FASH: Sorry this took so long! I wasn't really sure where I was going with it since I really wanted it to be different from Sakuraba's, and then before I knew it I had to start school and do homework. Oh well, at least's it's only a couple days later than it should be, it could have been worse.
""-speech
''-thoughts
Sena sighed, resigning himself to his fate. "I suppose, if I absolutely have to choose... Mizumachi-kun." Maybe it was because Mizumachi would be a lot easier to confess to, they were the same age after all, he seemed a lot less formal than Sakuraba and was fun to hang out with.
"So that's that huh. I guess we'll have to start mentally preparing you." Hiruma rubbed at his chin thoughtfully.
"Mentally preparing me for what?" Sena asked curiously, surely Hiruma wasn't going to make him write a test or something.
"Next time you see him, you're going to bring this situation to light."
Ooohhh, Sena did not like the sound of that. "The next time I see him, but I could see him at any time, and what am I supposed to do, just walk up to him and say: Hey Mizumachi-kun, Hiruma-san told me that you have a crush on me and is basically forcing me to try and accept your feelings for me, do you want to go out sometime?" Sena glared up at Hiruma from under his bangs while Hiruma carelessly blew a bubble with his gum.
"Yes, something like that except with out the whole me forcing you thing, you could easily not do as I say." Hiruma suddenly grinned, probably realizing that Sena would probably always do what he said out of some strange mix of fear and respect. "So therefore you are doing this of your own free will." He ended, his grin still not gone.
"Well, I suppose that's slightly true..." "Glad you agree, now lets start with these mental preparations!" Hiruma turned and opened up his laptop and began clicking away, Sena looking at the screen curiously.
"One quick question before we go onto this. Why exactly do I need mental preparation?" "Because if we don't prepare you for it you know you'll just run away the next time you see him and avoid him for the rest of your life." "Ah, true."
But how exactly was Hiruma going to help mentally prepare him for that?
"Um, you're not going to make me watch a video again are you?" Sena peered at the laptop with distaste. "No, we need to do this face to face." Hiurma took a step forward. "Mizumachi'll be fairly easy to confess too, just make sure he gets the message and then he'll probably make the first move." "Oh, well that's nice." Sena let out a sigh of relief.
"But that doesn't mean you can slack off when you're confessing, he might think you're just joking at first." "Alright... And this ties in with my mental preparation how?" "You're going to proclaim your love for me." Sena gaped at him and Hiruma rose an eyebrow delicately. "Just pretend I'm Mizumachi. If you can confess to me surely you can confess to him."
Well, Hiruma was right about that, if he could so much as stutter out an 'I like you' to Hiruma, who was a dozen times more scary than the other blonde, he could probably tell Mizumachi he was deeply in love with him without so much as a blush.
But still, proclaim his love for Hiruma? This was going to be hell.
"If I say I don't want to do this and instead decided to just improvise the next time I see him-" "Just look me in the eye and say you like me you wimp, it's not like I'm going to kill you or anything."
The thought that this was all just a ploy to get Sena to confess to him and then steal his second ever kiss claiming that the action was also a part of Sena's mental preparation ran through his mind, but he quickly buried the idea, he did not to think about that while 'confessing.'
"Umm, Hiruma-san, the thing is,um, I, uh-" "Oh for the love of-" Hiruma ran a hand through his blonde locks, perhaps trying to keep a reign on his temper so as not to scare Sena away, very far away.
"Look, even though Mizumachi will be easy to confess to, if you stand there in front of him whispering 'uh' and 'um' to yourself for a couple minutes his mind is probably going to start to wander." Hiruma placed his hands on his hips, the agitated look on his face slowly beginning to soften up, but not by much. "Let's try this again."
'Sc-scary.' "Quickly right?" He asked shyly and Hiruma nodded curtly.
'Just say it quick and get it over with, just say it quick and get it over with.'
"Hiruma-sanIsortofkindoflikeyou." "If you say it that fast he's not going to understand and you'll have to repeat it."
Sena took a deep breath and tried to convince himself that Hiruma wasn't just making him do this for kicks.
"Hiruma-san..." He began, not noticing the door to the clubhouse was slowly opening. "Ilikeyou." "There, that's better."
Something clattered to the floor and Sena whipped his head around, surprised and embarrassed to see Mamori standing in the doorway, looking rather like a fish out of water as she stared at the two of them.
"Ah, Mamori-neechan, it's not what you-" "Hiruma-kun!" Mamori stalked forward like some sort of mother bear ready to protect her cubs. "Are you forcing Sena to go out with you?!" "No! It's not like that Mamori-neechan! It's just practice! Practice!" Mamori looked his way for a moment before turning back to give Hiruma a death glare. "Practice for what?"
"This and that." The blonde replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders that made the vein in Mamori's forehead pop.
That was when Sena decided to intervene.
"Hirma-san is help me practice confessing." "Confess?! Oh Sena, I could have helped you with that, I'm sure you must have been terrified, being forced to say you liked Hiruma-kun." Mamori hugged him tightly and began dragging him away, all the while giving Hiruma a dark look.
Well this wasn't awkward at all.
Mamori kept muttering under he breath until they exited school property and then she finally let Sena go and made him turn to look her straight in the eyes.
"Sena, was Hiruma-kun really trying to help you practice confessing?" Sena nodded. "Do you want any help from me?" "Uh, no! I'm fine! We were just finishing up anyways! I'm good, really good!" Sena blurted out with a blush on his face.
If confessing to Hiruma was hell, confessing to Mamori would like some sort of weird, incestuous torture even it was just practice. To explain it in one word: Ewwww.
"Anyways, I had better get going now." Sena rubbed the back of his head nervously before dashing off, ignoring Mamori's calls of 'let me help you too!'
'Oh well, I'm sure I don't need practice, I just need some time to get accustomed to the idea, and then I'm sure the words will just come naturally.' He thought to himself, only half believing the words.
Oh well, as long as he just holed himself up in his house for a few days he was sure he'd gain the courage to 'bring the situation to light' the next time he saw Mizumachi... Maybe.
He reached home and silently ate dinner with his parents before moving up to his room and playing video games until he felt like he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He then promptly pulled the covers off of his bed, buried himself under them and fell asleep on the floor.
When he finally woke up mid-afternoon the next day it was only due to the loud knocking against his bedroom door and his mother's voice disturbing his slumber.
"Sena! Sena get up! One of your friends is over!" "Guuuh." Sena blearily opened his eyes, not quite being able to decipher what his mother was saying.
"Sena! I'm letting him in now." Sena was vaguely aware of his door opening and closing and footsteps getting closer.
"Sena, why are you sleeping on the floor?" Sena squinted. "Monta?" "You're going to get sick like that you know. Stupid decision MAX!" The other boy exclaimed as he pulled the covers off of Sena and threw them in the general direction of the bed.
"Why'd you do that? Now I'm cold." Sena complianed, slowly rising to his feet and rubbing at his eyes.
"Man, how long did you stay up playing video games last night?" "How did you know I was playing video games." Monta gestured to Sena's video game consul and the stack of games the other boy had yet to put away. "It's kind of obvious Sena, but moving off of this topic, we gotta hurry!" Monta grabbed onto Sena's hand and began dragging him out of his room.
"Wait a minute! Hurry where? Where are you taking me?... Monta, I'm still in my pajamas, I've got to change first!" "Oh yeah." Monta let go of his hand and turned to face him, crossing his arms over his chest. "Go on and change, but we're going to be late."
Sena made his way back up to his room, not really sure what they were going to be late for.
'Maybe this is just some weird dream...' He thought as he pulled on a pair of pants and a thick sweater before going out and meeting up with Monta in the hallway.
"Alright! Now let's dash MAX!" Monta grabbed hold of his hand again and dragged him out of the house.
"So, where are we going again?" "Are you still half asleep? Hiruma-san said that he told you about it last night." Sena paused mid step, breaking out into a cold sweat.
"Uh sorry, it slipped my mind, what is it that we're doing again?" Monta turned to him, one eyebrow raised as if to say: how could you have forgotten.
"We're having a 'commemorative game' or something like that, I'm pretty sure it's with Zokugaku." "Eh? Habashira-san?" "Yeah, Hiruma-san says they feel like they've got a score to settle with us since we didn't meet in the autumn tournament." "Ah." 'Oh well, it could be worse, we could be playing against Poseidon.' In fact, when Monta had told him that Hiruma had supposedly 'informed' him of the matter last night he was almost absolutely sure that it was going to either have something to do with Mizumachi, or more 'mental preparation.'
He could totally handle a friendly game with Zokugaku, even if he was still tired and Rui and his teammates still kind of scared him. Too bad there appeared to be a couple of spectators eager to watch the game. And, given the current circumstances, of course one of them was going to be Mizumachi, and obviously right after the game (Deimon 37, Zokugaku 19) Hiruma would come up behind Sena, oozing evil intent as he promptly told Sena to hurry it up.
He should have known it was going to end up like this, it wasn't even fifteen minutes after the game and somehow everyone beside Sena and Mizumachi had already had already left the school grounds, although Hiruma could very well be watching from the roof of the school.
"I wonder where everyone went? Even Kakei snuck off without me!" Mizumachi exclaimed and pouted while Sena took some very deep calming breaths. In this situation, even if Hiruma happened to be watching from afar, unless he had bugged him (which was a possibility Sena didn't even want to think about) he wouldn't really know what was going on, so all Sena had to do was get Mizumachi to confess (because he really wasn't up to doing it himself) and things would go smoothly from there.
"Mizumachi-kun, do you like me?" Mizumachi's pout turning into a grin. "Of course I like you!" 'Woah, he admitted it so easily.' "You're an awesome buddy!" 'Ah, maybe not.' "I didn't mean as a friend." Mizumachi leaned in towards him, another pout forming on his lips.
"What did you mean then? You and I are pals right? Right?" "Ye-yeah." "Good." Mizumachi put his hands on Sena's shoulders and stood up straight.
'I don't think he quite understands where I'm going with this.' "Mizumachi-kun, do you like me in any way other than as a friend?" The other boy blinked in confusion for a moment before comprehension dawned on his face, accompanied by a rather tell-tale blush.
"Nooo..." "Are you sure?" Sena prodded gently. "... Maybe..." "Because if you did, I wouldn't mind." "Really?! You wouldn't?!" The brunette grinded broadly. "Not at all." Mizumachi grinned back and slung an arm around one of Sena's shoulders. "Why didn't you say so earlier? I wasn't sure what you were getting at with all your weird questions." "Ah, sorry."
Mizumachu began striding forward, taking Sena along with him. "So, when you say you don't mind, does that mean you like me too?" "Well, to be honest, I'm not quite sure. I like you a lot, but I'm not sure-" "Ah that's okay! Let's just go out and have some fun!" Mizumachi grinned down at him in a fairly cute and confident matter. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get to like me lots, cause you know, I'm a great catch." He gave Sena the peace sign.
'Well, at least he's confident.' The brunette thought with a small smile before asking, "So where are we heading anyways?" "We'll know when we get there." "Okay..."
Mizumachi lead them around in what appeared to be random directions for nearly twenty minutes before finally pausing in front of a building, looking rather pleased with himself.
"An arcade?" "Yeah, they had some awesome games the last time I was in here" Mizumachi seemed to boast proudly before pausing and carefully asking: "... Do you like arcades?" "Yeah, I like them." "Good! Now let's go!" He boldly strode in as though he went to this arcade everyday.
But he obviously didn't or if he had, he hadn't improved at all.
Mizumachi was not good with video games and even though he wasn't very good he kept on challenging Sena to a bunch of two player fighting games.
At first the brunette was almost sure that Mizumachi was letting him win because he never saw anyone grin so widely during a game that they were losing, but after seeing Mizumachi playing a couple of games by himself he was pretty sure the other boy wasn't holding back when playing against him.
"Mizumach-kun, when was the last time you came to an arcade?" Sena asked from behind the other boy and Mizumachi attempted to shoot a bunch of congregating zombies. "Sometime during my first year of middle school I guess, before I joined any clubs." 'One would think that since he's an athlete he'd have faster reflexes than the average person and be a lot better at games.' "Did you want to go somewhere else?" Mizumachi turned around, completely abandoning the game as he looked at Sena with a slightly panicked look.
"But I thought you liked arcades.""I do, but... Are you having fun? You're not here just because I like video games are you?"
At that point Mizumachi's character was brutally destroyed by the zombies and 'Game Over' flashed across the screen.
"Don't worry, I'm having fun!" Mizumachi put the red plastic gun back in it's holster. "Did you want to play one of those fighting games again?" "No that's okay, why don't we go somewhere that you like to go?" Mizumachi pouted a bit before giving the matter some thought.
"Well, we could go to public bath." The pout turned into a sly grin. "Yeah, let's do that, we can warm ourselves up a bit." He once again slung an arm around Sena's shoulder and began leading him towards the exit of the arcade, still grinning in a way that made Sena blush. Sure he had been at the bath with Mizumachi before, but it wasn't just Mizumachi with him and it was way before Sena had started to believe Hiruma's 'blonde theory'.
'Not to mention it's still fairly early so there probably won't be very many people there, if there are any there at all.' Sena could feel his face going redder, and it wasn't from the cold.
And just like he had predicted they were the only ones there and even though Mizumachi hadn't done anything perverted Sena still couldn't help but blush every time they caught each other's eyes and keep a bit of a distance between them, a distance that Mizumachi was slowly trying to obliterate.
Sena, who was too busy staring at the surface of the water didn't notice that Mizumachi was right beside him until he felt a hand brush against his side. He jumped a bit and made a rather embarrassing 'eep' sound that Mizumachi laughed at for a while before suddenly turning to Sena with one of the most serious looks he'd ever worn on his face.
"I want to kiss you." He stated before moving in to capture Sena's lips with his own, not really giving the brunette a choice in the matter. Not that Sena was complaining or anything, Mizumachi kissed him softly, pressing his lips to Sena's a bit harder before pulling away.
"Did you like it?" Sena weakly managed to nod his head. "Then I can do it again, right?" He asked excitedly, not even waiting for Sena to nod or make a noise of approval before he was kissing Sena once again with much more enthusiasm than the last time.
Sena shyly began to kiss back, eyes snapping open when he felt Mizumachi's tongue against his lips. He pulled away, beet red.
"Uh, I-I don't think I'm r-r-ready for ki-kissing like th-that yet." He somehow managed to stutter out, not really able to calm down because Mizumachi's hand kept on running up and down his side.
"Too bad, I bet you'd be a great kisser." Mizumachi said sullenly, still not pulling his hand away. "But you know, we're definitely going to have to kiss like that on my birthday." "Hm? When's that?" "The thirty first." "R-Really? That's really soon and... I'm ten days older than you." "It's only ten days, nothing to brag about." Mizumachi moved even closer to Sena. "And you have to kiss me once for my birthday and once for New Years." "O-oh, really?" "Mm-hm, of course, if you need any practice before that feel free to tell me." The blonde was leering at him now, no doubt about it and Sena vaguely wondered if he should take Mizumachi up on his offer, kissing him was really nice after all.
'But think of how many germs we'd be giving each other.' He made a face at that thought, firmly resolving that he wouldn't kiss like that until he absolutely had to in a couple of days.
"Hey Sena?" "Yeah?" "Since you let me kiss you and everything, that means that you already do kinda like me, right?" "Yeah, I guess so." "Why?" Sena turned to Mizumachi, sinking lower into the water lazily. "Why what?" "Why do you like me?" "Well, you're fun to hang out with and you're nice." 'When you're not making insensitive comments .' "You're fun to hang out with and are nice too. And..." Mizumachi leaned over a bit. "You're really cute." He pinched Sena's cheeks teasingly before cupping his face.
"Now now Miumachi-kun, don't do any of that type of-" "I know I know, I'm not gonna kiss you like that, but that doesn't mean I have to stop kissing you in the normal way."
He had a point there.
"Well then, what's keeping you?" Sena asked as he wrapped his arms around Mizumachi's neck, clearly wanting Mizumachi to get on with it.
The blonde was more than happy to comply.