[One Shot] Promise
Title: Promise
Group: Hey!Say!JUMP
Characters: Yabu/Takaki + Hasshi
Genre: Slight angst, friendship, romance
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 6700
Disclaimer: This is purely fiction.
Summary: Best friends from the orphanage, Yabu was adopted at 15, leaving Takaki behind (who had fallen in love, oh the tragedy). Yabu promised to come back for him, but with a new life to fill out and discover, that promise was soon forgotten. Reunited under the most unexpected circumstances, Yabu realizes that he's always loved Takaki. Unfortunately, the other boy has been more than slightly jaded. Yabu has the Christmas season to win Takaki back or he'll lose him forever.
A/N: This one is requested by Rinnie (crazy_otaku911 ) I hope you like it bb ;~~;
When Yuya and Kouta met, the both of them had been a mere 4 years old. Kouta had lived in the orphanage since he was a baby, Yuya came later, no one knew why.
On their first meeting, Kouta made little Yuya cry, because as the little alpha-male in the making as he was, he refused to let the new child join in their game of tag. Sneering he had said it was for him and he didn’t to be friends with Yuya. The younger boy sniffled and his big brown eyes had filled themselves with large crystal-like tears. Kouta had panicked, because he never meant to make the other toddler cry and in a futile attempt to make it stop he had squeaked, “You’re a boy right?”
The other merely nodded at this, as he softly started sobbing. Kouta pouted and stomped his little foot on the floor.
“Then don’t cry! Boys can’t cry!”
The younger boy hiccupped as he tried to dry his tears with the edge of his dirty sleeve, “bu-but I’m a boy, and I’m crying.”
It was true and for once Kouta had no witty answer to this. He bit his lower lip in defeat as the other’s sobs became louder and he couldn’t do anything to stop them. He hated seeing others cry, whether they were his friends or not. People looked better when they laughed.
When the staff came to check up the playing children and heard some loud wailing, she popped her head into the little playhouse the children had made to see what was going on. Upon seeing what was going on inside, she had troubles keeping a straight face and in order to keep the smile from cracking open on her face she bit on her lower lip.
In a corner were little Kouta and Yuya, huddled next to each other, holding one another with their tiny arms, as the both of them bailed their eyes out.
Without saying a word, she slid her head back before they would notice her and she closed the curtains in front of the windows to keep the other kids away.
Starting from that day on, Kouta and Yuya were best friends.
“Yuya! Yuya!” Kouta’s shrill pre-mature voice filled their shared bedroom and with droopy eyes the younger one looked up from his nap.
“Make room for me, sleepy head!”
Kouta shoved him to the side and sat down next to him on the bed. Almost instinctively Yuya planted his head in the older boy’s lap. It was warm and comfortable and he could inhale the other’s always apparent scent without looking and feeling like an entire creeper.
The older giggled as he ran a hand through the younger’s jet-black hair, his long fingers curling into the soft strands and tickling the skin that was hiding underneath it. Yuya scooped a little closer and buried his nose into Kouta’s lap with a slight grin, hiding his cheeks that were now colored with a bright red share.
“Yuyan… There his something very important I have to tell you.”
From loud and playful the older boy’s had suddenly turned soft and tender. Forgotten about the fact that he was hiding his cheeks, the young teen looked up, his eyes meeting his best friend’s.
Kouta bit his lower lip, his gaze shifting through the room a little bit. He took a deep sigh and Yuya felt his chest swelling up at the other’s awkward antics.
“You know, that couple that have been visiting us for quite a while now?” The older started, and younger one could feel his heart sinking, “they have decided to adopt someone. To adopt… me.”
Quickly Yuya sat up, his body screaming for the warmth and comfort that was Kouta, his mind however refusing to listen.
“That-That’s really nice, you can finally get away from here,” the younger spoke, not even managing to make his voice sound neutral. Instead it sounded fake and out of place. He turned his back towards the older as he fidgeted with the edge of his blanket, trying to hold back the tears that eventually would come as long as he could.
“Yuyan…”
Two arms encircled around his body, pulling him back against Kouta’s small chest and he felt his body being turned around. “Yuyan, listen to me. Nothing will change between us.”
Yuya’s lower lip started to tremble, his eyes refused to meet the worried ones that were looking down at him.
“How can you say that?! You will go and have a nice family while I will stay here, all alone in this dump. You will be forgotten about me the moment you step outside,” he spat, his voice steadier than he had expected it to be.
He sounded hurt, accusing. A pointing finger that told Kouta his happiness was wrong.
He felt bad because he knew that getting out of there was practically every child’s dream. One that usually faded the moment they turned 6 and started to have an own opinion, making most potential parents turn away from them. After all, they weren’t adorable and little anymore.
The dream usually started to relive as soon as they turned 16, it meant you were only two years away from adulthood, from freedom.
Yuya just couldn’t help it but feeling abandoned and betrayed by the older boy that had been here with him for the past 11 years.
“How can you say that? You are my best friend!” Kouta exclaimed as he pulled Yuya’s body back, closer to his.
Almost, the younger man relaxed, placing his head on the other’s smaller framed chest and listening to his heartbeat and ever so regular breathing. However, before his thoughts became hazed because of the warm feelings recurrence, pushing the other’s arms off him.
“You’re going to make other friends. Better ones.”
“They will never be as awesome as you are, Yuyan please listen to me. You trust me, don’t you?”
Kouta’s voice sounded so strong, so confident and yet so pleading that the younger boy found himself slowly nodding and his words, despite the fact that he had still troubles believing them.
“You’re my best friend in the whole wide world, and I promise you, as soon as I know how; I’ll come back for you. Until that day, I’ll write you every week-no, make that every day!”
“Promise?” Yuya sniffled, trying to gain some confidence in what the older said and in response Kouta nodded. “Pinky-promise?” Yuya added, causing the other to chuckle softly.
“Pinky-promise,” he said as he pulled out his smallest finger and showed it to his younger friend.
Yuya smiled watery as he linked his pinky with the other’s, feeling a slight feeling of reassurance. Kouta would come back for him, they would be reunited once again. He promised.
It would take a little over a month before everything was settled and Kouta would officially become Yabu Kouta, a last name he didn’t quite fancy seeing the character for his last name was the one used for ‘bush.’
As if he was never going to leave, Yuya endlessly teased him with it, this usually ending in stupid pillow fights and a lot of shattering laughter because the older boy had set a tickle-attack on him. It was their last month the orphanage and maybe the best month they had ever spent together.
During that month, many times Yuya had wanted to pull Kouta aside and confess something to him. But it never seemed like the right moment and even when it was, he couldn’t get the words past his lips. Looking into Kouta’s warm brown eyes, he had the biggest trouble voicing these feelings that he was pretty sure of, they wouldn’t be returned anyway. He knew Kouta loved him, just not like he loved Kouta.
The month passed, faster than both boys would have wanted and on the day of Kouta’s department, Yuya fount himself sitting in their once shared room. He looked around, seeing the empty shelves, the places on the wall that used to be covered with soccer players whose names he couldn’t even pronounce and the unmade bed in front of him. It made him feel like they all represented the emptiness in his heart he was already starting to feel.
In the hall he could hear excited voices of people that were making their way to the door to wave Kouta goodbye. He shook his head, they were happy for him, but he just couldn’t join their excitement. Instead of giving him hope, that he too would be released out of this place sooner than his 18th birthday, it just scared him that when he would get out of this, he would be all alone.
A few minutes before, Kouta had stepped into their room for the last time, picking up his last belongings and bidding farewell to the room that had been his, theirs, for the past 10 years.
A tear had rolled down his cheek, and he had asked Yuya to come and wave him goodbye, just as a formality, because it wasn’t really goodbye, anyway. He would come back and get Yuya as soon as he could.
“I’ll be right up,” Yuya had smiled and Kouta had left, the heavy suitcase dragging behind him.
But as much as he wanted, Yuya couldn’t force his body to get up, get out and wave at his friend who would drive out of his life, along with his new parents and their big fancy car. He couldn’t, because he didn’t want to. Because as long as he would stay here, he could still tell himself Kouta wasn’t really leaving.
Outside, he heard a car getting started, the engineer making a soft rumbling sound, the sound of the start of his life without Kouta.
“But Masuda-san! Yuya hasn’t come outside yet,” he heard Kouta’s desperate voice from the hallway.
“Kouta-kun, it’s time to go now,” a voice foreign to him spoke and by the tone of it he figured it was Kouta’s new mom who said it.
“But Yabu-san my best friend-“
“The plane won’t wait for us, Kouta-kun,” the woman spoke and Yuya bit his lower lip. A plane? Yabu would be that far away?
“Yuyan?” Kouta’s desperate voice came from the hallway.
Yuya didn’t answer, and he heard Kouta sighing loud and disappointed. He heard the clacking of heels and in the distance a man’s voice telling them they were already a tad off of the schedule.
There was slamming with car doors and Yuya could hear some of the girls crying while the boys screamed their last farewells at the car. He looked at the door, in a bit Kouta would be gone and Yuya hadn’t even properly said goodbye yet.
Quickly the 15-tear old pushed his body off the bed and he ran out of the door. Through the hallway. Down the stairs, skipping the last few steps. Running he dashed through the corridors, once outside pushing the people that were waving at the leaving car aside. He had to at least see Kouta one more time.
He saw the big black car taking off, but instead of giving up he started running faster. He heard some of the younger children shriek and Masuda-san’s voice that yelled that he had to come back. But Yuya didn’t listen and he frantically waved with both his hands in the air he followed the car as fast as his legs permitted him.
Almost had he given up when a head with black hair popped out of the car.
“Yuyan!!! You’re late!”
Yuya could feel the tears welling up behind his eyes as he cried back, “I know!!”
“I’m going to miss you!” Kouta yelled back, “I’ll write you! I promise! Wait for me!”
The car turned around the corner and Yuya felt that his legs were starting to give up, nonetheless he tried speeding up one last time, “wait Kouta! I-I love-“
But it was already too late. The black hair had disappeared into the car, which now took off at full speed.
It was the last time Yuya saw Kouta.
At first, Kouta kept his promise and he wrote Yuya as much as he could. He told his best friend about how awkward it felt, suddenly being Mr. and Mrs. Yabu’s son, the fancy high school they made him go to and how, for the first time in his life, he was able to attend real soccer trainings and play games. He never failed to keep the younger updated about his life, but gradually he became busier.
Kouta started to get used to his life outside the orphanage, and he had less time he had to write Yuya. He always had been a social butterfly and soon he had found himself some friends, in and out school.
He was dragged along to popular hang-outs after soccer training or prep-school and when he wasn’t hanging out with his friends, playing soccer or doing his homework, he actually took the time to socialize with his parents. They were nice people and it didn’t take long for him to genuinely love the couple.
In between all this he barely found the time to sit down and write letters and from endless long, detailed letters that came almost every day, his letters became shorter and it took longer for them to arrive. In the end, they were more like hastily written notes that would arrive so every once in a while, as if suddenly remembered they had to be written and sent.
After a while, the young Yabu Kouta simply forgot to write and by the time he was 17 he had even gone as far as losing the paper where the address of his former home was scribbled on.
They were in the middle of moving, and somewhere along the way in all the boxes and messes the paper had gone lost. Now, normally he could have used the address that was always neatly scribbled on the back of Yuya’s envelopes. But because the younger boy wasn’t in possession of his new address, no new letters would arrive.
Sometimes he would look at the little box where he still kept all the letters of his former best friend and feel bad about the fact that he hadn’t been able to at least fulfill his promise of writing. At times like that his phone would buzz and a mail from one of his new friends would take away the attention of his old one.
However, until his last day in the orphanage, Yuya waited for the letters to arrive. He was the first one to wake up and check the mail. Shimmering though all the cards and letters that weren’t his, he disposed them in their rightful kid’s self-made mailbox, as well those from the staff.
Afterwards he would sneak to the kitchen and venture his disappointment out on the food. He’d make breakfast, along the way being helped by other early birds that woke up from the smell of freshly baked breath or bacon and eggs and when everything was done, he’d take a plate with him to his room and stay there for the most of the day. Aside from dinner and the occasional meeting that was held in the big shared living room.
Kouta’s leave hadn’t left him to be the most sociable person around, but that didn’t change the fact that he felt like he was going to miss the orphanage the day he’d leave for himself. The children’s laughter, the jokes and stories he was able to share with the elders because of his age, waking up and always being around people. He’d grown to love it, despite the fact there was always this biting feeling of loss. The orphanage and its daily rituals had become a part of him.
The day to his 18th birthday came closer and Yuya had to find a job and a place to live. He had been homeschooled and little to no social experience aside from talking to the people in the orphanage, but with the help of Masuda-san he found something he felt like he wanted to do.
He became a kitchen help in a big fancy hotel. He would get educated in the catering fields, a place to stay and even a decent pay. Just like as when he lived in the orphanage he would get up early, cook for people and be in their company without necessarily having to socialize with them. It was the perfect solution and yet…
The day he left, he had nothing but a big suitcase and smaller bag with his passport and other convenient stuff. He looked around, seeing the faces he grew up with. The faces of those who would follow in his footsteps and one day would stand here on the same spot as he now did.
He smiled at them, receiving a card from one of the smaller girls and a warm hug from good old Masuda-san, who told him that if everything would fail, there would always a bed for him here.
He smiled and nodded, turning away from everyone, looking over his shoulder and waving one last time before looking out on an empty lane.
He had dreamed of Kouta, standing there with his trademark old-man’s smile, telling him he was here to fulfill his promise. But as expected dreams were meant for sleeping and were not to raise ones expectations. The lane remained empty, so did the spot in Yuya’s heart.
It was then, that Yuya decided Kouta was a memory for the past and he would now concentrate on his future.
He picked up the suitcase, swung the bag over his shoulder and under loud cheers of the orphanage he walked down the lane, to his buss stop where he would take the first bus to a better future.
“Yuya, Yuya, Yuuuuuuyaaaa!!! Wake up!”
“Devil child,” Yuya muttered in his pillow as he felt someone wagging his arm from left to right.
Lazily he opened one eye and he looked straight into the face of Hashimoto Ryosuke. The boy was 17 and with that 3 years younger as Yuya himself was at this point. He was the son of their chef cook.
Ryosuke, or Hasshi as he preferred to be called, was a clever kid who’s appearance was older than his real age and who never failed to make Yuya smile because of his bold antics and silly ideas.
The boy had been around from as long as he started in the hotel, but since his 16th birthday he had permanently taking residence there, becoming Yuya’s roommate (if he hadn’t already before that).
While Yuya after 2 years was still aimlessly doing little chores, taking up a thousand different jobs and tasting the diversity of working in the catering, Hasshi was already set on being a top cook and excelling his father while doing so.
He was still a mere kitchen help at this point, but Yuya was sure he was going to see the day Hasshi’s dream would come true.
“Why the hurry?” Yuya muttered slowly, as he scrambled up while Hasshi was already running around in their room, trying to find his uniform.
“Those rich people Azaki-san has been telling us about have arrived and you are the one who has the guide them,” the younger of two squeaked, falling on his bed as he tried to put on his pants and shirt at the same time.
“Me?” Yuya scratched the back of his head as he tried to recall any instructions given to him about that matter, “and why are you the one hurrying then?”
Hasshi blinked and blankly stared at his outfit for a bit, “I… Have no idea.”
The two boys laughed and finally Yuya got up from his bed, pulling a toothbrush and a washing cloth from his drawer. “I’ll be washing myself then. After all, we can’t let the rich people hang out with filthy people like us.”
Hasshi blinked and shrugged, “from what I saw, their kid looks pretty cool. He’s older than me probably, but he didn’t look like a spoiled brat. He’s the reason they want you, so he has someone to talk with.”
Yuya grumbled, “Can’t he find friends on his own or something?”
But Hasshi didn’t answer and Yuya walked to their shared bathroom to get ready for who-ever it was that he would work for today.
Really, Kouta felt embarrassed at the fact his parents had asked the staff to find him someone to hang out with. Not only wasn’t he able to spend Christmas with his friends like he originally had planned, but also did it mean that he had someone assigned to like him. He could make friends on his own.
Lazing around in the lobby, sticking around to where his parents were, he waited for the person that would guide them around the unfamiliar terrain.
“Mr. and Mrs. Yabu, thank you for waiting,” a jovial voice sounded through the hall and Kouta and his parents looked up at a man who was followed by a younger man.
“This is the boy that will guide you for today, Takaki-kun, if you would be so polite to introduce yourself?”
However, the young man seemed unable of speaking as he gaped at the persons in front of him. Kouta looked up and saw why.
Quickly he stumbled off his chair and nearly had he swung his arms around the male in front of him. “Yu-Yuya?”
Yuya blinked, keeping silent for a while.
“Yuya, it’s me, Kouta! Don’t tell me you don’t remember me?”
Finally, it seemed like Yuya had gotten his voice back, as he slowly spoke, “I-I do. It’s good to see you are doing well Kou-Yabu-kun.”
He turned away from Kouta who was stunned by the fact his childhood best friend had just assigned him with his last name, and Yuya quickly bow towards his parents. “Mr. and Mrs. Yabu, thank you for coming here for today, I am Takaki Yuya, your guide and help for the day, ma’am, let me hold that bag for you as I show you the way to the gardens.”
The rest of the day proceeded and Kouta couldn’t help but feel awkwardly giddy at Yuya’s presence, who at his turn completely seemed to ignore him.
The younger boy spoke about the beautiful gardens, their various amount of kitchens and the high quality of their rooms. He informed Kouta’s parents about the festivities they held for Christmas and animatedly told them about the hotel.
It wasn’t hard for Kouta to see Yuya loved the hotel and to notice the exited shimmer in his eyes as he spoke about his life here.
However, Kouta could also see how Takaki’s soft brown eyes avoided his, and how, aside from talking about the hotel, he seemed to refuse to hold any type of conversation with him. Kouta had to admit, it made him feel sad. Seeing Yuya here, at this place, he realized how much he had missed the younger boy’s presence.
His new friends were cool and he loved them. But he hadn’t lied on the day he had told Yuya he would have to leave soon. None of them was as awesome as he was.
The day passed quicker than Kouta had thought it would, and they ended up in the hall all together.
“Well sweetheart,” his mother spoke, “your father and I are going to check out that pool Takaki-kun told us about. I think you two want some time to chat up, after all, it has been a while. You have the key to our room, we’ll see you when you feel the time is there.”
Kouta nodded and Yuya smiled emotionlessly at the woman.
She and her husband left and Kouta turned towards the younger man.
“So… How have you been?”
Yuya shrugged, slightly angered at the causality Kouta spoke with. As if nothing ever happened.
“If you would have read all those letters I’ve sent you, you would have known.”
Kouta felt his heart drop at this.
“I-I never meant to-we moved and I lost your address.”
Yuya turned away from him, his first intention was just to walk away and leave Kouta hanging there, but it seemed like the other genuinely thought he would buy that crap about losing his address and he felt anger taking the best of him.
“And of course you weren’t in the possession of internet to look it up. We lived in a orphanage after all, the address was top secrets and super hard too find. Come one Kouta, be a man and admit you didn’t felt like writing you stupid childhood friend that you would never see again anyway.”
Now maybe was the good time to stand up and walk away, Yuya thought scrambling up his feet and taking off without letting the other neither confirm nor deny it.
“Yuyan?”
The younger turned around, seeing the black-haired male looking down and hopelessly fumbling with the hem of his shirt. He didn’t answer to the once so familiar nickname, but just raised his brow in a questioning manner, too mad to even talk.
“I really did mean to come back for you...”
Yuya’s lower lip twitched, “I know you did.” He turned around again and started making his way to his destination again, but as if he was forgotten something he stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. “But you didn’t, while I was really waiting.”
The next day, Yuya acted like nothing had ever happened between to two and though he didn’t have to guide the Yabu’s around this time, he stuck around Kouta like his boss had instructed him to do.
More than once, Kouta had tried to start a conversation, but Yuya’s short and defensive answers had cut off the other’s words and it didn’t take long for all they did was sitting around in the lobby and awkwardly trying to make it look like they were enjoying themselves. After all, Yuya’s shifts weren’t over until 9 and he had already taken too much of a risk when he walked away yesterday.
Kouta felt miserable, and he knew it was his own fault. If only he had stuck to his promise of writing Yuya and keeping him up to date about his life. Being around the younger made him realize that he had missed everything, their fleeting touches, his giggles, the bright smile that always played on his lips.
Kouta saw them, because Yuya reserved them for other people. The smiles, the giggles, they disappeared as soon as Yuya was reminded to the fact he had to spend time with Kouta, and that was probably the part that hurt the most.
Three days like this passed. Kouta trying to build up conversation, to reminisce about the past only to be cut of by Yuya who lazily followed him around to pretty much anywhere.
It broke Kouta’s heart, feeling so far away while he was actually next to him. He felt little pinches of jealousy as Yuya talked to other staff-members, showing them the smile he hid for Kouta, tapping them on the shoulder while he refused to come closer than 50 centimeters and calling them out of karaoke later on the day when he was off duty and Kouta was none of his concern anymore.
The jealousy, or rather the fact that he knew it was jealousy that he felt, hit the 20-year old hard and it was then that he realized; he was probably in love with Yuya.
No, correct that, he probably always had been in love with Yuya but just too blind to see it. And now it was too late. After all he would leave in 3 days and Yuya wouldn’t even look at him.
Hasshi was sick of it. Every time Yuya walked in their shared room he has this constantly displeased expression lingering on his face. He was grumpy, no fun, hardly able to joke with and it didn’t seem like he was going to talk about it.
Hasshi was sick of it, so he decided he was going to fix this by himself.
It wasn’t all that hard to find the boy who Hasshi expected to be the reason behind Yuya’s behavior. Either the young man was hanging in the lobby, trying to catch the wi-fi with his laptop, or he was in the bigger lounge watching the soccer games that were displayed on the big screen.
Casually Hasshi dropped his body down next to the older man, and with a serious voice he spoke, “we have to talk.”
Kouta blinked at him, but recognizing the boy as one of the people Yuya had been friendly with, he nodded.
“You know Yuya, don’t you?”
A nod.
“And you also know why he’s acting like he does?”
There was hesitation, but again the older man nodded and Hasshi knew he was doing the right thing.
“Would you like to tell me?”
The other didn’t speak, and Hasshi bit his lower lip.
“Look, Yuya has been my friend ever since he came here, but he says he doesn’t use the word ‘best friend’ because it brings bad memories along with it. He was always quite happy, not out-going or anything, but simply happy. Now you come, and he is nothing but a grumpy mess in my room, and if you know how to fix this, please help me. I don’t want him to be like this. He seems more than just mad, he seems really sad about this too.”
The look in Kouta’s eyes softened as he looked at his hands, “I’m the reason Yuya doesn’t like the word ‘best friends’.”
Before Hasshi could ask why, Kouta started telling. About the orphanage, about how he they had been the best of friends and about how he was adopted at a really late age. He told him about his promise, about the letters and how he had stopped writing them. He ended his story with how happy he had been when he saw Yuya again, but how Yuya seemed to loath him in return and how he didn’t had the slightest idea how to fix it.
In the mean time, Hasshi had listened, his mouth shut, his eyes fixed on the lanky male in front of him. The way he spoke, the way he told about Yuya and their time together.
“You really love him, don’t you?” The younger asked bluntly when Kouta was finished and he saw how the older’s expression became shocked. Hasshi might not looked like it, nor did he act like it most of the time, but he was pretty sharp when it came to people. And even when he hadn’t been, it didn’t take much for anyone to see what was going on between the two of them.
“I-I well…”
“Listen up… Err…” Hasshi scratched the back of his head, “I didn’t quite catch your name.”
Kouta chuckled, “my name is Kouta.”
Hasshi grinned back, “listen up Kouta, I have a plan.”
It had taken them 2 day before their plan was finalized (Kouta had to explain Hasshi that circus tents really couldn’t be set up just for the sake of their ‘win Yuya back’-plan and like this there were more things that had to be either scrapped or edited in the plan) and that meant there was only one day left for Kouta to make it work.
Hasshi had taken the liberty of accompanying Yuya when he had to spend time with Kouta, making the situation only a little less uncomfortable because that meant Yuya at least spoke to one of them.
In fact, the youngest of 3 had only done this because this would make it seem less suspicious when Kouta and he greeted each other, or gathered in the lounge room, Hasshi excuse being they both loved soccer.
The day had been awkward as ever, with Hasshi basically being the only one to keep the conversation going and Kouta being even more nervous and awkward then he had been before.
It didn’t seem like Yuya had noticed any of the controversy though, and at 9 he bit both Kouta and Hasshi farewell, knowing it would be the last time he’d see Kouta.
As he took off, feeling a slightly bit disappointed Kouta hadn’t tried to stop him after all. Somewhere hidden between all his anger, the little Yuya from back then was still there, waiting to be picked up by his best friend.
He was already half way the lobby when he felt a hand enclosing his and twirling him around.
His first reaction was to yank his hand back and smack whoever had grabbed it in the face, but when he saw it was Kouta he hesitated for a bit.
“Just… Come with me.”
There was something about his voice, about the look in his eyes and maybe about the way he made Yuya feel like he was that 15-year old boy all over again, that made Yuya frown, but agree anyway.
His hand still in Kouta’s the two of them made their way to the little theatre that was located in the back of the hotel. Tomorrow the great Christmas fest would be held here, but right now it was empty. Or… It was supposed to be.
When Yuya stepped him, he got greeted by a sea of colorful candles that all seemed to have a different aroma with them, causing the entire theatre to have this sweet, mild scent. In the center of the spacious room, with white sheets, someone had seemed to create some sort of tent.
Completely forgotten about his anger and sadness, Yuya giddily squeezed Kouta’s hand as they made their way to the middle.
Kouta let him into the tent, where white candles were placed around a table. The table itself was empty aside from two plates, two classes filled with something Yuya expected to be juice or any other non-alcoholic beverage and a silver plate in the middle, filled with different kinds of snacks.
Kouta let go of Yuya’s hand, who had been accustomed to the warmth it had brought along. Yuya had forgotten how natural it felt to hold Kouta hand, and while he still had a straight face, for the first time in days he felt like he was melting down a little.
Yuya stared down at the food and with a small voice Kouta mumbled, “it was made by Hashimoto-kun, I’m sure it tastes really well.”
Yuya merely nodded as he placed a few of the delicious looking snacks on his plate and eyes Kouta who mimicked this gesture.
The older of two looked at Yuya and when Yuya’s gaze shifted a little bit, his gaze got locked by two brown eyes taking him up entirely.
“So…” he mumbled, as he tried to sound casual, he had still troubles admitting Kouta had, just like he had done so many times when they were younger, swept him off his feet, “why did you bring me out here.”
Uneasy, Kouta’s gaze shifted a little bit as if he tried to adjust himself. “I-I…”
“You?” The edginess. Yuya still got it.
“I’m sorry.”
Yuya kept quiet, a silent ‘go on, I need more.’
“I meant what I said, about the writing you, the taking you with me. You were my everything when I still lived in the orphanage, you were what made it worth being there. I just-I was young, I never realized how precious you were, how much you meant to me.” Kouta paused for a bit, his hand trailed over to Yuya’s, but not yet able to grasp It yet. “I was a fool for not writing you, I could have made time-I should have made time for you. Instead I was so into living my new live that I forgot about my old one.”
Yuya bit his lower lip and Kouta shook his head, “I’m saying this wrong. You were never a part of my old life… Yuyan, you were my life. You were what woke me up and what made me go to sleep again. You were what kept me going and when I just started living with Mr. and Mrs. Yabu you were still all that. I started doing soccer because I knew you’d want me to. I started getting new friends to show you that I wouldn’t be lonely, so you wouldn’t be too worried about me. Every single little thing I did, I did it because I was thinking about you. It just took me 5 years and almost a week of being ignored by you to realize it.”
Bu then, Kouta’s fingers gentle touched Yuya’s, silently asking for permission to once again hold his hand. Yuya’s hand didn’t move and Kouta took it as an invitation.
His rank fingers curled around Yuya’s, intertwining them, just like they had once intertwined their pinkies when they made a promise.
All this time Yuya had kept silent. Listening to the words that actually came too late, but that he still had wanted to hear for so long he felt his heart sinking back in his chest. He didn’t even bother wiping away the annoying tear that rolled down his cheek.
Still holding his hand, Yabu got up and made his way around the table. In front of Takaki, he kneeled and looked up.
“I guess, what I have been trying to say is… Yuyan, I love you. I always have loved you.”
Yuya felt like an awkward teenager again, and while he had promised himself 2 years ago, Kouta would be a part of the past, seeing him here in front of him, only made him hink about the possible future.
“Don’t say that when you’re going to leave in a day…” he whispered, “or are you going to promise to write me again, so you can pick me up one day?”
Kouta chuckled softly, “I’m not. Because I’m pretty sure I will never come to pick you up.”
Yuya looked at him, scandalized but before he could pull back his hand and slap the older man across the face, Kouta continued, “because I’m not planning on leaving. They have a nice television here where I can watch my soccer games, and according to Hashimoto-kun, living in the hotel isn’t that bad.”
Yuya opened his mouth to speak but Kouta was faster, “I only need to hear one thing from you, and I’m saying here with you forever.”
Tears now streamed down Yuya’s face again, whether he wanted it or not. “You’re an idiot.”
Kouta grinned as he got up, pulling Yuya up with him. “I guess that’ll do.”
Yuya looked into those brown eyes once again. Three years, it had taken him to put Kouta behind him. Two years it had taken him to get over it. One week he had been able to withstand him and he had been able to tell himself that all of his feelings really were over.
But it had only taken him these few words to bring it all back and as Yuya wrapped his arms around Kouta’s neck, he felt two soft lips dawning upon his.
Hesitatingly he kissed the older back. It was warm, comfortable and so familiar. However, before he was able to sink in, Kouta pulled back and took one of his hands.
Linking their pinkies once again, Kouta pulled Yuya closer once again.
“This time, I promise for real, I’m never letting you go again,” he whispered against Yuya’s lips.
Yuya chuckled, “You better not, since you’re going to be living here, you can’t lose my address this time. We just need to get Hasshi to sleep somewhere else.”
“That’s not a nice way to thank him.”
“He’ll understand.”
“But still-“
“Kouta...”
“Huh?”
“I had to wait for 5 years, shut up and kiss me.”
Kouta chuckled once more. Their pinkies still linked, he pressed his lips upon Yuya’s again, sealing their everlasting promise with a sweet kiss.
Group: Hey!Say!JUMP
Characters: Yabu/Takaki + Hasshi
Genre: Slight angst, friendship, romance
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 6700
Disclaimer: This is purely fiction.
Summary: Best friends from the orphanage, Yabu was adopted at 15, leaving Takaki behind (who had fallen in love, oh the tragedy). Yabu promised to come back for him, but with a new life to fill out and discover, that promise was soon forgotten. Reunited under the most unexpected circumstances, Yabu realizes that he's always loved Takaki. Unfortunately, the other boy has been more than slightly jaded. Yabu has the Christmas season to win Takaki back or he'll lose him forever.
A/N: This one is requested by Rinnie (crazy_otaku911 ) I hope you like it bb ;~~;
When Yuya and Kouta met, the both of them had been a mere 4 years old. Kouta had lived in the orphanage since he was a baby, Yuya came later, no one knew why.
On their first meeting, Kouta made little Yuya cry, because as the little alpha-male in the making as he was, he refused to let the new child join in their game of tag. Sneering he had said it was for him and he didn’t to be friends with Yuya. The younger boy sniffled and his big brown eyes had filled themselves with large crystal-like tears. Kouta had panicked, because he never meant to make the other toddler cry and in a futile attempt to make it stop he had squeaked, “You’re a boy right?”
The other merely nodded at this, as he softly started sobbing. Kouta pouted and stomped his little foot on the floor.
“Then don’t cry! Boys can’t cry!”
The younger boy hiccupped as he tried to dry his tears with the edge of his dirty sleeve, “bu-but I’m a boy, and I’m crying.”
It was true and for once Kouta had no witty answer to this. He bit his lower lip in defeat as the other’s sobs became louder and he couldn’t do anything to stop them. He hated seeing others cry, whether they were his friends or not. People looked better when they laughed.
When the staff came to check up the playing children and heard some loud wailing, she popped her head into the little playhouse the children had made to see what was going on. Upon seeing what was going on inside, she had troubles keeping a straight face and in order to keep the smile from cracking open on her face she bit on her lower lip.
In a corner were little Kouta and Yuya, huddled next to each other, holding one another with their tiny arms, as the both of them bailed their eyes out.
Without saying a word, she slid her head back before they would notice her and she closed the curtains in front of the windows to keep the other kids away.
Starting from that day on, Kouta and Yuya were best friends.
“Yuya! Yuya!” Kouta’s shrill pre-mature voice filled their shared bedroom and with droopy eyes the younger one looked up from his nap.
“Make room for me, sleepy head!”
Kouta shoved him to the side and sat down next to him on the bed. Almost instinctively Yuya planted his head in the older boy’s lap. It was warm and comfortable and he could inhale the other’s always apparent scent without looking and feeling like an entire creeper.
The older giggled as he ran a hand through the younger’s jet-black hair, his long fingers curling into the soft strands and tickling the skin that was hiding underneath it. Yuya scooped a little closer and buried his nose into Kouta’s lap with a slight grin, hiding his cheeks that were now colored with a bright red share.
“Yuyan… There his something very important I have to tell you.”
From loud and playful the older boy’s had suddenly turned soft and tender. Forgotten about the fact that he was hiding his cheeks, the young teen looked up, his eyes meeting his best friend’s.
Kouta bit his lower lip, his gaze shifting through the room a little bit. He took a deep sigh and Yuya felt his chest swelling up at the other’s awkward antics.
“You know, that couple that have been visiting us for quite a while now?” The older started, and younger one could feel his heart sinking, “they have decided to adopt someone. To adopt… me.”
Quickly Yuya sat up, his body screaming for the warmth and comfort that was Kouta, his mind however refusing to listen.
“That-That’s really nice, you can finally get away from here,” the younger spoke, not even managing to make his voice sound neutral. Instead it sounded fake and out of place. He turned his back towards the older as he fidgeted with the edge of his blanket, trying to hold back the tears that eventually would come as long as he could.
“Yuyan…”
Two arms encircled around his body, pulling him back against Kouta’s small chest and he felt his body being turned around. “Yuyan, listen to me. Nothing will change between us.”
Yuya’s lower lip started to tremble, his eyes refused to meet the worried ones that were looking down at him.
“How can you say that?! You will go and have a nice family while I will stay here, all alone in this dump. You will be forgotten about me the moment you step outside,” he spat, his voice steadier than he had expected it to be.
He sounded hurt, accusing. A pointing finger that told Kouta his happiness was wrong.
He felt bad because he knew that getting out of there was practically every child’s dream. One that usually faded the moment they turned 6 and started to have an own opinion, making most potential parents turn away from them. After all, they weren’t adorable and little anymore.
The dream usually started to relive as soon as they turned 16, it meant you were only two years away from adulthood, from freedom.
Yuya just couldn’t help it but feeling abandoned and betrayed by the older boy that had been here with him for the past 11 years.
“How can you say that? You are my best friend!” Kouta exclaimed as he pulled Yuya’s body back, closer to his.
Almost, the younger man relaxed, placing his head on the other’s smaller framed chest and listening to his heartbeat and ever so regular breathing. However, before his thoughts became hazed because of the warm feelings recurrence, pushing the other’s arms off him.
“You’re going to make other friends. Better ones.”
“They will never be as awesome as you are, Yuyan please listen to me. You trust me, don’t you?”
Kouta’s voice sounded so strong, so confident and yet so pleading that the younger boy found himself slowly nodding and his words, despite the fact that he had still troubles believing them.
“You’re my best friend in the whole wide world, and I promise you, as soon as I know how; I’ll come back for you. Until that day, I’ll write you every week-no, make that every day!”
“Promise?” Yuya sniffled, trying to gain some confidence in what the older said and in response Kouta nodded. “Pinky-promise?” Yuya added, causing the other to chuckle softly.
“Pinky-promise,” he said as he pulled out his smallest finger and showed it to his younger friend.
Yuya smiled watery as he linked his pinky with the other’s, feeling a slight feeling of reassurance. Kouta would come back for him, they would be reunited once again. He promised.
It would take a little over a month before everything was settled and Kouta would officially become Yabu Kouta, a last name he didn’t quite fancy seeing the character for his last name was the one used for ‘bush.’
As if he was never going to leave, Yuya endlessly teased him with it, this usually ending in stupid pillow fights and a lot of shattering laughter because the older boy had set a tickle-attack on him. It was their last month the orphanage and maybe the best month they had ever spent together.
During that month, many times Yuya had wanted to pull Kouta aside and confess something to him. But it never seemed like the right moment and even when it was, he couldn’t get the words past his lips. Looking into Kouta’s warm brown eyes, he had the biggest trouble voicing these feelings that he was pretty sure of, they wouldn’t be returned anyway. He knew Kouta loved him, just not like he loved Kouta.
The month passed, faster than both boys would have wanted and on the day of Kouta’s department, Yuya fount himself sitting in their once shared room. He looked around, seeing the empty shelves, the places on the wall that used to be covered with soccer players whose names he couldn’t even pronounce and the unmade bed in front of him. It made him feel like they all represented the emptiness in his heart he was already starting to feel.
In the hall he could hear excited voices of people that were making their way to the door to wave Kouta goodbye. He shook his head, they were happy for him, but he just couldn’t join their excitement. Instead of giving him hope, that he too would be released out of this place sooner than his 18th birthday, it just scared him that when he would get out of this, he would be all alone.
A few minutes before, Kouta had stepped into their room for the last time, picking up his last belongings and bidding farewell to the room that had been his, theirs, for the past 10 years.
A tear had rolled down his cheek, and he had asked Yuya to come and wave him goodbye, just as a formality, because it wasn’t really goodbye, anyway. He would come back and get Yuya as soon as he could.
“I’ll be right up,” Yuya had smiled and Kouta had left, the heavy suitcase dragging behind him.
But as much as he wanted, Yuya couldn’t force his body to get up, get out and wave at his friend who would drive out of his life, along with his new parents and their big fancy car. He couldn’t, because he didn’t want to. Because as long as he would stay here, he could still tell himself Kouta wasn’t really leaving.
Outside, he heard a car getting started, the engineer making a soft rumbling sound, the sound of the start of his life without Kouta.
“But Masuda-san! Yuya hasn’t come outside yet,” he heard Kouta’s desperate voice from the hallway.
“Kouta-kun, it’s time to go now,” a voice foreign to him spoke and by the tone of it he figured it was Kouta’s new mom who said it.
“But Yabu-san my best friend-“
“The plane won’t wait for us, Kouta-kun,” the woman spoke and Yuya bit his lower lip. A plane? Yabu would be that far away?
“Yuyan?” Kouta’s desperate voice came from the hallway.
Yuya didn’t answer, and he heard Kouta sighing loud and disappointed. He heard the clacking of heels and in the distance a man’s voice telling them they were already a tad off of the schedule.
There was slamming with car doors and Yuya could hear some of the girls crying while the boys screamed their last farewells at the car. He looked at the door, in a bit Kouta would be gone and Yuya hadn’t even properly said goodbye yet.
Quickly the 15-tear old pushed his body off the bed and he ran out of the door. Through the hallway. Down the stairs, skipping the last few steps. Running he dashed through the corridors, once outside pushing the people that were waving at the leaving car aside. He had to at least see Kouta one more time.
He saw the big black car taking off, but instead of giving up he started running faster. He heard some of the younger children shriek and Masuda-san’s voice that yelled that he had to come back. But Yuya didn’t listen and he frantically waved with both his hands in the air he followed the car as fast as his legs permitted him.
Almost had he given up when a head with black hair popped out of the car.
“Yuyan!!! You’re late!”
Yuya could feel the tears welling up behind his eyes as he cried back, “I know!!”
“I’m going to miss you!” Kouta yelled back, “I’ll write you! I promise! Wait for me!”
The car turned around the corner and Yuya felt that his legs were starting to give up, nonetheless he tried speeding up one last time, “wait Kouta! I-I love-“
But it was already too late. The black hair had disappeared into the car, which now took off at full speed.
It was the last time Yuya saw Kouta.
At first, Kouta kept his promise and he wrote Yuya as much as he could. He told his best friend about how awkward it felt, suddenly being Mr. and Mrs. Yabu’s son, the fancy high school they made him go to and how, for the first time in his life, he was able to attend real soccer trainings and play games. He never failed to keep the younger updated about his life, but gradually he became busier.
Kouta started to get used to his life outside the orphanage, and he had less time he had to write Yuya. He always had been a social butterfly and soon he had found himself some friends, in and out school.
He was dragged along to popular hang-outs after soccer training or prep-school and when he wasn’t hanging out with his friends, playing soccer or doing his homework, he actually took the time to socialize with his parents. They were nice people and it didn’t take long for him to genuinely love the couple.
In between all this he barely found the time to sit down and write letters and from endless long, detailed letters that came almost every day, his letters became shorter and it took longer for them to arrive. In the end, they were more like hastily written notes that would arrive so every once in a while, as if suddenly remembered they had to be written and sent.
After a while, the young Yabu Kouta simply forgot to write and by the time he was 17 he had even gone as far as losing the paper where the address of his former home was scribbled on.
They were in the middle of moving, and somewhere along the way in all the boxes and messes the paper had gone lost. Now, normally he could have used the address that was always neatly scribbled on the back of Yuya’s envelopes. But because the younger boy wasn’t in possession of his new address, no new letters would arrive.
Sometimes he would look at the little box where he still kept all the letters of his former best friend and feel bad about the fact that he hadn’t been able to at least fulfill his promise of writing. At times like that his phone would buzz and a mail from one of his new friends would take away the attention of his old one.
However, until his last day in the orphanage, Yuya waited for the letters to arrive. He was the first one to wake up and check the mail. Shimmering though all the cards and letters that weren’t his, he disposed them in their rightful kid’s self-made mailbox, as well those from the staff.
Afterwards he would sneak to the kitchen and venture his disappointment out on the food. He’d make breakfast, along the way being helped by other early birds that woke up from the smell of freshly baked breath or bacon and eggs and when everything was done, he’d take a plate with him to his room and stay there for the most of the day. Aside from dinner and the occasional meeting that was held in the big shared living room.
Kouta’s leave hadn’t left him to be the most sociable person around, but that didn’t change the fact that he felt like he was going to miss the orphanage the day he’d leave for himself. The children’s laughter, the jokes and stories he was able to share with the elders because of his age, waking up and always being around people. He’d grown to love it, despite the fact there was always this biting feeling of loss. The orphanage and its daily rituals had become a part of him.
The day to his 18th birthday came closer and Yuya had to find a job and a place to live. He had been homeschooled and little to no social experience aside from talking to the people in the orphanage, but with the help of Masuda-san he found something he felt like he wanted to do.
He became a kitchen help in a big fancy hotel. He would get educated in the catering fields, a place to stay and even a decent pay. Just like as when he lived in the orphanage he would get up early, cook for people and be in their company without necessarily having to socialize with them. It was the perfect solution and yet…
The day he left, he had nothing but a big suitcase and smaller bag with his passport and other convenient stuff. He looked around, seeing the faces he grew up with. The faces of those who would follow in his footsteps and one day would stand here on the same spot as he now did.
He smiled at them, receiving a card from one of the smaller girls and a warm hug from good old Masuda-san, who told him that if everything would fail, there would always a bed for him here.
He smiled and nodded, turning away from everyone, looking over his shoulder and waving one last time before looking out on an empty lane.
He had dreamed of Kouta, standing there with his trademark old-man’s smile, telling him he was here to fulfill his promise. But as expected dreams were meant for sleeping and were not to raise ones expectations. The lane remained empty, so did the spot in Yuya’s heart.
It was then, that Yuya decided Kouta was a memory for the past and he would now concentrate on his future.
He picked up the suitcase, swung the bag over his shoulder and under loud cheers of the orphanage he walked down the lane, to his buss stop where he would take the first bus to a better future.
“Yuya, Yuya, Yuuuuuuyaaaa!!! Wake up!”
“Devil child,” Yuya muttered in his pillow as he felt someone wagging his arm from left to right.
Lazily he opened one eye and he looked straight into the face of Hashimoto Ryosuke. The boy was 17 and with that 3 years younger as Yuya himself was at this point. He was the son of their chef cook.
Ryosuke, or Hasshi as he preferred to be called, was a clever kid who’s appearance was older than his real age and who never failed to make Yuya smile because of his bold antics and silly ideas.
The boy had been around from as long as he started in the hotel, but since his 16th birthday he had permanently taking residence there, becoming Yuya’s roommate (if he hadn’t already before that).
While Yuya after 2 years was still aimlessly doing little chores, taking up a thousand different jobs and tasting the diversity of working in the catering, Hasshi was already set on being a top cook and excelling his father while doing so.
He was still a mere kitchen help at this point, but Yuya was sure he was going to see the day Hasshi’s dream would come true.
“Why the hurry?” Yuya muttered slowly, as he scrambled up while Hasshi was already running around in their room, trying to find his uniform.
“Those rich people Azaki-san has been telling us about have arrived and you are the one who has the guide them,” the younger of two squeaked, falling on his bed as he tried to put on his pants and shirt at the same time.
“Me?” Yuya scratched the back of his head as he tried to recall any instructions given to him about that matter, “and why are you the one hurrying then?”
Hasshi blinked and blankly stared at his outfit for a bit, “I… Have no idea.”
The two boys laughed and finally Yuya got up from his bed, pulling a toothbrush and a washing cloth from his drawer. “I’ll be washing myself then. After all, we can’t let the rich people hang out with filthy people like us.”
Hasshi blinked and shrugged, “from what I saw, their kid looks pretty cool. He’s older than me probably, but he didn’t look like a spoiled brat. He’s the reason they want you, so he has someone to talk with.”
Yuya grumbled, “Can’t he find friends on his own or something?”
But Hasshi didn’t answer and Yuya walked to their shared bathroom to get ready for who-ever it was that he would work for today.
Really, Kouta felt embarrassed at the fact his parents had asked the staff to find him someone to hang out with. Not only wasn’t he able to spend Christmas with his friends like he originally had planned, but also did it mean that he had someone assigned to like him. He could make friends on his own.
Lazing around in the lobby, sticking around to where his parents were, he waited for the person that would guide them around the unfamiliar terrain.
“Mr. and Mrs. Yabu, thank you for waiting,” a jovial voice sounded through the hall and Kouta and his parents looked up at a man who was followed by a younger man.
“This is the boy that will guide you for today, Takaki-kun, if you would be so polite to introduce yourself?”
However, the young man seemed unable of speaking as he gaped at the persons in front of him. Kouta looked up and saw why.
Quickly he stumbled off his chair and nearly had he swung his arms around the male in front of him. “Yu-Yuya?”
Yuya blinked, keeping silent for a while.
“Yuya, it’s me, Kouta! Don’t tell me you don’t remember me?”
Finally, it seemed like Yuya had gotten his voice back, as he slowly spoke, “I-I do. It’s good to see you are doing well Kou-Yabu-kun.”
He turned away from Kouta who was stunned by the fact his childhood best friend had just assigned him with his last name, and Yuya quickly bow towards his parents. “Mr. and Mrs. Yabu, thank you for coming here for today, I am Takaki Yuya, your guide and help for the day, ma’am, let me hold that bag for you as I show you the way to the gardens.”
The rest of the day proceeded and Kouta couldn’t help but feel awkwardly giddy at Yuya’s presence, who at his turn completely seemed to ignore him.
The younger boy spoke about the beautiful gardens, their various amount of kitchens and the high quality of their rooms. He informed Kouta’s parents about the festivities they held for Christmas and animatedly told them about the hotel.
It wasn’t hard for Kouta to see Yuya loved the hotel and to notice the exited shimmer in his eyes as he spoke about his life here.
However, Kouta could also see how Takaki’s soft brown eyes avoided his, and how, aside from talking about the hotel, he seemed to refuse to hold any type of conversation with him. Kouta had to admit, it made him feel sad. Seeing Yuya here, at this place, he realized how much he had missed the younger boy’s presence.
His new friends were cool and he loved them. But he hadn’t lied on the day he had told Yuya he would have to leave soon. None of them was as awesome as he was.
The day passed quicker than Kouta had thought it would, and they ended up in the hall all together.
“Well sweetheart,” his mother spoke, “your father and I are going to check out that pool Takaki-kun told us about. I think you two want some time to chat up, after all, it has been a while. You have the key to our room, we’ll see you when you feel the time is there.”
Kouta nodded and Yuya smiled emotionlessly at the woman.
She and her husband left and Kouta turned towards the younger man.
“So… How have you been?”
Yuya shrugged, slightly angered at the causality Kouta spoke with. As if nothing ever happened.
“If you would have read all those letters I’ve sent you, you would have known.”
Kouta felt his heart drop at this.
“I-I never meant to-we moved and I lost your address.”
Yuya turned away from him, his first intention was just to walk away and leave Kouta hanging there, but it seemed like the other genuinely thought he would buy that crap about losing his address and he felt anger taking the best of him.
“And of course you weren’t in the possession of internet to look it up. We lived in a orphanage after all, the address was top secrets and super hard too find. Come one Kouta, be a man and admit you didn’t felt like writing you stupid childhood friend that you would never see again anyway.”
Now maybe was the good time to stand up and walk away, Yuya thought scrambling up his feet and taking off without letting the other neither confirm nor deny it.
“Yuyan?”
The younger turned around, seeing the black-haired male looking down and hopelessly fumbling with the hem of his shirt. He didn’t answer to the once so familiar nickname, but just raised his brow in a questioning manner, too mad to even talk.
“I really did mean to come back for you...”
Yuya’s lower lip twitched, “I know you did.” He turned around again and started making his way to his destination again, but as if he was forgotten something he stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. “But you didn’t, while I was really waiting.”
The next day, Yuya acted like nothing had ever happened between to two and though he didn’t have to guide the Yabu’s around this time, he stuck around Kouta like his boss had instructed him to do.
More than once, Kouta had tried to start a conversation, but Yuya’s short and defensive answers had cut off the other’s words and it didn’t take long for all they did was sitting around in the lobby and awkwardly trying to make it look like they were enjoying themselves. After all, Yuya’s shifts weren’t over until 9 and he had already taken too much of a risk when he walked away yesterday.
Kouta felt miserable, and he knew it was his own fault. If only he had stuck to his promise of writing Yuya and keeping him up to date about his life. Being around the younger made him realize that he had missed everything, their fleeting touches, his giggles, the bright smile that always played on his lips.
Kouta saw them, because Yuya reserved them for other people. The smiles, the giggles, they disappeared as soon as Yuya was reminded to the fact he had to spend time with Kouta, and that was probably the part that hurt the most.
Three days like this passed. Kouta trying to build up conversation, to reminisce about the past only to be cut of by Yuya who lazily followed him around to pretty much anywhere.
It broke Kouta’s heart, feeling so far away while he was actually next to him. He felt little pinches of jealousy as Yuya talked to other staff-members, showing them the smile he hid for Kouta, tapping them on the shoulder while he refused to come closer than 50 centimeters and calling them out of karaoke later on the day when he was off duty and Kouta was none of his concern anymore.
The jealousy, or rather the fact that he knew it was jealousy that he felt, hit the 20-year old hard and it was then that he realized; he was probably in love with Yuya.
No, correct that, he probably always had been in love with Yuya but just too blind to see it. And now it was too late. After all he would leave in 3 days and Yuya wouldn’t even look at him.
Hasshi was sick of it. Every time Yuya walked in their shared room he has this constantly displeased expression lingering on his face. He was grumpy, no fun, hardly able to joke with and it didn’t seem like he was going to talk about it.
Hasshi was sick of it, so he decided he was going to fix this by himself.
It wasn’t all that hard to find the boy who Hasshi expected to be the reason behind Yuya’s behavior. Either the young man was hanging in the lobby, trying to catch the wi-fi with his laptop, or he was in the bigger lounge watching the soccer games that were displayed on the big screen.
Casually Hasshi dropped his body down next to the older man, and with a serious voice he spoke, “we have to talk.”
Kouta blinked at him, but recognizing the boy as one of the people Yuya had been friendly with, he nodded.
“You know Yuya, don’t you?”
A nod.
“And you also know why he’s acting like he does?”
There was hesitation, but again the older man nodded and Hasshi knew he was doing the right thing.
“Would you like to tell me?”
The other didn’t speak, and Hasshi bit his lower lip.
“Look, Yuya has been my friend ever since he came here, but he says he doesn’t use the word ‘best friend’ because it brings bad memories along with it. He was always quite happy, not out-going or anything, but simply happy. Now you come, and he is nothing but a grumpy mess in my room, and if you know how to fix this, please help me. I don’t want him to be like this. He seems more than just mad, he seems really sad about this too.”
The look in Kouta’s eyes softened as he looked at his hands, “I’m the reason Yuya doesn’t like the word ‘best friends’.”
Before Hasshi could ask why, Kouta started telling. About the orphanage, about how he they had been the best of friends and about how he was adopted at a really late age. He told him about his promise, about the letters and how he had stopped writing them. He ended his story with how happy he had been when he saw Yuya again, but how Yuya seemed to loath him in return and how he didn’t had the slightest idea how to fix it.
In the mean time, Hasshi had listened, his mouth shut, his eyes fixed on the lanky male in front of him. The way he spoke, the way he told about Yuya and their time together.
“You really love him, don’t you?” The younger asked bluntly when Kouta was finished and he saw how the older’s expression became shocked. Hasshi might not looked like it, nor did he act like it most of the time, but he was pretty sharp when it came to people. And even when he hadn’t been, it didn’t take much for anyone to see what was going on between the two of them.
“I-I well…”
“Listen up… Err…” Hasshi scratched the back of his head, “I didn’t quite catch your name.”
Kouta chuckled, “my name is Kouta.”
Hasshi grinned back, “listen up Kouta, I have a plan.”
It had taken them 2 day before their plan was finalized (Kouta had to explain Hasshi that circus tents really couldn’t be set up just for the sake of their ‘win Yuya back’-plan and like this there were more things that had to be either scrapped or edited in the plan) and that meant there was only one day left for Kouta to make it work.
Hasshi had taken the liberty of accompanying Yuya when he had to spend time with Kouta, making the situation only a little less uncomfortable because that meant Yuya at least spoke to one of them.
In fact, the youngest of 3 had only done this because this would make it seem less suspicious when Kouta and he greeted each other, or gathered in the lounge room, Hasshi excuse being they both loved soccer.
The day had been awkward as ever, with Hasshi basically being the only one to keep the conversation going and Kouta being even more nervous and awkward then he had been before.
It didn’t seem like Yuya had noticed any of the controversy though, and at 9 he bit both Kouta and Hasshi farewell, knowing it would be the last time he’d see Kouta.
As he took off, feeling a slightly bit disappointed Kouta hadn’t tried to stop him after all. Somewhere hidden between all his anger, the little Yuya from back then was still there, waiting to be picked up by his best friend.
He was already half way the lobby when he felt a hand enclosing his and twirling him around.
His first reaction was to yank his hand back and smack whoever had grabbed it in the face, but when he saw it was Kouta he hesitated for a bit.
“Just… Come with me.”
There was something about his voice, about the look in his eyes and maybe about the way he made Yuya feel like he was that 15-year old boy all over again, that made Yuya frown, but agree anyway.
His hand still in Kouta’s the two of them made their way to the little theatre that was located in the back of the hotel. Tomorrow the great Christmas fest would be held here, but right now it was empty. Or… It was supposed to be.
When Yuya stepped him, he got greeted by a sea of colorful candles that all seemed to have a different aroma with them, causing the entire theatre to have this sweet, mild scent. In the center of the spacious room, with white sheets, someone had seemed to create some sort of tent.
Completely forgotten about his anger and sadness, Yuya giddily squeezed Kouta’s hand as they made their way to the middle.
Kouta let him into the tent, where white candles were placed around a table. The table itself was empty aside from two plates, two classes filled with something Yuya expected to be juice or any other non-alcoholic beverage and a silver plate in the middle, filled with different kinds of snacks.
Kouta let go of Yuya’s hand, who had been accustomed to the warmth it had brought along. Yuya had forgotten how natural it felt to hold Kouta hand, and while he still had a straight face, for the first time in days he felt like he was melting down a little.
Yuya stared down at the food and with a small voice Kouta mumbled, “it was made by Hashimoto-kun, I’m sure it tastes really well.”
Yuya merely nodded as he placed a few of the delicious looking snacks on his plate and eyes Kouta who mimicked this gesture.
The older of two looked at Yuya and when Yuya’s gaze shifted a little bit, his gaze got locked by two brown eyes taking him up entirely.
“So…” he mumbled, as he tried to sound casual, he had still troubles admitting Kouta had, just like he had done so many times when they were younger, swept him off his feet, “why did you bring me out here.”
Uneasy, Kouta’s gaze shifted a little bit as if he tried to adjust himself. “I-I…”
“You?” The edginess. Yuya still got it.
“I’m sorry.”
Yuya kept quiet, a silent ‘go on, I need more.’
“I meant what I said, about the writing you, the taking you with me. You were my everything when I still lived in the orphanage, you were what made it worth being there. I just-I was young, I never realized how precious you were, how much you meant to me.” Kouta paused for a bit, his hand trailed over to Yuya’s, but not yet able to grasp It yet. “I was a fool for not writing you, I could have made time-I should have made time for you. Instead I was so into living my new live that I forgot about my old one.”
Yuya bit his lower lip and Kouta shook his head, “I’m saying this wrong. You were never a part of my old life… Yuyan, you were my life. You were what woke me up and what made me go to sleep again. You were what kept me going and when I just started living with Mr. and Mrs. Yabu you were still all that. I started doing soccer because I knew you’d want me to. I started getting new friends to show you that I wouldn’t be lonely, so you wouldn’t be too worried about me. Every single little thing I did, I did it because I was thinking about you. It just took me 5 years and almost a week of being ignored by you to realize it.”
Bu then, Kouta’s fingers gentle touched Yuya’s, silently asking for permission to once again hold his hand. Yuya’s hand didn’t move and Kouta took it as an invitation.
His rank fingers curled around Yuya’s, intertwining them, just like they had once intertwined their pinkies when they made a promise.
All this time Yuya had kept silent. Listening to the words that actually came too late, but that he still had wanted to hear for so long he felt his heart sinking back in his chest. He didn’t even bother wiping away the annoying tear that rolled down his cheek.
Still holding his hand, Yabu got up and made his way around the table. In front of Takaki, he kneeled and looked up.
“I guess, what I have been trying to say is… Yuyan, I love you. I always have loved you.”
Yuya felt like an awkward teenager again, and while he had promised himself 2 years ago, Kouta would be a part of the past, seeing him here in front of him, only made him hink about the possible future.
“Don’t say that when you’re going to leave in a day…” he whispered, “or are you going to promise to write me again, so you can pick me up one day?”
Kouta chuckled softly, “I’m not. Because I’m pretty sure I will never come to pick you up.”
Yuya looked at him, scandalized but before he could pull back his hand and slap the older man across the face, Kouta continued, “because I’m not planning on leaving. They have a nice television here where I can watch my soccer games, and according to Hashimoto-kun, living in the hotel isn’t that bad.”
Yuya opened his mouth to speak but Kouta was faster, “I only need to hear one thing from you, and I’m saying here with you forever.”
Tears now streamed down Yuya’s face again, whether he wanted it or not. “You’re an idiot.”
Kouta grinned as he got up, pulling Yuya up with him. “I guess that’ll do.”
Yuya looked into those brown eyes once again. Three years, it had taken him to put Kouta behind him. Two years it had taken him to get over it. One week he had been able to withstand him and he had been able to tell himself that all of his feelings really were over.
But it had only taken him these few words to bring it all back and as Yuya wrapped his arms around Kouta’s neck, he felt two soft lips dawning upon his.
Hesitatingly he kissed the older back. It was warm, comfortable and so familiar. However, before he was able to sink in, Kouta pulled back and took one of his hands.
Linking their pinkies once again, Kouta pulled Yuya closer once again.
“This time, I promise for real, I’m never letting you go again,” he whispered against Yuya’s lips.
Yuya chuckled, “You better not, since you’re going to be living here, you can’t lose my address this time. We just need to get Hasshi to sleep somewhere else.”
“That’s not a nice way to thank him.”
“He’ll understand.”
“But still-“
“Kouta...”
“Huh?”
“I had to wait for 5 years, shut up and kiss me.”
Kouta chuckled once more. Their pinkies still linked, he pressed his lips upon Yuya’s again, sealing their everlasting promise with a sweet kiss.