Another scene from "We just can't be honest with each other."
This scene is supposed to take place about a week or so before the intro scene I posted yesterday that you could find here. This is Mao and Jun’s interesting high school AU relationship summed up in a scene.
Title: We just can't be honest with each other. (Mao/Jun interaction)
Author: yoshi09
Genre: Alternative Universe/General/Romance
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: Mao has quite the habit of touching Jun's arm. A lot. She just likes letting everyone know to whom he belongs. ^.~
Summary: High school AU.
[From: Jun
I forgot my notes at Nino’s house. Can I borrow yours?
February 3, 2010 7:53pm]
Mao smiled.
[To: Jun
Irresponsible?]
She only had to wait a few seconds for a reply.
[From : Jun
Urusai.
February 3, 2010 7:54pm]
She giggled.
[To: Jun
You can. But I’m still looking through them.]
She flipped her phone shut. She was surprised when a few minutes later, her phone buzzed again.
[From: Jun
Want to study together?
February 3, 2010 7:59pm]
She drummed her fingers on her homework, thought about the recent events today, then lifted her phone to reply.
[To: Jun
What time?]
- - - -
Mao was at Jun’s doorstep an hour later, a tote bag over her shoulder. She was dressed casually in comfortable rolled up jean shorts and a gray sweatshirt, her hair tucked behind her ears. Mao never felt the urge to dress up around her guy friends- they were all just friends after all- but she didn’t expect to be overdressed when Jun opened the door groggily, shirtless.
“Oh,” he began, elbow raised above his head as he scratched the back of his neck. He was blinking the sleep out of his eyes. “You’re here early.”
Mao tried not to stare.
“I’m on time.” She said with a small smile, lifting her wrist so he could see her Mickey Mouse watch.
Jun didn’t bother to confirm though as he nodded through a suppressed yawn before backing up into his house to allow her entrance.
She shuffled in, feeling slightly awkward. An unfamiliar feeling around him.
Mao slipped off her shoes, and her tote bag swung down heavily with its weight. He had walked ahead of her toward his kitchen, wearing only loose fitting sweatpants, comfortably low on his hips. With a jolt, Mao realized she was checking him out. She straightened herself from removing her shoes to walk after him, reasoning to herself that it was fine, Jun had always been attractive.
“Mom,” Jun was saying when Mao entered the room. It smelled deliciously of frying hamburgers. “You remember Mao-chan, right?” He gestured to her leisurely.
Jun’s mother turned and Mao bowed politely, “Hello, Matsumoto-san.”
She smiled widely back in turn. “Ah! Mao-chan! It’s been a long time!” Jun’s mother wiped her hands on a wash cloth as she eagerly went to greet her son’s friend. “How is your mother?”
Mao bowed again, out of habit, when Jun’s mother reached out to clasp Mao’s hand in both of hers to shake it in a western-like fashion. She was always so modern and friendly. Very beautiful, like Jun’s sister, in the elegant sort of way that didn’t match the housewife life she happily lead.
“She is doing great. She asked about you on the phone the other day too.”
Jun’s mother laughed genuinely, and still holding Mao’s hand, she turned to look over her shoulder at Jun. “She still speaks so formally!” Jun chuckled a little. She gave Mao her full attention again, “Tell your mother whenever she is in town again that I’d love to catch up, okay?” She gave Mao’s hand a light squeeze before letting it go. “Do you two have plans tonight?”
Jun nodded. “We’re heading upstairs to study.”
“Oh!” She looked at Mao, “Would you like to stay for dinner? I’m making hamburgers.”
Mao looked down at her hands shyly in a reserved fashion that said she was going to say no politely but Jun’s mother touched Mao gently on the arm.
“They’re Jun’s favorite.”
“She does make very good hamburgers, Mao-chan.” He agreed.
“No, I’m really okay. I ate dinner before I came over.”
Jun’s mother looked undeterred as she walked back to the kitchen, “All right then. I’ll just make some more in case you get hungry during studying.”
Mao giggled.
“We’re going up now.” Jun said, leading the way to the stairs. Mao bowed again before she turned to follow him. Jun’s mother smiled and bowed lightly back in return. As they scaled the stairs Jun’s mother called after them,
“I might be going out later when your sister gets back from work.”
“Okay,” Jun replied. They reached the top of the floor and he walked into a room whose door was already ajar. It was a wonder that Jun didn’t do modeling. ‘He has a great body for it,’ Mao mused.
She had been in his room before, a long time ago when they attended the same middle school. Nothing much had changed: his desk was still pushed up against the wall so he could look out the window while he studied, and he still left his backpack at the door. But there was, as always, not many places to sit. He took the desk seat so she sat, rather awkwardly, upon his mussed bed sheets, slightly warm from his nap.
He stretched languidly, effectively giving her a full blown close up of his toned abs. He must have caught her staring because he said, “Are you okay?”
“Um,” she began, adjusting her bag on her shoulder, “I just prefer desks is all.”
“Oh. Right. Forgot.” They switched positions.
There was an awkward pause- one that they were both aware of. Mao broke it first with a giggle, finding it ridiculous she was feeling jumpy around Jun.
“Let’s study, yeah?”
Jun smiled. “Are you done with your notes?”
His phone buzzed and he looked around his bed for it. He flicked it open with his thumb when he found it underneath his pillow. Mao put her bag down, pulling out various texts and the notes he was referring to.
“Some of it,” she passed her notebook to him, “but go ahead.”
He put his phone down and took the notes from her, flipped through them. “I just need to go over the last half…” He leaned back against his headboard and stretched his legs out in front of him to cross them at his ankles. “What will you be studying?”
“Our geography test is tomorrow so I was going to review them.”
Jun tapped his forehead with his middle finger. “That’s tomorrow?”
Mao nodded.
He dropped her notebook, “Want to review that together instead?” His phone buzzed again and he leaned forward to retrieve it.
She shook her head slowly, suppressing a smile. “It’s no wonder Toma and Shun never want to study with you.”
“Because there’s Sho to study with?” Jun murmured offhandedly, texting a reply.
Mao covered her mouth and giggled. “No.” She got up from his desk and snatched the phone from his hand mid-text. He frowned at her when she slid it across his floor to the other side of the room. “You get distracted too easily.”
“Oi.”
Mao poked him on the shoulder. “Not ‘oi,’ you invited me over to study, so let’s do that.”
“Yeah, well, I’m starting to regret that…” he muttered, scratching his nose as if to muffle his words.
Mao rose an eyebrow. “Hm? What was that?”
Jun looked up innocently, “Huh? What?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me, you know exactly what you said.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“You did!” Mao sat down on his bed indignantly, trying to repress her mirth as she kept a straight face.
“You’re hearing things!”
“Liar~!” Mao jabbed him in the ribs with her index earning a yelp from Jun who twisted away out of reflex. She just about jumped on him after that, locking her hands into miniature tickling claws as she grappled with both his arms and his twirling, jerking body.
“Mao- stop- damn it- hahahaha!”
Jun was a violent kicker when tickled but Mao had leapt over this particular obstacle before in the past and knew just how to deal with him.
“I’ll stop when you admit that you said something!” She said between short gasps of laughter. She straddled him, her anti-kick technique, poking him incessantly everywhere his hands and arms couldn’t cover in time.
“Stop- haha- you little- STOP~ hahaha!”
“‘You little,’ what, Jun?” Mao poked either side of his stomach at the same time and his body automatically tried to wrench away. By this point Mao could barely speak over her own giggles, “What were you trying to sa-!”
In one movement, Jun grasped both her wrists and flipped the both of them so she was beneath him, earning him a squeal of protest from Mao, when there was a knock from the door. They looked up simultaneously to see Jun’s sister, one amused eyebrow raised.
“Nee-chan-”
“Kasumi-”
Jun and Mao said in unison.
Jun’s sister, Kasumi, looked thoroughly entertained, “At least close the door.”
Jun and Mao, as if suddenly realizing what they must look like, detangled themselves as Jun said, “We- we were just studying.” It didn’t help that Jun was out of breath. Or that Mao’s loose sweatshirt somehow had flipped up over her stomach during the ordeal and she had to fix it.
“Studying.” Kasumi repeated, with an expression that said she didn’t believe her little brother one bit, “Anatomy, right?”
“Ka-Kasumi,” Mao said, also out of breath and hoping her face wasn’t as red as it felt.
Kasumi started to laugh. She was just about doubled over when she said, “I’m teasing! I know you two have been good friends since middle school. Tickle fight, right?” She winked at her brother, “I heard you guys while I headed upstairs.”
“Oh.” Mao said, uncertain why Kasumi’s understanding of the situation didn’t alleviate her nerves, or her blush.
“I just came up to let Jun-kun know that mom and I are going out now. Food’s downstairs if you two get hungry, yeah?”
Mao nodded. She assumed Jun did too because Kasumi gave Jun a smile before she said, completely unnecessarily, “I’ll close the door for you guys,” which she did, leaving a very loud silence behind her.
Finally, after hearing his sister’s footsteps walk through the hall, fade down the stairs, and the front door shut and lock, Jun got up and opened his closet. He reached in for a random shirt and slid it over his head. He stood there for a second, then reached to rub the back of his head in embarrassment before he finally turned around to face Mao.
“Sorry about that,” he said, sheepishly.
Mao smiled at him reassuringly. “Kasumi’s always made fun of us, I’m used to it.”
“I still wish she didn’t,” Jun said, looking away from her. “It makes things…” his eyes found hers again, “weird.”
It didn’t really, not before. But now that he said it, it made the situation so.
Mao dropped her gaze shyly, suddenly feeling very underdressed in her jean shorts.
Jun noticed and stammered to find his words. “Err, I mean, um, well. It’s, uh- it’s not that I like you or anything-”
Mao looked up at him quickly, shaking her head as well, realizing how odd it was that she was shaking her head to agree with him, and began to nod instead, as she continued where he left off, “Right. I know. I don’t, well, I’m not- we’re not like that.” She mimicked his gesture and put a hand to the back of her head in embarrassment, “That’d be just…”
“Weird,” Jun repeated.
Their eyes locked at that last word.
It was Mao who looked away first. She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, heard Jun make a similar noise.
“Well!” She got up, dusted her pants off and waved her hands in the air like she was literally clearing the air. “Let’s study, yeah?”
Jun smiled. “Yeah.”
Title: We just can't be honest with each other. (Mao/Jun interaction)
Author: yoshi09
Genre: Alternative Universe/General/Romance
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: Mao has quite the habit of touching Jun's arm. A lot. She just likes letting everyone know to whom he belongs. ^.~
Summary: High school AU.
[From: Jun
I forgot my notes at Nino’s house. Can I borrow yours?
February 3, 2010 7:53pm]
Mao smiled.
[To: Jun
Irresponsible?]
She only had to wait a few seconds for a reply.
[From : Jun
Urusai.
February 3, 2010 7:54pm]
She giggled.
[To: Jun
You can. But I’m still looking through them.]
She flipped her phone shut. She was surprised when a few minutes later, her phone buzzed again.
[From: Jun
Want to study together?
February 3, 2010 7:59pm]
She drummed her fingers on her homework, thought about the recent events today, then lifted her phone to reply.
[To: Jun
What time?]
- - - -
Mao was at Jun’s doorstep an hour later, a tote bag over her shoulder. She was dressed casually in comfortable rolled up jean shorts and a gray sweatshirt, her hair tucked behind her ears. Mao never felt the urge to dress up around her guy friends- they were all just friends after all- but she didn’t expect to be overdressed when Jun opened the door groggily, shirtless.
“Oh,” he began, elbow raised above his head as he scratched the back of his neck. He was blinking the sleep out of his eyes. “You’re here early.”
Mao tried not to stare.
“I’m on time.” She said with a small smile, lifting her wrist so he could see her Mickey Mouse watch.
Jun didn’t bother to confirm though as he nodded through a suppressed yawn before backing up into his house to allow her entrance.
She shuffled in, feeling slightly awkward. An unfamiliar feeling around him.
Mao slipped off her shoes, and her tote bag swung down heavily with its weight. He had walked ahead of her toward his kitchen, wearing only loose fitting sweatpants, comfortably low on his hips. With a jolt, Mao realized she was checking him out. She straightened herself from removing her shoes to walk after him, reasoning to herself that it was fine, Jun had always been attractive.
“Mom,” Jun was saying when Mao entered the room. It smelled deliciously of frying hamburgers. “You remember Mao-chan, right?” He gestured to her leisurely.
Jun’s mother turned and Mao bowed politely, “Hello, Matsumoto-san.”
She smiled widely back in turn. “Ah! Mao-chan! It’s been a long time!” Jun’s mother wiped her hands on a wash cloth as she eagerly went to greet her son’s friend. “How is your mother?”
Mao bowed again, out of habit, when Jun’s mother reached out to clasp Mao’s hand in both of hers to shake it in a western-like fashion. She was always so modern and friendly. Very beautiful, like Jun’s sister, in the elegant sort of way that didn’t match the housewife life she happily lead.
“She is doing great. She asked about you on the phone the other day too.”
Jun’s mother laughed genuinely, and still holding Mao’s hand, she turned to look over her shoulder at Jun. “She still speaks so formally!” Jun chuckled a little. She gave Mao her full attention again, “Tell your mother whenever she is in town again that I’d love to catch up, okay?” She gave Mao’s hand a light squeeze before letting it go. “Do you two have plans tonight?”
Jun nodded. “We’re heading upstairs to study.”
“Oh!” She looked at Mao, “Would you like to stay for dinner? I’m making hamburgers.”
Mao looked down at her hands shyly in a reserved fashion that said she was going to say no politely but Jun’s mother touched Mao gently on the arm.
“They’re Jun’s favorite.”
“She does make very good hamburgers, Mao-chan.” He agreed.
“No, I’m really okay. I ate dinner before I came over.”
Jun’s mother looked undeterred as she walked back to the kitchen, “All right then. I’ll just make some more in case you get hungry during studying.”
Mao giggled.
“We’re going up now.” Jun said, leading the way to the stairs. Mao bowed again before she turned to follow him. Jun’s mother smiled and bowed lightly back in return. As they scaled the stairs Jun’s mother called after them,
“I might be going out later when your sister gets back from work.”
“Okay,” Jun replied. They reached the top of the floor and he walked into a room whose door was already ajar. It was a wonder that Jun didn’t do modeling. ‘He has a great body for it,’ Mao mused.
She had been in his room before, a long time ago when they attended the same middle school. Nothing much had changed: his desk was still pushed up against the wall so he could look out the window while he studied, and he still left his backpack at the door. But there was, as always, not many places to sit. He took the desk seat so she sat, rather awkwardly, upon his mussed bed sheets, slightly warm from his nap.
He stretched languidly, effectively giving her a full blown close up of his toned abs. He must have caught her staring because he said, “Are you okay?”
“Um,” she began, adjusting her bag on her shoulder, “I just prefer desks is all.”
“Oh. Right. Forgot.” They switched positions.
There was an awkward pause- one that they were both aware of. Mao broke it first with a giggle, finding it ridiculous she was feeling jumpy around Jun.
“Let’s study, yeah?”
Jun smiled. “Are you done with your notes?”
His phone buzzed and he looked around his bed for it. He flicked it open with his thumb when he found it underneath his pillow. Mao put her bag down, pulling out various texts and the notes he was referring to.
“Some of it,” she passed her notebook to him, “but go ahead.”
He put his phone down and took the notes from her, flipped through them. “I just need to go over the last half…” He leaned back against his headboard and stretched his legs out in front of him to cross them at his ankles. “What will you be studying?”
“Our geography test is tomorrow so I was going to review them.”
Jun tapped his forehead with his middle finger. “That’s tomorrow?”
Mao nodded.
He dropped her notebook, “Want to review that together instead?” His phone buzzed again and he leaned forward to retrieve it.
She shook her head slowly, suppressing a smile. “It’s no wonder Toma and Shun never want to study with you.”
“Because there’s Sho to study with?” Jun murmured offhandedly, texting a reply.
Mao covered her mouth and giggled. “No.” She got up from his desk and snatched the phone from his hand mid-text. He frowned at her when she slid it across his floor to the other side of the room. “You get distracted too easily.”
“Oi.”
Mao poked him on the shoulder. “Not ‘oi,’ you invited me over to study, so let’s do that.”
“Yeah, well, I’m starting to regret that…” he muttered, scratching his nose as if to muffle his words.
Mao rose an eyebrow. “Hm? What was that?”
Jun looked up innocently, “Huh? What?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me, you know exactly what you said.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“You did!” Mao sat down on his bed indignantly, trying to repress her mirth as she kept a straight face.
“You’re hearing things!”
“Liar~!” Mao jabbed him in the ribs with her index earning a yelp from Jun who twisted away out of reflex. She just about jumped on him after that, locking her hands into miniature tickling claws as she grappled with both his arms and his twirling, jerking body.
“Mao- stop- damn it- hahahaha!”
Jun was a violent kicker when tickled but Mao had leapt over this particular obstacle before in the past and knew just how to deal with him.
“I’ll stop when you admit that you said something!” She said between short gasps of laughter. She straddled him, her anti-kick technique, poking him incessantly everywhere his hands and arms couldn’t cover in time.
“Stop- haha- you little- STOP~ hahaha!”
“‘You little,’ what, Jun?” Mao poked either side of his stomach at the same time and his body automatically tried to wrench away. By this point Mao could barely speak over her own giggles, “What were you trying to sa-!”
In one movement, Jun grasped both her wrists and flipped the both of them so she was beneath him, earning him a squeal of protest from Mao, when there was a knock from the door. They looked up simultaneously to see Jun’s sister, one amused eyebrow raised.
“Nee-chan-”
“Kasumi-”
Jun and Mao said in unison.
Jun’s sister, Kasumi, looked thoroughly entertained, “At least close the door.”
Jun and Mao, as if suddenly realizing what they must look like, detangled themselves as Jun said, “We- we were just studying.” It didn’t help that Jun was out of breath. Or that Mao’s loose sweatshirt somehow had flipped up over her stomach during the ordeal and she had to fix it.
“Studying.” Kasumi repeated, with an expression that said she didn’t believe her little brother one bit, “Anatomy, right?”
“Ka-Kasumi,” Mao said, also out of breath and hoping her face wasn’t as red as it felt.
Kasumi started to laugh. She was just about doubled over when she said, “I’m teasing! I know you two have been good friends since middle school. Tickle fight, right?” She winked at her brother, “I heard you guys while I headed upstairs.”
“Oh.” Mao said, uncertain why Kasumi’s understanding of the situation didn’t alleviate her nerves, or her blush.
“I just came up to let Jun-kun know that mom and I are going out now. Food’s downstairs if you two get hungry, yeah?”
Mao nodded. She assumed Jun did too because Kasumi gave Jun a smile before she said, completely unnecessarily, “I’ll close the door for you guys,” which she did, leaving a very loud silence behind her.
Finally, after hearing his sister’s footsteps walk through the hall, fade down the stairs, and the front door shut and lock, Jun got up and opened his closet. He reached in for a random shirt and slid it over his head. He stood there for a second, then reached to rub the back of his head in embarrassment before he finally turned around to face Mao.
“Sorry about that,” he said, sheepishly.
Mao smiled at him reassuringly. “Kasumi’s always made fun of us, I’m used to it.”
“I still wish she didn’t,” Jun said, looking away from her. “It makes things…” his eyes found hers again, “weird.”
It didn’t really, not before. But now that he said it, it made the situation so.
Mao dropped her gaze shyly, suddenly feeling very underdressed in her jean shorts.
Jun noticed and stammered to find his words. “Err, I mean, um, well. It’s, uh- it’s not that I like you or anything-”
Mao looked up at him quickly, shaking her head as well, realizing how odd it was that she was shaking her head to agree with him, and began to nod instead, as she continued where he left off, “Right. I know. I don’t, well, I’m not- we’re not like that.” She mimicked his gesture and put a hand to the back of her head in embarrassment, “That’d be just…”
“Weird,” Jun repeated.
Their eyes locked at that last word.
It was Mao who looked away first. She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, heard Jun make a similar noise.
“Well!” She got up, dusted her pants off and waved her hands in the air like she was literally clearing the air. “Let’s study, yeah?”
Jun smiled. “Yeah.”