sagittariusly | for asteroidbelt

...well, that was true. If JK couldn't sniff out who this Meteor was, then he doubted anyone in the school could. Not that he'd already tried, since he hadn't, yet. JK had no reason to. No one asked him to do that, so why bother?

He glanced askance at Ryusei again. Good thing Tomoko asked him and not JK to sniff out Meteor, because JK wasn't sure he wouldn't do what Ryusei did: blow Tomoko's request off. And if he'd done that, then he could've been the one suffering Ryusei's plight, and then--

Thank god for Ryusei, then.

"Finding Meteor would be grandiose, but it would also make her happy. Possibly for a long, long time, 'ne?"

...cupcakes, though. JK had to raise his brows at that. "You... bake?"

Ryusei didn't look up this time. If he'd said no to the attempt at finding Meteor with her, what made JK think he'd do it without her? "Are you trying to say that you know who he is?"

Or was JK trying to goad Ryusei into thinking or talking of Meteor as a rival? JK seemed to think there was more to Ryusei's and Tomoko's relationship than there was. What was JK trying to accomplish by that suggestion? If he was trying to hook up Tomoko and Meteor, he wouldn't mention it to Ryusei. Was he trying to stir up trouble because he was bored?

No helping that, if it was true. "People have told me that I have strange hobbies." Not exactly a lie—he didn't bake in fact, but it was a convenient way to dissociate Ryusei from Meteor, as long as they were talking about it.

JK shrugged noncommittally. "Maybe." It was a safe answer - maybe. It meant a lot of things, and now, it meant JK didn't know, but he could find out if it was worth his while and he was very forward-looking because he was assuming he might, this time.

Anyway, that road was already blocked, so. "No, no-- baking isn't strange. Collecting insect husks and cicadas and deleting the school's picture database is strange. Baking is actually very, very usef-- er, interesting." One that could benefit JK, actually. He needed food; he's a growing boy!

"Cupcakes are a safe way to go. She'll probably find it cute, if you get all the details right. Tomo-chan's very particular about details after all." JK drummed his fingers on the table. "You just have to find a way to approach her because she's been keen on avoiding you, 'ne?"

"Leave it on her desk."

'Maybe,' he'd said. That was way too vague. JK had dropped the idea of exposing Meteor, but that wasn't confirmation that he didn't know. Especially as he'd continued along that line of inquiry after Ryusei had told him that Ryusei didn't have the skills necessary for it. "But if you know who Meteor is.... You're the one who suggested that it'd make her happy. JK-kun... are you trying to sabotage me?"

JK blinked at him. "Me? Sabotage you? Whatever for?" For good measure - and his way of showing him his support - JK clapped him on the shoulder. Hard. Twice. "Kamen Rider Club stick together, right? Besides, you're our friend, not him. I never really liked that Meteor guy anyway." No matter how many times he'd helped them out of a pinch.

Here, JK stood and adopted an exaggerated copy of Meteor's stance. "The way he's all huuuuuuwatchhha--" JK's probably doing his pose wrong anyhow-- "--rubs me the wrong way. No, for me, Gentarou-san's the only Kamen Rider."

Okay? Okay. JK then went to sit down again. "No! Don't leave it on her desk. What if someone comes by and... eats it accidentally? No, no. You have to give it to her personally."

Think this through logically, don't let the anger rise—

He'd mentioned Kisaragi. Then again, he still hadn't answered the question. Keeping it as an option, Ryusei would think, but JK also hadn't pushed it in the way he would have if he'd thought he was talking to Meteor. On the other hand, it was hard not to react to JK's outrageously wrong impression of Jeet Kun Do.

He couldn't react to that. Don't react—!! "Are you telling me that you'll eat it, JK? You'd better not."

He crossed his arms. "Anyway, no one'll take it if you're guarding it."

"Me? Guard it! Oh, no, no, no, no, no." Couldn't say no enough, could he? "No! I don't want Tomo-chan mad at me, too!" Because when it all came down to-- well, extremely bad situations, JK's first instinct was and would always be self-preservation and at this point, Ryusei wasn't worth allowing himself to be cursed like Ryusei was.

"Like I said, you have to give it to her personally. Just so she'll know who it's really from." What else, what else... "Besides, wouldn't you want to see her smile yourself?"

...ugh what a sappy sentiment. Yeesh.

This had nothing to do with Tomoko's smile, desire to see it or not. But if JK was desperately trying to save his own skin, then fine. Ryusei already knew that about JK. It hadn't occurred to him that Tomoko would curse JK just for bringing a message from Ryusei, though. "Do you think she's that angry with me?"

If she were, maybe he should leave it for a few more days. But then she might get angry with him for waiting so long. This... would be easier if he could get JK to ask Tomoko directly, but not only would JK refuse, but there was only a small chance that Tomoko wouldn't catch on that it was Ryusei asking. He didn't want to ask Kisaragi to carry him close with Rocket, either. Not only was that utterly embarrassing, but it was Kisaragi; he'd find a way to make it worse somehow. "A..." he started, thinking aloud, "... disguise?

"Well--"

JK hadn't been paying too close attention to Tomoko this week - she'd been scarce outside of class and it wasn't like he could talk to her during school hours. But every now and then he'd catch her looking more morose and, well, quieter, than she'd been before joining the club. "Maybe not... exactly angry," he started. "Maybe more... sad, I guess." He supposed that's how jealousy worked - there's the initial anger, and this was when Tomoko supposedly cursed Ryusei. Afterwards? Just a lot of hurt feelings.

...not that JK had a lot of experience in that area.

The mention of a disguise, though, perked JK up. "Ah~! Now you're thinking!" A disguise would be perfect for Ryusei. "We could... make you look like someone you're not, just so you can get close to her. But you have to be quick about it or she'll catch on!"

Bad news. This was going to be bad, wasn't it? "Why are you grinning like that?"

If what JK had said was true and Tomoko was sad, then maybe the disguise thing would work. Sadness was a distraction, took focus off the here and now, made someone less aware of his surroundings.

He wasn't going to put on a clown suit, though. Daimonji was the last person he wanted to imitate. What else.... "I'm not going to disguise myself as Meteor," he said quickly, before JK had the chance to suggest it.

...JK wasn't exactly thinking of Meteor for a disguise, though. "Nothing like that!" he said. "Nothing grandiose, right? Besides, what makes you think Tomo-chan won't notice that? Or, even if by some lucky chance she didn't - what makes you think others won't?"

No, no. Something easy to pull off but still far away from Ryusei's personality that Tomoko wouldn't expect it. "We could... try something with how you dress," he suggested. "You're too... brown. And neat! We could try making you look a little less... 'together.'"

"It's... not that she won't notice...." A paper mask wasn't the most conspicuous thing; she might not notice if it was just that. But he didn't think she'd appreciate it, either.

"This is my uniform, JK." He couldn't help it if he was too brown. But he was almost afraid to ask. "What... do you have in mind?"

[[SORRY FOR THE SHORT TAGS SORRY FOR ALWAYS DOING THIS ARGHH I'm not losing steam, though; it's just anything I add atm feels like padding D| ]]

"Something about the clothes... and the hair! Trust me, Ryusei-san. You'll look better if you look a little more like--"

Here JK did a little jiggy in the middle of the room, breakdancing like there was no tomorrow "--me."

Because yeah.

[ ooc: LMFAO don't worry about the length of the tags dude they are beautiful and sufficient ok ]

"No."

[[ IS THAT BEAUTIFUL AND SUFFICIENT ENOUGH I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry ]]

...wow that was almost insulting.

JK straightened himself then, and dusted himself off nonchalantly. He - and half of the entire Amanogawa population - happened to think JK was pretty, pretty cool though. Ryusei could only wish he was as fantastic as one Kaizu Jingu. "Why not?"

In order to do that, they had to operate under the assumption that Tomoko liked JK. Which was fair. But if they were going to make Ryusei look like JK, he may as well have JK apologize for him.

"I can't do that. That... thing." He held up a hand, waved it halfheartedly. He couldn't do the break dancing thing. Was he supposed to get her attention by doing physical feats in the courtyard? In that case, Ryusei trying and failing to do martial arts forms might have been enough; she'd already seen him do that to Kyknos. But the last thing he wanted to do was remind her of that incident.

What had been the other thing JK had said? Less... together, was it? What about break dancing wasn't 'together'? On the contrary, it seemed quite a bit of focus was required for that. Enough for JK to be able to operate Power Dizer. "That's very impressive, JK. But be serious. What did you mean?"

...right, people weren't as naturally gifted in dancing like JK was. A shame, really. Or not. It depended on things.

"I didn't mean we'll make you into a clone of me, though. That'll take a lot of time and... well, no offense but you're not--" ...how to say this delicately. "You don't have to do any sort of dancing."

Because god forbid, with how stiff and uptight Ryusei was he's just going to humiliate himself and ruin dancing for everyone who so happen to be there when he give Tomoko cupcakes. Not worth it.

"We'll just put your hair up, like this--" JK pointed at his own hair, "--and probably let you wear a colorful jacket or something. Maybe you can borrow Kengo-san's uniform?"

Why would—

How many other options did he have? Thinking it through, his Subaruboshi uniform was the feature that made him stand out. If he got rid of it, wore the proper Amanogawa uniform, he'd blend in better. The hair.... It wasn't anything complicated, he knew. Not a rigorous re-styling or anything like that. He could reverse it immediately, once he'd delivered the....

Oh, the cupcake. He'd forgotten that he'd have to do that. He could spend a Sunday with his mother; she'd been complaining of being bored recently, even though he'd suspected she was saying that because she'd given up on telling him not to spend all his time with Jirou and had moved onto other methods. He didn't appreciate the guilt-tripping; he'd never responded. But to do this, he was going to have to. It... was going to give her the wrong idea. It wasn't only the rewarding her manipulation; once he'd done it, he was just going to return to his old habit. He didn't want to....

And she'd start trying to guilt-trip him harder, he just knew it. And if he explained to her why he needed to bake something, she'd assume he had a girlfriend. And then start trying to guilt-trip him about that.

There was no helping it, was there? He'd known he'd have to sacrifice something, eventually. This was minor, even, in the grand scheme of things. It just— It didn't mean he wasn't dreading it. "Are you sure... this will work?"

No, no he wasn't sure. Tomoko was too different from a normal girl that it was hard to tell if this was something she would like. But it wasn't like he had other ideas in his sleeve.

If the ploy failed, no skin off JK's nose. So, really, JK had nothing to lose here.

He just... have to make certain he was somewhere around the vicinity when Ryusei pulled it off.

"Of course I'm sure!" JK grinned widely at him. "I could even tell you the road Tomo-chan takes to go home. You could catch her there. There's not much people passing through that road, so if something happens - not that anything will, I trust you Ryusei-san! - but if something does go wrong, at least there wouldn't be a lot of people around to see it."

He shrugged. "And you could just tell her you were doing it for her."

He needed a Sunday. It was going to take a few days before he could do it. By that point, he might have backed out. On the other hand, it was time that he could use to think of something else.

He'd had a week already to think of something. Ideally, he had wanted to give her a message (flower on her desk) and then give her space; accosting her while she was going home felt like forcing the confrontation. Especially if he did what JK suggested and told her that he was doing it for her. The hair.... The hair might comes off as a concession... maybe. Somehow. Perhaps.

But if he did it there, JK was right in that there wouldn't be many people to see his get-up—save him some mortification. He'd have to carry the things around all day, change quickly so he could catch her before she reached her home. "If Utahoshi-kun doesn't let me borrow his clothes, lend me a shirt. And... delay her for me. For a few minutes."

Was he seriously considering this? Surely there too many variables.... Ugh, and there was.... "After Club." He'd go so far as to ask Utahoshi for his clothes, but he didn't want Kisaragi seeing. "Monday."

"No problem!" He always had extra shirts tucked away somewhere - in his locker, in his bag, heck somewhere around the Rabbit Hatch, too. Ryusei would have an array of shirts to choose from.

Delaying Tomoko wouldn't also be a problem. If Ryusei was planning to pull his stunt on a Monday, then it'd be perfect. Tuesday was exams day and while JK normally didn't care about those, he'd been doing extremely poorly at Science of all subjects and he was going to need some help on that. "Take your time in preparing," JK said casually. "I'd delay her for an hour or two, if you want."

Edited 2013-02-03 01:45 (UTC)

"There's no need for that." Close to an hour of sitting around would make it worse. He needed to be as composed as possible for this. It wouldn't take that long to change, especially if he decided to forgo the jacket and pants. The pants would make him a little obvious, but unless he was standing along her route waiting for her, it wouldn't be immediately obvious, as one's natural reaction was to look at someone's face when called. And he wouldn't be ahead of her, so as not to seem as if he were lying in wait—potentially perceived as blocking her way home, no less. That was the last thing he wanted.

"Just a few minutes will do—" He paused. "JK-kun.... What were you thinking of doing, to delay her for an hour?"

"Oh, nothing. Nothing! Nothing outrageous, you know. Just some-- stuff." It was actually very, very normal stuff. It wasn't like he could ask anyone else - Kengo would brush him off, Yuuki would make a terrible teacher and Gentarou was probably doing worse than JK was. Besides, Tomoko was his classmate and she'd be the perfect candidate in helping him out.

Ah, what the heck. What would hurt if Ryusei knew about his subject troubles anyhow? "I need some help in one of our subjects, so I was thinking of asking her on that."

A beat. "I hope that's fine with you, Ryusei-san?"

Could he wait an hour while they finished up with that? He could withstand it. If JK had asked for that as his price, then Ryusei would have readily agreed. Ryusei would just need something to occupy his time, then. No problem; he had his own studies, too. It wouldn't work, he didn't think, but he could try to get his work done while he waited. "Call me when you finish up. I— I don't need to tell you this, I guess, but make sure she doesn't hear."

That and.... Oh. He'd forgotten about this one aspect. JK could keep a secret, by all accounts, but Ryusei couldn't rely on JK's secrecy, could he? Couldn't he? "And don't let on that you're expecting something."

"You're worrying too much, Ryu-sei-san! Thinking too much isn't really good for you, do you know that?"

Obviously he didn't, and JK was just the type of kind, helpful person to tell him that.

JK stretched his arms up, then rubbed his belly. He was full, and he'd offered his help to someone in need - his quota for being in school had been reached, so it's time to go home. Well, not home home but somewhere far away from here.

"Well, I have to go. See you next time, ne?" Without waiting to hear the answer, JK picked up his things and headed for the door.

...without asking about the payment for his 'help'.

Just the way he intended it.

for asteroidbelt

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