My piece for the Jounuary week 1 prompt - Stars. This was deeply inspired by @alectoperdita ficlet Stars above, stars within. Everyone should absolutely check it out immediately!
relationships: Hirutani/Jounouchi (romantic, kinda?) | Jounouchi/Honda (if you squint)
warnings: Manipulative Relationships, Homophobic Language, Homophobic Bullying, Toxic Masculinity, Emotional Abuse, None Of This Is Stick N Poke Advice, Non Sanitary Stick N Poke?, Is That The Tag I Wanna Use?, Don't Do Any Of This, Underage Drinking
summary:
jounuary week three - party | gift
Hirutani agrees to let Jounouchi give him a stick n poke.
full disclosure i was high writing most of this but i've had this idea for a bit and wanted to chew on it. i dipped into some headcanons and obviously we know very little about hirutani so i just made shit up. i hope i didn't fuck up my understanding of the japanese high school system too bad and it's okay to laugh at me if i did. i'm posting it here instead of ao3 for the usual reasons, i should probably edit when sober.
this ended up being a showcase of what i imagine jou and hirutani's dynamic is. i did not get graphic with anything but feel free to proceed at your own risk
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The music from the party below thrummed against the baseboards of the floor. Downstairs, there was beer and liquor, and Jounouchi had pinched what he could. The guys were all older, 19 and 20, but they hadn't said anything about the 14 year old with bleached hair grabbing beers by the fistful. Some had even shouted out to him, familiar faces that went in and out of the house at odd times. They knew Hirutani anyway, and Jounouchi was always at his side.
Hirutani passed for way older than he was, which was probably why he got away with rooming here. He didn't talk about his parents, but neither did Jounouchi, so that was probably fine. Hirutani had taken over a corner room in the upper floor. He chewed on a cigarette as he laid across the old scratchy rug, and Jounouchi hovered over his bare ankle. He held in one hand a tattoo needle strapped to a chopstick that he'd dipped in india ink, and with the first poke Hirutani shouted.
"What the fuck are you doing?" he said.
"You're such a pussy," Jounouchi laughed. "I knew you couldn't take it."
He pressed a thumb over the snake he'd drawn on Hirutani's skin. He'd been dying to try this since he and Hirutani hung around a tattoo place, watching big huge yakuza crying as they got traditional ones chiseled onto their back. One of the guys had let Jounouchi look at the machines, and he and Hirutani had talked for weeks about what ink they'd get. Jounouchi had sketched dragons in his school books next to the shoes he traced out of magazines. Hirutani always goofed on him for that, but he still let Jonouchi draw a snake on his ankle. First ink. Jounouchi didn't want to fuck it up.
"You don't know what the fuck you're doing," Hirutani said. He landed a fist against Jounouchi's arm, strong enough to smart but not to break.
"What do you know?" Jounouchi said, dipping the needle into the ink well again.
Hirutani rolled over, puffing out smoke. "I got brothers, man."
Jounouchi eyed him. A lot of the punks in the neighborhood knew Hirutani, yeah, and he answered to some of the bigger boys, probably the same ones he roomed with, but his connects were never clear. Rumor was his uncle was some lieutenant, but Jounouchi had never met anyone who claimed Hirutani as kin. No doubt the punishment for fucking up their little brother's first ink was brutal, but it didn't really matter if it was true or not. If Hirutani didn't like it, he'd let him know.
"Fuck, Jounou," he groaned when Jounouchi poked him again. "You hammering it in?"
"I gotta make sure the ink stays," he said. "Stop moving already."
Jounouchi's tongue stuck out in concentration, and he tried to focus on the lines he'd drawn. The needle was a little shaky, and since it was twist tied to a chipstick it was hard to predict where it'd land. It gave him a secret glee that Hirutani yelped with every little jab. He played aniki to their whole crew, and here he was bent over like a little bitch 'cause he couldn't take Jou poking him.
"I'm gonna tell everybody tomorrow," Jounouchi said. "You were crying—"
Hirutani's arm yanked around him, slamming him to the floor. Jounouchi laughed and kneed him in the gut back. Jounouchi was the only one that could even go toe to toe with Hirutani. He tossed all the other boys off like nothing, but he said Jounouchi was like a rabid dog. He said it with pride.
"You should see how you take it," Hirutani said, snatching the needle from his hand. He mimed smashing it into Jounouchi's arm, and he jerked away from him. "You'd be begging me to stop."
"Don't fucking—" Jounouchi grabbed his wrist and pried the digits open. "You're gonna fuck me up."
"You bet I will."
He lifted a foot and kicked Jounouchi straight into the chest. His breath slammed out of him as he shoved back into a shelf, rocking the action figures displayed there. Arcade tokens sprinkled onto the floor next to him. He grimaced, rubbing his chest.
Hirutani grinned as he stretched his hand out with the needle. "Now do it right."
He stretched back out, and Jounouchi concentrated. The snake design was cool, at least. He gave it two heads, and their forked tongues stretched out. He figured out he was poking way too far apart, but the lighter touch seemed to work and soothe Hirutani's frustration. Rock music blared from below, and they could hear the thrashing bodies with the cheers. Jou's head rocked back and forth with the tempo. He fell into an easy rythm of dip, dot, and wipe.
When Hirutani stirred next, it was out of boredom. Jounouchi frowned as he moved his ankle again.
"You get your acceptance to Rintama?" he said. "If you're still going."
Jounouchi pinned him down and continued the outline of the tail. He knew a few boys who hadn't bothered with high school, but the rest had applied, like Hirutani, to Rintama. Jounouchi had too, not with any real ambition to learn, but the other option was staying at home, and that was too scary to contemplate. The thing was, he hadn't put it first on his applications, and for some reason he couldn't figure out how to say it.
"Yeah," Jounouchi said. "I'm going. It's just, my friend Honda is going to Domino. He's the one with the motorbike."
Hirutani frowned. "I remember him."
"We live in the same neighborhood," Jounouchi said with a shrug. "He said I could ride with him and I was like hell yeah how sick would it be to show up every day on a motorcycle?"
Hirutani puffed the end of his cigarette, and it glowed red. He released the smoke with a laugh. "You would say homo shit like that."
"Shut up." Jounouchi smacked his side.
"What!" He laughed again. "You always get mad at me 'cause you're a homo. You're lucky you can say that shit to me and not the other guys."
Jounouchi ducked his head down, rounding out a curve. He pricked a little too hard, and Hirutani shouted.
He grinned. "You pussy."
"I'm gonna kick your ass for real!"
"Stop squirming! I'm almost done."
Hirutani settled. He'd turned on his side so he could examine Jounouchi work. He had a presence like a tiger settled in the corner of its cage. He was content, for the moment, to watch.
"It's not like I don't get it," Hirutani said. "The motorbike is sick."
"Thank you," Jounouchi said with a huff. "His dad owns this mechanic shop and they have all kinds of specialty cars."
"That's fucking awesome." Hirutani propped his head onto his arm. "He should come hang with us tomorrow. You know Goji's been talking about that impound place over by the river front. I bet he could tell us some stuff about it."
Jounouchi bent low, and his bangs swept over his eyes. "Uh, yeah. I'll talk to him. He's more into electronics anyway. Oh, shit, we should go to that new arcade they opened in the mall on Sunday."
He grinned, sucking in one last puff of smoke. "Is your boyfriend gonna come to?"
Jounouchi's head snapped to him, and he stabbed the needle in. "What's your problem?"
Hirutani yelped, and he stabbed the cherry out onto the carpet. "Nothing. You're the one acting like his fan club president. No wonder you're following him to his school."
"I'm not," Jounouchi said.
"It's cute, is all," Hirutani continued with a shrug. "I bet the guys'll think it's cute too."
Jounouchi rounded out the final edge and finished his poke. He sat back on his knees and grabbed the alcohol pads. He swept it along the skin, and Hirutani hissed in response.
"Let me see," he said. "Does it look sick?"
Jounouchi offered a smile at him. "I think so."
Hirutani grinned as he examined the tat. He stubbed the cigarette out into the carpet as Jounouchi settled back. He didn't know how to explain to Hirutani that his choice of high schools had nothing to do with Honda. He didn't know how to say that without admitting it had everything to do with Hirutani. He didn't know what Hirutani would do if he did.
"Holy shit, it's awesome." Hirutani grinned as he spread his thumb along the skin. Some of the ink hadn't stained very well, but the shape of the two headed snake was there. He beamed at Jounouchi. "This is cool as hell. This is my first fucking ink."
He held his hand out, and Jounouchi instinctively slapped it. They gripped their palms tight in a show of strength. Hirutani jerked Jounouchi's arm towards him, and he startled towards the ground, catching himself before he could crash into the other boy.
"Don't pout like that," he said. His thumb pressed to Jounouchi's chin, easing towards the corner of his mouth. "Sorry if I was acting jealous."
Heat flushed across Jounouchi's face. He pulled away. "I haven't really picked anyway. It was kinda just a joke."
Hirutani shoved his chest with a laugh. "I knew you had to be fucking with me. We're brothers, man. No leather wearing pretty boy trumps that."
Jounouchi tried to laugh along. He grabbed one of the beers and popped the top while Hirutani admired his new tattoo. He flipped through Jounouchi's notebook, looking at the designs he'd made.
"I should do you," he said, picking up the chopstick. "You did my first tattoo, I'll do yours. Then we're blood brothers for real."
The glass clinked against Jounouchi's teeth, and he wiped his mouth while he nodded. "Sure, dude. What're you thinking?"
He grinned. "I'm not gonna tell you."
"No," Jounouchi argued, "you gotta let me know. I'm not letting you put some dumbass thing on me."
"Shut up," Hirutani said. He tapped a cartoon flower Jounouchi had doodled. "Look, I'm putting this on your pansy ass."
"Don't fucking do it."
He laughed deep in his chest. "You're too easy, man! Lemme do it on your ankle at least. C'mon, it'll look cute."
Jounouchi huffed. "You're being such a dick."
He stuck out his tongue. "That's why you like me."
Jounouchi stuck out his leg, too exhausted to fight. "Yeah, do whatever you want."
He drank a lot that night while Hirutani jabbed and poked at his skin. He didn't make a single sound even when he was really digging it in, the psycho. Hirutani crashed in his bed while Jounouchi slept with his chin against the rug. In the dark he eyed the blackened ashes of the cigarette burn in the carpet. The bass below drummed against his cheeks all the way down his spine. A year ago, this would've sent him to sleep like a baby. Now anxiety ran through his skin. He curled over to peer at his ankle tattoo. It was more scab than ink, but the wiggly flower shape was there. He dug his fingers into it, feeling the pulse through his skin. The feeling in his chest made him feel like a child again listening to bottles crashing outside his door.
His heart was telling him one thing, and he knew it was the only thing he could trust. He'd always followed it before.
Jounouchi closed his eyes and pictured spring. He picture green buds on new branches, pink flowers unfurling. It soothed his breathing to imagine the blue sky behind the new brush of green. New school, new friend in Honda, new chance to do anything but this. He didn't expect miracles, but he felt for the first time like he might be able to breathe.
He looked at the tattoo again. Hirutani had meant it as a jab, but Jounouchi felt pleased by it now. He could rough him up however he wanted, lay whatever brand he thought he could claim, it didn't matter. In only a few months he'd be free of him. Hirutani wasn't gonna let him go without a fight, and that didn't matter either. Jounouchi hadn't planned to either.
Jounouchi went to sleep filling in the sketches he had in his mind of Domino. Honda was there, of course, and all the manga led him to believe there'd be sakura trees and roof access. The party would keep going all night, but Jounouchi was already on his way.
hi, I really wanted to participate in jounuary but I didn't know week 1 ended like today as in a few minutes, so I drew this really fast and I realized I misinterpreted the jounary prompt being just for joey but my friend encouraged me to post it anyways... so here you go, I'll do better next week
