Vision of Roses and Pear Blossoms
A/N: I decided to pair this with my Kamutoku fic!
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"She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was."
(-Zora Neale Hurston, 'Their Eyes Were Watching God')
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"Kageyama."
The boy paused from putting his shoes in the footlocker. A brief flash of hostility crossed his dull eyes, but he glanced down to dash it away as quickly as it came. He picked up his discarded school bag like he did not feel unkind and did not let it show.
"Vice President."
It was not a question. It was a statement, as sour as if he had sworn, and Tokugawa's mouth quirked at the side. He would have expected Ritsu to act more mature.
"Do you really think Kamuro deserved to be attacked?"
Ritsu darkened in a way only little brothers did. He shouldered his bag more aggressively than necessary, his voice clipped and grated out of him.
"What he did was terrible. Of course he got what he deserved."
Anger dispersed its pollen over Tokugawa. His muscles clinched, and scarcely checked temper flowered out of him like a dreadful springtime.
"You are saying he deserved to be attacked and left to be picked at by the crows," Tokugawa's tone ran the knife's edge of aggression, and Ritsu did not seem impressed. "You were the one who used physical violence."
Ritsu was not moved. He scowled, apathetic to the consequences of his actions and disgusted that Tokugawa dared to confront him about it.
"Just because you worship the image of Kamuro does not mean I do."
Ah. Tokugawa saw it now.
The picture of Kamuro he had decorated in roses and pear blossoms had shattered. Sometime recently, the image of Kamuro as the ideal president had fallen off the shelf within, and Ritsu was left to cut his fingers on the broken glass. He saw now that the dream had been something flimsy he tried to beautify, and the harsh reveal of the truth angered him deeply. What was once so beautiful and perfect now left him with only crushed flowers and a thousand shards of glass.
Ritsu saw Kamuro as something he was not and could never be.
In the moment after Ritsu spoke, Tokugawa realized he did not hold that same false picture on his own shelf. What he had was not the depiction of a deity that required offerings of honey and blood. His vision of Kamuro was more like a charcoal outline of a possibility: something he could come back to as his feelings changed. If there were flowers, they were crude drawings that needed the petals added, and erasing them did not require the violence of smashing glass. What he had was realistic. What he had acknowledged that not everyone was who they appeared to be.
Tokugawa relaxed his stiff body. His cool attitude smothered the fires of anger, and he could look to Ritsu with more understanding.
"I recognize Kamuro the boy," he replied, no superficial meanness in his voice. "What you see in people is damaged by your own perceptions."
An arrow struck his heart. Ritsu's eyes widened in shock just the slightest, the knuckles gripping his bag strap as white as new ash. Tokugawa did not weaken.
"You are just as guilty as he is. It's time you recognize that."
Tension slowed the passage of seconds. The need for flight almost replaced the need for air, and Tokugawa could perceive Ritsu trying to contain trembling from rage. He was cornered, without a rebuttal, and the animal in him struck out viciously.
"Goodbye, Vice President," his words were almost too bitter to speak. "I will see you at the next student council meeting."
The storm cloud of a boy turned on his heel and left. Tokugawa watched the thunder and wrath that followed. A little sigh escaped his nose, and he shook his head.
Ritsu still had a lot of growing up to do.
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A/N: Tokugawa must defend his (wifey) bf!