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Alfred turned another glossy page in the photo album on his lap. “Oh, my god. Pochi. Pochi’s in this one.”
Kiku looked up from the box he was rummaging through, his attention now on the book in Alfred’s lap. “That must be his album. Or one of his albums.”
“There’s more than one?”
“We have been together for a very long time, Alfred, did you think I wouldn’t take photos of him?” He turned back to emptying the box, gingerly setting a set of plates onto the tatami mat beneath them with a chuckle. “And you’ve seen my phone’s camera roll.”
As if knowing the two were talking about him, Pochi padded his way into the room and straight to Alfred’s side, pushing his nose against the album’s edges. Alfred scratched behind his ears, the fur soft between his fingers. “I dunno if I should be insulted that it’s all Pochi with just a few pictures of us. Or me. My phone’s literally just you.”
Kiku stood, the now-empty box in hand. “Which is very embarrassing. I’m nothing special.”
“I don’t wanna fight you about this, so let’s just agree to disagree.” He turned another page, the pages full of several pictures of Kiku’s pet in different settings. Some of them are in a room very much like the one they were in, others were in different streets, and a few were outdoors, Pochi sprawled out on the grass or flowers.
As the New Year just passed, Kiku had cleared his entire house of old furniture, clothes and gaming systems that hadn’t seen the light of day in years. Thus, it was only right that Alfred accompany him as he shopped for new items to replace the old. At least, that was what the blonde had said when Kiku called him a week ago. They were both overdue for quality time together, anyways, a sentiment shared by both of them.
Kiku was the only one actually working to put the new furniture and kitchenware away, however. Alfred had started to help, but somehow found the cabinet full of photo albums and had since spent his time flipping through memories.
He turned the page again, with Pochi now in his lap, and couldn’t help but gasp out loud. “Keeks, why haven’t you shown me this picture before?”
The man sets the empty box with the others near the front door before returning to the room with Alfred and Pochi. He looks over shoulder at the photo in question, and finds himself smiling. It was one of himself and his pet in his lap, both looking towards the camera with a rather serious expression. Kiku was dressed in a yukata with his sword in his hand, laying across his lap just in front of Pochi.
“That was our first picture together,” He said, crouching down besides Alfred. “That’s why we look so serious.”
“Forget your expression, you look so handsome,” The blonde practically giggled, “That’s not a uniform, is it?”
“No, it’s just a yukata.”
“Now that’s a shame.” Alfred sighed, to which Kiku rolled his eyes with a laugh. “You should see me in my old navy uniform. I’m pretty sure it still fits.”
Kiku’s interest was suddenly piqued. He kept his eyes on the photo album in Alfred’s hands as he asked, keeping his tone nonchalant, “Does this uniform come with a hat?”
Alfred could see straight through him. “Yup, hat and ribbon. Sorta looks like those school uniforms in the high schools here. Minus the skirt.”
The raven-haired man considered this, opting to sit cross-legged instead of crouching. His tone remained cool, “I think it’s been a while since I have visited New York. Would you mind if I stayed over?”
They were on the first flight out that next morning.
Alfred found the old uniform sitting in one of his many boxes in his storage room, which Kiku insisted he help him clean out one of these days. The dust was absolutely out for his allergies.
The blonde was only partially worried that the clothes wouldn’t fit, as he was certain he hadn’t changed his weight that much. Or at least, he hoped he hadn’t.
(It wasn’t his fault that he had a tendency to stress-eat, and with the amount of stress he had been under recently, who could blame him for sneaking a few extra slices of pizza?)
Kiku was attempting to sort through Alfred’s myriad of boxes stuffed into his storage room when he had managed to fit into the uniform sans issues, catching the man off-guard. He nearly dropped the box in his hand as soon as he laid eyes on the dark blue of Alfred’s neckerchief, but caught it before it completely slipped from his hands.
“I told you it’d still fit,” he grinned, adjusting one of his cuffs. “I was actually sorta scared it wouldn’t.”
The neckerchief coupled with the slanted hat - and the fact that it was all on Alfred, who stood rather bashfully under his blatant stare - had Kiku’s heart racing.
He set the box on top of some others, forgoing his earlier quest to tidy the storage room up to instead focus all of his attention on his navy soldier.
“You wore this every day? Around other people?” Kiku asked, but it came out with a near breathless laugh. “And no one said or did anything?”
“Keeks, not everyone is as gay as you are for me.”
“That’s everyone else’s loss.” He traced the buttons on the front of Alfred’s uniform, up until he reached the neckerchief. He took the fabric between his thumb and index finger, tugging lightly. “I wouldn’t have been able to control myself.”
His words cause a bright blush to sprout across Alfred’s cheeks, and he blinked before looking to the side; anywhere but at Kiku. The uniform was beginning to feel a bit too warm. “Y-Yeah?”
“Mm-hm.” Kiku held back a smile as he tugged Alfred’s attention back to him, bringing his lips down for a peck. “I know exactly what I would do.”
Alfred could not have swallowed any harder. He winced when his voice cracked halfway through his sentence, “Wha-What would you do?”
The shorter man bit his lip, thinking for a moment before bringing an hand up to cup the side of Alfred’s face, thumb running gently over his cheek. A smile played on his lips as his eyes flickered between Alfred’s lips and baby blues, falling a little more in love with the gold in his eyelashes in that brief moment. “Besides having my way with you? I would probably...”
He leaned up, just ghosting his lips over Alfred’s, and the blonde could hardly hold himself back from closing the gap between them, could hardly listen as Kiku murmured, “...ask you to clean this mess of a storage room.”
Kiku drew himself away, covering his mouth as laughter bubbled out of him at the sight of Alfred’s face. Alfred frowned, pushing his glasses up onto his nose a bit further indignantly. “Yeah, yeah, very funny, dick.”
“Did you think I was really going to have sex with you in here? We would probably get dust somewhere it shouldn’t be.”
“Do you think I’m going to have sex with you anywhere now?” Alfred huffed, beginning to turn on his heel to leave the room. “You’ve lost all sex privileges.”
“What? For how long?” There was only a hint of worry in Kiku’s voice as he followed the blonde out.
Alfred flashed a smile. “Indefinitely.”
“ Darling,” Kiku tried, switching to japanese to use the pet name he knew Alfred liked, “Surely, we can work this out-”
Alfred couldn’t help but laugh, his earlier irritation melting away. “Don’t you ‘darling’ me!”
“But, darling-”
“Nope!”
(In the end, Alfred lied. Kiku’s sex privileges were given back shortly afterwards. And he made very good use of them.)