For the MakoHaru Festival on tumblr~

And just fyi, Kuma means 'bear' in Japanese in case you didn't already know ^^


"Ohayo, Haru-chan!"

"Lay off th–"

Blue eyes widened when they met with the sight behind him. Who was that?

Olive green hair with matching emerald eyes came closer. They looked the same; they were the same. Everything was the same, except…why was it so high up?

Haru craned his neck to look up at his best friend, or rather someone, something that closely resembled his best friend except for its size.

"Haru, Haru!"

What?! Even his voice is the same! The raven couldn't believe what he was seeing, this had to be a dream.

"Ne, Haru, guess what! I grew last night!"

"W-who…what…" Haru could only barely whisper as he stared into those forest green eyes, "Are you Makoto?"

"Of course, Haru! It's me, me! Makoto!"

Are you sure?

"M-Makoto…why are you, why are you so, so…big?!"

Warm laughter rang in his ears, the same laughter that he heard every day of his life but never once disliked. It was so warm, so caring, so…Makoto.

"I grew, Haru! Mama said I'm a big boy now!"

Haru eyed the person in front of him, still unbelieving and somewhat doubtful. Wasn't Makoto a few months younger than him? How did he grow so extraordinarily big and tall? And how did it happen overnight?

Questions continued to swim in Haru's mind as he contemplated over his very own life. He was, once, taller than Makoto. When they were still young, young children he had been the taller one, even if it were by just a few centimetres. It wasn't until a couple of months back when Makoto finally overtook him, but the gap had continued to stay less than five centimetres.

How did this happen?

"What's wrong, Haru-chan?"

Sparkling green came into view once again when Haru looked up to behold the self-proclaimed 'Makoto'. It was going to take him a long time to get used to seeing his best friend like this.

"Nothing. Let's get to class."


Just a little more…

Haru gritted his teeth as he continued to stretch for the book in the shelf above. They were in the school library, picking out 'research material' for an art project. In other words, the students were trying to find inspiration from various books to aid them in their artwork.

Without warning, a bigger hand reached above him and took down a book. Haru barely had time to blink as he whirled around, only to come face to face with Makoto.

"Is this what you wanted, Haru?"

'Tch.' Haru looked away in embarrassment as Makoto's cheery smile appeared.

It had been a year since Makoto's growth spurt. The boys were in their 14th year of life, and Haru still wondered sometimes why he hadn't caught up with his best friend yet.

"Thank you" he reached out to take the book before pulling back, "Ah-"

"Hm? What's wrong, Haru?"

"Makoto. You took the wrong book, baka."

The brunet blinked and looked down, inspecting the brightly coloured book entitled 'Dolphins'. Turning it around and flipping a few pages, he soon looked up again in confusion.

"Don't you want this book?"

"Isn't that the book you wanted, Makoto? I want the one on killer whales."

"Oh," he chuckled sheepishly, "Right, sorry about that Haru-chan."

Haru sighed, "Lay off the –chan."

"Here you go~"

The stoic boy thanked Makoto for his efforts, and as he turned to walk away, he was pulled into a surprise hug by the bigger boy.

"O-Oi!"

It wasn't until five seconds later that he was finally released, hair dishevelled and face flushed. Makoto just laughed when he saw Haru's state.

"W-what was that for?"

"I don't know, I just really like hugging Haru."

Idiot. You're just taking advantage of your height, aren't you?

"At least warn me next time." He mumbled as he started to walk away.

"Okay!" agreed the taller boy smilingly as he briskly caught up with Haru.

Just you wait for it, Makoto. One day I'll be as tall as you.

And even though Haru couldn't wait to get his own growth spurt, he could never deny the fact that he loved receiving over-affectionate hugs from his giant of a best friend. It was like cuddling against a huge warm teddy bear, and Haru just couldn't seem to get enough. And a bonus point because it was Makoto. Makoto was Makoto, and Haru loved him more than anything else in the world.