The adventures of Aragami Rouga after the events of season 1 written for Buddyfight Week. Sorry if it ends up really bad cause I'm really rushing to finish this, not even proofread. This is basically the adventures of Aragami Rouga after the events of season 1, off in the woods who knows where doing who knows what because he's a nerd, with this plot I came up with in the middle of math class.
I made Tasuku way sassier than he should be whoops I had fun.
Prompt: Friendship
Rouga spends the first night after the Fuji Mine incident at Gao's home. All of the kids are throwing a victory party for his victory over Gaen Kyoya, and Rouga has never felt more out of place. It's bright, loud, colourful, and everyone is laughing. He's not sure what he's supposed to do. Everyone, and literally everyone is there. Rouga isn't sure if it's claustrophobia from everyone crowding around him, or if its agoraphobia from the crowds of people, but he wants to leave.
"Here's more takoyaki!" Gao's little sister says, and all the other kids begin cheering again, jumping over him and tearing at each other to grab more of the snacks. Savages.
"But still, I'm surprised you decided to come, Aragami-senpai." Zanya says, his mouth full of that ball food. The buddy monster Asmodai is doing some weird dance in the background with the other buddy monsters, including Cerberus.
"I'm… not a party person…" He can't remember the last party he had been to. Maybe it was that time Kyoya made him go to that business party with him, so that he wouldn't be alone. But that one was full of fancy suits and stuck up adults and alcohol and classical music and grace. This had none of that, except for maybe the bright lights. That announcer girl won't stop yelling in the background while some of the other kids are buddyfighting, and Rouga feels like he's going to have a headache by the end of the night.
"You should try some yo!" Tetsuya shouts, leaning over and shoving a plate of takoyaki under his nose. "Come on, it's delicious yo!"
"N-No thanks…"
Rouga's stomach growls. He hasn't eaten in two days. His last meal was leftover stadium food Cerberus stole for him. He's hungry.
"Maybe just one." He mumbles, and the two boys cheer. "That's nothing to cheer about!"
Rouga takes the plate from Tetsuya and eyes the food suspiciously. After all that time of Kyoya stuffing gourmet meats down his throat, he's not exactly sure what to make of this. He picks one up with his fingers and pops it in his mouth. And then another. And another.
Rouga continually stuffs the takoyaki in his mouth until the plate is empty, and feels so glad that he doesn't have to go hungry for another day because he had…
Friends…
He looks down and sees the sauce all over his fingers and face, and a bunch of the other kids had come over while he had been eating to watch him, and they were all laughing cheerfully. "Glad you like it, Aragami-senpai!" Tetsuya says.
"Get him another plate!" Zanya shouts at the kitchen.
"Aragami-senpai, you liked it?!" And Rouga turns to see Gao too close to his face, a huge smile spread on it, and he goes completely red.
"It's not bad, that's it!" Rouga yells. "It's not good either!"
"Pack him an entire suitcase full for his travels." Tasuku laughs from the corner, and Rouga shoots him a glare.
"You're joking right, Ryuuenji." Rouga says.
"Me?" Tasuku fakes a look of hurt. "No way, Aragami-senpai."
"You wanna go?!" Rouga shouts, just as Gao's little sister comes out of the kitchen again with a huge plate of takoyaki. She sets it down in front of him on the coffee table and smiles up at him.
"We already have six dozen packed into containers for you to take. Do you think you'll need anymore?" She asks him, and Rouga doesn't know how to deal with the question, or the little girl asking the question. And while he's still staring in shock at the little girl who didn't seemed frightened at all by his appearance or demeanour, Gao and Tetsuya took the chance to eat some of the newly made takoyaki.
"Hey, those are mine!" Rouga shouts, snatching the plate away from them. Gao and Tetsuya blink innocently.
"But you said you didn't like them yo." Tetsuya replies.
"I never said that!"
"But you never put a claim on those takoyaki," Gao grinned, "so I guess that means we're going to have to buddyfight for them!"
"What?"
And all the sudden he's surrounded by shouts on all sides on who was going to win, and who wanted to buddyfight next. And they wouldn't stop shouting and laughing and he kept hearing "come on Aragami-senpai" and Tasuku's laughing and Gao kept doing those annoying puppy dog eyes of his that Rouga finally couldn't take it anymore.
"FINE, I'LL FIGHT YOU!" He yells. "You'd better be prepared for the worst beatdown of your life, Mikado Gao!"
All around him, the room erupted in cheering, and Gao smiled brighter. That was not the intended reaction at all, and it's so frustrating and Rouga slams his deck on the table ready to go.
He can see Cerberus sighing before curling up on the couch to sleep.
It's dawn, is the first thing Rouga realizes when he wakes up. The second is that Gao is sprawled across his stomach, fast asleep, using Tasuku's stomach as a pillow who was sleeping opposite to him. He was on top of Baku and Zanya, and Cerberus was sleeping peacefully beside him on Tetsuya's head. Everyone else was in equally strange sleeping positions around the room. They had buddyfights all night long, and the house had never quieted down until kids began dropping from exhaustion. They all had smiles on their faces, snuggled up together.
"Kyoya, a future like this isn't bad at all." Rouga says quietly. Maybe someday…
Having all that food last night must have made him sleepy. Getting food was no problem at the Gaen mansion, but Rouga never forgot his basic survival skills. If they saved all that food they ate last night, his mom and him wouldn't have starved in the winters. But that wouldn't have helped at all in the bitter cold.
He could barely remember what his mom looked like now.
"Let's go, Cerberus." He says, rubbing the dog's middle head, watching it yawn and stretch before hopping off Tetsuya's head, the boy groaning and turning over in his sleep. Rouga carefully pushes Gao off of him to not wake him up, then tiptoes around all the bodies on the floor to the kitchen where, sure enough, there are two shopping bags full of takoyaki and other assorted foods, with a note on it.
"It's not healthy to just eat takoyaki, no matter how tasty it is." on top of a container of fruits and bread. What a ridiculous family. Rouga picks up the bags and walks out the back door.
"You're leaving, Aragami-senpai?" Rouga turns and sees Gao standing there, Tasuku walking out to join him, his hair a mess and a hand over his yawning mouth.
"Yeah."
"Y-You could stay a bit longer." Gao says. "After all, we're friends, you can stay at my house whenever you need a place to go. I know… you don't have a place… after…"
"I'm not staying here, Mikado Gao." Rouga says.
"You're still a wanted criminal." Tasuku says. "It's probably for the best that you leave as soon as possible."
"Tasuku-senpai!"
"No, he's right." Rouga says, hitching the bags up his back further. "It's better if I go now to cause you all less trouble. I have a lot of travelling to do."
"I…" Gao says, running forwards and grasping his hands. "Aragami-senpai!" Gao looks straight at him with big eyes. "You're my friend. And I know Gaen Kyoya is your friend too! It'll take some time, but things will work out!"
Rouga doesn't know what to say. It's been so, so long since anyone's ever tried to comfort him about anything, and despite the cold winter weather, there's a pit in his stomach that feels warm. "I'm not your friend, I'm your rival, remember?" Is what he manages to mumble in response.
"What was that? If you want to be Gao-kun's rival, you're going to have to go through me first, Aragami Rouga." Tasuku says, stepping forwards with a smile. "You're going to have to come back some day, because we still have a score to settle. And everyone here will be waiting.
"Tryin'na act tough with a bedhead like yours," Rouga mutters, and Tasuku's face goes red. He reaches up to shake his hair back into place, and Gao laughs and reaches up to help him. And Rouga smiles a bit watching the two mess up Tasuku's hair even further.
"I'll gladly fight you again, Ryuuenji Tasuku." Rouga lets himself smile back. "But that'll have to be another day."
He activates grips his spear in his hand and turns to leave. "Tonight was… fun." Rouga says, and takes off into the air. He can hear the shouts of goodbye from behind him, and smiles at the thought of people waiting for him to come back.
He had a lot to go see. And when he was done seeing the world, he could go home to where all these idiotic kids smiling over a card game.
He'd drag Kyoya over here too.
"Wait for me, Kyoya."