Prompt #382
It was one small note that had started it all.
It was one small note that had started it all. "Can you meet me behind the staircase next to the art room?" it said, in horribly messy chicken-scratch. Surprising, for someone that was already almost sixteen years old.
Surprising, that that was where it started.
I'd left as soon as my teacher dismissed us, ten minutes after the bell had already rung. The staircase next to the art room… He was already there, waiting. Dark blue hair, perpetually flushed cheeks, sipping a drink outside of the canteen. Milk coffee, what else? He looked up at me and flashed that damn megawatt smile. Bright, blinding, burning, just like the sun. Beautiful.
Kaito Shion.
Of course, we were just friends at the time, but… I had hoped, I had hoped that maybe something would change. It felt like a delusion, something to mull over when the sun decided to take a vacation for a few days and let the rain take over. Yeah, we'd been friends for six years.
There was no way.
"Len! Did Miss Tan hold you guys back again?" He waved the hand holding his drink, spilling pale brown liquid onto the floor, seemingly oblivious. Still with that damn smile on his face.
Sliding over and stealing a sip of his drink (about half of which was already on the floor), I felt my face tug into a smile. I couldn't help it.
"Yeah, something about how a quarter of the class isn't handing in their homework or something, I wasn't paying attention." A weak chuckle ghosted from his lips.
Looking to the side, biting his lip, running a hand through his hair, it seems obvious how nervous he was now, but I was really only focusing on myself, then. His smile wavered a little. "Um, about that note…" I fingered the folded paper in my pocket at his words, a strange sort of reassurance that it was still there.
"Oh, that?" I let a few drops of sarcasm drip from my lips, a feeble attempt to lighten the suddenly awkward mood, "I could barely read it, your handwriting probably hasn't changed since you were in kindergarten, huh?" That weird laugh again. In the back of my mind I wished that he would laugh normally.
"Yeah," Shift, " about that, um," Fidget, "the real reason that i asked you to come down here is…"
We met eyes. He looked determined.
"I like you."
The world ground to a halt around me. The air stilled, leaves transfixed on their branches, The Earth stopped mid-spin. Time ceased to exist. I felt my breath, stuck in my windpipe. My body had been paralyzed. Our eyes were locked, connected by a thread.
I breathed in and everything came crashing back to life. I took a breath, then another, and another. My heart was throbbing in my ears, in my fingers, reminding me that I was alive. I felt my cheeks ignite. A twitch in my neck forced my head to cant to one side.
"Wha-What?" A weird smile tugged my lips upwards, crooked on my face, unsure. "You… You what? You like me? Me?"
Bright, blinding, burning…
Bewildered.
Kaito chucked again, more nervous this time. His hand went to his ear, scratch, scratch. "Was that a no?"
My emotions bubbled over, exploding in wide eyes, reaching, fumbling hands, grabbing his collar pulling him down to my eye level. Once more, eye to eye, connected by a string barely three inches long. I could smell his breath.
"Yes-No, um, wait, oh God," I'd hoped for something punchier. "I love you?"
He lit up like the sun. Pink spread across his cheeks, colouring skin that had been far too pale before. "Oh, oh thank God, Len." He grabbed me, arms wrapping around my being, squeezing, squeezing, pulling me into him. He was warm.
He was warm.
We stood there for a while, basking in each other's glow under the shade of the art block stairs. Swaying side to side like the leaves dancing on their branches, like the wind gently whispering by. He murmured something into my hair.
"Hm?" Opening my eyes, I looked up at him.
"Len?" Gentle blue eyes gazed down at me. "D'you wanna leave? Before someone sees us?"
I tightened my grip on him. "Hmm, take the bus to the train station with me. To Dover." Our bodies separated, but our hands remained attached. I squeezed, he squeezed back. I pulled away, just to be stopped by him grabbing my wrist.
"One last thing before we leave." He pulled me in, leaned down, and, and, and, lips against my cheek.
My faced bloomed with heat anew. Red radiated out from my left cheek, ground zero. He grinned at me, brighter than the poorly painted sunflowers behind him on the art room wall. I was tugged from my spot, by his hand on my wrist. I hadn't realised just how rooted in that ground I'd been until then.
We weaved through the school grounds, gliding over stairs, slipping over the overpass, smooth as silk. I felt like I was floating. We arrived at the bus stop and our bus was there, waiting. We boarded. A double-decker, sweet. Climbing up the stairs, feeling the jolt of the bus leaving the station, an empty upper deck. We slipped to the back. He took my hand in his, grabbing, firm yet gentle.
Our hands, intertwined, on his lap.
I leaned into his shoulder, he leaned into me, resting his head on top of mine. Light filtered through the bus windows, casting bright noon-light onto us, illuminating the two of us in the back of a double-decker bus.
Bus stops passed us by, trees and high-rise buildings breezing past us like nothing. Soon enough, the train station was barely three stops away.
"Kaito." He stirred by my side. "I kinda… want to stay like this, just a little longer."
Leaning back into me, he mumbled, "Yeah, this is nice."
The train station was just around the corner, the next stop. I breathed in deep, taking in the air around him one last time before we had to part. Then I breathed out, a long sigh that carried my light melancholy. He butted his head against mine, providing some semblance of reassurance, before we stood up, and descended the stairs. I held the handrail with a death grip, taking some of the strain off of my shaky legs.
We got to the station. One last goodbye. We tapped our cards, saw the other go up the stairs to the other side of the platform to take the opposite train. The inside of the train was cold.
It was going to be a long weekend.
howdy
i was possessed and i now have a oneshot thats actually of a decent length
i think im gonna disappear for another eight months before posting again bye yall