[One Shot] Crushes, Heartbreak, Recovery and Love
Title: Crushes, Heartbreak, Recovery and Love
Author: hikarinoniji
Group: Hey!Say!JUMP
Characters/Pairings: Inoo/Yabu (one-sided), Inoo/Hikaru, Yabu/Takaki, mentions of Daiki and some Juniors.
Genre: Slight angst, friendship, romance
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This is purely fiction.
Summary: When Yabu crushes on Inoo he thinks Inoo might feel the same. However, crushes crush you when you assume things and they happen to be not true. Which is what happens when Yabu finds out Hikaru and Inoo are dating. Yabu feels sad and lonely but luckily there is someone else to help him through it. Can Yabu fall in love again? Or will he be stuck with a broken heart. It's all about Crushes, Heartbreak, Recovery and Love.
A/N: Requested by my gorgeous umma (hotfruits ) I hope you like it umma ;o;
Hope
“Kei-chan~” Kouta sung, as he flopped his lanky body onto the couch, next to his friend.
Slightly disturbed, Kei raised his head, looking away from the book he had been reading. He had intended to make a sharp comment about his disturbance while he was obviously busy with something, but, seeing Kouta’s ever so radiant smile beaming towards him he couldn’t help but return the gesture, a soft smile forming on his pink lips.
“Hey, Kou,” he answered, pushing the book aside and shifting his body towards his bandmate. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” Kouta mused as he watched the black-haired male raising a brow at him.
“I just-“ he continued quickly, “thought it had been a really long time since we hung out together.”
Kei chuckled softly, “what are you talking about? We hung out during Hikaru’s birthday, remember? We went to that nice little restaurant, where they had the best curry-rice I have ever tasted I might add, with the rest of BEST.”
“I know, I remember,” Kouta mumbled, choosing his words carefully, “but I was talking about us. As in; the two of us. It’s been a while since we did something together.”
Kei scratched the back of his head, nodding slowly at this. “That’s true, that has been a while indeed.”
“So…” Kouta continued, “what about; we catch a movie together, tonight?”
Kei furrowed his brows, throwing a glance at the book that would probably end up gathering dust somewhere in a forgotten corner of his room. Nearly, he decided to disincline the offer the older had made him, but Kouta’s deep brown puppy-eyes proved themselves a stronger weapon than any book he would ever come across.
“Okay, okay we’ll catch a movie tonight,” he grinned and Kouta pumped his fist in the air.
“Hah!” He exclaimed victoriously, jumping off the couch and grabbing his leather jacket, fumbling in its pockets.
The younger of two blinked, “what are you doing?”
“Getting my phone,” Kouta answered as he pulled the black device out of his pockets and flipped it over, “I’m going to reserve tickets so we’ll be sure of good seats and you can’t blow me off anymore.”
Once again, Kei raised a brow with the intention to tell his older friend this wasn’t a date or anything but before he could say anything Kouta had already rushed to the hall so he could tall properly on the phone and reserve their tickets. Kei shrugged to himself, he figured Kouta knew.
Euphoria
It was nice to see Kei had actually taken the liberty to dress up nice for their movie-date. Usually the college-student complained that he had no time for shopping and keeping up with fashion trends, like he used to do when JUMP debuted and he was still a mere high schooler.
Things were different now, and where Kei usually would spend his time joking around with his friends and keeping himself updated about the newest trends, he now found himself sitting in the library, bending over backwards to figure out the answer to one of his questions. Not that he minded, at the very least. Education was very important, and he was fully aware of the fact that fame would not last forever. He wanted to be at least slightly prepared for when that happened.
However, pleasantly surprised with a night out of the books, Kei had decided it wouldn’t be too bad if he properly opened up his closet and find something that was even nicer than he regular clothes. Because, he thought with a smirk as he skimmed through the closet, even his regular, supposed to be none fashionable, clothes were more than nice.
Kouta had already been waiting when Kei arrived, dressed in a dark denim and a white shirt with a silver print on it. It was simple, but together with his raven dark hair and pale skin a nice combination to look at.
Kouta grinned at him, teasingly whistling between his teeth. “Looking good, Kei-chan.”
“You ought to know that by now,” the younger man huffed, giving Kouta a small, playful slap on the shoulder. “So, what movie did you have in mind?”
“Ah! I might not tell you,” Kouta grinned at him, hiding the tickets behind is back.
Curiously, Kei peered over his shoulder trying to catch a glance of the tickets in his hand, but the older man moved them further away.
“Oh, come on Kouta!” Kei wined, reaching for the tickets while Kouta kept his body and the tickets at a safe distance (which wasn’t all to hard, after all he had longer arms and he was quite a bit taller than Kei was), “don’t be so childish! I just want to see which movie I’m going to watch.”
“Okay, okay,” the lanky man finally gave in and before he could give Kei the ticket himself, the raven had already snatched one of them out of his hand.
“The next 3 days,” he read aloud in his horrible accented English. He looked up from the paper, his dark orbs observing Kouta. “A foreign movie?”
“Yeah…” Kouta uttered, scratching his neck in embarrassment now he wasn’t totally sure anymore whether the choice he made was the right one.
“What’s it about?” Kei asked as he seemed to observe his ticket with a great interest.
“It’s a suspense movie, about a mother being accused of murder, right before Christmas. My brother watched it earlier and according to him, it’s really good.”
Kei’s eyes lid up at the word ‘suspense’ and quickly he reached for Kouta’s arm and dragged him towards the cinema, exclaiming, “I love suspense, stupid! Couldn’t you tell me earlier?”
Too busy with babbling about the amount of suspense movies he had already seen and how he had figured them out before the end was even there, Kei didn’t saw the lights dancing in Kouta’s eyes and the big warm smile that had formed itself on his lips.
While Kei was busy with the movie, all Kouta could feel was Kei’s smaller hand fitting perfectly in his.
Destruction
“Hikaru and Kei-chan, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-THAT HURTS HIKARU, JERK!“ Daiki’s loud squeaky voice filled their dressing room. With squinted eyes he rubbed his head, the place where Hikaru had just whacked him and watched how the older man moved back to Kei and made himself comfortable. The raven contently rested his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder as they laced their fingers and completely drifted off to their own little world.
Daiki started to complain to their mental leader, about how he should be able to protect him from Kouta’s best friend and his violent antics. But Kouta wasn’t listening either. He too, was somewhere far away in his own world.
Kouta had been practically floating on air ever since their date, or… that was what he at the time thought it was.
Aside from him holding Kei’s hand for a while, nothing had happened and that maybe should have been a sign. He should have seen it coming, and mentally he blamed himself for letting his emotions take over his healthy common sense. He told himself, if he hadn’t, he would have seen it coming all along.
When he, two days after the movies, entered the dressing room, he stumbled upon Kei and Hikaru. Making out. From there on, everything he had said or done was as if some one else controlled him and his emotions. As if that person knew what he was feeling and thinking was wrong and as if they it was some kind of defense system, that person made him say and do everything opposite from what he wanted to do.
He congratulated them, stupidly.
Said he saw it coming, he hadn’t.
Said he was happy for them, he was everything but.
Hikaru admitted he was glad Kouta fully supported them, he had been afraid of his reaction. After all they had been friends for such a long time and yet Hikaru had kept everything to himself. He was relieved Kouta wasn’t mad for keeping this a secret from him he just had no idea how to bring it up. He was glad to have a friend like Kouta, who understood him so much.
Kouta clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white, ready to punch the living daylight out of his best friend’s eyes, but one glance at Kei and all his feelings of hate disappeared and left him with nothing but an empty, hollow sadness.
The way Kei looked up at Hikaru. How he clutched the younger male’s arm, tightly, as if he was afraid to lose him. Kei was in love. Everyone, even Kouta, could see as much. And Hikaru clearly felt the same way.
Jokingly he had said, “you better not make him cry Hika, I know where to find you.”
The answer had been a kiss, planted in Kei’s hair and the words lovingly spoken. “I would never do anything to hurt him.”
Yabu was sure he could hear his own heart breaking.
Despair
Kouta didn’t feel like himself. He didn’t feel like eating his favorite undon noodles. He allowed Ryutaro and Ryosuke to have their eternal fights, without putting them to a halt when things seemed to get out of hand. He wasn’t even able to help Yuto with picking out a favorite soccer club.
All he did was taking sneak peaks at Hikaru and Kei who happily joked with each other about what they would get one another for Christmas and shared little intimidate moments in the dressing room when they were under the impression no one was looking.
It made the almost 21-year old feel hollow and empty and he was pretty sure he would never feel love and happiness ever again. He felt like one of those girls, in cheesy B-drama’s.
He had laughed about them in the past and criticized them for being so weak and letting a mere emotion sucking the liveliness out of their eyes, but now he finally was in their position, he felt nothing but compassion for them. He knew what they were going through.
After he had seen enough from Hikaru and Kei’s mushy being in love, he escaped out of the dressing room, wanting nothing but watching one of those silly drama’s where the heroine always got the person she wanted.
It was silly, he didn’t even consider himself as a girl or anything. Nor was he one to let himself being overpowered by an emotion, a feeling he harbored for someone else. He hated it. The loneliness and pain in his heart. The sharp stabs too. He just wanted to cry but didn’t allow himself, it wasn’t Yabu Kouta-like.
And seeing nothing seemed to stay true to himself, he figured he could at least pretend he did.
Rebuilding
Oddly enough, Kouta’s silent moments of break downs were disturbed by someone an awfully a lot. There was Yuya, who happily seemed to butt in and distract Kouta’s attention for a while.
Always, before Kouta was able to completely escape everyone, Yuya bounced his way always the same smile plastered on his face.
Yuya and he didn’t talk much and he just allowed himself to be dragged off somewhere.
Sometimes he would be taken along to the A.B.C.z dressing room where Totssu tried to pump him up for an upcoming game, while Yuya happily talked to Hasshi about… Whatever Yuya and Hasshi talked about. That seemed to be more improving for his mood than soccer in the end. Not because he didn’t love Tottsu and his stories, but because Yuya’s infectious laughter would fill the room, causing Kouta’s lips to curl upwards.
Other times they would just watch silly movies, mostly about cute baby animals on Yuya’s phone and Kouta could almost feel a smile growing on his face again as a young kitten bounced over the screen.
And only once, when Kouta had to witness Kei and Hikaru telling each other that they loved each other, Yuya had taken his hand and had dragged him off to the nearest closet.
“Cry,” he had demanded his voice soft but fierce enough for Kouta to lean his head on Yuya’s chest and cry like he had wanted to do for a very long time. Afterwards Yuya had dried his tears with the edge of his sleeve and smiled to him. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Kouta had just pulled him into a hug. There was no ‘thank you’ needed. Yuya got it anyway.
Realization
It was Christmas and to his own surprise, Kouta had been able to endure Hikaru and Kei. He even had been able to sincerely laugh about a joke Hikaru cracked. It had been a while.
He blinked when Kei pulled himself out of Hikaru’s tight embrace and smacked the younger boy on the head as he whined because he had to miss a warm body against his.
Kei had grabbed his arm, and unlike before there was no spark. No hurdle of butterflies that wanted to throw a party in the pit of his stomach and dazed Kouta allowed himself to be dragged along with Kei (who was much stronger than he appeared to be).
“I hope you have a nice present for Yuyan,” he raven quirked his brow at Kouta who merely scratched the back of his head.
“Oh come on Kouta! People are already betting on when you guys decide to make it official!”
“Wha-what official?” Kouta squeaked in surprise.
Immediately Kei bit his lower lip, however his dark brown eyes were still aimed at the taller male.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed it!”
“Okay,” Kouta answered sheepishly, “I won’t tell you.”
There was a flick on the back of his head and Kei shook his head, “you are… Honestly the most oblivious man on earth sometimes. Even Ryutaro saw it! And he is 15, Kouta, 15! He knows nothing about love.”
“Wai-Wait. Are you saying Yuyan is in love with me?”
There was a silence in which Kei observed Kouta’s shocked expression, deciding on the fact that he wasn’t joking around. He laughed, “I wasn’t talking about Yuya! You idiot! I was talking about you.”
“Me-Me?”
“Yeah,” Kei grinned, “every time Yuya walk in, you have this really big stupid grin on your face and I don’t even want to know what you guys are doing when you leave, but when you leave you always seem so… Out of it. And when you return with him, you’re always happy. You shine.”
Kei paused for a bit, patting his older friend on the shoulder, “have you ever thought of the fact that you might be in love with Yuya?”
He hadn’t. He hadn’t thought about it. But the way Kei said it. It seemed so clear.
Quickly, he pulled Kei into a hug. The younger too surprised to resist, letting out a small yelp.
Nothing. No butterflies. No thinly skin. Just Kei.
“Kei, tell me you love Hikaru.”
“Why?”
“Just do it, please,” Kouta’s voice pleaded softly.
“I-I love Hikaru,” Kei said, still slightly taken aback.
Nothing. No sharp stab through his heart. No pain or loneliness.
Quickly he released Kei from his grip as he started running. He looked back over his shoulder at his flabbergasted friend and yelled. “Thank you, Kei-chan! I owe you one!”
Love
It wasn’t hard to find Yuya, huddling with some of the Kansai Juniors. It was Junta who pointed out that Kouta was in the door opening trying to catch his breathe.
“Kou?” Yuya asked, his light brown eyes looking at him with curiosity, “something wrong?”
“Yes,” Kouta answered in all earnestly, “very. Will you please-come with me?”
Quickly Yuya got up, saying goodbye the juniors and taking the hand Kouta had offered him.
As If it was and adrenaline shock, his blood started streaming, the huddle of butterflies started to become active and Kouta could feel Yuya’s warm hand in his, the touch radiating through his entire body. He knew Kei was right now.
He took Yuya to the roof, not minding the cold that met him when they stepped outside.
“What-I thought there was something wrong?” Yuya frowned, looking around him.
“There is,” Kouta stated firmly, his hand refusing to release Yuya’s. “I’m an idiot.”
Yuya chuckled softly, looking at him with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes anda small grin teasing his lips. “You are if you don’t tell me why.”
“Because I’ve been in love all along and I totally did it wrong,” Kouta answered and Yuya looked away.
“Oh…”
“You see, there is this awesome person, that always makes me smile and makes me heart skip a bit, but I’ve been an incredible jerk because I sort of ignored him all the time.”
“I’m pretty sure Inoo-chan doesn’t even notice you ignoring him, he’s way too occupied with Hikaru,” Yuya mumbled and Kouta could feel the grip on his hand tighten.
There was a soft chuckle coming from the older of two as he pulled Yuya’s body closer to his and he whispered next to Yuya’s ear, “Kei-chan is not the one I’m talking about.”
He could hear Yuya’s surprised squeak and the body in his arms tense. “You mean-“
“I mean, I’m a dickhead who forgot to buy this awesome person a present for Christmas, but I guess I have something better.”
“Like what?” Finally Yuya seemed to be back to his senses, and he sounded a little bit amused.
“Like this,” Kouta mused, before his lips captured Yuya’s.
Swiftly, Yuya warped his long arms around Kouta’s next and pulled the other closer.
Sheepishly, he grinned into the kiss. “I guess this is what I have to work with then. I do have a present for you though, I prepared it a long time ago but I had no idea whether you wanted it.”
Kouta’s head moved back a little to completely face Yuya. “What? Now I feel even worse, what did you prepare-“
The middle of his sentence got cut by Yuya’s lips on his and when the younger finally pulled back he laughed.
“Cheater.”
“Shut up, you love it.”
Kouta laughed again, running his hand through Yuya’s soft hair.
Yuya was right. He did.
Author: hikarinoniji
Group: Hey!Say!JUMP
Characters/Pairings: Inoo/Yabu (one-sided), Inoo/Hikaru, Yabu/Takaki, mentions of Daiki and some Juniors.
Genre: Slight angst, friendship, romance
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This is purely fiction.
Summary: When Yabu crushes on Inoo he thinks Inoo might feel the same. However, crushes crush you when you assume things and they happen to be not true. Which is what happens when Yabu finds out Hikaru and Inoo are dating. Yabu feels sad and lonely but luckily there is someone else to help him through it. Can Yabu fall in love again? Or will he be stuck with a broken heart. It's all about Crushes, Heartbreak, Recovery and Love.
A/N: Requested by my gorgeous umma (hotfruits ) I hope you like it umma ;o;
Hope
“Kei-chan~” Kouta sung, as he flopped his lanky body onto the couch, next to his friend.
Slightly disturbed, Kei raised his head, looking away from the book he had been reading. He had intended to make a sharp comment about his disturbance while he was obviously busy with something, but, seeing Kouta’s ever so radiant smile beaming towards him he couldn’t help but return the gesture, a soft smile forming on his pink lips.
“Hey, Kou,” he answered, pushing the book aside and shifting his body towards his bandmate. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” Kouta mused as he watched the black-haired male raising a brow at him.
“I just-“ he continued quickly, “thought it had been a really long time since we hung out together.”
Kei chuckled softly, “what are you talking about? We hung out during Hikaru’s birthday, remember? We went to that nice little restaurant, where they had the best curry-rice I have ever tasted I might add, with the rest of BEST.”
“I know, I remember,” Kouta mumbled, choosing his words carefully, “but I was talking about us. As in; the two of us. It’s been a while since we did something together.”
Kei scratched the back of his head, nodding slowly at this. “That’s true, that has been a while indeed.”
“So…” Kouta continued, “what about; we catch a movie together, tonight?”
Kei furrowed his brows, throwing a glance at the book that would probably end up gathering dust somewhere in a forgotten corner of his room. Nearly, he decided to disincline the offer the older had made him, but Kouta’s deep brown puppy-eyes proved themselves a stronger weapon than any book he would ever come across.
“Okay, okay we’ll catch a movie tonight,” he grinned and Kouta pumped his fist in the air.
“Hah!” He exclaimed victoriously, jumping off the couch and grabbing his leather jacket, fumbling in its pockets.
The younger of two blinked, “what are you doing?”
“Getting my phone,” Kouta answered as he pulled the black device out of his pockets and flipped it over, “I’m going to reserve tickets so we’ll be sure of good seats and you can’t blow me off anymore.”
Once again, Kei raised a brow with the intention to tell his older friend this wasn’t a date or anything but before he could say anything Kouta had already rushed to the hall so he could tall properly on the phone and reserve their tickets. Kei shrugged to himself, he figured Kouta knew.
Euphoria
It was nice to see Kei had actually taken the liberty to dress up nice for their movie-date. Usually the college-student complained that he had no time for shopping and keeping up with fashion trends, like he used to do when JUMP debuted and he was still a mere high schooler.
Things were different now, and where Kei usually would spend his time joking around with his friends and keeping himself updated about the newest trends, he now found himself sitting in the library, bending over backwards to figure out the answer to one of his questions. Not that he minded, at the very least. Education was very important, and he was fully aware of the fact that fame would not last forever. He wanted to be at least slightly prepared for when that happened.
However, pleasantly surprised with a night out of the books, Kei had decided it wouldn’t be too bad if he properly opened up his closet and find something that was even nicer than he regular clothes. Because, he thought with a smirk as he skimmed through the closet, even his regular, supposed to be none fashionable, clothes were more than nice.
Kouta had already been waiting when Kei arrived, dressed in a dark denim and a white shirt with a silver print on it. It was simple, but together with his raven dark hair and pale skin a nice combination to look at.
Kouta grinned at him, teasingly whistling between his teeth. “Looking good, Kei-chan.”
“You ought to know that by now,” the younger man huffed, giving Kouta a small, playful slap on the shoulder. “So, what movie did you have in mind?”
“Ah! I might not tell you,” Kouta grinned at him, hiding the tickets behind is back.
Curiously, Kei peered over his shoulder trying to catch a glance of the tickets in his hand, but the older man moved them further away.
“Oh, come on Kouta!” Kei wined, reaching for the tickets while Kouta kept his body and the tickets at a safe distance (which wasn’t all to hard, after all he had longer arms and he was quite a bit taller than Kei was), “don’t be so childish! I just want to see which movie I’m going to watch.”
“Okay, okay,” the lanky man finally gave in and before he could give Kei the ticket himself, the raven had already snatched one of them out of his hand.
“The next 3 days,” he read aloud in his horrible accented English. He looked up from the paper, his dark orbs observing Kouta. “A foreign movie?”
“Yeah…” Kouta uttered, scratching his neck in embarrassment now he wasn’t totally sure anymore whether the choice he made was the right one.
“What’s it about?” Kei asked as he seemed to observe his ticket with a great interest.
“It’s a suspense movie, about a mother being accused of murder, right before Christmas. My brother watched it earlier and according to him, it’s really good.”
Kei’s eyes lid up at the word ‘suspense’ and quickly he reached for Kouta’s arm and dragged him towards the cinema, exclaiming, “I love suspense, stupid! Couldn’t you tell me earlier?”
Too busy with babbling about the amount of suspense movies he had already seen and how he had figured them out before the end was even there, Kei didn’t saw the lights dancing in Kouta’s eyes and the big warm smile that had formed itself on his lips.
While Kei was busy with the movie, all Kouta could feel was Kei’s smaller hand fitting perfectly in his.
Destruction
“Hikaru and Kei-chan, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-THAT HURTS HIKARU, JERK!“ Daiki’s loud squeaky voice filled their dressing room. With squinted eyes he rubbed his head, the place where Hikaru had just whacked him and watched how the older man moved back to Kei and made himself comfortable. The raven contently rested his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder as they laced their fingers and completely drifted off to their own little world.
Daiki started to complain to their mental leader, about how he should be able to protect him from Kouta’s best friend and his violent antics. But Kouta wasn’t listening either. He too, was somewhere far away in his own world.
Kouta had been practically floating on air ever since their date, or… that was what he at the time thought it was.
Aside from him holding Kei’s hand for a while, nothing had happened and that maybe should have been a sign. He should have seen it coming, and mentally he blamed himself for letting his emotions take over his healthy common sense. He told himself, if he hadn’t, he would have seen it coming all along.
When he, two days after the movies, entered the dressing room, he stumbled upon Kei and Hikaru. Making out. From there on, everything he had said or done was as if some one else controlled him and his emotions. As if that person knew what he was feeling and thinking was wrong and as if they it was some kind of defense system, that person made him say and do everything opposite from what he wanted to do.
He congratulated them, stupidly.
Said he saw it coming, he hadn’t.
Said he was happy for them, he was everything but.
Hikaru admitted he was glad Kouta fully supported them, he had been afraid of his reaction. After all they had been friends for such a long time and yet Hikaru had kept everything to himself. He was relieved Kouta wasn’t mad for keeping this a secret from him he just had no idea how to bring it up. He was glad to have a friend like Kouta, who understood him so much.
Kouta clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white, ready to punch the living daylight out of his best friend’s eyes, but one glance at Kei and all his feelings of hate disappeared and left him with nothing but an empty, hollow sadness.
The way Kei looked up at Hikaru. How he clutched the younger male’s arm, tightly, as if he was afraid to lose him. Kei was in love. Everyone, even Kouta, could see as much. And Hikaru clearly felt the same way.
Jokingly he had said, “you better not make him cry Hika, I know where to find you.”
The answer had been a kiss, planted in Kei’s hair and the words lovingly spoken. “I would never do anything to hurt him.”
Yabu was sure he could hear his own heart breaking.
Despair
Kouta didn’t feel like himself. He didn’t feel like eating his favorite undon noodles. He allowed Ryutaro and Ryosuke to have their eternal fights, without putting them to a halt when things seemed to get out of hand. He wasn’t even able to help Yuto with picking out a favorite soccer club.
All he did was taking sneak peaks at Hikaru and Kei who happily joked with each other about what they would get one another for Christmas and shared little intimidate moments in the dressing room when they were under the impression no one was looking.
It made the almost 21-year old feel hollow and empty and he was pretty sure he would never feel love and happiness ever again. He felt like one of those girls, in cheesy B-drama’s.
He had laughed about them in the past and criticized them for being so weak and letting a mere emotion sucking the liveliness out of their eyes, but now he finally was in their position, he felt nothing but compassion for them. He knew what they were going through.
After he had seen enough from Hikaru and Kei’s mushy being in love, he escaped out of the dressing room, wanting nothing but watching one of those silly drama’s where the heroine always got the person she wanted.
It was silly, he didn’t even consider himself as a girl or anything. Nor was he one to let himself being overpowered by an emotion, a feeling he harbored for someone else. He hated it. The loneliness and pain in his heart. The sharp stabs too. He just wanted to cry but didn’t allow himself, it wasn’t Yabu Kouta-like.
And seeing nothing seemed to stay true to himself, he figured he could at least pretend he did.
Rebuilding
Oddly enough, Kouta’s silent moments of break downs were disturbed by someone an awfully a lot. There was Yuya, who happily seemed to butt in and distract Kouta’s attention for a while.
Always, before Kouta was able to completely escape everyone, Yuya bounced his way always the same smile plastered on his face.
Yuya and he didn’t talk much and he just allowed himself to be dragged off somewhere.
Sometimes he would be taken along to the A.B.C.z dressing room where Totssu tried to pump him up for an upcoming game, while Yuya happily talked to Hasshi about… Whatever Yuya and Hasshi talked about. That seemed to be more improving for his mood than soccer in the end. Not because he didn’t love Tottsu and his stories, but because Yuya’s infectious laughter would fill the room, causing Kouta’s lips to curl upwards.
Other times they would just watch silly movies, mostly about cute baby animals on Yuya’s phone and Kouta could almost feel a smile growing on his face again as a young kitten bounced over the screen.
And only once, when Kouta had to witness Kei and Hikaru telling each other that they loved each other, Yuya had taken his hand and had dragged him off to the nearest closet.
“Cry,” he had demanded his voice soft but fierce enough for Kouta to lean his head on Yuya’s chest and cry like he had wanted to do for a very long time. Afterwards Yuya had dried his tears with the edge of his sleeve and smiled to him. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Kouta had just pulled him into a hug. There was no ‘thank you’ needed. Yuya got it anyway.
Realization
It was Christmas and to his own surprise, Kouta had been able to endure Hikaru and Kei. He even had been able to sincerely laugh about a joke Hikaru cracked. It had been a while.
He blinked when Kei pulled himself out of Hikaru’s tight embrace and smacked the younger boy on the head as he whined because he had to miss a warm body against his.
Kei had grabbed his arm, and unlike before there was no spark. No hurdle of butterflies that wanted to throw a party in the pit of his stomach and dazed Kouta allowed himself to be dragged along with Kei (who was much stronger than he appeared to be).
“I hope you have a nice present for Yuyan,” he raven quirked his brow at Kouta who merely scratched the back of his head.
“Oh come on Kouta! People are already betting on when you guys decide to make it official!”
“Wha-what official?” Kouta squeaked in surprise.
Immediately Kei bit his lower lip, however his dark brown eyes were still aimed at the taller male.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed it!”
“Okay,” Kouta answered sheepishly, “I won’t tell you.”
There was a flick on the back of his head and Kei shook his head, “you are… Honestly the most oblivious man on earth sometimes. Even Ryutaro saw it! And he is 15, Kouta, 15! He knows nothing about love.”
“Wai-Wait. Are you saying Yuyan is in love with me?”
There was a silence in which Kei observed Kouta’s shocked expression, deciding on the fact that he wasn’t joking around. He laughed, “I wasn’t talking about Yuya! You idiot! I was talking about you.”
“Me-Me?”
“Yeah,” Kei grinned, “every time Yuya walk in, you have this really big stupid grin on your face and I don’t even want to know what you guys are doing when you leave, but when you leave you always seem so… Out of it. And when you return with him, you’re always happy. You shine.”
Kei paused for a bit, patting his older friend on the shoulder, “have you ever thought of the fact that you might be in love with Yuya?”
He hadn’t. He hadn’t thought about it. But the way Kei said it. It seemed so clear.
Quickly, he pulled Kei into a hug. The younger too surprised to resist, letting out a small yelp.
Nothing. No butterflies. No thinly skin. Just Kei.
“Kei, tell me you love Hikaru.”
“Why?”
“Just do it, please,” Kouta’s voice pleaded softly.
“I-I love Hikaru,” Kei said, still slightly taken aback.
Nothing. No sharp stab through his heart. No pain or loneliness.
Quickly he released Kei from his grip as he started running. He looked back over his shoulder at his flabbergasted friend and yelled. “Thank you, Kei-chan! I owe you one!”
Love
It wasn’t hard to find Yuya, huddling with some of the Kansai Juniors. It was Junta who pointed out that Kouta was in the door opening trying to catch his breathe.
“Kou?” Yuya asked, his light brown eyes looking at him with curiosity, “something wrong?”
“Yes,” Kouta answered in all earnestly, “very. Will you please-come with me?”
Quickly Yuya got up, saying goodbye the juniors and taking the hand Kouta had offered him.
As If it was and adrenaline shock, his blood started streaming, the huddle of butterflies started to become active and Kouta could feel Yuya’s warm hand in his, the touch radiating through his entire body. He knew Kei was right now.
He took Yuya to the roof, not minding the cold that met him when they stepped outside.
“What-I thought there was something wrong?” Yuya frowned, looking around him.
“There is,” Kouta stated firmly, his hand refusing to release Yuya’s. “I’m an idiot.”
Yuya chuckled softly, looking at him with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes anda small grin teasing his lips. “You are if you don’t tell me why.”
“Because I’ve been in love all along and I totally did it wrong,” Kouta answered and Yuya looked away.
“Oh…”
“You see, there is this awesome person, that always makes me smile and makes me heart skip a bit, but I’ve been an incredible jerk because I sort of ignored him all the time.”
“I’m pretty sure Inoo-chan doesn’t even notice you ignoring him, he’s way too occupied with Hikaru,” Yuya mumbled and Kouta could feel the grip on his hand tighten.
There was a soft chuckle coming from the older of two as he pulled Yuya’s body closer to his and he whispered next to Yuya’s ear, “Kei-chan is not the one I’m talking about.”
He could hear Yuya’s surprised squeak and the body in his arms tense. “You mean-“
“I mean, I’m a dickhead who forgot to buy this awesome person a present for Christmas, but I guess I have something better.”
“Like what?” Finally Yuya seemed to be back to his senses, and he sounded a little bit amused.
“Like this,” Kouta mused, before his lips captured Yuya’s.
Swiftly, Yuya warped his long arms around Kouta’s next and pulled the other closer.
Sheepishly, he grinned into the kiss. “I guess this is what I have to work with then. I do have a present for you though, I prepared it a long time ago but I had no idea whether you wanted it.”
Kouta’s head moved back a little to completely face Yuya. “What? Now I feel even worse, what did you prepare-“
The middle of his sentence got cut by Yuya’s lips on his and when the younger finally pulled back he laughed.
“Cheater.”
“Shut up, you love it.”
Kouta laughed again, running his hand through Yuya’s soft hair.
Yuya was right. He did.