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baseballstockings2017-12-18 11:29 pm
princesssid) wrote in baseballstockings2017-12-18 11:29 pm
Entry tags:
gift for hyalinee
to: ewa (hyalinee)
from: ps (princesssid)
fandom: daiya
ship: kuramochi/ryousuke and gen third years
rating: G
content warnings: one swear, characters joke about violence
notes: word count is nearly 2k. i looked at your general likes and came up with this GRAND and COMPLICATED idea involving many elements, then removed a bunch of things from it to end up with this road trip fic that isn't really about the road trip. i hope you like it!
Ryousuke’s reaching into his pocket to get change for the vending machine when he feels a piece of paper among the coins. He pulls it out with the change and unfolds it after picking out his can of cold black coffee from the machine.
Ryou-san,
the note starts.
Ryousuke stops there. He has a suspicion about what he’s about to read. He hasn’t worn these jeans since winter, when he packed them away and left them at home, which means this note has been in there since then, which is kind of infuriating.
Ryousuke turns his head to look behind him. The others are all lounging around the two cars they’ve rented. None of them wanted anything from the vending machines so they hadn’t joined him. Jun already had his own bag of sunflowers seeds which he is currently cracking and spitting through at an alarming rate, probably because Ryousuke, on behalf of everyone else, had threatened him with bodily harm if he dared to eat any in either car.
Ryousuke looks at them. Masuko waves. Ryousuke raises a hand in acknowledgment.
He reads the rest of the confession note. It doesn’t take long, but it’s so hot out that the cold coffee is already sweating in his hand by the time he finishes reading. He tucks the note back into his pocket and decides to think about it later, as they drive past kilometre after kilometre of farmland.
--
“Here I am,” Jun had shouted when they’d all met up after their first semester away from each other, “a young, youthful man, in the summer of my first year of university--” Tetsu had nodded in solidarity, “-- yearning! For the high school environment!”
“What are you getting at?” Ryousuke had asked.
Jun had been visibly holding back tears. “I missed you all.”
“I missed you too, Jun,” Tetsu had said, in that factual and inspiring way of his.
“This guy,” Jun had said, as Tanba had turned steadily redder on behalf of everyone witnessing the display of emotions.
And so they had all decided to go on a road trip.
--
For lunch they find a family restaurant and afterwards Ryousuke makes Masuko switch cars with him.
Jun twists in the front passenger seat to look at him sitting in the back. “Why’d you kick Masuko out?” he asks. “He was really starting to get interested in the ramifications of the Year 24 Group on modern shoujo manga.”
“As described by Jun,” Tetsu adds as he maneuvers them out of the parking spot.
Ryousuke smiles. “Chris and Tanba shouldn’t get lonely in the other car just because of my whims. I’ll pay attention too,” he adds, though he has no plans to do so.
Jun clicks his tongue and turns back in his seat, launching into a description of something Ryousuke tunes out. He wanted to switch cars because he knew Jun, loud as he is, would be easier to ignore than Chris and Tanba’s soft inquiries over in the other car.
If Kuramochi were here, he would notice how withdrawn Ryousuke is acting. He’s observant like that, though that’s getting confused with something else in Ryousuke’s mind right now. Is it a keen sense of observation, or is it what he’d confessed to in the note?
Ryousuke wants more time to think about it. But it’s also the day of the month when he and Kuramochi talk on the phone in the evening. Ryousuke doesn’t even talk to his brother on the phone on this strict a schedule.
Maybe that’s not a good comparison. Ryousuke doesn’t even talk to his parents on the phone on this strict a schedule. No-- Ryousuke doesn’t even talk to his high school friends from his own year on the phone at all. Just on LINE, or text.
He pulls his phone out and sends Kuramochi a text.
>> don’t call me tonight
Then he throws his phone into his backpack so he can’t notice it when he gets a reply (a reply will be inevitable).
“Hagio-sensei’s linework has a lot of clarity to it,” Jun is saying, as Ryousuke tunes back in, “it really evokes the feelings of her characters, I think.”
“I thought you just read your sisters’ manga to cry. When did you get so deep about it?” Ryousuke asks.
Jun twists around in his seat again to give Ryousuke a morose look. “University changes you,” he says.
--
That evening they’re in Osaka so they go to Dotonbori, on Tanba’s request. Ryousuke takes in the bright lights and crowds and wonders if university has changed more than one of them. The food is good and Masuko finds a rare pokemon near a yakitori stall so they all rush to pull out their phones.
Instead of opening up the app he meant to, Ryousuke finally sees the replies Kuramochi sent earlier that afternoon.
>> ryou-san why???
But Kuramochi has that strange animal intelligence about things like this so not five minutes later:
>> shit did you find the note
>> ryou-san you can ignore it if you want
>> are you angry
>> maybe just forget all these msgs too
And then nothing for hours.
Is he angry? Ryousuke is frustrated, at the very least. He hates cowardice, in other people and in himself.
“I’m going to take a walk,” he tells the others, who are possibly having a yakitori eating contest or eating the way they usually eat. The difference is not always obvious. “I’ll meet you back at the hostel.”
“Do you need a keycard?” Chris asks.
Ryousuke pats down his pockets. “Ah,” he says, “I suppose I do.”
Tanba gives Ryousuke his keycard and Ryousuke waves it in a little salute before tucking it into his pocket, next to the note. He tries to brush off his forgetfulness about the keycard but that irritates him too.
He walks through the side streets until he hits the canal and then walks along it. It’s dark out and all the lights from the buildings are reflecting in the water. There’s a bit of a breeze, which is nice in the hot air, and pretty against the water.
Ryousuke texts Kuramochi.
>> i’m going to call you
He pulls up Kuramochi’s contact info on his phone and waits a few moments before hitting the call button.
“Ryou-san,” Kuramochi says after half a phone ring, a bit breathless.
It’s a shock, to hear his voice right in his ear with this new context to their relationship. Ryousuke stays still.
“I had to run out of the room,” Kuramochi rushes out, “Sawamura’s always trying to eavesdrop!”
“So do you,” Ryousuke adds, mildly. “What’s her name… Wakana-san?” Ryousuke can feel Kuramochi’s hesitation over the phone. He decides to be merciful. “Evening practice is over for you, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Kuramochi replies, subdued. “Ryou-san-- “
“I don’t really want to hear it.” Ryousuke starts walking again. There’s a bridge up ahead where people are gathered, chatting loudly; he walks under it, still along the canal. “Didn’t you feel like a coward?” he asks, conversationally.
That makes Kuramochi laugh. “Ryou-san, that was me being brave about it.”
“Huh, strange,” Ryousuke murmurs. “I hold you to a much higher standard than that.”
“Well…” Kuramochi trails off, doesn’t finish his thought.
“What were you even thinking all these months? That I’d seen your confession note and ignored it?”
“Ryou-san, don’t call it that,” Kuramochi hisses.
He must be embarrassed, Ryousuke thinks. That’s always cute.
“And anyway, you’re kind of ignoring it now, aren’t you?”
“True,” Ryousuke says. “Well, I suppose I could do worse for a boyfriend.”
Silence, and then an oddly timid, “Ryou-san?”
“I haven’t decided anything yet.” Ryousuke turns and starts his walk back towards where he remembers the train station was. “So don't get your hopes up.”
“Okay, Ryou-san,” Kuramochi replies, though he sounds like he has, in fact, gotten his hopes up.
--
Back at the hostel, Tanba is still awake, loitering on the couches in the lobby.
“Did you wait up for me?” Ryousuke asks, teasing.
Tanba shrugs. He stays sitting so Ryousuke rubs the bristly hair on his head with a cheerful, “for luck!”
“None of you have changed,” Tanba says, sighing.
--
Yet Tanba’s pretty good-natured about everyone rubbing his head the next morning.
“It’s important to have good luck for road trips,” Chris says while Tanba keeps his head bowed for everyone.
Tanba rubs his own head before getting into one of the cars. Ryousuke follows after him, slipping into the backseat.
“Hey, why’re you switching cars again?” Jun shouts from out the passenger window of the other car.
Ryousuke rolls down his window to smile. “I don’t need you anymore.”
“What!” Jun sputters. “Well, whatever! We’ve got Masuko back now! Masuko get ready for the most exciting--”
Ryousuke rolls his window back up.
--
Tanba and Chris speak in almost murmurs between them, and before long Ryousuke’s lulled into a daydream, and then he realizes he’s been thinking about Kuramochi without meaning to do so.
He sighs, suddenly exhausted with himself. Yesterday he was so caught up in the delivery of the message that he hadn’t let himself actually think about the message. But he remembers how the moment he’d seen that opening
Ryou-san,
how he’d known what would follow. He had never, in all their time together as a battery, thought to himself, “Kuramochi likes me,” but the impression must have made its way into his subconscious somehow. And now that he’s confronted with it, he doesn’t know what to do with it.
He sends a text:
>> i’m calling again tonight
Kuramochi replies:
>> im lucky!
--
“Always on your phone,” Jun says, as Ryousuke excuses himself from their shared hostel room that night. “Sweetheart?”
“No one will know where to find your body,” Ryousuke says.
“I will,” Tetsu says.
“That’s not as supportive as you think it is,” Jun says.
Ryousuke escapes to the outside and calls Kuramochi.
Again, that almost breathless, “Ryou-san,” that gives Ryousuke a pause.
He clears his throat. “Yes,” he says. “How did you know about your feelings for me?”
“Right to business, huh,” Kuramochi says. “I don’t know. I think I knew for a while. I just didn’t want to mess up our battery.”
“Wise.”
“Yeah.” Kuramochi sighs. “Maybe I really knew when I didn’t say anything about your injury to anyone else.”
Ryousuke doesn’t say anything to that.
“I guess all that work we put into our battery…”
“What about it?” Ryousuke asks.
“I mean, I don’t know, but maybe when you work on something you care about it more, and the more you work on it, the more you care about it.” Kuramochi laughs suddenly and Ryousuke jerks the phone away from his ear. “This is embarrassing!”
“Good to know I’m not alone,” Ryousuke says.
“So was that a good answer, Ryou-san?”
It’s the way Kuramochi says his name, Ryousuke finally realizes. It sounds admiring, and instead of thinking, I could get used to this, Ryousuke’s thinking, I’m already used to this.
“Yes,” Ryousuke says. “I’ve made up my mind.”
--
Back in their shared room, Ryousuke sees that Tetsu has somehow tricked Masuko into a game of shogi.
“You shouldn’t let him bully you like that, Masuko,” Chris says.
Masuko gives the board a sad look. “He said my honour depended on it.”
“Well it looks like you’re winning anyway,” Ryousuke says, after a glance at the board. “Really now, Tetsu, you’re supposed to improve with practice.”
“That’s what I said,” Jun mutters.
Ryousuke turns to him, smiling. Jun looks worried. “By the way, my sweetheart says hello.”
hyalinee)from: ps (
princesssid)fandom: daiya
ship: kuramochi/ryousuke and gen third years
rating: G
content warnings: one swear, characters joke about violence
notes: word count is nearly 2k. i looked at your general likes and came up with this GRAND and COMPLICATED idea involving many elements, then removed a bunch of things from it to end up with this road trip fic that isn't really about the road trip. i hope you like it!
Ryousuke’s reaching into his pocket to get change for the vending machine when he feels a piece of paper among the coins. He pulls it out with the change and unfolds it after picking out his can of cold black coffee from the machine.
Ryou-san,
the note starts.
Ryousuke stops there. He has a suspicion about what he’s about to read. He hasn’t worn these jeans since winter, when he packed them away and left them at home, which means this note has been in there since then, which is kind of infuriating.
Ryousuke turns his head to look behind him. The others are all lounging around the two cars they’ve rented. None of them wanted anything from the vending machines so they hadn’t joined him. Jun already had his own bag of sunflowers seeds which he is currently cracking and spitting through at an alarming rate, probably because Ryousuke, on behalf of everyone else, had threatened him with bodily harm if he dared to eat any in either car.
Ryousuke looks at them. Masuko waves. Ryousuke raises a hand in acknowledgment.
He reads the rest of the confession note. It doesn’t take long, but it’s so hot out that the cold coffee is already sweating in his hand by the time he finishes reading. He tucks the note back into his pocket and decides to think about it later, as they drive past kilometre after kilometre of farmland.
--
“Here I am,” Jun had shouted when they’d all met up after their first semester away from each other, “a young, youthful man, in the summer of my first year of university--” Tetsu had nodded in solidarity, “-- yearning! For the high school environment!”
“What are you getting at?” Ryousuke had asked.
Jun had been visibly holding back tears. “I missed you all.”
“I missed you too, Jun,” Tetsu had said, in that factual and inspiring way of his.
“This guy,” Jun had said, as Tanba had turned steadily redder on behalf of everyone witnessing the display of emotions.
And so they had all decided to go on a road trip.
--
For lunch they find a family restaurant and afterwards Ryousuke makes Masuko switch cars with him.
Jun twists in the front passenger seat to look at him sitting in the back. “Why’d you kick Masuko out?” he asks. “He was really starting to get interested in the ramifications of the Year 24 Group on modern shoujo manga.”
“As described by Jun,” Tetsu adds as he maneuvers them out of the parking spot.
Ryousuke smiles. “Chris and Tanba shouldn’t get lonely in the other car just because of my whims. I’ll pay attention too,” he adds, though he has no plans to do so.
Jun clicks his tongue and turns back in his seat, launching into a description of something Ryousuke tunes out. He wanted to switch cars because he knew Jun, loud as he is, would be easier to ignore than Chris and Tanba’s soft inquiries over in the other car.
If Kuramochi were here, he would notice how withdrawn Ryousuke is acting. He’s observant like that, though that’s getting confused with something else in Ryousuke’s mind right now. Is it a keen sense of observation, or is it what he’d confessed to in the note?
Ryousuke wants more time to think about it. But it’s also the day of the month when he and Kuramochi talk on the phone in the evening. Ryousuke doesn’t even talk to his brother on the phone on this strict a schedule.
Maybe that’s not a good comparison. Ryousuke doesn’t even talk to his parents on the phone on this strict a schedule. No-- Ryousuke doesn’t even talk to his high school friends from his own year on the phone at all. Just on LINE, or text.
He pulls his phone out and sends Kuramochi a text.
>> don’t call me tonight
Then he throws his phone into his backpack so he can’t notice it when he gets a reply (a reply will be inevitable).
“Hagio-sensei’s linework has a lot of clarity to it,” Jun is saying, as Ryousuke tunes back in, “it really evokes the feelings of her characters, I think.”
“I thought you just read your sisters’ manga to cry. When did you get so deep about it?” Ryousuke asks.
Jun twists around in his seat again to give Ryousuke a morose look. “University changes you,” he says.
--
That evening they’re in Osaka so they go to Dotonbori, on Tanba’s request. Ryousuke takes in the bright lights and crowds and wonders if university has changed more than one of them. The food is good and Masuko finds a rare pokemon near a yakitori stall so they all rush to pull out their phones.
Instead of opening up the app he meant to, Ryousuke finally sees the replies Kuramochi sent earlier that afternoon.
>> ryou-san why???
But Kuramochi has that strange animal intelligence about things like this so not five minutes later:
>> shit did you find the note
>> ryou-san you can ignore it if you want
>> are you angry
>> maybe just forget all these msgs too
And then nothing for hours.
Is he angry? Ryousuke is frustrated, at the very least. He hates cowardice, in other people and in himself.
“I’m going to take a walk,” he tells the others, who are possibly having a yakitori eating contest or eating the way they usually eat. The difference is not always obvious. “I’ll meet you back at the hostel.”
“Do you need a keycard?” Chris asks.
Ryousuke pats down his pockets. “Ah,” he says, “I suppose I do.”
Tanba gives Ryousuke his keycard and Ryousuke waves it in a little salute before tucking it into his pocket, next to the note. He tries to brush off his forgetfulness about the keycard but that irritates him too.
He walks through the side streets until he hits the canal and then walks along it. It’s dark out and all the lights from the buildings are reflecting in the water. There’s a bit of a breeze, which is nice in the hot air, and pretty against the water.
Ryousuke texts Kuramochi.
>> i’m going to call you
He pulls up Kuramochi’s contact info on his phone and waits a few moments before hitting the call button.
“Ryou-san,” Kuramochi says after half a phone ring, a bit breathless.
It’s a shock, to hear his voice right in his ear with this new context to their relationship. Ryousuke stays still.
“I had to run out of the room,” Kuramochi rushes out, “Sawamura’s always trying to eavesdrop!”
“So do you,” Ryousuke adds, mildly. “What’s her name… Wakana-san?” Ryousuke can feel Kuramochi’s hesitation over the phone. He decides to be merciful. “Evening practice is over for you, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Kuramochi replies, subdued. “Ryou-san-- “
“I don’t really want to hear it.” Ryousuke starts walking again. There’s a bridge up ahead where people are gathered, chatting loudly; he walks under it, still along the canal. “Didn’t you feel like a coward?” he asks, conversationally.
That makes Kuramochi laugh. “Ryou-san, that was me being brave about it.”
“Huh, strange,” Ryousuke murmurs. “I hold you to a much higher standard than that.”
“Well…” Kuramochi trails off, doesn’t finish his thought.
“What were you even thinking all these months? That I’d seen your confession note and ignored it?”
“Ryou-san, don’t call it that,” Kuramochi hisses.
He must be embarrassed, Ryousuke thinks. That’s always cute.
“And anyway, you’re kind of ignoring it now, aren’t you?”
“True,” Ryousuke says. “Well, I suppose I could do worse for a boyfriend.”
Silence, and then an oddly timid, “Ryou-san?”
“I haven’t decided anything yet.” Ryousuke turns and starts his walk back towards where he remembers the train station was. “So don't get your hopes up.”
“Okay, Ryou-san,” Kuramochi replies, though he sounds like he has, in fact, gotten his hopes up.
--
Back at the hostel, Tanba is still awake, loitering on the couches in the lobby.
“Did you wait up for me?” Ryousuke asks, teasing.
Tanba shrugs. He stays sitting so Ryousuke rubs the bristly hair on his head with a cheerful, “for luck!”
“None of you have changed,” Tanba says, sighing.
--
Yet Tanba’s pretty good-natured about everyone rubbing his head the next morning.
“It’s important to have good luck for road trips,” Chris says while Tanba keeps his head bowed for everyone.
Tanba rubs his own head before getting into one of the cars. Ryousuke follows after him, slipping into the backseat.
“Hey, why’re you switching cars again?” Jun shouts from out the passenger window of the other car.
Ryousuke rolls down his window to smile. “I don’t need you anymore.”
“What!” Jun sputters. “Well, whatever! We’ve got Masuko back now! Masuko get ready for the most exciting--”
Ryousuke rolls his window back up.
--
Tanba and Chris speak in almost murmurs between them, and before long Ryousuke’s lulled into a daydream, and then he realizes he’s been thinking about Kuramochi without meaning to do so.
He sighs, suddenly exhausted with himself. Yesterday he was so caught up in the delivery of the message that he hadn’t let himself actually think about the message. But he remembers how the moment he’d seen that opening
Ryou-san,
how he’d known what would follow. He had never, in all their time together as a battery, thought to himself, “Kuramochi likes me,” but the impression must have made its way into his subconscious somehow. And now that he’s confronted with it, he doesn’t know what to do with it.
He sends a text:
>> i’m calling again tonight
Kuramochi replies:
>> im lucky!
--
“Always on your phone,” Jun says, as Ryousuke excuses himself from their shared hostel room that night. “Sweetheart?”
“No one will know where to find your body,” Ryousuke says.
“I will,” Tetsu says.
“That’s not as supportive as you think it is,” Jun says.
Ryousuke escapes to the outside and calls Kuramochi.
Again, that almost breathless, “Ryou-san,” that gives Ryousuke a pause.
He clears his throat. “Yes,” he says. “How did you know about your feelings for me?”
“Right to business, huh,” Kuramochi says. “I don’t know. I think I knew for a while. I just didn’t want to mess up our battery.”
“Wise.”
“Yeah.” Kuramochi sighs. “Maybe I really knew when I didn’t say anything about your injury to anyone else.”
Ryousuke doesn’t say anything to that.
“I guess all that work we put into our battery…”
“What about it?” Ryousuke asks.
“I mean, I don’t know, but maybe when you work on something you care about it more, and the more you work on it, the more you care about it.” Kuramochi laughs suddenly and Ryousuke jerks the phone away from his ear. “This is embarrassing!”
“Good to know I’m not alone,” Ryousuke says.
“So was that a good answer, Ryou-san?”
It’s the way Kuramochi says his name, Ryousuke finally realizes. It sounds admiring, and instead of thinking, I could get used to this, Ryousuke’s thinking, I’m already used to this.
“Yes,” Ryousuke says. “I’ve made up my mind.”
--
Back in their shared room, Ryousuke sees that Tetsu has somehow tricked Masuko into a game of shogi.
“You shouldn’t let him bully you like that, Masuko,” Chris says.
Masuko gives the board a sad look. “He said my honour depended on it.”
“Well it looks like you’re winning anyway,” Ryousuke says, after a glance at the board. “Really now, Tetsu, you’re supposed to improve with practice.”
“That’s what I said,” Jun mutters.
Ryousuke turns to him, smiling. Jun looks worried. “By the way, my sweetheart says hello.”
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just, bless you for all this for indulging me so blatantly in So Many Aspects, for beautiful third years gen and krry dynamics that PUNCH ME THROUGH THE HEART. this is all just so good im so happy i could cry thank you ;;;;;;;
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