Love as rich as chocolate ~TodoBaku~

Chapter 15: realising things can be harder than accepting them

Akio Todoroki

The walk over to the coffee shop felt like a particularly long one without Hiro's conversation. It felt as if it flew by last night, but today's trek was effort. In fairness, it was actually a pretty long walk just for a coffee, but it also had the added bonus of just giving me that little bit of company today, on a day when I truly needed it. I vaguely remember that my parents are out tonight (who the hell makes date night a Thursday?!), so it turned out I was alone all day. Thus, the value of this trip out suddenly surged for me.

Not that it wasn't already something I was looking forward to, since it meant I got to speak with Hiro again. I can't deny it, the boy really intrigues me. It was all a very strange situation, but I felt as if being with him could only ever be a good thing for me, so I was pretty intent on staying around him.

The coffee shop looked as empty as I'd expected for a Thursday morning, not even a soul in there. Through the window, I spied Hiro sprawled over the counter, and as I opened the door to enter, he practically leapt into the air, landing with all the decorum of a rhino on a unicycle. Naturally, he fell right on his ass, looking up at me with an embarrassed smile.

...that smile...

My heart lurched in my chest. It gnawed at my skin as if it were trying to leap out of me, desperate to reach...someone.

...who am I kidding, it's Hiro

That fucking smile. That's all it took for me to suddenly see all of the things I'd said to him in microscopic detail. They suddenly carried so much more weight, and it freaked me out how quickly the rest of the world seemed forgotten. Fuck Kei, fuck Ryo, I've got Hiro! seemed like all that was in my head at the moment, playing on loop in my mind. The rest of the stuff that was meant to be going on up there seemed to grind slowly to a halt, and I realised I hadn't actually said anything to the boy, who still sat on the floor, wincing slightly at the pain of the fall.

"H-hey! Way to greet me, huh?"

He replied only with a pout as I walked over to him, offering him a hand and pulling him to his feet. He winced again as he stood up, looking back at himself as if he'd see a massive difference from before.

"Ugh! That'll be a bruise in the morning!"

"If it were anywhere else I might kiss it better"

The words were out of my mouth before I registered them, and upon realising what they were, my eyes awkwardly averted themselves to a particular interesting grain of dust on the floor. I could feel Hiro's eyes on me, could practically hear the playful smirk.

I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die

Kill me kill me kill me kill me

"Well...coffee?" He asked, still with that shit-eating grin, and I nodded feebly, annoyed to have lost the conversation because of my stupid mouth. It surprised me actually how easy of a catch I was. I already felt like I was falling harder than I ever had for Kei or Ryo, although I suppose that makes sense since they divided my attention. In that case, it's fair to say I've fallen harder for Hiro than any girl I ever liked in the past. I felt stupid and gullible for it, but also in too deep to properly care.

For the second time in two days, I found myself encapsulated by the coffee making boy. This time though, it was a little different. Remember how I said about how when you like someone, you notice details? I saw the little twitches in his eyebrows before he moved on to his next task, clear evidence of his thought process. His footwork was practically magical, and I couldn't help think that it'd be really funny if he tripped, for all he was showing off. The thing that got me the most though was the way his hair seemed to...swoosh around as he walked. It was floaty and thick, similar to mine but a lot shorter, which made the definition of it more impressive. A couple of stray strands dipped down into his forehead, and he occasionally blew them aside, concentration setting on his face as he did. When he concentrates, he blinks a lot...

"Er, one coffee for the boy staring off into space?"

"Ah! Um, sorry, just...thank you..."

Yeah, definitely wasn't space I was staring at!

"Don't worry about it. I can tell you're a little bit...jaded, so why don't you catch me up? Tell me how you've been"

"Well...not really sure. I wasn't too bad when I woke up, but as soon as I got in the shower I kinda broke again"

"Showers can be like that. I don't know whether it's the loneliness or the weight of the water"

Showers are only lonely if you're alone though...

"Well thanks, Shakespeare, I feel much better now" I replied with a short eye roll and a sarc-coated grin. He simply scoffed and pushed the cup of coffee even closer to me, obviously wanting commendation on how good it tasted. I obliged and took a sip. Truth be told, it was...a cup of coffee, but I decided to test the water a little bit and stroke Hiro's ego, curious as to what the outcome might be.

"Mmm! That is so good! God, there must be some secret ingredient or something, there's no way that's just coffee!"

As I'd expected, a pretty noticeable blush creeped over his face, and his eyes averted mine, finding the same speck of dust I'd found so intriguing earlier. He managed to stammer out a response after a shameless deep breath.

"I-I just sprinkled a little extra sugar on the finished product, nothing major!" was what I got, complete with an awkward chuckle and neck scratch.

...that makes no difference you adorable idiot!
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Adorable idiots are a very nice flavour

Fact of the Day: remember when Akio was freaking out because of the gay awakening at the party? Look at him now.