Author's Note: I just binged all of Sk8 Infinity and I'm a hugeee shipper of MatchaBlossom. (The song Cherry Blossoms by Dream Hotel has been playing on repeat for days.) However, I couldn't help but notice the sexual tension between Kaoru and Ainosuke during the flashbacks we get of them in high school, which leads me to this story... In my mind, this is exactly what happened when they were in high school. This is the explanation for the Adam/Cherry sexual tension.
It was supposed to be a one-shot but turned into a multi-chapter fic. Um... oops?
(Content Warning for this story: Implied Abuse, Mentions of Suicide)
The spike of adrenaline and flutter of the heart that came from skating with his best friends was all Kojiro ever wanted. And it was always the three of them: Kaoru, Adam, and himself. Laughing, skating, joking around– it was always the three of them, living a life beyond all logical sense. While other kids studied, partied, or thought about their futures, these three lived and breathed skateboarding.
Kojiro didn't ever want things to change. High school wasn't going to last forever, he knew that– but maybe these moments could.
The hard part about life is you never know when your last day before everything changes is going to be. In the present moment, it's always just another day. When you start the morning, you are never warned to cherish the last day before your world falls apart. Kojiro wished there would have been some sort of warning, a sign– he wished that he would have known to appreciate skating with his friends that afternoon under the bridge a little more. But life is not so kind as to offer such warnings.
The day began like any other day. And after school let out, the skaters met under the bridge like they would any other evening. But this time, while Kojiro was practicing a new move, he noticed that Kaoru and Adam were standing a ways away at the waterfront fence, talking. That wasn't entirely uncommon, but this time there was a certain energy, a certain tension that seemed… private, almost?
Kojiro picked up his board, but the two other men didn't react. Something serious was happening, but Kojiro wasn't a part of it– it was almost as if they had forgotten he was there. And their boards were lying haphazardly on the ground beside them, as if they had been dropped and forgotten. What were they talking about that was serious enough to mindlessly throw their boards to the ground? That wasn't like them.
From the distance, Kojiro saw Adam take a step towards Kaoru. Just as quickly as that distance between them had been closed, the blue-haired boy had placed his lips firmly on the pink-haired boy's own lips. Kaoru's gold eyes closed and his hand raised to softly caress Adam's cheek.
Clank.
Kojiro felt his board slip from his hand and heard the wheels slowly carry the board away, but he couldn't move.
He now understood the idea of a board being cast aside.
He now understood how quickly things could change.
He now understood why his heart fluttered when Kaoru smiled at him in the same way his heart fluttered when he skated with his friends.
He now understood the tension he sensed any time Kaoru and Adam made eye contact for half a second too long, and why he always felt a wave of jealousy whenever it happened.
Kojiro Nanjo now understood his true feelings, but it was clearly too late.
Fuck, why was his vision blurring? He reached up to rub his eyes but felt something wet. Oh. Those were tears.
He turned, quickly finding where his board had rolled off to and hopping on it. He had to get home quickly. He couldn't be here any longer. But skating felt different when you were skating away from the people you had always skated relentlessly and fearlessly towards. It was different when you were trying to skate away from your emotions, away from your hurt.