I seriously haven't been in the mood of writing this up…and I got carried away with my own reading :D I'm proud to announce I have been reading real, ACTUAL BOOKS! (Haven't done it in a while) Sorry about that though. It gives me less time to write.
Sunday started out quietly for Sena. Early in the morning, he grabbed his iPod—something he had begun to bring when he jogged in the morning, stuffed the ear buds into his ear and left the house discreetly, careful not to wake his parents up.
Sena wore a small content smile on his face the entire time he ran, not even aware of the fact that he was doing so.
He felt like this was one of the few rare moments he had in the recent times, for himself. Ever since high school had started, Sena was juggling everything all at once—school, his club, his friends, karate—and still trying to continue his normal workouts. After a few days of that, however, he had to shorten his workouts a bit because he was simply just too busy. That was going to change. He resolved to do his complete workout at least once a week, Sunday.
Sena hadn't realized how much he missed just running everywhere in the town, yet going nowhere, for as long as he wanted, with no pressure of time to force him to head back home.
After his long and refreshing jog, his mood light and happy, he went to the gym. Sena knew he would see Shin there. It would be their first meeting after the match. He had been looking forward for their next meeting.
Scanning his member card at the door, he entered the gym that he knew would be empty except for one person. He was greeted by the clang! from the dumb bells that Shin was lifting in identical intervals. Sena's presence was acknowledged when he saw Shin swivel his head towards the door.
Sena smiled, waving. "Hey Shin!"
"Hello Sena." Shin smiled back at him serenely, the sunlight shining through the window enhancing the air of peacefulness that Shin gave off. The warm light almost seemed to make him glow.
For a moment, Sena was struck by the sight, standing there in slight awe. He recovered quickly, running a hand through his hair as he started towards his friend. Only Shin could look so beautiful covered in sweat while working out.
Sena absently set down his iPod onto the bench and grabbed two dumb bells of his own, sitting down next to Shin. When he looked up at him, he found his friend staring at him curiously.
A little disconcerted by the intensity of the gaze, Sena blink rapidly for a second, asking, "Uh, Shin, what's wrong?"
"Well, you were staring at me strangely just before."
Sena raised an eyebrow. "So you stare back at me with an even creepier look?"
Shin shrugged without emotion, still not taking his eyes off of Sena. "I was just wondering why you were."
Sena let out a mildly nervous chuckle. "It's nothing. I just thought, you know, that I saw a…" His eyes roamed to the floor. "A-a cockroach!" He shot up from the bench, pointing at the spot on the ground his eyes had brushed over. "Look, it's down there!"
Shin cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Was it on me? I'm pretty sure you were looking at me."
"Wha-what are you talking about, silly! It was flying near your head, that's why you thought I was looking at you."
Shin shrugged, turning away nonchalantly. "Alright then."
Sena smiled slightly, sitting back down onto the bench. They made small talk as they exercised. Eventually, as Sena knew they would, they began to talk of the match they had together.
"Sena, where did that last move come from, during our match?"
"It was totally a spur of the moment thing." Sena grinned at him with triumph. "I'm pretty sure my body did it reflexively from the karate I learned."
Shin did his forty-third bench press, then his forty-forth, forty fifth. He rested the bar of weights onto the two parallel hooks above and sat up. "Come to think of it, you've been doing karate for a while, huh."
Sena grunted his affirmation as he did his one hundredth sit up.
"Why did you choose football over karate? I'm pretty sure your school has a karate club."
Sena did not stop as he answered, "Karate was never a competition for me. It wasn't something…" A hundred-five. A hundred-six. Inhale. Exhale. "…it wasn't a sport for me. It's for self-defense purposes."
"You would have done well there."
A hundred-ten. Sena glanced up at him in amusement. "Are you implying I'm not doing well in football?"
Shin shot him a smile as he wiped off sweat with his sleeve. "Maybe." It was said in a teasing tone, or as jokingly Shin could get. The linebacker stood from the bench press equipment, settling down on the ground next to Sena, gulping down water from the water bottle he had brought.
Sena did one last sit up quickly, tapping the end of Shin's bottle with his hand, causing the top of the bottle to knock into Shin's teeth. "What's that supposed to mean?" Sena smirked out.
Shin rubbed his mouth exasperatedly, giving Sena a look. "What was that for?"
Laughter bubbled up Sena's throat, letting it break out into the surface. He replied with a grin, "You started it."
His friend returned his wide smile, saying pointedly, "Touché." Then he smacked his towel at Sena's face. Sena let out muffled protests that went unheard. Shin said somewhat playfully, "Here, wipe your face, child."
Yanking the towel off his face and throwing it back at Shin, who caught it smoothly, Sena shouted, "That's your towel, keep it! I don't want your sweat all over my face." He paused for a moment and then scratched his head in mild embarrassment, realizing he sounded like a girl. Sena reached over to the bench and grabbed his own towel. "And I'm just one year younger than you, Shin."
Shin laughed heartily—one of those rare, sincere laughs that he only showed once or twice to Sena—and said, "You are such a girl. And you know it yourself."
Sena stopped himself from pouting, knowing he would seem even more feminine like that. His expression transformed to a mischievous smirk as he pounced at Shin, letting himself give in to his childish urges. "I'll get you for that!" He began tickling the taller man, hoping Shin was actually ticklish.
Sena was actually surprised how well it worked. Shin squirmed and let out choked noises the whole time, attempting to pull Sena's fingers away from him. Sena's nimble fingers easily slipped out of Shin's grasp without a problem. "S-S-Sena!" More tickling, more laughs. "S-s-stop!"
"Not until you take that back!" Sena's face was screwed in boyish joy, trying to get the most reaction out of the boy under him.
"O-okay, I take that b-ba—" Shin was interrupted by himself when he let out a loud snort on accident.
Sena abruptly lowered his arms to his sides and stared at Shin is disbelief. "Did I—did I just hear you snort?"
Shin propped himself up with his elbows, leaning upon them on the ground and taking deep breaths. He lifted his head to look at Sena, showing an equal amount of shock on his own face. "I-I think so." The two of them broke into laughter. Their laughs began to edge hysterical, both of them with a hand to their stomach.
"I'm gonna s-start crying." Sena managed to giggle out.
Shin merely shook his head, unable to speak through his uncontrollable mirth.
"Sh-Shin, we need t-to stop laughing now." The blunette gave him a nod of agreement. They both took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Sena did one more before he was completely calm. "I think that was more tiring than the actual workout." He turned to look at Shin, smiling slightly. From the sight of each other, they broke into small chuckles. They were in that mood where everything was funny, and each time they caught each other's eye, they would launch into another session of giggles.
Eventually, they calmed themselves down and resumed their training in companionable silence, occasionally exchanging conversation.
Very quickly, the day progressed into noon. As they got ready to leave the gym, which had now filled out with more people, Sena asked Shin, "Wanna eat out together?"
After agreeing upon a local ramen store, they sat at the counter, waiting for their lunch. Shin grabbed two pairs of chopsticks, handing one to Sena and asking, "So how're the Devil Bats going?"
The bowls of ramen were presented in front of them by the chef. They thanked him and then snapped open the wooden chopsticks. "Itadakimasu!" Sena slurped up a strand of noodle before replying, "We're doing great! You guys will definitely have a harder time during the Winter Tournament against us."
Shin nodded. "Good. It would be boring if you guys didn't progress."
"There's no way we're not gonna get stronger. Our growth rate is definitely faster than Oujou's." He scratched the back of his head modestly. "We still have a long way to go, though. The results of our match weren't at all close."
Shin silently agreed. But if Devil Bats could assemble a team of dedicated members and gain more experience, they would be a formidable team. He had known this from the moment he had played Devil Bats two years ago when Hiruma, Kurita and himself were still first years. He had felt genuine disappointment at the fact that the skilled players were being held down by their inexperienced team. A pronounced frown formed on his face as he remembered Musashi, a skilled kicker who had almost scored against them with a kick. "How come Musashi isn't on the team anymore? He was a good kicker."
Sena looked at him blankly. "Who? Musashi? Who's that?"
Shin blew on the steaming hot noodles and answered, "He was a kicker for the Deimon Devil Bats. I guess he quit. That's too bad."
This time it was Sena who frowned in thought. Hiruma never mentioned Musashi before. Nor has Kurita. He mentally noted to ask about him later. "Anyway, how is Oujou?"
"Good."
Sena let out a laugh at the brief response. "That's all you've got to say?"
"Well, I think Deimon knocked the Coach off his high horse." Shin elaborated.
"I would hope so." Sena scowled as he said a bit disdainfully, "It was conceited of him to keep you off the field against us. He was totally underestimating us." He turned to Shin and beamed at him. "I showed him though. Dragged you onto the field, didn't I?"
Shin didn't need to remind Sena that they still lost by a large margin. Both of them knew that. "Indeed."
They ate in silence for a moment. "Deimon will be the one going to the Christmas Bowl."
Shin put his arm onto the counter, leaning his head against it so he could get a better view of Sena's face. Their eyes met, igniting a silent challenge from each other. Shin replied confidently, "We'll see about that."
After they ate their lunch, they parted ways with amiable farewells. Sena couldn't help but smile like a happy fool the entire way home. Having a rival was so much fun.
He perked up as he neared his house, noticing a man with a familiar silhouette standing in front of the gates. His smile grew wider as he waved to him. "Hey Agon, what's up?"
Agon had a grumpy face on, with his hands stuffed in his pockets. "Nothing much. I just happened to pass by this place. Figured I'd wait."
Sena snickered, both of them aware that Agon had deliberately come to his house. Sena clapped Agon's shoulder, walking by him as he opened the gate. "Sure, sure. Give me a second. I'm gonna go get changed."
He entered his house and quickly climbed upstairs, dropping his towel on the floor and changed into jeans and a T-shirt. Slipping into a white hoodie, he stumbled back down to the front door to meet with Agon.
"Okay, I'm ready, let's go."
Agon turned his head back at Sena. He sneered out, "You smell."
Sena rolled his eyes, not missing a beat and shot back, "Not my fault. A particular someone was waiting for me. Unless you want me to go back and take a shower? Feel free to continue lying against the wall while I go do that."
The purplette grinned widely. "Feisty now, aren'tcha?"
Sena grumbled something incoherent, and instinctively turned left—he could probably navigate through pitch dark and still get to where they were going. They walked comfortably next to each other, occasionally bumping elbows or shoulders.
Strolling through the streets of downtown, they turned the corner of Deimon Supermarket. Without words exchanged, often times they met here or walked here together.
Agon let out a hostile growl from his throat, taking his hands out of his pockets when they found a group of men sitting against the sidewall of the supermarket, smoking. When they spotted Sena and Agon, they stood up with a sneer.
"We've been waiting for you, Kongo Agon."
Sena cursed when he tilted his head to the side to see more of them behind them. They were surrounded and outnumbered five to one.
"Got your back." Sena said loudly to Agon with a scowl on his face as he went up back to back with Agon.
"Don't you dare take my prey." Agon said assertively in response.
Sena sighed his consent. "Yeah, yeah, okay." As he answered, they all charged, some of them holding up a weapon of some sort. Sena's face fell into an expression of serious concentration, dodging and defending against his five offenders. Now it was his turn. He kneed, elbowed, punched and kicked his opponents with swift grace, utilizing his sharp reflexes for his counter.
Realization dawned one of the men who faced him as he pointed at Sena, shouting, "It's him! The karate kid who always hangs around Agon!"
Sena merely blinked and aimed a kick at the bottom of the man's chin, simultaneously executing a back flip. Karate kid?
Landing cleanly on his two feet, he charged at the group of four—the one he had kicked just before was knocked out cold. Sena kicked one man in the stomach hard and quickly ducked under a swing of a bat and then elbowed the temple of another man, who slumped down to the ground with a thump.
"I admit you're pretty good." The man with multiple piercings on his eyes sneered out. He roared as he pulled back for a punch. "Not good enough!"
Sena jumped back to avoid the punch, and then almost gasped when a thought occurred to him: Wait, where's the fifth guy?
He felt a crushing pain on his left arm. The last man had snuck up behind him and smashed his bat into his arm. He was glad he lessened the impact by turning slightly or else the bones in his arm might've shattered. "Fucking bastards!" Sena shouted in blinding pain, grabbing the man by the neck and slammed him against the wall.
Sena lifted an arm to punch him, when he stopped himself with a jolt of realization as to what he was doing. He felt disgusted at himself for almost beating someone up with unnecessary pain. Sena gave him a quick knock at the temple and turned around to face the ear-pierced man.
He was stepping back, retreating from the scene. He turned tail, giving Sena the finger as he shouted behind him, "I'll get you later!"
Sena scowled darkly, his good mood long gone by now. He nursed his arm as he turned around to see how Agon did. His friend stood panting in front of a pile of unconscious bodies. Sena frowned, asking him, "Did they get you anywhere?"
Agon turned around, giving Sena a level stare. "Just here and there." He noticed Sena holding his left arm and stepped up, unzipping Sena's not-so-white hoodie for him. "Is your arm okay?"
Sena shrugged as Agon helped him out of his jacket. "I just hope I'll be okay for this week's game."
"When is it?"
He gingerly poked his arm. "I think it's okay. The game is on Wednesday." When Sena looked up from his forming bruise, he felt a moment of surprise to see Agon staring at the ground with a crestfallen expression.
"Um." Agon started out in a quiet gruff voice. "Sorry about dragging you into this mess."
"You're a few years too late to apologize to me. You've dragged me into one too many compromising situations already." Sena's tone was teasing.
Agon's head whipped up, staring into Sena's eyes. He could see that Agon was grateful for brushing it off casually. "C'mon, sit down next to me." Sena said as he slumped to the ground, leaning against the wall. "This is totally déjà vu."
Agon sat down to the right side of him, staying away from Sena's injured side and let out a bark of laughter. "Pretty much."
They sat there in peaceful silence. Sena closed his eyes and tilted his head up at the sky. He heard Agon let out a shaky breath and shift beside him.
And then—
And then—
It was as though his world—
Rumbling.
Crumbling.
Shattering.
Agon—
—pressure on his lips—
His world—
Breaking.
Agon's lips were pressed against his, in midst of a light and caressing kiss.
DUN DUN DUN! :D
I hope the buildup of the kiss made sense :'D
Maybe Shin was a bit (kinda really just a bit) OOC here, but he's gotta let loose too, no?
And hope you guys liked the chapter. I had fun writing it!
