Washed Up
A/N: the last log set in the past before the real events (stranded on an island) kick in. This log is meant to be the first day where Momo and Kaidoh call each other every day for ten days straight, until all contact is severed for five years until they meet each other again washed up on the island. The reason for the contact being severed, is that Momo was peeing while on the phone with Kaidoh (don't ask, he's an idiot), and accidentally dropped his phone inside the toilet, which erased Kaidoh's number. Momo waited for Kaidoh to call him back so he could get his number again, but Kaidoh's been too shy to do this, hence the no contact for five years.
You can read the phonecalls that happen after this log here (replace dot with a period and take out spaces): tinyurl dot com/d6uvusf
Authors: Celianna (Momo, Hazue, Momo's sister Yuki) & Happiestwhen (Kaidoh)
Rating: T
Events leading up to this log: In their third year, Kaidoh tries to give Momo some Valentine's Day chocolates (which are burnt), but ends up shoving it into his locker without a name. Momo is intrigued about his secret admirer for a week, until he gives up looking for them. In this log, Momo and Kaidoh are in their first year of high school, but went to different schools. Momo still has regular contact with Kaidoh and bugs him whenever he can, which Kaidoh doesn't mind of course. Kaidoh continues to stalk Momo and keeps his own data about Momo in a private drawer, he still hasn't told Momo he likes him though. Momo has called Kaidoh the day before this one and asked him to go see two movies with him, one of them a horror movie. Momo has also secretly changed the name 'Dumbass' back to 'Kaidoh' on his phone.
Date: first year of high school, during their summer vacation, set in 2007
It's so shiny; it's the newest laptop model available, Hazue is so proud of saving enough of his allowance to be able to buy it. Well, he actually didn't save up enough, but his parents pitched in. They felt like he needed a present for now being in middle school, especially since right now everyone is enjoying their summer vacation, and Hazue sort of wants to spend it playing on a computer.
After an hour or two of fumbling around with his new laptop, he's finally got internet running on the thing, and the first thing he does is create an e-mail for himself. He also makes one for his brother, just because. Feeling happy and accomplished, he runs to his brother's room to show it to him.
"Kaoru-nii-chan," he says as he knocks on the door. "Can I come in? My laptop has internet now!"
"Yeah, whatever," Kaidoh grunts, and pushes aside his history homework. He doesn't really care about internet, or computers, or whatever his brother is about to babble on about, but he can spare a few minutes for him. After all, it's not like he was in the middle of something important like training or ironing his clothes.
Hazue slides the door open and closes it behind him. He happily bounces on top of Kaidoh's bed and sits the laptop on top of it.
"Look, we can surf the internet now! You can look up stuff for your homework, and things like that," says Hazue excitedly. He opens the laptop and turns it on, immediately going to his web browser and ticking in some kind of random address.
"All my classmates are always talking about this website they're on, I forgot what it was called … Face something." Hazue rakes through his mind to remember the name of the website, the most popular website at the moment, and then remembers it. "Ah, Facebook! Yeah. You make some kind of profile and find people you used to know, or still know, I guess. I should make one! Do you want one too? I can fill it out for you."
Kaidoh hisses. "I don't really care," he says, but gets up from his desk and goes to stand next to Hazue by the bed. He looks blankly at the bright screen. "What do you have to put in it?"
"Let's see …" Hazue types in the address and goes to Facebook. He's immediately invited to created his own account, so he does. "Oh, standard information I guess, your name, your last name, your e-mail—oh I made one for you by the way—birthdate, address and." Hazue narrows his eyes at the rest of the questions. Relationship status? "And I guess if you have a girlfriend." Hazue selects 'no' from the dropdown list. He skims through the rest of the form and created his account.
As soon as he does, he gets a welcome screen that shows a bunch of pictures from people in his class, Facebook is asking him if perhaps he knows these people. And he does! Hazue is quite amazed at this.
"Look, it knows all of my classmates already! They even have pictures, ahh, this is so cool." Hazue clicks on one classmate and looks at his profile. He's got a bunch of pictures uploaded to it, of him during his recent birthday party that Hazue was invited to. He's even in some of them, and he happily clicks through them.
"I bet I could look up people from my previous school too!" Hazue starts typing in some of his old classmates from elementary school, and he was right; a bunch of results show up and he eagerly 'friends' each and every one of them.
Kaidoh watches as the screen fills up with pictures and text over and over again and Hazue clicks buttons, the same message appearing each time he does; Friend Request Sent.
"What's that button for?" Kaidoh asks finally, his face scrunched up in confusion. His brother said this was an information site about people. What did that have to do with friendship?
Hazue is still new to the site, so he's not one hundred percent sure, but he can pretty much guess what 'add friend' means. "Well, we're friends, so we add each other on our profiles. Then other people can see we're friends, and things like that." It sounds a bit silly when he explains it aloud, but he hopes his brother gets the point.
"Like, I could add you right now, and say you're my brother!" Which prompts Hazue to log off his own account, and create one for Kaidoh. "Let me make one for you real fast." He fills out all the information (he's pretty sure Kaidoh would type as slow as a snail) and within a couple of minutes, Kaidoh Kaoru has his own Facebook page.
And one of the people shown on the start page is Hazue himself; obviously they're connected by blood, so of course he shows up. "Look, there I am, now we can friend each other." His mouse clicks on the button, and now he and Kaidoh are friends. "And we can tell it that we're brothers too." From the dropdown list of his relationship with this person, he selects 'brother'.
"See? Pretty cool, huh?"
Kaidoh shrugs. "I don't need a website to tell me you're my brother though," he says, a little impatiently. This website is stupid. What's the point?
He scans the screen. There are a bunch of people he doesn't really remember, girls in his class first year of middle school, players from tennis training camps, one of the neighbor kids who lives down the street, and then, smack dab in the middle of the sea of nobodies, Kaidoh sees Momoshiro Takeshi's stupid face.
There's a grey button illuminated underneath his picture saying, Add Friend?
Kaidoh's whole face heats up. "Do you..." he starts, feeling guilty and a bit conspiratorial. "You don't have to be friends with people to look at their information, do you?"
Hazue shakes his head. "I don't think so. Maybe some people have it set to private, but I don't think a lot of them will. Why, want to look at someone?" His fingers are ready on the touchpad, to click on whoever his brother has in mind.
"No!" Kaidoh sputters. "Just. Asking. If it's possible."
He jabs his finger at the screen, poking at Momoshiro's face. "Like what about him?" he asks, doing his best to sound nonchalant, like he chose him at random, like he doesn't care. Because he really doesn't.
Hazue moves his mouse cursor on top of the spiky haired boy, and clicks it. The page starts to load, and it shows some very minimal information about Momoshiro Takeshi. Oh. Oh! It's that Momoshiro. Hazue suddenly starts to smile; he knows his brother really looks up to him, even if he tries to hide it. Hazue has never met Momoshiro in person, but he has heard his loud voice on Kaidoh's cellphone when he calls him sometimes. Then he can hear his brother in the next room yell out some profanity (even if he tries to deny this) and the next second he's talking with him normally again. It's a weird friendship dynamic, but Hazue is happy his brother has friends at least.
"Here, why don't you go look at him, I'm going to the bathroom real quick." Hazue slips off from the bed and makes way for Kaidoh, then disappears from his room with a small smile.
Kaidoh sits down on the bed and scrolls through the page. Birthday, family, address... He knows all this stuff already. Then he sees a link labeled 'Photos', and clicks on it. Momoshiro hasn't uploaded many, but Kaidoh clicks through them slowly anyway.
He looks really young in some of them, maybe only seven or eight-years-old, happily catching a fish or riding a merry-go-round. There are others that Kaidoh recognizes; official team photos from middle school, and then Kaidoh stops, his breath catching in his throat, when he sees that Momoshiro has uploaded the one of the two of them with their Nationals medals. He knows that photo well, but it still makes warmth swell up in his chest whenever he looks at it.
He's about to close the browser window when he sees another link further down on the page: 'Photos tagged by others'. When Kaidoh clicks it, his eyes go wide. There are dozens and dozens of pictures of Momoshiro, row after row of them filling up the page, uploaded by a certain Momoshiro Yuki-chan. Kaidoh feels overwhelmed. Momoshiro sleeping, Momoshiro eating, Momoshiro brushing his teeth or gelling up his stupid hair.
Kaidoh opens each one, staring and studying, the blush spreading from his cheeks to his ears, his heart pounding. He snorts at the one of Momoshiro, half-asleep, trying to pee in the fridge. He smiles at the one of Momoshiro drooling on his pillow. He even laughs out loud at the one of Momoshiro with his tongue stuck to a pole in the middle of winter.
Fucking idiot, Kaidoh thinks, a smile curling at his lips. He is tempted to leave a comment to the same effect, but he doesn't want Momoshiro to know that he's seen this, that he's seen all of it. Momoshiro would probably punch him and call him a creep.
Kaidoh wonders if there's a way to save all these photos somehow and print them out.
Hazue comes back after dawdling around for much longer than was necessary; having fixed up some snacks while he was at it. It's some simple onigiri, he made some for Kaidoh as well.
"I'm back, Kaoru-nii-chan, did you find what you were looking for?" Hazue shoves the door open with his foot, his hands otherwise preoccupied with carrying the tray of rice balls, and he places them on Kaidoh's desk, picking one up and taking a bite out of it. He sits next to his brother on the bed and leans over his shoulder to see what he's doing.
Kaidoh tries to close out of the window but ends up clicking the 'Like' button instead.
"Oh, wow, he's got so many pictures!" exclaims Hazue. He's kind of amazed at the sheer quantity of them. He laughs when he sees the one Kaidoh was looking at; Momoshiro being stuck to a pole with his tongue. He seems like such a fun guy, no wonder his brother likes him.
"Hey, I see one of you," says Hazue. He notices one at the bottom right corner, the thumbnail display his brother Kaidoh and Momoshiro, at some kind of park. "That one." He points his finger at the screen. "Click it."
Kaidoh clicks on the picture and sees himself doing lunges in the park, a sour look of concentration on his face. And then he sees Momoshiro in the foreground, crouching behind a trash can with his ass in the air, looking like a moron. Or possibly a stalker pervert. Or a moronic stalker pervert.
"What the hell?" he exclaims. "When was this taken?!" What was Momoshiro even doing? How did Kaidoh not see him there? He feels his fingernails dig into his palm the way they do when he's itching to punch Momoshiro in the face, but he calms himself down because he doesn't want to act all weird and irrational in front of his brother. Especially not over Momoshiro. No, Hazue doesn't need to know about the whole... whatever it is.
Kaidoh's expression smoothes out again. "That's really weird," he says flatly.
"Hmm, let's see." Hazue looks to the right to read the description. He starts to read it out loud. "This one was too funny. So like my brother is whining all day that he wants to go eat burgers, but he doesn't have enough money (he spent it on buying a PlayStation!), and he keeps bothering me for money, but I won't have any of it. Mom tells him to stop bothering me, and maybe if he goes outside and do some good deeds she'll give him some more allowance. And then ... the idiot actually does it! He goes outside with a trash bag, determined to 'clean up the environment' and then he does this stupid dance (picture here) and goes to some park. I had to follow him of course, needed to capture his stupidity as proof of his ... well, stupidity. I don't know what he ended up doing though, before he even got there, he acted all weird, and started hiding behind streetlights and trees and fences, like he's tailing someone. I think maybe it's that bandana guy from his old school, but I can't be sure; there's lots of people around. So we end up at the park anyway, and he just … sits there! Behind a trashcan! Staring! And he's mumbling something under his breath, but I can't make out what he says. He spends a good fifteen minutes just staring at the people in the park. It's definitely that bandana guy though. I think maybe he was spying on him for some kind of training information. My brother is such a goof."
Hazue catches his breath. "Uploaded … three weeks ago. I'm guessing this is his sister's profile." Obviously.
"That idiot," Kaidoh hisses. He has to try really hard to suppress his smirk. He wishes he'd noticed! Next time Momoshiro calls him, he'll be sure to ask what the hell he's doing stalking him.
Or not. Because then Kaidoh would have to admit that he's been stalking Momoshiro too. Although technically, Hazue instigated it this time. Yeah, blame his brother.
"Let's save this one, it's funny," says Hazue with a grin. He right-clicks the picture, and saves it to his 'My Pictures' folder. "If you want to save any, just right-click it and choose 'save picture as' and then select a location. I can share my laptop with you if you want. It's pretty useful."
He slips off the bed once more and reaches for another rice ball. "Shouldn't you go back to your homework?" Hazue asks.
"Yeah," Kaidoh says vaguely, not really focused on what Hazue is saying. He's busy clicking back to the picture of Momoshiro's tongue stuck to a pole and trying the right-click-save thing.
"It worked!" he says, and then, "Cool." He glances away from the screen at his brother. "I just, uh, picked a random one to test it out," he says, preemptively defensive. He slides the laptop away from him as though it's dangerous.
"Right," he says. "Homework."
"Yeah, you know what, I'll leave it with you." Hazue stands behind his brother, creates a new tab and types in Google's address. "Just type in a question you need answered for your homework, and I'm pretty sure you'll find the answer right away. Or any other kind of information, really."
He leaves the tray with rice balls as well. "But give it back to me in an hour, okay?" Hazue takes one last rice ball and walks out of Kaidoh's room, leaving his brother alone to be happy and gleeful he's got a laptop to use. He knew his brother would like it too.
Kaidoh completely ignores the Google search bar and returns to the previous tab, clicking back to the photo index to pick up where he left off. He has a lot of photos to save.
He's in the middle of saving the picture of Momoshiro drooling in his sleep when his phone suddenly starts vibrating with an incoming call.
From... Momoshiro.
When Kaidoh sees the name, he flings his phone across the room and turns bright red, then stares accusingly back at the screen. How does he know?
A moment later, the phone buzzes again, this time with a text message. Kaidoh hesitantly lifts himself off the bed and goes to retrieve it.
Whatcha doin? it reads.
Kaidoh glances nervously around the room, then jabs back, Training.
No, that's what he should be doing. It's already 9:00pm. He needs to run. Momoshiro is fucking up his whole schedule with his stupid face.
Kaidoh returns to the bed and resolutely closes the laptop, not noticing that the screen is still set on the picture of Momoshiro sleeping. Then he goes to return it to his brother.
He'll save the other photos later. Right now he should be running.
Hazue wonders why Kaidoh was looking at a picture of Momoshiro sleeping, but says nothing, and simply creates a folder for Kaidoh alone, making sure all downloaded pictures will go into that folder, and leaves the page on the screen. He closes his laptop and starts to watch some TV.
Kaidoh has only been out for about ten minutes when his phone vibrates again from his pocket. Without slowing down, he fishes it out and raises it to his ear.
"What?" he demands. He doesn't even have to bother asking who it is. No one else calls him in the middle of training.
"Yo!" says Momoshiro's cheerful voice. "You're such a training freak."
"Dumbass," Kaidoh replies. "Did you call just to say that?" He reaches the path that runs along the river and picks up his pace, his breaths growing sharper as he does.
"Uh yeah, maybe." Momoshiro pauses a bit, listening to Kaidoh run for a second. "You have no idea what I had to go through today. I mean, I love kids and all … but this was just too much." He sighs.
"I don't care," Kaidoh says, looping over the bridge and back along the other side of the river, but in spite of himself asks, "What were you doing with kids anyway?" It's not something he'd easily admit, but he actually doesn't mind listening to Momoshiro talk.
There's some ruffling heard through the cellphone before Momoshiro's voice breaks through it. "Well you see, I had to go to this stupid birthday party of one of my younger cousins. She turned five today. Anyways, she got this stupid pink princess dress as a present, and wanted to wear it right away, and play some sort of stupid play with me as the prince." Momoshiro sighs again. "It was so embarrassing. She even made me wear things! And it wasn't in my size! It was all cramped and tight and really itchy."
Momoshiro stops talking to listen to the water running in the background. "Where are you training anyways? River as always?"
"Yeah," Kaidoh replies curtly. Then he remembers that one Facebook photo and adds, "Stalker, you better not come follow me."
"Why would I follow you?" Momoshiro starts to munch on something hard and crunchy, and speaks with his mouth full. "You're not interesting enough to follow. I've got better things to do with my summer vacation. Anyways, I had to play this stupid prince thing with her for three hours! It was so mortifying. I'm glad no one other than my family saw it. I'm sure the guys at school would tease me for ages if they saw. And I think my cousin might have a crush on me. Which is really fucking gross."
Kaidoh snorts. "Anyone having a crush on you is gross," he says. Pants, really. Talking on the phone and running at the same time is kind of a challenge, especially at the pace Kaidoh runs.
"Don't say that in that creepy huffing voice of yours," says Momoshiro. He stuffs his face with food again. "But yeah, a five year old? Not to mention I'm her cousin? That's seriously gross! That's incest! Ew!"
"Stop talking with your mouth full, I can't understand what the hell you're even saying," Kaidoh growls, rounding the path for another lap. "Didn't you have dinner? Why are you still eating?"
Now it's Momoshiro's turn to snort. "Of course I had dinner. You think I'm satisfied with just dinner? Of course not. I'm eating …" He takes a moment to try and remember the name. "I don't know, but it's got these little caramel swirls inside, and some alphabet letters. Oh, it's cereal, haha, almost forgot. It's pretty good actually, you should try some. They look kind of cool."
Then Momoshiro's voice fades away from the phone, and is instead replaced by the punching in of buttons, loud and clear, and cracking and whirring, until Momoshiro speaks up again. "There, sent you a picture of it."
Kaidoh's phone vibrates against his ear and he yanks it away to look at the screen.
And then stops running so abruptly that his sneakers skid against the pavement.
There's Momoshiro, sitting on his bed without a shirt, his back against a pillow, a contented smirk on his face and cereal box in hand.
Kaidoh drops the phone. Luckily it lands in the grass and not on the pavement. It takes him a moment to find it and pick it up again.
"Sorry," he says, after he's brushed it off and put it back up to his ear. "Dropped my phone." His voice sounds strained, and now he's sweating more than he ought to be from just running. His face feels really warm.
"Idiot," huffs Momoshiro. He eats some more cereal again. "So back to the party. After three hours in which I had to wear that stupid itchy outfit, being dragged around by my cousin, and with my sister giggling non-stop all the way through—I finally managed to escape from it. I am never going to her birthday party again. Nor am I ever kissing her hand again. It's seriously gross. Maybe if she wasn't related to me, it'd be cute. Sort of endearing, but this is my cousin! Anyone else would have been fine."
Momoshiro scrapes his spoon against the edge of the bowl. "You should carry a flashlight with you when you run."
"Why?" Kaidoh asks. "You worried about me or something?" He starts running again, trying to regain his lost rhythm and ignore the image of Momoshiro sitting there eating. It's kind of hard when he can hear Momoshiro eating, too, the sounds crunching right in his ear, each one a reminder of what Momoshiro looks like right now. Kaidoh picks up his pace, faster than usual, as though he can somehow outrun his freaky train of thought.
"No, worried about your phone. Don't drop it like that, it can, you know, break and stuff. Watch where you're running. I can't bother you anymore if your phone breaks," says Momoshiro smugly. "Why are you running this late anyway?" Then, he adds, "And did you get the picture?"
"I always run this late," Kaidoh says. No, that's not true. Usually he starts earlier, but earlier tonight he had been... Oh, right. He shakes his head and keeps running, catching his breath to say, "Yeah, I got the picture. You look stupid. You should wear a shirt."
"Why? I'm in bed. I don't wear a shirt when I sleep and it's this hot out. I bet you don't either." Momoshiro slurps up the rest of his milk and burps loudly.
"And you should stop running this late. It's annoying. It sounds like you're some kind of pervert who keeps breathing into the phone doing something weird."
Kaidoh snarls. "Well, then you should stop calling me when I'm running! Stop thinking gross things!"
"Then when should I call you!" yells Momoshiro. He takes a moment to take in a deep breath and calm himself down; Kaidoh is just being an idiot. "Stupid. I'll call you whenever you want. If it bothers you that much, then I'll hang up."
"FINE," Kaidoh shouts, which is hard given his shortness of breath. "Hang up!"
Momoshiro huffs and ends the call.
Kaidoh's phone beeps and he pulls it away from his ear to look at it. He didn't think that would actually work. Idiot. He slows down to an easy jog and continues along his route, his phone still clutched in his hand.
A minute later his palm starts vibrating. Kaidoh can see Momoshiro's name flashing on the screen, and he flips his phone open, holding it up to his ear but saying nothing.
"There's this really weird documentary on TV right now. Something about this guy … who lost his dick, and years later, he's getting a new one. Or something. They keep mentioning skin graft? I think. Anyways, he's getting it from a dead dude! That's the grossest thing I've heard yet in my life! Ew. Why am I watching this."
"What the hell?" Kaidoh growls. "Stop telling me about that!"
"Well, I could go back to talking about how stupid your breathing is …" Momoshiro trails off. But he's got better things to talk about then something as creepy as that. "It kind of makes me want to go see a horror movie." Then he grins against the phone. "... Want to see one with me? I'm sure there's one playing at the movies right now."
"Horror movies are stupid," Kaidoh says simply. More like terrifying, but he's not going to say that to Momoshiro.
"You're stupid. And a chicken. Can't even watch a horror movie without running out screaming like a girl." Momoshiro whistles against the phone, playing innocent.
"Shut up!" Kaidoh stops running, planting his feet on the ground so he can argue with Momoshiro properly. "I wouldn't run out screaming!"
"Yes you would! You always run away screaming when someone says something scary!" Momoshiro hasn't seen it in a while, actually. What with being in different schools now. "How about tomorrow night? Sound good? You can skip training for a day."
"Uh," Kaidoh grunts, caught off guard. He doesn't want to go to a horror movie, but he also doesn't want Momoshiro to think he's too scared to go. "Fine," he says eventually.
"Heh," says Momoshiro smugly. "You pay for your own ticket. I'll pick you up with my bike. Unless you prefer to run next to my bike like a dog on a leash." Though Momoshiro wouldn't say no to that.
"Yeah, whatever." Kaidoh feels a jolt of energy leap in his stomach. He hasn't seen Momoshiro in a while now, not when he's known Kaidoh was watching anyway. They don't meet up much these days, because there aren't many excuses they can come up with, since they were never really friends. "This movie had better not be dumb," Kaidoh says. By dumb, he means scary.
"Of course it will be." What kind of horror movie would actually not be dumb? None. "I bet you call all movies dumb though." Momoshiro himself quite liked movies about animals. "Do you like animal movies?"
"Yeah, they're okay," Kaidoh says. He doesn't remember the last time he went to see a movie, or what movie he saw. It was probably something his mother had dragged their whole family to. "Animals are better than ghosts or monsters."
"Well, if the horror movie makes you cry, we can go see another one about some stupid animal to cheer you up, if you're still bawling by then, that is." Momoshiro is grinning from ear to ear. "Or do you want to see the fluffy animal movie first, then go for the horror movie at midnight? It'll be all dark and cozy and scary."
"Why do we have to see two movies?" Kaidoh asks. Not that he'd complain. He couldn't really say no to doing anything with Momoshiro. It was a bit of a problem. "I'm not going to cry, moron."
"Ok, animal movie first, horror movie second! I think there's one playing right now, about some cat being separated from his owner, and trying to find them again. Sounds really sad, actually, now that I think about it. So I guess you'll be crying twice. Maybe I should bring tissues along with the popcorn. Wonder if they sell them there ... hmm." Momoshiro pauses a few seconds to think. "That wouldn't be such a bad idea, especially since my fingers get all dirty eating all that popcorn! I need something to wipe myself off with, you know? Can't keep wiping my hands off on the upholstery of the chair, that's just nasty. Though I guess I can use your shorts if you're sitting next to me."
"If you wipe your greasy fingers on my shorts, I'll punch you in the face," Kaidoh says plainly. He's completely forgotten about his running now, and is leaning against the railing of the bridge. Momoshiro has his full attention. "I said I'm not going to cry. You'll be the one who's crying."
"Hah!" exclaims Momoshiro. "Yeah right. I don't cry at movies." Blatant lie. "But I bet you'll be grabbing for my hand in the dark whenever a scary scene comes up! Or maybe a sad scene, like the cat dying or something." Which would probably make Momoshiro reach for Kaidoh's hand instead …
"Well, whatever, I'll go check tomorrow morning which ones are playing. Too lazy to get out of bed at the moment and go to the computer. Too comfy." Momoshiro closes his eyes and sinks his head into his pillow, getting even more comfortable.
"Idiot," Kaidoh says, almost fondly. "I can't believe you're in bed and I'm training. You're useless."
"I'm not useless … I'm preserving my energy. You should do it too. Go back home, take your clothes off, and crawl in your bed. Then I can call you without hearing you drop your phone or breathe weirdly into it. What time is it anyway?" Momoshiro pulls his phone away from his face to check. It's almost ten PM.
"Oh wow, we've been on the phone that long? You should stop training. You're going to like, run into a murderer or something. Or a rapist." Momoshiro laughs out loud. "Or maybe they'd mistake you as one."
"No one's going to think I'm a rapist, asshole!" Kaidoh protests. He looks at his phone screen. Ten is late. He should be heading back or his parents might worry. He turns and starts running back down the path towards home. He's not doing it because Momoshiro told him to though.
"There's nothing wrong with running at night," he says as he jogs along. "The river's not dangerous. And the weather's nicer than during the day."
"Not dangerous you say! Don't you remember yourself stupidly walking into it to save a puppy, and you got dragged along by the current? That was completely dangerous. Stupid idiot. You're lucky I was there." Momoshiro huffs, then yawns.
The name suddenly rings a bell. "Oh, Lucky, right, I remember now, I actually did watch a dog movie the night before on that day. Weird. Don't go jumping into rivers again tomorrow, okay?" Momoshiro doesn't feel like saving Kaidoh again.
"Well, obviously," Kaidoh says dryly. He reaches the main road and crosses, nearly back in his own neighborhood now. "I don't go running in the river, you idiot. I meant the path isn't dangerous!"
"Don't you practice your stupid boomerang snake thing in the river?" asks Momoshiro, wondering if he got this wrong. "So obviously you do go into it."
"In the shallow part! Quit worrying about me."
"I'm not worrying about you!" Momoshiro shoots back. "I just don't want to save your ass again, that's all." Momoshiro huffs again. "And why do you do it in the river anyway? Can't you practice at home?"
"I'm swinging a towel, you idiot. I need water. Where am I going to do it if not the river? My bathtub?"
"Yes," says Momoshiro flatly.
Kaidoh reaches his house and jogs up to the door. Luckily he's able to slip inside without his mother coming to the door and fussing over how late he's out. He'd hate for Momoshiro to hear that.
He toes off his shoes and heads upstairs.
"Uh," he says, once he reaches his room, realizing how sweaty he is, "I'm gonna shower."
"Don't forget to turn off your phoonnne," says Momoshiro childishly. "Or you'll zap yourself. And die. In a bathtub. That would be an even more pathetic way to die, than drowning in the river."
"Shut up, I'm not going to die in a bathtub," Kaidoh hisses. He clicks his phone onto speaker mode and drops it on his bed before he starts tugging off his tank top.
Momoshiro is quiet for a few seconds as he listens to the ruffling of fabric. "Yo, Kaidoh." He can hear his own voice echoing back to him. "Are you undressing while being on the phone with me? That's kinda creepy you know."
Before Kaidoh can even reply, Momoshiro whines out loud in a high and shrill voice. "Ewww, that's so gross! That penis dude decided he was traumatized by the dead guy's penis, and then took it off again. Oh man, why the fuck am I still on this channel."
"Turn off your stupid TV then, dumbass!" Kaidoh yells back. "Or at least don't tell me gross things like that!"
"I don't know where my remote is!" says Momoshiro. Though it doesn't sound like he's trying very hard to look for it. "I'll just ... tune it out. Maybe. Ugh, that was so gross. Now I'm getting traumatized by it." It makes him feel a little squeamish around his crotch area.
"Too lazy to get up and turn it off though …" Momoshiro yawns again. "Aren't you tired?"
"I told you I'm going to shower," Kaidoh says matter-of-factly, his fingers at the waistband of his shorts. He pulls them off and grabs a towel to wrap himself with. "I'll sleep after that." It actually is kind of weird to still be on the phone with Momoshiro. Why doesn't he hang up? Why doesn't Momoshiro hang up?
"Whaaaat, that's all? You don't even watch TV in bed? I can recommend you this fascinating channel at the moment …"
"If it's that disgusting thing you're watching, then hell no," Kaidoh says bluntly. "Besides, I don't have a TV in my room."
Momoshiro snorts. "Who doesn't have a TV in their room in this day and age? You're weird. What's in your room then? Stupid training stuff?" Probably a ton of dumbbells.
"It's not stupid," Kaidoh retorts.
"Fine. It's dumb. Like those dumbbells you probably have," sneers Momoshiro.
"You're dumb! At least I work out instead of lying in bed eating cereal."
"Hmmm, that cereal was good," Momoshiro muses. Now he's getting hungry for another bowl again. "You should try it. Instead of eating all that healthy stuff. Or that yoghurt thing you eat a lot. That stuff is gross."
"There's nothing wrong with healthy food," Kaidoh says. "It tastes just as good." He looks at the clock on his bedside table. He really should go take a shower and get ready for bed. Maybe he can just leave Momoshiro there... on his bed... The sudden mental image that thought yields makes Kaidoh's cheeks heat up. What the hell is wrong with him?!
Before his thoughts can go any further, Kaidoh quickly darts to the bathroom, tossing his face into the sink and splashing cold water against his cheeks and into his hair.
There. That counts as a shower. And he feels a little more sane again, too.
When he returns to his room, the line is silent. He doesn't think he was gone for more than a minute. "Momoshiro?" Kaidoh asks, hoping he didn't hang up.
"Hmm?" says Momoshiro. "I'm watching some monkeys throw dung at each other on TV. This channel is weird. Aren't you going to take a shower? I feel like I should take one now that I've seen this. Makes me feel dirty."
"Oh," Kaidoh says. "I..." His hair drips water onto his cheeks so he flicks it out of his face. "I decided not to." He goes into his closet and pulls out some pajamas, which look more or less very similar to what he wears to go training. He slips into them and folds the towel carefully before dropping it onto the back of his chair, still completely dry.
Then he climbs into his bed, picks up his phone, turns off the speaker mode, and holds it up to his ear.
"I see, sweaty and lazy. That's worse than me, Mamushi," says Momoshiro in an amused tone. "At least I managed to wipe the cereal crumbs off my stomach and bed. I'm perfectly clean."
Momoshiro crinkles up his nose. "My balls feel a bit sweaty though. It's hot."
"You're disgusting," Kaidoh says, rolling to his side. "I don't want to hear about that."
Momoshiro rolls along with Kaidoh to his other side, and leaves the phone to rest on top of his cheek. "Yup, scratching them now." Scratch. Scratch.
Kaidoh hisses. "I'm going to hang up on you, you dumbass."
"Why? I thought you liked the sound of my voice." Smirk.
"No, I don't!" Kaidoh protests, and suddenly it feels very warm in his own room too. "Your voice is annoying," by which he means, Keep talking.
Momoshiro simply snorts at Kaidoh's feeble excuse. "My voice is awesome. I should become a voice actor it's so good—ladies fall at my feet by my sweet, sweet charming voice. As evidenced by my five year old cousin. Who ... was ... kissing my feet."
"Gross. Five-year-old crushes don't count. Like they know anything."
"I sure as hell don't remember much from when I was five, let alone understand things," says Momoshiro. "I think I beat up a couple of boys though, got in trouble for it. Heh."
"So basically, you were a moron just like you are now," Kaidoh replies flatly.
"Shut the hell up. I wasn't a moron I was … I don't know, but I'm sure I had a good reason! You probably dressed up like an idiotic girl when you were five." Momoshiro yawns once more, then he lies down onto his stomach, and leans his cheek onto the phone that's being pressed down into the mattress.
"Asshole, no I didn't... Don't have weird thoughts like that, especially not when you're in bed. What the hell."
"I'll think about you all I want in bed."
Kaidoh smashes his face into his pillow, feeling his cheeks burning. "Dumbass," comes his muffled reply.
Momoshiro simply replies with a huff; he's starting to fall asleep—it's late and he's lying comfortably on his stomach. "Why aren't you here. Then I could punch you before saying good night," he mumbles.
"You can punch me tomorrow when I see you. And I'll punch you back."
"Oh right, the movies." Momoshiro giggles; he'd almost forgotten! "Don't punch me when I'm on my bike … that's dangerous. You need both hands to hold onto me anyway."
Kaidoh rolls onto his back. "I'm not an idiot. I'll punch you before we get on your stupid bike." After all, there's no way he'll even be able to think about something like that if he's busy clinging to Momoshiro, which suddenly sounds like both a very good and a very terrible idea.
He tries to change the subject. "Do you usually sleep with your TV on?" he asks. Kaidoh can kind of hear it in the background. It makes him feel like he and Momoshiro are in the same room, which is a weird, fizzly thought.
"Uhmm—no, not really. Unless I forget to turn it off, and can't find my remote. Like right now, I'll be doomed to watch this weird channel until I fall asleep. I'm going to get nightmares from this." Momoshiro sighs and pushes his face into his pillow.
"I wonder what happened to that guy to lose his dick? Must have been pretty horrible," says Momoshiro, his voice slightly muffled.
Kaidoh groans. "Idiot... I don't want to think about that," he says wearily. He's pretty sure his subconscious has its plate full with enough other things to keep him from having a weird nightmare about Momoshiro's dumb TV program, but he'd rather not push his luck. And it's gross anyway. "Talk about something else."
"If you had to choose, which one would you rather lose, an arm or a leg?" asks Momoshiro. It's a random question, but he's sort of curious. "I'd pick an arm, then I can still walk at least."
"Yeah," Kaidoh agrees. "As long as I could choose which arm to lose."
"Your left?" asks Momoshiro, a bit amused. "I guess it doesn't matter if you're ambidextrous." He thinks again about the next question. "How about being either blind or deaf? I think I would go with deaf, then I can still see where I'm going, but it would suck not to hear people talk to me—or hear anything else really." He likes the sound of his own voice too much. "I wouldn't be able to talk to you on the phone for example."
Wait. Did Momoshiro just say it would suck to not be able to talk to him? A warm feeling zips through Kaidoh like an electrical current, and he turns on his side and squishes his face against his pillow.
Then he remembers the question. "Well," he starts. "if I couldn't hear, I wouldn't have to listen to your annoying voice, and if I couldn't see, I wouldn't have to look at your annoying face. But since it's just a hypothetical question, I guess I'm stuck with you." And since Kaidoh doesn't actually find Momoshiro nearly as annoying as he says he does, he doesn't mind that at all.
"What—why are you talking about my face and voice. You have to pick one! Blind or deaf. Both suck, but it's just a hypothetical question." Momoshiro is starting to rethink his answer though; if he can't hear … then phonecalls would be forever out of the question.
"But hey, we could still text if you're deaf," suggests Momoshiro with a shrug of his shoulders. "Guess that's not too bad."
"I don't like texting," Kaidoh says flatly. "Typing is annoying." It's so easy to hit the wrong buttons and end up sending the completely wrong word.
"Is that why you always ignore half my messages?"
"Well your messages are usually dumb!"
"My texts are very informative and fun!"
"I wouldn't call you telling me what kind of burger you're eating informative..."
"Yes it is, that's information, period. Just like you telling me you're training is stupid information. It still counts!" Momoshiro kind of wants a burger now. "Wanna go eat burgers after the movie?"
"Not really."
"Then we'll eat ice cream afterwards too." Momoshiro dismisses Kaidoh's refusal to go.
"You can eat ice cream," Kaidoh concedes. It's starting to sound like he'll be spending the whole day with Momoshiro, a possibility that sets him a little bit on edge with excited and nervous energy. He's supposed to be tired, but instead he feels more and more awake with each thing Momoshiro says.
"Ok, I'm fine with that, you can just sit there and watch me as I eat ten burgers, and two ice creams." Momoshiro yawns; he's seriously falling asleep here. "And then maybe I'll take a nap afterwards … somewhere in the shade where it's nice and cool. Like …I don't know, under a tree in a park. Sounds nice."
The corners of Kaidoh's mouth turn up as he murmurs, "Yeah, sounds okay, I guess." Sounds better than okay. Sounds really good, in fact.
"Okay, guess I'll pick you up around … I don't know, when are you up?" asks Momoshiro. If they're going to do that much in one day, they had better start early. "And don't say like five! I'm not getting up at that ungodly hour. Fuck no. You should sleep in when it's summer vacation."
"You don't have to get up that early! And it's 5:15 anyway," he argues. "Sleeping in is lazy."
"You're a freak—who gets up that early when they don't have to!? Enjoy your summer vacation! You should sleep in every day, and go to bed late every day." Momoshiro shifts his face off of the phone so he can see the screen and read the time. "Though I guess it's not that late today. Fucking party I had to go to tired me out."
"Don't tell me what to do," Kaidoh grumbles. "You can be a moron and sleep all morning. I'll be running."
"Hopefully it's not in my neighborhood again," snorts Momoshiro.
"Asshole."
"Stalker."
"Dumbass, you're the one who keeps calling me."
"Says the one who's still on the line."
"Shut up," Kaidoh growls. He wants to say that he's only staying on the line because Momoshiro still is too, like it's a competition. But that excuse can only go so far.
"Yeah … so I'll just … pick you up whenever I get up." Momoshiro hums softly against the phone, he's so sleepy and comfy. It's nice like this. "So don't go anywhere, you asshole. Stay home all day long."
"And what if I have better things to do than wait around for you all day?" Kaidoh retorts, half-heartedly. He doesn't. All he's been doing so far this vacation is working on summer homework and running a lot.
"Hmm, like what?" asks Momoshiro, only half-caring. "Other than training. What do you do for fun?" Then he chuckles. "Talk to me?"
"You don't count as something fun," Kaidoh says simply. Momoshiro has always been more than just a distraction.
"Yes I do, I'm loads of fun to be around, people love talking to me. But, whatever, so what else besides me? … Do you even have any hobbies?" Momoshiro is starting to doubt he does. "I'm pretty sure the only thing you do all day is train anyway."
Kaidoh has the urge to shout back that that's not the only thing he does! After all, just today he learned how to use the Internet! But he can't really tell Momoshiro that. His cheeks go red as he remembers the picture of Momoshiro sleeping. Kaidoh wonders if he looks like that now. Maybe Momoshiro's sister will upload another photo...
"It's none of your business how I spend my time," he retorts instead.
Momoshiro giggles. "Oh? Is it a secret or something? Well, if you don't tell me what you like to do, then tomorrow we'll be doing things I like to do only. Which is fine by me."
"I don't care what we do," Kaidoh says. And he doesn't, really. He thinks he'd probably enjoy anything Momoshiro likes to do, simply because he'd be doing it with Momoshiro. But of course he doesn't say that.
"Hmm, you don't?" mumbles Momoshiro softly. "Does that mean you're fine with anything?"
"Not anything, moron," Kaidoh replies grouchily. "Nothing really stupid or weird."
Momoshiro snuggles against his pillow. "You think everything is stupid. Got anything in particular you don't want to do?" Aside from the horror movie, but Momoshiro will drag him to go see one no matter what.
Kaidoh hisses. "I don't want to have to eat a bunch of junk food."
"But it tastes so goooood," Momoshiro drawls out. He's already half-dreaming of burgers with Kaidoh. "But if you don't wanna, you don't have to—you can just sit there and watch me. That's fine too."
"Yeah, whatever," Kaidoh says dismissively. And he's already half-dreaming of watching Momoshiro eating those burgers.
"You better finish all your training in the morning." Momoshiro breaks out into another long yawn before continuing. "Since you'll be stuck with me for the rest of the day … and I'm not going running."
He sighs against the phone. "And take a good nap. Sleep sounds good right now." Momoshiro is already dozing off as it is. "Hmm, comfy," he mumbles.
"Dumbass," Kaidoh says. "I don't have to listen to you." He squirms back against his pillow, getting more comfortable as he listens to Momoshiro make sleepy sounds in his ear. He thinks it should be a lot weirder than it is. He finds that it isn't actually weird at all, which is in itself weird.
"But you'll do it anyway," says Momoshiro. He licks his lips and shuffles around a bit—almost knocking the phone off the bed. It's not that late (not for summer vacation) but the party earlier from today tired him out, and being on the phone with Kaidoh like this is also very comfortable and relaxing.
It makes Momoshiro sort of want to sleep together. In his sleep-deprived mind, this doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. In fact, it sounds like a great idea, because Momoshiro will take anything that makes him comfy and fall asleep. He presses his face against the phone; it's glowing hot, uncomfortable, and kind of painful—but he doesn't care.
"Hmm, sleep with me," he mumbles, only half coherently.
Momoshiro's voice sounds so close that it makes Kaidoh's whole face heat up and he rolls over on his stomach, the phone still clutched in his hand.
"Don't say things like that," he grumbles weakly, his face smushed into his pillow. Momoshiro is going to make him have freaky dreams, the stupid idiot.
"Hmpf," mumbles Momoshiro. He's not really listening anymore and stays quiet, huddled up on his bed, face pressed against the cellphone. "Whatev ... 'night."
Kaidoh shifts on his pillow. "Yeah, goodnight," he echoes, although with Momoshiro breathing in his ear like that, he thinks it might be a while before he's able to stop thinking and sleep himself. He kind of expects to hear the beep-beep-beep of the call ending at any second. Momoshiro isn't actually going to sleep while still on the phone with him, is he? The idea makes Kaidoh feel really tingly, and not sleepy at all.
But Momoshiro says nothing at all, instead his mouth is slightly open and he's breathing slow and deep. It really didn't take long for him to fall asleep. He makes a few small moaning sounds, until he's drooling over the numberpad of his phone.
Meanwhile, Kaidoh is wide awake. He puts his phone on the pillow next to him and clicks the volume up so that he can still hear Momoshiro's steady breathing. His ear is warm and red where the phone was pressed against it. The rest of his face still feels warm too, but it's a nice kind of feeling instead of the usual embarrassment. He feels warm and happy and he doesn't know why knowing that Momoshiro is on the other line sleeping makes him feel that way.
It takes him another twenty minutes to fall asleep, and by then Momoshiro's breathing sounds like it belongs in Kaidoh's room, like comfortable white noise, and Kaidoh doesn't even notice it.
The next morning when he gets up, Kaidoh retrieves his phone, which has slid off the pillow and gotten lost in his bedsheets, plugs it into the charger, and goes out for his run. When he gets back it's almost 7:00, but everyone else is still asleep. Kaidoh takes a quick shower and usually he'd follow that with crunches or weight training in his room, but this morning Kaidoh feels different. He can't stop thinking about the day, and Momoshiro, and how he'd spent the better part of last night just lying there on the phone with him.
He slips into his brother's room and sees his laptop sitting on the desk. Hazue's breathing is even, and Kaidoh knows how to be quiet, so he's able to slide the laptop into his arms and escape out the door and back to his own room without waking his brother.
Once he has his door closed again, he sits down on his bed and props the computer up on his lap, flipping it open. The screen is dark, but Kaidoh knows enough to know which button to hit and soon the screen blinks back on.
And Momoshiro's dumb sleeping face fills up the center of it. Kaidoh blushes, and quickly clicks back to the photo index, feeling weirdly guilty. He's once again taunted by the 'Add Friend' button, and his stomach does a funny swoop, but he ignores it. He's probably just hungry.
As he scrolls back up to the top of the page, he sees a new photo has been added, one that wasn't there last night.
Kaidoh clicks to enlarge the photo and sees Momoshiro, asleep again, with his cheek pressed up against his cell phone. The phone is tilted so that the display clearly shows Kaidoh's own name illuminated against the backlit display.
The description on the right reads:
LOL my brother fell asleep while on the phone with some person named Kaidoh. It's still going! He's gonna get an earful if mom finds out!
Kaidoh's cheeks go even redder, and he covers his mouth to hide the smirk that spreads across his face, even if there's no one to see but a sleeping Momoshiro on his screen.
"Dumbass," he says, and clicks to save the image.