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First Love Saga: Atobe and Fuji
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It is a beautiful day in Japan as he examines the refreshing views of seaside Japan from the window of the car belonging to his personal driver. It isn't as if he doesn't have a car or doesn't know how to drive; he is 23 for crying out loud. Anyways, he could have driven 1 out of 21 cars he owned in his own car park, but he is too tired to enjoy driving right now since he just got off the airplane from France, where he chose to further his study after senior high.
Suddenly, the Droid X, laying 2 feet away on the seat from where he sits, vibrates. His eyes dart over to the portable technology before he lazily reaches over to pick it up. He diffuses his tiredness away and answers the call in a smooth professional tone without looking at the caller ID. "Atobe Keigo."
"Yo Atobe!"
Atobe's eyes widens slightly as he recognizes the voice of his blue haired friend. A smirk slowly finds its way to Atobe's flawless face. "I hope you are not stalking me, Oshitari." His friend shouldn't have called this number unless he knew Atobe is back in Japan.
There is a light chuckle from the other end before Oshitari speaks up again. "For your information, I don't need to stalk you to know where you are."
Atobe scoffs in a way only the almighty rich people like himself is able to.
"Your mother called me earlier and told me that you are currently on your way home right now."
"I don't see a perfect reason why she would call you to do such thing." Atobe boringly looks back out the window.
"Oh, but there is a perfect reason."
Atobe raises an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Do you remember what day today is?"
Atobe narrows his eyes. Does his friend think he is a hermit who lives in the wild? Of course he knows what today is!
Before Atobe could retort a sarcastic reply, Oshitari rectifies his earlier inquiry. "Of course you know today's date, but in case you forgot, today is the Delegation Party hosted by your parents."
A light bulb clicks in Atobe's head and his mind freezes. Shit. No wonder why his parents called him home at this time of the year. How could he ever forget the date and let his parents tricked him?
"In another word, they're officially handing the corporation over to you, under your name."
Atobe is cool about that. In fact, he couldn't wait to become the CEO, but there is a dire fact coming with the fortune. And that, is what making Atobe frozen upon hearing the news.
"And don't forget, you're meeting your fiancé today at the party, so prepare your mentality." Oshitari says with a snicker full of knowledge.
Double shit. Atobe groans internally. He is still too young to get married. However, h wouldn't mind getting married early if his fiancé is a sexy, gorgeous model, but she's not. In fact, his fiancé, is not a she. It's a HE, and that is what freaking him out for life. He isn't GAY!
Atobe licks his lips tensely. "I'm going back to the airport."
Oshitari laughs in amusement as Atobe speaks to his driver in a hurried tone. "Sanji, turn around and take me to the airport. I'm going back to France."
Sanji looks half-amused, half-apologetic into the rear view mirror at Atobe. "I'm sorry Young Master. I was given order to drive you straight to the boutique to prepare your outfit for tonight." Pre-emptive strike. His parents have won this round.
Atobe curses in silence and sits back with an annoyed face. Damn, his parents are good. The Delagation Party is like a gift to him and his fiancé for their engagement. The average Joe would drool over it, but Atobe is certainly dreading it immensely.
"Relax, Atobe." Oshitari says.
"Are you smoking?" Atobe slaps his head. How could he relax?
"I have an ingenious idea."
"Oh really?" Atobe adds sarcastically upon hearing it.
"Hey!" Oshitari good-humoredly admonishes. "At least I have something that could save you from engaging to your fiancé."
Atobe ponders if Oshitari really has a plan. "Then let's hear it."
"Engagement?" Fuji narrows his eyes at the four people that he called family in front of him. "I have a fiancé?"
The four heads nod in unison.
"To Atobe Corps.'s heir."
They nod again with wide smiles and Fuji twitches. Everyone in Japan would know that Atobe Corps only has an heir, and that heir is certainly not a female. "Why have I never heard of this before?" Fuji inquires with veins about to pop on his head.
His parents gulp. Yumiko keeps her mischievous smile on and Yuuta keeps on sighing like there is no tomorrow. They have been sitting in the living room with his aniki for quite a long while now and he keeps on reconfirming every sentence he heard.
Fuji glowers when no one answered. He squeezes his eyes shut and stands up. "I'm going to take a nice cold shower and hope that this is a horrible nightmare." He smiles, albeit a bit delusional, before excusing himself.
Yuuta looks around in confusion. "Wait, this is not a nightmare. It's reality."
His parents immediately glare at him as Yumiko chuckles behind her hand at Yuuta's current stupefied state.
"Silly, otoutou. Syusuke is merely in denial." She stands up and seemingly skips to her room up the spiral staircase.
After the shower, Fuji feels so much better. He hums happily, mind on a desert full of rare cacti, until he comes over to his bed and sees the invitation lying un-harmfully on the pillow. Glaring at the innocent card, his mood instantly drops from cloud 9. "This is not happening." He murmurs deadly, as if wanting to murder the non-living card.
A breeze comes through his window on the third floor, and an idea suddenly pops up in his head. He grins. "To hell with the engagement. Let's see what they'd do when they find me missing. I'm not getting tied down to a man. Bogus." He is not gay.
Fuji quickly runs to his closet and finds his most inconspicuous and normal clothes to wear. With a pair of black cargo pants, a light blue T-shirt, and a black cap, he puts his black converse on before escaping through the window like a professional daytime thief.
After picking out the best outfit for the Party, Oshitari comes over to the boutique.
Atobe wants to execute his friend's ingenious idea with just the two of them, but unfortunately, Sanji is under strict order to not let Atobe out of sight, for his parents knew what Atobe is thinking.
Sitting from the back, next to Atobe, Oshitari asks Sanji to drive slowly down the lane of city square. He then requests for privacy in the back and Sanji pushes a button to operate a sound-proof sector window between the driver and passengers. "Alright, Atobe, keep your eyes wide open. This is all you got, so it's either a fail or success."
Atobe sighs. Trust Oshitari to come up with an ingenious plan with utmost insufficient resource. "I don't see how this idea would find me a perfect 'girlfriend.' Honestly, since you can come up with such idea, at least provide me with a fake girlfriend." Atobe scowls irritatingly.
"Oh come on, I would've done that, but I just thought of this idea when I called you. I didn't have much time to look for a perfect girlfriend for you." Oshitari soothes the annoyed bachelor. He looks out the window. "Look. There are at least 100 ladies out there on the street would like this part time job. Just pick one and we can go home."
Atobe yawns boringly before averting his eyes to the street. His eyes lazily sweep through the street without much interest until he saw a figure sitting alone under an umbrella of a café shop. Atobe immediately taps the sector window to call out to Sanji to stop the car.
Oshitari looks mildly confused at his friend, but he didn't say anything,
Atobe blinks to clear his eyes as he examines the girl. She is merely sitting there with a smile as her fingers fly across her iphone. Her black cap sits on the table, next to her coffee cup.
Atobe grins widely. "I think I found the perfect girlfriend."
Oshitari exchanges glances from Atobe to the girl with furrowed forehead. "Perfect? I never knew you were into tomboys."
"Exactly the point."
"What?"
With a playboy smirk, Atobe steps out of the car, follows in distance by his friend, and crosses the street to the awaiting café.
A little pollen flies by his nostrils and Fuji sneezes cutely, follows by a crinkle of his nose. He looks up from his iphone and looks around to find a tissue box when a white handkerchief is delivered right up to him.
"What?" Fuji murmurs in faint confusion before looking up to find a man about his age with an elegant mole at the corner of his right eye looking down at him with a haughty smile.
The man nudges the handkerchief closer to Fuji, indicating for him to take it.
Hesitantly, Fuji reaches out and takes it. "Thank you." He smiles and dabs his nose with it.
Fuji waits for the man to leave, but he didn't, so he awkwardly looks back up at the man. "I'll buy this from you." Fuji indicates to the handkerchief.
The man shrugs slightly. "No need. You can keep it."
Relentlessly, the strange man stands there smiling down at him. As the second ticks by, Fuji seriously thinks that the man is really psychotic, so he stands up to look at the man properly into his eyes. "Look, I have money, you don't have to-" He is abruptly stopped when the man suddenly pressed two of his fingers against Fuji's lips to prevent him from speaking another word.
"Oshitari." The strange man waves over his blue-haired companion. "Call Sanji over, we're going over to your family's boutique to get her a decent gown."
Fuji's eyes widens. Her? Since when did he become a girl? Before Fuji could clear up the mistaken identity, he is dragged into a black car by the strange man.
He is still in shock as he continuously blinked his eyes to make clear of his surrounding as he sat in the car that kidnapped him. He hears slurred voice, so he shook his head to clear his brain and what he hears are 'job' and 'girlfriend'. At the last word, he frowns. Wait a minute.
"Hold up!" Fuji shouts, effectively shutting the other two occupants in the car.
Oshitari seems to frown. "You sure are greedy." He says in a deadpan voice.
"What?" Fuji's brows came together disapprovingly. What the hell? Why has he become the greedy one now? "I am greedy? What the hell?" Fuji bursts and yells at Oshitari's face. "You both kidnapped me, and now you're saying I'm greedy? Who is the one who dragged me into this damn car?"
Oshitari blinks in shock and wordlessly, he points to the strange man, otherwise known as Atobe, sitting on the other side of Fuji.
Fuji immediately turns around and glares at Atobe. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Kidnapping an innocent civilian in broad daylight, do you want to go to jail? For the love of my cacti, what the hell is wrong with you? Did you just escape from the asylum, you psychotic person?"
Atobe stares amusingly at the girl yelling into his face. It was his first time being yelled at directly into his face, and somehow it does not seem so bad. It is quite amusing actually, to see an enraged girl yelling like a crazed maniac. Amusing indeed. He chuckles. "Relax, my kitten." He said in a suave tone. Reaching out, he let his fingers slide through the silky brown locks of the girl.
Fuji frowns and swats the strange man's hand away with a disapproving glare as he tucks the stray strands of hair behind his ear and pulls down his cap. "Don't touch me pervert."
The action only makes Atobe more amusing with the whole situation, particularly the girl. "I'm just going to borrow you for tonight, and don't worry, you'll be paid well." Atobe moves his face closer to Fuji, who backs up with a continual fixed glare. "Be my girlfriend for tonight. I won't mistreat you."
Fuji twitches. "You are demented. I'm not a girl."
Oshitaru and Atobe raise an unbelieving eyebrow before they burst out laughing.
Fuji frowns in confusion. "What?" He shouts engagingly.
Oshitari wipes a tear from his eye. "Ne." He looks over to Atobe. "Doesn't this sound familiar to you?"
"Indeed. It's a pretty common way for girls to drive off unwanted predators. Seen that in movies. All scripted out." Atobe tilts his head to the side and smirks. "No matter what you say, what reasons you come up with, I'm not going to believe you."
"I'm telling you the truth! I'm a guy!"
Throughout the ride, Fuji tries hard to convince the two men that he is not a girl, but they seem to block out his protest and yells. By the time they arrive at the boutique, Fuji is too tired to argue, so he allows himself to be dragged into the building.
Oshitari's mother's employees greet them reverently with a bow as they walk by into the dressing area. Upon arriving, Oshitari leaves Atobe and Fuji to stand in the center of the room while he goes to find his mother.
Fuji looks around. The room is huge, but not as big as his room at home. There is a small platform in the center of the room, next to where they are standing. By now, Atobe has walked to a wine color sofa beside the window. The attendants promptly brought tea over.
Fuji ignores the man and continues to observe the place. There are 3 dressing rooms situated in a way for those who sits at the sofa to gaze at the ladies who try on the clothes after they come out from the dressing room. The small platform is situated in between.
Then, a woman in her late thirties comes walking in with Oshitari. "Mother, that's her."
Atobe stands up and greets his friend's mother.
Fuji turns around to look at the mother and son.
"Ah, she is lovely." Oshitari's mother praises as she came closer to inspect Fuji up and down with a pleasant smile.
"Er…" Fuji fidgets. "I think you all are mistaken. I'm not a girl." He tries to explain again, but is hushed up by Oshitari's mother's hand.
"Non-sense. A beautiful lady shouldn't say such condemning thing." She chastised lightly and clapped 2 times. Two attendants appeared.
"Find the perfect dress for this beautiful young lady."
"What-?" Fuji's voice faintly diffuses as he is dragged quite roughly into one of the three room. "No wait!" It was ignored.
Oshitari's mother leads them over to sit at the sofas while waiting. "Yuushi told me of your little plan."
Atobe looks up from his teacup at the smiling woman.
"Don't worry, Atobe-kun." She says gently as she sips her tea. "I understand your situation, and I will help you. My lips are sealed."
Atobe smiles gratefully at her.
Not a full 5 minutes later, they hear shrieks from the dressing room and both attendants run out with bright red faces. The three on the sofas quickly stand up and come closer to the center to meet up with the attendants.
"What happened?" Oshitari's mother asks, slightly confused.
"Ma-ma-am-" They stutter as they look at the floor, avoiding the sight of the other two men.
Atobe and Oshitari share a glance before Atobe remember that the girl is still in the dressing room. "The girl!" Atobe says aloud. Seeing how the attendants were all flushed, he thinks maybe there is a pervert in the dressing room.
Without wasting another second, Atobe dashes into the room with Oshitari following closely behind, weirdly feeling concerned for the girl.
"Wait, young masters!" The attendants call out, and without a clue of what is going on, Oshitari's mother leaves her two employees to go into the dressing room.
There is a moment of silence as she enters the room, and she pulls the curtain aside to see two the backs of her son and his friend standing frozen as they look further into the room with wide eyes.
"What in the world is going on in here?" Oshitari's mother wonders aloud. She pushes the two young men aside to walk through. What she sees isn't anything surprising. It is just Fuji standing adorning in a light green dress with his hands in the front to hold up the dress to cover his chest. The zipper at the back was apparently unzipped.
Not used to people staring at him without clothes on, he embarrassedly dropped himself to the floor and pulled the dress up to cover himself as much as possible.
Still not getting the situation, she comes by to sit near Fuji, who apparently was glaring straight at the two men standing. "What's wrong, honey?"
Fuji shifts his eyes to the woman. He is about to opened his mouth when Oshitari and Atobe shout at them. "You're not a girl!" What's worse, they pointed at Fuji like he was the one guilty in all this.
Fuji immediately retorts, not so happy with the accusing fingers. "Of course I'm not! I've been trying to tell you that ever since you kidnapped me!" He barks at them.
Oshitari's mother looks between them with an entertaining gaze.
"But I thought you were lying!" Atobe replies as he raged. The whole point was trying to get himself disengaged in a mess with a male fiancé, but the mess didn't get any better with him now knowing that he actually mistook a man for a woman who he wanted to hire to be his fake girlfriend. "I would have believed you if you don't look like a girl!"
"It's your fault for thinking I'm a girl!" Fuji's angrily shouted. How dare the man tried to put all the blame on him. "Asshole."
"Now. Now. Let's all be calm about this." Oshitari's mother speak up.
"How can I be calm about this? I'm supposed to hire a girlfriend, not a boyfriend." Atobe blurts out in an un-princely manner. "I'm so screwed."
Oshitari's mother chuckles elegantly as she helps Fuji to stand up with the dress properly fixed on his body. "I believe there is something we can do about this mess." She positively remarks calmly.
Atobe sighs heavily and looks at his friend. "Didn't you think of this idea in the first place? Why don't you think of a way to resolve this?" Atobe growls before leaving the room.
Oshitari groans tiredly and massages his temple. His eyes then avert to the angry young man in a dress. He re-inspected the man for a moment before his eyes shined in wonder. "Say, can you help my friend by crossdressing and being his date for just tonight?"
Fuji flips his hair and looks away with his nose high up in the air. "Not for that asshole, no."
Oshitari comes closer. At least the young man isn't mad at him. "How about for me?"
Fuji raises an incredulous eyebrow. "I don't even know you." He points out.
Truth. Oshitari admits silently as he smiles. "Alright, how about this. If you do my friend this favor, I'd give you anything you want."
Fuji scoffs. He has heard that compromising statement a million times already, and there is nothing in the world that he currently want except for breaking that stupid engagement. However, there is something that he wants. A small smirk makes its way to his face. "Anything?"
Oshitari nods all too quickly to realize the danger of the request.
When Oshitari finds Atobe standing at the rooftop of the building, the young heir is still pissed as he kicked the pebble on the ground. "Hey, Atobe."
The young heir turns around upon hearing his name. "What?" He grumbles.
Oshitari whips up a force smile. "We came to a solution."
Atobe looks at his friend's face with incredulity. He waits.
"He agrees to help you on one condition."
Atobe scoffs and looks at the skyscrapers beyond. "I don't negotiate with someone like him."
Oshitari walks to stand by his friend. "Listen." The sun is slowly getting ready to set at the horizon. He knows that they were running out of time before the party begins. "The reason why he's here because you want to break up the engagement tonight and because you chose him…of all people." He added as an afterthought before continuing. "The party is starting in two hours. You should make your decision quick because we are running out of time."
Atobe stays silent. His friend is right. His top priority right now is the engagement and the only person he deems fit to be his girlfriend is the stranger he kidnapped from the street. At that time when he sighted the stranger at the café, something within him told him that she is the right one, and now that the 'she' is no longer a 'she', he feels confused. He sighs dejectedly. "I guess. What's the condition?"
Oshitari's sudden fidgeting and hesitancy bother Atobe. He growls at Oshitari. "What is it?"
"…Err…" Oshitaru nervously glanced at Atobe. "He wants you to kneel down while apologizing and begging him to help you." He said it in one quick breath.
Atobe's eyes twitched, and he then bursts out. "Oh Hell NO!"
In the end, Fuji agreed to help the strange man because Oshitari begged and then promised to be his slave for a whole week on Atobe's premises.
"You owe me big for this." Oshitari grumbles as he leans on the door as they wait in front of his mother's boutique for Fuji to come out.
Atobe stands facing his friend with a hand in his pant pocket while the other fixing his tie. "Thanks man, you're the best." He grins into the reflection of the car.
Oshitari scoffs and pushes himself up in a foul mood. "Why are they taking so long?" He is about to enter the building when the door opened. The bright light from inside the building shines into the darkness that the night sky imposed on the city.
Atobe blinks his eyes to absorb the intensity before turning around to look at the stranger he was cursing a while ago. He had some nerves to ask Atobe to do such defiling thing!
He is about to yell at the stranger for the tardiness, but his mouth became frozen as the light dimmed down and his retinas adapted to the light to focus on the crossdressing stranger.
Oshitari, who is at the bottom of the steps, couldn't help but stare at the ingenious transformation by his mother's hands. He let out a breath. "Wow~"
Atobe doesn't dare to blink, thinking if he did, the image might disappeared. The stranger then slowly descends the few steps, coming closer to Atobe.
Seeing the frozen statue of the person he came to hate several hours ago, he shouts with hands on his hips. "Hey!"
Atobe shakes his head and blinks a couple of times. "!" He breaks out of the daze and stares at Fuji once again. Before he knew it, he blurts out something he couldn't take back even if he wanted to. "You're beautiful."
Fuji immediately blushes, not expecting that comment from a crude person. He doesn't know why, but the simple comment makes him feel all strange in his stomach. Though, it isn't such a bad feeling.
Afraid of really being late, Oshitari rushes them into the limo so they could head to the reception hall.
Atobe and Fuji sit at each end of the long seat while Oshitari sat in front of them. It is unusually quiet and he expects the 'couple' to be arguing and obstreperous the whole ride.
Instead, Atobe keeps his stare on Fuji with a winningly smile, while Fuji furtively glancing up a few times shyly before looking back down at the hands folded neatly on his laps when he catches Atobe's eyes.
Whatever is going on between the two sitting in front of Oshitari, he is beginning to think that it is ridiculous.
For Fuji, he never once was in a situation like this, and it is freaking him out, especially the initially reason that made his whole day a mess. He is definitely not gay. But why? Why is he blushing like a girl seeing her crush? He doesn't have an answer.
The ride is somehow thankfully short. Sanji gets out of the car and opens the door for the passengers.
Oshitari comes out first, then Atobe. Like the gentleman, Atobe offers a hand to Fuji to help the cross-dressed man out. Fuji hesitantly takes it and steps out of the car. Atobe holds Fuji's hand as they walk into the reception hall to the banquet room. There are ushers around them to lead the way toward the right room.
Before they entered the banquet hall, Fuji stops and pulls Atobe back slightly by their connected hands. "Wait."
Atobe turns around with a small frown. "What is it?" He dearly hopes the stranger is not changing his mind right now.
Oshitari comes over with curiosity all over his face. "What's going on?"
"You haven't told me what this all about yet." Fuji pulls back his hand from Atobe's hand. He looks past Atobe. He doesn't have a good feeling about this party.
The sudden lack of warmth in Atobe's hand makes him feel disappointed.
Oshitari looks over at his friend, sending Atobe confused look. "I thought we told you that we need you to pretend to be his girlfriend for tonight."
"I know that, but at a banquet?" Somehow, this sounds a bit familiar to Fuji. The banquet, that is. "I thought it's a family gathering."
Atobe pockets his hands, letting his friend to do all the explanation.
"Well, he's getting engaged tonight to someone he doesn't know, so he needs you to help him break the engagement. That's all. You don't have to do anything else besides showing everyone that you guys are a couple." Oshitari says.
Fuji sighs. His shoulders droop.
"Please. You can't pull out right now, and you promised." Oshitari pulls an innocent look.
Fuji glances at the blue-haired male and sighs again. "Fine, but I need to use the restroom."
Oshitari smiles gladly. "Alright. I'll accompany you to the restroom."
Fuji shrugs. "Suit yourself." And he walks away.
Atobe looks at his friend with a weird expression that says 'why you?'. "I can accompany him."
Oshitari taps his watch. "It's time. You need to go in there right now for the speech." He taps Atobe's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll bring him in as soon as I can."
Atobe nods in agreement and turns around to go into the room.
Yuuta runs into the reception hall and slows down to a brisk walk into the banquet room to find his parents.
His mom and dad are talking to a friend when they see Yuuta coming in. They excuse themselves before approaching their youngest. "Did you find him?" Yoshiko immediately asks with a worried tone.
"No luck." Yuuta shakes his head. "I tried his phone a million times already, but he didn't pick it up." He says desperately, almost pulling out his gelled hair in frustration.
His parents sigh, feeling as frustrated as their son. "What is that child thinking? How could he leave the house without telling us? Honey," She turns to her husband. "You don't think he ran away, do you?"
Her husband shakes his head in defeat. "I hope not."
When Yoshiko looks back at the entrance, she sees Yumiko coming through with her boyfriend and immediately rushes over. "Yumiko."
Yumiko blinks confusingly as she examines the worried look on her mom's face. "What's wrong mom?"
"I've been trying to call you for half a day." There was a hurried desperate tone hiding underneath.
Yumiko looks apologetic at her mom. "Sorry, work was so busy that I couldn't pick up my phone." She then realizes that it isn't the problem that etches on her mom's face right now. "Why were you calling me?"
"After you left, I came up to check on Syusuke, but I couldn't find him anywhere. Yuuta has been trying to reach him through his phone, but he is not picking it up."
Yumiko widens her eyes and gasps disbelievingly. "Syusuke ran away?"
Yoshiko crinkles her forehead. "I think so." She begins to tear up. "I knew this is going to happen. It's my fault for not telling him sooner."
Yumiko smiles strainedly as she tries to placate her. "I don't think Syusuke ran away. Maybe he's somewhere trying to calm himself."
Yoshiko shakes her head in denial. "How are we going tell our in-laws that Syusuke ran away because of this arrangement?"
Yumiko closes her eyes in defeat, hoping it isn't so.
During the speech, Fuji's family waits nervously, thinking both about what to tell the other family as well as anticipating their reactions.
Apparently, both families have made this pact a while back when the couple was set to be married when they were three years of age. The parents of both families were best friends in college and promised to make a strong alliance with each other in the future somehow, and Akane only thought of the arrange marriage when she saw Fuji at his 3rd birthday. She adores the little boy so much that she wanted her only son to get married to Yoshiko's little boy, even if he is a boy, but still look like a cute little girl in her eyes.
Every minute that passed, Oshitari turns his head to the lady's restroom entrance, anxiously waiting for Fuji to get out as he keeps on looking at his watch every now and then as if he is running out of time.
It had been more than a quarter of an hour since Fuji has been in the restroom doing only the higher deity knows what. He sighs and shakes his head, hearing the commence oration about to end. A minute later, people begin to clap and cheer. He whips his head over to the entrance again and scratches the back of his head in frustration. "What the hell is he doing in there?"
Without wasting any more time, Oshitari quickly enters the restroom before he is spotted by someone. Luckily, he sees no one in the restroom, so he approaches the one locked door on the far end of the lined up cubicles. "Hey!" He knocks on the door. "It's been 20 minutes."
Inside, Fuji is sweating, trying on to fix the sash on the dress that he accidently dragged off when he entered the cubicle. He sighs tiredly before giving up and opening the door with an angry glare on his face. "What?" He dropped his voice darkly in frustration.
Oshitari frowns as he looks at Fuji's current state. "You look…." He pauses while turning Fuji around, so he could see Fuji's back. "Ravished. What happened?"
Fuji fingers the fallen sash around his waist. "It got caught in the door lock when I came in, and I ripped it off."
Oshitari sighs dejectedly and slaps his forehead. "Seriously!"
Fuji crosses his arms and huffs. He doesn't like being blamed. "Hey! This wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for your ingenious idea. This is the first time I'm wearing something this ridiculous!"
Oshitari puts his hands up in defeat, saving himself from one of Fuji's lecture. "Okay, okay. Let me think of something." He twirls Fuji around enough so he could get an idea of a possible solution to the current ordeal. All of a sudden, his eyes brighten up and he snaps his fingers. "OH!" He takes off the pin that is holding the rose to his jacket and uses it to pin the sash diagonally across Fuji's chest to create a new style.
All the while, Fuji stands patiently still while watching the blue-haired man does wonder. He has to give it to the man for his quick ideas. He smiles with amazement to Oshitari when his dress is fixed. "Thanks."
It is too late when Oshitari looks up at Fuji's face and blushes, seeing how Fuji looks absolutely cute like a forest nymph smiling genuinely at him. He quickly looks down and starts walking away with a soft murmur of "You're Welcome." He hopes Fuji didn't discern his previous embarrassing reaction.
Fuji smiles like nothing happened and follows Oshitari's lead into the banquet hall.
"Oh, there you are. I've been looking for you."
Yoshiko smiles. "Hello to you too, Akane. I saw you were busy talking to your friends, so I didn't want to bother you."
"Non-sense." Atobe Akane chides Yoshiko good-humoredly and pulls her friend into a hug. "It's good to see you again."
"Same here." Yoshiko returns.
Beside them, their husbands chat to one another about the world of business until Akane interrupts them with her hand on her husband's arm. "Honey."
Atobe Kira looks at his wife and links their arms together, knowing what she wants. "Akanehas been waiting to see Syusuke all day. She even almost tripped over the door mat while rushing to get out of the house."
Akane looks at her husband with a childish frown with her hands on her hips. "Honey! They don't need to hear my embarrassment."
Yoshiko and her husband nervously glance at each other before forcing out a calm smile. "Ah." Yoshiko replies. "I called Syusuke home a week ago."
"Then, he must be here right now, right?" Akane speaks with gleams of excitement in her eyes.
"About that-"
"Father. Mother." Atobe's sudden appearance stops Yoshiko from speaking, who is actually glad instead of deeming it inappropriate and impolite.
"Keigo." Kira gives his son a stern glance that tells Atobe that he shouldn't have barged into their conversation unannounced.
In reply, Atobe smiles to his father before turning to Yoshiko and her husband to give a respectful greeting.
"They are your future father and mother-in-law."
Atobe twitches as he regarded them. "Is that so?" He speaks in slow syllables. He feels a bit guilty for planning to disappoint them tonight, but he cannot afford to marry their son. Even if he is starting to like males, a male in particular, there is still his 'girlfriend.' He turns to his parents. "…Father. Mother. Can I talk to you for a second?"
His parents nod and excuse themselves from the Fuji couple.
"What is it that we can't speak in front of your future parents-in-law, Keigo?" Akane demands, quite impatiently. She stills wants to see Syusuke as soon as possible.
Atobe hesitates before getting straight to the point. "I have a girlfriend."
His parents blink in silent, before his mother's facial expression turns into an unpleasant one. "What did you say?" She asks, punctuating each word in a serious demeanor.
Atobe gulps.
His father frowns at him sternly. "How could you have gotten a girlfriend the day you came back? What do you think you are doing, young man?"
His mother agrees. "We've told you of this engagement more than a decade ago. Don't you dare pulling a joke on us." She cajoles him in a quiet voice to avoid a commotion. "Is she here right now?" She has to give this 'girlfriend' a piece of her mind.
Atobe nods, afraid that he would sound weak if he speaks. He glances toward door just in time to see his 'girlfriend' and Oshitari entering the hall. The mere sight of Fuji makes him happy and he smiles. He raises a hand to catch Oshitari's attention.
His parents catch the look their son is sending toward Oshitari and a stranger. Akane squints her eyes. "That girl's got some guts if she wants to marry my son."
Fuji follows behind Oshitari, keeping his eyes low to avoid looking at the high-class guests in case he finds someone familiar. He becomes too focused on avoiding the eyes when Oshitari stops abruptly and he almost bumps into the blue-haired man.
Atobe reflexively moves near Fuji to steady him. "Careful." He whispers into her ear. "My parents are here."
Fuji glances up at Atobe with a small frown. Atobe smiles down at him and gestures to the 2 people in front of him. "Father. Mother. This is my girlfriend." As he introduces Fuji, he pulls Fuji by his waist closer to his body.
Fuji subtly tries to get away, but the vice grip on his waist was too strong. He gives up and looks at Atobe's parents. The older couple makes him freeze. Somehow, they look very familiar, but he cannot remember from where.
Atobe nudges him and Fuji startles before giving Atobe a warning glare. He bows slightly. "Hello."
The older couple stays silent as they looked at Fuji up and down. To be honest, Akane is extremely surprised. She cannot believe that there would be someone who can match her standard of a daughter-in-law, but there is still suspicion in her eyes. The girl looks awefully familiar, but she can't put a finger on it. "What's your name?"
Fuji glances at Atobe.
From the side, Yoshiko nudges her husband on his side. "Dear, who is that beside Keigo?"
Her husband tries to discern the girl from the side. "I don't know, but there is something about her that looks familiar."
Suddenly, Yoshiko formulates that the girl is Atobe's lover. "Oh no. Don't tell me that she is his girlfriend and is here to break the engagement." She decides to step over and make clear of the situation with her friends. She isn't going to let a girl ruin the mood tonight.
"Her name is-"
Yoshiko steps over just in time to spare Atobe's the trouble of having to come up a name. "Akane, what is going on here?" She demands from her friend, who looks a bit taken back.
Fuji's eyes widen. He doesn't need to look to figure out whose voice that belongs to. Shit! What a coincident that his mom is at the same banquet, unless…
Before he can complete his thought, his mom already turns to him and has a good look at his face. Her eyes widen in disbelief.
"Syusuke?" Yoshiko almost shouts too loud.
Fuji cringes and rubs his ears. "Ow."
"Eh?" Akane responds in surprise. "Syusuke?" She looks confusingly at Yoshiko. "Where?"
Yoshiko ignores Akane and steps over to pull Fuji away from Atobe. "Where have you been, young man? You were in your room one second, and the next you were nowhere in sight! What were you thinking, climbing down the window from your room 3 floors up?"
"Syusuke." Fuji's father suddenly speaks up stopping his wife from ranting. "Why are you in a dress?"
Realization fall on Atobe's parents and they look over to the supposed 'girlfriend' of their son.
Atobe freezes, speechless, suddenly not knowing what to do or think of. His mind is entirely blank.
Behind him, Oshitari smirks. "I call it fate."
"Mom! Why did you yell in front of my face?" Fuji whines with an annoyed expression on his pouting face.
Akane's face brightened in wonder. "Wow. This is my son-in-law? Oh my gosh, you're so beautiful." She squeals while giving him the hug of the century, enough to send him to the deathbed. In her excitement, she forgets all others around her and continues to throw all ounces of affection on Fuji.
Meanwhile, Yoshiko stands by her son's side nagging continuously about his sporadic behavior and heart attacks.
"-the cutest thing ever!" Akane pinches Fuji's cheeks. She was about to go for another round of pinching when Atobe decided it is enough.
"Wait. Wait! Hold up!" Chivalrously, Atobe extracts the poor Fuji from the two mothers.
Akane turns to her son with sparkling eyes. "Oh Keigo, I never knew you were so chinky, dressing up your fiancé in a dress." She giggles, and then whispers. "Don't worry. I support you."
Fuji feels like taking a rocket to outer space. He slaps his forehead then covers his eyes with a shake. He's not a girl, and won't be a girl. Why can't the people in the Atobe family get that straight?
"So, you're saying this," Atobe turns his sight to Fuji. "is Fuji Syusuke, the one I'd be engaged with tonight?"
His mother nods enthusiastically. "Isn't he lovely?"
A slowly, but calculating smile appear on Atobe's face. He swiftly wraps his arm around Fuji's shoulder, startling the man in a dress. "Oh, I definitely think so, right dear."
Fuji frowns and pushes Atobe's arm away easily. "I don't know what you all are thinking, but," Looking at the pleased faces around him, he pauses and considers his words. "er…actually, I know what you all are thinking, but I'm planning to stay single for the next decade, so good bye Japan." He declares and about to turn away when Atobe catches his wrist.
"Oh no you don't." He turns Fuji around into his arm, sniffing Fuji's hair. "I'm planning to end my bachelor life tonight. You're not going anywhere without me."
"What!"
And the next week, poor Fuji is forced to marry the billionaire heir, making it a century wedding of Japan. The week after, Oshitari is seen driving solo in an African desert looking for the rare wild cactus, just because he owed Fuji a favor in courtesy of his good, old friend.
And that, is their first love story. Atobe and Fuji.
-.-.-.-.-.-
The End
-.-.-.-.-.-
* Special thanks to Bloodysamurai for pointing out the names of Atobe's parents. I was too into Tezuka that I got it mixed up. I've already fixed the mistakes.
AN: What do you all think? Fuji is my favorite character, so every PoT story of mine must have Fuji in it. TeFu is the best, but Tofu can also be considered.
Should I make another one shot for Fuji x Tezuka or Shiraishi? Jk, no one would probably want me writing one-shots. ^^