Work Text:
“dude, give me the DVD player!”
a bite-sized, yellowish-white force of energy is hurled from one end of shoko’s cramped dorm room to the other. satoru wipes the grease from the impact off his cheek. “suguru said i could choose the movie we watch since you chose last time,” he argues, licking his buttery fingers.
“that’s because suguru like-likes you and wants me to die forever.” shoko crosses her arms and defeatedly sinks into her bean bag chair, sliding the DVD player over with her foot. this solemn act is proving difficult to keep up, given satoru is now fake gagging and denouncing any accusations of homosexuality. as usual, of course.
she watches him rummage through his backpack — why did he bring a backpack, his dorm is literally two rooms down from hers — and triumphantly present three DVDs, each more jarringly unrelated than the last. the first is a classic: pokémon the movie 2000. satoru handles this one as if it’s a precious artifact, carefully placing it on the floor in front of his knees. the second is spirited away, which is handled with a little bit less care, but still gingerly added to the pile. the third DVD’s case has no jacket and is placed in the middle of the other two.
“this is what i got,” he brags, “all solid stuff, if you ask me.”
“there’s no label on the middle one.” shoko sits up, leans on her knees and snags it away from him before he has time to protest. she pops it open and stares at the words printed onto the disc for a little while. her eyebrow shoots up. “really, dude? the lord of the rings? what kind of spread is this?”
“i mean, like, it’s a classic, right? and, y’know, i wanted some, like, diversity in movie night. ‘cause you always make us watch some shitty horror film and i wanna watch something cool.” satoru waves his hands around as he explains away his choices, almost a little too much. really, shoko isn’t mad about his choices; they are all fairly solid. he should’ve gone with mewtwo strikes back, though, in her humble opinion.
she hands the DVD back to satoru and settles onto the bean bag again. “i’m surprised there’s no digimon here. they run out of stock at the blockbuster?”
“i’m broke,” satoru shrugs, focused entirely on the movies in his hands. it’s currently between pokémon and the lord of the rings.
“you’re never broke, dude. your family’s loaded.”
satoru hisses, “i don’t even use their money! it’s all tainted.”
“right.” shoko rolls her eyes. she glances at the door, which is cracked ajar for whenever suguru finally has the time to swing by and join them. she figures that’ll happen by the time satoru has an idea of what to watch, and then he’ll spend a maximum of twenty minutes hounding suguru about what they should choose. “so why’d you even pick the lord of the rings? you don’t really read a lot of things.”
“the movies—” the door swings open as he’s speaking “—were filmed in new zealand. and, y’know, i thought that would be–”
“hi,” suguru grins, a hand on each of their shoulders. satoru yelps. “hi! oh my god! don’t do that to me!”
suguru laughs and shoko giggles in tandem. “whatcha got there?”
“your mom,” satoru snorts.
suguru slugs him in the shoulder. “my mother is a very nice lady, i’ll have you know.”
“suguru, close the door,” shoko waves a dismissive gesture at the boy, who sticks his tongue out in protest, yet does it anyway. he makes a huge deal out of it, too, having already sat down; his whole body stretches out across the floor and he pathetically paws at the door in an attempt to close it. “satoru, what were you talking about?”
satoru seems a little bashful about explaining his reasoning now that suguru’s filled the space between him and shoko. “uh, i, uh. they filmed the lord of the rings movies in new zealand, and, like. it reminded me of suguru a little bit when i picked them up, okay? god, leave me alone.”
“i think i remember that being a thing,” suguru mentions, now reclining on his hands. “i was on a different side of the country, though. culturally.”
“well, yeah, but, uhm… i just thought maybe you’d recognize some of the places, and,” satoru fidgets with his hands, face flushed to his ears, “like, tell me– us about it. maybe.”
suguru studies the DVD. “i moved to japan when i was, like, five or six. i don’t remember that much.”
“i dunno.. i thought it would be kinda cool.” satoru deflates just a little bit.
“i could ask my parents,” suguru offers, to which satoru perks up again. he nods enthusiastically, like this is the most exciting thing he’s ever been presented with, besides hormones in their second year at jujutsu high. the look on his face when he told shoko and suguru that their teacher [and later principal] agreed to fund his request is something shoko doesn’t think she’ll ever forget.
for once since the day she and suguru had met him, his smile had reached his eyes. shoko knows she'll never feel the same sort of affection suguru does for him, but for a moment she understood. the way his face lit up was unmatched; at first she didn’t recognize him. the bags under his eyes seemed to vanish, the hunch in his posture was straightened.
she could have sworn the sun was a little brighter that day.
but now isn’t the time to think about sappy things like how much she loves her best friends in the whole world, because that’s for losers and nerds. right now, it’s time to stuff her face with cheap popcorn and throw some of it at satoru if he annoys her. she’ll just make him clean it up, too.
“can you invite me to their place again this summer? i like your mom. she cooks really well.”
“you were crying the literal second you took the first bite of your plate–”
satoru slugs suguru in the shoulder harder than suguru had done to him. “shut up! i was not! i can handle spice! i am not a weak little loser boy!”
“he didn’t even say any of that?!” shoko cackles, launching a half-popped kernel at satoru’s head. “you should invite me, too, though. i’m not going anywhere after this semester ends.”
“sure. the more the merrier.”
“wait, so, what are we watching?” satoru starts gathering up his DVDs. not even a second later, both suguru and shoko blurt “pokémon.”
shoko thinks satoru should have figured that would be the outcome. he pops the disc out and inserts it into the DVD player, fiddles with the buttons. the menu flashes before all of their eyes; satoru cringes, squinting a little. still, he hits the play button and sidles up next to suguru as the movie starts.
shoko’s kind of in her own world for the first half, mostly because the boys are commenting throughout the whole thing and she wishes for the love of god that they would shut up and let her watch. satoru in particular becomes the target of several buttery bullets, making some very accusatory [yet light-hearted] comments with each one.
one piece of popcorn smacks him right in his ear. he slaps the side of his head. “dude, not cool!”
suguru laughs, shoko laughs, satoru lets out a little chuckle.
another one, right after him squawking about how bored he is: “if you wanted to feed me you could ask.”
and another, a little more obnoxiously: “you’re being really fucking transphobic right now, shoko.”
he decides to turn his head and unhinge his jaw, catching the next piece directly in his mouth. shoko snorts as satoru dramatically clutches his chest and announces, “why, i am forever in your gratitude, lord ieiri-san… i haven’t eaten in many moons…”
“dude, shut up, seriously. i’m trying to watch this stupid movie.” suguru is also trying to sound threatening, but that giant grin on his face gives him away. satoru huffs and crosses his arms, finally giving it a rest.
the animation, overall, is pretty alright. this movie’s nearly a decade old now, but it isn’t the worst thing in the world. her only qualm is that the screen is a little shaky and it’s making her eyes hurt, but that’s at the bottom of her current priorities. said list is very well soothed by snacks, so she scoops another handful of–
–well. that’s just pure air. and satoru got about half of her bowl due to becoming her target practice. she sighs. “i’m out of popcorn.”
“shoot, go get some more, then. papa’s hungry.” satoru reclines with his hands behind his head, looking expectantly at her.
she stands up, groaning “i’m gonna kill you one of these days.”
“i’d really like to see you try.” that fucking shit-eating grin. she’s so gonna fold his ass when they spar tomorrow.
suguru makes some room for shoko to step out into the hallway. she passes by nanami and haibara’s rooms on her way to the communal vending machine. bringing something back for them would be nice, but she’s not the type to do unprompted favors like that. all she’s here for is another bag of popcorn to then take back to her room and hopefully not walk in on a full-on make-out session. knowing them, she probably will. it’s seriously a wonder they haven’t told her they’re dating.
maybe she should bring something for them both, though. satoru’s going to ask about sweet candies and those shitty, delicious ultra-processed snack cakes; suguru will… hm. well, she’s not sure. he doesn’t tend to enjoy that kind of stuff, so maybe she’ll just get him water, or something. or share her popcorn, if he can pry it from her cold, dead hands.
shoko reaches the vending machine in a few quick strides around the corner, digs around in her pocket. her fingers close around nothing but fabric and what she assumes is a cigarette butt. there was a moment yesterday she had considered throwing it away, but she supposes now that she’d forgotten. oh, well. there’s a trash can right there.
she checks her other pocket after discarding that. to her relief, she isn’t totally broke; just short of a few coins, so she can only buy one snack in total. popcorn it is! the boys will just have to beg her for her grace if they want any.
she slots what money she has into the machine, punches in a number, watches the popcorn get jammed and groans. the movie’s probably over by now, what with how long it’s taken to get a damn bag of popcorn.
“do you, uh, need any help, ieiri-senpai?”
“huh?” shoko turns her face toward a pair of big brown eyes and an absolutely fuckass bowl cut. this wonderful ray of sunshine is haibara yu, if she remembers correctly, and he must also have been looking for a little treat. he scratches the back of his head.
“sorry! you just looked really mad for a second there and i thought it’d be nice to ask.”
definitely a refresher from satoru’s quips and suguru’s bluntness, but she can handle this herself. “nah, i got this,” she smirks, pulling up her sleeve past her bicep. “you wanna see something?”
“uh, sure…?”
WHAM!
the vending machine, having taken a dastardly blow, hits the back of the wall. the popcorn bag flies into the glass and lands with a smack against the floor. as shoko leans down to extract it, she tucks some of her hair behind her ear.
haibara looks [understandably] nervous. “wow, you’re cool! remind me to never get on your bad side!”
“sure. hey, do you have any extra money on you?”
“am i being mugged?”
“…no? i just wanna bring something back for satoru and suguru. we’re having a movie night. also because satoru keeps stealing my snacks.”
haibara laughs as heartily as one can after witnessing a woman punch the daylights out of a vending machine for some honestly shitty popcorn. “that’s gojo-senpai for you!”
he does end up forking over some of his yen, on the promise shoko gets him something as well. she’d rather not owe this kid any money, so one pineapple-flavored soda and he’s on his merry way — not before asking her if he can come to their next movie night, of course, to which she just nods.
so now there’s a bag of popcorn, a far-too-sweet drink of the carbonated variety, and a couple of ginger candies in her possession. the drink is peach-flavored, which isn’t satoru’s favorite by far, but he just drove all of the strawberry-flavored ones extinct last week and nobody has found the time to restock. too many curses lurking around the school since final assessments for the third-years are coming up and everybody is stressed. actually, that also explains why most of the fruity drinks are gone; satoru’s been stress-drinking soda again. shoko will have to pinch his ear about that [not that she’s helping at all].
the walk back takes less time than the walk to the vending machine. with the snacks and drink gathered in one hand, she turns her doorknob…
…to say she would have preferred being forced to cure three different types of cancer, blindfolded, with her arms tied behind her back, is an understatement.
alright, alright, maybe that’s a bit dramatic. but witnessing her best friends slobbering all over one another is definitely not on her bucket list.
“are you two seriously making out in front of pokémon the movie 2000?”
satoru pushes suguru off of him, patting down his shirt. “shoko, you homewrecker! you’re ruining the vibes!”
suguru rubs his head. “you weren’t supposed to know…”
“literally why would you hide this from me.”
“because, like! it’s private! it’s our thing! no girls allowed!” satoru is freaking out and his hand gestures are not helping him. though, he isn’t worked up for very long. “ooh, what’s that?”
“peach soda. for you, i guess.” she bestows upon him the soft drink, which he takes into his greedy little mitts like she didn’t beg haibara for money to get it. not that he’d know that. probably.
the ginger candies are distributed between herself and suguru, who ends up giving half of his to satoru anyway. the movie ends and the three of them are left there in the glow of the credits, watching name after name after name scroll away. shoko forgets all of them.
“so how long have you two been a thing?” she has a good idea, but–
“since last week.” satoru proudly hooks his arm around suguru’s. “i asked him out.”
“a week and you’re already doing some secret meeting type of crap? come on.”
“okay, but, like!” she watches him search for the words, only to sigh and let his cheek attach itself to suguru’s shoulder.
“i should have told you,” suguru mutters.
shoko shakes her head. “i would’ve known anyway. honestly, i thought you’d been dating since the star plasma vessel mission.”
“seriously?!” both boys exclaim in unison. shoko would have described said unison as red-faced, but satoru’s is the only one that can remotely be called red.
she chuckles, migrating from the floor to her bed. her pillows bounce off the mattress as she flops onto it. “yeah, seriously. anyway, movie’s over and i don’t wanna know about your relationship ‘cause i already figured it was a thing.”
“we should have watched mewtwo strikes back.”
“that’s what i was thinking!”
as all things do, this night came and went. shoko shoves the soda can into satoru’s chest and pushes him out into the hallway, where suguru joins him with a smile that’s all teeth. their hands lace together and suguru swings them a little bit as they walk back to their rooms.
the DVD player is lain to rest on her desk, and herself on her bed. faintly, she smiles to herself.
man. she has got to get her shit together and ask a girl out sometime.