[fic] Ecology of the African Savanna, chapter three
Title: Ecology of the African Savanna. Chapter Three: The College Problem and the Involvement of Girls
Pairing: Koyama/Shige/Ryo, and good ol' Pi thrown in somewhere.
Author: ezyls_girl . :DDD
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Angst and (little) profanity. Pi will be making a surprise? appearance in the next chappie.
Summary: Following-up on Akanishi Jin's uncanny ability as an arsonist, the decision to distract Koyama with Maki-chan results in failure. School!AU, and Shige-centric.
Notes: I apologize for being tardy! XD. Blame it on my new infatuation with Regulus Black.
PART I ----- / prologue / chapter one / chapter two / chapter three / chapter four /
PART II ---- / chapter one / chapter two /
It was one of the worst winters he had ever experienced.
Instead of snow drifts, there was a moldy dampness that evaded the room everywhere he went and persisted even when he had rung out his clothes a billion times in front of the heater. His extracurricular courses had been canceled due to a shortage of funds in the university, and he soon discovered that his parents were unwilling to pay for him to act older than he was when he had argued about attending an assistant-professor seminar in Aoyama. He continued the world environmental studies class from his teacher’s house, but had to give that up when the perverted district director threatened suspension for taking too much time off schoolwork to take courses that were not meant for fifteen-year-olds. It was completely absurd.
He encountered Akanishi Jin that way, one day in the counseling office. Fuming in his chair from the previous meeting with Kitagawa-sensei (who enjoyed making unnecessary comments about his tight ass), he deduced from the bellowing inside the room that the other boy was being told off for switching the microwave in the staff lounge with an Easy-Bake oven and then setting the couch on fire when he tried to explode an orange.
“How did you manage to do all that?” he couldn’t resist asking Akanishi-kun, after his harassed-looking classmate had closed the door on the counselor with a bang and a particularly rude finger gesture.
“Kame forced me into it,” Jin shrugged, “and I’m good at setting things on fire.”
“Pyromaniac?” he smirked, remembering the incident with Tsubasa’s shoes.
Akanishi frowned. “I don’t know what you just said. But Kame-chan just thought it’d be fun, that’s all.”
“And why’d you listen to him?” Kame didn’t seem like the type to want to set things on fire, he thought, “Were you trying to impress him or something?” (Rumors had been going around -especially within the female population- about Akanishi’s new love interest.)
Jin blushed, muttered something about having to find Kamenashi and left with another bang to the door. He suppressed a grin, wondering how far those two had gone without actually admitting to each other, and then feeling a little sour because his thoughts had drifted towards Koyama again.
Quite irritatingly, all of his thoughts seemed to drift back towards Koyama these days.
For, in the meantime of this college-course-crisis, Koyama had grown restless, depressed, and very vexatious. His habitual cute smile had been overcome by a distinctly frail, owlish expression that could be associated with that of a sickly boy who had not seen daylight in a decade. And all the time, he could hear the words on Koyama’s lips, see the expression cornering Koyama’s eyes, that one finite cause-and-effect for such distress: Ryo. Ryo, Ryo, Ryo. The world revolved around that Nishikido, didn’t it? Without Ryo, Koyama’s heart would stop, wouldn’t it?
He had really considered leaving Koyama to his own devices after the first few weeks of this new-found Seasonal Affective Disorder. It was just too much to deal with. On one occasion, Koyama had been so overwrought and heartsick that he had stuffed his thin frame with seven pounds of chocolate-so much that he began to look pregnant. There was a dull ache in his heart as he watched Koyama puke it all up later, dangling from the toilet seat like some mad alcohol addict.
When he had finally stopped trying to kill himself, he had rested his soft head on Shige’s lap, silent tears coursing down his hair and wetting his pants.
But his love for his friend kept him still holding on to a little hope that maybe, maybe one day Koyama would put away stupid Ryo. It wasn’t about to go away very soon, though. And while he watched Koyama stare after Nishikido like some lovelorn puppy, he swallowed back that ugly bitterness constricting his throat as much as he could.
Another day, Koyama had snitched a box of Marlboro lights and urged him to go find a lighter so they could smoke. He wouldn’t tell why he was trying it, but when they had taken a first draft and Koyama had started to cough his lungs out, he had forced a glass of water down Koyama’s throat and promised himself that he would sooner stab himself than let Koyama try that again.
“But…but then he’ll never notice me,” Koyama was very quiet when he said this, “If I don’t smoke will you pretend to smoke for me?”
In that panic-stricken process, he had become addicted to tobacco. He told himself that every smoke he had was one less for Koyama.
He wanted to smash Nishikido’s handsome face in until it would be unrecognizable to a pile of elephant droppings.
And to make things even more chaotic, in the middle of it all Maki decided to ask him out. (Or rather, make Koyama jealous by asking out Shige.)
“Katou-kun.”
“Can I help you?” He saw a strained-looking girl wringing her hands carefully.
“I-could you give this to Koyama-kun for me?” She handed him a pink-wrapped package, fingers trembling and blushing bright red.
He eyed the girl carefully. Normally, he wouldn’t have cared so much. Normally, he would’ve just given Koyama the gift from the girl and just be done with it, but in present conditions, he needed help. And Maki’s reputation was pretty well-off…
“Let me rephrase, actually,” he said, “Maki-san, can you help me?”
“With what?” she asked.
“Koyama likes someone else, see.”
She looked crestfallen. “H-He does?”
“But that person doesn’t like him back the way he does and he’s very upset. I want to cheer him up.”
She agreed to help him, in the hopes that Koyama would notice her.
And that was how that had ended. A trip to the lingerie gallery after asking another girl to go shopping with Koyama (who knew pretty and sweet Sachika-chan could be such a witch?), and a disaster run-in with Ryo. He could still picture it. Koyama’s dazed smile grasping for conversation and turning towards the bra stands. It’d be amazing if Ryo hadn’t done both of them in right then and there.
--
A few days after Koyama had calmed-down, teacher asked his advice on the matter of Nishikido’s failing studies, “You have to consider the other students, too, Katou-kun,” she had added with a wink.
He saw the opportunity, and he had taken hold of it without a moment’s hesitation, “Sensei, I think he and Koyama-kun could be study partners.”
“Koyama-kun? Koyama Keiichiro?” There was a note of disbelief in her tone, he could tell.
“Yes,” he replied grimly.
There was brief silence.
“You know, I can see where you’re going with that. The weak helping the weak,” she said, “that’s a good idea.”
He nodded, not liking the way she had called Koyama weak.
And it was like he had signed his own contract with death at that moment. He had signed Koyama’s death wish, as well.
Playing with a storm.
Comments are ever-helpful. n____n