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Winter vacation was a happy affair for most high schoolers all across the country, two weeks full of holiday celebrations, rest, and relaxation under a kotatsu, but Ritsu always had a different image of it. To him, winter vacation was crunch time. There was the obligatory homework book, ample time to study for whatever exam he was aiming to pass (this time it was a kanji aptitude test), and psychic training of course. His collection of diaries full of notes and observations about his progress over the years were piling up, and this year he was on journal number 4.
He had agreed with his “trainer” long ago that winter and summer break was for training. They got together every day at the same place, same time, and spent hours attempting to best each other in any way possible, of course making sure to never overdo it. Ritsu’s goals were more about increasing his stamina and power output than success in hand-to-hand combat, but sometimes he couldn’t help but tussle with the aforementioned “trainer”. Suzuki Shou talked far too much to not get his teeth knocked in once or twice.
They frequented the large lawn behind Shou’s equally large house, situated on the outskirts of Seasoning City towards the mountains. Besides the perfectly cut and healthy grass of the lawn there was also a menacing stone wall that lined the perimeter. In all intents and purposes, this was more of a compound than a family home. Ritsu spent his precious winter break acquiring grass stains on his sweatpants and pushing his body to the limit, something he wasn’t used to. His physical health has always been perfect before. He could lift heavy things, run fast for a long time, and play any sport imaginable. Psychic powers, however, were still relatively new and foreign to his muscles and heart.
“Come on, you’re not allowed to stop yet!” Shou shouted from the other side of the large grass clearing. He was hardly breaking a sweat, standing smugly with his stupidly expensive Adidas tracksuit on. Ritsu was leaning forward, hands on his knees holding on for dear life, with his messy hair plastered to his forehead with sweat.
“I-I’m trying!” Ritsu croaked out, having trouble yelling back after so many shouting matches. He was gripping a simple rubber ball, and he had one objective; throw it as hard as he could with the help of his powers. As you would expect, he was actually throwing the ball much farther than the length of Shou’s lawn, but the other boy was quick to retrieve it from wherever it happened to fall on the mountain.
Ritsu clenched the ball so hard he thought it might pop, but in reality it was solid all the way through. He grit his teeth in frustration and reeled back for what felt like the thousandth time that day, channeling the pressure of his energy through his arm muscles as he released the ball to send it whizzing through the air into the dark distance. His arm was wrecked, and Ritsu gripped it as he collapsed to his knees on the torn-up grass below him. He squeezed his eyes shut as he took time to recover and hoped that he had thrown it far enough, that Shou would take at least a couple of minutes to retrieve it, but to his dismay Shou was back within 30 seconds, grabbing Ritsu’s red hand and placing the stupid rubber ball back in it.
“One more time.”
“You’ve said that twenty times now!” Ritsu snapped back, growling in frustration. He was too tired to look up at Shou but he was glaring at the ground fiercely.
“Stand up!”
“I can’t, I can’t! What don’t you understand about that!?” Ritsu wasn’t even doing those stupid line drills and his legs were shaking like jelly, there was no way he could stand any longer. He had been forcing himself to stand with his powers for a while now.
“Yes you can, I know you. Do it.” Shou gripped Ritsu’s shoulder tightly, staring down at his bowed head expectantly.
“I’m- I’m out of my reserves, I’m at 0,” Ritsu hated that he was on the verge of tears, “I can’t.”
Shou heard the slight quiver in Ritsu’s voice and held back the urge to click his tongue in disappointment. He wasn’t stupid enough to kick Ritsu while he was down, it was time to give positive reinforcement instead.
“I’ll help you!” Shou exclaimed, which made Ritsu raise his head in surprise. Help him? How? The confusion was written all over his face. Suddenly, he felt it. A rush of electrifying energy breaking through his natural barrier, hot like a blast from a furnace, invigorating, coursing through his entire body and allowing his muscles to push him back up. But it wasn’t just energy, it was so, so much more. Thoughts, feelings, memories, a rush of words, a wave of affection, overwhelming positivity, a call to action- he felt like he was going to burst at the seams.
“-BALL! THROW THE BALL!”
Ritsu was dragged back to reality by Shou’s bolstering voice. In a hurry to channel this new power somewhere, Ritsu did as he was told, once again drawing his newly recovered arm back behind his head and catapulting the rubber ball as hard as he possibly could. With the ball went the energy, and it soared away like a fiery comet into the dark sky.
Ritsu’s eyes blearily followed the comet as it, for the first time, went over the mountain. He could only keep himself up just long enough to watch the ball disappear before collapsing forward once again, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as his knees buckled.
Shou was right there to catch him, cursing as Ritsu slumped against his chest.
“…Are you awake?” Was the first thing Ritsu heard when he finally came to, although it sounded like he was underwater. There was a light in his eyes. Was it Shou’s bedroom light…? Ritsu groaned in response, shifted, and immediately flinched. Everywhere hurt, especially his arm.
“Shit, I may have overdone it…”
“Leader, it’s a good sign that he’s woken up so soon. I can start the healing process now-“
That was Shou’s guardian’s voice, so they must be in the living room.
“No, his muscles need to heal on their own, his body needs to get used to this.”
Ritsu’s brows furrowed, he just wanted something, anything to relieve this dull pain.
“Turn off the light!” Ritsu croaked.
Within seconds the light that had been boring down on his face was out, and he felt his body be enveloped by a mysterious warmth. Suzuki. He didn’t know how he knew, but he was sure that this was Suzuki’s aura around him.
“Are you sure? He’s in pain, let me work on him for a few minutes.”
“I said no. You told me he doesn’t have any broken bones, right? Then it’s fine. He can sleep in my bed.” Shou seemed determined to take responsibility for his arguably overzealous training session.
Fukuda took a step back, wanting to offer more help, but he knew that it would be rejected. Shou could be so stubborn sometimes. The tall man nodded solemnly and stalked off.
Ritsu felt the energy surrounding him spike, he was hovering off the carpeted floor now and although he would normally resist against this he was too exhausted to do much of anything. Plus, the warmth was pretty soothing for his sore muscles.
He was carried up the wide staircase like a balloon with a short string, the maze of hallways dark. Shou’s room was on the third floor under one of the sloping sides of the roof, a place where Ritsu had spent a good portion of his weekends. His house had everything you could think of to keep two teenaged boys occupied so it was a no-brainer for them to hang out there. The atmosphere of Shou’s room was a warm refuge in the cold sterility that embalmed the rest of the house, like it was the only room that was really lived in. There were books, comics, CDs, game consoles, pictures haphazardly taped to the walls, figurines- it all screamed Shou. The only thing that stood out was a single wall scroll that hung by the bed, an expensive looking calligraphy commission of the kanji for Shou. Some months ago Shou had explained that it was a gift from his dad so he couldn’t bring himself to take it down.
Ritsu sighed in relief as he was gently lowered onto Shou’s large bed, it’s frame a dark wooden platform style. It was situated directly under a large skylight window. Ritsu cracked his eyes open so he could look at the sky full of stars for a moment before falling back into the depths of unconsciousness.
He woke late in the morning feeling like he was crusted to the bed, which… now that he thought about it, what bed was he on exactly? Ritsu attempted to sit up but was firmly rejected by his sore muscles. There was just no way he could get up so quickly. He could move his head though, and soon enough he realized that this was Suzuki’s bed, and that Suzuki was actually asleep right beside him. This wasn’t uncommon for them, as Ritsu would rather die than sleep on the floor and Shou was equally as stubborn. They always ended up sharing Shou’s bed which was big enough to accommodate both of them anyways.
His right arm was especially sore, but he slowly twitched it to life and his hand crept over to the sleeping boy at his side. Shou must have been exhausted as well from racing to catch that stupid ball all evening. His fiery hair was mushed against the mattress, mouth slightly ajar with his arm draped haphazardly over his head. He always slept in the weirdest positions, Ritsu wondered if he ever woke up with a stiff neck.
Seeing Shou next to him lit his brain up with memories of the night before and the first thing he remembered was the euphoric feeling of that fiery aura coursing through him, energizing every cell in his body. It was so… Suzuki. Just thinking about it made him blush, and even though there was no one around to witness his embarrassment he still pulled the comforter above his nose. The second thing he remembered was everything that came with the aura. It had felt like a mishmash of memories and emotions had been thrown into his skull and now they were reverberating in his mind.
He didn’t immediately realize that these new feelings and thoughts were not his own, however. New memories were playing in his head and for some reason he had never seen them before, the hands and body in these scenes were not his own. At first he wondered if he had just had a night full of vivid dreams, but then as one particular memory played in his mind he scrunched his eyes shut. Ritsu could see his face- Touichirou. Cold and pointed. Touichirou is his expensive suit, at the Seasoning City tower berating him, then in an orange jumpsuit behind a thick pane of glass. Ritsu swallowed dryly. What the hell was he going to do with all of these memories that were definitely not his? Just pretend he didn’t have access to them to save Shou some trouble? Then again, what if Shou had transferred these on purpose? Was he trying to show Ritsu something?
“Suzuki.”
Shou was unresponsive. Ritsu gently smacked his cheek.
“Ugh- Wha?” Shou snorted as he was abruptly ripped from sleep.
“Seriously, I’ll kill you. I can barely move.” Ritsu was contemplating how he would get back at Shou for destroying his body for the rest of the weekend.
Shou blinked the sleep from his eyes and adjusted himself lazily to lay on his stomach, sighing. He just wanted to sleep in, why did Ritsu always have to wake up so damn early?
“You said you wanted to train, so we trained. Not my fault.”
“Can you just help me out? I feel like crap.” It wasn’t only his muscles, but the feeling of wearing yesterday’s sweaty clothes made him feel like hot garbage. Shou made a sound of protest, but his freckled arm reached out anyways and his hand, enveloped in that same hot aura, rested on Ritsu’s bicep. Ritsu nearly jumped out of his skin.
“You’re sore, yeah? This’ll help. Just stay still.” Shou explained through a yawn, his eyes sliding shut once more.
“Wh-what are you doing? Are you… healing me?” Ritsu couldn’t help but be wary, Shou always had some sort of trick up his sleeve. He couldn’t deny that whatever Shou was doing felt really nice, though.
“What? No, I’m just making my hand hot. Like a heating pad?” Shou wasn’t going to be able to fall back asleep at this rate. “Haven’t you ever felt sore?”
Now that Ritsu thought about it, he had never been this sore in his life. He had always been good at sports and such so there had never been a reason for him to do intense training, and he was never in any sports clubs…
“Not really, I don’t work out.” He had no need to, so why would he? Shigeo was the one that was into things like exercising.
“Really? Damn, you keep surprising me.” Shou chuckled and slid his hand up to focus the heat on Ritsu’s shoulder. “You’ve got good stamina for someone who doesn’t work out.”
The sudden movement of Shou’s hand made Ritsu’s heart skip a beat. He hadn’t been expecting that. And was Shou just going to keep feeling him up to “help”? Where else was he going to touch?
“What can I say, I’m a natural.” Ritsu said dryly.
“Lucky you.” Shou had absolutely no enthusiasm in his voice.
“I guess I am lucky.” Ritsu saw the foreign memories in flashes, the grueling exercise, running until he threw up, lifting impossibly heavy objects with his telekinesis, being called horrible things when he failed. It was a far cry from his own upbringing, full of slow weekends and gentle words. Of course he had his own traumas, but nothing so… terrible. There was truly no other word for what Shou had to endure at the hands of someone who was supposed to love and protect him.
“But you know, you’ll never have to go through that again. Ever.” Ritsu fixed his ink black eyes on Shou’s face, his voice soft and reassuring. It was such a simple fact, but Ritsu felt like Shou needed to be reminded for his peace of mind.
“…Yeah. I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about, but I think I have an idea.” Shou exhaled and his aura briefly spiked. Now alert and refreshed, he suddenly sat up and pulled his hand away from Ritsu’s arm (which Ritsu was disappointed about). “Thanks, I think I needed that.”
“Whatev-“ Ritsu did not get to finish his dismissive statement, his lips were stolen in an instant by the boy beside him. It was over before he could even register what was happening, but the feeling of Shou’s thin lips on his own lingered. Ritsu felt his face warm.
“I-I’ll go start a bath for you, it’ll help with the pain.” Shou scrambled off the bed and slipped out of the room before Ritsu could say anything substantial in reply.