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Nagi was still asleep when his cell phone started ringing on his chest. He slowly opened his eyes, still groggy and disheveled, and answered to see who was bothering him so early. Ah, it was Reo. He had completely forgotten about their plan to spend the day together and already regretted it, considering it meant being woken up at 7 a.m. on his day off. Reluctantly, he answered the call.
“Hey Nagi, are you ready yet? I’m leaving home to pick you up and I’ll be there in 10 minutes!” Reo’s cheerful and energetic voice sounded from the other end of the line.
“I just woke up to you calling and I’m too lazy to get up. I think I’ll just stay here…” Nagi grumbled.
“What? No way! Get up, brush your teeth, take a shower and change your clothes. Look, you don’t even need to prepare anything for breakfast, we’re going out to eat today, okay? I’ll be there soon.” And before Nagi could complain about anything else, Reo hung up. What a drag…
He practically dragged himself out of bed, said good morning to Choki, went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and take a shower, and came out wearing only a towel around his waist. He returned to the room and lazily threw himself onto the bed, determined to wait for Reo to arrive to choose what to wear for the occasion.
As promised, Reo arrives exactly 10 minutes after the call and knocks on the door.
'-It's open, come in...' Nagi shouts from the room, loud enough for Reo to hear and enter the living room, immediately going to the bedroom.
'-Nagi, you can't leave the front door open like that, it's dangerous-' But he stops himself when he sees his friend sprawled on the bed, only in a towel. '-Nagi, I can't believe it! I told you to get ready so we could leave here and catch the train to Hayama as quickly as possible, and when I arrive you're not even dressed yet? The trip takes an hour, and we need to catch the train to get to the beach before breakfast closes at the station bakeries.' Reo can't help but get annoyed with Nagi, who just stares at him, sleepy.
'-What a pain, if I knew I had to wake up so early, I never would have agreed...' Nagi grumbles again, closing his eyes.
Despite the momentary stress, Reo quickly calms down and remembers that he can't stay mad at Nagi for long, so he goes to the closet to get something for the boy to wear. Upon opening the closet, he finds a few shirts of the same oversized style that vary only in color, and even fewer shorts and pants. '-Seriously, even with so few clothing options you still need my help to get dressed?' Reo laughs as he grabs a light blue shirt and cotton shorts and throws them to Nagi, who had sat on the bed.
'-Hey, where are the underwear—' The white-haired boy starts to ask, but is interrupted when the underwear is thrown in his face. He hears Reo's laughter and footsteps, and soon his field of vision is clear again, allowing him to see his friend blushing from laughing so hard, his hand covering his mouth. Nagi suddenly realizes that he was always so cute...
'-Ouch, Nagi, I’m so sorry! It was an accident! Anyway, get dressed quickly.' The purple-haired boy left the room still chuckling softly, leaving his partner alone to get dressed in privacy. When he finished dressing, he noticed that Reo hadn’t left any sneakers ready for him, and before he could call him over and complain, he remembered the sneakers he had received from the other when they were traveling with their Blue Lock friends and had never worn. It should be the perfect situation to wear them for the first time.
Reo was looking at some social media posts on his phone when he heard the sound of the bedroom door opening and saw Nagi coming out already dressed. He smiled as he looked his friend up and down, his gaze landing on the sneakers he had given him as a gift. They matched Nagi perfectly, and that made his smile widen. “You look great, my treasure! Come on, Ba-ya-san is waiting for us outside,” the boy said as he went to the front door and left the house, followed by his partner who was right behind him.
The ride in the heirs' fancy limousine to the train station took just under 15 minutes, and soon they boarded the train, which was practically empty. They went to the seats at the back and settled in. The train then started moving with a gentle jolt, and Nagi sank further into his seat, crossing his arms.
'-It's still too early...'
'-You agreed anyway, remember?'
'-Clearly I was tricked... I'd much rather be sleeping in my own bed right now.' Nagi complains and then yawns, making Reo chuckle softly.
'-Don't go to sleep now, you might drool on me-'
'-That's your problem.' The simple comment makes Reo chuckle softly again and look out the window.
Even trying to keep his eyes open, Nagi felt his body weigh down against the seat as the train moved forward. Without realizing it, his head ended up tilting slightly to the side and Reo felt the almost imperceptible touch on his shoulder and held his breath for a second. '-Nagi, i can't believe-' But the other just snuggles closer to his friend and closes his eyes, who smiles softly and sighs defeatedly, moving closer as well. The journey passes quite quickly and after an hour they arrive at their planned destination. The swaying of the train lessens made Nagi move first. He opened his eyes slowly, clearly disoriented.
'-Are we there already? But time passed so quickly-'
'-You slept the whole trip leaning against me…' Reo says, turning his face to look at Nagi.
'-You didn’t complain…' The taller one sits up straight in his seat, preparing to stand.
'-You seemed so sleepy that I was afraid to wake you up and have you sulk all day.' The other laughs, straightening his shirt and getting up, heading towards the door to exit the train. As soon as they leave the station, the air seemed different. Fresher, with a light smell of the sea mixed with the wind. No horns or crowds pushing each other, just the calm streets and the distant sound of the waves.
Reo already had his cell phone in his hand, checking the map app. '-Oh crap, the nearest bakery only opens in 20 minutes…' He says, staring at his phone with a grimace.
'-Hm, I told you it was too early… Look, there’s a bench over there, let’s sit and wait.' Nagi points to a wooden bench on the sidewalk in front of the shops and immediately heads towards it, throwing himself down onto it. He watches Reo do the same right after, continuing to look at his cell phone. The gentle, cool wind ruffles Nagi's hair, who closes his eyes and enjoys the sensation, stretching his arms upwards with a yawn and resting them on the bench, one of them falling beside Reo's shoulder. The boy turns his face to look at Nagi, surprised, but smiles when he sees him with his eyes closed, simply relaxing in the wind. In an automatic gesture, the shorter boy approaches his friend and leans closer to him. Nagi only mumbles something incomprehensible, but doesn't react.
'-Damn it, I’m starving, but this damn bakery isn’t open…' Nagi complains, turning to face Reo. '-You should have planned this outing better, you know?'
'-Let’s enjoy this view! Look at the sea over there, it’s amazing!' Reo comments excitedly, pointing ahead, ignoring his friend’s pessimism who just stares disinterestedly. After a few minutes of Nagi almost falling asleep again on the bench and Reo watching a few people walking down the street, the metallic sound of the bakery door opening broke the silence between them. A discreet bell rang as the first customers began to enter, and almost immediately the warm smell of freshly baked bread made both boys stand up.
'-It’s open, let’s go!' The heir pulls his partner’s arm towards the establishment. '-Wait, you’re going to knock me over…' The taller one complains, but lets himself be pulled by Reo’s soft hand, which he was sure was much smaller and thinner than his own. The bakery's interior was small, warm, and cozy, with wooden shelves full of steaming loaves of bread. Nagi's attention is drawn to a curry-filled bread, and he almost drools at the sight of it.
'-Reo, I think I'm in love with this bread.' Nagi says, staring at the food with a glazed look.
'-You always choose heavy food for breakfast...' Reo rolls his eyes as he goes to the counter and grabs a croissant and a cup of coffee with milk. Nagi follows suit and orders the bread from the counter. They sat facing each other near the window, looking at the quiet street outside. Nagi took the first bite of the bread and sighed contentedly, while Reo took a sip of his coffee. When Seishiro pulls the filled bread away from his mouth, Mikage stares at him incredulously and tries to hide his laughter.
'-Nagi, I think, um, you got a little messy. Let me clean it up!' The boy hurries to finish the sentence when he sees his friend rub the back of his hand on his mouth, only making the situation worse. Grabbing a napkin from the table, he leans over and gently wipes Nagi's face, who can't help but feel his heart race at the affectionate gesture and stares intently at his companion's face, his gaze lingering on his intense purple eyes, which looked at him with amusement and affection. When Reo feels those gray eyes staring at him with such intensity, he quickly finishes cleaning his companion's face and places the soiled paper in a corner of the table, leaning back in his chair and resuming eating his croissant, blushing. The silence that followed wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but it was different.
'-You didn't need to do that.' Nagi comments, looking out the window, finishing the bread in one bite.
'-Of course I needed to, you were going to get all dirty anyway…' Reo finishes drinking his coffee and sighs, sitting up straight in his chair. They then get up and Reo goes to the counter to praise them for the service and pay the bill. As they leave, the fresh air hits them once more, making Nagi take a deep breath and let the wind ruffle his hair again as they start walking aimlessly. Reo glances at him sideways, approaches shyly and gently holds the sleeve of the boy's shirt, pointing with his other hand towards the beach.
'-We could go there now and walk a bit, what do you think?'
'-Okay…' Nagi replies without much emotion, but he felt as if his heart would stop at any moment with that simple, affectionate gesture. They then walk to the beach, passing families with young children, groups of elderly people, and teenage couples, and for a moment, Nagi wonders if the people there saw him and Reo as a teenage couple as well, and unconsciously, he moves closer to Reo.
As they reached the edge of the beach, they felt their feet sinking gently into the sand, listening to the constant, calm sound of the waves. As they continued walking, a stronger gust of wind passed, making Nagi's t-shirt cling slightly to his body. Reo looked away too quickly and cleared his throat, '-It's usually very windy here.' he said, and his friend simply nodded. It had been a long time since Nagi had felt so alive; internally, he appreciated even the smallest details, like the people talking quietly nearby, the salty wind on his face, and the smell of food in the distance, which made him hungry. How long had they been walking?
'-If you're cold, let me know.' Reo commented, crossing his arms.
'-You're the one who's cold.' Nagi glanced at him sideways.
'-How do you know?!' The shorter boy turned to look at him, surprised.
'-You always cross your arms when you're cold.' The other responds with a shrug. But then Reo feels his stomach churn when Nagi moves even closer to him after a few minutes and puts his arm around his shoulder. When confronted about it, he simply says '-You're cold, so I'll warm you up.' At least it works, because Reo no longer feels anything but his partner's comforting touch.
After a few more minutes of walking, which seemed like hours to Seishiro, and he starts complaining that he thinks he's going to faint from hunger, Mikage sees some kiosks further ahead on the other side of the shore and immediately pulls his friend by the arm that was leaning on him and runs towards them, which unsettles Nagi and he almost falls face-first into the sand. During the run, time seems to slow down only for the two of them, and Nagi feels almost hypnotized seeing that cheerful smile and Reo's hair blowing in the wind. He must be the luckiest guy in the world to have that boy as his best friend...
Reo wastes no time and as soon as he arrives, breathless, sweaty, and almost having a heart attack, he orders two portions of Yakisoba for himself and Nagi, already knowing what he was going to order. He pays quickly and pulls Nagi to sit on a nearby wooden bench, both of them slumping down while they wait for their food to be ready. Reo takes out his cell phone to check the time and sees that it's still 10:20 a.m. Considering they had been warned that there were already 4 orders ahead of theirs, he calculates that they would have to wait around 25 minutes, which would be more than enough for him and Nagi to relax a little more after walking for so long. He turns to talk to Nagi, but sees that his friend is already distracted playing some game on his cell phone, so he decides to just get closer to see. Sensing his approach, Nagi unconsciously tilts his cell phone a little more towards Reo so he can see.
'-What game is this? And what does this number 120 in the corner mean?' '-Ah, it's increasing!' Reo asks, genuinely curious. Nagi was moving his fingers quickly, and he seemed good at it.
'-Skullgirls, it's a fighting RPG. This number is the number of hits I managed to land in a single combo. I control this character on the left, her name is Squigly. She has purple hair like you...' Seishiro comments, seeming quite focused on the game. The match ends with him winning, and he smiles inwardly as he hears his partner celebrating the victory, praising his skill. They spend the next few minutes talking about the game, Nagi explaining everything and Reo listening, smiling and occasionally making faces. The metallic sound of a bell coming from the kiosk interrupts Nagi's explanation mid-sentence. '-Order number five!' Reo immediately raises his head and stands up. '-It's our order, finally! You can stay there, I'll go get it for us.'
He returns holding two steaming portions of noodles and sits down next to his friend again, who quickly grabs his own food and chopsticks, eating without caring if he gets messy or not. Reo stares at him incredulously as he picks up his own chopsticks and begins to eat, sighing with pleasure. '-Wow, this is delicious! The cook is really very good.' '-It's tasty.' Nagi replies with his mouth full, but it was possible to see in his expression how starving he was and that food was almost like his salvation. He soon finishes eating and lets out a long, satisfied groan, then turns to look at his friend eating, still hungry. Reo feels the gaze and takes some to offer to Nagi, who places a hand beside the other's thigh and devours it all at once, staring at his partner as he chews. The shorter man stares at him for a few seconds and looks away, feeling his heart race and his face heat up. As soon as they finish eating, they return to the kiosk to discard the packaging and compliment the food, then continue walking on the sand.
'-What do you think about taking a walk along the beach?' Reo suggests after a good while of walking, watching the people strolling and having fun.
'-There are so many people.'
'-How about we just go a little further over there?' The one with purple eyes points to some large rocks in the distance.
'-Damn it, do we have to walk even further? I'm tired...' But Nagi doesn't complain when Reo pulls him by the arm to the spot. Arriving there, they take off their shoes and leave them in a corner on the sand, then enter the water.
'-This water is so cold... How can anyone bathe in water this cold?'
'-Stop complaining and enjoy it, Nagi!' Mikage laughs and starts kicking water at his companion, who retaliates without thinking twice. He even thinks he saw the boy give a slight smile, but maybe it was just his imagination. They spend several minutes there splashing water at each other while running, and when they realize it, they are completely soaked. '-Ah, I didn't bring a towel for us to dry off...' Reo stops, biting his lip slightly.
'-Then let's let the sun dry us off.' Before the boy could answer, Seishiro was already pulling him by the arm back to the sand. They sat there for a few more minutes just relaxing, listening to the sound of the waves and the people talking in the distance.
'-Nagi, we forgot to put on sunscreen, oh my God!' The purple-haired boy got up, walked over to their shoes, and returned with a small bag.
'-Where did that bag come from?' Nagi asks incredulously, but his friend is already kneeling beside him, taking out a bottle of sunscreen and starting to spread it on his face. The boy sighs and closes his eyes, letting the other's gentle hands caress his face. When Reo pulls away, he opens his eyes and stares at him as he applies sunscreen to his own face. When he finishes, he puts the bottle back in his bag and sits down next to Nagi again, then they remain silent for a while longer, just watching the sun slowly begin to set. Seishiro picks up his phone to check the time and his eyes widen.
'-It’s already half past five! Did time pass that quickly?' Mikage chokes at the sound and stares at him in shock. But what on earth was happening to make the day go by so fast?
'-What?! I can’t believe it, already? Okay, we can enjoy another half hour here and then let’s go, okay? I hate taking crowded trains.'
Despite complaining several times throughout the day, Nagi can’t help but feel sad. He wanted to spend more time with Reo, why did the day have to be ending already? It was so unfair. He looked around and realized how perfect the weather was for doing what he had been planning for a long time. He moved closer before he could think too much, turned to his friend and began to speak.
'-Reo, you are very important to me. My life was boring until you came into it, and I wanted to tell you how much I like you, even though I'm not good with words, much less with my feelings. If you had never come to me, I would still be living that boring little life of mine, and you saved me from that, so... Thank you. For everything we've experienced together and for everything you've done for me.'
As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that his partner seemed to have completely frozen. The sun reflected on his face, and he looked like the most beautiful boy in the world, no, in the entire universe. Despite the blush on Reo's face, Nagi couldn't help but feel nervous. What if his feelings weren't reciprocated? What if Reo didn't see him that way? What if he got rejected and their friendship ended right there? But his thoughts were interrupted when his companion threw himself at him and hugged him tightly around the neck. Seishiro realized he was crying and panicked, not knowing what to do. Had his confession been that bad?
'-Ah Nagi, I can't believe it! You're the most amazing boy in the world! I love you so much! You could have said that sooner! I spent so many days dreaming about this day, you can't even imagine! You are the best!' Reo said, sobbing, burying his face in Nagi's chest, who froze at the response and the gesture. How could he... love him? This situation seemed like a dream, but his dreams weren't as good or real as this. After what felt like several hours and a few seconds at the same time, he finally embraces Reo's waist and pulls him closer, if that was even possible. When they finally pull away just enough to look at each other, Reo begins to caress his best friend's face and hair, gazing at him with eyes full of love, and Nagi immediately closes his eyes and melts at the touch, almost purring. When the boy stops, Seishiro turns his face slightly and points to his own cheek. Mikage feels his face heat up and approaches, kissing the boy's cheek. He turns his face again and points to the other cheek, which also receives a kiss. He tilts his head down slightly and points to his forehead, which is kissed by a smiling Reo. He was having fun with that. Finally, he opens his eyes, raises his head and points to his own lips, an act that makes the other's eyes widen and his face blush. Without wasting any more time, Nagi moves closer and slowly kisses him, making Reo sigh and reciprocate. When they pull away, the shorter one starts to chuckle softly and hugs the taller one, running his fingers through his hair.
'-If I'm dreaming, please pinch me.' Nagi rests his head more firmly on the other's hand.
'-I guarantee you this isn't a dream, my treasure. But even if it were, I certainly wouldn't want to wake up. It would probably be the best dream I've ever had in my whole life.' Reo laughs, looking at him.
'-Hm, i agree. What if we just went home a little later today? I want to lie on the sand with you for a bit.'
'-Are you sure? It'll get your hair dirty, and getting the sand out will be a huge hassle. Having an itchy head must be one of the worst things in the world, I'm absolutely sure.' But Nagi had already lain down and was pulling Reo to do the same. He starts laughing and this time he's sure he hears a laugh coming from his partner. '-This must be only the second time in my life I've heard you laugh.' Reo speaks, feigning complete horror.
'-So you see how much I love you. It's really a lot, you know?'
And they stay there, as if nothing else existed, just the two of them lying alone and talking about anything Reo wanted. Nagi ends up falling asleep with Reo in his arms, but the boy doesn't mind. He turns to face the other and lays his face on his chest, letting himself close his eyes and relax there. The sun begins to set, making the atmosphere absolutely perfect. If this was just friendship, Reo didn't want to know what something more could be like.