His happy expression kind of failed for a few moments, when he lowered his head and shrugged, “Ah, I don’t really have any anime friends…” before jumping to the other part of the man’s statement. “Someone they fear? Mhm…”
Closing his eyes, he crossed his arms in front of his chest, needing to let that sink in. Obviously, he didn’t think of Midousuji as that scary anymore – perhaps because they’ve met twice now —- which wasn’t that often, but still —- and not seeing how he was harmful; at least to Onoda. Though after moments, he opened his eyes again and turned his head to look at him. “Oh, you mean you were talking about yourself?! A-Are you offering to walk me to college? R-Really?! I–If that’s not a hassle to you, I’d like to!! B-But – please – don’t hurt them. I don’t want anyone to get into trouble…”
He barely got a break, Sakamichi already was freaking out again, pressing both his hands onto each cheek as he shook his head. “I didn’t mean to use stereotypes, oh God, I’m sorry! I didn’t want to be rude, I swear!!!” With that statement it must’ve been clear that the boy didn’t fear Akira as a person, but more so to hurt his feelings – as stupid as it sounded – but to him, it was absolutely awful to say things that cause mental pain to others. He knew how bad it would be, so he wouldn’t ever inflict the same things onto others; let alone people who escorted him home after his late shift and even offer to accompany him to college.
Immediately after Midousuji started to laugh at Onoda – or so he thought it must’ve been – he regretted even mentioning the thought he had. “I… w-wasn’t… thi…nking them over… carefully… I–I just listened to you…” The tone to his voice was wavering in embarrassment, lowering his gaze once more. “I just told you before that I don’t have any so-called anime friends. So, I got a little excited there. Don’t mind me, j-just for–forget that already…! I’m sorry.”
This kind of situation reminded the smaller of all the times he was picked on and laughed at for his hobby —- so, the natural reaction would be to brush it off. “What do you want to talk about? Or are you going to remain quiet for until you’re going to leave?” Onoda didn’t want to come off as bossy, he would be fine if the other didn’t want to talk at all – he’d just bear with it, awkwardly so. But he wanted to make sure that it wasn’t anything unpleasant to the other. All the boy wanted was to make the man feel at home and be as relaxed as possible – it’s the least thing he could do!
for a moment, he saw a flash of sadness cross over the other’s features. he could assume just why that was . . . but he also understood the feeling. during the short years that he was in school, midousuji was a complete outcast. while the other probably assume that he was always the kind of person that could stick up for himself, that wasn’t entirely true. the only reason that he grew to be as strong as he was came from that brutal bullying that he received as a child. but now, he was taller, stronger, scarier than anyone that ever teased him. it was truly gratifying.
the boy blatantly stating that he was indeed talking about himself made him rethink the whole thing. did he really mean what he said? “i guess i could do it.” completely ignoring the fact that he was caught redhanded in his offer, he would simply act as if that wasn’t the case. he was a bit wary of onoda’s statement telling him not to hurt anyone. what kind of feral animal did the boy think he was?
the way that onoda freaked out about his joke was gross, did the boy think that he really cared that much? words couldn’t hurt midousuji anymore. he was beyond that point. if anything, his words were sharper than anyone elses.
breaking out into his signature toothy grin, he let out a disturbing laugh. sakamichi seemed to get embarrassed over anything & everything . . . it was entertaining to watch the different shades of pink that he could cause to appear against the boy’s cheeks. it was nice to know that he was listening to what he was saying, midousuji couldn’t stand people that didn’t listen to him when he spoke. but on the other hand, he couldn’t help but think that he hit the nail on the head eliciting that kind of reaction from onoda. had he not been correct in his assumption, he didn’t think the other would get that embarrassed over it.
talking about anime wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but damn, it felt childish. inside of midousuji there was still that childish side buried deep below the gang leader image that he had to put up. it just took a lot more work to bring out. he wouldn’t speak about anime at the moment to onoda, but sometime in the future he would surely crack under comfort.
“you shouldn’t work so late when you have school the next day.” he comments, recalling their previous encounter. it had been well past eleven at night when the boy was on his way home from work. midousuji wasn’t the most responsible person, but he was sure that wasn’t a healthy life for a student. “between work and classes, how do you find the time to study? it really sounds like a handful.” something so mature may not have been expected from a street rat like midousuji, but he wasn’t exactly of the generic type. not much of a drinker, not a druggie, he was the kind of person that preferred to keep himself & his life intact. when it came to other people? he loved to tell them just how they were making mistakes as well -- perhaps less rude from a man that was stitched together tightly.