Title: Life Goals
Universe: Gokusen 2
Theme/Topic: N/A
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: lightly, vaguely HayatoxRyu. But not really.
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for the end of the series in an indirect, sort of non-important way? Also, OOC, cuz I don't remember details about how they were exactly. AND I CAN'T READ A CERTAIN SOMEONE'S FICS FOR REFERENCE CUZ THEY'RE F-LOCKED. AHEM. But yeah. This is kind of a blind run from memory, after MONTHS of not watching the series?
Word Count: 2,070
Summary: Hayato is uncompromising. Ryu has a routine.
Dedication: absenceofmind- THIS IS ME TRYING. FOR YOU. And not because I want you to feel obligated to write me something back. NOT AT ALL.
A/N: I am clearly NO GOOD AT THIS UNIVERSE. I think it was because I wasn't paying attention to much beyond Jin's glorious hair the ENTIRE SERIES? Anyway. I tried. I'm sorry absenceofmind! LOL though I guess lowering your expectations of me is good, this way I'm less likely to disappoint you in the future. THAT WAS MY EVIL PLAN ALL ALONG. BWAHAHA.
Disclaimer: Not mine, though I wish constantly.
Distribution: Just lemme know.
It's the same thing every time; Ryu gets back to his small apartment just before sunset, after his lectures and his part-time job have all ended for the day. Tonight he has a curry pan and a peach Calpico from the convenience store for dinner and four hundred pages of foreign literature in translation to read by the end of the week.
He thinks that it's a little amazing to see how these new things are all starting to become part of a very set, very standard routine. They're only about a week into the first semester of coursework and the days are all already starting to feel the same. He's not sure if that's good or bad.
From what Ryu can tell of classes so far, college life isn't exactly hard, but it's not exactly easy either. "Different," is what his father had so helpfully classified it as; Ryu had rolled his eyes and said that he'd get a part-time job to pay for his own place while he was in school.
So now he works at the campus library after his morning seminars; he files books and helps people find things. The most amazing thing he's noticed about work after his first official day there is that it's kind of ridiculous how bad people are at the whole reading thing, despite having clearly passed all the necessary entrance exams to get into college in the first place. He is sick of getting asked where the "S" section is; it's right after the things that start with "R".
For those who don't know, words like "routine" and "regular" and "repetitive" all start with "R."
So does "retard," actually.
He hopes work won't be like that every day, but he has a sneaking suspicion it will be.
He's resigned not to be surprised if it is, in any case.
Just like he's also not surprised when, upon entering his apartment, he finds Hayato stretched out on his back on the couch, shirt half-unbuttoned as he stares up at the ancient ceiling fan. He is clearly transfixed by the way it creaks and rattles when it turns. "How does it stay up there?" Hayato murmurs to himself, absently.
Ryu ignores his friend for the time being and toes off his shoes before going to the kitchenette and throwing his curry pan in the microwave for thirty seconds. Hayato has a key to the apartment because Ryu had an extra and Hayato likes the couch. It's well-worn, according to him.
"How is the job search going?" Ryu asks, after his curry pan finishes heating up. He unwraps it gingerly—it's hot—and lets the steam air out of the wrapper for a little while.
"They said I need to be more specific about my life goals," Hayato says; Ryu knows that that is Hayato-speak for, "I bombed another interview."
"That whole goals thing seems to come up a lot," Ryu muses. He cracks open his Calpico and takes a seat in the armchair next to the couch. Once he's situated he pulls out his literature text and flips to the beginning of the pages he's supposed to read this week. It's a lot, but maybe he can get it all done tonight. "If it really comes up so often, maybe you should just change your answer to what they expect."
Hayato frowns. "My goals are to protect the things that are important to me. I'm not going to change that just to say what they want to hear. Then I'll just be a real adult after all."
Ryu sips his drink and says, "I see."
Hayato sighs and rolls onto his side then, looking Ryu over thoughtfully. There is something vaguely rebellious in his eyes; maybe even petulant. "Are they bad goals?" he asks, though it almost sounds more like a challenge than a question when he says it like that.
Ryu is on the verge of cracking a smile at how pigheaded his friend is, but hides it by taking a bite out of his curry pan. "Of course they're not. They're just vague, is all."
"Hm," Hayato says. "Well, I probably would have been a bad secretary anyway."
"People do generally prefer to see a pretty face behind the reception desk," Ryu agrees, pragmatically.
Hayato pouts. "Oi, this face is gorgeous," he protests, though he doesn't seem genuinely angry at the teasing.
Friend thusly comforted, Ryu takes another bite of his curry pan and starts his reading.
But now that Hayato is thoroughly over his unsuccessful-interview woes, he has the time and energy to notice the curry pan. He frowns when he sees it. "Curry pan again?" he murmurs. "Is that even enough for dinner?"
"Plenty," Ryu assures him.
"How can you eat that stuff every day?"
"I just had one yesterday and you happened to see it," Ryu begins. "Tomorrow I'll get karage."
Hayato makes a face and actually sits up. He snatches the remaining curry bread out of his friend's hand.
Ryu sighs. "Look, it's only for the days I work late and don't have time…"
But Hayato isn't there listening anymore; he's in the kitchenette, rooting around in the fridge. "Ah!" he says when he finds what he's looking for. "We're having fried rice."
Ryu decides not to fight with him; Hayato has actually become pretty handy in the kitchen since taking over the meal preparation at his house full time.
Well, he doesn't burn anything down in any case, and from what Take says, the food Hayato makes is usually edible.
So he lets Hayato cook.
Ryu gets through about thirty pages of his textbook before Hayato is done and is bopping him on the head with a plate full of fried rice. They eat over the coffee table while Ryu reads his textbook and Hayato skims the newspaper for want ads. After the food's gone and all the possibilities are circled in red pen, Hayato says goodnight and heads home; he leaves his dirty dishes on the table.
Ryu cleans everything up after he finishes his four hundred pages and makes sure to set his alarm before he falls asleep.
The next day when he gets back to the apartment Hayato is there again; this time as a failed potential florist. "My life goals," he reiterates, "were too vague."
Ryu thinks that Hayato is starting to become like the coffee table or the futon or the CD player—he is a fixture in this apartment as much as anything else is. It's already become very familiar.
Ryu has no complaints, even if Hayato is wearing a Hayato-shaped groove in the couch.
Ryu goes to microwave his karage and cracks open his peach Calpico while Hayato stares at the ceiling fan. He contemplates telling Hayato to change his answer from "I want to protect those who are important to me," to something like "I want to have a house and a family of my own someday," for the next interview, but he figures that he's already advised his friend to do something like this several times before as is. And besides that, he knows that Hayato is too stubborn to concede to anything that isn't on his own terms, especially when it concerns something important to him. But then again, that's the difference between the two of them, and ultimately, Ryu can't hold it against his friend for being like that, especially when there have been numerous occasions in the past where Ryu has found himself wishing he could be a little more like Hayato himself.
So Ryu doesn't say anything about it this time, he just sits down in the armchair and listens to Hayato whine for a while. It's okay because tonight he just has criminology reading to do. It's not that much.
He takes a sip of his Calpico and a bite of his karage and flips to the right page in his textbook while Hayato prattles on.
But then Hayato stops prattling, instead he snatches the container of chicken out of Ryu's hand and pads over to the fridge again. "Hopeless," Hayato mutters to himself.
There is ham and egg over rice after Hayato is done in the kitchen about a half hour later, and Ryu only gets one case study done before he's being bopped over the head with a plate again.
"You need to go shopping," Hayato says as they eat, and dribbles rice all over the newspaper he's looking at whenever he talks with his mouth full. "You're out of eggs and you're out of meat."
Ryu makes a note of that.
Accordingly, the next day Ryu doesn't have curry pan or karage or even peach Calpico from the convenience store. Rather, he has raw meat and fresh vegetables and a bottle of chilled oolong tea from the grocery store down the street. When he opens the door to his apartment Hayato is there as usual, but not on the couch this time; he's at the sink washing rice.
"I got a job!" Hayato announces, before Ryu can even say, "tadaima" properly.
"Congrats," Ryu tells him. He toes off his shoes. "What are you?"
Hayato grins. "A salesclerk at a convenience store."
"They liked your life goals?" Ryu asks, and goes to the kitchen to unpack the groceries.
"They liked that I could do the night shift," Hayato clarifies. "And since my goals don't clash with that, I don't think that they mattered to the manager. I start tomorrow night."
"Congrats," Ryu says again. Hayato starts cooking.
They eat beef hotpot to celebrate, and Ryu doesn't even take out any of his textbooks at all until after Hayato goes home. Ryu figures that now is as good a time as any to start a new habit; from here on out his daily schedule will be very different, after all.
Hayato will work, and the couch will be empty. Maybe it will take back its original shape after a few weeks.
The next day Ryu returns from school and the library at around sunset just like usual. He has fried squid from the convenience store and grape flavored Calpico this time, to commemorate the fact that things are going to be different starting today. He wonders if Hayato is going to be working at the same store he frequents. That would be funny.
When Ryu opens the apartment door, Hayato is stretched out on his couch like he'd never left it at all. He is staring at the ceiling fan again.
"Tadaima," Ryu says, automatically, and doesn't know what else to say.
Hayato grins. "Yo," he greets.
Then, "Did you get fired already?" Ryu asks.
Hayato scowls. "No!"
Ryu goes to the kitchen to heat up his squid while he waits for Hayato to explain what happened. "If you're not fired, then why are you…"
He doesn't end up microwaving his squid after all, because when he actually gets to the kitchen, he sees two plates of hot omurice waiting on the counter for him. Both have ketchup smiley faces drawn over the tops.
Ryu blinks and looks back at Hayato. "You didn't have to…" he starts, then trails off awkwardly. He clears his throat. "You should sleep instead of doing unnecessary things, idiot. Don't you work all night tonight?"
But his friend just grins. "I thought we already agreed," Hayato starts, "that me getting a job is only okay if it doesn't mean compromising any of my life goals."
Ryu looks at the ketchup smiley faces for a moment before he sighs— a little hopelessly, a little happily. He tries not to think about exactly what Hayato is saying when he talks like that; it's been a long day and Ryu isn't in the mood to contemplate heavy things right after a particularly bad shift at the library.
"Right," he says instead, and breaks out an extra glass so they can split the Calpico between the two of them. "Your life goals."
They eat their omurice together over the coffee table while Ryu reads his sociology homework and Hayato skims the newspapers for more job openings, just because.
And as much as Ryu has disliked all of the routines that his life seems to have been made up of lately, tonight he realizes—as Hayato dribbles rice all over the want ads— that maybe a few routines are okay after all.
As long as Hayato is one of them.
END