#kimigami

A/n: For the nonnie who asked for Takeru being inexperienced with love. Loving all the support and prompts guys, keep em coming!!<3 “No, it’s like.. Just going out and spending time with someone but like, uhm, in a romantic way?” You shrug your shoulders, trying to explain the idea behind a date to Takeru who didn’t understand why you wanted to go to the art festival the school was having with him.

“Romantic?” He asks, curling his lip a little.

“Well I mean not always romantic, it’s just a way to get to know each other better.” You realize he still doesn’t get why it's important. After all, he’s spent the whole year studying you and the things you do so you already know each other pretty well, but it’s the principle of the thing.

“But how is it a date,” he emphasizes the word, “if we’re both are going anyway? We aren’t allowed to miss school events.”

You sigh and rub a hand down your face. “You’re right, forget it.” You don’t want to get frustrated with him as you know conventional relationships aren’t something gods really understand, but it's almost like he isn’t even trying. “We should get to class.”

He frowns at the look on your face and crosses his arms; his natural defense is not to ask what's wrong, but to just get grumpy and brush it off. “Fine.”

But that doesn't stop him from staying by your side the whole walk to class. You want to reach out and grab his hand, but the last time you tried to hold hands he asked, “Why?” and you don’t have it in you to try and explain to him again that you just want to be touching him. Thinking about that, and how absurd all this must seem to him, public displays of affection and, well, going out on dates. Your mood changes and you smile softly, realizing that he’s being very patient with you, always asking questions to try and understand why you’re doing the things you do and that you should cut him some slack.

So after class, he waits at the door for you to walk you to lunch, and you press up on your toes and surprise him with a kiss on the cheek. He’s trying to understand these thing for you, so you’re just going to do your best to explain them and be patient as he learns. However, the last thing you expect is for his face to get so red as he looks down at you.

“What was that for?” He asks, slightly stunned by the public display, although the rest of the guys just snickered and went their way.

“Just wanted to kiss you.” You say with a smile and his eyebrows draw together in confusion.

“Why?” He asks and you just shrug.

“Because you’re cute and I wanted to kiss you.” He stares for a second and you chuckle, “Sometimes, you just want to remind someone that you care about them.” His face only barely shows a trace of the blush from your impromptu kiss and he nods once, as if he gets it and that’s enough for you. You take a step, walking towards the lunchroom when you feel his hand on your lower back. You look up to see him staring directly ahead as if he’s trying not to think too hard about whether what he’s doing is the right thing to do. So you just lean into his shoulder for a moment and it seems to comfort him because he slips his arm around you and rests his hand on your opposite waist as you walk side by side to the lunch room. Baby steps, you think to yourself. He’s still learning.

The next day, you’re watching Loki and Deedee having a wine drinking contest at lunch-seriously who is monitoring these things?- when Takeru sits down beside you, having brought you a slice of pizza.

“Thanks!” You say, placing an innocent hand on his knee and when he doesn't flinch away or look at you weird, you feel slightly proud; he’s slowly getting used to your little things, or at least he’s pretending for your sake. Either way, it’s very human of him and the thought makes you smile.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go somewhere with me tonight.” He says, breaking you out of your reverie.

“What?” You ask, confused as to what brought that on and filled with a million other questions. Go where? Why? Just him or is it like a group thing? What brought this on? Why am I overthinking this?

“I was wondering if you’d like to go on a date with me.” He says, plainly, with a look on his face that almost says he’s embarrassed to be asking you this. That thought in mind, you try to make it the least uncomfortable for him as possible and just nod, smiling widely.

“I’d love to!”

You see his lip turn up at the corner and can tell he’s glad you said yes, before Loki slams down another glass of wine and shocks you both, drawing your attention back to them.

Later that night, when he takes you out to sit on the beach, the tide bringing the water just up to your feet, you lean against his shoulder.

“This is so beautiful.” You say softly, letting out a sigh of contentment as you look out among the waves.

“I’m glad you’re happy.” His face is softer than you’ve ever seen it. He doesn’t look upset or concentrating but serene and you can’t help but smile. “You said a date was a way to get to know someone better but I already know you.” He says, looking out on the waves and the way the moon lights up his face makes him look more like a god than you’ve ever seen him. “But this is me.

It’s always just been my brother and I.” He nods out ahead of him and you realize he’s talking about the ocean and the moon and you wonder if he ever comes out here with his brother or if he just sits out here alone.

“But I want you to be a part of it, of my life, and I just…” He seems conflicted like he doesn’t know what to say and you try to save him from having to struggle with the words.

“This is how you show it.” You say simply, finally understanding. It’s not that he doesn’t understand how to show his affection for you, it’s just that he does it in different ways. And all your pressing of using human means of PDAs and expressing his feelings probably made it hard for him to show it in his way. You should have asked from the beginning what he was comfortable with and maybe you wouldn’t have put him through so much. “I love you.” You say, turning your face to kiss him on the cheek and he looks down at you, smiling softly. All his walls are down and you can see it in his eyes, but you don’t need him to say it. You open your mouth to tell him it’s okay but he wraps an arm around you, pulling you close to him, and places a kiss on the top of your head.