Break 10: Sociality and Technicalities
When dealing with the complex workings of a teenage mind, it's good to have a map. Or a survival guide when it comes to dealing with…difficult specimens.
Kise Ryouta; one of the Generation of Miracles, popular model, and one of the more popular people when it came to getting girls in the world of high-school basketball players. Those were just a few things that described the blond copycat. Other common words used to describe him were, as follows; moron, crybaby, annoying, childish, pretty boy etcetera. Well that was really just from the people that knew him personally. It was to be expected that he was very popular amongst his peers. At times he often wondered what it would be like not having some type of attention directed at him for once. Not that he'd actually want that. He was just curious. Kaijou had gotten into the Inter-High and mid-terms were coming up, the added stress had caused Kise to take a day off to himself…and drag Kaed along for the ride.
The blond had been relentless in his begging to get Kaed to take the day off with him. He was absolutely determined to get her away from studying and her other activities for one day. 'Kurokocchi is helping Kagamicchi study for mid-terms! So you're coming with me than.' He had said. Kaed was starting to think that transferring to Seirin might not be such a bad idea after Kise had pretty much kidnapped her since going to Kuroko was out of the question. She was having a hard time keeping her annoyance in check, what with Kise babbling about anything and everything in her ear as he dragged her around Kanagawa.
'Just nod and smile.' She kept telling herself in a therapeutic chant of sorts. Even after all the time spent with the model, Kise still found some way to make Kaed want to take a basketball and chuck it at his head to shut him up; and maybe a pair of scissors for good measure. She shook the violent thoughts out of her head, no, she refused to let the Generation of Miracle's insanity rub off on her. She was perfectly sane and wanted it to stay like that. Kaed had in fact told Kise to buzz off several times already, so why was he still here? Better yet why the heck was she still here?
Her eye twitched as she took in the sight around them. How idiotic could Kise get? "Kise," she tried to keep her voice level. "You idiot! Why would you drag me here of all places?!" And she failed to do so. The duo was in the one of the popular commercial areas of Kanagawa. As such it was a hive for media and students. Kise was just asking to get bombarded again wasn't he?
"Aw~ but Tsujicchi, I thought it would be fun just to hang out again like in middle school," Kise said, a near trademark pout set on his lips. Kaed sighed, she'd just have to go along with it or risk a sulky Kise. That was even worse than a euphoric Kise, he'd get even more clingy (with complete disregard for personal space, wait, that's just normal Kise).
"Fine, I'll stay," the girl said, seeing the wide grin on Kise face she quickly shot him a cold glare, "But it's your fault if I start getting death threats." Instantly Kise started his whines.
"But Tsujicchi~ those weren't death threats! They just aren't good with words and wanted to be your friend!" Kaed had to restrain herself from both taking a page from Kasamatsu's book and introducing her foot to his face, and face-palming at the blonde's ignorance.
Heaving a heavy sigh Kaed reluctantly allowed Kise to pull her along. The two quickly made a circuit around the whole area. Stopping almost everywhere; from music stores ('Kise turn the volume down!'), an antique shop ('Think we'll see Midorimacchi?'), the arcade ('Still have to copy people at DDR?'), and many, many clothing outlets ('Hey I remember this outfit-ssu!'). They eventually stopped at a small café to have a somewhat late lunch. By the time they were sitting down Kaed was near panting in exhaustion while Kise managed to still seem fresh.
"How do you do it Kise?" Kaed asked, taking a large gulp of water before leaning back in her chair. She was dead tired out from all of the running around they were doing. Yet, Kise's grin hadn't once wavered. Even now he still had that sparkling smile plastered on his face.
Kise allowed his head to slip into his palm, "Eh~ I don't really know. So, since we did everything I wanted to do before, what do you want to do after this-ssu?"
"I was thinking," Kaed said, posturing up, "that maybe I could finally get around to taking you down to that lake, you know, since you used to bug me non-stop about teaching you how to skip rocks." It was true, Kise had been pretty fascinated by it since Kaed had shown him back in middle school. Besides, there wasn't much else they could do that didn't involve basketball.
Nodding quickly Kise was not going to lose that chance. Kaed rarely let other people go with her when she went to the small body of water. Maybe he'd finally get the chance to ask her about what happened back in middle school. "Fine by me Tsujicchi~!"
Kaed hummed in in acknowledgement before she observed Kise, a crafty smirk barely visible, "Now that, that is out of the way. If you don't mind me asking, how are things going with Isobe-san?"
The model froze for a second before hacking on his water and turning his head to do a spit-take. "Where did that come from-ssu?!" Several girls (namely the crazy fans and girls who Kise managed to get involved with in various ways) were…touchy subjects. Kaed wasn't at all discouraged by his fearful look, they had been over this many times before. Usually when Kaed suspected there was something afoot. The girl was pretty perceptive and was almost always the first to confront him on personal or public matters. Kise still couldn't get used to her being able to pick out how many things he had going on around him. He supposed it was similar to how no matter what, Kaed never got used to him being so loud and flamboyant. There were some things that someone could never grow accustomed to, no matter how long they were around each other.
Shrugging, she disinterestedly poked the ice cubes in her water around, "Well, more specifically, how are you doing on the play? You and Isobe-san have a lot of scenes together. I think Kiyo-senpai even rewrote a kiss scene into the script," Kaed smiled in amusement at Kise's horrified face. Oh, how fun it was teasing the blond. She tended to think of this as returning the favor to Kise.
Horrified didn't even begin to cover what Kise felt toward this play. For one he was forced into it, for another, well his, ahem, girlfriend (in the play mind you) seemed to take this as a sign that Kise would be more than happy to make it reality. Kise on the other hand had other ideas; most of which involved shredding the script, never having to see Ume face-to-face again, and clinging to Kuroko. Though that last one might have to be changed to Kaed if Kuroko refused again (and he's forgetting that Kaed usually did that as well…). "Bad, very bad, Tsujicchi," was all Kise managed to say before putting all of his attention to his food.
Lunch passed by quickly and silently for the two. Afternoon came and by the time they were done it was well past two o'clock. Both being finished, Kaed excused herself to wash her hands, leaving Kise alone for the time being.
When she returned she was caught between slamming her head into the close by wall and cracking up right then and there, but of course there was still that pity for the blond in the back of her head as well. As it just so happened, they had chosen a café right next to a small book and magazine store. Because of this, several schoolgirls had noticed a very familiar face right next to them and, well, Kise was once again put under the spotlight. Oddly enough, there was a single Kaijou student they both recognized.
Ouchi Hanako, a first year Kaijou student and former student at Teiko. Both Kise and Kaed had known her personally, Kaed more-so but not in a good way. The tension between the two had carried into high-school as well, luckily their meetings had always been very short and not even worth remembering. The unlucky model seemed to be answering her and the other girl's questions easily and without much trouble. Until that one kicker of a question came up, "Are you here with someone?" It was easy to tell that they were all hoping for a negative response.
But of course Kise, being the blabbermouth he is, completely disregarded Kaed's gestures for him to lie and said, "Yep~ in fact Tsujicchi's right over there-ssu." Never had the urge to dope slap the blond been so strong. Now Kaed was staring down a group of mildly to seriously ticked off girls. She wasn't sure whether to run or stand her ground.
The tight smile on Hanako's face showed her obvious displeasure as she greeted the taller girl, "Tsuji-san, what a pleasant surprise to see you here. And with Kise-kun no less." Her dazzling blue eyes were locked onto Kaed's lithe figure in an apparent glare.
"Ouchi-san," Kaed said deftly, she was not in the mood for a confrontation. "If you don't mind I really think we should be taking our leave right now," she said this with a sharp look in Kise's direction.
Catching onto the tension in the air, Kise shot out of his seat and nodded very quickly, "U-uh yeah. We should really get going-ssu. It was nice seeing you all, bye!" Without warning Kise grabbed Kaed's wrist and began (quite literally) dragging her down the street. They left a somewhat confused group of girls behind them as Kise kept up his brisk pace all the way up until they made it to the park.
Taking in their surroundings, Kaed nodded in approval. It was near empty, only a few small groups of people or individuals were scattered around the large area. Gently, Kaed tugged Kise along until they got to the shore of the waterline. Inspecting the stony ground, she bent down to pick up two of the smoother rocks. Turning to Kise she handed one to him and began her (sort of) explanation. "Just watch and try copying me."
Rolling the smooth stone around her palm a few times, Kaed stopped to make sure Kise was observing before tossing it up once and catching it with ease. Sliding her right foot back she twisted her body slightly to the side before snapping back, arm extended only slightly, with a heavy amount power directed into the wrist. The stone was sent skidding across the surface of the water, skipping several times before falling into the water with a small splash.
Kise seemed to get the gist of it and after running it through in his head once more positioned himself. In a fluid movement Kise near perfectly executed the same technique Kaed had done only seconds before. The stone did fail to go as far as Kaed's had but it was still impressive. The blond grinned happily, "I did it Tsujicchi-ssu! I did it!" he cheered, he honestly never thought to try his copying ability on something like that.
"Nice job Kise," was Kaed's simplistic reply. She never had any doubt that Kise would be able to do it.
Their stone skipping continued well until sundown, it was, as Kise had learned, quite addicting. The two hadn't said a word to each other from then, not until they began the walk home. It was then, when Kise recalled a certain question that had never been asked, much less answered.
"Say, Tsujicchi, what happened back in middle school?" Kise's arms, which had been crossed behind his head, came down as he looked inquisitively at his friend. Noting her melancholic expression, he wondered if there was more to what had conspired than what he originally thought.
"Not now, not here Kise," she said, keeping her pace and moving forward, not sparing Kise the slightest of glances. This was a very touchy subject on Kaed's part. Something she'd rather not dwell on in both fear and guilt at what had been and not been done.
It was clear that it wasn't a satisfactory reply for Kise. The blond was almost ready to launch an interrogation, but seeing her defensive stature, he refrained from doing so. Not here, not now, was what she had said. If Kise wanted answers he would have to be patient, and this was something he would be willing to wait for.
A/N: I apologize for the late update, added in a few more hints in here as well. I've been trying to divide my time typing with several of my stories namely this one and MaFO. So updates might not come as quick as they used to but I'm thinking of adding in some Omakes of what transpired during the short time-skips I used, and maybe bring in the Kaijou team slightly earlier than originally planned. If so, would you readers prefer it in this story or Miracles aren't Far Off?