Someone You Can Turn Your Back Towards
Oga/Furuichi
Fourth grade was the first time Furuichi had seen Oga lose a fight. Well, it wasn't a fight in the normal sense of the word in that it was against a virus instead of fists. Nonetheless, Oga had collapsed and had been sent to the nurse's office and Furuichi had had to cut class to visit.
"Stupid," he sighs, "Why'd you come to school if you were just gonna pass out in class?"
"Don't call me stupid idiot Furuichi," Oga bites back. He crosses his arms, huffing, "'Sides, there was nothing good on TV today, and JUMP's already delivered."
"...Don't act like that's your whole week!"
They trade jokes for half an hour before the nurse returns from her break. She's about to kick Furuichi out and call Oga's parents. Oga pales.
"No, you don't need to - " he starts, attempting to stumble out. He stumbles out of bed and onto the floor, at least.
"Don't be silly!" the nurse admonishes, helping him back into bed. "Oga-kun, you're in no condition to be walking home. And Furuichi-kun, you need to get back to class! What will the teachers say?"
"My parents are working!" Oga exclaims.
"I can take him home." Furuichi volunteers.
It takes a bit of convincing - and overt bragging about grades on Furuichi's part - but in the end, the nurse relents. She sends a note to the teacher and fastens a cold compress to Oga's forehead, helping both boys with their backpacks before seeing them through the school gates. Give my regards to your older sister, she insists to Oga, and Furuichi nearly chokes. So that's what it had been about.
Of course, Oga's tough act and Furuichi's confidence had been fronts; Furuichi ends up shouldering his friend one hundred meters outside the school grounds.
"Lose... some... weight... for crying out loud!" he gasps, muscles screaming.
"S'not my fault you're so weak," Oga grumbles. He makes an effort to shift his weight however, so that's something.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Furuichi asks.
"Dunno. Can't see."
"Better."
"Three."
"Okay, so you're not that delirious," he concludes, attempting to straighten up. He manages three centimeters before Oga loops both arms around his neck. "Hey - wait - what?!"
"A piggyback!" the other boy laughs. "My sister used to give them to me!"
Furuichi is momentarily distracted by the idea of Misaki-neechan giving him a piggyback. But only momentarily. "Stop that!" he grumbles, ducking down and breaking free. "I told sensei I was going to take you home, don't make me leave you halfway!"
"Okay, okay, sheesh."
Still, Oga behaves for the rest of the journey back and though he fumbles with unlocking the door, Furuichi manages to get him to bed.
"Okay," he says, more for his own benefit than Oga's. "Just stay asleep 'till your sister comes back, okay?"
"What're you gonna do?" Oga sleepily asks.
"Go back to school. There's a test after lunch."
"You and your tests..."
"We can't all be amazing fighters."
"I know," Oga replies, strangely lucid. He sits up and turns to his friend. "Don't let anyone make fun of your grades, okay?" And then he falls back, asleep at last, and this is the most of a thank-you Furuichi knows he'll get.
He chuckles, letting himself out.
"Get well soon."
Seventh grade is the first time Furuichi gets seriously caught in one of Oga's fights. Miki had just left - in a confused tearful heap - and Oga had been distracted. He rarely doubts, himself least of all, and still... he wonders. And then, in the midst of his internal conflict, he lets one of the other delinquents get away, get ahead.
"Hey Oga, are you done yet?", Furuichi was in the middle of asking.
"Fuck off freshman!" the delinquent howled, shoving him to the side. Now this in and of itself would've been nothing remarkable; Furuichi sustained larger casualties walking into the Red Tail's headquarters. But there was nothing to Furuichi's side, save for a flight of stairs.
And, for all his academic talents, Furuichi just isn't one for fighting.
Oga is fast, but not fast enough. He's also a good friend, but a middle school student nonetheless. His priorities are fucked and he realizes this only after he's beat the delinquent into the roof. Fuck, he recalls, sprinting from the now-ruined hallway to the stairs. Furuichi is alive and awake and upright, and Oga - being himself - doesn't know how to apologize. So he grins widely and smacks the other fully on the back and sees Furuichi wince.
He freezes mid-grin and stares.
"I'm totally fine, I told you," Furuichi grumbles, rolling his eyes. "Didn't your sister want us to go to the FamilyMart today?"
"Let me see your back."
"What?" A beat, and it's all Oga needs. "Hey - don't - not on the stairway - " Furuichi falters, wincing hard when Oga prods the beginnings of a blossoming bruise. "Stop glaring like that," he tries. "It's not that bad."
"Stupid," Oga mutters, starting down the steps. He doesn't know what to say in situations like these. Misaki's going to be pissed when he fails to bring the magazines; the nurse is going to be pissed that delinquents are snooping around her supply cabinet. He stares at the array of ointments for a couple seconds, remembering belatedly that he had no idea what any of them were for as, being Oga, neither he nor his sister had ever needed any of them.
"Try this," he ends up saying, tossing a well-used bottle in Furuichi's direction.
"...this is for hemorrhoids."
"...Hemer-what?"
"Wrong cream, idiot."
"Who're you calling an idiot, idiot?!"
"Move over, let me see." Furuichi huffs, scrounging through the supplies himself. He exchanges the hemorrhoid cream for the more useful general antiseptic. "Geez, I can't believe you don't know this stuff."
"Why should I?"
"You get into so many fights."
"I don't lose any."
"Well, there's that," Furuichi sighs, shrugging off his shirt and applying the cream. He winces again, and looks down to see a cut. It must've come from the edge of the stairs. Delightful.
"What about you?" Oga asks, crossing his arms.
"Hm?"
"You don't fight, so how do you know about these things?"
"Well some of us actually pay attention in class," Furuichi snickers. "Plus..." he pauses, struggling to reach his shoulderblade.
"Plus?" Oga leans over, casually dabbing at the hard-to-reach spot.
"My little sister used to be bullied at school. So I had to patch her up from time to time." Furuichi pulls his shirt back on, rolling his shoulders and doing a quick stretch. "Okay, let's go."
"Don't interrupt my fights next time," Oga says, following suit.
"Yeah, yeah. Believe me, you don't need to tell me twice!"
Ninth grade is when Oga realizes he still has use for the nurse's room - even the decrepit excuse for one at Ishiyama. Beel and himself have once again switched bodies and Beel managed to exhaust himself before the switch was over. As such, they needed somewhere where the enfant terrible could rest. Enter the nurse's room.
"Do you have any idea how weird that looks?" Furuichi asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Shut up, it's not like I'm gonna let Hilda carry my body around."
"...But you'll let your body be carried around by Beel?"
"I'm carrying myself around!"
"...Need help?" Furuichi asks when Oga struggles on the third step.
"No way!" the other boy insists, heaving with all the might of his two-year-old form.
"Gross," Furuichi blanches, turning away.
"Wha - hey - Beel! Stop drooling!"
A couple snickers float by. Oga shoots them one of his patented death glares, but they pay the child no mind. Furuichi, on the other hand, catches a whiff of the fairer sex and realizes this will not do.
"Heave-hoh!" he shouts, carrying the asleep Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV on his shoulders.
"Furuichi! Hey - !" Oga shouts, toddling behind.
Somehow or another, the odder-than-usual trio make it into the long-abandoned nurse's office, where Furuichi gracelessly dumps the sleeping body onto the nearest bed.
"Hey!" Oga exclaims, storming in seconds later, "What do you think you're doing with my body?!"
"Don't be stupid!" Furuichi shrieks, clapping a hand over the baby's mouth. He drops his voice to a whisper, "Do you have any idea how weird that sounds? And besides, I couldn't let those girls catch me hanging out with some drooling loser, right?"
Oga glares, but crosses his small arms and does nothing. The glare is doubly ineffective as Furuichi has grown especially resistant and Baby Beel's eyes just aren't good for intimidation tactics. Still, he tries for a while before growing bored. Chancing a glance up, he follows Furuichi's line of sight.
The two of them look at Oga's possessed form, currently snuggled dearly against the cheap cotton blankets, before exchanging similar shudders.
"...Does he always sleep like that?"
"That's not even the worst of it!"
"What about Hilda? Isn't she supposed to do something?"
"Are you kidding? She gets this weird sparkle in her eye and says something like 'Oh Master, you're already sharpening your teeth on human blankets!'"
"...Creepy."
"Yeah. I know."
"Well, at least you've taught him not to take off your clothes."
"Don't remind me."
Furuichi laughs. It's funny, to think that Mad Dog Oga could sound so anguished - and over the whims of demon child.
"Dabu?" Beel asks, snapping Furuichi from his reverie.
"Finally," Oga drawls, sitting up and plucking the baby from the ground. "Let's go to the arcade today."
"Sure," Furuichi says, picking up his bag. "It's not like there's any homework."
Oga pauses at the doorway, apparently lost in thought.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
Furuichi blinks and then snickers, smacking his friend soundly on the back. "What do you friends are for?"
Fin.
Starting off with the fandom OTP, can you blame me?