(no subject)
Title: Weird
Fandom: Hikaru no Go
Pairings: Hikaru/Akira. I guess there's also minor Waya/Isumi hints, too.
Genre: Humour, perhaps
Word Count: 2,533
Notes: Christmas present for kurushi, 2005. The title to this fic makes it sound like some kind of companion or sequel or inverse to my OTHER hikago fic (Normal), but I swear, it's just a coincidence. One which I would prefer to do without, honestly, but ce la vie. XD Post series, so the usual spoilers apply.
Summary: Akira is acting weird, and Hikaru is on a quest to figure out why. Waya is generally obnoxious and unhelpful.
“Touya,” Hikaru complained, stabbing his ramen with his chopsticks for emphasis, “is acting weird.”
Waya finished his milkshake with a loud slurping noise before banging the empty cardboard cup down on the table and making a face. “What are you going on about, Shindou? Touya is always weird. It’s what he does. Like some kind of religion. You’re the one who lives with him, you should be used to that by now.”
Hikaru huffed, exasperated as always by Waya’s unrelenting dislike for Touya Akira. “Not like that! I mean, weird for him. He’s acting different!”
“Well why are you asking me?” Waya demanded, linking his arms behind his head and leaning back in his chair. “How would I know what’s wrong with him? You know him, I don’t, you figure it out.”
“You do too know him! He lives with me. You’re my best friend. It’s not like you never ever talk to him. Plus you see each all the time at Go things!”
“Yeah, but I don’t know him know him,” Waya argued. “Not like you do, idiot. It’s like this passing acquaintance thing. You, on the other hand, know Touya. Like, I don’t know, the same way I know Isumi.”
There was a long pause where Hikaru eyed Waya dubiously, eyebrows raised.
“Yeah, right,” he said finally, in a tone of voice that was not exactly inspired by belief.
“… Just what are you implying, Shindou?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Shindou!”
“Whaaat, you don’t trust me?”
Waya snorted. “Only about as far as I can throw you. You’re almost as weird as Touya is.”
“Touya is not-- well, maybe a little, but-- shut up, Waya!”
“Look,” Waya said, waving a hand vaguely, “if you can’t figure out what’s up with that guy, I doubt anyone else can, so you may as well just ask him instead of harassing your poor friends who don’t know and don’t care. Anyway, you called him weird first, so don’t blame me.”
“I did not say he was weird. I said he was acting weird. It’s completely different,” Hikaru said, mildly miffed. “And I can’t ask Touya! That would be stupid!”
“And asking me isn’t? You do stupid things all the time. Like moving in with Touya in the first place? That was pretty stupid.”
“Oh, shut up,” Hikaru muttered through a mouthful of ramen. “Like I ever ask you for help again.”
“Who said I wanted you to?” Waya shot back, and wrinkled his nose as Hikaru shovelled the last of the ramen into his mouth. “That’s gross, Shindou. Anyway, weird like how? What’s weird for Touya?”
“Why should I tell you? You’re the one who said he didn’t care.”
“Well, fine! Don’t tell me, I don’t care!”
There was a sulky silence filled only by the sound of Waya kicking the underside of his chair. Kick. Kick. Kick.
“He keeps losing games,” Hikaru said, reluctant and sullen as though the words were dragged out of him.
“What are you, crazy? He’s on a winning streak at the moment! He hasn’t lost a game for like, a month!” Waya said incredulously. The kicking continued. Kick, kick, kick--
“No, I mean to me. In casual games.”
Kick, kick-- pause.
“Losing to you? Man, something’s got to be really wrong!”
“Shove off, Waya, Touya doesn’t always beat me!”
“Yeah, what, you beat him that one time at the dead of night by the light of a full blue moon?”
“I do too win sometimes! Just, not like this. He’s playing, okay, not like crap but he’s not playing like he usually does. He’s playing crap for Touya. But only against me. What the hell is up with that?”
Waya considered telling Hikaru that there actually were other things to life than Go, although not that many, but then he remembered that they were talking about Touya, or rather Touya-and-Shindou. He sometimes suspected that their very existences were defined by Go, both separately and together.
“Have you told Touya that he’s playing like crap?” Waya asked, and wished he could see the look on Touya’s face if Hikaru ever did.
“Duh, we always talk about the matches after.”
Which meant they’d yelled at each other about how idiotic their moves were. Very enlightening. Waya didn’t understand why Hikaru wanted to hang out with Touya so much, even to the point of sharing an apartment with the guy, but he had to admit their weirdness was suited.
“So Touya’s having a bad patch against you, so what,” Waya said dismissively, crumpling up his napkin into a ball and tossing it onto the table as he stood. “Talk to him about it and stop stewing. It’s probably nothing. Now are we going, or what?”
Waya, Hikaru thought ruefully as he got up to follow, was a good friend, but he kind of sucked when it came to giving advice or being sympathetic.
~
Because speaking to Waya had been no use and speaking to Touya was a monumentally stupid idea, Hikaru decided to try asking someone else. After he spoke to Isumi (“I think Waya might actually have the best suggestion, Shindou. This is something you and Touya should be talking about.”), Hikaru ran through the list of other people he might conceivably confide in.
Kawai didn’t know Touya personally, which meant he probably wouldn’t be much help. Interest in Go or not, he doubted that Akari would truly understand what was so weird about Touya’s playing being off, and even if she did, her advice would be to talk to Touya. Kaga hated Touya, Mitani would roll his eyes and tell Hikaru to get a life, and Tsutsui… would tell Hikaru to talk to Touya. His friends were singularly unhelpful, actually.
Hikaru then considered people who knew Touya. Touya’s mother was nice, but made Hikaru feel vaguely nervous. Touya’s father scared the crap out of him, Ogata scared the crap out of him even more, and Hikaru didn’t really know Ashiwara well enough to want to ask him something like that.
It was times like these that Hikaru wished more than ever that Sai were still here. Then again, when he thought about it Sai would probably just wail about the sanctity of Go and demand Hikaru fix whatever was wrong with Touya now so they could go back to playing properly! Hikaru~u! While this wouldn’t have been very helpful and neither was the thought, it did make him laugh, something he hadn’t been able to do with memories of Sai for a long time after the ghost had disappeared.
So. None of his friends were any use, and he was kind of scared of everyone who knew Touya really well.
Crap, he really was going to have to talk to Touya.
~
Of course, Hikaru being Hikaru and Touya being Touya, “talking to Touya” actually translated to “playing Go with Touya and yelling at him about what a stupid move that was”.
Given how Touya had been playing against Hikaru recently, this was actually a very good game. Not quite up to Touya’s usual standard, but unlike some of the appalling moves he’d been playing recently, it was simply a matter of being slightly off and Hikaru having a good day. In fact, right at that precise moment, Touya was winning.
Maybe Waya was right, Hikaru thought. Maybe it really was nothing, just a bad patch. This thought was very relieving to him, and he relaxed into the game, considering his next move. After some contemplation, he played an atari on a strategically vital cluster of stones and sat back to see what Touya would do next, absently chewing his lip.
Let’s see, if he played the stone there… or maybe there…
Touya placed a stone, somewhat suddenly and with a sound more like a clatter than the confident pachi of a stone hitting the board. Hikaru stared.
Touya… had left himself wide open. He hadn’t responded to the atari; it was Hikaru’s turn, and with one stone he could capture almost a third of Touya’s territory along with that cluster of stones. Maybe there was something he wasn’t seeing, but… that wasn’t how Touya played. Hikaru knew how Touya played, better than anyone; he could probably imitate Touya’s hands if he tried, just like he could Sai’s. Hikaru was the one who played crazy moves straight out of left field; sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t. Touya played with devastating accuracy, so that you didn’t see a hand coming but you could always see where it came from once it had been played.
Hikaru realised, with no small measure of shock, that Touya had completely missed the atari. The really important, really blindingly obvious atari that had just lost him the game.
“What the hell,” Hikaru demanded, pointing at the board as he jumped to his feet, “was that?”
Touya frowned, glaring up at Hikaru without looking down to where he was pointing. “Shindou, what are you talking about? It’s your turn, sit down and--”
“I know it’s my turn, dumbass! What I don’t know is why you just threw away your win with the stupidest move in the history of Go--”
“Excuse me, no matter where I played it can’t be any stupider than some of your moves, Shindou, and--”
“Touya. Look at the damn board.”
“What,” said Touya irritably, but then he did look down at the board, and he turned pale. “… Oh. I.”
“Like I said!” Hands on hips, Hikaru scowled down at Touya. “What the hell was that supposed to be? You’ve been playing like crap recently!”
Touya narrowed his eyes and shoved his chair back when he stood. “I’ve been playing like crap? You lost your last match, and I haven’t lost in--”
“You keep losing to me!” By this point, Hikaru and Touya were mirroring each other, hands balled into fists by their sides and glaring ferociously at each other. “You were winning just then and you played a stone so bad there’s no way to recover! You missed a really obvious atari, moron!”
“I’m not the one who played that stupid hand there--”
“Which is nowhere near as stupid as what you just played!”
“So I played one stupid hand! So what!”
“One stupid hand? This isn’t about one stupid hand, it’s about lots of stupid hands. You haven’t been playing anything but stupid hands, Touya!”
“Might I remind you that you were the one who pointed out I was winning until just now?” Touya snapped icily. “Anyway, don’t you think that’s just a little bit hypocritical? You’re the one who--”
“This isn’t about me, Touya!” Hikaru’s voice was climbing to drown out Touya’s until he was yelling loud enough that Touya winced. “This is about you! What the hell is your problem?”
“You!” Touya yelled back, frustration seeping into his tone. “You’re my problem! You’re distracting me!”
There was a shell-shocked silence, Hikaru turning as pale as Touya had earlier.
“Touya, what…”
“I’m going to regret this,” Touya muttered, and jerked Hikaru forward by his t-shirt into what was intended to be a kiss and instead turned out to be a painful collision of teeth and noses. Hikaru was too stunned to register the pain or try to pull away, which gave Touya time to change the angle into something vaguely more reminiscent of a kiss before they overbalanced onto the go-ban. Touya tried to kiss Hikaru again with the desperation of a drowning man clinging to driftwood, or perhaps a teenage boy who suspected he was about to get socked one and wanted to make the most of things before his best friend and rival refused to ever speak to him again.
“Mmph!” Hikaru protested, and finally managed to shove Touya away long enough to complain properly. “Touya!”
Touya went still, much like a small animal resigned to the fact that the jaws of death were about to descend. “Shindou, I… sorry, I didn’t…”
“Not that, idiot,” Hikaru broke in impatiently, and then, with a certain measure of sheepishness, “it’s just that, uh, this is really uncomfortable. There are Go stones sticking into my back, so, you know, could we move?”
“Oh,” Touya said.
A long moment passed.
“Like, now? Seriously, I’m going to have imprints in my back! Touya~a!”
“You don’t hate me?” Touya said blankly.
“I might if you don’t get up,” Hikaru said, voice strained. “I’m in pain! Pain! I might be paralysed for the rest of forever if you don’t move soon!”
Touya moved, though he only had the energy to move as far as the floor.
“So anyway,” Hikaru continued, after he’d collapsed on the floor with a whimper and theatrical rubbing of his back, “where were we?”
Touya glanced over at the go-ban. “I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “I don’t think it matters. You were right, I’d already lost.”
Hikaru made a rude noise. “Duh you already lost! Who said I was talking about Go? Idiot.”
“Oh,” said Touya, then, “Oh!” as understanding dawned.
As it so turned out, there were in fact things to life other than Go after all.
~
“I talked to Touya,” Hikaru said idly. “You know, about the weirdness?”
Waya stopped mid-bite of his hamburger to stare. “What, really?”
“Well, kind of,” Hikaru said, and shrugged. “Yelled, mostly. But anyway. We sorted it out.”
“So what was his problem, then?” Waya asked curiously.
Hikaru took a bite of his hamburger, chewing leisurely and swallowing before he answered. “Oh, nothing much. Just, you know. Stuff.”
“… Right.”
“And you were right, by the way,” Hikaru added, with an impish grin. “I do know Touya the same way you know Isumi.”
“… Just what are you implying, Shindou?” Waya demanded suspiciously, and then: “Wait, what? You and Touya? You’re joking, right?”
“Why, what’s wrong with it?”
“He’s Touya! You have no taste! Though I guess you’re both equally weird, so maybe it works…”
“Waya!”
“And when I think about it you guys actually always act like a married couple with the way you argue all the time and order for each other at restaurants…”
“Waya-- hey, when did we ever do that? Are you sure you’re not thinking of you and Isumi?”
“Wait, yeah, maybe you’re right. Whatever, and you eat his food off his plate…”
“I eat your food, I eat everyone’s food--”
“Sure thing, Shindou. So I guess that means you won’t be winning against Touya again any time soon, huh? Ah well, if worst comes to worst you could always distract him, I guess.”
“What, is that what you do when you’re losing to Isumi?”
“Just what was that supposed to mean!”
Acting weird, Hikaru decided, wasn’t so bad, so long as it didn’t affect anyone’s Go. He was in good company. And besides, even if he did have to put up with Waya’s teasing, he could always tease back, because Waya wasn’t much less weird than he was when it came right down to it.
He kind of had to admit that Waya was right, though; even when he was acting like himself, Touya was still weirder.
Fandom: Hikaru no Go
Pairings: Hikaru/Akira. I guess there's also minor Waya/Isumi hints, too.
Genre: Humour, perhaps
Word Count: 2,533
Notes: Christmas present for kurushi, 2005. The title to this fic makes it sound like some kind of companion or sequel or inverse to my OTHER hikago fic (Normal), but I swear, it's just a coincidence. One which I would prefer to do without, honestly, but ce la vie. XD Post series, so the usual spoilers apply.
Summary: Akira is acting weird, and Hikaru is on a quest to figure out why. Waya is generally obnoxious and unhelpful.
“Touya,” Hikaru complained, stabbing his ramen with his chopsticks for emphasis, “is acting weird.”
Waya finished his milkshake with a loud slurping noise before banging the empty cardboard cup down on the table and making a face. “What are you going on about, Shindou? Touya is always weird. It’s what he does. Like some kind of religion. You’re the one who lives with him, you should be used to that by now.”
Hikaru huffed, exasperated as always by Waya’s unrelenting dislike for Touya Akira. “Not like that! I mean, weird for him. He’s acting different!”
“Well why are you asking me?” Waya demanded, linking his arms behind his head and leaning back in his chair. “How would I know what’s wrong with him? You know him, I don’t, you figure it out.”
“You do too know him! He lives with me. You’re my best friend. It’s not like you never ever talk to him. Plus you see each all the time at Go things!”
“Yeah, but I don’t know him know him,” Waya argued. “Not like you do, idiot. It’s like this passing acquaintance thing. You, on the other hand, know Touya. Like, I don’t know, the same way I know Isumi.”
There was a long pause where Hikaru eyed Waya dubiously, eyebrows raised.
“Yeah, right,” he said finally, in a tone of voice that was not exactly inspired by belief.
“… Just what are you implying, Shindou?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Shindou!”
“Whaaat, you don’t trust me?”
Waya snorted. “Only about as far as I can throw you. You’re almost as weird as Touya is.”
“Touya is not-- well, maybe a little, but-- shut up, Waya!”
“Look,” Waya said, waving a hand vaguely, “if you can’t figure out what’s up with that guy, I doubt anyone else can, so you may as well just ask him instead of harassing your poor friends who don’t know and don’t care. Anyway, you called him weird first, so don’t blame me.”
“I did not say he was weird. I said he was acting weird. It’s completely different,” Hikaru said, mildly miffed. “And I can’t ask Touya! That would be stupid!”
“And asking me isn’t? You do stupid things all the time. Like moving in with Touya in the first place? That was pretty stupid.”
“Oh, shut up,” Hikaru muttered through a mouthful of ramen. “Like I ever ask you for help again.”
“Who said I wanted you to?” Waya shot back, and wrinkled his nose as Hikaru shovelled the last of the ramen into his mouth. “That’s gross, Shindou. Anyway, weird like how? What’s weird for Touya?”
“Why should I tell you? You’re the one who said he didn’t care.”
“Well, fine! Don’t tell me, I don’t care!”
There was a sulky silence filled only by the sound of Waya kicking the underside of his chair. Kick. Kick. Kick.
“He keeps losing games,” Hikaru said, reluctant and sullen as though the words were dragged out of him.
“What are you, crazy? He’s on a winning streak at the moment! He hasn’t lost a game for like, a month!” Waya said incredulously. The kicking continued. Kick, kick, kick--
“No, I mean to me. In casual games.”
Kick, kick-- pause.
“Losing to you? Man, something’s got to be really wrong!”
“Shove off, Waya, Touya doesn’t always beat me!”
“Yeah, what, you beat him that one time at the dead of night by the light of a full blue moon?”
“I do too win sometimes! Just, not like this. He’s playing, okay, not like crap but he’s not playing like he usually does. He’s playing crap for Touya. But only against me. What the hell is up with that?”
Waya considered telling Hikaru that there actually were other things to life than Go, although not that many, but then he remembered that they were talking about Touya, or rather Touya-and-Shindou. He sometimes suspected that their very existences were defined by Go, both separately and together.
“Have you told Touya that he’s playing like crap?” Waya asked, and wished he could see the look on Touya’s face if Hikaru ever did.
“Duh, we always talk about the matches after.”
Which meant they’d yelled at each other about how idiotic their moves were. Very enlightening. Waya didn’t understand why Hikaru wanted to hang out with Touya so much, even to the point of sharing an apartment with the guy, but he had to admit their weirdness was suited.
“So Touya’s having a bad patch against you, so what,” Waya said dismissively, crumpling up his napkin into a ball and tossing it onto the table as he stood. “Talk to him about it and stop stewing. It’s probably nothing. Now are we going, or what?”
Waya, Hikaru thought ruefully as he got up to follow, was a good friend, but he kind of sucked when it came to giving advice or being sympathetic.
~
Because speaking to Waya had been no use and speaking to Touya was a monumentally stupid idea, Hikaru decided to try asking someone else. After he spoke to Isumi (“I think Waya might actually have the best suggestion, Shindou. This is something you and Touya should be talking about.”), Hikaru ran through the list of other people he might conceivably confide in.
Kawai didn’t know Touya personally, which meant he probably wouldn’t be much help. Interest in Go or not, he doubted that Akari would truly understand what was so weird about Touya’s playing being off, and even if she did, her advice would be to talk to Touya. Kaga hated Touya, Mitani would roll his eyes and tell Hikaru to get a life, and Tsutsui… would tell Hikaru to talk to Touya. His friends were singularly unhelpful, actually.
Hikaru then considered people who knew Touya. Touya’s mother was nice, but made Hikaru feel vaguely nervous. Touya’s father scared the crap out of him, Ogata scared the crap out of him even more, and Hikaru didn’t really know Ashiwara well enough to want to ask him something like that.
It was times like these that Hikaru wished more than ever that Sai were still here. Then again, when he thought about it Sai would probably just wail about the sanctity of Go and demand Hikaru fix whatever was wrong with Touya now so they could go back to playing properly! Hikaru~u! While this wouldn’t have been very helpful and neither was the thought, it did make him laugh, something he hadn’t been able to do with memories of Sai for a long time after the ghost had disappeared.
So. None of his friends were any use, and he was kind of scared of everyone who knew Touya really well.
Crap, he really was going to have to talk to Touya.
~
Of course, Hikaru being Hikaru and Touya being Touya, “talking to Touya” actually translated to “playing Go with Touya and yelling at him about what a stupid move that was”.
Given how Touya had been playing against Hikaru recently, this was actually a very good game. Not quite up to Touya’s usual standard, but unlike some of the appalling moves he’d been playing recently, it was simply a matter of being slightly off and Hikaru having a good day. In fact, right at that precise moment, Touya was winning.
Maybe Waya was right, Hikaru thought. Maybe it really was nothing, just a bad patch. This thought was very relieving to him, and he relaxed into the game, considering his next move. After some contemplation, he played an atari on a strategically vital cluster of stones and sat back to see what Touya would do next, absently chewing his lip.
Let’s see, if he played the stone there… or maybe there…
Touya placed a stone, somewhat suddenly and with a sound more like a clatter than the confident pachi of a stone hitting the board. Hikaru stared.
Touya… had left himself wide open. He hadn’t responded to the atari; it was Hikaru’s turn, and with one stone he could capture almost a third of Touya’s territory along with that cluster of stones. Maybe there was something he wasn’t seeing, but… that wasn’t how Touya played. Hikaru knew how Touya played, better than anyone; he could probably imitate Touya’s hands if he tried, just like he could Sai’s. Hikaru was the one who played crazy moves straight out of left field; sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t. Touya played with devastating accuracy, so that you didn’t see a hand coming but you could always see where it came from once it had been played.
Hikaru realised, with no small measure of shock, that Touya had completely missed the atari. The really important, really blindingly obvious atari that had just lost him the game.
“What the hell,” Hikaru demanded, pointing at the board as he jumped to his feet, “was that?”
Touya frowned, glaring up at Hikaru without looking down to where he was pointing. “Shindou, what are you talking about? It’s your turn, sit down and--”
“I know it’s my turn, dumbass! What I don’t know is why you just threw away your win with the stupidest move in the history of Go--”
“Excuse me, no matter where I played it can’t be any stupider than some of your moves, Shindou, and--”
“Touya. Look at the damn board.”
“What,” said Touya irritably, but then he did look down at the board, and he turned pale. “… Oh. I.”
“Like I said!” Hands on hips, Hikaru scowled down at Touya. “What the hell was that supposed to be? You’ve been playing like crap recently!”
Touya narrowed his eyes and shoved his chair back when he stood. “I’ve been playing like crap? You lost your last match, and I haven’t lost in--”
“You keep losing to me!” By this point, Hikaru and Touya were mirroring each other, hands balled into fists by their sides and glaring ferociously at each other. “You were winning just then and you played a stone so bad there’s no way to recover! You missed a really obvious atari, moron!”
“I’m not the one who played that stupid hand there--”
“Which is nowhere near as stupid as what you just played!”
“So I played one stupid hand! So what!”
“One stupid hand? This isn’t about one stupid hand, it’s about lots of stupid hands. You haven’t been playing anything but stupid hands, Touya!”
“Might I remind you that you were the one who pointed out I was winning until just now?” Touya snapped icily. “Anyway, don’t you think that’s just a little bit hypocritical? You’re the one who--”
“This isn’t about me, Touya!” Hikaru’s voice was climbing to drown out Touya’s until he was yelling loud enough that Touya winced. “This is about you! What the hell is your problem?”
“You!” Touya yelled back, frustration seeping into his tone. “You’re my problem! You’re distracting me!”
There was a shell-shocked silence, Hikaru turning as pale as Touya had earlier.
“Touya, what…”
“I’m going to regret this,” Touya muttered, and jerked Hikaru forward by his t-shirt into what was intended to be a kiss and instead turned out to be a painful collision of teeth and noses. Hikaru was too stunned to register the pain or try to pull away, which gave Touya time to change the angle into something vaguely more reminiscent of a kiss before they overbalanced onto the go-ban. Touya tried to kiss Hikaru again with the desperation of a drowning man clinging to driftwood, or perhaps a teenage boy who suspected he was about to get socked one and wanted to make the most of things before his best friend and rival refused to ever speak to him again.
“Mmph!” Hikaru protested, and finally managed to shove Touya away long enough to complain properly. “Touya!”
Touya went still, much like a small animal resigned to the fact that the jaws of death were about to descend. “Shindou, I… sorry, I didn’t…”
“Not that, idiot,” Hikaru broke in impatiently, and then, with a certain measure of sheepishness, “it’s just that, uh, this is really uncomfortable. There are Go stones sticking into my back, so, you know, could we move?”
“Oh,” Touya said.
A long moment passed.
“Like, now? Seriously, I’m going to have imprints in my back! Touya~a!”
“You don’t hate me?” Touya said blankly.
“I might if you don’t get up,” Hikaru said, voice strained. “I’m in pain! Pain! I might be paralysed for the rest of forever if you don’t move soon!”
Touya moved, though he only had the energy to move as far as the floor.
“So anyway,” Hikaru continued, after he’d collapsed on the floor with a whimper and theatrical rubbing of his back, “where were we?”
Touya glanced over at the go-ban. “I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “I don’t think it matters. You were right, I’d already lost.”
Hikaru made a rude noise. “Duh you already lost! Who said I was talking about Go? Idiot.”
“Oh,” said Touya, then, “Oh!” as understanding dawned.
As it so turned out, there were in fact things to life other than Go after all.
~
“I talked to Touya,” Hikaru said idly. “You know, about the weirdness?”
Waya stopped mid-bite of his hamburger to stare. “What, really?”
“Well, kind of,” Hikaru said, and shrugged. “Yelled, mostly. But anyway. We sorted it out.”
“So what was his problem, then?” Waya asked curiously.
Hikaru took a bite of his hamburger, chewing leisurely and swallowing before he answered. “Oh, nothing much. Just, you know. Stuff.”
“… Right.”
“And you were right, by the way,” Hikaru added, with an impish grin. “I do know Touya the same way you know Isumi.”
“… Just what are you implying, Shindou?” Waya demanded suspiciously, and then: “Wait, what? You and Touya? You’re joking, right?”
“Why, what’s wrong with it?”
“He’s Touya! You have no taste! Though I guess you’re both equally weird, so maybe it works…”
“Waya!”
“And when I think about it you guys actually always act like a married couple with the way you argue all the time and order for each other at restaurants…”
“Waya-- hey, when did we ever do that? Are you sure you’re not thinking of you and Isumi?”
“Wait, yeah, maybe you’re right. Whatever, and you eat his food off his plate…”
“I eat your food, I eat everyone’s food--”
“Sure thing, Shindou. So I guess that means you won’t be winning against Touya again any time soon, huh? Ah well, if worst comes to worst you could always distract him, I guess.”
“What, is that what you do when you’re losing to Isumi?”
“Just what was that supposed to mean!”
Acting weird, Hikaru decided, wasn’t so bad, so long as it didn’t affect anyone’s Go. He was in good company. And besides, even if he did have to put up with Waya’s teasing, he could always tease back, because Waya wasn’t much less weird than he was when it came right down to it.
He kind of had to admit that Waya was right, though; even when he was acting like himself, Touya was still weirder.