Chapter Text
“Come again, Momo-kun?”
He swore he must’ve misheard him. Or hallucinating the blush that crept up his cheeks. Or both, maybe, actually.
“I’m sure you heard me, senpai,” he huffed, those red cheeks puffed up now, face turning away. Pretending to check on Pyunsuke. Pretending to check on his soldier figures. Whatever. He was flustered.
Nitori was kinda flustered, too, but he could excuse his blush off with the fact that he was just out of the shower. With towels around his shoulder, that he just used to wipe his grey hair, and, and—
(He’s now hyper-aware of the state of those messy strands, kinda longer now because he didn’t really have time to trim them.)
“Uh, well,” he started, unconsciously playing with the end of his hair with his left hand. “Thanks, I guess? But it’s not like I can go around with messy hair, you know, or people will think that I’m too lazy to brush it,” he chuckled.
“But it’s a waste!!!” Momo jumped in front of him, suddenly lost all of his flusteredness from a while ago, and rambled on with glowing eyes. “Like! I saw your maid picture last year, Nitori-senpai, and didn’t you actually had your hair done kinda messily? That’s cute!”
“Uh—but—that’s, that’s not really on purpose,” he was still not used to Momo’s energetic pace, and he flailed despite himself. He was still not used of Momo’s way to compliment someone, too, but he kinda get the gist so he tried not to get too flustered by being called cute. “Rin-senpai grabbed my hair because I teased him when he put on his costume, and maybe I forgot to tidy it back. So.”
“Why don’t you try to done your hair that way, then? I bet you could get popular, Senpai.”
“Like I said, it’s not really working in real life, you know! I’ll end up looking like people with bed-head!”
“No, you won’t!”
“Yes, too!”
“No!”
“Oh my god, shut up!” someone shout from their room and both of them end up putting their finger to their mouth, telling each other to lower their voice. It was already dark outside, and they were being loud. Nitori sighed.
“Momo-kun,” he knew he used his ‘son let me tell you this’ voice, but he couldn’t help it. It worked well with Momo. “Why do you insist that, anyway? It’s not like I wanted to be popular, you know. I’m fine with things like they are right now. I’m still working up on my swimming, so actually it might be best not to get caught up in relationship,” he suddenly realized that he might sound too confident and add hastily, “not that I think it will make me popular, just so you know.”
The red-haired boy puffed his cheeks again, and Nitori almost asked him why again, before he spoke, “Because, you see. I know you aren’t being too confident with yourself, and that people not really realize that you’re… something good. You’re really good, senpai! You might always get your side of the room all messed up but I know you’re trying hard to keep it clean. You care for others, you train all night to get better in swimming, and you’re even…” he trailed off, like there’s something he wanted to say, but kept himself from saying. That’s kinda bothering Nitori. “Anyway, senpai, I just want people to notice you more. I think you’re awesome, senpai. That’s all.”
Momo actually smiled that sheepish smile of him, and Nitori couldn’t describe anything he was feeling other than warm, giddy, and weirdly happy, so he just let his face burnt up for a while before he smiled back and chuckled, covering his mouth with his hand.
“…you know, Momo-kun, you’re really something else,” the older boy walked to his bed, toweling his hair, still chuckled. Momo wanted to say something but then Nitori glanced up, blue eyes shone by moonlight that slipped by the window, and met his eyes. “I… I don’t think I deserved to be called awesome, but thanks.”
Nitori was still blushed and giddy, so he couldn’t really keep the eye contact. Momo was grinning then, fidgeting in front of his senpai, excitement shone through his golden eyes.
“So you’ll keep your hair messy then?”
“Oh God, no!”
“But I’m telling you, that’s such a waste, senpai!”