Prompt word: Toothpaste
Duration: Written out on 10.03pm to 11.23pm, 7.55am to 8.40am, 9.05am to 9.15am. LOL. Please excuse any plotholes. :)
Special Thanks: To Hopeless92. Because of your Hyotei Cracks, I shall make a series of Seigaku Cracks :D YOU ROCK. Not exactly a series don't you think? I only have Catflap and Toothpaste for the time being.
Dedicated to: LIHAN, MY DEAR EIJI FAN AND BESTIE :D
Toothpaste
It was a random, random happy day. A Sunday, in fact.
The kinds Tezuka rarely experienced, the kinds Fuji always get when everyone else gets bad ones, and most importantly, the kinds that Eiji always gets. Since this is an Eiji-centric fanfiction, we shall not go further into the rest of the regulars.
It was a happy day, partially because he woke from a happy dream of candy, anago, Mr. Rabbit and himself. He woke up at exactly 8:21:10, which was coincidentally his brithday written backwards. He did three flips on the bouncy bed without falling, counted three trees with red flowers and four trees with yellow ones.
When he went outdoors, he crossed the road in exactly the timing of the chorus of his favourite song. He did countless lucky things, and yes, he was very very happy.
He had only been this happy before, once, when he was five. His parents agreed to buy him a little chick during Shichi-goh-san, because he was such a big kid.
To think about it, one of his saddest moments in life was minutes after that: He dropped the chick, and it died.
Such a completely random thought came to him that he nearly crashed into a trashbin doing a somersault. Was this foretelling DOOM? But hey, he was lucky from this morning, wasn't he? Surely any doom will disperse from the almighty aura of luck and goodness and happiness radiating from within him?
Right, Mr Karma?
On his way home, he purchased a pair of shoes that costed $28.11 (His birthday again), ate a Fuji apple, rented the Playstation game he had been waiting for ages, successfully flipped over a curb he hadn't been able to flip over since forever, dodged a weird dude on a bicycle with an Ipod wearing a beanie and a sweater and leaving a ridiculous mohawk hairstyle, plus a whole lot of totally random things that just makes people thrilled and HAPPY.
Any more lucky, he'd be Sengoku.
After he saw a cat chasing its tail, plucked a four-leaved clover from a random bush (Are there even clovers in Japan? O.O) and many many other random, happy things, Eiji reached his house, back in time to brush his teeth.
Teethbrushing is a chore to many, but to Eiji, it is like one sacred duty he had to do for staying in this deranged family of his. He liked it too, so it doesn't matter much. The unbelievably sweet minty scent, fragrance of the toothpaste is like...heaven to his...NOSE!
At least he still had his tube of-
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" The way it is italised, bold, underlined AND capitalized can almost picture how loud he screamed that one-syllable word. His brain was worked for volume, not for quantity. Has anybody noticed that 'Nya' and 'Hoi' were also one-syllabled?
This is the start of 'The tragedy of Kikumaru Eiji'.
He had ran out of toothpaste.
And for a certain Kikumaru Eiji, it was a very, very big problem indeed.
-
"Fuji-senpai,"
Fuji turned around. "Oh, Echizen. What is it?"
"Where is Eiji-senpai? He still owes me a couple of hundred yen from two weeks ago."
"Eiji? He didn't come for class today, I presume he's absen-"
"Oy, Fuji," Oishi strolled towards him, clutching a book on doubles formations. "Have you seen Eiji? We are supposed to practice the I formation today,"
"Fuji, have you seen Eiji lately? I have to ask him to input his latest examination results into my notebook." Yes, contrary to popular belief, Inui does not stalk. At least, not a lot. He asks for data. Very persuasively.
"...Sumimasen, minna. Eiji wasn't in school today. It can be safe to assume he wouldn't be coming for practice today."
The team lapsed into an awkward silence.
"Is Eiji sick or something?"
"Should we go and visit Eiji-senpai after practice?"
"Ten laps everyone," Tezuka seemed unaffected. "After practice, we can go."
Yes, they took off. Tezuka's word itself was law.
-
Meanwhile, Eiji's mother was having a hard time getting her normally talkative son to speak. Day after day she was trying in vain to keep that particular big mouth shut, and now she was doing whatever to get it to talk. Oh, the irony.
"Eiji!"
"..."
"Oy, Eiji, the team is here to see you."
"..."
"Okay Eiji, the team is really here to see you."
"..."
"Serious!"
Eiji gave a bitter laugh. Tezuka probably came to assign more laps for missing practice. Inui come to feed him, Fuji to torture him and Momoshiro to out-eat him.
Without his toothpaste, he is just about as sociable as a rock and equally optimistic.
The door to his room opened slightly. Eiji dived under the covers to hide his face and pretend to fall asleep. He obviously had lousy acting skills, because he was immediately shaken 'awake' by Fuji, who demanded an explaination.
"Eiji, you don't have a cold, flu, fever or anything contagious. In short, you're not sick." Oishi concluded.
"I feel sick." Eiji moaned. "Maybe I suffer from depression,"
DEPRESSION?! Eiji never suffered from depression. It would be like Akutagawa Jiroh from Hyotei crying over a loss.
No, it was impossible.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and Momoshiro took the risk. "Eiji-senpai, I can treat you to the new fast food restaurant in town, if that's what you want."
At that moment, everyone, with the exception of Kaidoh, had a higher level of respect for the stomach-like-a-pit.
"..."
If food wasn't working, something was seriously wrong with the acrobatics player.
"Eiji," Fuji started. "You can tell us anything that is bothering you." The team nodded wholeheartedly in agreement.
"...Really?"
"Really."
Eiji attempted a smile. "Thanks guys, but no thanks,"
"Why?"
"The reason sounds very retarded after I go through it in my head," He admitted.
"No worries, Eiji," Inui smiled. "You are stupid, so I don't think we would mind-"
"INUI!" It was hard enough comforting an Eiji, but...!
"- ahem, sorry. Please continue,"
"..."
"You can do it, Eiji-senpai!"
"..I FINISHED MY TOOTHPASTE!!" Eiji wailed, remembering the death of his beloved heaven-in-a-tube-with-a-screw-on-cap. It does sound retarded.
The team took a few minutes to digest this peculiar information thrown to them at top speed.
"Eiji-senpai." Ryoma recovered speedily. "You can always buy some more,"
"..." Eiji blinked once. Twice. Three times. Then, he snapped his fingers, and pounced. "OCHIBI! I LOVE YOU!!"
"Eh?!" Ryoma looked bewildered, amused and everything in between as Eiji squeezed him into a big bear hug. He unlatched Ryoma as suddenly as he latched onto him, and left in a blur. Before you can say 'NYA', he was back, with another one of those heaven-in-a-tube-with-a-screw-on-cap. "Now, I'm going to brush my teeth!" He announced triumphantly.
"You see what I mean?" Inui mumbled.
A/N: Wow. The second time I completed typing out the fanfiction in one day :O I am so exhausted D: Eiji was being dumb in here. SORRY LIHAN :\ I couldn't think of any other way to potray a naive, dumb and oblivious personalit- sorry, sorry, FINE! HE'S CUTE! JUST PUT THAT KNIFE DOWN!