Magical Paw Prints, 6/9
Title: Magical Paw Prints
Chapter: 6/9
Rating: G
1 2 3 4 5
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The Morimoto family’s house was a pretty detached house with two floors and many windows. It looked a lot like any ordinary muggle house in the same town, despite the strangely tall chimney and the bright green color of the walls. The house was located by the side of a small hill, right in the edge of an old forest. The nearest neighbors were half a kilometer away and the town center was behind a walk of twenty minutes.
They waded through the snowy back yard into the forest, and kept walking until they were far enough that Shintaro was sure his family members wouldn’t be able to see or hear them even if someone happened to come out of the house.
“I think it’s safe here,” Shintaro said, grinned, and changed. It felt weird and exciting at the same time to see a wolf in the deep of the forest like that and Juri was happy it was just Shintaro, not the real predator.
Hokuto didn’t waste more time, changing right after Shintaro. He took a few steps in the soft white substance, marveling the way it carried some of his weight. Then he made a big leap and crouched low enough that he vanished into the deep snow. He seemed to really enjoy himself.
Taiga changed too, but the transfiguration wasn’t quite as graceful as everyone knew he had wished. Unlike Hokuto’s wide paws Taiga’s thin toes didn’t help him to stay on the snow at all, and when he jumped into the snow he soon found himself half buried in it, only his spread wings keeping him on the surface.
“Need help?” Kouchi asked and offered his hand for Taiga who eagerly reached his leg from the snow and grabbed the boy’s sleeve with his claws. As soon as Kouchi lifted him up from the snow Taiga flew up to some branch of the nearest tree, shook his wings and tail and fluffed up all his feathers for a moment, probably to warm himself after the surprise snow bath.
Learning from Taiga’s mistake, Kouchi trampled the snow under his feet before changing. The small squirrel in his grey winter fur didn’t mind the coldness of the snow at all, and easily jumped around, following the big footprints of his friends.
Juri hesitated a moment, knowing how Jesse felt about the matter. He shifted closer to his best friend and gently nudged Jesse’s arm with his elbow.
“Are you all right?” he asked quietly, keeping his eyes at the others who were already finding out about all the new ways of enjoying the wintry forest.
“Yeah,” Jesse said and managed to offer Juri a small smile, “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m a big boy.”
“Even big boys feel lonely sometimes,” Juri pointed out and Jesse shrugged
“I guess. Thank you. But I really meant it. Just change already; I know you want to.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” Juri insisted even though Jesse had guessed right.
“You aren’t going to flee into the forest right after changing, are you?” Jesse asked and smiled a little, “Come on, I want to play with the most magical sheep dog in the world!”
Juri wasn’t sure if Jesse’s was praising or insulting him but he didn’t mind either one. Instead, he obeyed like a well-trained puppy should, and concentrated on thinking about the black-and-white fur, four paws, the waving tail and the endless stream of sensory perceptions that being a dog caused.
The soft snow was cool under Juri's paws but not actually cold. It smelled of winter and forest, and Juri could even feel the faint scent of the frozen ground when pushing his nose deep into the snow. The others had already vanished deeper into the forest but he could still hear them as if they had been standing right next to him; Taiga’s sharp cry and Kouchi’s short screeches, mixed with Shintaro’s howls and Hokuto’s husky call that was much alike to domesticated cats’ meows but notably lower and deeper.
“You’re an adorable dog, did you know that?” Jesse said and crouched next to Juri, scratching him behind his ears and laughing softly when Juri immediately tilted his head towards the touch and answered with a whiny noise, waving his tail rapidly. He couldn’t help himself; the scratching always felt almost heavenly good.
“Come on, let’s go to the others,” Jesse said and got up again, “Seek, boy!”
Juri nodded and started to trot towards the noises further away. He would have found them even without hearing them though, with the all messed-up trails in the snow and their very distinctive smells hanging in the air. Juri found it interesting that despite the others’ animal forms he still liked two smells the best. Shintaro’s, for obvious reasons but also because the scent of the wolf was familiar enough to Juri’s canine sense of smell. The other pleasing smell was Jesse’s whose individual scent Juri had always liked and it got even better when his senses were heightened like they were at the moment.
While Jesse slowly waded forward, following the trails in the snow, Juri ran in a circle around him, enjoying the ease of running like that and wanting to make sure Jesse wouldn’t feel lonely.
On a sudden whim Juri threw himself into the ground and rolled around in the snow, enjoying himself to the fullest.
“Juri, catch!” Jesse cried out and threw a small ball of snow into the air. The sight made Juri’s dog instincts soar in excitement when he locked his eyes into the snowball and sprang after it, catching it into his mouth. However, since the temperature was well under zero, the fragile ball made of frosty snow immediately broke in his teeth, turning back into separate snowflakes. Juri shook his head with a bark. Jesse laughed and made a new snowball to throw.
As they continued their silly game Juri wondered if this was how his own Chihuahua back at home always felt when he played with her? She was always eager to play with him, always waved her tail and cuddled close when Juri gave her his attention, and suddenly Juri understood why she always loved his attention so much. Jesse was playing with him and scratching him whenever he was close enough; he was offering his his full attention to Juri all the time; how could he not love the boy for that?
Despite all its complexity and intelligence, the dog’s mind was very simple after all.
Talk about people he loved, Juri thought and glanced across the opening in the forest. They had found the other four who still kept playing in the snow. Juri barked when he saw the others and Shintaro immediately looked up, answering with another eager bark before he ran to Juri and tackled him on the snow.
The wolf was much bigger than Juri’s Border Collie form and for a moment Juri felt quite intimidated when lying on his back under the big animal, and his instincts quickly signaled for an instant surrender. He whined quietly and nudged Shintaro’s front legs with his paws. Shintaro answered with a soft growl and leaned down to lick Juri’s nose until Jesse coughed loudly. Juri startled and wriggled himself free, glancing around to see if the others had noticed their short moment of affection. They had, but apparently they hadn't seen anything weird in it as no-one questioned it in any way.
Juri barked at Shintaro again and happily realized he understood Shintaro’s answer better than Kouchi and Taiga’s screeches or Hokuto’s mewls. Shintaro seemed to be on the same wavelength with him as he happily waved his tail and turned around, jumping towards Jesse at the same time with Juri. Jesse couldn’t hold his ground against the two strong animals and fell down to the snow, laughing and hugging his friends as they thoroughly licked his face instead.
“Eww, guys you’re drooling,” Jesse complained but he was still smiling - for a short moment. The smile turned into a surprised yell when Hokuto attacked him from behind and the poor boy got the snow wash of his life. “And you’re heavy too!” he continued when he finally managed to sit up again, Juri and Shintaro sitting on his lap and Hokuto leaning against his shoulders with his front paws.
“Yes, yes I know you two aren't,” Jesse said when Kouchi jumped from the tree on his knee, and Taiga landed onto the tip of his shoe.
It was good to see Jesse smiling like that, Juri thought and lowered his head on the boy's lap. He wished Jesse, too, would learn the spell quickly, even though Jesse being a mere human clearly didn’t stop them from playing together.
“Better like this?” Hokuto suddenly asked and Juri glanced up to see the other boy’s smiling face behind Jesse’s shoulders.
“You were lighter as a lynx,” Jesse teased, but he did seem to be happy for Hokuto changing back.
Hokuto made a face, changed again, and scooped a full pawful of snow on Jesse’s face, meowing lowly, and everyone laughed in their own more or less human ways.
They stayed in the forest until everyone started to feel a bit cold despite the warm fur that most of them had and very hungry, and they decided they had better to start walking towards Shintaro’s home again.
“What if someone sees the footprints?” Kouchi asked when they were standing by the back yard of the Morimoto house, all in their human selves again. Shintaro shook his head nonchalantly.
“No-one ever goes that deep into the forest and even if they did the footprints will soon be covered again. See, it’s already snowing.”
Shintaro was right; small white flakes were falling from the slowly darkening sky, and Juri couldn't help a soft smile when he watched some flakes landing on Shintaro's face and melting there.
-
“There you are,” Shintaro’s mother said when the six boys finally dragged themselves into the house again, "I was already wondering if you were going to come back at all."
The dinner (boiled potatoes and chicken sauce accompanied with a huge bowl of green salad) was as delicious as the lunch had been and after having eaten their stomachs full the six boys wished they could just apparate back to Shintaro's room instead of having to climb upstairs where they hung around the same way as earlier; talking, joking, laughing, and enjoying the blessed freedom of the long Christmas holiday.
“Ryu, what’s the time?” Shintaro hollered and knocked on the thin wall between his and Ryutaro's rooms.
“It’s half past seven and you don’t need to shout inside the house,” his mother yelled from downstairs, “your brother is not at home.”
Juri couldn't help grinning smugly at Shintaro's confused frown when the boy leaned back against the headboard of his bed, presumably trying to remember if he had seen Ryutaro leaving after the dinner. Juri was secretly happy about it, knowing he was guilty for Shintaro having been too distracted to pay much attention on anything but him during the last half an hour.
Jesse would scold him later but it had been way too funny to brush his feet against Shintaro’s every now and then and see the boy trying to hide his smile, and keep the connection between their gazes just a second too long every time their eyes met.
It was Shintaro’s fault anyway, he reasoned and rolled around to lie on his stomach instead, leaning his chin against his palms and trying to look like he was actually listening to Hokuto and Kouchi's debate about some muggle world thing. Shintaro’s mere closeness made him want to do all the stupid things that left him feeling excited and warm all over. Usually he wasn’t very fond of public demonstrations of affection but secret actions were a whole other thing.
It was still a few hours until midnight, and to kill time the boys decided to make some new year’s resolutions.
“I will not be late from the lessons again,” Hokuto solemnly promised, emitting bursts of laughter from his friends.
“That one will be broken before the first day of February,” Kouchi pointed out but Hokuto didn’t seem to be bothered.
“It’s the attempt that counts,” he declared with a serious face.
“Is it a real attempt if you don’t even believe in it yourself?” Taiga asked. Hokuto made a face and threw him with a worn t-shirt that happened to lay around on Shintaro's floor.
“Have some faith in me!”
“Very rarely,” Taiga chuckled and dodged the flying bundle of fabric, “I will--”
“You will be nice to my sister,” Shintaro said with a grimace and Taiga raised his eyebrows in confusion.
“What kind of a resolution is that?”
“Oh, come on. You cannot be that blind. You must have noticed she’s totally in love with you,” Shintaro snorted. “I just want you to be nice to her.”
“I don’t think I’m feeling the same way though,” Taiga said apologetically and Shintaro shook his head quickly.
“No, no. I didn’t mean that. Just, in case she'd actually confess to you. No matter what your answer is, I want you to be nice to her.”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t be?” Taiga asked, looking, if possible, even more confused.
“Nothing,” Shintaro said and shrugged. “I just wanted to make sure. Because, you know. I’ll beat up anyone who ever hurts my little sister’s feelings on purpose.”
“Relax,” Taiga chuckled, “It’s okay. I promise.”
“Now make a real new year’s resolution,” Hokuto demanded but Taiga shook his head.
“Nope. One resolution per year. Try again next year.”
“I will learn the Animagus spell,” Jesse promised with a confirming nod, and everyone hummed approvingly. It was a good resolution, definitely.
“I will study hard to get at least three Outstandings from the N.E.W.T.s,” Juri said, hesitating just a little bit. He wasn’t sure if he could actually reach such a goal but it wouldn't hurt him to try, right? He knew he would need every single little thing, including silly New Year's resolutions, that would motivate him to study before the final exams in Hogwarts.
Shintaro and Kouchi had to think about their resolutions for a while. In the end Kouchi settled on the same target with Juri, and Shintaro promised he would do his best to become a more studious person in general.
“How is that measured though?” Jesse wondered.
“I’ll know next year,” Shintaro reasoned and everyone laughed again.
“By the way,” Juri suddenly said, “Shouldn't we spread out our beds now that we’re still awake? It’s always so annoying to try making a bed when you’re tired enough that you'd be ready to sleep on the bare floor.”
“You've got a point,” Shintaro said and nodded, “Come on guys, help me. We have enough spare mattresses and pillows and blankets but I’ll never get them all up here alone.”
As one could expect, in their hands even the simplest task ended up into a heated pillow fight.
“Eat feathers,” Juri hollered and waved his wand so that the pillows in his command crashed right into Jesse and Taiga’s faces.
“Unfair!” Jesse complained, “You know I can’t do magic outside of the school yet!”
“That’s why you should join together with someone who can,” Taiga said with a wide grin, “Accio, pillows!”
Juri couldn’t do much when the pillows suddenly speeded towards Taiga, and then back to him on Taiga's command. He ducked and got help from Hokuto who sent a well-aimed Jelly-Fingers curse towards the hand in which Taiga was holding his wand. Taiga managed to avoid the curse that hit Jesse instead, and the boy’s grip on the mattress he had been lifting from the closet got loose when his fingers suddenly started to wiggle as if they were made of something very soft and elastic.
“Oops, sorry,” Hokuto cried out, laughing aloud until Kouchi’s Tongue-Tying Curse hit him straight on his back, and his next words were an incoherent mess of meaningless syllables.
“Wingardium Leviosa,” Juri hollered to the three mattresses left in the closet. They levitated through the air, knocking both Kouchi and Shintaro from their feet at the same time.
“Petrificus Totalus,” Kouchi yelled from under the mattress and pointed his wand towards one of the blankets that had still been untouched and nicely folded on the floor next to the closet. It was actually a really cool spell, Juri thought, even though it working well meant that he soon found himself tightly wrapped up inside the blankets.
“How did you even do that?” he asked in awe, and Kouchi shrugged with a wide grin.
“Haven’t you ever tried to combine two different spells together? You should!” he said and only barely avoided Taiga’s Hair-thickening Charm. Instead of him the spell hit on Shintaro’s dog that, to his own misfortune, had come to see what all the noise was about.
“Sorry,” Taiga cried out to Shintaro who didn't mind at all. In fact, he was laughing aloud at the poor dog’s confusion when his fur suddenly started to grow until he looked more like a very fat Afghan hound instead of the Akita that he really was.
Getting even more heated by every minute, the pillow war continued until across all the laughing and spell-casting they heard one, much louder voice.
“Expelliarmus!” Shintaro’s mother yelled and caught all six wands in her hand when they flew to her from the boys’ hands and pockets.
“Mum, why did you take mine, too,” Shintaro whined, “I can’t use it anyway!”
“So you won’t need to carry it around with you, my dear,” his mother said in a dangerously pleasant voice. “Now, collect the beddings and carry them upstairs nicely, and you might get your wands back before next year.”
Finally, after lots of waiting and playful quarreling the clock hit eleven and everyone moved downstairs to dress into their outdoor clothes. Shintaro’s father went out to prepare their rockets in the back yard, and Shintaro's siblings came back home almost at the same time, determined not to miss the turn of the year.
“Did your father muggle-repel them?” Juri asked at the back yard, eyeing at the rockets that were very obviously wizard stuff.
“Yeah, he does it every year,” Shintaro answered, “We wouldn’t want to explain the size of those to any muggle who might wander anywhere close. Not that many people ever do. It seems like our neighbors think we’re a weird family full of slightly twisted people.”
Juri knew what Shintaro meant by having to explain things but Hokuto was sincerely confused, it being the first time ever for him to spend New Year away from home. He had only seen muggle fireworks, and while he knew enough about the magical world to guess wizard fireworks would probably be bigger and more stunning, he couldn’t quite imagine it without seeing them first, no matter how colorful Juri and Shintaro’s descriptions of wizard fireworks were.
He found out soon enough, as Shintaro’s father fired the first rockets. They shot high up on the sky, whistling and exploding into thousands of sparkling stars. There were rockets of different colors and shapes; some exploded with funny noises while the sparkles of others formed small three-dimensional animal characters that hovered in the air and played around the people at the yard. Juri smiled when a tiny golden firework rabbit landed next to him, wriggled its nose, and scratched its ears with its hind leg.
“So this is why we need muggle repel spells on these,” Shintaro said to Hokuto who let out an agreeing hum, followed by an amazed gasp when the next rocket exploded with a loud crack and several whistles.
“Two minutes until midnight!” Shintaro’s father announced and everyone immediately turned to look up into the sky again, waiting eagerly for the time to pass.
“One minute!”
Juri glanced aside, noticed Shintaro was standing close enough, and quietly reached to take Shintaro’s hand. The boy looked over at him in surprise, but smiled anyway and didn’t let go. Once again Juri felt warm all over despite the coldness that had already started to creep through his clothes.
“Seven, six, five, four,” Morimoto-san counted, and Juri tightened his grip on Shintaro’s hand.
Everyone waited for three more seconds, their eyes following the huge rocket that surprisingly made no noise at all when flying up into the sky. One more second, and the sound of the huge explosion was loud and deep enough that Juri really felt the energy in his body. A bright ball of light broke into sparkles that slowly fluttered down on them like golden snowflakes, staying lit even when they hit the ground.
“Happy New Year!” Juri, Shintaro, Jesse, Hokuto, Taiga, Kouchi, and Shintaro’s family members yelled all at the same time.
Juri turned to look at Shintaro, wanting to repeat the words just for him, but he didn’t manage to even open his mouth before suddenly Taiga’s arm was around his waist, Hokuto’s cheek warm against his, and Jesse and Kouchi’s smiles were shining in front of him. In the middle of the spontaneous group hug Juri lost his hold on Shintaro’s hand but the way their friends accidentally squeezed them together in the middle of the hug pretty much compensated for the loss, and when their eyes met at some point, Juri decided he didn’t need to say anything after all.
An hour later they stumbled into Shintaro’s room, changed into their pajamas and crawled to their beds. They were ready to sleep but not by any means planning to do so in a few more hours.
“I have a surprise,” Juri announced with a sly smile and lifted up the small bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky.
“Wow, where did you get that?” Hokuto asked and rolled across his mattress to take a closer look at the bottle.
“At least someone in my family knows how to pamper a little brother,” Juri grinned.
“Unfair, again,” Shintaro pointed out even though everyone had already gotten their wands back from his mother.
“Pfft,” Juri snorted, “You can’t buy it but it doesn’t mean you can’t try it. I was already given a small taste six years ago when my oldest brother got married!”
“Did you like it?” Taiga asked with a lopsided smile and Juri had to admit the taste hadn't been especially pleasant.
“But I was much smaller that time,” he defended himself, “I didn’t like many other things either, that time. I'm sure it's worth trying again. Cheers, everyone!”
The bottle traveled from hand to hand, and only Taiga could take his sip without making a crumpled face, unlike his friends who made pained whines and weird faces as soon as the strong liquid touched their tongues.
“Why do people like it so much?” Jesse asked, his face still scrunched into a displeased grimace as he pursed his lips, probably trying to gather some spit in his mouth to rinse the burning taste from his mouth. At least that was what Juri was doing after one notably bigger snifter.
“I don’t know,” he said and laughed at Hokuto who willed himself to take another sip and shuddered violently after swallowing, “But they say it warms you up when you’re cold.”
“They also say it makes you feel more courageous,” Kouchi said and grinned, and Juri didn’t really doubt his words. He was feeling braver than usually, especially when he looked at Shintaro. No matter if it was the alcohol's effect or something else.
He let his gaze wander across the boy’s body; from his fluffy hair to his face that looked much more mature than his age would have implied, across his arms and legs that the loose t-shirt and sleeping shorts didn’t manage to cover. Juri wondered how it would feel like to run his fingers across Shintaro’s arms and slip them under the hem of his shirt to feel the warm skin of his back, maybe pressing closer to feel other places as well and kissing his neck and shoulders and lips and whichever place Shintaro would let him.
Fine, maybe it wasn’t the firewhisky, Juri thought and grinned at himself; maybe it was just his hormones.
Either way, he was happy there were so many people around the two of them. Without them he would probably have jumped on Shintaro and done things that he barely dared to think about. At the same time he was a bit frustrated about the situation. He wanted to touch Shintaro right now, even just a little bit. He wanted to lean against the boy and cuddle by his side but he couldn’t.
They really should tell the others about their dating, he thought with a sigh. Maybe things would be easier then, supposing everyone would be cool about it.
Would they? Juri looked around the room and studied his friends, trying to remember if he had ever heard them saying anything that would give him a hint of their possible reactions.
In the end he didn’t believe for one second that Hokuto, Taiga, or Kouchi would ever start hating them for such a thing, and somehow, he realized, he trusted in them too. In fact, it was a good thing Shintaro was the one Juri was dating. If not, Shintaro would absolutely have been the one whose reaction Juri would have feared the most. Now that he didn’t have such a problem and he didn’t need to worry about Jesse either, he was feeling rather good about it. Yes, he would talk about it with Shintaro as soon as possible, and after that they would tell the other three. They deserved to know anyway.
Jesse was the first one to fall asleep, curled up between Juri and Kouchi. Taiga followed his example and soon Kouchi was asleep, too. Shintaro fought against the sleep for a while but eventually he stopped answering Juri’s questions and Juri smiled when he covered Shintaro with his own blanket. (He didn't mind at all Shintaro sleeping next to him instead of his own bed.) For some reason Juri himself didn’t feel especially tired even though the hands of an old alarm clock on Shintaro’s night stand pointed at four in the morning.
On Shintaro’s other side Hokuto was still up, leaning against Shintaro’s desk. Juri had left his wand on the edge of he desk, bringing some light into the dark room from its beaming tip, but Hokuto's face was in shadow and Juri couldn't see his expression.
“Aren’t you tired?” he asked and frowned when Hokuto shrugged absent-mindedly. “Are you all right? Too much firewhisky?”
“It’s not that,” Hokuto chuckled and glanced at the bottle that Taiga had lifted up to Shintaro’s bookshelf so no-one would knock it over. "I just. I don’t know what to do."
“About what?” Juri asked conversationally, and only barely managed to stop his hand from moving to brush Shintaro’s hair as he waited for Hokuto to continue.
“What would you do if there was someone,” Hokuto started, hesitating, “I mean, if you thought there was someone who liked you. What would you do?”
Feeling slightly surprised Juri raised his eyebrows. Hokuto didn’t usually come across as a person who would be bothered about such things.
“Well, I guess I would ask them about it,” Juri said, remembering well how he had felt before confessing to Shintaro. “But I guess that’s a bit awkward if you’re not quite sure about their feelings?”
“Exactly,” Hokuto sighed and rubbed his eyes drowsily, “Why must everything be so complicated?”
“I don’t know,” Juri chuckled, “Do you like her?”
“Her? Uh, well. I don’t know. That’s the other problem I guess? And I’m not sure which one is the bigger one.”
“Do you feel good when she’s around? Do you want to smile at everything she says? Do you try to act cool around her to make sure she’ll see you at your best?”
Hokuto was quiet for such a long time that Juri wondered if he had fallen asleep in the middle of their conversation but finally Hokuto took a shaking breath and nodded.
“I… I think I do like him,” he said. “Her.” The correction was too hasty to be believable and Juri narrowed his eyes.
“Him?” he asked and almost felt sorry for Hokuto who suddenly looked like a child who had gotten busted in the middle of doing something forbidden.
“Him,” Hokuto finally confirmed in a very small voice.
“It’s okay,” Juri said quickly, feeling shocked and glad at the same time, only hardly able to wrap his mind around the fact that Hokuto was going through the same things in his mind as Juri was. “I don’t mind.”
“You don’t?” Hokuto asked, and his surprised relief made Juri feel awfully guilty. He should say it; he should tell Hokuto about himself and Shintaro. He should let Hokuto know he wasn’t alone with his not-so-straight feelings towards someone. Yet he didn’t know how to start.
“You like him, right? And you think he likes you too?” Juri said instead, knowing exactly how Hokuto was feeling right at the moment. “You know, I think you should tell him. If there’s a possibility that you two could be happy together… I think you should grab on that possibility.”
“I don’t know,” Hokuto said slowly and Juri chuckled, reaching across Shintaro to nudge Hokuto’s shoulder with his fist.
“It’s okay. You don’t need to hurry about it. Just make sure you 'll get him before someone else does!”
Hokuto nodded and smiled a bit, clearly half asleep already. With a wordless agreement the both of them lay down and searched a good position on their places.
“Juri,” a soft voice came out from under Hokuto’s blanket, “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Juri murmured and glanced up to the table where his wand was still offering light to the otherwise dark room.
“Nox,” he whispered the wand and the light went off.
-
The next thing Juri heard was quiet laughing and talking around him. The lightness of the room when he opened his eyes a bit meant revealed that it was morning already, but he didn’t want to wake up quite yet. It was too warm and comfortable and he snuggled closer to Shintaro’s familiar scent, pressing his nose against Shintaro’s chest and slightly tightening his hold around the boy’s waist. The soft puffs of Shintaro’s breath against his hair were comforting enough that Juri almost slipped back into sleep.
“Juri,” Jesse suddenly said and after his call Juri heard Kouchi’s disappointed voice.
“No, don’t wake him up! They were so cute!”
In a second Juri’s drowsy mind connected the pieces of information his senses offered him and he jerked up, looking around and seeing his friends around him, all smiling widely.
“I, uh…” he started but didn’t manage to finish his sentence when Shintaro emitted a whiny noise and shifted closer to Juri, wrapping his fingers tightly around his wrist.
“Adorable,” Taiga pointed out and Juri bit his lower lip, shaking Shintaro’s shoulder until the boy reluctantly opened his eyes.
“Shin,” Juri said in a low voice and made his decision right there, “Wake up. There’s something we’ll need to tell them.”
In the end everyone took the news quite well. Taiga was surprised but simply wished them luck while Kouchi was mostly shocked about never having noticed anything. Hokuto congratulated them as well, and while the expression on his face was by no means disapproving, there was a hint of something that Juri didn’t quite get. Yet he thought he knew what it was.
His guess proved true later, when Shintaro’s mother invited everyone downstairs to have breakfast.
Before Juri managed to follow the others, Hokuto grabbed his arm and wouldn’t let him go before the door of Shintaro’s room was securely shut again.
“Why didn’t you say anything last night?” Hokuto demanded, looking both hurt and confused, and Juri looked down, feeling slightly ashamed by his behavior.
“I didn’t know how to,” he said quietly, avoiding Hokuto’s eyes and cursing his inability to talk honestly whenever it was about serious things. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not that I’m angry at you,” Hokuto said, equally embarrassed by his strong reaction. “I just. I realized last night… I have a crush on a boy. I realized I’m… gay. I’ve only ever liked girls you know.”
“Technically, liking both makes you a bi instead of being gay,” Juri pointed out. He couldn’t help it. He needed a joke, even a lame one, behind which to hide.
“Not my point,” Hokuto murmured, completely unamused.
“Sorry.”
“I was afraid,” Hokuto admitted and Juri felt amazed at how easily Hokuto could say such a thing. “Of being the only… only--”
“The only weird one,” Juri finished his sentence with a small smile.
“That’s not what I was going to say but as you wish to express it,” Hokuto said and made a face.
“It’s okay,” Juri repeated his earlier words, “It’s okay to be weird like this, and you’re not the only one. Don’t worry.”
Hokuto really seemed not to worry, Juri noticed after a while when he followed the boy’s actions and expressions in the breakfast table. Hokuto kept on joking and laughing like he always did, and there were absolutely no visible signs of the insecurities he had shown to Juri during the past night and morning. Juri supposed he didn’t need to feel bad about anything if Hokuto didn’t.
- - -
Chapter 7
Chapter: 6/9
Rating: G
1 2 3 4 5
- - -
The Morimoto family’s house was a pretty detached house with two floors and many windows. It looked a lot like any ordinary muggle house in the same town, despite the strangely tall chimney and the bright green color of the walls. The house was located by the side of a small hill, right in the edge of an old forest. The nearest neighbors were half a kilometer away and the town center was behind a walk of twenty minutes.
They waded through the snowy back yard into the forest, and kept walking until they were far enough that Shintaro was sure his family members wouldn’t be able to see or hear them even if someone happened to come out of the house.
“I think it’s safe here,” Shintaro said, grinned, and changed. It felt weird and exciting at the same time to see a wolf in the deep of the forest like that and Juri was happy it was just Shintaro, not the real predator.
Hokuto didn’t waste more time, changing right after Shintaro. He took a few steps in the soft white substance, marveling the way it carried some of his weight. Then he made a big leap and crouched low enough that he vanished into the deep snow. He seemed to really enjoy himself.
Taiga changed too, but the transfiguration wasn’t quite as graceful as everyone knew he had wished. Unlike Hokuto’s wide paws Taiga’s thin toes didn’t help him to stay on the snow at all, and when he jumped into the snow he soon found himself half buried in it, only his spread wings keeping him on the surface.
“Need help?” Kouchi asked and offered his hand for Taiga who eagerly reached his leg from the snow and grabbed the boy’s sleeve with his claws. As soon as Kouchi lifted him up from the snow Taiga flew up to some branch of the nearest tree, shook his wings and tail and fluffed up all his feathers for a moment, probably to warm himself after the surprise snow bath.
Learning from Taiga’s mistake, Kouchi trampled the snow under his feet before changing. The small squirrel in his grey winter fur didn’t mind the coldness of the snow at all, and easily jumped around, following the big footprints of his friends.
Juri hesitated a moment, knowing how Jesse felt about the matter. He shifted closer to his best friend and gently nudged Jesse’s arm with his elbow.
“Are you all right?” he asked quietly, keeping his eyes at the others who were already finding out about all the new ways of enjoying the wintry forest.
“Yeah,” Jesse said and managed to offer Juri a small smile, “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m a big boy.”
“Even big boys feel lonely sometimes,” Juri pointed out and Jesse shrugged
“I guess. Thank you. But I really meant it. Just change already; I know you want to.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” Juri insisted even though Jesse had guessed right.
“You aren’t going to flee into the forest right after changing, are you?” Jesse asked and smiled a little, “Come on, I want to play with the most magical sheep dog in the world!”
Juri wasn’t sure if Jesse’s was praising or insulting him but he didn’t mind either one. Instead, he obeyed like a well-trained puppy should, and concentrated on thinking about the black-and-white fur, four paws, the waving tail and the endless stream of sensory perceptions that being a dog caused.
The soft snow was cool under Juri's paws but not actually cold. It smelled of winter and forest, and Juri could even feel the faint scent of the frozen ground when pushing his nose deep into the snow. The others had already vanished deeper into the forest but he could still hear them as if they had been standing right next to him; Taiga’s sharp cry and Kouchi’s short screeches, mixed with Shintaro’s howls and Hokuto’s husky call that was much alike to domesticated cats’ meows but notably lower and deeper.
“You’re an adorable dog, did you know that?” Jesse said and crouched next to Juri, scratching him behind his ears and laughing softly when Juri immediately tilted his head towards the touch and answered with a whiny noise, waving his tail rapidly. He couldn’t help himself; the scratching always felt almost heavenly good.
“Come on, let’s go to the others,” Jesse said and got up again, “Seek, boy!”
Juri nodded and started to trot towards the noises further away. He would have found them even without hearing them though, with the all messed-up trails in the snow and their very distinctive smells hanging in the air. Juri found it interesting that despite the others’ animal forms he still liked two smells the best. Shintaro’s, for obvious reasons but also because the scent of the wolf was familiar enough to Juri’s canine sense of smell. The other pleasing smell was Jesse’s whose individual scent Juri had always liked and it got even better when his senses were heightened like they were at the moment.
While Jesse slowly waded forward, following the trails in the snow, Juri ran in a circle around him, enjoying the ease of running like that and wanting to make sure Jesse wouldn’t feel lonely.
On a sudden whim Juri threw himself into the ground and rolled around in the snow, enjoying himself to the fullest.
“Juri, catch!” Jesse cried out and threw a small ball of snow into the air. The sight made Juri’s dog instincts soar in excitement when he locked his eyes into the snowball and sprang after it, catching it into his mouth. However, since the temperature was well under zero, the fragile ball made of frosty snow immediately broke in his teeth, turning back into separate snowflakes. Juri shook his head with a bark. Jesse laughed and made a new snowball to throw.
As they continued their silly game Juri wondered if this was how his own Chihuahua back at home always felt when he played with her? She was always eager to play with him, always waved her tail and cuddled close when Juri gave her his attention, and suddenly Juri understood why she always loved his attention so much. Jesse was playing with him and scratching him whenever he was close enough; he was offering his his full attention to Juri all the time; how could he not love the boy for that?
Despite all its complexity and intelligence, the dog’s mind was very simple after all.
Talk about people he loved, Juri thought and glanced across the opening in the forest. They had found the other four who still kept playing in the snow. Juri barked when he saw the others and Shintaro immediately looked up, answering with another eager bark before he ran to Juri and tackled him on the snow.
The wolf was much bigger than Juri’s Border Collie form and for a moment Juri felt quite intimidated when lying on his back under the big animal, and his instincts quickly signaled for an instant surrender. He whined quietly and nudged Shintaro’s front legs with his paws. Shintaro answered with a soft growl and leaned down to lick Juri’s nose until Jesse coughed loudly. Juri startled and wriggled himself free, glancing around to see if the others had noticed their short moment of affection. They had, but apparently they hadn't seen anything weird in it as no-one questioned it in any way.
Juri barked at Shintaro again and happily realized he understood Shintaro’s answer better than Kouchi and Taiga’s screeches or Hokuto’s mewls. Shintaro seemed to be on the same wavelength with him as he happily waved his tail and turned around, jumping towards Jesse at the same time with Juri. Jesse couldn’t hold his ground against the two strong animals and fell down to the snow, laughing and hugging his friends as they thoroughly licked his face instead.
“Eww, guys you’re drooling,” Jesse complained but he was still smiling - for a short moment. The smile turned into a surprised yell when Hokuto attacked him from behind and the poor boy got the snow wash of his life. “And you’re heavy too!” he continued when he finally managed to sit up again, Juri and Shintaro sitting on his lap and Hokuto leaning against his shoulders with his front paws.
“Yes, yes I know you two aren't,” Jesse said when Kouchi jumped from the tree on his knee, and Taiga landed onto the tip of his shoe.
It was good to see Jesse smiling like that, Juri thought and lowered his head on the boy's lap. He wished Jesse, too, would learn the spell quickly, even though Jesse being a mere human clearly didn’t stop them from playing together.
“Better like this?” Hokuto suddenly asked and Juri glanced up to see the other boy’s smiling face behind Jesse’s shoulders.
“You were lighter as a lynx,” Jesse teased, but he did seem to be happy for Hokuto changing back.
Hokuto made a face, changed again, and scooped a full pawful of snow on Jesse’s face, meowing lowly, and everyone laughed in their own more or less human ways.
They stayed in the forest until everyone started to feel a bit cold despite the warm fur that most of them had and very hungry, and they decided they had better to start walking towards Shintaro’s home again.
“What if someone sees the footprints?” Kouchi asked when they were standing by the back yard of the Morimoto house, all in their human selves again. Shintaro shook his head nonchalantly.
“No-one ever goes that deep into the forest and even if they did the footprints will soon be covered again. See, it’s already snowing.”
Shintaro was right; small white flakes were falling from the slowly darkening sky, and Juri couldn't help a soft smile when he watched some flakes landing on Shintaro's face and melting there.
-
“There you are,” Shintaro’s mother said when the six boys finally dragged themselves into the house again, "I was already wondering if you were going to come back at all."
The dinner (boiled potatoes and chicken sauce accompanied with a huge bowl of green salad) was as delicious as the lunch had been and after having eaten their stomachs full the six boys wished they could just apparate back to Shintaro's room instead of having to climb upstairs where they hung around the same way as earlier; talking, joking, laughing, and enjoying the blessed freedom of the long Christmas holiday.
“Ryu, what’s the time?” Shintaro hollered and knocked on the thin wall between his and Ryutaro's rooms.
“It’s half past seven and you don’t need to shout inside the house,” his mother yelled from downstairs, “your brother is not at home.”
Juri couldn't help grinning smugly at Shintaro's confused frown when the boy leaned back against the headboard of his bed, presumably trying to remember if he had seen Ryutaro leaving after the dinner. Juri was secretly happy about it, knowing he was guilty for Shintaro having been too distracted to pay much attention on anything but him during the last half an hour.
Jesse would scold him later but it had been way too funny to brush his feet against Shintaro’s every now and then and see the boy trying to hide his smile, and keep the connection between their gazes just a second too long every time their eyes met.
It was Shintaro’s fault anyway, he reasoned and rolled around to lie on his stomach instead, leaning his chin against his palms and trying to look like he was actually listening to Hokuto and Kouchi's debate about some muggle world thing. Shintaro’s mere closeness made him want to do all the stupid things that left him feeling excited and warm all over. Usually he wasn’t very fond of public demonstrations of affection but secret actions were a whole other thing.
It was still a few hours until midnight, and to kill time the boys decided to make some new year’s resolutions.
“I will not be late from the lessons again,” Hokuto solemnly promised, emitting bursts of laughter from his friends.
“That one will be broken before the first day of February,” Kouchi pointed out but Hokuto didn’t seem to be bothered.
“It’s the attempt that counts,” he declared with a serious face.
“Is it a real attempt if you don’t even believe in it yourself?” Taiga asked. Hokuto made a face and threw him with a worn t-shirt that happened to lay around on Shintaro's floor.
“Have some faith in me!”
“Very rarely,” Taiga chuckled and dodged the flying bundle of fabric, “I will--”
“You will be nice to my sister,” Shintaro said with a grimace and Taiga raised his eyebrows in confusion.
“What kind of a resolution is that?”
“Oh, come on. You cannot be that blind. You must have noticed she’s totally in love with you,” Shintaro snorted. “I just want you to be nice to her.”
“I don’t think I’m feeling the same way though,” Taiga said apologetically and Shintaro shook his head quickly.
“No, no. I didn’t mean that. Just, in case she'd actually confess to you. No matter what your answer is, I want you to be nice to her.”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t be?” Taiga asked, looking, if possible, even more confused.
“Nothing,” Shintaro said and shrugged. “I just wanted to make sure. Because, you know. I’ll beat up anyone who ever hurts my little sister’s feelings on purpose.”
“Relax,” Taiga chuckled, “It’s okay. I promise.”
“Now make a real new year’s resolution,” Hokuto demanded but Taiga shook his head.
“Nope. One resolution per year. Try again next year.”
“I will learn the Animagus spell,” Jesse promised with a confirming nod, and everyone hummed approvingly. It was a good resolution, definitely.
“I will study hard to get at least three Outstandings from the N.E.W.T.s,” Juri said, hesitating just a little bit. He wasn’t sure if he could actually reach such a goal but it wouldn't hurt him to try, right? He knew he would need every single little thing, including silly New Year's resolutions, that would motivate him to study before the final exams in Hogwarts.
Shintaro and Kouchi had to think about their resolutions for a while. In the end Kouchi settled on the same target with Juri, and Shintaro promised he would do his best to become a more studious person in general.
“How is that measured though?” Jesse wondered.
“I’ll know next year,” Shintaro reasoned and everyone laughed again.
“By the way,” Juri suddenly said, “Shouldn't we spread out our beds now that we’re still awake? It’s always so annoying to try making a bed when you’re tired enough that you'd be ready to sleep on the bare floor.”
“You've got a point,” Shintaro said and nodded, “Come on guys, help me. We have enough spare mattresses and pillows and blankets but I’ll never get them all up here alone.”
As one could expect, in their hands even the simplest task ended up into a heated pillow fight.
“Eat feathers,” Juri hollered and waved his wand so that the pillows in his command crashed right into Jesse and Taiga’s faces.
“Unfair!” Jesse complained, “You know I can’t do magic outside of the school yet!”
“That’s why you should join together with someone who can,” Taiga said with a wide grin, “Accio, pillows!”
Juri couldn’t do much when the pillows suddenly speeded towards Taiga, and then back to him on Taiga's command. He ducked and got help from Hokuto who sent a well-aimed Jelly-Fingers curse towards the hand in which Taiga was holding his wand. Taiga managed to avoid the curse that hit Jesse instead, and the boy’s grip on the mattress he had been lifting from the closet got loose when his fingers suddenly started to wiggle as if they were made of something very soft and elastic.
“Oops, sorry,” Hokuto cried out, laughing aloud until Kouchi’s Tongue-Tying Curse hit him straight on his back, and his next words were an incoherent mess of meaningless syllables.
“Wingardium Leviosa,” Juri hollered to the three mattresses left in the closet. They levitated through the air, knocking both Kouchi and Shintaro from their feet at the same time.
“Petrificus Totalus,” Kouchi yelled from under the mattress and pointed his wand towards one of the blankets that had still been untouched and nicely folded on the floor next to the closet. It was actually a really cool spell, Juri thought, even though it working well meant that he soon found himself tightly wrapped up inside the blankets.
“How did you even do that?” he asked in awe, and Kouchi shrugged with a wide grin.
“Haven’t you ever tried to combine two different spells together? You should!” he said and only barely avoided Taiga’s Hair-thickening Charm. Instead of him the spell hit on Shintaro’s dog that, to his own misfortune, had come to see what all the noise was about.
“Sorry,” Taiga cried out to Shintaro who didn't mind at all. In fact, he was laughing aloud at the poor dog’s confusion when his fur suddenly started to grow until he looked more like a very fat Afghan hound instead of the Akita that he really was.
Getting even more heated by every minute, the pillow war continued until across all the laughing and spell-casting they heard one, much louder voice.
“Expelliarmus!” Shintaro’s mother yelled and caught all six wands in her hand when they flew to her from the boys’ hands and pockets.
“Mum, why did you take mine, too,” Shintaro whined, “I can’t use it anyway!”
“So you won’t need to carry it around with you, my dear,” his mother said in a dangerously pleasant voice. “Now, collect the beddings and carry them upstairs nicely, and you might get your wands back before next year.”
Finally, after lots of waiting and playful quarreling the clock hit eleven and everyone moved downstairs to dress into their outdoor clothes. Shintaro’s father went out to prepare their rockets in the back yard, and Shintaro's siblings came back home almost at the same time, determined not to miss the turn of the year.
“Did your father muggle-repel them?” Juri asked at the back yard, eyeing at the rockets that were very obviously wizard stuff.
“Yeah, he does it every year,” Shintaro answered, “We wouldn’t want to explain the size of those to any muggle who might wander anywhere close. Not that many people ever do. It seems like our neighbors think we’re a weird family full of slightly twisted people.”
Juri knew what Shintaro meant by having to explain things but Hokuto was sincerely confused, it being the first time ever for him to spend New Year away from home. He had only seen muggle fireworks, and while he knew enough about the magical world to guess wizard fireworks would probably be bigger and more stunning, he couldn’t quite imagine it without seeing them first, no matter how colorful Juri and Shintaro’s descriptions of wizard fireworks were.
He found out soon enough, as Shintaro’s father fired the first rockets. They shot high up on the sky, whistling and exploding into thousands of sparkling stars. There were rockets of different colors and shapes; some exploded with funny noises while the sparkles of others formed small three-dimensional animal characters that hovered in the air and played around the people at the yard. Juri smiled when a tiny golden firework rabbit landed next to him, wriggled its nose, and scratched its ears with its hind leg.
“So this is why we need muggle repel spells on these,” Shintaro said to Hokuto who let out an agreeing hum, followed by an amazed gasp when the next rocket exploded with a loud crack and several whistles.
“Two minutes until midnight!” Shintaro’s father announced and everyone immediately turned to look up into the sky again, waiting eagerly for the time to pass.
“One minute!”
Juri glanced aside, noticed Shintaro was standing close enough, and quietly reached to take Shintaro’s hand. The boy looked over at him in surprise, but smiled anyway and didn’t let go. Once again Juri felt warm all over despite the coldness that had already started to creep through his clothes.
“Seven, six, five, four,” Morimoto-san counted, and Juri tightened his grip on Shintaro’s hand.
Everyone waited for three more seconds, their eyes following the huge rocket that surprisingly made no noise at all when flying up into the sky. One more second, and the sound of the huge explosion was loud and deep enough that Juri really felt the energy in his body. A bright ball of light broke into sparkles that slowly fluttered down on them like golden snowflakes, staying lit even when they hit the ground.
“Happy New Year!” Juri, Shintaro, Jesse, Hokuto, Taiga, Kouchi, and Shintaro’s family members yelled all at the same time.
Juri turned to look at Shintaro, wanting to repeat the words just for him, but he didn’t manage to even open his mouth before suddenly Taiga’s arm was around his waist, Hokuto’s cheek warm against his, and Jesse and Kouchi’s smiles were shining in front of him. In the middle of the spontaneous group hug Juri lost his hold on Shintaro’s hand but the way their friends accidentally squeezed them together in the middle of the hug pretty much compensated for the loss, and when their eyes met at some point, Juri decided he didn’t need to say anything after all.
An hour later they stumbled into Shintaro’s room, changed into their pajamas and crawled to their beds. They were ready to sleep but not by any means planning to do so in a few more hours.
“I have a surprise,” Juri announced with a sly smile and lifted up the small bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky.
“Wow, where did you get that?” Hokuto asked and rolled across his mattress to take a closer look at the bottle.
“At least someone in my family knows how to pamper a little brother,” Juri grinned.
“Unfair, again,” Shintaro pointed out even though everyone had already gotten their wands back from his mother.
“Pfft,” Juri snorted, “You can’t buy it but it doesn’t mean you can’t try it. I was already given a small taste six years ago when my oldest brother got married!”
“Did you like it?” Taiga asked with a lopsided smile and Juri had to admit the taste hadn't been especially pleasant.
“But I was much smaller that time,” he defended himself, “I didn’t like many other things either, that time. I'm sure it's worth trying again. Cheers, everyone!”
The bottle traveled from hand to hand, and only Taiga could take his sip without making a crumpled face, unlike his friends who made pained whines and weird faces as soon as the strong liquid touched their tongues.
“Why do people like it so much?” Jesse asked, his face still scrunched into a displeased grimace as he pursed his lips, probably trying to gather some spit in his mouth to rinse the burning taste from his mouth. At least that was what Juri was doing after one notably bigger snifter.
“I don’t know,” he said and laughed at Hokuto who willed himself to take another sip and shuddered violently after swallowing, “But they say it warms you up when you’re cold.”
“They also say it makes you feel more courageous,” Kouchi said and grinned, and Juri didn’t really doubt his words. He was feeling braver than usually, especially when he looked at Shintaro. No matter if it was the alcohol's effect or something else.
He let his gaze wander across the boy’s body; from his fluffy hair to his face that looked much more mature than his age would have implied, across his arms and legs that the loose t-shirt and sleeping shorts didn’t manage to cover. Juri wondered how it would feel like to run his fingers across Shintaro’s arms and slip them under the hem of his shirt to feel the warm skin of his back, maybe pressing closer to feel other places as well and kissing his neck and shoulders and lips and whichever place Shintaro would let him.
Fine, maybe it wasn’t the firewhisky, Juri thought and grinned at himself; maybe it was just his hormones.
Either way, he was happy there were so many people around the two of them. Without them he would probably have jumped on Shintaro and done things that he barely dared to think about. At the same time he was a bit frustrated about the situation. He wanted to touch Shintaro right now, even just a little bit. He wanted to lean against the boy and cuddle by his side but he couldn’t.
They really should tell the others about their dating, he thought with a sigh. Maybe things would be easier then, supposing everyone would be cool about it.
Would they? Juri looked around the room and studied his friends, trying to remember if he had ever heard them saying anything that would give him a hint of their possible reactions.
In the end he didn’t believe for one second that Hokuto, Taiga, or Kouchi would ever start hating them for such a thing, and somehow, he realized, he trusted in them too. In fact, it was a good thing Shintaro was the one Juri was dating. If not, Shintaro would absolutely have been the one whose reaction Juri would have feared the most. Now that he didn’t have such a problem and he didn’t need to worry about Jesse either, he was feeling rather good about it. Yes, he would talk about it with Shintaro as soon as possible, and after that they would tell the other three. They deserved to know anyway.
Jesse was the first one to fall asleep, curled up between Juri and Kouchi. Taiga followed his example and soon Kouchi was asleep, too. Shintaro fought against the sleep for a while but eventually he stopped answering Juri’s questions and Juri smiled when he covered Shintaro with his own blanket. (He didn't mind at all Shintaro sleeping next to him instead of his own bed.) For some reason Juri himself didn’t feel especially tired even though the hands of an old alarm clock on Shintaro’s night stand pointed at four in the morning.
On Shintaro’s other side Hokuto was still up, leaning against Shintaro’s desk. Juri had left his wand on the edge of he desk, bringing some light into the dark room from its beaming tip, but Hokuto's face was in shadow and Juri couldn't see his expression.
“Aren’t you tired?” he asked and frowned when Hokuto shrugged absent-mindedly. “Are you all right? Too much firewhisky?”
“It’s not that,” Hokuto chuckled and glanced at the bottle that Taiga had lifted up to Shintaro’s bookshelf so no-one would knock it over. "I just. I don’t know what to do."
“About what?” Juri asked conversationally, and only barely managed to stop his hand from moving to brush Shintaro’s hair as he waited for Hokuto to continue.
“What would you do if there was someone,” Hokuto started, hesitating, “I mean, if you thought there was someone who liked you. What would you do?”
Feeling slightly surprised Juri raised his eyebrows. Hokuto didn’t usually come across as a person who would be bothered about such things.
“Well, I guess I would ask them about it,” Juri said, remembering well how he had felt before confessing to Shintaro. “But I guess that’s a bit awkward if you’re not quite sure about their feelings?”
“Exactly,” Hokuto sighed and rubbed his eyes drowsily, “Why must everything be so complicated?”
“I don’t know,” Juri chuckled, “Do you like her?”
“Her? Uh, well. I don’t know. That’s the other problem I guess? And I’m not sure which one is the bigger one.”
“Do you feel good when she’s around? Do you want to smile at everything she says? Do you try to act cool around her to make sure she’ll see you at your best?”
Hokuto was quiet for such a long time that Juri wondered if he had fallen asleep in the middle of their conversation but finally Hokuto took a shaking breath and nodded.
“I… I think I do like him,” he said. “Her.” The correction was too hasty to be believable and Juri narrowed his eyes.
“Him?” he asked and almost felt sorry for Hokuto who suddenly looked like a child who had gotten busted in the middle of doing something forbidden.
“Him,” Hokuto finally confirmed in a very small voice.
“It’s okay,” Juri said quickly, feeling shocked and glad at the same time, only hardly able to wrap his mind around the fact that Hokuto was going through the same things in his mind as Juri was. “I don’t mind.”
“You don’t?” Hokuto asked, and his surprised relief made Juri feel awfully guilty. He should say it; he should tell Hokuto about himself and Shintaro. He should let Hokuto know he wasn’t alone with his not-so-straight feelings towards someone. Yet he didn’t know how to start.
“You like him, right? And you think he likes you too?” Juri said instead, knowing exactly how Hokuto was feeling right at the moment. “You know, I think you should tell him. If there’s a possibility that you two could be happy together… I think you should grab on that possibility.”
“I don’t know,” Hokuto said slowly and Juri chuckled, reaching across Shintaro to nudge Hokuto’s shoulder with his fist.
“It’s okay. You don’t need to hurry about it. Just make sure you 'll get him before someone else does!”
Hokuto nodded and smiled a bit, clearly half asleep already. With a wordless agreement the both of them lay down and searched a good position on their places.
“Juri,” a soft voice came out from under Hokuto’s blanket, “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Juri murmured and glanced up to the table where his wand was still offering light to the otherwise dark room.
“Nox,” he whispered the wand and the light went off.
-
The next thing Juri heard was quiet laughing and talking around him. The lightness of the room when he opened his eyes a bit meant revealed that it was morning already, but he didn’t want to wake up quite yet. It was too warm and comfortable and he snuggled closer to Shintaro’s familiar scent, pressing his nose against Shintaro’s chest and slightly tightening his hold around the boy’s waist. The soft puffs of Shintaro’s breath against his hair were comforting enough that Juri almost slipped back into sleep.
“Juri,” Jesse suddenly said and after his call Juri heard Kouchi’s disappointed voice.
“No, don’t wake him up! They were so cute!”
In a second Juri’s drowsy mind connected the pieces of information his senses offered him and he jerked up, looking around and seeing his friends around him, all smiling widely.
“I, uh…” he started but didn’t manage to finish his sentence when Shintaro emitted a whiny noise and shifted closer to Juri, wrapping his fingers tightly around his wrist.
“Adorable,” Taiga pointed out and Juri bit his lower lip, shaking Shintaro’s shoulder until the boy reluctantly opened his eyes.
“Shin,” Juri said in a low voice and made his decision right there, “Wake up. There’s something we’ll need to tell them.”
In the end everyone took the news quite well. Taiga was surprised but simply wished them luck while Kouchi was mostly shocked about never having noticed anything. Hokuto congratulated them as well, and while the expression on his face was by no means disapproving, there was a hint of something that Juri didn’t quite get. Yet he thought he knew what it was.
His guess proved true later, when Shintaro’s mother invited everyone downstairs to have breakfast.
Before Juri managed to follow the others, Hokuto grabbed his arm and wouldn’t let him go before the door of Shintaro’s room was securely shut again.
“Why didn’t you say anything last night?” Hokuto demanded, looking both hurt and confused, and Juri looked down, feeling slightly ashamed by his behavior.
“I didn’t know how to,” he said quietly, avoiding Hokuto’s eyes and cursing his inability to talk honestly whenever it was about serious things. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not that I’m angry at you,” Hokuto said, equally embarrassed by his strong reaction. “I just. I realized last night… I have a crush on a boy. I realized I’m… gay. I’ve only ever liked girls you know.”
“Technically, liking both makes you a bi instead of being gay,” Juri pointed out. He couldn’t help it. He needed a joke, even a lame one, behind which to hide.
“Not my point,” Hokuto murmured, completely unamused.
“Sorry.”
“I was afraid,” Hokuto admitted and Juri felt amazed at how easily Hokuto could say such a thing. “Of being the only… only--”
“The only weird one,” Juri finished his sentence with a small smile.
“That’s not what I was going to say but as you wish to express it,” Hokuto said and made a face.
“It’s okay,” Juri repeated his earlier words, “It’s okay to be weird like this, and you’re not the only one. Don’t worry.”
Hokuto really seemed not to worry, Juri noticed after a while when he followed the boy’s actions and expressions in the breakfast table. Hokuto kept on joking and laughing like he always did, and there were absolutely no visible signs of the insecurities he had shown to Juri during the past night and morning. Juri supposed he didn’t need to feel bad about anything if Hokuto didn’t.
- - -
Chapter 7