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Izumi wakes up to a bunch of leaves lying across his face.
It's Christmas Eve, which means that he's got a party to host today, and a bunch of hungover unitmates to kick out of his apartment so he can clean up in peace. Leo had arrived last night out of nowhere as he always did, in his pyjamas and carrying a bag full of booze with the rest of Knights in tow. It had only been a matter of time before Izumi had gotten caught up in Leo's impulsive, quick-paced energy, and the five of them had spent the night laughing; celebrating to no end as they lost themselves in the moment.
It had been all fun and games until the morning after, as Izumi spits a mistletoe branch out of his mouth and sits up, headache pounding to no end. In his peripheral vision, he can just make out the shape of Tsukasa slumped against Arashi's chest, as well as a tuft of ginger hair protruding from underneath the duvet over at the far side of the room. Ritsu is just nowhere to be seen, and bottles of beer and spirits lay strewn haphazardly across the room like a recycled glass landfill.
Deciding to finally get up and start clearing up a bit, Izumi steps out of his room and into the living room, and he almost misses the lump of blankets on the ground that encase the fifth member of Knights until it rolls on its back and mumbles, "Secchan, you forgot something."
Izumi stops, one foot suspended in the air. "What?"
A hand protrudes from the cocoon of blankets, pointing above Izumi's head, and stupidly, he looks up.
Oh.
A single sprig of mistletoe dangles from the doorframe, crudely adhered to the ceiling with a bit of Elmer’s glue.
In hindsight, he probably really should have looked out for anything that is so clearly Leo's doing, especially at times like this where the influence of alcohol only boosts his impulsiveness.
Ritsu's arm flops out of the blankets and tugs at Izumi's pyjama pants impatiently, snapping him out of his phase of contemplation-slash-murderous-rage. "Seeeeecchaaaaaan."
Izumi's head pounds.
"You need to give me a kiss," Ritsu whines, disentangling himself from the blankets just enough to allow him to sit up. "It's the rules-"
"Alright, alright, just shut up," Izumi snaps, crouching down so now he's at eye level with the other and gripping his chin lightly. Ritsu just smiles, and Izumi's hold tightens slightly out of spite before he leans in and presses a small kiss to the corner of Ritsu's lips.
It’s light and chaste, mainly because they’ve just woken up and Izumi’s pretty sure he still tastes like that spiked hot chocolate he’d had last night, but it still leaves Ritsu grinning, and he stands up again afterwards, now stepping over him to go get himself a glass of cold water and an aspirin.
It’s not long before the rest of Knights slowly come to their senses, rousing one by one from their hangovers. It’s some hour in the afternoon now, which meant that breakfast had long passed, so after clearing up at least some of the wasteland that is Izumi’s house, they’re heading out for lunch.
Izumi, unsurprisingly, is not the last person to leave the apartment this time.
Arashi's been hogging the bathroom for the past half hour or so, claiming that "Beauty is timeless, so just a little longer, Izumi-chan!", and it's getting to the point that even the rest of them are getting impatient.
"I'm hungry, you know," Leo complains, aimlessly swinging his leg around until the tip of his boot grazes Tsukasa's leg, who yelps indignantly, brushing his pants off. "Feels like I haven't eaten in days! What's taking Naru so long?"
"Her personality," Izumi supplies, making sure to take his sweet time lacing up his boots. It’s not like he doesn’t have all the time in the world or anything. "Bet you she's already finished with her makeup and is just lost in her own reflection’s eyes."
Right on cue, Arashi saunters out of the bathroom and towards him, self-satisfied grin on her face, and Izumi is about to open his mouth and make some snarky remark about his hair or whatever until he notices what hangs above them.
"Wait, Naru-kun-"
Arashi stops, but it's too late. Impending doom looms over them in the form of a second sprig of mistletoe, this time hastily stuck to the cord of the ceiling fan.
Behind him, Leo laughs delightedly. "So I did manage to catch two of you under the mistletoe! At least my festive decorations weren't for nothing!"
Izumi decides not to mention the first instance earlier in the morning.
Instead, he crosses his arms, glowers, and waits for Arashi to do something about it.
And she does.
Arashi, with her twinkling smile, leans in and plants two kisses on each cheek of his face, before touching their noses and brushing her lips gently over a now rather flustered Izumi's own.
Of course, it's over as soon as it happens, but that doesn't stop Izumi from scowling and punching the model in the arm, muttering, "You didn't have to do it like that, Naru-kun."
Arashi just winks, charming as ever even in the midst of such a moment, though Izumi can detect the slightest hint of a blush that he doesn’t think came from cosmetics. “I like spoiling Izumi-chan, though!”
This comment earns Arashi’s ankle a small punt courtesy of Izumi’s boots. “Hey, no bruising!”
Once they’re done with their lunch, Izumi decides to conduct a quick liquor run to the mart, in fear of a shortage of drinks for later. This very obviously results in Tsukasa remaining in the sweets aisle for a majority of the hour they spent at the supermarket, as well as Arashi cooing over the Santa Claus display in the middle, the disappearance of Leo, and a lethargic Ritsu complaining for most of the trip.
At this point, Izumi’s just on his phone, idly tapping out RSVPs to some others for the party later on. Hosting a Christmas get-together is no joke, especially if he’s going to be inviting all his friends and their unitmates, and he’s been so busy replying to all these people that the message nearly goes unnoticed.
Makoto hasn’t texted him in months, not ever since Starmine, and Izumi’s heart skips a beat (or two) as he opens the message, hoping that it’ll give him the text he so wants to see.
To: Me
From: Yuu-kun
Sorry, can’t make it to your party today! Best of luck though and merry christmas!!! ( ´ ▽ ` )b
Oh.
That’s alright , Izumi supposes, swallowing hard as he puts his phone away. There’s no need to be so dependent on someone’s presence. You’re not the person you used to be.
At least, he hopes so.
By the time the party’s gotten into full swing, Izumi and friends are already well into the newly purchased stash of alcohol, and he's currently lounging horizontally on the couch with at least three other people slumped against him. One of them, coincidentally, is Tsukasa, slightly tipsy and trying to keep himself as composed as possible. Him showing up to the party in the first place is rather surprising - he’d expect mannered, obedient and affluent kids like his unitmate to be back home, in bed before his curfew and far, far away from any sort of alcohol.
Although, Izumi supposes, anything can happen if Tsukinaga Leo’s got a part to play in it; and he watches his point prove itself as his eyes follow the vague shape of their leader bringing an entire armful of beer cans over to where they rest.
“Newbie!” Leo exclaims, before Izumi can even open his mouth to tell him to shut up. “You’re so quiet, here, be a good boy and have some of these!” He’s got a rather determined twinkle in his eye that somehow differs from the one that usually shines through his gaze, and Izumi doesn’t know whether to tread with caution or abort mission upon being faced with such implications.
Tsukasa’s shaking his head firmly, eyebrows knitted in a determined expression, though Izumi can just make out the bottom of his lip quivering ever so slightly. “I don’t want to get Intoxicated too easily. It’s still quite early in the evening, you know.”
“Nonsense!” Leo declares, and Izumi winces a little because that had been just a little too loud for his drunken mind’s liking. “Hey, if you aren’t gonna loosen up a bit, maybe this will help!”
Out of nowhere, Leo reaches underneath the couch, and pulls out an entire fucking six-foot-long fishing pole, giggling to himself.
Izumi can only guess what’s on the end of it.
Tsukasa seems to have come to the same conclusion as Izumi has, and attempts to stand up, presumably to move away from the scene before everything is made worse by Leo’s antics that can only be described as Cataclysmic . However, his legs don’t appear to enjoy being as obedient as he is, instead choosing to give out under him, and Tsukasa collapses atop Izumi’s chest, breathing heavily. “Sorry, Izumi-senpai, I- give me a Moment to adjust...”
Leo holds the fishing rod over the couch, reeling in the wire just enough for the mistletoe on the end to tickle Izumi’s nose.
He would definitely love to swat at it, and would be doing so, if it weren't for Tsukasa’s bodily weight pinning his arms down. His aforementioned junior, on the other hand, is an abashed mess, naivety getting the better of him as his cheeks flush with embarrassment. “Leader, you can’t do that! This sort of stuff... It should be saved for the person you really like, right-?”
“So you’re saying you don’t like Sena?” Leo laughs, giving Izumi a playful stare. “My, my, I didn’t know Newbie here would think so lowly of you! Especially with how you guys are sitting right now-”
“That is Different !” Tsukasa sputters, the alcohol in his system only making his self-expression through speech even harder for him. “You know what I mean, right?”
“Not really.”
“But you were just talking about it earlier!”
Izumi can physically feel his hangover already with each rebuttal from Tsukasa and Leo.
He supposes it’s time to intervene. The conversation is only going around in circles, and even Chiaki, whose lap Izumi’s head is currently resting on, is starting to get tired of it, judging from the awkward grin on his face.
Sitting up, Izumi mutters an exasperated, “Shut up, Kasakun,” before pulling him into a tight embrace and pressing their lips together.
Yeah, maybe he’s not drunk enough to be able to do whatever he wants and think about the consequences later, but he’s not sober enough to regret it either, and his junior’s lips are warm against his and that is all that matters. The junior in question doesn’t seem to be having too bad of a time either, with his eyes closed and palms pressed flat against Izumi’s chest, and after a while, they break away, both slightly short for air.
Izumi can hear Leo clapping delightedly in the back, as well as Chiaki’s laughter and Nazuna’s exclamation of, “Mitsuru-chin, don’t look!”, and he can only imagine Kaoru’s horrified expression somewhere in the room.
“Don’t listen to what Ousama has to say for the rest of the night,” Izumi grumbles to his flushed junior, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Most of it is just gonna be incoherent rambling anyways.”
Well, he says that, but come an hour and he’s somehow found another sprig of fucking mistletoe in his house, this time pasted to the shower curtain in the guest bathroom upstairs.
Thankfully, he’s not with anybody at the moment (not like he’d be caught dead with somebody else in the bathroom out of all places), but after flipping up the toilet lid to find another twig of the damned plant duct-taped to the seat, Izumi resolves to organise a witch hunt for the rest of them, lest there be even more uninvited guests innocently hanging around his apartment. (How many more ways can Leo find to hang up the same damn plant before he runs out of ideas, honestly?)
After taking a well-deserved piss, Izumi steps out of the bathroom, and runs smack-dab into the perpetrator of this entire fiasco.
Leo’s been caught red-handed; with an entire branch of mistletoe in one hand and a hot glue gun in the other, and Izumi positively shudders thinking of the fresh hell he’d have to go through removing that from his walls. For now, he just crosses his arms, staring intently at Leo. “So.”
Leo tries to conceal the whole branch by hiding it behind his back. “What?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what’s going on, okay?” Izumi snaps, reaching for the most dangerous item in the vicinity first, which happens to be the glue gun. Leo lets him take it, but then trips and crashes into Izumi, who has to hold out his free arm to steady the other. It’s definitely a given that Leo’s almost completely wasted at this point in the night, and Izumi’s about to open his mouth to chide and complain when a faint rustling above his head interrupts him yet again.
He looks up, and is greeted with the same branch of mistletoe Leo had been ‘hiding’ earlier, now being held up by none other than the gremlin itself, grinning euphorically in his arms. “Wahaha~! Now you have to kiss me too, Sena!”
Honestly, why is he still in this group?
“No,” Izumi states bluntly, guiding Leo back towards the commotion of the party. “At least sober up before you decide to go around kissing people.”
“Don’t wanna,” Leo whines, knocking the back of Izumi’s head with the branch, and he swears, someday, the Tsukinaga clan will be no more. “You can’t go against the rules, you know!”
And with that, Leo drops the branch of mistletoe, reaching out to grab Izumi’s face, and pulls him into a dizzying kiss.
It’s probably the most intense one he’s had today, and even Izumi is struggling to keep up with Leo’s pace, whether it be the way his fingers grip at Izumi’s jawline, or how his lips can move in such wonderful patterns. The kiss sucks out all the breath left in Izumi’s delirious body, and once it’s over, he’s left panting, gasping for air that doesn’t seem to want to return to his lungs just yet.
Leo seems fine, apart from his newly tousled hair and slightly reddened lips. Beside him, the mistletoe branch hangs limp by his side, and Izumi reaches out for it, taking it from Leo’s fingers.
Can’t let that fall into the wrong hands again.
It’s now later on in the night, and everyone’s getting ready to watch the fireworks paint the sky in celebration of Christmas Day. Surprisingly, nobody’s passed out yet, with the obvious exception of Ritsu, who’s long since been curled up on Mao’s lap.
Izumi’s been trying to get away from the group of people in the living room for the past few minutes with the intention of giving his liver a break and his mind a clearing session. However, it seemed as if every time Izumi thought that their liquor stash had been depleted, Leo would just come out of the kitchen with more, and he’d be forced to down most of it in fear of it all being consumed by Leo. God, Leo usually doesn’t even need to be under the influence of alcohol to wreak havoc.
Now he’s finally succeeded, he heads out to the balcony for a bit of a breather, sighing audibly as the cold air meets his skin.
He’s about to lean against the metal railing when a familiar voice calls out to him. “Izumi-san?”
Izumi turns around quickly.
In front of him is none other than Makoto Yuuki, and Izumi has to collect himself a bit, swallowing before speaking. “You said you couldn’t come.”
Makoto laughs. “Well, I should probably apologise for that.” He takes a couple of steps forward until he’s in line with the older, resting an arm against the railing as well. “It’s kind of just me not knowing if I’d be alright with going, what with everything going on and such. Guess I kind of panicked and blurted out whatever. I didn’t know if you got the message either, since you didn’t reply!”
Right.
He’d just forgotten about it, choosing instead to focus on reeling the rest of his unit back together. Oops.
“Shit, sorry for not replying,” Izumi mutters, staring straight ahead off his balcony into the city. It’s better than having to face Makoto right now, anyway. “I didn’t think it would matter too much anyways, if you weren’t gonna be here.”
Makoto just smiles nervously at that, fingers playing with the hem of his sweater. “I did want to come. And I did end up coming, because...” He pauses for a bit, as if waiting for the right words to come. “Spending time with people I enjoy being around is nice.”
Izumi takes very great care in noticing the way Makoto had worded that last sentence.
“I’m glad you got to do a bit of that today, then,” he says breezily, and the two of them lapse into a comfortable silence, though Izumi does feel a little nervous, anxious; maybe even giddy at this sudden turn of events.
It’s true that their relationship has obviously changed over the past couple of years, but somehow, Izumi can still sometimes barely comprehend the fact that Makoto can stand being around him; no, even enjoys it, often. It’s surreal, seeing how far they’ve come.
It’s now that the TV begins blaring the countdown from t-minus-one-minute, and Izumi turns around, about to head back indoors to rejoin the party, when something in his peripheral vision stops him.
Right above the two of them, this time tied rather decoratively with a red ribbon, is a single mistletoe twig.
Of fucking course.
Makoto seems to have noticed the mistletoe above them too, and laughs nervously, cheeks coloured a rather pretty shade of pink that Izumi doesn’t think has anything to do with the cold of the wind. “O-Oh, I didn’t see that whilst coming out! Did... Did you?”
Izumi shakes his head, looking down and off to the side. “Definitely Leo’s doing, damn that shitty king...”
In reality, Izumi’s freaking out. He’s gone from being avoided by his Yuu-kun, to awkward silence, to tentative friendliness, and now to whatever this is. He’s not really sure if he’s ready for such development, to be truthful, and by the looks of it, he probably won’t be any more ready if he remains just standing here, literally frozen.
They open their mouths to speak at the same time.
“Well, I guess-”
“Maybe we should-”
Makoto pauses, and laughs, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry for interrupting, I was just gonna say that maybe-”
“Let’s do it.” Izumi’s own voice surprises him, because he had definitely not meant for it to come out that way. However, Makoto seems to get it, and the slight nod he gives puts Izumi at ease, even if just for a while.
The countdown has reached twenty by now, and he can hear everybody else cheering in the living room, but all of that fades out as Makoto steps closer and their faces are inches apart.
“Can’t break tradition, huh?” he says, a sheepish smile on his face as he places his hands tentatively on Izumi’s hips. Izumi does the same, letting his arms rest in a loose embrace around Makoto’s torso.
Around them, the countdown to the final ten seconds begins.
Ten.
Izumi averts his gaze, too embarrassed to look straight at Makoto.
Nine.
“Hey.” Makoto’s voice is gentle, and it compels Izumi to lift his gaze once more. “It’s okay.”
Eight.
“I just-” Izumi can’t stop the words coming out, so he just lets them out, feelings finally freed from the prison of his mind.
Seven.
“Are you sure this is okay?”
Six.
Makoto’s gaze is steady. “If it really wasn’t,”
Five.
Izumi swallows, shivers running down his spine from not only the cold, but the sheer anxiety coursing through his body.
Four.
“Then I wouldn’t be here at all.”
Three.
“Isn’t that right?”
Two.
“Izumi-san... No.”
One.
“Izumi.”
The fireworks light up the sky above with a shower of sparkling colours, dazzling bright reds and greens shooting up through the skyline, and their lips meet, Izumi pulling Makoto closer within their embrace as he kisses him, hard , and it’s a warm, fuzzy feeling that quickly spurs into a pulsating, passionate heat that has Izumi’s mind spinning and he just can’t get enough of him . His fingers are bunched tightly into the fabric of Makoto’s sweater, and their lips move in a perfectly synchronised dance, melting into each other as cheers and the sound of champagne popping fill the air.
Izumi guesses that Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year.