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When Professor Rocky told them to gather in the great hall one October evening, every student had a unison guess for the occasion. Well, it wasn’t hard to predict it. Almost everyone witnessed the flying carriage pulled by Abraxans and the ship emerging from the surface of the lake arriving at Hogwarts just before dusk. When the headmaster then announced the news about The Triwizard Tournament, followed with the announcement of the arrival of the two visiting schools, the great hall was instantly filled with exclamations and excitements from every corner.
Fujio shared a look with his roommates sitting around him. He remembered from their conversation in their room a few nights ago that Shidaken would use this chance to get a girlfriend (or boy, Fujio was pretty sure he swung both ways even though Shidaken himself hadn’t realised it yet), while Binzo and Kiyoshi couldn’t wait to meet their respective friends from the visiting schools. On the other hand, Fujio was more thrilled by the possibility of participating in the tournament.
He had spent the last few days talking with students who he knew had the same interest in joining the tournament, especially Sachio. Even though the Ravenclaw boy said he wasn't interested in joining the tournament, everyone agreed he was one of the best Hogwarts Champion candidates. It’s not hard for them to narrow down the champion of Durmstrang, there were two potential students who are well known for being the personal students of their headmaster, Professor Kohaku.
The Beauxbatons champion, meanwhile, was a bit trickier to predict. The last three tournaments had female students as the school's champion and it’s not hard to guess who might be the champion among the girls. The tricky part came from the news that there would be a lot of boy students coming to Hogwarts this year. Predicting which, or if there would be any, male students joining the tournament was not easy since the boys of Beauxbatons usually keep a lower profile than the girls.
The giant door to the great hall opened as Rocky announced the arrival of Durmstrang. Every Hogwarts students turned their heads toward the door, looking at the lines of students wearing brown uniform and holding their walking sticks. As the lines of students walked across the hall, Fujio could see Binzo waving his hand from the corner of his eyes, greeting his friends. The infamous duo of Lao and Jinkawa walked in the very back of the line, right in front of Headmaster Kohaku, which indirectly confirmed everyone’s guesses of the champion for Durmstrang.
Beauxbatons entered next. Students in blue uniform, both boys and girls, entered the hall in two lines, walking gracefully across the hall. Butterflies surrounded them, a student performed a set of acrobatic moves. A male student whose face was covered with a mask in the same shade of blue as his uniform walking near the end of the line seemed to capture everyone’s attention.
Everyone’s, but Fujio’s.
When his eyes landed on the boy on the very back of the line, walking just in front of Professor Odake, they refused to leave. He could not stop paying attention to the sway in his walk, his bow when he reached the end of the walk, the smile he offered to the crowd.
Well, at least Fujio knew two new things that night.
One, it was made obvious who the most likely champion of Beauxbatons would be.
Two, the Gryffindor now wanted to be not just the Hogwarts Champion, but also to befriend (scratch that, be with ) said champion of Beauxbatons.
The first goal, unfortunately, was short-lived, as the goblet chose Sachio’s name as the champion representing Hogwarts. Fujio wasn’t too bitter about it, he knew from the start that it was up to (definitely not random) chance and Sachio had significantly higher chance than him anyway. Besides, Sachio's his good friend, so he’s rooting for the Ravenclaw student.
On the other hand, the second goal depends on how far Fujio is willing to try to get closer to the Beauxbatons student with the Yule Ball as his deadline.
“Why the ball specifically?” Todoroki asked during one of their hang out sessions (the ones where Fujio drags the Slytherin to their magical creature caretaker’s hut to sit together and chat. Todoroki pretends to hate these meetings, but almost everyone can tell he secretly enjoys them).
“Because Valentine's Day is too far. Yule Ball can be romantic enough, right?” Fujio answered like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
Fujio's first couple of weeks after the schools’ arrival was spent daydreaming about said student without having any name to match with the fairy-like face that kept showing up in his mind, until one day Kiyoshi kindly mentioned that the name of his target of affection is Takajo Tsukasa, as a friend from Beauxbatons told him. Fujio bought him a glass of butterbeer as a sign of gratitude.
Though, knowing the name means almost nothing, it’s not like Fujio would put a hex on his name or something. He had to make a move.
Then they met for the first time.
It happened a day before Halloween, a day before the faculty announced the three chosen champions of each school. Fujio exited the room where they kept the Goblet of Fire, followed closely by Kiyoshi and Shidaken. He was laughing along with his roommate when he felt someone collided with him. He thanked Merlin and all the hours he put into Quidditch for his reflexes, he managed to regain his balance and stopped both of them from falling.
“I’m so sorry! And thank you…”
When he looked down to see the person in his arms, he thanked Merlin for the second time.
Let it be known that Fujio is not stupid, regardless of his friends’ disagreement with the statement. Sure, calling him book smart would be lying, but being an extrovert that doesn’t have any break in his mouth (according to Tsuji’s testimony), he is especially intelligent in dealing with people. Yet as he processed the identity of the person he just crashed to, his brain short-circuited.
Was there falling flower petals around him, or was it just in his head?
He felt like the main love interest of the Muggle drama that Shidaken watched religiously every night before sleep.
Thankfully, his two roommates kindly smacked the back of his head at the same time, pulling him out of his trance.
“Hi.”
Spectacular opening line, Hanaoka.
They pulled away from one another. Tsukasa smiled, “Good afternoon to you, Mister…?”
“Oh! I’m Hanaoka Fujio, but just Fujio’s fine. You’re… Takajo Tsukasa, right?”
Tsukasa’s eyebrows raised. “Have we met before?”
“I… this friend of mine who's friends with your friend told me–” Fujio pointed behind him, but when he turned around he saw both of his roommates a few metres from his previous position, walking away from him and Tsukasa. "Well, they’re gone, but the one with the mohawk. Yeah…"
Tsukasa’s chuckle brought his attention back. “Well, Hanaoka, I’m sorry for not paying attention earlier and thank you once again. I’ll see you around, please excuse me.” Tsukasa started walking, returning to his original objective of going there.
At the sight of his crush walking away, Fujio’s mouth moved before his brain could think. “Would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?”
Tsukasa turned back around, clearly taken aback. “Uh… The tournament hasn’t even started, the champion selection is still happening.”
“Yeah, but…” Fujio rubbed his nape. “The Yule Ball is a fixed event regardless of the tournament, right?”
A short laugh of disbelief left Tsukasa’s mouth. “It’s still months away, you sure are quick to make the first move.”
“Well… I am a seeker, after all. Speed is the name of the game.” Fujio chuckled and shrugged, trying to cover his awkwardness. “So…?”
Tsukasa hummed, his eyes wandered around as he seemed to consider the offer. He then smiled, “I’ll think about it.”
Tsukasa turned back around and left Fujio who was frozen near the doorway. He slowly turned around and walked away from the room, his brain was still comprehending the event that just unfolded.
I’ll think about it.
He said he’d think about it.
Which means he’d think about me .
A grin grew on Fujio's face. He started running toward the Quidditch pitch, eager to tell his friends and let the excitement out of his body through practice. “YES!” he shouted on top of his lungs and threw his fists to the air.
(Unfortunately, he didn’t realise he was passing Professor Hyuga at that exact moment, and the Head of Slytherin gladly took some points off of Gryffindor for making a ruckus.)
The following weeks after Fujio unintentionally bumped into Tsukasa and introduced himself was filled with multiple (according to his friends, bothersome) ways Fujio used to try to be closer to him. Such ways include multiple offers to walk Tsukasa everywhere around the campus, giving him a tour of the Gryffindor Tower, inviting him to sit on the Gryffindor table during meal time, and a few attempts to show off during Quidditch practice that ended with him almost falling face first off of his broom.
Despite his friends’ less than kind feedback about his efforts, Tsukasa has been nothing less than kind and never showed any sign of irritation toward Fujio. As a matter of fact, he seems receptive to his actions. Fujio’s brain would think it’s because the Beauxbatons student has the same level of attraction to him, but his friends kindly reminded him that “it’s because Tsukasa is nice, not because he wants to get into you.”
(“Or your pants.”
“Or your bed.”
“Or your–”
“Let’s agree to not bring anyone into the dorm to relieve any ‘tension’ or ‘attraction’, okay? The Room of Requirement exists for multitude of reasons,” Professor Murayama, who seemed to appear out of thin air in their room, threw in.)
Well, it doesn’t really matter if he’s imagining it. The big target is getting closer, and Fujio is on the edge of his seat.
It is lunch time, the time of the day that Fujio usually looks most forward to. But currently, his appetite is nowhere to be found as he observes the two students sitting across the table from him. One of them is his roommate in the Gryffindor dormitory, Shidaken, who has gauze wrapped around his head from falling onto a rock the previous day. The other is said roommate’s crush from Beauxbatons, Yasushi, who’s fretting about the wounded guy in his own special way, which is by constantly nagging about the wound and forcing Shidaken to eat fruits because according to his (based on Kiyoshi’s stories, unreliable) knowledge, fruits will help him heal faster.
Despite the complaints Shidaken kept spitting about his injury since last night until just a few minutes ago, Fujio can only see delight on the guy’s face. Being pampered by one’s crush tends to do that to a guy. Alas, the Beauxbatons champion has his own agenda with the faculty and the other two Triwizard champions. The seeker sighs and shoves food into his mouth, burning with jealousy in silence.
Thank Merlin , Fujio spots Tsukasa walking into the Great Hall with Kamui beside him and a Durmstrang student he doesn’t recognise following them, his eyes roaming around and staring at people in an almost intimidating way. He sees Tsukasa pat Kamui’s hair before they separate, the younger Beauxbatons and the Durmstrang students join the Ravenclaw table beside Mashii while Tsukasa walks toward the Gryffindor table. Fujio waves his hand, he scoots over and pats the space beside him.
“Good afternoon, Tsukasa. How’s your day so far?” Fujio greets Tsukasa as the latter takes a seat next to him.
“It’s okay, not much has happened. How’s yours, Hanaoka?”
"Had Quidditch practice earlier, so got some pretty good workout this morning.”
Tsukasa gives him a soft smile, Fujio feels his heart skip a beat. Tsukasa turns his head to the pair across the table. “How’s your head, Shidaken?”
“I’m alive, so I guess I’m good,” Shidaken answers while chewing.
Yasushi smacks his head. “Don’t talk with your mouth full, dumbass.”
Shidaken hisses and rubs his head. “Then stop feeding me for a sec!”
“I’m just tryna help you, damn it!”
“You can help by not smacking me in the head when I ask you to the Yule Ball.”
Flustered, Yasushi drops the spoon he’s holding and turns his body away from Shidaken’s direction. “Can’t you even try to be a bit romantic?”
“You want me to be romantic?”
“Not if you aren't genuine about it!”
“Well then, come with me.” Shidaken stands and pulls Yasushi with him out of the hall, leaving Tsukasa and Fujio without a word. Yasushi keeps up behind him while hitting Shidaken's arm, his face turning redder than the apple on the dining table.
“So… what counts as ‘romantic’ in Shidaken’s book and should I be worried for my friend’s well-being?” Tsukasa asks. His face shows either confusion or amazement, it is hard to tell.
“I… I don’t know, actually. Six years of being his roommate and I’ve never seen him be romantic to anyone." Fujio stuffs a sausage into his mouth. "He’s a good guy, though. There’s no reason to worry… too much.”
Tsukasa chuckles. “I can work with that.” He starts filling up his plate.
Fujio keeps his eyes on the Beauxbatons student, his mouth stops chewing as the thought of his own food disappears from his mind. The Yule Ball is only days away and he still has not gotten any further answer from Tsukasa. Admittedly, it is probably because their very first meeting was the one and only time Fujio has ever brought up the topic. Not because he forgot about it, but because he realised how dumb of a move it was, so he refrained from bringing up the question again out of fear of bothering Tsukasa.
“I’ll think about it.”
Fujio has been holding on to Tsukasa's answer, letting Tsukasa think for as long as he needs to. Yet, he witnessed multiple other people asking him to the ball and Tsukasa gave all of them the same answer.
“I’ll think about it.”
Maybe it is a soft rejection, other people certainly took it as one. His roommates repeatedly told him it was one, but Fujio still refuses to.
“The meeting earlier with the faculty and the other champions…” Tsukasa’s voice brings Fujio’s attention back. “… we were talking about the upcoming Yule Ball.”
“Oh!” Fujio adjusts his seating position to face Tsukasa. “How did it go?”
“Not much happened. The teachers asked us about our own progress with the clue we got from the last task, then they explained that the three of us along with our dance partner will be the first to dance after entering the hall last, just like the previous ball.”
Fujio nods. “So… have you decided who’s gonna be your partner?”
Tsukasa hums. “I’ve been thinking about it… There is this guy that caught my eyes a few weeks ago.”
“Oh.” Fujio’s eyebrows are slightly raised from surprise and curiosity. “Who is it…?”
“Just a guy I bumped into one day, then he asked me to go to the ball with him, it was kind of funny at that moment, but he turned out to be pretty cool.”
Fujio’s heart is chipped bit by bit as Tsukasa continues to describe his supposed date. “He sounds… great…”
“He is great, a really good Quidditch player too.”
Fujio doesn’t like to brag but he is Gryffindor’s best seeker, so–
“He’s also cute.”
Okay, Fujio would prefer to call himself handsome, but Tsukasa isn’t exactly talking about him is he–
“... and quite popular from what I heard. I should probably ask him to be my date soon before other people do.”
Well, now Fujio feels like Tsukasa is rubbing salt on his wound, but it's probably unintentional, Tsukasa won't be that mean.
“Well, I hope you’ll have a great time with him during the ball,” Fujio replies quickly. He tries to avert his attention back to his meal, yet everything tastes like nothing but bitterness.
It’s not Fujio’s fault that he remained optimistic for as long as he did, right? It’s not wrong to try his best and to expect the best result from his attempts. It’s not wrong to shut his friends up when they tell him to “leave Tsukasa alone,” when Tsukasa himself seemed unbothered by him.
Maybe Tsukasa is just a great actor, who knows?
It is not a surprise that Tsukasa would choose someone so great, someone level to him, someone other than Fujio, as his partner. It’s not Tsukasa’s fault if he was just being nice and receptive toward his advances.
Fujio tries to shut his mind, he should try to be a good friend and at least congratulate Tsukasa for finding the right partner. But all he can think about is,
“What the heck I gotta do to be with you?”
“... Pardon?”
Fuck . Fujio did not mean to say that out loud. “I mean– This guy you’re talking ‘bout… He seems like a really nice guy and– you know… For someone as great as you to like him… I wonder if I can ever be like… him…” his voice becomes quieter as the sentence goes.
Okay he really needs to shut his mouth. Now Tsukasa might think he is an asshole who only think about himself and hates him forever and his life will only go downhill from this point–
“Pft!” Fujio turns his head back to the Beauxbatons champion only to see Tsukasa desperately holding his laughter.
“What’s so funny?”
“Just…” Tsukasa tries to contain his laughter before he asks, “Who do you think is going to be my partner?”
“I don’t know, but he sure sounds great or whatever,” Fujio tries to not sulk.
Tsukasa stops laughing, but a grin stays on his face. “Fujio… how many people do you think I've bumped into during my stay here?”
“Uh, hundreds? There’s a lot of new people for you to meet–”
“I mean, physically bumped into.”
“Well I only know one, which was me–”
“Exactly.” Tsukasa cuts his sentence and Fujio can feel the pieces moving into their places in his brain.
“...Oh.” He is the guy Tsukasa’s talking about.
The guy Tsukasa is going to ask to The Yule Ball.
The great guy.
Well Fujio sure feels like the greatest guy in the world.
Fujio’s frown slowly turns into a grin. Tsukasa chuckles. “Do you think I crash into people that often?”
“Of course not! A Beauxbatons student won’t allow such ungracious thing to happen more than once… Well, unless it's Yasushi then it’s a maybe .” Tsukasa laughs out loud and Fujio’s heart beats even faster at the delightful sound. Their laughter gradually dies down and they both return to their meal.
If Fujio’s brain is an office with multiple tiny Fujios in it, they’re partying hard like it’s the world cup right now. Fujio tries to keep his composure, yet he can’t help but replay Tsukasa’s earlier words in his head. “You called me cute earlier.”
Tsukasa chokes on his food and Fujio panics. The Beauxbatons student coughs a couple times and grabs his drink. “Is that really what you’re focusing on?”
“I can’t help it, it came from you !”
Tsukasa laughs in disbelief. “Sure, you are cute.”
Fujio grins. “I prefer handsome, though.”
Tsukasa hums, tapping his chin like he’s thinking hard about the statement. Fujio pouts and exaggeratedly turns his face away. The pout disappears as soon as he hears Tsukasa laugh.
“Though…” Tsukasa starts, causing Fujio to turn his attention back. “This might sounds like a bad thing, but I’m grateful that you weren’t the chosen champion for Hogwarts”
“Huh? Why?”
“Well… earlier during the meeting…”
Tsukasa witnessed the moment dread filled the other two champions’ eyes as Professor Rocky mentioned the final rule regarding The Yule Ball.
“Your fellow champions should be excluded from your list of potential dance partners.”