Shuichi watched Mizuki hug all her classmates and smiled absently, thinking of just how much he's missed her. However, this brought back painful memories of how his feelings could never be returned and of how Sano... Just then, Sano made an appearance and Shuichi saw the expression of Mizuki's face clearly. Sano's mirrored expression paled in comparison to Mizuki's, which really wasn't surprising given Sano's character. It's seeing them two together that finally cemented what Shuichi told himself all along. Before he even met Mizuki, before she even came to Japan... he'd never really stood a chance.
Even so, being Mizuki and Sano's friend was worth more than trying to break up their... strange relationship, which really wasn't romantic, but not quite platonic. They hugged and there was a faint, distant pang inside of Shuichi's chest. He firmly ignored it, strolling over as casual as can be to Sano and Mizuki.
"Mizuki-chan, it's good to see you," Shuichi greeted, smiling and trying not to be affected by Mizuki's feminineness. The last time he'd seen her, she'd still been in Osaka's school uniform and still looked somewhat boyish. Now it was nearly painful to look at her. She was beautiful. "I hope you haven't gained any weight from eating hamburgers in your sleep."
Sano snorted with amusement and Mizuki hit his chest -had she always been this weak? How could I have not noticed sooner?- playfully, with a feigned hurt expression. "Hey, you're making fun of me already? Be nice to me, I just got here." She put on a pout and Shuichi fondly ruffled her hair, making her squawk indignantly and pat it down.
Sano nudged Shuichi with his shoulder. "Hey, why did you take so long getting over here?" he asked in a low voice, as if not wanting Mizuki, who was now talking to Nakao and Kayashima, to overhear them.
Shuichi glanced at him and stammered, "I-I just wanted you and Mizuki to-to... Uh." He glanced (peeked) at Sano and saw that Sano's amused expression had returned, along with a tinge of exasperation.
"Me and Mizuki aren't officially dating," Sano told him, making Shuichi frown slightly. "We're all friends. What's there to be so embarrassed about?"
Whirling around, Shuichi glared at Sano and loudly exclaimed, "Embarrassed? Who's embarrassed?! I just thought that you and Mizuki should... should..." Realizing that he'd perhaps said too much already, Shuichi felt heat rush to his face. He turned around and shouted, "Hey, Namba-sempai, do you have the tour schedule? I lost mine!"
Suddenly, Shuichi felt something rustle in his jacket pocket and looked down. He only noticed a of flash skin leaving his pocket. With a distressed sound he turned and felt his face grow hotter at the sight of Sano holding up his tour schedule. When Sano raised his eyebrow, Shuichi glared and snatched it back.
"What?" he snapped in Sano's face.
"Thought you said you lost yours," Sano replied flatly, giving Shuichi a piercing gaze, apparently not affected by Shuichi's close proximity.
Shuichi rolled his eyes, looking away with a snort. "Forgot it was there!" he explained easily, shrugging and trying to find a way out of this mess.
Leave it up to Sano to be perspective and annoying. He usually kept his observations to himself, but Mizuki had pulled him out of his shell. Which meant that he felt free to irritate Shuichi whenever he observed something. There was hardly anything Shuichi could get away with (though Kayashima often sided with Sano when Shuichi was too mopey, angry, or hyper, the traitor) now that Sano was investing his time in their friendship.
"I doubt that," Sano said, snatching the tour schedule back and stuffing it into his pocket. He slapped Shuichi's hands away when Shuichi tried to grab it. "You said you lost it and now you have."
At first, Shuichi just stared at him and then growled, "Baka! You stole it from my pocket! Return it to me!" He held out his hand.
"You're a dumb ass," Sano stated, looking slightly ruffled. "You're behaving suspiciously. More than usual, I mean."
"There's nothing wrong with me! You should wondering what's wrong with you!" Shuichi stabbed a finger at Sano. "Your behavior has been suspicious lately, being nice, smiling, and asking to hang out. Why do you want to?" Again, Shuichi got up in Sano's face.
Sano looked nervously away, stuttering, "I-I haven't been. What are you? Crazy? I'm the same. Your mom must have dropped you when you were a baby."
Shuichi reared back in offense, balling up his fists. "EH?! You dare talk about my mom?!"
"You guys!"
They both turned their heads to see Mizuki, complete in her cute flowing shirt and dark blue jeans, with a hand on her hip. "You're fighting already?" she asked, coming over to them and scolding them with her eyes.
"He started it," Sano said first.
Shuichi scoffed disgustedly and grit out, "Bullshit!"
Mizuki sighed, grabbing Sano's hand in one of hers and Shuichi's with the other. "Let's go eat, okay?"
Before Shuichi or Sano could agree or maybe decline her offer -if you could interpret that as a offer- Mizuki dragged them down the boardwalk. Shuichi caught Sano's eyes over Mizuki's head.
We are going to talk, those eyes said.
Shuichi sent his only thought back.
We'll see.
--
Shuichi laughed as Mizuki began telling them of how her parents reacted when they found out she'd been staying at an all boy's school. Apparently, Mizuki couldn't bear telling half-truths and eventually told them after a while. Her mom wanted to know how many cute boys she got to spy on, while her dad -who somehow hadn't fainted with rage- demanded to know if she'd been taken advantage of.
"I can't believe he asked me that!" Mizuki took another hearty bite out of her hamburger. Shuichi looked at his own, almost in disbelief that it was as big as Mizuki boasted about during the school year. "I was so embarrassed! My mom also gave me this suspicious look and I had to avoid her for weeks because I knew that she was going to ask me if I was dating anyone again."
Shuichi and Sano glanced at each other and Shuichi looked down at his plate. "So-So are you?"
Shuichi gasped as Sano -who else could it be?- stepped on his foot. He glared, prepared to slap his best friend around the head when Mizuki made a surprised noise.
"Eh? Dating? Me?" Mizuki finished off her hamburger with red ketchup smeared in the left corner of her mouth. Shuichi fought the urge to wipe it away with his thumb. "No. I have too much to do and study. No time for romance," she said dismissively, using her napkin to clean her fingers.
"Oh," Sano sounded, reaching over and wiping the ketchup from the corner of her mouth. Shuichi wasn't quite... jealous, but he felt something negative seeing how comfortable they were around each other. Mizuki didn't even blush, she just smiled and laughed at herself. "Is there a lot more studying here?"
Mizuki cocked her head to the side thinking about it. "No, not really. It isn't more studying... Well, I mean it is a lot to study, but there are only a few subjects. The subjects we have require a lot of knowledge, but fewer classes so I think it's less studying."
"Oh, that's good then," Shuichi commented, digging into his fries and stomping on Sano's foot in retaliation. "At least, you don't have a lot of classes to attend."
"But there are a lot of causes," Mizuki laughed, pushing back her hair, which had grown long again, over her shoulder. "They have a lot of beliefs here, you know. California is very liberal."
"Really?" Sano said interestedly, grinding the heel of his boot into Shuichi's sneaker.
Shuichi winced and promised Sano a hellish payback later.
They all talked about general stuff for a while, Mizuki leading most of the conversation, retelling stories of her time spent in her new college. Shuichi and Sano listened raptly, laughing when appropriate, and more often than not, when it definitely wasn't appropriate. Like when her sorority had a contest similar to the Mr. Osaka contest and stuffed her into the changing booth before yanking all her clothes.
"I was horrified, guys! Stop laughing!" She punched both of them several times, missing as they ducked. "It's not funny! Don't you know my teachers and my parents were there!"
This caused them to laugh even harder as Mizuki's face turned a fetching color of red. She folded her arms huffily and muttered some unsavory comments about boys being idiots. Sano spoke up first, still snorting with laughter.
"It could've been worse," he told her, pushing aside her intended slap.
"How?" she nearly shouted at them, looking irritated.
"You could've been naked!" Shuichi sing-songed, including his awesome jazz hands making Sano start wheezing and Mizuki crack a reluctant smile. "You're lucky it was just your underwear!"
"Unless you were wearing granny panties," Sano stage-whispered, wiggling his eyebrows.
Mizuki choked on her orange juice.
"No way, we've already seen what kind of underwear Mizuki likes," Shuichi said, remembering the bra Hibari had twirled around her finger when Yuujiro was stealing underwear from St. Blossoms. He also remembered Mizuki underneath the lie detector one of their classmates had made. "She likes cute prints and lace. But her favorite are sheer, see thro-"
Pain clawed all over his face as he was knocked back and out of his chair. Shuichi quickly jumped up, ready to knock Sano one, stopping when he realized Sano was silently laughing. Shuichi whirled around, rubbing his face.
"Aw, didja have to hit me so hard, Mizuki-chan!" Shuichi wailed wounded, noting how she didn't even seem bothered by his pain. "Can't you see I'm hurt!"
Mizuki didn't even look at him, delicately sipping her juice.
"You're such a cold guy," Shuichi stated, righting his chair before plopping down in it.
"If you didn't go so far, you wouldn't be half as stupid as you are," Sano murmured to him.
"What bullshit are you talking?" Shuichi sniped back, knowing that perhaps he'd deserved to get punched. "I was just teasing."
"Baka," Sano replied, pretending to be all cool and handsome. It grated Shuichi's nerves.
"So, are you guys dating anyone?" Mizuki asked suddenly.
"Eh?" was all Shuichi could get out.
"Who would want to date an idiot like Nakatsu?" Sano wasn't even looking at him.
Shuichi was going to punch him and he knew that Mizuki realized this because she stood up abruptly. However, a shout caused Shuichi to halt his actions.
"Classmate, you know you can't solve everything with your fists!" Namba said, strolling up with Nakao and Kayashima in tow. "How are you supposed to get a girlfriend that way?"
Shuichi, anger forgotten, rolled his eyes skyward.
"Only a simple-minded girl would be interested," Nakao tittered, smirking at Shuichi. "You are kind of cute, but not very intelligent."
"Komari-san likes Nakatsu," Kayashima added, giving Shuichi the thumbs up.
Kayashima is such a good friend, Shuichi thought, promising himself to take Kayashima out to dinner soon.
"Komari-san is just being nice," Nakao muttered, grabbing a nearby chair and setting it next to Mizuki. "Pity moves her heart."
"As much as you pretend to be like one, you aren't a girl, Nakao," Shuichi said, swaying his hips mockingly. "You don't even like them. How can you pretend to know a girl's mind?"
"Stop talking nonsense!" Nakao then turned to Mizuki and started chatting to her.
Kayashima and Namba followed Nakao's lead, grabbing chairs, but Namba sat down next to Shuichi and Kayashima sat next to Sano.
Namba leaned over and whispered, "Don't be so mean to him. He's in a foul mood."
Shuichi scoffed. "It's not my fault that you flirt with every girl you see."
"Even American girls can't resist my sexy charm," Namba boasted, grinning widely. Nakao threw a fry at his head. "Hey! Don't waste good food."
Shuichi ate the fry, much to Namba's annoyance and watched Mizuki be steamrollered by Nakao's Latest Osaka Gossip. He and Sano shared a knowing look and laughed together. Maybe they would talk, but it would be later. Right now, Sano was right.
They were all friends.