The summer's heat burned brilliantly on the day he met her, captured her radiance and lit her up so that she shined in his eyes.

Azumane Asahi's face burned both from the heat of the sun and his own nervousness as he met eyes with the little girl across the street, hesitant as he watched her stare right back at him with curious red eyes. Of yellow-brown skin that drank in the sun's rays and black curls that framed a round face, she tilted her head with something of an inquiry, a question to the brown haired boy who stood watching her family move into their new home. Her blue sundress was vibrant against the grey of her house as it blew gently with the passing wind, and Asahi found that his very breath seemed to lock in his throat, cut off lest it should find itself swept up with the summer breeze.

Hesitantly, the girl waved her hand, barely lifted it from her side in the motion as she searched him for a reply. When he gave her one with equal shyness, a gentle smile grew over her lips, one that glowed so shiningly in the way that it lit up her features and painted her like the image of utter beauty. What breath remained behind Asahi's lips fell from him at the sight, he could no longer fight against the effects of his heart racing and blood pumping so loudly in his ears, sounding like the drums of a summer festival. This girl, so unlike anyone he'd ever seen in his life up until that point, was the absolute manifestation of summer's sweetness, the flavour of watermelons on a hot day that coursed through his chest and lit fireworks under his skin.

Ah, the thought came to him unbidden, an unwelcome intrusion that tilted his world on its side, I think this might be a crush.

"Do you want to come over?"

Seconds passed him by like years before he realized that she'd spoken to him, and the red that dusted his cheeks became one of embarrassment as he lightly jogged across the narrow street at her invitation. Coming to stand before the girl, he noted immediately that they were nearly on the same height, with her only a short way beneath him where he could meet her eyes. The red colour he found in her was sharp, filled up with something like excitement and quiet fires that made Asahi himself feel giddy. "Hi," the word fell out from his lips in a nervous mutter, one that caused him to mentally punch the air and wish that he could take it back. Despite his rapidly spreading heart-attack, he pushed forward, "Are you moving in?"

There came a nod from the girl as her eyes lazily drifted over to one of two moving trucks, the back of which was filled up with furniture and appliances; he was able to spot a particularly large something in the back of one, wrapped up in dark blue blankets and tape that was turned over on its side, the working men grunting with the effort of lifting it so that they could place it down on a little wheeled device and roll it through their front gates. "My father's job gave him a new... a new..." her eyebrows furrowed, her lips pushing out into a thoughtful pout and her gaze fell forward as she seemed to struggle with finding the right thing to say. Patiently, Asahi waited for her, and noted to himself that she had a slight accent that popped up around certain words. She must've lived outside Japan before moving, he figured as he observed her features a bit longer, taking note that, despite her darker skin tone, she still possessed features that were very much East Asian. Maybe one of her parents was Japanese?

Soon, sudden in the motion that it startled Asahi from his thoughts, the girl snapped her fingers and pointed upwards at something, her lips forming an 'o' shape as she made a sound to accompany. "Chance! They gave him a new chance to work here, so we moved."

Asahi's brows furrowed as he repeated the word, derived from regular English and adapted to daily Japanese language. Her context, he found, sounded unnatural, the word 'chance' fitting in awkwardly with the rest of her sentence and made him try and think of a better one to replace it. It finally came to him in a moment of sudden thought, similar to the one that had come over the girl only moments before, and he wound up pointing one finger upwards in the same way he'd seen her do. "Like a new position?"

"Ah!" Her smile turned into something bashful as red adorably scattered across her nose, "That's the word I was looking for!" Something of an embarrassed sigh fell on her lips, "My bad, my Japanese still isn't at a hundred percent — I only ever practiced with my father so I can only say a few things."

"Oh! Well—" Understanding passed through his features as he nodded once, "I could help you if you ever need it?" He offered up almost thoughtlessly, barely even registering his words as they slipped out of his lips and caused him to immediately fumble once they were out. His face burned bright red and his hands lifted to wave around in nervous gestures, as he tried to retract his words, "I-I mean, only if you need the help! I assume you'll be practicing with your father so you might not even need anything from me, but—"

A beautiful sound cut off his rambling, harmonious and warm as it rang in his ears and in his flustered state, he realized that the girl was laughing. Her expression was warm and open beneath the summer's sun, drawing Asahi in under the season's spell and, wow, he couldn't help but stare after her as she sounded out with such joyous notes. His heart fluttered again inside his chest and lit his face aflame with admiration that only intensified when her red eyes met his once more and he saw a world of song and a galaxy of sweet lullabies.

"You're really kind," the words hit him harder than they should have as they caused Asahi's head to swell, her expression turned gentle and gratifying with her smile and he couldn't help himself but to return the expression. "I'd love to learn and practice with you."

Under the heat of the summer sun, Azumane Asahi's heart raced for the very first time.

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The sound coming from the music room was familiar to him, his feet almost instinctively guiding him until he stood directly in front of the door that did very little to withhold the sounds of a piano reaching down its hallway. He could perfectly hear each note that was played, could nearly picture her with her back straight and eyes closed, a gentle smile on her lips as she let herself go in her music. The image of her caused his beating heart to calm with a serenity he would so effortlessly associated with her, and his usually racing mind become eased into tranquility as he took a deep breath and finally reached one hand out to pull the sliding door; she was there, constant and permanent, the one factor in his day-to-day life that he could depend on never changing.

Her fingers didn't give pause from their motions across black and white keys, though he could tell from the slight tilt of her head that she'd heard him enter through the door. An answering smile took place on her lips, familiar in the way that he'd seen it every day since they met that summer; made his breath falter with unfailing consistency every time she gave it to him. Without making any vocal indication of his arrival, he made his way over to lean against the far wall, his gaze becoming locked through the window from where he was able to spot the football and baseball fields. The cherry blossoms, picturesque in the way they fluttered on the wind, felt as if they were somehow lending their scenery to the girl's music as her sounds danced across the room and straight to his heart, pulling at the strings there until he was wrapped up in her song; he kept his attention outside the window so that he wouldn't lose himself watching her, as he always seemed to let happen more often than he liked to admit. Sometimes he would wonder in his moments of idleness, in afternoons spent in his living room with so little between them as a show or anime played on his screen, if she would ever catch his lingering gaze, if she could identify every flicker of emotion that followed so faithfully on her every breath. Did she know the effect she had over him, that she could send him out to the very ends of the universe and bring her a galaxy if only she willed it?

Ah, the thought alone terrified him, drove a cold fear through his heart at the idea that she might have been aware. That his constant, the sun that he could always trust to stay with him inside his galaxy, would she hide her light away from him if she found out about his feelings? Would her light be covered up by rain clouds in her departure? Would she fight against gravity until she disappeared from his solar system, leaving his planets and asteroids to collapse and suffocate under the hands of a black hole? The one factor in his life that he could trust would never leave him in the dark, he worried that any hint of his affections for her would drive her away from him, that should he ever show to her his heart in its entirety, she'll be scared off by what she found there. His sun would go cold and leave him and his planets to plunge into the throws of an icy wasteland and he would be left with nothing more than frostbite and frozen limbs, and the very notion of her ever leaving him frightened him more than anything.

And yet, as he stood basking in the music that she played and watching the petals fall, that he gave in to the overwhelming urge to look at her, to watch as she lost herself atop the ebs and flows of musical waves before they abruptly paused when her fingers left the keys. He watched her as she brought a finger up to her plush lips, the very same way he would see her do whenever she had something on her mind as she pondered over a page of lines and symbols, something that Asahi had long since given up on understanding, before she snapped her fingers and quietly exclaimed an 'ah!', picked up her pencil and scribbled away.

Just like planet Earth never dared to stray from her orbit, Asahi found himself unable to leave the force of her gravitational influence, and he'd long since resigned himself to a destiny where he could only have her from so far away.

"That doesn't sound like Chopin," he teased her lightly, smiling as he crossed the distance between him and where she sat, nudged her side so that she'd allow him space. Her answering chuckle echoed in the room now void of the music she played as she gave him her full attention. "I got a bit caught up with transcribing this song in time to upload it," she easily confessed, to which Asahi's lips set down into a helpless, something of exasperated, smile. This girl, she was always so scatter-brained, jumped from one item to the next without a second thought, going of on endless tangents until she'd lose herself in her words and forget her starting point. It was a wonder that she was able to keep her attention on the monochrome keys long enough to play them, he often times found herself baffled on how quickly she jumped from one thought to the next. And yet, all wonder and doubt would immediately disappear whenever she began to press her fingers against them.

"Don't you need to prepare for a competition next month though?"

The orange hues of the setting sun filtered in from the window and made golden skin shine as her expression became one of quiet mischief; the way her eyes narrowed as her lips pushed upwards with her smile was a telling of subtle playfulness that was one of a thousand charms on her. "I can spare myself some time to enjoy outside of the classics, can't I?" She hummed, gently shoving into his side with her shoulder. Since their childhood, Asahi had grown to tower over her even whilst seated, and it was always something that she would teasingly complain about— "We were on the same height before middle school, how did you grow so tall so fast—?"

He answered her with his smile and a bit of an exasperated sigh as he cast his eyes down to the black and white keys. Here with her, it felt almost as if he could forget the encounter he'd had that day during lunch, felt as if the boy who so passionately spoke to him as an aspiring ace was a fragment of a blurry dream and that it would vanish away from him in a gust of wind. And yet, it was as he sat next to her that his words rang out so loudly in his head as her gaze intently searched him, picked him apart by the worries and uncertainties he wore on his lips and spread them all around them like the notes on her music sheets.

"And when I jump, the whole other side of the net just kinda goes fwaaa!! And opens up!"

There was a moment that passed between them, one punctuated by fears and insecurities left to flutter around them like the falling blossoms, and without saying anything to him — as if she could feel every fluctuation of his heart as it danced around inside his chest — her hands reclaimed their positions over the piano keys, though when she began playing again, it was a tune that Asahi had heard a thousand times over, one that he'd have on loop in his mind and would lull him to sleep. 'Soffia la note' sang out in her melody, warming the music room under the orange of sunset lights and fluttering cherry blossoms; the boy-turning-man felt his heart swell with all his feelings of doubt and hesitance until they were tumbling out of his lips, flowing like a dam whose floodgates had been gently coaxed apart by her hands, came undone from a mere brush of her fingertips. The sun gently grazes his skin with her warmth and he finds himself unravelling.

"I... I miss it..."

A hum of acknowledgement flowed up from her throat, gently urging him to continue as she played the song that he'd heard her play from her piano room, situated across from his bedroom at night. "That scenery... I miss seeing the other side of that wall."

"What's stopping you from seeing it again?"

He gave in to her gravity and looked over to her, and the feeling of pure want and longing intensified inside his chest as he took in the sight of her closed eyes and sun kissed skin, a smile on her lips as her body gently swayed side to side with her administrations. Black curls brushed against the back of her neck in ringlets and round spirals, she'd tucked away the strands that normally framed her face to rest behind her ears; the ones that he so often brushed with his fingers in mindless actions as if it had all been second nature to them, that she'd idly twist around with her fingers as she would hum a sweet melody. Ephemeral, a scenery he wished to burn inside his mind forever; the view of the other side of a thin line where she stood opposite from him, close enough for his fingers to brush her face but far enough where he could never fully hold her in his arms and call her his, just like the Earth was forced to stay so close to the sun without being able to bury herself fully in its brilliance and shine. 'What's stopping me from crossing that line?' The question burned within him, turned and festered and pushed out again in another wave of words and feelings.

"I'm afraid that I'll be shut out," he was near whispering as he spoke, entranced and tortured so sweetly by her visage that it left him in a familiar state of breathlessness. "When the other team throws a strong, tall block up in front of me, I just can't see myself punching through it anymore... All I can envision is getting shut out — or being so afraid of getting shut out that I take myself out of the game."

'I'm so afraid that you'll shut me out and leave me here by myself,' those words stayed on his tongue, locked up and choked back so that she would never have to find them. And yet, he worried that somehow, she would have been able to see right through him, just as she so easily did whenever he attempted to keep something from her, to hide his troubles from her sight even though he'd crumble under her patient caresses. No matter what he tried to hold back from her, she'd manage to sense whatever it was and gently pull him out from his fears, hold him so closely to her with unending understanding and tolerance for him that it only made his heart yearn all the more for her and cry out for something that he wouldn't dare to let himself have.

"But you love that feeling, don't you?"

He did. He absolutely loved the feeling of the ball hitting his hand, heavy in its weight and impact; of her mere presence sitting next to him like this, a constant and comfort to him when he needed her most. They were things he could very well get drunk on, waste himself away with them until kingdom's return, but whenever he reached out for their sensation, he was met with walls and red lines, barriers put up to surround him and close him in; to shut him out and keep him away from her. "I feel as if I'd only weigh the team down again if I went back..." he confessed heavily, "What kind of ace would I be if I can't even make the ball count?"

'If I chase after that feeling, I'll only push you away.'

She was silent save for her playing, letting the music surround them for a while before she opened her eyes to look up at him, and Asahi felt his heart lock up and suffocate around chains when chocolate brown met cherry red. Her smile was encouraging, filled to the very depths with understanding, serene in the way it gently touched her face. Soffia la note rang out in its light and encompassing sounds as he took her in, heard her words so clearly beneath keys and melodies so that they coursed through his entire being and drew him in.

"If you love that scenery so much, then there's nothing stopping you from chasing after it, is there?"

They were the same words that Daichi had said to him after the captain had caught the ace slinking around by the gymnasium, and yet their weight when spoken from her lips had become all the more impactful, hit him harder and twisted around in his gut in a way that mutedly screamed at his existence and lit a fire under his skin. Her gaze was almost knowing in the way it searched his very soul, found what she sought for and urged him forward. "I'll be here after you're finished with everything," she promised him; unsaid was 'I'll wait for you until the ends of the universe,' though they still managed to travel between them in the silence of her melody and fill the boy's heart up with affection and reassurance. His smile was grateful and warm, let slip past his reluctant barriers a bit of the tenderness he felt for her.

"Thanks, Sora."

Azumane Asahi was a boy in love, with his heart humming along to the gentle tune of Soffia la notte on the early evening of a Spring day.

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tea time!

ahhhh here it is! i've been stewing over this for days and i've finally got the first chapter out! that said, i'm probably? going to let myself pace and solidify a few more chapters before i put more out for this content, but i sort of wanted to put this out as a pilot chapter in the mean time? but anyways, i love asahi. he's a literal darling and i just want to hug him. it's all i want out of life.

also this is heavily inspired by your lie in april! i finished rewatching the anime some time back and i've been in a mood ever since, so i ended up scheming several small ideas until i finally wrote this! i'm like, 70% certain i won't add such heavy angst but... maybe just a teeny bit? still debating tbh :D

thank you for reading! i'll accept any form of criticism and feedback that you guys have for me and i'll do my best to review and improve!

-unedited!