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Through countless arguments, complaints, whines, and fits (all from Akito), Akito and Tsukasa are partnered up with each other for the major history project of the year.
Akito begs their teacher to be partnered with anyone but Tsukasa, but alas it's to no avail. Tsukasa on the other hand has absolutely no problem with it, in fact, he's excited to spend time and work with the younger one.
Akito is told no and he finally comes to the acceptance that yes, he'll have to work on this project with Tsukasa for two weeks of his entire life and then he'll never have to spend this much time with him again. But when he looks out of the corner of his eye from the table of his desk and sees Tsukasa's gleaming smile at him, it both embarrasses him and almost gives him butterflies. He curses himself for the latter.
Tsukasa starts rambling on about the project, how and when they should start it, materials to buy, and a bunch of stuff Akito isn't listening to. Instead, his brain is too focused on the thought from just seconds ago. He was hoping he'd buried those feelings for Tsukasa long ago.
Eventually, he starts listening to Tsukasa because it's the only thing keeping him away from thinking about Tsukasa, because god if he got flustered while Tsukasa went on a history lecture and pointed it out with his loud mouth, he thinks he'd die of embarrassment right then and there.
"So," Tsukasa smiles at Akito as if Akito has been listening the entire time. "If you're free tonight, maybe you could come to my house and we could work on the project? I could run by the corner store and get any supplies we need! I have a poster board at home."
Akito wants to decline this offer, but his heart speaks before his mind can.
"Yeah, sure." He instantly regrets saying this, but it's true, he doesn't have anything to do tonight. Practice isn't till tomorrow, and honestly he wasn't planning on doing anything except laying in bed for hours.
"Okay! Does 6:30 work for you?"
"That works."
"Okay!" Akito watches as Tsukasa grabs a small notepad from his desk and scribbles something on it, then passes it to Akito.
On it is his address, with his name in big uppercase letters and a smiley face next to it. Akito has to bite his lip to resist himself from smiling at the silly thing.
"Thanks." Akito gently puts the sticky note in his pocket, careful not to fold it. He, once again, curses himself for being so attached to a sticky note from a guy he doesn't even like.
The bell rings after what feels like decades, Akito picks up his stuff and right as he's about to walk out the door, he hears something from behind him.
"Bye, Akitooo! See you tonight!" Tsukasa belts from behind him, and suddenly the entire class's attention is on Akito. All the butterflies and giddiness are gone and he remembers why he dislikes Tsukasa so much. His face burns with embarrassment and he makes sure to get out of the school as fast as possible so Tsukasa can't catch up to him.
Akito gets home, he does his homework, and packs a small backpack with stuff to bring to Tsukasa's. Mainly just pens and highlighters and other random things.
He leaves after dinner, and of course, at the door he's questioned by Ena.
"Where are you going?" Ena asks suspiciously.
"None of your business." Akito grunts as he puts his shoes on.
Ena rolls her eyes. "Toya's?"
"No, Tsukasa's." There's annoyance in his tone.
"Why? Don't you not like him?"
"It's for a project."
"Well, good luck then." Ena says, and then she disappears out of the hall.
Akito puts on his jacket and then he takes the sticky note from earlier out of his pocket. He puts the address into his phone and starts walking there.
After what feels like hours of walking, he reaches the house. He knocks a few times, and when nobody answers after a minute or so, he almost gets the urge to leave. But just as he thinks that thought the door opens.
He's immediately hit with the smell of.. pancakes?
"Hi, Akito!" Tsukasa smiles. "Come in! I'm almost done with some snacks I was making for us!"
Once Akito comes in, Tsukasa immediately runs back to the stove, Akito follows slowly, looking around Tsukasa's house. It's quite simple, but he likes it, he can tell that the Tenmas have a lot of money though.
He sits down at the barstool next to the counter, he notices a bowl of tiny pancakes that almost look like chips. Tsukasa flips over the last few and puts them in the bowl.
"Sorry about that!" Tsukasa laughs, "I was gonna start on these later, but dinner took longer than I expected," He pours a bunch of syrup on them before grabbing the bowl, "Follow me!"
Akito follows Tsukasa up the stairs and up to the loft, which apparently is Tsukasa's bedroom. He plops down on his blue checkered carpet and places them in the middle, next to a bunch of other snacks. Akito notices that most of them are his favourites, cheesecake bites, cupcakes, and of course, the pancakes.
"How'd you know I like pancakes?" Akito asks as he grabs one from the bowl.
"Oh, Toya told me! He told me about how you guys went to a cafe and you got a huge plate of pancakes!" He smiles, "So I thought I'd make you some to surprise you! And as far as the other snacks, I knew you liked them so I picked them up while I was at the corner store!"
"Thanks." It's hard for Akito to keep himself cold when Tsukasa got and made so much stuff for him. He spent his money on Akito, and Akito can't stand being in the same room as him.
Instead of working on the project, they decide to share some of the snacks together and talk about small things. Akito tries not to let it get to him how much he's enjoying this.
After many lighthearted conversations and a project that is definitely not getting done, Tsukasa goes quiet for a moment.
"You okay?" Akito asks.
Tsukasa ignores the question.
More silence, and then
"Akito, can I ask you a serious question?"
"Yeah, go ahead, what is it?"
"Why do you tease me so much? Like—" He pauses. "I don't know, sometimes it feels like you hate me. And I don't know if you're being so nice to me as a joke right now but you're enjoying yourself. And I — I wanted to know if there was something wrong with me."
Akito's voice lowers, and the only thing he can muster up is:
"I don't know—" And then he quickly adds "But it's nothing wrong with you."
"You don't know?" Tsukasa asks.
Silence.
And then all of a sudden, quiet, and a little bit defeated Akito mutters something.
"I'm in love with you, Tsukasa.”
“What?”
“I’m in love with you,” Akito repeats, “And I don't like it. And I don't want to admit it. But god, I'm so fucking in love with you. And I'm sorry, I know this is really random and sudden but—"
"HAAAAA? YOU LIKE ME?!" Tsukasa interrupts him, staring at him wide eyed from across the rug. Akito prays that there's nobody downstairs, cause if there was they would've easily heard that.
"I'm wishing I didn't tell you now." Akito looks away, flustered.
"So that explains everything!" Tsukasa beams. "You teased me cause you like me! And you didn't want me to find out cause you hated yourself for it!"
"You really did say that bluntly." Akito laughs.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Tsukasa tries to think back to what he said that'd be considered 'blunt' but he can't really think of it, so he shrugs it off.
"By the way, if I didn't make it obvious enough, I'm in love with you too! Your world's future star is in love with you! You're very lucky for that." Tsukasa smiles.
"Tsukasa..." Akito looks away again, Tsukasa once again speaking extremely loudly about such a personal topic. But he's right on the lucky part. He's never been so lucky in life as he is now.
When he looks back at Tsukasa, he's just staring at him wide eyed with a silly grin on his face.
"You look really cute when you're flustered." Tsukasa smiles.
It makes Akito flush even redder — if he could even get more red than he already is — but he doesn't look away this time, instead, he looks at Tsukasa who starts immediately giggling. And god, he's so adorable and it makes him remember all of those years worth of being hallway crushes before he hid it away.
In the midst of this, Tsukasa moves the snacks so they're no longer separating them.
Tsukasa smiles. "Come closer, I don't bite."
And so he scoots towards Tsukasa til they're sitting directly in front of each other. And he absolutely prays that what he wants is going to happen right now.
"Can I kiss you? Cause I've wanted to for a while, and you look really pretty right now." Tsukasa's hands barely ghost the sides of Akito's face, asking for permission.
"God. Please."
So Tsukasa kisses him, short, gentle and delicate. Like he's afraid Akito might break.
"Another one?" Akito asks. Tsukasa complies to the request, and the one after that, and the one after that. Until footsteps come that they don't even hear, and then a girl walks up to the loft.
"Onii-chan! I'm going to—"
Akito hides his face in the crook of Tsukasa's neck instantly.
"Oh! I didn't know you had a friend over!" Saki laughs awkwardly. "I just wanted to tell you I'm going to Ichika's for the night, I'll be home tomorrow after school!"
"Okay, have fun Saki!!!" Tsukasa smiles. Like his sister didn't just walk in on him kissing someone. Like he doesn't have his — friend? Boyfriend? Guy he kissed? Hiding in his neck.
Tsukasa looks down lovingly, ruffling Akito's hair. It doesn't seem to stop him from hiding though.
"It's okay, it was just my sister!" He laughs.
"She's not gonna tell anyone, right?" Akito asks. Not like he'd necessarily care if anyone knew that he kissed Tsukasa, but he also doesn't feel like dealing with the teasing from An.
"No, she'd never, I promise."
"Kay." He breathes into his neck. He doesn't come up though, Tsukasa starts rubbing circles on his back and he figures Akito is comfortable like this.
"Do you have a curfew? It's getting pretty late."
"I usually do, but I just told my parents I was going to work on a school project. They didn't give me one."
"So hypothetically you could—" Tsukasa doesn't finish the sentence.
"Stay the night?" Akito asks.
"Yeah!"
"I wouldn't be against that. I'll just tell my parents we got caught up on the project and it was too late to walk home so I just stayed here."
"You aren't?"
"We were just making out five minutes ago, I hope that's enough to say I'm not."
That makes Tsukasa laugh. Akito grabs his phone and texts his parents to let them know.
"Do you need a shower or anything? You can use my bathroom."
"I'm alright. I showered when I got home."
"Okay." Tsukasa smiles. "Let me at least get you out some clothes though, so you don't get wrinkles in your uniform."
Tsukasa hands him a shirt and some shorts, Akito changes in Tsukasa's bathroom. The shirt is slightly big on him, and judging by the fact he and Tsukasa are nearly the same height, it might also look the same on him. It's soft though, not like any of the things Akito wears.
When he comes out of the bathroom, Tsukasa smiles, and Akito swears his cheeks get a bit pink.
The snacks have been put away and Tsukasas’ already changed into pajamas. How did he do that so fast?
"Do you wanna sleep on the chair, or in my bed? If you want my bed, I can always just sleep on the floor!" Tsukasa smiles.
"Why don't we just both sleep in your bed?"
"Wha?"
"Only if you want, but if it's just to please me, I don't really mind at all if we slept together."
"Seriously?" Tsukasa smiles excitedly.
"Yeah." Akito smiles, and watches as Tsukasa beams. Then Tsukasa opens the covers and pats the open part of his bed.
Akito lays down in the spot, Tsukasa lays on his side to face Akito, he pulls the covers over the both of them and he smiles so big that absolutely nothing can break it.
"I'm really happy," Tsukasa smiles. "Never in a million years would I think you'd like me."
"Oh, but I've liked you for a million years." Akito smiles, the words ghosting under his breath.
"What?" Tsukasa says.
"Nothing."
"I heard that." Tsukasa giggles.
Akito laughs. "It's something I'll elaborate on when we're both not sleepy and delirious."
"Kay." Tsukasa smiles, cupping Akito's cheek with one of his hands and kissing him. And again. And again.
Akito yawns in the midst of one of their kisses. He struggles to stay awake.
Tsukasa giggles. "Okay, that's enough kisses, you're falling asleep."
"One more." Akito looks up with partly lidded eyes. If he wasn't so delirious, he'd be cursing himself for how soft he is right now.
"Fine." Tsukasa presses one last soft kiss to Akito's lips, and then his hands wander down to Akito's back. They don't touch though, just ghosts, like when Tsukasa was asking permission to kiss Akito.
"'M guessing you wanna hold me?" Akito says.
"Yeah." Tsukasa breathes.
Akito doesn't say anything, instead, he leans back into the touch and that says enough. He buries his face in the crook of Tsukasa's neck and wraps his arms around him.
Akito falls asleep within a matter of seconds, and Tsukasa just looks down at him and smiles lovingly. He puts his nose in Akito’s hair and it smells clean, almost with a hint of apple in it. He presses a small, gentle kiss to the top of his head, and whispers soft, quiet sweet nothings to Akito into the air as he falls asleep.
Needless to say, the project never got started on. Maybe another day.