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“How long are we going to stand here today?”
“At least ten more minutes.”
“Takahiro, I swear to god if you make me stand in front of Yahaba’s classroom for another entire lunch period, I will drag you into the room and smash your faces together.” Matsukawa pauses, not noticing that Hanamaki isn’t really listening to him. “It’ll be cuter than that. I mean like, I’ll forcibly hold you in place, but gently make you kiss. It’ll be so sweet that it’ll make people cry. Probably me. I’ll be happy because I won’t have to waste my lunch like this anymore.”
Hanamaki stares straight ahead as Matsukawa’s hopes for a response quickly dwindle. Suddenly he throws his head back against the wall and complains, “God, he’s so cute! I just want to—”
Matsukawa looks bored, but anyone would be after hearing this about eight thousand times over the last few months. “Fuck him into your mattress?” he supplies.
Hanamaki tilts his head and bites his lip. “Well, yes, but not until… I don’t know, at least the second date.”
“Mmhmm. Hey, I have an idea.”
He turns quickly. “What’s your idea?”
“It is a two-step idea.”
“I am ready, please tell me the idea.”
Matsukawa turns his body fully to face him. “Okay. Step one—” He holds up his index finger. “—go into the classroom. Step two—” He holds up another finger, making a cheerful peace sign. “—tell him that you like him. This is a brilliant, genius plan. I will be very offended and will friend-break up with you if you instigate it within the next three seconds.”
Hanamaki looks at his watch, then the window into Yahaba’s classroom, then his watch again and shrugs helplessly.
“Enjoy being both romantic-single and best friend-single.”
“Senpai?”
Matsukawa looks past Hanamaki, down a little, and finds Yahaba. He spins Hanamaki around. “Oh, hello!” Hanamaki says, waving at him.
“Did you need something with me?” Yahaba asks, looking back and forth between the two of them.
Hanamaki glances behind him into to the room. “Is this your classroom? I literally had no idea.”
Matsukawa can’t decide if he thinks it’s fortunate or unfortunate that Hanamaki is able to be cool and crack jokes around Yahaba even when he’s a wreck inside.
Yahaba’s eyebrows knit together. He looks as if he’s fighting the urge to believe his senpai would lie to him, but then again, considering who it is.
“I’m just here so Takahiro doesn’t get mauled by any second years, but I’m sure you can protect him now,” Matsukawa says, now patting Yahaba’s shoulder as he makes his way to leave. “Bye!”
Hanamaki is frantically thinking up a reason he could possibly be looking for Yahaba other than telling him he wants to find out how soft his lips. “I’m just here because Oikawa wanted to talk to you. Something about setter business, I think.”
Yahaba looks a little perplexed, perhaps wondering why Oikawa would send Hanamaki to tell him instead of just coming himself, or telling him at practice. Hanamaki is wondering the same thing. “Oh. Okay. Does he want me to meet him now, then?”
Gears turn quickly in Hanamaki’s head. He wonders how much milk bread he’ll have to promise Oikawa to get him to play along. “No, after practice, I think.”
Yahaba nods. “Okay, thanks for delivering the message, then.” He smiles and Hanamaki swallows. He’ll try again tomorrow, he supposes, bringing Matsukawa along for moral support again.
X
Oikawa agreed to help him, in exchange for a thorough explanation of why and at least five milk breads. The bread is the cheaper of the two prices, he figures.
Anyway, he thinks Oikawa is occupying Yahaba’s time after practice, so he takes his time trying to find his shoes, which his asshole best friend has hidden (again).
“Hanamaki-senpai!”
He wheels around in his socks and nearly slips on the hard tile floor of the locker room. His chest constricts seeing Yahaba, but that’s normal, and he ignores that. He looks a little stiffer than usual, particularly around the neck and shoulders, which makes Hanamaki inexplicably nervous, but he chooses to ignore that too. “Oh, hey Yahaba. You want to help me find my shoes?”
Yahaba drops his shoulders for a second and looks puzzled. “Your shoes—? Uh.” He shakes his head a little. “In a minute. Actually I wanted to say something…to you.”
Hanamaki stands up a little straighter and tries not to be self-conscious about his lack of footwear, or nervous about whatever Yahaba has to say to him. “Okay.”
With only a three second delay, he lifts his head just a little and says in a clear, sure voice. “I like you, Hanamaki-senpai. Romantically, I mean.”
Hanamaki’s first instinct, surprisingly, is to be surprised at how smooth a confession that was. The only thing to give away his tension was that back might have been a little too straight, but Yahaba has always had good posture anyway. His second instinct, of course, is to be surprised. And his third is to choke down a sudden influx of emotion so strong that it threatens to knock him over.
He blinks and forces his mouth to close. He then gives a short laugh and forces himself to be brave too. “Me too.”
“I know.”
This, he wasn’t expecting. “Wait, what do you mean you know?”
Yahaba avoids looking at Hanamaki now, choosing instead to glance towards the lockers. “Oikawa-senpai told me.”
Hanamaki raises his eyebrows. “Did he, now?” He considers himself to now be the cost of five milk breads richer, despite not having actually purchased them yet.
Yahaba looks towards the showers now. “And then Matsukawa-senpai told me. And then said he would make sure you would stick around so I could talk to you.” He shifts his gaze forwards again and smiles. “I guess that’s why your shoes are missing?”
Hanamaki holds up his hands in front of him. “Hang on, backtrack a little. You, Oikawa, and Issei made some kind of…plot…to get us to confess to each other?”
Yahaba clasps his hands behind his back and rolls on his feet, still looking a little too pleased with himself and far too cute because of it. “I think that’s basically the gist of it, yes.”
Hanamaki scoffs. “That’s cheating.”
Yahaba’s smile broadens to a smirk.
“You know I went and stood outside your classroom with Issei like seven times over the last two weeks trying to think of a way to tell you, and now you’ve just suddenly, just today, decided to conspire against me?”
“I guess so. Yeah.”
Hanamaki takes a couple of steps forward until he’s closer to Yahaba than he’s ever been before. “Cheaters should be punished.”
The other boy tilts his head to the side and raises his eyebrows.
“You know I’m…not a good person at all, right? Like, I am a very bad man. I have been thinking very bad thoughts about…” Hanamaki clears his throat and glances up at the lights, trying to suppress a smile. “Someone. So are you sure about that confession you just gave me?”
“If I wanted to date a good person, I’d be interested in Iwaizumi-senpai.”
“Somehow, I feel like Iwaizumi just got burned.”
Yahaba shifts his feet, moving a little closer to Hanamaki. “I mean, no offense to him, but.” He shrugs. Hanamaki wants to kiss that smile off his lips.
Hey, that’s an idea.
“Close your eyes, I want to try something.”
Yahaba closes both eyes, but then instantly opens one to peek at him. “You’re not going to take advantage of me, are you senpai?”
“Oh, I absolutely am.” Hanamaki lifts his hands and cups either side of Yahaba’s jaw. His smile stretches even wider and he closes his other eye, facing forward.
Yahaba’s lips are, in fact, softer than they look, and his hair feels like silk when Hanamaki slides his fingers into it and tilts his head. He means the kiss to be chaste (for now, anyway, but he wasn’t kidding about the things he’s been thinking), but he feels Yahaba’s teeth pulling at his bottom lip, and he feels a grin pulling at his own lips that drops when he opens his mouth for him. Yahaba’s fingers tighten in his shirt and he explores Hanamaki’s mouth with his tongue, making soft little sounds from his throat that mix with the wet noises from their lips. Hanamaki moans quietly when Yahaba bites him and sucks at his lips, and he returns the favor earning his own frankly sinful whimper.
Hanamaki forces himself to stop because he does not want to scare this poor boy off before he even has a chance to hold his hand, and he’s getting a little too… Well, there will be time for that later.
“I got carried away,” Yahaba says quietly, but he doesn’t look very sorry about it.
Hanamaki slides his hands down to his forearms and raises an eyebrow at him. “You got carried away?”
“We?” Yahaba tries after a second of thought.
“Probably,” Hanamaki agrees. Yahaba just beams at him. “Can we get out of this damn locker room if we’re going to get carried away again, though? Do you think you can convince Issei to let me have my shoes back?”
Yahaba laughs and nods. “I think so.”