One Piece Yori Yaoi (Open!)

[Mizusawa Taku]

ooc: Before anyone knows about Mizusawa... Outfit here (obviously the one on the far right)!

ic:

Mizusawa had taken a trip to the local Mandarake, one of the biggest manga bookstores in all of Japan. Originally he'd gone there with nothing else to do, and had figured he would just browse the shelves to see if he could find something he'd be interested in enough to take home to read (he hadn't read in what felt a very long while), maybe check the deals shelves to see what they had there.

But when he actually got to the store, and after he'd browsed the shelves for an hour or so, his eyes caught a sign in bright pink letters, pointing off in a different direction. Women--Yaoi Corner, the sign read.

Mizusawa felt his face tinge with red. The yaoi corner. Come to think of it, he'd never once looked at a yaoi book. Yaoi was supposedly written for women, but he had the feeling it was something he might actually like--not that he would admit it to anyone. But didn't yaoi have...happy endings? Stupid as it sounded, he'd always wanted to read a story about...well, someone like him. ...And someone who got to have a happy ending, no matter what his sexual preferences.

Still turned to a particularly funny chapter in the One Piece manga he'd been leafing through, Mizusawa stared at the sign until the words seemed to blur. He paused for a moment, before looking around to see if anyone was nearby. He didn't see any other customers, at least not anywhere in this section. Maybe it was a busy day for most people, except himself, of course.

Should he...go look? He fought with himself for a moment, gripping the corners of the One Piece manga tightly. There was no harm in looking, right? It would only be embarrassing if he was caught. But...now curiosity was getting the better of him. He really wanted to know what it was about "Boys Love" that seemed to attract women so much.

Closing the manga, he finally made up his mind. He carefully put it back in its place on the shelf, then began treading carefully in the direction of the yaoi corner, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Cautiously he turned the corner, checking to make sure the coast was clear.

No one.

He breathed a sigh of relief. So far so good.

The "Yaoi Corner" seemed to have quite a selection of yaoi to choose from, shelved by its "intensity". Mizusawa stared at the sections for a moment, then decided he would steer clear of the hardcore stuff. He was only interested in taking a quick peek, after all.

Moving forward slowly, he began scanning the nearest shelf, reading the titles quickly to see if there was one that would catch his interest. Many interesting titles, some of which sounded quite depressing...

And then he saw one that sounded kinda nice.

"Private Prince," he read aloud, his voice barely a whisper. Even the cover looked pretty decent. Reading the back cover for a basic synopsis on the manga, it also seemed to have an interesting storyline--not just one focused on the male/male relationship in the book. But it was about a young employee at a men's clothing shop who fell in love a store mannequin...who is actually a prince under a witch's spell, and whom can only come back to life if he "does it" with his one true love.

Was it too girly for him to like the sound of that?

Oh well. No one has to know.

Interested now, Mizusawa slipped open to a random page cautiously, as if worried that at any moment, someone might appear from around the corner. There didn't seem to be anything going on here. The employee was working in the shop, talking to coworkers...day was ending...He turned the page again.

And paled a little.

Not the next page, but the page after that...The two characters--the employee and the prince--had already begun to get intimate with each other. The employee had his arms wrapped around the prince, his shirt already torn off, and the prince--his lips were planted firmly on the employee's, and his hands seemed to have disappeared into the employee's pants...

Mizusawa felt the familiar sensation of warmth pooling in the pit of his stomach, and a blush rising to his cheeks, but curiosity urged him to continue forward and see what would happen next.

Turning the page, he was treated to the sight of both men now completely naked...and looking really content, and--

"Mizusawa?" The voice behind him sounded a little stunned.

He froze, the book toppling out of his hands.

Someone...someone who knew him...was behind him right now. Had just caught him looking at yaoi...and...

Oh crap...this was bad.

[Takenaka Yuuta]

ooc: Because I was bored and I quite like the idea of this <3 Hope you don’t mind me hopping in!


Yuuta’s Outfit
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Yuuta had taken a look at his shelf and frowned slightly. He really wanted to read some Manga but he noticed that he, in fact, had read everything he owned already twice (or even more often). He was bored though and felt like reading a manga. A new manga.
He had tried to occupy himself with planning out a choreography, watching Tumbling videos on a video platform and reading a novel he had bought a while ago, but he got bored after a few minutes already.
Now he really wanted to go out a bit and check out one the biggest manga store’s in Japan, Mandarake. Maybe he would find some cool new shounen manga! Yoshi, that sounded like a great plan! He grabbed his mobile, his wallet and his keys. Ready to go!

The weather was quite nice and Yuuta enjoyed his little journey to the store thoroughly. He wondered if there would be out some new sport manga. He didn’t only enjoy reading One Piece or Naruto, but he was also a fan of manga such as Prince of Tennis or Gambare! Kikkāzu. He had once heard about a Tumbling manga but after checking it out, he had found that it was more a shoujo manga and actually he was slightly worried that it ended up in some kind of yaoi action – something he really tried to avoid.

Weirdly enough every girl in his class seemed to be quite crazy about this entire boys love thing. They read those Manga’s, they watched those movies, and they talked about it quite often. He really didn’t want to hear those things. Or even think about it. It was just something he didn’t really want to interfere with. He couldn’t really imagine two boys being in love. It seemed wrong even though Yuuta had the opinion that he had to try and be open-minded – as long as it wasn’t shoved into his face at least.

Shaking his head slightly, not really enjoying the turn his thoughts had taken, he checked out the display windows of the shops he passed, stopping for a second at the huge sports shop, taking a look at the newest sneakers they had placed in the window. They looked very polished and a sign listed up their awesome features. He gulped when his glance fell on the price, though.
He didn’t mind spending money on a quality product, but this was just ridiculous! He shook his head and grimaced.

Hesitating for a minute, he wondered if he should go inside and check out the rhythmic gymnastics equipment but he decided that they had enough of it already plus since their goal was the group performance and only Hino was actually doing the solo performance it didn’t make much sense to spend the groups tiny amount of money for equipment which they wouldn’t use much anyway.
Still, it was a lot of fun to check out everything and even to try it out a little since the shop had in each corner a tiny area for trials. There was also a big rubber road going through the whole shop so you could try out the skateboards and stuff. It was always quite an experience trying to crossing that road when it was a day like this and most likely half the children were inside to try everything out. You were able to have a few near death experiences at least.

With a sigh Yuuta went on, following the sidewalk. He could already see the huge building in which Mandarake was located. He walked a bit faster to finally reach it. He had brought a few hours of time and some money to spend. Nothing could go wrong with that!

The downside of this shop was, weirdly enough, its huge assortment. Yuuta was overwhelmed every time he entered this shop. He had to stop in the entrance area and look around to get some kind of overview. Gladly they had sorted everything in sections and marked them with huge signs above the shelves.
At first he checked out the sports section. He scanned the rows of books, looking for a catchy title that would gain his interest. He didn’t have anything particular in mind, he hadn’t checked first what was new on the market – plus there was pretty much a lot already there.

Humming gently to himself he checked out this and that. Bowling Manga… Basketball Manga… Badminton Manga… Car racing… Ice skating… Lots of Manga, that was for sure!
Checking out Shin Prince of Tennis, he leaved through it when suddenly his mobile vibrated in his pocket. Frowning he got it out and opened it up, to check out the text message he had just received. It was from his Mom.

Yuuta-chan, since you are in the city and I forgot it earlier, could you please get your Cousin a gift? It’s her birthday this weekend and we will go to visit! You sure will find something nice for her! Take care! I love you!

Yuuta sighed. His cousin was 14 and female. He had the stupid feeling that he wasn’t the best person to get her a gift. He really had no idea what the heck was going on in a girls head. He couldn’t even imagine what a girl would like as a gift; let alone what to talk to about with a girl. For a second he reasoned to call Ryosuke because this guy sure would know what to buy… on the other hand Yuuta was quite sure it wouldn’t be very appropriate for a 14 year old girl. No, better not calling Ryosuke.

Putting the Manga back into the shelf he was looking around to find some kinda clue. Manga were always good. Everyone liked them and he was sure he couldn’t do anything wrong with them. So where exactly was the girls section again? Ah, over there!
He walked over to the spotted shelf, noting a sign with bright pink letters saying Women--Yaoi Corner
Ah no, better not go there! He couldn’t stop himself from looking at it though – and he noticed a single person being there. He frowned. This… wasn’t this a boy? Even though he just saw his backside, the stature was clearly male. Furthermore he kind of recognized the boy’s haircut and his way of standing. Edging forward he noticed the black west the guy was wearing over a black shirt and the brown belt. He knew those clothes…

Mizusawa!

He stopped dead and before he could stop himself, he said the name aloud. "Mizusawa?" He could hear the breathless stun in his own voice and saw his friend going stiff and how the book was falling to the ground.

Thousand thoughts were rushing through his head. Why is he reading Yaoi? Since when is he interested in that? Isn’t that something only girls do? He flinched, noticing the last question sounded exactly like the one which had been directed so often at himself. Rhythmic Gymnastics, isn’t that something only girls do?

“What… what are you doing… here? I mean… you read Yaoi?” Yuuta laughed uneasy and hoped that his friend had some really good explanation because this was… well, a bit shocking. “Wow, that’s… unexpected.” He coughed, suddenly wishing he had never even gone here or seen anything.

Why hadn’t he just gone to some jewelry shop for his Cousin?

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ooc: I hope that was enough to work with! If not, I am gonna write a bit more!

[Mizusawa Taku]

ooc: Oh no, that was perfect! Thank you for replying to me!

ic:

Mizusawa froze, staring down at the all-too-revealing cover of the manga that had now fallen to the floor. He didn't want to look. He didn't want to know who had just caught him here, of all places. But he knew he had to. Slowly, he turned around to see who it was.

Yuuta. It was Yuuta who was now in the Yaoi section too.

At the sight of his best friend, Mizusawa's mouth went dry, and though he opened it to say something, no words came out. That familiar, tingly feeling that had been taking over his body only a moment before began to disappear, as quickly as it had come, leaving him to feel both horrified and ashamed. Why did Yuuta have to walk in now and here, of all places? The very worst Mizusawa had been expecting was for a woman to catch him in here, but even then, his curiosity was much stronger than that fear.

“What… what are you doing… here? I mean… you read Yaoi?” His best friend was laughing nervously now. Mizusawa could only stare at him for a moment, a whole host of horrible thoughts flying through his mind, what Yuuta must think of him, what he could possibly say, whether he might have just ruined a perfectly good friendship. The truth was, he didn't read yaoi. He'd just been curious about it, that was all. He'd wanted to see what it was about, because...well...Yeah, he was a little interested in it...

“Wow, that’s… unexpected.” He coughed, suddenly wishing he had never even gone here or seen anything.

"Uh--no!" Mizusawa suddenly seemed to spring back to life, reaching down quickly to pick up the manga and fumbling to put it back on any random shelf, praying Yuuta had not looked closely at the cover of it, and hoping he had not seen the page that Mizusawa had been last been looking at.

Those two men entwined together, nak--

Mizusawa gulped, forcing himself to think about something else. "I--I was looking at O-one Piece, and I saw the sign for this section and...." He looked at his friend, wondering if he believed him. He sighed, and ran a shaky hand through his hair. "I-I mean...I just got curious, I promise I don't usually read this kind of stuff." Somehow, his words didn't sound genuine, even if they were. He forced a smile to his face and laughed nervously. "I mean...you know...girls really like this kind of thing, right? I wanted to see what about it they like so much." As much as he was trying to look calm, normal, his heart seemed to be pounding against his ribcage. He wouldn't be surprised if Yuuta could hear it too.

And now he needed to think of a way out of this situation. "Um..." He took a step forward, leaving behind the shelf of male-male lovers and trying to give his friend an interested look, despite how distracted he was internally. "So...Why are you here?"

[Takenaka Yuuta]

ooc:
I dunno what to think of my post, to be honest. It turned out completely different than I planned... I dunno if that's okay for you, please let me know if I should change anything! Thank you!

Yuuta being on the completely wrong track <3

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Yuuta didn’t move a muscle when he watched stiffly how Mizusawa picked up the manga which was lying on the floor now, making Yuuta stare at the cover.

Oh dear Lord, why did I have to take a look at it?!, he thought and tried to suppress a blush.
Yes, he was maybe a little bit old fashioned, yes, he tended to blush madly or to grimace or just look away when he saw people kissing in a movie or even right in front of him. He believed that such signs of affection were meant to be shared at home, between those two people and not in the middle of the street for everyone to see. He also didn’t understand those businessmen in the trains, reading their hentai manga in public.
Yuuta felt already embarrassed when he saw said businessmen with said manga.

This manga though… Its title was ‘Private Prince’ and on the cover… first of all it looked very pink. There were flowers all over and in the middle sat a blonde guy, dressed like a prince grabbing a brown haired boy in a suit to pull him closer between his legs, which he had spread, sitting a casual pose. The cover wasn’t exactly… bad but it looked like a typical shoujo manga title. Just something for… well, girls. Plus the worst was probably it’s content.
Yuuta felt his eyes slightly widen at that and he followed with his gaze Mizusawa’s fast movements when he was stuffing the book just somewhere back into the shelf.

When Mizusawa turned to face him, Yuuta wasn’t sure where to look at. The shelf? – no way. Mizusawa’s eyes were quite difficult as well. At least right now since normally he had no problem with eye contact at all.
Mizusawa’s shoes were double-knotted. They were really clean and Yuuta didn’t remember seeing them before. Were they new? Frowning slightly and starring at his friends shoes, he heard his voice wash over him. He was stuttering, stumbling over his own words, his breathing in between seemed ragged. He sounded slightly panicking – but Yuuta felt just the same. About to panic and just run away, pretending this didn’t happen.

"I mean...you know...girls really like this kind of thing, right? I wanted to see what about it they like so much."

Yuuta looked up, a bit surprised. They had actually never talked about girls. They were really close friends and he liked hanging out with Mizusawa but weirdly enough, he just noticed, they had never talked about crushes or girls.
Yuuta had never minded he really wasn’t interested in any of the girls. He didn’t have any time for girls anyway with all the Tumbling practice… It had never even occurred to him that Mizusawa might be interested in girls – or even in a specific girl.
Did that mean he was a bad friend? Hadn’t he been supportive enough? On the other hand, he was really bad when it came to girls. He didn’t know what to talk about with them and he was surely really bad at giving any advice.

Your friend is looking up Yaoi manga to get into a girls mind because you weren’t there for him, he thought, feeling guilty.

Suddenly Mizusawa took a step forward and he started to talk again, startling Yuuta outta his thoughts. Yuuta looked up, directly into his friends eyes, which were watching him intently and with a hint of curiosity.
Oh, now it was Yuuta who seemed to be in a tight spot.

“Eh, I am supposed to get a birthday gift for my Cousin and… since I was here, I’ve decided to check out the shoujo section… even though I have no idea what she’s gonna like, so… yeah. And then I saw you… here.” He made a vague gesture into the Yaoi corner, taking a few steps back, hoping that Mizusawa would follow him.

He really wasn’t so keen on being in the Yaoi area any longer.

Two boys being together in the Yaoi area. – Sometimes he hated his inner voice.

“So… do you have any suggestions?,” he asked, feeling a bit better now. He also wanted to carefully interrogate his friend about this girl Yuuta was suspecting to be the cause for his friends sudden interest into Yaoi. Maybe he could help his friend somehow. He gave Mizusawa a gentle smile, still feeling a bit awkward.

[Mizusawa Taku]

ooc: I think your post was great! This is some seriously great work! Anyway, don't worry about direction, because I didn't have one in mind either! ^^;; I just feel bad for poor Yuuta!!!!

And now I have to bring in the mood ring idea...XD

ic:

Mizusawa felt some relief when he saw the look on Yuuta's face. Even if his own heart was pounding a mile a minute, he was somehow able to maintain a relatively calm exterior--so long as he wasn't speaking. But apparently, his words about "what girls liked" had had the wanted effect on Yuuta. The other boy still seemed surprised, but Mizusawa could see some kind of realization dawning on his features. Though his heart beat was slowing down now, he also felt his heart sink at having to lie to his friend. What did he care what girls liked to read about? Of course he couldn't tell Yuuta that, but...It was just a shame that he had to tell such a complete lie in order for his friend to not hate him or think him weird or something. Even though he knew that was what he actually deserved.

“Eh, I am supposed to get a birthday gift for my Cousin and… since I was here, I’ve decided to check out the shoujo section… even though I have no idea what she’s gonna like, so… yeah. And then I saw you… here.” He made a vague gesture into the Yaoi corner, taking a few steps back, hoping that Mizusawa would follow him.

Ahh, that made sense. Poor Yuuta had just been innocently trying to find a gift for his cousin...who was a girl. Mizusawa nodded his understanding, swallowing down the lump that had formed in his throat. He couldn't shake that guilty feeling--was it because of the lie? Because of what he'd been caught looking at? Because of what he was? This really wasn't the place to be thinking these things over, was it? He'd better try to take his mind off things by helping Yuuta out. Besides, he owed it to his friend now anyway.

“So… do you have any suggestions?,” he asked, feeling a bit better now. At the slightly awkward smile on Yuuta's face, Mizusawa flushed. Well, he'd been enjoying that manga...he couldn't deny it...But he wasn't going to recommend that for her.

"Um..." He paused, running a still-slightly shaky hand through his hair. "She's not a tomboy, right?" He bit his lip, wondering if she'd be interested in any One Piece manga. At least that was something he could actually give a recommendation for. Although, then again, Yuuta probably could too. He loved One Piece.

What did girls like? It wasn't a question he'd really asked himself often. But he really owed it to Yuuta to figure something out.

"Do you know if she likes any particular type of manga? You know, any art style or author or something?" he paused. "If not, I guess maybe it's not a good idea. You won't know if it's her style." Looking around, he saw an area at the other end of the shop that was selling random items--knick knacks and manga-inspired jewelry and the like. At least this was something a little different. "Maybe something over there?" he nodded in the direction of that section, looking at Yuuta quickly before heading over there himself. Through his entire little speech about what to choose for Yuuta's cousin, his mind--and his eyes--had been returning to that shelf where he'd put back that copy of Private Prince. It was as if it were calling out to him to finish it, to satisfy his curiosity.

He shook his head as he walked quickly to the new section. Man, he needed to stop reading so many science fiction manga.

The section with all the bits and bobs was pretty interesting. Of course there were figurines of characters from different manga, nearly all of which had been turned into anime at one point or another. Many of the figures were of those half-nude female characters that seemed to frequent the pages of all manga, with the exception of the yaoi he had just been looking at. He was sure Yuuta's cousin wouldn't want any of those. His eyes strayed over keychains of manga characters, then towards the jewelry section.

Hey, this could work... Didn't most girls like jewelry? Surely Yuuta's cousin wouldn't mind a nice necklace or something?

On one of the glass counters, he spotted a small box of rings. The title on the box read "Mood Rings", and the subtitle, "A color to reveal your inner feelings at any moment." Beside it, there was a list explaining what each color meant. Mizusawa's face flushed. He'd heard about these before. The girls in his class had once been going crazy for mood rings. In fact, they'd made such a big deal about it that he'd actually wanted to try it himself and see if it really worked...

"Yuuta," he called, turning slightly to address his friend. "How about one of these?" He didn't dare pick one of the rings up, in case it could read his feelings right now. He didn't need to scare Yuuta away any more than he already had.

When Yuuta had joined him, he gave a forced smile. "Girls love these kinds of things...right?"

[Takenaka Yuuta]

Yuuta really set high hopes in Mizusawa when it came to picking the right gift for his cousin. His friend was at least interested in girls already and most likely had thought about the topic ’What to give a girl as a present’ before. He himself only knew that girls were really hard to please. Last time when he had been visiting his cousin and brought some chocolate with him to be nice she had asked him if he intended to get her fat.
He didn’t get girls.

"She's not a tomboy, right?"
Yuuta had to think about Mizusawa’s question for a moment. No, his cousin was definitely not a tomboy. She was very... girly, that was for sure. Not only the fat-comment but also her very pink room, her very frilly and lacy clothing and her interest in make-up and boybands were hinting that.
“No, no tomboy, believe me. That is what makes it so hard to get her a gift…” If she would have been a tomboy, Yuuta wouldn’t have such a hard time deciding on what to buy her. He just would have grabbed some cool shounen manga and gave it to her. Simple as that.

He felt almost guilty when he watched his friend biting his lip, thinking really hard of something. He really had to make it up to him soon by finding out who the girl of Mizusawa’s dreams was and trying to hook them up… even though he didn’t know the slightest how that would work. He just hoped she was at the rhythmic gymnastics team maybe so it was easier for him to get them together… Locking them up in the gym maybe? He saw something like that in a manga called School Rumble once he had flipped through out of boredom. He wasn’t quite sure if that would work out in real life though.

Mizusawa’s next question cut into his thoughts and Yuuta stared blankly at his friend before looking upwards to think. He tried to remember his cousin’s room but all he could remember was the enormous amount of PINK and lots of glittery jewelry. Did she even own any manga? He wasn’t so sure anymore. He was glad that he had met Mizusawa here – even though he still didn’t really want to think so much about under which circumstances or rather where he had met him.
He really appreciated the way Mizusawa was approaching the case. He had always liked his friend’s rationality and how he thought through things. This wasn’t just a great quality he brought into the Tumbling team but also into their friendship.

“Now that I am thinking about it, I can’t remember if she owns any manga… or which kind she would like. I thought I just take… well, I just check for some she might like but I guess you are right.
But what else could I get her?” He wanted to groan. Why couldn’t his Mom just get a gift for his cousin? She sure would have found something really great for her in no time.

"Maybe something over there?" he nodded in the direction of that section, looking at Yuuta quickly before heading over there himself.
Before Yuuta could react in any way, his friend had taken off to some distant corner in the other end of the shop. Yuuta turned to follow his friend with his gaze, raising his eyebrows a little. Apparently his friend meant the section which sold fan stuff. Maybe, this wasn’t a bad idea? Yuuta glanced one last time at the shoujo manga shelves and gulped. There were so many! He couldn’t have decided on one anyway. Plus he guessed it would have been pretty embarrassing to actually buy this kind of manga.
Slowly he followed Mizusawa, wondering if they could find something for his cousin over there. He could already see the figurines of characters. Would his cousin maybe like something like that? He pretty much guessed that those were meant for boys though since most of the characters were girls which… kinda ran out of enough clothing or something. He doubted that his cousin would like something like that. Not even he would like to have something like that in his room and he was a boy…
Apparently Mizusawa had found something interesting already, since he was gazing intently at something. Curious, Yuuta stepped closer and next to his friend to check out what had caught his interest. It was a box of rings, currently very black.

When Yuuta had joined him, he gave a forced smile. "Girls love these kinds of things...right?"
Yuuta stared at his friend, returning the forced smile. “If you say so…” His cousin did own jewelry though, so most likely Mizusawa was right. He was looking at the box again, now reading the title of it.
“Mood Rings,” he mumbled while reading on what the subtitle said. He tilted his head a bit. “Do you think those work?” He didn’t believe in such stuff but the concept sounded interesting. Checking out, what all the different colours could mean, he slowly took a ring out of the box, gazing at it intently. It remained its black and boring colour between his fingers. Should he try it on? He wasn’t so sure if it would fit him – it was for girls after all – and even though he knew that many guys wore rings, he thought that he most likely wasn’t the type to do something like that.
He was about to ask Mizusawa if he wanted to try it on, but he stopped himself. It would be very embarrassing if anyone would see them together, one guy putting a ring on the other guys finger. He rather would try it himself. Looking at the ring for a few more seconds he decided that he could also ask his cousin if it would work.

“Well, I guess it will buy one of these,” he announced. Yes, he decided that this would be good enough as a gift. Glancing over to Mizusawa he remembered something. Now he had to try and be subtle. “So… you maybe… want to buy one too? It could come in handy… maybe. Girls sure will like those…”
Okay, cross the subtle. He felt himself flush and hoped his friend didn’t mind him being so blunt. He really just wanted to try and show him his good will and that he wanted to support him in this – even though he really wasn’t very experienced.

He decided to quickly change the topic.
"So, you have any other plans? Like was there any manga you wanted to buy." He felt himself blush harder. Okay, this wasn't a very clever chosen sentence after how they had met... "Uhm I mean... maybe... ah, One Piece or so? Or maybe go to another shop?" He was really talented at putting his foot in it today...

[Mizusawa Taku]

ooc: Oh my gosh, this post is so bad...I'm so sorry. m(_ _)m But if we go to another shop, we can just continue in this post since it's already in the shops area! Just let me know!

ic:

Yuuta stared at his friend, returning the forced smile. “If you say so…”

Mizusawa, for whatever reason, wanted to laugh at the look on Yuuta's face. Truth be told, he could easily be wrong about this. But hadn't Yuuta ever seen the girls in class going crazy over these things? Surely they had to enjoy them if they bragged to each other about them, or whatever.

“Mood Rings,” he mumbled while reading on what the subtitle said. He tilted his head a bit. “Do you think those work?”

He heard his friend's voice once more, reading the sign on the box, then pulling out one of the rings and staring at it interestedly now. Mizusawa shrugged, despite his growing belief that it would work. "I'm not sure. But I guess there has to be something special to it, right, if the girls in class like it so much?" He stared down at the box some more, knowing the exact way to test whether the ring worked right. If it turned gray, then Yuuta would know he was hiding something--that color was for nervousness. And if it turned violet...well...hopefully his story wouldn't fall through.

On second thought, he just wasn't going to try it. He believed it. With his luck, the ring would undoubtedly work.

“Well, I guess it will buy one of these,” he announced. Glancing over to Mizusawa he remembered something. “So… you maybe… want to buy one too? It could come in handy… maybe. Girls sure will like those…”

Mizusawa had just been about to tell Yuuta that it would make a nice gift for his cousin, that maybe he could get her...earrings...or something...in addition, when suddenly Yuuta had posed that second question. Mizusawa almost forgot the story he had come up with, but quickly began nodding his head when he remembered.

Geez, that was close!

"Ah, yeah..." he said, his heartbeat quick now. He tried to play it cool. "That's true..." He picked up a ring, grabbing it by the price tag attached, so that the ring couldn't even possibly judge his emotions just from a little contact. He stared at it now. Did he really want it enough to just keep at home? He could never wear that in school, and why would he want to? Why would he want anyone to know so obviously his feelings in class. Wrinkling his nose, he set it back down. "On second thought, maybe I'd better wait. I think it makes a nice gift for your cousin, but..." Well, he didn't need to waste his money on it. He didn't need that kind of thing to tell him his feelings.

"So, you have any other plans? Like was there any manga you wanted to buy." He felt himself blush harder. Okay, this wasn't a very clever chosen sentence after how they had met... "Uhm I mean... maybe... ah, One Piece or so? Or maybe go to another shop?" He was really talented at putting his foot in it today...

Mizusawa saw a trace of a blush cross Yuuta's face, and he felt his own face burning red as well. Why? Why had Yuuta had to catch him at such a bad time? He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to live it down now...But still, something in him wanted to go back and get that manga, to finish it. Why couldn't he have a little sister who could buy it for him? Suddenly being an only child seemed something of a curse.

"Ah..." He began shaking his head. "Nah, I can borrow a copy from the library if need be. The next One Piece didn't look as good as the past ones anyway." He gave Yuuta a small smile and then nudged the other boy towards the register. "Well, go ahead and pay for your gift. If you want, we can go look at another shop, right? Or maybe get something to eat." He rubbed his stomach. "I'm pretty hungry."

[Takenaka Yuuta]

AN: Wow... I haven't been writing in here for so very long ... please forgive me, Alex!

A ranting Yuuta... being on the right track for probably 30 seconds... hehe. And more ranting... Lot's of thinking in this post...
Hopefully gave you enough to work with, please tell me if I didn't! It would have turned into god-playing if I would have written on I guess so I've stopped

EDIT: Uh, I was reading a (German) wiki-entry about being homosexual in Japan and there they stated that most Japanese people think of gays in being campy/poofy/nellie (I hope my dictionary gave me the right slang terms xD), so I went with that for Yuuta thinking of gay people. Please correct me if this was wrong~
Oh and I sneaked in a Seto/Yuuta thing... by the description of his perfect girl xD I just had to.

----

Yuuta was quite thankful when his friend was nudging him towards the register. He really wanted to get his thoughts off his friend reading... reading... that. He shook his head, masking it as shaking a few strand of hair out of his eyes. Okay, enough of that. It didn’t lead anywhere if he would try to figure everything out. Plus his friend had explained himself already. He was just trying to understand why girls liked Yaoi Manga. That was a perfectly fine explanation in Yuuta’s opinion, really. It made sense.

It really makes sense... Only girls read those Manga after all... well, and probably gay boys... He paled, he knew that he paled. Okay, don’t go there, this is ridiculous. You know him for years... YEARS.

He is everything but gay. I mean... there would have been signs if he was gay! Mizusawa an okama, that just can’t be.
We go to the bathhouse with everyone, we always undress in front of eachother... He... he would have a nosebleed in those situations if he would be gay. Also he doesn’t act like a girl at all. He isn’t girly, not at all.

Yuuta shook his head and grimaced. No, Mizusawa was not gay, he was positive. His friend was a normal boy just like himself and probably just experienced his first crush. Yes, that was the only reason. Mizusawa was in love and tried to figure out this girl. His blushing before, everything had hinted that. Yuuta knew he was on the right track this time.

So there is a girl... I wonder who it is... I really hope it won’t interfere with our tumbling practice... If they want to date that’s fine, but what if he starts slacking off? I couldn’t imagine that, though. Mizusawa loves tumbling just as I do.
So who could it be?, he mused. He was quite curious about that to be honest. He had no idea who was the type of girl Mizusawa would like, they had never talked about this ever. He frowned, trying to imagine Mizusawa’s crush. They were pretty alike so Yuuta guessed that maybe they even would like the same type of girl.

What kind of girl would I like? Probably a Japanese girl, a traditional Japanese girl. Preferably fair-skinned. A pure person with good manners. He gave a little nod. Yes, that sounded quite good. Now, who was like that? They had several girls in their class which were quite nice to look at, but Yuuta had never really had a crush on any of them. He actually had never given this topic much thought to be honest. They girls themselves never showed much interest towards them either, he knew that they found their rhythmic gymnastics club quite weird and all of it’s members, too.

Maybe it is a unrequited love! Maybe Mizusawa is too scared to approach her because he is scared that she will reject him because of the club? What if he will leave the club because of her?!
No, he wouldn’t do that...
Or... would he...?

Yuuta quickly glanced over to his friend and shot him a wary smile. So maybe he shouldn’t encourage his friend in this matter so much? Would it lead to him leaving the club?
Yuuta knew he was starting to be selfish there but he couldn’t help it. The club meant everything to him and he had thought it meant a lot to Mizusawa as well... and now wanting to leave it just because of this girl....!

Okay, slow down!, said his inner voice rather gruffly. Yuuta knew he was stressing out too much over that matter. Maybe everything was just half as horrible as he thought it was.
Though he preferred being prepared for the worst instead of approaching everything with a positive outlook. It helped you not to get too excited about things since you would be devastated if everything would go wrong.

He decided to stay calm... trying to stay calm... and pay this ring and then go to some little restaurant with his friend and trying to find out more about Mrs Mysterious. He liked that plan and gave the cashier a friendly smile when he handed over the ring. Only by holding it in his hands it had turned it’s colour to a stinging yellow. He checked the little explanation card attached to it after he handed over the money.

Yellow ~ confused, excited, scared, hysteric

Oh great, now even this item joined into the hysteric Yuuta thing! He gave it an angry little frown before receiving the change and turning to look for his friend. He walked over to Mizusawa and quickly stuffed this stupid little ring into his bag. It worked, that seemed settled now.
“So, shall we go? You said you were hungry. I would quite enjoy something nice to eat as well. You want anything in particular or shall we go to this ramen-restaurant?” He offered his friend a friendly smile, hoping they could finally get over this embarrassing thing from earlier by leaving this shop.
He started walking towards the exit, trying to figure out a good way to approach the matter later. Mizusawa had helped him so well with getting a gift for his cousin, he had to repay his friend now.
Just when they stepped out on the street, Yuuta noticed that he actually had come here to get a new Manga...
Oh well, I am not going back in there!, he thought and grimaced. At least not for quite a while... Also he noticed that he was in fact very hungry indeed, feeling almost a bit nauseous.

Glancing over at his friend he smiled faintly. Everything would turn out okay. He would offer his help in a subtle way so his friend wouldn’t feel too embarrassed. It was probably like tumbling after all. You sit together, make a plan, remember it and then... you just go. It’s all about the teamwork after all. And at teamwork they have always been best so this would be a piece of cake for them. He was positive about that.