strawberries & cigarettes // yuumahio oneshots

01 | the shaquille o'neal of lying [angst]

They were friends.

Well, they technically still are friends, not much changed.

They have been for almost a year.

Hio would say 'almost a year' as if he didn't really care of keeping track, that he's just nonchalant like dat™, but he knows they've been friends for exactly 9 months and 16 days.

Not that he'd ever risk looking like a desperate creep and say that in front of Yuuma of course.

Or anyone else, for the matter.

The two of them were close. Really close. Very close. So close that they get teased over it. If Hio had a dollar everytime Maika gave him 'the look' when he talked about Yuuma, he'd have enough money to move out of the apartment he shares with her. Maybe she just likes seeing her best friend's cheeks turn red in a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment after she says something such as "you're smiling like an idiot" when he's talking about a very normal, very platonic thing that happened with Yuuma. Very platonic, it doesn't go any further. Just two dudes being bros. And a part of the blonde hates how easily Maika can read through him, she says he has a very big and a very obvious crush, and who is he get into an argument with her?

But he doesn't have a crush. He can't. He shouldn't.

She, and many others, see a crush, but they don't know what's actually going on.

Yuuma and Yohio were friends.

And they technically still are friends.

Except...

With benefits.

It started one weird and most likely cursed Friday night. Yohio had been invited over by Yuuma to spend some time together since they're both bored with no plans. Hio, taking any chance he can get to spend quality time with Yuuma, of course said yes.

Hours passed by fast, and it was now 9 pm. The credits of a shitty romance movie they were watching were rolling, nothing but the faint whiteness of the names written on the screen illuminating anything in the living room, as they had the lights off. Hio jokingly said it would 'set the mood' more and Yuuma said they might as well light a few candles too while they're at it.

As if hypnotized, the two boys just kept staring at the rolling stacks of names, trying to let the events of that terrible movie sink in. If Hio's brain wasn't malfunctioning he'd try to count how many rows of names had passed, all these people working on one movie and this is the results?! Oliver could make something better filming through his iPod in the school cafeteria.

Suddenly, a laugh snapped Hio out of his thoughts. A laugh that spreads warmth in his chest whenever he hears it.

Yuuma was generally a stoic person, not to the point of being annoying to have around but most of the time he just seems so bored and tired of everyone, almost as if he doesn't have the energy to properly communicate or muster facial expressions. That's the downside of being an introvert. Especially one that just didn't care. Yohio still wonders how the two of them ended up becoming so close when Hio was the complete opposite of him. He was an extrovert who loved the outdoors and any activities that required constant movements and release of energy. He loved company and enjoyed being around people, his humor is the highlight of every group gathering he and his friends go out to. Yuuma wasn't anything like that. Unless he genuinely liked being around a person, they're not getting anywhere with him, and Yuuma's list of people he likes isn't very big either.

Througout the years his list was dominated by his older sister Mizki. He'd meet a person or two every once in a while that makes it into the list of 'people Yuuma enjoys being around' and then after a while they'll drift apart and they'll be off the list, leaving Mizki on top again. Half a year ago he met Hio. Hio had caught Mizki's attention, she had met him a few times at a nearby coffee shop and him being such a social butterfly had absolutely no problem striking up conversations and even exchanging phone numbers. She told her brother and suggested that they meet, telling him what a carefree and chill person Hio is after she had gotten to know him well enough.