A ball of cotton. A misshapen hand. A bird? A wolf standing over a chicken with sunglasses.
On a quiet evening, a blue-haired teenager sat alone in a moderately sized patch of grass conveniently located next to his charmingly rustic house. He gazed up at the clouds – which were dyed brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow, thanks to the setting sun – serenely, trying to pick out shapes among them. The boy, Kawara Ryouta, had had a long day, and just wanted to relax and forget the troubles of modern society.
A cat, jumping gracefully over an oar. A bowl of Udon being spilled. A deformed cake, on top of a broke-
BZZZ.
The sophomore started as he felt a vibration reverberate from the depths of his pocket. He slid his hand into the pit cut into the fabric of his pants, pulling an object out of the lint-filled depths of his school uniform. (He had not bothered changing out of it after school, as he did not have any plans.) Ryouta activated his phone, wearily skimming the text that had been sent to him.
Hiyoko
4:30 P.M.
Hey, Ryouta! Weather's awesome up here in Tokyo, although I'm sure back home's pretty nice right now too, am I right? Anyway, the anime convention went pretty well today, for the most part. Angel managed to sell a few of his comics! He was really happy, I think. He started shouting something about the "divine blessings of fortune" or something.
Can't wait to see you this Sunday when we get back!
Ryouta felt his heart deflate.
She…she didn't remember. She always remembers.
Crushed, the once-cheerful boy closed his eyes with a sigh. He had been this way ever since his best friend (and possible crush…maybe!) had departed to Tokyo to help out Higure Anghel with an anime convention. Mopey, un-attentive, and glum. Everything seemed duller to Ryouta without his hunter-gatherer companion. And to top it all off, he had gotten a particularly bad stomach ache during school earlier that day.
He had, of course, been sent up to the infirmary, where he was tended to by Doctor Iwamine Shuu, the school's doctor. With a fearsome reputation and an unsettling aura to match, Iwamine was deeply feared by most of the students at St. Pigeonation's. Although Ryouta found him to be creepy, and thought it was odd that the medicine the Doctor gave him didn't help his stomach more, he did not pay him much mind.
It had taken Ryouta much of the school day to recover from his most recent stomach ache. By the time the stabbing pains and waves of nausea had subsided, it was roughly an hour after school got out. With nothing else to do, Ryouta visited his mother in the hospital (She didn't remember, either, thought Ryouta, but who can blame her? She's so ill…), went home, cleaned, and lay down in the grass to watch the sunset.
Ryouta was still sitting on the grass, eyes closed with his phone firmly grasped in his hand, when a voice suddenly spoke from above him and something heavy was abruptly dropped into his lap.
"J-Just take the package, Kawara. Don't ask questions."
Ryouta whipped around to see a flustered figure quickly walking away from him. With icy blue hair, ornate clothing, and an embarrassed expression, the younger boy recognized his classmate immediately.
"Sakuya…? Wait!"
The aristocrat paused in his tracks, fidgeting uncomfortably. Ryouta grabbed hold of the box Sakuya had just deposited on him and rushed over to where he was standing before he got a chance to continue on his way.
"What is it?" Sakuya snapped, a blush of crimson red blazing violently on upon his pale features. "I'm on a tight schedule, peasant. Make it quick."
Ryouta looked at him, bewildered.
"Why…What is this for?" the blue-haired boy stammered, holding up the package. "I haven't done anything for you! And you couldn't possibly know about…well…the point is-"
"Did I not say to ask no questions?" Sakuya growled, his blush deepening.
"I…" Ryouta trailed off, trying to think of some way to convince Sakuya to tell him. "I…won't leave you alone until you tell me! I'll follow you, all the way home. I won't stop asking. And if you still won't tell me…then I'll bother you during school, too!"
A stony silence ensued after that, during which Ryouta and Sakuya seemed to be having a battle of will. Both boy stared at each other determinedly, one looking rather flustered, the other frustrated – finally, Sakuya muttered something unintelligible, his brows furrowed.
"S-Sorry?"
"I said, eeyutwhuzzdayuternsuoffuraybelmowngralsiydeayuhnautmyne!"
At this point, Ryouta was completely baffled. Not only had Sakuya given him a present, which would have been reasonable if they were closer (really, they had only just become friends – and Ryouta wasn't even sure if Sakuya considered them to be. Mostly they only spoke during school hours, and the self-important Frenchman had certainly never paid Ryouta a visit in his home. But still, he had developed a fondness for Sakuya, despite his cold disposition), but they weren't. Surely, it couldn't be because…?
"I can't understand you, Sakuya, could you please speak a bit sl-"
"It was the mongrel's idea!" the flustered boy spat out venomously, staring determinedly at the ground, face redder than ever.
"I-err…w-what?" Ryouta spluttered. He was starting to get a headache.
Sakuya took a deep breath, trying hard to look like the dignified person he strived so often to be, and continued.
"Use your ears, Kawara," He snapped. "Sakazaki told me. He said you were muttering about it when you were in the infirmiry earlier. I thought…" He trailed off, picking a piece of lint off his coat absently. "Since Tosaka isn't here, it's my duty as a Le Bel to provide sufficient nourishment for those who need it."
Ryouta stared at Sakuya blankly, his mind whirling, putting the pieces of the puzzle together quickly.
While he had been in the infirmary earlier, Sakazaki Yuuya, a senior who worked did infirmary duties for his after school club, must have heard Ryouta muttering deliriously about that when he was sick (Ryouta figured that this was caused because of how worried he had been about it; what if no one at all cared? He wasn't sure why it was so important to him all of a sudden, but…). He then mentioned something about it to Sakuya, who, for some reason, decided to do something about it (that was the only part Ryouta didn't understand – why would Sakuya, of all people, get him a gift?).
Slowly, Ryouta's gaze shifted to the package he held firmly in his hands. It was large and square, covered in blue wrapping paper with an exquisite -and expensive- looking ribbon on top. As he looked down at it, he felt a sudden, unexplainable rush of gratitude toward his classmate, and before he registered what he was doing, he set the box down gingerly on the ground, and rushed forward, pulling Sakuya into a tight embrace.
No, Ryouta wasn't sure what made him do it - perhaps it was the weight of that day's stress, finally cracking him, or how empty he had proved to be without Hiyoko -, but in that moment, as he felt someone's arms wrap around him slowly, he felt all of those feelings melt away, replaced with content bliss.
A few minutes later, Ryouta stood in his kitchen, carefully removing the bow from the present. He placed it on the table, setting it next to an empty vase, and proceeded to unwrap the rest of the box.
As he opened the package and looked inside, Ryouta's eyes widened; placed in the interior was one of the prettiest cakes Ryouta had ever seen. White and blue, with chocolate swirls on it, it looked much too fancy to eat. In pale blue, curvy writing, a message read:
Bon anniversaire!
…This is a one-time thing, Kawara, got it? Don't think this is going to happen every year!
-S. Le Bel
The blue-haired sophomore smiled. Sakuya must have been pretty concerned about him if he'd gone through all this trouble (Ryouta supposed he had had his servants make the cake, but it was the thought that counted).
But why, thought Ryouta, was he worried? Was it because of how I've been acting in school since Hiyoko left? I thought nobody noticed…I don't want to worry anyone…
But still, Ryouta felt cheered. He cut a small portion of the cake to eat (it looked like it had a lot of ingredients in it, and the sickly teenager didn't want to upset his stomach any further than it had already been that day), and bit into it heartily. It was chocolate, with like cream cheese frosting in between layers, and had what tasted like pecans mixed in (on another day, by which time Ryouta had left a heavy dent in the cake, he discovered there was liquid chocolate in the middle).
As the once-gloomy boy ate his cake, he found his thoughts wandering away from Hiyoko. He still wasn't sure why it had been so important to him for someone to take notice, but he was grateful all the same. Ryouta felt a bit embarrassed at the fact that he had been talking about it in his drug-induced sleep (at least, he assumed that the medicine that Doctor Iwamine had given him were what caused him to fall asleep – the eerie doctor never really told him what he was taking), but, in the end, it had made him happier. He made a mental note to thank Yuuya on Monday.
It wasn't until the next evening that Hiyoko remembered her best friend's birthday.
A/N: Gwaaahhhh that was the worst thing I've ever written and it's so bad and there's 15 minutes until I have to leave for school and mefreofrfrfrpfrferfre. But I really wanted to write something SakuyaxRyouta (there aren't enough stories out there!) and something birthday-related, since it's my birthday on the 17th. I dunno. Hope you enjoyed!