[LOG] Burial duty
Characters: Niou Masaharu & Fuji Shuusuke
Location: Woods on school campus
Time: October 4th, evening
Rating: PG (for disturbing illusions)
Summary: Niou & Fuji look for potential places to bury a body.
To outsiders, Fuji appeared completely at his ease, leaning against the wall of the senior dormitory as dusk fell across the grounds. His attention, however, was far from wandering.
Niou’s ability to shape-shift made him a difficult man to spot at the best of times. In their first year, Fuji had been pretty good at seeking out the tiny slips and flaws that gave away Niou’s presence. Now in their third year at the Academy, Fuji had to admit it was a considerable challenge. So he stood, relaxed in posture, studying through lowered lashes each and every person who approached as he waited for one of his best friends.
Fuji was right to keep a sharp eye out as it wasn’t Niou who approached him but Shiraishi, with a shovel casually resting on one shoulder. Surely it made more sense for some plant lover to take a shovel from the gardening shed than him. Though with how often he had gardening duty as punishment, seeing him with a hoe, shovel or rake really wasn’t such an odd sight either. “Nice weather for digging,” He commented as he got closer. He didn’t really bother imitating Shiraishi’s speech pattern, he doubted he could trick Fuji with a shovel on his shoulder.
Fuji smiled. The Shiraishi impersonation was a good one and if the fair haired plant sorcerer’s weapon of choice wasn’t normally more botanical in nature, Fuji might have been fooled. He straightened, taking time to admire the accuracy of Niou’s impersonation. “Eight out of 10,” he told his friend. “The lack of a poisonous shrub is a giveaway.”
He gestured to the footpath that led out past the gardens and into the woods. “Shall we?”
“Still good marks coming from you,” Niou said, especially since he wasn’t going to start lugging around poisonous plants to more accurately depict Shiraishi to Fuji’s satisfaction. As they headed down the path, Niou let Shiraishi’s image fade away until he was back to his usual appearance. “I hear you and Inui were putting on a show the other day.” Niou had sadly missed the show itself, but he spotted some of the aftermath in the kitchen and heard the horror stories. He would say he was sad to have missed it, but he didn’t want to risk getting conned into participating next time.
Fuji hummed at the memory of those delicious drinks that had made his insides roar like the belly of a dragon with indigestion. “I’m sure next time the juices will be more widely appreciated. Inui gets better each year.” He slid a side glance at Niou as the blond hair stretched to become an ivory pony tail and the face thinned. It was a fascinating process. As they entered the woods and darkness closed around them, Fuji looked up at Niou’s face, searching out the brown eyes in the shadows, “Will we be needing a flashlight, Niou?”
“Maybe for you. For the rest of us, they just just become more lethal,” Niou pointed out. Fuji could ingest a wide range of odd foods that most should avoid but his friend somehow found enjoyment in. Niou looked around the woods at the question and nodded. “Here.” He pulled out the small flashlight from his pocket and tossed it lightly towards Fuji. “Surprised ya didn’t bring one.”
“The two go hand in hand.” Fuji caught the torch but did not turn it on. “After two weeks back at school, aren’t you bored with battery operated toys?” His own eyes opened past their usual half-moon smile to show the flash of sapphire in the last of the light from the school.
“And ya wonder why I never want to eat your cooking,” Niou said and then paused to look at Fuji and the still dark flashlight. He knew what Fuji was angling for but he just wasn’t quite sure why. He did at least understand that Fuji wouldn’t ask directly when he could go about it in an indirect way. That’s just how Fuji liked doing things most of the time.
Staring at Fuji’s eyes, which Niou thought were much more beautiful than his own when Fuji bothered to show them properly, Niou gave Fuji what he wanted and let the brown drop from his eyes, leaving them blue. He then turned away and let their natural glow come back to them, the glow enough to light the area he was looking toward as well as any flashlight. “You do know I need to blink, right? The flashlight’s more dependable.”
The beams of light fanned the path in front of them, making the footing easy once again. “You could blink alternate eyes,” Fuji suggested deadpan, as he flicked the flashlight back at Niou and set off down the path.
They followed the footpaths through the trees, allowing the school to drop out of sight behind them. Niou’s luminous gaze gave the path a far more interesting light than a fading yellow bulb. Stopping by a likely looking clearing, Fuji tested the ground with his shoe. Too obvious perhaps? He dug his toe into the soil then looked up at Niou again, diverting his gaze away from his eyes.
“Do you get tired keeping your eyes dark all the time?” he asked. Of course, there were some practical reasons why having two fog lights for eyeballs might be inconvenient but Fuji felt Niou did it more than was necessary. Few people at the school even knew his eye colour was not brown. If it hadn’t been for an unfortunate bout of ‘flu two years previously, Fuji would have been one of them. He wondered briefly if Yukimura knew. The thought made him think of graves again. He indicated Niou should pass him the shovel.
“Not really,” Niou said as he looked at the ground Fuji was toeing and then handed the shovel to him. “It’s one of the first things I learned to do. It sort of feels more natural to keep ‘em brown now.” He could even comfortably sleep with them in their ‘normal’ brown colour without worry of the blue or the glow showing through. Though he did know that concealing his eyes and currently the love bites did cause a small drain on his energy and concentration. But it wasn’t enough that it caused him difficulties in his day to day activities, even during his training. “Don’t you think they’d get in the way during classes and stuff?” He certainly wouldn’t be a welcome addition to movie nights in the lounge with two beams of light shooting from his eyes and ruining the mood and view.
“Perhaps.” In truth, Niou had only answered half Fuji’s question. He could manage the physical drain, but Fuji wondered about the mental toll associated with always being someone else, even if the change was slight. Fuji did not understand why Niou used his powers to the extent he did. It was fun to pretend to be another person, certainly, but frankly Niou’s natural appearance was far more interesting than most anyone on campus.
Letting the subject slide, he took the shovel and dug it into the earth, experimentally turning over a few slabs of soil. The ground was soft and came up easily under Fuji’s effort. It was definitely a possible location.
Niou watched Fuji dig at the ground, noting how easy the shovel sank into the earth. But looking back the way they came, they weren’t that far from the path. “Easy to dig but a fresh grave’s gonna be too easy to spot here,” Niou said. There would probably be better locations further in better suited to body hiding.
Fuji looked in the direction Niou’s headlight gaze. “Ah, perhaps you are right. This one can be back-up.” For his room-mate perhaps. Shouldering the shovel himself, Fuji led the way deeper into the woods, avoiding the path to the boat house (although drowning was also an option) to steer them nearer the northern boundary of the campus. “Tell me if I shouldn’t dig somewhere,” he called back over his shoulder. “I don’t want to ruin your favourite meeting spots.”
“Always good to have a back up,” Niou agreed and then moved to walk beside Fuji down the path. If his friend wasn’t going to use the flashlight he brought, then he’d be forced to always look in the direction Fuji wanted to go. At least if he didn’t want to risk Fuji injuring himself. “And dig where you want, even if you find a place I like, I can always find another.” He wasn’t particularly attached to any of his outdoor meeting spots since they were buried under snow most of the year anyway.
By the time they had gone another 100 yards, the only light to be seen was the beams Niou cast. Even the moon was hidden by the thick cover of trees overhead. If Tooyama had been with them, Fuji was willing to bet he’d be screaming round in circles talking about horror movies by now. It was an entertaining concept. He conjured up a few shimmering spectrals to hover around the edges of Niou’s light. Much more appropriate for grave digging.
“Maybe I’ll save the first site for Yukimura. He might be angry after I cut the heads of his flowers last night.” He threw Niou a cheerful, unconcerned smile.
Niou looked over at one of the spectrals and let out an amused snort, leave it to Fuji to make a harmless forest extra creepy. But then he frowned and looked at Fuji, why did Fuji and Yukimura insist on aggravating each other? When he heard they were sharing a room, he thought they would make the perfect roommates and he would find himself enjoying their company and hanging out in their room more than his own. “You better watch out that he doesn’t put you in that grave first, Shuusuke,” Niou warned. He didn’t want to attend either of their funerals.
Fuji dug the shovel into the earth again. The ground was harder here, more used by brambles than by people. “You think I am no match for him? I’m crushed.” It was a question with multiple meanings. Fuji elaborated on the simplest by making one of the creepy spectrums grab its colleague and start to force him into a ghostly flower pot.
Niou honestly thought that whoever was sneakier about stabbing the other in the back would win that match but he didn’t want to give Fuji any ideas. “I’m more worried about getting caught in the crossfire,” Niou said watching the ghosts play rough with each other, causing a shadow to fall on the area Fuji was working on.
Fuji felt there was a very simple solution to that which involved Niou helping him fill hole number one back on the path. “I wouldn’t hurt you.” Unless, well, it was the only way to finally corner Yukimura and in which case he’d have to weigh up the odds. Small print. “Although your choices for infatuation need work.”
“I don’t have infatuations,” Niou countered, swinging his glowing eyes back on to Fuji. “And you two wouldn’t mean to hurt me at the start but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to end up in a shallow grave by the end of it.” Or at least the infirmary. The risk of poison with those two around was high, not to mention all the other dangers.
Fuji stepped back so that Niou’s eyes hit his stomach, rather than his face, making it glow. The spectors stopped fighting and turned into teletubbies. “Yukimura is the only person you’ve taken on a sexless date to the greenhouse,” he pointed out. “And I’d dig deep.” He dug the shovel back into the ground. “What do you think of this place?”
Niou didn’t quite get why Fuji was upset by his sexless date with Yukimura or why he thought that meant he was infatuated but thought he’d better try if he hoped to dissolve building tensions between the three of them. “We were just hanging out. And there’s plenty of people I don’t sleep with.” He didn’t sleep with Yagyuu and as far as he knew, Fuji wasn’t trying to plot Yagyuu’s murder. “And I think this place is secluded but the ground seems a bit tough if you’re digging deep.” He ignored the teletubbies in favour of surveying the area, moving his eyes back to Fuji’s face when he was done.
‘You drink in his words like a whale getting by in a fish pond’ was what Fuji was tempted to shoot back but... Niou was clearly going to deny it. He’d just have to bury Yukimura’s sorry behind and regretfully note that sometimes even the best of friends could be stupid.
He examined the ground. Niou had a point. “Maybe the best disguise is in plain sight?” he suggested and beamed up at Niou. “I’ll use the herb garden.”
Niou sometimes wished that his powers allowed him to read minds so he could get an idea of what was going through Fuji’s. But then his friend said or did things that made him realize that it was much safer not knowing. “You want this poor guy you’re killin’ to feed the herb garden?” Niou asked. He thought hiding in plain sight was a brilliant idea and one he used often to his advantage. But he didn’t want to think about a decaying body underneath the parsley and the mint. “Let’s do the flower bed instead.”
Fuji briefly imagined his room-mate hoeing and hitting a rotting corpse. The spectors (still in teletubbie form) imitated this. Tinky Winky looked like he might be sick. It was a good image. “That’s a good plan.” He shouldered the shovel and squinted at Niou’s bright eyes. “Let me know if you’d like tea. Taki insisted I bring a thermos with us.”
“Taki made us tea?” Niou had no idea why Taki would make them tea, but it sounded like a good idea. “Why don’t we drink some before walking back and checkin’ out the flower beds.” Niou stopped looking at Fuji so his friend wouldn’t have to keep squinting like that and looked around the clearing for a place to sit. “Over there.” He pointed to a tree that had fallen over and would make for a decent bench. He was doing his best to ignore the Teletubbies though, they freaked him out more than the ghouls had and he didn’t even want to try and figure out what they were doing.
“He just insisted I make up a thermos. It seemed important to him.” Fuji followed Niou to the tree trunk and dropped the shovel, producing a canister from his long overcoat. He uncapped it and poured the hot liquid into the inverted cup. The heat warmed his hands pleasantly. He passed it to Niou.
Niou, always suspicious of things Fuji handed him, took the cup carefully and looked at it intently. It didn’t look to be an odd colour or have questionable things swirling it. He brought it up close to his face and gave it a testing sniff. It smelled like tea, too. He tapped his finger against it, just enough to pick up a few drops and brought it to his mouth to suck on. He let the aftertaste settle on his tongue before deciding it was safe to drink. When it came to Fuji’s concoctions it was always that aftertaste, complete with burn that did you in. Taking a proper drink, Niou still frowned as he brought the cup down. “Too much sugar,” He complained and handed the cup back to Fuji so he could drink some, too. “Doesn’t he know we’re sweet enough~?”
Fuji took the cup. “That’s the biggest compliment you’ve given me about anything I’ve made.” He took a sip himself. It is possibly he was thinking of his younger brother’s sweet tooth when he mixed it. Other people’s taste buds were hard to predict.
He swung his legs onto the log and rotated 90 degrees to lean back against Niou. “A forest at night, with a shovel and 3 burial spots. That cannot be sweeter.” The teletubbies started serving cake. One of the cakes was in the shape of a tomb stone.
“I thought you said Taki made this?” Niou questioned, proving to himself that he had every reason to continue being paranoid when it came to things Fuji handed him. At least it kept things interesting. As Fuji shifted, Niou lifted his arm and curled it around Fuji a little so he could better rest against him. “Yeah, not a bad evening. But what’s with the Teletubbies?” They were still creeping him out a little.
“No, he just insisted we brought sustenance against the bitter night.” Fuji glanced over at his illusions. They stopped serving cake and glared at Niou. One of them dropped its plate on the floor. “You made my middle light up. I thought they were cute.” He smiled cheerfully up at Niou.
“Ah, I get it now,” Niou said and held his hand out for the cup again. He didn’t know the next time Fuji would make something he could stomach, so even if it was sweeter than he liked, he’d enjoy it while he could. “They don’t really match the mood,” Niou hedged not wanting to let Fuji know he thought they were creepy but also wanting his friend to get rid of them.
Fuji passed the cup back, watching upside down as Niou eyed the teletubbies. He shifted his power slightly to give each furry cuties a decaying zombie face. To the smallest one, he added strands of long blue hair. “Better?”
Somehow it was better Niou thought as he took the cup and brought it to his lips. Perhaps Niou just couldn’t handle cute things aimed at small children. “A bit. But not quite the mood I was going for,” Niou said and gave Fuji a teasing wink and then hoped he didn’t blind him with his own eyes. His eyes were good for lighting up dark spaces, but he always accidentally blinded people and destroyed their night vision when he looked right at them.
“Hmm...” Fuji did have to blink spots from his eyes while he considered Niou’s suggestion. The teletubbies shifted to be replaced with 6-pack muscled bodies in tight y-fronts. He left their zombie faces and --incongruously-- their teletubbie antennae. “How is that?”
Niou ended up spitting his tea out onto the forest floor from laughter as the vision shifted. “Your mind is a scary place,” Niou said half in teasing and half seriousness. He didn’t even know what to think about the odd mix of muscled body, undies and zombie face with teletubbie parts still intact. He suspected that for some people this is the stuff of nightmares. “Pour me more tea, you made me waste my last cup.”
One of the teletubbie chippendales came forward with a ghostly teapot, but it was Fuji’s hand that ultimately tipped the liquid into the cup. He then took the cup off Niou and drank himself, chuckling at Niou’s reaction. “I cannot help what I am.” He passed the cup back again. “But you choose to spend time with me.” Pale fingers interlocked with the hand that was stopping him sliding off the log.
Niou blinked at the illusion in front of him, finding the double image of it and Fuji pouring the tea a little confusing. But he knew just what was happening when Fuji took the cup back for himself. He was about to protest when it was returned into his hand with still enough left to drink. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it. Scary’s not bad. And I like who you are.” Most of the time and when Fuji’s ire was directed nowhere near him. That’s when Fuji’s scary was the bad type. He gave Fuji’s hand a squeeze and drank from the cup.
Soft laughter was his answer. Fuji stretched out his legs, propping the thermos against the log. As he relaxed, the illusions merged together to form a reflection of Niou and Fuji opposite where the upturned earth marked where Fuji had been digging. It slowly faded as Fuji closed his eyes.
Niou watched in fascination as the spectrals turned into him and Fuji and then faded away all together. He looked down at his friend and when he saw the closed eyes, dimmed the brightness of his own a little so he could admire Fuji’s relaxed face without causing a harsh glare. “Sleepy?” He asked, his hand not holding Fuji moving to play with his soft hair.
A small exhale of contentment was his response. “Digging grave spots is hard work,” Fuji murmured. “Be even harder when we have …” he yawned. “.... bodies.”
“We’ll need a wheelbarrow,” Niou said as he continued sliding his hand over Fuji’s hair, fingers playing with the silky strands. “You can rest for a while before ya head. I won’t leave you.” Now if he was with someone he didn’t like as much. He’d totally leave them. Or at least hide in the dark until they woke up and freaked out properly for his amusement.
“They would fit in a backpack if they were diced,” Fuji pointed out. He took Niou up on his offer and leaned back properly, putting his head on the other boy’s lap. A large chopping knife briefly appeared in mid-air, but it faded quickly. He looked upwards at the eyes that were now dim spotlights, his own eyes visible in their glow. It was a pity that he and Niou required such different things from a relationship since in all other important ways, they were very similar; practical jokes, calm discussions of homicide and the best freak-out Fuji had managed to pull on Niou had involved a teletubbie. “It is a pity you have terrible taste,” he informed his friend as he dozed.
Niou thought cutting them up would be messy and more effort than dragging them in a wheelbarrow but figured that’s an argument they could have another day when Fuji turned up at his door with a dead body. Instead he just snorted lightly and shook his head, “There’s nothing wrong with my taste,” He protested quietly not wanting to disturb Fuji who he continued to pet lightly. He sipped his tea as he watched the surrounding woods, making sure that nothing dangerous came to bother them while Fuji rested.
After a few minutes, Niou looked down to see Fuji still resting peacefully. His friend really was handsome, though when he was resting like this, Niou would probably call him beautiful, there really was something quite soft about Fuji’s features. Brushing the hair out of Fuji’s face, Niou looked more closely at Fuji’s lips. After a moment’s hesitation, he leaned down and gave a soft kiss to his lips before straightening. It really was a shame that they could never agree on sex, it certainly wasn’t for lack of attraction on his part.
Fuji’s eyes blinked open at the more intimate touch, looking up at Niou as he lifted a hand to rub his eyes. He stared at him for a moment, a clear emotion of surprise visible on his face. Then his eyelids lowered once more. After another pause a ghostly image appeared in front of Niou, showing the two of them standing in the clearing. This time it was Fuji who kissed Niou.
Niou hadn’t meant to wake Fuji, but he supposed he should have known better than to expect Fuji to be able to sleep deeply on a log in the forest after only a few minutes. Still, if the vision was anything to go by, his friend wasn’t upset by it. “It’s a shame, the fake me is getting more affection from you than the real one,” He said a teasing tone to his voice.
“Ain’t that the truth,” came the murmured answer.
Location: Woods on school campus
Time: October 4th, evening
Rating: PG (for disturbing illusions)
Summary: Niou & Fuji look for potential places to bury a body.
To outsiders, Fuji appeared completely at his ease, leaning against the wall of the senior dormitory as dusk fell across the grounds. His attention, however, was far from wandering.
Niou’s ability to shape-shift made him a difficult man to spot at the best of times. In their first year, Fuji had been pretty good at seeking out the tiny slips and flaws that gave away Niou’s presence. Now in their third year at the Academy, Fuji had to admit it was a considerable challenge. So he stood, relaxed in posture, studying through lowered lashes each and every person who approached as he waited for one of his best friends.
Fuji was right to keep a sharp eye out as it wasn’t Niou who approached him but Shiraishi, with a shovel casually resting on one shoulder. Surely it made more sense for some plant lover to take a shovel from the gardening shed than him. Though with how often he had gardening duty as punishment, seeing him with a hoe, shovel or rake really wasn’t such an odd sight either. “Nice weather for digging,” He commented as he got closer. He didn’t really bother imitating Shiraishi’s speech pattern, he doubted he could trick Fuji with a shovel on his shoulder.
Fuji smiled. The Shiraishi impersonation was a good one and if the fair haired plant sorcerer’s weapon of choice wasn’t normally more botanical in nature, Fuji might have been fooled. He straightened, taking time to admire the accuracy of Niou’s impersonation. “Eight out of 10,” he told his friend. “The lack of a poisonous shrub is a giveaway.”
He gestured to the footpath that led out past the gardens and into the woods. “Shall we?”
“Still good marks coming from you,” Niou said, especially since he wasn’t going to start lugging around poisonous plants to more accurately depict Shiraishi to Fuji’s satisfaction. As they headed down the path, Niou let Shiraishi’s image fade away until he was back to his usual appearance. “I hear you and Inui were putting on a show the other day.” Niou had sadly missed the show itself, but he spotted some of the aftermath in the kitchen and heard the horror stories. He would say he was sad to have missed it, but he didn’t want to risk getting conned into participating next time.
Fuji hummed at the memory of those delicious drinks that had made his insides roar like the belly of a dragon with indigestion. “I’m sure next time the juices will be more widely appreciated. Inui gets better each year.” He slid a side glance at Niou as the blond hair stretched to become an ivory pony tail and the face thinned. It was a fascinating process. As they entered the woods and darkness closed around them, Fuji looked up at Niou’s face, searching out the brown eyes in the shadows, “Will we be needing a flashlight, Niou?”
“Maybe for you. For the rest of us, they just just become more lethal,” Niou pointed out. Fuji could ingest a wide range of odd foods that most should avoid but his friend somehow found enjoyment in. Niou looked around the woods at the question and nodded. “Here.” He pulled out the small flashlight from his pocket and tossed it lightly towards Fuji. “Surprised ya didn’t bring one.”
“The two go hand in hand.” Fuji caught the torch but did not turn it on. “After two weeks back at school, aren’t you bored with battery operated toys?” His own eyes opened past their usual half-moon smile to show the flash of sapphire in the last of the light from the school.
“And ya wonder why I never want to eat your cooking,” Niou said and then paused to look at Fuji and the still dark flashlight. He knew what Fuji was angling for but he just wasn’t quite sure why. He did at least understand that Fuji wouldn’t ask directly when he could go about it in an indirect way. That’s just how Fuji liked doing things most of the time.
Staring at Fuji’s eyes, which Niou thought were much more beautiful than his own when Fuji bothered to show them properly, Niou gave Fuji what he wanted and let the brown drop from his eyes, leaving them blue. He then turned away and let their natural glow come back to them, the glow enough to light the area he was looking toward as well as any flashlight. “You do know I need to blink, right? The flashlight’s more dependable.”
The beams of light fanned the path in front of them, making the footing easy once again. “You could blink alternate eyes,” Fuji suggested deadpan, as he flicked the flashlight back at Niou and set off down the path.
They followed the footpaths through the trees, allowing the school to drop out of sight behind them. Niou’s luminous gaze gave the path a far more interesting light than a fading yellow bulb. Stopping by a likely looking clearing, Fuji tested the ground with his shoe. Too obvious perhaps? He dug his toe into the soil then looked up at Niou again, diverting his gaze away from his eyes.
“Do you get tired keeping your eyes dark all the time?” he asked. Of course, there were some practical reasons why having two fog lights for eyeballs might be inconvenient but Fuji felt Niou did it more than was necessary. Few people at the school even knew his eye colour was not brown. If it hadn’t been for an unfortunate bout of ‘flu two years previously, Fuji would have been one of them. He wondered briefly if Yukimura knew. The thought made him think of graves again. He indicated Niou should pass him the shovel.
“Not really,” Niou said as he looked at the ground Fuji was toeing and then handed the shovel to him. “It’s one of the first things I learned to do. It sort of feels more natural to keep ‘em brown now.” He could even comfortably sleep with them in their ‘normal’ brown colour without worry of the blue or the glow showing through. Though he did know that concealing his eyes and currently the love bites did cause a small drain on his energy and concentration. But it wasn’t enough that it caused him difficulties in his day to day activities, even during his training. “Don’t you think they’d get in the way during classes and stuff?” He certainly wouldn’t be a welcome addition to movie nights in the lounge with two beams of light shooting from his eyes and ruining the mood and view.
“Perhaps.” In truth, Niou had only answered half Fuji’s question. He could manage the physical drain, but Fuji wondered about the mental toll associated with always being someone else, even if the change was slight. Fuji did not understand why Niou used his powers to the extent he did. It was fun to pretend to be another person, certainly, but frankly Niou’s natural appearance was far more interesting than most anyone on campus.
Letting the subject slide, he took the shovel and dug it into the earth, experimentally turning over a few slabs of soil. The ground was soft and came up easily under Fuji’s effort. It was definitely a possible location.
Niou watched Fuji dig at the ground, noting how easy the shovel sank into the earth. But looking back the way they came, they weren’t that far from the path. “Easy to dig but a fresh grave’s gonna be too easy to spot here,” Niou said. There would probably be better locations further in better suited to body hiding.
Fuji looked in the direction Niou’s headlight gaze. “Ah, perhaps you are right. This one can be back-up.” For his room-mate perhaps. Shouldering the shovel himself, Fuji led the way deeper into the woods, avoiding the path to the boat house (although drowning was also an option) to steer them nearer the northern boundary of the campus. “Tell me if I shouldn’t dig somewhere,” he called back over his shoulder. “I don’t want to ruin your favourite meeting spots.”
“Always good to have a back up,” Niou agreed and then moved to walk beside Fuji down the path. If his friend wasn’t going to use the flashlight he brought, then he’d be forced to always look in the direction Fuji wanted to go. At least if he didn’t want to risk Fuji injuring himself. “And dig where you want, even if you find a place I like, I can always find another.” He wasn’t particularly attached to any of his outdoor meeting spots since they were buried under snow most of the year anyway.
By the time they had gone another 100 yards, the only light to be seen was the beams Niou cast. Even the moon was hidden by the thick cover of trees overhead. If Tooyama had been with them, Fuji was willing to bet he’d be screaming round in circles talking about horror movies by now. It was an entertaining concept. He conjured up a few shimmering spectrals to hover around the edges of Niou’s light. Much more appropriate for grave digging.
“Maybe I’ll save the first site for Yukimura. He might be angry after I cut the heads of his flowers last night.” He threw Niou a cheerful, unconcerned smile.
Niou looked over at one of the spectrals and let out an amused snort, leave it to Fuji to make a harmless forest extra creepy. But then he frowned and looked at Fuji, why did Fuji and Yukimura insist on aggravating each other? When he heard they were sharing a room, he thought they would make the perfect roommates and he would find himself enjoying their company and hanging out in their room more than his own. “You better watch out that he doesn’t put you in that grave first, Shuusuke,” Niou warned. He didn’t want to attend either of their funerals.
Fuji dug the shovel into the earth again. The ground was harder here, more used by brambles than by people. “You think I am no match for him? I’m crushed.” It was a question with multiple meanings. Fuji elaborated on the simplest by making one of the creepy spectrums grab its colleague and start to force him into a ghostly flower pot.
Niou honestly thought that whoever was sneakier about stabbing the other in the back would win that match but he didn’t want to give Fuji any ideas. “I’m more worried about getting caught in the crossfire,” Niou said watching the ghosts play rough with each other, causing a shadow to fall on the area Fuji was working on.
Fuji felt there was a very simple solution to that which involved Niou helping him fill hole number one back on the path. “I wouldn’t hurt you.” Unless, well, it was the only way to finally corner Yukimura and in which case he’d have to weigh up the odds. Small print. “Although your choices for infatuation need work.”
“I don’t have infatuations,” Niou countered, swinging his glowing eyes back on to Fuji. “And you two wouldn’t mean to hurt me at the start but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to end up in a shallow grave by the end of it.” Or at least the infirmary. The risk of poison with those two around was high, not to mention all the other dangers.
Fuji stepped back so that Niou’s eyes hit his stomach, rather than his face, making it glow. The spectors stopped fighting and turned into teletubbies. “Yukimura is the only person you’ve taken on a sexless date to the greenhouse,” he pointed out. “And I’d dig deep.” He dug the shovel back into the ground. “What do you think of this place?”
Niou didn’t quite get why Fuji was upset by his sexless date with Yukimura or why he thought that meant he was infatuated but thought he’d better try if he hoped to dissolve building tensions between the three of them. “We were just hanging out. And there’s plenty of people I don’t sleep with.” He didn’t sleep with Yagyuu and as far as he knew, Fuji wasn’t trying to plot Yagyuu’s murder. “And I think this place is secluded but the ground seems a bit tough if you’re digging deep.” He ignored the teletubbies in favour of surveying the area, moving his eyes back to Fuji’s face when he was done.
‘You drink in his words like a whale getting by in a fish pond’ was what Fuji was tempted to shoot back but... Niou was clearly going to deny it. He’d just have to bury Yukimura’s sorry behind and regretfully note that sometimes even the best of friends could be stupid.
He examined the ground. Niou had a point. “Maybe the best disguise is in plain sight?” he suggested and beamed up at Niou. “I’ll use the herb garden.”
Niou sometimes wished that his powers allowed him to read minds so he could get an idea of what was going through Fuji’s. But then his friend said or did things that made him realize that it was much safer not knowing. “You want this poor guy you’re killin’ to feed the herb garden?” Niou asked. He thought hiding in plain sight was a brilliant idea and one he used often to his advantage. But he didn’t want to think about a decaying body underneath the parsley and the mint. “Let’s do the flower bed instead.”
Fuji briefly imagined his room-mate hoeing and hitting a rotting corpse. The spectors (still in teletubbie form) imitated this. Tinky Winky looked like he might be sick. It was a good image. “That’s a good plan.” He shouldered the shovel and squinted at Niou’s bright eyes. “Let me know if you’d like tea. Taki insisted I bring a thermos with us.”
“Taki made us tea?” Niou had no idea why Taki would make them tea, but it sounded like a good idea. “Why don’t we drink some before walking back and checkin’ out the flower beds.” Niou stopped looking at Fuji so his friend wouldn’t have to keep squinting like that and looked around the clearing for a place to sit. “Over there.” He pointed to a tree that had fallen over and would make for a decent bench. He was doing his best to ignore the Teletubbies though, they freaked him out more than the ghouls had and he didn’t even want to try and figure out what they were doing.
“He just insisted I make up a thermos. It seemed important to him.” Fuji followed Niou to the tree trunk and dropped the shovel, producing a canister from his long overcoat. He uncapped it and poured the hot liquid into the inverted cup. The heat warmed his hands pleasantly. He passed it to Niou.
Niou, always suspicious of things Fuji handed him, took the cup carefully and looked at it intently. It didn’t look to be an odd colour or have questionable things swirling it. He brought it up close to his face and gave it a testing sniff. It smelled like tea, too. He tapped his finger against it, just enough to pick up a few drops and brought it to his mouth to suck on. He let the aftertaste settle on his tongue before deciding it was safe to drink. When it came to Fuji’s concoctions it was always that aftertaste, complete with burn that did you in. Taking a proper drink, Niou still frowned as he brought the cup down. “Too much sugar,” He complained and handed the cup back to Fuji so he could drink some, too. “Doesn’t he know we’re sweet enough~?”
Fuji took the cup. “That’s the biggest compliment you’ve given me about anything I’ve made.” He took a sip himself. It is possibly he was thinking of his younger brother’s sweet tooth when he mixed it. Other people’s taste buds were hard to predict.
He swung his legs onto the log and rotated 90 degrees to lean back against Niou. “A forest at night, with a shovel and 3 burial spots. That cannot be sweeter.” The teletubbies started serving cake. One of the cakes was in the shape of a tomb stone.
“I thought you said Taki made this?” Niou questioned, proving to himself that he had every reason to continue being paranoid when it came to things Fuji handed him. At least it kept things interesting. As Fuji shifted, Niou lifted his arm and curled it around Fuji a little so he could better rest against him. “Yeah, not a bad evening. But what’s with the Teletubbies?” They were still creeping him out a little.
“No, he just insisted we brought sustenance against the bitter night.” Fuji glanced over at his illusions. They stopped serving cake and glared at Niou. One of them dropped its plate on the floor. “You made my middle light up. I thought they were cute.” He smiled cheerfully up at Niou.
“Ah, I get it now,” Niou said and held his hand out for the cup again. He didn’t know the next time Fuji would make something he could stomach, so even if it was sweeter than he liked, he’d enjoy it while he could. “They don’t really match the mood,” Niou hedged not wanting to let Fuji know he thought they were creepy but also wanting his friend to get rid of them.
Fuji passed the cup back, watching upside down as Niou eyed the teletubbies. He shifted his power slightly to give each furry cuties a decaying zombie face. To the smallest one, he added strands of long blue hair. “Better?”
Somehow it was better Niou thought as he took the cup and brought it to his lips. Perhaps Niou just couldn’t handle cute things aimed at small children. “A bit. But not quite the mood I was going for,” Niou said and gave Fuji a teasing wink and then hoped he didn’t blind him with his own eyes. His eyes were good for lighting up dark spaces, but he always accidentally blinded people and destroyed their night vision when he looked right at them.
“Hmm...” Fuji did have to blink spots from his eyes while he considered Niou’s suggestion. The teletubbies shifted to be replaced with 6-pack muscled bodies in tight y-fronts. He left their zombie faces and --incongruously-- their teletubbie antennae. “How is that?”
Niou ended up spitting his tea out onto the forest floor from laughter as the vision shifted. “Your mind is a scary place,” Niou said half in teasing and half seriousness. He didn’t even know what to think about the odd mix of muscled body, undies and zombie face with teletubbie parts still intact. He suspected that for some people this is the stuff of nightmares. “Pour me more tea, you made me waste my last cup.”
One of the teletubbie chippendales came forward with a ghostly teapot, but it was Fuji’s hand that ultimately tipped the liquid into the cup. He then took the cup off Niou and drank himself, chuckling at Niou’s reaction. “I cannot help what I am.” He passed the cup back again. “But you choose to spend time with me.” Pale fingers interlocked with the hand that was stopping him sliding off the log.
Niou blinked at the illusion in front of him, finding the double image of it and Fuji pouring the tea a little confusing. But he knew just what was happening when Fuji took the cup back for himself. He was about to protest when it was returned into his hand with still enough left to drink. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it. Scary’s not bad. And I like who you are.” Most of the time and when Fuji’s ire was directed nowhere near him. That’s when Fuji’s scary was the bad type. He gave Fuji’s hand a squeeze and drank from the cup.
Soft laughter was his answer. Fuji stretched out his legs, propping the thermos against the log. As he relaxed, the illusions merged together to form a reflection of Niou and Fuji opposite where the upturned earth marked where Fuji had been digging. It slowly faded as Fuji closed his eyes.
Niou watched in fascination as the spectrals turned into him and Fuji and then faded away all together. He looked down at his friend and when he saw the closed eyes, dimmed the brightness of his own a little so he could admire Fuji’s relaxed face without causing a harsh glare. “Sleepy?” He asked, his hand not holding Fuji moving to play with his soft hair.
A small exhale of contentment was his response. “Digging grave spots is hard work,” Fuji murmured. “Be even harder when we have …” he yawned. “.... bodies.”
“We’ll need a wheelbarrow,” Niou said as he continued sliding his hand over Fuji’s hair, fingers playing with the silky strands. “You can rest for a while before ya head. I won’t leave you.” Now if he was with someone he didn’t like as much. He’d totally leave them. Or at least hide in the dark until they woke up and freaked out properly for his amusement.
“They would fit in a backpack if they were diced,” Fuji pointed out. He took Niou up on his offer and leaned back properly, putting his head on the other boy’s lap. A large chopping knife briefly appeared in mid-air, but it faded quickly. He looked upwards at the eyes that were now dim spotlights, his own eyes visible in their glow. It was a pity that he and Niou required such different things from a relationship since in all other important ways, they were very similar; practical jokes, calm discussions of homicide and the best freak-out Fuji had managed to pull on Niou had involved a teletubbie. “It is a pity you have terrible taste,” he informed his friend as he dozed.
Niou thought cutting them up would be messy and more effort than dragging them in a wheelbarrow but figured that’s an argument they could have another day when Fuji turned up at his door with a dead body. Instead he just snorted lightly and shook his head, “There’s nothing wrong with my taste,” He protested quietly not wanting to disturb Fuji who he continued to pet lightly. He sipped his tea as he watched the surrounding woods, making sure that nothing dangerous came to bother them while Fuji rested.
After a few minutes, Niou looked down to see Fuji still resting peacefully. His friend really was handsome, though when he was resting like this, Niou would probably call him beautiful, there really was something quite soft about Fuji’s features. Brushing the hair out of Fuji’s face, Niou looked more closely at Fuji’s lips. After a moment’s hesitation, he leaned down and gave a soft kiss to his lips before straightening. It really was a shame that they could never agree on sex, it certainly wasn’t for lack of attraction on his part.
Fuji’s eyes blinked open at the more intimate touch, looking up at Niou as he lifted a hand to rub his eyes. He stared at him for a moment, a clear emotion of surprise visible on his face. Then his eyelids lowered once more. After another pause a ghostly image appeared in front of Niou, showing the two of them standing in the clearing. This time it was Fuji who kissed Niou.
Niou hadn’t meant to wake Fuji, but he supposed he should have known better than to expect Fuji to be able to sleep deeply on a log in the forest after only a few minutes. Still, if the vision was anything to go by, his friend wasn’t upset by it. “It’s a shame, the fake me is getting more affection from you than the real one,” He said a teasing tone to his voice.
“Ain’t that the truth,” came the murmured answer.