Notes – For the gx_100. Set in season one, post Seven Stars. Also, the 6:30am start is a reference to Tag Force.
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Nobody labelled Fubuki Tenjoin as being obsessive.
That was probably because nobody thought about it hard enough. Fubuki had this air around him that assured people 'what you see is what you get', so in general others didn't stop long enough to consider how he behaved. As long as people knew you were all right they wouldn't dwell on you too much. That was Fubuki's logic, and it seemed to work.
But when you got down to it Fubuki was obsessive.
If something took his interest he'd grab onto it like a madman. It only took stepping back a few paces and looking at him from the outside to see that.
Fubuki surfed constantly. He was at the beach at 6:30am every morning and if you didn't see him for the rest of the day you could guess that he was surfing. He'd even started to expand into other water sports as of late.
There was logic about this. Sometimes Fubuki didn't particularly want to talk to anyone, but his social persona wouldn't allow him to simply say that he didn't feel up to conversation today. So being out in the water was an ideal way to get some time away without hurting anyone's feelings. For the most part though, he just loved surfing. He loved the feeling of pushing his physical being to its maximum capability. He loved having to twist and turn to keep the perfect motion and stop him falling off. He was obsessed.
Surfing wasn't the only thing he was obsessed with either, far from it. Fubuki was also a lover of music. Ever since he'd been old enough to turn on a radio he'd loved listening to music, and found this love focused a lot around the instruments that were played. Popular music featured a lot of electric guitars, and people thought this was a firm fixture in the image of 'cool', but Fubuki was a person who wanted to entertain others foremost. So when he'd convinced his mother to take him to an instrument shop, the first thing he bought was a ukulele. Because the ukulele made people happy.
And he practised so much. It was weeks before he came down from his room, insisting upon playing the ukulele for anyone who happened to pass through the Tenjoin house. Of course, when he was getting ready to go to Duel Academia the ukulele was one of the first items to be packed and saw a lot of use there. People got to know the image of that boy running around with his ukulele, wearing his Hawaiian shirt. He thought the shirt had been a bargain as it truly fixed the beach boy appeal into people's minds.
Fubuki's third and most frowned upon obsession was the love magician. This being one of the many titles he adopted for himself. The origin of the habit he had yet to disclose to anyone, but people knew that Fubuki prided himself in being the one to help anyone at all out in their love life. He was the master of romance and there wasn't a hidden crush or interesting affair on the whole island that he didn't know about.
This obsession received a mixed response from others. The girls loved Fubuki, and there was hardly a moment of the day when he wasn't being followed by flocks of female admirers. Even the boys looked up to him, for if anyone could help them with their failed love lives it was Fubuki.
Yet… some people disproved. Unfortunately for Fubuki it was often those that mattered who did. His sister Asuka and his closest friend Ryo were both on the straight and narrow paths, so neither of them agreed with poaching around the business of others and using shallow gestures to catch the attention of a crush. However, they did not deter Fubuki from his obsession. As he reasoned with himself that if they were to accept him they would accept him for who he was, thus he should continue to be himself.
It just so happened that Ryo and Asuka were the only people who knew how obsessive he truly was. They could stand back long enough to look at him from the outside and see the mask. He was admittedly a little worried because of this. His charms wouldn't ever work on them and being directly honest wasn't as easy as he'd like it to be.
He had begun to show some honesty in his fourth obsession however. At least to Ryo. Because there wasn't much time left. The days until the end of the school year were ticking closer and closer, so if he didn't act now he didn't know how long he'd have to wait until he next could. If he could at all. Fubuki was not one to pretend he saw the future set in stone.
To his surprise Ryo had accepted it. And somehow it seemed to break more barriers between the two than create them.
Ryo was prepared for the outcome, as he knew even in romance Fubuki would be as obsessive as he was with the rest of his life. He didn't kiss softly, when Fubuki kissed it had to have his soul in it, otherwise it was just meaningless. He didn't do anything else softly either. And for whatever reason this comforted Ryo. It let him know that Fubuki was genuine. For the day he stopped putting effort into it would be the day this obsession died.
Luckily, Fubuki's obsessions were long lived.
The whole affair between Fubuki and Ryo lasted right up until the graduation match. And right up until then nobody besides the two of them were aware of it. The fact that Fubuki was able to keep such a secret amazed Ryo, but upon reflection he realised that Fubuki never really spoke of his relationships save for bragging rights about the girls he'd picked up. So it was more than possible that the boy had been in other relationships before and just wasn't talking about it.
On their last day together, their last night, Fubuki showed signs of reluctance to let him go. Ryo was an obsession. His ukulele wasn't graduating and going away so why did Ryo have to?
But when he was asked about it, Fubuki shook his head.
"We all have to go through tests of our character," he said, though not looking Ryo in the eye, "You're about to go off into the world and make a name for yourself. It's time for changes. And I have to grow too. So when you're out there, don't think about this – don't think of yourself as belonging to me because you never have done and you never will do. You're a free agent Ryo, enjoy yourself."
He did not get a verbal answer to this. They both knew it was true but it seemed too harsh for Ryo to put it into words. Things would change; even obsessions need to be lost.
For the first time, Fubuki willingly let an obsession leave him.
