Nobody in the PPSE cafeteria dared to bother him; whether it was his position, his matter-of-fact appearance or his predecessor's reputation, Kawaguchi wasn't all that sure, but he preferred it this way. The Works Team he didn't mind, but the rest of the PPSE workers sometimes gave him odd looks, and he was quite fine sitting alone at the table he was occupying for lunch.

He rarely ate alone since Allan was usually with him. Today was one of those rare exceptions when Allan wasn't here, and it only happened because he had gotten dragged off to an office lunch meeting or something, an event which Kawaguchi hadn't felt like participating. Putting up the Meijin act took more energy than he had thought, and dealing with PPSE management for some completely pointless meeting wasn't very high on his priority list. He was more interested in planning the afternoon's Gunpla Battle tests.

A small group of female workers walked over and took the table next to him, and he noticed a few more of those odd looks - except from one of the girls, whom he vaguely recognized. A member of the Works Team? Kawaguchi paused to think for a second; he liked to at least pretend he remembered their names, since Allan had gone through the trouble of introducing everyone. Her name unfortunately escaped him right now, and he scolded himself mentally for that although he did recognize her as one of the Works Team designers. It almost made him laugh - he had trouble remembering the name, but he recalled seeing her work on building gunpla and the fact that it had been a good kit. Emi, something along those lines...?

One of the girls from the group saved him the effort of racking his brain too much right then. He hadn't paid attention to exactly what they were talking about until now. "Come on, Emilia," one of the female workers insisted. "You're in the Works Team, so you got to know the guy. Introduce us, please?"

Emilia the Works Team member didn't look all that impressed, and the third girl in the group was rolling her eyes as she looked at the one who had spoken. "You can't be serious," she told the first girl. "You want to date that nerd Howard from the Works Team? Seriously. What do you see in him, anyway?"

"He's more interested in gunpla than dating," Emilia pointed out. "And the Works Team is really busy right now with the World Tournament preparations. I'll see what I can do if you really want though, but don't get your hopes up. He is single as far as I know, but..."

At that point Kawaguchi picked up his tray and stood up. The trio at the next table went quiet and glanced at him, and the two women Kawaguchi didn't recognize looked a little embarrassed and bothered. Emilia, meanwhile, nodded her acknowledgement. "Meijin," she greeted. "Thanks for the good work earlier today. I hope the test in the afternoon will be as good as the earlier one was."

"It's my duty to make sure everything goes as planned," Kawaguchi stated coolly. "As long as the Works Team keeps up the good work as they have, the test will be fine." He nodded just a little then walked off to put the tray away. Behind him, he could hear a hushed comment along the lines of, "The new Meijin is so dreamy," and, what caught his attention a little more was Emilia's, "No I don't think he's dating anyone, but good luck getting past Chief Adams."

Kawaguchi stopped and stared at the tray he had placed down. What was that supposed to mean? The Works Team hadn't noticed anything, had they? He frowned a little then turned to walk out of the cafeteria. No, that couldn't be it, although she surely couldn't have missed Allan happily staring at him whenever there was an opportunity. There were even the Works Team jokes about Allan doting him all the time, but that didn't mean a thing.

What do you see in him, anyway? The conversation hadn't even been about him or Allan, but Kawaguchi stopped outside of the cafeteria and leaned his back against the wall for a moment, thoughtful. The frown on his face deepened, and he shook his head. It was ridiculous to get self-conscious about his choice of a partner at this point, when he had known Allan for years. The rational side of him told him that this was normal; he was but a teenager, and high schoolers tended to get stupid, insecure, unexplained thoughts like this. Except that made no sense, he told himself. He was in no way an ordinary high school student and had never been one to get emotional. The only thing that ever made him lose the rational side was Gunpla Battle - and maybe in certain situations, his feelings for Allan, he quietly admitted.

Especially his feelings for Allan. He moved away from the wall and walked towards the Works Team test area, mentally sighing. He wasn't an insecure teenager and had no responsibility to explain to anyone what he saw in Allan. What was there to not see in Allan anyway? Allan was quite handsome and passionate about the same things he was, and that thing about taking care of everything for him actually dated back to the Gunpla Academy, not that anyone here really knew that. Allan was anything anyone could hope in a partner.

He caught himself thinking about all that and stopped to stare out of a nearby window. The randomness of his thoughts almost made him laugh, and he studied his faint reflection on the glass in front of him. What did he see in Allan, indeed. Well, there was also the part where Allan was pretty good in bed, skilled with his hands and...

"Kawaguchi?" Allan's voice asked, and Kawaguchi heard steps coming to his direction. He turned to look, and Allan stopped next to him and looked at him with that usual wide cheerful smile that made the world a better place. A world where tolerating this overly serious Kawaguchi role for the sake of his dream, no, his and Allan's dream, was more than worth it. Why was he questioning anything, when he had someone who looked at him like he was the most important person in the whole world and made him feel that way as well.

Allan stopped next to him, digging out his phone and bringing up a file. "Had lunch yet?" He asked as he browsed something on the display. "I wanted to go over today's test schedule with you, so I dumped the other managers early. There's..." Allan paused to look at Kawaguchi, then appeared a little bothered. "Kawaguchi?" He questioned, concerned. "Are you alright? Your face is all red."

Kawaguchi snapped out of it, realizing he hadn't actually been listening to Allan at all. "It's nothing," he quickly replied. "It's a little hot here, that's all. Let's go to my room to talk." He walked off, knowing Allan followed him. Those darned schoolboy feelings had gotten the better of him, and he needed to get somewhere private before anyone noticed.

Besides, there was still some time before the afternoon's tests, he thought to himself with a hint of a smirk. He wasn't about to start explaining his stupid teenager feelings to anyone, not even Allan, but he had his ways of showing them.

Author's notes:

"Kawaguchi stated coolly." Because chuuni isn't an acceptable adjective, but you have to admit Kawaguchi does tend to get oh so edgy at times. Anyway written to inspire/blackmail/bribe a friend to finish working on a doujinshi.

- Lady Harken (September 2014)