It's been so long since Zephyr's posted a Yowamushi Pedal – or even a sports anime – story. Too long. And I have a lot of jokes about Toudou, so this is a bit crack-ish.
It had been a quiet, unassuming afternoon until the single most unexpected moment of Toudou's life had occurred; for once, Makishima had texted him first. Not only that, but Toudou temporarily forgot he was even awake as he read the contents of that short, but oh so very, very, very important message:
Toudou. I've decided I need to tell you something.
"MAKISHIMA TEXTED ME!"
Since he was sitting alone in his room, of course nobody replied. That fact did not stop him from excitedly rambling, "And it wasn't even to say that I was 'bothering' him or to 'damn it, stop acting like my mother' for once!"
Of course, not stopping him was also not the same as "not acknowledging it entirely", and Toudou took off running in an effort to make sure as many people knew as possible. He would later be grounded by his parents for his lack of foresight and for disturbing the peaceful ryokan atmosphere of their guests, but before that happened, Toudou ran into the kitchen and met his sister.
"Guess what, GUESS WHAT?!"
"I have a mountain of dishes to do and you're not helping?"
"Uh... no, that's – "
Somewhere along the way, he'd lost his headband, and he was so disheveled and out of breath that he was hardly in any position to protest – or escape.
It's not like Toudou often shirked his responsibilities, but this was the one time he honestly, swear to the heavens needed to, except for, okay, maybe that time last week and the thing that came up a month ago.
Either way, he ended up having to do dishes.
"It's probably been, like, half an hour – "
"Jinpachi, it hasn't even been five minutes!"
"But it feels like an hour!" Toudou complained, hoping that would somehow make the time go by faster. "Maki said he had something to tell me, what if it's important?! He texted me first, so it's definitely important."
Before Toudou could work himself up into a full panic, his sister dryly remarked, "Your precious 'Maki' is probably telling you to stop acting like his mom again."
"Doubtful. He wouldn't make a big deal out of something like that."
…
Wait.
How did his older sister know about that?
Toudou pushed that thought out of the back of his mind, and attempted to do the same with his concerns about Makishima's well being. Not permanently, of course. But if he didn't focus on doing the dishes, he was apparently never going to get out of here.
Just doing the dishes was easier in theory.
Every time Toudou tried to push the image of Makishima staring at his phone out of mind, it came back stronger. A fantasy that began with a severe frown and thin eyebrows cinched with annoyance somehow turned into a furious – "I can't believe you! How could you do this?! I'll never talk to you again, don't call me, I don't want to see your hideous face!"
The Makishima in his head may have been imaginary, but it caused Toudou to gasp and drop his dish towel in very real shock.
"What if Maki's only texting me because he has no other friends?!"
"Uh, sure he does. There's that Onoda kid, and..."
"You don't understand how dire the situation is! Do you have any idea the kinds of things people do when they're upset?"
The elder sibling snorted, rolling her eyes in annoyance (it was pretty clear that, between the two of them, Toudou was the only one with any social grace). "You're acting worse than that time I borrowed your headband..."
"You used my headband for your date! I did not let you borrow it!"
"Well, you used my shampoo last night!"
"If you don't want me using it don't leave it in the shower!"
"Then don't leave your headbands lying around for me to take them! And do the frickin' dishes already, you headband obsessed freak!"
X
"You've been staring at your cell for an hour... What's up?"
Makishima owned a cellphone because his parents had bought him one for Christmas once. The fact that he hadn't put it down for almost three hours was an unprecedented first; so was taking the initiative with texting a certain obnoxious rival of his.
"I think I gave Toudou a heart attack," he said finally.
Sampler of lines that were cut from this fic: "AAAAAAH, NO! MAKI'S GOING TO HATE ME! PLEASE DON'T HATE ME, MAKKIIII!"
I didn't write this specifically so I could have something to post today, but there's also a reason I didn't finish this sooner, ha~