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𝟏𝟔 || 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐘, 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐘 ||

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Even if Keisuke doesn't express it out loud, Keisuke's a little bit envious of Mikey.

    Don't get him wrong, he loves his best friend and will literally share his yakisoba with him without a single complaint (which is a privilege not many people have), but that doesn't mean Keisuke isn't a teensy itsy bit jealous of Mikey's incredible talent. For some unknown reason, Keisuke's best friend is unreasonably good at everything.

    For example: Mikey's basically a prodigy in martial arts, he's the fastest kid in his grade, somehow gets A's on ALL of his assignments, beats Keisuke at every game in the arcade, and he's got the strength of a highschooler! And Keisuke, well, he's average compared to the monster everyone knows as Manjiro Sano. That's not to say Keisuke's a weakling by any means; in his very humble opinion, Keisuke's just as much of a monster as Mikey is!

    ...but there were always those small tiny moments where Keisuke is reminded of Mikey's unexplainable talent.

    Like right now.

    From his spot on the grass next to Haru, they watch Mikey outrun Senju around the park with Michi clinging onto his back for dear life. Keisuke fights off the ugly feeling in his chest as he listens to Takemichi's cheers of joy as Mikey evades Senju's outstretched hands. Senju shouts and whines incoherently as she huffs and puffs—exhausted from being the tagger for almost an hour—but she doesn't give up on trying to tag Mikey. The blonde continues to dodge the girl with ease, taking the time to mock and tease Senju to get under her skin.

    The amount of strength and stamina inside that dwarf sized body amazes and frustrates Keisuke to no end.

    Squeezing his eyes shut and groaning loudly in frustration, Keisuke allows his body to fall back onto the green grass with a thud. Keisuke doesn't have to open his eyes to know that Haruchiyo is staring at him.

    "Ughhhh!!! How long does it take to finish up a game of tag?!" Keisuke shouts (he doesn't pout—Keisuke never pouts) into the open air. The warm sensation of the bright sun hitting his face does nothing to burn away that nagging feeling buried deep inside his chest. He hates it. He wants to get rid of it.

    "With Senju's slow chicken legs? Probably another two hours," Haru predicts unhelpfully. At Haru's answer, Keisuke groans louder.

    Why did he even bother asking Haruchiyo? Of course he wouldn't take his question seriously!

    "I'm serious Haru!!!" Alright, maybe Keisuke's whining a little too much, but he has a very valid reason for doing so, ok? "A new game opens up at the arcade today and I wanna be the first to play it!" See? A very valid reason.

    Keisuke nearly pops a blood vessel when he hears Haru scoff.

    "Then leave and go to the arcade. I'll tell them where you ran off too if they ask." Keisuke furrows his brow at Haruchiyo's logical plan. Sure, Keisuke could go to the arcade by himself, but what was the fun in that?

    "I don't wanna go alone though!"

    "Ok, and? That's not my problem."

    Oooh~Keisuke's gonna make it Haruchiyo's problem if he keeps giving him attitude.

    Keisuke snaps his eyes open and glances over at Haru. He's immediately greeted by judgemental forest green eyes. How much trouble will Keisuke get into if he rips the boy's tongue out? Hmmm, now that he thinks about it, he'll probably get sent to jail or something—but atleast the world will be saved from ever hearing Haruchiyo speak again!

    With his patience hanging by a thread, Keisuke sits up and glares daggers into Haru's soul. Rather than flinching or turning away, the slightly smaller boy meets his glare head on (Keisuke swears he saw the telltale signs of a smirk tugging at his lips).

    "You're going to the arcade with me!" Keisuke declares, observing the look of confusion that appears on Haru's face.

    "I don't have any money on me..." Haruchiyo points out, causing Keisuke to roll his eyes. Who cares if Haru doesn't have any money? Keisuke just wants someone to be there with him when he gets the highest score on the new arcade game!

    "You don't have to have money, you idiot! You could just...cheer me on!"

    "I'm not going to an arcade without money and I'm definitely not gonna be your cheerleader!" Meh, worth a shot.

    Keisuke heaves out an exasperated sigh. "Just threaten a few kids and Bam!—" Keisuke claps his hands together for a dramatic effect. "Free money!" He finishes up, thoroughly proud of his own idea.

    They've shaken a few kids down before when one of them was desperate for money, but they don't do it very often nowadays.

    Haruchiyo's face gradually changes from confused to thoughtful. The slightly smaller boy casts his eyes down to the grassy floor beneath them and hums with his lips pressed firmly together in a firm line.

    Then, after a few moments, Haruchiyo lifts his gaze towards Keisuke, opens his mouth and—

    "CATCH ME HARU!!!"

    A small blur appears out of nowhere and tackles Haruchiyo into the ground.

    It takes Keisuke's mind a couple of seconds to register the passing blur as Senju. She's clinging onto her older brother's torso like a koala while Haru, her older brother, tries shaking the girl off with an annoyed grimace plastered on his face.

    Haruchiyo looks like he swallowed something sour...like a lemon.

    Not a minute later does Mikey show up with Takemichi still hanging onto his back.The two boys are gawking at the Akashi siblings while laughing their tails off and It doesn't take long for their infectious laughter to spread to Keisuke. Ignoring the obnoxious feeling in his chest, Keisuke cackles along with Mikey and Takemichi at Haruchiyo's predicament.

    "MIKEY'S A BIG UGLY CHEATER, HARU!!! A STUPID, STUPID CHEATER!!!" Senju shouts into Haruchiyo's plain white shirt which is now covered in his younger sister's saliva, sweat, and germs.

    "AND I DON'T CARE—NOW GET OFF!!!" Haru shouts in frustration as he attempts to unlatch his sister from his torso. He's, of course, unsuccessful.

    "THAT'S NOT NICE HARU!!! I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY BROTHER!!!"

    "AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE AN EVIL TROLL!!!"

    "WHAT?!"

    Senju finally releases Haruchiyo. She stands up, crosses her arms in front of her chest, and glares down at Haru with the heat of a thousand suns.

    "I'M TELLING TAKE YOU WERE MEAN TO ME!!!"

    The three boys cackle in unison as they watch Haru's face drop at the mention of the oldest Akashi.

    While listening to Haruchiyo's desperate attempts at bargaining, Keisuke glances at Mikey and Takemichi out of the corner of his eye.

    There's not a single drop of sweat on Mikey's skin after carrying Takemichi and running for hours on end.

    Keisuke's eye twitches.

    Is there anything his best friend can't do?

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The feral raven haired boy stands behind Mikey and Takemichi, watching the blonde play the new arcade game with ease. The other nobodies who occupied the arcade games were crowding around the five kids as they shout sweet words of encouragement that isn't meant for Keisuke.

    He really wants to curb stomp all the whiny kids surrounding them...

    Keisuke chooses to ignore them and zeroes in on the big screen, observing the score at the top right corner get higher and higher until-

    BLING! BLING! BLING!

    Everyone that was watching Mikey gasp and holler words of astonishment.

    Keisuke's gonna actually kill Mikey.

    "Woah! You just beat Kei-chan's high score!" Takemichi exclaims all happily and giddy while staring at Mikey like he's some powerful god.

    And Mikey—

    He looks back to send Keisuke a smug smile—the mischievous glint in his eyes is enough to make Keisuke grind his teeth together.

    "Of course I did, Takemitchy," Mikey maintains eye contact with Keisuke the entire time he speaks while keeping that stupid smile on his face. "I've always been better at Video games than Keisuke!"

    ...Sorry Shinichiro, but Mikey won't be making it home today—

    "Wow—really?!"

    And Takemichi somehow remains oblivious to the animosity rising between the two boys.

    Mikey finally turns back to face Takemichi, his smug smile disappears instantly and is replaced with something more soft.

    For some reason, It makes Keisuke's heart soar and his blood boil at the exact same time.

    Keisuke tunes the two boys out and stomps away, dragging both Senju and Haru with him as he leaves Mikey and Takemichi behind.

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Haruchiyo's the first one to point it out.

    "Mikey, why do you keep showing off?" Haru asks with exasperation laced into his voice. Keisuke sits up in his seat, disregarding his lunch and focusing more on the confused look plastered on Mikey's face.

    "What are you talking about?" Mikey tilts his head as he counters Haruchiyo's question with a  question of his own.

    "You're showing off. For Takemichi," Haru states like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Keisuke scoots closer to the green eyed boy and nods his head in agreement, scrutinizing the annoying little dwarf sitting across the lunch table.

    Keisuke fights the urge to reach over and rattle Mikey when the black eyed boy lets out the fakest gasp he's ever heard.

    "Huh?! No I'm not!"

    Haruchiyo's eyes narrow into slits.

  "Yes you are."

   "No. I'm. Not."

    "Yes. You. Are," Keisuke and Haru say at the exact same time. From across the lunch table, Mikey pouts and crosses his arms, glaring daggers at his two lovely friends.

    "You guys are just jealous!" Keisuke's eyes go wide.

    Keisuke's not jealous! He's never jealous! Never. Ever. Jealousy is for losers and Keisuke isn't a loser. He's not jealous. He's not. He's not. He's...

    Before Keisuke can stop himself, he's grabbing his half eaten sandwich and chucking it at Mikey's face.

    Everything went to hell after that.

    Keisuke blinks and suddenly he, Mikey and Haru are being sent to the principal's office for initiating a food fight in the cafeteria.

    They receive a pretty bad lashing from the middle aged woman, but Keisuke wasn't exactly in his right state of mind to remember half of the words that came out of that witch's mouth. He was too focused on glaring at Mikey and his stupid smile and his stupid face and his stupid everything.

    Keisuke and Haruchiyo share a look with each other once the whole ordeal is over, both coming to the same conclusion.

    Make a fool out of Mikey till he's red, embarrassed, and crying like a little baby.

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The two boys ended up roping Senju into their master plan of making Mikey the laughing stock of the whole friend group.

    "Ok—is there anything Mikey is bad at?" Senju asks while creating a chart on the small whiteboard she stole from her classroom.

    Keisuke stays quiet as he tries to think back to a time where Mikey messed up or made a fool of himself. Nothing pops into his mind.

    Glancing over at Haruchiyo, he sees the green eyed boy furrowing his brow in frustration. He too is awfully quiet. It makes Keisuke feel a little better knowing he isn't the only one having a hard time with thinking of ways to sabotage his best friend.

    "...drawing?" Haru suggests with a raised brow. Keisuke immediately shakes his head with a sigh.

    "Nope—he won the art contest last year by drawing that purple rhino," Keisuke huffs out, gradually watching Haru's face fall in disappointment.

    "Ah, right, I forgot about that..."

    Senju taps her marker against the white board, drawing their attention back to her.

    "What about skateboarding? Can he do that?" This time Haru's the one to shake his head at Senju's suggestion.

    "Me and Mikey borrowed a highschooler's skateboard and he figured out how to ride it in under five minutes..."

    Senju and Keisuke raise their eyebrows at Haru. "When did you guys steal a skateboard?!" They both ask the green-eyed boy who continues to sit on the floor with an imaginary rain cloud floating over his head.

    "Hmm...two weeks ago."

    Eh?! It really happened not that long ago?!

    Keisuke groans loudly and throws his arms over the small coffee table in the middle of the Akashis' small living room. They're getting absolutely nowhere.

    Right before Keisuke gives in to the feeling of despair, the sound of the front door opening and closing shut reaches his ears. Lifting his body off the table, he spins around and spots Takeomi limping into the living room with a plastic bag filled to the brim with groceries.

    Keisuke's stomach grumbles at the sight.

    The long haired teenager quickly catches Keisuke and his younger siblings in the living room and lifts his hand to give the kids a half assed wave.

    "What's up gremlins?" Takeomi greets while setting the bag of groceries onto the small kitchen counter.

    "Nothing much big bro Take!" Keisuke exclaims as he jumps up from the floor and runs towards the injured teenager with Haru and Senju close on his heels. He stops right in front of the plastic bag and stares hungrily at tiny glimpses of food.

    "Whatcha got in the bag?" Senju asks, appearing just as hungry as Keisuke. Haru follows Keisuke's lead and quietly stares at the bag, small traces of drool falling from the corner of his mouth.

    "Leashes for you, Haru, and Kei."

    The three kids turn to glare at Takeomi.

    "We're not stupid, Big bro Take!" Senju shouts with a scrunched up face. Keisuke immediately shakes his head in agreement to Senju's comment because, yeah, they might be young but they're not idiots!

    "And we're not dogs!" Haru adds, his green eyes twitching in irritation at his older brother. For a second, Keisuke thought the buzz cut blonde had something in his eye with how viciously it was twitching, but he threw the thought away once he noticed Takeomi giving him the same look.

    "Then stop drooling and sniffing the fucking bag like a pack of mutts!" Takeomi grunts out while whipping some blood off his cheek. Keisuke gasps, along with Haru and Senju, and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

    For his information, they were not sniffing the bag!...ok, maybe they were drooling, but not sniffing! That's weird!!!

    "We're not sniffing the bag you big meanie!" Haru shouts while pointing an accusing finger at Takeomi.

    The older Akashi just rolls his eyes and leans his elbows on the corner, gazing down at the troublemakers with a scrutinizing look that Keisuke wants to wipe away with a single punch. "Ugh, what the hell am I doing? Arguing with a couple of kids? Who am I, Shinichiro?"

    The hell is up with this guy?!

    Just as Keisuke is about to give this high schooler a piece of his mind, Takeomi heaves out a tired sigh and waves the three of them away with his hand.

    "Haru, go set the table. Senju, grab the silverware, and Kei, go wait in the living room. Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes," Takeomi instructs, eyeing each kid with his bruised eyes. Haru tilts his head and pokes his older brother in the shoulder, earning a sharp hiss from the Akashi.

    "And what are you gonna do?" Haru asks.

    "Patch myself up and make dinner. What else?" Takeomi states as a matter of fact.

    Right as Senju opens her mouth to say something snarky back, the teenager limps away in the direction of the bathroom. The second the door snaps closed behind Takeomi, Senju and Haru release an annoyed sigh.

    Keisuke raises an eyebrow at this. "What's up with you two?" He asks, noticing the strange atmosphere that suddenly loomed over his two friends. The siblings glance at each other with the 'should we tell him look' which shouldn't have felt as irritating as it did.

    Haru heaves out a small sigh and shakes his head like a disappointed mother. "Nothing, let's just do what Big Bro Take says," he exhales rigidly as he moves past Keisuke and Senju to the small kitchen table.

    The hell was that?

    Turning to Senju for some kind of answer, the platinum blonde girl just shakes her head, baring a small pout on her lips. "Don't look at me like that! I'm not saying nothing!" She exclaims before skipping off to one of the kitchen drawers, leaving the confused boy to fend for himself.

    Why are all his friends so secretive?

    Keisuke reluctantly leaves the kitchen counter and heads over to the living room, brooding in his own boredom and curiosity.

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"'What's something Mikey can't do'?" Takeomi repeats around a mouth of noodles as he eyes Keisuke, Haru, and Senju with a look that makes Keisuke's blood boil.

    He's never liked it when older people speak down to him like he's a crazy eight year old; Takeomi isn't an exception.

    "Yeah! That—That stupid Sano is amazing at everything!" Keisuke shouts as he slams his chopsticks back down on the table. The force is enough to rattle everyone's bowls, earning him a frustrated look from the Akashis'. Talk about rude...

    Haru rolls his eyes at Keisuke's manners and nods his head in agreement to the boy's observation. "Uh huh, he's like a superhero," Haru admits grudgingly while wiping some sauce off his own cheek.

    "...Maybe he sold his soul to the devil!" Senju suggests with a hand raised in the air. "My friend at school said you could get cool powers by giving the devil your soul—"

    "Senju?" The girl in question perks up at Takeomi.

    "Yeah?"

    "Stop hanging out with those creepy kids..."

    Senju puffs her cheeks out at Takeomi's words and grumbles something inaudible under her breath. For once, Keisuke finds himself agreeing with Takeomi.

    "Do you think Mikey's good at everything?" Haru asks his older brother from across the table. The older Akashi raises a brow before setting down his chopsticks.

    "Hm...well the kid's definitely good at a lot of things..." Takeomi mumbles to himself; his voice grabs the kids attention as they all lean over the table in