SKYDIVE - Uruha/Reita - 2/?
Title: SKYDIVE
Chapters: 2/?
Author: raindigo
Genre: Romance, Drama, High School AU, suggestive themes...
Warnings: Sex-buddies, alcohol, drugs, teenagers being teenagers... I guess that's all. Do I need to mention Ruki!whore?
Rating: Overall R
Pairings/Characters: Main Uruha/Reita (Kouyou Takashima/Akira Suzuki). Misc: Everyone/Ruki/Everyone, Ruki/Miku (Takanori Matsumoto/Akiharu Tsukiyama), Miyavi/Kai (Takamasa Ishihara/Yutaka Uke), one-sided Aoi/Kai (Yuu Shiroyama/Yutaka Uke), Shou/Saga (Kazamasa Kohara/Takashi Sakamoto), Tora/Nao (Shinji Amano/Naoyuki Murai), Hiroto/Girl (Hiroto Ogata), one-sided Hiroto/Nao, others to come.
Synopsis: He officially has the worst friends in the world; a psychotic dramatist/whore with questionable sanity, a nerd who hangs out with sluts all the time, a house-chore happy boy stuck in an unfortunate relationship, and last but not least, his childhood friend, a stubborn, cute-uh, video games crazy soccer genius whom he happens to have a crush on-did he mention said-crush is taken? If your name is Kouyou, and under normal (but normal doesn’t exist, Taka ate it) circumstances you’re a pragmatic strategist but can turn into a cunning bitch when love is involved, you better pack your bags and fly to fucking Canada. Life just isn’t your thing.
Comments: Kudos to whoever gets the elastics part. ;P They’ve built a reputation around town these past few weeks, and I see them fucking everywhere. Also, no Gazette Highschool AU fanfiction is complete without a pink dress. 8D SORRY THIS IS LATE. OTL
Previous steps: Prologue - One
Ageless and boundless; a wrinkle-less sky, the palm of infinity.
step .2
The sound of a door slamming was followed in quick succession by a voice booming through the room.
"Hey guys, anyone up to skipping last period?"
Dear God in heaven, please tell me what I ever did to anger you so, Kouyou moaned interiorly, just as the lean frame of a very familiar figure filled the doorway.
"Suzuki Akira, get back to class," Itsuki-sensei ordered from his seat behind the newspaper. "And also, any mentions of missing classes on purpose will be reported to your parents."
"Whatever,” Akira said, rushing across the classroom and draping himself all over Kouyou. "Hey, Taka, Kou. Wanna come hang out with some others? I don't wanna go to Art."
Takanori raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking me? Do you really expect me to answer positively?"
Akira snorted. "You're coming, right, Kou?"
I'm busy hiding the tent in my pants, prick, Kouyou wanted to say. "Of course."
Two seconds ticked by before something clicked in his head.
"Who are these others, anyways?"
~
Okay, so maybe Kouyou hadn’t exactly cleared the situation. He didn’t have anything against Coco (except her name); she was a popular girl, a decent cook, the motherly type, and apparently good in bed. There was really nothing to reproach.
Oh, save one itsy-bitsy detail: she was Akira’s girlfriend. Obstacle numero uno. Somehow, this fact automatically made her a bitch in the eyes of Taka and himself.
“I think she’s hot,” Yuu had once mentioned in Takanori’s presence, and never did so again. It had something to do with the self-defense mechanism he carried around inside his little gold purse. Kouyou shuddered when he thought about what atrocities hid within.
The worst was that Yuu had been right. Coco was hot-in a cute way. And she matched perfectly with Akira; height-wise, personality-wise, hair (dye) color-wise, even. Most of the time he was damned to spend in the couple’s presence, he spent it cursing her all the way to hell and back. He gave her a one-way ticket when he felt particularly bloodthirsty and nasty; notably after another sleepless night spent chasing Akira around in his mind.
Right. Pack to the point. Bitch One was currently hovering barely an inch away from his arm, and Kouyou had the rising urge to flick her aside like a mosquito. Between partners-in-crime, Taka and he called Coco “Bitch One”, because, yes, he’d be damned, there were more. Coco possessed a whole clique of her own and their pastimes included a) gossiping in suspiciously low, hushed voices, b) flirting around with guys that were not their boyfriends, c) making the whole cafeteria stink of nail polish while everyone was eating and d) talking shit about Yuu, Kouyou and especially Takanori.
Kouyou only knew this last little detail because he’d overheard them once, whispering in the hallway, and they were so immersed in their conversation they hadn’t noticed his presence at first. It went something along the lines of: gay, fag, stuck up, purse-guy, Akira’s watchdog, manwhore, and wanna-be playboy, which roughly translated to:
Kouyou was a gay fag and apparently Akira’s watchdog (from your bitchy fangs only, Uber Bitch One!), Taka was stuck up and his purse attracted more attention than he did (with his stature, Kouyou wouldn’t be surprised if half the population overlooked him most of the time), and Yuu was a manwhore and wanna-be playboy because he was the only one (questionably) straight.
Hey, Bitches couldn’t have everything in the world. What, did they like them bi? And how come Yutaka was the only one who hadn’t received criticism? Maybe they were getting to him (though he highly doubted so), but Kouyou would never know because he'd lost his ninja skills at ‘wanna-be playboy’ and snickered. Bitch Clique had turned, so synchronized he suspected rehearsal in front of a full-length mirror, to glare at him, and Coco oh-so-kindly asked him to ‘mind his own business’.
Kouyou would have flipped her off if she wasn’t Reita’s girlfriend and given her a bloody nose if she wasn’t a girl. Unfortunately, the sky hated him and fate likewise, Coco wasn’t going to transform into a man anytime soon and certainly not in this lifetime (Kouyou’d hate to watch). But. But. The magical ‘but’ that changed everything into rainbows and candy and butterflies. But.
But Kouyou could definitely do something about ‘girlfriend’.
A wicked spark lit up at the back of his mind, and Bitch One would spend the rest of the afternoon wondering when he had had the time to run his brain through soap and why he kept smiling at her. Kouyou chuckled interiorly. Let the bitch wonder. Now he knew what Taka felt like.
“Hey Kou,” Akira called from in front, where he had been sharing a can of coke with Shinji and Nao. The lovebirds were too busy giving each other doe-eyes to be aware that Akira had swiped the drink and was now heading towards Kouyou and, goddammit, his girlfriend.
“Are you going to Hiroto’s Saturday?”
“Yup. Taka’s not sure, though. Are Yuu and Yutaka going?”
Akira shrugged. “I haven’t talked to them since Science and Yuu’s not replying to my texts. And we both know that one chance on two Miyavi has Yutaka’s phone.”
Kouyou suppressed a groan. Why they had to share cellphones was completely beyond him. He knew he wouldn’t, but only in the context where Akira would be his boyfriend (which is none).
Umm, not a good idea, thinking about that in the middle of a discussion involving said-would-be-boyfriend. Think about rainbows now. And candy. And butterflies. Mmm, butter. Akira covered in butter instead of whipped cream-
“Kou? You okay?”
Oh for fuck’s sake. What did it take to keep teenage hormones from rampaging wild? He wished he was never born with such a prolific imagination, prolific being ‘getting out of control all. The. Fucking. Time.’
“I’m fine. Hey, I’m feeling hungry, let’s stop by the sweets shop where you work,” Kouyou suggested. Candy. Think candy.
“Uh, maybe not,” Akira replied nervously.
“Why?”
“Uh, crazy coworker, remember?”
Right. Right.
Kouyou wished Akira was never born with such strong and unnerving pheromones, unnerving being the tendency to propagate into unwanted territory. Girl territory. Couldn’t he just tune down the sex appeal a bit? It wasn’t like Kouyou didn’t know he did it on purpose. He already had a girlfriend. He didn’t need another one. Kouyou definitely didn’t need another one to rid.
“You gave her your phone number,” Kouyou said casually with a click of his tongue. “You’re asking to get assaulted in the middle of the street.”
Reita frowned. (Gosh, that expression was asking to get assaulted here and now.) “Well, I couldn’t really refuse, you know? What grounds do I have to judge her on?”
Kouyou was about to roll his eyes and answer, Other than being a psychotic, obsessive stalker, of course, but reconsidered because this description could potentially fit him. Instead, he just said, “Fine, we’ll go to a convenience store and buy preservative-stuffed junk food.”
“Guys, guys!”
The small group simultaneously lifted their heads in time to see Hiroto practically trip over himself getting to them, apparently bringing some big-ass news that needed screaming at the top of his lungs. The girl that appeared a few seconds later, hot on his trails, wasn’t the same as the one he’d walked to school this morning; to be expected, since Hiroto changed girlfriends as agilely as Takanori hopped beds. After a while, Kouyou gave up trying to learn their names because he was never going to hear them again anyways. What took him off guard was that this time, he’d actually seen that face somewhere before.
Holy shit.
That girl was none other than Bitch Three from Coco’s little posse, the one that had an inexplicable infatuation with Kouyou and Yutaka, at the same time. They’d only formally talked once, and that was because Yutaka had lent her his textbook (via Akira, to top) and she had to return it. He dug his skull trying to fish out her name and didn’t really care when nothing came to mind. Seeing the number of acquaintances he had and their speed rate of changing partners, anyone would have a hell of a time memorizing all those names.
Bitch Three smiled meekly at him, embarrassed he’d seen her doing anything marginally close to exercise, and proceeded to latch herself onto Hiroto like a leech. Kouyou shuddered. He was glad his straight days were over. Guys tended to respect personal space better.
“I convinced Megure-sensei to let us use the gym for our live!”
For some reason, this announcement triggered a totally exaggerated reaction from among their small group; Kazamasa and Takashi detached themselves from each other long enough to dogpile Hiroto, Nao was clutching Hiroto’s arm while frantically jumping up and down, and Shinji pumped his fist into the air with a silent cheer.
Kouyou just stared and stared and stared. He wasn’t remotely aware of what the fuck they were flipping out for and apparently Akira neither, because he received a shrug from him as any form of response.
“Oh, and I convinced some girls from that private school to come Saturday,” Hiroto added and, he guiltily admitted, Kouyou felt his interest piqued.
Hey, he’d only been gay for a month, alright? Let the poor guy off. Truth be told, he wasn’t sure liking one guy meant he was stuck with the lot.
Sighing as he watched Akira hound Hiroto for some juicy details he was definitely getting later, Kouyou wondered if life could become any more confusing.
~
Apparently, it could.
He was currently sitting cross-legged on Takanori’s bed, hugging a smiley-face pillow to his chest. The actual resident was busy painting his nails the colors of the rainbow, legs propped up on his desk (/vanity table). They were Friday afternoon, a day after Hiroto’s ‘big announcement’, and of course Taka had heard about it before Kouyou broke the news.
And it was giving him more (deliriously stupid) ideas. Kouyou could tell just by the oddly pleased look on his face. Takanori did not ‘half-smile’, in that way where his lips slightly quirked left, unless it meant something worth half-smiling; a.k.a. worth buying a plane ticket and boarding the next flight out of this country ASAP.
Kouyou stuffed his face into the pillow and groaned. “Please, Taka, can you just let it go already? Whatever the hell you’re planning?”
“Shut up, honey,” Taka replied, chucking a piece of paper his friend’s way. “I already have it settled.”
“Don’t call me-Wait, what?”
Kouyou stared at the sheet, precisely sign-up sheet, titled ‘Karasu’ in tacky gothic handwriting; typical Taka.
“What is this?”
Takanori raised his eyebrows at Kouyou, as if this were the dumbest question he could have come up with.
“Recruitment. Promotional poster. Blah blah shit.”
“For what?”
“Our band, of course!”
Kouyou stared some more. His mouth opened, clamped shut, opened again and barely hung onto his jaw. If he said something sudden it would probably snap off.
“How is it ours?”
Taka frowned. (Kouyou, fortunately, did not get the urge to molest him, which confirmed either his suspicions on his sexual orientation or Taka being an alien.)
“You’re not going to ditch poor lil’ me, are you?”
Kouyou felt the bells of revenge chime in the background. “Well, I don’t know, who was the one bitching in self-study the other day?”
“Kouyou,” Taka whined.
“Wrong! If my memory doesn’t fail me, it was you¸ Mister Purse-Guy.” He was feeling strangely gleeful right now. “All your big talk about ditching me for Yuu. Why don’t you recruit him, while you’re at it? I’m sure he’s not going to refuse, if you offer yourself correctly…”
Taka looked quite desperate at the moment. “Kouuuuu.”
“Don’t ‘Kouuu’ me. I’m not a psycho fucker who wants to get into your pants.”
“Shimaaaaaaaaa.”
“Eww! Please don’t do that again. You know what, I’ll join just to prevent this atrocity from happening again.” Shit, he had the feeling he'd just sold his soul to the devil.
Taka leaped out of his seat to squeeze Kouyou’s neck tightly. “Yay!”
Kouyou rolled his eyes; of course strangling someone within an inch of death was Taka’s unique way of proving his gratitude. Count on him to make sadistic seem cute.
“Whatever. Let’s go rent a movie before we go to Yutaka’s,” Kouyou suggested. “Or do you have anything else in mind?”
“Not really. Maybe get some drinks, junk food, and those adorable animal-shaped rubber bands.”
Kouyou blinked once. Twice. Thrice. Animal-shaped what?
“You’re paying.”
Taka snorted. “’Course I am. Remember this before you insult my money-filled gold purse next time.”
~
Getting one pack of childish elastics wasn’t enough, so Taka bought three. He’d already wrapped half a dozen on his right wrist when they arrived in front of Yutaka’s apartment building, and Kouyou still couldn’t fathom what was so attractive about those strips of rubber. Okay, they had special shapes, they glowed in the dark, they spelt out ‘bff’ and ‘xoxo’, who the hell cared. They were sixteen, dammit, not three. Takanori was ripping through a second bag when the elevator doors slid open and Kouyou was on the verge of committing homicide if this colorful nonsense didn’t stop anytime soon.
Suddenly, Takanori stopped moving, and a split second later ran back towards the lobby.
“Sorry, I forgot I had to pick up Yuu first!” was the only explanation he gave.
Kouyou stared, dumbfound, as his friend disappeared, until the doors closed in his face.
Yutaka greeted him after he rang the doorbell and welcomed him in.
“Akira’s already here,” he said, and Kouyou swore he felt his heart skip a beat. Pshaw, he was getting cheesy. They weren’t in some teenage soap opera.
He found the other sitting cross-legged, back cushioned against the couch instead of sitting on it, smashing furiously at the keys of the game controller he was holding. He was losing a virtual fight against some very macho man and it visibly frustrated him (mm, frustrated Akira was hot too, yes please).
“Hey, mind if I butt in?” Kouyou said, announcing his intrusion, and flopped down next to him.
Akira mumbled something along sure whatever¸ but Kouyou would have done so anyways if he refused. Grabbing another controller, they went to change the game settings, and were soon so submerged into plummeting each other’s heads that they hardly noticed when Yutaka asked if they wanted drinks.
The doorbell rang, interrupting their fun, and Kouyou went to answer as Akira paused the game.
“Heeeey honeeeeey,” Taka drawled in an awfully suspicious voice and Kouyou resisted the urge to smack him upright. Yuu waved at him from behind the dwarf, and that was when he saw it.
That pink, frilly, horrible abomination Yuu was holding in his other hand.
“Holy fucking shit.”
Yuu smiled sadistically, more so than usual, and Taka just looked slightly carnivorous.
“It’s your birthday, Kou,” Yuu quipped.
Kouyou was too stunned to shake his head.
“No. It’s a dress.”
step .2: over.
PS: Am I the only one who thinks "Raise Your Glass" is such a fitting song? 8P
Chapters: 2/?
Author: raindigo
Genre: Romance, Drama, High School AU, suggestive themes...
Warnings: Sex-buddies, alcohol, drugs, teenagers being teenagers... I guess that's all. Do I need to mention Ruki!whore?
Rating: Overall R
Pairings/Characters: Main Uruha/Reita (Kouyou Takashima/Akira Suzuki). Misc: Everyone/Ruki/Everyone, Ruki/Miku (Takanori Matsumoto/Akiharu Tsukiyama), Miyavi/Kai (Takamasa Ishihara/Yutaka Uke), one-sided Aoi/Kai (Yuu Shiroyama/Yutaka Uke), Shou/Saga (Kazamasa Kohara/Takashi Sakamoto), Tora/Nao (Shinji Amano/Naoyuki Murai), Hiroto/Girl (Hiroto Ogata), one-sided Hiroto/Nao, others to come.
Synopsis: He officially has the worst friends in the world; a psychotic dramatist/whore with questionable sanity, a nerd who hangs out with sluts all the time, a house-chore happy boy stuck in an unfortunate relationship, and last but not least, his childhood friend, a stubborn, cute-uh, video games crazy soccer genius whom he happens to have a crush on-did he mention said-crush is taken? If your name is Kouyou, and under normal (but normal doesn’t exist, Taka ate it) circumstances you’re a pragmatic strategist but can turn into a cunning bitch when love is involved, you better pack your bags and fly to fucking Canada. Life just isn’t your thing.
Comments: Kudos to whoever gets the elastics part. ;P They’ve built a reputation around town these past few weeks, and I see them fucking everywhere. Also, no Gazette Highschool AU fanfiction is complete without a pink dress. 8D SORRY THIS IS LATE. OTL
Previous steps: Prologue - One
Ageless and boundless; a wrinkle-less sky, the palm of infinity.
step .2
The sound of a door slamming was followed in quick succession by a voice booming through the room.
"Hey guys, anyone up to skipping last period?"
Dear God in heaven, please tell me what I ever did to anger you so, Kouyou moaned interiorly, just as the lean frame of a very familiar figure filled the doorway.
"Suzuki Akira, get back to class," Itsuki-sensei ordered from his seat behind the newspaper. "And also, any mentions of missing classes on purpose will be reported to your parents."
"Whatever,” Akira said, rushing across the classroom and draping himself all over Kouyou. "Hey, Taka, Kou. Wanna come hang out with some others? I don't wanna go to Art."
Takanori raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking me? Do you really expect me to answer positively?"
Akira snorted. "You're coming, right, Kou?"
I'm busy hiding the tent in my pants, prick, Kouyou wanted to say. "Of course."
Two seconds ticked by before something clicked in his head.
"Who are these others, anyways?"
~
Okay, so maybe Kouyou hadn’t exactly cleared the situation. He didn’t have anything against Coco (except her name); she was a popular girl, a decent cook, the motherly type, and apparently good in bed. There was really nothing to reproach.
Oh, save one itsy-bitsy detail: she was Akira’s girlfriend. Obstacle numero uno. Somehow, this fact automatically made her a bitch in the eyes of Taka and himself.
“I think she’s hot,” Yuu had once mentioned in Takanori’s presence, and never did so again. It had something to do with the self-defense mechanism he carried around inside his little gold purse. Kouyou shuddered when he thought about what atrocities hid within.
The worst was that Yuu had been right. Coco was hot-in a cute way. And she matched perfectly with Akira; height-wise, personality-wise, hair (dye) color-wise, even. Most of the time he was damned to spend in the couple’s presence, he spent it cursing her all the way to hell and back. He gave her a one-way ticket when he felt particularly bloodthirsty and nasty; notably after another sleepless night spent chasing Akira around in his mind.
Right. Pack to the point. Bitch One was currently hovering barely an inch away from his arm, and Kouyou had the rising urge to flick her aside like a mosquito. Between partners-in-crime, Taka and he called Coco “Bitch One”, because, yes, he’d be damned, there were more. Coco possessed a whole clique of her own and their pastimes included a) gossiping in suspiciously low, hushed voices, b) flirting around with guys that were not their boyfriends, c) making the whole cafeteria stink of nail polish while everyone was eating and d) talking shit about Yuu, Kouyou and especially Takanori.
Kouyou only knew this last little detail because he’d overheard them once, whispering in the hallway, and they were so immersed in their conversation they hadn’t noticed his presence at first. It went something along the lines of: gay, fag, stuck up, purse-guy, Akira’s watchdog, manwhore, and wanna-be playboy, which roughly translated to:
Kouyou was a gay fag and apparently Akira’s watchdog (from your bitchy fangs only, Uber Bitch One!), Taka was stuck up and his purse attracted more attention than he did (with his stature, Kouyou wouldn’t be surprised if half the population overlooked him most of the time), and Yuu was a manwhore and wanna-be playboy because he was the only one (questionably) straight.
Hey, Bitches couldn’t have everything in the world. What, did they like them bi? And how come Yutaka was the only one who hadn’t received criticism? Maybe they were getting to him (though he highly doubted so), but Kouyou would never know because he'd lost his ninja skills at ‘wanna-be playboy’ and snickered. Bitch Clique had turned, so synchronized he suspected rehearsal in front of a full-length mirror, to glare at him, and Coco oh-so-kindly asked him to ‘mind his own business’.
Kouyou would have flipped her off if she wasn’t Reita’s girlfriend and given her a bloody nose if she wasn’t a girl. Unfortunately, the sky hated him and fate likewise, Coco wasn’t going to transform into a man anytime soon and certainly not in this lifetime (Kouyou’d hate to watch). But. But. The magical ‘but’ that changed everything into rainbows and candy and butterflies. But.
But Kouyou could definitely do something about ‘girlfriend’.
A wicked spark lit up at the back of his mind, and Bitch One would spend the rest of the afternoon wondering when he had had the time to run his brain through soap and why he kept smiling at her. Kouyou chuckled interiorly. Let the bitch wonder. Now he knew what Taka felt like.
“Hey Kou,” Akira called from in front, where he had been sharing a can of coke with Shinji and Nao. The lovebirds were too busy giving each other doe-eyes to be aware that Akira had swiped the drink and was now heading towards Kouyou and, goddammit, his girlfriend.
“Are you going to Hiroto’s Saturday?”
“Yup. Taka’s not sure, though. Are Yuu and Yutaka going?”
Akira shrugged. “I haven’t talked to them since Science and Yuu’s not replying to my texts. And we both know that one chance on two Miyavi has Yutaka’s phone.”
Kouyou suppressed a groan. Why they had to share cellphones was completely beyond him. He knew he wouldn’t, but only in the context where Akira would be his boyfriend (which is none).
Umm, not a good idea, thinking about that in the middle of a discussion involving said-would-be-boyfriend. Think about rainbows now. And candy. And butterflies. Mmm, butter. Akira covered in butter instead of whipped cream-
“Kou? You okay?”
Oh for fuck’s sake. What did it take to keep teenage hormones from rampaging wild? He wished he was never born with such a prolific imagination, prolific being ‘getting out of control all. The. Fucking. Time.’
“I’m fine. Hey, I’m feeling hungry, let’s stop by the sweets shop where you work,” Kouyou suggested. Candy. Think candy.
“Uh, maybe not,” Akira replied nervously.
“Why?”
“Uh, crazy coworker, remember?”
Right. Right.
Kouyou wished Akira was never born with such strong and unnerving pheromones, unnerving being the tendency to propagate into unwanted territory. Girl territory. Couldn’t he just tune down the sex appeal a bit? It wasn’t like Kouyou didn’t know he did it on purpose. He already had a girlfriend. He didn’t need another one. Kouyou definitely didn’t need another one to rid.
“You gave her your phone number,” Kouyou said casually with a click of his tongue. “You’re asking to get assaulted in the middle of the street.”
Reita frowned. (Gosh, that expression was asking to get assaulted here and now.) “Well, I couldn’t really refuse, you know? What grounds do I have to judge her on?”
Kouyou was about to roll his eyes and answer, Other than being a psychotic, obsessive stalker, of course, but reconsidered because this description could potentially fit him. Instead, he just said, “Fine, we’ll go to a convenience store and buy preservative-stuffed junk food.”
“Guys, guys!”
The small group simultaneously lifted their heads in time to see Hiroto practically trip over himself getting to them, apparently bringing some big-ass news that needed screaming at the top of his lungs. The girl that appeared a few seconds later, hot on his trails, wasn’t the same as the one he’d walked to school this morning; to be expected, since Hiroto changed girlfriends as agilely as Takanori hopped beds. After a while, Kouyou gave up trying to learn their names because he was never going to hear them again anyways. What took him off guard was that this time, he’d actually seen that face somewhere before.
Holy shit.
That girl was none other than Bitch Three from Coco’s little posse, the one that had an inexplicable infatuation with Kouyou and Yutaka, at the same time. They’d only formally talked once, and that was because Yutaka had lent her his textbook (via Akira, to top) and she had to return it. He dug his skull trying to fish out her name and didn’t really care when nothing came to mind. Seeing the number of acquaintances he had and their speed rate of changing partners, anyone would have a hell of a time memorizing all those names.
Bitch Three smiled meekly at him, embarrassed he’d seen her doing anything marginally close to exercise, and proceeded to latch herself onto Hiroto like a leech. Kouyou shuddered. He was glad his straight days were over. Guys tended to respect personal space better.
“I convinced Megure-sensei to let us use the gym for our live!”
For some reason, this announcement triggered a totally exaggerated reaction from among their small group; Kazamasa and Takashi detached themselves from each other long enough to dogpile Hiroto, Nao was clutching Hiroto’s arm while frantically jumping up and down, and Shinji pumped his fist into the air with a silent cheer.
Kouyou just stared and stared and stared. He wasn’t remotely aware of what the fuck they were flipping out for and apparently Akira neither, because he received a shrug from him as any form of response.
“Oh, and I convinced some girls from that private school to come Saturday,” Hiroto added and, he guiltily admitted, Kouyou felt his interest piqued.
Hey, he’d only been gay for a month, alright? Let the poor guy off. Truth be told, he wasn’t sure liking one guy meant he was stuck with the lot.
Sighing as he watched Akira hound Hiroto for some juicy details he was definitely getting later, Kouyou wondered if life could become any more confusing.
~
Apparently, it could.
He was currently sitting cross-legged on Takanori’s bed, hugging a smiley-face pillow to his chest. The actual resident was busy painting his nails the colors of the rainbow, legs propped up on his desk (/vanity table). They were Friday afternoon, a day after Hiroto’s ‘big announcement’, and of course Taka had heard about it before Kouyou broke the news.
And it was giving him more (deliriously stupid) ideas. Kouyou could tell just by the oddly pleased look on his face. Takanori did not ‘half-smile’, in that way where his lips slightly quirked left, unless it meant something worth half-smiling; a.k.a. worth buying a plane ticket and boarding the next flight out of this country ASAP.
Kouyou stuffed his face into the pillow and groaned. “Please, Taka, can you just let it go already? Whatever the hell you’re planning?”
“Shut up, honey,” Taka replied, chucking a piece of paper his friend’s way. “I already have it settled.”
“Don’t call me-Wait, what?”
Kouyou stared at the sheet, precisely sign-up sheet, titled ‘Karasu’ in tacky gothic handwriting; typical Taka.
“What is this?”
Takanori raised his eyebrows at Kouyou, as if this were the dumbest question he could have come up with.
“Recruitment. Promotional poster. Blah blah shit.”
“For what?”
“Our band, of course!”
Kouyou stared some more. His mouth opened, clamped shut, opened again and barely hung onto his jaw. If he said something sudden it would probably snap off.
“How is it ours?”
Taka frowned. (Kouyou, fortunately, did not get the urge to molest him, which confirmed either his suspicions on his sexual orientation or Taka being an alien.)
“You’re not going to ditch poor lil’ me, are you?”
Kouyou felt the bells of revenge chime in the background. “Well, I don’t know, who was the one bitching in self-study the other day?”
“Kouyou,” Taka whined.
“Wrong! If my memory doesn’t fail me, it was you¸ Mister Purse-Guy.” He was feeling strangely gleeful right now. “All your big talk about ditching me for Yuu. Why don’t you recruit him, while you’re at it? I’m sure he’s not going to refuse, if you offer yourself correctly…”
Taka looked quite desperate at the moment. “Kouuuuu.”
“Don’t ‘Kouuu’ me. I’m not a psycho fucker who wants to get into your pants.”
“Shimaaaaaaaaa.”
“Eww! Please don’t do that again. You know what, I’ll join just to prevent this atrocity from happening again.” Shit, he had the feeling he'd just sold his soul to the devil.
Taka leaped out of his seat to squeeze Kouyou’s neck tightly. “Yay!”
Kouyou rolled his eyes; of course strangling someone within an inch of death was Taka’s unique way of proving his gratitude. Count on him to make sadistic seem cute.
“Whatever. Let’s go rent a movie before we go to Yutaka’s,” Kouyou suggested. “Or do you have anything else in mind?”
“Not really. Maybe get some drinks, junk food, and those adorable animal-shaped rubber bands.”
Kouyou blinked once. Twice. Thrice. Animal-shaped what?
“You’re paying.”
Taka snorted. “’Course I am. Remember this before you insult my money-filled gold purse next time.”
~
Getting one pack of childish elastics wasn’t enough, so Taka bought three. He’d already wrapped half a dozen on his right wrist when they arrived in front of Yutaka’s apartment building, and Kouyou still couldn’t fathom what was so attractive about those strips of rubber. Okay, they had special shapes, they glowed in the dark, they spelt out ‘bff’ and ‘xoxo’, who the hell cared. They were sixteen, dammit, not three. Takanori was ripping through a second bag when the elevator doors slid open and Kouyou was on the verge of committing homicide if this colorful nonsense didn’t stop anytime soon.
Suddenly, Takanori stopped moving, and a split second later ran back towards the lobby.
“Sorry, I forgot I had to pick up Yuu first!” was the only explanation he gave.
Kouyou stared, dumbfound, as his friend disappeared, until the doors closed in his face.
Yutaka greeted him after he rang the doorbell and welcomed him in.
“Akira’s already here,” he said, and Kouyou swore he felt his heart skip a beat. Pshaw, he was getting cheesy. They weren’t in some teenage soap opera.
He found the other sitting cross-legged, back cushioned against the couch instead of sitting on it, smashing furiously at the keys of the game controller he was holding. He was losing a virtual fight against some very macho man and it visibly frustrated him (mm, frustrated Akira was hot too, yes please).
“Hey, mind if I butt in?” Kouyou said, announcing his intrusion, and flopped down next to him.
Akira mumbled something along sure whatever¸ but Kouyou would have done so anyways if he refused. Grabbing another controller, they went to change the game settings, and were soon so submerged into plummeting each other’s heads that they hardly noticed when Yutaka asked if they wanted drinks.
The doorbell rang, interrupting their fun, and Kouyou went to answer as Akira paused the game.
“Heeeey honeeeeey,” Taka drawled in an awfully suspicious voice and Kouyou resisted the urge to smack him upright. Yuu waved at him from behind the dwarf, and that was when he saw it.
That pink, frilly, horrible abomination Yuu was holding in his other hand.
“Holy fucking shit.”
Yuu smiled sadistically, more so than usual, and Taka just looked slightly carnivorous.
“It’s your birthday, Kou,” Yuu quipped.
Kouyou was too stunned to shake his head.
“No. It’s a dress.”
step .2: over.
PS: Am I the only one who thinks "Raise Your Glass" is such a fitting song? 8P