Title: cross my heart

Author: sllebswap

Characters/Pairing: Kobayashi Rindou and Tsukasa Eishi

Type: OneShot (Complete)

Genre: Romance/General/Humor

Word Count: 1903

Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)

Disclaimer: Shokugeki no Souma belongs to Tsukuda-san.

Summary: Pre-series 'what-if' fic. He met her for the very first time under an impossibly blue, summer sky. There was a meadow, lush and verdant, there was a tree, and then there was her.

Verse: Peerless AU

Chapter Last Revised on: 08/02/19

He met her for the very first time under an impossibly blue, summer sky.

There was a meadow, lush and verdant, there was a tree, and then there was her.

"What are you doin'?"

Seven-year-old Eishi jumped slightly, startled by the inquisitive chirp that had rang out beside him. He had been so engrossed in his artwork, he hadn't even noticed that someone had wandered over and had been peeking curiously over his shoulder for quite a while now.

The white-haired boy anxiously eyed his canvas, meticulously making sure that he hadn't accidentally streaked paint over the painting that he had painstakingly labored on for the last hour or so thanks to the scare.

"Hey, hey! What are you doin'?"

The kid who had popped out of nowhere nudged him this time to get his attention, much to his alarm. He quickly pulled away, very careful to keep his paintbrush from his painting. There was no way he was going to mess up and undo all of his hard work.

"What are you doing?" he retorted back with ruffled agitation, frowning a little. Eishi turned his head to find the source of his problem, only to pause in hesitant bewilderment when he abruptly realized that the other was not anyone he had seen before from class. A stranger.

"That's my question!" the other child mirthfully informed him. "I asked first!"

Eishi had never seen hair that color ever. So vivid, so red. It was cropped short to the other boy's nape and barely covered his ears in a pixie cut, and it was very fluffy. He stared. The other boy's eyes were sharp and bright and gold, and the shape reminded him of a cat's. He had never seen anyone like that before, with those weird pretty eyes. The redhead looked like he was also a second grader, dressed plainly in shirt and shorts and flipflops, and he was also staring at him with such friendly, eager inquisitiveness, Eishi was a bit bowled over by all that positive attention.

Most of the kids their age tended to avoid him once they got to know him, so…

The white-haired boy slowly, bewilderedly, replied.

"I'm…painting…?"

The other boy's face lit up with interest.

"Cool! Izzit fun? 'Coz you look like you're havin' loads of fun! What are you painting? Do you paint a lot? What d'ya like painting the most-" Eishi was promptly overwhelmed by a barrage of enthusiastic questions, and the other kid crowded over once again to look at his progress so far. This time, Eishi didn't seem to mind as much, though he still made sure to put his brush down and his palette away from his random, strangely boisterous companion just in case the latter knocked the paints onto his canvas.

He pointed slowly at the large tree just a bit in front of them, at the same time, feeling a bit flustered and pleased that someone his age was paying so much attention to his work. "…I'm painting that."

The kid squatting beside him followed the line of his finger and squinted at the tree just a short distance away. His fascinated expression grew animated with excitement once he noticed the likeness of the painting and the subject.

"Oooh! I see it, I see it!" the boy exclaimed and whipped his head around to gaze at him with awe. "You really did that all on your own? How wicked is that? It looks just like the real thing! D'ya have more? What else have you drawn? I wanna see, I wanna see! Show me!"

Eishi blushed at the effusive barrage of praise that his new companion was piling on him. It was impossible not to feel flustered.

"I-I didn't bring my sketchbook," he stammered, suddenly a bit shy.

"Aww…!" the child beside him wilted a bit with disappointment, but then he picked himself up again quickly enough. "Hey, show me your artworks next time, 'kay! Show me your favorite! I bet it's gonna be a super fun, super cool one!" he suggested, and Eishi hesitated briefly, a confused look briefly crossing his features. …Super fun…super cool?

"I'll try…" he agreed dubiously, and the bubbly redhead beamed at him so delightedly, the white-haired child could not help but feel his cheeks flush pink.

"Do you…do you paint too?" he asked.

The chirpy boy shook his head. "Nope~! I'm not allowed to 'nymore! Rai-nii's still mad at me for fillin' up water balloons using his school paints last week, so I'm not allowed to touch paints anymore. Mama scolded me soooo much!" He was pouting something fierce at the ban, and Eishi had the strangest look on his face.

"…Why…would you do that?"

The other boy shot him an incredulous stare. "For water balloon fights, of course! Haven't you had water balloon fights with your brothers before? It's super fun!"

He shook his head slowly, reluctantly intrigued. Water balloon fights…? That actually sounded like kind of fun. "I don't have brothers…or sisters. Only me."

"…Oh." The other second grader looked at him like he was trying really hard not to feel sorry for him. "What 'bout your friends? Those kids painting over there are your friends, aren't they? Why don't you play with them?"

He pointed curiously at the cluster of students at the edge of the meadow all working on their own artworks as well. Sensei was there overseeing the class, and every once in a while, she came over to make sure that Eishi was alright, too. Nobody else in class had wanted to work on their paintings near him once he had decided to wander a bit further from the main group to paint his tree. Sensei had tried to convince him to paint something closer to the rest of the group but Eishi had quietly insisted otherwise, so there was that.

"…They're my classmates," Eishi shared quietly. "I don't think they like me very much."

Golden eyes watched him with interest. "Why not? You draw so good, and you're kinda funny, too! You'd make a great sidekick- I mean, friend!"

Eishi shot him a mystified stare. He also hesitated, wondering if he told the truth, this boy would go away, too.

"…They say that I'm selfish."

The boy's head tipped to the side inquisitively. His gaze was open, unhesitating, transparent. There was no wariness whatsoever, no doubt. And he did not look like he was going to go away.

"Huh. Are you?"

Eishi shrugged slowly, a strange look crossing his face at the question. No one had asked him that, before. "I guess…I am."

The other boy started to snicker, shoulders quivering with mirth. "You guess? So are you or are you not?!"

And so the story of how he had 'borrowed' the paint of another classmate just because he decided that color would look good on his own painting sheepishly spilled out.

"Wow, you really are kinda a handful!" the smaller redhead declared when he finished, lips still tipped up with irrepressible amusement. He also laughed rather obnoxiously. "No wonder your classmates don't like you!"

Before Eishi could slump at the insensitive but truthful declaration and go right into a depressed huddle, his companion reached behind and slapped him on the back of his shoulders in encouragement. It was sort of painful, but he was too distracted by the other's cheerful demeanor to be upset anymore.

"Hey, I got an idea! Next time, why don't you try asking first before taking people's things?" Those golden eyes squinted at him up and down consideringly. "And you're really cute, too! So if you ask nicely and politely, I bet your classmates will help you out for sure!"

Eishi blushed, again. He had never met someone his age who was so friendly and nice and warm. "You really think so?"

"Uh-huh!" the redhead nodded, resolute and confident. "I know so!"

"T-Then," he stammered as he gathered his courage. "Will you be my f-friend?"

The other boy stared at him. And then he broke out into a large smile, bright as the sun. "What are you talkin' 'bout? We're already friends, aren't we!"

A warm glow grew in his chest. His first friend.

"Yes."

His new friend beamed at him. "And I've got just the thing for ya! It's my most precious thing at the moment but I'll give it to you-"

He watched curiously at the boy rooted about in the small sling bag that he wore slung over one shoulder. The redhead's face brightened as his hand closed around whatever it was he had been searching for. He beckoned excitedly to Eishi- "Your hand, gimme your hand!" -and grabbed the white-haired boy's hand and pulled it nearer to him.

"Don't let go, 'kay? I worked really hard to find it! Promise!"

Eishi was very bewildered. But his new friend was trusting him with something that was very important to him and so Eishi nodded his head. "Okay. I promise."

The other second grader was peering at him a bit suspiciously, still. "Promise, promise? Cross your heart and hope to die, promise?"

He nodded again. "Cross my heart and hope to die." He even did that thing and solemnly drew a cross over his heart with his finger, just to show that he was completely serious. His new friend beamed.

"'Kay, I believe ya!" And without hesitation, he pulled his hand out from within the confines of the bag and plopped the thing that he had been holding right on the palm of Eishi's hand. "Hold it properly, don't let go!"

The thing on his hand felt a bit prickly and ticklish against the flat of his palm, but hard and smooth against his fingertips. It was also moving. Eishi gaped down at his hand in shock when the other boy moved his hand away and revealed the mystery thing that he had been given.

It was a bug. It was a very huge bug.

Black shelled and shiny and possessing an enormous rack of ominously looking horns, it was the biggest bug he had ever seen in all seven years of his life.

And he was holding it in his hand.

Eishi turned white.

His companion glowed with happy pride.

"He's a beauty, isn't he? It took me days just to find and catch him!"

"…It's a bug." He sounded like he was going to faint. He started to tremble. "You gave me a bug." Was he being bullied?

"Oi! S'not just a bug; it's a Rhinoceros beetle! D'ya know how rare they are?"

"B-But what am I supposed to do with it?" Eishi was stiff, everything was screaming at him to pitch the insect as far away as possible and then run away screaming down the meadow, but it was in the spirit of his promise to his friend that he was currently frozen solid as the enormous beetle slowly crawled on his hand.

"You can keep it as a pet! You can make it your new friend, too!"

"…I d-don't want t-to…"

"Oh, c'mon! You really don't hav'ta be such a girly girl, ya know! Insects are cool!"

Eishi turned his head mechanically to the redhead, brow furrowed in confusion. Something was not right…

"…But I'm not a girl. I'm a boy…like you." And insects were not cool…

His companion frowned back at him, equally baffled.

"Hahh? But I'm not a boy! I'mma girl, like you!"

…Eh…?

::owari::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

Been wanting to write something like this since elementary-school!Eishi made his debut in the manga. This is obviously a 'what-if' fic, featuring erherm budding-artist!Eishi and bug-catcher-entomologist!Rindou, lol. And poor Eishi had to put up with bugs in the name of friendship from then onwards – no wonder he wasn't fazed at all by the time they are both in Tootsuki and she's still whipping out all the weird things, haha.

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-sllebswap