ohnovember shorts 07 – girls don’t rule the world (ohno/aiba)

[neko_kirin3104]

girls don’t rule the world
prompts: arashi discovery 2015.11.03, stripes (oneword.com)
ohno/aiba+ohno/sho♀+aiba/becky, friendship/au (sugar & salt)

It's the wallet, Masaki's quite sure of this now.

Ever since Oh-chan turned ten last fall and Shoko gifted him that trifold velcro wallet peppered with fierce little Friezas whooshing about and death beaming imaginary foes, his best friend has never been the same.

As to how that girl even knew Oh-chan's favorite Dragon Ball character is just beyond him.

Shoko hates Oh-chan like a sickness and has never once made any effort of hiding this. She absolutely has no business knowing what Oh-chan likes and giving him gifts like she hasn't just been calling him 'dumbass' all over town.

It's been years since Masaki himself joked to Oh-chan about flipping the new girl's skirt and Oh-chan actually went and did it without even blinking, earning him his first ever shiner, and both of them their longest, most traumatizing man-to-man talk with their dads.

No amount of 'it was just a prank!' could've saved them then, just as it has done them no good in mending Shoko's bad impression of them until now.

And yet, Oh-chan just went and fell in love with the gladiator girl in pigtails all the same.

Masaki has never been the jealous sort. Especially not when it comes to Oh-chan.

But he's also never had to share his best friend's attention with anyone the way he's had to share it with Shoko since that Frieza wallet came into the picture.

Since last fall, it's been nothing but a never-ending string of 'Sho-chan this' and 'Sho-chan that' whenever he and Oh-chan are together.

They're beating each other up on a Wii Sports simulation at home and there's suddenly a dreamy mumbling of, "I wish I could play this game with Sho-chan."

They're strolling around the mall, checking out all the high-fashion stuffs that seem to be the in-thing among the older boys at school, and it's suddenly, "That ‘Just Do It’ cap will look perfect on Sho-chan."

They could simply be walking down the street and his hopelessly bewitched best friend would be sighing, "I wonder what Sho-chan's doing right now..."

It's been weeks since Shoko left for the city to stay with her dad until school reopens again in fall, yet the girl just keeps hovering over their days, clawing at Masaki's head like some sort of a pollen allergy hangover that wouldn't go away.

As far as he can remember (which is far enough without embarrassing himself), he's never been this bonkers for Becky. And he and Becky are actually together—well, almost. She promised they’ll talk about it when she comes back from her grandparents’ place.

Oh-chan's hardly even made it past the bleachers with Shoko.

"You ever seen that panda shirt Okada-kun's been showing off for months like it's the robe of the gods or something?" he grumbles on one of those particularly lazy summer afternoons when they're just dangling their feet off the balcony of their tree house and pressing their faces taut like taiko drums through the gaps between the rails. "I heard Shoko-chan gave it to him."

Ohno snorts. "I know."

"A week before she even gave you the wallet."

"I know."

"For no reason at all!"

"It was Okadacchi's birthday—"

"Not reason enough!"

"My wallet's a birthday gift too, you know..." Ohno pouts, seriously weighing Masaki's words and already doubting himself inside his own headspace.

"Yeah!" Masaki drawls, turning to his best friend with a more determined squeak. "But she's never called Okada names!"

"That's because Okadacchi's boring!"

"But she's never hit Okada's head either!"

"Becky hits your head every day, Masaki." Ohno shots him a contemptuous frown. "And you still swear she's your girlfriend."

"She IS my girlfriend!!" Masaki insists, then chokes back the rest of his words when it suddenly hits him what he's been doing, what this whole conversation has been about. He just stares at his best friend for a long time, his scowl eventually slacking into a sigh at seeing the same kind of realization reflected in those deceptively dull eyes. "We're hopeless, huh?"

Ohno shrugs, then wedges his face back between the rails. "I know."

Masaki does the same as they kick their legs back into a leisurely swing. Even the soft rustle of the leaves overhead sounds lazy, as though time has just come to a standstill to give them both a chance to catch their breaths, collect their thoughts, and accept each other's unspoken apologies in the silence they have almost forgotten they can share.

Rare pockets of calm nothingness when girls don't rule the world, and Masaki and Oh-chan can both just be boys again.

"First one to ever mention a girl's name until the end of summer is a rotten egg."

"Whatever, Masaki." Ohno sneers. "You're going down."

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