Chapter Text
Natsusawa was rarely late, even if plans were sprung on him, the third year still made it a point to arrive on time or slightly early this fact made it all the more frustrating that despite promising to arrive on time for a study session with Miss Hoshina, he was now rushing to make up for lost time, that’d teach him to get sidetracked window shopping.
Arriving at the station entrance Saku carefully paced himself down the stairs, not wanting to cause a scene in public, once on the platform Saku took out his phone opening his chat with Hoshina, the last message being his own doing after realising he’d be late noticing she’d read it but hadn’t responded, which even for someone like her who was slow to reply was weird she hadn’t done so already, looking up it didn’t take him long to spot her silver hair sticking out like the moon against the night sky, mentally kicking himself for such a thought Saku started making his way towards the girl, as he got closer the more he noticed something was off, her shoulders gently trembling, the assumed cause being a trio of guys roughly their age standing in front of her.
“Even though it’s been years, you’re still the same cry baby Subaru” The middle boy sneered, a cocky smirk on his face while reaching for the girl.
“And here I thought the only morons here belonged to Chidori” Natsusawa sneered, slapping the hand reaching towards Subaru away before standing between her and the boys.
“Natsusawa? When did you…” Hoshina questioned before freezing, fishing her phone out to check for a message, all the while the pair were trio of students looked on.
“Who the hell are you?” Barked the middle student, pissed at the interruption “Can’t be Subaru’s boyfriend so what’re you interfering for”
“Why’s it matter if I’m dating her or not are you jealous?” Natsusawa retorted quickly biting back his embarrassment and interrupting the silver haired girl behind him.
“You look older but I guess grade schoolers do harass the girl they like” He continued smirking as his comment touched a nerve with the boys, despite not doing it as much after hanging out with the girls from Kikyo a lot, Natsusawa still had a sharp tongue for most other people.
“Asshole! I’ll make you regret saying shit” The boy snapped raising his fist, launching it towards the dark haired boy who stepped forward to keep Subaru from danger
Before fa fight could breakout however the thundering voice of a police officer boomed across the platform, getting the attention of all five students and scaring off the three troublemakers with the situation resolved without blows, Saku relaxed his shoulders and overall posture while The officer approached him and Subaru.
“You two alright?” The officer asked with a calm smile, looking over the boy for any scraps or bruises as a precaution.
“Yes sir you arrived before anything happened” Saku responded politely, letting the officer look him over even though nothing had happened, taking a second to look back at Subaru who kept her head down.
“Alright that’s good, next time try and find an officer to help you instead” the officer explained before giving the pair a smile, “at least you’re both okay, enjoy your date” he added before returning to his position.
“It’s not like- never mind…” Saku sighed, attempting to explain they weren’t an item before giving up, turning to face his silver haired friend, “you still wanna head to the cafe?” He asked casually.
“…no that’s alright I’ve already bothered you enough today” Subaru responded still looking towards the floor, embarrassed by everything that happened.
“It wasn’t a bother to me but I get it, it was quite a scene” he replied bluntly, taking stock at the increasing number of eyes on them, logically it’d be best to go their separate ways and study.
Despite knowing what’s work best Natsusawa dragged his feet on simply leaving, if it was anyone from Chidori aside from his close friends, he’d have done just that and rescheduled without a second thought, but it wasn’t just anyone instead standing in front of him was Subaru Hoshina a close friend who’s schedule was already busier than most of Chidori high school combined and…she was the person he happened to be crushing on, even knowing that and saying he’d let it fade away without her knowing, he found it to be far more difficult than imagined, combining all that with the worry he felt leaving her alone after that incident and his mind was a push and pull between his options.
“Natsusawa” The silver haired girl spoke calmly, snapping him from the mental tug of war he was stuck in, “I know what I just said but…is it okay if we study somewhere else? I don’t want to say goodbye yet” she continued before meeting his gaze.
“Yeah that’s fine” he responded with a straight face despite her words, thankful for his hair hiding his ears slowly going red, “though I’m not sure where we should go… I’d rather not stay in public” he added, less for himself and more for her, noticing the tired look in her eyes.
“What if we went your house?” She inquired without a second thought, “we went there for your birthday so I know it’s close to here” she explained before tilting her head waiting for an answer.
Despite being caught off guard by her suggestion, Natsusawa managed to control his reaction “you sure? Last time you came over it was with everyone else, it’d just be the two of us this time because Mio went to a friends this morning” he rationalised despite his wording the real worry was for him, it’d be harder to keep himself in check if they were alone.
“Yeah I’m fine with that” Subaru answered honestly, “if it was back then I’d probably be more uncomfortable with the idea but…I trust you Natsusawa” she continued before turning away and started walking.
“Right….” Saku let out in a breathe before following her, watching the floor to hide the the sight of his cheeks burning red, despite telling himself she didn’t mean anything by it, hearing those words from her sent his heart into overdrive, breaking his resolve just that little bit extra.
With that decision out of the way the pair silently made their way to Natsusawa’s house exchanging little in terms of small talk, allowing a comfortable silence to fill the air around them, after calmly down and letting his face cool, the black haired man, walked beside Subaru until reaching his house, unlocking it and letting her enter first, from there the two made it up to his room leaving the door open before setting their study materials on his table and got to work although it didn’t last, as both had difficulty studying for different reasons, with Hoshina being the first to bring it up.
“Natsusawa…thank you for helping me earlier” She piped up after realising she never properly thanked him, “that’s twice now you’ve helped me from a situation like that” she added feeling guilty.
“Don’t mention it, the first time it was mostly Yorita and Usami back then” he responded, being humble with the first time back in their second year, “plus it’s what friends do”
“I see…but still I should do something for you as thanks” She insisted setting her pen down, “I know I’ll make us both some coffee wait here” she exclaimed before making her way downstairs.
Leaving Saku to his own devices who ended up trying again to study and distract himself from something, soon enough she returned with two cups of coffee, setting one down in front of Saku before returning to her own seat across from him, returning to her own notes, studying a little more before both stalled out again.
“About earlier” Subaru started again, removing the silence between them both “when you intervened you insinuated something about the two of us…” Subaru continued, looking over at him.
“Ah right…” Saku responded awkwardly, knowing exactly what she was talking about, “sorry about that, I wanted to get under their skin, it probably made you uncomfortable” he added looking away.
Staring blankly at the man Hoshina took a sip from her coffee before setting it down, “it didn’t make me uncomfortable at all…” she stated a blush forming on her face, “it actually made me happy” she continued, causing Saku to choke mid sip.
“W-what do you mean by that?” Saku asked unable to comprehend the meaning behind her words despite it being somewhat obvious, a blush forming almost immediately, matching the silver haired girl across from him.
“During the trip with everyone, Kaoruko told me to think about how I felt around you, at the time I didn’t have an answer” she explained, fidgeting with her fingers while continuing, “and even after that I still wasn’t sure, I felt and still feel at ease around you and the others, but with you it feels like something more, going to the mock exam with you filled me with confidence, and when you said you were still weighing your options over universities part of me wanted to convince you into sticking with same one as me” she explained her cheeks continuing to turn red.
“Even after thinking about it for this long I still didn’t have an answer, besides you’re special to me in a different way to the others” she continued still, unable to stare at him out of embarrassment, “when you helped me today I realised you didn’t just make me feel at ease, even after all these years I recognised them immediately, they’re the boys who made me this way” She explained confirming Saku’s suspicions even though he never voiced it, instead he sat their quietly.
“When they approached me I froze up immediately, I thought being around you four helped my fears but…I guess I’m not ready to face them yet” she admitted with a defeated sigh, “but then I saw you and all that fear went away” she continued finally looking up at him.
“Once that happened, I realised that I felt safe with you, and… I wanted to be around you more, it’s different to how Kaoruko feels around Rintaro but I want to believe this emotion I feel is love” She confessed, blushing a deep red staring at Saku for an answer she almost missed the spectator at his open door.
“M-mio?!” She suddenly shrieked, eyes wide in surprise and embarrassment as Saku’s head whipped around, seeing his sister at the door.
“I heard you guys from down stairs so I thought I’d say hi…” Mio mumbled, her expression giving away she heard far more than she wanted, “I’ll go to store for a little while I’ll see you later big brother!” She yelled from basically halfway down the stairs and out the door soon after.
“I should go after her and explain” Saku mumbled, standing from his seat, blush spreading from his cheeks to his ears from both the abrupt confession he hadn’t answered thanks to the more abrupt appearance of his younger sister.
“W-wait!” Subaru stammered standing up and stumbled her way to grabbing Saku’s sleeve, “don’t worry about answering, I must be taking what Kaoruko said to literally” she panicked, the silver haired girl’s embarrassment of confessing in front of Saku’s little sister sent her into a spiral.
“That’s possible but part of me is hoping whatever she said is correct” Saku laughed quietly, grabbing the side of his neck, “since it’d make me feel pretty lame for it to be one sided after that confession” he admitted awkwardly.
After his confession it felt as if time slowed to a crawl, the gears in Subaru’s head started turning a what was she supposed to do now? She’d never dated nor had any interest in the subject, Kaoruko had often talked about her dates and relationship with Rintaro so that was something, but how helpful it would be was a different story entirely.
Watching the gears turn Saku could only smile, releasing her hold on his sleeve and grabbed her hand, “don’t think so hard about it, this is a first time thing for both of us so let’s take it slow” he explained giving her a warm smile, drastically different then what he forced at the beach not that long ago.
“Right…that sounds nice” Subaru replied matching his smile with one of her own, a weight lifted off her shoulders, of course the two had stuff to discuss but they’d have time for that later, “should we go after Mio now?” she asked, curiously still firmly holding his hand.
“We probably should, but I don’t think she’s gone too far” Saku responded with a shrug looking at the front door from his own, “Although I want to enjoy the moment a bit longer first” he admitted, using his free hand to cover his embarrassment at such a line.
In response Subaru just gave a small laugh but didn’t argue, leaning the rest of her arm against his as they stood in silence, their first meeting couldn’t have been worse, but in just over a year the two had gone through so much together and with everyone else that no matter what new challenges appear they could take it on together as friends and for herself and Saku, something even closer.