"Freedom!"
Mitsuru shouted and stretched his arms wide as if to pull the summer in close
and give it a rapturous hug.
"Can
you get any louder? I don't think the
dead can hear you."
"Ah,
Shinobu! You really know how to suck
the joy out of life, don't you?"
"It's
one of my many talents," the other boy answered modestly.
Mitsuru
snorted inelegantly then looked at his friend out of the corner of his
eye. He paused and a devilish smile
played tag on his flushed face. He
started to bounce on his heels. Shinobu
watched him with growing horror.
"Oh,
no. No, Mitsuru. Not again. Don't do it."
"Why
not?" the blonde started bouncing more pronouncedly.
"Please. I beg you."
The
plea went unheeded.
"Banzai!"
Mitsuru hollered at the top of his lungs before he vaulted to a run in
mid-bounce and proceeded to cartwheel down the tree-canopied avenue.
Shinobu
raised his eyes heavenward before shutting them resignedly. His name didn't mean "long-suffering" for
nothing. About five feet away, his insane
roommate hooted and beckoned wildly like an Olympic gymnast on crack. Shinobu hurried to catch up with him, intent
on shutting up his friend before the nice men with the white coats came in
their nice padded truck.
"It's
fun! You should try it!" Mitsuru pulled
at the other boy's sleeve, looking like nothing so much as an eager puppy
worrying at a new ball.
"No."
"Come
on!"
"No."
"Joy
sucker!"
"Yup." Shinobu gave his friend an
uncharacteristically chipper smile.
"Whoa! Stop the presses! Tezuka is smiling. And I
see teeth, even!"
Shinobu
bit his lip to stop the grin that refused to die, but Mitsuru's teasing good
humor was infectious and, after glancing around to make sure no one he knew was
around, Shinobu allowed his mouth to curve in helpless glee.
"Oh,
this has got to be good. Spit it out,
my friend. What's got you so giddy?"
"Nothing
much," the silver-haired boy walked past the other, whistling, which was
difficult to do around a grin that just wouldn't quit.
"This
doesn't have anything to do with what we just read, does it? The posted standings? The fact that a certain Shinobu Tezuka
received the highest marks and the coveted number one position in the first
year class?" Mitsuru clasped his hands
behind his back and loped beside his smug roommate.
"Perhaps." The ice prince was annoyingly
unforthcoming. And still he grinned.
"Well,
color me stunned! This makes three,"
Mitsuru said aloud wonderingly.
"Three
what?" The apparent non sequitur caught his friend's attention and gave him
pause. The two boys were nearing the
gates of Greenwood Dormitory and its hundred-odd rooms. There were plenty of places for Mitsuru to
duck into and hide and Shinobu was not about to let his roommate leave him
hanging with that mysterious comment.
"Nothing,"
the blonde responded in the same exact tone his companion had used not a few
seconds earlier.
Before
Shinobu could wrestle his thoughts out of him, Mitsuru abruptly changed the
subject. "So, are you going home for the summer?"
Shinobu
gave him a measuring look before moving on down the path. Mitsuru flushed. He didn't know much about his roommate's background beyond what
the other boy had grudgingly revealed that year. All Mitsuru knew was that Shinobu held his family in scornful
regard. Mitsuru never dared ask
why. Sunny his disposition might be,
but he had secrets of his own he was loath to give up. So Mitsuru respected Shinobu's privacy as he
expected Shinobu to respect his. Ah,
juste-milieu!
"So,
we're both stuck at Greenwood! What
kind of damage do you think we can cook up together?" Mitsuru's eyes closed in mock swoon as he savored the thought of
potential hijinks and thus missed the inexplicable look that flitted across
Shinobu's face at his words.
"What
are you gonna do now?" Mitsuru surfaced from his mischievous musings and cocked
his head at his friend. The dorm loomed
tall in the horizon.
"Clean. Organize. Put away school clothes and air out civilian attire."
"You
are such a priss sometimes! It's our
first day of summer vacation, for crying out loud!"
"Well,
what are your plans of outrageous derring-do?"
"Ah,
I feel like running."
"In
this heat? You were complaining about
it all day yesterday!" Shinobu was incredulous.
"But
that was school heat," Mitsuru began to explain patiently. "This is now vacation heat. And vacation heat demands a few good laps
around the track. Gotta keep in shape,
you know." The boy patted his
already-trim abs seriously.
Again,
the inexplicable look. This time,
Mitsuru caught it.
"What? What?! Why are you looking at me like that?" Do I have something on my face?" Mitsuru clutched at his cheeks and began to brush off imagined dirt.
"No,
nothing." Shinobu hastily averted his
gaze and continued toward the gates of the dormitory. His friend rushed after him, still swiping at
his face.
"Are
you sure?"
"Vanity,
thy name is Ikeda!" Shinobu intoned, amused and composed once more. "Yes, I'm sure. Go do your laps. I'll
come get you for dinner?"
"Hai. Hey, Shinobu?" Mitsuru called up at his
friend as the ice prince mounted the front stoop. "What do you think of the new kid?"
Shinobu
hesitated on his way up Greenwood's steps. In the second it took to blink, the boy's thoughts raced through the
events of the previous day. When he had
shaken Sakata's hand. When neither boy
had let go of the painful grip until Mitsuru had come to them with the rest of
the class and slapped Sakata on the shoulder. When everyone had clustered around the boy and began chattering at him,
asking him about America. When even
Mitsuru had hung on every word that came out of the boy's suddenly expressive
lips as he waxed wistful over foreign-sounding places like Westwood and
Melrose.
When
the feeling of usurpation Shinobu had sensed as their eyes had locked for the
first time came rising up like an angry tsunami and crashed all around
him. Ryan Sakata. Shinobu's mind let out an inarticulate
growl.
Without
turning around to look at his roommate, the silver-haired boy answered. "I try not to. Think about him, that is." He was lying through his teeth.
And
with this cryptic comment, Shinobu entered the cool confines of the dorm.