Pairing: Hatori/Ayame
Theme: 27; Overflow
Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket, nor its characters.
A/N: I just wanted a break from the angst Hatoyame stories I did, and this one was so easy to write. This features them as teens. XD Some additional info: Tori is the word for bird in Japanese. XD;
Smoothie
"Just one more store, 'Tori-san!" Hatori sighed, silently enduring the suffering produced by spending massive amounts of time with his silver-haired cousin in said cousin's natural habitat: a shopping mall. "You said that at the last five stores, Aya." He tried to reason with him, but knew it was a fruitless endeavour. Ayame rarely listened to anyone. Sometimes – far less frequently than he wanted him to- did he listen to Hatori, but all natural rules were off when shopping was involved.
It was impossible to get between Ayame and clothes. In fact, it was even dangerous. When fake mink fur blinded Ayame's sight to anything else, trying to convince the man of the ridiculousness of the price of the garment would probably result in a glare, a pout, or even a begging look, complete with hug. And when Ayame hugged, much like his snake counterpart, he hugged with his entire body.
It made Hatori rather uncomfortable. Ayame didn't fight fair, and a smaller man might have even called it unfair. Hatori knew better; Ayame simply had more snake-like traits than people gave him credit for. Aside from being frighteningly slender, limber, and grew cold more easily than most people, Ayame also knew how to play cunningly. It was this trait that made the combination of Ayame and Shigure a frightening one. It also made Ayame a very entertaining chess partner, especially to people who'd never seen the other side of him. Ayame, with all of his playful banter and seemingly dumb behaviour, had the element of surprise.
It was up to Hatori to protect this, as Ayame cherished it well. With the cunning promise of chess afterwards, Ayame had convinced Hatori to join him for smoothies at the mall. Of course, the boy had conveniently forgotten to mention that he had planned a shopping spree beforehand.
"Ayame, are we going to have smoothies already? I'll even pay." Hatori's back started to seriously hurt from all the unnatural slouching shopping seemed to require. What was more agitating than endlessly comparing shoes that looked completely similar to Hatori was the fact that he had to follow Ayame around.
He'd learned by now that the boy had different gears; the first gear was a speedy one, which to Ayame was completely normal. Then there was the second gear, which was prancing with his long, gangly legs – Hatori silently despised the fact that the boy had had his grow spurt before him, as it made him a free target for pets and hugs and name-calling of 'cute Tori-san'– which always made him faster than he anticipated. Then there was the third gear, which was full-on shopping mode. In theory, this simply stood for running around. Hatori would be able to deal with it; he was annoyed already, anyhow. In practice, however, this meant running around, alternated by long excruciating periods of stopping, inspecting every seam on the hem, endlessly turning a piece of garment inside and out, only to be deemed unworthy of 'being on a hot, sexy body like Ayame's'.
Shopping with Ayame meant pain. But after pain, there was always relief. Not even Ayame was as cruel as his small brother sometimes drew him out to be, all hairs and bowties and fangs while stomping on unidentifiable little chibis. "Let's go have smoothies, Tori-san!" Were the words to impending freedom, and Hatori found himself smiling briefly. Ayame petted his head, which made the smile vanish as quickly as it had appeared. "You're so cute when you smile, Tori-san!"
And still, the pain was not over. "I wish you would stop calling me a bird, Aya." He took one look at the sympathetic, bright yellow eyes, and knew that it was yet another lost battle. Two-zero for Ayame. Hatori hadn't felt like such a fool ever since last week, when Ayame had somehow convinced him into going to Sea World with him. Needless to say, people had been staring very oddly at the trail of seahorses following the boy running past the windows, hoping to find a tank that didn't have seahorses in them. Later on, he'd found a brochure of Sea World in Ayame's golden shoulder bag with the words 'seahorses aplenty!' underlined and highlighted, surrounded with pink drawn hearts.
And somehow, Ayame had seen an opening in his defence system again. "But your name means bird, doesn't it?" The innocent blink of Ayame's eyes almost made Hatori give up. Almost. "Only if you shorten it like you do. Call me Haa-san, like Gure does." Even if it sounds bad, atleast it doesn't mean anything. Ayame, having seen the resolution fading from his friend's eyes, knew the battle had already been won. "Sure, Tori-san! Maybe someday I will!"
With a minimum of distractions, Hatori finally dragged Ayame in the ice cream parlour. "What flavour do you want?" He enquired, looking at the Hebi bouncing in his seat and wondering whether the boy really needed more sugar in his system. Ayame shook his head, getting up from his seat in one big leap while pushing Hatori back down with a hand on his head. Hatori gritted his teeth. The man was definitely working his hopefully only momentary height advantage for all it was worth.
"Don't be silly, Tori-san! After I dragged you through all those stores, atleast I should pay for the smoothies!" Hatori couldn't help but point out that it was in fact Ayame's parents who were paying, but the comment was waved away in a cheerful manner. "That doesn't matter! Mom and dad aren't here right now, only Tori-san and me are!" He skipped to the counter, and Hatori was scared of what he was ordering as he noticed the man's mouth didn't seem to stop talking. Then again, Ayame's mouth never did.
Hatori wondered what he was still doing in the mall, as he could easily write an excuse on a note and left while Ayame was otherwise occupied. It wasn't like Ayame wasn't treated that way a lot- even Shigure did it sometimes. Shigure had acquired such a knack for writing excuse notes that it even seemed like love poetry, and Ayame always quickly forgave him.
His stare trailed from the menu list to Ayame, and back again. Why was he angry that Ayame was talking to someone else in the same fashion as he would him? Ayame had always been more at ease with strangers than he, and, in a way, he supposed he was jealous of the skill. Ayame seemed so comfortable with the ice cream boy that it made him feel like Ayame could just as easily spend the afternoon shopping with that guy as with him.
All of the sudden, a large, chocolate smoothie with two straws was placed in front of him, and Ayame's face hovered above it, smirking pseudo-awkwardly. "It seems like the guy at the counter misunderstood me, and he only gave us one big, giant smoothie! It's okay, though, isn't it? It'll be our special thing for today!"
Hatori caught the sneaky shine in Ayame's eye and the smile he was – unsuccessfully – trying to suppress, and decided not to make a point out of it. The sooner the smoothie would be gone, the sooner they could go home again, and the sooner things would make sense around him once more.
He was rudely disturbed from his order-bringing thoughts by a straw being plopped inbetween his lips. "Go on, drink! I promise you'll like it; I requested a hint of strawberry in it!" Hatori raised an eyebrow, and suppressed the desire to ask whether the guy had understood that correctly, and if he didn't what else would be in the smoothie.
Hatori had to admit to liking the way the smoothie tasted, although rather too sweet for his taste. It was a nice change to what he usually had, and with Ayame present, somehow the taste fit the occasion.
He stopped drinking when Ayame started to blow bubbles in the smoothie, nearly overflowing the glass. Not bothering to hide the annoyance on his face, Hatori stared at Ayame, who looked at him innocently, straw still hanging from his lips. "What is it, Tori-san?"
Hatori sighed. "Please, stop that. I don't want to get chocolate all over my face, and you should watch out for your ridiculously expensive jacket until it's at least a day old. It's better for your parents' patience, since it was their money that paid for it."
Ayame nodded and continued blowing chocolate bubbles in the smoothie, only softer this time. This time, the bubbles barely came halfway the glass. "Better, Tori-san? Surely you're not worried about getting Aya-germs?" The boy added with a wink.
Hatori's lips twitched, and he chided himself inwardly. Do not be amused. Don't let him drag you into his insanity. "Just drink it by yourself. I'm not thirsty anymore."
"But Tori-san, do you want the ice cream guy to think that we're breaking up?" Ayame somehow managed to not make it seem like a whine, although Hatori identified it as such. "We're not on a date!" He whispered angrily, perhaps a bit panicked, as he glanced past Ayame to the guy behind the counter, noting that the man was indeed staring at Ayame with a hopeful look on his face.
"But Mr Ice-Cream-Man doesn't know that!" Hatori sighed. "Mr Ice-Cream-Man doesn't even know you're a guy. And in the unlikely event that he does, you can share the smoothie with him."
At Ayame's pouting, which somehow worked its persuasive magic even around the straw, Hatori sighed and surrendered. Three-zero for Ayame. Hatori doubted he would ever score against a sly snake like Ayame. He unleashed his frustration by nibbling on the straw in front of him, swallowing eagerly to escape this nightmare as soon as possible. Ayame grinned, biting on Hatori's straw as he noticed Hatori sucking on his straw. An indirect kiss! He supposed he wouldn't mention it to Hatori- it would only make him cuter. Ayame didn't think he could stand a cuter Hatori today.
When Ayame had escorted Hatori back to his house, as he was a 'honourable person' they halt. Neither of them ever knew how to say goodbye. For Hatori, it was because the transition from the insanity of a day with Ayame to the serenity and normalcy of a night reading indoors was a hard one. Hatori didn't understand why Ayame ever had trouble saying goodbye; he didn't seem like the person who would stop to think about such things if they would see each other again tomorrow.
He sighed, commencing their ritual of goodbye. Hatori was always the one to speak. "You should make your own clothes, Ayame." It would certainly save a lot of money of your parents' account. When Ayame stared at him with a smile on his face, Hatori looked up at him, catching the mirth in Ayame's eyes. "What?" The moment the word left his lips, he knew he shouldn't have asked; curiosity was always punished when Ayame was involved.
"Nothing. You think I'm talented enough to make my own clothes, that's all." So, Hatori had turned even cuter, after all. Ayame couldn't resist patting Hatori on his hair, even if he was only a few inches taller than the other boy. "Can I try some of my designs on you, Tori-san? I actually have some ideas in mind!"
Hatori sighed. Would he never get peace? "I suppose. As long as you don't create the clothes while I'm inside them. I don't want to be poked with needles." Ayame laughed out loud at this. "Afraid of needles? If you're going to be a doctor, you might as well get rid of that fear! I can help you with it!" Hatori backed away, leaning into his front door and hoping that his parents would open the door when they heard Ayame's loud voice.
"Alright, it's a promise." Ayame's voice was suddenly calm, as he leaned in. "A promise sealed with a kiss." And he kissed Hatori briefly on his lips, and thought the sputtering complaints under his own lips were so cute that he had to prolong the kiss just a little longer than originally planned. It was too hard a task for Ayame to resist teasing a cute Hatori.
"That's two kisses, Tori-san! I expect them returned someday!" There was nothing a baffled Hatori could do than stare at the retreating figure of his cousin and pray for safety and sanity.