That evening, once Gai's cockpit had finally been pulled up from the bottom of the sea, the ban was immediately lifted on Gai's Gekiganger stuff. It was only after Gai had come to discover that Akito too, at least once, had been a Gekiganger fan as well. Regardless of how jealous Gai was of Akito's natural piloting talents and of his rise to pilothood from cookdom, Gai welcomed the makeshift friendship.
Of course, that didn't mean that Gai was going to let up on teasing his roommate.
"So Rokuro was rejected for piloting the Gekiga Tank because...?"
"Um... Professor Kokubunji soon discovered after building the Gekiganger that his oldest son was a spy for the Evil Empire?"
This kid swore he watched Gekiganger once. What the hell was the matter with him? "No, Tenkawa. Kokubunji Rokuro was never considered for the Gekiga Tank because his alliance to the Kyo'Ak and became Shi'Koos, duh! That was the only reason the professor built the Gekiganger in the first place!" Gai sighed heavily as he started his video projector once again. He pulled his knees up to his chest and crossed his arms on them, glaring at the dark wall that was their makeshift screen. The fry cook he shared his room with was certainly the most clueless Gekiganger fan he had ever met, that was for sure. Not that Gai had ever met any before Akito, but that didn't mean they weren't out there.
"...Gai-san?" Akito's smoothened voice cut through the edgy background music and the enthusiastic voice acting.
Gai closed his eyes, but did not ignore the Martian. "What?"
"Oh God, don't tell me that you're really upset. Are you?"
He was. He really was. Here was Akito, the first person Gai felt that maybe, just maybe, he could be good friends with, and he didn't know the basics of the very favorite thing Gai loved more than anything else. To Gai, Gekiganger was a way of life, not just an anime. It wasn't just crude lines and primary colors. It wasn't just the voice acting that even Gai had to admit was subpar. It wasn't even the vintage feel of the whole series, having been created a century ago. It was about the lessons. Not good and evil, but that life was absurd to no end. Gekiganger showed what true heroism was, true friendship, and even true love. Gekiganger was insane, more than a little silly, and positively laughable as a piece of animated art. But Gai took in all of that and understood it. Why couldn't Akito?
"You are. God, you're a whack-job." It was that same voice that pulled Gai out of his progressively angry thoughts.
Gai turned his gray-brown eyes to his roommate and glowered at him, his temper nearly making the air around them crackle with tension. "Of course," he said coldly. Gai pulled himself to his feet, turned off the projector, and fell onto his futon, staring off into the dark. Why did he expect Akito to understand? Akito had last seen Gekiganger on Mars as a child. He wouldn't understand the messages Gekiganger had, if only you looked deeper than the skin. Of course he would think that Gai was nuts for seeing it as more than he did.
Light flooded the room as Akito flipped the lightswitch. He put his hands on his hips and leaned all his weight on his foot, causing his entire left side to jut out farther than his right. It made the fry cook's lithe body curve interestingly; Gai felt his eyes torn from the ceiling of their shared room to even just follow the curve. It was a little like counting one's freckles.
"Just what is that supposed to mean?"
"Of course you think I'm crazy. Just because I can appreciate something more than you can. You probably don't see it as anything past a cartoon, do you?"
Where Gai's eyes had drifted back to the ceiling, Akito's dark ones fell slowly to the floor. Gai nodded slowly to himself as the silence deepened. He may seem a bit eccentric and more than just nuts, but it didn't mean that Gai couldn't read people. Akito just made it easier, as the Martian wore his feelings on his sleeve.
Gai felt the lower corner of his futon give and he pulled himself up, leaning on his elbows and forearms. Akito was sitting on the mattress, holding his forehead in his hands and his arms on his bent legs. Gai felt a small blush take his tanned cheeks and quickly turned his face away. Throwing an arm over the Martian's shoulders as they walked about? No problem. Sharing as intimate a space as a bathroom with the guy? No sweat. Having him sit on your bed, sitting narrowly close to exactly where Gai slept each night on the Nadesico, in a close proximity that, while not as close as possible, made it possible for Gai to turn his leg just so and brush against Akito's rump? Gai was torn between being embarrassed, trying to pretend that nothing was wrong, feeling the slight leap of his stomach at the sight, and being incredibly, terribly turned on.
"When did you get into Gekiganger?"
Gekiganger? Gekiganger who? "Huh?" Gai forced himself to a full sitting position, pulling his knees up to his chest again as he mentally tried to will his slight blush away.
Akito sighed exasperatedly. "Gekiganger. You know, you're favorite thing in all the world? How did you get into it? I mean..." Akito looked away, looking almost as embarrassed as Gai felt, "you know that I got into it because I watched it when I was just a kid on Mars. What about you?"
Gai felt his embarrassment leak away as it was replaced with dread. How could he tell any of this to Akito? He only knew the guy a couple of days! I got into it soon after coming out to my parents. "I, uh... I started watching Gekiganger a couple of years ago, when I, uh... had a fight with my parents."
Akito nodded, apparently taking this well. "It's always parents, isn't it?" he asked with his own sad smile.
Gai nodded slowly, then looked away. "I... told them I didn't want to marry the girl they picked out for me."
"A bitch, was she?"
Gai shook his head. "I just wasn't attracted to her." That's the most honest I've been yet.
Akito leaned back as he nodded, resting his weight on his hands positioned behind him. Gai hoped that Akito didn't notice him tracing the outline of the Martian's rather lithe body beneath his off-cuty Nergal shirt. Was Gai upset at this man? Whyever for? Surely it must be because Akito wore far too many clothes. He felt a chill run up his spine as he imagined just what back looked like, how pale the skin on it was as it hid behind the loose cotton.
"I can understand that," Akito's words slurred into Gai's mind and made nearly no sense. Huh? Understand what? "I mean, I like cute girls as much as the next guy, but Yurika really, really doesn't do it for me. She never has. If I was supposed to marry her... well, yuck." Akito turned his head toward Gai and smiled.
Oh, hell. Gai leapt from his seat on his futon and stood up, beginning to pace. That smile, along with the not-so-innocent thoughts that coursed through Gai's mind... He had to get up. He had to move. He had to not think about the slight pout of Akito's lips, the slender legs and thighs that Gai knew had to absolutely be the smoothest and firmest ones in the world, the small curve of Akito's cute little toosh and... Grandmother. On the toilet. Her disgusting, stained underthings bunched at her ankles. Landfills. They kill baby animals, right? Make the world a hellish place to live without penguins. Also, Miss Nanako pornography. Yeah, that did it.
"You okay, Gai?" Oh, fuck, was he still here?
"Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't I be?" Gai tried to smile at his roommate, who was promptly becoming a feature star in every single sexual fantasy Gai ever had, all the way down to reenacting that Gekiganger fan-comic Gai read once where Ken and Jyou... Miss Nanako shitting on a pile of garbage and promptly rubbing her wet panties on baby penguins. Ick.
"You just seem a bit... distracted." Interesting choice of words. After all, distracted didn't even cover it. What the hell was wrong with Gai?
"I don't... like to talk about my parents." That was as good an answer as any, right?
"Why not? I mean... sure, I was a kid at the time, and sure it hurts to think about, but I'm not embarrassed to tell people that my parents were killed."
"Oh, my parents are fine, last I checked." They just are made at me for liking plugs instead of outlets.
"... Were they truly upset about that girl?"
"You could say that."
"Shit." Akito's curse was soft, but heavily felt. The Martian's eyes were not on Gai any longer, but instead fixed on Gai's cosplay picture. The picture was from nearly a year ago, just before he started his pilot's training. Gai had always liked Ken best, and thus had dressed up like the Gekiga Jet pilot. It was for that costume that Gai had styled his hair thus, but he had then discovered that he looked rather okay with it, and stuck with the rather retro 'do.
"It's okay," Gai heard himself saying. "My parents are assholes. They can't accept me as I am, so I can't be bothered to give a shit about them." Gai's mind panicked. For as attractive that Gai found Akito, he could not tell the Martian cook that he was, in fact, gay. He mentally went over what he said once, twice as Akito's eyebrows drew together in interest and confusion. He didn't think he blew it. As if he hadn't already by almost letting his brain try to get the better of him. But Gai thought he was safe. Right?
Finally, Akito's face relaxed into a soft smile that tugged at Gai's, of all things, heart. "So, you're like Prince Akara and that chick is like Mii-e Mii-e?"
More like I'm Mii-e Mii-e and you're Prince Akara, you unsuspecting fool. "Something like that." Gai let out a grin, both because he was still safe and because, perhaps, Akito got the whole Gekiganger thing after all. "But then the question must be asked: just who is Emperor Hyperion?"