[ he grins down at her and then offers her his arm. ] C'mon, lets go ice skating. We gotta find you some socks.
[ and with that they can go off and head to the ice skating rink for the best (friend) date ever! it's too bad when they get to the rink to grab skates, that good old memory share decides to kick in, and this time, it comes from ichiro's side. ]
[ it starts with a day off. you've been working for a loan shark for two years now, pretending to be older than you were - he knows you're only sixteen, but doesn't really care. mozuku tells you he can't have a talent like you burning out (and he hates when he calls you that, a talent, like the only thing you're good for is being angry) and makes you take a day off from working, no matter how bad you need money. you're not even sure what to do with a day off.
... but luckily for you, you run into the one guy who probably does - kuko. red haired, half your height, and a wrecking ball of a human being, kuko is a self-declared monk with the worst potty mouth you've ever known and the temprament of a gremlin. you work together, sometimes - he never tells you much about how he got here or where he's from, he never asks you any questions, and more than anything, he's just - he's persistent, he's loyal, and he is your friend.
when he calls you his best friend, you feel something so small and so tender in your heart ache, because you're - you're just the angry delinquent. the orphan. you don't have friends. you don't have anyone besides your little brothers, and you have to work for them, every day. have to get good grades, have to go to school, have to work this shitty dirty job, have to work the clean jobs, have to do everything you can for them, and you're okay with that.
but kuko declares that you are best friends and you have never felt more thankful for it, even if you bluster a little because you do think it's a little crazy that he just kind of decides this for you. you have a stupid day where you dick off together - you get your ass kicked by the mechanical bull (kuko goes to kick it in the face afterwards, and gets headbutted in the balls, and makes a whole scene, and you think, affectionately, that this is the dumbest guy you have ever met in your entire life) you play sports, you play arcade games, you even help babysit a coworker's kid together, and you take on that mechanical bull again to win her a bigass prize at the arcade, and succeed. you're both thrown off at the end of the three minute timer, and you look at kuko, and he looks at you, and you just beam at each other, as you finally think, maybe this is what it feels like to belong.
you and kuko go through everything together. he is always there, he always has your back. you start rapping together when the anti-war pact goes through, and he's crazy good at it, and so are you. you drink cokes in alleyways after your victories, and kuko spouts wisdom that he claims is from the mahayana sutras (you are pretty sure he just made it up), and it is a bright spot in your life even at the worst times.
the memory moves on, and one day, you get a phone call from kuko, asking him to meet you at ikebukuro's west gate park.
you lay there on the ground after he's punched you. you refuse to move, because you can't - it feels like you're frozen, as your heart squeezes so tight in your chest that it feels like it's shattering. you stare at the ground, and you pant, and you try and replay the entire scene that just happened over and over and over.
the way he stopped. the way he hesitated, the way he held his head - and then suddenly screamed at you, the way just yesterday you were goofing around with samatoki-san and sasara - the dark look in his eyes and the way he screamed that he hated you, he hated you.
rational doesn't matter. thought doesn't matter. you taste blood in your mouth, and it tastes like heartbreak.
you keep it together until you make it back to samatoki's office. he's pissed off too, and you sit on his couch, and while he's ranting and talking about sasara - how he also just snapped on him, you can't stop thinking about it, and you stare at the ground, and samatoki falls silent. ]
...we started off as enemies. [ you say, and your voice feels so small - there's something thick in your throat. ] - but... the more we battled together, the more we did stuff together, we became friends before I even knew it.
[ and you remember. your mind reels with it, with laughing and talking, shared cokes and kuko's affectionate brohugs and the way he wormed his way into your life without you even asking. ] We went through so much awful shit, but we made it through together.
[ and you feel it surmounting as you talk, feel the pressure building up behind your eyes and suddenly everything just breaks -
and you start sobbing, for the first time since you were a kid.
[ maya watches this play out, and though their circumstances are different.... it strikes a chord within her. dedicating all you have to take care of your family, the feeling of belonging, the best friend you did nothing to deserve, and -- ]
[ the betrayal. like ichiro himself, maya doesn't understand why kuko would suddenly turn on him. (after all, ichiro is a good guy, helpful, kind, talented, responsible.... unlike her) she wonder, if there's some other reason..... there has to be right? ]
[ but by the time the memory is over, ending on past ichiro's tears, her heart is heavy. she reaches out to try to put a hand on his arm, if he'll let her. ]
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[ that sounds pretty fucking ideal, actually. ] Play some video games together, too.
What do you think? A god tier friend date. Should we go try it?
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But otherwise... This sounds perfect to me.
[ all these cute shenanigans.... soon to be ignored for memeshare ]
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[ he grins down at her and then offers her his arm. ] C'mon, lets go ice skating. We gotta find you some socks.
[ and with that they can go off and head to the ice skating rink for the best (friend) date ever! it's too bad when they get to the rink to grab skates, that good old memory share decides to kick in, and this time, it comes from ichiro's side. ]
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[ the betrayal. like ichiro himself, maya doesn't understand why kuko would suddenly turn on him. (after all, ichiro is a good guy, helpful, kind, talented, responsible.... unlike her) she wonder, if there's some other reason..... there has to be right? ]
[ but by the time the memory is over, ending on past ichiro's tears, her heart is heavy. she reaches out to try to put a hand on his arm, if he'll let her. ]
You didn't do anything wrong.