"Daddy, how do I become a princess?" A young blue-haired boy asked, his face brimming with passion and excitement.
Kneeling, he gently patted the child's head. With a smile, he answered, "Hmm... Well, princesses are supposed to be girls. How about becoming a prince instead?"
He pouted in response, "No!!! I wanna be a princess!" he yelled out.
The Father didn't seem too bothered by it. Embracing his child, he whispered, "Once you find your prince charming, then maybe you can finally become a princess."
Jolting himself up from his slumber, he took a few seconds to take in his surroundings. He was still at the bleachers, Jun was still running laps around the track.
With a groggy feeling, he adjusted and dusted himself off.
Changing to a more prim and proper sitting position, he once again watched silently as Jun ran around the field, Akira's heart filling with joy. He really couldn't understand why he felt so happy every time he would see his crush run.
It took a few seconds but Jun noticed that Akira had woken up. Stopping in his tracks, he slowly made his way over to him.
With large gaps in his breath, he asked, "Yo...how was....your sleep?"
He answered with a giggle, "It was good. I...remembered an old memory."
This seemed to pique his interest as he then gave him his undivided attention, "What's up...?"
"It's nothing, nothing," he said unconvincingly, dismissively waving his hands.
Akira couldn't tell if it was because of consideration, but he didn't try to pry into the subject any further. He just shrugged all the while sipping water out of a bottle.
"By the way...classes ended...a while ago."
"Oh... Um, then goodbye, Jun," he said, bowing his head.
"Yup...! See ya...tomorrow..."
Truthfully, he didn't want to leave, and he had the option not to but he didn't want to bother him anymore. He knew that his crush trained a lot and that speaking with him any more would just impede on that.
Walking back to the classroom, he spotted a note on his desk. Reading the beginning, a small smile formed on his face.
(Akira, I don't know what you're doing right now so I brought the bag home.)
The reasoning for his smile was the small name attached at the bottom. It simply spelled out the name "Ceil".
The note itself or the action even was nothing special. It was something very typical, even the most basic of friends would do the same. But everybody was already well aware of his friend's rather...uncaring nature and attitude, so this was quite a momentous occasion. Despite thinking that, he remembered that this wasn't the first time he did that.
Neatly folding the note and putting it inside the pockets of his skirt, he left the school with a skip in his step.
-----
Arriving at the Amano household, he rang the doorbell and was greeted by a woman with short brown hair.
"Oh, Akira!" she yelled out. "Are you here for your bag?"
With a quick and polite nod, he was brought inside and led into Ciel's room, the owner of the said room was absent.
Looking around it, he noted that it was rather plain. The walls had nothing adorned on them, and even his bed was extremely plain-looking, only having a white pillow and black blanket. Everything else in the room followed that, everything was very unassuming. The only noteworthy items were a game console and a small TV near the bed.
Inviting himself onto the bed, he laid down, stretching his arms out. The bed was fairly comfy and even smelled somewhat nice. But he quickly snapped himself upright as he heard footsteps.
What appeared was a black-haired boy.
"Oh, Akira. Your bag's in there," he said, pointing to his closet.
"Haha, thanks. But I'd like to hang out for a while. Is Fuki here?"
After a bit of thinking, he replied, "I think she's in her room. Want me to invite her?"
A few minutes passed and the three classmates gathered inside the room. Fuki and Akira were sitting on the bed while Ciel sat down on a chair at his table.
The room went quiet for a while, them not having any topics to talk about. The invitation was random after all, and his friends didn't think he would be staying over a bit, not that they minded.
After fiddling with his hands, he forced the topic out, "So, um...! I wanted to ask about love!" He yelled out, much to the surprise of the other two. Well, maybe only one as Ciel still had his unassuming expression.
Fuki seemed completely flustered at the sudden topic, her face almost matching the redness of her hair. The reason he wanted to have a chat with them was to talk about relationships. He probably could have come off a bit more subtle than just blurting that out, but he genuinely just wanted help.
The redhead was the first to pipe up, "...Did you confess to Jun?"
His nod in response was almost robotic; slow-paced and rigid.
"Hm, is that so..." she said with her thinking face. "Well, first things first. Ciel, shoo," she stated, gesturing the boy to leave.
"No." It didn't even take him a second to reply.
"Wha—" She stood up, looking as if she was going to scream something, but their androgynous-looking friend calmed her down.
"Fuki, calm down," he said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'm actually more comfortable with him being here."
What followed was a sigh. "If you say so." She still seemed like she wanted to protest but quickly acquiesced.
"So what happened?" The black-haired boy questioned.
Recalling the events, he tried to explain them in as much detail as he could. Both of them actually seemed rather interested in the whole ordeal, Fuki quite a degree more than Ciel. He explained most of the story to them; him crying, the comfort he felt, and how the runner replied with a "for now". After finishing the story, he looked expectantly at the two.
"Well...?"
"Aren't you two practically dating at that point?" Ciel asked. He reasoned that the two already knew they liked each other and that there was no rejection, only a delay.
But Fuki quickly cut in, "No, no. I've done that to multiple guys already. Maybe he's just putting it off so he doesn't hurt him?" she reasoned.
"Yeah, but...that's you." Neither of them could tell if that was a jab or not. Fuki seemed to think it was so her face lit up with anger.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"All I'm saying is that he didn't have to put off answering."
At that point, their back and forth just felt like noise. It was like Akira wasn't even in the same room as them. It took a while before the two of them calmed down, neither being able to really prove their point. And with that, a mostly pointless conversation was had. At least the three of them had fun.
At least he had gotten two different perspectives. Both raised fairly valid points. Perhaps he did just put a delay on it, wanting to focus more on his studies than relationships? But on the other hand, he was quite aware of how attractive Jun was, it wouldn't surprise him if he also got confessions from different people.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't tell which one Jun fell in.
With a thankful nod, he grabbed his bag and made his way home with Fuki escorting him. The two just had some small talk while they walked. Ciel stayed behind to play on his console.
-----
Finishing up the last of his laps, he could feel his legs shaking and his breathing becoming uneven. He honestly just wanted to pass out at the moment. Collecting himself, he put a hand to his temple, trying to ease the wooziness he felt. He felt that if he even took a few too many steps, he would fall to his side.
Sitting on the ground, he took deep breaths to try and steady himself. In and out....in and out...in and out. He repeated this for a few minutes before standing back up.
With the school's intramurals approaching in less than a month from now, he's been pushing himself to his limits. He promised himself that he would get first place in track and field when it came to running. This self-imposed challenge was something that he had been training for. And he only had two more years of his high school life to prove it.
Gazing back up at the sun, he felt its bright rays shower over him, slightly rejuvenating his energy.
"...Maybe one more," he said as he then proceeded to lightly jog one more lap before leaving.