Mitsukou Oneshots - puppymitsu

Can You Hear Me Through The Static?

"Picking up girls?"

"I was not, stupid!"

Kou lightly kicked Sousuke in the pit of his knee, causing a fit of laughter from the pinkette beside him. The two had always been like that- mean, but never mean . They liked to pick on eachother and tease a bit, but of course, at the end of the day, it all came round to them knowing how much they really cared for the other.

"Don't tell me you forgot you were supposed to come to my exhibition! I'm hurt..." Sousuke's words read like a kicked puppy, but his tone was closer to that of a mischievous cat. Sousuke knew he was a tease, and Kou would fall for him every single time.

"Of course not-!! I just got caught up with what I was doing, is all..." Kou put the spare coupons in his pocket as he walked with Sousuke, making sure Sousuke knew he had his full attention. Sousuke didn't comment on this, but it seemed he was at least somewhat aware of it, as Kou saw a slight shift in his smile that changed it from teasing, to genuine.

Sousuke looked down to check his appearance, trifling with his camera as he looked himself over. "Well, you're lucky I found you. My mom is waiting for us." Sousuke's words caused a small ping in Kou's mind. It wasn't like it was rare to see Sousuke's mom, in fact it made sense; Of course his mother would show up to an exhibition he was featured in, for the club that he ran. Still, he couldn't pinpoint why, but hearing Sousuke's mom would be around made something in his head spark.

"Alright, you lead the wa-" Kou paused. "...Actually, I should put all this stuff up first. Mind if we take a quick detour?" Kou had nearly forgotten he was wearing a cheesy octopus hat and holding a rather large sign. Sousuke nodded with a hum of acknowledgement, before letting out a quiet snicker.

"It's about time you ditched the hat... It might be worse than your earring..."

"Hey!!"

After their detour to Kou's classroom to drop off the sign and vouchers, they found themselves standing at Kou's locker to put away the hat. As Kou cast off the hat, he felt hands at his hair- Sousuke's poor attempt to fix the mess the hat had left behind. "Ugh, jeez. I'm not letting you come to my exhibition looking like you just rolled out of bed."

Kou's brain lagged a bit at the contact, it felt nice in a strange, tingly way. Before Kou could even try to put up a fight, he felt his mind surrender and his arms lower. "My hair is always messy... why is it suddenly a problem now?" Sousuke didn't back down from his battle with Kou's hair, though he was clearly losing. "I am not letting my kouhais see you like this! I put in a good word for you, I don't want them to think I'll just talk highly of anyone ..."

The words didn't fully register in Kou's mind for a second, until they did. "...You talk highly of me to your clubmates?"

Kou felt as Sousuke's hands slowly slipped away from their battle to tame Kou's hair (bummer) and watched as Sousuke moved them to his chest, still held out in a claw-like configuration. "...Yeah. Sometimes. Don't let it get to your head." There was a brief moment of what felt like pure, still silence, until Kou felt his tie being grasped at and adjusted. The motion snapped him back to reality, and Sousuke's voice caught his attention before anything else could even graze it. "Besides, you should at least TRY to look approachable for my mom." Sousuke's surface-level tone was snarky, but underneath it, Kou could almost hear something on par with consternation. Kou decided now wasn't the time to dwell on it.

And speak of the devil, the two heard a voice from the other end of the row of lockers.

"Oh? Is that you, Kou-kun?"

Kou and Sousuke's positions adjusted to face the direction of the voice, where they were met with the presence of Sousuke's mom. Those words and that face caused another spark in Kou's mind, a strange sense of déjà vu that Kou was barely aware of. But it lingered in the background of his mind.

The flow of Kou's thoughts were interrupted by another spark as Sousuke's mother made her way through the crowd and towards them, beaming. "Kou-kun, It is you!" Before Kou could respond, he felt himself being embraced in a tight hug. Sousuke's mom and him had met a few times before when he had gone over to their house to work on assignments with Sousuke, and a few times after that when Kou began to walk Sousuke to school (Sousuke never asked him to, he just enjoyed doing it so much that it became routine.) Even though they had only had a full conversation maybe twice before, he had become fairly close to Sousuke's mom, and she even put extra effort into caring for Kou as one of her own.

Just as Kou was about to reciprocate the hug, Sousuke's mother pulled away. "Sorry dear, I didn't mean to smother you! Sousuke didn't tell me you would be here!" She smiled, and Sousuke intervened. "Mom!! Weren't you supposed to be waiting at the exhibition for us?" Sousuke whined as he stepped in front of Kou slightly, huffing and puffing as his face was flush from embarrassment.

Sousuke's mom held her hands together in front of her, her grin still ear-to-ear. "Sorry boys, I didn't mean to interrupt! I was just worried Sousuke had left me behind, I know how he gets about seeing his own work on display..." Sousuke's mom looked back to Kou, her smile getting softer. "...I'm just so glad he finally has a friend to support him. Thank you for that, Kou-kun!"

Kou felt a surge of emotions when Sousuke's mother thanked him, mostly feeling a sense of exultance. Kou quickly nodded, bowing way too deep as he spoke. "Y-yes! Of course, Miss!!" The moment was interrupted when he received a light bap on the head, causing him to quickly rise and hold his head. "Come on, Kou-kun. We're wasting time, we gotta get to my class..." Sousuke's hand was still balled up from the knock to the head he had delivered to Kou, and his face was still slightly pink... from embarrassment, probably. Kou nodded and Sousuke grabbed his mom's wrist and began to walk away with her, and as Kou was about to follow...

"I'm just curious..."

"...About who this "mom" person is..."

Kou watched as Sousuke(?) ran after his mom, humming as he caught up to her. His scarf halted most movement as his pace slowed, and Kou watched him fade into the crowd. Kou felt his heart stop, but as he blinked, he saw Sousuke dragging his mom like what he had seen before he felt as if he saw the world split into two in front of his own eyes. Sousuke halted for a moment and turned around, shouting out to catch Kou's attention.

"What's wrong with you, space-case?! Hurry up and get over here!"

Kou's mind was running a mile per minute, and he could have sworn he felt his heart stop beating for a moment in time, and the sparks in his brain were going haywire. But instead of questioning something that could have been a figment of his imagination, he trusted what was in front of him, right now, calling out to him.

"...Coming, Sousuke!"