Study, Nikogaku, Study! - Day 3

by Wind Chijmes

Day three.

A troop of stretching, yawning, moaning bodies filed into the club room. It was hard to believe it was only twelve noon, and harder to believe that they were getting into line to study, rather than napping in lessons as they usually would. They had had their morning baseball practice, which proceeded with even more enthusiasm than they would credit themselves for, especially when they had stayed overnight in school cramming the books. They must have missed baseball more than they thought, although they were only away for two days.

They ended the practice at eleven in the morning, right on schedule, had their lunch, and were now back in the club room at twelve. Right on schedule as well. It was almost a fucking miracle.

"All right, we're gonna take the courtyard." Hiyama was the first to speak, lugging his books across his shoulders like it was a colossal burden.

They had discussed this the last night, and all of them agreed that if they continued studying together in one room, all ten of them, it wouldn't take long for them to degenerate into either mass insanity, or suicide, or brawl, whichever one came first. By a mutually-agreed truce, Wakana and Hiyama opted for the courtyard, Hiratsuka and Imaoka headed for the classrooms where they were nearer to Fujita-sensei and Yagi, Shinjo and Sekikawa were ordered to get their asses into the library, Okada and Yufune chose to remain at the club room, and Mikoshiba and Aniya would play the role of student teachers and assist whoever needed their help.

"Call us if you need help," Mikoshiba told everyone again for the umpteenth time.

"Yeah, yeah, mother," some of them groaned.

"Actually, he's worse than my mum, nyaa," Yufune said as he watched Mikoshiba and Aniya leave the room.

Okada wasn't really listening. Already he was not looking forward to the uphill task ahead. Trying not to cringe, he picked up the tattered Math notes and flipped through them. It was the third day of the study camp already, and Yufune had only understood the most, most basic concepts. Math and I don't get along, Yufune had declared, and Okada didn't doubt that one bit.

The noises of banging and rummaging made Okada look up. To his annoyance, it was Yufune lugging out that box again. "C'mon, you can't be serious," he groaned.

"Twenty more to go, Okada~" Yufune said off-handedly. "If not for the study camp..." he trailed off with a melodramatic sigh.

"The study camp is to improve your failed subject. In which case," Okada said a little more sharply than intended. "It's Math. Not Origami 101."

"I'll get to the Math once I'm done with these, nyaa!"

"No, you won't. You'll just forget about it, then you'll fail your Math exam again. Then, only nine of us will graduate because Yufune Tetsurou is too busy folding paper fucking planes!"

That got Yufune's attention, all right. He wheeled around. Hurt and shock were written all over his face, as if he could not believe his ears. They glared at each other for several seconds, neither boy backing down in the least.

"I'm finishing these by the end of the camp," Yufune hissed. "And I don't need your permission."

"Fine," Okada said, standing up. He flung the notes at Yufune's feet. "Do whatever you want. Because I don't give a damn anymore."

Finished, he shoved Yufune aside, stepped out of the club room, and slammed the door shut behind him.

++++++++++

"So the food goes down the – the oesophagus. The esophagus is a long tube that runs from the mouth to the stomach. Peristalsis forces food from the throat into the stomach. This muscle movement gives us the ability to eat or drink even when we're upside-down. And – and – for fuck's sake, I can't remember this fucking piece of shit!"

Wakana reached over and smacked the bellowing Hiyama with a roll of paper he didn't even know he was holding. This thing – this study camp – was not going well at all. Perhaps pairing up with Hiyama was really not a good idea. Both of them failed Biology, after all. What was Aniya, that idiot, thinking when he drew up the groupings? What was he, Wakana, the bigger idiot, doing here at the courtyard, staring at his textbook, absorbing absolutely nothing but a hell lot of screaming and swearing from his study partner?

Feeling like a right dumbass, Wakana stared at the direction of the club room. His eyes narrowed slowly as his gaze focused on the approaching figure, trying to make it out in the distance. However, it didn't take long to recognise the slight, wiry frame of the boy, and his trademark dreadlocks.

Wakana smirked as Okada finally reached their table and plonked himself right there. "Came out for fresh air? Lovers' quarrel?" That was a long-running joke in the team. Wherever Okada was, Yufune was never far behind. And the way they bickered. God, it was almost embarrassing in its domesticity.

Okada flipped him the finger and collapsed onto one arm. He muttered a curse as Hiyama reached over and poked his head with one rough fist. "Fuck off, Hiyama."

"You fuck off," Hiyama growled. "You're getting in our way!"

At this, Okada raised his head, a trace of amusement in his eyes. "Eh, am I now?" He grabbed the textbook before Hiyama could stop him and flipped through it. "Biology!" his grin grew sly. "I bet there's only one chapter you're okay at."

The three boys glanced at one another and burst into raucous whoops at the same time. "Sexual Reproduction!" they chimed right on cue.

"Well," Wakana spoke after they'd stopped guffawing, with a sort of sheepish shift to his shoulders. "Actually we failed that chapter too." At Okada's incredulous look, he threw up his hands defensively. "We can't do anything that needs so much memorising!"

"Or with so many terms and definitions," Hiyama growled in agreement.

"Hmm..." Okada murmured absently, still leafing through the textbook. "You just need to divide the book up by chapter. Each of you take one chapter and make notes. Writing down the stuff will help you remember, and with two of you, it shouldn't take too long to cover all the necessary chapters. Then you study from the notes, so you just need to memorise the most essential content, and not all the extra frilly bits." He looked up at the unnatural silence, and reeled back a bit. "What?"

The other two boys stared at him for long moments, like Okada was some form of higher-intelligence alien species, before Wakana ventured. "What did you fail again, Okada?"

"Oh. Art," Okada said as a matter-of-factly. "I can't be bothered to draw anything I ain't interested in."

"Fucking hell," Hiyama announced, getting up and heading over to where Okada was seated. He tugged roughly at the boy's arm. "Get up, and get back to where you came from."

"What the – " Okada protested as he pushed at Hiyama's hands. "I just taught you how to study Biology!"

"I don't fucking care," Hiyama didn't let up and actually succeeded in lifting Okada several inches of the seat. "Go back to Yufune. First Mikoshiba, then Aniya, and now you. There're only so many geniuses I can stand without my head exploding."

"Bastard," Okada muttered and allowed himself to be hauled off his seat. But instead of going back to the club room, he sidled several feet away and sank down to the ground. Then, he yanked open his bag and pulled out a sketch book. "I'm gonna sit here and do my thing."

Wakana and Hiyama let him be. There was no arguing with Okada when he was in one of his moods. That was the boy who waited outside a rival school for weeks on end just to catch the moron who stole his bicycle, and the same boy who hung out with Yufune and never once complained about the cat-speak. So, Wakana and Hiyama knew all too well Okada's persistence, and left him alone in his corner, drawing sullenly.

"Well?" Hiyama said.

Wakana scowled down at his textbook, at Okada, then back at Hiyama again. "You heard him."

++++++++++

As it turned out later, nobody was really in the mood for the afternoon baseball session.

Shinjo and Sekikawa were the first to arrive, closely followed by Mikoshiba and Aniya. All four were silent and testy, as anyone would be after being thrown out of the library and ordered in no uncertain terms, never to return. Wakana and Hiyama turned up next, looking exhausted and even more irritable than ever. Okada shuffled along behind them, staring down at his feet all the time. Hiratsuka and Imaoka were late because of extra study sessions with Yagi. Yufune was the last to show up, flustered and waving his hands in apology, his good cheer disappearing the moment he saw Okada.

It was an agonising three hours of going through the motions. They did their thousand swings, their runs, their mock games, until Wakana stopped and snarled in frustration that he couldn't concentrate because he had the human anatomy swimming in his head. Then Shinjo got fed up because he didn't just have Biology to study and he couldn't understand why Wakana was complaining.

And it all went downhill from there as the boys began fighting amongst themselves yet again.

"For fuck's sake..." Aniya looked up at the mess and muttered under his breath. When this was over, he was gonna give Kawato-sensei a piece of his mind about springing study camps on them like that.

"Thank you, everyone!"

That made Aniya pause. Well, actually, it made everybody pause. He turned his head, looking towards the boy who had spoken, and feeling his interest piqued again.

Mikoshiba was standing by the bench, gazing upon the brawling boys, and smiling. The same bright, guileless smile that scrunched his face up and made him look all of three years old. "This is the first time," Mikoshiba said to them, in his simple manner. "That you're fighting because you're concerned about your studies."

That made everybody think. Aniya could see it as the boys slowly disentangled themselves, still pissed and wary, but actually thinking now. They muttered amongst themselves, dusted off their soiled uniforms, cast guilty looks at one another as they realised that they had resorted to fisticuffs yet again.

"So, thank you," Mikoshiba finished quietly. "Because I never thought that not only would I be playing baseball with everyone, but that I would be at the graduation ceremony with everyone."

The baseball practice ended right after that. The boys headed over to the taps to clean themselves and ready themselves for the night study session. Aniya was suitably amazed by the scene. At this rate, he thought with some regretful amusement, they were all gonna turn into model students.

Heading over to where Mikoshiba stood watching, Aniya spoke without looking at him. "Not bad."

"Hn?" Mikoshiba turned to him, uncomprehending at first. Then, he smiled wistfully. "I wasn't lying just now, you know."

"I know," Aniya said, too softly for Mikoshiba to catch it. He cast another gaze at the other boys, seeing that all of them had almost disappeared from the field now, save for a couple of stragglers. It was time then. He could already feel Mikoshiba moving, as if to leave too.

"Well," Aniya said, closing a hand on Mikoshiba's arm. "Let's go."

Mikoshiba jerked in surprise. "Eh? What – "

Aniya bestowed him a smile that probably looked as unholy as it felt on his face. "Let's go work on my morals."

++++++++++

He glanced up at the clock on the wall, scowled, glanced at the door, scowled even harder, and looked down at his hands. Then he did it again, and again, and again. In fact, he had been doing it for the past hour.

With a long groan, Yufune buried his hands in his hair. It was a mess – his hair, that is. The clips had fallen out during baseball practice, and he didn't have extras. And for a boy who kept his hair as elaborate as Yufune did, he absolutely hated having it anywhere in his face. Which just emphasised how badly he needed clips now, and that he usually never needed to bring extras because –

"Dammit!" Yufune muttered, disgusted with himself. He was not going there again!

That was the problem with life, as far as Yufune was concerned. Boy, girl, pet, school, people, whatever. They never stayed long enough, none of them, and Yufune decided a long time ago he would call the shots, no matter the situation. Nobody would ever get the satisfaction of leaving Yufune Tetsurou behind.

Except it didn't work that way with Okada, because Okada was the one thing Yufune kept coming back to, like some drugged junkie. God, I'm pathetic, he sighed. What made it even more pathetic, was that Yufune saw the warning signs a long time ago. He knew Okada way back in middle-school. That day, he was outside the Principal's office, punished for playing a prank on a teacher, when he saw the other boy sitting three chairs away. Yufune didn't know that boy was called Okada then, but he did think he was the prettiest person he had ever seen. That pretty person turned his head, flashed a lazy grin, and tossed Yufune a candy bar. Yufune hated candy, but he ate it just the same, just to see the boy smile again.

It'd been almost five years since. Yufune hated candy even more. Okada never really stopped being pretty. And now they were still stuck together. Yufune never had any activity or hobby which lasted even five months, baseball notwithstanding.

Lifting his hand, Yufune stared glumly at his fingers. They hurt like a sonofabitch, and his brains even more so. A flash memory of a warm tongue sliding over his fingers, a gentle, hesitant gaze staring up at him to make sure he was okay. Yufune sighed again, wondering just how the hell they got so pissed off with each other anyway.

His handphone beeped suddenly, startling him. Yufune's heart missed a beat. Was it – ?

Fumbling through his trousers pockets, he fished out the gadget and thumbed it. Text message. He scanned it eagerly for the sender's name.

Wakana.

Ah, fuck. Yufune rolled his eyes, exasperation making him forget about his disappointment for a second. Half-heartedly, he scrolled through the message, wondering that the hell Wakana wanted with him now. The message was thankfully brief and blunt:

Oi. Get your head outta your ass and take Okada back. Been pissing the hell outta us for the whole fucking day. Going on and on 'bout some philosophical bullcrap.

Yufune re-read the words and grinned like a fool. Oh he knew exactly what Wakana meant by the philosophical bullcrap. He just didn't think Okada would actually inflict it on, of all people, Wakana and Hiyama. That took some balls of steel!

He was just about to reply something about going to be right there in a second to get Okada off their hands, when he hesitated. How would he know if Okada was not going to get all pissy again? Chewing on his lip, Yufune glanced at the pile of paper around him. Not yet. He wasn't finished yet. And he wasn't going to let up until he was done. Even for this, Okada would have to wait. However, that didn't mean that Yufune wasn't gonna have fun when the opportunity arose.

Sniggering to himself, Yufune thumbed his text-message reply into the keypad.

I ain't done with my work yet. Deal with him for the time being.

Then Yufune added the coup de grace:

NYAAA~~~

++++++++++

As they walked, Mikoshiba found himself sneaking sideways glances at the boy next to him. It was a habit he had cultivated over the years.

When he first met Aniya, they were freshmen and trying out for the baseball club. The moment he laid eyes on Aniya, he saw a boy who was blessed with both baseball talent and an enviable charisma that attracted all around him. He had very few words but got everyone's attention the moment he spoke. Instinctively, Mikoshiba had feared and respected and liked him in equal amounts. That was the kind of power Aniya wielded.

After the baseball team was reformed and they found themselves as equals on the field, Mikoshiba then learnt to look at Aniya with new eyes. Really looked at Aniya. The ferocity, the grit, the cunningness, the genuine delight in just playing baseball. And that day, when he saw a distraught Aniya break down when he thought no one was looking, Aniya stopped being a god to Mikoshiba then, and became a comrade.

So, why, why, why was Mikoshiba suddenly so tensed right now? Oh hell, maybe he knew why.

It started a month ago, from the time when Aniya helped Mikoshiba with a strained thigh. It had taken five nights, just the two of them in the field washroom. When it was finally over, Mikoshiba needed another two weeks to stop waking up in the middle of the night, flushed, sweat-dampened, and still feeling the lingering warmth of Aniya's hands on his thighs.

And, when he had finally managed to rationalise himself out of this disturbing behaviour, Mikoshiba was tossed right back to square one when Aniya began paying attention to him. And it wasn't just any attention. It was the kind where Aniya remembered the things Mikoshiba said long after Mikoshiba himself had forgotten. Aniya never did before, in the whole of their freshman year, and somewhat of their sophomore year, so Mikoshiba could feel the difference. The problem was that Mikoshiba didn't know why, and he was afraid of finding out.

"Here we are."

Mikoshiba looked around them, realised that they were in one of the most remote areas in school, and felt the panic rise again. He breathed in and breathed out deeply, trying to calm himself down.

"Okay," Aniya announced suddenly, making Mikoshiba flinch, and sat himself comfortably on the round table by the science pond. He looked up at Mikoshiba and frowned. "What you standing there for? Get over here."

Almost gingerly, Mikoshiba sat down next to Aniya. He would have preferred the opposite seat, but Aniya had deliberately shifted over to make space, so...

Arching back, Aniya rested an arm on the back of the bench. His movements were sinuous and graceful, something which Mikoshiba noticed and appreciated before, except now it made Aniya look like a lounging panther. Mikoshiba swallowed and clamped his hands onto the table, drawing strength from it.

"So," Aniya said, his gravelly voice low. "I'm thinking it's time we work on my failed subject."

"That – " Mikoshiba began, and the rest of his words remained stuck in his throat.

Aniya's eyes narrowed sharply. "You wanna back out now?"

"Well, no, of course not," Mikoshiba protested, lying through his teeth and hoping it didn't show up on his face. "It's just that CME is an impossible-to-fail subject. You don't truly need help for it."

"I did fail it."

"That's because you didn't give the politically-correct answers!" Mikoshiba pointed out, nervousness making his temper snap. "If you had just let go of your principles for that one exam, you'd have aced it, like everyone else in school!"

"That'd be lying."

"Well, everyone lies for CME!"

"Even you?"

"I don't lie if I can help it."

"You promised to help me with CME."

"And I will," Mikoshiba retorted, then stopped and glared at Aniya. "You trapped me."

"Too late," Aniya said smoothly, sliding closer. "Shall we start?"

Mikoshiba opened his mouth, thought the better of it, and snapped it shut again. He shrugged in defeat. Whatever Aniya was playing at, if Mikoshiba just went along with it, they could hopefully get it over and done with soon. He wouldn't look at Aniya. He wouldn't think of how close Aniya was right next to him, their arms within an inch of touching.

"Let's do the problem situations first," Aniya said evenly. "I remember this question. What if a boy and a girl are together and they're starting to get more – ah – physical with each other over time? How would you, as a friend, advise the both of them?"

Mikoshiba just gave him a look. "Let's hear your answer first."

Aniya cocked his head to one side and contemplated it for a second, before smirking. "I'll advise him to fuck her."

"Excuse me?"

Aniya made a vague gesture with his hand as if to recall that statement. "I mean, have sex with her. Sleep with her, whichever makes you feel more comfortable." He paused, and face grew serious. "If he truly wants her."

"Is that what you will do if you're the boy in question?"

"Yes," Aniya replied. There was no hesitation, no shame, not even the slightest shred of decency to his answer at all. "If I truly want to, that is. I don't fuck just anybody, just so you know."

Mikoshiba felt quite flabbergasted. Genuinely flabbergasted, in the way that made his mouth open and close like a stupid fish. "You think that makes you more noble?"

"Nope, but it does make my moral values a lot less hypocritical than half the fuckers out there."

"What about the girl? What if she's your friend – what if she's Yagi?"

"I'll advise her to take it slow. If he tries anything funny, whack him with a stick, tie him up, kick him good where it hurts, and feed him to the dogs."

Mikoshiba had a good retort to that. It was almost halfway up his throat before it got overtaken by the bubble of laughter. It was probably the look on Aniya's face, that utter seriousness, and his completely warped sense of moral justice that somehow made perfect sense in this imperfect world. Mikoshiba burst out laughing, and didn't stop until Aniya gave up his sneer and grinned.

"Double standards, much?" Mikoshiba accused, only half meaning it.

Aniya shrugged. "Nobody said I have to be fair."

"That's how you failed CME."

"Aa." The expression on Aniya's face would have been rueful if it wasn't so damn remorseless at the same time. "How're you going to help me, Sensei?"

"I don't know," Mikoshiba shook his head. "I think you'll have to go the temple and cleanse your spirit – and – " He stopped, eyes darting around him, and wondered why he didn't notice it before.

Aniya was suddenly a lot closer – like, a lot – than he was just minutes ago. Mikoshiba glanced down and realised with a confused frown that he was right on the edge of the bench, and still Aniya leaned into his personal space like he belonged there.

"There's just one more question," Aniya said, and he was actually so close that Mikoshiba could feel his body heat.

"Wait," Mikoshiba shifted back again, hand clutching on the table even tighter for balance. He was practically teetering right on the edge of the bench!

As if he didn't hear at all, Aniya continued. "What if two guys are sitting together, and one of them is horny as hell? What would you do?" His voice sounded lower, rougher, as if weighed down by something raw and heavy.

Mikoshiba didn't even get the question at first. "What – two guys?" he muttered distractedly, eyes widening when it became quite obvious that Aniya was deliberately leaning into him. What the hell's happening? Mikoshiba felt the wave of dizzying panic again. "How would I – " he inhaled sharply when Aniya's face loomed to within inches of his own, eyes hooded with a strange expression. Mikoshiba's gaze was drawn to the sensuous curve of his lips – what?!

"What are you doing?" Mikoshiba snapped in frantic bewilderment. If he backed away any further, he was going to topple right off the bench. And if he didn't back away, Aniya would soon be close enough to – Mikoshiba didn't want to think that far. "Aniya!"

"Shut up."

And that was all the warning Mikoshiba got.

There was a snap, a blur, and the arm over the bench moved. A hand gripped the front of Mikoshiba's shirt, curling into it tight enough to rip, and jerked him forward. For a hysterical moment, he had a crazy thought about how his face was going to collide into Aniya, and then their mouths collided.

It was hard, all angles and nothing soft at all, and bruising. Not like any of the precious few kisses Mikoshiba ever had before. Not like anything Mikoshiba could ever imagine. Aniya took his mouth with the same ferocity he pitched on the field, forcing his lips apart with open-mouthed kisses, a hand rising to the back of Mikoshiba's head to keep him locked in place.

It felt almost like fucking eternity before Mikoshiba could react properly, and by then, his lips burned, his fingers hurt where he was clawing into the table, and he realised he was whimpering into Aniya's mouth. Somehow, even with Aniya still mauling him, Mikoshiba managed to work a hand between them, and shoved the other boy away in a burst of fenzied strength.

Their heavy breathing rose and ebbed in the deathly-still air. Aniya frozen in place where Mikoshiba had pushed him to, his face unreadable, and the expression in his eyes – snapping with a wild emotion that couldn't be defined. Mikoshiba himself was half off his seat, clinging only to the edge of the bench with a shaking fist.

"That's the correct answer," Aniya said, a cryptic little smile playing over his kiss-swollen lips.

Mikoshiba was feeling so many things; the emotions just wouldn't stop coursing through him and it left him at a complete loss for reaction. And when he did react, it shocked even himself.

He raised his hand and punched Aniya in the face.

Prologue ~ Day 1 ~ Day 2 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5 ~ Epilogue ~