Chapter Text
"Yamada, do you like me?"
The words just slipped out.
I hadn't actually meant to say those words out loud, but when you’re drunk things that you would normally never say, had the tendency to slip out unbidden.
Yamada paused…looked at me…and then gave me the most beatific smile I’d ever seen on his face. I didn't even know that he could smile like that, and to have that look directed straight at me, left me even more tongue-tied than I already was. And then he said the most wonderful and amazing words, that I truly never expected him to ever say to me.
"I like you, Akane".
Just four simple words, and yet it was like my mind had taken leave. I was unfortunately drunk. Too drunk. And for a second or two, I believed that I had just imagined the beautiful words that Yamada had just spoken.
"I like you, Akane."
Wasn't it supposed to be me who said those words to him?
I had tried. Heaven knows I did try...things just...didn’t work out the way I’d hoped they would at the time. And now here I am, standing in front of the guy my heart had started to yearn for, and then become completely attached to. And he was saying the most wonderful and amazing things to me, and how I wished with my entire being, that I was sober for this moment. But it was alright, because now he was saying that even if I forgot his confession, he'd come by and tell me that he liked me again and again until I remembered.
I broke down then.
I just...lost it.
I loved him.
I loved Yamada so much, and I just started to cry.
“Can I…can I call you tomorrow…would that be alright?” I asked him, as tears flowed freely down my face.
I had to call him…no…I needed to call him in the morning, so that I'd know that this wasn't all just a dream. That it wasn't some kind of cruel fantasy my sleeping mind came up with to torment me.
Love isn't always easy...it can be tragic...
Yamada didn't say a word in response. He just wrapped his arms tenderly around me, pulling me close, and letting me know in that silent yet caring way that he had, that I could call him and he'd be there for me, no matter when or where.
I wrapped my arms back tightly around him, and pressed my body as close as I could into his embrace.
This was the place that I've wanted to be for so long...this was the place that I felt safest and most loved.
Being cradled lovingly and tenderly in Yamada's arms.