Rp Log: Dan Taichi and Echizen Ryoma

[samuraiechizen]

Who: Echizen Ryoma, Dan Taichi
When: Nov 15th
Where: ALL THE PLACES. Namely tennis court, onsen and ramen stand.
What: The roomies have a peaceful evening.
Rating/Warnings: Maybe PG-13 for Ryoma's mouth

It was a boring Wednesday night. All the homework important enough to be done had already been finished, and Karupin had been asleep for the last two hours.

While laying on the bed, Echizen tossed his tennis ball up and down...then peered over at his roommate, who was seemingly hard at work.

"Dan, catch," Echizen said, and tossed the ball easily at his roommate.

Dan caught the ball, thanks to the heads up. He was clumsy but not a complete klutz at least. Setting it on the desk, he gave his roommate a curious look. It was a quiet night. The quiet was needed after recent events.

"Did you want something?" He asked, stretching a little. Dan winced as he heard a shoulder pop. "Or just bored?"

It was a little bit of both really.

Jerking his head to the ball in Dan’s hand, Echizen said, “A game? Or think it’ll break your back?”

Even a total idiot could tell that his roommate was feeling a little tight.

A game did sound nice. Peaceful and distracting. Both of which sounded good right now. He nodded and tossed the ball back.

"Go easy on me?" He wasn't as good as his roommate but he'd gotten better over the last term.

Echizen put on his white cap and nodded to Dan, “You can pick my handicap.” It didn’t take him long to put everything he needed in the tennis bag. Though he was usually lazy, tennis gave him some new vigor.

“Ball me,” he held out his hand for the ball he had tossed to Dan earlier.

Dan tossed the ball over. He took a few more minutes, gathering his tennis things. He didn't tend to play all that often and his stuff always managed to end up in the most random of places.

"Four games to zero?" Dan suggested. "Or something else?" He didn't know a good handicap but figured his roommate would win no matter what it was.

Echizen caught the ball without really even looking at it and put it in his bag. Karupin stirred at the ruckus that the boys were making and mewed for Ryoma. He rubbed gently at her belly and told her that they were going to play tennis. She replied that napping was infinitely more important, and flopped over, resting her head against Echizen's thigh while he was there to be used as a human heater.

"Sure," Echizen agreed easily, "And I'll use my right hand too."

To anyone else, the meowing between Dan's two roommates would seem strange. At this point, Dan had figured out that it was just a power of Echizen's and before that, he'd thought it was just some odd quirk.

"Sounds a bit more fair," Dan admitted, giving a grateful smile as he grabbed his own tennis bag. "Did Karupin want anything?"

As he found a warm blanket for Karupin to snuggle instead, he replied, "No, she just wants to nap."

When she looked happily settled, Echizen led the way out of the room. He was happy to go outside for a bit; sometimes the school building could feel stifling.

As was becoming a habit, Dan looked around to make sure that no one was around. The only other person was his roommate so things were good. No danger seemed to be lurking around the corners.

"This term's been going by pretty fast, hasn't it?" Of course, with all the things that had been going on, that made the time go by even faster. Something was always going on.

While watching his roommate peak around like a paranoid maniac, Echizen raised his brow.

“Yeah...why are you acting like something’s gonna jump out at us?”

"Have you been hearing about what's been going on?" Dan really didn't know if Echizen had been paying attention to rumors or not. His roommate wasn't the type but it was hard saying what people knew when it came to this school. "There's been a lot of...incidents with me lately."

Echizen shook his head. He had been passed out for most of the Halloween party and he never paid attention to hearsay at the best of times.

"Incidents? Like..."

Dan glanced around. No one was around. Lowering his voice, he quietly let the news spill. "Like that incident with Sakaki-sensei's toilet. That one was kind of my fault." The other things were big but they hadn't been eating away at him for nearly as long. "And I kind of took someone's powers away one day."

Echizen's eyes widened...and then he laughed out loud. "Nice," he said, and gave his roommate a praising shove. "That perv Sakaki deserves it."

As for the powers he took away, "Did the persons power come back?"

Dan nodded. "I don't know when but I saw him...her? The sempai," he decided, "a few night's later at the Halloween party." He gave an unconscious shiver at the memory of that night. All those Weeping Angels. They were still haunting his dreams.

Still, it was reflex to start looking around just to make sure something wasn't happening. "I think you might be the only person in this place that's not afraid to touch me."

"You don't know whether it's a him or her...and you don't know if they got their powers back?" he shook his head. It was kind of typical of Dan. "Calm down, if they haven't hunted you down by now, they won't. Their power probably came back."

It was partly because it was hard for Dan to effect Echizen's power...but mostly because Echizen just didn't care about what he should fear.

"Maybe you just need to shower more," Echizen teased. They both knew Dan showered plenty, but the indignity might draw his attention from fear.

Dan gave an embarrassed laugh. "Well, when I met the sempai, he was male and the second body he had was male after he lost his powers but then when I saw him at the Halloween thing, he was in a girl's body so..." There wasn't much else he could do but shrug at that.

Spying the tennis courts, Dan sped up a little. "You don't think showering more would hurt, do you?" He already showered enough but maybe it'd do something...doubtful but who knew? Stranger things happened around the school after all.

"Who was that..." Echizen asked, in a somewhat incredulous tone. Those were some weird powers and he had to make sure to never steal them by accident.

"And no, I was kidding, you shower plenty," he held the gate open. "But a bath might help you relax."

"Third year, Niou-sempai, power is shapeshifting," Dan rattled off. He was terrible with knowing who people were until he had a face to go with the name. After that, his memory was almost freaky. He couldn't forget things and it'd led to some odd moments before when he'd said something that people assumed he'd forgotten.

Dan looked away, embarrassed that he'd taken the teasing a little too literally. Though a bath did sound nice...maybe after their game was over.

Echizen nodded, both taking in the information and giving Dan a moment to recover from his embarrassment. Maybe I should show him to the onsen after the game.

With this though, Echizen set himself up on one of the sides and waited for Dan to do the same.

"Rough, or smooth?"

"Smooth," Dan said after a minute when he'd recovered and he'd taken up his spot on the other side of the net. He'd let his roommate spin, trusting Echizen. Well, that and Dan was technically already up several games just to make it fair.

Echizen spun his racket and it came down on rough.

“I’ll take this side of the court,” by that, he meant obviously the one he was already situated on. “You can serve first.” He took the racket in his right hand and swung his arm a little, as if remembering its weight and strength.

"Are you sure?" Dan knew that if he served first, he might have a fighting chance but it was still something he felt like he should ask.

"Yeah," Echizen answered without hesitation. He adjusted his hat and settled into receiving position. Whether or not Dan served first wouldn't much change the outcome much, but it would make the game a little closer.

The match did not last long. They were only playing just a few a couple of games but even still, it was over quickly.

"That, that was fun," Dan panted as he went up to the net. "I think you've gotten even better since last term." That or Dan had just plain gotten worse. It was hard to say which one it was.

"Maybe...Good game," Echizen said, holding his hand out to Dan. His roommate hadn't gotten worse; Echizen just spent all of his spare time playing tennis.

The fact that Dan had actually taken on game surprised him more than anything else.

"It's still kind of early," he didn't want to go back to the room just yet. "Wanna hit the onsen or something?"

Dan hesitated on the handshake. "You may not want to do that..." he warned. Echizen was one of the few people that didn't flinch or run away from Dan's touch but it still seemed like a bad idea to encourage it. "Onsen sounds good though."

Echizen nearly rolled his eyes at his roommate's hesitation. He knew for a fact that, in this case, there would be no consequences from touching Dan. "Just trust me," Echizen said, and grabbed Dan's hand for a firm shake.

Surely enough, nothing happened.

Releasing Dan after the duration of a normal handshake, Echizen grabbed some water from his bag and started gathering up his things. "Have you been to the onsen yet?"

"I'm actually not even sure where it's at." Dan waited for something terrible to happen. Nothing was but it was hard to tell what with the way things had been going lately. "I went there once at the start of last term but that's it."

“It’s all good, I remember where it is...”

I think...

Deciding not to dwell on that uncertainty, Echizen zipped up his tennis bag and waited for his companion to finish gathering his things.

Somehow that didn't exactly put Dan at ease. He shrugged it off and gathered his things. It didn't take long since it had been a short match.

"Then lead the way." Dan gave his roommate a smile. He was already starting to feel better, his mind distracted from dwelling on all the recent incidents.

Echizen smiled a little back, and touched his cap to Dan as he passed his roommate to lead the way as promised. Since he had no problem with silence, he didn't start any sort of conversation. If Dan wanted to talk about things, he could, but Echizen was more in the mood to listen and appreciate company.

"It's not too far," he said, and walked beside Dan once they found the right road.

The quiet was peaceful which wasn't bad. Still, Dan felt like he needed to fill it somehow. "So, um, what do you think winter's going to be like? I've heard a bunch of older students say that the first one is the hardest." Still, the Hokkaido winter was sure to be different from the normal winters Dan had always had.

"...Cold," Echizen said, with a look of distaste. He grew up in California and really hated the cold. "We should get a kotatsu for our room," he didn't care whether or not it was actually allowed.

"I like that idea. We can use it instead of the desks," Dan agreed. He wondered if it was allowed but shrugged if off. It wasn't like a kotatsu would hurt anyone. Besides, when compared to everyone's powers, a kotatsu was far less dangerous. "We should go look in the town soon before it gets too cold out."

"Or we could order it online," Echizen said. "If we schedule the delivery then we can receive it before Ryuuzaki-sensei sees it."

He would use it more as a place to nap than a place to work. "We're turning left here...wanna go in on it together? It probably won't cost too much if we split a small one."

"That's a better idea," Dan agreed. "If it just comes in a big box, then no one will know what it is." Which made Dan feel all the better. He didn't like potentially breaking rules but if he was going to, he wanted to make sure it was done as secretly as possible. "Split the cost in half sounds good. We can look when we get back to the dorm."

Echizen nodded and stopped for a moment on a long street. This was as far as he could recall. Vaguely, he knew the onsen to be down an alley on this street, but he couldn’t recall this one.

It’s next to a ramen stall, he remembered, and started sniffing the air for the smell of delicious ramen.

No ramen smell by this alleyway. “Let’s keep walking,” he said, with all intentions of sniffing the next one they came across.

Okay, that was odd. Dan didn't say anything as he just gave his roommate a look. Who walked around sniffing the air? Well, dogs did but he didn't say that out loud. It was part of the whole 'being polite' thing that Dan did.

"Anything looking familiar?" The town only looked vaguely familiar as Dan didn't venture down to it very often. "Or would we be better asking? I'm sure someone would know if you forgot where it's at..."

“It’s off of this street,” Echizen said, walking slowly to the next alley. “Near a ramen stand, so if you smell some...”

The smell of pork ramen reached his nostrils, and he gave a little smirk. “It’s down here,” Echizen turned down the alley, expecting Dan to follow. Surely enough, there was a ramen stand quite close to the entrance of the onsen.

Dan shook his head and followed. Maybe his roommate was part cat. That would make sense with the feline speaking ability he had. "After we're done, we should stop and get some," Dan suggested, pointing towards the ramen stand. He didn't know about Echizen but Dan knew he wouldn't be in the mood to make food once they finished in the onsen.

Though Echizen wasn’t part cat, he was obsessed enough with food to have an acute sense of smell when it came to these things.

“Sounds good to me,” Echizen said. As he passed through the curtains of the onsen, he immediately felt the steamy warmth. He shuffled out of his shoes and put them in the little provided cubbies. “It’s 500 yen to get in,” he said, pulling coins out of his pocket.

Following suit, Dan gave a little happy sigh at the warmth. He wasn't used to the colder Hokkaido weather. It wasn't winter yet but it was still colder than he was used to at this time of year. It was fine to play tennis in. Walking around just got cold and fast.

He handed over his money, paying the admission fee with no complaint. "This place seems nice." It was more a shame the school didn't have one of it's own but no doubt some sort of disaster would strike if they did.

"Yeah, it's a pretty good onsen," Echizen said, taking the provided towel from the employee. "And not too expensive either," he probably went to the Onsen at least twice a week.

When they entered the room with the lockers, Echizen stripped off with no hesitation. He wasn't a particularly shy person. "It would be good of they had more salts though..." Dan had surely spotted Echizen's wide collection of bath salts well organized in a box in the bathroom.

"I wonder if they'd let you bring your own..." Dan figured probably not but it couldn't hurt to ask. He didn't have many but his roommate had a box full in their room. "Any you recommend? It's been awhile since I've been here." He stripped himself, a little slower and with more hesitation. It wasn't that he was body shy around Echizen. It was more that it was just a more public place even though no one here was really paying attention to anyone else.

"Nah, the baths are already run, they don't want us to change anything," he grabbed a little plastic pail to keep his towel in. "But I definitely think you need to spend some time under the water fall, and the lukewarm pool soon after. You've been stressed."

Figuring Dan would join him when he was ready, Echizen left to wash himself up while sitting on the little stool by the shower.

Well, that was true. Dan took a slower time to gather his things before going over to the shower to clean up. He quickly cleaned up, ready to get into the bath and soak. Between the cold and the stress of everything lately and the little game of tennis they'd played earlier, this was sounding like a better and better idea. Looking around, he decided to take the advice to go to the water fall. Now to find it...

After a brief jaunt to the sauna, Echizen spotted Dan looking around for something. Maybe he doesn't know where the waterfall is... "Dan," Echizen said, so as not to accidentally sneak up on his excitable roommate, "I'm headed to the waterfall now if you wanna come. It's in the outdoor part of the onsen."

"Thanks," Dan admitted, giving a little smile. He'd only been in this place once and it'd been at the beginning of last term. Everything had been a bit of a blur then so he really didn't remember where anything was.

As much as Echizen could be an asshole, he somehow felt a little protective of his roommate. Almost immediately, he dismissed those feelings, deeming them mere self preservation since he had to live with Dan.

He responded with a little smirk of a smile, and led Dan to the outdoor part of the onsen. It was too cold for most patrons to want to venture out. "It'll be worth it when we get in," Echizen promised, and quickly entered the pool with a man made waterfall in it.

"Cold cold cold cold cold cold cold," Dan shivered as soon as stepped outside. He didn't have to be told twice to get into the pool with the waterfall. He crouched as low as he could to stay under as much water as possible, it being warmer than the air all around them.

Dan didn't know what was going on in Echizen's head but it was a nice change of pace to be around someone who didn't look at Dan like he was some ticking time bomb. Dan could feel himself already starting to relax. Of course, it helped that there weren't really people around. He was a people-person but life had made him nervous around others.

Immersed to his neck in water, Echizen couldn't help but be a bit amused by Dan's antics. It wasn't like he didn't think the same thing in this kind of weather.

Maybe I should warn him, Echizen considered. There was a reason Echizen didn't fear touching Dan, and while he didn't want to tell the whole truth, Dan might want to know not to touch him around other mutants.

But now wasn't the best time. Perhaps on the return journey. Dan finally looked a bit relaxed. "You can stand under the waterfall first," Echizen offered, "I don't feel like it yet."

Dan gave his roommate a curious look. Echizen had never been rude to Dan, at least, not intentionally. It was just, today, his roommate seemed to be acting even nicer. He was starting to wonder if something was up or if Echizen had some sort of bad news to share.

"Is...are you okay? Nothing's wrong, is it?" Dan asked as he headed towards the waterfall. Waiting several moments for an answer, he gave Echizen a slightly worried look.

It took Echizen all of those moments to figure out how to answer.

“Well, nothing’s wrong, and I’m fine, but...”

Blah. Dan looked worried again. He might as well come out and say it.

“I should tell you that there’s a reason I’m not afraid to touch you. But, for that same reason....” there was really no way to phrase this delicately, “You shouldn’t touch me, and I definitely won’t touch you, around other mutants.”

Dan gave a little smile. "No one should touch me anyway," he pointed out. "Disaster follows whenever that happens." He was curious to know just what his roommate's power was. Everyone knew that Echizen was supposed to be some sort of levitator and Dan knew that his roommate could speak cat. But he had been wondering for a while if there was some sort of other power Echizen had too. Being roommates and in the same year, it meant they were around each other a lot and he'd had his suspicions there was something he hadn't been told.

Still waiting by the waterfall but not under it, Dan prompted, "so, what's this reason of yours?"

Since it was kind of hard to tell part of the truth, he figured he might as well come out with it. His roommate would find out eventually.

"Well, I can't usually levitate. I can only levitate after I touch my dad."

Echizen could let Dan draw his own conclusions from there: if Echizen touched Dan when it was just the two of them, Echizen would get Dans power without much result. But if they were around another person, it was like having two Dans to take or give power. Who knew what could happen?

Dan took that information and slipped under the waterfall to think it over. If Echizen could only levitate after touching his dad...did that mean Echizen wasn't a levitator but something else. Someone with the ability to take powers maybe? That would explain why he of all people wasn't afraid to touch Dan.

"You borrow powers, don't you?" Dan asked after he got out from under the waterfall. It had felt nice but it wasn't exactly practical for conversation.

Echizen lazily reclined against a rock while Dan went under the waterfall. When his roommate found the right conclusion, Echizen perked his head up to look at him. "Yeah," he answered. "Don't tell anyone."

He didn't really think that Dan would, but one could never tell.

"I promise I won't," Dan swore, completely serious. "Even if I wanted to, it's not my place to tell anyone." About the only thing that might get Dan to tell was if Echizen was in trouble and the information was relevant to helping him in some way. That was the only thing but it was highly unlikely to ever come to pass so the secret was safe with Dan.

"Good," Echizen said, believing Dan rather easily. "I just figured I'd warn you, just in case..."

Their combined potential was extremely dangerous.

Echizen slipped under the waterfall to take his turn. Dan could have it again after.

Dan nodded. It was understandable why Echizen wanted to warn him and knowing what the other's power was made a lot more things make sense. He could even understand why Echizen didn't tell people what his real power was. Dan's power wasn't the same but it was similar enough in a lot of ways. Sinking as low under the water as he could, Dan waited his turn to go back under the waterfall.

After letting the water pound on him for a few minutes, he scooted aside again, implicitly offering the waterfall to Dan.

Echizen's stomache interrupted the silence with a loud growl, unfitting for someone of his size. "Ramen soon?" he suggested.

The growling stomach made Dan start laughing. It was so loud and out of place and just seemed so ridiculous. "We can go whenever you want." He was hungry but not that hungry.

Dan took the opportunity to sit under the waterfall one more time. It really felt good. His shoulders felt lighter and he was feeling better. Dan thought he might even be able to sleep all night without dreaming of those creepy Angels from the Halloween party.

"Che," Echizen shook his head at Dan's laughter. The small smile on his face showed that he wasn't truly annoyed. "We can go when you're set with the waterfall."

He didn't appear in any particular hurry, so Dan could take his time in relaxing.

Taking longer this time under the waterfall, Dan let the water pound over him. He supposed he should have been thinking about something but his mind was blank for once. There were no worries and no wondering what disaster was going to happen next.

"Ready to go or do you want to stay a little longer?" Dan asked after he got out from under the waterfall.

"I want ramen," Echizen answered easily. He prepared himself mentally for the swoop of cold. "But we should spend a minute in the lukewarm pool to help our temperatures get back to normal once we get inside."

Once he felt he was ready, Echizen stood from the pool and walked toward the door as fast as he could.

The advice was sound. Dan gave a little nod at approval at the plan. "Coldcoldcoldcoldcold," he muttered under his breath as he hurried after Echizen to get back inside. Dan could feel the tips of his hair getting hard and freezing already.

Reaching the door and getting inside, Dan gave a happy sigh at the building's warmth.

"Fucking cold," Echizen muttered in English as he hurried into the pool that was a good in between from the hot and cold he just experienced. He shivered until he spent a good two minutes submerged to the nose in the pool. "Still alive?" he asked Dan as he stepped aside for the old men entering the pool.

Dan didn't quite go down that low but Dan curled up in the water. "Somewhat. You didn't freeze back there and leave me with your ghost again, did you?" Ghost-Echizen had been freaky and Dan definitely did not want a repeat. That kotatsu in the room was sounding like a more and more amazing idea.

When the water started to lose the warm edge it had and began to feel chilly, Dan pulled himself out of the pool. "You know, between the two of us, we could probably figure out what each person can do."

The idea just popped into his head but between their two powers, it wouldn't be that hard of a task to accomplish. And knowing what everyone's powers were could only benefit them both. There were some people that were safer for Dan to run into and he was sure Echizen would like to know for his own power. The only thing keeping Dan from coming right out and saying just that were the two old men. One could never be too careful around unknown and completely normal people.

As he followed Dan out of the pool, he snorted and said, "Nah, I'm alive. Ghost me wouldn't be able to shiver."

While they dried off and dressed themselves, Echizen thought about Dan's modest proposal. "I know what most people can do," he replied, drying off his hair with a towel. "But not all...we should put together a list."

That would definitely be a useful thing for him to have. "When midterms are over, we can start," and he didn't need to say that they could talk on more detail when out of company.

"We should get a piece of posterboard and keep track on that," Dan suggested. That would make it easy for the two of them to keep track of who could do what. And it would be easy to hide in case anyone came in the room. They'd just have to flip it over or stick it under a bed.

It was hard to say anymore with non-students around. The school had a reputation in town for being strange but there was no reason to just give away what it was just in case. This sounded like the perfect after midterm type project though and between the two of them, Dan had no doubts they'd have a fairly accurate list of powers and abilities.

Echizen nodded, mentally doing the same thing and considering all the ways they could hide it. “Before we do that, we should make a list of what we each know. That way, we can figure out the best way to organize the information.”

By grade? By power? By hair color? Who knew.

Once they were both dressed, Echizen led them out to the ramen stall, and his stomach gave an approving gurgle.

"We could start by grade and in name order," Dan agreed. It seemed the simplest way to organize just what they knew in general. "After we've got everyone, we can sort by what they can do." Classing by general power abilities would make it easier to know who to avoid but that was the sort of thing to be done after they knew what people could do.

The smell of ramen hit Dan and made him hungry. He'd been a little hungry but now he couldn't wait. It'd been a little while since he'd had ramen. Being in the dorm meant cooking his own meals or sharing with other people which had somehow led to not having ramen very often.

“Works for me,” Echizen said, and ordered the biggest pork ramen size that was available. As he poured them each a glass of water, he considered the possibility of their product. For him, it was rather like a menu he could chose from: what power did he want to have that day? “What midterms are you nervous about?”

Ordering his own bowl, Dan couldn't help but be excited about their project. Knowing who had what powers and who in particular to avoid and who it might not cause the end of the world if he bumped into them, that was sounding so good to the first year right now. Besides, knowledge was knowledge. "Math and Chemistry," Dan admitted. "My worst subjects by far. What about you?"

"Yeah, they both suck. Hanamura-sensei is kind of weird..." he peered around to watch the old man set their ramen on trays. It looked so tasty. "But I'll probably fail everything that involves powers."

Thirty seconds was not enough time to do well in a class that required power. Sometimes it was enough to pass, but usually it wasn't.

Dan didn't know if he'd call a teacher weird. Most people at their school were rather odd compared to the majority of the population but just flat out out calling Hanamura weird seemed to be going too far. "I'll probably fail power things too. I think the only reason I didn't end up in remedial classes last term is because the teachers figured it would be pointless." And dangerous. Putting Dan with people who were terrible with their powers seemed like a bad idea. It'd make a potential disaster into a full-blown one.

To Echizen, calling people weird wasn’t really an insult. Honestly, there wasn’t anyone at the school that he wouldn’t call weird.

Of course, he was completely normal himself.

“Be glad you’re not there. The class is pretty much pointless. Tezuka-senpai and I are trying to get out of it.”

"It can't be all that bad," Dan argued. He'd never been but all the classes doing with powers had been interesting. Frustrating, yes, but interesting nonetheless even if all Dan usually got to do was observe. He looked down at his bowl of ramen, excited for it. There was still a lot of steam rising off it, making him wary of taking a bite just yet but soon it would be eating time.

Echizen shrugged, “I just sleep because there’s not much I can do, besides take Tezuka-senpai’s powers every so often....but yeah, probably for the best you’re not there. You and Tezuka-senpai probably wouldn’t combine well anyway.” All of the chairs in the school would be fused together, he was fairly certain.

And barrage Wakai-sensei with bubbles, but that was another matter entirely.

Puffing his cheeks out like a little chipmunk, Echizen blew over his ramen before he started to slurp it up. The bowl was bigger than his head.

Looking around to see if anyone in particular was listening in, Dan relaxed a little when he noticed that no one seemed to be paying them any attention. "What can Tezuka-senpai do?" The name sounded familiar but Dan couldn't think of where.

The fact that Echizen had said they wouldn't combine well had also peaked Dan's curiosity. If potential disaster was lurking around the corner, Dan wanted as much of a heads up as possible. He'd probably go around campus, looking for this Tezuka over the next few days to have a name to go with the face.

“He can manipulate metal,” Echizen answered, slurping up some more ramen. After he swallowed, he continued, “Senpai is a nice guy, but real powerful and can’t quite control it yet.”

Despite being distracted by ramen, he could be fairly certain that no one who cared was listening in on them.

No one around seemed to be paying attention to them. It made it easier to talk. Eating a little of his own ramen, Dan thought about Tezuka's situation. Manipulating metal sounded like it would be an interesting power to have. And if he had too much power...

"I wonder what would happen if I took away some of his power," Dan thought out loud.

What would happen? Echizen recalled his own experience with Tezuka's power before answering, "He'd probably like that, it would make his power easier to use."

Well then, maybe he should find this Tezuka. Dan wanted to help and if he could take away someone's powers enough to actually allow them to be used, well, that was all the better. And hopefully if it worked the other way and Dan gave the older student too much power, there wouldn't be a huge disaster. After all, if Tezuka already had too much power and couldn't use it, well, more couldn't hurt, right? "Maybe I should ask him if I run into him."

Echizen sipped the dregs of his totaled ramen bowl. As he licked his lips to get a nice salty taste, he said, "That would probably go down well." Tezuka was the kind of guy that didn't care if help came from a kohai.

"Let me know what happens, it sounds like an interesting thing to watch."

"Maybe you could introduce us sometime," Dan suggested between bites. It would make it less random if there was someone there to break the ice. After all, how did one go up to someone new and ask to touch them? It was more than a little random. And it'd be better than accidentally running into Tezuka at some random point and letting a potential disaster happen. Echizen assured it wouldn't be a disaster and it had been laid out so hopefully there wouldn't be one but life had taught Dan to hope for the best but expect the worst.

"At some point, maybe," Echizen said, shelling out a few coins for ramen and stuffing his cold hands in his pocket to wait for Dan. "The school is pretty small, you might run into him sooner than you think."

Though it would be Dan's luck to avoid someone he was trying to meet.

"Might have already," Dan agreed as he finished what was left in his bowl. "Though I try to learn everyone's names when I run into them so I know what happens if I ever run into them again."

Tapping the side of his head, Dan gave a grin as he added, "I've got a good memory for names and faces at least. Once people tell me something, I tend to always remember whatever it is."

Echizen couldn't help but envy Dan that ability. "That's pretty sweet. I never remember anything." Though, he couldn't be too jealous; it was good to hear Dan compliment himself.

"Ready to head back?"

Slurping what was left in his bowl, Dan nodded. "It's too bad the school isn't closer to the town," he added. The walk back was going to be entirely too cold. "We should really look into that kotatsu when we get back. It'd be perfect for times like tonight."

Echizen snorted, "Pretty sure thats for a reason." If the school was closer to town, then the students would never be on campus. Plus, the school would get no privacy.

"But yeah, let's order that baby tonight. I'll pay, and just give me half later."

Dan grinned, excited to get back to the dorm to order this kotatsu. No doubt it'd take at least a few days to arrive but that was still better than no kotatsu at all. "Not a problem at all." He could probably convince his parents to pay for his half as an early birthday present but even if they didn't, it wasn't a big deal.

"Do you think the bus is coming soon or should we just walk back?"

"Che...." he looked at his phone to check the bus schedule. "A bus is headed this way in seven minutes, so let's just wait at the stop," Echizen pointed down the road to show the stops location.

That sounded reasonable to Dan. Besides, it was better than having to walk back to the school in this cold. "You know, you really didn't have to do all this today." Dan gave a smile, adding, "but thank you. I needed a day like this." For the first time in a long while, Dan really wasn't concerned about accidentally causing a disaster or wondering when the next incident of mayhem was going to happen.

Echizen’s ears flushed as he looked away. “Idiot,” he muttered, and walked a little faster toward the bus stop. “S’what friends do. Guys don’t say stuff like that.”

They were friends; Dan didn’t have to thank him. It wasn’t like Echizen didn’t wanna hang out either. He shoved his hands gruffly in his coat pockets. “Maybe every Wednesday, we should play tennis.”

Dan grinned at the friends comment. That's all he wanted, to have friends. There were a few people he considered friends but not very many that had said that Dan was their friend back to him. "Some do. At least, I'm sure they do since I'm a guy and I said it," he added, hustling to keep up.

"Wednesday sounds good." Dan didn't think there would be any problems with that and if there were, well, that was easy enough to fix. It wasn't like he never saw Echizen after all.

“You’re probably the only one,” Echizen leaned against the bus stop sign, completely ignoring the fact that he had said it out loud too. And the fact that he had suggested they do it again. “Good....but don’t get me wrong, you’re still totally mada mada.”

The look on Echizen’s face suggested that it wasn’t a bad thing to be.

Dan just kept grinning. The sheer fact that there was someone who considered Dan a friend was enough to have turned this whole day around. He was feeling better and more relaxed thanks to the tennis and the bath and the food but the friend comment had made all his other worries vanish for the moment.

"I might be. Or there might be others. It's a big world and full of lots of people." The sheer odds pointed that there were more people like Dan. But even so, being mada mada didn't sound like a bad thing at all.

Echizen had to pull his hat down over his face to hide his smile. "Che, whatever...sap."

The big warm bus noisily came, and welcomed the boys with open doors to take them right back to where they started.