The Gossip Life

“Nagisa, do you really need all of this?” asked Haru.

He peered around from the increasing tower of snacks that his friend had tasked him to carry. Right now Nagisa was adding a bag of popcorn to the stack of nachos, hot dogs, pretzels, pick 'n' mix sweets and two large cokes.

“You can never have enough food, Haru-chan,” Nagisa assured him, as he stepped back to admire his handy work, “It's all part of the movie experience. I'm just glad I have someone as strong as you to carry all this for me. Usually I'd get Rei-chan to do it, but... well, he didn't want to go. His loss though, right? The two of us are gonna have the best time seeing the best movie!”

“Is it really the best?” checked Haru. He didn't sound all that convinced.

“Well, maybe not the best-best,” Nagisa admitted, “But all the reviews say that it's pretty good. And hey, it looks like everyone's starting to come out from the last screening. We'll be able to go in soon.”

The two of them headed away from the food counter and towards the entrance to the movie screens. Sure enough there were a lot of people filing out, so many that even the sceptical Haru had to admit to himself that 'The Rat Life' was proving to be a popular movie. They waited patiently – or as close as counted to patient with Nagisa bouncing up and down on the spot – as the crowd headed by them. Slightly above most of the other heads, a flash of red walked through their line of vision, but was gone before either of them had the chance to react.

“Was that Captain Mikoshiba?” checked Nagisa, staring after where he'd gone, “I don't recognise the girl with him. Think he has a special someone now?”

“It looked like him. But you're jumping to conclusions about the other person with him. She could be his sister or anyone,” Haru dismissed.

“You're right,” replied Nagisa, “Besides, we all know that Mikoshiba only has eyes for Gou-chan.”

“I'm not interested in any of their relationships,” Haru bluntly retorted. He knew what a mouth Nagisa could have for gossip, so he wanted to nip this in the bud.

“Not even a little bit?” quizzed Nagisa.

“No,” confirmed Haru.

“Aww, you're no fun!” sighed Nagisa. The two of them walked through into the screening room now that the crowd had disappeared; “Everyone has to be a little bit curious about these things.”

“Why would I be? Gou and Mikoshiba's business is theirs alone,” Haru stated.

The two of them took to their seats, with Haru setting down the pile of snacks that Nagisa had brought for them. There was so much food that they could have done with another seat just to house all of it. Not that it took Nagisa long to make a dent in the mountain, he grabbed the bag of pretzels, pulled it open and then cheerfully began to stuff them into his mouth.

After chewing for a few moments he said, “Okay, so maybe you're not curious about those two, but what about, you know, your super close friends? Wouldn't you wanna hear gossip about them?”

“They will tell me what they choose to tell me,” Haru loyally insisted. He tried to turn his focus to the screen as the adverts began to play, but Nagisa wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily.

“I bet you're only saying that because you already know everything you need to know and you just don't want to say,” guessed Nagisa, “But you can trust me! Whatever secret love triangle there is going on, my lips are sealed.”

That was enough to make Haru glance back in Nagisa's direction. He raised an eyebrow; “Love triangle...?”

“Oh yeah, I know all about that!” Nagisa bluffed, “The tortured hearts of Mako-chan and Rin-chan, eternally locked on the sight of their one target: Haru-chan. But who will you pick? Which one will you make complete and which one will you cast aside to live forever without your love?”

“Shh! The movie's starting!” a boy from the row in front of them hissed.

“Okay...” Nagisa lowered his voice to a whisper, “Though I think my story might be a more dramatic movie all on its own.”

“There's nothing like that going on,” Haru muttered.

Nagisa clutched at his heart in an over-the-top fashion, causing pretzels to fly everywhere. Then he pretended to swoon in his seat.

“Fate is so cruel, that Haru-chan could not see the affections that his duelling knights have for him,” he proclaimed, in the loudest whisper he could manage, “But he'd better hurry up, because if he doesn't pick soon then maybe those two could instead find love... with each other?”

“Whatever they do is their business,” hissed Haru, “Though didn't you just say that their hearts are 'eternally' locked?”

“A confession!” Nagisa gasped, “So you do know how they feel about you!”

“That isn't what I-”

“Would you two shut up? Some of us are trying to watch this movie!” snapped a tall woman further along the row.

“We're very sorry,” mumbled Haru.

The two of them returned their focus to the screen, where a rat character was energetically bouncing around a room, evading falling objects. Even only a few minutes in, it looked like they'd completely lost the plot of this story. Though Haru assured himself that they'd soon catch up if they stayed quiet and paid attention.

Not that Nagisa was going to give him the chance to do that.

“All right, so maybe that was a bit of a far-fetched accusation,” he mused, after a few minutes of silence, “But even if not with each other, you can't deny that those two have other options.”

“I don't want to continue with this discussion,” Haru hurriedly whispered.

“A tall, handsome stranger might come along to whisk Rin-chan off his feet,” Nagisa hummed, acting as if he hadn't heard Haru, “Because Rin-chan is the type who's impressed by competition, yeah? Maybe one day someone even tougher than you might come along to take Rin away from you. And then what will you do?”

“Rin can do what he wants,” Haru answered, his eyes fixed firmly on the movie.

“But maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way,” Nagisa corrected, “Maybe Rin-chan's heart does not need to be stolen, but to be melted. And I know just the guy who could do that, with his adorable looks that are second only to mine. Yep, I bet Ai-chan would love to be watching this movie with his senpai right now.”

“If Nitori wants to go see a movie with Rin then why doesn't he just ask him?” countered Haru. He didn't see what was such a big deal about this.

“Oh Haru, you truly are clueless about these sorts of feelings,” Nagisa chuckled, “But then, I shouldn't be surprised, should I? Back on track though, if Rin either gets swooped away by Mr. Tough Guy or finally notices Ai-chan, then where does that leave Makoto? Surely he must have other options besides you.”

There was a lengthy silence in which Haru wondered if Nagisa would drop all this if he didn't reply. Upon the screen, the rat seemed to be getting scolded by an older rat for its reckless actions, but honestly Haru wasn't all that focused on what was going on. And his plan soon turned out to be for nought anyway, as Nagisa didn't give up on his questioning.

“Well, Haru-chan?” he pressed.

“Kisumi,” Haru mumbled, without thinking. He instantly felt bad at himself, both for giving in to Nagisa's probing and because he'd rather avoid thinking of Kisumi unless he had to.

“Huh, Kisumi? Is that Makoto's other suitor?” demanded Nagisa. He leaned over towards Haru's chair, upsetting the popcorn on his lap as he did.

“Kisumi would have been a good choice to go see this movie with you. He loves gossiping about others,” Haru saved.

“This is more fun though,” insisted Nagisa, “It feels rewarding to squeeze information out of a stubborn mule like Haru-chan.”

“Y-you've not got me to tell you anything!” stammered Haru.

“If you two kids don't knock it off I'm calling security!”

“Sorry!” Haru and Nagisa both squeaked in unison. They sounded more comical than even the rats in the movie.

The embarrassment at being told to be quiet three times should be enough to calm Nagisa down, Haru hoped. His own face was definitely burning as he tried once more to pay attention to what was going on with the rat's story. But just like before, he only got through a few short minutes before Nagisa was at it again.

“I really am sorry, Haru-chan, this has been unfair of me...” Nagisa whispered.

“It's all right,” assured Haru. This was sounding much better than unfounded guesses about the non-existent love triangles between him, Makoto, Rin and everyone they knew.

“...There's no way that I should be putting you on the spot and making you tell me everything about your secrets, when I haven't given you any of mine in return,” Nagisa finished.

“No, there's no need for you-”

“Of course I'd be happy to tell you every little detail about the daring adventures that I share with Rei-chan,” Nagisa offered, cutting off Haru before he could finish.

Haru waved his arms frantically; “I don't want to know about this, please!”

“You see, unlike your wild and lengthy trail of broken hearts, I have settled down to a life with just one,” Nagisa began, “But that doesn't mean that I've got any less to say about it all. As soon as Rei-chan accepts that he's destined to be my one true love, then we can-”

“I've gotten word that you two are causing a disruption.”

Both of them stared meekly up at a security guard. The man didn't look like he wanted to be here causing a fuss in the middle of a family movie, but at the same time he was determined to do his job and stop them ruining everyone else's good time. So before Nagisa had a chance to react, Haru shot up out of his seat and bowed apologetically.

“I'm sorry, we'll both leave now,” he promised.

“But Haru-chan! I was just getting into it!” protested Nagisa.

Haru turned to him and hissed, “Tell me one thing that's going on in this movie.”

“Huh? The movie? I have no idea what's happening with that,” snorted Nagisa, “I meant what we were talking about.”

“We're leaving,” pressed Haru.

“Fiiine...!”

If it had been down to Haru then the two of them would have gotten out of there as fast as they could, but Nagisa stuck around to gather up as much of the food as he could carry. They had paid for it Haru supposed. But right now his pride felt more important than the money wasted, even on over-priced movie food. He kept his head down as best he could as the two of them made their way through the aisle out, followed closely by the looming security guard.

“I'll let it slide this time,” the guard told them, once they were out of the screening room, “But if this happens again then you two will find yourselves not welcome in this cinema any more.”

“Don't worry, we wouldn't do anything to get ourselves banned from the best place to see movies in town,” assured Nagisa, “I'll make sure that Haru-chan isn't so rowdy next time.”

At this point Haru hardly had the energy to shoot Nagisa more than the weakest of dark glares.

The two of them made their way out of the building and across to the nearest bus stop. From the way he was jumping about as he walked, you'd never be able to tell Nagisa had just gotten them thrown out of a movie. When they reached the stop he spun around on the spot and then took a bite from the hot dog that had somehow survived the whole experience. Haru had to admit that something about his carefree attitude made the whole thing seem not as bad as it could have been.

“I like seeing movies with you, Haru-chan,” Nagisa hummed, “Next time Rei-chan turns me down on a movie date, you'll definitely be my next choice.”

“That's... um, I'm glad,” mumbled Haru.

“Just make sure you come up with some new gossip next time, okay?” warned Nagisa, “There's only so many times I can listen to you sing the same song about all these people chasing after your heart. Meet some new people, make some new drama.”

Haru smiled to himself. Somehow he doubted that anything happening in his life would ever be at all up to Nagisa's standards where dramatics were concerned.

“I'll... give it my best,” he vowed.