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Even though the sun had set hours ago, the heat wraps around them like a winter coat. Tengen’s shoulders are heavy with it; he leans back in the swinging bench that has occupied the Rengoku family’s porch for years, desperate for the tiniest breeze that he and Kyojuro make to cool him down. Of course, it doesn’t work.
“It’s too hot,” he whines. “Why does your AC have to be broken?”
“It hates me, actually.” Kyojuro sits beside him, thick hair pulled haphazardly into a wobbly bun at the back of his head. His eyes are closed, as if he can keep the heat away if he pretends it doesn’t exist. “A personal vendetta from when I dropped it trying to put it in.” He shoots Tengen a pointed look.
“I was taking my final!” Tengen’s hands fly into the air in exasperation, but he’s still smiling and Kyojuro is laughing. “If you had been patient and waited an hour I would have been there to help.”
“Patient who? I don’t know her.”
Tengen nudges Kyojuro’s shoulder with his own, disturbing the balance of the swing and jostling them both. Their easy camaraderie is a balm to his soul, his best friend’s presence enough to calm even his worst anxieties. They’ve been inseparable since the day they met in middle school: Kyojuro had climbed into the tree Tengen had been occupying, all unruly hair and a bright smile, and that was all it took.
Tengen thinks he fell in love at that very moment.
Now as juniors in college, his feelings have grown along with their friendship, blooming into something he craves more than anything else. He’s been staying with Kyojuro’s family during summer vacation for years, and as much as he loves spending so much time with his best friend, it makes his heart ache each night he crawls into bed alone. For so long, now, he’s been able to shove his feelings down just enough to get through the summer months, but this time something feels different. Over the last few weeks he’s been noticing new behaviors from Kyo; heavy stares and lingering hands, always finding a way to be close to Tengen and share space. But no matter how many of his subtle moves Tengen tries, Kyojuro either doesn’t get the hint or doesn’t reciprocate. He’s leaning towards the former, and has been trying to find the right moment to take real action. If the feelings are mutual he needs to know, so that if they’re not he can actually try to move on instead of being caught up in red and gold for the rest of his life.
“Oh!” Tengen jolts upright, disturbing the swinging bench once again to the point where Kyojuro has to grab his leg to steady himself. “Let’s hop the fence into the community pool!”
Kyojuro stares at him for a second, one thick brow raised in question. “Aren’t there cameras?”
“A publicly funded outdoor pool having cameras? For real?”
“I don’t know…” he draws out the phrase, and Tengen knows that he’s considering it.
“Come onnn!” Tengen takes Kyo’s hands and drags him up off the bench with him. “If they have cameras we’ll leave, but if they don’t…” he trails off, gives Kyojuro a sly smile that makes his friend blush and look away, trying to stifle his own.
“Okay, okay!”
“Yes!”
“But we’re not driving! I don’t want them getting your license plate if there are cameras.”
“Sure, yeah, whatever.” Kyo laughs as Tengen pushes him towards the door so they can change.
Five minutes later the two are clad in bathing suits, t-shirts, and sandals. They take one bike— no point in having extra weight if they need to bail— and Tengen hops into the seat while Kyojuro stands on the pegs on either side of the back wheel. The warm breeze as they ride and the empty midnight streets combined with Kyo’s hands on his shoulders has Tengen in a mindset only summer nights can bring: a hazy bliss, soft around the edges and brimming with promise, like the whole world sits patiently at his fingertips waiting for his touch. The night parts around them, darkness splitting beneath street lamps that pool in warm glowing spots on the pavement, inviting them into mischief and childlike wonder. Tengen feels the memory forming as he lives it, knowing that he’ll remember this moment in the future and look back with fond eyes and an aging heart.
It doesn’t take long for them to get to the community pool, fifteen minutes of stupid jokes and hearty laughter disguising the time. The pool itself sits atop a small hill, surrounded by trees and shrubs that make for a little adventure before they can claim their prize. Carefully they inspect the premises for cameras, and upon finding none, Tengen laces his fingers together and gives Kyojuro a boost under his heel to lift him over the fence, following close behind with a sly smile that his friend mirrors.
“This is fun!” Tengen half-whispers, knowing he doesn’t need to but doing it anyway simply because it feels right.
“I feel like a teenager again!”
“You’re never too old to do stupid shit.”
Kyojuro turns around, his face lit up in flecks of shining moonlight that filter through the treetops. His smile glows, a star among the darkness that Tengen would follow to the ends of the earth. Cautiously he lets some of the fondness he usually tries to hide slip through onto his face, watching as Kyojuro’s cheeks bloom under the attention. How would it feel, the heat that creeps beneath his skin, in the palm of Tengen’s hand? Pressed softly to his lips?
Kyojuro trips on something, and Tengen’s hands reach out immediately to catch him. Kyo’s shirt pulls taught beneath his fingers when he grabs on, and his other hand finds purchase on Kyojuro’s waist to pull him upright. He stumbles with the force, falling back into Tengen’s chest. The hand that had grabbed the back of his shirt moves to Kyojuro’s side, his tapered waist nestled within Tengen’s grip, their torsos aligned from shoulder to hip.
Tengen dips his head down so his lips are just a hair too close to Kyojuro’s ear. “Don’t eat shit, Kyo,” he says, voice low and teasing. Without thinking his palms slide down Kyojuro’s sides, barely more than two inches, but enough that he hears a quiet gasp from his friend. “We’re not even there yet.” Slinking out from behind Kyojuro, he lets his hands linger, trailing one across Kyo’s lower back as he moves around him to lead the rest of the way up the hill.
Satisfaction warms his blood when he hears Kyojuro take a steadying breath before following.
Soon after that they reach their destination, trapped behind another fence. The water sparkles and shimmers under the bright light of a full moon, looking like hundreds of jewels spilled onto the surface to reflect the light in fractals and waves. Tengen is sweaty from their journey up the hill and the bike ride over, and nothing has ever looked more inviting than the diving board that will catapult him into cool, refreshing water. They take a moment to look around and make sure there are no cameras; there aren’t, just as Tengen knew there wouldn’t be.
“Fuck, yeah.” He turns to Kyojuro with a smile so wide it hurts his cheeks. “Gimme your foot.”
They work together to lift the shorter man over the fence, just like they had before, Tengen eagerly following. Kyojuro doesn’t wait for him to get over before toeing off his sandals and pulling his shirt over his head, dropping it to the ground without a care. Pale moonlight shines over his sun-kissed skin, catching on his sweat to highlight the curve of muscled shoulders and the dip of his spine. The irony doesn’t go unnoticed by Tengen when he has to take a deep breath of his own before giving chase.
His shirt hasn’t even hit the ground before Kyojuro is running along the diving board and jumping into the pool, his trade-marked cannonball creating a giant wave that splats against the concrete at the edge of the pool in a massive splash. Tengen wastes no time in joining him, diving off the board into crisp, clear, chlorinated water. Nothing has ever felt so good as when he’s finally submerged, cool and refreshed, the sweat and stickiness of the day left on the water’s surface; stripped away, leaving him cleansed and new.
For a while they take turns jumping off the diving board, doing tricks and judging each other on a scale of one to ten, trying to out-do one another until neither of them can think of anything that hasn’t already been done. They race a few times, across the pool and to the bottom and back and for a number of laps, but there’s only so much racing they can do, and they grow bored of it quickly.
Eventually they end up in the shallow end, sitting on the steps that lead down into the pool that they had studiously ignored earlier. Both are leaned back on their elbows, legs stretched out before them and kicking slowly in the water. Stars twinkle overhead, reflecting off the waves they create and bouncing a kaleidoscope of light onto their faces. Kyojuro’s hair dries haphazardly around his face, having been pulled from the bun he had wrangled it into earlier. His bangs curl down over his forehead and cheeks, his cowlick exaggerated from how many times he’s pushed the unruly mass off his face. It’s already fluffing back up, endlessly voluminous in a way that makes Tengen almost jealous.
“This was a good idea,” Kyo says, eyes closed and head tilted up to the night sky.
“All my ideas are good!”
“That’s the worst lie you’ve ever told!”
“Me, lie? I resent that, Kyojuro.”
Their laughter breaks through the quiet of the night, bright like the stars that hang above.
“Ten?”
Tengen turns to meet Kyojuro’s eyes. “What’s up?”
“Can you show me the stars?”
Warmth blooms in Tengen’s chest; ever since they were young, they’ve laid out under the stars together while Tengen points out the constellations. Kyojuro has to know them all by now after ten years of watching Tengen point them out, but he always asks anyway, and Tengen always indulges him. It’s a sweet ritual that fills him with love, something only the two of them share. It’s always brought him endless comfort to know that no matter where they are, they can always look up at the night sky and see each other.
He moves closer to Kyojuro to press their sides together. “Okay, that’s Orioin,” he points to the three bright stars that signify the figure’s belt. “And then you’re right next to it, Taurus–”
“That one?” Kyojuro raises his hand and points towards the sky.
“No–” Tengen takes his hand and moves it so his finger points at the correct location. “That one.”
“Oh, I see.”
“And that’s Ursa Major…”
The constellations come to life in the indigo sky as Tengen names them, occasionally directing Kyojuro’s hand to correct his trajectory. Each time they touch something flutters in Tengen’s stomach, eager and impatient. One of his arms ends up braced on the step behind Kyojuro’s back, and their bodies angle more towards each other each time Tengen takes Kyo’s hand to move it around the sky. Tension builds beneath his skin, warm and prickling under the tips of his fingers, begging him to touch, to feel. By the time he’s named all the constellations they can see he’s dizzy from his friend’s proximity, and has made the decision that he can’t wait any longer.
“Kyo?”
“Hm?” Kyojuro turns to him, and their faces are only a few inches apart. Tengen watches Kyo’s eyes fall to his lips, and that’s all the encouragement he needs to lean forward and finally take what he’s wanted since they were twelve years old.