Chapter Text
It was only a few hours after Kinjou and Fukutomi’s little announcement when Onoda rose from the couch and sleepily announced that he had better head back home before his mom began to worry too much. Imaizumi and Naruko left soon after, fumbling excuses about how they’d better make sure Onoda made it home safely, but Arakita saw Naruko take Imaizumi’s hand through the crack of the door right before Makishima pushed it shut.
One by one, or sometimes two by two, old friends said goodbyes and it was too soon before it was (pretty much) over. Shinkai shifted next to Arakita, who raised his head drowsily as Shinkai stretched his arms above his head. Kinjou and Fukutomi had just left, but not before Arakita had gone on a short rant about why didn’t Fuku-chan ever tell him, and why the fuck didn’t Kinjou tell him, and quite a few choice words and phrases that wouldn’t have been affectionate if they had come out of someone else’s mouth.
Arakita bit his lip. So maybe he was proud Fuku-chan finally got laid. And, like, not just laid. Kinjou was a great guy and Arakita could totally picture them growing old together with about twelve dogs. It just seemed to fit them. Besides, now that everything was slowing down and he had time to think, their relationship had been pretty obvious all along. Like, they didn’t all get together very often, two or three times a year maximum, but Arakita had noticed the way Kinjou and Fukutomi looked at each other a couple times. He just didn’t dig into stuff like that too much. He wasn’t that type of guy.
Shinkai yawned again next to him, and Arakita tentatively lowered his head back onto Shinkai’s shoulder. It was probably bad that he wasn’t that type of guy, because he really had no clue of how to read all of Shinkai’s signs. There was definitely something between them - no doubt about that - but that had been there since high school and neither of them really acted on it. They just fell into a sort of routine that involved them seeing each other (a lot) more frequently than they saw the rest of their old teammates, and also a lot of kissing and damn Arakita’s hands were starting to shake just thinking about it. Fuck Shinkai’s smooth and enigmatic ass.
“Hey,” Shinkai said in a low voice, startling Arakita. Speak of the devil. Demon? “I think I should head out pretty soon. You walk me out?”
“Sure,” Arakita replied, keeping his cool pretty well. He thought so, at least.
They stood up simultaneously, Arakita taking one last swig of his Bepsi and Shinkai stretching again, arching his back and Arakita was not looking at all, not one bit, when his shirt lifted up and showed a little bit of tummy. Arakita set down the can, anticipating Toudou’s question before he even saw the confused look on his face
“I’m still staying with you guys. Shinkai’s leaving, I’m just walking him out.”
Toudou made a sound of understanding and wiggled his eyebrows a little bit. Arakita felt a weird sort of pang in his stomach. He gave Toudou the coldest glare he could muster. Toudou just smiled innocently.
“Hurry up,” Shinkai demanded, smiling (was it possible to demand with a smile? If anyone could do it, it would be Shinkai). Arakita scowled and donned his scarf and coat. Damn was it cold out there.
Shinkai opened the door and ushered Arakita though. The second he stepped outside, the cold hit him like a ton of bricks. Arakita shrunk back into his scarf and debated whether or not he really wanted to be out here saying goodbye to Shinkai or if he really wanted to part ways with him at all.
But when Arakita turned around, Shinkai was right there, waving goodbye to Makishima as he closed the door with what was probably supposed to be a smile. They started walking down the drive, and Arakita turned to look at Shinkai again. Time seemed to freeze - Arakita saw Shinkai’s breath hang in the air for longer than it should have, and he tried to capture the scene of Shinkai’s cheeks and nose turning red in the cold and the tiny snowflakes that caught just for a moment on his eyelashes before he blinked them away. And, of course, he made a point to note all the stupid stuff he always seemed to notice about Shinkai like the way he chewed on his lips when they were chapped and how nice his hair looked against the navy blue parka Arakita picked out instead of the white one Shinkai had begged for when they went shopping.
“Hey.”
Shinkai stopped, and time returned to normal.
“What?”
“Can...can we talk?” Arakita regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth.
“Of course!” Shinkai said, easily taking Arakita’s ungloved hands in his very warm mittened ones. Damn him. “What’s going on?”
“What are we doing?” There was no better way to say it, Arakita told himself.
“What do you mean?”
“Like, are we…” Arakita paused. He could blame his red face and general shakiness on the cold, right? “Are we, like, friends with benefits or are we dating or what?”
Shinkai’s eyebrows furrowed and he looked somewhere above Arakita. “That’s a really good question. Do you wanna date?”
“That’s no way to ask somebody!” Arakita said a lot louder than he intended.
“What’s the point of asking in a fancy way? I know I like you, and I know you like me too~,” Shinkai smiled, leaning forward to rub his nose against Arakita’s teasingly.
Arakita’s entire face tingled in anticipation of a kiss. “It just has to be more romantic than that! I’m not a sap or anything but it’s gotta be a good story to tell, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Shinkai said, still smiling as he leaned in to kiss Arakita (Properly. For the first damn time that night).
Damn, Arakita thought, I’ve missed this. The kiss began to deepen and Arakita worried he might go weak at the knees. Shinkai really was a good guy. This whole dating thing didn't sound half bad at all. It might actually work out. He was just about to pull Shinkai closer when Shinkai blew a puff of air into his mouth.
“What the hell?” he asked, shocked and appalled. Shinkai doubled over, laughing.
“You should have seen the look on your face,” he said in between giggles. Arakita took a step forward and Shinkai started running down the drive for his life, cackling.
“Asshole!” Arakita yelled, laughing. Shinkai always had such an infectious laugh. Arakita would be lying if he said he didn’t find the loud guffaw (and occasional bout of hiccups) endearing.
Then, Arakita had an idea.
He grabbed a solid handful of snow, cursing himself for not wearing gloves but thanking whatever God there was that it was the good snowball-making kind. Taking chase after a fleeing sprinter was totally different now that it would have been on bikes. Arakita started running and, when he saw Shinkai look back, threw the snowball.
Clearly there was somebody watching over Arakita today.
The snowball hit Shinkai directly between the eyes. He was obviously more shocked than Arakita was, because he lost his footing and landed right on his ass.
Arakita absolutely lost it, but for whatever reason he didn’t quite stop running and he fell right on top of Shinkai. Maybe it was intentional.
“You’re an ass.”
“You threw a snowball at my face. Aiming to kill.” Shinkai’s face was still covered in snow.
“Because you’re an ass.”
Shinkai grabbed Arakita’s face and pulled him down into a kiss that lasted more than a little while. Arakita’s mind was swimming, but he still managed to think of Toudou, who probably at this moment was organizing a search party for a missing houseguest.
Shinkai pulled away slowly. Arakita’s eyelids fluttered open.
“Nice.” That was a really stupid reaction, Arakita told himself.
“Will you go out with me?” Shinkai asked, breathless.
Arakita melted. It was so fucking unfair that Shinkai made him all...warm and bubbly inside like this.
But everything about it was so fucking perfect.
“Of course.” Arakita kissed him again.