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The cough has gotten worse. What a fucking shocker. Haruka knew it was only a matter of time before it would get this bad, but holy shit this hurt like hell. The petals tasted worse every goddamn time they came up. He feels the thorns scratching at the insides of his lungs. At least he’s pretty sure that’s how this crap is supposed to work. All he knew before this shit was that this stupid weird disease thing was just something in fairytales that have stupid endings. At least that’s what he had heard. Not like he really grew up believing in them let alone having someone read them to him, and then he never had the interest.
But regardless.
“Fuck this shit,” Haruka wipes blood from his lips as yellow petals came fluttering out. It was so stupid. So, so dumb and Haruka hates it. Of all the fucking people in the world to get shot by this shit it had to be him. Basically the poster child of unrequited love.
Tch.
Love.
Yeah right.
Then again, the daffodil crap spewing from his throat would say that yes, Haruka was in love with someone who obviously didn’t love him back.
Fucking Suo Hayato.
Why him? Why that little shit? Why that brilliant pirate bastard with that fucking ruby eye and that fucking stupid cocky smile that Haruka just wanted to feel on his own lips to shock the living crap out of him?
Why?
His arm wraps around his stomach as he watches Suo spar with Nirei again. This time Suo worked Nirei up enough that the blond stripped of his shirt. Sweat glistens on the younger boy’s shoulders and neck.
“My, my, Nirei-kun certainly is pushing himself, isn’t he?” Suo merely side steps again and again, doing tricks around Nirei before calling it a day. “How about a break?”
Nirei pants. They don’t know that Haruka is there, peering from behind one of the public bathrooms near the park. Fuck they look so fucking happy.
“Thanks, Suo-san,” Nirei grabs a bottle of water and chugs it down greedily. “You’re an amazing teacher. Y-Your master would be proud, I’m sure!”
“Oh he is much stricter than I am,” Suo closes that gorgeous eye of his and tilts his head in the way that makes his pretty little dangly earrings brush against his shoulders. “But thank you,” he eye-patched young man, the bane and reason for Haruka’s continued existence, reaches down and grabs a towel. “Here, let me help you damp off.”
Nirei flushes. “B-But–!”
“No protesting, it is a teacher’s job to ensure his student is in top shape, after all.” Suo grins that bright grin of his as he pats Nirei off.
More flower petals scrape up Haruka’s throat before he takes off back into the bathroom stall he had been in before.
Fuck this was really gross. The stall was small and shitty and disgusting…He guesses it’s fitting, all considered. Those mean, dark voices in his head had been gone for the last two years, but after he realized his feelings for Suo…they started coming back again.
“You really think anyone would actually want YOU?”
“Haruka, you know better. Just look at you.”
“Why does he think someone as talented and brave as Suo Hayato would want anything to do with him?”
“True, we all know he’s just playing nice to Haruka. Isn’t that right?”
“I mean really, let’s be honest here. If anyone has won the affection of that young man, it is Nirei Akihiko.”
“Oh yes, absolutely. Just look at the way Suo touches him.”
“Absolutely. Did you see that, Haruka? Did you see how Suo wanted to get his hands on your precious blond friend?”
“Did you see that? He would never do that to YOU, Haruka. You’re too weak.”
“You’re too disgusting.”
“You’re too foul.”
“You’ll never be good enough for Suo.”
“And that’s why he’ll never love you.”
“Why don’t you just accept that you'll die alone?”
“He’ll never love you.”
“He’ll never love you.”
“Suo will NEVER love YOU.”
Haruka vomits more yellow petals. They mock him, floating there, looking up at him with splotches of blood mixing with the nasty toilet water.
“Shut the fuck up,” he coughs, more blood coming out this time. Shit, this wasn’t good. This really wasn’t good.
He stumbles out of the bathroom and looks at himself in the mirror. Has he gotten paler? Yeah. Yeah, he has.
His eyes look sunken in, his clothes are looser than usual.
Tch.
This disease was shit. Killing him slowly from the inside out.
His peers had asked him a few times now how he was feeling, but Haruka always brushed them off.
Maybe he should have been more honest. But he can’t do that. It’s pathetic.
PA-THET-ICCCCC.
He was pathetic. How could he possibly allow himself to pine for someone? He thought he locked away any potential of those feelings in a chest and shoved that chest in the back of the closet of his messed up brain.
What a fucking joke.
“Sakura-san?”
“GAH!” Haruka spins around to find Nirei standing there. His shirt was back on with the towel draped around his neck. “The hell you doin’ in here?! Scared me half to fucking death!”
“O-Oh, sorry!” Nirie takes a few steps in before tilting his head and squinting his eyes. “You..you don’t look so good.”
Haruka grits his teeth. Why does Nirei have to be so caring?
“He’s better than you.”
“He’s always been better than you.”
“That’s why Suo loves him.”
“‘M fine.” Fuck these voices in his head were real pieces of grade A quality shit.
Well, despite his best efforts, Haruka’s body rejects the notion of lying and instead immediately produces a stream of yellow petals flooding from Haruka’s lungs coated in blood, almost making it look like blood clots are shooting out. The force of this fit of vomit was enough to send some out of his nose. And holy fucking shit did that burn. It all was matted down by blood, which was just as foul and gross.
“S-Sakura-san!” Nirei races to Haruka’s side, holding onto his shoulder with wide eyes. “Wh-What is–?”
Haruka triest with all his might to stop the petals and that fucking scratching in his lungs to stop, but it doesn’t work. Nothing works. Nothing has worked since the damn thing started.
Once he catches his breath, he sighs, wiping the blood from his cracking lips and dried up nose with his uniform’s sleeve. “I…I have that hannah hickey thing…” His voice is hoarse and scratchy.
Nirei gives him a puzzled look. “Hannah Hickey? Who’s that?”
“Not a person, dumbass,” Haruka doesn’t mean to call him names, but the words come out anyway. “Sorry…I mean, it’s…I dunno how to pronounce it. That shit that makes you puke up flowers or whatever.”
Nirei’s eyes widen tenfold. He shakes his head. “Y-You mean hanahaki ?!”
Haruka merely nods in response. “Yeah, that thing.”
“That’s not a real disease though!”
“Well it feels pretty fucking real to me,” he coughs and hacks up more flower petals. Shaky hands scoop up and small pile of what must be a fucking bush of daffodils from his chest.
When Nirei peers in closer, he sees that the petals had been drenched in blood. “Th-Those were in what you just–?!”
“Yeah,” Haruka coughs again. “Fuck, I feel lightheaded.” He tries to get up but can’t. Everything is starting to hurt. “Shit…I…Nirei…” The edges of his brain felt fuzzy. The world seems to be getting colder, getting smaller. It can’t be a good sign.
“SUO-SAN!” Nirei’s voice just makes the edge of Haruka’s awareness. “SUO-SAAAAN!”
Haruka can feel droplets of water splattering onto his colorless face. Nirei must be crying again.
…Was he calling for Suo? Was he calling for Suo?!
HE WAS CALLING FOR SUO!
“D-Don’t…wait…” Haruka’s voice was hardly a broken whisper. How could anyone have heard that without paying close enough attention?
Apparently Nirei must hear something Haruka doesn’t, because he quickly goes back to focusing on him. “Who is it?! Wh-Who is the person you love?!”
More vomit. More thorns. Haruka can feel the thorns digging into his lung tissue. He can feel vines crawling up his insides, making it harder and harder to breathe.
“I’m…sorry…I’m a…shit friend…” He coughs up more petals, eyes flickering. Why couldn't it just last a little longer?
“Wh-What? What do you mean?” Nirei cries. “SUO-SAN, HURRY!”
Haruka doesn’t realize how close or far away Suo is, but that was probably for the best.
“Nirei…” Haruka wheezes.
“We need to get you to a hospital!”
“It’s Suo…” Tears line Haruka’s bicolored eyes.
“...Suo-san?” Nirei leans down with an expression Haruka can’t make out with the tears blurring his vision. “D-Did you just say Suo’s name?!”
Haruka offers a small nod, it’s weak, just like him. He’s nothing like Nirei. Of course Suo would pick that ball of knowledge and light over him, some dumbass who isn’t smart enough or courageous enough to confess his own fucking feelings.
How lame.
“Y-Yeah…” Haruka sniffles before coughing up more. Now the tears were from pain along with the humiliation of this whole situation. Was he gonna die in a fucking public bathroom?!
It looked like it.
“You both…w-will be good…for each other…” He couldn’t keep his eyes open. Everything hurt so fucking much. Every breath burned. His chest felt too heavy and clogged and rattled and piercing and–
“What are you talking about?!” Nirei shakes him, he’s sure of it even though he can’t see. Haruka’s eyes can’t open. He’s still there, barely, hardly. But he can feel Nirei shaking him. “I don’t love Suo-san like that, Sakura-san!” Nirei shakes him even harder. He’s never shaken someone that hard before. If Haruka was more with it, he’d scold Nirei for probably giving him a concussion from how hard he was shaking him. “SUO-SAN PLEASE! YOU NEED TO tell Sakura that–”
Haruka doesn’t hear what happens next.
He doesn’t hear the final words.
He doesn’t know how Nirei and Suo’s story will end.
All he knows is that this is where his story ends.
“It’s better this way.”
“You weren’t gonna be good enough for him anyway.”
It’s true.
It’s all true.
Haruka just wishes he could have seen Suo’s face one last time…
……………………………….
Sakura really was an idiot at times. This time really solidified it.
By the time Hayato reaches Sakura, the young boy was covered in petals and coats of blood. Nirei is cradling him, rocking back and forth.
“H-He–”
Hayato narrows his eye as it becomes more and more apparent just how dire the situation is. From the looks of it, Sakura was pale as a sheet. Snow White with bloodied lips and what appears to be flower petals sprawled all over him and the area around his body.
“Are those daffodil petals?” Hayato walks slowly over with his hands clasped behind his back before his eye widens. “No…Wait, is this–?”
Nirei cuts him off as he plucks a few of the petals off of Sakura’s lifeless body.
“Yes! I-I didn’t know it was real! Di-d you know this was real?!” Snot pours out of Nirei’s nose. “I-I-We need to call someone! We need to–”
Hayato drops to his knees, Sakura’s blood staining his slacks and white Chinese-styled blouse. He can deal with that another time. It’s not like he doesn’t know how to remove bloodstains from clothes anyways.
The eyepatch wearing young man takes Sakura’s pulse.
Nothing.
…Nothing at all.
“It…It’s…” Hayato struggles to string along a sentence in that moment. Usually that’s not an issue. There’s always something right there on the tip of his tongue, but right now he’s speechless.
What does he say?
What can he do?
…There is technically one thing he could do…but his master told him to never show another soul. No one could know. No one could ever find out otherwise it could put everyone he knows and loves in deadly jeopardy.
But right now Sakura is dead.
That brash, bruting, annoyingly endearing boy that Hayato has come to love unconditionally is lying there in his own blood without a pulse, with lifeless eyes hidden behind closed lids.
It’s not the first time Hayato has seen a dead body, not the first time the dead body is of someone he knows.
…But it is the first time it is of someone he loves . He didn’t really expect himself to feel that way towards another person. His master told him time and time again that that type of love puts you and others in danger. It’s better to leave those childish emotions behind.
And for a while it worked. No one caught his eye. No one made his heart flutter or blush or lose sleep at night thinking about what it might be like to hold the person’s hand or feel what their lips taste like.
Well.
That is until an outsider from a no-name town came bumbling into their small community. An outsider who made him genuinely laugh inside when he believed Hayato was actually Leonardo DiCaprio.
An outsider who quickly stole his breath away when he caught a glimpse of those chiseled, toned abs clenching during a fight with Sugishita.
An outsider who didn’t know how to use a phone and would accidentally send heart emojis to Hayato at night when he didn’t know how to use the small hotplate Hayato bought him to make tea in his haunted apartment.
An outsider who allowed him to spend the night after a fight with his parents after they kicked him, not asking any questions, just saw him standing out front of the apartment, giving him his futon that night while he slept on the flooring, telling Hayato he’s slept on worse which only made Hayato’s heart clench.
An outsider named Sakura Haruka. The boy who he loves more than anything in the whole world.
…And the big dummy didn’t know he even had feelings for him.
In retrospect, Hayato should have known. Sakura can be a truly dense boy. He can see the love people have for others, but he struggles so hard to see the way people show their love for him.
…He has no choice. Hayato has to do it.
“Nirei,” Hayato drops his voice low, serious, stern, commanding, leaving absolutely no room for protest. “Wait outside and make sure no one, and I mean no one, comes inside until I come out.” He looks up at his best friend. “Do you understand?”
Nirei shakes his head at first. “That…Wh-Why?! Shouldn’t we be taking him to–?!”
“It’s too late for that.” Hayato knows his voice his harsh, but there’s still just enough time to make something work, but he can’t if Nirei is in the room. “Now please, I just need you to keep watch. Trust me.”
There are a few beats of silence aside from Nirei’s soft sobs, but eventually there’s a nod and whimper. “Y-Yeah, okay…P-Please hurry!”
“Don’t tell anyone yet.” Hayato is quick to add when he sees Nirei reaching for his phone. “Not yet.”
Thank whatever higher powers there might be for the trust Nirei has in him. The blond boy is truly something else.
Another nod and dash outside, and now Hayato and Sakura are alone.
Suddenly Hayato is shaking. When was the last time he was this nervous? Hm. He can’t remember it being anytime recently. Shaking from anger or rage, yes. That he was able to control through into fluid motions.
But this was different.
“It’ll work,” he says aloud, more so to convince himself that everything will be fine. Hayato takes a quick look around the bathroom one more time, ducking down to see if there was anyone in the stalls.
They were alone.
Good.
He takes a deep breath through his nose and exhales through his lips, closing his eye.
“You really are something else, Sakura-kun,” trembling fingers untie his the string keeping his eye-patch on his head.
The patch falls lazily into his lap before slipping into the small pool of Sakura’s blood.
“Haku,” Hayato opens his eye again, a determined, cool, steely expression on his face. “Emerge.”
Suddenly, a black dragon with piercing red eyes slithers out of Hayato’s eye, no longer covered by the magical eyepatch.
The dragon cranes its neck and rolls back its shoulderblades before flying out of the cavern on Hayato’s face, flapping tiny wings with a cruel grin, revealing sharp teeth.
“My oh my, it has been some time since you’ve allowed me to see the daylight, Hayato.”
“Quiet,” Hayato reaches out and coils a hand roughly around the dragon’s neck. “You are my spirit to do with as I see fit.”
“That’s not what I recall your master telling you, little one.” The dragon smirks at Hayato, almost taunting him.
“If you don’t do what I say, I will never let you see the light of day again.” Hayato gives Haku a challenging glare, one meant to intimate the dragon into submission.
Sometimes it worked.
Sometimes it didn’t.
“Well what is it that you need me to…OH BY THE GODS!” Haku flaps his wings so hard he almost flies away completely.
“Oh no you don’t,” Hayato grabs the dragon’s small tail and yanks him down.
“Isn’t that–?”
“Yes, now, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop behaving like a nuisance and heal him.”
Haku flaps over to Sakura’s lifeless, limp body. The dragon flutters closer until he is resting on Sakura’s unmoving chest. “Your love is dead, Hayato.”
The teenager sighs. “Yes, how astute of you.” Sarcasm drips with every word.
“Don’t use that tone with me, boy,” Haku hisses, tongue flickering like a viper. “Now what am I supposed to do with this?”
Hayato merely points to Sakura. “Be a good spirit and burn the thorns out of his lungs.”
The dragon arches an eyebrow. “You mean to tell me this boy suffered from–?”
“Yes,” Hayato answers immediately. “And the longer we just wait here, the less time we have to save him. Now, if you save him, I will let you taste sweet fresh air and allow you the freedom to fly outside of the confinements of a room.”
Haku blinks. “You’ll release me?”
“I’ll have to talk it over with Master, but if he says yes, then I might consider it.”
“That’s not much of a promise.” The dragon scoffs.
“No, but it’s more than anything I’ve proposed to you before, now, isn’t it?” Hayato taps his finger on Sakura’s leg. “Now, are you going to save him or not?”
“S-Suo-san?” Nirei’s voice could be heard from outside of the bathroom. “W-Who are you–?”
“I SAID TO NOT COME IN!” Hayato shouts. “I said to trust me!”
He feels guilty for scolding Nirei, but it needs to be done.
“Okay, okay,” Haku grumbles. “Hold his mouth open for me.”
Hayato complies with the command, making sure the dragon spirit has enough room to wiggle down Sakura’s throat.
He’s never seen it truly happen before. It was odd and disturbing, watching Haku crawl in and slither his way into Sakura’s chest. The mechanics didn’t make any sense, Hayato was certain there was medical research out there in only his family’s sect of the world that could explain how this phenomena worked, but that wasn’t important right now.
All that mattered was the smell of smoke as gray clouds puffed out of Sakura’s open mouth.
That has to be Haku burning the thorns in Sakura’s lungs. It was working!
It had to work.
It has to work.
Sakura’s chest heaved, his body squirmed slightly with a tiny dragon pulling the strings on his insides. Still dead to the world, but at least something was happening.
It’ll take everything in Hayato not to kill Sakura after he’s alive again.
To let himself go this far with such a ridiculous disease and not just confront Hayato about it?!
Granted, Hayato needs to remember Sakura is different. That’s why he loves him, afterall. He has to make that very clear before trying to break the boy’s jaw or worse.
More and more smoke bellowed out of Sakura. There was a burning flesh scent flooding the room, but that was part of the process as well.
“S-Suo-san? Wh-What’s that smell?” Nirei asked from the front of the bathroom, not stepping in as instructed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Hayato said in a calm voice. “Sakura-kun is going to be better. Just keep a watch.”
He was certain the words didn’t make sense, but he had to say something otherwise Nirei would wander in and that would not be good for anyone.
After another minute or two, Haku squirms up Sakura’s throat. Tiny branches of what appeared to be thorns pricked the dragon’s wings, but aside from that, the spirit seems fine.
“Did you do it?” Hayato stops breathing for a moment.
Haku crawls the rest of the way out and sits proudly in Sakura’s lap. “Yes, now all you need to do is that breathing ritual you humans do when someone’s heart isn’t beating and then he’ll be–”
“Get off of him.” Hayato dives down and swats the dragon away. “Let me do it. Then I’ll put you back in my head. I’ll make sure Master knows of your efforts.”
He doesn’t give Haku time to protest before immediately performing CPR. The ribs crack and break and snap under Hayato’s measures, but that’ll be the least of their worries later. He wishes that the first time he tastes Sakura’s lips had been under different circumstances like after taking him on a lovely date, but he would have to accept this.
The lips tasted of copper but were also sweet. Sakura must have had some chocolate or another form of sweets before dying.
Oh precious!
But enough of that for now.
Hayato presses his head to Sakura’s chest. “I can’t hear a damn thing.” He growls in frustration and tears Sakura’s shirt in half.
“Well someone’s grown to be quite strong,” Haku whistles.
The words are ignored as Hayato goes back to doing everything in his power to bring his Sakura back to life.
And then it happens.
His tasseled earrings tickle Sakura’s bare, pale, bruised chest. And in that moment, Hayato hears a beat. The beating of Sakura’s heart.
“Quick!” Hayato snatches Haku and brings him up to his eye socket. “Get in. You’ll be rewarded for this back in my room, I assure you.”
Although the dragon wasn’t happy about it, he complies. “It better be something good, boy.”
“Just get in.” Hayato grabs his eyepatch and seals it over his eye as he watches Sakura cough.
Beautiful, breathtaking eyes open, tears lining them, making them glisten like diamonds and gold.
“S…S-Suo?” Sakura’s throat is hoarse and scratchy and sounds absolutely horrible.
To be expected.
Hayato can’t help himself. He doesn’t care if it’s childish. He scoops Sakura into his arms and brings him into his chest.
“Oh Sakura-kun, you incredibly silly boy,” he presses kisses all over Sakura’s head, loving the way his hair feels against his lips.
“O-Oi!” Sakura struggles against him, but he’s far too weak from everything that happened to do anything constructive that would get him free.
“Is that Sakura-san?!” Nirei comes bursting in with tears streaming down his cheeks. “SAKURA-SAAAAAN!”
Hayato wants to shoo Nirei away so he can have a private moment with Sakura, but he allows this interruption for now.
“S-Stop it!” Sakura tries to swat them both away but is once again unsuccessful.
“I thought you were dead!” Nirei sobs.
“Oh he was,” Hayato gives Sakura a tight squeeze, ignoring the sounds of pain and discomfort due to the broken ribs and who knows what else. “But he’s not anymore.”
“Wh…What the hell did you do to me?” Sakura croaks, trying to look up at Hayato.
“Y-Yeah,” Nirei pulls back slightly and tilts his head, rubbings his eyes and cheeks to remove the tears. “What did you do? I-I thought for sure he was–”
“Oh, I just used the Chinese spirit to help us out.” He points to his eyepatch, knowing full well they won’t believe him and probably pester him about it later.
But that was for later.
Now he had to talk with Sakura.
“You can be a real piece of work,” Sakura coughs. “Fuck my throat hurts.”
“I have an idea as to why,” Hayato squeezes Sakura again.
“Ow, ow, oww! Stop that!” Sakura hisses through clenched teeth.
“No,” he sighs with a smile and looks at Nirei. “Nirei-kun, could you go to the soda machine and buy Sakura a bottle of water? I can pay you back.”
Nirei hops to his feet. “Yes! I’ll be quick!”
Then off he goes, allowing the two teens to be alone again.
“So, you have quite a bit of blood on you, Sakura-kun,” Hayato gives another squeeze.
“OW!” Sakura squirms. “Suo!”
“Tell me, Sakura-kun, why didn’t you tell anyone you were sick?” He squeezes again, harder this time.
“YOU’RE LITERALLY BREAKING ME, SUO!”
“I thought we made it clear the last time you were sick that we all care and love you, so we would take care of you,” Hayato ignores his comments again.
“WOULD YA STOP?!”
“Were you afraid of what I would say if you told me you loved me?” Hayato just holds him there, still and unmoving.
That got Sakura to stiffen up. “Wh-What?”
“I asked if you were afraid of what would happen if you told me you loved me?” His question came out slower as he eased his grip on the boy in his lap.
Sakura flushes that beautiful blush that Hayato just wants to keep on his cheeks forever.
“I…You love Nirei, so why would I–?” The words are mumbled, but Hayato knows.
“I love you , Sakura-kun,” he eases his grip even more, this time coming in to nuzzle his cheek against Sakura’s hair.
“You…WAIT! WHAT?!” Sakura yelps in pain as Hayato lets him wiggle out of his grasp. “YOU LOVE ME?!”
“Yes, Sakura-kun,” Hayato sits on folded legs and lays his hands clasped in front of him. “I have loved you for quite some time.”
Sakura’s mind seems to short-circuit from the heat radiating off of his face. “WH-WHY THE HELL DIDN’T YA SAY SOMETHING?!”
This was a fair question. Hayato knows better, that Sakura isn’t the best at picking up on his subtle signs, although it was quite obvious to everyone else that Hayato had been leaving hints about his true feelings for the awkward blushing boy before him.
“Let’s go with I didn’t know how to tell you directly,” Hayato taps his chin, deciding that that’s a reasonable response.
The harsh punch in his arm tells him that Sakura does not agree.
“You fucker!” Sakura heaves and winces. Breathing and the act of talking will probably be a strain for him for a while, but that’s to be expected. “You should’ve–!”
“I could have, but you also could have, Sakura-kun,” Hayato closes his eye and tilts his head. “I’m just so happy you’re okay.”
He didn’t need to have his eye open to know that Sakura was blushing like a cherry blossom. He can feel the heat radiating off of him like a furnace.
“Yeah well…I-I love you too…” The last part is mumbled, but Hayato well aware that that is probably the best he’s going to get right now.
He opens his eye and leans forward. He takes in the blood on Sakura’s clothes and some of the blood already staining his cheek. Hayato licks his thumb and goes to wipe off the blood. Surprisingly, Sakura doesn’t swat his hand away. “I think we should still get you checked out at a hospital.”
“I don’ like hospitals.” Sakura grumbles, folding his arms. “‘Sides, they won’t believe that I had that shitty disease or whatever.”
Hayato can’t argue with that. It’s true. What did these doctors know of an illness that others believe to be fantasy?
They’ll have to figure something else out later.
“Then how about in the meantime I bring you back to my house and we talk more there, hm?” He gracefully hops to his feet, tucks one arm behind his back while reaching out his free hand to Sakura.
Who just stares up at him and blinks. “T-To your house? You’ve never let anyone over there before.”
“I’m deciding to make an exception for someone I truly love.” Hayato tilts his head and winks. “I’m referring to you, in case you didn’t–”
Sakura grabs Hayato’s hand and hoists himself up. “Yeah, yeah, I know, I know…” He brushes off crusted, crinkled flower petals off of his body. “Thanks…” More blushing. Hayato relishes moments every time those happen.
“I will do anything and everything for your from now on, Sakura-kun,” Hayato takes a step forward and places his hands on Sakura’s shoulders. “Would it be okay if I gave you a kiss?”
The speed at which Sakura’s cheeks flare an even deeper red is impeccable.
“A-A-A k-kiss?!”
That precious romance meter must be going crazy. Hayato couldn’t wait to test its limits.
“Yes, Sakura-kun,” Hayato smiles. It’s not a smirk this time, or a cocky smug one that he knows pushes Sakura’s buttons. It’s kind, warm, welcoming, and genuine. “Would you like me to?”
Sakura’s words must be clogged in his throat. He doesn’t speak. The boy doesn’t even nod his head. Instead he just closes his eyes and waits.
Oh absolutely adorable.
“Should I take that as a yes?” Hayato giggles.
“Just kiss me already, dammit!” Sakura demands through clenched teeth.
No other words needed to be said.
Hayato cups the sides of Sakura’s face while the other boy keeps his eyes still scrunched shut. His thumbs brush over strong cheekbones, sweeping over them as if memorizing the texture. He runs one hand through messy locks, taking note of the way Sakura releases a shaky sigh at such a gentle touch. He will most definitely be taking this into account later.
“Relax for me,” Hayato breathes as he brings his lips closer.
“Don’t tell me what to do and just–MMPH!”
In that moment, Hayato learns the best way to shut Sakura up is to give him a nice kiss on the mouth.
They started with lips, but soon tongues intertwined and danced. Hayato was sure Sakura was going to try to take lead, but it was obvious the young man had no experience in this department. Hayato had no problem taking it upon himself to show Sakura what it could feel like to be taken care of, to be loved in this type of way.
It was the beginning of something beautiful. If only Sakura didn’t have to die first.
Silly boy.
But he is Hayato’s silly boy now. His boyfriend. His partner.
And if Hayato has anything to say about it, Sakura will be his future husband.
But that’s another story for another time.