It was early fall in Tokyo . The crisp air was welcomed, accompanied with swirling leaves and cool pleasant breeze. Ryuji was up and early taking a nice jog around the street. Ryuji looked up at the blue sky, he could feel the burn of his muscles as he kept jogging.
He didn't know where he was going, but that didn't matter. What mattered was the rush of the breeze blowing past him, and the feeling of wind moving through his harshly, blond, dyed hair, making it look wild. Then Ryuji came to a quick stop when he realized where he had ended up. He opened the cafe door lightly, the little bell that rang announced his presence to the middle aged man that was behind the counter.
"Hey, Ryuji! Whats up?" Sojiro asked, the small goatee on his chin slightly wobbled as he spoke.
"Meh, nothin' much," Ryuji shrugged turning to the short orange haired girl sitting on one of the stools. Futaba turned to him with her mouthful of curry and rice and waved to him, then she turned her head and continued playing on whatever phone game that had piqued her interest. Ryuji sat in a stool right of Futaba.
"Anything you want?" Sojiro was wiping a couple mugs with a damp towel.
"You got Hot Cocoa?" Ryuji was in the mood for something warm and sweet.
"Sure thing," Sojiro then went into the back door that led to the kitchen. Though the cafe was small and unrefined, it felt like home. But ever since Akira had left a couple months ago, the cafe felt like it was missing something.
Ryuji half glanced at the stairs, have expecting (and half hoping) that the curly black haired boy would step down the stairs, but the stairs seemed a little colder and empty without Akira. Hell, Ryuji would have even been happy with little paw pads lightly thumping down the stairs. Though he would never admit it, he also missed Morgana. The cat was a kind of reminder that all of the supernatural stuff that happened actually existed.
"Hey Ryuujeeee," Futaba turned to him. It was hard to apprehend what she was saying with her mouthful of curry. "Can yo do meh a faaver?"
"Huh, what do ya need?" Ryuji asked curiously.
"Quuiiit mopping arouund! Yusuke hazen't tezxted me in theee weeks!" Futaba swallowed. "Three!"
" Okaaay, well how do you know he's just workin on a new art piece?" Ryuji asked incredulously. Futaba made one of her why-don't-you-just-understand-and-do-my-bidding faces as she shoved her phone into Ryuji's face.
Futaba Sakura: INARIIIII
Inari (aka foxy): Futaba? What is troubling you?
Futaba Sakura: (=_=) I am so boreeeeeed!
Inari (aka foxy): How am I to beguile you?
Futaba Sakura: T_T
Inari (aka foxy): Shall I tell you a joke? I've heard they're quite entertaining.
Futaba Sakura:i am so bored that i'm willing to read Inari's jokes! How low have i suuunk!
Inari (aka foxy): Did you hear of the painter that died?
Futaba Sakura: ?
Inari (aka foxy): He had too many strokes!
Futaba Sakura: I don get it.
Inari (aka foxy): Could you possibly mean "don't"?
Futaba Sakura: Don criticize my typing! o_*
Inari (aka foxy): I'm sorry to say, but I have to go. I'll talk to you later Futaba.
Futaba Sakura: T_T cya
Last talked to 22 days ago
Now that was a bit unlike Yusuke. Leaving abruptly like that. Ryuji sighed.
"Fine, I'll check on him. What's his address?" Ryuji asked
"Im texting the school address to you now!" Futaba said furiously typing in her phone, her thin and nimble fingers blurring across the screen. Ryuji heard his phone vibrate, but didn't attempt to pick it up instead he stood up and went to the door.
"Text me if something is up, awright?!" Futaba said.
"Sure thing," Ryuji opened the door and started walking down the street. Sojiro came out of the kitchen with hot steaming mug of hot chocolate. But it wasn't just "hot chocolate". It was Le' Blanc hot chocolate!
It had the fluffiest marshmallows that were starting to melt into the dark chocolaty abyss of the mug. The spices in the mug screamed to be lifted to the lips of a king. Sojiro looked around for the blonde delinquent but he had seemed to have disappeared. Instead Futaba stretched her hands for the hot mug.
"Gimme gimme!" Her battle cry rang out through the cafe. Sojiro sighed something that sounded like, "Kids these days."
Ryuji walked over the sidewalk to see the huge building that was Kosei High. Near the entrance, Ryuji could see girls in dark blue blazers and skirts. There was a striped blue and white bow near the collar of their shirts. They wore black skirts that seemed similar to the skirts at Shujin. Ryuji approached the girls.
"Hey, you know a guy called Yusuke Kitagawa?" Rujii asked. The girls looked to each other.
"Oh that weirdo? What do you want with him?" The main ringleader of their group stepped up. Ryuji held fast.
"What's it to you?" He said getting defensive. The girls looked at each other and giggled.
"You know..," the ringleader started, "Everything makes sense all of a sudden. You're his boyfriend! He is so weird, 'cause he's gay!" The girls started to erupt with laughter. Then Ryujii's phone vibrated again, Ryuji didn't hesitate to leave the girls and check the notification.
Futaba: Ignore 'em! Their like the annoying side characters no one wants to unlock.
Ryuji Sakamoto: how did you listen to that
Futaba: :3
Futaba: His dorm number is 26
Ryuji Sakamoto: how did you find that out
Futaba: thats for me to kno and u to find out!
Ryuji Sakamoto: a little disturbin but, i guess i've seen worse :/
Ryuji went inside the building he thought was the dorms. There he saw a woman behind a desk, luckily she looked like an official person.
"Hi, how may I help you?" The lady said with a sweet smile.
"Yea, I'm lookin for dorm number 26." Ryuji said.
"Oh! Well you've certainly come to the right place! Just go down that hallway and make two lefts, there should be a elevator down there." 'Finally,' Ryuji thought to himself, 'An actual helpful person.'
Ryuji followed the woman's instructions and eventually made it to a door with the number 26 on it. Ryuji knocked a couple times, but didn't get a response.
"Hey! Yusuke! Are ya in there?!" Ryuji yelled through the door. Then Ryuji tried the doorknob to see that it was open the entire time. After enlisting in a string of colorful language, Ryuji walked inside to find, utter and total silence.
"Yusuke?" Ryuji said hearing a slight and creepy echo in the room. He walked into the lounge to find a sleeping Yusuke on the floor next to crumpled up balls of paper. There were sketches after sketches on the floor, there were tubes of paint splashed everywhere. And propped on an easel was an unfinished painting, it appeared to be of a cat, but there was a red slash on it. And sprawled across the floor was Yusuke.
He had his blazer on, but his tie was slightly undone and the buttons on his dark blue blazer were undone too. Yusuke's hair was not in its usual fringe, it was messed up and was obviously not combed. His skin looked slightly flushed and there were dark lines under his eyes. And his mouth was slightly parted.
Ryuji looked from above him. He couldn't help but notice that Yusuke… Well he looked kinda like a girl. In the still quietness of the house Ryuji could hear Yusuke's snores. He took a long deep breath through his nose with a puff out of his mouth. Ryuji couldn't help but think it was cut- no wait what?
What the hell was he thinking? Ryuji blushed. Yusuke was his friend, not to mention but also a boy. Ryuji kneeled down beside Yusuke and gently shook him. Yusuke made soft sound and opened his dark grey-blue eyes.
"Ryuji?" Yusuke said sounding half asleep. Ryuji felt Yusuke's forehead to find that it was burning hot to the touch.
"Why are you sleeping on the floor?" Ryuji asked. Yusuke frowned.
"I was painting…" Yusuke started. He sounded distracted, "I think I passed out."
"If ya needed help, you should've just asked," Ryuji said, a little irritated with how Yusuke hide the fact that he was sick. Yusuke wouldn't look at him.
"I'm a failure as an artist," Yusuke said, his usual smug persona vanished in an instant. Ryuji looked carefully at Yusuke.
"Why'd you say that?" He said cautiously, he wanted to make sure it was the fever talking. Yusuke put his elbow across his face, covering his eyes.
"I can't- All the stuff I've made so far aren't good enough," Yusuke's voice cracked. Ryuji… Honestly didn't know what to do. And he hated that helpless feeling. He tried being himself.
"Yusuke, I stumbled into some of your classmates, and they're pretty much jerks. Don't let them get to your head," Ryuji said. Yusuke sniffed quietly and rubbed his eyes with his elbow, still concealing his face to Ryuji.
"And besides, all of the paintings you made aren't just "stuff". They're real and genuine! Remember when we first met?" Ryuji paused expecting an answer, Yusuke uncovered his face and nodded slowly. His eyes looked slightly pink.
"All of the art in Madarame's convention, I mean half of it was yours. And I mean it was awesome!" Ryuji looked down at Yusuke hoping that whatever he was doing now would lift the spirits of his friend.
"You really think so?" Yusuke said. A small smile on his face
"Hell yea!" Ryuji said happy to see his friend happy. It had totally nothing to do with how cute Yusuke looked. I mean what?
Ryuji stood up and held a hand out for Yusule, who accept it graciously. "Hey Yusuke, do you have any fever reducers?" Ryuji said once they were both up. Yusuke looked a little dazed.
"Fever reducers? What for?" Yusuke asked confused. Ryuji didn't look surprised. This was the level of obliviousness that he expected from the dark blue hair boy. But to be really honest, it was kinda cut- nope! Nopity nope nope! Big bag of NOPE! Ryuji did not like Yusuke at all. Ryuji was just looking out for a friend, while admiring his… Looks. Yup that was definitely it!
"You told me you passed out, and," Ryuji felt Yusuke's forehead, "you're obviously running a temperature." On closer observation Ryuji could see that Yusuke's eyes were a bit too bright. And he looked thinner than usual.
"Oh, I sometimes pass out when I go without food too long…" Yusuke trailed off. Ryuji sighed. Sure the artist was beautiful (you did not hear that from Ryuji), but he sure had a thick head. How to get it through to him that he can't just buy art supplies all the time, that he actually needed food to survive like the rest of us!
"Alright let's look for some medicine" Ryuji stepping around the balls of crushed paper.