Title: Image Training
Universe: Hajime no Ippo
Theme/Topic: N/A
Rating: PG
Character/Pairing/s: sort-of MiyataxIppo, with help from Takamura
Warnings/Spoilers: I HAVE NOT WATCHED THIS SERIES IN YEARS OK. So it might be a little OOC. Plus no idea what is going on in the manga thanks much.
Word Count: 750
Summary: Ippo is still kind of a fanboy, Miyata is still cool, and Takamura will always be an ass.
Dedication: Lorena's b-day request drabble! Sorry so short; it's seriously been A LONG TIME. I also don't think I know how to write Takamura right.
A/N: MORE LATENESS YAY.
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this!

When Takamura finds a picture of Miyata that has been lovingly cut out of a boxing magazine and then pinned to the wall of Ippo's bedroom—right above Ippo's futon— he blinks, stares, and then promptly rips it off the wall and throws it in the trash on instinct.

"What are you doing!?" Ippo asks when he sees, and scurries to the garbage can to dig it out.

"A favor, if that's what I think it is," Takamura replies, crossing his arms and looking scary.

Ippo shrinks back a bit, but holds the crumpled picture to his chest defiantly anyway. "It's just Miyata-kun. Why'd you throw it away like that?"

"Oh man, you really are gay for him!" Takamura laments, when Ippo confirms his suspicions. "I know we tease you, but really? Really? Right above where you sleep?"

Ippo turns bright red. "What?! This isn't for… that! This is…image training! That's what it's called, right? Image training."

Takamura looks skeptically at the wall where the picture was, and then down at Ippo's futon space again, which is still right below it. He raises an eyebrow. "Image training for what?"

Ippo is scandalized. "Boxing! For our rematch!"

Takamura looks unconvinced.

"Every night before I go to bed," Ippo starts hastily, still looking embarrassed as he moves to explain, "I look up at Miyata-kun's picture and admire…"

"Woah, woah! Don't want to hear this!" Takamura intervenes quickly, putting his hands over his ears. "Seriously Ippo, that's gross."

"I was going to say, how strong he is!" Ippo sputters. "Stop looking at me like that, Takamura-san!"

Takamura snorts and does not stop looking at Ippo like that. "I dunno, it all still sounds pretty shady to me," he says.

Ippo frowns and goes to pin the only slightly wrinkled photograph back up on the wall. "It's to tell myself to work harder so I can get to be at his level!" he says, and smoothes his hands over the picture. "Because I'm not there yet, and I want to be a rival that Miyata-kun can be proud of."

"Even if you say it all sentimental like that and tell me it's not gay," Takamura informs him bluntly, "if he ever found out you have his picture on your wall he would be completely grossed out too."

A beat.

And then Ippo's eyes get big; he panics when he realizes that Takamura is probably right and grabs Takamura's arm. "Please don't tell him! You definitely can't tell him, Takamura-san!" he insists. "He'd never look at me again!"

Takamura just grins when he hears that, because now he is back in more familiar territory.

Later that week, while Ippo is in the middle of doing Takamura's laundry and his shopping and all of his other chores, Takamura calls Miyata anyway.

"You know," he starts, sounding amused, "Ippo's got a picture of you hanging up over his bed."

Miyata hears it when Ippo screams, "TAKAMURA-SAN!!!!" in mortification somewhere in the background; given Ippo's luck, he is probably in the middle of cleaning the toilet or something.

Miyata sighs. "That is a little weird," he admits after a moment, because it's probably what Takamura is waiting to hear.

He's right; Takamura brays triumphantly into the receiver. "Ahahaha I'll tell him you think so too!"

Before Miyata can respond again, there is another series of shouts and clatters from the other room, followed by the sound of something being smacked and a click that sends the phone line dead.

Miyata sighs and pockets his phone before putting his earbuds back in so he can continue with his roadwork; he thinks that it's good to hear that Ippo hasn't changed very much after all this time and that despite being the current Japanese featherweight champ, he's still making the same kinds of naïve, stupid mistakes as always (like showing Takamura personal things and actually believing that Takamura won't use them to embarrass him horribly afterwards).

As it is, Miyata knows better (he might be what one would call world weary that way), and keeps his own picture of Ippo in his wallet, tucked inside the pocket that no one ever sees and— if he has his way— no one ever will.

Vaguely, Miyata wonders to himself if maybe he should take pity and call Ippo to advise him to do the same in the future.

But then again, if he did, then he wouldn't be the Ippo Miyata knows anymore either.

Miyata smiles to himself and just keeps running.

END