how they say i love you

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a/n:why do i only ever have inspiration to write during exam season anw i wrote this on mobile because while doing a math paper i suddenly thought of these hope you guys enjoy this!!

atsumu says i love you like he’s barefoot on asphalt in the summer, tan skin burnt under the unyielding sun. the words leave his throat with the same pain of sunburnt skin, but it’s okay because when you say i love you too, your words are a balm, a healing salve that soothes.

osamu says i love you like it’s a gold star, the kind you used to get in elementary school when you’ve done something special — except he says it every evening, when he’s walked you to your doorstep. moonlight slips from the cave of his mouth and you lean closer, closer still to taste the night on his tongue, to swallow that little gold star he always has for you.

suna says i love you like the snap of a bear trap. when he smiles into your skin it’s a predator’s grin, the circle of his arms the noose you will always choose. you say i love you too, and it’s the knowing mouse stepping onto the trap for the promise of cheese.

kita says i love you like water dripping steadily onto the same spot of a rock for decades, centuries, millennia. he says it every morning, a pot of coffee freshly brewed just for you before he heads to the fields, a note bearing three words. it’s okay if you don’t say it back every time, kita tells you, the water doesn’t need to know that the rock is there, because it will fall anyway — it’s just gravity.

aran says i love you into the crook between your neck and your shoulder, like some whispered secret that he paints over your skin in a language only the two of you understand. the first time he said it, under the city lights and beneath the dim stars, he also says, it’s okay if you don’t say it back now — every bud takes time to blossom, every fruit needs time to ripen.