Coloured by Romance

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"There seemed to be something tragic in a friendship so coloured by romance."

― Oscar Wilde

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Sano 'Mikey' Manjiro always loved sitting across from his childhood friend, Hanagaki Takemichi whenever he had the chance to, unfortunately being in different grades meant that he could only do such a task whenever they were together at gang meetings, or in the shared vicinities at school, the cafeteria for example or better yet, the school library.

He loved doing so, mainly because he could stealthily watch the youngers movements; the way his lips quirked into small, shy smiles or how he played with his inky-black curls when he was anxious or simply lost in thought or in the way the younger would slightly nibble on his bottom lip when debating something with his fellow classmates or friends – or pouting and huffing when he didn't get his way.

He always got his way.

He was certainly the most adorable student and member of his gang, but Mikey might be a little biased because he found everything that the younger boy did incredibly endearing.

Takemichi most definitely had the nicest smile Mikey's ever seen, especially when he smiled genuinely. He was often a little prickly and particular about who he interacted with – oftentimes smiling a shy smile that was borderline awkward, but his smile was beautiful when he sincerely lit up.

His teeth were nice, straight and pearly white, and Mikey swore he could see his own reflection shining in them.

But Mikey tries to be as inconspicuous as he possibly could. He didn't want to make Takemichi uncomfortable, or even worse, make him fear Mikey. Many people already feared him as the Invincible Mikey; Commander of the famed Tokyo Manji Gang, and he couldn't take it if his childhood crush was one of them.

Today though was interesting and turned out like he never expected.

He had woken up to several inches of snow, the air bitingly cold, early November snow can come and paint the landscape white. There and then he decided that there was no chance in hell, he was going out in it.

Skipping school was a no go unfortunately when his sister whined and whined at him to take them in their older brother's car because she was on the school council and in charge of doing decorations for the winter dance.

"Every second counts, Mikey!"

Against his wishes and to his intense irritation, he bundled himself up and drove them to school. Only to find that most of the school's population was absent, giving his sister the stink eye, he marched to his locker to dump his belongings for the day.

He'd skipped breakfast, and while grumbling about his growling stomach he looked for somewhere quiet to nap until the end of the school day, he had unintentionally stumbled into the school's small, albeit cosy library and came across the trio of his first division whispering quietly amongst themselves.

And Takemichi –

Takemichi had his head down on one of the low tables in the library designed for student comfort when studying, snuggled up next to a radiator with his face buried in his folded arms, and Mikey was confused. Was Takemichi ill? Why didn't he just go home if he was? From what he could see, Takemichi was asleep, which in and of itself was quite uncommon for the usually studious kid.

Besides the dozing Takemichi, the vice-captain of his first division was peering over his slumped-over form then glanced up at Mikey when he approached them, before looking back down at his friend who was passed out, sound asleep on the table.