I feel so blessed to be getting so much fanart for this series :’) Sorry for taking so long to reblog this wonderful artwork! It perfectly presents the atmosphere of the scene to the point that I kind of feel like rewriting it so they actually are kneeling down, ehehe
Breaking Character - Chapter Thirteen [Horikashi, Seowaka]
Hori smiled a bit, wondering how many more dates they'd go on before they would finally admit that they were dating.
Oh my god, I really wasn’t supposed to take that unannounced hiatus, but I just kept getting hit hard by RL shenanigans to the point where I just needed a break from pretty much everything. I’ve been feeling better the last week or so, though, so I focused on finishing up this chapter for now--I promise I’ll catch up on responding to reviews and messages later today!
If I keep up my current writing pace, maybe I’ll be able to finish this fic before Valentine’s Day? Haha, I remember when I thought I might have this thing done before V-Day last year. That was before I got steamrolled by the rapidly expanding plot, and I don’t think I was even planning on bringing Kashima’s family into the mix, but now I can’t even imagine this fic without them all in it? Man, how did a fanfic about two drama nerds trying to figure out how dating works get so complicated? SO MUCH DRAMA
Also, you’d think that the drama nerds would be the most dramatic characters, but no, that award goes to Nozaki, because he did a thing again when nobody was looking. At least it won’t have consequences that’ll last for the rest of the fic this time. *shakes Hori’s arm at him*
Btw, Hori’s going to run out of excuses to not kiss Kashima eventually. He promised he would, after all. Heh.
Content Warnings: Coarse language, mild adult themes, brief health scare
[AO3 Mirror]
Chapter 13: You're one in a million, we're two of a kind
Thursday, February 12
Hori woke up to the sight and stimulus of Kashima Mii gently prodding his face with the eraser-end of a pencil, and wondered why he even bothered setting an alarm on his phone if he was going to continue being woken up early by other people.
Then he realized that not only did Mii have no reason to be in his house, but he himself wasn't in his house, and had he even set an alarm on his cell for that morning in the first place?!
Just like the day before, he sat up too fast to stop himself, but fortunately for Mii, she was standing far enough away to avoid cranial impact. Hori still suffered a bit of a head rush, but it passed quickly enough for him to notice Mii pressing a finger against her lips, begging for silence. He had been just about to ask what the hell had happened last night, because for some reason he'd been sleeping in what had to be Kashima's bed because he easily recognized her room even in the low light!
A muffled snore drew his attention over the side of the bed, where he noted that Kashima had slept the night on the floor on what was most likely a guest futon. She didn't seem to mind, sleeping as peacefully as she was. He'd slept great as well, actually, no doubt because he'd been subconsciously comforted by the pillows and blankets subtly infused with her scent. He wondered briefly why she hadn't slipped into the bed beside him like she'd done before--and this time it was her bed--but then he remembered that her parents lived under the same roof as her every day of the year, and while her father was a lunatic, her mother would have objected to them sharing a bed even if it was only to sleep. Kashima, of course, must have insisted that Hori got to use the bed, likely citing his injury as just one of her points of argument. Another was most definitely some kind of reference to Sleeping Beauty.
Speaking of 'Sleeping Beauty', he'd do well to be as quiet as possible, because now that he'd lifted his head to look at her sister, Hori could see that Mii was exactly one sudden sound away from bolting, and if she was trying so hard to stay still right next to her sister then she must have something important to say. He gave her his full attention, leaning in her direction so they could hear each other's whispers. "Yeah?" he asked.
"Mama asked me to wake you so you would be able to leave before Papa gets up," she answered, not looking curious at all about the details. Her mother must have given her the entire play-by-play, then, since she'd been fortunate enough to have avoided the awkwardness of the previous evening. Despite the subject matter, Hori found himself glad that at least Mii was able to have a normal conversation with someone in her household--because there probably was no kind of 'normal' conversation to be had with her father, even if they were able to speak face-to-face.
He was grateful for the chance to avoid another one of those 'conversations' with her dad, though. Bless her and her mother for their foresight. "Thanks," he said, slipping out from under the sheets. He noted that he was still wearing his school uniform from the previous day, which was kind of gross, but he had to admit it was preferable to any other scenario. Hopefully it was early enough to allow him to go back to his house to shower and change. "I didn't see you around last night--I hope you don't have to go out to eat all the time; your mom is a great cook. I bet she taught you both a lot."
Mii's lips twitched into a hint of a smile, still weighed down a bit due to her wariness of waking her sister. "I was able to eat my portion before you arrived. As for cooking... my sister is more talented."
He wondered how many times Kashima had attempted to lure her sister out of hiding by preparing her favorite meals, and how Mii had managed to resist. She had to have a will of steel or something. "She also has a couple years more experience," he replied, getting to his feet and stretching a bit, noting that the street outside Kashima's window was still dark. "Do you often wake up this early?" She was already wearing her school uniform and appeared ready to leave at a moment's notice.
"I've had to wake up earlier recently," Mii admitted, and Hori remembered the sudden shift in Kashima's morning routine.
"Sorry, that's probably my fault." Even though she'd gotten started rising early before he'd gotten hurt, Hori was certain that it was his request for Kashima to become just a little more responsible that made life just a little more difficult for Mii.
But she just shrugged in response. "I can avoid the rush by commuting earlier. It's more convenient for me as well, since I can go to my classroom to complete the homework I'm usually unable to finish at home, and there's plenty of time to train a bit once that's done."
He was curious about what kind of training she did to be able to evade her sister so flawlessly, but another part of her reply struck fear into his heart. "Shit--I didn't even touch yesterday's homework--sorry, Mii-chan, but I'd better get moving. Thanks again for waking me up."
She nodded back at him and didn't waste another moment before slipping out of the room. Yet, even though Kashima had been unconscious the whole time, it was still progress for her to have spent that much time next to her sister, right? Mii still had a long journey ahead of her, but it could only be done one step at a time.
Hori gave her a bit of a head start before kneeling down to wake Kashima. With the way things were, he really could have reenacted that scene from 'Sleeping Beauty', but he settled for lightly shaking her shoulder instead. He'd much rather she be conscious for his 'Thursday' promise, and having the chance to brush their teeth or at least freshen their breath first would be an invaluable bonus.
She woke with a start, but stared up at him as though she was still dreaming for a moment before her lips spread into an easy smile. "Good morning~" Kashima greeted him, and for a second, Hori completely forgot about oral hygiene and nearly leaned in right then and there.
Instead, he reached over and brushed a few stray hairs out of her eyes. "Good morning. You better hurry and get ready for school if you're planning to come with me back to my house, since you let me fall asleep here before I even had the chance to do my homework."
Not to be outdone, Kashima sat up and began to smooth out his bangs, which were likely in a terrible state he didn't even want to picture thanks to sleeping without washing the wax out of his hair. "It's way more important to get rest when you need it, Senpai. Besides, I took care of it!"
"What?" He had to be misunderstanding something here...
"I did your homework!" she rephrased. "It was super easy since you wrote down everything you had to have done in your daily planner as if you ever forget anything in the first place!"
There was no way she was serious, implying that it had been harder to figure out what homework had been assigned than it was to actually complete it, but then he remembered when she'd answered a complicated math question straight out of his textbook in her head fast enough to convince Sakura that a spirit was communicating with them through their faulty Kokkuri board that one time Kashima'd nearly figured out how he felt about her all on her own (though the way he'd dashed into the fray to stop her had probably been a huge clue in hindsight).
She really had done it, then--but there was still one last concern on his mind as he got up off his knees and began searching through his school bag, packed up and ready to go on her desk. "I'm still going to have to rewrite it since my teacher will definitely notice a difference in the handwriting..." he said, but once he flipped through his notebook to the newly filled in pages, Hori had to remind himself not to shout, even if her father was probably used to sleeping through loud exclamations. "How the heck did you mimic my handwriting this well??" he demanded to know. He couldn't even see the difference himself!
"Hah?" Kashima said through a yawn as she stood up and scrubbed at her eyes. "Senpai, that notebook is full of an entire school year's worth of notes and homework--I had plenty of your handwriting to reference. It'd be weirder if I wasn't able to copy you, wouldn't it?" She even had the nerve to look confused.
Honestly, Hori had no idea why he was so surprised, either. Every time he thought something was impossible, Kashima would do it effortlessly. She was just that amazing. He hoped that no one ever gave her the idea that she could probably make a living by selling fake autographs or something. He'd much rather she hand out her own autographed goods for free after making money using her far more legal talents, after all.
"I'm still... going to have to study all this..." he insisted, because it was way too early in the morning to get her high on praise. "Not that I'm worried about it, but I'd rather be comfortable with the material since my university entrance exams are coming up fast..." The one he planned on attending wasn't considered 'prestigious' by most people since it was more focused more on the arts than science, business, or law, but its drama program was considered one of the best in the country and many famous actors had studied there, including his own parents. Still, Hori was confident that he wouldn't have any trouble with the exam as long as he kept up with his studies, and his teachers must have agreed if they didn't insist upon him withdrawing from club activities like most of his classmates.
"You can look it over while I get ready for school," Kashima suggested, and Hori had just enough time to grab his bag and get out of the room before she finished pulling off her pajama top, zero sense of modesty as always. He'd probably have to wait until later to actually look through the notebook now that he was distracted. Damn it.
Thankfully, another distraction presented herself in the form of Kashima's mother sitting cross-legged in the dining room, hunched over a cup of coffee and looking as though she hadn't gotten a wink's worth of sleep.
Hori sat down across from her, putting his notebook away for a better time. "Sorry," he said, hoping his appearance wasn't quite as terrible as he feared. "I wasn't planning on sleeping over so I didn't have anything to change into." Or to brush his teeth with--hopefully he wasn't bothering her with morning breath.
She sighed heavily and poured him a cup, sliding the coffee across the table for him to take. The heat felt comfortable in his palm. "Yuu bragged that you wear the same size clothes and tried to convince me to let her change you into a pair of her pajamas."
"Thanks for stopping her," Hori replied, feeling like he would have freaked out if he'd woken up in different and unfamiliar clothing--and even more so, if he'd found out that it was Kashima's doing. "And thanks for letting me sleep here and getting Mii-chan to wake me up early. It's... been a weird week." Or two.
She watched him take his first sip of coffee before responding. "If you slept through the night then you must have needed it," she said, as though she hadn't checked on them numerous times while being unable to sleep herself. "Yuu refused to wake you and you didn't even stir when we moved you to the bed so you must have been exhausted."
"Yeah," he agreed, though still finding it hard to believe that he'd slept so deeply. "I usually get by on much less sleep so this is more than a bit out of the ordinary for me." Yet, when he went through a mental checklist of everything that had happened yesterday, there was no wonder why his body had insisted upon replenishing its energy reserves. "But, what about you, Kashima-san? Were you able to sleep at all last night?" Hori recalled something about her giving her husband her own prescribed sleeping pill instead of taking it herself. Which, admittedly, was kind of a weird thing to do, but then again, her entire family was at best out of the ordinary, so it was inevitable that some of that would rub off on her. As long as they were all happy and comfortable, he didn't have any reason to object.
Kashima's mother was a bit of a mystery in that regard, though, as she simply waved off his concern and asked instead, "Mii-chan told me that you were planning to help close the distance between her and Yuu?" He wasn't at all surprised that Mii insisted on the pet name from her own family members, since he'd been little more than a stranger himself when she'd met him for the first time for a proper introduction.
Hori was a little worried about her evading the previous question, but allowed the deflection as she was likely just as concerned about her daughters. "I'm going to try to get a proper family portrait done as a start. It'll only be possible as long as Kashima doesn't realize that Mii-chan is there, so I'll have to distract her somehow..."
She nodded along and replied, "I'll have Mii-chan tell me the details once you've settled on a plan, since I'll likely have to keep my husband from accidentally tossing a wrench into the works."
It was probably best that he was kept out of the plot entirely, in Hori's opinion. Luckily, he was fairly certain that Kashima's mother agreed entirely. "Honestly," he said, his mouth running off without consulting his brain, "I'm having a hard time figuring out how you ended up getting married to that guy in the first place."
Yet, before he had the opportunity to mentally kick himself for being so disrespectful, Kashima's mother was already laughing in surprise, though she was obviously trying to keep the volume down, and quickly dialed herself down to a quiet chuckle. "That man--" she started, then cut herself off with a wide grin and rose up from the table instead. She retrieved a photo album from a nearby shelf, set it in front of Hori, and knelt beside him so she could flip to the pages she had in mind.
He might not have been an expert in the fashion trends of generations past, but Hori knew a disaster when he saw one, and even in the black and white photographs, it was obvious to see that, when Kashima's dad was in high school, his fashion sense had been just as eccentric as his personality. A few pages of photos later, once Kashima's mother began to appear alongside him, his outfits suddenly became far less embarrassing, if just a bit old-fashioned to his more modern opinion.
"He couldn't even dress himself properly without me," Kashima's mother explained needlessly. "His father was always working overtime at his low-level government position, vying for one promotion or another, and his mother was frequently hospitalized due to a chronic condition that worsened during his teenage years, so he was often left to his own devices. I never found out how he even managed to feed himself before we met--I couldn't just leave him to starve, you see. A man can't survive on charm alone."
Hori looked through more of the photographs, finding several instances of Kashima's mother sharing prepared decoben with her future husband and even going to the point of adjusting his school uniform when something was out of place--they must have had a friend that rivaled Tomoda's interest in camera work. What struck him the most was how obviously he adored her and appreciated her presence, while it seemed like she was trying hard to pretend that she was doing nothing but casual favors. To Nozaki, this photo album would be considered a goldmine of shoujo tropes. Sometimes, high school sweethearts really did make that life-long connection, and he hoped, so much, that possibility was there for both him and his brother, as well as for his friends.
It hit him a moment later that, while the details were different, the underlying story was the same as that one route in that Otome game he'd played with Nozaki and Wakamatsu in which they'd all been overcome with the urge to support a hopeless male character. If he was being completely honest with himself, there were even a few similarities in his relationship with Kashima--although, in her case, she probably could survive on charm alone.
Well, anyway, he'd asked how Kashima's parents had gotten together and he'd been thoroughly answered. Despite the arguments he'd witnessed the night before, it was obvious now that they really did love each other despite everything. "I understand completely," he finally answered, just as Kashima entered the room, as immaculate as always, ready to leave for school if they weren't already planning on stopping by his house first. She, at least, knew how to dress herself, unlike her father, so she must have been taught by her mother--doubly so, considering her cooking skill.
"Eh?" she uttered in surprise, not at all expecting Hori to be spending quality time with her mother since he was supposed to be studying. "What are you guys up to?"
Not seeing any reason to not explain, Hori was about to answer, but Kashima's mother beat him to it with an unexpected lie as she quickly shut the photo album. "I was just showing Hori-kun some of your baby photos."
Hori was so surprised by her bold-faced lie that he almost missed the horrified expression on Kashima's face. "Mama, no! That's really weird!"
He struggled to map out the mental gymnastics required for Kashima to have experienced the same past twelve-or-so hours as he did and still find this moment to be the only weird thing that happened. Then he gave up. "Showing off baby pictures is a fairly common family trope, Kashima," Hori replied, even though lying about showing them off definitely was not. He chanced another look at her mother for a possible explanation as she put away the album with a secretive smile. Maybe Kashima had picked up a few more traits from her mom than he realized, if she could so nonchalantly tease her daughter like that.
"She's just upset that we dressed her in frilly pink dresses until she was old enough to demand clothes 'just like Papa's'," Kashima's mother explained, and carefully chose her words so Hori could pick up on the underlying truth. "At that age, a child's idol is a flawless example of adulthood that they'll stop at nothing to emulate, after all."
Ah, so Kashima had no idea how hopeless her father actually was, huh? Well, Hori wasn't about to burst that bubble--it would be like telling a child that Santa Claus wasn't real, and he wasn't in that much of a hurry for Kashima to become a 'proper adult'. She was already better prepared to survive the world than her father was, anyway, so she could go on and mistakenly idolize him for as long as she wanted, right? He nodded toward Kashima's mother to signify his understanding.
"Ugh, so embarrassing!" Kashima complained, leaning over and taking hold of Hori's hand as she passed to help him upright, grabbing his bag with the other. It seemed that she was purposefully exaggerating her emotional distress, though, because once they reached the entranceway to retrieve their shoes, she easily called out, "Bye, Mama! Try to sleep a little after Papa goes to work, okay?"
"Yes, yes," she replied, stepping into the hall to see them off. "Have a good day at school, you two."
"Thanks for the coffee, Kashima-san," Hori managed to say as he was pulled out the front door. The smile he received in response seemed a bit nostalgic, and he wondered how many times her husband had accidentally slept over at her house when they were teenagers, because that seemed like something he'd end up doing a lot, and possibly even on purpose, since a guy with that kind of personality would have probably wilted in an empty house without anyone around to give him attention. Hori could relate a bit to that, feeling lucky to have his brother around, even for just one more year.
He still didn't have to like the guy, though. Especially not after the stunt he'd pulled last night. Hori's skin began to crawl just remembering, so he hastily distracted himself with conversation.
"Did Seo call you again after I fell asleep?" he asked, realizing that he hadn't checked his phone yet that morning. Hopefully Wakamatsu hadn't tried to call for more advice while Hori was dead to the world.
"Yeah," Kashima replied, cheerfully swinging their joined hands. He knew better than to fight the motion and just let his arm go limp. "She told me that they talked a lot and basically decided to just keep things the way they were for now. Oh! She did say that she'd already gotten chocolate to give him on Saturday, though! And now she's confused about whether they're giri or love chocolates now because they'd already done the confessing but they aren't really dating yet so they're basically in limbo or something like that. I told her that she's thinking too much about it and to just go with the flow."
Hori smiled a bit, wondering how many more dates they'd go on before they would finally admit that they were dating. He wouldn't try to tease them about it, though, since Kashima had told him it made Seo uncomfortable. Maybe he'd tease Wakamatsu a bit--privately, so rumors wouldn't form. He'd definitely have to hold back from telling Nozaki, since that would be up to Wakamatsu whether he wanted the mangaka to know or not. "Whatever they're called, Wakamatsu will be happy to receive them regardless. Even if she announces them as giri out of shyness, that'll probably strike him as endearing rather than as a rejection, since he should know her well enough to understand her motives."
"And if there is a misunderstanding, I'll do my best to help Coach explain!" Kashima pledged, then abruptly changed the subject. "By the way, Senpai, speaking of Valentine's Day, we'd better get moving soon if we're going to be ready in time!"
Hori nodded. "Let's buy everything we need after school today. The preparations can be split between today and tomorrow if we need another day."
Kashima agreed. "Yeah, it might be a bit much to accomplish in just one day. Though we should be able to practice our lines a bit while we work, too!"
He was happy that she was keeping the play in mind, too. "Speaking of lines, you wanna go through the second act with me? We have to get our tones straight as our characters start to get more comfortable around each other."
"Sure!" she replied, and started up the dialogue. They got a good amount of practice in before reaching his front gate, and Kashima happily retrieved her borrowed keys from her bag, but suddenly hesitated before unlocking the door. "It's earlier than usual today--is Tomoda-kun usually awake at this time? Should we try to be quiet?"
Kashima was sure improving a lot on considering other people, though of course she'd never purposefully inconvenience someone. She might have accidentally spoken too loud, though. "If he isn't awake yet then he should be getting up soon anyway," Hori replied. It was a good thing that they had several bathrooms because he was definitely wanting a shower and it would suck to have to fight for bathroom time in the morning like siblings did on television.
Still, they both tried their best to be quiet as they entered the house, speaking in hushed whispers and everything. Unfortunately, that very act of attempted consideration for Tomoda quickly backfired as he turned out to be very much awake, standing at the top of the stairs in his pajamas, staring down at them both with his mouth hanging open, very obviously taking their carefully measured steps as evidence of something far more suspicious than a simple effort to not wake him. From his point of view, it looked more like they were trying not to wake him because they had something to hide.
That 'something' being, of course, the undeniable fact that he'd spent the night with Kashima. Hori had been so caught up with other thoughts that he hadn't even considered how someone else might interpret his actions and wrinkled attire, especially being fully aware that he was 100% innocent of every accusation now flashing through his younger brother's eyes.
Considering how much effort he'd put into teasing Hori about his feelings for Kashima over the past week, it was kind of interesting how his brother reacted more appropriately to his conclusions than Kashima's father did. "Ma-Masayuki, you...!!!"
It was also kind of irritating. "I just accidentally fell asleep at her place, all right?! Don't look at me like I was just caught stepping out of a love hotel!"
Kashima cracked up at the implication. "Oh my god, Tomoda-kun! You should see the look on your face! So scandalized! Are you really that prudish?!"
"A bit of a hypocrite, too," Hori added, "considering how often you end up sleeping over at your boyfriend's place."
It had been at least a year since Hori had seen his brother's face light up like a tomato. He nearly put Mikoshiba to shame. "Sh-shut up!" he shouted back down to them, covering his face and shuffling away in embarrassment. "You just surprised me! Since you weren't around I thought you'd just gone to sleep early again or something!" His voice grew more muffled the further he walked away.
Kashima, of course, didn't miss the comparison to her best friend, either. "Haha, Tomoda-kun really gave Mikoshiba a run for his money, there!" Then, abruptly switching track, added, "I'll get started on breakfast so we can all eat together again!"
He'd probably have to hurry in the shower for that to happen, but Hori didn't mind. "Yeah," he agreed as they split up at the kitchen entrance. "I'll be back down in a bit."
It was certainly a relief to pull off yesterday's uniform and start up the shower. Since he wouldn't have time to soak in the tub after, he turned up the heat and enjoyed the warm water, stretching his sore shoulder out a bit in the process. It felt less stiff than yesterday, so he was able to worry a little less about whether or not he'd be back to 100% in time for the performance. It still hurt a bit, but he felt more relaxed now than he'd been for a long time. Everything seemed to be falling so easily into place... or was it just his perception that had changed? There were still plenty of challenges and obstacles that hadn't just gone away, but somehow they just seemed so much more... manageable now.
After turning off the water, Hori made quick work of drying off and thoroughly brushed his teeth. Not wanting to miss breakfast with his brother thanks to his daily struggle with his uniform shirt, though, he just pulled on his slacks and a housecoat before making his way downstairs. He'd have plenty of time to dress properly after eating.
Kashima was already bringing the food to the table with Tomoda's help when he arrived, so he didn't even get the chance to offer a hand this time even though they would have just shot him down immediately, so Hori just took a seat while Kashima happily stepped in to load up his plate before she and his brother served themselves. Kashima had apparently been in the middle of telling Tomoda about yesterday's events, because she continued catching him up on the developments, even taking the time to brag about how she'd helped Seo and Wakamatsu finally realize their feelings for each other. Hori took the opportunity to add in his opinions and observations, being sure to correct Kashima's various exaggerations. In short order, Tomoda was completely up-to-date with current events, though he was still a bit salty about how they'd teased him earlier that morning. He was relatively subdued with his responses until Kashima got started taking the dirty dishes back to the kitchen to wash. It was then that Tomoda made his move.
Hori blinked at the small box his brother set on the table in front of him, recognizing what it was while another part of his mind argued that he had to be mistaken and the object was actually something far more innocuous.
However, Tomoda dashed those hopes in short order as he smugly declared, "I didn't think you'd move quite so fast, Masayuki. It's best to be prepared before you end up taking any unnecessary risks."
It wasn't until he heard Kashima's possibly approaching footsteps from inside the kitchen that Hori was spurred into action, shoving the box into the sleeve of his robe. Thankfully, the sling offered additional concealment. "Are you crazy?!" he hissed at his brother, because he couldn't think of any other explanation why Tomoda would bring out a box of condoms at the breakfast table. Then he realized that it was purely revenge for the embarrassment he'd suffered earlier.
Judging by the smirk on his face, Tomoda was completely satisfied with the outcome of his little prank. He didn't even lower his voice or anything, which would definitely pique Kashima's interest when she inevitably overheard something, which would lead to even more embarrassment for Hori once she started asking what they were talking about. "I'm just trying to look out for you," Tomoda insisted in an innocent tone. "Mom and Dad would be delighted either way, but I'm sure all of us would agree that it's better to wait at least until high school graduation to start having kids."
"I'm not nearly that stupid," Hori argued, still keeping his voice low in the hopes of wrapping up the conversation before Kashima returned. "We both got that talk from Mom and Dad years ago, before you even came out to us. For god's sake, why do you even have these??" He regretted the question immediately, since, not only would it keep the topic going, but it would also reveal the level of intimacy that Tomoda had achieved with his boyfriend, which was a fact that Hori would have rather remained ignorant about. ...But surely they didn't actually need them as long as they remained a committed couple, right? Since they wouldn't be at risk for infections as long as they'd only ever been with each other, right? ...Why the hell was he even thinking that much about his brother's love life?! For that matter, why was Tomoda concerning himself so much over his love life?!
Making up for his earlier embarrassment by somehow maintaining a straight face with just a hint of a teasing smirk, Tomoda replied, "Well, they certainly help to avoid a mess."
Hori's head dropped to the table with a decisive thunk, and he kind of just wanted to die right then and there. And, just his luck, that was exactly when Kashima emerged from the kitchen, apparently already done taking care of the dirty dishes.
"Eh, what were you guys talking about?" she asked, and Hori was only able to respond with a tortured moan.
Thankfully, Tomoda must have decided that enough was enough, because he cheerfully replied, "I was just mentioning how great you've been with helping us keep the house clean, Kashima-kun!"
Hori turned his head to the side just in time to see her accept the praise with a silly grin. "I'm more than happy to act as Senpai's arms while his shoulder heals!" she claimed.
"Oh?" Tomoda asked, apparently not quite done with his teasing. "Does that mean you'll only be helping until Masayuki's feeling better?"
She looked like she'd been taken completely off guard. "No, I'll keep helping...! If... that's what Senpai wants, I mean..." Kashima glanced toward Hori, unsure.
"...I won't say no, if you're offering," Hori managed to reply. Even if she spent most of the time slacking off once he got his full range of motion back, he wasn't going to argue against her coming over for breakfast as well as dropping by every weekend to distract him from the weekly household chores. So what if it ended up taking longer to finish with her around than without?
"Then I guess I'll be holding on to your keys for a bit longer, then!" Kashima replied, immensely pleased. "Or should I go get my own copy made?" She didn't seem to think about it with any increase in seriousness, but to Hori, the suggestion of moving on from borrowed keys to her own personal set felt like they'd reached some kind of milestone after possibly skipping a few along the way, and started to wonder if that sort of arrangement was actually okay. Would her mother approve? And what would happen if the school found out, let alone their classmates? Would their reputations take a hit? ...Though he had to wonder if there really was such a thing as bad publicity in Kashima's case. Her fanbase ought to already know well enough about her shameless flirting habits and their loyalty to her was as unshakeable as ever.
"No, I'll take care of it," Hori said, just to have the chance to stall actually getting it done if he had to. If she wasn't worried about the possible consequences then he wasn't going to bring them up just yet.
Tomoda looked way too proud of himself for that conversation and its conclusion for it to have not been part of his plan for that morning. Seriously, when had his brother become so skilled at manipulation? ...Well, just as long as he used his power for good, Hori wasn't going to make an issue of it. He was really toeing the line, though. "Since that's settled, I better go catch my train," Tomoda spoke up, and turned to their guest. "Thanks for breakfast again, Kashima-kun; I'm really glad to be able to learn a thing or two just by watching you cook and helping out."
"Haha, I'm glad!" Kashima replied, halfway humble for once. "I'm not usually very good at teaching things so it's great that you're able to pick up a few things here and there!"
"We've both inherited our observation skills from our parents," Tomoda said with a grin. "Though we can have problems with selective attention spans," he added, which was one last jab Hori was willing to allow him, and communicated as much with a solid stare alone. "Well, I hope we can meet up again soon!" With that, he went on his way.
Kashima waited until the front door shut behind him before turning to Hori. "Maybe it was just my imagination... but was Tomoda-kun teasing you a little just now, Senpai?"
She actually looked a little concerned, and Hori realized that it was likely because he'd been a bit on the somber side from her point of view when he was busy trying not to draw too much attention to himself and what was literally up his sleeve. He crossed his arm across his sling as he stood to spare himself the humiliation of dropping the box right in front of her. "Yeah, but there's no hard feelings; just a bit of payback for freaking him out earlier. We'll mess with each other every now and then but we have each other's backs when it counts. That's what family is for, right?"
"Right!" Kashima agreed, back to her usual excitable self again, and Hori found himself relieved at the implication that her family operated in at least a similar sense to his own, even if she had to joke with her sister over text messages and emails instead of face-to-face. It was pretty much a sibling's job to tease each other in harmless ways, just like how parents would rib their kids now and then, too. When it came down to real problems, though, they'd protect each other as best they could.
It hit Hori suddenly that he hadn't been the only one Tomoda had been teasing, though he'd been far more subtle in Kashima's case. The revelation that his brother was already well into the process of accepting her as a family member was nearly enough to overcome him with emotion, but he luckily had a good excuse to leave the room before Kashima could notice his shining eyes and start worrying all over again. His voice only cracked a little when he bowed out to finish getting dressed, and he managed to get ahold of himself by the time he deposited the box on his desk, reminding himself that Tomoda was getting way too ahead of himself. For god's sake, they hadn't even officially gotten together yet! Tomoda was just way too much of a sentimental, romantic sap, and Hori would be ashamed to call him his brother if he didn't already love him so much.
========
After Kashima completed the daily task of taking care of Hori's tie, they returned to the table to go over his homework. She was nearly bored out of her mind with his questions of how she'd solved certain math problems and why she'd chosen one verb over another in his English homework, but he never once doubted her accuracy. His only real worry was that maybe she'd done it a little too well, because while he was an above average student himself, Kashima was on a whole different level entirely. Well, he supposed he could always say that she'd helped him do his homework last night, since that was technically not untrue. Nobody was going to ask if he'd been conscious at the time of her assistance, after all.
In the meantime, while Hori felt that he'd have to study a bit more to make up for it later, he'd gotten a fairly decent grip on the material and put away his notebook in favor of practicing more of their scenes together while they walked to the train station, which Kashima found infinitely more entertaining. They continued on the train and if anyone was bothered, neither of them noticed. It wasn't until they stepped out of the car that someone called out to them and they looked up to see Wakamatsu happily waving to them, and Hori remembered that he'd never actually gotten around to checking his phone and the messages he'd likely missed--though he could tell at a glance that, despite the impressive black eye, Wakamatsu looked like he'd rested well last night.
"Sorry if you tried to call me again yesterday," Hori said after they all greeted each other. "I ended up falling asleep shortly after supper and I forgot to check my phone this morning."
"I did," Wakamatsu admitted, completely unperturbed, "but that's okay, Hori-senpai! I just wanted to share my excitement with someone but when you didn't answer I remembered that Nozaki-senpai likes to hear about how I'm getting along with Seo-senpai so I called him instead! I think I ended up talking to him for nearly an hour before I had to get back to studying--I hope I didn't distract him too much from his work!"
Since he would have rather remained ignorant about his status as a character model himself, Hori held back from explaining that hearing about the latest developments between Seo and Wakamatsu were a vital part of Nozaki's job, especially now that he would begin plotting out the next chapter soon. "Don't worry--last I heard, he was able to submit the completed manuscript early this month. If he got through the remaining effects and screentone work all right, anyway."
"Oh!" Wakamatsu remembered. "Yeah, Mikoshiba-senpai and I finished up everything with Nozaki-senpai earlier this week." He suddenly looked horrified. "D-did I say Mikoshiba-senpai? I, uh, meant to say... Sakura-senpai! Yeah, it was Sakura-senpai because Mikoshiba-senpai is way too cool to work on something so embarrassing, right?" He was practically sweating bullets by then, but thankfully his awkward lie gave them enough information to understand his distress.
Kashima clapped an assuring hand on the boy's shoulder. "There, there, young Wakamatsu! No need to fret; Mikoshiba has already confessed to us both about his secret artistic abilities! In fact, I've already conscripted him to help out in the drama club, painting scenery!"
Wakamatsu looked about ready to fall over in relief. "Oh, good... He's asked me to keep it a secret and I nearly blew it!"
Hori nodded in understanding. "I get that he's a shy guy, so he's extra sensitive about things, but it's just a part time job. A more skilled trade than the jobs open to most students, anyway. I wonder if he'd be more or less embarrassed by having to wear a fast food uniform or directing women to the feminine hygiene aisle."
Kashima laughed at the thought. "He'd run back to Nozaki in a minute if he ever had to attempt either of those jobs! Just having to talk to strangers would be too much--he really lucked out by being able to work in a more private setting, even if he thinks that it's embarrassing!"
"Eh, if it's really that embarrassing, I wish you'd just quit already, Waka. If your family can't afford to give you an allowance, I don't mind paying or anything." Seo had appeared so suddenly that none of them had noticed until she spoke, though it seemed she'd only caught the tail end of the conversation.
Regardless of whatever conclusion she'd drawn from their words, the second Wakamatsu caught sight of her, he practically began to glow. "Good morning, Seo-senpai! The basketball club had an extra early practice today so I came back to the station after to walk with you to school if that's okay!"
"Uh, yeah, that's fine," Seo replied, as her concerns were almost but not quite derailed. "But about that part time job..."
"Huh? Oh--you don't have to worry about that, Seo-senpai! It's like Hori-senpai says; it isn't actually all that embarrassing! I just help out Nozaki-senpai after school sometimes with his manga! I started out with simple stuff like erasing pencil marks from speech bubbles but after that I learned how to do screentones!"
Hori wasn't sure if telling Seo all that was a good idea, but by the time he thought to stop him, Wakamatsu was already done explaining. Oh, well--even if she told everyone at school, it was another case entirely if they would actually believe her. He remembered Nozaki saying that none of his classmates had believed him when he'd tried telling them. Besides, at this point, the only one actively keeping it a secret was Mikoshiba and it didn't seem like Seo had even overheard that part.
"Whoa, really?" Seo turned to face them. "Kashima; Hori-chan, you guys knew about this?"
Hori nodded, giving up on insisting on being addressed with more respect, and Kashima replied, "I just found out recently, so I didn't get the chance to tell you yet--it's been an eventful week so far! Besides, I wasn't sure if Nozaki wanted it to stay a secret or not so I thought I'd play it safe until things settled down a bit."
Indeed, the last thing any of them needed was another disagreement between friends after finally getting past the last one. "It's fine," Hori offered. "Nozaki doesn't care who finds out."
Seo turned back to Wakamatsu. "Man, why didn't you just say so, Waka? Here I was thinking that your 'embarrassing part time job' was some kind of escort service or kinky telephone hotline. I mean, you'd been having trouble sleeping a while back and all..."
Wakamatsu immediately went red in the face while Kashima broke out in surprised laughter. Hori nearly choked on air but managed to reply, "Seo, if it was something like that, 'embarrassing' wouldn't be the word any one of us would choose to describe it." 'Illegal' would have been a better fit.
"Well, no shit, but I couldn't say something out loud that could have gotten Waka in trouble, could I?" Seo argued, starting to look a little upset as she cast her gaze aside.
Maybe he'd picked up a little more from his brief interest in drama than both Hori and Kashima thought, because before either of them could react, Wakamatsu had taken Seo by the hand, drawing her attention back up to his face, and said, "Um, thank you for worrying about me, Seo-senpai, and sorry for causing you concern over a misunderstanding. I--" He cut himself off, as if only just realizing that he was holding her hand. "S-sorry, that was much too forward of--!"
"Race you to the school gates!" Seo shouted as she abruptly took off running, possibly forgetting completely to take her hand back as she ended up dragging Wakamatsu along with her. Luckily, his longer stride gave him the split second necessary to keep his balance and avoid tripping directly onto his face.
Hori and Kashima just barely heard the faint, "See you guys later!" as the other two disappeared from sight around a corner.
"Adorable," they observed, simultaneously, then laughed a bit about their synchronized opinion.
They were far too distracted now to return their attention back to the scene they'd been interrupted from, so Hori asked Kashima to retrieve his phone, wondering if he'd missed more than just the one call from Wakamatsu. He definitely wasn't expecting to see four more missed calls and several text messages.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention it but your phone was buzzing with notifications every other minute for a while there last night," Kashima recalled. "I checked it just in case it was an emergency call from Tomoda-kun or something, but it was just Nozaki every time so I figured it could wait until morning. I mean, you aren't his emergency contact or anything, are you?"
"No, he would have called his family for that, but something might have happened with the manga..." God, he hoped it wasn't something big. It wasn't like he would have been much help last night anyway, sleeping that deeply, and there wasn't much he'd be able to do before school started, but he wouldn't have a lot of time after school either between club activities and his plans with Kashima. Augh, what a jam...
Once he unlocked his phone and accessed his texts, though, Hori could only stare at his phone, bemused. "Hey," he asked Kashima, "do you remember if I did anything yesterday to piss off Nozaki?" Shit, he wasn't having memory problems on top of everything else now, was he?
"Not while I was with you," Kashima answered, also in the dark. I mean, other than when he got mad for whatever reason and made us leave his apartment the other day..."
Because Kashima had accidentally insulted him by saying that his autograph might be worth something someday. "It can't be that--I apologized for that already," Hori said, scrolling up to see that, yes, he had, and Nozaki had forgiven both of them. The messages after that remained a mystery.
A mystery within a mystery, it seemed, because not even Nozaki seemed to know what had happened, judging by the ominous <WHAT DID YOU DO????> followed by a series of unintelligible nonsense keysmashes or incomprehensible livid typos. The last one was an angry emoticon, as though to confirm that, yes, Nozaki was angry about... something. Whatever that something was.
"Maybe he got the wrong number?" Kashima suggested, and Hori was too baffled to be irritated about her reading the screen without permission.
"It does look like something he might have tried to send to that old editor of his he rants about sometimes..." Hori mused. If everything about that man was just as Nozaki described, it was a good thing they'd never been introduced because Hori would probably be getting started on his life sentence for murder after a lengthy trial right about now. "Whatever the case, I better get this sorted out before it ends up becoming another huge mess and Sakura has to chew us out again."
"I'd rather you didn't go near him if it's going to be anything like what happened last week," Kashima admitted, "but at least I can be by your side from the start this time." She carefully studied Hori's expression, likely finding nothing but confusion written on it. "Do you think you'll be able to handle it if he says something that upsets you again?"
Hori considered his current mental state. He didn't think he would go over the deep end, but then again, Nozaki had caught him by surprise before, so could he really be sure he could keep it together? Well, before he threw himself directly into the fray, there was one thing he could do from a distance. "I'll just try calling him for now," he decided, holding his phone up to his ear.
It rang three times before the call connected. The greeting, while clearly Nozaki, sounded a bit like if he'd tried to read aloud some of his previously sent gibberish. "Mrwagh?"
"...Did I wake you up...?" Hori asked, a bit on the hesitant side. "Uh, you know it's a school day, right? Class starts in about twenty minutes?"
Nozaki cleared his throat, forgetting to cover the receiver, then replied, voice desolate, "M'not going. No point. It's all over..."
Of all the things he was expecting, Hori did not think this call would result in him fearing for Nozaki's life. "H-hold on, I'm coming over--just stay on the line with me, all right?!"
Although she only heard his half of the conversation, Kashima picked up on his urgency and quickly said, "I'll run on ahead so just pace yourself, Senpai!" With that, she rushed off at full speed toward Nozaki's apartment building, which was thankfully already within sight.
Hori jogged after her at a more reasonable pace so he'd still be able to talk and not fall flat on his face thanks to both arms being occupied. "Hey, Nozaki, you're still there, right?!"
"Noooo..." he croaked back, and the line went dead.
"Nozaki!" Hori shouted ineffectually. "Shit!" At least with the call ended, he could run a bit faster, but his nerves were shot and he couldn't catch up to Kashima fast enough.
He was out of breath by the time he reached the apartment, unable to tell if he was out of shape or panicking or both. Kashima had dropped their school bags outside and forced open the door, so Hori hurried inside, not bothering to take off his shoes, and followed her into Nozaki's bedroom, where he found her trying to drag him out of bed, which was proving difficult as he clutched the bed frame in defiance. "Get uuuup!" she yelled impatiently, not that it was obvious that Nozaki wasn't in any immediate danger. "You scared the crap out of us, dummy!"
"Leave me aloneeee...!" Nozaki howled back like a petulant child. "I just want to sleep and pretend yesterday never happened...!"
The battle continued while Hori worked on regaining control of his breathing. When he finally felt ready, he said, "Kashima, let him go."
She complied but complained, "Senpai, he keeps on making you make expressions I don't want to see!"
"And you broke down his door, so he'll be paying for that literally this time," Hori replied, doing his best to remain calm. "Besides, it was my fault for jumping to conclusions."
Nozaki rolled over to stare at them both, bewildered. He looked absolutely awful, like he hadn't slept at all. "You broke down my door?"
"You sounded like you were dying, you idiot!" Hori shouted back, losing his fight against the remaining adrenaline, but thankfully stood still instead of rushing forward to try to beat some sense into him. "Do you have any idea how scary that was?!"
The taller boy stared up at them for a long moment, then slid out of the bed, getting on his hands and knees and bowing his head, completely contrite. "I'm sorry," he said, softly. "It was never my intention to scare you; either of you."
Hori shoved his phone in his pocket and wrenched his hand through his hair, likely messing it up beyond repair but couldn't care less. "Look, just say what you have to and get it off your chest already--whatever happened that led to those texts you sent yesterday. I just read them this morning right before I called you so I have no idea what happened, let alone whether you meant to send them to me or someone else entirely."
Nozaki pulled himself back up, leaning back against his bed frame, obviously sleep deprived but doing his best to concentrate. "Texts?" he pondered, before he recalled his previous actions. "Oh--yes, those were in fact meant for you, Hori-senpai..."
If he'd said it in any other tone than some mix of apologetic dejection and outright depression, Hori might have gotten mad again at his failure to elaborate immediately, but it was obvious now that whatever had infuriated his friend last night had already cooled down to leave him in his current desolate state, where it seemed that he hated himself far more than anyone else at the moment. "Well?" he asked, hoping to move things along a bit faster--Nozaki was obviously not in any state to leave his apartment, but Hori and Kashima still had to go to class. "What is it? Did something happen with Sakura and Mikoshiba after I had to leave the club early?" A big argument with one or both of them was the only thing he could think of that would upset Nozaki this much, but when he glanced at Kashima to see if she'd witnessed anything, she just shrugged, so whatever it was must have happened after the rest of the club was dismissed yesterday afternoon.
Nozaki was obviously struggling to put his feelings and experiences into words, but he eventually started a coherent response after a few failed attempts, unable to look either of them in the eye. "Sakura is cross with me..."
Hori and Kashima exchanged looks and nonverbally indicated and agreed to sit on the floor beside Nozaki, one on each side. It didn't matter if they were a little late to class anymore.
Kashima took the lead. "I think that if it was a big argument, Sakura would have probably called me to talk about it, and if she called Mikoshiba instead then he would have called me after. She didn't call you either, right, Senpai?"
"No," Hori answered, "not that I could have answered since I fell asleep so early."
Nozaki looked up, hopeful. "Then... she might not absolutely hate me after all?"
What on Earth could have happened to make him think that? "Hey," Hori replied, "you're going to have to catch us up a bit more on what happened because there's no way Sakura would ever write you off so suddenly. She's already gotten over countless disappointments as it is." Nozaki looked a bit horrified at that, so Hori added, "I'm sure we've all pissed her off at one time or another but she hasn't called off any friendships yet, so I doubt she'd start with you. We can ask her about it at school if you want, but it would help to know your side of the story if she really is mad about something. I'd like to know what I had to do with it as well."
His explanation was preceded by the deepest sigh Hori could imagine. "Had I taken a bit longer to consider my actions, I probably wouldn't have called Sakura in the first place, but I was unable to reach you, Hori-senpai, and I felt I had to complain to someone, and I remembered that she was always happy to listen to my problems before. Yet, if I was thinking clearly, I would have remembered that she wasn't receptive to my critical impression of Seo's character."
"Yeah, that was a dumb thing to do," Kashima agreed, looking a bit offended herself.
Hori redirected the conversation back on track--Nozaki already realized that he'd made a mistake, so there wasn't a point in rubbing it in. "So what exactly caused you to call Sakura to complain about Seo, after failing to get ahold of me? I'm guessing that you wanted to complain to me about her for some reason?"
Nozaki nodded. "Right before that, I spent at least half an hour on the phone with Wakamatsu, not that I was able to get many words in edgewise."
He seemed to think that was all the explanation they needed, but when Hori looked back over to Kashima, she looked just as lost as he felt. "Wakamatsu shouldn't have any complaints about Seo," Hori informed him, baffled. "In fact, he should have had only good things to say about her after Kashima and I helped to clear up a few things between them."
"That's the problem," Nozaki replied, as though that made all the sense in the world.
"What?" they exclaimed simultaneously, both of them confused how helping to solve some of their friends' problems could possibly be a problem.
Nozaki looked crestfallen. "Yeah, that's where Sakura got confused, too." He steeled himself and dived into the part that most likely made her mad. "I cannot support Wakamatsu's relationship with Seo."
Hori couldn't believe this. "What the hell, Nozaki? If you haven't actually noticed, you're actually profiting from their relationship. Last night should have given you more than enough material to finish up that romantic subplot between Oze and Waka since it sounds like Wakamatsu gushed about the whole thing to you directly!"
Suddenly, the look of nausea Nozaki had sported a couple days ago made sense, as he was making an identical expression now. "I have to give the fans what they want, even if it's something I must suppress my own feelings to create. As Wakamatsu's senpai, I must protect and guide him, and as Seo causes him so much pain and torment, I cannot support the relationship. She's too oblivious to notice when she hurts him!"
He wasn't even all that close to Seo but Hori was still offended on her behalf regardless. Kashima was probably livid herself, so it was up to him to try to diffuse this mess. "Okay, Nozaki, I'm going to give you a bit of a break because you're sleep deprived and vulnerable, but for god's sake, if you're going to call out someone for their obliviousness, then you ought to take a good long look in the mirror and acknowledge that observation is far from your own strong point. Sure, you're decent at assessing people's characters, but discerning their motivations is largely hit-or-miss."
Reminding Kashima that Nozaki's current state was far from ideal must have helped her calm down, because she was mostly civil when she jumped back into the conversation. "I'd say that you could stand to learn a bit more about assessing people, too, because it looks to me like you're concentrating a lot more on Coach's faults than her good traits. You're quick to put Wakamatsu on a pedestal as well, while ignoring how he could kind of be a jerk to Coach sometimes! I really doubt that she ever once tried to hurt him on purpose, and he hurt her feelings plenty of times! When he hung out with her, sometimes he'd act like he didn't actually want to be there with her, and then suddenly he'd act like he didn't want to be anywhere else! How did you think that made her feel? Confused, right? Anybody would be confused! If it wasn't completely obvious that Wakamatsu was just a dumb kid that didn't even understand his own feelings let alone hers, I'd've been worried she was being emotionally manipulated by a psychopath! Of course, I never once suggested that to Coach, because she was happy to hang out with him and I was willing to give him a chance even when I thought that he might have been a pervert one time because of a misunderstanding! Because Coach liked him! So maybe you can follow my lead a bit here, and give Coach a chance, because Wakamatsu likes her, too, and standing between them isn't something a real friend would do! Instead, look for all the good points you missed, like how she also worries about Wakamatsu! Instead of judging her, give her advice when she needs some! She's rough around the edges, but that's charming in her own right, isn't it? I bet that Oze character has just as many fans as Wakamatsu's counterpart!"
Hori had watched them both carefully all the way through Kashima's rant, and was glad that he didn't have to step in even once, because Nozaki needed to hear it just as much as Kashima needed to say it. The mangaka in question had quietly absorbed every word without complaint, and mulled over them for another minute before he nodded and said, " Sakura mentioned a few things in the same vein, but I guess it didn't sink in. I think you're right in that I have been overly critical of Seo. If there really weren’t anything good about her, then Oze wouldn't have such a solid fanbase. I'll try to give her more of the benefit of the doubt from now on. It's just..."
He trailed off, but Hori wasn't about to let any lingering resentments survive this conversation. "You may as well finish that sentence before it ends up threatening another friendship because you let it go unsaid."
Nozaki nodded again and continued his thought. "It's just that now that Oze and Waka will become an official couple in their next arc, that means I'll have to put some serious thought into how to end things for Suzuki and Mamiko and I'm not ready to say goodbye."
That was so far out of left field that both Hori and Kashima had to choke back a laugh. He was a little less successful, having only one hand available to slap over his mouth. It was just so much of a relief that Nozaki had dropped such problematic concerns for a far less serious one, and it was just such a Nozaki-like thing to struggle with that it instantly lightened the mood. "Jackass," he said, through a fond smile, "it would be a hell of a lot worse to torture poor Mamiko forever, wouldn't it? You gotta let her be happy with Suzuki at some point. She's been waiting long enough for her happy ending."
For some reason, Nozaki's eyes seemed to harden even though he spoke about something so sentimental. "For me, it will be like having to give away a daughter at her wedding. That Suzuki is far too perfect to be real. He must be carrying some sort of carefully hidden dark secret. I cannot trust him with Mamiko just yet..."
Wow, it sounded like the final arc was going to be an interesting one. Hori hadn't kept up with most of the minor subplots but maybe he'd have to put in a little more effort as a reader from here on out. Anyway, it sounded like Nozaki was feeling a lot better, so it was about time that he and Kashima headed to school. He was pretty sure that they could still make it on time if they hurried. "Well, we better leave you to that developing plotline. Don't forget to get some sleep, all right? You better be at school tomorrow or you'll make Sakura worry."
Nozaki grunted an affirmative, but may or may not have actually been paying attention, lost in thought. Hori supposed he'd eventually sleep whether he planned on it or not, and if he didn't, Sakura would probably stop over to visit after school and fuss over him if he still looked like a complete wreck. She'd probably jump at the chance to take care of him, and any lingering irritation with him for insulting one of her friends would melt away the second she heard how he'd completely fallen to pieces because he thought she was completely done with him.
"Sorry about your door, Nozaki!" Kashima called back into the apartment while she propped it back upright in the doorframe, then retrieved their bags from the walkway floor. "Is he going to be okay, skipping class so close to our final exams?"
She was the last person Hori would think to be concerned about someone else's grades. "He doesn't even have to go to school in the first place since he already has a successful career as a popular mangaka," he explained. "He probably only attends classes to get inspiration and recruit assistants."
"You make it sound awful and enviable at the same time," Kashima joked, then took a moment to thread a hand through his bangs, fixing the mess before lightly trailing her fingers down the side of his face. "I bet if the media had discovered your claim to fame, you'd already be in a similar position--it would be impossible for directors to ignore your skill once you've been dragged into the spotlight!"
Trying hard to not let it show how fast his heart was racing thanks to a simple gesture, Hori argued, "I wouldn't need to piggyback on my parents' brand if I wanted to become famous enough to quit school. All I'd have to do is enter our club in a talent competition and once the media began swarming around you, you'd probably end up spending several interviews doing nothing but talk about me and then a couple reporters would get curious enough to track me down, too, and things would go from there. No thanks, by the way--I'd like to keep on living like a regular person for a little while longer."
"I understand," Kashima said with a grin, probably pleased that he'd pegged her so well about how she'd immediately start bragging about her senpai to the media. "I'd also prefer to have you all to myself for just a bit longer." Her expression shifted to something more gentle and meaningful as her hand slid to the base of his neck and...
...And this was neither the time nor the place, because they were only one broken down door away from someone who would commercialize their first kiss, and if they went ahead with it, they might as well skip school entirely because there would be no way he'd be able to walk with her through the gates with a straight face. Besides, with his current luck, they'd probably end up falling back into Nozaki's apartment after losing track of their position and leaning against his door, and that would end up hurting his shoulder again, and then everything would just go completely to shit.
Instead, he turned his face slightly away and said, "I already have to share you with your fanclub. It would be interesting to see how you'd deal with having to share me with mine." That was, of course, false bravado, because there was no doubt that any fans of his acting would also be drawn to Kashima, if not stolen outright.
Talking about such hypotheticals was practically guaranteed to get Kashima's thoughts running in a safer direction. "It would be better to just share the fans, don't you think?" she asked, excitedly. "After all, that's what your parents did, and it seems to be working out great for them!"
That had essentially been a marriage proposal, but Kashima seemed completely unaware of her own implications, and Hori had to raise his arm to cough into his elbow. Clearing his throat, he replied, "Anyway, we better get moving before we end up late for class--I'm not in any shape to climb over the gate."
"I'll carry you over if we're locked out," Kashima offered, but took the hint and began to lead him toward the stairs, her hand now pressing softly against his lower back like a proper escort.
"Let's just hope we won't have to resort to that since the rumor mill will end up going crazy all over again."
Kashima seemed a bit disappointed, but rolled with it, changing the subject. "Anyway, Senpai, didn't you think it was a bit weird earlier? With Nozaki? It's like we switched places since I was the one getting mad and you were doing really well at staying calm, in my opinion."
So she'd noticed that despite having her own frustrations to distract her? "Oh, yeah. I went through a bit of a refresher in anger management yesterday, so I was able to handle it a bit better than usual, even though I got mad too. I still can't believe how he'd criticized Seo for being oblivious. I can practically see Sakura hanging her head in quiet acceptance of his thick skull."
Kashima laughed in appreciation of the joke before returning to a more serious tone. "I'm really glad that you're doing so well, Senpai."
"Me too," Hori agreed, and they picked up the pace, getting to school with just a few minutes to spare, but had more than enough time to track down Sakura before class. As he'd thought, she'd been more disappointed than mad that Nozaki didn't have the best impression of Seo, but she was delighted that they'd managed to convince him to reconsider his opinion. But that delight paled in comparison to her excitement at the thought of visiting him after school. In fact, she was probably a bit too excited, and Hori quietly suggested to Kashima that she ought to convince Mikoshiba to accompany her just in case she went a little overboard while Nozaki was vulnerable.
"Huh?" Sakura asked, broken out of her daydream by the mention of Mikoshiba.
"I just thought it might be easier to fix Nozaki's door if Mikoshiba was there to help, since we'll have drama club and Seo and Wakamatsu will probably be busy, too," Hori said, finding the perfect excuse.
"I wonder if Mayu-kun could be convinced to help, too..." Sakura pondered, then blinked in confusion. "Huh? Nozaki-kun's door is broken?"
"Yeah, I busted it right off its hinges!" Kashima bragged.
Sakura stared at her with her patented 'are you an idiot?' face, and Hori felt guilty for not immediately taking his share of the blame.
"It was my fault, really," he insisted. "Nozaki sounded awful over the phone and I thought he was hurt or worse, but thankfully I was just overreacting." Sakura looked torn between calling him a fool or thanking him for his concern, so he added, "You know, he was kind of mad at me and Kashima for helping Seo and Wakamatsu get together."
"Yeah, Nozaki-kun mentioned that to me," Sakura said, happier with the new topic. "I haven't seen Yuzuki yet but we talked about it on the phone last night. She asked me to not make a big thing out of it but I hope she'll let me congratulate her at least!" She giggled a bit, saying, "It's kind of anticlimactic, though, since they were basically dating already!"
Hori couldn't tell if she was subtly taking a jab at him and Kashima too, since she'd mentioned something like that before, but Kashima didn't notice. "Come to think of it, Nozaki didn't even try to chew me out for playing a part in their hookup. I wonder why?"
Well, he would have her number now if he didn't before thanks to her hate mail last week, but... "He's probably too scared to get on your bad side. With me, he at least has a physical advantage, but you really freaked him out when you threatened to trash his apartment, I think."
"Then the joke's on him because I did that anyway!" Kashima said and laughed in triumph. Hori and Sakura's sighs were drowned out by the warning bell, but neither of them particularly wanted to continue the conversation anyway. He and Kashima left Sakura's classroom with a quick farewell and went on their way, and as he was escorted to his own class, Hori started to wonder what Kashima had prepared for lunch that day, but she insisted that it was a surprise and he'd just have to wait and see.
Breaking Character - Chapter Twelve [Horikashi, Seowaka]
“Nobody's really searching for perfection; life would get pretty boring if anyone ever actually found it."
Thanks to everyone for waiting so patiently for this update! I was hit with one last setback this afternoon (thanks allergies) but I was determined to post today so here I am!
As an added bonus, this chapter is by far the longest, about 20% longer than the former longest chapter, and not only is it long, but it’s a wild ride from beginning to end with all sorts of mood swings, plot developments and even a couple payoffs I’ve been working toward! Not to mention that Seo finally makes her fic debut and it really was a joy to write for her character for the very first time! :)
One last thing I want to say is that I kind of feel bad for Kashima’s dad; he’s a total weirdo but he really does mean well--he’s just the origin of Kashima’s total lack of boundaries and that, of course, leads up to a good deal of awkwardness and sets the stage for a pretty bizarre relationship once Hori regains his footing, haha~
Sometimes, when Hori forgot to draw his curtains closed before going to bed, he ended up waking early thanks to the morning sun shining down on his face. Today, his curtains were successfully blocking those warm rays of light, but he woke regardless, finding himself directly under Kashima's beaming face instead.
They spent the next ten seconds or so howling at each other in agonized betrayal, clutching their smarting foreheads, because Hori really couldn't have stopped himself from sitting up in surprise because her face had just been that close. Drawn by their loud but half-formed expletives, Tomoda charged into the room a moment later, only to stumble back out again, laughing so hard he had to hug his sides or risk them bursting.
Since he likely had very little time before his brother came back with a camera, Hori went straight to the bathroom to check the damage. Kashima's face was fine, but she followed him anyway. The reason for that became obvious when he finally caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. It took every ounce of willpower to keep his face perfectly straight while Kashima nearly killed herself laughing behind him, but since she was so distracted by laughter, he didn't have to try very hard in his counterattack.
The washcloth he used to lightly pat on his cheek wasn't even wet, but that detail would be easily overlooked as he turned around with an expression that struck a delicate balance between horror and outrage. "Kashima, this is permanent ink!"
It was mesmerizing how quickly she shifted from mirth to alarm. "Th-the marker said it was washable, though!" Kashima was back out the door in an instant, shouting, "Tomoda-kun! I need acetone!"
His brother's response was at a more reasonable volume, so Hori couldn't overhear. Kashima, on the other hand, could be clearly understood. "It's the active ingredient in nail polish remover!"
They'd probably find some of that in his parent's bathroom easily enough, so Hori had a limited amount of time to properly inspect the state of his face. She'd drawn a crown on his forehead and his cheeks were speckled with tiny hearts and stars, surrounding a couple short comments. He had absolutely no idea how he'd managed to sleep through the entire process. Kashima was probably skilled enough to write on people's faces while they were still conscious without them noticing, and there must have been at least a few mishaps if she'd come to learn that nail polish remover was able to clean permanent marker off skin--or she could have just known that completely at random as something someone once said within earshot and it ended up snared in her wire-trap of a mind along with every other bit of trivia that may or may not have any practical use.
As he washed his face, the ink lifted easily off his skin with a bit of hand soap. Hori considered 'accidentally' forgetting a heart mark on his left temple that would have been mostly concealed by his hair, but decided that would be stupid. And counter-productive, because then Kashima might think that it really had been overlooked and not point it out, thinking that she'd successfully gotten him back for tricking her about the ink. On the other hand, though, if he left it, and she did point it out, then he'd have another opportunity to throw her off by simply replying, 'yeah, I know,' and then he'd get to surprise her for a second time that day...
Well, he was fairly certain he would have another chance to try that, since he doubted that this would be the only time Kashima tried that particular prank... especially if she was serious about moving into his house after graduating. She wouldn't be satisfied leaving him with the victory. There would definitely be a rematch waiting for him in the future.
For now, he was content with the surprised and vaguely betrayed expression she displayed upon bursting back into the bathroom, bottle of nail polish remover in hand. "Aaaah!" Kashima cried out in outrage, pointing at his clean face.
Hori did his very best to not laugh, but even with his hand covering his mouth, a few snickers slipped out. "I think you forgot who the senpai is around here, Kashima," he teased, implying his superiority in practical jokes, and therefore inviting all sorts of fresh hell upon himself as she would undoubtedly consider his words to be a formal declaration of war.
Her pointed finger seemed to gain more focus as she regained a bit of her composure. "You're just lucky that I took it easy on you because of your injury, Senpai!" What a sore loser she was!
...But as least that meant she wouldn't attempt anything close to potentially dangerous in the meantime. "It's probably better if we try to focus on the Valentine's Day prank for now, anyway. I'd rather not risk messing that one up because we were too busy messing with each other."
She grudgingly agreed, putting her hand down. "It'll be a temporary truce, then." They shook on it and Kashima hurried off to return his mother's property while he continued on with his morning routine. He had absolutely no idea what time it was, but knew that he wasn't anywhere close to running late as long as Tomoda was still around, and he could still make out his voice faintly from downstairs, talking to Kashima after she'd gone to join him.
He knew he wouldn't escape a minor heckling from his brother, even considering his recent decision to back off a bit--it was the sacred duty of siblings everywhere to never allow each other to walk away from embarrassing moments without a friendly snipe--so Hori wasn't at all surprised to find Tomoda waiting in the hall when he stepped out of his room after getting dressed, everything but his tie firmly in place. The nurse had said he could get started with lightly stretching out his arm today, so he might have been able to manage it himself, but he wasn't feeling ambitious enough to try moving it yet, and, besides, why bother when Kashima would be happy to take care of it?
"Hey there, 'cutie-patootie'," Tomoda greeted, referencing the earlier facial graffiti. "Why did you wash it off so fast? I'd've loved to take a picture!"
Hori was surprised that his other cheek displaying 'my king <3' wasn't brought up instead, but maybe Tomoda just hadn't seen it if his face had only been partially visible from the door. "I'm sure you'll get another opportunity soon enough, since this attempt didn't go as planned..."
Tomoda laughed. "You gave her quite the scare! She thought you were really mad, but then, that was the idea, wasn't it? To test your patience?"
There he went again with his clever observations. "She did something like that yesterday afternoon, too. I'm not sure what 'round two' was all about." Well, that wasn't entirely true, since he had a few ideas.
"Oh? You'll have to tell me about that sometime, then," Tomoda replied, then fished around in his bag before pulling out an envelope. "I already gave Kashima-kun her copies, so these are for you. I better get moving, myself--sadly, I won't be able to stay for breakfast this morning."
"Maybe there'll be something left for you to eat this evening," Hori suggested absently as he accepted the gift and struggled to open the unsealed envelope and extract its contents. Until they came into view, Hori had completely forgotten the photo opportunities that Tomoda hadn't missed yesterday morning. His face flushed at the reminder and proof that Kashima really had slept in his bed beside him, and before he knew it, he was the victim of yet another camera flash.
Tomoda lowered the camera with a grin and began to descend the staircase. "I could probably fill a portfolio with just you two as models," he joked. Then he stopped halfway and added, much more seriously, "Have a good day today, Masayuki."
Oh--the appointment was today. Hori hoped he'd have a good day, too. "Thanks, and you as well, Tomoda."
While his brother continued on downstairs, Hori went back into his room to leave the envelope on his desk. The photo he'd taped inside his copy of the script was one thing--these two new ones weren't exactly safe to carry around with him all day.
When he made his way downstairs, Hori found Kashima in the kitchen, but instead of being completely focused on cooking, she was absorbed in her copies of the same photos, but he couldn't tell if she was paying more attention to his sleeping face or the embarrassingly happy and slightly flushed one that Tomoda had captured in that very same location just yesterday. But if his opinion had any value, Hori thought that Kashima's portrayal of that same expression was infinitely superior and Tomoda was missing out on an excellent shot. Hell, if Hori had the ability to quietly reach into his bag and pull out the digital camera Nozaki had given him for background references, he'd have attempted to take a picture himself. Unfortunately, if he tried to do that one-handed, there was no doubt that Kashima would hear him even if she was distracted.
Hori left his bag by the dining room table instead and made a little more noise on his way back to the kitchen, since he figured that he'd surprised her enough already that morning. She'd hidden the photos and adopted a serene expression by the time he made it to her side, seeing that, despite the earlier distraction, the food was in no danger of being burned, and he was congratulated on coming downstairs just in time to eat. It was a bit disappointing that he'd missed out on helping with breakfast that morning, but honestly, there wouldn't have been much for him to do anyway, since Kashima had gone down the more traditional Japanese breakfast road, with rice, miso soup, and fish. The rice was in the rice cooker and the soup was set to simmer probably before she'd even gone upstairs to mess with his face.
Everything was absolutely delicious, of course.
Hori held back his question until after they were on the way to the train station, even though he'd been sorely tempted to bring it up while she was taking care of his tie--though he'd decided against that idea as it ran the risk of causing her to accidentally strangle him if she ended up getting startled by what he was planning to say.
It was remarkable how simple it was to start a conversation while holding hands. Instead of having to speak up right away, all he had to do was give her palm a slight squeeze and that was all it took to get her to turn her head toward him with a smile that seemed to make the whole world sparkle around her, and he really couldn't let her get away with so easily causing his heart to skip a beat.
"You know that you don't have to try so hard, right?" he asked. "You already have my attention." His all-but-undivided attention since the moment they'd met, to be perfectly honest.
There was no way of knowing which of their faces was more flushed, but for once, Kashima didn't jump at the hint of a competition. "I know," she said--her confidence was never actually called into question--"but that doesn't mean I should stop trying to make you smile!"
Her efforts were more than appreciated, but he didn't quite understand her method in this particular case. "You're saying that you drew on my face to make me happy?"
"Oh--that." She had the decency to look a bit sheepish. "I guess you could say that was also to make you happy, but more importantly, it's because I didn't want you to feel sad--it would have been just as good if it made you mad. It was fine as long as the next time you saw some graffiti, you remembered your face instead of your shoes. Heh--I was supposed to do it yesterday morning but I ended up falling asleep instead since you looked so warm and comfy in your bed..."
Hori was definitely losing the flushed face competition now, almost as if she'd planned it that way. And no, he was not going to fall into the trap of inviting her to sleep over just because she was referring to last morning so cute and innocently! Instead, he vaguely threatened, "If you aren't careful about where you fall asleep, maybe I'll remember your face instead."
Kashima actually looked appalled. "You haven't forgotten the truce already, have you, Senpai?!"
"Of course not," he replied, pleased that he'd managed to successfully redirect the conversation to something less likely to embarrass him further, or even worse, get him thinking even more dangerous thoughts so early in the morning. In fact, just to be safe, he changed the topic again, reciting a line from their first scene together in the upcoming play. Kashima responded with her line without missing a beat, and for the rest of the way to school, Hori was 99% sure that neither of them misremembered their lines, and he was just so proud of both her and himself that he didn't even realize that they were already standing outside his classroom door until Kashima broke character to wish him well during his morning classes. She released his hand in order to pass him his school bag, which just felt way too heavy in his grip as his pride dissolved into disappointment with the realization that he'd have to sit through hours of class time before he'd see her again, and despite the fact that he'd managed just fine for the past two years, just the thought of it now was unbearable.
Kashima, of course, picked up on his descending mood immediately, and lowered her head a bit as she reached up with one hand to cup his cheek, and all at once he understood the feelings of every single one of her fangirls. She really had a knack for making a person feel special, even if she couldn't remember their name and actually treated each fan the same way as every one before and after.
It might have been depressing, or at least bittersweet, if Hori wasn't so keenly aware of the fact that he really was special to her, that she'd done things for him that she'd never done for anyone else, and he didn't think it was all that conceited for him to believe that nothing less than full-scale amnesia or an advanced case of Alzheimer's would cause her to forget his name.
"Do not fret," she said, the space around her head seeming to shine like sunlight, "for every ounce of sorrow in parting, there shall be double the joy in meeting again."
But Hori couldn't let her have the last word so easily. "Then I shall wallow in the deepest despair so the doubled joy may be so much greater."
Kashima's eyes were practically glittering--she really liked his acting that much, didn't she?--but before she could continue the improvised scene borrowed from one of last year's plays, they were interrupted by a modest ovation from his curious classmates, who, ironically, appeared to have decided that the whole thing was a quick rehearsal instead of a sign of an actual romantic development happening right under their noses.
When someone mentioned that Kashima was really lucky to have such a dedicated senpai taking her acting so seriously that he'd take on the role of the princess just to give her more chances to practice, Kashima just laughed and agreed, then turned back to Hori and said that she hoped he would be available over lunch, too. Since those plans had already been decided, Hori nodded and urged her to get to class. It was still a while before their teachers would arrive to begin their lectures, but it would be too suspicious if Kashima stuck around any longer since they wouldn't be able to rehearse the actual play in front of his classmates. It wasn't that he was worried, exactly, about their developing relationship becoming public knowledge--he was just hoping to avoid a frenzied questioning session for the second time that week, if their reaction to his 'relationship' with Nozaki was any indication.
Still, despite having the fortune to have sidestepped that particular trap, the relief was diminished somewhat by the thought that if he was feeling depressed about not being able to see her until noon, then what the hell was he going to do about having to spend an entire year in a university without her in it? He started to consider stupid things again like failing his finals or the university entrance exams, but that wouldn't set anything like a good example for Kashima or any of his other kouhai. He would just have to endure it, and probably download Skype onto his phone so he could talk to Kashima over lunch and whenever else they had matching break times. That would be enough, right?
When the noon bell finally rang, Hori didn't even bother putting away his books and just went ahead to Kashima's classroom. If anyone noticed his haste or how much time he'd spent staring down the clock, they didn't say anything and let him go in peace.
Yet, in the time it took for him to reach Kashima's classroom, it seemed that she'd been just as hasty, because when he stepped through the door and made his way to her side, he saw that she was already a step ahead, having moved around the desks and chairs to match yesterday's meet-up, and all he had to do was take the seat that Kashima pulled out for him. A couple weeks ago, he probably would have gotten angry after assuming she was mocking him, but right now he was just so relieved to see her that he didn't spend a moment wondering if he ought to take offense or not. Meanwhile, Mikoshiba probably felt like a third wheel, but he didn't look nearly as awkward as he had yesterday, which was a good sign that Hori wouldn't have to put in a lot of effort into calming him down like he would have if he'd been trying to get him to take over a vacant role in the upcoming performance.
It was a little weird that he had been so averse to performing, though, considering how much of his time he spent pretending to be a bad boy ikemen. You'd think he'd welcome the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to build up that facade so it wouldn't come crumbling down so easily, but Hori supposed it was his natural shyness that handicapped him. Mikoshiba was actually a pretty interesting guy--it was no wonder why Nozaki had chosen him to be the personality of Mamiko.
As Kashima helped push his chair in closer to the desk like a proper gentleman, though, something suddenly crossed his mind. "Hey, Ma... Mikoshiba,"--damn it, thinking about Nozaki's manga just now had screwed him up again!--"are you free after school today or do you have plans to go to Nozaki's place or something?"
"Hah?" Mikoshiba replied, surprised by being addressed so soon when he'd probably assumed that he wouldn't be contributing much to the conversation. "Uh, well, the new games won't be released for a couple more days, so--I mean, yes, I'm free!" That last part had been announced a little frantically, but Hori wasn't about to press him to explain what was so embarrassing about video games, even if Kashima looked curious as she pulled out not just two, but three bento boxes, generous enough to have also prepared lunch for her best friend since she was already cooking for herself and Hori.
They were both sure to thank her for the food before Hori elaborated upon his initial inquiry. "Well, then, I wanted to ask if you'd be willing to help out the drama club after school." Mikoshiba's face paled to an unhealthy ashen color, so he quickly added, "We're going to need a little help painting the backdrop and maybe some of the props..." Mikoshiba immediately relaxed, having probably been expecting Hori to ask if he'd be his understudy thanks to his arm injury. If he'd known a little more about their club's process, he'd have been aware that they weren't even close to being prepared for stage rehearsals, so Hori's arm wasn't a problem yet. That thought did remind him that he was supposed to start stretching his arm at some point today, though, so he decided to do so after eating.
While Hori pulled off the box's wrapping, noting that Kashima had left it loose for him, she eagerly pounced on the topic, saying, "That's right, Mikoshiba! You're really good at drawing flowers and stuff so we could really use your help with painting the natural scenery since Hori-senpai won't be able to work as fast with only one hand! If you end up having fun with it then maybe you can officially join the club next year and do stage work and costumes if you don't want to perform--we have a lot of backstage crew that would love the help!"
Hori wasn't expecting Mikoshiba to look quite so pleased, but he supposed it was the combination of being praised for an ability he was secretly proud of paired with the honest request for his help with something he was skilled at, all framed nicely in a scenario he was comfortable with, since he'd have Kashima around at all times to take all the extra attention away from him so he could work in peace. The idea was pretty much perfect, not to mention that Mikoshiba might have to act as her escort to the club if Kashima ever slipped up and lost track of time after school, so it would be easier for him to accomplish if he also had to attend the meetings himself. A bit smugly, Mikoshiba replied, "I don't really have a problem with it as long as you're okay with me having to skip the occasional meeting, since I do have other responsibilities to take care of every now and then, after all."
"You mean Nozaki's manga, right?" Kashima asked, and Mikoshiba jumped a bit, as though he'd forgotten that they both knew about his status as an assistant already. "If things ever get to be too much to handle, I can probably lend a hand from time to time--it's only fair since you'd be helping me out a lot, too!"
Mikoshiba looked dubious until Hori added, "Get Nozaki to show you the drawing she did the other day. As long as she has something in front of her to reference, she'll be able to mimic you style without a hitch."
Kashima beamed under the praise, and glowed even brighter when the two boys finally started eating their lunches. Like yesterday, they weren't visually over-the-top like Nozaki's decoben, but everything had been cooked perfectly and it tasted fantastic--and this time, having Mikoshiba right there to agree with him, Hori had less of a problem finding the right moments to compliment the food. By the time they finished eating, he was pretty sure that Kashima's head had swelled at least an inch in diameter, but damn did she deserve every word. Hori could hardly believe how he'd lucked out, getting to eat lunches like that every day at least until graduation. He was going to have to figure out a way to see her every morning during his first year at university, both just to see her and to be able to keep eating such great food every day.
The three of them continued to talk about various things, including Hori asking, mostly as a joke, if Kashima had slept through any more class time. She hadn't that day, but he followed it up with the suggestion that Mikoshiba ought to text him the next time it happened, and while the vague insinuation went over the other boy's head, Kashima identified it instantly as a threat involving washable markers and her face, and so, very seriously, told Mikoshiba not to text Hori if she ever fell asleep at school again. Maybe he'd eventually explain the joke, but for now, the confused look on Mikoshiba's face was too funny to give up. Before the break ended, Hori also took off his sling to attempt a few stretches while they both looked on with trepidation, both worried that he'd re-injure himself, but for completely different reasons. Luckily, while his shoulder was very stiff and protested nearly every movement, there wasn't much more than a little soreness as a result.
The bell rang far too soon, and Kashima left Mikoshiba to rearrange the desks while she escorted Hori back to his classroom. "That was a really good idea, asking Mikoshiba to help with the set!" she said. "I never thought about it but I think it'll be a great fit for him! Who knows, maybe he'll even decide to try to take on a small role in the future to help build up some confidence!"
"That'll be entirely up to him," Hori replied. "Honestly, just being around some new people will do wonders, I think, especially having you around just in case. I bet Sakura would be willing to help out, too. Maybe even Nozaki will put in an appearance and lend a hand instead of just his usual people-watching, since he'll be looking for ways to impress her, probably."
"Haha, if he knew the truth, he wouldn't even have to lift a finger to get her attention, so I'm glad we're making him work for it. Otherwise, he might end up taking poor Chiyo-chan's feelings for granted!" Hori had to agree with that sentiment, being sure to nod, but he didn't reply until they'd reached his classroom door.
"I'll keep working hard, too, Kashima," he said, pointedly, staring her straight in the eye to signify his seriousness. Maybe one day he'd even come close to feeling worthy of her attention, let alone her feelings... which, while as of yet unspoken, still hung in the air between them nonetheless.
He wasn't ever going to get over how cute she was when she was caught off-guard. "I-I'll be doing my best as well, Senpai!" she promised, then added another. "I'll come after class with Mikoshiba to help you with your bag so don't rush yourself!"
"Okay," he answered, and watched her hurry off back to her own class. Only when she was out of sight did he turn to go back into his classroom, where several of his classmates were waiting for him.
"What was that about 'working hard', Hori-chan? You ought to be taking it easy!"
"Yeah; your face is so red--Kashima really should be helping you out a lot more so you can relax and heal!"
"It's bad enough that you got hurt in the first place; overworking yourself will just make it worse!"
What the hell--were his classmates even for real?
========
Just as she'd said, shortly after the final bell, Kashima walked into his classroom with her best friend anxiously following after her. Since she was busy helping Hori pack his books into his bag, though, a couple of the girls started flirting with Mikoshiba, likely just as he'd feared they would. Hori and Kashima ended up having to rush after all to save the poor boy from the small group of absolutely shameless third year girls, though none of them were aware that there was even a problem because Mikoshiba was able to keep up the charade until after they'd all escaped through the classroom door.
"Why do I always do this...!" Mikoshiba complained while Kashima patted on his back in an attempt to cheer him up.
"In this case, it was for the best," Hori assured him. "That particular group can get pretty aggressive if they catch a hint of weakness, so being able to flirt on their level is an essential survival skill."
"Huh, really?" Kashima asked in curiosity, because of course she'd never broadcast any hint of weakness herself in the middle of wooing a princess. "Do they flirt with you, too, Senpai? Did you find that out the hard way?"
He didn't want to just say outright that he apparently wasn't ikemen enough to be on their radar, or maybe they'd just decided to spare him since their male classmates were already getting everyone to call him 'Hori-chan', but whatever the case, it was easier to ignore one question in favor of the other. "Wakamatsu had a run-in with them last summer during the drama club trip and asked me if I could do anything about it since they were my classmates, so I told them to give it a rest. They complained about how it was their last summer as high school students so they should be allowed to have some fun, but I didn't hear anything else from Wakamatsu so they must have decided to leave him alone in the end."
The diversion ended up being more successful than planned, as Kashima excitedly replied, "Oh! Oh! That must've been when Coach found Wakamatsu on the beach with a couple girls having a weird argument about body fat or something--she wasn't sure. I think they ended up spending the rest of the day at the beach together, so Coach probably protected him from the rest of the girls, haha!"
"...Something like that," Mikoshiba agreed, somewhat enigmatically, but he refused to elaborate on something he claimed to have been just a 'dumb misunderstanding'.
They arrived at the stage to see that Sakura had received the request to help out that afternoon, and that, just as Hori had predicted, Nozaki had tagged along. Mikoshiba almost immediately gravitated over to join them while he and Kashima stood in front of the whole group to set up a plan for that afternoon. While Mita oversaw the rest of the team setting out towels and other materials to hopefully spare the stage from spilled paint, Hori supervised Kashima as he led her through the process of tying the curtains tightly shut to both drown out most of the sounds of the basketball team practicing in the gym as well as to prevent any wayward balls or players from causing mayhem. It also helped prevent anyone from sneaking in to distract them (or more accurately, Kashima) but Hori was a little less worried about that since they wouldn't be rehearsing and Kashima's fans were getting much better at respecting their ban from painting projects after what had happened the last time he'd been stressed enough about a deadline to accept their 'help'.
Once that was done, both Hori and Kashima assisted with the painting. As it turned out, she was pretty good at following directions when there weren't any fans around to distract her, so they all ended up getting a remarkable amount of work done by the time Hori had to get going.
As he had expected, though, she put in a good amount of protest when he tried to leave on his own. "Pres, at least let me escort you to the train station!" she pleaded.
He really did want to indulge her, but at the same time... "Kashima, this will be the last Wednesday afternoon you'll have Mita here to assist you. Every Wednesday after, you're going to be on your own after I leave, so you have to use this time to get comfortable with your leadership duties."
She begrudgingly accepted her responsibility. "Just because I have to stay here doesn't mean that someone else can't accompany you!"
Hori glanced over at their assembled group of friends to see them all working as diligently as they would on Nozaki's manga (or as he assumed, in Mikoshiba's case). Even Mita had wandered over to praise them all for their efforts, and when Mikoshiba appeared to slip into his bad boy ikemen routine, the girl said something that instantly deflated his ego but somehow didn't leave him wallowing in misery. Even Nozaki and Sakura looked astonished, and the mangaka began to quickly jot something down into his notebook.
Even if he would have preferred some company, Hori wasn't about to interrupt a developing plotline--even as he mentally offered Mita a plea for forgiveness as he allowed her to be written in as yet another of Nozaki's characters. Probably as another male suitor for Mamiko's heart, as the developed pattern implied. "Nah," he replied. "It'd probably be better if I had a little time to think beforehand."
Kashima was suddenly torn between being protective and supportive, but settled on an acceptable middle-ground shortly. "I won't be going straight home after club, so call me after your appointment and I'll meet you somewhere, okay?"
"Okay," he replied, before he even realized that he'd just agreed to a date, and she even took the opportunity to briefly hug him. He turned to leave before anyone noticed either the affectionate gesture or the color in his face that rose up when he thought that maybe he wouldn't have to wait until tomorrow to kiss her after all.
So, it was while he was lost in that largely blissful state that Hori walked up to his shoe locker, only for his mood to abruptly plummet into a pit of fear. Nobody else was around, all his friends were in and around the gym on the other side of the school, and his phone was in his bag--which, while over his shoulder, may as well be a million miles away from desperate, searching fingers. The boy in front of him was far from athletic, but it wouldn't take much strength to re-injure his healing shoulder, and being forced to bow out of the play for such a reason would be the worst. He couldn't do that to Kashima! He had to protect his arm at all cost, even if it meant having to turn and run straight back to her just after insisting on going alone!
"Stay the hell away from me," he said, his voice remarkably calm and even for someone preparing to bolt at the first opportunity. His injured arm would make it hard to run, but he could throw his bag to gain a few seconds more of a lead!
All of that nervous energy, however, suddenly lacked an outlet as the other boy abruptly sank down to his hands and knees in an act of humility that Hori would have assumed to be far out of reach of such an ego. "Hori--senpai, it's gone on enough now, hasn't it? Can't you... could you get them to stop, please?"
It had been two days, and while Hori didn't note a single mark on his body, he didn't doubt that Kashima's fangirls had done what they could to scar him emotionally enough to leave him in such a desperate state. Yet, Hori was largely unmoved--in his opinion, this was an entirely misplaced apology despite the fact that his property had been vandalized, and he hadn't even gotten around to the actual apology yet! Glad that he'd been able to conceal his initial anxiety, Hori changed into his borrowed outdoor shoes and coolly replied, "I'm not the one you should be asking."
If it weren't already incredibly obvious whom he was referring to, the shoes directly in front of the other boy's face would have been a good enough clue to someone a little more observant. Hori could see the answer sink in as his expression darkened, and suddenly didn't want to hear his response.
"Look, I don't know what you have against her, and I don't care, but you can either get over it or you can endure this for another month and then transfer to another school if it's really that terrible. I have no idea what those girls are up to, and I didn't have anything to do with it in the first place. All of this is because your actions upset Kashima, so her fans are acting independently to punish you. If you want them to stop, your best bet is to talk to her. Until then, whatever is going on is the consequences of your actions and I'm done with protecting you from them. Use this opportunity to better yourself and take another step toward becoming a proper adult. If you're ever upset with someone, trying to sabotage them or spreading around hateful slurs is not the right way to deal with it."
"And violence is?" he replied, his trademark snark beginning to build back up as he started to pull himself upright.
To he honest, he deserved that remark, even if the barb still stung. "Do I look like a proper adult to you? We all have some growing up to do, and I'll thank you to not take that as an opportunity to reference my stature."
He actually looked a bit stunned to witness Hori refuse to get angry. Maybe he even began to admire his senior a little for openly admitting his faults. "Senpai... what am I supposed to say to Kashima?"
'What' indeed... Despite the fact that the fangirls believed he'd vandalized Kashima's shoes, the boy had never successfully done anything to Kashima that required an apology--aside from how personally she'd taken his attack on Hori, and perhaps his mostly concealed opinion of her, but then again, Hori had never been hesitant to keep his opinion of her to himself, either. That did give him an idea, though, as he remembered the turning point in their relationship from mostly negative to all but entirely positive.
"You should tell her everything," he suggested. "What happened that first caused you to dislike her and every little thing after that helped cement it. At the very least, putting it into words will help you get over it instead of letting hateful feelings fester, and who knows? Maybe she'll surprise you and start doing something differently. That's only if you give her a good reason to forgive you, though, so be sure to apologize for the shoe locker incident and for causing me trouble."
"Right--I'm sorry about what I did to your shoes, and--"
"Apologize to Kashima," he emphasized. "I'm over all that already. All I want from you is no more bullshit going forward."
He looked more than a little dubious about apologizing to Kashima about things he'd done to Hori, but he'd get his answers soon enough after talking to her. "Right; I'll do that."
Maybe one day he'd ask to hear this kid's story himself and find out just what happened that made him hate Kashima so much, whether it was a girl he'd liked becoming one of her fans, or, hell, maybe he was deeply closeted himself and misplaced all his frustrations on anyone openly and unapologetically queer. However, that day was not today.
"I've got to get going before I'm late, but I'll text Kashima to let her know that you'll be waiting for her here. The club should dismiss in another hour or so." Though he'd ought to know that already--just the fact that he'd started waiting as early as he did to run into him alone was pure luck. If Kashima had been with him after all, the conversation probably wouldn't have gone as smoothly as it did. At the very worst, it could've escalated into an argument that ended with him getting injured again and Kashima spending at least the rest of the school year blaming herself, instead of him being able to leave peacefully to catch his train, like he was right that moment.
He ended up getting to the station early enough to text her while he waited instead of fighting to do it properly on a moving locomotive with no free arm to hold himself steady. [I know you'll hate it, but just hear him out.] There, that was cryptic enough to get her interested. If he just up and said what it was about, then she might refuse to talk to the guy at all, and then there would be no way for the situation to improve. He'd rather have everything settled now so there would be no risk of retaliation next year when he wouldn't be around to help her. Then, to hopefully put any worries to rest, added, [I'll call you later.]
As Hori sat on the train, gratefully taking the offered seat vacated by a more able-bodied person, he marveled at how good it felt to achieve a successful conflict resolution without ending up stabbing a guy in the face at some point. Yet, he wasn't going to cancel his appointment just because he'd had a good day. He knew as well as anyone that there would be plenty of good and bad days to come.
========
Hori stepped out of the office building feeling more relieved than anything. He'd been so full of thoughts and feelings that he'd spent nearly the entire meeting talking, and he had to admit that most of that talking had been about Kashima after he'd forced himself through another uncomfortable retelling of his first year experiences to update his file. His therapist was unappreciative upon learning how Hori had tricked them into thinking that he'd been completely fine in their last appointment, but was thankfully open to continue seeing him regularly again, and was keenly interested in hearing about how his relationship with Kashima had progressed. As their time together ran out, Hori was urged to take things at a comfortable pace and to always keep his health in mind, to which he assured them that even if he ended up forgetting himself, he trusted that Kashima wouldn't. Hell, she'd probably make the effort to protect his 'virtue' instead of doing anything to claim it for herself.
He was supposed to call her right after the appointment but spent a while walking around instead, observing the people around him and overhearing snippets of conversations. From where he stood, everyone around him appeared to be well-adjusted and successful people, but there was no way to tell if that impression was even halfway true. For all he knew, they were all even better at hiding their own private insecurities than he was. In a sense, perhaps everyone in the world was an actor.
Even though he wandered aimlessly, Hori had a good sense of direction, so, despite the fact that he was in an unfamiliar place, he still knew where to find the closest train station he could use to meet up with Kashima, wherever she ended up going after dismissing the club that day. So, while he knew exactly where he was in the city, he came across all sorts of interesting shops and cafes he'd never paid enough attention to notice before, and began to judge them from Kashima's point of view, trying to decide if they might be places she'd be interested in visiting with him later--maybe even later that evening.
It was at one shop in particular that his thought process halted abruptly, and Hori was all but forced by fate to dart inside, startling the young lady attending the mannequin in the window display but thankfully not enough to fall off the step-stool she was perched upon.
"That dress--" he began, then interrupted himself to stand next to the mannequin, verifying that, indeed, it was just the right height. In fact, looking up toward the head, he could clearly visualize Kashima's smiling face instead of the blank featureless plastic, and even the various shades of green and blue matched her eyes and hair. It was perfect--so perfect, that he began to suspect that the designer was inspired after seeing her in the street one day, probably surrounded by girls.
The salesgirl had been just starting the process of removing it to redress the mannequin in a new outfit, so as she moved her hand for better balance, the bodice slipped to reveal an entirely androgynous plastic chest, and Hori realized with a quick burst of panic that he'd wandered into some sort of a weird fetish shop because it was now purely obvious that the dress he was so taken with had been stitched together to fit (and conceal) a masculine frame.
And yet, he thought to force himself calm, wasn't that exactly what they needed?
"Is it still for sale?" Hori asked, glad to have sounded so relaxed, because there had to be a reason it was being removed from display, and if it was because someone else was planning to buy it then he was more than prepared to outbid them!
"Ah, yes, for now," she replied, "though it was meant to be sent back to the warehouse tonight with the rest of the unsold merchandise from last quarter..." A sudden glint flashed in her eyes as she smelled a sale. "If you would like it, sir, I would happily sell it to you tonight, though I would be unable to hold it overnight, and you should know that the store will be closing in just ten minutes."
So she was insisting that he buy it now or never, eh? Damn--if he'd known it would happen like this, he would have been sure to downplay his eagerness! Hori asked for a minute, and fished his cell phone out of his bag. "Hey, Kashima, where are you right now?" he asked before she even had the chance to greet him.
As it happened, she was on a train at least fifteen minutes away. He quietly cursed, then assured her that everything was fine and the appointment went well, but he was going to have to call her back in about ten minutes.
Hori turned back to the salesgirl and asked to see the dress, finding it to be custom made as suspected, but the price was very reasonable, likely to have been marked down more than once. It was a good buy, he told himself, and yet, if it turned out to be the wrong size with not enough extra fabric to be altered properly...
The seconds were ticking toward the store closing for every moment of his internal struggle, a certain phrase repeating in his head until he finally gave in. They were roughly the same size, after all. "I'm going to have to try this on," he said, with a carefully measured tone.
"Please allow me to show you to the fitting room," she said, happily leading him to the small curtained off area in the back. "Will you be needing any help with your arm or the zipper, sir?"
Hori would have had no idea how to put on a dress if he hadn't had to supervise a good amount of quick changes backstage. The zipper ran up the back, so he wouldn't have to move his shoulder much to get his arm through the sleeve, but the tiny zipper head would definitely pose a problem--he definitely didn't want to risk further injury trying to reach for it. "Just the zipper, thanks," he replied.
Once behind the curtain, Hori quickly removed his tie, sling, and shirt, then spent a moment tentatively moving his arm to test his range of motion, which he deemed fair enough for minimal movement. He didn't bother taking off his pants since there ought to be enough room in the skirt for them, but pulled them low over his hips to ensure that his waist was clear for a possibly tighter fit.
From there, it was a simple matter of stepping into the skirt from the back, being careful to not step on the last few inches of material, then pulling up the bodice to slip his arms through the sleeves. It would have been a pain to have to pull up the skirt to avoid stepping on it to get out from behind the curtain, though, so he just called the salesgirl in to handle the zipper, which he could tell went smoothly just by feel, and once complete, he experimentally shifted his torso to note any tight spots, finding none.
"I must say that it appears to be a perfect fit, sir, aside from the length of the skirt. We do offer a tailoring service here if you're interested?"
He'd forgotten that she was still there after getting caught staring at his reflection and honest-to-god mistaking himself for his mother for a split second. The ruffled material on the bodice made up for his non-existent chest and gave the false impression of an hourglass figure, and he suddenly understood Kashima's wish to see him crossdress. He actually looked pretty damn good. Maybe even with a few extra details like a nice wig, a good tweeze job, and light makeup, he could even be mistaken for a girl in the street...? Well, he'd have to develop a passable falsetto and study how women moved first, but...
Wait, whoa, back up! "Thanks for the offer but it isn't necessary--this dress isn't for me." The salesgirl did not look convinced, probably having to deal with all sorts of similar denials day in and out, but this time it was the truth, damn it!
Well, whatever, it wasn't worth arguing because he wouldn't be coming back to this store anyway, so it didn't matter what this one girl thought of him. Working at a fetish shop at her age was weird enough as it was, so he could live with her mistaken judgment... but he still hoped that she didn't go to the university he was planning on attending since it would be pretty awkward if they ended up running into each other...
Five minutes later, the dress was off, bought and paid for, neatly folded up in what he hoped was a discreet shopping bag, and he was back in his shirt and sling, tie tucked away in his school bag since there was no point in getting a stranger to retie it at that hour in the evening. He called Kashima again and told her to get off at the next station since he was nearby. Another five minutes of walking and he found her outside by a vending machine, chatting happily with Seo and Wakamatsu, and found himself disappointed that the assumed date had ended up becoming a group outing without his knowledge.
And yet, the presence of a certain someone reminded him of an earlier promise as of yet unfulfilled, and having a group together made it the perfect opportunity.
"Yo, Hori-chan-senpai!" Seo called out, noticing him first. He could have done without hearing that ridiculous nickname at that volume in the middle of the shopping district, but he'd put up with worse. He'd have to keep the story behind the dress to himself at all costs, though, since there was no telling where and when someone as impulsive as Seo would repeat it, and if it somehow got back to Nozaki... Actually, he didn't even want to think about what might happen.
Kashima bounded across the intersection instead of waiting for Hori to cross, luckily having the right of way, then held out her hands to take his bags, inspecting the plastic one in curiosity. "What's this, Senpai?"
"It's for you," he replied, and she lit up at the thought of him buying her a gift. "It's the dress you'll wear in the play," he added, hoping that wasn't too much of a disappointment, though she seemed to remain in high spirits. "You'll have to try it on yourself later, but it should fit you perfectly."
All at once, she zeroed in on his missing tie and possibly even a few wrinkles in his shirt. "Senpai, you-!"
"Yes," he said, quickly, before she had the chance to blurt out her suspicions. "Can we talk about it later and without company, though?"
"Y-yes!" she replied, and crossed the street again alongside him, quite clearly in the middle of a daydream she thankfully kept to herself.
"Whatcha got there?" Seo asked as they joined up on the other side of the street, obviously curious about what Kashima was so happy about.
"The last costume we needed for the upcoming performance," Hori answered before Kashima had the chance to come back down to Earth. "You'll be able to see it if you decide to attend at the end of the month; otherwise, no spoilers."
"Aw, stingy," she complained, then tugged on the unusually subdued Wakamatsu's sleeve. "Hey, Waka, you wanna go see their play again? Remember the one where the prince got killed at the end? Haha, that one was great!"
Hori could distinctively remember the one laughing voice among a sea of crying girls that one time they'd attempted a tragedy. The feedback had been great but the fans preferred happy endings for Kashima's prince characters so they hadn't done another one since. He turned to the taller boy to see what he thought of the invite only to do a double-take. "Wakamatsu, what the heck happened to you?!" Hori hadn't noticed at first since the younger boy often had a hand pressed to his temple as though he had a headache, especially around Seo, but this time he was holding an ice pack to his eye.
"Huh? Oh... Seo-senpai wanted to try doing a trick shot using me as a springboard, and... well..."
"I totally kicked him in the face!" Seo jovially confessed, and Hori noticed that she was carrying Wakamatsu's bag along with her own. "The way he went down was kind of hilarious, but I felt bad and took him to the nurse even though all that lady does is scold me, and I was gonna treat him to some good food to help his eye, except we ended up running into Kashima and then you first!"
Hori motioned for Wakamatsu to reveal his eye and inspected it. "Yeah, she got you pretty good. It'll definitely light up like a traffic light by tomorrow, but once the swelling goes down it won't hurt so bad. Just try not to poke at the bruising."
Wakamatsu pressed the ice pack back against his eye and actually managed to smile even though his head probably hurt like hell. "Thanks, Hori-senpai... we're quite the pair now, huh?"
He had to smirk back. "Looks like we got into a fight, almost. Are you hungry now or did you want to wait a bit before eating? You two can accompany me and Kashima for a bit if so." He'd also be able to watch out for signs of a concussion that way, since he wasn't sure if Seo had that kind of first-aid knowledge, and bringing up the possibility of a serious head injury would just needlessly frighten his kouhai.
"I can wait a while," Wakamatsu replied, unused to turning down offers like that from an upperclassman. "Is that okay, Seo-senpai?"
"I don't mind hanging out for a bit," Seo replied, then nudged Kashima, knocking her back into reality. "Hey, where are we going?"
She happily started to answer, then, realizing that she didn't know, turned to Hori and asked, "Senpai, where are we going?"
"It's a surprise," he said, his smile turning secretive.
Kashima leaned over to stage whisper directly into Seo's ear, narrowing her eyes at Hori as she spoke. "The last time he told me that, he let me believe that he was taking me to a cemetery."
Wakamatsu's face went grey. "H-Hori-senpai, I'm not very good with places like that! Can we please not go there?!"
"It's not a graveyard," he assured the boy. "Nothing even remotely scary, really."
But Seo latched on to the idea. "Waka, let's definitely go to a haunted house sometime! They're pretty lame most of the time but I've seen a few really good ones!"
Hori tried to mentally transmit the thought of 'look at what you did' directly to Kashima's brain, then turned to Seo and said, "At least let him recover from the latest mishap before risking another injury." He was surprised that he'd managed to avoid being dragged to a spooky date spot up until then, actually.
Oh, well... at least this way, Wakamatsu would learn something important about the girl who'd somehow taken over his life.
========
The shades of grey and blue spreading across all three of their faces as they stopped in front of the karaoke building was certainly a sight to see.
Wakamatsu was the first to recover, leaning down low to whisper in his ear, at least having the sense to keep his volume down. "I know it's going to be awful, but please... no matter how bad it is, please don't judge Senpai too harshly," he pleaded.
"She already told me as much," Hori assured him, wondering just how he'd found out about Kashima's singing voice but not Seo's. "I agreed to sing if she let me hear her sing, so we're doing that now. As for my advice to you... Well, just try to keep an open mind? It'll probably come as a shock but it's been so long now, you definitely deserve to know..."
He mostly just looked confused, but Hori couldn't say much more without giving away the secret... and as much as he felt that Wakamatsu should know about Lorelei's true identity, it was possible that Seo had her own reasons for hiding it. Maybe she just didn't want all the attention that would come with the reveal, like how he kept his own celebrity parents a secret from the rest of the school?
"Well," Seo said, as she started for the door, "guess the cat's out of the bag." She didn't seem depressed or anxious about it, but she didn't look back at Wakamatsu either, who'd started sniffling for some reason.
As for Kashima, once she snapped out of her horror, she unknowingly mirrored Wakamatsu's plea. "Please be kind, Senpai..."
Hori had no idea why Wakamatsu latched onto Kashima after that, saying things like he was so glad that she understood, or something, but she looked a little freaked out so he went ahead and herded them both inside before someone considered them a public nuisance. Maybe Wakamatsu was bad at singing, too, to have such a strong reaction.
The front desk would only allow him to rent a private room for a half-hour minimum, though they'd probably only actually need fifteen minutes at the most for all four of them to choose and sing one song each. He decided not to argue because they might end up needing the extra fifteen minutes to talk before heading back out into the street. Heck, he might even have to buy another half hour if it came down to that.
Places like this made most of their money on the overpriced snacks and beverages they offered, so Hori just ordered four glasses of water, mindful of the fact that they'd all be going out to eat someplace after, whether their group split up or not, so it would be better for them to save their appetites for later and just stay hydrated otherwise. Seo teased him by saying, "Yes, Mom," and he 'punished' her by saying that she had to sing last, though that was the plan from the start anyway. The rest of them drew straws, and, of course, Hori ended up drawing the first spot, followed by Kashima, then Wakamatsu.
"Hey," he said to Kashima as he picked up the microphone, "just because I'm going first doesn't mean you get to back out of your end of the deal with some crazy excuse."
"I wasn't going to so that!" she protested. "Even if I think it wouldn't be fair to young Wakamatsu who probably already has a headache!"
"I don't have a headache, though...?" Wakamatsu mumbled, completely confused, and Hori gave him a quick once-over to check for any other signs of a swelling brain, but he seemed fine, otherwise. Still, he set down the mike for a moment so he could hand him his glass of water and insisted that he take a few sips. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted Kashima scrolling through songs and hoped she didn't choose something weird out of revenge.
"Don't worry, Waka, I'll cover your ears since you only got one hand," Seo offered, then turned to Hori. "That means it'll be up to you to cover mine, Hori-chan, but there's nobody left to protect you so try not to die."
Hori waggled the fingers of his slinged arm. "You're forgetting that there's not one but two one-armed men present," he reminded her.
She considered that. "Right, so I got Waka covered, meaning Waka has one hand free for me, so you'll be in charge of my other ear, Hori-chan. Of course that still leaves you unprotected. R.I.P." Seo said solemnly.
"Erg, you're all being so mean to me!" Kashima complained, even though it was really just Seo's comments causing trouble, and decisively selected a song.
As the music started and the lyrics began to fill the screen, Hori wanted to call her a total brat, but instead, at the last second, decided to turn it around on her and sing it with as much heart as he possibly could, because despite knowing exactly why she chose that song, maybe she didn't quite realize that the lyrics perfectly captured his feelings, even if the song itself had been written with a religious theme in mind and re-purposing it as a romantic ballad was borderline blasphemous.
At least it was entirely in English, so there was a good chance that the other two might not be able to mentally translate the lyrics fast enough to realize just what he was doing with it, but Kashima, the top second year student who could probably pass his third year exams with ease, would have an even better understanding of the vocabulary than he did.
And so it came to pass that Hori Masayuki sang the inspiring Christian song 'You Raise Me Up' to the unsuspecting Kashima Yuu with every ounce of passion he could muster, meaning every word as he stared her straight in the eye, noting every individual shade of color in her cheeks and every time she swallowed hard against her suddenly dry throat--37 times. By the end, Hori couldn't care less how many people would be pissed off knowing what he'd just done, because Kashima may as well be a god herself, and he'd be a proud member of the Church of Kashima Yuu, god or goddess, what did it even matter?
He was brought out of that crazy daydream by Seo and Wakamatsu applauding as loudly as two people could manage by themselves, since Kashima had pretty much frozen in place. "Hey, Hori-chan, why didn't you ever tell anyone that you could sing? You should've stopped by the glee club more often and sung a duet or two with a couple of the girls," Seo suggested, at least aware that he wouldn't have been able to keep up with studying opera with her.
"Seo-senpai, you know that Hori-senpai was always too busy with the drama club to make a habit of visiting other clubs--though he did want to try to do a musical once?" Wakamatsu turned back to him as if to ask why he'd never actually done it.
Hori gently set the microphone down in front of Kashima as she suddenly reached forward to down her entire glass of water, then went over to Wakamatsu to prompt him to pick up the ice pack he'd set down at some point and put it back on his eye. "Well, you're about to find out why that never panned out, if the legend is true," he joked.
"Senpai, don't call it a 'legend'!" Kashima complained, apparently back to her own self as she pouted over the song choices, listlessly scrolling through them. He didn't want to rub it in by choosing for her, though, and let her look for something she was comfortable with singing. Hori kind of felt bad about even gently teasing her now since she looked so depressed about it.
"Nah, I'd definitely call it 'legendary'. Maybe even 'infamous' or 'notorious'," Seo commented, oblivious to her friend's pain as she--and Hori himself was shocked by such a brazen move--sat herself right in Wakamatsu's lap. The younger boy suddenly didn't know where to put his available hand, but Seo noticed it flailing about, and grabbed his wrist. "You're supposed to be covering my ear, remember, Waka?" She put it in place for him and then leaned back against his chest so she could reach up and cover his suddenly blazing red ears. "There, this should work out perfectly once Hori-chan gets over here." She glanced over at him as though telling him to hurry on over.
Hori kind of just wanted to keep his distance, feeling the sharp bite of secondhand embarrassment for poor Wakamatsu from where he stood just fine without involving himself directly. For goodness sake, if she was so opposed to hearing Kashima sing, why didn't she just excuse herself to visit the restroom? If she was staying out of a sense of duty as Kashima's vocal coach, then she could at least listen properly to note any improvement!
In the end, he decided it would be better just to do what she wanted and get it over with so Wakamatsu could breathe again--his face looked about ready to turn purple, the way it was turning both red and blue at once. Hori had to pass by Kashima to sit beside Seo's exposed ear, though, so he took a moment to tell her--after performing his grudging duty as an earplug, of course--"Look, it's not going to change anything, all right? All this really means is that I'm better than you at this one small thing. It doesn't have to be anything more than that. Nobody's really searching for perfection; life would get pretty boring if anyone ever actually found it."
"You're better than me at more than one thing," she disagreed, but cheered up a bit anyway, exposing a hint of a smile. "After this... I wanna hear you sing and watch you act, more and more."
"Sure," he said, ignoring the hint that she considered him the better actor since that was just a matter of opinion (and her opinion was wrong). "Next time, just pick a song for a reason other than to make a joke about having to lift me up."
That brought her smile the rest of the way out of hiding. "It was about a lot more than just that, Senpai," she said, selecting her song and standing up to sing instead of taking the time to explain what she meant by that.
Hori had honestly thought that everyone else was over-exaggerating, or even just joking outright, but it took finally hearing it for himself for that strong voice inside that insisted that Kashima could do anything to finally accept it as truth. She really was that bad at singing, but the worst part was that he could tell that she was trying her best to do well, and knowing that she'd spent the past year trying to improve (probably resulting in her skipping even more drama club meetings in the process) was nearly as unbearable as her singing itself. He wanted to stop her, but at the same time, he'd brought this upon himself. He'd asked her to sing, and now he would suffer the consequences, silently and without comment. He owed her that much.
By the time it was over, Hori's ears were ringing and he honestly couldn't tell which song she'd been trying to sing, though it had been obviously Japanese. He felt Seo and Wakamatsu shift next to him, and he instinctively knew that they were trying to gauge his reaction, their blocked ears failing to obscure every sound. Kashima was also looking at him imploringly, waiting to hear what he had to say. "Well..." he began, grasping at straws to put a positive spin on things. "It could be worse." The silence was deafening. How could it be worse? "You could be one of those people who swear up and down that they're amazing singers when they're actually terrible at it." Those people's friends and families deserved an ass-kicking for lying so completely and then allowing the poor fools to enter singing competitions.
"Um, so... this is as far as I've gotten after practicing for a year," Kashima confessed, sullen again. "Senpai... do you think it's worth it to keep trying?"
"No," Seo spoke up, and Wakamatsu loudly protested her callousness, but Hori had to agree. There wasn't a point to it if trying so hard only to fail to improve was just making her miserable.
"I think..." he began, and then the epiphany hit. "I think you should leave the singing to me and focus on the accompaniment. Let's switch it up--I'll take the spotlight and you can work your magic in the background. You can play the piano or a guitar, can't you?" Even if she didn't already know how, she could probably learn both in a week, tops.
"I can!" she exclaimed excitedly, and it was like the whole room sighed in relief. Crisis adverted. "I can play all kinds of instruments! Even several at once! Like a one person marching band!" Okay, that was enough.
"Just one at a time would work best," Hori insisted. "The audience is supposed to focus on the singer, you know."
"Haha, having me playing around in the background would be a little distracting, wouldn't it?" Kashima agreed, setting the microphone down in front of Wakamatsu (who still had Seo in his lap but appeared to have actually acclimated). She took a seat next to Hori, leaving the song selection screen unattended, and said, "Maybe we could even perform at your brother's wedding reception together!"
Hori nodded, and Seo spoke up. "Speaking of weddings, I'd happily sing at yours, Hori-chan. I owe you a favor for saving me from another year of Kashima's terrible singing, after all."
"Seo-senpai, I really wish you'd stop criticizing Kashima-senpai about her singing!" Wakamatsu complained. "I realize that it probably helps you feel better but you should know that not everyone has the talent to sing well and it isn't nice to mock them for it--for any reason!"
Seo turned her head to look Wakamatsu in the eye while he wilted a bit under her stare until she finally snapped her fingers and hopped off his lap. "So that's it! You're a crappy singer, too, eh, Waka? Well, no worries there! I'll find you one of those rap songs that are really just people talking really fast instead of actually singing!" With that, she went straight for the song selection screen without waiting for a reply, and definitely not open to hearing any sort of protest on behalf of rap artists everywhere who might have taken offense with her words.
"Wait," Kashima observed, "why wasn't rapping ever an option for me?"
"I doubt that the school would approve of a rap musical when the genre is notorious for references to violence and substance abuse," Hori replied. "Not to mention that all the songs that come to mind contain at least handful of curses, ranging from mild to outright obscene."
On his other side, Wakamatsu seemed to be choking on air. Hori noticed that his glass was empty, and slid over his own untouched water for the poor kid to drink, only to be forced to take it back when he seemed to start drowning after taking too many large mouthfuls, and helpfully patted his back while he fought to get his breath back.
Luckily, he recovered by the time Seo chose a song, which he didn't recognize. As the music started, Hori could barely follow the English lyrics with his eyes, and had no idea how any person could sing so fast without stumbling over the words. Wakamatsu made a sincere effort to keep up, but stuttered through any word he probably suspected to be a curse, and by the time the music wrapped up, he was an entire stanza behind and just as out of breath as he'd been a couple minutes ago, only having drowned in words this time.
Seo laughed as she helped him back to his seat. "Haha, Waka, you really weren't kidding, huh? Don't worry though; you really held your own! I bet if you put in a little practice, you'd get the hang of it in no time!"
"Honestly... Seo-senpai..." Wakamatsu gasped, "I can sing... just fine. Whatever that song was... it probably won an award... for difficulty..."
"Huh, I think it actually did win something, now that I think about it," Seo wondered, then waved it off. "Well, anyway, we're probably almost out of time, huh?"
Hori glanced at the clock. "It's only been fifteen minutes at the most; they'll call the room with a five minute warning." He didn't think that she'd try to back out right at the end, but if she felt that strongly about keeping her secret, he wasn't going to insist.
Kashima, however, did insist. "Come on, Coach, don't you think it's about time to go for it? We even let you hold out to the end!"
The microphone was held out toward her, offered by the hesitant Wakamatsu. "It really isn't that bad, Senpai. I'll listen to your song. Anything is fine; I'll let you choose instead of picking something that might be hard for you."
He really had no idea what he'd just signed up for, had he? In fact, it seemed that Wakamatsu had somehow come to the conclusion that Seo was tone-deaf. Well, he was certainly about to be surprised. Hori scooted a bit closer to the other boy just in case he was literally floored by the big reveal.
Seo accepted the microphone and dwelled upon Kashima and Wakamatsu's words for a few moments before coming to a decision. "I don't want to choose someone else's song," she declared. "I'll sing one of my own, a capella."
It really was a good thing that Hori had moved closer, because after no more than five seconds into what was likely one of 'Lorelei's' most popular songs, he'd had to grab Wakamatsu's shirt collar to prevent him from pitching forward and slamming his head against the table, which certainly wouldn't be good for his already bruised face. Kashima was on her feet a moment later to help lay the unconscious boy safely down on the bench. Hori had to get up to make room for the envious length of his legs.
Seo, meanwhile, had stopped singing and looked entirely baffled. "That never happened before. Waka didn't just drop dead in shock, did he?"
Hori looked him over and replied, "I think he was just exhausted and the injury took a bit out of him, too, so the surprise must have..." He trailed off when a hand clamped around his wrist, paired with a weak moan that sounded something like a plea. "Actually, Seo, can you track down the building manager? They're going to want to have us report what happened for their records and legal protection."
"What a pain," Seo complained, but headed for the door anyway. "Hey, thanks for catching him, Hori-chan. He'd probably have a matching set of black eyes otherwise."
He nodded to her as she left, noting that she'd taken off running as the door closed behind her, meaning that they wouldn't have a lot of time unless someone caught and scolded her for running in the hall. "Hey, Wakamatsu," he said, crouching down a bit while Kashima began fanning him with a coaster, having noticed beads of sweat appearing on his brow while his mouth twisted into a grimace. "Are you feeling all right? Any dizziness or nausea?"
The ice pack had fallen to the floor when he'd passed out, so Hori got to see the panic in both his underclassman's eyes while Kashima had to drop the coaster to push down on Wakamatsu's shoulders to prevent him from trying to sit up. "H-Hori-senpai, what do I do?!" His other hand latched around his wrist to join the first. "Please tell me that this is a dream! A nightmare!"
He couldn't really say that, so Hori just advised him instead. "You've got to calm down, Wakamatsu; take a couple deep breaths and tell me what's wrong." Kashima helped to cool him down by replacing the ice pack, which caused Wakamatsu to shiver for a moment while he worked at bringing himself back under control.
In short order, the two of them learned of Wakamatsu's troubles; with what he'd considered Seo's 'bullying' worsening his insomnia to the point where he hadn't been able to rest at all until Lorelei's voice lulled him to sleep, as though she was his own personal angel. Hori had heard portions of that story, but never all at once like this. He realized at once that the poor kid was struggling to reconcile the reality of Seo and Lorelei being the same person, which, admittedly, had surprised Hori as well.
They didn't have a lot of time before Seo would come back, though, so Hori got right to the point. "To be honest, Wakamatsu, I think you might have built up your image of Lorelei to the point that no actual human girl could have matched her."
Kashima agreed. "I'm acquainted with nearly every girl, if not every girl, that goes to our school and each and every one has some kind of fault that clashed with your version of Lorelei. Not to imply that having faults makes any of them any less cute and wonderful to spend time with--I think it's more fun that way, because perfection is a lot more boring than it sounds!" There she went, shamelessly reusing his line from earlier. Oh well, at least it was for a good cause.
"I never expected her to be perfect!" Wakamatsu protested. "It would have been enough as long as she was pure-hearted! It wouldn't have mattered if she was bad at team sports or careless with words or had strange interests or got in trouble at school for being late and running in the hall and forgetting to do her homework!"
Hori had his suspicions but left it up to Kashima to voice them since she knew Seo a lot better than he did. "Er, but aren't you just describing Coach now?"
"I know!" Wakamatsu complained. "I'm telling you all that would've been fine with me as long as she had a pure heart!"
Hori waited a moment, then decided to just go for it. "Doesn't she, though?" While Wakamatsu's mouth fell open and Kashima's head bobbed in agreement, he added, "If you're talking about purity, it's all about 'following your heart' straight to the goal instead of getting caught up in deceitful and underhanded tactics. It's all about transparency, and if you ask me, by that definition, nobody fits it better than Seo. You pretty much always know what she's up to--once a thought enters her head, it tumbles out of her mouth a second later."
"Yeah," Kashima added, "I think her only real longstanding secret was that she was Lorelei all along, but if you ask her why, she answers right then and there that it's because she thinks it's hilarious to see guys' faces when they find out. I also think that maybe she did try to tell people at the start, but got tired of them not believing her."
It was pretty interesting that she hadn't laughed when Wakamatsu passed out, though. "So, there you go. If you're looking for a girl who'll always tell you what's on her mind and won't play games with your heart or cheat on you, she was right under your nose." Often, quite literally.
Wakamatsu's hands slid numbly off Hori's wrist, and he laid there, silently, probably forced to recalibrate his brain or something after all that. Of course, that was the state the building manager found him in, and nearly ended up calling an ambulance. In the end, Hori was able to calm him down and prove that Wakamatsu was not in a catatonic state thanks to Seo poking the uninjured side of his face and therefore causing the kid to wrap his arms around his head to hide the flush that rose up when their eyes met. As Seo teased him a bit about being embarrassed about fainting like one of the swooning princesses in Kashima's arms, Hori ended up getting a full refund for the trouble, probably as the manager was still worried that something in the room had caused the problem and hoped to avoid a lawsuit.
Once they managed to coax him back off the bench, the four of them relocated to a nearby cafe when Wakamatsu surprised them all by asking if he could talk to Seo privately. Hori was concerned that he might suddenly pass out again, though, and brought Kashima to another table a respectable distance away so he could keep an eye on them. Amazingly enough, just a bit into the conversation, Seo actually began to look just as nervous as Wakamatsu. He was going to have to ask about it later, because while he wasn't close enough to overhear, it looked a lot like he was confessing his feelings even though it hadn't even been half an hour since he'd tried to argue that she wasn't even his type.
Wakamatsu didn't appear about to keel over, though, so Hori turned back to Kashima, who was watching them just as intensely--it was surprising that they'd both been oblivious to their stares. "You think they're going to be okay?" he asked.
Kashima considered her own collection of observations. "You know, despite how extroverted she is, Coach gets embarrassed pretty easily whenever anyone teases her about her relationship with Wakamatsu. She even avoided him for a while once when the boy's basketball team teased them both about it. Yet, it's pretty obvious that they like each other, so all I can say is that if they agree to start dating now, it would be best for them to take it slow."
"No worries about that," Hori replied. "Despite your initial impression, Wakamatsu is about as far from perverted as Seo is gentle. They might start to call their outings 'dates', but they'll probably just keep hanging out all the time as usual instead of pushing for intimacy. At most I bet he'll start calling her in the evening to ask her to sing him to sleep."
"That would be adorable," Kashima said, deadpan, as though it was too sweet even for her own taste. "They must be protected at all costs. I won't let anyone tease Coach about her innocent romance as I live and breathe."
"And here I thought you were my knight in shining armor," he teased, but then waved off the comment when Kashima started to look honestly conflicted. "I'm joking--keep on protecting your friends; I'd hate it if you didn't." He paused, remembering something in that vein he'd forgotten to ask about. "How did things go after club?"
She didn't have to ask him to elaborate. "Ugh--if you hadn't asked me to hear him out I might have ignored him, but... when someone asks for forgiveness on their hands and knees, it's hard to not take them seriously, huh?"
"I'll hold back on asking for the details," Hori replied, not feeling up to developing any more concerns for other people at the moment, "but did he properly explain himself?"
"Yeah, though I didn't really understand why all that lead to disliking me so much. At least talking about it seemed to help him realize how silly it was to resent me for something I had nothing to do with or had any control over. Whatever the case, I think he's honestly done with trying to get whatever revenge he was hoping for, and apologized for all the trouble he caused us. I texted a bunch of the girls to let them know while I was on the train, but I dunno how that'll pan out since they didn't forgive you that easily," she reminded him.
True enough--and he'd told the guy as much himself. The girls largely acted independently, regardless of Kashima's wishes. They were probably happily channeling their frustration with being unable to spend as much time with her into bullying that helpless fool. "Well, if he has to apologize personally to each and every girl to get his peaceful days back, that'll be his struggle to deal with, not ours."
"And what about your struggle?" she asked. "You only had enough time to say that the appointment went well on the phone."
He hoped that the hurried call hadn't alarmed her. "We really only had time for me to catch them up with the events of the past three years, so if you think of it that way, we didn't actually accomplish much, but I think it helps sometimes... to talk to somebody that's all but entirely uninvolved. You get a little outsider insight that way, as well as valuable advice from someone who helps all kinds of people with all kinds of problems."
"Well, I'll be glad for that, then," Kashima said, smiling and then gently declining the menus offered by the starstruck young waitress. "Oh, no thank you, we were just about to leave, but I'll definitely have to return one day to this inspiring cafe which employs such a beautiful maiden~"
She blushed and tittered as she made her way over to Seo and Wakamatsu only to be refused again since they were probably still planning to go to a real restaurant to eat instead of snacking on the desserts and sides offered by a small cafe. They'd better leave before the poor girl got in trouble for letting non-customers take up space, though. "We're going, huh?" he asked, getting up. "Do you have some place in mind?"
"Yes," she said, mischievously, then called out to Seo as she stood up. "Hey, Coach! I'm taking Hori-senpai back to my house for supper, but I'll answer my cell if you call later!"
"Yeah--maybe," Seo replied as they walked by, and Hori was sure to offer Wakamatsu the same invitation to call. He checked him over one last time, and was satisfied with the state of his health. Hopefully Seo would take it easy on him for the rest of the night, but he doubted that she would be oblivious enough to forget such a visible injury.
Hori waited until they were outside to continue the conversation. "Dinner at your place, huh? I hope you texted your mother at some point after deciding that."
"Nah--I decided last night so I told her then," she replied, grinning.
"You were supposed to go straight to bed!" Hori scolded her.
"I did!" she claimed. "I said 'I'm gonna bring Senpai home for supper tomorrow night' to Mama as she herded me up the stairs!"
"So you decided that and just expected me to go along with it, huh?"
She grinned. "You wouldn't skip out after Mama went to the trouble to make another portion of food, would you? Besides, we would have just eaten at your place otherwise--I knew you'd be free after your appointment!"
He fixed her with a hard stare, though he didn't mean it seriously and he doubted she would take it that way either. "It's exactly this sort of deviousness that's causing you to lose to Seo in terms of purity."
Kashima had to laugh at that. "I think maybe all the casual flirting might have a hand in that as well!" He didn't realize that they weren't already holding hands until she grasped his, and then could barely believe he'd lasted so long without. "Um, you know I'm not really being serious when I do that, right? I just think it's really cute when girls get all worked up..."
Hori thought back to the way she'd been clearly overwhelmed by his singing. "Yeah, I can understand that much. Though just one girl is enough for me. Maybe next time I'll try a proper serenade..."
"I might die!" Kashima warned him. "Geeze, you could have at least prepared me a little like how I tried to save you from having to listen to me!" But then she sighed, disappointed. "I know we decided it was for the best for me to stop trying, but I still wish I could make your heart race with my singing, too..."
"You don't need a song to make my heart race," he assured her.
Kashima stopped him in the middle of the lightly crowded shopping district and turned to face him, proving his point right then and there. Then she started to lean over and he realized that this was it--the moment when they would finally--
Except that was when their phones began to ring simultaneously, because Wakamatsu had excused himself to go to the bathroom to call Hori and Seo had taken the opportunity to call Kashima while she waited for him to come back, and they spent the remainder of the walk to the station assuring them both that there were plenty of dating couples that didn't jump straight to holding hands and 'macking on each other' or anything other than just hanging out and taking things at their own pace, and, hey, if anyone ever tried to pressure them into going further than they were comfortable with, even if it was each other, then they could freely tell them to go jump in a lake to cool their heads. In fact, it was perfectly fine if they never wanted to do anything 'couple-y' as long as they were both happy with the status quo.
They wrapped up their conversations as they boarded the train, successfully convincing them both to go ahead to the restaurant as planned and talk about everything they needed to say to each other since it would be easier on them both to set their boundaries in advance instead of stumbling over them later--advice that Hori had stolen straight out of his therapist's mouth. He planned on using it himself pretty soon. As they found seats together and put their phones away, their eyes met and ended up kick-starting a laughing fit that nearly lasted the entire ride since they kept attempting to stifle themselves and failing thanks to the other starting up again. Hori couldn't speak for Kashima, but he just found himself so relieved that he hadn't ended up ruining the bond between Seo and Wakamatsu that he couldn't even be disappointed that they'd interrupted them at a vital moment--especially since they'd both been invited to call if they'd needed to talk to someone.
When they finally managed to calm themselves, Kashima didn't show any hesitation before winding her left arm around his back to rest on his hip, holding his available hand with her right. Hori leaned back against her shoulder and allowed himself to just enjoy the moment instead of worrying about what other people might think. They may as well get used to what appeared to be two boys cuddling on a train anyway, and--oh, wait, Kashima was still wearing her uniform including the skirt, wasn't she, so they probably realized she was a girl anyway... or possibly a crossdresser. Whatever--why should they even care; it wasn't like they were making out or anything...
Okay, so maybe he was still worrying too much about what other people thought. He'd have to work on that a bit because sacrificing moments of quiet comfort like this was just completely unacceptable, and the train reached their stop too quickly as it was, so he felt a little resentful toward the general public as they disembarked and started toward Kashima's house.
He remembered the way to her place just fine after walking her home so often in the past week, but Hori let Kashima pull him around by hand anyway. He wasn't sure what time she'd agreed to bring him over, so he hoped that the karaoke stop hadn't ended up making them late, because he couldn't exactly trust Kashima to have not completely lost track of time. Then again, her mother was likely well used to her usual tardiness so she probably would have called by now if she'd run out of patience... but then, she probably had a pretty deep well of it to have raised Kashima without losing her mind.
When she answered the door with a wide, welcoming smile, Hori found it hard to believe that such a normal lady had such an odd family, but then again he really didn't need to look much farther than her husband to solve that mystery. The meal was every bit as good as Kashima's cooking, but her father clearly dominated the conversation with some of the most inane topics that Hori would have been rendered speechless if he wasn't already doing his best to respectfully withhold his opinions until he was asked for them, since he's rather build on the good impression he'd somehow maintained. He didn't have to wonder where Kashima had picked up all her knowledge anymore, since, while the endless chatter was off-putting, it was at least all factually sound information he'd picked up on the job as a university professor. It turned out that he was also the source of Kashima's habit of calling her parents 'Mama' and 'Papa' instead of any of the more widespread choices, both formal and informal, as he used those terms to refer to himself and his wife by choice, which was... odd, to say the least.
Just as he began to wonder if maybe the man was responsible for all of Kashima's bad habits as well, he began to recite an anecdote about how he'd been late to one of his classes because he'd been too busy flirting with his younger co-workers, and Hori realized that this was it--the final boss had arrived. The one ultimately behind his hardships for the past two years. The greatest foe he would ever know, and would be forced to fight to the bitter end.
"Dear," Kashima's mother interrupted, her eyebrow twitching slightly, "if it's all the same to you, perhaps we might talk about something... else. Hori-kun certainly didn't come visit us today just to hear you talk about work." Oh, thank everything--he had an actual ally; bless her.
"All right, Mama," her father replied, and turned to face him directly. "Hobbies, then. Hori-kun, you wouldn't happen to be interested in mechanics, would you? I've got a little storage shed with a few older model cars and motorbikes I've been tinkering with and wouldn't mind a little company every now and then!"
What exactly was this middle-aged man thinking, inviting a high school kid out to who knew where?! "Not particularly," he was at least able to honestly answer. God help him if they actually shared another interest. "I'm actually mostly busy with carpentry and theatre at the moment, not that I'm able to do much with either until my shoulder heals."
The guy seemed to wilt in response. "All I ever wanted in life was a son who would share my interest in automobiles, but tragically, all I received were two girls completely disinterested in mechanics!"
Kashima laughed at his theatrics--which implied that she'd picked up her interest in acting from her father as well, but for whatever reason, had refused to become a 'grease monkey'. "Haha, at this rate, you're gonna have to cross your fingers for grandkids, Papa! You'll need to keep your health to play with them, though!"
He considered that. "I feel as though your sister may persist with her aversion to physical contact for quite some time, so it may be that you're my only hope, Yuu. I must... put my faith in Yuu..." he said, staring hard at Hori, who suddenly had the urge to get up and leave, for several reasons.
Kashima's mother loudly deposited a piece of silverware on the table, thankfully drawing her husband's attention. "Well, I'd say that everyone has had their fill. Why don't the two of you head upstairs for now? I'll bring up some dessert and refreshments just as soon as I get all this cleared up." She indicated the table covered in used dishware, but stared straight at her husband. Hori couldn't make it upstairs fast enough after thanking her for the meal, and ended up beating Kashima to her room, having the spatial awareness to find it on his own judging by the location of her window from outside.
It was more creepy than a comfort to think about, but at least he could be sure that her father wouldn't be opposed to Kashima moving into his house after she graduated. Kashima, on the other hand, was mostly amused. "Papa was sure being a weirdo tonight; he doesn't usually talk that much--I think he was trying to impress you!"
Hori didn't really want to think about that--giving a man desperate for grandkids a bit of hope that his likely assumed-to-be lesbian daughter might deliver some was one thing, but this... He could at least wait until she graduated high school! Or at the very least, actually started officially dating him!
"Anyway," he said, desperate to change the subject and thankfully remembering the shopping bag Kashima had deposited earlier in her room along with their school bags, "you should go ahead and try on that dress."
Her eyes glinted. "I wanna see you wear it too."
If he refused, she probably would, too. "Maybe sometime when your mom isn't likely to walk in during an awkward moment. Like another time and place entirely."
She pouted, but took the bag from him anyway. "All right, but I'm going to consider that a promise!"
Hori excused himself to visit the bathroom while Kashima changed, which wasn't entirely necessary since she always wore her shorts and undershirt to school, but he'd rather not risk her father walking in on what might have appeared to be a private strip-show. Or her mother either, for that matter.
The door was still closed when he returned, so he knocked lightly and asked, "Do you need any help with the zipper?"
"Nah, I got it!" she called back and opened the door for him. "It was a bit tricky, though, so I'll probably need some help with the costume change." She stepped back to allow his entry and twirled to show off the front and back. "It fits all right--how does it look? The colors work well, I think."
Hori looked it over, struck by the oddity of how the dress forced even Kashima's masculine figure into suggesting feminine curves. He had to admit that it didn't look bad, but there was something off-putting about it, which he very suddenly realized was because he simply didn't like the look of her in a dress--any dress. It just didn't fit her personal style... but at least the same was true for the princess knight, so it would work as a costume. "I prefer you out of it," he said without thinking.
Kashima briefly looked astonished--then reached behind her for the zipper.
"Oh, for...! I didn't mean it like that!" Hori shouted as he stalked back out the door, furious with himself for accidentally saying something so suggestive.
He hated himself even more when he bumped into her father in the hall. At least it was with his good shoulder, but the resulting mental trauma was far worse than a twinge of physical pain.
Grasping Hori's good shoulder and indicating that he'd overheard a fair bit, the man who should have been a whole lot more concerned about his daughter's virtue said, "Don't worry, Son, Papa will keep Mama distracted so you can do what must be done."
Hori nearly kneed the man in the sac and ran, but luckily, Kashima's mother was not far behind her wayward husband and grasped him firmly by the ear, dragging him down the hall with her. "I warned you, Dear," she said, deceptively calm, "but you went and did it anyway, so now it's off to bed early with you."
"But Mama...!" he protested, cut off by a slamming door.
Hori mechanically backed into Kashima's room again. She must have been used to similar exchanges between her parents because she'd changed into a simple shirt and shorts that likely doubled as a set of pajamas, completely unperturbed. "Sounds like Papa's getting the sleeping pill tonight," she said, nonchalant. "Mama will be cranky in the morning but at least she doesn't have another shift until the weekend so maybe she'll be able to nap a bit tomorrow while everyone's out?"
He hummed a little noncommittally in response before he found his words. "Hey, uh, could you maybe just... hold on to me for a sec...?"
Kashima happily obliged, embracing him gently. "Senpai?" she asked, after a moment. "You're shaking a little--do you need a blanket?"
"Not right now," he replied, reaching up to grip the back of her shirt, willing himself to calm down. It was kind of dumb to be so freaked out--it wasn't like he was being forced at gunpoint, and it wasn't like he didn't want that level of intimacy with Kashima, and even she seemed to have implied that she didn't mind by going straight for the zipper, but he sure as hell didn't want it to happen like that.
"Hm, okay," she said, still sounding concerned. "You know, since it's still early, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to watch a couple of your old plays with me? I have my own laptop so I can build a pillow fort and everything."
"Sounds... comfortable," he agreed, and stepped back after a moment, feeling a lot better already. The 'pillow fort' wasn't actually more than a couple cushions on the floor to sit on while they leaned back against her bed and pulled a comforter over their heads, but all that paired with watching his elementary school self helped him feel like he'd reclaimed a bit of innocence he'd all but lost entirely--and not just because Kashima's father had completely lost his mind. He was starting to feel like he'd forced himself to grow up too fast and missed a vital step somewhere, so maybe if he took a couple steps back, he'd be able to reach it the second time around.
Kashima's mother invited herself in a short time later, bringing in the promised dessert and beverages, apologizing for her husband's antics. Before she left, she explained that she'd be sure he'd be ready to behave the next time Hori was invited over for dinner, and maybe at that time, he might be able to bring his parents along to visit as well?
He had to admit that he'd feel a lot more comfortable with his parents present to hopefully influence Kashima's father enough to calm down, but at the same time it was a bit weird for parents to want to meet the parents of someone their child wasn't even officially dating, wasn't it? Or had Kashima told them otherwise? Heck, maybe her mom just wanted some new friends that seemed like that might be a little more sane than her husband. Hori wasn't sure how to tell her that their lives were definitely not 'normal' by anyone's standards either, not to mention that they were probably about ten years younger, which might make it difficult to forge a friendship, but Hori supposed that they would make a sincere effort. They got along pretty well with Tomoda's boyfriend's mother, who was also a bit older than them but had a 'passionate spirit' that they admired, probably the result of having to raise a kid from infancy by herself after her husband suddenly passed away. She'd had to fight for a good life for her son and herself in a country with limited employment opportunities for women, so having Tomoda around to tutor her son for free was something she'd considered a godsend.
They were left to continue watching the DVD with the promise of being checked on now and then, because at least Kashima's mother was a sensible parent guarding against teen pregnancy. Under the cover of blankets, though, Kashima had wrapped her arm around him like she had on the train, and this time, Hori had nothing to distract him from enjoying it properly. He leaned against her shoulder like before and his eyelids began to droop. Deciding to close them for a bit turned out to be a mistake, as he quickly began to drift off, exhausted by such an eventful day.
Hori made a few vain efforts to stay awake, but in the end, he didn't even make it to Kashima's mother's second check-in, and the last thing he remembered that night was his head being gently lowered into Kashima's lap.
I'M SOBBING. SO IT LOOKS LIKE. HE CAN LOOK AT HER LEGS BUT STILL NOT REALLY *SEE* THEM. I'M SO DONE HORI I CAN'T BELIVE THIS. Also in the end Kashima as usual misinterprets things that Hori was admiring her legs in a photo because HE WANTED LEGS LIKE HERS she tells him that she's cheering him on and supporting him in trying to grow more and that's the point when he decks her. Meanwhile subtitles point out that yes, at the end of the day, Kashima has his ideal legs. But Hori just doesn't see yet.
Haha, Hori is just so taken in by her face that he can’t even really consider the rest of her, like her face is just so bright that it casts everything else in a shadow or something
(Who wouldn’t want legs like hers though; we can at least understand this one out of all of Kashima’s wild conclusions)
EFFING NEW CHAPTER. KASHIMA'S LEGS CONFIRMED FOR HORI'S IDEAL BUT ALSO CONFIRMED THAT HORI SERIOUSLY HAS A MENTAL BLOCK WITH NOTICING ANYTHING BELOW HER WAIST.
Pardon me for a moment while I change my blog title to something 100% relevant in regards to my chosen username
Haha I kind of lucked out on choosing to write Breaking Character from only Hori’s POV because now I can pretend that I knew that Kashima knew about the leg fetish all along when Hori finally noticed them
(Speaking of Breaking Character, I haven’t been able to write a lot lately because I’m slowly adjusting to working all kinds of shifts at my new job. My old job was morning shifts all the time so I was able to write a lot every evening so that became my preferred writing time, but now that I’m working a lot of evening shifts, I’m struggling to actually write in the morning… and a family crisis here and there certainly didn’t help, but now that all the latest challenges have been solved I’m hopeful that the next chapter of BC will be posted within the next couple weeks!)
thanks kashimas-legs for igniting my desire for a harry potter horikashi AU (which completely spirals out of control and i have no idea where i was going with any of this.)
haha, you’re welcome! I kind of just wrote that and went to bed right after so coming home from work to see all this is just amazing!
(Not that she can’t pass as a guy to sneak into the boy’s dorm whenever she wants but what if Kashima makes the polyjuice potion to masquerade as Hori’s roommate at one point so she can sleep in his room and Hori figures it out pretty fast but forgets that she’s a girl and ends up letting her stay the night)
The way AO3 is formatted for mobile, when I look at the title of the work it looks as if it reads "Breaking Kashima's Legs" and I forget every time I start a new chapter so I'm surprised every time I load a new page
patriciaselina said: BLESS YOU FOR ACTUALLY DOING THE HOMESTUCK AU. If I remember correctly this was the idea of yours that first got me to talking to you - glad to see you finally do it!!!
I think it probably was the first thing we talked about!
I actually went ahead and tried to draw Hori and Kashima’s horn designs, haha i am not an artist
Hori’s are supposed to be like a set square (the triangles in a geometry set) and Kashima’s are shaped like a crown
Oh no they’re just way too cute ahhhhhhhh (I knew that Kashima would totally rock the look and Hori’s expression is just the perfect degree of ‘why this’)
wolftempest said: I got weirdly enthused the moment you said their horns are supposed to look like ____ and then actually scribbled for a good half hour trying to make it work and then I realized you’d LITERALLY drawn them and put them under a readmore OTL
OH NO I’m sorry about that! The colors were so bright I was hoping to spare people’s eyes, orz (but I’d like to see what you came up with too, if possible!)
patriciaselina said: BLESS YOU FOR ACTUALLY DOING THE HOMESTUCK AU. If I remember correctly this was the idea of yours that first got me to talking to you - glad to see you finally do it!!!
I think it probably was the first thing we talked about!
I actually went ahead and tried to draw Hori and Kashima’s horn designs, haha i am not an artist
Hori’s are supposed to be like a set square (the triangles in a geometry set) and Kashima’s are shaped like a crown
The guard pressed his hands over his ears with a grimace, and once the princess began to recite the words in an incredibly off-key attempt at 'singing', the boy quickly followed suit, wrenching his hand out from under hers. She briefly pouted, but didn't cease, and well before it was over, the boy had set aside his woes in favor of wonder and just a touch of fear as the princess's silvery white hair lit up the shaded hedge like moonlight, but he made no move to run away.
There’s probably still a bunch of typos and other errors, but I have half an hour to post before midnight! (Yes I know the deadline doesn’t really matter, haha)
Anyway, to keep this short, this started out as a Tangled AU, but it ended up going so far off the rails, I really can’t call it a Tangled AU anymore, lmao
What can I even say about this? I spent about 20K words on this thing but I’m still not completely happy with it (I feel that the ending is weak in particular). There were also several moments that I had to remind myself that Hori and Kashima grew up very differently here than they did in canon, because they sometimes act pretty strangely in comparison. Well, I hope it’s an enjoyable read despite my misgivings, orz
Content Warnings: Violence, Blood, Death
[AO3 Mirror]
Twelve years ago, a little girl with hair of an odd length and color was happily playing in the castle's courtyard, her only playmate at the time being the exhausted but thoroughly charmed guard struggling to keep up, weighed down by his armor and the blazing sun overhead. There was still over an hour before he could escort her back inside for her mid-day meal, so he begged the princess for mercy, suggesting that they move into the shade for a time. She didn't give him a moment's grace before teasing him about his faltering stamina, but immediately complied, regardless.
While he gratefully sat beneath a tree to rest, the guard diligently continued to watch over her, while she remained compassionate enough to obediently stay within his sight. After perhaps fifteen minutes, though, she crouched beside a bush and remained still for far too long. Worried that she'd stumbled across a poisonous snake or some other sort of dangerous creature that had managed to evade the outer guard, he quickly rose upright and rushed over to her defense.
He was relieved to find his fears unfounded, as his approach revealed a young boy around her age concealed in the hedge. It was not unheard of for unscrupulous assassins to make use of children to take advantage of their target's lowered guard, but this boy had another motive for hiding--he was quite obviously distraught, and the commotion outside the castle walls was a likely explanation. "Young man," he said, "I'm not sure how you managed to slip into the courtyard without notice, but you shouldn't be here. Please allow me to escort you back to your guardians. Are they among the refugees that arrived early this morning?" His unorthodox apparel suggested nothing else.
Too late, he recalled that the princess knew nothing of that day's events, which had allowed her to remain so carefree. Her only clue had been the unusually loud crowd beyond the walls, though she'd likely assumed it to be the preparations for her upcoming birthday celebration, which would have explained why she wasn't permitted to leave the castle to play with her friends that day, and so had begun to excitedly explore the castle grounds instead.
He could have done without the expression of complete and utter betrayal, but the boy's renewed distress added a horrific element of anger to the mix. It was stunning, though, how quickly that look melted away when she turned back to the boy, seamlessly replaced with absolute compassion as she crawled into the hedge to kneel before him, thoroughly ruining her dress in the process. She took no notice of the leaves and branches caught in her hair as she reached forward to brush away his tears, and asked, "Where does it hurt?"
The boy was obviously uninjured at a glance, and the guard couldn't believe that she was willing to go so far, but he didn't dare object and risk raising her ire a second time. When the boy found his throat too tight to speak, he simply pressed a hand to his heart instead, not having the faintest clue what he was getting into. The guard hoped his suspicions were wrong, but they were unfortunately proved correct as the princess lightly tugged at the boy's collar and eased a handful of her hair into the opening, then put her hand over his, capturing the tendrils beneath it and smiling in assurance.
The guard pressed his hands over his ears with a grimace, and once the princess began to recite the words in an incredibly off-key attempt at 'singing', the boy quickly followed suit, wrenching his hand out from under hers. She briefly pouted, but didn't cease, and well before it was over, the boy had set aside his woes in favor of wonder and just a touch of fear as the princess's silvery white hair lit up the shaded hedge like moonlight, but he made no move to run away.
He couldn't say whether it was the actual healing power of the song or just the distraction it provided, but he was sure that, one way or the other, the princess had succeeded in easing the boy's heartache to some degree. "Now then," she said, rising to her feet and offering a hand to help him upright as well, which he accepted, still awestruck, "let us go inside so we may change into fresh, clean clothing, and enjoy an early lunch!" It appeared that she wasn't planning on releasing the boy's hand anytime soon, and lead him out into the open, careful to hold back any small branches that threatened to swing back and scratch his arms or face. Once they were out, the princess spoke again to her guard. "You may investigate as you please, but he will remain with me for now. Regardless of your findings, though, you must bring all wounded and ailing refugees to me no later than this evening!"
The guard knew better than to argue against that tone, which only her mother or father could counter. "Yes, Your Highness," he replied, and her bright smile signified that, as long as he followed that order, all was forgiven. He escorted them inside and left the children in the care of a castle maid, who immediately began fussing over the princess's appearance, picking debris from both her hair and clothes, and sighed as she was forced to insist upon a thorough brushing, which was, by far, the princess's most loathed activity. When she complained, though, the boy spoke up for the first time, wondering why they didn't just weave her hair into a braid, whatever that was. As the guard walked away to report to the king, it seemed that the boy was being roped into helping brush the princess's hair, and she seemed to actually be getting excited about it for once.
Their small kingdom's ruler was well-known for his kindness and generosity, so it was of no surprise to the guard that he had already arranged for the ill and injured to be brought in and cured that afternoon. What did surprise him was that, not only was the king aware of the boy's presence in the castle, but there had already been a room prepared for him. When the guard inquired about the boy's parents, all the king would say was that he had arrived unaccompanied, and, seeing that the children would be too busy for the rest of the day to spend any further time playing in the courtyard, he was reassigned to aid in the town square, as there were still many families and individuals left without shelter for the night. At least it was summer, and many were willing to sleep in the street, but the king would not allow even one to go without a bedroll, and were it not for the highly irregular situation, he would have invited more than just one orphaned child into the castle. When asked what sort of 'situation' that was, however, he was quickly sent on his way.
One week later, on the eve of the princess's sixth birthday, the guard was abruptly roused from sleep by a scream, and burst into the hall in his undergarments, stopping only to grab his sword. He was the first to the scene aside from the horrified maid who had found the body. The king arrived shortly after in a similar state, and the guard was instructed to stand in the hall and not permit another soul to enter or to share any information. It quickly became a heart-breaking task, as the very next person to arrive at the princess's bedroom door was the distraught queen, demanding to know what had happened.
He was nearly in tears himself by the time the king emerged alongside the white-faced maid. As the door swung shut behind them, he noted that the body had mysteriously disappeared, though the length of cord that had been cinched tight around the man's throat was now gathered in the king's hands. A closer look verified that the 'rope' was actually a length of long, midnight blue hair, which he wound around the queen's hand with care. "Tell me she's safe," she said, voice heavy with emotion, as she clutched the bundle tight.
"She's safe," the king replied, and the other three sagged in relief. "So much safer now than she would be, remaining here." He turned his head to the side, as loathe to admit that as it was for the guard to accept. The night watch was only just now rushing down the hall, and later they would claim that they'd been certain they'd killed at least four intruders, but their corpses could not be found.
Hours after, as he accompanied the spooked maid to her bedroom, pledging to stand watch at her door through the night regardless of his state of dress, she told him that the body in the princess's room had unraveled into nothingness the moment the king had pulled the hair loose from its neck, and he didn't begrudge her that experience, sympathizing with her fears of supernatural creatures.
They stopped at one other room on the way, staring in at the bed, uncanny in its disuse. There had been one last hope left for them to crush within their hearts, and now they saw with their own eyes that the boy they had cared for over the past week had kept up his habit of sleeping in the princess's room. In fact, the two of them had been such fast friends that they'd rarely been apart from the moment they'd met.
There was no way of knowing where the children were or who had taken them, but they could at least take comfort in the fact that they were together.
The news of the children's abduction spread through the kingdom quickly, and by noon the next day, every citizen was mourning the loss of the sweet little girl with the terrible but effective healing song, as well as her youthful companion who had taken it upon himself to accompany her everywhere she went, as though hoping to grow up to become her own personal protector.
The first year was the worst, as the people prayed each day for them to be safely returned, but as many more of the princess's birthdays passed, hope dwindled down ever more. By the time her eighteenth birthday approached, very few believed that they still lived, and the people looked to their heirless king and queen, worried for the future.
========
They always argued more often when her birthdays approached, and this time was no exception, but Masayuki could already tell that this disagreement was gearing up to be particularly bad.
"I don't understand why you're so dead-set against the idea, Masayuki!" she complained. "I'm almost eighteen already! I've been stuck in this tower for twelve years! If something bad is supposed to happen if I leave, then why hasn't it happened during one of the times I've slipped out already?!"
How quickly she 'forgot' the details surrounding the numerous times over the past twelve years that she'd taken off while his back was turned, terrifying him every single time. "Nothing has happened, Yuu, because I was lucky enough to always track you down before anybody saw you. There's absolutely no one else in all the land with silver hair that spans a field--how long do you think it might take before someone put two and two together and sought to enslave you for your power?"
"At least in that case, this stupid magical hair would actually be of some use to somebody! What good is it to lock myself away when I could be out there and using it to actually help people?! It doesn't make any sense!"
It was the same tired argument she'd built up since her seventh birthday, once she'd stopped having nightmares about that close call twelve years ago. But, for Masayuki, his fears had never ceased. "I know you want to leave. I know you want to go back to your parents and your kingdom. I understand, and if I were to be able to do that for you, I'd have brought you back home years ago, Yuu! But the reality is that you're not safe there! Your parents knew that just as well as I did, and that's why we're here."
"So I'm just supposed to stay here forever? Sit here and grow useless magic hair because if I go home, maybe something bad might happen to me?"
"Will," he corrected. "Something bad will happen to you, and everyone else that happens to be near you the moment he shows his face again!"
"It's been twelve years," she needlessly reminded him. "How much longer do you need before you can finally accept that you've already killed the man you're so convinced will show up to kidnap me?!"
"About as long at it'll take the truth to sink in through your thick skull! That thing I 'killed' wasn't even alive, let alone a man! He sent that thing to take you because he was still too far away to grab you himself!"
"Well, if you were able to strangle some kind of weird magical puppet when you were six years old, why would the real thing give you any trouble now that you're grown and have me ready to fight beside you?! Are you going to try telling me that you taught me how to wield a sword just to pass the time?!"
"You think that guy has been sitting around for a decade just waiting to be done in by a couple of kids who taught themselves how to sword fight?! No, Yuu, he'll have spent his time going after other children blessed by magic and will have only increased his power since last time!"
"Then what are we waiting for?!" she demanded to know. "If he's been going around abducting children all this time, then there has to be some sort of organized opposition we can join to help defeat him! We have to save them!"
"If there was anything like that, I would have heard about it by now!" he snapped. "You think I haven't been searching?! You think I'm happy to just sit around doing nothing while families are torn apart and kingdoms are reduced to rubble?! You think I wanted this life for us?! Well, don't be too surprised, because if it were up to me, I wouldn't have even met you in the first place!"
He knew those words were a mistake even as he spoke them, and they seemed to echo through the entire tower as they both stood still in shocked silence, until finally, she set her face in stone, took long, measured steps to the window, wound her braid around the hook, tossed the length outside, and turned her back on him.
He tried to apologize. "Yuu--"
"Go," she said, perfectly composed. "You're the one who's able to leave, and I'd like to have a little time to myself."
Masayuki didn't know what to do, so he complied, nimbly climbing down the length of hair he'd helped to brush out and braid just an hour ago. He found himself unable to release the final inches voluntarily, so they were instead forcibly yanked out of his grip when she pulled her hair back inside and slammed the shutters closed.
They'd had plenty of arguments over the years, but after this one, just bringing back her favorite foods, sweets, and flowers wouldn't be enough to earn her forgiveness. But, maybe if he brought back an early birthday present for her as well, he might at least be allowed back inside and granted the opportunity to explain himself. She was almost eighteen--maybe it was time to explain everything.
It was already dark by the time he returned, pack full of supplies and gifts. In his right hand, he clutched a small bouquet of flowers. The lady he'd purchased them from had asked what he and his special girl had fought about this time, forcing him to come up with something stupid on the fly. Fortunately, it turned out that most fights between young people were stupid, he supposed, because she'd just laughed and wished him luck.
Unfortunately, that luck was not nearly sufficient enough to counteract the severed midnight blue braid hanging from the hook by the window. He didn't need to climb up to know that she was already gone, but he at least wanted to be sure that she'd left of her own volition.
There were no signs of a struggle, but she'd gone through each and every one of her drawers and even a couple of his. A quick inventory check implied that she'd packed only trousers and had stolen several of his shirts. He was relieved to see that she hadn't forgotten her sword, had taken a bedroll, and appeared to have packed enough food to last a week. He took the rest, crammed in some extra clothing, and left the flowers in a vase beside her bed so her room wouldn't be as stuffy with stagnant air if she chose to return before he found her. On his way back to the window, he stooped over to grab the pair of scissors she'd left beside the mirror alongside small piles of trimmed hair, and climbed back out again.
Once his feet were back on the ground, he used the scissors to cut off the last foot or so of the braid and attached the length to his scabbard. The scissors went into his pack, as there was no telling how long he'd have to live without someone willing to trim his hair.
With all that taken care of, there was just one thing left to do. As he took one step after another away from the tower, he whispered all the incantations required to dissolve each and every enchantment he'd woven into the stonework and the surrounding area. The tower creaked and groaned as it lost its magical reinforcements, and developed a sudden lean to the west, but it remained standing, and anyone who happened to have been passing by would have been quite surprised as, to their eyes, the structure would have seemed to appear completely out of nowhere.
Masayuki regarded his surroundings in wonder, now that the full scope of his power had returned. He'd forgotten how vibrant colors were, and how comforting the smell of grass and leaves could be. He remembered subtle flavors he hadn't tasted in over a decade, and many other long forgotten memories were suddenly back within reach. Maybe it was because it had been used so constantly throughout the past twelve years, but he couldn't recall ever feeling so powerful before. Had it increased with age, exercise, or both? It was impossible to say, especially when there were other, far more important things to think about, like his promise to the king. Both kings.
It was a very simple spell required to track Yuu, using the braid as his anchor. The mystical ties between the hair and its former owner would fade within days, but he didn't need long to catch up, especially if she stopped somewhere for the night. He found her trail after a moment, and noted a second magical signature hanging in the air along with a single horse's tracks in the soft earth.
It was stupid how swiftly his heart sank, when he'd been the one to invoke that particular enchantment in the first place. Despite the fact that she'd refused to wear dresses since she was eight, Yuu was still a princess, and she was entitled to her own Prince Charming, just like in all the tales they'd read together as children, long into the night. She deserved someone who would venture out to slay the menace casting a shadow over her life, but at the time, he'd assumed that the brave and heroic prince he'd mystically drawn to the tower would have insisted that she stay behind with her sworn guardian rather than bring her along on such a dangerous quest.
That was before he'd given her a reason to loath the mere sight of him. There was likely nothing the prince could have said to convince her to stay.
But, unfortunately for her wishes, Masayuki still had a debt to repay. Taking a deep breath and steeling himself, he focused on the most important task. Her blessed hair was gone, but if she was determined to leap head first into danger instead of just going home, it was still his duty to protect her.
"Fine," he said to the open air as he began to walk, hoping that verbalizing it would make reality just a little easier to deal with, "we'll do it your way, but I won't be left behind so easily."
========
Prince Mikoto of the kingdom Mikoshiba had slept horribly, and woke with the same awful crick in his neck as he'd suffered from for the past week. For what was likely at least the millionth time, he deeply regretted how vehemently he'd insisted upon undertaking the quest alone, claiming that he could hardly be called a brave and heroic prince if he'd been in the care of a full squadron of knights, especially when several generals discussing strategy had agreed instead of calling his bluff. Something about how it would be better to send one rather than fifty, as a secretive assault would likely be far more successful, since a full-frontal attack would be much easier to spot and counter. They'd been so proud of his idea and congratulated him on his strategic thinking, so there hadn't been any room for him to take back his words and beg for at least one or two knights to accompany him. At least he hadn't ended up talking himself out of the magic sword blessed by every mage in the kingdom. It was his only lifeline, because not even his horse would turn around, as someone had enchanted it, along with every other horse in the kingdom, to follow the path required of it.
Suddenly, however, Mikoto remembered that he was not alone any longer, and while it had been frankly terrifying to have to introduce himself to a drawn sword, the meeting had continued on in a much more promising manner. Normally he would be much more cautious around strangers, but it was extremely obvious that particular fellow had been recently upset by something, and he really could not believe that someone with underhanded intentions had the capacity to cry so honestly. Also, he was on a horse if it turned out that he was grossly mistaken.
Prince Kashima has declined to explain what, exactly, had affected him so, but Mikoto could emphasize deeply with the wish for privacy, so he had not pressed for details. Still, he had his suspicions. The other prince was rather handsome, so it would be odd if there wasn't a princess involved, and he had shown great interest in the quest, offering his support, which more than hinted that there was a kidnapped princess involved. He could hardly believe his luck to have serendipitously found another stuck in his exact same situation!
The pain in his neck was nearly forgotten as Mikoto cheerfully got to his feet and stretched. Kashima was still asleep, which was fine--he also slept longer after emotional days--and there was no need to rouse him just yet, since he had to prepare them both something to eat before they got moving again anyway.
Bringing his sword along was his well-developed habit, even though he was only going to the stream to gather some water. However, he was glad for his paranoia this time, as he found a hooded stranger examining his horse, and Mikoto didn't know of any good men who hid their faces! He moved to unsheathe his sword as silently as possible, but, somehow, the stranger caught on to his presence and turned before he could even bare an inch of the blade!
"You may relax, Prince Mikoto Mikoshiba," the hooded figure said. "Had I any ill intent, you would have already passed on peacefully in your sleep. You're quite fortunate that I found you before someone a bit more unsavory passed through."
The words were far from reassuring, but the voice seemed familiar and the fact that he knew his name implied that Mikoto also knew the man somehow, since, before this quest, he'd rarely stepped outside the castle, and even then, only to (briefly) speak with a beautiful maiden or two. He allowed the sword to slip back fully into its sheath. "Ah, thank you, sir, for watching over us through the night... I suspect I may also know you, if you would allow me to see your face..."
"A glance," he replied, reaching up to the hood. "It's... unwise for me to keep it on display. The enemy could just as easily recognize me."
As promised, the other male's features were bared for just a moment, but it was more than enough. "Mage Hori," he breathed in relief, "I cannot say how good it is to meet you again." Had he been safe in his castle, Mikoto would have attempted some form of exaggerated confidence, but here, out in the wilderness and marching toward what felt like certain death, he was endlessly grateful to whomever was overlooking his fate. "I must apologize for the treatment you received last year in my kingdom; my parents are skeptical of every outsider's call to arms... We tend to receive at least one a month with forged evidence of various wrongdoings from criminals hoping to secure an unwitting mage for their nefarious purposes, and they considered your story particularly outrageous. My parents didn't consider it seriously until after you swiftly evaded arrest, and even then had their doubts as you chose to flee rather than await trial under a truth enchantment... well, until what happened last month..." Ever since then, he'd dearly wished for the knowledgeable mage to return as an ally, and for what must have been the first time in his life, his prayers had been answered!
"Unfortunately for your kingdom and whatever misfortune has befallen it, even a temporary imprisonment would have conflicted with my other responsibilities. At least your parents were wise enough to keep my concerns on record, as you appear very well prepared." He patted the horse as an example. "This way-finder enchantment is far beyond any tracking spell I could accomplish myself. Doubtlessly, this horse will lead us straight to the fiend's front gate."
That wasn't exactly what Mikoto had been hoping to hear. "As... as a covert mission, walking right in through the front gate would be..."
"Entirely possible with my aid," Hori supplied, and Mikoto could see his mouth moving, sub-vocalizing some sort of charm to attach to the horse. "My gift is spacial distortion, you see. Hiding things in plain sight and traveling great distances in a single step... Anything you can imagine that can be done by manipulating the 'space' around me is well within my reach."
Mikoto didn't fully understand the concept of 'space', which was probably due to him being the first Mikoshiba born without a magical gift, which... may have been one of the reasons why he'd wanted to prove himself somehow, leading him straight into his current predicament. But, wait... "Do you mean to say that you'll be able to take us... straight to him... right away?" Oh, please, no...
"It'll still take a bit of hopping around, with the help of your horse to correct our path if we jump off track. I'll also need to rest to conserve my strength for the battle... but we should arrive within the next few days." He approached the prince, probably unaware that Mikoto was frozen in fear. "May I take the opportunity to examine your sword? How many mages blessed it?"
He stiffly presented the blade, and replied, "Every gifted mage in the kingdom was called upon to contribute countless enchantments. I was told that twenty-seven people completely exhausted their supply of magic in the process... They're all depending on me to succeed and bring it back for disenchantment..." The pressure of carrying so many livelihoods in his hands was staggering.
"I believe you're mistaken," Hori disagreed, his voice distant and strange as he 'read' things beyond the scope of normal human vision. "Mages are usually much more hesitant to cast magic in such absolutes. It leaves them defenseless, and if they were to die, their magic leaves this plane alongside them, so their sacrifice becomes meaningless. Your people blessed this sword with absolutes such as 'This sword will never break', 'This sword will only cut Prince Mikoto's enemies', 'This sword will not fail to protect Prince Mikoto', and other such examples, yet not a single one thought to add 'This sword's enchantments cannot be traced back to their origins'. They were so concerned about you returning home safely that they willingly put their lives on the line to grant you near invincibility and gave no thought to their own mortality. Granted, they would most definitely prefer you to bring back the sword yourself, but if they had to choose just one or the other, it would be their prince over their power."
Maybe the mage had meant his words to be reassuring, but all at once, the sword felt heavier in his hands now that he realized he was risking people's lives instead of only just their careers. "But... Mage Hori... didn't you say that one of the magician's powers is the ability to control puppets over vast distances? If he happened to escape after 'seeing' this sword..."
"I'm sure that he's been building up a substantial force around your kingdom for years, but if he hasn't led a successful attack yet, then it's likely that your defenses are superior for the time being. The kingdom of Mikoshiba and its wealth of talented people are already an irresistible target, Prince Mikoto. Your quest may or may not speed up his plot to invade, but to quail now would be a great folly, as you would be facing an army of puppets at your gates soon enough. It's better to take the fight to him while you still have the might of your people at hand; they've already chosen death over enslavement." He paused, then added, "Though it is not without precedent that he wouldn't attempt to assassinate your most vulnerable supporters with a small force designed to slip into your kingdom undetected, and it would be a problem if he were to even marginally succeed... I'm afraid that I must refrain from casting the necessary 'absolute' myself, but I can alter the 'space' around the sword to make it difficult for him to 'read' it, especially in the midst of combat. I'll add another layer of anti-detection magic as well, like I did for your horse. Your mages did good work to conceal its power, but it still has a faint presence that wouldn't have been noticed in a kingdom saturated with magic, but not in the middle of nowhere."
"Thank you," Mikoto replied, graciously accepting the gifts, though unsure of how to process the rest. The explanation was sound and it certainly seemed that charging ahead to kill the warlock before he was fully prepared to attack his kingdom was the most promising method to protect everyone he'd ever known, but at the same time his mind was screaming 'No no no, absolutely not!'
He was vaguely aware that the mage was shorter than him, though his commanding presence claimed otherwise. However, he seemed to... shrink, somehow, when Mikoto's other companion stepped out of the forest. "Oh, there you are, Prince Mikoto; I'd begun to worry that our meeting had been but a passing dream~"
Comrades or not, Mikoto was still envious of Kashima's ability to say such things without succumbing to embarrassment moments after. Regardless, he ended up falling into the trap anyway. "Were it but a dream, I'd happily sleep forever, Prince Kashima~" He sheathed his sword with an unnecessary flourish.
He couldn't be sure if the brief laughter was in response to his rapidly reddening face or at his attempt to extend the joke, but he was assured by the arm slung over his shoulder that he'd at least not said something wrong. "Haha, good morning, Mikoto! Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"
Mikoto cleared his throat because getting tongue tied now would just be a disaster. "Kashima, this is Hori, the mage I told you about yesterday." And, because the man had only hinted at it, asked, "He intends to join the quest?"
It seemed a bit strange for someone who had spoken so much just a minute ago to just quietly nod in response, but perhaps his mouth was dry after the previous conversation? Yet, even stranger still, Kashima simply replied, "Well met, Mage Hori. I'll gather some firewood so we may boil some water," and slipped away before Mikoto could even complete the introduction. Surely the man's suspicious appearance should have warranted some sort of statement, sincere or otherwise!
Hori sighed deeply, as though he'd been holding his breath, but before Mikoto could ask if something was wrong, because something was wrong, the mage just reached into his bag and removed a wrapped package of food with portions fit for two. "Do me a favor and claim that this is from your own supplies. I'll tend to your horse, Prince Mikoto."
He accepted the offering with confusion, but could not protest Hori's intended isolation. In the company of two princes, it naturally fell upon one of lesser standing to care for the horse, and Mikoto had endured enough lectures back in his castle to risk another from this powerful mage.
After collecting a pot of water from the stream, Mikoto returned to the more sheltered portion of their camp and found that Kashima had already gathered a fair amount of branches and twigs to restart the fire they'd built last night. He set the pot next to it and asked, "Is everything all right, Kashima?"
But it appeared that he was too late in asking, because Kashima had left his unexpectedly aloof tone by the stream. Back to his regular self, a cheerful exterior masking all secret pains, he replied, "Of course! Our belongings were unattended for just a moment--how silly of you to worry so much about thieving rodents!"
He was thus left without any room to call Kashima's bluff while still respecting his privacy. Pushing for information only succeeded in driving people away, and the absolute last thing Mikoto needed was one less traveling partner. Whatever had transpired between the other two men didn't matter as long as they were able to tolerate each other's presence, which appeared possible, at least, if they kept their distance from one another.
Out of curiosity, though, Mikoto gave Kashima his half of the food without explaining its origin. The prince only hesitated a moment before taking it, so he almost went ahead with the suggested lie when Kashima suspiciously regarded it for a moment, as though suspecting it had been poisoned. But, before Mikoto could speak, Kashima raised it to his mouth to take a small bite, and then appeared to get lost in thought, or perhaps a memory. Instead of interrupting, he retrieved some cups to distribute the cooling sterilized water, and found Hori in a similar state when he went to offer him a drink.
Mikoto had plenty of time after that to consider their behavior, because even Kashima was quiet for the first part of that morning's travel, where Hori's 'jumps' were subtle enough to overlook. If he even performed them at all, it was simply from one forest trail to another in the blink of an eye while they all walked alongside the horse. Mikoto eventually decided that they used to be close friends, and Hori was likely a mage entrusted with the royal family's safety. At some point, though, they had both fallen in love with the same magically gifted princess, but instead of working together to protect her, they had fought, and the princess had been abducted right out from under their noses. Having learned from their mistake, they'd started working together to find allies in the effort to rescue her, but their endless failures had led to a bitter fight just yesterday. It also explained why he'd come across them both, one after the other. They'd split up but hadn't gotten far from each other before he'd arrived in the area.
After they finished their lunch, wherein Mikoto had 'mysteriously' acquired what appeared to be Kashima's favorite sweets and generously shared them, his fellow prince's mood remained pensive, but Hori, on the other hand, appeared to become more and more agitated as the day wore on. He even spoke up to announce a quick series of 'jumps', which was rather bizarre, as they briefly visited all sorts of terrain from one step to another, just long enough to observe the horse changing direction before they appeared somewhere new. Finally, Hori stopped them next to a gentle river and held the horse back from advancing any further. It was still far too early to call it a night, but... "That's enough for today," Hori declared, and walked away with a bit of a stagger, as though all that hopping around had dizzied him more than both princes and the horse combined. They heard him retch a moment later, confirming that thought.
Mikoto glanced over at Kashima, unsure of how to proceed. If Hori was sensitive about his vulnerabilities and would prefer to be alone, he certainly did not want to aggravate the man by offering unwanted help. "Should I follow or leave him be?"
He certainly didn't expect Kashima to shake his head and say, "No, I'll go."
========
Her very first thought upon seeing the mysterious hooded figure introduced to her as 'Mage Hori' was a downright hostile, 'Who the hell does he think he's kidding?'
Granted, he wasn't the only one in disguise, but in her case, there were more dangers facing a lone female traveler than there were for a male. If she'd had the bad luck to have run into a group of bandits while dressed like this, at least they'd only try to kill her. Besides, she'd never really enjoyed wearing delicate feminine clothing like dresses in the first place--it was far too easy to ruin them when she was a girl, and the annoyance of trying to gracefully move around in them was only compounded by her ridiculous mass of hair. She'd been so happy when Masayuki had taught her how to braid it, but even so, just a few years later, it was long enough to sweep the floor again even while woven together.
And now it was gone, though her thoughts on the matter remained complicated, just like her feelings about Masayuki. She'd thought it would be a simple decision to just cut and run, but she kept weighing in her mind all the people she could have saved or healed verses all the injuries and deaths she may be able to prevent if she could rid the world of the nightmare that had terrified both Masayuki and her parents enough to have her locked away in a tower since she was six.
As for Masayuki... she'd been so sure that he'd been her best friend from the moment they'd met and that he'd always stayed so close to her because he'd wanted to, so it came as a terrible shock to learn otherwise. He was only protecting her because her father had ordered him to, and if he'd had his way, certainly the evil mage haunting their lives wouldn't have existed in the first place, but he'd have preferred to have never met her at all.
She'd taken that confession like an arrow to the heart, and found it to be awful and not-at-all romantic as various works of literature claimed, and the idea she'd been nursing about how she might have been falling in love with him just invited the arrowhead deeper inside. If that was how it was, she'd thought, then what was the point of staying in the tower and being miserable forever with someone who didn't even like her as her only companion? If she cut her hair and left, she'd thought that would be enough to release him from his contract and they could both get on with their lives since her coveted magical blessing was gone and could no longer be of use to an ambitious wizard. She hadn't thought for a moment that he'd follow her anyway, and then turn out to be the talented mage her new friend had been talking about all along.
In fact, he probably wasn't even following her in the first place, and was instead simply hoping to support Prince Mikoto on his quest. The fact that she was also present was nothing but an uncomfortable coincidence, and he'd tried to hide his identity in order to allow their travels to go more smoothly.
Or so she had thought until Prince Mikoto had, quite miraculously, produced her favorite meal for breakfast followed by her favorite sweets to enjoy that afternoon, and suddenly she didn't know what to believe anymore.
Thus, when he'd dashed away so suddenly to be sick, Yuu could hardly resist the opportunity to seek out an answer along with many long overdue explanations, even if it would probably just result in another argument.
It was a bit difficult to manage, though, as he must have 'jumped' some distance away to avoid being followed, but she didn't think he'd leave the river with his need to wash out his mouth, and he wouldn't risk going too far. The only thing she had to concern herself with was taking care to not alert him of her presence, and it was far easier to move silently without yards and yards of hair trailing after her.
She found him in the middle of washing his face, trying to suppress small tremors in his hands. Yuu gave him a minute to calm down, during which time he realized that his wet hair was low enough to obscure his vision, and made the unwise decision to take care of that immediately. Her approach was masked entirely by his unrestrained cursing, and he didn't notice she was there until she had him by the shoulders. He might have instinctively attacked her with the scissors if her reflection hadn't appeared in the stream above his. Masayuki's eyes widened before he squeezed them shut and turned his head to the side. His hands dropped down to rest on his knees, and he asked, in a weary tone, "What are you doing?"
Wasn't that her line? She took the scissors with one hand and pulled his partially sodden hood down with the other. He flinched at the exposure rather than the exchange of the potential weapon, so he either still trusted her or had a low opinion of his life. She reached up to turn his head straight and combed her fingers through his bangs like she had hundreds of times before, then replied, "Trying to fix the mess you made," as she carefully consulted his reflection and began to even out his own awkward attempts.
He didn't argue her choice of phrasing. In fact, he seemed to accept it as truth. "Is there a point in explaining myself anymore? You've probably pieced it all together already."
Yuu could certainly guess a number of things. She supposed it was a common story, now. A child born with a mysterious power was attacked by an evil wizard and ended up separated from their family, one way or another. Masayuki's parents had just been taken from him instead of vice versa. They'd likely perished while defending him, as he had rounded up everyone he could, then all he had been able to do was take the refugees and flee to her kingdom, where she'd found him in the courtyard, exhausted and upset. She could have asked him to tell her all that in his own words, but he'd already been forced to relive those memories enough for that day. Instead, she asked, "Was it your mother who taught you how to braid hair?"
The tips of his lips quirked upward just a fraction. She was glad that it was a fond memory. "I'm not sure how she did it--I suppose mothers must learn as quickly as their children to keep up with their misdemeanors, and considering what her son was capable of, she had to be the craftiest woman in the land. She always knew exactly where I was, especially when she knew I was up to no good. Every time I was caught in the act, she took hold of my hand so I couldn't escape, and wouldn't release me until I learned to do something useful with my power. One of those times, she untied her hair, and had me braid it for her. It was the very first time I tried doing something so intricate, so the first attempt was a disaster, but, as you should be aware, there were plenty of opportunities to practice. I was an expert in short order."
The thought of Masayuki being such a troublesome child was refreshing when compared to his usual seriousness. "You were always so skilled at taking care of my hair. I should have known that you were using magic to cheat all along."
"Magic isn't effortless, Yuu. The mental strain to keep all that hair of yours in place while I wove it was ridiculous, especially since most of my power was already devoted to keeping the tower invisible. You ought to know how taxing it can be, yourself."
Indeed, she wouldn't have been able to take care of all the ill and injured refugees he'd escorted to her kingdom if she hadn't eaten well beforehand. In her case, though, overusing her hair's restorative abilities had only ever left her feeling physically drained, probably because it wasn't actually something she'd had to think about to accomplish. "When were you going to tell me about your power?"
"I was going to try to explain it all last night if you hadn't left, but... I don't know if I'd have ever said anything if I was able to get away with it."
Yuu didn't know what was worse, his honesty or his deceit. "How can it be that I know so little about the boy I grew up with? Was our time together nothing but lies?"
That accusation struck a nerve; he seemed to shrink a bit more into himself. "What good would it have been for you to have known it all from the start? Would you have truly preferred living each day for the past twelve years knowing that man coveted my power just as much as yours? Would you have been able to watch me climb down your hair without anxiously wondering whether or not I'd return to climb back up again? What would be the point in revealing that it was his pursuit of me that led him straight to you? Because I was in too much of a panic to think about doing something about the footprints or even to make sure that no one witnessed a huge group of people seeming to pop in and out of existence? How many times would you have wondered how much longer you would have been able to live peacefully with your parents in your castle if you'd never met me? You might have still been there to this day if I'd known enough to go to Prince Mikoto's kingdom instead, but I hadn't even been thinking clearly and just went for the first castle I found entirely by chance! I meant it when I said it would have been better if I hadn't met you; I ruined your life, Yuu!"
In all the years she'd known him, Masayuki had never even come close to breaking down to the point of crying since their first fateful encounter. Even when he woke up from nightmares with wide and fearful eyes, they'd stayed dry while she'd done her best to comfort him. Back then, she'd thought that it was a mix of having been forced to kill a man (that she'd since learned hadn't been a man at all, let alone a living thing) and having witnessed his parents die while his home had either been burned or raided by bandits led by the man who haunted him. Now she knew that he blamed himself for everything, and the tears that he'd locked away were now falling from behind clenched eyelids. "Masayuki, you are not responsible for that man's actions!"
He refused to accept that, though, and got to his feet, nearly knocking her down. Luckily, his haircut was long complete, else she might have accidentally cut him with the scissors. "You don't understand!" he argued, his face twisted in an agony she wouldn't have been able to heal even with magical hair. "You, your parents, your kingdom, my parents, the people who lost their homes; they all deserved so much better, but all they got was me!" And then he was gone.
Yuu supposed she earned that after running out on him first, but she refused to feel guilty about misunderstanding him the first time since it was hardly her fault that he'd kept so many of his thoughts from her! What was she supposed to think without knowing his side of the story?! "Masayuki!" she yelled as loudly as possible, hoping that he was still close enough to hear. "If you don't return by nightfall I will track you down and sing until your ears bleed!"
The walk back to camp was more than a little frustrating since he could have just as easily taken her back with him and then vanished, but then she wouldn't have come across the openly weeping Mikoto, who, as she quickly learned, had gotten anxious enough about being left alone that he'd attempted to find them, only to have gotten lost himself. He'd found (or had been found by) Masayuki first, who must have gathered enough of his wits to realize Mikoto's situation and steered him back toward the river. However, his tears were not due to worrying he'd be lost in the woods forever (though that may have played a part).
Taking hold of her shoulders, he began to beg her to forgive Masayuki. "I know that a rift has formed between you two, but Mage Hori really is a great man! An excellent friend! He was so upset, but he helped me out anyway, and even advised me to cherish my princess above all else! It felt as though he was speaking from experience! A woman came between you, right? But the love between friends is still too important to abandon in favor of romance! You must forgive him, Kashima! It would simply be too sad otherwise! I realize that none of this is my business but I cannot remain silent any longer!"
Mikoto had certainly imagined quite the convoluted scenario; Yuu kind of felt bad for not explaining at least a little more than she had, and took the opportunity to correct a few things. "There isn't a third person involved--we had a fight over a misunderstanding, which was just cleared up, but he refuses to forgive himself for being less than a god because he was unable to stop the warlock on his own when he was just a child. He's upset right now because our destination triggered uncomfortable memories."
It was surprising that the prince hadn't figured it out himself, having known about Masayuki's power from the start, but perhaps he hadn't gone into much detail regarding his past while attempting to recruit help from the Mikoshibas. Instead, Mikoto just looked anxious. "He found out where the wizard is hiding already?"
Rather than 'hiding', Yuu would describe it as 'waiting', but she nodded anyway. "After his earlier reaction... it's fairly obvious that this is a homecoming." When you couldn't catch someone just by chasing them, the next best plan was to wait where they might eventually appear, and for Masayuki, the only lead was his former home.
Mikoto's face went frightfully pale, but at the same time, he seemed to have resolved the inner struggle between his fear of the wizard and his fears of what that wizard would do if he weren't stopped. "His presence in Mage Hori's homeland is a blight that must be removed and burned so that his grief may be eased."
Healing Masayuki's heart was supposed to be her job, ever since her first attempt twelve years ago had failed, but she could accept Mikoto's assistance. Yuu took his hand and shook it to seal the agreement. "Your bravery will most certainly be rewarded; among all the beautiful maidens that shall soon be rescued, there is at least one who would offer you her heart."
It was adorable how flustered Mikoto became whenever his lost princess was brought up, and suggesting that she might have some competition just deepened the flush on his precious face. "J-just the one is already more than enough! I'm still struggling to determine how I should introduce myself to her in person for the very first time!"
Yuu laughed a bit, hoping that her light attitude might rub off on him enough that he might feel more at ease. It wouldn't be good if he worried more about meeting his princess than the fight preceding it. "Relax, Prince Mikoto; she already likes you! Why else would she have continued to send letters up until the point of her abduction? All you must do is continue to be your own self!"
"Speaking in person is very different in comparison to writing a letter!" he protested.
She supposed that might be true for someone as shy as Mikoto, though she couldn't imagine writing any differently to how she spoke in person, herself. "In that case," she offered, "after we tire from sparring, I would happily assist by teaching you a bit of conversation!"
While Yuu was likely a bit too aggressive during the practice match, since Mikoto's magic sword would not allow him to be harmed, she'd taken the opportunity to channel her frustrations. It wouldn't do to still be cross with Masayuki when he returned, after all. As determined as he was to blame himself for everything, he required her support now more than ever.
========
It took Masayuki nearly an hour to feel calm enough to return, but lucky for every living creature with ears in the vicinity, the sun still hung low in the sky. After twelve years of living with her, he knew very well that her song was no idle threat. If she was unable to find him on her own, Yuu would simply torture his ears until he surrendered himself, because despite everything, he couldn't bring himself to stay out of earshot.
He likely looked like a complete mess, but the hood thankfully obscured the majority of his face. It had served him well earlier, when he'd chanced upon Mikoto in the woods, but it had been harder to mask his hitched breathing as he'd led the prince back to the river, and it was obvious that he'd been concerned. Prince Mikoto was awkward and cowardly but refreshingly sincere. Yuu could have done much worse in choosing her partner in life. Masayuki had advised the younger male to cherish his love, knowing the consequences of failure, and left him in Yuu's path back to their camp.
It wasn't supposed to have been so difficult to find them in the middle of some rather intense flirtations, with Yuu dipping Mikoto so low he was completely horizontal, and probably whispering all sorts of sweet nothings judging by how the color of his face was nearly matching his hair. It was supposed to happen this way. She was supposed to fall in love with a prince and live happily ever after, just like in all those silly fairy tales. Prince Mikoto's enchanted horse had led him straight to her, and his enchanted sword would keep him safe, so all Masayuki had to do was continue to protect Yuu, and then they could have their happy ending.
He'd been over this again and again. He'd given Mikoto all the food he'd bought for her so he'd have something to get her attention, and even gave him all the advice he could to help boost his confidence, but now that it was actually happening, he couldn't even stand to watch them together.
For the lack of anything better to do, Masayuki decided to save himself some heartache and distracted himself by tending to the horse. He'd only just relocated it closer to the stream to drink as it pleased when an arm suddenly wound around his shoulders and the other appeared in front of his face, offering a cup. He already knew it was her before she spoke; Mikoto wouldn't be so willing to touch him, and only Yuu knew that he couldn't escape as long as she remained in direct contact with him.
"I imagine you must he a bit low on fluids by now," she said in lieu of a greeting, and he actually was rather thirsty, so he accepted the drink without complaint, and used the act of slowly swallowing it as an excuse to not respond just yet. "I'm not going to try claiming that the last twelve years were full of nothing but wonderful experiences, but I never once regretted meeting you... until yesterday, when I thought that you hated me as much as I hated being stuck in that tower, but of course, now that I know the truth, I'm grateful again. Back then, we were both far too young to face this foe, and it's only through how diligently you kept us hidden that we can fight him now. There isn't anyone else I'd have rather been locked away with for so long--I'm glad for all the time I was able to spend with you, Masayuki."
Here it came; she was gearing up to announce her relationship with Mikoto and how it wasn't likely that she'd be able to spend much more of her time with a simple mage. It was still so much more than he deserved, being able to part on amiable terms, but he couldn't deny her this. His voice was weaker than he'd hoped, but he managed to say, "I could never hate you, Yuu. If it ever appeared that way, it was only because I wanted you to be happy, but all I could do was keep you safe."
"'Happy', huh?" she replied with an audible smile. "It would make me very happy if you would come with me and help teach Prince Mikoto how to woo his princess! It should be much easier for him to learn if he can just sit and observe without having to take part in the actual demonstration!"
Yuu was already using the arm slung across his shoulders to lead him away, and he let her, because he couldn't immediately go back on his word, but something didn't add up. "What's the point in that, exactly?" Actually, now that he thought about it, why had she been the one assuming the 'princely' role in the first place if she was trying to coach him to better flirt with her? And what did Yuu even know about courtship to begin with, aside from what she'd learned from fairy tales? ...Well, that at least explained the ridiculous showmanship he'd almost accidentally interrupted earlier.
"Well, if he's worried about what to say to his princess the first time he meets her, then how is he supposed to concentrate properly on the battle?"
"What?!" he exclaimed, surprised, but all she did was repeat the word in confusion, forcing him to elaborate. "What do you mean, 'the first time he meets her'?" Was it supposed to be some sort of code for the moment in which she switched back from Prince Kashima to Princess Yuu? For that matter, was Mikoto even aware that they were the same person or had she lead him to believe that 'Princess Yuu' had been kidnapped and was awaiting rescue? What the hell was going on?
Of course, he'd completely wasted the effort in trying to come up with the explanation himself, because Yuu easily replied, "Oh, I'd thought he'd told you all about it already, since he was quick to tell me. As it happens, Prince Mikoto has been in correspondence with a princess from a faraway kingdom for nearly a year, now. It's strange that they held back from actually meeting for so long, but I imagine that the princess may be just as shy as dear Mikoto, so I'm sure that they both continually postponed until finally, last month, the princess ended up getting kidnapped. Her parents must have begged the king and queen of Mikoshiba to intervene out of fear that their daughter would be harmed in retaliation if they sent their own armies... but since they had yet to form and official alliance with Mikoshiba, Mikoto's quest would not be traced back to their kingdom as long as he doesn't mention it. He refused to even tell me her name in case a spy was near enough to overhear!"
Masayuki felt like a complete fool. He'd thought that Mikoto's horse had led him to Yuu to fulfill some sort of romantic destiny, when it had actually just delivered him to a formidable ally... or so he hoped. Lacking her healing power, and having no other skills beyond formally untested swordsmanship and the possibility of weaponizing her terrible singing voice, just the fact that she was usually able to win their sparring matches didn't promise much for the actual battle. And yet... as long as he was able to defend her from any magical attacks just as Mikoto's sword would protect him, having a second blade in the fight would be invaluable--and he had the feeling that she was even better with a sword than Mikoto, if his bias wasn't overshadowing the prince's ability.
He suddenly realized that he'd been quiet for far too long, and hastily replied, "I see," which was a mistake, because by that point, it would have been less suspicious to have simply remained silent.
"Hmm?" she hummed in curiosity, and he was glad that she couldn't see his face with his hood up and his head turned to the side. "If you didn't know the truth, then I wonder what you were thinking all day about what had motivated Prince Mikoto to accept this quest?"
Just admitting that he'd mistakenly believed that Mikoto had been chosen by fate to be her proverbial 'knight in shining armor' would have been far too embarrassing for him to endure, and Yuu would never let him hear the end of it. So he replied, "I just thought it was odd that he hadn't met her yet, that's all."
"Oh?" she said, in that tone that left no room for doubt that she knew he was hiding something. Damn it--he was usually so much better at avoiding these situations! He'd been affected more than he thought by that day's events! Thankfully, before he had to explain any further and ended up caught in a hastily formed mistruth, they were met by the chronically lonely Mikoto, who must have started following Yuu to the stream. He looked far too relieved to see them, and didn't wait long to explain why.
"Oh--I'm so glad that the two of you are getting along again! I mean, I don't know any of the details but I was nearly choking on the heavy atmosphere all day! Please don't fight again--I'm begging you!"
Yuu laughed and clapped a hand on Mikoto's shoulder to assure him. "There's nothing to fear! No matter how stubborn Masayuki is, there's no way he'll ever convince me to dislike him ever again! It's far too late for that now!"
"You're the stubborn one," he retorted, more than aware that he was just proving her point. And, he was sure that he'd end up regretting reminding her, but added, "Wasn't there something you wanted to do?"
Had he known in advance that she would insist upon acting out the 'prince' role herself, strong-arming him into playing the princess with arguments such as 'naturally the prince ought to be taller than his princess' and 'the way your cloak wraps around you makes it look like a dress', he definitely would not have changed the subject so quickly... but while he started out more than a little irritated about her casual quips about his appearance, he never actually got around to actually regretting agreeing to the charade, and it wasn't like this was the first time she'd convinced him to let her act as the 'hero' in their games while they were younger (which eventually graduated to them acting out actual scripts he'd come across here and there in his travels). Having no idea of the princess's actual personality, he was free to react in all sorts of ways to Yuu's princely charms, and if his face got a little red every now and then, he was just that good at acting, all right?!
Eventually, though, the sun disappeared over the horizon, and even the bright moon and stars were not enough to dispel the human need for rest. Mikoto thanked them both for their help, and set about preparing their bedrolls, but Yuu stopped him after just rolling out one.
"There's one last thing!" she said, and approached Masayuki as he draped his cloak over a branch, not needing it for that warm summer night. Yuu waited until she felt that Mikoto was paying enough attention, then picked up the mage, one arm wrapped around his upper torso and the other hooked under his knees. "Whether she's injured, ill, feeling faint, or ready to be taken to your bed, this is the proper way to carry your princess!"
Masayuki's first instinct was to hit her, but stopped himself when he realized that the very next thing to happen would be getting dropped directly on his ass, and redirected his arm to sling across her shoulders instead. "What the hell, Yuu?! Put me down!"
"I will!" she claimed, but obviously not immediately as she began to carry him off somewhere. He caught sight of Mikoto's half horrified, half embarrassed face, and then he was being gently lowered onto the bedroll, and Yuu's face was far too close. "Actually, this would be the perfect moment to kiss her!"
She laughed when Masayuki immediately rolled onto his side and tried to ignore her, though that quickly became impossible when she laid down on the bedroll beside him after pulling off both his and her boots. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he demanded to know.
"Sleeping with you," she answered easily, though it was obvious that she'd chosen the most easily misinterpreted phrase on purpose. "We used to do it all the time when we were younger, so why not?" Yuu only just barely held back her laughter when they could quite clearly hear Mikoto dash off with his own bedroll, probably choosing to sleep near the stream with his horse. "Besides," she added, a little more gently, now that they were left alone, "there's a fair chance that you'll wake up at least once tonight. It'll be easier on you if I'm already here beside you, right?" One arm slipped under his head to act as a pillow while the other wound around his midsection, encouraging him to lean back against her.
Masayuki gave in with a sigh, letting himself relax. She was right, of course. The last time he'd had a nightmare, he'd made a terrible mess of the tower in his panic to find her, and out here in the wilderness, that could be dangerous, even with the charms he'd set up to dissuade both humans and animals from approaching their camp. "I know where he is," he forced himself to say.
"I know, too," she replied, and the relief of not having to say the rest out loud was nearly overwhelming. "Are we going to fight him tomorrow? Do you think you'll be able to face him tomorrow? Mikoto isn't going to complain if we put it off for another day or two, and I'll understand."
He almost considered that. "Every day that passes just gives him more opportunities to strengthen himself. We'll strike tomorrow after planning as much as possible. By tomorrow evening, his hostages will all be returned to their families, and we can all be at peace, knowing that he'll never again harm another soul." Masayuki could only hope for that much to be true.
"'Happily ever after', huh?" she wondered, and he reminded himself that just because Mikoto already had a princess waiting for him, it didn't actually make his own secret longing for any kind of 'ever after' with Yuu any more realistic. Just laying next to her like this was already more than he deserved, and it wasn't a luxury he'd be able to enjoy much longer, regardless of tomorrow's outcome.
"If you're going to keep up with the 'dashing prince' routine, you'll end up with dozens of princesses vying for that 'happily ever after' with you. Take care to not break Prince Mikoto's heart; his sword might brand you as his enemy."
She laughed and her breath ruffled his hair. "If it came to that, I'm sure that it would just take one song to send her back into his arms. If not, she never deserved someone as precious as Mikoto to begin with, and I wouldn't be interested in someone so capricious, either. No... my princess can only be the most stubbornly loyal maiden in the land."
Maybe it would be better for him if her heart chose a woman to pine for; it might be easier to accept that he'd never had a chance with her that way. "Good luck finding a lady that can trump you in that regard."
She squeezed him just a little tighter. "In that case, perhaps I would be willing to accept the second most stubborn princess of all."
On the other hand, this conversation had to stop before he began to regret the fact that he'd been born male. "Perhaps you'll meet her tomorrow. Good night, Yuu." The last thing they needed was being forced to postpone the battle due to sleeplessness caused by such unforgiving realities.
With that, they quickly fell asleep, and any cool breeze throughout the night was offset by the warmth of sleeping next to each other. Masayuki only woke up once, pulse racing in terror, and without giving it much thought, rolled over in Yuu's slackened arms so that he could press his face against her collarbone and comfort himself with her scent. One arm was trapped beneath him, but the other fit comfortably around her torso. Having not fully awakened in the first place, he easily drifted off again, and wouldn't even remember the nightmare in the morning. Instead, would only recall bittersweet memories of his parents.
========
Mikoto had woken that morning having slept fitfully, and ended up rolling halfway into the river. He didn't know know long it had taken him to wake up while in such a tenuous position, but he'd opened his eyes to the sight of his drawn sword diverting the shallow waters from his face and preventing him from drowning. At least Mage Hori had been right about his sword protecting him without fail, but even so, he wished for nothing more than the evil wizard to simply drop dead before he had to test the sword's enchantments any further.
Even if it was because of the cool water, he was glad to have woken first, because he'd been able to hide his soaked clothing in the nearby trees to dry, and successfully changed before either of the others could wake and tease him for his folly. Not that he believed they'd be especially cruel about it, and maybe they wouldn't say anything at all, but it still would have been mortifying for them to find out!
Meanwhile, being forced to recover dry clothes had also forced him to walk by his companions' bedroll, and while he'd at first attempted to shield his eyes, an unintended glance back toward them while he changed revealed that they hadn't actually been intimate last night, as Kashima had hinted, since they were both still fully clothed. He was more than a little relieved by that fact, because he had absolutely no idea how to talk to people the morning after... that. He barely knew how to talk to people at all! But there was no way he wouldn't get embarrassed having to talk to them while they undoubtedly had that on their minds! He'd have rather gotten swept away by the river!
On the other hand, seeing them so close together, Mage Hori in particular clinging to Prince Kashima like a lifeline, was actually really adorable, and he felt like an idiot for ever thinking that a princess had come between them since it should have been obvious that they were in love with each other and that their fight had been some kind of lover's spat. Or maybe they were from a kingdom that didn't approve of their relationship? Some places disallowed royalty and more common people to wed, while others would take issue with their shared gender. If either were the case, Mikoto would happily welcome them in his kingdom, where several mages were skilled at blessing such couples with children if that was the issue.
Of course, all of that would be moot if he was unable to save his kingdom in the first place and all those mages were either killed or captured. It seemed that, no matter what he did, destiny just continued to bury him under reasons why he simply could not avoid facing that horrific foe! He could at least comfort himself with the fact that he had allies now, but what if something happened to them?!
Mage Hori woke up next, and skillfully slipped out of the tangled limbs without waking Kashima. He halted for a moment when he noticed Mikoto watching, but quickly shifted back to calm professionalism. The young prince dearly wished for some portion of that skill to bless him, because while Hori refused to display any embarrassment, Mikoto was certainly feeling his face burn secondhand. He tried to retreat back to his horse by the river, but Hori followed.
"We'll keep your horse tied here," he explained. "If the fight doesn't go as planned, we can't afford to allow it to be harmed, as it'll be our only chance to find him again if he chooses to flee, and going back to your kingdom for another horse could be dangerous if he discovers a way to track us back to your home and goes after your vulnerable supporters." He paused, then added, "We're only about a half hour's walk from our destination, so you shouldn't have a problem making it back here if something happens to me. Just find the river and follow it."
He wished that Mage Hori would stop covering all the possible horrible scenarios. "I would very much rather that both you and Prince Kashima take care to not be harmed yourselves," he replied, trying to sound as gallant as possible.
"It's unlikely that it will go smoothly," Hori admitted as he prepared a full day's feed for the horse, "but I do have a plan. We'll go over it when Yuu awakens, so, for now, we ought to prepare breakfast and replenish our drinking water." Mikoto took the hint to gather some water from the stream, and once Hori finished with the horse, they both got to work collecting firewood.
Kashima was already awake when they returned, and had just put away the bedroll. When she saw them bringing back dry wood and sticks, he got to work clearing a circle for the fire so it wouldn't spread to the grass around them. They ate while they waited for the water to boil, then Hori began to tell they the details of his plan.
"I doubt he has any guards beyond his own puppets. Mercenaries are only loyal as long as they're happy with their pay, after all, and why would he risk getting stabbed in the back? So, if he has hired anyone, they'd be guarding the castle walls and probably locked out to prevent treachery. Since we'll be jumping past that, we won't have to worry about them until after the fight, and I'm sure that most will abandon their posts quickly once they learn that their employer is dead. With any luck, we won't have to fight them at all.
"As for us, we'll skip straight to the ballroom. It's large enough to grant us mobility, and too close to the guest rooms for him to risk any large destructive spells. It's within his best interests to keep his hostages alive and healthy, so they've all likely been placed under sleeping enchantments in proper beds instead of locked up in the dungeon. If they were to die, he'd lose their power, so as long as they're nearby, he'll be limited to less dangerous spells. If I'm wrong, it would be easy enough for us to try another location, so be sure to stay close to me at first. He'll likely know the moment we arrive. He's been there too long to not have set up some sort of alarm, and he's likely been counting on me to come back one day. I'm sure you both can imagine how useful my power would be for his plots."
Indeed, Mikoto nearly shook in fear at the thought of his enemy jumping straight into his parents' throne room much like Hori had himself, just last year. "So, what you're saying is that we'll be using his hostages as our hostages?" He couldn't figure out a way to put it politely, but it sounded a little... dishonorable to gamble innocent people's lives, as their adversary did.
Hori seemed to understand Mikoto's misgivings, though. "It's a controversial position to take, but it's the only one available to us. Were it as simple as sending all your kingdom's mages here to destroy the entire castle with him inside it, they wouldn't have sent you on this quest, Prince Mikoto. This way, we'll have the best chance to kill him and save all the hostages, and were I one myself, I would be happy to have such an important role in subduing my captor."
Kashima spoke up. "And I, as well. What kind of life would it be to sleep endlessly while my captor used my gifts to harm countless others? I would rather die, but if he threatened my kingdom, I would have had no choice but to surrender myself."
The mage nodded grimly, his face pale. "I'm afraid that would be his usual tactic. He tends to threaten the lives of his target's loved ones, and forces them to submit to his will. If they choose to fight... he tends to get his way regardless in addition to the lives lost in the battle." He looked at both Mikoto and Kashima in turn. "It is very important that you both keep your true identities hidden, so that he cannot manipulate you into inaction."
Kashima looked startled. "Masayuki, he surely hasn't forgotten your last encounter with him! What do we do if he remembers all the refugees you escorted to my kingdom? Both your people and mine are at risk! What if he's already done something?!"
"I was worried about that, too, but I was sure to check on them from time to time, whenever I dared. He most certainly has been keeping an eye out for our return or reappearance, though, and undoubtedly planned to use your family and the people as bargaining chips if he ever got the chance, but he wouldn't harm anyone until he knew he had our attention. He probably will recognize me, due to my magic, but I'll lie and tell him that I quietly moved the refugees elsewhere over the years, if he even remembers them. That ought to delay him from attacking your kingdom immediately, but it would be for the best to dispatch him quickly if he begins to make threats. Just try not to panic, since it'll give him the clue that you may not be simply sympathetic."
All this sudden new information about his companions was interesting, but Mikoto had the feeling that it would be best to leave the unveiling of 'secret identities' for later. "In that case, we should probably decide on coded names for one another, right? Because I don't know about you, Kashima, but if he'd been keeping an eye on my kingdom as well, it's unlikely that he doesn't know the name of its only prince."
"Well... my situation is a bit more complicated, but to be safe, I suggest we go by the colors of our hair, 'Red' and 'Blue'! As for Masayuki... hmm, just 'Brown' sounds undignified. What about 'Chestnut' or 'Auburn'? Oh, wait, I think 'Auburn' is a more reddish hue, so--"
"For heaven's sake, Yuu, keep it simple and just call me 'Mage'. You aren't going to have time in the middle of a fight to remember something complex."
"Eh?! But just calling out 'Mage!' makes it sound like I'm ordering you around!"
"I really couldn't care less what it sounds like, Yuu! Or should I say 'Blue'?"
Mikoto didn't think this argument was an actual fight, but just to be safe, he mustered up his courage and spoke up. "'Red', 'Blue', and 'Mage' would be easiest for me to remember, I think... Um, can we talk more about our strategy? B-because it sounds like we'll be in the thick of it the moment we arrive, a-and I'd feel better to be... prepared?" He hated how his voice gradually grew weaker to the point that the last word was little more than a squeak.
At least it got their attention, if only to be repeatedly assured that he would be fine and that Hori would get them out of there if something went wrong, though Mikoto's sword would still keep him safe no matter what, as long as the wizard didn't figure out where it came from. With that reminder, the Mikoshiba prince rid himself of any clothing that could tie him to his kingdom, though, mysteriously, Kashima was content in his chosen apparel. Had he left everything behind when he began his quest?
They spent the next several hours practicing their teamwork. When they were satisfied that their timing was as good as it was going to get without months or years worth of more training, they had a light lunch, did their best to relax, then jumped straight into the wizard's lair.
========
Masayuki regretted eating at all the moment he stepped into the ballroom. The difference between its current state and his memories of it were like night and day; it was obvious at a glance that the wizard hadn't lifted a finger in the name of cleanliness. Even the chandelier overhead listed to one side as several of the ropes holding it in place had snapped. The rest held it secure, but he was quick to point it out to the other two. If either of them found themselves under it, their enemy would likely find some way to cause it to fall, just as Masayuki planned the reverse. It would be quite fitting for the man to be felled by his own vindictive streak, since all this was likely to be a purposeful insult to 'the one that got away'. He wouldn't be surprised if the man had found some way to advance the decay past what was natural for twelve years of being left to nature. However, getting sick again now would just please his adversary, and he refused him that delight.
As expected, mere seconds passed before he made his entrance, throwing open the large double doors atop the staircase and strutting into sight. "Well, now, Masayuki!" he called out, having recognized his magical signature after all. "What a surprise; I'd been expecting you years ago, so I was beginning to believe you were nothing but a coward. I hope you like what I've done with the place!"
The remark was hardly unexpected. Yuu and Mikoto responded by drawing their weapons, steel singing, but Masayuki just tossed away his now worthless cloak and forced himself to smile. "It appears that the years have been just as unkind to your face."
Vain as he was, the wizard's wrinkled visage contorted into rage. "Were is not for your interference in my acquisition of the girl blessed by moonlight, I--"
He was interrupted by the sudden disappearance of the two sword-fighters and the flash of steel from both sides. The wizard's only options should have been to hurriedly descend the staircase (and trip if they were lucky) or stand his ground and die, but he surprised them all by leaping straight into the air. "Shit!" Masayuki cursed, then called out, "Keep on him--I'll redirect you before you fall!" He hadn't practiced this, and it took a few seconds of solely supporting Yuu before Mikoto found the courage to leap off the balcony after her, but they all managed just fine. Unfortunately, the wizard managed just fine, too, as the swords seemed to collide with some kind of invisible shield. It wasn't long before Masayuki was forced to bring them back down to the floor to re-evaluate their position and to give both the others time to catch their breath. The fight had just started and already wasn't going well, but at least it appeared that their proximity to the hostages was working in their favor, as their adversary seemed to be limited to purely defensive magic. But it was only a matter of time before he switched tactics.
In this case, 'a matter of time' was actually 'immediately'. "As you can see, Masayuki, I have been kind enough to not harm your friends yet, but I warn you, if you do not surrender both yourself and the moon-blessed girl to me, I will be forced to kill them."
"'Friends'?" he repeated, acting amused. "You mean these two mercenaries here? You wouldn't believe the bounty on your head, wizard. And just how much more could they expect to be rewarded by the grateful families of your kidnapped victims? I assure you, they won't give that up without a fight, and they have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves..."
The wizard smiled thinly, seeing his first attempt had failed, and hesitated to fulfill his threat against the two warriors, whom he was probably already considering manipulating into turning against Masayuki, just to make his assumed victory that much sweeter. "I see," he said, slowly, then his eyes flashed and he recovered some of his cheer. "Though I do remember a certain group of people you took great care to protect--even to the point of abandoning your own parents, as I recall! Where would they all be now, I wonder? You left them all in the care of that princess's kingdom, didn't you?"
Masayuki forced himself to not look at Yuu, who must have successfully contained herself, as the wizard's eyes remained locked on him. "I'd be surprised if any remained there, as my final instruction was that they gradually disperse over time. My duty to the king of this castle you squat in like a diseased rat has long since been completed. You have no power over me, scoundrel."
The man's disappointment would have been comical were it not for his villainy. "Is that so? I suppose that leaves me with the true citizens of that kingdom. That princess of yours certainly wouldn't be happy with you if you let her people perish, would she, Masayuki?"
He spoke over Yuu's stifled sounds of alarm. "She died a long time ago, you degenerate swine." Masayuki drew his sword, signaling the next phase of attack. "Red, Blue--"
They were halted by a sudden vision appearing before them, a scene that could have been reflected by some unseen mirror hanging from the ceiling, if they were in fact standing in the street of Yuu's kingdom. Just beyond a small group of children, one of the wizard's puppets, concealed in an alley, nocked an arrow. "I'm beginning to believe that you aren't taking me seriously, Masayuki."
Luckily, both Yuu and Mikoto cried out, though it could be just as easily written off as a reaction to the wizard's magic instead of concern for the children. Masayuki's sword flashed in a simple horizontal slash, and the would-be assassin's head fell from his shoulders, its entire form unraveling into nothing before it hit the cobblestones. If they were lucky, it was the only puppet in Yuu's kingdom, but even if that were so, there were undoubtedly several more on the way. They had to finish this quickly. "Or it could be that you're not taking me seriously, wizard. Enough of your games. Red, Blue, we're going with strategy five." He hoped his dismissive tone successfully deterred the wizard from any further attempts at manipulation, but Masayuki worried more about the other two potential targets, especially Mikoto. It would make sense for the wizard to have left only one puppet in the Kashima kingdom for surveillance purposes, but if Mikoto slipped up and revealed his identity, he could have had half an army built up by now and Masayuki wouldn't be able to do anything about it even if the wizard helpfully provided a peek through the 'looking glass'. He wasn't nearly as familiar with the layout of the Mikoshiba kingdom as he was with Yuu's, and he'd been lucky to remember the location of that particular alley! If he was forced to guess a puppet's position, then it was likely he'd kill a citizen purely by accident!
Yet, the fact that the wizard's attention was divided between them and countless puppets all over the countryside had to count for something. If he was that overconfident, then they had to have a decent shot at actually killing the man, right? But, even with Masayuki now adding his own attacks from afar, none of them were actually landing a hit! It was enough to make him rethink his earlier attack on the puppet--if he'd sent his blade through the wizard's throat instead, would the attack have been surprising enough to succeed? Yet, if he'd tried and failed, and a child had died in the process, he wouldn't have been able to forgive himself!
Masayuki began to focus on the 'shield', attempting to 'stretch' the space around it enough to force a sword through, and when that failed, tried to 'bend' the interior enough to crush the wizard with his own barrier, but the damn thing was immovable! If he kept trying to slip his sword directly inside the man's body, then maybe he'd land a fatal blow eventually, but he'd have to stop darting around in midair first, because Masayuki couldn't keep the two fighters off the ground and continue attacking indefinitely! He'd eventually black out from the mental stress!
Suddenly, everything took a turn for the worse. Just as all three of them struck at once, the barrier around the wizard hardened somehow, and both Yuu and Masayuki's swords shattered into pieces. The villain had obviously waited for that exact moment, so he could simultaneously disarm them all at once, but he'd been surprised by Mikoto's magic sword, which spared them from whatever counterattack he'd been planning. Masayuki swiftly recalled Yuu back to his side and readied himself for a hasty retreat if it became necessary, but hesitated to abandon Mikoto, who was stuck with his sword embedded in the invisible barrier and didn't dare let go, even though the space directly below him would deliver him directly to his friends.
"Now this is interesting," the warlock said, inspecting the blade held tight in Mikoto's hand. The prince was speechless and shaking with fright. "It's very difficult to read, and yet... I can definitely see that there's a great deal of power contained in this blade. I wonder how many mages went so far as to cast an 'absolute'? For that matter, how many kingdoms out there even have enough gifted citizens to accomplish such a feat?" His lips curled in a grotesque smirk. "The only one I can think of... has a royal family blessed with bright. Red. Hair. How quaint of them to send you to attack me, Prince Mikoto Mikoshiba. They must have hoped I'd have rid them of your presence! How cruel of them! I'd happily help you get vengeance upon those who so callously sent you to your death!"
The offer sent a jolt of fear through Masayuki's spine. If Mikoto were to fall for that, he might believe that a partnership would grant him enough leverage to secure his princess's freedom, but the only result would be that he would be used until the wizard found and killed all the mages who'd blessed the sword, and would then kill Mikoto himself. There was no way he'd allow someone with the power to kill him to stand beside him as a partner.
He really needn't have worried, though, because Mikoto was far too good of a person to even consider such a thing. Masayuki wouldn't have (mistakenly) approved him as Yuu's suitor otherwise. Still, the young prince surprised him with the strength of his rebuttal, practically filling the room with his shouts. "No! I will not turn my back upon the people who cared so much that they endangered themselves to protect me! There's nothing you can say to me that will make me betray my people! And I won't allow you to harm them, either! I'll kill every one of your hostages if I must, and I'll fight and fight and fight you until one or both of us dies! You will not lay a single finger upon my people, you monster!"
It was the most spectacular bluff; Masayuki wouldn't have been able to threaten the captives nearly as convincingly as the desperate Mikoto. The wizard was forced to take the declaration as truth, because attempting to kill the hostages would have been his choice action if their roles were reversed, and he had to have put enough of the pieces together to figure out that the sword would not allow Mikoto to be harmed to have even bothered attempting to recruit him.
But he should have known that the wizard had a plan for that, too. Smiling far too confidently, he touched the very tip of the blade, drawing an unnecessary drop of blood. Masayuki knew exactly what the man was up to, but he was powerless to stop it and without a weapon to take advantage of it. "After so many offered up their blessings, surely you'd welcome one more, Prince Mikoto." He let that sink in for a moment, then cast his own 'absolute'. "This sword may not be wielded by man."
Several things happened at once. The wizard lost access to his magic, and began to fall along with the sword and Mikoto. Mikoto's hand slipped off the sword's hilt as though it was slick with oil, and the prince disappeared in midair, appearing on the floor beside Masayuki in a dead faint. Yuu darted forward, and for a moment it seemed that she would catch the sword before the wizard could lay another finger upon it to redact his 'absolute', but he managed to open up another wound in his haste, and had a hand around Yuu's neck before the sword even hit the floor, and Masayuki was far too late to transport her safely back.
It had been an opportunity to take advantage of the gendered 'absolute', but also a trap. "How dare you?!" the magician roared. "How dare you, how dare you, how dare you cut her hair, Masayuki?!" A long steel shard of a shattered blade levitated off the floor and found its way into his bleeding hand, and Yuu was suddenly occupied with keeping it away from her throat as well trying to remove the hand threatening to choke the life out of her. "You really thought that dressing her as a man and having her attack me would make me forget that awful moment in which I thought I might be able to steal a bit of her lovely silver hair instead of having to cart off yet another brat to shelter, only for it to lose all its power and turn this ghastly shade of blue?! She's useless now! Even cutting her throat would be a chore if I didn't get to see you watch me do it!"
The blade inched closer and closer as Yuu gradually lost strength as she struggled to breathe, but the villain was sorely mistaken about a great many things, and the notion that Masayuki would simply stand idle while he tried to kill Yuu was the least important part. "It's laughable to think I ever had any sort of power over her personal choices, and downright hilarious that you forgot just what happens when you do so much as harm a hair on her head!"
Yuu's eyes flashed in realization, and instead of continuing the fight to keep the steel away from her flesh, she leaned down to almost harmlessly nick her chin with the blade, then quickly pulled her head back again.
It was such a simple charm, even a child with just a bit of magical power could manage it. Its critical fault lay in the specifics, as there weren't many people who grew their hair long enough or happened to carry a pair of scissors with them in case they were ever attacked. Thankfully, Yuu required neither, as Masayuki had brought that small portion of her braid with him , and it had not yet lost its mystical connection to its owner. Still, he gave it a boost in its motion and directed its path so that it would snare the hand holding the blade on its way to wrap around the magician's throat, passing through the barrier without issue as the man himself had already 'accepted' Yuu within it. Unfortunately, he had just enough foresight to drop the steel before the braid could successfully force him to stab himself in the face or neck, but at least his hand would be tied to his throat for the next few minutes, and if they were lucky, it would also cut off his air supply.
No such luck, it seemed, as the man continued to furiously breathe as he attempted to free himself, underestimating Yuu yet again as he immediately released her. She tried to punch him, but her fist bounced harmlessly off the renewed barrier as he noticed her attack at the very last second. There was only one thing Masayuki could do, then. It was stupid and dangerous but the wizard already had another broken blade in his hand to start cutting through the braid, and if he waited another second, it might be too late!
Yuu turned her attention back to Mikoto's sword just as Masayuki reached it and shouted, "This sword can breach any barrier!" Were he closer, he would have attempted to slay the magician himself, so it was lucky that he tossed the sword to Yuu instead, because the sudden loss of all his power paired with the exhaustion crashing down on him due to the overuse of that power nearly knocked him out cold, and he still had to get out of the wizard's range before he ended up getting killed and the sword went back to being mostly useless.
He ended up tripping over Mikoto's unconscious body, which had quite suddenly been encased in an amber colored barrier. It was good news for the prince that his sword continued to protect him even now, but very bad news for Masayuki as he was in a place that his sword deemed dangerous. He rolled onto his back just in time to almost catch the wrist holding the shattered blade, and understood with calm clarity that he was about to die. Mikoto's sword decapitated the wizard just a moment too late, but at least he was able to see Yuu's unmatched face one last time.
========
No no no no no, this couldn't be happening. She hadn't arrived a moment too late. She hadn't pushed the corpse aside to find a length of steel buried deep in Masayuki's chest. And she had most definitely not cut every single solitary strand of magical hair on her head, therefore completely destroying any hope that she might be able to save him!
But the reality in front of her refused to change. "Masayuki!" she cried out. "Masayuki!" He had to take his power back from the sword and then she could carry him through bent space to someone who could help him, but for any of that to happen, first he had to wake up!
The relief she felt upon seeing his eyes slide back open, even just halfway, was insurmountable. She all but thrust the sword into his hand and said, "Quickly, Masayuki--take back your magic and I'll help you get to a healer!"
He didn't seem to be affected by her urgency. "Yuu..." he said, instead, "I'm sorry... The last thing I wanted... was to make you cry..."
"Who's crying, dummy?" she replied. "Not me, so just hurry up and reclaim your power, all right?"
"Yuu..." he said again.
"Fine; I'm crying!" she admitted. "I'm crying a lot, so you better do something about that or I'll end up crying a whole lot more and it'll be all your fault! B-because you had to be a damn hero!"
"No..." he said, and it just figured that he'd argue with her even now, "you... you were always my hero... You saved me... again and again... Thank you... This... this is enough..."
"It's not enough!" she cried. "Help me save you just one more time! Please, Masayuki!"
But it was like he wasn't even hearing her anymore. "I'm so glad... you're safe... I'm happy... to have met you... to have loved you..."
Yuu couldn't take this; she wanted to hear all that any time other than now. "Please stop talking, Masayuki--just concentrate on breathing for now..."
"Flowers in the tower..." he said anyway. "Gift in my pack... Look after... my people..."
His eyes slid shut, and her heart felt as though it was being crushed by a fist. "Wait!" she begged. "Wait, wait, wait, Masayuki, wait! I love you! I love you, too, so you can't do this, all right?! You can't just... just go like this!" Her only answer was a moan, but not from the one she'd hoped. "Mikoto, help me!"
Her desperate plea roused him quickly, but by the time he crawled into sight, he must have seen the wizard's detached head because his face was as white as a sheet. "Oh--oh, no," he said, when he finally took in Masayuki's state. His hands scrambled to the mage's face to feel for any sign of breathing, and he lowered his head to press against his chest to listen for a heartbeat. After a moment, he pulled himself upright, shaking a bit. "Not... not good..."
"What is it?!" Yuu practically wailed. "Just tell me what I can do to help him! I'll do anything, so please just tell me!"
"Well, I mean, he's dead, so--" He held up his hands when Yuu's face crumbled, and rephrased. "He's mostly dead, but I've seen people come back from worse, all right?! Even a decapitation once, so we gotta burn the other guy before some misinformed cleric happens to come by and make a terrible mistake! But for Hori, it's different, okay? He's still all in one piece--well other than this--" He pulled out the sword fragment and nearly threw up thanks to the squelching sound, though Masayuki didn't even flinch. Mikoto took a moment, then tried again. "I mean, he's all here, and you're all here, so you just have to kiss him, right? Because... because you love each other, right? And True Love's Kiss is supposed to fix everything, right?!"
Yuu was already lip to lip with Masayuki following the first suggestion to kiss, so she only just barely heard the rest, which she disregarded upon discerning no further orders. He hadn't said anything about a required minimum time, either, so she stayed securely attached, trying to ignore the taste of blood, snot, and tears, until Mikoto eased her upright. Masayuki hadn't moved an inch and his lips were turning blue.
Gently, Mikoto tried to guide Yuu away, but she shoved his hands aside and pressed her head directly against Masayuki's wound. Her voice hitched and faltered as she sang, and ironically it seemed to sound a little less awful than usual without any attempt to keep a proper rhythm, but she had to try, even if it ended in just another miserable failure. There was still the chance that even just one silvery strand of hair had escaped the scissors and miraculously followed her without once getting snagged on anything, and all she had to do was sing.
"Kashima..." Mikoto said, attempting to get her attention, but she ignored him.
"Yuu..." he tried again, and this time she did rise up, because, for the past twelve years, only Masayuki had earned the privilege of addressing her so casually, and Mikoto knew so little about her that he didn't even realize that she was actually female.
However, before she could actually get started on that irrational rant her newest friend didn't even deserve, Yuu was suddenly trapped by the unmistakable sight of Masayuki's open eyes.
"Oh," he said, "thank god; I was seconds away from removing my ears."
"Masayuki?" she asked, wondering if maybe she was seeing something that wasn't actually true. She'd healed people suffering from hallucinations before.
His voice was weak, and he made no effort to move, but he wasn't fighting for breath and he kept talking. "I think I... said some things I should explain..."
Yuu was suddenly talking before she was even properly thinking. "What revived you?! The kiss or the song?! Am I still able to heal people after all?! Or is my singing just bad enough to wake the dead?!"
"Ah, maybe?" he answered, thrown off by the barrage of questions. "I can barely sense it, but..." he struggled to lift his hand, so Yuu took it and guided it in the directions he motioned for. He ended up sweeping a tear off her cheek only to deposit it on the already forgotten mark on her chin, and she was bewitched by his weary smile. "Yeah, it was the tears that did it. Blessings like yours often have multiple facets... What was that about a kiss, though? Those only break enchantments, so why...?"
She wasn't about to reveal that Mikoto knew even less about magic than he thought he did, and replied, "I had to try everything, didn't I? If it was tears that did the trick, it could have just as easily been snot or saliva! You didn't exactly help me out or anything, you know!" Vaguely, she was aware that she hadn't yet released his hand, but he wasn't asking for it back, either.
"Well, you got enough of that on me, too, so who knows?" he quipped, then grew serious again. "But... I really am sorry for bringing you to tears. All the times I've upset you. It'd be great if I could avoid making you cry from here on out, even if it would help you heal others... That's a bit selfish of me, though, isn't it?"
"I'd hope to never see you in tears ever again either, but if it's a choice between you running away or staying with me, I'd rather you cry in my arms than anywhere else." She softly ran her fingers down the side of his face, and cupped his cheek. "I hope to do something about your feelings of inadequacy as well, because you're the only one for me, Masayuki. Please let me love you."
Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. "I've fallen short of everything you deserve, Yuu..."
"Then let me lift you up," she requested. "You know I'm more than strong enough, Masayuki. You don't have to try so hard. You don't have to be my prince. I can be your prince. You can relax and let me take care of you as though you were the fairytale princess instead. After all, I've already rescued you, haven't I? All that's left is the 'happily ever after', now."
Her face had to be a mess of blood, snot, and tears, just like his, but he looked up at her as though none of that mattered. "Yuu..." He struggled to put his thoughts into words. "If... you really feel that strongly about it, then..."
She dipped her head down to show him just how strongly she felt, but kept it brief because if she got carried away, it would have been far too easy to accidentally suffocate him, and Yuu wasn't about to let him die on her a second time that day, and preferably never again. When she pulled back, his face was an adorable shade of pink, and she couldn't resist leaning back down for another kiss.
Someday soon, when he was ready, he'd tell her the rest of his story. He probably thought she'd never even suspected the possibility that he was actually the orphaned prince of this fallen kingdom, but she'd known that since the day he'd arrived in her life. Why else would just one young boy have been invited to live in her father's castle, after all? If she'd known from the start that he was a mage hired to protect her, that might have muddled her thoughts until she realized that his 'payment' had been her father's promise to continue taking care of all the refugees he'd evacuated from his kingdom. It broke Yuu's heart to think about how his last conversation with his parents must have been them ordering him to protect his people and bring them to safety before even thinking of anything else. He'd probably tried to go back afterward, but had been too late to save them.
But all that could wait for later, even as Yuu began to plan to get every able-bodied person to the Hori kingdom to clean and rebuild the castle and its surrounding town so that anyone wishing to return to their former home would be free to do so. And with Masayuki's magic, they could travel back and forth as needed, perhaps even governing both kingdoms simultaneously once her parents decided to resign from leadership. Life would be busy, but she didn't doubt that she and Masayuki could handle it. They'd already mastered the most important task of keeping their citizens safe, and their efforts would undoubtedly secure many grateful allies.
For now, though, both she and Masayuki could use a change of clothes and a bath. There were likely many young children around the castle that were already frightened enough without having to see them in their current horrific state. Yuu glanced around and saw that Mikoto had apparently gone on ahead at some point since his clothes were just slightly dirty from the fight as the sword's barrier had protected him from the blood spatter, too. He'd probably hoped to grant them a little privacy by taking the opportunity to start searching for his beloved.
Yuu was very gentle when she lifted Masayuki like she had the night before. Just because his wounds were closed didn't mean he wasn't still suffering from the effects of blood loss and exhaustion, and he deserved as much comfort as she could provide. "I can carry you there," she said, "so just tell me where the closest bath is. If there isn't anything suitable, I'll take you to the river if I must. Just rest for now; you'll have plenty of jumping around to do later, so you must concentrate on regaining your strength first, Masayuki."
He didn't argue, and just lightly dozed after giving her the necessary directions. She ended up coming across Mikoto first, in the middle of searching all the rooms and escorting anyone he found to the throne room, which he said had been kept in pristine condition. A young woman with the ability to control fire found them some clothes to change into and warmed their bathing water before heading to the ballroom to gladly complete one more necessary task. The wizard would need a lot more than just a few healing tears to come back to life by the time she was through.
It would have been dangerous to leave Masayuki alone in the tub while he was still so weak, so Yuu slipped in along with him, letting his head rest against her chest while she got to work cleaning his hair. She was pretty sure that if he had been a little more alert, he would have insisted upon a little more modesty, but she just would have replied that he didn't have anything she hadn't seen before and vice versa thanks to living with him in close quarters for the past twelve years, but Yuu didn't think she'd be embarrassed about bathing with him even if they'd grown up differently.
"Is the water warm enough, Masayuki?" she asked after a while. She'd mixed in more cold water with the hot than usual since she didn't dare risk scalding him while he was so vulnerable. There were still a couple more buckets of hot water to add in if it was too cold.
"It's perfect, Yuu," he mumbled sleepily, allowing himself to be pampered for once. She noticed his breathing evening out a few moments later.
She very carefully lowered the back of his head into the water to wash away the soap from his hair, then propped him back up against her so she could take care of her own bloody matted mess. Cleaning their faces and scrubbing off the remaining blood was simple enough with the use of a small towel, and for a while after she just lay there with him, hand lightly pressed to the point of his vanished wound, and thanked the moon for its blessing, apologizing for every moment she'd considered her gift to be a curse.
He didn't wake until she had to haul him out of the tub, which was a bit more difficult than it'd been to drag him in now that they were both waterlogged, but he was able to help a bit this time. She laid him on a bench wrapped in towels as she dried off and got dressed, but he didn't doze off again, and when she went back to help him into his own clean set of clothes, he asked, "Did I ever tell you that blue is my favorite color?" She was crouched down, picking up the bundle of clean clothing, so he was able to thread a hand through her wet hair. "It looks really good on you."
Her grin practically broke her face in two. "I'm glad that you think so, because I really like it, too. I feel as light as air, not having to drag around all that hair--I should have cut it ages ago!"
The smile was contagious, and if Masayuki persisted in looking so happy all the time, Yuu was going to have problems with not being able to kiss him every waking moment--though she managed somehow to balance the kissing and the dressing, even as she found it amusing how in a few of the novels Masayuki had brought back for her, kissing was usually paired with taking clothes off, and she doubted that he'd ever had the time to actually read them himself. One day, she'd have to find out just which helpful maiden she was indebted to for recommending all that informative literature, because it would definitely come in handy. She had the feeling that Masayuki would want to save certain things until after marriage, and that was fine, though she hoped to marry him as soon as possible. Would her birthday be too soon? It would be easier to have the ceremony while all his people were still in her kingdom instead of Masayuki having to cart them back and forth, after all, and she certainly hoped that Mikoto would be able to attend alongside his princess, too! That thought reminded her that she hadn't yet met her friend's princess, not to mention all the displaced children that might be frightened and in need of comfort!
Maybe she'd gone a little overboard, though, because Masayuki was nearly out of breath by the time she pulled back, but he just looked so adorable that she had to kiss his pink cheeks before she turned and invited him onto her back, since it would be easier to carry him through the more narrow door frames that way. He retaliated at once by kissing her exposed neck, and with a loud, giddy laugh, Yuu carried him off.
========
Mikoto had already searched a fair portion of the castle by the time he ran into Kashima and Hori again, and though he felt he was doing fine with the younger children, he had a bit more difficulty talking to the people older than him, and convincing them to stay instead of immediately setting out for their homes was difficult, even with all common sense on his side. Just having the promise of a prompt journey once his mage friend had rested wasn't enough to stop all of them (though he understood their hesitance to trust an unknown mage after what they'd gone through), but the rest were much more easily swayed by the younger children, latching on to the presence of kind adults, and begging them not to go. It was like they'd read Mikoto's mind full of desperate pleas.
The kids noticed his friends first, and several of them had recovered enough to bravely hurry over to meet them now that they were not covered in gore. Prince Kashima immediately turned on the charm, delighting the girls with an unending stream of compliments, and for all their benefit, remarked that they were all very brave and joked that they would all be reunited with their families just as soon as his princess was feeling better. The children laughed happily when Hori told him to stop introducing him as a princess, but it was obvious even at a distance that he wasn't mad, and it might have even been a scripted performance for the children's sake.
Mikoto made his way over alongside the more shy children, several of whom were still anxious enough to clutch at his clothes. He didn't mind since it helped make him feel a little more secure, too. Up close, he could see that, while Hori's condition was significantly improved, he was definitely in need of a lot more rest before he even started thinking about delivering all the rescued people throughout the realm, because the dozen or so kids around them now was only a handful in comparison to the hundreds he'd left in the care of the adults back in the throne room. Thankfully, one of them had the gift of being able to summon food and clean water out of thin air, because he'd have no idea how to keep all those people fed otherwise.
"Mikoto, have you found her yet?" Kashima asked excitedly. "I really want to meet the lady so fond to your heart! You've already met mine so it's only fair!"
Hori sighed deeply and the kids giggled again. "Perhaps you can sate Yuu's curiosity with a name? I may have met her before, too, so I might be able to tell you both a little about her."
That was a great idea, because if Hori had a little insight into her mannerisms, then Mikoto would have a little more to go by other than her painted portrait and the tone of her letters when he finally had to actually speak to her for the first time. However, after reciting her name, the resulting look on Hori's face was, quite frankly, unexpected, like he simply had no idea what to say in response.
His uncertain expression must have been mirrored by Mikoto, because instead of easing Kashima's excitement, it only escalated. "What is it, what is it, Masayuki?! Is she indescribably beautiful?!"
Before the mage could explain beyond a hesitant "Well..." one of the children had gone on ahead opening doors and called out, "Prince Mikoto, there's someone still sleeping in this room! But you said that everyone should have woken up when the evil wizard died!"
He and Kashima hurried over to the door, but Mikoto stopped short while the other prince approached the bed. Hori quickly assessed the situation. "It's some sort of self-cast enchantment keeping them asleep. I can see some signs that the wizard was trying to break it himself, but the spell must have been far more complex than the enchantments he preferred. I wouldn't even know where to begin if I had to do it myself, but lucky for us, we have another option." He glanced back at Mikoto. "...Granted that this doesn't change anything?"
Mikoto asked the kids to wait outside for a minute, and a couple of the older boys and girls took the hands of the younger ones still clinging to his clothes. He closed the door as the kids started playing a simple game in the hall to pass the time. Then he took a deep breath and approached the bed, knowing exactly what Hori was hinting at. How couldn't he, when he'd given the same advice to Kashima just an hour ago?
He'd recognized 'Princess' Mayu the second he'd walked in. The portrait had been accurate enough, even though the painter had obviously put emphasis on his more feminine features. Perhaps it was just the current trend in the Nozaki kingdom to paint long eyelashes and delicate faces? Still, it was mortifying to think that he might have been the only one who didn't realize that the 'princess' he'd fallen in love with was actually a prince! At least he could be certain that his two companions wouldn't condemn him for what he was about to do...
Still, he was anxious enough about it to request that they close their eyes first, which made Kashima chuckle until Hori ruined his fun by obscuring his vision with his hands. "It's not fair!" he complained. "Mikoto got to watch me kiss you!" Then one of those hands was brought down to stifle any more comments.
"Leave him be, Yuu," he said, having closed his eyes already, "or I'll jump into the hall with you instead of resting."
That did the trick, as Kashima refused to move even an inch after that. Mikoto pushed himself forward, internally worrying that the portrait delivered to Prince Mayu was just as misinterpreted, but he supposed that if True Love's Kiss pulled through, that would be answer enough. If it didn't, well... at least he would be the only one to actually witness it. He could pretend it never actually happened, and Hori could bring him to the Mikoshiba kingdom for his loyal mages to try to awaken, and at home it should be a little easier to pretend that he wasn't at all heartbroken.
However, the moment their lips met, Mayu shifted beneath him, and Mikoto jumped back in surprise, eyes wide open and snared by the younger male's gaze. A long moment passed as Mikoto's face slowly lit up like a lantern.
"Ah," Mayu said. "Mikoto." Then, after a moment, asked, "If I were to go back to sleep, would you wake me again?"
Forget the lantern; his face was an out-of-control bonfire. "G-get up!" he said, a lot more loudly than he'd intended, and perhaps if he had just a bit more upper body strength, he might have successfully hauled him upright on his own power alone, but Mayu eventually gave in and voluntarily sat up. When he appeared to regard Kashima and Hori's position with envy, however, Mikoto nipped that idea in the bud. "I'm not going to carry you around, d-damn it!"
His friends spared him further embarrassment by taking the opportunity to introduce themselves, and they learned that Mayu had the power to store energy for sudden explosive feats of strength, but the drawback was that once he ran out of magic, he fell into an enchanted sleep until he recovered. He'd fought the wizard to the point of exhaustion after allowing himself to be taken from his kingdom, but ran out of energy before he could defeat him and fell unconscious. The wizard must have been determined to have him awake to witness his retaliation, though, because Mikoto hadn't heard anything about the Nozaki kingdom being attacked after the kidnapping.
Mayu was still feeling weak thanks to being woken prematurely, but he could still walk without much trouble, and was prompted into motion by Mikoto's offer to hold his hand so they could walk to the throne room together after they finished searching that hall. They'd take their turn looking after the children while a few of the rescued adults would continue searching the castle.
He thought it was a bit disrespectful that Kashima deposited Hori directly onto the throne, but Mikoto had to admit that it was a vast improvement after the last mage had fouled the throne with his presence. Hori looked uncomfortable with the decision, too, and tried to stand up on shaky legs until Kashima said something too quiet for him to overhear, and the young mage settled down. The prince then proceeded to call for all the children's attention and used the raised section of the floor containing the throne as a stage to tell the story of a princess with magic silver hair. Mikoto sat nearby to listen, too, and tried not to overreact when Mayu immediately laid down to use his lap as a pillow.
Mikoto ended up overreacting anyway when it finally clicked that Kashima had been the princess in her story all along, and Hori seemed surprised that he hadn't known from the start. She said something about how it would have been annoying if Mikoto had insisted that she stay out of the battle just because she happened to be female (and to be honest, he probably would have thought that would have been what a brave and chivalrous prince ought to do--make sure that the princess was safely out of danger at all times--but he still felt... tricked!). Kashima continued her story to the end, proclaiming, "And they'd all live happily ever after!" and the children responded with loud cheers as she deeply bowed to them all.
A week or so later, after everyone was returned to their homes and life was well on its way back to normal, Mikoto was invited to Kashima's eighteenth birthday celebration, where, not only did he get to spend more time with Mayu, but he got to witness Kashima's extravagant proposal to the clearly overwhelmed Hori, who (get this!), turned out to have been the prince of that conquered kingdom all along! Mikoto felt a little shafted, being the only one without a big secret or misunderstanding to reveal, but he got over it soon enough, because just the fact that they'd all made it back home alive and well was amazing! And they would live happily ever after! He was sure of it, because he could tell that his friends were just as happy as he was, and Mikoto could barely hold back from smiling every other moment.
All around him, people cheered and danced in joy, and even if that hadn't been a contagious mood, just having Mayu beside him and holding his hand and smiling softly at him was enough to fill his heart with happiness (even if admitting that was embarrassing).
Hori and Kashima, up on the podium and joined at the hip, surrounded by their people, quite clearly felt the same way, and were very easily talked into acting out a few scenes from the book of collected plays that Hori had given his newly betrothed for her birthday.
The celebration continued well into the night until, finally, Mayu carried him off in search of a free room in the castle, and Mikoto was finally able to enjoy the warmth and comfort of sleeping wrapped in another's arms, and found it to be even more wonderful than he'd ever imagined.
He'd be waking up to a world with so much less to fear, with the support of dear friends and loyal people to fall back on.
Just because he'd been born without magic didn't mean he wasn't blessed.
Horikashi Week [Day 6: Teamwork] - Fight or Flight
There wasn't anything large enough nearby for the squad to take as a serious threat, but as long as they were underestimating Alternia, Hori figured he may as well remind them that dangerous creatures came in all shapes and sizes.
I think it was inevitable that I would eventually write a part of the Homestuck AU that I started talking about a couple months ago--Horikashi Week just gave me the excuse to dabble in it before I finished writing Breaking Character, lol
I’m mostly certain that the majority of the worldbuilding in the fic is intuitive enough for people to understand despite being unfamiliar with Homestuck. The basic things to keep in mind are that trolls are a race of aliens with grey skin, black hair, and horns colored like candy corn. They’re (normally) nocturnal and their caste is based on their blood color (which is basically ROYGBIV with a few more colors added in. Warmer colors are lower class, while cooler colors are more powerful). Trolls are a violent race, thanks in part to the fact that they’re literally raised by wild animals (a wide variety of pure white creatures called lusii), but it’s also influenced by their culture. Their home planet is inhabited mostly by children often growing up in dangerous situations, and if they survive to adulthood then they’re conscripted into the troll military to live the rest of their lives helping to conquer the universe and expand the empire. Trolls can also have special powers that seems to be based on their blood colors.
There’s also the subject of troll romance--’red’ relationships are like regular human relationships, and ‘black’ relationships are basically a sexy rivalry. ‘Ashen’ relationships are when a third troll comes in to help regulate a ‘black’ relationship when it gets out of control, since it could easily lead to death or serious injuries otherwise. Vacillation is when trolls flipflop between different kinds of romance with the same partner(s). It’s considered weird and unstable in their culture, but within Homestuck canon it’s shown to be a rather common problem for young troll relationships--but is it really a ‘problem’ or just a different romantic preference/orientation? I consider it the latter, myself.
So, yeah, Hori and Kashima are troll kids in this fic, and I chose their blood colors based on their eye colors. Because they’re trolls, they can be very unconcerned about the well-being of unfriendly trolls, so that might be a little shocking to read, but they grew up in very different circumstances than they did in their canon universe.
Content Warnings: Coarse language; casual mentions of violence, mutilation, and death (all off screen or largely undescribed)
[AO3 Mirror]
"Why is this happening?!" Kashima moaned as they ran through the thick foliage, hands joined to avoid being separated and to help each other remain upright if they were tripped up by any hidden snags on the forest floor. She likely meant the question to be a purely rhetorical one, but what she didn't know was that he could offer a perfectly reasonable explanation. "We were supposed to have at least another sweep before conscription!"
If it was a conscription party they were fleeing from, Hori would first eat one shoe and then the other. Even without his small collection of films, most of which had at least some minor flashbacks to the protagonist's Conscription Day, he'd 'witnessed' a fair amount of them from afar during his travels when he'd been forced to send scouts to safely evade detection. If any young troll attempted to escape, either due to nerves or because they'd been found lacking in some way, the adults would just leave the pursuit and culling to the assembled imperial drones instead of lifting a finger themselves. In fact, they just tended to watch from where they stood like it was some kind of spectator sport. They were, of course, a lazy bunch of bluebloods, safe in their largely bureaucratic roles. All the actual dangerous jobs were left to trolls lower on the hemospectrum.
No, this was an entirely illegal culling party, consisting mostly of greens with one teal commander. Highly strategic--if they'd sent yellows or maroons, the area would be saturated with flashy psionic activity, which would immediately draw the imperial drones and their presence on Alternia would be discovered and dealt with almost immediately. Except in very specific situations and locations, adults were forbidden on the surface.
There were no other brownbloods, though, which was promising. It was as though even the greens lead a relatively cushy lifestyle in the Fleet--they'd forgotten just how dangerous life on Alternia could be, and there was no way they'd have been able to upkeep their notorious agility while they were all crammed together on a spaceship. Hori allowed himself to smile even as the muscles in his legs began to burn. Just a bit further... "Hey, remember how we met?"
He meant it as a distraction from their tenuous position, but Kashima apparently took it as the start of their final conversation on their current plane of existence. "I remember it just like yesterday," she replied, her voice cracking. "I looked out the window of my tower to see such an audacious sight--a young troll reclining under a parasol atop a great shelled beast which was very casually devouring the drawn undead as it slowly crawled on its belly across the endless expanse of sand! There was no way I could resist jumping out to play with you! Even though it came to this, I'm so glad I got to travel with you all this time, Senpai!"
Hori remembered it clearly, too--how could he forget approaching that strange white tower in the middle of the desert only to see an even stranger troll leap out into broad daylight and manage a perfect rolling landing from what must have been at least a twenty foot drop. He'd nearly suffered a full-body roast after almost stumbling out of the shade to yell at her to get the fuck out of the sun. She'd stared at him quizzically as she lobbed off the head of a reanimated troll and punted it into the open maw of the shelled beast, then she'd smiled and her eyes had glittered in the sunlight, and not only was he fucking doomed, but he'd also had to endure her mocking him for not knowing that jadebloods were immune to sunburns, as if anyone knew anything about her insanely rare caste. Half the planet was convinced that jadebloods were mythological creatures that nourished themselves on the blood of trolls, for fuck's sake! The adult jadebloods in charge of the brooding caverns probably traumatized all the grubs with those lies on purpose so they'd never get curious enough to come back and explore after they'd pupated!
But, while he considered all of that incredibly important, it was extraneous to the subject at hand. "How many brownbloods do you know who can effortlessly control a shelled beast of that size on their own?" Before she could counter that she didn't even know another brownblood, he added, "Maybe try having a little more faith in me? There's no way I'm ready to die yet, but I'm going to need to concentrate, so you'll have to carry me for a while." Kashima readily caught him after he dropped her hand and leaped onto her back. Her higher position on the hemospectrum granted her about twice as much strength and stamina along with her enviable height advantage, so, if anything, she was able to run faster without having to worry about accidentally dragging him face first into a tree.
His arms fit neatly through the curves of her horns, allowing him to keep himself stable while bending his arms back to press his fingers against his temples for better concentration. He closed his eyes and the world around him lit up with a million tiny minds watching both them and the group fifty-odd paces back, gradually narrowing the gap. There wasn't anything large enough nearby for the squad to take as a serious threat, but as long as they were underestimating Alternia, Hori figured he may as well remind them that dangerous creatures came in all shapes and sizes.
The route ahead solidified in his mind, and he said, "Close your eyes if you intend to keep them; I'll give you directions so just keep on running."
She knew better than to argue with that vaguely distant tone, even without the casual threat. He waited for a dozen creatures to verify her compliance simultaneously, then, as his mouth recited all the necessary movements for her to avoid a snag or collision, Hori focused momentarily on a thousand nearby flying larvae-eaters of various species and planted two simple thoughts in their small but frighteningly sharp minds; one, that they were hungry; and two, that troll eyes were delicious. If Kashima had any doubts about his instructions, the pained and horrified screams behind her put them to rest. Hori waited until the culling party halted entirely, then returned the creatures' minds to their previous states. They fled back toward the treetops to continue their little lives, so successful in their surprise attack that not one had been harmed.
"It's safe to look, now," he said, and didn't even have to warn her about the fallen tree trunk approximately fifteen feet ahead, which she hurdled with no noticeable effort. He opened his eyes, too, now that he could safely go back to his usual state of psychic sensitivity, allowing any creature within two hundred yards to alert him to any large predators approaching. He pulled his arms free of her horns, too, because that couldn't have been easy on her neck. Instead, he slung his limbs over Kashima's shoulders and lightly pressed his face into her hair. Ah, so that was what he'd been smelling. Hori focused on the scent as he finished settling back into his own skull--it helped a bit to stave off the quickly developing headache.
"Can we stop for a minute?" she asked, and while it was important to keep moving, it would be stupid to deny her a break--they were far from out of the woods, but not literally. The terrain was about to change quite abruptly.
"Thirty seconds," he granted. Maybe a brief interruption of the jarring motion of her sprint would help his head settle, too, which would be vital for the next part of their escape. "There's bound to be a backup squad, and they'll be tracking us just as soon as they deal with the first group." And likely distributed pairs of goggles amongst themselves. Hori couldn't care less whether their maimed pursuers were important enough to be granted medical assistance by the Fleet or if they'd just cull their losses--all that really mattered was that the same trick wouldn't work twice, and adult trolls only had so many weaknesses he could exploit.
Kashima slowed to a stop near some more heavily compact foliage, and let him down, but instead of catching her breath or stretching or anything he expected, she turned around, backed him up against a tree, and delivered the reddest kiss he'd ever experienced, which was... confusing, but not unwelcome. As his spine tingled and his toes curled, Hori found himself hoping that this meant she'd be open to vacillation too because he'd really miss her blacker kisses otherwise and he doubted anyone else could even come close to filling that void. Not to mention that he'd dread having to tell Sakura that they wouldn't need her ashen interference anymore whenever they got too pitch to function.
When she pulled away slightly to take a breath, Hori realized that she had one hand up the back of his shirt, curiously prodding at the hardened tissue she'd likely assumed to be a scar, and the other in his hair, gently massaging his horn bed. It felt so nice, he rose up on his toes to increase the pressure, and leaned in to kiss her again, hands sprawled across her back, but he had to break away momentarily after completely losing track of his breathing and ended up gasping for air.
"You're amazing, Senpai," she said, suffering absolutely no breathing issues at all, but the admiration in her eyes more than made up for it. "I was so sure we were going to die, but then... they didn't even see that coming!"
"They won't be seeing much of anything anymore," he quipped, and laughed breathlessly alongside her own appreciation of the dumb joke until he realized that their thirty seconds were probably long gone. Hori took a moment to reorient himself, then pulled his hands back to coax hers out of his shirt so he could hold it instead and lead her out of the forest. "Come on, it's not far now." Her other hand slipped out of his hair, and he privately mourned the loss of contact.
She heard the crashing waves below with her own two ears before he did, and went on ahead to peer nervously over the cliffside. Hori hung back at the tree line and struggled to take off his shirt without tearing it on the sharp tips of his horns, and she turned back to remind him, "Senpai, I grew up in the desert! I never learned how to swim!" Then, probably still buzzing with hormones, she appeared to take a moment to appreciate his slim but toned chest. While she was not nearly so modest with her own body, this was the first time he'd allowed her to see him shirtless.
And for good reason--the last time he'd shown someone, his neighbors had gotten scared, formed a mob, killed his lusus and razed his hive to the ground. If his power to commune with animals wasn't so strong, he would have been culled at least a hundred times over since he'd hijacked the minds of the mob's lusii to cover his escape. Nobody took kindly to a homeless, orphaned troll... until he'd met Kashima, and, through her, found the Chatroom for the Hopelessly Doomed, where he'd gotten acquainted with Sakura and the rest of their cohort, yet he'd stubbornly held on to his most sensitive secret. Letting go of his fears was easier said than done.
Being caught between a culling party and a cliffside, though, made it far easier to confess, and considering it was someone like Kashima, who had lost her own lusus to natural causes and voluntarily abandoned her hive to accompany him on his travels, and just being so damn strange herself--he still didn't know where she got the 'Senpai' thing from--it felt like she'd willingly accept his own weirdness without much more than a few silly jokes to worry about.
"I can't swim either," he replied, tying his shirt around his waist. He doubted that there were many landlocked trolls who did, considering how fiercely the seadwelling trolls guarded their territory. He took a deep breath and unsheathed his wings, unfolding and stretching to an impressive span. Kashima's eyes went as wide as saucers. "We're going to fly."
A beat passed and then she was rushing back to his side. His wings fluttered nervously, casting a gentle breeze the ruffled her hair and clothes, but she obviously wasn't charging to attack--he'd seen enough of that in person to accurately judge her intent. Kashima stopped just short of bowling him over, and admired the subtle patterns in the translucent, earthen tone. "Senpai, they're beautiful... but they look so... fragile--do you really think they'll be able to carry both you and me?"
Hori was so relieved, he almost laughed. "I've never tried it while carrying a whole other troll, but I think I can manage to glide a short distance. There's a small cave opening on the cliff face not visible from the top. If we can make it there, we should be able to shake off the pursuit or at least have the day to put some distance between us. The sun will be up soon and they won't be able to climb down after us in time, if they even figure out where we went."
The relief was contagious and Kashima smiled while nodding in agreement, then stepped around to inspect his back. "Oh--there isn't a way for me to hold on to you without squishing your wings, though..." They spanned from his shoulder blades all the way down to the small of his back, which made things a bit more complicated.
"Yeah, I'll have to hold on to you," he replied, turning her around and wrapping his arms under her armpits from behind to demonstrate. "I'll put my legs around your waist for more stability, too... It'll be my job to get us close, and yours to find a quick handhold. The opening is too narrow for me to glide in, so you'll have to climb in first and make sure you're on steady ground before helping me in. You don't have to rush--I'll be able to keep myself airborne until you're ready."
"I can hold on to your legs, too," she offered. "Just like earlier!"
The plan set, Hori hopped onto her back. "Okay, don't think too hard about what you're about to do, and definitely don't scream because they'll hear you, but on the count of three, you're going to run right off the cliff. You don't even have to waste energy on jumping. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Close your eyes if you have to."
"Haha, maybe you should have a little more faith in me, Senpai," she chastised, and didn't even wait for the countdown before she bolted straight into open air.
Hori had to bite his lip to prevent himself from screaming at her, but despite the rough start, and that the 'glide' was more of a 'controlled fall', and his now fiercely aching back, they'd both safely made it into the cave with only a few scratches here and there. While he sent his attention upward, verifying that the attack on the advance team had thoroughly spooked their colleagues into slowing their pursuit to a crawl and likely provoking a futile attempt to request the aid of gifted telepaths who were far too busy with more important matters to bother chasing down a couple of kids, Kashima happily massaged his sore muscles, tender from the sudden burst of activity after sweeps of disuse. He resolved to stretch out his wings now and then once they got back to the surface. It was likely that he'd have to rely upon them again soon enough if ambitious officers in the Fleet were willing to send illegal culling teams to hunt him down all of a sudden.
"So all that was because of these, huh?" Kashima asked, once he fully returned to himself. She ran her fingers all the way down the scarlike tissue encasing his delicate wings, then wound her arms around his front in a loose embrace while they watched the gradually lightening sky.
"Yeah," he admitted. "Sorry about dragging you into this without any warning." At least she hadn't gotten hurt--he'd never forgive himself otherwise. "I dunno how well educated you are about Alternia's history, growing up in the middle of nowhere, but thousands of sweeps ago, before all the adults were banished from the surface, there was a talented brownblood with wings just like mine, and he led a rebellion that came close to flipping the hemospectrum on its head. The Adult Exile was enacted straight after his execution so that it would be all but impossible for another revolution to take hold. They probably have a whole squad of trolls on every spaceship devoted to nothing but watching every other troll through spy cameras."
Kashima chuckled at that mental image, then pressed her face into his hair much like he had earlier. "Somehow, that job sounds even more boring than how I would have been doomed to work underground in the brooding caverns for the rest of my life if I hadn't decided to run away with you instead. I already knew it would be dangerous, Senpai--drones will attack us on sight if we even make it to adulthood--but that decision was the easiest one I'd ever had to make. I could never give up the sun, Senpai... except maybe for you~"
"You can have both, stupid," he said, charmed despite himself. "Frolic in the deadly rays of cellular destruction all you want. I'll watch over you from the shade."
He could feel her smile wide against his head. "So you've got adults willing to break the rules in order to assassinate The Summoner's descendant--honestly, I'm feeling a bit left in the dust! I've got to up my fugitive game!" Hori should have known she'd learned all about history, as brilliant as she was--she must have studied all sorts of things while living alone in the desert with nothing else to do.
"You could always try revealing yourself to be a rainbow drinker. I'm sure someone up there is dreaming of bagging one of those."
Kashima laughed and took that as an open invitation to start chewing on his neck. Hori tried to pretend that he wasn't affected, but when she found a particularly sensitive spot purely by accident, he had to elbow her in the ribs before he got any more distracted. They had to use what time they had to put as much distance between them and their last known location as possible, because one day the fleet really would send a telepathic cerulean to the surface to track and possibly even control him like he could influence fauna, and that day could even be tomorrow. "Come on," he said, pulling his shirt back over his head, "we better get moving before we get any more surprise visits."
"Yeah, yeah," she said, pretending to complain as they started to navigate the cave. Without the light of the moons, though, it grew very dark very quickly.
"Damn it," Hori groused, "there isn't anything down here that has decent eyesight or glows! Fucking perfect!" Of all the things he could have forgotten to verify, this was probably the least deadly, but definitely the most annoying!
"Maybe have a little faith, huh?" Kashima teased him, then clucked her tongue, mimicking a flipped switch. The cavern was immediately bathed in light.
"Jadebloods glow in the dark... You gotta be fucking kidding me!"
"How else do you think ancient jadebloods navigated the brooding caverns, Senpai? Glowbugs? We obviously evolved this way! Why didn't you know this already? Did you think the sunlight just bounced off my skin instead of being stored for later?"
Seriously, what the hell even was Kashima?! Oh well... at least he could be sure that their spade was safe. They could work out the rest later.
oh no my heart *clutches chest and falls to the ground*
(I really like how it continues the tradition of trolling almost-kisses with the first panel of the 4th page; it’s like omg are they kissing and then your eyes flash to the next panel where it’s just LOL NOPE)
Horikashi Week [Day 5: Excuses] - The Great Deception
The line he'd been drawing with the help of a ruler suddenly went way off-course and he lifted his head in a panic--until he noted Sakura frantically shaking her head.
This is once again another Breaking Character drabble, so once again I must state that reading it will spoil several things about the main fic if you haven’t read it yet! This one even hints about a few things that I haven’t gotten around to writing yet, but its nothing major and shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of BC’s eventual conclusion. I don’t think it was ever really up in the air whether or not these dorks would ever actually start dating or not, haha
While the other two fics were years in the future in relation to BC’s canon, though, this one is just a little over a month after the main story, taking place in mid-March, only a couple weeks before Hori graduates high school.
I had a lot of fun writing this one, and even though Kashima doesn’t even make an actual appearance, it’s one of my favorite entries. ^^ The middle part of the fic might throw you off a bit, but the ending will make up for it!
Content Warnings: Coarse language
[AO3 Mirror]
"Senpai, I'm afraid I have some terrible news."
Both Hori and Sakura looked up from their frantic work on that month's manga issue. It was already mid-March, and while Nozaki could get away with failing his finals thanks to having an already successful career to fall back on, his assistants were anxious to complete their tasks so they could hurry home and study as their personal futures were not nearly as secure if their grades weren't good enough for their post-secondary choices. While it wasn't as urgent a matter for Sakura, Hori was graduating high school at the end of the month.
And, try as he might to ignore the other male's increasingly obvious discomfort, it seemed it would be unavoidable to not spend a little time to discuss what sort of bee was stuck in Nozaki's bonnet. The last time he'd acted like this, he'd been under the mistaken impression that Hori was dating Sakura, and had been forced to face the fact that the thought made him insanely jealous. "What is it, Nozaki?" he asked with a sigh, hoping that, whatever it was, it didn't make him regret not allowing Kashima to tag along. At least she was capable of actually working while she chatted, as opposed to Nozaki, who'd barely succeeded in lifting a pencil so far that afternoon. He was lucky that drama club activities were suspended until the next school year, as well, or Hori would be just barely surviving on coffee and micronaps.
"I'm afraid that, just the other day, I witnessed Kashima cheating on you."
The line he'd been drawing with the help of a ruler suddenly went way off-course and he lifted his head in a panic--until he noted Sakura frantically shaking her head. "No no no, Nozaki-kun! It's as I explained before! Kashima-kun still has a responsibility to entertain her fans even if she's dating Hori-senpai! It's something they agreed on before they even made their relationship official!" She turned to Hori, making all sorts of gestures that were probably supposed to mean something important, but hell if he knew what she was hoping to communicate. "Right, Senpai?!"
"...Right," he agreed, somewhat hesitantly, and began to carefully erase the mistake. "She has to keep her fan club happy and active so they'll continue to support her and the drama club next year."
However, Nozaki still wasn't convinced. "If that were the case, then it ought to have been a small crowd of girls instead of just the one, wouldn't it?"
Sakura was at a loss, but Hori had a possible explanation... as crazy as it might seem. "Well... if she was chasing some girl in the street and professing her undying love and affection, it was probably her sister, Mii-chan." In response to Sakura's astounded expression, he added, "She doesn't get to see her often, so Yuu tends to go a bit... overboard... whenever they meet. Remember the post-performance party last week?"
"Oh, I was wondering what that was all about!" she replied in understanding, and Hori was wondering how he ought to answer her follow-up questions since it really wasn't his right to share the details of the Kashima family's unique issues, but Nozaki stepped in again to steer the conversation back on track, to Sakura's obvious chagrin.
"It couldn't have been her sister. You were there, Sakura--the atmosphere was far too calm and pleasant to be as you described, Senpai. Besides, what sort of siblings would kiss in public on White Day?"
Sakura desperately stepped in, transparently tossing aside her personal feelings on the matter to say, "S-some siblings kiss all the time! A-and White Day is... is really just a regular, ordinary day, isn't it?!"
But it was too late. Hori's face was already white as a sheet and he'd broken out in a cold sweat. He couldn't believe this was happening...
"I'm sorry, Senpai," Nozaki concluded, driving the final nail in place, "but even if some siblings really do share easily misinterpreted platonic affections... I doubt that any of them would kiss like that."
Hori abruptly, but unsteadily, rose to his feet. "I think... I better go..."
Nozaki didn't argue the logic in that, looking on in sympathy as Sakura scrambled to her feet as well. "We--we got enough work done for today, I think! I'll walk you to the train station, Senpai!"
"Thanks," he said, numbly, as she helped him gather up his things. Farewells were understandably subdued.
Hori managed to endure walking a whole block before he couldn't hold it in anymore and shouted, "Fuck! What the hell am I supposed to do about this?!"
Sakura did her best to be supportive. "It'll be okay, Senpai! We'll figure something out! Maybe the fan club had a raffle where the winner got to go on a 'pretend date' with Kashima-kun on White Day, and she just forgot to tell you! It could have been suddenly sprung on her and she didn't get the chance! And then she was too worried about how you'd react to tell you after!"
"Actually... that's just convoluted enough to work," Hori replied, and they both sighed in relief. They took a few more steps before his curiosity got the better of him. "I knew we should have been more careful... It figures that she'd stick out, but how did you recognize me, Sakura?"
She smiled and pointed to her forehead. "Whoever waxed your eyebrows did a really good job! Your face looks softer and it really brings out a sense of kindness... No wonder Kashima-kun couldn't keep her hands off you!"
He couldn't help but smile a bit at the reminder. "Still... Yuu owes me big for that stunt. I was one step away from being coerced into modeling for Nozaki. I walked in on him convincing Mikoshiba to wear a seifuku for reference the other day, and I swear to god, when he turned to greet me, he must been mentally calculating my measurements considering the way he was looking me up and down with such a pensive expression."
"I'm so sorry," Sakura said. She was quickly becoming accustomed to apologizing for her new boyfriend's radical behaviors, which had somehow increased in frequency after they'd started dating last month.
"Don't worry about it," he replied. In the end, it was probably his own fault for asking Kashima what she wanted for White Day that year.
I feel like the most spoiled fanfiction writer on the planet, getting a comic adaptation of a scene! Thank you so much! My vision isn’t good enough to read the dialogue but I’m pretty sure I know which scene this is, hehe
He didn't give a damn how it looked to anybody. He was going to hold her hand and touch her face and crawl into her lap if he had to, because if Kashima started to cry, then he'd start to cry, and they'd both end up a wild, inconsolable mess before they even got to the clinic.
Here’s the second Breaking Character drabble! Once again, there’s spoilers if you haven’t read the main fic, but it won’t do much to spoil what I haven’t yet written for BC. Here, their ages are within the 21-22 range, both continuing to attend university, and they’ve been living together for three years.
I’m a little worried that the beginning might be a little upsetting for people sensitive about medical issues, but I can at least promise that it isn’t nearly as bad as the characters are assuming it to be. I’m basically unable to write stories without happy endings, lmao
Content Warnings: Medical scare, coarse language, nudity, mild adult content
[AO3 Mirror]
They'd woken up late and Hori was rushing to beat the clock so they'd both make it to their university classes in time, but when he vacated the bathroom and re-entered the bedroom to send Kashima in after him, he found her almost as he'd left her, except now, instead of just being sprawled on the bed, she was half-naked and sprawled on the bed. If it had been the bottom half, her motivation would've clearly been seduction, and that would have been a bit trickier to deal with, but since she was just topless, he could safely say that the culprit was simple laziness. Impatient, he pulled a shirt and slacks out from her half of the closet (though he was fairly certain that the shirt was originally his), and tossed the clothes at the bed, saying, "Hurry up and get dressed! At this rate, we'll be stuck eating junk out of overpriced vending machines for breakfast!"
He wasn't sure what exactly about her reaction got his attention, but when she flinched back from the falling material, curled herself away, and moaned pitifully, Hori started to wonder if maybe she was sick, and then every concern about being late was thrown out the window as he mentally berated himself and approached. Running around in a panic was no excuse--he should have noticed she wasn't well long before now! What the hell was wrong with him?! And yet, while her face was clearly tight with discomfort, her forehead wasn't warm, her nose wasn't running, and her breathing seemed normal enough. Finally, lacking a medical degree and x-ray vision, or at least some degree of telepathy, he asked, "Yuu, what's wrong?"
Kashima moaned again and opened her eyes. They either shined due to pain or the relief of having someone willing to listen to her complaints. While she worked on forming her thoughts into words, he busied himself by sitting on the mattress beside her and began to lightly thread his fingers through her hair, but the motion abruptly halted when she confessed, voice tight, "My chest really hurts, Masa-chan..."
The spike of fear that shot through his heart was unreal. Hori didn't have the best relationship with his grandparents since both his and his brother's lovers clashed with their conservative values, but that didn't stop him from worrying about them as their health began to decline. His grandfather had even suffered a heart attack last year and was still recovering. But wasn't Kashima way too young for heart problems, especially considering how healthy she was?! "Does it hurt deep inside?" he asked, a bit frantic. "Is your left arm hurting?"
"No," she replied, slipping into a whine. "It's my breasts that hurt." When he started reaching for her chest, though, she shrank back and yelled, "I just said they hurt, so don't touch them, stupid!"
"I just want to look at them, idiot," he shot back, and lightly took hold of her wrists so he could encourage her to uncross her arms, which was easier to do with both his hands occupied and unable to even accidentally brush against anything sensitive. Hori barely ever paid attention to her breasts unless she was in the mood for it, but he was familiar enough with them to observe, "They look bigger. Kind of swollen?"
The implications didn't hit him until after he noticed how white her face was with all the blood drained away. "I'm calling the doctor. Get up and try to find a loose shirt. I'll get you some ice..."
Having something to focus on always made difficult things easier to handle, but the receptionist at the doctor's office was way too accommodating and kind, putting together a pair of ice packs only took a minute, and finding a way to fasten a light blanket around Kashima's shoulders was way too simple. (It wasn't ideal for public transportation, but it would have to do, because they had no over-sized shirts in their closet and his father and brother were just as slim as they were.) Even the other passengers on the train kept their distance after Hori had to yell at one asshole to fuck off for hassling them. He didn't give a damn how it looked to anybody. He was going to hold her hand and touch her face and crawl into her lap if he had to, because if Kashima started to cry, then he'd start to cry, and they'd both end up a wild, inconsolable mess before they even got to the clinic.
But then Kashima asked, "Why is this happening? There was barely anything there to begin with..." so they ended up sniffling like distraught children anyway.
About half an hour later, they sat together in the doctor's office, holding hands in desperate defiance of a foe neither of them could fight directly. Kashima had refused to accept the nurse's suggestion that Hori ought to stand by in the waiting room, even through the process of collecting blood and urine samples, and he wasn't going to deny her the small comfort of his presence, either. Just the fact that the doctor wanted to speak with them in his office rather than an examination room seemed to prove that there was only bad news to come.
However, when the doctor stepped inside and saw their red eyes and solemn faces for the first time, he stopped to do a double-take and asked, "What is this? I understand it must come as a surprise but it's hardly the end of the world, Kashima-san; Hori-san."
The gracefully aging doctor had been his family's chosen practitioner since well before he'd even been born, and had graciously accepted Kashima and her family as new patients after their own doctor retired a while back, but still, Hori nearly lost his temper. "How can you say that so lightly, Doctor? With Yuu's chest so sore she can't even stand to be touched, there's no way this can't be serious..."
But the doctor smiled in such a sentimental way, it was hard to match it to the current situation, where he'd been expecting nothing but a grave expression. "Forgive me; I'd thought the nurse would have informed you two, but it appears I've been entrusted with the news... Ah, I can remember something like this with another young Hori about twenty years ago..." He lost himself in the memory for a moment before he leaned over to take Hori's free hand to give it a firm shake, then nodded to Kashima, as both hers were occupied. "Well, then, allow me to be the first to offer you both my congratulations."
The words slowly sunk in while the doctor made his way around the desk to his chair. "Yuu is... pregnant...?" Hori asked, and turned to her, but Kashima appeared to be completely frozen in shock. "But... how did that happen...? I was always careful..." Actually, he felt a little numb himself.
"It's been known to happen--even using it exactly as directed, birth control is never completely effective. Even a microscopic breach in the condom can lead to a pregnancy, and while we'll be waiting on lab results to confirm it, the urine samples tested positive with two different testing kits, and the breast growth and resulting soreness is relatively common--your body is preparing to raise a child, Kashima-san. All of this is normal." He fell silent, allowing the young couple a few moments to absorb the news, so different from what they'd feared, yet just as life-changing.
Hori was the first to snap out of it, as a sudden warmth flowed through him, thawing his frozen limbs. He twisted in his seat to face Kashima fully, and clasped her one available hand between his two. "You... you hear that, Yuu?!" he exclaimed, in a mix of relief and excitement. "You're not sick; not at all! And we're going to be parents!"
While Hori was elated, Kashima, however, was still processing. If he'd been thinking clearly, he would have remembered her tendency to jump to oddball conclusions based on faulty information, and that was during moments when she wasn't completely emotionally drained. Still staring at nowhere in particular, she finally spoke. "Doctor... I don't think this body is capable of caring for a baby... Has science progressed enough to allow Masa-chan to carry it instead?"
"Yuu, you're being ridiculous!" Thankfully, having lived with her for nearly three years allowed him to keep his head relatively cool. His stubborn insistence to continue seeing his therapist certainly helped, too, for exactly this type of situation. He couldn't afford to be angry, because he had to be calm and supportive instead. Hori took a deep breath, and continued on in a less intense volume, "If there's even a small chance that there's something wrong, modern medicine has a far better chance of helping your body overcome it than it does in transferring a baby into somebody who doesn't even have a womb to begin with."
He was also very grateful to have the doctor there, with actual medical knowledge to back him up as well as untold years of experience hearing all sorts of odd things from his patients. "Hori-san is correct, Kashima-san. You're far from the only young woman who has expressed doubts about her affinity for motherhood, but rest assured that your body is already doing everything it needs to do in order to successfully care for your child, and it will continue to do so over the coming months. I cannot claim it will be easy on you, as every pregnancy is different, and perhaps it may even be difficult and continue to cause discomfort such as what brought you here today, but you are an extraordinary young woman, Kashima-san, and you have the support of this upstanding young man right here beside you, and I am absolutely certain that, together, you'll be able to face and overcome all the challenges that may rise up against you, and if it becomes necessary, don't forget that I and my colleagues at the hospital are very well trained and experienced enough to handle any medical issues that may trouble you. We'll all be taking excellent care of you and your child, Kashima-san, so you can rest easy and rely on us as much as you require."
She was very quickly becoming emotional, so Hori thanked the doctor in her stead when Kashima's voice cracked and trailed off. While he gently dabbed his handkerchief under her eyes to collect the gathering tears before they had the chance to fall, their doctor explained that they'd be receiving a call from his office once the blood results came back so they could accurately date the pregnancy as well as prescribe any necessary pre-natal vitamins. Until then, Kashima was urged to refrain from alcohol, avoid cigarette smoke, and maintain healthy eating habits, with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables rich in folic acid. As for her sore chest, he said that the pain ought to subside over time, but she could continue to use ice to combat the soreness.
After listening to a few more details, they were sent on their way, though Hori was sure to shake the doctor's hand once more before they left his office, and then they hung around the clinic for just a bit longer so he could help Kashima compose herself in the ladies' washroom. If anyone gave them any dirty looks, Hori certainly didn't notice as he lead her out the front door, their joined hands far more relaxed than the earlier death grip. Instead, he just asked, "Do you want to go home or should we go visit your mother first? She'll probably have a lot of good advice..." ...And a fair amount of criticism for continuing the Hori family tradition of unplanned pregnancies, but he was way too happy to be contrite.
"I'd like to go home for now, I think... Maybe we can walk over for lunch, or invite her over... That would probably be better, so I don't have to keep walking around in a blanket..."
"Good idea... I'll call her when we get home. That reminds me, though--we still haven't eaten breakfast. Is your stomach okay?"
"I'm not hungry... but I should probably eat something anyway, right?"
He smiled a bit. "It figures that you'd completely skip the while morning sickness routine--if all you have to endure on that front is a loss of appetite, I mean. It probably would have been easier on us if you did get a little sick, since that's the most common trope in fiction. We probably would have recognized it for what it was instead of jumping to conclusions..." Still, he hoped to avoid giving Kashima any food that might upset her stomach, so it would probably be best to stick with plain white rice and and a few veggies for breakfast. He'd already decided that he'd be mimicking her diet as much as possible, so she'd have his empathy if being forced to eat healthier ended up bothering her.
She sighed. "If my cycle was just a bit more regular, that would have helped a lot, too." Hori distinctively remembered many times in which she'd cried out in frustration after excusing herself to use the restroom. It had only taken one concerned inquiry for him to learn to never ask again. "Well, at least I won't have to worry about that for a while..."
Hori was glad for her, because he didn't even want to imagine how awful it would be to have to go through that on a regular basis. He looked forward approximately eight or nine months in the future and wondered if Kashima would prefer nine cycles over labor, then decided that he definitely shouldn't even mention it, because she got the short end of the stick either way and she'd probably end up beating him upside the head with it thanks to the infamous hormone-induced mood swings. "You don't have to worry about anything," he said, instead. "If you need absolutely anything at all, just ask, and I'll take care of it."
She didn't waste any time at all before making her first demand. "Masa-chan, I want a kiss~"
"You're lucky I'm not a genie, because you would have just thrown away your first wish on something I'd have done anyway," he replied, and kissed her right there in front of the train station. After nearly four years of dating, he'd lost every ounce of shame regarding her love of PDAs. There was simply no more shame left to protect the delicate sensibilities of the people sharing their train car, either, because she spent the entire ride trying to embarrass him with increasingly risque 'orders' until it eventually backfired and they were both up to their eyeballs in barely contained lust. The walk back home from the station was torturous, and they would have ran if not for the continuing need to protect her sore chest from chafing.
Once they got in the door, though, Kashima all but threw off the blanket and they raced upstairs. Breakfast and phone calls could wait for a moment in which he was not kissing the woman he was marrying that coming summer, already carrying their first child securely inside her ridiculously resilient body. He usually let her take the lead in their lovemaking, but this time, Hori pressed her shoulders onto the mattress, and, very careful to avoid brushing against her chest, leaned in close and said, "I'm going to make you feel so good, you're going to forget that anything hurts." His smirk grew a bit when he realized that he wouldn't even need to stop to grab a condom.
"Is something supposed to be hurting right now?" she flirted right back, smiling just as deviously as she pushed him down the length of her body, eager to put that smooth tongue of his to work.
“So why do you ask? I mean, it should be obvious that I’m unsuitable for that task, even if I am the best choice for reciting all those lines by heart–there’s a certain conflict of interest, isn’t there?” She waggled her eyebrows at him.
Here I am with the first of three vignettes based within Breaking Character canon! All three actually take place after the main story, but there aren’t any actual spoilers here… because it isn’t actually a spoiler that these two nerds end up getting together somehow, is it? huehuehue
On the other hand, reading this before reading Breaking Character would spoil certain things in the main story, so be sure to read BC first if you plan to! It’s kind of a monster fic at over 100K words and still ongoing but a lot of people are enjoying it so it must be at least halfway decent, haha ^^
Anyway, the approximate timeline here is that they’re both going to university, somewhere in the range of 20-21 years old, and have been living together for about two years.
Aw, thank you! Tomorrow’s entry will probably be posted sometime after midnight MST since I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get online until late tomorrow. It’s another BC-verse story, so I hope you’ll enjoy it, too! :)
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