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Akito’s first mistake was letting a teacher talk him into doing a favour instead of hurrying out of the classroom and saying he was busy.
The second mistake was… of course, as always, Tenma Tsukasa.
“Akito!” Tsukasa appeared out of nowhere, like he usually did, as Akito tried not to make it obvious he was picking up his pace to avoid him. “What are you up to, off to meet with your group?”
Akito sighed. “No, I’m just doing a quick favour for a teacher. She wanted some supplies from the art room.”
“Oh, I see! Isn’t that great? What a helpful student! And as an even more helpful senior, I shall join and assist!”
Oh, geez.
“That isn’t necessary,” Akito immediately replied, alarms going off in his head. He’d have to play this carefully. The last thing he wanted to do was spend time with Tsukasa, lest he get roped into more nonsense he didn’t want any part of. He wasn’t one part of the eccentric duo for no reason.
“Nonsense!” Tsukasa replied with his usual dramatic intonation. “Two hands are better than one, as they say! I won’t take no for an answer.”
I wish you would, Akito thought. It wasn’t that Tsukasa was a bad person or anything. Toya respected him, after all. He was just too much for Akito to handle, he was so loud, so obnoxiously bright and at times, annoying. He got into so much mischief around the school, too.
“Fine, let’s just get this over with,” Akito grudgingly answered.
“After you, my junior!”
The two of them walked side by side down the hall until they reached the art room’s storage room.
“What are we retrieving?” Tsukasa asked after flipping the light on in the room, which was like a side room similar to a storage closet.
“Ahh, she said four canvases, and two unopened set of brushes.”
“Got it!”
Tsukasa went off to the corner to pick up the canvases, while Akito scoured the shelves for the paint brushes.
The storage room was large enough to move around in, but not too large either, so it wasn’t that hard to search the shelves for what he needed.
“Got them!” Tsukasa said happily. He lifted the canvases up under his arms, two under one arm, and the other two in his hand. He swung around toward the door, but without realizing the amount of space he was taking up, the canvas hit the corner of the door and slammed it shut.
“Whoops,” Tsukasa said, laughing at himself. He reached for the doorknob, twisting it open again. Although it did not open. “Uh.”
A chill went down Akito’s spine. “Don’t tell me…”
“Huh, it’s stuck!” Tsukasa announced.
Noooo.
Akito pushed his way toward the door, nudging Tsukasa aside as he tried the doorknob himself.
It was true. The door wouldn’t open.
“We’re locked in,” Akito said, slapping a hand to his face.
This just figured, didn’t it? Someone must have it out for him.
“How can that be?” Tsukasa asked, “why would it lock from that side?”
“I don’t know, but it’s just how it is.”
Tsukasa stared at Akito, an unreadable expression on his face. And then he set down the canvases gently. And then, he dropped onto his knees, bowing down. “My deepest apologizes, Akito! My carelessness got us into this situation-”
Akito’s face heated up. Jumping to dogeza? How embarrassing. He reached down and grabbed Tsukasa’s arm, dragging him up. “Alright, alright, enough with that. It’s not your fault the door was locked.”
“But-”
“Just quit it.”
Tsukasa blinked, a bewildered look on his face. It was an expression that Akito had never seen on Tsukasa before. Well, outside his performances, where he played different characters. As an actor, Tsukasa had a lot of range. But as Tsukasa, he had never seen him as anything but peppy, loud, and energetic.
After a moment, Tsukasa seemed to snap himself out of it. “Alright! As your knowledgeable senior, I’ll do what I can do to get us out of here! First, I will message Rui for help!”
“That’d be great,” Akito agreed. There was a bonus to Weirdo One and Two being together all the time after all.
Tsukasa reached for his uniform pocket. And patted it. And then the other side. His face went pale. “Well, it turns out my phone is not with me! It’s most definitely in my messenger bag back in the auditorium!”
“Great.” Akito sighed.
So it seemed like they were screwed.
“What about you, Akito?”
“It’s dead.” The battery had run out during his last class.
“Well then,” Tsukasa said, peppy as ever, “don’t fret! I’m sure someone will find us soon!”
Akito didn’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed by that intense optimism.
Well, there was nothing to do about it now. He leaned against the wall and slid down until he was on the floor. There were a million other ways he would rather be spending his time, so of course the universe does this to him. He sighed again.
Tsukasa went to sit by the wall opposite Akito, so they sat at opposite sides of the room, staring at each other.
A sense of awkwardness and unease prickled up Akito’s neck at having Tsukasa staring at him like that. What on earth was that guy thinking about?
Now that he thought about it, this was the longest he and Tsukasa had ever spent one on one together. Normally, they’d interact with Toya or Mizuki around. And while Tsukasa did approach him time to time, Akito would usually keep it short.
Not that all of it was bad, when it came to Tsukasa. The sports festival was kinda fun, and Tsukasa had been supportive then. Sometimes, against his will, he would still hear the sound of Tsukasa calling his name, a sense of pride lingering deep down within him.
“Akito!”
Akito blinked back into being present. “What?”
“You have a sister, right!”
“Yep. But what’s with this all of a sudden?”
Tsukasa scratched his cheek. “I was trying to think of what we have in common to talk about, and that’s the first thing I thought of!”
“It’s not like we need to talk or anything.”
“C’mon, don’t say that! Otherwise, won’t it be really boring? We can get to know each other!”
Akito bit down on his impulsive rebuff. Tsukasa was trying, wasn’t he? There was no reason why, other than pride and his personal hang up over the guy, that he couldn’t meet him half way.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I have a sister. But I doubt it’s the same kind of relationship that you have with your sister. Ena and I don’t really get along most of the time.”
“Really?” Tsukasa stared, alarmed. “But you’re each other’s only beloved family! You should get along!”
“Everyone’s different,” Akito said.
Tsukasa seemed like he wanted to argue, but he pushed it aside. “Well, it’s true that Saki and I are really close, we have been ever since we were young! She’s my beloved younger sister, and I would do anything to make her smile.”
“Right,” Akito supplied, “that’s nice.” And it wasn’t that he didn’t mean it. It just wasn’t surprising. Tsukasa always went on about how he wanted to be a star, making the world smile.
“And with how her weak physical state and constant illness-” Tsukasa cut himself off. “Oh, sorry I was about to overshare!”
Akito waved a hand. “Nah, it’s fine. Go ahead.” He found himself somewhat curious of what Tsukasa was going to say. He had heard that Tenma Saki had spent a lot of the time in the hospital. Azusawa was her friend, if he remembered correctly.
“Well, basically, I want to protect her as her older brother! It was agonizing watching her suffer in such a way.”
Why was Tsukasa sharing this with him? Sure, he was the only one here, but…
“That must have been hard.” Imagining what it must have been like for his whole family was difficult, he really couldn’t picture it.
But he could reconcile how Tsukasa became the bright, hardworking, determined person he was today. Sort of. Even if he was still a bit annoying at times.
“Yeah…” Tsukasa cleared his throat. “Anyway, your turn! What’s something good about your sibling relation?”
He's still on this? Ah well…
“Well,” Akito said, “it’s actually because of Ena I found music…”
Akito gave a brief rundown of the summer festival and how he’d discovered street music for the first time.
Tsukasa’s eyes were sparking. So much that it startled Akito. Why was his heart suddenly racing like this?
“That’s brilliant!” Tsukasa beamed. “What a wonderful way to discover music! Music, the arts, it is everything, isn’t it?”
“Uh,” Akito cleared his throat. “Yeah, it is.”
“I guess that’s one more thing we have in common.”
“I suppose.”
“Even with different styles, we can all connect with music!”
His burst of energy was surprising, and Akito somehow found himself smiling.
It somehow made him remember, that in a roundabout way, it was because of Tsukasa that he was where he was right now. Because Tsukasa had encouraged Toya to do what he wanted, that was why he and Toya became partners.
Music really did have a way of changing people.
“You’re smiling,” Tsukasa suddenly said aloud.
The smile fell. “Huh? Is that not allowed or something?”
“No, it’s great!” Tsukasa said. Was Tsukasa’s face suddenly turning red? What was that about? “I was just realizing you’d never smiled at me before.”
What the hell? Why did he have to put it that way? Now Akito’s face was starting to burn, going hot as an inferno. Ugh, he probably looked ridiculous. This senior of his was going to be the death of him in more than one way.
“You notice the strangest things, senpai,” Akito muttered. “I was just thinking that you’re not as bad as I initially thought, that’s all.”
“That… that bad?” Tsukasa’s eyes were wide, staring right at him. “I got the feeling that you disliked me, but you thought! I was bad!?”
Akito chuckled. “Well, my first impression of you wasn’t good, no.”
“How can that be!”
“Well, I knew you were a guy that Toya respects, but you’re also loud and obnoxious.”
“Don’t mince your words or anything…” Tsukasa’s voice wavered.
“I mean, you’re an eccentric, who always got into trouble around the school and caused disruptions.”
“I can’t deny that!”
“But, it’s not like I don’t trust Toya’s judgment in people, so I knew there had to be good parts of you.”
“Like?” Tsukasa leaned forward eagerly.
“What the hell, why do you need me to tell you?” Akito’s face kept burning.
“Because I’m curious! I think that getting a compliment from Akito means a lot more!”
Again, what on earth was this guy saying? He couldn’t shake this feeling of being extremely flustered.
“Well,” Akito said, “your acting, for one.”
Tsukasa nodded eagerly in a tell me more way.
“Toya has taken me to a few of your plays, and it’s clear how you immerse yourself in the roles. Your passion is unmistakable. And… well, I guess how you clearly care about your friends and family…”
Tsukasa kept staring until…
“Are you tearing up?!”
“Just a little!” Tsukasa admitted, wiping his face.
“Geez.”
“I also thought you’re a good friend,” Tsukasa said, “you and Toya are so close I’m a bit jealous!”
Taken aback, Akito blinked. “Really?”
“Yep! That was my first impression of you, too, how good of a friend you are to Toya! And then, your handsome face, and how snarky and cheeky you are! Well, you are still that way, hahaha!”
Well, Akito had not been anticipating that.
Handsome? Jealous? The way Tsukasa’s eyes lit up with every emotion he was feeling?
Akito did not want to admit that he was starting to find Tsukasa more and more charming.
Embarrassed and flustered, he cleared his throat, needing to change the subject lest his heart give out. “I think there’s a spider by your head, senpai.”
As expected, predictably, Tsukasa shrieked and jumped away from the wall. “No, no, no! Get away!”
The familiar pleasure flooded Akito, a known feeling, one that wasn’t so new and confusing, and so he clutched to it.
“I think it’s following you.”
Tsukasa gasped and crawled over to where Akito was sitting, sitting right beside him.
Their shoulders brushed together.
Akito’s stomach flopped.
He’d made another mistake.
“I don’t see it,” Tsukasa said, his breath stuttering.
“It… it probably crawled behind the shelf,” Akito mumbled.
Tsukasa’s eye were trained right on that spot.
And just as Akito was starting to regret everything, there was a loud rumble in the room.
Tsukasa glanced over at Akito. “Apologies, that was me! I haven’t eaten anything since lunch!”
Without even thinking about it, Akito reached into his pocket, pulled out a couple of granola bars, and handed them over.
Tsukasa stared at them, then met Akito’s eyes. “Why thank you, Akito! But I feel bad! How about we share?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I insist!”
“Alright, alright.”
So Tsukasa split both granola bars, since they were different flavours, and handed one of each to Akito.
They ate in silence.
And Akito’s head was catching up to the reality of the situation, processing all that has happened in this small storage room. And how Tsukasa’s shoulder was warm against his. At the start, he never would have anticipated he’d end up enjoying himself. Funny how things worked.
“Anyway, Akito!” Tsukasa addressed him again, “I hear you guys are going to be doing a big show soon. I’ll definitely be there to cheer you on!”
Akito blinked. That… was sudden. But also nice. He nodded. “Thanks. It is a bigger venue, an important step in our dream to beat RAD Weekend… not that you know what I’m talking about-”
“No, I do! Toya told me stuff about it!” Tsukasa said, “it’s admirable, there’s nothing better than having a dream to work for!”
“Yeah,” he agreed.
And then Tsukasa smiled at him, and it was more of a genuine smile than the usual grin he usually put on. And this close, it was making his heart beat faster and faster. His eyes flicked down to Tsukasa’s mouth, his wonderful smile, and fuck, it was almost as if Akito had a crush on-
The door to the storage room opened.
Tsukasa and Akito looked up to meet the eyes of the art teacher. “I thought I heard someone,” she said, “oh heavens, I hope you weren’t trapped in here too long!”
Tsukasa jumped up, his arms flailing. “Of course, it was no trouble! Please don’t mind! The room is very spacious, and-”
Akito fled.
Just now, what had he been thinking about? Just because he got closer to Tsukasa, it didn’t mean his brain needed to get some weird ideas.
His heart was racing and he slowed as he reached the end of the hall, and he leaned against it and heaved in a breath.
Shit, he forgot he had to still deliver the supplies to the teacher.
He’d just have to go apologize.
Anything to not dwell on how his mind was still stuck on Tsukasa.