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At the end of the first day at his new school, Shuji stood to leave the classroom, unhooking his bag from under the desk.
"Excuse me, Kiritani-kun."
Shuji looked up to see the smiling face of one of his new classmates. They hadn't been introduced yet and he didn't know her name. "Yes?"
"A group of us are going to karaoke after school. Would you like to join us?" she asked.
Shuji opened his mouth to reply, and then flinched at the feeling of someone breathing humidly into his ear.
"Shuji," Akira sang. He draped himself along Shuji's back and hooked his chin over Shuji's shoulder. Shuji froze when Akira slipped his hands into the pockets of Shuji's pants. "Ah, hello, Suzuki-san."
Suzuki-san's cheeks turned pink. "Kusano-kun! I was just telling Kiritani-kun that we're going to karaoke after school, and --"
"Pfffftt," Akira said. The explosion of breath tickled Shuji's face. "Shuji-kun already has plans."
Shuji turned his head, and his cheek brushed against Akira's. "I do?"
"He does," Akira told Suzuki-san.
"I'm sorry," Shuji said and bobbed his head. He couldn't bow with Akira on top of him.
"Perhaps another time," Suzuki-san said. She bowed quickly and fled.
Akira wiggled his hands in Shuji's pockets and sang his name again. "Let's go."
Shuji ducked away from Akira's grasp and pulled the strap of his bag over his shoulder. "Go where?"
"To the beach," Akira said, as if it were a foregone conclusion.
But then again, if Akira decided on something, it basically was. Shuji shrugged. "Okay."
"Yes!" Akira said. He grabbed Shuji's hand and towed him out of the classroom, through the hallways, down the stairs, and out to the bicycle stands without once letting go.
Koji gaped at them in surprise when Shuji and Akira walked through the doorway of the new house, and then he wrinkled his nose. "What happened to you?"
They weren't dripping anymore, but their uniforms were wet through to the skin.
"Mermaids!" Akira said, flinging his arms out. His uniform jacket squelched.
"Mermaids?" Koji asked doubtfully.
Akira frowned and tapped his lips with his fingers. "Kappa?"
"Whatever," Koji said, turning on his heel and going to his room.
"Clothes, clothes, clothes," Akira chanted.
"Come on." Shuji had his own bedroom now. He thought that privacy might be nice, but he'd been sharing with Koji for so long that he wasn't used to the quiet yet. "I haven't finished unpacking."
Akira began tearing through the boxes on Shuji's bedroom floor, muttering odd noises under his breath. His hair stuck to his face in front and stood up in back, drying unevenly. "Clothes!"
He pulled out Shuji's favorite T-shirt and a pair of sleep pants and held them aloft for a moment, and then he began stripping of his uniform without bothering to close the bedroom door. Shuji slammed shut the door and yanked at the window blinds, and then grabbed each soggy article of clothing as Akira tossed it on the floor. When Akira kicked off his pants and socks and then began shimmying out of his underwear, Shuji turned around and said, "I'm hanging these up to dry!"
And he would, as soon as he figured out where his father had packed the drying rack.
A door opened, and Shuji's father called out, "I'm home!"
Shuji came out of his bedroom, gripping the towel draped around his neck, and with Akira following on his heels. Upon seeing them, Shuji's father dropped his briefcase and pointed at Akira. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out except a wheeze.
"Akira transferred schools," Shuji volunteered.
Shuji's father grabbed them both and hugged them to his chest, his breath wheezing above their heads. Eventually, he said, "I'm so glad Shuji has a friend here!" Koji made a disgusted noise from his bedroom door. "Koji!" his father exclaimed. "Shuji's friend is here!"
Koji said, "I have eyes."
"We should celebrate!"
"Can we have dumplings?" Koji asked shrewdly.
"Dumplings," his father agreed, letting go of them with a final squeeze. Shuji's father bustled off to change out of his work clothes and locate one of his cooking aprons.
"Sorry," Shuji said.
Akira rolled his eyes and touched the tips of his fingers to Shuji's nose. "Kon."
It was nothing Akira hadn't done at least fifty times before, so Shuji blinked and tried not to blush. And then Akira turned around and tripped over a chair, banging his hip against the dining room table and cracking his knuckles when he bent in pain. He landed on the floor, shaking his hand and hissing breath through his teeth.
Shuji helped him up. "Idiot," he said fondly.
When Shuji finished brushing his teeth and changing into his pajamas, he found that Akira was already asleep in his bed, sprawling across all available space like a cat. His contact lens case was on Shuji's desk, and Shuji hoped that meant Akira had taken out his contacts for the night; if not, Akira would whine about his sticky eyes in the morning.
Shuji shut the door and turned off the lights, tripping over Akira's bag on his way to the bed. He wedged himself into the small stretch of mattress that Akira wasn't occupying, balancing precariously on the edge.
Something was glowing in Akira's hand. Shuji reached out and tugged Akira's cell phone from his lax grip, looking at the display screen. Akira had fallen asleep typing a text message to Nobuta. His words were cheerful even if they barely made any sense. Shuji brushed his fingers through Akira's hair and added "we miss you" to the text message before hitting send.
Shuji leaned over the edge of his bed and tucked Akira's phone out of the way. When he pulled himself back up, Akira latched onto him as if he were a life-size teddy bear. Shuji didn't mind it that much; it was easier for him to fall asleep to the sound of someone else's breathing.
Shuji and Akira got weird looks at school the next day when they arrived together, and the day after that, and the day after that. Shuji had gotten used to it at their old school, but he wasn't sure if Akira even noticed. He envied how easy Akira made it look, just being himself and not who everyone expected him to be. Shuji had to keep reminding himself not to be fake, not to dance into the classroom and shout hello, not to gossip and smile and make promises he didn't intend to keep.
Having Akira there made it easier not to slip back into his old habits. Nobuta had probably known that. She was a lot more perceptive than most people realized, including herself.
"Excuse me, Kiritani-kun?"
"Good afternoon, Inoue-san," Shuji said as he finished cleaning up from his lunch.
Inoue-san smiled and ducked her head. "Watanabe-san and I were wondering if --"
"Shuji Shuji Shuji!" Akira shouted, barreling into the classroom and slamming into a desk, skip-hopping the rest of the way across the room while clutching at his knee.
Shuji leapt from his desk. "Are you all right?"
"Ow," Akira moaned, his lower lip pushed out in an impressive pout.
"What's your hurry?" Shuji asked.
"Hmm," Akira said. He tapped his temple and then tapped Shuji's, clicking his tongue. "I forgot what I came here to tell you."
Shuji laughed. "You'll remember when you call Nobuta tonight. You can tell me then." Belatedly, Shuji turned and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Inoue-san. You were saying?"
But before Inoue-san could tell him, lunch was over and their teacher came back into the classroom, and by the end of the day, he'd forgotten all about it.
Three weeks after they moved, Shuji woke in the middle of the night to someone looming over his bed, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. He opened his eyes wide and tried to sit up, but there were hands on his shoulders pushing him back.
"Hey, hey," his mother said softly. "I'm not here to steal your dreams, little boy."
"Mom?" Shuji asked sleepily. "When did you get here?"
"About an hour ago," his mother said. "Who's this?"
Shuji turned his head. Akira was sleeping tucked against Shuji's side, his fingers splayed over Shuji's chest and his hair tie askew.
"That's Akira."
"Did he get a pig?" his mother asked.
"Yes," Shuji said, yawning.
"Good," his mother said. "He's cute."
"Mom," he protested, and then yawned again.
"Shh." His mother kissed his forehead. "Go back to sleep."
Shuji wanted to ask her where she had been, how long she was staying, and where she would go when she left, but his eyelids were heavy and slid shut no matter how hard he struggled to keep them open. When he woke again, she had already been gone for hours.
Koji, Shuji, and Shuji's father were all somber at breakfast, picking at their food. Akira watched them anxiously, but didn't say a word.
At lunch, Akira climbed onto the desk behind him and bracketed Shuji with his knees. "Hey, hey, you should check your messages."
Shuji tilted his head back and gave Akira a suspicious look. "What did you do?"
"Me?" Akira asked, pointing at himself with both hands. "Na-na-nothing!"
Shuji pulled his phone out of his bag. "Mariko called."
"Open it, open it!" Akira urged, nudging Shuji with his knees.
Mariko had sent him a picture. It was a candid photo of Nobuta laughing. Only half her face was in frame; the picture was small and a little blurry, but it was beautiful all the same.
"She has dimples," Shuji said dumbly.
Akira wrapped his arms around Shuji's neck and pressed his face to Shuji's hair. "Better?"
"Yeah," Shuji said. "Better."
Their lives slipped into an easy pattern. They went to school every day and rode their bicycles home, sometimes stopping at the beach, sometimes going to a movie. When they returned to Shuji's house, Shuji did his homework while Akira called Nobuta and rambled about their day; when Shuji finished, Akira passed him the phone and pretended to do his own assignments, although mostly he climbed on Shuji and shouted nonsense into the receiver while Nobuta haltingly told him things, like going to Mariko's basketball games and that she had quit interviewing at lunch.
"Akira misses you," Shuji said as Akira walked his fingers up Shuji's shoulder and then tweaked his ear. "I miss you, too."
"I..." Nobuta said, breathing heavily into the phone. "I --"
"We know," Shuji said softly.
Akira laid his head on Shuji's shoulder and kissed the phone with his fingertips. "Kon-kon."
"Good night," Nobuta said.
Shuji hung up the phone and tossed it onto his unmade bed. Akira's clothes were all over the floor and his books piled on Shuji's desk. His school uniform was hanging in the closet next to Shuji's. Akira kept his toothbrush in their bathroom, and Shuji's father set a place for him at dinner without even asking if Akira was staying, anymore.
"Are you ever going back to your apartment?" Shuji asked suddenly. "Do you even have an apartment?"
Akira hummed and shook his head. "Nobuta gave me to you. I'm yours now."
Shuji swallowed hard, and his voice sounded thick when he said, "Mine?"
Akira kissed his cheek and then laughed when Shuji blushed. "Your face!"
Shuji tried to kick him when Akira fell over giggling, but he couldn't get enough leverage to make it hurt. "Shut up!"
Akira stopped laughing eventually, staring up at Shuji with a rare serious expression on his face. "Hey."
"Hey, yourself," Shuji said.
Akira sat up and climbed onto Shuji's lap. "Hey."
"Hey." The back of Shuji's neck went hot. His hands felt heavy. His legs were going numb from Akira's weight.
"Shuji," Akira sang softly, and then kissed him.
Shuji gasped. He hadn't done this with Mariko much, hardly at all; he'd felt too guilty. But Akira didn't relent. He simply cupped Shuji's face and pressed their mouths together again and again, touching his tongue to Shuji's upper lip until Shuji shuddered and opened his mouth. Akira kissed him eagerly and with a complete lack of inhibition, his tongue slick and slow, soft, happy noises rumbling in his throat. Akira kissed him and kissed him, and Shuji pulled him closer, pushing his hands up Akira's shirt.
Akira's eyes were lazy, his mouth wet and pink. He rubbed Shuji's lower lip with his thumb and touched his hand to Shuji's cheek, and said, "Mine."
"Okay," Shuji agreed, already leaning forward for more.
"My ideas are the best," Akira said. "I am a super genius."
"Shut up."
Akira laughed, a demented honking noise that stopped almost as it started. "I locked the door."
"Okay, super genius," Shuji agreed.