Fluff
The sight of Shin-chan in a fluffy ball of sheep suit leaves Kazunari torn between cooing at the adorableness and laughing his ass off.
It's a ridiculously hot day, such that Kazunari feels his vision blur with the heat. And, of course, their sadistic coach has decided that such weather is perfect for a training camp, so the entire regular crew is now sluggishly crawling through the forest. Their designated goal, a small wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere, seems unlikely to the extreme to have any sort of air-conditioning. Hot air. Bunch of sweaty teenage dudes in a room. Double training menu. Kazunari could scream for joy. Woohoo.
At least the seniors seem to be suffering more than him, being larger in size and holding more muscle to carry. Kazunari can see Miyaji's finger twitch with violent intention every few moments, though Otsubo captain is, as always, bearing everything with irritating patience.
To add insult to injury, Shin-chan isn't suffering along with them. Maybe Oha-Asa really is psychic, because Shin-chan's lucky item for the day just happens to be a portable fan.
A freaking fan and he's not sharing. And Kazunari thought they were partners.
If Shin-chan doesn't stop looking over at him with infuriatingly smug expression, Kazunari won't hold himself responsible for what he does to him. Especially after he'd pulled Shin-chan (as always) through this heat to the meeting place in a rick-saw.
As it turns out, they managed to get to the cabin without Miyaji decapitating anyone, and Kazunari hadn't even tried to strangle Shin-chan even once. He considers that an achievement and rewards himself by plastering his sweaty self all over Shin-chan and inciting an indignant "Takao!".
Minor revenge accomplished, Kazunari dodges Shin-chan's angry flailing and follows the seniors to the dining room. They are greeted by the smell of food; coach seems to have made lunch while the rest of them were trekking through hell.
God bless his old soul.
The food is decent – curry, which is nothing special, but nothing to laugh at either. As long as Kazunari doesn't imagine coach in an apron, he'll survive lunch without snorting and choking on his food.
After food comes hell, which Kazunari expected. But still. Shin-chan leaves his fan on the bench when they train, and Kazunari sees Miyaji glare at the thing resentfully more than once during layup. Pushing his sister's headband up his forehead, Kazunari sees Shin-chan watching him. He winks at taller teen and smiles to himself as the latter flushes and turns away.
During break, Kazunari mocks Shin-chan for being distracted by his beautiful face.
"W-who was distracted, idiot!" Shin-chan rages, face a brilliant red. Kazunari wants to reach up and mess with his hair, but the shooting guard is just too tall. One would think kami-sama could be fairer and give a little height to the rest of them.
As always, after a few rounds of team training, Shin-chan pulls the daily request card and goes off to shoot by himself. Kazunari watches Shin-chan's flawless form and the precise and sure way the ball leaves his taped fingers. He waves cheerfully and distracts Shin-chan from his practice, earning himself an annoyed purse of lips from Shin-chan and a harsh smack from Miyaji.
It is so worth it, because despite the irritation on his face, Shin-chan waves back.
After practice, the corpses of the team drag themselves back to the room where they had left their stuff and trot off to shower. Peeling the soaked T-shirt off his body, Kazunari is distracted by the unblemished expanse of Shin-chan's pale skin. He doesn't let his gaze linger, however, because he saves the blatant staring for the showers.
It has the added bonus of the rest of the team edging away from him like he'd lost his head, and Shin-chan looks appropriately freaked out.
Members of the team emerge from their stalls dressed in loose T-shirts and basketball shorts. Takao emerges from his stall in a T-shirt of obnoxious pink and golden star pattern and black shorts.
Shin-chan exits in a blob of white fluff thingie.
…
Nope, Kazunari has not enter the twilight zone.
The entire nearly two meter of his being (minus his head, but that's another story) is covered in fluffy white material, giving the impression of a giant cotton candy. There's a large black bow where the collar (if that can be called a collar) is and a pair of black fuzzy socks covering his feet.
"Ahahahahaahah!" Kazunari loses it. Gesturing a finger in Shin-chan the Sheep's direction, eyes wide and watering, he laughs. He laughs until his stomach hurts and he has to double over, and until the rest of the team has stopped staring at Shin-chan like he's crazy and is now staring at Kazunari like he's crazy.
Kazunari's not the one in a sheep suit.
Shin-chan is. Which is why he totally has no right to look so offended.
And he has no right to look so cute either. He's a grown man and he should not look adorable in a fluffy costume. But he is. With his cheeks flushed pink and his glasses half falling off his face, Shin-chan looks so ridiculous that he looks like the cutest thing in the freaking world.
Which is why Kazunari tackles him, wrapping his arms around the other's shoulders the best he could and smothers his laughter in the soft surface of Shin-chan's sheep-suited chest.
"W-what on earth do you think you're doing?"
Kazunari doesn't answer, because he's too busy laughing. He's still chortling as the two of them parade back to the room where the futons are laid with their arms linked (Shin-chan looks like he's developing a nervous tick, but Kazunari's tight grip prevents him retrieving his arm). The coach takes one look at them, one at the grimacing faces of the seniors, and looks away.
The small slot of time left before bed time everyone spends trying their hardest to not look at them.
They look so uncomfortable Kazunari is strongly tempted to drag them all into a group hug. He expects he'll get pummeled, so he compromises by snuggling Shin-chan's fluffy arm and pretending to be asleep.
Later, with the lights off and all of them settled in their respective futons, Kazunari nudges Shin-chan, who despite being irritated at being waken up, turns to him and waits for him to speak.
Quirking his mouth at Shin-chan, Kazunari whispers, "I think your lucky item todays beats all the ones before."
Shin-chan looks at him like he's an idiot (not that he doesn't usually look at him like that). "Cancer's lucky item for the day is a portable fan. You saw it."
Kazunari blinks at him. Is Shin-chan such a VIP for Oha-Asa that he gets two lucky items a day or something?
Shin-chan mumbles something into the fluffy collar of his pajama.
"What?"
"I-I said! The sheep suit is Scorpio's lucky item for the day! But Oha-Asa says you only need it the period of time the day changes to the next."
"That monstrosity is my lucky item?"
Shin-chan tries to suffocate Kazunari with his pillow. As he is fighting for his life, he hears a faint, "Idiot, who else would I wear a stupid sheep suit for?"
Kazunari turns his head away. He's glad blushes can't be seen in the dark.