Author's Note: This was based on the that one guy who tried to make me smile last year and awhile ago I was like "hey this could be some shinaya thing" and then after overcoming laziness I wrote this lel
and this is also my first fanfic so it might be a little ooc /sweats
I do not own Kagerou Project
Smiling is something a normal human being does. The moments when they're happy, the moments when they're taking pictures, reassurance to other beings. However, that was not the case for Shintaro Kisaragi. This boy has the emotions of a rock. People would even believe he's a rock, but a brilliant rock. He always had an apathetic approach to life due to his photographic memory, which made his life seem repetitive and boring. That is, until he met Ayano Tateyama.
Hues of orange and yellow shined through a window of a typical high school classroom in a typical evening with the typical duo. They were studying for their math test and of course Ayano would ask if she could have a study session, and of course Shintaro agreed (even though he won't admit he likes to study with her). As Ayano was doing her math work Shintaro had given her, she glanced at her tutor and a random thought popped in her mind. I have never seen Shintaro smile before... and the thought bothered her so much that she couldn't concentrate on her worksheet.
"Hey, Shintaro," the scarf hero interrupted.
"Hm?" Shintaro responded, snapping out of his gazing at the sunset.
"Why don't you ever smile?" she asked quite directly.
"Why does that even matter?"
"I have never seen you smile since the day we met! It really bothers me…" the girl started fidgeting with her signature red scarf.
"Again, why does that matter?" Shintaro repeated.
"It does! It shows others that you're happy! Besides, it's not that hard to do," Ayano said, flashing her habitual bright smile at him.
"Easy for you! Smiles aren't for everyone!" he argued. He shivered at the memory of his family photoshoots when he was younger and was forced to smile. You could say that the photos of him were rather….unpleasant.
"Then my goal will be to make Shintaro smile!" Ayano exclaimed. She pumped her fist with determination gleaming in her eyes.
"Shouldn't you be studying?!" the boy snapped, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, yes! That's right! Hehehehe," Ayano giggled to herself, returning to her math worksheet. I will make Shintaro smile at any cost! she thought to herself.
The following day, Shintaro casually strolled to his first class of the day. He sat in his usual seat, next to the desk by the window, where Ayano always sat. Class starts in 20 minutes, so I guess I could finish my book to kill time. He grabbed his novel and faded into his own world. It was a peaceful ten minutes of escaping reality until he heard the usual friendly "Hello, Shintaro!" He turned to return the greeting for what he thought was the red scarf idiot but what he saw was so much more shockingly stupid. Ayano was wearing these huge ass glasses with a huge nose and mustache attached to it accompanied by a some sort of mexican looking hat. Shintaro couldn't help but mentally facedesk at this.
"What the hell are you wearing?!" he choked.
"E-eh?! I'm trying to make you laugh!" the sombrero girl replied, shocked that a sombrero with funny glasses greeting him wouldn't make this boy laugh.
"Well it's not working!"
"What?! But I bought these from the joke store with my remaining allowance... Maybe if I do the salsa or-"
"Shhhhhhh! People are giving us weird looks!" Shintaro hushed as he glanced over the at the crowd of people giving them uncanny looks. Sometimes, he could not believe he's friends with such a girl.
"Besides, it takes a lot more than just those ridiculous glasses and stupid hat to make me feel a thing," he stated. The sombrero girl's face fell. Ayano returned to her desk gloomily, her sombrero tipping off her head. Shintaro felt a little stab in his tiny heart after seeing the sight of broken Ayano. What is this feeling, am I having a shoujo manga moment? Wait, no, isn't this the girl's role? I've been reading Phantom Thief Jeanne too much lately, gosh. He sighed.
With the last remaining part of his soulless heart, he stated, "Don't be so sad about how you can't make me smile. That's quite a stupid reason to be gloomy over, you know. It's only your first try." With that Ayano's head shot back up, gleaming with a smile of determination again.
"I will find something even funnier!" the cheerful being beamed. She picked up her books and started studying math to make sure she has everything indented in her brain. Shintaro returned to his book, trying ignore the fact that he actually said something somewhat encouraging to Ayano for once.
The next day, Shintaro went to the rooftop as usual to eat his lunch, which was made with cringe-worthy love by his sister Momo with his favorite soda. He was planning to have a peaceful lunchtime alone with the afternoon sky, but he was later reminded when three bothersome idiots arrived that he never had any peace since he met the scarf idiot. Accompanied by Ayano was the crabby pig tailed gamer and flower boy sunshine with their own packs of lunch.
"Good afternoon, Shintaro!" Ayano waved cheerfully with her lunch. She skipped to the corner where Shintaro was followed by Takane and Haruka who were arguing about Haruka having Takane's chicken. It seemed to be resolved as she finally gave in to his wailing and he gladly thanked her, making her turn a shade of pink. Shintaro thought that it couldn't be more obvious that she had feelings for that air head. As that problem was resolving, Ayano seemed to have a set of cards in her hands as she clumsily shuffles them.
"What are you doing Ayano?" Shintaro tried to peek at what information the cards have.
"I'm not letting you see!" she clutched the cards close to her. Haruka and Takane paused and stared at the couple with interest. Haruka quietly snickered as Ayano acts out what the cards have said,
"I planned to find my watch today, but I didn't have the time!" Haruka started bursting out in laughter as Takane facepalmed at how ridiculous this was.
"..." Shintaro remained still with his poker face. Is she trying to make him laugh with these lame jokes? Ayano continued on her cards of lame puns as she tries to hold in her giggles.
"A man was cooled to absolute zero. He's 0K."
"Two atoms are in a bar. One says to the other, 'I think I lost some electrons!' The other says, 'Are you positive?'"
"I was kicked out of math class for one too many infractions."
"When the wheel was invented, it caused a revolution."
"Two chemists walk into a bar. One chemist says, 'I'll have some H2O.' The other chemist says, 'I'd like some H2O, too.' The second chemist dies."
"Are you Na? Because you're sodium cute."
"The best way to communicate with a fish is to drop them a line! Ohohoho! that was a good one!" By the time she got half through the cards Haruka could probably have a heart attack any minute with his excessive laughter and that red mark on Takane's forehead could be a tattoo on her head.
"A not-very-good art teacher was good only at drawing blan-"
"Ayano, it's not working." the bored student interrupted.
"Really!? It can't be?! These are hilarious! My dad and Haruka worked so hard to put them together yesterday! Especially Dad with his science ones!" she shuffles through her deck of puns to find a really funny one but the bell rang signaling them that lunch has ended. Shintaro leaped through the rooftop and sprinted to his class to get away from these losers (though he shouldn't be saying that as a loser himself).
For the past week Ayano has been bothering Shintaro (even more than usual). She would try to strike another lame pun at him, or would surprise him with a honestly awful derp face (or mask). During their quartet study sessions she would have Haruka and Takane wear ridiculous clown masks too, in which they would get hot after awhile and take off (well with Haruka, Takane threw her mask at Shintaro out of frustration). She shows him these "funny" American home videos or funny highlights in her favorite hero shonen mangas. She even drags the most "funniest" people in school to do some stupid gag or crack a joke. None of them however, did make him make him feel some sort of tingle of laughter.
Today Ayano invited him to come to the special students classroom to have another "study session" in the evening. Shintaro knew right off the bat that it will be another attempt to make him smile, but he went anyways because he had nothing better to do (but in reality he actually liked being with these losers).
As he opened the classroom door, he had yet another shockingly surprising act. But nooo, this was not just one of those little acts Ayano would bother him space was almost cleared out with just a black shower curtain draping from the ceiling and a lonely desk sitting in front of it. Shintaro scanned the room to find Haruka and Takane rehearsing with what looks like a script in their hands. He inferred that they're probably doing some sort of skit.
"Howdy, Takane! Do yo-" Haruka stopped himself and tries to to contain his laugh for the script's lame jokes. Takane started to look annoyed by her classmate's constant laughing.
"Stop laughing, we need to do this smoothly for the skit! God damn, why must I be dragged into this mess to make that bastard smile too," Takane grumbled as she crumpled her script in irritation towards her underclassman, who happens to be behind her.
"Uhm, what are you two doing? And where's Ayano?" Shintaro interrupted, jumping scaring Haruka and Takane. They turned to see it was the boy they're preparing the skit for and Takane choked at the sight of him.
"Why the hell are you here so early?!" She started throwing a fit at him to the point Shintaro thought she was throwing actual physical words at him along. Ayano then barged in the room with straw hats and handkerchiefs in her hands,
"I heard Takane yell- Oh my Shintaro! I didn't expect you to come so early!' she quickly shuffled him to the desk in front of the black curtains and calmed Takane.
"Ahhh, where's dad?! He said he'll be here in five minutes," Ayano fretted as she paced back and forth. She completely calmed herself after a minute of worrying and breathed.
"I guess the show must go on!" She gathered Takane and Haruka behind the curtains giving them the straw hats and handkerchiefs. After minutes of muttering behind the curtains and Shintaro tapping the desk in boredom the curtains (not very successfully) went up. With the poor lighting of the lamp from the other side of the classroom, the skit has started.
"Long ago the four nations-" nerd Ayano coughed.
"I mean, long ago there was a very kind country boy who loved a beautiful country girl. They both shared many things in common, straw hats, horses, apples, everything! The boy really loved the girl, so one day he decided to ask out the girl in a very interesting way." Haruka and Takane appears on the stage with straw hats sitting on their heads and red handkerchiefs (probably to match with Ayano's scarf) around their necks along with their tacky school uniforms. Haruka even had a straw in his mouth to emphasizes the "country" setting.
"Howdy, Takane!" the straw boy greeted.
"Howdy, Haruka." Takane said, trying to sound confident.
"Do you live in a corn field, cause I'm stalking you." Haruka winked at Takane making her go on blush mode.
"O-oh, is that s-so? Are you s-saying you l-like me?" Takane stuttered as she was turning into what Ayano claims "the color of heroes". Ayano giggled at the background. Getting my ship AND making Shintaro smile - this plan is just too perfect! she thought. Just when the skit barely started, everything starts to go in different direction,
"I don't like you. I love you!" the smooth boy tries to sweep Takane, but he epically trips on his own two feet and fell on top of Takane. As Takane starts screaming her head off there was a bang behind Shintaro,
"SORRY I WAS LATE AYANO I HAD TO SHAVE MY BEARD AND POLISH MY SUIT. I HAD MAKE MY ACTING DEBUT PERFECT." Kenjirou boomed. His hair was slick back, wearing a very bright suit too bright for any human's eye, and he really did shave making him look like what he use to be back in the 80's. Kenjirou sprinted to the stage but not noticing the string attached to the black curtain, he tripped over the thin string making the curtains and the skit itself collapse. Shintaro stared at the disaster in complete horror and a little amusement. Ayano started freaking out and playing with her scarf to calm down her anxiousness.
"This isn't how it's suppose to go! Oh my God, everything is ruined! How am I suppose to make Shintaro smile?! IfShintaroneversmilesI'mgoingtodieI'mgoingtodiejesuschristwhatamIgoingtodo..." She continued blabbering, pacing around the room trying to think of a quick idea.
Watching chaos unravel itself with Takane hitting Kenjirou and Ayano pacing around the room, Shintaro thought to himself, It's amazing how far this girl would go just to make my cheek muscles move. Creating lame jokes and asking everyone she knows to help her out. She even created an "extravagant" skit just to make me smile. That's actually kind of….cute.
At that moment Shintaro heard the sound of what is called a laugh coming out of his mouth. The noise of the room fell into complete silence. Everyone was glaring at him in utter shock, making him feel rather uncomfortable. Ayano's heart stopped along the moments of silence. Her face started lighting up like the sun.
"Sh-shintaro…..I-I ACTUALLY MADE YOU SMILE!" Ayano screamed as she started bouncing all over the classroom and squealing so high he thought his ear drums broke. She shook Haruka, Takane, and Kenjirou quite violently and repeating "HE SMILED! HE SMILED!" Shintaro studied Ayano's moment of happiness. Sure, she was always happy around him, but he never seen her this happy within the years he knew her. The sunset shining on her silky long hair, bouncing up and down with her "hero" item so gracefully. The big brown eyes squinting with glee with her signature beautiful smile. Wait, what, no, Shintaro get to your senses! Shintaro scoffed at himself, embarrassed by his sudden thoughts of Ayano. Just then Ayano dives in for hug to Shintaro, who was still in his seat, standing up. He felt a sudden rush of heat coming up to his face as she starts shaking him and giggling like a cute anime school girl.
"I did it, Shintaro! I made you smile! I feel like my life is complete…" she boasted. After a few moments of awkwardness she snapped back to Earth and realized that shes making a rather close physical contact with Shintaro.
"O-oh, ahahaha I'm sorry," she nervously laughs and lets Shintaro breath again. They both became blushing messes as the room fell quiet again. Takane blurted to break the silence,
"Well, we, or I should say Ayano, finally did the impossible and make this emotionless bastard smile."
"They're quite a sweet duo too," she smirked at Shintaro, who is now the blushing mess.
"Yes they are!" Haruka agreed.
"Oi! Shut up, you pigtailed bastard!" Shintaro shot back, reverting back to his normal state. The two started arguing like rivals again and shaking fists at each other.
"Are you people forgetting I'm here too! My whole acting debut is ruined!" Kenjirou raised his teacher voice, joining in the argument.
"Now now guys why don't we just clean up this mess," Ayano awkwardly interrupted, trying to break the argument thats forming.
After that day, Shintaro unconsciously started to smile more. More specifically when he's around Ayano or as the quartet. He felt a lot happier whenever he's with them, but of course he never admits it. Although, one time they did force him to smile for one of their group pictures. He tried give out his best smile and the group learned that its probably best to keep poker face Shintaro in pictures.
Author's Note: after writing this I felt a weird cuddly feeling that I should not feel at all
also special thanks to my friend who I will call Jin in here for beta reading this even thought she knows nothing about kagepro!