NijiHimu joyriding in LA because ninannarambling is an ENABLER and a particular piece of art that can be found on basketballpoetsociety's tumblr.
It's a terrible idea, so of course it's Tatsuya's idea.
Tatsuya's young and angry and bitter, a lot like Shuuzou used to be. In a lot of ways, he reminds Shuuzou of himself a few years ago, except that his parents seem to be entirely absent from his life in a way Shuuzou's weren't, and Tatsuya's convinced himself that his mentor – a lovely woman who Shuuzou quite likes, and who is clearly worried about Tatsuya – doesn't really get it.
She probably gets it better than Tatsuya wants to admit, of course, which is probably why he denies it so violently.
Sometimes, Shuuzou can't help the feeling that Tatsuya is really terrible for him. He pulls out Shuuzou's old bad habits so easily. He has his mother wrapped around his fingers, because he looks the part of a good, well-bred, wholesome boy, and his beautiful face and smile make people around him believe that god is real or some shit like that.
His mother doesn't worry when he tells her he's spending the evening with Tatsuya, even though she should, because Tatsuya never wants to do anything good or legal after dark.
Tatsuya knows his face is a weapon, and he's never afraid to use it.
"Shuu," he says and he's got an angel's smile, Shuuzou's sure of it, and he sometimes wonders why it is that all the beautiful people he knows are definitely kind of evil, "let's go for a ride tonight."
"Okay," he says, because if he can't beat some sense into Tatsuya (he tried), he can at least keep him company and maybe curb some of his worse tendencies. Tatsuya hasn't been in a really dangerous fight in months now.
It's probably actually worse for them to steal the bikes and go for a ride than is for them to get in fights, at least, if they get caught. They might get some scrapes and bruises or broken bones in a fight, but getting arrested for stealing a motorbike is the kind of shit that follows you.
But Shuuzou knows that the feeling of the wind rushing past and the way the lights of the city look when you race past are somehow calming, and if he can somehow prevent Tatsuya from taking his rage out on other people and instead on racing around on a stolen bike, well.
They haven't been caught yet.
Tatsuya never steals the same bike twice. Shuuzou doesn't know how he figures out who to steal from, who has enough gas to get a good ride out and back, who won't notice the bike's gone for the duration of their trip. Sometimes he fills up the tanks if he feels in a particularly good mood on the way home, but they don't have that much disposable income between them.
Shuuzou doesn't think too much about it when Tatsuya takes him to where the bikes he's scoped out are, and doesn't ask too much when they both hotwire the bikes. With the little he knew about Shuuzou's history at the time, Tatsuya hadn't been too surprised when he'd seen him do it the first time, but Shuuzou had probably been more surprised than he should have when Tatsuya hadn't needed his help to do it either.
They take off, and it's probably super dumb to ride without helmets, but the wind is blowing Tatsuya's hair off his face, and Shuuzou feels invincible the way they always tell you teenage boys feel right before they do something stupid and dangerous to get themselves killed or seriously injured, but he can't care when the edge of fury has melted from Tatsuya's expression, and he can see his face properly for once. While there's something alluring about the mystery of Tatsuya's hidden eye, Shuuzou likes when he gets to see it; it feels like something special, something he's been trusted to hold close.
They're definitely going to kill themselves if they get hit or fall, with no protective gear or anything, but there's a rush there too, like when you're playing an exhilarating game of basketball, and it's not perfect victory or definite loss, but a desperate battle; and the lights are beautiful and blinding as they race through a city that never properly sleeps.
They never take the same routes twice when they do this. Tatsuya always leads their route, but Shuuzou doesn't mind. Tatsuya's the one who needs this, after all. He's just here to look out for him. Mostly, anyway. It feels better than it should to do this; it always leaves him feeling guilty afterwards, because this is the kind of behaviour his father did his best to squash in him before he got sick. But he's not going to leave Tatsuya to fuck everything up on his own if he can, and he trusts Shuuzou to be here with him. One day, he'll figure out how to make it enough to get through to him; for now, he'll just do his best not to be like he was before.
They're flying past lights of all colours, but Shuuzou never takes his eyes off Tatsuya and the road. He's always so damnably beautiful, especially lit up by the lights of a city he knows like the back of his hand.
Shuuzou's always been so weak to pretty things, and only finds them more fascinating when they have dangerous edges.
They stop on a quiet hill somewhere, and Shuuzou has no idea where they are; they're not high enough to have some kind of view over the city, but there's still an array of lights and buildings that's somehow worth seeing, maybe only because of the way this moment feels.
"Feeling better?"
Tatsuya looks at him from the corner of his visible eye, and smiles.
"A little."