Pairing: Sugawara Kōshi x Reader(can be read as any gender, no pronouns used)
Genre: fluff, comfort
Word Count: 1 280
Warnings: no use of (y/n), grumpy (because worried) Suga
Summary: Suga’s putting a stop to your late night studying.
A/N: I really struggled with finishing anything I’ve started for a few months now, mostly because of this whole AI shit. Less the fear of my stuff getting stolen (although that’s bad enough) but more so of being accused of using it. I’ve never used generative AI and I’ll never touch it, if it can be helped. Anyway, along came @hangjie who seems to be at the same point in her thesis I was at two months ago and here we are. Have some worried Suga. No idea if this is what you had in mind, but maybe you’ll enjoy it.
“What are you doing?“
The gentle, yet reproachful voice made you flinch, and guiltily you turned to look behind you at the source of the scolding. It took your eyes a few seconds, after hours of staring onto your too bright laptop screen, to focus on Suga’s face and-
Oh. He was beautiful.
There was no other word for it, really. The fairy lights that were strung up over his bed, set a soft backlight, his lips and nose throwing subtle shadows over his face where the light of the desk lamp didn’t reach. His silver hair was a mess, his oversized sleep shirt crumpled, and everything about him screamed ‘I just woke up’, everything except his posture. The way he had pushed his hand into his hip, judgingly glaring down to where you sat at his desk had more of a ‘now you’re in trouble’-vibe.
“Do you know how late it is?” He asked when you just stared up at him, your mouth hanging open uselessly, admiring how homey he looked.
“Uhm-,” slightly disoriented from the sudden interruption hours into your study session, you turned back to your laptop. “Ten to two am?”
“Yeah,” he agreed, the annoyance clear in his sleepy voice. “You know what else I’d call it?”
“One fifty?”
You knew you shouldn’t have sassed him like that, not while he was in this – for him untypically grumpy – mood, and not while your back was to him. A moment later, before you quite had time to regret your own choice of words, his hands slammed down on the desk either side of you own, and his warm breath fanned down your neck.
“Too bloody late, that’s what I’d call it.” He took a deep breath, his tone changing with the next sentence. His annoyance was gone, replaced by something much softer, worry, almost sadness. “You know that studying this late isn’t good for you.”
The warm weight against the top of your head gave away that he was resting his chin on your head, doubtlessly trying to see what you were working on.
“If I don’t work on my thesis, I’ll never finish it in time,” you tried explaining.
Above you, Suga clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “Writing your thesis sleep deprived and tired will cost you even more time tomorrow, when you realize that your logic went out the window five pages ago and an elementary student has a better understanding of grammar and spelling than you past midnight. Take it from someone who wrote their thesis like that last year.”
You were about to protest, when he lifted his right hand. “You’re missing a comma here, this should be a semicolon and ‘furthermore’ is written as one word.”
Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes.
“I get it,” you sighed. “You’ve made your point. I’m unfocused when tired but-”
“No buts.” Without asking, Suga reached for your keypad, quickly punching in the key combination to save all open documents before switching off the screen. “You can continue working tomorrow morning- today morning. After you’ve slept.”
He stood up, finally giving you back the mobility to move your head. Leaning it back, you looked at him upside down. His always kind brown eyes had taken an unyielding, hard shimmer. Teacher-mode. There was no getting out of this now. Not without starting a fight, which you didn’t want. Not only because you loved Suga and didn’t want to fight with him, but also because you knew he was right. The past days you had also worked until late into the night and the next morning been baffled by the nonsense you had fabricated. Maybe agreeing to staying over at his place had been your subconscious self-protection mechanism, knowing he would get you to go to sleep at a semi-responsible time at least once.
“Why do you always get upset with me,” you pouted and rolled your head back. The world spun for a moment, a mixture of the strange position your head had been in and the sleep deprivation.
“Sorry,” Suga sounded sheepish. “I just hate to see you neglecting your health like that. I didn’t mean to come across like I’m angry. Just worried.”
You stood up and stepped around the chair, wrapping your arms around Suga’s middle, nuzzling your face against his neck. He was still warm from bed, where he had fallen asleep while you had been punching out page after page on your keyboard. He also smelled like bed, warm and sweet and musky. Like home. You sighed, suddenly feeling your legs getting tired and your eyelids growing heavy.
Suga’s arms came around you as he pulled you a little closer to him, a soft chuckle shaking his body as he twisted his head to press a kiss to your hair.
“Someone sleepy,” he teased softly, tightening his arms further around you and lifting you a few inches into the air, walking to his bed.
“That’s your fault,” you mumbled, letting him push you down on the matrass. You could tell where he had been lying, the fabric of the pillow still warm.
Maybe Suga had been right. You had been so focused on making progress with your thesis, that you hadn’t even noticed how the world beyond the screen had started spinning from your exhaustion, how your body had sunk more and more in on itself from a lack of energy.
Through half open eyes you watched as Suga walked back to the desk to turn off the lamp, and then, in the dim twilight of the fairy lights, fetched a bottle of water from the kitchen.
“Here,” walking back to the bed, he unscrewed the bottle and handed it to you. “You should drink something before bed, at least a few sips. I bet you haven’t had any water in hours.”
Again, he was right. Damn, why did he know you so well?
Obediently you sat up and drank. The water was room temperature, so not cold enough to wake you back up but refreshing anyway. When you had enough, you handed the bottle back to him and sunk down into the pillow, closing your eyes. He walked around the room for a few more moments, probably putting away the bottle, maybe clearing something else away, and then joined you in bed.
Tucking at the blanket, he got you to push your feet underneath it before he spread it out over the two of you. With closed eyes you felt for him and scooted closer against his side, throwing your arm over his chest as he pulled you in.
“You need to promise me to take better care of yourself,” he whispered, his words muffled against your hair. “Education isn’t a sprint; it’s not even a marathon. It’s a long-distance hike. You constantly need to look out for yourself, or you won’t make it to your destination.”
There was a soft worry swinging in his words, but his annoyance from before was gone. You only hummed in acknowledgment of his words, only half processing what he was saying. Your brain felt like a grey mousse, unable to retain any information for the time being.
“I’ll make you breakfast tomorrow, okay,” Suga continued, and even though you were half asleep, you could tell he wasn’t off much better. “And I’ll make you iced matcha latte, I know you like that right?” His words faded out of your consciousness as you let yourself slip off into sleep, wrapped in his warm, familiar embrace. The last thing you thought was that you should probably spend more nights at his place, just to be engulfed by his soft voice. Then you had fallen asleep.
Pairing: Dazai Osamu x fem!Reader
Genre: hurt/comfort - fluff
Word Count: 2 611
Warnings: OOC!Dazai (sorry), sexual harassment (not by Reader or Dazai!)
Summary: Your date for New Years starts getting pushy but luckily Dazai is there to interfere
A/N: For @un-lawliet ... and the photographs are actually from taken from Osanbashi Pier in Yokohama on New Years Eve 2023
Masterlist
Behind your back, blue lights of the harbour illumination were sparkling brightly in the last minutes of the old year, but their glitter did nothing to easy your discomfort. You really regretted having agreed to this date with the barista from the café you always picked the Armed Detective Agency's order up from. Especially since the longer the date progressed the more you wished you had instead agreed to spend New Year's Eve with the other members of the ADA. The man, John, was cute, with huge blue eyes and lazily sideways swiped hair, the American accent in his voice giving his speech a charming tilt.
And he was a welcome distraction from those coffee-brown eyes that kept haunting you.
Dazai was your coworker, you kept telling yourself, and he was the flirtiest man you knew. He flirted pretty much with everything and anything that crossed his path, except for you. In the beginning you had been rather happy he hadn't focused on you the same way he did with everyone else, but the better you got to know him, the more you hoped he'd also pay attention to you the way he seemed to do with everyone else. Sure, receiving the attention you had been craving for the past year would probably only make your feelings for him worse and end in heartbreak, considering he could never be serious. You had seen him go out with enough girls only to barely acknowledge them after, as if one date had been enough for him to completely lose any and all interest in them entirely. You feared if Dazai were to ever direct his attention to you, you'd end up meeting the same fate.
Your thoughts got interrupted by two warm and strong hands on your waist, making you tense up. Your date, John, had tried being handsy with you all evening and honestly, the more he tried the more your alarm bells rang. Not to mention that the date didn't go as planned at all. First he had been late and had dragged you to some cheap pizza place instead of the rice bowl restaurant you had agreed on. Then he had continued talking only about himself and how amazing it was for him to have scored a place in the exchange program to Japan before he even started making degrading comments about your "office job" because, unwilling to explain to him about abilities and the ADA, you had told him you worked as an assistant in a detective agency, which he had somehow understood as an invitation to look down on all office workers ever.
You should have called it quits after that, telling him you wanted to end the date there and instead have called up Kunikida to pick you up, so you could spend the rest of the evening with your coworkers and friends. But John had convinced you to come to Osanbashi Pier with him, so you had only sent a quick text to Atsushi, complaining about your situation.
Sure, the view over the harbour towards night-time Yokohama was fantastic and the light show, the illumination and the music creating a beautiful atmosphere, but with John sticking to your side, trying to pull you in every chance he got, you'd be lying if you said it didn't destroy the mood.
"Only ten seconds left of this year now," he whispered his tall frame towering over you, warm breath fanning over your ear, making you shudder.
The crowd around you began a count down, and you pressed closer to the balustrade of the pier, trying to avoid the overbearing contact with John's body, but he only stepped closer.
The Ferris Wheel at the other side of the harbour counted down the remaining seconds, colourful lights shining through the cool December night. You wondered what their light would look like reflected in Dazai's eyes.
Just when the countdown hit two, John spun you around to face him, and leant in. Panic surged through you, and before his lips could touch yours, you twisted in his arms, pushing away from him.
"What do you think you're doing," you shouted over the cheering of the crowd around you as the clock stroke midnight. The Ferris Wheels lit up in all colours of the rainbow.
"New Year's Kiss, what did you think," John grinned broadly as if he were proud of himself, reaching for your waist again to pull you back in.
"No thanks, I'm good," you denied.
His expression shifted from overly cheerful to threatening.
"I think I deserve one, don't you? I've been very patient with you the whole evening!"
"I said no." You tried sounding strong, but somehow a proper fight was a lot easier than standing up for yourself. Carefully you took a step back.
"What do you mean, no?"
Another step back and you collided with something warm an firm; the chest of another guest.
"I do suppose she meant it in the way it usually is used, as a denial or rejection," a male voice interrupted, the voice belonging to the man you had stumbled into. A shiver ran down your spine as you recognised it as Dazai's. What was he doing here? "But do correct me if I'm wrong, my love." Affectionately he patted your head as he always did. The contact sent excited sparks through your body.
"Who the hell are you," John snarled, taking a threatening step towards Dazai and you. Instinctively you tensed, preparing to defend yourself, but then Dazai's hand slipped from your head to rest on your shoulder instead, and you knew he was ready to pull you behind himself, should the need arise.
"The person who will make sure to snap your hands off at the wrist if you dare touching her again without her explicit wish."
You knew Dazai's words were directed at John to protect you, but you still couldn't help the shiver that ran down your spine at the ice in his voice. Feeling you tremble, Dazai squeezed your shoulder gently through the long coat you were wearing, his caring touch such a strong contrast to the threat in his words.
"Dazai-"
Carefully you turned around to face him, trusting him to warn you in time should John try to move in. His usually warm brown eyes were hardened with disgust, leaving no doubt about how angry he was on your behalf. Behind your back, somewhere over the harbour, fireworks exploded in the night sky, earning "ahh"s and "ohh"s from the crowd around you. The reds and greens lit Dazai's face up from one side, making him look even more threatening. But you also couldn't help but think that if the expression in his eyes had been softer, he would have looked angelic.
"What's your problem, man," John asked, sounding truly annoyed now.
"My problem is that you tried to kiss her when she clearly told you she didn't want you to. We might go as far as calling it sexual assault," Dazai hissed, trying to take a step forward, but you placed your hand at his chest, stopping him. With every deep inhale he took the cool fabric of his open coat shifted slightly over the smooth material of the expensive waistcoat he wore, giving away how worked up he was. Immediately his brown eyes flickered down to your hand on his chest and then your eyes.
"Don't," you mumbled and Dazai's eyes softened immediately.
"What? You gonna let her put a leash on you like some fucking dog?" John's continuously raised voice started drawing the attention of the people around you to the dispute, making you want to hide against Dazai's chest.
"Oh, kinky," the detective chuckled. "Are you into that, my love?" The last part was directed at you, driving heat to your cheeks.
"Hey-"
John took a step forward, but before you could react, Dazai had shoved you behind him.
"If you take one more step, we'll find out if I can throw you far enough that you'll actually hit the harbour and not the street below," Dazai warned, the playful edge in his voice having vanished again entirely, leaving only a sharp cold. "What do you think, my love? It's quite far to the water. Think he'll make it?"
Tightly gripping onto Dazai's arm, should he actually plan on making good on his words, you directed your attention to John again.
"You should leave," you advised.
Much to your surprise John didn't disagree and instead turned away from you with a clearly audible "bitch" on his lips.
When the next firework exploded in a rain of reds and oranges in the sky above you, he had disappeared in the crowd. Immediately Dazai turned to you, grabbing you gently by the shoulders and leaning down to eye level.
"Are you okay? Are you cold? You're shivering." The concern with which Dazai treated you now was the exact opposite of the way he had talked to John just a second ago. At his question you realised he was right. You were indeed shivering, but not from the cold and rather the stress the past minutes had caused you.
"How did you find me," you asked instead of answering as Dazai shrugged his coat off and threw it over your shoulders, tucking it into place without meeting your eyes.
"Atsushi showed me your message about how you wanted to leave and didn't know how. I got worried," he admitted and somehow he sounded unfamiliarly sincere, still evading your gaze.
"Thank you," you mumbled, leaning your forehead against his shoulder when you realised he wouldn't look at you.
"Can't have anything happening to you, you're too important to me," Dazai whispered, wrapping his arms around you, and holding you close, nuzzling his nose against your hair. He faintly smelled of green tea and ginger cookies.
For a moment you stood still like that, only processing what he had said.
"Why do you always call me 'my love'”, you suddenly asked, trying to pull away far enough to look at Dazai's face, but he kept you pressed to his chest.
"Can't you tell?"
Blue and purple fireworks lit up the night.
"Would I ask if I could?"
He sighed gently, placing a kiss against your hair. "You're not some tempting looking berry that could kill me with the first bite. You're- well, my love."
This time when you tried pulling away, he let you. His eyes reflected the glow of the Ferris Wheel behind your back and the sparks of the fireworks in the sky above the pier. The little light was enough to reveal the vulnerability in his gaze. It was strange. Dazai Osamu didn't do vulnerable. He was wrapped in bandages, protecting the traces of his hurtful past from preying eyes, always wore a cocky smile to hide the sadness that sometimes threatened to shimmer through. You knew him well enough to have seen him pull up these walls more than once. But now instead of throwing the gates to his soul shut, he pulled them wide open, letting you see everything, the pain, the fear, and seemingly infinite amounts of love. For a moment you thought you should be scared of being let in, being presented with all his heart like this. But instead all you felt was overwhelming gratitude and relief at finding your feelings returned.
Reaching up, you brushed a strand of his hair out of his forehead. His skin was cool to the touch and his eyes flickered closed for a moment before he forced them open again, giving you a long and intense look which finally pulled the words from your lips which you had held back for too long already.
"Please kiss me."
Dazai's eyes widened surprised at your request and flickered to your lips, but he hesitated. Instead of leaning in, his gaze grew absentminded for a moment, a muscle in his jaw ticking. Still focused on the way you nervously but your lip, he slowly spoke.
"If you let me kiss you now, you'll never get rid of me again," he warned.
"Who says I want to?"
"I mean it," his eyes finally found yours again as if he had snapped back into the moment. "I know you think I'll just move on like I do with everyone else, but the reason I can't stay with anyone else is because they aren't you."
Instead of answering him, you just kept looking at him, challengingly. Usually, Dazai was not one to easily loose a staring match, but this time he caved far quicker than you had anticipated. The only warning you got was a twitch of his nose before he leant in, pressing his soft lips against yours, making your eyes flicker closed. The smell of green tea filled your nose, as golden stars exploded over your heads, shining through your closed eyelids. Dazai's kiss was careful but determined as he placed his hands on your waist, pulling you against him and when you wrapped your hand into the short hair in his nape, he quietly sighed into the kiss, sending another shiver through your body.
Your heart was beating so hard in your chest that you could have sworn Dazai had to feel it and as if he had read your thoughts, he moved one hand from your waist, and instead slowly ran it up and down your back, gently comforting you into the kiss only to teasingly run the tip of his tongue against your lips once you had relaxed into his arms, making you inhale sharply at the foreign sensation and the sweet taste. Your reaction pulled a warm chuckle from his lips and heat into your cheeks but when you tried pulling away, he only let you do so for a moment before he grabbed the back of your head and pulled you back against his lips, this time more urgent, making you gasp which in turn allowed him to slip his tongue into your mouth.
It felt like he had taken up all your senses, his hair smooth under your fingers, the scent of green tea filling your nose, his breath and your heartbeat in your ears equally drowning out any other sound, his subtle taste of ginger cookies and mints making you dizzy. And when you pulled away, blinking your eyes open and gasping for breath, you met his eyes, fireworks of gold and silver reflecting in dark pools of brown that seemed to have found their own glow from within, shining with something you had never seen this strong in his eyes before. But it had been there for a long time, you suddenly realised, this softness with which he considered you, affection, that usually was well guarded behind the mask he always wore so meticulously. But now he had dropped that mask, for you. And that had to be the greatest gesture of trust you could imagine.
A smile pulled at Dazai's lips as he watched you study his face, not the usual teasing or silly smile, but an honest, heartfelt one.
"Happy New Year," you mumbled, reaching up, brushing the back of your fingers over his cheek. You could have sworn a slight hint of pink dusted over his face but in the dim and ever-changing light of the fireworks it was impossible to be certain.
Dazai laughed quietly, placing his hands at your waist, under his coat which he had thrown over your shoulders earlier, but over your own jacket and pulled you against him until your hips were flushed against his.
"Happy New Year," he whispered back before he leant in to kiss you once more.
Taiyaki and Bike Rides - Fushiguro Megumi x Reader
SPOILERS for up to Chapter 240 (just to be sure)
Pairing: Fushiguro Megumi x Reader (can be read as any gender, no pronouns used)
AU: post-war!AU, Everybody(ExceptSukuna)Lives!AU
Genre: fluff
Word Count: 4 481
Warnings: Spoilers for up to chapter 240, mentions of curses, death etc., fix-it, everybody lives
Summary: Tired after a mission, you get stuck in a convenience store while it rains. Luckily Megumi turns up to save the day.
When the first raindrops hit your skin, you decided that today was officially shitty. First Gojō-sensei had woken you up at dawn – far too cheerful for this early hour in your opinion – and sent you on a mission to exorcise a house full of curses.
It had been an abandoned school building at the edge of town, and the curses had gained power over the years, making them dangerous to the neighboring houses, which was why they needed to be taken care of. You had spent all morning with the mission, taking almost two hours to get there in the buzz of the Tokyo morning rush hour, and when you finally felt the last curse vanishing, the sun had risen past its late autumn zenith.
Your stomach was grumbling in frustration with you, having seen no food since the bowl of rice you had quickly shoveled into your mouth before heading out to the mission, so you had planned on getting some ramen before heading home. You couldn’t help but picture Megumi’s frown if he were to find out that you hadn’t eaten properly. He always seemed to look out for you, and you could not help the little images of his face that sometimes flickered through your mind.
You had almost reached the ramen shop you had decided on, when Nobara had sent you a list with things she asked you to get for her, once she heard you were in the city. You ended up searching for the stupid perfume she had asked you to buy for over two hours, still not having eaten anything. At this point you had decided to just find her stuff, take the train home, buy something in the closest convenience store and head back to the dorm. Secretly you wished Megumi would magically stumble into you so you wouldn’t have to ride the train all on your own, surrounded by groups of other students who all made their way home in groups. You didn’t look so different from them, you thought. Your uniform was just a bit dustier, and there was this rip in your blouse you had covered up with your jacket.
When you had made it on the train (which would only get you so close to the school), two stations away from where you had to get off, Yūji had sent you a message, panicking about the group assignment he had forgotten about. You didn’t know who you were more disappointed in: Yūji for forgetting it, or yourself, having done everything on your own, knowing he’d forget it. The thought of Megumi’s reaction once he’d hear about this – bonking Yūji on the head with his pencil case and sending you a reprimanding look – put a small smile to your face. After you had finally made it to the train station closest to the school, and gotten out of its long, tiled corridors, you were aching to get home as quickly as possible. Only for the rain to pick up.
It was November, no unusual time for rain, and any other day you would have admired the drops hitting the yellow leaves of the gingko trees and the red ones of the maple trees that lined the street left and right. But today you only worried about the rain penetrating your uniform and making you feel cold and even more miserable than you already did.
You knew that seeking shelter in the convenience store would draw out your trip, but not feeling like getting soaked to the core, you hurried the last steps into the familiar shop. The cashier greeted you absent mindedly, as you shook a few drops out of your hair. It had been a while since you had looked through the shelves, and since you were stuck here now, with nothing better to do, you went on to inspect the few shelves of food and living supplies.
The sight of the onigiri in the refrigerator shelf reminded you of how hungry you were, so you grabbed two, along with a bag of rice crackers and the latest edition of the manga publishing magazine, before stopping in front of the shelve with the sweets, automatically reaching for the white chewy taiyaki with chocolate cream filling. Whenever Megumi and you headed to the convenience store together, he treated you to this, and over time it had started becoming your favourite treat, so you even bought it when you went to the store without him, just because it reminded you of him.
You had almost grabbed the taiyaki, when you suddenly stopped, your eyes falling to the normal taiyaki with custard filling, which you had always had before getting closer with Megumi, and suddenly you questioned why you never bought these anymore. The answer was simple: because you felt closer to Megumi when you ate the white taiyaki. You tried to create a closeness that was not there, something you wished for, but knew would only ever happen in your dreams.
You sighed, dropping your hand back to your side, deciding against a sweet treat for once, and headed to the register to pay for the goods you had grabbed.
After paying, you sat down in one of the seats by the window, the one furthest away from the door, slapping the thick weekly manga magazine on the surface of the table. Unwrapping your first onigiri, you flipped through the thin, coloured pages, searching for the continuation of the series you had followed over the past year. Your eyes flickered over the pages, stopping occasionally to take in a more detailed drawing of your favourite character while absentmindedly chewing on the onigiri. The door to the shop rang a few times with new customers entering, each ring of the bell followed by the mechanic “Irasshaimase” of the shop keeper.
Outside wind was throwing rain drops against the window, and even though the shop itself was warm, you shivered at the sound of the autumn weather. You had just reached the last page of the manga, when suddenly a white, chewy taiyaki in its clear plastic wrapper got thrown right onto the page you had been about to finish reading.
Startled, you looked up, eyes meeting familiar blue ones, as Megumi slipped into the seat next to you. Questioningly he raised his eyebrows at you as stared at him in surprise.
“Gojō sent me to come look for you,” he explained at your confused expression. “He thought you’d be back from your mission sooner and got worried.”
“Gojō-sensei and worried,” you asked.
Megumi shrugged. “Maybe he developed a consciousness. Here for you.” He slid a paper cup with hot chocolate over. “Careful, it’s hot.”
You smiled thankfully, and wrapped your cold fingers around the warm paper, before you brought the cup up to your lips to take a tiny sip.
“How did you know where to find me?”
“I didn’t. I just wanted to grab something to eat on my way to the train station to go where Gojō sent you,” Megumi answered, while watching you struggle with the tough material of the clear packaging of the taiyaki he had thrown on your manga. “Imagine my surprise when I found you here. Did you spend all this time reading manga and eating onigiri?”
“Joke as much as you like,” you grumbled, your fingers slipping of the plastic wrapper without tearing it. “Nobara heard I was in the city and sent me her shopping list.” You nodded to the paper bags next to your chair. “Had me running around Shinjuku for hours.” With a small sigh you dropped your hands back to the table, still holding the tightly sealed taiyaki package. If Megumi hadn’t been here, or you hadn’t been as exhausted from the day, you’d probably tear it open with your teeth. But not now.
“You’re too soft,” Megumi sighed, reaching over. His warm fingers brushed against your cold ones, his skin rough and his hand so much bigger than yours, taking the taiyaki package. Effortlessly he ripped it open before handing it back to you. His fingers left tingling traces where they brushed against yours, the almost subconscious action of opening your packaged food for you making your heart race. “Itadori also said you finished the teamwork for him. You have to be careful the others don’t use you.”
“Says the guy who buys his classmate hot chocolate and taiyaki,” you raised your eyebrow at him challengingly, while biting into the treat.
Megumi’s eyes stayed fixed on you, on the way you chewed on the treat he bought you, and you were wondering what he was thinking about.
“This is different,” he insisted, and finally he averted his gaze, opting to stare out of the window instead, while opening his own taiyaki, one with custard filling. You asked yourself why he’d chosen that one for himself this time.
For a while you sat in silence, finishing your sweets and drinking the hot chocolate he’d bought for the two of you. The sky outside the window was slowly brightening, rain having almost stopped, only a slight drizzle now, and sun beams, already lowering towards the horizon, poked through the clouds. Wind carried fallen leaves in gold and red across the parking lot, and you suddenly longed for a time when curses were nothing but a few bad words, when your eyes had still seen the world in all its innocence. But the anniversary of Megumi getting possessed by Sukuna today, and somehow you felt it weight down on you. It’s been almost eleven months since Sukuna was defeated, but the memories of that time still haunted you. You wondered if Megumi felt the same.
“Let’s go home,” Megumi interrupted your thoughts, but the side glance he’s throwing you made you suspect he felt that your thoughts had begun spiralling.
You grabbed your manga and shoved it into your backpack, before taking your garbage and the paper bags for Nobara, and followed Megumi outside the shop. He held his hand out for the empty paper cup and the food wrappers, and you handed them to him, watching as he disposed of them in the bin in front of the shop.
“My bike’s here,” he motioned over to the side of the parking lot. He’d gotten a new bike since last year, a belated birthday present by Gojō. Nobody was entirely sure why Gojō felt the need to get Megumi a new bike, the old one still in perfect condition and somewhat more Megumi than the new one with its basket at the handlebars and the luggage carrier in the back. “Give me your bags.”
It was not a question, but a request, and wordlessly you handed over the paper bags you’d been carrying. Somehow you couldn’t help but notice how Megumi had developed a habit of taking stuff from you: your garbage, your bags, at school when you were carrying books, he helped you with them as well… He also held doors open for you, made sure he was walking on the side of the street when you were walking on the pavement, grabbed your jacket whenever you were approaching a red traffic light or a cross walk, as if to keep you from running into the street.
You were deep enough in your thoughts, that you did not notice he had placed all the paper bags in the basket and had reached his hand out again.
“Backpack, come on,” he encouraged you, once again tearing you out of your thoughts.
Hurriedly you shrugged off the backpack with the weapon you had used on the mission this morning and thanked him quietly.
“Don’t worry,” he shrugged it off, before he unlocked his bike and got on.
You were about to start walking towards the exit of the parking lot, thinking he would ride next to you, while you walked, when he called for you.
“Where are you going?”
“Home? Back to the school,” you answered, turning to him confused.
“I thought we’d ride back,” he questioned, motioning to the luggage carrier. “It’s not really comfortable, but we won’t take long.”
For a moment you stared at him, trying to process his offer. Sitting on the luggage carrier would make you sit very close to him, and you’d probably have to hold onto him during the ride. It’d be a lie if you were to claim you had not imagined situations like this, but to be faced with them actually becoming a possibility was an entirely different matter. Your heart raced in your chest, and you watched the autumn wind tuck at Megumi’s black hair. It was shorter than last year around this time, not as short as Yūji’s but shorter than it had been. You liked the new length.
Megumi seemed to take your silence as a rejection, because his shoulders dropped ever so slightly. “Of course we can just-”
“Okay,” you interrupted him, and he perked up as you wandered back over to him. “But just so you know, I’ve never done this before and if we fall off the bike it’s on you.”
“Thanks for trusting me to crash us,” Megumi rolled his eyes at you. “Come on now, climb on.”
You did as he asked, and swung a leg over the luggage carrier. The bike was a bit too high for you, only one foot making contact with the ground as you sat down. Megumi had been right, it was not very comfortable, but you had imagined it to be worse.
“You need to hold onto me,” Megumi instructed, but his voice had lost its edge from before, sounding a little softer now.
You barely had time to react before he righted the bike, your second foot loosing contact to the ground as well, and quickly you wrapped your arms around Megumi’s waist holding onto him while he pushed off the ground and began pedaling. His chest rumbled underneath your touch, and you could have sworn he chuckled at your reaction. The first few meters were a little unstable, but by the time you had made it halfway across the parking lot, Megumi was riding in a straight line. He was going slower than he usually would have, but you didn’t find it in you to mind. This would gibe you a little more time to keep your arms around him.
As Megumi steered the bike down the street, you began relaxing into the situation. The autumn air was cool around you, wind carrying fallen leaves over the pavement, puddles reflecting the clouds. The sky had taken a pink shade by now, and the rain had almost completely stopped. Only a fine spray, not even real droplets, drifted through the air, sometimes accompanied by heavier drops that fell from the leaves of the golden ginkgo and red maple trees that lined the street.
The wind was sending a chill down your spine, even with Megumi’s body warming your front through the layers of both of your uniforms. Hesitating for a moment, wondering if he would mind, you finally opted to lean your cheek against his back. Underneath your touch, you felt his body working. Muscles in his torso were shifting from where he was cycling, his even breathing caused his chest to expand and contract, and over the rushing of wind in your one ear, you could even hear his heartbeat with the other. You didn’t want this moment to end, and so you closed your eyes, trying to focus better on the other sensations; the sound of his heartbeat and his breaths, the motions of his body and the warmth it provided against the fine spray of rain in the chilly autumn evening, the scent of him, clinging to his clothes, and the taste of the taiyaki that kept lingering on your tongue. Thinking back to the taiyaki, you remembered how he had chosen a normal one, while giving you the white one. Usually he bought the same for both of you, but lately he had more often opted for the custard taiyaka. Maybe today there had only been one of the white ones left? Or maybe he had had enough of the chocolate filling and preferred the custard now.
“Rainbow. On our left.”
You felt his voice more as a rumble in his chest, than you heard it, and reluctantly you blinked your eyes open. Megumi was right. As you were riding over a bridge, a rainbow was visible in the sky, hanging between two mountains, it’s colours vibrant against a dark rain cloud. Red and golden leaves drifted through the air, a denser spray of rain hitting you, as you held tightly onto Megumi’s warm body. The scene felt like it was straight out of a movie, and you wished life would always be so simple: having someone who took care of you, who let you hold onto them, while nature around you provided you with its wonders.
Even though Megumi had been riding for a few minutes, you realized you had not made it as far as you had assumed, while keeping your eyes closed. In fact, Megumi was going really slowly, drawing out the inevitable arrival at your destination. The realization made you smile a little, and you nuzzled your cheek a bit closer to his back, drawing a little hum from him, which got carried away in the wind, but its vibration rumbled gently against your ear.
Eventually the rainbow disappeared behind the next mountain, but you kept your eyes closed, instead watching trees and the last houses pass by, before you entered the last stretch of the way, where you were surrounded by nothing but forest. You passed the entrance to an inari shrine, the red tori seeming to almost glow in the twilight. And eventually you reached the steps that would lead up to the school.
Megumi slowed down the bike. “Okay, careful now,” he warned as he stopped, placing his feet on the ground, and tilting the bike slightly so you could get off. Hesitantly you lifted your cheek away from his back, your arms slowly falling away from around him. Immediately the cold evening air began soaking through the fabric of your uniform. Without the warm rays of the sun, it got cool quickly this late in the year, and with exhaustion slowly setting in, the cold got to you even quicker, especially after the loss of Megumi’s body heat.
You watched him lock his bike, and before you could protest, he had shouldered your backpack and grabbed most of the paper bags you had bought for Nobara.
“I can take my own stuff,” you mumbled with a pout, as you took the remaining paper bags out of the basket, carrying them with one hand, while following Megumi who had already begun climbing the stairs. With the other hand you reached out for Megumi to give you the bags to carry.
“I know you can,” he answered. He stopped, looking over his shoulder, his eyes skipping to your hand that was stretched out for the paper bags, before turning to face the stairs again. “But you don’t have to.”
Blindly he reached behind himself, his free hand meeting yours, and his warmer fingers wrapped around your cool ones, before he continued walking.
You thought your heart had stopped in your chest, as you walked up the stair, half a step behind Megumi, your fingers growing a little warmer in his grip. Had he thought you had wanted him to take your hand? Well, you didn’t mind, not at all, but he had to think you were weird, right?
“I meant for you to give me the bags, you know,” you mumbled, knowing your voice was so quiet that he could easily pretend to have missed it over the sound of the wind in the bamboo.
“I know,” Megumi answered, sounding indifferently. “You can always pull away if you don’t like me holding your hand.”
Surprised you blinked at him, knowing he couldn’t see your reaction. His words were as cool and collected as always, but there was a hint of nervousness in his voice. A hint of nervousness that gave away that he was not at all as confident about the whole situation as he tried to appear to be. It made you wonder if he had also been nervous during the bike ride, maybe even as nervous as you had been. But if he was nervous… what did that mean? Was there maybe a chance…
You pushed the thought out of your head, deciding to instead focus on the moment, feel his slightly rough fingers around your hand, inhale the fresh air, and be happy that you still got the chance to experience this with him. Even today, almost a year after the war had ended, it still scared you to think how close you had been to losing him.
When you reached the top of the stairs, Megumi abruptly stopped and turned around. Following his line of sight, your breath caught in your throat. Before you lay Tokyo. You always forgot how high up Jujutsu High was actually build, and it still surprised you how quickly you had gotten used to the many stairs leading up here. In the distance, the setting sun was reflecting in millions of windows, some of which already lit up with lights behind them. From up here everything seemed so calm. There was no sign of the people that bustled about in these streets, no city noise that hammered down on your ears relentlessly, only wind in the branches of trees which’s leaves had taken on the warm colours of the sunset before you.
For a while Megumi and you stood at the top of the stairs, looking down over the land opening up before you, hands still intertwined. Within minutes the warm pinks and oranges of the sunset turned into purples and blues before the colours faded into the grey of night. The lights of the city begun twinkling brighter, as heavy clouds begun dragging themselves over the sky, hiding any stars from sight.
A cold gust of wind made you shiver, and the spell was broken, pulling Megumi and you back into the moment. You wanted to suggest hurrying back to the school, to get inside and get warm, but Megumi spoke first.
“Gojō didn’t actually send me to find you,” he suddenly confessed, making you look over to him. His fingers tightened around yours. “He wasn’t worried about you, I was. You’d been gone the whole day, and all I could think was that something might have happened to you, and that you were laying somewhere, bleeding out, by yourself, and- I just had to make sure you were okay.”
You let his words sink in for a moment before you smiled. You wanted to say something, reply, but he continued.
“And when I saw you through the window at the convenience store, I just- I don’t know the last time I felt such relief at anything.”
“If it’s any consolation, I was never in any real danger,” you let him know, squeezing his hand back.
He nodded. “Yeah, I know. It’s just- after everything that’s happened, I sometimes worry that I’ll lose everyone I still have left. I sometimes get this irrational fear and… what I’m trying to say is that I can’t lose you. Just can’t. I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“You won’t lose me, I promise.” You squeezed his hand again, hoping that the expression on your face was one of reassurance, even when Megumi’s eyes were still trained on the city before you.
“Not even when I ask you to go out with me?”
It took you a few seconds to process your surprise and excitement at his question, but then you shook your head. “Pretty sure this does the exact opposite of losing me,” you teased, and finally a smile tucked at Megumi’s lips.
“Tomorrow after school then? For coffee?” He turned to face you, his midnight blue eyes sparkling with held-back excitement, but also relief and a hint of nervousness.
“It’s a date,” you grinned at him, watching his eyes widen and shining as if a light shone from within them.
The motion was quick, as he lifted your intertwined hands up to his face and pressed his lips against the back of your hand in a quick hand kiss, that made your cheeks burn and his tint an adorable pink. His lips left a warm imprint on your skin, and when he pulled back, not being faced with any sort of negative reaction, the last bit of nervousness seemed to melt away and he smiled at you.
“Wanna go home,” you asked, unable to tear your eyes away from the way he was looking at you. Megumi was usually very guarded with his emotions, rarely letting on what he was thinking or how he was feeling, especially when he was happy. But now his expression was soft and warm, making your hearth flutter in your chest. You liked the way he looked right now. Not just because it was directed at you, but also because it showed you that he was happy. And he deserved it more than almost anyone else you knew.
“Yeah,” Megumi breathed, “Let’s go home.”
Together you turned to walk down the paved way that led to the school, lined with stone lanterns. Megumi tucked you as close to him as possible with the paper bags you were both carrying, excusing his action with a “you’re shivering”, but really you both knew he just wanted to be close to you. You didn’t steal him the illusion of needing an excuse, just let him tuck you close against his side, inhaling his familiar scent and bathing in the warmth he radiated.
There were many walks like this to follow, even though you didn’t know it yet. Many more, countless more times when Megumi would tuck you into his side, always a lame excuse at the tip of his tongue just to hide how desperate he was to feel you by his side. There would be so many times you stood together at the top of the stairs and looked out over Tokyo, so many times, years’ and years’ worth of him taking hold of your hand, or you of his, always ending with a kiss to the back of the other’s. There would be so many times where he picked up you from somewhere with his bike, just so you could ride on the luggage carrier and wrap your arms around him, and there’d be a whole lifetime worth of taiyaki he bought for you. But there’d be only one time he’d reveal he had started eating the custard taiyaki because he knew you liked them, and he had started preferring them, because they made him think of you.
Pairing: Yuri Plisetsky x fem!skater!Reader
Genre: FLUFF
Word Count: 1 851
Summary: At the Grand Prix Gala, Yuri finally gathers the courage to ask you for a dance.
Prompts: 15: “Keep looking at me like that and I will kiss you." 18: "One dance. Just one. That's all I'm asking for."
A/N: I’ve rewritten this three times, and now I’m finally okay with the way it turned out. Maybe not completely happy, but okay.
The Grand Prix Gala, the place, the time, where everyone was supposed to relax a little, hang back, socialise and have fun. Then why, why was this so much more nerve-wracking that skating that bloody finale? Yuri ran a hand through his blond locks, willing himself not to look over to where you were laughing with Viktor. He lost that battle far quicker than he wanted to admit even to himself, his gaze flickering over to you after not even three seconds. You looked so stunning, even after having skated such a highly demanding performance this afternoon, which had gotten you second place in the Grand Prix Finale. But all exhaustion seemed to have been washed away from you, as you sipped on a glass of orange juice, listening to Viktor‘s (doubtlessly exaggerated) stories.
Yuri had already thought you were beautiful the first time he had seen you, but after having been your rink mate for several months now, after having gotten to know you, he had been forced to admit to himself, that he was in love with you. Probably very much in love, actually, as Otabek, the only person he had told about this so far, had analysed. He felt his friend‘s annoyed glance, and he knew what Otabek would say before he even opened his mouth.
“Just ask her for a dance,” the dark haired man encouraged Yuri, nodding towards the dancefloor, where couples were spinning around to the music that was playing. “She’s not gonna turn you down.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem,” Yuri sighed, tearing his eyes away from you, facing his friend. “What do I do then? I dance with her, and then what?”
“You’re overthinking,” Otabek rolled his eyes. “It’s obvious that she likes you too. Everyone, literally everyone, can tell, except for you. Why do you think all these rumours about you two dating started?”
Right, those rumours. Started by some of Yuri’s fangirls after he had been caught holding your hand several times, carrying your back, or you brushing dirt off his jacket. Hell, there was a pretty low-quality, but kind of adorable picture of you braiding his hair. Yuri had been beyond flustered when he had found out, and you had gotten terribly embarrassed about it too. But you had never said anything to deny these rumours, and had not seemed all too bothered about it either. That had to mean something, right?
Yuri inhaled deeply and as the next song started, he handed his glass of water to Otabek.
“If this goes wrong, I’ll blame you,” he announced.
“And if it goes right, you owe me lunch,” Otabek shouted after him, as he started making his way through the crowd.
Yuri wondered how he should approach you, since you were still talking to Viktor, but luckily you seemed to notice him before the problem arose.
“Yuri,” you exclaimed happily, a broad smile plastered onto your face. “Are you enjoying the Gala?”
He shrugged, noticing from the corner of his eyes that Viktor had turned to face the Japanese Yūri, as if to give the two of you a little privacy.
“It’s okay, I guess. Wanna dance?”
He held his hand out to you, an invitation.
“Uhm…” hesitantly you looked from his hand to the dancefloor. “That’s a waltz, right? I’m not really good with waltzing...”
Yuri’s heart sank, but he kept his hand stretched out.
“That’s okay, I’ll lead,” he offered.
“What if I step on your feet?”
“So what?”
He held your gaze, waiting for you to turn him down, but your eyes just flickered between him and the dancefloor.
“One dance. Just one. That's all I'm asking for,” he asked, acutely aware that he was basically begging.
“Oh, you’re so dramatic,” you rolled your eyes, but a smile tucked at your lips and you placed your hand in his. “But I don’t wanna hear any complaints when I do end up stepping on your feet.”
Yuri barely heard what you were saying from how loudly his heart was beating in his ears, but he closed his fingers around yours, and led you to the edge of the dancefloor, twirling you once, to make you giggle, before catching you gently. His left hand was holding your right, and his other was placed in the middle of your lower back, pulling you a little closer as you rested your free hand on his arm, just below the shoulder.
Carefully Yuri caressed the fabric of your dress. It was smooth, and somehow cold, even though he could feel the warmth of your body underneath. The colour of your dress perfectly accentuated the natural glow of your skin, your earrings and your hairpin matching the dress as well. You looked like a princess. His heart beat hard in his chest, and he felt light-headed.
Until he felt you tremble under his hands.
Concerned he snapped back to the present, focusing his attention on you.
“You okay,” he asked worriedly, instinctively pulling you a little closer to his chest.
The smile on your lips was a nervous one, but you nodded.
Yuri decided to ignore the concern that was nagging in his stomach, and listened for the beat in the music, gently guiding you into the motion of the first steps of the waltz. Yuri’s trainers had always insisted that, next to ballet, he should also learn ballroom dancing once he had turned fifteen. ‘An elementary aspect of formal education’ had Lilia called it. Often enough had he damned those additional classes, but now he was glad that he had never once skipped.
Your fingers were tense in his, but he just caressed the back of your hand with his thumb slowly, trying to calm you down. You had said you were not good at waltzing, but Yuri soon had to find out that it had been a polite lie. Not only was it very easy to lead you across the floor, but your steps matched his perfectly as well. You picked up on even the slightest of his movements, of his shifts in weight, as you danced across the room, as if you had been made for each other.
Once the dance was over, after not even two minutes, Yuri’s eyes flickered to yours. Did you want to go back to the others? Did you have enough of dancing with him? He lowered your joint hands, letting his other hand slip from your back to your waist: an offer to let go. But you did not, just smiled at him shyly, and when he tilted his head in invitation for the next dance, you nodded.
Yuri lost all sense of time as he was dancing with you. In the beginning he counted the songs, tried to remember them, so he could look them up later, listen to them and remember this evening. But eventually he lost count. Only when the DJ announced a break, did he suddenly notice how much time had passed. His feet hurt from dancing. You had to be off way worse, in your heels. Concerned he glanced at you, your fingers still closed around his, expecting to see you frown. Instead you were laughing. Your eyes were glowing brightly, your skin gleaming with a little bit of sweat; just like his own.
“This was fun,” you cheered, “you’re a really good dancer, Yuri!”
He could feel a blush creep into his cheeks, and rubbing his neck embarrassedly, he answered: “You’re a really good partner too.”
You did a little, mocking, curtsy.
“Well, do you want to grab something to drink? I’m really thirsty.”
Yuri nodded, and followed you to the buffet, while you were still holding onto his hand. Only when you grabbed two glasses of water, did you let go, handing one to him before gesturing to the balcony.
“Wanna go out for some fresh air?”
Yuri just nodded, fully aware that he was following you like a lovesick puppy. He did not even hear Otabek bicker, that tomorrow Yuri owed him lunch.
The air outside was bitingly cold, but refreshing after the dancing. A fresh breeze carried snowflakes through the winter night, and brushed over your bare arms, making you shiver.
You were about to turn around to Yuri, when he had already placed his glass at the railing, taken off his jacket and thrown it over your shoulders, pulling you a little closer towards him. Bashfully you looked up at him, your eyes glimmering in the low light of the lanterns along the balustrade.
Carefully Yuri tried reading your expression, but it was something he could not quite place. Something soft, yet scared, friendly, but hesitant. And then your eyes flickered to his lips. Just a short moment, so short that he might as well have imagined it, but his breath hitched, and your fingers brushed tentatively against his, as if to check in with him, as if his reaction had alarmed you. Yuri’s eyes ran over your face, trying to read you, trying to figure out what you were thinking. Again your eyes flickered to his lips, this time longer, leaving no doubt in him as to what this small gesture meant. And yet…
“Keep looking at me like that and I will kiss you,” he whispered, only loud enough for you to hear. But the balcony was empty except for the two of you anyway. Empty, save for the lanterns and the snow blowing through the night.
He felt a tremor run through you, but instead of giving him an answer, or pulling away, you took a small step closer towards him, as close as you had been while dancing, and lifted your chin a little, as if inviting him in.
Yuri’s eyes met yours, and all he could think was that if he did not kiss you right now, did not follow your obvious invitation… then he would never have the courage again. Besides: the moment was basically perfect. Alone on this balcony, at night, in the snow…
So he leant in, pressing his lips to yours in a short, innocent kiss, which still ended up leaving him breathless when he pulled away a few moments later. He felt his cheeks burn, as a blush spread through them, and the sweet taste of your lips kept lingering on his, making him dizzy, and wanting to kiss you again. So he did, leant in again, placed another kiss on your lips, and then another, until both of you were giggling like school children. And then he hugged you, wrapped his arms around your body and pulled you into his chest, kissing your temple sweetly as you wrapped your own arms around his middle.
“Your heart is beating really fast,” you whispered.
He wanted to say something to that, wanted to mock you that your own heart probably beat just as fast. But when he looked at you, the words got stuck in his throat.
“Shut up,” he whispered back instead, and before you could utter the inevitable ‘then make me’, he pressed his lips to yours once more, holding you as tightly as possible.
Can I suggest maybe some Yuri Plisetsky fluff with his girlfriend that is taller than him? <3
Pairing: Yuri Plisetski X taller!Reader
Warnings: swearing, not proof read
A/N: Writing headcanons bc I just woke up and don't know what kind of scene to write for this.
Before you started dating he definitely was glaring at you a lot. Was it because you were taller than him? Was it because he thought you looked nice, but he didn't know how to tell you? Nobody knew. But Viktor definitely laughed his ass off every time because 1. It looked too funny how Yuri tried staring down someone taller than him and 2. You just stood there, slightly confused about why that blonde skater was looking at you so maddly, when you had only said good morning.
Once you started talking more, he started making jokes about how you were taller than him. Nothing offensive but depending on whether you thought it was funny or not, he would quickly pick up on it and behave accordingly. Hate these jokes? He'll never, ever make one again. Think they're hilarious? He won't stop making them.
The first time you kissed was... Something.
He was absolutely pissed at you, because you still hadn't picked up on his feelings for you even though he was absolutely certain you returned them. Apparently shooting glares at you and shouting compliments into your face wasn't enough.
So he was on a rampage about how "fucking oblivious" and "endlessly stupid" and "infinitely naïve" you were, but you just didn't understand the world anymore. One day he was absolutely sweet to you, getting you your favourite hot drink from the café down the street and taking goofy pictures with you, and the next you are a "moron who can't read any fucking situation".
And all of a sudden he grabbed your shirt, and pulled you down, so your forehead was pressing against his, your eyes exactly on level with his.
"I like you, okay!" he basically shouted, his nose squeezed against yours.
You might have laughed at the strange situation, him shouting at you like that, but you were far too occupied with trying to will your heart not to jump out of your chest at his words and the close proximity. Your eyes flickered to his lips, involuntarily and just for a split second, but Yuri saw it anyway and even though his hands were shaking, and he wanted nothing more than to kiss you, he loosened the grip around the front of you shirt.
"If you don't move away, I'll kiss you," he warned, his fingers still loosely wrapped into the fabric of your shirt, but not holding you in place anymore.
But you "decided to be stupid", as he later would call it, and didn't move and inch. You could feel the shudder that traveled through Yuri at the realisation of what you were doing, and with blushed cheeks and shaking hands he tightened the grip on your shirt again and pulled you against his lips.
After that you quickly learnt to wear only shirts and pullovers that are not too thin, so they can withstand the way Yuri tucks you in for kisses (forehead kisses, kisses on the cheeks, the tip of your nose and of course your lips) this way, because he quickly realised that he absolutely loves the surprised and excited expression in your eyes whenever he does that
Pairing: Pin Hawthrone x (fem!)Reader
Genre: fluff
Summary: You are attending Mia’s Mistletoe Ball all by yourself, missing Pin, who is still traveling. What you don’t know is that Pin missed you just as much.
Warning: FLUFF FLUFF FLUFF
Word Count: 2 027
The ground and trees were powdered white with fresh snow. You pulled the thin jacket tighter around your shoulders as you listened to Becky‘s performance. Since the singer Mia had booked for the Mistletoe Ball had cancelled last minute, Becky, her brother, Winnie and Bob had jumped in, presenting Becky‘s reinterpretation of the song „12 Days of Christmas“. You had to admit: as eccentric as Becky and her choice in fashion usually was, she looked absolutely stunning tonight, and she sung with the voice of an angel. You turned to take a look at Alex, grinning as you saw the love struck look in his eyes. Those two certainly would get together soon.
You turned back to watch Becky, but another thought pushed to the surface: How much you wanted Pin to be here. After the summer he had taken of traveling, and he had not been home since. Almost four months had it been since you had last seen him, and even though he often called, and sent postcards almost weekly, you still missed him.
You could not help but wonder what would have happened between the two of you if he had not left. Last summer had been filled with tension and secret glances, catching each other staring, and finding excuses to hang out together. When he had joined Holloway, you had supported him, and when you had sprained your ankle, he had visited you daily, alsways bringing snacks, movies to watch and kept you updated on the latest developments in Bright Fields and Holloway.
You had been in love with Pin for a long time already, and last summer it had started to feel like he reciprocated these feelings. You were happy that he had taken the opportunity to travel, to explore the world, to learn about himself, but sometimes you were scared he might not want to return. It was a selfish thought, which you always pushed aside as soon as it had popped into your mind, because Pin deserved to do what he wanted, deserved to explore the world, but you could not help but wonder how things would be if he had not left. Would you have gotten together? Would he be standing behind you now, his hands placed on your waist, his chest pressed against your back, his chin resting on your head?
A tickling in your neck prompted you to turn around, almost as if you expected to find him standing right behind you, but nobody was there. You stood at the very edge of the crowd, behind you only a flower arc, decorated with white roses, and the darkness of the huge garden beyond.
You exhaled, disappointed in yourself for dreaming such stupid dreams, and turned around to Becky, who was delivering the last lines of the Christmas song. It was not fair to be daydreaming about a boy you might never have a chance with, while Becky was putting in so much effort into her performance. You shifted your weight from one foot to the other, so you got a better view of her, and once she had finished singing, you applauded loudly along with the rest of the crowd.
While most people were quickly heading back inside where it was warm, you noticed Gabi and Zoe getting into a fight with Mia. You decided to ignore them, annoyed with them that not even on Christmas Eve they were able to put aside their petty fights.
Becky and Jade came jumping over to you, Alex following behind, with a wide grin on his face. Before you focused on them, you felt the weird tickle in your neck again, and took a quick look over your shoulder. But still there was only a snowed in garden behind you. Maybe it was the cold playing tricks on you.
„So, what do you have planned for the rest of the night,” Becky asked excitedly.
„Well, first of all, I‘m going to congratulate you on an amazing performance,” you laughed, making Becky squeal, „I really, really enjoyed it. And then… why not some dancing? And I‘m certain Mia will not have forgotten to have a buffet prepared, which we can loot.”
„Oh, buffet,” Becky cheered. „That‘s a good idea! Come on!”
She grabbed Alex by his sleeve, and jumped back towards the entrance to the mansion, making Jade and you laugh.
„Everything okay with you,” Jade asked, suddenly serious, trying to catch your eyes.
„What? Yes, of course!”
„Well, you seem a little gloomy,” she said.
„Ah, well.” For a moment you debated whether or not to tell her the truth, that you missed Pin, but then again he had been her friend too, she would understand how you felt, even without knowing that you were in love with him. „It‘s just… Ted and Pin always used to come over for lunch on Christmas Day, and now Pin‘s out there, somewhere in the world, and I haven‘t seen him in… over three months. I guess I just miss him.”
„I missed you, too.”
You froze, a shiver running down your spine, and the strange tickling in your neck returned, ten times stronger than before. Distantly you registered Jade squealing in delight, but then you quickly spun around, finding Pin was standing right below the flower arc, dressed in a fancy suit, that made him look so much unlike himself.
Your eyes widened slightly, and your heart seemed to skip several beats, before you leapt forward and into Pin‘s arms, which he held open for you. You wrapped your arms around his neck, burying your nose against his suit jacket, and allowed him to lift you in the air, twirling you around a few times, before he put you back on your feet, not yet letting go. (Neither of you noticed Jade quietly retreating, giving you some privacy.)
Pin smelled just like he always had, like Pin, only that the deodorant he used now seemed to be different to the one he had used in summer. Of course it would be. He had been traveling, and there were not the same hygiene products all over the world. But beyond that, he still smelled like the Pin, who had lifted you up, and thrown you into the hay, laughing at you struggling to get up again, before losing balance and falling in himself.
When you eventually pulled back, you could not help but take a closer look at his face. His hair had grown a little longer, but was now cleanly brushed. Short stubble, not longer than a day worth of not shaving coated his jaw and his eyes shone, reflecting the lights in the garden, his lips were pulled into a soft smile.
„I missed you,” he repeated, making you smile.
„I missed you, too,” you answered, suddenly wishing you could just get on your tiptoes and kiss him, out here underneath that flower arc, in the snow, at night.
But you did not. He certainly would not appreciate it, you told yourself. That your hands were still resting in his neck, brushing against his hair, his own hands gently holding your waist, meant nothing, right?
„You look absolutely mesmerising,” Pin whispered, and any other time you would have thought he was making fun of you, but you knew he meant it, his eyes skipping over the white dress you were wearing for the Ball, the makeup Jade had helped you apply, the hair Becky had pinned up for you.
„So do you,” you returned the compliment, wondering if Pin could tell how much your face was burning at his compliment. It was true though, while it was not like Pin at all to dress in suit and tie, he did look great in it. But maybe, just maybe, you preferred him in his sweater jacket, the one he had always thrown over your shoulders when you had been cold.
„Thanks, but it‘s so stiff,” Pin shrugged his shoulders, as if the motion might soften up the thick fabric of the jacket, making you giggle.
„Trust me, it‘s worth the struggle. You look great,” you laughed quietly, looking up at him. Carefully you removed your hands from where they had rested in his neck, and tucked on his tie so it was straight again. After the hug it had been slightly lopsided.
Pin‘s eyes wandered over your face for a moment, just looking at you, and you wondered if he realised that his hands were still at your waist, their warmth slowly seeping through the fabric of the dress into your skin.
Before you had come to a conclusion about whether or not he was aware, he tore his eyes away from yours, and looked up. Like a reflex you followed his line of sight, and found that the flower arc was not just that, but actually had a small twig of Mistletoe hung up in the middle of it.
And Pin and you were standing right underneath it.
Immediately your heart sped up, and quickly you glanced at Pin‘s face, waiting for his reaction. Yes, over the past months you had often dreamt about kissing Pin, but you did not want it to be because of some old tradition forcing him to kiss you. You wanted Pin to kiss you, because he wanted it.
Pin‘s eyes slowly averted from the twig over your heads, a shy smile on his face as his eyes flickered to your lips before meeting your gaze again.
„Can I?” His voice was but a whisper between you.
„You don‘t have to, if you don’t want to,” you answered, just as quiet, Pin‘s face just a few inches away from yours.
„But I do want to,” he mumbled, his eyes once more flickering to your lips before finding your eyes. „Can I?“
You weakly nodded, unable to phrase a coherent sentence anymore, and Pin looked into your eyes for a moment longer, as if to make sure you really were okay with it, before closing the gap.
The moment his lips met yours, your eyes fluttered shut. The kiss was warm and careful, neither of you quite knowing what to do. But it was sweet, and warm, and when Pin pulled you closer against his chest, you reached up your one hand and wrapped your fingers into his soft hair, allowing him to kiss you a little deeper. Your other hand was safely steading you against his chest, feeling his heart beat quickly under your palm,
While the kiss was absolutely perfect, you were slightly concerned how long it would take Pin to find out that you had never kissed anyone before, but you pushed the thought aside. For now all that mattered was the soft fabric of his suit against your arms, his hair between your fingers, his breath on your skin, his lips against yours.
You were unable to tell for how long you had been kissing, or who had pulled away first, but when you opened your eyes again you found Pin was basically glowing. His face was slightly blushed, his eyes sparkled, and a wide grin was on his face.
„I’ve wanted to kiss you for such a long time,” he blurted out, making your hide your face against his shoulder, and wrap your arms around his middle. He encased you in a hug, and chuckled quietly at your reaction. „I just want to stay here forever.”
„Don‘t you think it gonna get cold after a while?” Your voice was muffled against the black fabric of his jacket.
„But then I’d have at least an excuse to kiss you again,” he argued, referring to the mistletoe above your heads.
„Why do you need an excuse?” The words had left your lips before you had thought them through, and surprised and shocked at your own boldness, you lifted your head, looking at Pin, who had a lopsided grin on his face.
„Now, if that‘s the case...“
And then he closed the gap again, kissing you harder and longer and deeper than the first time, his hold on you never loosening, while your hearts beat in tune in the middle of the snowy winter night.
Picture Sources: Berry, Blue Flower, White Flower, Snow Flake, Snow covered Flower, Lake, Forest, Freddy Carter
Lost Mittens and a Fireplace - Armin Arlert x Reader
Prompt: Character A dropping a mitten/glove, character B noticing, and rushing after A to give it back.
Pairing: Armin Arlert x Reader
Word Count: 832
Warnings: -
A/N: thank you @aprilpoison for providing this promt and choosing a character out of a list of characters you know nothing about. Thank you for distracting me!
It was a cold winter day, and you hurried to rush back into the HQ. Outside snow had started falling heavily, and your breath came puffing out of your mouth and nose as little white clouds. Quickly you pushed past the heavy double door, and up the broad flight of stairs. Your boots left traces of melting snow behind, but you hardly cared, considering you barely felt your toes from how cold they were. Your nose and cheeks hurt as well from the biting frost outside, and your fingers were so cold that they were already numb.
Still hurrying up the stairs, you took off your gloves, already thinking of heading for the library, where one of the open fireplaces was situated. There were multiple fireplaces all through the old castle, but the one in the library was the one where the least people tried crowding around it. Mostly because nobody was interest in sitting in the library when they could sit in the mess hall instead. For you that specific fireplace had yet an other advantage: since it was in the library, you often met Armin there, who seemed to spend most off his free time there, reading and researching.
Even just the thought of Armin made your heart speed up. His blue eyes were always watching you very carefully when you were sharing your ideas during meetings. When you sat close to him and his friends during lunch, he would always make sure to include you in the conversation. At training he often offered to pair up with you. And when you happened to meet in the library, he would end up telling you about what he had recently learnt during his studies. When he noticed how much he had been talking, he always blushed and apologised, but you encouraged him to continue talking anyway, never able to get enough of his voice.
You had been so engulfed with your thoughts about how cute he was, and how much you hoped to find Armin in the library, that you did not noticed the quick steps on the stairs behind you. Only when suddenly a hand landed on your shoulder, your name being spoken at the same moment, did you spin around in surprise.
A step underneath you stood Armin, wrapped in a thick coat with fur lining the hood, his blonde hair sticking out from underneath adorably. His cheeks were blushed and his breath had condensed against his lashes in small droplets.
“You dropped this,” he panted, clearly having run after you. Your eyes skipped to his hand he had stretched out towards you, holding one of your gloves, which seemed to have slipped out of your numb fingers.
“Oh-” surprised you took the glove back from him. “Thank you, Armin.”
The blush on his cheeks grew darker, and he averted his eyes bashfully.
“Are you headed to the library, too,” he asked, watching the molten snow drip off his coat and onto his shoes.
“Yes,” you agreed, your heart beating a little harder at his words.
“Then let’s go together,” he suggested, and looked back up at you with a smile.
Together you climbed the final flight of stairs, and headed down the corridor towards the library, where you put up your coats next to the door.
You immediately hurried to the fireplace, and unceremoniously sat down on the brown, worn out carpet in front of it, holding your hands closer towards the warming flames. It was not like anyone would complain about your behaviour; Armin and you were alone here, like always. The blonde boy quickly followed your lead, and sat down by your side, closely, as you noticed with racing heart.
On his way over to you he seemed to have picked up the blanket that usually hung over one of the arm chairs, and now held it out to you.
“Do you want the blanket, you look like you’re pretty cold,” he offered, just as you shivered badly from how frozen you still felt.
“Oh thanks,” you smiled gladly, and took the blanket from him, unfolding it. “What about you? Aren’t you cold, too?”
“It’s fine,” Armin shrugged, but under your judging glare, he shrunk in on himself, revealing the statement as a lie.
“Here,” you threw the blanket over your shoulders, and held one side open for Armin.
For a moment he eyed the blanket you were holding out for him contemplatively, his cheeks heating up again, just when they had almost returned to their normal colour, but then he scooted close enough for you to throw the blanket over his shoulders as well.
And so you sat in front of the fireplace, blanket dragged over your shoulders, arms and legs pressed against each other, sharing warmth. And when you fell asleep after a while, your head falling to the side and resting against Armin’s shoulder, he smiled, placed his cheek atop of your head, and wished he could share this moment with you forever.
Pairing: Kaz Brekker x (fem!)Reader
Genre: fluff
Summary: You are unhappily spending boring the afternoon, wishing your friends, the Crows would be the ones to keep you company. Luckily they seem to be able to read thoughts.
Warning: mention of blood, violence and murder (canon-typical), mention of irresponsible consume of alcohol
Word Count: 3 069
A/N: A little treat while we’re waiting for chapter 7 of “By your Side” coming on Friday. Sorry for only posting now. I wanted to be home by 8pm, but then we had a tiny Christmas party at the ballet school, and I lost my keys so I had to walk 4km home. But luckily I found my keys after about ¾ of the way. Someone placed them so I could find them more easily. Thank you, kind soul. Also I thought about this idea yesterday, while people from uni dragged me to an awful brunch in an expensive bakery, and the guy next to me (who found an inglorious place in this story) annoyed me so much, I started writing this story in my head. Sorry, not sorry.
The café you were sitting in was crowded and noisy. Busily people were pushing in and out of the shop, desperate to fetch a snack in their short lunch break. The people at your table were relaxed though. Not that it made you feel much better.
A few days ago a new guy had joined the group of people who called themselves your friends (even though they were rather acquaintances really. You were not close enough to them for you to consider them your friends). You all went to university together, and with the addition of this new guy the whole dynamic of the group had shifted into territory you did not really feel comfortable with.
The girls in the group were talking about fashion, and about what dresses to get, or what study accessories to buy. You would have enjoyed these conversations perhaps, if you had the money to buy things too. But you didn't. All your money went into paying the university tuition fees. How you got the money was an entirely different matter as well, one you thought you preferred not to discuss with these people.
While they got money from their parents, you made your money by… well… stealing. As a member of the most inner circle of the Dregs, you were often involved in all kinds of heists, stealing art and jewels, which then got sold on the black market. And with your part of the earnings, you made a living while paying off your tuition fees as well.
Kaz Brekker, the leader of the Dregs, had often offered to help you out, since the Dregs would profit from the knowledge you gained at university. But you had denied his offer every time. You knew he offered this to you because behind his furrowed brows, and indifferent expressions he actually cared about you, but you preferred your independence. It made you proud being able to take care of yourself. And since nobody at university ever asked where your money came from, you had never gotten close to revealing that you were actually a feared gang member in the most ruthless part of Ketterdam.
The only time you had almost gotten into trouble had been a few weeks ago, when one of the girls, the one on your left, who was being flirted with by one of the guys, had told you, that an expensive painting her father had bought a year ago, had turned out to be a fake. Almost you would have laughed out loud. The painting her father had bought had not been a fake. But just two days after he had acquired it, Kaz and the Crows, including you, had broken into the mansion to steal it. It had been your own hands, assisted by none other than Kaz Brekker himself, which had exchanged the real, valuable painting with a cheap, but convincing fake. In hindsight you considered it payback for the time you had been sick (because you had spent a whole night on a roof top in the rain to listen in on Pekka Rollins), and they had not borrowed you their notes, even though you always made sure to share your notes with them whenever they did not attend classes (which was mostly after long nights out in which they got blackout drunk).
Now your focus drifted away from the girls talking about fashion, to the guys. They were still, or again? talking about an illegal fight club they had visited the other day, and were planning on visiting again. It had been rather tricky, coming up with an excuse as to why you could never join them for these events, since the whole group loved attending these gruesome presentations. But the fight club your colleagues frequented was one of Pekka Rollins’.
You had told them were not able to stand the sight of blood, which had been a lie. You had a lot of blood on your hands, not that any of them knew about that, and did not mind spilling it. But you knew if you as much as stepped foot into that fight club, you would get your throat slit, and you preferred your blood to stay inside your body.
At the end of the day attending university while being a member of a feared gang and close friend of Kaz Brekker was rather tiring. You spend the days studying, sitting in lectures or libraries, or pretended to be just another rich kid, attending university without realising the worth of the knowledge you gained. And the nights were spent on roof tops, planning heists, or breaking into mansions to steal fantastic valuables.
But you would not change your life for anything in the world.
Especially since in the last months Kaz and you had started growing very close. You spent long nights just talking to each other. Kaz often jokingly offered to kill the people at university who annoyed you, and you had a feeling he actually might be planning to go after that professor who always opened the windows wide, even in the middle of winter when you were already freezing cold. You loved the way Kaz’s eyes met yours through the crowded Crow Club, and how he had started handing you his coat whenever he noticed you were shivering from the cold, which was almost always, now that it was the deepest of winter. Indeed it was the winter solstice today, the shortest day of the year, and with a glance out of the window of the café you realised that even though it was barely past noon, outside the sky started growing dark again already.
You got torn out of your thoughts by the hysterical laughter of the new guy in the group, who had annoyed you from the start. Now he flipped his long, blond, greasy hair over his shoulder, hitting you right in the face. You wanted to gag. Maybe you would mention him to Kaz, and ask him to pay this guy a visit. Not actually hurt him, just teach him some much needed manners.
You took a deep breath, and leant a little closer to the girls, who were still gushing about a dress they had seen in the window of a shop yesterday. It was almost laughable how they debated whether they should go into the shop or not, whether they would fit in at all.
It was laughable because if you would have wanted that dress, you would have just walked in, undressed the mannequin, and walked out, and nobody would have noticed. It was a skill you shared with Inej, being invisible when you wanted to be. It was not like you actually disappeared from sight, you just blended into your surroundings, and even when people were looking for you, they would look right past you. But unlike Inej, you often seemed to disappear from people’s memories, too, so they did not remember you until they actually saw your face again.
That was the reason you had started working with Kaz: He needed your skill, and you needed money. Now the Dregs, but the Crows most of all, had grown to be your closest friends, almost like a family. They were where you belonged. Sometimes this skill to be invisible was useful, but especially with the people from university it was rather saddening, because they often did not notice when they left you behind.
With the Crows it was different. The Crows always saw you.
Kaz had noticed you pickpocketing in the Crow Club when nobody else had even taken notice of you at all.
Jesper always perked up when you entered the room, and greeted you. Nina always thought of you when she was cooking, and saved a plate for you.
Wylan loved drawing you, and occasionally slipped you a little sketch of yourself, which he had drawn while you had been studying. He knew that sometimes you felt down because the people from university seemed to forget about you as soon as you were out of sight, and it was his way to cheer you up, to remind you the Crows would not forget you. (Kaz had once caught Wylan drawing you, and, in a surge of jealousy, had taken the drawing away from Wylan. Later he had returned it to him, requesting Wylan to finish it, and shyly asked if Kaz could keep it afterwards. Wylan, admittedly confused, had left the finished drawing on Kaz’s desk, and now it was tucked away, safe in a picture frame, in a drawer of Kaz’s night table, where nobody but him could see it. Neither of the two men had ever told you about the incident.)
Matthias sometimes made tea for you when you were engrossed in your studies, and convinced nobody had noticed you sitting in the corner of the room, and Inej often dropped by your window at night to share the latest gossip.
You loved them all, not just for the attention they were paying you, or how they made you feel, but because they generally cared. They cared a lot more than these people you were sitting at a table with now. Yes, even Kaz with his stone cold exterior cared about all of his Crows, you included.
Oh, how you missed the Crows! You simply did not belong with these people who talked about nothing but fashion and illegal fight clubs and ways to best spend as much money as possible. You belonged with that bunch of misfits, criminals, who bickered and snickered and glared at outsiders instead of putting on a fake-friendly façade. How different your afternoon would be, if it were the Crows, who you were sitting in this café with!
Just in that moment you heard a laugh, and you could have sworn it belonged to Inej. But you did not turn around to seek for the source of the sound. Never would the Wraith turn up in a crowded café in the middle of the day. Well, it was dark outside even though it was barely past three in the afternoon, but there were still too many people around. None of the Crows, except maybe Nina or Jesper on the search for a distraction, would enter such a café. You felt like an imposter between these rich kids you were sitting with. You did not belong with them, you just pretended, faked, the same way you had faked the painting that had hung over this girl’s father’s desk for a year before he realised it was not the original.
All in all, you were cold and miserable right now, even though you were sitting in a decently warm and cosy café. You were always cold these days, unless you were wrapped in Kaz’s coat, or sitting in his office. Maybe it was just his presence generally that somehow warmed you up.
You were about to wonder what kind of excuse you might offer to the group, so you could leave, when suddenly the hair in your neck rose, and a shiver ran down your spine. You did not have to turn around to know who was standing behind you, you did not have to glance down to your shoulder, when a hard object softly landed on it, to know what had just touched you.
“Kaz,” you spoke quietly, before turning around nonetheless.
Behind you stood nobody but the Bastard of the Barrel himself, dressed completely in expensive, black clothes, the beak of his crow-headed cane resting on your shoulder. Others, who knew who he was, would have started sweating in fear, would have quivered under his razor blade sharp gaze, but you just smiled, relishing the feeling of your heart joyously skipping a beat.
Kaz’s eyes left yours for a moment, scanning your company. None of them had noticed his presence. Distaste and condescension flashed over his face before he met your gaze again, and his expression softened immediately.
“Why don’t you come sit with us?”
You looked past him, finding the other five Crows sitting at a table just a few meters away. So it had been Inej’s laugh you had heard just moments ago!
“What are you all doing here,” you asked, surprised, but unable to hide the grin on your face.
Quickly you got up, and grabbed your jacket and bag to join the others.
“Can’t we spend a nice afternoon in a café every once in a while,” Kaz asked, as he followed close behind you, as if he tried to shield you from a possible attack.
“As if you suddenly had the urge to spend a nice afternoon in a café,” you mocked, “Hey, Jesper. What are you guys doing here?”
You knew Jesper would be the one to answer you immediately and truthfully, not because he was thoughtless about the consequences Kaz would threaten him with, but because he knew what you would do to him, if he lied. (You’d hide his guns, that was what you would do.)
“This guy here,” Jesper pointed at Kaz and scooted closer to Wylan to make space for you on the bench, “insisted you were here, and were probably looking for a way out.”
“I didn’t-“
“And then he suggested we all should come here, because it would be weird if he turned up all by himself,” Inej added, earning a surprised glance from you.
“As if seven criminals sitting in a café isn’t weird,” Matthias grumbled, but he did not look all too unhappy, sitting in the café with Nina squeezed to his side.
“This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke,” Nina laughed. “Seven criminals go to a café...”
“What’s the punch line,” you asked, cuddling a little deeper into the pullover you were wearing. You were still cold.
“That blonde guy’s jawline, if he won’t stop annoying you,” Kaz grumbled, throwing a glace over his shoulder at the new guy in the group who had been getting on your nerves since second one.
“How do you know he’s been annoying me?”
“I know you. You looked annoyed,” Kaz shrugged, holding out his coat to you.
Neither of the two of you noticed the meaningful glances the other Crows were giving each other as you wordlessly slipped into the far too big coat, and happily sighed at the warmth that engulfed you.
A waitress suddenly appeared at the table, serving a huge plate of waffles with cream and jam, and several mugs of hot chocolate.
“I took the liberty of ordering,” Matthias shrugged at your surprised expression when a cup got placed in front of you. Nina giggled and gently shoved his side. Of course he had only ordered waffles for everyone so Nina was happy.
You thanked Matthias, and grabbed waffled, taking a bite off the sweet treat, and sunk back against the back rest of the bench you were sitting on. Jesper was pressed against your side in the narrow space, and on your other side Kaz had settled on a chair at the short side of the table. He watched you take another bite of the waffle, and how you were sinking deeper into his coat. You looked so homey and adorable like that, he wished he could have Wylan draw this moment for him.
About half an hour after Kaz had picked you up to sit with the Crows, the people you had sat with before started getting ready to leave. Only then did they seem to notice you were gone. Confused they glanced around the café, and looked even straight at the Crow’s table, but did not seem to see you. You were just sitting there, looking back at them, but their eyes skipped you, not noticing you between the Zemini boy, who had whipped cream stuck to his upper lip, before it got wiped away by a curley haired boy’s thumb, and the dangerous looking boy in black.
The question of where you had wandered off to did not seem to occupy your colleagues’ minds for long, because not even twenty seconds later they had already left the shop, and you could not find it in you to really care about their indifference. Instead you pushed the sleeves of Kaz’s coat back, and reached for the cup with hot chocolate.
You knew Kaz was watching you drink, but ignored him until you had put down the cup again. When you met his gaze with raised eyebrows, he quickly averted his gaze, and reached over to you, slipping his gloved hand into one of the many pockets of his coat, retrieving a handkerchief.
“You got cream on your face,” he mumbled, not meeting your eyes as he was unfolding the fabric.
You held out your hand to take it, but much to your surprise Kaz reached out and dabbed the handkerchief over your lips. The fabric was soft, his touch so subtle it was barely there, and your heart beat in your throat at the gesture. With heated cheek you shyly glanced up at Kaz, his eyes fixed on your lips, and his jaw tightened. He dabbed the fabric, which faintly smelled of cotton, against your lip a last time, before slowly lowering his hand.
“There, ‘s better now,” he spoke softly, only then meeting your eyes.
A faint blush had spread over his cheek and nose, and your heart danced happily at the realisation that it was an interaction with you, which had caused him to blush.
Quickly he folded the handkerchief again, and slipped it into one of his pockets, before a waitress placed a new order of cups with hot chocolate on the table, distracting you momentarily as you grabbed two cups, one for yourself, one for Kaz. When you turned back, you found he had been watching your every movement. You smiled at him, amused how he shortly averted his gaze before immediately searching yours again.
This was how the afternoon continued. All seven of you eating many more waffles than was good for either of you, drinking hot chocolate until you felt slightly sick. But what was most important: you were with the people you knew you belonged with. Of course you also treasured the shy smiles you exchanged with Kaz, his unabashed gazes. And he found at least two more opportunities to dab your lips with his handkerchief, whether there was cream or chocolate on your lips, or not.
Picture Sources: Freddy Carter, Book Backs, Desk, open Books, Windows on the Left, Letters, Bookshop, Croissants
