Konoha City always had a fireworks show late evening on this day since it was its founding day. A lot of people gather around the tallest hill to watch it.
You end up buying a few snacks, juices, soda before heading towards the hill. It usually gets crowded and it is not always easy to get out once you get a good place to park the car and watch the show. When you reach, you find a lot of cars already lined up so you keep going higher up the hill hoping you'll find a good place. Luckily, you do and you park. You open the sunroof to watch the late evening sky. The weather is nice, not too chilly which makes it even better. You get out of the car and fold the front seat and move it forward so there is more leg space in the back and tell Obito to do the same. Since the sunroof is open and the front seats moved ahead, the back seats look very cozy under the stars. He joins you with all the food and drinks that you had got.
"Impromptu picnic", you say happy with yourself.
"Way better than whatever we were at before", he says laughing and offers you the packet of chips he opened.
"Oh definitely", you say taking a couple and resting your feet on the folded front seat.
Under ten minutes you see the entire hill full of cars and getting packed. It would be difficult for you to leave before most left since there was no place to get your car out. You were thankful you reached on time, a few minutes late and you would have had to watch it from some inconvenient place, or maybe not at all. you loved fireworks and since this was an important day, you just loved it.
The place was very lively, children running around getting excited, their parents trying to get them back to the cars. Younger crowd with their friends turning this into a picnic not unlike yours, in the back of their pick up trucks, older couples getting as excited as the young ones, sitting against the bonnet of the cars, it was a fun scene to watch. Obito and you talk excitedly looking at everyone, mainly making jokes about someone's weird hat, their cliche dashboard dolls, and everyone and everything around you.
~~ Fireworks show, brought to you by Deidara's brilliant art ~~
Soon the fireworks start, starting with smaller colorful ones that went straight up in the sky in straight lines. Everyone grew increasingly silent once it started, you stop munching on the chips, too. The lights around dimmed a bit, making the fireworks shine brighter in the sky. After a few minutes, it is switched to sky flyer - the ones that spin fast while going to the sky and explode in different patterns. They were multiple colors, too making you as excited as the kids around you.
"Isn't this pretty?", you see looking at Obito whose eyes are also glued to the sky in childish excitement.
"It is. I always skipped this, thinking fireworks is for kids or those gross in love couples", he says without moving his eyes from the sky.
"Yes, even now, most of them are kissing for no reason", you laugh looking at everyone who was getting extremely cozy, some downright inappropriate around you.
"One thing I hate about dark events, light shows, concerts", you say trailing off.
"Tell me about it", he replies.
You wiggle your toes as you start feeling cold soon, but you are engrossed in the show so you don't realize. You absent-mindedly pull your legs close to you and pull your jacket tighter close to you. Sensing your movements from the corner of his eye, he puts an arm around you and rubs your arm to help keep you warm. You scoot closer to him, both of you still paying attention to the show. The fireworks have now switched to those bigger ones, which explode multiple times in multiple colors covering half the sky. The show organizers had upped their game this time and it was mesmerizing. There were smoke and lights, different explosions in the shape of monuments of Konoha made their appearances along with lights and lasers. All in all, the show was better than you both expected, especially him.
"This was so good, I am glad you invited me", he says his arm still around you and you resting your head on his shoulder.
"I wish there weren't so many couples around, though. They are really stupid as if no one else exists for them. Why don't they just get a room? ", he rants.
You were scrolling your phone, waiting for other cars to start leaving so you have a place to take yours out.
"Yes, they are obnoxious. But we shouldn't be laughing at them, right? At least they have managed to find someone, unlike us", you say half laughing half sighing.
"Hmmm", he says putting a chocolate wafer roll in his mouth.
You turn your head up to face him and see him look at you with the roll between his lips, looking a mixture of sadness and being lost. You lean in and take a bite of his roll that was dangling off his lips and ruffle his hair.
"Stop looking so sad, Obito, I'll pray that you get Rin, or someone even better than her", you say while getting up from the back seat and stretching. Obito keeps staring at you since you ate his chocolate, his cheeks faint dust of rose, but it was too dark for you to see that reaction. He suddenly feels shy and his arms feel empty and cold after you get up, taking away the warmth he had held on to for almost the entirety of the show. But you are blissfully unaware of all the effects your tiny actions were causing, you were just being yourself.
The lights have come back on and you see an old couple a bit further down getting their stuff in the car. You start adjusting the seats of your car and close the sunroof to get ready to leave. Just then their paper bag breaks and the plastic bottles they were carrying fall to the ground and roll towards you, due to the slope. You get two and Obito, now out of the back seat, gets one quickly before they roll on further and you walk towards them to give them the bottles back and help them load up their car.
"Thank you dear", the small old woman says accepting the bottles from you. You keep it in the back seat of the car instead of handing it to her, so she didn't have to do extra work. Obito does the same. Once all their food, folding chairs, and other stuff are loaded up in their car, both of them thank you both again.
"Isn't this firework good?", the lady asks.
"Yes, of course. I love it every year", you add with a smile.
"It's been about 25 years since we are coming here for the City Day but we love it anyway. It is nice to see the youth in love", the lady says making you both blush a little, but none of you jumps up to correct her. You merely smile and nod already thinking of ways to end the conversation.
"If they are consistent with their partners, though", the man adds to her statement, making you laugh. The lady shushes him immediately and you both laugh.
"Were you shy to kiss because we were around? We saw you were just laughing and talking", she says making you both blush deeper.
"Shit, mind your business", you say in your head but since you are polite you don't say that out loud.
"Oh umm.. we aren't actually together", you both say at the same time, mumbling and avoiding looking at each other.
"Oh sorry for the misunderstanding. But you guys look good together. You should stop watching the fireworks wishing you were with someone else and accept the one you are with", she says laughing, and gets in the car. The old man starts the car while you mentally curse her even more but put on a fake smile on your face. You both wave at them as their car drives away, embarrassed so much that you can feel your ears getting hot.
You walk back to your car quietly, your cheeks still pink and ears still hot, and sit in. Obito comes and joins you. You both sit quietly for about ten minutes looking at the sky, the stars visible again since the lights of the fireworks and the cars have died down. You sigh and go to pick up your drink that was placed in the cup holder behind the gear and he does the same, accidentally touching your hands.
"Damn it, old lady, you are making everything awkward", you say giving a hollow laugh to ease the tension. He fake laughs with you too but you both sense the thickness in the air between you both. Obito adjusts his shirt trying to fan himself and you turn on the AC instead. His heart was beating erratically since you took the bite of his chocolate, a simple act that you did without even thinking, but did send his brain into quite a drive. Now seeing you quiet and cutely blushing, he found it even hard to concentrate on having a casual conversation.
"She wasn't wrong you know", he starts after few moments of quiet and awkwardness that felt like an hour.
"About what?", you blurt out without thinking. You weren't sure if you wanted to know or talk about any of it.
"Maybe we should try moving on, how long will we keep hurting for the same people?", he says looking straight ahead. You do the same, with your hands in your lap, avoiding looking at him or touching him in any way.
"What are you trying to say?", you start. "You know what? Never mind, I don't want to have this conversation", you say and start the car. You decide you didn't want to know.
"I am just saying, how many times did you think of Asuma since we left the party?", he says finally turning his face to you. You still don't meet his eyes. You move your hands off the steering wheel and look out in the other direction.
"Probably once?", you say in a small voice, sighing and looking at Obito now.
He gives you a "See?" sort of expression knowing that you just proved his point.
"Thanks to you, I guess. Every year, going home from the fireworks does end up in me feeling lonely and crying to sleep, now that I think about it", you say giving a hollow laugh tears pooling up in your eyes.
You feel sadder since you realize how much of your happiness is tied to one person, who does not even think of you. The fact that you are not in charge of your own happiness and your mood depends on this ridiculous one-sided love story that you have built up in your head for so long, just makes you feel worse.
He feels a tug at his heart with your sad expression and places his palm on your cheek to comfort you, rubbing it with his thumb expecting for the tear to fall. It indeed does fall and he wipes it quickly and looks at you. You lift your eyes to meet his and he leans in without thinking and places his lips on yours kissing you softly for a moment. He realizes what he did and moves further from you and sits back with his eyes jolted open.
"I am sorry, I didn't mean to", he says looking at you but not meeting your eyes.
Your brain takes too long to catch up to what had happened. One moment, you were regretting ever falling for Asuma, the next you could feel Obito's soft lips on yours, his cologne filling up your senses with warmth. Your eyes were closed when his lips touched yours and you open when he pulls away, the sudden space in between you both making you hurt. You wanted to taste him again, this time paying attention but he says "I didn't mean to".
"You didn't mean to?", you blurt while your brain finishes catching up.
"I mean not that I didn't want to-", he adds quickly, not wanting to offend you. He couldn't read your expressions, he didn't know whether you wanted it or not, whether you hated him right now or not, all he knew was he wanted to comfort you and he probably did the exact opposite.
"Then finish it", you say looking at him blankly.
"Huh?"
"Finish what you started", you repeat.
He closes the distance between you both and crashes his lips on yours, cupping your face with one hand while grazing a thumb over your cheek and using the other hand to balance himself. You hold his shirt with both hands and kiss him back. You lean into the kiss and he cups your face with both his hands and deepens his kiss. You move your one hand to his neck and one into his hair. His tongue pokes at your lips to ask for an entrance that you gladly grant. He explores your mouth and you do the same to him. He holds your tongue lightly between his teeth and sucks on it making you gasp. You break the kiss to breathe but neither of you changes the positions of your hands, his remain cupping your face and yours on his neck, you both gasping for breath. You look at each other and separate yourselves going back to your seats looking out of the respective windows.
"Does this count as a rebound if the earlier one was only a one-sided relationship?", you ask matter-of-factly, finally breaking the silence.
"Probably", he says, slowly turning your head to look at you. You give a hollow laugh again, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.
"But it makes me a little less sad. I am all for being a little less sad", he adds.
"Watching them with someone else that is not us is always sad. Well, Rin is not with anyone yet so maybe less for you", you say.
"But she said she loves Kakashi. That was her reason for rejecting me. Because I asked her even though I knew she likes someone else. She said I don't care about her feelings, I did it to hurt her", he says nodding his head.
"Yeah who wouldn't love him, though?", you say sighing, completely ignoring the second half of his sentence.
"Did you just insult me?", he asks and looks at you with furrowed eyebrows.
You look at him looking at you like that. You observe how good looking he was, and his current expression making him look even cuter. But then you always knew he was one of those who were just effortlessly charming, so it did not come as a surprise to you.
"No no, not at all. All I am saying is, it is.... not comparable. it is very tough competing against him", you add, trying to convey your meaning without offending Obito further.
Kakashi was almost a celebrity, good looking, good at studies, he was popular without even doing anything. Everyone knew him, everyone loved him. He probably was on every single girl's list on the campus.
"Don't tell me you were in love with him, too", Obito says, almost pouting, his voice dropping a tone.
"Why would I be crying for Asuma then, Obito? You are really daft as they say", you pull his cheek playfully, laughing now. He did manage to cheer you up, though the actions were quite questionable.
"Hey I am not daft— wait who calls me daft?", he looks at you puzzled again.
You merely giggle, not responding to his question.
"Come on, Y/N. Tell me. I want to know what others talk about me. I mean I know I don't top the charts or even come close to the top, but I am not daft", he says getting hyper about it.
You lean in and kiss him, mainly to shut him up and also because you suspect that you are already addicted to the taste of his lips. You just had to taste him one more time, before you lose this moment. You feel like there was this bubble around you both, this moment, that allowed you to do be happy with someone, with Obito, for a while and no one else mattered. You expected the world to go back to normal as soon as this bubble burst, which it would soon, you both couldn't stay here, in your car, under the stars, forever - as good as it felt.
"You smell nice", he says.
"You feel nice", you reply, awkwardly adjusting in the nook of his neck.
"Did you look at me ever before?", he asks, shyly.
You get up and look at him. He looks away feeling shy as soon as he had asked the question.
"Of course! You are the funniest guy I know", you reply earnestly, moving back to your seat.
"Not that way. I mean....... check me out?", he asks slowly, blushing quite hard, now.
"If I had met you before Asuma, I would've had an eye on you", you say absent-mindedly looking out the window. "Maybe both my eyes", you add laughing.
You look at him as he doesn't reply for a few seconds and see him staring at you.
"What?"
"Nothing, I didn't realize someone can like the class clown. I thought that was all I was."
"Now, now. Let us not flatter ourselves", you say laughing, putting your seat belt on. He follows suit.
You both sit mostly in silence for the rest of the drive. It took about thirty minutes for you to reach his place.
"Thank you for today", he says taking off his seat belt.
"Thank you, too. It was nice", you reply smiling and you both get quiet again.
"But we'll probably have to talk about this tomorrow", you add, sighing.
"Yeah. But not now. Not today. I had a perfect evening, after way too long", he says looking at you shyly. His honesty shocked you a little, but you felt the same way. Neither of you wanted to talk about the consequences of today's actions. You both wanted the magic in the air to last longer, before you go back to your normal lives, tomorrow.
He quickly kisses your cheek and gets out of your car. You wave at him and drive off.
"I am all for being a little less sad", you repeat his words to yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: I hope you are liking the story so far. Please vote, comment if you do, I ll appreciate it.
Also please let me know if you have thoughts, comments or feedback! I love reading those.
Thanks for reading! :)