Inevitability Index

Original AO3 Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3235601

Believe it or not, it's really a coincidence.

Well, at least that’s what Masayuki tells himself. Never mind that he actually takes the train that comes a little over thirty minutes before this one does, if only so avoid the rush hour and all its trappings. Never mind that the only thing this train has that his usual doesn’t, aside from the aforementioned barrage of people, is a certain green-eyed brunette. A certain green-eyed brunette who’s now running to him, her hand waving jauntily in the air, screaming,

“Hori-senpai!! Good morning!!!!”

“Not so loud, you brat. I have ears, you don’t need to yell as if I’m a mile away.” Masayuki says, swatting at her when she’s merely an arms’-length away from him. Standing in front of him, her cheeks pink from exertion, the sunlight framing the perfect angles of her face and the curve of her smile, she looks even more gorgeous than she usually is. Which is. Not exactly a thing he’s prone to telling her outright. Still the truth, though.

“It’s rare to see you here, though. Isn’t it funny? We take the same train, but I’ve never really taken the exact same train to school with you before – well, maybe I have, once or twice, but mostly on those days when I talk to you before the train comes, you’re either nodding off and not listening to me, or nodding off and grumbling about coffee, or nodding off and kicking me in the shin –”

“I get it, okay, Kashima, I was there.” Crap, she caught on. Truth be told he doesn’t really take this train – this rush hour train, the one that packs people up as tight as sardines at best – not unless he’d spent the night before toiling over manuscripts, rushing before Nozaki’s deadline. Because the deadline doesn’t wait for them, and all that. That shirt gives really sage advice. “You don’t have to think about it much, I just took this train instead of the other, that’s all.”

“Hm. Were you waiting for someone, senpai?”

You.

“N-nobody,” Masayuki says, cursing himself for tripping over that word and for thinking that thought.

Hell no, he was not waiting for Kashima! Why the hell would he even think of doing so? The girl was a walking, talking logistical nightmare and Masayuki could not, should not think of even synchronizing schedules with her. So what if, truth be told, Masayuki was a little...unnerved when she’d owned up to purposefully ignoring him that one insignificant day ago? (Yesterday.) So what if he’d sighed more longingly than the sappiest of sappy shoujo manga heroines when she’d gone out of her way to hide from him?  This was still not a reason for him to make changes in his impeccable, well-thought-out commuting schedule!

After all, if he’d merely wanted companionship for the ride ahead, he could’ve just taken his usual train, which some of his classmates also took. Or the one fifteen minutes after, which Sakura was usually on. Even if she did talk on and on about the greatness of Nozaki... (And, in turn, he did usually find himself talking on and on about how Kashima would be a better gentleman than Nozaki ever will be in his lifetime. Which is. Um. A thing he should probably make Sakura swear on her Yumeno Sakiko autograph not to tell anyone, ever.)

“Aw, that’s no fun. I would’ve liked to think that you were waiting for me, senpai,” Kashima says, smiling quietly, and in the spaces between that single moment and the next, Masayuki’s heart feels like it’s about to burst –