[drabble] Unrequited
Title: Unrequited
Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx )
Pairing: Ryutaro x OC
Genre: Fluff (I guess?)
Rating: G
Summary: AU. He likes her, she likes him - but neither of them are aware of the mutual feelings.
Notes: For iriejingi95 . I tried to stick with the prompt, but I changed the younger sister to the older sister. :)
~
She greets him with a smile and his usual cup of tea, free hand delicately tucking away a curl of hair back behind her ear.
“You’re coming here more often,” she says, grinning. “Is there a particular reason, Ryutaro-kun?”
“Not exactly,” Ryutaro replies, gratefully taking the tea and sinking into his chair. “I just like to study here.”
“I see.”
Seeing someone else on the other side of the café call for her attention, she waves to him and walks away.
~
He’s only known Takaki Yui for slightly more than three years, in truth. Her younger brother, Takaki Yuya, he has known for much longer as the best friend of his next-door-neighbour Arioka Daiki, but only recently did he find out that the Takaki family ran a small café just a couple of blocks away from his house.
Yui treats him like her own third younger brother. When he fails his tests she always gives him free ice-cream to cheer him up, when he’s studying for his finals she keeps his cup of tea constantly refilled and a jar of cookies next to his textbooks, and every year regardless of how few chocolates he receives on Valentine’s she always gives him a small box of chocolate Pocky.
Despite all this, Ryutaro discovers that in recent months he has begun feeling strangely nervous around Yui, though he doesn’t understand why.
~
He overhears Yukito in class one day, talking about girls with his seatmates.
“How are you so sure you like her, anyway?” the boy sitting in front of Yukito asks.
Yukito turns pink for a few seconds.
“I feel nervous around her,” he says shyly. “I want to see her as much as possible, but when I do see her I can’t come up with the right words to say.”
The boys grin and begin teasing Yukito about his crush, but Ryutaro sinks back down in his chair, ignoring Juri poking the back of his chair to ask him what’s wrong.
It is then he first realizes - he has a crush on Takaki Yui.
~
Of course, the crush itself isn’t the problem, Ryutaro decides.
Takaki Yuya is known for being overprotective of his older sisters, being the oldest male sibling in the family. He has heard stories from Daiki about how Yuya had chased away five of his other sister Yu’s suitors a couple of years ago, and he figures he’ll probably suffer the same fate.
~
“Ryutaro-kun,” Juri says at lunch several days later. “What happened? You’ve been looking like a ghost these few days.”
Ryutaro trusts Juri not to spread his secrets, but it feels awkward to say it anyway.
“I think I have a crush on someone,” he mumbles, hiding his face in his hands.
Juri blinks.
“…I can’t hear you, Ryutaro-kun.”
“I think I have a crush,” Ryutaro repeats in a louder voice, feeling his cheeks slowly burn. “On someone.”
There is a pause, before Juri breaks out into a grin.
“That’s it?”
“It’s a big deal,” whines Ryutaro, head sinking down again.
Sighing, Juri picks at his takoyaki for a while before speaking again.
“I thought you weren’t the shy type when it came to girls.”
“The crush isn’t the problem,” Ryutaro groans. “Her brother is - he has some sister-complex.”
Juri pats Ryutaro’s back awkwardly.
“Tough luck, man,” is the only thing he can say, and Ryutaro sighs again.
~
In the end Ryutaro decides to just stick to being a victim on unrequited love. No matter how much he tries to change it, “Hey, Takaki-kun, I kind of have a crush on your sister” only conjures up scenarios of Yuya going ballistic and chasing him around with a hair iron.
~
He goes to the café again today, for no other reason except that it’s Yui’s shift. He brings with him his Chemistry and Japanese textbooks with the pretext of studying, but ends up falling asleep with his face glued to the first two pages of the chapter on electrolysis.
Yui comes around to clear his tea, and gently pats his head, fingers lingering in his hair for a while. Ryutaro, in the oblivion of sleep, never notices this, and she smiles wryly.
To her, Ryutaro will probably never see her as anything beyond the older sister he never had. She’s fine with it staying that way - she has a sneaking suspicion Yuya will probably threaten the young boy and submit him to the mental torture of a Dora the Explorer marathon - but sometimes she just feels tempted to brush aside his bangs and kiss is forehead gently.
She never does, figuring that he’s better off not knowing.
~
Ryutaro sleeps on, dreaming of a day in which Yuya loses his sister complex, a day when he can finally gather up the courage to confess.
(In his dream, Yui says yes, pulling him into a hug and giggling.)
A tiny smile creeps across his face.
He dreams on.
fin.