What Would you Say?

Disclaimer: I don't own SD boys, Inoue does. The events that follow are not included in the original plot but enjoy anyway. (Hindi ako ang nagmamayari sa mga tauhan ng SD, si Inoue ang gumawa sa kanila. Ang mga sumusunod na pangyayari ay hindi kasama sa tunay na istorya pero magsaya ka na lang kahit papaano '--')

Summary: 'Kaede, what would you say if the person you like as hell tells you he has this enormous crush on you?' Mitsui asks all of a sudden. Rukawa squints at him. 'Well...' Shounen-ai. RuMit-MitRu. One shot.

A/n: I haven't written anything for a while so forgive me if I lost the touch, but trust me, I'm trying to get it back. This is sort of inedited so just slur over the errors, aight? Enjoy...

Right, that day he just popped out of nowhere creating the silliest pother one can ever dream of starting; no big deal, he was just asking questions. Questions that wouldn't bungle your concentration but would run a shaft through your stream of concern longer than the most grievous accident that took place. He was like a ghost in your bathroom that poofs ex nihilo without any warning or chant from anybody or without you craving for it in the deepest crevices of your deluded mind, whatever, he just came and slipped away as abruptly as a divine vision would. It was weird, sort of. I was, like, brushing my teeth in an immensely vigorous effort to get rid of the dumpling smell I just bought from the cafeteria and the ferocious mint flavor of the toothpaste was almost scarring my gums. Up and down, I was following a certain motion found in the art of dentistry to perform on my hygienic method; a small piece of towel was hanging loosely around my waist while I ducked in front of the mirror to see if I missed any spot in my mouth. I was topless of course and owing to the steaming air within the gym's locker room, beads of perspiration melded with droplets of tepid water were standing on my well scrubbed and damp skin. Then what? Hisahi Mitsui jumped from behind me and my prim and proper organization was all gone slack-twisted. Really. He was absent from that day's practice and imagine what sort of rigid guts he's got to just hop in there without checking in with the manager. No, he wasn't injured; his knees were in total recovery two years ago, it was irrefutably stated in his goddamn health record. I was shocked, not by the suddenness of his shameless reappearance nor by the maximum volume of his opening greeting (Surprise!), but by his, say, forward indifference to any penalty or threat.

So I was like, 'Hell you can get suspended for breaching practice game rules, you know that?'

'Yeah, I know.' He nodded without any slight sign of concern, and twisted his lips in an equine smile. Somehow, I had this stupid notion that each of his nods is a meaningful smirk. It was almost gross to see him like this; I clutched the towel around my waist tightly, just in case.

'And you're so stoked about it?' I said with maximum use of grit. How could he be so tough faced? He should be looking pathetically hangdog and thankful enough that he hadn't come across Akagi yet.

'Of what I've been hearing around, Ryochin. You can bet I've been pleased lately.' He said fervently as opposed to my dismayed facial contortion. It was like a child breaking it to his mom how he just guillotined the neighbor's cat and being excited about it or something. Nothing in that expression of his asserted the nature of the Mitsui I knew.

'Yeah, Mitchy, what have you been hearing?' I asked with an intention to purport my disappointment by imitating Mr. Sasaki's sullen and somewhat sarcastic note. He was our math teacher by the way; an acrimonious dotard who hated truancy and tardiness with exceptional dread but never loved early birds anyway. Well, he was never fond of anyone to begin with.

'That I'm a hot shot and a heart throb, and a heart stealer. That I sure am a heart breaker and that almost 3/4 of this campus's population has this terrible crush on me; that I am always the subject of their little chit chat, that I am so cute I could send all first year girls to infirmary just because I flashed a sexy smile. I'm that adorable, isn't it written in me?' He finished at last with his self absorbed, flirtatious malarkey. There was a certain acuity in his tense tone that I didn't like. He knew that I knew he was declaring a fact, an undeniable information that couldn't be reverted by any attempt. Worse was, the heat inside the locker room rose by a multitude of degrees that it was so hard to retain the same marmoreal face that I had assumed all the while. If anyone thought of sticking an ice block on my face, it would melt pre-heatedly in 3 seconds. Then I was just curling my lip to propose a negative but an afflatus to nature held me back as I smiled almost apologetically for ever thinking of denying it. What could I have done? It wasn't just written in him; it was ALL over the place.

'Well, you can say that.' I gave in. Even my liar side refused to impugn the announcement; he was a specious heartthrob, what can I say. 'So that was why you weren't around? Finding out that you're a hot shot?'

'In the process, yeah.' He said, grinning lopsidedly and screwing his arms together for whatever charming effects it could make, feckless however. 'But I've been asking questions around, you know.'

'Like what?' I retorted absent-mindedly for the sake of prolonging his stay, with a mean wish of course that Akagi would catch this hilarious faux pas.

'One simple query that gets a little too controversial each second,' he said triumphantly like he's just beaten the crap out of me in wrestling match or something. 'I've been asking people around the corridors what would they say if the person they have a big crush on says that he likes them.'

'Interesting.' I said, trying to sound immune to the subject. In heaven's truth, I was immediately steered to those constant reveries where Ayako would just confess any romantic feeling for me. My foible. Without consciousness of Mitsui's proximity, I smiled at the image forming inside head, the impractical vagueness that was summoned with these fantasies was nothing but a step out of reality's lines and yet...I was almost rehearsing a winsome guffaw like the one they have once they have ultimately been, uh, de-virginized. Crude.

'Hey, man. Shake it off.' Mitsui said instantly as if to break my fall on something abysmal, an ocean's trench in its most abandoned spot. 'You're wandering far, far away. Ayako's just outside, you know, you could try her.' He finished with a sing song tuned tease. Right there and then he could've snatched the words straight from my mouth; he was dab at reading thoughts, Mitsui.

'Yeah, I would like to ask her but,' I paused for a second try to certainty. 'I'm afraid she would just emit a breath unrelated to my feelings. sigh.'

'Maybe not. But hey, what would YOU say?' Mitsui bolted, seemingly not at his faculty's exercise. There was a lingering look of wistfulness under those lids and I could tell he was speaking the words that came slithering out of his heart and mind; no bull, he seriously wanted to finagle my sentiments slowly this way.

'Uh, maybe I would shout elated and then, I would kiss her or give her hug or something. Maybe I would just yell to the hilt till my last oxygen stock drops that I love her too, you know, like the movies you see; they just jump up and down like they just won the lottery...' I muttered incoherently, I was beginning to feel naughty back then.

'Oh.' Mitsui smiled, almost looking sorry for my simplicity. 'That's kinda amateur, but it's sweet.' he finished with a stroke of reassurance but with a little tinge of somnambulism to express boredom.

'I guess so.' I said with finality, then the idea hatched on me; 'What about you? A penny for your thoughts. What would YOU say?'

'You really want to know?' He asked without hesitation, cracking open an impish grin. A childish passion was painted on his face like it would just fade away if somebody pinched him, the likes of which that one has never encountered in a 17-year-old boy.

'Yeah, just curious. Wonder what a heart throb like you would say.' I said forcibly, trying all my might to ride along with his over bearing, one of a kind confidence.

'Well it depends,' Mitsui gave it a start, obviously delaying the same feral excitement of a schoolboy in his countenance. 'If it's someone I hate I'd probably shove her/him off; no second thoughts on that. If it's someone I like as a friend and not romantically, take note, maybe I could just say sorry because her/his wishes cannot be granted. If it's someone I like, I would definitely smile at him/her and ask her/him out on the spot.' He stopped then, 'But if it's someone that I really, really, really like; I would say this; "You gotta be joking. You don't mean that, really? Because I'm calling the band and make them sing us a song." Hihihi.' He finished playfully and looked directly at me, as if to draw out any reaction that would feed his plump ego. I tried to smile but to tell the truth, I hadn't the remotest idea what to say, and up to know I refuse to comment on it because...I don't know.

The tucking of my towel had become rickety for the past minutes of rollicking, I strove to tighten it for the sake of diverting myself from his vigilant attention but the need for a comment was obviated when he began to speak.

'Cool, isn't it? I thought I should be relaxed then. It's the perfect reaction for the right situation. hehehe.' He muttered stupidly while operating on his personal bias.

'Right.' I answered in my amiable monosyllable, being caught between lying and not reacting at all. I thought that nothing could be better than expressing assent to his thoughts, yet if I didn't; I wouldn't know what else to say. I was a bit guilty to witness his glorious gratefulness to my approval; somehow it gave me the feeling that he was hearing from a thousand throats, that he was really a cool guy when in fact he was just a mere lad impressed by his own benedictions. Poor thing.

'Aw-right. See you later, alligator.' Brief as blink, he stormed out of the locker, whistling a lilt to conjoin his celebrated reason to look cuter. Beautiful people, I don't get them.

Then it happened; 2 days later something eldritch, as I like to term it, happened to Mitsui. He fell sick. But not just that; he became suddenly ill when he had the chance to ask Rukawa. Perhaps it was a day made for screwing up, like everything would just go ramshackle for Mitsui; I had this prognosis that somehow he would stop at something because what he had been busy with was too obtuse. It was something that invited a potentially naughty plight, if I'm being asked here. It started like this;

It was Friday, and the week was bristling with a horribly busy schedule. Mitsui no longer risked missing practices in respect to the team's generally lax discipline but not to say sadly that he had given up to the structure of his self deception, that is, that everybody had this big crush on him which was, sadly also, 80 true. After the game, incidentally, he and Rukawa ended up the last ones to take a leak which invariably led to the same monotonous interview that Mitsui had been conducting around the campus. Everyone was in the sack; I, though my presence was a truth pushed out of knowledge, tarried longer to see the blunder, like the one last chicken that escaped a massacre to witness the continuance of the crime.

Steam was again predominating the shower room, thanks to my optimum visual functions I could see through the spectacle without any impediment as I sneaked through one cubicle. Rukawa was soaking himself in the bath tub while Mitsui, as I could vividly recall, was squatted nearby with only his boxers on, and nothing more. Breaking from his control, his catastrophic whim took over as he dipped his whole body to the very same tub where Rukawa was bathing. They are now seated square in front of each other; I wouldn't even want to think how their long legs were intertwined under the smoky waters. I could've made a scandal by evincing my vulgar disgust to this but luckily I had my reins held back. Rukawa said nothing; and though he had his back turned his nape was still revealing, clearly he was taken aback by the senior's advances. Rukawa was credited famously for his sloppy personality but this time he didn't complain at the offense; he was just surprised, that was all. Then Mitsui made a dint to commence a nice chit chat,

'How have you been doing, Rukawa?' Mitsui asked almost blankly but deeper still, I could sense something in it, something amatory and ulterior in his motive. Like a seduction game. Freaky.

'Fine, sempai.' the freshman answered. The only polite thing to say when one is asked how he does is to go ahead and say fine; Rukawa's case was no alien. He was a monosyllabic bastard and who knows he might be trying to sound polite indeed, but this double worded response dripped with unpleasanties for some reason.

'Kaede?' Mitsui asked.

'Yes, sempai?'

'What would you say if the person you like as hell tells you he has this enormous crush on you?' Mitsui asked all of a sudden. Rukawa squinted at him. I was sure I got a pretty good view of him and remarkably stained on Rukawa's form was candid affection, unmistakably so.

'Well...Kiss him.'

'That's it?' Mitsui's eyes frowned under the weight of scrutiny; he wasn't getting so simple a remark from so controversial a person like Rukawa.

'Yes.' Rukawa said sleepily. It was noticeable how his drowsiness responded to the warmth of the room, like an invisible concatenation had been placed between his systems and his surroundings. He would've been a cold fish but someone else was getting hot in there; the contagion was traveling in epidemic speed and he was the first victim. Only I wasn't affected, or so I thought.

But the interview seemed over. Mitsui stretched himself up and was about to split when,

'I like you, sempai.' Rukawa professed. That defined the tamed attitude; that fact, it's the kind that betrays...I was slack jawed; anyone who saw me would've thought I looked incredibly comical with that tight expression, but hell was I too shocked? Beyond comprehension.

Mitsui stood unwary with a look of commending tenderness in his transparent, azure eyes. I could see his blood pounded temples sweating profusely; no excitement could race along with this singular dumbfound-ment nor anything could interrupt the beating of his heart. I might be 4 yards away from the couple but I could almost hear the thumping in their veins as if I were between them. Then the weird part went along.

Mitsui was rooted on the spot without uttering any alphabetical sound whatever. His eyes lost its former ardor, and the fire was extinguished. He became pale, almost the same hue as Rukawa's and as the minutes struck by without purring to a halt, he lost consciousness. He dropped to the tiles, eagle spread, as if somebody just performed his pistol shooting practice on him. Then I barged out of the cubicle...

He regained strength 3 hours later; it was near midnight. Rukawa had gone home and I carried on the duty to drag him to the infirmary and to abide by his awakening.

'Ryochin, what happened?' He asked weakly as he slit open his tired eyes.

'Uhm, you fainted. I was, err, in the showers with you and Rukawa.' I said apologetically in case he had already realized the espionage I've been throwing up about him.

'Ohhh. Rukawa...He's...'

'Well, he likes you, I heard it.' I admitted.

'Yes.'

A pause.

'All cure is mental, Mitchy. It's just a passing feeling, he'll forget about you in time and hurl this crush on you in a dumpsite called yesterday, so don't worry.' I said to whisk away any incommodious emotion inside him but,

'It's incredible, Ryochin, I never thought that Rukawa-----of all snobbish jocks.'

'Yeah, yeah. But why faint on the spot, Mitchy? That's rather, err, lame.'

But Mitsui's eyes took on a humorless gaze and buried themselves deeper to my face. No word was spoken but I could almost hear the phrase 'If you're gonna call anyone lame, make sure he is first!' But nothing literally came out until,

'Ryota, what would you say if someone you love so much tells you he/she likes you?' Mitsui asked with a look of the possessed.

'Uhmmm, nothing. I'll be speechless.' I answered with a here-we-go-again look. 'What about you, Mitchy, what would YOU say?'

'Nothing. I'll be speechless just the same and then...'

'Then what?' I asked impatiently as if that would put an end to his disillusioned vagaries.

'I'll faint just like a while ago.'

END