it looked on the page. If they were both confused together (at least about something), Kanou didn’t feel quite so awkward over it.

“Yeah, we do,” he answered, trying and failing not to get distracted by Oda’s solid body reaching around him. “I’m even worse with English than I am at Kansai-ben, too. Listen: Aimu faa-inu. Did sensei say there was an oral section in the test? Because I really hope there isn’t.”

"Aah." Oda flipped a page in his notebook, looking for the details of the test. He hadn't written them down. "Aw hell, I dunno," he mumbled and leaned his shoulder against Kanou without thinking about it. "Sorry, I only wrote down the day and class period. Maybe we should practice it some just to be sure." Not that his accent was any good.

“We should, just in case,” Kanou agreed, trying to play it cool and stay as still as he could so maybe Oda would stay where he was. This was better than before, Oda’s muscled shoulder solid and warm resting against his own-comfortable, reassuring. “Let’s start… here,” he said, leaning in so his face was nearly touching Oda’s shoulder too, reaching over to point at a place in Oda’s notebook. He smelled good, Kanou realized. Was that a normal thing to think of a friend? That he smelled good, like sweat and soap and… Kanou didn’t know, boy?

Quickly as he’d leaned in, Kanou leaned back again, hands to himself and cheeks heating. Just whose line was he crossing?

“I can never remember how to ask for directions.”

"Doko wa... Where, I think?" Oda rifled a few pages, looking for the notes-- his handwriting sprawled across the pages, only barely legible to the quick glances. "Is this the section? Doko wa New York Doubutsuen? Weaa- es za Nu Yo--k Zu?" He stumbled over the words, using the unfamiliar sounds to distract him from the way Kanou had jerked back. He didn't want to touch Oda? Maybe that shouldn't be surprising. Oda was being especially creepy, wanting to press himself against his friend. He coughed and tried to withdraw from the thought.

“Yeah, that’s the section. Your notes look better than mine. Kind of messy,” Kanou grinned, “but better.” Focusing on the lesson was a good idea. It was calming. Maybe leaning on Oda wasn’t weird, though… maybe he’d just overreacted? Oda didn’t seem to notice or care how close they’d been. Maybe it was even expected? If they were sharing notes, they’d have to be close enough for them to both see. Slowly, Kanou eased over until he was leaning against Oda’s shoulder again. Normal. Right. Even though it still made his insides clench strangely. “What’s that say?” he said, pointing. “I can’t really read it.”

Oda wrinkled his nose at the section Kanou pointed to. His hand-writing in Japanese wasn't great and his English handwriting was even worse. "I think it means something like 'where can I find the, mmm," he paused for a minute, trying to recall what the word meant. "School, I think? Maybe it's the hospital." He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not sure."

“That’s kind of a big difference,” Kanou commented. He leaned a little closer to the page, eyes squinted as he tried to make out the word in question. “I’d be pretty pissed if I got injured and got taken to a school instead of a hospital because I asked the wrong thing. We should look it up.”

He moved away from Oda again, this time with a purpose, and only long enough to grab his English textbook from the end of the bed. Book in hand, he set it in Oda’s lap on top of his notebook. “What chapter was that?” Kanou asked, glancing up at Oda’s face as he propped himself against his friend’s side once more.

Oda huffed a laugh, resigned to do all of the work in this study partnership. "Chapter Four, I think? Aren't you the one who said he needed to study English?" But he flipped the pages, trying to locate the vocabulary lessons for their test. "Maybe we should have made flashcards."

“I said I’d help you with literature too,” Kanou pouted. Not like he was trying to be selfish or anything. Now that he thought about it, though, deciding they’d both do what he wanted to was pretty damn selfish. “I’ll make us some,” he conceded. “Tomorrow.”

Oda slid the book across his lap, so Kanou could see it better and shrugged, careful not to dislodge his friend. "Literature can wait. I should brush up for the test too." He looked down and then glanced away again, cheeks heating up. Why did Kanou have to be so cute? Oda sometimes sympathized with Hatake's apparently frustrated crush.

Oh. That was nice, feeling the rise and fall of Oda’s body as he shrugged, the tensing and relaxing of his muscles against Kanou’s own loose frame. Kanou’s stomach knotted again and his brow furrowed a little, wondering why. He didn’t feel this way around anyone else, that he’d noticed anyway. Didn’t feel like brushing up against Hiiragi or sharing a book with Hatake.

Focus, Shuugo, he scolded himself. Now wasn’t the time to examine his strange behavior. Maybe he was just getting sick or something. Couldn’t let that stop him from studying anyway; the test was on Monday. He read quietly for a while, trying to just relax and let the words sink in the way he was sinking against Oda’s side.

“There,” Kanou said after a while, pointing out an English word in the textbook on Oda’s lap. “I think that’s the word in your notebook. Hospital.”

"Nnm," Oda said, non-commital. "So that would be 'where can I find the hospital'. We're going to have to answer that question too, I think." He was tempted to wrap an arm around Kanou's waist, just because he was there. But restrained the impulse, instead nudging the smaller boy with his side.

“Can’t we just say ‘call an ambulance’ or something?” Kanou muttered. Usually he was against cutting corners, but this was an exception and was completely reasonable. Speaking of corners, Oda’s elbow was actually kind of sharp. He wriggled a bit, trying to find a more comfortable angle, which wasn’t entirely working. Still, it wasn’t uncomfortable enough to get him to move away.

"Can you say 'call an ambulance' in English, Kanou-kun?" Oda's eyebrow crept upwards in surprised disbelief. Even if their teacher would accept it, first they'd actually have to be able to phrase it properly in English. Oda didn't know the word for ambulance and he would have put money on Kanou not knowing it either. He shifted a little bit, against Kanou. It felt nice to have him snuggling up.

“…No,” Kanou admitted before adding huffily, “Can you?”

It didn’t help that thinking was getting harder and harder to do, what with all the shifting they were both doing. The muscles and angles and heat and friction were really distracting. “Maybe we should review directions, like ‘make a left turn’ or ‘make a right turn’ or ‘go straight’-that sort of thing,” Kanou said, ignoring the blush rising on his cheeks. He was trying, he really was. “First, can you move your arm, though? Your elbow is poking me.”

One distraction at a time.

"A-ah, sorry." Oda pulled his arm free-- it took him a minute to decide what to do with it. The easiest thing to do would be to rest his hand against Kanou's other side, wrapping a casual arm around him. But that was... silly, right? Kanou'd probably protest that. So Oda dropped the hand back, leaning backwards a bit. It was inelegant and a little uncomfortable, but at least it wouldn't annoy Kanou more than necessary.

"I think if we think about directions like in baseball, it might be easier. Like 'left field' and 'right field'."

Oblivious to Oda’s discomfort, Kanou relaxed more fully against his side. Much better. He smiled at the baseball correlations too. Maybe Oda had noticed how Kanou managed to confuse ‘left’ and ‘right’ in English rather frequently. He was insightful like that. (And kind or smart enough not to point it out.)

“That’s a great idea. Straight could be like ‘center field’. Or maybe ‘line drive’.”

Oda nodded thoughtfully, writing the words out in katakana. "Straight, like the pitch. Sutorei--to." He doodled out the pitch's arc with little arrows. "And if we want to go left, we're going towards the left fielder. Refuto..." Oda turned his head, the top of his chin brushing the top of Kanou's head.

That was an even better analogy, and one Kanou was sure to remember. Why hadn’t he realized that at least some of the pitch names in English were directional? He wasn’t usually this slow on the uptake.

As for ‘left’… ‘left’ was Oda’s chin against his hair making his scalp tingle. Kanou swallowed somewhat thickly, pushing down a fresh swell of confused something. “And…. Rai-to?” he asked, waiting to see if Oda would demonstrate again the other direction.

Oda nodded slightly, his chin tapping Kanou's skull. "Rai-to fiirudo." He drew a little baseball diamond on his notes, labeling the outfielder positions, with arrows going off to the right and left. "Like that, I think?"

“I see.” Kanou almost found himself mentally categorizing ‘right’ as a tap on the head before deciding that was probably a bad idea. If ‘left’ and ‘right’ in English sent strange shivers down his neck every time he thought of them he’d never be able to focus enough to finish his test. Instead he set his gaze determinedly on Oda’s drawing. “Rai-to,” he repeated, tracing Oda’s arrow with his finger, “refuto… sutorei-to. I can remember that.”

Oda tapped his chin against the top of Kanou's head again, doing his best not to just nuzzle. "I guess it's easiest when we can identify things we know, right?" English was still pretty weird, though. "Weaa- iis za... byouki wa... hosupiitaru?"

Damn it. Kanou had to answer, and for that he had to think. Only Oda had touched his head with his chin again and it’d sent him dizzy. He was getting worse. Kanou was pretty sure Oda was just agreeing with him and didn’t have a lot of room to nod-it was an accident; he didn’t know how weirdly nice it felt. And he certainly wasn’t doing it on purpose. It’d be odd to point it out to him.

Exhaling loudly, Kanou closed his eyes and tried to put himself back together. No way he was going to let Oda know how mixed up he was feeling. Not when he didn’t even understand why. So. The closest hospital to Mihoshi was… well. He could try to at least give approximate directions? “Tsu… raito taa-no. Za hosupiitaru… iisu… on za refuto.”

"Sankyuu," Oda said, running a finger down the vocabulary list. "Iis it faa-?" Oda shifted behind Kanou-- it would be easier if he could just dump the smaller boy into his lap, wouldn't it? That would cause its own problems, though, and be distracting in a totally different way that Oda really shouldn't be thinking about because. Well, because.

“Nou, iitsu… kuro-su.” Close like Oda was close. His shifting jostled Kanou out of his thoughts, though. Kanou himself had gotten-well, comfortable wasn’t exactly the word, but in a position he didn’t really want to move from. But maybe Oda didn’t feel the same. Selfish, again.

Biting his lip and brow furrowed, Kanou turned to look at Oda. “You’re… not comfortable, are you? I should move. We can--” he moved away, just inches, enough to give Oda breathing space, “we can finish studying tomorrow. I have to make those flash cards anyway. So.”

So it was fine, right?

Oda didn't want Kanou to move away, but if he was uncomfortable-- maybe Oda'd gotten a little too close? His cheeks warmed in embarrassment and he closed the notebook. "That sounds like a good idea. I've got to finish reading that novel for literature, anyway. I think we have an essay on it due soon. But we could practice with the flashcards tomorrow, if you want." If Kanou wasn't annoyed with him. Not that Kanou was ever particularly quiet about his irritation, but...

“Okay. Good. We’ll practice more tomorrow.” Kanou nodded, a relieved smile on his face. Maybe by tomorrow he’d be feeling better, more himself. Less shaky and giddy with his stomach fluttering. Maybe he’d be able to concentrate better after he slept. Unsteadily, he got to his feet and started gathering up his books and notes, getting about half of them in his arms before a too-hasty swipe for his errant English book sent the whole pile spilling back down.

“Sorry,” he said, a bright blush rising to his face. With an exasperated sigh, he tried picking up his things again. “I must be tired.”

Oda saw the books falling, but couldn't move fast enough to grab them. So he leaned across the bed to help Kanou gather them back up. "Get some rest, Kanou-kun. You'll feel better, and coach won't yell at you as much." He smiled a little wryly and offered the books up.

“Thanks, Oda,” Kanou said, taking the books from Oda and adding them to the top of his pile. There was a slight frown on his face as he considered the next day-if he was this clumsy and out of it he’d definitely get yelled at during practice. He didn’t want to bring everybody down just because he was feeling strange. Still, he had a feeling tonight would be spent trying to sort out just what the hell was going on with him rather than sleeping. Maybe it’d help, though. “You get some sleep too. If you have questions about the literature essay just let me know. I’ll, um. See you tomorrow.” Embarrassed without quite knowing why, Kanou held his books to his chest and made Oda a little bow, then made his way to the door.

Where he had to pause. “… Could you open it for me?”

Oda glanced up from where he'd been about to settle back with his novel, and smiled. "Of course." He didn't really want Kanou to go, but if he was that uncomfortable here... Oda opened the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

“Thank you,” Kanou said as he brushed past Oda and out into the hallway. He lingered there a moment, hesitating. Going back to the room he shared with Hatake-who was very likely still awake and still unconsciously doing Really Annoying Things-did not actually sound that appealing. He almost wanted to ask if he could stay and just lie down on Hiiragi’s bed. Or maybe Oda’s own. He could just close his eyes while Oda read… But that last thought brought a fresh rush of blood to his cheeks, and Kanou decided he’d just put his headphones on and go lie in his own bed after all.

“Goodnight, Oda. See you tomorrow,” he said, and started off down the hall.

Oda closed the door behind him and dropped onto the bed, rubbing his eyes. He wasn't sure he'd really be able to concentrate on his book. There was still a warm spot where Kanou'd been sitting...