Miscellaneous Anime/Manga One-Shots!

tongue-tied (Hirunaka no Ryuusei)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a gesture is worth a million.

Mamura’s words are fumbling, inadequate; he’s never been the most articulate, can’t ever be bothered to sift through his vocabulary for the precise word for the precise moment, relies on simple sentences to carry him through life.

Add Suzume Yosano to the mix, and his tongue is reduced to mere knots, incapable of doing more than stammering out harried apologies. 

But thankfully, she is patient.

When the green flecks in her blue, blue eyes steal his breath and render him speechless, she’ll give him one of her quiet little smiles and squeeze his hand, almost imperceptibly. A shoulder brush here, a dainty hand on his waist there, all achingly gentle, like she’s afraid of breaking him.

They mean more to him than words ever could, her little touches.

So Mamura loves her in return.

He waits for her outside the classroom every day; he laces his fingers through hers; he presses open-mouthed kisses to the inside of her wrists just for the pure pleasure of tasting her skin, of feeling her breath hitch.

But sometimes, gestures aren’t enough.

Mamura fills his fingertips with love, brushes them against her cheeks, and even though she smiles softly back up at him, mere touches can’t possibly express just how much she means to him.

Just how much he loves her. 

So he makes do with what he has. 

“I love you,” Mamura says quietly, the words sweet on his lips.

The feathery snowflakes drift down all around them, blanketing the roofs with white.

Suzume freezes in her track, mouth parted in surprise.

But eventually, her lips curve into a smile.

“Me too.”

Yes, her eyes linger on Shishio in the hallway, yes, there is a world of hurt in her heart that he cannot begin to comprehend, but for the moment, it’s enough. It’s enough that her hands are wrapping around his wrists and she is standing on tiptoe to press her lips to his, enough that she smells a little like cinnamon and tastes of strawberry lip gloss- 

Kissing is like flying, he thinks.

 Maybe words aren’t so bad after all.