3. Game - In which Chitose, Dewa and Eric play a board game. Chitose gets a little too engrossed in it, however. Insanity ensues.
(I know I promised this chapter to be about Kosuke and Eric-and I had the drabble all written out. But I hated it and wanted to start fresh on that. So here's more stupidity until I've written a better FujiEric. Prompt me with a single word and I might update this entire fic a bit more often. *hinthint*)
WARNINGS: Excessive coarse language
also I do not own K Project or characters.
THUD!
A sudden loud noise spooked Eric awake from his nap on the bar's couch. His blue eyes, widened with fear, darted from side to side. But he needn't look far; he discovered the source of the sound. A strange box sat on the floor in front of two pairs of feet. Said feet belonged to Yō Chitose and Masaomi Dewa, the first being a hopeless womanizer and the latter helplessly befriended to the former.
"Oh heya Eric. Didn't mean to wake ya," Chitose apologized in a typical half-assed manner. "Come on Dewaaa, let's play a board gameee!"
Eric simply frowned. He's just as loud and obnoxious as Chihuahua, he thought to himself. It had been more than half a year since Eric had joined HOMRA, but some things—like his personal nickname for the clan's short, hot-headed vanguard—haven't changed.
Not much had changed between the two men in front of him either. Chitose was still chasing women; Dewa, either out of pity or masochism, loyally lingered at Chitose's side.
"The game's no fun with just two players. Oi, Eric. Want to join in?" Dewa read the instructions pamphlet, while Chitose set up the board.
"I don't know how to play that one." He leaned forward to read the box title, The Game of LIFE. "What are you supposed to do?"
"We'll teach you, just come sit over here," Dewa beckoned with a finger, his eyes still glued to the game instructions. Sighing, the teen flopped out from the comfy couch onto the cold, hardwood floor.
"ALL SET!" Chitose cried out excitedly.
Overall, the game appeared vibrant in colour. It had a spinner with each triangle numbered 1 through 10 in the board's center, and on the starting space were three little empty cars.
"Alright, basically, the game objective is for one player to end up with the most money, based on the life choices they make in gameplay. We each first choose a starting path—either a college career or just a job—and go from there. You can make decisions such as getting married, having kids, etc. etc.," the derby-hatted man explained.
"Hey Dewa, we can bend the rules a bit, right?"
"You can't choose the career of a prostitute, moron."
Eric felt his ears tingle nervously at that comment. What had he gotten himself into?
"I know that! I was just gonna say, we can make the couples gay and such. Or is this one of those 'politically-correct' games?"
"Um, Chitose-san," wavered Eric's shy voice.
"Yō, stop, or I'm putting the game away. Eric's still a kid, don't corrupt him," Dewa threatened as he glared daggers through his glasses at his idiotic friend.
"I'm 16, not 5," the blond corrected the older male, though the statement went unheard. Neither man bothered to listen to him most of the time, anyways.
"Whatever, can we just start already? You're such a buzz-kill right now," the brunette whined pathetically. How old was this man again? 22? Eric would never believe that was really Chitose's age. The man sure as hell didn't act it. Chihuahua was immature too, but by now, Eric wished the vanguard was here instead of these two.
At least when Chihuahua played videogames, he didn't mind Eric's presence. It was the only time the two could sit near each other for extended periods of times without any insults or anger.
The board game of LIFE finally was underway after a shaky start between the two older males. Chitose predictably skipped college and went straight for a job ("A mechanic?! But I wanted to be an Entertainer.") while Dewa wound up with a career as a police officer ("No surprise, I have to keep you in line," he gritted out bitterly). Eric also chose to skip college, seeing no point since he hardly went to school as it was, and randomly chose Artist from the job cards.
It was a rare day for the bar to be as empty as it was: Totsuka had taken Anna out shopping, with King in tow (protecting them of course); Kusanagi had made lunch reservations with a mysterious woman, her identity seldom revealed when Kusanagi described her as a "cold-hearted woman"; and the other clansmen were away, either working or leisurely wasting time.
Turn after turn, the game carried on smoothly, although Chitose broke rule after rule. He conveniently forgot to pay Dewa money when the dial landed on 10, and insisted that marriage between lesbians was justified in the game's universe. Eric didn't say much, occasionally stumbling over unfamiliar words, while Dewa corrected his mistakes in a rather condescending tone.
But 30 minutes later, the shouting escalated between the womanizer and his wingman.
"YŌ, YOU CAN'T THROW AWAY A CHILD JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT!"
"FUCK YOU, YOUR DICK HUSBAND'S CHEATING WITH MY SLUT-OF-A-WIFE. YOU CAN TAKE THE FUCKING KID," Chitose exclaimed and threw the little child game-piece at Dewa's face.
"SON OF A BITCH! YOU POPPED ONE OF MY LENSES OUT!" Dewa swore and grabbed his friend by the collar of the plaid shirt he wore, while Eric carefully scooted back, safe from the scuffle that commenced. They struggled, accidentally flipping the board over, thus ruining the game.
Cards flew everywhere, Dewa's glasses and hat went flying, game pieces rolled under the table and chairs surrounding them, and said furniture eventually toppled over.
There was no doubt in Eric's mind that Kusanagi-san would probably strangle both men for rough-housing in his bar.
"I guess the game's over then?"
There was no answer to Eric's question. He didn't need one; he could already see it was a lost cause. Without another word, the blond decided to step out of the bar and go for a stroll.
He didn't want to stick around for the inevitable explosion and possible murder of two unruly clansmen.
a/n: Technically, Eric is 18 in the anime, but in Memory of Red, he's 16-ish. Based on chapter's 5 ending (when Eric plays old footage Totsuka had left behind), Eric had been in the clan for nearly 2 years when Totsuka died.
Then again, pretty much all of these drabbles are just my own
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