"He turned me down," said Terry for the tenth time since he entered the Batcave. "The bastard turned me down."
"Yes, shocking, isn't it," said Mr. Wayne. Terry had still not fully recuperated from the rejection of a few hours earlier, and Mr. Wayne had grown tired of hearing about it.
"I can't slagging believe it," Terry continued to himself, seeing that Mr. Wayne had stopped listening fifteen minutes ago. "He said no just like he meant it. He didn't even care. And then he made me buy his slagging pizza."
"Clearly you didn't try enough," said Mr. Wayne. "If Ryuuji doesn't find you appealing, then make yourself appealing. Start simple. What can you think of that Ryuuji likes?"
Terry shrugged sullenly. "Men? His hair? Being a bastard?"
"Well, your immaturity certainly isn't very appealing, Terry," said Mr. Wayne with a frown. This case really brought out all the worse qualities of his protégé. The man was nearly to a level of despair over the situation. "And, you know nothing about Ryuuji Otogi."
"What are you talking about? I know loads about him. You told me about college and English and everything."
"That's not the information that's going to work here. You aren't handling this case with any maturity."
"You'd feel the same in my position."
"I would still remain calm and not complain about what I had to do."
"Yes, but-"
"Grow up, McGinnis."
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooo
"Maybe he likes a more aggressive approach. Now, you've pretty much backed off and wussed out. I wouldn't like you," said Max lazily into the phone prompted on her shoulder, somehow managing to simultaneously console Terry and compose a paper on the life and so exciting times of T.S. Elliot. "Really, Terry, you are being such a baby."
The far-away voice of Terry McGinnis in the receiver said darkly, "And what do you mean by that?"
Max thought about it for a second, stopping her typing and thinking carefully. After a moment, she knew exactly what she meant.
"You need to grow up, Terry."
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo o
Terry, who had been told countless times in his life already by his mother, teachers, and Dana to grow up, was not going to make an exception for Max and Mr. Wayne. Instead, he continued as he had been going, conducting pathetically short-lived conversations with Ryuuji after school and between classes. It wasn't even Terry's fault they didn't talk long, but Ryuuji's. To Terry's dismay, it appeared that after Terry had asked him out, all of Ryuuji's attraction for him had evaporated. He no longer sought Terry out or preoccupied himself with the state of Dana. Instead, he was cordial and chatty, and Terry could actually stand to be around him for long periods of time-although that never happened because Ryuuji had become more prone to the company of his adoring female fans and never left them for long.
Terry's pride hurt. His ego was off feeling sorry for itself, and his mother had a nerve to comment on some illness-flu, cold, stomach bug-that travelled around high schools and which Terry might have caught. What made this irritating was that his mother assumed her son was gay now, or a least bisexual, and was half worried her son wasn't sick but was maybe depressed after outing himself. Things like that happened, didn't they? She let Terry know this indirectly through stressed inferences and personal euphemisms and pretending she thought he had the flu. She hoped he had the flu, even, because she didn't want to have to hear all about her son's love life. Not that she disapproved of her son and his decisions, she just thought that since Terry had been raised through his teenage years by his father, then maybe his father would have been better prepared and not so overly mystified by the fact that his son was gay. Mrs. McGinnis was beginning to face that she just didn't know Terry anymore, did she, and how distressed that made her.
Meanwhile, Terry found himself in the very strange position of bending over backwards to get Ryuuji's attention, and managing to feel miserable about it when he failed. All his past incompetence, at life and at being Batman, hovered around the surface of his mind. His mother may have been right. Her son was feeling slighted, but he believed it was more of a blow to his ego than anything else.
Then there was a dream he had about Ryuuji, which was actually not at all what others immediately thought of when you said "dream about Ryuuji" to them. Only, Terry hadn't realised that yet, so he went ahead and proclaimed it to the world.
"Uh-huh. Yeah, Terry. Lots of people have dreams about Ryuuji. You don't have to tell me about it, really. I swear."
Terry made a face at Dana who'd spoken. She'd been in a sour mood for a while now concerning Terry and Ryuuji. She somehow wasn't all that mad at Ryuuji, though. It seemed to her that Terry had always been gay and she'd been an idiot not to notice it. Chelsea and Max, however, were all attention as usual between their box of candy, behaving more like Terry was acting a television soap rather than presenting them with a real problem. Terry swore it was the only reason they sat with him and Dana.
"Don't listen to her. Tells us all the details," encouraged Chelsea with interest that almost too genuine for comfort.
"Well, I had a dream about Ryuuji Otogi." Chelsea giggled and Terry paused to repeat to himself what he'd just said. Somewhere in the back of his mind he had the feeling he shouldn't have said anything at all. He didn't know how he was supposed to make sense and not incriminate himself further. The problem about relating dreams what that they naturally didn't communicate well. "And, in my dream, he was a robot. And that Ryuuji, the real Ryuuji, was this loser asian kid controlling the robot from a console back in Japan. The reason Principal Nakamura let this happen is that he's biased towards Japanese people. And then, Ryuuji, the real one, was kidnapping students and replacing them with robots, too."
Max and Chelsea look slightly disappointed. Dana looked at Terry like he was crazy.
"So, does this mean you think of Ryuuji as your boy-toy…?" asked Chelsea, trying to salvage at least something homoerotic from their expectations. Max eagerly grasped the idea.
"Yes. It's gotta be a metaphor. Who knows, maybe deep down where only Terry's subconscious can perceive it, Ryuuji is a loser asian kid."
Terry frowned at them both. "Of course. I could have told you that if you'd asked me anytime about my opinion of Ryuuji."
"Yeah, but a loser asian kid with hot sex-bots? That's insta-cool," said Max evilly. She and Chelsea scoffed and toasted each other with candies. Terry decided girls were evil incarnate, or at most a very low level of demon with nothing better to do than harass him. Ryuuji was their leader, and that showed something about him, didn't it? Terry hadn't said a slagging thing about anyone's sex-bots, either.
"Maybe Principal Nakamura is having an affair with Ryuuji. That's why he's biased," said Chelsea, happy to make things worse and then far worse for Terry. "They are replacing all the students who caught them together. Then, the dream is actually warning Terry that he's next."
"I don't think Nakamura is married, Chels," Max pointed out. "Not that the theory isn't absolutely brilliant. Or maybe the robots represent everyone Terry wants to have sex with. Tell us, Terry, was Dana replaced?"
Terry sighed and put his head in his arms. "You both just defiled my dream. Thanks."
Max laughed. "A dream about Ryuuji Otogi asks for it."
"No, screams."
"Begs."
"Demands it. With a whip."
The two girls collapsed into laughing while Terry stared woefully at the table. When he looked up again, Max and Chelsea had finally calmed down, and Dana was gone. Since there was nothing much for it, he put his head back into his arms and waited for lunch to be over.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooo
"Ryuuji, did you get question fifteen on the practise test? It totally blew me away. All this work has got me totally slagged."
"Sorry?" Ryuuji asked as if just noticing that Terry was speaking to him. They were in class, and while Ryuuji feigned increased competence with the other students when speaking English, for Terry he was always lost. Terry was about to the point where he desperately wanted to strangle him with a bell curve, if that were even possible.
"Question fifteen," Terry repeated, pointing to it on the screen to clarify. Ryuuji face lit up with recognition. Terry felt sick watching it. He was willing to believe Ryuuji honestly dumped all his English into his locker before getting to third hour.
"I don't know it," Ryuuji said regretfully. He pointed to his own question fifteen, which seconds before had been filled with numbers and paragraphs of explanation. "Sorry."
"I'm sure you are," said Terry, unable to conceal the sarcasm. Ryuuji only smiled and nodded.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooo
"Are you going to work for Mr. Wayne, today, Terry? We should talk before you go."
Terry looked up at his mother, stunned to find her at Hamilton when the last thing he'd known her to get off work for was his father's funeral. Even Max was speechless.
"Did something happen to Matt?" he asked, immediately alarmed.
"No, I just feel we should talk."
Terry shrugged and said he guessed it was all right. He was secretly dreading all chats with his mother, but there was no getting out of this one. Max knew all about it. She gave him a rather sceptical goodbye, and Terry was off and around the school with his mother.
He was struck by how much she didn't fit in at all if she wasn't there in response to some complaint about Terry's behaviour. At those times, she was all agitation and fury. Currently, she was just the agitation.
"So, how are things at school?"
"Great," said Terry slowly, motioning around him as though she should see for herself. The matter now was how to evade her questions and figuring out what it was exactly he was evading. He applied his agile Batman mind to it. He only came against a wall.
"You're doing well in class,?"
"Yeah, I guess," said Terry with a shrug. Things would be less excruciating if he went ahead and made her level with him. "But you could ask me that anytime. What's wrong, Mom?"
His mother worried her hands together as she considered what to say. Terry watched her intently, his expression soon mirroring her own as he anticipated something terrible. Maybe she lied and was furious with him for everything that had happened the past few days, but wanted to break things gently. That made Terry feel horrible. He was likely just disappointing her all over again.
The tension between them was broken by a cell phone ringing. Both seem somewhat relieved at this. Terry instinctively reached for his pocket, but his mother was already checking and mouthing the words "I need to take this, one minute". Terry nodded to her to go and leaned into some lockers while his mother disappeared into a nearby classroom. He sighed tiredly. Of course she didn't trust Terry to hear her speaking with a client. She didn't trust Terry at all, did she?
"Is that your mother?"
Terry frowned. No. Not Ryuuji. Not with his mother in the other room. She might have a heart attack.
"Yeah."
His voice betrayed him and sounded much more laid back than he really was about all this. He couldn't imagine how an introduction between the two would go. He was scared to think of it. "Hello, I'm Ryuuji. Remember me? Your son kissed me in front of everyone at the airport. Pinned me down for a whole minute. Then we made out in the back seat of Mr. Wayne's car. And along the side of Mr. Wayne's car. Then, I'm sure Terry had inappropriate thoughts about me all night. Those are the facts. By the way, that's a lovely purse."
Quite. His mother may never speak to him again. There was only one solution: He was going to kill Ryuuji. Right now. That ended everyone's problem.
"She's a lot better looking than my father, I'll give you that," said Ryuuji, meanwhile, unawares of Terry's inner monologue. Terry thought that it was just great that now Ryuuji also appraised his mother. Dana had merely been the beginning.
"Why are you here, Ryuuji?" asked Terry, uneasy with how the guy was able to appear at just the inopportune moment always. He wanted to ask why Ryuuji was talking to him, but he was positive Ryuuji would give him some wordy, convoluted explanation that amounted to nothing more than "just to f-k with you"-only, hopefully, not in the literal sense.
"Max told me."
"Why?"
"I saw you walking off with a mysterious older woman and had to investigate."
"Since when do you care who I walk off with?"
Ryuuji only grinned at the question and went to peek into the classroom. Terry pulled him back roughly before he'd wrapped his head around the door.
"Stop! I don't think she likes you," Terry lied. "I think she's scared of you."
"She won't be once she gets to know me, I'm sure."
"Ryuuji," Terry pleaded, since there was no better way of getting through to the guy when he was in a sadistic mood. Also, he suspected Ryuuji was absolutely correct, and Terry couldn't bear the idea of his mother sanctifying the guy as well.
"What, are you worried she'll like me?" asked Ryuuji, taking a step closer. Terry, now aware of what Ryuuji was capable of, immediately went on his guard. Which for Terry wasn't much, seeing as people pounce kissed him all the time. Not even wearing the Batsuit helped. Something in him was always asking for it.
"You're always so tense, Terry. It's quite admirable. It suggests a healthy level of suspicion," said Ryuuji, who cocked an arm on Terry's higher shoulder, leaning easily on Terry and the wall of lockers. He seemed perfectly relaxed despite the frozen body beside him. "But you should really learn to appreciate how you feel at this moment, your mother just a wall away and then there's me out here threatening to be all disgraceful. I've learned to appreciate that feeling, and I enjoy anything-or anyone-that arouses it. You know? "
"I'll go ahead and pretend not to, thanks," said Terry, still a little smart even when he was all nerves.
"Don't. You see, I'm giving you a chance to experience the rush for yourself. Isn't it fun?"
Terry didn't think so. He found it to be torture. Distantly he could hear his mother talking, explaining options and who else to contact. He was filled with an urgent need to do something, anything, and yet he didn't move. Ryuuji was still talking to himself, something about dice and gambling. It was all some long metaphor, but Terry honestly didn't care. He failed to notice the hand Ryuuji was waving in front of his face for several seconds.
"Come back Terry, come back," said Ryuuji mockingly. His face was mere inches from Terry's own and he was smirking at him. The closeness drew Terry into a sudden impulse. He was furious with Ryuuji for mocking him and turning him down, ignoring him and messing with his head. There was one logical step of what to do about it, only it really wasn't logical. It was something like the only thing Terry could think to do, and he supposed that had a lot to do with being eighteen years old and immeasurably stupid concerning common investigative technique. He forcefully closed the distance between him and Ryuuji because he was angry enough at Ryuuji for that, and Ryuuji responded by pushing him into the lockers with surprising strength.
How to rationalise this? He couldn't. Terry kept assuring himself that it was all a silly game of Ryuuji's and because it was all about risk, they were sure to stop before his mother saw them. After all, Terry had not embarrassed Ryuuji in front of his father. It wouldn't be fair otherwise. That was what Ryuuji had been getting at. It took the guy five hours of exposition to get to a slagging point, and Terry didn't have that sort of patience.
Also, it wasn't like kissing Ryuuji was a bad thing, truly. He wasn't a bad kisser. In fact, it was immensely enjoyable and made Terry aware of how much he was missing in basically dating the same girl since middle school. It was a horrible moment for Terry to admit that to himself, but he had learned to work beyond the sinking feeling years ago. Also, while Ryuuji may have positioned himself, Terry had still agreed to the proposal. In Ryuuji's mind, he likely felt he'd been proven right, and Terry had no idea if he had. He just didn't know what else to do.
Because Ryuuji was shorter in their position, Terry instinctively reached up to run his fingers through the boy's hair. Ryuuji grabbed his arms to stop him, murmuring something about not messing with his hair, bitch, and Terry had to settle with grasping the small of Ryuuji's back. He purposely tried to ignore how obviously not feminine it felt, but he also didn't mind so much. It was Ryuuji, he wasn't a girl, and there was no point pretending he was, even if he did vaguely look like Dana. That was just the hair.
Soon Terry's position transformed from a mildly to an undoubtedly compromising one, and it gave him a surge of anxious energy and desperation. He'd begun pulling up Ryuuji's shirt in the back, letting his fingers brush the warm skin and trace the bony line of Ryuuji's spine. Everything he touched was smooth and hot, part of a burning Ryuuji that could easily consume him. Ryuuji's right hand rested heavily in Terry's belt loops, making him nervous his pants would begin to slip if Ryuuji leaned a little further into him. The other arm remained innocently wrapped around Terry's shoulders, seeing as Ryuuji hadn't bothered to move it anywhere else.
It was in this position that Terry's mother found then, Terry just beginning to work on Ryuuji's jawbone. Max turned the corner at about the same time and stopped dead.
"Terry!" they both said in unison, highly alarmed. Terry froze guiltily, and became very preoccupied with watching the rounded end of Ryuuji's right collar bone. He could still see it as Ryuuji collapsed into silent laughter, possibly wicked cackles, in his shoulder. He took a moment to compose himself, and even then he couldn't stop grinning as he turned to Terry's mother and held out his hand. Terry noted bitterly how neither witness had bothered to yell at Ryuuji about the scene.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. McGinnis," said Ryuuji politely, letting go of Terry and taking the few steps require to reach her. They'd been making out right next to the door, so she had gotten an excellent view of the proceedings. Terry hated trying to think of how it had struck her. It was his slagging mother, of all people. "I'm Ryuuji Otogi, a classmate of Terry's. I don't believe we've met."
Terry's mother took Ryuuji's hand in an automatic fashion. Her face was frozen in an expression of pure shock. While Terry knew she was his mother and cared for him no matter what, he was suddenly very scared for himself. Her reaction was terrible and didn't not give him any hope.
"Are you the same as before?" asked his mother. "Terry's friend from the airport?"
The way she said friend showed Terry there was some blatant denial going on in his mother's mind at that moment.
"That I am," said Ryuuji, sounding absolutely thrilled she had made the connection. "What brings you to Hamilton High-our humble home if you listen to the computer science teacher. She likes to believe we all live in our lockers, and that mine was imported specially from Japan. It's why she gives us so much homework, I think."
Against everything good and fair in the world, this was exactly the sort of thing Terry's mother found funny. She couldn't help laughing, and that caused her to relax. Max and Terry both watched in awe as Ryuuji charmed his mother, bringing her totally to her ease. Terry found it unbelievable. Forget that Mr. Wayne had told him that unbelievable was a word the true Batman never used.
"Wow, Ryuuji, you're really something. I'll admit I wasn't sure what to expect from my son's boyfriend. Shows how much I know." She turned to Terry. "How long were you hiding him from me before you came out?"
Terry grabbed his neck embarrassed. He tried to figure a way not to sound cheap, but nothing came.
"Well, actually, we never dated," Terry said, giving up. His mother looked scandalised.
"Then what was…?" she couldn't bring herself to finish the question. It occurred to her that maybe she just didn't want to know. Behind her, Ryuuji found it to be spectacularly funny and laughed.