Chapter Text
“Brother, you’re still in here?”
Leo turned his head to see Elise standing in her nightgown at the large door of the library, a small lamp flickering in her hand.
Leo was surprised his own lamp, at the corner of the desk, was not yet out of oil. Next to it was a small stack of frustratingly empty paper.
“I’m nearly done,” Leo lied. He preferred the atmosphere of the library to that of his bedroom for tasks like these –although with the amount of use the library got it was nearly a second room to him anyways. “Get yourself off to bed. I’ll see you at breakfast.”
Ignoring his request, Elise came prancing across the wide expanse of marbled floor, dimly reflecting the grey-blue light coming through the tall paneled windows. “Who’re you writing to? Gosh that’s a lot of paper!”
Leo shifted himself slightly, hoping to cover the fact the sheet he was currently working on had nothing but an unembellished salutation. “How is it that if Xander tells you to get to bed you practically run in your slippers, but with me it’s seen as an invitation?”
Without missing a beat Elise replied, “Because with Xander I know he’s probably actually busy working on official stuff. You’re just writing a letter to Takumi.”
Leo gazed impassively at his sister’s impish grin. “Rude.”
Elise gave him a quick kiss on the head and flounced back out of the library. “Tell him I say hello!” she called from somewhere down the hall.
Leo sighed at the empty space on his page he still hadn’t been able to fill up. It had been two weeks since he and Takumi spoke at Xander’s coronation, and in that time not a single letter had been sent or received. If they were pretending things were normal they were doing a very bad job at it.
Which is why Leo had to write this letter and somehow make everything normal again.
He still hadn’t decided whose fault it was, and that was half the problem. Sure, it was Leo who had invited Takumi over to his room when everyone else had been celebrating. It was also Leo who thought it would be fun to finally finish a bottle of liquor that had been collecting dust in his room. But it was Takumi who refused to be walked back afterwards! … But it was Leo who stupidly (drunkenly perhaps) thought it would be a good idea to admit months of hidden feelings. But it was also Leo who had insisted they stopped before they did anything they might regret.
But it was Takumi who’d run out of the room before dawn in a panic and didn’t come back downstairs until it was time to leave.
Maybe it didn’t actually matter whose fault it was.
Did Takumi not want to talk about what happened? Perhaps Takumi didn’t even recall most of it? Would it be better to just not bring it up at all? Yet the idea of writing a whimsical and casual letter like those they used to relay with no forward or mention at all of the strange sequence of events seemed unreasonable.
Leo finally put down his pen and crossed his arms in frustration. Takumi was probably sitting somewhere in that beautiful Hoshidan castle waiting for Leo to decide how to break this awkward stalemate. Leo hated stalemates.
Fine. If Takumi wanted to be the stubborn one then Leo would be the better man. Their friendship deserved that much at least.
“You want to come to the fete…?”
Xander seemed appropriately surprised at Leo’s request in the morning, being well aware of his brother’s aversion to parties. Leo made a point of keeping his face unaffected. “Yes. Unless my presence would be unappreciated?”
“Oh no. Quite the opposite in fact. But… the whole business is quite trifling. I’m almost certain the head of the agricultural syndicate is already willing to sign our agreement –coming to this little party is more of a polite nicety.”
“He must be a very well-respected individual for the Hoshidan royal family to agree to host said party at the palace.”
Xander took a heavy drink of his morning coffee before replying. “There’s a lot Nohr can learn from our new allies. For example, the benefit of being in good relations with our nations farmers and suppliers of natural resources. I’m sure he will be very interested in Brynhildr if you’d entertain him a little.”
Leo sighed inwardly at what he was voluntarily signing himself up for. “Of course.”
The shattering of a platter and Felicia’s small shriek announced the end of breakfast.
He padded softly along the shiny wood floors, the soft slippers they were to wear indoors muffling his usual boot-clad step. Because of the hour, Leo couldn’t help but feel he was sneaking about. Usually they were able to arrive in Hoshido by dinner time, but this particular trip had a few interruptions, so only Ryouma was there to greet their carriage when they arrived a few hours past sunset.
When he finally reached Takumi’s door, he was momentarily at a loss. The paneled screen didn’t offer any obvious knocking spots. Eventually he tapped purposefully on a thick middle beam of the sliding door.
“Who is it it?” Takumi’s slightly muffled voice came from the other side. He sounded preoccupied. Leo wondered what he was up to. “Come in.”
At times like this, Leo wished he were more witty and capable of coming up with some great one-liner. But instead all he managed to say after sliding open the door was “’Evening.”
There was a brief moment where Leo got a good look at Takumi, on his knees on the floor, surrounded –literally surrounded, however he’d managed it –by large sheets of paper, sprawling inky characters from the strange Hoshidan alphabet on each one. And Takumi, facing parallel the door but now with his head turned and staring wide-eyed at the man in his door, sitting in the center, dressed in some sort of casual, traditional garb that Leo always thought resembled a flowy housecoat. In his hand, an ink-tipped brush and directly in front of him, in arguably the last empty space within an arm’s reach, a blank sheet.
“You --!” Leo watched surprise turn into apprehension before finally setting on a sheepishly pleased expression. “Why…? I thought only Xander was coming.”
“You know me, I can’t resist politically fueled festivities.”
They both chuckled at this lie, lightening the mood, and Leo allowed himself to venture further into the room.
“Takumi how did you manage this?” Leo indicated Takumi’s cage of drying sheets. It reminded him of the few occasions he’d walked in on Felicia after mopping herself into a little dry spot on the floor, stranded until the floor was properly dry.
Takumi sighed and stood up, arms crossed, eyeing the papers critically. “It’s Ryouma. He wanted me to take up a new cultural hobby. It think I must be missing the point though; I can finish a stack of these in like, a minute. But it’s supposed to be art.”
Instead of waiting for Takumi to step out, Leo took a wide step and joined him in the center. “Can I try?”
“Err, sure.”
Leo crouched down and took the thick brush from the pot of ink. With his most elaborate script he scrawled his name, filling up as much of the page as possible with the three letters. Daintily he picked up the sheet from the top corners and held it out to Takumi, who took it questionably. Small wet ink droplets slid down from a few places, giving at almost eerie appearance.
“An autograph.”
“Pfft right. Come on, let’s step out of here. I had a pot of tea brought up a little while ago. Hopefully it’s still hot.”
Following him out of the barrier of sheets, Leo sat next to him at his low table in the corner of his room, cushion separating his bottom from the shiny wooden floor. Aside from the art project in the center of the room, Takumi’s room was surprisingly clean. Hoshidan decorations appeared to be minimal. It wasn’t the first time Leo was in Takumi’s room, but it was the first time he found himself desperately looking anywhere but his friend pouring the tea, trying to not wonder too hard at the slight blush tainting his friend’s cheeks underneath the hair that had slipped out of his ponytail.
Takumi pushed a steaming ceramic cup in his direction. “So why are you here?”
Leo wrinkled his nose at his cup. “I don’t like green tea.”
Takumi arched an eyebrow. “You came all the way here to confess you don’t like green tea? Well I’ll be honest I don’t care, I don’t make the rules. When you’re in Hoshido you drink green tea. That’s just how it goes.”
If nothing else, Leo was glad they weren’t acting overly formal. In the first few drafts of the letter he never actually wrote, he had reverted back to the overly formal mannerisms they’d used when the war first started. Those sheets were crumpled with dismay –they sounded false. Fake. However it was all too often when they wouldn’t see each other for some time only to be pushed back to that state, if even just temporarily. Leo mused that perhaps there were some experiences, like drunkenly dancing together in one’s bedroom, which people can’t backtrack from.
“Umm…” Leo realized then that he didn’t actually know what he’d come to say. Ironically, that was part of the problem considering he couldn’t string enough words together to send a proper letter.
From his periphery, Leo noticed Takumi’s expression drop like a stone. “Unless… Oh. I’m so stupid.”
Leo was alarmed at the sincerity behind this otherwise somewhat common self-depreciation from Takumi. Instead of making a joke of the situation, Leo replied, equally serious, “What are you talking about? Of course you’re not.”
It was Takumi who was now avoiding eye contact, glaring sternly at his cup on the table. “You’ve come to take back what you said that night. Of course you have… how could I think… of course you didn’t mean any of it. What a sad fool I am--”
Alarmed, Leo spoke up. “No! Can you just –can you relax for two seconds and let me finish?” Getting the intended reaction, Takumi had stopped babbling. With a flutter Leo realized this pocket of silence he’d made was now intended for him to elaborate. “I meant every word. I was tipsy, perhaps, but not untruthful.” If Leo would have tried to speak more quietly it would have come out a whisper. With dismay he realized he was essentially confessing a second time –this time without the aid of any alcohol to smooth things over. “I have feelings. For you.”
Hoping there was perhaps some poison in the tea Takumi had poured him, Leo downed the hot liquid in one burning gulp. The only condolence to the equally burning embarrassment was that, perhaps, this was the reason he’d come all the way to Hoshido. He’d imagined the matter being brushed under the rug more subtly however. He’d somehow forgotten that with Takumi there was very rarely any subtlety.
When Leo was finally able to bring himself to look back at his friend the fiery emotion was gone from his brown eyes, leaving Takumi looking oddly meek.
Leo felt like he was still responsible for filling the silence. “…It doesn’t have to mean anything.” He tried shrugging away some of the lingering tension. “I just want to make sure we’re still okay. Friends. Or whatever. That’s why I’m here.”
“…So you didn’t get my letter?”
Seeing this as a welcome diversion from the previous topic, Leo replied, “I received no letter. It was the lack thereof that had me concerned in fact. I’d thought I’d be the better man and break the silence.”
He scoffed. “I’ll have you know I did write a letter. Erm, this morning.”
“Takumi, how could you possibly think a letter sent this morning would arrive in Nohr in time for me to receive it, read it, and still make the trip all the way to Hoshido?”
Takumi ignored the question and asked his own, “Do you want to come hunting with me tomorrow?”
As it turned out, “tomorrow” meant before sunrise. Leo managed to stumble out of bed (luckily the beds in Hoshido were nearly directly on the floor), get dressed and make it halfway down the hall to meet Takumi before being laughed at and being instructed to go back and change.
“Why do Nohrians have so many metal bits on their outfits? It’s not even armour at that point they’re just… accessories. Jangly accessories which would sound like an alarm bell to any animal within earshot.”
Takumi was sitting outside his door as Leo tried to figure out the pile of clothes he’d been given. “At least our clothes have the decency to have proper straps and seams,” Leo replied as he tried to figure out if what he was looking at was indeed an arm hole and figure out where exactly his head was supposed to go. “Sometimes I feel like the people of Hoshido are just wearing intricately folded blankets…”
Takumi tried, poorly, to hide a laugh. “Do you need help? That’s an old set of Ryouma’s –I think anything of mine would be too small… why is everything in Nohr so big?”
For some reason this statement flustered Leo and he was glad he had the few moments spent putting on the soft-soled shoes to compose himself.
“You’re awfully chipper this morning,” Leo stated as he slid open his door and joined his friend in the hallway.
Takumi shrugged and began walking. “I like hunting.”
They slid out of the castle and walked the grounds, only the brush of the grass from their steps making any sound. Leo tried not to think about how comfortable his bed had felt that morning…
“Is their hunting in Nohr?”
“Obviously.”
They were at a little wooden shack near the tree-line. Takumi undid a lock and pushed open the creaky door. “…You know what I meant.”
Leo stood outside as he heard Takumi shuffling about inside. “Yeah there’s some pretty good sport hunting. Although we usually do it atop of horseback and bring dogs. I can’t say I ever took a particular fondness to it myself… but I’ve been told we have some of the best and largest trophy hunting up in the north.”
Suddenly Takumi was spraying him with something. Leo sputtered. “Wha-what was that?”
“Deer piss.” Setting the bottle down, Takumi now held out two bows. “Iron? Or can you wield steel?”
Still recovering and mildly horrified, Leo silently took the steel bow held in Takumi’s outstretched arm. The opportunity to turn back had come and gone long ago. “Should I assume we’re trying to catch a deer then?”
Takumi locked the little shed. Strapped to his own back was the Fujin Yumi. “We’re catching dinner for tonight, so I thought a deer would be appropriate –although if we see a boar that would also be pretty good. If we aren’t so lucky after a few hours we’ll just try to bag a couple of pheasants, although our forest is kept pretty well stocked so I doubt finding something big will be an issue.” Takumi clapped him hard on the back. “And don’t look so glum! This is supposed to be fun.”
Leo followed him into the woods.
It was not nearly as cold as Nohr during this time of year but it was still chilly, although the sun was finally high enough to start shining through some of the interspersed trunks. Their breath was coming out in little white clouds of condensation and Leo almost wished his borrowed outfit had come with a pair of gloves.
Thankfully hunting meant talking was off the list. Not that Leo didn’t enjoy speaking with Takumi, but his mind had been racing that night trying to make sense of their conversation and he was, regrettably, not able to get much sleep. Leo was well aware that he was cranky and doubted he would make a good conversation partner for a few hours more at least.
Which left him with plenty of time to trail a few steps behind Takumi and observe the beautiful scenery. The mixed forest paired with the time of year meant there was the whole spectrum of colours to view in the foliage; yellows, reds, and still some green from a few stubborn trees. In Nohr, most the trees were either already bare or were covered in needles.
Takumi shot him another look over his shoulder as a stick snapped under Leo’s foot. As if he hadn’t understood the first four times, Takumi raised a finger to his lips. Leo honestly didn’t understand how he was expected to avoid sticks, although admittedly Takumi seemed to be doing a pretty good job. It was quite a transformation –Takumi, usually loud and catty, among other adjectives, slipping gracefully amongst the trees. Leo didn’t recall noticing this aspect of him during the war, but then again the circumstances had been a little different back then.
The next time Takumi stopped to give him a look Leo raised his arms in exasperation, certain he hadn’t stepped on any sticks or kicked any stones this time. But then Takumi grinned and shook his head, instead pointing excitedly down at the ground. It was… oh.
Deer droppings.
Still grinning, Takumi gestured for Leo to take his bow out of its holster as he did the same with the Fujin Yumi. Leo did, although he intended to let Takumi do all the shooting. Leo felt remarkably out of his element, standing in borrowed clothes, wielding a bow and pretending to be excited about animal excrement. It was the sort of activity he would have only begrudgingly agreed to before; it would appear distance had made him somehow sentimental.
Leo again became so entranced with watching his own feet for some time that he didn’t notice Takumi had stopped until he’d walked softly right into his back.
Sorry, he mouthed, but then looked to where Takumi was pointing. There, 90 meters or so in the distance and surprisingly well camouflaged was a small doe, munching timidly on the grass at the base of the trees. It seemed completely unaware of their presence.
Leo smiled in earnest now –this was much better than the droppings --and looked back at his friend, wondering if he’d try taking a shot from here. That would be an impressive hit.
Seeming to get what his look was suggesting, Takumi smiled back and shook his head. He tapped Leo’s elbow, then notched an arrow into his own bow. It looked like they were going to start creeping up slowly, in position to take the shot.
Leo, although not nearly as graceful as Takumi had been, also readied an arrow (although he still fully intended to leave Takumi the shot) and inched forward behind his friend.
By the time they’d halved the distance between them and the deer, Leo’s arms were burning from keeping them raised. He’d never hunted an animal like this, and was amazed the animal still seemed oblivious. A few times it seemed to be idly looking in their exact direction and he’d held his breath, but never did the animal dart away.
It must be the piss, Leo thought.
Takumi moved so silently Leo didn’t notice him hovering right behind him until he felt his hands adjusting his arms. It took a moment for Leo to realize Takumi was fixing his stance, his own Fujin Yumi resting on the ground.
Internally Leo panicked. He highly doubted he’d be able to make a shot as far as 45 meters, and when he missed the deer would dart and Takumi wouldn’t even be in position to take a shot himself. It didn’t help that Takumi’s breath was tickling his earlobe and was very much in his personal space. Leo didn’t even know how to communicate that, no, he could not make this shot, without risking revealing them both.
So instead he set his jaw and allowed his limbs be minutely adjusted. Admittedly, it did look like now he was positioned for an ideal shot –the arrow should fly between the trunks of two large trees, fly a foot or so away from a sapling and get the deer directly in its shoulder and hopefully pierce the heart.
He felt the heat from Takumi’s body drift away as he pulled himself slightly away. From somewhere to his left he heard Takumi whisper “shoot”, so Leo released his string and allowed his arrow to fly.
As fast as he could process it, Leo saw his arrow miss, flying a few inches in front of the animal’s chest, but then be immediately struck by two arrows almost simultaneously –one directly where he’d been aiming, and the other in the animal’s eye.
It dropped like a sack of flour, as did Leo’s arms now that he could finally relax.
“Whooohoo!” Takumi’s yell was both startling and refreshing after over two hours of silence. Like a kid let loose in a toy store, he bounded over to his kill, not caring anymore about snapping branches or twigs in the process.
“You did it! You killed it, Leo!”
Huh? “Nah that one in the heart is yours. I saw my arrow miss.” Leo wasn’t even disappointed; he’d never intended to be the one to make the kill anyways.
Takumi was still skipping about excitedly. “Nooo, only the one in the eye was me. Insurance, in case you missed.” Suddenly he turned around and began looking around his feet at the ground. By the time Leo had walked over to the animal, Takumi stood up straight, holding an arrow proudly in his hand.
“See? Blue ring. Mine. My second arrow was the one that missed.”
Leo was puzzled. It was true, his arrows were marked with red rings, and the arrow still protruding from the animal’s shoulder was marked with red. But…
“There’s no way. The arrows must have been mixed up or something. I saw my arrow fly right in front of it—“
“Leo, so modest! It must be because you know about our unwritten rule here in Hoshido.”
“And what’s that?”
“Whoever kills the deer gets to carry it back.”
Leo looked disdainfully at the corpse on the ground, bright red blood oozing lazily from its wounds, and wondered how he’d managed to fall in love with this man in particular.
The reception that evening was just as boring as Leo had expected. Takumi seemed to be on a mission to get Leo to try every single one of the hors d'oeuvres; polite introductions and exchanges with the various agricultural tycoons were punctuated by Takumi, pointedly handing him some new oddity at the end of a toothpick for him to try.
Dinner had their venison as the main dish, with a variety of fresh-tasting Hoshidan sides to compliment the meat. When Ryouma had tried to give Takumi credit for the hunt as it was laid on the table, he had adamantly (and loudly) denied his part and instead credited Leo on the kill. This was overheard by the head of the syndicate at the other end of the table, a tiny, elderly man with leathery hands whose enthusiasm for this news only made Leo feel even less comfortable with the attention.
“What a perfect segue to the reason we’re all here today –to cement our new partnership with Hoshido’s new allies to the West, the Kingdom of Nohr!” The little man could certainly give a speech –they were lucky most of the Hoshidan food was supposed to be eaten cold anyways.
Leo kept trying to deliver Takumi a subtle look of annoyance for the unwanted attention he’d bestowed but Takumi, looking smug, managed to casually avoid his eyes the entire meal.
“So how’d you do it?”
After the meal everyone was allowed to mingle again around the large banquet hall, similar to before dinner except this time Leo had suspicions that a band was going to brought in to supply music. Hinata, looking vaguely out-of-place in Hoshidan formal attire, had joined him as he nibbled on a slice of cake by the back wall.
“Do what?”
“Oh man, where to start? How’d you convince Takumi let you go hunting with him? How did you manage to get an arrow into an animal before he did? I should also commend you for not killing him in the woods –he gets rather… anal when he’s out hunting.”
Leo, recalling how Takumi had personally invited him the night before and had delicately helped him line up the shot (which he was still pretty sure he managed to miss), wasn’t sure how to address Hinata’s questions.
“I take it your experiences hunting with the Prince have been few, unpleasant, and without reward?”
Hinata gave a hearty chuckle. “Yep, you got me! Takumi would rather eat pinecones than have anyone with him when he hunts. Not that he’s a piece of sunshine anyways –I swear he almost decided to turn his arrows on me when I sneezed! But I couldn’t help it, obviously!” There was something about Hinata that always reminded Leo of Odin, and with a pang Leo realized just how much he missed his mysteriously departed retainer.
“But most of all, Takumi never lets someone else make the shot. No sir. You must be Prince Leo, Bringer of Miracles.”
As if summoned, Takumi appeared beside his retainer, two small cups on something steaming in his hands. “Please don’t stroke his ego, Hinata. I think he’s got enough without you giving him titles.” This was said with an easy smile, and finally meeting his eye, Leo found he could no longer deliver his look of discontent he’d been saving.
“Lord Takumi, bringing out the sake in time for dancing?” Hinata waggled his eyebrows.
Takumi scoffed. “Not me. You can have all the farmers’ wives to yourself.”
Looking a bit dejected, Hinata waved them off and made his way back to the dessert table.
“He wouldn’t actually… Oboro would kill him.”
“’Sock-eh?”
Takumi handed him a small porcelain cup. “Payback for our last gettogether. Only one this time though.” Takumi winked at him and Leo wondered what alternate universe he’d been transported to this time. “Want to go hide on the balcony? Unless you want to dance with my sister –I’m pretty sure she’s been eyeing you all night.”
Leo thought he’d been receiving some strange looks from the other members of the royal family during dinner but Leo didn’t think much of it. “Takumi, Sakura could ask me to kill a kitten in cold blood and I’d probably do it. She’s like Elise that way.”
The balcony was relatively small and completely empty. One step outside and Leo knew why; the fall air so late into the night was bitterly cold. He adjusted his high collar and joined Takumi at the railing, taking a hot sip of his drink on the way.
“So are you enjoying yourself, Prince Leo?”
Leo scowled lightly at the title, but it was clear from Takumi’s smirk that he was only joking.
“It could have been better had not the entire table thought I’d somehow surpassed their resident Prince in bowhunting.”
“It was quite impressive.”
Leo playfully knocked into his shoulder, causing Takumi to spill some of his drink down into the darkness below.
“Really though, why’d you do that? You’re the one who likes attention.”
“Huh? I do not!”
Leo took another sip and shrugged.
“… to keep my options open.”
“Takumi that doesn’t make sense.”
Takumi took another sip before apparently deciding he’d had enough and tipped his cup, watching the rest pour over the railing. It was probably for the best –Takumi revealed himself to be a horrendous light-weight and Leo could tell this stuff wasn’t as light as his friend’s reaction to Nohrian whiskey would have suggested.
“I’m trying to be cryptic and mysterious. I’m just not as good at it as you.”
Leo smiled incredulously. “You think I’m mysterious?”
It was Takumi’s turn to bump into Leo’s shoulder as he was about to take his final sip, causing warm liquid to spill onto his chin and collar.
“Very.” Takumi lifted the fabric near his neck to imitate a high collar, and spoke in an imitation, “I, Prince Leo, speak vaguely and indirectly about many things!”
“I’m not vague!” Leo said, wiping his face with one of his sleeves.
“And I don’t like attention.”
They laughed.
Takumi leaned in slightly, and Leo froze, a laugh getting caught in his throat. But in the next moment Takumi had pulled away, still grinning merrily. “You smell like a drunk.”
Leo let out a breath he must have been holding. “Perhaps a sign I should resign from the festivities?”
Takumi looked behind them at the party going on inside, muffled orchestral music now audible through the doors. “Looking for a way out, are we? I’m afraid you’ll never make it through that minefield without being pulled into half a dozen political discussions and at least two obligatory dances.”
Leo sighed dramatically. “I guess I’m resigned to freeze out here on the balcony then.”
“That’s what you think…” Takumi followed the perimeter of the railing until it joined with the outer castle wall, then appeared to flick something on the underside of the railing, the hidden piece swung out like a gate. “I’ll walk you to your room. You can thank me, gratuitously, on the walk there.”
“My my,” Leo said, walking to the hidden gate. Takumi was already halfway down a little ladder to a dark platform below. “I guess Castle Shirasagi is cooler than I gave it credit for.”
Shutting the latch behind him, he followed Takumi down into the darkness. Wishing he had a tome to provide some light, he instead grasped lightly at the abundant fabric on the back of Takumi’s garment and allowed him to lead. Leo was momentarily reminded of one of the few memories he had of his mother; him clutching her skirt tightly and hiding shyly behind her from strange men he didn’t know.
The outside platform only went a short distance, before a small set of steps and another hidden entrance led them into one of the dark hallways inside the castle itself.
Something about the dark, muffled atmosphere seemed to finally push Leo to ask what had been on his mind since the previous night. “So… I take it we are again on good terms?” Leo knew it probably went without saying at this point, but he needed some sort of closure; who knew how long it would be until they got to speak in person again? Besides, he felt he deserved something after the ordeals he’d went to getting to this point. “Friends or whatever? Sending letters and all that friendly business?”
Without stopping Takumi replied, “We’re almost at your room.” They were back in the well-lit regular hallways, but Leo found himself still clutching onto Takumi’s back.
“Takumi, I swear to god, if you make me bring this up one more time—“
They turned a corner and suddenly Leo recognized where they were. They were right outside his door.
Leo stood motionless in surprise for a few seconds.
“Could you, uh, let go of me?”
Blushing, Leo released his grip instantly, feeling foolish. Takumi turned to face him, cheeks also dusted pink. Takumi awkwardly put a hand on his shoulder.
“Look, just… read that letter when you get home, okay? I think… of course we’re friends Leo, you boob!” He removed his hand.
Leo smiled, ignoring the stupid dull pang he got as the word ‘friend’ echoed in his chest. What did you honestly expect him to call you? “Glad to see we’re on name-calling basis again.”
“Yeah well…” Takumi looked down at his feet. “Anyways, I think I’m going to sneak off to bed myself. It was… really nice seeing you again. Make sure to sleep. Well. Sleep well.” He brought a hand to his face and turned around abruptly, beginning to make his way down the hall.
“Goodnight Takumi.”
They were leaving early the next morning, and Leo wasn’t sure when he’d see his friend again.