The Strange Day the Panda Bear Had - Part I

(at Tokyo Disney an amusement park, this one day happened...)

Izumi was carrying a giant stuffed panda bear.

The underlined word being giant. It was nearly half his size. Izumi could barely hold it and still look between the black ears to see where he was going.

"Takamiya-san," Izumi's voice held a threatening edge. "I didn't say I wanted this."
"But Izumi-chan looks so cute with it!" Takamiya was smiling widely as he had ever since winning the toy after the near impossible task of toppling over lead-weighted pins with a single cloth ball. "Izumi-chan kind of looks like a panda bear!"

Izumi flushed. "Like hell I do." He mumbled into the soft fur of the toy, but that wasn't anywhere near as embarrassing as the arm the tall man had wrapped around his waist, which at least the panda drew attention from. Izumi was tolerating it - just barely - because it was Takamiya's thirtieth birthday.

“Cotton candy!” Takamiya suddenly said, and Izumi stumbled as Takamiya dragged him -- somewhere, panda ears blinding him.

Izumi resisted. “I don’t want cotton candy. You stand in line for it. I’m going to go sit down.”

Takamiya’s expression fell. “I don’t want to let go of Izumi-chan.” He glanced back at the cart with longing, but his arm around Izumi was tight. Izumi groaned softly, hating when his lover had that look on his face.

Hated it even more when Takamiya bent down and nuzzled his ear sweetly, hand around his hip squeezing. Izumi was left defenseless with his arms full. “Please stay with me?”

Fuck.

Izumi’s eyes fell on a pair of high school boys. He quickly shoved the panda at the redhead.
“Take this!” He said, almost desperately and then slapped Takamiya’s hand, which had begun inching down his thigh. Give Takamiya an inch and he’d take a mile. “We’re getting cotton candy and then going home.” Izumi stressed, leaving the confused high school students behind while Takamiya agreed too brightly. “Hey, Izumi-chan, would let me eat cotton candy off you…?”

“Um?” Keita wondered hopelessly, watching the two men leave. He looked down nervously at the stuffed panda and then cautiously at Nakajima, knowing the strangest things could set off a mean, possessive jealousy streak in the Vice-President. “Should I… keep it?”

“I don’t see why not.” Nakajima murmured patiently, expression unreadable behind the prescription sunglasses he had exchanged for his normal glasses. “He doesn’t seem to be intending to return for it.”

“Uhm. Yeah. Probably not.” But what was he going to do with such a massive stuffed animal? It was already tiring him out to carry it, and he’d only been holding it for a minute. Oh, boy. His arms were going to fall off if he had to lug it around with him around the park. “Maybe we can give it to Umino-sensei…” Who else in their academy would like being given such a thing? He tried to imagine giving it to Saonji and nearly died at the thought.

“Or you could throw it in the trash.”

“No way!” Keita gave his boyfriend a horrified look. “How can you say that? You said I could keep it!”
“Except you have no idea what to do with it.”

Keita sighed, mood brought down low and stared down at the panda. He was being petulant and knew it, just like he knew Nakajima was being a jerk.
Nakajima was silent for a moment, then removed his sunglasses, tucking them into the neck of his shirt.
“Keita-kun.” He urged the younger boy’s chin up with his fingers, catching the melancholy lips in a kiss, ignoring what everyone else around them thought. “Keep it, give it away, trash it. I don’t give a damn. But I resent having our date interrupted.”

Keita’s face was a bright red tomato when Nakajima pulled back and put his sunglasses again without a single flicker of self-consciousness. Keita felt trembly, his knees weak, and it wasn’t fair that Nakajima was so undisturbed.
“You’re so mean!” Keita stomped away, flopping the panda bear down brusquely on an empty bench and kept going, intending to march back all the way to school if Nakajima didn’t catch him and apologize.

Nakajima did eventually catch him, but there was no apology involved in what happened next, only a closed bathroom stall.

The Strange Day the Panda Bear Had - Part II

“Your ex-boyfriend has a sick, sick sense of humor.” Akihito ranted aggressively as he looked around the park, full of happy faces of families and couples… while he was stuck with one of Japan’s -- hell, the world’s -- biggest crime boss. Asami in a theme park was an absolutely ridiculous sight, and it would have gladdened the photographer except Asami seemed oblivious to how incongruent his presence was, how badly he stuck out in his stylish matte black suit with a cigarette held between his fingers.

Asami was Asami, and a tiger was still a tiger, no matter what environment you tried to put it in.

“Shall I remind you that this situation was caused by you?” Asami rolled the cigarette, unlit because of anti-smoking laws, looking faintly bored.

Takaba flushed guiltily. No. Asami did not need to remind him of that fact. Although it all eventually wound back being Asami’s fault as far as Takaba was concerned because if he hadn’t met Asami, the he wouldn’t have met Fei Long. And Fei Long wouldn’t have set up a meeting at ‘the giant panda bear at the amusement park’ to exchange disks.

What the hell kind of meeting point was that supposed to be, Takaba thought gracelessly, tired of walking around and looking everywhere for a giant panda bear. It was starting to sound like the Chinese boss had played a trick on them.

“Bite me.” Takaba remembered to reply, and then jerked to a stop. There was a giant stuffed panda bear sitting by itself on a park bench, body hunched over its legs, apparently too heavy to sustain itself upright.

Fei Long really had a terrible sense of humor.

Takaba dug his fingers into Asami’s sleeve, pointing. “Is he serious?”

“… seems to be.”

“… does he want us to sit on the bench with the bear?”

“I wouldn’t.” Asami said mildly. “It could be filled with explosives.”
Takaba laughed. “Fei Long. Stuffing a panda bear with explosives? In the middle of a park? You’ve officially grown paranoid.”

Asami glanced at him sideways, saying nothing, and Takaba’s mirth died.

Well, hell. Now what?

“I thought you said I was paranoid?”

Takaba didn’t dignify that with a reply, sighing. They stood a respectful distance from the bench, out of the view of public thanks to a thick tree, waiting.

Asami lit the cigarette and inhaled. He offered; “I could buy you new cameras.”

“I don’t want them.” Takaba dismissed. “Besides, it took me week to get those photographs. That asshole has no business taking them.”

Except for the part where they incriminated several of Fei Long’s underlings, but it was his own damn fault for hiring stupid subordinates to begin with. Takaba crossed his arms, angry at having had to involve Asami. He was never going to live it down -- and Asami was going to extract the favor in full.

The Strange Day the Panda Bear Had - Part III

“I feel like I’m going to throw up.” Misaki gingerly held his stomach, woozy. Too many roller coasters, a hamburger for lunch and a bouquet of cotton candy later, he was ready for a tearful reunion with his breakfast. He would have gotten intimately acquainted with the toilet if the last bathroom they had passed hadn’t been mysteriously occupied for the last half hour.

“You’re exaggerating.” Usagi was obviously off in his own world, and Misaki suspected he was gathering fodder for that new perverted novel of his. He’d had a faraway glint in his eye ever since they had stopped by the bathroom.

He really wasn’t. Misaki pressed his lips together, fighting back nausea and trying to not look miserable. He hated to be the downer, and Usagi was going to keep dragging him around the park even if he protested.

He nearly crashed into Usagi when the other suddenly stopped.

“Uhmm--?”

Misaki took a peek around Usagi, and saw that the man was staring in transfixion at an abandoned panda bear on a bench.
“That… probably belongs to someone, Usagi-san.” Misaki said nervously, almost feeling the aura of ‘want’ that began to emanate from the man. Him and his sick obsession with toys.

“Why would they leave it alone then?”

Misaki agreed that it did seem to have been left behind by someone on purpose. How could anyone forget a four-foot long stuffed animal that probably weighed over twenty-five pounds?

He watched as Usagi approached the panda bear and tried not to fidget. The air was redolent with smells of food -- greasy food, sweet food, all underlined with human sweat from the harsh sunlight. Misaki took a deep breath and when he exhaled, his stomach swirled.

“Oh, God.” He hadn’t thrown up in public since he was a kid. The teenager stumbled out of the way of pedestrian traffic, palm slapping against the bark of a tree and bending over to vomit on the grass.

“What the hell!”

Misaki coughed, face suddenly flaming red as he realized he’d nearly thrown up on someone. Gasping for breath and still having to hold on to the trunk for support, he barely managed to speak. “S-sorry!”

Misaki looked up, through teary eyes, and was horrified to find himself looking at an imposing man in an impeccable black suit. Instinct warned Misaki that he was going to die. A very painful, merciless death.

The Strange Day the Panda Bear Had - Part IV

“Misaki?” Usagi’s cold hands moved on his back, soothingly, wiping back his hair.

“Is he okay?”

“He’s fine, he’s --… Ryuchi-san?”

Misaki listened to the conversation going on above his head, utterly flabbergasted and still sick, and the faint scent of cigarette in the air wasn’t helping.

“Akihiko-san.”

Takaba had stepped back gingerly when a slender teenage boy had suddenly vomited worryingly close to his shoes, and now was looking back and forth between Asami and the tall stranger with something akin to anxiety. No one he’d met had ever used Asami’s first name, and Asami’s acquaintances tended to be… dangerous to his health.

Well, his health wasn’t the one in question at the moment. Full of pity and avid curiosity at the scene developing, Takaba pulled out a plastic water bottle and offered it to the kid.

Misaki took it gratefully, managing an awkward smile and unscrewed the top.

“Long time no see.” Usagi greeted the man without really a smile, more concerned about his lover as Misaki took a sip and then spit it out safely to the side, trying to get the acrid-dulcet stain of vomit from his palette. He noticed the tall young man next to Asami and quirked an eyebrow in silent query.

Asami returned the look, with a faint challenge of his own that seemed to say ‘is he a little young?’

“… how do you know him?” Takaba couldn’t help but pry, asking ‘Akihiko’, since he really didn’t seem that threatening. He was obviously concerned for the boy, and nobody who was that frankly tender in public could be that bad.

“We’ve known each other from childhood.” Asami explained vaguely before Usagi could say anything. “Don’t you think you should take care of the boy?”

“I intend to. Come on, Misaki.”

Misaki nodded miserably, still staring down. He passed over the water bottle back to Takaba. “Oka-yyyy! Usagi-san, put me down!”

“Sick people should be quiet.” Usagi admonished, shifting his grip on Misaki and carrying him without difficulty even though the boy was squirming. He glanced back at Asami. “You want me to pass on a message to Haruhiko?”

Asami’s expression almost changed but in the end remained disinterested. “No. Nothing I have to say to him.”

“If you say so.”

“Put me down, stupid! People are staring!”

“They wouldn’t be if you weren’t yelling.” Usagi returned mildly, forgetting the panda bear in favor of taking Misaki home and taking care of him.

Takaba watched them leave, felt a strange sort of envy and then raised an eyebrow at Asami. “Who’s Haruhiko?”

Asami lit up another cigarette. “Akihiko’s brother.”

“Well, that’s one answer. Who’s Haruhiko to you?” Takaba pressed, urged on by the reckless devil on his shoulder. Asami exhaled smoke in his face.
“Contrary to what you seem to think, I didn’t spring full-grown into this world. Even I had childhood friends.”

“… okay, that’s just weird.” Takaba crossed his arms again, trying to imagine a small Asami and failing miserably.

They waited again. Nobody approached the panda bear.

Takaba fidgeted when he realized the sun was starting to set, and Asami’s hand touched his shoulder. He tensed, and met intent golden eyes.

And realized he’d made Asami waste an entire day.

And Asami was going to make him make up for it all night.