Log - Ryou K and Ryou S
When: March 20th
Who: The Ryous
Where: Shishido's room
What: The Ryous meet up to discuss Bane's upcoming haircut. Shishido also learns to never touch Ryou's hair and shows off his sword ^__~
Ryou had pretty much ascertained that his life was going to be very boring and slow at this school, especially being so far from his brother. So when he had gotten a chance to really talk to Shishido, he had felt more at home than he thought he would. Shishido was no Atsushi, but Ryou felt like there was some sort of connection. Somewhere between talking about how awesome they both were and picking on Bane.
Bane was half the reason they were hanging out, really, considering they were looking through magazines to help decide on a final hairstyle to give the larger teen, and Ryou had decided that Shishido’s bed was particularly comfy.
“I reckon they gave these single rooms better beds than the double rooms,” he said. He was sitting at the head of the bed, leaning back against the headboard with his hair pulled forward over one shoulder, slowing checking it for split ends and tangled sections. “Mine’s not nearly as comfy.”
Shishido hadn’t been sure at first about these two new guys, but he’d surprisingly and happily clicked with them. Ryou especially. And while he was still a bit envious of his hair and thought that he totally rocked the long hair look better, he had to admit that Ryou was awesome enough to deserve the name.
“Obviously another perk to being an awesome floor leader. Or knowing someone who is that doesn’t mind sharing,” Shishido said as he studied a page filled with various people. He spotted one and grinned before holding it out for Ryou to look. “What about this one for Bane?” It was a ridiculous hair cut only the crazy comedian it was on could pull off. He suspected that Bane would kill them if he knew they were even joking about it.
One look at the picture had a smirk pulling at the corners of Ryou’s mouth. “There’s just one thing missing,” he said leaning forward a little and throwing his hair back over his shoulder. “You need to make it a different color. Pink, perhaps? Bane could pull it off.”
There was just something about doing things at Bane’s expense that Ryou enjoyed. Then again, he just loved picking on most people, especially the ones who didn’t understand just when he was picking on them. Shishido, though, he didn’t think was the kind he would pick on. He had too much fun picking on Bane with him and something told him picking on other people with him was going to be very fun.
Shishido looked back at the picture and then up at Ryou and burst out laughing. “He’d kill us... slowly!” Shishido managed to get out between his laughter. “Want to tell him we’re gonna do it anyway?” Maybe they could cut Bane’s hair without him looking in a mirror and at the end show him their ‘reference’ photo before letting him see. There’d only be a small chance of death that way. Which was good, he really didn’t want to die a virgin, that would be so uncool.
“... We should,” Ryou said with a nod after a moment’s consideration. “You’re picking up what’ll piss him off real quick.” He couldn’t help the amusement in his tone. “I think this is going to be a very fun and awesome friendship, Shishido.” And if there was more than one person helping in annoying Bane, then he wasn’t going to be the one having to take the full force of the consequences.
“Well, I learned how to piss Bane off from the best. I’ll totally have to return the favour when you meet Kenya and Yuushi,” Shishido said. He didn’t know the Oshitaris as well as Bane and Ryou knew each other, but he was sure he knew a couple ways they could tease them anyway. “Here, let me see that.” He took the magazine back from Ryou and carefully ripped out the page to set aside before looking through it some more.
Ryou moved to lean against Shishido’s side so he could get a better look at the magazine. “Bane’s just easy,” he said with a half-shrug. “Are they easy to pick on? Or do they require a little more work?” He was actually looking forward to meeting these two particular Night class students, especially curious about the older one, Yuushi. Once Shishido had mentioned them to him, Ryou had begun to dig through the Association’s records to find out more about them. It was going to be interesting playing oblivious around a telepath.
Shishido shifted the magazine so Ryou could see more easily. “They can require work... the trick is to start teasing them before they can tease you,” Shishido confided. “And if they’re together, try to get one of them on your side and helping you to tease the other.” That was an especially effective technique when Shishido thought he was at risk of being teased himself.
“Is there one that’s better to get on your side?” Ryou asked calmly, reaching out a hand to turn the page of the magazine. The same hand reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind his ear, his eyes scanning the photos on the page. “If only we had more hair to work with. Then we could do something really fabulous.”
“Yeah. But if we just sort of trim it down a bit and add some texture it should be okay to spike up or brush down,” Shishido said gesturing to a pic that would almost work for their needs. “And Yuushi’s better since he always knows just what to say or do to drive someone nuts, but Kenya’s easier to get on side since we can team up against Yuushi’s laziness and weird interests.” It also helped that Yuushi seemed to be extremely weak against his cousin, especially when teamed up with Shishido. Though the way most of their teasing sessions ended, there was never really a loser. He smiled to himself as he flipped another page.
Short. Textured. Easy to style. Ryou nodded. There was no way Bane could complain about that. Though he probably would anyway. There seemed to be very little that Bane wouldn’t complain about whenever Ryou was involved. “So... what happens if I team up with... Yuushi, was it? And you with Kenya?” he asked, trying to sound as curious as possible. Sometimes he was thankful for idiocy virus that seemed to infect the majority of this school. It made it almost too easy to play dumb.
“Why are you teaming up with Yuushi?” Shishido asked and then thought about what would happen if that happened. If Yuushi was behaving and not a giant pervert, they’d probably just end up throwing more and more ridiculous insults at each other. If Yuushi was in a perverted mood he’d probably be trying to get them into a make out competition. “And Kenya and I would totally win. Yuushi would either be too lazy to bother or too busy trying to flirt with you.” Shishido shrugged. Yuushi’s lack of respect for people’s personal bubbles used to bother him but now he was just used to it.
“You said Yuushi was the one who knew what to say to get to people,” Ryou said, frowning a little in confusion. “So... Kenya would be the better choice to side with...? That doesn’t make any sense. Logically, the one who has the greater skill in getting under people’s skin would be the better choice for such a thing even if he is lazy. Once you get him started, he wouldn’t just suddenly stop because he felt lazy, would he? That just doesn’t make any sense...”
Shishido chuckled, “Not making sense is what they do best.” There’d been more than a few times where he’d been left completely baffled about what just happened. “And Yuushi is so the type of guy to give up halfway through if his laziness kicks in. Do you know how many times we’ve been in the middle of fencing practice and he just declares a break or that we’re ending early? At least Kenya normally sees things through.”
Ryou’s frown faltered a little. “Too bad ‘Sush’ isn’t here,” he said. “We’re the masters of confusing others and not making sense. Only mom and dad could ever figure it out.” The frown had lifted up into a slight smile at the memory. “I’d love to see which pair of us would be able to... out-confuse them...?” He gave a slight chuckle. Even to him that didn’t make sense. And he was the guy who would find an explanation for everything so that it would make more sense, even if he had to make it up.
“Yeah but you and Atsushi have the supernatural twin powers on your side. There shouldn’t be anything like supernatural cousin powers,” Shishido complained and then looked at Ryou and shook his head slightly. “I guess if you stick around we can try different pairings until we see who is the confusion champion. But I think any of the girls would be the winner. Girls are weird and confusing even when they’re trying to be helpful!”
“I suppose that is true,” Ryou said with a slow nod. He and Atsushi were blessed with such powers, powers that not even a pair of awesome Ryous could possess. Unfortunately, they didn’t work over long distance and neither of them possessed the power to teleport at will. “But if we spend too much time trying to confuse each other, we’ll never be able to have our Wii party. Though cousins? You never know. They could have powers themselves, y’know. They wouldn’t be as awesome as twin powers but they could still be pretty awesome.”
“Don’t encourage them,” Shishido said with a groan dropping back onto his pillows. “Next thing you know, they’ll be saying they can read each other’s minds and jump off buildings and crap. They’re ridiculous enough as it is.” And no he wasn’t going to mention that he was often just as ridiculous.
Ryou blinked and stared at him with a deadpan expression. “B-But Shishido.. don’t you know? Mind reading is totally real. Me and Atsushi do it all the time. It’s a part of supernatural twin powers. Maybe it’s even part of supernatural cousin powers!” he said, tone a little disbelieving that Shishido would dare think such a thing was impossible. “Oh, and jumping off buildings is totally possible. It’s called parkour. Or free running. Take your pick.”
Shishido rolled his eyes and gave Ryou’s hair an annoyed, but harmless tug. “I’ll buy it for twins but not for cousins.” Even kissing cousins, Shishido added silently. “And if they don’t know about free running or whatever, you’re so not going to be the one to tell them. Kenya’s crazy about running and Yuushi is an idiot who already likes to climb tress three stories high.”
The words were lost on Ryou. He had stopped paying attention as soon as he felt the first slight touch to his hair even before the tug and a hand had lifted to grab Shishido’s wrist. His other hand wrapped around Shishido’s and turned his hands in opposite directions until he felt Shishido’s bones resist, threatening to give way and at the very least dislocate, if not break. “Do not touch my hair,” he said, his eyes narrow and his tone low and cold. There were two reasons to why he didn’t go whole way. One, he could do without the same reputation he’d had at the academy, even if it would help with stopping the ‘girl’ comments, and two, he actually kind of liked Shishido’s companion and could really do without ruining what could possibly be a pretty good friendship.
“Ouch! Back off!” Shishido yelled in pain. As he used his free hand to shove Ryou away from him, hitting him hard in the shoulder. “What’s your problem?” He was used to some roughhousing thanks to his stupid older brother but he normally saw those fights coming. This had come out of nowhere, talk about being overly sensitive and lame.
“That’s your warning,” Ryou’s tone didn’t change but he did let go of his hand at the shove. The shove only made him shift back a tiny bit, too used to being shoved around by people much stronger than him. “Feel lucky. Bane didn’t get a warning.”
Shishido gave him another shove before tenderly probing his sore hand and holding it close to his chest. “Are you secretly insane or something?” Now, he got tetchy when people messed up his hair too, but he didn’t go psycho on them, especially when they didn’t do anything bad to his hair. Clearly all Ryou’s were not created equal when it came to awesomeness.
Ryou cocked an eyebrow at him and ran his hands through his hair, pulling it back. “Probably,” he said with a shrug, dropping his hands again. “But only if you touch my hair.” He paused for a moment to turn a page in the magazine. “Or call me a girl.”
“Like I’m going to call you a girl and I didn’t do anything to your hair,” Shishido grumbled still prodding his hand. He hoped it wouldn’t bruise, that would be awkward to explain.
“It’s not whether you do anything to my hair,” Ryou said, glancing at him out the corner of his eye. “You touched my hair. No one touches my hair. Only me or Atsushi.”
“Geeze fine. But I’ve had long hair you know, I do know how to treat it,” Shishido said flopping onto the bed and poking Ryou with his foot. “Like, if you ever want it brushed or styled or anything, I could help. It doesn’t just have to be a twin experience.” Maybe that was the problem, too much twin time and not enough good times with other people.
Ryou looked down at the foot poking at him with a frown and prodded at it with a finger. “It’s not about it being a twin experience,” he said, prodding the foot again. “It’s simply a matter of I don’t trust anyone to touch my hair apart from myself or my brother.”
Shishido giggled slightly at the finger poking his foot and prodded Ryou back some more. “Well, you can trust me,” Shishido said confidently.
“Of course I can trust you,” Ryou said and dragged the tip of his finger along the sole of Shishido’s foot. “But you’re still not touching my hair.”
“We’ll see,” Shishido said with a laugh and jerked his foot back away from Ryou’s evil fingers. “Now, let’s see if we can find Bane a hairstyle that won’t make him kill us.” He gave his wrist a testing twist and satisfied it was no longer aching, flicked the page in the magazine.
Ryou gave a nod, making a mental note that Shishido’s feet at least were ticklish. Good to know. “I think if we just go with that one you mentioned earlier,” he said, looking at the magazine. “Easy to style for any occasion and works for any activity.”
“Yeah, that will work,” Shishido said flipping back to an earlier page. “Do you think he’ll like it?” He hadn’t completely forgiven Ryou yet for his freaking out about the hair thing but he was willing to let it slide. He was so telling Yuushi and Kenya about it so they wouldn’t make the same mistake though.
After a moments thought, Ryou nodded. “Yeah, he should,” he said slowly, pulling forward a lock of hair and inspecting the ends. “He can’t complain that it’ll get in his eyes and we don’t have to worry about it being too thin. His hair’s thick enough.”
“Cool. So that’s that sorted.” Shishido ripped out that page and put it with the one he’d pulled out earlier. “Now what?”
Ryou shifted back so he could lean back against the headboard again. “Hm. I’m not sure,” he said. “You’ve told me about Yuushi and Kenya and we’ve decided what to do to the idiot’s hair. I suppose you could tell me more about why you’re so awesome.”
“Huh? I thought that’d be obvious. Do you really need it spelled out for you?” Shishido asked slightly offended that Ryou would question his awesomeness.
A laugh escaped and Ryou shook his head slowly. “Careful, you’re starting to sound like the idiot and that just wouldn’t suit a Ryou,” the hunter pulled his hair over his shoulder and leaned his head back, his eyes closing. “What do you do? Apart from being awesome.”
“I’m in the swim club. I’m a diver but I can do all the swimming too. Oh and I can fence now. I thought it was really pansy at first but then Yuushi and Kenya started teaching me and it’s pretty badass,” Shishido said and then pointed over to where he kept his rapier case. “Wanna see my sword?”
“You know, taken out of context, that could sound very, very wrong,” Ryou couldn’t help the amusement in his tone and in his slight smirk. “But sure, I won’t say no to having a look. I’ve never really liked swords, personally. I prefer bows and crossbows.”
Shishido snorted and shook his head, “It takes more than a first meeting to see that sword,” Shishido said as he stood up and moved to grab his rapier case and bring it back to the bed. “And bows and crossbows? What are you, some wannabe vampire hunter?” He gave a chuckle as he opened the case and let Ryou look at it.
Ryou cocked an eyebrow at him. “Why is that the first thing that comes to mind?” he asked, slightly surprised. “Besides, don’t vampire hunters use wooden stakes and garlic and stuff?” He let himself be distracted, though, by the sword, and scanned it from tip to hilt. “It’s beautiful. So shiny.”
“Yuushi and Kenya gave it to me for my birthday. And then they spent like a week lecturing me on how to take care of it properly. If it’s not shiny I’m gonna hear about it for hours,” Shishido said giving his best put out expression. “And in movies and stuff hunters always have crossbows that shoot stakes and stuff into vampires. And swishy coats in black... do you have a swishy coat?”
The hunter froze where he was reaching a finger towards the rapier, his finger hovering a few inches above the blade. He slowly pulled his hand back. He didn’t want to subject his new friend to a chewing out, as fun as it would be to watch. “I have long swishy hair?” Ryou offered as a substitute. He didn’t really like swishy clothing. He preferred it fitted, save the odd slightly too-large shirt he owned for when he was just lazing around in his room. “I doubt I’d make a good vampire hunter, though, if they did exist. I’d never win a fight against a vampire.”
“I guess long swishy hair will have to do,” Shishido said and then laughed, “I don’t know, if you can take Bane I’m sure the vampires would be worried.” Noticing Ryou’s hesitation with the rapier, he picked it up out of the case and offered him the hilt. “Just don’t stab me and you can hold it.”
“Only reason I can take the idiot is because one, he’s an idiot, and two, because I know how he works. After so long, he’s predictable,” Ryou shrugged it off, eyes stuck on the rapier. He hesitated again, mostly because he’d never really been the most confident with swords, but slowly wrapped his hand around the hilt. “I should show you my crossbow sometime... I’m still trying to find a safe place where I can do target shooting. Think you know somewhere?”
Shishido let Ryou take the full weight of the rapier and then gestured to the open area of his room, “Go ahead, stand up and give it a few swings if you want.” he thought about where Ryou might do his crossbow practice and while he couldn’t think of a place immediately he knew someone who probably did. “You should ask An about the crossbow thing. She does archery.”
Ryou seriously considered that for a moment but eventually shook his head. “I’d probably break something,” he admitted, a little sheepish. “Me and swords aren’t friends.” He offered the sword back to Shishido. “An? I’ll try her then. I don’t want to not practice and end up losing my touch.”
“An’s cool. She’ll definitely hook you up,” Shishido said taking the sword back and giving it an expert swish before gently placing it back in its box. “You’ve used swords before? You didn’t stab your own foot did you?”
“Father was a sword collector. Sometimes he’d let me and Atsushi handle the swords,” Ryou explained, the explanation coming out of no where as he watched the sword being put away. “I didn’t get my foot. I almost got Atsushi’s, though, and I destroyed Mother’s favourite curtains... I was never allowed to touch his swords again.”
Shishido couldn’t help but laugh at the story. “Then I’m glad you didn’t swing it around. I like my foot and even though the curtains are boring, I don’t want to pay for new ones.” He looked down at his own sword and gently brushed his fingers along the hilt before closing the case and latching it. “It’s cool about your father though. Was Atushi good with them?”
Ryou nodded. “Father taught him to spar with western swords. The katana were always off limit,” he explained calmly. “Mother wasn’t fond of it but no one ever got really hurt so she didn’t try to stop them.”
“That’s so like mothers. Always worried about kids getting hurt. My mother freaked out the first time I messed up a dive and got hurt,” Shishido shared. He stood up to return his rapier back to its proper spot. “If your brother ever makes it up here he should join the Oshitaris and me for a friendly spar.”
“I’d love to watch,” Ryou said. “I’m no good with swords but if Atsushi’s there, I’m definitely gonna be there to cheer him on. And hey, maybe once I find a place, I can show you how good a shot I am.”
“Cool. But you haven’t seen Yuushi and Kenya fence yet. It’s practically supernatural how they move,” Shishido said remembering the first time he’d seen the two spar and how swiftly it had changed his opinion of fencing being lame. “And as long as you don’t let me near the bow, I’ll totally come watch you. I’d probably end up shooting you in the foot.”
Ryou smiled and gave a nod. This was working out to be rather fun. “So as long as I stay away from your equipment and you stay away from mine, everyone’ll be safe and we can still prove how awesome it is being a Ryou.” Their logic was flawless. There was truly no way they could not be the most awesome people ever.
“Exactly,” Shishido agreed with a large grin.
Who: The Ryous
Where: Shishido's room
What: The Ryous meet up to discuss Bane's upcoming haircut. Shishido also learns to never touch Ryou's hair and shows off his sword ^__~
Ryou had pretty much ascertained that his life was going to be very boring and slow at this school, especially being so far from his brother. So when he had gotten a chance to really talk to Shishido, he had felt more at home than he thought he would. Shishido was no Atsushi, but Ryou felt like there was some sort of connection. Somewhere between talking about how awesome they both were and picking on Bane.
Bane was half the reason they were hanging out, really, considering they were looking through magazines to help decide on a final hairstyle to give the larger teen, and Ryou had decided that Shishido’s bed was particularly comfy.
“I reckon they gave these single rooms better beds than the double rooms,” he said. He was sitting at the head of the bed, leaning back against the headboard with his hair pulled forward over one shoulder, slowing checking it for split ends and tangled sections. “Mine’s not nearly as comfy.”
Shishido hadn’t been sure at first about these two new guys, but he’d surprisingly and happily clicked with them. Ryou especially. And while he was still a bit envious of his hair and thought that he totally rocked the long hair look better, he had to admit that Ryou was awesome enough to deserve the name.
“Obviously another perk to being an awesome floor leader. Or knowing someone who is that doesn’t mind sharing,” Shishido said as he studied a page filled with various people. He spotted one and grinned before holding it out for Ryou to look. “What about this one for Bane?” It was a ridiculous hair cut only the crazy comedian it was on could pull off. He suspected that Bane would kill them if he knew they were even joking about it.
One look at the picture had a smirk pulling at the corners of Ryou’s mouth. “There’s just one thing missing,” he said leaning forward a little and throwing his hair back over his shoulder. “You need to make it a different color. Pink, perhaps? Bane could pull it off.”
There was just something about doing things at Bane’s expense that Ryou enjoyed. Then again, he just loved picking on most people, especially the ones who didn’t understand just when he was picking on them. Shishido, though, he didn’t think was the kind he would pick on. He had too much fun picking on Bane with him and something told him picking on other people with him was going to be very fun.
Shishido looked back at the picture and then up at Ryou and burst out laughing. “He’d kill us... slowly!” Shishido managed to get out between his laughter. “Want to tell him we’re gonna do it anyway?” Maybe they could cut Bane’s hair without him looking in a mirror and at the end show him their ‘reference’ photo before letting him see. There’d only be a small chance of death that way. Which was good, he really didn’t want to die a virgin, that would be so uncool.
“... We should,” Ryou said with a nod after a moment’s consideration. “You’re picking up what’ll piss him off real quick.” He couldn’t help the amusement in his tone. “I think this is going to be a very fun and awesome friendship, Shishido.” And if there was more than one person helping in annoying Bane, then he wasn’t going to be the one having to take the full force of the consequences.
“Well, I learned how to piss Bane off from the best. I’ll totally have to return the favour when you meet Kenya and Yuushi,” Shishido said. He didn’t know the Oshitaris as well as Bane and Ryou knew each other, but he was sure he knew a couple ways they could tease them anyway. “Here, let me see that.” He took the magazine back from Ryou and carefully ripped out the page to set aside before looking through it some more.
Ryou moved to lean against Shishido’s side so he could get a better look at the magazine. “Bane’s just easy,” he said with a half-shrug. “Are they easy to pick on? Or do they require a little more work?” He was actually looking forward to meeting these two particular Night class students, especially curious about the older one, Yuushi. Once Shishido had mentioned them to him, Ryou had begun to dig through the Association’s records to find out more about them. It was going to be interesting playing oblivious around a telepath.
Shishido shifted the magazine so Ryou could see more easily. “They can require work... the trick is to start teasing them before they can tease you,” Shishido confided. “And if they’re together, try to get one of them on your side and helping you to tease the other.” That was an especially effective technique when Shishido thought he was at risk of being teased himself.
“Is there one that’s better to get on your side?” Ryou asked calmly, reaching out a hand to turn the page of the magazine. The same hand reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind his ear, his eyes scanning the photos on the page. “If only we had more hair to work with. Then we could do something really fabulous.”
“Yeah. But if we just sort of trim it down a bit and add some texture it should be okay to spike up or brush down,” Shishido said gesturing to a pic that would almost work for their needs. “And Yuushi’s better since he always knows just what to say or do to drive someone nuts, but Kenya’s easier to get on side since we can team up against Yuushi’s laziness and weird interests.” It also helped that Yuushi seemed to be extremely weak against his cousin, especially when teamed up with Shishido. Though the way most of their teasing sessions ended, there was never really a loser. He smiled to himself as he flipped another page.
Short. Textured. Easy to style. Ryou nodded. There was no way Bane could complain about that. Though he probably would anyway. There seemed to be very little that Bane wouldn’t complain about whenever Ryou was involved. “So... what happens if I team up with... Yuushi, was it? And you with Kenya?” he asked, trying to sound as curious as possible. Sometimes he was thankful for idiocy virus that seemed to infect the majority of this school. It made it almost too easy to play dumb.
“Why are you teaming up with Yuushi?” Shishido asked and then thought about what would happen if that happened. If Yuushi was behaving and not a giant pervert, they’d probably just end up throwing more and more ridiculous insults at each other. If Yuushi was in a perverted mood he’d probably be trying to get them into a make out competition. “And Kenya and I would totally win. Yuushi would either be too lazy to bother or too busy trying to flirt with you.” Shishido shrugged. Yuushi’s lack of respect for people’s personal bubbles used to bother him but now he was just used to it.
“You said Yuushi was the one who knew what to say to get to people,” Ryou said, frowning a little in confusion. “So... Kenya would be the better choice to side with...? That doesn’t make any sense. Logically, the one who has the greater skill in getting under people’s skin would be the better choice for such a thing even if he is lazy. Once you get him started, he wouldn’t just suddenly stop because he felt lazy, would he? That just doesn’t make any sense...”
Shishido chuckled, “Not making sense is what they do best.” There’d been more than a few times where he’d been left completely baffled about what just happened. “And Yuushi is so the type of guy to give up halfway through if his laziness kicks in. Do you know how many times we’ve been in the middle of fencing practice and he just declares a break or that we’re ending early? At least Kenya normally sees things through.”
Ryou’s frown faltered a little. “Too bad ‘Sush’ isn’t here,” he said. “We’re the masters of confusing others and not making sense. Only mom and dad could ever figure it out.” The frown had lifted up into a slight smile at the memory. “I’d love to see which pair of us would be able to... out-confuse them...?” He gave a slight chuckle. Even to him that didn’t make sense. And he was the guy who would find an explanation for everything so that it would make more sense, even if he had to make it up.
“Yeah but you and Atsushi have the supernatural twin powers on your side. There shouldn’t be anything like supernatural cousin powers,” Shishido complained and then looked at Ryou and shook his head slightly. “I guess if you stick around we can try different pairings until we see who is the confusion champion. But I think any of the girls would be the winner. Girls are weird and confusing even when they’re trying to be helpful!”
“I suppose that is true,” Ryou said with a slow nod. He and Atsushi were blessed with such powers, powers that not even a pair of awesome Ryous could possess. Unfortunately, they didn’t work over long distance and neither of them possessed the power to teleport at will. “But if we spend too much time trying to confuse each other, we’ll never be able to have our Wii party. Though cousins? You never know. They could have powers themselves, y’know. They wouldn’t be as awesome as twin powers but they could still be pretty awesome.”
“Don’t encourage them,” Shishido said with a groan dropping back onto his pillows. “Next thing you know, they’ll be saying they can read each other’s minds and jump off buildings and crap. They’re ridiculous enough as it is.” And no he wasn’t going to mention that he was often just as ridiculous.
Ryou blinked and stared at him with a deadpan expression. “B-But Shishido.. don’t you know? Mind reading is totally real. Me and Atsushi do it all the time. It’s a part of supernatural twin powers. Maybe it’s even part of supernatural cousin powers!” he said, tone a little disbelieving that Shishido would dare think such a thing was impossible. “Oh, and jumping off buildings is totally possible. It’s called parkour. Or free running. Take your pick.”
Shishido rolled his eyes and gave Ryou’s hair an annoyed, but harmless tug. “I’ll buy it for twins but not for cousins.” Even kissing cousins, Shishido added silently. “And if they don’t know about free running or whatever, you’re so not going to be the one to tell them. Kenya’s crazy about running and Yuushi is an idiot who already likes to climb tress three stories high.”
The words were lost on Ryou. He had stopped paying attention as soon as he felt the first slight touch to his hair even before the tug and a hand had lifted to grab Shishido’s wrist. His other hand wrapped around Shishido’s and turned his hands in opposite directions until he felt Shishido’s bones resist, threatening to give way and at the very least dislocate, if not break. “Do not touch my hair,” he said, his eyes narrow and his tone low and cold. There were two reasons to why he didn’t go whole way. One, he could do without the same reputation he’d had at the academy, even if it would help with stopping the ‘girl’ comments, and two, he actually kind of liked Shishido’s companion and could really do without ruining what could possibly be a pretty good friendship.
“Ouch! Back off!” Shishido yelled in pain. As he used his free hand to shove Ryou away from him, hitting him hard in the shoulder. “What’s your problem?” He was used to some roughhousing thanks to his stupid older brother but he normally saw those fights coming. This had come out of nowhere, talk about being overly sensitive and lame.
“That’s your warning,” Ryou’s tone didn’t change but he did let go of his hand at the shove. The shove only made him shift back a tiny bit, too used to being shoved around by people much stronger than him. “Feel lucky. Bane didn’t get a warning.”
Shishido gave him another shove before tenderly probing his sore hand and holding it close to his chest. “Are you secretly insane or something?” Now, he got tetchy when people messed up his hair too, but he didn’t go psycho on them, especially when they didn’t do anything bad to his hair. Clearly all Ryou’s were not created equal when it came to awesomeness.
Ryou cocked an eyebrow at him and ran his hands through his hair, pulling it back. “Probably,” he said with a shrug, dropping his hands again. “But only if you touch my hair.” He paused for a moment to turn a page in the magazine. “Or call me a girl.”
“Like I’m going to call you a girl and I didn’t do anything to your hair,” Shishido grumbled still prodding his hand. He hoped it wouldn’t bruise, that would be awkward to explain.
“It’s not whether you do anything to my hair,” Ryou said, glancing at him out the corner of his eye. “You touched my hair. No one touches my hair. Only me or Atsushi.”
“Geeze fine. But I’ve had long hair you know, I do know how to treat it,” Shishido said flopping onto the bed and poking Ryou with his foot. “Like, if you ever want it brushed or styled or anything, I could help. It doesn’t just have to be a twin experience.” Maybe that was the problem, too much twin time and not enough good times with other people.
Ryou looked down at the foot poking at him with a frown and prodded at it with a finger. “It’s not about it being a twin experience,” he said, prodding the foot again. “It’s simply a matter of I don’t trust anyone to touch my hair apart from myself or my brother.”
Shishido giggled slightly at the finger poking his foot and prodded Ryou back some more. “Well, you can trust me,” Shishido said confidently.
“Of course I can trust you,” Ryou said and dragged the tip of his finger along the sole of Shishido’s foot. “But you’re still not touching my hair.”
“We’ll see,” Shishido said with a laugh and jerked his foot back away from Ryou’s evil fingers. “Now, let’s see if we can find Bane a hairstyle that won’t make him kill us.” He gave his wrist a testing twist and satisfied it was no longer aching, flicked the page in the magazine.
Ryou gave a nod, making a mental note that Shishido’s feet at least were ticklish. Good to know. “I think if we just go with that one you mentioned earlier,” he said, looking at the magazine. “Easy to style for any occasion and works for any activity.”
“Yeah, that will work,” Shishido said flipping back to an earlier page. “Do you think he’ll like it?” He hadn’t completely forgiven Ryou yet for his freaking out about the hair thing but he was willing to let it slide. He was so telling Yuushi and Kenya about it so they wouldn’t make the same mistake though.
After a moments thought, Ryou nodded. “Yeah, he should,” he said slowly, pulling forward a lock of hair and inspecting the ends. “He can’t complain that it’ll get in his eyes and we don’t have to worry about it being too thin. His hair’s thick enough.”
“Cool. So that’s that sorted.” Shishido ripped out that page and put it with the one he’d pulled out earlier. “Now what?”
Ryou shifted back so he could lean back against the headboard again. “Hm. I’m not sure,” he said. “You’ve told me about Yuushi and Kenya and we’ve decided what to do to the idiot’s hair. I suppose you could tell me more about why you’re so awesome.”
“Huh? I thought that’d be obvious. Do you really need it spelled out for you?” Shishido asked slightly offended that Ryou would question his awesomeness.
A laugh escaped and Ryou shook his head slowly. “Careful, you’re starting to sound like the idiot and that just wouldn’t suit a Ryou,” the hunter pulled his hair over his shoulder and leaned his head back, his eyes closing. “What do you do? Apart from being awesome.”
“I’m in the swim club. I’m a diver but I can do all the swimming too. Oh and I can fence now. I thought it was really pansy at first but then Yuushi and Kenya started teaching me and it’s pretty badass,” Shishido said and then pointed over to where he kept his rapier case. “Wanna see my sword?”
“You know, taken out of context, that could sound very, very wrong,” Ryou couldn’t help the amusement in his tone and in his slight smirk. “But sure, I won’t say no to having a look. I’ve never really liked swords, personally. I prefer bows and crossbows.”
Shishido snorted and shook his head, “It takes more than a first meeting to see that sword,” Shishido said as he stood up and moved to grab his rapier case and bring it back to the bed. “And bows and crossbows? What are you, some wannabe vampire hunter?” He gave a chuckle as he opened the case and let Ryou look at it.
Ryou cocked an eyebrow at him. “Why is that the first thing that comes to mind?” he asked, slightly surprised. “Besides, don’t vampire hunters use wooden stakes and garlic and stuff?” He let himself be distracted, though, by the sword, and scanned it from tip to hilt. “It’s beautiful. So shiny.”
“Yuushi and Kenya gave it to me for my birthday. And then they spent like a week lecturing me on how to take care of it properly. If it’s not shiny I’m gonna hear about it for hours,” Shishido said giving his best put out expression. “And in movies and stuff hunters always have crossbows that shoot stakes and stuff into vampires. And swishy coats in black... do you have a swishy coat?”
The hunter froze where he was reaching a finger towards the rapier, his finger hovering a few inches above the blade. He slowly pulled his hand back. He didn’t want to subject his new friend to a chewing out, as fun as it would be to watch. “I have long swishy hair?” Ryou offered as a substitute. He didn’t really like swishy clothing. He preferred it fitted, save the odd slightly too-large shirt he owned for when he was just lazing around in his room. “I doubt I’d make a good vampire hunter, though, if they did exist. I’d never win a fight against a vampire.”
“I guess long swishy hair will have to do,” Shishido said and then laughed, “I don’t know, if you can take Bane I’m sure the vampires would be worried.” Noticing Ryou’s hesitation with the rapier, he picked it up out of the case and offered him the hilt. “Just don’t stab me and you can hold it.”
“Only reason I can take the idiot is because one, he’s an idiot, and two, because I know how he works. After so long, he’s predictable,” Ryou shrugged it off, eyes stuck on the rapier. He hesitated again, mostly because he’d never really been the most confident with swords, but slowly wrapped his hand around the hilt. “I should show you my crossbow sometime... I’m still trying to find a safe place where I can do target shooting. Think you know somewhere?”
Shishido let Ryou take the full weight of the rapier and then gestured to the open area of his room, “Go ahead, stand up and give it a few swings if you want.” he thought about where Ryou might do his crossbow practice and while he couldn’t think of a place immediately he knew someone who probably did. “You should ask An about the crossbow thing. She does archery.”
Ryou seriously considered that for a moment but eventually shook his head. “I’d probably break something,” he admitted, a little sheepish. “Me and swords aren’t friends.” He offered the sword back to Shishido. “An? I’ll try her then. I don’t want to not practice and end up losing my touch.”
“An’s cool. She’ll definitely hook you up,” Shishido said taking the sword back and giving it an expert swish before gently placing it back in its box. “You’ve used swords before? You didn’t stab your own foot did you?”
“Father was a sword collector. Sometimes he’d let me and Atsushi handle the swords,” Ryou explained, the explanation coming out of no where as he watched the sword being put away. “I didn’t get my foot. I almost got Atsushi’s, though, and I destroyed Mother’s favourite curtains... I was never allowed to touch his swords again.”
Shishido couldn’t help but laugh at the story. “Then I’m glad you didn’t swing it around. I like my foot and even though the curtains are boring, I don’t want to pay for new ones.” He looked down at his own sword and gently brushed his fingers along the hilt before closing the case and latching it. “It’s cool about your father though. Was Atushi good with them?”
Ryou nodded. “Father taught him to spar with western swords. The katana were always off limit,” he explained calmly. “Mother wasn’t fond of it but no one ever got really hurt so she didn’t try to stop them.”
“That’s so like mothers. Always worried about kids getting hurt. My mother freaked out the first time I messed up a dive and got hurt,” Shishido shared. He stood up to return his rapier back to its proper spot. “If your brother ever makes it up here he should join the Oshitaris and me for a friendly spar.”
“I’d love to watch,” Ryou said. “I’m no good with swords but if Atsushi’s there, I’m definitely gonna be there to cheer him on. And hey, maybe once I find a place, I can show you how good a shot I am.”
“Cool. But you haven’t seen Yuushi and Kenya fence yet. It’s practically supernatural how they move,” Shishido said remembering the first time he’d seen the two spar and how swiftly it had changed his opinion of fencing being lame. “And as long as you don’t let me near the bow, I’ll totally come watch you. I’d probably end up shooting you in the foot.”
Ryou smiled and gave a nod. This was working out to be rather fun. “So as long as I stay away from your equipment and you stay away from mine, everyone’ll be safe and we can still prove how awesome it is being a Ryou.” Their logic was flawless. There was truly no way they could not be the most awesome people ever.
“Exactly,” Shishido agreed with a large grin.