Fic for a Pic- AU Historic
Title: First Crush
Category: 2 - AU Historic (more or less :P)
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,764
Takashi leans forward and smiles into Tuti’s face, which has been brought into such close proximity to his own that their noses almost bump.
“You’ve probably been waiting five years to ask me that, haven’t you?”
“I beg your pardon?”
Takashi takes a quick step to catch up to Tuti, reaching his hand out to grab the strap of the other man’s messenger bag--otherwise he runs the real risk of being trampled by the slowly advancing crowd behind them. This early evening stroll through Ueno Park during the height of sakura viewing season was Tuti’s idea in the first place--if Takashi is going down, it’s not going to be alone.
He grins up at Tuti’s confused expression.
“I can tell when you ask me something you’ve been wondering about for a while, you know. You’re totally obvious. Remember how completely shocked you were that I’d known what was coming ten minutes before you finally confessed to me?”
“That was different,” Tuti mumbles, and Takashi swats his arm.
“You’re such a girl, you know that?”
“Oi--I was just curious, that’s all. First crushes are important. They say something about a person, don’t you think?”
“I wonder…” Takashi pretends that his attention has been captivated by several particularly intriguing sakura blossoms that float past his arm and land near his feet as they continue to make their way down the path. Their route curves along ahead of them, a canopy of blossoms in the twilight.
Tuti laughs. “You’re really not going to tell me? Maybe it was so long ago you don’t remember,” he teases. “Though most people tend to remember, no matter how long it’s been…”
Takashi glares up at him.
“Ha! So it was a long time ago! I knew you weren’t one of those guys who dated girls all through middle school and high school before finally figuring it out--”
“--after passing out in the bathroom of some bar in Ni-chome, like you?” Takashi continues to glare, the words having kind of slipped out without thinking.
“Oi, that was low, even for you.”
Takashi rolls his eyes. “And how do you know I’m not talking about a girl, anyway?”
Tuti just stares at him for a moment, but before Takashi realizes it, he’s following Tuti off the path, and down another less populated stretch of concrete, to a stone bench just outside Tosho-gu shrine. During the day, it’d be crowded here too, but after dark, the space is surprisingly well secluded.
“You don’t really have to tell me, you know,” Tuti says after a moment. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
Takashi shakes his head. “It’s not like I mind telling you.” He pauses. “You were right though, it was a long time ago.”
“Yeah? I was just kidding when I mentioned you dating girls though.”
Takashi laughs. “You say that like you haven’t done the same thing yourself. And you know I did date girls. For quite a while.”
Tuti just nods.
“Anyway, it was a night kind of like this, actually. I was walking home from a festival.” Takashi pauses, not sure what’s making him hesitate. It’s not that he’s embarrassed, certainly not in front of Tuti, but…
“Sorry, it’s really not that exciting of a story,” he says, shaking his head.
“So? It doesn’t have to be, right? You were walking home…” Tuti prompts.
Takashi looks up to find Tuti studying his face seriously. He sighs.
“So I was on my way home from the festival and my parents always made me do this calligraphy contest-thing, so I had to dress up-hakama and everything. My grandfather had this great outfit from when he was a kid, and I was finally able to convince him to let me wear it that year.”
“I bet you loved it.”
“I did, actually.” Takashi grins. “It was really fun. I’m sure I complained about it to my parents, but I always kind of liked the feeling of dressing up like that.”
“Go figure.” Tuti grins.
“And so I was on my way home--I’d cut through the woods behind my house to get to the festival, so I was on this path back there, about halfway to my house--and I notice this boy on the path up ahead. He wasn’t from my school, so I didn’t recognize him. He looked like he was maybe a year or two ahead of me. So I’m walking, and it’s getting kind of dark, the sun’s just gone down, and we’re just about to pass each other, and he just stops right in front of me. I thought maybe he thought I was someone else, that he couldn’t really see me that clearly, or something, you know? But he just stops, right in my path, so of course I stopped too…” Takashi pauses. “He had a bag slung over his shoulder, with a pattern I couldn’t quite make out on it.”
“And it sounds silly, but he just… He looks at me, and smiles and… I’m wearing this goofy hat I used to wear all the time, kind of a train-conductor style, with a button and a short rim, and I can tell he’s staring at it, and I think my hands went up automatically, and I kind of…straighten it, or something, and then… He just grabs it off my head.”
“I had no idea what he was doing, and I was really surprised so I just kind of stared at him--it wasn’t like he was making any moves to run off with it or something. I was really confused. And uh…then he turns it over in his hands a few times, smiles, and tosses it back to me.” Takashi sighs. “He waves, says ‘see ya’ and…then he was gone.”
Tuti’s just staring at him when he finishes--waiting for more, Takashi realizes. He laughs. “And that’s ah… Well, that’s it.”
“And what, you had a crush on this guy afterwards?”
“I guess?” He laughs. “Yeah, I totally did. A huge one. I didn’t realize it at the time though.”
Tuti laughs. “How old were you?”
“Twelve, I think.”
Tuti smiles. “I bet you were adorable.”
Takashi laughs. “I don’t know.”
“And of course I didn’t know why at the time, but the whole rest of the walk home, I was on cloud nine. My heart felt like it was going to explode, I had so much energy. I think I might have broken into a run at one point, I was just…”
“Happy?”
“Yeah,” Takashi nods. “And I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened, even though it was nothing. I kept remembering weird details later, like that his hand had brushed the side of my face when he grabbed my hat, and how rough the tips of his fingers had been, and how he’d smelled a little like mint, and something else strange, something I didn’t recognize--ginger, maybe--when he leaned forward. It freaked me out a little. I’d never been aware of so many details about another person before.”
“What did he look like?”
“That’s the thing that drove me crazy! I couldn’t really remember. It was so dark that far back in the woods. In the end all I could remember was that he was taller than me and…” Takashi clears his throat.
“And what?” Tuti prompts when Takashi doesn’t finish the sentence.
“He…uh…” Takashi laughs and gives Tuti a sheepish glance. “Well I just remember that he had kind of a big…forehead.”
Tuti stares at him for a moment before he lets out a huge belly-laugh, the kind that turns Takashi’s insides to jelly. It’s infectious, too.
“Tell me you’re kidding,” Tuti manages after a minute straight of laughing that leaves them both gasping for air.
Takashi is wiping his eyes, and smiling. He shakes his head. “I’m not, I promise. It’s the only real thing I remember about his face.”
“Well, I can assure you I wasn’t strolling through the backwoods of Kanagawa stealing the hats off of random boys, no matter how cute you might have been back then.”
Takashi laughs. “I know.”
“Weird coincidence though, wouldn’t you say?” Tuti says coyly, waggling his eyebrows.
Takashi glares. “Shut up, Tuti. And if you ever mention this to anyone--and don’t give me this crap about “the guys don’t count”; they do--I promise you’ll regret it.” Takashi tries to sound convincing, but it’s difficult when Tuti is sitting there grinning stupidly at him, clearly ignoring his warning.
“So did you dream about his forehead much, would you say? Do you dream about mine? It’s completely normal for guys at that age to have what they call--”
“Tuti,” Takashi whines.
“There’s no need to be embarrassed. It’s a normal part of puberty, you know?”
Takashi groans, covering his face with his hands. “No, it’s not. And I’ve never dreamt about…foreheads, okay. Can we please drop this?”
“…Hey, do you still have that hat?”
“TUTI.”
Tuti raises his palms innocently. “Fine, fine. I get it.”
A moment later they stand and make their way back to the main path; the effect of the sakura falling under the soft light of the lanterns is a little surreal, casting everything in a warm, yellow-white glow.
“Hey, thanks for telling me,” Tuti says after a moment or two of silence. Their arms press against each other, briefly, and the warmth that finds its way through several layers of cotton is almost as familiar and as comforting as the sakura.
Takashi shakes his head. “I’d wanted to for a while. I can’t believe it took you so long to ask.”
“Well, I’ve actually heard you tell a different version of that story before, you know. I could tell you were lying though.”
Takashi raises his eyebrows. “I wasn’t lying, it’s just…”
“What?”
“Like I said, this doesn’t exactly make for a very exciting story, that’s all.”
“And a pretty girl in a yukata isn’t at all clichéd, right?”
Takashi sighs and shrugs. “It’s not so different, really.”
Tuti raises an eyebrow, then bumps his shoulder against Takashi’s playfully. “Well, I’m glad you told me.” He pauses. “It really does explain a lot.”
Takashi nods, and fixes Tuti with a slightly evil grin. “You can stop right there,” he says, still smiling.
“Hai, hai~”
Takashi grins as Tuti accepts his defeat and they continue on into the semi-darkness, a trail of sakura falling behind them, coating the ground with a pale layer of petals that shimmer for a moment under the glow of the lanterns before disappearing underfoot.