Work Text:
Title: One More Kiss
Prompt: Snow | Fall | Christmas Light
Challenge word: Fire
Tsukishima had an inkling since waking up and seeing the sky grey with clouds but decided to trust the Italian weather forecast program against his better judgement. Now he was starting to regret it when, as soon as he took a step outside the warm air of the university building, a gulf of wind hit him square in the face, the cold mixed with humidity fogging up his glasses. Taking out his phone and quickly tapping into the weather app, Tsukishima stared at a large -2℃ and felt his brow involuntarily twitch.
The low of 5℃? Yeah right.
When another chilly breeze brushed against him, Tsukishima quickly clicked the screen shut and shoved his hands into his coat pockets, searching around to find a pair of thick gloves that had always accompanied the coat. It was at times like this that his dislike of cold weather came into handy. He was always prepared.
After pulling his gloves on and stuck his hands back into the warm fur lining of the pockets, Tsukishima set out, determined to get home before it got even colder as night fell. He walked down the stairs in front of the building and came to a halt when a familiar mop of straight dark hair came into sight.
“Kageyama?”
The person jumped, before confirming Tsukishima’s guess when he turned around and gave Tsukishima a good look.
“Hey,” Kageyama greeted with a small wave.
“Why are you here? It’s cold out. You should wait at home.” Any normal person would hesitate to go out in a weather like this, especially if the reason for going out was just to wait for someone.
The grown man in his mid-20s pouted . “Want to see you.” Kageyama pushed himself up from a leaning position on the wall, which was when Tsukishima noticed that he was severely underdressed for the cold. And just as he was about to point it out and scold the man for being careless with his body as an athlete, something white landed on top of Kageyama’s head.
They looked up and saw little white flakes falling from the grey cloud.
And some guy from his class had the gut to say it doesn't snow in Rome.
“It’s snowing,” Kageyama murmured, not really needing a reply, but Tsukishima answered anyway.
“Yeah.” It was cold and snowing, and Kageyama was wearing only a thin jacket over his shirt and jeans. Tsukishima walked closer to where Kageyama was standing and pulled his hand out of the pocket. He started to take off the glove. “Give me your right hand, King.”
Kageyama blinked at him but lifted up his hand as asked. Pulling a small bottle of lotion out of his bag, Tsukishima spread the thick liquid over Kageyama’s colder hand and made sure to rub them over the tip of his fingers before putting the glove on. He proceeded to moisturize Kageyama’s other hand too while lecturing the guy who seemed to take care of his hands so well but failed miserably when winter came.
Watching the rosy color rose to the tip of Kageyama’s nose, Tsukishima figured that he needed something more than just a glove, so he unbundled the purple scarf around his neck and carefully wrapped it for his boyfriend instead.
“How come you don’t have any warm clothes?” Tsukishima asked while paying extra attention at fixing the soft knitted fabric to make sure no cold air could get in, puffing it up to Kageyama’s chin and pulling the bottom down to cover the neck of his zipped up jacket. “Did you run here directly from practice?”
“How did you know?”
How could I not? Tsukishima thought with exasperation. When he was satisfied with the arrangement, he stepped back and watched Kageyama nuzzle his cheek into the scarf that carried some residue body heat from its previous wearer. Kageyama looked good in purple.
A gentle breeze blew by, and Tsukishima shivered when it lightly grazed his exposed jaw. He quickly zipped up his coat that fortunately had a high neck up to his chin, grabbed Kageyama’s uncovered left hand with his own bare one, and stuck them into his warm coat pocket.
“Let’s get going before you freeze to death.”
The walk was a short one. They got on a bus right in front of the campus and Tsukishima sighed at the good deed engine heater had done for him, but before long, they reached the destination stop and had to get off into the cold again. From there, it was a seven minutes walk to their shared apartment.
The pavement was deserted. People either found some nearby buildings for shelter or went home, so they walked in silence while Kageyama played with Tsukishima’s fingers in the pocket. But as they neared a public park that was just a few blocks away from their apartment, faint sounds of people talking reached their ears. Kageyama stopped in front of a large, lit-up arch doorway that was the entrance of the park. The top of the arch had large words attached to it, decorated by red and green color light bulbs.
‘Parco Luci di Natale ( Christmas Light Park ).’
“Do you want to go in?” Tsukishima asked despite himself when he saw Kageyama stare at the lights in awe.
Kageyama pointed to the crowd of people and kids who either waited in lines for a picture with a Santa statue or mingled about, trying to get to the display that caught their attention. It was unbelievable that people would be out in the snow for this when the show would still be here for another two weeks. “With that many people? Are you kidding me?”
Tsukishima was almost offended that Kageyama thought he wanted anything to do with that human congestion. He didn’t want to spend a day with his boyfriend in the middle of dozens of other strangers either, but it’s a public space and open access, they could see some light shows of different themes from outside. Also, Kageyama seemed really attracted to it. “We can walk around it.”
Two blue orbs lit up to rival the artificial light at that. Without saying anything more, Kageyama led the blonde by the hand and walked toward the place where the brightest white light came from. The display was at the edge of the park, so they were able to clearly see a 15-feet-long arch booth that had light strings falling from the ceiling on the inside, illuminating nearby trees in silver glow. Hung among the light strings were also little pink stars that blinked on and off according to the Christmas music.
They stood there, admiring the musical light for a solid five minutes, before Kageyama dragged Tsukishima to his next destination, which is a big weeping willow whose branches were draped with fluorescent purple light, giving the swaying leaves an ethereal look. It reminded Tsukishima of the World Tree or some kind of mythical plants from mythology class. He took out his phone and struggled with unlocking the screen before managing to get into the camera app. He moved to find a good angle for the picture, which also tugged at Kageyama, whose hand was in his.
“Let me see it,” The setter demanded and, before Tsukishima could comply, shoved the back of his head in front of Tsukishima’s line of sight. “You’re a lot better at taking pictures than me.”
“That’s because you can’t stop moving to give the camera time to focus.”
“Hm,” Kageyama simply hummed in agreement. He looked around in silence, letting Tsukishima snap some more pictures of the purple tree. The bastard was such a fan of purple. “Let’s go there next.”
Kageyama led them to a small food stall that parked outside of the park. There was no line, so they went straight up to the front where menus were printed onto a large cardboard paper in large letters.
“ Buona sera! ” The owner greeted them in high spirit, which Tsukishima greeted back. Kageyama simply gave the man a polite stretch of his lips and nodded. Tsukishima didn’t feel like eating a real meal yet, so he read the drink options. Kageyama seemed to be thinking the same thing because he muttered a pronunciation of the words he knew under his breath, and it was all under the drink menus.
After three months in Italy, their Italian had improved a lot. Kageyama was able to make a conversation about volleyball and instructed his teammates with simple words. He still relied on gestures regularly to get his message across. His enmity with English made learning Italian much more difficult. Tsukishima knew what he had to do when Kageyama turned to look at him with begging eyes.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I don’t see warm milk here. Is there any hot drink that’s not coffee?”
Predictably, milk was one of the first words he had learned.
“There is hot chocolate.”
“Get that for me?”
“Sure.” Tsukishima took out two five-euro bills and told the owner, “Potremmo avere due tazze di cioccolata calda? (Can we have two cup of hot chocolate?)”
“Certamente. (Of course)”
They waited near a fire lamp that had been recently installed for people who visited the Christmas Light event. Tsukishima raised his gloved hand close to the fire to warm them up, but kept the bare hand that held onto Kageyama’s in steady grip. He could feel Kageyama’s thumb absentmindedly caress the soft tissue of his pinky finger, the part before it reached the nail.
Their drinks were ready soon after. Tsukishima paid and took the cups that were handed to him. The drink was made for freezing people to instantly warm up, so it wasn’t too hot. Kageyama earnestly sipped the smooth liquid and sighed in bliss.
“What are you going to do without me, hm?” Tsukishima teased while sipping from his cup.
“Starve, freeze, and die, I guess.”
The transition into the community of foreign land had been easier for Tsukishima than it was for Kageyama. For the first few weeks, when he hadn’t studied much Italian, Tsukishima could pass his days by speaking English. Sometimes it did earn him a few stares, but with Rome being a tourist city, its people were already used to foreigners, and his attempt to order coffee at a bar went well most of the time.
They resumed their walk around the edge of the park, looking at a huge snow globe that kids could get in and pose for their parents who took a picture from outside, when all of a sudden, Kageyama perked up, eyes sparkling like excited puppy, and physically dragged Tsukishima with him.
“Where are you going?” He asked when they exited into a clearing, a small pavilion appearing in front of them. As soon as they came to a stop underneath a doorway lit with golden light, Kageyama spinned Tsukishima to face him and grabbed the back of the man’s neck. Pulling the blonde down a bit, he pressed his own lips onto Tsukishima’s.
The kiss was short, just a little peck of contact, but its effect lived long in Tsukishima’s head. He felt like time had stopped, and everything became just him and the handsome, beautiful, perfect man in front of him. When Kageyama stepped back, Tsukishima blinked.
“All of a sudden?”
Kageyama giggled. “My teammate said it is a tradition to kiss under the mistletoe.”
When he looked up, there was indeed a small bouquet of golden mistletoe hanging from the top of the pavilion’s doorway.
“That quick touch is not a kiss. Do it properly.” Tsukishima said and bent down to kiss his boyfriend again.