Nice Guys Finish Last
A Pokemon Fanfiction by Kayley Laskitt
Disclaimer: Oh, come on, these things are about as useful as a hip pocket on a singlet. But, here it is just for the record - I own a sleek Cooper St dress, a '77 Mazda, but I do not own Pokemon or anything associated with it. Thank you. That is all.
Rating: PG-13, I guess. Might be some language in there for all I know, but nothing you wouldn't have heard if you've ever been to school.
Author's Notes: As if anyone is reading this. Pairing is indigoshippy - that is, Kasumi x Hiroshi. There's a bit of Shigeru x Satoshi as well.
Dedication: To Jesse, who got a major 97.35 for her TER score and got into Bio-Med at Melbourne Uni. I'm so proud of you - my little Jess is all grown up!
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Chapter 4 - Hard Knock Life
"This is the stupidest idea you have ever come up with," Hiroshi hissed. "And that's saying a lot, looking at your track record."
A four-hour trip into the purgatory and hell that was shopping with Nanami had successfully converted Hiroshi's desire to win over Kasumi by any means necessary into homicidal irritation and the decision that he didn't really like Kasumi that much.
Unperturbed, Shigeru eyed Hiroshi, a rare glint of approval in his dark eyes. "Very nice," he pronounced. "One thing I can say for my sister is that she has fantastic fashion sense." He smiled. "But then, some things are hereditary."
"Unusual cruelty, for a start," Hiroshi muttered, rubbing the bruise on his forearm he'd somehow sustained at Tokiwa Mall.
Shigeru smiled fondly. "Yes. I'm so proud of her."
Satoshi reached out to adjust Hiroshi's shirt; Hiroshi slapped his hand away irritably. Too much caffeine had combined with too much Nanami to create a very jumpy Hiroshi.
"Trust me. You look hot," Satoshi assured him with a little too much credibility.
"Hey!" Shigeru protested. He narrowed his eyes at Satoshi. "You can look, but you can't touch," he warned.
"Of course he looks hot." The voice was lazily exasperated. Nanami stood near the doorway, hands in the pockets of her Levis.
Hiroshi instinctively hid behind Satoshi.
"I chose the clothes, didn't I?" She wandered over, taking her time, narrow hips swaying ever so slightly. Nanami lifted her chin at her brother. "I thought he was going to go see Kasumi. Why is he still here trying to hide behind you?"
Sheepish, Hiroshi stepped away from his second-rate hiding place.
"He's scared," Satoshi informed her cheerfully. "I think he may lose control of his bladder any second now."
Shigeru snorted with amusement.
"Scared, huh?" Nanami stepped closer to Hiroshi, her dark eyes not giving a thing away, which was probably the scariest thing about her.
"Uh, kinda," Hiroshi admitted.
"Scared out of his mind!" Satoshi contributed sunnily.
Hiroshi barely heard him — he was too busy watching helplessly as Nanami slowly but surely backed him into a corner. When his back hit the wall, he instinctively searched for some kind of exit. A door. A weapon. Anything.
A tiny hand was placed on his chest and he was pushed against the wall, Nanami seriously invading his personal space. "Listen here," she said, her voice low, cutting and absolutely frightening. "I wasted my whole day traipsing around Tokiwa Mall so you can actually go out in public, and now you don't want to go see Kasumi because you're scared?" She shoved Hiroshi, and out of the corner of one fear-blinded eye, he could see Shigeru and Satoshi trying their hardest not to laugh at him.
Jerks
."You buy into fear over a girl, and the world's gonna eat you alive!" Nanami ranted. "You need to get tough! Now get out there, go see Kasumi and hit on her like a real man!"
Before he could register, Nanami had yanked open the front door of Ookido-hakase's house and flung him through it.
"And don't come back here till you do!" she added, slamming the door shut.
Inside, Shigeru was leaning on Satoshi's shoulder, nearly crying with laughter. "Oh, hell, Nanami. That was some of your best work ever."
Outside, Hiroshi was staring at the closed door. He could hear laughter from behind said door, and wondered sourly where he could find some new, better friends.
He looked down at Nanami's masterpiece' and sighed. Oh, well. He might as well go see Kasumi. If he didn't, it'd mean he'd let Nanami haul him around Tokiwa Mall for four hours for nothing.
Mumbling darkly, he made the trip across Masara — all three blocks of it — to Satoshi's house. Satoshi had said Hanako and Kasumi should be home, and Hiroshi was having trouble deciding whether he wanted them to be home or not.
He stood on the front step, lifted his hand to press the doorbell then stopped, letting his hand drop to his side. Ringing a doorbell didn't seem like a particularly badass thing to do.
He reached for the doorknob, then stopped. Did being a badass mean he wasn't allowed to have manners?
He stood there for a few minutes, frowning, trying to solve the complex dilemma of badass and manners before reaching a compromise and knocking.
The door was pulled open almost immediately and Hiroshi jumped back slightly, surprised.
"Oh, hi!" Kasumi said brightly. Then she frowned a little. "How come you didn't use the doorbell?" she asked.
Hiroshi opened his mouth and floundered for a response.
Kasumi didn't notice the fact that he was standing there wordless, and waved a dismissive hand. "Why are you even knocking, anyway? You practically live here!"
That was somewhat of a stretch, considering staying for a couple of weeks didn't really constitute as practically living' somewhere, but Hiroshi reminded himself that Kasumi was known for exaggerating.
Kasumi seemed to find his inability to speak or move amusing and laughed. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him through the doorway.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" she asked, not seeming to care that he hadn't said a word since she'd opened the door. "Aren't you and Satoshi and his little manfriend supposed to tripping the light fantastic or whatever?"
Hiroshi couldn't resist cracking a smile at that. "Uh, yeah. I just ran over to grab something from my bag."
Kasumi smiled a devastatingly bright smile and headed up the stairs, Hiroshi at her heels. "Well, if you're headed to Satoshi's room, you can help me out."
"With what?" he questioned, following her into Satoshi's room, which was characteristically messy despite the efforts of Mr. Mime.
She grinned and jumped over a pile of folded laundry. "Looking for my birthday present," she responded casually, not at all hesitant in admitting it. "Do you know where it is?"
"Uh, no," he lied, rifling through his bag in search of something he could take back to Shigeru's so Kasumi didn't think he'd just come over to see her.
Kasumi eased open one of Satoshi's drawers and looked through it. She found nothing and went for the drawer beneath it. Again she came up empty-handed, and she sighed. "He probably hid it over at Shigeru's. Stupid jerk."
Hiroshi zipped up his bag, a CD in hand. "Which one?"
Kasumi threw her hands in the air, causing the bottom of her yellow one-shoulder top to move away from the low-slung waistband of her sandblasted jeans. "Pick."
Hiroshi chuckled, and tried not to be distracted by the suddenly exposed sliver of smooth, white skin.
All of the sudden, he became hyper aware of the fact that Kasumi was watching him. Not laughing, not talking, just standing there and watching him with her wide, unreadable aquamarine eyes.
Noticing that he was slightly uncomfortable, Kasumi allowed a small smile to touch her lips. "Nice threads," she commented lightly. "New?"
So she'd noticed.
He looked down at his clothes, as if surprised by her comment. "What, these? Nah, I've had for them ages."
A perfectly shaped eyebrow lifted. "Really? I've never seen you dress like this before."
So she took notice of what he was wearing. Interesting.
Slowly, Hiroshi smiled slightly, keeping his eyes on her. It was the closest thing he'd had to an out-of-body experience — he wasn't in control. "Well . . . maybe I want to keep you guessing," he said lightly.
Her cheeks went mildly pink, and her lips curved in a small smile that showed, among other things, surprise. The surprised smile settled into something more unreadable and she slowly walked towards the door, her hips moving like she knew he was watching her.
She stopped when she reached the door and looked at him over her shoulder, still wearing that complex smile. "You coming?"
Wordlessly, he followed her downstairs.
"Well, I better get back to Shigeru's," he said, waving the CD as if that were evidence.
Kasumi nodded, but didn't say anything.
Hiroshi's hand was on the doorknob when she called out to him.
"Hey, Hiroshi."
He turned slowly, wondering what she wanted. "Yeah?"
Kasumi rested a hand on her hip. "Are you doing anything tomorrow night?"
Hiroshi reminded himself to not jump to conclusions. Yes, she'd just uttered the immortal phrase of everyone fishing for a date, but this was Kasumi. For all he knew, she wanted him to help her glue all of Satoshi's furniture to the ceiling.
"No," he responded, sending a silent thank-you to his vocal cords for not failing on him. "Why?"
Kasumi stretched, cat-like. "Well, there's this movie I really want to see, but I can't ask Satoshi because then Shigeru would come and then I'd be in the middle of another love-fest." She made a face. "I thought maybe you'd want to come."
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, oh my god, yes.
"Yeah, sure." Hiroshi shrugged. "Sounds like fun." He grinned. "I'll pick you up from your room, okay?"
Kasumi laughed. "Sure. I'll check the times tonight. We'll have to leave pretty early, though. Hanada's an hour and a half drive." She offered a cute half-smile, like she was playing a game.
"Hanada?" he echoed. There were cinemas closer to Masara than Hanada 10.
She lifted her narrow shoulders and smiled a beguiling smile. "I know it's not close . . . but it's got really big screens." She batted her lashes.
He laughed. "Okay, okay, we'll go to Hanada. Don't get all sappy on me, I'll have to cut all your eyelashes off or something."
Kasumi laughed merrily. "Well, you better go back to Shigeru's. I'll see you tonight, okay?"
He couldn't have wiped off the smile if he'd wanted to. "Definitely."
Hiroshi was almost out of the door, when she called out to him.
"Oh, hey, could you do me a favour?" He turned to look at her expectantly. "Tell Shigeru's he's a bite-sized bitch for me."
She looked so serious, so deadpan, like it was an everyday request that Hiroshi laughed. "Will do."
He waited till he'd closed the door and was halfway down the road before he leaped in the air, clicking his heels together.
Who cared how lame he looked? He was going to a movie with Kasumi.
