Bankotsu likes to climb trees.
The boy has been an avid tree-climber since he was small. Sometimes, when he's feeling lonely or bored, he'll climb his favorite tree in the park and sit there watching the world go by.
His favorite times in the tree are when Jakotsu happens by beneath him.
Sometimes, Jakotsu -not realizing the younger boy is there- will settle beneath the tree and talk to himself. Sometimes, he sings. He doodles, reads, has ice cream…It doesn't matter what he does, Bankotsu likes to watch him.
This particular day, Bankotsu sat up in his tree, Jakotsu beneath him in the grass singing out loud to himself. The teen leaned over on his perch, shifting to get a better look at his friend.
Jakotsu was leaned back against the trunk, eyes closed, painted mouth moving as he belted out the song. "I hear you calling and it's needles and pins. I want to hurt you just to hear you screaming my name. Don't want to touch you but you're under my skin. I want to kiss you but your lips are venomous poison. You're poison running through my veins. You're poison, I don't wanna break these chains. Poison …"
Bankotsu sat back, thinking over the implications of this song. His lips curled upwards in a smile, knowing this song did indeed suit his friend well.
He edged forward again and this was when he made a rather aggravating discovery: His braid was stuck in a branch.
What was worse, it was stuck in suck a way that he couldn't untangle it himself.
What to do? He would need to get out of the tree eventually, but he couldn't twist around to free his bound hair.
He tugged on it.
Cursed at the tree.
Punched the tree.
Nothing helped.
Then he remembered…Jakotsu was still below him, singing.
"Oi! Oi, Jakotsu!"
Jakotsu looked up.
"I'm stuck, Jakotsu. My hair is stuck in the tree. Help me get out?" Bankotsu called down.
"Sure, Aniki." Jakotsu abandoned his singing and squirreled his way up the tree.
A few moments later, the effeminate man was working diligently at freeing his companion's hair. Bankotsu had relaxed a little, trying to watch what his friend was doing, when he heard a childish voice below them chanting.
"…Sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage…"
Jakotsu smiled lecherously. "Kissing, ne? That doesn't sound so bad…" His eyelashes fluttered and he leaned closer, his nose inches from Bankotsu's.
And Bankotsu blushed.
Notes: The song Jakotsu was singing is Alice Cooper's "Poison." This chapter was a suggestion from Shan-chan aka Cosmic Castaway.