Work Text:
Nakamura loosely held his notebook up in a way to feign attention to the formulas being jotted down by Otogiri-sensei on the blackboard.
In actuality, he wasn’t paying attention. His eyes were trying desperately to keep away from Hirose while his mind casually conjured another daydream. The voice of Otogiri-sensei echoed as background noise through the classroom. It wasn’t anything too unusual.
The pencil in his hand clattered softly onto the desk.
It was a divine warning.
“Oi, Nakamura.”
He nearly jumped, eyes snapping back to the front of the class.
“Y-yes?”
“Can you tell me what the turning point of this graph is?”
“S-should I?”
“Can you?”
Nakamura heard no sounds apart from the beat of his own heart as his body froze up.
His eyes met Otogiri-sensei’s and he pleaded, like really pleaded for him to lay off him.
“N-negative four?”
He heard a snicker somewhere in front of him.
At last he sighed, throwing him something like a disapproving look before continuing with the formula.
“Pay attention next time, okay?”
Nakamura only sank into his seat.
He could still feel eyes on him.
—--------------
Nakamura gathered his stationary as he thought up the best way to suffocate himself into his pillow when he would get home.
He reached for his kanji book and calmly wrestled it into his bag, standing up as soon as he was done. Then he looked around before he planned his grand escape out of the classroom.
Hirose was still there.
With Takeuchi, he grumbled internally.
He sighed, steeling his resolve to maybe find some fail-safe plan to talk to the boy he was crushing on tomorrow. Today he had to find a way to live out his embarrassment.
He pulled his bag strap over his shoulder and headed for the door, mind wandering to the math homework he had to do for the day. At least it was only—
“Hey, Nakamura!”
He spun around and saw Hirose grinning behind him.
“H–Hirose,”
“You know, since you messed up in math today, I was wondering if you wanted some help!”
God he still remembered.
“If you want, we could probably study together after school. I need to talk to someone about math anyway…”
“Why me?”
He chuckled a little and began to walk out of the classroom.
“‘Cuz you’re my friend!”
“Y-you want to study today?”
“Well Oomori said he could only do it today since he has a club meeting tomorrow, so yeah. Today,”
Of course it was with Oomori. The universe couldn’t be too generous to him.
“Ah, okay.”
“Your house right? Oh and I’ll LINE you when me and Oomori get there. I’ll have to see what time with him.”
“MY HOUSE?!”
Hirose flinched and grinned a little.
“Should we go somewhere else?”
“No, no, it’s fine!”
“Great, let me just— crap.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t have your LINE ID,”
Nakamura frantically pulled out his phone.
“Here.”
“Great thanks. See you later, yeah?”
“Yeah,”
“Cool!” He waved and disappeared into the hallway, the buzz of after-school conversations following behind him.
Hirose was going to be in Nakamura’s house?!
—--------------
Nakamura could feel his eyes shutting as stared at his math homework.
It wasn’t hard at all. He just couldn’t find any energy to continue trying to draw another parabola. He could vaguely hear his sister snoring in the other room. She had very quickly transitioned from an alarm to white noise. His curtains billowed softly in the wind that entered through, sun spilling into his room. He turned his attention to Icchan, who was stationary on the bottom of the tank (likely sleeping, how he wished that could be him).
He yawned and reached for his phone, startled to see a LINE notification sent eight minutes ago.
16:12
Hirose: yo nakamura
i forgo t to tell yuo but i dont kno your hous address
could u sedn
send*
Nakamura nearly fell out of his chair.
16:23
Nakamura: Oh hey sorry
My address is ##############.
You’re surprisingly bad at spelling yknow
He had spent a good 3 minutes trying to formulate a reply without sounding ‘creepy’.
16:23
Hirose: hey typng is hard
im coming soon
on my way
oomori ctn come
cant
16:23
Nakamura: So you aren’t coming anymore?
Typing…
Stop.
Typing…
Then Nakamura stared at his phone screen for two whole minutes before he finally realised that Hirose had left him on read.
He literally felt like someone had stabbed his heart with a hot knife.
He set his phone face down on his desk and stood up, dragging his feet towards the door as he messed with the knob, fingers slipping and everything. The kitchen seemed so far away. How far could his legs carry him before he would ultimately collapse from sheer embarrassment? He needed water. That would surely keep him alive. The kitchen sink was only a few meters away.
Ah yes, dihydrogen monoxide sustenance!
A knock came.
Nakamura closed the tap and looked towards the hall where the front door was. Was he imagining something?
Another knock.
He rushed to the front door and checked the peep hole, eyes widening at the sight of light brown hair and an increasingly awkward expression resting on a boyish face.
It was… Hirose.
HIROSE ACTUALLY CAME?!
Nakamura hurriedly opened the door and welcomed Hirose inside, smoothening his shirt folds as he waited for Hirose to take off his shoes.
His brain had basically stopped working. He hadn’t fully acknowledged that Hirose was in his house. He never even thought such a thing was possible!
“Hey Nakamura?”
“Y-YEAH?”
“Aren’t your parents supposed to be home? Your house seems pretty empty right now.”
Why did that sound so lewd?
“My sister is in her room sleeping. My mom went out for groceries a bit ago and my dad is still at work I think. He should be back by 7 PM.”
“Oh great. I’ll stick around for about an hour then I’ll go home. There was a new game I wanted to try playing.”
“What kind?”
“It’s a shooter game Oomori recommended! He’s really into them surprisingly. I actually would’ve thought he was the type for—”
Hirose continued talking as he and Nakamura moved from the door to the living room. It was weird, but the warmth in Nakamura’s chest eventually settled a little into something he could handle. He was nervous as hell. Who wouldn’t be nervous if their crush was casually lounging at your house on a Tuesday afternoon?
“— really suck at them. There’s something about aiming that’s so difficult for me, heh. What about you, Nakamura?”
“I’ve never really played shooter games. I–I like cooking games a lot.”
“Cooking games, eh? I haven’t heard anyone who likes ‘em that much. That’s pretty cool!”
“C–cool?”
“Yeah!”
He grinned, and Nakamura smiled back.
“Let me get my stuff real quick.”
“Yeah sure!”
He pushed his half open room door and put his stuff back into his bag. He looked around for anything he might’ve forgotten (apart from gawking at Icchan. He always did that!), and spotted his phone still lying face down near the edge of the table.
There were two LINE notifications.
16:28
Hirose: srry for leevng you hanging
oomori called me
hee stil cant come
I am approaching your location.
***
16:26
Mom: Hey Okuto.
Could you put rice into the rice cooker?
Also don’t forget to take your sister’s laundry to her room.
I might take a bit of a while before I come home.
It was wonderful knowing that Hirose hadn’t left him on read, but it weighed on him even more that he had chores and the math and kanji he had to do.
Nakamura sighed and left his room, waving to Icchan before he shut the door and walked out to see a very alarming sight.
Kana, armed with the lamp from her room, stood by the corner, watching Hirose like a hawk.
“Hey Okuto, who’s this?”
“He’s my friend. Now put the lamp down, you might scare him!”
She wandered closer to him and he flinched a little, intrigue written all over his face.
“You’ve got pretty eyes.”
“Thanks?”
“Yeah.”
He rushed over to them and pushed them apart. He didn’t want his cruddy sister breathing the same air as Hirose. That was preposterous!
“Go away Kana. We have things to do.”
“Geez, rude. I’m telling mom when she comes back.”
She carried herself back to her room and glared at Nakamura before slamming the door.
“Sisters…”
“Right?” Hirose chuckled, and Nakamura nearly fell backwards.
“R–right! You can set up first. My mom asked me to do a couple things real quick. Is that okay?”
“Sure man. I’ll be here, don’t worry.”
He could still feel the lingering warmth in his chest as he made his way into the kitchen.
—--------------
Nakamura settled opposite Hirose and began to take out his things.
He didn’t notice it at first, but it became hard to ignore that Hirose was now watching him, curiosity written all over his face.
The attention was… unfamiliar, but not unwelcome.
“You’ve got a lot of octopus themed stuff, huh? Specifically your pens and things”
“Hm?”
“Could I have a look?”
He set down the calculator he was holding and handed Hirose his pencil, their fingers brushing for a fraction of a second.
He could feel himself blushing.
He arranged the things he had on his desk as he not-so-secretly watched Hirose fiddle with his pencil. He watched as he felt the mini octopus at the end, and he watched as he tried spinning it and failing miserably. There was nothing special about what Hirose was doing, but it felt like something to him anyway.
Hirose glanced up and Nakamura looked away, warmth creeping up to his face.
“Sh-should we start?”
“Yeah, sorry.”
Hirose slid the pencil back to him and opened his book up to the homework they had for that day.
Graphs of quadratic functions…
“How about we just go off by ourselves for a bit then see if we need help?
“Yeah, that works.”
“Great!”
Hirose pulled out some headphones and slipped them on, grinning before looking down to work on the homework.
Nakamura didn't immediately start. He looked down and skimmed over what he didn’t do before watching Hirose scribble something onto a diagram.
He didn’t mean to stare for so long. He didn’t mean to watch the way Hirose’s hair cascaded down his face or the way Hirose hummed softly as his pencil scratched away at the paper. He definitely didn’t mean to think about how it would feel to be sitting beside him, arms wrapped around him as he would work. He definitely wasn’t thinking about pressing a kiss into his neck.
Hirose looked up and Nakamura panicked, stiffly reaching for his pen.
“Don’t get distracted, Nakamura,”
“Y—yeah, sorry…”
He barely mumbled those words, but he was truly sorry.
How could he focus on his homework when Hirose was right in front of him?
—--------------
Nakamura had been staring at the graph he drew for a long, long time now.
It was fine at first. He substituted the x values as you normally would. Nothing seemed off. The points were making sense. He thought he would be drawing the smoothest curve he ever had once he had finished plotting.
Then the graph flatlined.
He was so confused. Parabolas were supposed to curve, right? He checked his textbook again, and began to tug at his hair out of frustration. Parabolas are curves. Why did his graph look like a tabletop mountain?
He tried recalculating the first point that was unusual. He got the same answer. He tried again and somehow he was in the 200s.
It’s fine! Maybe that point was just bad luck.
He tried redoing the second. The value he got seemed perfectly reasonable! He erased the previous and plotted the new one.
Now his graph had a point that wasn’t even in line with the curve?!
Nakamura groaned and shut his book, head buried in his hands. What on earth was happening? He wasn’t bad at math. He could even say it was something that came easily to him!
So why was plotting a simple graph going wrong?!
“Hey, Nakamura.”
He looked up and saw Hirose watching him tentatively, headphones now resting around his neck.
“Yeah?”
“Do you need help with that?”
Before he could answer, Hirose stood and sat beside him, leaning forward a little to see what he had written.
Nakamura was worried Hirose would hear his heartbeat if he got too close.
“Oh.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“What’s weird is I did the same thing and got a completely different answer.”
Hirose moved closer and traced his finger along the calculations Nakamura had written, before sitting and staring at the page just like Nakamura had before.
“What do you think is wrong?”
“Eh, dunno! Still trying to come up with a possible reason.”
So Nakamura waited.
A minute passed, maybe two, but still Hirose said nothing. He even put his headphones back on.
Nakamura’s hand reached for his calculator absentmindedly, pressing buttons that gave the answers to equations he didn’t care about.
Hirose was watching him.
“Could I see that real quick?”
Nakamura hummed in amusement and surprise, and handed it over to Hirose.
He entered something simple. Just 2 + 2.
The answer displayed was 27.
“Oh woah, that’s way off!” Hirose mused.
Ah right; Nakamura forgot to reset his calculator.
“Ah shoot. Thanks Hirose...”
“No problem,”
He didn’t leave immediately though. He was watching Nakamura as he frantically tried to correct all of his points. It felt like an eternity before Hirose moved, and Nakamura was starting to feel more comfortable under his gaze.
“You messed up here…”
Hirose’s hand moved to guide Nakamura’s to the mistake.
His fingers were really soft and squishy. They were cold too.
“H—here?”
“Yeah.”
Nakamura held his free arm up to cover his face. He couldn’t look Hirose in the eyes.
Not when he felt like this.
“You okay, Nakamura? Your face looks a little red there.”
“Yeah,” He mumbled,
“I’m fine.”
Hirose grinned a little and got up, stretching before he sat down opposite Nakamura again. He still couldn’t look him in the eye. Not like this.
“I’ll be having my headphones on again, so if you need anything let me know, okay?”
“Sure,”
Nakamura looked down at his no longer abnormal graph and scoffed.
The universe really hated and loved him at the same time.
—--------------
“Ah, finally done!”
Nakamura flinched and sat up properly. He too had finished his math a while ago and had spent his time watching Hirose with the dumbest little smile sitting on his face.
His heart was definitely still pounding from earlier, even if the sound was quieter now. The glow of the low-lying sun gently sifted through Hirose’s hair, resting as a soft glow on the curves of his face. He looked painfully cute, staring at Nakamura with the same intrigue he wore at the door when he wasn’t sure if he was at the right house.
“Nakamura?”
“Y–yeah? Sorry,”
“Are you done too?”
“Yeah, I am.”
He organised his things and stood, very much aware of Hirose’s lingering gaze.
“Hey Nakamura,”
“Hm?”
Hirose stood up too now, maneuvering to the couch.
“Wanna just… talk?”
“Talk?”
He patted the space next to him and smiled softly.
“Yeah.”
It was odd of a feeling at first to be seated so close to Hirose. His side felt too warm, heart and mind too loud, and the silence was something he could enjoy a little more now.
He didn’t expect Hirose to offer to help him study. He didn’t expect Hirose to even be in his house. He definitely didn’t expect Hirose to be looking at him when he finally gained the courage to look in his direction.
“I was thinking about something.”
“Wh–what is it?”
“You’re always alone.”
Crap, he noticed.
“I just find it a little weird, because you’re pretty awesome, y’know?”
“I’m really not…”
“Sure you are!” Hirose grinned, “You’re really nice to talk to, like that one time at the aquarium. I enjoyed it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” He leaned further into the couch and looked away, “It’s...”
“Hm?”
Hirose only sharply turned back, a happy kind of somber look in his eyes.
“Say, Nakamura,”
He paused, then continued to speak. Quieter, slower. More hesitant.
“Do you ever… enjoy someone’s company less and less as you spend more time with them?”
“I’m not sure what you mean,”
“It’s Takeuchi! I don’t mean to bring him up again but I don’t… know how to deal with this.”
“Hirose,”
Nakamura’s voice softened too. He didn’t mean to let it do that.
“You shouldn’t have to force yourself to be around him.”
“I suppose…”
He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, sinking further into the couch.
“He irritates me, huh…”
Hirose stood and pulled out his phone, wincing.
“I have to go. See you tomorrow, yeah?”
“W—wait.”
He paused, glancing up from his phone.
“Seriously. Don’t force yourself to like someone, Hirose.”
He felt like he just barely mumbled the words.
Hirose was still staring.
Like really staring.
Then he smiled. It was the sweetest Nakamura had seen all day.
“Thank you, Nakamura.”
He could feel every working, pulsing vein and artery of his body now.
He helped Hirose pack his things and leaned against the wall as he put his shoes back on by the door. They didn’t say much of anything, but Nakamura didn’t mind. It gave him the opportunity to stare.
He still felt the warmth in his chest when Hirose waved goodbye. It was painfully enjoyable.
He wandered back to the living room where he heard a buzz from his phone.
17:51
Mom: I’m on my way
I hope you made the rice.
And did you give Kana her laundry?
Shit.
—--------------
It was dark out.
Nakamura was politely blasting Masayoshi Takanaka*** while he worked on his Kanji. He was basically done. He only had one more minor exercise to do.
He walked over to Icchan, gazing at him as he floated up to the glass. He was probably hungry.
He yawned and sat back down, reaching for his phone. Maybe he would watch YouTube after he was done. Maybe one of those cooking videos. He loved watching them.
He checked his notifications and nearly fell backwards.
Hirose messaged him!?
20:12
Hirose: Ican type I swear.
how have you ben z
been.
BEEN
I took this photo of you
He cringed.
He was staring at his book, hands entangled in his hair as his bangs parted ever so slightly. His eyes were half-open, and he was just slightly biting his lip.
He noticed a stain on his shirt.
Then he noticed the message below.
20:14
Hirose: you looked really handsome****
He typed something.
Then deleted it.
Then typed again.
His fingers were shaking so bad he messed up a word four times.
20:17
Nakamura: ahh not really.
but you’re pretty cute too
He wasn’t sure what convinced him to say it.
He wasn’t even sure why.
But even with the unimaginable heat rushing to his face and the way his stomach felt m, he didn’t regret it. Not one bit.
…Maybe he should finish his Kanji.