Work Text:
Drrrinnngggg-
20XX, July, 7...
The words scratched against the chalkboard, dust falling to the floor.
Just another day.
Yet another day of classes, window staring and-
SLAM!-
Kojiro Nanjo.
The door swung open dramatically as the golden retriever of a teen (with the bulk and self-named-king-ly attitude of a tiger) entered the room. He was late, dramatically so, and golden eyes of prey were immediately on him – his partner in crime, until he did something off script, in which he became the enemy.
“Hey Kaoru~” Kojiro sung, ignoring the unsettled feeling in his stomach watching his best friend’s eyes follow him along without even the care to turn his head like some sort of freakish security bot.
Yet, Kaoru did not entertain the humour. “Why are you late?” he breathed out coldly. Kojiro had ruined the peace of the room, right when Kaoru had managed to dissociate out the window for a carefree day.
“Oh come on! Don’t you know what day it is?!”
“Yeah... Tuesday...?” Kaoru muttered with a matter-of-fact and rather condescending tone.
“Kaoru, come on, don’t be like that-! You can’t-!”
“Nanjo, Sakurayashiki, enough!” the teacher had finally stepped in, snapping her head towards the two boys, watching as Kojiro flabbergastedly turned towards her, still pent up from Kaoru’s response – meanwhile the other boy in question simply slumped back into his seat, allowing his gaze to fall back upon the view beyond the window (the empty PE field, that was).
It truly was just another day.
.
.
.
“Hey four-eyes!” it hadn’t taken long for the final bell of the day to have rung before Kojiro was hovering right behind Kaoru, using a rather unfitting nickname given Kaoru had begun using contact lenses majoritively over a year ago, leaning down so far his head may as well be in the crook of the boy’s neck, tickled by the soft pink hair that cascaded down like falling petals.
Naturally though, that blossom tree was just as sensitive too, immediately, and rather dramatically shrugging his shoulders with an exclaimed “Ugh-!” as Kojiro fell away from him forcefully. “Y’know I’m not one of those girls you pry over. Quit getting in my personal space-”
“Whatever-” Kojiro huffed with a slight jeer, eyes focussed elsewhere, shoving himself into sitting on a recently vacated desk next to Kaoru’s, legs swinging from below him as he tilted his head at Kaoru. “Do you intend to sit around all day? It’s the end of school; you’re normally halfway home by now.”
As always though, Kaoru couldn’t help but sneer “Oh look, you finally grew a brain and made an accurate observation. But, for your information, I have some errands to run, and my mother is picking me up.”
“You hate your mother?”
“And I needed a car?”
“Kaoru-” Kojiro groaned, “You have a bike and a Chugata license?! You could probably have just done all your errands alone-”
With him.
“Is this really that big of a deal?” Kaoru scoffed back with a confused laugh, raising an eyebrow at the boy in front of him who was now resting a frustrated face in the palms of his hands. “You’re acting like one day we don’t go home together is the end of the world.”
“Kaoru-”
“What? Cat got your tongue?”
Kojiro truly wasn’t acting normal at all today; Kaoru almost felt bad.
Well, not really.
He had important things to get done.
“Clearly not.” Kojiro just sighed, the slight illogicality of the response not hitting him as he slid off the desk – as if he’d been expecting a different question entirely – before collecting his bag from his desk and walking toward the door of the empty classroom; turning toward Kaoru one last time. “Are we still going biking tonight?” he sighed out, hoping it wasn’t entirely futile.
“Of course?” But Kaoru had already turned away, sliding headphones over his ears with only pausing at the sudden extra comment.
“Right. Of course-” Kojiro chuckled at the ignorantly confused tones from the other boy.
As if anything was ever obvious with Kaoru.
“I’ll see you later, k?”
“See ya.” Kaoru didn’t even look; he just went back to his phone and horribly chunky headphones.
Yet, he hadn’t been fully honest.
Of course he hadn’t.
.
.
.
The moments before sunset came sooner than expected – around 18:56 to be precise, where the sky had begun to blush pink.
For Kojiro, the day had been spent with his family all laughing and joking around him. Gifts and paper across the living room floor until he finally looked outside at the perfect setting, the pre-organised one, and announced he was heading out for a night-ride with Kaoru, alone, (followed by more playful, mischievous teasing “ooo”s than he’d like to acknowledge).
Kaoru, on the other hand, had not spent the time with his mother, but rather made his own hasty escape once Kojiro was off campus, heading home alone without the other boy and – exactly as implied by Kojiro himself – took his trusty Suzuki Burgman 400 bike out onto expressways and backroads to finish off some last-minute jobs.
“Hey.” Kaoru had called out in his generic too-cool-to-care (or more just too bored with life to care, but nobody had to know that) tones the moment the noise of his engine died down, flipping the visor of his sleek-black helmet up but not caring to remove the entire thing, having spotted Kojiro outside of his house waiting around – a joyous expression on the guy’s face, be it laced in some form of underlying discomfort.
“You ready to go? I thought we could go to a new spot today.”
Kojiro, despite his best friend’s face being obstructed by a balaclava and helmet could, unfortunately, feel that sickly sweet, addictive smirk of Kaoru’s just from the glisten in his smokey-lined, golden eyes, doubled by the way the sun caught them just right, glowing past his iridium pink visor’s translucent shadow.
He had, for lack of other words, completely shifted from only those few hours earlier where he’d barely been a cold shell of ignorance.
He smelt different too – like gasoline, of course (or that was just the bike and permanently tainted jacket) but also like freshly washed hair and that musky jasmine perfume he kept for the more “special” occasions – one that was often “too strong” by his tastes, and brought a bit too much attention to him (not that Kojiro hadn’t noticed how Kaoru occasionally used it in subtle moderation, where you could only smell it if you got way too far into his personal space bubble – and he'd be lying to say the idea of someone else doing that didn’t give him some weird feelings).
“Sure.” Kojiro nodded, unable to hold back his own smile and gentle laugh, maroon eyes shining in the golden sunlight. As ignorant as Kaoru had been, this wasn’t the worst ending to the day. Hell, maybe he could pretend just a little longer that this little show meant a little more than it likely did. “You better lead though and not loose me when you decide to floor the gas.”
“Or maybe you quit being a wuss and speed up a little.” Kaoru jeered back with a smirk, ignoring his blatant disregard for the laws surrounding such a thing – given it would then turn into a street race by their competitive nature - nodding towards Kojiro’s bike beckoning him to join with a now or never attitude written all over him.
.
The roads were naturally still rather busy, stalling Kaoru’s need for speed at multiple places - and allowing Kojiro to keep up with the guy who seemed to have other things on his mind, given the radio silence despite their intercom system that Kaoru had managed to get working a little while ago.
Kojiro too couldn’t see Kaoru’s eyes anymore due to the visor that guarded them, yet, the guy’s tightened shoulders said more than enough.
It wasn’t often Kaoru cared to fully kit up in protective gear, but on the rare occasions they went through larger expressways not just back routes and neighbourhoods, he would put the effort in.
Yet, Kaoru was in the lead to a new spot, there wasn’t the time to make observations; Kojiro simply didn’t have the option to let muscle memory take over so he could focus more on Kaoru’s obvious discomfort.
Was it the roads? Was he just nervous in a new area?
Or had Kojiro been too offish earlier?
Damn it, Kaoru.
Just because he liked being closed off sometimes-
If only he was easier to get a read on.
But he just had to be as complex as those fancy traditional novels his mother insisted he read just to be “authentic”.
It did improve the guy’s vocabulary range though.
“We’re here, moron.” the smooth voice suddenly flowing into his ear made Kojiro shudder, having seen but not fully registered that Kaoru had fully stopped, not just waited for traffic.
It was so... intimate despite being plenty of metres away from each other and covered in protective gear.
Kaoru’s voice always did that to him – when he was calm at least.
When he was angry it still had its impact, it really sent the blood rushing, but the calm was so much different.
Confidence that you could likely taste before you saw it.
Like the melting of a strawberry, covered in sugar, covering the sourness but not removing it.
“Kojiro?” a pair of now un-gloved fingers snapped in front of him, before shoving his visor up, jolting his head with it slightly.
Kaoru was right there. Staring with... concern? Anger? God he was so difficult to read sometimes. Despite the fact he was now entirely unmasked, the somehow still perfectly sleek hair falling over his shoulders in its natural form, framing him just right.
“Yeah- uh- sorry-” Damn. Give it a rest, Kojiro.
It was just Kaoru.
Just them.
Alone-
Kaoru just shrugged, beginning to walk off, happy enough with the answer and that Kojiro was no longer entirely trancing and ignorant to his talking. “Come on.” he coaxed, looking back slightly as he unzipped the armoured jacket that he’d previously been using and letting it slide off his shoulders carelessly, catching only for a brief moment on his bare elbows before falling to the ground exposing the cropped vest-tee that he’d made out of some second-hand alternative band-merch – barely covering down to the middle of his ribcage, his lower back entirely empty (a place he had been hoping to place a tattoo for years, and was merely waiting to be old enough and to escape his family’s prying eyes).
An obvious choice, for a warm summer’s night.
A dangerous one – depending on who you asked.
Suddenly the perfume made more sense too.
Kaoru had just been having fun with himself.
With his own style.
“You uh-” Kojiro stammered out without thought, barely managing to stop himself as he stumbled off his bike, unable to watch anything but Kaoru.
“What? Gonna tell me it’s not ”proper” enough?” Kaoru simply laughed back, turning to fully face Kojiro, arms loosely hanging rather than anxiously covering up his exposed stomach – the one where he had a bellybutton piercing his family still knew nothing about – not to mention the scissor-cut low neck exposing his collar bones, pale and empty apart from the shadows of his lean, but certainly not buff, build. A sly build that tricked many people into thinking he was significantly weaker and more fragile than he was – assisted by the way his more feminine traits and pastel hair made him seem fragile.
He was anything but fragile.
As much as occasionally Kojiro would like to break him – in more ways than one.
Yet, Kojiro just shook his head, scoffing back a laugh, “God no- I'm not your mother-”
“You look good”
Fantastic even.
Was what he would have said.
If Kaoru wasn’t the least interested person in the world.
The guy truly wanted to be a lone wolf, huh?
Looking like that and not caring that he was a magnet because he would turn down literally anyone anyways, claiming to have zero interest in romantic involvements – just as had Kojiro had seen him do plenty.
Kaoru knew how he looked, and people were lying if they thought he didn’t know how to use it for his own entertainment – that hidden sadistic side occasionally enjoying people’s expression as they lose such a catch with such a careless response that may as well be a blade to the heart.
Kojiro had felt it already, and he’d never even dared directly asking.
So instead of dwelling further, Kojiro just removed his own jacket, hanging it lazily over his bike, leaving him too in cooler, significantly more bland clothing – a sports branded muscle tee, to be precise.
“And why exactly are we here?” Kojiro chuckled nervously, wrapping a cautious arm around Kaoru’s shoulder, surprised at the lack of drastic reaction, the guy didn’t pull away – but he also didn’t get closer.
Rather, he just gently lit a cigarette between his lips, a habit Kojiro had learned to just let slip rather than fight, licking them to prevent it sticking to drier lips, a little settling on his lip ring and making it shine, before resting his head back against Kojiro’s arm to let out a breath of smoke. “You’ll see.” He grinned, eyes finding their way to Kojiro’s so casually despite the closeness he usually resented before, of course, ducking and escaping behind Kojiro.
That fucking tease.
“Go sit down.” he shrugged flashing a small smile before heading toward his bike, “I’ll be there in a sec.”
And Kojiro did, watching the scenery for the first time before him. A small beach, perfectly pointing west to watch the sun fully set down below the horizon.
A beautiful night that expected him to forget what Kaoru had forgotten himself.
“I-” Kaoru stammered, having silently appeared behind Kojiro before letting out a gentle sigh, trying to refuse the anxiety that wanted to get the better of him – the tearful, apologetic boy from years ago wanting to show face, despite Kaoru’s resistance. “I’m sorry for being such a dick at school- I just...”
Kojiro turned around, curious, concerned. Kaoru wasn’t the apologetic type.
Not anymore, under all the masks.
And yet... in his hands lay a small yet meaningful item that immediately made Kojiro’s shoulder relax instantly.
“I’m not always the best at big celebration things but had this planned so-”
A small, white iced cake, decorated with strawberries, and a singular unlit candle.
“Sit down, you idiot.”
“You’re not mad-”
“I sulked too fast earlier - you weren’t the only dick earlier. I should have known your sneaky ass was up to something-” Kojiro smiled with a gentle laugh, indicating for Kaoru to sit beside him with a small nod of his head. “You look more sinister than you are, princess. You'd never genuinely forget my birthday, would you now?”
“mm-” Kaoru’s resistant groans hummed passed the cigarette that loosely hung from his lips as he sat down.
Kojiro was, unfortunately, a little right.
More than just a little, maybe.
He acted so tough, so cold, yet he had gone out of his way to do all of this, just for him.
“Happy birthday, Kojiro-” the words came out unnaturally from the boy who hugged at his knees, face averted as far as possible. Like something Kaoru hadn’t prepared for.
Raw.
Real.
“Thank you.” Kojiro just chuckled, unable to even poke fun at this. Kaoru truly was a wonder. Unpredictable – sometimes for worse, but often for better.
“However... that candle really needs lighting, huh? If we gotta make this a real celebration.”
“Yeah yeah, give me a sec-” Kaoru groaned
And with a roll of his eyes, Kaoru had shifted positions, allowing him to lean down close, pulling his hair back out the way in the process as he gently pressed the smouldering end of his cigarette up against the wick, taking a deep, but controlled breath in to raise the heat, eyes fluttering closed momentarily in focus, and a warm sense of peace.
What a view...
Kojiro almost wished that were him, rather than the strawberries which had Kaoru so carefully leant over them in such an intimate way, gaining a light dusting of smoke that would likely leave an impression like some weird, twisted, loophole of a way to share things best friends really weren’t meant to.
“What?” Kaoru simply chuckled innocently through a cloud of smoke that quickly escaped his lungs when he pulled himself up, his own created flame catching and reflecting in his eyes when the air cleared.
“You- uh- could have just used your lighter-”
“I left it with my bike.”
“Isn’t it always in your-”
“Ah-bah-bah-bah-” Kaoru quickly scoffed, placing a finger against Kojiro, warmth of the cigarette between his fingers right underneath the boy’s chin. “You shouldn’t waste time and let it burn out- isn't this the time to make a wish or whatever?? You’re the one who wanted to make this a proper celebration-”
Caught red handed and he still avoided it.
That lighter was always in Kaoru’s pocket – even when he wasn’t intending to smoke.
He was showing off, but for what reason?
Was this really him right now? Or just another mask?
“Yeah, I guess you're right.” Kojiro chuckled, rolling his eyes as if to disbelieve but still accept Kaoru’s words. It wasn’t worth arguing, not after he’d gone all this way to do this for Kojiro.
So, with one clean breath, the flame was quickly extinguished, Kojiro hovering momentarily with closed eyes before nodding to himself and raising his eyes to look across the water, the words that had flooded his head, the wants he wished for, coming to him naturally, but a little scarily.
“That looked dumb.”
“Oi-!” now they could fight. “Have you never blown a candle and made a wish before?!”
“I normally just eat the cake. Or did momma never tell you not to play with your food?” Kaoru shrugged with a teasing undertone, pulling out a pocketknife with a curious, inviting head tilt; eyes flicking between the cake and Kojiro.
“Kaoru-!” Kojiro’s aghast expression was too fast to catch, the blade in Kaoru’s hand having completely overridden the tease. He couldn’t even tell if it were between the fact the guy even had a knife with him, fear even because Kaoru was always too subtle, and had a great sleight of hand; or if it was simply the fact cake and pocketknives weren’t common combinations. “Can you ever do something with the intended tools?!”
First the candle and now this shit?
God-
He was so thrillingly unhinged.
Do before think.
Performance before authenticity.
He did everything for those on the outside.
Be that for better – or worse.
A carefully curated guise to keep people from getting too close – one he could change the instant a new mask was needing to be put on; Kojiro had seen it first hand from when Kaoru would switch between chaotic delinquent to prissy, perfect and traditional the moment even the faintest whiff of his family were around.
There was a third, of course, the real version, but that stayed carefully concealed all but always. One Kojiro had sworn to have seen before, but wouldn’t dare accuse Kaoru of truly being real around him.
The guy had expectations to uphold, ones that differed person to person.
Yet, he still had a creative sense behind it all, his execution always feeling like him if you looked close enough.
“Blame a guy for being well prepared- I don’t see any intended purpose tools on you now, do I?” Kaoru carelessly scoffed, gently pressing the knife into the cake, ensuring a full piece of strawberry topped each slice before settling into a calm silence to eat, and watch the golden glares across the water.
.
.
“What did you wish for, by the way?” Kaoru’s words spoke through first, hand instinctively covering his mouth as a formality due to eating.
“You know I can’t tell you that, Kaoru. Or else-” Kojiro exclaimed, crumbs leaving his mouth as he did, earning a grimace from Kaoru’s well-trained persona.
“Or else it doesn’t come true, I know, I know. I don’t even get why you believe in that crap.” Kaoru simply laughed, gentle and a little judgmental albeit, laying off of Kojiro a little, hand falling to his side as if he’d previously forgetten they were alone; safe.
“You’re just a pessimist. Have a little faith why dontcha?”
“Sure...” Kaoru sighed, “So- You really think that some wish is gonna come true because you blew out a candle and kept it a secret?”
Ridiculous, quite frankly.
Or to him it was.
Kaoru may believe in some magical stuff, that could be explained to a degree. But wishes? Speaking into the void? How did anyone actually believe in that?
“Well, yeah-” Kojiro chuckled back with a shrug. “I sure hope so.”
•
•
•
“I wish you’d want me as much as I want you, Kaoru Sakurayashiki.”
“Let me love you-”