to accompany; to go out
[written for lacygrey's help_japan bid on livejournal; thank you!]
Somehow, this is not exactly how Touya imagined his first date with Shindou would go. Not that he imagined it a lot – or well, to be honest, that wasn't true. It seems like there wasn't a single waking moment (or even a sleeping moment; some of those dreams had been bizarre) during which he wasn't thinking about possible ways for a date with Shindou to transpire.
Some of the possibilities that have gone through Touya's head, all of which Touya will never admit to:
1) Shindou asks him out. There are fireworks. He doesn't know why there are fireworks, but there are. Then they go out for dinner and at the end of the dinner, they go home – it doesn't matter whose home – and play a very riveting game of Go and attain the Hand of God and live happily ever after.
(Probability, according to Touya: surprisingly high, compared to the rest of the situations that he's come up with. To be fair, he usually thinks them up while playing Go, eating, drinking or trying to sleep, so the slight lack of residence in the realm of possibility should be forgiven.)
2) Shindou asks him out. They are underneath a cherry blossom tree, because he remembers once as a kid seeing a television drama where there was a girl and a boy standing outside their school with cherry blossom petals falling around them and then the girl confessed and then they kissed and, though at the time he couldn't quite understand the appeal of such scenery, he certainly does now. By some strange act of God they end up at Shuusaku's grave asking for him to bless their relationship.
(Probability: a little bit lower on the scale, since he is sure that there is no means of transport that has reached the speed of teleportation. However, Shindou is rather fixated on Shuusaku.)
3) Shindou asks him out. They go to Hawaii because Touya won plane tickets in a lottery and play Go on the beach and at the pool and in the shower and on the bed. Touya wins every time, except for when they are in the shower.
(Probability: fairly impossible. Touya's never won anything from the lotteries he sees on the streets except for two packets of tissues and a free notebook, and his luck is not likely to turn up any time soon.)
4) Shindou asks him out. They have sex.
(Probability: Touya can't think about this possibility for long enough to accurately derive the likelihood of it happening, partly because he is a little bit fuzzy on the details and partly because if he thinks any longer about it, he might spontaneously combust.)
The point is, in all the nooks and crannies of his mind's demesne, it always starts with Shindou asking Touya out, which is why Touya is completely bewildered as to how it didn't turn out that way.
He can't even remember exactly how it happened. They had been playing Go at the salon as was the norm, and words had come out of his mouth and then Shindou had looked at him, paused for a second, and then grinned from cheek to cheek. Then Shindou opened his mouth and Touya is pretty sure that Shindou had agreed to something but Touya still isn't sure exactly what either of them said. Next thing he knew it was the next day and Shindou had shown up at his doorstep, looking a little bit unsure of himself but still grinning like a madman.
Touya had followed Shindou obediently on to the train, and listened as Shindou talked about basketball. Or Japanese history, Touya isn't certain. What he is certain of is the fact that his heart had been beating like a rabbit's from them until now and this daytrip that they are undergoing with just the two of them all by themselves Shindou and Touya Akira and Hikaru is probably a date.
Touya is interrupted from his minor crisis by a young man, who shouts out, 'Oi! Shindou!' He's dressed in casual clothes – a short-sleeved shirt with a number emblazoned on it, a pair of bright white shorts and ridiculously thick trainers. 'What's up? Who's the guy?'
Shindou grins and waves, and Touya is momentarily blinded by his radiance. (Then he remembers that he's in public and he can't go around doing that sort of thing.) 'Hey, Takano!' Touya notices that they are now standing on a street basketball court, the likes of which Touya has literally never stepped foot on before.
Why are they on a basketball court?
'This is Touya Akira – I'm showing him around,' Shindou says, nodding at Touya, who can only nod numbly back. 'Touya, this is – '
Shindou says more, and then Touya bows politely and introduces himself again, all the while wondering if something hasn't gone a little bit awry. Nowhere in his multiple illusions about their first date has basketball ever been a factor.
Before he can question this further, Shindou has already tugged him away, telling Takano that no, they're not really up for a game. And then they're off, and Akira ends up in the following places:
1) A supermarket. Half of the staff seem to know Shindou by name, and the other half – the younger, teenage, female half – are openly flirting with him. They leave the place with a bulging bag of food they did not have to pay for.
2) An arcade. There are a bunch of people with hair dyed in funny colours and spiked up so that they are about an inch or five taller than they actually should be. Shindou knows all of them. One of them claps Touya on the back and calls him 'weird' in what Touya believes is a jocular tone.
3) Two ramen places. At the first, Shindou doesn't even have to make an order; when he sits down the chef says, 'The usual? And how about for your friend?' At the second, they end up not paying because apparently Shindou teaches Go to the chef's son for free. It is the most salt Touya has ever eaten in a day.
4) Another street court, where another casually-clad young man greets Shindou and asks them if they'd like to join him for a game. Touya hasn't even watched a basketball game, let alone played it, so when Shindou whisks them away again he is very glad.
5) A cab, because apparently cabbies is just another tick on the list of Everyone Who Knows Shindou Hikaru. They get a free ride to a park near Shindou's house, and before they get off the cabbie says, 'So. Touya Akira,' and Shindou says, 'Yeah,' and Touya isn't sure what to make of that exchange.
6) The park. Even the neighbourhood children know Shindou, whom they apparently call 'Hikaru-nii-chan' and Touya would be lying if he didn't think it was a little adorable.
Or a lot adorable.
It gets less adorable once the children start poking and prodding at him though.
'You lot, shouldn't you be getting back? It's getting late!' Shindou shoos the children away, and they oblige, but not before staring back at Touya with big googly eyes and giggling. Why are they giggling?
'Is this ... a normal day for you?' Touya asks, because he doesn't know. Maybe this is normal for normal people. Maybe people actually go about the city, running into people they know every five minutes. Maybe people have lives outside Go. (Okay, that last one is a given, but sometimes Touya has to remind himself of that.)
Shindou stretches his arms out behind him, yawning. 'Pretty much a normal day out, yeah. There's usually more Go involved though, actually, just I didn't think you'd really be interested in that.'
It takes Touya a couple of seconds to register what Shindou said, because when Shindou raises his arms, his shirt rides up and Touya can see just the slightest sliver of skin between the fabric of –
Wait. 'What do you mean?'
'Well, you said you wanted me to go out with you, but you didn't say where, so I assumed you meant just around town,' Shindou says. His arms come back down and Touya can't help but feel disappointed. 'There isn't much point in showing you what you see all the time, right?'
There is a pause, during which Touya says nothing but Shindou is waiting for an answer, but Touya can't think of anything to say because suddenly all he wants to do is run off like the little children.
'I thought you wanted to have a day out with me,' Shindou says hesitantly, which is all sorts of strange because Shindou is never hesitant, and it is at this point that Touya realises that maybe what Shindou agreed to yesterday when Touya had asked him something isn't what Touya thinks it was at all.
'Touya?' Shindou is looking at him with a peculiar expression that Touya does not know how to reply to, and so what he does instead is he leaves.
'Touya!'
Then Touya is running, and he doesn't know whither or why but he knows whence and from whom. He runs and he runs, and suddenly everywhere they went to makes sense. Shindou was just giving him a glimpse of the normal life that Touya doesn't have and Touya wishes that this day hadn't happened at all, because at least in his mind all of their first dates had a happy ending. He isn't sure how he's going to face Hikaru the next time they meet at the Institute, which they are bound to do. Maybe he'll move to the Kansai region and go to the Go Institute there. Or to America.
'Touya!'
What Touya didn't take into account is that Shindou is most definitely more athletic than him though, so it isn't long before Shindou catches up, grabbing a hold of Touya's shoulder and whirling him around. 'Oi, Touya!'
'Shindou – '
But before Touya can say anything else, Shindou kisses him, and it is like there are fireworks and cherry blossoms all around them, and Touya had imagined them kissing in his head but never did he think it would be like this, all colour and emotion and Shindou has his hand in Touya's hair, fingers entangled and Touya has hands too but he doesn't know where to put them, so instead they stay limply at his side but he really wants to touch Shindou's hair and pull his own fingers through Shindou's bleached fringe and they both have their eyes still open and Shindou is looking at him with those bright, fiery eyes and Touya has to pull away because he has forgotten to breathe.
Then Shindou smacks Touya in the head with his other hand.
'Idiot! Why'd you run off?' Shindou is belligerent as ever, but somehow Touya finds it terribly endearing and wants to kiss him again even though he still isn't sure what is going on or why any of this is happening. 'I went to all this trouble, showing you around to all these places because I wasn't sure where to take you and at the end of it, you run off! What was that supposed to make me think, bastard?'
'I – ' Touya doesn't know what to say, how to explain what he'd been feeling – then Shindou kisses him again and Touya stops worrying.
As far as first dates go, this one is fine, he decides; maybe on their second one they can ask for Shuusaku's blessing and go to Hawaii.
ooo
Reviews would be greatly appreciated! -awin