The cherry blossoms were falling, swirling in
circles towards the ground. Like rain, really messed up
pink rain, but rain none the less. It was the season for it,
and people were out under the trees, picnicking. He could
imagine them now, smiling faces and hands which were
curiously outstretched to catch some of the annual
offerings of the sakura no ki. If he didn't hate pink so
much and the fact he knew almost completely nothing
about Japanese culture, he'd be out there too.
A loud thump drew him away from the window
and the pink rain. The Greek exchange student had fallen
asleep, her head slipping from her hands to the desk. Her
pencil falling to the floor and rolling over to his foot. The
teacher stood over her, eyebrows meeting in the middle of
his forehead in a frown of annoyance.
Once awoken, she was warned and class went on
it's boring course.
He yawned, silently, mouth forming a perfect oval.
The Japanese boy sitting beside him glanced over in his
direction. Baby blues briefly focusing on him before
locking back on the front board. Displaying clearly the
childish fear about being caught by the teacher during one
of the periods of not paying attention. Asians. . . . . .
sometimes he wished his family hadn't moved. Japan was
utterly and completely different from America. It got
confusing.
At least it was the last class of the day and Friday.
In less then ten minutes, he could escape the boredom and
the blue eyed Asian who his hormones -- after all, that's
who he always blamed for his strange emotions -- seemed
to like. Already knowing his sexuality had its draw backs,
he couldn't waste time questioning himself about certain
stuff. Damn.
He watched the clock with a newfound interest,
riding out the minutes. Eyelids doping, somehow doing
nothing for almost an hour was extremely tiring.
The Japanese boy glanced at him again, eyes
lingering for a moment instead of a few seconds. Eyes
holding a strange curiosity which, to a certain degree,
scared him. He hated it when people looked like they
wanted to get in his head. He could see it in the Asian's
eyes. Damn, now he really wanted to get away.
Relief flooded over him as the bell rang. The
teacher looking up at the clock, mock surprise written
across his face, stating that they were able to leave now.
The students moved out like stampeding buffalo or
whatever the Japanese version of that was. The halls were
swamped in a matter of seconds with students, and a few
teachers, desperately wanting to go home.
Of course, nobody is above the Friday rush to get
out of school, so in one minute, he had made it out.
Taking in a deep breath of the fresh air, he started on his
journey home. Another weird thing about Japan, he had to
walk home. It was in a good walking distance but back in
America there was always a bus to take him.
"Ookido-san! Ookido-san chotto matte!" Home
will have to wait........
He turned around at the shouting of his name, or
last name. Japanese, a strange yet respectful language.
Damn! It was that Japanese boy. Sometimes, life was too
much of a bitch to him.
"Ookido-san! I'm glad I caught you....." The
Asian stopped his mad run to take a breather. 'Ookido-
san' watched him, mentally asking if he could out-run the
other. Most likely, the kid was a known klutz.
"What is it you want?" Get to the point, screw
being nice, I-really-wanna-get-outta-here, it was always
good to use that tone in situations like this. It worked its
charm in making sure others knew he wanted to be left
alone.
"I was wondering if you could help me out with
something. I'm having a hard time in math......" Then
again, the kid was a little slow on picking up on things like
that. One of the endlessly optimistic people that seemed
so sugary sweet and confident it made people like
'Ookido-san' sick to their stomachs.
"Sure, whatever. When?" Please not be today,
please not be today, please not be today.....he repeated
over and over in his head. That and 'down you overactive
hormones'.
"Is today okay? I mean, really need help now and
all. I'm completely clueless on this stuff." Argh, dumb
kid. Damn, damn, damn..... Now what was he going to
do? He had no excuses! Damn damn damn damn
damn.......... "Ookido-san?"
Sometimes, it is useless to think cause one will not
talk for minutes on end and that always draws attention.
Such as a situation like this. Now, the real trick is to
gracefully recover so one doesn't look like a total idiot.
"Huh? What? Oh yeah. Sure, whatever." Crush
and burn.
The Japanese boy beamed, his grin looking like it
would actually touch both his ears. "Sore wa sugoi!
Arigato Ookido-san!"
"Do itashimashte, ummmm....?" Well, the kid
never did tell him his name.
"Gomen! Watashi no namae wa Toraeru Satoshi
desu." If possible, the grin got bigger.
"Toraeru-san, okay, your place or mine?" Japanese
was confusing, last name first, first name last. Exceptions
are people who are famous then first name first, last name
last, unless...... See? Confusing. Hopefully he got that
right.
"Ahhhhh, doesn't matter, you chose." Satoshi said,
shifting his bag from one hand to the other. One of those
guys who have endless amounts of energy, one of those
boys who can't help shifting from one foot to another, yep,
that was 'Toraeru-san'.
"Okay then. Follow me." You better be happy you
overactive hormones, this feels like a long afternoon.
Ookido Shigeru had a headache. A monstrous,
enormous, massive, titanic-sized headache. Toraeru
Satoshi had to be either very slow and think skulled or
acting to try to gain something. The latter seemed
impossible because the kid really sounded like he was
completely clueless.
"I'm sorry.....maybe I should ask someone else.
I'm annoying you, aren't I?" Satoshi said, looking up at
him through midnight bangs. The math book and work
sheets were spread out in front of him, fanning out across
the table. Palms pressed flats on some of the sheets,
pencil strangely in the direct center of his hands.
Shigeru dropped one hand from its place on his
forehead, letting it be a loosely curled fist out in front of
him. He released a silent sigh and looked over at the
Asian beside him. Maybe he was going too fast with the
math, it was a little hard. The letters and problems and all
that other shit could be hard to pick up if a person had no
beginning experience with them.
"It's okay. Lets take a break, it might help us a
little...." Advil, Tylenol, whatever the hell his grandfather
kept as painkillers for headaches, he wanted some. Who
knew that fighting off hormones and working at math at
the same time could cause such pain? With his current
luck, probably the whole bloody word and nobody
bothered to tell him.
Shigeru stalked over to the kitchen and to the
cabinets looked over the stove. His grandfather was a
horrible packrat, it took brains to figure out where he hid
things. Brains and the fact one would have to live with the
old man as many years as Shigeru had. Ah-ha, Advil!
Right of the pots, left of the dishes.
Satoshi had followed him and was watching him
with that curious look in his eyes. Shigeru had to fight
down the urge to shiver in fear as he reached for one of the
glasses from their place behind the plates. Might as well
get another glass and offer the kid something to drink, it
would be rude not to, right?
He held out the extra glass towards the other boy.
"We got all kinds of stuff, take whatever you like out of
the fridge." Satoshi smiled, understanding, and took the
glass. He turned towards the fridge to see just what kind
of selection there actually was.
Shigeru made his way over to the sink to fill his
cup with the, hopefully, crystal clear liquid. Shaking a
bottle of Advil is always a good way to decide wheather
theres enough in its contents to satisfy its user. There was,
goodbye headache.
The Japanese boy heard him, tilting his head to
survey the auburn haired boy at the sink. Anyone could
see the guilt written of Satoshi's face. He knew he must
have caused whatever Shigeru needed pills for. He smile
fell and he looked back into the fridge, staring blankly at
the milk container.
"I really could leave if I'm causing to much trouble
for you. I don't want you to go out of your way to help
me. I gave you a headache, didn't I?" Geez, maybe the
kid wasn't so thick afterall.
Shigeru gulped down the last of his water, leaning
towards the counter, supporting his body weight with one
firmly placed hand. He could hear the hum of the
refridgerater, the kid was still standing there with the door
open.
"S'kay. Its not you, its the friggin' math." And
those stupid hormones, he added silently. "Let's take
another crack at it." Yep, long afternoon indeed.
circles towards the ground. Like rain, really messed up
pink rain, but rain none the less. It was the season for it,
and people were out under the trees, picnicking. He could
imagine them now, smiling faces and hands which were
curiously outstretched to catch some of the annual
offerings of the sakura no ki. If he didn't hate pink so
much and the fact he knew almost completely nothing
about Japanese culture, he'd be out there too.
A loud thump drew him away from the window
and the pink rain. The Greek exchange student had fallen
asleep, her head slipping from her hands to the desk. Her
pencil falling to the floor and rolling over to his foot. The
teacher stood over her, eyebrows meeting in the middle of
his forehead in a frown of annoyance.
Once awoken, she was warned and class went on
it's boring course.
He yawned, silently, mouth forming a perfect oval.
The Japanese boy sitting beside him glanced over in his
direction. Baby blues briefly focusing on him before
locking back on the front board. Displaying clearly the
childish fear about being caught by the teacher during one
of the periods of not paying attention. Asians. . . . . .
sometimes he wished his family hadn't moved. Japan was
utterly and completely different from America. It got
confusing.
At least it was the last class of the day and Friday.
In less then ten minutes, he could escape the boredom and
the blue eyed Asian who his hormones -- after all, that's
who he always blamed for his strange emotions -- seemed
to like. Already knowing his sexuality had its draw backs,
he couldn't waste time questioning himself about certain
stuff. Damn.
He watched the clock with a newfound interest,
riding out the minutes. Eyelids doping, somehow doing
nothing for almost an hour was extremely tiring.
The Japanese boy glanced at him again, eyes
lingering for a moment instead of a few seconds. Eyes
holding a strange curiosity which, to a certain degree,
scared him. He hated it when people looked like they
wanted to get in his head. He could see it in the Asian's
eyes. Damn, now he really wanted to get away.
Relief flooded over him as the bell rang. The
teacher looking up at the clock, mock surprise written
across his face, stating that they were able to leave now.
The students moved out like stampeding buffalo or
whatever the Japanese version of that was. The halls were
swamped in a matter of seconds with students, and a few
teachers, desperately wanting to go home.
Of course, nobody is above the Friday rush to get
out of school, so in one minute, he had made it out.
Taking in a deep breath of the fresh air, he started on his
journey home. Another weird thing about Japan, he had to
walk home. It was in a good walking distance but back in
America there was always a bus to take him.
"Ookido-san! Ookido-san chotto matte!" Home
will have to wait........
He turned around at the shouting of his name, or
last name. Japanese, a strange yet respectful language.
Damn! It was that Japanese boy. Sometimes, life was too
much of a bitch to him.
"Ookido-san! I'm glad I caught you....." The
Asian stopped his mad run to take a breather. 'Ookido-
san' watched him, mentally asking if he could out-run the
other. Most likely, the kid was a known klutz.
"What is it you want?" Get to the point, screw
being nice, I-really-wanna-get-outta-here, it was always
good to use that tone in situations like this. It worked its
charm in making sure others knew he wanted to be left
alone.
"I was wondering if you could help me out with
something. I'm having a hard time in math......" Then
again, the kid was a little slow on picking up on things like
that. One of the endlessly optimistic people that seemed
so sugary sweet and confident it made people like
'Ookido-san' sick to their stomachs.
"Sure, whatever. When?" Please not be today,
please not be today, please not be today.....he repeated
over and over in his head. That and 'down you overactive
hormones'.
"Is today okay? I mean, really need help now and
all. I'm completely clueless on this stuff." Argh, dumb
kid. Damn, damn, damn..... Now what was he going to
do? He had no excuses! Damn damn damn damn
damn.......... "Ookido-san?"
Sometimes, it is useless to think cause one will not
talk for minutes on end and that always draws attention.
Such as a situation like this. Now, the real trick is to
gracefully recover so one doesn't look like a total idiot.
"Huh? What? Oh yeah. Sure, whatever." Crush
and burn.
The Japanese boy beamed, his grin looking like it
would actually touch both his ears. "Sore wa sugoi!
Arigato Ookido-san!"
"Do itashimashte, ummmm....?" Well, the kid
never did tell him his name.
"Gomen! Watashi no namae wa Toraeru Satoshi
desu." If possible, the grin got bigger.
"Toraeru-san, okay, your place or mine?" Japanese
was confusing, last name first, first name last. Exceptions
are people who are famous then first name first, last name
last, unless...... See? Confusing. Hopefully he got that
right.
"Ahhhhh, doesn't matter, you chose." Satoshi said,
shifting his bag from one hand to the other. One of those
guys who have endless amounts of energy, one of those
boys who can't help shifting from one foot to another, yep,
that was 'Toraeru-san'.
"Okay then. Follow me." You better be happy you
overactive hormones, this feels like a long afternoon.
Ookido Shigeru had a headache. A monstrous,
enormous, massive, titanic-sized headache. Toraeru
Satoshi had to be either very slow and think skulled or
acting to try to gain something. The latter seemed
impossible because the kid really sounded like he was
completely clueless.
"I'm sorry.....maybe I should ask someone else.
I'm annoying you, aren't I?" Satoshi said, looking up at
him through midnight bangs. The math book and work
sheets were spread out in front of him, fanning out across
the table. Palms pressed flats on some of the sheets,
pencil strangely in the direct center of his hands.
Shigeru dropped one hand from its place on his
forehead, letting it be a loosely curled fist out in front of
him. He released a silent sigh and looked over at the
Asian beside him. Maybe he was going too fast with the
math, it was a little hard. The letters and problems and all
that other shit could be hard to pick up if a person had no
beginning experience with them.
"It's okay. Lets take a break, it might help us a
little...." Advil, Tylenol, whatever the hell his grandfather
kept as painkillers for headaches, he wanted some. Who
knew that fighting off hormones and working at math at
the same time could cause such pain? With his current
luck, probably the whole bloody word and nobody
bothered to tell him.
Shigeru stalked over to the kitchen and to the
cabinets looked over the stove. His grandfather was a
horrible packrat, it took brains to figure out where he hid
things. Brains and the fact one would have to live with the
old man as many years as Shigeru had. Ah-ha, Advil!
Right of the pots, left of the dishes.
Satoshi had followed him and was watching him
with that curious look in his eyes. Shigeru had to fight
down the urge to shiver in fear as he reached for one of the
glasses from their place behind the plates. Might as well
get another glass and offer the kid something to drink, it
would be rude not to, right?
He held out the extra glass towards the other boy.
"We got all kinds of stuff, take whatever you like out of
the fridge." Satoshi smiled, understanding, and took the
glass. He turned towards the fridge to see just what kind
of selection there actually was.
Shigeru made his way over to the sink to fill his
cup with the, hopefully, crystal clear liquid. Shaking a
bottle of Advil is always a good way to decide wheather
theres enough in its contents to satisfy its user. There was,
goodbye headache.
The Japanese boy heard him, tilting his head to
survey the auburn haired boy at the sink. Anyone could
see the guilt written of Satoshi's face. He knew he must
have caused whatever Shigeru needed pills for. He smile
fell and he looked back into the fridge, staring blankly at
the milk container.
"I really could leave if I'm causing to much trouble
for you. I don't want you to go out of your way to help
me. I gave you a headache, didn't I?" Geez, maybe the
kid wasn't so thick afterall.
Shigeru gulped down the last of his water, leaning
towards the counter, supporting his body weight with one
firmly placed hand. He could hear the hum of the
refridgerater, the kid was still standing there with the door
open.
"S'kay. Its not you, its the friggin' math." And
those stupid hormones, he added silently. "Let's take
another crack at it." Yep, long afternoon indeed.