Tales of Coincidences

A/N: This is a short story about a childhood of Akihiko and Hiroki. There will be other short stories and drabbles later on but none of them really coincide with each other. So if anyone has requests feel free to ask. The story does have a flashback and I edited it so you'd know where it starts.

Disclaimer: I don't own Junjou Romantica.

Firefly Red

If there was one thing Hiroki Kamijoo hated it was having to start from scratch. He and his lover had moved once again, to a house for lack of space and the desire for a change in the atmosphere. It had been two years that they lived in the apartment and over that time they had adopted a cute shinba inu. As the dog got older, it's energy spiked needing area to play in. Seeing as how staying in their apartment was never set in stone and they had enough money to invest in a house they agreed the timing fit.

And with that it resulted in taking down all their stuff, enclosing them in cardboard, only to reopen them and organize it all over again. He also decided to take any other stuff he had left with his mother if only to never have to return there. He made sure to take everything that was left and some other things she'd claimed as 'treasure' belonging to him.

They started opening up boxes after the moving truck came by piling them in the new living room. Everything was organized upon the location of the house from bathroom to kitchen to bedroom and so forth. They began by taking out all the stuff pertaining to the living room. About ten seconds later and Nowaki spoke.

"Hiro-san doesn't this go in the kitchen?" He held up a glass jar with a red rim that could only be opened by removing the latch on the side. It appeared old fashion and could easily be used for storing food that you didn't want to go stale. Or at least in one's eyes it could be seen as so.

Hiroki gave it a side glance if only to acknowledge Nowaki before returning to unloading the other boxes.

"I guess it was placed there by accident then. I don't even remember why it's even in the box, you can just get toss it or something." It was kind of tacky and they had enough stuff as it is.

The answer seemed inadequate to Nowaki. He looked at it curiously as if it had a dual use. It didn't make sense that Hiro-san would keep something if it was pointless, but he resisted asking.

"Well I like it. I'm going to give it a quick wash so we don't have to get rid of it." He stood up, leaving the rest of the minimal work on the ground.

Down the stairs by then, the chestnut haired man stopped, hesitantly viewing the box his lover was picking stuff out of. He sighed. It was just as he thought.

Trapped in there were memorabilia of his youth. There was crap in there he found himself not using but they held a moment, and image, a feeling. Apparently that's what his mother thought it meant to him so strongly enough that she refused he throw out when he went by. Nowaki must have thought 'treasure' stood for the professor's books. The thing about all of the stuff from his childhood was that it always involved Akihiko….

Flashback

I rubbed my hands over my arms trying to bring some of the heat into them. I hated the cold night air it was so frigid that it resulted in me shivering.

I grunted, almost tripping on a broken branch. AGAIN.

'I swear to God Akihiko better already be there or else I'm heading right back home. He's the only reason I snuck out into the night this late.'

It was strange for me to come to the hideaway Akihiko and I shared more than once in a day. But Akihiko had told me when we there early after school to come back at night as he had a surprise. Why the heck at night and why was I going to come back just for him?

Was there a story he was working on that would only be finished by then? Was he going to lend me a book that he'd had at his house? I edged on to find out what he was hiding but he repeated it was a surprise. That was all he dealt out on the matter before dropping his lavender eyes into his notebook and writing again. That was the strange thing about him. As easily as Akihiko could enter the real world it was as easy to pull away from it in his writing. He'd leave it to talk to me, but then he'd return lost in the thoughts and secrets lying in between his words.

That's one of the reasons I enjoyed reading his work, I felt like in a way it was telling me things about Akihiko that otherwise would never be known. He let me read them and I felt like it was okay for me to know these things, his okay. Aside from that his stories were always interesting really capturing the character's emotions. He had everything that could be needed to be a successful author, but whether he'd allow for it to happen seemed unlikely. It was possible, if he ever would consider letting others read it.

I sighed in relief as the path I was taking cleared up and moonlight was filling in. With the dimmed light I walked easier catching Akihiko's figure in the small field. He spotted me as well.

"Good you made it." There was an underlying tone to the voice, like he was about to lose faith in me showing up.

I scoffed jumping over a hedge. "I never said I wasn't coming."

He shrugged "I started to think maybe you were caught leaving."

I could have scoffed at that too. No, once I was in done brushing my teeth and was getting ready for bed my mother would say her goodnight and she herself would head off to bed. She never came to check up on me and the only reason I knew was because I'd be up under the cover's reading and she'd never enter then. Going through the forest proved more challenging and time consuming.

"I'm not careless." I stated anyway. I walked towards him but not without noting a jar in his pale hands.

"What's this surprise you had in store that you needed to drag me out here." I say still fixed on his hands.

He smiles gently, catching where my gaze is.

"It's a jar."

I grumble, feeling my cheeks peak in heat. "I know it's a stupid jar why the heck do you have it?"

He stretches his index finger on the neck of the glass and unhooks it's latch with his thumb. "I read in a book that people our age would capture fireflies and there glow was strong enough that you could keep them in a dark room and it's light would last a long time." He paused pursing his lip slightly, titillated with it turning it around in his grasp. "I thought maybe it be interesting to do that as well."

I was ready to jump out and call the activity unusual among other things but there was something that lied behind his eyes that made me not. There was a gleam that asked if this was okay to do, and I 'd realize that he wasn't sure of this activity either but, there was a need to do it; a reason I'd only find out eventually.

I rolled my eyes, sighing falling into his desire.

"Fine." I snatched it quickly. I checked both of my sides carefully then back at the boy, displeased. Scowling I throw up a hand. "Do they not come out until later or something?"

He laughs gently. "Actually they like to hang around the bottoms of bushes, usually around the fruit ones." His lips turn up in a semi smile. I think he was just happy I was on board with this and not retaliating.

He took my hand and pulled me away. "Hey!"

"There's some over here." He ushers me along, and his hand is oddly, but comfortable warm over my own. I blush again, just choosing to be quiet then start something.

We walk, about four trees deep into the forest, before he stoops down, and lies on his stomach yanking me down as well.

The bush's leaves brush against my nose, making me scrunch my nose and flee back. It's there at the moment that I see what Akihiko was staring at, the shallow glow of the fireflies, at least five of them were homing in the bundle.

"Get ready to catch them okay Hiroki?"

I hesitated to answer, with my fingers clutching the glass not quite sure why I was the one who had to do it. "Y- Yeah I'm ready."

He swayed his hand into the lights center, evacuating the creatures into our direction. They flew out, like dancers in a motion, not in perfect sync but in a way that they knew where each was going. Their own movements were very delicate as they worked together suddenly becoming more then just bugs out here.

The thing I had learned as I trapped it was there was no rush to this activity. They wouldn't run as I wouldn't chase. They floated amongst Akihiko creating shadows shifting on his face and under his nose, not scrambling but moving enticed by people or at least us. It was a magical view, a picturesque quality they gave off. Why did it take now to really account for their beauty?

Was it because I' never seen the lights quite like this illuminating a face with beautiful purple eyes in the otherwise shrouding dark?

"Here, your turn." I meekly handed Akihiko the jar, lying to myself that I wasn't admiring my friend's features. He doesn't seem to have noticed, only smiling, which eases me to do it again.

He focuses in on one, moving the jar in the pattern that the fly was drifting in. However he unintentionally catches a different one.

We giggled softly. There was only two in the jar, but he still shut the lid.

"Are you sure that's enough?"

He smiled, eyes tender on the two, as they were still calm as there nature inside.

"I think it's perfect. This way neither are alone and they can keep each other company. I think it was more than a coincidence that that one." He pointed to one nearest the lid. "Decided to join at the last moment."

"Tch, how the heck can you tell them apart?"

"The first one was smaller than the second one." He bluntly stated. "I guess it's like the two of them, are us by that means."

"Are you calling me small?" I shout balling my hands into fists at my sides. But at the same time I felt my heart beating. I didn't know why but I go that way because of his last sentence.

"Well you aren't bigger than me at least let's put it that way….." he was holding back a bigger smile, I could see the resistance.

I was growling clenching my teeth ready to throw words out when he continued.

"But….who knows maybe years later you will grow will have to see." He then placed his hand against my wrist moving me further in the forest. "I want to go find some more fireflies. Maybe we can get a bunch of them out so they surround us."

Odd his hand is warm this time….

I dwelled on his words unfocused and uncaring on what he was doing to me or taking me. Would that be implying that we'd be friends for years, till high school, till college as adults? Would we be with each other to that set amount of time, to see who we were to who we will become? I wanted to believe so. Just like with the firefly it couldn't have been just a coincidence that it flew in even though it wasn't meant to go as it wasn't a coincidence that he'd dropped that hint. Or maybe I was thinking too hard, it shouldn't matter what happens later on. I was still young this wasn't the kind of thing to be worried about, just me thinking too much into this.

I spotted the familiar faint glow of the fireflies. I made quick haste of getting them out wanting maybe as much as Akihiko to build this 'shroud of light'.

By the time we were done and considered the time, we rushed home. Akihiko went, with these memories to take, as did I but he also gave me the jar. I couldn't let myself take them, but he said they were safer under my care. And by that he meant safer away from Haruhiko. I had to agree with that.

I placed it on the top of my desk, the glow violent and strong like fire even as I nestled into my bed, covering myself in blankets; I could still see it. I shut my eyes, tired and wondered if the fly's would fall asleep to. When would there light vanish? Would I keep them in the jar forever? I rustled turning to my side next to the wall. I'd keep them there. They had each other's company, so wouldn't that be all they needed to not be alone and survive? I think so as my last thought before turning in for the night.

End of Flashback

Eventually as time passed, Hiroki didn't remember what ever happened to the fireflies. Maybe his mother had thrown them or they escaped or something.

Hiroki gave a brief smirk before quickly trying to look busy as Nowaki came back.

"That was kind of long for just a wash." He said sensing something went on.

Nowaki smiled, nodding. " Yeah there were these dark wrinkled things at the bottom. I couldn't figure out what they were."

Hiroki's eyes widened, glad that he wasn't facing his lover.

"….Were there two of these dark wrinkled things?"

"Yup exactly two…" he said not catching the man's light bulb moment.

So then they were still there after all that time. After all these years…

Yeah, they were definitely us.

A/N: I don't think fireflies actually hang around at the bottom of bushes but it was just something that I thought wouldn't be impossible so I just said so. The idea to make them specifically catch them was my own desire to do it. I hope you liked it so please review.