This is my only other non-Kurobas fic so I hope you enjoy!
I really love this series and this couple so I wanted to write a story about them. This is just a oneshot but if I ever get the inspiration I possibly could write a continuation or just start a different story about these two.
I have to admit even I find this extremely corny but honestly I really love lovey-dovey, corny stuff ^^;
Warnings: really cheesy, guy x guy
The wind played through golden hair the color of wheat fields. The young boy sighed as he closed his eyes feeling the warm, setting sun against his skin. He was tired, to say the least. He had been running for a good while and now that he got the opportunity to rest, he soaked up the atmosphere of the cool autumn day. Oddly enough, this was a typical moment for the boy, Natsume Takeshi, to experience. Being blessed, or maybe cursed, with the ability to see and interact with youkai just like his grandmother had, he spent many days escaping malevolent yokai's grasps hoping to get their hands on "The Book of Friends" he had also inherited from his grandmother. Many just wanted their name back, though, which he willingly did, but it often left him tired. With another sigh Natsume felt like he was slowly dozing off until he felt a dull poke on his side. Stirring to see what it was, there was a large, round ball of fur that had sidled up next to him.
"Gave away another name, huh? Jeeze, my precious 'Book of Friends' gets thinner by the moment…" Nyanko-sensei grumbled settling down next to the boy. Although this was Sensei's most common gripe, Natsume always felt that there was a hint in the Lucky Cat's voice that noted that he didn't mind all that much about another name given away.
"Mm, then after that, some nasty youkai saw that I was the 'Natsume of the Book of Friends' and started to chase after demanding I give him the book. Sensei, you're supposed to be my bodyguard for these types of things, I'm beat! Where were you?" Natsume gave the cat a small bop on the head with his fist.
"Stupid human! If you weren't giving out names that wouldn't have happened in the first place! I was out having my fill of delicious sake not wanting to be disturbed, nyun!" and with that the furball got up and started tottering away.
"Hey, come back here!" Natsume shouted struggling slowly to get up despite his fatigue.
"I'm going home! We're having beef tonight! Beef! No way am I missing that!" Nyanko-sensei picked up his pace and started heading down the hill.
"Ah, wait! Sensei!" Natsume shouted finally standing up but the cat was already out of sight. "Jeeze, when it comes to food and sake he's on his own set path," he said to himself slowly working his way down the hill onto the main trail. After walking a little while he heard a voice call out from behind him.
"Natsume!" a very familiar voice broke the silence and Natsume turned around knowing exactly who he was going to see.
A boy his age with medium-length black hair trotted up to Natsume. Natsume gave a warm smile to the boy who he considered one of his close friends.
"Hey, Tanuma." Tanuma Kaname was a very a good friend indeed. Only he and a few others, mainly Taki and Natori, knew about the fact that Natsume had the strange gift to see youkai. In fact, Tanuma was quite sensitive to spirits himself despite not being able to clearly see them. Although this is something they share in common, it also worries Natsume that it sometimes gets Tanuma caught up in his youkai problems. But Tanuma often persists in helping Natsume despite his worries.
"Are you heading home?"
"Ah, yeah, Sensei kind of darted off and it's getting late so I should get home before dinner."
"Oh, I'll walk you home then."
"Are you sure? Shouldn't you be heading home as well?" Natsume questioned knowing that the temple, Tanuma's house, was a good walk from his own.
"Oh, it's alright, my dad is out of town for a while, typical work stuff," Tanuma said as they started on their way.
"That's right; your dad is a pretty popular priest, huh?"
"Ahah, I guess you could say that," Tanuma said with a small laugh. As they walked to Natsume's house Tanuma noticed how sluggish and lethargic Natsume seemed to be. Knowing full-well that Tanuma greatly disliked him withholding information about his problems, Natsume gave a brief story of what happened before they met up. Like he figured, Tanuma became overly worried and asked if he was alright, giving Natsume a quick look-over to see if there were any visible injuries. Natsume laughed it off saying that he was fine since he was used to it. Still with a worried tone in his voice, Tanuma gave up the pursuit and trusted that Natsume was telling the truth.
Tanuma always seemed to worry too much, Natsume thought. This was something he wished he could've avoided – having his friend be so concerned, but half of it was probably in Tanuma's nature. But Tanuma was always very persistent in wanting to be protective of Natsume and wanted to help out whenever he could. Although Natsume truly appreciated this, he wanted to avoid getting him or anyone else involved with youkai as much as possible.
Arriving at his house, Touko-san was out in the front yard taking down the laundry she had hung up earlier that day.
"Touko-san, I'm home, do you need any help?" Natsume called out as Touko-san turned around.
"Ah, welcome home, Takeshi, yes that would be nice… Oh, Tanuma-kun? Good evening." Noticing Tanuma was there as well she greeted him with a smile.
"Good evening," he greeted returning the smile and then turning back to Natsume, "Ok, see you tomorrow, Natsume," he said about to leave when Touko-san spoke up.
"Oh, Tanuma-kun, why don't you stay for dinner? We have plenty of food!" she said putting the last of the clothes in the basket.
"Ah, I couldn't possibly…"
"Nonsense! You do so much for Takeshi and are such a good friend, stay for dinner once in a while!" she insisted. Tanuma seemed to still be hesitating.
"You should, your dad is out anyway, right? I bet you didn't even think of what you were going to eat tonight, did you?" Natsume spoke up.
"W-Well I suppose you're right…" Tanuma laughed nervously. With both Touko-san and Natsume insisting he join them, Tanuma quickly gave in.
"Ah that was really delicious, thank you!" Tanuma said at the doorway getting ready to leave. It was already dark out but Tanuma insisted he head home since he had things to take care of at the temple. Waving good bye and graciously thanking Touko-san again for the meal, he and Natsume walked outside.
"I'll walk you till the end of the road at least," Natsume said as they left the yard.
"I had fun, the Shigure's are really nice folks, I bet you're glad you got to live with them," Tanuma made small talk as they walked the short road.
"Yeah, I really feel lucky that they took me in," Natsume said with a warm smile. Hitting the intersection they stopped. "Thanks for walking me home and coming over for dinner, see you at school," Natsume waved and was about to turn around until he heard Tanuma speak up.
"U-Umm, Natsume?" Tanuma stuttered, still standing in place. "Err, I wanted to ask if you were busy this weekend…" he trailed off sounding unusually nervous.
"Ah? Hmm, I don't have any plans, why?" Natsume asked.
"Well… I was thinking… if it's ok with you, if you'd maybe like to go see a movie? Ah, there's one coming out that I'd really like to see and I thought you'd probably like it too… And we can eat somewhere afterwards or something?" Although it was dark, Natsume could clearly see a blush coming over Tanuma's cheeks as he stumbled over his words. He couldn't help but wonder why he was so flustered and found it a bit amusing.
"Yeah, that sounds like fun!" he couldn't help but let out a small laugh.
"Really!? Oh, that's great, I'll tell you the movie time tomorrow, ok?" Tanuma said excitedly and almost sounded relieved.
"Mhm, we've never really done something like that together with just us so it sounds cool."
"Y-Yeah," Tanuma smiled, looking at Natsume for a few seconds.
"So, see you tomorrow, then?" Natsume broke the silence and seemed to snap Tanuma out of whatever world he was in.
"Oh, yeah, good night, Natsume!" he said waving and heading towards home. Natsume found Tanuma's behavior a little stranger than normal but shrugged it off looking forward to the weekend.
"Ahhh, that was so good, I'm stuffed!" Natsume said, patting his full stomach. He and Tanuma had just walked out of a family run shop that Natsume had never heard of, it was near the theatre and Tanuma said that it had some of the best food you could get in the area.
Today was honestly really fun, Natsume thought. Before they ate, they met up at the theatre to see the movie that Tanuma talked about. Tanuma seemed a little nervous at first when he awkwardly greeted Natsume with an unusually goofy smile but once they settled down in their seats he was excitedly telling Natsume about the positive reviews of the movie. It was filled with action and had some comedy and a little bit of romance and Natsume ended up liking it more than he thought he would. During their meal they discussed all of their opinions of the movie and it had become quite talkative. Natsume had never really talked so much with Tanuma in one sitting and he had a good time just discussing nonsense and leaving all of the worries of youkai behind them. And, surprisingly, he hadn't had any trouble with them today (even Nyanko-sensei seemed to have gone off on his own) except for seeing a few harmless ones minding their own business.
Even though they had an eventful day, neither of them necessarily felt like going home quite yet. Since it was still bright out, they decided to go through the park Natsume so often visited near his house. On the way, they actively kept up their conversation jumping from one subject to the next with random outbursts of laughter from both of them. Natsume noticed that Tanuma seemed to be in higher spirits than usual. He knew that, although Tanuma couldn't see youkai so well, he was very sensitive to the spirits and often became sick just from their presence. Maybe it was because they youkai seemed to have been kept at bay for the day that he seemed so lively. Whatever it was, it was nice to see him so happy, Natsume thought.
When they reached the park, the sun was starting to set as they quietly sat on the benches for a rest and to continue their chat; Tanuma seemed to start to shiver.
"Oh, are you cold, should we go?" Natsume asked.
"N-No!" he answered giving Natsume a small shock from how loud he was, "Ah! Sorry, I mean, I kind of like sitting here talking with you…" Tanuma trailed off. The tips of his ears started to turn red; Natsume couldn't tell if it was from the chill or his embarrassment. Natsume felt himself getting a little embarrassed from Tanuma's response. It seemed like something he'd typically say but his tone of voice seemed different.
Attempting to break up the awkward silence, Natsume pressed on, "Oh yeah, you said you wanted to tell me something today? I've been pretty curious but you haven't brought it up yet, I was thinking maybe you forgot." When Natsume got to the theatre and after their greeting, Tanuma had announced with that there was something he needed to tell Natsume but it could wait until the end of the day. Natsume didn't really think much of it at first but during the day he kept thinking about what it could possibly be since Tanuma avoided eye contact with him when he said it.
Tanuma's face became even more flushed with red. It took him a few seconds to respond but he finally spoke up. "Y-Yeah… I do, I didn't forget, I was just thinking of the right time…" Again, avoiding eye contact.
This made Natsume a little nervous, it sounded like something extremely important, instantly he thought that since it was something Tanuma was reluctant to say, it wasn't very good. He started to think that maybe Tanuma had to move. Suddenly asking him to hang out all day, being more nervous than usual, his dad out of town for a while, avoiding the announcement he had to make, it all started making sense. Natsume began to upset himself; Tanuma was his close friend and probably the person that understood him the most, having him move away so suddenly was the last thing he wanted. The worry he started having started to show on his face.
"Natsume?" he heard Tanuma's voice and jolted out of the scenario running through his head.
"Ah! Sorry…" Natsume made a weak attempt to apologize, "Go ahead, what was it you wanted to tell me again?"
Tanuma glanced away in silence scratching his head. You could almost see the gears turning as he made a way to gather up his courage for what he was about to say. Finally with a long sigh, Tanuma looked up at Natsume and began.
"Natsume… You're really important to me, if this is something that upsets you… I hope we can still be friends…" Tanuma said sounding extremely nervous, it almost wasn't like him.
Natsume's worry increased as he braced for the bad news Tanuma was about to give him.
"Natsume, I like… you," Tanuma said quietly averting his gaze.
"Huh?" Natsume breathed with his eyes wide. This was definitely not the announcement he was anticipating. "Like… huh? What?" he babbled in confusion.
"I'm sorry! I've liked you for a while… I was going to keep it to myself but it got to the point where I couldn't go on being your friend without telling you… I'm sorry; you can reject me, really. I just hope we can still be friends…" Tanuma seemed to be sinking into the bench waiting for the rejection. There was a moment of silence until he heard a sniffle and glanced up.
"I-I thought you were moving!" Natsume said exasperatedly, tears welling in his eyes. It was Tanuma's turn to be shocked now.
"Moving!? What, no?" Tanuma was unsure how to react to the situation, anticipating a rejection but faced with this, he didn't know how to handle it.
"I'm so glad…" Natsume said relieved, setting his head on Tanuma's shoulder.
"Natsume!?" Tanuma said flustered. The whole situation turned out more hectic than he thought it would. Not sure of what to do, he awkwardly patted Natsume's head. Attempting to comfort his crush but also get back on topic, he spoke up again, "I'm definitely not moving, okay? But, did you hear what I actually wanted to tell you…?" Tanuma needed an answer whether it was acception or rejection; he didn't know how much longer he could handle the answer hanging up in the air. Natsume slowly lifted his head wiping away a tear.
"You like me…" he said quietly after a pause that seemed like an eternity, "Tanuma, I don't know how I'm feeling right now but…"
Tanuma began to prepare himself again for the answer he was going to get.
"When I thought of you moving away and not being here anymore I got really upset. I thought about how much fun I have with you and how you're one of the few people that really understood and accepted me. When I thought that I wouldn't be seeing you anymore it took a lot for me to not start crying right then and there."
Tanuma relaxed and finally fixed his eyes on Natsume who in turn also looked up after wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand.
"I'm not sure how I feel, but when you said you liked me, I actually felt happy. Although I'm not sure if it was because of that or because you weren't actually moving." He gave a small, nervous chuckle and felt a warm hand brush the hair out of his face. "It does make my happy to be with you, though. Like, today, I had the most fun I've had in a while." Although it was cold outside, Tanuma's hand felt nice as it brushed against his skin.
"Natsume, you make me happy too," he said quietly, "I can't tell you how many times you've made my heart skip a beat just because of your smile."
"Haha, that's so cheesy," Natsume laughed as Tanuma continued to stroke his hair.
"Oh, it did it again, my heart is skipping like crazy," Tanuma smiled as all of the tension slowly left both of them.
Little by little they had gotten closer to each other without either of them noticing, their faces only a few centimeters away.
"Natsume…" Tanuma said quietly moving his hand down to his face, sandy-brown eyes looked up but the boy remained quiet. "Is it okay if I kiss you?" his voice dropped down to an even quieter level.
Natsume broke their gaze to glance over at either side of them, seeming to be making sure that no one was around. (A little too late for that, considering the scene they were making a few minutes ago) Satisfied that the coast was clear, Natsume gave a small, "Mhm," and nervously looked back up at Tanuma. Natusme was never one to consider gender much of an issue when it came to people but he couldn't help acknowledging in the back of his head that Tanuma was also a male. But even then, Natsume didn't find it strange that the thought of kissing him was anything that should raise concern. In fact, he always thought that if he ever found someone he liked their appearance probably wouldn't matter so much to him as long as they had a connection, so why should gender matter? All that a side, just the simple fact that he was ok with kissing another person just meant that he genuinely liked them, right?
Slowly moving closer, Tanuma slid his hand to the back of Natsume's head. Natsume closed his eyes and felt warmth on his lips. Tanuma's lips were surprisingly soft and slightly wet as he gently kissed him. Releasing for only a moment, their lips met again and Tanuma gently sucked on Natsume's upper lip. Feeling a heat rise up inside of him, Natsume felt Tanuma's lips leave once more, leaving his lips feeling a little bit lonely, and opened his eyes. Tanuma's face was beet red and he was sure his face looked the same. Neither of them said a word at first but gave a nervous smile.
"How was it?" Tanuma whispered.
"It felt good," Natsume said blushing and wrapping his arms around Tanuma that were previously clinging to the sides of his torso.
Surprised but happy, Tanuma returned the embrace. "Same here."
Natusme felt that this was it, the confession made him happy, the kiss felt good, and Tanuma's warmth made him not want to let go. He had never been in love before and never really bothered with it, assuming that one day if the right conditions were met, he would somehow find someone that would change that. He felt that Tanuma was the person that could change him, because at this point a warmth inside of his chest he had never felt before was welling up and the feeling was indescribable.
Natsume felt Tanuma kiss his cheek, "I'm so happy," he said sounding relieved, "even though I'm not sure where you got the idea I was moving."
Natsume jerked back a bit, "Ahh… I thought it was something bad you had to tell me so my thoughts led to that. Sorry." He was a little embarrassed about it.
Having a laugh at the misunderstanding, they both soon realized that it was getting cold for both of them so they decided to head home. Both of them were reluctant but they also knew the night couldn't last forever. The walk back was quieter than their talks earlier in the day but it didn't feel awkward. Noticing no one was around Tanuma slowly reached towards Natsume's hand and held it. A little shocked from the sudden touch, Natsume also glanced to see if no one was around and after affirming they were pretty isolated, didn't shake Tanuma off.
They held hands the entire way to Natsume's house, both of them feeling on cloud nine. Natsume would've offered to let Tanuma spend the night but seeing as they were now an official couple that question might've given off a more… different meaning. Tanuma seemed to be feeling the same way too since he seemed pretty set on heading back to his house as they were giving their good byes.
"I had a lot of fun today. And I'm really happy that we're together now." Tanuma blushed with a smile.
"Me too." Natsume also smiled
Tanuma leaned in to give Natsume a light peck on the lips. "I'll see you later, Natsume." Tanuma turned away with a smile and wave and headed off towards the direction of his house.
Natsume stood there outside of his gate going through all of the events of the day. He would've never thought that after today he and Tanuma would be having a different relationship.
"Ohhh, humans are so interesting." A voice from behind snapped Natsume back into reality.
"Uwah! N-Nyanko-sensei! What are you doing here!?" Natsume asked exasperatedly, spinning around to see the round cat.
"I live here too, you know! Ohoho, Natusme, I never thought I'd see you doing something like that though" the cat said sounding very pleased with himself that he managed to catch a very intimate and private moment.
"W-Well, I don't care that Tanuma is a guy so I don't care what you say, Sensei…" Natsume figured he couldn't hide the new relationship had with Tanuma forever from the lucky cat but he didn't expect him to find out so soon.
"Nyun? Guy? I could care less if Tanuma is a male, Natsume. Don't you remember? Youkai do not really have a sense of gender, that's why they so easily mistake you as your female grandmother all the time!" Nyanko-sensei said matter-of-factly.
"Oh…" Natsume didn't really think about the fact that youkai don't seem to have a set gender unless they're disguising themselves in their human forms. Even Nyanko-sensei looks female when he looks like a human. "Then, what made you so surprised?"
"The fact that you have gotten so close to another human! I would've never tagged you as a romantic, Natsume, especially with a fool like that Tanuma." Nyanko-sensei gave a grin and started to totter off.
"Hey! Tanuma is a good guy!" Natsume said feeling a little relieved knowing that cat just seemed to be messing with him.
"Hmm I guess two fools can fall in love too, huh?- Nyah!" Natsume gave a light kick to the cat's bottom as a punishment and the two fought playfully before making their entrance into the house.