I wrote this on a whim. Didn't proofread, so some things might be wacky.
I decided to write a small story about a relationship between Natsume and Tanuma. To clarify, there is nothing sexual or whatever here. It's mostly fluff.
Hope you enjoy!
"Faster team, faster!" Nishimura urged the group.
The three boys sighed loudly in response.
"We are pedalling as fast as we can, Bakamura!", Kitamoto shouted and raced past him, giving him a teasing pat on the shoulder before regaining control of his bicycle.
"The ice cream man doesn't know this, Bakamoto!" the blond shouted back.
"I am wondering if this fruit ice cream is even worth it, to be honest!" Tanuma yelled from behind them, panting heavily as he tried to keep up.
"I promise you it's the best ice cream this town has to offer!" Nishimura assured as he ducked to avoid a branch, his motion copied by the three others in que. They were taking a shortcut through the forest, but the path they had chosen had not been well maintained. Shrubs were sticking out in inconvenient places, and were it not for Nishimura's guidance, they would have lost their way multiple times.
"I have to agree with Bakamura here! Ponta's ice cream is the best!" Kitamoto admitted somewhat reluctantly.
Natsume managed to let out a chuckle despite the vigorous exercise.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Tanuma calls my cat Ponta!" he explained, and the raven-haired in front of him glanced over his shoulder with a sheepish grin.
"What even is your cat's name, Natsume? Honestly!" Kitamoto asked.
"Nyan-san? Nyan... sensei?" Nishimura threw some suggestions. "Watch it, puddle!"
The bicycles swerved to the right to avoid the muddy water. Tanuma hissed as he felt some drops land on his clothes, having missed the emergency turn. The boys laughed at his expense, but he laughed too, with the feeling of adrenaline rush maintaining his good mood and wide smile.
They laughed a lot that day, as they rushed to the ice cream shop that was located in the other side of town after finishing school, all just for Nishimura's sudden desire to reminisce about his childhood favourite dessert.
Natsume enjoyed the spontaneous excursions and adventures that he got himself into with his friends. Racing through the forest on his bicycle with them, and then getting to taste all kinds of weird flavours at the side of the road on some hill and watch the sunset with his friends - all of this brought him bliss. Even though he very much disliked the lemon sorbet he had picked.
"It's too sour, isn't it?" Tanuma remarked, having noticed the grimace on Natsume's face. The sand-haired boy nodded with an embarassed smile, not having expected that his thought would be so obvious.
"I like lemon ice cream. Here, you can have mine," Tanuma readily offered his cone.
Natsume shook his head with a frown. Tanuma laughed.
"It's alright. I got strawberry. I know you like strawberry. That's the flavour you usually get, right?"
Natsume still wanted to object, but his mouth was full with the disgustingly sour, cold cream, and Tanuma had already forced the cone in Natsume's emtpy hand.
"Come on. I really like lemon. In fact, I only got strawberry today to see why you like it so much. So, this is not an inconvenience for me. I'd get lemon ice cream normally." Tanuma let go of the cone and gently unhooked Natsume's fingers from the lemon ice cream cup and took it away.
Natsume finally gulped down, his eyebrows twitching and eyes shut firmly with disgust as he did. Tanuma patted his shoulder comfortingly.
"If you're certain then..." the amber-eyed boy lowered his head in thanks.
Tanuma smiled. "Yeah."
And to prove it, he scooped some of the yellow cream and put it in his mouth with contentment.
"You guys, isn't this ice cream the best?" Nishimura remarked, holding up his cone proudly.
"It's kinda remote though..."
"Look at all these people here, Kitamoto. Nobody cares that it's remote. Everybody is willing to do everything to offer their loved ones good ice cream!" Nishimura gestured towards the few children and their parents that, just like the boys, were sitting down on the small field of snapdragon flowers of every shade of pink and red - the only place one could see so many snapdragons gathered at once, since they were flowers that rarely bloomed in the area, or a large part of Japan in general. No wonder Ponta's ice cream shop had survived all these years - it had a good scenery to exploit.
Natsume enjoyed the ice cream in silence for a minute, as did the rest of his friends.
The scent and taste of sweet, sugary strawberry filled his mind. Ice melted in his mouth and spread its coolness soothingly, while the sunlight heated his pale skin like an invisible blanket of warmth. The flowers caressed his feet with every breeze.
His eyes fixated on one particular, distant flower that was the same dark shade of pink as his ice cream. It swayed every now and then, but was small enough to stay out of wind's way. How curious nature was. How could it be so pink? It was so bizzare!
Kitamoto and Nishimura had started a conversation, but Natsume's mind was elsewhere.
'I'd get lemon ice cream normally'
Normally?
"Don't move."
"Huh?" Natsume turned to look at Kitamoto, who had a very concerned face. "What's wrong?"
"Don't move buddy. Natsume buddy. There's a b-bee. A bee..." Nishimura pointed at his own neck with a shaky finger. "...On your shirt's collar..."
Natsume froze, feeling the stinging sensation of sweat being released from every pore of his skin. He wasn't afraid of bees, but this one was close to a sensitive spot.
"Waaah! it's crawling up!" Nishimura screeched.
"Where?"
"Hold on now."
"Don't move!"
"Take it off him!"
"Hit it, Kitamoto!"
"Stand still!"
"I'll try to flick it away!"
"Nishimura, stop holding my arm?!"
"IT'S FLYING AAAAA!"
"DON'T SCREAM IN MY EAR LIKE THAT MAN!"
"THE BEE'S IN MY HAIR OH DEAR GOD!"
"STOP MOVING DAMN IT!"
"You guys, it flew away. It's not on his hair."
"I felt something land on my face!"
"I saw it fly away though."
"No, it's still here!"
"It's not."
"Bakamura, you're a wuss."
"Oh, shut up! I hate bees!"
"Bees love you. You ungrateful bee-murderer."
"Stop it already...!"
There goes the first introductory chapter. Nothing big happened. Just a chapter describing a nice moment in life. Remember: Life comes before romance. Romance blooms in life. Life is the field of flowers, and romance is that one snapdragon that is the same shade as your favourite ice cream flavour.
Anyway. As I said, no sexual things will happen in this story. But I'll write nice things and sweet moments. Hopefully you'll feel nice when you read these things. That's my goal.
I hope you enjoyed the small chapter!
See you next time!