School starting again was not necessarily something that Shinji Mimura was looking forward to. He had the weekend to contemplate how fucking much it was going to suck, that was true – but the impending doom of the fact that he was going to have to magically fix his sleep schedule by Monday sort of ruined it.

He hadn't felt like being around the house, and he didn't want to try and get involved with Shuuya again – this time Nobu might not be there, and if Nobu wasn't there… well, then Shinji would probably kiss Shuuya, and that wouldn't end well for either Shinji's crush or their friendship. He could've asked someone else to hang; Yutaka or maybe even Sugimura, but he'd decided against it.

So he was alone shooting hoops again. At the place he frequented, his bag thrown to the side carelessly with his phone on top. Just in case someone decided to call, text, or in any other way try to contact him. Maybe he should've asked a girl out. Chisato, maybe – not for sex, not her, but she wasn't bad. He liked hanging out with her, and she was pretty cute.

Or he could ask out someone for sex. But he didn't want another encounter with someone like Mitsuko Souma, not right now. When they weren't around he could convince Little Shinji that he didn't want it, but if he were to contact Souma…

It would just be best if he didn't. So he shot hoops alone. He worked his way around the court, moving from the free-throw line to the half-court line to several spots on the three-point line. He was most comfortable taking outside shots. Not only was it more flashy, and therefore something that he'd liked to practice when he was younger, but nobody really expected you to take the half-court shot if you weren't trying for a buzzer-beater. He was good at dribbling, too, and he could get in close and make a lay-up if he had to, but he'd prefer to just have a few tall guys on post to take care of that if it needed to happen.

He was so focused on shooting hoops, in fact, that he didn't notice Shuuya Nanahara standing underneath the hoop until he noticed that the ball hadn't hit the ground. He glanced up and was more surprised than he'd like to say to see Shuuya standing there, but he got over it quickly.

"Hey," he said, nodding. Shuuya took a few steps away from the hoop and made a short jump shot. An easy one, from a favorable angle and not much of a distance. "You playing basketball this year?"

"Maybe," Shuuya said. He looked back at Shinji and grinned. "But team sports don't always agree with me."

"See, you just have to be good enough that they don't try and tell you what to do," Shinji said. He beckoned for the ball and Shuuya passed it over to him. He made another three-pointer from the corner of the court. "Stick with me, man. We'll be a duo that everyone wants to be."

"More like that everyone hates, because we'll end up hogging the ball," Shuuya said, but his voice was bright and when Shinji glanced over at him, he saw that Shuuya was grinning. "But maybe I'll check it out. Basketball's not bad. I like it. It's just not always my thing, you know?"

"Think of all of the pussy you get now, as a rocker guy," Shinji said. Shuuya blinked a few times, but he looked like he was contemplating it. "Add basketball onto that, and you double it. Take my word. I don't even need to play the guitar. I'd go broke buying condoms if I did both."

"Are you saying I won't?"

"Well," Shinji said, smirking. "I'm just naturally a lot more attractive than you, so of course that triples the numbers. And what can I say? Chicks dig a rebel."

Shuuya snorted and the two of them spent the next ten minutes not speaking much as they played. Eventually it degenerated into some sort of one-on-one session, complete with Shuuya reaching around Shinji's chest and holding him back when he started to lose. Shinji kicked backward, and the two of them stumbled around for a little bit before Shinji flung himself backward so hard that both of them tipped over.

Shinji was honestly just glad he'd ended up on top, though now he was aware of how close they were. He rolled off of Shuuya and looked him over. Both of his eyes were closed. "You dead?" he asked. Shuuya opened one eye and flipped him off.

"Does the word 'diet' mean anything to you, Mim?"

"Oh, I am 130 pounds of pure muscle, and you know it," Shinji said. He let his gaze pass over Shuuya again. He was lying on his back with his hair messed up, his shirt hiked up to bare his stomach. There was a large scrape on his forearm and the beginnings of a bruise on his shin where Shinji had kicked a little too hard.

"So we were talking about girls earlier," Shuuya said, and Shinji blinked. He didn't know where that had come from.

"I guess we were," Shinji said. "Though the conversation was more about sex than the girls themselves-"

"Yeah, yeah," Shuuya said, waving his hand. "You're all about sex, aren't you."

"I… guess?" Shinji said. He was feeling increasingly more uncomfortable. "Not going to lie, man, but this is a weird conversation and I'm not totally sure I'm comfortable with the direction it seems to be going in."

"Have you ever… liked someone? I mean, like a real person likes another real person?"

Shinji stared at him for a while and laughed while his heart sort of stuttered and died inside his chest. "Are you talking about a crush? Because man, I've come closer to having a crush on Yutaka than any girl. I want to talk to Yutaka. The only thing I want any girl to do with her mouth is-"

"Oh-kay," Shuuya said, stopping him. "I'm talking overall, though. Jokes about Yutaka aside-"

"Who says I'm joking about my midget?" Shinji said, though he was joking. While it was true that what he felt for Yutaka was more deep than he'd felt for any girl – Chisato maybe could have closed in, but he'd sort of distanced himself from her lately, just to make sure that didn't happen – it was completely platonic. Thinking about being with Yutaka like that ended up making him laugh.

"You are. But seriously. Have you ever felt like that about a guy?"

Shinji's mouth dried up. Shuuya was looking at him with such an intent expression his face; eyes boring into Shinji's soul and jaw set and mouth turned down slightly. He was about sixty percent sure that Shuuya knew. He didn't know how Shuuya could know, because he thought that he'd been good about keeping it a secret, but he could know, and part of Shinji really thought that he did know, and he didn't know how he was supposed to answer-

Just sitting there would give it away. So he laughed. He tipped back his head and laughed, and Shuuya laughed right along with him.

"Sorry, man," Shinji said. "Your come-on won't work. But I'm sure we can find you a nice boy somewhere."

"You too straight for me, Mimura?" Shuuya said. He laughed, too, and with each second he laughed something stabbed deep into Shinji's heart. But he'd always been good at hiding his true feelings. At staying frosty.

So he just nodded and smirked and Shuuya collapsed backward.

"What ever will I do, now that my one true chance at love has been destroyed?" he said, and Shinji managed a sort-of laugh. Right. Right, his one true chance at love had been destroyed. God, he hadn't really ever wanted to straight-up murder someone before now. This was quickly changing.

It was quiet for a few seconds, and then Shinji flopped down himself. The two of them laid, making a sort of 'L' with their bodies, when Shuuya spoke again.

"So, moving up in the world," he said. "No more middle school."

"Thank God for that," Shinji muttered. "I was starting to feel creepy. You know what's next for us? High school girls. God damn, will this be good."

He heard the words coming out of his mouth but he didn't know if he meant any of them. He didn't think he did. He was almost one hundred percent sure that he didn't mean any of it. Sure, he'd have sex with older girls – nothing new, really. But… it wouldn't be good. He had a gut feeling that it wouldn't be good. The sex would probably be good, as far as sex went, but the situation, the feeling… this entire afternoon had proved just exactly why it would sure as hell not be good.

After a bit more of just lying there, chatting a little back and forth, Shinji feeling worse with every word spoken, Shuuya stood up. "I've gotta get back to the orphanage," he said. He held out a hand to Shinji who brushed him off. Shuuya shrugged. "See you when it all starts up again, huh?"

He didn't wait for Shinji to answer, and Shinji sat up and watched him go. He watched him walk away with that sort of strut that he had and he put his head in his hands and he prayed that he'd end up in a different class than Shuuya Nanahara, because he didn't know how well he'd be able to handle it if he didn't.

This is never not fun to write I'm telling you this is literally the best thing ever.