First place for the Paul Elridge Quote prompt on ouran_contest. The prompt was, "To judge a person's character by only one of its manifestations is like judging the ocean by a jugful of its water."
"Takashi, would you still like me if you knew something bad about me?"
The question came in the middle of a hot, hazy afternoon in the last week of summer. Mori was seated on the floor of his bedroom, neat leather suitcases spread around him in a sort of fairy ring. Stretched out on his back across the large bed, Hunny had seemed to be dozing silently for the past hour. When he spoke, his voice was plain and listless - there was no acting today.
Mori did not even think about his answer. "Of course I would." His eyes still trained on the bags in front of him, he continued packing methodically. Socks. Cell phone charger. English dictionary.
But his cousin was not finished. "I'm serious, Takashi," he protested, rolling over onto his stomach. "What would you think if I turned out to be a totally different person than you thought I was?"
Pausing, Mori finally looked up. His eyes were narrow and searching, but not harsh. "I would think nothing less of you."
This only seemed to frustrate Hunny further. He collapsed back onto the sheets with his characteristic panache, and continued to stare distastefully at the ceiling. Mori observed. He had realized something was off with the boy from the moment he arrived, grumpy and unexpected, shortly after noon. His eyes looked dark and tired, and his hair seemed almost too neat. There was a perplexing discomfort in his face, and Mori did not like it at all.
After a minute of heavy silence, Mori asked softly, "What's wrong?" Still on his knees, he moved soundlessly to the edge of the bed.
Hunny raised his head slightly, something like shame sliding into his brown eyes. When he spoke, his voice was muffled by the thick blanket. "You know how I've been going out on dates with Reiko Kanazuki?"
Mori nodded.
"Well, yesterday we went to the aquarium, and, um..." His cheeks flushed bubblegum-pink, and his throat seemed to pinch. "When we got back to her house I kind of kissed her." He said the last part quickly, as though hoping that it would miss Mori's ears. No such thing happened.
A strange, almost intrigued smile passed across Mori's face. He said nothing, but Hunny seemed to read his expression like sign language.
"It just isn't right!" Hunny protested against the heavy silence, sitting up on his knees. He had grown in the year since graduation, and at his full height appeared more like a petit preteen than a grade school student. It was just one of the many changes Mori had noted since he had last seen his cousin in January - the disappearance of Usa-chan; the slight broadening of those tiny shoulders. That rich, indecent look he sometimes wore when a pretty girl entered the room.
"Why not?" Mori asked plainly, narrowing his eyes a bit.
Hunny's brow crinkled in confusion. "It's not me," he declared, tossing his arms into the air. "It's not what I'm supposed to do."
"Because you're the loli-shota?"
Hunny froze, the frustration on his face relaxing into a deep, tired resignation. "Yes," he answered softly, pulling his knees up to his chest. "Because I'm the loli-shota." He slumped over onto the mattress, like a an egg trying not to crack. "If that's not who I am anymore, then who am I?"
A large hand settled onto Hunny's tiny wrist, and he flinched at the gesture.
"You're Mitsukuni," that deep, calming voice assured him. "And Mitsukuni is allowed to like whatever he wants to like."
There was a breath of a silence, and then Hunny looked up cautiously from his little tangle of limbs. "Even kissing?" For this moment, he sounded like a child again.
Mori did not speak, but he smiled warmly and dipped his head. The air in the room seemed lighter and fresher, and Hunny unfurled his arms and legs and returned the smile tenfold.
"I'm really gonna miss you when you leave." He rolled over onto his back, and hung his head upside down over the side of the mattress. "America's lucky to have you living there."
For a moment Mori tried to speak. He felt the words rise in his throat, and then die. A smile on his face, he reached out and wiped the smallest speck of a cookie crumb from Hunny's collar. For a brief moment Mori saw a twinkle of childish chastity in those large brown eyes, but in a heartbeat it moved on, and that spark of mature understanding appeared.
Hours later, as he bid his cousin farewell and watched the small figure disappear into the waiting car, Mori was sure of one thing: sometime in their months apart, something tremendous had happened. It was more than a first kiss. It was more than growing two inches, or discarding a toy bunny. It was the collision of two manifestations. The combination of the childish and the serious into one intriguing, unique adult. It was a moment Mori had been waiting and watching for for years, to see his best friend truly come into his own, and it was just as joyful as he had always imagined it.