As if they were tied in an impossible meeting of fate, the first time he really noticed her was on a bright spring morning - too bright for his eyes and too dusty for his nose and completely and utterly consumed by the monster that is hay fever - when she looked up and smiled at him, completely at peace.

"Hi there, you're Kisaragi, right? Kisaragi Shintaro?"

He nodded and sneezed but gave no further reply. His quota for socialising had been reached today, after arguing with his sister earlier and now bumping into this cheery classmate of his on the short path to school. He was officially done with the day before it had even started. Ugh, socialising.

"Ehe, this is the first time we've talked outside class, right? I'm Ayano!" She smiled but pulled at her red scarf a little nervously. "But you probably already knew that."

"What do you want?" He sighed exasperatedly, his nose itchy as hell. All Shintaro wanted to do was go inside and avoid people for the rest of the day. Especially sparkle-eyed sunshine over here who was blocking his way to education.

"I just thought I'd come speak to you!" She shot him a gentle, warm smile, "I know you're always alone, and it must get lonely, right?"

"Loneliness is not in my vocabulary." He quipped sarcastically, though his deadpan look was ruined by a loud sneeze. "Please leave me be."

Before the girl could open her mouth again, he walked onto the road and around her, heading through the gates of the boring old school he had known for years. Another day, another routine. The footsteps that echoed behind him irritated him to no end.

He rubbed his eyes as he plonked into his usual spot, graceful as always. Just another boring day in the life of Shintaro, right? Ugh.

A month later, he and Ayano were friends.

Or at least they were close to friends, the boy lamented, because he didn't actually need friends and he would be perfectly fine sitting on his own with his pretty perfect little test scores. Not that he was bragging or anything, but the tests were easy and he didn't have to try to score that high. But being called a genius is always helpful.

"Wow, you did so well! Congratulations!" The now all too familiar voice chirped from his left and he looked over at her, slightly miffed.

What he didn't expect was the quick, fleeting thought of 'oh hey, look, I never noticed how she's kinda pretty' to go flying through his head. Coughing to hide his internal shock, his eyes darted to her own paper and he almost did a double take.

Ayano had royally screwed up that test.

She laughed at his expression; it was inevitable he would find out eventually, so she didn't bother to hide it.

"Are you an idiot?" He blurted out, as smooth as can be.

"Not an idiot! Only... I threw out my desire to study.. and it got burned... with the rest of my rubbish?"

He rolled his eyes but reached over to pat her on the head. Her hair was soft and felt nice under his hands, oh no, that was not creepy at all.

"Good job. Even your comeback is stupid."

"Shintaro! Don't be mean!"

The boy only shrugged and decided it was his mission to be mean from then on out. Her expression was simply so.. hilariously adorable. Not that Ayano was adorable or anything. Because she's not. She's stupid.

For some reason or another, his nose was itching again and his face was a little red. Goddamn hay fever.

When summer rolled around and the summer uniforms were in fashion, Shintaro had made more friends. His mother would be so proud.

Haruka Kokonose and Takane Enomoto were an interesting pair; one of them being a full on eating machine that somehow always gets his way in the nicest method possible and the other being a crazy ass gamer that was often sleep-deprived and had a not so subtle crush on the former.

Ah, young love. Ayano thought it was delightful.

Did he mention that it was the very same Ayano that made them all friends in the first place? It wasn't his fault that he didn't understand Haruka and his fluffy hair and it sure as hell wasn't his fault that he couldn't get along with.. what was it.. Lightning Dancer Ene, pfft. The duo complemented each other well though, he had to agree with Ayano on that. In his head, he had so cruelly dubbed them 'the sick kids' though, so he couldn't really complain.

Shintaro supposed he was content as long as he got to sit silently with the trio everyday, with no-one trying to talk to him. His plan failed, of course. Friends were so annoying sometimes.

"Takane," Haruka shook the sleeping girl next to him, more a whine than anything too desperate. "Takane, help."

While the other two were preoccupied, Ayano giggled, tapping Shintaro on the shoulder and pointing something out to him. "Look."

He felt kinda idiotic for being happy to feel her touch over something so small. That girl was going to be his downfall, he was sure of it.

In the meantime, Takane sucked at acting. She may have closed her eyes - well, heck, anyone can do that - but her headphones weren't even plugged into anything with the cord just hanging out from under her. "Oi Enomoto." He called, in the most annoying voice he could muster. "Your headphone act isn't fooling anyo-"

Ayano slapped him with her scarf. "No, don't say it out loud!" She whispered harshly, but not unkindly. "Haruka doesn't know!"

"Takane, I have art block!" The aforementioned boy exclaimed, flopping down on top of Takane in an attempt to wake the crabby girl up. "Takane, can I eat your donut? Wake up, please? Home time is sleep time! Don't be a lazy butt!"

Shintaro watched on, unamused, as Ayano laughed and pulled the hair ties out of Takane's pigtails, causing the girl to sit up angrily and aggressively tie her hair back up before blushing brightly as she came nose to nose with Haruka.

"Yes, you can have the donut." She thrust the food item into his mouth.

He gave a muffled thanks and hugged the shorter girl and Ayano grinned as if the world belonged to her.

Shintaro was seriously doubting these people and their sanity now. Friends? What an odd word. He idly wondered if his sister had friends. Momo had gone on a summer trip with their father but she didn't invite any.. friends. Huh.

Despite it all, for the first time in his life he wished the summer would last forever. He had gotten Ayano's phone number before school parted for vacation, and he didn't have his little sister Momo raving for all the attention in their house anymore. Life was good.

Good. Summer was great. Shintaro loved summer.

Autumn, or Fall, was when he fell really hard. His dad never returned with the distraught Momo after their trip, and without a fatherly figure in sight, Shintaro had absolutely no clue what was going on within him. Ironically, even the leaves that fell from trees had a softer landing than he - for Shintaro Kisaragi had realised like a bolt of lightning that he had completely fallen for Ayano Tateyama.

It was sudden, quick and interestingly weird, and he thought it was probably just hormones and puberty being a bitch.

Yeah, that'd be it.

It's probably because Ayano was coincidentally the only girl his age that remotely interested him, and he really didn't like her all that much. Really.

No, but in reality, Shintaro was a genius so he just accepted the truth. He wasn't in love with her but he did love her. Ayano was his ... 'sparkle-eyed sunshine' at first sight, after all. Or he needed to interact with more females.

Takane didn't count because she sucked. She was also a brother-in-arms and with nothing to lose, he set off to ask her for advice.

'Hey, I want to talk to you about something.' He had had to ask Haruka for Takane's number and it caused a series of awkward misunderstandings that were much too heavily misunderstood. Why he didn't go to the gamer girl in person, he didn't know himself. Oh yeah. Ugh, socialising.

'WTF which hobo are you and where did you get my digits?' Oh Takane. Eloquent as always.

Shintaro replied within a few seconds being the fast typer he was, 'It's Shintaro. Can we talk?'

'You mean text, dumbass? Yeah, shoot. How did you get my number?'

'So you know Ayano, right?'

'Screw you too. She's my best friend. Duh.' On receiving this message, the boy had to bite back a "no way, she's my best friend" because he didn't want good ol' pigtails ratting him out to Ayano. This was serious business.

'Promise not to tell her about this conversation.' He sent with a scowl, sitting cross-legged on the floor of his room.

'I make no promises, lover boy. To think you'd come to me for this is laughable, really.' Shintaro sputtered at this, awkwardly disrupting the silence of his house. Takane knew him too well because they were so undeniably similar and he was reminded of why he came to her in the first place.

'I swear to god woman, shut your mouth or Haruka will know everything.'

Her reply came almost instantly; she was catching up to his typing speed already. Trust Takane. 'I'll cheat on him with Ayano. We'll break even, yeah?'

'Wait what- you're not even gonna deny it?'

'Nah man, he wouldn't believe you even if you told him. Heck, I've told him. He's as dumb as a rock.'

Even he had to pause for a moment to reflect on that. There was no way Haruka didn't know; Shintaro held some form of friendly respect towards his male friend and he couldn't help but think this was taking it too far.

'... as if. As. If. Oh god, I bet Ayano is stupider than him.' Suddenly he felt more confident, if Takane could do it (and fail epically), then he could do it too, right? Never mind that this was a terrible idea. He was going to do it. A spontaneous confession.

With her psychic powers, Takane answered with a 'Is that a word? Let's not debate this ugh just go confess or smth, tell me how it goes down.'

Having support from the grouchy girl strengthened his resolve. 'Just stop talking to me ok.' He responded speedily before trying to locate Ayano's number in his contacts.

Sure, it wasn't like him, but how bad could it go? His stupid friends were rubbing optimism into his face. Unfortunately Shintaro lacked the guts to do it in person and went to do it via text. What? He never learnt the rules of confessing, and he thought Ayano couldn't possible misunderstand.

'Hey Ayano?' Good. Nothing too out there. He could stay in character and still do this thing.

'Um..? This is Haruka! Are we playing a game? I can pretend to be Ayano, if you want...?'

The boy groaned. Trust the genius to send it to the wrong person. Strike one.

'Nevermind, we're' He stopped in the middle of his message and backspaced, having had a second thought. 'Nah, it's all good. Takane wants to talk to you btw, She need your permission to marry Konoha or w/e your avatar dude is called.' Take that, Takane. Now they could both embarrass themselves.

He knew she'd come for him later but what are friends for? Right now, there were more pressing matters.

'Ayano?'

'? Brother?'

What... Momo?! He didn't even remember adding her to his contacts. Or her getting a phone. How old was she again? So much for paying attention. It was definitely rigged that Ayano was this hard to find in his grand total of five (lazy) unnamed contacts - his phone must've been derping on purpose. That, or the universe was conspiring against him. Strike two.

'Don't worry. Wrong number, Momo.'

'If you say so.'

Ah. He felt bad now. Maybe he'd grab some soda for Momo after school tomorrow. If he didn't die of embarrassment before then.

'Please tell me this is Ayano.'

'Shintaro! I gave you my number ages ago but you never ever thought to use it? What's up?'

He found her.

'Yeah, about that. Ayano, we're friends, right?'

'YOU ADMITTED IT. YES. WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO WITH SHINTARO?'

He couldn't resist grinning like an idiot. Ayano was so cute. Now to crack the big one.

'What. I just wanted to ask if you wanted to be more than just friends.'

He sat still and silent in the middle of his room as he waited for a reply. Gosh, he felt like a teenage girl with a crush. Any teenage girl that wasn't Takane, that is.

'More than friends? Like best friends? You might have to fight Takane for it, ahaha!' The mental image of himself duelling Takane for Ayano's hand in marriage came to mind before he suddenly realised she didn't get it. She didn't get it. Biting his lip, he replied more hesitantly than before.

'No, more than that.'

Her reply couldn't come fast enough just as his pain couldn't hit hard enough. 'So like lifelong mega best friends forever?'

'... what?'

'Oh! That's what my little brother Seto used to say to me...! Kids are so cute, right?'

Would it be a bad time to say "I want to have kids with you"? Yeah, too far Shintaro, get it together. No. Bad, don't do that.

'Sounds like my sister. Kids must all be the same.'

He chickened out. He couldn't do it.

'Your sister must be adorable! We should arrange a play date for all our siblings one day, okay?'

Shintaro decided that was all the heart pounding that was to happen during the time of falling leaves, so he left it at that.

"Ah, no.. soda is your favourite, not mine. You should have it."

What he also failed at doing was be a good big brother. He only hoped this was a phase and Momo would be all bright smiles, candy and clinginess again soon.

Winter was cold. Shintaro was forever captain obvious in this aspect and all others but he had decided his time of moping was over and he needed to get out there and live life hoping Ayano would never discover his feelings. He had to be cold. Cold and cool. The new winter Shintaro was going to be so cool, he'd be frozen.

He would also be stuck waiting after school for the object of his affection's safety.

Takane and Haruka had somehow become Ayano's overprotective parents during the winter, and they threatened him into walking the girl home every day. To be honest, Ayano was more worried about them and their health than her own, and so under a majority vote, everyone was given a role they were satisfied with.

It wasn't too bad, he thought, but upon his feeling realisation, he had never been as cool as he could be with the lively girl around.

Breaking his chain of thoughts was said girl as she came hurtling out of the building, scarf flailing wildly out behind her. "Sorry, sorry! Clean-up duty ran late because there was a mess in the hallways! I didn't forget this time!"

He hushed her with the end of her scarf and turned to walk out the school gates when the same scarf flew around his neck and pulled him backwards. Ayano smiled a little deviously.

"You're free now, right? Do you want to go shopping?"

"No."

At his short answer, she frowned, slipping her hand into his and dragging him towards the closest supermarket.

"It's just shopping for food!"

Shintaro watched as she broke into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"I'm cooking tonight, so I'll need some help deciding." Ayano muttered, starting to ramble, "Actually I might have to cook for the rest of the week too, so I'll have to think about that... and Kano's super picky with his food so that's a definite no for cauliflower and stuff... ahh, dad eats a lot too. Hmm..."

He squeezed her hand lightly. Maybe he could learn something from this experience. Like how nice of a wife Ayano would become for whoever marries her in the future. "I'll help you if I can. Tell me what you need, and I'll go get it."

She instantly brightened, letting go of his hand. "I've got a list! We can split it and look for things separately, alright?"

The boy nodded and took the piece of paper as she pulled it from her bag, neatly ripping it down the middle to split the list perfectly. Ayano smiled at this, and it seemed like a genuine smile, "You really are perfect at a lot of things, aren't you?"

"That's an exaggeration." He stated, glancing down at the sheep patterned paper.

"It's not!" She exclaimed, making eye contact before speeding off into the fresh produce section. "Meet you back here in 10! Love you!"

"Alright, love you too."

... wait. Wait. Hold on a second.

Shintaro ran a hand through his hair.

He did not just accidentally let the 'love' word slip.

No, no, he was reading way too much into this.

It's okay, it's okay.

Ayano meant it as best friends, right?

Right.

He could play it off as the same thing too, right?

Right.

... right?