21.
They spent the whole day down at the lake.
After a quick dinner, most of the boys retired to their rooms, but a few opted to wonder around the cabin. Outside, Niou and Yagyuu were shooting off the fireworks they had gotten in town, Sanada supervising from the cabin. After two mortars, anyone who was still awake was on the ground outside, staring up at the sky.
They were separated in their teams, which made the captains sigh. It was like the boys didn't even understand that they were supposed to bond and make new relationships that didn't involve murderous intent, not stay in their own cult-like cliques.
"Silver or blue?" Niou asked, squatting in front of a small tube.
Yagyuu shrugged, striking a match. "They're your fireworks, Niou-kun. Not mine. Though, if you do a stream of purple and red, you might be able to tell Marui that this show was for him."
"It isn't for him, though," Niou said, slipping a ball into the tube. "I was going to set the cabin on fire, just for fun, but Sanada over there has a larger stick in his ass than you."
Yagyuu sighed as Niou stood up and took a few steps back. Yagyuu light the wick that was hanging out of the tube, and then took a few steps back to stand next to Niou.
"Niou-kun, you are impossible," Yagyuu said, watching as a silver mortar shot up into the sky.
.
The Hyotei boys were huddled under a large tree. ("I do not trust those baboons with fire," Oshitari had said.) Shishido was lying on his stomach next to Hiyoshi and Ohtori, tilting his head up in the most uncomfortable, unnatural way possible to see the night sky.
"That one looked like a boob," Shishido said off handedly.
"That's disgusting," Hiyoshi said.
"Keep saying things like that and you'll be as openly gay as Mukahi," Shishido said, snorting and ignoring Ohtori's "Shishido-san…"
"Maybe I have a girlfriend," Hiyoshi pointed out casually.
Mukahi laughed loudly from behind them, crawling up to the trio. He wrapped his arms around Hiyoshi's neck, smiling. "If you have a girlfriend, I'll come to practice in my sister's thong."
"Don't," Shishido said, making a face. "And never say 'thong' again."
"Why not? Thong, thong, thong," Mukahi said, louder and louder, even when Shishido got up and walked over to Seigaku, casually starting a conversation with Oishi.
"Thong! THONG! THO-"
Hiyoshi wiggled his shoulders enough to knock Mukahi off of him, but not even to hurt him. Even Hiyoshi didn't want to face the wrath of a scorned Mukahi.
"So," Mukahi drew out, wiggling between Hiyoshi and Ohtori to lie down, "do you have a girlfriend?"
"No," Hiyoshi replied with ease. "Girls only gossip. It's boring."
"Come to the dark side," Mukahi whispered with an impish grin. "Well, the gay side."
Hiyoshi sighed. "Let me guess, you have cookies?"
"We have hot sex."
Ohtori cringed. "Ew. Ew. Ew."
Mukahi and Hiyoshi looked at each other, and then burst into a loud, obnoxious laughter that overpowered the next mortar as it shot into the sky. Ohtori stared at the two, and then smiled.
Look, Wakashi, you're smiling again.
.
Back inside the cabin, Atobe was standing on the balcony that was outside of their suite, leaning against the fancy iron rail. Wine glass full of water in hand, Atobe watched the fireworks.
"Atobe?"The French doors opened behind him.
Atobe turned his head around and found himself smiling. Jirou was wearing way-too-big for him pajamas and was rubbing his eye as he yawned.
"Jirou," Atobe said, turning his head back around and taking a sip of water from his glass.
"What's going on?" Jirou asked, waddling like a penguin over to the railing so he didn't trip like an idiot. The last thing he wanted was to look like an idiot in front of Atobe.
"Niou and Yagyuu decided to do a firework show," Atobe said, swirling the water in the glass.
Jirou watched with wide eyes, following the streams of silver and purple that erupted from that little ball in the sky. The next one was green, and then the one after that was red. And then another purple. Then a blue and yellow.
But, despite all those colors and all the people below them, Jirou couldn't keep his eyes off of Atobe.
Jirou bit his lip and grabbed Atobe's arm, shivering.
"Are you alright?" Atobe asked, looking down at the shorter boy as he clinged to his arm. "Jirou?"
"I'm cold," Jirou lied, face red, holding a little tighter to Atobe's arm. I just want to be close to you.
Atobe pressed his lips together, moving his eyes from Jirou to the fireworks. "Do you want to go back inside?"
Jirou shook his head, eyes following a huge, red mortar as it shot into the sky and exploded. He smiled like a fool and looked up at Atobe, who was looking down at him, waiting for an answer.
In a perfect world, they may have kissed. They may have told each other everything. In a perfect world, they would be together and be happy. But the world wasn't perfect. It would never be perfect. The only thing they could do was hope that the world was good enough, because then they might do something.
"I want to stay here," Jirou said, looking back at the fireworks, letting go of Atobe's arm. He grabbed the railing until his knuckles turned white. "I really just want to stay out here…" with you.
Atobe smiled, turning back to the fireworks again. "Okay."
A/N: No boy alive is this gay. Also, I'm sorry for this chapter being so short.
I posted a one-shot last night called "Smile." It's Hiyoshi/Mukahi and my late V-day fic... So, if you like the Hiyoshi/Mukahi thing going on in this story, check it out.
Other news: I have a few things I'm working on but don't want to talk much about at the moment. Nothing is definite, but I plan on a multi-chapter Hiyoshi/Mukahi to come up sometime this year, and it might possibly be joined by a supernatural fic and a semi-western fic. Like I said, nothing is definite, and I post and remove stories all the time, but those are what I have planned for this year – that, this story, my other current story Organized Chaos, and a few one-shots thrown in.
That's about it.