Shinji flopped down next to Yutaka, throwing an arm over the back of the couch. "Who ya texting?" he asked, trying to read what was on Yutaka's phone. Yutaka jumped and shoved the phone in his pants, and Shinji raised an eyebrow. "Oh-kay then. You up for this Friday? You, me, Sugimura, Nanahara, and Kuninobu. Arcade near the bookstore. You in?"
"Oh, uh, I have to, uh, feed my cat," Yutaka said, and Shinji's raised eyebrow acquired more arch.
"You're allergic to cats," he said.
"Oh. Uh, darn, guess that explains why I can't go! I'm having an allergy attack!"
"Dude," Shinji said. "What's going on? Are you busy or something?"
"Yeah," Yutaka said. He squirmed a little, not quite meeting Shinji's eyes.
"Does this have something to do with the fact that you won't let me look at your phone?"
"Maybe," Yutaka said, drawing out the word. His face was gaining a slight pinkish tinge. The next few sentences of words came from his mouth so quickly Shinji barely understood him. "I-maybe-sort-of-totally-have-a-girlfriend-oh-my-god-Shinji-I-have-a-girlfriend."
"You have a what? I thought you were allergic to those, too! Oh, wait, that's me. Thinking about commitment makes me feel ill."
Yutaka didn't laugh. "So, this Friday we're going to a movie," he said. "And then I'm going to walk her home and do you think I'll be able to turn into a good kisser by Friday?"
"Nah," Shinji said. Yutaka's face fell, and he grabbed part of the kid's cheek, squeezing and overall bothering him. "But she'll look at this adorable little face and not care. Hell, her parents will be all over you, because you look so innocent."
He had a weird feeling in his chest that he couldn't identify and didn't like, but he pushed it aside. But he didn't want to ruin this for Yutaka, not when it was the first time he'd ever had a girl interested in him back, so he kept the smile on his face and when Yutaka left he punched a wall.
He stared at his knuckles and tried to make sense of himself. A few of them were popped open and bleeding, and it hurt, but none of it hurt more than the fact that he had no clue what was going on with him. As soon as Yutaka had uttered the word 'girlfriend' he'd felt sick. It wasn't the word 'commitment' that made him feel ill, it was Yutaka uttering the words 'I have a girlfriend.'
And damn it if he knew why.
But he shouldn't care about it. Because it was like a kid romance, really, anything with Yutaka was something immature and dumb and wouldn't last longer than a week. Pretty soon the girl would break up with him – not because Yutaka was a loser, but because Shinji was pretty sure Yutaka just didn't have it in him to break up with someone – and then everything would go back to normal. Then Shinji could go back to being the most important person in Yutaka's life.
But the next few weeks came and went and the girlfriend was still around. Shinji had met her once, and she was entirely forgettable – a petite girl with bangs and a cute smile. Someone who laughed at all of Yutaka's jokes and held his hand and overall made Shinji want to hit something.
And it was still bothering him.
He mentioned it to Nanahara one day.
"So, I hate Yutaka's girlfriend," Shinji said, trying to be casual about it as he stirred his coffee. Nanahara raised an eyebrow.
"Why?" he asked. "She's nice."
"Nice," Shinji snorted. "She's pure evil. She's always laughing at his jokes and smiling at him."
Nanahara just sort of looked at him, and he scowled. There were a few moments of silence before Nanahara spoke again.
"Are you jealous?"
"What? No! Yutaka can have a girlfriend if he wants, but he's spending all of his time with her. He's always texting her back, and he always says hi when she shows up, and they have inside jokes, and they make plans together and I don't like it."
"That sounds like a perfectly normal relationship," Nanahara pointed out.
"But – bros before hoes," Shinji said. Nanahara snorted with laughter.
"Dear God, you are jealous," he said.
"I am not jealous," Shinji said. He glanced at his phone. "He doesn't text me back anymore."
Only after he said it did he realize just how ridiculous that sounded. He sighed, and Nanahara laughed again.
"Shut up," he said. "It's not funny. You never have to worry about this with Nobu."
Nanahara just kept laughing, and Shinji kept glancing at his phone. He really didn't know why he was feeling like this. It was probably because Yutaka wasn't making any time for Shinji anymore. Whenever Shinji had a girl, he didn't spend this much time on her. He texted her once or twice, or as long as it took for her to drop her panties, and then (unless she was good) never talked to her again. All the room for friendship in his plan.
So, three months later, when Yutaka came to him with a mopey kicked-puppy-dog look and the news that he'd been dumped, it took a lot for Shinji to not jump for joy. But instead of doing so he put an arm around Yutaka's shoulders and privately cheered. Now he had his best friend back, and that weird feeling that was blooming in his chest was definitely, definitely all about friendship.
So, this was requested by a user on Tumblr who wanted Yutaka to get a girlfriend and Shinji to be pissed/crushed/annoyed/et cetera. Am I going to miss out a chance to write Shinji Mimura? NO.