Work Text:
1-28-15
Prompt: Childhood
“Do you remember that time when we were kids and you dared me to climb the tree in your grandma’s back yard, and I fell out?” Sousuke barely glanced up from his place sprawled out on Rin’s bunk to catch sight of Rin’s too-casual face.
“No…” Rin grinned then, and punched him in the side, hard. “What the hell was that for?!” shouted Sousuke.
“I broke my wrist,” Rin answered, still grinning, “so I couldn’t do that then.” Sousuke squinted up at him for a moment, then shrugged and went back to his nap.
“Do you remember that time when we were kids and you shoved me into the pool?” Sousuke looked up from his homework, something inside of him ringing in alarm at the look on Rin’s face.
“No,” he answered slowly. Rin grinned and stomped on Sousuke’s foot.
“I twisted my ankle,” he explained, “so I couldn’t pay you back at the time.” Sousuke pouted at him just long enough to acknowledge him, then turned back to conjugating English verbs.
“Do you remember that time when we were kids and you challenged me to see who could hold his breath longer underwater?”
Now, Sousuke admitted he was a bit slow sometimes. It just took him a while to catch on to what other people were doing. But give him a little credit, by now he knew enough to pull himself back against the wall his bunk was against, far out of Rin’s reach. “No,” he said, voice full of caution and a bit of fear.
“I passed out.”
“That was stupid of you,” Sousuke said, or attempted to say- all he could get out was “Tha-“ before Rin started pummeling his mattress from below. The little shit was stronger than he looked, and Sousuke pitched head-first out of the bed and onto the unforgiving floor below.
“You still conscious?” Rin asked. Sousuke shot up and out of the dorm as quickly as he could.
He spent the next few days on high alert. Whenever he was around Rin, he made sure to surround himself with kouhai, for distraction and sheer cute factor. When Rin was nowhere to be found, Sousuke found himself listening intently for footsteps, scanning crowds and hallways for a flash of red or a glint of shark teeth. When they were alone, Sousuke lived in fear.
He was so caught up in making sure Rin couldn’t get him a fourth time that he almost failed to notice the strange turn his friend’s mood had taken. But when they had sat in silence for hours on end for the third day in a row, even Sousuke could tell there was something up. Cautiously, so cautiously, he climbed down the ladder and sat on the edge of Rin’s bed.
The redhead lay on his back with one arm behind his head, staring at the bottom of Sousuke’s bunk. He glanced at his roommate, but otherwise did not react.
“Hey,” Sousuke said softly, reaching out to settle a hand on Rin’s arm. “Hey, Rin, what’s going on?” Rin sighed and pushed himself upright, swinging his legs around so that he was sitting next to Sousuke. He seemed to collect his thoughts for a moment, then spoke to his knees rather than to Sousuke.
“You remember when we were kids, and I got sick right before Christmas, and we were going to go ice skating and have all this fun, but instead you came over to my place and hung out with me and Gou?” he asked. Sousuke hummed in affirmation, analyzing the memory for anything Rin could hurt him for. Rin sighed, then turned to him. “I never thanked you,” he said.
There was something in Rin’s eyes, something that Sousuke couldn’t name, but that he was sure he recognized, something that had been there before, a sort of glimmer that wasn’t coming from the tears starting to build in the corners. Sousuke raised his hand to cup Rin’s cheek and brush a tear away with his thumb when it escaped. Rin took a shaky breath and leaned a bit closer.
Do not flinch, Yamazaki, Sousuke thought to himself. If you flinch, he’ll never let you hear the end of it. Sousuke closed his eyes, waiting for the head butt, or bite, or fist to the nose, or whatever Rin was planning-
Lips.
There were lips pressed against Sousuke’s. Shocked, the brunet’s eyes opened wide to find those shining red ones half-lidded and watching him back. Just as Sousuke began to process what was happening, Rin closed his eyes and began to pull away.
“No,” Sousuke growled, sliding the hand that was on Rin’s cheek to cradle the back of his neck. He pulled Rin closer and kissed him fiercely, all the awkward innocence of the previous moment gone. Now, Sousuke was in charge, and the kiss was just like him: impatient and passionate and desperate and relieved and angry and thankgodthankgodthankgod-
When Rin finally tore himself away for air, Sousuke refused to part entirely, running kisses down Rin’s jaw and neck. “Remember that time when we were kids,” he mumbled against Rin’s collarbone, punctuating his words with kisses, “and I made you do all sorts of stupid things and you did them even though they were stupid and you hurt yourself and you always laughed and smiled and challenged me right back?” He didn’t give Rin time to answer, just grabbed both sides of his head and smashed their lips together as heatedly as he could. He pulled back after a moment, leaning his forehead against Rin’s and letting their lips brush. “I fell in love with you,” he said quietly. Rin’s face slowly turned white, then all of a sudden rocketed into a color redder than his hair. Sousuke smiled and pressed three little chaste kisses to Rin’s lips. “I never thanked you for that,” he said.
“I-idiot!” Rin shouted, smacking Sousuke with a pillow and running from the dorm. Sousuke looked after him and laughed, grabbing the pillow and settling in for a nap on his roommate’s bunk.