by Lara Yokoshima

This is an alternate universe (AU) fiction, based on the Project: Unigenitus main characters. It can also have some small appearances of characters from other of my stories. Nothing written on this story can be related to PU, except for some character behaviors and names.

VI. Days Before You Came

Yamah arrived at his room just before the Monday’s classes had ended. It was not his favorite day of the week, and he found it relaxing returning to his room to get some rest. He dropped his suitcase over the desk and immediately dumped his body onto the soft bed. He let out a soft sigh and closed his eyes, letting his mind dwell in the endless flow of his complicated thoughts. He then half opened his lids and turned his head to the left, staring at the empty bed beside his.

“I wonder where he is?” The young man asked himself as he had done for the past several days now.   He shook his head trying to forget the subject, and took the TV remote control, turning the electronic device on.

“Yamah” a voice pronounced his name from behind the closed door, followed by several knocks.

“Hai?” the boy responded, standing up and opening the door.

“Domo!” the blonde youth greeted his friend, and let himself inside the room not giving his puzzled friend a chance to reply.

“Koji? Is something wrong?” Yamah asked as he closed the door behind him. He found his friend’s visit a bit awkward. The blonde just pulled the desk chair and sat down, paying attention to the TV on the other side of the small room.

“What? Do you mind if I visit?” Koji replied with an innocent look in his eyes. Yamah couldn’t help it but notice something strange about his friend’s behavior.

“N-no… not at all”, Yamah said and returned to his bed, staring at Koji from the edge of his eye. He was still kind of suspicious.

“Yamah…”

“Yes??” the white haired boy responded with some enthusiasm, the uncomfortable silence from moments before was killing him.

“Well… I didn’t come here just to make you some company… er… well, not that I don’t want to spend time with you. That just sounded weird, hehe, just forget it” the blonde boy trailed off, and tried to watch the TV in front of him. “What are we watching?” Koji tried to change the subject, but Yamah still wanted to know what his friend had wanted to say to him.

“Koji…” the other boy tried to make the blonde talk, but he decided to just forget it. He could have insisted, just as he did several times with Eiji in the past, but he just respected the blonde teen too much to bomb him with a million questions that will most likely turn aggressive at some point. It was a different feeling that he had for the blond, something he could not completely understand; it was a special feeling.

“Hai?” Koji replied uneasy, trying to give Yamah the best of his smiles.

“No, nothing”, Yamah dropped the subject, and returned to the TV. There was this show on, very popular nowadays… “Dismissed” from MTV. Yamah still couldn’t understand what was so great about that show. This is terrible. No plot at all, it was obvious that all the reactions from the ‘contestants’ were thoroughly scripted. At the end, one of the contestants would win the ‘prize’, and gender was not an issue either. This is shit.

“I’m definitely going to change the channel” Yamah threatened his friend, and took the remote control. Koji let out a soft whimper, as if he didn’t want his friend to change it.

“What?” Yamah stared at Koji with confused eyes. “Wait a minute… don’t tell me you like this crap” the white haired boy questioned his friend.

“Well, yeah!” Koji replied as if watching that show was the most normal thing in the world to watch. Yamah of course, couldn’t believe his friend.

“Damn, dude, you can’t seriously like this thing!”

“Well, I do, so what?”

Again it was that part of Koji’s personality Yamah had the fortune to discover the other day when they had ‘that’ argument.

“Ok… I think I’ll just… do some work” Yamah said as if he didn’t care while reaching for his black notebook; the same notebook where he used to write his most inner feelings and thoughts. His diary. He grabbed the black pen that was inside when he opened it, but paused for a moment before starting to write.

“What is that?” Koji said, suddenly interested in his friend’s black book.

“Noth-“

“Nothing, yeah, I know…” the blonde interrupted before turning back to watch that ending of the awful show.

“It is curious…”

“Hmm?” Yamah replied with a soft sound, immersed in his thoughts.

“How most of the time, the person who you would expect less to win, is the one who wins” Koji explained, referring to the show that just ended.

“Right…” the white haired boy responded, showing little interest in the subject.

“You really don’t care at all” Koji turned his head with a rather painful expression, looking at his stoic friend, who also stared back. Koji stood up, and with only a wave of his hand he said good-bye. He opened the door, not daring to face Yamah anymore and left. The other young man was left a little surprised. Koji was certainly acting weird, really weird since that day.

What the hell was all that about?? Yamah thought. Should I follow him and ask? No, I don’t want to pressure him. Maybe it’s just nothing, I mean; I wanted to change the channel and did a pejorative comment about the show he sure didn’t like. Yeah, maybe that was it. The silver haired youth continued with his writings, but he still knew Koji wanted to tell him something important awhile ago. He just couldn’t guess what it was.

Koji was going back to his room, with one single thought in his mind. He stopped just in front of the door, holding his keys and unable to understand why Yamah was like that with him sometimes. Well, it’s not that he isn’t cold most of the time… that’s just him. But why do I care now? Why now if I’ve known him since we started high school?

The young man opened the door softly and entered the room in silence.

Classes were finally over that Wednesday, and Yamah stood up from his seat after hearing the bell ring, carrying his suitcase and going for the exit as silent as he could be.

“Have fun, Yamah” a voice behind him spoke, and then a hand patted his right shoulder. The young man turned his head around, smiling a little to his blonde friend.

“I will” Yamah responded, and he walked outside leaving his friend behind. Koji knew that from now on, Yamah would spend most of his free time at the basketball field, training incessantly to achieve perfection and lead the team to the national championship once again.

The blonde boy didn’t register at the basketball team this year. He wanted to try something different, so he joined the soccer club. He thought it would be fine to try another routine. It will be fine to also leave Yamah alone for a while.

Yamah walked towards the gymnasium, and even though it was several feet away, he could notice the monumental building rising from the ground as if it were a mountain. It made him feel proud just by looking at it. The building had at least 6 tennis courts, two basketball courts, a small dojo, a huge field in the back used for soccer practice, a beautiful baseball field, a well equipped gym and of course, a semi-Olympic pool. They also had the best sports instructors around; some of them had even competed at the Olympics.

The white haired boy entered by the main doors, and walked down the hall, reaching the basketball court inside of the building. As expected, he was the first one to arrive. The place was absolutely empty, and the wooden floor reflected the shiny sunlight passing through the high windows. Yamah just loved the sight of it.

After a few moments of contemplating it, he walked to the right, where the locker room and showers were. He opened his locker and changed immediately to his basketball uniform. It showed the official colors of the school, in blue and golden stripes, and a big number ‘10’ on the back of the sleeveless t-shirt. The word “Yokoshima” was printed just above it in matching black letters.

After putting on his tennis shoes, he came out of the locker room, finding some of the other team members already there.

“Captain Yokoshima! Good to see you will join us for another year” one of the youths saluted him with a big smile. Yamah bowed his head slightly. “I’m sure we will kick ass once again!” the boy continued with excitement.

“And we sure will” Yamah replied with a cocky smile.

The instructor arrived a few moments later, holding a basketball. The team bowed to Setsune Kunio sensei, a rather young professor that didn’t surpass 30 years of age. His slim and tall body made him stand out between many, and he was also famous because he was once a former member of the Tokyo Marine Big Blue, a professional team of the Japanese Basketball League.

“Yoshi!” the instructor said when he saw his team was complete. He stared at Yamah and then he tossed the basketball to him. The silver haired teen caught it with ease and nodded his head. He raised his hand, running to the middle of the court.

“Ikuso!” Yamah shouted, announcing to his team that the practices had finally begun.

After the practices, Yamah took a quick shower and rapidly changed into a casual outfit. He took his suitcase from the locker room and left the basketball court in utter silence, not even saying good bye to his team. But they were used to his behavior, and neither instructor nor the team could reproach his attitude; after all, he was the team’s star player and they just thought of him as ‘eccentric’.

The young man walked through the hallways, with slow and precise steps. He was in his own little world until he heard some noises. Voices shouting from another room, that sounded more like battle screams. He walked faster to that direction, he remembered the karate club was near and was truly dying to know if Eiji had in fact registered in that class.

Stopping at the front of the door that had the word ‘Karate’ printed in neat dark blue letters, Yamah didn’t even knock and opened the sliding door with haste. He just caught Kurumada, the ‘evil captain’ of the karate club, making a rather violent demonstration on how to block and counter attack an enemy. Yamah saw the amazing power of the blow that the blonde applied to one of the new students, terrorizing the poor boy when he felt the ground on his sore face.

“Hey! What do you want?” one of the seniors of the class asked Yamah, who was just staring with a frightened expression at the cruelty of the captain. In that moment he returned to reality, looking at the guy who just spoke to him.

“Huh?”

“You, the freak with strange white hair… you are not supposed to interrupt like that!” the other guy continued, but Yamah didn’t mind him. Instead, he began searching for the brunette, who for some reason was not there. That’s strange, Yamah thought since he recalled how Eiji wanted to enter that club so badly.

“Oi! Did you just hear what I said?” the same guy approached Yamah, obviously with aggressive intentions. Yamah reacted to the big guy dressed in the traditional white karate ‘gi’, this time he backed up in self defense. He then noticed the guy still had a green belt, so he was not nearly as dangerous to him as Kurumada was. Nonetheless, he had to be cautious.

“Ryo! Stop!” a deep but strong voice ordered him.

“But, Kurumada-san…” he turned his head back, leaving Yamah behind.

“Shut up!” the ash blonde shouted and pushed the guy aside with strength, knocking him down over the tatami floor. “I won’t let you disgrace the Shotokan Karate with your idiotic behavior”.

The guy just twisted a little on the ground, but stood up almost immediately. Kurumada smirked, and then he diverted his eyes to the white haired boy at the door.

Oh man, really bad idea to have come here…

“Don’t you be afraid, my ‘friend’, and tell me what the fuck are you doing here?” Kurumada spoke in a rough manner. If he already disliked the young man in front of him, it made him angrier to see him interrupt his karate class.

“I am free to go anywhere I want” Yamah said in a serious voice, while fisting his hands and backing up slightly. Kurumada noticed this, and with a fast move of his arm, he grabbed Yamah’s shirt with one hand and pulled him inside the room with a strong move. Yamah almost tripped, and with eyes wide open he realized he was now in the middle of the room and in real big trouble.

Kurumada laughed, this just meant more fun for him and his team. “Boys, this is your new ‘punching bag’. Please do not thank me now, enjoy it while he is still conscious”.

“Are you fucking mad?! This is totally unfair!!” Yamah shouted with despair in his voice.

“Be quiet, ‘punching bag’, you are not supposed to emit a single sound…” the blonde responded wickedly. “…except for the girly screams, when you feel the power of our punches of course”.

“You… GRRAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!”

Yamah let his body fly against his enemy, ready to smash his fist into blonde’s face, when he was kicked right in the stomach by one of Kurumada’s followers. The power of the kick left the white haired young man without air, making him bend his body and almost falling into the ground. Fortunately he was strong enough to not fall, and just remained crouched with his arms crossing over his abdomen. It was a painful feeling indeed.

Kurumada approached the fallen boy, grabbing him once again by his t-shirt and making him stand up with one strong pull. “How do you feel now, Yokoshima?” the blonde murmured to him, his face real close to the silver haired youth. Yamah closed his eyes real tight, wanting to fight back, but his condition was too weak to counter attack him.

Meanwhile, a slim brunette boy wearing the official sports uniform was casually passing by the hallway when he noticed from the edge of his eye the situation. He stopped and ran to the opened door, when he saw the two of them, Yamah and Kurumada, in the middle of a fight. But this time, Yamah was going to lose for sure.

“Stop now!” Eiji shouted to the group, and everyone stared at him with confused faces. The brunette walked with haste to where Yamah and Kurumada were, and then he did something Yamah would have never imagined he was able to do. Eiji slapped the blonde right in the face with such strength, that Kurumada had no choice but to release the weary youth from his grip.

“This isn’t your problem!” the blonde shouted placing a hand over his sore cheek.

“It is now!” the brunette glared at him. His eyes were on fire, he was truly angry with the blonde and everyone could notice that. Yamah remained there, astounded to see Eiji and Kurumada’s reaction. Eiji then turned around and stared at Yamah with his golden eyes; Yamah could feel his face burn just with the single sight of his angelic savior in front of him, offering his hand so he could stand up.

“Come on, let’s get out of here” the brunette suggested, and Yamah took his hand, being pulled to his now steadier feet.

“Eiji!” the blonde couldn’t stand it anymore and was about to pull Yamah from the other boy’s side. But in that moment, Eiji raised his hand, motioning the blonde to stop right there.

“No Kenji. Good-bye” he frowned, and without saying more, Eiji pulled Yamah along, exiting the room.

The blonde was left standing there, like a true idiot. He regained his composure right away, and he just turned around looking at his team with killer eyes.

“The fuck are you looking at?! Go back to your training!!!”

“Hai, sempai!” the other students replied somewhat frightened, not wanting to provoke their captain anymore. But Kenji would never forget this moment, he promised himself that much. One day he would have his revenge on that white haired, spikey-headed boy that he hated so much.

“W-wait!” Yamah said loudly to the young man who was pulling him through the hallway. The brunette stopped, and let the other boy’s arm let go.

“What?” Eiji asked, resting one of his arms over his hip.

“Aah….”

“Hm?”

“Thanks… for saving me” Yamah responded with some difficulty. He had never been this grateful to someone in his life. Eiji just stared at him with a puzzled face, but then he smiled softly.

“It’s ok. Kenji was just being unfair and I had to stop him, that’s all”.

Yamah frowned. Since when did Eiji call Kurumada by his first name? Another thing for me to worry about, the white haired boy smiled back hiding his uneasiness. Eiji began walking again, going to the last door at the end of the hallway.

“Oi, where are you going?” Yamah began to follow him.

“Isn’t that obvious?” the brunette just kept walking, until he opened the door and got inside. Yamah followed him inside, not noticing the sign at the door that said…

“The pool? Why are we at the pool?” he asked a bit confused.

“Well… I train here” Eiji replied calmly.

Yamah opened his eyes in amazement. That’s why he didn’t see Eiji at the karate dojo. He registered in the swimming team! Why didn’t he tell me earlier!? Well, I guess this is better than that stupid karate club.

“You look surprised” the brunette looked at him with his golden eyes.

“Well, yeah! I mean, you were so excited about entering the karate team!” the white haired boy answered really exasperated.

“I know… but I decided to give the swimming thing a try” Eiji sighed a little while staring at the light blue mosaic floor. “I’ve always been in the karate team at all schools I’ve been in and, well… I was starting to get bored. I don’t think I love karate that much, eh?” the boy grinned.

“Tell me about it. I will never like karate because of such morons like Kurumada” Yamah laughed a little and crossed his arms. “So, what are we doing here, if class is already over?”

Eiji didn’t reply this time. Instead he took his sports jacket off, revealing his toned bare chest. He then began to pull down his pants until he was wearing only that tiny blue and yellow speedo, the swimming team’s official ‘uniform’, if you could call that minuscule thing a uniform. Yamah opened his eyes widely when Eiji was stripping in front of him, and gave a great gulp. He could feel how his face turned red by just watching the brunette’s flawless body, and he placed a hand over his mouth softly, not wanting to gasp notoriously.

“W-wha…?” the silver haired youth nervously tried to ask. Eiji then jumped directly into the pool with an almost perfect dive. Just after, he popped his head out of the water, and looked at Yamah with interest.

“Do you know how to swim?” the brunette asked.

“Err… sort of…” Yamah could barely respond. “Why?”

“Good. Let’s race” he smiled while floating in the water.

“Eeh?? No, no, no, no, no… no way!” Yamah immediately responded. If he got nervous by just watching Eiji almost naked again, how would he react if he had to use one of those tiny bathing suits in front of him?

“Come on!” the brunette insisted, hoping to convince the young man at the edge of the pool, “I’m not really that good at swimming yet, so I don’t think I’ll win easily.”

“Didn’t you have enough with your class already?” Yamah tried to persuade the brunette.

“My group is boring. You will be far more interesting to compete with”.

Was that just a compliment? What the hell am I supposed to do? Or say?
Yamah stayed quiet for the longest time, thinking what to do in such situation. He didn’t notice that Eiji was getting closer and closer, until he finally grabbed the other boy’s pants and pulled him inside the water.

“What the f---, aaaah!” the white haired boy couldn’t even finish the sentence when he was already in the water, gasping for air just after being pulled and making a huge splash. Eiji laughed and he began swimming to the other side of the 50 meter pool as fast as he could.

“You ass! Come back here!” Yamah shouted with a funny expression. Although he was a little angry, he was feeling happier in that moment than anything else. Eiji sure made him forget about his recent fight with Kurumada, and he was very thankful. He smiled widely while trying to catch up with the brunette. Yamah couldn’t remember when he had last felt so lively.