It's weird how much time you can spend with someone you're friends with and only after a while, does something inside you change.
When Nana met Zane, he was this weird little kid who refused to say a single word to her, even after they started playing Mario Kart together. He seemed so angry all the time, even when he beat her. Only later did she find out his anger wasn't directed at her, but at the unjust world he was born and raised in.
He was at her house because their mothers were meeting for business matters and Zane was getting over a cold but couldn't be home alone. Nana's mother, upon hearing the young boy would be accompanying Zianna, decided to keep Nana home from school that day to entertain him. Nana didn't mind. She didn't have many friends at her school. Maybe this boy could be her new friend!? That would be awesome! She wouldn't be so lonely anymore.
But he refused to speak to her and they raced their characters along track after track in silence.
As their mothers eventually bonded over their business negotiations, they eventually started catching up just to enjoy each other's company. This, however for Nana, meant more unwilling playdates with a dark-haired, pale skinned, freckly boy who refused to speak. Once he came over in the middle of her favourite show, a Japanese cartoon called My Hero Academia, and her mother asked her to turn it off so as to play with the young Ro'Maeve. Grumbling, Nana reached for the TV remote when she heard a noise behind her. Looking, she realised the noise she'd heard was the delighted squeak of the boy, standing in the doorway like he'd just walked in.
"Do you like this show?" She asked him softly, so as not to scare him back into his grumpy, silent norm.
He nodded eagerly and so she patted down the seat next to her, gesturing for him to join her on the couch. As the intro played, she brought up the courage to ask him his favourite character.
And he told her.
He told her without hesitation and in a high, nasally voice that made Nana desperately want to giggle but she stopped herself because she knew it might make him stop speaking to her. And although he'd only just started, she never wanted him to stop.
Ten years on, in their first year of high school, Zane ignored her. Not because he disliked her, but because he wanted to make his debut as the dark and edgy boy his appearance suggested. Somehow, he didn't feel as though walking in chatting alongside a cute Mei'fwa girl with fluffy pink hair, a cheery face and bright, golden eyes wasn't going to help. Especially if his crush on her was as obvious as he felt it was.
So he ignored her and only messaged her. She never brought it up though and he thought that maybe she was the only one who understood.
That's how it always felt.
When he bit his older brother years and years ago, she was the only one who asked him what was wrong instead of Garroth. She could tell that he hadn't just done it for no reason. Of course, he wasn't gonna tell her that he bit Garroth because the blond boy was making fun of her.
Some years later, when he was getting bullied badly by some classmates, she didn't tell anyone. Because she believed in him. She knew that, if he wanted to, he would tell someone.
And now, he was blatantly going out of his way not to be seen with her at school and she didn't question it, instead keeping up a text barrage of photos of funny moments with her and her new friends and texts begging for details of his own Highschool endeavours and transitioning smoothly into playful banter when he brushed off her queries because he was never going to admit he hadn't made any friends at all.
She always trusted him and understood him and when you find someone like that, it's hard to let it go. In fact, more often than not, you can't help falling in love with them.
And that was something Zane was desperately trying not to do, and desperately failing at not doing.
Kawaii~Chan was her name now.
Zane didn't know how to feel about it.
In some ways, it suited her.
In others,
It didn't.
It suited her sunny smile, her cutesy style, her little pink bows, her baking habits, her happy squeal and her fluffy pink hair.
It didn't suit the deep thoughts and aspirations she'd voiced to him over the years in hushed tones at their regular sleep overs. It didn't suit her 'boyish' obsessions with video games, action movies and shows. It didn't suit the melancholy songs she'd sing to him as a distraction from the painful words of bullies. And it didn't suit her gentle, porcelain face, framed by silky bangs as she looked wistfully out the window, deep in thought.
It suited her Ying but not her Yang.
And that wasn't right. She wasn't 2D, she was complex.
He tried to tell her so, but she merely said:
''it's just the same with you.''
And he understood.
He didn't want others to see his soft side, the side that giggled with Nana over childish whims, the side that always, always ate her baked goods, no matter how experimental or just plain failed they were, the side that fangirled endlessly over his latest obsession, his side that was still, inexplicably but adorably, addicted to My Little Horsies.
The side that Nana loved most.
It hurt to see him covering that up at school. Nana knew that he would make great friends, maybe even the same ones that she had, if he just let people see it (well, maybe the horsey thing would earn him some teasing but Nana was willing to fight tooth and tail to stick up for him). But she understood where he was coming from and she believed in him, he could do whatever he wanted, as long as he tried as hard as he could, and let Nana be there to support him, even if it meant just her being there in the background, out of sight.
It hurt but she trusted him, believed in him, understood him.
She would always do her best to.
...
Years pass.
Enough she sobbed as he begrudgingly showed her his latest bruise, It's not worth it anymore
But Zane didn't care
He didn't care how many times those stupid shadow knights beat him up.
He didn't care about all the looks of disgust and mistrust that were shot at him, each one a piercing laser, impossible to ignore.
He didn't-
He did.
It hurt.
But it's too late, he would tell her, they all hate me anyway.
But I don't she said, words bright and true, I'll always be here for you.
And so he didn't argue anymore
He was so tired of fighting his feelings.
As she hugged him, he stopped trying to be cold and untouchable. His love hit at full force as he realised how deeply his whole body ached for this girl (young woman) to know how much he cared and so he cupped her soft, fair face and looked at her, really looked at her, and searched her golden cat-like eyes for assent. When he found it, he brought his face down to hers and gently kissed her.
The kiss meant a lot of things.
It held apologies and thanks, it held sadness and happiness, it held shyness and passion.
It held understanding