Title: Sacrificial Battle Scars
Chapter(s): 2/xx
Author:
sentimentalenvy Genre: AU/Romance/little angsty
Rating: PG-13 - R
Warnings: language
Pairing/Characters: Uruha/Aoi, Reita/Ruki, Reita/Kai (one-sided)
Synopsis: The life of every high school student can be a bitch. As a second year high school student, Aoi already thinks that he has seen it all. Truth is, he hardly even knows half of what is in store for him.
Comments: Yes, yes this is your typical kind of high school kind of story thing. I did it cause I felt like it D:
2
"Uruha...I. No, I shouldn't start off by saying his name straight out like that," Aoi murmured to his reflection in his mirror. He cleared his throat before he started again. "But then I should address him by his name first," He nodded to himself in confirmation. "T-Takashima senpai," He said clearly, glaring at his mirror.
"I'm. My name is Shiroyama..." Aoi stared at himself for what seemed like ages before he let out a sigh of frustration. "God damn it I forgot my name!" Aoi threw himself away from the mirror and took a breath before he watched his reflection in the mirror. "Alright, you can do this Aoi. I know you can," He said, closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before he began once more.
"My name is Shiroyama Aoi. You probably don't know me...but, I have been watching-" Oh god that just made him sound more of a stalker. "I have seen you around, and...oh god hell with it," Aoi muttered.
"I think I love you Uruha," Aoi spoke softly as he looked up at the mirror shyly. He really had no reason to be shy in front of his own mirror or his own reflection. But in a strange way, he sort of really imagined it was Uruha's reflection in front of him instead of his own.
Aoi found it to be a lot easier this way, so it had been easier to confess. He had to let it out somewhere. There was no way he could say it to Uruha, but it made him feel better to say it. It didn't need to be spoken to anyone in particular, but he loved the way it rolled of his tongue so freely, beacuse he meant it.
"I like you...I...love you? I love you," Aoi said in a voice that was firm and confident. This feeling felt great. Aoi stepped a little closer to his mirror, and this time, he could have sworn he saw Uruha right in front of him.
He slowly stood up on his toes, and softly kissed Uruha's soft lips which were cold from the mirror, but in his mind gave him a different sort of illusion - soft and warm. His lips felt tingly, and he found that he wanted more. He was probably insane, but nobody could blame him because Aoi didn't believe anyone if they told them that they knew how he felt. Pushing his lips a little harder against the cold surface of the mirror, reality suddenly didn't exist.
Reita threw his backpack onto the couch and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He looked to the right to see Aoi's mother digging around in the fridge for preparations for dinner, and when she had let Reita in earlier, she insisted that Reita stay for dinner. Reita never minded, because Aoi's mother's cooking was great.
"Aoi's upstairs in his room if you wanna bother him," Aoi's mother smiled at Reita as she set the bag of onions on top of the kitchen counter.
"Thanks!" Reita grinned, and a goofy smile made its way onto his face as he zoomed his way upstairs while sprinting two steps at a time.
Whenever Reita visited Aoi's home, it was always the same drill. Majority of the time, Aoi was always up in his room fooling around with his guitar, doing his homework or taking a nap. Reita hopped up the last step and made a quick stride over to Aoi's bedroom door and pushed it open with an enthusiastic smile upon his face.
"Aoi~!" Reita's smile immediately faltered as he stared at Aoi who was practically making out with that damn mirror. "Dude, what the fuck?!"
Aoi was immediately as still as a sculpture as Reita had figured that he had been caught red handed. The brunette immediately latched himself away from that cursed mirror and stuttered for an explanation, an excuse.
"Uh...I was practicing for the school play!" Aoi huffed as he looked away in embarrassment, but Reita wasn't buying any of it. Instead, Reita shook his head. "What?!" Aoi let out a huff, still not being able to look at Reita in the face.
"You're a sick boy Aoi," Reita frowned, but then suddenly it looked as if he was trying to hide his laughter. Who would have thought Aoi would go into such extreme?
"Shut up!" Aoi frowned as he immediately headed straight for his chair. Plopping himself down, he crossed his arms and continued to look anywhere but Reita's direction.
"Man if I had come in a few minutes later, would you have been half humping the mirror by then?" Reita let out an involuntary snort, and withing seconds he had thrown himself onto Aoi's bed. Bursting out laughter that he could hardly contain anymore, Reita held on to his stomach as he laughed, and heard Aoi's frustrated groan and insults which followed right after.
"Shut the hell up Reita! After all these years, you're still so rude! Who told you to just come barging into my room without knocking?!"
"I didn't think it became an issue until now," Reita laughed, trying to calm himself down, he sat up and attempted to take deep breaths. That image was priceless. Aoi would never live it down if he kept on mentioning it. But he had to admit, it was an epic WIN.
"Shut up Shut up Shut up!" Aoi ended up smacking Reita hard on the arm. "You are not telling anyone what you saw is that understood?!"
"I am not going to tell a soul," Reita pursed his lips and nodded once.
"Nobody. I will butcher you alive if I hear any of this getting out. If you care for me as a friend you are not telling anybody you hear?"
"Yes ma'am!" Reita gave Aoi a cheeky grin as Aoi pouted and crossed his arms. Silence overtook them both, and Aoi fidgeted awkwardly before plopping down next to Reita on his bed.
"If you like him so much then why don't you tell him?" Reita asked, settling onto his back, he placed both of his feet onto the bed. "I mean, how long has it been? Almost two years? That's kind of long isn't it?"
"I don't know if he feels that way about guys. You have to do your research first. Have I taught you nothing?" Aoi shot Reita a little glare.
"Uh no thanks. I don't need any of your stalker lessons. That's gonna creep the shit out of any guy you come across. I thought you'd figure that out by now?" He smiled, but Aoi didn't.
"I'm serious about him."
"I know you are."
"Then why do I get the feeling you're not being very supportive?" Aoi half whined, and copied Reita in lying back on his bad. "I thought you were my best friend."
"I am," Reita simply said, and he continued to stare at the ceiling. "I just don't think he's a good guy for you that's all. You might hear this line countless of times in the movies, and it may sound corny and cheesy and shit, but I'll say it to you anyway. I don't want you getting hurt. You're not the only one that observes you know. I mean I may not know the guy down to his underwear size, but from what I've observed, I don't think I like the idea of letting a cold hearted fool like him take care of you," Reita admitted sheepily. He knew Aoi knew where he was getting at. Hopefully he would understand Reita's objectives.
"I don't see him as cold hearted at all," Aoi said.
"You're just being naive as usual. Out of all the guys you've been through, none of them has ever taken you seriously," Reita let out a disgusted snort. "Those broken limbs of theirs shouldn't deserve to heal."
"You know I don't like you resorting to violence," Aoi scowled, letting his head fall to his right to look at Reita. "Plase don't beat this one up."
"Unfortunately, I don't have a reason to," Reita mimicked Aoi's movements and watched Aoi as well. "But, if you really like this guy, don't let it drag on any longer. Our Sophomore year is almost over. Are you gonna let it become an official two years? As cruel as this sounds, if he doesn't accept you, then he's not good enough for you. Let him go and move on to someone who really does care for you," Reita said, watching the lines of Aoi's eyebrows slowly furrow together.
Aoi was always beautiful in Reita's eyes, but he had never felt anything more for this person than a friend, a protector. Aoi had actually gotten him thinking about his sexual orientation at times during their long years of friendship, but after many random moments of debating with himself, he had come to a conclusion that Aoi was only like his brother and nothing more. But if he was placed in a different situation, he probably would go for it. Sometimes he even wished he liked guys, but only for Aoi's sake. That wouldn't make him gay or bi, it would just make him...Aoisexual? A soft scoft and a chuckle escaped from Reita's throat, which had Aoi furrowing his eyebrows even more in suspicion.
"What the hell is going on in that big stupid head of yours?" Aoi frowned.
"Nothing," Reita grinned. "I was just thinking about how I should have had a digital camera for that funny spur of the moment you had there. It's a shame I left my phone downstairs," Reita pouted playfully as Aoi shot up and shot Reita an angry stare.
"You promised."
"I know," Reita said, sitting up. "I won't tell anyone. Swear."
* * * * * * * * * *
Aoi hopped two steps at a time up the stairs towards the double doors of the main building. He tried his hardest not to be embarrassed about it all, but he just couldn't help it. The look on Reita's face made his cheeks burn, and as much as he trusted his friend, he couldn't help but wonder if Reita had told one person. God, it was all too embarrassing.
The whole day had passed by so quickly, and he had seen Uruha hang out with his friends at the usual spots. He had seen Uruha running down the street away from school with the track team. Reita's words echoed into his mind over and over about how much of a coward he was. He was, Aoi was going to admit it.
The thing that bugged him was that...he really didn't like being a coward. He was gay, but that didn't mean he wasn't a man. He had his pride, but it was just buried somewhere. Somewhere. He didn't want to bother trying to find it, but there was a voice picking at his gut, telling him to take that damn chance.
Aoi knew he was better than more than half the team. No, he was better than all of them. They were fast, but Aoi believed he could be faster. He had watched along the sidelines, and he had heard the coach call out the times, and the only times that really impressed him was Uruha's. Of course - captain of the team would always be the best. There were no biased feelings in the way when he felt impressed, and it gave him more of a reason to admire him.
Ugh, what was he thinking? Uruha was going to graduate soon, so it didn't matter. Aoi didn't need to confess to him, because he kept on telling him it was a little crush, and there were other things to worry about. Focusing on his studies was important, and his love life always came after his future. Reita kept on telling him over and over about how important his career was, and he tried to convince Aoi to look for love after college.
Aoi knew Reita loved to toss in little lies here and there. Majority of the lies, he actually did believe as a kid. But even in their middle school days, Reita hadn't seemed to want to stop. Sex was supposed to hurt, but he didn't have to say 'the thing' was never gonna fit. Those fake horror stories were supposed to scare him. Sometimes Aoi felt like Reita did take him for an idiot, and that pissed him off so much.
Trudging his way towards the auditorium, Aoi didn't really feel like meeting up with the cast. When Aoi told Reita he was practicing for a play, he wasn't kidding. His part didn't include any kissing scenes though. For once, he was supposed to play as one of the orians, and most likely none of the guys who were casted were gay, and if they were, he'd highly doubt they'd want to even admit it. Aoi already mentioned that he refused to walk around with a white face. It wasn't his style, but he knew the cast members were going to pin him down and powder 'doll' him up. Either way, it was hopeless.
Why Aoi was casted as a high class prostitute most definitely made him feel some what degraded in a way. Then again what did he know about the history? He just wanted his transcript to look good for the colleges in the future. But in a way, it didn't really upset him too much. With a sigh, Aoi pushed the double doors to the auditorium open, and already, the whole cast was lounging around the seats and the drama teacher was already trying to settle them down.
Aoi slumped his way along the asile and came to a stop right in the middle as he saw a familiar looking figure make his way from the second right exit of the auditorium. Aoi watched him make his way towards the teacher and he began to converse with her. Oxygen didn't exist at the very moment, and Aoi was breathing in absolutely nothing when he didn't even feel his heart suddenly stop from the shock. What the hell...
Out of all the most ridiculous things that Aoi had experienced in his life, he had never expected Uruha to be here, possibly trying out in the school play. Or, the principle of the high school hooking him up. Just by being the principle's son, Uruha had all the priviledges anyone in the school could ever imagine. Some hated him for that, and some admired him for that.
After Mrs. Shinagawa had spoken with Uruha for a little bit, she turned her head to see Aoi, who was still standing in the middle of the aisle. Furrowing her eyebrows for a moment, she called out Aoi's name and Aoi immediately snapped out of his thoughts. Shit. Aoi looked at Mrs. Shinagawa, and it was only natural to shift his gaze over to Uruha who was looking directly at him with an indescribable expression. He probably thought Aoi was a freak right from the start.
Knowing better than to loose his thoughts while staring at Uruha's features, he pulled himself out of that vortex and quickly made his way down the aisle to join the rest of the cast. He could feel Mrs. Shinagawa's curious stare, but he immediately shrugged it off by sitting next to a cast member. Attempting to make himself blend in, he randomly popped up a random conversation about the play.
He was too stressed and nervous to even know who he was talking to, so when the boy turned around, he felt his heart stop this time. Shit. Uke Kai? What the hell was going on in this world?! He knew Kai had participated in the play, but he had no idea how bad his luck had gotten. Aoi wanted a diversion, and his diversion happened to be Uruha's best fried. Great. Aoi was going to apologize and make his escape to pretend to engage into another conversation with, but Kai had suddenly smiled.
Knowing Kai, he was one of the friendliest people anyone could ever meet. Aoi groaned inwardly, and with a smile like Kai's it was near impossible to excuse himself, because he knew he would seem rude for doing so. Aoi smiled back and settled down uneasily into his seat as Kai went on about how excited he was.
"Aa this is a great feeling isn't it?!" Kai asked happily as he was sort of bouncing in his seat. "Oh, I've never introduced myself! I'm Kai," He let out his hand for Aoi to shake. "I'm sorry I'm not usually like this...well, I guess I do get carried away from time to time, but I hope that won't scare you," He chuckled as Aoi shook his hand.
"It's alright. It's nice to meet friendly people such as yourself," Aoi nodded politely. "I'm Aoi."
"Yup, I know who you are," Kai nodded and Aoi stared at him in surprise.
"Huh?" Aoi could only ask that with a bewildered, and probably stupid look on his face.
"Your class is always doing P.E. by our field," Kai admitted with a sheepish look on his face. "I don't mean to freak you out or anything, but I always see your class running the mile every Mondays and you really are amazing!" He grinned as Aoi immediately feel his cheeks heat up once more.
"Th-Thank you..." Aoi didn't know what else to say. A senior was actually praising him. Around this school, underclassmen didn't really get that much attention, especially when they were either Freshmen or Sophomors.
"I mean, wow! You were so fast! I've always wondered why you were never in the track team with us. You should really try out for the second semester you know? It's coming up next week, and I'm most positive that you'll make it into the Varsity!"
Aoi's eyes immediately widened and he gasped a little in shock. Him? Join? Hadn't he told himself that as long as Uruha was on the team he wouldn't consider joining? How to reject Kai's suggestion? He had no idea how. The only thing he could possibly think of saying was awh hell no.
"I...I don't think I am," Aoi mumbled a little too softly, but Kai's ears seemed sensitive enough to pick it up.
"Why not?" He asked with a pout. "Don't you like running? I've noticed that the fast runners are the ones with strong determination. The guys on our team are always like that. They put their abilities to good use. I'm sure you'd want to do the same for yourself and besides," He let out a little scoff and a roll of his eyes. "I think you'd be a real serious competition for Uruha."
"What about me?" Came that deep voice that suddenly came up from behind Kai, who apparently squeaked at Uruha's sudden appearance.
"Uh nothing. Just talking to Aoi about how he can prolly kick your ass," He joked as Uruha shifted his gaze to Aoi with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh really?"
Aoi gulped. Shit. The very thing he feared was staring at him right in the face. Competition? Reita's words echoed once more into his head. Right, okay. Aoi will admit it to the world, and he would probably even scream at Uruha in surrender. If Uruha was going to make him wave a white flag, hell he'd do it!
"N-Well..." Aoi mumbled to nobody in particular as a string of incoherent babbles flew out of his mouth. Kai laughed and pulled Uruha to sit down next to him.
"Don't feel intimidated by him Aoi," Kai continued to let out those little happy laughs. "Oh yeah, Uruha you know Aoi. The fast kid we've been watching for the past oh? What? Year and a half?" Kai turned around towards Aoi. "Again, please don't be afraid. We were just curious about you," He gave Aoi a reassuring look followed by a stern nod.
"So at last. Meeting Aoi in the flesh huh?" Uruha spoke in that low voice Aoi had always craved to hear more than 10 feet of watching distance. And Uruha had just spoken his name. His name had never sounded sexier coming from those plump lips.
Aoi couldn't stop fidgeting in his seat. His palms were already sweating, and he couldn't help but feel well - helpless. What was he going to say? He didn't have a clue, but he was afraid if he opened his mouth he was 99.9% sure he was going to end up saying something incredibly stupid.
"My mom is making me participate in this," Aoi suddenly heard Uruha speak to Kai. Well that was somewhat rude. He didn't bother looking at Aoi after that comment.
"It's so like her to push you into something like this," Kai chuckled in amusement as Uruha scowled and nudged at him.
"Shut up. I just wanna get this thing over with. She's always trying to embarrass me and stick me in girl clothes," He said that super softly, but Aoi's ears being super sonic sensitive, he heard it all."Does he speak?" Aoi heard Uruha ask Kai quietly. But amongst the chatter of everyone else, Aoi could hear Uruha perfectly.
"Don't be rude," Kai murmured soflty, but Aoi could hear him as well.
"Y-Yes," He suddenly spoke up, and Uruha and Kai took a glance towards Aoi.
"Guess he does speak," Uruha noted, and chuckled before he leaned back against his seat.
"Come on Aoi...at least consider it?" Kai asked, and watched Aoi with hopeful eyes.
"I..." Aoi started to speak, but he stopped, and watched Uruha from behind Kai. He didn't seem like he cared at all.
Aoi felt a little pang of frustration as Uruha closed his eyes and it looked like he was going to nap. In class? Aoi furrowed his eyebrows and stared downwards. He knew Uruha always had this smugness towards everything, and anything but track, he did everything half assed. Uruha didn't take him seriously, did he?
He suddenly felt this flame of annoyance mixed with confidence rise in his chest. Well...why the hell not? He had no idea where this confidence was coming from, but the feeling of being smug kind of made Aoi feel good. Maybe this was a chance from the heavens. What kind of a fool would be to throw this chance away?
"I think I will try out for the next semester," Aoi grinned as he snuck a teasing glance at Uruha who still had his eyes shut.
Aoi fought the urge to smile any wider when he saw Uruha's ear twitch a little. Uruha heard, and even if he was going to pretend that he didn't hear, or didn't care, Aoi wasn't going to buy any of it. Uruha was going to graduate this year, so Aoi might as well make the blonde notice him just this once...or maybe not only once.
He finally realized what Reita had been trying to get at. Aoi was going to thank his best friend later, but in the meantime he was having too much fun. To finally see a different sort of expression coming from the blonde, Aoi found it so addicting. He wanted to see more.
"Really?!" Kai asked as he half sat up from his seat. "You won't regret it Aoi! The guys are really nice, and we all treat each other like family," He smiled and turned towards Uruha to see the blonde with his eyes still closed. "Hey!" Kai frowned and poked at Uruha sharply in the ribs.
Uruha twitched and opened his eyes groggily to shoot a glare at Kai. He looked at Aoi with those naturally born seductive eyes and Aoi just stared back curiously.
"Well, I don't see why not. Like Kai said, I could use some competition. You are pretty good. I'll give you that," Uruha smirked, and Aoi was already glad he was sitting down. Melting in a puddle of goo wasn't realistic, but Aoi was beginning to think that in his case, it was probably possible.
"Alright guys settle down! We are already behind schedule!" Mrs. Shinagawa said, clapping her hands to gather the students' attention.
This was it. Aoi had finally made that decision for himself, and boy was Reita going to be proud of him. He seemed sort of proud of himself in a way, and maybe he was going to have fun competing with him. He had always dreamt about getting closer to Uruha, or even plotted on ways to 'accidentally' bump into him, but this...this took the cake. This mistake was probably the best mistake of his life. Picking Kai to talk to by accident...how suddenly convenient could this situation get?
Aoi confirmed the challenge with a nod.
"Bring it pretty boy," He murmured quietly as Mrs. Shinagawa raised her voice once more to get the students to shut up. Over that loud yapping voice, Aoi knew Uruha heard those two words, because from the corner of his eye he could see Uruha watching him with a predatory glint in those usual sleepy eyes that didn't even look so bored anymore.
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