Orange Laughter
CappuccettoRosso
Beta: None
Universe: Manga
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Sawada Shin / Yamaguchi Kumiko
Genre(s): Humor / Romance / General
Warning(s): None
Disclaimer: Gokusen is the intellectual property of Kozueko Morimoto, and its publisher, Shueisha. I am only borrowing the characters for my own amusement. No profit is being made in the publishing of this story.
Author's Note: Written for the Dove_Drabbles' April prompt: "Flirting is mandatory."
Summary: They knew that Oujo would, someday, meet someone she would entrust her heart to;someone that would stand by her and love her with a fierceness unmatched; someone even they couldn't scare away. They just didn't expect he would be so cheeky as he spirited her away.
"How's it goin'...?"
Asakura Tetsu looked up as Ooshima Kyoutarou entered the room. The younger man gave him a pained look. "It's pretty bad. Well, not bad-bad but..."
"It's awkward," Tatsukawa Minoru finished, with a grimace of his own.
Kyou looked across the courtyard, into the room directly in front. He pressed his lips into a bloodless line, and grunted. "I can see that."
"Should we...?"
"No, let's wait a bit more."
Neither Tetsu nor Minoru looked happy with that, but they nodded their (reluctant) agreement. Kyou didn't like it either, but they didn't have another choice but to their frustrating look out.
On the other side of the courtyard, the scene was the same as it's been for the last half hour. Shin-san and Oujo sitting together, just the two of them, sharing afternoon tea. They weren't talking, or even looking at each other. Oujo had her head down, the dark fall of her hair hiding her face from Kyou's eyes. She hadn't moved since she sat down, her feet tucked neatly beneath her. It wasn't right, watching her be so still. Oujo was life, and fire, and energy—not this shy little thing. Hell, she'd never been this quiet when Shinohara-sensei had been in the picture, never felt the need to keep her enthusiasm down. Why she was starting now, Kyou had no freaking clue.
Shin-san was acting weird, too. He sat with his body turned toward the open veranda, looking utterly bored; like he might fall asleep sitting up. That wasn't right either, especially with Oujo right there in front of him. The kid just couldn't ignore Oujo when she was in the room. Kyou had seen him follow her with his eyes; his focus entirely on her, like nothing else mattered. Yet, there he was, acting like he could give a shit she was there at all.
It was really starting to piss him off, seeing them acting like they were complete strangers.
Just when Kyou had enough with the silence, (seriously, he was going to throw something at them just to get a reaction); Shin-san finally stirred to life.
He saw Shin-san reached for something out of sight and placed it on the table. Shin-san silently nudged it across the wooden surface, toward Oujo. Oujo's dark hair twitched and then Kyou watched as she looked up. Shin-san watched her from the corner of his eye, not turning his head to stare at her directly. Oujo hesitated and then slowly reached for whatever Shin-san had put on the table.
Kyou strained himself trying to see what it was. He growled wordlessly.
"Ooh! A present for Ojou," Tetsu exclaimed softly. He looked pleasantly surprised. "None of the others brought her nothing."
"Anything," Minoru corrected absently, watching just as eagerly, "And what did you expect, they were just snot nosed brats."
Kyou silently agreed. Oujo's previous suitors had all been school kids, barely old enough to start shaving. They simply weren't the same, those little kids and Shin-san.
"I think it's a charm..." Kyou mumbled. Oujo had pulled out a dangling thing out of a little plastic envelope. It was small and sparkled a little. Oujo looked ridiculously pleased, and she kept tapping at it, which made Kyou think that perhaps it had a little bell.
Suddenly, Oujo turned to look at them. "MINORU, MY PHONE!"
Her shout made all three men jump a little. Shit, and here Kyou had been thinking Oujo had been replaced by a fake.
"Minoru, you're up." Kyou jerked his head toward the door. "And take them some fruit or something."
"Ou!" Minoru hurried out of the room immediately.
"And here I was worried she was gonna start being quieter," Tetsu mumbled, unaware he had voiced Kyou's personal thoughts. "She hasn't changed." Tetsu sounded relieved.
But something had changed in that room. They were looking at each other, now; Oujo still oddly shy, though growing confident as Shin-san began shooting her little smiles. Shin-san shifted until he was facing her. He said something and Kumiko laughed; high, girlish laughter Kyou had never heard before. Oujo's laughter was warm and filled with genuine amusement. It tapered out into giggles, which had both Kyou and Tetsu gaping. Since when did Kumiko-Oujo-san giggled...?
"Since when does Oujo giggle...?!" Kyou wondered out loud, incredulous.
"Dunno."
Kyou spotted Minoru entering their room with a plate of peaches and pears, cut into neat wedges, and Oujo's cell. The big guy was treading carefully as he moved around them and even from where he was standing, Kyou could see why. Shin-san was staring at him with such a dangerous look; the boy was practically daring Minoru to try to scare him away, or break the mood.
Kyou smirked. Shin-san was obviously remembering the stories of what Kyou and the house's young ones got up to when Kumi-chan's little crushes came 'round [1].
Minoru was many things, but an idiot wasn't one of them. Okay, so maybe, he was somewhat of an idiot, but he knew damn well when to retreat. Minoru practically threw both the plate and the 'phone on the low table and scrambled out of there without a word. Oujo hardly noticed, much too busy making lovey-dovey eyes at Shin-san to notice her 'sort-of' brother's strange behavior.
It was strange, watching Oujo act like a woman in love. Not a school-girl crush, but the real deal. Stranger still, to see that love returned and from someone that wasn't part of the family. It made things real for Kyou; gave him proof that, that sad, determined little girl that had come into their household all those years ago—she was all grown up now.
His heart skipped a beat, or three. Kyou pressed his palm firmly on his chest. He wondered if he was having a heart attack. It was possible, though that didn't explain why his throat felt tight or why his eyes felt like they were burning...
"Aniki! That was rough! I'm not going in there again!" Minoru exclaimed as he suddenly burst into the room. Kyou blinked the tears away and immediately struck out. Minoru cried out in pain as Kyou punched him soundly.
"Aho! Don't just burst in here without knocking!" Kyou shouted roughly. From the corner of his eye, he caught Tetsu stifling laughter. Kyou spun on around and punched him, too, for good measure.
"Oi! Oi! What's with all this noise...!"
All three men turned toward the doorway and started stammering apologies when they saw the Kumichou standing there.
"Apologies, Kumichou-san..." Kyou said stiffly.
Kumichou waved his words away. He nodded toward Oujo and Shin-san. "She's really pullin' all the stops, ne?"
"Ah..."
"That was Yuriko-chan's favorite kimono."
Kyou looked at Oujo. She had put on a peach-colored kimono. It was shot through with orange and soft greens and golden threads; large cream butterflies, their large wings tipped red, were threatening to flutter away from her sleeves. The material of the kimono shimmered delicately, every time she moved.
"She looks so much like her mother," the Kumichou murmured. There was a strange note in his voice, something that spoke of a deep, running pain. Kyou didn't dare glance at the Boss, knowing that if he did, he would be intruding on something intensely private.
Kyou prudently didn't say anything; Tetsu and Minoru kept quite, too.
In their own little world, Shin-san and Oujo continued their conversation; a conversation that was becoming less about using actual words and more about looking into each others' eyes. Kyou shifted and cleared his throat. If things went on like this, shit was going to get really uncomfortable.
That feeling of awkwardness became almost unbearable when Shin-san reached for a peach slice, bit into it and then offered the other half to Oujo. He leaned close, over the table, and held the fruit to her lips. Oujo moved in close, too, like she couldn't help herself; like his very presence pulled her in. Their faces were very close now, their noses almost touching. All that they needed to do was tilt their heads a little and their lips would be in perfect alignment for a kiss.
They didn't, though, kiss that is. When Oujo opened her mouth, Shin-san pressed the slice of peach into her mouth, watching her lips close around it with such a burning look in his eyes. Shin-san leaned in closer, Oujo's eyes fluttered close and Kyou wanted to roar, stomp right over there and shake that red-haired brat like a mangy dog.
Only, Shin-san didn't kiss Oujo in full view of his audience. At the very last second, the brat pulled away, leaving Oujo bereft and blinking dazedly. Shin-san stood up, smiled at Oujo when she looked up at him in confusion, and a little hurt, and then walked toward the veranda. He stood there and stared right at them; looked straight at Kumichou-san, matching him stare for stare. Shin-san suddenly didn't looked at all like a brat; he was a man, tall and fierce, his hair a red lion's mane, and his smirk all youthful arrogance. He raised an eyebrow at the four of them and then, in slow, deliberate movements, he reached for the shoji doors and closed them leisurely.
The last thing they saw before the doors closed completely was Shin-san's smirk and Oujo's blushing face.
Their disbelief was almost palpable in the silence that filled the room. Tetsu and Minoru stared blankly at each other; Kyou felt his mouth fall open in shock; and Kumichou-san, after contemplating the closed shoji doors for a long moment, huffed.
"Arrogant little shit..."
Those words shattered the frozen outrage keeping them immobilize.
"THAT BASTARD! I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL...!"
"You'll do nothing, Kyou-san!" the Kumichou snapped. He glared at Kyou, and at both the young one, who looked half-feral themselves; he huffed again, gathering his kimono tighter around himself. "Leave those two alone."
With that, the Kumichou swept out of the room, leaving his subordinates staring incredulously after him. Minoru and Tetsu immediately looked at Kyou for guidance.
"Aniki...?" Minoru began.
"What should we do...?" Tetsu finished.
Kyou opened his mouth, and then closed it again. His instincts was telling him to teach that Sawada-bastard a lesson, yet Kumichou-san's orders...
Finally, Kyou screamed inarticulately, making the young ones flinch and bolt from the room, far away from the enraged so-honbucho [2]. Unfortunately, Kyou decided to chase after them, bent on venting his great displeasure on the most convenient targets around.
"Tetsu! Minoru! Come back here and fight me like men, you cowards!"
Because while it was all well and good that Oujo was no longer a little girl, but a full-fledged woman, one which had finally found love-it didn't mean Kyou had to like it, or take it with any kind of grace.
So, it was with gleeful abandoned that he trounced the house's young ones, all the while imagining it was Sawada's face he was punching.
Cheeky little brat...!
[1] This is a reference to Vol. 12, Ch. 2: Shinohara-sensei and a Shadow of a Woman. In it Kyou-san mentions to Shin Yankumi's previous suitors, mostly high school kids, and how Kyou-san, Minoru and Tetsu would take turns scaring them off.
[2] Headquarters Chief, directly under the Kumichou