“That is the ugliest sweater I’ve ever seen and I am not wearing it.” shrimpshipping!
Thank you for the prompt! It was fun imagining the same one in two different scenarios. It’s perfect for shrimp, too~.
Ryuuzaki held up acolor block sweater in three shades of green, a goofy grin plasteredon his face. He looked like he might burst into giddy laughter at anymoment, so excited he was about this… thing.
Excited andexpectant.
“That is theugliest sweater I’ve ever seen,” said Haga, “and I am notwearing it.” Brutal honesty was always the best policy, at leastwhen it didn’t serve his needs to lie. Wearing thisawful, awful sweater for the sake of someone else’s feelings…didn’t serve his needs, to put it lightly.
“Huh?”Ryuuzaki’s eyes widened. He gave the sweater an insistent shake.“But… this is totally your style!”
Haga frowned and wondered just how insulted he should be. “Why?” he asked. “Justbecause it’s green?”
“Well, yeah,partly, but- it’s, you know, kinda nerdy- hey! Where are yougoing?” Ryuuzaki stood, sweater still outstretched.
“Somewhere I don’thave to look at that.”
“Okay!” saidRyuuzaki, scowling. “Okay, I get it! But this ain’t over yet.”
“What are youtalking about? What isn’t over?” It wasn’t a complex situation. He wasn’t wearing the sweater, and that wasthat.
“You’ll see,”said Ryuuzaki, tossing it over the back of the couch andpulling on his coat. “Just wait and see.”
Ryuuzaki returnedwith a plastic shopping bag he wouldn’t allow Haga to see thecontents of and fumbled through drawers until he found a small fabriczipper pouch. With bag, pouch, and sweater in hand, he locked himselfin the bathroom.
Haga pounded on thedoor. “Ryuuzaki-”
“If you wanna takea bath, you’re just gonna have to wait!”
Haga collapsed ontoa floor cushion and sighed. When Ryuuzaki got an idea in his head,there could be no dissuading him. He supposed it was something theyhad in common. For now, he really would just have to wait.
When Ryuuzaki finally emerged, one hour later, hehad the sweater clutched tightly to his chest. “It’sa little bit of a mess in there,” he said. “I’ll clean it up,so don’t freak out.”
Squinting, Hagaasked, “What were you doing in there that could possibly make that much of amess?”
“Fixing this.”Ryuuzaki looked down at the sweater, assessing his work – thoughHaga still couldn’t see it. “Maybe.”
“Are… you goingto show me?”
“Maybe,”Ryuuzaki repeated. His demeanor was different this time – far lesseager. Finally, he turned the sweater around.
At the core, it wasstill the same sweater, yet it had been completely transformed by theaddition of a large black stag beetle. The felt patch was a littleuneven, clearly cut by hand, but that just added to the aestheticsomehow. Haga stepped forward and took it, staring down at the thickbrown stitches. “You can do that?”
Ryuuzaki shrugged,avoiding Haga’s eyes. “Yeah. Grandma taught me. Was easier on herif I could patch my own stuff.”
“Huh… I neverknew.” Haga blinked, still taking in the sight of what felt like abrand new sweater.
“I used to knitsome, too. Was kinda calming. I couldn’t make a sweater, though.So…” He rubbed his cheek, watching Haga out of the corner of hiseye. “Is it better?”
“Better?” Hagashook his head. Before Ryuuzaki could react, he whispered, “It’sperfect.” And that definitely wasn’t a lie.
