Work Text:
“Mayoi-dono! Thank you so much for following my invitation, and sorry for calling you out here all of a sudden, but there is something really important I need to ask you!”
Shinobu’s posture was as earnest and upright as ever, and his voice was loud and clear. He had asked Mayoi to meet him behind the school by placing a neatly folded letter into his locker. Since Mayoi was not exactly a frequent attendant in his class, it had been a wonder that he had actually found it in time.
But he had, and he had gathered the courage to come, and now everything about this situation felt so wrong .
While Mayoi’s childhood had been atypical in more than just one way, he still knew a thing or two about his country’s popular culture. About how every shoujo manga used to have a scene like this. About what usually happened when two people had a private meeting behind the school.
His mind was just about to go blank from all the implications filling his head when his beloved junior - and chieftain - took the floor again:
“Please forgive me if I’m being rude, Mayoi-dono, but there is something I have been wondering about for quite some time now.”
At that point, Shinobu paused, and Mayoi lacked the necessary knowledge in interpersonal affairs to be sure if he was giving him a last chance to speak or if he was just collecting his own thoughts.
Whatever it was, Mayoi did not take his potential chance, so it was once again Shinobu’s voice which ended the silence between them:
“Could it be… that you are having a crush on Kazehaya-san?”
The squeak that escaped Mayoi’s lips now was ungracious, even by his own standards, and it took him more than just a moment to fully grasp what had been said just now.
Wait.
…
This situation… this conversation… was about… him, having a crush on… Tatsumi?
…
What?
…
WHAT?!
While he was still physically unable to utter a single word, Mayoi’s brain went berserk.
What made Shinobu think something like this? Didn’t he know how unworthy Mayoi was to even just think such thoughts? That he was filthy while Tatsumi was just pure and good and beautiful, and that Mayoi secretly still doubted that someone like him even deserved to be talked to by someone like Tatsumi at all, no matter what his unitmate himself, Shinobu and all the other beautiful people he had have the honour to meet through his idol work had told him about his own worth?
“So I was right!” Shinobu said, triumphantly and audibly relieved, definitely - oh-so-clearly - misunderstanding Mayoi’s silence, while Mayoi still found himself unable to speak and thus protest like he should have done.
“I have been watching you for the past few weeks, as a part of my ninja training. And it seems that I finally managed to go unnoticed by you!” the younger boy announced proudly, further explaining the situation. Mayoi was in awe about the fact, but he could not disagree. He had indeed not noticed his presence at all. Had he slacked off? Or was it just because he had learnt to feel so safe around his chieftain? And was this a good thing? Or a bad one?
“I did not mean to watch Kazehaya-san, though, but since you often work together, he happened to be around you a lot. And it somehow struck me that the way you look at him is so very different from the way you look at me, although I know just how much you respect me. Took me some time to figure out the reason for this.”
Mayoi felt dumbstruck. He tried to follow Shinobu’s thoughts to find a way to enfeeble his arguments, but his mind clearly tried to betray him. Instead of helping him, new doubts started to creep into his insecure heart. Did he really act differently when he was around Tatsumi? Did he do something inappropriate? The idea was terrible. Nightmarish, even!
Thinking back now, he saw pictures of himself, watching Tatsumi talk to other people from afar, pained by the fact that he could not just join the conversation because… well, basically because he was the person he was.
He saw memories of their ALKALOID training sessions, when Tatsumi’s hand accidentally brushed by his own arm and thought about the warm and fuzzy feeling these slight touches had left on his own skin.
Thinking back even further, he somehow began to understand why his heart had pounded so much when he had carried Tatsumi home after a training where he had strained his injured foot too much. Of course he had been proud that he had finally been able to be useful, but that had not been everything. Tatsumi’s arms wrapped around him while he had given him a piggyback surely had done things to his heart, and so had his scent in his nose and his gentle voice so close to his ear.
How could he have missed all of this?
“You are… right?!” Mayoi finally whispered, still unbelieving about all of that. About how oblivious he had been. About what a catastrophe this was for someone like him, who clearly was not worthy to fall in love with someone like Tatsumi in the first place.
However, young and innocent Shinobu seemed to be blind to Mayoi’s inner turmoil and just continued to talk, about how nice all of this was and that Mayoi could be sure to always have his support.
Meanwhile, undiscovered by the two modern-time ninjas, there was something else going on right behind a window just a few steps away from them. Inside the school building, a green-haired young man with gentle eyes sat slumped down next to the ajar window which was looking out over the school’s backyard. He had been searching for his shy unitmate to pick him up for a very spontaneous interview appointment ALKALOID had received earlier that day as a replacement for another unit which could not make it. Now, the rare interview opportunity seemed to be forgotten while he was just sitting there, his mouth hidden behind one of his hands, a complex expression on his face and a complicated but not dismissive look in his eyes.
As much as this had been about him, it had not been spoken out for him to hear. However, he had heard everything, and it definitely got him thinking.
Later, during the interview, the two junior members of ALKALOID were confused by their seniors’ uncommon lack of focus and insecurity around each other.
“Did you two finally figure things out between you?” Hiiro, as open and innocent as ever, wondered, a question that earned him a thump in the side by the less unworldly Aira.
It was very obvious that, at the same time that something had changed between them, they clearly hadn’t quite figured out anything at all, but Aira was just right with his opinion that it was not their place to make them understand what was already crystal clear to everyone else around.