Parts War

1034 words

CelestailPrincess

10/14/07

Summary-After pulling four all-nighters, riding for god knows how many hours, and taking care of his team, Nue begins to realize that attending Parts Wars is very overrated. Spitfire just happened to take notice.

Running a hand through his wild spiky purple hair while simultaneously rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Nue begrudgingly realized that this really sucked. He had been riding somewhere around top speed for a good hour, racing across town literally half-asleep. Just as few moments ago he almost ran head first into a pole. He flew across town in a miss-matched pattern, trying to keep his bleary eyes open and see where he was going. His mind felt really numb, and the picture of a nice warm bed kept popping in his mind.

But he couldn't go to sleep; he had to go to that god damn stupid Parts War.

He didn't understand exactly why he had to come, but Simca had asked him, a relaying undertone of distress as she asked if he would tag along. He didn't understand why she was so distressed over this. Why would she exactly want to see this fight personally anyways? It didn't take a genius prodigy to know that she was quite interested in Ikki's development, but there was no reason to drag him along with it.

Come to think of it, Spitfire had a weird interest in Ikki too.

Truthfully, he didn't see much in the boy. It was amazing yes, when he jumped Sora's record in the Devil's Thirty 30. And his triumph over Behemoth was also something noteworthy, but there were also a lot of other Riders who had done virtually the same thing. But…if both Simca and Spitfire-because Simca alone wasn't exactly enough reasoning-then maybe he could decide that there was something about Ikki.

But right now, at three o'clock in the morning, and after he had spent many sleepless hours with his team, Nue would rather sleep than sit around in some smelly coliseum and watch Ikki and his team barrel around for an hour or two until they finally came up with some awesome crowd-roaring finish.

He knocked himself out of his thoughts as he flipped into the tunnel way that lead to the Under Coliseum, flipping his hood up so that no one could tell he looked like he hadn't slept in months. Which wouldn't be an entire lie.

"What's yo name?" The man behind the counter slurred as he came up. "You gotta ticket? Cuz if you ain't, I'll send ya packin' down the street wit my razor boy!"

Nue rolled his eyes from behind his hood. "My name's Nue; and I'm here for Spitfire and Simca."

"W-What? You Nue? S-sorry man, totally spaced there. G-Go right on ahead." The man flushed in embarrassment, as if he didn't realize he had just bad-mouthed off the Thunder King.

As he walked down the hallway flush with other people, he heard the roaring of over thousands of people, dancing and talking, shouting for their favorite team. Luckily, his entire body was covered, so it was impossible for anyone to recognize him until he got to the VIP seats, which hopefully Spitfire and Simca would also be sitting in. He didn't think there was really anywhere else to sit.

Taking a sharp turn, Nue trudged up the stairs, half-awake and getting more and more annoyed at the loud music, loud shouting, and just loudness in general. The VIP seats were all the way at the top, sort of barricaded off the rest of the Storm Riders, and was usually reserved for kings and extremely popular A-class teams. He growled in annoyance, so many stupid stairs.

"Oi! Nue-kun!"

The voice calling out to him was sharp, almost squeaky. Definitely female. Definitely Simca.

"Ohayo, Simca-san." He greeted her back, as warmly as he could when he was literally twitching to get out of there.

She giggled. "Oh, that's right! It's morning already!"

As his eyes shifted between the two of them, he realized that they both looked entirely peppy. Had a great sleep all day and were refreshed and excited for the night. He would have been too, if he hadn't already been up for a few days without sleeping. He gently pulled his hood down, sleepy yawning and rubbing one of his eyes, which was about to close and make him fall asleep.

"Nue-kun!" Simca wagged her finger at him. "You need to get some rest! You're still growing! You can't just not sleep; it's terrible for you!"

You're only a year older than me! He wanted to point out to her, but she had such a pursed face that he decided he might ruin his destiny if he did. She may just pound him into the surface of the concrete, and he doubted he could get away from her half-asleep.

"Ah." He finally managed, sleepily plopping himself down next to Spitfire.

He felt the fiery man's eyes on him, trying to keep the subtle blush rising to his cheeks. He, sadly, was obligated to watch this parts war, because he was a rather prominent part of Genesis and because he was the Thunder King of Rising Road. Which-to him-had always been a great thing, to be king, but now he wasn't entirely so sure. He actually wanted to be one of those mediocre riders that got to sit out from the parts wars if they so wanted to. His features contorted into a frown, watching Simca giggle slightly a little ways standing ahead of them, her eyes dead set on Kogarasumaru.

"You okay?" He heard a slightly concerned, slightly bored voice from next to him.

Nue jumped out of his thoughts, literally. "Ah! Well…I guess so."

Spitfire shrugged. "If you say so."

There was a moment when the conversation between the two of them stopped abruptly, cheers and shouts from around the humongous coliseum were blaring like sirens. Simca had leaned on the rail that separated them from the lower rows, a small rusty pole jutting from the ground. Truly, the great Under Coliseum looked a bit like the sewer where Behemoth and Kogarasumaru battled, just a hell of a lot bigger and well known.

"There's Ikki-kun." Simca reported, leaning over the rail for a better look.

…

"And there's Ringo!"

Almost simultaneously, both Nue and Spitfire rolled their eyes. There was an odd relationship blooming between Simca the Swallow and Ringo the Thorn Queen. And good lord, it was a hell of a relationship. Most of the time, the two were vying for Ikki's attention, Simca full blown flirting-boobs included-while Ringo struggled to get Ikki's eyes at all when she would never do such a thing.

"Do you two think you can take care of yourselves?" She asked childishly, but it was more like a tease. "I've got a little rose to cut."

Easily noticing the pun in that, Spitfire nodded his head. "Yeah sure."

Nue was too busy trying to keep himself awake to care.

"Thanks!" She called behind her shoulder, flipping off the top edge and down, down, all the way to the bottom where the arena was.

She had turned into a small blob of a white dress and a bit of pink hair, giggling all the way about how Ringo didn't stand a chance. As Spitfire watched with his ash colored eyes, as the little fresco speck that was Simca hurdled down the thousands of seats that made up the Coliseum stands on her AT. Sure, he was interested in Ikki, but certainly not like that. He found his eyes wandering back to the boy next to him, wanting to see if he was watching Kogarasumaru as deeply interested as they were.

But, he found that Nue had fallen asleep.

His hand was propped against the arm rest, cradling his head in his palm. Strands of lavender hair spiking out around him, his eyelashes fluttered over his pale cheeks. He looked almost adorable…and he wasn't wearing his regalia either. Come to think of it, Spitfire had noticed that the usually cold eyes and analyzing Thunder King was rather lethargic, slow and unplanned movements compared to the usual calculated and prepared steps he usually took.

Spitfire smiled a bit, more out of the comical aspect.

The boy must have forgotten to sleep in the entire schedule hectic that occurred now that Kogarasumaru was rising.

But, he should wake up, as much as Spitfire would rather watch the boy sleep.

"You know," He watched in amusement as Nue awoke startled. "This is rather interesting."

Nue rubbed his eyes discreetly, squinting his eyes to try and peer down to the arena some thousand feet below. "…yeah."

"Are you bored?"

"No!" Nue bounded up, he wasn't about to get caught with his guard down, not if he could help it. "I just think I need coffee."

"Coffee?"

Nue nodded. "Yeah, I'm addicted."

Spitfire smiled, thrusting a nice cold beer close to Nue's eyes, swishing it around.

"It's got the same effect." He told him simple.

Nue scowled, smelling the rather terrible smelling beer. He couldn't claim he hated the stuff, he'd never tried it. But everyone either said it was great, or that it was way too bitter.

"No thanks." He scrunched his nose. "I'm way too young to drink." Well…he was.

Spitfire sent him a teasing hurt look, taking a sip of it. "Too young? What are you, a toddler?"

Nue frowned. "You're such an old man."

"You're such a little kid." Spitfire frowned childishly. "I'm only twenty-one."

"So? You're still an adult." Nue pointed out.

"So? You're still a minor."

That was true, but Nue didn't want to back down, he was sleepy, agitated, and entirely mad at most of the world because he was so cranky. He had just fallen nicely asleep too, and he was awaken because of Spitfire, and there was no way said Flame King was going to get away with it.

"Then doesn't you sitting here mean you're a pedophile?" He shot back. It was low, but it was the only thing he could think of.

Spitfire wouldn't be bested.

He wriggled his eye brows suggestively. "We're not doing anything naughty."

But Nue wasn't about to be bested either.

"…are we?"

He fluttered his eyelashes the way he saw Simca do it all the time. Apparently it worked, because Spitfire was so taken back he couldn't even think of a comeback, blinking with what seemed to ba a tinge of pink on his cheeks. For a few moments, Nue thought he might have overdone it, watching Spitfire's face contort into a slightly embarrassed look to a rather sly grin. The kind of grin that could make Nue's heart flutter.

He stood up quickly, placing his beer in the cup holder, standing on his flame AT and looked over to Nue with a rather sly look in his eyes.

"We are now."

He extended his hand to the boy, and, almost tentatively and utterly embarrassingly, Nue accepted it, as they exited off into an alley way, the brisk night enveloping them. The one time Nue hadn't brought his regalia was the one time he felt like it was actually needed to lug the armor around.

"Where are we going?" Nue asked quickly, as Spitfire dragged him onto the street, holding his hands.

Spitfire smiled at him. "For coffee of course."

Nue couldn't help it, he laughed. "At this time?!"

"Of course!" Spitfire laughed too. "It is morning already."

Yes!!!! I finished it! And I got Second Place! Wow, what an honor :D I'm so happy! There were so many people competing I thought I wouldn't have a chance at all! PS-Thanks TAR for choosing my story as second!