#look at his dumb cute little bowl cut. if they forget his mole I will gladly draw it on myself. it's very important. to me. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

musicprincess655 · 6 years

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“Today, we’ll be moving on from our discussion of using your surroundings to boost the power of your spells to putting it into practice,” Kataoka said. Jun tried not to groan. He understood the theory perfectly, had worked through it in his spare time, and knew it inside and out.

That didn’t mean he could actually do it, though.

It was halfway through the second semester, well into autumn, and Jun was no closer to finding a solution to his problem than he’d been at the beginning of the year. It was hard to even still feel the same sense of urgency anymore. The problem was starting to become an old one.

One he would never solve, that voice in the back of his head whispered.

Maybe he really should take Takashima up on her offer to join her research group. It couldn’t be worse than this, right? And he could apply for a stipend as a researcher, so it would mean extra money for him. Which was a positive.

But he’d been trying to find a way to use magic, to really fit into the magical world he lived in, since he was young. Could he really quit that now, when he’d come so far? Was that really okay?

“Isashiki.” Jun jumped out of his musing at the sight of Kataoka standing in front of him. “You understand participation is fifty percent of the grade in my class, right?”

“Uh, yes,” Jun said, jumping to his feet. “Um, I can’t…”

“I really can’t give you credit for participation if you can’t complete the activity,” Kataoka told him bluntly. “I understand your situation, but it’s not fair to all the other students if you get credit when you haven’t done the same work as them.”

“I understand, sir.” Kataoka considered him.

“Whatever it is you need to figure out, figure it out,” Kataoka told him. “I’d rather have you on the team than not, and I don’t want you cut because of your grades.”

Jun bit his lip. Objectively, he knew all his professors had been more than fair to him when it came to actually doing magic. He was only really doing well in classes where he didn’t have to use magic, but he also wasn’t failing yet, and he wasn’t dumb enough to think it was because of his own skills.

***

“I promise, it’s just school stuff. But I will get offended if you don’t start taking this seriously.” Jun bowled another ball down the ramp, pumping his fist as it went into the 10,000 slot. He really had that one dialed in now. “It’s no fun beating someone that’s not trying.”

“Can I help with the school stuff?” Yuuki asked, bowling another shot directly into the 500 hoop, which really just existed to comfort people who didn’t know how to play skee-ball.

“Do you know how to incorporate the surrounding elements into a combat spell?” Jun asked, more to be a dick than anything else. Yuuki looked at him blankly. “Yeah, thought not.”

“I was hoping you just needed help studying or something,” Yuuki said. “I was going to offer to quiz you.”

“I appreciate the offer, I do, but studying is actually the only thing I’m good at,” Jun told him. “It’s all the practical stuff I’m bad at.”

“Isn’t your major practical magic?”

“You know, I’d actually managed to forget that for a while. Thanks for reminding me.”

Yuuki looked distressed enough that Jun felt bad for being such a dick. He was taking all his frustrations out on Yuuki, and that wasn’t fair. The whole reason he’d even suggested going to the arcade was so he could take his aggression out on helpless video games.

“So are you gonna keep letting me walk all over you?” Jun asked, giving Yuuki a grin to try and break the tension. “Because so far I’m kicking your ass from here to Sunday.”

“It’s been a while since I played this,” Yuuki admitted, managing to tip his ball into the 2,500 ring.

“Shouldn’t you have better hand eye coordination than me, Mr. Baseball Hotshot?” Jun asked. “By the way, you never told me how your coach took the sign. Tell me you have a picture of his face.”

Yuuki shook his head regretfully.

“I have to leave my phone in the locker room when I’m playing,” he said. “There’s no way for me to carry it. But trust me, your sign was worth it. I’ll be laughing at the look on his face until I graduate.”

“You better have someone ready to take a picture next year,” Jun said.

“Next year?”

“I mean, yeah, obviously I’ll have to come up with something better next year,” Jun said. “I have to keep them on their toes, or else they’ll get complacent.”

“They?”

“They.”

Jun threw his last ball and waited for Yuuki to throw his. Yuuki tried valiantly for the 10,000 slot, misjudged the throw and bounced off the rim for a sad addition of 500 instead.

“So that’s…two hundred twenty-five thousand on my end to your twelve thousand five hundred,” Jun said. “This round goes to me.”

It barely took Yuuki any time to gather his tickets, but Jun had to wait for his pile to print out. He stuffed them into the paper cup he was carrying around, just barely able to shove them all in.

“So do you think you could actually be good at any of these games?” Jun asked, looking around. “Wack-a-mole, maybe?”

“Cute.”

“Oh, how about this?” Jun asked, pointing to a shooter.

“Can you even win tickets on this?” Yuuki asked, eyeing the machine warily.

“Getting to shoot stuff is the prize,” Jun told him. “Come on, kill zombies with me.”

“Those are supposed to be zombies?”

“We’re not exactly playing this for the top of the line graphics, dude.”

Yuuki shrugged and picked up the gun on the left. Jun grinned, grabbing for the leftover gun and dropping some tokens in the machine.

The game started up, and Yuuki shot to select multiplayer. Huh. It looked like he was actually okay at this particular game.

“Take this, ya bastards!” Jun yelled, moving into kill mode. He thought he heard Yuuki chuckle next to him.

He was more than just okay, Jun discovered as the game started up. All of the skill he’d lacked in skee-ball was apparently just being saved for shooter games. Jun wasn’t doing bad on his own, but Yuuki was absolutely mowing his way through zombies. Jun would’ve been a little terrified if he wasn’t so attracted to Yuuki in that moment.

So he had a weakness for strong men who could slaughter zombies. Sue him.

Yuuki absolutely obliterated Jun’s score, and Jun couldn’t even be mad. It was clear who the winner had been here.

“Want to go another round?” Yuuki asked.

“I’m out of tokens,” Jun groaned. “You?”

“I only have one left.”

“Not enough for another round.”

They considered each other.

“Ready to cash out our tickets?” Jun asked.

“Yes, I’ll treasure my eraser for all eternity,” Yuuki deadpanned.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” Jun said. “Maybe you can afford a bouncy ball.”

“Luxury.”

It turned out that Yuuki could not, in fact, afford a bouncy ball. He took his eraser like a man. Jun looked over his options, trying to find something worthy of how badly he’d kicked Yuuki’s ass at skee-ball. He felt his face twist into a sharp grin when he saw the perfect item, pointing it out to the bored looking high schooler manning the counter.

“Here,” he said, grabbing Yuuki’s wrist and slipping something on. Yuuki looked down at his wrist, then back up at Jun.

“What.”

“Look, it says ‘best friends forever’ right here,” Jun said, turning the beads so they faced up. “Very manly. The greatest expression of male friendship.”

“This is what you spent your tickets on?”

“Well, there was some candy too, which I might be persuaded to share if you’re nice to me.”

“Friendship bracelets.”

“Hey man, don’t knock bonds formed in friendship bracelets.” Jun tried desperately to keep a straight face. He wasn’t as good at it as Yuuki. “You’ve been declared my best friend forever. You can never get rid of me now.”

“Bold of you to assume I was trying.”

“Oh man, it got late,” Jun said, pushing out the door. It was already dark. As if on cue, his stomach growled.

“Want to get dinner?”

“I could eat.”

They wandered into a family restaurant nearby. The warm lights and cheap food were the savior of broke university students everywhere.

“I know it’s still a little away, but what are you doing over winter break?” Yuuki asked.

“Going back to my parents’ house,” Jun told him. “We’re getting everyone together for the new year. You’re just staying here, right?”

“Yeah, it’s too much trouble to travel,” Yuuki said. “Especially since Masashi has practice during the break.”

“Must be nice to have everyone here,” Jun said. “It’s easier to have me travel back, even if I like it here.”

“You’re originally from Kanagawa prefecture, right?”

“Yeah. Maybe I’ll see you over spring vacation, though.”

“Probably not. It’s a longer break for me, so I’m going to visit some friends up north.”

“We could’ve planned this better.”

“It’s not my fault you never tell me things.” Yuuki did the closest thing Jun had ever seen to a pout on his face. “We’re supposed to be best friends forever.”

“I am already regretting the bracelets.” Jun rolled his eyes. “That’s it, give it back.”

“No, I’m keeping it forever.”

They lapsed into silence, finishing up the rest of their food.

“Are you sure I can’t help you with the school stuff?” Yuuki asked. “You seemed pretty upset about it earlier.”

“Yeah, it’s just…” Jun sighed. “Something I have to fix on my own. It’s a personal problem.”

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

“Will do.”

After a brief fight about the bill – that ended with Yuuki shoving cash into Jun’s hands for his half of the meal – they left. Saying their goodbyes, Jun headed in the direction of his apartment.

That hadn’t been a date, right? It was normal for two guys to hang out at an arcade together, and it was far from the first time they’d gotten food together. It was just their friendship.

But it kind of felt like a date. I kind of wanted it to be a date, Jun corrected himself.

He’d already known he was starting to fall for Yuuki. But he knew better than to get his hopes up about something unless he knew for sure it was a date. He’d been burned by that before.

But still. He wanted this to be a date.

Maybe it could be, if he worked up the courage to ask Yuuki. If he could figure out his school problems, he’d be free to pursue Yuuki all he wanted.

Which was even more reason to fix his magic shit.

He should get working.

#tetsujun #juntetsu #daiya no a #ace of diamond #dna #my writing #cosa #magic au

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