TITLE: Painful Interjections
PART: Side Story 3 to Who Says College is Easy?
PAIRING: Akutsu Jin x Shishido Ryou
GENRE: Shounen-ai (Humour/ Continuation/ Angst / Romance)
DISCLAIMERS: The series I'm referring to does not belong to me… only this weird story does.
NOTES: Blah or Blah is for emphasis. /Blah/ is for conversations over the phone or flashbacks (if any). /Blah/ is for the conscience or whatever inner voice there is talking. Blah is for thoughts or random Japanese words. Some of these words are footnoted at the end of every page (I'm beginning to understand the need for footnotes in fiction. Thank you dear friend, you know who you are. XD).
Side Story 3 (Part Three): He's Gay... in More Ways than One
Punch.
Punch.
Punch.
It was the only thing he did nowadays.
Since he stepped inside the campus of K University, he never did anything worthwhile but try to eliminate the brewing homicidal urges shooting up his nervous system.
First problem: His flatmate.
He was never good with roommates. His cousins abhorred being cooped up with him during visits since he had so many rules regarding the use of stuff inside his sanctuary. It was normal, he knew, since he did not want anything to be out of place. His flatmate now... unfortunately, had bigger issues than he had.
Okay, let's review. He thought crossly. After staying with this guy for God-knows-how-long, I see purple flowers as some sort of artwork, something completely normal that I am now converted to the way of the purple. I now possess a purple shirt and a pair of lavender slacks. He punched his pillow one more time. And I've got myself an excess baggage who is such a pain at times that I don't know if I could bear it anymore.
Sighing, he slumped back against his cushioned headboard. Another quirk his roomie had that he was pretty comfortable with. What was he going to do? He did not know exactly. He did not even know why he was here in the first place. He should have upped and ran the moment he set eyes on the girly guy that was proving to be the bane of his social life.
The same girly guy whom he thought was a pretty girl who survived breast cancer.
"Ah, could you help me with this Ryo?" The way he called out made him shiver for all its sultry quality.
"With what?" He yelled back frowning.
"With the batter!" came the loud response. "I have to cook a large batch and Syusuke is gonna be here in... half an hour! Please?"
Shishido sighed, shaking his head. Hajime, Hajime... He couldn't help the sudden twitch of his lips. It was so easy to imagine those two together, all lovey-dovey. He couldn't quite understand it though...
Not one person had been ignorant of the gap between the two of them since junior high. Of course his flatmate did something all too cruel for words, just as his conniving mind was used to doing. However, something was truly off whenever he thought of Fuji Syusuke alone. Something was not right, but he couldn't place it somehow.
He had heard of the same conniving mind lurking behind the sweetly beckoning façade, and truthfully, it scared him. What was he thinking, he whose brother was almost handicapped because of a faulty decision made by the one he was currently dating? Why was he dating him in the first place?
What was he up to?
Was Mizuki even alarmed at the sudden change of attitude?
He wanted to tell his flatmate that it was a relationship that would not extend to great lengths. It was never going to be a relationship filled with comfort. That mistake was enough to create a wall between them for all eternity. It did not help that, as Mizuki had said, Yuuta-kun and he had become friends even after the incident. If they did stay together, Mizuki and Fuji... what with Yuuta-kun always in their face... how in heaven's name were they supposed to have a peaceful camaraderie?
He sighed again, shuffling slowly to the kitchen, where Mizuki gyrated, in tune with the music streaming from his portable mp3 player perhaps. It was such a comical thing to behold that he felt his grin widen considerably. Yes, this was the private life of Mizuki Hajime.
And Shishido was just deciding whether it was a good thing to be one of the few who saw such display, or bad since it tended to make affected people turn cheesy.
Quietly, he walked towards him, eyes dancing with mischief. There was also something that he considered very endearing when it came to Mizuki Hajime.
He reached out and grasped his flatmate's shoulder, prompting the other to turn in surprise, dark eyes wide and glassy, filled with shock... and a hell lot of love. It was such a sorry thing that all those love weren't for him at all. They were for someone who would be arriving... twenty-five minutes from now.
"Ryo!" Mizuki exclaimed, eyes dancing even more. "Help me with this, will you?" With deliberate force, he pushed the bowl of unmixed flour and eggs to Shishido's face and turned around to finish his frying. "I still haven't made the soup!" He cried out in despair... or not. His voice had the twang of mischief in it.
He just wants me to help him... the overbearing bastard. Shishido thought quite fondly, shaking his head as his wont when in the presence of the guy.
He wanted to punch his pillow once more... even if he knew it wouldn't help lessen his hidden aggravations.
It was not as if he hated his flatmate, he admitted that long ago. It was just that...
He sighed, shaking his head for the umpteenth time.
He hated being thoroughly domesticated.
It made him feel like a girl.
X o X o X
General Science was a pain in the ass. It was something that made Akutsu more irritated than usual. It was just his luck that he had been put in the most boring subjects one had the audacity to place as curriculum sets in the second term of freshman year.
"This is boring."
It felt good somehow that he landed in almost the same classes as his... friend. Yes, Sengoku Kiyosumi passed the exams too and entered K University with him. It was his only consolation after his new stepfather made his life hell by coaxing him to stay at home and drive to school every single freaking day. The reason why he took the exams in the first place was silently declared null. He wanted to get away... and look what happened.
"Sucks to be us." He hissed back monotonously.
Sengoku glanced briefly at him and scribbled something onto a loose leaf. Methodically, he folded the piece of paper and subtly passed it to Akutsu, turning his attention back at the droning professor so as not to arouse suspicion.
Akutsu was intrigued by what the message was that he quickly opened it, eyes deftly scanning the page, a small frown creasing the area above his nose. /Where do you want to eat for lunch? / Said the message. At that, his stomach rumbled, noisily enough that he heard Sengoku snicker.
/Takashi's sushi shop. / He wrote quickly, letting the paper fly onto his friend's desk. Upon reading, Sengoku grinned, looked at him and gave him a thumbs-up for such a nice choice.
Akutsu snorted, feeling a bit better.
Yes, he may be feeling grumpy during his classes, but at least he had the consolation that he had a friend with him to be with. It made the feeling of being left behind by his precious kid-friend fade slowly away. It made him stop yearning for little Dan Taichi's affections.
Now... if only Sengoku would erase the giddy smile on his face, the feeling of contentment would definitely stay. He did not know why, but every time he saw that kind of smile on him...
He felt uneasy.
X o X o X
He hated dinnertime. It was an established fact... same as with the voice screaming inside his head that he hated mornings.
It was not the evening that he hated. He just didn't like the fact that the unit he was living in seemed so barren during nighttimes. He hated the feeling of sitting in a dining table alone feeling like such an absolute loser with the whole world ganging up on him, hating him enough that he did not have anyone to eat with. It was such an irrational thought, but it was how he felt. Never had he eaten alone in his whole life... well, until he stepped into college.
Initially, he thought it was such a blast to have someone with him at mealtimes when his cousin told him he found the perfect place for his stay in K University. And then he got stuck with his cousin's friend's cousin (A very complicated association tree), the Mizuki the Wonder.
At first it was great, yes, they ate together and talked about a lot of things, but when Fuji Syusuke came into Mizuki's life, everything changed... something along the lines of Shishido Ryo being ditched at dinnertime. God knew where Mizuki ate. For all the world knew, he was eating Fuji... or to be truly accurate, Fuji was eating him – and Shishido's green perversions as well.
He sighed. He seemed to be doing that a lot these days. He stared at the open cupboard staring back at him right at his face.
Empty.
Oh yeah, he forgot to buy the groceries again. The tennis club was taking much of his time nowadays. He knew it was not a valid excuse, since his flatmate was in it too. Mizuki would probably kill him when he opens it tomorrow morning. No pancake batter, no fudge sauce, no pasta, no nothing.
Yes. Shishido decided solemnly. Mizuki was going to kill him tomorrow. Silently, he wondered if there was milk in the refrigerator as well. If there weren't, then Mizuki would have his head later tonight. It wasn't a pretty thought.
At a loss, he bowed his head and bumped it against the edge of the cupboard. Now what was he going to do? He did not have anything to cook; he did not have anything to drink except cold purified water; and he did not want to see Mizuki coming in all high from his nightly date.
It was the odour of something good cooking from outside the kitchen window that sold him. It was either he starve or eat some of the now-mouth-watering kebabs being barbequed outside. He did not like street food that much, but he was in need. I'm sorry mother. He murmured apologetically. But I need to eat... or I wouldn't be home alive this winter break.
With renewed purpose, he took raced to the front door, slipping his hands in his pockets to check for his wallet and keys and got out to freedom... to where the food was! He noticed people looking at him strangely as he dashed past, and as he stood in the elevator, and most of all when he was outside and starting for one of the off-campus takoyaki stands in the near the entrance gates. However, his mind was not processing anything – it didn't want to. All that was filling his mind were the vision of food and lots of it, smoking, piping hot dishes ready for him to order and consume as a stranded man would. He was hungry, and the cold was seeping deep into...
Wait a minute...
The cold?
He looked down and in shock, felt even colder than before.
He forgot his coat... and it was already autumn.
The moment of realisation paralysed him, and all he could do was kick himself mentally for forgetting something so crucial... and it was then that he knew that if he did not do something, he would get frostbitten. As he was about to turn around and head home to get his coat, he felt heavy softness spread on him.
Surprised, he looked up, eyes widening even further as dark eyes stared back at him. Those eyes were all too familiar. He had been seeing them ever since preparatory school. His lips involuntarily quirked up. "Atobe." He greeted his tennis club teammate. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in your house a couple of blocks from here?"
Atobe Keigo snatched the thing that was covering Shishido and spread it, an invitation for him to slip into the tempting bundle of warmth. "Ohtori-kun called." He answered, helping Shishido into the velvet coat. "For someone who's supposed to act all grown up, he was panicking like a lost child." He snorted.
Shishido did not know whether to be offended or not. He was not the one being secretly ridiculed but there was still the streak in him that bristled in defence of his best friend. "Oi, oi." He muttered darkly as he adjusted the undoubtedly costly coat around him. It felt so warm. He crossed his arms across his chest in a show of defiance. "Don't talk about Choutarou like that."
"Ahn?" Atobe intoned, eyebrow raised in supplication. Shishido knew, even without speaking, what his former captain was thinking.
He glared even harder, much to Atobe's amusement. "Don't say it." He warned murderously.
"I haven't even said it yet! How do you know what I'm thinking?"
"When you do that 'Ahn?' thing, I know exactly what you're thinking!" Shishido growled. He shook his head. "Why did he call you anyway? Why not –"
Atobe smirked. "Why not you?" He quipped, slipping his hands in the pocket of his own coat. "Actually he did, problem was, you weren't home, and he just panicked. He said you were never one to stay out when all your classes are from mornings to early afternoons."
"Oh." Shishido was thoughtful. "But why did you..."
"Bring an extra coat?" Atobe smiled. "I don't know exactly, but there was a voice inside me that said I should..." He then noticed the further furrowing of Shishido's brow. He chuckled. "Okay, okay, I give. I worried as well, so I grabbed the nearest coat I could find. That's it."
Shishido, for the life of him...
... Still couldn't understand.
What was happening to the world lately? Everything he knew before was now null and void. Well, almost, since Ohtori still was such a mother hen, but that was beside the point. Everything seemed to change. It was like the world was evolving, transforming everything into better individuals with such deep-cast emotions that he wondered were real at all. If he thought he was going crazy before, he was thinking otherwise now. This was Atobe Keigo, Hyoutei King Extraordinaire. The guy who made his life hell in the earlier parts of junior high. The guy who enslaved the ever-enslavable Kabaji Munehiro, the towering, lumbering giant that he was. Of course they did have some quiet moments of understanding during senior high, but he was not this empathic.
"Atobe..." He murmured dazedly.
His former captain gazed back at him, light in his eyes unreadable. "What?"
Shishido heaved a huge breath.
"Atobe...'
A wry grin erupted on his face.
"You have finally been domesticated."
A vein seemed to pop in Atobe's temple. He gritted his teeth in annoyance and grabbed Shishido's hand, dragging him to where food was. It was street food but food nonetheless. Even if he deserved the finer things in life he still craved for something ordinary. Shishido made him hungry for all his efforts to keep himself from arguing further.
"Shut up." He growled. "I hate you."
Shishido chuckled evilly in reply.
"I know you do."
X o X o X
Shishido enjoyed the rare moments when he could torture Atobe. Like what he was doing now. "It's a wonder how you could eat the same food that us mortals eat." He quipped, hiding his mirth behind each bite of Takoyaki.
If he were still in junior high, he would have been aghast at the thought of Atobe eating takoyaki. He liked fancy food such as... Beef Pennington... or Wellington... or something similar sounding. Wait... maybe it was Beef Wellington. But then, he couldn't be too sure. That foreign stuff had a different name and still would taste like some other Japanese dish. Ugh.
"I wonder how you could stand the sight of such greatness as mine... and I wonder how you could even dare think that I'm not gonna charge you for that coat you're wearing right now, ahn, Shishido Ryo-chan?" Atobe drawled sweetly back.
Spoilsport! Shishido thought in annoyance.
He really hated Atobe's insight.
"Ara... Kei-chan!"
It was the soft exclamation that made him turn his attention away from Atobe and his condescending ways. It surprised him; it really did, considering that Mizuki was nowhere near the newcomer.
"Syusuke." Atobe acknowledged, surprising him even more. Since when had Atobe been on first name basis with the former Seigaku prodigy? "What are you doing here?"
"I should ask you the same thing Kei-chan." Fuji Syusuke drawled almost cryptically, and equally cryptic smile stretching on his face, eyes striking as they showed their usually unseen hue. Shishido's mind ran out of reasons. How come he did not know anything about this? After all, he had been in the same school with his former captain for what seemed like forever, not to mention that they had begun interacting more in senior high. It hurt a little, and Shishido did not exactly know if it was the pride talking or something else.
And why Kei-chan of all nicknames?
There was no way that someone so devious be called cute stuff.
"Where's Ha – Mizuki-san?" Shishido asked the smaller man, eyes scrutinising the closed features. He did not get much... except for another of his infamous smiles and a sunny response of:
"He went home early."
Questions flooded his mind, especially now when he felt something truly off in Fuji... not to mention Atobe's sudden stiffening. He wanted to know what was wrong, but judging from Atobe's character, he wouldn't rat out on anyone – most of all a good friend. There was a sneaking suspicion in his mind that there was something wrong – in Mizuki's part at least. Fuji seemed to be taking it all in stride. Yes, there was something really wrong.
"Why are you out here?" Atobe asked again, eyes narrowed a little. "Did you send him home?"
Fuji just smiled.
Shishido then turned tail and ran...
Heading straight home to where his friend was.
X o X o X
Akutsu was busy gauging the width of every brick comprising the ground he was walking on when he was almost ran over by a raging... something. It didn't feel like a bull exactly, there was less power in the hit, and of course, if he was ran over by a bull, shouldn't he be dead already? He shook away his useless thoughts and stared at the one who had so 'violently' bumped into him.
It was the sight of the familiar crown that spurred his mind to work overtime. His eyes followed the strands of burnished sunlight, his heart pounding in his ears as he finally recognised the long flowing hair.
It was the Shishido guy.
And somehow, the discovery unsettled him. There was no reason to, but he still was. What was wrong with him?
With deft hands, he steadied the seemingly frantic Shishido, staring at the unfocused eyes that seemed to be seeing things miles away. Drunk maybe? He wasn't too sure, after all, the guy seemed to have ran all the way to where they were now, the flushing might have come from exertion... among other things.
"Oi, watch where you're going." He growled, brows knitting as Shishido stepped on his foot in an effort to get away. It was probably his voice that made the smaller guy focus. He watched the play of emotions crossing Shishido's face and somehow, Akutsu was amused.
First there was shock, then horror, then realisation, and then dawning doom. Curiously enough, anger was not there. "You! You're studying in K University too?" Shishido asked, aghast.
Akutsu smiled wryly. "Nice to see you around these parts as well." He drawled. "Why is it that whenever we see each other we get in physical contact first?"
Shishido flushed even more. "I – I don't know! Get away from me you jerk, I need to get back home fast!"
He did not know why, but he remained uncharacteristically quiet, immediately letting go and watching keenly as Shishido seemed a little disoriented before sprinting off to what Akutsu deduced was the direction of his home. He stared further on and saw the massive building rising up to the sky. Ougon Jidai Biru. The most renowned and expensive lodging a university student could have.
Feh. So he's rich, so what? After all, he's from Hyoutei Gakuen. He thought crossly. Honestly, he did not understand why he was feeling irritated. It was probably because the guy his mother married last week was in the same bracket. He was rich, no doubt about that... but rich people were fake. It was even concretised by the condescending way his new stepfather seemed to patronise him.
So, the Shishido guy is rich... so what? He thought once again, finally turning away and shuffling to where he was supposed to go. He could see the former Seigaku prodigy and the former Hyoutei captain having a row near one of the Takoyaki stands and a sudden thought of them probably bullying the Takoyaki vendor as a rich-kid past time crossed his mind. He was sorely tempted to tell them off, but he had no such evidence to support his claim. He was probably just thinking too much.
Taking a huge breath, he started off, needing to talk to Kawamura before Sengoku got to the sushi shop earlier than him.
He had to make sense of things... and Kawamura was the best person he knew to talk with.
TSUZUKU
A/N: Sorry for the long delay. I was having problems with my PC's monitor for a whole week, but it's okay now, thanks to my wonderful dad. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this part, because I had quite a lot of fun writing it... but that's just me. Tell me what you think!
