Mihashi fidgeted.
Abe paused, took a deep breath, and steeled himself.
Patience, he thought. He'll wait as long as it takes.
He resumed writing, for a lack of anything better to do. If Mihashi looked down he'd see that Abe was scribbling random lines on the paper rather than checking his solutions, but Mihashi was too busy panicking and emitting these weird sounds that were kind of like a bird or something. Mihashi fiddled with the hem of his shirt, twiddled his fingers, fiddled with his shirt again, looked around, did some weird maneuver with his hands, twiddled his fingers again, ad infinitum.
It was annoying, dizzying, distracting, and if you looked deep enough into your soul to ignore the negatives, a little endearing.
The fidgeting continued as Abe continued to pretend to ignore it. At some point he stopped scrawling aimlessly and started scrawling agressively.
As long as it takes, he chants internally. As long as it takes. And when he tells you, you tell him exactly what you mean. No shouting. No angry words. No circumventing. Wait for him to tell you, and wait as long as it takes.
Any time now.
"U-uhm."
There it is. Finally.
Abe set his pen down with a loud click against the wooden table and sat in attention.
"U-uhm, Abe-kun," he started, stuttering a million times on the first syllable of Abe's name before managing to pronounce it properly.
Abe observed Mihashi. The smaller boy was wringing his hands and had a flushed face that worried Abe of a fever. He looked fine otherwise, though; didn't seem to be on the verge of an emotional breakdown more than he always did, at least. Abe kept his voice soft and complacent nevertheless, when he asked what was wrong.
"N-n-nothing! It's... I-I... I mean. D-d-d-do y-you..."
"Do I...?" Abe urged.
"D-d-d-d-d-do y-y-y-y-you..."
"Yes...?"
"D-d-do you... want..."
For fuck's sake.
"Do I want what, Mihashi?"
"Do... y-you..." the pale-haired boy said, voice no louder than a millionth of a decibel. He breathed in deeply through his nose until no cubic inch of his lungs was unoccupied, and, heaving his whole body in an awkward jerking motion, shouted, inasmuch as Mihashi could shout, "Do you want to go on a date with me?"
And then there was a kind of silence that hangs in the air for a moment or so.
A nervous cough from Abe, and Mihashi is curling in on himself. Started ducking his head to hide his watery eyes behind the palm of his hands.
Shit, come on.
He lunged towards Mihashi and grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers together. A pair of gold eyes gazed at him hopefully as he summoned the will to not visibly sigh all his frustrations away. "Goddamnit, Mihashi. I haven't even said anything yet."
"B-b-but you-"
"A cough doesn't mean no. It means I needed to cough. A no means a no, and I didn't say no.
"And I won't say no."
That made Mihashi look up at him. His cheeks were still tear-stained. "Abe-kun?"
"Yes. Yeah, I want to go on a date with you."