Author's Note: Hisashiburi! To those of you who've been patiently waiting for some kind of Wallflower update from me, I'm sorry to keep you waiting! This is a horrendously long story I've been sitting on for a while now, and it will incorporate every pairing! Which is why it's taken me so long to write. I'm sure fans of Takenaga/Noi and the other pairings in the series would like a little love too, so I gave it my best shot. Read and review please!
"There's supposed to be thunderstorms tonight, but Noi's already on her way," said Takenaga, flipping his phone closed with a snap. Then he opened it again, glanced at the time, and closed it. Opened it again. "It's a quarter to six guys, get the fuck out already!" Closed it. He was nervous.
"Calm down, Takenaga," soothed Yukinojo. "Noi doesn't expect anything of you, so no pressure, right?"
Takenaga said nothing but began to pace around the table, pushing in chairs and flipping his phone absently.
"Help me out here, guys," pleaded Yuki, but Kyohei was suddenly nowhere to be found and Ranmaru was sitting at the table with his head in his hands.
"Ran-cha~n, get out of the HOUSE!" snapped Takenaga irritably, kicking his chair.
"Five more minutes," Ranmaru begged, his voice muffled by his hands. "I don't want to meet her parents!"
"Not my problem! Five seconds and I'm gonna break your skull."
"Come on, Ranmaru, let's just go," said Yuki. In addition to being a master of kendo, Takenaga gave a mean Indian Sunburn.
"Where's Kyohei? Go hassle him," sighed Ranmaru, though he stood up from his chair—which Takenaga promptly pushed in—and went to put his shoes on.
Suddenly Sunako sailed through the kitchen, rosy-cheeked with sparkles in her eyes, and floated out the door.
The boys stared.
Kyohei followed shortly, shrugging on a jacket. "How—what on earth was…?" they stammered.
"I got her out of the house, per our agreement," Kyohei muttered through the house keys held between his teeth. "Now you better fucking take advantage of it. Got that?"
Takenaga seemed to shrink under Kyohei's demanding stare, and finally looked away. "I'll… do the best I can."
"No! You better fuck her, goddammit! She's been after you for over a year now, you're not gonna disappoint her again. We're all out of the house until midnight and no one's coming near your room, so if I find out after all of this that nothing happened…" Kyohei drew his finger across his throat.
Takenaga nodded grimly.
Kyohei nodded too, watching the other carefully, as if making sure that the threat had been fully understood, then tugged on the collar of his jacket and left.
"Looks like someone else is getting lucky tonight," said Ranmaru bitterly. "I'll be lucky if we get two seconds away from her chaperone."
Yuki opened his mouth to comfort him, but Ranmaru silenced him with an accusing finger. "Don't you dare, you're seeing your girlfriend aren't you? Yeah. So shut up."
Yuki shut up. Once he had gone, Takenaga turned on Ranmaru. "Just get it over with already."
"Easy for you to say. You have no problem just chatting politely," Ranmaru pointed out. "Your problem is once you're alone, and there's no reason you shouldn't stop."
"And your problem is you don't know what to do when you have real feelings for someone, especially someone you haven't slept with."
Ranmaru threw him a vicious look, but both had spoken the truth. Sighing audibly, Ranmaru left the house.
Takenaga sank down against the wall, but instead of the relief he had hoped for, he only felt more butterflies. Much as he hated to admit it, Ranmaru was exactly right. He could keep up a conversation easily enough—it was only when he was alone with Noi, when he looked into her big, beautiful, expectant eyes, that he would freeze up. He was one of the top students at his school but he couldn't for the life of him guess what she was thinking, and it scared him. How was he supposed to live up to her shoujo manga fantasies? How could he be romantic when every emotion had to be spelled out?
A sudden strong vibration in his pants jarred him from his worries. His phone had slid in his pocket to a rather awkward place, and his awareness of… that region… only brought his fears back. He was a virgin of the worst kind: one that was deathly afraid of performing badly. Noi wanted, deserved better than that.
He glanced at his phone, his heart doing jumping jacks as he saw Noi's name as the sender. She was nearing the bus stop, but it looked like it might rain, he read, and she had forgotten an umbrella. Takenaga thought it little reassurance that he was bright enough to figure out he should walk over with a spare.
(To be continued next chapter!)