I have learnt a lesson. I will, from now on, never attempt to write any fics but crack during my finals. It's been insane, I tell you.
Disclaimer: I do not have ownership over an PoT charries.
This chapter has three titles. It was just going to be "The List, Part II", but then I wouldn't be able to mention the significant points in here. This chappie is one of the big turning points of the story. Sort of. Oh, I don't know.
And also FujiEiji yaoi, if you want to look at it that way (I am not).
The List, Part II - Fuji's Tears - A Date?
It's afternoon, English class. I am day-dreaming, doodling on my half-finished term paper and trying to pick a piece of lint out of my skirt at the same time.
"Nya, what is the meaning of this?"
The cat-boy speaks. An awkward slash through the tranquility of Tanaka-sensei's sleep-inducing drone.
I ignore him.
"I said, nya, what is the meaning of this?"
He jumps in front of my face, and brandishes a photo-copied sheet of paper. His sweaty hands have stained the edges, and the writing is blurry. Curious, I peered around his fingers at the page of writing.
As I have been a member of the human race in this world for the past fourteen years and eleven months, I am constantly reminded of the presence of Annoying People.
Yes, the term is a bit uncreative and general, but this is what I will use to refer to such persons in the future. It is concise and self-explanatory, if not imaginative.
Annoying People
Ha…funny, the writing looks rather familiar…
Oh, no. Oh, crap. Ohcrapohcrap.
With surprising speed and agility that rivaled his own, I snatched the page out of the Eiji's hand, "Where did you get this?"
He rolled his eyes, snatched the paper back and slapped the sheet down (with an unnecessary dramatic air) onto my desk, "It's posted all around the school, nya. You're so, so dead…"
I grabbed my backpack, and started flipping frantically through it. I remembered leaving the list in there the day I made it…how did it get into someone else's hands? Desperate, I upturned the entire affair onto the floor. The whole class turned away from sensei's lecture and stared at me. Books and half-chewed pencils came raining down, along with a whole bag of peach-flavored fruit chews and China-chan's secondary emergency makeup kit. The list was no where to be seen. Shit.
Kikumaru picked up my fruit chews, stuffed half of them into his mouth, and continued the side commentary.
"Hrm…And I am not stupid! I'm just a little more interested in other things like tennis than stupid math and boring science. Why can't you understand that? And why do you hate Fujiko? He's so nice to everyone – y-you're just jealous because he gets better grades and is so much better-looking than you!"
Ouch. That hurt.
I let out a sigh, "I was venting, okay? I was really pissed off that day. I'm sorry if I insulted you. I didn't really want to offend you…"
Eiji's eyes bugged out of their sockets, "Offend? You really, really hurt my feelings, Momo-chan!"
I stopped my self-abusive confession to stare at him.
He. Called. Me. Momo-chan.
"I'm sorry, what did you just call me?"
He wasn't paying attention, "Momo-chan, do you have to make a big deal out of everything? You're such a spazz."
I jumped up, pushed him in the chest, hard. Hard enough for him to fall, landing, with a soft whump, like a broken rag doll on his butt. Everyone in the class, even the previously-oblivious Tanaka-sensei, was staring at us.
"No one, I repeat, no one, calls me 'Momo-chan' but people who I am friends with," I snarled, glaring daggers down his stupid red-head, "and I am NOT friends with you. You got that?"
Kikumaru got up, brushed himself off, and glared back, "Nya, well, maybe you shouldn't talk about people behind their backs!"
--
The rest of the day went about as smooth as that. Ryuzaki Sakuno broke down crying in the freshman hallway (her hair was, incidentally, smooth and sleek and out of the braids just for Ryoma-kun today), while her friend Tomoka patted her back and shot me with glares and bursts of flames in her eyes. Horio was acting ridiculously sober and didn't speak for the entire lunch period (I'll admit that it was actually kind of lonely without his loud voice). I thought I saw tears in Fuji's eyes (talk about overreaction?), and overheard him walk up to the math teacher and plead for him to lower his semester A+. That really pissed me off. He was perfect enough to be able to lower his grade in AP Statistics for me. But then again, the boy was crying.
Am I really that harsh? It's not like I really questioned his gender.
Taka-san had a whole basket of sushi that he passed around to everyone during lunch – it somehow missed my table. Momoshiro averted his eyes and didn't wave hello when we passed each other in the hall. Kaidoh's hiss seemed to concentrate in strength when I accidentally brushed past him on the way to PE. Tezuka was about to order me to run laps before he realized that I wasn't part of the tennis club (about half the school is involved in tennis, so it was an easy mistake). Even Echizen Ryoma had something in for me. His cat followed him to school, and (I swear) he ordered the furry nuisance to attack me when I tried to go on the roof for some quietness.
To my dismay, Takada Miho chose to not believe the contents of the list ("It's all blackmail, Momo-chan! Why would you ever say anything bad about me?"), and latched on even tighter.
By the end of the day, a terrible ache had settled in my gut. It only worsened when Inui walked up behind me and started taking notes on my strange behavior. He had somehow managed to claim a photocopy of his own, even though the lists had all been taken down before lunch, by a fingernail-biting China-chan (I noticed, with a little disgust and a little admiration, that it was color-coded and annotated).
When I turned around to ask him to kindly stop harassing me, his hands landed – gently – on my shoulders.
A sharp, almost painful tingle went down my spine. I stuttered.
"W-What do you want, Inui-kun?"
"Why did you create such a list? I've never seen any results like this, before."
I breathed out, and caught a nostril-full of his obscure minty scent. Always the data man.
"Mizutani-san. Fuji is crying. How did you do that? Through all these years, I've only seen him cry for his brother. Not even for any of us. Why, now tell me, would he cry for someone like you?"
I had no answer to that.
After school, I saw Kirihara stalk up the front entrance steps to the main office, a furious look etched all over his features. Fearing more rants and retaliating insults, I fled the crime scene.
--
I saw Fuji walking by himself, balancing a heavy backpack and a tennis bag on one shoulder, his other hand supporting a math book. The tensai was immersed in the Margin of Error section (there was a test on it tomorrow afternoon). I ran to catch up to him on the concrete sidewalk, breathless and backpack bouncing on my back.
"Fu—Fuji…"
His head lifted from the book, his eyes opened to reveal those sharp, striking blue eyes. He acknowledged my presence by giving a small, weak smile.
"Good afternoon, Mizutani-san."
"Fuji-kun…I have to apologize. I'm really sorry, and I didn't mean half the things I wrote down on that stupid list!"
He looked surprised, "What list?"
It was my turn to be confused, "What do you mean, what list? You know, the one that I wrote – did I say that I didn't mean to write any of it – the one that was posted all around the school? The one that Ryuzaki Sakuno, Osakada Tomoka, Horio and Kikumaru are all so upset about?"
At the mention of Eiji, Fuji's features seemed to harden and angle themselves.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't seen anyone all morning."
Annoyance fluttered across his face. I was losing ground.
"I saw you crying over it," I insisted, "and you were asking sensei to alter your math grade."
He brushed hair out of his forehead, and looked at me straight in the eye, "The math grade was for the surveying project, not for a list."
"But –"
"And I wasn't crying." Blue eyes flashed dangerously.
And then I heard him mutter, to himself, "And most certainly not for Eiji."
I backpedaled, "N-No, I must have been hallucinating. Fuji-kun, of course you wouldn't cry! Haha—just what am I thinking?"
When I walked away, I was still not sure I understood what was happening.
--
Inui made things more clear. As I was walking towards the bus station, he melted out of a nearby honeysuckle bush and clasped his notebook shut.
"Fuji…he and Eiji have a very close relationship. They've known each other for probably their entire lives.
"They have their own little story before Seishun Gakuen. A story that I'm still trying to uncover."
And then he cleared his throat, and a string of barely-intelligible words came rushing out of his mouth, "Would you like to aid me in this investigation?"
I gazed at him curiously, "You mean, help you?"
"W-Well…not that you have to, I mean, it's just that you have very good calculating abilities…and obviously very observant to your surroundings – what I mean to say is, you have the makings of a data collector. So, if we can meet sometime – you don't have to if you don't want to – and discuss data?"
I was so astonished, that I said something that I wouldn't have said in a million years (and something that I would regret for another million years).
"Are you asking me out?"
A/N: So, IS he asking her out? Wait and see...
I think that the story's beginning to take more structure. I'm glad I didn't discontinue it. And now, if I can only figure out why Fuji got so emotional over Eiji...
Thank you for reading! Please review!
Oh, yes. And I want to share a YouTube AMV with you guys: Syuusuke Fuji: Dance With Me (by tsayan). One of the BEST AMVs I have ever seen. I normally wouldn't do this, but this one really got me...right there. It made me fall in love with Fuji all over again. (sighs)
