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Chifuyu sees him as a hateful person due to always being the first to voice his complaints. So, it comes as no surprise when Baji groans at the heat and curses the earth for moving closer to the sun, and Chifuyu just laughs, then tells him that's not how the seasons work.
Chifuyu thinks Baji hates summer, as he does everything else, but that's not entirely true. He hates how hot the sun is, how his long hair becomes much more of a nuisance—sticking to his forehead, his back, any part of his skin it can reach, and it makes his scalp feel hot and heavy—but it's not all bad. Baji likes the beach, the sound the cicadas make at night, the warm rainy days, how Chifuyu tans while Baji burns, and how the grass and trees sparkle with green.
And he likes right now. Chifuyu is still damp from the pool, laying back first in the grass next to him, and Baji knows he will complain about the leaves sticking to him like sweaty skin on leather seats. Chlorine is present in the air, on their skin, swim trunks, and hair, but it's a pleasant smell, the kind that reminds him of childhood, of summer from 5 years ago when his biggest worry was what class he'd be in and not if he should go to college or not.
It's that time of day when the sun balances just over the horizon, and the cicadas start humming their tune. Chifuyu is talking, but Baji hears none of it, eyes focusing on the way his lips move to wrap around the words, and Baji has to hold back the urge to a gulp and marvel at his beauty because if there is anything he hates more than the summer sun and damp hair, it'd be his desire to kiss those lips.
His chin is angled in Baji's direction, and he looks up, only to be met with a gaze akin to the grass underneath them. Chifuyu stares at him and blinks like he's waiting for a question to be answered, and it takes a moment too long before he realizes that that's precisely it.
"Huh?" Baji asks, completely dumbfounded.
Chifuyu rolls his eyes but repeats it as if he was expecting this outcome. "Doesn't it bother you too?"
"Does what bother me?"
Baji thinks if Chifuyu rolls his eyes any harder, they'd get stuck. "Were you seriously not listening?"
He shrugs.
With a huff, he explains, "There are so many festivals coming up, and I wanna go to as many as I can, but god, the couples there are the worst. It's like their objective for being there is to rub in your face the face that you're lonely."
"But you have me. I'll go to every one of them with you."
"It's different, though. When Takemichi and Hinata go, they do gross couple stuff like share shaved ice or win prizes for each other. We just fuck around."
For once tonight, Baji is rolling his eyes. "Who wants to be like them anyways."
Baji's eyes follow Chifuyu as he sits up, dragging his knees into his chest. "I don't know, " He says in a small voice, "I do, just once. I wanna know what it's like to be gross and cheesy, but fuck, everyone I end up liking is never interested in me."
"The girls at school are lame anyway."
"You'd date me, right?"
Baji hates cliches just as much as he hates the sun when it's over 90 degrees outside and sticky hair dampened by sweat and his longing for Chifuyu's lips on his, but when Chifuyu says that, it's like the screeching of tires. Time slows for a little while, a lump is present in his throat, and Baji's face grows hot despite the shadows starting to cast over them.
"I'm sorry?"
"You know," Chifuyu continues, "if you were a girl, would you date me?"
Breathing comes to him a bit easier. "Sure, yeah."
"I'm serious."And Chifuyu is. His eyes plead for an honest answer, and Baji sighs.
"You're not ugly." He starts but knows this statement won't be enough to satisfy him. "When you're not coming up with stupid ass plans, you could be pretty smart. Uh, you dress nice except when you wear that fucking sweater. Swear it's like you wanna be buried in it."
Chifuyu's face falls. "You seriously suck at this."
"Shut up! I'm trying."
Baji sighs again and, for once, thinks before speaking. "You're cute. The type girls go for. Your hair is nice now that you've stopped styling it like a fucking dickhead. Keep it like that. You're nice. Even when you try to be an asshole, you suck at it."
"That's all?" Chifuyu whines, "I enjoyed you stroking my ego."
"I bet you did." He scoffs, "Now what about me?"
He laughs, "What? Want yours stroked too?"
"I mean, would you date me, dumbass." Baji adds, "If you were a girl."
He feels the need to emphasize the latter because the answer would be no otherwise.
Chifuyu hums, "Hm." It's long, purposely stretched out to imitate thinking, but Baji knows he's drawing this out to piss him off, which proves to be effective. "Sorry, Baji." He finally says, "but no."
Baji hates the warmth of the sun and his long hair during the hotter months. He hates the stupid urge to kiss Chifuyu whenever he smiles at him and all that corny romance shit that Chifuyu eats up, but what he hates more than anything is how a dumb hypothetical question could hurt him. Terribly so.
"You think the girl you would hate me or something?" He tries to laugh it off, but the laughter ceases when it comes out too hoarse for his liking.
"No!" Chifuyu protests with a giggle, throwing up his hands in defense. "I think girl me would definitely like you. But you're unattainable, and I—She'd understand that and give up all hope of dating you."
Baji frowns, "Hate when you say shit like that."
"What don't you hate?"
Baji shoots him a glare, ignoring the rhetorical question because he's starting to think that, yes, he does hate everything.
"You think I'm this fucking badass. That I'm this cool, invincible dude when I'm not."
Chifuyu shrugs, "No matter what you do, you'll always be cool to me."
"I'm not, though." He says, sitting up to join Chifuyu. "I wouldn't mind if you thought I was a little lame actually."
"How could you be lame?"
Baji takes a deep breath, pauses, then says while staring at his hands, shoulders sagging, "Wanna know something totally lame of me?"
Chifuyu nods slowly.
"I kinda really wanna kiss you right now."
Baji hesitates, but after a while, he finds the courage to look up, and he's immediately met with eyes, big and green like all things newborn in spring. Chifuyu's skin is glowing red in the newly darkened light, and he stares at Baji, just stares.
Seconds of silence skip by before he finally speaks. His words are quiet but deliberate. "So why don't you?"
He's now the shocked one with wide eyes as he's endlessly staring at Chifuyu. Baji tries to tell himself that he's reading too much into things. Though Chifuyu smiles that smile that makes Baji's heart squeeze uncomfortably in his chest, he scoots closer and lowers the knees that were so tightly pressed to his chest, and Baji thinks that maybe, all his prayers are being heard.
"I don't mind."
He's known Chifuyu for years, but there isn't a moment in the past where he looks cuter than he does right now. Baji scoots until they are a finger length away. He watches Chifuyu shut his eyes on instinct as his heart thuds against his ribcage like it's trying to burst out. Leaning in, he's close enough to feel Chifuyu's breath hit his bottom lip. He's close, so close to achieving the one thing he thought, just minutes ago, would be impossible. He wants this, has for embarrassingly long, but not like this.
Baji knows Chifuyu. He knows him well enough to know that he'll do anything for him without a second thought. If Baji wants to feed stray cats, Chifuyu wants to feed stray cats. If Baji wants to sit in front of the tv and eat peyoung yakisoba, Chifuyu wants to sit in front of the tv and eat peyoung yakisoba. Hell, he slept outside once because Baji decided he didn't want to go home that night. So if Baji wants to kiss Chifuyu, there's no doubt he'd let him.
Feeling his hesitation, Chifuyu opens an eye. "What are you waiting for?" He says with a nervous laugh.
Baji says nothing as he pulls back, putting space between them.
"What?" Chifuyu asks, forcing out another burst of shaky laughter. "Is it my breath or something?" As he says it, he cuffs his hands up to his mouth, huffing into it to take a whiff.
"No, no." Baji shakes his head.
"Then what?"
"I don't want to kiss you, 'Fuyu." He sighs. "Not if you don't wanna kiss me."
Chifuyu furrows his eyebrows, tilting his head to the side, and lets out a breathy chuckle, "What?"
"I know what you're doing. You—I said I wanna kiss you, so you're letting me. You do whatever I tell you, and I know it's 'cause you respect me or whatever, but I've always hated that shit. I never wanted a fucking lapdog. I just wanted a friend. I wanted—"
"Keisuke." Chifuyu takes Baji's face in his hands, effectively shutting him up. The skin of his palms feels like how clouds look when they pass through the sky, cool, light, and airy. "I wanna kiss you too, dumbass."
"What?"
He rolls his eyes and pulls at Baji’s cheeks as he mumbles with a rosy complexion, “Dummy.”
Baji opens his mouth to curse at Chifuyu like he usually does when he insults his intelligence, but the profanity dies on his tongue when Chifuyu rushes forward and presses his lips onto his.
Baji wants to describe the touch as soft and warm, as a narrator in a love story would, but his lips were anything but. They were dry and chilled, still tasting of chlorine and Chifuyu didn’t really kiss him. Due to inexperience, it’s more like their lips are remaining in contact. Despite all this, it’s everything Baji has ever wanted and more. It’s soft and warm, not physically, but in the way that his body weakens from it as the pit of his stomach grows hot. It’s everything he hates, like the cliché things he’s ever heard (light and floaty, walking on air, being on cloud9, feeling on top of the world) are melting together to make up the exact sensation he’s feeling right now. He hates it but loves it all the same.
The touch is gone too soon for his liking, but with the loss, he gains the sight of a flushed Chifuyu, red and in awe despite being the one who initiated the kiss. His eyes trail off to the side as if he’s embarrassed but his lips, curved up with his teeth digging into the skin, tell a different story.
"Why did you do that?" Baji questions after the silence between them become unbearable.
Chifuyu’s eyes dart back to him, half-smile falling into a frown. "Because I wanted to. Everything I've ever done for you had nothing to do with Toman or respect or whatever the fuck. I just like you, Keisuke. And not as a friend or lapdog, you ass."
Baji doesn’t want him to see the red that is undoubtedly spreading up his neck and down his forehead. Instead of hiding his face as most people would, he tugs Chifuyu forward by his waist and kisses him. He realizes that he’s no better than Chifuyu at this. He squeezes his eyes closed harder than he needs to as his hands are trembling against his skin, but Chifuyu doesn’t seem to notice. Chifuyu throws his arms around his neck, tilting his head to the side like he’s seen in movies, and somehow this is better than the last kiss they shared.
After moments spent with their lips connected though not moving, Baji pulls back. The kiss does nothing to hide his flustered face. In fact, it worsens it, but Chifuyu’s eyes slowly part open, and when they do, they’re liquid and hazy, and Baji finds he no longer cares to hide his vulnerability.
“Why…” Baji starts, “Why didn’t you say anything before?”
Chifuyu’s answer is delayed, but after the haze clears, though just a little, he replies in a quiet tone, "You always seemed out of my reach, kinda like a celebrity, y'know. I didn't think you even liked boys, and if you did, I'd be the last person you'd like."
Baji scoffs, "You know I fucking hate that idealistic shit."
Chifuyu’s smile is back, wide with all teeth, and he laughs out the question, "What don't you hate?"
The word “you” is on the tip of his tongue, but he swallows all urge to say it out loud because on the long list of things Baji hates (the sun, his hair in the summer, his once unfulfilled desire to kiss Chifuyu, clichés, rejection, and many more) anything that’ll reveal how enamored he is with Chifuyu is ranked especially high.