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It’s dark and cold outside, fog whitening the corners of the window and snowflakes drifting by, but Yosuke is perfectly cozy squeezed between Yu’s broad, warm back and the cushions of the living room couch. He doesn’t remember quite how they ended up here — they had a long day at school, followed by running errands around town before heading back to Yosuke’s place together. They’d sat down, maybe to watch TV or play a video game, and somehow ended up snuggled against each other under a throw blanket.
Yosuke’s riding somewhere on the line between awareness and sleep, thoughts going fuzzy. It’s a little early yet to be turning in. He’s so comfy he can’t bring himself to move, though. His parents are out for the weekend, there’s no school tomorrow, and the Christmas lights twinkling on the tree are the only light in the shadowy room — his teeth can forego brushing before bed just this once. He lets himself drift off, safe in this domestic comfort that’s been so rare for them since they started dating.
There’s one unfortunate flaw in that plan, which comes in the form of a cold, snow-flecked bear coming home from work a short time later and jumping right on top of their blanket, yelling “TEDDIE WANTS TO CUDDLE WITH SENSEI TOO!”
It’s a rude awakening to say the least; Yosuke jumps up in surprise, accidentally shoving Yu off the couch onto the floor, which causes Teddie to flail around and smack his hand right into Yosuke’s face.
Wincing, he presses a hand to his cheek while making a futile attempt at calming Teddie down, before finally grabbing him in a bear hug (he winces internally at the unspoken pun) before he ends up with a matching handprint on the opposite side. “TEDDIE, calm down!” he says, perhaps a bit louder than necessary.
“You hurt Senseiiiiii,” Teddie wails right into Yosuke’s ear.
Below them, the boy in question pushes himself up. “I’m fine, Teddie.” He stands, and Teddie breaks free of Yosuke’s grip to throw himself at him. Yu hugs him back gently. “How about you wait here, and I’ll go make some hot chocolate?”
“Okay!” Teddie exclaims. “Nanako told me it was the bear-y best!”
“I’m going to the bathroom,” Yosuke grumbles as he gets up. “You stay right here,” he tells Teddie with a somber tone. Lately, he’s been even worse with boundaries than usual, which is compounded by the fact that the lock on the bathroom door’s been broken for a few weeks. Just yesterday, Yosuke nearly slipped getting out of the shower when he saw Teddie cheerfully using the toilet next to him like it was the most normal thing to do.
Yu turns to look at Yosuke, barely needing to raise an eyebrow in a silent question before Yosuke nods in response. Even before they started dating, they’d started to communicate without speaking. It came in handy in the TV world, where Yu could tilt his head or make a short hand signal, and know that Yosuke got the message and would carry out the plan.
Now that they’re together, it’s reached a whole new level. They can spend hours together without saying a word; a slow blink is as thorough as a poem to express their affection, a brush of fingers as easy a way to call attention as words. In this case, the question whether silent or spoken would have been unnecessary; Yosuke will never turn down anything prepared by Yu, least of all his amazing hot chocolate. Nanako was definitely not exaggerating about it.
When he’s done, the smell of chocolate is spreading throughout the house. In the kitchen, Yu’s standing over the stove, making the hot chocolate from scratch because of course he doesn’t use cocoa powder, not Yu Narukami. Yosuke wraps his arms around his boyfriend’s waist, leaning his head on his shoulder to sniff at the pot over the stove.
“Mmmm. Smells amazing.”
Yu turns to kiss his cheek. “Get some cups, would you?”
They walk back into the living room side by side, carrying the chocolate and a box of cookies from Junes. Yosuke’s surprised not to have to fend off an over-excited Teddie, until he realises the boy is out like a light, curled up on the couch. He puts the cups down on the dinner table and walks over. Teddie’s different when he’s asleep; he looks much younger, much more innocent. He’s not sure what his age really is, what with his not being entirely human, but like this it’s hard to imagine him being much more than 12 or 13; still a child, really. He brushes Teddie’s hair gently off his face. The bear doesn’t stir, so he figures he might as well let him sleep, drawing the blanket carefully over him.
When he turns back to Yu, he catches his boyfriend leaning back against the table, looking at him with a fond expression.
“Yes?” he asks quietly, cocking an eyebrow.
Yu’s face breaks out into a broad smile, eyes sparkling. “You’ll make a great dad someday, Yosuke.”
“WHA—” He remembers Teddie sleeping, changes the tone if not the intention of his words. “What? A dad??”
Yu chuckles, just a bit. “Don’t worry about it,” he says, like that wasn’t the most loaded sentence of the evening, and presses a mug into Yosuke’s hands. His further protests are cut off by the warmth in his hands and the wonderful smell that wafts up from the cup, and he forgoes them in favor of taking a long sip of his drink.
It’s as delicious as usual — really, he’s watched Yu make it before from start to finish and still doesn’t understand why it comes out so much better; Yu explained something about temperatures and ratios, but at this point he’s happy to just see it as yet another aspect of Yu’s perfection in all things.
Yu pulls his chair out for him and Yosuke sits with a soft expression of thanks, letting Yu push him in. It’s not what he expected dating would be like, back when he thought he’d be dating women, and it took him a while to come around to the idea of being on the receiving end of it, but the honest truth is that he loves being treated like he’s something special. Something worth taking care of.
Now that he’s calmed down, Yu’s mention of parenthood doesn’t seem so surprising; between the way he treats Nanako like the most precious thing on this Earth, and his joy when he’s helping at the daycare, it’s clear that kids are an important part of his life. There’s more meaning to his words than just that, though. He didn’t say it outright, but his expression did; you’ll make a great dad … with me. And Yosuke finds, sitting comfortably across the table from him, that he’s not as afraid of that idea as he thought he was.
They haven’t talked about what they mean to each other too seriously. They started dating only a short time before things went badly with Nanako, and then they had other things on their mind; they only finally managed to deal with Adachi a few days ago, and when that was done school took over where the TV world had left off, leaving this as their first evening together with nothing hanging over their heads in a long time.
Yosuke considers broaching the subject, then thinks better of it, seeing Yu’s warm expression as their eyes meet. They have time yet for that; tonight is for relaxing. It’s not like he’s very worried about that conversation, in any case; he’s more serious about Yu than he’s ever been about anything. They have a bond, via the TV world, that goes past anything he could find with someone outside the IT. He can only hope Yu feels the same way. As he leans his head on one hand and gazes into those light grey eyes, though, he knows that for him it’ll always be Yu.
They finish their drinks quietly before Yosuke goes to do the dishes. A few snowflakes still drift by through the window in front of the sink, but the earlier snowfall’s mostly stopped, leaving behind a thick blanket of glittery white that makes the world look a little more magical than usual. Yu wanders over to stand by him.
“It’s beautiful out there. Do you want to go for a walk?”
Yosuke wrinkles his nose. “It’s gonna be so cold, dude.”
Yu hums. “I’ll warm you up when we get back, partner.” He leans in closer with a mischievous smile and whispers in his ear in a heated voice, “I’ll even let you put your ice cold feet on me.”
Yosuke almost drops the cup he’s washing as he bursts out laughing — his feet have been a frequent point of contention when they manage to grab a moment together. It’s not his fault Yu happens to be the perfect temperature to warm them up… He quickly finishes up and turns the water off.
“I mean, if that’s on the table,” he says as he dries his hands before turning to Yu with a wink, “how can I possibly say no?”