Chapter 1 - Interlude

A man fell in love with a woman. They dated. They kissed. They hugged. They touched places on eachother no one had ever touched, on their bodies and in their hearts. They laughed. They played. They fought. They apologized. They married. They gave each other love and happiness and the passion only the gentle light of the moon had ever known. The passion gave them a beautiful son and when the boy grew into a man, his heart seemed to wake from a long slumber. The man fell in love with a woman, and so the cycle began again.

"I love you."

Haruka wasn't sure if he'd missed a step in the process, or just been born completely outside of it. He'd thought on several occasions, if only his parents had married for love and not money, maybe he wouldn't be this way. Maybe if he had been born from the passion of lovers under a starlit night sky, he too would have grown into love the way everyone else did.

"That's gross!"

As far back as elementary school, Haruka had sealed himself away.

"…What?"

There was something so fundamental about the way everyone around him thought, something so innate that no one had ever bothered to give it a name. Something unspoken, perhaps it was a feeling more than a thought. Something, whatever it was, Haruka did not have.

"Boys can't love each other! Don't be gross."

Or maybe he was just too lazy to care. Maybe he was just too stupid. Maybe he was too afraid. Maybe he was too ugly. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe he'd ruined himself, somehow, some way. He'd done this to himself. No one made any sense to him and he was broken.

"There's more than one kind of love."

He avoided speaking because he had nothing worth sayin. He kept to himself because he was the only one around him who made any sense. He played alone because playing meant nothing to him. He ate alone because no one wanted to sit with the kid who wouldn't talk. Haruka didn't mind, he didn't want to be around them anyway.

"Teacher! Nanase is saying he wants to do naughty things to me!"

But it was boring and, he had to admit, painfully lonely. The laughter around his classroom at lunch grated on his every nerve. Paper airplanes and chalkboard doodles and squeaky wet sneakers and simple, comfortable conversation all made Haruka's stomach roil. He hated it. He hated all of them. All of them except for Makoto, of course.

"No, I said I love you, but I take it back now."

As far back as he could remember, Makoto had been the one person Haruka could stand to talk to. He was a shy, gentle soul. He babbled on and on about nothing in particular, miraculously allowing Haruka the conversational space to respond while also comfortably filling the silence Haruka left between them. When Makoto talked, Haruka didn't feel so confused. When Makoto laughed, Haruka didn't feel so broken. When Makoto smiled, Haruka didn't feel so alone.

Author's notes-

The conversation going on in bold there is one that actually happened to me. I told a girl I'd love her even if no one else wanted to sit with her and she got so offended and said I was so gross, she seriously sounded like she was loosing her mind over it. That conversation has never made sense to me.

I won't be updating this on any schedule, but the chapters are averaging 500-600 words, so it'll probably be fairly often. The next chapter is also MakoHaru centric and will be uploaded in a couple minutes haha.

It aggravates me to no end that I have to label this fic as romance and friendship. I mean, it's not exactly wrong, but it's not entirely true either.

-FoxyGrampaGlasses