Title: A Mystery to the Both of Them

Chapter: Familiar Comforts

Series: Nobuta wo Produce

Pairing: Shuji to Akira of course w

Genre: Comedy and Romance

Rating: Um, don't really know…PG-13? R? I've never written a fic quite like this so…you decide, kay? Methinks the rating will probably go up for later chapters. In which case, it'll end up NC-17. Cross your fingers for me…

Disclaimer: I don't own Shuji OR Akira. Only the story itself is mine, the rest belongs to whoever owns Nobuta wo Produce, the lucky bastards…

Warning: A hell of a lot more fluff than I intended, and smutty goodness in later chapters.

A/N: I blame BOTH my muses for this one, and of course the last 5 minutes of the drama literally being the gayest thing since L'arcenCiel's name. (in case your French is a little rusty, it means, 'Rainbow.') The first chapter of this fic is mostly Akira's POV during the time he was on his way to Hokkaido to be with Shuji, the rest is mixed. I would also like to add, AKIRA IS SOOO DIFFICULT TO WRITE! My hat goes off to Shuji/Akira and other Nobuta fanfic writers that came before me. I have even more respect for you guys. w

For Kusano Akira, the biggest mystery for him was how the hell Nobuta found out about his feelings for Shuji. He'd always thought he was a good actor; after all, it was more fun to see how people reacted when they found out he was not a complete moron, and actually had brains behind that hyperactive personality of his than if they'd know it all along. And more fun was always good, wasn't it?

Akira was very good at pretending not to be in love, while pretending to be in love at the same time.

He had thought that if he acted well enough and convincingly pretended to be head-over-heals in love with the girl he was producing, neither Nobuta nor Shuji, or his father for that matter, would know that he was in love with his best friend. His father was just trying to get over the fact that his son would probably just end doing whatever the hell he wanted rather than succeed the company. He did not need to know, Akira reasoned, that his kid was gay to boot.

Akira would find excuses to touch Shuji as often as he could, even if he was dodged or swatted away, just so that he could go on pretending. A touch here, a joke there, the odd bear hug here and there; just to give him his Shuji fix. He even made himself obvious sometimes, but disguised it with a giggle and a "kon kon!" As long as he didn't slip up too much, he could be around the unsuspecting boy long enough to restrain himself from jumping the guy, which, he reasoned, Shuji might find a little awkward and confusing.

He pretended and acted and hid well behind the façade of loving Nobuta. He felt sort of guilty for lying about her, especially since he knew how fragile the girl was, but he was desperate; if she hadn't showed up, he wouldn't have been able to last another month around Shuuji without his self titled "Pretend-not-to-like-Shuuji-in-that-way-but-still-be-his-friend-plan-kon-kon!" For a little while, Akira had even tried to convince himself that he loved her, to try and get over Shuji, for his friends sake. But he knew he was lying. He knew he was lying because his best friend, and three year obsession was Kiritani Shuji, master of masks and friendly lies.

He thought that his act would be enough. He was wrong.

Nobuta had turned to him, as Shuji's moving van drove away and he felt his heart shattering into tiny little fragments, and told him that that he shouldn't let someone he cared about and loved leave, without so much as telling them how he felt. For several minutes, he could only stand there and gape. As soon as he remembered that he was actually capable of speech, he yelled "AKIRA SHOCK!" -throwing his arms up in surprise in the process- and asked how she knew, and, exactly how long.

She had answered simply; said that when she had gotten comfortable around them, she noticed it. Akira loved Shuji, and pretended hard not to. Sometimes, he would try a little too hard to get close to Shuuji, and looked kind of sad when he got brushed off.

However, in the long run, it was not important how she knew, she said, but that it was true. She told him that he had to go. Nobuta had never surprised him more. Not only did she know, but she was going to actually get him to follow Shuuji.

Akira smiled as he grabbed his bag, filling it with several bottles his beloved mamechichi soy milk, as many clothes as the suitcase could hold, the doll Katherine had given him, and the three legged friendship pig from Chile that Shuuji's mom had bought them all. He would really miss living with the old tofu man, and he was really going to miss Nobuta, especially after they had gotten her to slowly but surely start to gain confidence. But he was happy that he was going to be with Shuji again. They would be two in one again, Shuji to Akira, the way it should be.

'Maybe I could even tell him', thought Akira with a smile. But it quickly left his face at the next thought. Of course he couldn't tell Shuji, at least not right away. His friend had, for lack of a better word, issues, with how the world perceived him, even if he was trying to get over them. That would be like cornering a rabbit and hoping it wouldn't run away. No, he would have to bide his time, as always, and pretend everything was normal. Well, normal for Akira, that is.

When he had finished chucking his stuff into his now bulging bag, he struck and pose and yelled, "Love power, CHUU NYUU!", said a hasty goodbye to the tofu, before grabbing his bike and cycling his crazy ass off to his father's building.

When he got there, he rode his bike into the building, ignoring the horrified stares of many people, and stopped in front of the front desk.

"Yo, Miss Secretary, I need to see my dad, where is he?!", he yelled, much to the irritation of the lady work at the desk. She looked him up and down with disapproval. "That depends, who is you father, and what do you want?"

Akira looked annoyed for a second then said in his usual loud tone, "My dad is President Kusano! I need to see him to tell him I'm going to borrow a heli-heli so I can go live near Shuji-kun in Hokkaido!"

Once again, she looked at him as if he had just announced that he was the next President of Burundi. She could feel a distinct headache coming on, confirming her suspicions that today was going to suck.

"President Kusano is in an important meeting right now. If you would like, you can wait till he comes out in two hours, or I could take a message." she said as calmly any person when dealing with the spazz that was Akira.

"Just tell him everything I just told you, and tell him I'll send the heli-heli right back! Kay? Bye!" he said, skipping to the elevator.

"Wait, what about this bike, you can't just leave it here, young man! Hey!!!"

"Bye!" he yelled. As the doors closed, he gave her his signature kon-kon hand gesture while waving with the other hand. Ten minutes later Akira had gotten into the "borrowed" helicopter and commenced flying to Hokkaido. Luckily for him, his father's pilot had given him lessons at his fathers insistence, so he wasn't worried about landing. He had hardly given thought to where he would land the damn thing, because he was rather busy imagining the look on Shuji's face when he saw Akira at his new school. He giggled at the thought.

"DASHING AKIRA! SHUUJI-KUN! I'M COMING TO SAVE YOU FROM LONELINESS! YOSH!!!" o

Several hours later, Akira landed in Hokkaido. It would have taken less time, had he actually known where he was going, and not have had to startle some poor business people in a high rise building he had asked for directions, without bothering to land the helicopter first.

There was a lot of commotion as he landed the helicopter in the school field, which was an interesting change of scenery from the usual tranquil view of the ocean on the other side of the school building. Akira smiled as he got out, giving all the surprised spectators konkon gesture as a greeting. The school principal run up to him. Needless to say the man did not look pleased.

"Who the hell are you?! What the hell is this?! Answer me!" he yelled at the ditsy boy in front of him.

"Kusano Akira desu!!!" he replied, temporarily blinding the man with a yellow transfer form that Nobuta and he had run around getting signed and faxed back and forth and filled in prior to his hurried packing. The principal read over the paper suspiciously. When he concluded that there everything seemed to check out he said, "Ah, so you're the new transfer student that was supposed to arrive today. We got the forms faxed to us by your vice-principal. Please, in future, call first, and come by car. Go with Mrs. Akumato over there, she's your new councilor. She will give you your uniform and schedule. You can start school tomorrow."

The man walked away with a frown still on his face, but Akira just kept smiling and ignoring the mixed looks of shock and admiration coming from the students crowding around the helicopter.

'Shuji-kun will be sooo surprised to see me! I will make him love me in no time! Now, I just need an apartment. Thank goodness for gold credit cards…'

And indeed, with a little help from his dad's plastic money, he got himself a nice little apartment near school, with view-to-die-for of the beach and the ocean after he got his all classes picked.

That was the day before Shuji arrived.

On the day Shuji arrived, Akira could not sit still for two seconds. He didn't even bother with getting breakfast. (Not that he had many groceries to make it with anyway, he had vaguely gone to the supermarket with thoughts along the lines of, ' Oh, dead Kami-sama! I hope they have mamechichi in Hokkaido! Akira need mamechichi! LOTS OF SOY MILK! Shuuji-kun will need soy milk!')

He walked to school from his apartment thinking about what he say to Shuji. Alright, so it was more like running like an athlete on steroids. He ran so fast, he only realized on arrival that he was there a full hour earlier than he should have been. Oh well, that gave him plenty time to pretty himself up in front of the mirror in the boys bathroom. He never usually cared that much about his appearance, but then he had never before planned to actually make Shuji his.

Oh, yes. He had decided that morning, to hell with biding his time. You only lived once, and he would be damned if he would lose to the girls that would undoubtedly start to orbit Shuji like annoying over-made up moons around a very hot, slim bodied, long haired planet. Oh dear, it seemed his mind was starting to wander into dangerous (though extremely pleasant and very appealing) territory. Akira giggled. What would Shuji think if he knew his best friend was imagining him naked? "Well, I'll find out soon enough!" he said to his hand puppet, before giving it a small peck.

Maybe they could go to the beach, like Shuji had said occasionally when they were still in Tokyo with Nobuta. Or maybe they could go drink soy milk together at the mall, or…other things that seemed like a lot of fun to Akira lately…"NO! Akira is being a pervert! BAD AKIRA, BAD!!!" he yelled, slapping himself mentally and physically until the thoughts subsided, if only for a few minutes. He left the bathroom chanting "No dirty thoughts! Pure thoughts! Dirty thoughts BAD! Shuji pure, not dirty!"

He walked to class and ceased his mantra immediately when he saw other students inside. If he was going to have any chance in hell of convincing Shuji that he loved him, he couldn't let people find out so soon and start spreading rumors about them. Akira might not have cared what people thought of him, but he knew Shuji desperately wanted to be seen as a good person and to be liked, and rumors would not help that. Especially since Shuji hadn't even made a first impression yet.

He sat down in an empty desk at the back of the room and looked around at his new classmates. A couple of them were smiling and waving back at him. Two guys spotted him, and with purposeful looks in their eyes walked over to him, bowed, and simultaneously stuck out there hands for him to shake. When both of them realized they had acted at the same time, they scowled at each other.

Akira was experiencing slight feelings of dejá vu; the two boys reminded him of the Destiny Duo from back Tokyo. Although they looked nothing like the pair, they were definitely identical twins of each other. The two both had the same mop of untamed black hair, and the same yellowish-brown eyes. They each also gave the impression of wanting to kill the other, which was surprisingly the case.

The boys in front of him each took one of his hands and shook it, to Akira's surprise. He was not at all familiar with people wanting to get to know him, as people usually avoided in case whatever the hell they thought he had was contagious. He stared at his hand in bewilderment for a couple seconds then smiled at them and treated them to a cheery "Kon kon!"

Although both boys were equally confused by the strange hand gesture, neither let it deter them for more than a few seconds from the chance of making a rich and possibly very powerful new friend. "Hajimemashita! I am Watari Umi! I hope we can be friends, Kusano-san. Let me tell you a bit about-" he started, before he was shoved aside by the other boy.

"Hi! I'm Watari Yamazaki. If you want, I could show you around the school if-" the boy was in turn cut off by his irate twin shoving back twice as hard. "Please ignore my idiot brother, he was born without a brain and miraculously seems to function to this day without one."

Akira watched with a small amount of interest as the twins got more and more violent with one another, forgetting all previous attempts at impressing Akira.

Yup. This school might just turn out to be really interesting. It was a shame, he thought half-heartedly, that he would so busy seduc-having fun with Shuji, to get to know anyone closely. But then again, several of them, by the looks of it, had a bad habit of pulling fake smiles out of their asses and sucking up to people that could help them gain the popularity they didn't deserve. Unlike Nobuta, who deserved to well-known and loved. Akira briefly felt a twinge of guilt as he thought of the fact that he had left Nobuta alone. He hoped that she would be alright by herself, be able stand on her own and face the world. He knew though, as strong as Nobuta was becoming, Shuji would not be able to face a world were he was anonymous and friendless, and Akira wasn't so sure he would last one day without Shuji's comforting presence.

Akira sat deeply engrossed in his thoughts (which was pretty damn rare) and so he did not notice just over half a dozen easily excitable girls slip into the classroom to see the guy who had only yesterday landed a helicopter in their school's sports field and climbed out of it wearing a very appropriate million-dollar smile.

He noticed them only too late. That day, Kusano Akira was introduced to the mysterious and frightening creature know as: The Fangirl.

One agonizing half hour and many very annoying screams of "Kyah!!!! Kusano-sama! KAKKOI DESU NE!!!! Can I fly in your helicopter, please?!!!" later, the teacher finally told everyone to get to their seats and announced that there was another new student today. Akira leaned against the back wall of the classroom, staring at the door intently, ignoring the excited whispers around him, anticipating the arrival of the object of his affection for three years. Three years that felt like an eternity. This time, he would not waste his time waiting for the courage to tell Shuji. He had almost let Shuji slip away from him, vanishing like an oasis mirage to a dying man in a desert, that would cruelly leave him with nothing but a desperate need and a pain in his heart.

No, this time, he would tell Shuji, even if it he got rejected. There were two things Akira really hated; Men that made girls cry, and having to keep secrets from his friends, because Akira liked being free of lies and half-truths. He didn't like everything covered up in a mask. That was why he hated when Shuji became Fake Shuji. True Shuji didn't wear a mask; he didn't need to. Akira saw through Fake Shuji right away, unlike the rest of the school, so Shuji never bothered wearing a mask around the taller boy. It was for that very reason that he had fallen for True Shuji.

Well, that, and the fact that Shuji was gorgeous.

He really couldn't help but think about that last fact as Shuji walked through the door of their new classroom, that would soon be something comfortable now that they were together again. He looked slightly nervous with an unfamiliar audience, but obviously confident enough with his skill at making people like him not to be terrified at the prospect of a new class.

"Yoroshuku onegaishimasu, boku wa Kiritani Shuji desu."

Akira grinned and waited for the inevitable moment when his friend would notice him and break his concentration on charming the class. It came, and was better than he could've expected – the look on Shuji's face as he glanced at the ocean outside and let his gaze travel to the one person by the window who looked oddly familiar, before realizing that there was a very important reason the face was so familiar, was priceless. His eyes bulged as he dropped his jaw and the bag he was carrying, forgetting completely where he was and who was watching.

The break of character was wonderful to Akira. He smiled even wider as he removed his glasses. Ones that he didn't really need, since he already had contacts, but he felt they made him look quite sexy (A/N: and we all know how true that is). His eyes sparkled as he kissed his hand puppet, and his lips formed the words that Shuji had heard a million times back home –words that had been permanently engrained in his memory- "Kon Kon…"

The slightly unperceptive teacher asked Shuji if there was anything wrong. "Nothing, I'm just a little nervous, that's all ," said the boy, looking a little flustered and finding it a tad hard to regain his composure after seeing his best friend here of all places, the last place he would have expected. Shuji wondered briefly whether or not what he was seeing was an illusion, and tried to convince himself that was all it was, an illusion. A product of too little sleep the night before at worrying whether or not he would be able to adapt to a place to which he had no connections whatsoever.

Up until the moment the Akira 'illusion' started clapping and drumming on the walls with a cheeky grin plastered across its all too real face.

This realization, unfortunately for Shuji, lead to him losing it completely and yelling, "WHY?!" to the surprise of the entire classroom, minus a now hysterically giggling Akira.

After the initial ruckus caused by Shuji's outburst (which he apologized for profusely when he recovered from shock), the classroom reluctantly settled down for the first period of school. Some of the more gossip-prone girls were still whispering excitedly and kept looking back at both new boys and giggling.

"Oh my god they're so hot! I want Kiritani-san to be my boyfriend! He's got to be a model or something. That tramp Yukie would be soooo jealous! Even Ami's boy-toy isn't as hot as him!" said one girl when the teacher left the room to get something photocopied.

She was the local walking cliché popular girl, and proud of it. She was the kind of person who would make the old Bando-chan say "Don't be so mean!"

"Oh please, Yuriko-chan. Will you look at Kusano-kun? He's gorgeous! AND he arrived in a helicopter! I bet he must be loaded! If he's single, I'd totally dump my toy." said a second girl, Ami, who was well-known as the local gold-digger.

"Oh, I'm sure he is! Maybe he's some sort of celebrity. He looks like some kind of boy-band member!", squealed a third girl, named Sadako, known to occasionally receive restraining orders from several guys not too pleased with her creepy habit of stalking them and watching them from trees with a pair of binoculars.

'I'll take either of them. Kiritani AND Kusano. It shouldn't be too hard either, I'll make sure they take notice. I'll have 'em both. Kiritani's hot, and Kusano's got money. I just have to make sure neither of them knows I'm dating them both.'

That thought, oddly enough, was shared by all three girls.

Completely oblivious to the schemes forming at that very moment, Shuji shook his head in wonder and disbelief at the strange boy sitting in the desk right next to his, at the very back of the room. "I don't believe it. How? How the hell? And WHY? Why did he come after me?" he thought to himself. "Why the hell would he follow me all the way from Tokyo and leave Nobuta?"

He was torn from his reverie when he glanced down at his desk and spotted a small crumpled piece of paper. Shuji glanced over to Akira, who was failing miserably at feigning innocence - he was whistling a tune to some unintelligible song, staring at the ceiling and nonchalantly twiddling his thumbs. Shuji un-crumpled the paper and read it.

SHUUJI KUN! DID YOU MISS ME? . -AKIRA

Against his better judgment, Shuji couldn't help but smile at his friend's little note. Yes, he thought, he had missed the tall spazzoid, even if it was only a day they had been separated. He quickly scribbled on the paper and threw it back to its sender.

What the hell are you doing here? Does anyone know you're here?

P.S. Stick to contacts. You look like a computer geek. –Shuji

Akira pouted when he read the last comment. He grabbed his pen and continued the note. With a satisfied look, he chucked the ball at his friend.

YOU DIDN'T ANSWER MY QUESTION. YOU ANSWER FIRST . AND I DON'T LOOK LIKE A GEEK. GLASSES ARE SEXY. THE GIRLS ALL THINK SO. -AKIRA

Shuji read the reply, surprised that he didn't get an answer. He passed back his reply.

Fine, be that way. Maybe I missed you. So what if I did? Not that I did. Now, answer my questions, baka! The girls obviously have no taste. – Shuji

This time, the note made Akira smile ear to ear. Shuji had missed him after all. He felt a spark of as he placed the note in Shuji's hand once again.

AKIRA HAPPY! w QUESTIONS? OH, YES! UM, I'LL TELL YOU LATER. PAPER'S NOT GOOD FOR HEART-TO-HEART CONVERSATIONS! WE SHOULD EAT LUNCH TOGETHER ON THE ROOF AGAIN TODAY, LIKE BEFORE! NE, SHUJI! THEY HAVE MAMECHICHI IN HOKKAIDO! MAMECHICHI SHUUJI KUN! WONDERFUL MA-ME-CHI-CHI!

- AKIRA

Shuji frowned slightly at the odd reply, but it quickly turned into a smile. Akira and his soymilk. Something he was very familiar with. Something that would probably never change, no matter how much of the stuff the taller boy drank. He still persisted in calling the drink by the wrong name too, by the sound of it.

Shuji was about to give his friend a sarcastic reply, when the teacher called Akira's name. He had just come back from photocopying their homework. They both turned guiltily to face the man, thinking they had just been caught passing each other notes on the first day of school, to find that he hadn't even noticed. He was only calling Akira, because apparently, he had a phone call waiting for him downstairs in the school office.

Akira glanced at Shuji, who shrugged. "You should probably get that," he said, slightly annoyed that his fun had been interrupted by a phone call. Akira was equally ticked off, but nodded and left the room flapping his arms like a large bird. "Remember lunch Shuuuji-kuuun! I'll come get you here later" yelled the boy as he ran through the corridor.

As Shuji watched Akira leave and wondered who could possibly be calling when he had only just gotten here, completely unaware that three pairs of eyes were in turn watching him like a hawk. The three girls were very, very curious as to what they had seen occurring in the last 20 minutes.

It had definitely not escaped their attention when the two boys that they had assumed to have nothing in common except being from looking hot, and arriving one day apart. It was almost as if the two knew each other, in fact, they looked very close as they exchanged note after note after note. They also noticed that the one called Akira seemed to giggle every time he read the replies from the other one, Shuji, and the way he had called him "Shuji-kun" with so much familiarity. If you didn't know any better, they thought, one might think they were friends, or maybe even…

But luckily for Akira, the trio dismissed any further idea of the two being more than friends with what could only be described as extremely wishful thinking.

At least, for a while…

Akira continued to flap his arms until he reached the office and a bored looking secretary handed him the phone. Akira blanched as soon as he heard the dangerously angry voice of his father on the other end.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN HOKKAIDO?!!! WITH MY HELICOPTER?! AND WHY ARE YOU IN A NEW SCHOOL?!!! WHY WASN'T I TOLD ABOUT THIS SOONER?!!! WHY WASN'T I TOLD AT ALL?!!! MY SECRETARY TOLD ME YOU LEFT TO LIVE WITH SOMEONE!!! WHO IS IT?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE MOVING IN WITH SOMEONE?! YOU'RE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL!!! I HAD TO GET ONE OF MY PEOPLE TO GET ON A TRAIN TO HOKKAIDO TO PICK YOU AND THE HELICOPTER UP TODAY!!! IT'S NOT A GODAMN CAR YOU CAN TAKE OUT FOR A SPIN!!!

I PHONED THE TOFU MAN AND HE SAYS YOU DON'T WANT TO COME BACK!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!!!"

Akira cringed and held the phone away from his ear as his father continued his angry ranting through the phone. He knew the man would eventually call him to "chat" about what he had done, he just hoped it wouldn't be so took a deep breath and prepared himself for the worst.

"Otousan, I came here to be with the person I love. You can tell your employee to pick the heli-heli up, but I'm staying here!"

There was silence on the other side of the line for a few seconds. "You're…in love?"

The man, clearly bewildered by the thought that that was the reason his son had hijacked his helicopter and flew it to Hokkaido. For love.

His father might have been a cold calculating businessman, but that didn't mean the man didn't have emotions or didn't know love. Love was a different matter altogether. The man knew how hard things could be when things like love and pride were involved. He had experienced it first hand many years ago when his father had told him to take over the company, and he had been torn between his freedom and pride, and doing what was best for his little family out of love. He had chosen the latter, and though he missed freedom, he never regretted that he had tried to do the best for his wife and son.

When Akira spoke again, there was no doubt whatsoever in his voice. He had known this for three long years. He wondered how it had happened, but had also quickly decided it did not matter. He had contemplated it over and over and over, and the answer was always the same.

"Yes, I'm in love! Honto ai! CHISU, CHISU, FALL IN LOVE!" he chirped, doing a little twirl and posing with his fingers in the shape of a heart, even though he father could not see what, and the twirl had gotten his slightly tangled in the telephone cord.

Akira's father softened; his son was in love. He was used to Akira acting without caring about the consequences, but this time, the boy had a valid excuse. He knew love made people do crazy things, and this was by far the craziest.

"Alright, I'll tell Matsuda to just take the helicopter. Just…be careful alright? Don't let yourself get hurt. I just hope you know for sure if whoever she is is the one for you." And he meant it too, every word. His son might not seen smart to most people, but he knew Akira was not stupid in any sense of the word. If he had his heart on someone, and had gone to the trouble of going to live with them, then Akira clearly knew what he wanted, and was going to do everything for that love.

He couldn't see Akira biting his lip. His father had said "she"; he still didn't know that when Akira said "the person I love," he really meant, "the guy I'm hopelessly, incurably in love with." He nervously started to play with the wire. He felt guilty that he hadn't told his father yes; the man kinda deserved to know about it. For the second time during the conversation, he took a deep

"H-hai…um, about the person…that's-"but his father interrupted him before he could say anything further. "Gomen, Akira. We're going to have to cut this short. I have a business meeting to get to. We can discuss this another, time. Good luck, son. Win her heart, if you haven't already!"

And with that, the man hung up.

Somewhere nearby a school bell rang, but Akira paid it no attention. He walked back to through the corridor in a rare moment of silence, not even waving his arms, or skipping, or any of the usual things that he did to make a simple thing like walking somewhere a little less boring. He replayed the conversation in his head over and over, surprised that it had gone so well. That is, better than it might have gone. He wished his father hadn't stopped him from finally explaining that he was in love with a boy, and that that probably meant he was gay.

Not that Akira saw it that way, exactly. The way he saw it, he had a thing for Shuji, who just happened to be a guy. Akira didn't care. Why should he, Akira, who didn't mind if the whole world thought he was weird, let a little thing like gender keep him from being truly happy?

Suddenly, Akira heard lots of yelling and cheering coming from nearby. He vaguely remembered having heard the lunch bell a couple minutes. Curious, he followed the sounds until he found that they were coming from the gym. Inside, there was a group of about thirty people standing in a circle watching two boys fighting each other. Both of them looked like they had each taken a couple blows already. He realized with a gasp that he recognized them; they were the Watari twins that he had just met that morning, Umi and Yamazaki. He looked around to see if Shuji was here, before remembering that he had said he would pick him up at class for lunch.

He slapped his forehead at his own forgetfulness, and took of at full speed towards the classroom, hitting his foot on something hard in the process. He winced in pain and muttered, "Itai," before running again to get to Shuji as quick as possible. They would have lunch together, and he couldn't let Shuji wait any longer. He ran into the classroom and was relieved to see Shuji was still there. He realized that people might want to go watch the fight, so he yelled "Umi and Yamazaki are fighting, in the gym, go see!!" He grabbed Shuji by the arm and proceeded drag him out of the class room.

"Who are Umi and Yamazaki?" said Shuji. He was slightly confused as to why Akira was dragging him in the direction of what appeared to be the stairs to the roof, if the fight was in the gym.

Akira opened a heavy steel door and they were both hit by a wave of crisp ocean air.

'It might be a little cold,' Akira mused, 'but at least we'll be left alone here. Its nice and private.'

Shuji shivered slightly, obviously unused to Hokkaido's icy winter winds. He rubbed his hands together, visibly annoyed at being forcefully removed from the warmth of the school.

"Why did you bring us out here, baka?! It was so nice inside!"

Akira chuckled at that. Shuji was really cute when he got annoyed. "So that we can eat lunch on the roof, like we started doing before you left!"

Shuji gaped. "You pulled me out here so we could eat?! It's freezing!! Why can't we just eat inside, where we won't catch frostbite?!"

The taller boy shrugged. He had to admit, it made sense. He was a little disappointed that they couldn't eat up here; the view was gorgeous, and as soon as the weather got warmer, they would definitely have to come up here again. But for now, they could head inside.

"Okay, we can go inside. I'm getting a little cold too, ne," he said, rubbing his own hands together.

Shuji noticed that Akira's normally very tan cheeks were starting to look a little pale, but his lips seemed to retain their normal rosy colour, and he found himself staring at his friend, marveling at the beautiful contra- wait, since when did he stare at his friend for any reason other than profound bewilderment and confusion? He tried to assure himself that the cold was going to his brain, but he wasn't really convinced of it himself, and it left him feeling very uneasy, to say the least.

Eventually when they went back inside, they found a nice warm little music room with a view of the beach and sat eating their lunches and talked about Nobuta, and how much progress she had made since they had first started producing her. She seemed to have gotten quite popular with her lunch show, and despite what Aoi had done to her, she was getting along well with Mariko.

Later, as they were biking home together, Akira explained that it was her that had suggested that he go to Hokkaido to be with Shuji, although he left out a couple of the more currently inconvenient details of what she had told him.

"Ne…Shuuji kun? Want to go to the beach? I know its cold, but you always say how you want to go, so, why don't we go now?" Akira asked, his deep brown eyes going for the most convincing puppy-dog look he could manage, and his lips forming an irresistibly cute pout.

For the second time that day, Shuji had to fight the urge to start using long, and poetic, and-he cringed at the thought-romantic words when he looked at Akira, almost making him crash into the white fence that separated the road from the beach. He shook the thought from his head, sighed softly, and smiled. "Alright, we'll go. The sea does look really nice today, even if we can't swim or anything.

They locked their bikes to the side of the fence and climb over it, Akira leaping and running towards the water with his arms outstretched as if he wanted to embrace all of it. Shuji walked slowly behind his friend with his hands in his pockets, smiling the smile of one that had found something they thought they had lost forever. He thought about how, just yesterday, he was wondering whether he'd ever see Nobuta or Akira again. His stomach clenched again as he wondered just how he would have managed life without them. But what he found strangest of all, was that he found the idea of never seeing Akira hardest to bear.

Though he would be hard pressed to admit it to anyone other than maybe Nobuta, he adored the hell out of his friend. The way Akira ran down the stairs waving his arms like a maniac, the way he pouted when he was annoyed or wanted you to do what he wanted, the way he went "Kon kon!" in that unique Akira way…Hell, Shuji even liked the way the guy said his name as if it had eight syllables…which Shuji considered a valid reason any day for a trip to a psychologist.

'If I ever got one, I'd have a very rich psychologist before long, for the amount of therapy I need. I must be a real head case, to have this many problems…they'd have a field day with me,' he mused.

Shuji watched Akira running wildly for a couple more seconds, before his habit of tripping over whatever happened to be closest to his feet kicked in, and the spazzoid went down harder than an old Vegas casino on its last day.

Shuji jogged up to his friend, slightly concerned but not wanting to let it show too much, and stuck out a hand. "Daijobu?"

The mass of sprawled limbs in front of him gave a small "Kon!" and took the hand with one of his own. Akira dusted some of the sand off of his uniform and grinned. "Akira is fine! Hehehe, I found a big shell, it got stuck to my foot and made me fall!", he added with a pout.

Shuji felt something coming on and had to turn his head away to try and beat away the thoughts that were creeping into his head. 'Ignore the face, ignore the face, don't look at his lips, don't look at his lips,' his better judgment screamed, 'Don't look! Ignore the soft brown eyes… don't start reciting poetry in your head…No!!! Shuji, whatever you do, DON'T LOOK AT THE POUTY FACE, DON'T LOOK AT THE DAMN POUTY FACE! NOOOOOOO!!!'

It continued to scream in agony as the pouty face won, and Shuji found his eyes drifting towards Akira's face. Damn.

He squirmed slightly as the adorable expression on Akira's face seemed to hijack his brain, causing his heart to melt oddly, and his face to breakout into what felt like a very weird grin, and even worse for his sanity, a rosy blush.

Akira stared at Shuji. He was confused as to why his crush's face looked like it had been turned to jelly and melted, at the same time. Akira was also surprised to notice Shuji's face was slightly more red and glow-y than usual. With an afterthought, he decided it was a very good look for Shuji.

When Shuji finally regained control of his mind and body, and the colour in his face returned to normal he looked at the ocean. He was feeling very annoyed over the fact that he acting like an idiot, in front of one of the biggest bakas in existence. But those thoughts seemed insignificant as they watched the setting sun.

Shuji grinned as he remembered something from a movie he had seen with Akira a couple months ago, when Nobuta had gone to visit some family members in Kyoto. The taller boy had been ranting constantly about needing to see the movie, because it had Yakuzas and vampires in it. Akira kept calling Shuji on his cell phone to complain that Shuji was lazy, and watching the movie might inspire him to take up martial arts like the guys in the movie. After 36 calls, Shuji finally gave in and agreed to watch it, if it would get him to stop calling at 2:30 in the morning.

He had to hand it to Akira; the guy had picked a good movie, even if he had left the theatre with his eyes all puffy and red from crying, and annoyed that Akira (whose eyes were equally red) felt the need to point out that fact over and over again.

Heh. The way things were going today, he'd be lucky if he didn't break down and start singing about orange sunsets and running through the waves. Shuji had decided that he would sooner eat his hair scrunchie collection than admit that he also knew all the words to the movie's theme song, and was moved to tears every time he heard it. There was only so much his pride could take.

Akira frowned; Shuji was going into deep thinker mode again, and completely ignoring Akira. He had tried yelling a few times, but Shuji was really zoning out. So Akira selected a prime spot on Shuji's ribs, poked hard, and watched with satisfaction as Shuji leapt several centimeters into the air in surprise.

"BAKA! Why'd you do that?!"

"Shuji was tuning Akira out. Communication is good Shuuji kun! No good tuning me out!" he said wagging his finger as Shuji massaged the offended spot.

Shuji sighed. Akira was right, he shouldn't be tuning the boy out, how ever annoying he may be. "What did you want to say?"

Akira smiled. He rested his head on Shuji's shoulder, got pushed off, only to rest it there again, knowing Shuji wouldn't bother to brush him off again. He made little kissy faces in the vague hope that Shuji might take the hint and kiss him, which he didn't. Half disappointed, Akira answered his friend's question. "I said, I wonder what Nobuta is doing right now."

Shuji was silent for a few minutes, then said "I don't know. I hope she'll be okay. I just can't believe she sent you after me…but she really is a very surprising person. Even more than you."

"Mariko likes her a lot, I think they'll be good friends," said Akira.

Shuji felt a twinge of guilt. He still felt bad about what he had done to her in the sake of keeping up his status quo. But he couldn't keep lying to her, and he didn't want to lie to himself just so she could be happy. It was better this way.

A rare comfortable silence descended on the two boys as they stared out at the water, crashing against the rocks nearby, but still remaining calm. Both enjoyed that moment; they were not alone, they were together. Both of them felt a sense of peace that came from knowing they would continue to see each other everyday. Shuji felt admittedly very happy that Akira had come all this way so he wouldn't be lonely, and grateful to Nobuta for encouraging the boy to chase him down. He also had the sneaking suspicion that Akira hadn't just followed him for Nobuta, or because Shuji was fun to play with and had the cash to do it, but because he genuinely liked Shuji, and cared about him.

Shuji watched as a group of seagulls flew over head, and suddenly something occurred to him. Those seagulls were used to flying in groups; they went everywhere together. They could survive alone and separated from each other, but it wasn't the same as being together as one. Kinda like Shuji to Akira, he mused. Together they could be happier, alone they would fall apart.

Shuji would've gotten popular, without lying this time, but he wouldn't have had any real friends, because wearing the Fake Shuji had become second nature to him, and only Akira and eventually Nobuta could see through it. He would've felt lonely while surrounded by people that adored him.

Akira would have been fine, for about two minutes, until he realized that Shuji was actually gone, and he had only Nobuta to hang out with (the rest of the world still believed Akira belonged in a mental asylum). He and Shuji had gotten so close, even if Shuji was still reluctant to admit it, and had become friends for life. Hanging out together had become a fact of life and a necessity for them. Meeting everyday to find new fun ways to promote their Nobuta. As long as they were together, nothing in the world could stop them. Seishun Amigo.

"We…we can live anywhere we are…" Shuji thought out loud. Akira turned and looked at him with a confused look. "What? he asked. What did you say?" Akira tried to poking him with the fox puppet and kon konning it out of the boy when he didn't get answer, but Shuji just smiled at his friend knowingly, and started to walk away.

Not wanting to let Shuji get away from him that easily, Akira started to chase after him. Shuji knew that Akira would run after him. However, he was not prepared what happened next.

Akira soon caught up, and without thinking jumped onto Shuji's back. He was very happy about the fact that for once he wasn't pushed away out of annoyance.

Shuji reached behind him to readjust Akira's weight. Without thinking, Shuji found his hand mysteriously going lower and, as if it had a mind of its own, grab something that felt small and squishy and soft, and suspiciously like Akira's ass.

'Oh shit,' he thought, expression not changing, just in case Akira had blacked out for five seconds, and hadn't felt Shuji's hand reach back to grab his ass, and linger for a few a moment, before Shuji's brain had kicked in and moved the hand.

Unfortunately for Shuji, Akira had felt the hand. It had been a very pleasant surprise, even if Shuji seemed to be unaware that he just groped his best friends derriere. Akira giggled as his friend swung him around, dropped him, and ran into the frosty waters of the sea.

Akira ran after Shuji blindly, getting his whole uniform, and not to mention, his whole body wet in the process. He didn't care; Shuji was finally letting down his hair, figuratively AND literally if you took into account his love of hair scrunchies. Shuji was having fun with Akira like he did on rare occasions when he was sure no one was watching them; completely surrendering to True Shuji. Akira was having the time of his life, and so was Shuji.

Shuji laughed as he sent a wave of seawater towards his friend, getting even wetter when Akira gave out a high pitched war cry and retaliated with a wave of his own. They continued their game of splashy-splashy until they realized that they were starting in ice cold ocean water and had no extra clothing. But even then, they never stopped laughing, exiting the sea holding onto each others hands.

Usually, they would both be extremely hesitant to hold hands, but there was nothing particularly usual about that day. They were both experiencing a happy high that could make affectionate gestures seem okay, and normal. Even Shuji, who normally shied away from Akira's constant touching and personal space invasions, felt reluctant to let go.

They both made their was back onto the beach, collapsing into a pile of drenched teenager; panting for air and smiling like the world didn't matter at that moment.

Akira sighed happily after a few minutes and shifted slightly so that he wasn't directly on top of Shuji anymore, who felt vaguely disappointed at the loss of head it caused. The taller boy shook his head like dog beamed at Shuji. This had to be one of the best days of his life. He had gotten a rare look at the thing he treasured most. The real Shuji; the one he was in love with.

In that moment, he decided to tell Shuji. It might just have been the rush, he thought, but he didn't care. He felt like he could say anything and do anything, that it would all come out okay. Right there and then, he felt that confessing would be a good idea.

So he stood up, did Nobuta's power summoning "Chuu Nyuu" move, and prepared to tell his friend the truth.

"Ne, Shuuji kun…I have something to tell you…"

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To Be Continued!

Yeah, I know, I suck for pulling out the "to be continued" sign on you. But this is a multi-chapter fic, and 15 pages is quite a lot for one of my fic chapters. I promise that the next chapter won't move so slowly, I will try for less fluff if it's too overbearing, and more original plotline. I just had to include a lot of that stuff in this chapter because it will be important later. And cookies for anyone who can name the two things (or people, if you will) that I shamelessly plugged and/or referenced in the story. Please give me comments; I use them to feed my plot bunnies!