So this is my first foray into the world of Hana-Kimi fanfic. Reviews therefore would be more than usually appreciated!
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Sano tried very hard not to squirm in his seat watching Nakatsu and Mizuki interact. It was dinner, and it was just their usual antics: Nakatsu wheeling between bliss and anguish, Mizuki smiling and laughing, Nakatsu touching and poking and pawing her, Mizuki acting totally oblivious (Sano didn't believe that any girl could genuinely be that blind about when a guy liked her, but Mizuki was so convincing that he was getting ready to change his mind). Sano clenching the various muscles that kept him seated and normal-looking on the bench. Business as usual.
Business as usual, but for whatever reason he was finding it particularly difficult to deal with tonight. His teeth ground and the sound they made was get your arm off her or so help me, I will rip it off and beat you over the head with it.
To be honest, he was finding everything to do with her particularly difficult to deal with of late. He had the distinct impression that she had gotten cuter, although he couldn't identify any actual change in the way she looked or acted. His own behavior, on the other hand. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. Snapping at her over little things, letting stupid Nakatsu make him jealous, saying things like "Whether you're a boy or a girl, I like you." He wanted to shake himself by his own shoulders. What an idiot.
He opened his eyes to watch them again. Just in case. In case of what? he asked himself. Just in case, he insisted back.
It occurred to him suddenly to wonder what Nakatsu would have done in his shoes. If it was Nakatsu that Mizuki had crossed an ocean to see, Nakatsu that shared a room with her and knew her secret, Nakatsu that she cuddled into on those precious nights that she magically ended up in the bottom bunk. Would Nakatsu have put himself through all this torture? Would Nakatsu have kept his silence, kept playing it safe, kept her secret and her by his side? Would Nakatsu have worked so damn hard to protect that dangerously naïve girl from everything, himself included? Or would he have taken advantage of the first vulnerable position she fell into to pin that slight little girl's frame of hers against himself, to teach her in the most undeniable way possible what the differences between them really were? Thrown caution to the wind, damned it all to hell, crossed every bridge only when he came to it, given in and climbed on and wound her up so he could unravel inside her.
Nakatsu, the guy who wouldn't change his mind about being a pro soccer player even when his mother threatened to disown him.
So who loves her more?, he thought. The guy who'd say "screw the consequences, I need her" and make her his? Or the guy who'll wait until he can have her without having to hide anything from anyone?
Nakatsu was leaning in to her with a disgustingly kissy expression on his lips. Dammit, I love her more. I love her more. And even before he could finish thinking, he was smacking Nakatsu upside the head, surreptitiously sliding Mizuki out of the way, carrying on with business as usual.