"Do you remember the day we first met? You probably don't, it was a long time ago after all..."

Sakuya still remembered the day he met him.

It was way back in kindergarten, from a time that usually no one would pay much attention to after they grew up. They were just kids then and nothing of much significance happens when you're four or five years old anyway.

However, Sakuya still remembered.

His family had moved to another city when he was only five years old. And like most of the other kids his age, he had been in playschool too. So it had been only natural for his parents to search for a nearby kindergarten to send him to, during the day.

The day Sakuya was supposed to go to his new kindergarten he had been really nervous. He left his friends and now he would meet new children he didn't know.

But all thoughts vanished from his mind when he arrived in front if the building with his parents. It was gigantic, several times bigger than his last one.

He could do nothing, but stare in awe at the building until he was led inside by his father.

The inside of the nursery had been very pretty, yellow and orange painted walls littered with children drawings and photos of various animals.

His parents had started to talk with one of the kindergarten teachers, but Sakuya didn't really pay attention to them. He was still intrigued by the drawings on the walls, absently grabbing his dad's trouser leg.

Suddenly there was a lot of noise coming from behind and shortly after, a group of yelling and laughing kids rushed past them, one of them accidentally bumping into Sakuya.

Thrown off balance by the impact, the green haired boy stumbled back and fell to the ground, eyes wide in surprise. He kept sitting on the floor for several moments, until he noticed the hand that was held in front of him.

The boy who just ran into Sakuya was offering his hand to get him up, a guilty look on his features. When Sakuya accepted the hand, he immediately noticed the wide smile that crossed the other boys face, before he hurried after the other kids.

After a few moments, his parents had finished their conversation with the teacher and were now following her into one of the nearby rooms, his father holding his hand and leading him along.

A rainbow was painted onto the door of the room and even the inside resembled a rainbow. Or rather a mix of many rainbow colors. A lot of children were currently inside the room, playing or drawing something, not really paying them any attention.

This was when the kindergarten teacher stepped forward and called all of the kids attention to herself. "Everyone, I'd like to introduce someone to you." She took Sakuya's hand from his father's and led him where all children could see him. "This is Sakuya Watanuki. He and his family just moved here and he'll be a part of this group now. Be nice to him!" She offered Sakuya a reassuring smile, before turning back to his parents. His father patted his head and his mother hugged him before saying goodbye. They left the room with the kindergarten teacher, leaving the little green haired boy alone in the room with all the unfamiliar children.

After a few seconds, during which most of the children just stared at him, they turned their attention back to what they were doing, leaving Sakuya by himself.

He looked around the room and then decided to sit down at one of the tables to draw something.

His parents had always given him pencils and sheets of paper at home so he could draw a bit and he greatly enjoyed it. The thing he liked to draw the most were daisies.

Sakuya had always picked flowers with his sister and wanted to draw her picking them, but he usually didn't get past drawing the daisies. That day had been the same.

After he just finished drawing the daisies, he heard a chair next to him being moved, legs scraping over the ground.

When he turned around he saw the boy from before sitting next to, smiling. "Hello, Sakuya? That was your name, right?" The green haired boy only nodded, letting the other boy talk. "That's a cool name. I'm Mahiru Shirota, nice to meet you!" He smiled warmly at Sakuya and extended a hand to him. He had been surprised by Mahiru's gesture, but quickly imitated what all the adults were doing and took his hand, shaking it.

Even then, when he was only just five years old, he knew that Mahiru had been exceptionally polite and nice for a boy his age.

After the handshake, Sakuya was unsure about what to say, so he just turned back slightly and continued drawing. Mahiru however didn't leave, but just kept on talking to him. "What are you drawing, Sakuya? Are that daisies?"

He had seen the sparkle in those brown eyes and decided to speak for the first time this day. His voice had been very quiet, so Mahiru had to lean in a bit understand him. "Yeah, that are daisies, I-"

He was interrupted when one of the older kids grabbed his drawing, eyeing it curiously, before turning to the two boys with a sneer. "So, the new kid draws flowers? What are you, a girl?" He laughed and held the drawing higher when Sakuya had attempted to get it back. Mahiru had stood up too, helping Sakuya to get the drawing back, but without avail. After a few more failed attempts, the bully raised his voice so that several children nearby could hear him.

"Hey everyone, the new 'boy' is drawing flowers! I think he rather is a 'girl'!"

Everyone who heard the kid started laughing while staring at Sakuya, pointing at him and yelling something like "What a girl!"

Sakuya had felt the tears prickle in the corners of his eyes, but tried to hold them back in front of everyone. In the meantime, the child who stole his drawing had folded an paper plane out of it and when Sakuya caught sight of him again, threw it out of the window with a triumphant grin.

In that moment, everything the little green haired boy had wanted to do was leave this place and go back home. To his old town and his friends.

Tears had begun running down his face and he quickly made a turn and left the room. Back in the hallway, he tried to look for his parents through the tears clouding his eyes. When he didn't see them, he began running down the corridor, silently calling for his parents between sobs that had started to break out of him. After some minutes of searching for his parents, Sakuya remembered that they had already left, making him sob heavier.

He ran into the next room and found himself inside the washroom, his sobs echoing from the tiled walls.

He was shaking and his face wet from all the tears, but he didn't care. Sakuya noticed a big wooden closet at one side of the room. He walked over to it, pushed the towels that were taking most of the place aside and quickly climbed inside, closing the door. Then he curled himself up in a corner between the soft towels and continued his silent sobbing.

After some time, his sobbing stopped and he began hiccupping, his face buried in his arms. He was still shaking and wanted nothing more than his parents to take him away from here, back home.

Suddenly he heard someone enter the washroom, the tapping of little feet on the ground echoing in the big room. The little boy hoped that whoever it was wouldn't notice him inside the closet just leave, but he starting shaking even more when he noticed that the steps were getting louder and louder. When Sakuya heard them stop in from of his closet, he buried his face between his thighs and made himself as small as possible. He silently pleaded that it wasn't that mean kid from before that had followed him to bully him even more.

He heard the closet door open and pressed his eyes shut hoping that he wouldn't be noticed, curled up in the corner.

The green haired boy almost jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. His head shot up and he tried to make out who was standing there, patting on his shoulder.

"Sakuya...? Are you alright? I'm sorry about before, that kid is a big meanie to everyone..." The other trailed off and Sakuya could only sit there while trying to comprehend the situation. "M-Mahiru..?" His voice was quiet and way higher than usual from all the crying and sobbing, but at least he got the words out.

"Yeah, I'm Mahiru. So, do you want to come out of this closet? I... have something I want to give you and it's weird if I give it to you inside the closet...". He trailed off and Sakuya took his time to study the boys features. His dark brown hair was slightly tousled, but he had a smile on his face and was looking at him expectantly with his brown eyes.

"O-okay..." It was merely a whisper, but Mahiru seemed to have heard it and extended one hand to help Sakuya get out of the closet. When he was standing on the ground again, though still shaking, Sakuya muttered quite "Thank you" towards the brunet, which made the smile on the matters face seem even wider.

After a few seconds, the green haired boy realized that he was still holding onto Mahiru's hand. He was about to let go when he felt the other boys fingers tighten a bit around his as if telling him, that it was okay like this. After a few minutes of silence Sakuya remembered that Mahiru had wanted to give him something. "You said you had something for me?" He queried, looking curiously at the brunet. "Yeah, I wanted..." He opened his other hand but held it so that Sakuya wasn't able to see what he was holding. Whatever he saw didn't seem to be what he expected, his smile dropping and his brows furrowing, before the smile returned back to his face as if an idea had struck him.

Before he noticed, Mahiru had already started leading Sakuya out of the washroom into another room nearby which was empty except for a few chairs and a table. He was led to one of the chairs and was pushed down by Mahiru before the other ran out of the room, yelling "Wait a moment please, I'll be right back!"

Sakuya just sat there for several minutes, wiping the tears from his face and waited for Mahiru to come back. He didn't know what was going on or what Mahiru was doing, but he was glad that at least one person was being nice to him.

When the little brunet returned, he held one hand behind his back, smiling at Sakuya. "Here, for you." He handed the green haired boy what he had been holding behind his back, an expectant look in his eyes.

Sakuya was really surprised at what Mahiru wanted to give him. The latter was holding a few daisies in his hand, waiting for him to take them. He took them from Mahiru's hand, small smile forming on his lips. "Did... Did you pick them for m-me?" His voice still wasn't back to normal, but at least he managed to speak at all.

"Yes. I searched for your picture, but I couldn't find it anywhere... But then I saw some daisies and thought you'd like to have them because I couldn't give you your drawing back... But when I wanted to give them too you earlier, they were already wilted a bit because I had to search for you for so long. But these here are better, right?"

"Yes, they are very pretty. Thank you Mahiru..." And his smile had been like the sun after a week of rain.

His smile had been so innocent, honest and full of happiness it had burned itself into Sakuya's mind.

That day, they had become friends. And since then every time Mahiru had seen a daisy, he had picked it and gave it to him, making him smile. The two of them had become inseparable, applied for the same schools and gladly always ended up in the same classes. They went to elementary school together and then to middle school. Mahiru was always popular and had lots of friends, but he still spend most of his time with Sakuya.

Since their kindergarten days nothing much had changed between them. Of course they had both grown up quite a bit. Mahiru was still always happy and nice to everyone, but now he had also started searching for the easiest way to solve problems. He ended up, having to do lots of things by himself, but Sakuya was always there to help him. Although he started making jokes about it after some time.

Sakuya had also changed since then. He wasn't a crybaby anymore and could handle most things himself. But as much as he helped Mahiru with his problems every day, he also realized that he still relied greatly on the other when he had problems himself.

Nothing really changed when they started high school either. They were both quite popular in their class and quickly made a lot of friends. During their last year of high school they were both making plans for college. Of course they did want to apply for the same college. They didn't really care what others said about "going your own way" and other things to get them to do different things. They had been best friends for more than ten years. They would apply for the same college if they wanted to.

And so the last year of high school had come to end and for the two. The last day of school had been extremely hot, but nobody really minded it. The teachers didn't even tried to get the students to do anything, well aware that they would be done with school in a few hours anyway. Most of them just let them watch a movie or they were allowed to do what they wanted to.

When the bell finally rang, it was like hell had broken loose. Everyone stormed outside, leaving the school behind them.

In front of the school's main entrance, Mahiru, Sakuya and their friend Ryusei were chatting about what they had planned for the day.

"You should totally come with us and check out this new club in town! I heard it's great! Do you wanna come?" Ryusei sounded pretty excited about it, but both Sakuya and Mahiru knew that it was better to not go drinking with him.

"Uh, Ryusei, I think that..." Mahiru had trailed off, frantically searching for an excuse.

"We'd gladly accompany you, but I fear we have to help my sister pack her things since she'll be moving tomorrow. I'm really sorry, maybe next time. Just have fun and you can tell us how it went tomorrow, 'kay?" Sakuya quickly grabbed Mahiru's arm and pulled him along, waving back at Ryusei while leaving.

After they walked a bit more and were out of sight, Sakuya finally stopped, grinning at the brunet. "That was close, you know? One more line from you and he probably wouldn't have believed us and then you would have been responsible for the worst night of our lives...or rather the second worse night." A chuckle escaped the his lips as he remembered the "worst night of their lives". That was when they had found out not to go drinking with Ryusei ever again.

Mahiru exhaled, sending Sakuya a thankful look. "Yeah, yeah. I'm just not so good at improvising like you! How do you do that anyway?!" He laughed, but then a thought seemed to struck him. "But wait... Isn't your sister really moving tomorrow? Should we help her pack her things?" The green haired boy raised his hands as if to stop anything that might be coming from the brunet. "Nah, everything's fine, Mahiru. I already helped her a bit yesterday and that right now was just an excuse. Today was our last day of school until we go to college after the holidays, we should enjoy it! What about we go to the movies? There's this new movie I absolutely have to watch!" He looked at Mahiru when the other started laughing.

"What?"

"Isn't that movie you want to watch that one new love story that premiered last week? The trailer was so cliché and you seriously want to watch that today?" He broke into another fit of laughter. "Love stories are great..." the green haired boy murmured, lips pursed into a fake pout. "And you always want to watch documentaries. Who goes to the cinema to watch documentaries?!" Mahiru had finally calmed down and started protested vehemently. "That only was one time, Sakuya. One time! I watch other movies too!"

The way small brunet tried to defend himself, was starting to make Sakuya chuckle. He ruffled the other's hair, smirking down at him. "I know, I know. I was only teasing, Ma-chan." He took a step away from the boy that was literally fuming with anger, laughing at the other's expression.

"I told you to stop ruffling my hair and don't call me Ma-chan! We're not in kindergarten anymore!"

Sakuya just laughed at this. Teasing his friend was simply hilarious every time he did it.

"Yeah, sorry, sorry. Now, what should we do today? I'll let you decide, okay?"

He knew that Mahiru was probably still a bit angry at him, but he would let him decide what to do to make up for it.

"We can watch that movie of yours... I don't really mind. Maybe it's good."

"But, Mahiru, I-"

"No, no it's okay. I actually like romance movies... At least a bit. If you want to go and see it, it has to be good, right? So let's watch it!" He smiled at the green haired boy with the same smile he had back in kindergarten. It was honest and full of happiness, not a lot of people could resist the smile. And Sakuya wasn't one of them.

Every time Mahiru smiled at him like that, he felt complete warm inside and a fluttering feeling began in his stomach. "I... Okay. But if you really don't want to watch it we can do-" He was interrupted by Mahiru grabbing his arm and pulling him along. "We're going to watch that movie, Sakuya. I said so. Do you understand?" There was a hint of playfulness laced inside his voice that made Sakuya grin. "Aye, aye, captain!" He answered with a mock salute before following the brunet down the street.

They both made their way home, agreeing to meet up at eight in front of the cinema.

When Sakuya arrived at 7:55 pm in front of the cinema, Mahiru was already standing there, waiting. He wore a casual jeans, an orange t-shirt that complimented his eyes and a black blazer.

Sakuya's heart skipped a beat as he made his way towards the brunet.

"Let me guess, you were waiting here for twenty minutes already, am I right? Why are you always this early?" He laughed at the startled expression on Mahiru's face who obviously hadn't noticed him in the crowd before.

"Geez, Sakuya, don't startle me like that! Do you want me to get an heart attack?!" "I was walking straight towards you, airhead. You could have seen me minutes ago if you had paid attention." He smirked at the other who simply let out a small sigh, although Sakuya thought he saw Mahiru smile from the corner of his eyes when they turned around to buy tickets.

The movie theatre was pretty full so they split up, one going to buy the tickets, the other one going to buy popcorn.

When they met up again, at least 20 minutes had passed and the movie was about to start. Sakuya quickly led them to the right seats and they sat down, waiting for the movie to start.

The movie was actually pretty good and even Mahiru seemed to enjoy it. During the movie their hands had occasionally brushed together when both of them wanted to get popcorn. Sakuya wasn't even sure if the other teen had noticed it, but every time he felt their hands touching, a warmth had spread from that point through his entire body.

Thinking about it, he seemed to have missed a few parts of the movie, but he didn't really care.

While he watched the images flicker over the screen, Sakuya heard quite laughter behind him. He wanted to turn around, but nudged Mahiru in the process, who was holding his coke in one hand. Unfortunately, Sakuya bumped into the hand in which Mahiru was holding the coke, making it spill all over the brunet's shirt and jeans, leaving sticky, brown spots on them.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry, Mahiru!" He tried to keep his voice down, but could already feel the glares he received on his back.

"Don't worry, it's just some coke. If I wash it immediately it will go away. But it does feel sticky..." He trailed off, a guilty look on his face. "Could we maybe leave? Of course, if you want continue watching the movie-" The green haired teen took his hand and pulled him out of his seat.

"It's okay, it was my fault anyway. Let's go."

It was already dark outside when they left the cinema and made their way to Mahiru's apartment. It was only a few blocks away and there the brunet could change into different clothes. Luckily it was still warm, so he wouldn't be cold in his wet clothes.

While they walked, Sakuya tried to apologize several times, but Mahiru always brushed it off with a "It's no big deal, really." or "Don't worry, I can wash it when I'm home."

Still feeling guilty about it, he thought about a way to make it up for him. Buy him new clothes? That would probably be a bit too much and Mahiru would most likely not accept it. Wash them for him? He would never let him do that, he was too focused on doing everything himself. Added to that, Sakuya had no clue how he could get coke out of a shirt or a jeans.

A sigh escaped his lips, as he desperately tried to think of something. There was bound to be something he could do...

He remember it the second they arrived at Mahiru's apartment door.

Sakuya waited until the brunet had unlocked the door and they stepped inside, before he said something.

"Mahiru, I have something for you. I actually wanted to give it to you as a simple present, but now it's also to make up for ruining your clothes." He pulled a little bag from his pocket and handed it to Mahiru, who was staring at him in surprise.

While the other opened the little package, Sakuya simply continued talking.

"I got it since you said you lost yours during practice last week... If you already have another one, just say it and I'll bring it back..." He averted his eyes and stared at ground, waiting for Mahiru's reaction.

"You got me a new sweat band? Thanks a lot, Sakuya! I was about to search for a new one, but you really saved me all that trouble." He smiled as he put on the sweat band, testing if it fitted.

And there was it again.

That smile.

It had been like this since their kindergarten days.

So happy and honest and it was always meant only for him.

Of course Mahiru smiled at other people too, but it felt like he was reserving that special smile just for him.

But since a few months ago Sakuya had started reacting differently to that smile. He didn't let Mahiru see it, but a fluttering feeling had started to form inside his stomach, every time the brunet would smile at him like that.

Of course Sakuya knew what it meant, after that feeling had stayed for several weeks. He wasn't naive.

But he also wasn't going to ruin his friendship because of that feeling. He had seen what it could do to people.

That feeling called love.

He watched as his father leave them when he was only seven years old, for a woman he loved more than his mother, his sister and him.

He wouldn't ruin everything by accepting that feeling and acting upon it.

Sakuya had started to ignore that feeling as much as he could.

Only that it wasn't that easy to ignore, especially when it just wouldn't go away.

During the last weeks he had realized that the feeling had intensified and he wasn't able to ignore it anymore.

The fluttering feeling inside his stomach had developed into a swarm of butterflies, every time the brunet smiled at him. He found himself following his best friends movements during practice, his eyes practically glued to Mahiru's form. Sakuya also felt that spark inside his body, every time their bodies brushed together accidentally.

And how much he hated himself for that.

He wanted to stay best friends with Mahiru and he was pretty sure that if he acted on this feeling that wouldn't be possible anymore. On top of that, they were both guys.

It just might have worked out if one of them had been a girl, but two guys...

Even if Mahiru would miraculously return his feelings, they would have a hard time in today's society, in which "gay" was used to insult people.

They probably would have to keep it a secret from everyone else. Sakuya wasn't sure if he could do that. He hated lying. His father had lied to his mother, telling her that he loved her, while he was seeing another woman. He didn't think he could do that.

But right now, when Mahiru smiled at him like that, he was able to forget all this and just think about how beautiful that smile was.

"It fits! Thanks a bunch!" Mahiru paused, suddenly remembering that his clothes were still stained with coke. "I have to wash this out before it has dried. You can just, I don't know, wait in the living room? I'll be right back!" He hurried off to the bathroom, taking his shirt off on the way, letting Sakuya see his back for a second before he turned around the corner.

After a few seconds the green haired boy finally started to move, making his way towards the living room. He let himself fall down onto the couch, one hand running over his eyes.

He had to stop thinking about things like this or else he would definitely get in trouble. He shouldn't be staring at his best friends back and admire it! Although he had been surprised to see that Mahiru was actually this muscular.

Seems like the last year in the basketball club had payed off for the brunet.

Sakuya groaned and leaned back against the cushions. What was with not thinking about Mahiru like that?

He really wished he could just stop it.

A few minutes later, in which the green haired boy had tried to think of anything, but Mahiru shirtless, he got up again. The brown haired boy was taking his sweet time with cleaning his clothes and changing, so Sakuya decided to check on him.

The hallway led directly to Mahiru's room where he should be by now. Sakuya knocked on the closed door, but after received no answer, he gently pushed it open.

He entered the room, but saw nobody inside, which made Sakuya furrow his eyebrows in confusion. Was Mahiru still washing out his clothes in the bathroom? That surely wouldn't take that long, would it? He turned back towards the door, ready to leave the room and search for the other, his hand already on the doorknob.

Suddenly the door was opened and Mahiru walked inside. The only problem was that Sakuya was standing right behind the door, so when he opened it and took the first step, he walked into the other, making both of them loose their balance and fall to the floor.

The green haired boy wasn't even able to register what was happening before he found himself lying on the floor, feeling a throbbing pain at the back of his head. He tried to stand up, but noticed a heavy weight pressing him down. He opened his eyes and forced his head to bend forward, despite the pain it caused.

He was lying on his back, Mahiru on top of him, wearing nothing but his boxers.

Sakuya felt the heat rising to his cheeks. He tried, really tried, to keep his mind away from Mahiru lying half naked on top of him, but it didn't work. He felt himself blushing despite his efforts and looked away in embarrassment.

Fortunately Mahiru got up in the same moment, a deep blush also prominent on his features. "I-I so s-sorry...!" The brunet began to stutter an apology, while trying to get away from Sakuya as fast as he could. He stumbled a few times, but eventually managed to get at least off of the green haired boy, so he could sit up.

When he was in a sitting, he started to feel dizzy and the world around him began spinning. With a groan, he lay back down, closing his eyes and concentrating on stopping the world from spinning around him. Mahiru had realized that something was wrong with his friend and quickly got down beside him. "Are you alright? Did you hit your head on the floor? I'm so sorry, wait a moment, I'll get you an ice pack!" And immediately the brunet left the room, putting on a sweater and some pants on the way.

With Mahiru gone, his injured friend could finally think straight again. He wanted to slap himself.

It had been an accident. Nothing more.

"And stop blushing, damn it!" He murmured to himself while burying his face in his hands, trying to block out the pain and fight back the color from his cheeks.

By the time Mahiru came back with an ice pack, Sakuya was only hoping that his face color was back to normal.

He was brought back from his train of thoughts by something cold pressing against the back of his head, making him hiss. He stopped when he realized that Mahiru had pressed the ice pack against his bump and heard the others laughter. "You sound like a kitten when you hiss like that!"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

The brunet chuckled and helped his friend get up. Sakuya was still feeling a bit dizzy, but with Mahiru's help he managed to walk over to the other's bed where he sat down.

They sat together in silence for some minutes before Mahiru spoke up.

"It's pretty late already, I think it'd be best if you would stay here for the night. Especially when you're still feeling dizzy..." He looked at Sakuya, the question obvious in his eyes.

Now he had to decide.

He knew what he should do.

He knew what the best option was.

And he knew what he wanted to do.