Chapter Text
Midousuji hadn't planned for this. It was Sunday, and as every Sunday he had been training for hours, that was until the flat tire had happened. He had been going so fast it had made him lose his balance. He had skinned his arm, nothing major. More importantly, his De Rosa was perfectly fine, except for the tire, but tires had to give up on life at one point or another. It had been stupid not to replace them much sooner than this. It wouldn't happen again.
However, a flat tire meant he had to walk home instead of flashing through the streets on his bicycle. Walking home was something he'd rather avoid.
"gross, gross, gross" he mouthed. He had forgotten to charge his mp3 player last night, which meant he didn't even have that with him. Way too many oversights, he had to do better than this.
Maybe they wouldn't be around. It was disgusting how simple minded some people were. These guys had been the same that had thrown stones at him when he was younger. They had pushed him. They had called him names. They didn't seem to grow out of it, maybe they did it out of habit.
He could already see them, just one block away from him; it seemed luck had taken the day off completely.
As long as he had music blaring in his ears, or he was riding his De Rosa he could ignore they existed. Trash like that didn't need to be even acknowledged.
It wasn't that he was afraid. After losing his mom Midousuji hadn't been afraid of anything again, after all, the worst had already happened, what was there left to be afraid of? But he didn't lie to himself about his limitations; a good athlete had to be aware of both, his strong and weak points, and Midousuji tried to be as self aware as he could.
School wasn't an issue; it was easy enough for him to achieve a spot among the top 10 students of his year. He excelled at cycling. With his De Rosa there was nothing he couldn't do, every goal he hadn't reached yet was only a finish line in the fast approaching horizon.
He didn't like people, so he wasn't good in social situations. He wasn't good at any other sport. Had a venomous tongue and a talent to see other people's weaknesses. That made him a skilled strategist, but he wasn't strong.
In a fight he'd lose just as he had when he was younger. He could be very intimidating, very dangerous-looking and off-putting, this he knew, but he wasn't sure if that would be enough to avoid a physical confrontation that could result in an injury bad enough to prevent him from cycling, maybe it would, with trash like this it could work, but it had the bonus drawback of being too close to home, he didn't want any unsettling rumor reaching his aunt.
Few months after moving to his uncle's house he had had the habit of hiding from everyone. Everywhere. Mostly because he didn't want anyone to see his tears; those were for his mom and her only. So he hid; closets, cupboards, under beds, under tables. Luck must have taken the day off that day as well because he overheard a conversation that still resounded crystal clear in his head.
"He’s like a changeling!" An elderly family member had said to his aunt "Himawari was such a lovely woman, isn't it weird her son looks like that? is there.. you know.. something wrong with him?"
"of course there isn't!" his aunt had snapped and changed the subject. It bothered him how clearly he could still hear his relative’s voice echoing inside his head sometimes
"is there.. you know.. something wrong with him?" there probably was, but he wasn't going to let his aunt know. Not after she had stood up for him that time.
He had always done his best to be useful, yet not get in their way. Folding himself quietly into corners when there was nothing productive he could do for them. His aunt and uncle were always kind to him, and he saw his cousin Yuki as nothing less than a little sister, yet he could never shake the feeling of being, after all, an imposed guest. He didn't like to be on the spotlight near them. If it was for something positive he felt he was stealing light that belonged only to Yuki, and anything negative made him feel self-conscious and vaguely guilty, which in turn angered him because only weaklings like yowaizumi got mushy about dumb trash like that.
Disregard seemed like the best plan.
As he walked in the sidewalk opposite to them he set his expression into a blank stare and kept walking forward, clutching at his bicycle's handlebars a little bit too hard, concentrating on his breath behind his mask. He felt the first pebble hit his shoulder while the usual names started to pour over him.
"freak" "zombie" "frog man" So unoriginal, so dumb, so meaningless. He knew that was as much as they would do as long as he didn't give them any reaction, so it really didn't matter, as long as they aimed the pebbles at him and not at his De Rosa. He focused on his breath, he thought about the new tires he would purchase. About the new training menu he was planning for the zaku.
He was so zoomed out, he walked three or four footsteps away before he finally realized something had changed.
"s -stop.. Midousuji-kun isn't doing anything to you!"
As he looked back he was sure, although it made no sense, that he saw the not standard model from sohoku, his face twisted as if trying to decide between determination and jittery nervousness, finally settling for something that looked closer to panicky alarm. He was on a lavender, girly-looking bicycle. Maybe he had hit his head when he fell after all, he must be seeing things.
When he had been bullied as a child, he had wished for someone bigger and stronger than himself, someone who could keep the bullies away; He went to sleep every day trying to imagine how it would be like having someone like that, a mecha from the anime he liked or maybe something more like the knights in the fairy tales his mom loved. She had read those stories to him all the time, and then he had read them for her in the hospital. So many years later when it didn't really matter anymore, a scrawny sparrow hopped in. it was such a disgusting joke.
Onoda had put himself between the other teenagers and himself, as if his intention had been to shield him. Midousuji would have been right behind him if he hadn't apparently kept walking away after Onoda had valiantly stopped. Onoda's legs were still at either side of his bicycle. He had started to confront the trash before he even thought of properly dismounting the bike.
Midousuji was about to keep walking away. It wasn't his business if the little sohoku climber wanted to get into a fight, he wasn't going to be dragged into it.
The bigger guy in the pack walked towards the smaller boy. He was taller and bigger than Midousuji, muscular too. He looked impossibly huge in front of Onoda, a bit like a rabid hyena cornering the little bird.
"What was that four eyes, I couldn't hear you" the hyena sneered
The smaller boy stared right into the bigger teen’s eyes, if still with that panicky look which made Midousuji's stomach twist in an unpleasant way which he completely ignored.
"Midousuji-kun isn't doing anything to you, so you should leave him a--"
Onoda couldn't finish his sentence. The taller teen kicked the delicate bicycle’s frame, making both the boy and the machine hit the ground with an alarming clatter
The pack laughed and sneered. The hyena walked towards Onoda.
“What were you saying four eyes, I still couldn't hear you”
This was so gross and stupid and useless. He should walk away.
A disgusting waste of time and energy. He let his De Rosa rest softly in the ground.
This whole situation was incredibly pathetic
"gross, gross, gross, so gross not standard model" he said, as he walked towards Onoda, dangerously now, almost mirroring the hyena.
Three strides of his long legs was all it took, he was already near enough to touch them
His spine was moving under his skin as if it was something alive, each of his vertebrae making a sickening popping noise as he pulled himself to his full height, his shoulders rotated as only a dislocated shoulder should. He took his mask off to bare his teeth and let his abnormally long tongue hang out. With his eyes bulging out off their sockets he tilted his head to an angle only seen on the most inventive exorcism movies. He stretched his neck.
“what did you just do disgusting, disgusting worm" he shrieked pulling his eyelid down to let his blank eyes bulge even more
"will you laugh when I gauge your eyes out" he said as he gave them a jeering imitation of how they had laughed when Onoda fell.
Midousuji twisted his limbs, cracked and shrieked. He had no strategy to follow, so he did what he hadn't dared do in years and hoped for the best.
He looked at the pack right in time to see their glassy eyes and pale faces, they tripped over each other and themselves, they couldn't get away from him fast enough. It was like they had just seen a demon. Maybe they had.
Midousuji relaxed his posture, although his neck was still in an unnatural position and some of his bones still made assorted sickening sounds. He turned towards Onoda who was still on the floor, half expecting to see fear. He hadn't gone all out with his body horror show at the interhigh, he rarely did, but he had now and people always found it disturbing, but Onoda was looking at him with a flustered, self-deprecating expression instead.
"I'm so sorry Midousuji-kun, it seems I made everything worse didn't I?" The smaller boy said looking down.
Midousuji had seen that look once before, while they were at the interhigh, after Onoda had asked if he liked anime and had gotten no reply. That time, before he could stop himself, his brain had decided to talk about the royal army robot to make that awful expression disappear. Midousuji hadn't liked it then and he didn't care for it now.
"It was very gross, very gross and pathetic” he paused, he wanted that look to go away again “Sa.ka.mi.chi." he enunciated each syllable as he took one of the handlebars and pulled the bike carefully up, Onoda smiled brightly at the sound of his own name, as he slid backwards to disentangle himself from the bycicle. The bycicle that Midousuji now noticed was not only lavender, the paint work had a glittery effect, and there were ribbons in pastel colors wrapped all around the handlebars. The proud steed of the belated knight, apparently.
Onoda got up, trying his weight on each of his legs to check everything worked properly. When they saw it did, Onoda took the handlebars of his glittery bike.
"you are bleeding!" the spectacled boy exclaimed as he noticed Midousuji's skinned arm, a bit of alarm in his voice
"You are bleeding too" the taller boy stated as he pointed at a cut on Onoda's leg
"oh! I hadn't noticed. It doesn't hurt"
Midousuji got back to the side of his De Rosa picking it up
"My house is not too far" It wasn't said as an invitation. It was said as a statement, but Onoda hurried to catch up with him as he resumed his walk home.
No, Today wasn't going as planned, not at all.