fic - Johnny's and Associates - Admit Day
Title: Admit Day
Author: virdant
Length: 2301 words; oneshot
Rating: PG
Genre: General.
Pairing: None.
Summary: UCSD!AU; KAT-TUN playing with dangerous chemicals trying to persuade new admits to attend their school.
Warning: UCSD!AU. Excessive chemistry terminology. DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY OF THE CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATIONS DEPICTED IN THIS STORY WITHOUT PROPER TRAINING AND SAFETY
Notes: UCSD!AU. Features Kinki Kids (but not really). Mentions of NewS, Arashi, Hey!Say!JUMP.
Admit Day
Nakamaru knows that something's up when Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai are talking quietly to each other in the corner during the weekly Chem Club meeting. They're holding a paper and pointing at something written on it, discussing something that's clearly very important.
If he were Akanishi, then he's wander his way over there and ask what they were up to. But he's not, and Akanishi's all the way in LA, so he seats himself on the bench, eats his pizza, and waits for the meeting to officially start. If it matters, then he'll find out during the announcements. If it doesn't, then it doesn't matter.
He gets his answer when the meeting starts; admit day's coming up, and they're looking for volunteers to promote the chem department to new admits.
Nakamaru glances at Ueda. Ueda glances at Kamenashi. Kamenashi rolls his eyes and raises his hand. It's not medical related, but any type of volunteering looks good on a resume.
Next thing Nakamaru knows, he's supposed to meet Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai outside Urey Hall at the ungodly hour of 9:00 AM on a Saturday.
*
“Kamenashi-kun!”
Kamenashi looks up from where he's carefully juggling pieces of dry ice between his hands, careful not to let it touch his skin for longer than a few seconds-frostbite makes it hard to ace exams. “Yuto?” he exclaims, incredulous.
Yuto beams.
Kamenashi drops the dry ice back into the styrofoam box and pats his hands together. “What are you doing here? Wait, you're a senior already?” Yuto doesn't look like a senior in high school, even though he's even taller than Kamenashi now. Now that's a weird sight.
Yuto nods enthusiastically. “I got in!” He leans on the table and grins straight into Kamenashi's face. “I didn't think I'd see you here! I saw Yamashita-kun over by the engineering tours.”
“Oh.” Kamenashi recoils, blinking. It's weird that Nakajima Yuto's taller than him now. He remembers Nakajima Yuto as that wide-eyed lower-classman who would follow him and Yamashita around in middle school. “Are you an engineering major then?”
“Chemical Engineering,” Yuto says, nodding. He glances at the set-up on the Chemistry Department table; tall 1-L graduated cylinders bubble carbon dioxide through colored water. “This looks cool though. What are you doing?”
“Just some demos,” Kamenashi says. He pats his gloved hands on his pristine lab coat-he's meticulous enough that there's only a tiny iodine stain on the elbow from when Koki ran into him in lab. “Gosh, I can't believe that you're graduating from high school in a few months. Time flies.”
“I can't believe it either,” Yuto says. He runs a hand along the graduated cylinder, and the condensation rubs off on his fingers. Kamenashi doesn't tell him not to do that; it's safe, and he trusts Nakajima Yuto not to do anything stupid. “Please take care of me when I come here, Kamenashi-kun.”
“Sure,” Kamenashi manages. Yuto reminds him of middle school and hours just hanging out with Yamashita and Horikita Maki before things got complicated. “I can't wait.”
*
“Hey. Let's switch,” Kamenashi says to Ueda. Kamenashi peels off his labcoat, dropping it on the bench behind him, and pulls off the safety glasses, handing them to Ueda. “Need these?”
They're sharing a pair of safety glasses; they have safety goggles still locked in their laboratory class drawers, but goggle-face is unattractive. Goggles are less comfortable than glasses; even the more expensive goggles that are designed to fit comfortably.
Ueda takes the glasses. His hair's short enough that he can get away without tying it back, and he's already in his lab coat. Sharing glasses is acceptable, sharing lab coats is just a bit odd, and sharing safety goggles is completely out. He heard that some of the people in Biological Sciences Student Association shared their lab coats and safety goggles with each other when they were in lab classes, but he doesn't see how they do it. Your lab coat is your lab coat. You wear it. And spill chemicals on it.
“I have to run,” Kamenashi's saying to Domoto-sempai. “I'm supposed to table for AMSA. The med-school club,” he adds when Domoto-sempai stares rather blankly at him.
“Well, go on,” Domoto-sempai says, and Kamenashi scurries off with his lab coat over a shoulder and his dirty gloves in their dirty-glove box. “Ueda. Take over explaining the dry ice demo. And put on gloves.”
Ueda nods while pulling on the ridiculously uncomfortable nitrile gloves. Latex gloves are so much better. He picks up a piece of dry ice with the tips of his fingers to drop it into a graduated cylinder, before rolling it onto the palm of his hand.
“Juggle it in your hand,” Domoto-sempai reminds him, and Ueda obligingly wiggles the dry ice back and forth in his hand to keep his hand from freezing off before he drops it into the graduated cylinder. The dry ice bubbles in the water, a long stream of bubbles floating up. “How did you kids divide yourselves?”
Ueda blinks. They're only a few years younger than Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai, so calling them kids is really rather unfair. Still, he shrugs and says, “Kamenashi, Nakamaru, and Tanaka had morning. Tanaka and Nakamaru are supposed to be here, so I'm guessing they're getting lunch. I'm here from now until we clean up, and Taguchi's with the BSSA until thirty minutes later, when he comes here. Oh, and Akanishi's in LA.”
Domoto-sempai blinks. “Alright,” he says, and the next thing Ueda knows he's mixing polyvinyl alcohol and sodium tetraborate together to make slime while Domoto-sempai watches and answers questions that nosy parents have about being pre-med.
*
When Taguchi arrives at the table, Ueda's sitting on the bench and Tanaka and Nakamaru are somehow doing a comedy skit about Why Chemistry Is Great to amused parents.
“You're in time,” Ueda mutters under his breath. “Do you need a refresher on our demos?”
“I'll be fine,” Taguchi says back. He hands Ueda a Subway sandwich. “I got your usual.”
“Thanks,” Ueda mutters, unwrapping it and biting down. He skipped breakfast and lunch today for this, and the tiny cup of liquid nitrogen ice cream that he got just wasn't cutting it. “Were we ever that small?”
“Kamenashi was.”
“Mm. Don't say that in front of him, he'll throw a hissy fit. How was hanging out with the bio people?”
Taguchi laughs. “Ninomiya-sempai and I played DS against each other while Ohno-sempai napped and Matsumoto-sempai yelled at everybody.” Taguchi waves his DS. “I got to level 23.”
Ueda nods and mutters agreement through his sandwich, which Taguchi takes to mean that he doesn't really care about what the bio club's doing as long as they don't steal the chem majors away. Ueda chews, swallows, and orders, “Go talk to parents.”
“I wonder why the parents talk more in admit day. Isn't this about the admits?”
“Don't ask, just do it.”
*
“Smile,” Kato Shigeaki says blandly as he snaps a picture of their bubbling graduated cylinders.
“Don't you have your own table?” Tanaka complains as he drops some sodium hydroxide base into a graduated cylinder. The water turns dark forest green before it slowly shifts back to bright yellow. The other graduated cylinder continues to bubble bright red. Kato takes several pictures, even though he always shoots in black-and-white so the color change doesn't matter that much. “Why d'you keep stopping by our table?” Tanaka demands.
“You have cool bubbling things,” Kato says simply as he snaps another picture. He turns to Taguchi, his roommate. “I'm locked out. When are you getting back to the dorm?”
“I can just give you my key.” Taguchi fishes his keys out of his pocket and hands them to Kato. Ueda glares from behind his safety glasses. Nakamaru avoids commenting and Tanaka scowls.
“Sure.” Kato grabs the keys. “I'll see you back in the dorms.” He waves before heading up library walk.
Tanaka kicks Taguchi in the knees right where his labcoat ends-Taguchi's tall enough that his labcoat doesn't quite reach his knees despite classroom lab policy stating that your labcoat has to reach your knees . “Why'd you just give your keys away? Idiot.”
“Kato's friendly,” Taguchi says cheerfully. “And my roommate,” he adds.
“You can't trust those engineers. They'll steal our jobs before we realize it.” Tanaka waves his hands excitedly, and several parents pause to gawk at their pretty color-changing demonstration as Nakamaru explains it to a small five-year-old.
Taguchi smiles. “You're already stealing my job,” he reminds him. “Damn chemists stealing all the biotech jobs in the area.”
*
When they're finally cleaning up-the department gathers flyers and dumps them in boxes, and Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai stop lazing around to gather up all their chemicals and wrap them up to take back to the chemical stockroom-Ueda can't help but breathe a sigh of relief before he shucks off his labcoat.
“We still have some liquid Nitrogen,” Taguchi says as he shakes the insulated flask.
Kamenashi waves his hands in panic, “Don't just shake the Dewar like that!”
Tanaka grabs it from Taguchi and shakes it in Kamenashi's face just to watch him panic.
“But what are we supposed to do with the remaining?” Nakamaru asks Ueda.
Ueda turns to Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai. They shrug. “Go play,” they say. “But be careful.”
Taguchi pulls out globs of slime, wrapping it around his fingers before dropping them into a paper cup. They bought the cups for ice cream, and there were plenty left over. He drops two balls of slime into each cup, and lines the three cups on the table.
Tanaka hefts the Dewar up and pours. Liquid Nitrogen gushes out the opening and into the cup, steam rising as the liquid boils off. When the liquid in the Dewar's all out and the liquid in the cups have evaporated, Nakamaru cautiously reaches into the cup and pokes at small ball of frozen slime.
“Wow,” Kamenashi murmurs, pushing the safety glasses up his nose as he leans in to stare at the boiling liquid.
Ueda nods.
There's something beautiful about liquid nitrogen; it's perfectly harmless chemically-the atmosphere's 80% nitrogen and we breathe it all the time. The danger lies completely in the temperature it is, around -200 degrees Celsius, cold enough to freeze your hand off if you stick your hand in it. Strangely enough, it's perfectly safe to pour into your mouth as long as you spit it out fast enough, it slides out as steam in the air. It rolls off your skin, the heat of your skin too hot for it to stand.
It's beautiful. Ueda can't think of not spending the rest of his life playing with this. Nakamaru juggles it in the cup before he passes the frozen slime in the cup to Kamenashi, who shakes it quickly and passes it to Ueda.
Ueda holds the cup with the tips of his fingers, the cup already warming in the spring air. He smiles, and tilts the cup.
The slime shatters on the ground into tiny pieces.
“Done playing?” Domoto-sempai asks, and Ueda shakes his head. He'll never be done with chemistry.
*
They leave the empty chemical containers in the storage office next to the cabinet full of soda for the next GBM. Nakamaru asks if that's okay, and Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai point out that if the Department doesn't say anything, it's fine.
“Doesn't matter anyways,” Kamenashi says softly into Tanaka's shoulder. He's tired, and Tanaka wraps an arm around his shoulders in support. “We only have sodium hydroxide and indicator left, and they're wrapped up in bags. We used up everything else. It's fine.”
It's the cavalier attitude of a chemist who knows his chemicals. It's completely unlike Kamenashi, who's nervous and worried about everything.
“What's wrong?” Tanaka asks.
“Just tired,” Kamenashi replies. “Classes are tiring. Life is tiring.”
“Pre-med.” Tanaka says, teasing.
Kamenashi glares, but Ueda's nail digging into the soft flesh on the inside of his elbow, so he doesn't say anything. Nakamaru frowns at them, and Taguchi closes the door shut behind them as they walk out.
“Want to do this again?” Domoto-sempai asks them.
“Yes,” Ueda answers for all of them. “Next time, Akanishi will be here too.”
That's a promise.
*
“So what was that conversation you overheard Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai talking about?” Ueda asks Nakamaru as they lounge in Plaza Dining Hall after a long long day of playing with dangerous chemicals. Tanaka and Taguchi engage in a vicious poke war under the table, Tanaka kicking Taguchi and Taguchi poking Tanaka back. Kamenashi pushes the dorm food away after two bites, and Nakamaru thinks about how Akanishi used to eat all of their leftovers.
“Nothing much,” Nakamaru says, smiling.
*
“I've told you this already, we can't do thermite on library walk,” Domoto-sempai said to Domoto-semapi as they stood in a slightly more isolated corner than all the other corners in the building. It was general body meeting, and admit day was right around the corner. “Yes, it's exciting and cool and makes a bright light, but we can't do thermite unless we're behind a blast shield and in a room with proper ventilation and a ceiling tall enough.”
“But it's so cool!” Domoto-sempai protested. “Can we do acetylene then? That's only a fireball.”
“No.”
“I'm sure it'll be fine....”
“We are not doing anything that involves fire and large crowds. We'll do the dry-ice acid-base with indicator, make some slime, and even some ice-cream, and that's it.”
“I'm sure we'd get more people in this school if we blew something up on library walk.”
“Yes, except they'd all be dead.”
end.
Masterlist of fandoms here
Masterlist of Jpop fanfiction here
More UCSD!AU fanfiction here at the UCSD!AU tag
Author: virdant
Length: 2301 words; oneshot
Rating: PG
Genre: General.
Pairing: None.
Summary: UCSD!AU; KAT-TUN playing with dangerous chemicals trying to persuade new admits to attend their school.
Warning: UCSD!AU. Excessive chemistry terminology. DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY OF THE CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATIONS DEPICTED IN THIS STORY WITHOUT PROPER TRAINING AND SAFETY
Notes: UCSD!AU. Features Kinki Kids (but not really). Mentions of NewS, Arashi, Hey!Say!JUMP.
Admit Day
Nakamaru knows that something's up when Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai are talking quietly to each other in the corner during the weekly Chem Club meeting. They're holding a paper and pointing at something written on it, discussing something that's clearly very important.
If he were Akanishi, then he's wander his way over there and ask what they were up to. But he's not, and Akanishi's all the way in LA, so he seats himself on the bench, eats his pizza, and waits for the meeting to officially start. If it matters, then he'll find out during the announcements. If it doesn't, then it doesn't matter.
He gets his answer when the meeting starts; admit day's coming up, and they're looking for volunteers to promote the chem department to new admits.
Nakamaru glances at Ueda. Ueda glances at Kamenashi. Kamenashi rolls his eyes and raises his hand. It's not medical related, but any type of volunteering looks good on a resume.
Next thing Nakamaru knows, he's supposed to meet Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai outside Urey Hall at the ungodly hour of 9:00 AM on a Saturday.
*
“Kamenashi-kun!”
Kamenashi looks up from where he's carefully juggling pieces of dry ice between his hands, careful not to let it touch his skin for longer than a few seconds-frostbite makes it hard to ace exams. “Yuto?” he exclaims, incredulous.
Yuto beams.
Kamenashi drops the dry ice back into the styrofoam box and pats his hands together. “What are you doing here? Wait, you're a senior already?” Yuto doesn't look like a senior in high school, even though he's even taller than Kamenashi now. Now that's a weird sight.
Yuto nods enthusiastically. “I got in!” He leans on the table and grins straight into Kamenashi's face. “I didn't think I'd see you here! I saw Yamashita-kun over by the engineering tours.”
“Oh.” Kamenashi recoils, blinking. It's weird that Nakajima Yuto's taller than him now. He remembers Nakajima Yuto as that wide-eyed lower-classman who would follow him and Yamashita around in middle school. “Are you an engineering major then?”
“Chemical Engineering,” Yuto says, nodding. He glances at the set-up on the Chemistry Department table; tall 1-L graduated cylinders bubble carbon dioxide through colored water. “This looks cool though. What are you doing?”
“Just some demos,” Kamenashi says. He pats his gloved hands on his pristine lab coat-he's meticulous enough that there's only a tiny iodine stain on the elbow from when Koki ran into him in lab. “Gosh, I can't believe that you're graduating from high school in a few months. Time flies.”
“I can't believe it either,” Yuto says. He runs a hand along the graduated cylinder, and the condensation rubs off on his fingers. Kamenashi doesn't tell him not to do that; it's safe, and he trusts Nakajima Yuto not to do anything stupid. “Please take care of me when I come here, Kamenashi-kun.”
“Sure,” Kamenashi manages. Yuto reminds him of middle school and hours just hanging out with Yamashita and Horikita Maki before things got complicated. “I can't wait.”
*
“Hey. Let's switch,” Kamenashi says to Ueda. Kamenashi peels off his labcoat, dropping it on the bench behind him, and pulls off the safety glasses, handing them to Ueda. “Need these?”
They're sharing a pair of safety glasses; they have safety goggles still locked in their laboratory class drawers, but goggle-face is unattractive. Goggles are less comfortable than glasses; even the more expensive goggles that are designed to fit comfortably.
Ueda takes the glasses. His hair's short enough that he can get away without tying it back, and he's already in his lab coat. Sharing glasses is acceptable, sharing lab coats is just a bit odd, and sharing safety goggles is completely out. He heard that some of the people in Biological Sciences Student Association shared their lab coats and safety goggles with each other when they were in lab classes, but he doesn't see how they do it. Your lab coat is your lab coat. You wear it. And spill chemicals on it.
“I have to run,” Kamenashi's saying to Domoto-sempai. “I'm supposed to table for AMSA. The med-school club,” he adds when Domoto-sempai stares rather blankly at him.
“Well, go on,” Domoto-sempai says, and Kamenashi scurries off with his lab coat over a shoulder and his dirty gloves in their dirty-glove box. “Ueda. Take over explaining the dry ice demo. And put on gloves.”
Ueda nods while pulling on the ridiculously uncomfortable nitrile gloves. Latex gloves are so much better. He picks up a piece of dry ice with the tips of his fingers to drop it into a graduated cylinder, before rolling it onto the palm of his hand.
“Juggle it in your hand,” Domoto-sempai reminds him, and Ueda obligingly wiggles the dry ice back and forth in his hand to keep his hand from freezing off before he drops it into the graduated cylinder. The dry ice bubbles in the water, a long stream of bubbles floating up. “How did you kids divide yourselves?”
Ueda blinks. They're only a few years younger than Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai, so calling them kids is really rather unfair. Still, he shrugs and says, “Kamenashi, Nakamaru, and Tanaka had morning. Tanaka and Nakamaru are supposed to be here, so I'm guessing they're getting lunch. I'm here from now until we clean up, and Taguchi's with the BSSA until thirty minutes later, when he comes here. Oh, and Akanishi's in LA.”
Domoto-sempai blinks. “Alright,” he says, and the next thing Ueda knows he's mixing polyvinyl alcohol and sodium tetraborate together to make slime while Domoto-sempai watches and answers questions that nosy parents have about being pre-med.
*
When Taguchi arrives at the table, Ueda's sitting on the bench and Tanaka and Nakamaru are somehow doing a comedy skit about Why Chemistry Is Great to amused parents.
“You're in time,” Ueda mutters under his breath. “Do you need a refresher on our demos?”
“I'll be fine,” Taguchi says back. He hands Ueda a Subway sandwich. “I got your usual.”
“Thanks,” Ueda mutters, unwrapping it and biting down. He skipped breakfast and lunch today for this, and the tiny cup of liquid nitrogen ice cream that he got just wasn't cutting it. “Were we ever that small?”
“Kamenashi was.”
“Mm. Don't say that in front of him, he'll throw a hissy fit. How was hanging out with the bio people?”
Taguchi laughs. “Ninomiya-sempai and I played DS against each other while Ohno-sempai napped and Matsumoto-sempai yelled at everybody.” Taguchi waves his DS. “I got to level 23.”
Ueda nods and mutters agreement through his sandwich, which Taguchi takes to mean that he doesn't really care about what the bio club's doing as long as they don't steal the chem majors away. Ueda chews, swallows, and orders, “Go talk to parents.”
“I wonder why the parents talk more in admit day. Isn't this about the admits?”
“Don't ask, just do it.”
*
“Smile,” Kato Shigeaki says blandly as he snaps a picture of their bubbling graduated cylinders.
“Don't you have your own table?” Tanaka complains as he drops some sodium hydroxide base into a graduated cylinder. The water turns dark forest green before it slowly shifts back to bright yellow. The other graduated cylinder continues to bubble bright red. Kato takes several pictures, even though he always shoots in black-and-white so the color change doesn't matter that much. “Why d'you keep stopping by our table?” Tanaka demands.
“You have cool bubbling things,” Kato says simply as he snaps another picture. He turns to Taguchi, his roommate. “I'm locked out. When are you getting back to the dorm?”
“I can just give you my key.” Taguchi fishes his keys out of his pocket and hands them to Kato. Ueda glares from behind his safety glasses. Nakamaru avoids commenting and Tanaka scowls.
“Sure.” Kato grabs the keys. “I'll see you back in the dorms.” He waves before heading up library walk.
Tanaka kicks Taguchi in the knees right where his labcoat ends-Taguchi's tall enough that his labcoat doesn't quite reach his knees despite classroom lab policy stating that your labcoat has to reach your knees . “Why'd you just give your keys away? Idiot.”
“Kato's friendly,” Taguchi says cheerfully. “And my roommate,” he adds.
“You can't trust those engineers. They'll steal our jobs before we realize it.” Tanaka waves his hands excitedly, and several parents pause to gawk at their pretty color-changing demonstration as Nakamaru explains it to a small five-year-old.
Taguchi smiles. “You're already stealing my job,” he reminds him. “Damn chemists stealing all the biotech jobs in the area.”
*
When they're finally cleaning up-the department gathers flyers and dumps them in boxes, and Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai stop lazing around to gather up all their chemicals and wrap them up to take back to the chemical stockroom-Ueda can't help but breathe a sigh of relief before he shucks off his labcoat.
“We still have some liquid Nitrogen,” Taguchi says as he shakes the insulated flask.
Kamenashi waves his hands in panic, “Don't just shake the Dewar like that!”
Tanaka grabs it from Taguchi and shakes it in Kamenashi's face just to watch him panic.
“But what are we supposed to do with the remaining?” Nakamaru asks Ueda.
Ueda turns to Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai. They shrug. “Go play,” they say. “But be careful.”
Taguchi pulls out globs of slime, wrapping it around his fingers before dropping them into a paper cup. They bought the cups for ice cream, and there were plenty left over. He drops two balls of slime into each cup, and lines the three cups on the table.
Tanaka hefts the Dewar up and pours. Liquid Nitrogen gushes out the opening and into the cup, steam rising as the liquid boils off. When the liquid in the Dewar's all out and the liquid in the cups have evaporated, Nakamaru cautiously reaches into the cup and pokes at small ball of frozen slime.
“Wow,” Kamenashi murmurs, pushing the safety glasses up his nose as he leans in to stare at the boiling liquid.
Ueda nods.
There's something beautiful about liquid nitrogen; it's perfectly harmless chemically-the atmosphere's 80% nitrogen and we breathe it all the time. The danger lies completely in the temperature it is, around -200 degrees Celsius, cold enough to freeze your hand off if you stick your hand in it. Strangely enough, it's perfectly safe to pour into your mouth as long as you spit it out fast enough, it slides out as steam in the air. It rolls off your skin, the heat of your skin too hot for it to stand.
It's beautiful. Ueda can't think of not spending the rest of his life playing with this. Nakamaru juggles it in the cup before he passes the frozen slime in the cup to Kamenashi, who shakes it quickly and passes it to Ueda.
Ueda holds the cup with the tips of his fingers, the cup already warming in the spring air. He smiles, and tilts the cup.
The slime shatters on the ground into tiny pieces.
“Done playing?” Domoto-sempai asks, and Ueda shakes his head. He'll never be done with chemistry.
*
They leave the empty chemical containers in the storage office next to the cabinet full of soda for the next GBM. Nakamaru asks if that's okay, and Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai point out that if the Department doesn't say anything, it's fine.
“Doesn't matter anyways,” Kamenashi says softly into Tanaka's shoulder. He's tired, and Tanaka wraps an arm around his shoulders in support. “We only have sodium hydroxide and indicator left, and they're wrapped up in bags. We used up everything else. It's fine.”
It's the cavalier attitude of a chemist who knows his chemicals. It's completely unlike Kamenashi, who's nervous and worried about everything.
“What's wrong?” Tanaka asks.
“Just tired,” Kamenashi replies. “Classes are tiring. Life is tiring.”
“Pre-med.” Tanaka says, teasing.
Kamenashi glares, but Ueda's nail digging into the soft flesh on the inside of his elbow, so he doesn't say anything. Nakamaru frowns at them, and Taguchi closes the door shut behind them as they walk out.
“Want to do this again?” Domoto-sempai asks them.
“Yes,” Ueda answers for all of them. “Next time, Akanishi will be here too.”
That's a promise.
*
“So what was that conversation you overheard Domoto-sempai and Domoto-sempai talking about?” Ueda asks Nakamaru as they lounge in Plaza Dining Hall after a long long day of playing with dangerous chemicals. Tanaka and Taguchi engage in a vicious poke war under the table, Tanaka kicking Taguchi and Taguchi poking Tanaka back. Kamenashi pushes the dorm food away after two bites, and Nakamaru thinks about how Akanishi used to eat all of their leftovers.
“Nothing much,” Nakamaru says, smiling.
*
“I've told you this already, we can't do thermite on library walk,” Domoto-sempai said to Domoto-semapi as they stood in a slightly more isolated corner than all the other corners in the building. It was general body meeting, and admit day was right around the corner. “Yes, it's exciting and cool and makes a bright light, but we can't do thermite unless we're behind a blast shield and in a room with proper ventilation and a ceiling tall enough.”
“But it's so cool!” Domoto-sempai protested. “Can we do acetylene then? That's only a fireball.”
“No.”
“I'm sure it'll be fine....”
“We are not doing anything that involves fire and large crowds. We'll do the dry-ice acid-base with indicator, make some slime, and even some ice-cream, and that's it.”
“I'm sure we'd get more people in this school if we blew something up on library walk.”
“Yes, except they'd all be dead.”
end.
Masterlist of fandoms here
Masterlist of Jpop fanfiction here
More UCSD!AU fanfiction here at the UCSD!AU tag