HikaGo fic, finish
Aug. 11th, 2005 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76I finally read the newest HP book today. At work. Finished it easily. AND was busier today doing work than I've been all week....
They really need to give me more to do. The summer is the slow season in this business.
In any case, the book was immensely more satisfying than the last one. So, when does the next chapter come out? :)
In the meantime, fic. In which there is cheesecake and WAFF-y het romance and costumes because I am like that.
Akira tugged at the cuffs of his shirt and looked warily at his reflection in the glass. It wasn't too late to back out. He could turn around and not go... not have to be seen like this.
He inhaled a deep, calming breath and let it go. Shindou would laugh to see him in this outfit, but Shindou's laughter would be much, much worse and more cutting if he didn't show at this function at all. And there was the tiny chance that he might get to see that look of shock and surprise in Shindou's eyes....
Akira examined his reflection again. White linen shirt, nicely bloused even if it did show a bit more skin at his neck than he was really comfortable with, check. Black slacks, more form-fitting than he was used to, but falling in nice lines... check. Black leather boots, calf-high, neatly turned down with a rougish air, check. Bandanna not messing his hair up too much, check. And--he turned his head to one side to make sure it was still in place--clip-on gold hoop, check.
He did have to thank Shindou for the idea. Out of all the costumes in the shops he'd been dragged to, the pirate ones had attracted him the most. But Akira absolutely refused to wear something so cheap-looking. So he'd bitten the bullet and asked his mother to help him. She'd been delighted, making him wonder how long she'd been wanting to help him dress up.
So here he was now, riding alone in an elevator to the ballroom the Go Institute had rented as a venue for this event.
And he was not going to let Shindou use his non-appearance as a chance to ridicule him.
Determined, Akira swung around and faced the opening door.
*
Hikaru was nursing a soft drink while watching Ochi play Nase. The higher-ups who had set up this shindig had been bright enough to realize that a room full of professional Go players and no boards would have been cause for mutiny. Still, there was food and drinks, a dance floor that no one was really paying attention to yet, and only ten boards to play on. People /had/ to socialize somehow. Hikaru smiled at the thought of Go players being /forced/ to talk to one another. It smacked of a level of sadism he could appreciate.
Then he felt as much as heard the approach of his rival, Touya's presence, as always, preceded by a fluttering cloud of whispers and people moving aside to grant him his own clear area of space. Hikaru practically rolled his eyes at the thought. Why, exactly, did everyone think Touya was so untouchable? Sure, he was a Go genius, but he was still just a player of the game like the rest of them.
Then he turned and saw what his rival was wearing.
And blinked.
When he found his voice again, it was to say "Touya, I didn't even know you knew ass-fitting pants existed."
Which made Touya go stark red and utterly broke everyone's concentration from the game on the board.
But if Touya was good at one thing (other than Go), it was recovering from the things Hikaru threw at him. "I didn't know you had class, Shindou," he bit back, visibly eyeing Hikaru's own costume. His tone was just on the verge of snappiness.
"Heheh." Hikaru spun, modelling his costume, his cape flaring out. He flashed his plastic fangs for good effect. "I didn't want to go with what was in the shops."
"Neither did I." Touya walked closer, toward the board. "Who's winning?" Immediately all attention was back on the game.
*
Yoshitaka sipped at his juice, watching the dance floor. Damn, who knew Isumi could move like that? Shindou, that was no surprise, but Isumi? Totally breaking character, of course (since when could Frankenstein dance?), but all the cooler for that. Yoshitaka smiled to himself in pleased surprise and wished again that he'd been able to talk Shigeko into coming with him, but she had exams coming up and had adamantly refused to come with him. Akari had used the same excuse on Shindou, apparently, so Nase, dressed up as one of the characters from Card Captor Sakura, was in high demand as a dance partner.
Some people, of course, didn't seem to find girls necessary for dancing to the faster stuff.
"Who knew Touya-san couldn't dance?" Ochi observed from where he stood next to Yoshitaka, sipping his own drink from beneath his bandages.
Yoshitaka snickered, watching Ashiwara (dressed, appropriately, as an overlarge puppy) and Shindou try to teach their friend how to dance. "I'd kill myself if I ever looked that awkward," he replied. It was true; on the dance floor Touya's usual aristocratic flare deserted him and he moved with all the grace of a puppet. Even if he had come in looking like sex on a stick (as someone had so charmingly described his costume), he was totally failing to score on the dance floor.
Shindou, on the other hand, was a natural, thrashing with energy, flowing with music. The dark green poet's shirt he wore floated around him, deep velvet cape flaring dramatically. Yoshitaka had no idea how he was managing not to get tangled in it, but had to admit that Shindou carried off the vampire motif with panache. He smiled into his drink at the thought and pretended not to notice Ochi's speculative eyes on him.
*
Panting slightly, Shinichirou twirled Nase off the floor so that they could both get some drinks and cool down. It had been fun to dance like that, he hadn't in ages. And Nase was definitely not a bad dancer.
"Here," he caught at the edge of a table. "What do you want?"
"Cold Oolong, if they have it," she requested, sitting down. Her face was flushed, but she was smiling.
"Be right back." He was smiling too, he knew, as he went off to get them drinks.
*
"Oh, man, he's got it bad," Yoshitaka moaned as Isumi went back to the table, two drinks in hand.
"You're speaking like you don't." The speaker was Saeki, who had eventually bowed out gracefully from their unspoken rivalry for Shigeko's affections. They were still friends; Saeki's small smile was wicked. Of course, it helped that he'd come dressed as a badass shinigami from Bleach. The bright orange wig, though, was giving Yoshitaka a headache.
"Well." He leaned back against the wall, adjusting the wolf's head mask so it was a comfortable cushion between his head and the wall, and thought about Shigeko's smile. "Yeah." Then he looked at his friend, whose grin had gotten broader. "It's not like that!" he half-shouted. "She's still in middle school! Geez!"
*
"You move like a stick," Hikaru told Touya as they both sat down. He looked over at his friends for support. "Tell, him, Isumi-san!"
"You could use some practice, Touya-san," Isumi agreed calmly, always being a peacemaker.
Touya glared at them all a bit, including the giggling Nase, but relented. "I've never danced before."
"And it shows," Hikaru agreed before Ashiwara joined them, handing a cup of cold green tea to Touya.
"No one can be good at everything, Akira," he said easily. "Myself, I'm terrible at karaoke."
"I never got good grades in science," Isumi put in.
"Ugh, English was the worst for me!" Nase pouted. "I could just never get how the words were supposed to fit together."
"And you, Shindou?" Touya asked.
Hikaru tilted his head up a little, looking up at the ceiling as he thought about school. "Everything," he admitted eventually. "I was only good at sports, though I did get to liking history later."
"I think your problem, Akira, is that you're so good at so many things that you feel like you should excel at everything," Ashiwara chided with a smile. From anyone else, Hikaru would've expected bristling or ice from Touya, but since it was Ashiwara, Touya just looked down and blushed, smiling a little.
He *had* to get Ashiwara to teach him how to do that.
*
Akira stretched just a little. It was very late, but he'd actually had a good time, despite the noise and crowd and dancing. He hadn't thought there were that many pro Go players willing to put on silly costumes and spend time they could have spent studying their game mingling with one another instead. Well, at least the conversation had mostly involved Go, so it hadn't been a night entirely wasted.
"That was fun," Shindou said from behind him. "I really was surprised by your costume, though... where did you even find that stuff, Touya?"
"My mother made some of it," Akira admitted, unclipping the hoop earring. He massaged at his earlobe; it was sore from the pressure and weight. "I shopped for the rest. What about you?"
Shindou shrugged, undoing the frogs on his cloak. He'd taken his plastic fangs out and stowed them in a pocket almost as soon as they'd left the party. "I shopped around at some of the pricier costume shops."
"You didn't take me there."
"Found 'em after you told me you'd already decided on a costume." Shindou shrugged. "Since I'm not exactly spending money on food anymore, I decided to splurge." He smiled widely. "The looks on people's faces when they saw you...!"
Akira gave a small grin himself. That had been part of the point of the costume. "Game?" he offered.
"Sure."
Akira fetched the Go board and stones while Shindou slid the fusama leading to the yard wide open, letting the moonlight into the darkened room. He stood there for a moment, one hand on the frame, looking up at the sky. "Shindou?" Akira asked.
"Just looking at the sky," Shindou answered. "Full moon tonight."
"Does that mean anything special?"
Shindou shook his head. "I don't think so. It just feels different. More alive, maybe. Or maybe that's just me." He turned away from the sight and knelt on the floor, moving closer to the Go board. "Touya," he said quietly.
Akira turned to look at him again and found Shindou's face very close to his. "What?" he asked.
Shindou looked deep into his eyes, seeming to be searching for something. He nodded. "I thought so." He drew back a little.
"What?" Akira asked, confused.
Shindou smiled. "I do have a reflection. I could see myself in your eyes."
*
It made sense, somehow, that Hikaru could find a reflection in people's eyes, especially Touya's, but not in mirrors. Or, really, when he thought about it it didn't, but he decided it was One Of Those Things about being a vampire that he wouldn't understand soon, if ever. He examined Touya's play in the upper left corner closely. It /felt/ like Touya was trying for something deeper there, but he hadn't figured out just what yet.
The flutters in his stomach weren't helping his concentration. He rested his chin on one fist, considering his move.
"Shindou," Touya said. Hikaru looked up. "Do you need...?" The question was left appropriately vague.
Hikaru looked back down at the edge of the board. He still wasn't comfortable with this part of things, probably wouldn't be for a long time if ever, but it /was/ the way things were. "Probably," he agreed.
Touya moved away from the Go board more toward the open fusama, unlacing his pirate shirt to open wider at the collar. His long black-clad legs stretched away. He looked like he should be a character in one of those manga girls read. Hikaru knelt behind him, fingers brushing Touya's hair aside. It was longer, he noticed... Touya was growing it out. He briefly wondered why, then just as briefly wondered if he wanted to know why. He dismissed the question from his mind.
In the moonlight, he drank his eternal rival's blood, a half-finished game on the board behind them, waiting for their return.
They really need to give me more to do. The summer is the slow season in this business.
In any case, the book was immensely more satisfying than the last one. So, when does the next chapter come out? :)
In the meantime, fic. In which there is cheesecake and WAFF-y het romance and costumes because I am like that.
Akira tugged at the cuffs of his shirt and looked warily at his reflection in the glass. It wasn't too late to back out. He could turn around and not go... not have to be seen like this.
He inhaled a deep, calming breath and let it go. Shindou would laugh to see him in this outfit, but Shindou's laughter would be much, much worse and more cutting if he didn't show at this function at all. And there was the tiny chance that he might get to see that look of shock and surprise in Shindou's eyes....
Akira examined his reflection again. White linen shirt, nicely bloused even if it did show a bit more skin at his neck than he was really comfortable with, check. Black slacks, more form-fitting than he was used to, but falling in nice lines... check. Black leather boots, calf-high, neatly turned down with a rougish air, check. Bandanna not messing his hair up too much, check. And--he turned his head to one side to make sure it was still in place--clip-on gold hoop, check.
He did have to thank Shindou for the idea. Out of all the costumes in the shops he'd been dragged to, the pirate ones had attracted him the most. But Akira absolutely refused to wear something so cheap-looking. So he'd bitten the bullet and asked his mother to help him. She'd been delighted, making him wonder how long she'd been wanting to help him dress up.
So here he was now, riding alone in an elevator to the ballroom the Go Institute had rented as a venue for this event.
And he was not going to let Shindou use his non-appearance as a chance to ridicule him.
Determined, Akira swung around and faced the opening door.
Hikaru was nursing a soft drink while watching Ochi play Nase. The higher-ups who had set up this shindig had been bright enough to realize that a room full of professional Go players and no boards would have been cause for mutiny. Still, there was food and drinks, a dance floor that no one was really paying attention to yet, and only ten boards to play on. People /had/ to socialize somehow. Hikaru smiled at the thought of Go players being /forced/ to talk to one another. It smacked of a level of sadism he could appreciate.
Then he felt as much as heard the approach of his rival, Touya's presence, as always, preceded by a fluttering cloud of whispers and people moving aside to grant him his own clear area of space. Hikaru practically rolled his eyes at the thought. Why, exactly, did everyone think Touya was so untouchable? Sure, he was a Go genius, but he was still just a player of the game like the rest of them.
Then he turned and saw what his rival was wearing.
And blinked.
When he found his voice again, it was to say "Touya, I didn't even know you knew ass-fitting pants existed."
Which made Touya go stark red and utterly broke everyone's concentration from the game on the board.
But if Touya was good at one thing (other than Go), it was recovering from the things Hikaru threw at him. "I didn't know you had class, Shindou," he bit back, visibly eyeing Hikaru's own costume. His tone was just on the verge of snappiness.
"Heheh." Hikaru spun, modelling his costume, his cape flaring out. He flashed his plastic fangs for good effect. "I didn't want to go with what was in the shops."
"Neither did I." Touya walked closer, toward the board. "Who's winning?" Immediately all attention was back on the game.
Yoshitaka sipped at his juice, watching the dance floor. Damn, who knew Isumi could move like that? Shindou, that was no surprise, but Isumi? Totally breaking character, of course (since when could Frankenstein dance?), but all the cooler for that. Yoshitaka smiled to himself in pleased surprise and wished again that he'd been able to talk Shigeko into coming with him, but she had exams coming up and had adamantly refused to come with him. Akari had used the same excuse on Shindou, apparently, so Nase, dressed up as one of the characters from Card Captor Sakura, was in high demand as a dance partner.
Some people, of course, didn't seem to find girls necessary for dancing to the faster stuff.
"Who knew Touya-san couldn't dance?" Ochi observed from where he stood next to Yoshitaka, sipping his own drink from beneath his bandages.
Yoshitaka snickered, watching Ashiwara (dressed, appropriately, as an overlarge puppy) and Shindou try to teach their friend how to dance. "I'd kill myself if I ever looked that awkward," he replied. It was true; on the dance floor Touya's usual aristocratic flare deserted him and he moved with all the grace of a puppet. Even if he had come in looking like sex on a stick (as someone had so charmingly described his costume), he was totally failing to score on the dance floor.
Shindou, on the other hand, was a natural, thrashing with energy, flowing with music. The dark green poet's shirt he wore floated around him, deep velvet cape flaring dramatically. Yoshitaka had no idea how he was managing not to get tangled in it, but had to admit that Shindou carried off the vampire motif with panache. He smiled into his drink at the thought and pretended not to notice Ochi's speculative eyes on him.
Panting slightly, Shinichirou twirled Nase off the floor so that they could both get some drinks and cool down. It had been fun to dance like that, he hadn't in ages. And Nase was definitely not a bad dancer.
"Here," he caught at the edge of a table. "What do you want?"
"Cold Oolong, if they have it," she requested, sitting down. Her face was flushed, but she was smiling.
"Be right back." He was smiling too, he knew, as he went off to get them drinks.
"Oh, man, he's got it bad," Yoshitaka moaned as Isumi went back to the table, two drinks in hand.
"You're speaking like you don't." The speaker was Saeki, who had eventually bowed out gracefully from their unspoken rivalry for Shigeko's affections. They were still friends; Saeki's small smile was wicked. Of course, it helped that he'd come dressed as a badass shinigami from Bleach. The bright orange wig, though, was giving Yoshitaka a headache.
"Well." He leaned back against the wall, adjusting the wolf's head mask so it was a comfortable cushion between his head and the wall, and thought about Shigeko's smile. "Yeah." Then he looked at his friend, whose grin had gotten broader. "It's not like that!" he half-shouted. "She's still in middle school! Geez!"
"You move like a stick," Hikaru told Touya as they both sat down. He looked over at his friends for support. "Tell, him, Isumi-san!"
"You could use some practice, Touya-san," Isumi agreed calmly, always being a peacemaker.
Touya glared at them all a bit, including the giggling Nase, but relented. "I've never danced before."
"And it shows," Hikaru agreed before Ashiwara joined them, handing a cup of cold green tea to Touya.
"No one can be good at everything, Akira," he said easily. "Myself, I'm terrible at karaoke."
"I never got good grades in science," Isumi put in.
"Ugh, English was the worst for me!" Nase pouted. "I could just never get how the words were supposed to fit together."
"And you, Shindou?" Touya asked.
Hikaru tilted his head up a little, looking up at the ceiling as he thought about school. "Everything," he admitted eventually. "I was only good at sports, though I did get to liking history later."
"I think your problem, Akira, is that you're so good at so many things that you feel like you should excel at everything," Ashiwara chided with a smile. From anyone else, Hikaru would've expected bristling or ice from Touya, but since it was Ashiwara, Touya just looked down and blushed, smiling a little.
He *had* to get Ashiwara to teach him how to do that.
Akira stretched just a little. It was very late, but he'd actually had a good time, despite the noise and crowd and dancing. He hadn't thought there were that many pro Go players willing to put on silly costumes and spend time they could have spent studying their game mingling with one another instead. Well, at least the conversation had mostly involved Go, so it hadn't been a night entirely wasted.
"That was fun," Shindou said from behind him. "I really was surprised by your costume, though... where did you even find that stuff, Touya?"
"My mother made some of it," Akira admitted, unclipping the hoop earring. He massaged at his earlobe; it was sore from the pressure and weight. "I shopped for the rest. What about you?"
Shindou shrugged, undoing the frogs on his cloak. He'd taken his plastic fangs out and stowed them in a pocket almost as soon as they'd left the party. "I shopped around at some of the pricier costume shops."
"You didn't take me there."
"Found 'em after you told me you'd already decided on a costume." Shindou shrugged. "Since I'm not exactly spending money on food anymore, I decided to splurge." He smiled widely. "The looks on people's faces when they saw you...!"
Akira gave a small grin himself. That had been part of the point of the costume. "Game?" he offered.
"Sure."
Akira fetched the Go board and stones while Shindou slid the fusama leading to the yard wide open, letting the moonlight into the darkened room. He stood there for a moment, one hand on the frame, looking up at the sky. "Shindou?" Akira asked.
"Just looking at the sky," Shindou answered. "Full moon tonight."
"Does that mean anything special?"
Shindou shook his head. "I don't think so. It just feels different. More alive, maybe. Or maybe that's just me." He turned away from the sight and knelt on the floor, moving closer to the Go board. "Touya," he said quietly.
Akira turned to look at him again and found Shindou's face very close to his. "What?" he asked.
Shindou looked deep into his eyes, seeming to be searching for something. He nodded. "I thought so." He drew back a little.
"What?" Akira asked, confused.
Shindou smiled. "I do have a reflection. I could see myself in your eyes."
It made sense, somehow, that Hikaru could find a reflection in people's eyes, especially Touya's, but not in mirrors. Or, really, when he thought about it it didn't, but he decided it was One Of Those Things about being a vampire that he wouldn't understand soon, if ever. He examined Touya's play in the upper left corner closely. It /felt/ like Touya was trying for something deeper there, but he hadn't figured out just what yet.
The flutters in his stomach weren't helping his concentration. He rested his chin on one fist, considering his move.
"Shindou," Touya said. Hikaru looked up. "Do you need...?" The question was left appropriately vague.
Hikaru looked back down at the edge of the board. He still wasn't comfortable with this part of things, probably wouldn't be for a long time if ever, but it /was/ the way things were. "Probably," he agreed.
Touya moved away from the Go board more toward the open fusama, unlacing his pirate shirt to open wider at the collar. His long black-clad legs stretched away. He looked like he should be a character in one of those manga girls read. Hikaru knelt behind him, fingers brushing Touya's hair aside. It was longer, he noticed... Touya was growing it out. He briefly wondered why, then just as briefly wondered if he wanted to know why. He dismissed the question from his mind.
In the moonlight, he drank his eternal rival's blood, a half-finished game on the board behind them, waiting for their return.
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Date: 2005-08-12 04:18 pm (UTC)Belated feedback!
Date: 2005-08-17 01:52 am (UTC)Seriously, it feels a little bit abrupt in some of the transitions. The scenes play beautifully, but they don't always flow quite smoothly from one to the next. More bridging sequences will add more to the feeling of a coherent whole.
Your dialogue continues to be absolutely perfect - Akira at the party is a beauteous thing to behold. It's too bad you didn't have Akari go, though. I think she would have had a lot of fun. Plus I really like the Akari/Akira interaction that you've worked in, so not having her in the closing bit made it feel like something was missing.
You don't see a lot of those two together in the series, but they really are the two peers that Hikaru is the most emotionally invested in. One of the things I really liked about this fic is you got to see how they see each other, outside of Hikaru's eyes. I'm saying that badly. I know it wasn't the main point of the fic, but it was still an interesting exploration. It would be cool to see more of that, although it's probably outside of the scope of this fic. Clearly, there is a mandate for more Hikago fic!
As far as the plot arc for the overall story, I need to reread the whole thing from start to finish to see how it all hangs together. The vampire attacking Akira at the train station and being faced down by Hikaru was clearly intended to be the major climax of the story, but it fell a little flat in comparison to some of the other scenes. I'm not sure if there needs to be more build up, foreshadowing, what, but it felt like it came a little bit out of left field. I loved the bit where Hikaru faced the vampire down - that was gorgeous. It's how we got to that bit that I think needs to be fleshed out a little.
Overall, it's a fun story. I love the what-if extrapolation, and the character growth arcs are neat. Plus, well, Akira in the pirate costume is not to be missed. :D