Um, hello.
There's not much to say about this one other than that I don't know why the class is apparently collectively incompetent.
You know, one day I'll write my OTP a legit fic, rather than one where I spend its entirety denying everything. But hey, at least this time I actually put them in the same story. That's got to count for something, right?
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my irrational over-protectiveness of Gokudera.
Class Cooperation
It was a beautiful autumn evening in Namimori: cool and crisp, with but a hint of a far-off storm in the air; a perfect evening to go out for karaoke with friends, or to curl up in a blanket with some cocoa and a book, depending on the person.
The students of Namimori High were doing neither. It was well past dinner time, yet the majority of the student population was still on the premises, putting the finishing touches on their cultural festival, which would be taking place the next day.
Class 2-B was trying to finish preparing their classroom for their Italian-style 'Mafia Café' (no one was entirely sure how that idea had passed, or where it had even come from, although the horrified look on Sawada-kun's face as their adorably tiny substitute teacher made the announcement seemed to have had something to do with it), but Sawada-kun, the project's leader, had been dragged forcibly out of the classroom by the irate looking president of the student body half an hour earlier and had not yet (been) returned.
Sawada-kun had managed to impart a distracted answer, just before the door had slammed behind his trailing legs, to the hasty question of what to do should something go wrong in his absence. Lamentably, it had been that they should "just ask Gokudera-kun or Yamamoto, they know all the plans!"
The class had rather been hoping to avoid this and in the few seconds of dazed silence following the echo of footsteps in the hallway in which everyone stared at the door they could not help but wonder, yet again, why it was those two who knew all the plans and not, say, the class president. Dark and wary looks had been cast around, but they'd all eventually gotten back to work, hoping that Sawada-kun would be back before they would be forced to call upon his two back-ups.
Not that Yamamoto-kun and Gokudera-kun weren't competent, not at all! It was just...well, Yamamoto-kun was very friendly and reliable and always willing to help, of course, but he was notoriously impossible to locate, especially when needed most, seeing as he was always willing to help whomever asked for it and thus often ended up dragging things to remote locations on campus in the company of a giggling gaggle of girls. Gokudera-kun, on the other hand, was simply completely apathetic to anything school-related, although his occasional bouts of violence were not much encouragement to seek out his aid either. And God forbid the two should end up working together; that was just asking for a personal visit from the student-body president, and they got quite enough of those with Sawada-kun around, thank you very much. Somehow, though, none of these issues appeared to be at all a problem when Sawada-kun was present, but the moment he vanished, so did Yamamoto-kun and Gokudera-kun. So to speak.
So, the class laboured on without them. That is, until Fujikawa-kun came in with what was supposed to be their cafe's sign and it became obvious to everyone that somewhere along the line something had gone terribly wrong.
Morishita-chan, who had lived with her aunt and uncle in America for a few years and spoke better English than most of the class combined, confirmed that, no, they really couldn't hang that sign up and pretend it was Italian.
Mild panic began to set in until Miyano-chan suggested asking class 2-D's Sasagawa-chan if she might know where either Sawada-kun or Yamamoto-kun were (everyone knew where Gokudera-kun was, but were hoping to delay his involvement for as long as possible). Everyone agreed to this most enthusiastically and Miyano-chan set off to 2-D's classroom while Yamada-kun and Takamoto-kun leafed through the Japanese-Italian/Italian-Japanese dictionary Yamada-kun had purchased for the project, hoping to find any Italian word that resembled the English one currently adorning their sign close enough that they could do damage control themselves with a paintbrush and Miyahara-chan's calligraphy skills.
Miyano-chan returned ten minutes later reporting that neither 2-D's Sasagawa-chan, 2-A's Kurokawa-san (Sasagawa-chan's friend), or 3-A's Sasagawa-senpai (Sasagawa-chan's brother) had known the whereabouts of either of the two boys. She mentioned that Sasagawa-senpai had suggested going to the student-body president's private office and just asking him directly to return Sawada-kun, but that she had decided against that option. Nobody blamed her for this and no one volunteered to try it themselves.
It was at this point that Takagi-kun started theorizing that the whole thing was the work of those jealous, conniving 2-F bastards, who were also doing a café, albeit in the French style (with the maid costumes and everything), and had been attempting to undermine 2-B's plans for weeks. The class broke out into fervent discussion until Sakimori-san, the class president, decided to interrupt.
"I guess we'll just have to ask Gokudera-kun for help then," she said, squaring her shoulders in mental preparation for the task that she knew would fall to her.
As one the class turned to look to the far right-hand corner, where Gokudera-kun was sitting in Shiraki-kun's chair, leaning it back against the wall, with headphones in his ears and a lit cigarette between his fingers, intently reading a foreign book on civil engineering that Ishida-chan, whose father worked for the Namimori Planning Council, had said wasn't read by anyone but engineering students at really good universities.
They turned back to look at Sakimori-san, who steeled herself and then carefully approached Gokudera-kun in much the same way one would approach a sleeping tiger.
Everyone held their breath as they watched her stop right in front of him, tentatively reaching out her hand so as to (very) softly nudge his shoulder to gain his attention.
Before she managed to do this, however, Gokudera-kun suddenly moved, jerking the headphones out of his ears and glaring at Sakimori-san.
"What?" he asked.
Sakimori-san, to her infinite credit, only barely flinched as she pulled her hand back immediately.
"Um," she began hesitantly, earning her a raised eyebrow from Gokudera-kun, "there's a problem with the sign for the café."
"So?" Gokudera-kun asked disdainfully.
"I know you don't care!" Sakimori-san responded hastily and the class held its breath once more. "I – we just wanted to know if you perhaps knew where Yamamoto-kun might be?"
Gokudera-kun scoffed. "Tch. How the hell should I know where that baseball freak is?" He turned back to his book and was just about to fix his headphones back into his ears when Iwasaki-chan and Ibuki-chan pushed forward Touya-chan, the cutest girl in the class and 2-B's secret weapon, in a last-ditch attempt to get an answer from Gokudera-kun.
"Please, Gokudera-kun," she said, flushing very prettily as his intense, green-eyed gaze turned to her, "we really, really need to know!"
Gokudera-kun snorted, immediately earning himself the ire of just about every other male in the classroom. "What are you all looking for that idiot for anyway? What help could he possibly be? And why the hell are you all so convinced that I know where he is?"
"W-well," Touya-chan began, feeling the pressure from the rest of the class to answer the question, "you are both friends with Sawada-kun..."
"My relationship with the Tenth has nothing to do with that moron!" Gokudera-kun interjected hotly.
The students cringed. They really wished that Gokudera-kun would stop calling Sawada-kun "the Tenth". It was a decidedly creepy nickname, something which the look on Sawada-kun's face every time Gokudera-kun used it told them they were not alone in thinking.
"But, even though you say that you're still always together!" Sakurai-chan piped up, feeling she ought to stick up for her friend.
"What are you talking about? No we're not."
"Yes, you are," Hirasawa-kun said, helping his girlfriend out, "you're like a – a duo!"
"A Dynamic Duo!" Kaneda-kun added impulsively, recalling the term from some American TV show he'd watched one night in a desperate attempt to learn some more English before his high school entrance exams.
"A what?!" Gokudera-kun yelled, vaulting out of Shiraki-kun's chair.
"Yes, yes!" Murasaki-kun exclaimed, clapping his right fist into his left palm and looking for all the world like he'd just had a brilliant epiphany. "That's exactly what they are, Kaneda-kun! A Dynamic Duo!"
Kaneda-kun was now looking quite proud of himself and the rest of 2-B was murmuring enthusiastic agreements to each other, nodding their heads emphatically, and generally ignoring Gokudera-kun's flustered rage.
"No –listen –stop it! You're all wrong!" He was protesting, smoke trailing rather comically after his flailing arms.
"Ahaha, what are they all wrong about, Gokudera?"
Immediately the class stilled and turned to where Yamamoto-kun was lounging in the doorframe. Then they all turned back to watch Gokudera-kun's reaction.
It did not disappoint. He turned bright red with rage and began to sputter even more. "They're calling us a – a duo! A Dynamic Duo!"
"Dynamic Duo?" Yamamoto-kun repeated, mangling the pronunciation terribly. Then he laughed. "Ahaha, I guess we are!"
"No we're not, you moron, we're not even friends!" Gokudera shouted in reply.
Yamamoto-kun frowned in adorable confusion. "But, we are friends, Gokudera."
Heads spun immediately back to Gokudera-kun, who looked about three seconds away from throttling Yamamoto-kun.
"You –you cretin!" he screeched, and then he did launch himself at Yamamoto-kun, who dodged cheerfully.
"Come on, Gokudera," he said, "we've hung out every day together since middle school. If we're not friends, what are we?"
Gokudera-kun lunged at him again – and missed. "I've been hanging out with the Tenth since middle school! You had nothing to do with it! We are nothing more than colleagues!
"But we walk Jirou and Uri together all the time!" Yamamoto-kun said, dodging another blow and looking slightly hurt.
Gokudera-kun then seemed to give up on physically assailing Yamamoto-kun, instead grabbing a handful of chalk and throwing it at Yamamoto-kun with surprising, and really rather amazing, accuracy.
"That's training, baseball freak, training!"
Briefly the class pondered what the two might be training for – God knows it wasn't baseball – and what the hell kind of name Uri was, but were then distracted by another handful of chalk being flung in Yamamoto-kun's direction.
"And what about that time when we shared that room?" Yamamoto-kun asked before he had to swiftly duck the onslaught of a third handful of chalk, this time clearly aimed at his eyes.
"That was a necessity! And stop giving them all the wrong idea!" Gokudera-kun shrieked.
The class rather thought they had the right idea, although what that was differed according to each classmate's imagination. Several of the girls had now gone quite pale, Manabe-chan even let out a faint "Oh my!"
That was when a timid "Um" sounded from the doorway, catching everyone's attention, even that of Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun. Gokudera-kun immediately dropped the latest handful of chalk he'd been about to hurl at Yamamoto-kun's face and Yamamoto-kun lowered Amano-kun's schoolbag, which he'd been using as a shield from Gokudera-kun's chalk.
"Um," Sawada-kun said again, from where he stood transfixed, staring at the chaos with a look of utter dismay on his face.
Yamamoto-kun then let out a guilty chuckle which triggered the rest of the class into immediate action.
Sakimori-san, Touya-chan, Hirasawa-kun, Takagi-kun, and Ogawa-kun all began to tell Sawada-kun what had been happening, while Fujikawa-kun, Miyahara-chan, and Abe-chan all grabbed the ruined sign and attempted to shove it Sawada-kun's face as evidence. Meanwhile, Kaneda-kun and Murasaki-kun proceeded to talk at length at Sawada-kun about the "Dynamic Duo" term, with occasional input from Itou-kun and Tsubaki-kun about the TV show Kaneda-kun had originally heard it from. Manabe-chan and Matsumoto-chan, the respective presidents of the Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun fan clubs were tugging urgently at Sawada-kun's sleeves, trying to express their distress at the confusion over their boys' sexual orientations. Simultaneously, in a corner of the room, Iwasaki-chan, Ookawa-chan, and Ibuki-chan were all heatedly debating the same topic, although Shimizu-kun was reassuring them that he really did think they had gotten the wrong idea there.
Takamoto-kun had just managed to ask Sawada-kun what the president had wanted with him when a startled gasp from Hoshino-chan shut everyone up.
There, right behind Sawada-kun, gone somehow unnoticed until now, stood the feared president of the student body himself.
He looked absolutely livid.
"Sawada," Hibari-senpai growled, and everyone immediately took a step back, "If you are not able to get this enormously loud herd of herbivores under control, I will bite them all to death." Then he shoved something at Sawada-kun, turned on his heel, and marched back down the corridor from whence he came.
No one moved until his footsteps had died away completely.
The silence lasted until Sawada-kun's face crumpled in relief and he said: "Sorry everyone that I was away for so long. Hibari-san noticed something wrong with our sign and called me in to deal with it – said he couldn't allow such indecency to go disregarded, or something." He held up the object the president had thrust at him. "Here, he even had the new version printed out for us."
There was a collective avoiding of eyes as everyone tried not to burst out laughing in either giddy relief or at the sheer irony of the situation and Gokudera-kun muttered: "See, I told you the baseball idiot would be useless."
The heavy silence that followed this statement was interrupted only by Miyake-chan, who spoke so rarely that it took everyone a second to figure out who had replied: "Only without you, Other-Half-of-the-Duo-kun."
Then Gokudera-kun spluttered and everyone burst out laughing anyway.
Let's take a minute here to imagine how much more amusing high school would have been had the Vongola Crew been around.
Man, that would have been six years of epic hilarity.
Thank you for reading (you awesome person, you)!