Sawamura runs until he rams right into the very person who's causing all this distress.
"Watch where you're-oh it's just you." Upon recognizing him, Miyuki smirks. "Where are you headed to in such a hurry?"
Sawamura, breathing heavy, doesn't reply.
"Anyway, I just looking for you. There's still some time before dinner if you wanna-"
"Is it true?" Sawamura says between breaths.
"Is what? Sawamura, are you okay? You look a little pale." Miyuki moves forward, probably to comfort him or something, as Sawamura steps back.
"You and that white-haired bastard. Were you more than childhood friends? Did you-Did you used to go out with him?"
Miyuki hesitates, and that tells him all he needs to know.
Sawamura looks at him, distraught. "He was right. You were lying to me."
"He? Mei said something to you, didn't he?" Miyuki says flatly.
"I defended you and he was right."
"Look, Sawamura, I don't know what Mei told you but-"
"He told me the truth! And I didn't believe him, because I told myself I could trust you!"
"It wasn't like I was hiding it! I was just...waiting for the right time to tell you."
"I asked you about him, and you told me he was your friend. You said it was nothing!" Sawamura's voice raises.
"He is my friend! Look, this doesn't have to be a big deal. I'm really sorry I didn't tell you. You're right to be angry with me. You should've heard it from me first. But I want you to know there's nothing between me and Mei. That's all in the past." He reaches a hand out. "Sawamura, please."
Sawamura slaps his hand away. "If it wasn't a big deal you wouldn't have hid it!" he yells, and his voice echoes throughout the hallway. Then he deflates. "Sorry, I didn't mean to...just leave me alone. I need to be alone."
Sawamura can see Miyuki's heart breaking in two, but he can't take back his words now. He needs some time to sort out his thoughts, at least for today. He moves past him and runs ahead, vaguely hearing Miyuki's voice calls after him. He doesn't stop until he gets to the common room.
He bursts in, causing everyone to stop and stare at him. Sawamura blocks everyone's gazes and keeps walking. He's almost to the dorms when Haruichi stops him.
"Eijun-kun, are you okay? Did something happen?" Haruichi says, looking at him worriedly.
All he replies with is, "Don't let Miyuki come to the dorms. Tell him that I-I need some time to think." Without leaving room for question, Sawamura trudges up to the fifth-year dorms.
Haruichi turns to Furuya and says, "I'm gonna go with Eijun-kun. Make sure Miyuki-senpai gets that message." Furuya nods his head and Haruichi runs up after Sawamura.
A few minutes later Miyuki storms in, not stopping until he sees Furuya blocking the way to the fifth-year dorms.
"Move, Furuya."
"No." Furuya replies simply. Even the cat agrees, as it growls at Miyuki.
"I'm not joking. Move!" He tries to push past Furuya, but Furuya stops him.
"No. I don't know what happened, but Sawamura wants to be alone. Let him be alone." Furuya and Miyuki stare at each other for a few seconds. All conversation has ceased and watches the pair.
Finally, Miyuki turns around walks right out of the common room without another word. The conversation turns to what that was all about and how the Golden Couple might be in trouble. Kuramochi just shakes his head.
"What is it, You-chan?" Ryousuke asks.
"It's nothing just...I hate it when I'm right."
Kazuya has never been this furious in his life. All he knows as he storms out of the common room is that he's getting into the Slytherin common room, even if he has to break the door down.
He can still see wounded look in Sawamura's eyes and hear the sad tone in his voice as he says he wants to be alone. The memory intensifies his anger and quickens his feet, until he's right in front of the painting that leads to the Slytherin common room.
"Password." The woman in the painting says curtly.
"I need to speak with someone in there. Let me in."
"Password."
"I don't have the password. I won't be in there too long, I just really need to talk to someone in there. Please, let me in."
"Password."
"Forget the damn password!" Kazuya explodes. "I need to talk to Mei, and a painting isn't going to stop me from doing that."
"I'd refrain from speaking as if you have any right to enter, young Gryffindor." the painting says cooly. "If I blacklist you as an intruder, I'll do a lot worse than send you off with a warning."
Kazuya clenches his fists. Before he can do something stupid the bell rings for dinner. Shaking his head, he turns around and heads to the dining hall, glad for the interruption. He realizes that charging ahead in a fit of anger isn't going to work against Mei. Mei knows how to get out of slippery situations and how to change a person's point of view. If Kazuya's going to deal with him he has to be smart about it.
As the Slytherins file out their common room they all clamor about what that commotion was. They hadn't heard the painting argue with someone loud enough to be heard through the door for some time now. Shirakawa looks at Mei's smiling face suspiciously.
"What are you smiling about?" With Mei a smile rarely ever means something good.
"What, am I not allowed to be happy?" he responds innocently.
"Your happiness always comes at the cost of another's misfortune." It was one of the things he liked about Mei.
"You're so mean, Shirakawa! I was just thinking, Kazuya's become so much more passionate lately, you know?"
Shirakawa almost stops in his tracks. "Miyuki? What's Miyuki got to do with anything? Don't tell me you back together with him again."
"No, I haven't." Mei's smiles gets wider. "Not yet, anyway."
Shirakawa falls silent. He's decided to wash his hands of the whole Miyuki-Narumiya situation ever since he realized that everyone else is a toy to Mei, compared to Kazuya. Why Mei would like stuck up, arrogant bastard like Kazuya is beyond him, but it's none of his business anyway. It's one less headache to deal with.
Meanwhile at the Gryffindor table, everyone is hyper-aware of Sawamura's absence at dinner. Sawamura would never ever voluntarily skip a meal, which makes it clear that something is very, very wrong.
"Is Sawamura okay?" Toujou asks Haruichi.
Haruichi blushes at all the sudden attention from the people around him. "I don't know. He and Miyuki-senpai had a big fight, and I think he's still recovering from it." As if on cue, their attention shifts to the dark aura shadowing the other end of the table.
"Poor Sawamura-kun! It must hurt to fight with the person you love the most." Haruno says, head filled with maybe one too many shoujo mangas. She turns to her friends. "We should bring Sawamura-kun something back from dinner. To feed his aching heart!" Her friends nod eagerly.
"Um, anyway," Haruichi continues. "I'm sure he'll be fine. It's Eijun-kun, after all. He'll be back to normal in a few days."
Everyone murmurs in agreement. They couldn't imagine Sawamura being down in the dumps for so long.
At the other end of the table, no one dares to ask Kazuya what happened. The dark aura around him is so tangible it almost makes it hard to breathe. Kuramochi stares at Kazuya silently before opening his mouth to speak, only to be cut off.
"Don't, Kuramochi. I don't need you to tell how much I've screwed up. Believe me, I know."
Kuramochi turns away. "If you know then fix it. I won't forgive you if you hurt Sawamura like all those other people."
"Understood." Kazuya replies grimly. He gets up and heads to the dorms. It's not like he had much of an appetite anyway.
He rolls back and forth in bed, trying to will himself to fall asleep. Finally, he gives up and faces the ceiling. His head is filled with thoughts of Sawamura. Sawamura, the idiot. Sawamura, the spirit of the team, the spirit of Gryffindor even. Sawamura, his boyfriend. Or ex-boyfriend maybe, because how much he managed to screw up.
He thought that if he kept Sawamura and Mei completely separate from each other he'd be able to stop this relationship from falling apart like all of the others. Instead, the same thing happened and this time it was partly his fault too. Or maybe it's always been partly his fault. After all, Mei has been doing this for a while, as he's discovered recently. Even after Kazuya found out he never said anything. Why didn't I ever say anything? Kazuya thinks. Reaching deep, deep down inside himself, he comes up with the answer. And once he does he sits up straight in bed. He knows what he needs to do.
Predictably, Mei avoids him for a couple of days. He waits for Mei to come out the classroom at the end of the day and grabs his wrist as he tries to keep walking.
"Running away, Mei?"
Mei grins at him. "Why would I do that? I've been waiting to talk to you all day."
They end up back at the same empty hallway. Unlike last time, Kazuya has no interest in beating around the bush. "What did you say to Sawamura?"
"What makes you think I said anything to him?"
Kazuya sighs. "It's pretty easy to guess what you said from his reaction, but I want to hear it from you."
Mei puts his hands up. "Okay, you caught me. I couldn't figure out why you would date someone like that, so I decided to talk to him and find out. I didn't realize you never told him we used to go out and it came up. He got really upset and left. That's all, I swear."
Everything Mei said is probably true. It just isn't the full story, and Kazuya knows it. He's watched Mei do this with other people, using half-truths and deceptive words to convince them of whatever he's saying. He never thought Mei would use it on him.
"Mei, I know. I know that you say things to people I'm dating, and that these things lead to them breaking up with me."
"Kazuya I-"
"You can deny it all you want, I won't believe you. I'd have to be stupid not wonder why I'm always getting dumped. Not to mention I've seen you doing it." He could never forget that day last year, when he saw Mei and his then-girlfriend talking, his girlfriend looking incredibly upset and storming off. The next day, she broke up with him. It was easy to connect the dots.
"I wasn't going to deny it." Mei says to Kazuya's surprise. "You have to understand, I do it for you."
"For me?"
Mei steps closer. "Yes, for you. We're friends, right? So as a good friend I want you to be with someone who deserves to be with you. If all it takes is a few words to send someone running, you wouldn't want to be with them anyway." Mei wraps his arms around Kazuya's neck. "I know I wouldn't run away because of a few words. I just want you to be happy, Kazuya." Mei moves his face closer, till their lips are almost inches apart.
"The thing is, Mei," Kazuya speaks up, pushing Mei back to an appropriate distance. "I don't think you do. Or at least, I don't think you want me to be happy if it's not with you."
Mei looks stricken. "How could you say that?"
"Because it's true."
"Kazuya-"
"Listen up, Mei. I've known that you've been doing this since last year and I still let happen. It took me till last night to even think about exactly why I let it happen." He looks Mei dead in the eyes. "But I figured it out. The truth is, I resigned myself to the fact that nobody would love me more than you. You said it right? If someone really liked me, they wouldn't leave so easily because of a few words. Now I realize by giving up so easily and going back to you, I was proving exactly what you said, whatever you said to them. I realized that I was prepared to do this same cycle with you over and over again, because what I felt for all those people didn't compare to what I felt for you. Then I met Sawamura."
Mei narrows his eyes. "I don't get it. What's so special about that idiot Seeker?"
"It'd be easier if I could tell you that. All I know is, ever since I've been with him my life has been pretty exciting. Even when he's being an idiot he makes me so happy, it almost scares me. It scares me to think that I might be in love with him." Mei sucks in his breath sharply. "I was a coward, trying to keep the two of you away from each instead of approaching the issue." He laughs sadly. "Now he won't even talk to me."
"Sawamura makes me braver. That's why this time I'm gonna fight for this relationship." he continues. "Mei, you've been my best friend ever since we were kids. When my mom died and my dad got distant, you were the only one who was there for me. I haven't forgotten that. I don't want to lose you, but I don't think we're good as anything more than friends. If you can't handle friendship, then I'll respect that and keep my distance. But you can't keep chasing off the people I like. I won't forgive you if you do it again. So, the decision is yours."
Mei tries to keep his voice from shaking. "You really love him, then?"
Kazuya nods. "I think I do."
It's silent for a while. Mei stares into Kazuya's eyes, trying to gauge how serious he is. He sees there's nothing hesitant or indecisive about Kazuya's gaze. He's serious about this.
Mei looks away. "I don't want to lose you either, Kazuya. So I guess...I guess I'll try to be a better friend."
"Prove it. Tell Sawamura the truth."
Mei hesitates, then nods. "Okay."
Kazuya grins. "Thanks, Mei." Saying everything he needed to say Kazuya departs with a goodbye and walks down the hallway with purpose. After all, there's still one more thing he needs to do.
Only after Kazuya turns the corner does Mei allow the tears to run down his face. "Even if you don't believe me, I'm glad you're happy, Kazuya. Even if it's not with me."
Wiping his face, Mei walks down the hallway with a new sense of purpose as well.
Sawamura slumps down into his seat at breakfast. He ignores the worried glances being sent his way and takes a few tentative bites of his eggs.
"How are you feeling this morning, Eijun-kun?" Haruichi asks, careful not to upset Sawamura.
It makes Sawamura sad. It's not like he wants everyone walking on eggshells around him. He plasters on a smile and says, "I feel fine, Harucchi. Sorry for worrying you guys."
The smile is obviously fake, but Haruichi tries to forge ahead . "U-Um, have you talked to Miyu-"
"Harucchi, can I see your Herbology homework? I forgot to do it last night." Sawamura says, cutting in smoothly.
Haruichi sighs and says, "Okay, let me grab it out of my bag." Eijun-kun still isn't ready to talk about it, I guess. Haruichi thinks. When he followed Sawamura up the dorms a couple days ago Sawamura said the bare minimum. He kept repeating that he was fine and that he and Miyuki had a fight and that he just wanted to be alone. It's definitely clear now that Sawamura is less than fine. Whatever happens, he hopes that Sawamura and Miyuki work it out. Sawamura always looks happier when he's with Miyuki(when they're not yelling at each other, that is).
Haruichi looks up. "Isn't that your owl, Eijun-kun?" Because of all the technology advancements, owl usage has lessened considerably over the years. After all, it's easier to send a text than write a letter. However, sending texts between the Wizarding world and Muggle world is still a little iffy, so most half-bloods still have owls.
Sawamura looks up as well. "It must be my mom. She's probably gonna nag me about my grades again!"
Sawamura's owl drops an envelope on the table and lands on Sawamura's shoulder. "Good job, Ryuu!" He pets the owl gently.
After Ryuu takes off he opens the letter. After reading the first line he drops his fork and stands up abruptly.
"Is everything alright?" Haruichi asks.
Sawamura puts on another fake smile. "Yep, everything is fine! Harucchi, Furuya, I'm gonna head straight to Charms."
"What? But you haven't even finished your breakfast!"
"I'm not hungry. I'll see you guys later!" He dashes away before he can be questioned even further.
Despite his best efforts to ignore him, he feel Miyuki's burning gaze follow him all the way out the dining hall.
When he gets far enough he slides down the hallway wall. Hands shaking, he opens the letter again, this time reading it fully. It read: Sawamura, I know you don't want to speak to me, so I wrote you a letter instead. I know that I really messed up, lying to you about Mei. I could try explain why I was lying for the right reasons or that I had the best intentions, but I know you won't listen to that. So I'm gonna say this instead. Sawamura, I'm not giving up on this. On us. I understand that you want space, so I'll leave you alone. Whenever you wanna talk, I'll be there. You can trust me on that. I'll wait as long as it takes. Miyuki ends the note on that, not even signing his name.
The letter almost makes Sawamura laughs. For such a cool person Miyuki can be really dramatic sometimes. It sounds like a letter from a overseas soldier, not a teenage boy. More than making him laugh the letter also makes his chest feel tight. He keeps reading that last over and over again: I'll wait as long as it takes. Now he feels more lost than before.
He keeps telling himself that it's not a big deal that Miyuki didn't tell him about his and Narumiya's relationship. But every time he thought that a voice in his head, Narumiya's voice, said Think of what else he could be lying to you about. Could it be true? Could Miyuki really still be in love with Narumiya? No! Sawamura shakes his head. If he's still in love with Narumiya, why would he send Sawamura this letter? Miyuki even says that he's not giving up on this relationship. That means that he's the one Miyuki likes, right? Then why did he lie about Narumiya? If there's really nothing between them then it wouldn't have been a big deal to tell him, right? Sawamura puts his head in his hands. Thinking about all of this is making his head hurt.
"Eijun-kun?"
Sawamura looks up to see Haruichi and Furuya towering over him. "Oh, it's you guys. What are you doing here?"
"Breakfast just ended." Furuya tells him. Sawamura notices that more people are in the hallway and headed to their classes.
"I thought you were going to Charms?" Haruichi says in that worried tone he's been using a lot lately.
"I am going to Charms! I was just...waiting for you guys!" He stands up with dignity. "Let's go. The professor will kill us if we're late."
"I wonder if he'll ever go back to normal?" Haruichi thinks out loud as they watch Sawamura stomp down the hallway.
"It's Sawamura. He was never normal." Furuya replies.
Haruichi smiles at him and they both speed up to catch with Sawamura.
In class, Sawamura remembers that night he and Miyuki snuck out, before everything went downhill. Miyuki asked him if he liked him, and even now his answer still remains the same. As mad as he is at Miyuki he still really, really likes him. I meant it when I said that my feelings would never change, Sawamura thinks. But what am I supposed to do if your feelings change, Miyuki? I don't think I could handle watching you and that guy be together. All in all, it comes down to how strongly he feels about Miyuki.
So he thinks about it.
He thinks about it during class. He thinks about it during lunch. He thinks about it during Quidditch practice. He thinks about as he runs laps as punishment for thinking about it during Quidditch. He thinks about it for a couple of days, and he knows what he's gonna do.
He needs to talk to Miyuki.
He's talking to Kuramochi when he feels someone tap his shoulder. He turns around, and the shock leaves him at a loss for words.
"We need to talk." Sawamura says, not looking at him.
Kazuya nods and follows him out of the room.
They go outside and Kazuya finds his voice. "Sawamura, I-"
"Wait, Miyuki. Let me say what I need to say, alright?
He clenches his fists and says, "Okay." Because he told himself he was gonna play by Sawamura's rules, even if he didn't like it. Still, a part of him is deathly afraid that Sawamura's about to break up with him. He doesn't know how he'll begin to recover from that, so he prays that Sawamura is willing to hear him out.
Sawamura takes a deep breath. "First off, I'm not as big of an idiot as you think I am. I don't believe everything that guy told me, but he was right about you hiding something from me. Once he was right about that, I couldn't stop thinking that everything else he was saying might be true too. It really hurt to think you might be using me or something."
Kazuya feels like he has to say something. "It's not-"
"Let me say this! I decided that...that I don't care!"
"What?" He can't believe what he's hearing.
"I mean, of course I care!Wait, I'm not saying this right." Kazuya knows this isn't exactly the right time, but he can't help but think about how cute Sawamura's flustered expression is. "I like you a lot, Miyuki! I just want you to be happy! So if you're completely, a hundred percent in love with that white-haired bastard, then you should be with him. But if you're not a hundred percent, then I think-I think you should stay with me. Maybe it's different for you, but I've been really happy since we started dating. I don't know, whatever you wanna-what the hell are you doing?"
Kazuya envelopes Sawamura in a tight hug. "Can I say something now?"
"S-Sure."
"You know, no one's ever said anything like that to me before," he says, holding Sawamura closer. "Only you."
"Well, sorry." Sawamura pouts.
"Don't apologize. That's what I like about you. I like you, Sawamura. I'm not using you or anything like that. I haven't thought of Mei like that in a long time, ever since I met you. If you're asking me to make a choice, I choose you."
Sawamura pulls back a little to stare at him. "Are you sure?"
"Positive."
Sawamura's eyes brighten and he pulls Kazuya back in for another hug. Kazuya tightens his arms around him and thinks about how long it's been since they were this close. It feels like it's been forever. I almost thought I lost this. Never again.
"I really missed you, idiot." Sawamura says.
Kazuya chuckles softly. "I missed you too." Don't you get it, Sawamura? I love you. He's too much of a coward to say it. Being by Sawamura's side, though, he knows he'll be able to say it one day.
Sawamura pulls back again. "Don't lie to me, alright? I'll be seriously pissed if you do this again."
"Don't worry, I won't. The only reason I lied this was because I thought it'd scare you off if you knew. Obviously, I was wrong."
Sawamura snorts. "Obviously."
"I'll tell you anything you want to know about Mei now, if you want."
He thinks it over. "No thanks. I'd rather not think about that guy right now."
Kazuya smiles. "So we're good?"
Sawamura smiles back at him. "We're good."
Kazuya feels like he's floating on air.
After a few minutes of staring and smiling at each other, Kazuya looks around at where they are, surprised to see that it looks kind of familiar.
"Wait, is this the courtyard?" Now that he thinks about it, he's only ever seen this place at night.
Sawamura's face colors a little. "Yeah, it is. It was the only place I could think of where we could be alone."
Kazuya smirks at him. "You're much more of a romantic than I expected you to be."
Sawamura gives him a look. "I just forgave you. Don't make me regret it."
When Miyuki and Sawamura walk into the common room holding hands, everyone bursts into applause and cheers.
Sawamura sees Kuramochi give Miyuki a thumbs-up and rolls his eyes. "Jeez, they make a big deal out of everything!" he mumbles to Miyuki.
Miyuki looks over at him, and he looks really, really happy. And seeing Miyuki look that happy makes him happy too. Well, whatever. Sawamura thinks. He's willing to go through a little embarrassment, as long as it's with Miyuki.
EXTRA:
"...and again I'm really sorry if my words hurt your relationship with Kazuya in any way." Narumiya grumbles.
"Wow, great apology. Can I go now?" Somehow he let himself get forced into hearing Narumiya out again, despite the memory of the last time he let that happen still being fresh in his mind.
"Fine, go! Let the record show I did what Kazuya asked and apologized."
Sawamura crosses his arms. "I don't understand. After all the hard work you did to destroy my relationship, why stop now? Because Miyuki asked you to?"
Narumiya laughs mockingly. "You're even more stupid than I thought. Like I'd actually apologize to you for any reason except because of Kazuya."
"You really like Miyuki, don't you?" Sawamura lets this realization wash over him like cold water. He already knows that Narumiya likes Miyuki enough to care about who he dates. He didn't think Miyuki had that much power over him, though.
"I love him." The fact that he can say that so easily without even blushing makes Sawamura boil with envy. "That's why I'm trying to be a good friend this time, and why I'm warning you now. You better treat Kazuya right. The minute you mess up, I'll be there to comfort him."
Maybe it should make him angry that Narumiya blatantly said that he wasn't giving up on Miyuki, but Sawamura just takes that as a challenge.
He grins fiercely. "Thanks for the heads up!"
Like he'd ever lose to Narumiya.