Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. I sure like it, though, even in its utter cracktastitude.
Author's Note: A long chapter this time. I'm trying not to go too overboard with Soujirou's denial issues, but it is hard, because they are deep.
Summary: He wanted her to move on. He just never thought of what would happen if she actually did. SoujirouxYuuki, manga and dorama based.
XXXX
Uninevitable
A Hana Yori Dango Fanfiction
Soujirou had decided that the Eitoku college dining room was too loud. It was bizarre that he had never noticed before. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure what to do about that fact, or why he was the only one who thought so, or why Akira kept giving him odd looks. Now even Rui had started it, which was disturbing. Giving Rui odd looks was a fundamental part of Soujirou's life, and he didn't want any switching places now.
"Yo, Soujirou."
Tsukasa was so loud sometimes. Soujirou sighed. "Yes?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Nah, it's just… just now, a couple of girls came up to talk to us, and you kind of didn't pay attention to them."
"Are you fucking with me? Were they hot?"
Rui and Akira looked at each other. "Yeah."
"Pretty hot."
Tsukasa, who had never been expected to provide an opinion on female attractiveness, snorted. "Tsukushi is –"
"You're just singing her praises all the time these days because she finally let you into her pants, Tsukasa," Akira said. "I mean, no one denies that she's a really great girl, but you get fucking tiresome sometimes."
"I do not," growled Tsukasa, looking mulish.
"Yes, you do," said Rui. "It's kind of silly. We all have a pretty good appreciation of Makino's good points. I think that I in particular –"
Miraculously, he saw Akira shaking his head behind Tsukasa's back. Even more miraculously, he subsided.
Tsukasa, fortunately, seemed not to have picked up on anything. "Although I kind of get why you guys were all obsessed about sex now."
Everyone stared at him, and he reddened. "Don't – don't get me wrong, it's not like I get how you can fuck people you don't even know! I still think that's sick, it's just… when it's with her, it's… it's kind of… fun."
There was a moment of silence, and then the three of them started to snicker, and then to laugh, until they were almost falling off their seats. Tsukasa even started smiling, too.
Ah, monogamy. It was apparently the one thing with the capacity to get Tsukasa interested in sex. As his one of his best friend, Soujirou was sometimes shocked by how different they were. He couldn't contemplate being as committed to a girl as Tsukasa was to Tsukushi without first having at least seen how she was in bed. What if Tsukushi had been terrible? Well – if amnesia, about thirty other suitors, and Doumyouji Kaede couldn't keep the two of them apart, a little thing like sexual incompatibility wasn't going to manage it.
Still, the idea of two virgins trying to get it on frightened him. Soujirou had been a virgin once (ages and ages ago, of course), and if his first girlfriend hadn't been three years older and already experienced, even he might have had problems. He was pretty certain that women preferred it when the man knew what he was doing. He had been Yuuki's first, and he had thought that that was –
Oh, no. He refused to spend any time remembering that. Yes, it had been a fun time. Yes, she had been adorable and sexy like only a virgin could be. Yes, he had been a little bit happy to be her first but that did not, by any means, mean that he could keep thinking about it. She had certainly been fun, for a virgin, but she wasn't anything to top some of the really dedicated sluts Soujirou had known. Experience mattered, after all.
Although if Yuuki practiced a little with that new boyfriend of hers, she really might be –
"Ack! Damn it, Soujirou, what the hell?"
He had somehow managed to spill his soda all over Tsukasa's lap. "Oh – shit, man, sorry. You okay?"
"I liked these pants, asshole!"
"Calmly, calmly," Akira interjected, with the particular smile of his he used only on Soujirou and Tsukasa when they were fighting. Soujirou loathed the fact that it actually worked. "At least it's just on your knee, not the crotch. That would have sucked."
"Soujirou, are you okay?" Rui asked, echoing Tsukasa's question from earlier.
Soujirou grinned at him. "Yeah. I said I was."
"But you haven't made any jokes about Tsukasa and Makino in at least –" Rui checked his watch. "In at least an hour."
"And you never spill shit, either," Tsukasa said. "You're not what I'd call clumsy."
"Are you sick or something?" Akira asked.
He felt a little hemmed in by all the concern. "No, I'm fine. Seriously. Haven't I been talking?"
"Not really."
"It's fucking weird."
"Normally we can't shut you up."
"Oh," Soujirou said, trying not to remember what he had been thinking about so hard. "Sorry, I hadn't noticed. Huh."
He almost missed their worried glances at each other. Akira spoke first. "Umm… something didn't… happen, did it?"
"Something? Like what?" Oh, shit. Yuuki had told Tsukushi about that guy, and Tsukushi had told Tsukasa, and Tsukasa had told everyone, and now they were completely misunderstanding.
"We heard, you know."
"You don't have to hide something like this from us."
"What are we friends for, if not to be here for you when things like this happen?"
Soujirou felt a kind of panic. "No, it's really not –"
"Look," said Tsukasa. "We know your dad has always been like this, and it's always been tough on you. But he'll be gone as soon as the whole thing blows over."
"Just try not to think of it, you know?"
"We'll go out again with you tonight. Akira got the numbers of those girls from earlier. Maybe you could call them."
His father. Of course they thought that's what it was. They kept up on the society pages – although this particular story had apparently bled over into the business news, too. In fact, they were probably right. That was probably what had him so worried. He must have been under more stress than he had thought from all the fighting in his house. It was a reasonable explanation for his slightly dazed state.
That was if he ignored the fact that he'd been acting like this since two weeks before his father had come home, and that he hadn't even spent a night at his own house since then, and that he hadn't really thought about his father since yesterday, when he had gone to see Yuuki at her school –
Ignoring those facts? That was starting to seem like a very good idea.
"Soujirou?" They were all looking at him. To anyone else they might have looked like they always did – Tsukasa slightly scowling, Rui expressionless, Akira cheerful – but he could see the concern in their eyes.
"I'm all right, guys. I just don't like it when he's back here."
There were nods all around. "All right, so we'll all meet tonight at that new place."
"Which one?" Soujirou said, his curiosity piqued. New clubs meant new faces meant new ways to drive away the bad thoughts.
"What's it called – Case?"
"Case," confirmed Rui. No one asked how he knew.
"And then there's that party this Friday," said Akira. "The one that the Ayanokouji family is having. Are you guys going?"
"Yeah."
"I'm bringing Tsukushi."
"That's a good idea. She needs to get better adjusted to these things," said Soujirou. "Someday she's got to start turning up to parties dressed appropriately, without getting assaulted during the course of the night."
Tsukasa frowned. "You're right. All right. I'll get her the dress tomorrow, and then I'll stick with her all of Friday. I can't trust that girl to get somewhere on her own."
The worst part was that Tsukasa was right, for once. How many times had social events and pre-arranged meetings ended in disaster for Makino and Tsukasa? And usually over the stupidest misunderstandings, too. Soujirou, as a bystander, had been driven half mad by –
Oh, wait.
Yuuki and that guy – he had seen them talking. He had seen them smile at each other and go home together because they lived in the same direction. And simply on that basis, he had decided that they were going out together. It was ridiculous. Hadn't Tsukasa done the very same thing time and time again? And Tsukushi had never once been cheating on him when he'd thought she had. It suddenly seemed obvious that Yuuki probably hadn't given up on him after all.
That was a problem, of course, but what could he do about it? It was her life, and her heart to dedicate to whomever she wanted. She probably hadn't called because she had been busy with a part-time job or something – maybe the dango shop was doing particularly well right now. He might as well find some time to see her, cheer her up a little.
"You know, I think I'll ask Yuuki-chan to come to the party, too," Soujirou said. "She could probably use the distraction."
"Oh, that's not a bad idea. Should we get Sakurako and Shigeru to come, too? They're fun, at least," Akira said.
"Shigeru?" Rui asked.
All heads turned. "Yeah, what about her?"
"Nothing," said Rui, returning to his food without another word.
There was no explaining him, sometimes. Soujirou said, "They're probably coming anyway, those two. It's a pretty big event."
"Yeah, that's true. Hey, you should get Yuuki-chan a dress to come in," said Akira.
Tsukasa nodded. "Commoners can't be trusted on things like this."
"Ah, Tsukasa," Soujirou sighed, patting him on the back. "Do us all a favor and don't mention that around Tsukushi when you call to get her to come."
"What? Why not?"
Deciding to leave the explanations to Akira, Soujirou picked up his cell phone to call Yuuki. He felt oddly light-hearted for the first time in a while. Well, of course – a big party like that couldn't help but be fun, all the more so if everyone would be there. He hadn't seen Shigeru and Sakurako in a while, either.
Yuuki – his fingers remembered the combination of keys to call her so quickly, the physical feeling of his fingers on the keys as familiar as the way breath felt entering his lungs. And the ring tone in his ears was almost pleasant, especially when it suddenly stopped.
"Hello?"
"Hey there."
"Nishikado-san!"
He almost laughed. She did have a nice voice. "How are you, Yuuki-chan?"
There was a pause. "I'm – I'm doing fine! And you?"
"Same old, same old. I haven't talked to you in a while."
"Really? I guess I've had a lot of stuff going on. I took some extra shifts at the dango shop, for one."
Exactly as he had thought. "Are you working this Friday night?"
Another pause. "This Friday…? No."
"Ah, that's great. There's this party that we're all going to. Makino's coming too, unless Tsukasa manages to really fuck up the act of inviting her. So we'll all have to hope that doesn't happen. Anyway, it'll be really fun. I think Shigeru and Sakurako might pop up too." Why was he talking so much? He could just have asked her, without all the extra words. Bizarrely enough, his hands felt a little sweaty, and he could swear his heart was going faster than normal. Akira had to be right. He was getting sick.
"Umm… but, Nishikado-san…"
"Oh, do you need a dress, or something? Don't worry. I'll take you shopping beforehand if you have time."
"No, that's not quite… umm."
He felt an odd kind of heaviness in his chest, like a weight just about to drop. "Yuuki-chan?"
"Well, it's just that I already have plans for Friday night."
"Yeah?"
"Kind of… date-type plans. With this guy I know… Hirota-kun."
"Oh?" There wasn't anything wrong with his voice, was there? He glanced quickly at his friends, but they hadn't seemed to notice anything. He just felt as if there should be something wrong with his voice. How strange.
"Yeah. We're kind of going out."
"Really? That's good, Yuuki-chan. Tell me – is he as cute as you are?" He was pretty sure he had used exactly these words the last time a girl of his acquaintance had gotten a boyfriend. If he used exactly the same words, there wasn't a problem.
"Nishikado-san!" She sounded as if she were blushing.
"Sorry, sorry. I tease you too much, don't I, Yuuki-chan? Anyway, I'll see you another time, then. You know you can call me if you ever get too bored." Oh, shit. He had meant – if she got too bored in a general sense, not bored with her boyfriend, who did seem boring, but who was he to judge, but – shit –
"Okay! Thanks for asking me, Nishikado-san. I'll see you around!"
"Yeah, later!"
"So she can't come?" said Tsukasa, who had apparently been paying at least a little bit of attention to the conversation.
"Nah," said Soujirou, very calmly. "Apparently she got a boyfriend."
"Wow, little Yuuki-chan did?" Akira whistled.
"Dumbass. We actually all met her that way, remember? That thing with that fucktard guy who made me punch him. Nishi-whatever." Tsukasa frowned, apparently remembering.
"Nakatsuka," said Soujirou. "I think it was Nakatsuka."
'Think' was sort of a relative term in this case. 'Know with absolute certainty' might have been more accurate.
He still remembered everything that had happened that night. He remembered the way she had looked crying on the street when he found her, and the words he had used to comfort her, and the things she had said in exchange. He remembered how good it had felt to play the hero, how Nakatsuka's miserable face had curdled with fear. He remembered thinking that he would never go so low as to lie to a woman, and that no man should ever be so despicable as to treat a good girl like Yuuki that way. He remembered her smiling once everything was done.
They were such good memories, among the best of his life. He wasn't a good guy, and he hadn't really ever thought of helping someone before her. But she deserved it, and he had been right to tell her, at the end, that she had to find a better man someday.
A better man than Nakatsuka, and a much better man than Soujirou himself.
Good, he thought. This is so – good.
XXXX
That evening, he did the one last thing he had to do. He called Tsukushi, exchanged a few pleasantries, told her not to mind the less than delicate way Tsukasa had invited her to the party on Friday.
And then he said, "Yuuki's boyfriend…"
"Oh, you heard?"
"Yeah. It's really good for her."
"Right? I mean, frankly, I thought she was never going to get over you, Nishikado-san. This is so excellent!"
"Yeah, it has been a while," Soujirou said, vaguely. Why did Tsukushi have to be so honest? A little bit of courtesy wouldn't hurt, would it? Fucking commoner bluntness. He hoped she and Tsukasa's inevitable horde of curly-haired brats inherited all of their parents' lack of social skills, times ten. "I just wanted to check with you to see if you thought he was decent."
"Hirota-kun? Yeah, he's fine. He's a really nice guy. Apparently he works two jobs to supplement the family income, because his dad's pretty sick. Oh, and you'll never believe this. It's so cute. Yuuki's his first girlfriend, it seems. They're pretty similar, the two of them. So innocent!"
"Hey, you don't get to talk, working-class virgin," he teased.
"Ah, shut up, you. Anyway, why do you ask?"
"I guess I still just think of her as being pretty vulnerable to bad guys. You know, considering the way we met."
"Oh, yeah, that's true. What, you're not sad that she's not after you anymore?" Tsukushi didn't mean this question to be taken seriously, judging by the tone of her voice.
"Ah, Makino, you wound me. The very implication that the numbers of women after me might be significantly affected by the loss of one is –"
"Right, right," she laughed. "Fine, then. I have to go to work right now. I guess I'll see you Friday."
"Yeah. Don't kill Tsukasa before then."
"It's hard, okay? I'm not making any guarantees."
"All we ask is that you try!"
"Uh-huh. Later."
A nice guy. A sweet and innocent and hard-working guy – a guy like Yuuki, and nothing like Soujirou. She would be fine. She would be smiling, the next time he saw her, because she had a boyfriend who liked her so much. She would smile with perfect bliss reflected in every movement she made.
Soujirou went to bed early that night, earlier than he had in years, sometimes disturbed by the sound of his phone vibrating on the bedside table. He slept without dreaming, waking in time to see dawn.
