He Who Seeks The Heights
Title: He Who Seeks The Heights
Characters/Groups: Shige+Massu
Genre: AU
Rating: G
Warnings: None (Slightly confusing subject matter?)
Notes: je_justfriends fic for nanyakanya ♥. Based off a tuplas / thoughtforms prompt.
It's like they appeared together, at the same moment. They hadn't been aware of each other before that moment, but suddenly, like the universe clicked in just the right way, they smile at each other from across the room.
"Hello," the taller says, stepping around a pile of books, "I'm Shige. And you are...?"
"Masuda," the other says, smiling, careful of a box of a graduated cylinders and flasks to his left. "But 'Massu' is fine."
They don't question where the other came from.
-
In this little town, every one knows Shige - he's the only one they can really call an "intellectual" and his presence alone makes the other citizens feel less country-ish. He spends most days in his library, reading and researching things the others can't even begin to comprehend, though that doesn't stop him from trying when he goes to the park or coffee shop to do his work instead. The ramen shop operator, Koyama, and the elementary school PE teacher, Maruyama, the only people Shige can really call his friends here, blink at him awkwardly when he tries to explain the depth of knowledge he possesses and the power of one's mind, if only it can be properly grasped. They just laugh, and tell Shige that he's too much for normal people.
Massu is a man of science, of careful measurements and specificity, never one to fudge numbers or think outside of the box. There are rules to the world for a reason, and he follows them. That is, until he grows bored, curious, wonders why those rules are there in the first place. His university student friend, Nakamaru, prods him along, encouraging Massu to find more to the world. On his desk, which is more a giant kitchen table moved into a lab than a real desk, Massu fills notebook after notebook with equations and hypotheses and musings on whether life and the human mind can be broken down into easier parts, or if there is something intrinsically human that is beyond any measure.
-
They both search for that person who will understand what they're getting at, but it's not easy to find such a person.
Massu looks towards his psychology student friend, Tegoshi, thinking that if there's any one who understands the human mind, it's someone who has studied it extensively. But when talk of thoughtforms and the vast science behind it comes up, Tegoshi just frowns.
"I don't get it," he says.
"But you're a psych student...."
"Well," Tegoshi mutters, scratching the underside of his chin, "I know a lot about psychological disorders and imbalances."
Massu shakes his head. "Thoughtforms aren't something negative. Unless you create them to be like that."
Tegoshi blinks, more confused than he was before. "I don't get it."
Shige suffers the same on his end, desperate for a proper conversation partner, someone who can think on his own level to debate these intricacies that have consumed him.
"You get it, right, Nishikido-kun?" he asks to the only person who he thinks has a chance of getting it.
"So, like, you think of something, and it becomes real?"
"Yeah!" Shige shouts, jumping out of his chair. "You get it!"
"I'm thinking of a hot, naked chick with D-cups..... and yet, I'm alone. Where is my hot, naked chick?"
Shige mutters nonsense of himself for a moment. "It's not that easy! There's more to humanity than thinking it into creation. That's what I wanted to talk to you about!"
Ryo is silent, until he comes back with, "Now all I can think about it getting laid. I'm going into town. Later."
Shige glares at his phone while the you've-been-hung-up-on sound plays.
-
Massu thinks, if he's going to essentially will someone into existence, he'd like for it to be someone better than himself. Someone who isn't scared of bugs. Someone who can see the might they carry in their heart.
Shige thinks someone orderly would be good, who has more grounding and will balance out his own intellectual wishy-washy-ness.
And once they look at each other from across the room, proud of their accomplishment - that they could grasp the concept and had the mental fortitude required, they both can't help but think that this is going to be the most incredible experiment and experience in recorded history.
-
"Stupidity doesn't suit you, Shige," Koyama says, days later, when they're getting lunch. "You can't just make a person."
Shige scowls, "Once he gets here, I'll prove you wrong. And don't say 'make'; he might take it offensively."
Koyama waves his hands mockingly, nearly knocking over his glass of water. "Oh no, not that."
"When he's done shopping, you'll see."
"I still can't believe that you gave money to a make-believe person to go buy clothes because he refused to borrow yours after his own got dusty. I seriously think you're over-working yourself, Shige. Take a vacation, or something."
The third chair at the table of four scoots away, and Massu sits, smiling, setting a few bags on the floor next to him. Neither Shige, nor Koyama heard him approaching; they were too caught up in their non-argument.
"Massu, Koyama. Koyama, Massu," Shige says, simply introducing them to each other.
Koyama frowns. "I can't believe you got someone to do this."
Shige laughs, Massu asks if they ordered for him already.
-
Hours later, they're on a couch, debating existence; Shige on the side of intellectualism, Massu on hard science. To Shige, the couch is a pale green and suede, there's a hole in one of the cushions and an armrest (he doesn't care though, because the couch is soft and comfy). To Massu, it's black leather, in pristine condition, because he never eats while sitting on it, and doesn't put his feet up either.
"I can't believe Koyama thinks you're a fake person," Shige whines. "You're totally here. We're talking."
Massu blinks. "The mind is amazing, I suppose. How you can create a whole other world that I'm not a part of."
Shige grumbles, "There's so much trouble to life."
"But we've got each other," Massu smiles. "I'm glad I thought you up."
Shige blinks, looking almost confused, but shortly after, smiles and nods.
-
They go to the beach, and to both of them, it's a bay, for once their visions matching. Shige sits on the pier fishing while Massu lies on it, soaking up the warm rays of the sun. They don't bother much with conversation.
Every so often, water splashes as Shige pulls something up and debates keeping it or throwing it back. The fishing here must be poor because more often than not the fish gets thrown back. There's one time, when the little fish is wet and slimy and wily and as he's trying to get it off the hook, thathe drops it on Massu's leg.
Massu, for his part, jerks awake eyes wide and yelping, scooting back on the pier. The fish continues flopping and Shige stifles a laugh.
"Don't drop gross things on me!"
"Sorry, sorry. He wiggled out of my hand."
Shige reaches forward, grabbing the fish and throwing it back into the water.
Massu shudders. "How can you just....
"What?"
"Grab it?"
"It's just a fish."
"But it's all dirty and-"
"You're kind of a fragile guy, aren't you?"
Massu frowns and scoots a littler further away. "Don't drop another fish on me."
Shige salutes towards Massu, and goes back to his fishing.
-
Massu isn't quite sure where Shige goes when he's asleep. Shige, for his part, just figures that while his mind is resting and focusing solely on things like breathing and keeping his heart beating, Massu does something similar; he's a creation of Shige's, so it makes sense that they would rest at the same time.
And Massu doesn't question it when he wakes up one morning, hair sticking up awkwardly, to find Shige banging around in the kitchen.
"What you are doing?" Massu mumbles, reaching for an apple that's in a bowl on the counter.
"I can't find my french press!" Shige snaps, "I want my coffee!"
Massu doesn't have a french press, and wonders if Shige is making things up in his made up mind. He's just about to tell Shige to drop it, they can go out after his shower to get coffee, when Shige shouts, "Aha! There you are!" from halfway inside a cabinet. He stands, holding a french press and smiling, getting right to work on making coffee. Massu frowns; he can't remember ever buying or being given a french press.
He figures, once he's seen how happy Shige is to sip at fresh brewed coffee, it's really not a big deal and the mystery of where the french press came from should just be left alone.
Shige, for his part, can't seem to remember why he put the french press in the cabinet when he always leaves it next to the fridge and the container of coffee grounds. He shrugs as he drinks, and thinks he should start exercising his mind more often. He thinks crosswords would be a good way to start.
-
Shige goes out later that day to buy a book of crossword puzzles, and Massu stays behind at the house. At the little bookstore in town, Shige bumps into his friend, Koyama, who's waiting in line to buy a 'Korean For Beginners' book with cartoon animals and people on the cover.
Koyama shouts when he first sees Shige, flailing and waving. "It's been so long since I've seen you!"
"It hasn't been that long."
"But you've been so busy with your imaginary friend..."
Shige stiffens. "Koyama, he's not imaginary."
"But-"
"I'm sorry you've been feeling neglected, though, for what it's worth."
Koyama perks up, smiling, and the cashier asks for the next person in line.
-
"Life is an oddity," Shige says, in a very intellectual tone, one night while they're playing Scrabble. "It can't be qualified or quantified and there's something so deep to it, but the truly happy moments in life as always simple little things.
"... like fresh brewed coffee?"
"And cameras and museums, and cool shit like that. But getting back to the point." Shige lays down some letter tiles, racking up big a score. "Even if your existence is disputed by some, I'm really glad you're here."
"Likewise," Massu mumbles, looking over his tiles and feeling jilted. "I wish I'd made you a little less smart though. I'm sick of always losing."
Shige laughs, saying something like, "Ha, you make me?"
"Are these details really important?" Massu asks, putting down the letters for 'laundry'.
"Not really. Friendship is friendship, right?"
Massu smiles, and Shige does too, and he thinks that losing isn't such a horrible thing.
-
One morning, Massu gets a call from his old chemistry professor, offering him a short-term teaching position while one member of the faculty is off for maternity leave. Massu is not in love with teaching, but he could use that little bit of cash and agrees.
Shige asks about the quality of the school's library, and Massu isn't surprised at all when Shige says he'll judge it with his own eyes before Massu can even answer. They ride the bus together, smushed together on a little bench seat that's too small for two grown men.
Once on campus, Massu directs Shige towards the library, and then, he goes off to the science building to teach the morning chemistry courses.
15 minutes into the first class, he remembers why he didn't choose to become a teacher. Once the lunch bell rings, he calls Shige, practically demanding gyoza.
They meet outside the gates of the school, and Massu is a little confused when he sees Shige talking to someone, and when he gets closer to the pair, he realizes who it is.
"Tegoshi!" Massu shouts happily, jogging over to the pair.
"I thought you might have been a little crazy when you told me about all that thoughtform stuff, but Shige's really cool!"
Shige mutters something about respect and 'at least a little more formal Japanese'.
"I guess some strengths and points of the human mind are still beyond academics' understanding." Tegoshi continues, "Shige said you want gyoza; I'm starving, let's go."
And all on his own, Tegoshi starts walking down the street. Massu and Shige follow just shortly behind.
"How did you meet Tegoshi?" Massu whispers, leaning towards Shige.
"He just walked up to me and said I looked like something Massu would make. Whatever that means."
-
"Do you see things like us normal people, Shige?"
Frowning, Shige stirs the broth in his ramen bowl. "What the hell do you mean 'normal people'? I'm normal."
Tegoshi turns to Massu. "He's a little snappy. You should have made him nicer."
"Shige is going to act however Shige wants to. I can't really control that," Massu says, clearly only partly listening to the conversation; he's still got gyoza left on his plate.
"You don't have much of an internal monologue, do you?" Shige says to Tegoshi, "It's weird that someone as down-to-Earth and chill as Massu has people like you, by extension, in his mind."
Tegoshi pouts, eyebrows furrowing. "Wait, what?"
-
The bus ride back home at the end of the day is somber, both Shige and Massu still thinking about their conversation at lunch with Tegoshi and the status of their individual existences.
"Life is funny," Massu mutters, disliking people eavesdropping on his talks. "Do you really think any one has the mental fortitude to just.... will another person into creation?"
"The more I think about it, the more I don't believe human life can be made so simply. There's simply too much to it."
"For a while, I was really proud that I could make someone as fun and cool as Shige, but... that doesn't work, right? Because you have those same thoughts in reverse."
"Chicken and the egg," Shige turns to Massu, as much as he can in the little seat. "The place we're going back to now. I have a vision of it, but yours is different."
"Who's to say one of us is wrong and the other is right?"
"Exactly," Shige smiles. "There is no wrong answer."
The fuzzy-voiced prerecorded announcement declares their stop, and they file off with a few others.
"Let's not over-complicate things," Massu finally says, talking at a normal tone now that they're off the bus.
"I called to you; you called to me."
And at the same moment, they stop and turn to each other, smiling like a pair of idiots that have known each other most of lives and say, "Don't sweat the small stuff" in perfect unison.
Characters/Groups: Shige+Massu
Genre: AU
Rating: G
Warnings: None (Slightly confusing subject matter?)
Notes: je_justfriends fic for nanyakanya ♥. Based off a tuplas / thoughtforms prompt.
It's like they appeared together, at the same moment. They hadn't been aware of each other before that moment, but suddenly, like the universe clicked in just the right way, they smile at each other from across the room.
"Hello," the taller says, stepping around a pile of books, "I'm Shige. And you are...?"
"Masuda," the other says, smiling, careful of a box of a graduated cylinders and flasks to his left. "But 'Massu' is fine."
They don't question where the other came from.
-
In this little town, every one knows Shige - he's the only one they can really call an "intellectual" and his presence alone makes the other citizens feel less country-ish. He spends most days in his library, reading and researching things the others can't even begin to comprehend, though that doesn't stop him from trying when he goes to the park or coffee shop to do his work instead. The ramen shop operator, Koyama, and the elementary school PE teacher, Maruyama, the only people Shige can really call his friends here, blink at him awkwardly when he tries to explain the depth of knowledge he possesses and the power of one's mind, if only it can be properly grasped. They just laugh, and tell Shige that he's too much for normal people.
Massu is a man of science, of careful measurements and specificity, never one to fudge numbers or think outside of the box. There are rules to the world for a reason, and he follows them. That is, until he grows bored, curious, wonders why those rules are there in the first place. His university student friend, Nakamaru, prods him along, encouraging Massu to find more to the world. On his desk, which is more a giant kitchen table moved into a lab than a real desk, Massu fills notebook after notebook with equations and hypotheses and musings on whether life and the human mind can be broken down into easier parts, or if there is something intrinsically human that is beyond any measure.
-
They both search for that person who will understand what they're getting at, but it's not easy to find such a person.
Massu looks towards his psychology student friend, Tegoshi, thinking that if there's any one who understands the human mind, it's someone who has studied it extensively. But when talk of thoughtforms and the vast science behind it comes up, Tegoshi just frowns.
"I don't get it," he says.
"But you're a psych student...."
"Well," Tegoshi mutters, scratching the underside of his chin, "I know a lot about psychological disorders and imbalances."
Massu shakes his head. "Thoughtforms aren't something negative. Unless you create them to be like that."
Tegoshi blinks, more confused than he was before. "I don't get it."
Shige suffers the same on his end, desperate for a proper conversation partner, someone who can think on his own level to debate these intricacies that have consumed him.
"You get it, right, Nishikido-kun?" he asks to the only person who he thinks has a chance of getting it.
"So, like, you think of something, and it becomes real?"
"Yeah!" Shige shouts, jumping out of his chair. "You get it!"
"I'm thinking of a hot, naked chick with D-cups..... and yet, I'm alone. Where is my hot, naked chick?"
Shige mutters nonsense of himself for a moment. "It's not that easy! There's more to humanity than thinking it into creation. That's what I wanted to talk to you about!"
Ryo is silent, until he comes back with, "Now all I can think about it getting laid. I'm going into town. Later."
Shige glares at his phone while the you've-been-hung-up-on sound plays.
-
Massu thinks, if he's going to essentially will someone into existence, he'd like for it to be someone better than himself. Someone who isn't scared of bugs. Someone who can see the might they carry in their heart.
Shige thinks someone orderly would be good, who has more grounding and will balance out his own intellectual wishy-washy-ness.
And once they look at each other from across the room, proud of their accomplishment - that they could grasp the concept and had the mental fortitude required, they both can't help but think that this is going to be the most incredible experiment and experience in recorded history.
-
"Stupidity doesn't suit you, Shige," Koyama says, days later, when they're getting lunch. "You can't just make a person."
Shige scowls, "Once he gets here, I'll prove you wrong. And don't say 'make'; he might take it offensively."
Koyama waves his hands mockingly, nearly knocking over his glass of water. "Oh no, not that."
"When he's done shopping, you'll see."
"I still can't believe that you gave money to a make-believe person to go buy clothes because he refused to borrow yours after his own got dusty. I seriously think you're over-working yourself, Shige. Take a vacation, or something."
The third chair at the table of four scoots away, and Massu sits, smiling, setting a few bags on the floor next to him. Neither Shige, nor Koyama heard him approaching; they were too caught up in their non-argument.
"Massu, Koyama. Koyama, Massu," Shige says, simply introducing them to each other.
Koyama frowns. "I can't believe you got someone to do this."
Shige laughs, Massu asks if they ordered for him already.
-
Hours later, they're on a couch, debating existence; Shige on the side of intellectualism, Massu on hard science. To Shige, the couch is a pale green and suede, there's a hole in one of the cushions and an armrest (he doesn't care though, because the couch is soft and comfy). To Massu, it's black leather, in pristine condition, because he never eats while sitting on it, and doesn't put his feet up either.
"I can't believe Koyama thinks you're a fake person," Shige whines. "You're totally here. We're talking."
Massu blinks. "The mind is amazing, I suppose. How you can create a whole other world that I'm not a part of."
Shige grumbles, "There's so much trouble to life."
"But we've got each other," Massu smiles. "I'm glad I thought you up."
Shige blinks, looking almost confused, but shortly after, smiles and nods.
-
They go to the beach, and to both of them, it's a bay, for once their visions matching. Shige sits on the pier fishing while Massu lies on it, soaking up the warm rays of the sun. They don't bother much with conversation.
Every so often, water splashes as Shige pulls something up and debates keeping it or throwing it back. The fishing here must be poor because more often than not the fish gets thrown back. There's one time, when the little fish is wet and slimy and wily and as he's trying to get it off the hook, thathe drops it on Massu's leg.
Massu, for his part, jerks awake eyes wide and yelping, scooting back on the pier. The fish continues flopping and Shige stifles a laugh.
"Don't drop gross things on me!"
"Sorry, sorry. He wiggled out of my hand."
Shige reaches forward, grabbing the fish and throwing it back into the water.
Massu shudders. "How can you just....
"What?"
"Grab it?"
"It's just a fish."
"But it's all dirty and-"
"You're kind of a fragile guy, aren't you?"
Massu frowns and scoots a littler further away. "Don't drop another fish on me."
Shige salutes towards Massu, and goes back to his fishing.
-
Massu isn't quite sure where Shige goes when he's asleep. Shige, for his part, just figures that while his mind is resting and focusing solely on things like breathing and keeping his heart beating, Massu does something similar; he's a creation of Shige's, so it makes sense that they would rest at the same time.
And Massu doesn't question it when he wakes up one morning, hair sticking up awkwardly, to find Shige banging around in the kitchen.
"What you are doing?" Massu mumbles, reaching for an apple that's in a bowl on the counter.
"I can't find my french press!" Shige snaps, "I want my coffee!"
Massu doesn't have a french press, and wonders if Shige is making things up in his made up mind. He's just about to tell Shige to drop it, they can go out after his shower to get coffee, when Shige shouts, "Aha! There you are!" from halfway inside a cabinet. He stands, holding a french press and smiling, getting right to work on making coffee. Massu frowns; he can't remember ever buying or being given a french press.
He figures, once he's seen how happy Shige is to sip at fresh brewed coffee, it's really not a big deal and the mystery of where the french press came from should just be left alone.
Shige, for his part, can't seem to remember why he put the french press in the cabinet when he always leaves it next to the fridge and the container of coffee grounds. He shrugs as he drinks, and thinks he should start exercising his mind more often. He thinks crosswords would be a good way to start.
-
Shige goes out later that day to buy a book of crossword puzzles, and Massu stays behind at the house. At the little bookstore in town, Shige bumps into his friend, Koyama, who's waiting in line to buy a 'Korean For Beginners' book with cartoon animals and people on the cover.
Koyama shouts when he first sees Shige, flailing and waving. "It's been so long since I've seen you!"
"It hasn't been that long."
"But you've been so busy with your imaginary friend..."
Shige stiffens. "Koyama, he's not imaginary."
"But-"
"I'm sorry you've been feeling neglected, though, for what it's worth."
Koyama perks up, smiling, and the cashier asks for the next person in line.
-
"Life is an oddity," Shige says, in a very intellectual tone, one night while they're playing Scrabble. "It can't be qualified or quantified and there's something so deep to it, but the truly happy moments in life as always simple little things.
"... like fresh brewed coffee?"
"And cameras and museums, and cool shit like that. But getting back to the point." Shige lays down some letter tiles, racking up big a score. "Even if your existence is disputed by some, I'm really glad you're here."
"Likewise," Massu mumbles, looking over his tiles and feeling jilted. "I wish I'd made you a little less smart though. I'm sick of always losing."
Shige laughs, saying something like, "Ha, you make me?"
"Are these details really important?" Massu asks, putting down the letters for 'laundry'.
"Not really. Friendship is friendship, right?"
Massu smiles, and Shige does too, and he thinks that losing isn't such a horrible thing.
-
One morning, Massu gets a call from his old chemistry professor, offering him a short-term teaching position while one member of the faculty is off for maternity leave. Massu is not in love with teaching, but he could use that little bit of cash and agrees.
Shige asks about the quality of the school's library, and Massu isn't surprised at all when Shige says he'll judge it with his own eyes before Massu can even answer. They ride the bus together, smushed together on a little bench seat that's too small for two grown men.
Once on campus, Massu directs Shige towards the library, and then, he goes off to the science building to teach the morning chemistry courses.
15 minutes into the first class, he remembers why he didn't choose to become a teacher. Once the lunch bell rings, he calls Shige, practically demanding gyoza.
They meet outside the gates of the school, and Massu is a little confused when he sees Shige talking to someone, and when he gets closer to the pair, he realizes who it is.
"Tegoshi!" Massu shouts happily, jogging over to the pair.
"I thought you might have been a little crazy when you told me about all that thoughtform stuff, but Shige's really cool!"
Shige mutters something about respect and 'at least a little more formal Japanese'.
"I guess some strengths and points of the human mind are still beyond academics' understanding." Tegoshi continues, "Shige said you want gyoza; I'm starving, let's go."
And all on his own, Tegoshi starts walking down the street. Massu and Shige follow just shortly behind.
"How did you meet Tegoshi?" Massu whispers, leaning towards Shige.
"He just walked up to me and said I looked like something Massu would make. Whatever that means."
-
"Do you see things like us normal people, Shige?"
Frowning, Shige stirs the broth in his ramen bowl. "What the hell do you mean 'normal people'? I'm normal."
Tegoshi turns to Massu. "He's a little snappy. You should have made him nicer."
"Shige is going to act however Shige wants to. I can't really control that," Massu says, clearly only partly listening to the conversation; he's still got gyoza left on his plate.
"You don't have much of an internal monologue, do you?" Shige says to Tegoshi, "It's weird that someone as down-to-Earth and chill as Massu has people like you, by extension, in his mind."
Tegoshi pouts, eyebrows furrowing. "Wait, what?"
-
The bus ride back home at the end of the day is somber, both Shige and Massu still thinking about their conversation at lunch with Tegoshi and the status of their individual existences.
"Life is funny," Massu mutters, disliking people eavesdropping on his talks. "Do you really think any one has the mental fortitude to just.... will another person into creation?"
"The more I think about it, the more I don't believe human life can be made so simply. There's simply too much to it."
"For a while, I was really proud that I could make someone as fun and cool as Shige, but... that doesn't work, right? Because you have those same thoughts in reverse."
"Chicken and the egg," Shige turns to Massu, as much as he can in the little seat. "The place we're going back to now. I have a vision of it, but yours is different."
"Who's to say one of us is wrong and the other is right?"
"Exactly," Shige smiles. "There is no wrong answer."
The fuzzy-voiced prerecorded announcement declares their stop, and they file off with a few others.
"Let's not over-complicate things," Massu finally says, talking at a normal tone now that they're off the bus.
"I called to you; you called to me."
And at the same moment, they stop and turn to each other, smiling like a pair of idiots that have known each other most of lives and say, "Don't sweat the small stuff" in perfect unison.