Mio Famiglia, Mio Scudo

Episode XXI

"Do you have a problem with me?!"

Naoki stared into those tearful eyes with seemingly calm expression. On the inside he was screaming in panic and confusion though. Heiji was... Not being himself for some reason or another. He was shaking from the raw emotion and the adrenaline that was now leaving his body at a fast phase like the sand in the hourglass. His eyes drifted to the two hands that were preventing his escape, placed to his sides at the height of his elbows. They were shaking.

"Um... No...? I don't think that I do.. Have that thing you just said", confusion was laid thick on his voice like a nice and good chocolate sauce on a parfait. As he kept staring at the smaller boy, he could see how his shoulder fell and how his posture turned worse. Heiji's forehead hit softly Naoki's chest as he leaned closer to the older teen, who was trying to keep himself calm.

Silence fell between the two, neither had never been happier to have that high fence to be there, covering them from those who wandered the street at that hour. Naoki felt the tears that the middleschool student was shedding soak his t-shirt. Compelled by something akin to a memory, he raised his hand and started to slowly stroke the curly black hair of the other one. It felt like he'd done something similar to it in the past, but he didn't have any younger siblings nor cousins that he was aware of. Weird....

"You've been avoiding me, and you haven't talked much, I miss that", Heiji sniffled making Naoki look down instead of his awkward staring at the wall, "I thought that you had started to hate me". Naoki flinched at that comment slightly, his hand diving into his pocket to fish out a packet of paper tissues. He silently handed one of the thin, soft, papers to the boy, who started to tap his eyes with it furiously before blowing his nose loudly. The young Don sat down onto a box of garden tools.

"I don't hate you Heihei, I really don't, it's the opposite. I like you, a lot, it's just", a sigh escaped through the parted pink lips as he stopped his half assed explanation. It was no use to beat around the bush. "I have some complex feelings, emotions, regarding you. Feelings that I can't understand, but I know to be wrong and they scare me. I don't want to ruin our friendship with something like them", he stated quietly, like a whisper.

He didn't even dare to look at the other boy at this point, it was too much for him to say those things out loud, especially since Heiji had every right to feel disgusted and disappointed in him having those feelings. He really hoped that they weren't anything serious, that they'd pass eventually. The Don flinched when the younger boy sat next to him, his feet kicking the grass lightly. The two ravens sat there in the silence for a while, one processing the information he'd just received, the other feeling awkward and embarrassed.

"So... Umm... Why would our friendship be ruined from your feelings?" Naoki blinked as he heard the question, his mind taking a second to register it. And then it clicked.
Heiji hadn't understood what he was hinting at. The older teen felt like punching himself or better yet bashing his own head against the brick wall. How could someone who was as smart as Heiji be so clueless? The raven looked up towards the sky, and closing his eyes he prayed for patience and prosperity from whatever Deity it was that was testing him like this.

Still facing the sky, he spoke, "We are both men and I am a lot older than you, on top of it all, I am also a Don, and the only Oda to continue the lineage, and therefore am supposed to be settling down with a woman to produce a heir".
Heiji stared at the pale male, his face growing redder and redder as time moved forward. But the older one wasn't done yet.
"I must be confused, I'm just misreading my own affections to be romantic instead of the platonic love it really is. It'll probably pass over time. And if it doesn't....", Naoki glencthed his jaw as he bit down hard, swallowing a lump of unsureness before he continued, "I'll kill these emotions if I have to".