When Shinji Mimura discovered that he would be in the same class as Shuuya Nanahara, he swore for a good five minutes. Then he took a break, got a cup of coffee, and swore again until Yutaka started to look at him like he was insane.
Now the two of them were headed to class – they were in different classes, too, which was just the fucking cherry on top. Yutaka Seto was a good distraction when one wanted to forget about actual things, and if Shinji was going to have to spend life without him in class, he'd probably go so insane he wouldn't even care when he ended up grabbing Shinji by the tie and kissing him in front of everyone.
"Well… I'll see you later, then," Yutaka said. Shinji scowled and nodded, his hands shoved so deep in his pockets he felt like he was going to burst through the bottoms of them. "But, hey, at least you've got Shuuya!"
"Yeah," Shinji said. He sighed. "Right. Yeah. I've got Shuuya. And you've got Nobu."
"It's like they're splitting up sidekicks and superheroes," Yutaka said, and Shinji did crack a smile at that.
"Yeah, midget, you go learn all about being blunderingly adorable and how to be used as bait by the supervillains," Shinji said. He ruffled Yutaka's hair and shoved him toward his classroom. "But, yeah. See you later. Hey, you want to stop by a coffee place or something on the way home?"
"We can take Shuuya and Nobu!" Yutaka said. Shinji had to bite back another curse, and instead plastered a smile on his face and nodded.
"Right," he said. Yutaka gave him a curious look, like he knew that Shinji was faking it, that Shinji didn't really want to, and was about to spew out some sort of weird explanation for his behavior, but Yutaka just nodded and headed into his classroom. Shinji let out a breath and headed into his own classroom.
Thankfully, he didn't have to deal with Shuuya right away – he stumbled barely on time, and Shinji just had enough time to smirk at him and get a resulting scowl before class started. Shuuya disappeared at lunch, too, which was strange, though Shinji was glad for it. Overall, the day went past without him and Shuuya saying one word to each other.
That was, until basketball.
Shinji had forgotten all about it, which was something kind of amazing in and of itself, until he was with Yutaka. "Oh, shit," he said, remembering. "Basketball. I'll see you later, midget, alright?"
"Oh," Yutaka said, blinking. "Yeah, yeah, I was kind of wondering about that. I guess I just thought you weren't going to this year. Nobu mentioned that Shuuya had been talking about it. I guess I'll find Sugimura or something."
"Yeah, you do that," Shinji said. He headed back to the gym where the first meeting of the basketball team was being held. It was a small high school – Shinji had wanted it just for that, because while he did care about winning, he cared more about playing. It was better to be the best on a losing team (as long as you were good, of course) than to be just another player on a winning one.
"Thought you weren't coming," Shuuya remarked as Shinji entered. Shinji shot him a look. The other first-years were milling around, talking to people they knew and sending nervous looks to one person in the corner that Shinji was absolutely shocked to see.
He grabbed Shuuya's sleeve and pointed. Kazuo Kiriyama stood near the wall, his gaze flat and his arms crossed across his chest. Shuuya nodded. "Yeah, he's in Nobu's class," he said. Shinji frowned.
"Huh, Yutaka didn't mention him," he said. "You'd think he would, wouldn't you? And what the hell's he doing here?"
"Maybe he wanted to try something new," Shuuya said, shrugging. He looked like he was fighting back laughter. Shinji didn't know if it was hysterical laughter or your regular, run-of-the-mill, it's really funny to see this guy at this place laughter, but Shinji wouldn't blame him for either one. Kazuo Kiriyama did look strange in the gym. He was dressed immaculately and his hair was slicked back without a flaw, like usual, and all of it was too… well, too professional-looking for a basketball environment.
Sure, he looked good. Shinji could see that, and he could appreciate the want to look good. Shinji himself looked good, but his kind of good – the piercing, the spiked hair, the smirk that he'd perfected early on in his life – was a lot more suited to basketball. Kazuo Kiriyama looked like a strange mix between the heartthrob at the office and a mob boss.
A feeling of rashness came over him and he grinned. "You know what, let's say hi," he said. Shuuya looked at him like he was crazy. "Look at him over there, all alone – yeah, I hope he doesn't stick around, because he's crazy good at just about everything and I'm not handing over my top spot to him, but let's say hi. He's not surrounded by people like Numai right now, it'll be fine. He'll be polite. He's a polite guy, you know?"
"No," Shuuya said, shaking his head, and Shinji snorted. Shuuya clapped Shinji on the back. "I'll come with, but I want you to do all of the talking. It sounds like it'll be funny."
Shinji rolled back his shoulders and headed over to him. Kiriyama didn't look up until Shinji cleared his throat, at which point Kiriyama fixed him with such a gaze that made shivers scurry up and down Shinji's spine.
Kiriyama didn't say anything; he just looked. Shinji held back a shiver and held out his hand.
"Hey, Kiriyama," he said. His hand hung there, suspended, as Kiriyama looked between it and Shinji's face "I didn't know you were interested in basketball."
"It was either this or volleyball," Kiriyama said. "I flipped a coin."
He went back to looking at Shinji's hand.
"Right," Shinji said. He wasn't about to let Kiriyama win, so he leaned and grabbed Kiriyama's hand, giving it a squeeze before letting his own fall back to his side. "So, have you played before?"
"No," Kiriyama said. He looked contemplative. "I saw one of your games last year. That should be enough background."
"Right," Shinji said. "Enough background. To be on a team with a shitton of people who have done this for years. And Shuuya."
Kiriyama flicked his gaze to Shuuya for half of a second and then went back to Shinji.
"It should be enough background," he repeated. "It is true that I might be rough at first, but once I see a little more those errors should be wiped away."
"Sure," Shinji said. "I bet you think you'll be the best, don't you?"
"Yes," Kiriyama said. There was no hesitation in his voice, he snapped it back faster than Shinji thought possible. He blinked once, twice, and then continued. It was weird, watching him construct sentences; Shinji could practically see him think. "After a few minutes, however, I will be the best."
"Right," Shinji said. He smirked, he couldn't help it – something like this was just perfect to get his blood pumping in a way that had nothing to do with wanting Shuuya's hand to move to somewhere rather than his shoulder. "We'll see."
"Yes," Kiriyama said. He held Kiriyama's gaze for a full ten seconds, and that was the moment that Shinji Mimura realized that Shuuya Nanahara was not the only boy that he was ever going to want like this. But he didn't have time to figure out his sexual preferences right now, he needed to focus on basketball. The three top things in his life – sex, basketball, and rebelling against the government. He couldn't do all three at the same time, and right now it was basketball time.
The waiting for first years had ended, apparently, because one of the older students had just shut the gym doors. He gave a thumbs up to who Shinji took to be the captain – he wasn't very tall, and sported a scowl and brutally short hair. Shinji met his eyes for a few seconds and swore he saw a flash of recognition in his eyes.
"Alright," he said. "First things first, how many of you haven't ever played on a team before? I'm talking a real team – who didn't play in middle school?"
Only a few kids raised their hands, Shuuya and Kiriyama among them. The captain nodded again, biting on his pinky nail.
"You three, I want you over there with Mizushima. He's the nice-looking one. We use him for the kids who don't know what they're doing. You others, you're each getting paired with one of our starters so that we can see what we can make of you. You-" he pointed straight at Shinji. "-with the spiky hair and earring that you're going to have to take out at games, I'm taking you."
Shinji nodded, and the captain grabbed him by the elbow and steered him over to one of the baskets. "Mimura, isn't it? You used to play for Shiroiwa Junior High? Made all of those ridiculous outside shots?"
"Right," Shinji said. The captain nodded, contemplative, and then spoke again.
"I want you to show me. Go all the way around the three-point line, try one from the half-court line, and then do some inside shots, too. You did all of that flashy dribbling at your guys' last game of the season, and that's a stupid thing to do, but it worked, so I assume you can shoot close, too."
"Of course," Shinji said, and wondered if he'd missed the captain's name or if he hadn't given it. Either way, the captain got a basketball in his hands and stepped back, and Shinji was able to clear everything and everyone from his mind as he made shot after shot. He flubbed one of the three-pointers and one of the layups, but other than that, nothing but net, baby. When he was finished, the captain had cracked what looked like it could've been a smile.
"Nice," the boy that the captain had called Mizushima called. "That's the first time I've ever seen Tanaka smile, and we've lived next door to each other for years."
"Give me the ball," a voice said at his elbow, and Mimura turned to see Kazuo Kiriyama. "I want to do it."
"No," Shinji said. He took another shot and let it breeze through the hoop. Tanaka caught it and, Kiriyama's chance shot, Shinji was able to relax. A more rational part of him knew that there was no way that Kiriyama would be able to copy him, but the part of him that knew Kazuo Kiriyama didn't want his status stolen. He didn't want the kid who had never touched a basketball in his life to come up and steal the show, because he was Shinji Mimura, and if anything could distract him from Shuuya Nanahara, it was being absolutely fuckin' boss at basketball.
Writing this is just so refreshing. I don't even know. it's great.