#lonespring

@lonespring​ : a starter for hikaru.  ❜  

she doesn’t ask for permission. with the sort of childish , unapologetic behavior one would expect to have around a long-time friend , shimizu slips her hands from her winter gloves and plunges them into the front flaps of hikaru-kun’s jacket. it’s like feigning a hug—— she wraps her arms around him and lowers her head beneath his chin—— but unlike a hug , her motives are sinister. behind his back , her fingers are hard at work , finding the hem of his shirt and slipping under it to warm themselves against his skin.

                ❝    Maybe  my  worries  would  disappear  if  I  was  nowhere  to  be  found...    ❞  𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐁𝐈𝐔𝐒𝐀  𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐒  𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃  𝐀𝐓  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃.  Her  pensive  expression  makes  her  face  far  older  than  she  is.  She's  so  caught  up  in  her  own  head,  she  doesn't  even  realise  Hikaru  has  approached  her.  

@lonespring​ : a starter.  ❜

one moment , her feet are on the ground , feeling the steady , downwards pull of gravity as if it’s become stronger post-hurdle event , now that she’s no longer jumping. and the next moment , she’s not touching anything—— her feet are suspended in the air , hanging weightless in front of her. shimizu can’t help but to blink with surprise. 

maybe it’s the exhaustion from the track meet. shimizu isn’t normally bothered by it , but something about the complicated mix of summer heat , weak knees , and the lingering disappointment of an almost-victory makes her more tired. she doesn’t even realize it’s hikaru-kun grabbing her under the knees until he’s already propped her up into the air. the breeze blows into his hair and she can smell it , right beside her face. when shimizu recognizes it as him , she relaxes a bit into the warm , sturdy spread of his back , and holds onto his shoulders to keep from spilling over. 

on any other day , she might ask him where they were going. —— home ? ... she doesn’t really want to go back yet. the weight of a loss still weighs heavily in her , and shimizu wonders if hikaru-kun can feel it , too. if she feels a bit heavier than usual ... 

@lonespring​ : a starter.  ❜

"   but what would you model , then ?   ”   shimizu makes a great effort not to interrupt her question with a crackle or a crunch. she waits until hikaru’s fingers are out of the pack of jagarico sticks before hers take his place , keeping him from scratching and crackling around while she speaks. she poses her question quietly , and when she’s finished , she digs out one of the snacks and retreats from the package so that he can enter it again. sharing is ... sometimes sharing ... with hikaru-kun. but mostly , she lets him have what he wants , so long as he gives her what she wants.

@lonespring​ sent :  “kiyo - chan , in the future will you marry me ?” of course he was joking , however wouldn’t it be nice to spend the rest of your life with your best friend ? after all , isn’t marriage about marrying your best friend ? so wouldn’t it make sense for them to get married too ? 

shimizu places her finger down on a line of text in her book , saving her reading place with the intent of returning back to it later. though it seems like an important decision to make , her answer is simple. she’s still young , naive , and unaware of the world ( including of marriage ). so she doesn’t imagine that it will take long to turn her eyes towards hikaru-kun and give her reply :

“   i don’t plan on it ,   ”   she almost shrugs , though the movement appears more like a small shift against the breeze of her living room’s air conditioner , turned on high to combat the summer. her eyes linger on him for a moment , but they turn back to her book when shimizu thinks that she’s said enough. that was a good enough answer , right ?   

@lonespring​ sent : 13 - sender takes a [ picture / video ] of receiver.  !!!

it’s usually the other way around. shimizu doesn’t really care all that much for photos , though she’s been told she photographs well ( and in fact , the team had pointed out before that during their televised volleyball match , she’d been filmed more than they had ). unless she’s in the photo with others , like friends or family , it’s a bit embarrassing to be singularly watched by a shiny glass lens , she thinks.

and even though it’s hikaru-kun behind the lens—— his characteristically well-styled hair peeking out from the sides—— the attention still makes shimizu feel embarrassed. her cheeks warm despite her better instincts , and after she hears the sound of the shutter her eyes flicker to and from the camera to check if it’s still there. it doesn’t move , and she feels herself grow more shy. shimizu’s arms draw closer to her sides , squeezing in and making her shrink a size smaller in her seat.   “   ara ...   ”   she makes a sound like a half-hearted start of a scold , but it results in nothing more than a drawn out , hollow ‘ aaaaa. ’

@lonespring​ sent : “ why can’t i come with you? ”

she stands at the door to the ladies’ restroom with a blank expression on her face—— one that seems to ask ( without really asking ) , do you really not understand ? shimizu doesn’t usually have to set boundaries with hikaru-kun. she’d let him rummage through her bedroom , her dresser drawers , and maybe even her journal if he really wanted ... but she has to put her foot down when it comes to using the restroom. 

still , she understands ... a bit. of the two , she’s the one less afflicted by nerves and the pressure of being left alone in a crowd at the aquarium. it might be scary for hikaru-kun to be without her , she recognizes. there are kids younger than them screaming , and teenagers older than them on weird-and-uncomfortable-looking dates , and parents who look like they might snap at any moment. it’s not exactly the best time or place for her to break away from her best friend , but she has to relieve herself of the entire bottle of tea she’d bought from the vending machine outside.

“  maa ... hikaru-kun ...  ”  she makes as if she’s about to scold him—— to insinuate that he’s being immature , even though they aren’t even in middle school yet—— but pauses before the words come out. instead , she pivots on her heel , stares at the glowing pink sign of the ladies’ restroom , and turns back to him.