Banana Fish short stories | ✔

(Intro) Partner in Crime

Eiji makes friends with his neighbors Elizabeth Owen, Heather Coleman, and her nephew Zachary Coleman.

He was always nice and polite, but he also kept his distance.

Zachery may look like a squeaky clean kid, but he hides a violent and dangerous past, but once he gets tangled up in a crime world again, will he find a way out, or will he get trapped inside.

(Basically another project idea to work on)

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Outside of the apartment, the chatter was heard. Two elderly women talked excitedly to a young boy while drinking their tea. Sun already setting outside the windows before their chat started quieting down.

"Oh my, would you look at the time. We should get going now." Mrs. Coleman gasped when she saw how fast time went by. "Dinner won't make itself." Eiji agreed and followed the two up to the hallway. After they bid their farewell to Ms. Owen, cheerfully they departed to their apartments "Goodbye Mrs. Coleman" the woman turned to look at the boy "Dear, i told you to call me Heather already" she smiled softly "well, yeah, but, uh-" Eiji struggled to find words to say. He just wasn't accustomed to calling people older than him by name, it took him some time to call Max properly but he was still struggling with Mrs. Coleman's name.

"Goodbye Eiji" she laughed and opened the doors with a click. "Don't forget to come to visit me soon. Zachery will like some compony too" she closed her doors.

He mimicked and went inside his apartment with a growing smile. He liked talking to Mrs. Owen and Coleman. They were nice and good neighbors. Zachery was kind and polite too, though Eiji and he never talked by themselves, Ms. Coleman always standing close or talking to Ms. Owen. Eiji already realized the boy probably doesn't like him, or just doesn't want friends, but he still tried to befriend him since Ms. Coleman was worried about him being alone all the time. It proved to be harder than he originally thought, but hey, not like he had a better idea to waste his time at, either that or he continues rotting away into his apartment on his own. With a quick-amused laugh, he stomped off to the kitchen with newly found determination.

* * *

Eiji rang the ball and shuffled on his feet, waiting for doors to open with a usual smile on his face. He heard muffled footsteps on the other side before the doors clicked open to reveal disheveled boy with half-lidded eyes. Zachery hovered above Eiji, close to Ash's height, his clouded blue eyes fell on Eiji, for a few moments neither moved. Eiji only blinked surprised at the boy's unkempt appearance, his outfit was plain enough, trousers and baggy black shirt with rolled-up sleeves, two red lines going up his forearms, what surprised Eiji was the thing that was usually most well kept, his usually spiky hair was now unruly, frizzy dark chocolate hair made him instantly remember Ash's bad hair and he found himself giggling at the silly memory.

Now it was Zachery's turn to blink confused followed by a confused tilt of his head. Eiji only laughed harder and pointed at his hair "New look?" he continued laughing while the taller boy watched him with wide-eyes before leaning back and glancing at the mirror conveniently hanging few feet to doors. Eiji watched him gape at his reflection while recognizing his hair was the source of Eiji's laughter has dawned on his face. He huffed and ushered still-laughing boy inside. "Aunt went to the Supermarket, she will be back 10 minutes the most. Make yourself comfortable, i need a minute to fix it," he hurries to his room at the left side of the hallway. Eiji hesitates before trailing after him, with a knock and clear "come in" Eiji walked in his room. It was big with gray walls, a big king-sized bed with black silk sheets covering it. He took a step further inside and noticed a fluffy rug gray rug under his slippers, which he put on shortly after first entering the apartment. Zachery was standing before his wardrobe with his reflection starring back. He glanced at Eiji, who got the point and stammered out "Uh- sorry I- well. Didn't mean to laugh at you, but your bad hair reminded me of A-Christopher." Zachery raised an eyebrow but only nodded. "It's alright."

He went back to brushing his hair, after minutes of battling his thick bundle of hair the thoughtful look in his eyes a small frown became more apparent. "I fell asleep with wet hair and now I'm paying the price," he said to Eiji "It's usually easier to tame" Eiji snorted at his choice of words, remembering Ash's look of the grumpy lion when just woken up. He tried masking the snort with a dry cough, but both of them knew it didn't fool anyone.

"You want some help?" Before he could help himself, the question slipped out and he was rewarded with a raised eyebrow of reflection looking back. "I sometimes help Christopher with his, so if you want to, I can try with yours, though it's a different type, it's worth a shot?" The silence fell over them and Eiji gulped in discomfort.

"Alright," the boy perked up and took the outstretched comb, gesturing for others to take a seat on the bad and Eiji began his work.

It was medium length hair for men, shorter than Ash's, it was thick hair, a bit longer at the top while keeping the back and sides cropped short.

"If you plan on doing it slicked-back like my hair normally is, you need to apply the product to give hair volume and height while combing hair back on a diagonal."

"Product?" Eiji looked at the round box on the table Zachery was pointing at. "I can do it myself if you decided otherwise." Eiji smiled sheepishly.

"I will try, but don't have much hope" smirk stretching on his face made Eiji briefly wonder if Ash and Zachery might become good friends, maybe if the things were different now. They do have similarities in their personalities, but maybe they would be repulsed from each other because of them. Like magnets... either drawn together or repulsed by each other. It all depends on the circumstances of their meeting. Before Eiji started his diabolical plan of preparing for their meeting, Zachery chuckled, his deep baritone voice filling the room and snapping Eiji out of his train of thoughts.
"Don't worry too much. I'm not going anywhere today."

Eiji gave him a look of disbelief and with mock offense said: "How dare you." followed by his own laugh.