#alas this would have to be a multi-chap and i don't write those anymore

[himebushou]

Buddy Daddies AU – Delinquents in High School!

(Inspired by Crows Zero ❤) 

Kurusu Kazuki, a senior, is considered the king of Blue Sky High.  He might not be the toughest but he’s definitely the smartest and he uses that to his advantage.  Everyone fears Akasagi, his band of loyal followers

One day, an upstart freshman named Suwa Rei turns up at Blue Sky and starts taking everyone out.  For his own reasons, Rei wants to be the king of the school!

However, he’s unable to pick fights with Kazuki effectively because Kazuki always knows what Rei’s planning.  This is because Rei has literally no ability to strategise (“Attacking from the front again, rookie?  Try something else!”)

Rei’s Backstory

In this AU, Rei’s relationship with Suwa Shigeki is pretty different.  Rei still shows a lot of deference to his father/boss (he’s only allowed to call Shigeki ‘Father’ outside of work environments), but uh… he’s not descended from a line of hitmen, lol

Shigeki probably runs some fancy company?  I’m tempted to go with a very old, very grandiose publishing house because of the sheer number of books we saw in his study

In this AU, Shigeki takes a fair amount of advice from his right-hand man, Kaji Satoru, who is Rei’s mentor.  When Rei’s in his early teens, Satoru points out that Rei’s a shut-in and doesn’t have much experience of the world, which is going to make it tough for him to thrive in business environments where he’ll have to read people constantly

Shigeki asks what Satoru suggests and Satoru says that they should throw Rei in at the deep end and enrol him in a crummy all-boys’ high school called Blue Sky High.  Shigeki basically retorts that Rei will attend a dump over his dead body, but Satoru shoots back that, well, if Rei can survive even a year in an environment like that, he can survive anywhere

Shigeki agrees at last… and then lets Rei know that he’s being chucked out for a while

So Rei starts living with Kaji Satoru, because, of course, he needs back up.  He’s a bit suspicious because Satoru seems to disappear in the evenings… but on the whole, Satoru is a good adult in Rei’s life, mentoring him and training him to be physically strong

(Rei was trained to be physically strong because Shigeki’s of the mentality that a man can only thrive in business if he’s strong in every way – physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.)

Satoru’s the one who encourages Rei to become the king of Blue Sky High as this will prove to Shigeki that Rei will be able to take over the Suwa publishing house when the time comes

Poor Rei, however, has a deep, dark secret… he doesn’t know how to tell his dad that he’d rather read a manga than a novel…

 The Present Day

The troubles at school are escalating and one of the fights between Rei and Kazuki ends with a lot of blood being spilt (Rei was finally able to come up with a plan!).  The issue, however, is that Akasagi and Rei’s faction (which he didn’t even put together, by the way; it’s just a bunch of guys who thought that Rei was cool and started following him around – they call themselves Aoko) are now taking their fights beyond the school gates and causing mischief across the city.  This is a very bad look

As such, Kugi Kyuutarou, who attended and ruled over Blue Sky just prior to Kazuki’s enrolment, calls the pair out for a meeting.  Rei looks at the megane man and thinks, “Whomst??” but Kazuki is pretty terrified because he knows of Kyuu-chan’s reputation (also, Kyuu-chan encourages people to call him that so that he’s underestimated by outsiders)

Kyuu-chan tells the pair to KNOCK IT OFF, OR ELSE. Kazuki raises his hands, acquiescing – Rei, however, is about to give Kyuu-chan a bit of his mind when Kazuki drags him away, warning, “He’s the last person you want to irritate.  NINE are pretty legendary, you know.”

“NINE?”

“You out-of-towners don’t know anything! Listen.  You and I have pretty big groups, right?  But, back in the day, Kyuu-chan ruled Blue Sky with only nine people.  And they’re still loyal to him.”

Rei is confused as to why Kazuki’s suddenly doling out advice; Kazuki chirps, “Just looking out for my underclassman!” and swans away

A few weeks pass.  Akasagi and Aoko are finding the ceasefire tense, but they’re getting on with it.  Rei thinks idly of how empty the school day can feel without fighting and Kazuki contemplates ways to make a quick buck – he’s got rent to pay and his cleaning jobs aren’t quite meeting the mark

One day, Kazuki hauls Rei aside (Rei is pretty indignant about this) and comments how it’s obvious that Rei is pining to get his hands dirty.  Rei asks whether the truce is dead and Kazuki laughs.  “Not a chance, but I might have something even better.”

He leads Rei to an underground fighting ring. Kazuki comments that he knows Rei’s goal is to get stronger, but he can’t do that without fighting… so here’s a solution.  Rei thinks about the fact that he lost a spar against his mentor just the previous night, so he agrees to be one of Blue Sky’s fighters

This arrangement goes on for a little while. Each time Rei gets badly injured, Kazuki patches him up and encourages him to get back in the ring.  Rei queries why Kazuki’s being so helpful and Kazuki insists that Rei should stop asking questions and just respect his elders

“Sure… Kazuki-sempai.”

“Don’t take it too far!”

(Before this point, Rei just called him, “Kurusu!” with a lot of animosity)

Then… the next time Rei’s in the ring, he notices something in his peripheral vision.  Kazuki’s placing bets!  And he hasn’t shared the profits!  Rei is so mad that he deliberately loses the fight, making Kazuki lose a bundle

Afterwards, Kazuki is steaming.  He demands to know why Rei would do such a thing and Rei gets a bit lofty, saying that Kazuki shouldn’t be benefitting from Rei’s work without splitting the profits.  Kazuki snaps that the truce is off, regardless of what may or may not happen with NINE.  Rei grabs Kazuki and demands to know where his money is – sempai retaliates by headbutting Rei hard

Fighting breaks out across Blue Sky High again (some of the students are a bit relieved; all this truce stuff was dull!).  Now that Akasagi and Aoko are fighting again, the other factions also get antsy.  Kazuki’s irritated because spending all this time coming up with elaborate plans to deal with Rei is cutting into time where he could be making money. However, Kazuki is far too proud to consider giving up his crown

Then, things suddenly get hard for Rei – Satoru announces that he has to leave for a couple of weeks and suggests that Rei go back to the main house.  Rei says that he can’t possibly do that: he’s anticipating a final showdown between himself and Kazuki in the next few days and, besides, he wants to see what it’s like to live alone.  Satoru asks ARE YOU SURE? and Rei’s all YES I’M SURE and Satoru leaves Rei with some emergency numbers before scooting off

Within three days, Rei’s house is a tip.  He’s hungry!  He’s sad!  He desperately calls one of the numbers Satoru left for a cleaner…

And who should show up but Kurusu Kazuki?

Rei: (⊙_⊙)

Kazuki: (⊙_⊙)

Rei tries to close the door in Kazuki’s face; Kazuki sticks his foot in the way and barges in regardless, saying A JOB’S A JOB and that Rei’d better pay him fairly.  Rei demands to know what Kazuki’s doing there but Kazuki is just looking around the apartment, assessing the damage.  Then, he gets Rei to stand in one spot while he starts cleaning

“How have you survived while living like this, Suwa?  I thought you came from money!”

“It’s not always like this.  Usually, Satoru-san’s here and he takes care of this kind of thing…”

“So how long has this guy been away?”

“Three days.”

“THREE DAYS?!?”

Then, just when Kazuki’s nearly finished cleaning, he sees Rei boiling some water for instant noodles.  He flips out and ends up cooking for Rei instead (Rei’s fridge is full of some nice ingredients; Rei watches Kazuki cook very carefully to make sure there’s no poison involved – Kazuki takes it as an opportunity to give Rei a cooking lesson since Blue Sky is too rundown to have any facilities for Home Economics).  Of course, Kazuki ends up eating, too

Rei points out that it’s super weird that they’re hanging out like this when they’re supposed to be thinking of ways to kill each other.  Kazuki rubs the back of his head and says yeah, maybe, but work is work and, when Rei grows up a bit, he’ll be able to tell the difference.  Rei gets annoyed at being patronised – Kazuki realises that he actually feels a bit bad about looking down on Rei and comes to the conclusion that Rei might be a bit cool.  This is a bizarre epiphany for Kazuki so he changes the subject and asks what’s the deal with Rei and who’s this guy who normally cleans the house?

For reasons that Rei can’t quite pinpoint later, he ends up telling Kazuki about his dad and how he needs to rule over Blue Sky. Kazuki sparkles and says, “Wow, I’m a real thorn in your side, huh?”  Rei scowls. Then Kazuki says, well, let’s find out where your mentor is.  It’s pretty weird that he left without a word

Kazuki gets a laptop and starts tapping away; Rei is pretty fascinated and just like, “Huh… so you can do stuff like this too?” Kazuki gloats, “Yeah, your sempai’s an amazing guy~!” and Rei quips, “And a modest one.”

Soon, Kazuki’s able to pinpoint Satoru’s location and he laughs, telling Rei where Satoru is.  Rei’s like??  Where’s that??  Kazuki says that Satoru’s at some famously romantic location, which means he’s there with a significant other.  Then Kazuki sighs, saying that Rei’s mentor is lucky to have someone in his life

“What’s your story?  Why are you good at all of this stuff?”

Kazuki says wryly that he had to learn to fend for himself from a pretty young age.  He mentions blithely that his parents abandoned him when he was a child. Outwardly, Rei doesn’t express much – but he thinks that what Kazuki has just revealed is pretty shocking.  He wonders if Kazuki says important things casually as a defence mechanism – and then Rei realises with a start that he’s changing as he can now recognise things like when someone’s using a defence mechanism

Kazuki finally gets up to leave; Rei sticks his hands in his pockets and asks Kazuki if they’re back to normal tomorrow.  “Of course,” says Kazuki.  “In fact, let’s decide things once and for all.”  Kazuki names a time and Rei agrees, thinking that it’d be better to deal with Akasagi sooner rather than later.  The more time he spends with Kazuki, the more Rei finds his will to fight the third year diminishing

There’s an eerie stillness over the school… then, a few days later, the entirety of Akasagi and Aoko, who’ve made alliances with other factions in the school, show up in the schoolyard.  The fight is RIDICULOUS.  It is BRUTAL.  But then –

Who should appear but rivals from other schools?!?

It turns out that quite a few folk developed beef towards Blue Sky High students through the underground fighting ring – and a lot of them want to destroy Rei!  It turns into Blue Sky vs. The World!

Kazuki saves Rei and yells, “You owe me!”

Rei saves Kazuki about thirty seconds later and shouts, “My debt’s repaid!”

The two team up and try to go for the head honcho – but this kid plays dirty and is hard to get to.  It looks like it’s all over when –

ENTER!  NINE!

Kyuu-chan tells Kazuki and Rei that this has got messy; NINE wouldn’t get involved in some schoolyard brawl but people’s brothers, dads and uncles are showing up.  NINE will clear a path and suppress the damage; Rei and Kazuki just have to go for the big guy!

There’s a massive showdown with the head honcho. Rei and Kazuki are a beautiful team.  There is blood.  There is fire.  The word “Partner!” is said in earnest.  Ultimately, Rei and Kazuki win

Post-battle, everyone is on the ground, dead (or thereabouts).  They hear police sirens.  Kyuu-chan rocks up and says that Rei and Kazuki, as two ringleaders, have to get out of there. Rei and Kazuki look at each other, share a cool-guy-nod, and vamoose

The police make many, many arrests

Post the big battle, there are some huge changes at Blue Sky High.  Students clean up the school and there’s an attempt at actually bringing in a syllabus. Students are disciplined appropriately. This is all spearheaded by the new headteacher, Principal Hanyu, who is extremely kind but who has ‘accidentally’ let the students know that she’s super strong

Kazuki and Rei actually get an education, lol.  They also bond with the people of Akasagi and Aoko who were loyal to them

All of a sudden, it’s graduation day.  Rei goes to find Kazuki and Kazuki’s like, “Hey, look what the cat dragged in!  You must be sad that your favourite sempai is graduating, huh?” and Rei says yeah, it stinks that Kazuki’s leaving as things won’t be as interesting anymore.  Kazuki’s a bit ! but returns Rei’s sentiments; he’s definitely never met anyone as wild or interesting as Rei

Then, Kazuki asks whether Rei’s done at Blue Sky and will be going back home.  Rei says yes – and lets Kazuki know that his mentor’s getting married.  “Some men have all the luck,” Kazuki grumbles

Kazuki says that he has a feeling that he and Rei will run into each other again, someday.  Rei looks sceptical and Kazuki’s like, “What?  Are you worried that you won’t recognise me?  Okay, let’s get a memento.”  He grabs Rei’s phone, yanks Rei into the frame and takes a selfie of the two of them together.  Checking the screen, Kazuki grimaces and says, “Well, I guess that’ll do.”  Rei asks doesn’t Kazuki need a memento, too? Kazuki answers that Rei shouldn’t worry; Kazuki’s texting the photo to himself

“So I have your number?”

“Pfft!  Only for emergencies.  Got it?”

Kazuki starts to swan away, calling, “Till next time, Suwa Rei!”

Rei calls, “Thanks for your hard work, Kazuki.”

Kazuki stops dead and turns around.  “WHERE’S MY RESPECT?”

Rei shrugs.  “You’ve graduated now.  As far as I’m concerned, I don’t need to call you ‘sempai’ anymore.”  Kazuki rolls his eyes, but, as he walks off, he feels pretty excited about the next time he’ll cross paths with Suwa Rei.

 Epilogue

Several years pass…

Kugi Kyuutarou finally achieves his dream of opening his own café – Mistletoe Café.  He invites a particular pair of idiots along to the opening and so, Kauzki and Rei finally meet again (neither changed their number in all that time, but they didn’t find occasion to call each other, either)

Kazuki and Rei end up bumbling around together for a couple of years, for whatever reason.  I think Rei might have found the wherewithal to tell Shigeki that he wants to start his own publishing house and focus on working with mangaka instead. Rei’s contemplating opening a bookshop – but wait, wouldn’t it be more successful if it had a coffee shop attached? Kazuki is pretty good as a front-of-house guy.  Business partners?

Suddenly, the delinquents!AU turns into a book/coffeeshop!AU

And then, Miri falls from the sky…

 Notes

Throughout this story, there are side scenes of Rei feeding and talking to stray cats.  Older Rei definitely has a cat or two

So, Ogino!  He is an extremely creepy English teacher at Blue Sky High.  He’s a big fan of the Suwa publishing house and is hard on Rei since he wants Rei’s words to be more satisfactory.  Also, no one has the temerity to start fighting in any of Ogino’s classes.  He’s a bit of a side character and is just there to add even more conflict to Rei’s life

I guess Kazuki would need a bit more character growth?  But the main change for him is probably how he grows to admire Rei and see him as an equal. Maybe, after Principal Hanyu revolutionises Blue Sky, Kazuki hangs out at Rei’s house from time to time?  That could be pretty fun!

In canon, Kazuki and Rei are juuust too far apart, age-wise, to have been able to attend the same high school.  However, this is an AU, so we can fudge the ages!

Akasagi comes from a dodgy portmanteau of ‘red’ and ‘rabbit’.  Lily draws Kazuki in a lot of bunny-themed stuff, so I guess that’s the animal I’d most likely associate with our beloved man.  Besides, LU BU’S horse was literally called Red Hare, so why not!

Aoko is a dodgy portmanteau of ‘blue’ and ‘cat’ (for obvious reasons).  Kazuki was VERY ANNOYED when Rei’s followers called themselves this because hello? The school is called Blue Sky? And then the rookies have the GALL to add ‘blue’ to their name?  It makes them sound too official!

In this AU, Kazuki and Rei both run around in ponytails while they’re teenagers (PLEASE SEE LILY’S ART FOR REFERENCE)

Rei spends a fair chunk of this AU like this :<

Kazuki spends some of the AU like this ¬¬

The fic would be called either Blue Sky Blues / Aozora Blues

#buddy daddies #buddy daddies fic #suwa rei #kurusu kazuki #LONG POST! #A MASSIVE POST! #even the PLAN for this fic comes in at 3k? #alas this would have to be a multi-chap and i don't write those anymore #so please have my scribbles instead #(if you read the entirety of this post... i genuinely thank you) #and please watch crows zero! #blue sky blues