Akira closes his eyes, lets sunlight and shadow hit his face. It reminds him of a summer day, a long time ago.

His best friend had been sitting next to him, the now leader of the organization DUCK. Though before, Akira remembers, he was just an eccentric, a popular extrovert. How they had ended up friends was beyond Akira, at the time, and still.

"Yamaaaada!" He'd always done that. Stretched syllables. Akira was never sure if it annoyed him or not.

He gave a slight nod, petting Tapioca, who had been only a year old then. He and the President had found her by a pond, an abandoned egg, but still warm.

"What is it?"

"I've found new evidence of the alien activity!" He'd grin. Every time, Akira remembers, his blond hair that was cropped short fluttering.

Seeing it used to set Akira's stomach fluttering.

- . - . - . - . - . -

Finding Tapioca had been an accident. At the time, he'd said that he'd gotten readings of alien activity by the pond in the city, and had dragged Akira along, certain that 'this will expel all your doubts!'

That hadn't come until later, when they'd seen a group of lights group into a strange creature in the pond, long late at night, and a few days after. But they had stumbled upon a nest that day, a small egg still warm sitting in it.

He had wanted to leave it, telling Akira, "That tends to mean they were dead from the start", but Akira doesn't leave it. It hurt him to leave it, as much as he hated to admit it then.

When it had hatched a day later, in a box filled with soft warm cloth scraps, Akira gloats, and he frowns but then laughs. "Well, Yamada, you've proven me wrong, hm? Isn't it a lucky duck."

He's the one who comes up with Tapioca's name, the color of her feathers at the time reminding him of it. He's over more often, at that time. Smiling cheerfully at Tapioca and her antics.

Akira, at the time, cherishes that more than Tapioca herself.

- . - . - . - . - . -

He was always wistful, loud and obnoxious, and let his pride get to his head. Akira always knew he was like this, and was always the one dragging him down from his pride. The DUCK president always had done the same for him.

Akira was emotional, as much as he wished otherwise. When things were bad, he panicked, angered, and he couldn't sympathize with others easily. But he had always been around to counter Akira, just as Akira had always done for him.

When Tapioca got sick, he was the one who suggested vets and the internet, and paid for it. When he got into a fight over his beliefs, Akira was there to stop him from revenge, and to stop him from fighting cruel.

They used to be on a balance, Akira remembers. But he had built his company and then offered Akira a spot at the top, and Akira had turned it down to see the world instead.

That choice, Akira thinks, was probably the end.

[[This is Highschool AU/when they were in Highschool setting...Assuming the duck pres is basically the same age as Akira...and they met in highschool...Just work with my headcanons okay. Pretend with me. Also, this pairing = angst all day every day. ]]

[[de anoning from the kink meme]]