Chapter Text
Talking with Suo is infuriating. It’s also fun, don’t get Haruka wrong. Every conversation is just as fulfilling as the last and he knows the next will be the same. However, for as exciting as he finds talking with Suo, the other boy is an absolute tease. The amount of times that Haruka looks up from his phone, face beer red, to Suo walking into the shop with a grin is far too high.
And yet, he doesn’t want it to stop.
He finds himself becoming greedy, wanting more. Haruka wants to, wants to… he’s got to stop that train of thought immediately. It’s not appropriate to think such things at work. Even if he’s the only employee, they basically never have customers, and his boss is never around.
The bell above the door rings.
A tall, imposing, well dressed young man walks in. He can’t be too much older than Haruka, but all the same… he feels leagues ahead of him. Richly black hair pulled into a bun, almost a top knot, and dark eyes that scan the shop like he’s looking for something out of place. He sighs as he lets the door fall shut behind him.
“Would you be able to tell me if you have this book in stock?” He says, voice deep and low, and slides a slip of paper across the counter to Haruka.
“Yeah, uh,” Haruka finally looks away from him to the paper. It reads ‘On War by Carl von Clausewitz’ in a familiar handwriting. Haruka can’t place where he knows it from and pushes the thought away. “Give me a moment to search for it.”
The laptop they use for cataloging is an ancient, clunking thing that is five times the thickness of Haruka’s phone. It whirs to wakefulness with a sound that would be more fitting for a helicopter taking off than a laptop. The man stares at it with the same intensity he’d walked in with. Haruka kind of wants to crawl under the desk when the catalogue says they don’t have it in. Thankfully there’s a note from his boss that says it should be in the next shipment. Bless his boss’s weird ass tastes in books.
Haruka turns away from the laptop. “We don’t have it in right now, but it’s on our next shipment, luckily.” He tries very hard to not fidget with the fraying bracelet on his wrist.
The man hums. “Can I preorder it?”
“Yes,” Haruka nods. He pulls out the card reader and the notepad they use for holding prepaid books. “Just fill this out for me,” he slides the notebook over with the only working pen, “and it’ll be 14.95 for the book.”
The man nods, taps his card on the reader, and slides the notebook back to Haruka with the pen sitting on top. Score, he isn’t losing his pen today.
“Thank you,” the man says. “Sun Fei or his roommate will pick it up.”
“Their name listed on your form?” Haruka asks, already turning the notebook around to look. He doesn’t know why the guy said that name like Haruka should know it.
“Yes.”
Haruka nods. “Then everything’s good. Thank you for your patronage.”
The man leaves and Haruka feels like he survived some kind of strange test. Now alone, he glances at the form and sees Kiryu Mitsuki and Suo Hayato in the space for pick up contact. He wonders who the hell this Sun Fei guy is and why his name isn’t on the form for pick up.
The first actual meeting that Haruka has with the infamous devil, Micchan, is when he comes to pick up the book that mysteriously intense guy ordered a month ago. He’s waiting at the counter, leaning on it with one arm while the other holds his phone. He grins lazily at Haruka when he sees him heading towards him. Haruka doesn’t know if he wants to strangle him or thank him. He decides on neither.
Kiryu Mitsuki is every inch the effusive devil that Haruka has imagined him to be for months. He’s seen some photos of the other boy, shared by Suo via text or found by Nirei and Kotoha on social media. Haruka isn’t even a little embarrassed that he spent an inordinate amount of time scrolling through the pink haired boy’s photos for all the glimpses of Suo there were. Suo’s own page held no photos of himself and almost only photos of his dog or things that caught his eye.
Haruka decides that Kiryu is pretty cool, even if he is a dirty, no good monster of a man out for Haruka’s sanity. He can be magnanimous and let it go.
“Nice to finally meet cha,” Kiryu smiles at him. He has a nice face, for a villain. “Hacchan has told me a lot about you.”
“Probably only bad things,” Haruka says without thinking as he sets the box he’d been carrying down. “Are you here for something other than,” he waves his hand around vaguely, “this?”
“Oh yeah,” Kiryu straightens. He turns to lean his forearms on the counter. “Hacchan’s brother bought a book here a while back. Rakta said he’d been notified it was ready for pick up.” He swipes and taps at his phone screen for a moment with a hum. “Ah ha! Should be under either Kiryu Mitsuki,” he flashes Haruka another smile as if indicating that is himself, “or under Sun Fei.”
Haruka stares at him for a minute. “I’ve got it and your name is on it. So is Suo’s, but I dunno who Sun Fei is.”
Kiryu blinks at his phone for a moment, then at Haruka. “Oh we forgot,” he giggles. “Sun Fei is Suo. You should ask him about that.” His phone buzzes in his hand.
Haruka decides that he isn’t magnanimous and isn’t letting go of shit. Kiryu is trying to kill him, Haruka just isn’t sure how.
“Okay,” Haruka says slowly as he grabs the book from under the counter. He puts it on the counter next to Kiryu’s arm. “Sure, whatever. Here’s the book.”
He’s been texting sporadically with Suo all evening. The other boy only answered when he took a break from his run and Haruka answered in between his chores at the shop that he’d put off. He’d just finished watering all the stupid plants when there’s a quiet yet frantic rapping against the glass of the window. It’s Suo, with wide eyes and his mouth set in a nervous frown.
Haruka unlocks the door. “What’s going on?”
“I was,” Suo stops with a heaving breath and a hand pressed to his chest. He leans forward a bit. “I was being, being followed. Couldn’t, ah, couldn’t shake the feeling,” he pauses again and squeezes his eye shut while trying to catch his breath, “the feeling that it was by accident.”
Haruka relocks the door and flips the lights off. “I’m glad I came to the shop early then,” he mutters. It’s a good thing it’s closing time anyways. He grabs Suo’s wrist and pulls. “C’mon, I’ve gotta put this away and you’ll be able to catch your breath easier in the break room.”
“You have,” Suo’s voice is still winded, but is also curious, “one those here?”
“Yep,” Haruka says and pops the ‘p’ for fun. “Never use it cause there’s usually no point.”
It’s only once the can is away and they’re standing in the break room that Haruka gets a good look at Suo. He’s in his usual outfit for his runs and is completely flushed still. Haruka pulls a water bottle from the little fridge and tosses it to Suo.
“I guess I understand why you usually run in the mornings better now,” Haruka half grumbles as he settles into one of the chairs.
Suo leans against the counter and cracks open the water bottle. “It’s not just because of weirdos,” he sighs. “It’s also not as hot.” His hands are trembling.
Haruka stands up, to do what he’s not sure, but pauses briefly when they hear muffled voices coming up the stairs. They both look at each other when the front door rattles. Suo is nearly pressed against Haruka’s shoulder when they stop at the bottom of the stairs to see who’s shaking the door.
“That them?” Haruka asks as three big guys pace in front of the door.
Suo nods. “Hiding seemed like the smarter move.”
He understands the logic. There’s three of them and they’re big meatheads that wouldn’t seem out of place on a rugby field. And against Suo? Who is strong enough to go toe to toe with Haruka in arm wrestling matches but lithe and small in comparison to those guys. Yeah, no brainer. Haruka thinks he made the right call. It’s then that Haruka realizes that they’re not completely hidden from sight in the stairwell. Or that Suo isn’t.
There’s no thought behind what Haruka does except protect. Just grabs Suo from next to him and pins him to the wall. Like this, they’re both hidden fully from view. However, like this he can feel every inch of Suo, of the boy he’s had an ever developing crush on, from thigh to chest. He can also see Suo’s bewilderment very clearly on his face and in his eye this close.
“They could have seen you from where you were standing,” Haruka mumbles as his ears begin to burn.
Suo turns his head to the side and huffs. “You couldn’t have used your words to tell me?”
He’s cute like this. Confused and huffy, like he wants to be mad at Haruka but can’t be. Haruka wants to say it, tell him, it’s on the tip of his tongue. Ultimately he doesn’t. The door shakes again, harder, and he feels Suo’s breath hitch a bit. Or maybe that was his own? He isn’t sure.
What Haruka is sure of… is that he really doesn’t want to move away. He likes Suo, has for a while. He likes that he’s snarky, a bit of an ass. He likes that he’s kind and studious. Haruka has thought Suo was pretty cute since the other boy first walked into the shop. Getting to know him had just been a study in falling head over heels for him.
He could do it. Possibly ruin everything. Lose the scrap he has of the other boy.
“I think they’re leaving,” Suo says, oblivious to Haruka’s thoughts.
Something tells him that he wouldn’t lose anything. It sounds suspiciously like Kotoha.
Suo’s hands are on Haruka’s shoulders and his pretty eye is pinched with concern. “Sakura-kun, are you alri-“
Haruka takes the plunge, cuts Suo off midway through his concern, and kisses him. There’s a little gasp that escapes Suo and his whole body goes stiff. Haruka gives him a moment, opens his eyes to see surprise and something else in Suo’s eye, and doesn’t fight the grin that stretches across his mouth. Suo kissed him back after what felt like ages, but had to have only been a couple of seconds.
He tastes like sweat and sunshine, the kiss is awkward and messy and perfect.
As much fun as it would have been to make out in the stairwell, it was less fun to consider walking home after dark. They needed to talk and well, maybe Haruka wanted an excuse to have Suo in a space that was actually his. Talking with Suo was easy, even with the thrumming under Haruka’s skin that pushed him to kiss Suo again. He could wait a little longer.
Suo was taller than Haruka, but only by a little. It was made larger by Suo’s stupidly chunky running shoes. Haruka waited, using the scraps of his patience for Suo to remove his shoes before crowding him against the door. Haruka wasn’t a naturally patient person. If he wanted something, he worked to get it as quickly as possible.
Suo’s laugh as he was pressed against the door felt like a reward. Haruka could see the mischief in the curl of his mouth and knew that there was some stupid nonsense on the tip of Suo’s tongue, ready to tease Haruka. Instead of letting him say it, Haruka pressed a kiss to his cheek and used the distraction to his advantage. The startled yelp and the way Suo’s arms wrapped around his neck when Haruka lifted him were gold.
There was skin underneath Haruka’s palms from the slits in Suo’s pants and the drumming of his own heartbeat in his ears. This was what Haruka had been wanting to do for months. Hold this silly pretty boy in his hands, pin him down to keep him where Haruka wanted him, and kiss him till they were both breathless and stupid from it. He wasn’t happy that Suo had been followed and anxious, but Haruka was damn glad he had this.
As far as getting together moments go, Haruka felt like theirs could have gone better. Maybe been cuter. Which isn’t to say he was upset about how it went. He’s nothing if opportunistic. Still, he felt that Hayato, maybe, deserved something nicer.
Of course he only usually thinks that when the other is away or asleep. Like now, sleeping in Haruka’s bed without a worry in the world. His books and notes scattered around him and phone just at the tips of his fingers. Junzhu blinks sleepily at Haruka when he rubs her head. She huffs when he stops and begins moving the study materials off the bed.
He’d never thought deeply about how different his life had been before Hayato walked into the shop. Then again, Haruka had never realized he’d been looking for someone like Hayato to begin with. Watching him sleep, surrounded by his things and in his bed, Haruka thinks that he’s glad Hayato found him.