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Actually, if he thinks about it, Yuu’s pretty sure he’s been in love with Mika for a while.
He has no idea when it started. Nothing triggered his realization, or anything; there were no fireworks, no grandiose confessions of love, and absolutely no kissing (yet).
In fact, he’s washing dishes with Kimizuki when, sudden as lightning, it hits him. The cup he’s holding slips out of his hands and clatters to the floor.
Kimizuki raises an eyebrow at him. “You good?”
“Y-yeah.” Yuu clears his throat. “Uh, sorry.” He holds it out lamely. “It just… slipped.”
The excuse sounds lame, even to him, but Kimizuki’s never been the type of guy to pry into others’ business. He takes the cup, picks back up his sponge, and cleans it with the same meticulous precision he applies to everything else.
Fortunately for Yuu, that’s the last of the dishes. He shuffles from foot to foot, glancing at the door but unsure if he should just leave like that when Kimizuki sighs and points one soapy finger at him.
“You’ve obviously got something you need to do. Scram before you drop anything else.”
“Right!” Grateful for the dismissal, Yuu dries his hands off on the towel Kimizuki offers him and makes a break for it.
Shinoa’s room is close, thank god. He pounds on the door with both hands frantically until it opens and she sticks her head out. She does not look amused.
“Are you dying?”
“No.”
“Is someone else dying?”
“No,” Yuu says. “Shinoa—“
“I was sleeping,” she says, carefully enunciating each word. “What could possibly—“
“Shinoa.” Yuu grabs her shoulders desperately. “You got Mitsuba to date you. How?”
Shinoa raises one eyebrow. “I confessed to her.”
Yuu groans and covers his face with his hands. “Anything but that.”
“Oh.” Shinoa’s eyes widen. “Oh. Yuu, is this about—“
“Shhh! Not so loud!” He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and lets it out again. “But… yes. It’s about, uh… him.”
“Oh,” she says, “My god. Get inside.”
She shoves him into her room, slams the door shut, and locks it. Her eyes are gleaming. “Okay. Spill. What happened? What did he do?”
“Nothing!” Yuu groans. “I was just washing dishes with Kimizuki and then all of a sudden I realized that I loved Mika. In the I-want-to-kiss-you sense.”
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean that’s it? Shinoa, this is a very big moment for me!”
“Alright, fine, sorry,” she says, and points to the rug in front of her bed. “Sit. We’re going to talk.”
“Wh— talk? About what?”
“Boys,” she says, like it’s obvious. “Well. One boy. Your boy, if all things go well. Sit.”
Hesitantly, Yuu sits. Shinoa thumbs through her bottles of nail polish and shakes her head at a few before pulling out one that’s a bright, crimson red.
“Nail polish?”
“Stop asking questions and let the master work. I think better when I’m painting nails, and I just did mine the other day.” She pats her knee. “Hand here. Don’t move.”
He obeys, and watches intently as she carefully spreads red polish over his thumb. “How long does this stuff last again?”
“Irrelevant! We’re talking about Mika right now. First question; do you want to date Mika?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“A valid one! Just answer it.”
“I—“ he hesitates. “Not… right away. Not today, at least. I think I need to process all of this first. But I definitely want to at some point. Uh, like, later this week, maybe?”
“Okay,” she says. “Later this week? I can work with that. Hands still, Yuichiro.”
“Sorry.” He takes a deep breath. “And, uh— sorry for springing all of this on you, too. I mean, the others are great and all, but I don’t think they would really give me solid relationship advice like you could. I mean, you’re just good at this sort of thing. Relationships in general are sort of, I dunno, your area of expertise— hey, why are you smirking?”
“Oh, nothing,” she says. “Just listening to you talk about how great I am. Go on, go on! I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
“Absolutely not.” Yuu tries to cross his arms, can’t because she’s holding one of his hands down, and opts to turn his face away huffily instead. “I’m not feeding your ego any more than I already have.”
“Rude. Alright, then, let me put some of my ‘relationship expertise’ into practice, then. First step? Confess to him.”
“No way.” Yuu’s heart rate skyrockets just thinking about it. “Shinoa, I can’t! What if he rejects me? What if he never wants anything to do with me again?”
“Yuu. Do you honestly think Mika would be so repulsed by the idea of dating you that he stops talking to you entirely?”
“Well… no,” he admits. “But—“
“But you’re not exactly ready for that yet?”
“…yeah. Is that bad?”
“What? No! Don’t feel bad about that.” Shinoa beckons for his other hand. Yuu obliges. “Look, I know I’ve been joking a lot about this whole thing and, admittedly, moving kind of fast, but this is your first time being serious about a romantic relationship. Am I wrong?”
“No…”
“Exactly. You don’t want to fuck it up. That’s understandable.” She uses the pad of her thumb to swipe a stray dot of polish off of Yuu’s finger. “Don’t worry. You can take it one step at a time. Try asking him out on a date first, maybe? It doesn’t even have to be explicitly a ‘date’. Just go somewhere with him, y’know, alone.”
“Yeah, but where would I go? What if he thinks I’m weird?”
“Yuu. Mika adores you. So much so that he actively tried to run away with you when you two first reunited. He’s not going to think you’re weird for wanting to, I dunno, go on a walk with him.”
“A walk?” Yuu tilts his head. “A walk. Shinoa, you’re a genius! A walk is innocuous enough. There’s those nearby woods, we can— that’s perfect!”
He starts to get up, but Shinoa yanks him back down. “Slow your roll, loverboy. You’ve got nails that need to dry before you go walking anywhere.” She raises an eyebrow. “And I thought you wanted to wait until later this week?”
“Ah. Right.” He flexes his fingers experimentally. “Okay, what next? What do I do then?”
“Do you need everything spelled out for you?” She moves his first hand back onto her knee and begins applying a second coat. “Don’t worry about it. That’s my advice. You and Mika already get along great; there’s no need for you to do anything else right now. Just focus on building up your confidence. We can work on all the confessing later.”
—
Miraculously, Mika agrees to go on a walk with him.
Yuu doubts he even knows it’s a not-really-but-also-sort-of-date! He’s not sure whether to take that as a success or a failure!
Mika’s dressed casually for the occasion— he even has his hair pulled back into a tiny ponytail. This kind of relaxation from Mika of all people is a rare treat, and Yuu is desperately trying not to stare.
“This is nice,” Mika says. He tilts his head to look up at the trees. “It’s been a while since we’ve just done something calm like this together. Thank you for inviting me.”
“Thanks for coming,” Yuu squeaks.
Mika glances at him, his eyebrows furrowed together. “Are you okay? You sound off.”
“Yeah,” Yuu chokes out. He clears his throat. “I’m fine, sorry. Don’t worry about it.”
“…alright.”
He takes the lead. Admittedly, Yuu could have led just as well, but he likes having Mika in front of him. It might be a bit Orpheus of him, but he can’t help but feel like Mika’s going to disappear at any moment if he takes his eyes off him. Him being alive still feels surreal, like a freak stroke of luck that should’ve happened to anyone but him.
He’s not complaining. (Oh, god, he’s absolutely not complaining. If fate took Mika from him again—)
“Hey, look.” Startled out of his thoughts, Yuu jolts forwards, and Mika rests a hand on his shoulder to steady him. “Animal tracks.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” He leans down to study them. “Coyote?”
“That’d be my guess, too.” Mika crouches down beside him, so close Yuu could turn his head and count the specks of light in his eyes (if he was inclined to do so). “I wonder if I’ll see it around at night.”
“Do you want to see if we can find it?”
Mika seems to consider this for a moment before shaking his head. “I’ll pass. I don’t want to think about much of anything right now other than spending time together. Right, Yuu?”
He smiles at him so softly and genuinely that Yuu finds himself completely and utterly breathless.
Damn.
Well, he’s in a bit deeper trouble than he thought.
—
“And then he smiled at me,” Yuu groans. He presses his palms into his eyes. “I just about evaporated, Shinoa, holy shit. It’s not fair. How can one person be that unfairly attractive?”
“Are you going to talk about his eyes again, or are you done?” she asks dryly.
“Shinoa, this is serious. What am I supposed to do now?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she says, and pretends to think about it. “Ask him out on another date?”
“He had no idea it was a date the first time, though,” Yuu mutters. “He just thought it was a nice walk. Shinoa, what am I going to do?”
“Ask him on a more explicitly romantic date?”
The door creaks open and Yuu shoots upright on the bed, certain Mika’s come in at the wrong time and his cover is entirely blown. To his relief, it’s just Mitsuba, looking bewildered.
“What’s going on in here?” she asks.
Shinoa pats the spot on the bed beside her, and Mitsuba heads over and takes a seat. She pulls Mitsuba down for a quick kiss before sighing and pointing at Yuu, who’s still sprawled at the foot of the bed.
“Someone’s realized he’s in love with Mika and has no idea what to do about it.”
“Ohh.” Mitsuba seems to consider this. “Is that why you went totally red when Mika sat next to you on the couch earlier?”
Yuu does not dignify that question with an answer, but Mitsuba nods like he has. “Huh. Makes sense.”
“No it doesn’t,” he says. “None of this makes sense! Shinoa, why does dating have to be so hard?”
“Yuu, I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you are making way too big of a deal out of this. Check it out, Mitsuba, I painted his nails.” she grabs one of his hands and tugs it over so that Mitsuba can admire it before continuing; “Liking somebody isn’t the end of the world. That pretty much happened already. Just, I dunno, take baby steps? It’s absolutely not a race. You don’t have to rush into this headfirst if you don’t want to.”
“You confessed to me as soon as you realized you had a crush on me,” Mitsuba says.
“Those were extenuating circumstances.”
Mitsuba raises an eyebrow.
“That aside!” Shinoa leans over to pat Yuu’s arm reassuringly. “You’ll get there eventually. My advice is to not worry about it.”
“But I am worried about it.”
“Alright, fine. Campfire date. There you go; a perfect plan that’s decidedly more romantic than a walk. Does that work?”
“Campfire date?”
“We’ve got that old firepit somewhere out back, don’t we? Ask Mika to come watch the stars with you. Y’know, alone.”
Yuu sits up and stares at her. “Huh,” he says. “Maybe you’re right. Shinoa, that’s not a half-bad idea! You really are a relationship genius!”
“Don’t act so surprised,” she deadpans, but looks pleased all the same.
—
“Hey, Mika,” Yuu asks one morning, when they’re alone together in his room, “Do you wanna come watch the stars with me tonight?”
Mika doesn’t answer, mostly because he’s currently fangs-deep in Yuu’s neck, engrossed in drinking his blood.
Huh.
Maybe Yuu’s timing could have been a little bit better.
A heartbeat or two later Mika pulls away, and Yuu tries not to wince at the sensation of fangs leaving flesh. Mika sits back on the bed and blinks at him, his face flushed and lips stained cherry red.
“What?” He looks a little dazed, and Yuu remembers that, right, Mika’s always a little dazed after eating. Okay, yeah, now was not the best time to ask.
Alas. The question was already in the air. He tries again;
“Uh, tonight. Did you want to come watch the stars with me? I found an old firepit out back and I thought maybe we could make a fire and sit out there together.”
Mika’s face twists into a frown. Yuu can almost see the gears in his brain turning sluggishly.
“Yeah,” he says, finally. “That sounds nice. We can ask the others—“
“No!” Yuu helps, a little louder than he intended to. Mika stares at him. “I mean, I kind of just wanted it to be a ‘two-of-us’ thing. Like, alone. I just— we just haven’t gotten to spend much time together alone recently. That’s all.”
He cringes at his own excuse as Mika stares at him.
Please, he thinks, Don’t point out the fact that we’re alone together right now, or that we went on a date just the other day, or—
“Sure.” To his relief, Mika just smiles, looking a little more lucid (even if his eyes are still hazy). “I promised Yoichi I’d run errands with him today, but that won’t take too long. Do you have a specific time in mind?”
“I’ll just, uh, come find you when it’s— I’M! When I’m ready.” Yuu’s heart is slamming into his ribs so aggressively, he’s surprised Mika can’t hear it. “Probably sometime after dinner.”
“That sounds good.” Mika twists and swings his legs off the bed, then offers a hand to Yuu. “C’mon, it’s time for breakfast. The others are probably waiting on us.”
“Ah, one second.” Yuu’s hand goes to his neck. “I need to clean this up first.”
“Let me.” Mika plucks a cloth and a bottle of antiseptic from the nightstand. When had he brought those in? “I came prepared this time. Hold still.”
Hold still? Yuu couldn’t move even if he wanted to. Mika gently reaches out, tilts his head away to expose his neck, and ever so gently cleans away the blood that’s drying there.
“Sorry if it stings,” he says softly.
“It’s fine,” Yuu squeaks.
Two heart-stoppingly tender moments drag on in what seems like decades, and Yuu thinks he might have forgotten how to breathe.
“All done.” Mika presses a band-aid down gently to cover the puncture holes. “Alright, you go ahead. I have to put these back in the closet.”
“I can wait for you.”
“No need. We’ve held the others up long enough. I’ll be in in a minute.”
“Okay.” Almost on autopilot, Yuu marches out of his room. He doesn’t stop to look back until he’s safely in the kitchen, not trusting himself to not turn around and throw himself into Mika’s arms right then and there.
Shinoa catches his eye as soon as he enters. She raises an eyebrow and tilts her head. The unspoken question is clear; What happened?
Later, Yuu mouths, pulling a chair up to the table.
This seems to appease Shinoa for now.
–
“You are so horrifically smitten it’s not even funny.” Shinoa heaves a half-rotten log over the crumbling stone wall that lines what could be considered their backyard. “You need to kiss that boy and be over it.”
“Trust me Shinoa, I’m trying,” Yuu groans. He pauses to kick a stray rock out of the way before returning to sweeping the pavers. “What do you think we’re preparing for right now?”
The firepit was, for lack of a better word, overgrown. It was barely visible through the knee-high piles of debris and sticks and dying weeds, and the pavers were so buried in the dirt it would be easy to assume there weren’t any in the first place. It was absolutely not a one-person kind of job.
And so, Shinoa.
“You owe me for this one, by the way,” she says.
“I know, I know. I owe you for a lot of things, don’t I?”
“I mean, I wasn’t going to say anything, but if you’re the one bringing it up–”
“Nevermind! Forget I said anything!”
Shinoa leans over the firepit and plants her hands on her hips. “Remind me why we never used this thing again? It’s not half bad.”
“Ugh, I dunno– maybe because it’s completely overgrown? There’s weeds in here I don’t even recognize.”
“You don’t recognize any weeds, Yuu.” Shinoa tosses a tangle of branches over the wall. “Are you done sweeping yet? There’s still a lot of stuff we need to clear away.”
Yuu squints at the pavers. They’re… a little more visible than before. There’s at least some semblance of a patio around the firepit now. He has a feeling the path is going to need to be shoveled at some point.
“Huh. I forgot there was actually anything back here, to be honest.”
It’s Kimizuki. He pokes at the dirt on the pavers experimentally. “What’s with the sudden interest in our backyard?”
“Yuu’s got a date,” Shinoa blurts out before Yuu can stop her.
“Shinoa!”
“What? It’s not like Kimizuki’s going to tell anyone!”
“Oh, so this is a Mika thing,” Kimizuki says. “Huh. Well, you’re in luck; I don’t have anything else to do right now, so I’m going to come out and help you. Let me get the shovel from inside.”
“How come everyone keeps guessing that I have a crush on Mika?” Yuu mutters.
Shinoa flicks him upside the head. “Are you serious? Who else could it be?”
Yuu opens his mouth to retort but, after a moment, closes it again.
“That’s what I thought,” she says smugly.
Kimizuki appears in the doorway again. “I’m going to get started on the path now. You two stay over there so you don’t get in my way.”
“Fair enough. Okay, Shinoa, let's get this debris cleared out.”
Two hands made the work go quicker. Three hands, with one of them being Kimizuki, is almost more than enough. He shovels the entire path with frightening speed, sweeps off the excess dirt, and then appears at Yuu’s side like a shadow.
“Path’s done.”
“What?”
“Path’s done. What can I work on next?”
“Uh, the firepit itself still needs to be weeded,” Yuu says.
Kimizuki nods curtly, ducks past him, and begins working again.
“Okay, uh, problem.” Shinoa hops up on the wall and peers over the edge. “All of the stuff we moved is just piling up over here again.”
“Oh. Huh.” Yuu frowns. “We’re going to need to drag all of it into the woods.”
“Save the good wood,” Kimizuki calls. “You can use it for the firepit.”
Shinoa makes a face. “Ugh. I don’t want to have to sort through all of this. You’re lucky we’re friends, Yuu, otherwise I’d totally leave you to handle this on your own.”
“Have I mentioned you’re the best?”
“Maybe once or twice.” She swings herself over the wall. “But please, continue. I will be nothing but attentive.”
“In your dreams,” Yuu mutters, but joins her.
–
After dinner, and dish duty, and making Shinoa triple-pinky-swear to not mess with him while he’s on his date with Mika, Yuu finally works up the courage to knock at Mika’s door.
“Come in,” he calls. “I’m not doing anything.”
Yuu turns the handle and steps inside. Mika’s sitting in a corner, book in hand, illuminated only by the warm glow of a nearby lamp. He smiles and sets his book to the side when he sees Yuu enter, standing up to greet him.
“Yuu! How are you?”
“Hi, Mika. Uh, it’s time for our–” Yuu gestures vaguely. “Firepit?”
Mika stares blankly for a moment before his eyes light up with recognition. “Oh! I’d almost forgotten. Now?”
“I mean, if you’re ready.”
“Sure.” Mika turns off the lamp. “Lead the way.”
His heart in his throat, Yuu turns and leads Mika out to the backyard.
Admittedly, they’d done a great job fixing it up. There was an actual path now, and you could even burn things in the firepit on account of it no longer being full of weeds. Kimizuki had even gotten a sizable fire going without even being asked, which was good, because Yuu had forgotten where they kept the matches.
“Oh,” Mika says. “Wow. Did you do all of this yourself?”
“Uh, I had some help,” Yuu admits. “There’s not any chairs– I couldn’t find any that didn’t belong in the dining room– but the wall should work just fine to sit on. If you don’t mind, I mean.”
“I don’t mind at all.” Mika sits down and, after a moment of hesitation, Yuu joins him.
You should kiss him, one part of his brain whispers.
Absolutely not, the other half replies.
Mika tilts his head back and studies the stars. “Do you know the names of any of the constellations?”
“No,” Yuu answers honestly. “You tried to teach me once, didn’t you? I think I forgot everything. …sorry.”
Mika’s smiling at him. “Don’t apologize. Look, I’ll teach you.” He wraps his arm around Yuu’s shoulders– holyshitholyshitholyshit– takes Yuu’s hand in his.
“That one’s the Little Dipper,” he says, guiding Yuu’s hand to point at a cluster of stars.
Deep breath. Right. This is Mika. He should not be losing his cool.
“C’mon, Mika,” he manages. “Everyone knows that one. Show me something different.”
“How about Ursa Major?”
“I have to be honest; those just look like normal stars to me.”
“You don’t see the bear?”
“Mika, what bear?” This is good. This is familiar. Yuu finds himself relaxing into Mika’s touch. “That’s barely even a line.”
Mika laughs, and it might just be the best sound Yuu’s ever heard. “Use your imagination, Yuu. Look, there’s Leo Minor.”
“That is not a lion,” Yuu insists.
“Now you’re just being dramatic.” Mika lets Yuu’s arm fall, but doesn’t let go of his hand. “You should really learn the constellations some day. They’re incredibly useful for navigation.”
Yuu yawns. Who knew doing yardwork all day was so tiring? “No need to. I’ve got you to direct me, don’t I?”
“Okay, but what if you get lost with somebody else?”
“I’m sure they’ll know how to navigate using the stars,” Yuu dismisses.
“Alright, fine.” Mika nudges him halfheartedly. “What if you get lost on your own, then?”
Yuu seems to consider this for a minute. He closes his eyes and leans back against Mika’s shoulder, the warmth of the fire settling over him like a blanket. “I… dunno. I think you would find me, maybe.”
“You win.” Mika shifts so Yuu can settle more comfortably against him. “You’re right; I would come find you.”
“See? No reason to memorize the constellations, then.”
“Hmm… I’ll still try and teach you, though.”
Yuu’s pretty sure he says something back. He doesn’t remember what, though. He’s tired, it’s late, and he’s so, so comfortable.
–
He wakes up hours later in his own bed.
–
“I fucked up. Shinoa, I fell asleep! I didn’t even last ten minutes!”
She raises an eyebrow at him in the mirror before leaning in closer to carefully reapply her lipstick. “Yuu, I’m so sorry to tell you this, but there’s really nothing I can do about that.”
Yuu slides down the wall until he’s sitting on the floor, legs out in front of him, and covers his face with his hands. “He had to tuck me in, Shinoa. Like I was some sort of little kid! I’m hopeless. These dates aren’t going anywhere.”
“To be fair, you’ve only been on two,” Shinoa says. “Do you think this shade of pink is working, or should I put on the other one?”
Yuu spreads his fingers wide enough to peek at her reflection. “That one’s fine. It matches your shoes.”
Shinoa studies her flats quizzically. “You’re right, it does. Alright, that’s settled, then.” She whirls around and plants her hands on her hips. “Up! Enough moping. You haven’t ruined anything by falling asleep. I’d honestly say it’s probably a step forward. He tucked you in, right? Meaning he carried you inside. That’s a pretty big win, I think.”
“Yeah, but I was asleep for that part,” Yuu laments.
“Here’s the deal,” Shinoa says. “I am going on a date with Mitsuba in ten minutes. You are going to pull yourself together and figure out what to do next by the time I get back or I will personally confess to Mika for you, and then it’ll be awkward for everybody.” She pauses, seems to consider this, and makes a face. “Ugh. Not really, but still. You get the point.”
“I get the point,” Yuu parrots miserably.
“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a girlfriend to attend to.” She checks her reflection in the mirror one more time, nods decisively, and strides out of the bathroom.
Unsurprisingly, Yuu has not figured out a plan of attack by the time she returns. (He has, in fact, spent the entire four-hour period practicing sword strikes on logs in the yard until his arms felt like they were about to fall off).
“So,” Shinoa says, surveying the mess of wood chips and half-split branches, “I take it you didn’t put any thought into confessing to Mika?”
Yuu sheaths Asuramaru and turns to her sheepishly. “Will you be mad at me if I say yes?”
“Yuu, I’m going to be honest.” She steps over a split log and plants her hands firmly on his shoulders. “Look me in the eyes. You need to get over yourself and confess to Mika.”
“I–”
“No. Shut up. You’re listening to me right now.” She shakes him back and forth. “Seriously! What’s the worst that could happen? He rejects you?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my god, as if that’s going to happen,” she says. “Haven’t we gone over the fact that he– oh, I don’t know– adores you?”
“Yes, but–”
“Yuu. You want to kiss Mika, right? You want to date him?”
He nods.
“That’s not going to fucking happen if you don’t get over yourself and tell him that!”
“Tell him I want to kiss him?”
“God, why not? If that’s what it takes,” Shinoa says, “Then absolutely. Go tell him you want to kiss him right on the lips. That’s a confession if I’ve ever heard one.”
“What’s a confession?”
Yuu freezes. Shinoa freezes.
“Sorry. Am I interrupting?” Mika leans out the back door. “Shinoa, Mitsuba was looking for you.”
Shinoa shoots Yuu a Look.
“Not right now,” he hisses.
“If not now, then when?” She whispers back.
“Shinoa?”
“Coming!” She gives Yuu’s shoulders a final definitive squeeze and whirls around. “Poor Yuu just needed a little reassurance, that’s all.”
Yuu glares daggers at her back. Mika’s gaze shifts to him. He looks worried.
“Reassurance? Yuu, are you alright?”
Shinoa pauses with her hand on the doorframe and turns back to look at him. Really look at him. She raises her eyebrows and spreads her hands like, come on!
“I–” Yuu swallows. He can’t bring himself to meet Mika’s eyes. “I– I want to kiss you! On the lips!”
Shinoa nods and slips inside without another word. Mika’s staring at him.
Oh god, is he fucking this up? He can’t tell. He starts rambling. “I– I realized the other day that I love you. Fuck, I mean I’m in love with you. In a romantic sense! I think I have been in love with you for a while, but–”
“Yuu,” Mika says, slowly, “The other day. Were you trying to ask me on a date?”
“Yeah,” he admits, not taking his eyes off the ground. “Shinoa said I should start by asking you on dates since I was too embarrassed to confess to you outright. I– I understand if you don’t feel the same way–”
“Yuu.”
“--or you think I’m weird, or–”
“Yuu.”
“--you see me more as a friend, b-because we can still totally just be friends if you want–”
“Yuu!”
He pauses.
“Yuu,” Mika says, again. “Will you please look at me?”
Against his better judgement, Yuu looks up.
Mika doesn’t look upset at all. He doesn’t look weirded out, or repulsed, or pitying. He looks– he’s… smiling?
“For what it’s worth,” he says, and takes a step forward. Then two. (Oh god, he’s coming closer, isn’t he?) “I really enjoyed those dates.”
“You did?” Yuu squeaks.
“I did.”
He reaches out with both hands, but pauses with them a few inches from Yuu’s face. He tilts his head questioningly. “Is this okay?”
Yuu can really only manage a nod. Mika cradles his face in both of his hands, and tilts his face upwards so they’re looking into each other’s eyes.
“You spent all day cleaning up the backyard for me, didn’t you?”
Another nod. Mika’s face lifts into the sweetest smile Yuu’s ever seen.
“You didn’t have to do that.” His face drifts closer.
Yuu’s mouth feels dry. He licks his lips “I– I wanted to.”
Mika studies him through half-lidded eyes. “I’m going to kiss you now. Is that okay?”
The only response Yuu gives to that question is a kiss.
To be honest, he’s not sure where to put his hands. Mika does, though; his fingers card gently into Yuu’s hair, teasing out knots and tangles like he’s been doing it his whole life. Like he was made to.
Yuu doesn’t want him to stop. He can’t believe he could’ve been doing this for weeks. Months, even. It feels like a wasted opportunity.
Mika pulls away momentarily, only to move to pressing kisses along the underside of Yuu’s jaw “What are you thinking about?”
“How I should’ve confessed to you earlier,” Yuu murmurs.
“I’m thinking about how I’ve been in love with you for years,” Mika says.
Yuu goes very still. He, with incredible difficulty, pulls away and stares at Mika incredulously.
“You’ve what?”
“Been in love with you for years,” Mika repeats. “You really didn’t notice?”
“Obviously not,” he huffs, but allows Mika to pepper kisses down the side of his neck. (As if he could resist, really.)
“Mm.” Mika doesn’t say anything for a moment. “Shinoa found out, you know. She guessed.”
“Excuse me?”
“Shinoa knew I was in love with you. She figured it out a year ago, at least. Confronted me about it when we were out on patrol.”
“Sorry, let me get this straight.” Yuu frowns. “She listened to me rambling about being in love with you for days and didn’t tell me that you loved me back?”
“I had her swear to secrecy,” Mika says. “She upheld that promise, it seems.”
“I swear to god,” Yuu mutters.
Mika’s eyes gleam, and he looks like he’s about to say something in return, but a voice cuts the two of them off.
“Oh my god,” Kimizuki says. “What did you do to the firewood?”
Mika leans in so his lips are barely touching Yuu’s ear. “I should go. Continue this later?”
“Y-yeah.” Yuu chases after his lips for one more kiss, and Mika obliges. “I’ll see you later.”
The sight of Mika, face flushed from kissing and a smile on his lips, is more than enough for him to endure Kimizuki’s frustration about destroying the firewood.
–
He does end up confronting Shinoa about keeping secrets from him.
“You knew Mika had a crush on me.”
She doesn’t even look up from her book. “Uh-huh.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
She turns a page absently. “That seems to be the case, yeah.”
Yuu wants to tear his hair out. “Shinoa, do you know how much grief you would have saved me?”
This, for some reason, gets her to look up. She shoots him a winning smile.
“C’mon, Yuu, lighten up,” She says. “Where’s the fun in that?”