無憂國

"Hey, Yata-chan, your little one is not following you around today?"

Being asked by Kusanagi when entering the bar, Yata blushed for a moment before he grabbed a chair and sat down.

"Saru is not my 'little one'."

With one hand cupping chin, he checked his terminal only to find it filled with emails all from the same address.

"He's nothing but a troublemaker."

"Come on, you really should see his face when you got hurt and fell into a coma last time."

"Well..."

The terminal rang again. Yata seemed to have swallowed what he was going to say and lowered his head on the bar counter. He hesitated for about one minute before he finally pressed the push-to-talk key.

"Didn't I tell you NOT to run away from home, even if you do just DON'T come to my place?"

"But Misaki promised to help me out when I'm in trouble."

"You call it a TROUBLE when you are carrying manga books, video games and snacks?!"

Arriving home after the night shift, it was already midnight. Yata wasn't sure about how long this damn little brat had been waiting in front of his apartment but he was quite irritated by his look of 'What took you so long' as if he was the permanent resident of this apartment while Yata was just a deliverer of the door key. Come and meet Mr Fushimi Saruhiko, who dried almost all the power up from Yata's terminal by making countless calls.

"Cut the crap. I'm hungry."

"What the hell are you...hey, did I say you can come in?!"

Nevertheless, Yata made dinner for the self-invited guest. With limited left-over in the kitchen, he could only make some simple stuff. Noticing that Fushimi was trying to get rid of all the carrot slices again, Yata hit his head with chopsticks. 

"I hate veggies. Misaki, they're yours now."

"Don't be childish. Finish your food or go home."

"I'll get fried if I go home now...I just got suspended from school."

"You what?! AGAIN?! What the hell have you done this time..."

"No big deal. Just hacking the school database."

"......why on earth are you always looking for trouble? You are doing so well in the study..."

"Look who's talking, looking for trouble? Misaki, you're a gang member."

"We're different! Don't talk like you know about us you little shit."

Yata was about to bounce out of his chair but he decided to avoid another meaningless conversation with Fushimi. He thumped the table with his fist, sat down and picked up the biggest slice of carrot in his plate. Putting it into Fushimi's mouth by force, he compromised:

"Just ONE night. Give your mom a phone call before I get arrested or something." 

So where the fuck did this middle school brat learn all these unnecessary shit -- realizing his own lips being bitten by a teenager who was 4 years younger than him, Yata wondered in a turmoil. Fushimi looked like a pure kid -- the type who would not even get close to the porno area in the bookstore or save any porn in his computer. As a result, he was getting eaten by this abstinent appearance.

What an uninteresting thing to do --  kissing and touching a guy all over. At least Yata believed so. Although he did not think of doing this to a woman, to a large extent, he believed that Fushimi had a deviant taste.

"Ehh...hey, don't get too far, go to bed...I have a morning shift tomorrow......HEY!! STOP!!!"

Yata gave a sudden cry when his butt was pinched.

"Misaki, you just don't know about any fun, do you? Are you really a grown up?"

"As if YOU were!!!"

Based on some tiny but shameful history between them, Yata knew that it was never a good idea to give any more response to Fushimi, unless what you wanted was a sheet covered by some unknown liquid. Wasn't having to take three part-time jobs busy enough? Nobody had time to do any extra laundry. As a result, Yata decided to kick Fushimi, as well as the pillow, out of his bed.

"Touch me again tonight and I'll kick your ass out of my place, bastard. ... Don't show me that look it won't work. Turn off the lamp now. ...... I say turn it off. I'll get fired if I'm late for work again tomorrow, do you have any idea how hard it is to survive in an adults' world? ...  Tomorrow, go home and regret what you have done at school. Don't come to my workplace any more Okay? I'm too busy to play with you. Remember last time you did that and I lost all my bonus for that month? ... I mean it, Saruhiko, go to school and do what you should do, don't try to call me all day long ... or send e-mails ... just don't ......  hey, what did I just say? Don't crawl up ......zZZ ..."

"OK."

"...... what ...?"

"I'll do what you say, finish everything at school and get my degree."

"... what ...? I'm too sleepy ... to talk ..."

"Then ... you ..."

He was too tired to hear anything. The last thing he remembered was that he did not succeed to kick Fushimi out of his bed. Again.

"Hey, Yata-chan."

"Morning, Kusanagi-san!"

"Where's Saru? Not with you today?"

"We are not tied to each other. ... I mean, no matter how good his grade is, he'll get into trouble if he keeps skipping class like before."

"Well, you were a middle school graduate when you joined HOMRA, weren't you?"

"He's not like me. People like him should keep on the rails and have a future. Like a university or something."

"You really think so?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it's hard to say. That kid has something unpredictable inside, he might have a totally different idea."

"Are you even speaking in my language?"

"Well ... let's say, he came here and 'consulted' about how to join the 'gang'. Do you know what I mean?"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!"

Three days before holding the red king's hand, join or get burned.

Congratulations.

//.end.