"So I was wondering about that, but when we've first met, you thought I was going to confess you, right?"
Arata stopped chewing on the piece of meat. The fork what already started collecting the next pieces of food stopped moving on his plate. He didn't have any idea what Takeru was talking about.
"What?" he asked without swallowing the bits.
"Sakuya told me," the boy gave him an apologetic smile.
"Sakuya told you," Arata mechanically repeated the sentence, this time with empty mouth. He had to stop and think about what else could've Sakuya told Takeru. Hopefully not much seeing how the two were always caught up in their own little world of LBX parts and repairing. "What did Sakuya tell you?!"
There was a brief response as if Takeru was waiting for Arata to finish digesting the new information before he gave him the final blow.
"You thought I was crushing on you." Takeru said, smiling.
"It was all Sakuya's fault!" Arata tried to defend himself as his face grew redder.
"So if he didn't tell you about that super embarrassing dream, what would you've done?" Takeru asked, his eyes showing that he knew it exactly how to corner the Jenock student. And with all means, he will use the knowledge against him.
Arata had to think about that a bit.
Takeru would probably do the same, averting his gaze whenever Arata looked in his direction. The boy would be stalking him until the afternoon classes ended and then they would repeat the meeting. Did Sakuya's dumb dream change anything aside from making his noon terribly awkward?
"I really have no idea. I would've thought the same probably? I bet someone would've started to tease me about you following me around like that…" Arata began, words trailing off and disappearing as soon as he started speaking.
"So that means, building a time machine would not change a thing," Takeru let out a faint laugh, then took a sip from his glass before he diverted the topic to a more casual area.
For one last time, he marvelled at the utter lack of concern on Arata's face, but didn't mention a thing. It was like talking to a concrete wall anyway.
::::::::
The topic was put on hold until the afternoon.
As they descended the slope Arata was talking about the greatness of their last mission, while Takeru just knowingly nodded whenever the boy reached a twist in his story. Even though he had seen the whole mission with his platoon members, hearing the story from Arata always had a different atmosphere with a dash of exaggeration.
It took some time until Takeru could get back to the flow of their noon discussion, but using the tiny gap between Arata's monologues, he decided to jump in and divert Arata's train of thoughts.
"Arata, hypothetically speaking, if I confessed to you that day, would've you said yes?" Takeru said abruptly.
Arata looked back with a puzzled expression before answering.
"Dunno. I was kind of expecting you to confess, but then again I never got to the rejection part. Guess, you could say answer is even a mystery to me," Arata paused, before continuing. "I mean it's not like we've ever talked before that so my answer would've been no, I think."
"So you considered the other option," Takeru muttered, but his words only served to further confuse the other.
"Well, hypothetically speaking, yes? I think?"
The trap was set.
"After the first round was a failure, what would you say if I asked you again? Hypothetically speaking, of course," Takeru suggested.
It looked like Arata finally understood half of Takeru's scheme because his expression froze as soon as the hints hit his brain. His head moving, neither up or down, his gaze was fixed on Takeru's purple eyes.
The mild breeze of the early spring night flew past them, breaking the awkward silence before the redhead could've responded.
Takeru had his own charm what stayed invisible when they first met. The teasing, often sarcastic comments paired with that smile. Yet it bothered Arata how Takeru kept the distance and rarely shared any personal or private information with him, but then again, it might be because he was part of his problems. It was an unlikely picture, but h had to admit, he saw the logic behind it.
But unlike last time, now it was somewhat easier to imagine the outcomes, even if it made him groan from frustration. No one asked him out, not even as a joke so what should he 'hypothetically' answer?
"Hypothetically speaking..." he looked at Takeru, whose eyes twinkled with hope."Yes?"
The surprised yelp suggested that Takeru had vaguely anticipated rejection and probably even the end of their friendship came up in his mind for his bold question. However, upon hearing Arata's answer his meek expression was replaced with a bright and almost overly confident smile.
The same smile that appeared when he finally got a spare weapon right or his prototypes won the friendly matches in the dioramas.
"Then I will ask this truthfully, if you don't mind," he started, lowering his voice as he looked around to make sure no one is able to hear them. "Would you… go out with me?"
It was a sink or swim situation. Mostly sink.
"Date? As in... going out? Doing stuffs together, just the two of us?"
Arata was dumbfounded.
The blond nodded hesitantly.
"I don't know, Takeru. I really, really don't know. Do you really want this? I mean, I like you and all, but I don't think I was ever in love or anything. How does that even work?" The moment he noticed what he said he quickly added, "I mean, I like you, a lot, but-!"
"Stop rambling. We've been friends since the beginning of the semester. Do you think I would ask this from you if I didn't know about the possible consequences?" the blond gave him an uncertain smile as he started to understand Arata's confusion. He ruined the big plan, again. He almost got a yes, yet it felt like the boy needed a little push from his side.
"I know, but it's different, I don't even know how would things work with a girl, let alone you. I'm confused!" he rambled, trying to explain the situation.
"Ah," said Takeru. "You didn't seem to be bothered by this on our dates."
"Dates."
"Swallow café, the beach, the model shop," Takeru listed the places with a hint of embarrassment in his voice. "Do you remember anyone else coming with us?"
Memories rushed back to Arata when he finally noticed the signs.
Yes, they've basically spent the evenings together. Yes, Takeru did some unexplainable things, but none of them really piqued Arata's attention. Not until now.
Everything was so obvious if he thought about it.
Not long ago, he would certainly try to avoid giving an answer, but after he got the clear picture of the situation, he couldn't just say no. Yet it was still too difficult to say yes to an offer what he couldn't fully understand.
"Let's try it." he blushed. "I might not be a good you-know-what-"
"Boyfriend," Takeru corrected him, ears going red.
Then Arata finished, "But I'm sure that I don't want to say no."
This time, despite being a mechanic who always stands behind the others, it was Takeru's part to lead him by the hand, fitting their fingers together as they continued their way to the dorm.
A/N: And with this the story ends. I have to admit, writing about Takeru is hard, because I'm so unfamiliar with characters like him and based on the anime-canon we don't have too much information about him either. Bummer…
Still, I hope you enjoyed the double drabbles, Sunset and Look.