While I was halfway through writing this, I noticed, ah, this isn't like anonymous love letters at all! The trope fit better in my head. I guess I got carried away.

"I'll just be a few minutes-and do not touch anything in my room, you hear?"

"Got it, got it, hurry up and go already, I wanna leave!"

Giving Toudou one last look of suspicion, Makishima shook his head in exasperation before closing the bathroom door. Toudou was left on his own right about then, not that he really minded. Immediately, he dropped back, falling onto the cushioned bed with his arms spread out. Being in Maki's house was always exciting-being unsupervised? Even better.

Due to a few unfortunate cancellations, there wouldn't be any races coming up for a while. They were the only times Toudou and Makishima ever got to meet, save a rare coincidence. It hardly felt like they were never without each other though, seeing how in touch they (or at least Toudou) stayed. Still, it was a disappointment to both upon finding they wouldn't be able to compete again for a while, thus they decided to simply hold a race of their own. And just to be fair, they'd both picked a course, making that two races in one day.

The first had finished with Toudou in the lead and winded them more than they'd expected. They came to the agreement that a small pitstop couldn't hurt, and thankfully, Makishima's house was on the way to the second starting point. "Just enough for a shower and lunch," Toudou declared, making sure none of their precious time together was wasted.

Despite rushing for time, Toudou had to admit that being in Makishima's house like this was rather exciting. He was so touchy about anyone getting near any of his things, yelling about execution and exile before he could even step through the door. Well, Toudou couldn't blame him as he was picky about his belongings as well, only more for the fact of everything having its organized place.

But his wonder and excitement quickly wore off when there was nothing to do.

He let Makishima take the first shower, seeing as they both took their time but Toudou was willing to rush his for the sake of getting back on the track. Yet only five minutes alone and he was getting antsy. Maki's room was lined wall to wall with bicycle magazines and books, but they were all things Toudou had read before. If he just kept laying like this, he'd end up falling asleep, and that was no way to prepare for a race! He would turn on the TV if Maki hadn't given him such a harsh look upon seeing Toudou eye the remote earlier. So touchy.

His salvation came with a vibration on the bed, notifying him of a text message for which he immediately snatched his phone up for. Finally, if he could just talk to someone he'd be able to hold himself back from going through all of Makishima's things and making the boy angry a-

Toudou blinked, raising a brow at the screen of his phone. No messages. There were no texts, emails, calls, alarms, anything… Perhaps it'd been his imagination trying to trick him into believing what he wanted. Or at least, that's what he thought until he felt another vibration on top of the bed. Even heard it, too, and it was definitely the same strength and duration that his phone made for notifications. It was definitely his phone if, you know, it wasn't in his hand.

He opened his phone back up for one more look, and sure enough Makishima was the last person he'd texted. Nothing new, either. Perhaps something had sent late and got caught in the middle? There were more than a few areas between them where the signal cut out. Just to be thorough, Toudou pulled up Makishima's contact and began going over their messages starting from a few days ago once again.

[(15:05) toudou jinpachi] maki! HORRIBLE TERRIBLE AWFUL NEWS!
[(15:15) makishima yuusuke] what
[(15:16) toudou jinpachi] THE RACE the race we were going to at the end of the month?
[(15:17) toudou jinpachi] CANCELLED. IT WAS SCHEDULED INCORRECTLY AND CONFLITED WITH SOMETHING BIGGER RO SOMETHING I DK
[(15:20) makishima yuusuke] that's so annoying! we haven't raced in months either
[(15:21) toudou jinpachi] I KNOW? I'M ABOUT TO GIVE THEM A PIECE OF MY MIND!
[(15:22) makishima yuusuke] doubt there's anything you could do now
[(15:23) toudou jinpachi] I'M STILL VERY MAD!
[(15:23) toudou jinpachi] the next race is like in a month!
[(15:25) makishima yuusuke] can't do anything about it
[(15:26) toudou jinpachi] i was sooo excited we'd get to race again, i haven't seen you in ages, you need to keep in extra tip-top shape now!
[(15:27) makishima yuusuke] i always do
[(15:29) toudou jinpachi] aren't you going to act worried about me? maki! what if i get sick? or hurt myself?!
[(15:31) makishima yuusuke] you're not that stupid
[(15:32) toudou jinpachi] i could get a girlfriend and toootally forget about taking care of myself
[(15:44) makishima yuusuke] as if you could
[(15:46) toudou jinpachi] i could! i totally could! i have a TON of fans!

They went on bickering uselessly for a while, teasing each other about girls and fans and whose style was more appealing. Toudou had enjoyed it immensely, seeing as Makishima rarely ever carried on a conversation for more than half an hour. But there wasn't anything different there or the texts from today either.

He glanced over, immediately feeling ridiculous as he caught sight of Makishima's cell phone on the other side of the bed. It was his phone going off. 'Since when was Maki more popular than me' was his first thought. 'Who is he talking to so much' was the second and followed up by the most genius decision of 'I should check.'

There was not an ounce of shame in his mind as he reached for his friend's phone, nor any when he slid it open to check his messages. Both thankfully and disappointingly, it didn't seem to be anything too interesting, just two or three 'Hello! how are you?' messages from Sohoku's other climber. Onoda, he remembered. Toudou had hoped it'd be more engaging, like some spilling of secrets or a confession! In the end he was left with the same boredom as before.

Well, he had Makishima's phone, now. Toudou gave it a suspicious look, glancing back up at the bathroom door and listening for the running water. He had time to spare.

Most of the messages Maki sent weren't that lively. He was known for not communicating by text as often as call, filling up the necessary ones with one word answers save the rare times he actually got into a conversation. Naturally the latter occurred almost always with Toudou before others. Recently more than ever Makishima had been responding to his texts finally, maintaining a bit of a conversation for a while before he just left it open. How he ended things was annoying, but Toudou was fine with accommodating.

For the heck of it, Toudou opened up his own contact on Makishima's messages. There wasn't much to go over seeing as he'd just gone through them on his own phone. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. Toudou was about to put the phone back down and return to doing nothing when he backed out of the messaging screen and onto his contact profile.

[Drafts: 43]

That got his attention quickly. The files were opened immediately, only to be disappointed as soon as they were read. Most of the messages were one worded "same" or "you too" types of things, with the occasional empty message with a space that had been closed too early and saved. How were these supposed to be interesting if he didn't even know the context of them? Well, thinking on it, most of the drafts on his own phone were just mistakes saved before finishing as well. He'd gotten too hopeful.

Scrolling down, he noticed a few had no place in any conversation they'd had. Toudou imagined that they were starter texts he'd never sent, mostly "hello"s or "did you hear about"s and the like. He couldn't help the warm feeling in his chest reading over them-so Maki had tried initiating conversation a few times. Every day Maki was becoming even cuter, now more than ever. Would've been nicer if he actually sent them, but that was nitpicking.

As the dates became more recent, he could vaguely recognize which conversations they were probably from. Toudou had informed him first of the race being cancelled, ranting on and on for a good while until Makishima stopped replying. That was where Toudou noticed the first difference.

[(15:17) makishima yuusukeDRAFT] this sucks, i haven't seen you in forever
[(15:18) makishima yuusukeDRAFT] this sucks, we haven't seen each other in a while

He remembered the place in their chat where something similar came up, but-right, if he checked his own phone for the actual conversation again, the message he sent was different. Afterwards, Toudou had given a list of the upcoming races that would take place later to make up for it.

...how long had it been since Maki left the room? Only ten minutes. He had time.

[(15:20) makishima yuusukeDRAFT] so we wouldn't see each other for another month?

Just like the previous, he'd changed the final message to just something about not being able to compete for a while. It seemed like all of the first drafts Makishima never sent were all more, well, personal. It was strange, seeing as he wasn't a very emotional or sensitive guy at all, but Toudou supposed this was the reason he'd never thought so-Maki never sent any of his thoughts. He couldn't help but to smile fondly over the cyclist he'd come to care for. To think he may have never found out these things. They were small, but important.

Except how was he supposed to react to these kinds of things? Confront him? Ignore them? Toudou was just beginning to worry over how to handle the situation when he came upon the very last draft. They were saved a bit before 4pm, in the middle of Toudou's bragging. Joking over girls and fanclubs was something both of them were used to and came up rather often. At least as much as reasons as to why the other having any fans was impossible. Toudou hadn't thought much of it when he'd gone on about getting a girlfriend, despite having no real intention to as of right now.

[(15:40) makishima yuusukeDRAFT] where would that put me huh

He held his breath, listening as the water in the room over suddenly stopped. Shit, shit, shit… He had a few minutes at most. Fumbling with both of their phones in hand, Toudou nearly threw them both on the ground when the door opened.

Makishima stood in the doorway in the same clothes he'd gone in in, wrapping his hair up in a towel. He gave Toudou a glare. "You didn't touch anything did you?"

"Of course not!" Toudou laughed, standing from the bed and grabbing the clean towel beside him. "I'll be out in a few, then we really have to go finish racing!"

"Why wouldn't we…"

Makishima brought the towel to scrub at his face as he walked into the room, getting distracted before realizing the door hadn't shut behind him yet. Upon lowering the cloth, Toudou was standing right in front of him with a blank expression..

"...is something on my face?" was all he could ask, despite knowing that no, there was not, after having washed thoroughly.

As he spoke, Toudou's mouth stretched up into a smile as he took a step forward, grabbing Makishima's shoulders and leaning up to plant a kiss on his cheek.

"Now there is!"

He left before the other could say a word, sweeping into the bathroom and closing the door.

...huh?

Makishima was frozen in place.

...huh?

He couldn't process a single thought, staring straight ahead of him until he noticed their phones on the bed, his own flashing a notification. Focus on that instead, because whatever just happened-definitely did not happen. Trying to clear his thoughts, Makishima made his way over to pick up his phone and check his messages only to see it was from… Toudou?

[(10:01) toudou jinpachi] i'll be there in five!
[(10:02) makishima yuusuke] ok
[(10:14) toudou jinpachi] sorry traffic. i see you now!
[(14:56) makishima yuusuke] where would that put me huh
[(14:56) toudou jinpachi] in first place as always!

Confusion struck before than anything else. The time stamp labeled them for having been sent just two minutes ago. And with that, he didn't remember having sent any message like that at all-

But he remembered writing one.

Panic took confusion's place as he exited out of Toudou's contact, only to offhandedly notice Onoda had sent him a few messages as well. Oddly enough, his phone already marked them as read, despite having never seen-

The pieces were coming together.

"Toudou!"

"Kyaa~ Maki, you can't come in here, I'm indecent!"

"You're about to be a whole lot worse!"