written for pillarpairweeks on tumblr
It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining an the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, petals spiraling down like pink snow.
Tezuka had been stuck inside for weeks researching lectures for the next 'd only ever left his flat to go to the library and hadn't spent anytime during that short walk appreciating the outdoors, his head too full of German literature and the books he needed to find.
But now he's broken the back of his book and his lectures were prepared, he could take his time to enjoy the sun and the cherry blossom.
He allowed himself a contented sigh, he was an outdoor person and hated being cooped up inside for days on end.
The park was full of others taking advantage of the weather, mostly, Tezuka judged, university students enjoying their last few days of freedom before term started.
He sat on a bench and let everything wash over him, catching snatches of other people's conversations.
"Echizen! What did you do that for?" Someone was whining to his friend. "She was cute!"
"You date her then," his friend- Echizen- snapped.
Tezuka glanced up to have a look at Echizen and his friend. Looking back on it many years later, he has no idea what the friend looked like, all he could remember was Echizen and his intense hazel eyes.
He tried not to catch his eye, but Echizen glanced at him and their gazes met. It happened for a fraction of a second, but was enough to freeze Tezuka to the spot, his heart pounding in his ears.
Then it was over and Echizen and his friend were gone.
It took a couple of minutes for Tezuka to calm himself. What had just happened? He'd never felt like that before! He hadn't been sleeping properly and being inside made him restless, he put it down to that.
From deep in his bag, his phone beeped. Tezuka hadn't remembered turning it on, he received so few messages. He pulled t out and found a message from Fuji waiting for him.
SOS Help me!
Tezuka sighed and messaged back:
Where?
Half a minute later, Tezuka had the name of the nearby cafe he usually met Fuji in. He didn't really want to go, Fuji's SOS calls were rarely about anything serious, usually the latest disaster of his love life.
Fuji was waiting for him when he arrived, sat with a large coffee and a pot of tea. At least Fuji always paid for the drinks.
He didn't wait for Tezuka to ask why he'd called, just launched into an explanation. "I was giving a tour of the library with some new students and one of them was really hot!"
Tezuka wanted to bury his head in his hands. Fuji may not be a professor yet, but he still taught students!
"I think he's doing some kind of science though," Fuji added, saying it as if it were a dirty word.
"He's still a student," Tezuka said firmly.
"Lighten up! He's not one of my students."
Tezuka pursed his lips. "It's still not right."
Tezuka arrived at his lecture theatre much earlier than was necessary. It was going to be his first ever lecture and, whilst he'd never admit to it, he was feeling very nervous.
There was only one person in the room and Tezuka did a double take when he saw that they were fast asleep.
Tezuka cleared his throat, hoping that would rouse the sleeper. It didn't.
He set out his things a lot louder than he usually would and still the student didn't wake up.
With 5 minutes left before his lecture was meant to begin, Tezuka walked over to the sleeping man and carefully shook him awake.
It was Echizen.
Of course it was, Tezuka thought. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about him. Everytime he cleared his mind Echizen's golden eyes would flash int his head.
"Where am I?" Echizen slurred, rubbing his eyes. Where his head had been was a notepad covered in formulas and theories in rather neat handwriting.
"You're in my lecture theatre," Tezuka said.
"Your lecture theatre?" Echizen's mouth twisted into a smirk.
"I am giving a lecture in five minutes," Tezuka replied, frowning.
"I'll stick around," Echizen said, "you can't be as boring as the last guy in here."
Tezuka expected Echizen to fall asleep again as he started to give an introduction to German literature, but he sat up, listening to Tezuka with interest and occasionally, to Tezuka's disbelief, taking notes.
What was he up to?
Whatever it was, Tezuka wasn't going to let it distract him!
Echizen left with the rest of the class, catching Tezuka's eye and winking. Tezuka wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
He deliberatly took a while to tidy away his papers, hoping that Echizen wasn't waiting outside to ambush him. Thankfully he wasn't and Tezuka was able to leave for the library in peace.
His peace didn't last for long.
Echizen kept appearing in more and more of his lectures and then he found Tezuka's favourite spot in the library. It wasn't as if he did anything, he just sat there reading books on increasingly complicated physics and scribbling notes from them. He barely acknowledged Tezuka's existence.
Either he also like Tezuka's out of the way sport or he was trying to drive Tezuka crazy. It'd have been better if Echizen had come up to his table and bothered him.
Slowly though, Echizen's presence put him at east. At first he was always on edge, trying to ignore the other man, but then it became normal. Echizen was too wrapped up in his own books to be a bother and Tezuka's guard started to drop.
If anyone else had sat in Tezuka's quiet spot it felt like an invasion of privacy, but Echizen was now welcome.
Tezuka was writing up the final conclusion of his book one evening. It wasn't going very well. He knew what he wanted to say, but everything he wrote sounded stilted, as if he was unsure of what he was thinking.
"Excuse me."
Tezuka looked up and saw an uncharacteristically nervous Echizen. "Yes?"
"That essay you wanted," Echizen said. "I couldn't hand it in properly because I'm not one of your students," he handed over a few sheets of paper stapled together. "I'm a scientist though, so it won't be very…" he trailed off and shrugged.
"I don't mark my students work personally," Tezuka said, "but for you I'll make an exception."
All nerves flooded from Echizen and the usual smirk curled its way onto his lips. "Cheers. I can teach you some physics in return."
That sounded tempting, but Tezuka's deadline was looming. "Another time," he said, sliding Echizen's essay into his bag, "I have to finish this."
Echizen shrugged again, "I'm going out anyway." He looked like he'd rather be doing anything else.
"Have fun, but not too much, you have lectures tomorrow."
"I won't be late, " Echizen promised.
When he arrived home Tezuka turned on his phone and found a flurry of messages from Fuji waiting for him. He read the first:
That student I was talking about? I may have accidentally fucked him…
and felt a headache coming on. the last read
I think I love him
and Tezuka decided to go to bed.
Curiosity got the better of him and he pulled out Echizen's essay as he went to his room.
He woke the next morning with Echizen's essay neatly on the bedside table.
It hadn't been the best essay he'd ever ready -it was clear that Echizen was not used to writing literature essays- but he'd picked up the major points and clearly understood what he was trying to write about.
Echizen Ryoma -he'd learnt his given name from the top of his essay. He wasn't sure what to make of him.
He still remembered his reaction the first time he'd locked eyes with him under the cherry blossoms. It had honestly shocked him, he'd never felt like that before. And then… well, Echizen's eyes still struck him, they were so lovely. And the rest of him had become more and more enchanting. It was becoming a problem.
He caught Echizen's eye at the end of his next lecture and motioned him to stay behind.
Echizen hung back whilst Tezuka answered questions from a couple of other students. Once they were alone he sauntered forwards, grinning.
"You're popular."
Tezuka felt himself blush slightly. "You have plenty of fans too," he said, not looking at Echizen. He'd seen the way a lot of his students kept glancing at him.
Echizen shrugged, "hadn't noticed."
"I marked your essay last night," Tezuka said, changing the subject. "It needs a lot of work, but it's a good start."
"Cheers," Echizen said, taking the essay back. Then he stepped forward, sliding his hands onto Tezuka's shoulders and kissing him firmly on the lips.
Tezuka froze for a second and then, before common sense could kick back in, kissed back.
It was over in second, but Tezuka would feel those lips for days later.
"Here's my number," Echizen said, slipping a bit of paper into Tezuka's hand, "call me when you want your physics lesson."
And then he was gone. Leaving a shell shocked Tezuka in is wake.
The conclusion was refusing to be written.
No matter how hard Tezuka tried the words remained locked in the back of his mind, refusing to come out.
He hadn't seen Echizen for two weeks now, it was like he'd disappeared off the face of the Earth.
He regrets kissing me, he though gloomily as he stared at his laptop screen.
It didn't help that Fuji's relationship with the student he'd picked up had grown from sleeping together to something like a relationship.
Tezuka didn't want to ask for advice, he'd told Fuji not to pursue students so often that he sounded like a broken record. Fuji would take great delight in the fact that Tezuka was infatuated? in love? liked? a student. Delight Tezuka did not want to give him.
Maybe he could ask. Fuji didn't need to know that Echizen was a student and some advice would be useful. He doubted he'd be able to finish this book without sorting out this thing with Echizen.
Fuji was waiting for him at the usual coffee shop, smiling over an empty table. Tezuka went to buy drinks, it was himself with the problem after all.
"So," Fuji said when he returned with the drinks, "you have relationship problems?"
Tezuka nodded and sipped his tea. It was too hot to drink, but he needed time to word this properly.
"I never thought the great Tezuka Kunimitsu would ever have probles attracting men to him," Fuji grinned. "Or maybe you've attracted one but don't know what to do with him."
Oh Tezuka knew exactly what he'd like to do to Echizen. His dreams had provided plenty of inspiration, as had a lot of his furniture.
"He kissed me," Tezuka said, "and gave me his number."
"And you've called him?"
"No," Tezuka paused. "He told me he wanted to give me a science lesson."
Fuji snorted, "in biology?"
"Physics."
"Friction?" Fuji asked innocently, his eyes glittering wickedly.
"What if he actually gives me a physics lesson?"
"Listen and then take him up to your bed and make him scream you name… or you scream his. I don't judge."
Tezuka glared at him. "I should call him then?"
"I'm shocked you haven't already! He clearly likes you and you like him if you're this worried about it. Just do it, you'll regret it otherwise."
Tezuka nodded. Fuji was right, he would regret letting Echizen go, even if that thought disgusted himself.
It took him a day to convince himself that he should, against all common sense, phone Echizen.
"Hello?" Echizen said as he picked up.
"Echizen," Tezuka said in what he hoped was a normal voice.
"I didn't think you were going to call," Echizen said, the smirk clear in his voice. "Do you want your lesson?"
"I would," Tezuka replied. "Are you free tonight?"
"Keen, aren't you?"
"I like to learn."
Echizen laughed. It was a nice laugh, one that Tezuka would like to hear again. "I'm free, tell me your address."
Tezuka did so. "We need to be discrete."
"Well duh," Echizen replied, "don't worry, no one will know. What time do you want me? I'm free after four."
"I'll be home all day."
Tezuka spent the rest of the day worrying. What should he do? What should he say? He was the adult here, the responsible one. This relationship was inappropriate as it was, he didn't want to force anything on Echizen or pressure him into something.
He tried to focus on his writing, but it just wasn't happening. All he could think about was all the possible outcomes of tonight, everything from Echizen storming out to Echizen hot and sweating in his arms, moaning his name.
He jumped when the doorbell rang. He took a deep breath to centre himself and went to answer.
Echizen was stood on the doorstep, dressed in a generic black hoodie and carrying a pizza.
"I bought food," he said as Tezuka ussered him inside.
"Thank you," Tezuka said."
"I thought you'd rejected me," Echizen said, handing over the pizza and pulling off his shoes. "I'd just about given up and then you called me." He grinned, "I went to the pharmacist too, just in case. He laughed at the look on Tezuka's face, "don't worry, we won't do anything you don't want to."
So Echizen wanted to end this night in Tezuka's bed. That was good to know.
"Sit down," Tezuka said, motioning to the sofa where his abandoned laptop was sitting.
"Your book giving you problems?" Echizen asked as Tezuka moved the computer out of the way so he could sit next to Echizen.
"A few," Tezuka replied, "it will be finished."
Echizen nodded silently, staring intently at the coffee table.
The awkwardness settled in. Both had things they wanted to do -Tezuka wanted to pull Echizen into his lap and see where it went from there- but doing it was a completely different matter.
"Um, Echizen said, all his usual cockiness and swagger gone. "I'm not a fresher. I'm a master's student."
"So you weren't reading complicated books to impress me?"
"Did it work?" Echizen asked, the grin back on his lips. "But yeah, I was doing work, like you."
"I hadn't see you before," Tezuka said, his head spinning. He wasn't about to kiss an 18 year old! Echizen may be a student, but he was much older than Tezuka had thought. That made it okay, right?
"I did my undergrad course in California but I wanted to study in Japan so I applied fro graduate school here."
Tezuka nodded, then leaned over and kissed him.
There was a moment of hesitation for Echizen, then he threw himself fully into the kiss. His hand slid onto Tezuka's thigh, gripping it firmly, his fingers rubbing small circles that set the skin underneath on fire.
Echzen obviously found this position limiting because a split second later he was in Tezuka's lap.
"That's better," he purred, plucking Tezuka's glasses off and reaching back gracefully to place them on the coffee table, Tezuka's hand on his back preventing him from falling backwards.
"It is," Tezuka agreed, cupping Echizen's face in his hands.
"You're gorgeous," Echizen breathed huskily, leaing forward to take kiss after kiss from Tezuka's willing lips.
He''s never been called that before, at least to his face. Fuji had once called him 'hot', but he'd been roaring drunk at the time and Tezuka had just pulled him out of the bath he's somehow fallen into whilst brushing his teeth.
Echizen wasn't bad looking himself, in fact he was stunning.
In a spirt of inspiration and in reaction to Echizen tracing his gingers down his neck and onto his shirt buttons, Tezuka grabbed his hips and pulled him close so they were pressed up against each other.
"Forward," Echizen smirked.
"It's a bit too late for that."
Echizen's smirk grinned and he rolled his hips, making them both moan. "Good,"
Tezuka took advantage of this, letting his hands rove all over Echizen's body as they kissed, their tongues dancing.
He was rather trim, but his stomach and thighs gave away too many take always and not enough exercise, but he was perfect in Tezuka's eyes.
Echizen wasn't self conscious at all, welcoming all Tezuka's touched with moans and soft sighs. His kisses and hip thrusts were getting more and more frenzied and Tezuka got caught up in all of it, his hands exploring every inch of the other man they could reach.
All he could think of was Echizen. The heat of his lips and hands, the spark through his body as Echizen's growing erection met his own.
"Do you have a bed?" Echizen asked as Tezuka kissed his was along his jaw line.
"Yes," Tezuka replied, "Why?… oh."
"We can do it here if you like," Echizen said cheekily.
"The bed will be perfectly good."
"Take me there then."
"You need to get off me first."
Echizen sighed and kissed Tezuka long and hard, "fine."
The rest of the night was a hot, joyous blur in Tezuka's head. Echizen knew what he was doing and what he wanted, blissfully guiding Tezuka -who had little to no experience with sex- through everything and making it so good for the both of them.
Tezuka awoke the next morning, Echizen curled up against him, warm and soft. It turned out he slept with a small, self-satisfied smirk on his lips.
He reached out and brushed a couple of locks of hair away from his face. He really didn't look like he was in his twenties, although he was sure Echizen must hear that so much he wouldn't appreciate Tezuka saying so.
He gave Echizen a soft kiss on his forehead then got up to make tea. Waiting for him on the table was his phone with 26 messages from Fuji. The last one read
I'm definitely in love with him.
As Echizen stumbled into the kitchen, tousle haired and bleary eyes, Tezuka couldn't help but agree.