BELLA FIGURA (1 of 4)
Title: Bella Figura
Translation: [Italian] Fine Appearance/ Impression
Series: Digimon Frontier/ Savers (crossover)
Character(s): Masaru D., Takuya K.
Genre: Romance, Angst
Rating: M
Warning: MasaruxTakuya, KoujixTakuya, ToumaxMasaru, hint of JunpeixIzumi
Summary: Admiration. That’s what Takuya thought when he saw Masaru for the first time. But as time moves forward and the familiar face appears more frequently in his life, his heartbeat skips… just as it would when feeling love for the first time (AU)
A/N: Huhmm…
I blame one of my unfinished arts, hahaa!~ The difficulty of drawing Daisuke’s hair is bleh. -shot-
It was basically a picture of the protagonists in each season, for the year 2009. As I drew each guy, I saw Takuya was blushing right next to a smiling Masaru, and I was like “Awww, that’s so cute!”
Somehow or another, that crept in as a pairing, even though I already had Koukuya and ToMaTo as two out of three of my favourite pairings (the other is JunpeixIzumi).
How would that pairing work, though?
This is the story I had in my head.
Oh, and one more thing-Since Takuya was only 10 (originally) while Masaru stood at 14, I changed things to where Kouji, Masaru and Touma were all the same age.
It is an AU fan fiction, right? Ahahaaa~
OH! And speaking of AU, it’s… yeah. A few characters are mentioned from different Digimon seasons. So we’ll just… go with that. Don’t wanna spoil anything.
--
Fear could not even describe how Tomoki Himi was feeling; he could hardly stare at anyone standing before him. His teary eyes were glued to his orange hat, stained with dirt and footmarks, as he tried to recall what just happened.
It wasn’t hard to recall, but he could not process the information, either; he couldn’t believe they would go this far.
The bullying was always the same; Katsuharu and Teppei would tease him, as usual. They would play “monkey in the middle” with his hat, as usual. Chiyaki would tell the two boys to stop, as usual. And, as usual, the two wouldn’t listen. Somehow or another, the argument sent Katsuharu to the edge, and he grabbed a large log-like branch, swung and hit Tomoki against the head.
And as the blood on the side of his face hit against the dirt floor, a familiar voice ordered the bullies to stop.
Tomoki has never seen Takuya Kanbara like this. Standing in front of Tomoki to make sure he went untouched, the brunette’s furious eyes stared right at Katsuharu, who was shocked at his previous action. He really tried. He wanted to apologize. What was he thinking? Is this how he should be acting around Chiyaki and Teruo?
Teppei took a step forward and laid his hand on Katsuharu’s shoulder. “Look, man, he really didn’t mean it, I mea-“
“Didn’t mean it?!” Takuya nearly screamed at the top of his lungs, pointing at the bleeding boy. “He’s bleeding over here! And it’s because you guys don’t know when to stop!!”
“Look, I’m sorry!” Katsuharu yelled, stepping forward. “We do this all the time; I just didn’t want it to go this far!”
Takuya grunted, stepping back. ‘Do this all the time’?
If there was one thing that Takuya didn’t care for, it was definitely bullies. Tomoki mentioned it a few times, but he never told the team who the bullies were. He constantly told Takuya not to worry about it, that things would get better, but it wasn’t until recently that Tomoki encountered some bizarre signs that there was more to the bullying than he would let on.
So this was the group?
“So you are the ones…” Takuya said, his hands balled into a fist. “… that caused Tomoki so much pain. I may not be his brother, but I love him like one, and I will NOT stand for this! Never!!” He pulled back his right hand and shot it forward, the fist intended for Katsuharu.
Just as Chiyaki started to shriek, a hand caught Takuya’s fist. Katsuharu nearly panicked and fell back, turning and running out of sight. Teppei’s eyes grew large, then adjusted his glasses and turned to Chiyaki and Teruo, ushering the two away with his hands. “C’mon, guys, there’s nothing to see here.”
Standing in front of Takuya was a boy who looked a bit older. His long brunette hair was tied into a ponytail and his bangs covered both sides of his face. His green eyes, which gave him a look of fierceness, met brown ones, and he let his hand down, slowly letting go of Takuya’s fist.
“You okay?”
Takuya’s eyes were stinging. The corner of his eyes filled with tears as he fell, his hands gripping the dirt. “Those bullies. They won’t get away with this. Tomoki…”
The boy looked ahead and saw Tomoki’s head was tricking blood on the side of his face. He sighed and looked down to Takuya. “Look, I’m sorry, it’s just that… something like this happened to me. I was in an outrage and couldn’t control myself… I didn’t want you to be in the same state.”
“Uuh?” Takuya looked up as the boy walked towards Tomoki, kneeling down and examining his face.
“He’ll be all right. All he needs is for the wound to be cleaned, I think. My friend can help you. What’s your name?”
“Uhm…” the boy paused for a moment before grabbing his hat. “My name is Tomoki.”
“Is that right…” the boy picked Tomoki up and adjusted him so Masaru’s back could act as Tomoki’s ride for the time being.
“You doubt him?” Takuya asked.
“Making sure he didn’t get hit to the point of amnesia or something… Tomoki is his name, right?”
“Ah… right.” Takuya replied, cooling down bit by bit. “And mine is Takuya. What’s yours?”
“Mine? Heh.” The boy recalled how terrified the bullies looked when they saw his face. They seen him on the street before, no doubt, and immediately knew he was not a force to be reckoned with. “I’m the Greatest Street Fighter in Japan, Daimon Masaru-sama.”
--
“’The Greatest Street Fighter in Japan’, huh? Is that so…”
“Shut up, Touma!”
While Masaru’s friend was busy tending to Tomoki’s wound, and with Masaru too busy interrupting the conversation to pay attention to Takuya, the goggle-head had no other choice but to sit quietly, trying his best to calm down. Tomoki is okay, but he still could not believe what the bullies done to him.
Something needs to be done about this.
“Oi, Takuya-chan, are you okay?”
The boy shot up from his train of thoughts, his face a deep red. “Hey, I’m not a kid y’know! I do happen to be seventeen!”
“Really?” Masaru asked, his arms folded across his chest. “You look a lot younger, but that’s just my opinion.”
“No, you’re not the only one.” Touma Norstein said, fixing up a band-aid. “But the both of us assumed you were younger, and it’s said that assuming makes an ass out of you a-“
“What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?!”
“… it’s only a metaphor; calm down, Masaru.” Touma replied with a calmer tone, finally putting the band-aid on Tomoki’s head. “And besides, I assumed so too, so it makes an ass out of me, as well. Are you happy now?”
“Che. Spare me the pity.” Masaru replied in a cold tone, turning away from Touma.
“Well, you’re finished.” Touma replied, walking towards the sink to wash his hands. The smaller boy lightly touched his wound and winced, but he sighed, relieved that it was nothing too serious. A small piece of the branch punctured a small hole, but at least it wasn’t something too serious, like a metal pipe.
But he worried that there was more trouble to come. He made it a mental note to tell Takuya that things would be okay, despite what his gut said. He didn’t want anything happening to Takuya (or anyone else, for that matter) because of this incident.
“By the way, the both of us are eighteen.”
“Uuh?” Takuya’s head shot up as Touma smiled, wiping his hands with a nearby towel.
“Official men now… isn’t that right, Masaru?”
“… Whatever.” Masaru stood up and walked towards Tomoki and Takuya. “So, I’ll walk the two of you home.”
“Ah-you don’t have to, really!” Takuya replied, his hands waving in front of him.
“Just… call it a man’s duty.” Masaru pointed out, walking towards the door. “C’mon, it’s about to get dark, and I’m sure your parents will worry.”
--
“I wonder when we’ll see Masaru-sama again…”
Takuya looked up from his papers to see Tomoki, his pencil on his chin and his homework untouched. It’s been a week since the incident, and Tomoki talked nonstop about this “Greatest Street Fighter in Japan”. Takuya knew it was just admiration, but he was starting to become a little jealous from the lack of attention from his ‘little brother’.
He was also getting the sense that despite Masaru’s immaturity at times, he was starting to admire him, too. There was something about him…
“Aww, c’mon, guys!” Izumi Orimoto cried, pulling out an eraser from her pencil case. “Homework needs to be done and all I hear about is this street fighter.”
“I’m surprised you were able to keep up with the conversation.” Takuya teased.
“Sh-shut up!” Izumi blushed and slammed her hand down against the table. “Just because I’m still learning Japanese-“
“Hey, cut it out guys.” Junpei Shibayama replied, trying to calm the two down. “So Izumi’s a foreign exchange student. At least she picked up on Japanese better than the other students at your school.”
“You’re a gentleman, Junpei.” Izumi complimented, smiling. “But I still can’t wait for my trip back to Italy.”
“So…” Junpei stated, staring at Izumi’s homework. “You… you needed help on something? I already know the material you guys are working on.”
“Then why didn’t you ask if I needed help?” Takuya whined, his head on the table. He sighed and took another glance at the others, busily working on their assignments, wishing the school year would just end already. He picked up his pencil, took a look at his homework and quickly slammed his hands over the papers.
Izumi and Junpei looked up from their homework and followed Tomoki, who was staring at Takuya.
“Ah… sorry guys, it’s just that, uhm….”
“You can’t believe you made such a dumb and obvious mistake on your homework?” Izumi finished.
Takuya twitched, but that answer would suffice for now. “Yeah, that’s exactly what happened!”
“Well…” Junpei frowned and looked at Izumi, then Takuya and continued. “Maybe I could help you-“
“No!” Takuya said, pulling the papers back. “I-I-“
“You said you wanted help from me earlier-“ Junpei pulled out a sheet of the homework and stopped his comment, his eyebrow raised. “Who is this?”
Shit, Takuya thought. He picked out the very paper I was trying to hide.
“Molto Buno!” Izumi exclaimed. “That’s such a cute picture! Who is it?”
“It… it’s Masaru-sama.” Tomoki replied, eyeing the picture as well. “That’s such an accurate picture, Takuya.”
“Bella Figura…” Izumi mumbled.
“Uuh?”
“Oh, no, it just seems like with this drawing and Tomoki’s constant talk about him…” Izumi paused, giving Takuya back his paper. “It sounds like this Masaru guy made a good first impression on you two.”
“Ah…” Takuya slightly blushed and took the paper, stuffing it in his bookbag before standing up. “Listen guys, I’m almost late to meet Kouji for something, so…”
“Oh, right.” Izumi replied, nodding. “Have fun!”
--
“Fun… that’s one word for it.”
“What’s that, Takuya?”
“Oh, nothing… nothing.”
“Takuya, you might want to pay more attention if you plan on beating me.”
The brunette grunted and swerved his arms, holding a game controller, to the left. A crash was heard and he frowned as he saw Kouji Minamoto’s car cross the finish line.
“Ack… third time.” Takuya set the controller on the ground. “Y’know, I don’t think asking for help from Kouichi is the proper-“
“Spare me the talk.” Kouji pointed out, his game controller on the ground as well. “You learned how to play this game from Shinya, did you not?”
“That so is not even the same!” Takuya pouted, his arms folded across his chest. “Shinya didn’t teach me the cheats and tricks to this game!”
“Is that so...?” Kouji got up and stretched, walking towards the kitchen. “You want something to drink?”
“No.” Takuya replied coldly.
“Heh. That sore-loser attitude of yours isn’t gonna get you anywhere.” Kouji replied, teasing Takuya. He pulled two Ramune’s from out of his fridge and headed back to the living room. Seeing Takuya was too busy studying the re-run of the race he and Kouji just played on the television, he placed the strawberry ramune on Takuya’s back, making the brunette let out a small whimper.
Kouji pulled the ramune back and blushed a deep red as Takuya quickly turned, meeting Kouji’s eyes, his face the exact shade of red.
“Sorry, it’s… uhm…” Kouji handed Takuya his ramune and sat down on the couch, fiddling with his lychee drink.
“So you said you wanted to talk to me?” Takuya quietly asked, staring down at the strawberry drink as well. “What’s up?”
Kouji, his eyes on his own drink, met Takuya’s face. The blushing brunette made the raven-head blink a few times before he quickly looked down at the drink again. What was going on, he thought. Why now? He decided to push the racing thoughts in his mind aside and focus on pushing the marble down while he began. “Well, y’see… it’s about Kouichi.”
“Kouichi?”
There was a bit of hesitation before Kouji finally gathered the willpower to look at Takuya again. “Well, yeah… there is this girl that he likes and…” his fingers delicately toyed with the top of the ramune drink as he continued to comment with his racing train of thoughts in motion. “I don’t know what to say to him. I mean, I know I’m his little brother, but… I still want him to be happy. And yet…”
The room was silent for a moment before Takuya finally decided to take a sip of his ramune drink. “So… I’m gonna assume you don’t know what to tell him?”
“Well… I never have been in a relationship before, let alone publicly mention that I’m in love with someone.”
Publicly mention? Takuya thought, but pushed the thought aside. “What makes you think I know what to do?”
“It was simply a question; if you don’t know, then-“
“Ah, no, it’s just…” Takuya looked up, his right index finger tapping his chin. “I have never been in a relationship before, either.”
“But you have a crush on someone, right?”
“Uuh?”
Kouji formed a grin and stared at Takuya, who blushed a deep red. The brunette gripped the drink tightly and stood up at full height. “What makes you say that?!”
“Calm down, Takuya, it was a joke.” Kouji said, pulling back from his seat on the couch to find a comfortable spot. “Unless you really do have a crush on someone.”
“You have some explaining to do, too.” Takuya mumbled, taking a seat on the floor.
“Me?” The raven-head pointed at himself.
“ ’I never have been in a relationship before, let alone publicly mention that I’m in love with someone.’ Weren’t those your exact words?”
“Dammit, Takuya, you take things too literally.” Kouji scoffed. “It was a tease, Takuya, a tease.”
“Says you…” the brunette decided to leave the touchy topic alone and sighed, taking a few swallows of his strawberry ramune.
“Takuya?”
“Uuh?”
“You never answered my last question.”
“Kouji, that was not a question.”
“You’re not stupid, Takuya.” Kouij pointed out. “You may act like an idiot sometimes, but I know you’re not stupid. I’m gonna assume you know what I’m talking about and let you satisfy my curiosity.”
“I don’t have a crush on anyone.”
“Is that so?”
“Just who the hell do you think I have a crush on?” Takuya asked, now grabbing the game controller to observe it. Anything to keep his eyes off the douche bag sitting behind him.
“… so, who is this ‘Daimon Masaru-sama’ guy I keep hearing about?”
“Whaa--” the brunette quickly spun around to see Kouji sitting there, a smirk on his face, his right hand resting on the bottom of his chin and his legs crossed. “Where did you get that idea?”
“Oh, I have my hunches.”
“How is this relevant to Kouichi’s problem?”
“It doesn’t, but one topic leads to another, and you still haven’t answered my question.” Kouji firmly answered.
“He’s just… there, okay?” Takuya said quietly. “As an admirer. Nothing more.”
“… right.”
“Who the hell made you a love expert, anyways?” Takuya mumbled, turning away from Kouji.
--
PART II
Translation: [Italian] Fine Appearance/ Impression
Series: Digimon Frontier/ Savers (crossover)
Character(s): Masaru D., Takuya K.
Genre: Romance, Angst
Rating: M
Warning: MasaruxTakuya, KoujixTakuya, ToumaxMasaru, hint of JunpeixIzumi
Summary: Admiration. That’s what Takuya thought when he saw Masaru for the first time. But as time moves forward and the familiar face appears more frequently in his life, his heartbeat skips… just as it would when feeling love for the first time (AU)
A/N: Huhmm…
I blame one of my unfinished arts, hahaa!~ The difficulty of drawing Daisuke’s hair is bleh. -shot-
It was basically a picture of the protagonists in each season, for the year 2009. As I drew each guy, I saw Takuya was blushing right next to a smiling Masaru, and I was like “Awww, that’s so cute!”
Somehow or another, that crept in as a pairing, even though I already had Koukuya and ToMaTo as two out of three of my favourite pairings (the other is JunpeixIzumi).
How would that pairing work, though?
This is the story I had in my head.
Oh, and one more thing-Since Takuya was only 10 (originally) while Masaru stood at 14, I changed things to where Kouji, Masaru and Touma were all the same age.
It is an AU fan fiction, right? Ahahaaa~
OH! And speaking of AU, it’s… yeah. A few characters are mentioned from different Digimon seasons. So we’ll just… go with that. Don’t wanna spoil anything.
--
Fear could not even describe how Tomoki Himi was feeling; he could hardly stare at anyone standing before him. His teary eyes were glued to his orange hat, stained with dirt and footmarks, as he tried to recall what just happened.
It wasn’t hard to recall, but he could not process the information, either; he couldn’t believe they would go this far.
The bullying was always the same; Katsuharu and Teppei would tease him, as usual. They would play “monkey in the middle” with his hat, as usual. Chiyaki would tell the two boys to stop, as usual. And, as usual, the two wouldn’t listen. Somehow or another, the argument sent Katsuharu to the edge, and he grabbed a large log-like branch, swung and hit Tomoki against the head.
And as the blood on the side of his face hit against the dirt floor, a familiar voice ordered the bullies to stop.
Tomoki has never seen Takuya Kanbara like this. Standing in front of Tomoki to make sure he went untouched, the brunette’s furious eyes stared right at Katsuharu, who was shocked at his previous action. He really tried. He wanted to apologize. What was he thinking? Is this how he should be acting around Chiyaki and Teruo?
Teppei took a step forward and laid his hand on Katsuharu’s shoulder. “Look, man, he really didn’t mean it, I mea-“
“Didn’t mean it?!” Takuya nearly screamed at the top of his lungs, pointing at the bleeding boy. “He’s bleeding over here! And it’s because you guys don’t know when to stop!!”
“Look, I’m sorry!” Katsuharu yelled, stepping forward. “We do this all the time; I just didn’t want it to go this far!”
Takuya grunted, stepping back. ‘Do this all the time’?
If there was one thing that Takuya didn’t care for, it was definitely bullies. Tomoki mentioned it a few times, but he never told the team who the bullies were. He constantly told Takuya not to worry about it, that things would get better, but it wasn’t until recently that Tomoki encountered some bizarre signs that there was more to the bullying than he would let on.
So this was the group?
“So you are the ones…” Takuya said, his hands balled into a fist. “… that caused Tomoki so much pain. I may not be his brother, but I love him like one, and I will NOT stand for this! Never!!” He pulled back his right hand and shot it forward, the fist intended for Katsuharu.
Just as Chiyaki started to shriek, a hand caught Takuya’s fist. Katsuharu nearly panicked and fell back, turning and running out of sight. Teppei’s eyes grew large, then adjusted his glasses and turned to Chiyaki and Teruo, ushering the two away with his hands. “C’mon, guys, there’s nothing to see here.”
Standing in front of Takuya was a boy who looked a bit older. His long brunette hair was tied into a ponytail and his bangs covered both sides of his face. His green eyes, which gave him a look of fierceness, met brown ones, and he let his hand down, slowly letting go of Takuya’s fist.
“You okay?”
Takuya’s eyes were stinging. The corner of his eyes filled with tears as he fell, his hands gripping the dirt. “Those bullies. They won’t get away with this. Tomoki…”
The boy looked ahead and saw Tomoki’s head was tricking blood on the side of his face. He sighed and looked down to Takuya. “Look, I’m sorry, it’s just that… something like this happened to me. I was in an outrage and couldn’t control myself… I didn’t want you to be in the same state.”
“Uuh?” Takuya looked up as the boy walked towards Tomoki, kneeling down and examining his face.
“He’ll be all right. All he needs is for the wound to be cleaned, I think. My friend can help you. What’s your name?”
“Uhm…” the boy paused for a moment before grabbing his hat. “My name is Tomoki.”
“Is that right…” the boy picked Tomoki up and adjusted him so Masaru’s back could act as Tomoki’s ride for the time being.
“You doubt him?” Takuya asked.
“Making sure he didn’t get hit to the point of amnesia or something… Tomoki is his name, right?”
“Ah… right.” Takuya replied, cooling down bit by bit. “And mine is Takuya. What’s yours?”
“Mine? Heh.” The boy recalled how terrified the bullies looked when they saw his face. They seen him on the street before, no doubt, and immediately knew he was not a force to be reckoned with. “I’m the Greatest Street Fighter in Japan, Daimon Masaru-sama.”
--
“’The Greatest Street Fighter in Japan’, huh? Is that so…”
“Shut up, Touma!”
While Masaru’s friend was busy tending to Tomoki’s wound, and with Masaru too busy interrupting the conversation to pay attention to Takuya, the goggle-head had no other choice but to sit quietly, trying his best to calm down. Tomoki is okay, but he still could not believe what the bullies done to him.
Something needs to be done about this.
“Oi, Takuya-chan, are you okay?”
The boy shot up from his train of thoughts, his face a deep red. “Hey, I’m not a kid y’know! I do happen to be seventeen!”
“Really?” Masaru asked, his arms folded across his chest. “You look a lot younger, but that’s just my opinion.”
“No, you’re not the only one.” Touma Norstein said, fixing up a band-aid. “But the both of us assumed you were younger, and it’s said that assuming makes an ass out of you a-“
“What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?!”
“… it’s only a metaphor; calm down, Masaru.” Touma replied with a calmer tone, finally putting the band-aid on Tomoki’s head. “And besides, I assumed so too, so it makes an ass out of me, as well. Are you happy now?”
“Che. Spare me the pity.” Masaru replied in a cold tone, turning away from Touma.
“Well, you’re finished.” Touma replied, walking towards the sink to wash his hands. The smaller boy lightly touched his wound and winced, but he sighed, relieved that it was nothing too serious. A small piece of the branch punctured a small hole, but at least it wasn’t something too serious, like a metal pipe.
But he worried that there was more trouble to come. He made it a mental note to tell Takuya that things would be okay, despite what his gut said. He didn’t want anything happening to Takuya (or anyone else, for that matter) because of this incident.
“By the way, the both of us are eighteen.”
“Uuh?” Takuya’s head shot up as Touma smiled, wiping his hands with a nearby towel.
“Official men now… isn’t that right, Masaru?”
“… Whatever.” Masaru stood up and walked towards Tomoki and Takuya. “So, I’ll walk the two of you home.”
“Ah-you don’t have to, really!” Takuya replied, his hands waving in front of him.
“Just… call it a man’s duty.” Masaru pointed out, walking towards the door. “C’mon, it’s about to get dark, and I’m sure your parents will worry.”
--
“I wonder when we’ll see Masaru-sama again…”
Takuya looked up from his papers to see Tomoki, his pencil on his chin and his homework untouched. It’s been a week since the incident, and Tomoki talked nonstop about this “Greatest Street Fighter in Japan”. Takuya knew it was just admiration, but he was starting to become a little jealous from the lack of attention from his ‘little brother’.
He was also getting the sense that despite Masaru’s immaturity at times, he was starting to admire him, too. There was something about him…
“Aww, c’mon, guys!” Izumi Orimoto cried, pulling out an eraser from her pencil case. “Homework needs to be done and all I hear about is this street fighter.”
“I’m surprised you were able to keep up with the conversation.” Takuya teased.
“Sh-shut up!” Izumi blushed and slammed her hand down against the table. “Just because I’m still learning Japanese-“
“Hey, cut it out guys.” Junpei Shibayama replied, trying to calm the two down. “So Izumi’s a foreign exchange student. At least she picked up on Japanese better than the other students at your school.”
“You’re a gentleman, Junpei.” Izumi complimented, smiling. “But I still can’t wait for my trip back to Italy.”
“So…” Junpei stated, staring at Izumi’s homework. “You… you needed help on something? I already know the material you guys are working on.”
“Then why didn’t you ask if I needed help?” Takuya whined, his head on the table. He sighed and took another glance at the others, busily working on their assignments, wishing the school year would just end already. He picked up his pencil, took a look at his homework and quickly slammed his hands over the papers.
Izumi and Junpei looked up from their homework and followed Tomoki, who was staring at Takuya.
“Ah… sorry guys, it’s just that, uhm….”
“You can’t believe you made such a dumb and obvious mistake on your homework?” Izumi finished.
Takuya twitched, but that answer would suffice for now. “Yeah, that’s exactly what happened!”
“Well…” Junpei frowned and looked at Izumi, then Takuya and continued. “Maybe I could help you-“
“No!” Takuya said, pulling the papers back. “I-I-“
“You said you wanted help from me earlier-“ Junpei pulled out a sheet of the homework and stopped his comment, his eyebrow raised. “Who is this?”
Shit, Takuya thought. He picked out the very paper I was trying to hide.
“Molto Buno!” Izumi exclaimed. “That’s such a cute picture! Who is it?”
“It… it’s Masaru-sama.” Tomoki replied, eyeing the picture as well. “That’s such an accurate picture, Takuya.”
“Bella Figura…” Izumi mumbled.
“Uuh?”
“Oh, no, it just seems like with this drawing and Tomoki’s constant talk about him…” Izumi paused, giving Takuya back his paper. “It sounds like this Masaru guy made a good first impression on you two.”
“Ah…” Takuya slightly blushed and took the paper, stuffing it in his bookbag before standing up. “Listen guys, I’m almost late to meet Kouji for something, so…”
“Oh, right.” Izumi replied, nodding. “Have fun!”
--
“Fun… that’s one word for it.”
“What’s that, Takuya?”
“Oh, nothing… nothing.”
“Takuya, you might want to pay more attention if you plan on beating me.”
The brunette grunted and swerved his arms, holding a game controller, to the left. A crash was heard and he frowned as he saw Kouji Minamoto’s car cross the finish line.
“Ack… third time.” Takuya set the controller on the ground. “Y’know, I don’t think asking for help from Kouichi is the proper-“
“Spare me the talk.” Kouji pointed out, his game controller on the ground as well. “You learned how to play this game from Shinya, did you not?”
“That so is not even the same!” Takuya pouted, his arms folded across his chest. “Shinya didn’t teach me the cheats and tricks to this game!”
“Is that so...?” Kouji got up and stretched, walking towards the kitchen. “You want something to drink?”
“No.” Takuya replied coldly.
“Heh. That sore-loser attitude of yours isn’t gonna get you anywhere.” Kouji replied, teasing Takuya. He pulled two Ramune’s from out of his fridge and headed back to the living room. Seeing Takuya was too busy studying the re-run of the race he and Kouji just played on the television, he placed the strawberry ramune on Takuya’s back, making the brunette let out a small whimper.
Kouji pulled the ramune back and blushed a deep red as Takuya quickly turned, meeting Kouji’s eyes, his face the exact shade of red.
“Sorry, it’s… uhm…” Kouji handed Takuya his ramune and sat down on the couch, fiddling with his lychee drink.
“So you said you wanted to talk to me?” Takuya quietly asked, staring down at the strawberry drink as well. “What’s up?”
Kouji, his eyes on his own drink, met Takuya’s face. The blushing brunette made the raven-head blink a few times before he quickly looked down at the drink again. What was going on, he thought. Why now? He decided to push the racing thoughts in his mind aside and focus on pushing the marble down while he began. “Well, y’see… it’s about Kouichi.”
“Kouichi?”
There was a bit of hesitation before Kouji finally gathered the willpower to look at Takuya again. “Well, yeah… there is this girl that he likes and…” his fingers delicately toyed with the top of the ramune drink as he continued to comment with his racing train of thoughts in motion. “I don’t know what to say to him. I mean, I know I’m his little brother, but… I still want him to be happy. And yet…”
The room was silent for a moment before Takuya finally decided to take a sip of his ramune drink. “So… I’m gonna assume you don’t know what to tell him?”
“Well… I never have been in a relationship before, let alone publicly mention that I’m in love with someone.”
Publicly mention? Takuya thought, but pushed the thought aside. “What makes you think I know what to do?”
“It was simply a question; if you don’t know, then-“
“Ah, no, it’s just…” Takuya looked up, his right index finger tapping his chin. “I have never been in a relationship before, either.”
“But you have a crush on someone, right?”
“Uuh?”
Kouji formed a grin and stared at Takuya, who blushed a deep red. The brunette gripped the drink tightly and stood up at full height. “What makes you say that?!”
“Calm down, Takuya, it was a joke.” Kouji said, pulling back from his seat on the couch to find a comfortable spot. “Unless you really do have a crush on someone.”
“You have some explaining to do, too.” Takuya mumbled, taking a seat on the floor.
“Me?” The raven-head pointed at himself.
“ ’I never have been in a relationship before, let alone publicly mention that I’m in love with someone.’ Weren’t those your exact words?”
“Dammit, Takuya, you take things too literally.” Kouji scoffed. “It was a tease, Takuya, a tease.”
“Says you…” the brunette decided to leave the touchy topic alone and sighed, taking a few swallows of his strawberry ramune.
“Takuya?”
“Uuh?”
“You never answered my last question.”
“Kouji, that was not a question.”
“You’re not stupid, Takuya.” Kouij pointed out. “You may act like an idiot sometimes, but I know you’re not stupid. I’m gonna assume you know what I’m talking about and let you satisfy my curiosity.”
“I don’t have a crush on anyone.”
“Is that so?”
“Just who the hell do you think I have a crush on?” Takuya asked, now grabbing the game controller to observe it. Anything to keep his eyes off the douche bag sitting behind him.
“… so, who is this ‘Daimon Masaru-sama’ guy I keep hearing about?”
“Whaa--” the brunette quickly spun around to see Kouji sitting there, a smirk on his face, his right hand resting on the bottom of his chin and his legs crossed. “Where did you get that idea?”
“Oh, I have my hunches.”
“How is this relevant to Kouichi’s problem?”
“It doesn’t, but one topic leads to another, and you still haven’t answered my question.” Kouji firmly answered.
“He’s just… there, okay?” Takuya said quietly. “As an admirer. Nothing more.”
“… right.”
“Who the hell made you a love expert, anyways?” Takuya mumbled, turning away from Kouji.
--
PART II