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It happens on one of those bright days at the peak of autumn. Spotless blue sky and wind blowing away the curtains of every classroom in their school. Hirano walks past an open window and gets hit by a particularly strong breeze, enough to make him shiver. He really could ignore this thing and go back to bury himself in his coat and stay in his warmer, less windy classroom.
He will not do that.
Instead, he will walk all the way through the corridor, turn left at the last entrance, climb the staircase and hope no people in the astronomy club forgot to lock from their last nightly stargazing.
His hopes crumble when he reaches for the top step. No sight to behold beside the open door to the roof access. He's annoyed now.
Sasaki appears before his sight like he always did whenever they did this thing. He'd vanish during break or after excusing himself to go to the restroom during a class he doesn't like and would run away to bathe in the sun in his favorite little spot, like some lanky, lazy cat. He'd always say he didn't expect to be found, his voice whiny, the slightest change in his stoic expression to demean the most unreasonable response. Every. Single. Time.
They've been doing that for months and Sasaki never fails to look surprised whenever he's spotted by Hirano.
He does it again, suddenly standing up from where he was lying on the roof's floor, pulling his headphones to his neck, eyes just slightly widened.
Hirano leans against the door with one hand and raises an eyebrow. Sasaki rolls his eyes. Hirano scoffs. It's happening again.
He'd heard somewhere before, what was it? When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, the situation enters a paradox where the aforementioned object moves and does not move simultaneously. Hirano wouldn't call himself unstoppable, but he'd dare to say Sasaki does feel immovable sometimes. Stuck in his own strange world of gloom, boredom and snide.
He decides the object is moving today, for a little variety. "Come on."
"Don't wanna." Of course. Sasaki lies down again. Legs bent, hands supporting his head. The headphones still hanging from his neck. "What do you want, anyway? 'M not ditching class this time."
"Thought you were thinking of running away again."
"Wouldn't try that twice. 'M not stupid."
"Sure thing." Hirano steps inside. Or outside, after all, it's the roof. The wind hits him again. He doesn't like the cold. He finds a spot next to Sasaki and sits down. He doesn't have his eyes on his to watch the shock slowly hit Sasaki's deadpan glare until he blinks it away just before Hirano's blue eyes are on him.
"Why do you always do that?"
"Too much noise. Ogasawara talks too much."
"And when it's not Ogasawara it's the teacher, it's Hanzawa, it's the class, the birds…"
"Yeah. You got it."
Hirano adjusts himself on his spot, leaning in his hands resting behind his body. The breeze hits again, he closes his eyes, breathes in, feels it in his hair, his skin. Slowly opening his eyes, he squints at the morning sun hitting them from the corner, surrounded by a deep, beautiful blue. He chuckles. "Guess I get why you like it here."
Sasaki rolls his eyes. He doesn't need to look down to know. "You're on the clock. We're out in ten minutes."
"We?"
"I'll drag you back there by the hair if needed."
Sasaki makes a weird noise between and grunt and hiss when he sits up. Hirano holds back the laughter. "You're scary, Hirano." He sighs. Hirano hears a smile, his eyes immediately travel back to Sasaki's face. Maybe he imagined it. The deadpan is still there, the tired, sleepy eyes.
He prepares to put back the earphones. He pauses. Looks up to Hirano. Looks down to his own hand. Opens his mouth. Closes it. A slight furrow of eyebrows, Sasaki's hair blown by the wind.
An invitation in a voice so small it shouldn't come out of such a tall guy. "Wanna listen to it?"
Hirano tried to hold it back, he did, but the slight blush in Sasaki's face did it. He covered his mouth with one hand trying to muffle the laughter. "I don't really think we have the same taste."
"Try it." It's still small. His face is redder now. It's cute.
It's okay to find it cute, right? Even if it is troublesome, annoying, slacker Sasaki.
"Well if you insist." He takes the earpiece and places it on his ear. Sasaki fumbled with the phone that was lying in his lap and typed something. He was actually choosing it. The song. Hirano felt his face grow hot now. He turned away.
"Don't do that, the wire's gonna stretch." Sasaki fell silent after that.
Hirano closed his eyes again. The mellow chords that introduced the song were accompanied by the wind's whistle on the outside. The singer's voice was just as soft, sugary even. He held back a giggle when he realized it was in English, deciding to pay attention to the words.
His head was piecing together the tragedy of the song's main character when he's hit with a weight on his temple. He can't move his head. Hirano sees Sasaki with the corner of his eye, eyelids closed, slightly obscured by his bangs, song still humming in Hirano's ears.
He squints at the humming. It's not playing in his ear. It's Sasaki. Sasaki follows the melody of the chorus in a sleepy, lazy way.
Hirano could move. He won't. The wind hits again, blows Sasaki's hair away from his face.
Hirano catches a smile. He smiles back, knowing Sasaki won't see it.
5 minutes and half left, he estimates in his head.
The song ends. Sasaki's eyelids flutter open, half open as they always are, judgy and tired.
"Your taste sucks." Hirano says. "Do you even understand what they say?"
"I search for the lyrics in advance. And it's not that hard."
"Why do you suck at English, then?"
"Shut up."
He does, not because Sasaki said, but because another song started. Sasaki leans in again, their shoulders brush, his coat against Hirano's shirt.
It happens on one of those bright days at the peak of autumn. Hirano Taiga breaks a rule to see Sasaki Shuumei smile.
It's worth it. He makes no big deal out of it.