Notes- This is a product of another writing challenge. It's timed so this is why these are never very long. I hope it can be enjoyed though and feedback is always welcome. Thank you. ^_^ Oh, and you'll notice like in Stay Here With, there's a little mixing of WA in EC. I just like to think Kou would be around somewhere in EC-land.
Warnings- Language
Disclaimer- Minekura Kazuya owns all that is Executive Committee and Kubotoki.
Igarashi-Sensei's Saturday Out
"…So bored."
Tokitoh let his head drop back over the top of the bench that he was leaning against and closed his eyes. He could hear the sound of people walking by in the busy shopping district, talking loudly while they rushed on down the sidewalk or into stores. He lifted his arm over his head and looked at his watch.
Only 2:30…
They had gotten a call in from the hack that morning about a delivery, but since he hadn't finished his research for his global studies paper, and Kubota had already written his, he was pushed towards the library while the other boy took the train down to Chinatown. "Let's meet for dinner," Kubota had called out, waving him off.
The bell to alert them that the doors were about to close began to ring then so he had to yell. "When?"
Kubota opened his mouth to answer, but there was a shrushing sound and the doors closed on his response. Tokitoh just watched as the train started and then sped away.
"Idiot…" He turned towards the stairs and began to follow the other passengers who had gotten off. Suddenly, his pocket began to ring. He flipped open his phone to see a familiar name flash across the screen.
He pressed Receive and then brought it up to his ear. "You dork, you just left."
"Ah, Tokitoh? Sorry." He could picture Kubota's apologetic smile on the other end. "I'm a little hungry now so let's make it early. Say four?"
"Make what early?"
"Dinner. Downtown. Meet me in front of that bakery and we'll head out from there. Sound good?"
"Yeah…whatever."
"Ah, don't be too excited or anything."
"…sorry…just…I don't wanna do this shit."
"Well, I'm sure it doesn't want to do you either."
"…Screw you, Kubo-chan."
"Ah, so tempting. Ask me again later, okay?"
Tokitoh rolled his eyes, and another insult was at his lips when heard Kubota's line start to click. "Hey, you there?"
"Ah, tunnel coming." Kubota's voice sounded small. "I'll see you at four, okay?"
"Okay." He nodded to his phone.
"Have fun at the library." He could hear Kubota's smile on the other end, but the fuck you he wanted to say never made it across since the train must have reached the tunnel and they were cut off.
"…Have fun…whatever." He scowled, stuffing the phone back into his pocket. What was supposed to be fun about today anyways? Stupid report…
He continued to grumble as he went up the stairs.
But unfortunately for him, the library had closed early on Saturdays and he sat now in front of the bakery that they were supposed to meet at, but an hour and half early. With hardly any cash on him, the game center was out. He turned his body and lay down on the bench. Maybe a short nap would work…
"My, my my. Upstanding young men do not sleep outside on benches. Has no one ever told you that?" A silky-toned voice said by his ear.
Tokitoh jumped forward and turned around. "What the-"
A young, well-dressed man was standing next to the bench, looking down at him. Tokitoh squinted up, shading his eyes from the sun. This guy looked kinda familiar, but he couldn't place him. "Who the hell are you?"
"What? Now, I'm offended. I can't believe you could forget this beautiful face, especially since it's forced to see you every day." The man framed his head with his hands, and bent down, giving Tokitoh a closer look. "Don't insult me further and tell me that you still don't know."
Tokitoh just looked back at him wide-eyed and shook his head.
The man rolled his eyed dramatically and sighed. "Then, does this jog that one-celled brain of yours?" He pursed his lips and batted his eyes and then in a slightly higher voice, said, "Well, well, well, fancy meeting the Amoeba here of all places. And where might that handsome Kubota-kun be hiding? It is after all, him who I'd much rather bump into."
Tokitoh felt that his eyes were about to stretch across his face and then fall out. He knew his school nurse cross-dressed, but never had he seen him is his "him-form" before, only in tight skirts, a long wig, and a white lab coat. "Igarashi-sensei?"
"And the Amoeba gets it finally." Igarashi motioned his hand for Tokitoh to move down on the bench. Tokitoh bowed his head and slid over, giving him room, and Igarashi sat down.
The nurse kept glancing over at him. "You know, your face is going to stay like that if you keep it up for very long." He moved his hand and brought it to Tokitoh's chin, pushing it up and closing his mouth which still had been hanging open.
"S-sorry." He kept staring.
"What? Haven't you ever seen a stunningly attractive man before?" Igarashi winked and lit up a cigarette.
"No, I mean- Yeah- I mean- You- you- you wear PANTS?" Tokitoh waved towards the fine suit the nurse was wearing.
"I wear more than pants, Tokitoh-kun." Igarashi let a smooth line of smoke out. "You've just caught me on a pants-day, I guess." He turned and seeing Tokitoh's continued shocked expression, smacked the boy lightly over the head. "Will you stop staring? You're making me more nervous than I was already."
Tokitoh bowed dumbly and then looked away, but kept glancing back. "So…so what are you doing here? I mean, in pants, I mean…are you on nurse…duty or something?"
"Is that all you think I do, young man?" Igarashi looked at him quizzically.
"Yeah, I mean…No…I mean…" Tokitoh scratched his head. "I mean…it's just weird, you know? To see teachers and all out of school and stuff. Like, you do other stuff? That's weird."
Igarashi studied him for a moment and then turned to breathe smoke out away from him. "Well, today is a weird day for all of us, isn't it?"
They sat there silent on the bench after that. The Saturday shoppers just passed them by, one high-school boy and one well-dressed man sitting quietly as the afternoon moved on.
"…So where is the fine young Kubota? Normally you two are tied at the hip, unfortunately for the rest of us."
"We're not tied to the hip!" Tokitoh glared at him. "We do stuff alone. Tons of stuff! All the time!"
Igarashi just gazed back at him with one eyebrow raised. "My, aren't you in a tiff? Did he stand you up or something?" His eyes searched around the shopping area. "I can't say I would be very sympathetic though. It would mean that finally I could give that boy some proper, more adult, tender loving care." He glanced back to Tokitoh, whose face had turned a bright red and smirked.
"I didn't get stood up- I mean, we're not like that- I mean- He's at work so just shut up already!"
Igarashi was looking at him fully now, chewing his lip thoughtfully. "Work, you say?"
"…Ah, shit." Tokitoh realized his mistake too late.
"My, this is interesting, isn't it?" The nurse crossed his legs and sat back against the bench. He took the cigarette from his lips and breathed out slowly. "Because as we both know very well, students at Araiso are not allowed to work any part-time jobs during the school year. Well, well, well…our little executive committee are quite the rule-breakers. But that's not a real surprise though, I guess, with you two." He smiled then and patted Tokitoh's shoulder.
The boy looked back at him hopefully. "So you're not gonna rat on us, are you?"
"What and risk my favorite patient leaving school? Perish the though, Amoeba." Igarashi continued to pat his shoulder. "You, on the other hand, I would care less about, but since you two are very much tied together, I could not risk one without the other. So, yes, I will not rat on you two."
Tokitoh let out a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding. "Ah, thanks a lot, crone- I mean.." He turned another shade of sheepish red. "I mean, Sensei." He looked up to see Igarashi giving him a sweet smile.
"Oh, no worries, Amoeba." He reached out and pinched his cheek, but to Tokitoh's slow surprise, he didn't let go. Instead, he just moved his face closer. "There is a little something though that I would like in return for my silence."
"What?" His cheek was starting to hurt.
"Just a little something that popped into my head just now, just a little help that I think you, Amoeba, can provide." Igarashi let go and then patted his reddened cheek. "C'mon and follow me." He stood up and started to walk off, not looking back.
"Where are we going?" Tokitoh ran to catch up.
"Oh, just here and there." The man waved him his answer and then stopped suddenly. Tokitoh bumped into him and fell back a few steps. He looked first to Igarashi and then to where the nurse was staring. They were in front of a dress shop.
"I love it!" Igarashi was smiling brightly now and started towards the entranceway.
"Love what?" Tokitoh called out to his back, but the nurse had already run into the store. He followed and found Igarashi inside by the counter, talking with the sales clerk and pointing towards the store's front. "That," he said, waving his hand to a sequined blue strapless dress in the window. "Do you have that in a large?" When the clerk nodded shakily, Igarashi clapped his hands in giddiness. "Excellent. So, perfect. Bring it to the dressing room immediately. Oh, and those shoes too." He pointed to a pair of black sandals behind the counter. "Size 9, thank you very much." He grabbed Tokitoh's arm then and began to pull him towards the back of the store.
"What the hell are you doing?" the boy hissed, trying to wrench his arm free.
"Deal's a deal, Amoeba." Igarashi started to take off his jacket. "Now get in there," he pointed towards one of the dressing rooms. "And take off your pants. Unless you need my help with that too?"
Tokitoh felt the color draining from his face as he was shoved into one of the small curtained rooms. He could hear Igarashi still in the hallway, taking off his clothes.
"Oh, dearie, I love the earrings!" He heard the man cry out happily. "Please, tell me they're for trying on too!"
Tokitoh fell down on the bench as clothes began to be tossed over onto the floor in front of him.
What had he just gotten himself into…
----
"Tohru-chan, you never mentioned that you would bring a guest today?" the older woman in the dark kimono asked icily as they were brought to the long table.
Igarashi smiled grandly, his lip-sticked lips a bright red. "Oh, didn't I? I'm sorry. It must have just slipped my mind. Tee hee!" He laughed lightly behind a white-gloved hand and then looked expectantly at Tokitoh who was scratching at the tie around his neck.
After Igarashi had forced him to change into his suit, and the nurse had returned to the look Tokitoh was used to seeing at school, wig and all, he was dragged to a nearby restaurant where in a backroom, a small party was occurring.
"Ahem," Igarashi coughed in his hand and he motioned his head towards his chair.
Tokitoh was lost. "What?"
"Ahem. A gentleman always pulls out a lady's chair. Ahem."
"Whaddya mean lady?" He started to argue but then glanced back at the table and saw that everyone was staring at them. He felt his face warm up and he bowed his head so at least he couldn't see them. He took the chair in front of Igarashi and pulled it out.
"He's such a charmer." Igarashi patted his head and sat down. Tokitoh started to move towards his own seat when the nurse coughed again.
"You're supposed to push the chair back in, Amoeba" he whispered. Tokitoh shook his head and went back, putting his arms around the chair. He grunted as he pushed Igarashi towards the table.
"You're too fat, crone." He hissed back. With another heave, he got the chair forward but in doing so, bumped the nurse into the table, causing the surface to jolt up. The wine glasses shook and hands shot out to steady them. As Tokitoh sat down finally, he felt a kick from the side.
"I am not fat." Igarashi sent him a sour look, but then quickly changed back to his gracious smile. "Sorry that we're late. The boy here just loved every dress I tried, so much so that we had trouble keeping them on." The nurse turned and winked while reached over and making a show of rubbing his knee. "You know how boys are though. It's just sex-sex-sex all the time, day and night, night and day, hour after hour-"
"Tohru-chan!" the older woman at the end of the table barked out. "Stop that right now!"
"Oh, sorry, Mother." Igarashi brought his hand to his cheek in surprise. "Is sex not good to talk about right now? Because I always thought it was a very fine topic for dinner conversation. What with the different positions, forms, oils to use-"
"That's ENOUGH!"
"Oh, don't tell me, Mother, that you haven't had it, because I know…"
Tokitoh watched in horror from his seat as the fireworks began. Although sitting at opposite ends of the table, Igarashi and his mother formed a focal point that all the other guests gazed back and forth upon. Tokitoh tried to sink down but felt the hand on his knee tighten and so he straightened back up.
"I just have a little something I have to go to," Igarashi had told him on the walk there. He kept reaching down to straighten the dress over his butt. "But don't blame me too much, Amoeba, because let me tell you- this was not the way I wanted to spend my day off."
"What are you doing?" he asked as he was pulled into the restaurant.
"You can say that…" Igarashi paused one moment at the front desk to powder his nose. He closed the compact and pouted his lips, thinking. "That this…is my way of coming out to the family."
And he was coming out in a big way, Tokitoh now realized. He had only seen an Omiai, or an arranged meeting for possible marriage on TV, but it didn't take him long to realize that this was supposed to be one. A pretty young woman in a bright pink kimono sat in the chair next to Igarashi, her skin growing even paler as the dinner and the fireworks progressed. When someone down the table started to pour wine, Tokitoh did not refuse his cup being filled, nor did he refuse it being refilled.
His mind had begun to swim as he started his third glass. Now there were two old women yelling towards them, and when he blinked, they multiplied again.
"And how dare you bring this child here!" the woman's voice crackled in the air, and Tokitoh cringed a little as her heated gaze fell on him.
"I can bring anyone I wish, Mother!" Igarashi yelled back. "This dinner is for me, after all. And he is not a child!"
Tokitoh couldn't hide the burp that came up then. Everyone turned to look at him and he wanted to slide under the table and die. At least, he thought droopily, he would be buried in a nice suit…at least that's what Kubo-chan would say…
Kubo-chan…
He looked down at his watch. It was almost 4:30 and he was stuck in a deal he never remembered making, in a suit that wasn't his, and with someone's hand so tightly holding his knee, he thought his leg was going to fall off.
He wanted to leave so badly, it hurt, worse than Igarashi's nails in his skin. All the yelling, all the anger- it covered the table more than the heaps of fine food that lay in front of him. No one else was talking except for Igarashi and his mother. They all just sat there, drinking and picking at their food. He looked over to the young woman, and he saw something shiny down her cheek.
This is so fucked up…He took another long drink from his cup. Damn, Kubo-chan, why do I have to be here…
He winced as he felt Igarashi's nails bite further into his skin. He turned and looked over at him, and in his double-vision, saw more clear shiny streaks than he ever wanted to see on the school nurse's face.
"YOU ARE OUT OF THE FAMILY!" The older woman was standing now, bellowing from her end of the table. Although short in stature, her voice seemed to overpower everything and everyone in the room. Even Igarashi's red lips stopped moving in response.
The silence then made him feel like a stone was placed on his shoulders, weighing him in his seat, but nothing, nothing was heavier than the hand on his knee, which had gone slack.
He brought his glass down, harder than he had meant, making the small amount of wine left slide up the sides. Everyone again turned back to him.
"…I'm sorry," he whispered to Igarashi and he slowly removed the man's hand from his leg. He then stood up, grabbing on to the back of his chair to steady himself. He looked up to the four old women staring coldly at him.
"If she's out of the family," he said, "Then that means we don't have to be here any more. Which is good, 'cause I don't wanna be around you angry bunch of assholes anyway." He pointed to the young woman. "You look really nice today. I hope someone told you that. And I bet you don't wanna be here either, so if you want, you can leave with us too." He stood behind Igarashi's chair then, taking a hold of the sides with his hands.
"What are you doing?" the nurse asked quietly.
"I'm doing what shit you told me a gentleman does for a lady, so let's move your fat ass out of here." With a grunt, he pulled the chair out, giving the other man space to move. He then went towards the young woman, and pulled her chair out as well. She made a small "eep" noise as he did it. He bowed apologetically. "Sorry. I'm not really good at this gentleman shi- I mean, stuff." He went to his seat and quickly downed the rest of his glass. "And you guys," he said, pointing to the old woman, "You need to chill out, because no mom should say the shit you said to any kid, no matter what they wear to dinner." The old woman opened her mouth to say something, but Tokitoh had already turned around. "Deal's over, crone. We're so out of here." He took Igarashi's arm and started to pull. The nurse stayed in his spot, unmoving.
Tokitoh looked back at him. "What…you wanna stay?"
Igarashi just gazed back at him with an expression he didn't understand. He was smiling, but his eyes were all soft and sad-looking. "…Let's do this the right way, Amoeba." He straightened his dress and flipped his long hair over his shoulder. He then held his arm out for Tokitoh to take. "I'm ready now.
The boy nodded slowly and took his arm. "Finally." He turned and flipped off the table. "Fuck you very much!" he yelled and then led his school nurse out the door.
"That wasn't very gentlemanly," he heard a soft laugh by his ear.
"Kiss my ass," he said as he began to watch his feet. When did he have so many?
"Ah, so tempting," a familiar voice said behind him. "Is this a two-for-one special tonight?"
His head whipped back, which was a mistake. Suddenly, his many feet seemed to want to run away from him. He felt his stomach surge and his vision go, and then all he felt was cold, and then nothing.
-----
He woke up with a soft warmth around him. He opened his eyes slowly and saw a line of white fabric in front of his face. He winced as he moved his head and he looked up to see Kubota's familiar squinting expression looking down at him. He started to move, but a hand kept him down. He turned his head so it was once again lying on Kubota's lap.
"…What happened?"
"Hmmmm…" Kubota began to thread his fingers in his hair, which he just realized was wet. "It depends on what you mean by what. Before you fell into the fountain…or after?"
"Fountain?"
"The one at the front of the restaurant? The one you decided to get a closer look at?" Kubota laughed. "You made quite a splash."
"…That sucks." Tokitoh covered his eyes with his hands.
"What? My joke?" Kubota poked. "Or the suit you ruined? Or the fact that you threw up on my coat as I carried you here?"
Tokitoh eyes were going about the room through the cracks between his fingers. "…Where are we?"
"In a club, Amoeba," another voice broke in, a soft, smooth-toned, very familiar voice. Tokitoh looked up to see Igarashi sitting across from them. He was now in a bright purple kimono and wearing a large black wig. He smiled, his make-up now retouched with not even a trace of the streaks it had before. "In fact, a club that I work at."
Tokitoh looked from Kubota to Igarashi. "What?"
"After your swim, we got you out, and Igarashi-sensei said we could dry off here."
"Whaddya mean we?"
"Well, someone had to get you out of there." Kubota smiled and lifted the front of the white bathrobe he was wearing.
Tokitoh looked from him to himself and found that he was wearing one too. He felt his face warm up as he slowly realized that it was all he was wearing. He wrapped the folds in the front tighter around his chest and looked back up to the other boy. "How did you know were I was?"
"How do I always know where you are? I just follow the yelling." Kubota tweaked his cheek. "And here I thought you were just late, but instead I find out I was stood up, and for a teacher no less."
"I didn't- I mean- We weren't-" Tokitoh grabbed his head. "Ah, shit, I feel sick."
"Oh, not again," Igarashi got up quickly and went to the door. "I'll get a bucket."
Tokitoh then felt his head being gently laid down on the couch as Kubota got up. "I'm going to get you some water," he heard as a hand brushed his cheek. He watched with bleary eyes as the other boy followed the nurse out the door. He closed them, and lost the view of Kubota's retreating back. He lifted his hand to where he had felt the other's fingers just a moment ago.
He didn't know when he fell asleep but in the fringes of his dream, he felt the fingers move through his hair and voices speaking softly.
"Are you very angry at me?"
"A little. I think that was a little unfair of you putting him in that position."
"It wasn't my initial plan, Kubota-kun. It's just the way it happened. Which is the story of my life really." It was quiet then, and he could feel a hand begin to slowly rub his back. It felt good and he wanted to sink closer to it.
"You would have been proud of him though. He was quite the gentleman today. Very un-amoeba-like."
"Is that so?" The hand kept rubbing softly.
"No worries though, Kubota-kun. You will never be replaced in my heart."
"Well that's good to know."
"…but for a moment…"
And for a second the rubbing stopped. His eyelids began to twitch.
"…for just a moment…I think I saw what you see…" There was a soft chuckle then. "And then he told me to move my fat ass. Same old Amoeba."
The rubbing started again, warm and soft and comforting. He felt the voices grow more distant.
"Yup." The Kubo-chan in his dream said. "Same old Amoeba."
But all fell away then as that comforting warmth seemed to carry him off, away from his day of fighting and falling. And all that would remain later would be Kubota's continued teasing, and five little lines in his knee that his school nurse made on his coming out day.
^^