Work Text:
The clouds parted, sending warm sun rays cascading down onto the field of grass below. The wind chimed in too, providing a cool breeze to counteract the harsh heat. Tanaka, who was currently taking the form of a large rock, sighed in content at this scenario. He didn’t have to move, the weather was perfect, and the scenery was nice to look at. He stared out over the fields, watching as two eurasian wrynecks flew past him. Their distinct, repetitive call made Tanaka happy. He found them and their song adorable. It would be a memory that stuck with him forever as these birds only passed through northern Japan during the summer.
He could live like this forever.
All of a sudden, the sky grew dark. The warm light that illuminated his sanctuary dimmed. The breeze died down as well, leaving only a sweltering heat and a depressing shade behind. Though Tanaka couldn’t move, he silently protested in his rock form.
“Tanaka, wake up,”
Tanaka blinked his eyes open, sad to find that his days of a sedentary rock were only a dream. His best friend (and maybe a little bit of a crush), Ohta, stood over him. His hand lingered on Tanaka’s shoulder as he spoke. “You mentioned needing to go grocery shopping, right?” Ohta asked. Tanaka was still disoriented and a little angry over the ending of his dream. He stared blankly at Ohta, not registering the physical touch nor his words, before turning towards the window he sat by.
Sure enough, Shimura and Katou had closed the window and were blocking the sun’s path to Tanaka.
“You ruined my time as a rock,” he said quietly, glaring harshly at their backs. Katou turned around and jumped a bit upon seeing Tanaka awake. “Tanaka… you look… really pissed…” Katou muttered, clutching onto Shimura’s arm in fear. Shimura flinched at the sudden touch and whirled around. His eyes widened and he dragged Katou over to the back of the classroom. “What the hell did we do to him?” Shimura whisper-yelled. Katou shrugged and awkwardly went back to staring out the window, this time far away from Tanaka.
Ohta raised an eyebrow and looked down at Tanaka, who was still glaring. “Tanaka,” he tried again. Tanaka turned to him as if it was the first time Ohta had spoken to him. “I had a dream that I was a rock in a field. It was the best dream I ever had,” he said, the faintest hint of fondness in his voice. There was no mention of the spoiled ending nor his sudden hatred towards his friends, so Ohta didn’t ask. He had known Tanaka long enough to not be hurt by his lack of attention towards questions asked right after his nap. Instead, Ohta picked up Tanaka’s school bag and slung it over his other shoulder.
“Come on, we need to go grocery shopping.”
Tanaka dragged his feet against the concrete while Ohta rifled through his school bag for the coupons he had been collecting for this trip. “You’re always so prepared,” Tanaka said out of the blue. Ohta hadn’t noticed Tanaka had been openly staring at him, silently admiring his best friend’s dependability. Ohta looked away from Tanaka, hoping the blush on his cheeks wasn’t noticeable. “One of us has to be,” he found the stack of coupons and presented them to Tanaka. “Here, I’ve been collecting them from magazines. Your sister also clipped some from magazines we don’t get, though she didn’t seem too happy about giving them to me. We should get a really good deal today regardless.”
Tanaka recognized the familiar feeling that swelled in his stomach whenever Ohta said things like this.
He hadn’t thought much of it at first. There wasn’t anything to think about really. Ohta was just the only guy that seemed to be really understanding of his personality and lifestyle. Sure, other classmates put up with his listless antics, but no one cared about him like Ohta did. Tanaka didn’t really care about being alone all the time. However, once he actually made a friend, he realized he actually enjoyed the company of others (in controlled doses). Ohta was a caretaker and a friend, basically everything Tanaka could ask for.
Though things began to change after a particular conversation with his younger sister.
“Onii-chan, you talk about Ohta a lot,” Rino mentioned nonchalantly while cooking dinner. Tanaka was slumped over on the sofa, about to fall asleep; however, this comment from Rino woke him back up. “I guess. He’s my friend,” he replied. He hadn’t put much thought, if any at all, into how much he spoke about Ohta. Ohta was a consistent part of his day, so he was bound to come up when questions like “What did you do today?” came up. Rino went silent for a moment, focusing on stirring the curry she was working on.
“Do you think you’re compatible?”
Tanaka sat up rather slowly, though for him this was an expression of surprise. The question had caught him off guard. He had only known Ohta for a few months, but he thought they got along okay. Was there something he was missing? “I think so. He’s my ideal spouse,” he said absent-mindedly. Rino nodded and fell silent again. She turned off the stove and pulled out two bowls from the cupboard.
“Do you mean that as a joke, or are you being serious?”
That , Tanaka did not know the answer to at the time. Love seemed like a tiring endeavor, and there probably wasn’t a girl out there who was willing to do the things he was interested in and cut out all of the boring, time consuming stuff. He also felt like that wasn’t fair to anyone, so he always assumed he’d be single forever and just stay with Ohta. If he already knew someone with his ideal qualities, why waste the time meeting another person to fulfill the role? He didn’t have to love Ohta to marry him. The proposition of marrying Ohta felt more like a “step up from roommates" situation in fact. They’d live together, Ohta would take care of him, Tanaka would stay at home and do nothing, and everyone would be happy. Being with Ohta felt easy, so it seemed like the most logical answer.
However, the strange floaty feeling Tanaka began to experience whenever Ohta took care of him started making things more complicated. His sexuality was something he never gave much thought to, partially because it was too tiring and partially because he lived in a conservative country. The way Shimura described feeling around the girl he currently had a thing for and the way Miyano said she felt around Echizen seemed to be pretty aligned with how Tanaka felt around Ohta.
He decided that his feelings were a case by case basis. Figuring out which label fit best would take too much time.
Though the initial acceptance of his feelings for Ohta provided Tanaka some mental relief, it created a new set of problems. So he did what he did best with things he found tiring to deal with: he pretended it didn’t exist.
“An azuki bun coupon…” Tanaka said to himself as he thumbed through the coupons, ridding himself of any fond thoughts of Ohta. It was no secret Ohta loved sweets, especially azuki buns. Most of their after school endeavors were buying some sort of dessert. He figured Ohta was planning on getting some for himself while out with Tanaka. Although he was horrifically broke, Tanaka resolved to be the one to buy the buns for his friend. He shoved the coupon in his pocket and pretended to look through the rest of them.
“I talked to Saya who talked to Rino-chan about some of your favorite meals, so I wrote a grocery list that contains the ingredients for a few of them. It’s better to think about buying specific ingredients for recipes than buying whatever you think you’ll eat.” Ohta commented as the two approached the grocery store. He calmly grabbed a cart from the kiosk, ignoring the moms and grandmas fawning over his reliability. It was a rather regular occurrence, though one that made Tanaka feel like he had to confess soon. His competition for Ohta was practically the entire town at this point.
Tanaka trailed behind Ohta and thought about how he could pull off his plan. He’d have to sneak away and buy the azuki buns in secret so Ohta wouldn’t pay for them, but Tanaka had no clue where anything was. He scanned the store blankly, barely registering each section as they were too hard to read. Ohta grabbed a few fruits and vegetables from the produce section, making comments here and there about what Rino could use them in. Tanaka tried to ignore the mental image of Ohta cooking for him instead.
As the pair pulled into the grain aisle to restock on rice, Tanaka found what he was looking for. At the end of the aisle was a display case employed by a rather kind looking old lady. There were all types of buns and pastries in the display case, so the azuki buns had to be there.
“Ohta, I need to go to the bathroom,” Tanaka said, tugging lightly on his friend’s sleeve to get his attention. Ohta glanced down at him and nodded. “Do you need me to show you where it is?” he asked. Tanaka shook his head and reached for his bag, which was still slung over Ohta’s shoulder. Ohta stood there awkwardly. “Um… you don’t need to take your bag to the bathroom…” he trailed off. Tanaka hadn’t thought this far. His wallet was still in his school bag. If Ohta saw him taking it out, he might catch onto his plan. He went with the first excuse that came to his mind.
“I’m on my period.”
“Tanaka… you’re biologically male…”
“Oh,” he replied. That excuse did only work for Rino at their house regardless of how many times he tried to use it. “Well then I just need my bag.” Tanaka said, not able to think of anything better. He grabbed his school bag and left before Ohta could say anything. He was glad the display case was right next to the aisle Ohta was in. Otherwise, he would have had no idea where he was going. He pulled out the coupon and read the giant, bolded letters on the bright yellow paper.
TODAY AND TODAY ONLY!!!! BUY 3 AZUKI BUNS, GET 3 FREE!!!
Thankfully, the date matched today’s date, and Tanaka approached the counter with the last six azuki buns. He dropped the tray onto the counter and handed the lady the coupon. She smiled at him widely. “Buying something nice for your family?” she asked as she scanned the coupon. Tanaka busied himself with digging through his bag for his wallet so he wouldn’t have to make eye contact. “No, just buying them for a friend.” Without the coupon, Tanaka wouldn’t have been able to buy the buns, but thankfully his sad bank account could cover the expenses. The worker took note of Tanaka’s now empty wallet and smiled.
“Using your last few dollars to buy something special for a friend? You must care about them an awful lot.”
Tanaka felt his cheeks grow warm as he retrieved the bag from the worker. He made room in his school bag for the buns and hid them away from Ohta. “I do. He’s my best friend.” Tanaka said. He thought about this as he turned away and rejoined Ohta, who was intently focused on which bag of rice was the cheapest per gram. “Ohta, I’m back,” Tanaka said, watching as Ohta gave each rice bag a smack. “Oh, Tanaka, I’m glad you didn’t get lost. Do you prefer short grain rice or long grain rice?” Ohta asked, his bangs falling into his eyes.
There was something about that moment that made Tanaka feel weird.
The comment from the store worker, Ohta, the secret azuki buns, Ohta,the way Ohta’s hair was falling out of his ponytail, Ohta, the deep consideration towards Tanaka’s preferences, Ohta . Everything collided into one glaringly obvious sign.
“Ohta, we should get married,” Tanaka said, this time his eyes sparkling with passion. Ohta’s eyes widened and he frantically swiped his hair out his face. “Tanaka, I told you not to say that! People are going to misunderstand you.” Ohta said, turning to look back at the rice to hide his blush. Recently, the marriage proposals had been getting to Ohta. It was getting harder and harder to hide the part of him that wanted Tanaka to be serious about it all. He was embarrassed about how quickly he would say yes if Tanaka genuinely asked to be his. Rice packaging had never looked so interesting in Ohta’s entire life.
Tanaka sighed as he watched Ohta go back to debating over rice. His serious proposal was not well received. He mindlessly pointed at a bag and said, “That one is fine. Think about it though.” The mere thought that Ohta would spend a second contemplating dating him was enough to send Tanaka into an embarrassed silence. Ohta was rendered speechless at the forwardness of Tanaka’s request.
Tanaka readjusted the strap of his school bag, wondering when the right time to give Ohta his azuki buns was.
Ohta grabbed the random brand of rice Tanaka requested, wondering when the right time to ask Tanaka if he was serious was.