Yeah, okay @madkingdeluxe
-Thunk-
The sudden noise practically made the boy shoot up in the air, startling him so bad that it summoned a barely-suppressed yelp. He whipped his head around to find his companion doubled over on his knees, holding his forehead as if his hands were the only thing holding back the full flood of a dam.
“Holy shit, are you okay, Kageyama-kun?”
The boy on the floor only uttered a weak ‘yeah’ in response.
Teruki sighed and brushed some of his bleach-blonde hair out of his face, glaring at the offending doorframe in the hall. Of course wasn’t going to admit he was hurt. The other esper had practically shot up in height overnight, his body seeming to just want to get puberty done with as quickly as possible, which may have been a good thing considering his already-volatile method of handling emotions. Either way, while Kageyama Shigeo once stood just three centimeters below Teru in middle school, Hanazawa now found himself 16 centimeters short of his friend’s height- or at least that’s how much it was last he checked, Kageyama seemed to come back from spring break almost taller than that.
The blonde boy kneeled down to his friend, gently moving aside his friend’s hands to examine the injury.
“Hm…no bleeding, but it looks like it’s probably going to bruise up pretty bad. How does it feel?”
“I-I’m fine, Hanazawa-kun,” the taller esper responded, his arms still shaking.
“You don’t have to pretend you’re fine in front of me, y’know.” Hanazawa took his hands away from his friend’s face and opened his bag. “You really need to be more careful, Kageyama-kun, one of these days you won’t just run into a doorway.”
“You don’t have to worry this much about me, Hanazawa-kun,” Mob croaked after taking a deep breath, “I’m just…not used to this height yet, I guess.” His forehead throbbed again, prompting the black-haired boy to bring his hands back to his head and hiss in pain. He tried to focus on something else besides his contusion- his friend in front of him, fishing around in his bag for something to help with. His roots were showing again- normal, brown hair sticking out in a sea of perfectly manicured gold pulled back into a soft ponytail. Almost out of place, but still perfectly executed.
“Well, until you are used to it, you’re just going to have to deal with me, aren’t you?” Teruki’s head moved as he spoke, and the sun glinted off of his hair in just the right way to make Mob wince a bit. “Ah- there we go.” Teruki finally sat up straight, taking a small metal tin out of his bag and flipping open the top. “What color do you want?”
Mob didn’t respond, only looking at Teru as if in a trance. Willing his cheeks to not redden, Teru called his name. “O-oi, Shigeo?”
Mob snapped to attention, suddenly very aware that he was staring. “Ah, s-sorry. What was that?” he asked, the redness of his forehead seeming to spread down to his face.
“It’s…it’s fine.” Teruki scratched his head again before reaching into the box and pulling out a small blue adhesive bandage. “You told me before that you like blue, right?”
Mob flicked his eyes up from the floor briefly to meet Teruki’s almost sea-blue eyes-much closer than he would like-, quickly looking to the side to keep himself from staring again. “Y-yeah.” He quietly cursed his stature; on his knees he was still taller than his friend was in the same position, and his face on clear display for the blonde, including the sudden emotional turmoil.
“Jeez, what’s up with you suddenly? Maybe that hit you took knocked something loose.” Teru lightly laughed at his own joke before holding the bandage up to his friend’s head.
Shigeo realized that there were only a few other people in the hall- most had already gone to their homerooms or classes, and the break period was ending soon. He felt Teruki’s knuckles and fingertips lightly brushing against his forehead, suddenly painfully aware of how close they were. He swallowed the lump in his throat, hoping the other wouldn’t notice. Still- it’s not like anyone was around. It was totally possible for him to just…lean down a bit, and-
“…tch. That’s not good.” Teruki took his hands away from Shigeo’s head, looking disappointedly at the bandage and then back at the raw spot on Mob’s forehead.
“W-what? Is something wrong?” The raven-haired boy’s heart went from a restrained pounding to suddenly dropping into his stomach.
“Ah…no, nothing’s wrong, but…” He eyed the spot on his friend’s head again. “I don’t think something this small is going to cover it.”
“Oh…so it’s that bad, huh?” Mob unconsciously touched it again, making him wince in pain again.
“Hey, don’t touch it! You’re going to make it worse!” Teru grabbed Shigeo’s wrist, watching Mob’s expression rapidly shift from pain to a red-faced shock, suddenly realizing he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. “Look, uh…” he put his hand on Mob’s shoulder in an attempt to think of something…comforting, maybe? Confident? That he could say. Shigeo flicked his eyes in another direction again. Teru felt the red from his friend’s face spreading to his own. “Uh…let’s just get you to the infirmary, I’m sure they have actual bandages there.”
“U-um, y-yeah,” Mob said, neither of them actually moving to get up.
“…right, uh, let’s- let’s just-“
Before Teru could stutter another word, he felt something soft quickly plant itself against his forehead, his vision obscured by Kageyama’s chin, and pull away just as suddenly. Teruki’s face flushed, no longer able to be suppressed, and he quickly slapped a head to his forehead as if it would help him process what just happened.
“I-uh, I’m- I kinda- I- I fell a bit, um…I’m- uh, Sorry, Hanazawa-“
Hanazawa slid his hand up from Shigeo’s wrist to his hand, kneeling upward to plant a kiss on the other’s forehead in response, careful not to press on the bump too hard.
“Jeez, Kageyama-kun, if that’s all you wanted, you should’ve just said so,” Teruki laughed softly. Shigeo nodded, unable to even bring any words to his mouth for how shocked he still was. “Alright, then.” Hanazawa sighed again, digging the forgotten bandage out of his pocket. “Let’s just get this on you for now,” he unwrapped the bandage, quickly pressing another kiss to Shigeo’s forehead and putting the blue strip on over it, “and get you to the infirmary for a better one, alright?”
“…yeah,” Mob finally managed to breathe.
Teru collected his bag and lifted himself to his feet, offering his hand to the friend that he now felt a little more comfortable around. “Do you want me to walk you there?”
“No, I can make it on my own,” Shigeo said, though he still twined his fingers with Teru’s as he stood.
“Yeah, but if you go on your own, who will make sure you don’t run into any more doorways?” Teru elbowed him in the side, made easier by the fact that he had to keep his hand at hip-height to make up for their differences in height.
“I’ll manage,” Shigeo laughed, only holding their hands tighter.
