For Kindness pair week
Fuji Shusuke leaned back against the fence and gazed critically at the sea of students milling around the was sure he could make any of these people look good in his photographs, but none of them drew him to them. What was the point in photographing -committing them to immortality- someone that he wasn't inspired by?
There wasn't any. So, Fuji had set out on a mission to find his muse. There had to be someone on this campus of several thousand students that would spark off his creativity!
Pushing himself off from the wall, he headed off towards the large lake on campus, thinking he could at least take some photos of the water and ducks if he couldn't find a human subject.
It was a brilliantly sunny day and there were plenty of students lying around on the grass, using their free periods to relax or revise in the sun. Fuji wandered around, catching people's eyes and smiling at them. But none of them set off any sparks in his mind.
He wound his way around and found himself near the Physics department. There were lots of ducks around here, snoozing in the sun, paddling in the lake and doing other duck things. Like surrounding a student who was feeding them part of his sandwich.
Fuji smiled and wished he had his camera with him to capture this moment. But he didn't, so he looked critically at the student. He was hot in a plain but manly way, well built and with a nice face. Fuji couldn't help be be attracted to him.
Throwing caution to the wind, he hurried over, ducks scattering around him. "Will you model for me?" he asked.
The man looked utterly confused. "I wouldn't be any good at it," he stammered, a red flush appearing on his cheeks. "I'm sorry, I've got to go." he got to his feet and practically fled.
Fuji blinked and chuckled to himself. He did enjoy a challenge.
"I have to find him again," Fuji said. It was later that day and he'd just finished telling Tezuka, his housemate, about his encounter with his perfect model.
"You can't force him to do it," Tezuka replied, sensible as always.
"If I don't I'll fail my class."
"Find someone else then. Myself or Echizen would be happy to help you."
"What would I be happy to help with?" Echizen, his and Tezuka's other housemate, asked as he walked into the kitchen,straight out the shower completely naked apart from the towel around his waist.
Next to him, Fuji saw Tezuka stiffen and smirked to himself. Echizen and Tezuka had been dancing around each other for so long that he taken it upon himself to help. He hadn't realised how fun it would be until he'd started and now he was hoping that his housemates wouldn't get together just so that he could meddle a little bit longer. It had been his idea to convince Echizen to parade around in front of Tezuka wearing as little as possible. It had taken a lot of convincing, but it had certainly paid off.
"It's okay, Echizen," Fuji replied, "I've found my perfect model, I just need to persuade him."
"Poor guy," Echizen said, walking to the fridge and grabbing a can of Ponta. "But better him than me."
"You'd make a lovely model, Echizen," Fuji said, grinning, "wouldn't he, Tezuka?"
Tezuka jumped slightly and looked up from the onion he had been determinately slicing, he caught sight of Echizen, swallowed and quickly replied, "he would."
Echizen blushed and then stalked out of the kitchen.
"Did you tell him to do that?" Tezuka asked suspiciously.
"To do what?" Fuji replied, smiling innocently at him. It was a shame that Tezuka knew him too well to buy it.
Tezuka glared at him. "Don't."
"Don't what? I didn't do anything?"
"Don't give Echizen ideas."
"Maybe you should just give in and kiss him," Fuji said, "then take him up to your room and have some fun."
"Fuji," Tezuka sighed.
"I'm going to see if I can find my new model on Facebook," Fuji said, before Tezuka could start lecturing him about corrupting Echizen (as if Echizen needed any help being corrupted).
"Stalking is a crime, Fuji," Tezuka called after him.
Fuji span on the spot, "so is not getting laid, Tezuka," he replied, then scarpered in the wake of Tezuka's glare.
It wasn't exactly stalking, Fuji told himself. It was just one student finding another's subject and then using that information to find him and convince him that he should definitely model for Fuji!
He'd been on campus since half eight that morning and, 3 coffees later, it was lunchtime and he hadn't seen hide no hair of 'Duck Boy' (as Eiji -who he'd stayed up with late into the night planning his next moved over Facebook chat- had dubbed him). He was starting to get hungry and bored- there were only so many photos of ducks you could take. And so, he headed off to the nearest cafeteria.
It was fairly full of students, gathered around tables eating, pouring over homework and discussing Special Relativity and nuclear reactions, which made sense as the cafeteria was right next to the physics department.
He grabbed a sandwich and drink and quickly paid, his eyes sweeping the hall for a spare table. And then his eyes fell on the person he'd be searching for.
Sitting at one of the large tables, surrounded by a group of friends, was Duck Boy.
Fuji couldn't believe his luck. It would have been better if he could corner him by himself, but this was better than never finding him again.
Grinning to himself, Fuji walked over, looking as casual as he could. He kept flicking his eyes to the other man, hoping to catch his eye.
In the end, he walked straight past the table without being noticed at all.
Annoyed, but also well into this game, Fuji sat down at a nearby table and started on his sandwich, staring intensely at his target. If causal didn't work then maybe creepy would.
Either he was being ignored, or whatever conversation was happening on the other table was really fascinating. And then, by some miracle, Duck Boy (he really needed a better name, Fuji thought) turned and caught his eye.
Fuji smiled and waved at him, he looked uncomfortable, but waved back awkwardly. Result. Fuji beckoned to him and he turned away. Damn!
Then, to his surprise, he got up and walked over to Fuji.
"Hello again," Fuji said.
"Hi," the other man said, still looking awkward. He was so cute!
"I didn't expect to see you here. Have you considered my offer?"
"I wouldn't be a good model," The man said and Fuji shook his head.
"Sit down," he said, "what's your name."
"Kawamura Takashi."
"Okay, Kawamura, look at these." Fuji pulled out his camera from his bag and flicked through the photos stored in the memory. "This is my housemate, Tezuka. He's even less like a model than you think you are, but with the right posing and catching him off guard, he could be in a fashion magazine."
"But he's, you know," Kawamura flailed around looking for the right word, "hot," he settled on.
"So are you. Look," Fuji said, smirking at Kawamura's reaction, "if the photos look terrible I'll delete them and never bother you again. Please help me."
Kawamura sighed, "Okay, I'll help. But I've got a lecture in a few minutes."
"That's fine," Fuji said, "How about tomorrow night? I'll meet by the library at 8?"
Kawamura nodded, "I'll see you then."
Fuji watched him go, grinning. Tomorrow night was going to be fun.
The shoot was going well. The campus looked good lit up at night and Kawamura in his brown leather jacket was doing very well. He'd been awkward at first and the first couple of dozen photos Fuji had taken looked stiff and would have to be deleted. But then, with some coaxing from Fuji, Kawamura had relaxed and trusted Fuji not to let him make a fool of himself.
"Look up at me," Fuji instructed. He was standing on a bench that Kawamura was sitting on.
"I think I just felt some rain," Kawamura said, holding out a hand to see if he could feel more. It wasn't the pose Fuji had asked for, but it worked.
It was starting to rain and Fuji would rather postpone their photo shoot than risk either of them catch a cold. "We should head back."
Kawamura helped him off the bench. It wasn't necessary, but Fuji appreciated it all the same.
They were almost off campus when the rain started to heave down and they sought shelter under a porch of one of the Literature department's buildings.
"It's probably just a short shower," Kawamura said with more hope than knowledge.
"I hope so," Fuji replied, pulling his camera out from underneath his jumper where he'd sheltered it from the rain. "Thank you for coming out tonight, Kawamura. I've had fun."
"So have I," Kawamura replied, "You're very good at all this."
"That's why I'm doing a degree in it," Fuji said, laughing. "Are you feeling more confident about yourself?"
"A bit," Kawamura admitted.
"Just a bit? Do you know how good you look in that jacket?"
Kawamura turned red and laughed nervously, "This thing?"
"Yeah. Wear it more often and you'll be beating the girls off with a stick. The guys too," Fuji added, closing in on Kawamura. "I'm sure there's a few lying around, if you want to beat me off," he said, running his hands down the lapels of Kawamura's jacket.
Kawamura seemed to be processing all this far better than Tezuka had this morning when Echizen had 'accidentally' fallen into his lap. "What if I don't want you to stop?"
"Then you just have to kiss me."
Kawamura's lips were rough against his own, but in a good way. A very good way. Fuji's hands slid into his hair before sliding down to rest on his jaw. In a bold move, Kawamura pulled Fuji to him, so that their bodies were molded together and Fuji took the opportunity to deepen the kiss.
"Want to head back to mine?" Fuji asked, "my housemates are out playing tennis… or doing whatever they do when they say they're going to play tennis." Fuji had a horrible suspicion that they were actually just playing tennis. They were both hopeless.
"Um, okay. It hasn't stopped raining yet though."
Fuji shrugged, "lets get wet." he said, grabbing Kawamura's hand and pulling him out into the rain.