HoriKashi Week, Day 1: Summer. Title from Sidekick - Walk the Moon.
So far, summer break had been going about as well as it could go - Hori didn't have to focus on club activities as much, since Mita had so kindly taken care of most of the preparations for the upcoming play in the first week of school after break. It was, of course, still dreadfully hot nearly everyday, but Hori mostly stayed in his room doing his summer homework, though with much reluctance. Whose idea had it been to give the students an essay to complete when every one of them was thinking of doing the exact opposite? Either their History teacher or their English one, he was sure, seeing as how they were almost always doing the same thing every other day.
The one, small (minuscule, even, he tells himself, because it's not like he cares) drawback to summer break is that he doesn't have the chance to see one Kashima Yuu everyday, likely because her fangirls have been taking the opportunity to drag her around (or be dragged around?) to various places for dates. Thankfully, it was almost halfway through break, and if this sort of thing kept up, maybe her fangirls would have their fill of Kashima for the year and stop coming over every rehearsal during club. (Pft. Yeah, right.)
Then the phone rings.
Hori nearly jumps out of his chair, clearly having not expected that - he'd been using up the time he'd assigned for homework musing over everything that had needed musing, and so he had been taken off-guard, quite clearly. Is his brother expecting a call? Hori surely isn't, but when the phone rings on without interruption, Hori picks it up on its fourth ring. "Hello?"
"Senpai! Hori-chan-senpai! Hi, hi, g' morning!"
"It's afternoon, Kashima." He isn't going to get any homework done today, for sure. "What's with the call?"
"Well, it's summer," Kashima says, her voice a little higher over the phone. "And it's really hot! Isn't it, over there, Senpai? Wanna go out for a date? I don't wanna spend all day in this sweltering heat, you know, sis insisted that we've spent too much money on our electricity bill already-"
But Hori had mostly stopped listening after the word 'date', the single syllable ringing in his head. Right. He had most definitely not been expecting that. It isn't like he'd wanted to hear it or anything, and he definitely didn't want to go out with Kashima for a date, even if it's just a friendly one. Really, he tells himself, I still have about two paragraphs to write, I can't afford to go with Kashima for something as trivial as this.
"There's still a month 'till school, Senpai," Kashima says, sounding a little sulky now, and Hori wants to punch himself for saying things out loud when he hadn't meant to. "You're a great student! Just one day, pleeease! All my other princesses are busy with their own affairs! Ah, hasn't it been some time since we've gone out to have parfaits? We should go now! Or maybe we can get ice cream, since that's cheaper and sis might go mad if she sees the receipt..."
"Er," Hori says.
"Oh, well, if you really don't want to-"
"I'll go," he amends, before reprocessing what he had just said and proceeds to slump over his desk. "Actually, maybe-"
"Really!" Kashima squeals, and Hori has to pull the phone away from his ear lest he have his eardrums blasted. "Really really! You'd do that!? Oh, no-" and here, her voice suddenly takes a drastic turn towards concerned, which prompts Hori to sit back up and raise an eyebrow, "-are you maybe sick, Senpai? Do you have a fever? Don't worry, Hori-chan-sempai, I'll head over right now and heal you from whatever is plaguing my dear princess!"
"I'm not sick. Nor am I one of your princesses," Hori says in a deadpan, re-slumping after hearing the absolutely ridiculous reason Kashima had started worrying herself over. Accepting her request (for a date - the word makes him feel horribly cheery and horribly nervous at the same time, which is not exactly pleasant) sounds like one of his worst decisions now. Maybe he should just back out of it while he can? But then that would risk hearing Kashima's disappointed voice, which he does not want, else he might be roped into something even crazier than a supposed date. Steeling himself for it, he asks, "Anyway - what time and place?"
A pause. "W... What time and place what?"
"I'm asking about the-" he chokes up. "-the outing, of course."
"Outing!" Kashima squeaks, and Hori feels like sinking into his chair and disappearing forever probably. "I! Well! Um!"
"We're not on two opposite sides of a basketball field, Kashima!"
"Right! Sorry!" Nothing changes, except for the painful throbbing above Hori's right eye. Sometimes, he really has to remind himself how he manages to survive daily with this- this woman. And anyway, he thinks idly, has she always been this jumpy when the two of them go out together? He distinctly remembers that she hadn't gone and started stammering right in the middle of them having ice cream, so there shouldn't be anything different about this one. "Ah... um... how 'bout right now, Senpai? I can come pick you up! I mean, now that I think about it, there's actually a special sale going on in the cafe across the street from the grocery, their cakes there are really nice, how about it, Senpai? Right, I'm going out now, just- just gotta slip on my shoes- yowch!"
Hori pinches the bridge of his nose, standing up from his chair and trying to look for something decent to wear. "What happened? And did you really get dressed that fast?"
A gasp. "Oh, gosh, you're right, Senpai! I'm still in my pajamas, I gotta get something nice, they're all in the laundry Senpai what now-"
The brunet had long stopped bothering to decipher the babble that had started coming out of the phone, instead opting to open his wardrobe and cast a considering eye over his various clothes. With a sigh, he slips on his usual casual clothing, more out of habit than anything, and also to prevent Kashima to start stammering while she tries to come up with something nice to say about how he looks. He'd rather just enjoy some special-sale-cakes without having to stop the prince from running her mouth every few seconds.
"I'm ready, Senpai, I've got clothes on this time and everything!" Kashima squeaks from his desk. "N-Not that I didn't have clothes on a while ago-" Hori suppresses the mental image with difficulty, "-just that I'm wearing, you know, actual clothes now, yes- okay, alright, shoes, I'm sorry if I'm going to be walking weird, I stubbed my toe while I was trying to get them on the first time-"
"Of course you did," Hori says, rather tempted to hang up in the middle of her next sentence just so she can actually get on with going to his house rather than going on and on and not getting anything done. Wait, shouldn't it be the other way around, with the boy going to the girl's house? Then again, it isn't like Kashima is a normal girl by any means, so he should probably just ignore the feeling that he has a very excited boyfriend waiting for him. "There's no real reason for you to stay on the phone while you're heading here, is there?"
"But I want to talk to you!" Kashima cries, sounding aghast, as if the very idea of having to put down her phone and stop talking to him would signal the apocalypse.
"Kashima, we have more than enough time to talk if you hurry up and get over here already."
A pause. In the momentary quiet, he can hear something like the tinkling of a bell in the other end. Does Kashima have wind chimes or the sort in her house? "... Well, you're right, I guess, but it's more fun this way, isn't it?"
Yes. Maybe. "I don't have lengthy conversations on the phone often-"
"What're you talking about? I call you lots!" Then, though faint, Hori can hear Kashima saying, "Hey, miss, what are these?" and then, after a little while, "How much are they?"
"Kashima, are you buying something?" Hori asks, raising an incredulous eyebrow. He opens his mouth, then bites down on his tongue to prevent himself from saying something stupid like I thought you were coming to pick me up for our date because that just sounds so... girlfriend-y. And he really doesn't feel like getting his hopes up.
There is a guilty moment of silence. "... Yes," she admits, her voice an octave higher and slightly squeaky. A cash register slides open in the background. Hori feels the throbbing above his eye increase in intensity. "B-But don't worry, Senpai! It won't take long, not at all! This is just... an errand, yes! An errand! I completely- er- forgot about it until now, b-but since I'm already going out, I thought it shouldn't hurt!"
This is probably why she should have hung up, Hori thinks. She's no good at being subtle, nor is she any better at lying. Feeling tired, the brunet just nods to himself and settles his chin on the table. "If you say so..."
"You don't believe me, do you?" Kashima says, not unlike a frightened child who had just lied to a parent (and had been found out).
"Sure I do..."
"I'm sorry, Senpai!" she cries, no doubt attracting the attention of passersby all around. "I- I didn't think it would bother you this much! A-Are you maybe-" she gasps dramatically, "jealous! Are you j-jealous that-"
"Are you mocking me!?"
Kashima shows up after about five minutes of panicked one-sided talking over the phone; Hori had just restrained himself from slamming the phone and crushing it to pieces, mainly because it had cost a significant amount of money and he wouldn't want it to go to waste. (Well, if it was for this cause, maybe so, but his brother would be very disappointed in him.) When she rings the doorbell with an excited exclamation of "I'm here, Senpai!", Hori hangs up with great relief and stomps over to answer the door, calling to his brother that he'll be out.
"So, where? Did you decide on a place yet?"
"Ah! Well, I've decided on the cake place, since it's not too far from here and their air conditioning is really nice for this hot day..." She sighs and absentmindedly fans herself. "Maybe I should've worn something thinner, like the nice shirt Seo-sensei gave me..."
Hori tries, in vain, not to imagine how Kashima would look in something any thinner than a blouse and shorts (and a rather large bag, for some reason).
When they do arrive in the small, quaint shop, the cool air blasts them like the opposite of a furnace, and Kashima makes a dash towards a table that Hori can safely assume has been labeled as hers, judging by the way nearly half a dozen waitresses immediately follow in what looks like one practiced motion. When the brunet sits down on the opposite side of the table, the waitresses divert their gaze towards him with a rather menacing look in their eyes. It's quite terrifying.
"Good afternoon, my princesses," Kashima says, taking the nearest waitress' hand and kissing the back of her palm. The poor girl looks like she might faint; everyone else stares at her in evident jealousy. "How are you all doing today? Well, I hope?"
"Oh-"
"Yes-"
"We were just-"
"That is-"
Hori peers upward, where there is a menu conveniently positioned where he can see about half of the available orders near the counter. Lucky him. He decides on the cheap cheesecake, because he'd much rather have that than the frighteningly sugary-sweet strawberry cake just below it. When Kashima is finished charming all four waitresses with ease, like she always does, Hori places his order and eyes Kashima with slight distaste when she decides on the strawberry cake.
"Just the cheesecake, Hori-chan-senpai?" Kashima asks, craning her neck to take a look at the cheesecakes on display. "Don't you want anything nicer? Well, I am paying, so maybe I shouldn't be complaining..."
"Wait, you didn't say anything about you paying," Hori says, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, of course I have to pay! You're my princess, after all, so-"
"Kashima, I don't want to have to cause a scene in here."
"Yes, Senpai."
They'd gotten into a conversation about Kashima's financial "problems", which were mainly caused due to the large amount of dates she had gone out with her fangirls to parfaits, effectively draining much of the money they had at home. Kashima had been forced to stay at home and do something productive like finish her school essay while they could recover all the money she had spent, though it was obvious she hadn't paid much attention to what she was supposed to do, seeing as the strawberry cake had easily been one of the more expensive ones in the shop. Not to mention the fact that Hori had clearly heard Kashima buying something over the phone, which didn't help matters, and that she would be paying for him as well.
... Not if he could help it, anyway. He'd just have to snatch the bill from her hands in the momentary distraction of her taking out her wallet and shove some yen in it before handing it back to the waitress.
"Want some, Senpai?" Kashima asks, grinning excitedly as she holds out a spoon of strawberry cake.
Hori wrinkles his nose in disgust. "No, thanks."
"Aw! Come on, it's really good-"
"-not to mention expensive-"
"-I'm paying!"
"No, you're not-"
The moment his mouth opens to say the word "not", Kashima sees her chance and takes it, shoving the spoon in his mouth with maybe a little too much force than normal. Hori nearly chokes on the metal and forces himself to swallow the spoonful of way too sweet cake, but a chunk of strawberry gets caught in his throat in the endeavor. Trying not to make too much noise from his coughing and spluttering, he attempts excusing himself to the restroom, but Kashima just about screeches in distress and starts thumping on Hori's back, stretching her arm awkwardly from across the table, and effectively knocks the wind out of the poor brunet's lungs.
Five minutes later, when they're both calmed down enough for Hori to feel like sinking into the floor and for Kashima to withdraw her arm from the other end of the table, a heavy silence descends upon them. Hori's cheesecake looks like it's melting, though it's barely been touched. Then a noise that resembles a dying animal issues from Kashima's direction, and Hori looks up curiously.
"S-S-S-Senpai, I didn't know what to get you, you see-"
"What?"
"-so I just got one at random, and I don't know, is it too flashy? Too simple?" She starts rummaging inside the comically large bag she brought, then comes up with a ridiculously large bouquet of red flowers with white tingeing its edges, some purple-colored ones mixed in. A few petals and leaves fall out, landing in Kashima's half-finished strawberry cake. "I-I didn't know what flowers to get you-"
Hori stares at her for a very long time with an incredulous look in his eyes. Kashima stammers something else and gradually stops talking at all, gazing up at Hori slightly through her eyelashes, sinking deeper and deeper into her seat, face flushing bright red.
The brunet sighs and takes the bouquet, before leaning over to come nose-to-nose with the frantically stuttering Kashima. "I'm paying," he says simply, and when an explosion of protests bursts out of her mouth, Hori pushes himself as forward as he can and kisses her.
The edge of the table is digging into his stomach painfully, but the only thing he can feel is her lips on his, and wow, they're softer and warmer than he'd expected. When he pulls away, because the human body sadly needs oxygen, Kashima makes a whining noise. "Again," she complains, and Hori doesn't need her to say it again to comply.
(From the corner of his eye, he can see a flock of waitresses glaring daggers at him.)
Tomorrow: Fight. (HoriKashi Week entries will be listed on the Tumblr horikashiweek, so be sure to take a look!)
Slacker, 6/1/15