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Karasu is having a good day. He spent the last night with his boyfriend, Hiori (Isagi was gone, thank god), Otoya hasn’t pissed him off yet, and he’s progressed one chapter further into his mystery novel.
He dove into training with good spirits. He wasn’t even that bothered upon realizing he had forgotten his water bottle in his room. And so now, he’s sauntering back to his dorm, posture a little more upright than usual.
Upon his trek, Karasu notices a packet of paper scattered in a hallway corner. It’s an odd and uncommon sight, but is certainly of no significance to him; probably some drawings Bachira accidentally scattered considering its placement by his room. He wants to ignore it so he can get back to practicing drills.
Always an analytic creature, Karasu turns and picks the papers up. Hey, who knows, maybe it’ll be that lesser king Barou’s secret tactics.
Eyes darting around the sheet, the first thing that catches his attention is his own name scattered among the pages. Many times. In fact, these papers seem to be a print out of a story. Not only that, but Otoya’s name appears quite a bit too. He gingerly flips through the pages.
Otoya leaned into Karasu, who was eagerly awaiting that pressure on his lips--
He shuts the packet close. He breathes in, and then lets it out in an extended sigh.
...Who the hell wrote this?
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One of the most irritating experiences of his life had to be getting locked in a closet by that little bastard Niko, who apparently specialized in this task after trapping Sendou and Aiku once. The other most irritating experience of his life was then having to listen to Otoya– who was in there with him– make sound effects the whole time.
He’s sure Niko has no real investment in his and Otoya’s relationship, definitely not enough to write a story about it. But now that he thinks about it, Karasu never really investigated who made that special request of Niko; the aftermath was mainly blocking Niko’s shots as often as he could and trying to run damage control with Hiori.
“Who wrote this?” Karasu demands as he storms into a room and spots Niko’s fluffy hair.
“Wrote what?”
Karasu holds up the papers. “It’s romantic fiction of me and that dumb ninja,” Karasu says plainly. “Sound similar?”
Niko shifts a bit, and then turns away. “I kept telling them that Real Person Fiction is problematic...” Niko mutters under his breath.
“Those the same dunderheads who paid ya off to be a pain in my side?”
“What do you mean paid, the closet thing was an accident,” Niko says innocently. Karasu can even catch a glimpse of him looking up with big, innocent eyes underneath his bangs. It doesn’t work. “Hmm. Nagi likes writing fanfiction though.”
Ah. Of course, Nagi. That guy who (annoyingly) beat them during Second Selection and then insisted that he didn’t want to see him and Otoya separate. He wasn’t aware thoughts as... detailed... as this story ran through that seal’s head, but he supposes that guy’s extraordinary enough to catch him off guard in multiple different ways.
“Damn it, Nagi,” Karasu says, his ire for both the story and the closet incident transferring over to the white-haired striker. “See ya around, Niko.”
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“Hey, shitty sloth. The king and the anxious-musclehead not keeping ya busy enough?” Karasu snipes. Nagi has a propensity for creating inane tales about some ‘maid Barou’, which occasionally incorporated that ball of anxiety Tokimitsu. Karasu has read one of them once; he found it crazy funny. It’s less funny now that it involves him.
“Huh...” Nagi mumbles, not even addressing Karasu with his eyes open. He’s still slumped over on the lunch table, probably waiting around for Reo to come dote on him.
“Keep writing ya damn stories, but leave me the hell out of it,” Karasu threatens. “Or I’ll make ya regret it.”
Nagi finally opens his eyes at the challenge. “What? You don’t like maid Barou?”
“No, this damn novella about me and the ninja,” Karasu says. “Don’t ya play games with Yo? We’re dating, ya know?”
“I know,” Nagi says, and then he goes back to sleeping.
“Oi!” Karasu whacks Nagi on the head with the paper.
“Uuuugh...”
“I’m tellin’ ya, leave me out of this stuff!” Karasu harps, continually striking Nagi, who just whines and lets it happen.
“I didn’t write that...” Nagi mutters. In all honesty, Karasu knew this already; the cursed document was far too long to be made by the hands of this hassle monster. He had an inkling that Nagi probably encouraged its creation, considering his strange admiration of Karasu and Otoya’s whatever during Second Selection.
“Then who did?” Karasu interrogates. “Tell me or I’m gonna continue whacking ya.”
“Uhm...” Nagi opens his eyes, and scans the room. “Uhhhhmmm. Otoya.” Clearly, he just went for the first name he saw.
“Otoya,” Karasu repeats. “That’s the best ya can do?”
“Yes,” Nagi says, no shame.
“Nagi! Training!” a voice calls from another room. Nagi perks up, ever so slightly. Damn it– that’s about as much questioning he’s going to get out of Nagi right now.
“I’ll be back,” Karasu promises, menacing as ever. He leaves, one purple haired presence replaced by another.
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Karasu barely gets two rooms in when he hears a bundle of laughter. For a group of womanizers, they sure as hell sound like a clique of high school girls giggling.
He peers into the room, and sees Imamura and Sendou hawking at one of Otoya’s dumb impressions. Otoya flaps two hands up and down, and deadpans out a “caw caw.”
Karasu slips into the room and before he realizes it, he’s grabbing Otoya’s ugly green streak and shaking him around. “What the hell are ya doing, ya nasty ninja?!” Karasu barks.
“Ah... spiky crow...” Otoya says lamely.
“Hahaha! You summoned him, Otoya-chan!” Imamura cries out, laughing a little too hard. All three of these dolts get on Karasu’s nerves, but for some reason, Imamura in particular grates on him.
“He’s so noisy~” Otoya sighs, which only makes Karasu tighten his grip on Otoya’s pitiful hair.
“What’s this?” Sendou asks, before snatching the packet right out of Karasu’s hold. He guffaws as he scans the front page. “Otoya, look, it’s about-- Oh.” He sets it down, probably the only person other than Karasu disturbed by this document. “It’s one of those trashy novels...about t-two men...”
“It’s fuckin’ weird, but not trashy, ya foxbrain,” Karasu snaps. Otoya takes it from Sendou, who looks like he wants to drop it anyway.
“Woah, this is wild...” Otoya comments. His gaze focuses on Karasu as he holds up one of the pages. His voice lowers, becoming softer. “Tabi-chan, I like you a lot, you know...”
Karasu snatches the packet out of Otoya’s hold with a speed he usually reserves for the field. He feels weirdly warm, especially in the face. “Shut ya damn mouth, idiot Ninja. You’re comin’ with me.” He starts dragging Otoya out by the hair-- might as well make Otoya suffer about this debacle too.
“Ehhh? Nooo! Don’t take me away from my boys...!” Otoya calls out, with the most emotion in his voice he’s had this entire conversation. It ticks something off in Karasu.
Isn’t he one of Otoya’s ‘boys’, too?
Sendou just laughs, but Imamura reaches out for him dramatically. “I’ll retrieve you from his talons, Otoya-sensei!” Imamura cries out.
“Thanks, Imamu! You’re my goat! Ack!” Karasu proceeds to yank Otoya’s hair so hard the ninja starts stuttering from pain. If Otoya likes Imamura so much, he might as well link up with him on the field; Karasu will be delighted to see how mind-numbingly bored the ninja will get with that average loser.
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“Eugh. Oi, bothersome crow, I think you pulled some of my hair out,” Otoya groans, flattening his hair down with his hands. Karasu is storming down a hallway while Otoya is casually drifting along behind him. “What’s got your feathers all fluffed up, anyway?”
“Seriously? Ya ain’t got a problem with this, at all?” Karasu says, shaking around the papers.
Otoya shrugs. “It’s just a story, Kara-chan. Lighten up, man.”
“Maybe yer two-timing ass can’t see the problem, but I have a boyfriend,” Karasu bites out. “This kinda stuff is just disrespectful to Yo and I. End of case.”
“Hey, speaking of your LOML,” Otoya points out. Hiori is sitting concentrated on a bench, typing away at his phone.
“Oh,” Karasu says, his demeanor immediately softening. Hiori startles a bit, but waves at both of them kindly. “Yo. I thought you were training?”
“Uhm, I...” Hiori hesitates. Karasu shuffles closer to Hiori and glimpses at what he’s writing.
“Jeez, ya know the magician’s gonna tear ya a new one for that, right?” Karasu sighs, scanning over Hiori’s fictional narrative about the involvements of one Isagi Yoichi and an annoying blonde German.
“He’s not gonna know... I only show Isagi anyway, and he’d rather do death drills than let this leak,” Hiori laughs, pillow-soft. Karasu huffs before leaning in to press a gentle kiss into Hiori’s lips. He’s pleased for a second, until Otoya whistles.
Karasu spins around to glare at him, grip twitching as it tightens on the packet with the temptation to chuck it at the ninja. The only thing stopping him is that it is Hiori’s.
“Hey, hey, I was just supporting you and the huzz, bro,” Otoya protests, defensively waving his hands around. Karasu sees red.
Karasu spends the next five minutes haranguing Otoya about this, that, and the other. Otoya continually provokes him the whole damn time, giving him non-committal responses or responses that piss him off even more.
At some point, Karasu realizes that he’s ignoring his beautiful, extraordinary boyfriend for his annoying, extraordinary best friend. And what the hell, he’s a bit too close for comfort to said best friend.
When he turns back to his boyfriend, Hiori is staring at the both of them intently.
“I need ta’ dash, Yo. Ya better hide that, ‘cause I’m not saving ya from Ness once he sniffs out what yer doing.” (He would, and is already actively planning to, protect him from any detractors.) He pauses. “See ya tonight.”
“See ya, Tabi,” Hiori responds lightly.
Karasu drags Otoya out and continues lecturing his ear off. But behind that, he can only think about how Hiori was eyeing them the entire time.
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“Never call Yo the ‘huzz’ again, especially not to his face,” Karasu harps.
“He didn’t mind,” Otoya shrugs. “Anyway, am I being dragged around for fun, or do you need me for something? I got a date I need to prep for.”
“I don’t need ya for a damn thing, but I’m making ya come with me anyway,” Karasu huffs. Otoya puffs out a ‘bruh’ but doesn’t protest otherwise. “I still need to find who the hell wrote this...”
“Where’d you find it anyway? Hard to believe the author would just leave this lying around,” Otoya notes.
“Near Bachira’s dorm,” Karasu recollects. “But there’s no way that guy cares about this kind of thing.” He’s not sure anything goes on in Bachira’s brain other than soccer and bothering people, honestly.
“Hell yeah! Let’s go check out my bee homeboy! Think I need to get back my hairclip from him, anyway,” Otoya cheers. Otoya and Bachira have a mix of each other’s trinkets, because both of them regularly lend items and forget to give it back and get it back.
“Where’s he? Training right now?” Karasu asks. Karasu knows most of the other Blue Locker’s schedules pretty well, but Bachira tends to switch things up on a whim.
“I don’t know, this way maybe?” Otoya says, clearly just waltzing in a random direction like a headless chicken. Karasu sighs. He supposes he’ll trust the ninja’s ‘go with the flow’ technique for now.
Miraculously, it works, and they find Bachira humming as he fills up two water bottles. Funny, Isagi usually does that part for them.
“Hey! Nin-nin!” Bachira says happily. “And spikehead!” Karasu nods his head in greeting.
“Yo, Karasu-chan is getting his panties in a twist over this, seen it before?” Otoya asks, holding up the papers. Karasu wants to hit him again, but he decides not to in favor of gaining information.
“Oh, yeah totally!” Bachira beams. “I had a sleepover with Yoichi last night, and I think he brought that over!”
“Yer telling me Isagi Yoichi wrote this?” Karasu deadpans.
“He was holding onto it for a friend. I don’t remember who though.” Bachira shrugs.
“Why are you filling up your water bottle? Usually I get somebody else to do it for me,” Otoya questions. ‘Somebody else’ rolls his eyes next to him.
“Heehee! Yocchan didn’t get much sleep last night because I kept jumping on the bed, so I’m helping out with this.” Bachira sticks his tongue out humorously, a quick show of the menace Isagi had to (probably happily) endure. “He’s in the training room. Wanna train with us?!”
Karasu turns, gaze calculating. “We’ll meet ya there.”
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When they enter the training room, they can see Isagi perk up and then visibly deflate. Mediocre little shit.
“Hey, do you guys need anything?” Isagi asks, trying to be helpful anyway.
“Why did you have this on you?” Karasu urges, showing the packet of paper. He can see Isagi grimace a little.
“I must’ve left it behind this morning since I was so tired...” Isagi responds in lieu of answering.
“Hey. Answer me, ya dunderhead.”
“...You really want to know? You’re sure?” Isagi cringes.
“Hey, now I’m curious too,” Otoya says. “C’mon~ Spill, sprout boy.”
“Ok, then. Karasu, you know how you spent the night with Hiori yesterday?” He pauses, glancing around like he’s watching for something. Karasu clicks his tongue in annoyance for Isagi to just get on with it. Isagi sighs. “Yeah, he gave it to me for last-minute safekeeping so you wouldn’t find out. That’s all Hiori. Don’t kick the messenger.”
Karasu breathes in. Breathes out.
“...I figured. Damn it.”
“Why the hell’d you drag me around all day for, then?” Otoya whines, slouching in complaint. Karasu ignores him.
“Really? How could you tell?” Isagi questions.
“It has his damn writing style over it. Besides, he was acting suspicious today.”
“Really? He seemed pretty normal to me,” Otoya inputs, as if given his brainless mindset he’s ever been suspicious of others ever.
“That Kaisagi fic he was ‘workin’ on. He already finished that one weeks ago. I remember it,” Karasu recalls. Isagi visibly winces. He turns to Isagi. “Yer a shit safekeeper, by the way. Ya left Yo’s writing on the dirty ass ground.”
“Seriously?” Isagi complains, feeling like Karasu’s irritation is misplaced.
“Let’s play a game guys!” Bachira exclaims, entering the room while swinging his water bottles back and forth. For the first time since Karasu and Otoya have entered the room, Isagi has a spark of happiness on his face.
Otoya raises a double thumbs up. “Yeah, su-”
“Sorry, bee boy,” Karasu interrupts. “We got a shitty gamer to confront.” Otoya again protests that Karasu is ‘isolating him from his bros’, but follows willingly as Karasu drags him to seek out a certain sheep boy.
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“You know, if Hiori thinks it’s hot, we can kiss. Fujoshis are crazy but I like crazy.”
“Can it, ninja. Also, it’s fudanshi.”
Karasu and Otoya squabble all the way to Hiori’s room. When they open the door, the boy is turned over in his bed, faking sleep.
“Hey, Hiochan,” Otoya says. “Yer busted,” in an imitation of their accent. Karasu sits down by Hiori’s head and flutters the papers over his head tauntingly. Otoya takes the annoying option, which is to sit behind Karasu in the cramped space between his back and the headboard. Karasu can feel the warmth on the back and his side.
“C’mon, ya ultrasadist, get up.”
Hiori rolls over, his head settling in Karasu’s lap. He has a small pout on his face. It’s incredibly endearing.
“Ok, fine, I wrote it,” Hiori confesses. He pauses. “I don’t regret it.”
Karasu wrinkles his nose. “Why the hell are ya pairing me and that dumbass ninja together?”
Hiori frowns. “It’s hot?”
“Oh we gotta kiss now, dude,” Otoya bemuses. Karasu flicks his forehead and he slumps in protest, warmth pressing further into Karasu.
“Shut it ya dunce. It’s hot?”
“Ya look good when yer angry,” Hiori reasons. “And, I dunno, Otoya-chan is pretty cool I think.”
Karasu huffs. “Ya sadist...”
“Are ya gonna tell me to stop?” Hiori pouts more clearly, looking at Karasu with big, innocent eyes. His cheek is squished against Karasu’s thighs in an effort to look more cutesy. Unfortunately for Karasu, it works like a charm.
“...Damn it, ya shitty gamer,” Karasu groans. He can feel the warmth emanating from Hiori curling into his lap, and the heat from Otoya pressing into his back. If he tries hard enough, he can feel both of their heartbeats thumping in rhythm. As Karasu processes, Hiori crawls further into Karasu’s lap, and Otoya rests his chin on Karasu’s shoulder. “I-It’s fine, I guess.”
Hiori smiles. “Ah, I’m so glad... Hey, if you two are already here, how do ya feel about actin’ out a part of my fiction?”
“Hell naw!”
“Aw...” Hiori pouts.
Otoya starts, ignoring Karasu’s rejection. “‘Hey, Kara-chan. You wanna go training?’”
“I said I’m not doing that! None of that!”
Eventually, they goad Karasu into roleplaying the story. None of them take it seriously, and Karasu has to resist giving Hiori an especially aggressive noogie during some of the more heated scenes. But they stay, cramped together on that small bed, and Karasu senses that maybe something has changed.