"Hey Rukawa," Mitsui said, casually draping an arm around the other boy, "I think we should start on some lessons."
"Hnn."
"You know, real lessons. Not sleeping lessons. I'm really grateful to you for teaching me all that though. Damn useful stuff. Anyhow, we should start on math already."
The other boy only grunted in response.
"All right, where's your textbook? Let's get started on it now, shall we?"
"Lost." Rukawa whispered under his breath.
"What's that you say?" Mitsui looked at him quizzically.
"I lost my book."
"Uh, okayyyy. Well, what about biology?"
Rukawa grunted.
"Lost that one too, eh? Well, so much for my good initiative." Mitsui looked around the house. There seemed to be nothing to do at home.
"Let's go out!" he suggested brightly.
"No."
"Oh come on! It'll be fun! Let's catch a movie or something!"
"No."
"Pachinko?"
"I'm not allowed."
"Well I am. Let's go there then!" and with that he dragged a very reluctant Rukawa out of the house.
'This is stupid,' he thought, as they made their way to the Pachinko parlor.
"Sempai?" he said, his voice barely audible.
'How the hell am I going to sneak him into the Pachinko without anyone noticing?'
"Sempai?"
'If he tried to enter the Pachinko before, then the guard will surely recognize him. But since today's a weekend, the guard will probably be one of those kids from the local university. So we might just be able to slip in--'
"Sempai." His voice was louder now.
The other boy still seemed too caught up in his thoughts to have heard him. 'Or we could just walk in through the front door. The guard will probably just ask for my identification and think Rukawa's probably the same age as I am. Yeah, that's it. We'll go in by the front like we've nothing to hide. I've nothing to hide anyway. But does Rukawa pass for an 18-year-old?' He turned to scrutinize the boy carefully, not really seeing his face.
Mitsui grunted. 'Maybe he'll pass.'
"Sempai." The other boy was still trying to rouse him out of his thoughts, "Sempai."
'So we'll just go up to the guard and show himmmmm--' Rukawa's arm shot out to shake him roughly by the shoulders. Mitsui narrowed his eyes at the other boy, his arm on one of his, a warning to stop. "What the hell are you doing boy? Can't you see I'm thinking?"
"I've been calling you for the last 5 minutes." Came the deadpanned reply.
"So?"
"I'm tired of waiting."
"Well if you were two years older then we wouldn't have to wait now, would we?" argued Mitsui childishly, "If you didn't want to go to the Pachinko we could be doing something else now, wouldn't we?"
"I never said I wanted to."
"You never said you didn't want to!"
"I did."
"You did?"
Nod.
"Oh." Pause. "Well I don't remember."
"Hnn."
They stood staring at the Pachinko, just around the corner.
"What do you want to do then?"
"Nothing."
"You drag me all the way to town and you decided to do nothing?!!" Mitsui flared.
Rukawa sighed. The other boy seemed to get his facts all muddled up very often. Oh well. It was up to him, Super Rookie, to save the day.
"Sempai dragged me here."
"I did?" Mitsui looked stunned.
Nod.
"Uh okay then. We'll do what I want then."
Rukawa simply shrugged his shoulders and decided to succumb to his inevitable fate. Oh, his cruel, cruel fate.
"Mitchy! Kitsune!" a loud voice boomed across the street.
"D'aho."
"TEME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" It was miraculous how Sakuragi could have heard the offensive remark all the way across the street.
Mitsui smirked. Maybe the morning was going to be more interesting than he thought.
"Oi Mitchy, what are you doing here with the kitsune?" asked the redhead as he crossed the road over to them.
"Wanted to get some breakfast. What're you doing here?"
"HAH! The tensai doesn't need to tell Mitchy and the kitsune his plans! NYAHAHAHA!!!!"
"D'aho."
"TEME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sakuragi rounded on his nemesis. "You're just sour that the tensai won't tell you that he has an ingenious plan!!!!!!"
"D'aho."
"URUSAI KITSUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're just jealous that the tensai has a brilliant, foolproof plan on how to get into the Pachinko and won't tell you!!!! NYAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!" Sakuragi threw his head back and howled with laughter. Most passers-by avoided their side of the street.
"D'aho. You just did."
Sakuragi stopped his maniacal laughter abruptly and glared at the pale boy. "TEME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Mitsui sniggered. "Idiot."
"URUSAI MITCHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Rukawa glanced at his senior as the other boy snorted into his orange juice for the thirteenth time. Automatically, he held out a serviette, which the boy grabbed and immediately blew into.
"Danks." Mitsui sniffled.
Rukawa nodded and resumed eating his French toast.
A minute later a piece of foreign toast invaded his plate. He looked up to see Mitsui choking on his toast, his face rapidly turning blue.
Alarmed, Rukawa got up and swiftly moved over to his sempai, smacking his back hard. That only served to send the other boy into worse fits. Thinking fast, Rukawa grabbed the other boy's collar and yanked him to his feet. Mitsui choked harder as he was nearly strangled, but Rukawa took no notice as he dragged his sempai out the café. Leading him to the alley next to it, Rukawa suddenly grabbed the older boy's legs and held him upside down, hoping to induce a reverse-action peristalsis movement.
It didn't work. One moment, Mitsui's face was blue, the next, red, as the blood rushed to his head, and still the toast remained lodged in his throat. He looked like he was going to throw up anytime so Rukawa lowered him to the ground and set him up straight. The boy was unsteady on his feet, and one hand was over his mouth, the other stretched out before him to stabilize his wobbly feet. Rukawa did the most humane thing he'd ever done- he helped Mitsui to throw up the stubborn toast.
Grabbing Mitsui into a tight bear hug from behind, he squeezed the other boy with all his might…… and the troublesome toast came flying out. Mitsui stopped choking and went limp. It seemed like the little piece of trouble had drained a lot of his energy.
"T-thanks…." He whispered hoarsely, a weak smile on his face. Then he blacked out in Rukawa's arms.
Rukawa was debating with himself whether to bring Mitsui home, or to finish up his breakfast (which was undoubtedly getting cold) first. Finally, he decided that breakfast could come by another time, but getting his sempai to his senses was not something that would happen everyday. So, Rukawa, holding up an unconscious Mitsui, headed home.
But not before being sighted by a gang of delinquents who followed him home.
He laid Mitsui gently on his bed. His bed, not Mitsui's, since he found the boy's bed to be unfit to be slept in- what with all his clothes strewn about and bits of cookies here and there, not to mention Qoo™ stains on the sheets (not that he could tell it was Qoo™ just by looking- the smell was more than enough proof). Mitsui immediately curled up into a cute, fetal position on the bed and Rukawa observed his sempai in silence as he slept.
He was beginning to nod off to dreamland as well, when he heard his door practically being rammed down. He got to his feet just as a group of boys burst into his apartment, eyes gleaming in anticipation of a fight.
Rukawa's eyes narrowed. That door was going to cost a lot to repair and there was no way in hell he was paying for it.
"What did you do to Mitchan?" one of them snarled menacingly.
Rukawa restrained himself from rolling his eyes.
"How dare you!!!! Do you know we're older than you?"
Again he tried not to roll his eyes.
"Insult us eh? We'll see about that!" He motioned with a cock of his head and the rest lunged for Rukawa, fists raised and crying battle cries.
Mitsui woke up when a hand shook him gently awake.
"Mitchan…..Mitchan….Oi….."
He sat up groggily and tried to concentrate on the face before him.
"Hnhmph?" he mumbled, shaking his head awake. There were images swimming right before his eyes and it made him giddy.
"Mitchan……..you're all right….." said the voice, relief evident in his tone.
"Nori?" Mitsui squinted.
The boy nodded.
"What's going on?" he heard the thumps and crashes coming from outside, as well as the roars of fury that made him get to his feet in alarm.
Nori held him steady. "The boys are beating him up, don't worry."
"Beating who up?" A horrid feeling of dread crept into him.
"The boy. Rukawa. We saw him dragging you out of an alley and followed him home."
Mitsui was fully awake now. "BAKA!!!!!!!!"
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!!!!" he roared at the mess of bodies and limbs in the front room.
Everyone froze. They looked at him meekly, everyone, except Rukawa who threw one boy off him.
"Mitchan?" they asked, their voices small.
"Answer the frigging question damn it!!!!!!"
"Uh, well--" they began, all eyes on the floor.
"We saw him carry you off….." began one.
"Thought he'd beat you up or something…" continued another.
"Wanted to teach him a lesson….." mumbled someone else.
They fell silent.
Mitsui laughed bitterly. "Rukawa? Beat me up?" Even to their ears it sounded ridiculous.
"Well, he beat you up once before, he might beat you up again…."
"……thought it safer if we teach him something now….since there's no Sakuragi with him…."
"You looked like you were beaten up, Mitchan. It got us all panicking," Nori explained from behind him.
Mitsui turned to him. "Get out of here. We'll talk about this tomorrow."
Shamefaced, the seven of them filed out of the house, head drooping.
"The door." Rukawa pointed out, his head streaming with blood.
Mitsui nodded, and yelled after them. "You guys had better pay for the door!"
Mitsui turned to the bleeding boy. "You all right Rukawa?" he asked, eyeing the boy's badly beaten body. There were bruises everywhere on his pale skin.
Rukawa nodded.
"Want me to call a doctor?"
Rukawa shook his head.
"Sure you'll be fine? I'm not very good at dressing wounds and," Mitsui reached up to inspect the gash on his forehead, "this looks bad."
Rukawa winced at the contact, and his hand immediately flew up to grip Mitsui's.
"What's the matter? It hurts doesn't it? I really think I should call the doctor. You might--" But Rukawa wasn't listening. He was swaying on his feet. Mitsui tried to stabilize him but the boy was much taller than he was and brought him down as well.
Pinned under his dead weight, Mitsui looked down helplessly at Rukawa, whose head rested on his chest. Sighing, he reached down to stroke the boy's hair.
"Stubborn bastard aren't you?" he said, affectionately.
Rukawa woke up in the middle of the night. He was in bed and had been washed and dressed. His hand flew automatically to his forehead where he felt a bandage wrapped around his gashing wound. His body ached. His stomach growled. Slipping quietly out of bed, he almost didn't see Mitsui leaning against the wall. He had been keeping watch on the boy ever since and looked spent, but there he was, sleeping, while standing guard. The corners of his mouth twitched. His sempai had learnt well.
Rummaging through the refrigerator, he found some sandwiches that weren't there before. His sempai had obviously made them for dinner, and had left some for him. How considerate. He ate his midnight snack in the darkness of his kitchen, drowning his sandwiches with some milk, fresh from the carton. Full, he made his way back to his room.
Mitsui hadn't moved. He was still there, hands tucked into his pockets, leaning casually against the wall. Rukawa shook him slightly. The boy didn't stir.
"Sempai." He shook the boy harder.
Still nothing.
"Sempai." Rukawa poked him in the ribs, jolting Mitsui out of Noddyland.
"Wha--?" Mitsui looked around, immediately attentive, "Oh. It's you." He smiled at him. "How's your head?"
"Fine."
"That's good to hear. I hope I didn't wrap it up too tight. I've never been trained in first aid before," he laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Go back to bed then. You need to rest your head."
"Sempai?"
"I'll just stand here in case you need anything."
When next he woke, Rukawa found he wasn't alone in his bed. Mitsui was curled up next to him, obviously too tired to stay up and keep watch. He stared at his sempai's face- peaceful, almost serene, in his slumber. There was an air of innocence around him and Rukawa found himself thinking how adorable he looked when he was not busy yelling or sniggering or accusing people of false offences. 'Of course,' Rukawa mused, 'he looks cute even then but I like him better when he's quiet.'
Covering the other boy with his blanket, Rukawa got up to fix them some breakfast.
Mitsui practically hopped into the kitchen. "I smell pancakes!" he declared happily.
"Morning sempai."
"Good morning to you too! I see you're healing fast!" he greeted cheerfully, settling himself into one of the seats at the counter. "Need a hand?"
"I'm done." Rukawa placed a plate of pancakes in front of him.
Mitsui's eyes widened. "Whoa." Was all he said before he dug into the perfectly-done pancakes.
It was the perfect start to a potentially perfect day.
Then Sendoh had to call.