The first time Chinen Hiroshi and Tanishi Kei met each other, there was no drama. Outside the principal's office, Tanishi wiping a third year's blood from his knuckles and Chinen idly gazing at his shoes.

The latter spoke first.

"Fight?"
"Yeah" Tanishi grunted, working over a particularly stubborn red patch.

"Me too. Pass a wipe, will ya? These shoes are new and I don't like red."
"Whatever." Tanishi flung a tissue across the room, it landing neatly in Chinen's lap. The slender boy took it and cleaned his shoes.

"That's a lot of blood, crap happen?"
"Yeah" Tanishi didn't even look up from his red fist, frowning. "Third year called me names"

"Names?"

"Specifically Fatass"

"That sucks" Chinen threw his tissue in the bin, and kicked his legs impatiently. "I wish the old man would hurry up and read us the riot act, or we'll miss lunch"

"Me too, you may not have guessed but I like lunch" the larger boy threw his tissue in the bin too, checking over his not-quite-normal knuckles. "Meh, they'll do. Gonna call me Fatass too then?"
"I won't, if you don't call me anorexic"

"Done."

And that was that, no drama, no frills, no chemistry on sight, it was simple as.

---

The first time Chinen and Tanishi laughed together, it wasn't beautiful, or memorable, or even all that funny.

On the tennis courts for the first time, Tanishi doing up his shoes, Chinen looking around at his new team mates. A load of older students, a bunch of nobodies in his year, Glasses-kun, Hat-kun, Girl-kun and Not-Fatass. He sidled over to Tanishi.

"Morning, Not-Fatass" he drawled.

"Morning, Not-Anorexic" was his reply.

"Chinen Hiroshi"
"Tanishi Kei"

And that was that. Simple as.

"Hey! He can't be on the team!" came a laugh "If he jumps for the ball an earthquake will happen! If he runs there'll be potholes all in the court! That fatass can't play tennis!"

Tanishi clenched his fists, but a swift toss of Chinen's racket put a stop to things.

A yell.

The courts were covered in blood.

Simultaneously, Chinen and Tanishi began to laugh.

---

Tanishi and Chinen held hands, once, not like it was anything special.

There was no cliché, it wasn't cold and they didn't 'need to keep warm'. There was no blushing, no giggling, no looking away. Just lying on the courts after practice, one day in second year, looking at nothing, talking about nothing. Chinen said something, though neither of them remember it as anything important, and stretched out. He put his left hand behind his head, and left his right out behind him. Tanishi responded with another insignificant something, and did the same, right hand keeping his head from the pebbles on the court, left behind him.

More somethings were said, more nothings were done, when Tanishi idly took Chinen's hand in his own.

No blush.

No stutter.

Just lots and lots of nothing.

No drama, no fuss, it was simple, simple as.

---

There was this one time when Tanishi and Chinen hugged, but it wasn't important or anything.

It wasn't cold, it was a warm day. Neither of them were 'feeling sad' in fact they had both gotten nice, B grades on their last math test, which made them feel good, having both expected to fail. They were sat at the beach with some of their team mates; Kite, Yuujirou and Hirakoba. The latter three were in the water, Hirakoba trying to chat to Kite while Yuujirou tried and repeatedly succeeded in stealing his shorts. Tanishi was eating his fourth ice cream; Chinen was sat next to him prodding a crab with a stick.

Yes, very romantic.

Somehow they just ended up sitting side by side, somehow, Chinen ended up with an arm around Tanishi's shoulders. No sappy lines or giggling, it just somehow got there. Like how Tanishi's arm ended up around Chinen, or how their other arms just fell into place, the pair resting quite comfortably in a funny embrace of sorts. They didn't say anything, but it wasn't a tender silence, it was simply the silence from an absence of noise. Simple as.

---

Tanishi and Chinen kissed one day.

They weren't watching a romance movie, they didn't have a moment, they weren't even alone. The pair were playing tag-team Scrabble against Chinen's little sisters, and were losing horribly.

"P-A-R-A-L-Y-S-I-S, paralysis!" Arimi beamed and put the pieces on the board.

"Paralysis!" Mimi clapped.

"God damn it, they're seven" Tanishi sighed and studied their pieces, and the board, while Chinen added up the triple-word-score bonuses to conclude that he and Tanishi were over fifty points behind the girls. The little ones whispered and plotted, probably finding a way to widen the huge gap between the scores. Chinen leaned on Tanishi's right shoulder.

"We could get off that E there, and get 'equilibrioception'" Chinen muttered.

"Where the hell did you learn that?!"
"Eishirou has it"

"Sounds like a disease" grumbled Tanishi, scratching his head.
"Just put the letters on the damn board."

Tanishi did so, and the girls squeaked before going back to their whispering and scheming.

Chinen sighed. "Evil little monsters, they're going to top that somehow"

"Hey, why don't you stop saying words for a while? You know too many words"
Chinen just patted the top of Tanishi's head, then his left cheek. Their eyes fluttered closed, their lips met briefly.

No fireworks.

No passion.

Just the simple kiss of two inexperienced middle schoolers. It just was.

It was simple.

Simple as.

"P-H-I-L-E-M-A-T-O-L-O-G-Y, philematology!"

"Ack! You little cow!"

---

Chinen and Tanishi went on a date, once, ish.

It was the spring dance in third year, and the pair didn't really have much to do. Neither of them were really into dancing, so while Yuujirou worked the room and Kite and Hirakoba had vanished somewhere – most likely to eat each other's faces in peace – Tanishi and Chinen just sat and talked.

Well, they less talked and more just sat there muttering the odd disjointed comment.

"I hate dances" Tanishi mumbled, kicking Chinen's chair absentmindedly.

"Mm"

"And I hate how everyone's gotten so dressed up" after a few more kicks, Hirakoba came in, flushed and grinning and looking delightfully like a prostitute. Yuujirou, dressed as a pirate, tackled him. "I just hate it"
"Mm"

The larger teen sighed, and kept giving Chinen's chair the odd, half-hearted kick for about five minutes. They were both quiet.

Kick.

Kick. Kick. Kick.

Kick. Kick.

Kick.

"Let's get out of here, Tanishi, spring dances suck" Tanishi nodded, and they left without sound nor word.

They bought a pack of sandwiches from the nearest convenience store and wandered aimlessly around the area. Through the town, along the beach, they just walked in silence. Only the quiet tap-tapping of Chinen's shoes could be heard. It wasn't exactly romantic; there was only a sliver of moon. As they went down a road in the peaceful suburbs, Chinen looked around.

"That's my house"

Tanishi nodded again, and the pair linked arms wordlessly. What needed to be said? For the rest of the street, they walked that way; arm in arm and watching the neighbourhood cats slinking by. They stopped, unlinked, and Tanishi ruffled Chinen's hair before they parted ways.

Not even a kiss on the doorstep; they weren't the types for mush like that. They liked things simple, simple as.

---

When Chinen and Tanishi confessed, it wasn't much of a confession.

Confessions are dramatic, passionate, full of emotion and tears and rambling romantic tropes. It was less of a confession and more clarifying what they both already knew, long, long ago. The two of them sat on Tanishi's bed, flipping through high school prospectuses – they wanted to find a place to suit both of them.

"Mommy, when are Kei and his boyfriend going to be done? My shoes are in there!"
"Don't say silly things about Chinen-kun, honey" Mrs Tanishi smiled. Tanishi, on the other side of the door, just grinned knowingly, having come out quite smoothly the night before.

They both had. Tanishi's parents just wanted him to be happy, and Mrs Chinen valued her son's blunt honesty above anything else. Besides, they both felt it was about time they were honest with themselves if not each other.

"We'll be out in a minute, mom!" Tanishi yelled. "We think we've found a good one!"

Chinen rolled his eyes "so confident about this one? I haven't even read half the page yet and like hell you read faster than me." His companion punched his arm idly and kept reading. "Ne, why are we finding a high school together exactly?"
"Well" Tanishi shrugged "I love you"
"That's nice. I love you too"
"I know. Hey, this one's got a tennis club!"

No gooey eyes, no giggling, not even a blush. They just sat a little closer together and kept on reading. They didn't need to be romantic, when they could just be.

They could be simple.

Simple as.