Chapter 04
There was only one lesson left to the school day, and boy was Ren happy about that. Ever since he had walked into the place that morning he had felt particularly volatile; a walking bomb, ready to explode at any minor provocation. That provocation generally being 5'8" and sprouting messy blue hair. By this time tired as hell, Ren leant his forehead against his locker door once he had closed it. I just want to go home…
"Boy, you look like you could use a stiff one."
Ren literally shot out of his skin. (Well, not literally…) The invasive voice belonged to the elder Asakura, who had appeared apparently out of nowhere, since the hallway was empty a moment ago, and now stood casually leaning against the locker next to Ren's, looking amused. Ren subconsciously took a step back, placing Hao on the preferred side of his personal space. Unsure of what the guy was doing there when they had not spoken in years, Ren took a haphazard stab at a response.
"Erm, I don't really drink."
Hao raised an eyebrow and smirked to himself before straightening up and taking a step towards the boy.
"That wasn't quite what I meant."
Hao had time to languidly move one hand towards him to tug playfully on the pendant hanging from a long chain around Ren's neck before the implications of his statement hit home. Ren's eyes widened. He could only stutter intelligently in response to the impossible situation.
"E-excuse me?"
It was around this point when he also noticed that Hao was still moving, slowly stepping forward so that Ren was forced to step back, angling him against the lockers. A moment later he was flattening himself against the barrier of metal in an attempt to push himself through it, his eyes wider than they have quite possibly ever been before. A single thought ran through his oh so very stunned mind;
…What the hell is going on??
Meanwhile, Hao's next move was to place his palms on either side of the staggered boy and lean towards him, eyelids fluttering closed in a somewhat theatrical style as he went. What the- time out! Alarm bells went off in Ren's head and he immediately sprung into action, ducking beneath one of the intrusive arms and swiftly moving to a safe distance before shouting at the boy in sheer disbelief.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Ren demanded, not overwhelmingly angry simply because he was still so utterly, utterly confused. He half fancied that he had accidently knocked himself out on his locker a moment ago and this was just a freakish nonsensical dream brought on by some gratuitous head trauma.
Momentarily taken by Ren's thrifty escape, Hao was now facing him again, this time grinning.
"What?" Hao said, noncommittal. "You looked like you could use some cheering up – and I've got the rest of the day free."
Ren was more aghast than before, and was beginning to doubt the stability of his hearing if not his mind.
"What...I…what?? Why would you even think I was into guys?!"
Hao snorted.
"With the way you and that blue kid have been carrying on recently? It doesn't take a genius. So how about it?"
Horo; it always boiled down to him, didn't it? Ren's short fuse finally started to catch up with him and his eyes narrowed.
"So what, you like me? When you don't even know me?" - it was true, even back when they all played Shaman King and Hao would step in every now and then to play the villain he hardly ever spoke to Ren, much less indicated that he wanted to befriend the boy.
Hao only frowned, beginning to get irritated.
"What has liking you got to do with it?" he looked genuinely confused and felt very much as though he was repeating himself. He tried another suggestive lopsided grin, but thought better than to accompany said grin with a wink; "Come on, it'd be fun…"
Ren stood a moment longer before wondering what the hell he was still doing there. His mind had gone blank from Hao's bewildering preposition; or maybe he was just very, very tired.
"You're a bastard, you know that?" Ren told him placidly, and with that he strode quickly and heavily down the corridor. One more lesson, he reminded himself. One more. Surely he could live through that without any more of his world turning on it's head.
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Jeez, he really doesn't waste any time, does he?
The art lesson had finished only fifteen minutes ago, and already it looked like Hao was laying the groundwork for their bet. Yoh had forced himself to keep an eye on the proceedings whilst mentally steeling himself against the sudden wave of nausea which came with the task. Part of the agreement was that neither Hao nor Yoh could directly interfere with each other's advances; that is to say, they could influence Ren and Horo all they wished, but Yoh couldn't, for instance, walk over to where his brother was currently pinning an unusually stoic Ren against a row of lockers and, for instance, punch his lights out. Yoh's mind travelled back to the stakes of the bet itself, and he gulped inadvertently. It doesn't matter, he told himself by way of reassurance, nothing will go wrong so long as Hao losses – and that's almost a certainty…right? The dread Yoh felt in his stomach was entirely unfounded. Besides, he reminded himself with a rueful smile; Anna's worth the risk.
Still he felt reassured when he saw Ren stalk away from his brother, grinning at that small triumph. He was right; there was no way either of those two would fall for Hao's tricks. Especially not if I have something to do with it. Which he most certainly would.
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What was wrong with people today? First his brother, and now this! Why is everyone so concerned with this 'love' business? He didn't get it; they're teenagers for crying out loud! He knew that his status was somewhat higher up on the cool scale, but surely there couldn't be this much of a class divide between himself and his brother's little friends. He knew, more than most of the people he socialized with, the extent to which being a teenager affected these sorts of affairs; example - he had been to dozens of parties where the girls (never mind the guys) gave away their 'affections' like so much cheap confectionary.
He watched after Ren as he rounded a corner and vanished from sight, and he couldn't help the smirk which accompanied the small stir of excitement within him. After all, he hadn't been lying when he had spoken to Yoh: he really did enjoy a challenge.
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Rounding to the other side of the school to where he thought Ren might be, Yoh was rewarded when he almost ran headfirst into the boy. Grinning sheepishly as he noticed the deadly scowl Ren was sporting, Yoh nevertheless reminded himself that he would have to bite the bullet if this whole deal thing was going to pull through.
"Hey, Ren! How are ya!"
His enthusiastic greeting was met with a customary suspicious glare.
"…what do you want?"
He sounds more tired than angry, Yoh noted with some gratitude as he fell into step beside the boy, his hands in his pockets.
"Just thought you could use some advice…about…erm, Horo."
Yoh watched Ren's face like one would watch an egg in a microwave; his lips had tightened slightly but overall he just looked like all he wanted to do was go home. Figuring that a tired Ren would make the conversation potentially less hazardous, Yoh cautiously ploughed on.
"So, uh, I was thinking; you should give him a break, you know? It's not really fair to shun him for doing one, admittedly thoughtless, thing; I mean, more than anyone else you know how absent-minded he can be." Yoh pleaded as they passed down another stretch of hallway. Catching sight of an all too familiar figure talking to a flock of students at the far end of the passage, Yoh altered his next trail of thought slightly; after all, it was always handy to have a safety net. "Erm…on the other hand, you don't want to seem too, uh, needy, or anything…"
Ren shot him a warning glare.
"See, what I actually meant by that, was, that you might want to…play hard to get?" the glare wasn't going away; in fact, Ren looked very much as though he was thinking up the best way to dispose of Yoh, who in turn was beginning to feel a little nervous.
Luckily enough for him, the bell signalling next period decided to sound just as Ren appeared to make up his mind.