Work Text:
What happened in the Before:
- Quidditch annual tournament
- The Teams in Quidditch getting incredibly stressed out for the tournament and rankings and the prestige that is to come with the ranking - see: Well Deserved Bragging Rights
- Captain ordering everyone to train smarter and harder and faster - even Kenma complaints have tapered off into determined faces
- They, the Cats, lovingly nicknamed by everyone despite the house mascot being a badger, start off the tournament by playing against the Snakes
- Challenging game. The Snakes did everything they could to win, even cheating outrageously
- Then, the Worst News: Yaku-san being knocked off his broom, careening down from midair. The front row collectively casted an anti-gravity charm to slow his descent. It was a bad scuffle. Nekomata called in Yuuki
- He was scared shitless. He definitely cried a lot
- He also did not expect to be called in so imagine his horror-surprise
- Lev tried his best to hype him up. Even Sou tried to pipe in and help
- Nohebi also had a subbed-in player, since their star Chaser broke something in the previous inter-house match
- The subbed-in Chaser from Nohebi was scary. His throws could legitimately kill
- Lev completely abandoned the offensive wing and took on a defensive stance, working in tandem with Yuki to fend off the dude who is very determined to score as many points as possible while their Seeker duked it out against Kenma
- Yuki came very very very close to breaking into fresh tears
- Captain called for a time out. Yuki wanted to be alone, to think, to strategise
- Yaku-san came over. Gave him a single advice, that Lev later on reiterated
- “You have just one job. You don’t have to be good at it, but I care that you do the job. Can you do that for me, Shibayama?”
- Yuuki did the job
- The sheer look of faint surprise on the Chaser’s face was enough to fuel his sudden spike in confidence and surety, that carried through for the rest of the match
- The team all piled onto him and screamed variations of good boy, that’s my star player and Shibayama-sama ahh!
What happened in the between:
Nothing. They moved onto the other rung of the ranking ladder, watching Karasuno play. They don’t think much about Nohebi, though Kuroo-san still received passive aggressive Howlers from the Captain now and again. Captain opened them in front of Mika-san. Daishou-san nearly cried once, running out of the Great Hall.
What had been happening in the Now - Part 1:
Hufflepuffs share classes with Slytherin specifically only in Charms. It takes a much bigger and less timid person than Yuuki to keep the animosity at bay between the two factions. While Lev can be restrained with two people, Sou has assumed an active provoker in this lesson. There are two of them now. Somebody is going to be both expelled and killed.
The Snakes had been jeering. Lev challenged them to a duel. Wands are out. Yuuki doesn’t know if he should be doing something in response to this escalating situation. Someone shuffles in, outrageously late, and the wands on the Slytherin side drop, not in fear, but in abject confusion. Yuuki quickly disarms both his friends, seizing their wands and whispering furiously to them about the woes of dangerous duelling, before his eyes slide over to the Slytherins crowding the ginger head, bobbing faintly as his friends crowd him.
Huh. He recognises that hair. Same as -
The same half-lidded eyes that stared at him in front of the Quidditch hoops, ready for a goal. Same eyes that wanted to seriously injure someone with a Quaffle. Same eyes.
Yuuki remembers his name now. He inclines his head, being the bigger person here out of his two unexpectedly ruffian friends.
“Kuguri-san.”
Kuguri freezes, as if he didn’t expect to be recognised, greeted or looked at, face consistently bland, before he returns the greeting in a bow, mouth pinched tight together, the only sign of his emotional response to this entire exchange.
Yuuki can sufficiently see for himself that not only is his face not appreciated anywhere near Kuguri’s general vicinity, but friendliness will legitimately get him killed. So he does the sensible and common sense thing and makes a note to never engage the guy again just to keep all sides comfortable.
What had been happening in the Now, Part 2:
Usually, the Slytherins would not hold back on the chance to tear a new one into the Hufflepuffs at any given time, but recently, they have been horrendously noticing not only who he is but also leaving him alone. Conflict with literally anyone else in Hufflepuff is Free Real Estate, but Yuuki had somehow managed to acquire a force field charm that repels all Slytherin's hostile regard for him, leaving him with the burden of actually disentangling his seniors and friends from engaging in illegal duels in the hallways.
He brings this curious fact up to Yaku-san, who was nursing disfigured fingers from a Transfiguration spell gone awry. He's not been distracted, but he had been getting into an argument with Hiroo from Slytherin and now he has wonky fingers.
As far as accidents go, it's not the worst thing that could have happened to anyone. Yuuki distinctly remembered Kuroo's accidental Animagus existence. Nekomata used him as living proof of the end result of a hex gone wrong, but Kuroo-san was 'living it up' as Yamamoto had recounted in part admiration and part amusement, so it wasn't, again, something falling in the worst case scenario category.
Someone shuffles by and Yuuki startles, hands immediately wrapped tight around Yaku's injured hand, zero regard to his wand. By all intent and purposes, he really ought to not be taking this long outside of his Arithmancy class, but he's not going to leave Yaku-san alone while he's indisposed. A few house points lost will just have to be the sacrifice made in the name of friendship.
Kuguri, pausing right behind them, blinks once, looks at how they're huddled together, looks back up to Yuuki. This is weird and bad and awful. He didn't think through how he could potentially run into someone who didn't want to have anything to do with him since he was stared down the last two times in faint distaste. Not to mention the house rivalry in the happening.
The other boy blinks once more, looks like he's going to be saying something deeply scathing, Daishou-style, before Yaku interrupts their odd Mexican standoff, easing away from Yuuki's hold.
"Shibayama," he smiles, pleasant. "Probably be good if you pop back into class."
"Ah, right, yes, of course, senpai!" He squeaks, scrambling away. His senpai is here, he won't let him die in vain. "Um, see you, Kuguri-san?" He rushes, before rushing away.
Yaku and Kuguri remain. Yaku does not hold actual, substantive grudges towards anyone off the field, so he is pleasant towards the star Chaser of Slytherin, setting off in a bright future in the sport as Numai's legacy.
"I didn't know you knew Shibayama," he comments briefly.
"We shared Charms class," is the standard, monotone reply.
Yaku raised Kenma off his back. He knows enough about monotone to see the signs.
"He's a good kid," he says, making that as neutral a statement as possible. "And you are too, Kuguri-kun. Shibayama is just. A little skittish."
"Is that a warning?" Kuguri tenses, though his voice remains the same.
Yaku hacks out a hearty laugh, Nekomata at his most pleased.
"Nah kid, an advice, if you will take it. Go back to class now, don't want to lose those house points. Off you pop."
At dinner, Kai-san makes the usual announcements regarding training while Kuroo-san spends equal amounts of time bantering with Kenma and strategising. Yaku slides into the empty space between Yuuki and Lev, where Yui-san had ducked out from. He immediately ransacks through Lev's bag, yanking out his schedule, while Le leads a futile campaign against property seizure.
"Heard there were some changes with class arrangements," Yaku comments, blasé, holding tight onto the piece of enchanted parchment.
"What's wrong with it?" Lev whines. Yuuki curiously peers over Yaku's shoulder to glimpse a look.
"Ah?" He points. "Herbology and Potions changed places, but that's not too bad. I think we can cope with that. Why the sudden interest, Yaku-san?”
“Because I’m missing a class with my favourite person and so now I have to see if everyone else is suffering. Unfortunately, you young sprites are too chipper at anything thrown at you, so I will be tormenting Kai instead.”
“Mori-kun, you can always talk to Suga-san outside of classes,” Kai says, good-natured and kind. Morisuke waves him away, flouncing over to disengage Kenma’s newest attempt at trying to gouge out Kuroo’s eyes with his dessert spoon.
Lev looks over to him, eyes wide and green.
“Wonder who’ll be with us now that Potions changed, hey?”
Yuuki also wonders.
What had been happening in the Now, Part 3:
Yuuki does not want to wonder anymore, because Potions is in the dungeons, eerily green, and there is no mistaking the ties and sneers of the Slytherin filtering in, chatting among themselves. He, an alleged ‘goody-two-shoe’ by many, is happy to maintain that status when he shared classes with bubbly Ravenclaws, who also had a few goody-two-shoes - and who were proud of their status - among their ranks. Slytherins are dignified, and also wildly prone to picking on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. There is no telling where things could go in these instances.
He could have approached Koganegawa right now, he really could, and seek shelter, because Kogane-kun is huge and generally unthreatening. He witnessed with his two eyes how Kindaichi and Kunimi tag-teamed somebody and put someone in the infirmary, and he would not like to be in the middle of that, ever. The Unholy Trinity of Blank Faces march in, Kunimi’s eyes immediately zeroing in on him, before a smirk blooms, as he nudges his friend at Yuuki’s direction.
Oh Merlin, oh Heavenly Helena, I have literally never invoked you ever but just this once can I please please please catch a single break I will never complain about the quirky passwords ever again -
“Shibayama,” someone intones. Flat. Disinterested. Yuuki dares a look up, and almost chokes on his tongue.
Kuguri. Again.
“Um,” he blinks, very intelligently. “Kuguri. Hello.”
Kuguri deems that was enough of an interaction, nods, then stalks away to his laughing friends, loudly dragging him by the hood of his robes and yanking him about, giving him grief about something. Yuuki does not know if that was a strange invitation to engage in combat or a very stilted hello, but thrice now he had unfortunately made eye contact with the frumpy fifth year and well, it could have gone in any direction possible under the sun. But it had not. All the happenings had amounted up to a stilted exchange. He wonders if Kuguri wanted to be friends.
Amidst all the rivalry though, that’s brave. Or incredibly stupid, but one can never really tell with Quidditch players. Maybe they’ve taken too many Bludgers to the head. Lev certainly had, which explains why he’s a little loose. And loony. Loony Lev, the house elves call him. Fukunaga-san says it occasionally to make fun of him.
Oh well, if it gets anywhere, then it gets anywhere. Yuuki may have an inclination towards tears and panicking over every single little thing, but he’ll make up for it in sheer enthusiasm and Good Vibes. He’s got plenty of those to dispense around. He’ll make it work for him.
He does not see the insistent staring Kuguri honed into the back of his head, at the tuft of hair curling behind his left ear.
What had been happening in the Now, Part 4:
His mother told him, time and again, that if he isn’t so shy, he would be able to have some friends. But because he is so shy, whoever becomes his friend, stays his friend.
This is generally true, but he didn’t quite account for the friend he inevitably got in the form of one Kuguri Naoyasu.
He loves Quidditch, loves that he is set free on a flying broomstick to zoom off to the clouds and stars, to no longer be beholden to the earth. He loves that his hard work placed him on the team. He loves that his teammates are his friends who fiercely love and look after him.
He is proud of his house, where he was sorted in because the Hat saw the hunger to overcome his insecurities, his shortcomings, by sheer hard work, by a fierce tenacity, and granted him access to a house which can facilitate growth through hard work and kindness. It explains why he is ignoring the Golden Rule set out by the prefects to ‘please, Shibayama, just stay in for a single week’. He had perceived the rule to be detrimental to his personal and athletic growth. He had neglected to follow through with the Rule.
Usually, a few people are out flying at night until they’re chased in by Ukai Jr, but Yuuki leaves after curfew, to which he can guarantee nobody can find him, cloaking invisibility charms over himself and then casting a barrier charm over the Quidditch pitch, covering his tracks. Usually, this is how it goes.
Tonight, however, someone is already on the field. He can see the person on the field. He sees a flash of red and thinks oh no Hinata-kun, but when he comes closer, his words fizz up into wheezy noises in the back of his throat. It’s like downing an entire plate of Exploding Bon Bons in one go and all of that going kaboom in the pit of his stomach.
The red hair is not from Hinata from Gryffindor, Part 1 of 2 in the Freaky Chaser Duo Package Deal. The red hair is muted, incredibly dishevelled, and belongs to Kuguri from Slytherin, who had not casted an enchantment to cloak the place and now both of them will get caught and sent to indefinite scrubbing of Washijou’s trophy case.
Ignoring the startled look he drew from Kuguri as he took off his robes and bags and immediately started casting spells around the field, he works fast, remembering all the required charms. Imperturbabilis. Lukana. Securus bunda. Invisibilis.
It’s a lot of work. It’s too much work. It’s the only reason holding him back from going out flying every night. Imagine taking all of these charms down. Unbelievable.
“Kuguri-kun,” he had called out, once the barriers had been constructed. “Be more careful. I could have been anyone.”
Kuguri didn’t come down from the hoops, but he bobbed, so at least that meant he heard some of what Yuuki had lovingly yelled into the night sky.
A wand to the side of his face. A broadcasted - “Do you want to practise together?”
Then he was up, playing Keeper to block out Kuguri’s Chaser shots.
Granted, he didn’t expect easy treatment, especially not to the guy who he impeded kill shots from and took out from the ranking ladder of Hogwarts’ Quidditch Cup. However, Kuguri didn’t ooze killing intent as he had during the match, preferring to cut back quite a bit to try out weird stunts and manoeuvres on his broom, to Yuuki’s half dismay and half amazement. He’s run ragged after all the pitching and throwing that Kuguri mercilessly dished his way, but it doesn’t feel hostile. Each of them were there to do a job. They’re helping each other. They can better each other.
When Kuguri took a nosedive, sharp with a whipping whoosh in the still night air, Yuuki doesn’t even think twice before whipping out his wand, incantation ready in his mind. It was pure instinct, the snap of magic flowing from him through the wand, arresting the fall. Arresto momentum. And Kuguri hangs in midair.
Yuuki calls it a night, and Kuguri does not get complaining rights when he almost could have ended up dead.
“But will you be okay?” He fusses, for the millionth time, probably, as they bicker near the kitchen entrance. Kuguri’s face had not gone through many expressions exceeding the count of a single hand, but he’s growing more emotional as Yuuki fusses over him, a plus, and he definitely is rolling his eyes when Yuuki has his back to him.
“I did a Wronski feint. ‘Snot like I threw myself off my broom,” Kuguri mutters as Yuuki hustles him into the kitchen, a group of fourth years inside mutually agreeing to not see him as he did not see them. He quickly runs to fetch a mug, accepting the late supper of something warm and brothy, and bullies Kuguri into taking it, hovering nearby.
The redhead grumbles, but accepts the mug, sipping at it with the face of someone forced to drink medicinal soup to recover from an unexpected illness, but Yuuki will not stop worrying until he’s done, so they will stay here all night if needs be.
Kuguri tells him he belongs to Slytherin, with that sort of manipulation. Yuuki tells him it’s a good thing that the Hat put him where he is.
“If I finish, will you let me walk you to your Common Room?” Kuguri takes another sip, cringes, then casts a sideway look to Yuuki, who fumbles with both of their brooms.
“I, uh, sure?” He squeaks. Blinks. Closes his mouth. “You don’t have to? It’s… right in the corner. Literally.”
“But will you let me?” Kuguri insists, eyes a little wider now. Yuuki can feel himself going a little red in the ears. Possibly in the face and the back of his neck too. Ahh. Hysterical laughter bubbles in the back of his throat, boiling in his lungs. It’s like doing a shot with all the Alihosy Draught present.
“I mean,” he gulps in a breath and stomps down the urge to break into panicked laughter, “if you insist.”
Kuguri’s eyes are directly looking at him. There is no mistaking it now.
“I insist, Shibayama.”
“Finish your soup!” He squeaks, and scampers away. It looks like an escape. It is an escape.
“Should I say hi in Charms?” Kuguri asks, as the pile of barrels seemingly eye him, because they’re definitely having a go at Yuuki.
“If you insist,” Yuuki can’t quite tame the giggles escaping his mouth, but he’s a feeling or five that they’ve bonded, so Kuguri can’t quite make fun of his nervous laugh now.
Kuguri nods, expression completely serene.
“I insist.”
“I’ll see you in Charms, Kuguri-san.”
“Shibayama,” Kuguri nods. Then. “Have a good night.”
That catches him off guard. Half of him is already through the doorway. He can only manage a strangled yell back - “I had a good night! You too!”
“You too?” He whispers, appalled, and a little bit flummoxed at how he managed to royally destroy all good impressions he made. “Might as well set myself on fire.”
Morning comes, and Kuguri walks right into his Head Boy when Yuuki beams at him when their paths overlap for about three ticks of the clock. Later, as promised and insisted, Kuguri makes sure to quietly walk up to Yuuki, spooking not only everyone along the bench, but also himself.
“Good morning, Shibayama-kun,” a voice murmurs from above. Someone doused the entire bench in a splash of water. Yuuki almost spits out his own tongue.
“Kuguri!” He gasps. “Make some sort of noise when you walk! You scared me!”
Kuguri’s face is decidedly blank - just to take the piss out of him, for sure - before he dips his head.
“Sorry.”
“No you’re not,” Yuuki breathes out, airing himself
“No I’m not. Constant vigilance is a necessary skill.”
“Kuguri, literally nobody is going to be sneaking up on me,” he says, exasperated, feeling water droplets dripping from his brows and from his lashes. “Nobody.”
“You’ll never know,” Kuguri concludes, cryptically, and also fearsomely. Yuuki can almost hit him! “I’ll go back now. I’m sorry you got caught in that shower torrent.”
“Not that you scared me?” He arches a wet eyebrow.
Again, Kuguri is staring directly at him.
“No.”
Lev asks him when did he become buddy buddy with Kuguri of Slytherin. Yuuki told him that when you have two classes and a match with a guy, friendship is inevitable.
And so, gradually, he would seek out Kuguri - just because - and Kuguri would him. Strangely enough, this odd combination of the scaredy cat kid who broke into tears in the middle of a Quidditch match and the prodigal son of the Nohebi clan stunned people so much that there isn’t much of a rivalry happening anymore. People are more content to sit back and watch how they interact with each other. Apparently it’s great entertainment. There is some sort of a betting pool occurring, to which no Hufflepuff had shown him the content of, but he’s the object of that bet, so Yuuki will have to play the Fool and trudge on, with this new friendship in tow.
Kuguri as a friend isn’t half bad. His hair is forever untamed and Yuuki is forever fond of how much of a struggle his friend put up to have no effect whatsoever, magic or no, to the wild mane of hair. He speaks what’s on his mind. He has a Muggle father, to Yuuki’s entire Muggle family. Favourite food is soba with wild vegetables. He is an only son. Snowboards when it is wintertime. Has a pet snake, Shina. No one in his immediate family is a ginger.
Kuguri gives out a seemingly random fact to every ten that Yuuki spouted, an arrangement that works for them both. He nervous rambles, but in recent times, he hasn’t been given grounds to be either nervous or to ramble endlessly to fill the silence. The silence with Kuguri is tentative, but it’s a safe space. Kuguri likes to have the spaces and options for him to think. He likes to make time, to get there at his own pace. Yuuki respects that. Yuuki respects a whole load of things about Kuguri that he’s only beginning to realise now. They’re lying on the grass, overlooking the Great Lake. Shina is napping next to her owner and Yuuki is attempting to edit his essay, to minimal success.
“Kuguri Naoyasu,” he asks, and a disgruntled grunt answers him. “Sorry, sorry, I thought you were asleep.”
“Then why’d you call,” groans Kuguri, pushing himself up on an elbow. Yuuki grins wide, slightly apologetic.
“It’s new, this name thing,” he hacks out a laugh, fending off Kuguri pulling out blades of grass to rain on his hair and the back of his neck. “Guess you should call me Yuuki too huh?”
“Do you want me to?” Kuguri Naoyasu has light eyes. They’re almost caramel gold in the bright sunlight.
Yuuki smiles back. “I insist.”
“Well,” Kuguri falls back onto the grass. “If you insist, then as you wish.”
Somehow, he acquired one Kuguri Naoyasu as a friend. Sou complains nowadays that he’s been demoted as a second best friend, since Yuuki and Kuguri are attached at the hips and do everything, go everywhere together. It’s freakish. A Hufflepuff and a Slytherin? It’s a forbidden relation somewhere in history. A polar opposite matchup is what plays out.
“Don’t worry, Sou-kun, you’re still my best friend,” he reassures Sou, who then looks at him, puppy eyes huge.
“If he isn’t your best friend, what kinda friend is he to you?”
“I - good question,” he hums. “I don’t know, I just feel like, he has his own category? He can’t really be called a best friend, I don’t want to do things with him like I do with you and Lev, it’s hard to explain.”
Sou’s face evens out into a contemplative expression, and he pats Yuuki once, twice, a lot of times on the shoulder. Yuuki looks at him, completely mystified.
“What was that?” He asks.
“Some day, you will figure it out,” Sou cryptically tells him. “But since I’m your best friend, I’m gonna say this to ya, buddy. Look at how he looks at you. Tell me friends look at each other like that. Take a real good look one day, Yuu-chan, then come back and report, kay?”
Yuuki watches him go, flummoxed as they come.
What had been happening in the Now, Concluding Arc:
So there might have been a few miscalculations in his attempts to categorise where Kuguri Naoyasu fit into his hierarchy of friendship. Just a few.
The first error comes in the fact that he frivolously had just casted Naoyasu (he is Naoyasu or his full name, he stopped being just ‘Kuguri’ for a while now) into a box labelled ‘Other’ in his friendship notebook. That’s not fair to Naoyasu.
So he had incorrectly labelled what kind of friend Naoyasu is to him. That can be rectified.
The second error comes in the realisation that Naoyasu is well, by all intents and purposes, his emotional support boy. They’re closer than what he and Sou are, emotionally linked, the vibes are matching, all that jazz. But what kinds of friends exist beyond best friends? What’s after that?
The last error comes in him zooming in too close. He’s too involved, he doesn’t have the necessary eyes to see all the things he’s supposedly needed to see.
“Nao-kun,” Yuuki tugs on the sleeve of Naoyasu’s jumper, and sees an entire length of tall boy athlete bends towards him, reeds in the wind. “I’ll have to leave a bit early today, but I’ll see you in the fields later, okay?”
“Anything wrong?” Naoyasu has this terrible habit, nowadays, of leaning down very close to Yuuki, to hear not only his words but how he breathes too. Before the entire Recategorise Your Maybe Best Friend Into Correct Boxes endeavour was established, he’s definitely charmed and flattered by the gesture. But now it’s like a shock through his system. He needs immediate space. Being so close and looking up and existing in the same space as all that. It makes his head spin.
“No - no,” he breathes, trying hard to catch his breath. “Nothing’s wrong. I’ve just gotta catch up with Sou, he’s been whinin’.”
Naoyasu looks contemplative. “Should I do that too, to get you to do things with me?"
Yuuki laughs, only half nervous now. “Try. It might work.”
His friend - whoever he is to him - only stares at him, unblinking, before nodding, bumping their shoulders, and walking off, brisk, decisive, no longer slouching.
Yuuki immediately runs right into Lev.
“So,” he blurts out. “I might have come to a realisation.”
The Currently Happenings:
- Turns out there is a category for friends beyond best friends
- It’s called Boyfriend
- Which Naoyasu had not signed up for nor does he know that he had fallen into it
- Which is bad and terrible on Yuuki’s part as a friend because his entire perspective had shifted for Naoyasu but for all he knows, Naoyasu hasn’t a clue about the cosmic revelation that imploded inside his squirrel brain
He should have been freaking out way earlier on, but Lev and Sou ask no silly questions, only crowd around him and pet him down, Lev even offering bananas he got handed by Kuroo-san who sent his condolences. Kenma had sent a Patronus that succinctly announced thoughts and prayers, disappeared into smoke, and Fukunaga was too busy wrangling Yamamoto away from burning down half the school.
“So now what,” Sou asks after his third banana. Yuuki tells him that there's too much potassium going inside his body. Sou tells him he doesn’t know what that is, so guess he’ll find out when he dies. Lev tells them both that they are digressing from the matter.
“Just,” Lev suggests, “tell him?”
“And ruin our friendship?” He balks. The idea is appalling. He’s much too fond of Naoyasu as a person to let him go. This friendship gig is ride or die. There is no quitting. “No.”
“Come on, you two are good friends.” Lev looks at them. “Honestly speaking, if I confessed my feelings to you, would you stop being my friend?”
“Lev, I know you live in an ideal world, but in my world -”
“You worry in your world,” Sou interrupts him, shoving him aside. “I’m sure friends have had crushes one each other and got over it before, you’re just spiralling out of control. Try not to be. It probably won’t go terribly wrong.”
“There is literally,” he stresses, with stress, “no confidence in that.”
Sou stares back at him, consuming yet another banana. Yuuki is waiting for him to glow a radioactive neon. It will happen.
“Guess you’ll die,” his friend quotes the meme to him, and Yuuki almost hexed him into the weekend and beyond.
The Plan:
The plan consists purely of telling Naoyasu about the Realisation. The Feelings, if one may. Naoyasu sees him, jogs to him, all wild hair and crushed grass with ginger and citrusy cologne. The mouth seemingly shows no reaction, but the corners of his eyes are pulled up. It’s a Naoyasu-esque smile. It’s the best thing to see given the circumstances.
All fears have concentrated exactly at the juncture of his throat. The eyes are pulled down now, a distinctive frown streaking through the pretty face. He is rather pretty, as Yuuki laments, it is very difficult to maintain eye contact.
All fears have clogged up his throat and he cannot give voice to something that sits so burdened in his lungs, his bloodstream. A hand, reaching out for his face, skimming by his jaw. Naoyasu hardly touches him, but now he’s reaching out. Cold, calluses, big hands. They poke him by the apple of his cheeks.
“Ow, ow,” he complains. Naoyasu pinches the rise of his cheeks, face entirely blank. “Stop that, you brute.”
“No.”
“Ah gee, a tormentor for a person of interest,” he sighs, kinda running his mouth by this point. “How woeful do you think that is, Nao-kun? You ever have someone who torments you and then becomes your intended?
The pinching stops. The person stills. Yuuki is ready for that death outcome now.
“What,” Naoyasu croaks back, so elegantly.
“Surprise?” Yuuki offers weakly. “I had a speech, but it just came out. Like that. Uh, we don’t have to be weird about it or anything, we can pretend it never happened and I put you into a weird spot, sorry, you don’t have to answer it or anything, they’re just my feelings -”
“I like you,” Naoyasu moves closer, tips of his shoes shuffling into Yuuki’s. “I’ve liked you for a while now. I was starting to think that you just see me as a friend.”
“Well,” he opens, then closes his mouth. “I thought that too, but I don’t necessarily think friends would describe who you are to me, so. Here we are.”
Naoyasu, as if emboldened by the sudden declaration of intentions, is reaching out to touch him again, like he can’t stop now that he knows both ends of the equations, knows all the variables. Yuuki leans in, can’t deny himself that little pull, drawn in by the quiet airs of someone so dear to him, unable to stop now that it’s all out there, open to the earth and sky.
“Then,” Naoyasu hovers the tips of his fingers over the bend of his mouth, the dip of his chin, silently asking for permission. “What are we?”
Yuuki is feeling very very giddy. It’s almost better than flying on a broom.
“I was thinking boyfriends. Thoughts?” He says, then steps closer, touching his face to the fingertips which melt like syrup over his jaw, chin, mouth.
“Well,” Naoyasu’s mouth twitches, a ghost of a smile, even as his eyes are twinkling. “If you insist.”
“I insist.”
“Then as you wish.”
The After:
The Potions clash with Slytherin has over time become much more amenable, with more Slytherins overcoming the strangely shy barrier of approaching Hufflepuffs first. Apparently the great interhouse romance of one Kuguri Naoyasu and Shibayama Yuuki renewed hopes in the crafty snakes, giving them the strength and courage to slither over to the badgers and extend laurels of friendships and even deeper relations.
Yuuki did find out what that bet was about. Akaashi-san from Ravenclaw rightfully won the bet and all its winning money. Yaku-san came a close second, and took them all, Nekoma and Nohebi alike, to Three Broomsticks to celebrate. Naoyasu demonstrated a few snowboarding tricks in the snowy terrains. Lev attempted to start an avalanche.
The seventh years graduate, and leave the team in their capable hands. Fukunaga is bullied into captaincy. Naoyasu insists on ‘helping out’ with the team even though Yamamoto is keen on pushing him off his broom via the help of a Bludger.
They’ve successfully brewed Amortentia in Potion in their sixth year. Yuuki’s cauldron smells like crushed grass and ginger and citrusy cologne. Naoyasu is already in his space, nose in his hair, before yanking himself away and hovering over his own potion, brows drawn.
"What’s wrong?” He leans over, but Naoyasu just frowns back at him.
“Smells exactly like you,” is the pronouncement. Yuuki laughs.
“Is it not supposed to?”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” is the gripe back. “Are we doing this right?”
“Well, nothing’s exploded yet,” he observes, very intelligently. “Perhaps not.”
“You are no help,” Naoyasu mumbles, going back to stirring his potion rather aggressively. “Don’t come near me, I don’t know if it’s you I smell or the potion, it’s distracting.”
“Okay,” he accedes. It is a rather nice thing, to know he is distracting enough to derail someone from their work.
In saying that, it doesn’t stop Naoyasu from playing with the tuft of curly hair behind his left ear, fingers cold and long and scarred squeezing the back of his neck, a blanket folding over him.