single-variable calculus
Summer Wars, KenjiKazuma (mostly platonic)
Time Signature
Disclaimer: I do not own the wonderful Summer Wars.
A/N: Because, as a mathlete, I needed to pay homage to the one creation that acknowledges our universe.
Kazuma is a study in vectors. All sharp eyes, fluid motions, direct words, and sometimes Kenji just aches for a bit of curvature that he can dissect with differentiation.
That is not to say that he is not beautiful, because he is. (Is calling a thirteen-year-old boy beautiful insulting? Kenji's been called cute, both in reality and in avatar, much too many times for him to tell.) The way his introverted lethargy gives way to fire when fighting Love Machine to protect his family (the world) is simply stunning. Even when Kenji's busy decoding countless passwords and modeling trajectories for rogue satellites and finding margins of error, that's one of the images that motivate him.
The fact that Kazuma's loss makes him stronger than before amazes Kenji too. After the Olympiad finals, all he'd been doing was mope and draw beautiful assumptions in the sky about what if he'd won and then finish his proofs by contradiction. He hadn't gone on the internet forums with his fellow competitors to discuss solutions or anything like that. Kazuma, though, is productive. He throws himself into training with his master like never before, vows that he won't taste defeat to that virtual monster anymore, and he goes through with that promise.
Kenji? Kenji's still debating about competing next year, because he's still weak and afraid about losing the spot as Japan's representative, which is stupid really. Why should he not go when he's the one who saved the country from nuclear explosion and when not going would guarantee failure?
The truth is, more often than he cares to admit, Kenji still feels like a single point on a distant plane, simultaneously in existence but not, and isn't it so strange that non-existent points all strung together make a line that somehow is, now? (He just can't believe that there are people who care about him now, because all his life he's been used to empty rooms and silent responses.)
But then, Kazuma's lips turn up in a ghost of a smile, and Kenji's first thoughts are curves, integrals, and derivatives and then, he realizes that the sight is reserved only for the ones that the boy cares about, like his family (his dearest young sister), and that includes him.
And the calculations stop.
A/N 2: This is the first fic I've written in over a year, so I'm a little rusty here. To those of you waiting for my other fics, I'm sorry, but no guarantees on updates. I was just fueled with the need to spill math onto a page. …Timeframe? What timeframe?
A/N 3: Isn't math just beautiful? I believe that thinking in math terms first is like Kenji's line of defense. For someone who's grown up like he has, numbers are probably calming and a grounding point for him. Eventually, math goes away from numbers into variables and abstract Greek letters like omega and phi, but let's not concern ourselves about that for a moment. Does he like cryptography best because it brought him a family? I personally like infinity study. Hey, I should go study math terms in Japanese… (rambles on and on about mathematics)
Thank you for reading,
Time Signature