Dirty Drifting and Fast Dancing
...
Asuna offered Kazuto a hand and she helped him up from the ground. As he swiped dust off his knees, she looked at him, "Hey so tomorrow's a Saturday, do you maybe want to get to know each other a little better first?"
"Uh s-sure, what exactly's on your mind then?"
"Hm...can I see your phone?"
She typed her number onto it quickly, "There. We'll text on the details but I'm sure everything'll be fine."
"Y-yeah it will."
Asuna smirked, picking up her school bag and waving away to him walking out of the basketball courts, "See you tomorrow Kazuto!"
"S-see you...tomorrow..." He murmured slowly, looking at her sleek orange brown ponytail. Kazuto looked at her phone number and sat back down on the metal bench. Staring at it and thinking, the boy could only smile.
What in the hell just happened? Is this some sort of dream? Is this what ten years of dedication feels like?
When he was back home, Kazuto texted away happily with her, and fifteen minutes later he had to share some information with his friend Taisuke.
(Hey man, think you could give me a ride tomorrow at 11:30? Drive me to midtown near the airport please.)
Taisuke was inside a small gymnasium in his father's enormous mansion. He paused from running on a treadmill, a hand still flipping a page in his textbook before it stopped, seeing his phone light up. He took a second to respond.
(Yeah sure thing. Why though?)
Kazuto breathed in tightly, thinking about what to say before texting back.
(I'm kind of going on a date)
The boy who saw this got off his treadmill, wiping sweat off with a towel before his eyes bulged in shock.
(How? How is this possible? With who?)
A sigh left Kazuto's mouth when reading this, "Ishoyama you never cease to use amazement in my ability..."
(Someone)
He knew who it was the second his friend refused to reveal her identity. Taisuke put on green boxing gloves and smacked away at his punching bag, loud slapping noises filling the small gymnasium before he returned to his phone.
(Is it the she devil?)
Black eyes were rolled.
(Yes Ishoyama, it is the girl I've liked for years)
"Goddamniiiiit!" The second the wealthy teen read this text message from Kazuto, he began to pound his punching bag so hard the whole gymnasium seemed to collapse under his strength, green blurs that were his fists making the black punching bag jump in the air again and again as its owner abused it. Taisuke didn't even text back, growling so loudly in anger a butler appeared.
"Are you all right Master Ishoyama?"
"I'm fine Youzo go away." He growled viciously, going back to yelling loudly in fury before unleashing a green storm of rage onto his punching bag. Taisuke was absolutely enraged, his jabs and hooks so powerful that they made the air crack with slaps, the chain holding up the punching bag clinking as the punching bag flew upwards after receiving every blow.
As Taisuke punished the same bag he had hit for years, his growling turned to angry words in his head.
Yuuki Asuna...you've beaten me at school for years...you've been my most bitter rival since we've met...and now you've stolen my only friend...You witch. Witch!
(I'll pick you up at 10:20. Don't be asleep.)
(Thanks Taisuke)
(Don't use my given name.)
Kazuto raised an eyebrow at that last text message. Whenever it was used, which was quite rare, he never seemed to mind. But now there was something new in that reaction, something strange. Whatever it was, he never got to know, because moments later Asuna sent him a text message.
(Hey, excited for our date?)
A text was sent back instantly.
(Totally. Why wouldn't I be?)
He gasped sharply, groaning and grasping the black locks on his head in shock, "No! No no no no no, unsend unsend! God I am such an idiot, that was terrible and needy!"
Asuna giggled over in her house, dancing her feet in the air as she laid on her stomach, sending a text back while laying on her bed.
(I have no idea. There's no reason to get nervous for our date Kazu.)
He gave a sigh of relief, wiping sweat off his forehead and smiling, "What a save she liked it."
They spent the whole night texting, until a grumbling message awoke him from his happy daze.
(Make it 10:10. Do. Not. Be. Asleep.)
(All right all right jeez. I'll be awake damn)
...
"Well this is a strange change of pace." Taisuke chortled sarcastically, putting his hands on his hips and sighing. As Taisuke'd expected, Kazuto had spent the whole night texting Asuna and he passed out still wearing his school uniform, his rear raised in the air as he snored, drooling slightly onto his pillow.
"Get up please!" Taisuke begged while yelling, "For the love of god man can you wake up without me having to wake up everyone for miles?"
Kazuto kept snoring onto his pillow lightly.
Taisuke grunted in frustration, throwing a punch so strong that Kazuto flew from it and smacked against the wall of his bedroom, a black mark now imprinted onto his arm. Despite this, Kazuto was so heavy a sleeper that it was if a fly had hit him. Taisuke turned crafty, giggling quietly as he slowly drew an air horn.
His hand moved at a snails pace, the air horn approaching his ear...before rubbing the plastic of the air horn's cone against his ear lobe, Taisuke had decided to try and wake him up using it rather strangely. He started poking the side of his face using the air horn's metal canister, trying not to burst into laughter.
Suddenly the air horn blew loudly in his ear, his eyes flying open.
He sprang awake, "Wh-what?"
"You lied to me ya fool. Get dressed, I'd iron that school uniform on Monday if I were you." His older friend murmured with a warning, "Get ready for your date man, I'm gonna go hit on your sister downstairs."
"What the what?" Kazuto asked, his hearing impervious to air horn blasts after Taisuke's Mighty Soviet Orchestrate of the morning before. He was severely confused, he was going on a date? Suguha was probably going to smack Taisuke for trying to get with her?
It all made sense after he'd showered and dressed properly for his date with Asuna, he walked downstairs wearing a blue button up shirt with jeans. Taisuke was laying sprawled out on the hardwood floor, a red slap mark shining on his face.
Kazuto sighed, "How long did it take you to joke about her breasts?"
"Only...two...minutes..." Taisuke groaned from the ground, turning over to reveal the bruises she'd given him on his stomach by lifting his green jacket, "She is really hostile. Like I only joked about it twice."
"Yeah, because you're an idiot." He rolled his eyes, walking past him on the ground to get some breakfast.
Kazuto returned to their living room holding a piece of toast, meanwhile Taisuke kept groaning on the ground, reaching for Suguha with a giggle as she walked past, "Hey...wanna hear a joke about-erghm!" A groan of pain ended it instantly.
She cut him off by kicking him in the stomach, "Pig. Kazu, why the hell does he keep coming here?"
"He's giving me rides that's why. He's actually pretty nice if you get to know him."
"That's the thing. I can't get to know him because I can't spend five seconds talking to him without hearing how he 'never got D's like mine in school'."
Taisuke giggled like a child on the ground, "Get it? Because my grades are perfect. It's also a play on word because I never get la-."
Kazuto chewed on his toast calmly, watching Sugu toss the boy vastly taller than her across the living room by his ear lobe, "Pig! If he comes here again I'll kill you Kazuto."
She left in a huff as he groaned from smacking against the wall, "Why...do girls always...hate me?"
"Because you're an arrogant self absorbed bastard?"
Taisuke nodded while recovering from hitting the wall, "Yeah...that might be it."
Kazuto let his mind slip away like it always did when watching television, before Taisuke eyed the clock on their microwave, "Uh...when did you say your date was?"
He gasped, "No!..."
It was 11:20, the date was going to start in ten minutes.
Kazuto gasped again, becoming frightened while holding his head in fear, "Oh god! I'm gonna be late and then she'll never go out with me again! How the hell are we going to get to midtown in ten minutes?"
Taisuke scratched his chin, "By pulling some Initial D Eurobeat magic that's how. Watch this."
"Wa-waagh!" Kazuto yelped in surprise as Taisuke used his muscles to carry him to his Miata, the silver roadster gleaming in the Kirigaya's driveway.
The look on Kazuto's face when this happened was one of total fear, being dumped into his seat like a sack of potatoes:
Taisuke drew sunglasses from his glove compartment, "Heh. Kirigaya?"
"Yes?..." He asked slowly, seeing the serious look on his face.
"Never forget this, the rule of cool begins and ends with one name: Ishoyama." The boy frowned coldly, putting the sunglasses on, "Don't crap yourself Kazu."
"D-don't crap myself?...Whoa! Whoa!"
Before Kazuto could react, Taisuke shifted into reverse gear and pulled out of the driveway in a flash, before doing a one eighty and flying off towards the city shifting again quickly.
"Where's second street?" He mumbled, staring out calmly from behind his sunglasses.
"Th-that way. You're in the wrong lane!" Kazuto ordered by pointing, sitting on Taisuke's left.
He peeled across four lanes of traffic without even marking his turn, pressing the accelerator so much the silver Miata blurred.
"Taisuke...Taisuke...Taisukeee!" Kazuto screamed seeing the coming street corner, "Don't do it!"
"Don't use my given name."
The boxer braked suddenly, causing the front wheels to slip as steam flew from the brakes, before dragging the back wheels of the car around the street corner in a right drift.
"Taisuke I can't get to my date if I'm dead!"
"You won't be dead, you'll be on time. And don't use my given name!" He ordered, raising a finger as he weaved between cars quickly, "All right, mid towns in a couple stop lights we'll get there quickly at this rate. I'm only going at...170 kilometers an hour."
The boys gasped, "Sixth is on construction?" They shouted together.
Taisuke grunted, "Ergh! We have to take fifth. Hold on fool." He pulled the emergency brake, doing a one eighty before the construction block, the back of the Miata almost touching it and turning around, "Goddamit, I didn't want to have to do this but we're going to have to use alleyways."
"What?!" Kazuto shouted and blinked in shock.
"You'll be fine." He assured, approaching the coming intersection.
"Taisuke that's a red light! Taisuke! Taisukeee!" Kazuto yelled, feeling his heart pound out of his chest.
"Given name, do not use it please." He said with another raised finger, trying to use different grammar to appeal to him.
As they approached an intersection, Taisuke rolled the window down and stuck his head out, showing a peace sign and laughing with his tongue out, the traffic camera snapping a picture of Kazuto's face buried in his hands in fear while his friend drove like a maniac. As the car drifted, Taisuke felt the steering wheel spin quickly in his palm, the back of the silver car swinging around the corner.
The Miata's tires screeched as it flew around the street corner, before roaring towards midtown, "Good we're back on track."
"B-Back on track? I saw my life flash in front of my eyes!" Kazuto shrieked in fear, as the Miata dove between slower traffic towards his date.
While the Miata flew around street corners before accelerating down lanes, Kazuto couldn't stop panting, his chest flying up and down.
I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'll never see Asuna again and it's all Ishoyama's fault!
"I want that hot dog." The boy noted calmly by looking into his rearview mirror, before doing another one eighty and diving headfirst into oncoming traffic.
Kazuto screamed in fear, as Taisuke avoided crashing with car after car to get a snack. This whole time, Taisuke was completely calm, Kazuto screaming his head off. A man was holding a hot dog on the sidewalk, before a hand from traffic snatched from him, a screeching set of tires wheeling to allow for another one eighty.
As Taisuke chewed on it, he drove with all haste towards midtown, having almost killed both of them, "Want some?" He offered, showing him the half eaten hot dog.
Kazuto shook his head slowly.
"Your loss." He shrugged, before diving out of traffic with a drift, making Kazuto almost black out from the G-forces shoving him inside his seat.
"I-If you hate Asuna so much then why are you doing this?"
"This is not for her." Taisuke blinked behind his sunglasses, flying down the alleyway after finishing his hot dog, "It's for you man."
Taisuke accelerated down the wide alleyway, seeing a truck pull out into it slowly. He smirked, doing a screeching drift around it, knocking out Kazuto in shock as the car came a millimeter from impact. The boy just drooled onto his seat with a smile, as Taisuke checked the clock on his dashboard, "Two minutes, we're almost there buddy."
He drifted around another truck quickly before going into a reverse gear and drifting backwards around the end of it, pulling out of the alleyway backwards before flipping the car around, smirking, "That's the airport." Taisuke upshifted, "You're not late man."
The Miata roared down the street towards the ice cream shop, before screeching and drifting around a parked car, marking the street with a black tire imprint. Asuna was wearing a plain yellow dress and earrings, a purse instead of a school bag slung over her shoulder.
The Ishoyama emerged from the right side of his car, before moving to the left side and carrying Kazuto from it, slamming the door shut with his foot. Asuna had a thousand Yen note in her hand, and was about to buy a can from a vending machine, pausing as she saw Taisuke carrying Kazuto towards her.
Asuna gasped quietly in surprise as a passed out Kazuto was dumped into her arms, "Here's your date." He swiped the money from Asuna's hand, "There's my tip."
"T-tip?" She asked, still holding Kazuto, "Is he all right?"
"Yeah I just blazed across the whole city to get here. Enjoy your date, he's fine by the way." He muttered coldly, walking to his car.
"Are you actually jealous of me Ishoyama?" Asuna smirked, seeing him open the silver door to his car and getting inside it.
"She-devil." Taisuke insulted under his breath, flying away in his speed demon Miata.
Asuna walked inside the shop, carrying Kazuto into the ice cream store as everyone stared at them, "Don't worry...er...he's fine." She assured, as he was laid gently into a chair. Asuna then ordered two vanilla ice creams, the bowls resting on the table.
Kazuto was still knocked out, his ice cream untouched as Asuna waited respectfully for him to eat his. When he woke up, stirring slowly, he awoke to see the girl of his dreams sitting across the table from him, "A-Asuna?"
"Hello Kazuto how are you today?"
He started stammering, "Wh-what is this? Wh-where am I?" Kazuto asked, whipping his head around the ice cream shop.
His head whipped back to her as he heard a giggle, "Relax, Ishoyama dropped you off and we're on a date."
"A-a date. With you?"
She smiled at him, "Do you have short term memory loss or something?"
"I-I...I really don't know at this point."
Asuna eyed his bowl, "You're not touching your ice cream."
He instantly picked it up and started to shove large amounts of it in his mouth, making her laugh in surprise, "Stop, stop! That wasn't an order, I was just offering some to you."
"O-oh." Kazuto mumbled slowly, putting the ice cream back down while mumbling against a mouthful of it.
"Why do you take everything I say so seriously?" She asked, leaning her perfect posture forward onto her arms.
"B-because. Because I respect you, and I admire you...a lot."
She picked up her bowl neatly with a thin raised eyebrow, "Really? Well that's flattering I guess, most guys I know don't even have the word respect in their vocabulary."
"Guys like Ishoyama?" Kazuto joked.
Asuna giggled again, scooping up some vanilla ice cream with her spoon, "Yes, people exactly like him. Speaking of which I wanted to ask, if you had to choose between him or me, who would it be?"
"You." He said confidently in an instant, without the single trace of a stutter.
She raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? You'd sell out your friend that quickly?"
Kazuto bit his lip.
Damn it that was a trap! This is torturous to avoid these types of questions.
"I mean...what did you want me to say?"
"Mm, I don't know." Asuna shrugged, sticking her spoon in her mouth with an innocent smile.
"Please, wh-what was the right answer?"
"Perhaps we shall never know."
Kazuto looked down to his lap in deep thought, his black eyes flying from his knees to his belt again and again, trying to understand how he should've reacted properly.
"Stop." Asuna laughed, "I'm sorry I tortured you."
"Forgive me for asking, but why did you do it then?" Her nervous date asked before tapping the tips of his fingers together.
She mumbled quietly with a small tinge of embarrassment, a small bit of red rising in her cheeks, "Because when you get flustered...it's sort of..." Asuna sighed, "It's sort of adorable."
Kazuto blacked out when this compliment hit, falling out of his chair as the four bullet trains smacked together in his brain again.
When he awoke the date continued normally as if nothing had ever happened, Asuna noting that compliments could possibly result in what Taisuke liked to call Kazu-crashes. They spent the whole time talking about the things they liked, which allowed them to engage rather strongly, as Kazuto was into video games and her father just so happened to be the owner of a video game company.
Asuna also gave loads of advice on studying, which ended up being very helpful to Kazuto as Taisuke was about as useful to him as a cheat sheet with all the answers written on it locked inside an iron chest.
They actually spent so much time talking and laughing together that they moved to the ice cream stores couch, speaking until the sun came down. Tokyo's skyline lit awake like a multicolored birthday cake, and the two teens sighed in disappointment, seeing the clock tick to eight o clock.
Asuna shrugged, "Well I guess it had to end at some point. I had fun though."
"Me too, do you want me to walk you home?"
"That would be fine, but I live an hour away from here walking distance-wise."
He followed her outside, where they stood and watched cars zoom by before Kazuto spoke, "Hey how did you get here Asuna? Did your mother drive you or..."
She laughed again, making him turn red in surprise, "My mother? Please, the day I'd tell her I was out on a date with a boy instead of studying shall never ever come. But I wouldn't worry about it."
"But I-"
"Kazu, I'll be fine, thank you." She waved over a cab and asked, "Hey, do you know if Ishoyama is giving you a ride back to your place?"
"Uh...m-maybe? But I'm not getting into a car with him for the rest of my life."
"Why?"
Kazuto pointed to the long black scorch mark that was where the rubber tires imprinted onto the parking space, showing he'd drifted into a brake stop.
"Oh. I hope he gets arrested for that." Asuna added promptly, praying for the day she didn't have to share a classroom with him, "Kazuto? Do you maybe want to do this again sometime?"
"Definitely. Thanks for the ice cream, that was very kind of you." He said in a hurriedly nervous tone as the cab driver cleared his throat loudly.
She answered back equally as fast, "Thank you for the date, see you at school on Monday!" Asuna leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek, making his cheeks glow bright red and...
Causing a famous Kazu-crash.
"Is he going to be fine?" The cab driver asked the girl getting into his yellow car.
"He's Kirigaya Kazuto, of course he'll be fine." Asuna mumbled, used to this by now as hearts floated off his body, laying out cold on the ground.
When he recovered from his crash, he ran to the window of the ice cream store, seeing the lip stick mark on his cheek where Asuna'd kissed him, and bursting into happy cheers, "I did it! I finally have the girl of my dreams to be with!" The people in the ice cream store eyed him curiously as he ran up and down the street in bombastic cheerful sprints, hooting loudly and bouncing into the air in happiness.
Kazuto threw his fist into the night with a final cheer, "Suck on that Ishoyama! Choke on those words man!"
The boy ended up running home as fast as he could, a bright smile on his face.
Sugu thew her nose up in disgust when he walked by, entering their house, "Ugh. You smell terrible."
"I ran all the way from the airport, why wouldn't I be?" Kazuto laughed, walking up the stairs to his room.
She saw him do this while thinking.
What the hell has him so happy?
When he collapsed onto his bed after texting Asuna the whole night, the world swirled into a blur for him, happy thoughts and multiple dates allowing for a single night of rest to allow days to fly by.
...
The Fall Dance arrived quickly, and Taisuke unsurprisingly couldn't get anyone to go with him. So when it began at Yojimi High's gymnasium, he sulked in a corner sitting at a table by himself, fellow students dancing in pairs or large groups around him. Asuna and Kazuto had decided to meet each other there, and Kazuto was checking himself in a window.
He made sure his black hair looked all right, along with his black suit and tie, before a voice complimented him kindly behind him, "You look fine Kazuto."
Kazuto turned around and gasped trying not to crash, "I-I. You look. You look perfect." He said confidently, standing up straighter and nodding.
And indeed she did, wearing a beautiful pink dress and heels, her hair released from it's usual ponytail, "Thank you, so do you Kazu."
She offered her hand which was promptly taken by him, the two walking inside the dance.
Taisuke, in his white suit and red bow tie, eyed the group of girls that usually followed Asuna by squinting at them, seeing them run up to her and compliment her.
"You look incredible Asuna!" Rika smiled.
"Totally." Keiko and Shino said with nods.
"Thank you, all of you do too." She nodded back, interlocking her fingers with Kazuto's before standing behind him. Their small dance began, as Kazuto leaned back on her, the girl wrapping her hands around his stomach and resting her head on his shoulder. The two of them just swayed there slowly, before Taisuke couldn't take it anymore.
He withdrew a small silver flask from inside the white folds of his tuxedo, taking a quick sip from it. A middle aged teacher appeared, frowning and fixing his glasses, "What is that young man?"
"Whiskey from Idaho. Aged in my fathers cellar for years, want some Norimo-sensei?"
"I...I...I am a recovering alcoholic, my wife will kill me."
"Just one hit come on Sensei." Taisuke offered, smirking up at him and offering it, "You know how much you want that juice..."
The man gritted his teeth, "Fine."
Moments later, the two were chuckling and getting drunk together. Asuna and Kazuto passed them, hearing them sing loudly in drunken tones, "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens! Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens! Brown wooden packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things! When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad! I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feeeeel. Sooo bad!"
The two of them chuckled as Asuna eyed them reproachfully from resting her head on Kazuto's shoulder, hearing their whiskey amplified voices singing in English echo across the gymnasium, "Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snow that falls on my nose and eyelashes! Silver white winters that melt into springs, these are a few of my favorite things! When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling saaaad! I simply remember my favorite things! And then I don't feeeeel soo baaaad!"
They finished with a long note, their perfectly masculine voices ending the song loudly. Asuna stopped resting her head on Kazuto's shoulder to go smack Taisuke across the face and reprimand another classes teacher, but Kazuto held her elbow when the slow music played across the gymnasium, "Asuna. Please."
"But they're-"
He pulled her confidently to his chest, "They don't matter. You want to know who matters?"
She nodded, taking the chance to rest her hands on his shoulders.
As he spun her under his arm, before standing behind her and speaking resting his head on her shoulder, he spoke to her, "You. You matter to me Asuna. These past two weeks have been the most amazing days of my life. How do you feel?"
She turned around and held his elbows, "Kazu- I. I think I feel the same way, I've learned enough about you I could name anything you like."
Kazuto smirked, "Is that so? Name them then."
The slow swaying music kept playing and she took the challenge, speaking to him while their bodies moved in a dance, "Ask me a question then, anything."
"My favorite show?"
"Blast Heroes. You said it was cheesy and ridiculous fun."
He smirked, looking into her amber eyes, "I said it was cheesy and under budgeted."
"You made that up." Asuna gave him a warning look, "You refuse to acknowledge the fact that I know you so we-"
She was interrupted by another American power ballad from a drunken teacher and Taisuke.
Asuna tried to retreat from his arms, but Kazuto managed to grow enough confidence to draw her back, moving her away from them, "See? You can't even hear them now."
"Yes but they're still drunk!" She pleaded.
"Asuna. Don't worry about it. They're drunk, not us. Can I be honest?"
"Of course." She nodded, blinking and still looking into those black caves that were his eyes.
He rested his hands above her hips, "I'm enjoying my time with you right now. I've enjoyed this more than I've enjoyed my time with anyone else." Their bodies kept swaying in their slow dance, "Do you feel the same way?"
"Yes. How could I not?"
Kazuto looked down at his shifting black dress shoes, "I mean...I act pretty shyly. I'm pretty impulsive and not all that smart."
She shook her head, "Those are called flaws. Name one of my flaws come on."
"You're too perfect." He said instantly.
Asuna laughed, "Oh wow! And you're calling Blast Heroes cheesy listen to yourself."
"I'm not lying, I wish I was but I can't point out anything wrong with you."
"I can point out something wrong with you. You're a dummy." She smirked, still swaying in their slow dance.
"Yeah I know." He admitted, looking away from her strikingly intelligent amber eyes.
"Can you...kiss me dummy?" She asked, turning his cheek back to her.
"Uh..." He gulped, feeling the four bullet trains build up in his head, building power as they approached impact. Kazuto felt it all build up in his head like a rumbling train, the nervous wreck approaching, the crash coming before...
Kazuto leaned forward to kiss her confidently, after Asuna helped him break out of his shy restraints for weeks.
Only his lips...missed?
Someone had pulled Asuna away from him when he went for what she asked for, pulling her away in a tight dance of his own. The boy laughed, "Lemme borrow the she-devil for a second, gotta few dance moves of my own to try." He tried to dance with her, grabbing her hand.
"Taisuke are you drunk?"
"N-no!" He exclaimed slurring, "Y-your mom's drunk! Ha...good one Yama good one..."
Kazuto was indeed impulsive grunting and shoving Taisuke to the ground. He immediately regretted his decision, seeing Taisuke rise from the ground and standing over half a head taller than him, balling his amazingly strong fists. The air seemed to crack as his knuckles were bared. As the dance watched in shock, the slow dance music still playing as they stared.
Taisuke smirked, his head turning to a passed out Sensei Norimo in his chair, "The only teacher here is out. Means I can wreck you."
"Yama we're friends why the hell are you doing this?" Kazuto asked.
He spat at him, "We're not friends! You left me man, for her! For this bitch you barely know!"
"She's not like you say she is! I've actually gotten to know her pretty well, and you know what? She's pretty cool! The coolest person I've met! Cooler than you Ishoyama!"
The boxer shook his head, "I've known you for years and the only thanks I get is a pat on the damned shoulder! And you choose the person I hate most, my opinion doesn't mean a damn thing! Screw you!" Taisuke roared, throwing a trained right punch to his face.
Kazuto closed his eyes and lifted a hand in front of his face to brace himself.
Asuna ran to protect him and caught it in her palm, her flowing chestnut hair whipping backwards from the air that was made from its impact. She kept holding the boxer's right fist, gripping it so tightly in her rage that he winced in pain, "Don't you ever touch him. If you hurt him I'll kill you." She murmured through her calm anger, "You have high grades yet you act like you have a mental disability. Imbecile."
"Bitch!" He retorted drunkenly, reaching for a glass of pink punch on a nearby table and throwing it onto her.
Taisuke laughed after seeing Asuna gasp, the drink being spilled onto her front. He kept laughing, a few of the dances members laughing at her with him. He placed hands on his mouth to amplify his drunken voice, "Hey everyone! The School Queen's boobs are showing! Come check 'em out!"
She felt a tear slip out in embarrassment, before running outside with an arm over her eyes, salty water flying from them. Kazuto clenched his jaw, glaring at him, "Ishoyama. We were never friends if you can do something this selfish."
He just shrugged, downing his flask and hooting, "Come on everyone! There's no teachers! The night belongs to the only people who matter in this damned world!" A drunken fist was raised into the air, "Us! Teenagers!"
As everyone aside from Asuna's group of friends in the dance's corner cheered with him, Kazuto opened the door to the gymnasium, letting the light of the hallway enter the darkened room.
Asuna kept running through the school hallways, Kazuto following her in a sprint of his own. She stopped at a small window at the end of a hallway where the moonlight poured in, her run of shame ending as she stood by the window and cried into her hands. Kazuto came up to her and hugged her, "Hey. Hey hey hey, it's all right. It's all right."
"How can it?" She asked, crying into his black suited chest, "Everyone saw..." Asuna sniffled.
"It was just a drink of punch."
"I-I'm a class representative I can't have things like this to me."
"You'll be fine..." Kazuto whispered, seeing her eyes stricken with tears, "You're the smartest prettiest person in the whole school, you can figure it out."
"R-really?" She was held in his arms, "Y-you think so?"
"Of course I do. Even Ishoyama says so."
"But he's an idiot."
"He is but..." He picked up her hands, staring into her eyes, "I think so. I've never met anyone who cared so much about me. I've never met anyone who remembered so much about me. I've never met anyone who's been so kind to me, so genuine, so easy to talk to. Asuna, why did you threaten to kill him?"
Asuna looked up at him, wiping the tears off her face, "B-because I felt that way. Just the moment I saw that he was going to do that to you I wanted to hurt him. The second I saw you in trouble I wanted to protect you, I-I don't know what the feeling was. But I just had to make sure you were safe."
She stood up and wrapped her arms around his back, "It's just whenever I see you happy and safe, I feel happy and safe too." Asuna's face stood about a millimeter from his, whispering to him, "Do you like that I feel this way?"
"Of course I do how could I not?" He whispered back.
"Please kiss me Kazuto, or I might go insane."
He stood still, only two of four trains colliding in his head making him freeze. She opened her eyes, "Dammit fine, I'll do it."
"Hmm! Hm..." Kazuto yelped in surprise upon feeling her lips enclose over his, his black eyes flying open before closing peacefully. It was a strange rubbery wet feeling, one that he definitely was not used to. Yet he felt happy while sensing her soft lips rub and pull on his softly, a small bit of warmth raising in his heart.
She parted from his kiss opening her eyes, this time moving her hands from inside his and letting it be her turn. Asuna held his hands and sighed, looking down at her shoes, "Ishoyama will probably call my mother tonight. Odds are he'll do everything in his power to make my life hell."
"S-so what're you going to do? What're you saying?" Kazuto asked, opening his eyes.
"I'm saying that I can't go home tonight, not looking like this anyway." Asuna frowned, looking down at the punch drink that covered the front of her pink dress. A different look fell on her face, surprising Kazuto with her boldness, "Do you maybe...want to go to a motel with me?"
"What?!" He shouted, "Wh-wh-why would we go there?"
"Because I want to spend the night with you Kazuto."
He kept stammering, "B-but I-I...wh-what would we do there?"
Asuna shrugged innocently, fixing the black flaps of his blazer, "Who knows? Maybe we'll find out when we get there."
Kazuto shook his head, "Doesn't matter anyway. Neither of us have a car to get there and Ishoyama won't drive me anywhere even if his life depended on it."
"Well we can just call a cab can't we?"
He nodded, "Y-yeah. Yeah we could."
"Can I buy something special before we go over there though?"
"Sure."
...
Taisuke, the life of the party that became the dance, watched as Asuna and Kazuto walked out of the school hand in hand. When he saw this he was hit with a sinking feeling.
That nobody in their lives would do something so courageous with him.
Ishoyama Taisuke soon found himself leaving the dance with a staggering drunken walk, pushing the door to the gymnasium open with a hiccup. Taisuke was a very tall and robust fellow, but he'd consumed enough alcohol to barely even walk.
"Yeaaah! That rich kid really knows how to party!" Someone shouted, seeing him stagger outside assuming he'd vomit his brains out.
He sighed, knowing he was far too drunk to drive. Taisuke then shrugged, getting ready to call a cab to take him home, praying his rich morally orthodox parents weren't awake to witness their son disgustingly drunk.
Meanwhile Kazuto and Asuna went into the cab holding hands, the cab driver seriously concerned if he should be letting two minors do something so unethical, wondering if their parents were all right with this. In his rear view mirror he saw Asuna's face for a moment, and rubbed his nose contemplatively. But the man just took the money Kazuto passed him from his wallet and drove to where Asuna ordered him to do so.
A bald man smoking a cigar and reading a newspaper raised an eyebrow, seeing them enter his office, "Yes?"
"Hi we'd like to rent a room please." Asuna asked confidently.
He grunted against his cigarette, not even putting his newspaper down or looking at them from his feet raised on his desk, "That's just five thousand for the night I'm not a cheap bastard. Pick a key, we gotta lot of rooms available."
Kazuto placed the money on the desk as Asuna picked a key.
...
Soon the two of them sat side by side on a bed in the motel room. Kazuto rested his hands on his knees shyly, "I...I...what do people do in here anyway?"
"They make love." Asuna smirked against his neck, pressing her lips to it for a second before moving to his cheek.
Kazuto turned and met her lips with his own, kissing tightly for a moment, their arms wrapped around each other. However, it wasn't like the kiss they had at the windowsill back at the dance. There was something different behind it, Asuna was trying to open his mouth with her tongue, her grasp on his arm tight.
When he accepted and felt her suck seductively on his tongue, then biting his bottom lip for a second with a smirk, he could see how absolutely confident she was about doing this, but still asked anyway, "Hey...you sure you want this? If you want to back out now, I'll totally understand."
She shook her head before grabbing his upper body and forcing him laying on the bed with her, "That would be so cruel. How could I do that to you?" Asuna nibbled on his earlobe for a moment before growling in his ear, "Take your clothes off. All of them." She demanded.
Kazuto nodded, moving slowly to rise from their bed, walking to the window where moon light poured on him. He finished unbuttoning the knobs on his black shirt, before taking it off and revealing the pale skin of his lean chest. Kazuto unbuckled his belt and pushed his black slacks down his legs, before stepping out of them and standing almost naked in the moon light. Wearing nothing more than his underwear and a shy look on his face, Kazuto held his elbows sheepishly, "H-hey. It's your turn too now."
Asuna pulled her pink dress over her body and sat in her underwear with him.
Her lover broke away from her kiss and retreated into a shy position. He rested his black haired head atop his knees and murmured on a corner of their bed, "I-I'm so sorry. It's just I'm shy about this sort of thing."
She traced her thumb across his cheek, "Please don't ever act shy again Kazuto."
"Wh-why not?" Kazuto asked, looking up at Asuna.
"Because it's the cutest thing in the world, and I think I might just die if I see something so adorable again." She held his chin and kissed him, not feeling any vigor on his end of it, Asuna looked into his black eyes, "Kazuto, there's nothing to be worried about. I will always protect you, there's no reason to ever be afraid around me. The day I'd hurt you simply doesn't exist."
Kazuto nodded and laid on the bed with her, before Asuna parted her lips from his and whispered, tracing another thumb across his cheek, "If there is anyone who tells me that two weeks of getting to know you is too short to do this they're wrong. Because after spending so much time getting to know you, I've come to understand one thing about you, and this thing will stick to me forever...I love you Kazuto, more than anything in the whole world."
He nodded calmly, whispering against her lips as the moonlight from the window fell on their bed, "I know...and I would be lying to you if I said I didn't feel the same way...I love you Asuna. If there's one thing you've taught me it's to be open about my feelings, and I just...I love you so much."
While they kissed softly, Kazuto started to feel safer and less shy in her arms. He always felt happier around her, not pent up and on edge, like someone would always make fun of him when he was with Taisuke, but when he was with Asuna he felt safer, like a warm blanket had wrapped around him and swaddled him.
The airtight seal that was Kazuto's shyness and sheepish personality, built up by Taisuke's arrogance, became nothing more than a memory.
She pecked him sweetly on the lips and reached for the package she had bought earlier that night. After Asuna was finished withdrawing the prophylactic, they whispered that they loved each other once more, flicking the lamp near their bedside off.
When it ended two content naked bodies were laying beneath the white bed sheets, the moonlight shining on them and their eyes were closed. Their arms and legs were intertwined and they were laying their heads on the same pillow side by side, their faces inches from each other. Kazuto rolled over a little in his sleep, resting his nose against the bridge of Asuna's for a moment, before dreams let them slip away.
...
Kirigaya Kazuto was a very heavy sleeper, it took the crafty mind of one of Yojimi High's best students, Taisuke, to wake him up every morning for school. Even when the early morning's glowing rays smashed against his closed eyelids he still laid asleep. Taisuke had no idea that all he had to do was turn into a girl and lay underneath him, because that's all that it took to get him to burst awake.
His eyes flew open in an instant, gasping quietly while waking up and realizing that he'd slept on someone's collarbone. His surprise furthered when he realized that the most beautiful girl he'd met in his life was her, the same girl he'd dreamed about loving since the first grade. The memory of the dance, the dates and the past two weeks played like an old film in his mind, the film grain scratchy as a cats tongue.
Kazuto nodded to his own memories, understanding them, before raising himself, sitting up next to her while wearing nothing more than a smile. He held the right side of her sleeping face while thinking.
At school she's this awfully smart and serious class representative, but when I'm with her she's like the most charming energetic person. If I had known that all it would've taken was to confess my feelings sooner to become so close, so tender with someone so perfect and kind, I would've done it the moment my love sprouted from my heart. It never hit me but, how could I not be in love with her, how did it take me this long to realize it? How can anyone in the world admire someone for so long and not love them?
More importantly, I feel like this is the happiest moment of my life, for I know that it is now my life's duty to make her happy and to become hers. For if this dream I call love is to become a reality, I must dedicate myself to her.
Feeling Kazuto's hand hold her face lovingly, Asuna woke up slowly, stirring before smiling up at him, "H-Hey." She murmured with a smile, standing up and resting her back against the wall of the motel room, "You hungry?"
"Not really." He sighed, rubbing his tired eyes, laying his back on the white wall next to her, sprawling his bare legs out on top of the covers, "I mean if you are, let's go get something but other than that I-"
Asuna giggled for a second, grabbing his bare body and forcing him to lay face first on the bed, forcing the back of his head into her white sheet covered chest, "You honestly talk far too much. Last night was a nightmare because of that."
"I-I was that bad?" He asked shamefully, murmuring sheepishly with a frown into the white bed sheet.
She nodded with a smirk, "Yup, you were awful."
Kazuto moved his head to look at her knowing she was kidding, used to being teased like this by the girl who held the back of his neck, "Why do you torture me like this Asuna?" He asked out loud, not murmuring against the sheets anymore.
"Because there's nothing sweeter than seeing you grovel at my feet like some sort of apologetic dweeb. It's the most fun I've had in a while seeing you just question everything you say to me when we go out on dates or at school." She made firm eye contact with him, "I'm...really sorry."
He raised both his eyebrows in shock, "What in the world do you have to be sorry about?"
"I'm sorry that I didn't notice your feelings sooner. I'm so sorry that it took last night to come so close to each other. You kept your feelings in for so long and I just-." Asuna stopped herself, "It doesn't matter now. Because after everything that's happened over the past two weeks I'm sure about one thing."
He blinked, sitting next to her on the bed and rolling a hand forwards, asking as to what exactly she meant.
"I want to stay with you Kazuto. Now and forever, because we love each other." Sitting next to him on their bed, Asuna cupped his face with a smile, "To see you act so sweetly and...human to me since we started going out, something just clicked inside my head. And I knew that you were the person I wanted to live forever with."
"That's fine."
"I-It is?" She asked in surprise, her amber eyes widening in shock, "You don't think its selfish? To keep you and make you mine so quickly?"
"It would be selfish of me to grab your feelings and throw them in a dumpster simply because you've become the most important thing in my life. No, you are not selfish Yuuki Asuna, you are the exact opposite of that."
"And what would that be?" She asked.
"The kindest most generous person I've met. Because I've never met a person to act so warmly towards me, and if it weren't for you I don't know where I'd be or who I'd be with. Probably no one who I should be with." They held each others faces before kissing for the quick moment, holding the back of each other's heads.
Their lips parted once more and they stared into each others eyes, saying nothing, letting silence stay true for just a moment while their hearts rolled around in their chests, soaking in warmth.
It was ended by a loud young man's voice, who burst into the room with a yell, "Where the hell have you two been?!"
Kazuto yelped in surprise, jumping off the bed and crouching to cover himself, "Who's that Asuna? I don't like him."
"T-Tsu? What're you doing here?"
"You know this person?" Kazuto asked, looking at her while crouching at their bedside to protect his naked body from his eyes.
She sighed, looking down at the bed, "This is Tsuboi Ryoutarou, he used to teach me piano when I was little. He knows my family well."
Ryoutarou walked over to her bedside, speaking to her, "Some cab driver called your parents this morning. Said he recognized you and your family from some low income charity event you attended a few months ago?"
Asuna sat pale, her face blank with expression as she knew what this meant. However, something struck her as odd.
The cab driver called them, not Ishoyama?
"You are in bi-hi-hig trouble missy. The whole town's been looking for both of you for the past nine hours, your father alerted the police to bring you both home if you're found."
"What?" Kazuto shouted, still having his head hover from the side of the bed, "Why?"
"They've been worried sick why else, missing minors much? And they sent me over to collect you and then let the police know that you've been found. You must've turned your phones off because everyone who knows you two said you haven't responded to your text messages, calls anything! What the hell were you two thinking?" He yelled angrily, "There are people in this world who care about you two and need to know where you've been and what you're doing! People get scared out of their minds when you disappear from their lives so suddenly, how did you two run off without so much a whisper? A damned text message!? To your parents! Remember them? They tend to get scared when you don't show up at their homes!"
They looked at each other, "W-we..." Kazuto started, "We didn't think it would be so important, we weren't thinking about that when we decided to do this."
Ryoutarou sighed, "No I get it. You two are kids, freaking children that's why. I honestly don't blame you two for not thinking things through, had you been older, this wouldn't have happened." He looked to them, "I'd get dressed if I were both of you. I'll be waiting downstairs to take you two home." The man muttered, walking to his car.
He closed the door behind them and walked away muttering.
Kazuto looked to Asuna, "If you want me to go to your house and talk-"
"There's no need for that, I'll speak to them myself, this is my issue with them." She apologized, walking over to her pink dress with the purple punch stain on it and throwing it on herself.
"No we're in this together I-"
She cut him off with a kiss, rubbing his cheek while holding his chin, "I'm sorry. I need to handle them myself."
"And what? Feed you to the lions out of cowardice? What kind of person do you take me as?"
Asuna looked at him, "I think we both know we'd do anything for each other. That doesn't mean we can't be reasonable people."
"This is reasonable, I love you!"
"Kazuto...fine. Note that these aren't what you would call nice people, there's a reason I've been keeping you a secret from them."
"I don't care if they're aliens with blaster rifles, I'll speak to them with you."
Kazuto redressed himself and the two of them walked out of the motel room with messy hair and loose fitting clothes...but despite the looks they got...they still held hands proudly. Seeing them walk down the motel's concrete steps, Ryoutarou sighed, "Sorry for yelling at you two it's just...get in I'll explain."
They all piled into his old brown Toyota sedan, and Ryoutarou spoke while turning the engine on, "I initially refused to come pick you two up, I liked the statement you were making to society and all that."
"Uh...we're not making a-"
Asuna cut him off by pinching his thigh and making him groan in pain, still wearing a seatbelt over her punch stained dress, "Yes?"
"I refused, but your parents got angry and told me that I was still your caretaker, and this is what they paid me for back when I still worked for them. And the way they spoke to me, I didn't like it. It was if I was lower than them. I'm sorry for barking I..."
"Its okay Tsu." Asuna smiled weakly.
As he kept driving towards the Yuuki manor, a pit so deep sunk in their stomachs that they were sure nothing could ever fill it. But they both knew one thing: Real life was going to backhand them back down to reality from the little paradise they created together. The slap would be so hard they could possibly never get up again.
Approaching one's fate could be a terrible thing, but Kazuto just reached across his seat in Ryoutarou's car and held Asuna's hand, "At least we'll face 'em together right?"
A firm nod from her was all that Kazuto needed to know that this was going to be difficult. Really, really difficult.
...