Work Text:
It’s like air.
It keeps him alive, he breathes it in, and he feels refreshed.
He remembers the first time they met. The girl without a name, the girl who claimed to wake him up, she hadn’t though, he had continued to sleep. Haruno, her name, the honest girl, then Mitsuki. Quiet, lonely; Mitsuki who raised her voice to cheer over the crowd. Mitsuki, always pushed aside, invisible to everyone, but moving to the front with her own clear noise.
He feels it then, it’s when he shoots a basket and he hears that voice cheering for him. It’s when he catches that smile at the corner of his eyes. It’s when he’s asleep, but he can still hear her words in his head, let’s walk home together again. It’s when he goes out to the cafe, with all of his old friends, and now her, his new friend too.
It’s like air.
Everybody knows what it is, that it’s there, but how does one really describe it?
She settles in, like the space had always been there for her. It had always been four, the four of them. Now with Mitsuki it’s five, and it feels whole. They feel whole. Mitsuki hadn’t been missing, but she also was. With her there, he feels calmer, he feels peaceful, he feels settled. The smiles come quickly, he laughs easier.
She says, that he’s precious, and there’s that twist, a feeling that doesn’t sit quite right and the smell of competition in the air. Basketball, basketball, he will beat him at basketball and he laughs, like that isn’t what this is about. And then she says that he is precious too, a precious friend. A precious friend, the words settle, they sooth, but they also aren’t enough. His other friends don’t come with this rush of warmth.
It’s like air.
When you think about it, it’s there. When it isn’t, there’s a problem.
Sometimes it’s the call of his name, voice high and determined. Sometimes it’s the name that appears on his phone, a new message from her. Sometimes it’s in the touch of a hand, her body in his arms. Sometimes it’s the writing on his wrist; wishes of luck for him, from her. When he can protect her, the feeling grows, it swells.
The words come then. I like that about you. So easily they fall from his lips. It’s cute. Honest words for the honest girl. For lonely, quiet Mitsuki who settles everything within him, except the beating of his heart, the rush of blood through his veins, the thoughts that tumble through his head. This conflict, because he feels this, but he can’t, he can’t, they aren’t allowed.
Mitsuki is kind of like air.
And when he says so, his friends look at him, like they know something he doesn’t. They say dense, they say spacey, and then you can’t help it when you fall for someone.