Title: Extras
Author: Darkfireblade aka Hellsfirescythe
For: lj userheroes50
Prompt: 03 Search
Characters/Pairings: Ando, Hiro
Rating: G
Notes: Spoilers for nothing, this short story links to my other Heroes fics, but those aren't necessary to understand most of this.

"Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it." -Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC

"Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends." -Jacques Delille

Two large onigiri filled up his bento as usual. It was really pointless to ask mother to pack any less, she was still under the impression that there were people that existed in this world that would want to share with anyone with the surname of Masahashi any longer. Ando stabbed at one of the rice balls viciously, the thin seaweed covering ripped easily and the various holes soon revealed the salted salmon filling inside. Good, because he'd rather not have umeboshi inside his lunch any time soon. Mother must have remembered, for once.

Coming back to middle school was hell, especially since that brown-haired grey-eyed man finally left. The idiot didn't leave empty handed either, as foreigners were prone to do. They just gathered up anything that happened to take their fancy. 'Why in the world would they need to worry about how their pickings effect others?' Sarcasm just seemed to ooze from everywhere today. A frown fixed itself firmly on Ando's countenance before he took a large bite out of his well-abused onigiri.

The noise from the courtyard seemed to increase from a dull hum to a curious buzz. Ando distastefully sipped his lemon tea -the only decent flavor he could afford from the machine- and leaned back into the empty doorway that was his lunchtime haunt. Ito-sensei had mentioned that there was a new student transferring from some big-city middle school. Just what he needed, another big headed classmate with stellar grades to look down or pity him. It didn't really matter though, the transfer was placed in a separate class from his own, there was no reason for the other to have anything to do with Masahashi Ando. Most especially if this new student was truly from the coast.

Footsteps down the sidewalk made Ando look up, his hand curled resolutely around a smooth stone from the nearby rock garden (He would have to ask for the janitor's pardon later). A small-statured figure rounded the corner and Ando's frame relaxed. It must be one of the new underclassmen. After a few seconds, the boy finally spotted Ando and turned to bow before waving affably, a nervous twitch barely visible in his lowered hand. "Ummm...hi. Do you know where I can find a vending machine?"

Ando reached for his can of tea before grunting and tipping it in the direction of the queried objects. The underclassman bowed gratefully and smiled brightly in Ando's direction. Ando stared as the boy strode up purposefully and extended a hand out. "My name's Nakamura Hiro. Pleased to meet you!"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to shake your hand. My grandfather told me that's how people greet each other in America."

With a sneer, Ando slapped the offending hand away. "This isn't America, stupid."

Nakamura stared from his hand to Ando before breaking into a wide smile, much to Ando's surprise. "A 'high-five' is just as good."

"High...five?"

Before Ando had a chance to continue his overall assessment of the strange underclassman, a bell rung loudly, causing both of them to jump. Nakamura looked sheepish as he pulled his hand away and retreated a few steps.

"I'd better go get something to munch on before class starts. See you later!"

The short meeting between him and the underclassman happened over and over again over the next week. It was always some reason or the other that the smaller boy would invade his lunch-area to ask an inane question, either about the placement of certain things in the school or even about things as pathetic as the weather. It was stupid really.

"Wow Ando, you really suck."

A collective chuckle rippled through the entire crowd gathered eagerly around the newly posted test scores.

"You could have passed the test, or were you too busy staring into space for the whole entire class?"

Another snicker.

Ando refused to look back at his malefactors and ignored the furious burning of his ears. They didn't matter, he should be used to this by now. Stupid idiots, he'd show them...

"Hey! Hey! It's you! Masahashi-san right?" A finger prodded lightly against Ando's shoulder. "Remember me? Nakamura Hiro?"

Some murmurs dispersed throughout the crowd and Ando could hear some of them moving further away.

"Hello? Earth to Masahashi-san."

"What do you want?"

"Ah...well, can I eat lunch with you?"

"Shut up, you're being noisy," Ando interrupted, the words not as forceful as he would have liked them to sound. A stretch of forced silence descended between the two of them and Ando closed his eyes wearily. "An underclassman shouldn't be so demanding."

"..."

"But I suppose I can't stop you from barging in like you always do."

"..."

Ando glanced and saw an embarrassed blush starting to form on Nakamura's face and turned around to face the boy. "That's a yes you idiot!"

"Ah, yes, of course Masahashi-san!"

Masahashi Ando never would admit to ever being lonely, but he was a little appreciative to the underclassman's presence. At least it meant that mother no longer looked at him with those eyes whenever he came back home with one onigiri left intact in his lunch box. Instead she smiled at his empty dishes and persisted in making him extra food for the next day, he couldn't help it if Nakamura Hiro was a rather hearty eater. It wasn't as if he was sharing his lunch with the boy or anything. It was just that Nakamura would always look at Ando's extra serving, whatever the item, with the most forlorn look in his eyes...at least, that's what Ando would always say no matter what Nakamura said about their meeting being 'determined by fate'.

It was a few weeks into their tentative friendship that Nakamura finally mentioned that fact that he was actually not an underclassman, but had transferred from some middle school off the east coast of the main island not too long ago.