Silver Lining

No In-Betweens

That song was starting to get to him. He never really paid much attention to mainstream music, much less by Western artists, but somehow, this particular song had been playing in his mind for so many days now. It didn't help that she was the one who introduced it to him.

"Hey Shintarou, come over here," she called one afternoon after the last class had ended.

He wondered what it was that she wanted to tell him, but he just decided to walk right over. "What is it?"

"Listen to this," she reached over to him and shoved the headphones to his ears, ignoring a disgruntled Midorima. "It's really nice. I think you'll like it."

It started off with a brief piano intro and into a smooth, mellow verse. The artist sounded foreign. American perhaps, he thought. It quite had a slow pace and she had to fast-forward it a little bit to get to the chorus. He gave the headphones back just as the second verse was just about to start.

"I don't like it."

She squinted at him. "You don't? But it's really good!"

He scowled. "It's terrible. I don't get why you even thought I'd like it."

She snatched the headphones from him and frowned. "And here I thought you have good taste in music," she muttered under her breath.

"I do. You're the one with terrible taste."

"Oh, stop."

.

.

.

.

Nobody seemed to pay much attention to the two of them together, or at least that was what Midorima thought. In the cafeteria, he'd sit with her, sometimes even with some of his teammates. They'd walk together from school, and at times, he'd even invite her to important matches. It never really bothered him that some people might think that they were dating, or anything. Sure they've handled some teasing a lot, but for some reason, Midorima just didn't feel like refuting any of their claims.

She seemed to blend right well with him, like she was meant to sit across from him during lunch, or tag along when she just felt like it. She fit in so naturally that Midorima seemed to have forgotten what it was like before he had met her. It's like all along she had always been there, and her leaving would create such a huge void in his life.

Their relationship didn't have a name. Oftentimes he tried not to think about it, but somehow, it bugged him that they didn't seem to know what to call each other. They simply tell people they were 'friends,' but from the way people looked at them after saying that and the way his chest seemed to sting, he knew that it just wasn't it. He realized that the word 'friends' didn't quite capture the essence of their relationship at all.

He tried to convince himself that their relationship is just too 'special'—he'd cringe at the word—to have a name. Maybe, he thought, it didn't really need to have a name. Or that he's just too lazy to give it one.

Friends, lovers, or nothing.

He frowned as he accidentally shoved the grape juice bottle beside him. He was sitting with her one afternoon on the banks of a nearby river. They were just walking home from school a while ago and somehow, they ended up watching the sunset together. It didn't seem to bother him that she could get away with whatever sort of activity she decided to drag him into.

"What's wrong?" she creased her eyebrows at the spilt drink. "Aw, what a waste."

He sighed. That horrible song had come back to haunt him. "It's nothing."

She shrugged. "Okay."

He didn't understand why something like that kept on getting stuck in his head. What's worse, he couldn't quite let go of the lyrics. Friends, lovers, or nothing . . . it went something like that. There'll never be an in-between . . .

He didn't get past the chorus to fully understand the song, but he thought that the chorus was enough to provide enough context. He felt his face heat up, and he grumbled slightly out of annoyance.

"Is there anything w—?"

"Can I be your boyfriend?" he suddenly asked.

The reaction that he got from her was something akin to shock. Only after five long seconds did he realize what exactly he had just said that he immediately attempted to salvage the situation.

"What I meant was . . . I—uhh . . . the thing is—"

"You want to be my boyfriend?" she slowly asked, dragging out every syllable like she was speaking to a child. He could still see the surprise in her eyes.

Midorima averted his eyes, and he hated how his cheeks were starting to warm. "That's not what I meant," he tried explaining, but she just gave him a confused look. "I m-mean—" he sighed. "Yes, I meant it."

That didn't really help, he thought, all the more confused, himself. She stared at him patiently, but he could see a tiny smile starting to form at the side of her lips.

"You do?" she asked carefully.

For the first time, he looked at her straight in the eye. "Don't get me wrong. It's only so people could finally identify what our relationship is. Doesn't it bother you that our relationship doesn't have a 'name?'

She thought for a moment, her eyes disbelieving. "But aren't we 'friends?'"

"'Friends' doesn't quite . . ." he squinted behind his glasses, ". . . capture it."

"So we . . . are more than just friends," it didn't seem like a question to him, but her sentence ended in a way that made it seem like one.

He gave her a confused look. "Well, yes, naturally, following the things that I've just said a wh—Would you just please stop giggling?"

She broke out into a heartfelt laughter and kept on patting him lightly at the back. One look at Midorima's beet-red face and she'd start another whole round of laughter all over again.

He grumbled and pushed her hand away. He knew she'd tease him even more. "You can just refuse, you know that?" he said after a few moments.

Her laughter gradually subsided and she shifted her position slightly for her to catch his gaze. "Are you kidding me?"

She waited for him to look at her, and after five seconds, he slowly turned around and gave her a stubborn look. "I won't," she said, smiling.

He looked mildly surprised, and she had to keep herself from pinching his cheeks. "You won't?"

"Why would I? It's not like every day that Midorima Shintarou proposes to be your boyfriend," she said teasingly.

He looked appease for a moment. "You got a point."

"And besides," she said. "It's no big deal, right? It's just for convenience's sake; to give our relationship a name, of some sort. There's nothing really beyond that, is there?" she grinned, looking away. "Unless, of course, you're thinking there is more to it . . ."

"Like hell no," he grumbled as he stood up. But he was smiling as he said that, and they both knew the answer.

They walked together in silence, but there was anticipation in the air between them. Midorima didn't want to break the silence, and he was sure as she wouldn't either. Slowly, he slipped her hand into his. She didn't let go or even flinch and it wasn't as awkward as Midorima had thought it would be. Somehow, it just felt right.

"Boyfriend, huh?" she muttered as if to herself, and Midorima could imagine the smile on her lips.

He smiled and secured her fingers in a tighter grip, exhaling quietly and contentedly.

"I like the sound of it," he muttered back.

A/N: To those of you who don't know, the song is John Mayer's 'Friends, Lovers or Nothing.' I haven't really listened to it much. My friend just mentioned the title to me once and it kinda got stuck in my head. Just the title not the song.