Fandom: Seito Kaichou ni Chuukoku (Hey, Class President!)
Disclaimer: I own no rights to this manga, or to the characters, events and places referenced herein. I mean no offence by posting this and certainly make no money from this.
In the end, he ends up sitting on the bare floor with his back to the wall, breathing in dust and stale hot air. His clothes are sticky with sweat and his glasses keep slipping down his nose. His hair is slicked to the back of his neck and his head is aching.
But Kokusai is sitting beside him, knee touching his knee and arm brushing his arm.
Chiga came to within an inch of losing his temper again at the sight of Kokusai's wrists tied with rope. If he hadn't been snatching at the rope and tearing at the knot, he would have whirled around and punched Kawawa.
In hindsight, he's glad he didn't.
Kawawa seems to be in the grip of some kind of panic-stricken fit. He's alternating between apologising and accusing, and somewhere in the mix he's babbling incoherently about Kokusai and Manami and Yamashiro.
Yamashiro started by trying to hush him, hands reaching out to hold Kawawa's shoulders for reassurance, but Kawawa wrenched himself away and hit him.
Kokusai's eyes went big and round and Chiga winced. It sounded painful and looked as bad.
With the result that those two are standing on the other side of the room, talking at each other and not listening, not communicating, just going around in circles again and again and again. Completely oblivious to either Chiga or Kokusai who still happen to be in the room because neither of them wants to leave those two to beat each other to death.
Not that Yamashiro looks like he's in any danger of doing that. He's being flippant and half-joking, provoking Kawawa with teasing little smiles and careless answers.
Chiga recognises the truth because he's already heard it on his way to this empty house but even he has a hard time restraining himself from hitting Yamashiro. That smug, uncaring lightness is infuriating beyond belief.
He thinks of the expression on Kokusai's face as they last parted: "Haha, Chiga, I bet you didn't expect me to do that."
No, he hadn't expected Kokusai to kiss him. Kokusai never initiates anything. Instead, Kokusai will look at him with those innocent eyes, completely unaware of how seductive he looks with his cheeks flushed and his mouth red and his lips already slightly parted. Like he's thinking about sex...
"I don't understand why." Kawawa looks tormented, clutching at his hair and hiding his face, his voice trembling, "I could always feel your eyes on me, the way you stare."
Chiga really wants to shake the nonchalance off Yamashiro's smug face. He wonders if Yamashiro gets it, that he scared Kawawa badly right at the very start and hasn't exactly made things better in any of his attempts since then.
Chiga can't imagine doing that to Kokusai. He can't imagine just forcing him.
Though he has come close...
He sneaks a quick glance sideways but Kokusai is staring at the floor, massaging his left wrist.
Chiga lifts his hand carefully, gently, and reaches out. He takes care to give Kokusai plenty of time to realise what he's doing, and to stop it if he doesn't want it. He lets his fingers drop down to Kokusai's, pretending to self-confidence that he doesn't feel, and he shifts Kokusai's fingers away and lifts the wrist into his hand.
The skin is red and raw. Kokusai struggled.
Chiga grinds his teeth and feels the anger flare.
On the other side of the room, Kawawa takes a step back as Yamashiro steps forward.
It's like some kind of dance only neither of them looks as though they're enjoying it. They're talking at cross purposes and if Chiga wasn't so hot and tired and half-dead from stress and fear and guilt and relief, not to mention a barely healed head wound, he'd try to bang their heads together. As it is, he can only ignore them both and pretend that they're not there.
It's not hard. Kokusai is there, and Kokusai is all that matters.
He takes Kokusai's hand into his lap and smoothes his fingertips over the bruised wrist.
He blames himself for letting Kokusai go alone. He was distracted by that kiss but that was no excuse. He knew there was a pervert in the area. He knows that Kokusai has a stalker who's already broken into his house once and molested him in his sleep. He hadn't expected Kokusai to be dragged away by a friend, but he should have been there. He promised to protect Kokusai.
"Chiga. Thank you."
He startles at the sound of Kokusai's voice. Enough so that he lifts his head from his intense contemplation of the bruised wrist in his hands.
"Huh?"
Kokusai just looks at him, smiling tiredly but happily, completely honest. "For coming to help me."
He opens his mouth and Kokusai's wrist suddenly shifts in his grip. Fingers twist around and then interlock with his.
"And don't tell me to thank Yamashiro," Kokusai warns him, grinning at him cheerfully.
Chiga's brain freezes.
It's entirely unbelievable. Kokusai is unbelievable. After all this, Kokusai is still smiling that same goofy smile.
"Chiga?"
The smile dims a little.
Chiga feels the lump in his throat.
Across the room, something is happening. Yamashiro has lost his smug carelessness and something seems to have snapped in him. He's got Kawawa slammed up against the wall, using his superior strength to pin his friend in place.
Kawawa is struggling but Yamashiro isn't kissing him this time; he's talking. Low and furious and implacable. The words come pouring out in an avalanche of past and present and future and between the words 'idiot' and 'love' and 'only you', there is a genuine plea to listen, finally, just listen.
Chiga isn't listening. That conversation isn't his business and by rights he should have left twenty minutes ago, when he managed to get the rope off Kokusai's wrists and wrapped his arms tight around him in reassurance.
He wonders why he didn't just drag Kokusai out the minute the rope came loose.
Kokusai is no fainting girl. He's already recovered; he's smiling and cracking jokes and worrying about other people.
It's Chiga who's suddenly light-headed and shaking. Who can't seem to make his voice work. He opens his mouth but no sound comes out.
Kokusai squeezes his fingers kindly. And then he leans in and kisses him.
It's nothing like the kiss from before. This is soft and sweet and Kokusai comes back again and again, barely brushing his lips against Chiga's each time.
Chiga feels his breath hitch and feeling comes back in a tidal wave.
He tries to untangle his fingers from Kokusai's grip but this time Kokusai isn't letting go. He's holding on and leaning in and Chiga has to bring up his other hand to grab Kokusai's chin. He has to hold him close and tight and kiss him, breathe in the smell and sound and feel of this person that means so much to him.
"Kokusai... I love you..."
The words slip out before he can even think.
"I love you."
Kokusai doesn't even open his eyes but he moans into Chiga's mouth and his fingers tighten even more.
"Kokusai?"
"Koushiro!"
The shout intrudes like a bath of cold water and Chiga has had enough.
He snaps his head around and scowls before he bounds to his feet and pulls Kokusai up beside him. Kokusai's breathing heavily and his eyes are beginning to acquire that glazed, inward-gazing look that drives Chiga wild.
He doesn't say a word. Kawawa is turning his face away, flinching as Yamashiro tries to get through to him and personally, Chiga thinks that Yamashiro should cut his losses and move on. But the heart is not logical and he is lucky, he thinks, so lucky that Kokusai hasn't pulled away.
Kokusai doesn't hate him. Hasn't rejected him. Maybe Kokusai is still in shock from being kidnapped and maybe Chiga is taking advantage of his sensitivity. Maybe this will blow up in his face when Kokusai has had a quiet moment to think about it.
Surprisingly, he doesn't care. He doesn't care so long as Kokusai doesn't push him away.
He understands Yamashiro as much as he dislikes him. He thinks he may go mad too if Kokusai ever pushed him away like that, if he ever refused to listen.
"Chiga, wait."
The tug on his hand makes him stop in the middle of the empty, dusty corridor and he turns around, heart in his throat.
Kokusai looks up at him.
"I love you too," he says, and blushes.
Chiga feels the happiness bubble up from the soles of his feet, all the way up through his body. He stifles the urge to grin like a lunatic. He leans down. Kokusai makes a small sound of shock, like some kind of funny baby animal, and Chiga's lips twitch in spite of himself.
"Kokusai. We're going to have to discuss why perverts keep molesting you, you know."
"It's not my fault!"
Chiga licks a wide stripe up Kokusai's neck and feels his blood heat up.
"Kokusai," he whispers, "You're cute."
And then he kisses him. Hard.
He registers at the back of his mind that Yamashiro has stopped shouting. Kawawa isn't shouting either. There's finally silence, and for this little while, the world is perfect.