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It wasn’t easy, Yuki deduced, to be friends with Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc at the same time. Especially when the two seemed to absolutely despise each other for no apparent reason. Or, not really despise as much as just straight out trying to avoid spending more than a second together, no matter how much Yuki begged them to just try and get along.
It didn’t work. Charles still spent all his afternoons at the skatepark while Pierre frequented their high school library, which just meant that Yuki had to try and divide his time equally in order to spend quality time with both of his friends.
They were great people, don’t get him wrong, they just had the proficient talent of making Yuki’s life a living hell sometimes. Not only were they friends, they were classmates as well, and after hours of thinking, he came to the decision to sit with Charles during their social sciences lectures and with Pierre during the natural and art ones. It turned out to be the right choice, seeing as Pierre aced biology, physics and chemistry as well as all of their art projects without much effort, and the same went for Charles, except he excelled in languages and cultural studies.
Therefore, Yuki decided that getting their help with the subjects he didn’t understand that well was the least they could do for him in exchange for all of the troubles they somehow managed to put him through, purely as a result of their unfiltered pettiness and stubbornness.
However, he could swear that they were getting even more impossible lately, and after Pierre spent their entire lunch break talking his ear off about how annoying Charles was (despite them never spending any time together), Yuki decided to put an end to it.
Starting with finding the motive behind their growing absurdity.
The first day of his investigation began normally enough; just another day of trying not to fall asleep during his physics lectures, Pierre drawing in his notebook, seemingly not paying any attention, but Yuki knew that he would pass the next exam with flying colors, as always. He stopped trying to question the way Pierre’s brain worked, knowing all the answers despite spending most classes creating new clothing designs.
Pierre wanted to be a fashion designer, he had told Yuki as much during their first class together, he wanted to work with high-end brands, but he needed to finish college first, always complaining about the fact, even though they both knew he loved most of the classes, especially the art ones. That is not to say that Yuki didn’t like college, he did, it just got…a lot sometimes. Physics especially.
Anyway, back to his detective work. Pierre was unusually quiet on that day, but it only lasted until lunch, at which point he mentioned being annoyed and angry and Yuki made the mistake of asking why.
“It’s just…Leclerc.”
“Him? Again? He’s my friend, you know that.”
Pierre heaved out a sigh as he moved the food around his plate, writing down notes for their latest environmental class, trying to complete the homework that professor Sebastian Hamilton-Vettel had assigned them, with the other hand. Yuki refused to be impressed by his abilities.
“I know he is, he’s just so annoying sometimes. Like, the other day, I went to the park, to draw, as I always do on Tuesdays, you know? And he was there.”
Yuki motioned with his hand, prompting him to go on, but nothing came.
“And? What did he do?”
“Nothing, he just drove around on his stupid red skateboard, showing off and looking over at me, and I just know he was laughing at me and ugh, I hate him so much.”
A second passed in silence before Yuki leaned over their plates, hitting Pierre with his rolled up comic book, the other sending him an offended look and letting out an over exaggerated yelp of pain.
“Hey, what was that for?”
“First off, I skate too, so shut up. Secondly, how is Charles doing tricks and enjoying his time hurting you in any way?”
“It just…it just is, okay.”
Pierre looked back down at his notebook, pouting, and yeah, there were times when it was more than obvious that he was indeed the youngest sibling. Yuki liked to remind him of the fact as often as possible.
“Just make out already.”
Yuki muttered it under his breath, but Pierre heard him nevertheless, whipping his head up fast, his eyes wide, a light blush dusting his cheek, and Yuki could see that his hand twitched with surprise, making a long line across the page with his pencil. Noticing the mistake, he swore, erasing it quickly and then looking back up at Yuki again.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just saying, there’s a thin line between love and hate. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were in love with Charles, considering how much you talk about him. And perhaps kissing him would solve some of your problems”
Pierre started to splutter, talking angrily, bits of French already slipping into his words and Yuki knew that was as good of a time as any to tune him out. At least for a few minutes. He knew they’d all be spent complaining about Charles anyway.
However, he did note the way Pierre reacted when Yuki offered solving the mutual dislike without words.
Interesting.
The next day, Yuki’s schedule was filled with economics, politics and history, so he spent most of his day with Charles, agreeing to go to the skatepark with him after class, already looking forward to a bit of fresh air and a break from the more boring lecturers. And as soon as the bell rang, they did just that, both of them skating towards the park, sharing earphones, letting one of Charlie XCX’s songs blare through.
The park was relatively busy once they arrived there and it didn’t take Yuki long to recognize the lone figure sitting on one of the benches, a sketchbook in his lap. As it turned out, Charles noticed him as well, giving a long-suffering sigh and slowly pushed off towards the first handrail, Yuki by his side.
“I’m just gonna go say hi, alright? I’ll be right back.”
“Ugh, fine.”
He rolled his eyes, knowing that Charles’ flair for dramatics always increased when in close proximity with Pierre. He’d find it was weird if Pierre didn’t act exactly the same whenever the Monegasque was around. Picking up his board, Yuki walked towards his friend, the other not noticing him nearing, and only continuing to draw, biting his lower lip in concentration, his eyes flicking from the paper to the skaters in front of him every so often.
“Hey.”
Pierre flinched, almost dropping his sketchbook and pencil, looking up at Yuki with something akin to a glare, but smiling nevertheless as he picked up his things, putting them down on the bench beside him, closing the notebook, Yuki catching a glance of a skater mid-trick drawn on the white paper.
“I’m gonna get you a bell for your birthday, I swear.”
Yuki just shrugged, leaning on the bench, knowing full well that Charles was waiting for him and would undoubtedly complain if he took more than a few minutes talking to Pierre.
“Not my fault you’re so unaware of your surroundings. Anyway, I’m here with Charles and I’d say you can join us, but I know you’d say-”
“With Leclerc? No thank you, fuck him.”
“That.”
He sighed, twirling the tail of the skateboard between his fingers, hearing Charles call him from the other end of the park, and he raised a finger in response, asking him to wait just a few more seconds.
“I’m gonna go skate now, but are you gonna take the late bus today? Wanna go home together?”
Pierre nodded, opening his notebook again and picking a red pencil out of its case, angling the paper away from Yuki so he couldn’t see what the other was drawing without leaning over him too much, which would make it obvious that he was checking it out, and he knew Pierre hated it when he did that. He didn’t like other people seeing his work until it was finished. Instead, he lowered the skateboard to the ground again, skating towards Charles with the last words thrown over his shoulder.
“See you later.”
But Pierre was already immersed in his art, his eyes focused and not letting anything or anyone disturb him. Once he got to Charles’ side, he could see his eyes were still set on Pierre, the hate in his glare not as strong as it usually was.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
Charles turned towards him sharply, blushing a bit, but trying to hide it with his hoodie as he spluttered, pretending to fix the wheels of his skateboard as he spoke.
“What? I- he just annoys me, that’s all, wish he wasn’t here.”
“He annoys you by sitting on a bench?”
The other nodded hurriedly, lowering his skateboard to the ground again, testing it with one foot, seemingly satisfied with whatever change his pretend tightening of the screws did to it.
“Yes. He makes me mess up my tricks.”
“Sureee.”
Another glare from Charles, this time directed at Yuki, who in turn decided to simply ignore it and instead pull his friend towards the numerous obstacles, pushing the thoughts of the idiots he called friends to the back of his mind and let himself lose in the speed that the steep banking offered him, coupled with the added bit of adrenaline at the very end of it in the shape of three short steps.
The rest of Yuki’s afternoon flew by, filled with trying out new tricks, falling, getting up and laughing at Charles falling. At some point the other even remembered the snacks he had brought with him, throwing Yuki a bag of potato chips and a candy bar, making him grimace at the mix, but the combination didn’t seem to bother Charles, seeing as he ate both simultaneously. There were indeed times that Yuki seriously questioned the point of his friendship with the Monegasque. But then again, he did provide food for most of their hangouts, so it wasn’t all that bad.
By the time seven o’clock rolled around, it found them both properly tired, adrenaline still buzzing through their blood nevertheless. Yuki could see Pierre approaching them out of the corner of his eye and he lowered his gaze, praying to any deity that was listening to not put him in the middle of yet another dramatic french-off. Well, Monegasque/French-off, but really, who cared.
Pierre came to a stop next to them, nudging Yuki with his foot, making him look up the other, ignoring the way Charles was gripping his water bottle like it had personally offended him.
“Hey. You ready to go?”
Yuki nodded, extending his hand, making the other pull him up with an exaggerated sigh, fixing the messenger bag on his shoulder, keeping it from slipping off completely.
“You know, you two really should work out more if a few hours of this gets you this tired.”
At that point, Charles finally looked up at him, as he had been yet again ignoring him, stuffing his water bottle in his backpack and standing up to face Pierre, kicking his skateboard into his hands at the same time.
“Wouldn’t you like to see that Gasly.”
Pierre smirked, the fire already alit in his eyes as he looked Charles up and down, Yuki facepalming, quickly checking how much time they had before the bus arrived at the station.
“In your dreams Leclerc.”
“Not in mine, but maybe in yours. Do you dream about me a lot?”
If Yuki hadn’t raised his hand to hold Pierre back at that moment, he was pretty sure the meeting would end in violence, or at least very severe drama, filled with insults and french swear words that he could never keep up with, no matter how hard he tried. He tugged on Pierre’s arm, getting him to look at him, his gaze immediately softening, his cheeks red from the almost-fight.
“You can have your yelling session another day, right now we’re about to miss the bus, so could we please just…get going.”
Pierre nodded, and after fixing Charles with another hard glare, began walking towards the bus station, Yuki waiting for a few more moments so he’d be able to say goodbye to his other idiot of a friend.
“You know, I really don’t think this thing you two have going on is healthy. Emotionally and physically.”
Charles grunted as he pulled Yuki in for a hug, shouldering his own backpack.
“I’d be nicer if he wasn’t so fucking irritating all the time.”
Yuki only sighed before skating after Pierre, the other already halfway down the road towards the bus station, the sun changing the dirty blond color of his hair into molten gold. And Yuki was sure that he only imagined someone watching them leave, even as he turned around and saw a flicker of a red skateboard disappearing around a curve.
He and Pierre met up before class the following morning, going over their notes for the biology exam they had later that day, Yuki already giving up on life as soon as he saw the big textbook in Pierre’s hands. But he immediately brightened up when the other handed him a thin sheet of paper, every single detail needed for the exam written down in elegant handwriting and Yuki leaned on his friend, pressing a kiss to his cheek, knowing just how much it’d annoy him.
“I knew there was a good reason I kept you around.”
Pierre shoved him off with a laugh, murmuring something about idiots and adopted younger brothers nobody asked for. Yuki dutifully decided to ignore it as his eyes skimmed the notes, trying to take in as much as he possibly could in those short few hours.
However, if he had thought he was happy when Pierre handed him the biology notes, it was nothing compared to the joy he felt later that afternoon while spending some time with him in the library, working on their latest art project together.
It wasn’t that Yuki was all that excited about creating a make up design based on abstract art, since professor Lewis Hamilton-Vettel always made sure to keep them on their toes with the best tasks, and Yuki always looked forward to his classes, but the cause of his delight was more connected to the fact that he had finally caught a glimpse of Pierre’s latest fashion sketch. And what that design revealed to him.
Because there, in the middle of the page, was a skater, clearly in the middle of the jump, his skateboard twisted in the air, but it wasn’t the skateboard that Yuki was focused on at that moment. No, it was the jacket that the person in the sketch was wearing.
The red jacket. With a white CL in the middle of it.
He gasped loudly, snatching the notebook from Pierre before the other could even realize what was going on, and by the time he did, it was already too late, as Yuki was already clutching it to his chest while grining widely at Pierre, leaning down as he whispered, careful to not let anyone else hear him.
“You like Charles! Like like him.”
Yuki was pretty sure he had never seen Pierre blush as hard as he did in that moment, even the tips of his ears coloring red as he yet again tried to get his sketchbook back, this time succeeding and tucking it deep into his bag.
“I do not. He just…he’s just a good model okay, that’s all.”
“Mhm, because that makes it sound so much better.”
Pierre threw the bag to the other side of the table, out of Yuki’s reach, mumbling as he thought of an excuse.
“No, it’s not like that, he just- he has good bone structure.”
Yuki snorted with laughter, leaning back in his chair, thoroughly enjoying his friend’s embarrassment and egging it on even further.
“Are you trying to avoid calling him hot?”
“Ok fine! Fine, he’s hot and I might have a small crush on him.”
He buried his head in his hands, sighing as he leant down on the table, closing his eyes and Yuki stopped laughing as hard. There would always be time to laugh at Pierre later. At that moment however, he had to figure out how to help him.
“Why don’t you just tell him?”
Pierre huffed, picking at a hole in the table with his nail, still not looking at Yuki as he spoke, instead directing his gaze out the library window where the skatepark was, plenty of people already walking around it, some on their skateboards, some just observing from the benches.
“You’re kidding, right? He hates me, don’t you see the way he talks to me?”
“To be fair, up until this point, I was pretty sure that hatred was mutual. He might feel the same, you never know.”
The other shook his head, picking up his school notebook and getting started on his own project, carelessly tracing a few lines across the page to create the face.
“It’s stupid, not even worth wasting my energy on, honestly. I’ll just ignore it and it’ll go away.”
“What if I talk to him? I wouldn’t mention your…crush, I promise. Just ask him if hatred truly is the only emotion he feels towards you.”
Pierre laughed, his cheeks dusting pink yet again, only continuing with his sketching. Yuki took his silence as a sign of agreement, and started planning on how to fix the entire situation. How to get together his two best friends, two people that swore they hated each other with a passion, two people that annoyed Yuki to no end. He still loved them though.
Since he now knew Pierre’s true feelings towards Charles, all Yuki had to do to end the misery the two were putting him through was find out how Charles felt about Pierre. And if his guesses were correct, they were pretty similar in their affections that they tried so hard to hide.
As soon as he woke up that weekend, he went to the skatepark, almost completely sure that Charles was already there, as always. His suspicions were confirmed once he arrived at their regular hang out spot, seeing the other already skating around in lazy circles, preparing to try out a few of the more difficult tricks that day.
His face lit up as he spotted Yuki, and he pulled him into a hug, excitement spilling from his lips as he told him about the latest Overwatch update he bought and how he couldn’t wait to try it out with Yuki as soon as he visited next. Yuki nodded along, dropping his backpack to one of the closest benches and then joined Charles at the first bank, deciding to start off the day easy. Especially since he had to find out Charles’ real opinion of Pierre, a task that he knew would be everything but easy to achieve.
After skating for about an hour, Yuki could see Pierre walking down the path leading up to the skatepark and then sitting down on the same bench as last time, already pulling out his sketchbook and a pencil case.
If Yuki had to guess, he was most probably continuing with his design of Charles wearing that red jacket. Speaking of, the other had certainly noticed Pierre as well, if the way his gaze skipped over to the bench every few moments was anything to go by. Yuki pretended he didn’t see either, continuing to focus on his skating for a couple more minutes until putting his plan in motion.
“Do you think Pierre’s pretty?”
Charles stumbled, tripping on his last push and fell to the ground, luckily catching himself on his hands as he looked up at Yuki, his face red and eyes opened wide. He saw him glance over at Pierre again, the other raising his eyes from the notebook at that exact moment, their gazes meeting and Charles’ blush spreading down his neck as he quickly looked away. Yuki couldn’t see that far, but he could bet that Pierre was blushing as well.
“Pretty? Why the hell are you asking me, you know I hate the guy.”
Yuki shook his head, pulling Charles out of the way of other skaters, to the edge of the skatepark, sitting down on the grass, patting the ground in order to get the other to sit down as well. There were some skaters sitting a few meters away from them, but he ignored them as he spoke up, catching Charles’ attention again.
“Do you though?”
“Yes. Why would you even doubt that?”
He fiddled with his skateboard’s wheels, searching for words, well aware that he couldn’t screw it up, not this. It wasn’t just about him, about getting some peace, it was also about two of his best friends and getting them to finally achieve that happiness that they both denied themselves.
“Well, I see the way you look at him when we skate sometimes.”
“Yeah, because I wish he would let us skate without being annoying.”
Yuki sighed. He knew it wouldn’t be easy to get to the other’s true feelings, but this was bordering on plain ridiculous.
“Again, him being here is not bothering you in any way.”
“Yes it is! What if I…what if I mess up a trick while he’s watching and he sees me fall.”
Well, that reply certainly wasn’t what he was expecting.
“You’re afraid to embarrass yourself in front of him? Afraid of what he’s gonna think?”
At that point, Charles looked down at the ground, picking at the grass, his lips in a thin line, trying not to look up at Pierre again.
“I mean, yeah? That’s a bad thing, isn’t it? Like, I shouldn’t give a shit what he thinks of me, but I do and I hate it and I hate him for making me feel that way.”
Yuki let himself fall back on the grass, his feet propped up on the skateboard, his eyes turned towards the blue sky, gathering every ounce of self control he had to not slap his best friend. Then again, he was obviously more than a bit confused about his feelings so perhaps a slap wouldn’t be the best idea. No matter how tempting.
“Have you considered that you maybe don’t hate him? That you like him? Like, have a crush on him like him?”
Charles laid down on the grass next to him, shock written all over his face as he looked at Yuki, seemingly without an answer, but wanting one very much. Luckily for him, Yuki was there to explain. Or try to, at least.
“Just, maybe ask him out? Like on a date? Go and spend time with him without spewing hate at each for once. Get to know him better. Because I’m pretty sure that what you’re describing is not hate. Not in the slightest.”
“He’d say no.”
Yuki shrugged, sitting back up and looking towards Pierre, the other still busy with his drawing, head hung low as he sketched.
“How do you know? I mean, I doubt it could possibly make your relationship with him any worse than it already is.”
Charles chuckled, nodded and then stood up, offering Yuki a hand and pulling him up, kicking up his skateboard and started back towards the skatepark. Yuki could see Pierre looking up again minutely as they got up and decided to put the last step of his plan in motion at that moment. He pulled out his phone, pretended as if he had just received a text and then turned to Charles.
“Hey, my mom just texted me, turns out I need to go home sooner than expected. I’ll go say bye to Pierre. And you…you need to talk to him. Alright?”
The other nodded, pulling him into a short hug again and then skating off, intending on using up as much of the daylight as possible. Yuki, in turn, headed towards Pierre, sitting next to his friend, who had already put away his drawing tools, and was only watching the skaters at that point.
“I’m gonna head home now, my mom needs me.”
Pierre nodded, already picking up his things, but Yuki stopped him before he could stand up.
“You should stay. Go, talk with Charles, take your chance.”
“But he hates me.”
“He doesn't. Trust me on this.”
With that, Yuki lowered his skateboard to the ground again and pushed off, not looking back but knowing with absolute certainty that Pierre’s gaze had yet again settled on Charles. It was all in their hands now. He could only hope they had enough brain cells left to fix whatever it was between them and realize their feelings were mutual.
Pierre sat on the bench, his eyes still on Charles, the sun slowly setting behind the skatepark, bathing the entire city in a beautiful glow of orange and reds, the light reflecting off of Charles’ skateboard, drawing Pierre in even further. He felt enchanted, watching that boy he had long since figured out his feelings for. The boy that was so pretty and captivating and unreachable. So far away.
Although…Yuki had said that Charles didn’t hate him, and maybe, just maybe, he could try and trust his friend. He was usually right when it came to things like this. And so, after seeing Charles finish his last round of skating and start getting ready to head home, he got up as well. A few other skaters approached him as well, but Pierre figured he could just wait until they were done talking to Charles and then speak up himself.
The other’s back was turned to him and Pierre stopped a few steps before he reached him, half hidden by one of the low storage houses and the shadows that started to take over the park. From where he stood, he could hear every word the other boys said to Charles, and even though he was fully aware that eavesdropping wasn’t the best of behaviours, he couldn’t resist.
Especially once he heard his own name being mentioned.
Charles didn’t even notice when his friends approached, but he smiled once he saw them, nevertheless. He didn’t spend as much time with them as he did with Yuki, he didn’t know that much about any of them, mostly because he only ever saw them at the skatepark anyway.
“We heard you talking with Yuki earlier, and you two didn’t happen to be talking about Gasly, right? I mean, I know you can’t stand him.”
He felt himself freeze up at the other’s words, staying silent for a few moments, but soon realizing the others waited for his answer, and he stuttered while he thought up an excuse, now knowing that his negative feelings were anything but. However, he couldn’t let the others know. Not yet anyway. He didn’t know why he lied, it just felt…easier.
“Oh, that. No, yeah, I was just telling him how much I wish he would just stop coming to the park already, you know? Every time I see him on that bench with his notebooks I just want to turn around and go back home, it makes me sick to have to watch him when I just want to skate in peace.”
The boys nodded, one of them patted him on the back in what he assumed was sympathy, but he almost didn’t notice it. His own words were making him feel ill, and he wanted to get away from them as soon as possible. It was only when they started to walk away from him that he noticed the flash of Pierre’s blue messenger bag disappearing around the corner of the old storage house, feeling panic overwhelm him at the sight.
He heard them. He heard him. Charles ran, not thinking of anything, not of his skateboard, not of his backpack that he left behind, he couldn’t think of anything but Pierre. He couldn’t let him leave, not after the short bullshit speech that Charles had just spewed out. He couldn’t let him believe that it was the truth, that it was how Charles really felt about him.
“Gasly, wait! Please, I’m begging you, wait.”
The other didn’t stop, just kept on walking, and it was only once Charles had reached him, grabbed his arm and spun him around that he noticed the tears on his face, feeling his heart break even further. He wanted to reach up, to wipe them off, to comfort him, but Pierre shook him off, looking at him with nothing but pure anger, a thousand times worse than their usual staring contests.
“What do you want?”
“I’m sorry. For the things I said back there, I didn’t mean them, I didn’t mean any of it, I swear.”
Pierre looked away, his gaze still full of resentment and sadness, even when he wasn’t looking directly at Charles, and seeing it all made Charles draw back into himself, filled him with regret.
“It sounded like you meant them.”
“No I- I wanted to get to know you better, all these years, I wanted to get to know you better but I was always too afraid of coming across as an idiot.”
“You are an idiot.”
Charles huffed out a laugh, running a hand through his hair, running out of words as the park lights turned on, illuminating the surroundings as well as the two of them. And while Charles thought Pierre looked pretty in whichever setting, he had never before seen him standing under a streetlight, the artificial lightning making the blue of his eyes stand out even more so than usual. The other must have noticed his staring, and Charles quickly looked away again.
“Yeah. I know I am, sometimes. And the things I said back there, I only said them because, I don’t know, I was scared I guess.”
“Scared of what?”
He shrugged, not having an answer to the question that he had been asking himself for the last ten minutes. Turning back towards the skate park, an idea suddenly formed in his mind, remembering Yuki’s advice. Spend time together. And, well, Yuki never said where they had to spend time together. Looking back at Pierre, he spoke up before he could change his mind.
“You’ve ever tried to skate?”
Pierre laughed, shaking his head. Charles could only smile and take his hand, pulling him back towards the skatepark, back to the spot where he left his skateboard and backpack, both of them luckily still waiting for him. He nudged the skateboard towards Pierre, the other looking up at him with a questioning gaze.
“I can teach you. I mean, if you want to, of course.”
“Sure. Let’s see what you’ve got Leclerc.”
Oh, so he was still competitive then. And really, it shouldn’t surprise him, but it was a nice surprise, and competitions were something that Charles could do without nerves getting in the way. Or at least, so he had thought.
“Alright, put your legs on the board, your feet have to cover two screws at the front of it and two at the back.”
Pierre did as he was told, stepping on the skateboard, even if with a bit of a wobble and a lot of doubt, looking up at Charles once the first part was done.
“Good. Now, hold my hand, and push off with the leg that you have at the back of the skateboard.”
“Was this just an excuse to hold my hand?”
He ignored the blush that shot up his face at the other’s words and held out his hand, adamant on completing the task without screwing up too badly.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Gasly.”
Pierre smirked, pushing off with his right leg and slowly moving down the pavement, clutching Charles’ hand a bit tighter when the sidewalk became slightly slanted and the skateboard picked up speed. They circled around the park like that; Charles holding Pierre’s hand and encouraging him to go faster, while the other complained about it being his first time on a skateboard and therefore Charles really shouldn't expect that much from him. Charles only hid his smile behind his free hand, admiring the way Pierre looked on his skateboard, holding his hand and grumbling about how bad of a teacher Charles was.
They came to a stop at the same spot they started from and Charles let his gaze wander over the smaller obstacles of the park, the few banks that didn’t have that much of an incline. Pierre seemed to read his thoughts, as he immediately got off the skateboard and took a few steps back, his hands flying up in the air, trying to stop Charles’ thought process with exaggerated gestures.
“No. Absolutely not, I am not getting on those, I’ll fall and break my nose or something.”
“I’ll catch you if you fall, I promise. Wouldn’t want you to hurt your pretty face.”
The pink blush that spread over Pierre’s face was beyond adorable and Charles had to hold himself back from telling him as much, even if the other did seem to enjoy being complimented. Instead, he held out his hand again, and with a sigh Pierre got on the skateboard again, positioning his legs correctly, Charles congratulating him on the job well done, smiling at the sprinkle of delight that took place on Pierre’s face from doing it right.
“Alright, now. You push off slowly, and gravity and I will take care of the rest.”
Pierre nodded, even if still a bit unsure, and pushed off, just a bit too hard, immediately making the skateboard slide out from underneath him, throwing him backwards. Luckily, Charles was prepared for it, and caught him before he could hit the ground, holding him up against his chest, coming face to face with him.
He could feel Pierre’s breath on his own lips, his eyes wide even as he regained his self control, but still not stepping away from Charles, almost stepping closer in a way, his hands wrapping around Charles’ shoulders in an attempt to steady himself, sending Charles’ thoughts and heart racing as a result.
“I told you I’d fall.”
“And I told you I’d catch you if you did.”
The other hummed in reply, his gaze lowering to Charles’ lips, if only for a second, but long enough for Charles to notice it. Long enough for him to wonder if maybe Pierre felt the same. Long enough for him to gather the courage and finally ask.
“Can I kiss you?”
Pierre leaned back, one eyebrow raised, but still not moving away from Charles.
“Well, I didn’t know you were such a gentleman.”
“Only for you.”
Pierre rolled his eyes and Charles could already hear another comment slipping out and opened his mouth to stop it, but then Pierre's lips were on his and Charles' mind stopped speeding around and focused purely on the feel of Pierre against him, on the way his fingers brushed through Charles’ hair, tugging him closer.
He could only kiss back, letting himself melt against Pierre. And if Charles thought that the other looked pretty in the usual setting, he soon found out it was nothing compared to the way he looked when he pulled away, leaning his forehead against Charles', his eyes wide, his lips red, his cheeks pink and a brilliant smile on his face. He sighed, his next words being not exactly what Charles was expecting after the kiss.
"You know, Yuki was right."
"About?"
"Kissing you would solve a lot of my problems."
The laugh that bubbled out of him couldn't be kept back, and he definitely wasn't going to complain when Pierre slid a finger under his chin, angling his face just so, kissing him again. And again. And then once more, just because he could.
Yeah, Yuki was right.