Title: Not all is gold that shines
Fandom: Nobuta wo Produce
Pairing: Akira/Nobuta/Shuji (gen fic)
Rating: G
Word Count: 930
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Akira, Nobuta and Shuji set out on a new adventure. Well, sort of since they don't really get far.
A/N: Un-beta-ed.
It's some ungodly am in the morning, the streets outside are dark and quiet and cold. Akira's fingers are strong and warm where they grip Nobuta's hand as they hurry down a narrow alleyway. Nobuta wishes she had had the time (or the presence of mind) to grab a torch, when Akira showed up on her door step in the middle of the night and demanded that she come with him immediately. She was too disoriented from being woken up so suddenly to do anything but nod and put a warm jacket on. But it's not like the thought of saying 'no', of claiming that she's tired and every normal person is currently fast asleep had even crossed her sleep-fogged mind. They've been through enough together and Nobuta trusts Akira implicitly.
"Akira. Where're we going?" Nobuta's breathing is laboured from the running, her face flushed, but her dark eyes are shining.
"Shh. It's a SURPRISE!" Akira is smiling widely as he says the last word in English. Screams it out really, which completely defeats the purpose of him shushing her in the first place.
They round a corner and there's Shuji waiting for them. He looks grumpy and still half asleep, but at least he's holding a torch in one of his hands (Shuji is nothing if not practical) and… Nobuta does a double-take. Shuji's other hand is occupied with what appears to be a small shovel.
"Shuji-kun! You got it! YES!" Akira bounces happily up to Shuji, dragging Nobuta along by her hand.
"Yeah, yeah. I still don't know why we need a shovel in the first place. Please tell me we aren't here to bury a body?"
Akira giggles and punches Shuji lightly on the shoulder, "Silly, Shuji-kun. No, of course not. There are better ways to dispose of a body than that, you know. No, we're going to," his voice drops down to a soft whisper so that Shuji and Nobuta have to lean in closer in order to hear properly (so close that each of them can not just see, but actually feel the hot puffs of breath coming out of the others' mouths on their skin), "look for a treasure! A buried pirate treasure."
Pulling away from the other two, Shuji shakes his head in disbelief, "Pirate treasure? In the middle of the night? Are you serious?"
"Well, yes. It's the best time to do it, when no one is around." Akira says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I've seen how they do it in the movies. Come on, Shuji-kun, it'll be fun!" Akira pulls on Shuji's sleeve and pouts at him.
While some people might find Akira's pouts to be difficult to resist, Shuji just thinks them irritating (or at least that's what he tells himself). "Then we have a very different idea about what fun is. I, for one, am going home to sleep." He untangles Akira's fingers from his sleeve and hands the shovel over.
"But Shuji-kun, you can't leave now. We have to look for the treasure and we can't find it without you."
"Do you even know where to dig?" The look on Shuji's face would suggest that he is only indulging Akira by asking this, but in a way he'd always enjoyed all their crazy escapades. With Akira and Nobuta, Shuji always has fun, no matter what they are doing.
Akira's eyes dart around the street frantically and it seems like he's trying really hard not to flail his arms around too. "Of course I do." He purses his lips thoughtfully before pointing to a random spot a few meters away. "There. Dig there."
Shuji raises a skeptical eyebrow. "Really? Not only is that spot covered with asphalt, but there is a lamppost there as well. I won't be held responsible for leaving the whole neighbourhood without power by digging out a street light. I'll be going now. Night." Shuji turns and starts walking away.
"Shuji. Wait." Before she can truly think about it, Nobuta's hand shoots out to grab one of Shuji's. He stops and stares at her questioningly. "Look." Both of her hands are busy clutching the boys' so Nobuta just jerks her chin towards something beyond Shuji's shoulder.
Slowly, without letting go of Nobuta's hand, Shuji turns around, just in time to see the first rays of the morning sun shine through the clouds.
"THERE! It's shiny! It's like gold! There is our treasure!" Akira yells out excitedly.
It's such a ridiculous thing to say and just so like Akira that Shuji can't help smiling a little. Nobuta's lips quiver – she's smiling too.
They stand like that - next to each other, hand in hand - as the sun lights up the horizon. Shuji on the left, Akira on the right and Nobuta in the middle. Somehow Nobuta is always the one who ends up being in the middle. She is the buffer between them, the reason they are all there. Nobuta is the thread that binds them all together.
(Although if someone was to ask Akira about it, he'd say that Nobuta is the filling. The three of them are like a sandwich – Shuji and Akira are the two pieces of bread that go on the outside and Nobuta is the filling. While you can't have a sandwich without the bread, you also need something to go in the middle. You can't just have one piece of bread or just the filling - you have to have all three together. Only then will it be a real sandwich.)