Tables and Sofas 〔Shinomiya x Nanashima〕

Tables and Sofas

"So let me see if I've got this right," a 19 year old Kirari spoke up twirling a coffee cup, her two palms moving in opposite directions while pressing in on the mug. "You two aren't going to make it official... because you're both afraid of what might happen if it fails," she sighed despondently.

Shinomiya cleared his throat before answering, "I know that when you put it like that it just sounds stupid... but that really sums it up."
She took a tentative sip of the cream-laden froth atop the mug to soothe the dull ache that had just set into her chest. "I can't make your decisions for you Shino-Senpai, but this really doesn't make any sense."

He frowned, huffed quietly and pensively tapped a finger to his chin. There had to be a way to get the point of this across. He looked over her shoulder blankly until his eyes met the cushions by the cafe entry, and an idea came to him. She noticed that his eyes had just lit up and braced herself. "If it's okay, can I just ask you this?" "Okay," she hummed, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.

His hands waved as he gestured at the empty space between them. "Scenario: you're sitting on the nicest sofa you can imagine - situated really comfortably, right?" "Right." "Now... you know that if you get up or try to reach for anything at all, you're gonna shift the cushions around. You also know that if that happens, it'll be next to impossible to get that exact same position back, and you don't want that." She slung her right leg over her left and quirked a brow, her eyes trailing along the ceiling lines above their table. Her head bobbed with what he could only assume was her train of thought. "I think I know where you're going with this, but forgive me Senpai - the metaphor fell kind of flat. You'd have to get up eventually, and in your case, you don't necessarily-"

He chuckled softly and raised his eyebrows in lighthearted apology. "Yeah.. Not my best metaphor - I know," he admitted with a grin, slouching in his seat and bringing his hands up defensively, "but that's literally where it's at between him and I. What we've got to lose if anything were to go wrong kinda outweighs - and kinda is an understatement by the way - any good that might come of changing things."
"So you guys really could just walk away from each other when all is said and done, and that'd be that?"
"Well, obviously we'd still be friends. It's not like it'd be a total loss."

"But..." she trailed off, "I can't think of anyone who could make him happier than you.. and then there's your feelings too. Don't you care if this ends without either of you two making a move?" Shinomiya shrugged and smiled shyly. "What he and I share is something of a mutual feeling, yeah. There's no denying that it bugs me when he talks about other girls just like he gets annoyed when I start going on about how attractive other up-and-coming models are to egg him on. It's all in good fun though."
She raps a knuckle onto the table while continuing, "I mean - you're both so happy together, and I don't say this for anyone normally interested in big bro, but I really wouldn't mind if you two got married or whatever."

He only twiddled his thumbs.
"You graduated high school about a year ago. Am I right?"

The girl shot him a look of mock-suspicion. "You might be."
"I really don't like to use the 'you're too young to get it' card, but..."
She groaned, "But?"
"Mutual feelings alone can't make that kind of relationship work. I know your friends probably talk to you about this stuff like it's all right out of a BL manga, but I'm telling you," he said gently swiping his finger over the tip of her nose with a tired smile, "as a guy who has feelings for your brother: real life doesn't work like that at all."

She frowned.
"It's that much more complicated?"
"Between any two people giving it their all in totally separate careers? It usually is."

~

"Hayato..." an all too familiar voice and touch began to stir him out of his dream. "Hayato, please get up.. dinner's almost ready."