Work Text:
BOOM!
“Wahh??”
Everyone’s heads in the classroom lifted up almost instantly. It was cloudy outside.
There goes my plans to walk home with Hirose today….
Nakamura snapped out of his thoughts and looked around the classroom, observing his fellow classmates. Although, of course, his eyes ended up on the love of his life, Hirose. GAH! The way his big round eyes ended reacted to the thunder… or was it the loudness of his friends? Probably that. Hirose didn’t seem like the type to be afraid of thunder.
“Alright class, get back to work. Just some thunder.” yelled Otogiri sensei over all the ruckus everyone was causing.
Like Nakamura was doing his work. Hirose was just too distracting! Yet again…if he brought home another bad test grade, his mom would absolutely get on his ass. That was enough to convince him to get back to work (no one should EVER mess with Miss Nakamura). One more glance at Hirose and he’d get back to work for sure! Except this time he stared at his love with confusion. Something was off. Hirose looked more… tense? Whatever it was, it was something entirely new coming from the boy. And Nakamura wasn’t sure if he liked it.
He didn’t get any work done that afternoon.
Nakamura was doodling away just as the last bell rang. It wasn’t raining as much and lightning was absolutely nowhere in sight. Maybe he could still ask Hirose if he wanted to walk home together! Packing up his stuff quickly, Nakamura steadily started on his way to Hirose’s desk. As the chestnut haired boy was slowly packing up his belongings, a tall shadow cast over him.
“H-H-Hey…”
“Oh! Nakamura! What’s up?”
Just him acknowledging his presence sent the boy into a spiral. Nakamura jumped a bit, noticeably more red now.
“W-Would you… like to walk home with me…? Hirose?” voice shaking.
“Yeah! Just need to turn in something really quick.”
“O-Of course!” yelled Nakamura as Hirose began to walk up to the front.
I wonder why he looked so tense earlier? Was it the thunder…? No…maybe in thinking too deep into this. But it IS Hirose we’re talking about… hm, I wonder if he really is…
“Nakamura! Let’s go?” yelled Hirose from the doors
“Mmm!”
—------------------------
As the two were exiting the school building, the clouds started to get darker. Hirose didn’t like this!
Crap… is it seriously going to start raining again? Well, whatever. Rain is fine. I just hope it doesn’t start thundering… That’d be embarrassing to explain to Nakamura.
Hirose wasn’t too fond of thunderstorms ever since that one event. Recently, there have only been thunderstorms at night, which was a good thing for Hirose. No one knew about this “childish” fear of thunder (at least he thought it was childish).
“Hirose-kun?...It looks like it might start to rain.”
“E-eh? Oh! Yeah…”
Hirose wanted to make a run for it to his house before it could get bad, but he didn’t want to leave Nakamura-kun all by himself. He couldn’t. That was rude! Afterall, Nakamura probably had to gather up a bunch of courage to ask him to walk home today. He knew how shy he was. But…
“Do you like rain, Hirose-kun?” questioned Nakamura.
Hirose… Hirose-kun… His voice sounds so soft… so… pretty. Wait, what?! Pretty? Why am I thinking like that? That’s so weird! Ah-! Nakamura’s question!
“Hmm… I think it’s alright!” he casually said while tucking his hands behind his head.
“How about you, Nakamura?”
“A-ah… well I think rain is quite nice. It makes for nice background noise. Everything looks pretty too… being glossy from the rain.”
“Hmm… I guess you’re right… I never really thought about it like that.”
“Especially when-”
BOOM!
—------------------------
“Ah- It’s starting to thunder again. It sounds nearby too.” Nakamura said while staring at the cloudy sky.
“Hirose-kun, do you wanna-”
Eh?!
Nakamura stared at Hirose who was frozen in shock after the loud sound.
So Hirose really is afraid of thunder… What should I do?!?! We shouldn’t just stand here in the rain! Crap!
Nakamura grabbed the younger boy’s wrist and ran towards shelter.With no objections, the two boys found themselves running almost hand in hand in the rain.
Wait! I didn’t ask if he was okay with that…! What if he’s not afraid and just got a little startled? That’s a completely normal reaction…! Gwah! I might’ve screwed up…
“Sorry…” muttered Nakamura while checking back on Hirose.
They both were now standing under a bus stop area. Definitely not the best “shelter”, but at least they weren’t wet. That’s when he noticed. Hirose. He was scared. He was wet, cold, and shivering. Hirose…he-he looked like a lost, wet puppy.
“H-Hirose…”
His heart was pounding so fast it felt like it was going to break. That’s it. He was heartbroken. Seeing him like this was something he hadn’t imagined before. What was he going to do?!?!
“Ah-! Nakamura-kun…”
“YES?!” he responded a little too loudly.
“Could you tell?”
“Huh…? Oh! Well, you looked a little tense and thought maybe it was the thunder — I’M SORRY HIROSE-KUN! I shouldn’t have dragged you like that without asking!” It was totally clear at this point that he was panicking and rambling.
“Nakamura! It’s okay! It’s alright! Calm down-ahHHH!”
It was loud. The thunder. And it certainly wasn’t helping cool down Nakamura’s mind. His mind was so clogged in fact that he didn’t notice that his little “friend” had clung onto his shoulder in shock, until now.
EHHHH?!??! WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?! H-HIROSE… H-HE’S… HOLDING ME…! Have my dreams come true?!? He’s so warm… and his hands compared to mine are so tiny!... and a little sweaty… I’M IN HEAVEN! W-Wait–! Hirose! He’s scared-! Crap, what do I say? Don’t mess this up, Okuto! Don’t mess this up!
“Hey… H-Hirose. You’re scared of thunder, aren’t you?”
“...Yeah.”
“I see…”
After some awkward silence (he was figuring out what to say in this moment), Nakamura spoke up.
“Theres nothing wrong with that. It’s normal.”
“R-Really? You think so?
“Mhm.”
“I thought it was kinda childish actually-”
“It’s not! Tons of people aren’t fond of thunder and I don’t think you should be ashamed of that.”
Hirose’s grip on Nakamura tightened after that. Nakamura didn’t know if it was because of the thunder or because of what he said, but he liked to think it was the latter.
“You should’ve told me earlier so we could’ve gone to the convenience store or something…”
“Yeah, sorry about that Nakamura.”
“NO NO NO! It’s fine! Really! I don’t mind sitting here with you.”
In fact, I really enjoy it… but I can’t tell him that! Not right now at least…
“Thanks”
“Of course!”
“You’re really nice, you know that, right? Nakamura?”
“E-EH?! I think you’re overexaggerating it…”
“Haha! If that’s what you want to think, then sure.”
The two of them remained seated under the bus stop. Hirose was still holding onto Nakamura as the thunder continued and Nakamura wasn’t complaining one bit!
“Sorry, do you find this weird-?”
NO! NO! NO! PLEASE DON’T LET GO!
“A-AH! NO! Not really.”
As long as you feel safe…
“Alright…thank god…” Hirose whispered the last part.
“Uhm Hirose?”
“Is there any reason you don’t like thunder? I-I mean, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I’m just curious…”
“I was locked out once. Out of the house.”
“E-Eh?! But- why?”
“My parents said they forgot, but I know that’s probably not true. They were mad at me that day, so I just figured that’s why they left me out.”
“WHAT?!?! Y-Your parents did that? Seriously?”
“Mmm… Let’s just say it wasn’t so fun.”
The hell? Are his parents always like that? Who in their right minds would leave their child courtside in a storm? And it was Hirose! Hirose sitting alone in the rain… scared…
“But hey! At least I'm not alone now!”
“A-Ah…mmh! To be honest… Me too. I’m glad I’m not alone right now.” said Nakamura, smiling
—------------------------
That smile. It was just a smile. Then why did it affect him so much? And no… It wasn’t just a smile. It was Nakamura’s smile. Wait, what difference did it make? Everyone smiles. But. Nakamura… Nakamura Okuto rarely ever smiled. His smile looked so nice. So warm. Comforting. Reassuring. Safe. It felt safe. Hirose loved his friends of course, but he never felt like he could trust them when it came to something serious. Nakamura though, he always felt safe with him for some reason. Hirose probably wouldn’t guess the reason for it in a while, but that was fine. All that matters is this moment with Nakamura right now. Just the two of them.
“Y-Yeah… It’s nice” Hirose mumbled with slightly rosy cheeks.
Nakamura stared at him for a second before looking back out to the sky. The two of them sat there for the next 10 minutes. Hirose, still holding onto Nakamura’s arm, broke the peaceful silence between them.
“Don’t mention this to anyone else, alright?”
“O-Of course! I don’t really talk much anyway…”
“Heh. Thanks, Okuto.”