MATSURI. kita shinsuke x reader. 1,145 words. cw: sfw. meet cute, summer festival in the countryside, talk about arranged marriage. // written for @no1frogfan for the hq summer fic exchange hosted by @sodaneko. i hope you enjoy!!
The summer festival in the small farming community is a joyous occasion every year. Paper lanterns are strung up around a large grassy lawn, stalls with delicious food are set up, and there’s a stage where members of the community sing traditional songs to embrace summer.
Kita’s family farm supplies rice to make traditional dishes that are sold at stalls to support the neighborhood association. This year, like each year, he works a stall with his family, but now that the crowd is thinned down and the festival is in full swing his grandmother shoos him away and tells him to go enjoy himself.
Kita smiles to himself. His grandmother is getting to an age where she’s not so subtly anymore asking for grandchildren. Kita is still young, he has time before he has to decide when to start a family. But that doesn’t stop his grandmother from signing him up for a matchmaking service. It doesn’t bother him at all, he knows she means well, so he’ll most likely end up going just to see what the process is like.
Kita is absorbed in his thoughts, passing stalls until he finds something that catches his eye, and reaches for the last taiyaki that he doesn’t realize someone else is reaching for the same one.
His hand bumps against yours and you both immediately pull away. Kita’s grey eyes take you in quickly. You’re wearing a yukata with a subtle floral design. Your hand clutches a small coin purse. Your lips are glossy, but from chapstick or some kind of lip gloss Kita couldn’t say. Still, he has to pull his eyes away from your mouth when he offers you an apology.
“Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” Kita gestures toward the taiyaki. “Go ahead.”
“But it’s the last one.”
“That’s alright. There are plenty other stalls around. I can find something else.”
You stare at the fish-shaped cake for a few seconds before hesitantly reaching out to grab it. You hand the vendor a bank note and wait patiently for your change. Kita thinks that will be the end of it, he’s already thinking about the baked potatoes he spotted on the way over, but then you take him by surprise.
“Would you like to…share this with me?”
Kita’s eyes widen. To be honest, he feels it’s a bit forward of you to ask when you two only just met. But looking at you once more and the way you bite your bottom lip, how tightly your fingers hold onto the wrapper of the taiyaki, and the drop of perspiration he’s not entirely sure is solely due to the heat that slides down the side of your face, he finds himself a little endeared by your courage.
“I would like that,” he answers.
You both walk toward an empty picnic table and sit across from each other. You tear the taiyaki in half and offer him the bigger piece, which he politely accepts. You both bring your hands together and give thanks for the food before digging in.
Kita feels stiff as he eats. He’s not sure if you can tell but it feels like his body has reverted to being a teenager, shy and uncertain in the presence of a stranger. An attractive one at that.
But you fight through your nerves better than he does. You strike up conversation first and Kita finds that you’re easy to talk to, and he’s glad the conversation doesn’t end when you finish eating. You walk around the festival together while talking about his rice farming and your work at an antique store.
Over shaved ice you find out that you both played volleyball in high school. You admit you only did it because your best friend was desperate to meet the minimum number of students needed to form the club, but you ended up really enjoying it and playing all throughout school. Kita shares his own experience and he feels something stir in his chest when you keep full focus on him. So much so that you don’t realize your ice has started to melt, dripping down your hand.
“Here.” Kita reaches into his pocket for his handkerchief, patting away the moisture away from your hand. “There we go.”
The performances are long done. The singing of cicadas in the background slowly becomes less and less as the sun dips behind the mountain.
“Thank you,” you softly say, ducking your head to hide the way your face betrays your shyness. “Um…do you think you might want to—”
Suddenly, someone calls your name.
You both turn your heads to see an older man and an elderly woman looking your way. The man is waving you over while the elder discreetly pinches his side in admonishment. Still, you stand and apologize for having to leave in the middle of your conversation. Kita says he doesn’t mind, even though his gut is telling him not to let you go. To say something that will guarantee he can see you again. But what?
All his thoughts come to a halt when you bend down and place a brief kiss to his cheek. It last only a second, but to Kita it feels like the world has slowed down as he watches you turn and make your way to that man and woman. He’s able to come to his senses quick enough to blurt out a goodnight when you’re halfway across the grass. You turn and also wish him a goodnight with a warm smile that makes his heart race.
Kita doesn’t see you for another month. You said you lived in the area, but he’s yet to see any sign of you. He didn’t ask for your phone number either, which he’s kicking himself about now.
The summer heat is brutal and all he can think about is how cool and wet your lips were against his cheek when you kissed him. He feels slightly bad when he attends the group date arranged by the matchmaker, already comparing any prospects to you.
When he arrives there are already several other men and women. He finds a spot by the window and introduces himself to those who approach him. Most know about his family’s farm, and one or two ask him about his time playing volleyball in school.
It’s nearly time to begin and the organizer directs everyone to take a seat. Kita hears the door to the room open then close, followed by a faintly familiar voice offering apologies for being late.
Kita find a seat near the end of one of the tables. The seat across from him is empty, but just as he’s sitting down that seat is also becoming occupied. He glances up, not expecting for his heart to suddenly start beating double time in his chest, and his lips part in surprise.
thinking about how good ushijima is at moving your hips for you after you get too tired to grind against his bulge yourself. he’ll make you come two times just like that
catch a peek inside the world of everyone’s favourite family of felines and the shenanigans that unfold in their daily lives, starring tetsuro, rosie, honey and pumpkin. see exclusive interviews with the couple themselves and their two kitties as you follow along the family’s misadventures in their television debut.
still so soggy and weepy over this amdnamdnskjdd 🥹🥹 tysm to the wonderful @pastelle-rabbit for surprising me with this, you are the most talented and sweetest artist and friend ever and I love you so very much 🥺🩷🩷
