(A/N:) So this chapter was originally 30,000 words because there was so much we wanted to put into it, but we HAD to cut it down to size... So look forward to some semi-fast replies over the next couple days! Anyway, thanks a bunch for the super kind reviews and I hope you enjoy the chapter. Sorry for any inconsistencies or mistakes, we're trying to fix them as we see them.
Chapter Five: Blue Crimson
A loud banging rang throughout the house, startling Motochika awake. He sat up quickly but sleepily looked around, not quite fully awake yet. "Ieyasu! Come out here right now! I know you're in there! I heard you snoring from out here!" shouted an angry voice. Motochika slapped his hands over his mouth and cursed himself for being such a heavy sleeper. Unsure of what to do, Motochika started sneaking around to reach the stairs. He let out a loud string of curses after hitting his leg on the corner of a table. "Ieyasu! Answer me!"
"What in the world is going on down here? Motochika, are you okay?" Ieyasu asked, turning on the lights to the living room. Motochika was curled on the ground holding his shin, tears in his eye. He was biting his lip in an attempt to be quiet. To answer Ieyasu's question, Motochika just nodded and then pointed to the front door. More banging was heard.
"Ieyasu, you coward! Come out here and face me like a man!" the shouting continued. Ieyasu chuckled nervously and helped Motochika stand.
"It sounds like Mitsunari is at it again. I'm sorry, Motochika, but he's been doing this lately. Ever since Hideyoshi-sama and Hanbei-sama died in that car accident, he's been arguing with me almost non-stop. Just sneak out the back door and take my car to Masamune's apartment. I know it's a bit early, but I don't want you getting stuck here. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend," Ieyasu said ushering Motonari out his back door.
"Alright, I'll see you then, Ieyasu," Motonari bid farewell before racing down to Ieyasu's car. He then started driving down the road, glancing back to see Ieyasu and Mitsunari arguing on Ieyasu's doorstep. He had to admit he felt a bit sorry for his friend, but he was glad for this opportunity to escape Mitsunari's rage.
Finally inside of Masamune's apartment, Motonari set his keys on the coffee table and plopped face first on the couch. He let out a soft sigh at the comfort the couch gave him. His life was nothing but trouble lately and this couch seemed to make it all better. Motochika grabbed the pillow in front of him and pulled it into a tight hug. He was mentally preparing himself for the plan that would start in the morning. He soon fell asleep, not aware of the consequences that would follow.
Early the next morning, Masamune silently crept downstairs, scoping out the area. Spotting his target on the coffee table in front of Motochika, Masamune smirked then continued creeping into the living room taking great care not to wake up Motochika. Once he was close enough, Masamune swiped the keys and continued on quietly to the door.
"Going somewhere, Masamune-sama?" Kojuro asked as he exited the kitchen, drying his hands on a rag as he had just finished doing the dishes. Masamune jumped and almost shouted but held it in. He grasped at his quickly beating heart and turned around to glare at Kojuro.
"Geez, Kojuro. Are you tryin' to give me a heart attack or something?" Masamune hissed softly enough to not wake Chosokabe. He let out a deep breath and addressed Kojuro calmly. "If you must know, I'm goin' to the club. Motochika is sleeping so I'm just gonna let him be."
"You act like Motochika-san is a light sleeper..." Kojuro muttered, allowing himself a sideways glance at the sleeping teen. Though Kojuro had been speaking at a normal volume, Motochika could be heard snoring loudly. "Is there a specific reason you're going to the club? I know you get bored, Masamune-sama, but surely you can't be suffering that badly."
"Well, I mean maybe. I'm not sure. I'm not exactly too bored. If I were I'd just wake up Motochika's lazy ass. I just got a feeling that I should go to the club right now," Masamune said turning towards the door again. A light buzzing in Masamune's back pocket alerted him. He quickly pulled out his cellphone to see yet another "urgent" text incoming from Keiji. "Besides, you never know when the perfect opportunity to mouth off someone annoying will come. I might as well take the opportunity while it's handed to me on a silver platter."
Kojuro couldn't help but chuckle at Masamune's logic, "Well since I can't argue with that, just make sure you stay out of any legal trouble. And please be sure to come back at a reasonable time. Let's not think about what awaits you if Motochika-san wakes up and his bike isn't here..."
"Psssh! I can handle him," Masamune scoffed though he was panicking inside because those words had some threat behind him. Masamune reached for the doorknob and hesitated. "I won't stay out too late. I promise. You go rest and take a night of from being such an old man, okay Kojuro?" Masamune opened the door and continued to the parking garage where he started Motochika's motorcycle. He drove down the street to the club thinking only of how he was going to handle that idiotic circus clown when he arrived at the club.
Keiji stood outside of the club opening the boxes and assorting the cans by color as he needed them to finish the mural he was working on. Yumekichi, his pet monkey, helped him set up the cans in rows. As he was busy rolling a can of blue paint up to the rest of the line, a loud roar of a motorcycle caused the poor monkey to scurry up Keiji's shoulder and hide in his hoodie for protection. Keiji turned his head to see who it was that arrived and smiled, already knowing who it was, "Ah, Date-san! You made it!"
Masamune shut off the engine and angrily stomped over to Keiji. He grabbed a handful of Keiji's hoodie and pulled him towards his cold glare. "Why did you have to send me so many 'reminder texts' today, Maeda? It better be something important," Masamune snarled shoving Keiji away. Keiji tumbled into the paint cans almost knocking them over but somehow managed to prevent any paints from spilling. Masamune took notice of the cans before glancing up at Keiji in disbelief. "Paint? You're not seriously asking me to paint are you?"
Keiji managed a nervous laugh as he found his footing again; fixing the rows of cans that Yumekichi worked so hard in setting up, "Well, I didn't call you to help me paint exactly. Toshi and Matsu-neechan put me in charge of decorating the outer walls to fit the theme," He gestured to the big canvas board mounted on the wall of the club. Usually the canvas was open to anybody who wanted to show a little graffiti love to the club (whether they were gangs or loving street artists like Keiji), but on rare events they moved the public canvas to the opposite wall and reserved the front entrance canvas for special occasions. This was one of those occasions, "I will have to say, though, I am running a little low on help, and the other people I asked to come down earlier haven't arrived yet... So if you weren't busy, maybe you could help me paint?" Yumekichi climbed out of Keiji's hood then and moved over to a box which had yet to be sifted through. From the box, he pulled out a few paintbrushes, holding one up tentatively to Masamune.
Masamune warily glanced down at the brush the monkey held outstretched to him. He stood still silently debating his options. With one glance up at Keiji's hopeful face however, Masamune sighed begrudgingly and swiftly snatched the brush from the monkey's hands. He crouched and began looking at the different paint cans before him. Even though Masamune wasn't looking, he could feel Keiji's smile beaming towards him. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not doing this for you. I'm only gonna be doing this 'till your 'friends' show up to help you," Masamune announced proudly.
"I wouldn't expect anything less of you, Date-san," Keiji said continuing to sort through the variety of paint cans.
Once everything was sorted out, they both looked at the blank canvas wall before them. Masamune nervously scratched the back of his head. "Just so you know, I'm not a great artist. I'm not really sure what help I can be to you..."
Keiji shook his head, "This won't be too hard, I promise. We're just gonna be using this paint to set the backgrounds for the graffiti. I've already divided the canvas into four squares, and each square will be a different color." He pointed to the four paint cans closest to his feet, "These two will be the squares on the left - your side - and the other two will be the ones on the right - my side. It doesn't matter which color is on top, so you don't have to worry about that. Sound easy enough?" Seeing Masamune nod reassured Keiji, though he could definitely see the obvious reluctance in the man's eye. Keiji sighed, then set up the ladder for Masamune, "Here, you can use it while I work on the bottom square first."
Elsewhere, Yukimura shoved his hands in the pockets of his plaid jacket as he stood at the train station, waiting for his friend to arrive so they could head out to their destination. He sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time and checked his phone. The most recent text was received 10 minutes ago by Ieyasu, saying "On my way!" Yukimura frowned and stared at the passing trains and people, apologizing over and over in his head to the street artist waiting on his arrival.
It was another 10 minutes later until Yukimura heard his name being called through the crowd. "Yukimura! I'm sorry I'm late. Mitsunari was having a hard time letting me go in the middle of our argument. I'm here now though so let's go catch the next train," Ieyasu offered with a smile leading Yukimura to the recently arrived train. They stood, holding onto the handrails only out of habit rather than need. Ieyasu glanced at Yukimura who seemed a bit on edge and smiled to himself. Ieyasu hadn't planned on running late, but just accomplishing the task of getting Yukimura to the club would be fine.
After a little thought, the brunette looked to his friend, who seemed distracted by the ads that played on the small screens overhead, "What do you think caused Maeda-dono to call us both to the club? I didn't think he was a dancer..." He trailed off, awaiting Ieyasu's answer.
Ieyasu glanced curiously at his shorter friend before giving a soft chuckle. "You didn't know? Keiji's brother and sister-in-law own the club," Ieyasu paused to allow the boy a sound of shock escape. Yukimura immediately flushed in embarrassment for being so loud on the train. He offered small apologies before turning back to let Ieyasu continue. "Since his family owns the place, they often give Keiji some work to do. Keiji is actually quite a popular street artist so he often decorates the club for special events. I'm willing to bet that he's asking us to help him with those decorations."
"Decorations?" Yukimura thought about it and lit up instantly, a wide smile gracing his lips, "That actually sounds like fun. It's a nice change of pace from dance battles." Though he didn't make it very obvious, Yukimura was in truth disappointed. There haven't been many good opportunities to dance, and when he did manage to sneak off to the club to dance, he never ran into any good opponents with the exception of Masamune recently. Before he could control himself, he sighed again, resting his head on his arm as it held onto the handle above him while the train came to a stop.
Ieyasu lead Yukimura off the train towards the club, a smile on his face. They walked along in light conversation until the club came into view. Yukimura excitedly walked a bit faster urging Ieyasu along. It wasn't long before they could make out Keiji painting the wall near a ladder. "Ah, Keiji! We've made it! Sorry we're so late!" Ieyasu called out. Keiji started as the ladder began to shake and wobble. It was then that Ieyasu noticed the person standing towards the top. They rushed over to help Keiji steady the ladder. A few droplets of blue paint fell to the ground fortunately landing on no one below. All three heads looked up at the one eyed teen on the ladder.
"Sorry about that! I didn't mean to- Hey, wait it's you! What the hell are you doin' here?" Masamune shouted quickly descending the ladder to reach the ground.
Yukimura tensed up at the sight of seeing Masamune, his recently dubbed rival, descending the ladder he stood on to come face to face with him. He glanced at Keiji and Ieyasu, but slumped a little seeing as they were distracted in their own private conversation. Feeling something akin to defeat, Yukimura turned and looked at Masamune, "Maeda-dono called Ieyasu-dono and I here because there was something urgent he needed help with. I could ask the very same thing to you, as I wasn't expecting to see you here." He took a good look at Masamune, noticing he had small paint marks on his wrists and his forearms. Yukimura couldn't help but smile at this. 'Guess he's not much of a painter.'
Masamune smugly grinned down at Yukimura. "Well Keiji called me here to help his family with the bar and everything inside, but then when you guys didn't show up he was practically begging for me to help him. I felt so bad that I just had to help him out. As you can see I did a pretty bang-up job too," Masamune paused to show case his work on the canvas wall. "So, Circus Boy! Is there anything else you'd like me to help with?" For some unknown reason, Masamune just didn't want to go help inside knowing that Yukimura would be helping Keiji outside.
Keiji turned his attention from Ieyasu to Masamune, and then thought as he looked back up at the canvas. It had quite a good deal painted, but it wasn't so much that Keiji didn't still need help covering the last of it, "I'll have Ieyasu help me with the last of this canvas. You and Yukimura-kun can work on the murals inside since I finished the linework for it already." While under the (suddenly) surveilant gaze of the One-Eyed Dragon, Keiji led him and Yukimura inside where the bar was set up. It was a Sunday, and although the bar was usually open on Sundays, it didn't open until late so it was barren and quiet. Keiji walked over to the far wall where the staircase up to the dance floor was and spread out a large tarp on the floor.
"Wow, did you really draw all of this, Maeda-dono?" Yukimura asked with awe and amazement shown plainly on his face. He stared wide-eyed at the intricate linework, leaning in on certain parts to take in the immense detail. Keiji laughed and nodded in response.
"The lines should be pretty dry by now, so spraypainting shouldn't be much of a problem. If you guys are gonna use the paint cans from outside, be careful about painting over the lines. If you mess up, don't worry, I can always go back over it... J-Just try not to mess up too much." He added as he saw a challenging glint in Masamune's eye. Yukimura nodded once and stood straight, clenching both of his hands into fists.
"Right! I, Sanada Yukimura, will not let you down!" he said in a clear voice. After saying so, he took off his jacket and ran over to a nearby table to hang it on a chair, safe from the dangers of paint stains.
While he was gone, Keiji smiled and patted Masamune on the shoulder as he turned to leave, "Play nice, okay? If you make any messes, you'll be the one cleaning up." A playful smirk was the last thing Masamune could see before the street artist walked out of the club's entrance, leaving the dragon alone with the tiger cub.
"Tch, meddling monkey," Masamune cursed before gathering a bunch of spray paint cans. Yukimura glanced curiously over at him before stealing a can from Masamune's arms. Masamune glanced at Yukimura sourly before setting the paint cans down and grabbing just one to paint with. He first looked at the color in his hands then frowned at it. Yukimura noticed Masamune's hesitance and put his spray can on a table.
"Is there something wrong?" Yukimura asked.
"I don't like this color," Masamune said flatly, tossing the red can to Yukimura, who caught it after faltering again. The brunette pouted and glared a little at Masamune, who in turn didn't seem to care.
"Well maybe I don't like this color..." Yukimura said and tossed the blue spray can at Masamune, "You can paint with that, I'll paint with red. It's my favorite color anyway." Masamune caught the can effortlessly and raised an eyebrow at Yukimura's behavior. He stared at the paint can in his hands and smiled. It may have been unintentional, but blue was Masamune's favorite color. Hearing nothing else from Yukimura, he looked back at him questionably.
Yukimura ignored the stare and after testing the spray can on the tarp, he set out to paint the mural silently. There wasn't much use in talking to Masamune, as they only seemed to argue anyway, so he guessed the best way to handle the situation was to keep to himself. He frowned a little, lost in thought, but painted his voice away and prayed that time would pass by quickly.
Masamune started spray painting the wall though he didn't say anything to Yukimura. He could sense that he didn't want to speak to him, yet there was something inside him that just couldn't accept that. While he was spraying he racked his mind for a topic of conversation. He thought long and hard about something to say, but it was getting really hard for Masamune. Eventually he subconsciously let out a tiny growl and began to spray for violently as opposed to how peacefully he sprayed just a few moments ago.
Upon hearing something close to a feral beast to his right, Yukimura shivered and backed up from Masamune, looking at him. Seeing as it was just Masamune, he softened his expression to that of concern, "M-Masamune-dono, are you okay?" He watched as the man began spray painting with sharper and wider movements, most likely out of rage. Yukimura panicked and grabbed Masamune's arm, holding it tightly. "Calm down! You'll end up messing up the mural if you keep doing that." Masamune turned to glare at the offending arms restricting his movements but then softened that to a mildly annoyed glance when he saw it was Yukimura. The brunette glared up at the taller, wondering if this guy had any shred of his being that even remotely cared about other people. He knew it was wrong to judge people like that, but... this guy made it pretty hard to find a good side.
Masamune turned away from Yukimura to glance at the mural. "I didn't mean to mess it up. I was just... getting annoyed by something. I'm fine now though so let's get back to making this mural look awesome for Keiji," Date said gently tugging on his arm as if to ask permission to have it back. Masamune absolutely refused to meet Yukimura's eyes though in case the boy saw how embarrassed and nervous he was.
Yukimura let go of Masamune's arm, but rather than back away he leaned forward and tried to look Masamune in the eye, "Are you sure you're okay? If you're annoyed by something you should tell me. It's not good to paint when you're distracted." Feeling as though he was being a little too persistent, he finally stepped back a bit, but held his gaze.
Masamune turned towards Yukimura quickly to close some of the distance that Yukimura had created but then stopped and stepped back feeling he would only make the situation worse. He mussed up his hair while debating telling Yukimura his problem or not. Finally he let out a long sigh and averted his eyes back to the mural. "I'm not particularly angry at anything really. Just, I figured I should have some sort of conversation with you to get to know you, but I just couldn't think of something to say that didn't sound lame," Masamune explained begrudgingly.
Yukimura blinked and stood in silence, "...P-Pfft!" Without warning, the boy burst into laughter, his hands clutching his stomach as he doubled over. He could feel the dragon's gaze burning holes into his head, so he forced his laughter down to a chuckle, "S-Sorry, Masamune-dono, but I really found it funny... I didn't expect you to want to get to know me after what happened, but I assure you, I'm very easy to talk to." He beamed a smile and picked up his spray can, returning to the mural. He puffed out his cheeks as he thought, not particularly aware of the childish habit, then he glanced at Masamune, "Let's see... For starters, how often do you come here?"
Masamune glared at Yukimura for the fit of laughter before haughtily turning to face the mural. He began spray painting in silence as he thought about an answer to Yukimura's question. "Hmmm... I guess you could say I come here a lot. It's not like I come on any specific days or anything. Just when I'm feeling particularly bored, when Motochika wants to come, when Kojuro wants to come, or when I think that there's gonna be some good talent that night. I probably come here a lot more than you though. That was my first time seeing you after all," Masamune mused taking great care in his work on the mural.
"Actually, you're wrong." Yukimura said in a simple tone. He shook the spray can again before continuing, "I come here all the time to dance for fun or to find people who provide a good challenge. Lately I haven't been dancing my best, so it's not that surprising you haven't seen me around before. Shuffling isn't even my specialty, but it's a style I dance the most since Sasuke doesn't like coming to the club much." He pouted as he said this and backed away from the wall to get away from the paint fumes.
Masamune was about to disagree with the boy, but then he remembered that he did indeed have another style of dance. He saw it in his dance battle with Yukimura and it was even more amazing than the shuffling he saw. "So you're talking about your c-walking style then? You can probably guess that tutting isn't my main style either. There just doesn't seem to be anybody good enough to handle my main style. That is except for you," Masamune paused to switch out cans. He pulled up a new can and then looked at Yukimura thoughtfully. "I guess it's for that reason that I'm not sure whether I should thank you or beat you into the ground."
Yukimura chuckled and crouched down, painting in details on the bottom portion of the mural. "Funny, we have something in common then," he said, looking up at Masamune with a challenging stare. He studied him for a moment, and then remembered something. "Is your specialty freestepping, by any chance? I have to admit; you caught me off guard in that last battle because I've never come across anyone else who freesteps other than Sasuke and myself..." Deciding somewhere in his talking that painting wasn't gonna get done, Yukimura sat cross-legged on the tarp and looked up at Masamune, awaiting a reply.
Masamune gave a short bark of a laugh before plopping himself on the ground. He let his elbow rest on his knee then set his chin in his palm. He gave a very confident smirk to Yukimura. "Wouldn't that be good then if freestepping were my main style? It's actually something I just picked up. I haven't really met anyone else who can do it so I never use that style often. My main style of dancing is just freestyling to dubstep. That can take me places."
Yukimura let out a sound of enthusiastic awe, "Wow that sounds amazing! Freestyle itself is very broad, but there's so much room for individual styles... It definitely suits someone like you, Masamune-dono!" Yukimura couldn't exactly pin it, but he was definitely enjoying getting to talk to Masamune like this. Most of his friends lived quite a distance away, so talking to them proved to be a little of a challenge. Even Sasuke was usually busy and disappeared often into the bustling city. It was nice to sit down and talk face-to-face with someone he could relate to - rival or otherwise.
The two teens spent a good deal of time talking to each other; whether they were arguing over food or laughing over manga and television shows. It wasn't until Keiji came in to check on them that they realized they had jobs to finish. "Hey, I thought you guys would've been at least halfway done by now!" Keiji said with a small frown, "Ieyasu and I already finished the canvas outside, we're just waiting for it to dry so we can move on to part two. What have you two been doing this entire time?"
"Ah! You have my sincerest apologies, Maeda-dono! We were just talking, and I guess we lost track of time!" Yukimura apologized, turning himself to slightly bow. Masamune just stared blankly at Yukimura shocked that people still bow like that during an apology. Keiji glanced at Ieyasu beside him and sighed.
"I guess it's all fine and good that you guys are talking, but I was really hoping you would help lighten the work load a bit," Keiji trailed off.
"The event is next Saturday, guys. While I'm happy to see you guys bonding and playing nice with each other, I think it'd be better if you did that while working," Ieyasu added.
Yukimura looked at the clock on the far wall, "We should be able to get at least halfway done by lunchtime, so let's do our best, alright Masamune-dono?" He handed Masamune a paint bucket and a brush, then went to readjusting his ponytail so it wouldn't get caught in the paint.
Keiji nodded satisfied by Yukimura's promise. "Ieyasu and I are going on a small trip to pick up supplies for the upstairs. We'll pick you guys up something to eat since we should be back by then."
"Alright, whatever sounds good," Masamune gruffed out, trying to turn his attention to the mural rather than Yukimura adjusting his ponytail. He took a deep breath and began painting the canvas once more. Keiji and Ieyasu waved then left to go off on their errands. As Yukimura finished adjusting his ponytail and returned to painting, Masamune turned towards him. "I guess I should apologize. It really was my fault in the first place mistaking you as a girl. I don't know why I thought that, but I gotta ask you. Why is your hair so long anyways? Isn't it hard to keep up with it especially in such a loose ponytail like that all the time?"
Yukimura tilted his head at the question, and then stared off into space as he thought of his answer. A smile and a light blush graced his features, and then he scratched his cheek sheepishly, "Well when I was little, I had a habit of playing with scissors and I had a fascination with cutting up my hair... It got to the point where Oyakata-sama ended up punishing me if I so much as touched a pair of scissors, and he told me not to touch my hair. After that, I just... never bothered cutting it." He toyed with the messy bun he put his ponytail in and suddenly felt a huge wave of self-consciousness overtake him, "I might just end up cutting it though, it does look really ridiculous, I'm sure. N-Not to mention it would probably save the trouble of people mistaking me for a girl, like you did." He refused to look at Masamune as he grabbed a paintbrush and began painting. He wasn't filling in the lines like normal, but was distractedly painting circles and coloring them in. It was a childish way of doing the job, but he couldn't help it.
Masamune grabbed Yukimura's hand and pulled it away from the mural causing Yukimura to tense up and almost drop his brush. He gave a crooked grin to Yukimura and chuckled. "You are a horrible painter when you're thinking about something else." Masamune slowly released Yukimura's hand and turned back to painting calmly. "I didn't say it looked bad on you or that you need to get rid of it. I think it actually suits you and I can't picture you with any other hairstyle. I was just curious as to why it was a ponytail, so don't you dare think about cutting it off!" Masamune ordered glancing at Yukimura again. Yukimura just stared at him unable to think of a response to his order. While observing Yukimura, Masamune had an image of him with unreasonably short hair pass through his mind and he tried hard to stifle a laugh. It didn't work.
Yukimura puffed out his cheeks and glared, "What are you laughing it?!" he huffed and lightly punched Masamune in the shoulder. He tensed up immediately though as he saw a paint smudge appear where he punched. Yukimura swallowed a lump forming in his throat as he looked at his knuckles, and saw bright red paint smeared across them. He prayed Masamune wouldn't notice, but in the likely chance he did, he braced himself for the worst…
Masamune didn't just notice the paint. He stopped, stared at Yukimura in disbelief, then looked at the offending paint. He stared at it for a long while before turning back to Yukimura once again. "You see this? What you did here? You... You just messed up your life!" He narrowed his gaze into a semi-glare before readying his paintbrush with blue paint to dab Yukimura with.
Yukimura backed away hurriedly and flailed his arms around in defensive, "I-I didn't mean to I- I just...! But..." He dodged the oncoming paintbrush narrowly and shot Masamune a questioning look, "What does that even mean?! Speak Japanese!" In a desperate attempt to defend himself, Yukimura grabbed his paintbrush again and managed to land a pretty red blob on his nose. He tried not to laugh - he knew it was wrong and that he should have apologized - but it was just way too priceless for him to let go, "Y-You... You look like a clown, Masamune-d...d...Ahahaha!" He couldn't even bring himself to finish the honorific he was laughing so hard. 'S-Sorry, Masamune-dono!'
Masamune growled and made another quick jab at Yukimura. "Phantom Dive!" he shouted bringing his paint brush down on Yukimura's face. He successfully painted a single blue streak from Yukimura's cheek to his chin. Masamune smiled satisfied of himself. "Take that, Sanada."
Yukimura pouted and pressed a hand to the blue mark on his cheek, mixing it with the red on his fingertips. With a new resolve, Yukimura grabbed a second paintbrush and fought with Masamune for the next hit. With a bit of clumsy timing, he managed to distract Masamune long enough to paint a line across his cheek, though it curved like a smile. With a new idea, Yukimura fought Masamune to the ground, pinning him and pressing two of his fingers on his cheek, creating two purple eyes above the red smile. Yukimura laughed, "Four hits to your one. Think you can beat that?" Yukimura smirked as he looked down at Masamune with a daring glare.
Masamune angrily shoved Yukimura off of him and rushed over to the paint supplies. He gathered six paint brushes and dipped them all in blue paint. He then stood and faced Yukimura outstretching an arm to him. "If it's a battle you want, then it's a battle you got. Just don't come whining to me when you're covered in blue," Masamune taunted before rushing after Yukimura. He let his arms fly in a fury desperate to cover Yukimura with paint. Though his hands were a bit shaky, he managed to get one of his hands to paint wavy streaks on Yukimura's forehead. Masamune paused for a second to laugh at him. "Haha! Looks like there's a river on your forehead, Yukimura! Should I call you Kawamura instead from now on?" Masamune boasted.
Yukimura snarled threateningly at the nickname, and then dove for the yellow paint bucket. He coated his brush in the paint and pounced on Masamune, holding nothing back as they ended up wrestling across the bar trying to paint each other. He let out a triumphant laugh as he painted a huge yellow moon across Dave's forehead, "Now your name suits you, MasaMUUUne!" He laughed with a cheeky smile, "Though in this color, you look more like a Bananamune!"
Masamune growled and geared up for another round. "Say your prayers, Kawamura!" Masamune attacked Yukimura with much force and anticipation. They ended up wrestling once more until Masamune had pinned Yukimura to the ground. He then slashed mercilessly at Yukimura's face then his neck when he ran out of skin to paint on his face. "Heh, with this much blue paint on your skin you might as well be Aoandon. So scary too," he crooned mockingly, smirking at his handiwork.
Yukimura struggled under Masamune's weight but couldn't muster any strength to fight him off. Instead, he sighed in defeat and panted heavily, trying to catch his breath from all the fighting, "You may have won this time, Bananamune-dono, but I'll find a way to get back at you." He pouted as he glared up at Masamune, who still had him pinned. He was a bit thankful for the paint on his face, because it masked the red tint on his cheeks quite well, "Y-You... can let me up now..."
Masamune blushed and hesitated for a moment before moving away. He sat up and looked away from Yukimura in embarrassment. "Ah, sorry about that, Yukimura," Masamune trailed off in his words, unable to say anything else for fear of making things more awkward than they already were. Yukimura sat up and wiped his cheek, frowning at all the blue that rubbed off on his hands. He desperately rubbed at his cheeks and growled in frustration. Masamune stole glances over to Yukimura every now and then but kept his eyes elsewhere for the most part. He laughed at himself on the inside because his throat seemed unbearably dry which only happened when he was extremely nervous. Yukimura smirked when he saw that Masamune was a bit distracted. Cautiously, he dabbed his fingers with the last of the red on the paintbrush beside him, then carefully crawled over to Masamune.
"Hey, Bananamune-dono..." he called. As 'Bananamune' turned his head, Yukimura spread the red paint across his face, two lines on each cheek in the form of whiskers. Yukimura stuck out his tongue, his nose wrinkling slightly as he laughed, "Surprise attack!"
Masamune blushed and let out a squeaky growl, the result of him not knowing whether he should be angry or embarrassed. He quickly dabbed his fingers in the red making purple paint on his fingers. He reached out and grabbed Yukimura's chin making a purple streak from his bottom lip to the tip of his chin. Masamune was amazed at how smooth Yukimura's skin was and almost allowed himself to be distracted by that, but he masked his curiosity with a sly smirk. "It's not exactly a surprise, but it most definitely was an attack."
Yukimura shivered as Masamune's hand lingered on his chin. He stared at him for a moment, attracted by how striking the color of his eye looked against the clashing blue and red. He swallowed and pressed his lips in a firm line, "I just wanted the last attack." He retorted feebly. With that, he held Masamune's hand and drew a yellow swirl where the back of his hand was visible under his glove. Yukimura smiled, "We should probably get cleaned up soon so we can clean up the m...mmmMMMM- AAHH!" Yukimura screamed and pointed behind Masamune at the path of destruction the two made. There were paint marks all over the floor, puddles of paint pooling from overturned buckets, and even some splatters on the tables and chairs. What scared the boy clad in red the most, however, was the huge purple smear that ran across the mural, made by Yukimura and Masamune when they were fighting over paintbrushes.
Masamune turned and paled when he saw the mess they had made. He cursed and quickly stood up. "We've gotta hurry and clean this before they get back! Come on, let's go!" Masamune urged pulling Yukimura up to help him. Soon they heard a door being closed and light voices filled the air.
"Yukimura-kun~! Date-san~! We're back with lunch!" Keiji cried out happily. Masamune stiffened before collapsing to the ground face first.
"I accept my defeat," Masamune mumbled to the ground.
Yukimura followed suit, falling beside Masamune, "My deepest apologies, Maeda-dono!" He cried. Ieyasu and Keiji stared at the two, and then let their eyes trail over the mess they made. Ieyasu's mouth fell open in shock, ultimately surprised that they went from being good friends to tearing up the club in a matter of about an hour. He looked to Keiji, almost afraid for the two teens of the reaction to come.
Keiji got over his initial shock and glared at the two teens on the floor. He angrily marched over to them and slapped them both on the head. "I can't believe you two did this? You couldn't put aside your differences to paint a mural for an hour? Leave! Right now! If you wanna go at each other so badly then do it outside!" Keiji huffed indignantly. Yukimura looked up in shock.
"B-But Maeda-dono. Bananamune-don- No I mean- Masamune-dono and I meant no harm. At least let us help you clean up," Yukimura pleaded. Keiji stared down in wonder at Yukimura when he heard "Bananamune-dono" slip out. He gave an impatient sigh.
"Fine, I guess you two can help clean, but neither of you are going to hold another paintbrush!" Keiji ordered confidently before glancing over to the mural. A lone tear formed in Keiji's eye as he looked at the mural. "I've gotta fix that..." Keiji whined.
Yukimura flinched as he was yelled at, but nodded and headed to the men's bathroom to clean himself up, Masamune following shortly after. Once they were gone, Ieyasu sighed and put a hand on Keiji's shoulder, "Judging by the way Yukimura defended Masamune like that, I'm guessing this mess was more out of fun than out of harm. You can't get but so mad at them..." He examined all the damage and laughed at what little bit of work they did manage to finish, "You can tell they tried. If you want, I can stay and help you fix what they messed up. It's the least I can do." Keiji sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, I'd appreciate it. For now, I need to clean up as much of the paint off the furniture as I can before Matsu-neechan and Toshi come back." He placed the bags that held Yukimura and Masamune's lunches on the bar, and then reluctantly got to work on cleaning. Ieyasu smiled and helped Keiji along in the cleaning.
"Another good thing about this situation is that though it might not be happening the way we planned it, they certainly are getting closer to each other," Ieyasu offered, picking up some overturned paint buckets. Keiji smiled at that.
"You got that right. It shouldn't be long before those two totally lose themselves to love," Keiji grinned humming happily to himself. Those two will be such love birds soon, and it's all because of this great plan we hatched up.