[ AQ ] endless summer heat [ Kazuki/Norio ]

[Norio]

SPOILER: Click to show

Athletic Heat
+ Description: P.E. is rough, especially during warmer seasons; today’s a free day, but… do you really even feel up to doing anything?
+ Play some games with classmates; there’s equipment around: +2 Guardians, +1 Faberge, -1 Roost
+ Try to skate by without doing anything; and pray the teacher doesn’t notice: -1 Guardians, +1 Faberge, +2 Roost
+ Sneak out of gym—there are more important things to do!: -1 Guardians, +2 Faberge, +1 Roost
+ Gym never goes well for you—you end up with an accident and need to be taken to the infirmary: +1 Guardians, -1 Faberge, +1 Roost
+ Requirements: If multiple participants, must be in the same year  fuq u pai i do what i want
+ Submitted by Pai

The weather outside was one of those stark, dry, unbearable heats- the rays of sunlight that throbbed like a herd of flaming horses on Norio’s burning scalp were having him grow increasingly irritable by the second. Agitated, the third year kept splaying a swathy hand over the top of his mop of black tousled hair in hopes that it’d subdue the undying heat, but anyone who looked from even ten yards back knew that the bespectacled nerd was fighting a pointless battle. The dry heat dragged on along with his feet; he truly embodied a traveler lost alone amongst an endless desert rather than a school boy who was told to spend ten minutes doing something active for a change. Trudging, pulling his body weight with all of his strength in each and every step, he barely managed to clear half of the grassy inlet before he managed to pull himself to lean beneath the comforting shade of a tree, whose long branches gave cool relief to the sizzling locks that stuck to his sweaty cheeks.

Mental note, he thought to himself as he imagined an almost future-style voice recorder being brought toward his thin lips, outdoor athletics is a fucking mistake and I’ll be damned if I ever try this again.

At least it wasn’t all for naught. There was a reason he actually entertained the thought of outdoor torture, and that came in the form of a fox-smiling tanned pretty boy who he knew would be out there waiting for him. Mori was his someone to talk to, all so that he wouldn’t be the sad and lonely douchebag who can’t run ten feet without complete physical exhaustion. He’d be just a regular douchebag who can’t run ten feet without needing to puke.

Kazuki

[Kazuki]

Kazuki wasn't originally placed in Katsumi Norio's class. He was a second year after all with a love of learning and a complete dislike for anything related to physical exertion. It wasn't that he hated moving. He greatly enjoyed the feeling of sweat dripping down his back as he completed chores at his parent's temple. As long as the sky was blue and the sun was shining, Kazuki was outside fixing roofs, cleaning gutters, tending to the garden, and pulling weeds. He spent afternoons running down to the local park and watering the flowers, and on the off day he had some time to himself he studied near the torii while watching people pass by.

It was no wonder he had such a tan. As much as he disliked it, it served as a reminder of all the hard work he'd put into keeping his parent's home as clean and livable as possible.

Sports, however, were much different. They lacked any sort of academic backing and only led to sweaty hands touching him and the unbearable stench of body odor in the boy's locker room. He absolutely despised having to waste an hour outside when he could be achieving something more useful with his life. It was for this very reason he put in almost zero effort during PE and was stuck with supplementary lessons with the seniors. Walking with as much resistance as possible, Kazuki fully allowed his upperclassman to pass him with ease while keeping an eye on perhaps his only true friend at this school. Norio looked like he was ready to die before he finally took a break behind a tree.

"Are you sure you're going to survive this," the fox boy asked as he turned to stop by his friend, pulling out a mini water bottle from his track jacket pocket. He held it out to the poor boy below him as he looked back towards where the rest of the class was disappearing, "You seem like you're having a difficult time."

[Norio]

“...Who said anything about surviving this.”

The response was about as instantaneous as you can get. Norio knew he wasn’t going to make out of this alive, his fate was one he resigned to the moment he knew they were going outside for a free day. He was still grateful though of the offered water bottle- it was his little oasis, his little slice of heaven, and he held it like a goblet filled to the brim with holy wine as he closed his eyes. “Thank you, God, Buddha, Allah, Shiva, Jesus, whoever the fuck it was who brought me this incredible gift, I’ll kiss my own asshole before I will ever sin again just because This Is So Gracious.” Post rambling his eyes snapped open and he opened the cap, taking only the tiniest little waterfall before realigning the bottle and snapping the lid.

With water down his gullet, he finally could take a good long breath through his flared nostrils. Fresh air seemed to kick a second wind into him, because he had just enough energy to pull away from the tree he was leaning against to more or less throw his gangly form to the ground, splayed across the ground without a care of the sticks, dirt or bugs crawling beneath him. It felt good, that much was apparent on his face as he turned his head towards Kazuki. He had just enough energy left to raise the rationed water bottle back up to his underclassman with only half of his usual scowl. “You're a lifesaver, Mori. I think I could be a believer if you were some kinda God. I’d build you a shrine and call it ‘Mosque of the Forest’ and you can set up one of your talisman stands. What do you think?”

[Kazuki]

Kazuki's eyes narrowed at Norio's language, feeling a slight pang of grief as the upperclassman combined the names of religious dieties with the concept of 'kissing one's own asshole'. He understood where the other was coming from, but did he really have to use that sort of phrasing? As the other rolled over onto the dirt though he sighed and crouched down next to him. Norio was trying his hardest after all. He was definitely trying harder than Kazuki from the amount of sweat beading down his face and the exhausted rise and fall of his chest. Taking the water bottle from the other's sticky hands, the second year pocketed it once more and sat down on the grass next to him.

"Sounds ridiculous. I do like the name though, very quaint," The other could be a bit silly at times but it was something Kazuki had learned to appreciate. Everyone was so utterly stupid at this school, especially when it came to all that egg business. Norio was tolerable, funny at times, even amusing to watch as he floundered away on twitter in hopes of scoring a date. "Besides, I can't have you leaving me alone in this place just yet. I need at least one person to keep me sane in between classes." He didn't want to think about the end of the year at all. Norio would be leaving and he'd be stuck to deal with the masses of despicable human beings all by himself.

How absolutely horrifying.

"You know, you could always just not run. I don't think the teacher would really mind if you spent an hour walking around the field, especially if it kept you sane. Call it a medical excuse or something."

[Norio]

As Norio relaxed from his near-death-experience into the earth beneath him the all-too-familiar scowl slowly returned. The very same scowl that maintained a near-constant presence on his face was a marker that he at least was feeling more like himself as Kazuki sat beside him, and he even had the luxury of crossing his arms over his chest as he wheezed out a couple more shaky breaths. “I still don’t really get why the whole student body wants to knock your teeth in. I mean, looking at the two of us…” Norio paused to swallow dryly and let out a couple more soft pants, “I’m more the kind of douche that should be on the receiving end of a punch, right?”

He closed his eyes again, but this time kept them close with the intent of relaxing.

“.. Can you keep a watch out for the teacher? I kind of want to die a little right here for about fifteen minutes.”

[Kazuki]

Kazuki took a moment to stare at the boy below him, giving him a funny look as though he didn't believe what he was saying. "But... you're nice," Kazuki replied after some time, allowing himself to finally sit on the grass and fold his legs to watch the other, "You're genuinely nice and the rest of the student body is going to get expelled at this rate. Don't worry yourself with them, they're not worth your time. If they cause anymore problems I'll deal with them. Besides, no one deserves to get punched. Especially not you."

He threaded his fingers through the grass, turning his head up towards the sky for a few moments. The sounds of the rest of the class had faded into only quiet murmurs that drifted on the light breeze passing by. Their teacher had no doubt given up on trying to find the familiar head of yellow hair.

"Fine, but if he comes by handing out free A's I'm not sticking around. I've got an exam at the end of the day I need to review for," He paused again, longer this time as he continued to watch the clouds roll by, "Take a nap, I'll keep watch."

[Norio]

“If I’m the one getting called nice by you of all people, I must be some kinda saint..” Norio’s crossed arms relaxed a little as his glasses slipped a little downward off his sweaty nose, and he mentally started recalling Kazuki’s general good deeds and his attitude around his family. The same family that more or less seemed to have adopted Norio, the people he more or less have grown to love.

… Or maybe not love. His cheeks heated up a bit with both embarrassment and agitation as he mentally tried to swat away the ever growing pangs of familial affection, and he was a little haughty sounding the next time he opened his fly trap of a mouth.

“If the teacher is handing out free A’s I expect you to wake me up immediately, dammit..” He trailed off into a quiet little growl as his arms loosened one more time so that he could lightly tuck his thumb between his index and middle finger, a light sort of clasp that settled just below his heart. He looked, for once, actually at ease- but that just seemed to be an affect both Ji-Soo and Kazuki had on him when they caught him alone.

He rested. A whole three minutes worth of white noise almost lulled him into an actual sleep, but his eyes fluttered open as a single thought drove him to consciousness.

“Why do you break eggs?”

[Kazuki]

Kazuki hid a smile at Norio's first remark, covering his face for a moment and bending over to let out an actual laugh at his second. It was quiet, barely a breath of air that had the sides of his eyes crinkling as he tried to recover. In seconds his usual poker face of complete disinterest was back, a playful twitch of his eye the only piece that remained.

"If he has enough to go around I'll kick your foot or something," He managed to reply, coughing for a moment with a hand beating on his chest. If their luck was that good he'd probably build a whole school for the teacher. Still, for the handful of minutes that Norio seemed to drift off Kazuki kept a watchful eye on the area around them. It seemed the class was following through with a second lap, the sounds of boys jogging rearing its ugly head into this peaceful moment.

What Kazuki would give to have instances like these last forever. Nothing to disturb him but the quiet sounds of summer and a nice, lingering heat to keep away the cold.

Nothing could really prepare him for Norio's next statement.

It hit him like a baseball bat to the head, knocking the breath out of him for a moment and sending him reeling in shock. After their initial fights with the X-eggs in the planetarium, Kazuki had been waiting for the moment his newfound friend asked this question. He'd been walking on eggshells for the longest time with all of this breaking nonsense, skirting between the thin lines of a purgatory and absolute hell. When summer break came and he finally had a chance to speak to his mother in private, he'd brushed off his actions and returned to school free of a heavy burden.

Now Norio was asking him the question he'd thought he'd finally escaped from, the single thought that everyone seemed to think but no one ever asked.

"I......" Kazuki said, throat dry for a moment as he tried to find the best words to explain it. Miuna would be the best example he could think of, but would that be the right path to go down? Maybe it would be better to start out small and simple, "I... well, that's a difficult question, isn't it? I don't break all eggs, just so you don't think I'm waiting to crush yours at any second. I only break X-eggs and.... bad dreams.... I don't care much about your egg unless you're causing harm to others and I'm sure we can both agree that X-eggs do their fair share of hurting people. I--- does that answer your question?" It was blatantly obvious he was stalling for time. It wasn't like he had an answer pre-written that he read off of an index card. In fact, he never really had the chance to explain it anyone why he broke eggs.

[Norio]

Norio turned his head to face Kazuki then, his eyes carefully examining the sunlit profile of the other’s face with an unusual amount of consideration for the normally thoughtless Norio. He had the sense that he needed to be quiet for Kazuki to fumble through his obviously uncomfortable explanation, sinking in every note of pause the other seemed to provide as he more or less broke down a little before his very own eyes. Norio’s brow pushed a little deeper into deeply inset wrinkles, his expression was very easy to read that he was thinking very hard about what Kazuki had to say and what the intention of his words meant, but as he trailed onto the very last portion of his spiel Norio just seemed to look more lost than anything.

“I don’t really care if you did want to break my egg, because I’m sure if you did then you had a good reason for doing so.” Norio shifted his eyes away from Kazuki and towards the blue sky that was only partially visible through the green leaves sheltering their heads. He could distinctly hear Kazuki’s breathing patterns despite all the noise around them, it was so noticeable that it was a little hard for Norio to believe that there were anyone else but the two of them in the whole world. And, like he was before, Norio continued to be at ease.

“.. That’s because I trust you.”

Norio’s eyes closed again as his scowl melted into a frown, and he turned his head away from Kazuki this time for a brief moment as if he was letting the weight of that sentence sink in for the both of them. He eventually turned his face skyward again, but he did not open his eyes a second time.

“That’s a reason, I guess, but that’s not really why you do it, is it?”

[Kazuki]

The sound of Kazuki's heart breaking into a million little pieces might have been the loudest sound heard at Seiyo that day. In fact, it was only rivaled by the sound of all of those little pieces reforming into something that was purer than it had been in a long time. Never before had Kazuki ever had this level of trust placed in his hands. He felt like if he dropped it, if he moved even a muscle it would shatter completely into something he could never, ever fix.

"I'd never break your egg," Kazuki said, reaffirming the words he had just spoken. There were perhaps a handful of eggs at this school that he wouldn't dare touch. Norio's was at the top of that list. Even so the other saw through him and left Kazuki once again grasping for straws as he tried his best to word how he felt. If Norio trusted him, then.... well, maybe he could trust Norio in return.

"I guess not. Not entirely at least," He pulled at the grass below his knees, feeling a slight twinge of guilt at each stalk he pulled. It wasn't like the grass did anything to him either, "I... When you listen to the hopes and dreams of people growing up, you start to feel responsible for them. You start to feel like maybe there is something bigger than all of us out there, something that actually has the power to grant these wishes. But then you start to listen to really listen to those dreams, and you start hearing which dreams come true and which don't. You hear all the selfish lies and the pain and grief people cause one another just to force their own miracles to happen."

Kazuki brought a hand up to clutch at his chest, his anxiety rising at a slow but steady rate. "Why do wishes have to come true at the expense of others? Why is it that we allow greedy people to rise up in society just because they stepped on the lives of individuals? You come to this school and suddenly you're surrounded by a literal materialization of a person's wish, and that sort of responsibility of who dreams and who doesn't weighs on your back like the entire world. How am I supposed to let X-eggs go, knowing that out there someone is suffering? How am I supposed to let people cure these despaired beings if those dreams that caused so much pain keep existing? How am I supposed to allow a dream that will ultimately harm a person roam free? It's not like I'm breaking eggs for fun, I could buy a carton at the store if I wanted that. People can always dream new dreams or change their lives, but they can never take back the harm they caused others."

He dropped his hand again to the ground, pulling at the grass but not ripping it out completely. "I'll break eggs before I allow that to happen. I won't let good, honest people get hurt for the sake of curing someone that can fall into such complete and utter corruption so easily."

[Norio]

Each syllable Kazuki enunciated seemed to weigh down like little stones on his back, each dropping his posture bit by bit. In Norio’s mind, every blade of grass he pulled was matched with a scorned look someone must’ve given Kazuki in the halls- constant and unceasing, boggling down on his self worth and breaking apart the guy’s seams. Loneliness was something Norio knew full well, it was even something Norio utterly despised, and to see that sort of feeling echoed on the features of someone he considered to be his friend seared harder on his insides than the sun ever could. The scorch only grew deeper as Kazuki began to open up, delving into his reasoning and his classification of what made a person ‘good’.

The fingers resting on Norio’s chest interlocked together and tugged themselves over his heart, slightly mirroring Kazuki’s movement of clutching at his own chest.

When Kazuki was finally done, Norio’s ugly scowl had taken it’s full form, but it was certainly not directed at any one thing. It was his default thinking face, the one when he gave something his absolute best contemplation, something that was evident for even a telescopic view to make out vividly. His fingers sank so tightly into the back of his hands that the skin turned white, a fresh sense of guilt wallowed up deep within his chest, and finally he let his hands part altogether in favor of sitting upright, letting the grass and dirt tumble freely from his messy hair and clothed back.

“I’ve hurt someone, Mori.”

The words were blurted out fast, enough that Norio seemed to vocally trip over it and his lips tightened into an all time record of a flat line.

“I broke them. I made them suffer. That doesn’t make me any different from the X things, does it?”

He made no motion of trying to wipe down his clothes, instead he was intent of looking at the ripped up grass pile beside Kazuki with eyes growing wide like saucers. The guilt charred his insides black.

“I don’t deserve to be ‘cured’ either.”

[Kazuki]

Kazuki wasn't really sure what to expect from the other. Most had an incredibly violent reaction to learning he broke eggs, denying every single aspect of his being until ultimately connecting their fist with some part of his body. He even regretted to say that the first sound of Norio breathing once he was finished caused him to flinch, looking out towards the field where the others were approaching their little hideaway. It was a bit of an unreasonable reaction but he couldn't trust anyone anymore.

He could trust Norio though, couldn't he?

It wasn't until Norio finally spoke that Kazuki turned his head back around, hiding his mouth in the crook of his arm as he brought his knees up to his chest. One hand rested upon them, covering half of his face so that only his eyes were visible. The other bent back and played with one of the beads on his necklace. It was a pain to have the PE teacher approve of his accessories but he feared someone would steal them in the locker rooms.

He didn't even leave his clothes there anymore. Everyone was his enemy and he couldn't expect anything to be there when he returned.

Still, Norio's words dug deep into his soul and made him question what kind of life the other had lived. He'd invited the boy to his place plenty of times but he had yet to meet his parents or even see the other out of the dorms. Listening carefully to what the the boy had to say, he rubbed his eyes into his sleeve and peeked back up again.

"It makes you the same as the rest of us," Kazuki said, thinking back to every point in his life where he might have hurt someone. It was a bit inevitable that everyone would lash out during some time or another, "But you're not X either, are you? That's the difference."

His hands felt sticky from the grass he'd ripped from the ground and he allowed himself a moment to wipe the stains onto his track jacket.

"Your 'heart' is pure. That's all it really takes to be different."