Chapter Text
"Looks like the loser for this month is you, Akkun.” Tetsuo remarked with a fiendish grin, smugly fanning himself with his winning cards.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”
Akira put his head down on his desk with a groan, grabbing fistfuls of his own lavender-colored hair at the roots in frustration. “Just my god damn luck,” he continued miserably, voice muffled against wood. “I just bought new equipment for my guitar, so I’m totally broke this month… and the music club is, like, way over budget, so it’s not like I can sneak a few dollars from that…”
“Cry me a river,” Tetsuo chuckled, their friends -- Ainosuke and Shin, who observed the game -- chuckling along with him at Akira’s misery. “You gotta pay up somehow. Them’s the rules.”
“How about a classic punishment game?” Suggested Shin, chin resting against his palm.
“Yeah, like we can have him drink gallons of milk until he pukes.” Ainosuke laughed.
“You bastards are sadistic as hell, you know that?” Akira looked up at them, irritation at his own defeat in his eyes. “If you go that route, you’re gonna have to foot the grocery bill.”
“Might be worth it to see you hurl.”
“Dickhead.”
“Hey, I’m the winner, I get to pick the punishment game.” Tetsuo asserted, jabbing his own chest with his thumb. After a moment of silence, though, he conceded: “… But I don’t have any good ideas yet, so I’m gonna put a pin in it.”
“Why do you gotta make me live with the fear of the unknown?” Akira complained.
“’Cuz you suck at cards, that’s why.” Tetsuo supplied for him, and the boys laughed. Just then, the final bell for the day rang, and the gang of delinquents made a stir packing up cards and grabbing their bags as the rest of the students politely stood and bowed for their teacher.
Notably, Rohan Kishibe, quietly drawing in his front-row corner desk, also began packing his things right as the bell rang—though he was far from a member of the clique of ill-behaved students. His arrogance, however, made him unapproachable and hard for teachers to discipline. He zipped his bag and headed straight out the front door of the class with a determined stride, all while Akira and company took their time, talking and laughing as they leisurely left the classroom.
"My dad is totally on my ass again about college," Akira complained as they emerged into the fresh air of the high school's small campus, all slogging their way towards where their bikes were locked up.
"He should get real. You ain't going to college," Tetsuo snickered.
Although he didn't want to anyways, this incensed Akira, and he punched the other's arm. "Hey, shut up! I could if I wanted to. Just haven't found the right place that's ready for my raw talent."
"Sure, man. Keep telling yourself that." Ainosuke chuckled.
"Man, how come I'm everybody's punching bag today?"
"You make it so easy!" Shin sang.
Right as the other spoke, Akira glanced into the window of one of the lower-level classrooms they were passing. The bike section was next to a nearly-abandoned set of classrooms, previously used for art classes and clubs. However, the budget was minimal, and since there weren't enough people to sustain clubs dedicated to visual arts and manga, all the classrooms dedicated to those subjects had since gone unused. Because of this, Akira nearly jumped when he looked through the darkened window and saw a silhouetted figure sitting across from an easel in Class 1-C. He let out a cry of shock, instinctively clutching onto Shin's arm.
"Jesus! That guy in there scared me!! I thought these places were always empty." Akira remarked, and the boys stopped walking.
"Scaredy-cat, much?" Tetsuo teased.
"That's just Kishibe, he's always in there. Haunts that room like a ghost, for real."
Before Shin could finish the thought, Akira barged in through the art room's door, catching the attention of the green-haired Rohan. The artistic boy looked at the intruder with something like neutrality in his eyes, but Akira wouldn't be able to deny the intense 'leave-me-alone' aura that he was exuding.
Nosy by nature, Akira walked right up to Rohan, looking with interest at the canvas. "Whatcha drawing?" He asked innocently, his tall form casting shadows over the artist's work. It wasn't that he was interested at all -- in truth, it was more about causing a stir than anything, exerting dominance, et cetera.
Rohan said nothing, but his eyebrow twitched once in annoyance. In a way, 'bully types' were no different from predators in nature -- sometimes, if you stayed still and quiet enough, they'd get bored and pass you right on by. Not that he was afraid in the slightest; it was more about staying out of trouble than anything. Rohan had magazines strewn across his lap and around his feet, and Akira, in all his nasty curiosity, bent down to pick one up.
"You read Vogue?" Akira asked, paging through it somewhat noisily. He flashed the other a toothy grin. "Yeah, that makes sense. You do strike me as the fashionable type." Though it's a little hard to tell with the drab way he wears his uniform, and that gaudy triangular headband, Akira thought to himself, fancying himself the much more stylish out of the both of them.
Akira's friends all watched from the doorway, way too used to their friend's obnoxious antics. They knew all too well that Akira was the type who would do anything to get attention from anyone -- as long as people's eyes were on him, he didn't care.
"I swear, that guy doesn't have a brain in his head," Tetsuo remarked quietly.
"Flash something shiny and he'll come running," Ainosuke yawned into his hand.
Finally, Rohan spoke. "I don't have a model to draw." He snatched the magazine out of Akira's hand somewhat aggressively, and let out a huff, putting it back in its original spot. The real orderly type. "The poses used in fashion magazines are ideal for figure drawing -- not that you particularly care."
Rohan had seen this band of delinquents around quite a lot. Hell, they were practically impossible to ignore, and the exact opposite of Rohan himself, who preferred not to stick out as much as he could. This was the first time they'd actually spoken outside of class.
"Hey, no reason to be like that! I could be your model, if you wanted," Akira said teasingly, immediately striking a seductive pose. "As you can see, I'm 100% rockstar material. This bod is guaranteed to inspire any artist."
"Yo, Akira, come on, man." Shin called, the gang growing tired of these shenanigans as they began to continue their way to the bike racks.
"Mess around with the manga dweeb some other time," Tetsuo groaned in passing, which elicited no response from Rohan.
"Well, see you around, I guess!" Akira exclaimed with a grin, offering the other a wave -- he looked like an excitable dog, wagging his tail as he chased after his retreating friends.
With a small scoff under his breath, Rohan continued to draw, seemingly unphased by the interupption.
Tetsuo mounted his bike and Akira immediately hopped on the back, all of the boys riding double despite the trouble they'd gotten in for it many time.
"Mind if I stay the night at your place again? I'm so not in the mood to see my dad." Akira asked, poking Tetsuo's shoulder.
"Whatever," Tetsuo replied nonchalantly. As the boys began to ride, Tetsuo suddenly got a mischievous smile on his face. "You sure like Kishibe, don't you, Akkun?"
"Eh, not particularly," Akira ran a hand through his hair as they rode along, the breeze blowing through his dress-code-breaking locks. "It's easy to impress friendless guys like him. You basically just smile at 'em and all of a sudden you got yourself a groupie, 'cuz nobody else will give them the time of day. Who would, anyways? Did you see that serious scowl he shot me? So creepy!"
"Right, right." Tetsuo glanced at Ainosuke and Shin, who were already smiling, having figured out what the other was thinking. "Well, Akkun -- I think there's your punishment game right there."
"What?" Akira turned around to look at him.
"Since it's apparently so easy for the great Akira to charm the pants off a guy -- you got three days to kiss Rohan Kishibe." Tetsuo laughed impishly, glancing back at him once before once again turning to keep his eyes on the road. "And if you fail, then you know the rules -- you gotta pay five times the amount you lost in cards."
"What!? What the hell kinda punishment is that!?" Akira yelled, nearly causing Tetsuo to swerve. Ainosuke and Shin erupted in laughter at the boy's boisterous reaction. They all knew that Akira was bisexual, so it wasn't like the concept of kissing another man was a shock to any of them, but a stranger? It was all too rich to the immature boys. "That ain't fair! It's different if I'm doing something stupid to myself, but like -- totally wrong and gross to involve another guy like that! You gotta pick something else!"
"Hey, losers don't get to pick the punishmnet. And so what? It's just a measly peck on the lips. I totally bet you'll be his first." Tetsuo snickered. "After all, won't it be a cinch for a guy who's got the 'bod' of someone with '100% rockstar material', like you said? So if you don't want to pay up, then you'd better pucker up, Akkun!"
"You guys are such assholes," Akira groaned, sagging in his seat. This is what I get for talking out of my ass, he complained internally. Rohan had serious get away from me vibes, even when he was attempting, although playfully and maybe a little bit maliciously, to be friendly -- how in the hell was he going to get the standoffish artist to kiss him? "Jeez -- fine, fine, I guess. I'll try. For the sake of my wallet, anyways - you dickheads."
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Shin pointed out, laughing.
Charm, please, for the love of God, don't fail me now! Akira closed his eyes and begged silently as the group of boys rode into the evening.