Written for the NXYZ Community'sForum Anniversary Event
Writers: meccanico, thesaddisttensaifuji, The Jabberer (bolded author took part in writing this particular chapter.)
Prompt: Sunglasses (which will show up a few chapters in, we swear)
Disclaimer: We don't own Prince of Tennis.
The first time he falls in love, Atobe doesn't really fall in love.
It is more of a fascination that is doomed from the start, because the moment he falls in love, he knows that they will never work. It is not necessarily taboo, but it is impossible in every way imaginable.
But what they have is undeniably beautiful, however brief it is.
He is six years old, as is his lover. They are too young to fall in love, but they have known each other for their entire lives, and something suddenly clicks when they are there, standing in the foyer of Atobe's mansion.
(Looking back, Atobe will forever be grateful towards his first love for giving him an idea of what love is supposed to feel like.)
His first love is striking, with moonshine eyes and stardust skin.
He wants to know what stardust feels like.
He steps forward, and leans his face in for a kiss. He doesn't quite close his eyes right away, so he sees the point where their breaths kiss and meet.
Stardust feels like moonstone. It is cold and smooth.
Atobe supposes that the cold is a sign of the inevitable, a warning of some sort, but the feel of their lips together is so wonderfully delicious, even if his lips are getting cold. The sensation is quite similar to that of eating ice cream, because his little mind cannot think of anything else to compare it to.
He pulls back, and his lips are numb. They are too cold, too numb, to say, "I love you."
(Looking back, Atobe will be glad that he wasn't able to utter the words. What he had wasn't love. It was admiration. Appreciation. Infatuation. Anything but love.)
And then he is sad, because the expression on his love's face is telling him that this secret relationship, this doomed meeting of hearts, has to come to an end before it spirals out of control.
Atobe looks back. He hears his mother's heels clicking against the marble floor in his direction, but there are seconds left for him to steal one more kiss, something to remember this moment by.
He dives in and catches his love's lips. It is a chaste and light, but it is heartbreakingly so, and–
"Keigo! Stop kissing the mirror!"