"What was that?" asked Neku

Whatever Joshua was about to claim to have mumbled, it was interrupted from a yell downstairs.

"Neku, Joshua, dinner!" called Mrs. Sakuraba.

"Coming Mum" yelled Neku, and got up to open the door, Joshua following behind him smiling.

They went down, to find Mrs. Sakuraba getting a sizzling dish out of the oven, and Neku's father laying the table for the four of them.

"Hey boys" said Mr. Sakuraba. He extended a hand towards Joshua "You must be Joshua, pleased to meet you"

Mr. Sakuraba often worked late and Joshua hadn't had the opportunity to meet him yet. He shook the mans hand, the azure eyes alerting him to where Neku's own had come from. The orange hair was still a mystery, both the Sakuraba parents being deep brunettes. Neku sat down at the table, and Joshua took the place beside him. Mr. and Mrs. Sakuraba brought the full plates over. Although Joshua never particularly went hungry, he couldn't remember the last time he had been given food as good as this… Neku's mother had excelled herself today. The food was so good that the meal was fairly quiet, all four of them savoring it. Although Joshua liked the food as much, if not more, than everyone else, the silence that hung around the table disturbed him. He didn't like it when no one was talking, it made him feel alone; probably because he did have to be alone, with his thoughts. Flashes of his past popped up and he shuddered, trying to push them away into a deep, dark corner of his mind like he always did. He peeked towards Neku, observing the teen's every movement out of the corner of one eye.

In the times when he was stuck with his own thoughts, Neku was one of the few topics that he could accept was okay to think about. Though initially skeptical to himself, Joshua now had no doubt that he had fallen for Neku. And it would've been impossible not to. Every delicate movement of the boys wrist as he turned his fork, bringing it to the lips that Joshua ached to kiss every time he looked at Neku's gorgeous face… The soft orange spikes that Joshua would love to run his hands through, and make his friend Neku into his Neku. There had been times when he tripped over his words and almost told Neku the truth. But as the months of liking the boy passed, the fear creeped in about whether Neku would ever like him back. A part of him liked to think that Neku would find some place in his heart for him, someday. He looked away in case Neku noticed his stare, and went back to eating, his heart sighing. He wanted Neku to love him, so much… to at least care for him to the extent to call him a friend.

He doubted romance would be on the cards anytime soon, as Neku was currently dating Shiki, another of those they met on the day of the Tin Pin championship. Well… he assumed they were still dating… she always seemed to have been more keen on Neku than Neku was on her… or maybe that was just Joshua's jealous mind at work. They had got together a few days before the last time Joshua and Neku had seen each other, and would now have been going out for nearly a month. He looked over at Neku, who had finished and if anything seemed to have calmed since their weird moment prior to the meal.

He wants me really… thought Joshua, sighing with the knowledge that he was probably incorrect.

He offered to help with the washing up, but Mrs. Sakuraba shooed him upstairs, saying that he was a guest, and it was Neku's turn to do it, and anyway, Neku would only have to load up the dishwasher so it wouldn't take long. Neku grumbled but let Joshua go up, saying he would be a few minutes. Joshua smiled to himself; clearly Neku had forgotten what Joshua would now almost certainly do.

When he got in the room, he reached under Neku's bed and pulled out the scrapbook-binder. He hoped the contents weren't highly disturbing, but even with the chance they were, he had to know. He practically prayed that if there was porn, it would be of the gay variety; at least then he'd know he had something to work on. He giggled and turned the first page. And what he saw was something he would've never, ever expected.

In neat oblongs, on clean, crisp pages covered by plastic, sat a few columns of 'Pinside Edition'. Smiling, he flicked through a few more pages, and his suspicion was confirmed. In this neat purple binder that Neku kept on his desk to look through when necessary, was every article Joshua had ever written for Pinhead Weekly. Some were photocopied, with Neku's own annotations on how to use them.

"So you 'scrap' them, eh, Neku?" he whispered, with a smile "… You don't hate me at all."

A picture fell as he turned one page, and he picked it up.

The picture was a Polaroid of the two of them on the day they met, taken by the Tin Pin organizers after the gang had defeated the Black Skullers. Most of the pictures were neatly slipped into a plastic wallet, but this one was stuffed in between the pages, obviously recently looked at. Joshua smiled and turned the picture over in his hand, only to find something scrawled on the back in Neku's handwriting.

I met someone today who I've respected for a long, long time.

He's completely fucking insane.

But I don't think I mind…

Suddenly there were footsteps along the landing, and Neku burst into the room.

"You… bastard…" he panted

"Am I a bastard Neku?" he smirked "Or do you…" he hissed the words "…respect me"

Neku saw the picture in Joshua's hands and leapt across the room towards the bed where Joshua sat. He was apparently planning to have to wrestle the items from Joshua's grasp, but Joshua casually surrendered them, letting them fall to his lap. Neku seemed completely unaware that he brushed Joshua's inner thigh as he grabbed the books, but Joshua was highly aware of it, and shivered very slightly. Neku put the books back on his desk and returned to the bed to sit beside Joshua angrily.

"You know, if you'd shown me sooner, I could've given you an autograph to put in there."

"I read your stupid articles. What's wrong with that!"

"Nothing" said Joshua, for once deciding to save the moment to talk about this until later. "Want to tin pin?"

A few hours were whiled away by the tin pin matches… and rematches, and re-rematches, they played. Joshua was still buzzing on the notion that Neku respected him, that maybe there was even a chance Neku could fall for him...

The words he had read scribbled across his brain again.

I don't think I mind…