Chapter Text
Tsukasa always knew what he wanted in life. His goals consisted of three main rules.
Number one: Always shine.
His presence should be known. He always enters the room with a big gesture and the widest smile he can master. He is a future star after all and people need to remember that forever.
Number two: Be the best.
The best brother, the best friend, his best self, the best star. There are always limits but he tries to cross the line of possibility all the time. He works out every morning to achieve the best shape, he makes sure that his meal is balanced so he has the best health, he does everything to keep this rule in touch.
And number three: Be there.
He takes any opportunity he can: he goes to camps, he auditions for school plays, he helps any person who is in trouble, he joins every party he has been invited to.
Tsukasa Tenma is a put together person. He knows what he is doing. However, that doesn’t mean that life is always treating him well. His classmates look at him like a weirdo, people in public whisper and avoid him. That is his first rule’s downside. Because, as he learned a long time ago, Tsukasa, the future star, is too bright for people. They are blinded by his presence and fear his greatness. People in school know him as an annoying loud weird guy but Tsukasa doesn’t care. They are talking about him so that is good, right?
His presence is known. And that is much better than being a nobody.
So Tsukasa Tenma keeps on going. No matter what. He wakes up and beats the desire to stay in bed. He goes out for a run and ignores the desire to never come back. He gets ready and brushes off the desire to skip school. He survives a school day and, just like that, he is on his way back home.
"I seriously don’t have any auditions today?" He mutters under his breath as he aggressively swipes the planner on his phone. "Touya is out of town until next week… What should I do—”
As he was walking, he stumbled on something under his feet. Now, he is on all fours, looking at his shattered phone screen, not realising that he is not alone.
"Well this day just can’t stop getting better, is it?" Tsukasa says, still under his breath.
"Yeah, that's what days do." The other voice scared Tsukasa, as he immediately turned around to look for the source.
Behind him, he finds a guy his age, messy purple hair with a light blue stripe, collecting a metal detail under Tsukasa’s legs.
"Well, it wouldn’t be as bad if you didn’t leave metal scraps on the road." Tsukasa raises an eyebrow, but the other guy doesn’t even look at him. "Hey, I, Tsukasa Tenma, a future star, am talking to you!” The purple-haired guy just keeps screwing the metal detail into what seems like a robot and Tsukasa sighs. "What are you working on anyway?”
"Robo frog.”
"… Why?”
"It’s a hobby of mine.”
They fall into an awkward silence, sitting on the wet cold pavement. Tsukasa has nothing going on today, so he just watches the boy. He could come back home but he knows what is waiting for him down there. He’d rather just stay here. Meanwhile, the purple-haired guy finishes his work and starts packing up. Tsukasa silently helps him by passing the details beside himself. Once all of it is neatly packed away in a container, the guy starts to walk away, breaking the silence with:
"Thanks, Tenma-san.”
The one mentioned stands still for a bit but then follows the other.
"What’s your name?” Tsukasa was walking a tad behind his new acquaintance.
"Rui Kamishiro.” Simply replies Kamishiro, while watching Tsukasa over his shoulder.
"Well, it was nice to… sit with you, Kamishiro-san.” Tsukasa, unnaturally for himself stutters, feeling the awkwardness sharp in the air.
"It was nice meeting you too.”
"Of course…" Tsukasa led out a bit of an awkward chuckle. "Hope to see you again someday!”
"See ya then." Rui waved his hand in the air without looking back and with that, they parted ways.
Even though Tsukasa started walking in the right direction, after some time, his mindless stepping led him astray. And, once he realised it, made him stop completely in his tracks, looking around, finding no one but himself.
Tenma heavily sighed. The small interaction he had with Kamishiro was mesmerising. It only lasted a couple of minutes, but seeing a robo-frog come alive in the inventor's hand inspired him. Tsukasa never had any interest in engineering work, but seeing the purple-hair guy making this machine was weirdly interesting. There were a lot of small parts but it all seemed neat and simple. Some of the screws, cogs and nuts were nicely incorporated into the outside design.
It was a fascinating piece of art. And Tsukasa, as a future actor and the brightest star, always had a deep appreciation for any type of art.
With those thoughts, instead of going to his house, he is now standing in front of park gates. He likes coming here to think, especially after visiting his sister. It was a comforting space. During the day, there were always people, but never too much to be overstimulating. During the night, there were just enough people to not feel so lonely. But all day long, this place was filled with sounds, smells, and texture that were much different from the rest of his small world. It has this unique calming atmosphere. It made him feel a bit better.
Unfortunately, his house could never reach that potential.
But he always comes back anyway.
The next day Tsukasa came back to the reality of his school.
He was being active in class, per usual. Answering all the questions, volunteering for any work available. Today, he got himself a mission from his art teacher to put up posters around the school, which he cheerfully accepted. As he was doing so, he greeted everyone in the halls with a loud and clear ‘good morning!’. Some avoided him, some reciprocated politely, some flipped him off. The usual.
He went back into class and joyfully introduced himself to the new student in class.
"You're the new guy. Tamashiki, right?"
"Yeah..." The boy's response was barely a whisper.
"Well, I'm Tsukasa Tenma, the future brightest star and this class's student rep!" The blonde said with a hand on his chest, proudly standing with the brightest smile he could master. "If you have any questions, come to me and I'll put all the effort into helping."
"Alright... thanks." The guy was practically sweating with nerves.
"Of course! You can count on me anytime!"
Everything was going well, in Tsukasa's opinion, even if his ears caught the voices:
"Of my god, Tenma is on it again, huh?” One girl said with a hand next to her mouth like she was trying to hide it.
"Does he ever shut up?” Another girl responded not trying to be discreet at all.
"Honestly, this guy needs to have a volume control remote. I would mute him immediately.”
"You’re so right. Poor new guy is probably terrified and embarrassed now.” And they continued giggling together, as they were staring him down.
At this point, he is used to that kind of attention.
He ignores it.
It does not matter.
He spends the rest of the day as usual, trying hard and being the best. Putting his hand up at basically any question, despite barely knowing the answers; helping first years navigate the school and watch as they awkwardly try to get rid of him; making sure all the class rep paperwork is filled, because he is a responsible student. Everything is perfect. He talks to a couple of other class reps, who actually tolerate like him. He eats his shining bento box at lunch, which he of course made himself. Years of being forced to make himself food taught him a thing or two about cooking. He walks around the school, on his hall monitor duty.
The last bell rings. He can finally be free to go.
Going home didn’t seem like a good idea, so his feet brought him to the park. There, he was looking around at kids chasing each other, laughing and shining bright from joy. There, he was looking at an old couple enjoying each other's company looking as the last yellow leaves fell. There, he felt peace.
As he walks deeper into the park, ready to start his laps with a motivational audiobook ready to play in his headphones, he spots a familiar purple head curled like a shrimp on the bench.
Low and behold, it was Kamishiro, working away on the frog he saw yesterday!
Tsukasa immediately changed his course towards the familiar face. As he got closer, he thought of the ways to start a conversation and his mind went blank. Any idea that got into his head, got incredibly overthought. Now, he got to his destination and just… stood there. He still had his confidence, don’t get him wrong. The future star never fades. But here he was, standing and simply watching the other boy work. Rui himself seemed too busy with his robot to acknowledge Tenma. And the more Tsukasa was watching him work, the more he relaxed. The atmosphere around this guy was ‘you don’t have to talk’. So he didn’t.
Tsukasa moved some scraps, that were messily laying all over the bench, to make himself space. He sat down. His eyes were glued to the magic hands putting the mechanism together. A few times, they took a break to check the current progress and then the legs were coming alive, pushing the air; the croaking sounded like it was made to accompany a music track, with a certain poetic rhythm to it; and as the time went on, the movement gained variety, representing different tricks the frog will be able to do once it’s done.
Even if this process was very fascinating, Tsukasa started to get bored. He remembered his initial plan and went to turn on the audiobook. It was, of course, the acting handbook. He listened about expressions, characterisation and possible exercises. Right now, he cannot try those, but he took a note in his phone for every single one with timestamps and general description; together with notes on other aspects of the audiobook and stuff he would need to do additional research on. Usually, he just listens, but watching someone else work inspires him to take it seriously. No more forgetful parts and pointless relistening. Now, it was his turn to get lost in his little project.
In fact, he was so deep into this process, he didn’t notice that the sound from the other side of the bench subsided. Rui finished with his work and was watching curiously at Tenma’s intensely focused face and reading parts of his notes, without getting too close. Acting never was as big of an interest of Rui’s. Of course he needed it for the shows, he needed the immersion it gives to the performance. But he usually went with his gut rather than theory. What felt natural. He is a director rather than a performer. Even if in his case, he should do both.
He’ll worry about it later.
As it seemed that Tenma wasn’t going to notice him easily, he had an idea. The smirk crossed his face. What a time to test his invention.
He loaded the frog. Put it roughly on a jumping distance from the boy. And… go!
All Tsukasa heard as a warning sign was a croaking sound through the audiobook. The next second there was a robo-frog jumping on his lap, doing a flip, turning and targeting his face this time. It did not reach its destination and instead, failing to land on the upright chest, fell back on the bench, where it returned to its creator.
“Wow,” said Tsukasa quietly as he froze, unsure of what to do next.
“It’s finished now.” Rui announced as he turned the frog off.
“And what are you gonna do with it?”
Tsukasa seemed genuinely interested, so the other wasn’t hiding it:
“It’s for a show. I do short performances for kids at the Phoenix Wonderland.”
“OMG! REALLY?!” Tsukasa leaned forwards looking into the other’s eyes with beaming energy and excitement. “I love that theme park! I used to go there all the time as a kid.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“I want to come and watch.” He opened a new notes tab. “When do you perform?”
“You don’t have to go. It’s not that great…”
“No, come on!” He insisted. “The one and only Tsukasa Tenma will come to see your invention in action.” Putting his hand on his chest, puffing it proudly.
“I don’t have a schedule. I do it on weekends once every couple of weeks. When I feel like it.”
“At least give me an estimate.”
“I already did one this week, so let's say… Next month. The first week of next month, on Saturday. Sounds… good?”
“Sounds great.” Tsukasa looked at the time as it was starting to get dark. “I guess I'll see you around until then… Maybe... Anyway, bye!” Tsukasa said, pushing his words out in a hurry.
He turned around and left, while Rui sat on the bench, dazzled.
“This guy really is something, isn't he?”