NewS Drabble Dump #11
MEME REQUESTS DONE. POORLY, BUT DONE.
Title: Tactics
Theme/Topic: Government AU ( B-side); Shige strips for the juniors.
Rating: PG
Character/Pairing/s: Shige, Koyama
Warnings/Spoilers: Stupid beyond words?
Word Count: 673
Summary: Shige shows the junior agents the number one most important part about being an undercover agent.
Dedication: seca’s request on the AU request meme.
A/N: LAME.
Koyama is a good senpai.
He’s always the one who volunteers to teach special seminars at the academy for the cadets on the first two Sundays of every month, the one who gives up his precious weekend time to lecture about explosives or team dynamics or basic firearms usage and safety measures to the trainees.
Sometimes he even takes the train down to the Osaka branch and lectures there; the agency thinks it’s good to give the Kansai cadets a chance to become something other than snipers.
He always does it willingly and happily; he always brings them snacks too, and tells them cool stories about the things NewS has done this week or the week before. The junior cadets all love him and look up to him and he adores each and every one of them in return.
Koyama is, perhaps, the best senpai in the whole agency.
By proxy, sometimes the rest of NewS gets subjected to big puppy eyes and something like, “Ne, I think the kids are sick of hearing me talk about bombs ne. Will one of you come in and guest lecture with me this week? It’s fun to spend time with the cadets, isn’t it? They look up to us a lot.”
And because Koyama is not only a good senpai but a good person as well, it’s very difficult to tell him no.
“I’m sure you’ll prepare a really interesting talk!” Koyama beams this week, it’s Shige’s turn to be the one who helplessly falls for the puppy eyes and the guilt talk about the cadets and member-ai.
“Right,” Shige says, and goes home Friday night trying to think about any of the jobs he’s done or skills he’s developed that he can actually talk about or demonstrate in a classroom. That are interesting.
Or at the very least, can get him out of being invited back next week.
As it turns out, he can only think of one.
~~~~~
On Sunday morning Shige wakes up early and prepares for his lecture. Koyama picks him up an hour later and they get coffee together. At the coffee shop Koyama asks if Shige is feeling okay, because he’s wearing more layers than usual given that it’s spring already and starting to warm up outside. “Are you sick?”
“I’m fine,” Shige replies.
“If you say so,” Koyama murmurs-still looking worried- as he orders one hundred donuts to go.
They carry the boxes out to the car together and before long they arrive at the academy, where a lecture hall full of bright-eyed, bushy tailed youngins peers curiously down at the pair, wondering what sort of techniques they’ll learn to today, what sort of stories they’ll hear from Kato Shigeaki-senpai.
Shige stands at the front of the room and clears his throat after everyone has gotten their breakfast and returned to their seats. “The number one most important thing about being an undercover agent,” Shige starts very seriously, “is disguise. You have to be prepared for multiple situations at any one given time. You have to be able to blend in, or stand out, to slip away unnoticed or to shake the guy who’s tailing you depending on the time and place. The best way to do this is to prepare for the situation well ahead of time and dress appropriately. That way you’ll be ready for any quick changes.”
Koyama nods in support from the sidelines, looking intrigued by the whole thing. “Shige ne,” he tells the junior agents, “Shige really knows what he’s talking about, so pay special attention.”
“Right!” the cadets all answer, just as Shige starts to reach for the top button of his shirt.
He starts to strip.
~~~~~
Later, after Koyama’s heart rate has returned to normal and the juniors are doing some basic observation exercises in groups of five and six together, the explosives expert tucks his knees up against his chest and tells Shige, “Maybe next week I’ll ask Tegoshi to come in.”
Shige thinks that it’s probably a good idea.
END
Title: This is Not Indiana Jones
Theme/Topic: NewS as archaeologists
Rating: G
Character/Pairing/s: NewS
Warnings/Spoilers: crack, OOC, fail knowledge of archaeology beyond what I’ve seen in Stargate SG-1.
Word Count: 295
Summary: NewS makes a discovery.
Dedication: tinyangl’s request on the AU request meme.
A/N: MORE LAME.
“It’s a vase,” Ryo murmurs once they finally manage to work open the door to the adjoining hallway on day six of the excavation. He sounds unimpressed.
“It’s an urn,” Shige corrects, and shines his flashlight on the ornate patterns there, the ancient pictures of a civilization long gone. “It’s amazing.”
“It’s really big!” Tegoshi chirps, scientifically. He goes up to it and stretches his arms out on either side of him, trying to wrap around it. “Look how big it is!”
Shige scowls. “Don’t touch it! It’s fragile!”
“But we have to touch it if we’re going to take it up to the surface, right?” Koyama asks. Pause. “Unless we’re leaving it here.”
“Of course we’re not leaving it here! It’s an ancient treasure,” Shige reminds them. “It’s the legacy of a lost civilization’s culture, a key to their beliefs and society!”
His colleagues all blink back at him.
Except for Yamapi, who nods peacefully and pads forward, standing on his tiptoes and shining his flashlight inside the urn curiously.
“Oh come on,” Shige complains. “Be a little bit more excited, you guys. This is a really important find! How often do we come across something hundreds of years old in such good condition? This piece could change how the world sees these people. We might be on the brink of an intellectual revolution!”
“I think there are dead flowers inside,” Yamapi reports calmly, after a beat.
Silence.
Then, Ryo smirks. “Told you it was a vase.”
“Uwah, they must have had really big flowers back then,” Tegoshi surmises.
Massu looks hungry. “Do you think they had really big vegetables too?”
“And big meat.” Yamapi theorizes very seriously. “Enormous cows.”
Shige stares.
And then sighs.
Sometimes he thinks the PhDs are wasted on them.
END
Title: So This is What a Diva Looks Like
Theme/Topic: Tego as a star, Ryo as the bodyguard.
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: vaguely RyoxTego (mentions of Yamapi)
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC. GOD SO OOC. Also, Tegoslut.
Word Count: 417
Summary: Tegoshi needs extra special care.
Dedication: juin’s request on the AU request meme.
A/N: LAMEST.
“What. Are. You. Doing.”
Tegoshi blinks back at Ryo guilelessly, head cocked to the side and every bit as adorable in real life as the giant poster of his face in Shibuya makes him out to be. “Sitting in your lap,” he answers.
Fair enough.
“Why?”
Tegoshi laughs. “It’s cold. You’re supposed to be my bodyguard, right?”
Ryo blinks. “What?”
Tegoshi simply rests his head on Ryo’s chest with a sigh and looks perfectly at ease despite the fact that Ryo’s pretty sure he’s currently using his “going to kill stuff now” expression, the one that usually sends crazed fanboys and fangirls scurrying tens of feet backwards so that Ryo can push whichever important person he’s protecting that week into the limousine or into the recording studio or into the TV station without that person getting mauled by the crazy mob of people who want locks of his or her hair to save in their dresser drawers so they can smell them every night before they go to bed.
Tegoshi looks back at him peacefully and Ryo wonders if his “going to kill stuff now” expression is broken maybe. It had worked fine yesterday, when he’d been finishing up his last job.
Everything had been fine before this job anyway, before Yamapi had called him yesterday afternoon and asked him if he was interested in some easy work.
Ryo scowls at his lapful of VIP.
“I’m cold,” Tegoshi eventually explains with a sigh, once he sees the look on Ryo’s face, “and since it’s Ryo-tan’s job to take care of my body from now on, then you have to be responsible and warm me up, right?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not in the job description. And don’t call me that.”
The young celebrity laughs and traces his index finger along the inside of Ryo’s elbow innocently. “Then Ryo-tan obviously didn’t read all of his contract, ne.”
Ryo blinks. “Very funny.”
Tegoshi beams back. “Not joking!”
Pause. Frown. “What…really?”
A nod, followed by a little giggle. “You should see some of the other stuff my body needs,” Tegoshi chirps, before nosing into the curve of Ryo’s throat happily and murmuring about the pleasant warmth he finds there.
Ryo grits his teeth as his new charge squirms contentedly in his lap; he tells himself that he’s going to kill Yamapi tomorrow, because clearly he wasn’t using the same definition of ‘easy’ that Ryo was thinking of when he recommended the gig.
In the meantime, Tegoshi plays with Ryo’s hair.
END
Title: In the Summertime
Theme/Topic: Massu as an off-color artist
Rating: G
Character/Pairing/s: NewS (with Nakamaru)
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC, stupidity, pointlessness?
Word Count: 993
Summary: Massu works to capture a moment.
Dedication: cynicalism’s request on the AU request meme.
A/N: I DON’T KNOW OKAY CLEARLY HAVING AN OFF DAY.
The Merry-Go-Round plays the same song over and over again and he can hear Kame’s voice saying to please wait until everything comes to a complete stop before disembarking or dismounting or both; Massu sits at the edge of the pier sketching the smiling faces of children as their parents buy them popcorn or cotton candy; as they stop to take pictures together in front of the giant Ferris Wheel.
Nakamaru passes by sweeping up garbage and scattering pigeons; “Massu,” he says, “Massu what are you drawing today?”
Massu smiles and holds out his work for the day.
Nakamaru furrows his brow, trying to figure out what it is. “I can tell which part is cotton candy,” he admits, “but Massu, your people are really strange.”
Massu frowns and looks at his portrait. “Strange?”
Nakamaru nods, and sweeps up a candy wrapper on the ground. “How come they don’t have as much detail as your food?”
Massu looks thoughtful. “I don’t know,” he says, and goes back to drawing.
~~~~~
It’s summer and high-traffic season when he sees them for the first time; “A summer job,” he hears the tallest of the five college students say, “We're here for summer jobs at the beach.”
The smallest one cocks his head to the side and smiles sweetly at the owner of the pier’s seafood restaurant. “Please?” he asks cutely, and Massu stops drawing popcorn for a moment because there’s something in it that’s strangely captivating.
“I do have a few openings,” the crotchety old man manages after a beat, and looks surprised at himself when he says it.
“Yay!” the tall one cheers.
“I brought resumes,” the one with spiky hair adds, just to be safe.
“Shige,” the littlest one laughs, “we already have the jobs, ne.”
“Yosh,” the fourth one starts obliviously, “This will be the best summer ever!”
“You’re all morons,” the fifth snorts.
~~~~~
They start the next day and Massu can see them from where he’s sitting on his bench; he watches as the smallest one sneaks up on the tall one before they open and tickles him in the ribs while the tall one is taking out the easel and chalkboard with today’s specials written on it. The tall one yelps and drops it; he yells “Tegoshi!” as Tegoshi runs away, chirping “I love you, Kei-chan!” over his shoulder.
The tall one shakes his head and mutters something, but the look of warmth in his eye as he does tells Massu he’s not angry.
Massu doesn’t know why he does it, but he ends up ignoring all the passersby with their ice cream and cotton candy and popcorn and spends the rest of the afternoon trying to draw that look instead.
~~~~~
At lunchtime the next day Massu can see through the windows as the spiky-haired one-Shige- bustles from table to table looking smart in his uniform and glasses. Suddenly he trips though, and ruins the effect; he nearly sends his tray to the ground except that by some amazing luck, the fourth guy is suddenly there out of nowhere, gripping the tray with one hand and Shige’s arm with the other while looking peaceful.
“Careful,” Massu can hear him say to Shige in his head, and then there’s another little look that passes between them, something understanding and something else too, that leads to sheepish laughter.
Massu sits on his bench and draws those two this time; he feels like he’s a little closer to capturing that look.
In this manner, Massu spends his summer watching them; he’s not sure why.
~~~~~
“Your people,” Nakamaru comments a few weeks later, “your people look as good as your food now.”
Massu blinks. “Really?”
A nod.
Then, “But why do you keep drawing those five same guys?”
Massu shrugs. “I don’t know.”
~~~~~
Sometime in early August Massu is startled when Tegoshi comes out of the restaurant in the middle of the lunch hour rush and stops just short of him; Massu is concentrating so hard on today’s picture-one of Ryo laughing at Koyama-that he doesn’t notice Tegoshi standing there until he clears his throat.
“Eh, that really looks like Ryo-tan!” Tegoshi chirps with his hands behind his back, and scares Massu so bad he draws a line through Koyama’s face.
Tegoshi laughs, and after a moment, hands out a sandwich to Massu. “You’re here every day, right?”
Massu nods.
“The chef likes me so he always makes me stuff,” Tegoshi whispers conspiratorially, “But I can’t eat it all, ne.”
Massu takes the sandwich. “Thanks?” he says.
Tegoshi beams. “You’re welcome!”
A few minutes later, Shige goes to the doorway and yells in annoyance, “Tegoshi your tables!” he shouts, and Tegoshi giggles.
“Coming Shige!” Tegoshi calls back, and shares a look with Massu suddenly, that one that he’s been trying to capture all this time.
Massu feels it when he returns it too, and as Tegoshi bounces back into the restaurant, Massu starts to draw again.
~~~~~
They leave after the summer ends; Massu sees them there one day and then not the next and he goes through the pages and pages and pages he has of them in tiny moments on his pad of paper, looking at their expressions and their laughter and their connection that he’d managed to capture a little bit of, but not all of. He’d never managed to get all of it.
“What’s wrong, Massu?” Nakamaru asks as he walks by with his broom and dustbin. “You’re making a funny face.” He looks concerned.
Massu remembers that moment on the bench with Tegoshi, that look he got and the look he must have given back in return. He purses his lips, thinks about it, and eventually closes the pad again.
“Nakamaru,” he says, standing up and packing away his things, “are you free later tonight?”
Nakamaru blinks. “Yeah, I get off at six.”
“Do you want to eat with me?”
Nakamaru stares. “Sure,” he says, eventually.
Massu smiles.
END
EDITS PLZ.
Title: Tactics
Theme/Topic: Government AU ( B-side); Shige strips for the juniors.
Rating: PG
Character/Pairing/s: Shige, Koyama
Warnings/Spoilers: Stupid beyond words?
Word Count: 673
Summary: Shige shows the junior agents the number one most important part about being an undercover agent.
Dedication: seca’s request on the AU request meme.
A/N: LAME.
Koyama is a good senpai.
He’s always the one who volunteers to teach special seminars at the academy for the cadets on the first two Sundays of every month, the one who gives up his precious weekend time to lecture about explosives or team dynamics or basic firearms usage and safety measures to the trainees.
Sometimes he even takes the train down to the Osaka branch and lectures there; the agency thinks it’s good to give the Kansai cadets a chance to become something other than snipers.
He always does it willingly and happily; he always brings them snacks too, and tells them cool stories about the things NewS has done this week or the week before. The junior cadets all love him and look up to him and he adores each and every one of them in return.
Koyama is, perhaps, the best senpai in the whole agency.
By proxy, sometimes the rest of NewS gets subjected to big puppy eyes and something like, “Ne, I think the kids are sick of hearing me talk about bombs ne. Will one of you come in and guest lecture with me this week? It’s fun to spend time with the cadets, isn’t it? They look up to us a lot.”
And because Koyama is not only a good senpai but a good person as well, it’s very difficult to tell him no.
“I’m sure you’ll prepare a really interesting talk!” Koyama beams this week, it’s Shige’s turn to be the one who helplessly falls for the puppy eyes and the guilt talk about the cadets and member-ai.
“Right,” Shige says, and goes home Friday night trying to think about any of the jobs he’s done or skills he’s developed that he can actually talk about or demonstrate in a classroom. That are interesting.
Or at the very least, can get him out of being invited back next week.
As it turns out, he can only think of one.
~~~~~
On Sunday morning Shige wakes up early and prepares for his lecture. Koyama picks him up an hour later and they get coffee together. At the coffee shop Koyama asks if Shige is feeling okay, because he’s wearing more layers than usual given that it’s spring already and starting to warm up outside. “Are you sick?”
“I’m fine,” Shige replies.
“If you say so,” Koyama murmurs-still looking worried- as he orders one hundred donuts to go.
They carry the boxes out to the car together and before long they arrive at the academy, where a lecture hall full of bright-eyed, bushy tailed youngins peers curiously down at the pair, wondering what sort of techniques they’ll learn to today, what sort of stories they’ll hear from Kato Shigeaki-senpai.
Shige stands at the front of the room and clears his throat after everyone has gotten their breakfast and returned to their seats. “The number one most important thing about being an undercover agent,” Shige starts very seriously, “is disguise. You have to be prepared for multiple situations at any one given time. You have to be able to blend in, or stand out, to slip away unnoticed or to shake the guy who’s tailing you depending on the time and place. The best way to do this is to prepare for the situation well ahead of time and dress appropriately. That way you’ll be ready for any quick changes.”
Koyama nods in support from the sidelines, looking intrigued by the whole thing. “Shige ne,” he tells the junior agents, “Shige really knows what he’s talking about, so pay special attention.”
“Right!” the cadets all answer, just as Shige starts to reach for the top button of his shirt.
He starts to strip.
~~~~~
Later, after Koyama’s heart rate has returned to normal and the juniors are doing some basic observation exercises in groups of five and six together, the explosives expert tucks his knees up against his chest and tells Shige, “Maybe next week I’ll ask Tegoshi to come in.”
Shige thinks that it’s probably a good idea.
END
Title: This is Not Indiana Jones
Theme/Topic: NewS as archaeologists
Rating: G
Character/Pairing/s: NewS
Warnings/Spoilers: crack, OOC, fail knowledge of archaeology beyond what I’ve seen in Stargate SG-1.
Word Count: 295
Summary: NewS makes a discovery.
Dedication: tinyangl’s request on the AU request meme.
A/N: MORE LAME.
“It’s a vase,” Ryo murmurs once they finally manage to work open the door to the adjoining hallway on day six of the excavation. He sounds unimpressed.
“It’s an urn,” Shige corrects, and shines his flashlight on the ornate patterns there, the ancient pictures of a civilization long gone. “It’s amazing.”
“It’s really big!” Tegoshi chirps, scientifically. He goes up to it and stretches his arms out on either side of him, trying to wrap around it. “Look how big it is!”
Shige scowls. “Don’t touch it! It’s fragile!”
“But we have to touch it if we’re going to take it up to the surface, right?” Koyama asks. Pause. “Unless we’re leaving it here.”
“Of course we’re not leaving it here! It’s an ancient treasure,” Shige reminds them. “It’s the legacy of a lost civilization’s culture, a key to their beliefs and society!”
His colleagues all blink back at him.
Except for Yamapi, who nods peacefully and pads forward, standing on his tiptoes and shining his flashlight inside the urn curiously.
“Oh come on,” Shige complains. “Be a little bit more excited, you guys. This is a really important find! How often do we come across something hundreds of years old in such good condition? This piece could change how the world sees these people. We might be on the brink of an intellectual revolution!”
“I think there are dead flowers inside,” Yamapi reports calmly, after a beat.
Silence.
Then, Ryo smirks. “Told you it was a vase.”
“Uwah, they must have had really big flowers back then,” Tegoshi surmises.
Massu looks hungry. “Do you think they had really big vegetables too?”
“And big meat.” Yamapi theorizes very seriously. “Enormous cows.”
Shige stares.
And then sighs.
Sometimes he thinks the PhDs are wasted on them.
END
Title: So This is What a Diva Looks Like
Theme/Topic: Tego as a star, Ryo as the bodyguard.
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: vaguely RyoxTego (mentions of Yamapi)
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC. GOD SO OOC. Also, Tegoslut.
Word Count: 417
Summary: Tegoshi needs extra special care.
Dedication: juin’s request on the AU request meme.
A/N: LAMEST.
“What. Are. You. Doing.”
Tegoshi blinks back at Ryo guilelessly, head cocked to the side and every bit as adorable in real life as the giant poster of his face in Shibuya makes him out to be. “Sitting in your lap,” he answers.
Fair enough.
“Why?”
Tegoshi laughs. “It’s cold. You’re supposed to be my bodyguard, right?”
Ryo blinks. “What?”
Tegoshi simply rests his head on Ryo’s chest with a sigh and looks perfectly at ease despite the fact that Ryo’s pretty sure he’s currently using his “going to kill stuff now” expression, the one that usually sends crazed fanboys and fangirls scurrying tens of feet backwards so that Ryo can push whichever important person he’s protecting that week into the limousine or into the recording studio or into the TV station without that person getting mauled by the crazy mob of people who want locks of his or her hair to save in their dresser drawers so they can smell them every night before they go to bed.
Tegoshi looks back at him peacefully and Ryo wonders if his “going to kill stuff now” expression is broken maybe. It had worked fine yesterday, when he’d been finishing up his last job.
Everything had been fine before this job anyway, before Yamapi had called him yesterday afternoon and asked him if he was interested in some easy work.
Ryo scowls at his lapful of VIP.
“I’m cold,” Tegoshi eventually explains with a sigh, once he sees the look on Ryo’s face, “and since it’s Ryo-tan’s job to take care of my body from now on, then you have to be responsible and warm me up, right?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not in the job description. And don’t call me that.”
The young celebrity laughs and traces his index finger along the inside of Ryo’s elbow innocently. “Then Ryo-tan obviously didn’t read all of his contract, ne.”
Ryo blinks. “Very funny.”
Tegoshi beams back. “Not joking!”
Pause. Frown. “What…really?”
A nod, followed by a little giggle. “You should see some of the other stuff my body needs,” Tegoshi chirps, before nosing into the curve of Ryo’s throat happily and murmuring about the pleasant warmth he finds there.
Ryo grits his teeth as his new charge squirms contentedly in his lap; he tells himself that he’s going to kill Yamapi tomorrow, because clearly he wasn’t using the same definition of ‘easy’ that Ryo was thinking of when he recommended the gig.
In the meantime, Tegoshi plays with Ryo’s hair.
END
Title: In the Summertime
Theme/Topic: Massu as an off-color artist
Rating: G
Character/Pairing/s: NewS (with Nakamaru)
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC, stupidity, pointlessness?
Word Count: 993
Summary: Massu works to capture a moment.
Dedication: cynicalism’s request on the AU request meme.
A/N: I DON’T KNOW OKAY CLEARLY HAVING AN OFF DAY.
The Merry-Go-Round plays the same song over and over again and he can hear Kame’s voice saying to please wait until everything comes to a complete stop before disembarking or dismounting or both; Massu sits at the edge of the pier sketching the smiling faces of children as their parents buy them popcorn or cotton candy; as they stop to take pictures together in front of the giant Ferris Wheel.
Nakamaru passes by sweeping up garbage and scattering pigeons; “Massu,” he says, “Massu what are you drawing today?”
Massu smiles and holds out his work for the day.
Nakamaru furrows his brow, trying to figure out what it is. “I can tell which part is cotton candy,” he admits, “but Massu, your people are really strange.”
Massu frowns and looks at his portrait. “Strange?”
Nakamaru nods, and sweeps up a candy wrapper on the ground. “How come they don’t have as much detail as your food?”
Massu looks thoughtful. “I don’t know,” he says, and goes back to drawing.
~~~~~
It’s summer and high-traffic season when he sees them for the first time; “A summer job,” he hears the tallest of the five college students say, “We're here for summer jobs at the beach.”
The smallest one cocks his head to the side and smiles sweetly at the owner of the pier’s seafood restaurant. “Please?” he asks cutely, and Massu stops drawing popcorn for a moment because there’s something in it that’s strangely captivating.
“I do have a few openings,” the crotchety old man manages after a beat, and looks surprised at himself when he says it.
“Yay!” the tall one cheers.
“I brought resumes,” the one with spiky hair adds, just to be safe.
“Shige,” the littlest one laughs, “we already have the jobs, ne.”
“Yosh,” the fourth one starts obliviously, “This will be the best summer ever!”
“You’re all morons,” the fifth snorts.
~~~~~
They start the next day and Massu can see them from where he’s sitting on his bench; he watches as the smallest one sneaks up on the tall one before they open and tickles him in the ribs while the tall one is taking out the easel and chalkboard with today’s specials written on it. The tall one yelps and drops it; he yells “Tegoshi!” as Tegoshi runs away, chirping “I love you, Kei-chan!” over his shoulder.
The tall one shakes his head and mutters something, but the look of warmth in his eye as he does tells Massu he’s not angry.
Massu doesn’t know why he does it, but he ends up ignoring all the passersby with their ice cream and cotton candy and popcorn and spends the rest of the afternoon trying to draw that look instead.
~~~~~
At lunchtime the next day Massu can see through the windows as the spiky-haired one-Shige- bustles from table to table looking smart in his uniform and glasses. Suddenly he trips though, and ruins the effect; he nearly sends his tray to the ground except that by some amazing luck, the fourth guy is suddenly there out of nowhere, gripping the tray with one hand and Shige’s arm with the other while looking peaceful.
“Careful,” Massu can hear him say to Shige in his head, and then there’s another little look that passes between them, something understanding and something else too, that leads to sheepish laughter.
Massu sits on his bench and draws those two this time; he feels like he’s a little closer to capturing that look.
In this manner, Massu spends his summer watching them; he’s not sure why.
~~~~~
“Your people,” Nakamaru comments a few weeks later, “your people look as good as your food now.”
Massu blinks. “Really?”
A nod.
Then, “But why do you keep drawing those five same guys?”
Massu shrugs. “I don’t know.”
~~~~~
Sometime in early August Massu is startled when Tegoshi comes out of the restaurant in the middle of the lunch hour rush and stops just short of him; Massu is concentrating so hard on today’s picture-one of Ryo laughing at Koyama-that he doesn’t notice Tegoshi standing there until he clears his throat.
“Eh, that really looks like Ryo-tan!” Tegoshi chirps with his hands behind his back, and scares Massu so bad he draws a line through Koyama’s face.
Tegoshi laughs, and after a moment, hands out a sandwich to Massu. “You’re here every day, right?”
Massu nods.
“The chef likes me so he always makes me stuff,” Tegoshi whispers conspiratorially, “But I can’t eat it all, ne.”
Massu takes the sandwich. “Thanks?” he says.
Tegoshi beams. “You’re welcome!”
A few minutes later, Shige goes to the doorway and yells in annoyance, “Tegoshi your tables!” he shouts, and Tegoshi giggles.
“Coming Shige!” Tegoshi calls back, and shares a look with Massu suddenly, that one that he’s been trying to capture all this time.
Massu feels it when he returns it too, and as Tegoshi bounces back into the restaurant, Massu starts to draw again.
~~~~~
They leave after the summer ends; Massu sees them there one day and then not the next and he goes through the pages and pages and pages he has of them in tiny moments on his pad of paper, looking at their expressions and their laughter and their connection that he’d managed to capture a little bit of, but not all of. He’d never managed to get all of it.
“What’s wrong, Massu?” Nakamaru asks as he walks by with his broom and dustbin. “You’re making a funny face.” He looks concerned.
Massu remembers that moment on the bench with Tegoshi, that look he got and the look he must have given back in return. He purses his lips, thinks about it, and eventually closes the pad again.
“Nakamaru,” he says, standing up and packing away his things, “are you free later tonight?”
Nakamaru blinks. “Yeah, I get off at six.”
“Do you want to eat with me?”
Nakamaru stares. “Sure,” he says, eventually.
Massu smiles.
END
EDITS PLZ.