[fic] It Started with a Smile
BREEEEEEEE!!!! ♥ ♥
Title: It Started with a Smile
Author: puddingfiend
Pairing: SuShi! (Tegoshi/Massu)
Genre: AU, Romance, Fluff
Rating: PG-ish
Summary: Tegoshi falls in love with Massu's smile. The story begins when they're five and ends when they're seventeen.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters mentioned in this story. The way I portray them most likely does not reflect the way they act in real life.
Notes: This is an early Christmas present for thixophobia ♥ ♥ It's also inspired by her since she came up with the idea of Tegoshi having one of those toy ovens and baking cookies for Massu when they were kids XDDDD
Five-year-old Tegoshi Yuya’s eyes widened as his mother revealed a large wrapped box from behind her back. The red wrapping paper sparkled in his excited eyes.
“Merry Christmas, Yuya,” his mother said, smiling.
She held the present in front of him, and, like any other kid receiving a present, Tegoshi tore it from her hands and hastily ripped off the wrapping paper. His eyes grew bigger, and so did his grin, when he saw that his mother had bought him one of those play ovens he had so long admired ever since he had seen it on a TV commercial.
Tegoshi dropped the box and ran towards his mother, attaching himself to her leg. He grinned up at her, displaying the two black empty spaces in his row of white teeth, and squealed, “Thank you, Mama!”
His mother bent down to her son’s level and patted him on the head. “A good boy like you deserves all the presents he wants for Christmas. Now, let’s open up your gift so that Mama can show you how to bake cookies! I bet Papa would want some!”
---
The kindergarteners clapped their hands together happily as their teacher announced that they would be having cookies for snack that day. It was rare that they would have something sweet. It was usually fruit or something like that.
Yuya took his assigned seat at the long table they sat at when they ate. To the right and left of him were two girls who he liked to talk to and across from him sat a boy that he thought smiled too much. This boy was never without a smile on his face, Tegoshi had noticed whenever he saw him, whether it be during class or in the playground or during lunch. Tegoshi had also noticed that this boy liked to eat, for his lunch box always came with more food than everybody else’s.
The teacher came to their table and placed a large cookie on a napkin in front of each of them.
The boy had been so eager that the cookie slipped through his hands as he picked it up. The smile on his face quickly disappeared. He stared at the cookie blankly, and the teacher rushed over, telling him not to eat it.
“It’s dirty,” she told him. “I’m sorry, Takahisa-kun, but we don’t have any more cookies. Is it okay if I bring you some crackers instead?”
The boy nodded forlornly and turned back to the table. Everybody was staring at him, cookies in their hands.
When Tegoshi saw the frown on the boy’s face, before he realized what he was doing, he offered him his own cookie, thrusting it out in front of him. “You can have mine, Taka-kun.”
Tegoshi was elated and felt something warm grow within him when he saw a smile explode across the Massu’s face.
“Thanks!”
Tegoshi blushed but was saddened when Massu tore his gaze away from him and focused on eating his cookie. That nice, tender feeling within him disappeared, but Tegoshi wanted to feel it again, so he offered Massu his juice box. He received another smile, but nothing compared to the first one, so he snatched the cookie from the girl next to him and asked Massu if he wanted it. Yes, that worked.
Tegoshi sighed dreamily this time as Massu accepted the cookie from him with a big grin. He liked that warm feeling. It made his heart and chest feel light and fluffy and everything suddenly seemed even more wonderful. But that feeling was suddenly whisked away from him when the girl next to him, the one he had taken the cookie from, began wailing, pointing at him and calling him a “bad boy.”
Tegoshi was given a time out, but it was all worth it.
---
“Taka-kun, do you like cookies?”
“Yup!”
“What’s your favorite kind?”
“Chocolate chip! I like chocolate! Mama said she’s going to give me some on Valentine’s Day!”
“Valentine’s Day?”
“It’s when everybody gives each other chocolate and cookies and stuff. It’s the best day of the year!”
“Then I’m going to give you chocolate chip cookies on Valentine’s Day!”
“You can’t. Only girls can give them!”
“I don’t care!”
---
Tegoshi wasted no time in asking his mother how to bake chocolate chip cookies. Valentine’s Day was only 2 weeks away, and Tegoshi was determined to make the most delicious cookies ever and give them to Massu. He didn’t care if only girls were allowed to. He only wanted to see Massu’s big smile and experience that wonderful, warm feeling again.
“It’s for Valentine’s Day!” Tegoshi told his mother excitedly after he asked her if she could show him how to make chocolate chip cookies. They had only been baking sugar cookies up until now.
The two of them were walking down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand. His mother had just picked him up from school.
Tegoshi looked up at his mother and grinned when she nodded her head.
“Of course, I’ll help you! Are you going to give the cookies to somebody?”
“Yup!”
Tegoshi began running down the sidewalk, tugging his mother with him. She grabbed her hat to keep it from flying away while smiling at her son’s excitement.
---
Everyday after school, Tegoshi could be found sitting at the kitchen table making cookies. His little oven would be in front of him. The bowl of batter would sit to the right, a small tray lined with a baking sheet to the left, large and small drips of cookie batter and chocolate chips everywhere.
Today was the day before Valentine’s Day.
After having lots of practice, Tegoshi was sure his batch of cookies would make Massu smile. They had done so to both of his parents.
His sleeves were rolled up, and his face was scrunched into an adorable expression of determination.
He patted his ball of dough until it sat flattened on the table. He took the cookie cutter, some heart, some star shaped, and carefully began cutting out cookie pieces. After that, Tegoshi gently separated the new pieces from the dough with his tiny fingers and set them down onto the small tray, which was sticking out from his oven. He pushed the tray into the oven and closed its cover.
Tegoshi sat back in the chair and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, sighing, like grown men usually do after working hard.
The timer went off fifteen minutes later.
Tegoshi slowly opened the oven and took out the tray with a pair of mittens, like his mother had shown him. The smell of freshly baked cookies quickly filled his nostrils. He closed his eyes and inhaled, sighing at the wonderful aroma. It was as if he could almost taste the delicious and sweet chocolate that was melted into the cookies.
Tegoshi licked his lips and knew, without a doubt, that Massu would love them.
His mother stuck her head into the kitchen and smiled. She made her way to Tegoshi’s side, carrying a small, Little Red Riding Hood-like basket. A red checkered fabric covered the inside. She placed it on the table.
“It smells wonderful, Yuya. I’m sure whoever you’re giving them to is going to love it! Here, why don’t we place the cookies in this basket? Maybe both of you could eat it together-”
Tegoshi shook his head furiously and slammed his little fist onto the table. “No! I want him to eat all of it by himself because he has the best smile ever and he only smiles like that when he eats chocolate chip cookies!”
His mother’s jaw dropped. “H-he?”
---
The teacher clapped her hands together. The children stopped coloring, placing their pink and red crayons down, and turned to face her. She was smiling excitedly at them, as all kindergarten teachers usually did.
“Okay, everyone! Let’s take a break from coloring! You can finish your Valentine Day cards to your parents later. We’ll be having our special Valentine’s Day snack time right now! Be sure to say ‘Thank you’ to ______-Sensei because she made pink lemonade and cupcakes for everybody!”
Everybody clapped their hands together and squealed in glee. The kindergarteners got up from their small desks and took their seats at the meal table.
Tegoshi took out the basket from under his desk. He had been waiting all morning to give it to Massu, but the teacher had them busy all morning, doing Valentine’s Day related activities.
Tegoshi stood up and shifted back and forth on his feet, holding the basket with two hands. He searched the room for Massu and grinned when he spotted him walking towards the meal table, but butterflies suddenly occupied his stomach, fluttering about, when he realized what might happen if Massu hated them. All the time he spent trying to make the perfect cookies would’ve been wasted…
But Tegoshi swallowed his nervousness and stomped his way over to Massu. He reached out to grab his wrist, and Massu turned around.
“Hi, Yuya-kun! Ohhhh, what’s that?” Massu asked, pointing at the basket.
The butterflies returned all of the sudden.
Tegoshi held out the basket with a shaky hand. “F-for you, Taka-kun.”
“For me?”
Massu took it curiously. He peeked inside, and the brightest smile that Tegoshi had ever seen appeared on his face. He watched Massu take a cookie out- a heart shaped one-examine it, and pop it into his mouth. Massu closed his eyes, savoring the cookie, and made a face that told Tegoshi that he had enjoyed it.
When he opened his eyes, their eyes met, and the warm sensation that Tegoshi had wanted to feel for so long poured through him, a dreamy smile beginning to perk on the corner of his lips. Before he knew it, Tegoshi was being pulled into the bear hug. He could do nothing but throw his arms around Massu as well.
“Erm… Tegoshi-kun, Masuda-kun?”
Tegoshi and Massu broke their hug and saw that their teacher (and everybody else) was staring at them. The both turned red and took their seats at the table.
---
Ten Years Later (Age 15)
Spring cleaning.
Massu hated it. He usually just stuffed everything that counted as “mess” into his closet and under the bed to avoid being scolded by his mother.
But this year, his mother had taken the liberty of going into his room and cleaning everything out herself. And she was up there, fighting a war with the chaos that had accumulated in his closet over the years.
“Masuda Takahisa, get your butt up here this instant!”
Massu cringed when he heard his mother screech his full name. He got up, threw his banana peel into the trashcan, and trudged his way up the stairs. When he got to his room, he saw his mother pointing at the floor of his closet. Everything else had been cleared out and was spread out all over his room. (It was a mess.) What remained lying in his closet were ten small baskets, all identical with red checkered fabrics sticking out.
“I thought I told you ages ago to get rid of them!”
Massu didn’t say anything in reply. He just smiled.
“My goodness, what would you need ten baskets for, anyway?”
“Well, let’s just say that they’re very special to me.”
---
Two Years Later (Age 17)
It was the afternoon before Valentine’s Day. Tegoshi was sitting at the kitchen table making cookies. The same little oven his mother had bought for him when he was five sat in front of him. The bowl of batter sat to the right, a small tray lined with a baking sheet to the left, the usual drips of cookie batter and chocolate chips everywhere, Kusano in the chair beside him.
“I can’t believe you’re still making Massu cookies for Valentine’s Day,” Kusano said. “You’ve been doing this since, what? Since our first year of middle school?”
Tegoshi shook his head and just smiled as he began peeling the heart shaped cookies from the dough and placing them on the tray. “Before that, actually. Way before that.”
“Way before?”
“Since we were five.”
Kusano bursted out laughing. “Since you were five? Oh god…”
“Shut up. It’s like a tradition.”
“Well, it’s a pretty weird tradition, baking your best friend cookies every Valentine’s Day. They’re even heart-shaped, for crying out loud. It’s like you’re his girlfriend or something.”
Tegoshi stiffened for a moment, but continued to place cookies on the tray.
“No… don’t tell me…” Kusano said with a knowing grin.
“D-d-don’t tell you what?” Tegoshi could sense what was coming and his face began to redden. He would just deny it. Yes, he would just deny it.
Tegoshi felt his heart on the verge of combusting as soon as he heard Kusano speak.
“This is one of those little girly ovens, isn’t it?”
Tegoshi began laughing out of relief. The tension left him, and he exhaled, glad that Kusano was totally off from realizing that he was in love with his best friend.
“Yeah, my mom bought it for me when I was five. You’re not going to let this one go, are you?”
Kusano grinned mischievously and shook his head. “Tegoshi has a girly oven! Tegoshi has a girly oven!” he sang.
Fifteen minutes later the timer on the oven dinged.
“Ooohhh~ they’re done-”
Tegoshi waved his hand to shut Kusano up. He needed silence for this part.
As he had did every year, he slid on his mittens, opened the oven, brought his face forward, closing his eyes, and inhaled the sweet scent of freshly baked cookies, but instead of imagining the smile that would be on Massu’s face when he would give him the cookies, nervousness welled up inside of him. He would be giving Massu something else in addition to the cookies this year.
“Ohhhh~ what’s this?”
Tegoshi’s eyes flew open, and he whirled around to see Kusano pick up the pink folded sitting on the table.
He ripped it out of Kusano’s hand before he had a chance to open it.
Kusano smiled suspiciously. “That looked like a love letter. Don’t tell me… You’re finally confessing your love to Massu?”
Tegoshi’s face was flushed red, and his heart was pounding against his chest.
He chuckled nervously. “M-my l-l-love to Massu? What are you talking about? Th-this is just the recipe to the cookies! Yeah! That’s it!”
Kusano wasn’t convinced at all. “Uh huh. But let me tell you: I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that was a love letter.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, you two are always smiling like crazy whenever you’re around each other, he takes you home on the back of his bike everyday, you two are always feeding each other during lunch, you hug more than normal fri-”
“Okay, okay! Geez… Wait, is it that obvious?”
Tegoshi’s heart sank when Kusano nodded his head and gave him a look that said “duh.”
“I’m just scared… what if he doesn’t feel the same way? I mean, he probably doesn’t-”
“Trust me. He does.”
“You’re just saying that. Those sorts of things don’t happen in real life. Really, what are the chances of your crush liking you back?”
“In your case, big. Massu really does like you.”
Hearing that didn’t calm Tegoshi’s nerves. But it was his and Massu’s last year of high school together. Despite the nervous butterflies fluttering in his stomach, he was going to tell Massu his true feelings no matter what.
“Well, I hope you’re right.”
---
Tegoshi took a deep breathe as he saw Massu enter the school gates. His hands tightened around the basket’s handle. He began walking towards him and smiled, trying to act as if everything was normal.
“Massu!”
Massu turned his head and smiled.
“Happy Valentine’s Day!” they said to each other.
After they exchanged a hug, Tegoshi handed him his basket.
“For me?” Massu said, with the same surprised tone he used twelve years ago. But this time, it was mixed with a hint of gentle sarcasm.
Tegoshi nodded his head and smiled, but a wave of nervousness suddenly washed over him. “L-look. There’s a small note at the bottom at the basket. Don’t read it ‘til tonight, okay?”
Massu raised an eyebrow.
“Just promise me you won’t read it until tonight.”
Massu laughed. “What’s with the serious mood?”
“Massu!”
“Okay, okay. I promise- Oh! We’re going to be late!”
Massu took a hold of Tegoshi’s hand and began pulling him towards the building.
Tegoshi stumbled as he tried to keep up with Massu’s fast pace. He was somewhat relieved that he was able to give Massu the basket, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to calm down until Massu read the letter.
---
“Takahisa! Dinner’s ready!”
Massu raced down the stairs, hastily grabbed his coat, and slipped on his shoes, a pink letter in his hand. He was grinning.
“Where are you going, dear? We’re about to have dinner.”
“I’ll be back soon, Mom. There’s something really important I need to take care off.”
With a flash, he disappeared out the door.
---
“Yuya, there’s someone here to see you,” Tegoshi’s father said as he knocked on his son’s bedroom door.
Tegoshi stuck his head out of his room and saw his father walking towards his own room. When he turned his head, he saw Massu standing at the other end of the hallway. Tegoshi froze. Massu was holding his letter.
They both stood there silently, and at least a minute passed before Tegoshi came completely out of his room and said, “W-we should probably talk about this outside.”
Massu nodded and followed Tegoshi to his backyard.
---
Tegoshi stood facing the dark, open night sky, arms crossed, shivering. His heart was pounding furiously, and he could tell by Massu’s expression that he had been shocked by the letter. He took a deep breathe as he heard Massu slide the glass door close behind him.
“So I guess you read it?” Tegoshi asked, his back still to Massu.
He heard Massu’s foot steps approach him.
“I know it’s probably the last thing you’d expect from me. We are best friends, after all. Have been for almost 12 years now. And we’re both guys…” Tegoshi forced a laugh. “But I totally understand if you don’t think of me in that way. It’s okay if you even find it weird or awkward. I just wanted to let you know, after all these years, how I really felt. But please, can we still be friends? We can even forget that this even happened-”
Tegoshi paused when he felt Massu’s gentle hand on his wrist. Before he could comprehend what was going on, Massu spun him around, and Tegoshi found himself pressed up against Massu’s warm body, a finger propped under his chin, his lips against his in a tender kiss that whisked away all his anxiety. Bliss rushed through him. He threw his arms around Massu’s neck and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss and smiling against his lips.
The two of them chuckled out of happiness, and Massu broke the kiss a moment later, resting his forehead against Tegoshi’s. His fingers wandered between their chests and undid the buttons to his coat. He brought both sides of the opened coat around Tegoshi’s shivering body and held him tightly.
---
Tegoshi’s mother watched the scene from the kitchen window and felt happiness for her son well up in her heart.
“It’s about time.”
Title: It Started with a Smile
Author: puddingfiend
Pairing: SuShi! (Tegoshi/Massu)
Genre: AU, Romance, Fluff
Rating: PG-ish
Summary: Tegoshi falls in love with Massu's smile. The story begins when they're five and ends when they're seventeen.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters mentioned in this story. The way I portray them most likely does not reflect the way they act in real life.
Notes: This is an early Christmas present for thixophobia ♥ ♥ It's also inspired by her since she came up with the idea of Tegoshi having one of those toy ovens and baking cookies for Massu when they were kids XDDDD
Five-year-old Tegoshi Yuya’s eyes widened as his mother revealed a large wrapped box from behind her back. The red wrapping paper sparkled in his excited eyes.
“Merry Christmas, Yuya,” his mother said, smiling.
She held the present in front of him, and, like any other kid receiving a present, Tegoshi tore it from her hands and hastily ripped off the wrapping paper. His eyes grew bigger, and so did his grin, when he saw that his mother had bought him one of those play ovens he had so long admired ever since he had seen it on a TV commercial.
Tegoshi dropped the box and ran towards his mother, attaching himself to her leg. He grinned up at her, displaying the two black empty spaces in his row of white teeth, and squealed, “Thank you, Mama!”
His mother bent down to her son’s level and patted him on the head. “A good boy like you deserves all the presents he wants for Christmas. Now, let’s open up your gift so that Mama can show you how to bake cookies! I bet Papa would want some!”
---
The kindergarteners clapped their hands together happily as their teacher announced that they would be having cookies for snack that day. It was rare that they would have something sweet. It was usually fruit or something like that.
Yuya took his assigned seat at the long table they sat at when they ate. To the right and left of him were two girls who he liked to talk to and across from him sat a boy that he thought smiled too much. This boy was never without a smile on his face, Tegoshi had noticed whenever he saw him, whether it be during class or in the playground or during lunch. Tegoshi had also noticed that this boy liked to eat, for his lunch box always came with more food than everybody else’s.
The teacher came to their table and placed a large cookie on a napkin in front of each of them.
The boy had been so eager that the cookie slipped through his hands as he picked it up. The smile on his face quickly disappeared. He stared at the cookie blankly, and the teacher rushed over, telling him not to eat it.
“It’s dirty,” she told him. “I’m sorry, Takahisa-kun, but we don’t have any more cookies. Is it okay if I bring you some crackers instead?”
The boy nodded forlornly and turned back to the table. Everybody was staring at him, cookies in their hands.
When Tegoshi saw the frown on the boy’s face, before he realized what he was doing, he offered him his own cookie, thrusting it out in front of him. “You can have mine, Taka-kun.”
Tegoshi was elated and felt something warm grow within him when he saw a smile explode across the Massu’s face.
“Thanks!”
Tegoshi blushed but was saddened when Massu tore his gaze away from him and focused on eating his cookie. That nice, tender feeling within him disappeared, but Tegoshi wanted to feel it again, so he offered Massu his juice box. He received another smile, but nothing compared to the first one, so he snatched the cookie from the girl next to him and asked Massu if he wanted it. Yes, that worked.
Tegoshi sighed dreamily this time as Massu accepted the cookie from him with a big grin. He liked that warm feeling. It made his heart and chest feel light and fluffy and everything suddenly seemed even more wonderful. But that feeling was suddenly whisked away from him when the girl next to him, the one he had taken the cookie from, began wailing, pointing at him and calling him a “bad boy.”
Tegoshi was given a time out, but it was all worth it.
---
“Taka-kun, do you like cookies?”
“Yup!”
“What’s your favorite kind?”
“Chocolate chip! I like chocolate! Mama said she’s going to give me some on Valentine’s Day!”
“Valentine’s Day?”
“It’s when everybody gives each other chocolate and cookies and stuff. It’s the best day of the year!”
“Then I’m going to give you chocolate chip cookies on Valentine’s Day!”
“You can’t. Only girls can give them!”
“I don’t care!”
---
Tegoshi wasted no time in asking his mother how to bake chocolate chip cookies. Valentine’s Day was only 2 weeks away, and Tegoshi was determined to make the most delicious cookies ever and give them to Massu. He didn’t care if only girls were allowed to. He only wanted to see Massu’s big smile and experience that wonderful, warm feeling again.
“It’s for Valentine’s Day!” Tegoshi told his mother excitedly after he asked her if she could show him how to make chocolate chip cookies. They had only been baking sugar cookies up until now.
The two of them were walking down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand. His mother had just picked him up from school.
Tegoshi looked up at his mother and grinned when she nodded her head.
“Of course, I’ll help you! Are you going to give the cookies to somebody?”
“Yup!”
Tegoshi began running down the sidewalk, tugging his mother with him. She grabbed her hat to keep it from flying away while smiling at her son’s excitement.
---
Everyday after school, Tegoshi could be found sitting at the kitchen table making cookies. His little oven would be in front of him. The bowl of batter would sit to the right, a small tray lined with a baking sheet to the left, large and small drips of cookie batter and chocolate chips everywhere.
Today was the day before Valentine’s Day.
After having lots of practice, Tegoshi was sure his batch of cookies would make Massu smile. They had done so to both of his parents.
His sleeves were rolled up, and his face was scrunched into an adorable expression of determination.
He patted his ball of dough until it sat flattened on the table. He took the cookie cutter, some heart, some star shaped, and carefully began cutting out cookie pieces. After that, Tegoshi gently separated the new pieces from the dough with his tiny fingers and set them down onto the small tray, which was sticking out from his oven. He pushed the tray into the oven and closed its cover.
Tegoshi sat back in the chair and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, sighing, like grown men usually do after working hard.
The timer went off fifteen minutes later.
Tegoshi slowly opened the oven and took out the tray with a pair of mittens, like his mother had shown him. The smell of freshly baked cookies quickly filled his nostrils. He closed his eyes and inhaled, sighing at the wonderful aroma. It was as if he could almost taste the delicious and sweet chocolate that was melted into the cookies.
Tegoshi licked his lips and knew, without a doubt, that Massu would love them.
His mother stuck her head into the kitchen and smiled. She made her way to Tegoshi’s side, carrying a small, Little Red Riding Hood-like basket. A red checkered fabric covered the inside. She placed it on the table.
“It smells wonderful, Yuya. I’m sure whoever you’re giving them to is going to love it! Here, why don’t we place the cookies in this basket? Maybe both of you could eat it together-”
Tegoshi shook his head furiously and slammed his little fist onto the table. “No! I want him to eat all of it by himself because he has the best smile ever and he only smiles like that when he eats chocolate chip cookies!”
His mother’s jaw dropped. “H-he?”
---
The teacher clapped her hands together. The children stopped coloring, placing their pink and red crayons down, and turned to face her. She was smiling excitedly at them, as all kindergarten teachers usually did.
“Okay, everyone! Let’s take a break from coloring! You can finish your Valentine Day cards to your parents later. We’ll be having our special Valentine’s Day snack time right now! Be sure to say ‘Thank you’ to ______-Sensei because she made pink lemonade and cupcakes for everybody!”
Everybody clapped their hands together and squealed in glee. The kindergarteners got up from their small desks and took their seats at the meal table.
Tegoshi took out the basket from under his desk. He had been waiting all morning to give it to Massu, but the teacher had them busy all morning, doing Valentine’s Day related activities.
Tegoshi stood up and shifted back and forth on his feet, holding the basket with two hands. He searched the room for Massu and grinned when he spotted him walking towards the meal table, but butterflies suddenly occupied his stomach, fluttering about, when he realized what might happen if Massu hated them. All the time he spent trying to make the perfect cookies would’ve been wasted…
But Tegoshi swallowed his nervousness and stomped his way over to Massu. He reached out to grab his wrist, and Massu turned around.
“Hi, Yuya-kun! Ohhhh, what’s that?” Massu asked, pointing at the basket.
The butterflies returned all of the sudden.
Tegoshi held out the basket with a shaky hand. “F-for you, Taka-kun.”
“For me?”
Massu took it curiously. He peeked inside, and the brightest smile that Tegoshi had ever seen appeared on his face. He watched Massu take a cookie out- a heart shaped one-examine it, and pop it into his mouth. Massu closed his eyes, savoring the cookie, and made a face that told Tegoshi that he had enjoyed it.
When he opened his eyes, their eyes met, and the warm sensation that Tegoshi had wanted to feel for so long poured through him, a dreamy smile beginning to perk on the corner of his lips. Before he knew it, Tegoshi was being pulled into the bear hug. He could do nothing but throw his arms around Massu as well.
“Erm… Tegoshi-kun, Masuda-kun?”
Tegoshi and Massu broke their hug and saw that their teacher (and everybody else) was staring at them. The both turned red and took their seats at the table.
---
Ten Years Later (Age 15)
Spring cleaning.
Massu hated it. He usually just stuffed everything that counted as “mess” into his closet and under the bed to avoid being scolded by his mother.
But this year, his mother had taken the liberty of going into his room and cleaning everything out herself. And she was up there, fighting a war with the chaos that had accumulated in his closet over the years.
“Masuda Takahisa, get your butt up here this instant!”
Massu cringed when he heard his mother screech his full name. He got up, threw his banana peel into the trashcan, and trudged his way up the stairs. When he got to his room, he saw his mother pointing at the floor of his closet. Everything else had been cleared out and was spread out all over his room. (It was a mess.) What remained lying in his closet were ten small baskets, all identical with red checkered fabrics sticking out.
“I thought I told you ages ago to get rid of them!”
Massu didn’t say anything in reply. He just smiled.
“My goodness, what would you need ten baskets for, anyway?”
“Well, let’s just say that they’re very special to me.”
---
Two Years Later (Age 17)
It was the afternoon before Valentine’s Day. Tegoshi was sitting at the kitchen table making cookies. The same little oven his mother had bought for him when he was five sat in front of him. The bowl of batter sat to the right, a small tray lined with a baking sheet to the left, the usual drips of cookie batter and chocolate chips everywhere, Kusano in the chair beside him.
“I can’t believe you’re still making Massu cookies for Valentine’s Day,” Kusano said. “You’ve been doing this since, what? Since our first year of middle school?”
Tegoshi shook his head and just smiled as he began peeling the heart shaped cookies from the dough and placing them on the tray. “Before that, actually. Way before that.”
“Way before?”
“Since we were five.”
Kusano bursted out laughing. “Since you were five? Oh god…”
“Shut up. It’s like a tradition.”
“Well, it’s a pretty weird tradition, baking your best friend cookies every Valentine’s Day. They’re even heart-shaped, for crying out loud. It’s like you’re his girlfriend or something.”
Tegoshi stiffened for a moment, but continued to place cookies on the tray.
“No… don’t tell me…” Kusano said with a knowing grin.
“D-d-don’t tell you what?” Tegoshi could sense what was coming and his face began to redden. He would just deny it. Yes, he would just deny it.
Tegoshi felt his heart on the verge of combusting as soon as he heard Kusano speak.
“This is one of those little girly ovens, isn’t it?”
Tegoshi began laughing out of relief. The tension left him, and he exhaled, glad that Kusano was totally off from realizing that he was in love with his best friend.
“Yeah, my mom bought it for me when I was five. You’re not going to let this one go, are you?”
Kusano grinned mischievously and shook his head. “Tegoshi has a girly oven! Tegoshi has a girly oven!” he sang.
Fifteen minutes later the timer on the oven dinged.
“Ooohhh~ they’re done-”
Tegoshi waved his hand to shut Kusano up. He needed silence for this part.
As he had did every year, he slid on his mittens, opened the oven, brought his face forward, closing his eyes, and inhaled the sweet scent of freshly baked cookies, but instead of imagining the smile that would be on Massu’s face when he would give him the cookies, nervousness welled up inside of him. He would be giving Massu something else in addition to the cookies this year.
“Ohhhh~ what’s this?”
Tegoshi’s eyes flew open, and he whirled around to see Kusano pick up the pink folded sitting on the table.
He ripped it out of Kusano’s hand before he had a chance to open it.
Kusano smiled suspiciously. “That looked like a love letter. Don’t tell me… You’re finally confessing your love to Massu?”
Tegoshi’s face was flushed red, and his heart was pounding against his chest.
He chuckled nervously. “M-my l-l-love to Massu? What are you talking about? Th-this is just the recipe to the cookies! Yeah! That’s it!”
Kusano wasn’t convinced at all. “Uh huh. But let me tell you: I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that was a love letter.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, you two are always smiling like crazy whenever you’re around each other, he takes you home on the back of his bike everyday, you two are always feeding each other during lunch, you hug more than normal fri-”
“Okay, okay! Geez… Wait, is it that obvious?”
Tegoshi’s heart sank when Kusano nodded his head and gave him a look that said “duh.”
“I’m just scared… what if he doesn’t feel the same way? I mean, he probably doesn’t-”
“Trust me. He does.”
“You’re just saying that. Those sorts of things don’t happen in real life. Really, what are the chances of your crush liking you back?”
“In your case, big. Massu really does like you.”
Hearing that didn’t calm Tegoshi’s nerves. But it was his and Massu’s last year of high school together. Despite the nervous butterflies fluttering in his stomach, he was going to tell Massu his true feelings no matter what.
“Well, I hope you’re right.”
---
Tegoshi took a deep breathe as he saw Massu enter the school gates. His hands tightened around the basket’s handle. He began walking towards him and smiled, trying to act as if everything was normal.
“Massu!”
Massu turned his head and smiled.
“Happy Valentine’s Day!” they said to each other.
After they exchanged a hug, Tegoshi handed him his basket.
“For me?” Massu said, with the same surprised tone he used twelve years ago. But this time, it was mixed with a hint of gentle sarcasm.
Tegoshi nodded his head and smiled, but a wave of nervousness suddenly washed over him. “L-look. There’s a small note at the bottom at the basket. Don’t read it ‘til tonight, okay?”
Massu raised an eyebrow.
“Just promise me you won’t read it until tonight.”
Massu laughed. “What’s with the serious mood?”
“Massu!”
“Okay, okay. I promise- Oh! We’re going to be late!”
Massu took a hold of Tegoshi’s hand and began pulling him towards the building.
Tegoshi stumbled as he tried to keep up with Massu’s fast pace. He was somewhat relieved that he was able to give Massu the basket, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to calm down until Massu read the letter.
---
“Takahisa! Dinner’s ready!”
Massu raced down the stairs, hastily grabbed his coat, and slipped on his shoes, a pink letter in his hand. He was grinning.
“Where are you going, dear? We’re about to have dinner.”
“I’ll be back soon, Mom. There’s something really important I need to take care off.”
With a flash, he disappeared out the door.
---
“Yuya, there’s someone here to see you,” Tegoshi’s father said as he knocked on his son’s bedroom door.
Tegoshi stuck his head out of his room and saw his father walking towards his own room. When he turned his head, he saw Massu standing at the other end of the hallway. Tegoshi froze. Massu was holding his letter.
They both stood there silently, and at least a minute passed before Tegoshi came completely out of his room and said, “W-we should probably talk about this outside.”
Massu nodded and followed Tegoshi to his backyard.
---
Tegoshi stood facing the dark, open night sky, arms crossed, shivering. His heart was pounding furiously, and he could tell by Massu’s expression that he had been shocked by the letter. He took a deep breathe as he heard Massu slide the glass door close behind him.
“So I guess you read it?” Tegoshi asked, his back still to Massu.
He heard Massu’s foot steps approach him.
“I know it’s probably the last thing you’d expect from me. We are best friends, after all. Have been for almost 12 years now. And we’re both guys…” Tegoshi forced a laugh. “But I totally understand if you don’t think of me in that way. It’s okay if you even find it weird or awkward. I just wanted to let you know, after all these years, how I really felt. But please, can we still be friends? We can even forget that this even happened-”
Tegoshi paused when he felt Massu’s gentle hand on his wrist. Before he could comprehend what was going on, Massu spun him around, and Tegoshi found himself pressed up against Massu’s warm body, a finger propped under his chin, his lips against his in a tender kiss that whisked away all his anxiety. Bliss rushed through him. He threw his arms around Massu’s neck and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss and smiling against his lips.
The two of them chuckled out of happiness, and Massu broke the kiss a moment later, resting his forehead against Tegoshi’s. His fingers wandered between their chests and undid the buttons to his coat. He brought both sides of the opened coat around Tegoshi’s shivering body and held him tightly.
---
Tegoshi’s mother watched the scene from the kitchen window and felt happiness for her son well up in her heart.
“It’s about time.”