It was not new to him to see Toudou having some outbreak of emotions: he was over-dramatic and loved to show it. Despite his supposed cool exterior, he couldn’t fool anyone – he was indeed a crybaby. And Yasutomo was aware of that.
While he stood there all brave and whatnot, the ex-yankee knew what was going on —- he was scared out of his wits and therefore could not return anything to the verbal so-called abuse. Yasutomo never saw it that way —- he practically grew up in a household with two younger sisters who had nothing better to do but insult him all the time, thus adapting that habit. It was almost as if he was taught a hard love kind of attitude. And yet, not everyone was understanding of it, let alone, fond of it.
As he bit down his cheek, he did indeed feel some dampness to the man’s face and in the aftermath – as the smaller pulled away, yelling at him – he couldn’t help but taste the salt said liquid was bearing. Tears. Those were in fact tears. “The fuck—-” The blackhaired muttered as the other went on and on with his drama, he grabbed the man’s shoulders and shook him lightly, almost as if he meant to snap him out of it.
“Jerkita?” He couldn’t help but cackle, it amused him that he was finally something else than yankee or street rat – jerkita, even if it was really insultive, was a ton better and it made him feel special enough to receive a customised nickname. “Oi, oi, oi…” The taller then retorted, cupping the other’s face with both his hands to keep him in place, forcibly making him look at him as he shook his head slightly in disbelief. “I like jerkita a lot more than street rat or yankee, alright? I know I am a jerk. But you’re just such an easy target to pick on with your easily induced tears. It’s kinda cute.” Yasutomo then admitted, brushing his thumbs mindlessly over the tear-stained cheeks as he smushed them together rather lovingly, to make the other look more dorky than usually – a look that was rare but quite frankly adorable.
“I don’t expect you to like me or my attitude. I don’t even expect you to be my friend. It just seems really lousy and sad to see you more close to your archenemy, your nemesis if you will, than with your own team mates. And I get it – even after the years, I’m still the new kid on the block, ‘cause all y’all have middle school memories together or whatever. Do me a favour and be nice to your friends once in a while instead of being delusional about your fangirls and running after some green-haired freak who doesn’t even text you back. There are people here who actually would love to spend time with you. In that case, you’re more of a jerk than me, for rejecting those who actually love and care about you…”
Of course, he was partially talking about himself; granted, Hayato and Fukutomi would love to spend time with Toudou too… Manami surely as well —- but him, out of all people, would like to be treated as a friend more than a stranger. “For the record, Yasu-chan doesn’t sound too bad. But if it gets over your head for calling me such cute names, I won’t hold back and actually bite you hard for real. So, stop fucking crying, you crybaby headband, and understand that I mean well. Kinda weird, right? That some yankee would want to be kind and stuff. Wow. Incredible.”
Letting go of the smaller’s shoulders, he clicking his tongue and turned his head to look another way; it was no helping it, as much as he wanted some attention from the guy, he was just… not understanding him, not approving of him. While he accepted the defeat, he also was too proud to just be witness to having the other make him look dumb by running away or insulting him more, thus moving to walk past his counterpart and deciding for himself that Jinpachi didn’t want his presence near him —- Arakita may be tactless and rude, but he was also rather mature for his age.
toudou was upset about the way that arakita was treating him, but also about the way that he made him cry. it was unbeliavably embarrassing !! part of him just wanted to run away at that moment & allow himself to make a fool of himself in private. though . . . he doubted that arakita would allow for that to happen. if anything, he assumed that the man would do anything in his power to make sure that he suffered right there before his eyes.
because of him being an only child, this wasn’t something that he ever had to deal with at home. his more strict mother could give him some tough love once in awhile, but it was mostly his loving mother that made things all better. if he were upset, there was always someone there to calm him down, that’s just the kind of strange, but happy household that he grew up in. it was certainly worlds away from the kind of treatment that arakita had at home. while it was mostly happy, there was somethings that they had to deal with that other families did not -- not many did have two mothers & on top of that a gay son.
arakita shaking his shoulders only made him tense up more. if it weren’t obvious, there was rare cases where the smaller had to deal with bullying. even as a homosexual, he always had women flocking around him -- & when you befriended the girls, they wouldn’t take well to their boyfriends treating him as anything else but a friend. to top it off, arakita mutter ‘the fuck’ in his direction made him prepare himself for even more bullying.
he could feel his cheeks redden as he was forced to look at arakita, which was . . . honestly, the last thing that he wanted to do in that moment. hiding his shame was much easier when he didn’t have to look the other in the eye. now it was blatantly obvious that he was crying like a baby & he was sure that the other would make sure he knew that. “you’re such a jerk --” he mumbled through sniffles as the other wiped at his tears. it was strange to hear him call anything about him cute, but it didn’t necessarily make him feel better. “you did it on purpose, jerkita.” he huffed in the man’s direction. “now my mascara is going to run.” the statement came out even whinier than intended, but he really hated the thought of walking around the rest of the day with slight black stains around his eyes.
“maki-chan isn’t my enemy.” he says, wiping at his tears. if anything, makishima was someone who was just incredibly kind to put up with his overdramatic, crybaby attitude. unlike arakita, he’d never had the green-haired man freak out on him for displaying emotions. sure, it made him semi-uncomfortable, but he really was the only person that toudou ever could rely on before. opening up to someone like arakita about all of the things he’d told maki-chan would be difficult, only because he was so harsh & vulgar about everything. it made him nervous to tell him anything.
unlike anyone else, he told maki-chan about liking boys, about his mothers, and about general things that bothered him. it wasn’t that these were huge secrets, but they were things that were difficult for him to say aloud. if he ever tried to tell arakita something like that . . . he was sure that the other would tease him about how ‘fucking obvious’ it was.
he knew that he pushed away his own teammates, but sometimes it was just hard to get himself to connect with other people. why this all mattered to arakita was something beyond him. if anything, he was sure that they all had a lot more fun when toudou wasn’t around for them to tell ‘shut up !!’. even if he spoke a lot around makishima, the man never ever told him to stop talking. maybe he would stop listening, but that wasn’t the same thing to him.
“i don’t get why you care so much.” the moment that he was released from arakita’s grasp, toudou reached around in his bag for a mirror. if there was anything that he was scared of now, it was what his face looked like. “you know yasu-chan, you haven’t been extremely open either.” of course, now that there was distance he would have the balls to say something in return. flipping open his pocket mirror, he proceeded to desperately try and touch up his makeup as best as he could. some of it was ruined for the remainder of the day, but it didn’t scream ‘hey i just sobbed like a baby for ten minutes’ at first glance.
