Words
“Ne, Jakotsu, isn’t the snow pretty?” Bankotsu asked his friend as they walked home together in the snow fall. “Makes everything seem peaceful, doesn’t it?”
“Very pretty.” Jakotsu agreed. He leaned over and gave his friend’s braid a tug. “So aniki, do you think I’m pretty?”
Bankotsu blinked, confused at the sudden question. “Um…sure, I think you’re pretty…”
Jakotsu grinned and leaned over until his forehead was almost touching Bankotsu’s. “Very pretty?”
“V-very pretty…” Bankotsu answered trying to edge away.
“Okay then aniki!” Jakotsu chirped, and they continued to walk until Jakotsu asked again “Do you think I’m beautiful?”
“W-what?”
“Well aniki?”
Bankotsu looked at his feet as he wondered why his friend was asking all this. “I-I guess so… You’re…beautiful.”
“Thanks aniki.” Jakotsu paused for a moment and then asked “But do you think I’m handsome?”
“W-what do you mean Jakotsu?”
“Well…” Jakotsu thought for a moment and said “You notice how people call girls pretty or beautiful but rarely handsome, and it’s the same way for boys, except vise-versa.”
“Yeah… they do, don’t they?”
“Why?”
“E-eh?”
Jakotsu frowned in though. “Why do they do that? What’s the difference between pretty or beautiful or handsome?”
“I-I don’t know…”
Jakotsu peered at Bankotsu intensely. “I mean, what does pretty mean anyways?”
“Why are you asking me?” Bankotsu laughed. “You should ask a dictionary.”
“The dictionary meaning for pretty is something that’s pleasing by delicacy or grace.”
Bankotsu blinked again. “You checked the dictionary?”
“Of course aniki!” huffed Jakotsu, looking annoyed. “Do you really that I’d ask you without doing any research?”
“…Jakotsu. You did research on what the words meant.” Bankotsu stated flatly. “Why on Earth would you do THAT?”
“Why shouldn’t I?” Jakotsu blinked at him. “It wasn’t as if I had anything better to do.”
“There always stuff better to do then checking up the definitions of random words!”
“Like…” Jakotsu pressed.
“Well um… sports, drawing… reading… writing? Homework?”
Jakotsu grinned smugly. “See? If you added in homework, then I know you’re running out of ideas!”
“The point is, Jakotsu, normal people don’t read the dictionary for fun!”
“Does that mean…” Jakotsu edged closer to him. “I’m not… normal?”
“I-I didn’t mean it that way! It’s just… just…”
“I’m not normal.”
“Well…well…” Bankotsu looked down and fiddled with his sleeves, not wanting to meet his friend’s eye. “…Yeah.”
But instead of looking hurt or annoyed at that like any well, normal person would, Jakotsu merely smiled and yelled at the top of his lungs “I’m not NORMAL! You hear me world? I’m not NORMAL!”
That got them a few stares.
“Jakotsu!” Bankotsu hissed, tugging at his friend’s sleeve while looking embarrassed. “Will you SHUT UP!”
“You know what aniki?” Jakotsu asked.
“What?”
“You care too much.” Jakotsu said simply. “Stop caring so much, ne? Just be yourself sometimes! Let lose!”
“Oh yeah, that’ll be a real help when they throw me into the mental hospital.” Bankotsu answered sarcastically. He sighed at looked gloomily as he kicked the snow. “Not everyone’s as expressive as you are. We can’t all afford to act the way we want to. There’s a thing out there called peer pressure”
“Well you should. And everyone else should just mind their own business.” Jakotsu leaned over and ruffled Bankotsu’s hair. “Words are just words aniki, you shouldn’t let them hurt you.”
Bankotsu laughed hollowly at that. “Yeah, and I suppose you agree with the guy who said ‘Sticks and stones might break your bones, but words can never hurt you.’ Right?”
“No aniki, I don’t. Words themselves are nothing, they’re just sound. It’s the feelings and emotions we put behind them that make them matter.”
Bankotsu was silent and he thought about that for a moment and then commented “I guess that’s why you don’t blow up when Renkotsu tells you to ‘screw off and get laid, damn it, so you would stop bugging me!’, ne?”
“Exactly!”
“You’re a good friend, you know that Jakotsu?”
Jakotsu grinned again. “And when you say that, it would mean more to me then if say… the boy over there said it.” He pointed at a five year old child playing with a red ball who was quickly ushered away by his mother mutter under her breath about braided boys and girly boys and star shaped tattoos.
“Say, Jakotsu?”
“Hmm?”
“How would you decide if the meaning behind the words were strong enough to hurt you, or make you happy?” Bankotsu asked, wrapping his jacket closer around his body.
“Well…” Jakotsu hesitated for a moment and thought about this. “It comes from the heart.” He replied, tapping the left side of his chest. “How much you know the person saying it, how much meaning is put behind the words…there are lots of factors. Some people say that we shouldn’t even be hurt at all because these sort of stuff happen all the time, but… Humans are social creatures. We cannot live alone. Opinions always will affect us.”
“Oh…” Bankotsu said softly, pondering about this.
“Of course, once a while, you get someone like me!” Jakotsu exclaimed with a laugh and glomping the poor unsuspecting boy walking beside him.
“Jakotsu…” Bankotsu grounded out. “Do I really need to go over this again?”
“No glomping, no groping, no kissing, no funny stuff, right?”
Bankotsu just sighed. “Just why am I friends with you again?”
“Because I’m special!” Jakotsu sang gleefully. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks, I’m gay, I like men, I have a great aniki, Renkotsu’s a bastard, and Kyoukotsu needs to stop snoring all the time. And anyone who doesn’t agree with me can just bug off!”
Bankotsu laughed and grabbed his friend’s arm. “You know what Jakotsu?”
“What aniki?”
“I think you’re handsome.”
Jakotsu looked surprised for a moment and replied, “And I think that you’re absolutely delicious. Oh, that and beautiful."
