au meme #5: the wheels on his bike go round and round [-side a-]
determined not to let these die this time, jkhawe.
For Anon here at the AU meme:
Tegoshi has a paper route.
who: NewS (Tegoshi)
rating: G
notes: Vague prompt leads to vague fic? :D Side B is only a few sentences and inconclusive scraps of thought from a different POV so far, but anyway. ♥ Side A is standalone.
✂
Tegoshi Yuuya delivers the local paper sometimes, between his morning tutorials and afternoon lectures. He has a brilliant smile and pure heart (harmlessly self-centred though he may elsewise be), and sings as he rides his bike, charming the neighbourhood around him.
He likes his rounds, and his rounds like him. It's nothing extraordinary, just the way the world works when he's in it.
There are little old ladies, and fishmongers returning from an early start to the day. There are housewives who adore his smile, and then there are others.
*
Tegoshi's only seen Yamashita a few times. It's usually the man's younger sister who greets him for the paper (but she does it every other week, such a sweet thing). Yamashita is good-looking, if inexpressive; at first Tegoshi has no idea what he does for a living except that it involves expensive shades, designer jeans and not being home a lot.
Then one day the girls in his class won't stop chattering more than usual, and by the time Tegoshi wriggles his way into their conversation they all have cellphones and magazines out, sharing pictures around.
"Ah!" he says, genuinely surprised. "Yamashita."
"Are you a fan?" they ask, and Tegoshi laughs. Soccer is the only hysteria he subscribes to.
But after a moment he tilts his head, thinking about the handful of times he's actually seen this Yamashita in question and given him the paper. He remembers a tired smile from behind big sunglasses, a quiet thank you and polite nod, which are both more than Tegoshi can say he's ever gotten from a majority of the households in his area.
And Tegoshi smiles. "Yeah," he says, "I guess I am…"
He takes to putting stickers on Yamashita's newspapers after that, occasionally, the kind that come on sheets with girl magazines. It's fun to give their Prime Minister a pretty face and idol hair, just because he can.
It's even more fun several weeks later, when he lifts the lid of the Yamashita mailbox to find a post-it note stuck to its underside, secured with a sticker in kind.
Can you please stop?
My mother thinks it's me…
-P
*
Further along, the Kato family's house has a little front garden, full of flowers and carefully-manicured wild things. Their son, Shigeaki, is an only child just like Tegoshi, and is studying Law, a university student just like Tegoshi. Tegoshi knows this because Kato-san is an amicable lady and very proud of her young boy. (Tegoshi is younger, though.)
Shige has thick glasses, dark eyes, and a weird haircut, and Tegoshi doesn't think he sounds like all that despite Kato-san's pimping. Anybody can study Law at an escalator school.
This opinion is only cemented some weeks later when Tegoshi delivers the paper and peers over the Kato fence to see Shige outside for once. He's hunched over with a big camera, concentrating very hard on taking photos of a tiny, haggard sprig of grass growing out of the cracks in the pavement.
Tegoshi is not impressed.
"There's a butterfly on the chrysanthemum behind you," he says, pointing.
Shige looks up as if surprised to find he has company, taking a moment to reply. "…but in their own way, things struggling to grow where they're not wanted are beautiful too, don't you think?"
"Mm, not really," Tegoshi tells him, frank. "They don't know their place."
Shige gapes.
With a cheerful wave, Tegoshi goes his own way after that. He doesn't see Shige outside much again.
*
Koyama Keiichiro likes to talk. He works casually like Tegoshi does, and went to university, too. His Bachelor of Arts (Asian Literature) certificate hangs framed and proud on the wall of his parents' ramen restaurant.
Gathering dust.
On the days his timetable allows, Tegoshi delivers the papers to the Koyama ramen shop during the post-lunch lull. Koyama will always feed him, and while Tegoshi has noodles and chashu in his mouth, he doesn't even have to pretend to be paying attention. Just an 'Mm,' will do while Koyama goes on and on and on...
*
Tegoshi likes Masuda's place, too, because Masuda's mother makes the best gyoza in the history of ever. Tegoshi learns this when he sees Massu sitting on his front steps out in the sun one day, his face entirely absorbed in foodful bliss. Tegoshi reaches down with a "May I?" and takes one of the large, juicy dumplings without waiting for an answer.
Massu gives him the most offended look in the history of ever, and Tegoshi laughs with his mouth full. The dumpling really is good, though.
("If you wanted one, you could've just asked," Massu tells him.
Tegoshi smiles his brilliant smile. "But didn't I?"
Masuda frowns. "Asking means waiting for an answer.")
Tegoshi likes Massu. He's odd and unpredictable, but mostly inoffensive even if his fashion sense is worse than Tegoshi's was when Tegoshi was little. They get along well since they're both competitive when everything boils down, and Tegoshi can tell people that they're only friends because of the paper route.
He does tell them that, because Massu is weird. Despite how often Massu invites him over for karaoke and dinner and funny rhythm console games that look like seizures on-screen, and the way Tegoshi joins him without hesitation every single time.
They get along well.
*
Tegoshi doesn't notice Nishikido to begin with, apart from how sometimes his newspapers will remain in his letterbox for weeks before being cleared.
"He's from Osaka," the neighbours say, "sometimes he stays over there," and Tegoshi tells them he figured it was something like that.
None of them know what Nishikido does in Osaka or Tokyo though, except that his job involves suits and cars and sometimes pretty ladies as well - which leads to the shaking of heads. Tegoshi doesn't pay the neighbours any heed (because tongues are wont to wag), until the first time he sees Nishikido for himself.
It must be a day off, because Nishikido's in casual gear and locking his front door when Tegoshi pulls up with the paper. "Nishikido-san?" he calls, voice warm from an afternoon of song. It carries easily, clear and pure: "Put your paper inside before you leave."
Ryo turns around, raising a brow at the lack of suggestion in Tegoshi's tone. But "Okay," he says anyway around an unlit cigarette, and walks down to take the paper from Tegoshi's outstretched hand. "Thanks."
Tegoshi smiles with a smooth, superior air, and it's then that Ryo first sees Tegoshi, too. He looks past the bike and soccer shorts and sports tee for a moment, and the moment stretches on, his dark eyes turning considering.
Tegoshi laughs then, freely, and says "You like what you see," instead of 'You're welcome,' and Ryo's smile turns sardonic at the sides.
"…I might?" he asks, crooked smile almost guarded. It's not quite the, 'Yeah, and?' that Tegoshi had been expecting.
"Do something about it next time," Tegoshi tells him anyway, eyes all smiles as he hits the pedals and goes on to shove a roll of paper into the next house's slot. Ryo watches him all the way down the street before cursing himself in Kansai-ben.
And the neighbours wag their tongues and shake their heads.
*
Tegoshi doesn't really know how it's going to be when he graduates and gets a proper job. Most likely, he'll move on to bigger and better things and leave his paper route in this sleepy little corner of Tokyo behind.
But that's a little way off yet, and for now he'll make some friends he knows won't forget him when he's gone.