"You really thought I was going to confess to you?"
"Well, yeah, i-it seemed kind of obvious to me."
"Aren't you a bit too self confident, Arata?"
"Hey! It's all Sakuya's fault anyway-"
"Pff, blaming other people now, are we?"
After having met up with Takeru to discuss about and get a better grip on his Dot Blastrizer's abilities, Arata was now having a small chat with the genius mechanic while walking back to his dorm. They had spent nearly the whole evening in an empty classroom playing practice matches. Arata had been surprised to find out that Takeru was not a bad player either despite only being known for his great mechanic skills.
Arata risked a side glance at his companion and lingered at the pleasant smile that lay on Takeru's lips.
"I didn't confess to you though. But what would you have done if I had? That's what I find interesting." The other grinned at Arata.
If Arata had not already been through that "a guy is going to confess to me"-business and been wrong with his guess at that, he would have definitely taken that remark as an attempt to flirt. "A-at that time I was about to reject you, I think..."
"At that time?", Takeru dug deeper. Where did that guy even take his confidence from?
"What do you mean?"
Arata stopped walking and it took Takeru a few moments to notice. When he did, he turned around to face Arata and just smiled softly at him. "If I were to confess to you at this very moment under the starry sky – how would you react now? Now that I'm not a random Harness boy anymore, would you say yes?"
It was silent for a few seconds until Takeru laughed and headed into the direction of his dorm, leaving Arata to himself who took a few minutes to notice. When he did he sprinted after the boy. "Does that mean you like me?"
Takeru just waved his goodbye from the distance.
"Sakuya?"
"Hm?" The mechanic did not look up from tightening a few screws that had gotten loose in Dot Blastrizer's last battle. Arata was spread on Sakuya's bed, seemingly lost in thought.
"Why did you dream that a guy confessed to me?"
Sakuya spluttered and turned around in his chair. "W-why? It was just a dream, Arata, nothing more. Nobody knows why they dream things."
The other boy sat up, his hair a mess from having been lying down for such a long time. "But aren't dreams like, I don't know, they go over what you've thought about during the day?"
Sakuya just gaped at him before returning to his task.
"Do you think I could date a guy?"
One of the small screws that the mechanic had tried to insert into the LBX's frame rolled off the table and Sakuya let out a panicked cry and crawled over the floor to find the small object. It had rolled under his desk.
"No but honestly, do you think I'm the type of guy to date other guys?"
A loud crash was heard as Sakuya hit his head at the desk. "Ouch!" He crawled out, one hand clutching his head the other tightly around the lost screw. Gently he placed it on the desk and sat down in his chair, facing Arata. "Isn't the person who's supposed to know that you? Nobody else decides your sexuality for you."
Arata remained quiet as Sakuya carried on with his work.
A gently breeze blew over the island, the sun was shining – a beautiful day. Arata was bored out of his mind. Mito had decided that the first platoon should not participate in today's wartime and thus they were totally free. Haruki and Hikaru had decided to stop by the bookshop and Arata, remembering the last time he went there, had declined when they had asked him to come along. Sakuya wanted to pick up a few spare parts which was not too exciting either. And thus Arata had ended up with a free, sunny afternoon without anything to do.
Lazily he strolled over the campus, sometimes stopping at a shop but deciding not to buy anything since he was nearly broke again this month. It became clear to him that he would not find anything interesting to do and he made his way back to the school, maybe get some homework done in his room. Until he noticed something. Or rather somebody. Surely, this was Takeru sitting on the soft grass. From the looks of it he was writing something down on a notepad. Interested Arata made his way over.
"What are you doing?", Arata asked from right behind Takeru.
Said boy flinched and pressed the notepad against his body, so the other could not read it. Then he noticed who had just talked to him and let out a breath. "Oh, it's just you." He placed the notepad on his legs again.
Arata raised an eyebrow. "Just me? Hey, that's mean!" He paused to look what the other had tried to hide. "Blueprints?", he asked while sitting down on the grass, hoping it wouldn't leave stains on his uniform.
"Yeah, Kagetora's DC Offenser had a few misfunctions during our last mission and I guess he deserves a better LBX anyway with being our captain and all. So I'm trying to customize it a bit, making it faster and more flexible while not changing too much from the original model since I don't have too many Silver Credits anymore", Takeru explained.
"Looks complicated."
"Nothing that can't be done," he smiled, "Are you not participating in today's War Time?"
"Nah, Mito-sensei sent the Fourth Platoon for some reason." Arata sighed.
A silence followed in which Takeru continued scribbling and making notes like "use CPU from a Siren" or "reduce weight of main frame". Then he hand stopped and Arata looked away from the notepad to Takeru. The boy was staring at him with that clear smile of his. The Jennock could not help but stare back, not knowing what to say.
Takeru laughed softly and leaned in. By the time Arata noticed the soft lips on his own, the other had already pulled away and began storing away the notepad. Quickly Takeru stood up and said: "Suzune asked me to meet her in ten minutes. See you around, Arata."
"Wait wait wait! You can't just.. you know, k-kiss me and then just leave!", Arata protested as he jumped to his feet.
"Well, Suzune is kind of a pain when you keep her waiting." A quick wave and he was running into the general direction of the school.
Arata stared at the retreating form, still trying to wrap his mind around what had just happened.
When he had come back to his dorms, Arata took a quick shower, all the while thinking about what had transpired on the meadow. He did not bother with blow drying his hair and threw himself onto his bed, not caring about the fact that his pillow would be soaked.
Takeru had kissed him.
Just a few weeks ago he had asked Sakuya if he could like guys and had not reached a conclusion yet. But then again he thought about blonde more than he probably should.
Arata had not kissed back, he simply had been surprised. It had felt kind of nice though and he wondered what a full-out kiss had been like. With tongue. With touching. What would it feel like to take of Takeru's cap and run a hand through hair? His blonde hair looked thick and was probably nice to touch. Maybe Takeru would take off Arata's sweater and feel him up and his hands would travel. Outside his fantasy Arata's own hands slid under the light t-shirt he was wearing to play with his belly button and moved down to rub himself through his sweatpants. What would Takeru's delicate hands feel like? Arata's pants filled the room as he played with himself.
The door opened and Hikaru entered with two books clutched under his arms.
Arata shot up, guilt on his face.
Hikaru dropped his books. "Oh my God." Quickly he ran out of the room and shut the door with a loud bang.
"I might have a thing for Takeru."
"Yeah", Hikaru deadpanned.
After getting himself under control again, Arata had run after Hikaru to clear up that embarrassing situation. They were currently sitting on Hikaru's bed (Hikaru did not want to sit on Arata's) and watching some kind of weird chickflick movie while munching on chips and sipping juice.
"Maybe you should tell him. I don't want to catch you in some kind of sexual frustration again."
"I'm not sexually frustrated!", Arata shouted.
Haruki had just entered the room.
"Good morning!" Takeru greeted him happily and Arata who had tried to avoid the other after thinking about him like that threw the piece of bread he had just been eating away and let out a shout of surprise.
"Are you okay?", Takeru asked worriedly.
Arata laughed fakely. "Why shouldn't I be?"
Takeru just blinked before heading over to his own platoon who was looking over at their table weirdly. Arata groaned.
"Smooth, Arata", Hikaru commented before taking a bite out of the sausages that were served for this morning's breakfast again.
Arata ran a hand through his hair. "I just can't look him in the eye anymore. Not after... that."
Hikaru snorted. "Well, ask me how I feel, it wasn't that amazing for me either."
Promptly the other turned beet red. "Hey!"
"What happened anyway?", asked Sakuya.
Hikaru turned towards the mechanic. "Well you know-"
"Hikaru!"
"Hey! Wait up Takeru!"
The Harness students looked at Arata weirdly. While their countries did have an alliance, it was still weird to see students from Jennock in their track of the school building. Normally each country kept to themselves.
The blonde continued to get away as fast from Arata and ran down the stairs, taking two steps at a time.
"Hey! Don't run!" Arata followed, making sure not to trip on the stairs.
Takeru abruptly turned around to face the other. "What do you want?"
"Um, it's about-"
"I've always thought you to be a person to face everything head on. Like you didn't fear the Violet Devil, you just plunged in. I thought if it, if I had bothered you, you would have told me right away, not avoid me."
A few steps above Takeru Arata made a surprised face. He ran a hand nervously through his thick hair. "No, it's not like that. It's actually quite embarrassing, to be honest..."
"Is that so." Takeru looked at him sternly. "Well then I don't want to embarrass you further." The mechanic turned around and continued his way downstairs.
Arata just continued to stare at the spot where the other had stood a moment before.
"I messed up!"
Hikaru flinched at the sound of the door opening and closing rather loudly. "I can hear that."
Arata threw himself onto his bed unceremoniously.
"Another movie?"
Arata made an agreeing noise into his pillowing.
"Ice cream?"
"Sounds good."
The next week Arata kept following around Takeru to catch him alone somewhere but it seemed like the rest of his platoon were always around him, guarding him. There never seemed to be a situation where he could just walk up to the other to apologize.
Until an exceptionally boring Monday when Arata excused himself from class to use the toilet in hope it could ease his boredom for at least a while. When he looked out of windows that lined the hallway he could see somebody familiar outside, talking to somebody on the phone heatedly. It was Takeru. Forgetting why he was actually not in class he made his way downstairs to catch the other.
Peering around the edge of the building he could see the other still talking on his phone but he was too far away to understand what he said.
Takeru ended the call and huffed.
Quickly Arata walked over and put his hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Takeru?"
The other swatted his hand away surprised and took a few steps away from Arata. He didn't say anything and just looked at Arata, waiting for him to say something.
Unfortunately this situation was totally spontaneous and despite the fact that Arata had been thinking how he could make up with Takeru, he had no idea what to say. The gear wheels in his mind worked but did not come with a solution.
Takeru lifted a brow.
Arata played with the hem of his Jennock jacket. "I..."
"Yes?"
"I m-masturbated while thinking about you!", Arata blurted out.
"What?"
"Exactly!"
The mechanic just blinked. Mentally, Arata was freaking out, he had probably scared the other just because he could not keep his hormones in check.
A snicker. Takeru held a hand over his mouth to keep the sound from coming out and the boy slowly took a crouching position. He was trying very hard not to burst out laughing.
"H-hey! That's not funny! Hikaru walked in on me and-"
After that sentence Takeru just let the laughter spilled from his mouth and sat on the ground. Arata could stare in awe after hearing the clear sound fill the air even though the other very clearly laughed about him.
"H-How-" Takeru tried to speak up but another wave of laughter caught him.
Arata sat down on the ground across him. This was not like he imagined this to be like.
When his laughter had finally died down, Takeru took a deep breath and asked his question again: "How did Hikaru react?"
Arata glared at the boy across him. "Well, he ran out of the room-"
Takeru started laughing again. "Oh man, poor guy."
"Don't you mean poor me? Even Haruki makes jokes about me now! Haruki!"
"Well, I thought you hated me all the time, I think I'm off the worst", Takeru said, his voice sounding hard all of a sudden.
Arata gulped. "Yeah, and I'm terribly sorry for this. I'm an idiot. Everybody can confirm that for you, I'm really bad with that kind of stuff." With a sudden feeling of courage Arata leaned in. The fact that Takeru did not move away from him seemed like a good sign to him. Slowly he cupped his face, his fingers brushing the hair that was as thick as he imagined. Arata's lips brushed lightly against Takeru's and he softly pressed against them. Then he moved away again.
Takeru looked at him before lifting a brow. "That was the lamest kiss ever."
"Well, I don't exactly have much practice with this kind of stuff!", Arata defended himself.
"Let me show you how that works", Takeru murmured and gripped the collar of Arata's sweater to move the other boy closer to him.
"Uh, you know that everybody can see us from the school building?"
"So?"
"The thing is that I kind of excuse myself to use the toilet..."
Takeru sighed. "I always thought of making out on the toilet a bit disgusting, it's better here."
Arata panicked. "That's not what I meant! I should go back some time! Mito-sensei will kill me if I don't!"
Takeru let go of Arata obviously disappointed. "Then go."
"We can continue this later though... I guess." Arata got up and made his way back to the building.
Takeru just grinned. His sister had been right on the phone, it would work out somehow.