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“What happens in September?” Zaizen lazily rested his face in his hand, squishing his cheek. His recently painted fingernails were beginning to chip, standing out starkly against the pastel blue of his phone. He was not looking into the webcam on his computer - even though they were having a video chat, he was scrolling through something on his phone.
“What do you mean?” Kirihara demanded, pointing his finger at his nose abruptly. “You better not have fucking - ah, shit.” He scrambled to pick up his dropped controller, again. His webcam was pointed at him from a side profile as his eyes were clearly focused on the TV in front of him.
“Oh? Something important?” Zaizen’s lips twitched as he came across something on his twitter feed. He had to use both hands to maneuver the phone to like and retweet whatever it was.
“He’s been trying to convince us all to come to Kanagawa.” Kaidou had his laptop on the floor in front of him while he stretched. He was wearing his running clothes with his bandanna draped over his shoulder. Some of the rest of his collection could be seen in the corner of his screen.
“Because you should, it’s not like - aaaargh!” Kirihara clutched the controller as he shouted. Zaizen recoiled, sticking a finger in his ear. “Fucking Fox.”
“Not like you came down to Osaka for my birthday.”
“Dude, that was in the middle of the tennis season, what’s even going on right now, right?” Kirihara turned his full attention to the screen, giving a big grin with bright eyes that were almost impossible to deny.
Or they would be with any other group.
“That’s a really long train ride,” Hiyoshi complained. He had only been half-listening to any of this to begin with, there were more pressing things on his mind. Kirihara’s birthday was still a few weeks away, but before then… “Get me a limo.”
“Get yourself a limo, rich kid.” Kirihara bared his teeth in what could be a grin or a threat, it was never completely clear with him. He adjusted his position to sit cross-legged and fully facing the camera. “C’mon guys, it’ll be fun. We can like… pool our money to get the shinkansen ticket for Zaizen, right?”
“I have a job,” Zaizen protested with an annoyed look to the camera.
“Oh! That’s right! Can I order a smile?”
“No.”
While they bickered, Kaidou asked, “What’s up with you? You’re quiet.” He did his best to hide it, but Kaidou was definitely the nicest of the four of them. Unlike the other two idiots, he was also perceptive enough to realize Hiyoshi wasn’t really paying attention to all of it.
“Just trying to figure out…” Hiyoshi closed the website he had been looking at to turn his attention back to the screen. “My senpai’s birthday is this week and I have no idea what to do for it.” He felt like he should at least get him a gift, but it was actually way worse than that. He wanted to show him he cared with the gift. Like, show him he cared in a way that his senpai might, well, reciprocate.
Ugh.
It all got so confusing since they got to high school. Even though most of them had grown taller, filled out, started to look more like adults, Mukahi was still petite in stature. While he might not have been very tall, he had a strong build from practicing gymnastics. It was cute. But that thought, along with all of the other stupid thoughts that were swirling in Hiyoshi’s mind when it came to Mukahi, were living rent-free in his mind and he was cutting them off.
“Yeah… that’s tough.” Kaidou, if anyone, would understand. They had all teased him plenty of times over the years for his devotion to that weirdo Inui on Seigaku, but in a strange way he was probably the best person to ask about it. “Maybe ask him to spend some time together. Like a d-”
“A daaaaate?” Kirihara interjected, grinning ear-to-ear again.
“Like you and Yanagi-san?” Zaizan said with an accusatory look.
Without missing a beat, Kirihara replied, “Like me and Shiraishi-san?”
“No.” Zaizen made a face, dropping his phone. “That’s just weird.”
Kaidou looked relieved that the attention was back off of him again, though there was color rising in his neck and ears. “But it’s your senpai - he’ll like that.” He began tying his bandanna over his hair, probably just so he didn’t have to look at the screen anymore.
Yeah. Yeah that was a good idea. Hiyoshi had just the thing, too.
“Well, what would you get him, Kenya?” Yuushi held his cellphone against his ear, absently perusing the window of yet another shop that wasn’t giving him even a little bit of inspiration. His hair was tied at his nape to escape at least a little bit of the heat and he didn’t bother with his glasses today. He didn’t have time to trouble over his appearance once he realized what day it was.
“What about his favorite food?” Kenya suggested enthusiastically. “Everyone likes food. Maybe you could treat him to lunch, or something?”
“Ah, yes. Natto and convenience store fried chicken.”
“What - ew, no. Yuushi, he doesn’t actually like that stuff, does he?”
Yuushi stared at his own reflection in the window of the shop. Unfortunately, yes, that was Mukahi’s favorite. And of course he could take him to the convenience store around the corner by school and get some karaage, but that wasn’t much of a…
Well, a date.
He had not even begun to consider how he was going to propose any of this to Mukahi. Now that they were in their second year of high school, he was starting to feel some pressure to either shit or get off the pot. They would be third years next year and Yuushi was planning on trying to get into medical school at the University of Osaka. He had no idea what Mukahi would do, but he was very sure he wasn’t going to just up and move to Osaka on his own. Not that he was thinking in terms of moving to a different city together or anything.
“Yuushi?”
“Sorry, I’m just a mess.” Yuushi put his free hand to his face as though he could rub away the early onset of wrinkles that were definitely going to start forming on his forehead from all the worrying he was doing lately.
“It’s just karaage, Yuushi. Well, I don’t know about the natto - that might be worth losing your cool.” Talking to Kenya was always like this. There was always a battle of getting on the same page about anything at all. Even though they were only a few months apart in age, sometimes it felt like Kenya was much, much younger than his cousin.
“Okay, I’m going about this the wrong way.” Yuushi turned away from the shop, continuing to make his way down the street toward the train station. It was clear that he wasn’t getting anywhere just looking around random shops. “If it were Shiraishi, what would you do for his birthday if you wanted to make it really special?”
“Huh? Oh.” Kenya was quiet for longer than Yuushi would have expected. “Well…. I guess I’d try to figure out what he would like to do best and ask him to hang out. Like, if he didn’t have plans, of course. But, you know, that’s what friends do.” The friends qualifier wasn’t really needed, but Yuushi had long given up on trying to get in Kenya’s head that he was kinda gay.
“So, I should ask him on a date?” Even as Yuushi said the words, he knew that it was what he needed to do. He had to stop pussy-footing around and just say something if he wanted this to go anywhere.
“Uh… Yuushi, that’s kinda…”
Say it, Yuushi thought. I dare you.
Mukahi dropped his phone in his lap and flopped back on Akutagawa’s bed, staring at the ceiling. “Now what?” This was the worst possible scenario - he had gone from bitching to his two best friends about no one wanting to throw him a big party for his birthday to this.
“Is it a date?” Akutagawa flopped on his stomach on his bed next to Mukahi, an enormous sheep plush tucked under his chest and a piece of pocky slowly disappearing into his mouth as he munched.
Shishido sputtered, almost dropping his Switch and looking over his shoulder at them. “Why would it be a date? They’re both guys.” Mukahi and Akutagawa exchanged the same look that they had perfected over years of practice - the okay, sure, you’re totally straight Mr. Buttsex Formation look. “But anyway, an escape room sounds sick. Wakashi really likes that shit.”
“A quiet park picnic sounds romantic,” Akutagawa said, tucking both of his hands under his chin. Knowing Oshitari, it was probably something like a perfectly timed sunset picnic so they could walk back through the park at twilight on a nice clear night. It made Akutagawa want to hurl just thinking about it.
“Ugh. Stupid Yuushi. Stupid Piyo.” Mukahi gestured grumpily at the ceiling. “Why do they both have to be so annoying when it’s my birthday?”
“We could all go together to Tokyo Disneyland, instead,” Shishido suggested, his attention back on his screen. “I mean - they can come, too. We just make Keigo pay.” When they wanted to do something sort of extravagant, the solution was always Atobe’s credit card.
Amusement dancing in his eyes, Akutagawa said, “Looks like you have a choice to make, Gakkun.”
Expression sour, cheeks flushed, Mukahi’s hands reached once again for his phone.