Cold Play
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Gravitation › General
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Category:
Gravitation › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
8
Views:
3,581
Reviews:
37
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Gravitation, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Symbolism
AN: Here’s I am again! Me and my chicken presents you chapter four! ^_^ Please enjoy. Oh and Tsubaki! Thanks for the betaing again!
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Chapter Four: Symbolism
Eiri was love struck.
Well… maybe ‘love’ struck was a bit too much; he preferred the term ‘deeply infatuated’. But he was preoccupied enough, in fact, to be neglecting his duty as a ‘player’ master. Time that was once used going around and hounding pure, or not so pure, girls, was now only reserved for sitting at a desk at the very back of a room 3-7. Despite the mountain of a paper pile beneath his elbows, he took his sweet time sighing over and over again at how his sensei swayed his hips in that sexy, innocent way. He knew his thoughts were a little silly, especially over a teacher, but the way the man bent over to pick up his dropped pencil made Eiri tingle all over.
Yeah. ‘Deeply infatuated.’
“Yuki-kun!” His sensei’s voice always heightened its sexiness when it sounded frustrated. “Yuki!!”
At the warning tone in the second call, the student’s chin slid off the palm supporting his face. Startled, he straightened immediately and looked at his sensei, ignoring the other students who had their heads turned to look at the commotion.
“Yes sensei?”
Shindou Shuichi, previous teacher of class one huffed, smoke of fake frustration coming out of his nostrils as he pouted again.
“Yuki-kun! You can stare at Miyu-chan all you want later, but I need you to correct these papers!” he pointed to the papers Eiri had been neglecting for the past hour. The student peered down and sighed inwardly. He had been working on it. Past tense. He had been until his sensei reached for the overhead screen, which was a fingertip out of his reach. In the process of stretching toward it, the teacher’s coat he always wore slipped off his shoulder a little and, well… the only thing he’d been able to concentrate on from that moment was the bared patch of skin.
So smooth…
Eiri had only gotten as far as question five of the test papers, when his brain refused to cooperate. His mind had outrageously blown him over and started thinking inappropriate thoughts about his teacher. He was so distracted he couldn’t return to the sheet of paper. He stared at his teacher for such a long time until the pink-haired man bent low and whispered to him,
“Oops.” Shindou-sensei muttered. “Did I embarrass you Yuki-kun? You don’t want Miyu-chan to know that you like her, do you?”
The blonde frowned. Who the hell was Miyu?
Eiri’s eyes traveled to the front where, right before the teacher’s desk, sat a shy looking girl. Their eyes met and she quickly turned away, in a manner very similar to the way Eiri had acted when his teacher had caught him staring… but she looked a lot more flustered. A few students caught the exchange and snickered, and Eiri blasted them a glare when the teacher walked off to the front of the room.
“Alright, now, that’s enough,” Shuichi called, gathering the class’ attention once again. “It’s almost time to go so do any of you have any question about homework?”
At the comment a boy’s hand flew up on the air.
“Yes Jiyoji?”
“Sensei, are you going to be our permanent teacher?”
Shuichi sighed, almost looking too sad. It didn’t have anything to do with what he had inquired for but…. Wiping off the sad expression, he smiled brightly,
“Yes. I am your fourth period teacher from here on out.” Shuichi nodded his head towards the back of the room, directing the student’s attention to the gaiijin-looking student from Class Four at the very back. “And that over there is my student aide.”
Almost all the girls in the class shrieked. It had been decided a long time ago that Eiri was more on the ‘cool and mysterious’ side rather than ‘scary’. He was, however, intimidating to most.
“Yes.” Shuichi responded to the reaction with a smile, raising his eyes to the young boy at the back who was not as busy correcting the papers as he should have been.
Attention was one thing Yuki Eiri hated. As if on cue, the lunch bell rang.
“Alright,” Shuichi said, as the students stood for their departing greeting to the teacher. “Kiyotsuke.” The student straightened their postures, “Rei.” And all the students simultaneously bowed [1], mumbling in unison,
“Sayonara, sensei.”
As soon as all the students were out of the room, Shindou sensei stretched himself like a cat, yawned, and then strode over to his remaining companion and aide, Yuki Eiri.
“How you doing?” the older man asked. Peering down on the sudden great pile of paper that Eiri had managed to speedily check. The student didn’t answer but continued his ‘duty’. He was quite certain would not be able to tear his gaze away from the man, if he looked up. He kept his head down. Once his sensei and he were alone, he knew he couldn’t stare freely at the man since the other’s hyper energy wasn’t occupied with something else… his stares would most definitely be noticed.
Before the student realized it, his said ‘punishment’ ran towards one of the window panes and opened it as wide as it allowed, letting in the soft breeze. Eiri noted how the gentle wind caressed the man’s pink locks and breathed across the smooth skin…
He sighed, wishing it were his hands that would rumple the man’s hair, his breath that would skim over that skin…
“Let’s take a break Yuki-kun!” the teacher called, leaning his upper body dangerously far out the opening. “Look!” he called to the student, “There’s everyone!” and by ‘everyone’ Eiri knew all too well that he meant class four, where a gun toting bastard was keeping the children hostage.
Seguchi and his strange taste in lackeys…
“Hey guuuuyysss!!!! The childish man yelled openly, alerting the students, three stories below him, of his presence. He waved wildly, but it puzzled the man how none of his former students were waving back, smiling, or anything for the matter. They were, however, staring back at him.
Or staring just over his shoulder, where a set of pale eyes gazed back at the solemn faces below.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Two days ago, Eiri had been given the second greatest boon of his life: he and his sensei had worked out a schedule.
As the plan had turned out, the student would need to attend first and second period. Then, for third period Eiri was to go directly up three floors of the main building and work for his teacher. He was to remain there until seventh period and return to his regular class for eighth period.
He would have preferred it if his teacher made him stay for eighth period since it was the teacher’s free hour to do as he wished…but the sensei had said it was alright for him to go and said he couldn’t take any more of the student’s time.
Eiri couldn’t press his preference without revealing anything embarrassing.
So that first day, the first period bell rang and the young Yuki-kun entered his homeroom. Sure enough, a reddish blonde man was sitting on their former teacher’s desk. He was wearing a white long sleeved shirt with the cuff rolled up to his elbow, black trousers and… a belt gun holster around his waist.
Eiri calmly walked to the back of the room and silently slipped in behind his desk, grunting a little as he propped his chin up on his wrist and turned his gaze out the window. There wasn’t anything to stare at in particular, but it was better than meeting any of his traitorous classmates’ gazes.
The stares were boring holes into his head.
“Yuki-kun, are you angry?” one of the girls sitting in front of him asked, her back still turned.
The addressed student didn’t answer, and he sensed her fearful shiver.
“We’re sorry Yuki-kun.” She mumbled, fumbling a little, “E-everyone says sorry. We didn’t mean to…we…” she paused when the new teacher walked by, then continued when he had passed, “we just wanted sensei back, and we didn’t think you’d get in so much trouble.”
Eiri kept his carpus tucked beneath his chin, eyes half closed as he stared out at the gray paint of the side buildings. He didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t planned to say anything actually, but it was because of this class that he got to spend more time with his new obsession and now they thought he was mad. After all, it was well known that Eiri hated being put on task of helping more than anything in the world.
“Forget it.” He growled.
“But-”
“Shut up.” He said sharply, even though he hadn’t meant to. He was irate now at his own ungrateful behavior, but it was not as if he could just tell the class ‘Oh thanks for getting me in trouble so that I could spend some time with our sweet, sweet, sensei.’ He got to his feet just as the new teacher shouted,
“Hello! My name’s K. Nice to meet you.” And the last part he showed the class his big black tool to show just how ‘nice’ he thought it was spending time with them.
He hadn’t notice one of the students ditching.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Eiri’s cheeks were screaming with pain.
He had only just realized that his pink obsession had suddenly taken the liberty of pinching his ‘never before touched’ face. The student immediately tumbled over backward in his chair, gasping a dying ‘Agghhh.’ He glared up at his sensei from the ground, growling fiercely as he clutched his cheek,
“Don’t do that!”
Instead of being intimidated, the older man seemed to find it cute. The teacher giggled as he stretched out a hand to help the younger man off ground.
“Yuki-kun is so sensitive. It’s your fault because you keep spacing out!” he pouted when the teen grudgingly refused his hand and got up on his own. Before Eiri could add a witty remark, there was a knock on the door.
“Oi! Shu-ichi!” Both men in the room whirled just in time to see the gun toting man from class four walk into the room. “Where’s my lunch?” The man growled.
Eiri remembered something about his name being K. Typical Americans with ridiculous one lettered names. Shuichi placed an arm in front of Eiri and slowly began backing themselves away, grinning sheepishly as he said,
“Well…you see. K. I didn’t know--”
“SHUICHI!!!” the other class door swung open with a loud bang, revealing a very agitated woman with a face distorted with anger.
Welcome to the party Noriko-san.
“You little punk!!!” she pointed at Eiri, “Are you the little shit who stole my lunch?!”
Eiri smirked inwardly as his sensei moved to stand in front of him. The older man was more fearful for him than he was. The student’s many encounters with the ‘lovely corkscrew haired hall monitor’ gave him all the vocabulary necessary to flip her off even more. But his sensei’s nearness wasn’t something to be taken for granted.
“Move aside! You easily manipulated fool! HE STOLE MY DAMN LUNCH!”
Shuichi waved his hands in front of her in a mad calming action, “Noriko-chan, tha-that was three days ago. Please settle-” but he couldn’t finish when Noriko got up on his face,
“DAMN RIGHT THREE DAYS AGO! NOW LET ME AT HIM—“
K joined in, “And that little punk’s been skipping my class! Seguchi said no exceptions-and where the hell is MY lunch! YOU PROMISED ME TOO!”
The student behind, almost pressed against the wall wondered how his sensei appeared to know all the craziest damn people in the world.
“Shuichi-kun!!!” Eiri easily looked over the sensei’s shoulder and almost thought he was the crazy one.
There in the doorway was an exact replica of his teacher, only instead of baggy green pants that Shuichi wore, he was wearing holey jeans with a ripped up white sleeved shirt and clutching a…a pink bunny?
“Sensei, who the hell are these people?” Eiri asked exasperatedly, watching the blur as the Shuichi-replica pounced on ‘his’ teacher. They looked so alike, except for the brown hair and the taller, more masculine frame…but who cared about that right now? Eiri was annoyed out of his mind. He had been dreaming of pouncing on his pink haired teacher like that and this ‘stranger’ had just beaten him to it, as though he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted.
“My lunch damn it!”
“Give me back my student and the lunch you promised me!”
“Shu-kun!”
Shindou-san’s face reddened and finally, he yelled at an unexpected volume, “Shut the hell up!” Everyone turned silent, startled by his sudden outburst. He quickly amended, “Please.”
Eiri looked at his sensei’s beet red face. Strangely, his teacher’s angry pants served to amuse him, if not turn him on a little bit.
Okay, a lot.
Without another word, the little teacher, obviously exasperated, moved away from his student and strode over and around his desk. Pulling out his green army bag and wrenching the Velcro apart., he reached in and withdrew a three layered bento box. He ignored Noriko and K’s predatory eyes and set the box down, saying, “There. For you two.”
Eiri couldn’t help but be impressed by his sensei’s mature handling of the situation. He watched as Shindou-sensei turned to address the clone,
“Now, Ryuichi-kun. What about you? Did you need anything?”
The man, who Eiri now observed to be a little older than Shindou-sensei, picked up his pink bunny and hugged it tightly against his chest.
“Actually, I came to tell you about…” Ryuichi glanced at Eiri, his behavior making it evident that what was to be said wasn’t for the student’s ears. Eiri feigned obliviousness, and he stepped forward and whispered into Shindou-sensei’s ear which, to Eiri’s dismay, made the teacher smile brightly. It looked as if Shindou-sensei had been jolted.
“Okay! I think I’ll go right now!” Shindou-sensei started for the door when he seemed to suddenly remember something. “Oh!” he exclaimed, skidding to a halt. He turned around and grinned at Eiri, “Coming?”
“Excuse me?” Eiri asked incredulously. Coming where?
“To lunch silly!” Shuichi chirped, quickly taking Eiri’s hand in a tight clutch and pulling him along, “You haven’t had lunch yet, so I’ll take you out, and none of that cafeteria yucky stuff either. We’ll leave campus!” He briskly pulled Eiri along down the empty hallways, “Besides, I couldn't leave you behind with those freaks.”
Eiri grinned inside.
Talk about a pot calling the kettle black.
Winding down the stairs and running while dragging the extra weight behind him, Shindou Shuichi finally stopped before the parking lot. It had bothered Eiri as to how the two were going to leave school grounds when the teacher himself didn’t drive for ‘safety seasons.’ Eiri was still a little taken aback by the hand holding and had just come to enjoy it when it was suddenly dropped.
“Oh mannn…” Shindou-sensei groaned, his enthusiasm suddenly wilting. He turned and headed back toward the main building. “Sorry, wait here, I’ll get Ryuichi-kun to drive us since he’s the one with the car and he-”
Eiri bit his lip. Damn. Figures his sensei would forget something like that…but the student really, really, didn’t want this perfect opportunity of being with his teacher all alone off campus to be ruined.
Well there was only one thing to do now.
“I’ll drive, sensei.” He watched Shuichi turn to him with an inquiring look. Holding out his car keys, he shrugged, “I can drive.” And with that, he turned and walked down the parking slots toward his ‘baby’ who was about to be introduced to his ‘obsession’.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
The drive was pretty much spent listening to his teacher
Though Eiri wasn’t particularly interested, or at least pretended not to be, his secret crush felt the need to enlighten him about everything,
“Ryuichi is my cousin from my father’s side. I haven’t seen him since I was ten, and we both only started talking to each other about five years back…so I really miss him, but anyway, he left when he was twenty for a singing audition in America, and because of his great singing talent, he was hired immediately and got contracts worth millions! The only problem is, Ryu-kun wants to take over the whole world,” Shuichi threw his head back on the headrest and giggled, “He wants to be popular in Japan just as much as in the U.S. and the records company jumped him immediately. So thank goodness for that, he’s here and I get to spend time with him occasionally.” Shuichi winked at Eiri as if it was a big secret, saying in a hush voice, “Tohma lets him come to school because Tohma and he became best buds way back. In fact, that’s how I got to have my job at the academy!”
Eiri nodded, smirking at the comment, “Figures. That would be the only way you can become a teacher at the academy.”
“Meanie,” the teacher cutely accused. He directed his aide to take a left at the corner and pull up into a parking space in front of an ‘O-sushi’ shop. Hopping out of the car, the young teacher ushered his student inside, smiling as he shoved a menu in front of the boy’s face.
“Pick anything! Anything!” the man practically shouted, ignoring the nervous glances of the other customers. Eiri was all but unaware of his teacher’s eyes keeping on him all the time, waiting for his student to ask for anything. Testing the waters to see how devoted the sensei was, the student asked for the one that had the price ridiculously high up on the air.
“Uwah!!!” The teacher exclaimed excitedly at the request, and Eiri thought his teacher sounded very close to saying something like ‘You’re so mean to pick the most expensive one!’ Instead, the teacher grinned at the waitress and exclaimed, “I want one too!!”
Eiri lowered his head. Why was he even trying? What would he have done if the man had gotten angry? Ah~ but he had known the man wouldn’t.
The student enjoyed their lunch very much, maybe even more than the first one.
Eiri couldn’t help but notice that, like he found himself doing a lot these days, he’d been smiling warmly inside his cold outward shell. He marveled at his sensei, the one interesting person who he’d immediately liked on the first day of school. Now, three months into the school year, the man was treating him to lunch, worrying about him. Shindou-sense was eating at an unusually fast pace, ecstatically telling him, “Take some of mine!” and shoving his food onto the boy’s plate in between telling countless jokes.
Eiri rested his chin on his palm, hiding a small involuntary smile behind his fingers.
His sensei had only become more delicious with his childish antics.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
“That was good.” The younger man mumbled, shifting his car to reverse.
His eyes flew to his sensei’s face, and immediately Eiri noticed that the man had some sort of question to ask. Glancing at his car’s watch, he saw that they still had ten minutes to go. The school was only a little less than three minutes away with his mad driving skills.
“Did you want to go elsewhere sensei?” the aide asked, giving the man a reassuring look to show that he was listening. Happily the teacher bounced up his seat,
“Yes please!” and before Eiri could ask where, the man instructed, “To Oshimase’s store please!”
Eiri blinked. A clothing store? What for?
Shrugging, the young man sped off. He knew where the shop was since Seguchi had dragged him there on more than one occasion to outfit him, but why would his teacher want to go there in the middle of a school day? He was very curious, but Eiri decided to keep quiet when he saw how happy his teacher was.
Well whatever it is, if it makes him happy…He thought, already turning down a corner and heading straight into the shopping district. He parked a few feet from Oshimase’s. This time, Shindou-sensei was already hurrying into the store before Eiri could even get out. He didn’t know where the extra ‘zeal’ had come from but he didn’t want to ask. Not that he needed to.
“She’s supposed to be here today after she got back from her trip!”
Eiri’s hear lurched. She?
“Yeah. My girlfriend.”
Eiri hadn’t realized that he had asked the question out loud, but his older companion chattered on, throwing a door open that had a ‘closed’ sign on it.
“Yeah. Another friend of mine introduced us and--”
The blonde student had been too busy with his crumbling heart that he hadn’t noticed his sensei had stopped. Glaring at the man, Eiri opened his mouth to speak when his eyes caught sight of two moving figures in the corner of the dark room.
A man, very masculine and almost Eiri’s height, had one strong arm wrapped around a slender woman. His other arm was sneaking inside the front of her unzipped pants. Eiri was quick to anger at the sight of them and wanted to yell for their indecency, but was distracted by a small whisper from the man frozen in front of him.
“Mi…Miyari.”
A gasp echoed through the room, annoyed at having been interrupted. And the woman, moaning and panting, opened her eyes to shoot a glare at who had interrupted… and gasped again, this time in shock.
It wasn’t that Eiri was slow but it had all happened too fast.
The woman pushed at the man who had his hands on her, crying out shrilly,
“Shu-chan!”
Shindou-sensei whirled around, pushing roughly past Eiri and ran out the door. He wouldn’t have stood in his sensei’s way, of course, but he was frozen. Because what Eiri really wanted to do, with all his might, was snatch the woman’s wrist and prevent her from chasing after his teacher. Gritting his teeth he did just that, yanking her roughly away from the doorway through which Shindou-sensei had disappeared. She snarled up at him,
“Let go of me, you shi-”
Eiri had the urged to break every tooth she had, to put his hands upon her throat and constrict the air passage…for hurting his sensei…
But he didn’t have time for this. His sensei needed him and he knew that. He settled for scorching her with a contemptuous glance and throwing her back against one of the clothing racks. She stared up at him, startled, and he pinned her with a scornful look. Eyes narrowed, it was clear what he was silently communicating to her.
‘Don’t ever go near him again.’
And he followed after his sensei.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Eiri glanced over at his sensei, the man’s perfect figure splayed out over the front passenger seat.
Eiri slowed the car enough to allow him to turn his head and see how his sensei looked, and it wasn’t looking good. For the few minutes that he’d been driving, the once incurably energetic teacher, who could barely hold a muscle still, was now like a statue. Shindou-sensei had his elbows resting on the arm rests, left hand in his lap while the right clutched his left elbow in a tight grip. His pink bangs were sticking to his face from the tears that had poured out only briefly. Eiri had not seen the tears, but could see the traces.
And that was it.
His sensei didn’t wail, didn’t cry any more tears, but just sat in silence, only sighing every now and then. When he sighed, his eyes would glaze over as he stared unseeingly out at everything whizzing by.
Eiri carefully followed the teacher in his zombie-like state, and thanked the gods he had when the man stopped on the stairs, sighed and leaned too far back. The student had been obliged to catch him, and before Eiri could ask how he was, the teacher would act as if nothing had happened and continue on his way.
Safely in the room, the student closed the door behind him and turned to see the young school teacher opening his planning book.
“You’re teaching?” Eiri asked incredulously. As if he was just noticing the student, the pink haired teacher, looked up at him and smiled softly,
“Oh, Eiri-kun… I’m sorry. Of course I’m teaching! I only have one more period to go--”
The student angrily stomped his way towards his teacher, slamming a palm over the planner.
“Sensei, you shouldn’t teach today,” he advised, knowing it would be a wise decision on the teacher’s part.
Realizing that his student had seen it all, Shuichi quickly lowered his head, “I’m very sorry Yuki-kun! I didn’t want you to see any of that. I’m really sorry! But you don’t have to worry about me!”
“That’s enough!” Eiri said, his voice rising. He paused, waited for his temper to calm down then, pinching the bridge of his nose, he continued softly,
“Sensei, I don’t mind what I saw. I don’t.” But then his words caught in his throat when he made the mistake of looking down into the teacher’s wide violet eyes. They were a darker shade now, but a hundred times more… erotic… than ever. The way those lashes swept innocently over his cheeks as Shindou-sensei blinked slowly up at the lecturing student…took his breath away. Unable to resist, Eiri brought up a hand and gently pushed a few stray strands of the man’s hair away from his eyes,
“What subject are you teaching next?” he asked quietly. Eiri was so close to his sensei. He could barely breathe as he watched those lips part to reply to his quiet question.
“Eng…English.” Eiri let out the breath he had been holding when his teacher allowed him to continue petting the man’s head. He watched the teacher close those beautiful eyes as he finished answering the question. “Two doors down, in room 3-5.”
“Good boy,” Eiri whispered, and draped Shuichi’s coat over the man’s small figure. “I’ll go and tell them you won’t be in. We’ll call a substitute.” and with that, the student pulled his hand away from his treasure.
With a soft sigh, he watched the Shindou-sensei slowly smile, eyes drifting shut as he did.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Now, the teacher had a very strict contract with the Principal Seguchi.
It was not until he was drifting off into sleep that he remembered how there were no such things as ‘substitutes’ since all the teachers were being paid well high enough to not get sick. He groaned, opened his eyes, and quickly prepared to get to class. He recalled how Seguchi Tohma had no beliefs whatsoever with ‘personal life affecting profession’.
Still feeling a little heavy from the earlier incident, the teacher wobbled his way out of his classroom. He would have to feign lateness. Thirty minutes late, yes, but not absent. They were already short of teachers as it was since they’d been driven out by the students of room number four. If Seguchi had assigned a substitute, the pay would be docked from Shuichi’s wages. It would have all been well and all, but his rent were due that very week!
Shuichi hurried over to class 3-5, and just as he clutched the door handle, he heard,
“Who can tell me what Symbolism is?”
That voice…strangely familiar.
“No one?”
And that attitude…
The curious teacher slid the door open a crack and what he saw caused his breath to snag, his eyes widening…
There, standing in front of the room, chalk in hand and back turned to the class, was his very own student, standing with more authority than Shuichi knew he himself could ever exude.
“Symbolism,” he heard his student say, “is an object that stands for itself, but also represents something larger and usually more abstract.” The student finished writing the note, his voice having the tone of finality as he produced an example from his deep within him.
“Like love”.
Shuichi didn’t move.
He wouldn’t move, didn’t want to. At least, not until his student turned around, and not until he was sure that the golden penetrating gaze caught him looking.
Admiring.
And it froze on the sensei’s face when his student, still holding his gaze, repeated,
“Like love.”
The teacher leaned against the door way and gave him an approving smile.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
AN: Thanks for reading this far^^ This was a little longer than the last one, and the next chapter looks like it’s going to be longer than this one ^_^ ha-ha. I hope everyone is in for the ride! All in? Please review!
Soo…one more question: Who wants Eiri to take it up one more notch with his sensei? XD
[1] At the beginning of class, the students stand, straighten their postures and bows either to say ‘Good Morning’ ‘Good Afternoon’ of if leaving class, ‘Sayonara.’
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Chapter Four: Symbolism
Eiri was love struck.
Well… maybe ‘love’ struck was a bit too much; he preferred the term ‘deeply infatuated’. But he was preoccupied enough, in fact, to be neglecting his duty as a ‘player’ master. Time that was once used going around and hounding pure, or not so pure, girls, was now only reserved for sitting at a desk at the very back of a room 3-7. Despite the mountain of a paper pile beneath his elbows, he took his sweet time sighing over and over again at how his sensei swayed his hips in that sexy, innocent way. He knew his thoughts were a little silly, especially over a teacher, but the way the man bent over to pick up his dropped pencil made Eiri tingle all over.
Yeah. ‘Deeply infatuated.’
“Yuki-kun!” His sensei’s voice always heightened its sexiness when it sounded frustrated. “Yuki!!”
At the warning tone in the second call, the student’s chin slid off the palm supporting his face. Startled, he straightened immediately and looked at his sensei, ignoring the other students who had their heads turned to look at the commotion.
“Yes sensei?”
Shindou Shuichi, previous teacher of class one huffed, smoke of fake frustration coming out of his nostrils as he pouted again.
“Yuki-kun! You can stare at Miyu-chan all you want later, but I need you to correct these papers!” he pointed to the papers Eiri had been neglecting for the past hour. The student peered down and sighed inwardly. He had been working on it. Past tense. He had been until his sensei reached for the overhead screen, which was a fingertip out of his reach. In the process of stretching toward it, the teacher’s coat he always wore slipped off his shoulder a little and, well… the only thing he’d been able to concentrate on from that moment was the bared patch of skin.
So smooth…
Eiri had only gotten as far as question five of the test papers, when his brain refused to cooperate. His mind had outrageously blown him over and started thinking inappropriate thoughts about his teacher. He was so distracted he couldn’t return to the sheet of paper. He stared at his teacher for such a long time until the pink-haired man bent low and whispered to him,
“Oops.” Shindou-sensei muttered. “Did I embarrass you Yuki-kun? You don’t want Miyu-chan to know that you like her, do you?”
The blonde frowned. Who the hell was Miyu?
Eiri’s eyes traveled to the front where, right before the teacher’s desk, sat a shy looking girl. Their eyes met and she quickly turned away, in a manner very similar to the way Eiri had acted when his teacher had caught him staring… but she looked a lot more flustered. A few students caught the exchange and snickered, and Eiri blasted them a glare when the teacher walked off to the front of the room.
“Alright, now, that’s enough,” Shuichi called, gathering the class’ attention once again. “It’s almost time to go so do any of you have any question about homework?”
At the comment a boy’s hand flew up on the air.
“Yes Jiyoji?”
“Sensei, are you going to be our permanent teacher?”
Shuichi sighed, almost looking too sad. It didn’t have anything to do with what he had inquired for but…. Wiping off the sad expression, he smiled brightly,
“Yes. I am your fourth period teacher from here on out.” Shuichi nodded his head towards the back of the room, directing the student’s attention to the gaiijin-looking student from Class Four at the very back. “And that over there is my student aide.”
Almost all the girls in the class shrieked. It had been decided a long time ago that Eiri was more on the ‘cool and mysterious’ side rather than ‘scary’. He was, however, intimidating to most.
“Yes.” Shuichi responded to the reaction with a smile, raising his eyes to the young boy at the back who was not as busy correcting the papers as he should have been.
Attention was one thing Yuki Eiri hated. As if on cue, the lunch bell rang.
“Alright,” Shuichi said, as the students stood for their departing greeting to the teacher. “Kiyotsuke.” The student straightened their postures, “Rei.” And all the students simultaneously bowed [1], mumbling in unison,
“Sayonara, sensei.”
As soon as all the students were out of the room, Shindou sensei stretched himself like a cat, yawned, and then strode over to his remaining companion and aide, Yuki Eiri.
“How you doing?” the older man asked. Peering down on the sudden great pile of paper that Eiri had managed to speedily check. The student didn’t answer but continued his ‘duty’. He was quite certain would not be able to tear his gaze away from the man, if he looked up. He kept his head down. Once his sensei and he were alone, he knew he couldn’t stare freely at the man since the other’s hyper energy wasn’t occupied with something else… his stares would most definitely be noticed.
Before the student realized it, his said ‘punishment’ ran towards one of the window panes and opened it as wide as it allowed, letting in the soft breeze. Eiri noted how the gentle wind caressed the man’s pink locks and breathed across the smooth skin…
He sighed, wishing it were his hands that would rumple the man’s hair, his breath that would skim over that skin…
“Let’s take a break Yuki-kun!” the teacher called, leaning his upper body dangerously far out the opening. “Look!” he called to the student, “There’s everyone!” and by ‘everyone’ Eiri knew all too well that he meant class four, where a gun toting bastard was keeping the children hostage.
Seguchi and his strange taste in lackeys…
“Hey guuuuyysss!!!! The childish man yelled openly, alerting the students, three stories below him, of his presence. He waved wildly, but it puzzled the man how none of his former students were waving back, smiling, or anything for the matter. They were, however, staring back at him.
Or staring just over his shoulder, where a set of pale eyes gazed back at the solemn faces below.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Two days ago, Eiri had been given the second greatest boon of his life: he and his sensei had worked out a schedule.
As the plan had turned out, the student would need to attend first and second period. Then, for third period Eiri was to go directly up three floors of the main building and work for his teacher. He was to remain there until seventh period and return to his regular class for eighth period.
He would have preferred it if his teacher made him stay for eighth period since it was the teacher’s free hour to do as he wished…but the sensei had said it was alright for him to go and said he couldn’t take any more of the student’s time.
Eiri couldn’t press his preference without revealing anything embarrassing.
So that first day, the first period bell rang and the young Yuki-kun entered his homeroom. Sure enough, a reddish blonde man was sitting on their former teacher’s desk. He was wearing a white long sleeved shirt with the cuff rolled up to his elbow, black trousers and… a belt gun holster around his waist.
Eiri calmly walked to the back of the room and silently slipped in behind his desk, grunting a little as he propped his chin up on his wrist and turned his gaze out the window. There wasn’t anything to stare at in particular, but it was better than meeting any of his traitorous classmates’ gazes.
The stares were boring holes into his head.
“Yuki-kun, are you angry?” one of the girls sitting in front of him asked, her back still turned.
The addressed student didn’t answer, and he sensed her fearful shiver.
“We’re sorry Yuki-kun.” She mumbled, fumbling a little, “E-everyone says sorry. We didn’t mean to…we…” she paused when the new teacher walked by, then continued when he had passed, “we just wanted sensei back, and we didn’t think you’d get in so much trouble.”
Eiri kept his carpus tucked beneath his chin, eyes half closed as he stared out at the gray paint of the side buildings. He didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t planned to say anything actually, but it was because of this class that he got to spend more time with his new obsession and now they thought he was mad. After all, it was well known that Eiri hated being put on task of helping more than anything in the world.
“Forget it.” He growled.
“But-”
“Shut up.” He said sharply, even though he hadn’t meant to. He was irate now at his own ungrateful behavior, but it was not as if he could just tell the class ‘Oh thanks for getting me in trouble so that I could spend some time with our sweet, sweet, sensei.’ He got to his feet just as the new teacher shouted,
“Hello! My name’s K. Nice to meet you.” And the last part he showed the class his big black tool to show just how ‘nice’ he thought it was spending time with them.
He hadn’t notice one of the students ditching.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Eiri’s cheeks were screaming with pain.
He had only just realized that his pink obsession had suddenly taken the liberty of pinching his ‘never before touched’ face. The student immediately tumbled over backward in his chair, gasping a dying ‘Agghhh.’ He glared up at his sensei from the ground, growling fiercely as he clutched his cheek,
“Don’t do that!”
Instead of being intimidated, the older man seemed to find it cute. The teacher giggled as he stretched out a hand to help the younger man off ground.
“Yuki-kun is so sensitive. It’s your fault because you keep spacing out!” he pouted when the teen grudgingly refused his hand and got up on his own. Before Eiri could add a witty remark, there was a knock on the door.
“Oi! Shu-ichi!” Both men in the room whirled just in time to see the gun toting man from class four walk into the room. “Where’s my lunch?” The man growled.
Eiri remembered something about his name being K. Typical Americans with ridiculous one lettered names. Shuichi placed an arm in front of Eiri and slowly began backing themselves away, grinning sheepishly as he said,
“Well…you see. K. I didn’t know--”
“SHUICHI!!!” the other class door swung open with a loud bang, revealing a very agitated woman with a face distorted with anger.
Welcome to the party Noriko-san.
“You little punk!!!” she pointed at Eiri, “Are you the little shit who stole my lunch?!”
Eiri smirked inwardly as his sensei moved to stand in front of him. The older man was more fearful for him than he was. The student’s many encounters with the ‘lovely corkscrew haired hall monitor’ gave him all the vocabulary necessary to flip her off even more. But his sensei’s nearness wasn’t something to be taken for granted.
“Move aside! You easily manipulated fool! HE STOLE MY DAMN LUNCH!”
Shuichi waved his hands in front of her in a mad calming action, “Noriko-chan, tha-that was three days ago. Please settle-” but he couldn’t finish when Noriko got up on his face,
“DAMN RIGHT THREE DAYS AGO! NOW LET ME AT HIM—“
K joined in, “And that little punk’s been skipping my class! Seguchi said no exceptions-and where the hell is MY lunch! YOU PROMISED ME TOO!”
The student behind, almost pressed against the wall wondered how his sensei appeared to know all the craziest damn people in the world.
“Shuichi-kun!!!” Eiri easily looked over the sensei’s shoulder and almost thought he was the crazy one.
There in the doorway was an exact replica of his teacher, only instead of baggy green pants that Shuichi wore, he was wearing holey jeans with a ripped up white sleeved shirt and clutching a…a pink bunny?
“Sensei, who the hell are these people?” Eiri asked exasperatedly, watching the blur as the Shuichi-replica pounced on ‘his’ teacher. They looked so alike, except for the brown hair and the taller, more masculine frame…but who cared about that right now? Eiri was annoyed out of his mind. He had been dreaming of pouncing on his pink haired teacher like that and this ‘stranger’ had just beaten him to it, as though he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted.
“My lunch damn it!”
“Give me back my student and the lunch you promised me!”
“Shu-kun!”
Shindou-san’s face reddened and finally, he yelled at an unexpected volume, “Shut the hell up!” Everyone turned silent, startled by his sudden outburst. He quickly amended, “Please.”
Eiri looked at his sensei’s beet red face. Strangely, his teacher’s angry pants served to amuse him, if not turn him on a little bit.
Okay, a lot.
Without another word, the little teacher, obviously exasperated, moved away from his student and strode over and around his desk. Pulling out his green army bag and wrenching the Velcro apart., he reached in and withdrew a three layered bento box. He ignored Noriko and K’s predatory eyes and set the box down, saying, “There. For you two.”
Eiri couldn’t help but be impressed by his sensei’s mature handling of the situation. He watched as Shindou-sensei turned to address the clone,
“Now, Ryuichi-kun. What about you? Did you need anything?”
The man, who Eiri now observed to be a little older than Shindou-sensei, picked up his pink bunny and hugged it tightly against his chest.
“Actually, I came to tell you about…” Ryuichi glanced at Eiri, his behavior making it evident that what was to be said wasn’t for the student’s ears. Eiri feigned obliviousness, and he stepped forward and whispered into Shindou-sensei’s ear which, to Eiri’s dismay, made the teacher smile brightly. It looked as if Shindou-sensei had been jolted.
“Okay! I think I’ll go right now!” Shindou-sensei started for the door when he seemed to suddenly remember something. “Oh!” he exclaimed, skidding to a halt. He turned around and grinned at Eiri, “Coming?”
“Excuse me?” Eiri asked incredulously. Coming where?
“To lunch silly!” Shuichi chirped, quickly taking Eiri’s hand in a tight clutch and pulling him along, “You haven’t had lunch yet, so I’ll take you out, and none of that cafeteria yucky stuff either. We’ll leave campus!” He briskly pulled Eiri along down the empty hallways, “Besides, I couldn't leave you behind with those freaks.”
Eiri grinned inside.
Talk about a pot calling the kettle black.
Winding down the stairs and running while dragging the extra weight behind him, Shindou Shuichi finally stopped before the parking lot. It had bothered Eiri as to how the two were going to leave school grounds when the teacher himself didn’t drive for ‘safety seasons.’ Eiri was still a little taken aback by the hand holding and had just come to enjoy it when it was suddenly dropped.
“Oh mannn…” Shindou-sensei groaned, his enthusiasm suddenly wilting. He turned and headed back toward the main building. “Sorry, wait here, I’ll get Ryuichi-kun to drive us since he’s the one with the car and he-”
Eiri bit his lip. Damn. Figures his sensei would forget something like that…but the student really, really, didn’t want this perfect opportunity of being with his teacher all alone off campus to be ruined.
Well there was only one thing to do now.
“I’ll drive, sensei.” He watched Shuichi turn to him with an inquiring look. Holding out his car keys, he shrugged, “I can drive.” And with that, he turned and walked down the parking slots toward his ‘baby’ who was about to be introduced to his ‘obsession’.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
The drive was pretty much spent listening to his teacher
Though Eiri wasn’t particularly interested, or at least pretended not to be, his secret crush felt the need to enlighten him about everything,
“Ryuichi is my cousin from my father’s side. I haven’t seen him since I was ten, and we both only started talking to each other about five years back…so I really miss him, but anyway, he left when he was twenty for a singing audition in America, and because of his great singing talent, he was hired immediately and got contracts worth millions! The only problem is, Ryu-kun wants to take over the whole world,” Shuichi threw his head back on the headrest and giggled, “He wants to be popular in Japan just as much as in the U.S. and the records company jumped him immediately. So thank goodness for that, he’s here and I get to spend time with him occasionally.” Shuichi winked at Eiri as if it was a big secret, saying in a hush voice, “Tohma lets him come to school because Tohma and he became best buds way back. In fact, that’s how I got to have my job at the academy!”
Eiri nodded, smirking at the comment, “Figures. That would be the only way you can become a teacher at the academy.”
“Meanie,” the teacher cutely accused. He directed his aide to take a left at the corner and pull up into a parking space in front of an ‘O-sushi’ shop. Hopping out of the car, the young teacher ushered his student inside, smiling as he shoved a menu in front of the boy’s face.
“Pick anything! Anything!” the man practically shouted, ignoring the nervous glances of the other customers. Eiri was all but unaware of his teacher’s eyes keeping on him all the time, waiting for his student to ask for anything. Testing the waters to see how devoted the sensei was, the student asked for the one that had the price ridiculously high up on the air.
“Uwah!!!” The teacher exclaimed excitedly at the request, and Eiri thought his teacher sounded very close to saying something like ‘You’re so mean to pick the most expensive one!’ Instead, the teacher grinned at the waitress and exclaimed, “I want one too!!”
Eiri lowered his head. Why was he even trying? What would he have done if the man had gotten angry? Ah~ but he had known the man wouldn’t.
The student enjoyed their lunch very much, maybe even more than the first one.
Eiri couldn’t help but notice that, like he found himself doing a lot these days, he’d been smiling warmly inside his cold outward shell. He marveled at his sensei, the one interesting person who he’d immediately liked on the first day of school. Now, three months into the school year, the man was treating him to lunch, worrying about him. Shindou-sense was eating at an unusually fast pace, ecstatically telling him, “Take some of mine!” and shoving his food onto the boy’s plate in between telling countless jokes.
Eiri rested his chin on his palm, hiding a small involuntary smile behind his fingers.
His sensei had only become more delicious with his childish antics.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
“That was good.” The younger man mumbled, shifting his car to reverse.
His eyes flew to his sensei’s face, and immediately Eiri noticed that the man had some sort of question to ask. Glancing at his car’s watch, he saw that they still had ten minutes to go. The school was only a little less than three minutes away with his mad driving skills.
“Did you want to go elsewhere sensei?” the aide asked, giving the man a reassuring look to show that he was listening. Happily the teacher bounced up his seat,
“Yes please!” and before Eiri could ask where, the man instructed, “To Oshimase’s store please!”
Eiri blinked. A clothing store? What for?
Shrugging, the young man sped off. He knew where the shop was since Seguchi had dragged him there on more than one occasion to outfit him, but why would his teacher want to go there in the middle of a school day? He was very curious, but Eiri decided to keep quiet when he saw how happy his teacher was.
Well whatever it is, if it makes him happy…He thought, already turning down a corner and heading straight into the shopping district. He parked a few feet from Oshimase’s. This time, Shindou-sensei was already hurrying into the store before Eiri could even get out. He didn’t know where the extra ‘zeal’ had come from but he didn’t want to ask. Not that he needed to.
“She’s supposed to be here today after she got back from her trip!”
Eiri’s hear lurched. She?
“Yeah. My girlfriend.”
Eiri hadn’t realized that he had asked the question out loud, but his older companion chattered on, throwing a door open that had a ‘closed’ sign on it.
“Yeah. Another friend of mine introduced us and--”
The blonde student had been too busy with his crumbling heart that he hadn’t noticed his sensei had stopped. Glaring at the man, Eiri opened his mouth to speak when his eyes caught sight of two moving figures in the corner of the dark room.
A man, very masculine and almost Eiri’s height, had one strong arm wrapped around a slender woman. His other arm was sneaking inside the front of her unzipped pants. Eiri was quick to anger at the sight of them and wanted to yell for their indecency, but was distracted by a small whisper from the man frozen in front of him.
“Mi…Miyari.”
A gasp echoed through the room, annoyed at having been interrupted. And the woman, moaning and panting, opened her eyes to shoot a glare at who had interrupted… and gasped again, this time in shock.
It wasn’t that Eiri was slow but it had all happened too fast.
The woman pushed at the man who had his hands on her, crying out shrilly,
“Shu-chan!”
Shindou-sensei whirled around, pushing roughly past Eiri and ran out the door. He wouldn’t have stood in his sensei’s way, of course, but he was frozen. Because what Eiri really wanted to do, with all his might, was snatch the woman’s wrist and prevent her from chasing after his teacher. Gritting his teeth he did just that, yanking her roughly away from the doorway through which Shindou-sensei had disappeared. She snarled up at him,
“Let go of me, you shi-”
Eiri had the urged to break every tooth she had, to put his hands upon her throat and constrict the air passage…for hurting his sensei…
But he didn’t have time for this. His sensei needed him and he knew that. He settled for scorching her with a contemptuous glance and throwing her back against one of the clothing racks. She stared up at him, startled, and he pinned her with a scornful look. Eyes narrowed, it was clear what he was silently communicating to her.
‘Don’t ever go near him again.’
And he followed after his sensei.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Eiri glanced over at his sensei, the man’s perfect figure splayed out over the front passenger seat.
Eiri slowed the car enough to allow him to turn his head and see how his sensei looked, and it wasn’t looking good. For the few minutes that he’d been driving, the once incurably energetic teacher, who could barely hold a muscle still, was now like a statue. Shindou-sensei had his elbows resting on the arm rests, left hand in his lap while the right clutched his left elbow in a tight grip. His pink bangs were sticking to his face from the tears that had poured out only briefly. Eiri had not seen the tears, but could see the traces.
And that was it.
His sensei didn’t wail, didn’t cry any more tears, but just sat in silence, only sighing every now and then. When he sighed, his eyes would glaze over as he stared unseeingly out at everything whizzing by.
Eiri carefully followed the teacher in his zombie-like state, and thanked the gods he had when the man stopped on the stairs, sighed and leaned too far back. The student had been obliged to catch him, and before Eiri could ask how he was, the teacher would act as if nothing had happened and continue on his way.
Safely in the room, the student closed the door behind him and turned to see the young school teacher opening his planning book.
“You’re teaching?” Eiri asked incredulously. As if he was just noticing the student, the pink haired teacher, looked up at him and smiled softly,
“Oh, Eiri-kun… I’m sorry. Of course I’m teaching! I only have one more period to go--”
The student angrily stomped his way towards his teacher, slamming a palm over the planner.
“Sensei, you shouldn’t teach today,” he advised, knowing it would be a wise decision on the teacher’s part.
Realizing that his student had seen it all, Shuichi quickly lowered his head, “I’m very sorry Yuki-kun! I didn’t want you to see any of that. I’m really sorry! But you don’t have to worry about me!”
“That’s enough!” Eiri said, his voice rising. He paused, waited for his temper to calm down then, pinching the bridge of his nose, he continued softly,
“Sensei, I don’t mind what I saw. I don’t.” But then his words caught in his throat when he made the mistake of looking down into the teacher’s wide violet eyes. They were a darker shade now, but a hundred times more… erotic… than ever. The way those lashes swept innocently over his cheeks as Shindou-sensei blinked slowly up at the lecturing student…took his breath away. Unable to resist, Eiri brought up a hand and gently pushed a few stray strands of the man’s hair away from his eyes,
“What subject are you teaching next?” he asked quietly. Eiri was so close to his sensei. He could barely breathe as he watched those lips part to reply to his quiet question.
“Eng…English.” Eiri let out the breath he had been holding when his teacher allowed him to continue petting the man’s head. He watched the teacher close those beautiful eyes as he finished answering the question. “Two doors down, in room 3-5.”
“Good boy,” Eiri whispered, and draped Shuichi’s coat over the man’s small figure. “I’ll go and tell them you won’t be in. We’ll call a substitute.” and with that, the student pulled his hand away from his treasure.
With a soft sigh, he watched the Shindou-sensei slowly smile, eyes drifting shut as he did.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Now, the teacher had a very strict contract with the Principal Seguchi.
It was not until he was drifting off into sleep that he remembered how there were no such things as ‘substitutes’ since all the teachers were being paid well high enough to not get sick. He groaned, opened his eyes, and quickly prepared to get to class. He recalled how Seguchi Tohma had no beliefs whatsoever with ‘personal life affecting profession’.
Still feeling a little heavy from the earlier incident, the teacher wobbled his way out of his classroom. He would have to feign lateness. Thirty minutes late, yes, but not absent. They were already short of teachers as it was since they’d been driven out by the students of room number four. If Seguchi had assigned a substitute, the pay would be docked from Shuichi’s wages. It would have all been well and all, but his rent were due that very week!
Shuichi hurried over to class 3-5, and just as he clutched the door handle, he heard,
“Who can tell me what Symbolism is?”
That voice…strangely familiar.
“No one?”
And that attitude…
The curious teacher slid the door open a crack and what he saw caused his breath to snag, his eyes widening…
There, standing in front of the room, chalk in hand and back turned to the class, was his very own student, standing with more authority than Shuichi knew he himself could ever exude.
“Symbolism,” he heard his student say, “is an object that stands for itself, but also represents something larger and usually more abstract.” The student finished writing the note, his voice having the tone of finality as he produced an example from his deep within him.
“Like love”.
Shuichi didn’t move.
He wouldn’t move, didn’t want to. At least, not until his student turned around, and not until he was sure that the golden penetrating gaze caught him looking.
Admiring.
And it froze on the sensei’s face when his student, still holding his gaze, repeated,
“Like love.”
The teacher leaned against the door way and gave him an approving smile.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
AN: Thanks for reading this far^^ This was a little longer than the last one, and the next chapter looks like it’s going to be longer than this one ^_^ ha-ha. I hope everyone is in for the ride! All in? Please review!
Soo…one more question: Who wants Eiri to take it up one more notch with his sensei? XD
[1] At the beginning of class, the students stand, straighten their postures and bows either to say ‘Good Morning’ ‘Good Afternoon’ of if leaving class, ‘Sayonara.’