Remembrance - Day Three
Title:Remembrance
Pairing: TezukaFuji
Rating: G for now, PG 13 later
Warnings: probably a bit of spoilers, OC, OOCness, shounen ai
Disclaimer: I own neither Tezuka nor Fuji. But they do own each other.
Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
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a/n: I hope you'll get used to the style eventually because it'll persist for a loooong time. And I do hope that the hints will help:
Hint No. 3: Utterance
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One runs a risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed… - The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
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Remembrance - Day Three
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Where was I? Ah, yes…
A commotion was stirring outside the clubroom the following day. You were changing then, when the noise picked up a decibel higher than the usual. But you didn’t go out to shush whoever was making the racket. You were used to it - Eiji gathering people and engaging in merry cachinnation or, perhaps, Kaidoh and Momoshiro, whose squabbles, you forced yourself to believe, were due to healthy competition or, sometimes, Kawamura in ‘Burning!!!’ mode.
Silently, you went steadily out of the clubroom, ignoring the clamor; you hardly concerned yourself with trivial things.
“Are you Tezuka’s girlfriend, nya?” you heard Eiji ask. The redhead’s voice was a mixture of amusement and curiosity.
You craned your neck and saw Eiji and some of your teammates - Oishi, Inui, Momoshiro, Kaidoh, Kawamura - hovering around someone, who was obscured from view.
“Tezuka Kunimitsu has a girlfriend,” came Inui’s monotone. “Ii data.”
Maybe your brows twitched then. After all, was it possible for you to have a girlfriend and not know of it? I don’t think you were even considering getting a girlfriend that time.
“Kunimitsu!”
The voice was familiar. You turned around, probably wearing no expression at all, and spotted the owner of the voice.
“See?” said Eiji, jumping excitedly and shaking Oishi by the shoulders. “Tezuka has a girlfriend!”
“How’s Fuji?” you asked, blatantly disregarding the red bouncing ball of energy that Eiji was.
“Oh, Syusuke?”
“Does that mean that she’s Fuji-senpai’s girlfriend as well?” asked Momoshiro, confused.
“No,” she said, waving her hand. You thought her laugh sounded oddly… hollow. “Syusuke is my cousin and Kunimitsu is an old friend,” she explained. Averting her gaze to you, she said, “Syusuke insists that he’s all right now, but he’s still got a fever. I was just on my way to buy his medicine.”
“That’s true, if you’re Fujiko’s cousin, you can’t be…”
“You should be going then,” you said pointedly.
She tilted her head, contemplating something which you couldn’t be sure of. “Syusuke asked me to borrow your notes in case you have homework.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t have to,” said Yukino, rather hastily or so she seemed.
“I need my notes back,” you said briefly. “And we have a new project.”
She pressed her lips together, eyed you quizzically and finally nodded. She waved goodbye to your club mates and gestured you to follow.
“How long have you known Syusuke?”
“A year and a half,” you said matter-of-factly.
“You’ve been classmates that long?”
“No.”
“Just this year, then?” she asked some more.
“Hn.”
“Isn’t he popular among girls?”
You nearly frowned. But you checked yourself in time and gave a quick nod instead.
“Does he have a girlfriend?”
“I wouldn’t know,” you said simply. Your voice was calm and detached. Your face showed that you didn’t care for such questions.
She must have seen this since she shrugged and smiled at you. Then, she flung more questions - trivial ones, ones that couldn’t be related to him. She was adamant for answers, and so you gave yours, rather reluctantly.
All the while, you found yourself thinking that he usually asked more questions when you walked together. His questions would sometimes be too pragmatic, sometimes too profound. But you never had to concern yourself with replying because he was often content with that, just thinking out loud. Furthermore, you found yourself lacking in response for some if not most of his queries.
His residence was silent when you arrived, making you wonder whether or not he were left alone.
“Yumiko-neechan is already upstairs, I think,” she said, leading you to his room, which you’ve visited times before. “Syusuke,” she announced as she opened the door. “The homework brought Kunimitsu with it,” she added lightheartedly. But, if you saw her smile, you’d realize that it was a bit strained.
He looked up, disengaging from a conversation with his sister. Then, he gave you a customary greeting - a smile.
“Come in, Tezuka-kun,” said his sister, gathering a tray of dishes. “Please make yourself comfortable.”
You bowed courteously. “Thank you.”
Once the elder of the siblings was gone, you entered and inquired quietly and tonelessly, “How are you?”
“I’m better now,” he said, his smile was never fading. “You didn’t have to bother coming.”
“I’ll need my notes and we have a project,” you said directly.
“Ahh,” he said, nodding his head in understanding. “What is it about?”
You pulled out a notebook from your bag and held it out to him. Your eyes never left his slightly bowed head as you waited.
“Classic literature, yes, that would be good,” he said cheerfully, his voice cracked because of his cold. “We’re partners.”
You nodded.
“Tezuka, you should try to do projects with our other classmates. They might think that you’re uncooperative,” he said, chuckling. “They’re all scared of you, even your fangirls…”
“Oh, so Kunimitsu has fangirls as well?” asked Yukino. But I don’t think you would have caught the way her voice rose or the way she smiled thinly at him while she handed over the medicine.
“Yes, of course,” he said, practically beaming.
There was no need for you to make a comment so you dropped to one chair and took out the rest of your notes.
“I’ll have to copy these,” said Fuji thoughtfully. “I hope you don’t mind a little bit of waiting.”
You didn’t even have to answer. No, of course you didn’t mind waiting. He started copying, scrawling hastily. You knew he didn’t want to hold you up. He understood that you didn’t like wasting your time and changing your routine. But there were particularly long lines of notes that day and homework, too. “I’ll copy the others.”
He eyed you uncertainly.
“I could go home earlier,” you stated.
He gave you a “thanks” and handed his own notebook.
“I’ll help, too,” offered Yukino.
You were sure that you didn’t hear an answer from him but you found her sitting right beside you as you settled behind his desk.
You scribbled seriously then on, transferring the notes. Maybe you noticed that the strokes of his pen were thicker than yours, and his characters were a bit larger… Or perhaps you were too engrossed in writing that you wouldn’t even be able to sense if a pair of eyes was watching you.
“I might be able to go to school tomorrow,” he said as you gave him back his notes.
There were sharp glints in your eyes as you said, “Rest some more.” He still was pale after all, and you didn’t want to take chances. You didn’t tell him that you didn’t want him to get sicker or to faint in practice.
“If you say so, Tezuka,” he said, grinning sheepishly up at you.
You blinked. I’m certain you did.
“Thank you.”
As you walked out, Yukino caught up with you and said she’d accompany you to the bus stop. You said that she best stayed with Fuji but she shook her head and said that Yumiko-neechan would be with him in a while. She also added that she had something to ask. You didn’t put up an argument because you knew her to be always persistent, just as he was.
This was her query, which you failed to answer because the bus had arrived, “Do you like someone in particular?”
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As his lips opened slightly with the suspicion of a half-smile, I said to myself, again: “What moves me so deeply, about this little prince who is sleeping here, is his loyalty to a flower - the image of a rose that shines through his whole being like the flame of a lamp, even when he is asleep…” And I felt him to be more fragile still. I felt the need of protecting him, as if he himself were a flame that might be extinguished by a little puff of the wind… - The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
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a/n: open to theories! And 'I' will be clearing up things a bit on the next Day, which will have to be longer and better. Comments will be hearted!