“I love you.”

Those were the words Nakao always said to Nanba. He never expected anything much, just Nanba brushing him off as always. But a small part of him never stopped hoping that one day, his beloved would say the same thing back to him.

Nakao sighed, picking up a few cans of juice. The others must be really thirsty, working out there in the hot sun. Especially Mizuki. He’s only a little bigger than me, yet he’s out there working hard trying to repair the roof.

When he passed the veranda, he saw Yuujiro sitting with his paws over his head. Wondering what was wrong, Nakao stepped forward, mouth already open to call out to Yuujiro when he noticed Nanba-senpai with a girl. The girl was so pretty, it didn’t take a genius to see why Nanba wanted her.

The girl tilted her head up to gaze into Nanba’s eyes as she whispered, “Aieru.” By way of answer, Nanba nodded. The girl’s face lit up and she rose up on her tiptoes, kissing him on the lips. Nakao dropped the cans, feeling tears start to form no matter how much he tried to hold them back.

The two jumped apart. Nanba was gazing at him with an unreadable expression and the girl was just glaring at him, probably for ruining the perfect moment that they were having. Nakao felt his heart tighten. With a sob, he rushed from the room.

~-~

. That was the first thing that came to Nanba’s mind when he saw Nakao standing there. When he ran away, Nanba’s first reaction was to run after him.

“Nakao, stop! It’s not what you think!”

The only reply he got was a muffled sob. Running faster, he caught up with Nakao and wrapped his arms around him. That usually ended any protests from Nakao, because he would melt into his arms. Nanba also secretly liked holding him like that. It gave him a sense of peace and warmth.

However, it seemed that Nakao was not in the mood for peace and warmth today, shaking him off and running even faster. Nanba stopped in shock. Nakao had never done something like this before.

Demo…nande? He’s never acted in that way before. Could he be that affected by that kiss? Masaka! He never seemed to care much before. Demo, what are the other explanations for it?

Nanba frowned, staring at the quickly retreating back of Nakao. His heart gave a little squeeze as the boy paused to look back and see whether he was being pursued before more tears began to fall.

~-~

Nanba-senpai…I always knew…that even when you didn’t accept my feelings, I wasn’t the only one; you would reject whomever that confessed to you. Now, I’m not so sure anymore…

Nakao hid himself under the blanket he had stolen from Nanba’s bed, inhaling the comforting scent of the other boy and taking in the warmth and security that he always exuded. He dreaded having to see Nanba again, but it was too risky to walk out and perhaps bump into him again. His eyes teared up again at the thought of Nanba kissing that girl. Baka! You already know that it was stupid loving him in the first place; why are you crying now? Haven’t you been expecting this to happen all along?

But he knew that even though Nanba-senpai always rejected him, the flame of the hope of being accepted had never gone out, because Nanba-senpai never actually properly dated anyone. But now…it was like all his hopes and dreams were crushed, just because he saw Nanba-senpai accept the declaration of love from that girl.

“She’s so perfect, what am I compared to her? This is probably a wake-up call for me, to make me stop chasing after what can never be mine.” Nakao hung his head. “But whatever I do, no matter how much I try, my heart still loves Nanba-senpai…so so so much that it hurts.” He whispered the last part, tears finally flowing freely.

He stiffened when he felt a pair of arms gently encircle him and pull him closer to a warm and very familiar body. Nanba-senpai’s body, to be exact. Struggling, Nakao tried to pull himself loose, but failed miserably against the strong arms that refused to let go.

“Nakao. Listen to me.”

Nakao stopped struggling, face taking on an expression of puzzlement.

“That girl that…you saw just now, she was a sick person. She is going to die. That kiss was her final wish, something that she had always desired but never got to have, because when she was healthy, I rejected her, much like I did to all those other girls.”

Nanba inhaled deeply. It was going well, but the confession wasn’t coming out, and he didn’t really want to embarrass himself in front of the only person he’d liked for the past 3 years.

“The…the reason why I rejected all of them was because…I wanted one person, and one person only. That person was…-“

“Not me, I suppose. I understand, Nanba-senpai. You don’t have to force yourself to touch me anymore. Please excuse me.”

He tried to get out of Nanba’s arms, but failed again as Nanba squeezed him closer to his body, letting Nakao feel his heart thumping wildly against his chest.

“Can you feel my heartbeat? It’s racing, because of what I’m going to do.”

And with that, Nanba threw away the speech he had carefully written out in his head about how he would swim across oceans and climb mountains just for Nakao, and just kissed him hard.

~-~

“Happy anniversary!”

The dining room echoed with cheers and laughter as Nakao, who had Nanba’s arm slung around his shoulders, got scared by the sudden noise of the confetti holder/thing/object which made scary sounds and fell down.

Nanba laughed, pulling his boyfriend up and kissing him gently on the lips. All was right with the world. Except for one thing. What was that slimy thing sliding down his neck?!

~-~

Hope you enjoyed! Took me ages to work up the inspiration for this baby ^^ cause I had to edit out the…naughtier…parts of my dream. And add on parts which I forgot. SO yeah.

Comments are love.