touch, braid, kiss (IDOLiSH7 - Torao/Minami)
In which Minami lets Torao braid his hair and rewards him with a kiss.
Even before he opens his eyes, Minami already knows that he woke up late because his dream last night felt long, though he can’t remember much of it. If he had to guess, it would probably be about flying musical notes since he fell asleep mid-scribbling his musical sheets.
Minami blinks a few times then glances at the clock on his nightstand. Typical. Fifteen minutes until he has to go to the studio for today’s recording. Guess his commitment last night to arrive at least thirty minutes early to get a headstart in preparing everything has failed immensely. Well, no matter, he supposes. He can just purchase a small energy drink on his way to work and that should keep him going until the session ends.
He glances at the stack of papers sitting at his feet, some of the pages scattered on the floor. The most important thing is that he finished his early iteration of ZOOL’s new song, what’s a little lack of sleep? His work of art is much more important. He was particularly inspired last night and sleeping right in the middle of it would be too much of a waste.
Fortunately, Natsume Minami moves quickly. After sitting up, stretching his limbs, and blinking away the leftover sleepiness from his eyes, he shrugs off the weight on his shoulders and gets ready for work. Once he’s finished cleaning up and packing away his things, he doesn’t look like someone who just spent less than two hours sleeping. He looks fresh, sophisticated, and put-together though he can see some parts of his usual getup lacking, like his hair. He’ll have to do those in the studio last minute.
For now, he sprays a healthy and light dose of perfume before finally leaving his apartment.
As he steps into the studio the first thing he sees is Minami nodding off by the loveseat, music sheets loosely held between his fingers. One look and it’s obvious what happened to the young composer.
Truly, it isn’t odd for the composer to be lacking a good night's sleep now and then. (Torao’s pretty sure that he's the only one out of four of them who has a semblance of a normal sleep schedule.) When there’s new music that needs to be written or a part that needs to be revised, Minami will be up and working on them immediately like there’s no tomorrow, often staying up until the crack of dawn just to finetune a single melody.
And…of course, Torao had always liked that part of Minami who loved to dedicate part of his existence to his art. When he was allowed, he always enjoyed the sight of Minami scribbling on a music sheet and humming new tunes, brows furrowed as he focused and lips opening and closing as he muttered parts of his song quietly. Despite the blonde’s calm and gentle disposition, Torao has always known that Minami is passionate. It burns behind a cold protective wall, peeking out from behind through his smile during their performance.
That being said, it also isn’t rare for the composer to doze off when he lets his guard down, like now. Before he completely enters the room, Torao takes a moment to admire the sight of Minami’s innocent face as he sleeps. He knows this by now, but he still can’t get over how beautiful Natsume Minami is and here he thought he’d grown immune to pretty faces like that (Though immunity to Minami is something he hasn’t quite developed yet. He doubts he ever will.)
Torao is careful when he takes a seat next to Minami. The blonde will probably wake up soon now that Torao’s here but he wants to give him just a few extra seconds of shut-eye before switching on his work mode.
“Mido-san?” Minami blinks slowly, his hand coming up to rub the skin just underneath his eyes. “When did you get here?”
“Just a few seconds ago. Looks like you had a good nap.” He teases.
Minami lets out a light amused laugh, unfazed by it. He lets out a small yawn under his palm and finally looks at the other man. Minami’s gaze has always been so languid and a bit cold at times, though they’ve warmed up a lot by now, but the way Minami stares at him has never failed to make his heartbeat race faster.
“Mido-san, you’re blushing.” Minami chuckles sweetly and Torao has to look away now.
A retort makes its way to his throat but dies quickly, replaced with a defeated sigh. He lets his guard down for even half a second and the blonde will snap up the opportunity with that sly nature underneath an angelic smile (Not that he minds too much).
“By the way, where are the others?”
Torao clears his throat, trying to clean up the mess Minami did to his heart, and opens up his phone. “Touma’s probably on his way. Haruka already got here though.”
“Oh, then I should-” Minami straightens up a bit and cleans up the music sheet in his hands. Torao stops him midway, placing a hand on his forearm.
“Please. Kujo Tenn is here too so I’m going to bet Haruka won’t be here for another hour.” He rolls his eyes. “Do you think TRIGGER ever gets tired of their greenroom getting hogged by their center as a date spot?”
“I doubt the two care. But what about you, Mido-san? Do you ever get tired of ‘hogging’ our green room alone with me?”
Torao freezes then, becoming painfully aware that Minami has slid his arm so his hand now sits against Torao’s, fingers gently pressing against the skin of his palm like a feather. The touch feels like it could’ve been one of Minami’s teasing but it doesn’t feel exactly like that. There’s a sense of genuineness in them. For as long as Torao has known Minami, he likes to think that he knows the composer at least a little bit. Would it be self-centered to think that Minami wants to genuinely touch him? There’s a stinging realization that he wouldn’t be able to know for sure right away. Nevertheless, the answer is obvious as day.
Minami’s lips shift into one of his softer smiles, one that only appears around the people he considers close. Torao wonders. If he manages to enter deeper into Minami’s heart, would he find other smiles? Ones that are reserved just for him.
Their intimate moment ends there. Minami pulls his hand away and it feels like his hand was never there in the first place. They both turn quiet, Minami cleaning up his scattered music sheets while Torao examines the side of his face. There’s one thing he realizes.
“You don’t have your braid.”
Minami’s hand comes up to the side of his hair and sighs. “I was going to do it here. I didn’t have enough time at home.”
“Want me to do it? It’ll be quicker.” Minami raises an eyebrow but decides to indulge his request anyway. He probably finds it amusing that Torao isn’t going to waste an opportunity to touch him, but Torao finds it hard to feel a little bit shameless.
Minami’s hair is soft between his fingers, almost like silk, and the strands slip off his fingers easily. Torao runs his fingers through them a few times and braids the side gently, careful not to accidentally pull or tug at the hair. As Torao stays focused on the work at hand, he doesn’t notice Minami closing his eyes, content, in the moment.
“When did you get so good at braiding?”
Torao snorts. As if this is the first time he’s braided Minami’s hair. There have been a few times now when it’s just the two of them alone, where Torao does Minami’s braid for him. It had looked terrible the first time but now he’s gotten quite skillful at it. The end result for this one looks quite good, perhaps his best work so far.
Minami’s hand comes up to touch Torao’s work and his lips curl into a pleased smile. The composer keeps his lips shut, careful not to let his true feelings be so easily known. Torao doesn’t need to know that Minami thinks the older man’s hands felt nice in his hair. Enough to almost lull him back to sleep.
He’s not ready to express his feelings just yet, but there’s something he wants to do. He turns to Torao. “Thank you. Mido-san, do you want me to reward you?”
The older man frowns. “Reward? Sure.”
Minami’s smile grows a little mischievous. He’s cute when he looks a little confused like this. He gently places his hand on Torao’s shoulder before raising his face until his lips hover right in front of Torao’s, not quite a kiss. Minami sees his eyes widening slightly at the realization of what he meant by reward. A hand coming to rest on Minami’s waist is the silent consent between them before their lips meet.
It’s neither their first kiss nor is it the first time they’ve kissed each other. Their relationship is a big grey area in their lives, not so much as friends but calling it an official relationship isn’t right either. What Minami does know is that Torao’s lips always feel so warm and sometimes even urgent and maybe even feverish in rare moments. This one isn’t any of those. It feels…sweet.
Their moment is broken by Haruka’s flabbergasted tone as he stands under the doorway of their greenroom, his face growing completely red. In the hallway, standing in the spot where both Minami and Torao couldn’t see him, Kujo Tenn’s hand reaches to cover Haruka’s eyes.
“I told you not to open the door without knocking,” Tenn says as Haruka slaps his hand away.
Torao is the first to get up between them as he approaches Haruka. “Come back in an hour, you absolute brat.”
“You’re the one who’s making out in our greenroom!”
“Oh, like you don’t do the same with Kujo?”
As they continue to bicker, Torao slowly tries to close the door in Haruka’s face while Minami places his face into his hands, his blush reaching the tips of his ears.
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