Current mood:	happy
Entry tags:	arc: brand new endings, char: izumi kousuke, char: mizutani fumiki, fandom: ookiku furikabutte, type: ficlet

[ficlet] Ookiku Furikabutte: Something Borrowed
Rating: PG-13 for boykissing. Fufufu.
Pairing: Izumi/Mizutani
Disclaimer: Oofuri is the brainchild of Asa Higuchi.
Continuity: Brand New Endings
Notes: MINDLESS FLUFF GET. Also, a pretty Mizutani by synatri and guest comic by rainy_takako.

One week. That was what they got.

Golden Week was training camp, summer was hell on earth, and at all other times 'practice' happened whenever 'classes' or 'sleep' didn't.

In spring, they got one week off.

The first year, Shiga-sensei had explained in excruciating detail how making a clean break between one year and the next would help them become more accurately aware of the evolution in their abilities. Izumi privately suspected that the respite had more to do with Shigapo taking a holiday with his family at the same time as Momokan visited her father up in Aomori, but he wasn't going to argue if it gave him a moment to breathe after a year of uninterrupted training.

Of course, they'd all been given a detailed, personal outline of the 'light' training that would keep them in shape through this 'holiday'. If it hadn't been for those three hours of exercise a day, Izumi would never have gone out on a day like this.

He was fine with rain when it beat down hard, or when the wind blew so strong that walking against it took serious effort, or when thunder cracked overhead. But this gray drizzle that was just good enough to beat a distracting rhythm against the window... a day like that begged for staying at home, watching anime reruns and cooking shows for hours on end. Maybe even wrapping up in one of the hideous and disgustingly comfortable sweaters his mother had bought him all throughout middle school.

"Thanks for the clothes."

Still, there were perks to going out even in that weather. The most prominent one was standing at his bedroom door, fresh from a hot shower and wearing Izumi's clothes while his own were being tumbled dry.

"No problem." His eyes barely flickered between the screen and Mizutani as he flipped channels again. It wouldn't do to overindulge, or worse yet, to get caught indulging. "There's ginger tea if you want," he said, waving vaguely toward the desk.

Mizutani brought the whole tray, and sat at the other end of the bed before setting it between them, precariously balanced on the bumps of the blanket.

Between the ride home from the park that was just a little closer to Izumi's and both of them taking a shower to warm up, the endorphin high had already given way to fuzzy tiredness. A nap was tempting, only that brought forth the thought of Mizutani sleeping on Izumi's bed, wearing Izumi's clothes, purring contentedly as he sprawled againstunderaround Izumi.

Which was certainly a warming thought, but one that skirted the line of how foolish he allowed himself to be in Mizutani's presence.

Looking was fine, if it was discreet. A little daydreaming. A fair amount of evening- or night-dreaming and the adjoining activities. As far as Izumi was concerned, it was all fair play as long as he kept it to himself.

Lately, though, there had been a lot of skirting. Navigating around their teammates to stand next to him during meditation. Prolonged glances in the locker room. Casual offers of smaller study sessions, which more often than not ended up in a family restaurant halfway between their houses, swapping notes over dinner and marveling at how much easier things were to understand when the rest of the team wasn't running around.

It was all so easy, and why shouldn't it be? They might have grown closer out of a shared need to get away from their respective classmates sometimes, but they were friends, and wasn't that what friends did? Except friends didn't hope, and despite his best efforts Izumi was finding it hard to remind himself of that sometimes.

Although inviting Mizutani in for the afternoon without a plan in mind didn't quite qualify as a 'best effort'. Nor did lending him clothes that he'd known would stretch tight at the shoulders and display just a little too much skin.

Which left Izumi flipping lazily through the channels in an attempt to not let his gaze wander, as their conversation slid from the weather to recent baseball news to hypotheses about their future opponents in the spring tournament.

They were at wondering how many of the first years would live through the rites of passage that were Golden Week and early summer training when Mizutani asked, as if he was just remembering, "Tanaka's brother is enrolling, right?"

"The way he keeps gushing about him, let's hope so," Izumi answered, rolling his eyes. Tanaka was a friendly guy, a good pitcher and, if Izumi was reading the glances and nods between Hanai and Momokan right, the next captain of Nishiura's baseball club. But the way he talked about his precious little brother could be grating, especially when it made Mihashi glance nervously at Abe, afraid that his catcher would somehow be replaced by this newcomer they hadn't even met yet.

Mizutani chuckled, a sweet rich sound that Izumi never got tired of hearing. "I'm just glad we didn't have to make Tanaka and Abe play together... can you imagine what would have happened?"

"Death and devastation," Izumi said dryly. All on the head of the first idiot who suggested it, because Momokan would never have let these two on the roster for the same game. Abe and Tanaka got along well enough off the field, but never in the history of baseball had a prospective battery been less compatible. The team's combined stress level already rose tenfold every time they practiced together; putting them in a real game situation would have been disastrous.

Not to mention that Mihashi would have had to be unconscious for Tanaka to take the mound. Which, as Izumi saw it, would have led Abe to self-destruct even faster.

"And then," he pointed at the screen, where for reasons he hadn't quite followed a tennis ball was currently exterminating dinosaurs, "Momokan."

Mizutani laughed again, louder and longer. This time Izumi didn't resist the temptation to glance at him.

Too many girls in his class agreed that Mizutani was attractive, in whispers too loud to be ignored. He wondered what they'd say if they saw him like this, head thrown back as he laughed heartily, hair brushing against his neck and a twinkle in his eyes when he looked at Izumi, still amused by a joke that really hadn't been that funny. How much their heartbeats would quicken, how deeply they'd blush.

It certainly was doing the trick on him; and made it that little more difficult to stick with the decision to keep these feelings locked tight, only to be taken out as an occasional treat.

It worked, though. It was sensible. It saved awkwardness between them and dissent within the team. Izumi could have lived without the life lessons that Akazawa-senpai had felt the need to bestow upon him between quick, dirty encounters in the third floor bathroom after classes, but he'd been right on one point. Messing around with a friend was stupid, especially if said friend had only ever shown interest in girls.

Without a doubt, watching from a distance until these inconvenient feelings waned away was the sane thing to do.

"Ah, before I forget," Mizutani said out of the blue, cutting Izumi's observation time short. "Do you feel like going to a movie tomorrow?"

A few months back, Tajima had taken to tagging 'in bed' at the end of every sentence, which had been amusing for five minutes before becoming unbearably irritating. Momokan had put an end to it quickly enough, but Izumi had followed Tajima's exemple to add a mental 'as friends' every time Mizutani made an offer. It helped.

Not a lot.

"Who's going?" Sitting side by side in the dark for two hours was not such a great idea at this point, and if it was just the two of them...

Mizutani shrugged. "People from my class, mostly. But Shinooka is taking Tanaka, and Abe said Mihashi might be coming too." It had taken Tanaka five months to win Shinooka's attention, but they'd been joined at the hip for weeks now. On the other side of the scale, Abe and Mihashi were probably not even aware that they only escaped the 'official couple' label on a technicality.

"And Hanai is taking Tajima?" Izumi asked under his breath, and felt an immediate pang of guilt for it. It was hardly fair to make fun of Hanai. Assuming he'd even figured out the link between his obsession with all things Tajima and his own awkward behaviour in the locker room, Hanai had chosen to deal with it by pushing it away. As a strategy, it lacked flexibility; but it had to be less nerve-wrecking than Izumi's 'ride it out and make the best of it' option, and might yet turn out to be more effective. Only time would tell.

In the meantime it wouldn't hurt to show some support, even if Hanai's frustration and embarrassment were downright hilarious to watch at times. Izumi also appreciated the irony of the symmetry between their classes, but Mizutani clearly hadn't picked up on it.

Which was just as well.

"So, do you think you..."

"I can't," Izumi admitted with a mixture of disappointment and relief that the decision was out of his hands. "I'll be staying at my brother's for the next three days."

"Uh? Why?"

He shrugged. "Because I couldn't come to his housewarming party, and he wants to stuff me with expensive food."

"You sound like it's a bad thing." Whereas Mizutani sounded a little dreamy, probably at the thought of sushi and cake. He was way too easy to read sometimes, but that was part of his appeal.

"He just wants to show off how much money he's been making." Although this doting, overattentive Takami was a nice change from the bully of an older brother he'd still been two years ago. And from his descriptions, it sounded like his new apartment, in all aspects, came second only to the Emperor's Palace. If nothing else, it would be interesting to visit.

"What's he doing to earn so much anyway?" Mizutani asked, stretching his shoulders - exposing skin where the sweater rode up. "It's got to be something seedy, right?"

There was amusement in his voice. He was teasing, of course, and Izumi himself had said much worse things of Takami. He could let it slide.

Only... he was going to be gone for three days, and it was okay, right, to push the line a little further back? Just this once?

"Hey now," he said, his face a mask of seriousness as he carefully set the tray down on the ground. "I can't let you talk about my brother like that."

Mizutani froze, eyes widened in sudden panic. "You- But- I didn't mean-"

His deer-in-the-headlights expression was too cute, that was the problem. It had gotten Izumi in this mess in the first place, when he'd found himself thinking up new ways to draw it out.

Teasing the one he liked for kicks... well. He'd already made his peace with being a gradeschooler on that account, so that didn't stop him from launching himself at Mizutani, hands already reaching for the spots he knew were most sensitive to tickling.

Mizutani squealed and batter at his hands nervously, without nearly enough strength to be effective. It wasn't long before he changed strategies and counter-attacked, his own fingers poking at Izumi's sides as they scuffled on the bed.

Breathless demands for apologies and stubborn refusals and they were laughing, tussling for a dominant position and it was bad because it was all knees and elbows and knuckles but they were moving against each other and touching and oh, he should have known better than to start this. He should have known so much better and he really needed to stop it before he did something stupid.

It did stop then, sudden stillness and dying laughter and Izumi's brain jarring to a halt.

Of its own volition, his hand came up to his face, where he'd just felt- he'd felt- but-

A split second of warm pressure at the corner of his mouth but he hadn't done it, he knew he hadn't done it and Mizutani was pulling back a little, looking at him not in the way of a buddy sharing the embarrassment of an awkward accident but more like he was... anxious? Waiting? Hoping?

Had he just...

It couldn't be. This, something like this, it wasn't random, and Mizutani wore his heart on his sleeve and if he'd been thinking about this Izumi would have noticed, wouldn't he? He'd been looking.

He'd been looking.

And he'd turned everything into a reminder that there was nothing to see.

"Sorry," Mizutani whispered, looking away. "I thought... I shouldn't have."

Suddenly watching him squirm wasn't so fun anymore. Not when he was hanging his head, trying to crawl away, not when...

Izumi shifted his balance (the chafing of his clothes on the blanket was obscenely loud) and leaned in closer (his heart was drumming even louder). Hands shaking and throat dry, he made a silent wish for Akazawa-senpai to go get stuffed with his own advice, and took the plunge.

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