Unravel Me

2: The Fighter

   Chuuya had started meeting with Dazai regularly. Unfortunately, while he was finally getting a grasp on the first unit, the rest of his calc class kept chugging forward. He felt like he was constantly treading water to keep from drowning, just barely able to keep his head above the surface.

When he wasn't with Dazai, he was combing through his notes, trying to understand the new concepts well enough to get at least half of his homework problems right. And every night when he got home from classes, he went right to his room to do work. He usually only crammed that hard when he had a big test coming up, but he didn't want the gap between him and his classmates to get any bigger.

Unfortunately, this new dedication to his studies was starting to hurt other aspects of his life. He was groggy every morning at track practice—almost passing out a few times while running laps—and he hadn't been to open mat in a couple of weeks, which meant he hadn't seen much of Shirase and Yuan in that time either. They were starting to get upset.

Luckily, he finally caught a break when one of his lighter homework days happened to line up with open mat, so he packed his bag and left for the gym.

The familiar smell hit him as he walked through the front doors—a war between the pungent scent of the citrus cleaner they used on the mats and the stubborn smell of musk that refused to come out no matter how much scrubbing the owners did. The musk was typically just an undertone, but was much stronger now that the gym was full of fighters.

Chuuya scanned the mats to find Shirase sparring with someone he didn't recognize—a new member of the gym, he guessed. He was too distracted to notice the redhead walk in, but Yuan crossed the room to start accosting him right away.

"Oh, who do we have here? You look a little familiar but i'm sure I haven't seen you around."

He rolled his eyes as he dropped his bag by the benches. "Alright, Yuan, I get it."

"It can't be. . . Chuuya? No, he's been way too busy with his fancy new college life to make time for his boring old high school friends." She had started poking at his face like she was trying to determine if he was real or not.

"Alright, knock it off," he snapped, swatting her hands away.

Chuuya had met Shirase and Yuan during his junior year of high school. He had transferred halfway through the year, after moving in with his older sister. Shirase and Yuan were outcasts—the kind of kids that everyone thought might steal your lunch money if you weren't looking. Chuuya hadn't known enough to be afraid of them, so, when there was an empty seat in the back of the class, he took it, and the three of them became fast friends.

They weren't bad people, just misunderstood. No one took the time to get to know them. Their rebellion was their way of coping. Shirase, for example, had a pretty shitty home life. He harbored a lot of anger and had no healthy outlet. Chuuya changed that when he started inviting Shirase to come to MMA practices with him. And, of course, Yuan tagged along too, not wanting to be left out.

It was funny now that she was the one who seemed to love it most, entering into more competitions than Chuuya could ever spare the time for. These days, he hardy even had time to train.

"It's just been so long," she laughed.

"I've been really busy with school."

"Oh yeah? Well, while you've been hitting the books like a nerd i've been training like a madman. I might even be able to take you on now."

He smirked. "You wanna put your money where that big mouth of yours is?"

"Bring it on," she retorted, her eyes wild.

The two tumbled onto the mats, a mess of limbs as they fought each other for control. While Chuuya was, admittedly, a little bit rusty, he still had been fighting for more than twice as long as Yuan had, making his technique much more polished. She had plenty of drive, plenty of aggression, but her moves were too easy to predict. It wasn't long before Chuuya had her in an arm bar, forcing her to tap out.

She groaned as she lay sprawled out on the mat. "It isn't fair. The way you fight—it's like you're not even human."

He chuckled as he sat down next to her. "You're such a sore loser."

"Am not!"

"Hey, Chuuya," Shirase greeted as he strolled over, stopping in front of them to take a sip from his water bottle. A thin sheen of sweat covered his skin, making it shine in a way that rivaled the models in swimsuit ads. Chuuya couldn't stop staring. "It's been a minute."

"Yeah, sorry," Chuuya scratched the back of his neck. "I've been really busy with school stuff."

"You know you can do your work at my place, right? I don't mind. I just miss having you around."

Yuan scoffed. "Please, there's no way he'd be able to get any work done around you."

Chuuya frowned. "Shut up."

"I didn't mean it like that!" Yuan quickly corrected.

Of course, Chuuya knew what she'd been implying. And, really, she was right.

Shirase reminded the others of where their conversation had been going before they'd let it jump the tracks. "I'm just saying, I can't even remember the last time I saw you."

It was true that between everything he had going on with school, work, and track, Chuuya had begun to neglect Shirase and Yuan. He could have texted them more, at the very least. Then again, phones work both ways, and it wasn't like Shirase had been pestering him for attention. He wasn't like that at all. For the longest time, Chuuya actually thought the other boy hated him because of it.

"Well, what can I do to make it up to you guys?"

Yuan lit up. "Let's go out this weekend!"

Chuuya winced. "I can't this weekend. I've got a paper due."

"Then next weekend?" She offered.

Chuuya thought for a moment, mentally flipping through his upcoming assignments. His next calc test was Friday, so he wouldn't have to worry about studying, and the rest of his workload for that week was pretty light so far. And, even if any of his professors decided to pile on more work, at least he'd have enough notice to be sure to clear his schedule for one of his days off.

"Sure, that works."

Yuan squealed. "Good! It's been forever! We're gonna dance our asses off."

"Great," Shirase said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, come on, don't be like that."

"Why can't we just catch a movie or something?"

She frowned at the suggestion. "Because sitting in a dark room not talking to each other for two hours doesn't sound like fun, does it? Not with how long it's been since we last hung out."

"We can watch a movie some other time," Chuuya suggested.

Shirase looked a little offended at that. "You're taking her side over mine?"

"It's not about sides, I could honestly just use a break right now. I've been so stressed with school that it'd be nice to have a chance to let loose."

"Fine," Shirase huffed. "We can go out if that's what you really want."

"Thanks," Chuuya smiled, giving Shirase's upper arm a tiny squeeze to communicate just how much it meant to him that the other boy would try so hard to make him happy.

He rolled his eyes again, trying to act like it wasn't a big deal—and maybe it wasn't, to him.

"You wanna spar with me?" Shirase asked, trying to change the subject before he got roped into more shit he didn't want to do.

"Spar?" Yuan asked. "Hasn't it been awhile since the two of you rolled? I'm sure you're dying to—"

"Yeah, we can," Chuuya answered, grabbing Shirase and dragging him away from Yuan as quickly as possible, trying his best to hide the fact that his face matched his hair.

Of course, she noticed, and she couldn't help but snicker as she watched the two boys head toward the makeshift octagon.