"You head back next week, don't you?" Yamamoto asked after a week into Gokudera's stay.
The other man nodded in reply. He hadn't gone to the main base since being in Namimori. Too much fear that he'd see him while unprepared. He'd do it today. He had that resolve. Today was as good a day as any other.
"I'll be going out today," Gokudera said.
"Again?" Yamamoto asked. "Where have you been going this whole time?"
Places where they used to be together. Just be. Looking at one another, exchanging subtle touches. He'd lie where they used to, sit there, stand there, be there again. In those moments that he savored so strongly that he could pretend he were in it again – perfectly fool himself into reliving old bliss.
"Just around," Gokudera said, sliding on his shoes. "Seeing our former classmates and stuff."
"Oh, I was hoping today we could watch the movie we rented," Yamamoto waved the movie case from where he sat. They had been all over town yesterday. Tried more desserts than Gokudera's ever had. Stopped by every store. Pointed out every funny moment that could be mistakenly seen like the plump woman picking at her panties when she thought no one was looking and the little boy who scraped his booger onto a fountain, giving them flashbacks of young Lambo.
"We will tomorrow," Gokudera said. "For sure."
"All right then," Yamamoto said with that goofy grin returning. "Tomorrow."
This lit up Gokudera's heart, but it was too crowded with thoughts of him to notice. With questions of what to say at their reunion. What to do. Shake hands or hug? Shaking hands would be too formal. To see their relationship reduced to that would rip Gokudera in two. But a hug. A hug would make him hope, wish, ponder of a reigniting passion, a relit flame. No, the flicker of infatuation that Yamamoto had set off would have to go ignored. Gokudera was about to go see him again.