'In Teeth' - [Open pairings] 2/??

[colberry]

Title:  In Teeth
Chapter:  2/??
Description:  Reita might be slightly desperate.  And obsessed.  But with Uruha prancing around in nude tulle, Kai being absolutely useless, Aoi rocking out when he isn't being an idolized enigma on campus and some guy with multicolored dreadlocks showing up wherever he goes, well... he has his hands full.  If there's one thing he'll learn this semester, no one is who they seem.
Pairings:  Reita/Ruki, Reita/Uruha, Aoi/Uruha, Aoi/Tora, etc
Genre:  Romance, Drama, Crack, Supernatural(ish)
Warnings:  Randomness, cross-dressing, mentions of drug use

In this chapter: 
"You didn't tell me we were having company!  I would've put on something more appropriate than this monstrosity!"  
Reita ran a hand down his face while Kai happily got comfortable on his bed, "I'm pretty sure what you deem 'appropriate' would have involved a tube-top or something -- so really, it's a blessing."

Notes:  I should probably include 'language' in the warnings section...  Ah, well.



It was easier said than done. 

It wasn’t like Reita could just – as Uruha so eloquently put – “jump the guy’s bones from behind a brick wall, steal his cigarette and ride off into the sunset using his dreads as the reins” …and declare him as the topic of his paper.  First off, it was bound to become mucked up somehow.  Reita was a glorious example of completely-normal-situations-gone-gauche.  It was a family trait.  It was the only explanation he could come up with as he watched his entire genetic makeup blush deep red and cause uncomfortable conditions for everyone involved in the most unsuspecting places. 

 

This is why Reita doesn’t go to the grocery store anymore.

But that’s a different story entirely.

Second off, there was no suave way of saying, “Hey, you don’t know me, but I’ve been watching you for some time and I’ve deemed you worthy of being the topic of my Sociology term paper.  Prepare to be researched.”

Well, he could just say that.  But he’d rather keep his face blood-free.

Uruha had attempted to provide him with diabolical plans to confront the eccentric and somewhat otherworldly student about his predicament.  However, all of them fell through once Reita realized they all had to do with getting naked in increasingly fascinating ways.  The college freshman sighed, hands buried deep into his coat pockets as he walked aimlessly around campus.  The air was crisp and started to coat his lungs with frost; he tried to nuzzle his chin more into his orange scarf, eyes cast to the ground. 

He didn’t know why he was so enthralled, enraptured almost, by ‘Ruki’.  Reita had always been a curious person, but never one to step outside himself and fully commit to discovering the intrinsic characteristics of one human being.  Even though Uruha begged to differ -- and proclaimed quite loudly in the dining halls -- Reita wasn’t interested in men.  For all the weird, uncanny feelings that were sometimes stirred up by his best friend, never once had he ever fantasized about doing anything with him.

Besides, Uruha looked like a coquettish femme more than a broad-shouldered man six out of seven days a week.  His mind had been muddled with the presence of eyeshadow, rouge and stilettos on Uruha’s willow-like physique to the point where it no longer mattered who was wearing it.  They just looked good.

But Ruki was different.  That much was clear.  The entire Milky Way seemed to paint itself across his entity – something about the way he held that cigarette, the way he walked with his shoulders stooped, the way he leaned his head against brick walls…  It was a shock of color and vibrancy in a world that was slowly fading to winter grays.  Despite the seemingly unassuming nature the man presented himself in, Reita knew he was insane.  Because Reita was insane, and Uruha was insane, and he always attracted insanity like a magnet.

But it was a glorious insanity.  One where chaos was licking your spine and drowning inside your veins.  He knew Ruki was utterly crazy.  He had to be.  Not because of his hairstyle or neon cigarettes or the messenger bag he carried that was pricked with three thousand buttons that declared everything from RAGE to X JAPAN to RX.  It was the distinctive glaze to his eyes that Reita never knew the true color of.  They were always changing – shocking emerald to warm gold, blatant red to soft blue.  He was contradiction and space-time-continuum maladies and a mistake. 

But fuck, Reita needed to make a mistake.

And someone up there must have heard him because in the next two point five seconds, he literally ran into him.  Sociology textbook, midterm proposal and cell phone clattering to the ground, a surprised rush of air escaping his lungs when his palms skid across pavement.

The sting in his hands pulsed loudly.  Fuck.  So much for first impressions.

“Sorry about that,” Reita mumbled, slowly rising and cautiously looking up to see Ruki’s quizzical expression.  A cigarette was hanging lazily from his mouth, silver ringed fingers twitching slightly from the cold and his eyes a delicate mahogany color rimmed by aureate.  The shorter man shrugged, starting to bend down to retrieve the music sheets he had dropped in the brief skirmish.  Reita, not wanting to be cast aside so quickly for his clumsiness, quickly snatched up the papers before those black-painted nails could skim their surface. 

He stole a glance at them, intrigued beyond belief at what Ruki had been working and gazing upon all this time, but was promptly deterred as Ruki snatched them back with a furrowed brow.

But Reita’s eyes were wide, mouth slightly parted.  He was sure he saw Ruki with those same papers for over two weeks now, constantly staring unto them, mouthing words and tracing a finger line by line.  He was absolutely positive, but –

“Don’t touch things you’ll never understand, Suzuki.”

Startled, Reita met his eyes once more, the other’s glare brimming with contempt and burning those mahogany-gold contacts with its fire.  They were so close now, hot breaths fanning on his lips – so close that Reita could spot the light dusting of navy shadow upon the other’s lids.  He exhaled, time stopping and then revving up just as quickly.  Ruki roughly brushed past him and into the depths of the bitter cold afternoon.

And Reita continued to stand there, frozen to the spot.  The crash and burn had transpired without more than three words from his mouth.  Something – perhaps the sickening curl of unease – was settling into his stomach and making his chest feel heavy. 

There was no way Ruki could have known his name – let alone his last name.

And those music sheets – the ones he had been pouring over for weeks, staring at intently, seen with every moment Reita spotted him…

They were completely and utterly blank. 

-.-.-.-

“What do you mean you’ve never seen him?!”

Kai met Reita’s frantic countenance with an easy, calm smile, “Just that.  I’ve never seen anyone around campus with dreadlocks before.  I think I would have remembered.”

The professor at his lectern didn’t seem to notice, or mind, that two of his students in the very last row of the lecture hall were whispering albeit a tad suspiciously.  Even if he did, Reita couldn’t help that he had to talk to Kai about this – Geology could wait.  Kai was sensible, all-knowing, wise and an all around rock of support.  He was bound to know something about this inscrutable man who seemed to know a little bit more about Reita – or should he say, Suzuki – than anyone knew about what flavor his cigarettes were.

But it seemed that Kai was…

“Useless.  Absolutely useless.”  Reita sank low into his seat, feet accidentally kicking the heels of the person in front of him who was furiously taking notes. 

Kai’s smile faltered.  “Sorry, Reita.  I swear if I saw anybody like that, I’d tell you.”

Reita shook his head, eyes wide and disbelieving, “Every damn person I’ve talked to, Kai.  No one knows or has seen him.  It’s like he doesn’t even exist,”  He tapped his pencil urgently on his desk.  Kai watched him hesitantly, not sure what the hell was going on since he was merely sitting here innocently before the blonde and frantic tornado hit him at full force with an army full of questions. 

He met both Reita and Uruha at a concert the college had hosted during its orientation slash welcome week.  He had been attracted by their warm auras and equally out of the box personalities that only added fuel to his smile and laughter.  Kai could still remember the look of utter mortification on Reita’s face as he and Uruha began to discuss the genius of Heidi Klum – and he still chuckles whenever he brings up that mental image of the man burying his face in his hands and groaning, “Now there’s two of them.  God help me, fuck.” 

Of course, he assured the nerve-torn man that he wasn’t like that – he was straight, if not slightly metrosexual.  Uruha had pouted playfully and challenged, “Prove it.”

And despite having a steady girlfriend around his arm ever since that day, he was still “proving” it to Uruha that he was indeed in the throes of the female kind. 

Reita broke his pencil tapping pattern to pause and frown deeply, “I mean, it’s not like he’s just your run of the mill guy who tries to be all ‘hipster’ and wears beanies and Chuck Taylors.  He has multicolored dreads for fuck’s sake.  His clothes are what the fuck and he smokes 14 karat gold cigarettes.  He’s everywhere.”

Kai looked on as Reita sunk even deeper into his seat, “Why doesn’t anyone see him?”

A lull pervaded the conversation.  Only the soft drone of the professor pierced the silence between the two before Kai perked up, “Didn’t you say Yuu knew him?”

That’s right.  Yuu did know him.  He knew him enough to converse with him regularly and swap cigarettes.  Reita nodded, a smile breaking out onto his face and punched Kai lightly in the shoulder, “Fuck, Kai.  I knew I came to you for a reason.”

The brunet grinned, eyes light with mirth, “Well, I’m the only sane one here so it’s only natural, I suppose.”

Reita wasn’t about to deny that and continued to make half baked plans.  He needed to get a hold of Yuu again.  It would be hard.  It was unexpectedly difficult to get him to come over – he had been asking for days before the man finally conceded, and even then he stayed for less than ten minutes.  It was… peculiar.  And it was also peculiar that he and Yuu were the only ones who seemed to know of ‘Ruki’s existence.

Speaking of existences, “But what I don’t get it how he knows my name – my last name.”

“Maybe Yuu told him?”

Reita shook his head, brows knitted and putting his chin in his palm, “No, I only told him my first name.  And the name I go by with everyone isn’t even my real name.  Uruha’s the only one that knows it.”

Kai sighed and leaned back in his chair, popping his spine as he stretched, “Maybe Uruha told him, if he’s the only one that knows your ‘true identity’,” He said the last words with a deviant smirk.

Rolling his eyes, the bleach haired man shook his head, “Uruha doesn’t even know Ruki.  He’s only heard about him through me and even if he did run into him, I’d like to think he wouldn’t be blabbing my personal shit to random ass strangers.”

There was a sudden abundance of shuffling, creaking seats and humming voices.  Ah, lecture was over.  Reita stood up and swung his backpack onto his right shoulder.  Kai followed suit and trailed after him from the room.  The bright sun was a farce – each boy shivered instinctively as the biting cold hit their cheeks, hands and noses.  Tightening their coats and scarves, they made their way to the Mother Ship – in other words, Reita’s dorm.

“You think Uruha is back from calligraphy yet?”

Reita’s low baritone was exasperated, “Not if he ran into that new kid, Hiroto.”

“Ah, Ogata-kun?”

“Yeah, he just transferred over.  Uruha says he’s the epitome of ‘adorable’ and decided to make him his new project.  From what I gather though, the kid is as shy as anything – he’s a year younger than us.  Graduated from high school early or some shit like that.”

Kai kicked a stray pebble out of their path, “So, he’s smart then?”

Reita shrugged with as much enthusiasm one could extract from him with the topic of ‘brains’ and ‘GPAs’.  They continued to walk up the totally unnecessary hills and wonky paths that had a brick or two jutting out.  Reita was always paranoid that one day he’d brain himself on said bricks. 

Breathing out a fog of air, he turned to the man beside him casually, “Why do you ask anyways?”

“No reason.  I just haven’t seen Uruha in awhile.  I mean, ever since that night at Kaoru’s.”

Reita winced, “Yeah, I wouldn’t bring that up just yet.  He’s fine now, for the most part.  But he has been wearing more… outfits lately.”

Kai raised an eyebrow, “Doesn’t he always?”

Fuck, his fingers were frozen.  “Yeah, but it’s different somehow.  I just think that night really jarred him.”

“Wouldn’t that make him want to stop wearing skirts and stuff?”

“Yeah, in public.  But whenever I’m around – bam.  Skirt and frills time.”

Proudly majoring in psychology, Kai nodded emphatically, “Well, that makes sense, I guess.  You’re his ‘safe’ zone.  He knows you won’t judge him.”

Reita had to agree to that.  But Kai didn’t have to know about the sometimes-there feelings of desire lurking in his chest whenever he saw Uruha splayed out across his bed – stilettos hanging on the bedpost and smoking a cigarette whilst blowing his handheld fan to keep the detectors from going off.  Again.  He didn’t need Kai to swoop in with a detailed analysis of how he somehow had issues with his mother from the fact that the sight of his best male friend experimenting with lipstick in their shared mirror was a little, little bit alluring.  He didn’t have mommy issues.  And he didn’t want Uruha.  No.

Trudging up the stairs to his room, Reita grumbled, “It’d help if he just toned it down a tad.”

Kai tilted his head to the left, emanating the endearing (and sickening, in Reita’s opinion) image of a puzzled puppy, “Surely it’s not too bad, right?”

Reita twisted the knob to the dorm, surprised to find it unlocked and proceeded to open it.  He was about to reply in the affirmative to Kai when –

“Fuck, Reita.  The guy totally trampled on my shit.  I mean, it’s going to take me forever to iron out these fucking wrinkles.  He could have torn the fabric.  I spent my meal plan money on this!  I should just have you pay me in damage fees.  Fuck.”

It would have been more of a fearsome rant if not for the pleasantly domestic scene of Uruha on his hands and knees on the floor with the table ironing board, rearranging the black skirt and fussing over the fact that the iron had a bajillion and one settings on it.  Obviously a laundry day, he was dressed in an oversized sweatshirt that screamed SEX PISTOLS and a pair of leggings. 

Reita quickly blocked the doorway and Kai’s vision into the room.  “You know what?  You’re place has Cheetos.  I need Cheetos.”

Kai rolled his eyes and pushed past him, “Hey, Uruha.”

The auburn-haired man snapped his head up from his manly task of fanning out pleats to regard Kai with wide eyes.  He immediately squawked, hands coming up to grip his hair in frustration and turned a glare to Reita.

“You didn’t tell me we were having company!  I would’ve put on something more appropriate than this fucking monstrosity!”

Reita ran a hand down his face while Kai happily got comfortable on his bed, “I’m pretty sure what you deem ‘appropriate’ would’ve involved a tube top or something, so really it’s a blessing.”

Uruha narrowed his eyes at his roommate before turning a sheepish look towards Kai, “Sorry.”

Kai waved him off good-naturedly, kicking his legs back and forth as he rubbed his hands against Reita’s quilt to warm them up, “Please, you’re fine.  It’s nice to see you au natural.”

Uruha’s eyes were still unsure even though he gave Kai a half-smile in thanks.  Returning to his work, he amiably switched topics, “So, Rei-chan.  See your knight in shining gold cigarettes today?”

“I think you used that line already.”

“Give me a break.  All you’ve told me about him is dreadlocks and cigarettes.  You suck at imagery.”   

Reita collapsed into his desk chair, briefly flailing since he wasn’t used to the rocking chair feature of it and fleetingly thought he was going to die a horrible, pathetic death, but immediately recovered.  Kai pretended not to see.  Uruha didn’t and snorted, ironing out his fifth pleat.

Finally stabilized, Reita said, “But I did see him.  Well, I ran into him.  He was really… weird.”

“I could’ve told you that.  Anyone you’re chasing after has to have some kind of mental deformity.”

Kai lightly scolded, “It’s not like you have the perfect track record..”

Reita continued, all too used to his friend’s occasional comments, “It wasn’t like normal weird.  He knew my last name.”

Uruha paused in ironing, looking vaguely startled, “Really?”

The elder nodded, tipping back in his chair absently as Kai bit his lip in thought.  He thought aloud, “No one seems to know who he is – let alone see him.  Yuu’s the only one who has direct contact with him, but that doesn’t explain why he’d know my last name.  Unless Yuu is creepier than I thought and looked up my admissions file and just randomly told Ruki about it.”

“Well, then you have to do two things.  Confront Yuu and look up Ruki’s file.  Simple.”

Kai shook his head, “No, invasive.  And totally illegal to snoop through the admissions office.”

Uruha shot Kai a sidelong glance, “You weren’t preaching about legality on October 12^th…”

The brunet flushed brightly, stammering (and avoiding the accusation, to Reita’s curiosity), “I-It’s still illegal and Reita isn’t going to swoop into admissions at the dead of night with a ski mask on!”

“Who says he has to do that?  All he needs to do is approach this cleverly and he can swipe the file right out from under them!”

“And how is he going to do that?”

“Using his sexual prowess of course.”

“Uruha, that’s totally ridiculous.  Like Reita needs to learn from you – ”

“—You know, I think I have some pictures on my hard drive somewhere that Mia might be interested in…”

Kai made a strangled noise, somewhere between a gasp and squeal of fright, “Don’t you fucking – !”

“Guys,” Reita had his hands covering his face.  His head was about to explode from this pitiable attempt at a cat fight, “Sorry to interrupt your little soap opera, but are you forgetting I’m a Computer-Sci major?”

Uruha blinked, “Then why the fuck are you taking sociology?”

Reita continued, unruffled, “I can hack into the system.  It’s not like we’re looking for his Social Security Number.  Just his name, hometown and anything else that could link him to knowing me.”

Kai hummed with a frown, clearly disapproving, “I still think you should talk to Yuu-san first.  Not everything has to be so scheming and elaborate.”

Already booting up his computer and waiting for his desktop to load, Reita muttered distractedly, “Who says I’m not going to?  But seriously, the guy is ridiculously hard to find – the exact opposite of Ruki who’s just fucking everywhere I go.  It took me a week to find him last time.  How the hell am I going to find him again?”

Despite his small pocket of fame on campus due to his guitar skills, Shiroyama Yuu was a definite hermit.  He didn’t appear too often, but when he did, people took notice.  His aura was at once inviting and guarded – too close and he’d disappear into the crowd of students, never to be found until you least expect it.

However, Uruha didn’t seem to be aware of that discrepancy as he simply stated, “Facebook.” 

Reita and Kai stared at the blond on the floor, who had gone back to dutifully ironing in relative silence, and then to each other.  In a flurry of movement and “move over’s”, both were squished by the screen and furiously typing in the social network site’s address.  Reita growled as Kai took over the mouse, “Why are you so suddenly interested in this, Mr. Legality?”

“Facebook is legal, despite its penchant for stalking and raising creepers in our society.  And why wouldn’t I be interested – the man is practically a deity here and he’s almost never around.  It’s about time to dig up some dirt.”

Uruha poked in, “I’ve taught him well.”

Kai’s fingertips flew across the keyboard:  Shiroyama Yuu.

No results.

Reita gaped, “Oh, come on.  Everyone has a facebook.  Everyone.”

Kai pressed his thumb against his bottom lip in thought, “Maybe it’s under his stage name?”

A few key taps and mouse clicks later, Reita and Kai stared at the screen, flabbergasted.

Noticing the abrupt silence, Uruha raised a brow and set down his iron on the floor.  Slinking over to Reita’s side of the quaint room, he bent down and stuck his head between the hushed duo.  Blinking, the auburn-haired man slightly tilted his head to the left and rested his chin on Reita’s slumping shoulder, “Over a million results, eh?”

Gaping, Reita suddenly threw his hands in the air, nearly whacking Uruha in the face who pouted and retreated to Kai’s side instead, “What the hell?!  This is ridiculous.  We’re not sifting through 100,000 pages of search results.  No.”

Kai guffawed, “What?  So you’re just going to give up?  Way to be a man, Mr. Macho.”

“Whoa, whoa.  What’s with the sudden hostility?  If you want to play name games, then all you had to do was ask.”

“Guys…”

“Bring it.”

“…Guys.”

“It’s getting brought, don’t you worry.”

“Guys!”

Reita and Kai whipped their heads from glaring at each other to glare at Uruha.  Not one bit affected by the sharp gleam in both of their eyes, the resident cross-dresser of the three merely drawled lazily, “Isn’t Yuu Japanese?”

Reita and Kai kept staring, glares softening to questioning countenances.  Uruha nudged his chin towards the screen and continued, “So…  wouldn’t his name be in kanji instead of katakana?”

Both blond and brunet turned to look at the computer screen proclaiming a million and two search results.  Reita then muttered darkly as he changed his language settings, “Unbelievable.”

Uruha grinned widely, pleased.

With Kai still dumbfounded that he hadn’t been the one to come up with such an answer to their predicament, the bleach haired man lowly said, “Smart enough to figure that out, but not smart enough to set your iron upright before you came over here.”

The smile quickly vanished and Uruha whispered low with horror, “What?”

“Kai, I believe I smell burnt pleats.”

“Motherfuck!”

Uruha quickly vacated the squished space and left the other two to type in the intricate kanji.  And sure enough, there it was.  The poor bastard didn’t even have it set to private, which was ironic since he seemed to really treasure his privacy.  Whatever, his loss and Reita’s gain.  According to the elder’s status, there was a concert being held a town over and “Aoi” would be performing there, “It says it’s tonight.”  Kai read off the name of the place while Uruha began howling that his precious skirt was destroyed.

“Fuck, fuck there has to be a way to fix this – ”

“Well unless I see him in the next two hours, we’re going to that concert.”

Kai typed in the name of the place, Oreganos (“Is that Spanish?”), into Google while Reita wrote down the address on his palm.  It seemed to be downtown, a little area that was known for its penchant for deviance of the more sexual kind.  Reita’s cheeks were already flushing as he read the description of the live house that was beginning to seem more and more like a club rather than a regular dive.  It wasn’t like Reita was very in the know about live houses anyways.  Uruha was the one who dragged him to them – promising that he would feel the music this time, get that rush in his bones like no one could ever take anything away from you ever again.

He supposed it made sense in regards to Uruha – Kouyou.  After coming out, his parents hadn’t taken it so well.  Reita remembered the fog-ridden night where the warmth stuck to you like molasses, but the cold was still stitched into your breath – and there he was.  Curled up on a park bench, a guitar case tucked to his chest tight. 

And Reita had sat down next to him and whispered, “You’re coming home with me.”

And when they got there, opening the door slowly so it wouldn’t creak and wake Reita’s mom, climbing the stairs one and a half at a time and Uruha bumping into his back occasionally because the lights were off and fuck he couldn’t see anything but blurs and something was slipping down his cheek –

Reita had opened his bedroom door, tugged him inside and locked it.

“You’re safe now.”

The guitar case fell to the ground with a dull thud on Reita’s carpet and Uruha sucked in a shaky breath.  It was wet and raw and he felt like he was being sliced open and torn apart.  But then he was being held so tight that he was somehow fitting back together between his hands on Reita’s shoulder blades and his forehead against his collar bone. 

Reita had whispered, hushed and hoarse, “You just brought your guitar?”

And Uruha shook his head, a sob getting caught in his throat, “No.  It’s gone.  My dad broke it.  Just clothes in there.”

Uruha never bought another one.

So it made sense that when they would go to these live houses, when Uruha would plead and beg and drag him in – when Uruha closed his eyes as the guitar riffs hit each bone in his ribs – it was like coming home to those well-worn strings that had been ripped apart by unforgiving hands.

“Kai!  You bake – how do you get char marks out of lace?”

Uruha’s panicked voice that was increasingly becoming more desperate and horror ridden pierced Reita’s left eardrum.  Kai seemed to ignore the plea as he read through the description and rules of the club.  His brow furrowed and before Reita could even feel the anxiety of what? in his chest, Kai nervously turned to him.

“It’s… couples only.”

What.  What?

“What?”  He was confused.  Wasn’t this club slash live house in the local sexual deviance district?  Why the hell would there be a couples requirement to get in? 

Kai tilted his head thoughtfully as he read through the block of text on the fancy website, “Yeah, seems like it’s almost like a swinger’s hot spot.  Bring someone, mingle, do whatever you want with that person, with another, or all three or more of you.”

Reita sputtered, “That..  That doesn’t even make sense!  Why would Yuu play a show there?”

Kai shrugged, obviously not as scarred by the idea as the other was, “Money.  Like anything else.”

Reita huffed, crossing his arms and slumping into his seat, the rocking chair motion making the chair knock  into the wood floor with a sharp crack.  This made things more difficult.  How was he supposed to get in?  It wasn’t like he had a girlfriend and it wasn’t like he was close with any of the female kind to ask them to accompany him for one night.  Especially into a club like that.

He didn’t need any slaps to the face, thank you.

And Kai probably wasn’t willing to let him borrow Mia…  But maybe…

Reita stared at Kai pointedly, long enough that the other brunet glanced out of the corner of his eye, still half reading the article.  Reita pouted, a plea echoing in his eyes as he attempted to pull his best innocent with a tad of desperation face.  Kai wasn’t buying it.

“Absolutely not.”

“Kai, come on.  It’s for one night.  It’s not like I’m going to steal her.  Don’t be so caveman about this.”

“You’re not taking my girlfriend to a swinger’s club.”

Reita groaned, throwing his head back and sighing loudly, “Then who the fuck am I supposed to take?  I need to get in contact with Yuu and this damn club is my only in.”

There was pause.  Pauses were never a good thing in Reita’s experience.  Bad news and bad ideas always followed a pause.

“Well, you haven’t asked everybody yet.”

Yup, pauses fucking sucked.  Reita refused to turn around and follow Kai’s hand gesture behind them.  If this wasn’t awkward already – slinking to a swinger’s hideaway and confronting a might as well be stranger about an equally unknown person – it was about to get even more humiliating.  Reita’s brittle pride wouldn’t be able to take it.  Kai smirked at him and shrugged.

He didn’t have much of a choice.

Besides sitting around and waiting for Yuu to turn up on campus and having a discussion then.  But that was the easy and slow way.  That wasn’t Reita’s style.  What kind of life was a dull one?  So…

The bleach haired man slowly, slowly swiveled around in his chair.  He watched as Uruha flapped the pathetic piece of cloth around the room to shake off the charred bits, a permanent wrinkle in his brow.  It was no use – the fabric was stiff as a board and was starting to emit an odor that was almost like the foul scent of hair burning (Reita knew this from all the times he woke up to the younger man making failed attempts to straighten his locks). 

Uruha finally stopped flinging around the skirt and just merely held it out in front of him, gazing upon it with a sad expression.  It was obviously one of his favorites and Reita couldn’t help but feel a slight slice of pity at the soft regret flooding the other’s eyes. 

It took five more seconds for Uruha to tear his eyes away from the dilapidated article of clothing and notice the pair of stares locked onto him.  He raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow, “What?”

Kai kicked his chair and Reita forced the words out, face burning, “I… I need a favor.”

Uruha scoffed, “So do I.  You’re buying a new one of these.  You’re the one that made it all wrinkly in the first place.”

Reita decided to ignore that comment and don a serious expression instead, “Come on Uruha.  I really need you on this one.”

Hearing the softness in his friend’s voice and studying the totally-not-kidding visage, Uruha lowered the skirt and gently asked, “What do you need me to do?”

I can’t believe I’m saying this.  Holy shit, I will never live this down.  It’s going to be written on my damn grave.

“Be my girlfriend.”



-.-.-.-



A/N:  Ohoho :3

The "rocking chair feature" thing is totally true though with dorm chairs.  I saw my life flash before my eyes at least 15 times in the first couple of months at college.  They are hazardous.  And embarrassing.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!  :D