Title: Talking
By: AtobeLover
Summary: Ryoma loves when Horio can't stop talking... because then "I wanted to shut you up" becomes an excuse for kissing him. What Ryoma loves about Horio. No flames.
Rated: T
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.
A/N: Oh God. This idea came to me when I was writing The Lucky Jerk. And wouldn't get out of my head, so I'm writing this. Please forgive me; I wasn't quite right in my head when I wrote this, and I think I'm even more insane when I'm posting this. NO FLAMES, PLEASE!
And also I think he's the most underestimated character in the series. Let him have his spotlight for once.
And not to mention I quite like Horio's first name.
Lack of punctuation is wholly intended, and this story might have a crack pairing, but it's not intended to be funny. It's quite serious. But please review. Oh, he comes across as quite mature toward the end of it, but of course, they both are older, so of course.
Horio.
Braggart Horio with his never-closed mouth. Echizen Ryoma likes it
Loves it
He likes it when Horio talks just so he can watch those little moments when Horio stops to take a breath, his big eyes closing for a moment in fleeting exhaustion, or when he pauses to lick his lips with his tongue and make them so impossibly cherry-red that Ryoma just wants to lean in and kiss him touch him lick him but he restrains himself for that one moment that would come at the end, that one moment where talking would be simply too much.
He likes it whenever Horio starts up about Ryoma's different tennis techniques and abilities because then Horio is talking about Ryoma and not Tezuka or Momoshiro and so Ryoma could listen to Horio all day because Horio is talking to him about him and no one else
You're mine mine mine you belong to no. one. else
They meet after school on a daily basis at Ryoma's home because no one ever bothers them, not Nanako, not Nanjiro, not Rinko as Ryoma listens to Horio speak and smiles slightly at all the appealing gestures Horio unconsciously makes while he is talking about obscure things like his cousin Junpei who has two years of biking experience like that's something big and special
Ryoma loves it when Horio flexes and relaxes his fingers while chatting because Ryoma can think up a million ways to utilize those long, beautiful fingers and can stare at them all day but doesn't because then he'll miss the lip-licking and he doesn't want to.
He loves the fact that Horio always looks like a startled deer whenever Ryoma kisses him because
I wanted to shut you up
Then Horio smiles sheepishly and promises to not speak anymore as Ryoma hooks an arm around Horio and pulls him in for the second kiss, making Horio weak all over because he can't believe a demigod like Ryoma Echizen loves someone like him so he clings just to know that Ryoma is there with him kissing him and this is not a dream
Ryoma in his breath in his soul in his dreams in his everything
Ryoma likes it when Horio clings to him. He feels needed, for a change.
Their kisses are always deep because they don't have the assurance about their relationship for giving each other chaste kisses. Ryoma has never felt so needed and loved and so when they embrace each other Ryoma is actually very intense like he is in tennis and his lover's beautiful name is carved on his lips
Satoshi Satoshi Satoshi
They always hang on to each other tightly when they hold each other close, when they hug, wherever it might be, whether it's on the tennis courts when everyone has left and Ryoma somehow goes against everyone's impression of him and helps Horio pick up stray tennis balls or whether they're in the abandoned storage room where dust mites descend on them even as they're desperately kissing as much as they possibly can because Ryoma is leaving for America soon and he doesn't want to
Leave Horio behind
... but he has to.
Tears.
Ryoma doesn't cry. But he does.
Because the first familiar face he sees as he steps onto Japanese soil after five years
Isn't Horio
Nor is the second or third or tenth.
Regular correspondence has been maintained throughout the five years they have been apart and to not see Horio waiting for him is almost a physical blow because where are all those words of love and affection
I will always be with you and
Forever and always and
You're only mine when the writer of those words is absent
You lied to me you got over me you stopped loving me
But then a boy is standing outside his door in tears because he couldn't muster the strength to go to the airport because he couldn't bear to see whether Ryoma had gotten a girlfriend or not while in America and was bringing her to Japan to introduce her to all his friends and old contacts and him and he couldn't be there to see that sight as that would be betrayal because they had exchanged love letters promising loyal commitment to each other—
Ryoma only leans forward to kiss him. The deer-in-headlights look Horio has on his face at the moment reminds Ryoma not at all painfully of earlier times and he simply smiles and steps into a long-awaited embrace that is their tightest and most clingy yet as Ryoma laughs quietly and whispers into Horio's ear
I wanted to shut you up