To be honest with you, I'm not a fan of this site, but my friends have made me notice it's absolutely true needs more Junzumi love. So, as the end of the year approaches, I want to make the decision to publish my on-going collection of Junzumi one-shots here. Mind you, I'm not going to publish my other Junzumi stories here for now (if you're interested, they are on Ao3), and I'm not even certain I will update this collection at the same I will on Ao3. Still, I hope you will feel the love I perceive for this underrated couple I love so much, to which I have really dedicated my heart and soul.
NOTES: •Each one-shot has got its own story. They are auto-conclusive and can also involve AUs just like requests from Tumblr Anon or friends.
• The chapters can have words in italian scattered here and there. I will obviously clarify and translate them for you in the final notes.
FINAL WARNINGS AS BIG AS A HOUSE: If you want to comment about my stories, please, be kind. Don't be a fatphobic ass, don't be an ass in general. Here I'm just having fun and I merely hope to make others have fun, make them experience many feelings with my silly stories, make them spend a better day if they're going through a bad one. I don't need people to comment my stories with "I hate Junzumi but..." ,"I ship this but..." . Respectfully, guys, this is a Junzumi fanfiction. I don't care if you ship other couples. If you do, read stories of those couples.
Now...Enjoy~
XXX
{ Those dreams that will return sooner or later }
He hadn't changed a bit and everyone would never miss the chance to underline that, from his general appearance to his clumsiness; from his playful attitude to his soft spot on chocolate; from his love for Izumi to…His love for Izumi, which had taken a definite shape now he was older, the shape of a much deeper feeling. Nevertheless, he had never sensed any difference in the way his heart would beat for her or his hands would get sweaty whenever they took the train together.
Once Tomoki had told him it was nice to have a certainty in an endlessly-shifting world. Being the youngest, he had been the one observing their growth from an external perspective, and Junpei couldn't be happier to have represented a solid rock to hang onto for a disoriented child. Now it was pretty embarrassing to admit that, but he would occasionally still wear a coverall in whose big and deep pockets he could hide his magical tricks. He still liked making people smile, after all: his university mates, strangers on the train, kids at their birthdays and their parents too, his dearest friends…And Izumi.
After all those years, she still liked his magical tricks, indeed, he adored fooling himself believing she loved, tremendously loved them. In that aspect Izumi hadn't really changed: sometimes he could still spot the gleeful girl dressed in almost all pink clapping at him making some flower appear from the nothingness.
Those moments were really refreshing to him, but their nostalgic magic couldn't really last that long, because, unfortunately for him, he had to accept even Izumi had grown up. And she had so beautifully, so majestically, so enchantingly as if a flock of feathered Gods had blessed her, had plasmed her body to accomodate a beauty he couldn't help judging more than just incredible.
If only Izumi hadn't drastically changed like the others in his group, Tomoki included at that point, he would have probably led his high school years in peace, but that wasn't the reality he was living in.
And that meeting would remind him of that again, of course. He was aware about it and a nagging feeling was already knocking on his door, suggesting him that he should just run away and invent a justification afterwards. He hadn't even managed to buy her a present like he had planned to. She had returned from her holiday to Italy with her family sooner than he had calculated, and he was well-known for never being satisfied about choosing something to buy for her.
He…Wanted the best for Izumi, after all, even if that sort of motto had started sounding so ridiculous to his ears. It just took a glance at himself for him to realize it. He looked at the sneakers he was wearing and the trembling legs that were attached to them, those limbs that had made him fall in front of her so many times. Then his focus shifted to his lumbering upper presence, to his thick arms that would be perfect to hold her tightly like he wanted to but weren't attractive like Kouji's or Takuya's trained ones. Finally, he thought it was better if he couldn't see his face; it wasn't like he found his traits repulsive but…
I'm just not enough, He sighed and his mind didn't only dwell on the good-looking boys of their group , but also on Izumi's silhouette and on the utter perfection characterizing her from head to toe, from her physical aspect to her soul. If he said he had never seen a girl who was as charming as her, he wasn't lying. There was nothing about her he would have preferred in another way, even those inches of her being she would often confess she didn't like about herself.
….
" I kinda wish I had more curves. During my last photoshoot, a girl told me I have got mediocre hips and…Don't make me say that . You can imagine what else she said it's mediocre ," She had admitted out of blue in the close past.
He could recall it was a day they had spent at the swimming pool with the group. While the other boys were having fun flicking water on the other, he had remained by her side trying studying for his university entrance exams yet failing miserably, as each movement of hers, even the most imperceptible one, was an excuse to turn his head to her direction and lose himself in the sight of her lying figure. From under the big white hat she was wearing, her golden hair she had dyed with some streaks of purple allowed the wind to play with its locks. As lovely as it looked on her, he could still remember so vividly the one-piece swimsuit she had decided to wear. It was red like a cherry, the tone his cheeks had been painted of because of the effort he had put in not laying his brown eyes on it and, most of all, on the candid skin it embraced, enhacing its light colour and its forms.
"But why would I tell you about this, per Dio? You are surely going to say there's nothing wrong with me."
And he had fallen mute because wasn't what he would have told her, after all?
…
What would have happened if I had talked about something similar to her?, He suddenly asked himself, without being able to control it. Maybe I should give it a try. Izumi-Chan, look at me: what do you wish it was different in my body? Or in the way I am too…? What do you think could help me not look so despeaired whenever I go out with you? What do you think could make people stop from…From… glaring and mocking me whenever they spot me with you, because you're a fascinating reader model, whereas I'm just me, the pudgy dude going after what he can't get? Everyone constantly says it. That I'm a stupid fool.
What can I do, Izumi, to keep up with your pace? To be the person I really want to be, that kind of person who also deserves to wish for an entire life by your side?
What can I…?
…I want to change. I really do. If I…
…
A familiar voice announced the train from Bologna would arrive in less than a minute and Junpei abruptly opened his orbs. His hands followed the jolt that shook his whole body and they lost the grip of the rather soft object they were holding. He felt like cursing when he readjusted himself on a cold seat, hitting his neck on what felt like bricks behind him. His cheeks felt wet but he didn't pay that much attention to that, since he was too focused on looking for what he had lost.
And what was that?, He shook his puzzled head from a side to the other, lowering it on a pair of loafers he found alienating at the beginning, in that mist covering his mind.
Only when the train's whistle began piercing his ears from the far distance, his brain seemed to slowly return to its previous state, cleaning its blanket of smoke and reassembling memories and thoughts.
Bending his back and reaching out he found out a small white bag was what he had dropped. It had ended up below his seat and was waiting to be placed between his hands again, along with the purple ribbon decorating its top. He didn't hesitate before picking it up, getting it rid of the dust covering its surface and the neat writing that was on it. Actually, someone had written a Per la mia bella in elegant characters, probably also choosing one of those refined pens people often collected.
I've always had a good writing , He strutted wearing a smirk. He would have continued appreciating his skilled hands' abilities he had projected on that single bag, if the train hadn't stopped on the railway.
All at once, a flow of people got off the modern-styled wagons bringing noisy trolleys and frenetic rushes along with their arrival. A great chaos started dominating that track of the main station of Venice, mixing with other loud and ringing sounds coming from the background of that huge environment.
In that cacophony, a tall and blonde young woman stood out and made him smile widely, pushing him to stand up and hurry to her.
As soon as she saw him, she grinned as well but she got enwrapped in his arms and the smell of his cologne in a jiffy.
" Buon non-compleanno, buon non-compleanno!" He laughed, hugging her again, prey of an enormous joy. When their chests parted from each other, after he planted an affectionate yet delicate kiss on her pink cheek, she couldn't keep herself from opening her mouth at the distinguished young man holding her. It wasn't only his pretty charming clothing or his tidier hair that had made her attention perk up; his perfume and extra cares to his person she could spot here and there, either. There was something deeper, some minuscule detail in his behaviour she could't pinpoint, more beats he had made her heart skip at the first sight of his, more warmth he had left on her cheek when he had given her that kiss, a bigger desire for that hug to linger for a much longer time.
"I have a present for you," He sniggered while whispering those words in her ear. She was too taken aback to immediately notice the bag he was making swing in front of her face. "Just a little present".
"Junpei, you…You…" She began, blinking, this time allowing herself to stare at him intensely by putting her hands on his face. In that way, crystalline sea met dark honey and fathomed the soul of those kind orbs looking for an answer to those questions she didn't know how to formulate -even at herself-. Looking for Junpei; her Junpei.
"Hey-"
She kissed him on the lips cutting his breath and not even giving him time to metabolize what was happening to put his arms around her, at least. She chuckled when the expression she would have liked to see on his puffy traits appeared in all its comedy: his gaze in the nothingness, his mouth still descending in astonishment, his arms dangling next to his hips without strength.
"H-Hey!" He playfully complained at the back she was showing him now. "You spoiled hmy crescendo , Izumi! Not fair! This was supposed to be my fortissimo !"
"I just wanted to see if this opera singer job hasn't made you change too much, questo è tutto," She answered, joining her hands. "I want to spend my unbrithday with Junpei Shibayama, you know. Not with a stranger."
He weighed that statement by silently repeating it to himself. Then, he beamed, marveled, fragments of the dream he had had that day passing through his reasoning, undisturbed. His lips felt shaky, all of a sudden.
"Do you think I've changed? For real? I…Can't really see that," He shyly cracked a smile, giving a self-conscious glimpse at himself. "You can't really say I've lost some pounds, no, no. I've been having so many dinners with the crew. It must be the clothes giving you the impression I've changed, but they're just clothes. I've been opening my mind about a new kind of wardrobe lately…And I thought it wouldn't hurt me if I picked some more elegant clothes from there for our date. In this way, well, I also thought I could finally look good enough for you…Surprise you." He scratched his head, awkwardness overtaking the confidence he had simulated in front of a mirror the day before.
"Well, let's say you've never been bad at surprising me," She finally turned and approached him again, one of the sweetest smiles he had ever seen brighted her irises. She touched his bag so she could open it but he pulled that out of her reach.
"No, no. You won't ruin my schedule for today again. Even if you don't like plans, I have booked a table in a delicious restaurant in Piazza San Marco. There you will open the present and I will take a good photo to capture the moment. Opening it here, ah! It doesn't sound that romantic. We are surrounded by metallic Trailmons!"
He pulled out a rose from a sleeve making her gasp once more. The fresh rose he had probably bought in the square he had mentioned made her sigh with a moved smile.
Junpei, you idiot. Who ever told you aren't enough with your hesilarating weirdness?
"You know? I've changed my mind. You're right: you are the same Junpei of always."
"Ah…" He didn't hide his disappointment. "Even if I didn't agree with you, I liked it when you said I had".
"Just deal with it," She made her delicate hand slip into his. "Still…" She stopped to make her fingertips caress his brown topcoat and his dark orange scarf. "I don't mind these kind of changes in fashion taste."
"I'm wearing a waistcoat too. To be a gentleman for my lady. An Alfredo to his Violetta."
" Perfavore," She rolled her eyes, amused. "You can't be serious."
"I am! You will see it at the restaurant because I obviously asked for a table inside. With this weather, you never know what could happen! Hey…Where are you going?"
She had parted from him and had already got near to the escalator.
"Away. Far away. I don't want to go out with a vintage and lame Junpei."
"Then…" He pointed at himself with an uncertain index. "Should I go changing before we go there?"
"Why not. Why don't you go back home and put one of that mechanic coverall of yours?"
His orbs seemed to widen at that statement, "Now it's my turn to say you can't be serious! You really can't!"
However, Izumi's laughters had already started blowing from a further spot than the one he was still standing in.
"Wa-Wait, Izumi-Chan! Aspetta ! Aspetta, perfavore !"
And you could predict what happened next.
"Oh Junpei, don't tell me you have fallen right on my present, uh!"
XXX
This story is from 2022 and I wrote it for an Anon request. I wasn't happy at all about how it had turned out the first time I wrote it, but now it does satisfy me much more than it used to. Appreciation and acceptance of ourselves, which can also happen thanks to others, is such a dear topic to me somehow. The veeeeeery little following story will still deal with it but from a double perspective. I think … Junpei deserves someone accepting him the way he is. Thinking about him being a teen and all the drama his appearance will bring along makes my heart ache due to sadness. Even if this story isn't really connected to my mainline.
Some notes:
•"Per dio" is an exclamation which is similar to Oh my God.
•"Tutto qui": that's all.
• Alfredo and Violetta are the main characters from Verdi's "La Traviata".
