Anonymous (chapter 1)
Title: Anonymous
Author: pe_gret
Pairing: Tora/?;
Chapter: 1/?
Genre: AU; Romance; Drama;
Rating: PG-13
Summary: As the years went by, Amano Shinji found himself becoming a bitter person who had nothing special. Between working two part-time jobs and having to clean up after his best friend Akihito, he was unable to find himself happy with his life. While reading a small passage in a magazine, Shinji finds himself infatuated by the person who wrote it. The problem is, the person is anonymous. To what extents will he go to find this mysterious writer?
Warnings: Fluff;
Disclaimer: The story is mine; The characters are yet to be tamed.
“I told you it wasn’t worth it.” Amano Shinji lit a cigarette and slid it between his lips, shaking his head at his best friend. “Meeting women isn’t going to pay the bills, Toto.”
“I know it isn’t.” Akihito answered, biting on his lip and waving at a few girls that hadn’t stopped staring at him since Shinji and he had started walking towards their apartment after work. “It doesn’t hurt though, does it? Meeting cute girls? You should work where I work. Go out some more.”
“We both know that isn’t going to happen.”
Shinji had gotten used to the idea. For the past twelve years, the only girls who kept him company were female writers, and their presence was only there because Shinji read the words in their books out loud to give the impression of comfort. He preferred being by himself and was not encouraged to come out of his shell when he saw how much trouble Akihito got in when he forgot a girl’s name or the five girls he was dating at the same time found out about each other.
“Well it won’t if you don’t try!” Akihito squeezed Shinji’s shoulders and spun him around to face the girls that were still following him around. “Hey girls! If this handsome guy asked you out, would you say yes?”
“Toto!” Shinji’s face glowed red as he awkwardly stumbled while attempting to turn away, dropping his cigarette and causing it to accidentally land on the shoe of one of the girls. What a charmer he was.
The girls shuffled awkwardly, the one with the cigarette butt on her shoe glaring. They murmured to each other and then looked at Akihito shyly, but one of the girls pushed her way to the front of the small group.
“Um…we were kind of looking at you.” She smiled, stretching her hand out at Akihito. He took it gladly, pressing a kiss on it and allowing Shinji to hide behind him.
“I’m sorry ladies, but I have to get home. Perhaps we’ll meet another day.” He winked as he pulled Shinji by the arm, guiding him home despite the fact that they were almost there.
“You embarrassed me, jerk.”
“Hey, hey! You embarrassed yourself.” Akihito unlocked the door to their apartment and slipped his shoes off, kicking them to the side and jumping on the couch, his face against a cushion. “If you weren’t so awkward, maybe one of them would have at least let you buy them a drink.”
“Why would I want to buy a drink for a stranger?”
Instead of receiving a response, he heard soft snores coming from Akihito’s throat. Shinji shook his head, smiling a little. He picked up a blanket that was on the floor before swinging it over Akihito’s body and then leaving him so he could find something more productive to do.
* * *
It took him about an hour to get past all the mess. Pairs of underwear, socks and dirty shorts decorated the floor along with the putrid smell of pizza and sweat. Akihito’s room grossed Shinji out. A lot. Although he had grown to truly love his roommate, it angered him how much of a slob he could be. It wasn’t nice cleaning up after his messes, but Shinji preferred that over having rats in their small apartment.
When he finally finished, it was ten o’clock and Akihito still hadn’t woken up from his nap in the living room. Shinji liked it when all did Akihito was sleep because those were the times when he could get some creativity without being bombarded with cheesy jokes and the bubbly laughter that he could only stand so much.
He pulled out his laptop from under his bed and opened it on his lap, staring at a blank Microsoft word document and frowning. He loved to write more than anything in the world, other than reading, but it was always difficult for him to find something that was worth writing about.
His life was boring and still. He didn’t look forward to waking up in the morning or going to work. The only reason he still lived was because he was too much of a coward to try anything out of the ordinary, specially with someone as dramatic and emotional as Akihito living in the same apartment.
He couldn’t help smiling, but only slightly, at the memories of the first time he met the guy that would make his days a little less bitter.
It had been a rainy day and Shinji had been late to work, despite it being his second day on the job. Business went on as usual, and the manager was friendly enough to allow him to come in. Shinji dropped his wet items on a table and began drying them discreetly with the sleeve of his sweater, looking around to make sure that no customers needed his help.
“Need some help?” Akihito called out to him from behind the check-out counter. There wasn’t many people around, except for a few that browsed for books in shelves silently but never actually opened one up. Shinji thought Akihito wouldn’t get in trouble for helping out while there was no help needed, so he shrugged and nodded with that indifferent look plastered on his face.
The thing that got Shinji excited about this boy was what he did right after. He left from behind the counter, a soft smirk on his face as he picked up Shinji’s notebook, fat textbook, umbrella and sandwich wrapped up with napkins and tin foil. He went to the door and tossed all the things out, dusting off his shoulders and smiling.
“My things!” Shinji had covered his face in anger but hadn’t had the courage to do much.
“I’ll buy you some new ones…” Akihito looked at Shinji’s tag and grinned. “Shin-chan.”
“Amano-san, please.” Shinji hated being called something less than what he deserved. Specially by someone he had just met.
“Whatever, snobby pants.” Akihito playfully punched Shinji in the chest. “You can call me Toto. I like cute pet names and I’ve always wanted someone to call me that.”
“I don’t even know you.”
“I know your name.” Akihito held up his name tag and rubbed it in Shinji’s face. “You know mine. Let’s be friends.”
“What makes you think I want to be friends with you?” Shinji wrinkled his nose.
“Because I’ll be the only person who will hear you out.”
And Akihito had been right, despite the fact that Shinji had tried to deny that he knew what he was talking about.
The same day they met, Akihito followed close behind Shinji, chattering away as he held his bag close to his body, looking around as if he had something expensive that everyone wanted to steal.
“Why don’t you just go home?” Shinji angrily muttered when they arrived at his apartment and the boy still hadn’t gone home. He was tired of hearing him drone on and on about how he was having problems with his girlfriend.
“Oh, another thing.” Akihito smiled sheepishly. “She kicked me out of our apartment because she pays for it and I’m not allowed at home anymore.”
“What a bummer.”
Shinji shut the door on the boy and went to bed without a worry. He slept until he felt an uncomfortable warmth against his side and found the boy curled up next to him. He immediately pushed him away, frightened by how persistent he could be.
“What gives?” The boy rubbed on his head and frowned.
“You’re in my apartment, in my bed! I barely know you! What are you doing?!” Shinji felt more curious towards how the boy got inside in the first place rather than angry at him for being in his room. “How did you get in?!”
“All stupid people always have a spare key under their welcome mats.” Akihito pulled out a key from his pocket and showed it to Shinji with an adorable smile. So adorable that Shinji calmed down and allowed him to sleep there.
That had been ten years before. The two were still working at the same ratty, old place and Akihito hadn’t changed a bit except that he had gotten taller and his voice was just a little deeper. He was twenty-five, five years younger than Shinji, and yet they still managed to get along great. He made Shinji feel younger, but just seeing how much fun he had, Shinji realized how much the years had gone by.
It took a while for him to digest how much older he had gotten, still staring at the blank Microsoft word document. He didn’t mind living with Akihito and he would live with him for as long as he could. After all, he was the only friend he had and all he wanted was to protect him. The only thing that bothered him was the fact that he was thirty.
When Shinji was younger, he would have never imagined that he would be working a part-time job at a bookstore and another at a shoe store at the age of thirty. He would had never imagined that he would be living with a guy five years younger than him who could get women with just a smile, even if the women were too old for him. And lastly, he would have never imagined that he would be single at such an age, never to experience love.
As he began to think about the subject, Shinji took a deep breath and decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start a journal. He always had an endless amount of thoughts in his head, even when though his life was boring. He had always seen in movies and dramas that when a character started taking notes about their life, they noticed smaller things that would often times make them happier.
Recently, he was feeling older and tired. The thought of dying alone in a guest room in the back of Akihito’s future house, next to the room where Akihito’s future child would sleep, didn’t sound very satisfying to him. He wanted to experience a better life than that. He wanted to meet someone, fall in love, get married, have kids and experience extremely cliché scenes along the way.
It had always sounded easy, but now he was beginning to see it wasn’t.
And so he began to write:
Today begins the start of a more exciting life. Seeing how fast Akihito has grown caused me to think that maybe I am growing with him. Although there is not much of a difference between who I am now and who I was ten years ago, there is something within me that has changed. The thirst for adventure, love and happiness has began brewing inside my heart, making me wish that I was someone of great class so I could just step outside and experience it all. Because I am unable to do so right now, I will just stick to writing about myself so I may get the individual satisfaction of doing something that I love. What I love is to write, and that is what I will do. I don’t care if I’m not writing about anything worthy, nor if I am making money from it, but I can most certainly say that it will make me happier. I was going to try to find love, but let’s face it…who would want to love me? I will keep that thought stored away for a while.
Shinji read over his small paragraph and felt proud of himself. It was no big deal, but it said something about him that he had been hiding inside. As he saved the small entry, he took another deep breath and decided that it would be better to post his entry somewhere. He found a place that looked lonely enough and created an account there. The small place was called liftmyspirits.jp. The design was sloppy and there was only about a thousand members on the site, about half of them had given up on it already. That place would be perfect.
He created a username for himself that was simple enough. From that day, he would go by “amanos”. The excitement burned inside of him. He posted his entry and smiled at seeing it appear on the home page. The website posted all new entries to the home page for everyone to see. The point of the site was for people who didn’t have a voice to go on and write, then perhaps get encouraging comments from readers.
Although Shinji didn’t believe that there could probably be someone out there with good advice for him, he felt good to know that there would be at least one other person somewhere in Japan reading his entry and thinking about what he was saying.
He could never approach someone and tell them about what he wanted, his hopes or his dreams. Now he would be doing it anonymously and he was feeling good.
He didn’t understand what made him get so enthusiastic about such a thing, but he decided to let it happen. As he finished up, he shut down his computer and let his head rest against his pillow, slowly lulling him to sleep.
* * *
“What were you up writing about?” Akihito asked, pouring juice for both Shinji and himself into two glasses. He couldn’t help looking up at Shinji’s embarrassed face and giggling at the blush that always covered his pale skin. Even if he was older than himself, Shinji always looked like the child in their relationship.
“Nothing special.” Shinji shrugged, sipping some of the juice that Akihito poured for him, then handing the other a slice of buttered toast with an egg on top.
“When I peeked into your room because I heard typing, I saw you smiling pretty widely. I would say dating website happy.” Akihito snorted. “You totally joined the dating website I told you about, didn’t you?!”
“No!” Shinji raised his hands defensively. “I would never do something as ridiculous as that. I did something way better, but I am going to keep it a secret because secrets are more fun.”
“Better? Secrets? Fun? What’s with you using these childish words?” The younger of the two paused for a second and started laughing. “Porn site happy?”
“No! You know I wouldn’t do any of that stuff!” Shinji’s face only got redder, making him look like a liar.
“Well, whatever it is…” Akihito looked at him with all seriousness now. “…you should probably go back to it soon. You seem a bit more perky than usual.”
* * *
You’ve got a reply.
Shinji was working at the shoe store that morning, meaning that he was left without his friend for a good 4 hours. While people were entering and exiting the store, Shinji decided to check the site and see if anyone had replied to him. He didn’t think there would be anything up, but he was surprised to find a tiny reply.
It read:
Hello. I hope your life gets better. I encourage you to keep posting, your writing is cute. I will definitely read any entry you post. :)
Shinji couldn’t contain his excitement. He was being noticed by random person on the internet, whose name was takaaa. He replied a small thank you and put his phone away. Someone had actually listened to him, someone other than Akihito. Perhaps finding love in Japan wouldn’t be as difficult as he had initially thought it to be, and he hoped that maybe he could eventually meet this person.
It was obviously stupid to ask the person to meet up with him after just somewhat meeting him, but he could dream. He had seen how easily people got together over the internet and over the stupidest things. He shook his head and put his phone away, wondering if his shift at the bookstore would be as good as the one that he had at the shoe store.
* * *
“You’re so awkward.”
“I know, but I can dream, right?” Shinji shrugged slightly as he leafed through a magazine. It wasn’t sold well, but Shinji always thought it was nice to give lonely things special attention.
“Yes, but dude! What if it’s not even a girl who you’re talking to?” Akihito laughed. “Boy, wouldn’t you be embarrassed?”
“I don’t think I am in any position to pick right now. You have some time left, I don’t.” Shinji shrugged slightly, not thinking very much of it. Akihito, on the other hand…
“Are you nuts?”
“Of course not.” Shinji stopped at a dull, brown page that had an interesting title.
”Milky Way”
“Then how could you possibly think about even picking a male?” Akihito shoved him a little. “Are you that desperate? I mean, not judging or anything, but really?”
”If you look up at the stars, what do you see? Scattered stars that twinkle, but are rarely noticed. Stars that shine so bright and great being drowned by the city lights and the scent of alcohol.”
“No…” Shinji was barely paying attention.
“Then what is up with you, man? Did you ever plan on telling your best friend about this?”
”People are the same way, you know? Japan, being the wonderful country it is, just drowning everyone into thinking that they aren’t good enough. Do the city lights ever make you feel like that? Do they make you feel like no one will ever notice you? The lights are beautiful, oh, but not as beautiful as your eyes.”
“I didn’t think of it…” Shinji mumbled.
“How can you not?!” Akihito was getting worked up by how little Shinji’s interest was.
”They aren’t as beautiful as your smile when you see something that you like, or your milky skin under the morning sun. They aren’t nearly as heartfelt as the tears that you shed every night, wishing that you could be someone else. Wishing that you could be somewhere else.”
“I-“
“Shinji, are you even listening to me?”
”If I met you, I would surely fall in love with you. If I was allowed to explore every planet, every star, every tiny speck of dust that surrounds you, I would not be able to help myself. I would find out so much that I would just grow obsessed. Just like an astronomist studying the milky way.”
“No…”
“Why not?!”
”Let me find your stars and let me be the one that holds all of you together.”
“Shh…”
“Shinji!” Akihito whined.
”-Anonymous”
Shinji smiled.
* * *
Author’s Note: Anyone tired of me posting a bunch of chapter stories? /giggles/ Anyways, I should get to talking a bit about this one. I haven’t felt as satisfied with my fics lately as I used to be, and for some reason my little mind thought it would help me expand my horizons if I made an OC. So here he is, Akihito Yamada. He may be the only OC in the story, but I’m not sure yet.
This story will be written a little differently from my fics. It will have longer chapters, be set up differently and be paced just a little bit slower. I would like to be given maybe two weeks to update these chapters because they are so long, as opposed to my “about one week” rule with my other two fics.
Also, please don’t ask what pairing this will have. That will be revealed later, which will make this more fun to read, I think. Oh, and no there will not be any Shinji/Akihito moments. Some of you may take them as such, if you’d like. I truly don’t mind.
Anyway. I’m done for today. Please leave your reviews, I would like to know if this style is working for you guys or if you don’t like it. If you don’t like it, please comment what you don’t like about it. ^^ And if you do like it, please tell me why also. Bye!
Author: pe_gret
Pairing: Tora/?;
Chapter: 1/?
Genre: AU; Romance; Drama;
Rating: PG-13
Summary: As the years went by, Amano Shinji found himself becoming a bitter person who had nothing special. Between working two part-time jobs and having to clean up after his best friend Akihito, he was unable to find himself happy with his life. While reading a small passage in a magazine, Shinji finds himself infatuated by the person who wrote it. The problem is, the person is anonymous. To what extents will he go to find this mysterious writer?
Warnings: Fluff;
Disclaimer: The story is mine; The characters are yet to be tamed.
“I told you it wasn’t worth it.” Amano Shinji lit a cigarette and slid it between his lips, shaking his head at his best friend. “Meeting women isn’t going to pay the bills, Toto.”
“I know it isn’t.” Akihito answered, biting on his lip and waving at a few girls that hadn’t stopped staring at him since Shinji and he had started walking towards their apartment after work. “It doesn’t hurt though, does it? Meeting cute girls? You should work where I work. Go out some more.”
“We both know that isn’t going to happen.”
Shinji had gotten used to the idea. For the past twelve years, the only girls who kept him company were female writers, and their presence was only there because Shinji read the words in their books out loud to give the impression of comfort. He preferred being by himself and was not encouraged to come out of his shell when he saw how much trouble Akihito got in when he forgot a girl’s name or the five girls he was dating at the same time found out about each other.
“Well it won’t if you don’t try!” Akihito squeezed Shinji’s shoulders and spun him around to face the girls that were still following him around. “Hey girls! If this handsome guy asked you out, would you say yes?”
“Toto!” Shinji’s face glowed red as he awkwardly stumbled while attempting to turn away, dropping his cigarette and causing it to accidentally land on the shoe of one of the girls. What a charmer he was.
The girls shuffled awkwardly, the one with the cigarette butt on her shoe glaring. They murmured to each other and then looked at Akihito shyly, but one of the girls pushed her way to the front of the small group.
“Um…we were kind of looking at you.” She smiled, stretching her hand out at Akihito. He took it gladly, pressing a kiss on it and allowing Shinji to hide behind him.
“I’m sorry ladies, but I have to get home. Perhaps we’ll meet another day.” He winked as he pulled Shinji by the arm, guiding him home despite the fact that they were almost there.
“You embarrassed me, jerk.”
“Hey, hey! You embarrassed yourself.” Akihito unlocked the door to their apartment and slipped his shoes off, kicking them to the side and jumping on the couch, his face against a cushion. “If you weren’t so awkward, maybe one of them would have at least let you buy them a drink.”
“Why would I want to buy a drink for a stranger?”
Instead of receiving a response, he heard soft snores coming from Akihito’s throat. Shinji shook his head, smiling a little. He picked up a blanket that was on the floor before swinging it over Akihito’s body and then leaving him so he could find something more productive to do.
* * *
It took him about an hour to get past all the mess. Pairs of underwear, socks and dirty shorts decorated the floor along with the putrid smell of pizza and sweat. Akihito’s room grossed Shinji out. A lot. Although he had grown to truly love his roommate, it angered him how much of a slob he could be. It wasn’t nice cleaning up after his messes, but Shinji preferred that over having rats in their small apartment.
When he finally finished, it was ten o’clock and Akihito still hadn’t woken up from his nap in the living room. Shinji liked it when all did Akihito was sleep because those were the times when he could get some creativity without being bombarded with cheesy jokes and the bubbly laughter that he could only stand so much.
He pulled out his laptop from under his bed and opened it on his lap, staring at a blank Microsoft word document and frowning. He loved to write more than anything in the world, other than reading, but it was always difficult for him to find something that was worth writing about.
His life was boring and still. He didn’t look forward to waking up in the morning or going to work. The only reason he still lived was because he was too much of a coward to try anything out of the ordinary, specially with someone as dramatic and emotional as Akihito living in the same apartment.
He couldn’t help smiling, but only slightly, at the memories of the first time he met the guy that would make his days a little less bitter.
It had been a rainy day and Shinji had been late to work, despite it being his second day on the job. Business went on as usual, and the manager was friendly enough to allow him to come in. Shinji dropped his wet items on a table and began drying them discreetly with the sleeve of his sweater, looking around to make sure that no customers needed his help.
“Need some help?” Akihito called out to him from behind the check-out counter. There wasn’t many people around, except for a few that browsed for books in shelves silently but never actually opened one up. Shinji thought Akihito wouldn’t get in trouble for helping out while there was no help needed, so he shrugged and nodded with that indifferent look plastered on his face.
The thing that got Shinji excited about this boy was what he did right after. He left from behind the counter, a soft smirk on his face as he picked up Shinji’s notebook, fat textbook, umbrella and sandwich wrapped up with napkins and tin foil. He went to the door and tossed all the things out, dusting off his shoulders and smiling.
“My things!” Shinji had covered his face in anger but hadn’t had the courage to do much.
“I’ll buy you some new ones…” Akihito looked at Shinji’s tag and grinned. “Shin-chan.”
“Amano-san, please.” Shinji hated being called something less than what he deserved. Specially by someone he had just met.
“Whatever, snobby pants.” Akihito playfully punched Shinji in the chest. “You can call me Toto. I like cute pet names and I’ve always wanted someone to call me that.”
“I don’t even know you.”
“I know your name.” Akihito held up his name tag and rubbed it in Shinji’s face. “You know mine. Let’s be friends.”
“What makes you think I want to be friends with you?” Shinji wrinkled his nose.
“Because I’ll be the only person who will hear you out.”
And Akihito had been right, despite the fact that Shinji had tried to deny that he knew what he was talking about.
The same day they met, Akihito followed close behind Shinji, chattering away as he held his bag close to his body, looking around as if he had something expensive that everyone wanted to steal.
“Why don’t you just go home?” Shinji angrily muttered when they arrived at his apartment and the boy still hadn’t gone home. He was tired of hearing him drone on and on about how he was having problems with his girlfriend.
“Oh, another thing.” Akihito smiled sheepishly. “She kicked me out of our apartment because she pays for it and I’m not allowed at home anymore.”
“What a bummer.”
Shinji shut the door on the boy and went to bed without a worry. He slept until he felt an uncomfortable warmth against his side and found the boy curled up next to him. He immediately pushed him away, frightened by how persistent he could be.
“What gives?” The boy rubbed on his head and frowned.
“You’re in my apartment, in my bed! I barely know you! What are you doing?!” Shinji felt more curious towards how the boy got inside in the first place rather than angry at him for being in his room. “How did you get in?!”
“All stupid people always have a spare key under their welcome mats.” Akihito pulled out a key from his pocket and showed it to Shinji with an adorable smile. So adorable that Shinji calmed down and allowed him to sleep there.
That had been ten years before. The two were still working at the same ratty, old place and Akihito hadn’t changed a bit except that he had gotten taller and his voice was just a little deeper. He was twenty-five, five years younger than Shinji, and yet they still managed to get along great. He made Shinji feel younger, but just seeing how much fun he had, Shinji realized how much the years had gone by.
It took a while for him to digest how much older he had gotten, still staring at the blank Microsoft word document. He didn’t mind living with Akihito and he would live with him for as long as he could. After all, he was the only friend he had and all he wanted was to protect him. The only thing that bothered him was the fact that he was thirty.
When Shinji was younger, he would have never imagined that he would be working a part-time job at a bookstore and another at a shoe store at the age of thirty. He would had never imagined that he would be living with a guy five years younger than him who could get women with just a smile, even if the women were too old for him. And lastly, he would have never imagined that he would be single at such an age, never to experience love.
As he began to think about the subject, Shinji took a deep breath and decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start a journal. He always had an endless amount of thoughts in his head, even when though his life was boring. He had always seen in movies and dramas that when a character started taking notes about their life, they noticed smaller things that would often times make them happier.
Recently, he was feeling older and tired. The thought of dying alone in a guest room in the back of Akihito’s future house, next to the room where Akihito’s future child would sleep, didn’t sound very satisfying to him. He wanted to experience a better life than that. He wanted to meet someone, fall in love, get married, have kids and experience extremely cliché scenes along the way.
It had always sounded easy, but now he was beginning to see it wasn’t.
And so he began to write:
Today begins the start of a more exciting life. Seeing how fast Akihito has grown caused me to think that maybe I am growing with him. Although there is not much of a difference between who I am now and who I was ten years ago, there is something within me that has changed. The thirst for adventure, love and happiness has began brewing inside my heart, making me wish that I was someone of great class so I could just step outside and experience it all. Because I am unable to do so right now, I will just stick to writing about myself so I may get the individual satisfaction of doing something that I love. What I love is to write, and that is what I will do. I don’t care if I’m not writing about anything worthy, nor if I am making money from it, but I can most certainly say that it will make me happier. I was going to try to find love, but let’s face it…who would want to love me? I will keep that thought stored away for a while.
Shinji read over his small paragraph and felt proud of himself. It was no big deal, but it said something about him that he had been hiding inside. As he saved the small entry, he took another deep breath and decided that it would be better to post his entry somewhere. He found a place that looked lonely enough and created an account there. The small place was called liftmyspirits.jp. The design was sloppy and there was only about a thousand members on the site, about half of them had given up on it already. That place would be perfect.
He created a username for himself that was simple enough. From that day, he would go by “amanos”. The excitement burned inside of him. He posted his entry and smiled at seeing it appear on the home page. The website posted all new entries to the home page for everyone to see. The point of the site was for people who didn’t have a voice to go on and write, then perhaps get encouraging comments from readers.
Although Shinji didn’t believe that there could probably be someone out there with good advice for him, he felt good to know that there would be at least one other person somewhere in Japan reading his entry and thinking about what he was saying.
He could never approach someone and tell them about what he wanted, his hopes or his dreams. Now he would be doing it anonymously and he was feeling good.
He didn’t understand what made him get so enthusiastic about such a thing, but he decided to let it happen. As he finished up, he shut down his computer and let his head rest against his pillow, slowly lulling him to sleep.
* * *
“What were you up writing about?” Akihito asked, pouring juice for both Shinji and himself into two glasses. He couldn’t help looking up at Shinji’s embarrassed face and giggling at the blush that always covered his pale skin. Even if he was older than himself, Shinji always looked like the child in their relationship.
“Nothing special.” Shinji shrugged, sipping some of the juice that Akihito poured for him, then handing the other a slice of buttered toast with an egg on top.
“When I peeked into your room because I heard typing, I saw you smiling pretty widely. I would say dating website happy.” Akihito snorted. “You totally joined the dating website I told you about, didn’t you?!”
“No!” Shinji raised his hands defensively. “I would never do something as ridiculous as that. I did something way better, but I am going to keep it a secret because secrets are more fun.”
“Better? Secrets? Fun? What’s with you using these childish words?” The younger of the two paused for a second and started laughing. “Porn site happy?”
“No! You know I wouldn’t do any of that stuff!” Shinji’s face only got redder, making him look like a liar.
“Well, whatever it is…” Akihito looked at him with all seriousness now. “…you should probably go back to it soon. You seem a bit more perky than usual.”
* * *
You’ve got a reply.
Shinji was working at the shoe store that morning, meaning that he was left without his friend for a good 4 hours. While people were entering and exiting the store, Shinji decided to check the site and see if anyone had replied to him. He didn’t think there would be anything up, but he was surprised to find a tiny reply.
It read:
Hello. I hope your life gets better. I encourage you to keep posting, your writing is cute. I will definitely read any entry you post. :)
Shinji couldn’t contain his excitement. He was being noticed by random person on the internet, whose name was takaaa. He replied a small thank you and put his phone away. Someone had actually listened to him, someone other than Akihito. Perhaps finding love in Japan wouldn’t be as difficult as he had initially thought it to be, and he hoped that maybe he could eventually meet this person.
It was obviously stupid to ask the person to meet up with him after just somewhat meeting him, but he could dream. He had seen how easily people got together over the internet and over the stupidest things. He shook his head and put his phone away, wondering if his shift at the bookstore would be as good as the one that he had at the shoe store.
* * *
“You’re so awkward.”
“I know, but I can dream, right?” Shinji shrugged slightly as he leafed through a magazine. It wasn’t sold well, but Shinji always thought it was nice to give lonely things special attention.
“Yes, but dude! What if it’s not even a girl who you’re talking to?” Akihito laughed. “Boy, wouldn’t you be embarrassed?”
“I don’t think I am in any position to pick right now. You have some time left, I don’t.” Shinji shrugged slightly, not thinking very much of it. Akihito, on the other hand…
“Are you nuts?”
“Of course not.” Shinji stopped at a dull, brown page that had an interesting title.
”Milky Way”
“Then how could you possibly think about even picking a male?” Akihito shoved him a little. “Are you that desperate? I mean, not judging or anything, but really?”
”If you look up at the stars, what do you see? Scattered stars that twinkle, but are rarely noticed. Stars that shine so bright and great being drowned by the city lights and the scent of alcohol.”
“No…” Shinji was barely paying attention.
“Then what is up with you, man? Did you ever plan on telling your best friend about this?”
”People are the same way, you know? Japan, being the wonderful country it is, just drowning everyone into thinking that they aren’t good enough. Do the city lights ever make you feel like that? Do they make you feel like no one will ever notice you? The lights are beautiful, oh, but not as beautiful as your eyes.”
“I didn’t think of it…” Shinji mumbled.
“How can you not?!” Akihito was getting worked up by how little Shinji’s interest was.
”They aren’t as beautiful as your smile when you see something that you like, or your milky skin under the morning sun. They aren’t nearly as heartfelt as the tears that you shed every night, wishing that you could be someone else. Wishing that you could be somewhere else.”
“I-“
“Shinji, are you even listening to me?”
”If I met you, I would surely fall in love with you. If I was allowed to explore every planet, every star, every tiny speck of dust that surrounds you, I would not be able to help myself. I would find out so much that I would just grow obsessed. Just like an astronomist studying the milky way.”
“No…”
“Why not?!”
”Let me find your stars and let me be the one that holds all of you together.”
“Shh…”
“Shinji!” Akihito whined.
”-Anonymous”
Shinji smiled.
* * *
Author’s Note: Anyone tired of me posting a bunch of chapter stories? /giggles/ Anyways, I should get to talking a bit about this one. I haven’t felt as satisfied with my fics lately as I used to be, and for some reason my little mind thought it would help me expand my horizons if I made an OC. So here he is, Akihito Yamada. He may be the only OC in the story, but I’m not sure yet.
This story will be written a little differently from my fics. It will have longer chapters, be set up differently and be paced just a little bit slower. I would like to be given maybe two weeks to update these chapters because they are so long, as opposed to my “about one week” rule with my other two fics.
Also, please don’t ask what pairing this will have. That will be revealed later, which will make this more fun to read, I think. Oh, and no there will not be any Shinji/Akihito moments. Some of you may take them as such, if you’d like. I truly don’t mind.
Anyway. I’m done for today. Please leave your reviews, I would like to know if this style is working for you guys or if you don’t like it. If you don’t like it, please comment what you don’t like about it. ^^ And if you do like it, please tell me why also. Bye!