Had this pop in my head and had to write it out. Just a bit of semi-pointless Ryuuko/Uzu fluff. It takes place during episode 7, when the Mankanshoku family is being corrupted by their wealth. Not entirely sure of the passage of time between episode 6 and 7 so I'm going to take some creative license. Also, sorry if it seems a little out of character at times, I tried my best to keep it in character while still providing the fluff I wanted.
This is a one-shot, so it is what it is. Hope you enjoy!
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Eight days. It had been eight days since he'd gotten his eyes sewn shut. His shingantsu gave him a variety of strengths that even his tengantsu had been unable to touch. Still, there were a few things that irked him and gave him issues.
He knew before it was even a thought in anyone's mind that it was going to rain today. He could smell the change, feel the change in humidity against his skin vividly. He could hear distant rumblings of thunder from the places that were already experiencing the incoming storm.
The rain, he found, was a colossal pain in his ass. The constant din of rain hitting every conceivable surface only served to drown out otherwise important noises that helped his overall 'sight' of the world around him. It was like a screen of static to him, covering everything and making his 'vision' blurred.
On the other hand, it was nice when he needed to get away from all the noise. Another drawback of his new-found heightened senses was that the din of students babbling along the halls and classrooms would sometimes reach headache-inducing levels. In these circumstances, the rain could almost be like a barrier, blanketing him from sensory overload.
He found himself in one of those situations today. Satsuki was refusing to let him fight Matoi again due to whatever scheme she was plotting with the club wars. He understood she had an agenda, but he wanted to fight Matoi again. The ability to fight and test his skills was the condition under which he joined Satsuki in the first place. It resulted in him being in a rather bitter mood and he resorted to walking along the outdoor walkways, staying under the overhand that wrapped around some of the buildings.
He froze when he thought he heard something ahead of him to his right. The rain was making it difficult to hear and he considered that maybe he was just hearing things. Then he heard it again. It was something like sharp breaths or light gasps. He couldn't decipher which. It sounded like someone was out in the rain. Sitting or crouching, based on how low to the ground the sound was coming from. Was the person in pain? He heard a sniffle and realized that the sound he was hearing was someone's attempt to keep their sobs silent. The person was out crying in the rain.
He considered for a moment that regardless of circumstance, the student was skipping class. To be fair, so was he, but he was also a member of the student council. Then again, he wasn't Gamagoori. What did it matter to him if someone was breaking the rules? He only really cared to upkeep the rules regarding his assigned clubs he watched over. If it wasn't a sport, he didn't much care.
The crying ceased suddenly and there was no sound at all from the source. Had he been seen? That was the only thing he could think of for how abrupt the silence was. He might have even accused the person of vanishing if not for the occasional sniffle that they simply couldn't conceal.
"What do you want?"
The voice was gruff, but he could hear the rawness to it that accompanied someone who had been crying for some time. The source greatly surprised him, though. Matoi? Crying? He didn't think she was capable of such a thing. It shouldn't have been surprising. Despite her attitude, she was still a girl and still quite young. She was more than capable of tears.
But, she was also a warrior. Someone who had thrown him for a loop and forced him to take things more seriously. She had taken his arrogance and smashed it, making him really take a closer look at who he was and what it was he stood for.
It felt wrong that this spitfire was now on the ground in the rain, likely to catch a cold at the rate she was going, and crying.
He wasn't quite sure how to answer her, or how to handle the situation at all, really. He was terrible with women and worse with crying women. Fighting and sports. Those were what he was good with. In fact, if the fact that Matoi was crying hadn't taken all the wind right out of his sails, he might have been tempted to challenge her to a fight anyway, despite Satsuki's refusal to allow it. But, Satsuki would be furious for it. Moreover, he couldn't find it in him to want to raise a weapon to this pitiful version of Matoi before him.
He continued walking until he was standing to her left, looking down in the direction he could hear her from. He couldn't make eye contact, but he'd found that it made people more comfortable if he at least faced them when they were having a discussion. Despite his earlier thoughts, the first thing out of his mouth was, "You're supposed to be in class, Matoi."
He heard a sharp intake of air. Between her earlier statement being a bit muffled and her shock to his voice now, he surmised that she had kept her head down, perhaps in her arms, and hadn't bothered to look up at whoever she had felt come up behind her. He could feel a tenseness between the two of them now. It was like lightning sparking and he had to push down the sudden desire to take her on. At the very least, despite her crying, he could still feel her spirit. So, at least it seemed that the crying wasn't due to her giving up her fight against them. He would have honestly been rather disappointed if the recent events were enough to make her crumble.
Then what? What created the need for her to skip class and seek solitude? What had her so tied up in knots that despite the electricity between them, she also seemed to hold herself back from a battle?
After her moment of shock, Ryuuko gave a small laugh in her throat, shaking her head, "Yeah, I guess. You going to drag me inside?" The statement was obviously meant to sound like a taunt, but the attitude that needed to accompany it to get the desired effect seemed lodged in her throat.
Sanageyama let out a slight chuckle of his own, "No, that's Gamagoori's thing." He gave a shrug.
She knew by now that he couldn't see her face, but she seemed to stubbornly keep her crying face hidden against her arms. She was silent for a moment, then muttered, "Then what are you doing out here?"
He was a bit surprised at her question. Based on the sharp inhale that followed her question, he guessed she was just as surprised. He'd honestly expected something along the lines of her telling him to go away if she wasn't in trouble. They were enemies, after all.
She didn't take back the question, however, and he found that it would be rude to not answer her. He put his hands in his pockets and shrugged, his head turning to the side, "I wanted to be alone."
He heard her let out another chuckle, though unlike the last one, this once actually seemed to hold a little humor, "You too? That's surprising."
He supposed it would seem surprising. This wasn't the first time he wanted to be alone with his thoughts, but he'd always gone about it differently. When he needed to retreat to his own world, he would simply go to the dojo to practice with his shinai. He would drown out the world around him and only focus on his exercises.
That was a bit harder now. His senses were heightened and constantly taking in the world around him. Even practicing no longer shut out the things he wanted to block out. Only the rain seemed to really do this for him.
Of course, he had no intention of sharing those thoughts with Matoi. It wasn't her business. She didn't question him further on it, either, for which he was grateful.
Unfortunately for her, he wasn't exactly willing to reciprocate her good manners, curiosity taking over his mouth before his brain could filter him, "Why are you crying out here?"
Well shit. He could feel that whatever tremulous peace had been between them was once again growing into that same tense atmosphere as before. She didn't like the intrusion and he wished he hadn't asked.
It was a good while before the tension ebbed slightly, "Success sucks." Her voice was such a low mumble that he had to strain to pick it up against the pouring rain. A good portion of the issue seemed to become clear to him. It was something to do with the Fight Club she had founded. The club that Satsuki was experimentally letting flourish. He found himself a bit annoyed that Satsuki's plans seemed to be chipping away at what he considered his biggest challenge right now. He wanted to fight Matoi, but not this crumbling mess before him. He had to grudgingly admit to himself that he admired her spark and that he wanted to fight her, not out of malice, but out of the sheer thrill of someone who could give him a challenge.
He weighed his options. He could just walk away. It was the obvious and most sane choice. He wasn't her friend, he wasn't even an ally. He had no stake in her well-being.
That was wrong, though. Her well-being meant her standing strong against him. If he let her fall apart now, he would lose his greatest rival in years. In a school full of people that were either no challenge at all or off limits, she was a precious commodity.
If he tried to help her though, there was a good chance of it failing anyway. Why would she confide in him? And if he succeeded, Satsuki would be furious that he probably fucked up her plans.
Then again, what Satsuki didn't know wouldn't kill her, right?
He sighed and walked over, sitting beside her on the grass. He felt her tense sharply and heard the shifting of hair against skin as she turned her head to peek out from her arms and look at him. He could practically feel her eyes on him. This close to her, he could hear her heartbeat elevating and her breathing picking up. Her fight or flight response seemed to be kicking in and as curious as he was, he didn't want to stay silent and risk her choosing to run, "I would think that you'd be happy your club is successful."
She seemed to keep still as a statue as she watched him for a moment longer. He could tell she was nervous, but it seemed curiosity was overriding that. His words had made her wait, made her curious as to why her enemy was now sitting in the grass with her, getting himself rained on and asking her about her problems.
He wasn't normally a patient person, but sat there and let her work through whether she was going to give him an answer or not. He heard her heartbeat and breathing normalize somewhat, glad she was at least calming down. He supposed the fact that he wasn't running at her with a weapon helped.
After another moment he heard her put her head back down in her arms, "I..." There was a sharp sigh of frustration and he wondered if she was going to finally get mad at him. "I'm so selfish." Ah, so her frustration was with herself. He kept silent and waited for her to sort herself out. He could tell that she was warring with herself. It was probably hard to open up to a known enemy. At the same time, if it was about the club, that meant that she couldn't talk about it with Mankanshoku, who he was sure would normally be her shoulder to lean on. Despite their animosity, she was probably desperate somewhere inside for someone to talk to about it, even if she herself would never admit to it.
"I really liked the way the Mankanshokus were before all this. They were poor, but everything was so happy and bright. I... I wasn't used to that. I used to find it annoying, really." Words were pouring out of her now, though whether she temporarily forgot who she was talking to or had simply picked up momentum and got swept away by it, he wasn't sure.
"I should be happy that they are living in luxury now, but..." She sighed and he could smell salt faintly, realizing that tears were running down her face again, even if her voice was miraculously not giving it away yet. "But now, no one has time for anyone. We hardly eat together anymore. No one has time for anyone anymore. The house is so big, yet it's so empty." Her voice dropped to a softer tone, realizing her voice had been increasing in volume as she ranted, "I was so used to being alone. After my father was killed, I had no one. I was used to that. I almost resent them for it, you know? For introducing me to what it's like to be in a warm house with a warm family. Surrounded by noise and activity, but also warmth and caring. If this is how things are going to be now, I wish they had never given me that. Then maybe losing it wouldn't be so painful."
He heard her laugh, though something of a sob wedged its way into the humorless sound, "I must look pathetic, huh?"
Sanageyama honestly had no clue how to handle it or even respond. He'd never had a family as far back as he could remember. He was orphaned early on and was taken in by the North Kanto gang. He grew up with them. It was a rough family at times, full of tough love, but he never felt alone. The guys were always there. He had never felt what it was like to basically be abandoned like this, so he couldn't really relate or understand exactly what sort of pain it was. He supposed if the gang turned their back on him, it might feel like that. Then again, he wasn't overly emotional about that sort of thing, so he supposed it was going to be impossible to empathize.
He found himself mentally cursing Satsuki again. This was definitely her fault. His loyalty to her stemmed from their agreement and he found this to nearly be a breach of that agreement. Satsuki was indirectly tearing away at his rival and he was letting her.
He felt vibrations in the air between them and realized that, alongside silent sobs, she seemed to be shaking from the cold. He was barely feeling any body warmth from her. He sighed and slipped off his jacket. If she caught a cold, he was sure some club president would try to ambush her. He put his jacket over her shoulders silently, feeling her tense, but not hearing the sound of her throwing it off. That was a good sign.
Then he heard her sobs increase, to the point of becoming audible. Crap. That wasn't a good sign.
He sat there with her awkwardly as she cried, her hands reaching at her shoulders to grip his jacket a bit, holding it more closed around her. He considered patting her back or something, but it sounded awkward and would likely cross a line neither of them wanted crossed. Still, it felt weird doing nothing.
Eventually her sobs died down. The rain had lessened as well, now down to a light drizzle. He wasn't sure what to do now. He supposed it would be best to respond to her somehow, but he wasn't sure what in the hell he should say at a time like this. Eventually he signed and raked his fingers a bit through his hair, "Have you considered giving up?"
He realized just how horrible those words were the moment they left his lips, Matoi's body tensing sharply beside him. The electricity between them was back in full force and the smell of salt became stronger as she lifted her face to look at him, her voice raw but vicious, "There's no way I'm giving up!"
He found it hard to keep his composure. Part of him was ecstatic at the fire she was showing. Another part was frustrated that he hadn't worded that better. And yet another part wanted to throw himself into battle with her right then.
He held his hands up in a placating gesture, "That's not what I meant, Matoi. I meant the club. Quit the club."
She stared at him for a moment longer before looking ahead of herself again, the anger flowing out of her somewhat, "Oh." She sighed lightly, "I can't do that. Mako would go back to being a no-star. I'd be forcing them to be poor."
He shook his head in frustration. This girl... How was it she could be so strong and aggravating, yet in the next instant be so damn selfless? He could understand her guilt to an extent, but, "It's obvious to anyone looking that this isn't healthy for them. Do you really think they are happy?"
Oh man, Satsuki was going to wring his neck. It wasn't like he could take all this back, though.
Ryuuko looked up at him with a curious expression, though curiosity was one emotion he had a hard time placing on a person with his shingantsu due to how ambiguous the signs were. She was probably wondering why he was telling her things like this. He could tell her it was because he wanted to keep fighting her, but he wasn't sure what sort of reaction that would bring.
Luckily for him, the question never came up. Instead, she said, "I don't know. I honestly don't feel like I'm qualified to make that decision for them."
The rain had stopped by now and amid the absence of the static noise from it, he could hear people putting books away, sliding chairs, and the general noise that accompanied the end of class. They wouldn't be alone for much longer.
He stood up slowly and offered her a hand up. At the lack of movement from her, he sighed and spoke, "Classes are almost over." She seemed to understand what he meant and he felt her hand take his. He pulled her to her feet easily, his hand taking a moment to release hers. She was so... small. It was hard to notice when she was fighting him, she seemed almost as big as her fighting spirit. But, actually taking hold of her, lifting her weight, he was almost surprised at how small and light she was. Almost fragile. It was a bizarre thing to him, almost more so than having been an intimate witness to her crying.
He heard her remove his jacket and hand it to him, taking it from her hands and throwing it back around his shoulders, though leaving his arms out of the sleeves for now.
The silence felt tense, but it wasn't the same electricity as before. It was more awkward now and he was the one with the urge to make an escape this time.
She cleared her throat and muttered tersely, "This changes nothing, you know?"
He let out a slight chuckle, his head turned to the side as if he were looking off in the distance somewhere, "Good."
She scratched the back of her head, "But.. um... thanks. I'll give it some thought."
He turned his head to respond to her, but found her some distance away, already walking away, many students between them as she was swept away into a crowd of students going for their lunch.
It was better this way, anyway. He wasn't thrilled at the idea of awkward goodbyes with her. He hoped she would consider what he said and try to set things straight. What he'd done was tantamount to traitorous activity against Satsuki, but he couldn't stand by and let Satsuki's system destroy what he wanted. And he wanted Matoi. She was his rival. He would be the one to defeat her. Not with trickery and systems built to consume people, but with his own strength.
He walked toward the student council room, trying not to let his new-found good mood show too much.
He also found that his jacket smelled of Matoi. He should have been annoyed at that, but the smell was kind of... pleasant?
He gave a sigh as his good mood sank very slightly. This was going to be a long day.