Work Text:
“Hasekura-senpai~!” Riku sang cheerfully as he stood up and leaned slightly over the chair in front of him where Heath sat next to Nana, in the process of beginning to eat his lunch. “Can we trade bites?”
They were on the bus to their next match and had been in transit for several hours. Since they had all started Stride and their diets and exercise has synced up, so had their appetites, and so the entire Honan teams stomachs started grumbling at almost the exact same time. Riku smiled doefully at his upperclassman, his own lunch box balanced in one hand over Heath's head, and Heath smiled back in response.
“Sure, here.” He passed his lunch to Riku and took Riku's in return. Riku sat back down, the “give-me-anything” smile turning into one of joy as he saw the Hasekura menu.
“Wow, seafood!” He dug into it eagerly, cooing over the taste while Takeru, who was sitting next to his fellow-first year, took the lid off his own meal.
“Meat is good too.” Heath responded appreciatively, then stood up after only a couple of bites to pass the lunches back, “Here you- Hey! The salmon roe is my favourite!”
“It's delicious!” Riku agreed with great enthusiasm, smiling even wider, mouth still full of the last bite. In the space of a few seconds Riku had managed to devour an entire second of Heath's lunch. Riku nodded eagerly in agreement, and just from listening Takeru, who was sitting next to Riku, couldn't tell if he was honestly not noticing that Heath was scolding him or that he did notice and was acting cute to throw off the scent. Heath seemed like he couldn't tell either and sat back down with only a quiet grumble rather than make a scene of it.
Pleased, Riku swallowed and then looked the boy sitting next to him, his appetite still apparently unsated. “Fujiwara, can I try yours...?”
Takeru nearly jumped in surprise at being addressed. Occasionally he'd seen Riku eat at the club room, and every time he'd seen it Riku had begged food off one of the other members; like sports, he wanted to try everything. He had yet to ask Takeru for food yet however, in fact Riku mostly avoided talking to Takeru unless it was about Stride. He was happy to discuss the latest games and manga with Hozumi and Ayumu, clothes and hair with Heath, or dramas with Nana, but when he was alone in the room with Takeru an awkward silence seemed to settle between them. Takeru supposed that it was his fault, he'd never been good at talking to people and Riku was the kind of guy that needed someone as chatty as he was to bounce off of; he couldn't hold a one-person conversation.
It had been surprising enough when Takeru had sat down on the bus and Riku had sat right next to him unprompted. Takeru couldn't help but feel somewhat nervous and maybe a little excited, but for what he didn't know. He knew he liked Riku a lot, that crush on him he had as a child came back in full force the moment he saw him walk into the classroom on the first day, but they were older now. Like Nana, Riku hadn't recognised him, and Takeru had been awkward and shy as a child but trying to mask the fear with a blank expression had apparently made his ability to draw people to him worse, not better.
He wanted Riku to like him, or at least be comfortable around him. Before Riku even finished speaking he lowered his hands and tilted his lunch box towards Riku, eager for him to eat it despite his own hunger. To his confusion, the smile on Riku's face vanished and was replaced with an awkward grimace.
“Never mind, I like meat.”
Takeru's heart sank. What was wrong with it? Chicken and white fish were important for building muscle and stamina. Did he think Takeru would eat too much of Riku's like Riku had of Heath's?
“Take it.” He held the box up towards Riku's face hopefully. “I don't need any of yours.”
“No thanks” was the muttered response. Riku turned fully away from Takeru, preferring to face the aisle of the bus than meet his eye.
“If you're serious about End of Summer you should eat white meat.” Takeru knew he was being slightly unreasonable, Riku's diet wasn't perfect but it was unlikely to negatively affect his performance at Stride and he was certainly a great deal healthier than most teenage boys their age. But he really wanted Riku to eat out of his lunch box. If Riku could share food with him, that would mean Riku could... Well, you shared food with the people you liked being around, right?
A small spark of hope lit in his chest when that comment made Riku look at him questioningly. The spark rose up through his windpipe and escaped his mouth, and suddenly he was rattling off every calorie and diet factoid he ever read, hoping one of them would persuade Riku to share with him.
“The fat content of white meat is zero point eight grams for every one hundred grams and has about one hundred calories,” he said in a rush. He thought about what he'd seen in Riku's lunch when he glanced at it earlier and continued without pausing for breath, “On the other hand, thigh meat fourteen grams of fat in the same amount of meat and it has two hundred calories. Steak goes even further, twenty four grams of fat and three hundred calories, and pork belly is thirty five grams with four hundred calories. For fish, saury...”
He continued on, trying his best to make his own lunch sound far more appealing and healthy than the one Riku had brought, but it ended up having the opposite effect. Riku suddenly closed the lid on his lunch, shoved it back in his bag and scrambled out of the seat.
“I think I'm getting car sick.” He said slightly too quickly to be telling the truth, “I'm going to sit up at the front of the bus, um, see you at our stop.”
He shouldered his backpack and trotted up the aisle towards where the driver sat, Takeru's heart sinking more the further he went. He clenched his jaw and shoved his own lunch out of sight, suddenly not very hungry.
“Fujiwara.” He glanced up to see Heath looking at him over the back of his chair, a small smile equal parts pitiful and amused gracing his handsome features. “If you want to share lunch with someone you shouldn't insult their favourite foods, or the food their parents cook for them.
Oh shit.“...I didn't mean it like that.”
“If you want to experience a scene out of a drama with him you should try cooking him something he likes.” The captain of the team laughed. Takeru felt his cheeks burn and he looked pointedly out the window to indicate that the topic was going to be dropped.
---
“I'm home...” Takeru mumbled tiredly a few weeks later as he took his shut the door behind him and took his shoes off. His parents were sitting in front of the TV with their backs to him, and they raised their hands in greeting as he came in.
“Good run, Takeru?” His mother asked. “I get worried when you're out after dark, be careful you don't trip on anything.”
“There's lots of street lamps.” Takeru answered simply. He was tired, and he had no homework due the next day that he had yet to complete, so he was going to make his lunch for the next day and go straight to bed. He walked past his parents and into the kitchen and began pulling things out of the fridge, most of it white and plane. He avoided carbohydrates completely, as he had always done since he was a child.
“That was so lovely!” he heard his mother tell his father in the living room as the credits music of their TV show started playing.
“It was cheesy,” his father answered.
“You liked it, though!”
“I did not. That hero was completely unrealistic!”
“You did the same things he does. Remember when you made me lunch? Your friends teased you for a week because they said only girls should make romantic lunches. But you were the one who ended up with a girlfriend~”
Takeru paused from chopping vegetables, the knife still in his hand. His father chuckled bashfully, and admitted that being cheesy could be good sometimes. Satisfied, his mother told him she was going to get a drink, and a moment later she came in through the kitchen door, smiled warmly at Takeru, and got a soda from the fridge.
“Dad made you lunch in high school,” Takeru blurted out before he could stop himself. “Now you're married.”
His mother blinked and looked at him questioningly. Takeru went red and looked away. “What... What kind of food do people like to get from others?”
His mother stared at him for a moment until what he was asking clicked in her head. She smiled excitedly and clapped her hands together, practically jumping in excitement. “Is there someone at school you want to marry?!”
If the floor had opened up and sucked him down to Hell at that point, Takeru would have been find with it. He clenched his fists to keep himself from covering his face, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. “I just... Want to know; I don't want to get married.”
His parents were boisterous people, prone to silly behaviour and random expressions of affection. Takeru had always been the opposite, he was shy and prone to being confused by jokes and expressions of affection more often than not. Growing up with his parents hadn't always been easy for the three of them, but they had all tried their best.
“Oh of course, of course, simple curiosity.” His mother grinned at him in a fox-like manner and patted him on the shoulder in understanding. Takeru was already regretting even bringing the topic up. “Well us girls don't like eating white food that aren't cake or rice, so lets start with completely discarding your usual menu, okay Take-chan?”
Takeru was most definitely not ready for this sort of conversation. “There's no... There isn't... ”
“Denial is only for men with no confidence in their feelings!” She wasn't having any of it. Ignoring any kind of protest that her son could offer, she began pulling her recipe books and magazines out of the kitchen cupboard, her soda forgotten. “Come on, do you know what food they like normally? I can't make it for you or it wont be genuine, but I can give guidance. Heart is the most important ingredient but it should at least be edible.”
Seeing no way to get out of it, Takeru gave in to the reality of the situation and quietly sighed.
“Seafood.”
---
“-And then he held out his hand,” Riku continued as Nana leaned in her chair towards him with bated breath, “And said “We might not be at a ball like you wanted, but could this prince have the next dance?”
“He didn't!” Nana exclaimed, “Did she say yes? I'm so disappointed I missed that!”
“They're playing the episode again on Saturday if you want to catch up.”
“I can't wait that long, do you know if it streams online?”
Takeru watched the two of them discuss the drama from his seat, clenching his fists nervously. He couldn't help but feel a little jealous of Nana, she seemed to get along with everyone and she had lots of friends that he saw her with around the school. She wasn't overly confident, but she wasn't as shy as she was and she seemed to have an easy enough time talking to anyone, including strangers. He supposed being a pretty girl helped too, men tended to be more receptive to being approached by them than a stiff-shouldered man with cold eyes and a “creepy” aura. Riku definitely liked spending time with her more, and Takeru couldn't blame him.
“Hey,” Riku said to her,“do you want to eat lunch together together?”
Takeru's heart dropped down to his stomach as he thought of the lunch he had in his locker. It had been a week since his mother had helped him that night in the kitchen; choosing a recipe had been simple enough but getting such a unique dish right when he'd been cooking himself the same thing over and over since elementary school had been harder, even with his mothers assistance.
“Sorry, I can't,” Nana bemoaned, and Takeru couldn't help but perk up a bit, “I'm eating lunch with Riko today so we can talk about our presentation.”
“Ugh, me and Daisuke haven't even started on that...”
Takeru pushed his chair and stood straight up, making Riku and Nana jump and look at him. Takeru stared at Riku for a moment, swallowing nervously, and Riku seemed to shy away from him in fear. He hadn't even said anything yet and somehow it already not going well.
“Yagami,” he finally said.
“Y-Yes?!”
“We're eating lunch together today.”
“Oh...Kay?”
He had screwed that up, he knew it, and Riku hadn't looked happy at all, but he agreed so he could still salvage this as long as he didn't act weird any more today and the food tasted fine.
He could still feel Riku and Nana's eyes on him, their faces masks of fascination and in Riku's case, fear. He knew he acted strange, he knew he scared people, but he didn't do it on purpose. Maybe doing something more friendly would ease the tension. He twitched his mouth into the best, biggest smile that he could muster.
“Eee!” Riku jumped back dramatically, holding his arms in front of his face in a defensive pose.
“I-I hope you two have a good lunch!” Their relationer laughed nervously. Perfect, even Nana seemed disturbed. “It will be good for your teamwork! And connecting, and...”
She trailed off. Takeru sat back down and buried his face in one of his text books as though studying it intently, utterly defeated. It was a blessing when the homeroom teacher came in some minutes later.
He spent the rest of the morning working like a robot, not really thinking about the work but still somehow having things to hand in at the end of class. He hadn't realised doing something like just getting Riku to be comfortable around him could be so hard, then he wasn't sure why he should have expected it to be anything else. Everything social was hard for him, he could barely even talk properly to his parents and he'd known them all his life. He hadn't been expecting to sweep Riku off his feet, he was more than likely heterosexual after all, but at the very least he wanted the guy he had a crush on to be enjoy his company. It seemed even something as simple as that was out of his reach.
When the school broke for lunch, Takeru went straight to his locker to prepare his books for the next classes. He got his lunch box out of his bag once that was done and walked out of the building, fully intending to go find a quiet place to eat and suffer in peace, but Riku was waiting by the door with his own lunch box in hand. He looked up when Takeru got close and gave an awkward smile.
“Uh, so... How was classes?”
Takeru stared at him in confusion. “Fine.”
“...Good? Ready to eat lunch?”
Takeru blinked. He'd expected Riku to to stand him up. “You want to?”
Riku cocked his head. “You asked me to didn't you?”
“...Okay”.
Riku normally ate with a group of friends, so he followed Takeru and let him select where to sit. Takeru always sat at a secluded spot under a tree at the far end of the school yard. It had a good view of the sports oval; Takeru wasn't really interested in any sports except Stride but he didn't mind one bit when teams would practice on it and he would get to see muscular and fit boys sweat and flex while wearing shorts. In the early days of the school term he'd occasionally gone up to some of them to invite them to join the stride club, but that stopped pretty quickly when he realised everyone was avoiding him.
Takeru sat down without a word. Riku followed suit and opened his lunch box Takeru took a quiet breath and opened the lunch he'd made. Riku didn't look at, instead focusing completely on his own as he chowed down. Takeru had been hoping Riku would see his lunch and ask for some and Takeru could avoid looking like he was pushing him to eat it (which he supposed he technically was), but it looked like Takeru was going to have to take the initiative. He held the box out to him. “Do you want some?”
Riku looked at the lunch box The grimace he'd prepared on his face quickly turned to one of surprise. He swallowed the mouthful of food he was eating.
“Woah! Seafood! And is that sushi shaped like a panda face?! That's so cute!” He pulled the box towards him so he could look at it more closely, eyes glinting in interest. “Hey, did your mum make this?”
“No, I did. She helped me a bit.”
Riku didn't look convinced. “You made this? What happened to the white stuff?”
“You like this sort of thing more.” The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could really think about them, and he felt his heart break when Riku's expression turned awkward and he gave a nervous laugh.
“Haha, what's that supposed to mean? Did you make this for me?”
Takeru's mind flashed him an image of a large ship heading to wreck upon an iceberg, and he found himself jealous of the soon-to-be-dead passengers who would never have to face social situations ever again. He tried to think this time, and chose his words carefully as he spoke.
“I made it so we could share, like you did with Hasekura-senpai,” Riku looked confused at this, so Takeru elaborated, “On the bus a few weeks ago.”
“Oh! Right! His food was yummy, but uh...”
“The kind of relationship you have with him is good.” Takeru stated. “And I've seen you eat from other friends lunch boxes too. But you hated mine so I fixed that. It's completely nutritionally inferior now.”
The other boy stared at him with big eyes, and Takeru was certain he had said something offensive by accident again, but then Riku's face broke out into a big smile and he let out the most beautiful snorting laugh that Takeru had ever heard.
“Great, I love things that are nutritionally inferior! Idatakimasu~!” He happily swapped the lunches around, passing the one he'd brought to Takeru, and dug into the one Takeru had made. He picked up a slice of sushi roll that depicted the face of panda in the rice and popped it in his mouth, and Takeru watched his reaction carefully. To his relief, Riku's surprise was a positive one.
“Ah, it's good!”
“It's just rice and seaweed.”
“Still good though.” Riku grinned so sunnily that Takeru felt like his face from heating up just looking at him. He looked down at the food in his lap, an assortment of meat and noodles, and began picking at it with his chopsticks.
“I like this...”
“Yeah?” Riku grinned. “My mum made it! My family runs a bakery so that makes her practically a professional chef.”
“My mother's a lawyer.”
“Eh? Wow that's hard work, I could never do that. Too much arguing, I would die.” Riku grimaced at the thought. “What about your dad?”
“He's a salary man.”
“Got any brothers or sisters?”
Takeru shook his head. He remembered overhearing his parents discussing more children a long time ago, but at the time they'd figured caring for Takeru was hard enough work. Now they were too old, and occasionally Takeru couldn't help but wonder if they would have liked another child more than him. It was illogical of course, his parents seemed to adore him, but he'd driven them to frustration often enough to plant seeds of worry. They never fought in front of him about it, but he had a lot of trouble sleeping as a child and he was good at going unnoticed; he'd overheard more than one late-night conversation between them.
Riku hummed and leaned back against the tree. “Eh, must be nice getting all the attention and presents. I suppose you want to ask me things about my brother?”
“Not really.” Takeru said flatly.
Riku looked surprised. “Really?”
“I don't care. You're more interesting, but you can talk about him if you want.”
Riku gave a nervous laugh and blushed slightly, averted his eyes towards the ground. “You're really good at flattering people, you know?”
“Not really.” Takeru looked out at the sports oval, where a group of students were doing running exercises, probably the track team. He'd been told in the past he would have suited track events more, as his parkour skills were rather weak compared to other stride runners, but he made up for it with his speed and hard work so it evened out. Besides, he'd promised with Riku and Nana that they would do stride, and he'd been working towards that for seven years. He didn't want to give up just because neither of them remembered.
“Thanks for the meal~” Riku traded the lunches back around, and Takeru was pleased to see a large portion of the one he'd made was gone. It must have shown on his face, because Riku blinked and pointed at his mouth. “Ah! A non-scary smile!”
Takeru instantly felt self concious so he straightened his face and looked away. Riku chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. “Hey, can I ask you something personal?”
“Fine.”
“Do you have any friends you hang out with besides at the club?”
“No.” Takeru's answer was blunt and without sadness, that's just how things were. Riku shifted uncomfortably.
“Well I mean, at lunch I don't think any of us would mind if you ate with us, you know, as long as we weren't busy like Nana today...”
Takeru fixed his gaze intently on Riku, and it must have been more intense than he meant it to be because Riku shied away slightly and seemed to be sweating a bit. He looked at the ground instead and the blond seemed to relax. “...Okay.”
“Eh?” Riku straightened up. “You'll sit with us?”
“I'll sit with you.” Takeru took a few more bites of his lunch and then closed the lid.
“Haha, Fujiwara sometimes I almost think you have a crush on me or something...”
Riku was blushing and laughing nervously again and he could tell he was making him uncomfortable. Telling him he did would make the situation worse and he had never been a good liar, so he ignored the comment and stood up.
“I have to go to the library. I'll see you later for club activities.”
“Oh, for sure! Um...” Riku pointed at the box in his hands, “You had a bunch of panda faces left... If you aren't going to eat that, could I...?”
Before he could even finish speaking, Takeru shoved the lunch box into his hands with almost too much force. “Ah! Thank you!”
Takeru muttered a “you're welcome” and hurried up towards the school building, his heart beating fast. It hadn't been a romantic scene out of a drama but it had certainly gone a lot better than he'd expected it to. Future invitations to lunch meant he didn't hate being around him, even if they were partially out of pity. Maybe if he worked hard enough, Riku might even like to hang out together outside of school one day.
---