30 Friends – Satoshi and Daisuke
Title: After the Play
Theme 1 – Platonic love
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In all the midst of clearing up after the class play of Ice and Snow: Dark Version, Daisuke had not had the chance to speak to each other. Or, more likely, were both avoiding each other. Which was more likely considering the sheer amount of embarrassment they had both had to go through both during and after the play.
Daisuke's plan had gone surprisingly well, for the most part. He had opted to work with Riku (and by extension Risa, since she had worked on Hiwatari-kun's Dark outfit) to put the costumes away.
Worked well, that is, until the costumes were put away and the twins had to go home, whereas Daisuke didn't need to – rather, his mom expected him to help out.
Besides, it wasn't the helping out that he minded. It was –
"I love you."
-said for the play, in an attempt to get the attention of the audience away from the fact that his skirt had just ripped (an attempt that failed due to Riku's misfortunate turning on of the lights at just that moment) and not anything more, but still, it was embarrassing. Dark had been up in arms about the whole thing, having been against the idea from the very start.
"Oi, Daisuke! Stop loafing around! Go help Hiwatari with the background screens! He can't do it alone, you know!"
Daisuke wilted with a groan.
Attempting to put a cheery smile on his face, he headed over to where the blue-haired boy was working. Hiwatari turned his head, giving him a cool look before returning to his chores.
"Ehh..."
"You can help with this here, Niwa. Fold the ends like this, and. . ."
It carried on like that. Hiwatari knew what to do with everything, and Daisuke himself had picked up more than a few things by his dual interest in art. Every so often, someone would come over to clap one or both of them on the back for a job well done, or just to talk, or try to talk in the case of Hiwatari. After not very long – but what felt like what must have been an eternity to one red-faced redhead – the crowds started to dissipate, and they were mostly left to themselves.
He twitched and looked up. Hiwatari was giving him a strange look.
"Eh?"
The other looked away with a quiet sigh. Closed his eyes for a moment while he spoke.
"I meant it," he finally said.
For a couple of seconds, Daisuke blinked, frantically trying to think about what it was Hiwatari could be meaning, and when he realised he went into a panicked frenzy.
"Wha- ! What do you mean you- !?!"
"Of a sort, Niwa."
Daisuke was surprised to hear a certain amount of amusement in the usually flat tones. He melted with relief, arms dropping back to his sides and an exhausted sigh escaping him. Then, one hand snaked up to the back of his neck, a smile finding its way onto his face. He started to laugh.
Some of the few others there stopped and stared at them for a moment before shaking their heads and going back to what they were doing.
The corners of Hiwatari's mouth were twitching.
AN: I don't know if 'daisuki' can be translated this way as well as romantically, but the literal translation that is given in the manga is 'I really, really like you'. Which can be taken many ways. =D
*Fact of the day – The Greeks had four words for love. Eros=body, Storge=affection, Agape=self-sacrificing and Phileo=brotherly.