PERSONALITIES
By Sora Saotome
A/N:First, I just want to say, I'm not a professional writer, so I tend to like constructive comments over flames. Second, this isn't "Ronin Warriors", it's "Yoroiden Samurai Troopers"but most things are about the same. For the purposes of this fic, Shin=Cye, Seiji=Sage,Ryo=Ryo, Shuu=Kento, and Touma=Rowen. Third, I do SI, so if you don't like that, then don't read my fic. I don't really insert myself though, my character(who pretty much just has my name and *part* of my personality) has a completely different look, past, and everything else. I therefore add that all new charcters belong to me, and if used without my permission, I will be unhappy. Fourth, I don't own YST or RW or Ranma 1/2. I wish I did, but I don't, so please don't sue me. I "borrow" them, just like in "Huck Finn". If you STILL want to read my fic(wow you're determined), here it is; you will find some Nihongo impaired translations at the end of the chapter:
Chapter 1:Mouri
Seiji pulled his cap over his eyes as he walked through the market with Shin. Seiji and Shin had known each other for more than four years before they met the other Troopers, but never really talked about it. Especially since they had been best friends and Shuu (being "secretly" very insecure) considered Shin his best friend and he Shin's. But, every once in a while they still hung out, not with the other Troopers, but just them two.
"Shin, how long are we going to be in here?" Seiji whispered beneath the green baseball cap. He was having trouble following Shin with all the people and the baseball cap obstructing his view. He ran into a large pot as a even larger woman came rushing around the corner with her basket. His hat went flying into a large rice cooker that was out for show, and he fell into the pot, butt first. As if by magic, all the teenage girls in the store rushed over and started giggling and flirting with him. He tried to duck into the pot when two strong arms pulled him out by the shoulders and down the seasoning aisle quickly. Shin threw his jacket over Seiji's head and grabbed a container of cilantro off the shelf.
"Let's go," Shin whispered and smiled at the blond. They proceeded to the cashier, and then out of the store. They snuck into an alley, and Shin took back his jacket and placed Seiji's green hat back on his head.
"How did you-"Seiji began but Shin cut him off by putting up a finger and winking. Seiji sort of smiled, and the duo was off to the train station. Seiji looked down at Shin's bag and noticed he had more than cilantro in there. But, being the quiet person he was, he just looked back in front of him. But the ever observant Shin caught him.
"I promised your Okaa I'd feed you good and healthy meals and I'm living up to the 'good' part," Shin smiled his happy grin,( you know, the one where he doesn't show his teeth)And Seiji looked at him. In the six or so years he'd known Shin, he didn't know if he had ever seen Shin truly frown. He had seen him angry on several occasions, but never sad, or really even in the middle, like Seiji was all the time. He decided to talk to him about it later.
***
"That was excellent Shin!" Seiji told Shin after dinner. Shin smiled the same grin and looked at his half eaten plate. As usual, Seiji had taken a fair portion, and eaten all of it; Shin had taken a very small portion, and eaten half of it. Seiji looked at the table and saw that by the looks of the huge amount of food still on the table, Shin was still used to cooking for all the Troopers, which meant cooking for about 20 people with Shuu and Touma around. Then Seiji looked at Shin( for the second time that day) in a different light. Shin never ate very much, but always wore clothes 2-3 sizes larger so that he looked the normal weight. Seiji guessed that if Shin wore different clothes he'd be skinner that Touma, and everyone would know.
For a second Seiji also thought about why he was the only person who had noticed. But then it came to him in a "duh!" sort of way. Seiji was the only one of them who really contemplated and analyzed everything around him, except for maybe Sora, which he was sure knew about Shin's weight, just never said anything in case she embarrassed him. But then again, was that it? Had everyone but him noticed and just not wanted to embarrass Shin? Shin was the most sensitive boy in the group, and that much was obvious, but he was strong, and although Seiji had seen like Ryo cry, he had never Shin cry. But then again that just added to the list of things he was going to ask Shin about later that night. It was obvious this was one "sleep over" where not much sleep would occur.
***
Shin's mother was on a business trip, but his sister had been staying nearby whilst the final preparations for her wedding went through, so Seiji's mother had decided that that plus the responsibilities of one- year- older Shin had was safe enough to leave her son with for a few days (she still thought Seiji was 13 years old). Seiji's whole family had gone on a retreat for the weekend, and although Seiji had wanted to go, the opportunity to spend time with his best friend and away from his sister encouraged him enough to stay behind.
After watching a hour or so of TV, (for there was no TV at Seiji's place) the two headed up to Shin's room. Shin grabbed the smaller of Seiji's bags and slung it over his shoulder, and as he reached for the second one, he nearly fell to the floor at the weight.
"Seiji! This thing is heavy!"Shin gasped as he picked himself and the bag up, and began climbing the stairs. Seiji smirked *he's always so light hearted about everything! Maybe *his* sister actually *helped* him grow up. Either that or his mom or his dad-* Seiji stopped in his tracks, standing on the light aquamarine carpeted stairs behind Shin. Shin looked back at his friend with worried eyes. Not sad, but worried.
"Seiji-kun, you okay? What's wrong?" Seiji shook his head and looked at Shin with his one visible eye.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, and began walking again. Shin looked at him with the same worried eyes for a second before he started walking again. *Of course! How could I not realize this before?! It all must have to do with his dad! He never talks about him, so something important must have spawned from his father not living with him! Hopefully he considers me a good enough friend that he'll be willing to talk about it tonight...*
Shin laid the two bags on the floor of his room, and proceeded to his closet to get out two mats, one for him, one for Seiji. Seiji took out his toothbrush and toothpaste out of his bag, and hurried to Shin's bathroom to make use of them. When he returned, Shin had made the two mats and had emptied two of his drawers, putting the clothes in a neat pile next to it. Seiji looked a little confused at Shin, who just smiled.
"Since you're going to be here for five days, I figured you might want a place to put your clothes." Shin stood up and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Seiji just grabbed his smaller bag, and carefully took out, refolded, and laid all of his clothes in one drawer. Then he grabbed the other bag, and just tucked it into the drawer. Then he took off his shirt and pants, folded them, and put them in the first drawer. He went over to the mats to choose which one he would sleep on (he knew Shin would give him a choice once he came out of the bathroom) and almost giggled. One was made with pastel green sheets, and a forest green blanket and pillowcase, while the other had sky blue sheets and a dark blue blanket with grey dolphins on it. It was as if Shin had chosen for him. When Shin came out, he had a huge t-shirt on, that said "Save the Alaskan Trout" on the front, with his boxers just visible at the bottom of the shirt.
"Which one do you want?"Shin asked Seiji. Seiji pointed to the green one. "Good choice," Shin replied, and took the small plastic comb off his dresser, and ran it through his auburn hair once, before replacing it. Then he looked Seiji's way, to make sure he was ready to have the lights turned off, and did so. Seiji listened carefully to the sound on Shin taking off his giant T-shirt and folding it up. Once he was sure Shin had sat down on his mat, Seiji quickly grabbed the flashlight he had hid under his pillow while Shin was in the bathroom, and shined it on him. From the one party Seiji *had* been invited too as a kid, he had remembered one thing. The more popular boys had turned out the lights, and then shined flashlights, to talk to each other. It was a moment before Seiji realized there were no adults in the house to worry about "checking on them" to make sure they were asleep. In fact, thinking back, it all seemed very foolish. But at the time, what went on went on. Shin quickly put his arms around his stomach and yelled at his best friend.
"Seiji!" but it was too late. Seiji had seen how incredibly skinny Shin was, so Shin let his arms drop to the floor, and stared at his feet. Seiji just stared for a moment and put down his flashlight, so it dimly lit the whole room, not just Shin. Seiji ran his fingers through his blond hair, and spoke.
"Shin, you are *way* too thin-"
"Don't you think I know!" Shin cut him off, and for the first time in his life, Seiji heard defiant sorrow in his friend's voice. Seiji just stared at him, not sure exactly what todo. Luckily for him, Shin spoke first,
"My family has always been really thin. Tall and thin," he ran his fingers through his hair, and started again, "I'd probably be bigger, but my Okaa almost didn't live through my birth 'cause of her heart. She's a lot older than she looks, but she's never really been healthy anyway," Seiji just continued to watch his friend, who was still staring at the floor, careful not to make eye contact with him.
"My Otou was thin too. He was always the tallest in his class, and the thinest. He used to sneak into movies, because he could sneak through the back door even with the lock and chain on it. All he ever wanted, though, was to have a son who would carry on the Mouri name. He almost had it too. My older sister was one of triplets, a boy and another girl. We were told never to talk about the other girl though, because she ran off with some American when she was 13. My older brother..." Shin paused for a moment and Seiji watched a single tear fall into Shin's lap. "We don't talk about him either, because it's too depressing. It happened about 4 months before I met you, which was a direct result of it... my brother jumped off Shinjuku bridge. He had been really close to Otou, and had written in the suicide note, that he wanted to live forever in Otou's favorite place. It wouldn't have been so bad, except me and Oni-chan watched him do it." Seiji's eyes opened widely, and he wanted to comfort his friend, but Shin was the only real friend he had ever had, so he didn't really know how to. He just continued to stare.
"Okaa had to go on a last minute business trip, and my brother had told us he had a date or something, so only Oni-chan took me out to dinner that birthday..."Seiji gasped and Shin could hear him say "iie..." quietly.
"On the way back, we had to cross Shinjuku bridge, right about dusk, and as we crossed we noticed someone was walking on the side, and right when we got close enough to offer him a ride, I recognized the shirt... and he jumped," Seiji watched as Shin's lap quickly became soaked with tears, and a strange force made him stand up, move over to his best friend, sit down on his knees, and hug him tightly. As Seiji's shoulder quickly became soaked with Shin's tears, he felt him hug back, as he gasped for air threw the tears. But after a minute, Shin pulled away, and looked back as his feet, as he spoke again.
"But it's not like it was the first 'male figure' in my house to die or anything," he began, regaining his composure, "when I was 7 Otou left us, but not on purpose. He was a Marine biologist, with a minor in Ichthyology. He and a bunch of other scientists would go out for a week once a year, to study wild marine animals. They would go scuba diving in all different directions and meet up every night to talk about what they saw. And one night, Otou just didn't come back. A few weeks later someone found him, but he hadn't drown or anything, something, probably someone, had killed him..." he paused briefly before continuing, "We had him cremated, but Okaa saw him before they burned him, and she refuses to talk about it. We had him in an urn in his lab, which we have always kept exactly as he left it, but a week after my brother died, we threw the ashes in Shinjuku bay, so Oni wouldn't be alone." Shin paused, and although the light was dimming, Seiji watched tears silently cover Shin's sharply curved face. Seiji arm moved to Shin, and instead of embracing him tightly, rubbed Shin's back softly, comforting him. Shin lunged and embraced him once again soaking Seiji's partially dry shoulder. Shin spoke again, but this time, did not pull away from the hug. "Before Otou died, Okaa tried to have other boys, but all but me and Oni were stillborns."
Shin pulled away and looked Seiji straight in the eye. "Poor Okaa had 6 stillborn boys before me!" Shin immediately hugged Seiji, and began sobbing this time. Seiji had to smile at his friend's courage. Seiji was his closest friend, and yet this was the first moment of weakness he had ever really seen in him. Always being so pleasant and optimistic, when he was really covering up all this sorrow. He figured Shin had probably needed this time to "let it all out". Seiji pulled away a little, suddenly, and pulled Shin to his feet. He looked the tall, thin boy, standing only in his light blue boxers with little teal fish on it, up and down a few times, and spoke softly, with some humor in his voice.
"Well, you aren't *that* skinny Shin. This isn't the reason why you didn't go for swim team, and bailed on us every time we went to the pool is it?" Shin had to laugh a little through his tears,
"I didn't want anyone to make a big deal out of it," he said still crying a little. "I only wanted to go to the beach 'cause I could wear my wetsuit and no one would notice how thin I was,"
"The green and black one?" Seiji asked,
"It's the only one I have, but I do have a pair of swim trunks I wear in the pool in my backyard-"
"You have a pool?!"Seiji asked surprisedly "you're the only one of us who has an actual *house*, not a *dojo* or a *apartment above a restaurant*, or a *cabin*, but a *house*, and you also have a *pool* you haven't shared with us?!" Seiji was careful not to sound like he was yelling. That was the last thing Shin needed right now. Shin started laughing more than crying, and hugged his best friend as they stood, in their boxers, on his light blue carpet.
"It's under the trampoline. That's how we hide it so the neighbors don't try to use it," and after that, for the next few minutes, the two boys just stood there in their embrace, glad to be friends, listening to Shin's soft gasps. And for a brief moment, Seiji regretted everything he had ever complained about.
A/N: I apologize for all the *'s, but I have to show emphasis some way, and I don't like caps, and fanfiction.net will not let me put it up with my italics. Again, I apologize. If you enjoyed it even a little bit, and have a few extra minutes, please review my story. I promise you would make my *year* if you did^_^. Umm...this is not a shonen ai fic, and do you know why? Becuase they aren't gay. Best friends get really close sometimes and guys will be really straight and look really gay. I ask you to look past that stereotype if only briefly to absorb what I was to show in this first chapter. Then next few will be less...like this one. They're just all different^_^. I encourage you to keep reading this fic, as it is practically the only one I'm even slightly proud of, so I put many sleepless nights into it(not to mention class time...). And now, Translations:
Okaa: Mom
Otou: Dad
Oni-chan: Older sister or brother
Iie: No
Shinjuku: Not a word, but it is a large bay and bridge famous for salt pools...or whatever we see in episode 6?(it's 3 AM, do you know where your brain is Sora?)
That's all for this chapter!
By Sora Saotome
A/N:First, I just want to say, I'm not a professional writer, so I tend to like constructive comments over flames. Second, this isn't "Ronin Warriors", it's "Yoroiden Samurai Troopers"but most things are about the same. For the purposes of this fic, Shin=Cye, Seiji=Sage,Ryo=Ryo, Shuu=Kento, and Touma=Rowen. Third, I do SI, so if you don't like that, then don't read my fic. I don't really insert myself though, my character(who pretty much just has my name and *part* of my personality) has a completely different look, past, and everything else. I therefore add that all new charcters belong to me, and if used without my permission, I will be unhappy. Fourth, I don't own YST or RW or Ranma 1/2. I wish I did, but I don't, so please don't sue me. I "borrow" them, just like in "Huck Finn". If you STILL want to read my fic(wow you're determined), here it is; you will find some Nihongo impaired translations at the end of the chapter:
Chapter 1:Mouri
Seiji pulled his cap over his eyes as he walked through the market with Shin. Seiji and Shin had known each other for more than four years before they met the other Troopers, but never really talked about it. Especially since they had been best friends and Shuu (being "secretly" very insecure) considered Shin his best friend and he Shin's. But, every once in a while they still hung out, not with the other Troopers, but just them two.
"Shin, how long are we going to be in here?" Seiji whispered beneath the green baseball cap. He was having trouble following Shin with all the people and the baseball cap obstructing his view. He ran into a large pot as a even larger woman came rushing around the corner with her basket. His hat went flying into a large rice cooker that was out for show, and he fell into the pot, butt first. As if by magic, all the teenage girls in the store rushed over and started giggling and flirting with him. He tried to duck into the pot when two strong arms pulled him out by the shoulders and down the seasoning aisle quickly. Shin threw his jacket over Seiji's head and grabbed a container of cilantro off the shelf.
"Let's go," Shin whispered and smiled at the blond. They proceeded to the cashier, and then out of the store. They snuck into an alley, and Shin took back his jacket and placed Seiji's green hat back on his head.
"How did you-"Seiji began but Shin cut him off by putting up a finger and winking. Seiji sort of smiled, and the duo was off to the train station. Seiji looked down at Shin's bag and noticed he had more than cilantro in there. But, being the quiet person he was, he just looked back in front of him. But the ever observant Shin caught him.
"I promised your Okaa I'd feed you good and healthy meals and I'm living up to the 'good' part," Shin smiled his happy grin,( you know, the one where he doesn't show his teeth)And Seiji looked at him. In the six or so years he'd known Shin, he didn't know if he had ever seen Shin truly frown. He had seen him angry on several occasions, but never sad, or really even in the middle, like Seiji was all the time. He decided to talk to him about it later.
***
"That was excellent Shin!" Seiji told Shin after dinner. Shin smiled the same grin and looked at his half eaten plate. As usual, Seiji had taken a fair portion, and eaten all of it; Shin had taken a very small portion, and eaten half of it. Seiji looked at the table and saw that by the looks of the huge amount of food still on the table, Shin was still used to cooking for all the Troopers, which meant cooking for about 20 people with Shuu and Touma around. Then Seiji looked at Shin( for the second time that day) in a different light. Shin never ate very much, but always wore clothes 2-3 sizes larger so that he looked the normal weight. Seiji guessed that if Shin wore different clothes he'd be skinner that Touma, and everyone would know.
For a second Seiji also thought about why he was the only person who had noticed. But then it came to him in a "duh!" sort of way. Seiji was the only one of them who really contemplated and analyzed everything around him, except for maybe Sora, which he was sure knew about Shin's weight, just never said anything in case she embarrassed him. But then again, was that it? Had everyone but him noticed and just not wanted to embarrass Shin? Shin was the most sensitive boy in the group, and that much was obvious, but he was strong, and although Seiji had seen like Ryo cry, he had never Shin cry. But then again that just added to the list of things he was going to ask Shin about later that night. It was obvious this was one "sleep over" where not much sleep would occur.
***
Shin's mother was on a business trip, but his sister had been staying nearby whilst the final preparations for her wedding went through, so Seiji's mother had decided that that plus the responsibilities of one- year- older Shin had was safe enough to leave her son with for a few days (she still thought Seiji was 13 years old). Seiji's whole family had gone on a retreat for the weekend, and although Seiji had wanted to go, the opportunity to spend time with his best friend and away from his sister encouraged him enough to stay behind.
After watching a hour or so of TV, (for there was no TV at Seiji's place) the two headed up to Shin's room. Shin grabbed the smaller of Seiji's bags and slung it over his shoulder, and as he reached for the second one, he nearly fell to the floor at the weight.
"Seiji! This thing is heavy!"Shin gasped as he picked himself and the bag up, and began climbing the stairs. Seiji smirked *he's always so light hearted about everything! Maybe *his* sister actually *helped* him grow up. Either that or his mom or his dad-* Seiji stopped in his tracks, standing on the light aquamarine carpeted stairs behind Shin. Shin looked back at his friend with worried eyes. Not sad, but worried.
"Seiji-kun, you okay? What's wrong?" Seiji shook his head and looked at Shin with his one visible eye.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, and began walking again. Shin looked at him with the same worried eyes for a second before he started walking again. *Of course! How could I not realize this before?! It all must have to do with his dad! He never talks about him, so something important must have spawned from his father not living with him! Hopefully he considers me a good enough friend that he'll be willing to talk about it tonight...*
Shin laid the two bags on the floor of his room, and proceeded to his closet to get out two mats, one for him, one for Seiji. Seiji took out his toothbrush and toothpaste out of his bag, and hurried to Shin's bathroom to make use of them. When he returned, Shin had made the two mats and had emptied two of his drawers, putting the clothes in a neat pile next to it. Seiji looked a little confused at Shin, who just smiled.
"Since you're going to be here for five days, I figured you might want a place to put your clothes." Shin stood up and headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Seiji just grabbed his smaller bag, and carefully took out, refolded, and laid all of his clothes in one drawer. Then he grabbed the other bag, and just tucked it into the drawer. Then he took off his shirt and pants, folded them, and put them in the first drawer. He went over to the mats to choose which one he would sleep on (he knew Shin would give him a choice once he came out of the bathroom) and almost giggled. One was made with pastel green sheets, and a forest green blanket and pillowcase, while the other had sky blue sheets and a dark blue blanket with grey dolphins on it. It was as if Shin had chosen for him. When Shin came out, he had a huge t-shirt on, that said "Save the Alaskan Trout" on the front, with his boxers just visible at the bottom of the shirt.
"Which one do you want?"Shin asked Seiji. Seiji pointed to the green one. "Good choice," Shin replied, and took the small plastic comb off his dresser, and ran it through his auburn hair once, before replacing it. Then he looked Seiji's way, to make sure he was ready to have the lights turned off, and did so. Seiji listened carefully to the sound on Shin taking off his giant T-shirt and folding it up. Once he was sure Shin had sat down on his mat, Seiji quickly grabbed the flashlight he had hid under his pillow while Shin was in the bathroom, and shined it on him. From the one party Seiji *had* been invited too as a kid, he had remembered one thing. The more popular boys had turned out the lights, and then shined flashlights, to talk to each other. It was a moment before Seiji realized there were no adults in the house to worry about "checking on them" to make sure they were asleep. In fact, thinking back, it all seemed very foolish. But at the time, what went on went on. Shin quickly put his arms around his stomach and yelled at his best friend.
"Seiji!" but it was too late. Seiji had seen how incredibly skinny Shin was, so Shin let his arms drop to the floor, and stared at his feet. Seiji just stared for a moment and put down his flashlight, so it dimly lit the whole room, not just Shin. Seiji ran his fingers through his blond hair, and spoke.
"Shin, you are *way* too thin-"
"Don't you think I know!" Shin cut him off, and for the first time in his life, Seiji heard defiant sorrow in his friend's voice. Seiji just stared at him, not sure exactly what todo. Luckily for him, Shin spoke first,
"My family has always been really thin. Tall and thin," he ran his fingers through his hair, and started again, "I'd probably be bigger, but my Okaa almost didn't live through my birth 'cause of her heart. She's a lot older than she looks, but she's never really been healthy anyway," Seiji just continued to watch his friend, who was still staring at the floor, careful not to make eye contact with him.
"My Otou was thin too. He was always the tallest in his class, and the thinest. He used to sneak into movies, because he could sneak through the back door even with the lock and chain on it. All he ever wanted, though, was to have a son who would carry on the Mouri name. He almost had it too. My older sister was one of triplets, a boy and another girl. We were told never to talk about the other girl though, because she ran off with some American when she was 13. My older brother..." Shin paused for a moment and Seiji watched a single tear fall into Shin's lap. "We don't talk about him either, because it's too depressing. It happened about 4 months before I met you, which was a direct result of it... my brother jumped off Shinjuku bridge. He had been really close to Otou, and had written in the suicide note, that he wanted to live forever in Otou's favorite place. It wouldn't have been so bad, except me and Oni-chan watched him do it." Seiji's eyes opened widely, and he wanted to comfort his friend, but Shin was the only real friend he had ever had, so he didn't really know how to. He just continued to stare.
"Okaa had to go on a last minute business trip, and my brother had told us he had a date or something, so only Oni-chan took me out to dinner that birthday..."Seiji gasped and Shin could hear him say "iie..." quietly.
"On the way back, we had to cross Shinjuku bridge, right about dusk, and as we crossed we noticed someone was walking on the side, and right when we got close enough to offer him a ride, I recognized the shirt... and he jumped," Seiji watched as Shin's lap quickly became soaked with tears, and a strange force made him stand up, move over to his best friend, sit down on his knees, and hug him tightly. As Seiji's shoulder quickly became soaked with Shin's tears, he felt him hug back, as he gasped for air threw the tears. But after a minute, Shin pulled away, and looked back as his feet, as he spoke again.
"But it's not like it was the first 'male figure' in my house to die or anything," he began, regaining his composure, "when I was 7 Otou left us, but not on purpose. He was a Marine biologist, with a minor in Ichthyology. He and a bunch of other scientists would go out for a week once a year, to study wild marine animals. They would go scuba diving in all different directions and meet up every night to talk about what they saw. And one night, Otou just didn't come back. A few weeks later someone found him, but he hadn't drown or anything, something, probably someone, had killed him..." he paused briefly before continuing, "We had him cremated, but Okaa saw him before they burned him, and she refuses to talk about it. We had him in an urn in his lab, which we have always kept exactly as he left it, but a week after my brother died, we threw the ashes in Shinjuku bay, so Oni wouldn't be alone." Shin paused, and although the light was dimming, Seiji watched tears silently cover Shin's sharply curved face. Seiji arm moved to Shin, and instead of embracing him tightly, rubbed Shin's back softly, comforting him. Shin lunged and embraced him once again soaking Seiji's partially dry shoulder. Shin spoke again, but this time, did not pull away from the hug. "Before Otou died, Okaa tried to have other boys, but all but me and Oni were stillborns."
Shin pulled away and looked Seiji straight in the eye. "Poor Okaa had 6 stillborn boys before me!" Shin immediately hugged Seiji, and began sobbing this time. Seiji had to smile at his friend's courage. Seiji was his closest friend, and yet this was the first moment of weakness he had ever really seen in him. Always being so pleasant and optimistic, when he was really covering up all this sorrow. He figured Shin had probably needed this time to "let it all out". Seiji pulled away a little, suddenly, and pulled Shin to his feet. He looked the tall, thin boy, standing only in his light blue boxers with little teal fish on it, up and down a few times, and spoke softly, with some humor in his voice.
"Well, you aren't *that* skinny Shin. This isn't the reason why you didn't go for swim team, and bailed on us every time we went to the pool is it?" Shin had to laugh a little through his tears,
"I didn't want anyone to make a big deal out of it," he said still crying a little. "I only wanted to go to the beach 'cause I could wear my wetsuit and no one would notice how thin I was,"
"The green and black one?" Seiji asked,
"It's the only one I have, but I do have a pair of swim trunks I wear in the pool in my backyard-"
"You have a pool?!"Seiji asked surprisedly "you're the only one of us who has an actual *house*, not a *dojo* or a *apartment above a restaurant*, or a *cabin*, but a *house*, and you also have a *pool* you haven't shared with us?!" Seiji was careful not to sound like he was yelling. That was the last thing Shin needed right now. Shin started laughing more than crying, and hugged his best friend as they stood, in their boxers, on his light blue carpet.
"It's under the trampoline. That's how we hide it so the neighbors don't try to use it," and after that, for the next few minutes, the two boys just stood there in their embrace, glad to be friends, listening to Shin's soft gasps. And for a brief moment, Seiji regretted everything he had ever complained about.
A/N: I apologize for all the *'s, but I have to show emphasis some way, and I don't like caps, and fanfiction.net will not let me put it up with my italics. Again, I apologize. If you enjoyed it even a little bit, and have a few extra minutes, please review my story. I promise you would make my *year* if you did^_^. Umm...this is not a shonen ai fic, and do you know why? Becuase they aren't gay. Best friends get really close sometimes and guys will be really straight and look really gay. I ask you to look past that stereotype if only briefly to absorb what I was to show in this first chapter. Then next few will be less...like this one. They're just all different^_^. I encourage you to keep reading this fic, as it is practically the only one I'm even slightly proud of, so I put many sleepless nights into it(not to mention class time...). And now, Translations:
Okaa: Mom
Otou: Dad
Oni-chan: Older sister or brother
Iie: No
Shinjuku: Not a word, but it is a large bay and bridge famous for salt pools...or whatever we see in episode 6?(it's 3 AM, do you know where your brain is Sora?)
That's all for this chapter!