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Their thing starts unintentionally in a boring Saturday afternoon when the light rain was falling lazily outside. Tanaka Ryuunosuke lifts up his head and yawns, stretches his arms over his head and stares at Ennoshita, who hasn't been moving in a while. "Oi, Chikara, can I ask you a question?”
Ennoshita takes his eyes from his notebook, taming the urge to be a prick and point out he already did ask a question and shrug. “Go ahead.”
“Have you ever kissed somebody?”
It takes him off guard and it’s shown in the way his almond eye get so wide open and his lips part a little, in an adorable surprised silent question. Tanaka waits in silence for his answer, all serious face and focused eyes. So different from his usual self that makes Ennoshita a little unease.
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Did you or did you not?”
He crosses his arms and look away, obviously uncomfortable. Not that he is completely unaware of how Tanaka Ryuunosuke can make him feel uncomfortable out of nowhere. They had been friends for three years now. It had been time enough for Ennoshita to get to know how Tanaka’s brain works on some matters but it would still get him off guard every now and then. “Why do you wanna know?”
Tanaka shrugs. “It’s just a question.” He says. “But did you?”
Ennoshita closes his notebook. “Why are you so suddenly interested in kissing?”
Tanaka just shrugs again. To be fair, his romantic roots and kissing interests have always been pretty obvious to everyone. During the first and second year of high school, everybody knew Tanaka was trying to get a girlfriend. Once they got to their third year, things became calmer and Ennoshita thought Tanaka’s weird horny phase had just wore off. Thinking again now, he realizes that maybe he was wrong.
“Have you?”
This time, Tanaka laughs. “C’mon! You know I never had a girlfriend! What kind of question is that?”
Ennoshita chuckles. “You started it!”
Tanaka leans in, resting his elbows on the table between them two. “Do you think it is possible to have a bad first kiss?” he asks, very seriously, in hushed voice like it is a forbidden question. Ennoshita takes his time to answer. The room around them seem to shrink in size as they stare at each other, the soft ticking of a clock on Tanaka’s bedside being the only sound Ennoshita could hear over his racing heart. “Do you?” Tanaka asks again, but Ennoshita only shrugs.
“I don’t know.” He finally says and Tanaka groans.
“I don’t wanna have a bad kiss with my girlfriend!” he moans, lying down on the floor.
“Wait! You got a girlfriend?” it is stronger than him. He leans over the table to look at Tanaka, disbelief written all over his face. “Seriously?!”
“Wow” Tanaka chuckles. For a moment, Ennoshita doesn’t know for sure if he wants to slap him or not. “No. I didn’t. But thank you for sounding so chocked about the possibility!”
“I wasn’t chocked. I was surprised!”
“It’s the same, Chikara.”
“No, it isn’t!”
“Of course it is!” Tanaka lifts his body a little, resting his weight on his elbows. “I know you can’t imagine someone like me dating but even us, the ugglies, have the right to love!” he says, in the middle of a laugh.
And Ennoshita laughs too. He tosses his pencil on him and sits back at his place. “Fuck you, Ryuu. You know you are far from being ugly.”
“You say it cause you are my friend and you are supposed to love me nevertheless.”
“I say it because it’s the truth.” He shrugs. “Do you really think I would say something just to avoid getting your feelings hurt? C’mon! It’s me we are talking about.”
Tanaka chuckles again. “You are right. I can always trust you to tell me the truth.”
“Well, I’m glad this topic is through.” He says, as he piles up his textbooks and notebooks. “I guess we can call it a day, huh?”
“Yeah. Sure. I feel like my brain is melting inside my head.”
“Do you even have one?” Ennoshita teases, a delightfully nasty smirk on the corner of his mouth. “A brain, I mean.”
“I know what you meant, you brat!” he groans and reaches out to his bed, grabs his pillow and toss it right into Ennoshita’s face.
“Oi!” Ennoshita complains, but Tanaka’s laughing is infectious, so he ends up doing the same, arms around Tanaka’s pillow.
“Give my pillow back, you pervert! Stop hugging it!”
“Why? Is this the girlfriend you were talking about?” Ennoshita teases. “Gee, Ryuu, that’s a new level of loser! Even for you! Do you do practice kissing on it?”
“Sure. Every night I spend two hours practicing kisses on my pillow.” Tanaka answers and it is supposed to sound like sarcasm, but his honest deadpan makes it all more endearing. Ennoshita forces an “ew” out of his mouth at the same time he tosses Tanaka’s pillow back at him. “Now that you hugged it, it’s like my mouth’s germs are all over you!”
“You tossed it onto my face!” he yells.
Tanaka is delighted. He laughs harder than he had been all day and Ennoshita follows, even falling back on the floor to try and calm down. “Accept my germs already!”
“Never!”
“Face it, Chikara! It’s like we kissed.” He says again, when their laughter finally dies and the room falls back into silence.
“No, it isn’t!”
“Of course it is! Your mouth touched the place my mouth touched before. For all it matters, you kissed me!”
“No, I didn’t!”
“’Course you did!” Tanaka moves around the table slowly, and leans over Ennoshita. “For all that matter, you just had your first kiss.”
Ennoshita stares at him in silence for a second, and then he presses two of his fingers on his lips and proceeds to do the same on Tanaka’s mouth. “So, for all that matters, you just did it too.” Then he watches as red taints Tanaka’s face slowly. In a minute his cheeks gets such an adorable bright red tone that makes Ennoshita wants to cup his face and kiss it over and over again. He chews his lower lip and stares at his friend, nor saying a word. He couldn’t see himself but he is pretty sure his cheeks are getting red too now.
“That doesn’t count, Chikara. You know it!” Tanaka pouts. And it’s the final blow. After that, Ennoshita just let go. He slowly slides his fingers on Tanaka’s neck and pulls him closer very gently.
“Maybe this does.”
It’s weird at first. Their mouths pressed together so shyly and their hold breaths and Ennoshita’s fingertips going numb and cold on Tanaka’s nape. They don’t even move, both of them scared to break contact and ruin things. Tanaka’s heart is racing. He part his lips a little, just enough for their lips to accommodate better on each other and Ennoshita does the same, his tongue teasingly peeking out a little, like an invitation that Tanaka feels happy to accept. Taste like artificial lemon from the candies they have been sharing previously.
But above all, it tastes good.
When they part and weirdness takes the room and they don’t know what to say, Tanaka clears his throat, sit beside Ennoshita and forces a chuckle. “Well, at least I won’t have a bad first kiss anymore.”
Ennoshita shrugs. “I don’t know. There is a lot of improvement room on your kissing game.”
“Really?”
“Definitely.” He says. He gather all his courage to put on a straight blank face and stares at Tanaka in the eye. “I can show you if you want.”
“Deal.”