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Corybantic Dance	By : fantards Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 843 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Disclaimer:
Naruto is not our toy, although sometimes we wish it was.
Almost everyone you meet here belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, we just
borrow them, occasionally. Hayate's parents, Gekkou Ken'ichirou and
Gekkou Shizuka, belong to Haya Madison, and Genma's mother, Shiranui
Riza, is all Penbrydd's fault.
Author's
Note: Penbrydd sincerely wishes that Genma would quit
throwing up � the constant puke spatters against the inside of his
skull are making it hard to eat anything.
The
Wryly Fantarding Q&A panel for Corybantic Dance is still located
at wrylyfantarding. livejournal. com / 5948. html
Warnings:
Violence, expletives, eventual yaoi (KoIzu, KoIzuRai (more
funny than sexy), GenHaya).
***
Chapter Six
"Hey,
Genma!" Aoba called, heading out of the booth with Izumo and
Kotetsu close behind him. It was close to six o'clock in the evening,
and Yamanaka had finally called rehearsal for the night. "Genma,
where are you, man? We're gonna go get dinner now! Hey, you two know
where the frosh is?" he asked, turning his head to look at the
two behind him.
"Yeah, he's in the green room, on props,
remember?" Izumo nodded. "We'll go get him and meet you in
the parking lot. Come on, Ko." Kotetsu nodded and
followed.
Genma leapt down from the stage and walked over to
Aoba. "Gabba gabba hey." At some point during the rehearsal
Genma had tied his hair back in a purple satin scarf, and he had
acquired a grease smear on his cheek from some unknown source --
probably either bumping into a makeup tech or attempting to move one
of the spotlights. "Dinner? Great. I'm in." He looked just
a bit shaky. Aoba frowned a bit and reached forward to put a hand on
his shoulder.
"You okay, man? Are you planning on puking
again anytime soon? If so, it'd probably be a good idea if you did
that before you got in my car."
"Not gonna barf. I
don't think there's anything left to come up. I think that's the
problem." Genma smiled weakly. "I started throwing up on
Friday night," he admitted. Aoba's eyes widened behind his
sunglasses.
"Jesus, man! I think you need to see a doctor
or something. This is really not good. Maybe you should skip
dinner and have Rai pick you up and take you straight home..."
"I'm
gonna fucking die if I don't eat something. Otherwise, not that
important. As long as I keep putting in food, something's gotta stick
eventually." Genma double-checked, to make sure he was still
actually vertical. "I might call Rai to come with us, though.
Just in case I do get sick, you know? I'm just a little dizzy. That's
all."
Aoba nodded and put his arm around Genma's
shoulders. "I'll give Rai a call before we go. I think I got a
quarter for the pay phones. Come on, I'll help you to the car. Just
don't pass out on me, and try not to barf on the kid later." He
was joking, of course, and then almost immediately realised how
tasteless it was. "Uh. Sorry," he muttered, shaking his
head.
"Too dizzy to worry about your mouth. Thanks."

Genma wrapped an arm around Aoba's waist to help his increasingly
questionable balance. He'd had maybe ten hours of sleep in the
last... week or so and the food just
kept coming back up. It was probably long past time for him to have
just collapsed from exhaustion, but he just kept moving -- clumsily,
at times, but still awake and in motion.
"Man, at least
promise me you'll start sleeping again now that the frosh is in
tech," Aoba said, shaking his head as he all but dragged Genma
out of the school and into the parking lot, having made the call to
Raidou. "You're stage manager, and you get all loopy after no
sleep and food. Hallucinations, remember? Can't very well manage if
you're hallucinating." He started fishing for his keys in
advance, trying to remember exactly where he'd put them. "We
like our Genma whole, and we'd like him back soon, please."
Genma
was just too fucking tired for this shit. He shook a bit -- vibrated,
really -- and tears streaked down his face, washing away some of
Kotetsu's work. He wiped his hand down his face, taking the tears and
most of the makeup with it, and his face settled back into placidity.
"I could manage in my sleep, Aoba. We both know this."
Vaguely noticing the smeared makeup on his hand, Genma rubbed at his
face with the scarf in his hair, clearing the rest of it off.
Aoba
sighed a little, patting Genma's shoulder awkwardly. "Yeah, I
know, but you're missing the point." He shook his head and
finally located his keys as they reached his car. "Here, you sit
in the front. The frosh can sit bitch in the back, because I don't
think we're bringing anyone but him and the Caffeine Twins, unless
they show up with someone else. In that case he'll probably have to
sit jump, because I think he's the smallest one out of...most of us,
really."
"Fuck jump. He'll sit in my lap. There is

no jump in your car, man." Genma collapsed into the front seat.
"And thanks. Really."
Aoba waved off the thanks,
giving Genma a clearly skeptical look as he slid into the driver's
side. "Do you think he'd seriously sit in your lap, Genma? I
mean, no offense, but he looked antsy all day today."
"So,
let him sit on Izumo. They know each other." Genma shrugged
lazily, and his eyes rolled like marbles in mineral oil. He shook his
head hard to clear it.
Kotetsu showed up first, shouting to
announce their presence to the world just as Aoba finished his brief
phone call to Raidou. "I get to sit behind Genma, so I can kick
him in the head if he says something fucking retarded!"
"Please
don't kick Genma in the head," Aoba said plaintively as Izumo,
Hayate, and Kotetsu piled into the backseat of his Pinto. "I
don't need him passing out in my car. You can kick him later."
"Aww.
Spoilsport." Kotetsu stuck his tongue out, and Genma caught his
eye in the rearview mirror.
"Don't stick your tongue out
unless you intend to make use of it, Ko." Genma smirked at the
loudmouthed sophomore.
Kotetsu's jaw dropped, and he
completely ignored what had come out of Genma's mouth. "Your
face, dammit! After all my work!"
"Long day. Shit
happened." Genma shrugged. Hayate leaned forward slightly to see
what the fuss was about.
"Um...what happened? You look
really sick or something..."
Izumo just pulled the kid
back. "Don't lean forward while Aoba's driving. Especially when
Aoba's driving. Come on, man, let's go. I'm starving."
"Nothing
wrong with me, kid. I haven't slept a whole lot since about...
uh...Thursday? I think I stopped sleeping on Thursday. I just end up
staring at the ceiling all fucking night. And throwing up. I keep
fucking throwing up. It's not important. I'm not going to die from
it." Genma smiled, tiredly. "I'm still standing."
"Holy
fucking shit, Genma. That's insane. I know you didn't sleep Thursday
night, but I figured you were at least sleeping after that --
especially when the puking started!" Kotetsu looked absolutely
horrified. "Am I going to have to drug you?"
"I
told you, it's not important." Genma flipped his hand
dismissively, but Hayate looked positively nauseated and maybe even a
little guilty. Thursday -- that had been the day he'd gone to dinner
with Genma. And Genma hadn't slept since then. That was
absurd. Maybe Genma was just lying or something.
"Genma,
stop being such a drama queen," Izumo said, just a little
snappishly, and glanced at Hayate. "You okay, kiddo?"
Hayate
just nodded uncomfortably, and Kotetsu's head snapped around as he
heard Izumo get sharp. Eyes wide, he stared at his friend. Genma
looked like shit and probably felt like it, too, and Izumo was giving
him a hard time?
"Not being dramatic. Just being honest.
And tired." Genma's eyes started to roll again, looking just a
bit loose in their sockets. "Tired and hungry. I'll eat. I'll be
fine. Can't not eat and not sleep. Can only do one or the
other."
"Yeah, that's what we told you last week,
and you kept saying you were fine." Izumo shook his head,
sitting back with a sigh. "Hey, lighten up, Hayate, he's fine.
He just needs to spend a day or two tied down to his bed so he
doesn't keep coming to school when he's not feeling well."
"Oh.
Um. Right." Hayate still looked uncomfortable, sitting in a car
full of near-strangers to eat dinner with them. Maybe he should just
politely ask Aoba to take him home instead. Tech hadn't exactly been
pleasant, either, despite Izumo's promises to the contrary. Maybe
that was why they needed new props people. Because Anko drove them
all out the door.
"Was fine last week, dammit."

Genma managed to look slightly lecherous as he caught Izumo's eye in
the rearview. "And I'm sure I'd stay in bed if I had something
pretty and not-boring to keep me company. Don't suspect that would
help much with the sleeping, though, unless I could get that pretty
and interesting thing to fuck me unconscious." He wasn't
considering his choice of adjectives -- they were fairly standard
choices when he talked about what he was looking for.
"I
can promise you interesting, but I can't promise you pretty. Or
fucking. Yeah, sorry, Genma. I couldn't do fucking. But I could beat
you with the Webster's Unabridged until I knock you unconscious!"
Kotetsu was trying to get the conversation turned back to somewhere
near amusing.
"Or you could just kick him in the head
like you'd previously promised," Izumo chimed in, trying to push
the conversation away from things involving sex with Genma, as that
had clearly made Hayate nervous. He resolved for the second time in
the past week to ask Genma more about the supposed dinner with the
frosh, because he had a hard time believing that any male over the
age of thirteen could be that uncomfortable on the subject of
sex.
"Oh, no doubt I could kick him in the head. But he
was looking for interesting. I figure the Webster's is fairly
interesting. It's got a lot of good words in it." Kotetsu
grinned irrepressibly. "Or maybe I need something heavier and
more interesting. I think the library's got Heavy Metal back-issues
in five-year volumes. That would be sexy, interesting, and heavy
enough to knock even a thick-headed bastard like Genma
unconscious."
Aoba snorted, and Izumo snickered, and
Hayate covered his mouth made a quiet, dry sound that almost sounded
like it could have been a muffled sort-of-laugh.
Genma saluted
Kotetsu with one raised finger. "Pigfucker."
Kotetsu
slapped the back of Genma's head. "Don't call Izumo a
pig!"
"Oh, fuck you, Kotetsu, Genma -- both of
you!"
Two hands shot up in unison. "Yes, please,"

Kotetsu and Genma chorused. Izumo scowled and reached around Hayate
to hit Kotetsu on the shoulder.
"How do I know you don't
fuck pigs on the side?"
Kotetsu looked
moderately offended. "If I wouldn't dirty my dick on
Genma, I sure as hell wouldn't dirty it on anything less than Genma!"
He grabbed Izumo's fist and kissed the knuckles. For all the touching
they did, it was the closest thing to a public display of actual
affection, as opposed to the interchange of lust and irritation, that
had ever happened between the two. Genma's collapse had really
set something off in Kotetsu, and more than anything, he just wanted
to take Izumo out into the middle of a field and kiss him senseless,
all night.
Izumo tried to wipe the dumb smile off his face as
he pulled his hand away and sat back down against the seat. Hayate
just looked back and forth between them, looking helplessly
bewildered.
Kotetsu studied his best friend's face, coming to
the conclusion that Izumo truly was beautiful and that he was the
luckiest man in the world to have Izumo all to himself. And wasn't he
owed a night out on the football field, in the near future? He
settled down on Hayate's other side with an equally dumb and slightly
more dazed smile. Glancing swiftly around to ensure that no one but
Izumo was looking at him, Kotetsu knocked off two quick sentences in
sign language. They were two of the only three sentences he knew. I
love you. I want you. The third, of course, was I want
cookies. Izumo just grinned back.
Genma groaned and rubbed
his eye, irritatedly. "Coffee. Must drink coffee to survive
dinner."
"Yeah, yeah," Aoba said dismissively.

"We're just about here. Can you wait till I park, at least? Then
you can pounce the waitresses for all the coffee you want. Just don't
go rolling out of my car. Are the doors locked? I hope the doors are
locked --" He broke off suddenly as someone cut him off on his
way to the parking lot and cursed. "Ahh, shit. Okay, ladies and
gentlemen -- uh, just gentlemen, never mind -- everyone, hold your
drinks."
Without further ado (or to give time for Hayate
to voice his immediate concern at the announcement), Aoba's Pinto
swung wildly to the left and then back to the right in an outrageous
U-turn around the driver who had just cut them off. Hayate's face
paled and he grabbed onto the nearest thing he could -- Kotetsu -- as
the car swung around wildly. The Pinto skidded noisily over the
pavement and came to an abrupt halt - parked uncannily accurately in
a parking space just in front of the
diner.
"Holyjesusmarymotheroffuckingfuckgoddammit, Aoba!"
The string of words spilled out of Genma as the adrenaline rushed
into his veins. There was no longer any need for coffee. Kotetsu had
one hand on the oh-shit handle and the other on Hayate's chest, in an
effort to keep them both in place, and his fingers finally relaxed
several seconds after the car stopped. Aoba just sat there with a
slightly dumb and triumphant grin on his face before turning the
ignition off and undoing his seatbelt. "All right, we're here
now."
Hayate barely remembered to let go of Kotetsu,
looking like he might just have an asthma attack.
"Christ!"
Genma kicked the door, popping the lock, and threw the car door open.
He pulled himself out of the car rather gracefully for someone who'd
been hovering between dreams and reality, mere minutes previously,
two hands on the front oh-shit handle for balance. Kotetsu followed,
as soon as he could breathe again and could pry Hayate's fingers out
of his forearm. Hayate stumbled out after him, dark eyes
frighteningly wide, and he wheezed a few times, trying to reclaim the
breath that had been swiftly whisked away from him. Izumo looked the
most composed after Aoba, though not by terribly much, and he shut
the door, shuddering.
"Jesus Christ, man..."
"Hey,
Genma wanted to get there sooner." Aoba shrugged, stretching his
legs out. Izumo shook his head and glanced over at Hayate.
"Don't
pin this shit on me! I just said I wanted a cup of coffee! I said
nothing about when!" Genma stuffed his hands in his pockets, so
no one would see them shaking, but the rest of his body was
vibrating, too. The adrenaline had hit hard.

"Hey, you okay there, kiddo?"
Hayate nodded
dumbly, though he looked as though he was resisting the urge to cling
to Kotetsu again. Instead he just wrapped his arms around himself,
rubbing his arms.
Kotetsu, thoroughly unafraid of looking like
a dork, pulled Izumo to him in a tight hug. "Scared the shit out
of me, man." He reached out and rested a hand on Hayate's
shoulder. The kid looked mildly surprised at the gesture, flinching
instinctively, but didn't pull away.
"Oh, hey."
Genma sounded mildly surprised and pointed to the car next to them.
"Looks like Rai beat us here. You're lucky you didn't hit Annie
coming in like that. He'd have been pissed. Bet that means he
got us a table already." He started toward the door.
"Oh,
come on, man, give me some credit," Aoba said, as if offended,
and followed Genma to the door. The three underclassmen started for
the door as well after a moment, still looking considerably shaken.

"I'm a better driver than that. I don't hit other
cars."
"There's a first time for everything,"
Genma called back, holding the door, "And this would have been
an exceptionally shitty first."
Kotetsu, at least, seemed
to be recovering quickly. He was back to trying to grope Izumo as
they walked toward the restaurant, and every time a hand got too
close, it was slapped away. Izumo never missed. Kotetsu never
stopped trying.
Hayate was too busy trying to get his
breathing back to normal to really be able to pay attention to what
was going on behind him. He shuffled inside after Genma and Aoba,
coughing wheezily. "Why's Raidou here?" he asked in between
coughs. He'd seen the mark his bike had left on the side of Raidou's
car. He knew it wasn't his fault, but what if Raidou decided he
really was mad about it after all?
"Just in case I die,
kid. He wouldn't miss it for the world." Genma patted Hayate's
shoulder and glanced around the restaurant. Raidou, thankfully, was
hard to miss. "Back right. It looks like he scored us the round
table." Genma bounded up the three steps between the hostess
stand and the floor, careening between tables, and mysteriously not
colliding with any people or things on his swift journey to the back.
He slid into the booth singing 'End of the World', and collapsed
backward onto Raidou's lap, laughing up at his friend.
"Genma?
What the fuck happened to you? You look like shit and Aoba thinks
you're going to die. Yet, somehow, you come bouncing in here like a
sugar-powered jackhammer, and pounce me of all possible
people." Raidou poked Genma in the nose.
"Adrenaline
powered. Aoba almost hit Annie, coming in. Very, very adrenaline
powered." Genma pulled himself vertical as Aoba slid in on
Raidou's side, looking offended.
"I did not almost hit

Annie."
Genma largely ignored him, turning his attention
to the steaming mug on the table instead. "Is that coffee?
That's coffee, isn't it." He grabbed Raidou's cup without
waiting for a response and emptied it down his own throat. And then
he coughed and gagged. "Ew. Gross. That's coffee-flavoured
sugar."
"Then don't drink my coffee, bastard."
Raidou laughed as Genma wheezed and choked, trying to wipe his tongue
off on a napkin. Kotetsu and Izumo were next in, piling up next to
Genma. Hayate stood at the edge of the table awkwardly for a moment
before he decided that he didn't want to be sitting next to the two
people trying to grope each other and slid in next to Aoba. He folded
his legs on top of the seat, sitting with his hands in his lap.
"Did
you actually try to drink Rai's coffee? Are you stupid?"
Kotetsu looked more concerned for Genma's sanity than he had all
day.
"See, I told you, he's going to die," Aoba
said, almost smugly, and pulled a menu out. "So what are we all
looking at today? Besides a hospital for Genma."
"Something
massive. Mushroom Swiss burger, I think. Yeah, that sounds like
food." Genma's stomach issued a loud complaint.
"Duly
noted," Raidou and Kotetsu chorused. The two looked at each
other surprisedly, for a moment, and then high fived over Genma's
head.
"I dunno," Raidou grumbled at Aoba, flipping
through the menu. "I'm here how many nights a week? You'd think
I'd know what's on the menu without looking."
Kotetsu
tossed his menu into the middle of the table. "I think I'm with
Genma, tonight. Real food sounds important, especially if I get the
evening I want to have." He slipped his hand into Izumo's lap
and dragged a thumbnail up the seam that traced along his friend's
inner thigh. Izumo promptly smacked his hand away, never lifting his
eyes off the menu.
"You're not going to get anything at
all if you don't cut that out."
Kotetsu pulled his hand
back and clutched it to his chest, gazing sadly at Izumo. In fact,
one might go so far as to say he was making sad puppy eyes.

"But...but...but..."
Genma smacked Kotetsu solidly
in the back of the head. "Shut up, Ko, you sound like a
motorboat."
After a brief but extremely annoyed glare at
Genma, Kotetsu returned his attentions to Izumo. "But I thought
we were going to..." and the rest of the sentence became a quiet
mumble in Izumo's ear. A thoroughly lecherous grin touched the corner
of Kotetsu's mouth that could be seen.
Raidou watched the
Caffeine Twins with thinly disguised amusement. "Hey, Genma, are
they fucking, yet?"
"I dunno; I think so. I never
did get an answer to that." Genma grinned loosely at Raidou as
the exhaustion began trying to make a reappearance. Hayate looked
like he was getting uncomfortable again. It wasn't so much the
mention of sex so much as it was the mention of sex between two
specific people who were sitting at the table.
Izumo
cleared his throat at Kotetsu, leaning away, and drummed his
fingertips on the tabletop. "I said cut it out, Kotetsu. We're
in public." There was, however, an underlying
implication that he could do anything he wanted when they were in
private. "Yeah, I'm just going to get some grilled cheese...what
do you want, kiddo? It's on me and Kotetsu, so get whatever you
want."
"Um..." Hayate looked down at the menu
thoughtfully. "I think I'm okay with a milkshake..."
Aoba
raised an eyebrow at him. "Just a milkshake? Jeez, kid, you're
already a twig."
"Shut up, Aoba. He doesn't eat
much." Genma looked painfully twitchy, again, as if anyone
making even vaguely dangerous implications about Hayate was going to
make him lose his lunch, again. Raidou draped an arm around Genma's
shoulders, almost imperceptibly pinning one arm and leaving the other
open to being grabbed. From here, he could stop Genma from going
across the table at Aoba.
A waitress approached the table. "Do
you guys know what you want, yet?" She looked to the ends of the
arc, first. Izumo went ahead and ordered his grilled cheese, kicking
Kotetsu under the table as he tried to molest Izumo's leg with his
foot. Kotetsu hissed and choked out his order, giving Izumo a wounded
look, which Izumo mostly ignored except for a light pat on his
arm.
Genma totally forgot what he was having, but remembered
that Kotetsu had agreed with him. "What he just said," was
the final answer. Raidou attempted to order without bursting into
hysterical laughter at the idiots to his left, and finally managed to
order nachos and another cup of coffee, because "that bastard
drank mine". Aoba ordered some monstrous club sandwich and
coughed suspiciously into his hand when Hayate ordered a vanilla
milkshake. The waitress nodded, taking everything down quickly, and
left for the kitchen to fill their orders. Hayate sank back against
the seat, turning his eyes up to look at the ceiling disinterestedly
until Aoba poked him. He jerked slightly in response, blinking
owlishly at Aoba.
"What was that for?"
"You
looked dead. Just checking."
Genma finally tried to go
across the table. "Aoba, goddammit, leave him the fuck alone!"

Genma was fast, but Raidou was already holding him down. He succeeded
in nothing more damaging than hip-checking Kotetsu onto
Izumo.
Kotetsu, of course, immediately tried both to make
light of the situation and take advantage of it. He kissed Izumo's
nose. "Funny running into you, here."
Raidou
wrestled Genma back into his spot in the booth, and hooked a leg
across his lap. "Goddammit, Genma, stay put. You know he's like
this. He's been like this for the last...what, six or seven years?
It's just Aoba being stupid. Calm the fuck down." He turned a
moderately distressed gaze on Aoba. "And you know better. You've
actually been near him all this time. Did it not occur to you -- No.
It never does." Finally, Raidou addressed Hayate. "I'm
sorry. He's tired and pretty fucking sick. He's usually a lot more
composed than this."
"Okay, hey, you know what?
That? Was not something to get mad at me about." Aoba
looked a little irritated and offended. "I was just poking the
kid to see if he was, you know, still with us! He was all spaced out.
It's not like I hit him or anything, okay?"
Hayate
fiddled with the fork in front of him, shrugging. "Um, it's
okay, really. It didn't bother me. Um...Aoba didn't do anything
wrong." He looked up at Genma, brow knitted slightly. He wanted
to ask why Genma was so sick, but he wasn't sure he wanted to hear
the real answer, either.
"Wait until he's not fucked up,
all right?" Raidou knew Aoba wasn't actually as stupid as he
acted, sometimes. "I'll take him home and make him sleep."

He continued to hold Genma against his shoulder. "Jesus fucking
Christ. All this and you didn't think to call me?"
"I'm
sorry, kid. Just jumpy." It was a shitty apology, and some part
of Genma's mind prodded him that it was also a lie. Jumpy wasn't even
a quarter of it. "Rai, I'm exhausted. I can't think more than
five minutes into the future, when I even make it that far."
Raidou
looked grim. "Stupid bastard."
Having not been
shoved off, yet, Kotetsu took a moment to drizzle a few more obscene
turns of phrase into Izumo's ear, before he settled himself back into
the space Genma wasn't occupying. Izumo rolled his eyes, shoving him
lightly. "You're walking on thin ice, Ko," he warned,
swatting at him. Hayate, on the other hand, wasn't paying a bit of
attention to those two, looking at Genma in what seemed to be some
sort of guilty concern.
"What's wrong with him?" he
asked Raidou, quietly.
"I don't know yet, kid. He's
really upset about something. The more upset he gets, the less he
sleeps, and the less he sleeps, the less rational he becomes. I
really don't know what set him off. I haven't talked to him in days.
Saturday, he was still sane enough to tell me he was just a little
tired, the lying bastard." Raidou shifted his grip, holding
Genma almost protectively. "Of course, he never recognises
what's going on until it's over. Needs someone to beat it into his
thick head." He cocked his head at Aoba. "If I didn't say
it before, thanks for calling me. I'd hate to see you trying to hack
this, yourself."
Aoba sighed, shaking his head, and ran
his hands through his hair. "You know, if I'd known it was this
bad, I'd have called you days ago. Sneaky bastard's good at hiding
it." He grimaced at Genma. Hayate toyed with his fork some more,
not sure what to say, and looked up in relief as the waitress brought
their drinks, putting his milkshake down in front of him. He grabbed
it and leaned back with it, sucking it up through the straw.
"Can
we get another straw? He needs one for his coffee." Raidou
cocked a finger at Genma's face.
"What? Hey, fuck you,
I'm not that tired!" Genma squirmed offendedly as the waitress
dropped one on the table before walking off.
"I'm not
worried about you. I'm worried about Aoba. I'm not letting go until I
can be guaranteed you've got your hands full of food. Hot coffee is a
viable weapon." Perfectly calm, Raidou explained as one might to
a small child.
Kotetsu's eyes widened at Raidou's explanation.
It hadn't sunk in to his head exactly how dangerous the stage
manager was in this condition until Raidou explained coffee as a
weapon. "Holy fucking shit," he muttered under his breath,
sneaking one hand into Izumo's hand, under the table, in something
that was finally not a sexual gesture, but one of pure fear and
discomfort. Izumo frowned and patted his hand reassuringly, glancing
back over at Genma. Aoba opened his mouth to say something, but for
once he wisely chose not to and shut his mouth, looking down at his
soda with a faintly annoyed look on his face. Hayate just watched
Genma and Raidou unblinkingly with his dark eyes but said nothing,
the straw never leaving his mouth as he sipped at the vanilla shake,
knees drawn up near his chest with his feet propped on the seat.
The
silence dragged on a long while, during which time, Raidou carefully
claimed the straw and dropped it into Genma's coffee. "Drink up.
You need to be awake just a couple hours longer."
Genma
tried to glare at his best friend, but failed, the look on his face
melting into regret and then bitter self-disgust. He gulped down his
coffee as quickly as he could with a straw, and blinked in surprise,
but repeated the process as Raidou put his own cup under the
straw.
Kotetsu finally broke the silence. "How the fuck
is he going to sleep with that much coffee in him? I'm just
saying..."
Izumo smacked him lightly, but not seriously.

"He'll burn out eventually. He's going to piss the caffeine all
out, you know." He glanced at Hayate, raising an eyebrow. "Do
you even need to breathe, kid? I haven't seen you take your
mouth off that thing once since you got it."
Hayate moved
his mouth off the straw, sniffling and coughing a bit. Oddly enough,
only a small fraction of the shake was gone. "I was
breathing," he said, swallowing. "I wasn't drinking the
whole time. I just like having the straw in my mouth. So I can chew
on it or something."
Genma's head swivelled, eyes flat,
hurt, and toxic as they locked onto the kid. He looked like he was
going to spit out something about how that was his line, goddammit,
but he just stared at the table, instead. Kotetsu caught on, elbowing
Genma. "Hey, man, isn't that your line? Didn't you tell me that
right before you bit through that pen on Monday?"
"Genmaaaaa!"

Raidou groaned. "Again? You need to chew on something other than
pens."
"Fucking ink is nasty anyway. And yes, that
does tend to be my line." Genma flicked the straw up into his
mouth, rolling it from one corner of his mouth to the other.
"Oh.
Um." Hayate looked back down at his shake. This felt so weird.
"Uh...sorry?" he tried, because it looked like he had
somehow offended Genma. How that was exactly possible, he wasn't sure
-- but then, he had never been very good with people, and Genma was
exceptionally strange. He decided to just go back to his milkshake.
The milkshake was safe.
"No. Not sorry. Don't be sorry.
It's...heh. It's just you and me. Just something else to like about
you." Genma shook his head. "Rai, can you possibly get the
fuck off me? My chest hurts."
Raidou shook his head, but
shifted positions. "That better?"
"No, not
really. I'm starting to think it's not you." Genma looked mildly
confused, and Raidou looked moderately concerned. Hayate didn't take
his mouth off the straw, but his eyes flickered back up to Genma,
watching him with some unreadable expression. Things fell silent
again, and Izumo drummed his fingertips on the table
awkwardly.
"Uh...so," Aoba started awkwardly. "Tech
today. It was...uh. Interesting? Shit, I don't know. What the hell
did you do today, anyway, Genma? I barely saw you after the
beginning. Anything interesting happen?"
"Besides
the part where I lost my lunch and then repeated the process four
times? Yeah, I threatened Anko, smacked Frankie, and told costumes
I'd eat their brains for dinner if they didn't stop fucking around
and start doing something useful." Genma left out the part where
he'd pretended to be inspecting the sandbags for the curtains so he
could keep an eye on Hayate.
Kotetsu grinned. "I grabbed
Izumo's ass and got punched in the thigh! Haha, kitten, you missed!"

He smiled merrily at Aoba. "Oh, wait. You were there for
that."
"Yes," Aoba sighed, a bit bitterly,
"unfortunately, I was. You two are never going to get anything
done once I leave, are you?"
"If I'm still working
with Tweedledee here? Probably not." Izumo gave Kotetsu a bland
look, though not unkindly.
"Hey, hey. I'm perfectly
competent when I have something I'm supposed to be doing. I'm just
going to do...other things...in between the busy parts." Kotetsu
pouted. Izumo rolled his eyes, largely ignoring him.
"Also,
for the record? I hate Anko." Izumo carried on. "She's a
rotten bitch when she wants to be. I mean, I know she isn't
sometimes, and sometimes she's just kind of crazy, but today? She was
extra bitchy. Why hasn't anyone kicked her out yet?"
"We
can't," Genma sighed. "She's Yamanaka's new pet. She'll be
props mistress until the day she graduates."
"But
why her?" Izumo sighed. "I guess she wasn't that
bitchy last year, but...still. I mean, I still have my disagreements
with Yamanaka, but he's not...that bad of a guy. Just makes
some dumb decisions sometime."
"I don't like her
either," Hayate said thickly around his straw. "It's not
even all the yelling. She's crazy. I don't think she knows what
'dangerous' means."
"I'm sorry, kid. All we've got
is props, or you'd be working somewhere sane. Preferably with me, so
I could keep the rest of those asshole nutjobs off you." Genma
sighed, again, sounding gothier than Kotetsu's fangirls.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing directly under stage manager,
so..."
Hayate just shrugged, chewing on his straw. "It's
okay," he muttered. "I can look out for myself. I'll be
fine. Really."
Kotetsu gritted his teeth loudly. "Aoba,
five bucks says that disagreement we had in the bathroom? I'm right.
Not stress."
Aoba gave Kotetsu a withering look. "Oh,
come on, man. I'd like to at least pretend I was right."
"Hah!
So, you admit it! I am right!" Kotetsu posed victoriously
with his coffee.
"Why do I have no idea what's going on?
I'm sure I was there for that..." Genma stared at Kotetsu in
complete confusion.
"I wasn't there. I'm more clueless. I
think I'm glad." Raidou continued to hold Genma, just in case.
Hayate looked utterly helpless and bewildered, looking between
everyone else at the table except perhaps Raidou.
"Umm..."

He sipped at his shake some more, making a slight face. "Is Anko
like that all the time?" he asked, trying to revert back to
something he at least knew how to talk about. That way there
wouldn't be as many awkward silences. He hoped.
Hayate was
saved by the waitress again, as she brought the food. Raidou finally
let go of Genma and dug in to his nachos. "You move wrong, and
I'll break your leg. I don't want to break your leg, but I would also
like to eat my nachos. So, why don't you just keep both hands on your
burger for a bit, where I can see them."
Genma did as he
was asked, more because he was overpoweringly hungry than for any
other reason. He was halfway through the enormous burger by the time
Kotetsu was three bites into his. Hungry was, perhaps, the
understatement of the decade when it came to putting Genma and a
desire to eat in the same sentence. Hayate just watched Genma eat
with that almost creepy way he had, his mouth clamped tightly over
the straw as he sucked the vanilla shake up through it.
"You're
going to throw up again if you keep eating like that," he said,
finally, still refusing to pull his mouth away from the straw. The
words were muffled and almost -- but not quite -- indiscernible.
"Am
not," Genma snarled around a bite of burger. "I always eat
like this. You've seen me eat, before." More of the burger
vanished into Genma's seemingly bottomless stomach.
Raidou
nodded. "He's really not kidding. As long as I've known him,
he's eaten like this, and while I'm pretty sure I know why; if he's
not telling, neither am I."
Kotetsu looked lustily at
Izumo. "I know if I were capable of eating faster, I'd be
following suit. I've got some dessert I'd like to get to."
Izumo
put his grilled cheese down and headbutted Kotetsu in the shoulder.

"Could you be any more obvious? If you want to eat faster, then
try putting food in your mouth, dumbass."
Looking quickly
between Izumo and Genma, Kotetsu started stuffing his face, intent on
leaving as soon as humanly possible. There was only one thing he
wanted more than dinner, and he needed to actually eat to be sure
he'd have the energy to do it. Genma finished his burger and started
on the fries, which went even faster. Finally, he paused, and looked
at Hayate. "Hey, kid? I was perfectly serious, the other night.
All of it. Especially the parts about you."
Aoba looked
at Genma bewilderedly, and Hayate just stared down at his shake
uncomfortably. After a long moment, he put it back down on the table,
half-empty, and slid out of the booth. "I'm going to the
bathroom," he announced, though quietly, and shuffled off for
the restroom. Izumo looked at Genma, raising an eyebrow.
"What
the hell was that all about?"
"Nothing." Genma
shook his head and went back to devouring his fries. "Rai? Kill
me now, hm?"
"Nope. No luck." Raidou steadily
munched nachos. "We're not dead, yet, and you don't get to start
before me."
Kotetsu, being a good deal dumber than Aoba,
sometimes, grabbed Genma by the shoulder. "Nothing, my ass.
Talk."
"Not your business, now, and it may never be.
Let's just leave it at 'I think he has beautiful eyes'." Genma
was getting close to the end of the fries. "Look, quick, it's a
one-eyed mountain yeti, riding a unicycle and wearing nothing but a
subject change."
Izumo sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Okay, seriously, when did this become everyone's goddamn
issue?" he said, completely ignoring Genma's attempt to change
the subject. "Why are we all suddenly wrapped up in this? Hey,
Genma, to be fair? No offense, man, but we did our part. We got the
kid into tech. I think we're all going to have to take a giant step
back now and try and get back to ourselves. If you want to keep
obsessing over the frosh, that's your business, but...hey, he's a
nice kid. But I don't think I can handle running around to keep him
and you in check anymore. One day was enough."
"You
did all I asked, and more. I don't understand when this became your
problem, either. You could have stepped back hours ago. I'm not
asking anything of you, you know." Genma sounded critically
tired again, and otherwise completely unattached to the words exiting
his mouth.
"I'm worried about you, asshole!" Kotetsu
shoved Genma into Raidou.
Raidou continued eating nachos like
nothing was happening. If it got serious, he'd say something. "So,
Aoba. Nice weather we're having, don't you think?"
"I
don't recall requesting your concern, Ko." Genma was just plain
tired, and the words were perfectly true, and perfectly tactless.
Izumo reached over and punched Genma solidly in the shoulder.
"Don't
be a jackass, Genma. We're your friends." He pulled back,
looking disgruntled. "That is exactly why we went out of our way
to help you. But now he's in tech, and that means you go home,
sleep, get better, and get into his pants or whatever so Kotetsu and
I can finish up our bet, eh?" His tone had smoothly slid from
terse to joking, and he reached over to pat the shoulder he'd just
hit. "Cause, come on, man. You're Genma fucking Shiranui. Aren't
you the most suave kid in school?"
"Not right this
minute, I'm not. Right this minute, my name is mud, and I think I
have an appointment with a coma." Genma rolled his head to the
side, having lost the power to turn it properly. "Hey, Ko? Have
I told you you're lucky? Because you are."
Kotetsu glared
at Genma for a long moment and then leaned forward and hugged him. "I
know exactly how lucky I am. And I know how lucky I'm not going to
get if you don't quit trying to be a badass, and fucking go
home."
Raidou hailed the waitress, and quietly asked for
a box for the nachos. He'd be sleeping on Genma's floor tonight, and
he figured it was more important to get Genma home than to finish
eating.
"Izumo, please just fuck him, already. Please?
I'm so tired of hearing about how much he wants you." Genma
grinned over Kotetsu's shoulder. He wheezed a bit when the sophomore
in his arms punched him in the back.
"Oh fuck you and go
get yours already." Izumo wasn't entirely serious, though, as he
nibbled at what was left of his grilled cheese. The waitress came by
with the box for Raidou and the check just before Hayate returned
from the bathroom, wiping his hands on his pants. He coughed as he
slid into the booth, picking up his vanilla shake to sip at it a
little more before they left.
Raidou boxed the nachos and
picked up the check. "Dinner is on me. You are not permitted to
argue at this time. You want to throw money at me later, fine, but
that's later. Not now. Right now, you two get up." He pointed to
Kotetsu and Izumo. "And, Ko, help Genma up. I think his knee's
probably gone out again."
"Fuck you, my knee is
fine. There is nothing wrong with my fucking knee." Genma
snarled, grumpily. Izumo rolled his eyes as he slid out of the booth,
and Kotetsu helped Genma up anyway despite the vehement protests.
Hayate sucked one last fast sip out of the shake before getting up --
a little too fast, because he pulled it away coughing and wiping his
mouth and nose. Aoba raised an eyebrow, patting him on the
back.
"You okay there, kid?"
Hayate nodded,
getting to his feet, and blew his nose in a stray napkin left on the
table. Genma hugged Izumo and Kotetsu, one in each arm. "Thanks.
Really. For that thing I asked for." He limped over and hugged
Hayate, too, as Raidou got up and started shaking hands. "And
thank you for coming out again. A lot." He waved to Aoba, and
then leaned on Raidou's arm, so they could leave. Hayate just sort of
stared at Genma briefly and opened his mouth to say something, but
then he closed it and just sniffled a little. They watched Raidou
help Genma outside to Annie, and Izumo clapped Hayate lightly on the
shoulder.
"Come on, kiddo. Aoba can give you a lift
home." He gestured toward the door, and Aoba nodded with a
half-grin.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. I usually give
these two kids rides anyway." They started for the door, Hayate
following behind, his sandals dragging on the floor. "We'll get
you home all right, kid."
- 5
- 6
- 7
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Corybantic Dance