Chapter Text
"My name is Kaoru Sakurayashiki. I like skateboarding and calligraphy.”
The new student in class immediately caught Kojiro’s attention. He was absolutely stunning. Pink, long hair and various piercings, especially the one in his lip, were almost enough for him not to notice a big, green tiger sitting next to the awkwardly introducing himself boy. Almost.
"Sakurayashiki-kun, can you please keep your tiger in a tattoo form? In my class soulmate animals are not allowed to walk around.”
The boy looked at the teacher, seemingly considering the option.
"He’s not going to cause problems. He listens to me.”
"I have no doubt of this, it’s just a general rule here. And you are not an exception.”
"In the whole Japan, soulmate animals are allowed to walk freely, as long as they are not causing problems. Joe doesn’t feel good being forced into a tattoo form. Didn’t you hear that the way you treat your soulmate animal reflects the way you’ll treat the soulmate?”
And okay, wow. That was probably the most impresive thing Kojiro had ever seen.
"Fine. Your tiger can stay in this form. But the second it disrupts my class, you’re being sent to the principal’s office. Sit down.”
And so Sakurayashiki moved to sit under a window, followed by Nanjo’s curious eyes. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but the green tiger could very well be tied to him. And the small, pink, elegant weasel sleeping currently on his arm definitely fit the new boy. Was he lucky enough to meet his soulmate so early in life, just like Ainosuke?
"Stop starring at him,” Shindo whispered over his book. "Even if he’s your soulmate, you’re gonna scare him off like this.”
"Do you think he might be my soulmate?”
"Your personality could be represented by a tiger, I guess,” he finally looked at him. "You have the same hair color as its fur. And it’s obviously very clingy and energetic, since it won't leave the guy’s side and it doesn’t like being in a tattoo form. At least according to what Sakurayashiki-kun said, everything so far seems to work in favor of him being your soulmate.”
"How are you so sure that you've met your soulmate, anyway? Did you feel it or something? I mean, there are plenty of people that could be tied to a snake or a parrot.”
"It’s mostly the reaction of the animals to each other. Most rarely interact with others, but mine and Tadashi's are friendly. Honestly, if your weasel and his tiger even react to each other, it can be as good an implication as anything.”
It did make some sense. So he had to see if the tiger, apparently named Joe by Sakurayashiki, would react to the pink, nameless weasel. Easy. And scary, since Nanjo was pretty sure he was already falling in love with the pretty, fearless boy.
When the bell rang, Kojiro quickly moved towards the new student.
"I’m Nanjo Kojiro,” he stated, leaning on the other’s desk.
That earned him a judging look, Kaoru visibly not very pleased with the loud greeting.
"Sakurayashiki Kaoru,” his voice was calm, emotionless and, to Kojiro at least, beautiful.
"You like calligraphy, right?”
"Yes”
"Well, that is not something we have in common.” that earned him a small grimace, which he definitely counted as a small victory - as he came to realize, that guy was a master of poker face. "But I like skating! You said you did, too, right?”
"I did say that”
"Do you want to come to a cool skating place after school? It’s not very far and since you just moved here, you probably don’t know where to go. I mean, I’m sure you’re very capable of finding good places yourself, but-"
"Okay”
"Okay?”
"Why not?" Kaoru seemed geniuely baffeld "If it’s not that good, I’ll just never come back. And if it’s good, I can practice. Why wouldn't I agree?”
That was exactly the kind of a matter-of-fact reply that Nanjo was learning to anticipate from the boy.
For the next five long school hours he couldn’t help but look at Sakurayashiki every ten minutes. And if he was bold enough to voice this, he’d say that his look might've been reciprocated a few times.
When the final bell rang, Nanjo was already by Sakurayashiki’s side, patiently waiting for him to pack his things.
"I have my board in my locker room. Do you have yours with you?”
Kaoru simply nodded, not looking at the boy’s overexcited expression.
When they got to the lockers, Kojiro took his old, plain board and looked at Kaoru, who was holding what looked like some kind of a keyboardless, modern computer shaped like a board.
"What is this?”
"My board”
"It doesn’t look like a board”
The boy sighed and rolled his eyes, probably already wishing he hadn’t said yes to him.
"It has an AI of my coding that helps me with skating”
"An AI? You mean there’s a computer in your board that tells you what to do? That is not skating.”
"Carla is not just some computer,” Sakurayashiki looked genuinely angry and maybe a little bit hurt at Nanjo’s statement. "And I do skate myself, she doesn’t control the board. I can take turns with my eyes closed, if I tell her to count down and calculate the angle. She has a GPS, so that I can comfortably skate in unknown to me places. I’m still working on her, but when I’m done, she’ll be able to tell the most efficient route to take based on the length, the amount of turns and the surface. It’s still skating, just more… Efficient.”
Kojiro looked in shock as Kaoru finally broke his stoical facade, fire burning in his eyes.
"Okay,” even he knew when to take a step back. "How about a race, then? At the place I’m about to show you. Not today, of course, I’ll let you get acquainted with everything first, but in a few days?”
He seemed to actually consider it, which was definietely a success.
"Depends on whether or not I like this place”
When they skated, Kojiro leading the way and Joe running beside them, Kaoru wasn’t really keen on talking. He clearly focused on remembering everything around him, probably not trusting his new acquaintance. Not that any sane person would trust some random, new classmate to show them a cool skating place.
"Where do you like to skate? I mean, what kind of places?”
"Before we moved out, I would skate in an old, abandoned skating park. A good place, no people and wild cherry blossoms around. It was a pain when they bloomed and the flowers fell, but I got used to it. It’s not that far away, but I can’t just go there after school in the middle of a school week, so I definitely need a new one. Is your place far?”
"It’s not, we’re almost there, just… Me and my friend often go to a perfect place for training tricks. It’s less creepy than where I’m taking you now, but I promised you a race, so… We’re going to an abandoned mine.”
"A mine?” Kaoru drew to a halt.
"We don’t have to go there, if you don’t want to. I just… Didn’t really think it through.”
Sakurayashiki looked at him as if he tried to read his mind and quickly judge his intentions. He wasn't stupid. But he also wasn't one to back out.
"You want me to go with you to an abandoned mine? It’s a set book red flag, dimwit. But fine, show me the place.”
And so, to Nanjo’s surprise, they arrived at the mine. Kaoru complained the whole time about the safety of it all, but he most definitely enjoyed himself. And he was really good. Even taking some help of an AI into the equation, Kojiro doubted he would be able to do some of the complicated tricks.
It was captivating, especially when Kaoru jumped, looking as if he was flying, with his long hair shining in the sun.
"You’re good.”
"You’re not so bad yourself.”
And so they came back the next day. And the day after that. And then Kojiro showed Kaoru the other place he knew, and when the weekend came, Kaoru asked his mother to take them both to his old skating place. Every day they met early in the morning to skate together to school and then stayed together way after dark, sometimes doing their homework and, more often than not in the time when they should be doing their homework, skating.
In school, Nanjo introduced Sakurayashiki to Shindo, and he introduced him to Tadashi - Shindo's soulmate. The latter didn’t really become a part of their squad, since he didn’t go with them to school and whenever they met, he only had eyes on his boyfriend, which was annoying to say at least.
Kaoru was amazed when he first saw Shindo skating. To be fair, everyone was. What hurt Kojiro, however, was the fact that the amazement was reciprocated. It was hard to impress someone like the blue haired boy and when you did, it was easy to feel like you were on the top of the world. So when Kojiro slowly started becoming the third wheel, despite Shindo already having a soulmate and Kaoru possibly being his, it didn’t really come as surprise. Which doesn’t mean it didn't feel like agony.
He never got around to talking with Kaoru about the whole soulmate thing. He sometimes let his weasel run around freely when they skated alone, but whenever he did, the tiger was always in a tattoo form, gracing Sakurayashiki’s shoulders.
At that point, it was obvious that the pink haired boy didn’t want the animals to interact.
Was he afraid that they were soulmates? Did he not want Kojiro to be his soulmate for some reason?
The more they got to know each other, the more Kojiro’s life revolved around Kaoru. They bickered constantly and Kaoru had this talent for hurting Kojiro, mostly unintentionally, whenever he ignored him for Shindo’s sake, but the whole school knew that they were inseparable.
"Sakurayashiki, can you help me study tonight? The exam is tomorrow and I don’t understand… Well, anything, if I’m being honest,” Nanjo rarely asked nicely, but when he did, they both knew the other would agree to anything.
"I can’t, Shindo’s teaching me a new trick today”
Unless Shindo was involved...
"Oh, I didn’t realize-"
"Didn’t he tell you? I was sure he’d invite you.”
Something like this had happened a few times before. Shindo and Kaoru would go out together and tell Kojiro that both thought the other would inform him. As much as he trusted the boy that he now considered his new best friend, he wasn’t so sure about Ainosuke. His oldest friend was starting to act weird, focusing completely on Sakurayashiki and ignoring everything that didn’t satisfy his sick needs when it came to skating, even his soulmate.
Shindo’s soulmate animal - the snake tied to Tadashi - was a weird one. It was grayish or blackish, depending on the light, and barely moving, no matter the circumstances. Outside of school, the boy would always wear it around his shoulders and whenever they talked about it, he would ask their opinion on weird, unsettling questions, like is it venomous or would it listen to me if I told it to bite someone.
Kojiro developed a weird habit of comparing everyone, and how they treated their animal, with Kaoru.
The pink haired boy gave his tiger a name, rarely wore it as a tattoo to give it some freedom and always referred to it as if it was almost a human being. In general, he treated Joe better than an average pet, which was definitely admirable.
Kojiro liked to think that he was not so bad himself. Average, compared to others. He treated his weasel like a pet, he just didn’t really feel like going against the scary teachers in his school, especially since his grades weren’t as high as Kaoru’s and getting in trouble could be that much worse for him because of it. So he didn’t let his animal run around school so freely. And he didn’t name him, just like almost everyone with a soulmate animal he knew.
Shindo, however, was the absolute worst out of the people he knew. He still, after all this years, referred to his snake as it, like some wild, unknown animal, and he always talked about ways to make it useful.
Of course, the whole thing with people treating their soulmate the way they treat their animals was just a saying, but Shindo definitely treated Tadashi the same way he treated his snake. Not that Kojiro had the right to interfere - he wasn’t exactly friends with the quiet boy.
On the other hand, Kaoru recently ignored him more and more too, so either they were not soulmates, or the saying was irrelevant here.