Yay, new chapter! :P Thank you for the lovely reviews (now I can actually use plural here XD), I'm doing my best to live up to your expectations :3 And, I'm afraid I've gotten just a bit OOC with them in this chap, but hell, let's call it character insight XD
Anyway, enjoy reading, and keep tuned for more.
Chapter four: The Laws of Physics
Twenty minutes or so later, Gokudera entered Yamamoto's place in his favourite skull-printed shirt thrown casually over a red T-shirt and black pants. It wasn't his first time at Yamamoto's, although he had never been in the residential part of the family restaurant. His heart was thumping much louder than he'd like, and he was covering up his nervousness by wearing and even more intimidating expression than normally. Naturally, that resulted in people moving panicky out of the delinquent-looking teen's way – a red alarm to the chef Yamamoto, who rushed in to direct his son's friend to Takeshi's room.
Even though Gokudera's looks scared his costumers, the sushi chef liked him coming around or simply hanging out with his son – because Takeshi seemed a different person altogether when he was with him. Something like that could not escape a watchful father's eye, even if he misunderstood his son's feelings. For that, he was not to blame, having been raised in a rather traditionalistic manner, thus being robbed of the ability to even as much as consider his successor to have such feelings for a man. However, that Takeshi literally glowed around Gokudera was an undeniable fact, and as long as he could see his son that happy, he didn't mind a delinquent chain smoker coming 'round.
Gokudera, following the directions of the sushi chef, quietly moved through the corridors of Yamamoto's house. He observed the scarce yet marvellously beautiful decoration in traditional Japanese style, and wondered how many times had the rain guardian darted across these hallways... His fingers traced the entrances of the rooms he passed, touching the same things the baseball ace did before him gently... He breathed in deeply, taking in the atmosphere of his friend's house, and trying to locate his scent out of the mixture of warm and homey fragrances.
Composing back his normal intimidating expression, Gokudera knocked twice before opening the door he was told led to his friend's room.
"Oi, yakyuu-baka..."
He stopped in his tracks, forgetting what insult was he about to spit out as his raven-haired classmate beamed a wide smile at him – for some reason, it seemed that the smiles he gave him in the rare moments the two of them were alone were somewhat different that the ones he was flashing around normally. As if... as if this was his true smile, not a mere façade; as if he'd be actually happy... Gokudera's inner self shook his head violently. 'There's no way he could be happy to see me, not with the way I treat him...' And yet, the smiles he received when they were alone were always so enchanting that they robbed him of his words if he let his guard down just a bit.
He cleared his throat and furrowed his eyebrows in an angry-teacher-like-manner – which only mase Yamamoto chuckle in amusement, and effect rather opposite of the desired.
"What are you laughing about, yakyuu-baka? Does your lack of brain cells prevents you from understanding what happens if shove this up your ass?" The silver-haired A-grade student waved with a stick of his always present dynamite before collapsing down to sit next to Yamamoto, still spitting insulting comments.
Even though he kept bashing and throwing insults at the raven-haired teen, at least he was consistent.
Always, without a single exception, he'd say exactly the opposite of what he truly wanted to say, and did the converse of what he wished to do. It might've been a bit rough method, but it worked so far. Not once had his words or actions betrayed his feelings towards the rain guardian; and every single facial expression that could expose his softer side was perfectly covered up with anger, frustration, hate and violence.
Of course, he didn't like it himself. After all, acting this way towards Yamamoto when what he wanted was exactly the opposite... It was killing him.
But he knew no other way.
"So, what's the problem?" he finally asked with a sigh, pretending to be suffering through thus for the juudaime's sake while his emerald eyes traced the line of the other's male's cheekbone and hungrily watched his soft lips gently part and move as he spoke.
"Well, I managed to solve most of it; I just really don't get problem number four. Gravity," Yamamoto explained, scratching the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.
"Tch, you really are an asshole... that's easy," replied Gokudera grumpily while taking the assignment paper from his grasp. The backs of their hands brushed against each other lightly, sending a confusing swirl through his already trying-hard-to-focus-on-physics mind. 'If it wasn't for the idiot next to me, it'd been way easier to explain this...'
He had to reread the task since he had finished the homework in a matter of a few minutes, and never bothered with such meaningless details such as actually paying attention to the exact wording of the task, not to mention memorizing what it was about. However, a few glances over the text were enough for him to form the answer in his head – now he just needed to simplify it and formulate it so that the yakyuu-baka would understand.
All in all, he had to admit the baseball freak wasn't such an idiot; he needed much less explanations than the juudaime ever did, and required less simplifying. But what he needed were real-life examples, which sometimes proved a bit of a problem.
"Okay, let's see... hmm... You see, when an apple falls down from the tree..."
"Uh, it hits the ground and rots?"
Gokudera facepalmed.
And regretted it the next moment, because it prevented him from seeing Yamamoto's confused face trying to figure it out.
"No, that's a shitty example. Tch, it's your fault for being such an idiot that I need to come up with real-life examples. And–"
He looked like he was getting really pissed off, while his schoolmate merely kept smiling back.
"–if you interrupt me again, I'll shove dynamite down your throat."
"Maa, maa, don't get mad, Gokudera. I'll be quiet and listen now. See?"
His fingers reached to his mouth and traced the midline of his lips, imitating the closing of a zipper.
"... my lips are sealed."
Gokudera turned away for a moment, afraid that he might be given away by the blood he felt rushing to his cheeks, but seemed to manage to suppress the blush.
'Dammit, Yamamoto, you're not making this easier...'
"Look, every object with a certain mass influences other objects with a certain gravitational field; and, depending on the mass of the second object and the distance between them, they attract each other with a certain force – that's the gravitational pull," explained Gokudera scientifically, keeping his eyes focused on and invisible spot on the floor as he spoke.
"Hmm... mass... field... mass and distance... pull..." Yamamoto kept muttering under his breath, curling up his forehead into countless tiny creases in his effort to understand what he's just been told.
For a moment, Gokudera flicked his gaze to the raven-haired youth next to him – and found himself unable to focus on anything else than the cutest expression he had ever seen.
"Sorry... I don't really understand that," sighed Yamamoto in defeat. He truly worked his brain hard to get it, since he didn't want to bother the silver-haired genius next to him and also... he wanted him to see the best of him, but he was simply unable to comprehend such an abstract explanation.
"Tch... your brain cells must feel really lonely in that empty head of yours."
As always, Gokudera would spit out insults while at the same time what he wanted the most was to ruffle his hair, caress that worrying face and tell him it was allright, kiss him and do his homework instead... wouldn't that, after all, buy him time – enough that he could even spend some with him...? 'Stop thinking nonsense', he told himself and snapped back to reality.
"Look, take for example –"
A single idea pierced him mind – so simple, and yet somewhat convenient. Enticing and tempting, it throbbed un-ignorable in his head until he complied – 'Hell, why not?'
"– take for example us, sitting here. Although you can't feel it, there is a force between us, a gravitational pull."
'Although you can't feel it, I do.'
"It depends on our masses and on the distance between us –"
'The closer we are, the closer to you I want to be.'
"– see, like this, in linear correlation with both of the masses, and inversely correlated with the square of the distance."
'Rather exponentially, I'd say, and mass has nothing to do with it.'
He wrote down the expression for gravitational force, adding the constant of 6,673∙10-11 m3kg-1s-2 and explaining all of the quantities in it, their meaning and effect.
The intimidating bomber had to focus hard on keeping his face straight, or to be more precise, not to reflect the gleaming smile that lit up his classmate's face, announcing his understanding.
"I see... so, if I move like this –"
He daringly positioned himself closer, now less than half an inch to Gokudera, their bodies parallel along the entire length, as if reflecting each other in a mirror. He could feel the heat of his body, and inhale the wafting scent of his silver-haired schoolmate...
"– then the pull between us increases inversely with the decrease in distance. Must be a pretty strong force, huh, Gokudera?"
'You have no idea,' was what the asked thought, but naturally, the answer that escaped his mouth through clenched teeth was far more brusque.
"Asshole."
Rapidly, he stood up, turning away to hide his flushed face, and hurrying over to the door. He couldn't bear this anymore... it was a like a never-ending nightmare, just as if – as if Yamamoto knew everything and was playing with him like a cat with its prey... but could that idiot really muster that much wit?
"I see you understand now, see you –"
he retorted quickly, making his way out of the room, leaving the battlefield. He knew his façade was close to collapsing, and he couldn't let that yakyuu-baka see him like that.
"Wait, Gokudera –"
He knew he was unstoppable the way he rushed to the door. He crossed the line... again. Made him feel uncomfortable. 'Who wouldn't be, a guy moving to sit so close to him like he was trying to seduce him...?'
"– thank you –"
was all that he managed to force through before the door slammed behind the waterfall of silver hair.
The baseball freak, left alone in his room again, felt the emptiness suddenly press down on him – with Gokudera gone, it was like the world became all blank and colourless...
"– thank you... Hayato."
Silent whisper escaped his barely parted lips as his head tilted downwards like the world was just taken from him. He pulled up his legs and wrapped his arms around himself protectively, curling up in a defensive crouch before closing his eyes in dismay.
'Even if you hate me... thanks for bearing with me... even if it's just...
...for the juudaime.'
His arms twitched at the thought, and tightened the grip around his body.
'...as if the pain would come from the outside...'
He laughed bitterly at what an idiot he was, falling for a guy like Gokudera Hayato, the intimidating-juudaime-right-hand-bomber-man.
xXx
The gloomy streets of Namimori were empty and dead-silent.
However, a certain silver-haired young male running wildly through the narrow alleys failed to notice that; neither did he notice tiny bright yellow canary-like bird sitting on a wire above him, or the curious gaze of a certain fuchsia-haired young lady – that, incidentally, knew him way better than he thought – lurking in a gloomy dead end he just passed. Hell, he could hardly focus on getting home.
As soon as Gokudera shut his front door behind him, he collapsed to the floor, panting heavily from his run all the way here from Yamamoto's place.
'That... bastard...'
His fist connected with the wall opposite to him, venting his anger in a blow too strong for the bomber to endure without grimacing in pain or letting out a silent hiss. However, the physical pain seemed to dull his emotions a bit, to numb the torment inside...
'...toying with me and then playing innocent...'
Another hit shook the wall. And damn, it felt good.
How he hated it all. Acting so tough and rough... always masking himself behind violence... He was sick of it all. He couldn't stand it anymore... Couldn't stand always spitting insults when he wanted to tell him how he made him froze with that sunny smile; always glaring at him with a murderous aura when he wanted to smile and laugh with him; always averting his gaze when the desire to crash passionately against those lips twitching, moving in all directions at the same time as he spoke, became undendurable; always hitting him when he wanted so bad to pull his body next to his, hold him in his arms and whisper nonsense in his ear...
By morning, there was a hole in the wall.