Of Puppies and Love - Chapter 4
Title: Of Puppies and Love
Pairings: Akame, Ryopi, smidge of Kamepi and T&T
Rating: PG
Summary: Akanishi Jin and Kamenashi Kazuya were average students with average lives until they meet each other. The results? An eccentric school year.
Chapter 1// Chapter 2// Chapter 3
Chapter 4:
“Huh?” He stared at his senior in a rather clueless manner, “I don’t get it.”
“Make him go doki-doki.”
He raised a brow, “Why?”
Tackey frowned, “First of all, you really shouldn’t be questioning me. But since I like you, I’ll let it slide this time,” he cleared his throat, “after having done extensive research and interrogations, when you make someone’s heart beat like crazy, it helps speed up the realization process, not to mention you leave an impression on them.”
“…and what kind of research was this?”
The older boy furled his brows, “you’re questioning me again…come on Yamapi, I’m in university! Obviously I know everything!” When he received no reply, he confessed sheepishly, “Fine, it was Tsubasa, okay? I asked him which of my tactics made the biggest impact on him, are you happy now?”
Pi nodded slowly, “Yea, that’s a lot more reassuring,” then he looked at his feet thoughtfully, “but still…even if I know what to do, I don’t know how to do it.”
“My poor, lost little kouhai, that’s why I’m here to take you under my wing and guide you through all this,” he paused for a moment, “Well, normally, there are several things that can make a person’s heart beat. Being in love, excited, or scared.”
He raised a brow, “You want me to scare Ryo-chan? Actually, that’d be pretty easy, but I can't see the point in doing that…”
Tackey shook his head, stirring his drink before taking a sip, “wrong. If you scare him, he might get a heart attack and die or something. That’s not the result you’re going for, you want to get his heart racing in a good way.”
Making a mental note, he nodded again, “right, and how do you propose I do that?”
“Well when I was in your position, I found that you can make your target go doki-doki by either doing something really cool, being really close to them-actually be in their face-close, affectionate gestures and general suggestiveness.”
Pi blinked, “Suggestiveness?”
The elder laughed, “You probably won’t get that far, you don’t have the experience for that yet.”
“So if I get Ryo-chan to go doki-doki, he’ll like me back?”
“Well he might realize that he likes you, but there’s always the chance that he turns out to be like Tsubasa-”
“Completely oblivious?”
“Yea.”
“That’s probably Ryo-chan.”
“Ah…but still, it’ll help, I guarantee it. After you finish this first phase then, I’ll give you further instructions.”
He nodded, “alright, thanks for your help.”
Tackey waved if off coolly, “no problem.”
A pause.
“…so am I supposed to pay you or something?”
“No, but I forgot my wallet, so if you’d be so kind as to pay for my drink…”
A sigh, “…fine…”
-------------------------
And so, he headed to school with Tackey’s words on his mind.
On his way to school, he met up with Jin who began nudging him with his elbow, whispering in a not so discreet manner, “So? Are you going to do it? Are you? Are you?”
Pi nodded.
“What are you going to do?”
He blinked and looked over, “What’d you have for breakfast today?”
“…chocolate?”
“Oh, that explains a lot…”
Jin grinned, “Yea, sure, so what are you going to do?”
Yamapi shrugged, “I’m going to wing it I guess. You know, just go with the flow, that sort of thing.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”
“Not a clue.”
-------------------------
His first attempt was by giving the other boy a tight hug when he saw him, “hey Ryo-chan!”
Ryo stared at him after getting over his initial shock; he raised a brow and asked, “What’d you have for breakfast today?”
He gave a sheepish grin, “…chocolate?”
“Has anyone ever told you how you’re slowly but surely devolving into Jin?”
“Well you just did.”
The shorter boy was about to say more but then the bell rang, “crap, I’m going to be late.”
Pi snorted, “You and your stupid phase.”
“You’re a stupid phase! Damn, I’m devolving too!” They watched as all the students rushed off to their classes, a moment later, Ryo frowned, “crap…Nakai-sensei’s probably going to unleash some creepy punishment thing on me…”
He laughed, “like that time he messed around with the chairs because you and Jin kept falling asleep in class? What did he do again? Electrocute your butts?”
The elder boy made a face, “don’t talk about that! I swear, that can not be legal. My butt hurts just thinking about it, I really hope you get him for a teacher next year.”
Grinning, he gave a shrug, “that’d be okay, he likes me. Remember that time I stopped him and that nickname he had for you? Sole of Foot?”
The other gave a huff, “Let’s not talk about that either. You know…despite everything…he’s an okay teacher I guess, in the sense that he never hands out homework. But you’re still luckier. Kimura-sensei? How come I never got him for a teacher?”
“Because you don’t have my charm and rugged good looks and general smartness?”
Ryo laughed, “Of course,” he looked around and realized that they were in the middle of an empty hallway, “I better go, if I get there before Jin, I might not get killed. But if my butt gets fried again, I’m blaming you.”
Pi nodded, “oh, hey Ryo-chan.”
The other looked back, “what?”
“Do you like me?”
A long pause.
“Eh!?”
-------------------------
Jin was at his locker then he was rudely shoved from behind. He turned around; ready to bite someone’s head off when he came face to face with a grinning Kame. Jumping back a bit from shock, he blinked, “Oh, it’s you.”
The other frowned, “What do you mean ‘oh, it’s you’? What kind of attitude is that?”
Turning back to his locker, he put his shoes away and began digging through his belongings for the material he needed for class. “I’m tired, the chocolate’s wearing off.”
Kame raised a brow, “but school hasn’t even started yet…you eat chocolate for breakfast? How amazingly unhealthy of you.”
The taller boy snorted, “Don’t judge me.”
The younger boy laughed, “You’re such a grouch, I haven’t really seen this side of you yet, it’s rather interesting actually. By the way, Tat-chan officially knows you as ‘Nishikido Ryo’s awkward friend’.”
He looked over, “Is that a good thing?”
“I don’t know,” he smiled, “but I think it’s a start, don’t you? I mean, who knows? You might become friends with Tat-chan, then some miracle can happen and Nishikido-senpai and Tat-chan will get along and the world will be all happy and stuff.”
Jin gave a snort, “that’s about as probable as me catching a rainbow and eating it for dessert.”
“That was as creative as it was strange.”
“Thank you…hey-”
Suddenly, the bell rang, causing the two to look up with a start. Kame smiled, “I guess I should head to class, do you have practice today?” He nodded. “I’ll wait for you, okay? Tat-chan’s got a match today so he’s leaving early, and it’s too far so I can’t go and watch. He’s probably going to win though, so it’s okay.”
Jin closed his locker and thought for a moment, Pi had rehearsal and Ryo had promised to help Okura with a song he was writing which left him with free time, “Sure, where will you be? I’ll come get you after I’m done.”
The younger boy looked up for a moment, “I guess I’ll be in the art room…brutally butchering some piece of art and getting yelled at Tsuyoshi-sensei for murdering art.”
He laughed and began walking down the hall with the younger boy when a figure ran past them, “Hurry up! I’m late for class! My students are probably waiting for me!”
“I’m trying! You’d probably be faster if you ran by yourself.”
“No! Now make like a racecar and run faster!”
They blinked. “Well…there go the two now…how did they get hired as teachers?”
Indeed, the figure that ran passed them was Domoto Koichi and Domoto Tsuyoshi, the latter giving the former a piggyback ride. The students of the school had grown accustomed to calling them either Koichi-sensei or Tsuyoshi-sensei except for when they were together, in which case, they’d simply be called Domoto-sensei or Kinki Kids, as they’d been called when they were in high school all those years ago.
There was a pause between them before the burst out laughing, Kame wiped a tear from his eye and smiled, “I guess I should go to class now.”
Jin paused for a moment before nodding and smiling back at the other, “yea, I’ll see you after practice then.” He watched the other head off to class, his heart pounding a little harder than usual.
But he assumed it was from laughing too hard.
-------------------------
During lunch, Ryo had wandered off to find his other friends, Kanjani Eight, they called themselves. They were all from Osaka, excluding Maru, and they were all more or less childhood friends. And so, with him gone, Pi excused himself from his friends for awhile to go chat with Jin.
“So, how did it go so far?”
Pi shrugged, “I don’t know, I can’t really tell if I made him go doki-doki or not.”
He raised a brow, “what do you mean you can’t tell?”
“Well it’s not like I do this,” he placed a hand on his friend’s heart, “to him while he talks to check. Anyways, I think this plan’s backfiring.”
“Huh? Why?”
The younger boy let out a laugh, “because instead of me making him go doki-doki, I think it’s my heart that’s pounding like crazy, not his.”
-------------------------
“Do you like me?”
A long pause.
“Eh!?”
“Do you like me,” he repeated.
There was another pause before Ryo grinned shyly, “of course I do! I like Pi a lot!”
He felt his brain go haywire for a moment, and during that moment, the other had waved goodbye and gone to class, leaving him standing there. When he came back to his senses, he realized that the other probably meant it in a friendship way.
As dense as a rock.
But still, he put a hand over his heart as he thought back to the other’s words.
I like Pi a lot!
Yep, his heart beat had sped up.
A lot.
-------------------------
He pursed his lips, “wow, does that mean Tackey’s plans actually aren’t as useful as he claims to them be?”
“I don’t know, I’m not supposed to question him anymore.”
Jin paused, then he remembered his own situation earlier, “Pi, do you think I’m unfit?”
His friend raised a brow, “What?”
“Okay, maybe not unfit, but do you think I’ve been slacking off, maybe I’m becoming unfit or something…”
Pi jutted his lips out in thought, “…well you did eat chocolate for breakfast…why?”
He shrugged, “I don’t know, suddenly, it’s like laughing turned into an exercise. We saw Domoto-sensei, running down the hallway earlier, Koichi-sensei was getting a piggyback ride and I was laughing really hard. And afterwards, it felt like I ran a mile, I mean my heart was going at a million beats per minute.”
“Hmm…did you laugh really, really hard?”
“Yea.”
“How long did it take for your heart to slow down?”
“I don’t know, I ran to class afterwards too.”
The younger boy nodded, “I see…well, there’s only one way to find out how unfit you’re becoming.”
He blinked, “How?”
“You have practice later, don’t you?”
“Oh…somehow, I was expecting some really amazing conclusion from you,” he frowned, “but I guess you’re right…”
Pi gave a helpful smile, “and maybe you should lay off the chocolates for awhile, it can’t be good for you.”
Then from behind, someone blew into the younger boy’s ear causing him to shrink away, “What’s this I hear about Jin not eating chocolate?”
He two looked over, surprised at their friend’s sudden appearance, “Ryo-chan! When’d you get here!?”
The shorter boy laughed, “Just now, why? Did you miss me?” Before either of them could answer, the bell rang, he looked up and blinked, “damn…oh well…Jin, we’re going to be late for class again. I’ll see you later, Pi.”
As he left the class again, Pi quickly placed a hand over his heart and his other over Jin’s heart, “…this can’t be healthy.”
Jin looked over sympathetically, “maybe you should see a doctor…”
“Why a doctor? It's not like I’m not going to get a heart attack from this…I think.”
He suppressed his grin as he shrugged, “no, I was just thinking that you might want to get sedated…or neutered.”
“Or wha-!?” Pi’s eyes widened as he looked over to his friend who was already tearing down the hall, he took his shoe off and chucked it at the retreating figure.
-------------------------
During practice, he had very few problems with his heart rate. He shrugged it off as he headed for the change room, “I guess it was early and I’m unfit only in the mornings or something like that…wow, I must be nocturnal.”
After he changed, he walked into the building and towards the art room where the younger boy said he’d be. A bit away, he could hear Tsuyoshi-sensei talking excitedly, not to mention loudly, about art and fish. He blinked, wondering who would talk to the eccentric teacher about both art and fish. “It wouldn’t be Koichi-sensei, Yasuda-kun or Kamenashi…”
Then he walked into class and blinked in bewilderment, “Imai-senpai!”
The elder looked over and smiled, “Hello Akanishi-kun, it’s nice to see you again.” He nodded back a greeting rather dumbly, “So how’ve you been?”
“Good…” he tried to think of something else to say but couldn’t really think of anything, so he settled for repeating himself, “yea…I’ve been good. What are you doing here?”
“I came to visit Tsuyoshi-sensei,” the taller man gave an earnest smile, “did you know that he bought a new type of tropical fish yesterday?”
“And a new hat,” the teacher added.
Tsubasa nodded seriously, “right, and a new hat.”
Jin shook his head, “no, I had no idea…wait…if you’re here, then Tackey’s probably around here too, right?”
“Yea, I think he’s in the drama room right now,” after a pause, he turned back to the teacher to continue their exciting conversation of art and fish.
“Jin!”
He turned around and headed over to the younger boy, “hey Kamenashi, there you are.”
Kame gave an excited grin, “Yasuda-senpai was teaching me how to draw!”
The elder boy glanced over at the mentioned person before turning back to the boy in front of him, “Why?”
“Because I felt like it?” The younger boy shrugged, “I always get laughed at for my drawing skills anyways, might as well improve.”
Yasuda looked up and smiled helpfully, “Kame-kun’s improved a lot from when he first started actually.”
The boy laughed, “Yea, you can actually sort of tell what it is now.”
Jin raised a brow, “Oh? Let’s see it then.”
Kame gave a proud grin and help up his picture, “Can you guess what it is?”
He didn’t know why, but could feel his pulse in the tips of his fingers at the smile. Ignoring it, he decided that it was because he was scared of how startling the picture was. His brows furled at the image, “…why didn’t you color it?”
“I didn’t have time.”
“Oh…” if it’d been colored, it would’ve helped him a lot with his guessing since he actually had no clue what the picture was supposed to be of, “…is it a…cow””
“No…”
“…a camel?”
“No.”
“Donkey?”
“No.”
“A llama?”
“No.”
“…is it extinct?”
“No!”
“Is it…” he rubbed his chin in concentration, what had a round body and a strangely narrow neck? “An ostrich?”
Kame shook his head, exasperated, “No! It’s a giraffe! Look, it’s got spots!”
“…oh…” he took a closer look at the picture, “Oh.”
Suddenly the younger boy was in his front of him, face merely inches away, he pouted, “you really didn’t know what it was, did you?”
He swallowed hard and shook his head honestly, but upon seeing the disappointment in the other’s features, he shoved his hands into his pockets and added hastily, “that’s okay though, let’s go to the park, you can practice drawing in the sand instead, alright? I mean, you're probably killing millions of trees right now. I’ll even give you pointers on drawing, okay?”
A smile broke out on the other’s face, “Really?” He nodded. Kame grabbed his hand from his pocket and began dragging him out the room, “let’s go then!”
Jin managed to wave goodbye to the other people in the room before he was dragged off. Tsubasa smiled after they disappeared, “How cute, they’re such good friends.”
Tsuyoshi just sighed and ruffled the other’s hair, “you haven’t changed much, have you? But then again, they’re not much better than you, I swear, kids nowadays are growing more and more oblivious…”
The other gave a curious smile, “What do you mean, Tsuyoshi-sensei?”
“…never mind, if I tell you, I’ll feel like I’m committing a crime, shattering your happy reality and all that.”
Tsubasa merely blinked before changing the topic to the art programs at university.
-------------------------
He blinked when someone covered his eyes, “Guess who.”
“…Jin? Toma? Yuu? You can’t be Ryo-chan, since he’s not that tall…Koyama?” he continued rambling names until the hands were removed and he turned around, “Tackey!? What are you doing here?”
“Checking up on you like the kind and loving senpai that I am.” He looked down at the script in the younger boy’s hands, “working hard as usual, hm?”
“I try,” he turned the page, “I might have two scripts to memorize soon.”
The elder raised a brow, “Two? Why?”
“Well, the student council was thinking about doing a play for the school festival…but…you know how those meetings go…”
“Oh yea,” he looked up at the ceiling, “I remember those…Ueda and Nishikido…those two make quite the enemies.”
Pi laughed and nodded in agreement, “MatsuJun’s leading us this year, he’s more lenient than you so…”
The other held a hand up, “Say no more, I can imagine what that's like, I'll get nightmares if you tell me the details.”
Last year, Tackey had been the president of the student council, and Yokoyama Yu before that. The two of them had been able to control the council, or at least managed to keep Ryo and Ueda on separate sides of the room. Yokoyama had done it with his power over Ryo, thus dividing and conquering.
Tackey on the other hand, used duct tape.
Needless to say, it worked.
The two gave a sigh; the elder shook the thoughts out of his head, “let’s not talk about such depressing things. So, how’s phase one coming along?”
He pursed his lips, “I don’t know…it is possible for someone to have auto-reflect?”
“Like in videogames?”
“Yea…” he nodded, “because every time I try, it deflects off of him and hits me instead, and he didn’t notice a thing…maybe he’s got super powers…”
Tackey furled his eyebrows and crossed his arms, “seriously? Well no matter, he still can’t be worse than Tsubasa when it come to obliviousness.”
The younger boy gave a laugh, “He’s a rock.”
“A rock hm? He still can’t beat Tsubasa. In the land of the oblivious, they all hail Tsubasa as their king and worship him as a god.”
His eyes widened at the picture, “Wow…”
The elder nodded enthusiastically, “Yep, and if I managed to get the message across to him, you should be able to handle a rock. And if phase one didn’t work, we’ll just move onto phase two!”
Pi looked over, “Phase two?”
“That’s right,” he grinned as he leaned in and began whispering into the other’s ear, “now here’s what’s going to happen…”
-------------------------
Meanwhile at the park…
“…is it a bird?”
“No.”
“Is it a penguin?”
“That’s a bird.”
“Chicken?”
“That’s a bird too.”
“…a dinosaur?”
“No.”
“Are those wings?”
“…no, they’re horns.”
“…oh…is it a goat?”
“No.”
“Am I close?”
“No.”
“Damn…”
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A/N: Update! Ugh...it's getting late and yea...can't think of anything to say...people need to make impulsive holidays, or just general excuses to close the school down on certain days. Depending on how busy I get, it might take awhile to update, let's hope not. Anyways, enjoy!
Pairings: Akame, Ryopi, smidge of Kamepi and T&T
Rating: PG
Summary: Akanishi Jin and Kamenashi Kazuya were average students with average lives until they meet each other. The results? An eccentric school year.
Chapter 1// Chapter 2// Chapter 3
Chapter 4:
“Huh?” He stared at his senior in a rather clueless manner, “I don’t get it.”
“Make him go doki-doki.”
He raised a brow, “Why?”
Tackey frowned, “First of all, you really shouldn’t be questioning me. But since I like you, I’ll let it slide this time,” he cleared his throat, “after having done extensive research and interrogations, when you make someone’s heart beat like crazy, it helps speed up the realization process, not to mention you leave an impression on them.”
“…and what kind of research was this?”
The older boy furled his brows, “you’re questioning me again…come on Yamapi, I’m in university! Obviously I know everything!” When he received no reply, he confessed sheepishly, “Fine, it was Tsubasa, okay? I asked him which of my tactics made the biggest impact on him, are you happy now?”
Pi nodded slowly, “Yea, that’s a lot more reassuring,” then he looked at his feet thoughtfully, “but still…even if I know what to do, I don’t know how to do it.”
“My poor, lost little kouhai, that’s why I’m here to take you under my wing and guide you through all this,” he paused for a moment, “Well, normally, there are several things that can make a person’s heart beat. Being in love, excited, or scared.”
He raised a brow, “You want me to scare Ryo-chan? Actually, that’d be pretty easy, but I can't see the point in doing that…”
Tackey shook his head, stirring his drink before taking a sip, “wrong. If you scare him, he might get a heart attack and die or something. That’s not the result you’re going for, you want to get his heart racing in a good way.”
Making a mental note, he nodded again, “right, and how do you propose I do that?”
“Well when I was in your position, I found that you can make your target go doki-doki by either doing something really cool, being really close to them-actually be in their face-close, affectionate gestures and general suggestiveness.”
Pi blinked, “Suggestiveness?”
The elder laughed, “You probably won’t get that far, you don’t have the experience for that yet.”
“So if I get Ryo-chan to go doki-doki, he’ll like me back?”
“Well he might realize that he likes you, but there’s always the chance that he turns out to be like Tsubasa-”
“Completely oblivious?”
“Yea.”
“That’s probably Ryo-chan.”
“Ah…but still, it’ll help, I guarantee it. After you finish this first phase then, I’ll give you further instructions.”
He nodded, “alright, thanks for your help.”
Tackey waved if off coolly, “no problem.”
A pause.
“…so am I supposed to pay you or something?”
“No, but I forgot my wallet, so if you’d be so kind as to pay for my drink…”
A sigh, “…fine…”
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And so, he headed to school with Tackey’s words on his mind.
On his way to school, he met up with Jin who began nudging him with his elbow, whispering in a not so discreet manner, “So? Are you going to do it? Are you? Are you?”
Pi nodded.
“What are you going to do?”
He blinked and looked over, “What’d you have for breakfast today?”
“…chocolate?”
“Oh, that explains a lot…”
Jin grinned, “Yea, sure, so what are you going to do?”
Yamapi shrugged, “I’m going to wing it I guess. You know, just go with the flow, that sort of thing.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”
“Not a clue.”
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His first attempt was by giving the other boy a tight hug when he saw him, “hey Ryo-chan!”
Ryo stared at him after getting over his initial shock; he raised a brow and asked, “What’d you have for breakfast today?”
He gave a sheepish grin, “…chocolate?”
“Has anyone ever told you how you’re slowly but surely devolving into Jin?”
“Well you just did.”
The shorter boy was about to say more but then the bell rang, “crap, I’m going to be late.”
Pi snorted, “You and your stupid phase.”
“You’re a stupid phase! Damn, I’m devolving too!” They watched as all the students rushed off to their classes, a moment later, Ryo frowned, “crap…Nakai-sensei’s probably going to unleash some creepy punishment thing on me…”
He laughed, “like that time he messed around with the chairs because you and Jin kept falling asleep in class? What did he do again? Electrocute your butts?”
The elder boy made a face, “don’t talk about that! I swear, that can not be legal. My butt hurts just thinking about it, I really hope you get him for a teacher next year.”
Grinning, he gave a shrug, “that’d be okay, he likes me. Remember that time I stopped him and that nickname he had for you? Sole of Foot?”
The other gave a huff, “Let’s not talk about that either. You know…despite everything…he’s an okay teacher I guess, in the sense that he never hands out homework. But you’re still luckier. Kimura-sensei? How come I never got him for a teacher?”
“Because you don’t have my charm and rugged good looks and general smartness?”
Ryo laughed, “Of course,” he looked around and realized that they were in the middle of an empty hallway, “I better go, if I get there before Jin, I might not get killed. But if my butt gets fried again, I’m blaming you.”
Pi nodded, “oh, hey Ryo-chan.”
The other looked back, “what?”
“Do you like me?”
A long pause.
“Eh!?”
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Jin was at his locker then he was rudely shoved from behind. He turned around; ready to bite someone’s head off when he came face to face with a grinning Kame. Jumping back a bit from shock, he blinked, “Oh, it’s you.”
The other frowned, “What do you mean ‘oh, it’s you’? What kind of attitude is that?”
Turning back to his locker, he put his shoes away and began digging through his belongings for the material he needed for class. “I’m tired, the chocolate’s wearing off.”
Kame raised a brow, “but school hasn’t even started yet…you eat chocolate for breakfast? How amazingly unhealthy of you.”
The taller boy snorted, “Don’t judge me.”
The younger boy laughed, “You’re such a grouch, I haven’t really seen this side of you yet, it’s rather interesting actually. By the way, Tat-chan officially knows you as ‘Nishikido Ryo’s awkward friend’.”
He looked over, “Is that a good thing?”
“I don’t know,” he smiled, “but I think it’s a start, don’t you? I mean, who knows? You might become friends with Tat-chan, then some miracle can happen and Nishikido-senpai and Tat-chan will get along and the world will be all happy and stuff.”
Jin gave a snort, “that’s about as probable as me catching a rainbow and eating it for dessert.”
“That was as creative as it was strange.”
“Thank you…hey-”
Suddenly, the bell rang, causing the two to look up with a start. Kame smiled, “I guess I should head to class, do you have practice today?” He nodded. “I’ll wait for you, okay? Tat-chan’s got a match today so he’s leaving early, and it’s too far so I can’t go and watch. He’s probably going to win though, so it’s okay.”
Jin closed his locker and thought for a moment, Pi had rehearsal and Ryo had promised to help Okura with a song he was writing which left him with free time, “Sure, where will you be? I’ll come get you after I’m done.”
The younger boy looked up for a moment, “I guess I’ll be in the art room…brutally butchering some piece of art and getting yelled at Tsuyoshi-sensei for murdering art.”
He laughed and began walking down the hall with the younger boy when a figure ran past them, “Hurry up! I’m late for class! My students are probably waiting for me!”
“I’m trying! You’d probably be faster if you ran by yourself.”
“No! Now make like a racecar and run faster!”
They blinked. “Well…there go the two now…how did they get hired as teachers?”
Indeed, the figure that ran passed them was Domoto Koichi and Domoto Tsuyoshi, the latter giving the former a piggyback ride. The students of the school had grown accustomed to calling them either Koichi-sensei or Tsuyoshi-sensei except for when they were together, in which case, they’d simply be called Domoto-sensei or Kinki Kids, as they’d been called when they were in high school all those years ago.
There was a pause between them before the burst out laughing, Kame wiped a tear from his eye and smiled, “I guess I should go to class now.”
Jin paused for a moment before nodding and smiling back at the other, “yea, I’ll see you after practice then.” He watched the other head off to class, his heart pounding a little harder than usual.
But he assumed it was from laughing too hard.
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During lunch, Ryo had wandered off to find his other friends, Kanjani Eight, they called themselves. They were all from Osaka, excluding Maru, and they were all more or less childhood friends. And so, with him gone, Pi excused himself from his friends for awhile to go chat with Jin.
“So, how did it go so far?”
Pi shrugged, “I don’t know, I can’t really tell if I made him go doki-doki or not.”
He raised a brow, “what do you mean you can’t tell?”
“Well it’s not like I do this,” he placed a hand on his friend’s heart, “to him while he talks to check. Anyways, I think this plan’s backfiring.”
“Huh? Why?”
The younger boy let out a laugh, “because instead of me making him go doki-doki, I think it’s my heart that’s pounding like crazy, not his.”
-------------------------
“Do you like me?”
A long pause.
“Eh!?”
“Do you like me,” he repeated.
There was another pause before Ryo grinned shyly, “of course I do! I like Pi a lot!”
He felt his brain go haywire for a moment, and during that moment, the other had waved goodbye and gone to class, leaving him standing there. When he came back to his senses, he realized that the other probably meant it in a friendship way.
As dense as a rock.
But still, he put a hand over his heart as he thought back to the other’s words.
I like Pi a lot!
Yep, his heart beat had sped up.
A lot.
-------------------------
He pursed his lips, “wow, does that mean Tackey’s plans actually aren’t as useful as he claims to them be?”
“I don’t know, I’m not supposed to question him anymore.”
Jin paused, then he remembered his own situation earlier, “Pi, do you think I’m unfit?”
His friend raised a brow, “What?”
“Okay, maybe not unfit, but do you think I’ve been slacking off, maybe I’m becoming unfit or something…”
Pi jutted his lips out in thought, “…well you did eat chocolate for breakfast…why?”
He shrugged, “I don’t know, suddenly, it’s like laughing turned into an exercise. We saw Domoto-sensei, running down the hallway earlier, Koichi-sensei was getting a piggyback ride and I was laughing really hard. And afterwards, it felt like I ran a mile, I mean my heart was going at a million beats per minute.”
“Hmm…did you laugh really, really hard?”
“Yea.”
“How long did it take for your heart to slow down?”
“I don’t know, I ran to class afterwards too.”
The younger boy nodded, “I see…well, there’s only one way to find out how unfit you’re becoming.”
He blinked, “How?”
“You have practice later, don’t you?”
“Oh…somehow, I was expecting some really amazing conclusion from you,” he frowned, “but I guess you’re right…”
Pi gave a helpful smile, “and maybe you should lay off the chocolates for awhile, it can’t be good for you.”
Then from behind, someone blew into the younger boy’s ear causing him to shrink away, “What’s this I hear about Jin not eating chocolate?”
He two looked over, surprised at their friend’s sudden appearance, “Ryo-chan! When’d you get here!?”
The shorter boy laughed, “Just now, why? Did you miss me?” Before either of them could answer, the bell rang, he looked up and blinked, “damn…oh well…Jin, we’re going to be late for class again. I’ll see you later, Pi.”
As he left the class again, Pi quickly placed a hand over his heart and his other over Jin’s heart, “…this can’t be healthy.”
Jin looked over sympathetically, “maybe you should see a doctor…”
“Why a doctor? It's not like I’m not going to get a heart attack from this…I think.”
He suppressed his grin as he shrugged, “no, I was just thinking that you might want to get sedated…or neutered.”
“Or wha-!?” Pi’s eyes widened as he looked over to his friend who was already tearing down the hall, he took his shoe off and chucked it at the retreating figure.
-------------------------
During practice, he had very few problems with his heart rate. He shrugged it off as he headed for the change room, “I guess it was early and I’m unfit only in the mornings or something like that…wow, I must be nocturnal.”
After he changed, he walked into the building and towards the art room where the younger boy said he’d be. A bit away, he could hear Tsuyoshi-sensei talking excitedly, not to mention loudly, about art and fish. He blinked, wondering who would talk to the eccentric teacher about both art and fish. “It wouldn’t be Koichi-sensei, Yasuda-kun or Kamenashi…”
Then he walked into class and blinked in bewilderment, “Imai-senpai!”
The elder looked over and smiled, “Hello Akanishi-kun, it’s nice to see you again.” He nodded back a greeting rather dumbly, “So how’ve you been?”
“Good…” he tried to think of something else to say but couldn’t really think of anything, so he settled for repeating himself, “yea…I’ve been good. What are you doing here?”
“I came to visit Tsuyoshi-sensei,” the taller man gave an earnest smile, “did you know that he bought a new type of tropical fish yesterday?”
“And a new hat,” the teacher added.
Tsubasa nodded seriously, “right, and a new hat.”
Jin shook his head, “no, I had no idea…wait…if you’re here, then Tackey’s probably around here too, right?”
“Yea, I think he’s in the drama room right now,” after a pause, he turned back to the teacher to continue their exciting conversation of art and fish.
“Jin!”
He turned around and headed over to the younger boy, “hey Kamenashi, there you are.”
Kame gave an excited grin, “Yasuda-senpai was teaching me how to draw!”
The elder boy glanced over at the mentioned person before turning back to the boy in front of him, “Why?”
“Because I felt like it?” The younger boy shrugged, “I always get laughed at for my drawing skills anyways, might as well improve.”
Yasuda looked up and smiled helpfully, “Kame-kun’s improved a lot from when he first started actually.”
The boy laughed, “Yea, you can actually sort of tell what it is now.”
Jin raised a brow, “Oh? Let’s see it then.”
Kame gave a proud grin and help up his picture, “Can you guess what it is?”
He didn’t know why, but could feel his pulse in the tips of his fingers at the smile. Ignoring it, he decided that it was because he was scared of how startling the picture was. His brows furled at the image, “…why didn’t you color it?”
“I didn’t have time.”
“Oh…” if it’d been colored, it would’ve helped him a lot with his guessing since he actually had no clue what the picture was supposed to be of, “…is it a…cow””
“No…”
“…a camel?”
“No.”
“Donkey?”
“No.”
“A llama?”
“No.”
“…is it extinct?”
“No!”
“Is it…” he rubbed his chin in concentration, what had a round body and a strangely narrow neck? “An ostrich?”
Kame shook his head, exasperated, “No! It’s a giraffe! Look, it’s got spots!”
“…oh…” he took a closer look at the picture, “Oh.”
Suddenly the younger boy was in his front of him, face merely inches away, he pouted, “you really didn’t know what it was, did you?”
He swallowed hard and shook his head honestly, but upon seeing the disappointment in the other’s features, he shoved his hands into his pockets and added hastily, “that’s okay though, let’s go to the park, you can practice drawing in the sand instead, alright? I mean, you're probably killing millions of trees right now. I’ll even give you pointers on drawing, okay?”
A smile broke out on the other’s face, “Really?” He nodded. Kame grabbed his hand from his pocket and began dragging him out the room, “let’s go then!”
Jin managed to wave goodbye to the other people in the room before he was dragged off. Tsubasa smiled after they disappeared, “How cute, they’re such good friends.”
Tsuyoshi just sighed and ruffled the other’s hair, “you haven’t changed much, have you? But then again, they’re not much better than you, I swear, kids nowadays are growing more and more oblivious…”
The other gave a curious smile, “What do you mean, Tsuyoshi-sensei?”
“…never mind, if I tell you, I’ll feel like I’m committing a crime, shattering your happy reality and all that.”
Tsubasa merely blinked before changing the topic to the art programs at university.
-------------------------
He blinked when someone covered his eyes, “Guess who.”
“…Jin? Toma? Yuu? You can’t be Ryo-chan, since he’s not that tall…Koyama?” he continued rambling names until the hands were removed and he turned around, “Tackey!? What are you doing here?”
“Checking up on you like the kind and loving senpai that I am.” He looked down at the script in the younger boy’s hands, “working hard as usual, hm?”
“I try,” he turned the page, “I might have two scripts to memorize soon.”
The elder raised a brow, “Two? Why?”
“Well, the student council was thinking about doing a play for the school festival…but…you know how those meetings go…”
“Oh yea,” he looked up at the ceiling, “I remember those…Ueda and Nishikido…those two make quite the enemies.”
Pi laughed and nodded in agreement, “MatsuJun’s leading us this year, he’s more lenient than you so…”
The other held a hand up, “Say no more, I can imagine what that's like, I'll get nightmares if you tell me the details.”
Last year, Tackey had been the president of the student council, and Yokoyama Yu before that. The two of them had been able to control the council, or at least managed to keep Ryo and Ueda on separate sides of the room. Yokoyama had done it with his power over Ryo, thus dividing and conquering.
Tackey on the other hand, used duct tape.
Needless to say, it worked.
The two gave a sigh; the elder shook the thoughts out of his head, “let’s not talk about such depressing things. So, how’s phase one coming along?”
He pursed his lips, “I don’t know…it is possible for someone to have auto-reflect?”
“Like in videogames?”
“Yea…” he nodded, “because every time I try, it deflects off of him and hits me instead, and he didn’t notice a thing…maybe he’s got super powers…”
Tackey furled his eyebrows and crossed his arms, “seriously? Well no matter, he still can’t be worse than Tsubasa when it come to obliviousness.”
The younger boy gave a laugh, “He’s a rock.”
“A rock hm? He still can’t beat Tsubasa. In the land of the oblivious, they all hail Tsubasa as their king and worship him as a god.”
His eyes widened at the picture, “Wow…”
The elder nodded enthusiastically, “Yep, and if I managed to get the message across to him, you should be able to handle a rock. And if phase one didn’t work, we’ll just move onto phase two!”
Pi looked over, “Phase two?”
“That’s right,” he grinned as he leaned in and began whispering into the other’s ear, “now here’s what’s going to happen…”
-------------------------
Meanwhile at the park…
“…is it a bird?”
“No.”
“Is it a penguin?”
“That’s a bird.”
“Chicken?”
“That’s a bird too.”
“…a dinosaur?”
“No.”
“Are those wings?”
“…no, they’re horns.”
“…oh…is it a goat?”
“No.”
“Am I close?”
“No.”
“Damn…”
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A/N: Update! Ugh...it's getting late and yea...can't think of anything to say...people need to make impulsive holidays, or just general excuses to close the school down on certain days. Depending on how busy I get, it might take awhile to update, let's hope not. Anyways, enjoy!