Voice fic
But before we get to the Voice fic, I have another story of familial corruption!
My twin sister, chelle_sama, does not have much to do with Arashi. She will listen to me tell stories about their retarded antics, she will listen to some of the songs sometimes. She will look at any picture of any of them snuggling a rabbit and she will watch awesome fanvids like this and this and this. My point is: She's not an Arashi fan the way the husband and children are. But today! I was watching the TSD special where Aiba does the whole 'its face feels like my nuts' thing with the orangutan. And
Chelle: That poor monkey.
Me: ???
Chelle: It's going to be molested by fangirls wanting to know what Aiba's nuts feel like.
...yeah. I found it worth sharing. I'll take my small victories where I can find them.
Now, onto the fic. I make no promises as I'm still really struggling with writer's block. The first section was written just in time for me to hit the wall.
Five
Touch
He knows who Hanei Akira is, of course. He's had classes with him before in the three-plus years they've been in medical school together. Still, the first time Hanei ever touches him, Teppei really is scared. He's at the notice board, looking to see if he got the Forensics seminar, when a voice growls in his ear and hands land heavy on his shoulders. He hasn't done anything but that's never stopped anybody before. He does what he always does when the situation calls for it (it's been years, but he still remembers how it goes): he goes limp, he meets no eyes, he agrees.
It's only after he's set back on his feet and watching Hanei stroll off that he figures out what Hanei has said to him. "It looks like we're classmates; don't forget to tell me good morning when you see me."
He stutters out a garbled version of both 'nice to meet you' and 'please take care of me' to Hanei's retreating back, mangling them together horribly but seeing Hanei's hand raise in response as he keeps walking without looking back.
Teppei knows, in a very logical sort of way, that Hanei is not a dangerous thug. Aside from the whole Yankee rumor thing, Hanei is a fourth-year medical student just the same as is Teppei.
This means that Hanei studies, he works hard, and he wants to help people.
This means that Hanei is not going to beat him up for no good reason because beating up anybody, including Teppei, is a good way to get kicked out of school and waste years of hard work.
This means that Teppei is safe with Hanei pretty much all of the time, no matter what Hanei is doing to him.
Knowing this in a logical way doesn't help Teppei very much but it does help a little and the next time Hanei grabs him (in the campus cafeteria), Teppei isn't so much scared as he is nervous. He doesn't know what it is that Hanei wants from him and Hanei never says. Hanei just keeps up a steady barrage of pushes, pulls, clutches, shoves, grabs, holds, pins, stares, glowers, and threats that all ultimately go nowhere at all and leave Teppei confused and mildly alarmed.
And then, eventually, Teppei realizes something that is really sort of important: Hanei is gentle with him.
The more he thinks about all of it, the more he thinks about the way that Hanei handles him, the more obvious it becomes. No matter how roughly Hanei pulls him over, how high off the ground Hanei lifts him, or how hard Hanei tackles him flat, there is never a second of pain. It never hurts, not ever. Sometimes it's uncomfortable and sometimes Hanei's glares and scowls really are a little unnerving, but now Teppei knows.
Hanei is playing with him. It's a game and when he's done with the game, Hanei will straighten Teppei's clothing with yanks and tugs and Hanei will let go of him with a solid, friendly thump. It's just hard enough that Teppei can feel it and know that it's real but light enough that it isn't overwhelming.
"Oi." Hanei's hands hook in his lab coat, dragging him up from his chair.
"Um. Yes?" Teppei can't help the way his stomach jumps a little in the first few seconds of Hanei getting into his personal space.
Hanei hauls him toward the door, striping his white lab coat down roughly before pushing him at the lockers. "My mom said to bring you by. She says I finally have respectable friends and none of you eat enough. It's like she thinks you're all going to drop dead. You're not but I can't take another night of that woman shrieking like some demon ghost so you're coming with me."
Teppei thinks that it's the end of the month and he's running short on cash again and eating a lot of instant noodles because he'll get yelled at if his gas gets shut off again. He thinks that Hanei was over two nights ago to watch movies and complain about the noodles and order pizza.
"Hurry up!" Hanei wrestles him into his backpack and then nearly strangles him as he winds his scarf around his neck and Teppei thinks again that Hanei knows how to do this, with him. This touching thing. Hanei shoves him out the door and drags him down the steps, half holding him in a loose choke-hold as they go.
He thinks that Hanei could have been a surgeon.
Hearing
Teppei has lived alone ever since he started at university. Living alone, he had discovered, is quiet. It used to bother him quite a bit and so he's usually got a game going or a dvd playing and they provide sound but they're never…well, they're just sound. Up until just recently, his whole life had been quiet.
The other students in the Forensics seminar are noisy. He's not sure when (or why) his apartment became one of the department hang-outs, but Teppei can usually count on at least one of the others to be in his apartment at any given time. Usually there's more than one and if there is, there's bickering. At first he thinks that it's Daiki's fault but one day he realizes that most of it can actually be blamed on Ryousuke.
Daiki might ask 'why' a lot and he might make random observations and he'll definitely challenge Aki-chan if he can but it's Ryousuke who indulges him. Ryousuke will explain why. Ryousuke will defend his explanation. Ryousuke is just as likely to draw everybody else in to it, too, depending on how the conversation is starting to skew.
It's not something that Teppei will ever say, but he thinks that Ryousuke-with his ability to talk to almost anybody about almost anything, serious or not-is sort of like an idol star. Ryousuke makes it easy to talk, he's really approachable, and he sets a good mood wherever he goes. Teppei isn't shy with Ryousuke around, bickering with Daiki over weird things and setting up stupid jokes.
"So I was watching this show last night," Ryousuke says over the clinking of test-tubes as he exchanges batches of samples in the lab.
"Drama?" Teppei asks, though he's betting it's not. Ryousuke is grinning so much it's practically a laugh.
"One of those masked-rider things," Ryousuke says. "And there was this guy who looked just like Hanei."
Teppei swallows back a smile as he loads the centrifuge machine. "Just like Hanei?"
"Oi," says Hanei, whose hands are busy under the fume hood.
"Just like him," Ryousuke confirms. And then pauses, making a thoughtful face. "Well, just like him if Hanei had been…" he says, and makes a gesture with his new rack of tubes.
"Respectable?" Teppei offers.
"You," scowls Hanei.
"Yeah," says Ryousuke. "Without the-" and he gestures again.
"Beard and dyed hair and Yankee jacket?" Teppei questions.
"That," Ryousuke nods. "And this guy-who looked just like Hanei-"
"If he had been respectable."
"Yes, if Hanei looked respectable, this guy had…" Ryousuke motions with a beaker before putting it away and leaning back against the counter. "What is it again? You know what I mean, Teppei; those things you have when you're a respectable person with a nice personality and people like being by you."
"Friends!" Teppei guesses as he finishes setting up the tests.
"Those!" Ryousuke agrees excitedly.
"You two…" Hanei growls and there is a loud bang as the fume hood slams closed.
The door makes a louder bang as Ryousuke throws it open and Kaburagi makes a fed-up sounding 'tch' when Ryousuke shoves Teppei out the door ahead of him. Their running steps are pattering out of pace with each other and Hanei's boots are a heavy and ominous pounding behind them. Teppei can't hear Hanei's threats because he and Ryousuke are laughing too loud and Aki is shrieking as she jumps out of their way and Daiki is yelling 'why' after them.
Somehow, Teppei's life just isn't quiet anymore.
Sight
Teppei is the first person to acknowledge the fact that 'average' and 'nondescript' are the best ways to describe him. He is also the first person to say that those words are what makes it perfectly all right for him to stare at Daiki.
Daiki almost passes for 'average' in the looks department. He certainly doesn't look as wildly different as, say, Hanei or Aki (who looks different just because she's a girl in a room full of boys). Daiki isn't overly tall, he's not terribly short, he's not fat and he isn't thin. The most noticeable things about Daiki are his big ears and his hair that really does stand up all by itself and his green coat.
Although Teppei does sort of dig the coat.
But really, the real reason why Teppei stares at Daiki is because Daiki isn't average at all when he thinks.
When Daiki thinks, there's something about him that practically snaps in the air like electricity and gleams like quicksilver. His eyes open wide and his mouth takes on a certain set and he seems to absorb everything going on around him. Somehow, even just standing next to him, everything seems so much brighter, clearer, sharper around the edges and so the little puzzling things stand cleanly out from everything else.
Then the pieces fall together. There are a number of small gestures Daiki makes when the pieces of their puzzles fall into place-his eyes fluttering closed, his fingers to his temple or his chin, the way his body curves in on itself like he's trying to keep the pieces close-and Teppei notices them but they're not what really draws his eyes. What draws him in is the way everything that is Daiki becomes focused, compressed, all at once and Daiki practically glows white and gold as the answer falls into place, as clear and sharp and vivid as everything else in Daiki's world. It seems like even the dust motes in the air around him get suddenly still and then, just as suddenly, seem to become charged like electrons.
Watching Daiki think has a feeling like watching CSI.
And because it's like that it's even better watching Daiki be completely and utterly baffled.
"There doesn't have to be a reason!" Aki insists loudly.
"If there isn't a reason then why won't you?" Daiki demands.
Ryousuke slid into the seat next to Teppei and nodded at the others, leaning in to ask lowly, "What's that about?"
Daiki hears him, turning to him instantly. "If you don't have a full load of laundry to wash wouldn't you want to wait until you had a full load?" he asks.
"We went to the laundry on campus and Aki was there," Teppei explains. "Daiki wanted her to add his lab coat to her load because it wasn't full."
Aki turned on him. "It was full enough! And why should I add his laundry to mine? He'd-"
"Stingy!" Daiki says, leaning in to Aki's space and poking her shoulder. "Aki-chan is stingy."
Aki bats his hand away and then bats it away again. "You'd complain about my soap choices or my fabric softener!" she tells him.
Teppei sets his chin in his hand and watches Daiki getting progressively more confused about Aki's protestations, apparently completely unaware of how close to Aki he is standing and how much closer he is getting as time goes on and how Aki's cheeks are pink and her eyes aren't quite meeting his even as she pushes at him with hands that maybe linger a little longer than they do on anybody else.
"I'm not washing your things with mine!" Aki repeats.
"Maybe she's afraid you'll see her bra," Ryousuke volunteers.
"Hey!" says Hanei warningly as Aki lets out a shriek that is probably composed of equal parts rage, frustration, and embarrassment.
"Hah?" says Daiki. "What would it matter if I saw Aki's bra?" he asks.
"I'm going to the lab," Aki announces before storming out.
Daiki tilts his head, looking at the door that seemed to still be rattling with the force of Aki's exit. "…hah?" he says again.
"Daiki," Ryousuke says, folding his arms.
"It's not like I'd be seeing it on Aki," Daiki says, still looking pensive.
"Daiki," says Hanei with a level stare.
"It'd be in a pile of clothes, right? It's not even like it'd be on a store mannequin like at one of those shops that specializes," Daiki goes on his head slowly tilting the other way, eyes still on the door.
Teppei can feel Ryousuke and Hanei's eyes land on him.
He looks at Daiki. "That's true," he agrees.
Daiki lights up. "Right! So what's the problem?"
The air around Daiki crackles as Daiki moves through it, asking and asking and asking and Teppei hopes he's there when Daiki finally figures out that Aki likes him and that he likes her, too.
Smell
"You smell different today," he says without thinking.
"Eh?" says Aki with a wide-eyed look.
Teppei is not a pervert. He's not one of those weird guys who hangs around smarmy stores and buys questionable magazines. Teppei is a regular guy and, more importantly, a bit of a nerd. He's not even afraid of girls (very much) so he's really as completely the opposite of 'pervert' as it gets.
He just…really likes the way Aki smells.
"She smells different?" says Ryousuke.
Teppei blushes and doesn't say anything.
Hanei grabs him by the collar and crowds him up against the door.
"Doesn't she smell with her nose the same as always?" Daiki asks.
"I just meant--!" Teppei splutters.
The thing about Aki, he thinks, is that she doesn't go out-and-out girly on them. Aki generally smells like face masks and gowns and starched lab coats. She smells like chemicals in the air and sometimes a little of bloody, non-latex gloves. She smells like the special detergent used to wash beakers and like serum mediums and essays written with a ballpoint pen. She smells like Chinese tea and old coffee and convenience store snack wrappers. She smells like Hanei's family's restaurant and Teppei's kotatsu blanket and early spring air.
She smells like the rest of them, in other words. Like a medical student, a Forensics student, like she runs off after Daiki when he's chasing an idea and needs to make a visit to somebody to ask a question, just like the rest of them.
Once, just once when he's sure that Aki was sure that he was asleep, Aki had leaned close and her hair swung around them like a curtain and smelled like apple shampoo. She'd leaned close and Teppei had smelled pressed powder makeup. She'd leaned close and smelled like worry and regret and salt-tears and sadness and warmth.
"Meant what?" Hanei growls.
"She's got perfume on today!"
Hanei lets him drop to his feet and just seconds later Teppei finds himself in the crush of bodies surrounding Aki's chair.
"Ah, she does!" Ryousuke exclaims.
"What is this? What is this?" Daiki asks, inhaling deeply. "Lilies? Roses?"
"Quit it!" Aki swats at them. "You're acting like dogs!"
"Karen Mok," Hanei says authoritatively. "Or else it's Issey Miyake's summer blend."
"How do you know about ladies perfumes?" he asks Hanei, a question even he knows he shouldn't have asked but Teppei is a normal guy so it's only normal if Aki's scent goes to his head just a little.
Taste
Teppei wakes up miserably hung over. Last night's beer and kimchi are lingering and mingling unpleasantly in his mouth and his alarm is trying to kill him with sheer sound.
"Oh, god," says Ryousuke from somewhere near the floor.
There's a pitiful whimper that he knows from experience is a not-yet-awake Hanei. He also knows that if he doesn't turn of the alarm, he'll have an awake-and-hung over-and-murderous Hanei. He slaps around at his alarm.
"Why?" Daiki moans pathetically. Teppei cracks open one eye and sees Daiki cowering from the early sunlight and clutching his head.
"Because you wanted to celebrate," Aki says brightly. It's so bright and loud that it hurts and Teppei pulls his pillow over his head. Aki snatches it away again a moment later. Teppei is pretty sure that she's deliberately being loud and cheerful. She'd been drinking steadily with the rest of them. "Get up! I made breakfast!"
Teppei's stomach roils.
"Natto!" Aki chirps.
Teppei doesn't win the race to his toilet and ends up gagging pitifully into his trashcan. His mouth tastes like beer and kimchi and vomit and the smell of natto.
"Aren't you glad you didn't do this tonight and wake up like this for graduation tomorrow?" Aki demands of them as they all lunge for the tray of water glasses she's holding over them.
"Aki-chaaaaan," Ryousuke begs, clinging to her legs.
Daiki shoves him off. "Aki~~!" he whines at her.
Hanei tries to glare at her from the floor but even Teppei is pretty sure that it looks like begging.
Aki hands the first glass to Teppei, her smile just a little bit gentle and Teppei takes it gratefully with a murmur of thanks. He takes a sip and tastes aspirin and sodium bicarbonate in it. He looks up to thank her again and is drown out by various praise and blessings and questions being heaped on her.
Something swells in Teppei's chest and rises to become a lump in his throat and a bitter-sweet taste on the back of his tongue.
This is what happiness tastes like, he thinks, looking at his friends.
My twin sister, chelle_sama, does not have much to do with Arashi. She will listen to me tell stories about their retarded antics, she will listen to some of the songs sometimes. She will look at any picture of any of them snuggling a rabbit and she will watch awesome fanvids like this and this and this. My point is: She's not an Arashi fan the way the husband and children are. But today! I was watching the TSD special where Aiba does the whole 'its face feels like my nuts' thing with the orangutan. And
Chelle: That poor monkey.
Me: ???
Chelle: It's going to be molested by fangirls wanting to know what Aiba's nuts feel like.
...yeah. I found it worth sharing. I'll take my small victories where I can find them.
Now, onto the fic. I make no promises as I'm still really struggling with writer's block. The first section was written just in time for me to hit the wall.
Five
Touch
He knows who Hanei Akira is, of course. He's had classes with him before in the three-plus years they've been in medical school together. Still, the first time Hanei ever touches him, Teppei really is scared. He's at the notice board, looking to see if he got the Forensics seminar, when a voice growls in his ear and hands land heavy on his shoulders. He hasn't done anything but that's never stopped anybody before. He does what he always does when the situation calls for it (it's been years, but he still remembers how it goes): he goes limp, he meets no eyes, he agrees.
It's only after he's set back on his feet and watching Hanei stroll off that he figures out what Hanei has said to him. "It looks like we're classmates; don't forget to tell me good morning when you see me."
He stutters out a garbled version of both 'nice to meet you' and 'please take care of me' to Hanei's retreating back, mangling them together horribly but seeing Hanei's hand raise in response as he keeps walking without looking back.
Teppei knows, in a very logical sort of way, that Hanei is not a dangerous thug. Aside from the whole Yankee rumor thing, Hanei is a fourth-year medical student just the same as is Teppei.
This means that Hanei studies, he works hard, and he wants to help people.
This means that Hanei is not going to beat him up for no good reason because beating up anybody, including Teppei, is a good way to get kicked out of school and waste years of hard work.
This means that Teppei is safe with Hanei pretty much all of the time, no matter what Hanei is doing to him.
Knowing this in a logical way doesn't help Teppei very much but it does help a little and the next time Hanei grabs him (in the campus cafeteria), Teppei isn't so much scared as he is nervous. He doesn't know what it is that Hanei wants from him and Hanei never says. Hanei just keeps up a steady barrage of pushes, pulls, clutches, shoves, grabs, holds, pins, stares, glowers, and threats that all ultimately go nowhere at all and leave Teppei confused and mildly alarmed.
And then, eventually, Teppei realizes something that is really sort of important: Hanei is gentle with him.
The more he thinks about all of it, the more he thinks about the way that Hanei handles him, the more obvious it becomes. No matter how roughly Hanei pulls him over, how high off the ground Hanei lifts him, or how hard Hanei tackles him flat, there is never a second of pain. It never hurts, not ever. Sometimes it's uncomfortable and sometimes Hanei's glares and scowls really are a little unnerving, but now Teppei knows.
Hanei is playing with him. It's a game and when he's done with the game, Hanei will straighten Teppei's clothing with yanks and tugs and Hanei will let go of him with a solid, friendly thump. It's just hard enough that Teppei can feel it and know that it's real but light enough that it isn't overwhelming.
"Oi." Hanei's hands hook in his lab coat, dragging him up from his chair.
"Um. Yes?" Teppei can't help the way his stomach jumps a little in the first few seconds of Hanei getting into his personal space.
Hanei hauls him toward the door, striping his white lab coat down roughly before pushing him at the lockers. "My mom said to bring you by. She says I finally have respectable friends and none of you eat enough. It's like she thinks you're all going to drop dead. You're not but I can't take another night of that woman shrieking like some demon ghost so you're coming with me."
Teppei thinks that it's the end of the month and he's running short on cash again and eating a lot of instant noodles because he'll get yelled at if his gas gets shut off again. He thinks that Hanei was over two nights ago to watch movies and complain about the noodles and order pizza.
"Hurry up!" Hanei wrestles him into his backpack and then nearly strangles him as he winds his scarf around his neck and Teppei thinks again that Hanei knows how to do this, with him. This touching thing. Hanei shoves him out the door and drags him down the steps, half holding him in a loose choke-hold as they go.
He thinks that Hanei could have been a surgeon.
Hearing
Teppei has lived alone ever since he started at university. Living alone, he had discovered, is quiet. It used to bother him quite a bit and so he's usually got a game going or a dvd playing and they provide sound but they're never…well, they're just sound. Up until just recently, his whole life had been quiet.
The other students in the Forensics seminar are noisy. He's not sure when (or why) his apartment became one of the department hang-outs, but Teppei can usually count on at least one of the others to be in his apartment at any given time. Usually there's more than one and if there is, there's bickering. At first he thinks that it's Daiki's fault but one day he realizes that most of it can actually be blamed on Ryousuke.
Daiki might ask 'why' a lot and he might make random observations and he'll definitely challenge Aki-chan if he can but it's Ryousuke who indulges him. Ryousuke will explain why. Ryousuke will defend his explanation. Ryousuke is just as likely to draw everybody else in to it, too, depending on how the conversation is starting to skew.
It's not something that Teppei will ever say, but he thinks that Ryousuke-with his ability to talk to almost anybody about almost anything, serious or not-is sort of like an idol star. Ryousuke makes it easy to talk, he's really approachable, and he sets a good mood wherever he goes. Teppei isn't shy with Ryousuke around, bickering with Daiki over weird things and setting up stupid jokes.
"So I was watching this show last night," Ryousuke says over the clinking of test-tubes as he exchanges batches of samples in the lab.
"Drama?" Teppei asks, though he's betting it's not. Ryousuke is grinning so much it's practically a laugh.
"One of those masked-rider things," Ryousuke says. "And there was this guy who looked just like Hanei."
Teppei swallows back a smile as he loads the centrifuge machine. "Just like Hanei?"
"Oi," says Hanei, whose hands are busy under the fume hood.
"Just like him," Ryousuke confirms. And then pauses, making a thoughtful face. "Well, just like him if Hanei had been…" he says, and makes a gesture with his new rack of tubes.
"Respectable?" Teppei offers.
"You," scowls Hanei.
"Yeah," says Ryousuke. "Without the-" and he gestures again.
"Beard and dyed hair and Yankee jacket?" Teppei questions.
"That," Ryousuke nods. "And this guy-who looked just like Hanei-"
"If he had been respectable."
"Yes, if Hanei looked respectable, this guy had…" Ryousuke motions with a beaker before putting it away and leaning back against the counter. "What is it again? You know what I mean, Teppei; those things you have when you're a respectable person with a nice personality and people like being by you."
"Friends!" Teppei guesses as he finishes setting up the tests.
"Those!" Ryousuke agrees excitedly.
"You two…" Hanei growls and there is a loud bang as the fume hood slams closed.
The door makes a louder bang as Ryousuke throws it open and Kaburagi makes a fed-up sounding 'tch' when Ryousuke shoves Teppei out the door ahead of him. Their running steps are pattering out of pace with each other and Hanei's boots are a heavy and ominous pounding behind them. Teppei can't hear Hanei's threats because he and Ryousuke are laughing too loud and Aki is shrieking as she jumps out of their way and Daiki is yelling 'why' after them.
Somehow, Teppei's life just isn't quiet anymore.
Sight
Teppei is the first person to acknowledge the fact that 'average' and 'nondescript' are the best ways to describe him. He is also the first person to say that those words are what makes it perfectly all right for him to stare at Daiki.
Daiki almost passes for 'average' in the looks department. He certainly doesn't look as wildly different as, say, Hanei or Aki (who looks different just because she's a girl in a room full of boys). Daiki isn't overly tall, he's not terribly short, he's not fat and he isn't thin. The most noticeable things about Daiki are his big ears and his hair that really does stand up all by itself and his green coat.
Although Teppei does sort of dig the coat.
But really, the real reason why Teppei stares at Daiki is because Daiki isn't average at all when he thinks.
When Daiki thinks, there's something about him that practically snaps in the air like electricity and gleams like quicksilver. His eyes open wide and his mouth takes on a certain set and he seems to absorb everything going on around him. Somehow, even just standing next to him, everything seems so much brighter, clearer, sharper around the edges and so the little puzzling things stand cleanly out from everything else.
Then the pieces fall together. There are a number of small gestures Daiki makes when the pieces of their puzzles fall into place-his eyes fluttering closed, his fingers to his temple or his chin, the way his body curves in on itself like he's trying to keep the pieces close-and Teppei notices them but they're not what really draws his eyes. What draws him in is the way everything that is Daiki becomes focused, compressed, all at once and Daiki practically glows white and gold as the answer falls into place, as clear and sharp and vivid as everything else in Daiki's world. It seems like even the dust motes in the air around him get suddenly still and then, just as suddenly, seem to become charged like electrons.
Watching Daiki think has a feeling like watching CSI.
And because it's like that it's even better watching Daiki be completely and utterly baffled.
"There doesn't have to be a reason!" Aki insists loudly.
"If there isn't a reason then why won't you?" Daiki demands.
Ryousuke slid into the seat next to Teppei and nodded at the others, leaning in to ask lowly, "What's that about?"
Daiki hears him, turning to him instantly. "If you don't have a full load of laundry to wash wouldn't you want to wait until you had a full load?" he asks.
"We went to the laundry on campus and Aki was there," Teppei explains. "Daiki wanted her to add his lab coat to her load because it wasn't full."
Aki turned on him. "It was full enough! And why should I add his laundry to mine? He'd-"
"Stingy!" Daiki says, leaning in to Aki's space and poking her shoulder. "Aki-chan is stingy."
Aki bats his hand away and then bats it away again. "You'd complain about my soap choices or my fabric softener!" she tells him.
Teppei sets his chin in his hand and watches Daiki getting progressively more confused about Aki's protestations, apparently completely unaware of how close to Aki he is standing and how much closer he is getting as time goes on and how Aki's cheeks are pink and her eyes aren't quite meeting his even as she pushes at him with hands that maybe linger a little longer than they do on anybody else.
"I'm not washing your things with mine!" Aki repeats.
"Maybe she's afraid you'll see her bra," Ryousuke volunteers.
"Hey!" says Hanei warningly as Aki lets out a shriek that is probably composed of equal parts rage, frustration, and embarrassment.
"Hah?" says Daiki. "What would it matter if I saw Aki's bra?" he asks.
"I'm going to the lab," Aki announces before storming out.
Daiki tilts his head, looking at the door that seemed to still be rattling with the force of Aki's exit. "…hah?" he says again.
"Daiki," Ryousuke says, folding his arms.
"It's not like I'd be seeing it on Aki," Daiki says, still looking pensive.
"Daiki," says Hanei with a level stare.
"It'd be in a pile of clothes, right? It's not even like it'd be on a store mannequin like at one of those shops that specializes," Daiki goes on his head slowly tilting the other way, eyes still on the door.
Teppei can feel Ryousuke and Hanei's eyes land on him.
He looks at Daiki. "That's true," he agrees.
Daiki lights up. "Right! So what's the problem?"
The air around Daiki crackles as Daiki moves through it, asking and asking and asking and Teppei hopes he's there when Daiki finally figures out that Aki likes him and that he likes her, too.
Smell
"You smell different today," he says without thinking.
"Eh?" says Aki with a wide-eyed look.
Teppei is not a pervert. He's not one of those weird guys who hangs around smarmy stores and buys questionable magazines. Teppei is a regular guy and, more importantly, a bit of a nerd. He's not even afraid of girls (very much) so he's really as completely the opposite of 'pervert' as it gets.
He just…really likes the way Aki smells.
"She smells different?" says Ryousuke.
Teppei blushes and doesn't say anything.
Hanei grabs him by the collar and crowds him up against the door.
"Doesn't she smell with her nose the same as always?" Daiki asks.
"I just meant--!" Teppei splutters.
The thing about Aki, he thinks, is that she doesn't go out-and-out girly on them. Aki generally smells like face masks and gowns and starched lab coats. She smells like chemicals in the air and sometimes a little of bloody, non-latex gloves. She smells like the special detergent used to wash beakers and like serum mediums and essays written with a ballpoint pen. She smells like Chinese tea and old coffee and convenience store snack wrappers. She smells like Hanei's family's restaurant and Teppei's kotatsu blanket and early spring air.
She smells like the rest of them, in other words. Like a medical student, a Forensics student, like she runs off after Daiki when he's chasing an idea and needs to make a visit to somebody to ask a question, just like the rest of them.
Once, just once when he's sure that Aki was sure that he was asleep, Aki had leaned close and her hair swung around them like a curtain and smelled like apple shampoo. She'd leaned close and Teppei had smelled pressed powder makeup. She'd leaned close and smelled like worry and regret and salt-tears and sadness and warmth.
"Meant what?" Hanei growls.
"She's got perfume on today!"
Hanei lets him drop to his feet and just seconds later Teppei finds himself in the crush of bodies surrounding Aki's chair.
"Ah, she does!" Ryousuke exclaims.
"What is this? What is this?" Daiki asks, inhaling deeply. "Lilies? Roses?"
"Quit it!" Aki swats at them. "You're acting like dogs!"
"Karen Mok," Hanei says authoritatively. "Or else it's Issey Miyake's summer blend."
"How do you know about ladies perfumes?" he asks Hanei, a question even he knows he shouldn't have asked but Teppei is a normal guy so it's only normal if Aki's scent goes to his head just a little.
Taste
Teppei wakes up miserably hung over. Last night's beer and kimchi are lingering and mingling unpleasantly in his mouth and his alarm is trying to kill him with sheer sound.
"Oh, god," says Ryousuke from somewhere near the floor.
There's a pitiful whimper that he knows from experience is a not-yet-awake Hanei. He also knows that if he doesn't turn of the alarm, he'll have an awake-and-hung over-and-murderous Hanei. He slaps around at his alarm.
"Why?" Daiki moans pathetically. Teppei cracks open one eye and sees Daiki cowering from the early sunlight and clutching his head.
"Because you wanted to celebrate," Aki says brightly. It's so bright and loud that it hurts and Teppei pulls his pillow over his head. Aki snatches it away again a moment later. Teppei is pretty sure that she's deliberately being loud and cheerful. She'd been drinking steadily with the rest of them. "Get up! I made breakfast!"
Teppei's stomach roils.
"Natto!" Aki chirps.
Teppei doesn't win the race to his toilet and ends up gagging pitifully into his trashcan. His mouth tastes like beer and kimchi and vomit and the smell of natto.
"Aren't you glad you didn't do this tonight and wake up like this for graduation tomorrow?" Aki demands of them as they all lunge for the tray of water glasses she's holding over them.
"Aki-chaaaaan," Ryousuke begs, clinging to her legs.
Daiki shoves him off. "Aki~~!" he whines at her.
Hanei tries to glare at her from the floor but even Teppei is pretty sure that it looks like begging.
Aki hands the first glass to Teppei, her smile just a little bit gentle and Teppei takes it gratefully with a murmur of thanks. He takes a sip and tastes aspirin and sodium bicarbonate in it. He looks up to thank her again and is drown out by various praise and blessings and questions being heaped on her.
Something swells in Teppei's chest and rises to become a lump in his throat and a bitter-sweet taste on the back of his tongue.
This is what happiness tastes like, he thinks, looking at his friends.