School-bus-induced plot and style. Typed out on iPod within 30 minutes. Don't own Inazuma or characters.
Nagumo never really expected himself to fall in love with Suzuno Fuusuke, aka Gazel, and, credits to Nagumo himself, Old Guy.
But it was that moment, the moment when they were all too close, noses almost touching, staring into each other's eyes, when all control broke loose, and he had his arms around Gazel's slim waist, then they were kissing. It wasn't much, just a brief, gentle contact of lips that triggered shivers down Nagumo's spine anyways.
The first thing Nagumo noticed about their kiss was, Gazel's mouth was cold. Well, not exactly cold, but cooler than his, at least, because, the only prominent thing his hazy mind could register was that, Suzuno Frigging Fuusuke, his beautiful ex-rival, was a frigging good kisser.
Then they'd broken off, both their faces' colours rivaling Gran's hair, as their friends in the Sun Garden wolf-whistled, oohed and squealed (Midorikawa being one of the loudest).
OoOoOoOoO
No confession was needed. They just… knew. They knew they harboured feelings for each other.
There were the longing, uncharacteristic shy glances, the lingering touches, the accidentally-on-purpose brushing of hands and feet under the table. The alarmingly less frequent squabbles. The smiles. Oh damn the smiles. They made Nagumo's insides freeze and twist with want. The terrible need to just mash his mouth against his crush and snog the shit out him, as much as he didn't want to admit.
They constantly danced around each other, flirting, like a butterfly would flutter around a flower. Nagumo found it disturbing at first; they'd always been like oil and water, they never got along well. This sudden attraction, had them, simply put, drawn towards each other like magnets.
He got used to it, later, and soon he was spending all his waking - and sleeping - hours thinking about a certain white-haired, teal-eyed teammate like a lovesick teenage girl. It was pretty embarrassing, to himself, at first, but then, obviously, after some time, he got used to it.
He wondered when they'd both come all out and he'd get to ask Fuusuke (since when he'd started addressing Suzuno with his first name...?) out.
He almost slapped himself.
Again, everything needed getting used to.
OoOoOoOoO
He found everything about Fuusuke (insert mental slap) attractive.
The hair-flip Nagumo had found so annoying only a couple weeks ago became something Nagumo would keep looking out for.
Nagumo would, automatically, look for Fuusuke (dammit, did he have do address him by his first name mentally?!), and would, for no reason, try to meet his gaze. He soon began digging up photo albums of the orphanage, looking for photos of Fuusuke, or, more preferably, photos of Fuusuke and Nagumo.
He was very amused when he realized many photos had them either scowling, glaring, or frowning at each other, or deliberately facing away from each other, arms crossed childishly in some older photos. Some had Nagumo chucking stuff at Fuusuke, or Fuusuke placing ice pack after ice pack onto Nagumo's sleeping form.
To think it was now completely the opposite.
The bickering stopped. It truly did. It frightened Nagumo a little, and he believed that it scared Fuusuke, too. Chaos was, for once, in peace.
For more than twice a day, Nagumo found himself staring at his object of affection, spacing off and fantasizing without even noticing, or, not noticing until a friend yelled at him to focus on whatever they were supposed to be doing.
It didn't help that people from Prominence and Diamond Dust grew very close ever since the Chaos fiasco.
Where there were Prominence, there was Diamond Dust. And vice versa. It totally didn't help with Nagumo's mentality, because every time he was near that damned beautiful perfect boy, his heart would pound hard and fast involuntarily, and this usually resulted in his face's colour resembling his hair's, which, all his friends would agree, wasn't a pretty sight. At all.
It was official: he, Nagumo Haruya, aka Burn, was head-over-heels in love with his ex-rival.
OoOoOoOoO
The teenagers settled around the large round table, as they did every night, waiting for the food to be brought in by Hitomiko-nee and two other social workers who helped out in the Sun Garden.
Nagumo sat with his Prominence friends, as usual, and, coincidentally, just across the white-haired ice striker he'd taken to calling his close friend and crush.
"Uh, hey. Can I talk to you after dinner?" Nagumo started, then he caught sight of players from both Prominence and Diamond Dust staring on apprehensively (those pesky nosy little bastards…!), and he added hastily, "in private?"
To his relief Fuusuke (he got used to it after all) smiled and nodded calmly as usual, but Nagumo detected nervousness that mirrored his own.
His heart pounded uncomfortably loudly and hard, and suddenly Burn didn't want dinner to end.
OoOoOoOoO
"Hi." Fuusuke murmured later by Nagumo's side in the back garden.
"Hey," Nagumo replied. He swallowed and gestured lamely at the pristine crescent moon hanging lazily above them among the stars, its pale beams lighting up wispy clouds at its side in the dark night sky. "Beautiful."
Fuusuke raised his head, and his (oh god) perfect, pale face caught the light of the moon, making it glow ethereally. Nagumo almost slapped himself (again) at his last metal statement.
"Yes, it is," Fuusuke finally replied, sweeping snow-white hair from his eyes in that absentminded yet perfect way of his, and Nagumo smiled uncertainly.
There was a pregnant pause.
"This is beautiful too," Fuusuke continued, pointing at the rose bushes Hitomiko-nee had planted at the fence. Fuusuke was right. The moonlight spilled its beams down to the flowers, and every single petal glowed softly in the light.
"Very," Nagumo agreed. He took a deep breath. "But not as beautiful as you."
Fuusuke flushed, but he seemed to steel himself and opened his mouth. "Nagu- no, Haruya, I just to say… I l-love…" he stuttered, red-faced, but his statement was already obvious.
"I know," Nagumo said quietly. "I feel the same way too."
Fuusuke choked a laugh. "I know."
"You know what?"
"What?"
"You're truly beautiful, you know?"
Fuusuke smiled. "No."
And they leant in to let their lips touch.
End
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