"Bro, you need to chill out, bro," Mondo shook his head and scoffed as he watched Taka speed through yet another textbook.
"No, bro, no!" Taka insisted, still reading as he "debated" Mondo. "We have to keep our studies up during this trying time! It is more important now than ever before that we remain studious and diligent! We must keep our wits sharp! Who knows when the world may need our help?"
"Our help?" Mondo scoffed, shaking his head again.
"With this virus rampaging across the globe, they need every leader and Ultimate they can get!" Taka cried. "This will be my chance to serve my country to the best of my ability and prove my worth as the Ultimate Moral Compass!"
Ah. So that was what this was about. Of course, everyone knew Taka was the stereotypical honors student, but during quarantine, his devotion to his studies had only seemed to redouble (somehow). Now Mondo was finally understanding why.
"The world is in dire need of someone who can lead it back down the path of righteousness and order!" Taka continued to cry, the concept of an indoor voice being quite foreign to him. "I will be that leader and fulfill my duty as Ultimate Moral Compassand restore honor to my family!"
"The virus will probably have ended by then, bro," Mondo replied. "Several other Ultimates are already working on a cure!"
"But they'll still need a leader to help distribute the cure!" Taka insisted. "Even if the virus is but a distant memory by the time I finish my studies, the fallout from the virus will last. I must work with discipline, strength, fortitude, determination, perseverance and order!"
As he said this, Taka threw aside his current textbook only to reach for another.
"Bro, you still need to chill out," Mondo was reclining on a nearby couch while Taka was at a desk, back straight and posture perfect. "I know you wanna help and all, but you don't gotta be so damn proper about it all the time!"
"Of course I do!" Taka cried back passionately. "This is a dire situation that we are all duty and honor-bound to address! Besides, it would be a disgrace to allow such a rare and wonderful opportunity to pass us by without taking full advantage of it!"
"A rare and wonderful opportunity?" Mondo echoed, scratching the back of his neck in confusion.
"Although this quarantine is troublesome, it is upheld for the sake of the people, and has allowed us extended time to study!" Taka answered. Ah. Of course Taka would say that the extra study time was the best part of quarantine. Mondo expected nothing else from the "Ultimate Honors Student".
"But it's soooo boring, bro!" Mondo complained. Maybe Taka was a nerd, but not him! "I miss being able to go outside and I miss being able to do whatever the hell I want! My biker gang is all outta whack right now because none of us can go out ridin'! Hell, we can't even see each other anymore! It's really pissin' me off, man!" Mondo gave a helpless growl, punching a couch cushion to quell his rage.
"Bro…" Taka finally turned away from his studies in order to look at Mondo. "I'm sorry quarantine has been so difficult for you and your comrades. I must admit that I, too, find it quite troublesome that I am no longer able to go outside and exercise the way I used to. And I also miss seeing my fellow classmates…" For a moment, Taka trailed off and a flicker of regret and insecurity flashed through his eyes.
Taka was incredibly buff underneath his school uniform (which he still insisted upon wearing all day, every day, despite quarantine having brought an early end to the school year). And even though it was not something he bragged about the way Mondo might have (Mondo loved to flex, literally and metaphorically), he still understood part of Mondo's frustration. The inability to upkeep his physical strengths bothered him just as much as the inability to upkeep his mental strengths.
ooo
As one may have imagined, when it was first announced that school would be ending early, Taka had been devastated.
"What? No! They cannot end the year early! It will throw our entire schedule out of order! There is so much we have yet to complete!" But while Taka had been devastated, Mondo had been delighted! He even accidentally broke a desk in his excitement, hopping up and slamming a happy fist down on the tabletop so hard that it left a fist-sized dent in the surface.
But then roles reversed when the headmaster amended his words and said that while school would no longer physically be in session, online classes were still a thing. Then it was Mondo's turn to rant and rage. Meanwhile, Taka had been ecstatic, though it didn't quite show on his face.
"Ah! Yes! Of course! Excellent! Why didn't I think of this? Now we will be able to keep up in our studies despite the quarantine!" he cried as he logged onto his computer to access the online classes. His face was still set in steely determination, bushy eyebrows ever furrowed in concentration. But even though his outward reaction wasn't much, the others knew he might as well have been cartwheeling and whooping with delight.
For the next two months, Taka had attended every single Zoom session. Not only did he go in handsomely dressed for every single meeting, but he also never missed a single second, always the first to arrive and the last to go. He was also even more outspoken and nerdy than ever before.
"Because we can no longer communicate in person, it is even more important for me to be punctual and proper!" he said. "I must make up for all the hindrances that will befall us. I must inspire other students to rise to the occasion as well!"
"You don't gotta be so proper about it," Mondo replied, scratching the back of his neck in frustration and embarrassment. Just because the two of them lived together, that meant Mondo also attended every single Zoom session and BOY WERE THEY BORING! The only kick Mondo got out of them was goofing off with the CGI backgrounds. But of course, Taka had chastised him about getting distracted in class.
"You should be paying attention! It is your duty as a student!" he had told Mondo.
"Good thing you can't exactly write me up or give me detention, huh, bro?" Mondo had teased, then he made sure to make Taka his background during the next lecture. He'd done it to be annoying, but Taka had actually been very flattered.
"B-b-bro?" Taka asked, turning to Mondo with a touched expression when he caught sight of Mondo's new background.
"What? What?!" Mondo was quick to get defensive, having not expected Taka to suddenly become overwhelmed with emotion. But after that one grateful look, Taka was swift to change his own background to a picture of Mondo. Just for that one time. It wasn't against the rules or anything! And then it got the same reaction out of Mondo that Mondo's picture had gotten out of Taka.
"Awww, bro!" Then the two began to "bro" each other out until one of the other students politely told them to shut the hell up. Mondo had been outraged, but before his bellowing curses could fill the air, Taka quickly muted them both.
ooo
Now, though, school was officially over. Even the Zoom classes were finally done. As one may have imagined, Taka took every final with complete and utter diligence and devotion (and aced them all, of course). Meanwhile, Mondo hadn't even tried. But he did manage to scrape by with a passing grade. Taka hadn't been very pleased, but Mondo was just glad to be done with school! At least until now…
"I'm not bored enough to say I want to go back to stupid Zoom classes," Mondo growled. "So don't get the wrong idea! I just wanna go outside!"
"I do too, bro, but we can't!" Taka was obviously the rule-follower of the two.
"Nah, to hell with that! I can't take this anymore! I need something real to do! Something, tough, manly, exciting and badass!" Mondo cried.
"Well, how about this, bro?" Taka, for once, managed to retain his level head as he bargained with Mondo. If Mondo would allow him to finish one last textbook, Taka would spend the rest of the day playing videogames with him. It still wasn't as exciting as Mondo would've liked, and Taka himself wasn't quite sure what the function of videogames were, but he knew that they would make Mondo happy.
"Really, bro, you'd do that for me?" Mondo asked, eyes widening. He knew how serious it was of Taka to offer to play videogames.
"Of course, bro, anything for you, because you're my bro, bro!" Taka promised, also getting a very passionate look in his eyes.
"Bro!" Mondo clenched his fist and teeth as a burning love for the other student welled up in his chest.
"Bro!" Taka agreed, reaching out to clap Mondo hard on the arm.
"Bro!" Mondo shouted in response.
"Bro!" Taka shouted back, both of them welling up with manly tears. They carried on in this manner for about five more minutes before finally composing themselves well enough to actually get back to work.
"Well, I guess it's a deal then, bro," Mondo said, patting Taka on the back.
"Deal," Taka replied, taking his seat at his desk once again. A couple hours later, Taka was finally finished. Mondo had fallen asleep after about 30 minutes, but the second he felt Taka shaking him awake so that they could play videogames, he shot up in excitement.
"Let's do this, bro!" he cried.
"Absolutely, bro! I look forward to bonding with you like this, bro!" Taka agreed. He was still not quite sure what he thought about videogames (other than the fact that they were great nuisance because they wasted so much time), but again, they made Mondo happy, and surely anything that made Mondo happy couldn't have been that bad, right? Well, Taka was about to find out…
"Bro, get ready for me to absolutely own your ass!" Mondo warned as he turned on a racing game.
"Don't be too sure of that, bro! I will fight you with all my might!" Taka replied, steely resolve strengthening even further.
"We'll see about that, bro!" Mondo growled playfully, nudging the other man. It was a nudge that would've sent a weaker person flying, but not Taka. Instead, Taka only smiled competitively, having not moved an inch from Mondo's playful jolt. Instead, he only had three more words to say:
"Bro, you're ON!" And it was quite a new and interesting experience for both of them, being forced to play videogames with each other because they were stuck inside and had nothing else to do. Mondo found it incredibly fun (despite not being as cool as getting to have a real race) and Taka… Well… It was a learning experience, if nothing else. It was a chance to further his studies, even if this time he was studying the "art" of human recreation rather than any particular educational topic.
But underneath Taka's straightforward and serious aura, he soon found himself genuinely enjoying every second of the silly little game, but maybe that was because he had his very bestest bro in the whole wide world playing right along with him. There really was no better way to spend quarantine than that.
AN: For Penguinlover611, this was a lot of fun to write and I hope I did these 2 bros justice! Sorry about all the bros, tho… bro… LOL
I also just realized that a LOT of my ships are all the Type A/Type B dichotomy. That's especially evident given the personality trends of the characters in the past few chapters. I swear I didn't plan that, just a random observation from me, LOL!