[fic] Letting Go
Title: Letting Go
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~400
Warnings: TezuRyo (yes, it needs a warning)
50episodes prompt: 050. Vulnerable.
Universe: Silver Sparrows
Summary: Fuji listens to what he least wants to hear and hopes for what he fears.
Fuji slid down the wall to sit on the floor, knees up to his chest and arms limp over his knees. Behind him, behind the thin wall that separated him, he could imagine Tezuka and Echizen. Through the open door that he had just pushed Tezuka through, he could hear them, could hear Tezuka. He could hear him saying the carefully prepared speech that Fuji had helped him make.
"Echizen." Tezuka said by way of greeting. Fuji could imagine that his lips had gotten a little thinner. He would be biting the lower lip, like Tezuka always did when he got nervous. Fuji wondered if Echizen knew that.
"Tezuka-buchou?" Echizen would be surprised, Fuji guessed, but it was only a guess. Fuji hadn't paid much attention to the first year brat until a month or so ago, but he would still say that Echizen would be surprised, because Fuji knew Tezuka and Fuji knew that Tezuka would never have approached Echizen before then.
There was a pause. Tezuka had probably panicked, Fuji thought, which was entirely like Tezuka in a way that only Fuji knew. The silence was loud and must have been terrifying to break. Fuji held his breath, scared to make a sound, scared to break their silence. Then Tezuka said, too stiff to be natural and too formal to be unrehearsed, though Fuji wouldn't know how he managed to make such a short phrase so reserved, "I like you."
There was another pause and then, "You still have lots to work on, buchou."
It was dizzying, holding his breath still, but Fuji couldn't let it out, not now. He didn't want this to happen, didn't want Tezuka to have to go through this, didn't want this even more than he hoped for it and needed it. It couldn't just end like this.
It didn't. Echizen continued, "Let me teach you."
Fuji let his breath out, because there was nothing to hold it for anymore. The worst and the best had already happened and there was nothing he could do now but get out of the way and let them go. He picked himself up and went to gather his things from the desk he had dropped them on. Thankfully, the classroom was at the corner of a hallway and had two doors, one to each hall. Fuji slipped out the door that didn't open to Tezuka and to Echizen, careful not to glance back.
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~400
Warnings: TezuRyo (yes, it needs a warning)
50episodes prompt: 050. Vulnerable.
Universe: Silver Sparrows
Summary: Fuji listens to what he least wants to hear and hopes for what he fears.
Fuji slid down the wall to sit on the floor, knees up to his chest and arms limp over his knees. Behind him, behind the thin wall that separated him, he could imagine Tezuka and Echizen. Through the open door that he had just pushed Tezuka through, he could hear them, could hear Tezuka. He could hear him saying the carefully prepared speech that Fuji had helped him make.
"Echizen." Tezuka said by way of greeting. Fuji could imagine that his lips had gotten a little thinner. He would be biting the lower lip, like Tezuka always did when he got nervous. Fuji wondered if Echizen knew that.
"Tezuka-buchou?" Echizen would be surprised, Fuji guessed, but it was only a guess. Fuji hadn't paid much attention to the first year brat until a month or so ago, but he would still say that Echizen would be surprised, because Fuji knew Tezuka and Fuji knew that Tezuka would never have approached Echizen before then.
There was a pause. Tezuka had probably panicked, Fuji thought, which was entirely like Tezuka in a way that only Fuji knew. The silence was loud and must have been terrifying to break. Fuji held his breath, scared to make a sound, scared to break their silence. Then Tezuka said, too stiff to be natural and too formal to be unrehearsed, though Fuji wouldn't know how he managed to make such a short phrase so reserved, "I like you."
There was another pause and then, "You still have lots to work on, buchou."
It was dizzying, holding his breath still, but Fuji couldn't let it out, not now. He didn't want this to happen, didn't want Tezuka to have to go through this, didn't want this even more than he hoped for it and needed it. It couldn't just end like this.
It didn't. Echizen continued, "Let me teach you."
Fuji let his breath out, because there was nothing to hold it for anymore. The worst and the best had already happened and there was nothing he could do now but get out of the way and let them go. He picked himself up and went to gather his things from the desk he had dropped them on. Thankfully, the classroom was at the corner of a hallway and had two doors, one to each hall. Fuji slipped out the door that didn't open to Tezuka and to Echizen, careful not to glance back.