Chapter Text
Kita sighed heavily as he stretched with a big yawn behind the counter of the sporting goods store where he worked as a clerk. He was greatly relieved when several vertebrae in his back crunched pleasantly. Then he blinked slowly and hoped that no one had seen him through the window that looked out onto the street, but on the other side of the glass no passer-by passed by, it was a particularly boring afternoon.
Probably due to the slowly falling snow swirling in small spirals outside. The young man's green eyes followed some flakes lazily before he sat back down on the high stool behind the cash register and resigned himself to taking out a thick book full of extra sheets of notes.
The owner of the store had given him permission to study when there were no customers and no other task needed to be done, such as cleaning or organizing sports equipment. But that morning, taking advantage of the same absence of people on the streets, he had already been cleaning and organizing the new merchandise and due to the appearance of the sky, leaden and unpleasant, he did not believe that that afternoon would be much more busy. Only three people had entered the entire day and two of them went looking for a waterproof coat to protect themselves from the snow.
However, after half an hour trying to retain the words he was reading, he discovered that they seemed to be absorbed by a black hole inside his head as soon as they were read. He sighed boredly and closed his eyes for a moment, massaging his temples in an attempt to improve his concentration.
When more than ten minutes later the door bell rang indicating that a person was entering the store, Kita jumped on his stool, with a happy sparkle in his eyes at the thought of being able to serve a customer and leave aside the boring theoretical dissertations from his university book.
But that joy was replaced by absolute astonishment when he saw who was the person who had entered the store and who was looking at him with the same expression of happy surprise.
“Kita?” He asked with a smile appearing on his lips as his entire face lit up from that chance encounter, his arms slightly open in a gesture that indicated he was receptive to a hug.
The orange-haired boy stood up from his stool, without any noticeable change in height, rushing to leave the counter and hug that extraordinarily tall young man with an attractive face, disheveled white hair and affable and intense magenta eyes. “Ibuki! How long!"
They broke away from the hug when the bell rang again, and Kita couldn't help but curse that just at that moment another customer had decided to show up when he had been bored to death all day. Even if he was aware that that hug had lasted several minutes longer than a hug should have.
Ibuki also looked at the person who had just entered, a man with a stern expression and a bushy mustache, he stepped away with a serious face. “Attend to the gentleman first, I'm not in a hurry.”
“Thank you, young man, I really am in a bit of a hurry.”
The clerk approached the man and he explained what he wanted to buy. Kita was in charge of advising him with great detail and extraordinary kindness, achieving a very good sale considering the minimal profits of that day.
“Thank you very much for your patronage. I hope you have a wonderful start to the year and that the high mountain reunion with your old friends goes well.”
“Very kind, young man, I will return another day with more time to renew my fishing equipment.”
The man came out ringing the bell once again and Kita snorted with his hands on his hips, turning to Ibuki and changing his businesslike smile for a much more authentic one.
"So? What are you doing in Japan? Have you come to visit family? How long have you been in the country?”
The white-haired boy looked at him, furrowing his eyebrows slightly. “Something like that, I arrived a month ago.”
“When are you coming back to America?”
"I'm not going to come back."
Kita, who was trying to keep his smile, even if he felt a slight painful pang in his chest at the thought that neither Ibuki nor any of his other friends had told him that the young man was in the country, felt so confused that he stopped smiling. "What?"
He shrugged and scratched the back of his neck, suddenly looking uncomfortable, the boy's green eyes staring at him scorchingly and he looked away.
It took a few seconds for the orange-haired to get over that news, he cleared his throat and smiled again, with a sarcastic question in an attempt at cordiality. “Have they treated you so badly in the United States that you wanted to return?”
Ibuki turned around, looking at one of the shelves with sports drinks, Kita tilted his head, seeing that his friend had red ears, even more confused and starting to worry, he moved up to him and gently put his hand on his arm.
“Ibuki, is everything okay? Something happened?"
After swallowing and slowly nodding his head, he finally spoke. “Nothing bad has happened in the United States, don't worry; But circumstances changed and I had to return to Japan.”
The university student opened his mouth wanting to ask the reason why he had left the basketball team that he had worked so hard to join, but he closed it again, if Ibuki didn't want to tell him he had no right to force him and a direct question would put him in a commitment, he took a deep breath thinking sadly that the two of them weren't even really close for there to be that trust of being able to tell each other the most intimate things, could they even consider themselves friends?
“Everything will be fine,” he said only without knowing what else to say without having more context of his situation, but at the same time wanting to encourage him.
Ibuki furrowed his eyebrows, bewildered. “Of course yes, returning to Japan has been very favorable for me.”
“Ah…” Kita cleared his throat, feeling stupid for having worried, he blushed with embarrassment and swayed, would this be a good time to offer his services as a shop assistant to divert attention?
The white-haired boy watched him without understanding his reaction, moved his hand and caught Kita's ear in it, in which he wore a small star earring with light-colored gems. For someone who had only been outside moments before, his hands were unusually warm. But that contact made the orange-haired blush even more and stammer something that, although it was not understandable, the other young man was able to guess. “You are wearing the earring that I gave you when I left for the United States.”
“Ah…” The orange-haired snorted because he couldn't say something more interesting, he breathed wanting to lower the burning in his cheeks and nodded. “Of course, it was a gift from you.” At that reply it was Ibuki's turn to blush heavily. Kita was grateful that he was not the only one with flushed cheeks, even if he did not understand that reaction. Wanting to downplay its importance, he pointed to the young basketball player's forehead and said with a slightly arrogant intonation, "You also have the headband I gave you.”
The white-haired man automatically brought his hand to it and then nodded. “Unfortunately it is very worn out, so I'll let you give me another one as a congratulatory gift.”
Kita's expression became quite mocking at that moment. “And why should I congratulate you?”
"Why?" Ibuki opened his mouth in shock, but then he let out an 'oh' and laughed loudly. “It made me so happy to meet you that the surprise made me completely forget to say the most important thing.” Kita raised an eyebrow, intrigued, his stomach flipping at his words. “I have joined the Thunder Dogs team, it is the Inazuma basketball team, the best professional team in Japan.”
It was the orange haired man's turn to let out an 'oh', before composing himself again and exclaiming with excitement. "Congratulations!"
"You see? Yes, it is something to congratulate.”
"I'm so happy for you; “So, is that why you came back to Japan?”
Ibuki shook his head. “No, but that doesn't matter, the truth is that I prefer to be here. And now even more.”
"Now? Did something good happen?”
“Yes,” he replied with a smile, looking intently at Kita, before clearing his throat. “I didn't know you lived in Inazuma and that you were working, what a surprise to find you like this.”
“I have been in the city for almost a year, since I entered the University,” he explained. “I work to be able to pay for the apartment where I live and other expenses.”
Ibuki nodded, crossing his arms, listening to the orange-haired speak with sparkling eyes, until they were interrupted by another customer entering the store.
“In any case,” the basketball player finally said after a quiet pause in which they both watched through the window as the woman who had just bought a soccer ball disappeared into the snow. “I came to buy equipment for training.”
“Don't they give it to you on the team?”
“Yes, they give me the uniform and shoes, but I want to train on my own too.”
“Do you want me to help you choose?”
"You?" Ibuki raised his eyebrows and couldn't help but look with some contempt at the boy who was immediately outraged. “Sorry, but I didn't expect you to understand basketball. It is a very different sport than football.”
“For information,” Kita began, feeling the vein in his temple throb dangerously, “in addition to having good knowledge of all the sports we sell sports equipment for to be able to advise our customers appropriately, it turns out that when I was small I played basketball.”
Ibuki started laughing so hard that Kita looked at him even more indignant, the taller one had to cover his face with his long-fingered hand until he calmed down. "Sorry, sorry." He wiped one of his eyes and looked at the orange haired man mockingly. “You're still small.”
Kita puffed out his cheeks, offended and wrinkled his nose, the white-haired laughed again and he kicked him in the back of the leg for which Ibuki was not bothered at all, but smiled evilly.
“You seem to be even shorter since the last time I saw you, have you been put in a washing machine with hot water?”
“Jerk! I haven't shrunk, I've grown two centimeters! You're the one who grew too big while you were away, you look like an oni or something, so tall that you've become..."
Ibuki looked at him with a cretinous smirk, he continued laughing for a long time, making the other boy angry because of his height.
Until he finally decided to explain what he wanted to buy and Kita, putting aside his resentment, decided to be a good worker, as well as a good friend, and advise him correctly about sports equipment. Ibuki ended up spending almost half of Kita's salary, the orange-haired watched with wide eyes as the basketball player took out a credit card without seeming to care at all that he was leaving such a large amount. That sale, in addition to saving the day, caused his boss to congratulate him greatly when he found out, although he insisted that he had done nothing special.
“I feel bad that you're spending so much money,” Kita murmured languidly. “Wait, let me give you something as a gift.”
Ibuki looked at him with a friendly expression. “It is not necessary for you to give me anything, I have bought what I need to train and I do not consider that I have wasted a single yen; If you feel forced to make up for the sale in some way and if it doesn't bother you, I'd rather be able to stay in the store with you until you close.”
The orange-haired turned to him, with some energy bars that he also put in one of the bags. “You can stay with me, even if you hadn't bought anything I wouldn't mind. Although, I only have half an hour more of work before closing.”
He nodded with red cheeks, clearing his throat slightly. “How is university, Kita?”
They kept talking calmly that last while, without anyone else interrupting them, and when it was time to close with darkness already fallen on the white city, Ibuki seemed really dejected. Kita closed the store and activated the alarm, then tightened his coat as he felt the winter cold outside and saw from the corner of his eye how Ibuki made a strange movement, as if he wanted to put his arm around his shoulders but finally he didn't dare.
“Hm.” The boy rubbed his hands to warm up and looked at the other young man. Before thinking about it, he heard himself asking, “Ibuki, do you want to come to my house for dinner?”
Kita did not know at that moment what made him issue that invitation, except that he himself seemed not to want to end that meeting, although the white-haired man's expression of radiant happiness made him think that, in truth, the reason did not matter at all.