FIC: Cake or Death? D1, Rish
Title: Cake or Death?
Author: Ociwen
Wordcount: 3300
Rating: Rish
Disclaimer: Konomi owns all,
Warning: Saccharine situations.
Summary: It's Yagyuu's birthday.
Author's Notes: Written for Yagyuu's birthday, 2010. Happy Birthday, Yagyuu! Readers, interpret as you will…
If you like/love/loathe, please leave a comment to let me know.
The first thing in the morning his mother says isn't "Happy birthday" or even "Good morning", but instead, "Have you seen the coffee?"
Yagyuu manages a grunt, and says he doesn't know. He helps himself to the last of the Crispy Cereal because the eggs in the fridge have disappeared, and so have yesterday's leftovers. His mother rummages through the cupboard, and throws half the boxes from the shelf. Yagyuu eats his cereal, and glances over his shoulder once or twice, narrowing his eyes and wishing she'd go back to bed.
There's a note on the table, in his father's illegible scrawl-no worse than Niou-kun's, really-home early at 9pm. Happy birthday, kid.
Yagyuu folds the note over, and tucks it into his shirt pocket. His mother huffs. She tosses a pack of cigarettes on the table. Then she makes her way through the fridge.
"The coffee won't be in there," Yagyuu says.
She doesn't turn around. Beer bottles and jars of pickles clank. The fridge hums. Yagyuu looks left, looks right, and slides the pack into his pocket. He grabs his school bag from the foyer, slips his shoes on, and closes the door a little louder than he really needs to.
At least the weather is decent. Last year, it poured buckets. This year, the ground is soft and damp from last night's rain. The first leaf or two have begun to turn gold in the park down the road. Yagyuu checks his watch-ten to seven. He checks his cellphone. Three messages in his inbox. One from Marui: Happy burrthday! One from Miho in student council asking about the last meeting's minutes. And one from Softbank, Please enjoy this bonus on your birthday…
Yagyuu deletes that one. He frowns.
Nothing from Niou.
He takes the bus, like usual, one stop past the school where he waits on the corner. The smell from Café Doutour is heady, roasted coffee in the crisp air. Yagyuu checks his phone again, then he crosses the street. He grabs a medium milk coffee to go, and sends a quick email to Niou. Where are you? You're late.
Practice starts in ten minutes. Yagyuu steps off the main road, down the alleyway sandwiched between the Café and the post office. He lights a smoke from the pack. He doesn't like the Mild Sevens very much, but it gives him something to do between sips of coffee and tennis practice. Yagyuu runs his tongue over his teeth, tasting the smoke and the coffee, and he flicks half of the cigarette to the ground.
Niou still isn't at their corner.
Yagyuu's frown deepens.
When Yagyuu lets himself into the clubhouse Yukimura is already running laps on the courts. Sanada nods once, on his way out, and mutters something that sounds like, "Happy Birthday, Yagyuu." Yagyuu says thank you anyway. He opens his locker, and reaches for his uniform. Then he stops.
The t-shirt and shorts, which should be neatly folded, have been pushed to the right side of the shelf. The canister of balls he left on the top shelf has relocated to beside his crumpled uniform.
Yagyuu blinks. Suspicion immediately flares in his stomach. He takes his uniform out. "Was someone….in my locker?" he asks. He sniffs his hands, but they're fine. He stands on his toes, but there are no insects, rubber spiders, or puddles of slime.
Yanagi shrugs. "I know nothing."
The suspicion burns even hotter. Yagyuu nods slowly, and says, "Thank you, Yanagi-kun." Yeah right.
He does his runs, then the lunges, the jumping-jacks and a rep of fifty swings, too. Then Yagyuu checks the schedule. There's nothing listed today, no matches, no yoga, and definitely no weight training. The ball machine is out-Yagyuu can hear the schwooping noise of the balls across the courts. Of course, it's Yukimura who has commandeered it, with Sanada manning the machine and supplying the balls. Yagyuu shakes his head to himself.
Jackal asks, "Rally?"
Yagyuu says, "That would be lovely, Jackal-kun."
Jackal's rallies are simple and straight-forward, unlike Niou's constant penchant for trick balls and false starts. Jackal starts the rally with a low ball that skims the net. Yagyuu dashes to mid-court and returns it. He can feel his blood pumping and his heart rate rising. Cool air rushes across his skin as he moves over the court. Jackal hits right, Yagyuu hits back left. Jackal hits a backhand, and Yagyuu returns it with one of his own. The easy rhythm is nice.
"Hey," Jackal says. He hits a volley straight down the court. "It's your birthday today, isn't it?"
Yagyuu steps to the right. The ball hits the sweet spot of his racket, and the force hums through his muscles. "Yes."
"Happy Birthday, Hiroshi," Jackal says. "Any plans?"
Yagyuu starts to open his mouth, but there's a loud shout, followed by a hearty "Fuck YOU! You said it would WORK!"
The ball bounces on Yagyuu's court. He looks over, but so does Jackal. Marui and Niou have each other by the shirt collar, near the equipment shed. Niou's hair is a mess, and he's forgotten his elastic. Marui is red-faced as he pushes back on Niou, grunting and squirming as they struggle. Niou sneers. He tries to shove Marui into the shed wall.
"I didn't say it would for sure, asswipe!" Marui says. "Not my fault you're too stupid to know how to-"
"Niou! MARUI!"
Sanada stomps over. He backhands Niou across the face, and slaps Marui the other way. "Get on the court for your laps NOW!" he shouts. Then Yukimura flashes a smile. "Oh, and Yagyuu? Happy Birthday."
Niou cups his cheek. Marui sniffles and drops his hold on Niou. Yukimura looks up from his court and shouts at Sanada, "Come back here NOW, Sanada! Niou and Marui can sort themselves out!"
As Niou jogs past, Yagyuu asks, "What was that about?"
Niou doesn't answer. Yagyuu can hear the distinct sound of a sniffle from him too.
He wishes he'd finished that smoke earlier.
***
The girls accost him at lunch. Nozomi and Maki and Haruka all bow their heads and present little boxes tied with ribbons. Heat rises to Yagyuu's face. The flush spreads down his neck when Sanada looks over with a snort.
Yagyuu thanks them all. "Happy Birthday," Haruka says. She bats her eyelashes. "Yagyuu-kun is the best, ne?"
Her friends all giggle.
Yagyuu allows himself a lingering glance back into the classroom where the girls cluster around Nozomi's desk in hushed whispers that all seem to involve Yagyuu's name. Then he closes the class door, and walks up two flights to the rooftop. He sits on top of an air vent, sets his lunch beside himself, and opens the boxes one by one.
An onigiri, with a carefully cut umeboshi in the shape of a heart on top.
A set of three chocolates, in gold foil papers. Underneath, a slip of paper with a phone number. Yagyuu reads over the numbers twice. He thinks for a moment, then crumples the note up. He tosses it into a gust of autumn air. Niou is too jealous for Yagyuu to leave anything like that in the box.
In the last box, there is a plaid handkerchief with the characters of his name stitched in tiny embroidery.
He checks his cellphone, but the inbox is empty. The lunch bell rang thirteen minutes ago. Yagyuu opens his bento from the caf-beef with udon and kelp, and edamame salad. There's an agipan in all its fried, cinnamon-y glory, and a milk, too. Yagyuu polishes off the agipan first, leaving the beef. It's Niou's favourite.
Yagyuu checks his watch. Twenty-two minutes have passed. Niou still isn't here, but some of the boys from 3D are. Their smoke drifts across the roof, acrid and stinging and heady. Yagyuu takes a deep breath before deciding he wants that smoke after all.
He alternates between his bento, a beat-up copy of Sherlock Holmes, and the cigarette in his fingers. He can hear the thwops down below on the tennis courts. Yukimura and Sanada and maybe Yanagi must be practicing for the Invitational. Yagyuu would rather finish this chapter of A Study in Scarlet instead.
A throat clears. A shadow slowly looms over Yagyuu's page. He lifts his head as Niou plunks himself down beside Yagyuu. Niou goes for the bento beef without so much as a thanks.
"Where were you?" Yagyuu sets the novel on his leg.
Niou shrugs his shoulders. "Busy."
Yagyuu takes one long, last drag. Then he steps on the butt. Niou fakes a hacking cough.
"Detention?"
"Something like that." Niou lets out a belch after he finishes off the remains of the bento. He grabs one of the boxes and opens it. He purses his lips, and Yagyuu knows what he's thinking when his Adam's Apple bobs.
"You can eat the onigiri," Yagyuu says. "I don't want it."
Niou chucks the umeboshi heart onto the rooftop. He shoves the onigiri into his mouth in two bites. "What else did they give you?"
Yagyuu picks rice pellets from his arm. He makes a bit of a face. Niou's jaw is still clenched. "Nothing much."
Niou grunts. "Puri." He runs his hand through his hair to mess it up. There's a strange smudge of white powder at the side of his face. Yagyuu doesn't ask.
There's no one else on this side of the rooftop, past the garden filled with mums and coreopsis. The 3D guys are behind the greenhouse, and blocked from view. Still, Yagyuu's stomach twists a little with apprehension when he reaches for Niou's chin. He pushes a strand of hair behind Niou's ear, out of his eyes. The white powder smudges into his hairline.
Niou tilts his chin a little, towards Yagyuu. His eyes flutter, but they don't close. "Are you doing anything tonight?"
"My father's shift ends early."
Niou turns away. Yagyuu takes Niou's chin between his thumb and index and drags it back to face him. "He'll still be late," Yagyuu says. He drops his hand onto his lap, and just in time, because the door flings open and Kirihara trips onto the rooftop.
"There you are senpais!" he says. His grin spreads. Kirihara plunks himself right between Niou and Yagyuu, and shoves something into Yagyuu's hands.
"Uh…this is, like, for your birthday and because you helped me pass my English test before."
Yagyuu says thank you. He starts to put the lumpy package into his bag, but Kirihara keeps sitting here, wiggling and jerking his knees. Niou stands up and Kirihara takes over the space Niou vacated.
Yagyuu opens the package. He puts on a smile and a nod of thanks. "No," he says, "I don't have this copy of Agatha Christie, Kirihara-kun. Thank you."
"Good!" Kirihara says. With a salute and a lol, he runs back down the stairs into the building.
"How many do you have of that?" Niou nods to the book.
Yagyuu smiles, ruefully. "Three."
***
In phys ed, Yanagi passes Yagyuu the basketball.
"I forgot earlier," Yanagi says, "but, 'Happy birthday'."
Yagyuu passes the ball to Sanada. Sanada dribbles, spins around, and shouts Sasaki's name. Sasaki looks up as the ball careens over his head, all the way across the gym to where the girls are playing, and slams into Nao's head.
All the boys stop in their tracks. Nao reaches up to her skull. There's not a pin drop, but there is the hitch in her breath that echoes in the gymnasium before she starts to cry.
Yagyuu sits with Sanada outside the head teacher's office.
"It was an accident," Sanada mutters.
Yagyuu says of course.
"I was…thinking of other things," Sanada says.
As tempted as he is, Yagyuu keeps his mouth shut. When the head teach calls Sanada into his office, Yagyuu says, "I'll tell Yukimura you'll be late this afternoon."
***
Niou is certainly not late after school. Only the boys from 3D are quicker out of the school than Niou. Yagyuu traces Niou's usual route through the streets, past the Familymart, then along the old railroad tracks. He catches up at the roadside shrine.
Niou's shoulders slouch more. He jerks his head toward Yagyuu, and his hair seems to prickle even higher.
"You can invite me for supper," Yagyuu says.
Niou shoves his hands into his pockets. He walks faster. Yagyuu jogs to keep up. "Got things to do."
"Marui-kun said you didn't have any homework."
Niou stops. "That shitface," he hisses.
"Why?"
Niou shakes his head. "Doesn't matter." He blows at the hair in his eyes, and sighs heavy and dramatic to let Yagyuu know he's pissed, even if he doesn't say anything.
"You know what day it is today," Yagyuu says.
Niou grunts. "Tuesday."
Yagyuu repeats himself. The closer they get to his house, the more difficult Niou gets. He crosses the street before the light changes to green. Yagyuu grabs him by the jacket, and snaps for him to watch it. Niou pulls himself from Yagyuu's grasp to run into the path of a scooter anyway. As soon as the light changes, Yagyuu runs across.
"Is your house really that terrible?" Yagyuu asks. Niou rolls his eyes, leans away. Yagyuu grabs his collar and pulls Niou right back to him. "Your mother likes me. Surely you should be cordial to me on my birthday."
Niou's hair stands on end. He glances to his sides, and then he hisses under his breath, "I know that."
"Well?"
He sighs again. "Couldn't you come over in a couple hours?"
As much as the thought of being home alone sans parents is appealing-and even hardens Yagyuu's dick a little, too-Yagyuu places his hands to either side of Niou. He braces himself against a retaining wall. They're down the alley parallel to Niou's house, and he can hear the traffic on the other side of the houses. Niou reaches up to Yagyuu's chest. His fingers curl more than they should to push Yagyuu away. Yagyuu breathes into Niou's ear. A liquid sort of desire pools between his legs when he whispers, "No, now is good."
Niou closes his eyes. His mouth parts enough for Yagyuu to feel the heat inside. But Niou mutters something about not in public.
Yagyuu smiles. Before Niou opens the gate at his house, he rummages in his pocket for his glasses. There's a bike by the walkway-his sister must be home too. As Niou pushes the door open, Yagyuu inhales the smells of food cooking and air freshener gone a little stale, mothballs and books and home. He tucks his shoes by the corner and slips his feet into the green slippers, left here just for him.
Niou's mother pads out from the kitchen. Her smile widens when she sees Yagyuu. Niou's scowl deepens.
"You didn't tell me Hiroshi was coming, Masaharu," she says.
Niou snorts. "He invited himself."
"Happy birthday," she tells Yagyuu. Yagyuu bows his head.
"I found a different recipe than your friend's, Masaharu." She looks at Yagyuu, and answers his raised eyebrows with a wink. Then she tells Niou, "You and Hiroshi can help me make it."
Yagyuu glances to Niou, who avoids his eye. His mother hands Niou an apron and a sheet of paper, and Yagyuu a large mixing bowl.
"You look very domestic, Niou-kun," Yagyuu says.
Niou glares. He narrows his eyes at the back of his mother's head, too.
"I don't mind helping with dinner," Yagyuu says.
Niou's mother blinks behind her glasses. Then, slowly, she nods at her son as her lips twitch. The molten afternoon light streaming through the window curtains seems to catch in her eyes.
Yagyuu shifts his weight. He keeps smiling, politely.
"It was supposed to be a surprise," Niou mutters.
"Anything will be better than this morning's attempt with your friend Marui's recipe," his mother says. "It took me two hours to clean up all the flour."
Yagyuu glances down at the sheet of paper. At the top, there is a bolded title: American-style birthday cake.
Yagyuu mulls over the heat spreading through his chest for a long moment, as Niou's mother opens cupboards for the flour and the sugar and the cocoa powder. He turns a little, brushing his elbow up to Niou's. Niou stares down at the recipe, but there is a distinctive flush to his cheeks when he says,
"I hope you like strawberries."
***
The cake sits in the centre of the table, studded with candles and strawberries woven between a lattice of cream and chocolate buttons. Niou's family sits, ringed around the table, all singing to Yagyuu-and next to him, tone-deaf and off time, Niou with them. Yagyuu moves his foot under the table. He bumps Niou's shin. Niou bumps his leg back against Yagyuu's on the last bar of "Happy Birthday."
Yagyuu takes a deep breath.
"Don't wish for anything lame," Niou says.
Yagyuu sputters. The candles flicker. Half blown out, half still burning. Yagyuu bites back a huff as Niou's mother clicks her tongue at Niou. Yagyuu inhales again, and blows out the rest to a flourish of clapping.
The cake is lopsided and the cream spread too thin in places, too thick in others. But the taste melts across Yagyuu's tongue. He runs his tongue over the back of his teeth to catch any residual chocolateyness. He finishes his piece, and says no thanks when Niou's mother offers him a second. His waistband strains from the hot pot and rice and pickles with konnyaku, homemade miso soup with mushrooms, and cake to finish. Niou pokes his finger in the cream piped along the side of the cake. His father retreats to the tv, his brother to a pile of homework, and his sister takes the dishes to the sink.
Niou swipes a strawberry from the top of the cake. Yagyuu looks at him, but Niou just shrugs. He pushes his chair back.
An invitation to go upstairs.
Behind himself, Yagyuu closes Niou's bedroom door. Niou flops across his bed, digging his feet into the pile of the blue duvet. Yagyuu steps over the tennis bag, and around the rubber snakes and learn to speak Russian books. He doesn't really want to know.
The mattress creaks as he sits down on Niou's bed. Niou half-rolls toward him, chewing on the strawberry. Red juice collects in the corner of his mouth. He keeps his eyes on Yagyuu as Yagyuu takes the glasses from his face. Then Yagyuu touches Niou's temple, taking his pair off, and folding the arms. Yagyuu blinks as his eyes adjust to the familiar blur. He leans down, close enough for the lines of Niou's face to sharpen.
"I haven't…" Niou whispers.
"What?" Yagyuu brushes his mouth over Niou's. He runs his tongue along Niou's lips, tasting the sweet trace of the berry. Niou sighs against Yagyuu's mouth.
"Wished you a 'Happy Birthday' yet," Niou murmurs.
They kiss properly, Niou opening his mouth as Yagyuu slides his tongue inside, over Niou's tongue, tracing the roof of his mouth as Niou shifts on the bed. Niou's leg rides up and over Yagyuu's thigh.
Niou pulls back. This close, his eyes are black. Yagyuu takes the strawberry from Niou's fingers. He takes a small bite, and kisses Niou again. Niou keeps his lips closed.
"No regurgitated food," he says.
Yagyuu snorts. He swallows the piece of strawberry, but vestiges remain, which Niou's tongue slides over. Yagyuu rolls over Niou, rubbing his erection on Niou's hip. Niou pushes back. Their noses bump. Yagyuu lifts his head. Niou's hand drifts down Yagyuu's back, warm and comfortable as it settles on his butt.
Yagyuu brushes his thumb across the side of Niou's face.
"Don't you need to go home soon?" Niou asks.
Yagyuu rocks his hips forward. His erection burns. His nerves tingle as Niou fumbles with the hem of his shirt. "I'd rather stay here," Yagyuu says. He takes the hand from his stomach and brings it to his mouth. Niou's fingers are stained pink under the nails. Yagyuu drags his teeth across Niou's thumb. Niou's throat bobs. He grabs the back of Yagyuu's neck again to bring him down for a kiss.
Niou's lips move across Yagyuu's as he says, "Happy Birthday, Hiroshi."
Author: Ociwen
Wordcount: 3300
Rating: Rish
Disclaimer: Konomi owns all,
Warning: Saccharine situations.
Summary: It's Yagyuu's birthday.
Author's Notes: Written for Yagyuu's birthday, 2010. Happy Birthday, Yagyuu! Readers, interpret as you will…
If you like/love/loathe, please leave a comment to let me know.
The first thing in the morning his mother says isn't "Happy birthday" or even "Good morning", but instead, "Have you seen the coffee?"
Yagyuu manages a grunt, and says he doesn't know. He helps himself to the last of the Crispy Cereal because the eggs in the fridge have disappeared, and so have yesterday's leftovers. His mother rummages through the cupboard, and throws half the boxes from the shelf. Yagyuu eats his cereal, and glances over his shoulder once or twice, narrowing his eyes and wishing she'd go back to bed.
There's a note on the table, in his father's illegible scrawl-no worse than Niou-kun's, really-home early at 9pm. Happy birthday, kid.
Yagyuu folds the note over, and tucks it into his shirt pocket. His mother huffs. She tosses a pack of cigarettes on the table. Then she makes her way through the fridge.
"The coffee won't be in there," Yagyuu says.
She doesn't turn around. Beer bottles and jars of pickles clank. The fridge hums. Yagyuu looks left, looks right, and slides the pack into his pocket. He grabs his school bag from the foyer, slips his shoes on, and closes the door a little louder than he really needs to.
At least the weather is decent. Last year, it poured buckets. This year, the ground is soft and damp from last night's rain. The first leaf or two have begun to turn gold in the park down the road. Yagyuu checks his watch-ten to seven. He checks his cellphone. Three messages in his inbox. One from Marui: Happy burrthday! One from Miho in student council asking about the last meeting's minutes. And one from Softbank, Please enjoy this bonus on your birthday…
Yagyuu deletes that one. He frowns.
Nothing from Niou.
He takes the bus, like usual, one stop past the school where he waits on the corner. The smell from Café Doutour is heady, roasted coffee in the crisp air. Yagyuu checks his phone again, then he crosses the street. He grabs a medium milk coffee to go, and sends a quick email to Niou. Where are you? You're late.
Practice starts in ten minutes. Yagyuu steps off the main road, down the alleyway sandwiched between the Café and the post office. He lights a smoke from the pack. He doesn't like the Mild Sevens very much, but it gives him something to do between sips of coffee and tennis practice. Yagyuu runs his tongue over his teeth, tasting the smoke and the coffee, and he flicks half of the cigarette to the ground.
Niou still isn't at their corner.
Yagyuu's frown deepens.
When Yagyuu lets himself into the clubhouse Yukimura is already running laps on the courts. Sanada nods once, on his way out, and mutters something that sounds like, "Happy Birthday, Yagyuu." Yagyuu says thank you anyway. He opens his locker, and reaches for his uniform. Then he stops.
The t-shirt and shorts, which should be neatly folded, have been pushed to the right side of the shelf. The canister of balls he left on the top shelf has relocated to beside his crumpled uniform.
Yagyuu blinks. Suspicion immediately flares in his stomach. He takes his uniform out. "Was someone….in my locker?" he asks. He sniffs his hands, but they're fine. He stands on his toes, but there are no insects, rubber spiders, or puddles of slime.
Yanagi shrugs. "I know nothing."
The suspicion burns even hotter. Yagyuu nods slowly, and says, "Thank you, Yanagi-kun." Yeah right.
He does his runs, then the lunges, the jumping-jacks and a rep of fifty swings, too. Then Yagyuu checks the schedule. There's nothing listed today, no matches, no yoga, and definitely no weight training. The ball machine is out-Yagyuu can hear the schwooping noise of the balls across the courts. Of course, it's Yukimura who has commandeered it, with Sanada manning the machine and supplying the balls. Yagyuu shakes his head to himself.
Jackal asks, "Rally?"
Yagyuu says, "That would be lovely, Jackal-kun."
Jackal's rallies are simple and straight-forward, unlike Niou's constant penchant for trick balls and false starts. Jackal starts the rally with a low ball that skims the net. Yagyuu dashes to mid-court and returns it. He can feel his blood pumping and his heart rate rising. Cool air rushes across his skin as he moves over the court. Jackal hits right, Yagyuu hits back left. Jackal hits a backhand, and Yagyuu returns it with one of his own. The easy rhythm is nice.
"Hey," Jackal says. He hits a volley straight down the court. "It's your birthday today, isn't it?"
Yagyuu steps to the right. The ball hits the sweet spot of his racket, and the force hums through his muscles. "Yes."
"Happy Birthday, Hiroshi," Jackal says. "Any plans?"
Yagyuu starts to open his mouth, but there's a loud shout, followed by a hearty "Fuck YOU! You said it would WORK!"
The ball bounces on Yagyuu's court. He looks over, but so does Jackal. Marui and Niou have each other by the shirt collar, near the equipment shed. Niou's hair is a mess, and he's forgotten his elastic. Marui is red-faced as he pushes back on Niou, grunting and squirming as they struggle. Niou sneers. He tries to shove Marui into the shed wall.
"I didn't say it would for sure, asswipe!" Marui says. "Not my fault you're too stupid to know how to-"
"Niou! MARUI!"
Sanada stomps over. He backhands Niou across the face, and slaps Marui the other way. "Get on the court for your laps NOW!" he shouts. Then Yukimura flashes a smile. "Oh, and Yagyuu? Happy Birthday."
Niou cups his cheek. Marui sniffles and drops his hold on Niou. Yukimura looks up from his court and shouts at Sanada, "Come back here NOW, Sanada! Niou and Marui can sort themselves out!"
As Niou jogs past, Yagyuu asks, "What was that about?"
Niou doesn't answer. Yagyuu can hear the distinct sound of a sniffle from him too.
He wishes he'd finished that smoke earlier.
***
The girls accost him at lunch. Nozomi and Maki and Haruka all bow their heads and present little boxes tied with ribbons. Heat rises to Yagyuu's face. The flush spreads down his neck when Sanada looks over with a snort.
Yagyuu thanks them all. "Happy Birthday," Haruka says. She bats her eyelashes. "Yagyuu-kun is the best, ne?"
Her friends all giggle.
Yagyuu allows himself a lingering glance back into the classroom where the girls cluster around Nozomi's desk in hushed whispers that all seem to involve Yagyuu's name. Then he closes the class door, and walks up two flights to the rooftop. He sits on top of an air vent, sets his lunch beside himself, and opens the boxes one by one.
An onigiri, with a carefully cut umeboshi in the shape of a heart on top.
A set of three chocolates, in gold foil papers. Underneath, a slip of paper with a phone number. Yagyuu reads over the numbers twice. He thinks for a moment, then crumples the note up. He tosses it into a gust of autumn air. Niou is too jealous for Yagyuu to leave anything like that in the box.
In the last box, there is a plaid handkerchief with the characters of his name stitched in tiny embroidery.
He checks his cellphone, but the inbox is empty. The lunch bell rang thirteen minutes ago. Yagyuu opens his bento from the caf-beef with udon and kelp, and edamame salad. There's an agipan in all its fried, cinnamon-y glory, and a milk, too. Yagyuu polishes off the agipan first, leaving the beef. It's Niou's favourite.
Yagyuu checks his watch. Twenty-two minutes have passed. Niou still isn't here, but some of the boys from 3D are. Their smoke drifts across the roof, acrid and stinging and heady. Yagyuu takes a deep breath before deciding he wants that smoke after all.
He alternates between his bento, a beat-up copy of Sherlock Holmes, and the cigarette in his fingers. He can hear the thwops down below on the tennis courts. Yukimura and Sanada and maybe Yanagi must be practicing for the Invitational. Yagyuu would rather finish this chapter of A Study in Scarlet instead.
A throat clears. A shadow slowly looms over Yagyuu's page. He lifts his head as Niou plunks himself down beside Yagyuu. Niou goes for the bento beef without so much as a thanks.
"Where were you?" Yagyuu sets the novel on his leg.
Niou shrugs his shoulders. "Busy."
Yagyuu takes one long, last drag. Then he steps on the butt. Niou fakes a hacking cough.
"Detention?"
"Something like that." Niou lets out a belch after he finishes off the remains of the bento. He grabs one of the boxes and opens it. He purses his lips, and Yagyuu knows what he's thinking when his Adam's Apple bobs.
"You can eat the onigiri," Yagyuu says. "I don't want it."
Niou chucks the umeboshi heart onto the rooftop. He shoves the onigiri into his mouth in two bites. "What else did they give you?"
Yagyuu picks rice pellets from his arm. He makes a bit of a face. Niou's jaw is still clenched. "Nothing much."
Niou grunts. "Puri." He runs his hand through his hair to mess it up. There's a strange smudge of white powder at the side of his face. Yagyuu doesn't ask.
There's no one else on this side of the rooftop, past the garden filled with mums and coreopsis. The 3D guys are behind the greenhouse, and blocked from view. Still, Yagyuu's stomach twists a little with apprehension when he reaches for Niou's chin. He pushes a strand of hair behind Niou's ear, out of his eyes. The white powder smudges into his hairline.
Niou tilts his chin a little, towards Yagyuu. His eyes flutter, but they don't close. "Are you doing anything tonight?"
"My father's shift ends early."
Niou turns away. Yagyuu takes Niou's chin between his thumb and index and drags it back to face him. "He'll still be late," Yagyuu says. He drops his hand onto his lap, and just in time, because the door flings open and Kirihara trips onto the rooftop.
"There you are senpais!" he says. His grin spreads. Kirihara plunks himself right between Niou and Yagyuu, and shoves something into Yagyuu's hands.
"Uh…this is, like, for your birthday and because you helped me pass my English test before."
Yagyuu says thank you. He starts to put the lumpy package into his bag, but Kirihara keeps sitting here, wiggling and jerking his knees. Niou stands up and Kirihara takes over the space Niou vacated.
Yagyuu opens the package. He puts on a smile and a nod of thanks. "No," he says, "I don't have this copy of Agatha Christie, Kirihara-kun. Thank you."
"Good!" Kirihara says. With a salute and a lol, he runs back down the stairs into the building.
"How many do you have of that?" Niou nods to the book.
Yagyuu smiles, ruefully. "Three."
***
In phys ed, Yanagi passes Yagyuu the basketball.
"I forgot earlier," Yanagi says, "but, 'Happy birthday'."
Yagyuu passes the ball to Sanada. Sanada dribbles, spins around, and shouts Sasaki's name. Sasaki looks up as the ball careens over his head, all the way across the gym to where the girls are playing, and slams into Nao's head.
All the boys stop in their tracks. Nao reaches up to her skull. There's not a pin drop, but there is the hitch in her breath that echoes in the gymnasium before she starts to cry.
Yagyuu sits with Sanada outside the head teacher's office.
"It was an accident," Sanada mutters.
Yagyuu says of course.
"I was…thinking of other things," Sanada says.
As tempted as he is, Yagyuu keeps his mouth shut. When the head teach calls Sanada into his office, Yagyuu says, "I'll tell Yukimura you'll be late this afternoon."
***
Niou is certainly not late after school. Only the boys from 3D are quicker out of the school than Niou. Yagyuu traces Niou's usual route through the streets, past the Familymart, then along the old railroad tracks. He catches up at the roadside shrine.
Niou's shoulders slouch more. He jerks his head toward Yagyuu, and his hair seems to prickle even higher.
"You can invite me for supper," Yagyuu says.
Niou shoves his hands into his pockets. He walks faster. Yagyuu jogs to keep up. "Got things to do."
"Marui-kun said you didn't have any homework."
Niou stops. "That shitface," he hisses.
"Why?"
Niou shakes his head. "Doesn't matter." He blows at the hair in his eyes, and sighs heavy and dramatic to let Yagyuu know he's pissed, even if he doesn't say anything.
"You know what day it is today," Yagyuu says.
Niou grunts. "Tuesday."
Yagyuu repeats himself. The closer they get to his house, the more difficult Niou gets. He crosses the street before the light changes to green. Yagyuu grabs him by the jacket, and snaps for him to watch it. Niou pulls himself from Yagyuu's grasp to run into the path of a scooter anyway. As soon as the light changes, Yagyuu runs across.
"Is your house really that terrible?" Yagyuu asks. Niou rolls his eyes, leans away. Yagyuu grabs his collar and pulls Niou right back to him. "Your mother likes me. Surely you should be cordial to me on my birthday."
Niou's hair stands on end. He glances to his sides, and then he hisses under his breath, "I know that."
"Well?"
He sighs again. "Couldn't you come over in a couple hours?"
As much as the thought of being home alone sans parents is appealing-and even hardens Yagyuu's dick a little, too-Yagyuu places his hands to either side of Niou. He braces himself against a retaining wall. They're down the alley parallel to Niou's house, and he can hear the traffic on the other side of the houses. Niou reaches up to Yagyuu's chest. His fingers curl more than they should to push Yagyuu away. Yagyuu breathes into Niou's ear. A liquid sort of desire pools between his legs when he whispers, "No, now is good."
Niou closes his eyes. His mouth parts enough for Yagyuu to feel the heat inside. But Niou mutters something about not in public.
Yagyuu smiles. Before Niou opens the gate at his house, he rummages in his pocket for his glasses. There's a bike by the walkway-his sister must be home too. As Niou pushes the door open, Yagyuu inhales the smells of food cooking and air freshener gone a little stale, mothballs and books and home. He tucks his shoes by the corner and slips his feet into the green slippers, left here just for him.
Niou's mother pads out from the kitchen. Her smile widens when she sees Yagyuu. Niou's scowl deepens.
"You didn't tell me Hiroshi was coming, Masaharu," she says.
Niou snorts. "He invited himself."
"Happy birthday," she tells Yagyuu. Yagyuu bows his head.
"I found a different recipe than your friend's, Masaharu." She looks at Yagyuu, and answers his raised eyebrows with a wink. Then she tells Niou, "You and Hiroshi can help me make it."
Yagyuu glances to Niou, who avoids his eye. His mother hands Niou an apron and a sheet of paper, and Yagyuu a large mixing bowl.
"You look very domestic, Niou-kun," Yagyuu says.
Niou glares. He narrows his eyes at the back of his mother's head, too.
"I don't mind helping with dinner," Yagyuu says.
Niou's mother blinks behind her glasses. Then, slowly, she nods at her son as her lips twitch. The molten afternoon light streaming through the window curtains seems to catch in her eyes.
Yagyuu shifts his weight. He keeps smiling, politely.
"It was supposed to be a surprise," Niou mutters.
"Anything will be better than this morning's attempt with your friend Marui's recipe," his mother says. "It took me two hours to clean up all the flour."
Yagyuu glances down at the sheet of paper. At the top, there is a bolded title: American-style birthday cake.
Yagyuu mulls over the heat spreading through his chest for a long moment, as Niou's mother opens cupboards for the flour and the sugar and the cocoa powder. He turns a little, brushing his elbow up to Niou's. Niou stares down at the recipe, but there is a distinctive flush to his cheeks when he says,
"I hope you like strawberries."
***
The cake sits in the centre of the table, studded with candles and strawberries woven between a lattice of cream and chocolate buttons. Niou's family sits, ringed around the table, all singing to Yagyuu-and next to him, tone-deaf and off time, Niou with them. Yagyuu moves his foot under the table. He bumps Niou's shin. Niou bumps his leg back against Yagyuu's on the last bar of "Happy Birthday."
Yagyuu takes a deep breath.
"Don't wish for anything lame," Niou says.
Yagyuu sputters. The candles flicker. Half blown out, half still burning. Yagyuu bites back a huff as Niou's mother clicks her tongue at Niou. Yagyuu inhales again, and blows out the rest to a flourish of clapping.
The cake is lopsided and the cream spread too thin in places, too thick in others. But the taste melts across Yagyuu's tongue. He runs his tongue over the back of his teeth to catch any residual chocolateyness. He finishes his piece, and says no thanks when Niou's mother offers him a second. His waistband strains from the hot pot and rice and pickles with konnyaku, homemade miso soup with mushrooms, and cake to finish. Niou pokes his finger in the cream piped along the side of the cake. His father retreats to the tv, his brother to a pile of homework, and his sister takes the dishes to the sink.
Niou swipes a strawberry from the top of the cake. Yagyuu looks at him, but Niou just shrugs. He pushes his chair back.
An invitation to go upstairs.
Behind himself, Yagyuu closes Niou's bedroom door. Niou flops across his bed, digging his feet into the pile of the blue duvet. Yagyuu steps over the tennis bag, and around the rubber snakes and learn to speak Russian books. He doesn't really want to know.
The mattress creaks as he sits down on Niou's bed. Niou half-rolls toward him, chewing on the strawberry. Red juice collects in the corner of his mouth. He keeps his eyes on Yagyuu as Yagyuu takes the glasses from his face. Then Yagyuu touches Niou's temple, taking his pair off, and folding the arms. Yagyuu blinks as his eyes adjust to the familiar blur. He leans down, close enough for the lines of Niou's face to sharpen.
"I haven't…" Niou whispers.
"What?" Yagyuu brushes his mouth over Niou's. He runs his tongue along Niou's lips, tasting the sweet trace of the berry. Niou sighs against Yagyuu's mouth.
"Wished you a 'Happy Birthday' yet," Niou murmurs.
They kiss properly, Niou opening his mouth as Yagyuu slides his tongue inside, over Niou's tongue, tracing the roof of his mouth as Niou shifts on the bed. Niou's leg rides up and over Yagyuu's thigh.
Niou pulls back. This close, his eyes are black. Yagyuu takes the strawberry from Niou's fingers. He takes a small bite, and kisses Niou again. Niou keeps his lips closed.
"No regurgitated food," he says.
Yagyuu snorts. He swallows the piece of strawberry, but vestiges remain, which Niou's tongue slides over. Yagyuu rolls over Niou, rubbing his erection on Niou's hip. Niou pushes back. Their noses bump. Yagyuu lifts his head. Niou's hand drifts down Yagyuu's back, warm and comfortable as it settles on his butt.
Yagyuu brushes his thumb across the side of Niou's face.
"Don't you need to go home soon?" Niou asks.
Yagyuu rocks his hips forward. His erection burns. His nerves tingle as Niou fumbles with the hem of his shirt. "I'd rather stay here," Yagyuu says. He takes the hand from his stomach and brings it to his mouth. Niou's fingers are stained pink under the nails. Yagyuu drags his teeth across Niou's thumb. Niou's throat bobs. He grabs the back of Yagyuu's neck again to bring him down for a kiss.
Niou's lips move across Yagyuu's as he says, "Happy Birthday, Hiroshi."