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"Are you ever going to do something about it?" Izuru asks one late call. The sound of water lapping against stone - he must've been fishing and wanted some company.
"About what?" Astel's hair is still damp, so he's sitting on the side of bed, cushion clutched to his stomach.
"Temma."
There was no need to elaborate about it.
"Hasn't it gone for too long? Miyabi's been complaining to me about how he's been lately. I mean, he'll get over it for a while, but you get my point."
And boy does he ever. He opens his mouth. Closes it. Runs the words through his mind, lets it linger on the tip of his tongue.
Minutes past. He can hear the sound of crickets faintly in the background, barely above the rush of noise in his head.
In the end, Izuru gets the same answer as he's always given.
"I don't know."
--
The thing is, Temma is kinda (unintentionally?) obvious about it.
For one, subtlety wasn't his strong suit. Roberu was a loudmouth, and knew pretty much everyone, but not everyone could read him in return. Astel was Astel, one who held many masks, and knew how to use them.
Temma...was different from them both. It had been refreshing, actually, to have met someone like him. Pure, the first word that popped into his head. Someone who wasn't afraid to do what he wanted, without fear of what others would think.
But even people like those would have their own things to hide. Everyone does.
It's just that Temma kinda sucks at it in a few departments.
(or maybe, Astel's mind mutters, maybe he knows that he has a chance.)
It isn't Astel's first rodeo. He knows the signs of infatuation, of a crush, and Temma ticked off nearly every box in his mental checklist.
The fidgeting, the red-faced stammers. Getting into Astel's hobbies to find new talking grounds (he appreciated this one, honestly). The glances he'd catch him steal. The way he'd tried to ask him to hang out together on the weekends...
If it wasn't for the fact that Astel actually liked him back, he'd long rejected Temma outright. He isn't the sadistic type to leave people hanging, after all.
But at the same time, something is stopping Astel from accepting his feelings.
--
Temma is someone who follows the beat of his own drum, for better or for worse. It's an admirable trait. But it has its downfalls.
For one, he's stubborn. Set in his own ways, and does what he thinks is right, is best.
And that includes his bull-headed ways in courtship. Clumsy.
But he could forgive all of that. Love is difficult, and navigating is tough. Astel knows, he's gone through it before. It's endearing, to an extent, even. But yet...
And yet...
It doesn't seem like there has been...progress? Improvement? it's the same tactics, over and over. Novelty lost, he's begun to see the patterns in his pursuit. Two years have passed, and they're now third years in high school. They've grown taller (except Astel anyway), their ties are all different, and they're still friends. But really, has any headway been made?
They're stuck. Admittedly, the fault isn't really all on Temma. Maybe Astel should say something, maybe his words will get into that thick skull of his. But Temma is more important to him than that. They're friends, forever and always if they can help it (and god, the Toilet Debacle sure did help with that, dear lord) and Astel wants him to change for himself because he wants to, not because his cute crush told him to.
By this point, the fear that once gripped Astel when he realized, has dulled to a constant ache that still yearns to be soothed. But the approach has still gone unchanged.
Yet the target, Astel, has changed. Does he realize that yet?
--
Kishido Temma, a man who has always done whatever he wanted, no matter what it took.
Your determination, perseverance was what endeared me to you, what I started loving about you.
But hey, Temma. Spare some thought for what I want too, yeah?
--
Maybe one day they'll be able to laugh about it. In a future where Temma could tell him "I love you", and Astel could say it back without fear. A future where they can smile with their hearts and laugh with honesty.
Because it's true, Astel thinks faintly, that despite it all, he loves him too.
But until then, the waiting game continues. But how much longer, Astel wonders, can he hold out for? What will it take till something starts to fray, to snap entirely?
(Would it even be worth it?)