Start
By Jade Mouse
Anime: Air Gear
Pairings: Slight Ikki x Kazu
Story Style: a drabble and one-shot's lovechild
I hope you enjoy, I literally wrote this in ten minutes so I'll probably be back to edit it but for now, enjoy! Go read "Folly and Sin" by Crimson Vixen when you're done!
There is always a moment when the motor inside of Air Treks is monitoring the pressure of your step. It's a stall hardly anyone notices, just a split second of steadying your balance and then your flying— your heart beating shallow against the back of your chest and wind forcing itself down your throat so you don't even have to think about breathing.
But for someone who focuses on making every moment, every blink of an eye, and every flap of wings in his ATs count, Kazu can hardly stand that frozen moment. He hates it, loathes it, because the silence of that second allow all his insecurities to wriggle up his tense legs, shivering slimy over his shoulders and under his hat into his head.
He wonders if his Air Trek will actually start up at all. What if they stall and he is left standing there in the dust? The blonde can imagine the moment with unnerving clarity, and he watches it in his head like a sick addiction when he can't sleep.
The starting line is made of yellow chalk—probably left out by some neighborhood kid—and it highlights his fingerprints. The oily, colored material tickles the ends of his nerves and he tries to steady his breathing.
Somewhere, a starting bell sounds, and his weight shifts easily to slam his thin body into the heels of his ATs. The motor beeps slow, deep and long as it makes its mechanics work. Kazu considers killing himself as the insufferable moment births, breathes and lives.
How long has Ikki been staring at him?
Be sheer chance, the Jet manages to steal a glance through his hanging bangs and some fluff from his hat. The brunette is there—amazingly right were Kazu's eyes fix—with his arms crossed and his face tilted, looking so damn confident. The blonde starts to feel shame growing in his stomach because he knows when his skates stall that he's going to let the other boy down. Ikki doesn't look nervous though, in fact, doubt is the furthest thing from his mind as he watches his best friend sparking up like a match being struck. Kazu, however, cant dare to think that he will do something right, so he tries to throw a message of apology to Ikki with his worried blue eyes in the single moment he can.
But Ikki's gaze is so intense and Kazu can feel his wheels start to heat and spin. Steam and peppered ambition hiss between his wheels and the asphalt. Kazu watches as his road ignites in front of him down the open, abandoned streets. His caption is looking at him with eyes fixed in belief, trust and something so fiery passionate that Kazu can't help but wonder why that look is directed at him of all people. But then he is hearing the miles scream by under him, and he doesn't have to think about it any more.