So This Is Love... {A Sousuke x Gou Fan Fiction} ✔

A Weight on My Shoulders

Song credits go to AC/DC.

The streets of Iwatobi became less hectic as Sousuke and Makoto made their way down the southern part of town. Less people hung around those parts so many were free to do whatever they pleased. However, there were risks there. A person would end up getting into unwanted trouble if they made the wrong move. There were gangs, bullies and several kids running all over the place. Being lifelong natives of the town themselves, Sousuke and Makoto knew these parts well and they were thankfully smart enough to stay out of any sort of trouble.
"You work in Southern Iwatobi?" Makoto asked nervously. "Aren't you a little concerned about the people here?"
"Come on, Makoto, you've lived in this town long enough." Sousuke smirked confidently. "We're smart enough not to cause a scene here."
"It's not that," Makoto replied. "It's just..."
"Makoto, you're killing me. We're gonna be fine. Besides, you'll feel a lot safer once we get to my job."
"I highly doubt that." Makoto murmured.
Sousuke rolled his eyes, less concerned about Makoto's worries.
Eventually, the two arrived at Sousuke's job. It was a bar themed in music, though it was music that didn't exactly match the taste of the common music lover. Instead of it being themed in pop music and various others of its kind, it was themed in music that was made with less electronic usage, those genres notably being country, rockabilly, jazz, hard rock, classic rock, blues, blues rock, funk, R&B, heavy metal, thrash metal, speed metal, doom metal, neoclassical metal, blues metal, and groove metal. Once they entered inside, Makoto was in awe. The entire bar looked like the inside of a fancy restaurant, themed in red, blue, gold, well, basically multicolored. There were shelves filled with alcohol, there were wooden roundtables and a few booths.
At the main counter, a man was waving at Sousuke to get his attention. He had long, almost curly, ginger colored hair, slightly shorter than Sousuke himself, in his mid-fifties, and he looked like he came from a thrash metal band (Author's Note: that sound familiar?). He was also dressed in a black sleeveless shirt, wore long dark blue pants and brown boots. Sousuke acknowledged his signaling motions and he and Makoto walked over to the counter.
"Sousuke, you're here earlier than usual." the man said. He turned his attention to Makoto, raising his brows in surprise. "And you've brought a friend."
"Yeah, something told me I should come here earlier than usual 'cause...uh..Well, I needed to ask you about something."
The man gave Sousuke a suspicious arch.
"Sure. Ask away. But don't you think you should introduce me to your friend here?"
"Oh, yeah. Makoto, this is my boss, Nobunaga Ito."
"You can call me Nobu for short."
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ito." He shook hands with him.
"Please, the pleasure's all mine. Though I think this meeting should be considered an honor."
"Excuse me?" Makoto replied nervously.
"I already know who you are. You're Makoto Tachibana. I saw you and your team's performance at the regionals on television. And I gotta say, that was the best damn performance I've ever seen."
"Uh, thank you, Mr. Ito."
Sousuke slapped Makoto on the back abruptly.
"Come on, Makoto. Embrace the compliment like a man."
"Ah, let him be, Sousuke. The boy's nervous. Anyway, you wanted to ask me about something?"
"Yeah. I was wondering if you could give me more hours. The rent at my apartment's getting higher than normal so I thought it would be best to work more."
"Anything for my best worker in the bar. Oh, and Tachibana, welcome to my bar The Symphonic Lodge!" (Author's Note: I know. Not a good enough name, is it?)
"Thanks. I'll start getting to work."
Nobu turned his focus to Makoto.
"So, can I get you anything? A drink?"
"I-I'm still underage!" Makoto replied, startled.
"Relax, son. We serve non-alcoholic drinks as well."
"A water's just fine."
"Coming right up."
The day went by and Sousuke was serving crowds of people as they came and went. Whenever he'd encounter a group of girls that were watching him, attracted to his manly figure, he'd give them the usual wink and they'd end up giggling, satisfied with Sousuke's flirtatious side. His boss Nobu took notice and smirked with amusement. Occasionally, during Sousuke's time working there, he'd tease him and ask him if he'd started hooking up with a girl yet. Sousuke knew Nobu was only teasing him of course, but it did bother him. And now that he had his mind on someone already (that someone being Gou), he feared Nobu's attempts at teasing him would worsen. Nevertheless, he'd continue his daily routine in ignoring his teasing comments. However, Sousuke's thoughts of Gou kept on invading his mind so much, it seemed highly unlikely that he'd last a minute with his boss around.
It was nightfall and the whole bar became packed. Makoto had decided to stick around due to the fact he had found a spot in the bar where he could work on his homework from college in private, though he was disturbed by few girls watching him, finding him attractive, which (as always) made him feel uncomfortable. In the end, Makoto did his absolute best to maintain his focus on his work.
His eyes were glued to his work, forgetting that the girls watching him were even there. Suddenly, an unknown force had closed his laptop and he reacted in distress.
"Hey! What are you doing!?" he exclaimed.
He looked up and was surprised to see that it was Sousuke, with his hands on his hips.
"I think you need to take a break, Makoto."
"I can't. I need to get back to work." he opened his laptop, resuming his work.
Sousuke closed it again.
"Yes you can."
Makoto opened it back up once again, this time with irritation.
"No, I can't. I have to get all of this homework finished. If you thought high school gave you lots of homework, then you're really in for a reality check."
Sousuke was not going to take no for an answer. He closed Makoto's laptop once again. This time, he placed his hand firmly onto it so that Makoto wouldn't open it back up.
Makoto's eyes began to flare with anger.
"What is your problem!?" Makoto said, frustrated.
"I don't have a problem, Makoto. You, however, do. A bigger one in fact. I mean look at yourself. When's the last time you ate something, man? And you look like you need a long nap because it seems to me that you haven't slept for months. In fact have you slept at all? Whether you wanna work or not, you need to take a break."
Makoto calmed down. Sousuke was right. He didn't even remember the last time he had to take time off work. Makoto rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"You're right. I need to take some time off work."
Sousuke smirked, pleased that Makoto came to his senses.
"Damn right you do."
"Though, I do have to ask. Did your boss put you up to this?"
Sousuke scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, he did actually. He was starting to get a little concerned and he wanted me to check on you."
Makoto, though feeling surprised, gave a polite smile.
"That's strange. I never heard of a boss feeling concerned for one of his customers."
Sousuke chuckled.
"Believe it or not, he's a real people person. Now are you gonna get up off you ass or am I just gonna have to drag you along all the way to the counter?"
Makoto rose up on his two feet.
"I can walk, thank you." He sarcastically, yet kindly, replied.
Sousuke chuckled.
"All right, smart ass. Let's go."
Sousuke and Makoto arrived at the counter where a waiter offered to serve them.
Sousuke made a gesture with his hand.
"Two burgers. On the house."
"Comin' right up." the waiter replied.
Abruptly, a hand rudely slapped Sousuke behind the back. He turned around to act hostile towards the unknown individual when it was only an unflinching Nobu flattening his brows.
"Really? Is that how you're going to say hello to a friend from now on?"
Sousuke lowered his guard, easily relaxing himself.
"Good God, Nobu. Do you always have to do that?"
"Okay, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't use His name in vain." Nobu replied, getting slightly aggressive. "And yes, I do. I treat my workers like friends."
"Sorry."
Nobu lessened his temper.
"Anyway, I thought I'd chat with my best worker and his friend. You know, ask you guys how your day was." The waiter returned with Sousuke and Makoto's order. "I'll have what they're having." he motioned. The waiter nodded. Nobu then began to get clever with Sousuke by using his weakness: "Maybe ask you if you've been planning on meeting any girl lately."
In an instant, Sousuke began to act up frantically.
"W-what!? C-come on, Nobu! Where'd you get that crazy idea!?" he stuttered. Shit!!!, he thought. His thoughts of Gou began racing through his mind again.
Nobu arched a brow in suspicion.
"You alright, son? You don't normally act all frightened whenever I bring that subject up."
"Why? Does he normally act like that?" Makoto asked, after taking a bite out of his burger.
"Not normally." Nobu replied. "It usually pisses him off whenever I bring it up."
"Bring what up?"
"The question that I ask him: 'Have you hooked up with any girls lately?', and then he just groans at me."
"Oh, I think that's yet to happen."
"Really? What makes you say that?"
"Sousuke's never really been into a girl at all. He's mostly been known to flirt with any girl that checks him out every 24/7." Makoto explained.
Nobu nodded his head, showing that he understood.
"I see. Well that makes sense. But he's never been into a single girl at all?"
"For all I know, never. Sousuke or his best friend Rin have never had any interest in a girl at all and I don't think-"
"Actually," Sousuke interrupted. "There has been something on my mind."
"Oh, there is?" Nobu replied.
"Yeah. Something weird happened to me earlier today."
"Well, don't be shy, son. Was it a dream you had?"
"Yeah. It was actually."
"What was the dream about?" Makoto asked as he began drinking the soda that came with his meal.
"I-uh.."
"C'mon, son. Tell us.
"I-I..."
Sousuke was struggling to express his thought and feelings but he couldn't. It was all embarrassing to him and he didn't want to explain it at all.
Nobu was getting impatient every time Sousuke kept stuttering. This went on for about two minutes and thirty seconds until finally, Nobu snapped.
"Damn it, boy! Give me an answer! What did you dream about!?"
"I DREAMED ABOUT GOU!!!" Sousuke finally snapped, shutting his eyes hesitantly.
Makoto spat out his drink in response.
"You dreamt about Gou!?" he gawked.
Nobu stood silent, giving Sousuke a blank stare. Then he suddenly chuckled loudly.
"You dreamed about a girl named Gou?"
Sousuke looked down in embarrassment.
"Yes..." he muttered.
Nobu gave him a sly smirk.
"Was it a wet dream?" he asked.
Sousuke's face turned red.
Suddenly, Nobu let out a hearty burst of laughter, grabbing the attention of all the people attending the bar. Nobu noticed and dismissed them all, telling them he was laughing at a joke Makoto made. Makoto turned red in embarrassment but he then realized he had to play along in order to convince them that nothing was wrong.
"Yamazaki, why would you be embarrassed over a dream like that? Guys have a wet dream all the time. Though, come to think of it, the name Gou does sound familiar."
"I mentioned her to you before."
"Really? I don't seem to remember. But other than that, the fact that you dreamed about a girl you know only means one thing: you gotta get the girl."
"That's not the point." Sousuke retorted. "She's the sister of Rin Matsuoka, my best friend."
Nobu stood silent, petrified by this revelation.
"Well...shit. But he'll understand, right?"
"Uh, Mr. Ito, Rin's very protective of his sister." Makoto added. "Even if Sousuke tried to get near her, he'd literally threaten his life, even if Sousuke's his best friend."
"Oh, come on!" Nobu exclaimed. "Yamazaki's much taller than Matsuoka. He can easily take him."
"Height doesn't help the situation, Nobu." Sousuke replied. "The last time someone tried getting close to Gou, he threatened to rip off his ball sack and feed it to a rabid dog." (Author's note: Try and guess who the last guy was.)
Nobu stood silent again, psychologically scarred for life at this rate.
"Okay, now that's just f**ked up."
"Nobu!" Sousuke snapped.
"Sue me. I'm your boss. Anyway, you can't let him threaten you. How old is Gou supposed to be right now?"
"Nineteen. Her birthday's sometime this month."
"Nineteen going on twenty. She's going to be capable of handling herself one of these days."
"Tell that to Rin." Sousuke retorted. "I'm not the one you should be giving your wise man advice to."
"Well, when you see him, tell him to meet me here for a talk."
"I can't." Sousuke replied. "He's been staying in Australia for a long time now. Nanase's with him."
"Why the hell's he been staying in Australia then?" Nobu asked.
"He's an Olympic swimmer now. Same for Nanase."
"You're talking about Haru, right?" Makoto asked.
"No, Makoto. I'm talking about your mother enjoying her stay in the Land From Down Under." Sousuke sarcastically replied.
"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't use my own mother as an insult, you know." Makoto wittingly replied back, in a kind manner.
Nobu clapped his hands.
"Yamazaki, there's your answer. Since Matsuoka's out of town, that means you have a chance to get with your dream girl."
Sousuke sighed in disappointment.
"I wish that chance was realistic."
"What do you mean?"
"After Gou graduated from Iwatobi, nobody even knows where she went." Makoto explained. "The people that knew her best said that she possibly left the country. No one knows why."
"And that's why my chance with meeting my dream girl is very unlikely to happen." Sousuke negatively added.
"Well, I guess that all I can say is that you're shit outta luck." Nobu concluded.
"Wow, way to give your hardest worker the best advice a guy could come up with." Sousuke replied, with a vain becoming visible to the human eye appearing on his head.
"Still, you can't give up hope." Nobu added. "Only God knows when you're opportunity will come. When it does, that's when you make your move before you're too late. That's how I started one of the most successful metal bands in Japan. I saw an opportunity, and I didn't hesitate to take it." Nobu placed a hand on Sousuke's shoulder as a means of motivation. "Yamazaki, if you ever meet that girl again, do me favor: don't hesitate. God will let you know when the time is right. It could be in the next hour. Maybe even tomorrow. Possibly in another few years. We're not quite supposed to know what His plans for us are. But I can guarantee that your meeting with your dream girl is what He has planned for you. It's always a given chance."
Sousuke was never exactly into religion before but he found Nobu's religious advice very fascinating and he learned a lot from it. Whenever he'd bring religion into a certain topic, such as the one they were currently discussing, and if it served a purpose (which it did), he'd never feel bothered by it. He enjoyed learning the many lessons Nobu would give him. And as of now, that very lesson he was currently giving was serving a part in Sousuke's life. And he did not intend on rejecting it for any personal reason.
"Thanks, Nobu." he smiled.
"Well, I think I've wasted your work hours. Think you can work late tonight? I'll let you make up for it."
"Yeah. I can do that. Besides, I need more money to pay the rent anyway."
"I'd better get going, too." Makoto added, rising up from his seat. "My parents are probably wondering where I am by now."
"Yeah, better not keep them waiting. Say hi to Ran and Ren for me when you get back home." Sousuke replied.
"Sure. I'll see you later, Sousuke." Makoto got his things and ran along back home.
"Well, time for me to get back to work." Sousuke commented.
"I gotta get back to managing the bar." Nobu added.
And the two of them went straight to work.

It was already twelve a.m. and Sousuke was exhausted. Every time the day ended, he took it upon himself to clean up the place by himself. Of course, his co-workers offered their help but Sousuke dismissed them, feeling confident he could do it on his own. Nevertheless, the workers helped him anyway, despite Sousuke's desire to work alone. He was in the middle of working when all of sudden, he collapsed. His fellow comrades were able to catch him. Nobu came rushing to the scene.
"Yamazaki! Are you all right?"
"What? You worried your best worker suffered a stroke?" Sousuke wittingly replied. "I'm all right. I can still work."
"Yamazaki, there comes a time when a man and his pride are justified in their actions." Nobu replied. "But sometimes, that man's pride is what may ultimately lead him to his downfall."
"But I-"
"No buts. I mean, look at you. You're exhausted. You need to go home and rest. You can come in at seven p.m. tomorrow. I'll have one of the others take over your shift for you."
Sousuke was basically in no position to argue with his boss. He needed to go and get some sleep. He took Nobu's word for it. He exited through the front entrance once Nobu called after him.
"Oh, and Yamazaki!"
Sousuke gave him his attention.
"Once you do get here tomorrow, we should talk. I think you deserve a raise. That rent ain't gonna pay itself."
Sousuke smiled. And then, he left the bar.

Sousuke was halfway through town, giving it his best effort to make his way back to his apartment. However, he was losing energy. He had to find a place to rest up. Sousuke then found a park and his instinct was to find a bench so he could rest for a short time. Thankfully, he did. And he sat down. Although he did intend on resting for only a little bit, he had to be honest with himself. He needed to sleep. Badly. Therefore, Sousuke gave in to his body's needs and went into a deep sleep.
In his sleep, he was dreaming again. Only this time, he didn't find himself in his bed half-naked like last time. Instead, he was in his clothes and right in front of him was Gou. Sousuke acted boldly and walked over to her. Gou didn't run away. She waited for him to get closer to her. At last, he could finally touch her. He wanted to ask her a number of questions but he couldn't. All Sousuke wanted to do was enjoy a quiet moment with her. When suddenly, he heard a loud noise which pulled him back to reality. Sousuke woke up to the blaring horn of passing truck. He looked at his phone. It was eight a.m. Immediately, Sousuke rose back on his feet and began walking back to his apartment when he suddenly bumped into a random person. Her books and bag fell to the ground.
Sousuke, startled, felt the need to apologize and pick them up for her.
"I'm so sorry. Here, let me get these for you."
"Sousuke?" the person said.
In a split second, Sousuke froze.
"How do you know my name?"
As he looked up, his face turned into an intensely darkened shade of red.
Standing right before his eyes was Gou Matsuoka. Could he be dreaming? Is this an illusion? Is this really her? Sousuke began shaking internally. This was something he was not expecting to have happen to him. If it was some sort of wake-up call being used on him, then it was definitely working.
Nobu, he thought, if the Man From Upstairs has a plan in place for me, then I think it's working.

To be continued...