no warnings, played kinda loose with the prompt :>> word count: 1770
pull
When Arakita walks into the clubhouse, early for practice, he sees Toudou sitting on a bench near the lockers, head bent over his cellphone. His fingers are tapping away furiously, and sometimes his shoulders twitch or he shakes his head, probably in response to what he’s reading. But that’s not what catches Arakita’s attention.
Toudou’s headband is sitting next to him on the bench instead of resting on his head. His hair’s falling over his face, creating a dark, smooth curtain. The light doesn’t exactly get caught on it; more like it gets lost in it.
Maybe Arakita makes a sound. Toudou looks up suddenly, with a jerky motion, out of place from his usual purposeful grace. His hair tries to fall back from his face, but there are some stubborn strands that stay, brushing his cheeks. His eyes have gone big from surprise, his mouth slightly parted.
“What’s this?” Arakita says. “It’s a miracle, you took the fucking headband off your head. Worried you were gonna get a bald spot?”
“Ha!” Toudou says, expression back to its normal superior air. He shakes his head to let all his hair fall back. “Shows what you know about hair care.”
Arakita joins him on the bench, picking up the headband and holding it out. Toudou takes it from him and places it back on his head. He doesn’t realize some hair is sticking out funny, too busy staring at his phone again to do his usual mirror check.
“Talking to Makishima?” Arakita asks.
“Mhmm,” Toudou hums, frowning at the screen, scrolling up in a conversation.
“Oh, sorry,” Arakita says, and he pulls on the hair that’s escaping Toudou’s headband, edging on hard. “He’d have to reply for it to be actually talking.”
Toudou shrieks as his hands fly up to his head, phone still clutched tight between in his fingers. “How dare you!” he yells, and Arakita’s already leapt up to run away.
He’s run out of the clubhouse and around it, to the back, when he finally slows down. He gives a furtive look around to make sure Toudou hasn’t followed him.
Arakita presses a hand to his mouth in embarrassment. He shakes his head at himself. Toudou’s hair had been just as soft to the touch as it had looked.
“I found you!”
Arakita looks up to see Toudou standing in front of him, hands on his hips in a victory pose. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Arakita thinks Toudou must be having a bad day. His hair is still in disarray, and he doesn’t usually do anything more than talk back at Arakita.
Now he’s huffing a bit from his run, a bright glint to his eyes adding to his feverish look.
“Okay,” Arakita says. “So what are you gonna do?”
“I--” Toudou starts. His mouth tightens, and he tucks his phone that he’d still been holding into his pocket. “I’m going back. Practice is about to start.”
Arakita follows after him. --
bite
Arakita feels rather unsurprised to find out that Toudou is a biter. He doesn’t feel happy about it, though.
“Let go! You’re like a fucking chihuahua, fuck!” Arakita yells, as he and Toudou struggle against each other on the ground, in the empty clubhouse. He tries to pull his arm out of Toudou’s mouth and strangely sharp teeth. Was that normal for a human?
Toudou releases his bite. “Drop the phone!” he barks out, and when Arakita growls back in refusal, he sets his teeth back, hard.
“Shit on a stick!” Arakita yells, again. Maybe if he gets really foul, Toudou will let go to chastise him. “Motherfucker! Fucktruck! I’m gonna punch you in the dick! I’m gonna--”
“Yasutomo! Jinpachi!”
Arakita and Toudou both freeze in the middle of their scuffle. They look up.
Shinkai is staring at their completely appropriate tangle of limbs in disbelief.
“Uh,” Arakita starts, and then figures he doesn’t have to explain himself to Shinkai anyway. He surreptitiously pockets Toudou’s phone.
Toudou apparently holds himself to a higher standard of behaviour, or whatever it is he’s always complaining Arakita should do, because he’s trying to explain the situation.
“He took my phone! And said he’d break it, and I was in the middle of an important conversation--”
“You’re always in the middle of an important conversation,” Arakita grumbles. “And at some point, it’s gotta give. At some point, it’s no longer important. And with who, anyway? Someone who doesn’t wanna talk to you.”
“That’s not true! Maki-chan cares very much for me, which you wouldn’t understand.”
“Ha!” Arakita says. He doesn’t say anything else.
Shinkai gives Arakita a strange look. Then he smiles his usual smile. “You two get along so well. I wanted to know if anyone would like to go for lunch with me.”
“I came here for privacy in the first place,” Toudou says, glaring at Arakita, “so I’m going to decline.”
Arakita figures there’s no point bashing his head against the wall that is Toudou Jinpachi anymore today. He pulls himself out of their tangle and stands up. “Yeah, I’ll come,” he says.
Toudou lets out forceful sigh. “My phone, Arakita.”
“Eh?” Arakita says, and puts on a show of looking around him.
Shinkai coughs. “Maybe you should check your pocket.”
“Oh,” Arakita says, as he pulls out Toudou’s phone from his pocket. “This phone, Toudou? Here you go.”
He holds the phone by the charm attached to it, letting it swing, making no move to actually hand it over. Toudou scrambles up and grabs it.
“I don’t know what is wrong with you these days,” he says, back to frowning at his phone screen. Toudou looks paler than he should be, worn out and unhappy.
“Yeah,” Arakita says. “Me neither.”
--
Shinkai wants to go to their usual diner, so that’s where they are when he gets too curious for his own good.
“What were you two doing in the clubhouse? There are no weekend practices anymore,” Shinkai says.
“What were you doing, then,” Arakita asks back at him.
Shinkai shrugs. “I figured there’d be other people like me, missing the club.” He gives a wry smile, noticeably different from his usual expression.
Arakita nods, staring at his hands folded above the table. “I just went to check it out and found Toudou there, so.” He shrugs.
“So you decided to be a nuisance?” Shinkai’s back to his placid smile. “You’ve been messing with him quite a bit.”
Arakita clicks his tongue. “He’s been acting weird. Annoying in a different way.” He shakes his head. “We can’t leave the club behind to the second-years with this kind of attitude, you know. There are a lot of them who, I guess because they’re stupid, look up to their vice-captain.”
Shinkai gives a small laugh. “I guess we’re all a little stupid.”
“Speak for yourself,” Arakita snaps. “That asshole just bit me. Plus, Izumida’s gotta be worse than stupid, cause he looks up to you.”
“Ah, Yasutomo, you hurt me,” Shinkai says, his gaze lazy. “Izumida’s good, he’ll do well next year.”
“Yeah,” Arakita agrees, not as reluctantly as he’d like. “They’ll be fine.” --
punch
Arakita’s already stopped by Fukutomi’s and Shinkai’s dorm rooms, and neither were in, so he finally decides to go by Toudou’s.
Toudou answers after three knocks, looking the way Arakita usually feels deep within his soul: pissed off.
“Yes?” he says. “How can I help you?”
“Just wanna hang out,” Arakita says, pushing his way into Toudou’s room.
“With me?” Toudou says, not even looking at Arakita as he closes the door and settles back into his chair. “What an honour.”
Arakita stares at Toudou as Toudou ignores him. He looks as put together as always, but there’s something lacking. Some brightness, or vitality, or something that makes Toudou who he is. Arakita doesn’t like it. There’s no point antagonizing Toudou while he feels sorry for him. Actually, there hasn’t even been a need to antagonize Toudou at all lately. He’s been unusually quiet, keeping to himself and to his phone.
Something on Toudou’s desk catches Arakita’s attention. “Is that one of Shinkai’s powerbars?”
Toudou looks at the powerbar, and then at Arakita. “Yes. He’s been plying me with them for a week now. I have no idea why.”
Arakita cranes his neck, and sees that it’s not just one powerbar, it’s a whole pile. “Ha! Typical.”
“What’s typical?” Toudou asks.
“Shinkai’s doing the best he can,” Arakita says, faked gentleness. “But unfortunately his best is pushing his nasty food on people.”
Toudou cracks a smile at that, and then looks torn over it. He sighs. “Maki-chan is going to London for university,” he blurts out.
Arakita feels like saying ‘Aha!’ but restrains himself. He knew it though. That green-haired freak was fucking things up.
“Are you in love with him or something,” Arakita asks, trying and failing to hit casual.
Toudou’s cheeks go pink and Arakita looks away. He doesn’t care.
“It’s, whatever, if you are,” Arakita says. “I mean, I guess it sucks that he’s leaving, and also you have terrible taste, but is that really a surprise.”
“He won’t reply to my messages,” Toudou says, voice bordering on petulant.
“What else is new?” Arakita asks. “Don’t you have your shitty mountain senses to keep close to him?”
“Don’t call them--” Toudou starts, and then interrupts himself before he swears. “But it’s true. Maki-chan and I will always have the mountains.”
“Yech.” Arakita sticks out his tongue. “That almost sounded romantic. Keep that garbage away from me.”
Toudou sits up a bit straighter, his eyes brighter. He gives Arakita a sly look. “Despite being yourself, Arakita, you’ve made me see something good about the situation.” He taps his chin with an index finger.
“Only you would say something like that,” Arakita says. He sometimes hates that they have that in common, insulting and complimenting people with the same breath. This is one of those moments.
Just then Toudou’s phone plays a jingle. “Maki-chan!” Toudou cries out, and goes for his phone. He busies himself with it, biting his lip as he reads the message.
Arakita stares at Toudou, hunches his shoulders up. Then he takes a step back, stares at the pile of powerbars. He studies the brand name on the wrapping.
“Alright, see?” Arakita nods. “That’s good. So, I’ll just see myself out then,” Arakita tells the powerbars.
Toudou makes a distracted sound of agreement. Arakita turns and walks out the door, feeling like he got fucking gut-punched.
FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, G
word count: 1770
pull
When Arakita walks into the clubhouse, early for practice, he sees Toudou sitting on a bench near the lockers, head bent over his cellphone. His fingers are tapping away furiously, and sometimes his shoulders twitch or he shakes his head, probably in response to what he’s reading. But that’s not what catches Arakita’s attention.
Toudou’s headband is sitting next to him on the bench instead of resting on his head. His hair’s falling over his face, creating a dark, smooth curtain. The light doesn’t exactly get caught on it; more like it gets lost in it.
Maybe Arakita makes a sound. Toudou looks up suddenly, with a jerky motion, out of place from his usual purposeful grace. His hair tries to fall back from his face, but there are some stubborn strands that stay, brushing his cheeks. His eyes have gone big from surprise, his mouth slightly parted.
“What’s this?” Arakita says. “It’s a miracle, you took the fucking headband off your head. Worried you were gonna get a bald spot?”
“Ha!” Toudou says, expression back to its normal superior air. He shakes his head to let all his hair fall back. “Shows what you know about hair care.”
Arakita joins him on the bench, picking up the headband and holding it out. Toudou takes it from him and places it back on his head. He doesn’t realize some hair is sticking out funny, too busy staring at his phone again to do his usual mirror check.
“Talking to Makishima?” Arakita asks.
“Mhmm,” Toudou hums, frowning at the screen, scrolling up in a conversation.
“Oh, sorry,” Arakita says, and he pulls on the hair that’s escaping Toudou’s headband, edging on hard. “He’d have to reply for it to be actually talking.”
Toudou shrieks as his hands fly up to his head, phone still clutched tight between in his fingers. “How dare you!” he yells, and Arakita’s already leapt up to run away.
He’s run out of the clubhouse and around it, to the back, when he finally slows down. He gives a furtive look around to make sure Toudou hasn’t followed him.
Arakita presses a hand to his mouth in embarrassment. He shakes his head at himself. Toudou’s hair had been just as soft to the touch as it had looked.
“I found you!”
Arakita looks up to see Toudou standing in front of him, hands on his hips in a victory pose. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Arakita thinks Toudou must be having a bad day. His hair is still in disarray, and he doesn’t usually do anything more than talk back at Arakita.
Now he’s huffing a bit from his run, a bright glint to his eyes adding to his feverish look.
“Okay,” Arakita says. “So what are you gonna do?”
“I--” Toudou starts. His mouth tightens, and he tucks his phone that he’d still been holding into his pocket. “I’m going back. Practice is about to start.”
Arakita follows after him.
--
bite
Arakita feels rather unsurprised to find out that Toudou is a biter. He doesn’t feel happy about it, though.
“Let go! You’re like a fucking chihuahua, fuck!” Arakita yells, as he and Toudou struggle against each other on the ground, in the empty clubhouse. He tries to pull his arm out of Toudou’s mouth and strangely sharp teeth. Was that normal for a human?
Toudou releases his bite. “Drop the phone!” he barks out, and when Arakita growls back in refusal, he sets his teeth back, hard.
“Shit on a stick!” Arakita yells, again. Maybe if he gets really foul, Toudou will let go to chastise him. “Motherfucker! Fucktruck! I’m gonna punch you in the dick! I’m gonna--”
“Yasutomo! Jinpachi!”
Arakita and Toudou both freeze in the middle of their scuffle. They look up.
Shinkai is staring at their completely appropriate tangle of limbs in disbelief.
“Uh,” Arakita starts, and then figures he doesn’t have to explain himself to Shinkai anyway. He surreptitiously pockets Toudou’s phone.
Toudou apparently holds himself to a higher standard of behaviour, or whatever it is he’s always complaining Arakita should do, because he’s trying to explain the situation.
“He took my phone! And said he’d break it, and I was in the middle of an important conversation--”
“You’re always in the middle of an important conversation,” Arakita grumbles. “And at some point, it’s gotta give. At some point, it’s no longer important. And with who, anyway? Someone who doesn’t wanna talk to you.”
“That’s not true! Maki-chan cares very much for me, which you wouldn’t understand.”
“Ha!” Arakita says. He doesn’t say anything else.
Shinkai gives Arakita a strange look. Then he smiles his usual smile. “You two get along so well. I wanted to know if anyone would like to go for lunch with me.”
“I came here for privacy in the first place,” Toudou says, glaring at Arakita, “so I’m going to decline.”
Arakita figures there’s no point bashing his head against the wall that is Toudou Jinpachi anymore today. He pulls himself out of their tangle and stands up. “Yeah, I’ll come,” he says.
Toudou lets out forceful sigh. “My phone, Arakita.”
“Eh?” Arakita says, and puts on a show of looking around him.
Shinkai coughs. “Maybe you should check your pocket.”
“Oh,” Arakita says, as he pulls out Toudou’s phone from his pocket. “This phone, Toudou? Here you go.”
He holds the phone by the charm attached to it, letting it swing, making no move to actually hand it over. Toudou scrambles up and grabs it.
“I don’t know what is wrong with you these days,” he says, back to frowning at his phone screen. Toudou looks paler than he should be, worn out and unhappy.
“Yeah,” Arakita says. “Me neither.”
--
Shinkai wants to go to their usual diner, so that’s where they are when he gets too curious for his own good.
“What were you two doing in the clubhouse? There are no weekend practices anymore,” Shinkai says.
“What were you doing, then,” Arakita asks back at him.
Shinkai shrugs. “I figured there’d be other people like me, missing the club.” He gives a wry smile, noticeably different from his usual expression.
Arakita nods, staring at his hands folded above the table. “I just went to check it out and found Toudou there, so.” He shrugs.
“So you decided to be a nuisance?” Shinkai’s back to his placid smile. “You’ve been messing with him quite a bit.”
Arakita clicks his tongue. “He’s been acting weird. Annoying in a different way.” He shakes his head. “We can’t leave the club behind to the second-years with this kind of attitude, you know. There are a lot of them who, I guess because they’re stupid, look up to their vice-captain.”
Shinkai gives a small laugh. “I guess we’re all a little stupid.”
“Speak for yourself,” Arakita snaps. “That asshole just bit me. Plus, Izumida’s gotta be worse than stupid, cause he looks up to you.”
“Ah, Yasutomo, you hurt me,” Shinkai says, his gaze lazy. “Izumida’s good, he’ll do well next year.”
“Yeah,” Arakita agrees, not as reluctantly as he’d like. “They’ll be fine.”
--
punch
Arakita’s already stopped by Fukutomi’s and Shinkai’s dorm rooms, and neither were in, so he finally decides to go by Toudou’s.
Toudou answers after three knocks, looking the way Arakita usually feels deep within his soul: pissed off.
“Yes?” he says. “How can I help you?”
“Just wanna hang out,” Arakita says, pushing his way into Toudou’s room.
“With me?” Toudou says, not even looking at Arakita as he closes the door and settles back into his chair. “What an honour.”
Arakita stares at Toudou as Toudou ignores him. He looks as put together as always, but there’s something lacking. Some brightness, or vitality, or something that makes Toudou who he is. Arakita doesn’t like it. There’s no point antagonizing Toudou while he feels sorry for him. Actually, there hasn’t even been a need to antagonize Toudou at all lately. He’s been unusually quiet, keeping to himself and to his phone.
Something on Toudou’s desk catches Arakita’s attention. “Is that one of Shinkai’s powerbars?”
Toudou looks at the powerbar, and then at Arakita. “Yes. He’s been plying me with them for a week now. I have no idea why.”
Arakita cranes his neck, and sees that it’s not just one powerbar, it’s a whole pile. “Ha! Typical.”
“What’s typical?” Toudou asks.
“Shinkai’s doing the best he can,” Arakita says, faked gentleness. “But unfortunately his best is pushing his nasty food on people.”
Toudou cracks a smile at that, and then looks torn over it. He sighs. “Maki-chan is going to London for university,” he blurts out.
Arakita feels like saying ‘Aha!’ but restrains himself. He knew it though. That green-haired freak was fucking things up.
“Are you in love with him or something,” Arakita asks, trying and failing to hit casual.
Toudou’s cheeks go pink and Arakita looks away. He doesn’t care.
“It’s, whatever, if you are,” Arakita says. “I mean, I guess it sucks that he’s leaving, and also you have terrible taste, but is that really a surprise.”
“He won’t reply to my messages,” Toudou says, voice bordering on petulant.
“What else is new?” Arakita asks. “Don’t you have your shitty mountain senses to keep close to him?”
“Don’t call them--” Toudou starts, and then interrupts himself before he swears. “But it’s true. Maki-chan and I will always have the mountains.”
“Yech.” Arakita sticks out his tongue. “That almost sounded romantic. Keep that garbage away from me.”
Toudou sits up a bit straighter, his eyes brighter. He gives Arakita a sly look. “Despite being yourself, Arakita, you’ve made me see something good about the situation.” He taps his chin with an index finger.
“Only you would say something like that,” Arakita says. He sometimes hates that they have that in common, insulting and complimenting people with the same breath. This is one of those moments.
Just then Toudou’s phone plays a jingle. “Maki-chan!” Toudou cries out, and goes for his phone. He busies himself with it, biting his lip as he reads the message.
Arakita stares at Toudou, hunches his shoulders up. Then he takes a step back, stares at the pile of powerbars. He studies the brand name on the wrapping.
“Alright, see?” Arakita nods. “That’s good. So, I’ll just see myself out then,” Arakita tells the powerbars.
Toudou makes a distracted sound of agreement. Arakita turns and walks out the door, feeling like he got fucking gut-punched.