[Shaman King] Twin Stars * chapter 5: dreadful locker room

[lucathia]

Title: Twin Stars
Chapters: 5/?
Author: lucathia_rykatu
Series: Shaman King
Genre: General / Romance
Characters: (main) Hao, Yoh, Anna, Jeanne, Ren (side) Horo Horo, Tamao, Faust, Pirika, Ryu, Lyserg, Marco, Ryu, Manta, Nichrome, Opacho, and others
Disclaimer: Shaman King is not mine.
Archive: livejournal / ffnet
Summary: A child of the streets, Hao is awarded a chance to earn some money.  The catch?  Crossdressing.  AU world of singers and idols.  Throw in Yoh who is oblivious to Hao's existence, Anna and Jeanne who are competing for the top spot in popularity, and Ren who somehow thinks that Hao would be a good edition to his fan-girl base. Eventual romance.

(prompt #88: he)



-chapter 5: dreadful locker room-


It was rare for him to go to school so often without skipping at least one day of the week. Usually, he liked taking his Fridays off to laze about on the hill behind the school that overlooked the entire Asakura estate. On that hill, he had a good view of the inner courtyard and the outer buildings, and it was easy to see when people came to visit and when they left. This was beneficial, especially when he wanted to avoid a deadly meeting with a certain blond-haired fiancée of his. He also had a great view of the sky, so he wasn’t short on ideas for his weekly stories about the clouds. However, this week was clearly out of the norm, for Asakura Yoh did not even skip one day of class.

It was so unexpected of him that when his homeroom teacher saw him sitting in his usual seat, she did a double-take.

It wasn’t Yoh who noticed her surprise. Rather, it was the new student, Oyamada Manta. “Is something wrong, Sensei?” he asked. He sat in the second-to-last row, diagonally behind Yoh’s seat. He was probably the only one who saw his teacher’s surprise, although he didn’t immediately connect the reason for her surprise with Yoh’s showing up to class. After all, Manta had just transferred in and mostly likely did not know Yoh’s tendency of skipping class.

“Iie...nothing’s wrong.” She smiled a little as she continued on with the role call. Even though that was what she said, the question of why Asakura actually came to class was on her mind throughout the entire lesson. Even when class was about to end, the thought was still on her mind.

It wasn’t until she was putting away her papers when she realized that maybe Oyamada Manta had something to do with this. If so, her hope that the two could become friends probably came true.

Her musings were certainly on the right track.

Every day that week, Manta’s parting words to Yoh had been, “See you at school tomorrow, Yoh-kun!” Upon hearing those words, how could Asakura Yoh not go to school? How could he break his promise to his newly found friend?

At the moment, Manta was putting away his books, about to make his way to the locker room to change for their physical education class. Since the school was quite small, the girls didn’t have their own locker rooms and had to use the classroom to change instead. So when Yoh started following Manta out of the classroom, Manta’s face became scrunched up in confusion.

But on second thought, Yoh was pretending to be a guy, so it made sense that he at least put up the pretense of not changing in the classroom. Manta tried to console himself with that idea.

However, when Manta arrived at the locker room, Yoh was still behind him, and he had every intention to follow Manta into the locker room.

A wave of gut-twisting nervousness swept over Manta.

What the heck was Yoh-kun thinking? Was he going to take his act that far?

Nevertheless, Manta refrained from saying anything, his hands sweating all the while. He did his best to keep silent, to ignore Yoh-kun’s presence as he opened his locker and placed his bag inside. He moved extra slowly, hoping that Yoh would leave at some point. His eyes widened when a classmate next to him started taking his shirt off.

Determined, Manta inched in front of his classmate, trying to block the unsightly view from Yoh. The only thing was...Manta was short beyond short. Even when he teetered on the tip of his toes, he didn’t manage to block a darn thing.

Yoh, oblivious to Manta’s concerns, hummed softly as he tossed his stuff into the locker. As he brushed stray hairs out of his collar, he glanced in Manta’s direction.

“Eh, what are you doing Manta?”

Even though his legs shaking like crazy and his toes were dying, Manta forced a weak smile to his face.

“Um...exercising?”

Yoh’s hands moved towards the bottom button on his shirt. “Oh, okay. But our class hasn’t started yet. Don’t need to tire yourself out yet.”

Manta felt that he had done a good job of keeping cool. He truly did. After all, he hadn’t freaked out yet, right? But watching Yoh-kun slowly unbutton his shirt was a bit too much for him to handle.

When Yoh’s hands wavered over the last button on his shirt, Manta couldn’t stand it any longer. He blurted out the very same words Yoh-kun had asked him not more than a minute ago.

“W-what are you doing, Yoh-kun?”

Yoh was utterly confused by Manta’s question.

“Changing, what else?”

The thought of, “this cannot be true, this cannot be true,” ran through Manta’s mind like a mantra.

Yoh, still not noticing Manta’s nervousness, shrugged his shirt off, revealing his smooth, pale skin.

Suddenly, the ground seemed to be getting closer to him, or was he actually falling forward? In other words, Manta fainted.

Yoh blinked.

He ended up having to drag Manta to the school infirmary with no idea what was wrong with his new friend.

-o0o-

When he came back to the world of the living, the first sight he saw was that of Yoh-kun leaning against his bed. He was half-dressed in his P.E. shirt and half-dressed in his normal school slacks. The white curtains behind him billowed softly as a cool draft blew through the partly opened window.

Manta wasn’t blind, though he had tried to trick himself into believing something that wasn’t true. Yoh-kun was a boy, and as a boy, that meant that Yoh-kun wasn’t Ha-chan after all. So much for feeling elated over transferring into the same school as that of a rising idol.

But despite the fact that Yoh-kun wasn’t Ha-chan, Manta wasn’t as disappointed as he thought he’d be. Yoh-kun was Yoh-kun, and Manta liked him for that. His carefree attitude had grown on him in the short time that they’ve known each other, and somehow Manta couldn’t imagine replacing the Yoh-kun he knew with some female idol that he had never met before.

“...Manta, you awake again?” slurred Yoh as he woke up from his nap. He yawned widely, barely covering his mouth.

Manta nodded, unable to meet Yoh’s eyes. He twisted the white bed sheets, hoping that something could break the awkwardness that he felt.

Yoh pulled himself up, ruffling his hair as he did so. “Guess I’ll head back to class then.”

Manta frowned. “You’re not going to ask me anything?”

The other boy paused at the doorway, shrugging before he closed the door.

Faced with the closed infirmary door, Manta couldn’t help but wonder how he had made such a good friend without realizing it. He really must have been blind.

He noticed his book bag slumped on the chair against the wall. Yoh-kun must have snatched it out of his locker for him. Manta glanced at the magazine that was sticking out of his bag. Even though he had given up on the idea that Yoh-kun could be Ha-chan, he was still curious about their resemblance. Maybe...they were related? Only one way to find out...

-o0o-

Before Yoh left for the day, Manta managed to gather enough courage to pull Yoh towards the side. Yoh was a bit surprised that Manta was already out of the infirmary, not that he wasn’t pleased that his friend had recovered so quickly.

“Yoh-kun, can I show you something?”

Yoh nodded, wondering just what it was that Manta wanted to show him.

Smiling nervously, Manta pulled out a magazine.

And on the cover was none other than a full-blown photo of Ha-chan.

That was how Yoh found out about Ha-chan’s existence.

-o0o-

-to be continued-


Next up: “Anna-sama, Bones Entertainment is going to hold a mini-concert soon.” “Pft. Who’s singing? Ha-chan? There’s something fishy about her...and I’ll be the one to reveal it!”

Feedback appreciated!