Growing

~o~

Growing; it's something that everyone does. If no one grew, than everyone would stay as a cell, inside of their mother's womb. That was physical growing; if they never grew up mentally or emotionally, there would be children stuck in the bodies of adults. Which obviously wouldn't be a good thing at all and most people recognized this fact.

Even the more stubborn of people, like Hayner was. Hayner hadn't wanted to grow up for the longest time; if he and his friends grew up, they wouldn't be able to stay together forever. It was a selfish thought, yes, but he didn't care at that age. It was a typical child thing, for a child to want to keep his or her friends forever. But almost every single child that was like that was forced to see reality one day. For Hayner, it happened pretty early, far earlier than his friends. It was Hayner's words that made his friends realize it one day.

Hayner grew to realize that growing up was a part of life and it would happen, whether he wanted it to or not. He was immature at times, but to make up for the fact that he seemed to be the only person around his age that actually got that concept. It made him a little lonely, despite his friends knowing and being there. But he knew they didn't get it as well as he did himself.

He knew that growing out of a closer friendship happened far more often the most would have figured and that growing close to another could be really easy sometimes, but other times it could be one of the hardest things, for many reasons.

If one thing confused Hayner it went by the name of Seifer. Seifer never made sense to Hayner, probably one of the reasons they fought so much. He just did not get how he could be those few years older but seemed to not grasp what Hayner had about growing up. He seemed like all he wanted to do was stay a teenager and pester the younger kids. But at the same time, Hayner didn't think that was quite right. Which is why Seifer confused him. With every theory or thought he had that wasn't negative nor mean about the older blond it just never seemed to fit right. It was like trying to put a puzzle piece in the wrong place, it might have been close to the right shape, but it wouldn't fit or look right.

It was probably part of the problem he had with Seifer, part of why they fought so much. Hayner would try to figure him out a bit, to try and rid himself of his confusion on the older teen only to be shoved back when Seifer realized what he was doing and it got to the point where Hayner and Seifer would just skip right to the fighting part, Hayner not bothering in trying anymore.

This went on for the longest time, until both Hayner's friends and Seifer's gang were growing tired of it. Neither knew this of the other but both boys were getting sick of the fighting, Hayner was growing up more and getting more and more mature and lost the want to fight with Seifer, physically or verbally. Seifer just got grumpier and less social with his on growing; he more often turned on his heel and walked away from fights than participating in them anymore. It didn't seem like he cared, even as his 'reputation' was slightly ruined from his actions.

It was around that time, when the two seemed to avoid each other rather than face each other that Hayner had begun to realize a certain fact. A rather important fact that had been ignored up until now.

Hayner not only missed Seifer, but came to realize that some time during all the fighting that he'd somehow grown more than just friend feelings for the older, annoying blond. At first he was just left speechless, unsure as to what he should do about these new found feelings for Seifer, if he should act on them or just wait for them to go away.

He took the 'easy' way out and tried to wait it out for a few months, which as to anyone's guess, didn't work. They seemed to just grow even more. Hayner cursed the world, growing sucked sometimes. When he realized he was getting no where with his first attempt he than decided he'd try to work up the courage to just tell Seifer, hoping that even if he was rejected it'd be easier to deal with than just, not telling him. And if he wasn't rejected, well alright than he thought, knowing it had to be the better outcome overall.

Though it did take time, he, as much as he hated to admit it, Hayner was a bit shy about it. And he didn't know how to go about this confession. He'd dated girls before, and had no issue with any of the times he told them he liked them, but Seifer was a whole new deal. Not only was he not a girl, but using girl tactics on him would have been a disgrace to the elder, and would more than likely get him punched in the face and instantly rejected. It wasn't something Hayner wanted at all. He also tried to watch Seifer, from a distance, to try and see if he could figure out how he would react to the words Hayner was going to say to him, when the younger blond figured them out. But it only made him feel stalker-ish and got him nowhere.

He decided that they were both mature adults, well, on Seifer's case that was. Hayner was still a minor and that made him question if he should confess or not. He certainly didn't want Seifer to get in trouble for it if something did happen to grow. Though this was Seifer and he didn't care about the law, it seemed, he made up his own rules. So the blond decided to forget their ages and go for it, if he didn't he would never know and that would eat him up slowly, nagging at him in the back of his mind.
After a couple days of trying to catch Seifer at the right time, failing each time, Hayner sighed and decided to take a break. He headed up to Sunset Hill, knowing the place would help clear his mind some. It seemed to be buzzing with thoughts. He had been staring at his feet, the ground, on his way up the hill, so when he lifted his eyes and saw Seifer he stopped in his tracks and stared, blinking a few times.

Luckily Seifer's back was to the blond at the moment, leaving him at least a chance to either prepare himself or to turn and leave without disturbing the older male any. He backed up a bit, ready to turn before he paused in his steps. Now would be probably the best chance for him to confess his feelings, Seifer's gang wasn't around and it was just the two of them. He chewed at his lip before drawing in a deep breath and putting on a determined face and turned to walk the rest of the way up the hill, stepping out onto the even ground of the plataeu'd top.

He blinked his brown eyes a few times before starting to walk the rest of the way over to Seifer. Seifer seemed to sense his presence and turned to glance over his shoulder, wondering who it was before seeing Hayner. He blinked with a blank face before looking forward again, showing no sign of greeting Hayner. Hayner drew in a deep breath to try and calm himself down a bit before he continued to walk, standing near Seifer, but not exactly next to him. He stuffed his hands into his pockets, looking down at the worn camouflage pants he wore at the moment. He really ought to get rid of them, they were so worn down, but he loved them and knew he wouldn't. He glanced over at Seifer a few times before leveling his gaze a bit and kept his eyes on the older blond, turned slightly towards him, but not full on.

"Hey, Seifer… There's, uh, something I've been meaning to tell you…" Hayner finally got out, forcing himself to not look away from the elder, not wanting to seem like some sort of wimp or a lovestruck teenaged girl. Seifer turned and quirked a brow at Hayner, just barely visible from his hat, it seemed to be his answer to the statement Hayner made, because he only hn'd and waited for Hayner to continue talking.

Hayner realized that Seifer wasn't going to say anything after a period of silence before he blinked and blushed a little, feeling dumb for missing that. He lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck as he glanced at the ground in his embarrassment before looking back up at Seifer. "I was just…"
"What? Get on with it, lamer, I don't have all day." Seifer interrupted, seemingly a little annoyed at the moment. Hayner blinked before blushing again.

"Sorry, okay. I, uh, I just wanted to tell you that… That I kind of like you." Hayner worked out eventually, kicking the gravel on the ground with a scuffed shoe that also bore camouflage on it.
"Kind of?" Seifer asked brow rose as he questioned the blond, seemingly ignoring the rest of the confession.

"O-Okay, maybe more than kind of." Hayner admitted before silence stretched between them, growing slightly awkward, for Hayner at least. So much so that Hayner turned on his heel and started for the trail leading down to the street, figuring the silence was a rejection and to spare him any further embarrassment and humiliation he wanted to just get out of there.
He stopped in his tracks though, when he heard Seifer call out to him when he'd gotten a few feet away.

"Who said you could leave, Hayner?" It wasn't anything unusual; except for the fact that Seifer hadn't used one of the old pet names he had for Hayner and actually used his real name. This made Hayner blink and stop, surprised to hear his name from Seifer's mouth. He turned his head, confusion beating out the initial sadness that had started to set in. Seifer had turned around and was walking towards him, torso shown with his typical belly shirt, which to Hayner had never made any sense, but he sure appreciated it sometimes.

"Huh?" Hayner said almost dumbly and regretted it the instant he said it, feeling like a retarded dumbass for saying such a stupid thing. Seifer had closed the gap between them rather swiftly, a hand on Hayner's arm and the other had tapped Hayner's chin up before falling to his side. His blue eyes stared down into Hayner's, a rather serious look on his face that could be mistaken for a blank one.

"I said, who said you could leave, Hayner." He repeated, which was rare for Seifer as he'd made it clear many times before that he didn't like repeating something he'd said. Hayner blinked in confusion, not really registering at the moment how close Seifer was, and how that remaining space was being closed as Seifer's hand reached back up to grip and hold Hayner's face up, head tilted back, before the older of the two blonds pressed his lips against the younger's, making Hayner blink wide eyes before they squeezed shut as Hayner returned the kiss that Seifer had initiated.

It was over in a few moments, Seifer letting go of Hayner's chin as he pulled back, eyes opening to look back down at Hayner. The darker blond headed boy slowly blinked his eyes open, looking up at Seifer in surprise. Seifer scowled a bit and frowned down at the younger blond.

"Don't make a face like that. Why do you think I tormented you the worst out of your little group, huh?" He sneered a bit, but the words held no bite. Hayner's face went from confusion to realization in a few moments before he frowned at Seifer.

"Why didn't you say something!" He demanded, eyes holding some anger in them, but it was at himself for not seeing the signs that had been given to him, and of course only now were they so obvious. Typical. Seifer scowled some more, rolling his eyes a bit before looking back down at the younger teen.

"And make a fool of myself? I thought you hated me for all the torment I gave you. Besides, why are we fighting now, Hayner?" He pointed out with a grunt, turning and walking back over to the fence circling the top of the hill. Hayner followed him, not wanting to be left on his own.

"Ugh! Fine, I'll let it go." Hayner said, scowling at himself, arms crossing as he huffed in annoyance. Eventually though, things calmed back down and they stood in silence, though it wasn't awkward like before. Seifer eventually broke the silence.

"We've both grown a lot, Lamer, but we still have a lot of growing to do." Seifer said, leaning back against the fence on top of Sunset Hill. Hayner nodded, the old pet name no longer annoyed him like it used to.

"Together?" Hayner asked almost quietly, face turned to look at Seifer curiously. Seifer hummed a bit; face twisting a little in an unknown emotion while he thought before looking back over at Hayner.

"I'm not going to promise forever," Seifer stated, wanting to make his point clear now. Hayner blinked before smiling a bit and nudging Seifer with an elbow.

"I didn't expect you to."

~o~