Here The Whole Time - Mikoshiba Momotarou x Reader

It was not easy being childhood friends with Mikoshiba Momotarou.

He was loud, way too energetic for his own good, easily bored, and fawned over any female in a ten-mile radius. The worst part was that he insisted on bringing you along to what he called “chick-pick sessions”.

Ever since you could remember, the two of you were close. You tried to be the good one in the partnership, waking him up on school days and trying to keep him in line in public the best you could. You were perfectly fine with being around him and continuing on like that, even if he kept pulling you along to random cafes every time he saw a pretty face and kept asking for advice on what girls liked.

But surely you were more than that to him, right? Not a run-to book for insight on a girl’s mind?

No, no way. He had to be keeping you around for something other than that. Or at least that’s what you were telling yourself.

These thoughts were still heavy in your mind as you walked with Momotarou down the halls of Samezuka Academy, heading towards his room and signed in as a visitor. The two of you had been in the park earlier trying to convince some girls to go with him to the cake shop nearby until it started raining. Thus, the pick-up session ended early and you retreated to the academy until the rain let up.

“Aw, man, what a pain! I could’ve sworn those girls were considering going with me!” The redhead whined with his fingers laced behind his head in front of you. He stomped his feet a little while he walked, shaking off dewdrops with every step he took.

“You sure? They looked pretty sick of you, to be honest.” You scoffed back, tucking a damp lock of hair behind your ear.

“Nah, that was all you, (f/n)! It’s ‘cause you’ve always got a scowl on when we’re working! You’ll just scare them off, y’know!” Momotarou gave you a pointed look over his shoulder while you approached the room.

“Yeah, right.” You muttered under your breath. “Anyway, what about your roommate? We won’t be interrupting anything, right?”

“Nitori-senpai? Ah, yeah, he’s with Rin-senpai doing some extra training today. They won’t be back for a while, so we can do whatever we want for the afternoon!” He whooped loudly as he swung the door open, revealing the clutter all over the room and making you cringe. Magazines, socks, even some underwear, and several books and papers. Rin would definitely freak out if he ever saw this place. “Dibs on the bed!” Your childhood friend loudly cried as he flopped onto the bottom bunk.

You sighed and stepped inside warily. “If you were inviting me over, shouldn’t you have at least cleaned up this place a little? Rin’s never going to let you hear the end of this if you don’t.”

“Haha! I don’t let Rin-senpai in here for a reason, obviously! I’ll clean it when he comes back, duh.” He waved a hand at you lazily from where the lay sprawled out on the mattress.

“Jeez…” You rubbed the back of your neck and kicked away some of the debris gathered at the front of the bed before sitting down. You hugged your knees to your chest, feeling a prick of insecurity begin to poke into your side. “If I’m that scary, why do you insist on taking me to all your speed-dating challenges?”

“Eh? Where’d that come from?” Momotarou rolled up into a sitting position with a quirked eyebrow before lifting a hand to his chin. He looked deep in thought for a moment. “Well… if I had to say something reasonable that even you would understand…”

“I’m not that dumb!”

A bright smile that captured his personality perfectly surfaced onto his face, eyes gleaming and upturning. “It’s more fun with you!”

All the blood began to pool into your cheeks, and you hurriedly turned away and poked your forehead into your knees. Of all the things he chose to say, it had to be something so embarrassing…!

“W-What’re you saying all of a sudden…?” You mumbled under your breath before raising your head and resting your chin on your knees. “Anyways, is there even any point in me going with you to the chick-picking sessions anymore? I thought there was already a girl you-”

“Oh, right, there is!” It took less than a second for the aura around Momotarou to turn soft and mushy and filled with sparkles as his eyes went completely out of focus. “Ahhh… I hope Gou-san will come to visit soon, huh? It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve seen her…” He fell back onto the bed and hugged his pillow tightly to his chest as if it were the edge of a cliff he was about to fall off of. Still completely lovestruck, he started to roll around the bed like a loaf of bread. “Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I really, really, really want to see her! Oh! Maybe I can go today?” You could practically see the hearts radiating off of him.

Irritation tightened the knot in your stomach. It was totally wrong of you to bring her up after all.

You held your knees tighter to your chest and mumbled, “What’s so good about that Matsuoka Gou anyway?”

“Everything!” Momotarou snapped for a second before returning to his floating heaven of admiration of something he would never have unless Rin snapped his neck. His eyes reverted back to their soft, watery, sparkly state. “The way her long, flowing hair blows in the wind-”

Your fingers played at the tips of your split ends.

“The way she lovingly says anyone’s name with that angelic voice-”

You bit your lip.

“The way her clear, pure, and perfect magenta eyes sparkle in the light and smile and brighten the world itself-”

Your eye twitched.

“Everything about her is just perfect!”

Your last nerve snapped, and you whirled around to pry the pillow out of his grip and smack him over the head with it as hard as you could. A pained shriek came from the boy before you calmed down and settled back into your clean spot on the floor.

You closed your eyes and sighed. “Could you stop talking now? It’s annoying, hearing you spurt all this lovey-dovey stuff about Matsuoka Gou all day.”

“Ehhhhh? That’s so unfair, (f/n)! I’ve listened to you all the time when you told me about guys you liked, right?” Momotarou gave you the biggest puppy dog face you’d ever seen, probably without even realizing it.

“Believe me, I haven’t. It’s always been a Momotarou-to-me ratio, if you must know.” You shrugged your shoulders nonchalantly and held up your hands in denial so he could see from where he sat.

“Geh…” His face fell at the correction of what he remembered. Now he sighed. “That’s so like you, (f/n). An ice queen then and now, huh?”

“Am not!” You argued, albeit a bit weakly. You’d turned your head to him to say so, but dropped it down to your knees again. After all, you had bitten back the rest of what you wanted to say: “Because I haven’t really looked at anyone other than you.”  

“Ehhhhhhh.” An irritating Cheshire-cat grin stretched his lips wide, a teasing tone rising to his voice. “That’s it? I was expecting a snarkier comeback from none other than the ice queen. Well, whatever!” The younger brother crossed his arms behind his head and stretched out on the bed again like a lazy cat. “Anyway-”

“Before you say anything, I hope you know I don’t want to hear another word about Matsuoka Gou, or no ice cream bets for a month.”

“Eh?! Why?!” Momotarou’s entire face fell in shock within seconds.

“Well… there’s already one here, isn’t there?” You hugged the pillow even tighter to your stomach, feeling like your face was going to explode from embarrassment. Even so, you still forced the words out of your throat. “A… a c-cute… girl…”

Regret filled you from head to toe the seconds the broken, stuttered sentence wafted into the air and turned the very air you were breathing in the room awkward. Cold sweat broke out all over your palms and your body, and you clutched the pillow to your face tightly in anticipation wishing you could just run away from this stupid dorm and never come back. And then maybe bury yourself into a deep, nearby hole and never resurface and probably die of suffocation but honestly, who cares? You just suggested that Mikoshiba Momotarou did not need to pick up any more cute girls because there was one beside him already.

What. The. Hell.

So when he burst into loud, spontaneous laughter, you were both incredibly insulted yet expecting it since you’d even said the words.

Despite the fact you knew your entire face must’ve been red, you turned to glare at him hotly as he rolled on the mattress, kicking his legs in the air and giggling in glee and amusement. He held his stomach as he laughed hysterically, like he’d been told so many jokes he intended to die from oxygen loss.

“C-Cute? You? A-Are you serious, (f/n)?! You’re like the complete polar opposite of Gou-san, not to mention a total ice queen!” His sentence almost broke, and he had to take another gasp of air before continuing. At this point you were so humiliated you could die, and also convinced that Momotarou was probably crying as he said all this. “H-Hey, hey, hey, hey, we should have a bet to see who gets a boyfriend or girlfriend first! Oh wait, why would we even have to compete? G-Guys don’t even go after ice queens, (f/n)! Ahahahahahahahaha!”

Having had quite enough of his chortling and antics, you stood up from the floor and threw the pillow right into his face, cutting off his laughter for a few seconds. Blinded by the swirling emotions running through your head, you stomped over to the door with your shaking hands curled into fists.

“E-Eh? H-Hey, wait, (f/n)! I’m sorry! Are you going home already?”

Your vision was blurry as you harshly turned to face him, even though you were positive he could see your teary eyes. Without saying a word, you nodded, more than completely heartbroken.

“G-Gaaaahhhhhhhh!” He shrieked at the sight of your reddened eyes, bouncing up from the bed in a panic. “C-Crap, sorry, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean it! H-Hey, please? I’ll buy you ice cream for the ice cream bets for a month! A-And I’ll try my best not to talk about Gou-san!”  

Though his pleading was having a little bit of an effect, you weren’t going to let this one slide so easily. With a clamped whimper, you shook your head stubbornly and kept making your way out.

“H-H-H-H-Hold on!” Momotarou skillfully bounced over to the doorway in three strides that were definitely practiced, squeezing his eyes shut and waving his hands in front of you. He looked up at you pleadingly, his own expression looking hurt and guiltier than you’d ever seen him. “H-Hey, what can I do to get you to smile again? Uh, but first of all, d-d-don’t leave, okay?! I-I’ll figure something out, I swear!”

You both stared down at your feet, and you wiped your teary eyes on your sleeve. When you lowered your arm back to your side, Momotarou’s hand gently grabbed at your sleeve.

“Hey, (f/n)? Do you hate me now?” He sounded so much softer and vulnerable like this. You could tell he felt horrible.

But still, you didn’t answer and only turned your head to the side, not letting your gazes meet.

“I’m sorry, I really am. I didn’t mean it, I was just being stupid. Please don’t hate me.”

Again, no reply. It wasn’t that you wanted to hate him, but… that still hurt. A lot.

“I guess it’s always ‘cause I’m taking you for granted. You’ve always been doing stuff like this since we were little, right?” He chuckled dryly, but it was humorless and somewhat nostalgic. “I never really thought much about how you felt when I kept dragging you along to do dumb things. But waking me up, making sure I’m not late for class. You’ve been doing all of that for so long, I never even got to thank you.” This time he laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head, trying to lighten the mood. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you, but I think I’d be a real mess without you!”

Your eyes widened, a short breath escaping your lips.

“So…” His voice went quiet again, and he stared at his hand holding your sleeve. “So please don’t hate me.”

Slowly, you meekly lifted your head to meet his eyes, staring at his sheepish face and trying to figure out what to do. You wondered how pathetic you must have looked, but your childhood friend was as awkward and bright as he’s ever been, while you kept having these weird ups and downs, most of which were caused by him.

However, now it was the redhead’s turn to grow flustered, as a light shade of pink began to cross over his cheeks. He glanced away, scratching the back of his neck again. “C-Come on, don’t look at me like that.”

“S-Sorry.” You mumbled out, tipping your head down again.

“O-Oi, don’t start crying again! Uh… um… oh, I got it!” His eyes brightened, and he smacked a fist into his palm at the new idea.

The next second you blinked, you were being blanketed in something strangely warm and covered in darkness, and you screamed and squirmed at the ticklish sensation. Momotarou had lifted the front of his yellow hoodie and pulled it over you so that your stomachs were pressed together.

You gasped once your head popped out of the hoodie, and were extremely embarrassed to see his face hovering inches in front of yours.

“W-What the heck, Momotarou, this is really weird-!” You struggled and tried to shrink back in to escape the hoodie hold, but he just panicked and struggled back.

“H-Hey, don’t move around so much, you’re gonna make me fa-!”

Your foot slipped, and then the entire universe seemed to be imploding as you fell backwards, with Momotarou conveniently landing on you and further crushing the air out of your body.

When the dizziness wore off enough, you opened your eyes with a pained groan as your head was still pounding from knocking it on the ground.  

“Told you.” Momotarou grumbled before sighing. He rested his head next to yours, and your body temperature increased dramatically at the close proximity. “Did we ever do this as kids?”

“D-Don’t think so.” You murmured back.

“Really?” He cocked his head before shrugging. “It’s a lot warmer this way.”

There was a moment of silence in which you were still untangling your thoughts and what exactly it was you wanted to say, but Momotarou beat you to it.

“(f/n)?”

“What?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Your heart skipped a beat, but then an unamused frown flattened the shock.

“Even though I’m not a long-haired angel-voiced magenta-eye-coloured beauty and an ice queen who won’t ever get a boyfriend because boys don’t go after ice queens?”

“Geh!” He stiffened and nuzzled your cheek desperately, nearly making you explode. “S-Sorry, I said I’m really sorry, didn’t I? I didn’t mean it. I really do wanna kiss you, (f/n).”

“Even though your heart belongs to Matsuoka Gou?” You weren’t sure if rubbing salt in the wound was the best idea, but since the opportunity to guilt-trip him was free at your disposal, why not?

“It’s different now, I swear!” With a bit of struggling, he managed to press both palms on either side of your head to prop himself up above you, even though you were technically sharing the same hoodie. For some reason his golden eyes looked uncharacteristically nervous and somewhat serious. “So… I can, right? I want to.”

You sucked in a deep breath, hoping to control the insane drumming of your heart. “Y-Yeah. On three, then.”

“One,” He began.

“Two-”

The idiot didn’t even wait for the three before he lowered himself on top of you and pushed his lips onto yours.

Kissing was the strangest sensation you’d ever known, more or less felt. It was like a spark had been ignited and now an entire fireworks show was taking place inside of your heart. And most of all, it was warm. It was so, so warm and you could almost smell the bit of chlorine and oranges-

And then he pulled away.

Your lips suddenly felt extremely cold without his on them, but you couldn’t even touch them since your arms were trapped, so you just flushed deeply and looked to the side.

“Y’know what, (f/n)?”

“What?” You grumbled, refusing to meet his gaze.

“I was seriously wrong back there.” He grinned, and finally you looked up.

You were astonished by the gleaming of his eyes, so sincerely happy and his face such a pretty shade of red that you were almost hypnotized by the affection you saw in it.

“You’re the cutest ice queen I’ve ever seen, and you were right. You were here the whole time.”