There But For Grace (Samezu Kai/Honda Daisuke. Gaoranger/Rikon Bengoshi)
Title: There But For Grace
Pairing: Samezu Kai/Honda Daisuke
Fandom: Gaoranger/Rikon Bengoshi
Rating: PG-13
AN: For Meg, who has actually already seen this one, because once I made the mistake of mentioning it she jumped all over it demanding it be written. ;) Although there's not as much flailing over the Silver/Daisuke twin effect as I thought there was going to be. :( Also, wow, this turned out a lot longer than I thought. o.O
Kai didn't know what exactly it was about Honda Daisuke that fascinated him, but he had to admit that the guy certainly had his interest. It wasn't just that he was practically identical to Silver either, because while yes, he'd go for that no questions asked, Daisuke-san wasn't really anything like Silver, aside from the looks. And the pout, that was the same, he added mentally, but aside from those Daisuke-san wasn't like Silver. For one thing Daisuke-san smiled a lot, he seemed to go through life with a smile on his face - when he wasn't pouting over something - and he gesticulated a lot, emphasizing his words with sharp gestures that couldn't help but make Kai wonder what else he could do with those hands. And those fingers, the long fingers that could probably...
"Stop drooling," Yellow murmured in his ear. "You're embarrassing us both."
Kai glared and smacked him upside the head.
***
Kai listened in fascination as Daisuke-san talked about his colleagues, or rhapsodised about, really and Kai was carefully keeping a mental tally of how often 'Mamiya-sensei' or 'Yanagida-san' was mentioned. This was the one flaw, well, major flaw he'd found so far; Daisuke-san was a law student and looking to become a lawyer. Well, he shrugged, nobody was perfect and if this was the big flaw then Daisuke-san wasn't doing so bad.
Then again... he sighed as Daisuke-san clasped his hands together with an infatuated look on his face as the words 'Mamiya-sensei' came out of his mouth again. If it wasn't for the fact that 'Yanagida-san' seemed to be mentioned almost as frequently as Mamiya-san Kai would have given the guy up as a lost cause, hopelessly straight and probably not looking to experiment a little.
"Blue-san?"
"Hm?" Uh-oh, looked like Daisuke-san had caught on - and he really hated it when people did that, it took all the fun out of things - because he was giving him a wary look.
"What's that look for?" And yep, there was the pout again. That pout was incredibly, unfairly distracting and he should probably do something to wipe it off Daisuke-san's face. Hm, decisions, decisions.
"What look?" he asked innocently and Daisuke pouted some more.
"That look."
"Oh," Kai replied, "I'm just trying to figure out if it's Mamiya-san or Yanagida-san you want to sleep with more." He waved a hand in Daisuke-san's direction in as languid a manner as possible. "Keep going, I'll figure it out eventually."
Daisuke-san stared at him, speechless for the first time since he'd somehow appeared slap bang in the middle of Gao's Rock, his lips slightly parted in shock. Again, unfairly distracting. "I--" he stammered. "I don't-- I mean, I really-- Mamiya-sensei's... and Yanagida-san... and... ehh???"
"You mean you don't?" Kai asked innocently, trying not to think about sucking on that full bottom lip.
"No!" Daisuke-san protested. "I mean-- that's... Blue-san, why are your friends staring at us like that?"
"Huh?" Kai turned and found that, yes, his teammates were indeed staring at them and just as obviously trying to pretend they weren't. He noted the wary expressions on Yellow, Red and White with amusement, the pout on Silver's face was almost as good but he couldn't decipher the look on Black's face at all. He settled for beaming at them impartially, gleefully satisfied as the wary looks on Red and Yellow's faces got even more apprehensive. "I have no idea. Ignore them."
***
"Alright," Yellow said, determination written all over his face, "we need to figure out how to send Honda back where he came from, agreed?" There were nods around the spring that was their usual meeting point, except for White who looked... concerned. "White?" he asked carefully. "Something wrong?" White had funny ideas sometimes and the fact that Honda and Blue were an accident waiting to happen at best wouldn't necessarily figure into her thought processes if she thought they were getting in the way of 'true love' or something ridiculous like that. It was too bad, really, that Blue wasn't subtle with his crushes at all, because it was always obvious when he was interested in someone and, for some reason, he was interested in Honda Daisuke.
"No," White replied slowly. "It just doesn't seem fair, doing this without Blue or Honda-san."
Yellow shrugged, firmly squashing his own guilt over that tiny detail. "We're not making any final plans," he pointed out. "Just... speculating." And that sounded weak and defensive even to his own ears, but this wasn't a conversation they could include Blue in without it degenerating at a rapid rate. And besides, Blue and Honda were up on Sky Island anyway, enjoying themselves; they wouldn't get another chance for a meeting like this without making it sound contrived. "Okay, so, obviously there's an Org behind this somewhere..."
***
"...You really swim with a shark?" Daisuke asked in astonishment, still not quite believing his eyes as Blue-san emerged from the water, shaking the droplets out of his hair and grinning at him as he grabbed one of the towels they'd taken with them. "Seriously?"
"GaoShark, sure," Blue-san shrugged and in spite of himself Daisuke couldn't help but follow the trail of one particular droplet as it meandered down the side of Blue-san's neck and over his collarbone. He swallowed hard and hoped Blue-san hadn't noticed. "Sharks in general, not a chance. Even I'm not that reckless, although Yellow would probably tell you otherwise."
Yellow... right, the one with the blond hair. The one who seemed to alternate between finding the whole situation highly amusing and extremely worrying. He'd love to see the clash of wills between Yellow and Mamiya-sensei, though; he thought they'd both be as stubborn as each other. Of the seven people he'd met here, Yellow was one of the few Daisuke thought he could get a handle on; him, Red and White. As for the others... they were a mystery: the one called Black didn't seem very happy with him for some reason and kept giving him unhappy looks when he thought Daisuke wasn't looking; Silver, the guy who looked just like him... well, maybe his discomfort was obvious enough, it wasn't easy for Daisuke himself to see someone who looked and sounded just like him but wasn't him. Aside from that, though, he couldn't figure Silver out at all and the only thing that made that more tolerable was the fact that none of the others seemed to understand him all that much better. And as for Blue... Blue just confused him, plain and simple; he had no idea what was going to come out of Blue's mouth from one moment to another, or what he would do next, but for some reason he didn't seem to mind. He did wonder, though, if this was a little how Mamiya-sensei felt around him; never knowing what was coming next.
"You sure you don't want to swim?" Blue added, jerking a thumb back at the water. "He doesn't bite."
"Um... I'll pass," Daisuke managed, his attention swinging straight back to Blue and the way his damp hair framed his face. "I really, um..." think I'm in over my head, he finished silently. In more ways than one. He hadn't had this kind of reaction to another guy since high school, no matter what Blue might think about him and Yanagida-san. Hell, he hadn't had a reaction quite this visceral for some time and it was a little unnerving now that he was faced with it again.
"Really what?" Blue asked, plopping down onto the sandy earth at the edge of the lake, distractingly close, especially with the way his bangs were starting to curl slightly as they dried.
"Shark," Daisuke repeated. "Giant shark."
Blue grinned lazily and tilted his head back as he stared up at the sky. "I suppose," he conceded. "We're all really used to it now, but I guess it must be weird if you're not."
Daisuke jerked his eyes away from the line of Blue's throat, firmly reminding himself that it wasn't polite to want to kiss your way down your host's neck. Even if it was really tempting. And even if said host hadn't bothered to put his shirt back on yet.
"Wanna make out?"
"Huh?" Daisuke blinked in surprise at the blunt question, trying to work out if he had just heard what he thought he had. He decided he had when the veneer of confidence on Blue's face cracked, just a bit.
"Never mind. Forget it."
And that was something Daisuke wasn't about to do. Maybe he didn't know that much about the law and maybe he screwed things up sometimes because of that, but one thing he did know was that if he let this moment pass he'd always regret it, so instead of replying verbally he simply reached out and tilted Blue's chin up and a little to the side, leaning in to kiss him before Blue could change the subject. There was one brief moment of hesitation before a gratifying little sigh as Blue responded, one hand coming up to tangle in his hair. He might not have much more time here, Daisuke reflected, but he was going to make the most of the time he did have; he didn't want to leave with this regret to play on his mind.
***
Soutarou frowned as Blue and Honda-san arrived back in Gao's Rock, faces more flushed than they should be. He also wasn't blind to how Honda-san's hands were holding on more tightly to Blue than was strictly necessary: the journey to and from Sky Island wasn't that unnerving, after all. He squashed the uncharitable thought almost immediately though; Honda-san wasn't used to any of this like they were, after all.
He also didn't miss the warning look Yellow shot his way and he retreated into himself instead. Honda-san wouldn't be here for much longer and after he was gone then Blue would be-- He jerked his mind away from the thought before he could finish it; it wasn't as if he thought about Blue that way, right? There was absolutely no reason at all to be jealous and yet... yet he was and he found he didn't like the feeling. He didn't even know why he was jealous, it wasn't as if Blue wasn't all over everyone else, either - Red and Yellow in particular - but he knew with them that it didn't mean anything, whereas with Honda-san it had always been extremely obvious that it did and that was... unsettling.
Maybe it wasn't fair to Honda-san, but Soutarou couldn't wait until he was gone.
***
"Well," Kai said brightly, smiling as much as he could as he jammed his hands into his jacket pockets. "I guess this is it, huh? Time to go."
Daisuke nodded slowly, studying the shimmering portal-type thing warily. "I just go through that and I'll be home?"
"Yep," Kai replied, trying and failing to ignore the hard knot in his chest. "You'll be home before you know it." He'd only known the guy a couple of days, he reminded himself in annoyance. It wasn't as if it was supposed to be a forever thing or anything sappy like that; it had been a good time and they'd definitely had fun but that was all it was, right? And he'd always known Daisuke would have to leave eventually, it wasn't like the guy could stay, after all, not when he had friends and an important job back there and it wasn't as if he could afford to get into anything with anyone either, Ura had more than proved that. So why did it have to hurt so much?
Daisuke hesitantly moved towards the portal, turning back to look at him and Kai almost wished he hadn't, that he'd just kept walking without looking back, because he wanted nothing more than to drag Daisuke away from the thing and maybe lock him in his room for a while until everyone forgot about sending him back. Except his room didn't even have a door so that plan was out anyway. Somehow he managed a smile and nodded. "Your friends are probably worried about you, right? You shouldn't keep them waiting, Daisuke, it's not nice."
Daisuke gave him a watery grin and nodded back before he firmly faced the portal again, stepping through it and disappearing from Kai's view, the portal fading as he did so. Kai rubbed at his stinging eyes angrily; God, the dust in here was terrible, really it was, they should probably do some dusting or something soon or they wouldn't be able to breathe. He didn't need to look to know the hand squeezing his shoulder was Black and he gave his friend as cheerful a smile as he could muster. "I'm fine, Black, stop worrying."
"Blue--"
"You know, I just remembered something I was going to do earlier," he continued brightly, "So I'm just going to go do it. See you later." Making his escape while he could, Kai slipped out of Gao's Rock before the others could stop him, ducking out into the streets of whichever town they'd stopped in this time. He just needed to clear his head, that was all, no need to make a big fuss over anything. He'd be fine.
***
Daisuke stepped out of the portal and found himself in one of the corners of the office, right by the bookcase. "Ah, there you are," Mamiya-sensei said from somewhere behind him. "I was wondering where you'd got to. How long does it take to find one book, Honda?"
He gaped at her in confusion. Book? What book? Hadn't she been worried at all? Surely they'd noticed he'd been gone for two days.
"Some time today," Mamiya-sensei prompted. "This is an important client and we're in court on Thursday, remember?"
"Thursday?" he repeated, "but that's--" today.
"In two days," she nodded. "Which is why I need the book. Sakurai, on the second shelf?"
"Right," he said blankly. "Getting it right now." Sakurai, Sakurai, ah! There it was. He passed it over wordlessly and made his way over to his cluttered desk. It was still Tuesday? How could it possibly still be Tuesday? It was as if the past two days hadn't even happened. He frowned down the papers on his desk and rubbed at the side of his head in frustration. He was sure the past two days had happened and the things that had happened were a bit much even for his imagination. So what exactly was going on?
Mamiya-sensei had once mentioned the baseball court as being very therapeutic after a stressful day and until now he'd never really seen the appeal. Now though? Now the thought of whacking a ball round sounded like a really good idea. He could use something to vent his confusion and frustration on and whacking a ball at a target was as good a way as any.
"Your grip's all wrong," came a helpful voice from the next net as he missed the third ball in a row, huffing in annoyance and wondering how sensei could possibly find this therapeutic. That voice, though, was very familiar and the last time he'd heard it it had been saying goodbye. He turned and came face to face with Blue, only this Blue had no recognition in his eyes at all.
"Huh?" He seemed to be saying that a lot today.
"Your grip," not-Blue repeated patiently. "You're holding it all wrong, that's why you keep missing."
"Oh." Daisuke flushed and hoped it wasn't that noticeable in the dim light.
"Want some pointers?" not-Blue asked carefully. "I don't bite, I promise." And there was that grin, the mischievous grin that tacked the words 'unless you want me to' onto the end of that sentence.
"Sure," Daisuke replied, licking his lips nervously. "It's not like you can make me worse than I already am."
"True."
"You don't have to agree so easily."
"But it is true," not-Blue shrugged, lifting the net separating the two of them and sliding under to stand behind Daisuke, adjusting his grip on the bat and holding his hands in place. "Quit complaining and let me help already, ah--"
"Honda," Daisuke managed, distracted by the warmth of not-Blue flush against his back. "Honda Daisuke."
"Samezu Kai; nice to meet you, Daiuske-kun. Now just keep that grip steady and don't take your eyes off the ball, okay?"
Daisuke nodded and allowed himself a brief smile before the ball came whirling at his head once more.
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Pairing: Samezu Kai/Honda Daisuke
Fandom: Gaoranger/Rikon Bengoshi
Rating: PG-13
AN: For Meg, who has actually already seen this one, because once I made the mistake of mentioning it she jumped all over it demanding it be written. ;) Although there's not as much flailing over the Silver/Daisuke twin effect as I thought there was going to be. :( Also, wow, this turned out a lot longer than I thought. o.O
Kai didn't know what exactly it was about Honda Daisuke that fascinated him, but he had to admit that the guy certainly had his interest. It wasn't just that he was practically identical to Silver either, because while yes, he'd go for that no questions asked, Daisuke-san wasn't really anything like Silver, aside from the looks. And the pout, that was the same, he added mentally, but aside from those Daisuke-san wasn't like Silver. For one thing Daisuke-san smiled a lot, he seemed to go through life with a smile on his face - when he wasn't pouting over something - and he gesticulated a lot, emphasizing his words with sharp gestures that couldn't help but make Kai wonder what else he could do with those hands. And those fingers, the long fingers that could probably...
"Stop drooling," Yellow murmured in his ear. "You're embarrassing us both."
Kai glared and smacked him upside the head.
***
Kai listened in fascination as Daisuke-san talked about his colleagues, or rhapsodised about, really and Kai was carefully keeping a mental tally of how often 'Mamiya-sensei' or 'Yanagida-san' was mentioned. This was the one flaw, well, major flaw he'd found so far; Daisuke-san was a law student and looking to become a lawyer. Well, he shrugged, nobody was perfect and if this was the big flaw then Daisuke-san wasn't doing so bad.
Then again... he sighed as Daisuke-san clasped his hands together with an infatuated look on his face as the words 'Mamiya-sensei' came out of his mouth again. If it wasn't for the fact that 'Yanagida-san' seemed to be mentioned almost as frequently as Mamiya-san Kai would have given the guy up as a lost cause, hopelessly straight and probably not looking to experiment a little.
"Blue-san?"
"Hm?" Uh-oh, looked like Daisuke-san had caught on - and he really hated it when people did that, it took all the fun out of things - because he was giving him a wary look.
"What's that look for?" And yep, there was the pout again. That pout was incredibly, unfairly distracting and he should probably do something to wipe it off Daisuke-san's face. Hm, decisions, decisions.
"What look?" he asked innocently and Daisuke pouted some more.
"That look."
"Oh," Kai replied, "I'm just trying to figure out if it's Mamiya-san or Yanagida-san you want to sleep with more." He waved a hand in Daisuke-san's direction in as languid a manner as possible. "Keep going, I'll figure it out eventually."
Daisuke-san stared at him, speechless for the first time since he'd somehow appeared slap bang in the middle of Gao's Rock, his lips slightly parted in shock. Again, unfairly distracting. "I--" he stammered. "I don't-- I mean, I really-- Mamiya-sensei's... and Yanagida-san... and... ehh???"
"You mean you don't?" Kai asked innocently, trying not to think about sucking on that full bottom lip.
"No!" Daisuke-san protested. "I mean-- that's... Blue-san, why are your friends staring at us like that?"
"Huh?" Kai turned and found that, yes, his teammates were indeed staring at them and just as obviously trying to pretend they weren't. He noted the wary expressions on Yellow, Red and White with amusement, the pout on Silver's face was almost as good but he couldn't decipher the look on Black's face at all. He settled for beaming at them impartially, gleefully satisfied as the wary looks on Red and Yellow's faces got even more apprehensive. "I have no idea. Ignore them."
***
"Alright," Yellow said, determination written all over his face, "we need to figure out how to send Honda back where he came from, agreed?" There were nods around the spring that was their usual meeting point, except for White who looked... concerned. "White?" he asked carefully. "Something wrong?" White had funny ideas sometimes and the fact that Honda and Blue were an accident waiting to happen at best wouldn't necessarily figure into her thought processes if she thought they were getting in the way of 'true love' or something ridiculous like that. It was too bad, really, that Blue wasn't subtle with his crushes at all, because it was always obvious when he was interested in someone and, for some reason, he was interested in Honda Daisuke.
"No," White replied slowly. "It just doesn't seem fair, doing this without Blue or Honda-san."
Yellow shrugged, firmly squashing his own guilt over that tiny detail. "We're not making any final plans," he pointed out. "Just... speculating." And that sounded weak and defensive even to his own ears, but this wasn't a conversation they could include Blue in without it degenerating at a rapid rate. And besides, Blue and Honda were up on Sky Island anyway, enjoying themselves; they wouldn't get another chance for a meeting like this without making it sound contrived. "Okay, so, obviously there's an Org behind this somewhere..."
***
"...You really swim with a shark?" Daisuke asked in astonishment, still not quite believing his eyes as Blue-san emerged from the water, shaking the droplets out of his hair and grinning at him as he grabbed one of the towels they'd taken with them. "Seriously?"
"GaoShark, sure," Blue-san shrugged and in spite of himself Daisuke couldn't help but follow the trail of one particular droplet as it meandered down the side of Blue-san's neck and over his collarbone. He swallowed hard and hoped Blue-san hadn't noticed. "Sharks in general, not a chance. Even I'm not that reckless, although Yellow would probably tell you otherwise."
Yellow... right, the one with the blond hair. The one who seemed to alternate between finding the whole situation highly amusing and extremely worrying. He'd love to see the clash of wills between Yellow and Mamiya-sensei, though; he thought they'd both be as stubborn as each other. Of the seven people he'd met here, Yellow was one of the few Daisuke thought he could get a handle on; him, Red and White. As for the others... they were a mystery: the one called Black didn't seem very happy with him for some reason and kept giving him unhappy looks when he thought Daisuke wasn't looking; Silver, the guy who looked just like him... well, maybe his discomfort was obvious enough, it wasn't easy for Daisuke himself to see someone who looked and sounded just like him but wasn't him. Aside from that, though, he couldn't figure Silver out at all and the only thing that made that more tolerable was the fact that none of the others seemed to understand him all that much better. And as for Blue... Blue just confused him, plain and simple; he had no idea what was going to come out of Blue's mouth from one moment to another, or what he would do next, but for some reason he didn't seem to mind. He did wonder, though, if this was a little how Mamiya-sensei felt around him; never knowing what was coming next.
"You sure you don't want to swim?" Blue added, jerking a thumb back at the water. "He doesn't bite."
"Um... I'll pass," Daisuke managed, his attention swinging straight back to Blue and the way his damp hair framed his face. "I really, um..." think I'm in over my head, he finished silently. In more ways than one. He hadn't had this kind of reaction to another guy since high school, no matter what Blue might think about him and Yanagida-san. Hell, he hadn't had a reaction quite this visceral for some time and it was a little unnerving now that he was faced with it again.
"Really what?" Blue asked, plopping down onto the sandy earth at the edge of the lake, distractingly close, especially with the way his bangs were starting to curl slightly as they dried.
"Shark," Daisuke repeated. "Giant shark."
Blue grinned lazily and tilted his head back as he stared up at the sky. "I suppose," he conceded. "We're all really used to it now, but I guess it must be weird if you're not."
Daisuke jerked his eyes away from the line of Blue's throat, firmly reminding himself that it wasn't polite to want to kiss your way down your host's neck. Even if it was really tempting. And even if said host hadn't bothered to put his shirt back on yet.
"Wanna make out?"
"Huh?" Daisuke blinked in surprise at the blunt question, trying to work out if he had just heard what he thought he had. He decided he had when the veneer of confidence on Blue's face cracked, just a bit.
"Never mind. Forget it."
And that was something Daisuke wasn't about to do. Maybe he didn't know that much about the law and maybe he screwed things up sometimes because of that, but one thing he did know was that if he let this moment pass he'd always regret it, so instead of replying verbally he simply reached out and tilted Blue's chin up and a little to the side, leaning in to kiss him before Blue could change the subject. There was one brief moment of hesitation before a gratifying little sigh as Blue responded, one hand coming up to tangle in his hair. He might not have much more time here, Daisuke reflected, but he was going to make the most of the time he did have; he didn't want to leave with this regret to play on his mind.
***
Soutarou frowned as Blue and Honda-san arrived back in Gao's Rock, faces more flushed than they should be. He also wasn't blind to how Honda-san's hands were holding on more tightly to Blue than was strictly necessary: the journey to and from Sky Island wasn't that unnerving, after all. He squashed the uncharitable thought almost immediately though; Honda-san wasn't used to any of this like they were, after all.
He also didn't miss the warning look Yellow shot his way and he retreated into himself instead. Honda-san wouldn't be here for much longer and after he was gone then Blue would be-- He jerked his mind away from the thought before he could finish it; it wasn't as if he thought about Blue that way, right? There was absolutely no reason at all to be jealous and yet... yet he was and he found he didn't like the feeling. He didn't even know why he was jealous, it wasn't as if Blue wasn't all over everyone else, either - Red and Yellow in particular - but he knew with them that it didn't mean anything, whereas with Honda-san it had always been extremely obvious that it did and that was... unsettling.
Maybe it wasn't fair to Honda-san, but Soutarou couldn't wait until he was gone.
***
"Well," Kai said brightly, smiling as much as he could as he jammed his hands into his jacket pockets. "I guess this is it, huh? Time to go."
Daisuke nodded slowly, studying the shimmering portal-type thing warily. "I just go through that and I'll be home?"
"Yep," Kai replied, trying and failing to ignore the hard knot in his chest. "You'll be home before you know it." He'd only known the guy a couple of days, he reminded himself in annoyance. It wasn't as if it was supposed to be a forever thing or anything sappy like that; it had been a good time and they'd definitely had fun but that was all it was, right? And he'd always known Daisuke would have to leave eventually, it wasn't like the guy could stay, after all, not when he had friends and an important job back there and it wasn't as if he could afford to get into anything with anyone either, Ura had more than proved that. So why did it have to hurt so much?
Daisuke hesitantly moved towards the portal, turning back to look at him and Kai almost wished he hadn't, that he'd just kept walking without looking back, because he wanted nothing more than to drag Daisuke away from the thing and maybe lock him in his room for a while until everyone forgot about sending him back. Except his room didn't even have a door so that plan was out anyway. Somehow he managed a smile and nodded. "Your friends are probably worried about you, right? You shouldn't keep them waiting, Daisuke, it's not nice."
Daisuke gave him a watery grin and nodded back before he firmly faced the portal again, stepping through it and disappearing from Kai's view, the portal fading as he did so. Kai rubbed at his stinging eyes angrily; God, the dust in here was terrible, really it was, they should probably do some dusting or something soon or they wouldn't be able to breathe. He didn't need to look to know the hand squeezing his shoulder was Black and he gave his friend as cheerful a smile as he could muster. "I'm fine, Black, stop worrying."
"Blue--"
"You know, I just remembered something I was going to do earlier," he continued brightly, "So I'm just going to go do it. See you later." Making his escape while he could, Kai slipped out of Gao's Rock before the others could stop him, ducking out into the streets of whichever town they'd stopped in this time. He just needed to clear his head, that was all, no need to make a big fuss over anything. He'd be fine.
***
Daisuke stepped out of the portal and found himself in one of the corners of the office, right by the bookcase. "Ah, there you are," Mamiya-sensei said from somewhere behind him. "I was wondering where you'd got to. How long does it take to find one book, Honda?"
He gaped at her in confusion. Book? What book? Hadn't she been worried at all? Surely they'd noticed he'd been gone for two days.
"Some time today," Mamiya-sensei prompted. "This is an important client and we're in court on Thursday, remember?"
"Thursday?" he repeated, "but that's--" today.
"In two days," she nodded. "Which is why I need the book. Sakurai, on the second shelf?"
"Right," he said blankly. "Getting it right now." Sakurai, Sakurai, ah! There it was. He passed it over wordlessly and made his way over to his cluttered desk. It was still Tuesday? How could it possibly still be Tuesday? It was as if the past two days hadn't even happened. He frowned down the papers on his desk and rubbed at the side of his head in frustration. He was sure the past two days had happened and the things that had happened were a bit much even for his imagination. So what exactly was going on?
Mamiya-sensei had once mentioned the baseball court as being very therapeutic after a stressful day and until now he'd never really seen the appeal. Now though? Now the thought of whacking a ball round sounded like a really good idea. He could use something to vent his confusion and frustration on and whacking a ball at a target was as good a way as any.
"Your grip's all wrong," came a helpful voice from the next net as he missed the third ball in a row, huffing in annoyance and wondering how sensei could possibly find this therapeutic. That voice, though, was very familiar and the last time he'd heard it it had been saying goodbye. He turned and came face to face with Blue, only this Blue had no recognition in his eyes at all.
"Huh?" He seemed to be saying that a lot today.
"Your grip," not-Blue repeated patiently. "You're holding it all wrong, that's why you keep missing."
"Oh." Daisuke flushed and hoped it wasn't that noticeable in the dim light.
"Want some pointers?" not-Blue asked carefully. "I don't bite, I promise." And there was that grin, the mischievous grin that tacked the words 'unless you want me to' onto the end of that sentence.
"Sure," Daisuke replied, licking his lips nervously. "It's not like you can make me worse than I already am."
"True."
"You don't have to agree so easily."
"But it is true," not-Blue shrugged, lifting the net separating the two of them and sliding under to stand behind Daisuke, adjusting his grip on the bat and holding his hands in place. "Quit complaining and let me help already, ah--"
"Honda," Daisuke managed, distracted by the warmth of not-Blue flush against his back. "Honda Daisuke."
"Samezu Kai; nice to meet you, Daiuske-kun. Now just keep that grip steady and don't take your eyes off the ball, okay?"
Daisuke nodded and allowed himself a brief smile before the ball came whirling at his head once more.
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