Michiru sighed as he looked down at the photo in his hands. It wasn't particularily old, taken just a few years earlier, but it was creased and stained. His eyes locked on the smiling face of a younger Agata Soujirou. His hair was a bit shorter and his face a bit rounder. He had his arm around Michiru's shoulders, as they lay sprawled on the floor in Agata's room, and both were making piece signs as they smiled at the camera. Michiru's hair, that had been longer at that time, was spilling out on the floor, and his more child-like face was bright with happiness.

He remembered that time so well.

It was the first time he spent the night at Agata's house during their first years of middle school, and dressed in their pajamas while trying to study without getting much done, they had ended up in a pillow fight. By the time it ended, they were both collapsed on the floor, cheeks flushed from the excercise and the heat of their own feathery battle. At that moment, Agata's mother, who had been completely consumed in taking photographs of everything lately, came into the room to tell them to quiet down, because Saaya was supposed to sleep. They were too, for that matter. But she just had to snap a couple of pictures of them before they did, because, as she put it, they were just so cute. The first flash took them by surprise, but Agata had his arm around his newly made friend not long after, and by the time the third photograph was taken, they were both prepared.

It had been a simple time. One where neither of them had started thinking about things like love and romance, even though Michiru's popularity was already growing. A time when nothing but friends mattered, and it was still okay to leave the school work until the last day. Where no worries about things like choosing the next school, or deciding if they were going to university or not, and if they were, which one, existed yet.

He missed those times, when he could just be himself at all times, without having to think about the idol-like position he had in school, and when the worries of whether he could get into his desired university or not was so so far off, and not something that lwaited just around the corner.

His fingers ran down his best friend's face as he smiled to himself and the memories of past days.

Then he heard the patter of bare feet and the smile grew as arms wrapped around him from behind. Agata smelled like coconut shampoo and soap, his body warm and hair damp from the hot shower. He shifted, his eyes closing as he leaned his head back against a bathrobe clad shoulder, and his hand sifted through black hair.

Small kisses of affection rained down on his neck and cheek at a slow pace, as they relaxed, just feeling each other close and comfortable.

Maybe the times of pure friendship were gone, but they had gained something much more than that. And they wouldn't let that slip from their hands so easily.

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