Oneshot - 夏の夕日
Title: Natsu no Yuuhi
Pairing: MaruDa
Genre: Fluff
Rating: PG
Summary: What if I said it would never be as beautiful as you?
夏の夕日
Maru shivered ever so slightly as a light breeze briefly ruffled teasingly over him, pushing his slowly growing fringe about on his forehead. He glanced down to check someone else wasn’t getting their fringe in their eyes, seeing as no matter how often the subject of cutting his hair came up it stayed the same. For which he was grateful.
Ueda felt the breeze against his cheek and furrowed his brow a little, pressing closer into Maru’s side. His fringe hadn’t gotten into his eyes, because they were closed. His left hand curled loosely on Maru’s chest, his right lay on its back beside his face.
Ueda lay curled on his right side beside Maru, his forehead a hair’s width from his chest, his eyes closed, his legs drawn up to his body, while Maru lay on his back, his hands beneath his head, and stared at the sky.
By the greatest fortune they had the same day off and had spent it so far not doing very much in particular, they had gone out for breakfast, wandered aimlessly around a few shops and spent some time just relaxing at home. Then out of nowhere they had decided to come out to the park. It had been very warm recently but today was a little cooler so they had anticipated there being less people than usual. They were right. They had lain on a grassy slope with only the open sky above them and the faint sounds of children from the playground further down the slope. And the incline was steep enough and high enough that they could see the tops of the building over the trees that ringed the play area.
Taking his eyes off the sky Maru swivelled his gaze down at the horizon which was becoming a more and more rich shade of yellow-orange as the sun began to think about setting. A faraway voice from beside him pulled him back from the horizon.
“Yucchi, what time is it?” Maru extracted one hand from beneath his head and squinted at his watch.
“Almost six, the sun will go down soon, we should head back,” in response, instead of getting up or even opening his eyes Ueda shifted closer and extended his left arm more to wrap around Maru’s midsection, closing the gap between their bodies a little more.
“I want to stay here a little while longer,” Maru lifted his head slightly to look down at Ueda’s face, half hidden by the glossy copper bangs splayed over his forehead and tickling his cheeks. His eyes were still closed, not tight as though shutting out the daylight, but softly as though he had fallen asleep. The sleeves of his white t-shirt were too long and almost completely covered his hands, so only his fingers peeked from beneath the hem, curling around it, giving the illusion of appearing far smaller than he actually was, that cute face and the way his hair fell over it, and the way he was curled up did nothing to make him look any less like a sleeping child.
Maru smiled and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pressing him a little closer.
“If we stay here too much longer you’ll probably go to sleep,”
“I don’t care,” Ueda mumbled, a childish tint to his voice as he turned his head further against Maru’s chest.
“I’m comfortable and happy here, I don’t want to move,” Maru laughed softly but didn’t move, turning his attention back to the sky. It was a pale blue, tinged with the yellow of the sun as it sank slowly, lethargically toward the horizon, the few clouds that drifted lazily across the sky look as though they were once fluffy and huge but had slowly shrunk and becoming wispy and lace-like, faint grey shadows painted vaguely on their undersides, pale white-yellow glows splashed over the sides that faced the sun.
“You know, if you fall asleep here, you’ll probably catch a cold or something,” Ueda still didn’t move or open his eyes, barely stirred but to respond lazily to the statement.
“And if I did would you take care of me?”
“No. I’d laugh and say ‘I told you so’,” although this still did not make Ueda open his eyes he lifted his arm from its place over Maru’s midriff and smacked Maru’s chest before settling his arm back into his previous position.
“Ow! Geez, stop training so much, you’re getting too strong,” Ueda gave the softest of laughs.
“Wuss, quit talking bullshit,” he said in a dangerously sleepy tone, maybe he really would fall asleep right there. With a raised eyebrow Maru reached over and poked him in the stomach provoking a squirm and a small wordless and childish sound of indignance. Maru smirked.
“You can hardly call me a wuss when you’re the one curled up practically asleep,”
Ueda didn’t respond and after a moment Maru wondered if he really had fallen asleep. He stared at him, his chest rose and fell with the even breaths of someone enveloped completely in a gentle unconsciousness; his lips were ever so slightly parted, his cheek resting against the grass beneath them.
Maru blinked, he would have liked, if he really was asleep, to leave him that way, but seeing as they were lying on the grass in a public park as afternoon tripped over into the evening, that wasn’t a good idea at all. He raised the arm that wasn’t wrapped around Ueda’s shoulders and patted his arm where it was still stretched across his stomach. Ueda shifted slightly but his eyes remained closed.
“What’s wrong?” Maru sighed and smiled, rolling his eyes a little.
“I thought you’d actually fallen asleep for a minute there,” Ueda smiled.
“Mmm, maybe I did,” he said softly, a faraway tone to his voice. “If I really fell asleep here, what would you do?” he asked, curling his fingers loosely into Maru’s shirt.
“Leave you here and go home,” Ueda’s brow furrowed a little and he shifted some more, starting to pull away from Maru’s body completely.
“You’re mean today,” he mumbled, in a voice so cute it should have been illegal. Maru pulled him back instantly, wrapping his arm tighter around Ueda’s shoulders, tugging his arm back across his body.
“Maybe I’ll leave you a blanket, okay?” Ueda giggled softly and hugged him back, snuggling closer again.
“You’re an idiot,” he mumbled.
They lay in silence again for a while, with the slowly impending evening the air was getting steadily cooler, the sky becoming a remarkable mix of afternoon blue and sunset yellow, if Maru didn’t know any better he’d say the sky looked almost green.
He glanced down when he felt Ueda twitch against him, seeing his brow furrow and his shoulders hunch slightly as he curled closer against Maru’s side, his eyes were still closed, as though they were meant to be that way. He was only wearing the white long sleeved t-shirt, jeans and sneakers and Maru could feel his slight trembled when a soft breeze danced over them. Maru tightened his arm around Ueda’s shoulders and shifted his head to a more comfortable position on his hand, turning his attention back to the sky.
“Yucchi, is the sun setting now?” Maru blinked and glanced down again, Ueda’s eyes hadn’t opened, he hadn’t moved at all.
“How can you even tell with your eyes closed?” he asked, feeling a faraway sound come into his voice, just like Ueda’s, he was starting to get a little sleepy from lying here, Ueda was right, it was comfortable, to say they were lying outside on grass it was astonishingly comfortable to lie here, comfortable and relaxing. Maru blinked hard, they could not afford to fall asleep on a hill in a public park.
“The light that comes through my eyelids changed, it’s dimmer,” Ueda’s voice had dulled itself, to a sleepy murmur, as though speaking was beginning to take more effort than usual.
Maru glanced back at the sky noting that besides its slight shift in colour tone it was indeed darker and perhaps duller than it had been only a few minutes ago. Suddenly he looked straight ahead, at the tops of the buildings past the trees, or rather between them.
He shifted the arm around Ueda’s shoulder, grasping it and shaking him.
“Tat-chan, open your eyes,” he said.
They both sat up and slowly Ueda opened his eyes.
It was like the unveiling of a new masterpiece in a famous gallery. For a second Maru forgot why exactly he’d told Ueda to open his eyes, he simply stared. He watched the sweep of the long lashes as his eyelids slowly lifted, the waning afternoon light glinting off the black-brown irises making them glow, making the white glitter, he blinked twice, adjusting to the light after having lain with his eyes shut for so long, and the light of the sunset glinted off his eyebrows as they moved and cast glowing highlights on the surface of his eyes.
“Ah!” Maru was yanked back to reality at the soft sound of wonder and he realised Ueda was staring open mouthed in awe at the sunset, the rings of colour expanding up into the sky, from the point where the sun, falling asleep itself, sank behind the buildings, sending streaks of dying light out in all direction, striking the shadowed buildings through with bright white lines.
“Oh…Yucchi, it’s so beautiful!” Ueda breathed, not taking his eyes of the sight before him. Maru followed the line of his gaze and wondered if this was the kind of sight that gave birth to those breath taking melodies and soul clenching lyrics Ueda was always able to create.
Turning back to Ueda, Maru stared again at his face for a moment; with his eyes finally open it was as though a huge, magical transformation had taken place. Eyes closed, eyes open, either way Ueda was overwhelmingly beautiful, but the differences between the two, the different ways Ueda could be beautiful, this overwhelmed Maru even more.
He slid his hand over to Ueda’s where it pressed into the grass, holding him up as he continued to gaze at the sunset. But now he blinked and slowly looked away to meet Maru’s gaze.
“What would you say if I said the sunset wasn’t nearly as beautiful as you?” Maru asked softly, a little hesitantly.
For a heavy moment Ueda just looked at him, and then, slowly, brilliantly, glowingly he smiled and Maru witnessed a third kind of overwhelming beauty.
“I’d say…you’re cheesy, and silly, and the sweetest person in the world,” Maru felt himself smile back, finally at a loss for words, thankfully he didn’t need them, because at that moment, Ueda leaned in a kissed him softly, his lips lingering on Maru’s for a moment before he pulled back and slowly stood up.
Maru looked up at him, in his white t-shirt that was too big for him, his copper hair mussed from laying on the grass and falling messily over his forehead and into his eyes. Ueda smiled at him again and Maru had to remind himself to breathe. The light of the dwindling afternoon, the striking white rays from the sunset, glowed from behind Ueda where he stood, framing him in a celestial glow as he extended a hand, only half visible beneath the soft white sleeve.
“Let’s go home,” he said, his voice, his eyes, his smile, all soft, for Maru.
Still absorbing the angelic view being presented to him Maru reached up and grasped the proffered hand in his.
おわり