Just A Little Bit Shy

Alike - 16

If only you could see yourself, Y/n.

The (h/c) boy was sleepily blinking at Haru, eyelids fluttering and barely able to rise above half-mast. The hand that had grabbed Haru's wrist now sat in the scant space between them, curled close to Y/n's chest. He was letting out a soft hum with every word Haru breathed to him, whispered to him, and Haru couldn't help the smile on his face. For he knew, and knew quite well, that Y/n was not quite there.

I've missed you. I've missed you so much, Haru would murmur into his hair and the (h/c) boy would emit a tiny, "mm." Haru would plant another kiss on the crown of Y/n's head, with enough force it bobbed a little, and the other boy wouldn't even react to it. His pretty (e/c) eyes would simply droop lower with exhaustion. His hand would curl tighter, closer to his own chest. It was hard for Haru, for a second, to reconcile this open, trusting, and vulnerable image with the boy he had spent his childhood with. Y/n had been very resistant when he was younger; very resistant to everything.

So, of course, this change sent Haru's heart hammering in his chest. Y/n was offering something precious, something valuable. Something unspoken in the shared heat of their bodies, in the coziness of laying beneath one comforter, in the utter passiveness of Y/n's expression, a compliance that bordered on submission. There was no opposition to Haru's hands all over the other boy, and no hint that Y/n even minded Haru's fingers stroking over all he could get at; all he could get away with. Y/n simply kept giving out contented hums and murmurs — a sweet destruction to Haru's ability to resist Y/n himself.

Haru inched closer, combing Y/n's hair away from his eyes. Those eyes that slid shut finally, and Haru tried to tell him everything he could not yet say when he pressed his lips next to Y/n's forehead. And Y/n was so devastatingly cute, nose wrinkling slightly and eyelids fluttering in response. If there was even the slightest hint Y/n disliked it, it didn't make an appearance on the (h/c) boy's relaxed expression. Haru swallowed thickly, gently pushing Y/n's hair behind his ear next.

"Goodnight, Y/n," his voice was hushed, radiating so much tender affection Haru knew he was giving himself away. If Y/n had been more aware, more awake... His thumb softly stroked along the other boy's cheek and Y/n's face was cradled, as the wonderful possession it was.

Yet, to Haru's whispered words, there was no responding hum this time. No fluttering of Y/n's eyelids. And in the next instant — Haru stilled — Y/n fell abruptly limp in his hold.

Disbelief shattered the moment. The moment Y/n, himself, had asked for. He had asked Haru to be with him. He had grabbed Haru's wrist and tugged on it until Haru's resolve crumbled. And there they had been, falling asleep together in the same bed... Haru's hands caressing the (h/c) boy's face, his hair, a compulsion he could not resist — Haru's thoughts stilled next.

Soft, even breaths were tickling over Haru's own skin; humid exhales brushing against the sensitive inner flesh of Haru's wrists. Y/n's face had never looked more peaceful than it did right then, soft light glowing against the curtains over the window, radiating down to touch (s/c) skin, to highlight the structure of his cheekbone, his jaw. All of these features now free from the unknown tension that constantly haunted the (h/c) boy's expressions. Haru's hands were stuck passively holding him here, suspended in this moment that stretched out, like the slow coagulation of raindrops of water against glass, and he was stuck there, watching what would happen next.

The hand that had been in Y/n's hair was now simply cradling the other boy's head, pressed flushed between the mattress and those soft (h/c) locks that smelled too strongly of Haru's own shampoo. Haru's other hand that had been caressing along Y/n's jaw, thumb brushing his cheek; that had dipped down to span over the delicate architecture of the other boy's throat, felt stiff and immobilized. Haru's own lips had hardly left Y/n's forehead and yet...