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1
"So, what are you going to do during the winter vacation?" Oboro asked, clinging to his hot vending machine tea. White clouds puffed out of his mouth, flickering up to the sky.
Absent-mindedly, Shouta stared after them, looking down again when they vanished.
"Just cramming and doing some recordings for my web show. Nothing big," Hizashi replied, filling in the gap Shouta left with his silence. "And you?"
"Oh, we'll visit some relatives in Okinawa. I'm really looking forward to that. It's awesome! It's still summer there. A paradise, I swear!" Oboro grinned brightly and fixed his nose patch, nudging Shouta in the same move.
"Hey, what's with that glum face? We're finally on vacation!"
"Hell, yeah! Vacation time!" Hizashi chimed in, pinching Shouta's cheek to get a reaction.
It worked, since he shoved Hizashi’s hand away, grumbling.
"So we won’t see each other the whole time, will we?” Shouta murmured, still staring down onto the gravel beneath the bank they sat on.
Oboro’s and Hizashi’s gaze met above Shouta’s head. Oboro arched his brow and pouted, apparently clueless as of what to do. Hizashi, however, knew exactly that this was what bugged his friend.
Shouta had grown attached to Oboro, even though he tried hard to keep people at arm's length. Not Oboro, though. And honestly, how could one resist him?
Oboro was a great guy. Kind, caring, committed - forging bonds wherever he went. He won people’s hearts over with his charm, no matter how much they didn’t want to get involved.
Like Shouta.
He always believed he was too weak to take responsibility for any kind of relationship. He had built the thickest walls around his heart.
But those walls of fear and worry stood no chance against Oboro’s loving ways. He took them by storm.
It wasn’t hard for Hizashi to tell what drew Oboro to them. Oboro did everything to make people happy and cheer them up, and Shouta was the kind of guy who always needed a little cheering.
He was the perfect match for Oboro.
He could drown Shouta in all his excess care, which he couldn’t bestow on others, and Shouta would thrive with it, even though he’d never admit it.
Hizashi never said a word, but he did notice how Oboro always managed to raise their brooding friend’s spirits. Ever since first meeting Oboro, Hizashi had seen Shouta smile more often than in their whole lifetime. And wasn’t that a little bit of confidence growing within their pessimistic friend as Oboro kept cheering him on?
So Hizashi nodded to Oboro first, then to Shouta. Oboro picked up on the hint.
“Nah, but I’ll text you, I promise!” the cloud-head suggested, with a dazzling smile.
Shouta looked up to him, suspiciously and cautiously. “You will?”
“OF COURSE!” Oboro yelled enthusiastically. “I’ll spam you with pics!”
Immediately, Shouta’s face lit up, and Hizashi huffed.
2
The goggles looked stupid.
They were Oboro’s thing. With that wavy-fluffy hair of his, they complemented his hero outfit well. Shouta found them annoying, but they had proven themselves to be extremely functional in battle. So it was only logical that he wore them.
However, every time he looked into the mirror while wearing them, he felt silly.
Still, his insides boiled when Sensouji managed to break them during a battle training class.
Shouta hadn’t been teaming up with Oboro like before but had to go with another classmate. They didn’t know each other’s moves like Shouta and Oboro did, so of course, there were some repercussions.
One of them was Sensouji giving off a blast right into Shouta’s face.
He wasn’t hurt, yet everyone was shocked, scolding Sensouji for his recklessness. Usually, Shouta would have waved his teacher’s concern off, but his hand holding the goggles was shaking.
They had protected his eyes just fine. Nothing had happened to him, thanks to these goggles. The goggles he got from Oboro.
And now they were broken.
So Shouta did as he was told, rushing off of the training grounds, heading to the school building where the infirmary was. However, he didn’t need to see the nurse. Instead, he went straight to the rooftop, where the three of them usually hung out.
He sat down and tried to even out his breathing, dissipating the anger he felt - anger he didn’t know the origin of. It was irrational. It was just some equipment, wasn’t it?
Even though Shouta wanted some silence to think this through, he was neither surprised nor irritated when someone suddenly hovered over him, the setting sun stretched the shadows endlessly.
It was Shirakumo, sitting on a cloud, tilting his head, brows unusually furrowed.
“Why didn’t you come back?” he asked, brows perking up when Shouta hid the broken goggles behind himself, hoping his friend wouldn’t pick up on it.
Shouta simply shrugged.
“You weren’t at the infirmary at all, were you?”
Again, he shrugged.
“He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No, he…” Shouta murmured, peeking down where the goggles had been before.
“Oh, the goggles!” Of course, Oboro would notice.
Shouta groaned, facing away when Oboro jumped down from his cloud to sit next to him.
“Don’t worry, here!” Without even batting an eye, he took his own off and put them on Shouta, who didn’t even get to protest with how quick Oboro was. “Have mine. I’ll have the support department make me a new pair!”
When Shouta didn’t seem to be appeased, Oboro bumped their shoulders together. “Come on, now. It’s not a big deal, is it?”
“But... They symbolized our friendship...” Shouta mumbled, blurting out something he hadn’t given much thought to.
His friend blinked a few times but then laughed and put an arm around him. “That’s why they did their job and protected you while I couldn’t.”
Now it was Shouta who blinked, surprised at the hearty hair ruffle that left his head spinning. All the anger was suddenly gone, replaced by some fuzzy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“And so will this pair. Everything’s alright, so will you stop pulling that face now?”
He felt his own lips quirking upwards at Oboro’s smile.
3
Hizashi had wanted to say something when Oboro brought the cat to school.
But after hearing both sides of the story - Shouta's and Oboro's - he didn’t say anything.
Scared as he was, Shouta had abandoned the little guy; Oboro, who had witnessed everything, picked him up for Shouta.
Hizashi knew right away what they were doing.
However, they didn't.
Oboro had no idea what he was doing. He acted on his hero instinct, took the little one in, and kept him close to dote on him - just like the other stray he picked up. And both strived in his well-meaning but clumsy, clueless care.
Of course, Shouta was fussing a lot over the cat; he loved the little guy. He kept yapping about how he wasn't ready to take responsibility. Yet there he was, taking the best care of the tiny creature entrusted to him by his best friend. But no, Shouta didn’t have any idea what he was doing either.
He also wanted to say something about them leaving Sushi, the cat, with Kayama.
They had a point, though; Kayama could take better care of the little guy.
But rather than just taking him away, she took all three of them in.
It could have been a coincidence since they were interning at the same agency, but Hizashi had a hunch that it wasn't. Maybe it was the number of cat pictures and videos she kept sending to them, maybe it was the many times she invited them over to her house to visit Sushi.
Either way, he was glad that he didn't say anything.
Because, one day, when he had a chance to join them at Kayama's house, Hizashi understood that she, too, knew what was going on. And she knew what she was doing.
They talked a lot about their internships, their plans for their future, about teachers and training, everything and nothing. Oboro and Shouta kept zoning in and out of the conversation, occupied with entertaining Sushi, smiling and laughing as they did.
When the kitten got sleepy and curled up in Oboro's lap, Kayama asked Hizashi to help her with the tea. So he tagged along, chatting with her in the kitchen for a while, caring little about the tea cooling down.
"Shouldn't we take this to the living room?"
Kayama hummed and peeked through the door, then nodded. "Yeah, we can now. But shush ," she hushed him before she went ahead.
He figured that she didn't want to wake Sushi up, but when they returned, all three had fallen asleep, Shouta leaning against Oboro, head on his shoulder, with Oboro's head bedded on Shouta’s.
Hizashi hummed as Kayama winked at him. "Dummies, aren't they?" she whispered.
Hizashi just smiled and didn’t say anything at all.
4
The thing with Shouta was… Something. Not easy, for sure.
Shouta was hard-working, one of the best in their class, despite the way he overthought everything, or maybe he was on top of almost everything because he gave everything too much thought.
Sometimes Oboro only wanted him to relax, chill, and be less critical with himself.
What kind of hero would he be if he didn't try to cheer his best friend up?
So he did what he could: he picked up the tiny kitty that Shouta was yearning for like a pining idiot instead of just taking it home. He gave him some goggles as battle equipment Shouta hadn’t considered before. After the more gruesome days at their internship agency, he sent some late-night texts to make sure his friend was okay. He usually received annoyed answers. But hey, his texts didn't go unanswered for the sake of much-needed sleep.
Oboro enjoyed doing all these things, no matter how pointless or thoughtless they appeared. Sometimes he thought Shouta might appreciate all his antics, no matter how often he claimed Oboro was too loud, too obnoxious, too much. At some point, he managed to bring one of those rare smiles to Shouta’s glum face.
That was a good sign, right?
He really thought he was doing something right. That was why he was more than confused when Shouta suddenly stopped talking to him one day after the three of them visited Kayama’s house to meet Sushi.
The following days, Shouta wouldn’t look him in the eye anymore, wouldn’t talk to him more than necessary when they were alone, and even when they were hanging out on the rooftop, having lunch together with Hizashi, Shouta hardly said a word.
Hizashi must have realized the change in Shouta’s attitude as well, watching Shouta leave with apparent worry on his face to spend the rest of his time elsewhere - not with them. When he saw how Oboro continued picking at his rice without much appetite, Hizashi heaved a deep, dramatic sigh.
“You two are idiots, aren’t you?”
“Mh? He’s the one avoiding me. If anyone, he's the idiot.”
Hizashi looked him in the eye, slowly blinking a few times as if he was waiting for something. When whatever it was didn’t happen, he sighed again.
“Point proven," he deadpanned. "Anyway, you know how he keeps thinking that he shouldn’t involve himself with anything in the first place if he can’t take full responsibility? He thinks of himself as not strong or good enough to get involved with anything or anyone, for that matter. No matter if it’s cats or… people.”
“But… He’s so caring and worrying about everything. He’s probably the most responsible person I know!” Oboro protested.
Hizashi gave him a gauging side-glance before he face-palmed. “You know, it’s especially because of his caring self that he… is scared of failing the people he gets involved with.”
"So he's pushing away the people he cares about instead?”
Again, Hizashi simply shook his head.
“You two really are idiots.”
5
Shouta had tried his best not to get involved any more with Oboro. He wasn't quite ready for any kind of involvement yet, or the responsibilities that ensued. He didn't want to burden a great guy like Oboro with the half-baked human being he was. He wasn't half the hero Oboro was. He’d only drag him down and hold him back.
So Shouta had tried his best to stay away.
But when the distance he put between them resulted in Oboro getting hurt on a mission, he realized it was the greatest mistake of his life.
Never had he been more afraid in his life than at that moment, when he saw Oboro knocked down from his cloud, lying in a pool of his blood, unconscious and unresponding.
What if he hadn't tried to stay away? What if he had simply stayed close to Oboro as he was supposed to, instead of busying himself with giving Oboro the cold shoulder? For what actually? For being an amazing friend? Reaching out, asking to spend some time together with Sushi and Kayama after work?
He could have prevented this accident. He could have saved Oboro, like he had saved Shouta so many times.
Ever since they met, Oboro had been saving him.
And now Oboro was hurt because of him, because of his stupidity.
What a fine hero he was. He had to do better.
So he didn't leave his side, neither at the crime scene nor at the hospital. He swore he wouldn't make this kind of mistake again; he would never fail his friend like this again.
So he waited, right by Oboro's side.
He couldn't tell for how long he had been waiting, but it felt like a lifetime. The clock was ticking away seconds, minutes, hours, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was the warmth of Oboro's hand in his - and the tiny twitch going through it when Oboro finally woke up.
"Shouta...?" It was the first thing Oboro said.
It sounded so weak, and yet, so delighted. The vulnerability with which Oboro whispered his name tore down the last walls inside Shouta like a whirlwind. Flood waves of tears burst out of Shouta, so all he could do in an attempt to keep them at bay was bury his face in his friend's chest.
And, like the good hero he was, Oboro just smiled and embraced him as he softly murmured, "Hey… It's alright."
6
After that, everything went back to almost normal, much to everyone’s relief. However, the chilling tension of Shouta avoiding Oboro had been replaced by another type of tension - the we-ignore-the-elephant-in-the-room type of tension.
That type of tension where you can laugh and talk alright while your friends are around, but fall quiet as soon as you’re left alone with the other, fumbling awkwardly for reasons not to talk. The worst kind of tension.
It must have been as irritating to watch as it was atrocious to live through because Oboro often caught Hizashi and Kayama exchanging eye-rolls and puzzled looks upon their interactions.
He couldn’t blame them.
He only wanted to know why Shouta had been crying like that in the hospital. He wanted to know why they weren’t simply talking things through - like why he had been avoiding Oboro for so long before the accident, or why Shouta suddenly hovered around whenever he could, no matter how awkward it was.
Oboro was so unnerved by this tension. So he asked Shouta to meet on the roof after class one day. He was surprised when Shouta accepted without much hesitation.
By noon, Oboro already regretted asking Shouta to meet first thing in the morning. No day had ever dragged on this long, minutes stretching endlessly like a bland piece of chewing gum. Nervously, he watched Shouta leave the classroom with his belongings, wondering if he remembered their date . He had to stay behind to do his classroom cleaning duties. Of course, it was his turn today of all days.
Hastily, he did what he had to do, ignoring the others’ comments, and ran upstairs as soon as he could. A weight fell off his chest when he saw Shouta crouching next to the door, staring absent-mindedly ahead at the sunset.
Shouta blinked when Oboro came blasting through the door and glanced away when he gasped, "You came!"
"Of course," he grumbled as he often did. "Why wouldn't I?"
Oboro didn't want to think too much about the slight blush on Shouta's cheeks. Maybe it was just the light, but his stomach still made a backflip at the sight.
"Well... You've been avoiding me for a while now," he admitted, with his heart hammering hard as he went straight down to the nitty-gritty.
"No!" Shouta protested momentarily, looking at Oboro so distressed he almost felt sorry for saying it so bluntly. "I... I didn't mean to avoid you. I was just...." Shouta trailed off, looking down again. Always down, while all Oboro wanted for him was to look up at the sky, to the clouds.
"I just didn't know how to face you after all that," Shouta concluded eventually.
There, Shouta looked up to him, eyes wide and full of doubts and hopes, reflecting the chaos inside Oboro so perfectly he had to swallow so that he wouldn't choke on the butterflies in his stomach fluttering up high. Instead, he listened to the heroic intuition that often helped him in battle.
Taking in a deep breath, he tentatively wrapped his arms around Shouta, giving him enough time to retreat if he wanted to. But Shouta’s hand just came to rest on his shoulders, and he finally looked up. Finally . And as he closed his eyes, Oboro did the same, leaning in to brush his own lips over Shouta's carefully.
When Oboro opened his eyes again, Shouta smiled, blushing brightly. It made him laugh and pull Shouta into a crushing hug.
"Hizashi was right. We really are idiots."
Shouta nodded. “We are.”