1/

He got caught looking.

The whole situation was entirely unfair, because the truth was everyone looked. He was just the easiest to pick on.

The strike knocked him off balance. 'Eyes forward homo,' Hidaka-san sneered.

Maybe if he hadn't blushed. If he'd been able to smile like Atobe, or glare like Shishido… he would've even settled for Jirou's yawn.

'You know, Mukahi-kun,' Hidaka grinned. 'Oshitari's quite a ladies man, I'm not sure how he'd take it if he knew you were drooling over his cock. Maybe we should ask him?'

That's when he made his fatal mistake. He should've told Hidaka to fuck off, to call the bluff and tell him to go for it. But he didn't.

'I wasn't,' he whispered. '… I'm not.'

'That just proves you are,' the taller boy mocked. 'I'll be seeing you…' Hidaka promised vaguely as he left the change rooms.

He really hadn't been. He'd looked, everyone did. Yuushi was just the best to look at. It didn't mean anything, he was just a little curious.

He'd been seeing a lot of Hidaka-san since then.

Hidaka liked to pinch the underside of his arms. To walk along side him in the hall, arm around his shoulders in false friendship, while his fingers pinched and squeezed. The bruises came up mottled yellow and purple.

It wasn't unbearable, just irritating to be pushed around so carelessly. He was weak to let the senior do it, but still, he didn't want Yuushi to know. It would be too embarrassing.

'Something wrong, Gakuto?' Yuushi asked shouldering him out of his daze.

'Ah, no. Sorry, Yuushi,' he grimaced. 'What happened?'

'She asked me to play tennis,' Yuushi sighed, resting his head in his hand.

'That's bad,' Gakuto said with a grimace. 'And…'

'Ugliest backhand I've ever seen,' Yuushi replied with a quick incline of his head.

He laughed. 'There's always something wrong with them, Yuushi. When are you going to let up and just date one?'

His partner adjusted his glasses and swept his dark hair out of his face. 'When I find the perfect one, Gakuto.'

He nodded. If anyone deserved the perfect girlfriend it was Yuushi, who was nearest to perfection himself. 'No one's perfect,' he murmured absently.

Yuushi's hand rested warmly on his shoulder, squeezing tightly for a moment. 'I meant perfect for me.'

The leaving brush of his fingers across his neck brought a flush and shiver to his skin.

'Shall we?' Yuushi asked extending his arm in a gentlemanly fashion.

Gakuto slapped his arm away with a laugh. 'Don't do that chivalry shit with me. I'm not a girl.'

'Shame really,' Yuushi replied flippantly. 'You're cuter than most in a skirt.'

His only reply was an elbow to the gut. 'Take that back,' he complained with a blush. 'You have never seen me in a skirt.'

'And yet you don't deny having worn one…'

'Yuushi!' he cried in exasperation.

'You just have better legs—' But Yuushi was unable to finish his speculation upon Gakuto's legs, as he had already tackled him to the courtyard ground.

The last class of the day was physics. The only class that day he didn't take with Yuushi, who preferred biology. Physics was his favourite class. There was something comforting about learning the rules that regulated the way the world worked. If you had the right formula, every question could be answered. He often wished the rest of his life could be solved with the right equation.

They were supposed to be finishing an assignment in class, which Gakuto had finished the day before. He sat at the back of the classroom and divided his attention between gazing out of the window and reading the manga he'd swiped from Yuushi's house the other day.

He wasn't sure what he'd been thinking when he'd picked up the manga, he should've known that all Yuushi's books would be some soppy shoujo story. But somehow in every story line that Yuushi had yapped on about the heroine had been able to find a creative solution to her problems. Some insight or inspiration wouldn't go astray. There weren't a lot of life skills to be learnt from his meccha collection.

'Reading Badi?'

Gakuto jumped in his seat, and blushed. Of course he wasn't reading a gay magazine in school, but Hidaka had said it loud enough to attract a couple of stares from the nearest students. 'Will you shut up,' he hissed in embarrassment.

Hidaka slid into the seat beside him and shifted uncomfortably close to him. 'Tell me Mukahi-kun… or can I call you Gakuto?'

'No. You cannot,' he replied harshly.

Hidaka shrugged carelessly. 'Okay…' he drawled. 'Mu-ka-hi-kun. Tell me something?'

'What?'

'Do you call out Yuushi's name when you jerk off at night?' Hidaka smiled widely, his eyes narrowing as Gakuto's face felt hot with blood. 'No, you wouldn't shout it out, would you? You would just hide under the blankets, hand on your dick, and whisper his name over and over again, pulling yourself.'

Maybe it was shock that was preventing him from replying, but the air was thick and hot and Gakuto felt as if he couldn't take a breath. Hidaka's next words were lost under the heavy thump of his heartbeat. His hands, clammy and wet. Then Hidaka's voice was right in his ear. A quiver of breath across his neck. 'You're so hard for him… faggot.'

'Stop it!' Gakuto's chair reeled out from under him as he stood up violently. The class turned, startled by his outburst. Everyone was staring. His teacher was glaring at him, as Hidaka took him roughly by the arm and dragged him from the class. He let him self be pulled half way down the hall, the other boy's fingers digging painfully into the skin of his upper arm.

He stopped suddenly, pulling Hidaka off balance. 'Let go of me,' he hissed.

Hidaka shrugged and let go of his arm.

'Why are you doing this to me?'

The other boy stepped in towards him causing Gakuto to back up until he hit the wall. Hidaka placed a hand either side of Gakuto's shoulders, boxing him in, and shrugged with a smirk.

He ducked under one arm; tired of this game he didn't want to play. Hidaka's arm caught him by the waist and pulled him back against the taller boy's body. He struggled to get away. Then Hidaka grabbed his crotch, hard, squeezing his arousal.

'Hah,' he laughed. 'I knew it, you little cock sucker.'