II~I don't understand you

3:00 pm; the time Koujaku opened his hairdresser salon after enjoying his break for lunch time. Even thought he took breaks, he usually enjoyed his meals in the company of his lovely feminine clients; honestly the only kind of clients he had. He may be 28 years old, but Koujaku was pretty handsome and popular between women. He enjoyed their company a lot without complaints. Yet, although that was his daily routine, Koujaku had been forced to break it to take care of an important... Wait; important? It was more a nuisance and a troublesome thing than 'important'. Koujaku was currently heading to his childhood friend's house, Aoba, to talk to him about his extra and unwanted job as a mangaka assistant. Why on earth had he agreed with such a thing? No; wait he knew: he had only accepted to be that unbearable mangaka's assistant because Aoba had begged him for it, over and over again. The blue haired man had looked really worried and alarmed at the idea of letting the damn brat working alone on his own mangas, and seeing Aoba's concerned expression Koujaku was unable to say no. Of course, the dark haired man had tried to convince Aoba to talk with someone else, like his brother or his boyfriend but it seemed that no one was available to help Noiz. Thus, in a way, Koujaku felt forced to help him. But what a huge mistake he had made. Noiz was unbearable. The blond mangaka was everything Koujaku disliked; he was a brat, and a childish one, he was not educated on the contrary he'd insult people easily without even caring about it, he was rude and stupid and ignorant and arrogant and a damn asshole and... a freak; especially the last one. Anyways, Koujaku hated him. Whenever he saw his face; more like, whenever he remembered the events that had happened two days ago, Koujaku just felt rage growing inside him and the need to beat the damn brat up. Summarizing, helping the brat would be impossible.

The sound of the doorbell of Aoba's house echoed in the street and in less than a minute said blue haired man was peeking through the door. Aoba looked at Koujaku surprised, clearly not expecting his visit.

"Koujaku, what are you doing here?" Aoba asked, yet the surprise on his face was quickly replaced by worry with the sudden thought that had occurred to him."Did something happen to Noiz?" His voice sounded so concerned and alarmed, and his face had lightly paled with the mere thought of Noiz being unwell that Koujaku couldn't help but feel guilty already. It would, for sure, be really hard to convince Aoba to search for someone else to look after the insufferable mangaka and to help him out with his erotic works. However, Koujaku would not give up. He would not continue helping that insane blond. Tsk, just remembering about him and his... his useless and disgusting and stupid action made Koujaku's blood boil in rage through his veins.

"N-No, no; of course not Aoba." Koujaku assured his friend nervously, showing him a small smile as a way to help comforting him. But Aoba was not easily convinced.

"Koujaku, what happened?" He asked facing the other man sharply wanting a true answer.

"Uh..." The older man tried to compose himself with his friend's reaction, but to no avail. Koujaku sighed decided to give Aoba some answers. "Can I enter so we can talk more comfortably?"

Aoba said nothing, the blue haired male simply opened the door and moved lightly to the side, giving Koujaku enough space to enter inside his house. The dark haired man did so, and in a few minutes they were both sitting down at Aoba's comfortable coach with said man looking at his older childhood friend expecting him to spit out everything, while Koujaku looked everywhere but at Aoba.

The blue haired man kept facing his friend, patiently waiting for his speech and Koujaku, on the other hand, grabbed one of the two cups of coffee that were placed over the small table in front of them and sipped, every now and then, on his black drink. Aoba gritted his teeth and played with his fingertips of his healthy hand over his legs as if trying to control himself and his 'patience'. The dark haired man didn't seem to notice this and remained quiet, nervously looking the whole living room of Aoba's place as if he was there for the first time.

Aoba waited a few more seconds, not really patient anymore, and unable to control his irritation at Koujaku's odd and unnerving behavior, he grabbed the older man's cup harshly and placed it over the table with a loud thud astonishing the red eyed male. How he had managed to not spill the coffee out was a mystery.

"Argh geez, enough Koujaku! What the hell is up with you? Why the hell are you acting so... so nervous and afraid? Did something bad happen to Noiz and now you don't want to tell me? Did he get hurt? Does he not want to draw? What happened? Just spit it out already!" Aoba's face was flushed in irritation and Koujaku blinked too surprised to try to form coherent words. He hadn't any intentions of upsetting his friend, yet it seemed that his fear of telling him the true reason behind his visit had the opposite and unwanted effect. Honestly, Koujaku did not want to fight with Aoba because of that stupid brat; Aoba was too precious to him to let that blond to try to get in the way of their everlasting friendship. Yet, somehow, it seemed that Noiz was, in a damn way, someone important to Aoba as well. How frustrating! How was he supposed to tell Aoba everything if in the end he knew that they would fight because of the unbearable mangaka ?

Koujaku sighed, yet again, feeling more annoyed and frustrated by the second. Even though a fight with Aoba was inevitable, he had taken his final decision already: Koujaku would not help Noiz anymore.

"So...?" Aoba tried again encouraging his older friend to speak. His irritation was growing second after second inside him. What the hell was happening to Koujaku ? He was not like that.

"Aoba." The older man started forcing Aoba to abandon his thoughts. The blue haired man waited yet again, and after what seemed like hours, Koujaku finally spoke again, "I... can't help the bra- N-Noiz. I can't help him anymore. I'm sorry." He closed his red eye as a way to avoid any type of eye contact. He was afraid of seeing in his childhood friend's honey eyes disappointment.

For moments the silence took control of Aoba's house, to the point of being possible to listen to faint conversations that were happening in the outside between Aoba's neighbors. But Aoba was the first to break the silence.

"Koujaku, why is that?" He simply asked making the other man feel even more nervous but who answered right away as he did not want to irritate his childhood friend even more.

"We don't get along well enough to cooperate and work together. Honestly, he is the type of person I don't really like at all Aoba. You should know it." Yet Koujaku swallowed the last part of his speech. He wouldn't blame Aoba for it. Even though he hated the blond, he accepted the fact that Aoba liked him and got along well with him.

"Did Noiz do something to you? Koujaku I had told you already that he is a complicated kid, but you mustn't give up so easily. As I told you before also, Sei cannot help him as much as he used to do before because he has been really busy at work, and Ren as you know is out of the country in work as well. Even though they both can draw and understand a lot about manga, I felt like you'd be the right person to help Noiz. I know how good you are Koujaku, so I'll ask you again; please help him okay?"

Koujaku felt weak under Aoba's concerned and pleading gaze. But he wouldn't go back on his word now. He had already decided so it didn't matter how much Aoba pleaded, Koujaku would not falter and agree with the blue haired man once again.

A deep sigh sounded softly in the red eyed man's ears, followed by the sound of Aoba's voice, "Okay I get it. You won't help him again, is that it? I guess he will have no remedy then, hiatus is his only solution." The blue haired male grabbed his cup of coffee and was ready to drink his now cold dark brown liquid, when the older male's voice interrupted him.

"H-Hiatus?"

Aoba raised an eyebrow at Koujaku's hesitant question. It looked light but he was worried. Maybe this was Aoba's opportunity to try to convince him once again.

"Alright, let's try it again Aoba."

"Yes, as Noiz doesn't have anyone else to help him nor I know anyone else as well, he will have to put his works on hiatus. The only problem here is that Noiz is too popular you see? If he puts all his mangas on hiatus he may lose readers and fans forever. Of course, he could try and keep working alone, but at some point he would be unable to meet the deadlines besides he gets easily worked up and stressed, although he tries to deny it, and he also gets easily ill."Aoba sighed caressing his injured arm and looking away more crestfallen than needed just for the drama. "So, in the end, hiatus is his only solution. It can't be helped."

Hiatus? Wasn't that pretty bad for mangakas? For as long as Koujaku knew, usually a mangaka declared their hiatus only when their works were unpopular, or whenever they got injured or if they had too many mangas ongoing; but the brat hadn't any of those 'problems', so wouldn't it be really terrible for him? As much as Koujaku hated to admit it, Noiz was too good on what he did and Aoba had told him so many times that Noiz had tons of fans impatiently waiting for his works and random drawings... Noiz was a hateful boy but Koujaku didn't want anything so bad to happen to him; even if he deserved it.

Noiz yawned lazily sitting on the bed and scratching at his head still too sleepy to react. Honestly he wanted to keep sleeping for the whole day if possible, but he knew he had to keep working on his manga or else he wouldn't finish anything in time. It was a pain in the ass but he liked too much his life as a mangaka to give up on it just because of his tiresome state. He looked at the small cubic watch, which sat at his nightstand table, and panicked at the time. 4:30 pm... he had clearly overslept!

"Fuck!" He got up in a hurry, not caring about getting dressed, and left the room heading to the division of the house where he usually worked. Once there he looked at the three papers with his drawings on it and clicked his tongue in annoyance. He hadn't been able to draw too much the previous day due to lack of patience. There were times when Noiz woke up and just didn't feel like drawing anything at all. In those days everything Noiz wanted to do was lazying around and do nothing besides watching anime, sleeping or listening to music. Unfortunately, yesterday had been one of those special but useless and unwanted days, thus Noiz hadn't been able to resist to temptation and gave up easily. He did whatever he felt the need to do, and only when his small black and green bunny-themed clock showed midnight, did the blond decide to work a bit on his manga. It was only at 3 am that Noiz stopped drawing and headed to bed feeling more tired than usual.

In the end, Noiz had drawn 3 pages in 3 fucking hours; too many useless breaks in the middle had such a terrible final result. He had never been so slow before! However, that wasn't his main problem; although Noiz had drawn those three pages, two of them were incomplete and Noiz didn't have enough time to lose with them since he had more complicated and important pages to draw. Nevertheless, without those two pages he couldn't go on with his chapter. Yet he had more things with which he had to worry about also. There were also needed to be applied the background tones and the speeches, and a few black spaces in need to be colored... Besides today aired a new episode of a certain anime he had been following lately, and he had even decided to create a doujinshi between the two main male characters; even if he wanted to put the idea of his doujinshi aside, he couldn't anymore because he had already announced it on his website and all his fans had seen it and commented about how eager they were to read his dj!

"Tsk" Well fuck them all! If he wanted to finish his chapter in time then he would have to disappoint his fans and forget about his doujinshi for now. Fuck it too! Who cared anyways? It was just a damn doujinshi that was nothing compared to his manga. Although he knew the mess he found himself in had been his own fault, Noiz felt upset and frustrated. If only Aoba had been careful at home... Wait; what the hell was he thinking about anyways? He did not need anyone's help. He was completely capable of doing everything alone. Aoba; Clear; Mink; the fucking old man... Noiz did not need anyone of them to do his work. How useless panicking over nothing in particular. He had more than enough time to finish everything. There was no need to panic.

The blond put those three pages over the table in the middle of the studio, decided to ignore them for now, and was ready to sit at the other table inside the room under the large window, when all of a sudden the doorbell of his house sounded. Noiz clicked his tongue, again, but headed reluctantly to the front door in order to find out whom his visitor was. If it was Clear asking him for his new manga, Noiz would kick him out of his place right away; if it was Aoba pestering him about his health, he would just harass him as much as possible, he knew how flustered the blue haired beauty got because of that and somehow that amused him. Yet, it could be Mink... Nah, it was too early in the month for the rude asshole to come to his house and get in the way. Pondering about the three possibilities, Noiz decided to chose Aoba since it was, after all, the most probable choice.

His right hand grabbed the doorknob but before opening the door, Noiz realized that he had no clothes on besides his black boxers. He eyed them for moments pondering about going back to his room and put on a t-shirt, or just ignore his naked state and open the door. His lips formed a sly smirk. No need for clothes after all.

The door was slowly opened, the sly smirk on his lips widening as his green eyes saw a pair of shoes on the other side of it. This would be fun, or so he would like to think but somehow those shoes didn't look like Aoba's at all. Those shoes looked too familiar but Noiz was pretty sure they didn't belong to Aoba. The blond frowned as he witnessed that and his curious orbs ran the body of the mysterious visitor up hesitantly but quickly. Once they reached the face of the unexpected visit Noiz froze too astonished to possibly react. What the hell was the old man doing there?

On the other side of the door, Koujaku stared at the blond surprised. Why on earth was he naked? Didn't he have manners at all? His eyebrow twitched and he felt a light headache tormenting him. He shouldn't question the brat's weird tastes. Koujaku already knew that if he in fact started a conversation with the stupid boy about manners, they both would end up fighting and Koujaku would end up returning home, breaking his promise to Aoba. That could not happen. This time he would fulfill it and take care of the blond until Aoba was well enough to return as Noiz's assistant.

"Okay Koujaku, you can do it. Just calm down and pretend he's normal. Oh and be nice."

"S-So, what am I supposed to do today?" Koujaku stuttered nervously. Noiz's eyes widened briefly. Had the man returned to help him for real? Well, if that was the case Noiz wouldn't complain. He had, after all, a lot of stuff in need to be done so if the old man wanted to help, Noiz would give him as much work as he wanted.

"Speeches, halftones and some drawings here and there." Noiz grinned arrogantly. "Do you think you can handle it?"

Koujaku clenched his teeth tightly. The damn brat was trying to piss him off again. As if he would let him do it. Koujaku said nothing, he simply entered the house, took off his shoes and headed to the same room of the other day. He had come to help and he would do it for Aoba.

"Tsk" Noiz's mouth uttered as he closed the door. If the old man didn't argue back then it wasn't funny. Not that that mattered; he couldn't care less about the fucking man.

Three hours passed without a single word uttered. The only sound that could be heard in the room was Noiz's pencil scratching at the paper as he drawn. Koujaku placed the halftones he had in hands over the table and stretched his body feeling tired. He had already forgotten how hard a life as a mangaka's assistant was. But then again, he hadn't been one for a long, long time so it was too early to be complaining.

Koujaku's red eye stared at Noiz's back carefully; he had finally some clothes on. The muscles of Noiz's back moved slowly and delicately as his hand drawn those unique drawings of his over the paper. Koujaku couldn't see the blond's face but he was sure that Noiz had a serious and focused expression on while drawing. The brat seemed to enjoy what he did. Well, of course, otherwise he wouldn't have decided to turn into a mangaka. He suddenly felt frustrated. How could such a talented boy be so arrogant and annoying at the same time? Why couldn't he be more pleasant and easy to deal with just like his perfect drawings? Koujaku furrowed his brows. Why was he thinking so much about the damn brat anyways? It wasn't as if he could change his stupid personality by trying to find answers for it.

The dark haired man sighed hopelessly as he looked at his black wristwatch. 8pm... No wonder he was starting to get so hungry. His red eye looked at the blond's back once again as he decided to speak his needs.

"Oi, its 8pm and I'm hungry. I'm going out and eat something."

Silence was everything Koujaku received. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. The damn brat...!

"OI! Are you deaf?"

"Do you expect me to beg you to stay?" Noiz's indifferent tone of voice caught him by surprise.

"What?"

"Do whatever you want."

"Huh? I will for sure; but I am, different from you, an educated man so I was letting you know by advance."

"Like I care old man." Noiz said nonchalantly as he kept working.

Koujaku gritted his teeth in rage and stood up on his feet leaving the room and the insufferable brat inside it. He feared that if he passed any longer there he would explode and end up breaking his promise to Aoba.

35 minutes later, Koujaku was back at Noiz's house, more precisely at Noiz's mini-studio where he had passed half of his day already. After killing his hunger, Koujaku was now more satisfied and with a better humor, however there was something that was bothering him since he had returned to the brat's house.

"Oi, have you eaten dinner already?"

"I haven't, why? Do you want to feed me now old man?" Noiz replied with a wide grin on his lips; even though the other man couldn't really see it, however Koujaku felt annoyed enough with the blond's tone of voice.

"You really are too stupid. Can't you answer like a normal person for once? Or do you really feel the need to give those half-assed answers of yours to increase your self-esteem? Tsk." Koujaku tried to control his annoyance as well as it was possible, but somehow Noiz had the ability to spoil his decisions. "Anyways, if you haven't eaten then go eat something while I finish these 3 pages."

"Why should I obey to you?"

Koujaku's eyebrow twitched. "Because I say so."

"Hum... Too bad for you but I'm not hungry."

The dark haired man clicked his tongue feeling his rage grow stronger inside him. He had to calm himself for real or else he would break his promise with Aoba.

"Fine. Okay. Whatever. Starve yourself to death, as if I care."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Very good."

Koujaku was being too childish. He knew it; yet he couldn't help it. The damn brat was a pro at spoiling his personality. Even so, Koujaku tried to ignore him as much as it was possible, by drawing on the three pages he had in front of his red eye. And, as surprisingly as it seemed, he was really able to do so thanks to Noiz's way of drawing. He seriously couldn't stop admiring the brat's drawings. The more he observed them, the more he came to enjoy each line of it. He had to be getting crazy to enjoy the brat's things so much.

A few time later, Koujaku was done with those three pages and looked at his wristwatch to check the time. Yeah, it was late enough so he would just say his goodbyes to the brat and head home to rest until the next morning. Besides, he was sure that Noiz was as tired as him, maybe more, since he hadn't stopped drawing at all not even to eat dinner. Well, he didn't care anyways. Whenever the brat stopped working was up to him. Noiz could just do whatever he wanted as long as he didn't bother Koujaku more than he already did.

"Hey, it's pretty late so I think I'm going home."

"Hum... Feeling tired already old man?" Koujaku suppressed his urge to reply by clenching his fists over the table. "Well, I guess it can't be helped, you're not young anymore. Take care of your old body."

"C-Control yourself Koujaku. He's just a fucking spoiled brat. Think about Aoba. Think about your precious friend. Yes..."

"Then-" The blond stood up on his feet and moved closer to the other man, bending his body lightly over Koujaku's. He brought his face closer to the older man's, supporting one of his hands over Koujaku's shoulder. "-thanks for your hard work."

Their faces' distance decreased by the second and Koujaku couldn't help but stay still in shock. What was the damn blond thinking he was doing? No; it couldn't be... Koujaku quickly covered the blond's mouth with one of his hands, before it was too late, and pushed him away as much as the other male allowed him.

"You... Don't tell me that you're still with the same kind of ideas of the other day in mind."

"What kind of ideas?" Noiz inquired raising a pierced eyebrow.

"The kind of ideas like 'I'm paying your for your hard work'." Koujaku really hoped to be mistaken this time.

"Oh it seems that you still can think very well old man. I'm proud of you." Noiz couldn't help but be ironic. "So if you know that much, why did you interrupt me?"

Koujaku's head suddenly started to hurt too much. He really couldn't believe in this stupid boy.

"Why you... Why shouldn't I do it?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that? The other day you rejected me and freaked out like a virgin, so I assumed you wouldn't return to help me, yet here you are and this time you know that no one's gonna pay you for your work. So, I can only think that you came back with these kind of ideas in mind. As simple as that. Still you clearly rejected my kind intentions. Are you really a virgin and all your overreacted reactions are because you're too shy, or are you just a sadistic old man who likes to play dirty? Although, I don't really mind if the right answer is the second option." Noiz smirked as he observed the older man. Koujaku, on the other hand, just looked at the blond in disbelief.

"You're sick." Noiz's smirk quickly vanished from his lips. He looked at Koujaku with his brows furrowed in irritation. "For your information I came to help you because Aoba asked me to do it, otherwise I wouldn't have come here at all. Why must you distort people's good intentions in such a depraved way?"

"Eeeh ... So it's not from me that you want this kind of payment but from Aoba. I see. I can understand you though, he's really sexy and pretty, any man would like to do him I guess."

"You damn bastard...!" Koujaku grabbed the teen by his collar harshly and yelled completely furious, "Don't you ever dare to put Aoba in the same place as someone like you! You are a freak!" The man pushed him away roughly, which made the blond fall on the floor and hit with his back painfully against his table. A few of his drawings fell right next to him, but he didn't even care about that. Honestly Noiz couldn't even think properly at the moment. He just remained quiet with his face lowered while the older man's words played inside his head. Those words were strangely bothering him. He didn't even know the reason himself, but he could feel a sharp pang inside him clearly messing up with his emotions. He shouldn't be compared to Aoba; that much he knew. He was a freak; that much he also knew. He was tired of hearing those same words over and over again. He already knew all that too well. But fuck, why couldn't he ever get used to them?

The next time Noiz looked up, Koujaku wasn't in the room anymore. This time he was sure that the old man wouldn't come back to help him ever again. But Noiz couldn't care less. Fuck the old man and his good intentions.

Okay, here's the thing: I don't update this for a long while (shame on me, but i had my reasons :v), yet I plan to do it again from now on :3 still it may take me a bit to do it, so just be patient né? Arigatou :3

I didn't re-read this (again lol) bc I had done it before posting it on AO3 a long time ago, so forgive me for any kind of mistakes. ~

Jaa, bye~bye, ❤⌒ヽ(*'､^*)chuu*