[hanakotoba] Red Rose
Title: Red Rose
Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx )
Pairing: Inoobu
Genre: Fluff
Notes: Part of the Hanakotoba collection.
The red rose represents love.
~
Yabu doesn’t know why Inoo’s been avoiding him since a couple of weeks ago.
The moment they look up simultaneously and their eyes meet, Inoo looks back down, and opts to look in the opposite direction instead. The moment they so much as brush against each other, Inoo jumps as if he’s been electrocuted, and quickly moves away.
It makes him feel as though he’s some deadly predator wandering around unchecked and hungry.
But he’s not, obviously.
And thus Inoo’s strange behaviour leaves him very confused.
It hurts him, of course, that his best friend is now suddenly giving him a huge berth as though they had become worst enemies overnight. But every time he tries to corner Inoo to question him about this behaviour, the lanky boy always manages to slip awa without answering anything.
Yabu wants to know why.
Eventually, he teaches himself to learn to accept the new gulf between him and his former best friend, the new lack of communication, the lack of easy and happy smiles.
Eventually, he convinces himself that perhaps Inoo just doesn’t care anymore.
So it comes as a surprise, to an extent, when Inoo slips out onto the balcony, away from the mad Coke-party the rest of BEST are having, and joins Yabu there.
He doesn’t say anything, just looks silently at the falling snowflakes.
After a long while of silence, Yabu turns to face Inoo.
“Why are you out here?” he asks, breath steaming out of his mouth in a white cloud.
Inoo laughs, and nervously adjusts the loosely-slung scarf around his neck.
“If I had to listen to another lecture on how Pocky can be best enjoyed, I think I’d die,” he says. “It’s peaceful out here.”
“Hm.”
They stand like that for a while, in silence, each facing the other, before Yabu breaks it again.
“How come you’ve suddenly stopped avoiding me again? Is the prospect of Dai-chan’s lecture so bad that you’d rather be out here with me?”
Inoo winces a little.
“Ah…about that…”
He trails off, looking to the side.
It might have been a trick of the light, but his cheeks appear to have a faint dusting of pink.
“It’s just that…”
He pauses again, and Yabu remains tactfully silent.
“I don’t know,” he says at last, “it’s like I began feeling…weird around you. Like, my heartbeat would speed up and my palms would get sweaty when I’m near you. I…I didn’t know what to do at that time, so I just avoided you.”
The words hang in the air for a while before they begin to sink in.
“Wait,” says Yabu, “what are you-”
Inoo’s cheeks flush a deeper, definite shade of red this time, and he quickly shoves a bundle at Yabu.
“IthinkIlikeyou,” he says quickly, and turns to re-enter the apartment before embarrassment catches up to him.
“Hey!”
He reaches out, and with quick reflexes, grabs hold of Inoo before the sliding door gets pushed open.
Inoo freezes.
“Ko-chan, I’m already embarrassed as it is. Let me go, please.”
“No-wait-listen,” sighs Yabu, “don’t I even get a say in this?”
He pulls Inoo back, and with his free hand reaches into the fragrant bundle that had been previously shoved at him.
It’s a few flower stalks, and Yabu snaps the flower off one of them carefully.
“Kei,” he says seriously, “what makes you think I don’t like you back?”
He lifts his hand, and places the red rose from the flowerstalk gently into Inoo’s hair, where it sits contrasting beautifully with his black hair dusted in powdery white snow.
Inoo stares at Yabu with wide disbelieving eyes for a moment, the blush on his cheeks not receding.
“…You really mean it?”
Yabu smiles.
“Of course,” he says, reaching out to tuck s stray curl of hair back behind Inoo’s ear.
Inoo beams, and throws his arms around Yabu in a warm embrace.
“Thank you,” he whispers.
“No problem,” says Yabu, and returns the hug.
The tiny snowflakes dance around the pair, dusting both heads in a light coating of soft white. It’s cold outside on the balcony, but neither of them cares.
The embrace is warm enough for both of them.