Ren didn't have classes Tuesdays or Thursdays. He spent those days in his room drawing or reading, sometimes he'd go walking around the small town. But today? He spent the majority of it in his bunk waiting for Ryuji to wake up, not even caring about how pathetic he looked hugging a pillow to his chest and whining quietly.
'Wake up already, idiot! Who sleeps in until fucking twelve in the evening?!' he thought.
Ren pouted and looked down at Ryuji in his bunk. The blond was lying sprawled out and snoring loudly with a very lewd magazine over his bare chest and some really stupid anime playing on the laptop sitting close by.
"Dummyyyy...." Ren groaned and got out his bunk, taking the pillow with him. He stood beside Ryuji's bunk, looking at him over one more time. Then he smacked him as hard as could with the pillow.
"WAKE UP!"
"Aaahh?!"
Ryuji shot awake and rolled out of bed, getting tangled in his blankets. Once out of the temporary moment of shock, the first thing Ryuji saw was his friend holding a pillow with a pout face.
"Ren what the fuck?!"
"You said I couldn't wake you up by shaking you anymore."
"That doesn't mean slam me with a pillow!"
Ryuji got up and stretched with a groan. Ren was suddenly at a loss for words, regretting his impatience. After one look at the blond, Ren pressed his face in the pillow and whined again.
'Damnit, Ryuji! Why must you always sleep naked! With your fucking hot ass...'
"So, what do you want?" Ryuji said as he pulled pants on.
"Breakfast...." Ren muttered into the pillow and pointed to the food he already made.
"Oh cool!" Ryuji sat down and got his food. "Ann coming again?"
"She was here earlier but you were asleep so she picked up breakfast and left..."
"Damnit. Well, I can catch her before her first class today!"
Ren's muffled whines went unheard. At this point he was sick of how oblivious Ryuji was; it was as if Ann was the only thing he could think of. Yet he still found himself absolutely drunk on this stupid crush.
"Ow! RenRen! Call the stupid cat off! Ow!"
Morgana was yowling and clawing at Ryuji in a threatening way. Ren quit his bellyaching for a minute to go pick up the cat.
"Stop, Morgana... be nice..."
Ren cradled Morgana and rubbed his stomach, that seemed to calm the bastard down.
"Geez, I hate cats..." Ryuji grumbled.
"Cats hate you." Ren retorted.
The two of them laughed, but Ren was forcing it. When Ryuji finished eating, he grabbed some clothes and went to take a shower. Ren dropped back onto his bed to whine into his pillow.
"I'm so pathetiiiiic!"
"Mrroooww..." Morgana sat by Ren's head.
"Why is it so difficult for him to understand?" Ren rolled onto his back. "He at least knows something is bothering me, right? When he asks what's wrong I can always tell him what's on my mind! But I can't—URK!"
Morgana decided to jump on Ren's face and lay still, smothering him. The boy let out muffled cries and kicked as he pulled Morgana off and held him up.
"You little shit! If I annoy you then tell me!" Ren cried.
"Mrroooww!"
"Don't use that tone with me!"
"Mrroooww!!"
"Meeoowww!!" Ren mocked.
"Mrroooww!!"
"Meeo—Ren, you're arguing with a fucking cat..."
With a sigh, Ren set Morgana down and got down from the bunk to get his shoes on. Before he left the room, Ren looked back at the cat.
"I'm going out, you be good."
Morgana smacked a plastic bottle off the desk along with a cup of pencils, then proceeded to stretch himself out on Ren's laptop.
"... Fuck you too..."
————
Although Ren didn't like the stadium, he went there from time to time for some fresh air. Today the football team was occupying the track and the coach, Suguru Kamoshida, was there barking orders to the players through a megaphone as they ran laps. The other coach, Iwai Munehisa, stood by the water station making sure the boys were stopping to hydrate.
"Come on, you pussies! I want to see the sweat! Anyone who starts walking can drop and give me twenty!" Suguru was yelling.
Ren had to keep from groaning as he went to sit on the bleachers.
"Hey, Amamiya-Kun!" Yuuki waved him down from the tops.
"Oh hey, Mishima." Ren said as he sat down.
"Did you hear about yesterday?"
"Yeah, yeah, everyone knows about the explosion."
"No, I mean Akechi freaking out and strangling Yoshizawa!" Yuuki turned and crossed his legs. "I heard she was bugging him a lot, so Akechi got mad and he pinned her down to try and choke her!"
"Holy shit! Are you serious?"
"Yeah, it was insane! And get this, I saw Togo-San this morning, she was hitting a tree while screaming a whole lot, like she was fighting somebody."
Ren raised an eyebrow. Sure, Hifumi was a tad aggressive but not enough to take her rage out on something.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Ren took his sketchbook out his bag.
"Think about it! Akechi and Togo were both present during the chemical explosion and now they're both being physically aggressive?"
"Well yeah, I guess that's a little weird."
"It's a whole conspiracy! How's Sakamoto been doing? Has he tried to physically hurt you? Tried to kill you?" Yuuki's eyes were sparkling.
"Uhhh—"
The shrill sound of the whistle blowing echoed throughout the stadium. The boys all stopped running to catch their breath.
"Alright! Get some water then get on the field for practice! Let's go!" Iwai called.
"Hey, twinkies!" Suguru called out rudely to Ren and Yuuki. "Only pretty ladies can watch practice! Get going before I teach you flowers a lesson!"
The boys all started laughing at Suguru's remark. Yuuki frowned and got up to leave.
"H-Hey, let's talk somewhere else..."
"Hold on," Ren grabbed his arm, "don't let what that asshole says bother you. We can sit here if we want."
"Come on! Move it, you fags!"
Something snapped inside Ren. He took his bag off, threw his sketchbook down on top of it, and stood up with a defensive look.
"Why don't you go fuck yourself, Kamoshida?!" he yelled.
By now the boys were watching the commotion and laughing hysterically. Suguru grit his teeth and lashed out.
"How about you get your ass down here and say that to my face?!" he yelled.
"Mishi, hold my glasses."
Ren tossed his glasses in Yuuki's hands and stormed down the bleachers. Now, Ren had never gotten into a fight before; the only actual "fight" he's been in was an argument with his brother over what kind of cereal they'd get at the store. But he's had to deal with Suguru's rude, sexist, pervy behavior for months now, and he was sick of it. Luckily, Iwai stepped between them before any hands were thrown.
"Ok, ok! Stop before you both get in trouble!" he turned to Suguru, "Get the boys started on their drills, I'll talk with Amamiya."
Suguru shot Ren another rude look before clicking his tongue and going to gather all the boys, preparing to take his anger out on them no doubt.
"You know Kamoshida was the one that started it!" Ren said as Iwai led him past the bleachers.
"I know, and I'll deal with him later. But that doesn't mean you're completely off the hook either. You shouldn't talk to your superiors like that."
"If he's not respectful to me I'm not respectful to him, simple as that! That bastard is a goddamn ass and you know it!"
Iwai smirked and tousled Ren's hair.
"You got me there. But, anyway..."
Iwai brought his hand down from Ren's hair to tilt his chin up. The younger male furrowed his brow. Without glasses, Ren's pretty gray-blue eyes were perfectly visible.
"I'd be happy to let this slide if you come by my room later."
Ren narrowed his eyes and took Iwai's hand away, unamused. The man was just as bad as Suguru. Ren dropped a gym class taught by Iwai purely for his flirty behaviour.
"Nuh-uh. Not happening," he stepped back, "if you'll excuse me, Mune, I got someplace to be."
"Ok, ok. I hope you'll reconsider, Ren."
As Iwai made his way back to the field, Ren frowned and pinched the bridge of his nose, forgetting he didn't have his glasses on and almost trying to push them up.
'I really gotta stop coming to the stadium...'
"Hey, is everything cool?" Yuuki approached him with their stuff in hand.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. Sorry you had to see that." Ren put his glasses back on and took his things. "Wanna go to the café down the road so we can talk more?"
"Nah, sorry, my Web Design class starts in a few minutes. But if you see Sakamoto acting unusually, you be sure to tell me! We're gonna crack this case!"
Yuuki held a thumbs up and went running to be on time for class. Ren stuffed his hands in his pockets and decided he'd go pay Yusuke a visit. As he began the walk he started to think more on what Yuuki said about Goro and Hifumi's strange behavior and if Ryuji's ever acted the same.
'Ryuji trying to kill me...?'