[drabble] By Your Side
Title: By Your Side
Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx )
Pairing: Yamachii, Okajima (hinted)
Genre: Fluff
Notes: Sequel to White Horse and Fairytale.
~
A shriek of pain echoes down the hallway.
Yamada stumbles pitifully along in the wake of one Arioka Daiki, his ear being squeezed painfully by a set of fingers. The fingers in question are the skinny pale ones of Daiki, who’s dragging the older boy down the hallway, Pocky in hand.
“Dai-chan!” yelps Yamada, “let me go!”
Daiki doesn’t deign to answer, instead focusing on the Pocky box in hand and where he’s going.
Yamada mutters something under his breath about rude people who shouldn’t go around dragging other people by their ears, but an extremely sharp tug to his sore ear immediately shuts him up.
After several flights of stairs, they arrive at the rooftop, where Yamada is unceremoniously dumped onto the ground.
“Dai-chan,” he growls, rubbing his red ear grumpily, “what was the point of this?”
Daiki ignores him, and continues nibbling on his Pocky. It is another voice which answers.
“You need to stop hiding, Yama-chan.”
Yamada’s head snaps up to see Keito’s solemn one looking down at him.
“Hiding what?” Yamada mutters irritably.
“You’re in love.”
“Am not,” says Yamada, scowling. Daiki sighs, and squats down to meet Yamada’s eyes.
“Yama-chan,” he says slowly, like he’s speaking to a young child, “you are very much in love. With Chii.”
Yamada violently shakes his head.
“You are,” adds Keito. “Stop dancing circles around him already! Until you admit your terribly obvious feelings, we’re not letting you off this rooftop.”
Yamada rolls his eyes and swiftly jabs Daiki in the stomach, before springing to his feet and making a wild dash for the door. His brief attempt at freedom ends shortly after, as he crashes into an outstretched palm.
“Sorry, Yamada-kun,” says the voice of his assailant. “I can’t let you pass.”
Yamada stumbles a few tottering steps backwards and finds himself looking straight into Kyomoto’s eyes, radiating sincere apology.
Yamada reluctantly turns back around. Kyomoto knows karate, and he doesn’t want to take any chances.
~
Chinen reluctantly follows Yuto after he gets dragged out of his emo corner in the closet. Yuto says he need Chinen’s help in finding something, and so Chinen finds himself being dragged along even before he could answer.
“Yuto-kun,” he says dryly, looking around the dressing room, “I do think your bag would be quite easy to see. And it obviously isn’t here.”
Yuto raises his eyebrow, and at that very moment, as if it was on cue, the door to the dressing room swings shut, and Chinen hears the sharp click of the lock.
“You,” Yuto says, smirking triumphantly, “are going to stay in here until you admit that you have feelings for Yama-chan.”
Chinen stares at Yuto as if he’s grown a second head, but Yuto’s completely serious.
“We can stay here forever,” he hears Ryutaro’s voice from the other side of the door. Faintly, he hears Pokemon battle theme music begin to play, and realizes that it’s going to be a long time before Ryutaro gets bored enough to unlock the door.
Chinen scowls, and storms off to a corner of the dressing room where he sits and fumes, facing the corner.
“I do not like Yama-chan in any way,” he bites out grumpily.
Yuto sighs. “Suit yourself,” Chinen hears him say, and he hears footsteps fading. A quiet click, the creak of the door opening, and then suddenly, the loud slam resounds in the room, followed by the lock clicking back into place.
Chinen’s left alone in the empty dressing room, with faint Pokemon theme music drifting in through the crack beneath the door and two people waiting on the other side for his answer.
~
“Whaddya mean I’m in love with Chinen?”
Daiki sighs.
“Don’t you feel awkward around him?”
“…Well…..yes.”
“Like whatever you say may affect him so you watch your words constantly?”
“…Yes.”
“Are you always worried about what he thinks of you?”
“Yes,” replies Yamada for the third time, slightly annoyed.
“Then congratulations!” Daiki crows. “You’re in LOVE!”
Yamada stares at Daiki incredulously.
“I…am in what?!”
Keito groans.
“Stop denying it already, please.”
Yamada sinks slowly to the ground, mind in a whirl.
“If the way I act around him is all because I have feelings for him…” murmurs Yamada confusedly, “then…with all that distance I’ve been keeping from him, I’ve totally been doing the wrong thing!”
“Yes, you have,” says Keito dryly.
“I need to go apologize!”
“Yes you do,” chimes in Daiki in a sing-song voice.
Yamada leaps to his feet.
“I have to go apologize now!”
Kyomoto grins, and steps aside, giving Yamada access to the door.
The three of them watch as Yamada tears off in a panic, all wearing amused looks on their faces.
“I bet 3 Pocky boxes that he’s gonna crash into Takaki and screw up his hairstyle,” says Daiki.
“You’re on!”
Keito rolls his eyes and walks off.
~
“One more gym to go! Then I’ll have lots of fun whooping the asses of the Elite Four!”
Ryutaro’s voice drifts through the door. It’s been an hour, and Chinen is slowly beginning to weaken.
“How long are you going to keep me here?” he howls. “It’s so boring!”
“Until you admit it,” is Yuto’s short reply. There is silence after that, and Chinen assumes Yuto’s watching Ryutaro play Pokemon.
They want to wait? Chinen thinks sourly. Well, let them.
He ends up falling asleep, leaning against the wall. A loud sudden banging sound wakes him up, and in his sleep-befuddled state he notices that the Pokemon music has disappeared.
A wail of “It’s locked? Why is it locked?” is heard, and Chinen instantly recognizes the voice as Yamada’s. It’s followed by a metallic clinking sound, and then the lock clicks open.
Chinen finds himself staring straight into the shocked eyes of Yamada.
“What are you doing here?” they shout at the same time.
An awkward silence follows.
“I…I came to apologize,” begins Yamada after the silence stretches for way too long. “I’ve been treating you awfully for a while now, and I’ve just only understood why.”
Chinen raises an eyebrow.
Yamada squeaks at Chinen’s questioning look. “We-ll…IthinkI’minlovewithyou,” he says really quickly, and his cheeks turn pink.
“You? In love with me?” asks Chinen disbelievingly.
“It’s okay! You don’t need to return the feeling or anything,” Yamada says nervously. “I just came to apologogize. I’m sorry if I freaked you out or anything. I just needed to get the reason out. So I’ll be going now. Kaythanksbye!”
But just as he turns to run away down the hallway and throw himself dramatically into the nearest toilet bowl in an attempt to drown himself, Chinen grabs hold of his arm.
“You…are in love with me?” he repeats, in a much softer voice. The tone in his voice is questioning, and it makes Yamada turn around slowly to look him in the eyes. What he sees there is not scorn, nor shock, nor confusion.
What he sees in those black eyes is hope.
It’s precisely because of that, that Yamada gets the courage to open up his mouth and let words spill out.
“For a while.”
The words hang in the air, as if suspended by soft cobwebs. Both parties are silent, as if waiting for the other to break the glass quiet, waiting for the other to say something, anything…
It’s too quiet, and Yamada decides he can’t take it anymore.
I should have just kept my big mouth shut, he thinks to himself, and begins to walk towards the door again, wrenching his hand out of Chinen’s vice-like grip.
His hand’s on the doorknob and about to open it when he feels a sudden weight pull him backwards. Skinny arms wrap themselves around his waist and hold him back, and he feels Chinen’s face buried in the back of his shoulder.
“Don’t leave,” he mumbles softly into Yamada’s shoulder. “Don’t walk out of my life again.”
Yamada’s heart skips a beat. Gently, he removes himself from the embrace and turns around to look right into the shorter boy’s eyes.
Chinen’s eyes look suspiciously watery, and his nose is slightly red. Yamada sighs, smiles a little, and reaches out to gently brush away the forming tears.
Chinen sniffles harder, and suddenly launches himself at Yamada again, crying into his shoulder. Yamada, startled, awkwardly begins to stroke Chinen’s hair in an attempt to calm him down.
“If you wish,” he murmurs, low enough for only Chinen to hear, “I’ll never leave your side.”
Chinen tightens his grip around Yamada’s neck, never wanting to let go.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“You’ll always be with me?”
Yamada smiled, running his free hand through Chinen’s soft hair again.
“Forever and always.”
~
Ryutaro and Yuto come back after disappearing for a dinner break with Keito and Daiki in tow, to find the door to the changing room slightly ajar.
They peek inside to see Yamada and Chinen entangled in a messy embrace, sprawled in a corner sleeping soundly.
“How sweet,” whispers Yuto happily. “We did it!”
Keito smiles, putting his arm around Yuto’s waist.
“We sure did.”
Daiki beams at the scene, and disappears, presumably in search of more Pocky.
Ryutaro sighs, and ushers everyone out of the room to give the pair some quiet.
The door quietly clicks shut. Yamada stirs a little in his sleep, then shifts a little, fingers entwining themselves with Chinen’s.
Chinen smiles in his sleep.
Yamada does too.
…Let’s join hands and face tomorrow together…