Fandom: Her Love in the Force
It happens gradually and becomes so ingrained as part of his normal that he doesn’t notice until long after the fact.
It starts minor enough, a spare toothbrush becomes claimed by her soon after her first sleepover. She lives in the dorm, where he can’t risk being seen so his place becomes the default setting for home dates. Her overnight bag is slung over her shoulders each time she comes over, packed with her favorite shampoo and face wash brands. He takes note of it a couple of weeks later when he finds her drying the bottles after being used so she can take them back to the dorm. The next time she arrives he has new ones lined up on the shower shelf below his own toiletries, out in the open and ready to be used. He adds pads and tampons to his shopping list, placing them under the bathroom sink in case she needs them after an emergency run to the shop. He even goes as far as getting girly shaving cream and her own razor, having noticed she’s been discreetly using his own. Not that he minds that. He just wants her to feel comfortable in his space.
As her first year winds down and he finds himself crankier in the mornings when she doesn’t stay over, he tries to not think too hard about why that is.
When graduation becomes less of an abstract idea for her and more of a matter of time, and right before she’s given a spare key, he clears out a section of the drawers for her clothes. She’s been increasing the amount of time she spends at his, and it’s gotta be annoying to have to remember to bring an overnight bag each time she comes over. He gets her some more of the lingerie she wears and some more practical ones for when she has training and slips it into the drawer, washed and ready to be worn the next time she stays over.
At some point before she graduates she stops needing to bring an overnight bag, but when that actually happens neither can really pinpoint. He also stops asking her if she’s staying over too, an unspoken understanding that he doesn’t have to ask because the answer is obvious.
She has her own little place after graduation, but more of her things are at his than there, and it’s more common to see her in his kitchen sneakily attempting to slip vegetables into his portion of dinner than it is to eat alone.
He starts wondering why they’re keeping up a farce of her maintaining an apartment when she could be saving that money and living with him. It annoys him that Captain Tsugaru is just upstairs, able to track when she comes and goes, and he doesn’t like the idea of her interacting with him any more than she has to.
“You should just move in already,” he grumbles over breakfast before work, seven months after he’s been calling her a colleague and referring to her privately as his unofficial fiancee. The ring has been hidden for a couple of months, and a plan to make it open and public is not too far off.
“There’s a ban on department romances, remember?” She reminds him, smiling when he narrows his eyes and crosses his arms. She thinks of the ring he has hidden, suppressing a smile. She’s been patiently waiting to be asked since she accidentally came across it.
“You’re not on my squad, moron,” he says with a tinge of softness reserved just for her; this is a weekly conversation and it plays out the same each time. “When’s the last time you stayed at your place anyways?”
She pauses from drinking her green tea. He can see her trying to remember. She’s been staying over every night recently and her eyes cloud over when she figures it out.
He nods, a triumphant smirk spreading across his handsome face.
“Move in,” he repeats, swiftly moving in and kissing her nose, catching her off guard. His voice is lower than usual and the huskiness of it is too much to deal with so early in the morning. “We can use that money toward a down deposit for a bigger place if you want,” he adds a minute later, his mind drifting on its own accord to a baby with her eyes and smile staring up from a crib. He quickly shakes it off, focusing instead on her.
“You want to get a bigger place? This one is already spacious for two,” she teases, a small little smile that told him she knew exactly where his thoughts had gone on appearing on her pretty face. When did she learn to mimic his skills so perfectly against him? “I like that idea,” she admits in the same breath and his heart flips with anticipation.
“Keep looking at me like that and you’ll be in for a punishment,” he says with surprising steadiness. A quick glance at the time on his phone tells him they both need to get going soon for the office but part of him feels a surge of rebellious temptation to carry her back to bed.
Her eyebrows lift knowingly and she’s definitely smirking at him now. “I think we’re long past punishments, Hyogo. Any time you touch me is a reward these days.”
She pushes away from the table then, pressing a kiss on his forehead and darting out of reach when he tries to catch her. She lets him grab her in the hallway, laughing as he carries her to bed.
They somehow make it to the office, giving up on trying to stagger their timing for just one day.
