Jungle fever

Chapter 19

"Really Ryouta, how could you manage to pull your braids out? All of them at once?" Junpei sighed and glared at the golden-haired man. "Sit down. I will redo them while we rest."

"Thank you, Junpeic..." The blonde didn't finish his sentence. Another glare from Junpei was enough to shut him up. "Ryou, you should already know that Junpei doesn't like your weird ending of names." Kazunari laughed and wiped his bangs back. "You are next in line. You can't see anything with that mat on your head." The slender man pointed at the raven and pulled not so gently at the honey-blonde hair of his current victim. "Ouch, ouch! Not so rough."

"Don't be a baby about it!" A clap to Ryouta's neck was followed by more wailing of the blonde.

Taiga watched his friends making a fuss and a slight smile crept up his lips. "Oh! I like that. And here I thought, you already forgot how to do it" Teppei sat down beside the redhead and greeted him with a smile. "Huh? What are you going at?" Taiga looked a bit puzzled at the brunette. "Smile, smile!" Teppei put his index fingers to the edges of his mouth and pulled them up. "Tch, yeah. As if I have much to smile these days." Taiga's eyes looked over to his old man and he sighed in regret. "I shouldn't have told him. But I thought he would understand because normally he is a good dad. What he's doing now hurts." The tall brunette also looked over to the chieftain who was eating a snack while talking to some of the hunters.

"Did he say, why he does behave like that towards you?" Taiga drew circles with a stick on the ground. "Yeah, he wants me to feel how it will become in the future if I hold onto the idea that a relationship with another man will work out." He sighed again and threw the stick away, which without his consent hit Kazunari at his back.

"Oi, what was that for?" The raven rose up from his seat and tackled Taiga. They rolled on the ground and the raven attempted to tickle his big friend into oblivion. "Wah! No no no, Kaz don't! Haha... was without intention! Stop!"

Kazunari chuckled and looked into the red, teary eyes beneath him. He stilled, "Hm, I somehow get why the Aomine's guy fell for you."

"Wha...?" Taiga was speechless but that subsided soon. "What the hell are you talking about?" The redhead sat up and pushed Kazunari slightly off of him. "What I mean is, that when you laugh it's like a disease. One wants to automatically laugh with you."

"What am I now? A germ? Tch." The hothead scratched his head and had slightly red ears. He wasn't used to compliments but this time he wasn't as oblivious as normally and got that Kazunari just had praised him.

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"You know chieftain, I missed that!" One of the men said to Raion and pointed over to the little group of young men. "Yes, me too." Another chimed in while the rest nodded. "What has he done that you treat him like an outcast?"

Raion looked at his son. His eyebrow twitched as he registered that Kazunari was lying on top of Taiga. But his redheaded son pushed his friend off and looked slightly confused. "Taiga needs to learn that the world isn't as easy as he thinks. Everything else doesn't concern any of you." He scoffed and dedicated his attention again to the new bow he was making.

His men exchanged glances but no one tried to pry further into the issue.

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Kagetora had left the kids to the oldest girl in the group and wandered through the jungle. Earlier in the day he had heard wood chopping and now investigated who it might be. If he was lucky his way would cross the path the Aomine tribe took to their new camp. The smell of smoke impregnated the air for a while and Riko's father carefully planned his next steps. Currently, he was walking around a thick bush.