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Akito sighed and shook his head as he walked onto the stage with Toya by his side.
His grey eyes met Akito’s green, and they held so much affection and confidence within them.
Did that make it worth it? To be here?
…Yeah. Of course it did.
“Ladies, gentlemen, and all people! We’re proud to invite you all to the first annual Miyajou versus Kamikou Book Trivia competition!
Akito crossed his arms and shook his head.
Seriously, how the hell did he get himself into this mess…?
~
Two days ago…
Akito was just sitting back and listening to music. Toya was busy prepping for this weird trivia competition, and he’d rather eat alone than deal with An or the Weirdo Wombo Combo right now.
Well, he thought he would be eating alone… until Toya showed up.
“Akito…”
Toya looked perfectly neutral as always. Well, if you weren’t Akito.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“It’s nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me, partner.”
Toya sighed and leaned back next to him.
“It’s nothing you’d care about…”
“Come on. I’m your partner. If it’s making you upset, of course I’ll care about it.”
Toya turned back to Akito with sad eyes, and it made his heart tighten.
“…We’re going to have to withdraw from the competition.”
“What?! Why?! You’ve been practicing so much, on top of VBS practices!”
“One of my teammates came down with something. She’s been throwing up all day, and the doctors say she won’t recover before the competition. So, that’s it. We don’t have enough members.”
Toya sighed and plopped his head down on Akito’s shoulder.
“I just… I’m so disappointed. I was preparing so hard, I went through four different novels just this month!”
Akito reached up and ran his fingers through Toya’s soft hair.
“I know. That really sucks. Is there anything I can do?”
“Can you find me another teammate in two days?”
A lightbulb went off in Akito’s head.
“…Hey, you know… maybe I could join. I don’t know anything about books, but you just need another teammate, right?”
Toya launched up, his eyes glittering.
“R-Really? You’d do that for me, Akito?!”
“Of course! No one knows better than me how hard you’ve been working!”
Toya grabbed Akito’s hands in his own, and he smiled. So brightly, so brilliantly.
“Thank you, Akito! You really are the best partner I could ask for! I’m so happy, I could almost kiss you!”
Akito felt his chest flutter. God, Toya was so pretty when he got excited.
And… he’d love to kiss Toya. His lips always looked so soft and perfect, he’d love to know what they felt like on his own. What kind of noises he’d make if they were bit- okay, maybe that’s a bit too far.
Akito mentally slapped himself for getting derailed by how pretty his partner is, and he focused on his words.
“I know you’re not much of a reader, but… you’ll still do this for me?”
“Yeah. Just don’t make me answer anything, I’ll make us lose.”
“Of course not.”
“Then let’s do this, partner.”
Toya buried his head into his shoulder again, still smiling brightly.
Akito’s fingers found their way into his hair again, and Toya let out a contented sigh.
God, who gave him the right to be so damn cute?
After a minute of staying there, Toya’s head snapped up, a competitive fire in his eyes that Akito rarely sees.
“Come on, let’s get the rest of the team. Herr Boehm’s our advisor.”
“Wait, Herr-sensei? How’d you swing that?”
“He’s really very nice. You just need to get to know him.”
“He just likes you because you’re fluent in German, partner.”
“He’s happy to have someone who understands him when he talks.”
Akito rolled his eyes, but when Toya gave him that adorable smile and grabbed his hand, he just couldn’t say no.
~
A bit before they got on stage, Fuyune Shimizu walked up to them.
“Shimizu-san.” Toya said, brushing a hair out of his face. “Are you writing a story?”
“No, I’m afraid. I’m actually competing! I’m your rival today, haha!” She said.
“Oh, interesting. Well, let’s have a good match.”
“Let’s!” She turned to the side, and she stiffened up a bit at the sight of Akito. “Oh, I didn’t know that friends were allowed backstage.”
“They aren’t. Akito’s competing.”
“Y-You are? I was under the impression you didn’t care much for reading.”
Damn. She does her research.
Akito sighed and shook his head before speaking to her.
“…Can I tell ya a secret?”
“Hm? Of course! It’ll never leave my lips, journalist’s honor!”
He leaned in conspiratorially, with a wink and a smirk.
“I don’t actually read much. I’m just eye candy, one of the team members got sick and she had to drop out. We would have had to forfeit if I didn’t join in last-minute.”
“O-Oh, alright. That would have been a shame, I wouldn’t want for you to have to lose instantly. It’s no fun to win if you don’t fight for it!”
Hah. He liked her.
Akito looked up at her and shook his head.
“You’re right. And we’re gonna win. No one’s better than my partner when it comes to books!”
“Hehe! We’ll see~!”
“Is that all, Shimizu-san?” Toya chimed in.
“…I actually also came to apologize in advance.” She started. “I can get a bit… intense during competitions. It’s a holdover from my Archery days. Off the field, I’m Fantastic Fuyu-chan! On it… well, some of my teammates used to call me a ‘Mythic Bitch,’ whatever that means.”
Toya shook his head and motioned to Akito.
“No matter how bad you are, you can’t be worse than him. I’ll be fine.”
“Hey!”
~
And that’s how Akito ended up here. In a competition that he was woefully unqualified for just because he wanted his partner to be happy again.
He took the seat next to Toya, who grabbed his hand under the table and gave it a soft squeeze.
Toya turned to him, and leaned so close that his nose was brushing his skin and his breath was ghosting over his ear.
“Thank you so much.” He whispered, so low that no one but him could hear.
“Any time.”
Toya withdrew after that whisper, and Akito couldn’t help but wish that he’d stayed so close a bit longer.
He looked over to the other team, and… wait, what?!
Kohane was over there! She was wearing these pink-framed glasses and her hair was out, but he knew it was her. It was obvious.
Toya didn’t look shocked at all, but Akito certainly was.
Shimizu took her place at the head of the table, in the team captain’s seat.
Toya shook his head, and that competitive fire returned to his eyes. God, he was hot.
Honestly, this might have been worth it just to see Toya looking like that from so close.
Shimizu also looked pretty heated, a smirk on her face.
“So, Aoyagi-kun. Are you ready to lose?”
“I won’t be the one losing, Shimizu-san.”
The judges started the clock, and the competition had begun.
“First category… Horror! Let’s start off with an easy one. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , what is the monster’s name?”
A buzz before Akito could even think, and a girl on the other side answers.
“Frankenstein!”
Toya leaps up out of his seat, slamming the table in front of him.
“It’s Frankenstein’s Monster! ”
Shimizu does the same, finishing it up.
“He named himself Adam, you cunt!”
“…The correct answer is Adam, point Miyajou!”
Toya crashes back into his seat, looking angrier than Akito’s ever seen him. He can swear he heard the first notes of RAD DOGS.
…Fucking hell, this is just the first question and Toya looks like he wants to commit a murder.
Akito grabs his hand and gives it a squeeze, and Toya visibly relaxes.
He turns to Akito with a grateful look in his eyes, before turning back to the match.
It looks like Shimizu’s pretty smug already, and Akito locks eyes with Kohane from across the stage.
She looked absolutely terrified. Shimizu’s competitive streak must have been as unexpected as Toya’s.
…This is either going to be fucking amazing or an absolute trainwreck.
~
“Alright! Miyajou’s ahead right now! Next topic: Dystopia!” The host yells, and Toya lights up again.
Unfortunately for him, Shimizu’s eyes also light up.
“First question! In The Hunger Games, the Capital creates genetically modified animals to partly resemble previously killed tributes. What animals are they?”
Shimizu hits the button before Toya can, and Akito can feel his annoyance.
“Mockingjays, Tracker Jackers, and Wolf-like muttations!” She says, but Toya slams his hand on the desk again.
“Seriously, Shimizu? The answer is Jabberjays, Tracker Jackers and Wolf-like muttations. The Jabberjays bred with normal Mockingbirds, and that’s how the Mockingjay came to be.”
The host looks down at his card and turns to Toya.
“Aoyagi’s right, point Kamikou!”
Toya actually smirks at her, a vision of confidence. And Akito’s perfectly content to stare at his partner’s stupidly pretty face.
“Okay, next question! In the book Logan’s Run, people are killed once they reach what age?”
Toya slams his buzzer, and answers confidently.
“Age thirty!”
Akito’s about ready to cheer for his partner because he’s so damn brilliant, but he sees Shimizu smirking again from the other side, waving her finger as she leans down on the table.
“Come on, Aoyagi. Rookie mistake. You mixed up the book and the film. In the book, people are killed at age twenty-one.”
Toya flinched back, his eyes widening. Fuck, he knew she was right.
“Shimizu’s right again! Point Miyajou!”
Toya sits down again, and Akito pats him on the shoulder.
“…She’s such a bitch.” He whispers, and Akito lets out a soft chuckle. He’s definitely hearing RAD DOGS right now.
“Partner, with the way you’re acting right now, you don’t have the right to call her that.”
The host speaks up again, and he raises the next card.
“Next question for this category! In Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, the final chapter was omitted in what version of the book?”
Toya slams his buzzer, and he seems to have gotten the fire back in his eyes.
“The American version!”
“Correct! Point, Kamikou!”
Akito couldn’t help himself, he reached over and ruffled Toya’s hair.
Toya smiled, but he still told Akito not to distract him.
“Only a few more questions left in this category! And here’s a double-point question! In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, where did Offred go and who did she meet when the commander took her out?”
Toya reached for the buzzer again, and he managed to get there just a split-second before Shimizu.
“She went to Jezebel’s and she met Moira!”
“Correct again! Aoyagi, you’re getting on a hot streak! Two points to Kamikou!”
Toya smiled again, and Akito ruffled his hair. It seems to be working.
“Last question for this section! In George Orwell’s 1984, what are the three slogans of the Party?”
One more buzzer slam, and the words come out of Toya’s mouth lightning-fast.
“War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength!”
“And that’s another point to Kamikou!”
Akito ruffled Toya’s hair again. He turned to Shimizu, who was staring at them with a murderous expression on her face. Damn, she really hates to lose, doesn’t she?
But he turned back to Toya, who was smiling at him contentedly.
God, messy hair really made him look good.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last long when Toya ran his fingers through his hair and somehow managed to get it looking perfect again.
“Alright, final category! Thrillers! Kamikou’s got the lead, with Shimizu and Aoyagi taking the vast majority of points!”
…Oh, hell yes. Now if there’s a category that Toya knows, it’s thrillers. Akito clearly remembers being horrified at the practice session he was dragged to with just how much fucked up knowledge Toya has. He could probably commit a murder and get away with it.
But he wouldn’t. He’s too nice for that.
“First question! In Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl, what did the cops find that Amy wanted to buy at the abandoned mall?”
Shimizu slams the buzzer before Toya can, and she answers confidently.
“A gun!”
But then Toya literally smirks, pushing a hair out of his face before answering.
“She’s wrong.”
The host looked stunned.
“But… it’s the answer on the card.”
“The card is wrong. The cops didn’t find anything when they went to the mall. Nick, Amy’s father, and a couple of side characters were the ones who found that information after they were unsatisfied with the cops’ investigation.”
The host turns to the judges, and they nod at him. Fuck yes, Toya’s right!
Shimizu reels back, and Toya says something else.
“Rookie mistake, you cunt.”
“YEAAAAAAAHHHHH! TOOOOOOOOOOYAAAAA!”
Akito flinched at the scream, and he turned to the audience.
Tsukasa-senpai. Of course.
“THAT’S MY LITTLE BROTHER!”
Toya gave a little smile and a wave towards Tsukasa-senpai.
Toya quickly turns back to the match. Pure confidence is coming off him in waves, and if there was ever a moment where Akito wanted to kiss him…
“Okay, okay! Let’s calm down! Next question! In Stephen King’s The Mangler, what ends up accidentally possessed by a demon and and ended up murdering several people?”
Shimizu slams her hand down, but she lets out a screech as Toya hits the button.
“My fucking tremor! My hand slipped off the buzzer!”
“Rules are rules, Shimizu!” Toya yells. “An industrial laundry press!”
“What the fuck even is that?” Akito asks.
“Correct! Point, Kamikou! Bonus question for your team! What’s the tagline for the movie?”
“I have…” Toya coughs and cuts himself off. “Sorry, slip of the tongue. It has a crush on you!”
“Correct! Another point to Kamikou!”
Shimizu leaps up.
“I want to challenge that! He started answering and stopped himself! His final answer was ‘I have a crush on you!’”
“What the hell?! It was a simple slip of the tongue!”
“Rules are rules, Aoyagi!”
The judges deliberate for a second, and then the host relays their final judgement.
“She’s right! We’re withdrawing that last point from Kamikou!”
Toya bites his lip, clearly bitter but knowing there’s nothing he can do about it.
“LET’S GO! SHIMIZU-SAMA! OUR LOVELY QUEEN!”
Akito turns back, and he notices a girl screaming.
“…Kobayashi.” Toya mutters.
Oh, shit. The photographer girl who scared the shit out of Toya.
Toya crashes back into his chair, crossing his arms. Akito runs his fingers through Toya’s hair, and he relaxes a bit.
Toya leans in and touches his nose to Akito’s ear. He’s grateful.
“Thank you, partner. I’d probably have had an aneurysm by now if you weren't here.” He whispers, and the way his breath ghosted over Akito’s ear made him shudder slightly.
Toya pulled away, and Akito felt his skin start to heat up.
And of course, that’s when Tsukasa-senpai starts yelling.
“SHOW HER, TOYA! YOU CAN DO IT!”
“NO WAY, SHIMIZU-SAMA’S GOING TO END HIM!”
Akito zoned out and sighed at the crowd’s antics, just watching Toya and pulling him back down whenever he got too heated.
At some point, Toya seemed about ready to throw himself across the stage and get into a physical fight with Shimizu. And with the way his ears are getting assaulted with his partner’s theme, he knows for sure that he’s pissed.
So he does the only thing he can think of. He pulls Toya down and into his lap.
Toya’s entire body relaxes in a split-second.
His arms solidly wrap around Toya, keeping him in place so that he couldn’t leap away.
He can hear Toya’s brain shutting off completely, burying his head into Akito’s neck.
Everyone was silent as it happened, and that’s the only time Akito realized that it was… probably a bad idea to shut down Toya like that.
Luckily for him, he feels Toya’s eyes snap open against his shoulder and he pulls his head up.
“You good now?”
Toya’s turning redder by the second, but he nods.
Akito removes his arms from around Toya, and he walks back to his seat.
And because of how flustered Toya is, he fumbles the answer to three questions and Kohane actually manages to get an answer in.
…An answer she learned because of Toya’s book rambles.
“U-Uh… In Stephen King’s Misery, the name of the book that Paul Sheldon wrote for Annie Wilkes was Misery’s Return!”
“The question was ‘Who was the person who kidnapped Paul Sheldon and forced him to write Misery’s Return for them?’ but you somehow managed to get it right, so we’ll give Miyajou that one.”
Toya shook his head and the color started to drain from his face. He’s back.
Miyajou’s one point ahead, if they fumble this last question, it’s all over.
“Final question of the game! The category is The History of Books! If Kamikou gets this one, we enter the tiebreaker round!”
Akito shook his head and turned to Toya.
“You got this?”
“Of course, Akito.”
The host looks down at his card, and he announced the last question.
“What is widely considered to be the first novel ever?”
Shimizu hits the button. Damn it. It’s over.
“Don Quixote!” She says, and Toya breaks into another smirk.
“It’s The Tale of Genji.”
The host looks down at his card and motions to Toya.
“Aoyagi’s right! Point, Kamikou! We’re now entering the tiebreaker category!“
Akito jumps up and gives Toya a hug, and Toya smiles at him again.
Alright, whatever the category is, Toya’s sure to annihilate it!
“The tiebreaker category is… Manga, Manhua, Comics, and Light Novels!”
The entire crowd went silent.
Both teams looked between each other.
“In the manga SPY×FAMILY, what were Anya Forger’s former last names?”
Oh, come on. That’s easy.
…And no one answers.
Akito rolls his eyes and slams his buzzer.
“Williams, Levski, and Roche. Klein is an anime-only addition.”
Everyone looks stunned that he actually answered. It was obvious that he didn’t read much.
But if there’s one thing he knows, it’s manga.
Toya turns to him, his eyes sparkling.
“Akito…!”
He can also feel Shimizu turning to look at him, but all the fire in her eyes has vanished. She almost seems… smaller.
The host looks down at his card, and he motions to Akito. “Shinonome’s bringing it back! Point, Kamikou!”
He hears applause from Kamikou’s side of the audience, but Toya snuggles up to him and he barely registers it anymore.
That is, until one voice cuts through the din of the crowd.
“BOOOOOOO! AKITO SUCKS! ”
He rolled his eyes. Well, if he wasn’t sure that The Phantom of Vivid Street went to Kamikou before, he was now.
“Whoever said that, I respect you so much!” Ena yelled, and Akito shot a glare at her from the stage.
But Toya buried his face in his neck again and whispered “Don’t listen to them. You’re doing amazing, partner.”
Akito smiled and ran his fingers through Toya’s hair, who smiled even harder against his skin.
Everyone finally calmed down, and the host read out the next question.
“In One Piece, the Mangaka Eiichiro Oda designed Nami as the most attractive woman he could think of. Who did he end up marrying?”
Toya tensed up a bit, but Akito slammed the buzzer again.
“A Nami cosplayer, Chiaki Inaba.”
“Correct again, point Kamikou!”
Toya’s fingers found his way into Akito’s hair, and he felt Toya’s smile get wider as he heard the first notes of Cinema play. Hah, he’s going to win this.
Shimizu’s glare turned icy. There’s no way Miyajou’s winning now.
“Next question! In Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, who was the Dokkebi that Kim Dokja beat after the defeat of the catastrophe of floods?”
Akito slammed the buzzer again.
“Paul.”
“Correct again! Another point to Kamikou! This next one is tough! Double points! In Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess, who returns Yvonne to the Eckhart household?”
Another buzzer slam, and Toya’s grip on Akito gets tighter.
“In the original game it’s Vinter, but in Hard Mode it’s Eckles.”
He hears Tsukasa-senpai screaming from the crowd.
“THAT’S NOT EVEN A BOOK!”
Akito turns around slightly, careful not to accidentally throw Toya off him.
“YES IT IS! IT’S AN ISEKAI WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER ENDS UP IN A VIDEO GAME! AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ARGUING AGAINST US GETTING POINTS?!”
Kobayashi joins the screaming match.
“IT’S STUPID, THAT’S WHY! MANGA ISN’T LITERATURE!”
Shimizu shakes her head.
“…Chi-chan, please stop. Anything can be considered literature. It’s my fault for not being more prepared.”
Shimizu turns back to Akito, who’s still glaring at the audience.
Toya removes his head from the crook of Akito’s neck before throwing a pleading look at Tsukasa-senpai in the crowd, and he falls silent.
Akito was a little nervous that Toya was going to stop hanging onto him, but he buried his face back in the crook of his neck and Shimizu’s glare grew steely again. She’s back into match mode.
“Alright! One more correct answer from Kamikou, and the mercy rule kicks in! In Your Throne, who is the short-haired woman who sets a building on fire and saves a child from the blaze she set?”
Akito shakes his head as he slams the buzzer. Too damn easy.
“Trick question, it’s Medea Solon in a wig.”
“Correct! That’s it! Kamikou takes the crown!”
The cheering from their side goes insane, and he can hear someone running onto the stage.
“Toya! Akito!”
Goddamn it. Tsukasa-senpai.
Tsukasa-senpai smiles at them before pulling them into a hug, and Akito is acutely aware of the fact that Toya moved one of his hands from Akito’s waist to move around Tsukasa-senpai.
Tsukasa-senpai fully pulled Toya over to him, and he ruffled his hair.
“You did amazing, Toya! That last category was garbage, don’t worry about not knowing any of the answers.”
“Hey! It’s the reason we won!” Akito chimed in.
“Yes, but it still came out of nowhere. They never mentioned that people might be quizzed on manga.”
“…Okay, that makes sense. Otherwise Toya would have come to me for weird facts I know. Or made me participate in the first place. Plus, those questions were so fucking niche. No one that isn’t a big fan would know them. So he’s right, don’t worry about not knowing ‘em, partner.”
Toya smiled again, and he grabbed one of Akito’s hands.
“Will you join again next year?” He asked.
“Hah? Why’d you want me to do that?”
“What if they test us on manga again? You’d be the only one who would get it.”
Ah, shit. He can’t say no to Toya.
“…Fine. Just don’t pull me away from practice!”
“Of course not.”
Akito felt a tap on his shoulder, and he saw Kohane behind him.
“U-Uhm! Good game, Akito-kun!” She said, adjusting her glasses.
“Good game. The hell are ya wearing glasses for?”
“Oh, An-chan said all this made me look like a sexy nerd. She picked the frames out. I needed a new pair anyway, my eyes got worse again.”
Toya nodded at her before speaking.
“She’s right. They flatter your face very well.”
“Thanks, Toya-kun!”
He’d make a quip about Toya having no sense of fashion and therefore not being entitled to have an opinion on this, but Tsukasa-senpai’s already a bit heated and he doesn’t want to get punched in the face.
Just then, Shimizu appears behind her and bows her head.
“Ahaha… that’s what I meant about getting a bit intense. Though it was interesting to see Aoyagi getting as heated as I did. No one’s ever done that before. Good game! We gave you a good fight, didn’t we?”
“Absolutely.” Toya adds. “How about we all go to Weekend Garage together? For a match well played?”
“O-Oh, are you sure?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
Toya held a hand out, and she took it nervously.
“I-If you really wish to. May I invite the rest of my team?”
“Of course. Even though we ended up taking over the whole competition, we couldn’t have done it without all those group study sessions.”
“Ahaha! You’re right! I’ll be right back.”
Shimizu removed her hand from Toya’s and walked over to her team, and Akito turned and smiled at him.
“Damn, you really went from calling her a cunt to inviting her to Weekend Garage. I can’t believe it.”
Toya looked a little sheepish at that.
“I don’t know what came over me. Usually you’re the more competitive one.”
“Yeah, that’s what made it so surprising. It was great to watch, though.”
“Was it?”
“Yeah! It was!” An said, running up on stage. “Also seriously, you two need to just kiss already.”
Akito felt himself turn pink, and Tsukasa-senpai looked confused.
“They’re already together, aren’t they?”
“Even your own brother thinks so, Toya!” She says, turning to him.
Toya shakes his head.
“Akito and I aren’t together.”
Tsukasa-senpai looked completely stunned.
“What?!”