Takumi had always been good at languages. He supposed it came with the territory and all, but he felt like it was something he was actually good at, and it was something that his other siblings wouldn't automatically best him at as soon as they picked it up. He could speak fluent English and Japanese, naturally, and he was pretty decent at German, too. Which was useful, seeing as he had his German exchange student coming to stay with him. Ever since he'd started German he'd put so much effort into it, and it seemed to be paying off, because his exchange hadn't once had to correct his German. He hadn't had to correct the boy's English, either, which was nice because he didn't like being forced to spend time with stupid people.
The boy's name was Leo, which Takumi didn't think sounded very German. But he was hardly one to judge- his own name wasn't exactly English, and he was supposed to be the English half of this exchange. He wondered how his exchange partner pronounced his name, and whether he'd have to find a creative way to say 'Leo' wrong. Lao was always a sound option, but if he was German then that might just be how it was pronounced. Oh, well. He'd find out soon enough, because it wasn't long until Leo (Lao) was coming to stay with him. Only a few days, now. Ryoma had planned all the meals that they were going to eat while he was here, and Hinoka had arranged a few days out with him and her and Sakura. He hoped that Leo liked museums, because Sakura had a thing for dinosaurs at the moment and Hinoka had decided it was high time to go to the Natural History Museum. Takumi preferred military history, but there was no way he could go to a museum like that with a German kid. Their history topic was bad enough at the moment. He hoped Leo didn't try to ask him about that. There would hopefully be plenty of less awkward things to talk about, although Takumi wasn't exactly the best at making conversation in person. Emailing Leo was just about alright, but in person Takumi would probably revert to his usual grumpy self.
Ryoma had already told him to be pleasant, but it just wasn't as easy as turning that kind of thing on or off. He just didn't like people. He didn't like talking to people ever, especially not strangers, and he didn't imagine that Lao would be any exception. He'd just have to wait and see. Maybe he'd end up being so grumpy that Leo wouldn't let him come and stay with him in Germany. Now, that would be something interesting to explain to his teachers.
He'd confessed his fears to his friends, and Hinata had simply said 'nah mate, it's okay', but he could say stuff like that because he was bad at German. Oboro had said that it didn't matter and exchanges weren't that important, but Spanish didn't even have an exchange, for whatever reason. His friends just didn't understand. He was going to mess everything up with Leo, probably, and it was all going to be a disaster. And he didn't even have the option to back out of it at this point. Leo had to come and stay here for a whole week and then he had to go back and live with Leo and his family for a whole week and honestly, Takumi had never been so terrified in his life. Not even six months ago after...that. Not even a few days later when they'd had to go and sort everything out. That hadn't been anywhere near as bad as this.
He spent the days leading up to the exchange barely talking to anyone, choosing instead to sulk in his room. Leo emailed him several times to confirm the details of everything they would be doing, and Takumi had to do his best to respond in a reasonably civil manner. He hated feeling shit like this and sulking in his room, because it meant he couldn't do half of the things he actually enjoyed. All he would do was read. Read, read, do homework, and then continue to read. It didn't end. He loved reading, but sitting inside and doing it all day when the temperature was still decent (for England, at least) made him sort of sad and it grated on his nerves. But leaving his room meant having an obligation to talk to Ryoma or Hinoka or Sakura, but the latter was less of a chore. At least his younger sister wouldn't nag him about making sure everything was alright for Leo when he arrived. The most Sakura would do was ask him a few innocent questions, but he could handle that.
And so the evening came when they were set to arrive, and Takumi was so nervous. He'd had to skip his formal archery practise to come and pick Leo up and it was setting him on edge. That was the only time in a week that he would have been able to relax and Leo had taken it away from him. Ryoma said it would be rude for Takumi to get his siblings to pick Leo up, so he'd refused to drive him to the practise. It wasn't fair, but none of this had been very fair so far. Takumi sat moodily in the back of the car, torn between being angry at Leo and being worried that everything was going to go wrong.
Sakura was here too because she 'wanted to meet him'. Takumi didn't get that, she'd meet him like fifteen minutes later anyway. Oh well, he wasn't going to refuse the moral support she was offering in her passive way of doing so. He liked Sakura, she didn't make a fuss about things. She was there, she did her thing, and then she left if you wanted her to. She was almost as bad at talking to people as he was, and objectively she was worse, but at least people still liked Sakura when she was done stuttering through a conversation. People always hated him.
The coach full of German students was already there when their car pulled up, and most of them seemed to have already gone. Only a few people were left, standing around in small groups. One boy was sat off to the side, perching on his suitcase with arms folded and a look in his eyes like he wanted to kill something. He smiled when he saw Takumi, though, however faintly it was. "Hello," he said, and the first thing Takumi thought was that his English accent was so white British he could have stepped into a BBC studio and been at home.
"Hi," he said, catching his usual greeting for now. Leo wouldn't have a hope in hell if he spouted Japanese at him. "I'm Takumi."
"Leo." Well. That solved the problem of how to pronounce his name. It wasn't anything weird like Lao, which was good. "You took your time getting here, Takumi."
"I'm sorry, that's my fault," Ryoma said, jumping in immediately to cover for him. It had been Takumi's fault, he hadn't wanted to come and he'd argued and held them up. "We live quite far away, you see, and it took longer than I thought it would."
"Alright." Leo didn't smile or give any other sort of sign that he'd accepted the excuse. Instead, he wandered over to the car and opened the door. "Are we leaving now? I haven't eaten since this morning."
"I'm Ryoma," Ryoma said, to introduce himself. He looked a little put out at Leo's bluntness that verged on being rude, but Takumi didn't know why, because he complained about HIM being rude all the time because he liked to get to the point. "Takumi, what was Hinoka making for dinner?"
"I don't know, I wasn't listening. Sort of had other stuff on my mind, you know?" Takumi got into the car next to Leo, trying to ignore the fact that Leo had sat in the seat he normally used.
"Well, this is going to be delightful," Ryoma said, and Takumi presumed that Leo caught the sarcasm, because he snorted. Ryoma started the car and started to drive back home, and Takumi suddenly realised that Leo hadn't had any lunch.