Chapter Text
Takehaya Seiya viewed the world in colors.
He assigned a color to everyone he knew. Perhaps it was sort of like reading their aura, but it really didn't have to go as deep as that. It was actually rather superficial, and pertained only to the way he viewed them personally. Someone else might think Nanao was a soft blush, but he preferred to view him as more of a mustard color. Cheery, but with a certain depth.
And Minato. Minato had always been green.
A soft green, like breezy summer fields, or the inside of a honeydew; sweet, if you picked a good one, but not always to everyone's liking. Fortunately, Seiya liked honeydew. And he really, really liked Minato.
Minato was his best friend and closest confidant. Their bond was unlike any other relationship Seiya had in his life, having spent so much of their waking time together since the day they met so long ago, when they were both still in elementary school. They were neighbors. Schoolmates. Teammates. Closest, dearest friends. But it wasn't enough.
Seiya wanted more.
And it had quickly become more of a pressing concern the past year than he'd like to admit. His every waking moment was consumed with thoughts of Minato. When would he see him next? Would they walk to school together today? Would they eat lunch together? Would they talk at practice? Would they walk home together after? Would they go over to one of their houses and study? Would they talk... talk about what Seiya was dying to finally express before the words ate right through his chest?
Most days the answer to multiple, if not all of these, had been no. For Minato had been drawing away from him slowly, and Seiya couldn't figure out for the life of him why. It was disheartening, yes, but he'd been used to the feeling of almost losing Minato before. It had happened on more than one occasion. When Minato first discovered Shuu and started practicing Kyudo. When he got into the accident, and Seiya blamed himself for it every day after. When he got target panic and nearly gave up Kyudo entirely. All those times, Seiya thought he was going to lose Minato. But he always came back around. Seiya always thought he would come back. But for the first time in forever, Seiya wasn't as sure anymore. Everyone had to say goodbye eventually, he just never thought it would be so soon, or when both of them were still very much alive and well and in each others lives.
"Seiya?"
He was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of his mother's voice behind him. He had been standing in the road, staring at Minato's house in a daze.
"You're going to be late," she warned him. He looked at his phone. She was right. It was so close, in fact, that there could be no doubt Minato had already left for school, otherwise he probably didn't intend to go at all.
Seiya let out an almost imperceptible sigh and straightened his glasses. "Sorry, I'll get going." He adjusted the bag over his shoulder and finally headed off, already in a sour mood for no particular reason besides the fact that this was the fourth day in a row he had yet to say more than a hello or goodbye to his supposed best friend. This mood was immediately felt by his classmates, particularly Nanao and Ryohei, who had exceptionally good radars for just this sort of thing.
"What's wrong?" Nanao asked.
"Yeah, who pissed you off?" Ryohei added, receiving an elbow to the side from the smaller boy next to him.
"I'm fine," Seiya lied, placing his bag on the side of the desk and sitting down gracefully. Every move he had was very graceful. Some might call it calculated.
"Tsk, you walked into the room surrounded by an almost visible grey cloud," Ryohei teased, leaning over Seiya, his hands propping himself up on the desk. "Is everything okay at home?"
Seiya grunted in affirmation, taking out his notebook and pencil bag.
Nanao had already gathered that Seiya wasn't going to talk and whispered to Ryohei to let it go. If he was still like this at practice, then he'd press harder, but the day had barely begun and maybe he'd get out of his weird slump by the afternoon. Wishful thinking. Seiya was grateful they left him alone. This was hardly the place to spill his guts about Minato. If he even wanted to do that at all. They were his friends, yes, but they weren't really his first choice in confidants. Minato was that. But this was about Minato, so obviously he was in a bit of a bind.
During lunch, Seiya decided to stay at his desk, as he didn't have much strength to get up, really, and it looked uncomfortably hot outside today anyway. However, now would be the perfect time to try and find Minato. But was that too much? With all the apparent avoiding Minato had been doing lately, maybe it wasn't the best idea. Maybe, just maybe, Minato would come find him for once. Yes, if Minato wanted to see him, he would come find him himself. Seiya squared his shoulders and stayed put, forcefully pulling out his bento box and angrily sifting through the contents with a pair of chopsticks.
When class resumed, Nanao was once again at his side, a cheerful "Merha!" alerting Seiya to his presence once again. "Why did you eat alone?" he asked. "You always eat with us. You had some of us worried."
"Huh?" Seiya felt his heart flutter. "Did I worry Minato?"
Nanao blinked once, then shook his head. "What? Minato? No. I haven't seen Minato all day. I don't know where he is. No, Kaito was asking about you."
Kaito...
Kaito was the last person Seiya cared whether he was concerned for him or not. He quickly dismissed all thought of him. He was more focused on the fact that Nanao hadn't seen Minato either. "Maybe he is home sick today..." Seiya whispered, mostly to himself but Nanao still managed to catch it.
"Huh? You two didn't walk to school together today?"
"N-no."
"That's like the third time this week!"
So someone else had noticed this odd change in Minato's behavior besides Seiya. "Yeah, he's usually gone before I'm ready to leave, so it just sort of...hasn't worked out this week."
Nanao scrunched his nose and shook his head. "What a weirdo. He get's so moody for no reason sometimes and cuts people off. Is that normal?"
Seiya couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, it kinda is."
"Well, I hope he gets over it soon cause today is our first day back at practice and I really don't want to spend the afternoon with him like that. He's no fun to shoot with when he's grumpy."
Seiya agreed. But honestly, it was never fun to shoot with any of the five of them in a bad mood. They were a team, a unit. And as such, when one person was having an off day, all of them felt the repercussions of it. "I'm sure he'll be better this afternoon, if he is having a hard time. It's hard to stay upset when doing Kyudo."
"That's true. Well, I've got to head next door, I'll see you at the range later," Nanao waved goodbye, quickly being swarmed by a group of girls as he headed off. Seiya hung his head as soon as he left. He'd almost forgotten that today was their first day back at practice after the holiday. He'd have to see Minato then. There was no way Minato would miss practice, no matter if he was purposefully avoiding Seiya or not. This gave Seiya a bit of hope, if at least to gain more insight into what was going on, even if they didn't get the chance to resolve it.
When he walked into the hall, he was the first one there, even before Masaki. He took the opportunity to set up the targets, and check off the opening tasks that often befell him as President of the club. He didn't mind, and the quiet was actually rather peaceful and welcome. It managed to calm his thoughts enough that he felt like he could actually gather a proper breath into his lungs. He hadn't realized he'd been holding so much tension in his chest. He was an easily stressed person, but at least he had the ability to recognize it and try to do something about it.
The floor creaked then, and he was startled to his senses by a deep voice apologizing. He picked up the pencil he'd dropped.
Not his first choice of company.
"Masa-san." Seiya acknowledge the presence by retrieving the pencil Masaki was holding out to him, but quickly returned to what he was doing and promptly ignored his coach. He still felt awkward and uncomfortable around him since he'd told him he hated him. He'd never apologized for it (and didn't intend to) and the weight of that still seemed to hang between them.
"You're here early," Masaki supplied.
Seiya made a noise of affirmation, but didn't elaborate.
Masaki fiddled with a few things here and there but quickly noticed that Seiya had taken care of most everything on his own. "You're very prepared today," he went on, obviously uncomfortable by the silence.
Seiya was thinking how much he'd like to tell him to shut up, since the silence was what he had been enjoying up until now. Instead he said, "it just sort of happened."
That made Masaki laugh, for whatever reason, and Seiya frowned at the sound. "Well, I'd expect nothing less of a devoted President like you."
The compliment was not welcome and thankfully Seiya didn't have to respond because Nanao and Ryohei took that moment to step out on the veranda. Seiya stood up, still refusing to glance at his coach, and walked over to greet the other two boys. Really, every word that came out of Masa-san's mouth frustrated him. He just rubbed him the wrong way and it was starting to become a real...nag. Nanao and Ryohei were talking about some girl Nanao had turned down today, and Seiya was almost interested for a moment before all attention was pulled away by none other than Narumiya Minato's sudden appearance.
They grew quiet, or at least, all other sound slipped away as Seiya stared at the face he'd barely seen in four days. It was like drinking water after weeks of drought. Minato was so-
"Narumiya!"
Masaki stepped into Seiya's line of sight.
Nanao tapped Seiya's shoulder. "So should I apologize to her?" he asked. "Was I being too harsh?"
"W-what?" Seiya looked confused. What was he talking about. "Who?"
"Ugh, the girl he turned down today!" Ryohei answered for his friend. "Geez, were you even listening at all?"
"Sorry, I..." He was still looking to where Masaki was talking to Minato. Minato hadn't even glanced this way yet. Could he really look through Seiya like that so easily? Like he wasn't even there? "I'll be right back." He left the two boys gaping after him and stepped over next to Minato, right in the middle of his and Masa-san's conversation. "Minato," he greeted him, trying desperately to act normal, to smile. Did he remember how to smile? He tried it. It felt weak.
He expected Minato to be angry that he'd interrupted, but he didn't frown. He sort of smiled, but it too looked weak. "Hi," he said back.
"I was worried you weren't feeling well since I didn't see you around school today."
"Mm I was late."
Seiya didn't intend to blush, but he suddenly very passionately prayed that Minato hadn't caught him staring at his house this morning. "Oh, I'm sorry, I wish I would've known. I could have-"
"You don't always have to do stuff for me, Seiya," Minato cut in. He probably didn't intend to snap, but to Seiya, it sort of stung.
"But I want to," Seiya countered.
"But you don't need to."
Seiya didn't know what to say. He knew he was a bit clingy, but Minato usually understood that Seiya's advances were generally well-intended. "Oh, okay, but um,"
"We need to start," Minato said, grabbing his bow off the rack and turning his back to his friend. "Masa-san doesn't like when we start late."
Masa-san.
Masaki.
Seiya felt his body tighten instinctively. "Right." He too grabbed his bow, and practice proceeded like planned.
Honestly, as they got started, everything felt fine. They found their usual rhythm, and generally shot well. It felt the same as before, almost as if they'd never had a break at all. That was until Masaki took to Minato's side, gently placing his hand on Minato's arm as he corrected his form. Seiya watched them, transfixed, unable to tear his eyes away as he saw an ever faint blush trace its way across Minato's cheeks as Masaki whispered something just slightly too close to his ear.
"Ugh, you've really got to stop looking at him with puppy dog eyes. It really pisses me off." The sound of a fired string startled Seiya into turning around. A sharp, blunt Kaito stood at his side. Seiya hadn't noticed Kaito wasn't here. In fact, he'd appeared so suddenly that Seiya wasn't convinced he hadn't been here all along.
Kaito lowered his draw, snapping his head towards Seiya. He narrowed his eyes. "Why aren't you shooting? Don't waste our time by staring at Narumiya all day."
Seiya's hand shook. Colors danced before his eyes.
Kaito.
Kaito was a fiery, untouchable red.