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They’re both sitting on a park bench, breathing in the cold air and staring at the flickering streetlights. We should really be getting up , he thinks vaguely. He still hasn’t touched that math homework.
“Akito?”
He blinks in surprise at the sudden voice. “Mm. Yeah?”
“I think.. I think I’m in l- ah, nevermind.” Touya frowns to himself. “Akito, have you ever heard of floriography?”
“Flo- what?” Touya lets out a soft laugh at that, and for some reason Akito’s breath catches in his throat at the sound. “Nevermind, Akito. Should I walk you home?”
Akito’s always the one who walks Touya home. He squints at him, at the way his shoulders are slightly tense, the way his eyes momentarily flicker with an emotion he can’t read. “M’kay. Lead the way, partner.”
When Akito looks out of his window later, Touya’s waving at him. His eyes look kind of nice under the moon.
(Later on, he realises what that conversation could have been. He’s glad it happened later, though, because he knows he would have said the wrong thing.)
---
It’s July, and it’s raining. He hates the rain- it spoils practice, it makes his hair look stupid and it means An will not stop talking. “-and I said to her that we should dance in the rain because that's what they do on TV and she said yes, which was good because she kind of paused for a bit and I really thought she was gonna say no, which would have been fine, but-”
“An.” He takes a bite of cheesecake. “Shut the fuck up.” The door creaks open and shuts with a thump behind him.
“How about you - oh, Touya! Holy shit . ” She looks up from her drink that has way too much whipped cream, in the direction of the door.
“Hello, Shiraishi. How are you?” Touya is quite literally soaked to the bone, smiling sheepishly as water slowly drips from his jacket to Ken-san’s shiny new welcome rug. If Akito felt particularly mean (and honest) he would compare him to a drenched rat. A nice-looking rat. Maybe with half of its fur a different blue. He’s so distracted by the possibilities of a singing Touya-rat dancing in the sewers that he almost misses when the real, non-rat Touya gently places something before him. He looks down. A flower . It’s covered in raindrops, and almost the exact same colour as the lighter half of Touya’s hair. “Pretty. What’s it for?”
“You.” He says it almost hesitantly, like the flower has some kind of secret message in it. “It’s a hydrangea.”
“Wow. Cool. Thanks, man.”
An’s grinning hysterically at him (he doesn’t want to know why) as Touya just smiles nervously again, and the conversation ebbs into an awkward silence. A silence that lasts about thirty seconds until a panting Kohane bursts through the door, armed with a hot pink frog umbrella. “Kohane! I like your umbrella. You didn’t get wet, did you?” An stands up with so much force that his cheesecake is knocked out from his plate, splatting miserably onto the floor. Touya snorts, and it’s like he forgot how to breathe. Weird.
*
When he knocks on Ena’s door that night, stepping inside for the first time in years, she’s laughing at her computer screen. A blurry Akiyama buzzes around their square. She stops abruptly, spinning around in her stupid gamer chair to raise an eyebrow at him- Akiyama just waves, muting themself as they wait for her. “What the hell do you want?”
“Do you know how to press flowers?”
“Do I know how to- where did that come from?” She looks at him, at the flower in his hand, and then at him again. “Tou- someone gave it to me. Like you’d even care anyways.” The weight of all the things that went wrong between them hangs in the air, and she sighs. “Give me ten minutes. I’ll show you.” Her voice is softer, somehow.
He puts Touya’s flower in parchment paper, then in the sketchbook he hasn’t touched since he was thirteen. When he checks on it a week later, it matches that half of Touya’s hair perfectly.
---
The twins fucking suck at maths. He realises this when Len says that the square root of thirteen is sixty-nine, which leads to Rin saying that he just likes the number sixty-nine and that the real answer is two hundred and ninety six. He isn’t even good at maths himself, but he’s pretty sure that thirteen isn’t a square number. If Touya was there, maybe he’d be on question twenty instead of question two. His grades are as perfect as his hair, and he has really nice hair. When he’s concentrating and looks down, it almost covers his eyes, and it sort of sways when he looks up again. Speaking of, Touya has really long eyelashes. They go kind of curly at the end, too, and -
“-kito! Akito!” Rin pokes his cheek again. “Len tipped your soda over!”
“Fucking hell , you guys. You’re lucky it didn’t go on my homework.” What had he been thinking about again? Ah- question three. He reaches for his calculator. It has a smear on it, like it had been wiped hurriedly, and it smells of soda. He just sighs.
But maybe the universe does have pity on him, because Touya- sweet, lovely, smart Touya- walks inside crase cafe, looking a little out of breath.
“Touya! Thank god you’re here, man, because these little blonde shits ”- he shoots a poisonous glance to his left- “can’t do multiplication, and I really need your brain.”
“Mm.” Touya runs a hand through his hair. He seems distracted. “I’ll help you. I’m glad you’re trying, though. Oh, and this is for you.” He says it like the thought suddenly occurred to him, but it almost feels like he’d been mulling over it for a while. The it in question a white flower, and Akito just stares at him stupidly before taking it. “Thanks.” It’s pretty, and delicate looking. He studies the snowy petals as Touya glances at his homework. It reminds him of their first winter show together, and the way the snowflakes reflected in the cool of Touya’s eyes. “It’s a gardenia, by the way.” A pause. “You got the first two questions right, well done.”
Touya’s smile is nice. Even prettier than the gardenia.
---
The flowers become a pattern. The next one is white as well, and Touya seems a lot more panicky about it, almost dropping it as he holds it out. “It’s because I think- um. Camelia,” is all he manages to say, a stark contrast to the eloquence of his usual speech. His cheeks are bright pink, eyes focused on some random rock on the road, and the sight is so- surprising? Odd? Cute feels like a more accurate description, but the thought is frankly so absurd that Akito pushes it down immediately.
The walk to school is quieter than usual. Touya isn’t quite meeting his eyes. Akito twirls the Camelia between his fingers, unable to think of anything to fill the silence, but when they get to the gates, for once he’s glad to see An’s stupid face. “Touya! Hey!” she sings. Huh. “Did you-”
“Shiraishi.” Touya’s poker face has the slightest hint of worry. “Not now.” Huh .
“You’re gonna have to tell soon, y’know?” It’s like Akito isn’t here. She seems a little more worried now, her weird little grin softened into a gentle frown.
“I can’t be sure of the.. outcome right now.”
“You- okay.” She leans in close on her tiptoes (she’s standing on a mediumish rock) and whispers something into his ear. Touya turns bright red. Hm. “Tell him!” she half-yells as she sprints away, her shoelaces untied in a very un-hall monitor-like fashion.
*
“Touya,” he says accusingly as soon as the bell rings, panting from the run to the lockers. “Are you fucking dating An?” The thought makes him feel sick, somehow.
“Akito? Wha-”
“I mean, yeah, date who you want, but like- does Kohane know? How long have you two been-”
“ Akito .” Touya, that bastard, is laughing. “One- Why would Shiraishi be cheating on Azusawa, two- why would I let her, and three- why would we both want to- honestly, what made you think that?”
“I don’t know, maybe the fact that- wait .” Maybe An was right about him being a Big Fucking Stupid Idiot. “They’re dating?”
“Yes?” Oh. “It was their one year anniversary last week.” So they weren’t celebrating their last show’s success.
*
congrats on your like
one year being unbitchless thing
ken-san’s accident
thanks dickface!!!!!!!
it was last week though you idiot
its fine ik u make a shitton of mistakes your hair is enough of an example lolol
shut up
what if i told you
that i didn't know until today
ken-san’s accident
WHAT
OH MY GOD????????????
WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL HWO ARE U SO DUMB
EVEN ENA-SAN KNOWS??
what the hell
It cant be that bad how many people did uou tell
and why does ena know abt ur dating life
ken-san’s accident
I told mizuki and they told their circle thing that ur sister’s in
and i told kusanagi when i went to tell touya and i told her to spread the news of my wifeness to tenma-senpai and kamishiro-senpai so the pink girl that breaks in sometimes probs knows too
i told haruka ofc and she was with minori and airi-san and shizuku-san and also when i went to pick kohane up i told everyone i saw at miya girls so kohane’s science teacher knows too!!
dad knows OBVIOUSLY
everyone in SEKAI ofc i told meiko first btw
kohanes parents
that guy that does the lighting in the livehouse we always sing at
i confessed to kohane w a cute pink cake thing so i told the bakery owners naturally
YOU TOLD NATIONAL IDOLS MORE MORE JUMP BUT NOT ME???
HELLO??
FUCKER
ken-san’s accident
well harukas my bff and i didnt think youd be so stupid ong
touya figured it out in like one second
your SO stupid kinda hate u and ur ugly ginger hair ngl
KIDDING KIDDIN G IM SORRY
You have blocked this contact.
*
well done on your gay thing with an
kohane
thankyou shinonome-kun!!
an-chan and aoyagi-kun said you didn’t know until today ( ´∀ ` *)
surprise?
yeah yeah congrats
and don't listen to anything an said
and no i wont unblock her
kohane
FUCKER
-an
---
His and Touya’s hands touch for a second longer than usual one day. His fingers tingle with warmth all evening.
---
By September, Akito’s old sketchbook is half filled with flowers, all of them carefully pressed. He doesn’t mention it to Ena after the first time, but he must have left it on the table or something, because when he gets home she's waiting for him in the living room, the offending book in hand.
“What’re all these?” Damn, she’s quick.
“Gifts.”
“From who?” Her face is weirdly composed.
“Why the hell should I tell you? And why do you even care? Give it back-”
She jerks back, holding it just out of his reach. “Look, I swear it’s important. Who?” She squints at him, and it would be funny if not for how serious she’s being.
“It’s- Touya. Touya gave them to me. Happy now?”
“Aoyagi-kun? Oh, Akito. You’re so fucking stupid ,” she murmurs, voice a fraction of the volume it was before. He doesn’t know what the hell’s going on right now, but he’s really, really confused. “You’ve told me that, like, every day, Ena. Why the hell is it relevant?”
She just grabs his arm as a response, manicured nails digging into his arm as she drags him up the stairs. Her room is a literal waste dump when they step in; she just shoots him a glare, as if to say don’t you dare mention it and reaches for a stack of stapled sheets on her desk. “Read this,” she demands. “The stuff I underlined.”
“I don’t like reading.” Seriously, what the hell is going on?
“Shut up. You’ll thank me later.”
The first page is titled ‘Language of flowers’. He skims through them, and- oh .
Camellia (white)- “You’re adorable.” (His cheeks burn a little at that.)
Gardenia- “You’re lovely; secret love.”
Hydrangea- Gratitude.
Salvia (blue)- “I think of you.”
Sorrel- Affection.
Tulip (yellow)- “Sunshine in your smile.”
Everything’s suddenly clicking in his brain, and he thinks of the way his breath catches when Touya laughs, the way he freezes when their hands brush, the beating of his heart when he looks at Touya when they sing. Maybe Ena’s right- he is stupid. Real fucking dense.
“ Akito.”
“Mm. Yeah?”
“I think.. I think I’m in l- ah, nevermind.” Oh.
He reads all the meanings back again, vaguely aware of Ena still standing in front of him, when he catches one he missed near the very top, the line underneath it drawn a little more shakily than the others. He freezes, eyes wide. Ena sees him looking at it, and lets out a sad smile. “I’m happy for you. You deserve it, and I’m- I’m sorry for not being there enough. I’m happy you found someone like him.”
Chrysanthemum (red)- “I love you.”
“Ena-” he pauses. His thoughts are racing around way too fast. “Thanks. Not just for this. Uh- I think I need to go. I’ll get you a cheesecake or something later.”
---
“Let me get this straight- you want me and Kohane to leave the cafe so you and Touya can do.. Whatever. Alone. Alone !” An’s eyes sparkle wickedly, and he has the sudden urge to punch her and sink into the ground all at once. “ An . Just shut up, please.”
“Mm.. okay, loverboy. Have fun being a gay loser- ow, that hurts, you fucker!”
“Don’t act like you and Kohane won’t be sucking face on some random bench.” He grimaces a little at the thought.
“Yeah, yeah. I guess I’m slightly happy for you. Really sorry for Touya, because he has to suck face with a ginger- OW!”
*
His grand master plan feels cheesy as hell, suddenly. Thank god Touya isn’t here yet, because he kind of feels like throwing up. There isn’t even a reason to be nervous, because he knows the answer, and yet.. Well. He vaguely registers the creak of the door and thinks of Touya giving him the hydrangea, and then oh fuck, Touya, that was probably Touya. This better fucking work out. “Akito. Hi.” The way Touya says his name makes him warm inside. Holy shit, he's whipped.
“Hey, partner. An and Kohane are doing something or whatever, so we can wait for a while for them.” Was that too casual? Yeah. It was.
“Ah, okay.” The silence that follows is unbearably long. “Are you alright, Akito? You seem a little.. anxious.”
He bursts out laughing. Anxious. He isn’t even sure what he’s feeling any more, but they’ve been dancing around each other for so long that this all feels like some sort of dream. “Touya,” he breathes, dazed, “have you ever heard of floriography?” He isn’t sure what he’s expecting, exactly, but Touya’s face falling so quickly is not on the list. “You’ve figured it out.” He’s whispering, almost to himself. “Ah- I’m sorry about that. I’d really hope we can still stay friends, but if you don’t want that..” Wait, what? He's fucked up.
“Touya,” he says incredulously, “You dense idiot.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a slightly crumpled flower, bright against the worn cafe tables. “Corny, I know, but it gets the point across.” Red rose- Love, “I love you.”
Touya stares at him in silence. "Oh- Akito." His smile is prettier than any flower he’s ever seen. It feels like he’s floating.