Author: Sam

Story: So This Is Love, Third-Wheel Stule: 1 of 1

Series: n/a

Rating: T: Language, mostly

Characters: Shuichi Nakatsu (Hana-Kimi); Ryoga Hibiki (Ranma ½); Kazuma Kuwabara (Yu Yu Hakusho); Koga (Inu Yasha); Sakamoto (W Juliet)

Summary: Shuichi Nakatsu meets other people with unrequited or abnormal love interests. (Maybe done before, but I couldn’t resist.)

Spoiler: Any series I’ve mentioned has the potential to be spoiled in this.

Category: Angst/ Romance

Setting: A pub in Japan; Mainly Hana-Kimi based.

Disclaimer: Hana-Kimi is a trademark of Hisaya Nakajo and VizMedia. Ranma ½ is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and Shogakukan. Yu Yu Hakusho is a trademark of Yoshihiro Togashi, FUNimation, and Shueisha. Inu Yasha is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and Sunrise. W Juliet is a trademark of Emura and VizMedia. I am in no way connected with these people, and I do not claim ownership to these characters, lands, or names. I have borrowed them to share a story... and most likely not a story any of them would have written, had he had the time or no. I am making no money from this, and it is just for my entertainment, and that of free entertainment to a select group of friends. Thank You.

Distribution: Please ask first?

Notes: This is a TEASER for the story, so please enjoy until I can finish it?

Song Note: Lyrics are from "You Don't See Me" from "Josie and the Pussycats".

Feedback: Yes, please? Especially constructive. samwise_baggins@yahoo.co.uk

Webpage: http://www.oocities.org/samwise_baggins/index.html

I'm speechless and faded
It's too complicated
Is this how the book ends,
Nothing but good friends?

'Cause you don't see me
And you don't need me
And you don't love me
The way I wish you would
The way I know you could

You Don't See Me -- Josie and the Pussycats

With a near over-dramatic sigh, the bleach-blond teen slipped into a tall bar seat. He slipped his feet onto the low-set rung, slumped his body against the wooden chair-back, and reached over the wet bar top for a handful of popcorn from a bowl at hand. Shoveling the food into his mouth, leaking bits of white and orange cheese-flavored chunks across the counter and his lap, ignoring the spots trailed down his shirt and blazer, he sighed miserably. Brown eyes drooping in a sadness only heartache can cause, the tall, well-built male grabbed another handful to half-eat-half-dribble. He was so lost in his misery, he barely noticed the bartender, drying a mug on a damp towel, staring at the boy in the high school uniform in frowning disapproval.

“You got I.D., kid?” The bartended put down the first mug, ignoring it’s barely dry state, and reached for another.

Looking up, the boy started absent-mindedly patting his pockets, producing a school identification card with a drugged-looking photo of the boy and the name “Nakatsu Shuichi” written on it, followed by the words “Oska High School”. The bartender merely glared at Nakatsu. As the question finally sank into his misery-laden brain, a blush rose to the surface of his handsome face and easy tears came to his eyes. “N… n… no. I… I only want a soda. I won’t bother anyone.”

The bartender frowned, put down the equally damp towel and mug, and shuffled over to a tap. Pulling a cola from the machine, he slapped it down in front of the melancholy teen and held out a hand. “Four hundred seventy-five yen,” he glared harder, adding, “And sit down that end of the bar with the other losers. I got a business to run.”

Money exchanged hands, no protest over the exorbitant rate voiced, and Nakatsu grabbed his almost over-full mug to bring with him to the designated “loser area”. Slinking into a bar seat, the boy in the dark blazer and black-and-white checked trousers glanced over his new companions. He lost interest before even registering them and let his eyes drop to the cola he held in one hand.

Nakatsu was drawn from his private thoughts by the sound of a heartfelt mutter next to him. “She only loves me for being a pig.”

That was an odd comment. Most girls didn’t like guys who acted like pigs, dogs, or any other animals, especially the more disgusting ones. Nakatsu glanced over to the guy on his right, noticing with some surprise another teenager. The other boy was dressed in a mustard wrap-around tunic with very dark green trousers, bound with chord from ankle to knee. A mustard and black print bandana was wrapped around the boy’s head, pushing dark hair out of equally dark eyes. Were those fangs?

As if noticing the attention, the boy in the bandana lifted his head and sighed. Yes… those were definitely fangs. Weird! The blond tried to edge slightly away, but the next despondent words drew him closer once more in compassionate commiseration, as is only felt in a lonely-hearts bar-meeting.

“I hate being a pig!” The sound of shattering glass brought the bartender running as the fanged boy crushed his mug in one strong hand. “Why can’t I tell her!?” His head slammed on the bar top, causing a slight denting to the wood and apparently no bruising to the forehead.

The bartender growled in annoyance. “Yo, that’s the third mug you’re paying for, Habiki Ryoga! One more and you’re outta here.” He replaced the mug of cola, sweeping away the glass with his damp towel, and hurried off to serve what he considered to be a real customer.

With a sympathetic murmur, the blond boy reached over to pat the fanged-boy’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s not so bad. So, she likes disgusting men. That just means you don’t have to use manners if you don’t want to. I mean, look at me; I’ve got it worse than you. The guy I’m in love with is in love with someone else.”

A sudden jerk and the fanged Ryoga was sitting at the far edge of his seat, a wary glare on his face. Nakatsu groaned, realizing just how his confession sounded. “Whoa! I’m not gay! I… just… like this new guy… at my school…” He hung his head until it almost touched the counter surface, sobbing as tears streamed down his face, “Okay; I gotta be gay. I can’t help it! He’s so gorgeous… his hair… his eyes… the way he smiles at me…” Lifting his head and voice in a wail, the teen cried out, “But I think he’s having sex with his roommate and I’m so jealous!”

The sound of a movement on Ryoga’s far side went unheeded by the distressed blond as an extremely tall cinnamon-haired teen in a blue school uniform edged further from the wailing Nakatsu and the stunned Ryoga.

“You think that’s bad?” The incredulous tone in the fanged-boy’s voice drew the blonde’s attention, though he continued to sob and cry. “The woman I love loves me as a pig… with snout, four feet, curly tail… the whole works! She thinks I’m her pet pig!” Ryoga sighed and slammed his head on the counter a second time, deepening the dent but barely feeling the hard surface hitting his forehead.

The tears stopped and Nakatsu hiccoughed. “She sounds a bit nutty… erk!” Choking at the strength in the other teen’s grip, the blond wished he’d kept his mouth shut. In a menacing tone, Ryoga only reinforced that desire.

“She is not crazy. I am her pet pig! But I can’t tell her.” He just as suddenly let the blond go and sank back into his bar-seat, back hitting the wooden rail ringing half of the leather stool. “Why can’t I just tell her?” He didn’t wait for a response from anyone else, continuing in a grievous monologue. “‘Cause she’ll hate me! I can’t stand her hating me. I… I’d rather she love me as a pig instead of not at all.”

“You turn into a pig?” The tall cinnamon-haired teen on the other side hadn’t been able to resist. After all, it wasn’t everyday a guy met someone who claimed he could shape-shift into a barnyard animal.

Nakatsu and Ryoga turned surprised eyes to the cinnamon-haired boy in the solid blue uniform. With a flush and a stiffening of his impressively large shoulders, the teen mumbled, “Uh… I’m Kuwabara Kazuma.” He looked from one to the other then defensively added, “well, you talk kinda loud an’ all, so I couldn’t help over hearin’, you know?” His shoulders hunched and he glared at the other two teens.

Apparently Ryoga decided not to take offense at the interruption, but he didn’t respond to Kuwabara, either. The fanged boy slumped back into his bar seat and reach for his cola. However, always up for a new friend, and perhaps some new advise for his situation, the blond Nakatsu offered a quick bow of welcome and shot the taller boy an encouraging smile.

“We were trying to decide who had the worst love life and what to do about it.” He glanced at Ryoga. Well, at least he wanted to figure out how to fix the problem, even if the brunet seemed uninterested in continuing the conversation. He thought of what had brought him to this little dive and tears again welled in his eyes. A sudden thump on the back nearly sent Nakatsu sprawling, effectively cutting off the faucet to his tears.

The cinnamon-haired teen had punched his shoulder blade, leaving a dull ache behind. “Aw, be a man. I mean… uh…” Apparently Kuwabara had recalled that it was a man Nakatsu was interested in because he rushed on to fill the awkward silence with his own problems. “The girl I love is a demon.”

A grin spread across Nakatsu’s face and he waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Oh? That good huh?”

Kuwabara’s growl proceeded his lunge by just enough time for the blond soccer star to dance out of range in instinctive flight. “She’s not like that! Ours is a platonic love.” Kuwabara put his hand over his heart, his black eyes staring into an unknown space.

Nakatsu was momentarily surprised the big guy even knew a word like “platonic”, but shortly shook off such imagery to get to the meat of the problem. “Yeah? Well, then what’s so demonic about her?”

Those intense black eyes fixed on the shorter teen (and Nakatsu really wasn’t very short to begin with). “What are ya stupid? She’s not demonic; she’s a demon. She’s an ice apparition. And she’s the most beautiful girl in the whole world… all three of them.”

Finally, Ryoga lifted his brown eyes to take in the conversants once more. He turned to Nakatsu, who looked over at the darker boy with a shrug and a frown. The blond looked back up at the redhead and slowly asked, “So, what’s wrong with that? I bet she’s a great girl.”

Another growl from Kuwabara sent Nakatsu skittering backwards, afraid he’d said something wrong. Fortunately, it merely turned out to be the warning growl of an infatuated male. “Of course she’s great. The problem is that there’s another demon who’s always hanging around her, and I think she likes him. She even gave him her necklace!” With that, Kuwabara threw himself onto his bar seat, the stool protesting the forceful weight with a mighty groan. Silence began to weigh heavily in the dark, smoky air of the bar.

“Hah!” The sound shocked all three boys into whirling around to the other side of Nakatsu, and it was all the blond could do not to scream and run from the bar. The sound had come from a dark-haired boy with a belted skirt-like loincloth, pointed ears, slanted eyes, fangs, and a rather noticeable bushy tail. There was something dangerous about the newest member of the unofficial lonely-hearts club.

He pulled forward a glass of something red, thick, and unidentified, sipping before continuing, his eyes falling on Nakatsu. “You think you got troubles? You like a boy… so what, you’re a pervert.”

The blond stood suddenly, anger and mortification chasing the depression away. He didn’t care if this freak was scary, he’d kick his… the wolf-like boy’s grin widened menacingly and the anger that had spurred Nakatsu shriveled up and died like a blossom in a freezer. Attempting to appear small and insignificant, the blond sank back into his seat and tried to nonchalantly sip his cola and ignore the threatening youth on his left, wondering if he’d suddenly become a wimp as well as gay… no not gay. There was only ever one guy that he liked. That didn’t make him gay, right?

The invisible act didn’t work. The youth leaned closer and sniffed, grinning wide as he claimed, “Heh, you’re scared. Smart human. I could eat you right here!”

Still lost in his thoughts, the blond wailed, “I’m not gay!” before he realized just what the demonic lad meant and paled considerably. A low growl certified that he had indeed said something stupid and insulting.

Fortunately, Ryoga took that opportunity to get involved once more. He stood up, reaching around the lean blond, and tapped the dark-haired demon-like boy. “We were talking here.” His dark eyes met the equally dark eyes of the other brunet, a frown settling on his handsome features.

“Hah!” The boy with the tail pushed away his own bar seat and shrugged off the hand. “You turn into a little pig, big deal, Entrée.” The sound of knuckles popping accompanied Ryoga’s clenching fists, yet the wolf-boy again ignored any implied threat and turned a disdainful glance to the redhead further along the bar. “You think a demon would prefer you over another demon? Get real, human.”

The huge teen growled, unafraid of the smaller wolf-like boy, but was ignored.

“You humans are whining over human puppy-love and all kinds of stupid things. My female’s been stolen by a stupid puppy!” With that, he lifted his glass of… well, liquid… and downed it, the liquid not so much trickling as sludging out of the corners of his mouth and down his chin. It looked disgustingly like congealing blood, causing more than one stomach to turn over despite the knowledge that no man in his right mind would have blood on his bar’s tap.

Nakatsu fought nausea and a genuine desire to pass out or scream… or both. He sank further back into his seat, his voice faint. “Uh… why… why don’t you steal her back?” It was a perfectly reasonable question despite the absurdity of the idea that a dog could steal a human, but something told the blond that this man might not be perfectly reasonable.

“’Cause I can’t find her scent. She keeps jumping in a stupid well and the water’s gotta be covering their scent. I managed to get in the well, too, but I wound up in this stupid hell-hole. All those toxins and dark smoke in the air are making it hard to even find a place to pee, let alone my female.”

“The picture of the boy means men and the picture of the girl means girls, stupid,” Kuwabara interjected. He gave a superior look to the wolf-like boy. “Anyone with any brains knows that.”

Growling accompanied the smaller boy’s glare. “What idiot hangs pictures on trees?”

With a gulp, Nakatsu questioned, “Why would you need a tree to… uh… pee…” He shook his head, suddenly realizing that if the boy looked like a wolf, he most likely acted like one, too, “Never mind.” Once again tears sprang to the blonde’s eyes, though this time if was for his current situation as much as his warped love life.

“Hey, Losers,” a new voice broke the growing tension, drawing all four heads to face a medium-sized high school student with spiky black hair and a bottle of soda. He snagged a barstool with on foot and pulled it over, seating himself and taking a long drink from the bottle. The only sound in that corner of the bar was a low growling noise coming from the wolf-boy, but his new guy ignored it completely.

Finally lowering his glass, the teen looked over the small group with some amount of interest. As if he were a long-standing member of the impromptu lonely hearts group, he cheerfully asked, “So, what’d I miss?”

“Wouldn’t it be polite if you told us who you are first?” Kuwabara’s voice was a challenge even if the question was perfectly reasonable. The cinnamon-haired boy’s arms were crossed in a menacing posture as he towered over the seated boy.

“Ah, right. How could I forget,” his tone remained amused as he turned to the four and took another sip. “My name is Sakomoto Yutaka, and I am a track star and thespian at the…”

Kuwabara interrupted with a stunned, “Lesbian? How can a boy be a lesbian?”

Sakamoto gave a patient sigh and shook his head. “No, not lesbian: thespian… an actor. However, technically, since lebians likes to have sex with girls, wouldn’t most guy be lesbian’s?” The humor was very evident in his voice as he watched the reactions of the other boys as he once again sipped his soda.

“Then that would make me a lesbian?” Nakatsu turned an incredulous look on Sakamoto, who nodded enthusiastically, though it was evident by the laughter in his eyes that somehow there was a joke Nakatsu missed.

The wolf-boy nastily growled out, “Great, a lesbian who wants to screw another guy. You really are a pervert!”

Laughter burst forth from Sakamoto as Nakatsu started crying in earnest, trying ineffectively to rebut the accusation. Finally, the blond gave up and hung his head, letting the tears fall. The others seemed rather uncomfortable with this display, and nobody offered any comfort to the over-emotional teen.

“What’s the subject?” The spiky-haired teen looked over the others, ignoring Nakatsu as if his crying were perfectly normal.

Nakatsu, however, was the one to answer. “I am so messed up and confused. I don’t know what to do!” His wail drew annoyed glances from the bartender and he lowered his voice, desperate to explain to this guy what was going on. “We’re trying to figure out what to do with our love lives… they’re pretty screwed up.”

“We’re talking about…” Sakamoto looked at the group and grinned, “love? I bet my love life is more screwed up that yours.”

Shaking his head, the blond tried to pull himself together. “No, it can’t be.

Sakamoto laughed, correcting, “Oh, yes it is. The two I’m in love with are the most perfect in the world, and…”

“Two?” Kuwabara interrupted, turning to the new boy with avid interest in his black eyes. “You love more than one girl?” Suddenly, he checked himself, realizing that this guy could also be as weird as the blond crying beside them. “Uh… they are girls, right?”

“Yep. Two of the best girls ever. Ito’s perfect. She’s tough and strong and can hold her own. She dresses like a boy, and has short hair and all, but she’s great. And Makato is so pretty and feminine, with long blonde hair and a figure to die for. I even joined the Drama Club to be near them both.” He sighed suddenly. “But I think they’re in love with each other.

All four boys stared at Sakamoto. Finally, Nakatsu dared break the growing silence by asking, “You love two girls, one of which pretends to be a boy, and both those girls love each other?”

At Sakamoto’s nod and sigh, the blond soccer player shook his head, downed the last of his soda, and stood. He looked over the small group of teens and shook his head again. Turning back to Sakamoto, he said, “You’re right... you’re pretty screwed up.”

With that, Nakatsu Shuichi turned and strode out of the bar, thinking that being in love with a boy wasn’t anything compared to what he’d heard in that place.