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Competitive to Our Ends
_hex
He's not a naturally competitive person, really. Before meeting Oga and Furuichi, he could count the times he had actively competed on one hand. And besides, it's not really competition, more like compare and contrast. Really. Miki/Furuichi/Oga
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While it's never been formally declared (and while it never will be formally declared), one of the few things Miki has come to understand, in those brief, flickering months with Oga and Furuichi, is that the two of them are inseparable. They take in the rest of the world, of course, though he'd be lying if he said he didn't feel like an outsider at times. But it's of no concern, really, because Oga and Furuichi will simply always be Oga and Furuichi.
He remembers, with a startlingly clear mind, how and when he first noticed the discrepancy in their relative positions.
It had been a normal day, the three of them hanging around, Oga saying that he was hungry, and somehow-or-another, the three of them had ended up at a grocery store. Furuichi, being the more responsible one, had remembered to bring his wallet - something that both Oga and himself forgot. Sheepishly, he had asked the other if he could borrow some money for ice cream.
"Sure!" Furuichi had said, all while cheerily swatting away Oga's grabbling hand, "On second thought, I want ice cream too, so how about we share a bucket?" Oga had whined persistently enough for Furuichi to finally relinquish some three-hundred yen to aid in the purchase of yet another comic magazine. It was an utterly normal happenstance, Miki had then thought. Just some friendly hanging-out.
He and Furuichi had walked out to the steps, sitting down and divvying up the container of ice cream. Oga shortly joined them, with a candy bar and magazine. The candy had been for 'free' Oga felt the need to note, as Furuichi rolled his eyes, before digging out another spoonful of mint-and-marshmallow flavored ice cream.
"You could've just asked me for a couple hundred yen," Furuichi had grumbled, "Did you beat the shopkeeper up? Damn," he muttered, running a hand through his hair, "She was pretty cute too...!"
"Idiot Furuichi," Oga had responded, taking a bite from his ill-gotten (apparently) candy bar, "When I said she gave it to me for free, I mean she gave it to me for free."
"Right," Furuichi had rolled his eyes - again - before turning to Miki, probably to ask his opinion on the subject. "Ah, Miki," he had said, as if commenting on nothing out of the ordinary. It was because of this - and the fact that this was Furuichi, the person Miki knew only because of Oga - that Miki had been only entirely unprepared. "You have some ice cream on your nose." And just like that, Furuichi had reached out, swiped off the bit of ice cream, and wiped his finger on the napkin. And then he had continued eating his own share of ice cream.
Miki and Oga, on the other hand, were not so unaffected. He remembers deeply flushing, wiping hurridly at his own nose (with his own hand and napkin, of course), and stealing a quick glance at Oga, who had stiffened, but otherwise looked unaffected.
He had then breathed a sigh of relief and wondered - the traitorous, unsatisfied part of him, of course - why? After all, they were all supposedly friends (though he was evidently the only one who used such terms and affections) and living in constant fear of Oga's rage was hardly where he had wanted to be.
And... no. Because that hadn't - wasn't - been the problem at all.
No, no, no; the realization, that day, that moment, had been in the discrepancy in their relations. The realization that while Furuichi had something to give to Oga, Oga, on the other hand, did not. Furuichi, of course, wasn't much for protecting (or being protected) and his own allowance gave him more-or-less everything that he needed and wanted. And in that - in that difference, that minor 'fault' in their relationship - Miki had seen...
Had seen a place for himself, in their clockwork movements and mindsets.
It all had come crashing to a halt, when he transferred. Furuichi had looked at him - sadly, pitingly - and he found, with that look, that he had hated Oga more and more. After all, the whole sordid affair had been Oga's fault, right? Furuichi had been close - sodamnablyclose - and then he had been farther than ever. He had gone to Ishiyama, with Oga - of course - and that had been that.
Supposedly.
So he tightens his bandages, because a chance to expel Oga from Saint Ishiyama - to prove (to who? for whom?) that he was the better of the two. It wasn't competition, really - just a simple compare and contrast. A then-and-now, if Miki thinks about it. There are fibres and bricks, and all of them lay in pieces, lay with the punching bags. And when he beats Oga to the ground, he catches the outright surprise in Furuichi's eyes - and it's good enough.
(He might not see the appreciation - but he has to hasto believe that it's there.)
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