It was raining very, very hard by the time Haru finished dropping Gou back home. She'd taken her umbrella with her and he was soaked right through to his skin the instant he'd stepped out from under Gou's umbrella.
Well. Mrs. Matsuoka had insisted on giving him tea first. But then he was soaked after that.
Haru walked home on his own, in silence. His school jumper was pressed against him with water and any warmth his body was producing was being quickly leached by the water.
His notebooks were going to be ruined. He sighed; the cloud of mist his breath left in the air was shattered by raindrops.
Haru was not going to take Gou's advice. He would wait it out with Makoto, he'd give him some time to himself for once. He stomped up the stairs to his house. Goodness knows Makoto needed it - he was never away from Haru's side even before they started kissing. And stuff.
It could actually help to talk to Makoto before he got into his silly habit of overthinking things, actually, but-
"Fuck!" Haruka yelled. A couple of his neighbours glared through their windows and Haruka yanked at his door. He'd forgotten his key, and the only person who had a key to his house were the Tachibanas.
Haru sighed again. So much for giving him space. Also, he was drenched and Mrs Tachibana was a mother hen, which meant Haru would be staying for dinner and his uniform being washed and dried.
A warm feeling spread through his body despite the cold.
He really did love the Tachibana family.
As predicted, Makoto's mother had opened the door and started fussing over him catching a cold immediately. She quickly threw a blanket around his shoulders and brought him tea while she bustled off to get some of Makoto's dry clothes for him to wear.
"Ren and Ran are at a club," she called from the other room, filling the quiet of the house with chatter. Haruka was sort of grateful. "So it's just me and Makoto until his father gets home. I hope he doesn't have any difficulty in this weather." she chuckled.
"Come to think of it, I hope Makoto doesn't have any difficulty. For such a big boy, he's scared of almost everything." Haru tensed at that and unfortunately, Mrs Tachibana noticed.
"What's wrong?" She asked. "Makoto hasn't been out of his room much and told me he wasn't well this morning. And you're quiet, even for you. Why, you haven't said a word yet!" she said, concerned. And indeed he hadn't. Haruka looked away, a little ashamed.
"Sorry." he mumbled. She smiled warmly at him - the same smile Makoto had, he noticed.
"You don't have to be, it's alright sweetheart." she ruffled his hair affectionately and patted his shoulder. Her hand was warm and Haru was cold, even in his dry clothes and blanket.
"Now tell me what happened. Did you have a fight?" she asked. Her brow creased in a tiny frown and Haru sighed quietly.
"Not exactly. We haven't actually..." Haru trailed off. Standing in the doorway was Makoto himself, dressed in a too-big hoodie and loose boxers. His hair was tousled and he honestly looked adorable but now wasn't exactly the time.
Mrs Tachibana just smiled again.
"Why don't you talk to Makoto instead, hm?" she questioned. She stood up and left the two boys in peace.
For a long moment there was only awkward silence and rain hammering on windows. Makoto looked tired, like he hadn't slept. Haruka hadn't either, but his face was focusing on "guilty" and "freezing" right now.
Green eyes bored holes straight through Haru. His eyes had always drooped down at the corners. It made him look friendly, approachable despite his intimidating height and build, but when he was tired and upset and his eyes were dull, they didn't look endearing at all. They just looked sad.
Haru couldn't stand it much longer and met Makoto's gaze.
"Makoto." he said. He kept his voice soft and quiet. "What have you been thinking?" he asked. The other boy sighed and ran his hand through his chlorine-stained hair.
"And stop standing about, come sit on the sofa. " Haru said, a little more firmly. Makoto obeyed, and sat a little way across from him. "Now answer my question. Please." he added as an afterthought.
Makoto waited a bit before taking a deep breath.
"I was just wondering if maybe you. Er. Got bored of me."
Haruka didn't try to reassure him and Makoto felt his throat aching. He opened his mouth to speak, but the other boy got there first.
"Makoto, shut up."
"Wh- what?"
"We've been stuck by each other for more than ten years, do you seriously think I'm bored of you because we started kissing?" Haruka asked. His eyebrows were raised and his head cocked to one side. Makoto looked away and fidgeted.
"But you and Aik-"
"No." Haru interrupted. "You saw that out of context and assumed the worst." Makoto gave a harsh laugh.
"What possible context could that have?" he asked. He sounded angry and upset, and it's not liek he didn't have a reason. Haruka sighed.
"Aiko was hiding in the locker rooms and cornered me because she's jealous." he said. Perhaps a little too tonelessly.
"Jealous of what?" Makoto narrowed his eyes at him and Haruka was tempted to groan and throw his hands in the air.
"You're sweet and gorgeous and kind but she's jealous because you're the one boy she can't have, and she wants a relationship like ours but all her boyfriends are douchebags. Because she dates the kids who get drunk and smoke cigarettes behind the Science block." Haru said bluntly. The two stared at each other for a moment.
"So you didn't want to kiss her?" Makoto said eventually. Haruka made a 'tch' noise and scowled.
"It was disgusting. Like being tongued by an ashtray."
Makoto started to chuckle, then it turned into a proper, hearty, belly laugh. Within minutes both of them were laughing hard, in total hysterics. It was like all the tension was being burnt off with the laughter and it felt wonderful.
They were still laughing when Haruka leaned over and pressed a kiss to Makoto's lips. Haruka was finding it slightly difficult to make out with him, as the two of them burst into fits of laughter every time their lips got close. Makoto didn't even notice when the thunder growled through. Laughter was definitely the best remedy for fear.
The next morning, Haruka woke on Makoto's sofa, tangled up in Makoto's arms and covered in a blanket that one of his parents must've draped over them at some point. The pair had been tired to start with, and the intense laughing workout combined with warm room and calming drumming of rain had lulled them both to sleep in the end.
They had remained there all night, and somehow managed to sleep all the way through until morning, despite Ren and Ran's attempts to wake them for dinner. Mr and Mrs Tachibana hadn't the heart to wake them.
Plus they were tangled up pretty tightly.
Anyway, Haruka woke up in Makoto's arms at about 6 o'clock in the morning. It was still dark outside, and from the silence in the house, nobody else was awake yet. Makoto's face was nuzzled into his hair and his arms were wrapped around Haru's waist. It was a little squashed, with both of them on the sofa, but it wasn't uncomfortable. These days, Haru tended to feel more comfortable sleeping with Makoto than without him.
Haruka slowly began to disentangle himself from his boyfriend's arms, and padded to the bathroom. His school uniform was hanging, warm and dry, on the door to Makoto's room and he knighted her in his head. Mrs Tachibana was a saint.
He ran his morning bath, stripped out of his borrowed clothes and jumped in, letting the warm water soothe away any awkward knots in his muscles from sleeping in such a strange position, but didn't soak for too long this morning. He jumped out again after soaking for just twenty minutes. Haru stole a pair of Makoto's slightly-too-big boxers, not having any of his own, and dressed quickly before heading into the kitchen and turning on the grill.
Makoto was woken by the smell of mackerel about 5 minutes later, and almost forgot that he was in his own house.
"Haru? What are you doing?" he asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes. Haru gave him a smile and waved him over. He slid the grilled, salted fish onto plates and gave one to Makoto.
"Mackerel, again?" he asked. "This isn't even your house!"
"I'm beginning to think scolding me for my choice of breakfast is part of your morning routine." Haruka said. Makoto grinned sheepishly and changed the subject.
"So you woke up early this morning?" he asked. Haruka nodded.
"Your bony chin was digging into my shoulder." he said.
"No it wasn't!" Makoto said indignantly. Haruka shrugged. Makoto laughed again, then looked away. "So, why did you come over last night? I expected you to keep your distance." he said. Haruka dropped his gaze and scowled at his fork.
"I forgot my keys." he said. Makoto's sagging posture straightened up slightly. "Can we forget about the whole thing? Like I said, it was like being tongued by an ashtray and it's not an experience I want to relive." he said.
Makoto just laughed, nodded and kissed him. "Come on," he said. "We should get ready for school before Ren and Ran start bouncing on us."
To cut short a long story, they failed that in favour of sloppy make-outs, and were nearly caught kissing. Mrs Tachibana was amused.
The boys did eventually manage to reach their school, and twenty minutes early! Miss Amakata had not arrived yet, and again, the only people in the room were Mori, Yuki, and Shinji.
"Hey, Nanase!" Shinji greeted. "You look a lot happier today!" he said with a grin. Yuki giggled.
"Shinji, he's got Makoto back with him again! Everyone looks happier with their best friends." she said. "Why don't you come over here with us, until the room fills up a bit? We've pretty much exhausted the topic of Mori's new favourite show." Yuki said, glaring pointedly at Mori, who turned bright red and looked away. Makoto chuckled and looked at Haru, asking if he wanted to go sit with them. Haru shrugged, and the two tugged chairs over to form a rough circle.
"So, how are you guys? We haven't really talked much but Nanase looked gloomy yesterday so we're curious." Mori said. Haruka looked away.
"We had a bit of an argument and Makoto stayed off school." he said shortly. Yuki, Mori and Shinji stared.
"Wait, you guys argued?" Mori asked.
"What? You're literally joined at the hip, how could you argue?" Shinji said, astonished.
"It can't have affected their friendship that much though." said Yuki. "They're still sat as close as ever."
She wasn't lying - Makoto and Haruka had picked up the habit, over the years, of sitting with their chairs so close that their knees would touch. Haruka felt himself growing annoyed - why did people always talk like he wasn't there?
"They don't sit that close, do they? I mean we're sat close too!" said Mori.
"We're sat close because we're dating, Mori." said Yuki. "I'm pretty sure Nanase and Tachibana are only friends!"
Now Haru felt the urge to laugh.
"This is pointless," Shinji stated dryly. "Who gives a damn? Anyway-" he never got to finish his sentence because a small, blonde tornado exploded through the door, making everyone yelp.
"Hey Mako-chan, Haru-chan!" the tornado cried.
"Nagisa?" Makoto asked. The tornado nodded and grinned.
"You both left swim practice really fast last night and I didn't have time to tell you that the teachers are gonna have a disco!" he chirped.
"You- what?" Shinji asked.
"Mmhm! It's charity week so the school is gonna have a disco to raise money for whatever." Nagisa said. "I know neither of you would want to go, but Gou-chan said we have to, and we have swim practice just before anyway, so we might as well go. Anyway, Rei-chan is still outside and I stole his umbrella, so bye!"
He crashed out of the room again and Haruka could hear Rei yelling as Nagisa presumably charged into him. There was a moment of silence.
"What just happened?" Mori asked.
"That was Nagisa. He does that." Makoto chuckled. "So there's a disco?"
"Yeah, Miss Amakata is probably going to tell us in registration." said Yuki. "Mori, do you want to go?" The boy nodded. Makoto looked at Haruka.
"We probably should. If we don't, Nagisa is going to slaughter us. " Haruka said glumly. Makoto laughed and prodded Haru in the side.
"Oh come on, you know that's not true!" he said, but then paused. "Yeah, we should go."
"I don't want to. But let's go back to our seats." Haru said. Makoto nodded and moved to the back of the room just as more students started to file in.
Haruka was leaning on his hand as usual, watching the rain, but he felt warmer than he usually did. He felt pretty warm around Makoto anyway, but today was a bit different. It wasn't just his face and neck heating up, it was like a glow radiating from the inside out. Perhaps he was actually glowing - a few students were turning around to look at them. A couple of girls looked a little disappointed that Makoto was reading poetry and Haruka was staring again. What did they expect them to be doing?
Haruka realised exactly what they expected the cause of the glow to be about five seconds later, and his face went violently red. It didn't quite wear off by the time Miss Amakata walked in.
"What's that, Nanase-san?" she asked, laughing. "You look like a beetroot! Have you been embarrassed?"
Of course, the entire classroom turned around to look at him, including Makoto. He kept staring out the window, but it seemed to go redder the longer he pretended it wasn't. A few chuckles passed through the room, but Miss Amakata rapped her knuckles on the desk.
"Anyway, I have a few notices before we take the register. The first is that the school is having a disco to raise funds for charity, so there will be refreshments and snacks available for purchase, you know the drill. We'd like it if you'd all come so we can raise the most funds possible, but attendance isn't compulsory." she said. "Also, the third floor corridor in the Science block is out of bounds to all students who do not wish to…" Haruka started to block her out after that, racing two raindrops down the pane of glass.
Six hours later, Haruka was still blocking people out.
"Haru, come on, we have to go to the disco!" Makoto said exasperatedly. Haru scowled. "Haru." he said in a warning tone.
"No."
"Nagisa will humiliate you if you don't." he said. Haruka snorted.
"He'll humiliate me if I do." he replied. He lifted his head up off Makoto's bed just long enough to show Makoto that he was, indeed, rolling his eyes.
"I will drag you."
"Will you?"
"Nagisa will drag you."
"..."
"Nanase Haruka."
"...Ok, I'm putting my goddamn clothes on." Haruka grumbled. Makoto laughed and pulled out a pair of jeans and a blue plaid shirt. Makoto himself was wearing a rather tight black t-shirt, a white jacket, and jeans. Haru surveyed him and nodded.
"You look good." he said.
"According to you, I always look good." Makoto laughed. "Get dressed, Nagisa is waiting outside."
There was a shout from outside.
"You bet I am! So stop flirting and get out here!"
Makoto went beet red and Haru chuckled, now fully dressed. The jeans were dark and tight around his legs and butt. Damn.
The two left Makoto's bedroom and walked out into the living room, where Nagisa and Rei were waiting.
"Hey, you actually managed to get Rei into normal clothes." Haruka said. Nagisa laughed and strangled the two in a bearhug.
"Let's just go, we're going to be late! Come on Rei-chan!" he said. The blonde skipped out the door, dragging Rei by the arm. The night air was cool and Haruka bitched the whole way to the school.
"He's going to drag us into some stupid party game." he grumbled. Makoto ruffled Haruka's hair.
"It won't be that bad, come on!" he said. Haruka just scowled and flattened his hair back down, causing Makoto to laugh. They linked their hands until they got to the school building.
The school's assembly hall had been cleared of chairs, a few tables scattered round the edges of the the room to sit at, and to sell refreshments. Music and light systems had been set up an there was a karaoke machine remaining untouched in the corner, away from the crowd of students dancing to some Kyary song. Outside, on the grass, some groups of students sat talking away from the sticky disco, playing games, talking, and a few couples kissing.
Makoto glanced at Haruka; he hated crowds. He showed no outward signs of discomfort, however apart from a slight twitch of his eyebrow which just said "really?"
"Music sure is terrible, huh?" Makoto laughed. Haru nodded and smiled slightly. "C'mon, lets go and get something to drink. Do you want lemonade?"
Haru nodded again and the two entered the hall. They paid for their entrance fee and were just paying for their drinks (and a small bag of hard sweets) when Shinji from their homeroom tapped Makoto on the shoulder.
"Dude, you guys showed up after all!" he shouted over the music. "Me and Hikari had a bet, and I win!" Makoto just looked baffled.
"Fuck!" groaned a short person stood next to Shinji. Hikari handed over 500 yen and Shinji grinned.
"So, do you wanna come outside? They're playing dares and spin the bottle, it'll be fun!"
"I don't think we really sh-" Makoto began, but was cut off by Nagisa.
"Bah! Spoilsports! Come on!" he yelled and dragged Shinji, Makoto, Haruka and Hikari out with him.
Outside, a group of many other students was sat in a pretty wide circle.
"New recruits?" One girl, Kirimi asked. Nagisa grinned and nodded.
"Hey, how did you rope those two into it?" another kid asked, gesturing to Makoto and Haruka. The two stood awkwardly in their spaces, like they weren't sure if they should sit down. Yuki patted the grass beside her and they sat cross-legged on the ground, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Nagisa is going to blackmail us if we don't." Haruka muttered. Everyone laughed.
"Ok, so!" Kirimi cried, jumping to her feet. "The rules are; starting from Nagisa and going round clockwise, we each spin the bottle to choose who we truth or dare!" she said. Makoto sighed slightly, relieved. This way there was less chance of being asked to do anything.
Nagisa grabbed the bottle and spun it eagerly. The end stopped, pointing at a small girl with long red braids, Sayaka.
"Dare." Sayaka said with a grin. Nagisa grinned back maliciously.
"Uh... Ten press-ups!" he cried. Sayaka's face fell and he laughed. Fortunately, Sayaka completed the press ups with minimal difficulty, and spun the bottle again. It landed on Mori, who had to sing the chorus of PonPonPon. It was embarrassing, to say the least.
Makoto and Haruka thought they would get to the end of the game without being picked, but things never work out that way. Nagisa span the bottle and it ended up pointing straight at Makoto, whose face fell like a pair of hilariously plummeting pants. Haruka just laughed, until he saw Nagisa's face.
"Nagisa-kun! I don't know what you're thinking, but I've got one!" Rei called. He darted across the circle to whisper in Nagisa's ear and Nagisa nodded.
"Just what I was thinking!" he said. "Okay, Mako-chan!"
Here he paused to create suspense. It was working - Makoto looked terrified.
"You have to kiss Haru-chan on the mouth." he announced. There was some intense giggling and several female gasps from around the circle.
Makoto and Haruka touched gazes for a second. Both their cheeks were pink-tinged, but Haruka gave the tiniest nod - so tiny that it was possible no-one else noticed.
Makoto took Haruka's chin in his hand gently, and leaned down to lock their lips together. Haru's lips were soft and warm and tasted like lemonade and salt. Whoops and whistles began running round the outside of the circle, and there was definitely at least two kids grumbling about lost bets.
Makoto took no notice. He pulled Haru onto his lap, kissing him more passionately, momentarily forgetting about the crowd around them.
"Mako-chan, a dry peck on the lips would've sufficed!" Nagisa called. Makoto froze, went red, and pulled away hurriedly.
"Gaaaaaay." Hikari laughed. Makoto attempted to slide Haru off his lap, chuckling nervously, but Haru captured his lips again. Shit.
Yuki squeaked, sounding slightly delighted.
"Oh my god, dude! Spin the bottle already! Or are you giving your turn to someone else?" Hikari interrupted. Makoto shrugged.
"You can have it." he said. Hikari grinned and took the bottle, then threw it straight at Haruka, to many people's amusement.
"I'm choosing truth for you. So the other day, this one girl asked you out, right?" Hikari said. Haru nodded. "You said you couldn't, because that would be cheating on someone."
Haruka nodded again.
"Was that someone him?" Hikari asked, a sly smile creeping onto their face and jerked a thumb towards Makoto. Haruka went scarlet and looked to the side.
"Tachibana, translate that into Japanese please." Shinji said. Makoto chuckled and nodded. He grasped Haruka's hand gently, subtly and helped him stand up.
"Ok, we're about done here." he laughed nervously. "C'mon Haru. Do you want to get something to eat?"
"I'm okay. Let's go anyway." Haru said. He led Makoto off, making their hand holding very obvious, and walked with him up to the school building, ignoring a few teenage catcalls. Makoto expected to walk inside and find Rei and Gou, but instead he was pushed against a wall.
"I'm actually kind of glad everyone knows, now." Haru chuckled. "I can do this now." he said, and kissed Makoto.
(A/N) So yeah. I haven't updated in a while.
I'm really sorry for that, guys! To make it up to you I made sure to put lots of kissing and boyfriendy stuff in this chapter. But yeah I've had a lot of tests lately, and also, I'm doing NaNoWriMo!
Yeah me, Julchen and Kokololo are writing a story for NaNo and we're massively behind word count. It hasn't got a name but the plot of it is:
Edward Riddley was not an average 17 year old, and didn't he know it. Sent from America to live with his aunt in England due to his "hallucinations." These hallucinations happen to be the lingering spirits of the dead.
About a month in to his stay in England he finds a slightly unusual girl in his pantry. Things get weirder from there on out, and Edward ends up homeless, following a witch to find and kill someone who's been causing trouble for centuries. The whole thing would be much easier if he didn't keep running into the sorts of people you only hear about in children's tales.
ANYWAY. Happy birthday to Makoto, blah blah. FFN messed with my careful formatting :( so if it looks a bit weird, blame FFN. Also, please review! Reviews give me ideas and stuff. So do that please 3 thanks!
