writetomyheart | [Team Two] Untitled

Hello Team 2! I'm sorry I'm really late in this, but I'm excited to be kicking off the new round together! If you need to reach me, PM is probably the best way; I get email notifications so I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

I'm sorry to be starting off the new round with something so utterly bizarre, but… I'm a bizarre person, ahaha. This is an AU based on the November 11, 2003 episode of Ya-ya-yah, which is the "Law Quiz" episode. If you haven't seen it, it basically is a series of quiz questions asked by Koyama to the teams (Yabu and Hikaru; Shoon and Taiyo; Shige and Kusano; Tegomass + Inoo) about whether average pranks and practical jokes are actually against the law. The quiz questions are presented in the form of scenarios featuring "Kusao-kun," who seems to be your basic socially awkward high school asshole, and his true love, "Shigeko-chan." Also featured are Kusao's friend Koyama and his crush, Yabuko, and his other friend Hikaru. Basically, it's like a weird high school drama with characters based on the people who appeared in the episode.

So basically… this is a story about those characters. More than an AU of real life (where Shige and Yabu are gender-swapped |D), I sort of see them as separate characters. This is set 12 years after the events in that episode, after they're all grown up and out of school. This is also just the first segment of what is planned to be a much longer fic… once I finish it, I'll link the entire thing back here. Warnings for gender-swap (ish) and mentions of pregnancy?

Now that I've probably written more author's note than actual fic, please enjoy |D;

Kusano Kusao's life is pretty good. Well, okay, sure, he didn't get into college, and that band that he tried to start up hadn't gotten past the planning stages, and now he's spent the past ten years working at Seven Eleven despite the fact that at first, he'd really only intended for it to be part time, and people tell him he's ugly all the time, and he doesn't have that many friends… but, he thinks, life is what you make it, and at the end of the day, he doesn't have too much to complain about. After all, after a somewhat rocky high school courtship, he'd managed to woo and eventually marry the girl of his dreams, Kato Shigeko, and after she'd finished her law degree three years ago, she'd managed to land a lucrative job with a well-known firm, luckily making up for Kusao's total lack of career. They live together in a nice little 2LDK near Akabane, and even though Shigeko's work schedule makes getting dinner out or seeing a movie together difficult to manage more than once every few months, Kusao is happy, and that, he thinks, is what matters.

After all, who cares if his wife is the one who brings home the bacon? His coworkers at Seven Eleven seem to think that he ought to be concerned, or at least, that his manly ego ought to be bruised, but Kusao couldn't care less that Shigeko was the one supporting them. It's a little sad, true, that he ends up eating conbini bentos and instant ramen alone for dinner most nights while Shigeko puts in overtime at the office, but that's the life of being married to a careerperson, Kusao thinks, and besides, he's hardly lonely. After all, his best friend from high school, Koyama, lives next door along with his wife Yabuko, so when Shigeko is busy, Kusao can go crash with them if he doesn't feel like watching late-night variety shows or reruns of bad daytime dramas. Sure, Yabuko is kind of a flake, and Kusao doesn't really understand why Koyama had had such a desperate crush on a junior high school kid when Koyama himself had been older than most third-year high school students, having failed to graduate the year before, back when they were younger. But honestly, he's mostly grateful that Koyama had forgiven him for that time he had broadcast Koyama's crush to the whole school in the school newspaper (which wasn't very nice, he has to admit, but it was pretty damn funny also, and he still can't help but chuckle when he remembers it…), and so he doesn't question Yabuko's bad cooking or the fact that she and Koyama have somehow managed to have three kids since they were married eight years ago and are showing no signs of stopping, if Koyama's recent giddy emails proclaiming proudly that they were expecting another is anything to go by. Even if he pokes fun sometimes (and earns glares from Koyama, since more often than not, Yabuko is too dense to figure out what Kusao is even talking about), he figures that, if Koyama can respect his choice to have a poorly-paying retail job while his wife is a high-powered attorney, he can respect Koyama's life choices, too.

And so life goes on in a pretty decent fashion despite its ups and downs. Kusao tries hard not to be the total ass that he (grudgingly admits that he) was in high school, and occasionally, he even remembers to make instant ramen or bring home conbini bentos for Shigeko, too, for after she gets home from work. He doesn't really know what goes into being a lawyer, but it seems stressful, and he tries to give her space when she seems particularly tired-- Koyama has told him time and time again that his best attempts at humor are embarrassing at best and offensive at worst, and he's not sure how else one would cheer up one's wife at the end of the day besides letting her do her own thing without bothering her. Sure, he's not a perfect husband, not a perfect person, but nothing in life is perfect, he thinks, and he loves Shigeko more than anyone else in the world, so that has to count for something. Or really, for everything… because Kusao doesn't have a lot to give besides his love, but if he can support Shigeko and earn her love in return, then for him, that's more than enough.

You're up,

damagea!

[EDIT] The entire fic is finished! It can be read here at my journal!