Chapter Text
Nakamura had his back to the railing, legs tucked under his chin, sobbing on his pants. The world seems cruel as it blows a cold breeze, freezing enough that Nakamura can’t feel his fingertips anymore. He sniffles, the ache on his throat is so tight he can’t breathe properly.
Maybe he’ll stay here for a while.
Until the pain goes away. Until he’s able to think of Hirose without his heart killing him from the inside. Until the heartbreak has made him cry every tear he has. Until his body becomes numb. Until it doesn’t hurt.
That doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
“Nakamura?” A familiar voice calls.
Nakamura lifts his head, a hiccup escaping as he looks up to Matsumura. In the presence of another person, Nakamura’s eyes wells up with a fresh wave of tears, a pitiful wail spilling from his lips.
“O-Oi… what’s the matter with you? A-Are you feeling sick?” Matsumura flusters, stepping closer to get a better look at his crying face.
“No! G-Get away from me! I-I’m fine-! What a-are you e-even doing-g here-e!?”
“I came from my grandparents' place, they live around this hill. And you certainly don’t look fine to me.” Matsumura relents and grabs Nakamura’s arms, prying them away to find tears and snot smeared on flushed cheeks.
Matsumura doesn’t know how it’s physically possible, but Nakamura cries louder. He did just get forcibly taken out of his hiding place when he clearly said he wanted to be left alone, though said hiding place was just his arms, Matsumura understands how that can be upsetting.
“Ssh! You’re going to cause a disturbance!” Matsumura lets go of Nakamura to grab something from the plastic bag he was carrying. Which begs the question, has he had that this whole time and Nakamura just didn’t notice?
By pure coincidence, he fishes out a packet of tissues and pulls one out to offer. But if anybody's noticed in the past few minutes, Nakamura seems to not care about anything else except crying at the moment.
Matsumura weighs his options and groans before dabbing the tissue gently under Nakamura’ eyes, firmer when he swipes it across his cheeks. Nakamura continues to sob but at least, the air comes easier now.
“Geez, can’t even take care of yourself.” Matsumura complains. He pulls out another tissue and holds it against Nakamura’s nose, “Blow.”
Unexpectedly, Nakamura does as he’s told. Matsumura stares for half a second at the older’s sudden willingness to listen before he pulls another tissue for Nakamura to blow into. Matsumura repeats this until Nakamura’s breaths come more evenly, he eventually ends up using the whole packet.
He cleans the last remaining streaks of Nakamura’s tears and tries to ask him again, “Why are you crying? Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“Haven’t you heard? About Hirose?” Nakamura mumbles, a dejected shadow cast over his eyes, “And honestly, why do you care?”
A vein pops on Matsumura’s forehead, “At least be grateful I didn’t leave you here you crybaby.”
Matsumura sees the shine in Nakamura’s eyes and feels his own heartbreak crashing back into his chest. He glances out to the city behind Nakamura, the blinking lights over the railing.
“Of course I know about Hirose. Give me a break, you think you’re the only one special enough to be devastated from this?” Matsumura sits himself cross-legged on the road, elbows on his thighs, “My grandparents thought I had allergies because of how red my nose was.”
That seemed to brighten Nakamura’s features, though just a little, “R-Really?”
Matsumura gets ticked off by it, an annoyed glare set on his face before he could control it, “What’s that look for? Happy you get to see me be sad like you?”
“O-Of course not! I don’t like you but I wouldn’t want this to happen to anybody! This hurts a lot!” Nakamura defends, a few tears slipping as he does.
“Good to know.” Matsumura rolls his eyes as he gathers his things, moving to a crouch as he pats his behind, “Well, have a nice night.”
It shouldn’t matter what Nakamura thinks or what he has to say. But when he saw him curled up in the middle of a sidewalk, with no one, made something in Matsumura angry at Hirose.
“W-Wait!”
Matsumura stops, “What?”
Nakamura visibly flinches at Matsumura’s tone, he sees this and immediately feels bad. Matsumura fixes the plastic bag to hang over his elbow, he tries to sound calmer this time, “What do you need?”
Nakamura shakes his head, going back to hide in his shell at the first sound of dismissal. It’s always like this. Maybe he is just crying for attention, and that’s why people always end up more annoyed than they are concerned. Maybe it isn’t a big deal even if Nakamura thinks it is.
He’s just being a Nakamura all over again.
Sad, lonely Nakamura.
“Hey.” Matsumura calls, “how long are you gonna make me do this?”
Nakamura lifts his head and sees a palm laid out towards him, then he looks at Matsumura, a brow raised in confusion.
“Take my hand, idiot. Come on, we’re taking you home.”
“Eh?”
“You’re going to catch a cold if you stay here, plus we have classes tomorrow.” When Nakamura still doesn’t take the hand offered to him, Matsumura grabs his wrist and lifts until he scrambles to stand up.
Matsumura notices the yellow notebook laying flat on the concrete, he’s still holding Nakamura’s hand when he bends down to pick it up, “Here.”
Nakamura’s eyes hide behind his bangs, “T-Thanks.”
They walk down the path in silence, Matsumura leads them to a right turn as they pass a ramen shop, “Where do we go from here?”
“Go left on the next pedestrian crossing.”
Matsumura makes a short noise of affirmation. His mind trails off when he feels the steady thrum of Nakamura’s pulse under his fingers, a steady beat coming from his slender wrist. He should have let go, but something’s convinced him that Nakamura will run and chase tail the second he does.
And who knows if someone’s going to be there the next time he cries like that?
Matsumura wonders why he feels this way, of how he’s dubbed himself as that someone who came to rescue a Nakamura who didn’t ask for him anyway. A so-called knight that was never a hero, but a fool who accidentally saved a princess because he’s luckily there at the right place and time.
A plastic, toy knight. Easy to admire, easy to ignore.
Passing cars fill in the quiet, Nakamura speaks to go left when they reach a bypass. They walk into a rural part of town, modern houses lining the road with stone walls and iron gates.
Matsumura stops in his tracks when he sees the word Nakamura engraved on a nameplate, placed against a brick wall enclosing a beautiful, Japanese house.
“Okay, this is you.” Matsumura turns around and releases his hold on Nakamura.
“Matsumura.”
“Yes?”
“Why’re you being so nice to me?”
The question doesn’t surprise Matsumura, he’s never given this much thought about someone else other than Hirose, and that’s not gonna start changing because of Nakamura.
He can’t explain why he wanted to wipe Nakamura’s tears away.
“Would you rather I be mean to you?” Matsumura says in a dead tone.
They’re nothing to each other, rivals maybe, but what’s the point when they’ve both lost the love they were fighting for.
Nakamura purses his mouth, his lower lip trembling, “N-Nevermind.”
And Matsumura realizes, there really is no point.
“I was—“ Matsumura sighs, a hand scratching the back of his neck, “I was worried. You were crying and I wanted to help.”
Matsumura lets out a bitter chuckle, “I’m not the best person to comfort you—but when I found out Hirose got a girlfriend…”, a shaky breath escapes him, “it really hurt to accept it. So… I know.”
Matsumura hears the rustle of paper then suddenly, Nakamura’s arms are around him, his face buried on his chest. His hands hover awkwardly before he tentatively wraps them on Nakamura’s shoulders, settling them more comfortably when he makes no move to get away.
“You’ll be okay.” Matsumura whispers, “It won’t be now, but it’ll heal, I promise.”
They stand there for a while, just until Nakamura’s crying subsides. When they let go, a string of snot sticks messily to Nakamura’s face. Normally, someone would be disgusted by the sight, but Matsumura finds that with the weird sequence of events happening to him this evening, he couldn’t care less.
“How are you still sobbing?” Matsumura teases, using his jacket sleeve to wipe most of Nakamura’s puffy nose.
“Y-You’re really a nice person Matsumura-a.” Nakamura wails, “L-Like s-super nice.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Matsumura smiles despite himself, he doesn’t have the heart to rub how kind he’s been to Nakamura tonight. He’ll do it tomorrow, see if their next conversation can be more than them being depressed about their miserable pining.
Tomorrow? Huh.
“T-Thanks again.” Nakamura mumbles and bows his head slightly. He fidgets in place for a few seconds, turning his head to Matsumura before looking away again, “See you t-tomorrow.”
They’re not close. They’re not even friends.
They both fought for Hirose’s affection, and turned up empty handed.
So what exactly do you call this?
“Sure. See ya.” Matsumura gives him a small smile. Nakamura books for the front door, Matsumura notices a blush creeping up his neck. It could be from the cold, or the endless crying on Nakamura’s part. Matsumura doesn’t know for sure, but he certainly knows the reason for his own blushing face.