Shuji to Akira – Nothing Changes

The day after Akira confesses love for Shuji, not much changes.

Well, that's a lie. Quite a few things change, depending on how you look at it.

Shuji walks down the corridors with his hand holding Akira's. Their fingers are tightly, but comfortably entwined. Both Shuji and Akira look at peace, despite the occasional moments where Shuji chides his friend for nothing important. Akira is giggling just a bit louder than he usually would.

But the thing that makes them stick out in a sea of black uniforms belonging to black-haired students with brown eyes…are their smiles. Despite the freezing cold weather and runny noses, they keep each other and anyone within a two meter radius warm with their smiles.

Shuji is smiling from relief that he can finally stop trying to please everyone all the time and settle for pleasing one person all the time. Because Akira is his and he is Akira's.

Akira is smiling because he has someone all to himself to love that no one else can steal away from him, even if it means fighting them. Because Shuji is his and he is Shuji's.

When everyone else's suspicions about them are confirmed two days later, that's when nothing changes. Because there are no cutesy couple names for Shuji to Akira. No initials, no joined names, no spoken slashes.

Everyone has already suspected. Ever since they saw Akira drag Shuji out of the classroom like they new each other their whole lives, or when Shuji gave Akira his bento after the boy dropped his own, or when Akira hugged Shuji from behind and the latter didn't shake him off, they have had their suspicions.

But nothing changes. Because the reason there are no nicknames for Shuji to Akira is that they have not really changed that much. Shuji still swats away Akira's hand when he gets too grope-y. Akira still laughs like a bird and makes Shuji chuck out his juice-boxes. Shuji still has strange conversations with Akira that no one but Shuji to Akira can understand. They still bicker like a married couple. They still disappear to a corner of the school to be alone in the their own little world. They still glance at each other in the middle of class. They are still Shuji to Akira, and nothing else.

The only changes besides the hand-holding and smiles and "we-don't-care-if-you-don't-like-it" attitude are the enormous number of would-be girlfriends turned would-be fangirls that keep (unsuccessfully) trying to drag them with on shopping trips and bribe them into giving dating advice.

That, and the fantastic sex.