Exhausted from a long day of school, Shirako lazily fished for his keys in his front pants pocket and took them out to unlock his dorm. He entered his dorm and wasn't surprised to see Kurt on his couch waiting for him to arrive after a day full of classes. "Yo." Shirako greeted tiredly and quickly noted that Kurt was listening to Michael Jackson for whatever reason.
"How was it?" Kurt asked and stood up, walking over to Shirako and smiling at him warmly as Shirako dropped his bag down next to the door and took off his shoes. "Hey…" Kurt called soothingly and gently grasped Shirako's chin, making the music lover look at him. The two were so close that Kurt could see the distracted glint in the other's eye and he frowned when Shirako looked away. "Shirako…" Kurt said and watched sadly as Shirako turned away from him and walked over to the hallway.
Placing his keys, MP3, and headphones down on the counter, Skirako headed for his room to change. Dropping down onto his bed, Shirako stared at the ceiling for a few minutes silently and examined the pattern that littered his ceiling. He got up and sighed, reaching for his drawer and sifting through it for a new pair of jeans and a tshirt. Throwing the new clothes on him, Shirako took his dirty ones and put them in the hamper, walking out of his room and stopping dead in his tracks when he saw Kurt touching his MP3. The music lover stared for a few seconds with unblinking eyes and couldn't believe Kurt would be messing with his music. "Kurt…" Shirako called in disbelief.
Eyes widening, Kurt turned to Shirako and immediately stammered out apologies, putting the MP3 down and backing away from it. "Shirako! I'm sorry, I was just trying to-"
"Get out." Shirako said quietly and looked down at the floor, his hands clenching at his sides.
"Shirako, I wasn't going to-" Kurt tried to defend himself, but Shirako interrupted him once again.
"GET OUT!" He shouted loudly as Kurt backed away towards the door. Kurt had never heard Shirako yell before, usually the Teku member was quiet and shy, so it made Kurt immediately regret ever thinking about changing Shirako's music.
Opening and closing the door, Kurt huffed and closed his eyes, hearing crashes and the breaking of glass inside Shirako's dorm. "Shirako, what happened…?" Kurt walked away from the dorm and headed to his own, not knowing that that was the last time in several weeks that he would have a conversation with Shirako.
Parking next to Reverb, Kurt jumped out of Battle Spec and ran up to the other Teku. "Is he here?" Kurt asked hopefully, but the others shook their heads with sadness and sympathy plastered on their faces. Looking down in disappointment, Kurt sighed and clenched his hands into fists, "Of course he isn't."
Vert walked up to Kurt and placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, "Kurt, I'm-"
Growling, Kurt shrugged off his hand and stalked off towards his car, shouted angrily, "Let's just win this race!"
Vert turned to the other Teku and they just shook their heads and started heading for their respective cars as Nolo walked over to Tork, who was meeting him halfway. "There's only four of you?" Tork asked.
"Yea, is there a problem with that?" Nolo glared intimidatingly at Tork, but the Maniac seemed unfazed.
Grunting, Tork turned to his team of drivers and yelled, "Hey Monkey! Good news, you're not racing today!" He saw Monkey cheer and brag to the others who just rolled their eyes and walked to their respective cars. Tork looked back at Nolo who was still giving him the evil eye, "Relay race?"
Nolo nodded, "One driver makes it to the end and back, then the next one goes. Fourth driver to come back first, their team wins."
"Then let's go." The two parted and headed to their cars as Vert and Porkchop slowly drove to the starting line. Monkey readied the light and ran out of the way before it turned green. Engines revving and silence consuming the waiting crowd and drivers, Vert glanced at Porkchop and smirked. He knew he was going to get back before Porkchop.
Once the light turned green, the two jetted forward immediately, but Vert braked a second later as a white car suddenly started blasting music cut him off and raced Porkchop to the end of the track. "Bassline?" Vert watched Bassline and Piledriver drive away from them. Getting out of Reverb, Vert turned to the others and yelled, "Shirako's here!"
"Kurt!" Nolo shouted as Battle Spec drove away from them and towards Bassline.
Tork drove up next to Nolo, "Something wrong?"
"Kurt and Shirako, they've been having problems lately." Nolo explained simply because the Metal Maniacs knew about the two. "Kurt wants to fix it."
Rolling down his window, Mark said, "He said he wanted to cheer him up by changing his music to the song, but Shirako caught him before he could do it."
"Kurt should know not to mess with Shirako's music." Vert replied and lined his car back up with the starting line as Mark did the same. "Your brother doesn't give up."
"Hey, if he's passionate about something, he'll go through with it until he can't. Shirako shouldn't take Kurt for granted." Mark said as Vert furrowed his eyebrows.
"What do you mean?"
"Here they come!" Monkey shouted through their communications as Mark closed his window and evaded Vert's question. Bassline drifted around the corner and headed towards them as Piledriver came into view seconds later, but Battle Spec was nowhere to be seen. Revving their engines, Mark and Vert waited impatiently for Shirako and Porkchop to pass the finish line to their far left. Once Bassline passed the finish line, Vert blasted forward and shouted in excitement as Mark followed him a second later when Piledriver passed the finish line.
"Hey Tork, tell me when Kurt gets back!" Mark said as Bassline drove off back towards the college on the other side of the city.
"No problem." Tork replied and turned his attention to Nolo, "Tell us if you need any help to knock some sense into him."
"Kurt can handle it himself." Nolo assured as Karma and Taro drove slowly towards the starting line. "Thanks for the offer though."
"Monkey! M and 12th Street, get Kurt!" Mark yelled suddenly through the communications, startling Monkey to choke on his drink.
Clearing his throat quickly, Monkey replied, "Did he crash?"
"No, he's just stopped in the middle of the intersection. He looks… stunned." Vert informed as Monkey quickly got into his car to retrieve the Teku member.
Porkchop slowly drove up next to Tork, who turned to his team member and asked, "Hey Porkchop, what'd Shirako do?"
The Maniac stared at nothing particular and furrowed his eyebrows, finally looking at Tork with worried eyes, "He…" Porkchop shook his head, trying to believe what Shirako said to Kurt wasn't true, "Didn't know Teku could feel such hatred." He said quietly and backed his car up so he didn't get in the way of the rest of the drivers.
Screeching to a stop next to Battle Spec, Monkey ran out to the other side of the car and examined Kurt. The Teku member seemed to be dazed and Monkey furrowed his eyebrows in worry. "Hey Kurt, you're in the middle of the road. Come on, let's get you out of here." Monkey went to shake Kurt, but the Teku's expression immediately became aware of his surroundings and he angrily drove away almost running the Maniac over and making him fall into his back. "Kurt!" Monkey yelled as he watched Battle Spec drive away. Sighing, Monkey stood up and dusted himself off, "Kurt's heading back to the school. Whatever happened between those two isn't good. As much as I wouldn't like to butt in, they need our help." The rest of the drivers heard Monkey report back and their worry increased tenfold as they finished the race distractedly.
"Kurt, if you would just tell him-" Mark tried to reason with his brother, but he couldn't get past his thick skull.
"I said no and that's final!" Kurt nearly shouted and stormed out of their shared dorm as Mark clenched his hands and followed after his brother angrily.
Grabbing Kurt's shoulder, Mark forced his brother to turn around, "Listen to me! He'll keep this charade up for a long time, we've both seen guys like him! Hell, you dated some of them, but you have to realize right now that Shirako is not going to realize what he's done until we're already gone!" Mark sighed and lowered his voice, "Kurt, you need to tell him." Mark begged.
"Gone?" They heard someone utter a little down the hallway and the pair turned frantically to see the Teku standing there, except for Shirako. Vert spoke up quietly, "What do you mean by gone?"
Eyes widening, Mark turned to his brother who looked away and rubbed the back of his neck in shame, "You didn't tell them?!" Kurt didn't answer and stared at the floor. "You said you told them a week ago." He still received no response. "What else didn't you tell them?"
"It was none of their business to know!"
"Oh great, next thing you're gonna tell me is that you're going to break it off with Shirako." Mark said sarcastically as he turned to look at the Teku, but noticed quickly that Kurt didn't answer him and stared disbelievingly at his brother. "You can't do that to him!"
Kurt growled and shoved past his brother, "Watch me!" He went to move past the Teku, but they blocked his path and angrily stood their ground. "Get out of my way, I have to do this!"
Nolo shook his head, "We're not letting you do that to him."
"Then why won't you talk to him? Oh wait, I forgot, he doesn't talk to any of us!" Kurt replied, voice raising to a shout. "I don't care about what any of you think and what Shirako thinks! I'm going to do what I need to do to end this so I don't need to pretend anymore! It's not like I ever loved him anyway!"
A hand grabbed Kurt's shoulder and easily flipped him so he landed face first on the ground away from the Teku. Slightly stunned by the mere force and strength of the hand, Kurt slowly looked up and wasn't surprised to see Mark holding his robotic left arm in pain. "Don't say that… Don't you dare say that! I know you love him. I know you care for him. I know you weren't pretending. I saw you change gradually when you met him. You weren't reckless anymore and you actually made sure you didn't cheat in any of your races or with your relationship with him. You started trusting the people around you. You even went to the lengths of endangering yourself and risking your life first, so no one else got hurt. I admired how much you changed over the past few years and I can't imagine where we'd be if we never met the Teku or the Metal Maniacs. Stop lying to yourself, Kurt. I know it's hard, but please… don't give up on this."
Kurt slowly stood up and walked up to his brother who took a few steps back. The older brother pointed to the younger's left arm, "Your arm." He said and offered a hand as Mark placed his robotic arm on Kurt's palm. Kurt took out a screwdriver from his pocket for times like these and popped a panel on the forearm open, quickly fixing the arm and closing the panel. Mark tested out the arm and hand and perfectly and cleanly closed the hand without any slight glitches, moving his arm and smiled smally when it didn't hurt to bend his arm anymore. When Mark looked up at his brother, he didn't expect to see such sadness plastered on his face. "I'm sorry… I'll…" Kurt started and sighed, turning to Nolo, "We're leaving in twenty minutes and our dad doesn't want us to be late for our flight to England. We're staying there for five years…Can you tell Shirako to meet me in front of the school as soon as he can?" Nodding, Nolo ran towards Shirako's dorm as the Teku went to their respective dorms and the Wylde brothers went to retrieve their bags.
Knocking on Shirako's door, Nolo waited impatiently for Shirako to answer, but a shaky, quiet voice through the door answered him instead. "Go away."
Worried, Nolo had to act quickly before the last ten minutes were up, "Shirako, please-"
"I said 'leave'!" Shirako shouted and hit the door hard which startled Nolo temporarily as the Teku leader sighed. "Please, just leave me alone." He said quieter.
"Shirako, I'm not leaving until you go see Kurt in front of the school."
"I'm not going!"
"Please, you need to…" Nolo silently begged.
"No, I don't!" Shirako hit the door again and started to walk away, but he heard his name again and stopped.
"He's leaving in five minutes for England." Turning back to the door with wide eyes, Shirako ran back and opened the door.
"Don't lie to me, Nolo."
"I wish I was. He's not going to be here for five years."
"No, he's not leaving." Shirako told mostly himself.
"Shirako, listen to me-"
"No! Nolo, stop lying to me! He's not leaving!" Backing up into his dorm, Shirako shook his head from the 'lies' Nolo was telling him.
"If you don't talk to him now, you may never get the chance to again." Nolo replied seconds later.
Finally realizing his mistake, Shirako shoved past Nolo and ran out of the dormitory into the pouring rain. Not knowing where to go at first, Shirako recalled Nolo saying that Kurt was waiting for him in front of the school and immediately ran for the wide open gates yards away from him. Slowing down because the rain was weighing down his clothes, he ran for what felt like miles and passed the entrance of the school to see a half filled parking lot, panicking because the rain limited his vision. Kurt, where are you? Shirako thought helplessly and as if someone answered, Shirako ran to the right and towards an emptier lot of cars, spotting a car as one person entered and another was about to. "KURT!" He yelled loudly over the sounds of the hard rain.
Upon hearing his name, Kurt stopped from entering the car to look for who called him and saw Shirako running towards him as Kurt closed the car door in disbelief. Sighing in relief because he knew Nolo succeeded, Kurt met Shirako half way and they hugged each other desperately as Shirako shoved his face into Kurt's chest and Kurt hid his face in between Shirako's shoulder and neck. "I'm so sorry, I should've known not to anger you more by messing with your music. You were already stressed." Kurt said quietly.
"Truth is, I couldn't stay mad at you forever and I'm sorry I had to know you were leaving before I realized what I'd done. I knew you were just trying to help cheer me up back then." Shirako replied and continued, "Please don't leave me."
"As much as I'd love to stay, I have to go."
"Ok… Promise you'll call me?" Shirako asked.
"I promise." Kurt assured as they reluctantly let go of each other as a honk from the car startled them.
Turning to the car, Kurt thought for a moment before looking back at Shirako, "I know my dad is going to hate me for this, but-" Kurt cut himself off by kissing Shirako passionately because he knew he'd be deprived of those soft lips for years. Shirako kissed back just as passionately and they parted several seconds later, but it felt like years to them. "I don't care." Kurt finished his sentence and smiled warmly as Shirako hugged him again, unfortunately for them it was much shorter this time.
"I love you." Shirako whispered.
Kurt smiled, "I love you too." They reluctantly let go of each other as Kurt slowly started walking towards the car, but still faced Shirako. Entering the car and staring out the window, Kurt waved back at Shirako as sadness washed over his features and the car drove off.
A robotic hand was placed on his shoulder, the whirs from the arm noisily breaking the silence before Mark did. "It's okay, you'll see him again."
"This'll be the longest years I'll ever have to endure." Kurt sat back in his chair and glanced at the rear view mirror where his dad was glaring at him from time to time. Simply ignoring the older man, Kurt turned away and started counting the time he was away from Shirako.
Watching the car drive off, Shirako stared in sadness and felt a presence behind him as an umbrella was raised above him. "Can't have you catching a cold." Nolo said and smiled at the younger driver.
Shirako smiled back and they walked to the dormitory, "I'll see him again." He said, mostly reassuring himself. Nolo walked with Shirako to the younger's dorm and they exchanged goodbyes before Shirako entered his dorm and closed his door softly. He walked over to his counter and picked up his headphones, putting them on and scrolling to a specific song. Hitting play, Shirako sighed and lied down on the couch, making the sweet voice lull him to sleep.