━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━

“I want my dream husband to be a great cook!” said Chiyo.

“Yeah? Well, I want mine to be a good dancer,” said Kohana.

(F/n) was walking with her two friends, Chiyo and Kohana, during recess. It was raining, so they decided to walk around the hallways of their school while mindlessly chatting on a random topic. The topic of choice was dream husbands.

“How is being a good dancer even important?” Chiyo asked Kohana.

“Because my parents can dance well, and I want to make sure my husband can do the same,” Kohana justified her answer.

“Hmm,” Chiyo wasn’t convinced.

(F/n) was walking behind the two, their formation forming an upside-down triangle. (F/n) was sort of paying attention, but she was having an inner debate in her mind about the whole situation.

“(F/n)?”

(F/n) was pulled out of her thoughts when Chiyo called out for her.

“Huh?” (F/n) looked at her.

Kohana chuckled, “Daydreaming again?”

(F/n) huffed and scratched the back of her head, “No,”

“Anyways,” Chiyo turned to her fully, “I asked you what you want in your future husband?”

(F/N) blinked at the question.

“Um-” (F/n) was cut off when she saw a familiar figure walk into the hallway.

Takumi was with his friends, Kazuto and Daisuke. Takumi was in the middle while the other two were on either side of him, but two steps behind. Takumi and (F/n) made eye contact. Takumi smirked a little, causing (F/n) to flush and look down. Chiyo and Kohana sent each other a look before smirking to themselves. Takumi and his friends walked past them before Chiyo spoke up.

“Never mind, I got my answer,” she said.

(F/n) huffed and continued walking, leaving her two friends behind.

“Wait!” Kohana jogged a bit to catch up, “We’re just joking,”

(F/n) decided not to comment and continued walking. Chiyo and Kohana both looked at each other, a bit worried that they had pissed their friend off.

-

“Hey Takumi,” Kazuto spoke up, “Who is the girl you always hang out with?”

Takumi unknowingly smiled at the reference to (F/n), “Her name is (F/n),”

“She’s in the class next door, right?” Daisuke remembered seeing her when their class would line up for recess.

“Yeah,” Takumi confirmed.

“Her face got red when she saw you,” Kazuto pointed out.

Takumi chuckled, “She’s like that a lot.”

“My Nii-chan says that whenever a person’s face gets red around someone, it’s because they like them,” Daiksuke remembered a conversation he had with his older brother.

“Really?” Kazuto was surprised to hear that knowledge, “So that’s why my mom always has a red face whenever my dad comes home,”

“Hmm,” Takumi hummed upon hearing this new insight.

Takumi was knowledgeable about what crushes were ever since he started primary school. He would overhear the older kids talking about who they thought the prettiest/coolest girl/boy was. He observed the older kids giving cheesy confessions and gifts to the students that they liked. It never really occurred to him that crushes could apply to him. Sure, he admired (F/n) a lot. But could that admiration translate into having a crush?

“Takumi!”

Takumi blinked, turning back to his friend, “What?”

Kazuto huffed and Daisuke giggled, “Kazuto asked if you have a crush on (F/n),”

Takumi, without any second thought, answered immediately, “I’ve always had a crush on her.”

━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━

Throughout their youth volleyball practice, Takumi kept looking over at (F/n). He could tell something was off about the way she played. It was like she was in a weird state between being normal and being in her emo mode. To anyone else, she was behaving normally. But to him, it was obvious something was bothering her.

-

“I saw that Wataru was on the bench all of practice,” (F/n) commented while the two were walking home.

“Coach said he had an outburst earlier, so he didn’t want him to play if he was upset,” Takumi explained why.

“Hmm,” (F/n) nodded, her eyes scanning the scenery ahead. The sun was setting, casting a golden shine on all the plants and flowers they passed by.

Usually, (F/n) would stop and take a longer look at each different flower while Takumi watched and let her. But this time, she waltzed right past them as if they weren’t there. That was enough for Takumi.

“Hey, (F/n)?” he stopped walking and called out to her when she got a couple of steps away.

(F/n) stopped in her tracks, confused, and looked back at him, “Yes?”

“Is everything okay?” he asked her.

(F/n) blinked, “Why wouldn’t it be?”

‘Deferred the question,’ Takumi recognized one of the many signs that (F/n) was a couple of moments away from going into her emo mode, “You usually look at all the flowers on our way home… but you walked right past them.”

(F/n) looked at all the flowers she missed, “Oh…”

Takumi walked up to her, “What’s wrong?”

The moment with her friends during recess flashed behind her eyes and made her feel embarrassed. She shook her head and continued walking, “Nothing,”

Takumi sighed, knowing that it was going to take more persistence to get (F/n) to tell him the truth.

“(F/n),” he called out gently.

“Stop,” (F/n) recognized the tone of voice, “Just let me process something on my own,”

“Process or avoid?” Takumi said what his mind thought.

(F/n) stopped in her tracks and looked at him, giving him a dirty look. She breathed in before turning back, “I can walk home by myself, you go ahead.”

This was the first time (F/n) had acted like this, which caught Takumi off guard. He stood and watched her get a couple of steps away before sighing and jogging up to her. (F/n) was about to tell him to go away, but her voice got caught in her throat when she felt Takumi hug her from behind.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “What I said was mean. I didn’t mean it that way,”

(F/n) stood still for a couple of seconds before her hands held onto his arms, “It’s fine…”

“You don’t have to talk about it just yet,” Takumi told her gently, “But don’t push me away.”

(F/n) nodded, “I know… I’m sorry,”

Takumi chuckled and shook his head, “Don’t be sorry, it was my persistence that irritated you.”

(F/n) smiled slightly before letting go of his arms. Her right hand grabbed his left, and she guided it to the side so they could walk home together like normal. Takumi was glad to see she was better, but his mind itched to know why she was acting differently.

━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━

“Guess who’s here?!” Keiko opened the door and greeted the house with enthusiasm.

“Well, if it isn’t our middle daughter,” Ronin greeted from the couch.

"Geez don't get too excited now," Keiko crossed her arms, pouting like a kid over her dad's sarcasm.

Hiromi, who was in the kitchen, was pleased to see her daughter, “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming home?” Hiromi walked up to her and pulled her into a hug, “I would’ve cooked something special.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Keiko said while hugging her mom, “Oh, and Hana is here.”

Just in time, Hana walked into the house with their bags. “Hello,”

“Hi honey, how are you?” Hiromi hugged her soon to be daughter in law after she placed the bag on the floor.

“Where’s (F/n)?” Keiko asked, excited to see how big her little sister has gotten.

“She’s in the dining room doing homework,” Ronin explained, “She’s listening to her walkman.”

“Walkman?” Keiko was surprised, “When did she get that?”

“I think Kou’s friend gave it to her since he didn’t use it anymore,” Hiromi explained.

“Ah, I see,” Keiko nodded and looked at Hana, “C’mon, let’s bother (F/n),”

The two walked past the living room and into the kitchen. From there, they saw (F/n) on he dining room table, heavily invested in her work. However, they could tell there was something bothering her. Unfortunately, just like her older brother, she couldn’t hide her emotions at all.

“(F/n)!” Keiko walked up to her and shook the chair before engulfing her baby sister in a hug.

(F/n) jolted from the initial surprise but smiled, hugging her sister back, “Sister-owl!”

“I missed you!” Keiko squeezed her, “You’ve gotten so big! Stop it,”

(F/n) giggled.

Keiko let go and gestured for her girlfriend to greet her as well. Hana was still very hesitant since (F/n) also displayed similar hesitancy. She walked up to her and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Hana said to (F/n).

(F/n) nodded, “You changed your hair,” she pointed out.

Hana smiled, “I did. Do you like it?”

“It suits you,” (F/n) told her.

“Alright, baby sis,” Keiko sat in the chair across from her, “What’re you working on?”

Hana went to sit in the chair next to Keiko.

“Math,” (F/n) replied, going back to doing her homework.

“I love math,” Keiko stated, since she was a mathematics major.

“Cannot relate,” Hana gave a face, since she was a music major.

(F/n) hummed, “It’s okay. I understand it, so I think I like it?”

Keiko chuckled, “I’ll make sure you like it. We need more math lovers,”

Hana, being that she was a music major, noticed the walkman, “Hey, you got a cool walkman. Where did you get it?”

(F/n) looked at it, “Brother-owl’s friend gave it to me,”

Keiko hummed, “Which friend?”

(F/n) thought for a moment, “Kaashi-owl said it was the tall one. He had glasses,”

Keiko recognized the description, “Ah, Tsukishima.” She was surprised, “Huh, never thought he’d think about giving a kid something.”

Hana scrunched her nose at the comment.

“Anyways,” Keiko changed the subject, “Anything else going on?”

(F/n) shifted slightly, which Keiko caught on. She thought about answering her sister’s question before sighing, “I guess.”

Keiko and Hana shot a quick look at one another before Keiko persisted, “What’s up?”

(F/n) placed her pencil down, pushing her math homework to the side.

“Do you know what a crush is?” (F/n) asked.

Keiko blinked, not expecting that question. She took a couple of seconds ot process what her sister just said before answering with a breathy laugh, “Yeah, I’m fairly knowledgeable. Why? Do you have a crush on someone?”

(F/n) shrugged, “I don’t know… what are the signs?”

Keiko sat back in her chair, crossing her arms, “Well, there are a couple of them. First, whenever you think about them, your heart may race or feel weird. If you see them or are around them, your face might get red. If you want to spend more time with them,” Keiko listed a couple of signs that came off the top of her head.

(F/n) nodded along, slowly connecting the dots and realizing that she might actually have a crush.

Hana could see the distress and spoke up, “You don’t have to overthink anything just yet. You’re only nine,”

“Hey, I had my fair share of crushes when I was nine,” Keiko defended.

Hana deadpanned, “You don’t count. They were false crushes because you’re into women,”

Keiko scoffed and puffed her cheeks out.
(F/n) watched their dynamic, which she found oddly familiar. Her brain sifted through the couples that she was aware of.

Kaede and Rui. Keiko and Hana. Her mom and dad.

She realized they all had a common dynamic. In general, with a lack of better words, one would usually act out while the other calms them down. She then looked at her and Takumi’s dynamic and realized that it followed the same pathway. She was the one who would act out, and Takumi was the one to calm her down. It was also similar to her brother’s and Akaashi’s dynamic.

“Okay…” (F/n) sighed, “I got my answer,”

Keiko and Hana stopped bickering and looked at her, “Which is?”

(F/n) pulled her homework back and started working on it, “I have a crush on Takumi.”

“I knew it!” her parents, Keiko and Hana, exclaimed since they already knew her statement.

━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━

possibly the start of some development ( ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)

hope y'all enjoyed <3