A/N: Written for my best friend, OtakuShuichi.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gokusen. I don't own Ryu or Hayato. One can only dream...
It was a bright, early morning, and Odagiri Ryu was on his way to school. He was surprised that he hadn't yet seen his best friend, as they usually met up on the walk to school. 'I'll stop by his house,' decided Ryu, and he changed direction.
Upon arriving at the Yabuki apartment, the door was answered by the youngest Yabuki. "Ohayo, Ryu-san," Taku greeted.
"Ohayo, Taku," Ryu repeated. "Where's Hayato?"
"Onii-chan's actually in the bath," said Taku. "He didn't get one last night, so he decided he had to get one this morning. You can go wait for him in his room." Ryu didn't answer verbally, only gave the younger boy a pat on the shoulder. "I have to go on to school so I won't be late. Bye, Ryu-san!" After the door banged shut behind Taku, Ryu took off his shoes and entered the apartment.
"Hayato," he called to make sure his friend heard him. He didn't get a response, but he wasn't expecting one anyway. Deciding to take the younger boy's advice, Ryu walked through the apartment to Hayato's room and flopped onto the messy bed.
Quite a while passed by while Ryu waited for Hayato to get out of the bath. "How long is he going to take?" the redhead asked himself softly.
Suddenly, a deep, masculine voice rang out. "Ryu, wait for me! I'll be dressed quickly!" shouted Hayato just before a hand slammed into the door.
The loud banging startled Ryu, and his head shot up before his eyes widened slightly at the sight before him. In ran Hayato with a towel covering his hair... and nothing else.
When he moved the towel away from his head, Hayato saw his best friend and let out a very unmanly shriek! "Ah! Ryu!" he screamed before dropping the towel down to cover his waist. "Why didn't you tell me you were in here?!"
"Just get dressed so we're not late," said Ryu, unfazed by the sight of his naked best friend. He walked out of the room, leaving the red-faced Hayato to dress without an audience.
A few minutes later, Hayato came out of his room to find Ryu, now fully dressed. His face was still red as he grabbed his school bag. "Let's just go to school," he mumbled quickly, and Ryu followed without a word.
As they walked, Hayato was strangely quiet. Ryu noticed that the other boy's face was still flushed, and he was very flustered. He tried to avoid making eye contact, and his movements and actions were quick and uncontrolled.
To Hayato, Ryu seemed eerily calm. Of course it was normal for the red-haired teenager to be calm, but Hayato figured that Ryu should be at least somewhat bothered or embarrassed by seeing him...
He shook his head, trying to rid his thoughts of the memories. The movements of his head caused Hayato to momentarily catch Ryu's gaze, and he turned away once more. Finally, he'd had enough of Ryu's aloofness. "Why aren't you more bothered!?" Hayato demanded to know.
"By what?" asked Ryu, still as stoic as ever.
Hayato's eyes shot open wide as he finally made and kept eye contact with his friend. "Y-y-y-ou-ou-you s-s-saw me... you saw me naked! Why aren't you bothered by that?!"
"Why are you bothered by that?" countered Ryu without missing a beat. This, too, caught Hayato by surprise. "Seriously, it's nothing I haven't seen before." Another blush colored Hayato's cheeks, and he made to protest, but Ryu spoke again. "Just get over it."
Silenced by those final words, the two boys continued on their way to school. Neither said a word until they saw three other figures walking towards them. "Oi, Hayato! Ryu!" a high-pitched voice called in greeting. The owner of the voice, Takeda Keita, hurried to catch up with the two class leaders. "Ohayo," he greeted again with a cute smile. The other two gave their own greetings and fell into step.
Tsuchiya Hikaru was in the middle of telling his friends about one of the games he had played at the arcade recently when he noticed Hayato's lack of voice. "Ne, Hayato, why aren't you saying anything?" he asked.
"Yeah," agreed Hyuga Kosuke, "I was wondering that too." The blushing class leader stopped dead in his tracks, startled by the sudden question and embarrassed by the answer. His face began to redden again.
"What's wrong, Hayato?" asked Take in concern. "Are you sick?" The smaller boy reached up to put a hand to his friend's forehead, but said friend just ran around to Ryu's other side and looked away, allowing his hair to hide his flushing face.
"Nothing. Let's just go to school," muttered Hayato in one quick breath. Hoping to escape the embarrassment, Hayato left his confused friends and a smirking Ryu behind him and ran ahead toward the gates of their school.
A/N: In case you can't tell, I write a lot of stories for OtakuShuichi. Shu-kun is where I get the majority of my ideas. Arigato, Shu-kun!