Four months is ridiculously long to wait for such a short chapter, right? No wait! Don't forge to review, please! Here, have some ficcage.
Chapter Summary: Part one of episode 9. Ryu agonizingly decides to give Takeda a confession gift on White Day.
The Protector
Having tossed around in bed all night, it wasn't surprising that Ryu found himself awake before dawn, bleary eyed and still unable to sleep. It was White Day; Ryu, having never given chocolate before, had been agonizing since Valentine's. What was the protocol for giving chocolate to the one you liked? Should he even give some to Takeda? After all, it was really Takeda's mother who had given him the chocolate, even if Takeda was the one he liked.
And for that matter, what chocolate would be appropriate? Takeda liked Pocky, but that didn't seem special enough. On the other hand, Ryu couldn't cook the chocolate himself, and asking his own mother would be impossible. He ended up ordering a collection of miniature milk chocolates from Richart from a store on the other end of Tokyo, asking the clerk to wrap it in white striped silver foil. Ever since, it had remained seated on his desk top mockingly.
Should he even present it? And if so, how?
During his mad search for a present for Takeda, Ryu had casually questioned Hayato what he would do to give a White Day gift to a girl. Hayato then proceeded to launch into a story about how he would bring roses and wine flavored chocolate, buy the girl a nice cellphone charm, and lure her into a private area where just the two of them could witness his act of love, but then again, with the two hundred Valentine's chocolate he had received (Ryu snorted), it wouldn't be fair just to single out one girl.
Then Hayato had tilted his head in Takeda's direction, where the smaller boy was busy texting madly. He had just gotten matching Sanrio cellphone charms with Maki, and even a few desks away, the punky kitten's face was mocking Ryu. He shouldn't even be contemplating White Day, Hayato grimaced as he pat his best friend's shoulder. Take was already planning something big with Maki. Better luck next time.
But on White Day, Ryu woke up and got prepared for school, pulling on his jacket when he spotted the Richart chocolate on his desk again. Why the hell not, Ryu thought, and he slipped the box into his book bag.
. o . o .
"Goooood morning!" his friends called out to him, skipping up to the rich boy.
Ryu glanced back as the four idiots rushed up to him, and Takeda innocently touched his shoulder in greeting.
"I made arrangements," Hayato announced, excitedly sharing a pinky promise with Takeda.
"Arrangements?" Ryu asked, confused. What was with Hayato keeping a secret with Takeda about?
"Don't be surprised," Hayato continued as if his friend hadn't spoken, "but we have a group date with Momo High Girls!"
Ryu really wasn't surprised. Hayato was a dog for girls. But then Takeda had to get that far off look in his eye, dramatically waving his hand at some vision. "I set it up with Maki-chan," he explained the wistful tone he got every time he so much as thought about the girl.
"Oh Take, you've gotten so far," Tsuchiya said, proudly resting his hand on Takeda's shoulder. Ryu suddenly found the gravel on the ground interesting as Hyuuga and Tsuchiya continued their congratulatory banter.
"Hey, Ryu," Hayato interrupted, silencing their friends and pointing at Ryu. "You're coming too."
Without thinking, he said, "Okay."
The gasps his friends made was worth his impromptu agreement.
"That's rare, Ryu-chan coming on a date," Takeda teased, breaking into a cute grin.
"He's always saying, 'I'll pass,'" Tsuchiya laughed, doing a bad imitation of Ryu that made Takeda bounce with laughter.
"You're saying it all wrong," Hayato tsked. He assumed his stupid imitation stance, shoulders tight and voice high as he said, "I'll pass." The boys laughed.
Annoyed, Ryu broke their mocking with a question. "I just have to sit there, right?" he asked. Really, all he wanted to do was give Takeda his present, and sitting through a group date with a group of girls would be worth getting a chance at that. After the date, when they all went their separate ways, he could walk Takeda home again and give the chocolates then.
"Alright, then let's get it on!" Hayato announced, ready for their silly declarations. He, Hyuuga, Tsuchiya, and Takeda huddled, touching their fingers together to make this promise binding. Ryu, as usually, looked away from his embarrassing group of friends. "We're going to make this the final memory of our high school lives!"
"Nyan!" the boys promised.
"We're definitely getting ourselves girlfriends!" It was almost painful, watching his foolish friends. Then Hayato called to him. "Hurry and join us," he said. Ryu was pretty sure Hayato didn't take into account what close proximity that would put Takeda to Ryu. Sure, they were a touchy feely group of friends, but declarations weren't Ryu's thing. However, Takeda's warmth at his back...
Ryu put his hand on Takeda's, and the others continued with Yankumi's chosen battle cry. "Fighto-" A hand suddenly pressed on top of Ryu's. "-Oh!"
"So what's this about?" Yankumi asked excitedly, as noisy and invasive as ever.
The energy from just minutes ago mellowed out, the boys denying anything going on, though they grinned teasingly and skipped away.
Watching his friends, Ryu couldn't help but smile, just a little bit.
Following their lead, he patted their teacher's shoulder and started walking away before she called his name. "You're smiling more than usual," she noted. Then she did her weird thing, scrunching her face like an anime character's. "You're so cuuuuuuuuuuute-"
"Shut up," Ryu interrupted. At her shocked face, he laughed.
. o . o .
Class 3D's shoe cubby sat outside the classroom door, an attempt to keep the delinquent class separate from the rest of the school, whose shoe lockers were together in a bay in the main building. And even though Ryu usually took his seat in the classroom first, today he stood looking at the cubby holes, contemplating. The rest of the boys were goofing off-most of them didn't even bother using the slippers anyway-and no one really took notice when Ryu wasn't in the room, because he never joined in their childish festivities in the first place. So today, Ryu took a look at the shoe lockers. There was something wrong there.
More specificically, there was a box slipped in next to Takeda's slippers.
Takeda had forgone changing into his slippers in excitement, ready to make his big announcement to the class. Hayato had even spent all night making up a flier to show off to everyone. So Ryu still had time to either steal the White Day gift or leave it for Takeda to find later. If he left it, he would have the chance to see Takeda's reaction to having a male admirer; but he he took it, Ryu could open it and find out who his rival in love was.
Then, Ryu was jostled out of his thoughts by the loud, obnoxious, rabble rousing calls of Hayato, Tsuchiya, Takeda, and Hyuuga. Momomichi grabbed him by the jacket, telling Ryu, "They won't make the announcement until everyone's inside!" and dragging him in, unceremoniously dropping him in his usual seat before.
Ryu was still really annoyed. It wasn't just that Takeda was taking secret meetings with Maki-chan to organize things like group dates, but Hayato had known about it too. He would know full well Ryu's feelings on the subject; Ryu didn't like girls, didn't like dating them or spending any amount of time focused on them, because in the end, they would lead to trouble. He even knew about Ryu's feelings for Takeda, and still would subject him to watching the boy flirt with Maki-chan, while fending off some love starved Momo High girl? Hayato was just plain cruel.
Just then, Hayato made the announcement, voice loud and proud: "We're having a group date!"
And the whole of class 3D shouted joyously.
Ryu sighed. "It's impossible to take everyone," he pointed out.
He could hear Hayato drop his flier. "You're right!" Hayato gasped, distraught. So Hayato hadn't meant to be cruel; he just hadn't been thinking in the first place.
. o . o .
Five of the slots were already taken, so they proceeded to make a drawing box to see who else would have the chance to go. Hayato, as usual, dragged Ryu into the activities. This gave Ryu the chance to talk to him privately.
"You're being cruel," he stated as he worked on taping together the drawing sticks.
"It kills me to cut someone out, but it's necessary with only ten girls," Hayato sighed.
Ryu gave him an odd look. "No, to me," he clarified. "To make me go on a group date with that," he nodded towards Takeda, who was moving out to the hallway as he texted, probably to Maki.
Hayato jabbed his nose with the end of his stick. "You're the one who said yes. And besides, I thought you should get a girl. To distract yourself." He looked away, a little embarassed to admit that, continuing to tape his assigned character to the end of the drawing stick.
Ryu hadn't thought of that possibility, and he was touched by Hayato's attempt to cheer him up. "Alright, fine. I won't complain anymore." Ryu finished up with his pink winner top, dropping it into the cardboard box sitting between the two of them. Every other guy in the class was still working on their own; each student would make one stick for the drawing, so there would be enough; the five ring leaders were the only ones making hearts.
"So," Hayato said conversationally, dropping his stick in the box as well, "What was Yankumi's strange rant about this morning? I didn't really catch it; she's too entertaining when she's daydreaming to actually pay attention to."
"It's White Day today," Ryu shrugged. "And we all know how she has that crush on Maki-chan's teacher."
"Speaking of White Day, did you get a certain someone anything?" Hayato grinned, snatching Ryu's bag from beside his desk. Ryu lunged for it, Hayato playing keep away. Ryu took back anything he just thought about Hayato being a good guy. His best friend was a cruel, self indulging, stupid little-
"Iyah!" Takeda's shout caught the attention of the whole class, though only a handful who were done with their drawing sticks immediately piled into the corridor to see what was the problem. The members of the class parted for Ryu and Hayato to rush to Takeda's side.
Takeda's face was shocked; his classroom slippers were in his hand, the wrapped gift Ryu had seen earlier inside the cubby hole dropped on the floor by his feet.
He turned to the rest of the class, shouting in his high tenor, "Who the hell thinks I'm a girl?"