Smile

'Smile' means a lot of things to me. My smile is something I take very good care of to the point of obsession, according to Oishi-kun. Brushing my teeth is one of my favourite hobbies; I smile a lot so my teeth need to look nice. That makes sense, nya?

"Eiji! Chika needs a walk!"

"I walked him yesterday!" Eiji called from the bathroom, doubting his sister could hear him as talking was currently a challenge. He was already multitasking enough what with trying to clean his teeth and write at the same time. That and his sister's dog was yapping his head off. "Besides, he's your dog."

"I'm going out tonight!"

"In two hours, sis! I have stuff to do that'll take me all night, I've barely started!" a defeated mutter came from somewhere downstairs before the front door closed and the yapping finally stopped. Deciding it was safe; Eiji left the bathroom and locked himself in his bedroom to get some peace to do his work.

I smile a lot, maybe too much, everything makes me smile, even when I've hurt myself or someone's been mean to me. Are they proper smiles or something else? I guess there are four types of smile, in all.

Your average smile you wear day to day, like when someone else offers to pay for drinks after practice or you just won a game against someone.

Fake smiles, like the ones scary salesmen wear when they're trying to sell you life insurance even though you're fourteen years old and have never been seriously sick. There is that disastrous cruise trip to think about, though, maybe I do need life insurance…

Seriously creepy smiles like that one Fuji-kun has on every single day. Rain or shine, win or lose, he's always got that freaky smile on that haunts your dreams if you think about it too much.

Finally, true, special smiles you only wear when you're truly happy. Only one person makes me smile like that.

Regardless of the fact he had just cleaned his teeth, Eiji pulled out a box from under his bed that was full of cookies. He took one, chuckling a little at the blue smiley face iced on top. Taking a bite he continued to scribble down his random musings.

Oh, also 'smiles' are a kind of cookie I like to make sometimes. I made them with Oishi-kun yesterday, and it was fun even though more dough got thrown around the kitchen than actually into the oven. I've made them with Fuji-kun too, but it's just not the same. Especially since he mastered making the cookies look like his own scary smile. I've been put off making smiles with Fuji-kun for a while, at least until the nightmares stop.

Oops, chocolate smudge on my page, nya.

Anyway, hanging out with Oishi was fun, eating cookies and trying to get dough out of our hair. I was really, really apologetic when we thought we were going to have to cut some of it out of Oishi's hair (luckily we didn't, an hour of hair washing did the job in the end) but he just laughed and that made me smile.

"Eiji! Can you feed Tsuki?"
"She's your parakeet, mom!" whined Eiji. He was just getting into his writing properly when someone had to interrupt.

"Grandma, Grandpa, your Father and I are all going out tonight and I need to start getting ready now, I need you to feed Tsuki."

"Can't someone else do it?"
"Both of your brothers are going out tonight with friends-" Eiji was about to interrupt "-and both of your sisters. You don't have anything to do so please just feed Tsuki. You could have done it by now" Mrs Kikumaru knocked on Eiji's bedroom door. When he gave no response, she continued to knock in a most irritating fashion.

"I have a project to-" Eiji heard his mother walk away and gave up. Closing his notebook he got up and left the room to feed the blasted parakeet.

I swear to you now, Tsuki the parakeet just smiled at me. You may say parakeets can't smile but they do, and dogs. Chika jumped on my stomach at three in the morning because my sister forgot to lock the garage door, and while I was muttering and swearing to myself he just kept licking me and giving me a creepy dog-smile.

Lucky Fuji-kun doesn't have a dog. That would have the most hauntingly mind scarring smile ever.

I've never asked Oishi-kun if he likes dogs, he doesn't have pets, just fish. They don't count because they're boring. Do fish smile? Oishi-kun smiles a lot when we watch his fish together, I haven't a clue why. They're nice fish, Mr Sharky and Sushi-Moo and Jaws and all the others, but they don't do anything funny.

Why does everything I say come back to Oishi-kun?

The redhead sat back in his bed and sighed. His whole family were now out, and he was stuck by himself. The adults were going to a play, then to a restaurant. His eldest sister was with her boyfriend. His brothers were both with friends, one at the bar and one at someone's house. His other sister was at a sleepover. Eiji was alone with just the sleeping dog and the squawking parakeet for company.

He definitely didn't feel like smiling right now.

There was a knock at the front door; a quiet, nervous knock that made Eiji hopeful. He almost fell over his feet as he scurried downstairs to answer, he didn't care who it was so long as they would keep him company for a while, though he had his mind set on one person in particular.

"Eiji-kun?"

"Oishi-kun!" Eiji beamed and threw his arms around his friend "I've been so bored and lonely, Oishi-kun! Everyone's out!"
"Ah…" Eiji's best friend smiled shyly "I guess that means you'd want to come out with me? There's this movie I've been wanting to see and I heard through the grapevine you'd be on your own tonight so…"
"Let me just finish something and get ready, ok? Come in, come in, Oishi-kun!" the acrobat was suddenly full of energy, pulling Oishi inside and bounding upstairs to get ready. Pulling a comb through his tangled hair, he noticed his notebook sitting abandoned on his desk.

Oishi-kun is the only person who makes me smile properly. I'm always smiling when I'm with him, and he smiles a lot when we're together, too.

"Eiji-kun? Your parakeet's food bowl is empty, should I fill it?"
"She's grouchy, Oishi-kun, let me do it…"

Tsuki is very grouchy tonight. She pecked my cheek hard, very very hard, and it hurts. Oishi-kun kissed it better.

I don't care how painful it is, smile number four just won't come off.