sagittariusly | (no subject)

Between her and Miu (and Kengo), Gentarou was probably browbeaten. Ryusei was going to resist the urge to laugh.

"—That's good," he managed shortly, after reigning in his mirth. ...Wait. "No, I— I don't think they need any calming. The Club runs on violent clashes, right?" Gentarou had said that when he'd refused Ryusei Club membership; Yuuki and JK had told him some stories of the others but none of them had apparently been quite as violent a clash as Ryusei's had been. If it was Ran, though.... Well, from what Ryusei had heard, both Ran and Haru were given to secret resentments, but Ran had seemed more open now, and Ryusei hadn't met Haru at all and so couldn't say. If it was Tomoko saying he was nice, he'd trust her judgement.

"Maybe...make the tonic for Ohsugi instead? How is he?" Was he getting too old to keep up? When Ryusei was there, Ohsugi didn't drop by often anyway, but with Ran and Haru there.... "Ran-kun and Haru-kun have both attacked him in the past, haven't they? He isn't holding a grudge, is he?"

Tomoko glanced at him, confused. Why was he amused? Disagreements made her feel uncomfortable, at best - besides, she always pitied Gentarou when he was forced into a corner he couldn't back out of quite easily.

"...but Ryusei-san, I think Gentarou-san's sentiments are... understandable, even if they all aren't very doable. Sometimes I just agree with him because no one else did, and he looked so sad because of it." Surprisingly, Kengo also agreed with Gentarou... well, not all the time of course, but more often than he did before.

Then Tomoko shook her head. "Ohsugi-sensei doesn't even come near me. Just because he saw me use my white snake skin once..." She sighed. "I don't think he likes me."

It's like Gentarou says, 'Disagreement is the flavor of youth!' ...That wasn't quite right. But if Gentarou wanted liveliness, he got it. And Ran was never going to be malicious. And anyway, Gentarou was notoriously bad with girls' feelings, but he was earnest enough that they'd reconcile eventually. "Gentarou always works it out, in the end, though. I don't think you need to worry about him."

About Ohsugi, something was coming to mind. Something about...witches? Why would Ryusei think of that? Anyway...Ohsugi's favor wasn't any great loss. "He'll come around." The rest of the Club had, right? And even if he didn't, Tomoko would always be Tomoko; Ohsugi would just have to deal with it.

"What were you using the snake skin for?"

Gentarou never did let disagreements pass without coming into some sort of resolution the same day they've had it, which was very nice of him to do so. Ryusei was right; Tomoko didn't really have to worry about him.

As for Ohsugi and witches, well...that would be Ohsugi's encounter with Ritsuko and the rest of the girls Tomoko had once associated with. Tomoko wondered what would happen next year, should Ohsugi be her own homeroom adviser, though she supposed he'd already have his hands full with JK in the mix, too.

She nodded. "I hope so. I like Ohsugi-sensei - Haru-chan and Ran-chan too. He seemed to care a lot about us." Tomoko smiled. "He still liked to give Gentarou-san a hard time, too. But since Kengo-san is no longer often absent, I think Ohsugi-sensei isn't as hard on him as he was before."

Tomoko fiddled with the cover of her book. "I used the white snake skin to help JK locate his guitar. He wouldn't tell me how he lost it, but he did. We spent all day looking for it, Ryusei-san - it was very tiring."

Edited 2012-10-05 03:50 (UTC)

Pfft. He's an easier man to like than to respect. To be fair, Ryusei's estimation of Ohsugi had gone up when he'd grabbed Leo. —But he remained mostly an idiot, if not outright insufferable. "His heart's in the right place, I guess."

Finding a guitar wasn't some life-threatening thing that Ohsugi would have had to accept on the spot (like, say, Fourze), after all. Speaking of 'on the spot'....

"Here we are, but I'm going to have to bring my extra helmet down. ...Instead of waiting here...would you like to come up?"

Come up? Inside Ryusei's house? There's a bit of hesitation from Tomoko as she looks up the outside of the building. "...wouldn't anyone mind?" she asked, which belatedly she realized meant a load of things - whether it was someone Ryusei was living with, or perhaps - here she shot Ryusei an uncertain look - Shirakawa herself.

"My parents won't mind." Actually, knowing his father, he probably wasn't home right now, and his mother—Ryusei checked his watch—was at her doctor's appointment. "I don't think they're home, actually. But it'll only take a minute to grab it, so if you'd rather not—"

"No, no." Her answer was accompanied with a vigorous shaking of her head. "It would be nice," she said, "to see where Ryusei-san lives." It wasn't often that she got invited to another's house, but this was different from Miu's or even Gentarou's because this was Ryusei's and--

--she'd just clutch her book tighter now.

Well, it... it wasn't anything special. "—This way." Ryusei lived on the third floor, so it didn't take long to get there. As expected, his father wasn't home.

"Make yourself comfortable," he said, as he took off his coat and went to make the tea. Should he go for something exciting? He didn't know what Tomoko liked, though. ...He'd go with the regular tea.

As Ryusei was making tea, Tomoko would be leaving her book on the table to go look at the cabinet that was lined up against the wall. It was full of... interesting decors, but more that that it was also filled with medals and trophies. Were they Ryusei's? Tomoko went closer to see for herself.

Oh no, Ryusei thought as he stood in the doorway. Some of those had his picture on them; he looked downright embarrassing when he was eight.

"—Tomoko-chan!" he called hastily as he deposited the tea and snacks on the table. "—Do you want any sugar?"

Too late! Tomoko glanced at him and nodded, though she would be turning her attention back to the one with the biggest picture of an unruly-looking boy... "Ryusei-san, is this...?"

Missing two teeth, hair sticking up on one side, muddy, looks about to cry. The event had been an embarrassment to everyone involved, except, apparently, his parents. How could he have forgotten that was there?

Ryusei took his head out of his hands to answer, "That was a long time ago." Not long enough. "They have it to torment me with. Tomoko-chan, how many cubes?" He picked up a little cube of sugar.

"--they?" she asked, finally moving away from the cabinet. She was smiling when she faced him. "Let me," Tomoko said, extending her hand so she could be the one to put the sugar cubes in her tea - and perhaps in his as well.

"My parents." He deposited the cube he was holding into her hand. Was she amused? He shouldn't be surprised, really—Jirou had actually laughed and still brought it up occasionally, but Tomoko knowing was so much more embarrassing.

"They let me take out all the other embarrassing things from that shelf as long as they got to keep that one. It's...." My parents are weird. "...They like it for some reason. I tried getting rid of it once, but they found it again and put it back." He'd even tried putting something else in front of it, but they moved that back, too. Ryusei had resigned himself to it (Jirou aside), and hadn't thought of it until now. And this was why complacency was dangerous.

The harm was already done. Quick, change the subject! "—So how's Gentarou?" he said in a rush. "Are his grades as bad as usual?"

Tomoko kept smiling as she deposited three sugar cubes in her tea, then added a fourth for good luck. "I... think Ryusei-san's parents like that picture so much because Ryusei-san looks so... lively in it," she said, glancing at the picture again. She wanted to say he looked cute but didn't - he was probably not yet ten when it was taken - and looked about ready to cry that looking at it made one want to reach out and hug him for comfort. "I like that picture," she noted, nodding to herself. "I shall keep it in my memory." She then looked at Ryusei. "How many sugar cubes in yours?"

As for Gentarou... "Well, Kengo-san's trying to help him out more now that he's feeling better, but Gentarou-san..." Tomoko shrugged, an answer in itself.

Anyone keeping that thing in their memory was precisely what Ryusei didn't want. There was something seriously evil with that picture if everyone who saw it liked it so much; he'd ask Tomoko right now what he could do to exorcise it, but...that was silly. He was being silly. The best he could hope for was not bring it up and hope no one else ever did, either.

And hope no other Club member ever found out. Gentarou would never let it go; he had a memory for everything but his studies, apparently. "One, please. —I guess Kengo'll be kept busy this semester. How is he? No more collapses so far?"

She placed a single sugar cube in his tea and glanced at the photo again. Maybe she should take a picture of it with her phone...? With Ryusei's permission, of course.

At the question, Tomoko nodded and sipped from her tea. "Kengo-san's really nicer this time," she replied. "He's also smiling and laughing more often than he did last year... Yuuki-san said he's really human now, instead of something else." She paused. "Ryusei-san, would you like to visit Amanogawa soon? I think everyone would like to see you again - Gentarou-san and Kengo-san especially."

"I don't think I have the time," Ryusei said reluctantly. Jirou had gotten himself into shenanigans with the Art and Tennis Clubs somehow, and was dragging Ryusei along, despite neither of them knowing anything of art or tennis. "Are there still Club activities on Sundays?"

Or they could meet up casually without being a Club, like Tomoko and Ryusei were doing now. But it'd have to be a Sunday that Ryusei could beg off Jirou (to put it lightly, Jirou needed the assistance with his schoolwork), and everyone else had to be free, too. Maybe they could do it for someone's birthday. "I'd like that, though. To see everyone." Gentarou texted him a lot, but it wasn't the same.

"...not as often," she replied quietly, taking her time to sip her tea again. "Without the threat from the Zodiarts, there wasn't any need to meet as much as we did before." Gentarou in particular was often complaining about how boring it had been lately - after all, their goal had shifted from defending Amanogawa to meeting the Presenters, and without the Rabbit Hatch, it wasn't an easy goal to accomplish. Aside from Kengo, there wasn't anything anyone could actively do in order to achieve this dream.

Tomoko couldn't help the disappointment that laced her tone, though, but she tried to smile through it. "Maybe when you're not too busy?" she said, though she had no idea when that would be.

"Definitely." There was time; maybe when they all were in college, they'd have an annual special day. So if anyone couldn't make it, they'd make it the next year, or some such. "It's a promise."

Speaking of promises and meetings... "Should we go? Let's get your...toes before it gets late." He got up to fetch the extra helmet.

"Mm." Tomoko finished her tea and stood - but then she also took out her phone. She walked towards the cabinet where his picture was displayed, and indicating her phone, she shyly looked up at him.

"Ryusei-san, can I...?" Maybe he'd say no, though she wished he wouldn't.

Edited 2012-10-08 06:19 (UTC)

"Hm?" Ryusei came back with the helmet. Oh. Oh, nooooooooooooo.

"T-Tomoko-chan," he managed to choke out through his horror. "What would you want it for?"

She lowered her phone. "I just... I want a photo to remember you by, especially since I don't get to see you often. This is really a nice picture of you and I'll always cherish it."

Tomoko wondered why he seemed so horrified of this picture, though. "...however, if you don't want me to take it I understand."

Tomoko-chan, I am going to need you to exorcise it. That... That wasn't a nice picture at all. And if anyone were to get ahold of Tomoko's phone, or....

"I-I have an idea!" he said, going over. "How about...a current picture of us, together?" That would be more agreeable, right? Better than a picture of a photo, right?