It's one AM and I'm tired and finished. Here you go. Review and stuff.
"Hey Josh?" The teenager asks to his departing friend heading out.
Joshua freezes in place with his hand resting on the silver nob of the oak door. The blond turns his entire body towards this friend on the blue sheet with an eyebrow raised, one the white hand still on the handle. "How can I help you?" His voice asks with the natural diction in it to make Yoshiya sound like a smarmy ass.
Neku looks up at his friend, meeting those hauntingly beautiful lavender orbs, making his hideously scratchy voice spontaneously stuck in his throat. "It's late." He says stupidly, mentally punching himself for the comment.
"Yes, it would appear that it is late. Would you care to elaborate more or just state the obvious?" Joshua teases with that God forsaken smirk on his flawless face and flipping a lock of soft hair out of his sight.
"Damn it Josh, that's not what I mean!" Neku spits, digging his ragged nails furiously into the foot of the bed frame. "Why in the world are you going out after curfew looking like that?!" He points his accusing finger at the teen in front of him wearing a Tweed Gentlemen suit from Pegaso , which is already weird seeing that he's going to own Gatio, instead of some Pj's and socks.
Joshua curls the tips of his smooth lips upward seeming to Neku as if he was going to say something discriminating, which he so promptly does. "Am I not hot enough for you Ne-ku?" He hums seductively, leaning closer to his indigo pajama friend, causing the ginger to fall backwards from his upright sitting position. "What do you prefer I wear then hmm?"
"AARRHHGG! Why are you such an asshole?!" Neku yells as he throws a worn pillow with his boney arm in the direction go the giggling figure's face. He swears that giggle can give children nightmares. No sane man can laugh like that unless they were from Hell.
Catching the pillow, the ashen haired teen walks to his lying down friend then smothers his face lightly with the pillow. "Who, me?"
"YESHHH. YUMMPH." He enunciates, his hand clutching the sides of the cushion, attempting to pry it off in a panic.
"Who? I'm afraid I can't understand you." He hears Joshua tease through the paper thin pillow as more pressure is applied. Neku, fed up with the charade, kicks the blond below the belt causing the now yelping teen to fall forward on the bed in pain.
"Nekky~." He groans as he weakly uses his elbow to sit up while his knees still stay on the carpet. "That was a cheap move. It's not like I was going to really smother you with that pillow. The thing is so old I doubt that I could if I even tried."
Neku humphs at the insult of his pillow and rightly smacks him over the head with it. "Ow! Do you always have to use violence when I'm right?"
"My pillow is only a few years old. Besides if I got a new pillow every month then I'd have no money for food." Neku scoffs as he genially places the pillow correctly back on the mattress.
"Whatever makes you feel better but I personally love a well feathered pillow to support my neck. "Josh shrugs as he heads towards the doors once more. "Oh and before I forget-" he starts when he opens the door. "Don't wait up for me this time."
"Bastard." Neku grumbles under his breath glaring at the blond.
"Funny how you're the one calling me that." Joshua squeezes out last second before heading out the door.
The teen flops down on the bed pulling his thin blanket over his body, not caring to turn off the room lights and closes his eyes tightly. Suddenly Neku opens his blue orbs and sits straight up in realization before shouting to himself, "He never answered my question!"
"Neku..." A distant sounding voice whispers, causing the resting teen to stir in his slumber. Neku swats in its direction, signaling it to let him rest. He hears the thing sigh for a moment before hearing it walk away.
Thinking that he can have more sleep the red head snuggles in his blanket and relaxes his shivering body. Wait a minute...shivering? Why is it so cold in here? Oh well. This is not the time to worry about such minor detail, time for bed. "Neku... Did you forget to set up your alarm clock?"
"Fuck off." He grumbles to the sound, covering his ears with the sheet. Once again he hears the person sigh but this time it sounds more irritated. Neku feels something shake him against his tiled bed, seeming determined to piss him off. Tiled bed? When the fuck did that happen. Must be too drowsy to think straight.
"Well if that's how you want to be then fine with me." It coos, sounding to Neku that it have given up. Contrary to this belief of slumbering solitude the frail teen suddenly feel a lot of extra weight being slammed on him. He removes the cover and peeks one eye open to examine the problem.
He's on the kitchen floor, right next to an open fridge, with his roommate laying his back right on top of his body checking his nails in a bored manner. "Yoshiya Joshua Kiryu!" The blond turns around casually, as if nothing he's doing is weird in the slightest, and rolls his eyes, "Ooooohh my full name. I'm soo scared."
"Why the HELL are you doing this to me!?" Neku roars in his friends face, causing some spit to land on his face. Joshua wipes the saliva off with a white handkerchief from his school pants and exhales, shaking his head. "I'm not doing anything to you. You're the one that refuses to wake up." The older teen lazily rolls off his companion, still remaining on the floor. "If you didn't get up any sooner then I would've taken you precious headphones too."
At this Neku sits up straight and glares at Joshua menacingly. "Don't you even dare! Those are CAT headphones!"
"So what? I keep telling you that's it's unhealthy to value objects over human life just because they're related to CAT. I'd be doing you a favor by taking that blasted thing away." The blond argues as he twirls a lock of hair around his finger to hide the peeved tone in his voice.
"Just shut up! You just jealous that CAT is more epic than you." Neku retorts, leaning over his friend with a snide smirk.
"Me? Jealous? Of CAT?" He gags at the accusation. "In your dreams!"
"Well in my dreams CAT is the coolest person ever." The red head states getting up for school.
"Oh? And who is the coolest person in real life my little fan boy?" Joshua ask as he bops Neku on the nose, his snarky tone seeming to already know the answer.
Well this was a no brainer but he might as well pretend that he was thinking about it. Neku plays with the front spike on his hair, an un-subconscious action he always does when thinking, before confidently answering, "Mr. H."
"Sanae!" Joshua raises his voice in shock. Clearly wasn't the answer he was expecting. "Why the fuck do you pick him of all people?"
"Well he owns his own cafe-"
"That's mostly empty."
"He's an awesome art teacher-"
"Anyone can draw. He's not special."
"He's the only one that can deal with you smarmy attitude-"
"So can you."
"And he like CAT unlike you who disagrees with my opinion all the damn time."
The purple eyed male huffs at the comment, appearing to Neku as if he's won this argument for once in his life, before a Cheshire grin spears on his face. "Speaking of time Nekky..." Blue eyes widen at the sudden conniving change in tone, feeling a shiver run down his spine. Joshua pull up his white button shirt sleeve to revile his silver watch to Neku, showing the teen it's a quarter to seven. He bolts to the bathroom with one thought in mind. "I fucking get it I'm going!"
The sky once again changes hues from dark black to burning orange once more with the coming of a new day. As the roommates walk to math early as usual. Neku never really knew why the duo left for class with so much time left. It's not that they're excited to learn geometry and it's certainly not because they like the teacher. Joshua just decided one day in their first year that they have to get to homeroom before the morning rush. To be fairly honest, he thinks the blond was secretly avoiding their small room because he was trying to hide his newly developed claustrophobia. No loud crowds or frequents visits to the city for them, with was completely fine with the antisocial teenager.
Unfortunately he convinced his friends to wake up at this ungodly hour of the morning with him. The weird pink haired chick who needs to come with a censor bar with the way she's wearing her uniform short and open, a preschooler, and the thug just standing in front of the classroom waiting for Yoshiya seeming fully rejuvenated. Fucking weirdos.
"Yoshiya-san!" Well there goes Neku ear drums. Again.
The long haired girl takes her place on the blonde's right arm and leads him into the classroom with the other two following. Neku himself was about to enter the nearly empty room when he heard a familiar muffled cry. Swinging his head to the left his deep dirty ocean eyes catch the sight of a trashcan with naked legs sticking out of it. Neku walks over to the metal bin and kicks it with the side of his sneaker hard.
"Ow!"
"Shiki, how are you hurt? I hit the trashcan, not your face." He asks seeming unfazed by the fact he's starting a conversation with a man-eating trash bin.
"Neku! Oh thank goodness! Can you get me out of here?" It asks kicking its legs back and forth, almost smacking the boy in the face.
Grabbing the sandaled foot to signal her to stop, Neku asks monotone, "How did you even get stuck in there?"
He hears a muffled groan from the aluminum cylinder. "I'll tell you when I get out. But can you please help stop the blood rushing into my brain?"
Neku, taking her orders, roughly kick down the trashcan causing a loud bang and a likely bruised brunette. The girl crawls out of the trap, glaring at the red head annoyingly. "You could have just pulled me out you know!" She lectures him as she shakes the pi- cat at him, some litter falling off her.
"Well I didn't want to stare at your panties." The states unemotionally. "So are you going to explain your compulsion to trashcans? You seem pretty attached to them."
She frowns with tears pricking the ducts of her eyes and looks down, trying to hide it. "It's not my fault. They always try to throw him away." Her voice quivers, almost breaking.
"Huh?"
"Mr. Mew! Those jerks always make fun of me for carrying a stuffed animal in high school and throw him in some trashcan everyday like I'm some freak." She sobbing fully now and is starting to attract attention from the school's Reapers, something Neku most defiantly doesn't want. Wallflower is fine thank you!
"Look, I'm not gonna comfort you or anything seeing as I barley know you," actually if he did know her well he still wouldn't comfort her, "but fuck them!"
"What!?" Shiki yells, clearly taking that the wrong way, her face turning crimson
It takes a few seconds for him to understand her reaction. "Wait, no! Not like that. I mean stop caring. Caring too much about shit leads to feeling like shit and emo thoughts." He explains freaking out with his hands clutching his head. This girl is starting to become contagious. "If you just realize that they have nothing better to do than pick on childish classmate you'll know that your being stupid."
The girl sniffles and rubs the tears out of her eyes, "If only it were that easy." She wines scraping some wrappers off her uniform. "They don't pick on you. You don't know how it feels."
"You're right." Neku states stern, she comment hitting closer to home then he would like to admit, "I don't know how you feel and to be honest I never want to."
"W-what-"
"Why the fuck are you questioning me? You should be glad you're right about me not understanding." He growls at tear streaked brunette. "They don't pick on me because I stopped giving a shit. There's nothing they can say that's worse then what you can come up with your damn self."
"But it hurts. Physically hurts." She tells him, her face filled with more astonishment than sorrow. "Even if I ignore them they hurt me."
"Where do you think we are? A dark narrow alley of Shibuya in the middle of the night. We're in God damn high school. They can't do anything worse than what they already have and you still look alive."
"I'm sick of it! You've never been grown in a trashcan." She shouts throwing a banana peel on the ground.
"I've suffered worse. I have been hanged by my feet and left there alone." He retorts, enjoying he lack of an answer. "You get over that shit."
"Why are you telling me this now and not yesterday? You said nothing yesterday at lunch." Shiki whispers under her breath and hangs her head low.
"I didn't think I needed to explain the obvious to you. Your thick glasses make you look smarter than you are." He joke with a small laugh at a memory that struggles to resurface.
Her brown eyes stare at the reminiscing cerulean and says the oddest think Neku will ever hear. "You know. You kinda look like an uke when you smile a bit."
"A what?" Neku questions in a daze, reeling from the emotional backlash that just took place in front of him. Something in his gut was advising him that it was for the best if he never found out.
The girl looks at him with a devious look, reminding him of a certain someone, before putting back on her normal face. "It means a really cute person." The red head had a feeling it doesn't really mean that.
"I'm not cute." He says raising his thin hand to pick up a sticky soda can on her tiered using his left hand to pinch is nose. "Plus you smell."
Shiki takes a good look at her body, inspecting the damage Neku presumes, and contorts her face in a disgusted gasp. "Uhg. Need a bath."
"So you can swim in your own filth." Is what the orangette would have said if he hasn't already passed his speaking limit for the week.
The girl doesn't move for several minutes while fidgeting nervously, taking several glances at the taller teen. Neku sighs and puts ask, "Are you going to just stand there for the next two hours", in an annoyed tone.
"Uh... I- I know this is weird to ask since we don't know each other at all but can you come with me to the girls locker room?"
"Seeing as I'm not the owner of a vagina I don't think I can or want to."
"No just... Stand by the door and makes sure no one walks in. S-stop them if they try."
Neku looks at her in contemplation for a second and nonchalantly shrugs his shoulder. "Screw it. I got nothing better to do for an hour then sit next to Josh as he talks about random shit. Let's go." He orders in the most deadpan way possible, lazily walking to the end of the hall.
"The girls' locker room is the other way." Shiki shouts behind the departing teen.
"No it's not."
He really doesn't have to be here leaning against the front of a filthy perfume smelling door but it's better than the alternative. The blue eyed teen calmly relaxes his body and turns up the loud volume of the music with his right hand as he watches the quickly raising sun from the glass ahead of him. Whoever decided to put the door to the girls' locker room across from a clear wall is an imbecile.
Soon enough students gradually start to enter. Chatting away they're stupid problems and not getting to class like they're supposed to. Neku can feel his pale arms twitch uncomfortably as the crowd walks too close for comfort. "Just blend in and don't draw attention. Don't look. Don't listen." He chants in his head as old habits are drawn out.
"Like Omg. Did you see Kiryu-sama performance the other day."
"He' soo talented. Like Prince!"
He tightens his headphones.
"So he comes up to me and says, 'You're venom, baby, and I've contracted your poison.' What is that!? A compliment? A put-down? I don't know what to feel!"
Cerulean eyes hide protectively behind his pale eyelids.
"I'm so happy! The guy I like said something nice about me. 'Kids and pets must love you.' Hee hee! Wait a sec, what about GUYS!?"
He attempts to pull his collar up to hide his face to but his hand hits empty air.
"Aieee, so nervous... I hope the movies was a good idea. What if she doesn't like the movies? Or what if she doesn't like guys who can't make up their minds?"
He flips his bangs over his face.
"I can't get her out of my mind... How am I supposed to concentrate on work when I've got it this bad? Oh! Maybe it'd be easier if I just broke up with her!"
He shoves his boney hands on the pockets of the black pants and lean his head down.
"Neku! Is something blocking the door? I can't seem to get out." Oh shit he forgot about the bi-polar girl he is on lookout for. He presses the sole of his striped sneakers forward and kicks himself off the platform gracefully before she opens the chestnut colored door.
"Thanks." She hug her large purse in her arms with the head of the cat sticking out. The newly showered female tugs the shorts of her red summer gym uniform down frantically as she looks at the much more exciting floor. The two walk to first period, dodging people too busy to move out of the way side busy side. It seems like this chick is determined to stay by his side for some reason. Constantly running into her and having something in common might have something to do with it but it's getting uncomfortable with the brunette constantly bumping in his side.
"Uhhh...Sakuraba-san... I- I ...need to ask you something." Neku hears from behind him as something pulls the ends of his shirt. The pair turn around to see a girl with short black hair, very similar to Shiki's hairstyle, and a jacket tied to her waste shyly clutching the end of the black blazer. As if it's an automatic response he lifts his scrawny arm up to the white MP3 around his neck, turning the volume soft, before nodding his head in acknowledgement; not showing any emotion on his face.
"I-I'm..m..I'm Mina, I'm in orchestra with Kiryu-sama an- and I was hoping you could tell me his birthday." She says shyly but grows more confident near the end.
Blue eyes turn to look at Shiki with a stupefied expression, who is doing the exact same thing, before the brunette voices the obvious question of, "Why don't you go ask him yourself?"
Mina, who looks absolutely offended at the two, huffs. "Well me and some other friends of mine went up to ask him but he just kept avoiding the topic."
"Yeah, that sounds like Josh." Neku sighs tossing his head back as he scratches behind his neck. "Sorry, his birthday already past."
"What! Oh man." The raven haired girl cries walking away.
The two turn back to their original goal of walking to literature together, Shiki staring oddly at Neku along the way, when the female just had to open her fat mouth. "So does that mean Kiryu-sama is seventeen? That seems a little old for a second year?"
"Of course he's not that old. His birthday isn't even around summer."
"Then why did you s-"
"Girls are always asking me to tell them shit 'bout him all the damn time so I say that to get 'em offa my back." The red headed teen explains rolling his eyes.
The muddy brown eye girl looks at the red head disappointedly and crosses her arms. "Then tell them the truth instead of lying to them so people will stop asking."
"That just makes them ask what kind of gift he'd like and bother me even more when I tell them."
"Oh, so you have tried that." She sticks her thin bottom lip out and looks up looking as if she's turning the gears in her head a little too much. "Maybe if you try being cute people will do what you say."
Neku rolls his eyes at the brunette and states, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
To be honest, the idea didn't sound as farfetched as he's projecting it to be. With the shallow society they live in of a person was drop dead gorgeous they could get away with anything they want. How do think Joshua gets away with late homework all the time? But Neku is certainly not one of those people.
"It can work! I know it can!" She encourages putting her thumbs and forefingers in a square shape as she jumps in front of the scrawny teen. "Yes! It can totally work. With that face of yours, you can bend any person to your will."
"One: that's creepy. And two: what's with my face?" He asks as unemotional as ever, clearly not liking where this is going.
"Just pout a little, some pre-tears, and a tiny nervous blush your set for life!"
"Yeah, sure. I'll keep that in mind next time I wanna look like a weirdo." He scoffs sarcastically with an eye roll.
"Plus you'll get to surprise your friends and they'll be all like, 'Oh emm gee! Neku I like never knew you could be so ceeeeuute! YES! Yes I can see it now!" Shiki gleams leaning closer to the scarlet hair boy's face.
"If I had any friends that spoke like that then they wouldn't be my friends." He iterates fighting the urge to of another oncoming eye roll.
With a loud smack his pale complexion is in the possession of sharp filed nails, their faces so close that he can feel the cold of her black metal glasses radiating off her circular frames. Now under normal and sane circumstances he would push her off and get the hell away but the firm glower in her narrow cherry wood eyes says otherwise. Shiki's claws dig into the sides of his face and frowns her lips slightly before turning up into a pleased grin; Neku can just see the neon rainbows and radioactive unicorns glowing out of the passionate expression. Swiftly she shoots her hands into her green purse and takes out a smaller pink D&B bag filled with cosmetics of all kind: eyeliner, lipstick, concealer, blush, mascara, foundation, and other stuff his never seen in his short fifteen years of life, he's already disappointed in knowing what he knows.
The dark brunette grabs a container of blush, dabbing it on the rosy color, and putting close to his face. Panicky the ginger bounces backward and puts boney arms in an X- formation to protect his face. "What do you think you're doing?" he ask cautiously frantically looking down at the container in her hand.
With a sparkling predatory look in her eyes Shiki glares at the boy to lower his defenses so she can apply the…formula upon his face. "I have this been stricken with inspiration and I am not letting it slip away because you're too much of a pansy to put on tiny bit of red."
And then she attacks.
"Neku…" his ashen blond companion articulates judgmentally leaning next to him, most likely adorning the most sinister smirk imaginable. "Are you wearing-"
"Not another word Josh. NOT. ONE. WORD." The scrawny teen threatens flipping off his friend as he avoids being in view of anyone as he stares out the window on his left in the back of the room to hide his constant eye rubbing. For some damn reason the schoolgirl throw some powdery crap in this blue eyes causing them to itch like crazy, he thinks that some of the god forsaken stuff got into his mouth.
Of course this is the time the teacher picks to come sauntering into the room. "Attention, all yoctograms!" The intimidating appearing young man shouts through a shiny microphone in his tan hand, "You zetta morons have better have your homework completed or else you'll be subtracted from the equation!"
In one loud synchronize groan the student reach into their backpacks for their assignment, Joshua's sounding the most irritated. Neku hesitantly reaching in his knapsack for his half completed work, praying to the omnipotent being up there that Mr. Minamimoto doesn't notice it as he passes by to collect his packet. As the teen sets the packet on the maple desk he feels glowing yellow eye instructor glares down at the teen for a moment before asking, "What the factor is wrong with you radian?"
Neku refusing to look at his insane teacher in this state, bites his bottom lip and continues to be more immersed with the pattern of the wood on his desk than his teacher. "W-what do you mean sir?" He asks nervously, chocking on the powder.
"Look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you hectopascal!" Abruptly, the grey hair man yells as he grabs a lock of spiky red hair to pull his head up to face his teacher.
Neku can hear the grouchy class go silent enough he could hear a pin drop. "Damn it I must look like an idiot." He thinks as he adverts his eyes away from shocked cat like orbs.
"Why the heck are you crying Sakuraba?" the man asks taken back slightly at his most apathetic student shedding tears. Cerulean eyes narrow at the teacher and explains that he's not crying, he just has something in his eyes, but Mr. Minamimoto doesn't seem convinced. The black cap wearing man turns his head accusingly to the desk next to the red head and shouts, "Kiryu, what did you do to him?!" undoubtedly just finding a way to get the lavender eyed ten in trouble.
"What?!" the blond gasps, gaping at the teacher with a heated scowl. "What makes you think I did anything to him?"
"You're the only zero I see hang around him. You better fix this because I'm not having stupid teen drama in this classroom do you hear me!" the teacher command through his microphone directly centimeters away from the flawless face.
"Sho, I think that maybe you're the problem here yelling at all your students like trash. Anyone would cry at you're poor skills of being a teacher." Joshua replies crossing his arms, knowing using the teacher's first name would set him off to the boiling point.
With a menacing expression the teacher stomps out the door yelling. "I've had enough out of you radian! I'm reporting your behavior to Principal Konishi."
"I'll get out of it Sho, I always do~" the boy coos out as the black attire man is almost out of sight.
Neku ignores the yapping bipolar person next to him, still pissed that she embarrassed him in homeroom, as he eats his burger. He is battling the impulse to strangle the girl next because Joshua took several pictures of his teary face and save them to the accursed orange phone but doesn't since he didn't have to turn in his homework. He take a quick glance at the brunette and rolls his eyes at her yammering, not like he could even hear her seemingly enthusiastic voice with j-pop banging in his ears. During their lunch time on Thursday the school girl was speaking so fast about who knows what that the ginger was gaining a splitting headache just by looking at her.
"Shiki shut up." He bluntly states before taking a bite out of his burger.
The female next to him halts her flow of words with her mouth agape and most likely offended at the fact he gave her. "Well you don't have to be so rude." She clutches the heart seeming to Neku like she was having chest pains.
"Whatever." The teen sighs.
"Maybe you wouldn't be so grumpy if you took of you headphones. All that music is noise pollution." Shiki complains as she covers her ear, simulating Neku's own headsets. Neku glances her direction for a moment before returning to his mediocre meal. Peeved at his actions she swiftly grabs hold of the musical accessory atop of his head.
"NO!" Immediately Neku jumps off his black chair, causing it to fall backwards, gripping his headphones tightly over his head, trembling slightly at the action. Muddy brown eyes widen in shock as she reels her worked hand back to her sides. Seeing the tables around them pause to look at the tiny commotion the orangette quickly picks up his chair and sits back down and looking at the floor to hide his nervous blush under his tangle bangs.
"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" She clasps her hands together, bowing repeatedly, her light voice cracking in surprise.
"You better be." He glares at Shiki with anger before getting an idea. He knew it wasn't a great idea but it was an idea none the less. Let's see how she likes it when he takes her prize possession. Neku reaches his long arm towards the unidentified plushy, not bothering to think about its species, and rips it out of her skirted lap and far away from the apologetic girl.
"Let's see how you like it!"
"Mr. Meeeeew!" The ear piercing screech hits Neku in the face causing him much pain. "Please! Give him back, give him back!" She cries as she desperately reaches for the toy. The pale female "Oh shit she's actually crying." He thinks before throwing it back in her face.
"Don't ever do that again or I'll castrate you with my sewing kit!" she growls menacingly under her breath.
Wanting to get the female off the subject of unwanted forced surgery he decides to reluctantly indulge her comment. "You sew?"
"Yeah. See." The brunette cheers, holding he prized kitten next to her face. "I also make clothes"
"If it's sewn like your cat then I don't want to wear it." He unenthusiastically states as he take another bite of the cold burger.
Shiki pouts at his doubt the red head shows in her and raises her chin up high. "Well I promise you my sewing is a lot better now than when I made Mr. Mew."
"Y-yeah."
Neku continues to eat in awkward and eerie silence alone, occasionally glancing at the other, with new knowledge in mind. "Don't touch the cat." It's a subject he could relate to. Replace the broken stuffed animal with a pair of well-kept CAT design headphones and you got a similar story. The red head doesn't know or couldn't care less about her reasons but their attachment is the same.
Nobody is different or original. We're all the same in some ways.
Ta-Da. Thank you for reading next chapter is soon.