Chapter 2:
"Why the hell do you think I'd want to go anywhere with you?" Gakupo asked, raising his cup of tea up higher and sipping at the hot liquid slowly. Ever since the day of the shower prank, he had hidden himself away in his room and hardly said even two words to Kaito. This was the first time they were actually having a full-fledged conversation.
Kaito stood at the doorframe, his arms stretched lazily out to either side and blocking the only way out of the room. He leaned inward, noticing that this was the first time he had seen his new roommate's bedroom in its complete state. Gakupo kept things simple, yet quite elegant – he had hung up a couple of paper fans and what looked to be works of his own calligraphy (Kaito read the kanji for 'Kamui' on at least one of them) on the walls. His bed was draped with soft, violet-colored sheets. The floor was spotless, the closet well-organized, and hell, even his regular clothes adorned the laundry basket in the corner of the room in a clean and oddly pleasing manner. Kaito briefly recalled the state of his own bedroom and felt the teeniest bit of embarrassment for its poor condition. Maybe he'd pick his room up a little later, in the spirit of the beginning of a new semester.
He watched his roommate have a little more time with his tea – watched his head tip upwards with the very definition of the word poise – and finally spoke up again, this time with more urgency to his voice.
"It's the first day of class! Look, I know you're mad or whatever, but can't you swallow down your pride long enough to let me show you around campus? I'm not a complete asshole, you know."
Gakupo turned to glare at him momentarily before taking another drink of tea and then placing his cup down onto the floor with care. "You do make a good point," he admitted. "I mean, the showing me around part. You owe me, after all." The man stood up with his now-empty teacup and walked over to Kaito, who was still blocking him in. Kaito smirked to himself, after all his plan for this morning was to force Gakupo to speak to him and it had worked. "Okay, I will allow you to do that for me. Could you move now?"
"Of course, Your Majesty," Kaito conceded with a smile, bowing low as he backed away from the door with his arms out in front of him.
Gakupo narrowed his eyes and strode into the kitchen to rinse out his cup. This wasn't a very good start to his day. Especially his first day of university. He hoped the everlasting joys of history class would balance it out.
The man had hardly finished washing the cup when he heard Kaito call for him again, this time from the direction of the front door. "Yo, are all your things ready? We should leave soon! The bus will be here!" he yelled. Gakupo could hear him shifting things around in his own bag for a while before he zipped it up completely. "Don't forget your class schedule either!"
"I don't need to be reminded like a child," Gakupo called back. Still, he hastened to his room and quickly re-emerged with a small, brown satchel that would serve as his schoolbag for the semester. He fitted its strap over his shoulder and then met with his roommate at the front door. "Are you happy now?"
"I'll be happier once we make the bus," Kaito replied, gesturing for Gakupo to come with him. Leading the way out of their apartment in a bit of a rush, he checked behind him every minute or so to make sure he was still following. Fortunately, Gakupo kept up pretty easily, although he had to jog lightly now and then to keep up with the distance that Kaito's long legs could carry him. Kaito also noticed, as he pulled his scarf up over his chin, that the wind continually buffeted Gakupo's long hair up into his face, and the man regularly had to either open his mouth and blow it away from his eyes or reach up and part the lengthy strands from his face. It made Kaito smile slightly, but he was sure to do it whenever he faced forward again just so Gakupo couldn't see. He had no desire for fists coming at the back of his head.
The moment they reached the stop, a large public bus pulled up in front of them. Kaito smiled brightly and pointed out its large, lit-up number and route to his roommate, telling him, "That's the one. We just made it."
Gakupo nodded in acknowledgement and followed him inside. He had only been on a public bus once before – the one he had to take to get to the apartment in the first place – and although he knew he'd have to get used to utilizing it as his primary form of transportation to the university, he figured he still had the right to be a little nervous on one.
There wasn't much seat space left. He went toward the back and reached up to take hold of the overhead rail on the right side of the bus while Kaito grabbed onto the one on the opposite side. An array of different faces, mostly blank and sometimes unfriendly, seemed to surround them from every direction. Gakupo felt oddly alone, even though it was only an aisle that separated the two of them. He sort of wished Kaito could be a bit closer, but he didn't dare voice the thought aloud.
Gakupo's eyes darted everywhere at first, but eventually he turned to see what Kaito was doing. The man's stance was suddenly rigid compared to how relaxed he stood when they first got on, and he was looking directly at somebody a few rows ahead of them. Gakupo followed his gaze and immediately regretted it afterwards. A strange man was watching him in particular, with a leer that could only be measured up to a snake that had finally found its prey. Gakupo glanced away. He focused on looking out the window instead, but he could still feel the guy's eagle eye boring into him. The university student shifted uncomfortably where he stood and gripped the overhead rail even harder.
People filed out as the bus stopped only a few minutes later, but because Kaito didn't budge an inch, Gakupo knew it wasn't where they needed to get off and despite the seats beside him becoming free he decided to remain standing. When he looked up again, Gakupo was thoroughly surprised to see that the strange man had gotten up and was heading right toward him. He froze and stayed right where he was, unable to do much except pretend he hadn't seen him at all.
The guy slowed down as he went past him, and Gakupo felt an abrupt, rough hand brush against his arm and then feel him up all the way to his shoulder, picking up a lock of hair as it went before dropping it and letting it drift back down onto Gakupo's feeble jacket. He shivered. The man took the seat right beside him.
Without warning, Kaito's voice pierced the silence, and he was right behind him. "Move up one, Gakkun? I want this spot." Even if he wasn't currently using the most serious tone of voice Gakupo had ever heard him utter thus far, he still would have complied. He didn't even mind that Kaito was exercising that wretched nickname he had come up with for him recently (and that he hadn't authorized the use of).
Once he replaced Gakupo at that particular rail, Kaito politely expressed his thanks to him and stood firm at that spot for the rest of the bus ride.
They got off several stops later. Kaito signaled to Gakupo which one was the correct stop by lightly placing his palm atop his shoulder and pushing him ahead, allowing to both leave together. At first he had flinched, thinking it was the strange man again, but Gakupo soon understood it was only Kaito when his tranquil voice reached his ear half a second later: "We're here now."
Gakupo moved onward as commanded, only allowing himself to breathe again when his shoe finally touched pavement outside.
After Kaito made sure that the man hadn't followed them out, he spoke once more, this time louder and much more gleeful. "It'd take me weeks to find a new roommate if you got shanked. Luckily, I was here." He snatched Gakupo's hand and began dragging him toward the campus with a newfound spring in his step, his idiotic smile the slightest bit contagious.
"I could have handled that myself!" Gakupo lied, heart still pounding from the encounter. Even his hands were shaking – his small fingers trembled so hard in his roommate's grasp that he was sure Kaito could feel it and knew he was lying, too. He damned himself for not having much experience with handling things like this, or at least not as much as Kaito seemed to. Of course it was lucky that he had been there. But Gakupo never would have admitted it.
Maybe Kaito wasn't the worst roommate in the world.
"Are you sure you're going to be fine? I still have an hour before class." Kaito handed Gakupo's schedule back to him. They had run through the class list twice, just in case.
"Of course I'm sure. I'm a grown man – why are you treating me like some child?" Gakupo huffed, jamming the sheet of paper back into his satchel and looking up in order to scowl at the taller man. He wondered if he was acting like this because Gakupo was only eighteen, which made him two years his junior.
Kaito grinned toothily. "Just trying to help out the freshman. Well, at least you know where the cafeteria and library are. Since we both have some time to kill, maybe I can show you where my classes are going to be? We can hang out in our free time or something. It kind of sucks that the history and music wings are on the complete opposite sides of the campus though."
The other male fell silent. Kaito's classes? They'd just be full of pianos and sheet music and happy melodies that would resonate and chime through the air long after they were first sung. No, that was the last thing he wanted to see. Gakupo started to turn away, but Kaito stopped him by taking a surprisingly forceful hold of his arm.
"You alright?" he asked.
Gakupo answered him in a cold, indifferent voice. "Look, we're not friends. You're just my roommate. That's it, okay?"
The smile slowly faded from Kaito's eager, lively face. Gakupo immediately felt remorse for what he said as soon as the words parted from his lips, and he had the sudden urge to flee. He tore himself away from Kaito's now-slackened grip and took off into the classroom that held his first lecture of the day, despite there still being at least forty-five minutes before class actually started.
Kaito didn't know why he continued to stand there, dumbfounded, except maybe he had some vague hope that Gakupo would reappear and say something else – maybe even apologize – but he didn't. It was only when a random student almost ran into him and angrily told him to move out of the hallway that he realized it wasn't going to happen, and he left.
Gakupo reached into his bag and started setting up his notes and pencils. Students trickled in as the clock's large hand moved slowly around its face. Each fellow classmate's features seemed as unsociable and bland as the next one that came in and, no matter what Gakupo tried to do, he couldn't quite quell the feeling of guilt rising up in his stomach. He began reading from the textbook in order to prepare himself for the class, but even that bit of work didn't do much to soothe him at first.
He had made a mistake, but his ego wouldn't allow him to admit it. He read on, unheeded by the clock's hands and new faces until the words on each page finally melted into one another and he stopped seeing Kaito's face in his mind.
A/N: Yay, I'm a little happier about this chapter. ;A; Thanks very much to the people who reviewed and followed and favorited so far! If people are enjoying it, I will be happy to write more! And I hope my writing gets better. I feel a bit rusty.
