Written for the LJ contest community fic(undrscre)n(undrscre)pic, rating pending. Hiiragi/Akane, and where the summer went.
This Summer of Ours
It is almost the end of the summer.
It could even be the last popsicles they would eat together up on this high tower for an entire year. Maybe forever.
Because who knows how long the loves of summer would last?
"My mother convinced my father to let me come back and live with them even though I'm going to Kouzu." Their eyes don't meet. "I think I'd like to just stay at the apartment, though."
They exchange knowing glances and Tachibana snorts, amused.
"Next thing I know, you'll be inviting me over."
---
"What do you want: chocolate or vanilla?"
Hitonari looked over his shoulder as he stood in front of the ice cream shack. Tachibana was distracted by a pair of girls going by, not paying Hiiragi any attention.
"Strawberry," he yelled back, waving one hand dismissively.
Hiiragi frowned and turned back to the bored summer worker.
"Two vanilla."
---
"Aah, it's so hot," Akane moaned for the millionth time, lying spread-eagle on the floor of Minefuji's apartment, now a hangout for the Kouzu basketball club group.
Her air-conditioning was broken, but it was too hot to go outside and find somewhere else.
He imagined his breath misting into the air and then Hitonari in bathing trunks. Very low bathing trunks.
And then he looked up and there he is - shirtless and in trunks, touting a towel. Tachibana thought he must be having a sun-delusion, but no, there was no waver to this image.
"I thought you'd be here. Want to go swimming? My parents are away and Takuya needs to bribe me to keep me from telling them about the party he's throwing tonight."
"Too hot to move..." Akane grumbled, even as he moved towards the tantalizing offer.
Hitonari just leant against the door frame and watched him, a smile on his lips.
---
They lay silent in the grass under clear blue skies.
A butterfly stretched its wings from its perch on Akane's nose.
Tachibana's eyes crossed as he tried to focus on the brilliant colors and it fluttered off.
"Idiot," Hitonari sighed.
Akane rubbed his nose with a finger and looked sheepish.
Hitonari leant into his personal space and soon they're rolling around, lips caressing each other until they can't any more and only face the sky again, laughing at themselves.
---
The dirt road was hard on bare feet, but they managed it, sucking on popsicles that got sticky on their fingers as they melt in the afternoon heat. The metal was cool under their feet as Hitonari expertly reached through a hole in the grating and lifted the latch. They climbed the stairs with minimal huffing and puffing.
Tachibana had his shirt soaked and tied around his head, and Hiiragi had the urge to tug it off and steal the popsicle and replace it with his tongue. Instead, he just stood there, looking out on the city, dutifully jumping as Akane's quite familiar hand slipped around his waist.
"You're sticky, moron," he complains as his shirt is clenched in a fist.
"So are you."
"Now I am."
---
The rain dropped into puddles as they watched.
"Would you really have stopped playing without me?"
It's a question they've gone over a million times.
When Akane looked at Hitonari he was not looking at him.
A roll of thunder threatened a greater deluge and both umbrellas shifted in their owner's hands in anticipation.
"You made basketball worth it for me," Akane finally admitted with a sigh.
Then he was the one not looking.
"I'm sorry. Gaku couldn't replace you."
"Of course not."
Tachibana struck a pose to ease the tension and seriousness.
"Replace the great Tachibana Akane? No one can even come close!"
"Yeah right."
They looked down into their distorted reflections and don't say anything more.
---
The champagne bottle is half empty, but the sky is still full of stars.
The youngest Hiiragi was giggling into the stomach of his best friend, though he wouldn't admit it later, like a lot of things.
They had escaped the party earlier. Neither liked the idea of making a fool of themselves in front of other people, nor being polite.
And now Hitonari could see the bright lights of the heavens reflected in Akane's eyes.
It was sloppy, messy, surprising, perfect, as befitted them. Akane seemed delighted and kissed back, feeling Hitonari melt under him even as he grabbed his shirt front and mashed their lips together. Teeth roughly bumping, saliva everywhere like three am lipstick, noses that just won't get out of the way.
It was a good way to spend the evening.
They got back to Hiiragi's apartment with some difficulty; a few times Akane only half-intentionally stumbled into Hitonari's chest to smell the cocktail of alcohol, sweat, aftershave and Hitonari on him.
Neither of them admitted to what happened afterwards.
---
The air was clear and cool; a steady wind ruffled through their hair as they stood looking at the forests.
Akane was reclining on a large flat stone, sipping from his water bottle.
"It feels good to climb a mountain." Hitonari turned from the profound view to look at a now-rising Akane.
As Tachibana came to stand almost uncomfortably close to his side, Hiiragi couldn't help but notice that those tanned, well made features looked better damp with sweat and flushed with exertion. It was something he noticed every time they played basketball together, but again: it's there.
His hand moved up - he didn't stop it. It brushed some hair, some cheek, and Tachibana looked at him with dark eyes and a smile he wanted all to himself. He told himself it was just because they were both tired.
Hitonari kissed him, softly and quickly, in mortal terror. But beyond his greatest imaginings (or at least the more realistic ones) his hand was caught in another, worn and sticky and cool one, and then they were kissing.
On top of a mountain, touching the sky.
---
"Akane," he starts, and then chokes on his words. He doesn't even know what he wanted to say.
He is looked at and can't help but smile: Tachibana has orange smeared all down his chin.
"Idiot," he murmurs affectionately as he reaches out and rubs at it with his thumb. Tachibana's tongue slides over his lip and down onto the invading appendage, enticing it into his mouth. Hitonari can't help but comply, staring avidly to return a serious gaze. He shudders and his eyes close for a moment.
"You're worse than a child," he forces out as his purple-flavored thumb is sucked on with relish.
He leans forward, the lips part and when his formerly enslaved hand slides onto a jaw he pushes Akane back against the metal platform with the strength of his desire.
He samples everything on that dish with a connoisseur's delicacy and an old patron's vivacity, as if it was the rarest, most elusive thing in the world.
"Hito..."
His chest is bared to the cool breeze and he feels his skin prickle, but it is certainly not enough to dissuade him.
The air is always cool up here.
"I don't want you to leave me," Hitonari gasps, feeling like a stupid schoolgirl and doing it anyways, burying his face in Akane's musky, pheromone-smelling neck to save himself some of the embarrassment.
"Now who's being childish?" Akane says sullenly. He doesn't like the sentimentality. "I never said I was going anywhere. We're still going to Kouzu together, right?"
"Yeah."
The sun goes down on them, popsicle sticks dripping onto the grated floor as they look up at the colors reflected on the discarded locks, some of them their own.
mrr. Not my best work. Commentu?