Sawamura notices Miyuki sneaking out of the common room after dinner.
It hasn't been the first time he noticed Miyuki sneaking out. In fact, he's seen Miyuki sneaking out a lot lately, which made him curious. The whole Gryffindor class would walk back to their dorms in one large mass, laughing and shoving each other. Some would go straight up to bed while others would chill in the common room till light outs. Most of the Quidditch team is part of the latter half, staying up to read about new techniques or preparing for their next match. Ryou and Kuramochi snuck in some brooms a while back, so they spend the time seeing how much they can practice new techniques without making a lot of noise.
He's laying on the couch while Furuya attempts to practice the Wronski Feint when he sees Miyuki do the same old routine he's been doing for weeks. He walks in, joking around with Kuramochi or something, then watches and comments on whatever hilarity is going on around him. After staying a few minutes to make his presence known, he slips out. No one ever notices that he's not there anymore, or at least they never mention it. Once Sawamura saw it, he couldn't unsee it.
It makes him burn up inside, wondering what Miyuki's doing. He doesn't even know why he cares. Miyuki is just the stupid Keeper of the Gryffindor team who makes it his life's mission to piss Sawamura off at every turn. Why should he care that bastard goes? He keeps telling himself that, but that doesn't stop his eyes from following Miyuki every time he leaves.
Everything about Miyuki has been weirding out lately. At least, that's the only way he can describe it. Sawamura has had a vague knowledge of Miyuki since he was a third-year, and has talked to him since he was a fourth-year. During the course of these years Sawamura can always firmly describe his feelings for Miyuki as one of prominent dislike, but begrudging admiration. But now, he doesn't feel like that anymore. Now, he isn't sure what he feels.
Take for instance, two days. Him and Miyuki stayed back after practice to work on his flying. Miyuki enchanted a couple of golf balls to fly around like a regular Snitch would, and corrected Sawamura on his broom grip and balance.
"No one cares how many fancy tricks you do," Miyuki told him straight up. "The game ends only when the Snitch is caught. If you can't catch it, then you're useless."
Before, Miyuki's blunt, no nonsense talks irked him to no end. But after playing in a few (not many but a few) Sawamura had come to respect them, hell, request them. Sawamura knew Miyuki would never lie when it came to Quidditch. In the same way, Sawamura would tolerate anything when it came to Quidditch. Since it was like that, staying back in the arena together became the only place they could interact with each other without their mutual annoyance of each other getting in the way. And for Sawamura, it was the only place he got a peek at the real Miyuki.
From high up, Sawamura spotted a flying golf ball that was way below him. Applying Miyuki's corrections, he flew down smoothly with one hand and caught the ball with the other, coming smoothly to land in front of Miyuki.
"Well? Well?" he says expectantly, like an excited puppy. "How was that?"
"Sawamura." Miyuki's eyes were wide and his mouth was almost hanging open. "That dive was a perfect arc and it was one-handed. And you still caught the ball."
Sawamura didn't know how to respond. Miyuki had never praised him like that before, eyes staring at him in amazement. He felt his skin prickling uncomfortably.
"Uh, thanks. I just...did it." he responded lamely.
Miyuki ruffled his hair and smiled wide, the complete opposite of his usual snarky grin. "If you keep "just doing" that, you may have a real shot of being the ace someday."
Miyuki's smile and the way his hand felt softly brushing through his hair-it was all too much! Sawamura, mind completely blank on how to react, smacked Miyuki's hand away and yelled, "G—Goodbye!" and ran away.
He doesn't know when things inside in brain got so complicated, but he wishes it would stop. All it does is make him confused, and it makes it hard to be around Miyuki. So again, he tells himself that what Miyuki does is none of his business and he doesn't care, because he doesn't even like that bastard.
His heart twinges at the words.
That's it, I can't take it anymore! Sawamura thinks. At the sight of Miyuki slipping out the door again, Sawamura snaps. Before he knows what he's doing he stands up abruptly.
"Eijun-kun, is something wrong?" Haruichi asks him.
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom." He hopes Haruichi won't notice anything different about him.
Fortunately, he's not looking at him. His attention is on the chess game Tetsu and Jun are playing. Jun's chess pieces are pretty lively, so it's looking to be an interesting game.
"Well, hurry back. I think the rooks are about to fight." The rooks start shouting obscenities at each other and a part of Sawamura wants to stay, but figuring out what Miyuki's doing wins out.
He rushes down the hallway, trying to see if he could still catch up to Miyuki. At first, he's lost and frustrated and thinks about going back to watch the chess fight when he hears a noise. It's faint, but unmistakably a noise. Sawamura turns the corner fast, almost running, and sees a sliver of light peeking out from a cracked door. He sidles up to the door and slowly, he peeks into the room and—
There's an eagle.
Sawamura is transfixed by the ethereal quality of the bird. The eagle shines with a pure white light. It glides gracefully around the room with its wings outstretched. Without realizing it, he leans to get a closer look. He fails to remembers that he's viewing this through a crack and that leaning on the door might not be such a good idea.
So of course, that's when he falls face first through the door.
"Ow, ow, ow." he groans, rubbing his forehead. He looks up, and not to his surprise he's greeted by angry amber eyes.
"Sawamura," Miyuki says slowly. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Miyuki is pissed off, more at himself than Sawamura. He thought he'd found the perfect room to practice in without getting walked in on and perfected his sneaking away without anyone noticing (which was pretty easy considering how there's always something going down in the common room). It'd must not have been that perfect, though, if an idiot is able to catch him so easily. A cute idiot, but still an idiot.
Dammit. Miyuki grits his teeth. He banned himself from thinking those type of thoughts about Sawamura, but sometimes they still popped up.
Meanwhile, Sawamura is blubbering excuses. "-and I didn't mean to walk down this hallway! I just saw some strange light and wanted to know where it was coming from! I wasn't spying on you or anything!"
Miyuki pinches the bridge of his nose. "First of all, stop screaming. You're giving me a headache. Second, calm down. I'm not mad at you, I was just surprised. I didn't expect anyone to find me here."
Thankfully, Sawamura relaxes. "Why are you practicing magic here, anyway? It's dark and creepy in here." Sawamura's eyes dart around the room. It makes Miyuki snicker a little.
"Yeah, that was kind of the point. I didn't want anyone me watching practice." he says with a pointed glare at Sawamura.
"But why?" Sawamura shoots back, persisting on the matter. "It's not like you're bad at magic. I've never seen anyone, except maybe a teacher, do what you just did! Wasn't that a...a...what do you call it?"
"It's a—"
"Wait, don't tell me!" he yells suddenly. "If I see it again, I'll definitely figure it out."
Miyuki quickly realizes what Sawamura is getting at. "Nice try, but no way."
"Come on, Miyuki! Just do it one more time and I'll never bother you again!" Sawamura whines.
The second no is already on the tip of Miyuki's tongue when Sawamura turns those big golden eyes on him. They're filled with emotion, flashing with excitement and anticipation and most of all, hope. He can feel the words dying in his throat.
"Please, Miyuki." Sawamura says quietly. "Show me again."
His mouth moves without his permission. "Fine, whatever." He ignores Sawamura's cheers and pulls out his wand again. "Don't be surprised if nothing happens."
It physically hurts to look at Sawamura's expectant gaze. He turns away, closing his eyes. This is why he didn't want to practice in front of anyone in the first place. Magic is a real bitch sometimes, some spells working great and sometimes not working at all. He can cast spells the best when he's focus, which he tends not to be surrounded by other people. Even then, he doesn't always nail a spell on the first try. He'd rather go through that trial and error alone than in front of a loud audience. And yet, all he can think about how he doesn't want to let Sawamura down.
Let him down? You're really in too deep, huh? Miyuki shakes the thought away. Focus, focus. His hand trembles around his wand. He takes a deep breath, and then another. Then he lets go. He stops thinking about limits of his magic. He stops thinking about whether his magic will ever be useful, if it will be as strong when he really needs it. He stops thinking about Sawamura, about how rapidly he's becoming less of the obnoxious Seeker who pesters him every day and more of someone who could make him feel flustered and unsure and vulnerable. He let it all go, and pour all of his energy into the two words.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A wispy, translucent light shoots from his wand. It suspends itself in the air and slowly transforms into the distinct shape of an eagle. Miyuki admires the way it exudes strength and independence, despite the fact that it's not even solid. He hears Sawamura quietly gasp next to him. He turns to glance at him and instantly it's a mistake.
Sawamura's mouth is hanging open, tracking the bird as it does circles around the room. The glow from the eagle makes Sawamura's eyes light up. He realizes he's staring but he can't stop, not when Sawamura is this close and looking like this. Miyuki lets the thought come into his head, the thought he'd been trying his hardest to avoid. You have a crush on Bakamura, Kazuya. No way around it. He chuckles quietly to himself because of course, on top of the mounting stress from Quidditch and school and Narumiya (who'd been not so subtly pressuring about getting back together), he needs a stupid crush to worry about as well.
"Whoa," Sawamura says, sounding breathless. "Your Patronus is an eagle? Make sense, I guess."
All he can reply with is,"Glad to see you aren't completely asleep in Defense Against the Dark Arts." Then Miyuki actually internalizes Sawamura's words. "Wait, what do you mean 'makes sense'?"
He's not sure, but he swears he sees Sawamura's cheeks flush. "Well, you're strong. The Patronus is a hard spell to cast, right? And you still did it. Plus, you can be really...cool sometimes. Like when we're in a game and you pull off some amazing move to block the ball—" He's definitely blushing at this point. "What I'm trying to say is, it makes sense!"
"Ah, I see." Miyuki feels his mouth stretch wide in a grin and slings an arm around him. "Wow, Sawamura. I had no idea you felt that way about me."
"S-Shut up, you bastard!" he stutters. "That's the last time I compliment you. You just get an even bigger head!"
Miyuki doesn't respond, instead laughing hard. "You're amazing, Sawamura."
Sawamura looks away, hiding his definitely red face. "Whatever."
Miyuki leans against the desk to catch his breath. Usually after practicing magic over and over again he feels weary or tired, but right now he feels light and rejuvenated. He knows it's because of Sawamura. That's how he knows that whatever he's feeling for him, it's different. It might actually be real.
Miyuki smiles to himself. If it is real, that means it'll be over that much quicker. He peers at Sawamura out of the corner of his eye. Anyway, it's not like this idiot thinks of much outside of Quidditch. There's no way he feels the same. He'll forget about Sawamura, go meet up with Narumiya, and avoid adding Sawamura to his tangled web of relationships.
He swears he'll do all of that...later.
"Come on, let's head back to the common room. I bet something exciting is happening there." Miyuki jumps off the desk and walks to the door.
Sawamura jumps off too. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot about the chess game! Aw, this is all your fault, Miyuki."
"Says the person who followed me."
They walk down the hallway together, talking and fighting and laughing.
If they're standing a little too close to each other, neither of them notices.