Waiting For Fireworks

Taishi was pretty exhausted as he and Ichiro walked into the area of the fireworks show.

The two of them, along with Nanao and Taiju, had come to the amusement park pretty early into the day so they could enjoy the park as much as possible. It was no wonder he and Ichiro were really tired by this point.

He didn't know if Nanao and Taiju were in the same state. Those two had split up from them at one point, and when Taishi asked them where they had gone... Nanao's response was to tell him to make the most of his time alone with Ichiro and "charm him" as much as he could.

As much as the idea annoyed him... He went along with it. After all, when else was he gonna have the excuse to be alone with Ichiro somewhere like that?

He wasn't sure he had been able to actually "charm" Ichiro at all, though. Taishi wasn't good at feelings. Be it at saying them out loud or at showing them through gestures. He wondered if anything he had done all day had any effect at all, or if Nanao and Taiju's little "plan" had been wasted on him.

"Look, look! It's starting!"

Taishi got momentarily pulled out of his thoughts by Ichiro happily pointing at the sky, the first firework bursting into red sparkles right as Taishi looked up. It was soon followed by even more colorful fireworks.

It was indeed a very beautiful sight. But Taishi's head was still a bit too full of worries for him to completely pay attention to it.

He couldn't help but look at Ichiro instead. The way he smiled and his eyes sparkled looking at the sky almost immediately had Taishi's heart beating faster. At that moment, it was a more interesting sight than the fireworks.

He felt a lump in his throat, a feeling that had been coming and going all day. It was like everything he had wanted to say to Ichiro for so long would just reach the tip of his tongue, but still refuse to actually come out. He wasn't used to saying what he felt so clearly like that. He wondered how it would even feel to say them...

When a particularly loud round of fireworks started, making it a bit hard to hear even Ichiro's excited cheers, an odd idea struck him. Perhaps, it would be the perfect opportunity to "practice" what he wanted to say?

"I love you." He said. Even though he had been hoping Ichiro wouldn't actually hear it, he still felt his face burn and the lump on his throat getting worse. He definitely still couldn't bring himself to actually confess.

However, Ichiro quickly turned his face to him, making a surprised noise. His eyes were wide and his mouth was open, and there was a tint of red on his cheeks.

Taishi's heart stopped beating for a second. Ichiro had actually heard him!?

Taishi quickly tried to come up with an excuse. "W-what!? I just said I love fireworks!" He wanted to dig a hole and hide in it forever. Even if Ichiro wasn't exactly the smartest person around, he was definitely not gonna fall for such a cliché excuse.

"A-ah... I see..." Ichiro looked at the sky again.

It surprised Taishi that such a simple lie had worked on him. But at least, it would allow him to calm down a bit. He looked up at the sky as well, sighing.

However, he soon noticed Ichiro sliding closer to him, stopping when their hands were just a few millimeters away from brushing against each other. Taishi's heartbeat fastened. He tried to keep his breathing steady, prayed that the warmth on his cheeks wasn't creating too obvious of a blush...

And then, Ichiro closed the distance between their hands. Not by much, simply locking their pinkies together. But it still made Taishi flinch.

"I... I love fireworks too." Ichiro said. Taishi found the courage to look at his face again, and saw that he wasn't even looking up anymore. He was staring at his feet with a nervous smile, a light shade of pink on his cheeks.

Taishi's pinky pulled a little hard on Ichiro's, his heart beating so hard now he almost feared it would break out of his chest. It wasn't hard for him to understand what Ichiro meant by that. And yet... He couldn't bring himself to say more. Even if it was pretty clear to him that Ichiro was reciprocating his feelings, he couldn't get the words out of his mouth...

He felt pathetic...

"And you know..." Ichiro started speaking again, his grip on the grass and Taishi's pinkie tightening. "I think one of the cool things about fireworks is that small bit of time where you have to wait for it to actually blow up. It's kinda fun waiting until it is ready to burst." Ichiro laughed awkwardly, then mumbled. "Is this even how metaphors work...?"

Taishi couldn't help but smile and chuckle. It was a bit reassuring, seeing Ichiro also struggle with his words a little. But Taishi understood what he meant just as much as Ichiro had understood him earlier.

Ichiro didn't mind waiting until he had the courage to actually tell him his feelings directly.

"I get what you're saying..." Taishi said. Swallowing on nothing, he moved his trembling hand to properly hold onto Ichiro's. He felt him flinching for a moment, but he quickly relaxed and reciprocated by intertwining their fingers. "Than.... Thank you." Taishi managed to say, despite almost feeling like he was gonna pass out from how high his heart rate had gotten.

They remained like that for a few more minutes, just holding hands as they watched the fireworks in the sky. Despite still feeling nervous, Taishi also felt oddly relieved. That weight he had been feeling the whole day had been lifted, and he had slowly begun to feel his heartbeat coming back to normal.

After a while, Taishi spotted Taiju and Nanao further ahead in the crowd. They were both watching the fireworks as well, seemingly without a care in the world about the nervousness they had caused to Taishi that day. He quietly nudged Ichiro with his elbow, and when Ichiro looked at him, he pointed towards them.

Coincidentally, Nanao looked back and spotted them as well. He said something to Taiju, who looked back as well. The pair smiled and waved at them, and Ichiro cheerfully waved back. Taishi’s wave was much less enthusiastic, and he couldn’t help but avoid looking them in the eye as he wondered if, from that distance, they could see they were holding hands.

“Thank you!” Taishi said loudly, trying to make sure the other two would hear him.

Taishi raised an eyebrow at him. “What are you thanking them for?”

“O-oh! Well…” Ichiro blushed, looking at the floor as he scratched the side of his jaw. “I-I actually… Asked them to give us some alone time today. Because I was thinking of… Telling you this kind of stuff. But you beat me to it…” He giggled, a bit awkwardly. “It didn’t go how I expected, but I am still happy with how things turned out!”

For a moment, Taishi didn’t respond. Instead just looking at him with his mouth open.

It was hard for him to believe that Ichiro had been that much braver than him, to the point of actually having something planned from the beginning. He didn’t even know how to tell him that Nanao had told him to try to “charm” Ichiro…

But, in the end, he just laughed. It all felt so ridiculous, but he didn’t hate how things turned out either.

His laughter seemed to calm Ichiro’s nerves down a little, as he started to laugh too.

They still hadn’t let go of each other’s hands…