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Matt’s hair had grown longer in the time they’d been apart. Shiro expected it would have hung over his eyes if Matt hadn’t tied it up in a weird knot back on his head, his glasses pushed atop to keep back the sprigs that the ponytail couldn’t pick up. He was sitting at the tables outside the museum as Shiro approached, head in some book, eyes squinting as he tried to make out the text in the shade of an umbrella.
Shiro chuckled, but decided to stay quiet as he came near, taking the moment to really savor it. Matt looked beautiful; he always looked beautiful, but it had been so long since they’d seen each other face-to-face that Shiro felt he could root himself to this spot for the rest of the day and be content.
Except, he knew he wouldn’t. Because Matt was so close. And it had been months.
“You’re going to hurt your eyes more if you don’t use your glasses,” he said as he stepped into the only light Matt had, casting a shadow over his book and person. Matt’s head bolted up, eyes alight and excited. He jumped up, throwing his arms around Shiro.
“Takashi!” he exclaimed, laughing. Shiro wrapped his arms around Matt in return and felt the other squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
“You’re going to suffocate me before we’ve even gotten into the building,” Shiro gasped out. Matt, for a moment, squeezed harder just to prove a point, then stepped back, a wicked smirk on his face.
“You’ve grown weak at school,” he challenged. “You used to be able to take my hugs.”
“And you used to be a weakling with noodle arms,” Shiro countered. “What’s your school doing to you? What are you eating?”
“Monster and canned ravioli, typically,” Matt answered, and the sad thing was, he was probably telling the truth. Shiro frowned at him.
“Matt,” he sighed, but he couldn’t scold him. Maybe later. Right now, he was too happy to see his boyfriend to give a damn. “So,” Shiro said, finally stepping back a bit to look up at the building they were standing in front of, “An art museum. What made you decide that?”
“Not everything in my life revolves around space and computers, Shiro,” Matt teased, but Shiro raised an eyebrow and Matt sighed. “What? I thought we could get cultured.”
Shiro laughed. “When have you ever cared about being cultured?”
“Well,” Matt scratched the back of his head, “You seemed pretty interested in that art appreciation class you took last semester. So, I figured, why not?”
“Oh,” Shiro said, eyes widening. He hoped his face didn’t look as warm as it felt.
“Besides, that means you can be our tour guide,” Matt said, teasing again, and Shiro laughed.
“A single art appreciation class isn’t going to make me a tour guide, Matt.”
“Let’s test it out, Mr. Shirogane, then we will see,” Matt said, then tugged him into the museum.
-/-
Matt was squinting at his book again.
“What is that?” Shiro asked, distracted from the statue they were looking at. According to the placard, it was made of wood and raffia.
“I got it from the gift shop. It’s stuff about the pieces, but it’s hard to navigate,” Matt answered, flipping through a few pages, then sighing. He tossed the guidebook to Shiro. “Your turn. Try to figure it out. Also, take a picture of me with this guy.”
“You want me to look through this book and take a picture at the same time?”
“I assume you are a man of multi-tasking abilities, Shiro.”
Shiro sighed, then took out his phone and snapped a picture of Matt making double peace signs next to the statue. He smiled at the phone, quickly made it his new background, then went to the book. They walked as he flipped through it. Matt stopped at the next piece over.
“We’ll never make it through the whole museum if we stop at every piece, Matt,” he warned, but Matt was reading the placard, probably not listening. “Put on your glasses,” Shiro, for probably the hundredth time that day, reminded his boyfriend. Matt nodded and let the inertia slip the glasses onto his nose. Shiro snorted while scanning the guidebook. “Found it.”
“No way!” Matt exclaimed, causing a few people to look their way in irritation. Matt crowded at his side, peering at the picture in the book, and, sure enough, it was the piece in front of them. “How???”
Shiro just laughed, walking over to the next piece and rattling off some of the information about it from the guidebook for them both to hear.
-/-
They were sat at one of the many benches throughout the museum. The benches were placed so people could admire pieces for longer periods of time. And, sure, Matt and Shiro admired plenty, but their legs were killing them and the bench was a blessing for that too.
“I never realized museums were so much work,” Matt said, slumping against his boyfriend.
“You mean, when you aren’t jumping around from rocket exhibit to rocket exhibit?”
“Hey, that tires me out too,” Matt said and Shiro shrugged. “This is still a lot of fun, though. I don’t know a whole ton about art, but it’s really nice.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Shiro replied, resting his head atop Matt’s. He set serene eyes on the oil piece before them. An ocean, a cliff, two little boys and colors mixed so beautifully that Shiro wished he knew a bit more about art to understand how it was so beautiful.
“I wish we could spend time together like this more often,” Matt sighed. Shiro twined their hands together without moving too much, never taking his eyes from the painting.
“I wish our campuses weren’t so far away from each other,” he agreed.
-/-
“I have never wanted to touch a piece of art more than I have right now,” Matt whispered furiously into Shiro’s ear, eyes trained on a marble statue. “How do sculptures do it?”
Shiro looked at it too, eyes scanning over the woman’s smooth cheeks and the folds and creases of her dress. It was truly amazing. It was stone. It was marble. But it looked so soft, malleable.
“Beats me,” he said. Their hands were still linked, and he dragged Matt away from the sculpture to some of the silver pieces in a glass cabinet.
“Artists, man,” Matt murmured. They entered another room, this one filled with more modern-looking art. Matt sucked in a breath at a light display and practically ran to it, dragging Shiro by the hand. “Fuck,” he swore, his eyes reflecting the glow as they took it all in. It was hard to take his eyes off of, the art that was Matt in his awe. Eyes wide, a galaxy of wonder in them, light illuminating his face like he was gazing on heaven itself. It made Shiro feel like he was the one looking at heaven.
At the thought, Shiro suddenly felt his face and neck explode in heat and he tore his gaze away, looking towards the lights with Matt. He couldn’t really focus on it. After what he had already seen, it didn’t hold the same magnificence.
-/-
Shiro’s feet were killing him as they approached the exit of the museum, but he wasn’t tired, per se. It was strangely invigorating, going through a museum; always something to see next. You never wanted to sit down because there was always something else, something new, around the corner. There wasn’t the same promise at the exit of the building, but he was pretty certain his body was carrying him through despite the fact. It didn’t seem to care about the exercise anymore.
The sky was beginning to dim outside, to Shiro’s surprise, and he checked the time on his phone.
“Wow, I didn’t realize it was getting so late,” he remarked. Matt frowned, looking over his shoulder at the time.
“I don’t want to leave yet,” he whined, but it was soft and sad. Shiro squeezed his hand.
“I’ll walk you to the metro?” he asked, and Matt nodded.
As they walked down the streets to get to the next station, they remained silent, but stuck to each other like glue. It would be the last time they saw each other in person until the end of semester. Finals and projects and papers would start to pick up, and that, with Matt’s job and Shiro’s internship, would make it impossible to plan another day trip. Shiro tried resigning himself to more Skype calls, which were usually the highlight of his day, but, standing there with Matt, real and in the flesh, it was hard to go back.
He decided not to think about it again until it was time. For now, he savored being next to his boyfriend.
When they approached the station, they stood between the entrances to the two platforms, one going uptown and the other downtown. Shiro eyed the sign to downtown over Matt’s shoulder and felt something tug at his heart. He looked down to Matt’s hazel eyes, taking him in like it would be an eternity before they saw one another again. It felt like it would be.
“Call me when you get back to the dorms?” Matt asked and Shiro nodded.
“Don’t eat canned ravioli everyday just because I’m not there to stop you, okay?” Shiro replied. That got a small smile out of Matt.
“Tell Pidge and Keith and Allura I said hi.”
“Tell Rolo and Nyma not to drag you into too much trouble,” Shiro returned. Matt rolled his eyes.
“You act like they’re exclusively troublemakers.”
Shiro laughed. Matt’s eyes went to the clock near them, biting his lip, and shoulders going down. “The next train will be here soon, probably,” he said.
Shiro held onto Matt’s hand tighter. “Do you have to go?” he asked, heart desperate, but he already knew. They were both so busy.
“The fair’s tomorrow,” Matt said apologetically. “The invitation’s still open.”
Shiro shook his head. “My paper’s due Monday. I still have so much to do for it, and there’s a tutor session on Sunday.”
Matt nodded. He’d known this too, but it never hurt to try. They didn’t want to leave.
The clock ticked on. Their eyes locked and an understanding passed between them. Shiro leaned down, giving Matt one last lingering kiss, trying to commit it to memory for the next month and a half they would have to be apart. It was too long.
When they parted, Matt stepped back once. Twice. Three times before waving and turning his back, pulling out his metro pass and stepping through the gate. After the gate, he looked over his shoulder one last time before he got caught up in the crowd and was carried away.
Shiro stayed between the platforms, watching the entrance to the downtown platform for longer than he’d like to admit before sighing and turning to his own station.
He could survive until the end of term. They still had Skype.
Shiro already found himself looking forward to the next call.