Masaki & Satoshi’s Magical Christmas [Special Chapter III] – Level Up!

[neko_kirin3104]

Level Up!
[Jun/Sho] [PG-13] [AU]

Jun's getting left behind and is not at all taking well to it.

It didn't use to matter that he seems to have gotten the shittiest end of the stick where this whole superpower business is concerned.

But now it does and he can no longer deny it—

"Your powers are evolving, dearies!" The moment Sammy says those words, Jun's chest hollows out.

Especially since it reminds him of just how the supposedly precious memory of his first kiss has forever been marred by flittering sparks of envy, resentment, and humiliation when barely a few seconds into the kiss, Jun was shocked out of his senses when the older boy’s body just went phasing right through him in an electrifying shock of white-hot pain.

It may have only lasted a split-second, but seemed to have robbed the frazzled Jun half of his entire lifespan.

He fell on his butt in a daze. Panting and clutching his chest to make sure that his heart was still there and was not somehow whisked away by that blink-of-an eye moment when he and Sho literally became one.

And while he was still reeling from the aftershocks of his beloved senpai's own version of an electric kiss, with the fading sparks of electricity prickling his skin and threatening to shut his mind down, said beloved senpai was already whooping it out behind him like an overjoyed little toddler who has just discovered the secrets of the proverbial cookie jar.

Because apparently, and while Jun is hard-pressed in coming up with more fashionable ways to swaddle himself against the sun so he doesn't end up in some mad scientist's lab table, Sho has been just as hard-pressed in acquainting himself with the wonders and nuances of his own ability.

Jun can hardly remember much of Sho's excited drivel now. Most of it sounded like an alien language to him. A hateful monologue that completely undermined the sentiments of that kiss they just shared.

All because Jun thought that a grueling Maths tutorial was the perfect excuse to finally confess to Sho. And Sho thought he was rather cute. And there were just the two of them in the room after all—

He does remember watching with forced enthusiasm how a manic Sho paced around his room that night, breathless and drunk on his presumed invincibility, and spitting out arrogant words like “kinetic energy” and “vibrational frequencies” that only served to heighten Jun’s growing annoyance.

"Who knows what else I can do, if I could just learn to focus, Macchan?! Just focus! Maybe I can even learn to fly! What's going to stop me from doing that, huh?!"

"Your fear of heights, for one," Jun had grumbled, sore and crashed and not making any efforts at all to hide it anymore.

But his words probably just buzzed past Sho's head, because the next moment, all Jun had to prove that Sho had ever been in that room with him was the biting echoes of the words the overly enthused boy left before storming out of the door—

"I've got to tell ‘Nii-chan about this!"

They never really got to talk properly about that night. Jun doubts Sho even remembers it now and he's just too proud to embarrass himself like that again.

For one brief moment though, he did wonder—perhaps a little too hopefully—If the electrical rush he could still feel faintly buzzing through his nerves after his senpai left came from him or were mere remnants of Sho's evolved superpower.

He had even thrown his palms out with a heartfelt, "Hiiiyaaa!" fully intending to blast his Maths workbooks to smithereens.

But nothing happened.

+++++

It's bad enough that Satoshi and Sho are sharing a room right now after Sho almost wrecked his own room spinning like a crazed turbine in his sleep on the same night that he and Jun kissed. Apparently, the boy is not taking very well to the sudden evolution of his power, and only being close to Satoshi can calm him down.

The very thought of it is like a nuclear bomb going off in that hollow in Jun's chest over and over and over—

"That should explain why Satoshi-kun is suddenly wielding blue fire from his hands…" Sho is saying now, briefly meeting his dejected brother's eyes. "And that I am able to phase through solid objects—"

"You can phase?" Nino retorts.

"Sort of... I only did it once…" Sho clears his throat and deliberately turns his face away from Jun's direction, before snapping his fingers excitedly in the same breath. "Are you saying that something else happened when Masaki sneezed?"

Jun watches in quiet disdain as Sammy clasps his hands to his chest and breaks out in an exaggeratedly dramatic spiel. "Just last week, he sent this entire alley in the middle of a snowstorm, all because Nino-chan had been complaining that his oden was too hot—"

"He did?!" Sho looks completely taken by the gaudy display.

"With a sneeze!" Sammy shrieks, pressing a hand to his forehead with a melodramatic groan. "Oh, it was the single, most horrifying experience in my otherwise fabulous existence!"

Sho rounds up on Nino. "And you saw this?!"

Nino shrugs. "It was just for a couple of seconds—"

"Wait… WAIT A MINUTE!" Waving his hands out frustratedly, Jun finally pitches himself front and center of everyone else. More than anything, he hates being left out of the loop. "So, what exactly is going on here?!"

"I think…" Sho cups a hand to his chin and frowns in the same manner he does when pondering on Jun's most mind-boggling homework. Jun starts flushing despite himself. "It's a bit of a stretch, but… Well, he did give Nino a snowstorm because the oden was too hot, so… This is just what I think, okay—?"

"Out with it, Mr. Smartypants!" Nino practically screams.

"Masaki may have sneezed himself into a sort of dream world. A fabricated reality…"

"What?" Satoshi quips, diligently rubbing a moist cloth on their friend to keep him hydrated. It's barely been half an hour since he was frantically smothering the frog in kisses in desperate hopes of turning it back into Masaki. But apparently, magical kisses don't exist outside of fairy tales. "Why would he do that?!"

"Maybe because this reality is just not working out for him, Satoshi-kun…"

Jun gulps at a sudden painful flick in his chest at Sho's mild, sympathetic words.

The nuclear bomb in it just turned full-on supernova.

+++++

"What an idiot…" Nino snarls under his breath. The DS, which Jun himself has bought eight years ago out of his own piggy bank savings, and which has since been a constant presence in their lives like another friend in analogue form, is noticeably missing today. The unusually worried boy has hardly taken his eyes off of the sleeping Masaki, either. "What are we gonna do now?"

"Since Sho-kun is so smart, why don't we ask him?"

The bewildered glance Sho throws his way makes Jun regret his contemptuous tone. He clears his throat and looks away, cowering in the stool beside Nino.

"I… I have nothing…" Sho sounds surprisingly lost. Jun fights off the urge to take a peek around Nino to bask in the sight of the usually self-possessed boy's rare show of uncertainty.

"Nino-chan should know…"

They all turn to Sammy in gaping awe.

"That same day, dear. Remember?

Nino groans and almost falls off his stool, squirming. "Awww, good god! Don't remind me!"

"What? What'd he do?" Sho prods, pointedly ignoring Nino's plea.

"I'm not sure. But he was suddenly in my head, invading my most private—" 

"Perverted—!"

"—precious—"

"Horrible, just horrible—!"

"—fabulous thoughts!"

"Aaaargh! SPARE ME!" Nino grabs a handful of hair and bangs his head on the counter.

"How did you do it Nino?" Jun can't help but jump in.

"I don't know, okay?!" Nino growls. "It was like my mind was suddenly just stretching out the way my limbs do—!"

"Because he desperately wanted to find out about that video Masaki once borrowed from me. And I can't just tell him because—"

"STOOOOOP!!" Nino bangs his head back to the counter the same time that Satoshi clears his throat guiltily.

Then Sho's suddenly clearing his throat as well.

And Jun is just as suddenly figuring out enough about this whole deal to send his face flushing to the very tips of his ears.

Out of the loop and too perceptive not to care about it.

As always.

+++++

So, apparently Nino has powered up as well.

He's able to get into people's heads now. Know their thoughts. Invade their dreams—

Not that he hasn't been messing up enough with their minds even without the added ability!

"You don't mean the creepy elf doll, do you?" Sho cringes visibly. He has never really liked that doll.

"I do mean that, Sho-chan," Nino says. "I knew that bastard's up to no good!"

"Wait, you mean he's alive?"

"He is, Oh-chan. Or at least, in Masaki's dream world he is. He seems to be controlling everything in there and I barely made it through!"

"So, it's not Masaki's powers at all, but the doll's…?"

"It seems like so, J." Nino sighs. "It seems like so…"

"How are we even gonna go up against some magical evil doll who can probably make us all disintegrate with a single flick of its fingers?!" Sho looks close to hyperventilating now.

"You've got powers," Sammy offers, sounding surprisingly less glittery and more adult. "And for all you know, the doll may not even be relevant. It's just a doll, after all. And Aiba-boo's the one who does the hocusy-pocusy sneezing! But, you'll never know unless you get there, won't you?"

They all spend the next moment staring back at Sammy, who seems to have woken out of a trance and is now flicking his fingers in the air, desperately trying to redeem himself with his usual shrieky drivel.

Jun almost yelps when Nino suddenly nudges him and asks as a mocking afterthought, "What about you? What else can you do now, J?"

He bravely holds his friend's gaze and declares with the final dash of pride he's got left—

"I still sparkle."

+++++

"Well, either way," Satoshi says with an unprecedented spunk fit for a gang leader, "we have got to get in there and help Masaki out!"

"Nino," Sho says, instinctively taking on the role of his brother's right-hand man, and making Jun’s heart bleed anew. "Can you maybe, bring us all in or something? Like... forge some sort of telepathic bridge into Masaki’s dream? That can be done, right?"

"I can try…" Nino says, holding his hand out to Satoshi.

Satoshi laces his fingers through Nino's while holding his other hand out to Sho.

Jun swears the air just crackled when Sho holds his hand out to him while pointedly avoiding his eyes. He takes a deep breath before linking their hands together, then almost chokes on his heart when Sho gives his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"All right, you guys!" Satoshi growls, his narrowed eyes sizzling with equal parts excitement and determination.  "Let's go get our Masaki back!"

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